Category Archives: Military

al Qaeda in Maghreb Attacks Ivory Coast, Americans

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FNC: The terrorist attack in the Ivory Coast Sunday most likely targeted a US delegation led by the assistant commerce secretary visiting the country, a diplomatic source in the region tells Fox News. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Marcus Jadotte was leading a group of Americans in Grand-Bassam, located 25 miles east of the capital city of Abidjan, including college recruiters from the University of Florida. US embassy officials from Abidjan were also included in the group, according to the source.

Eyewitnesses describe Ivory Coast beach resort atrocity

Western tourists and beachgoers described scenes of panic and carnage on Sunday as Al Qaeda-linked gunmen opened fire killing 16 people at a usually sleepy seaside town in Ivory Coast before special forces intervened.

France24:  Grand-Bassam, a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts foreigners and the Ivorian elite, briefly became a war zone Sunday as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) gunmen shot beachgoers.

“We were eating, when suddenly we heard gunshots. People where running in all directions and we didn’t know what was going on”, one witness told FRANCE 24.

“The shots started getting closer and we saw people coming our way. I told my wife ‘we can’t stay here’, and 20 seconds after that they killed three people behind us”, he said.

“It was truly, truly, terrifying, it was indeed terrorists,” eyewitness Marie-Claire Yapi, who was separated from her nine-month old baby and her sister in the chaos, told FRANCE 24. “Someone said to me: ‘Run, this is serious – they are killing everyone.’”

Ivorian officials said six terrorists stormed the beach, but AQIM praised its three “heroes” for the attack in an online statement.

‘A blast every 10 to 15 seconds’

“It all started down by the beach, as soon as they saw someone they would open fire. Everyone began running. There were women and children running and looking for a place to hide,” witness Marie Bassole told Reuters.

Koumena Kakou Bertin said that he heard the attackers shouting “Allahu Akbar”, Arabic for “God is great”, as they sprayed the beach with bullets.

Charles-Philippe d’Orleans, a retired French army officer who served in the Ivory Coast, was also on the beach at the moment of the attack.

“We could hear a blast every 10 to 15 seconds. They were shooting at us and the bullets were flying everywhere”, he told French weekly Paris Match.

“I did not hear shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar’, nor did I hear repeated bursts of gunfire that are usual for automatic weapons. I think they had handguns, like 9 mm or Magnums” he added.

Beach packed due to heatwave

After targetting swimmers and sunbathers, the gunmen turned their attention to hotels near the shore, including the Grand Bassam’s Chelsea Hotel and the Hotel Etoile du Sud.

The Etoile du Sud was packed full of beachgoers and expats escaping the current heatwave when the gunmen attacked.

“I saw one of the attackers from far away”, said Abbas El-Roz, a Lebanese salesman, who was swimming in the hotel’s pool when the attackers struck. “He had a Kalashnikov and a grenade belt. He was looking for people”.

Ivorians and Europeans among victims

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara praised special forces for regaining control of the situation in a relatively short amount of time. “This attack was brought under control in 45 minutes thanks to our security forces”, he said on national television.

Two special forces soldiers were killed in the gun battle with the attackers, Ivorian officials said.

Four Europeans were also among the dead, with France’s foreign ministry confirming that one French national died in the attack.

The assault itself resembled the terrorist attack on a Tunisian beach resort in June 2015, and comes on the heels of similar deadly incidents in Mali and Burkina Faso.

“Most of the victims are Africans, Africans from Ivory Coast or from neighbouring countries”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement on Sunday.

“So it is one again Africa that has been targeted by terrorism”, he added.

However, FRANCE 24’s expert on jihadi movements Wassim Nasr, said the attack should be considered part of al Qaeda’s war against the West, and France in particular.

“They target wherever they see French interests, or French or [other] Western citizens. They are trying to export their war to Western Africa. So I suspect that more attacks will happen in this region”, Nasr added.

Additional details here.

Gitmo: Open for More Detainees

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As Barack Obama is nearing his visit to Cuba this month, there has been much speculation regarding whether he will expand more trade and concessions with the island and include the option of terminating the treaty and lease of the Guantanamo Naval Base which includes the enemy combatant detention center.

Meanwhile, Special Forces captured a significant terrorist in February that once worked for Saddam Hussein. The problem is there is no place to hold this man. We have him only for a short term and from there he will be turned over to Iraq.

US hands over ISIS chemical weapons chief to Iraqi government, Pentagon says

FNC: The Pentagon transferred the head of the Islamic State terror group’s chemical weapons development unit to the Iraqi government Thursday shortly after the U.S. captured him in a raid, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook announced.

Cook stressed the U.S. would keep ISIS detainees only for the “short term,” handled on a “case by case” basis. “We have a government on the ground in Iraq, a partner in the fight against ISIL, that we feel confident we can rely on in this instance.”

A defense official who would not reveal his identity reached by Fox News after the briefing confirmed the Pentagon has no plan on handling ISIS detainees. Cook would not say whether the U.S. government had access to ISIS detainees once turned over to the Iraqi government. Many GOP lawmakers have urged the Pentagon to send the detainees to Guantanamo Bay, which President Obama has vowed to close.

A GOP congressional aide told Fox News, “The law requires a comprehensive detainee policy. By definition, ‘we’ll figure it out if we ever capture anyone’ is not a comprehensive policy.”

U.S. special forces captured Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, in a raid last month in northern Iraq, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials. The special commando unit was deployed to Iraq to conduct raids and collect intelligence on the ground.

The Pentagon press secretary said al-Bakkar’s capture and transfer could be “a template for future cases.”

Cook said the airstrikes conducted as a result of al-Bakkar’s capture “disrupted and degraded” the group’s chemical weapons capabilities, but did not necessarily eliminate the problem. More here.

All is not lost on some Senators and they are moving to take offensive measures.

GOP resolution calls for sending captured ISIS fighters to Gitmo

TheHill: Over a dozen GOP senators, including presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, introduced a resolution Thursday to send detained Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters to Guantánamo Bay.

The resolution comes a day after the Pentagon said it captured an ISIS leader on the battlefield, sparking new questions about how to handle such prisoners.

The commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Gen. Joseph Votel said on Tuesday there was a need to detain some terror suspects long-term, but where they would be held was under debate.
The Republican senators say the military prison at Guantánamo, which President Obama is working to close, should house the ISIS detainees.


“More than seven years in, the Obama administration still does not have a coherent detention policy that will give our military and intelligence community the best opportunity to extract valuable intelligence to help defeat ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks,” said Rubio. “This White House would rather release terrorists from Guantánamo Bay and hope for the best.”
“Jihadists who seek to kill Americans should not be brought to American soil. The security of our people, not political expediency, should guide decisions regarding prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay,” added Cruz.
Introduced by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the resolution is just the latest vigorous protest by Republican senators against Obama’s plan to transfer all eligible detainees out of the facility. The president wants to bring the remaining 30 to 60 detainees to an alternate location in the U.S.
Earlier this week, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Okla.) introduced a resolution to block Obama from closing the facility.
“Last week when I was at Guantánamo Bay I saw plenty of vacant cells,” Daines said. “Terrorists captured by U.S. forces belong in Guantánamo, a location that has played a pivotal role for collecting intelligence from detainees and keeping terrorists off the battlefield in the global war on terror.”


“Instead of closing Guantánamo Bay, the Administration should transfer detained ISIL fighters to the facility,” added co-sponsor Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.), using an alternate name for the group. “This resolution paves the way to do just that, while preventing grants of new rights to terrorists.”
Other co-sponsors of the resolution include Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), John Boozman (Ark.), James Inhofe (Okla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and David Vitter (La.).
The senators argue that as more terrorists are captured on the battlefield, there should be a place to hold and interrogate them for more intelligence.
“President Obama’s default foreign policy strategy has been to kill off high-ranking ISIL fighters with drones instead of attempting to detain them to glean valuable intelligence information,” Inhofe said. “This has weakened our nation’s ability to more quickly make advancements in the Middle East.”


Opponents of the plan also argue that continuing to transfer detainees to other countries poses a threat to the U.S.
On Monday, the intelligence community released its latest statistics on recidivism, which showed that the number of detainees suspected of reengaging in terrorism after being released by President Obama doubled from six to 12 in the six months prior to January.
“No other facility can house terrorists as securely as Guantánamo, which is where we should be sending ISIS terrorists when they are captured by our brave servicemen and servicewomen in the field,” said Kirk, a retired Navy reservist who faces a tough reelection fight this year.
“We should detain ISIS terrorists at Guantánamo as we cannot afford to release them into Iraqi custody and risk that these terrorists will end up right back on the battlefield,” added Ernst, a retired Army lieutenant colonel.
Opponents also argue that the presence of detainees on U.S. soil could pose a threat to local communities. The Pentagon has surveyed potential U.S. sites in Kansas, Colorado and South Carolina.
“Captured militants affiliated with ISIL and other terrorist groups are dangerous and should be held at Guantánamo Bay, not in Kansas or anywhere else in the United States,” said Moran.
The administration argues that Gitmo provides propaganda for terrorists and is too expensive to maintain, at several million dollars per detainee.
But some opponents say the administration is bent on fulfilling a campaign promise to close the facility.

 

Iran and North Korea: Terror in the Same Discussion

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DOJ expected to charge 5 Iranians in 2013 hacking of New York dam

FNC: The Department of Justice is expected to announce charges against up to five Iranians believed to be tied to the 2013 hacking of a New York dam, a law enforcement source told Fox News.

The DOJ is expected to make the announcement sometime in the coming days, according to the source. The individuals are believed to have connections within the Iranian government.

The hackers allegedly infiltrated the control system of the Bowman Ave Dam in Rye Brook, N.Y., which is about 20 miles outside New York City, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The breach raised fears of the vulnerabilities of the United States’ infrastructure to foreign hackers. It also came at a time that the Iranians were on the offensive in attacking U.S. banks.

It was believed at the time that the hackers never took control of the dam, but were able to probe the system, the report said.

The expected DOJ announcement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In this case, the hackers were believed to have gained access to the dam through a cellular modem, the paper reported in 2015, citing an unclassified Homeland Security summary of the case that did not specifically name the dam. Two unnamed sources told the paper that the summary was referring to the relatively small, 20-foot-tall, concrete dam about 5 miles from Long Island sound. The dam is used for flood control in the area.

Initially, intelligence analysts feared the hackers were targeting another dam: The Arthur R. Bowman Dam in Oregon, a 245-foot-tall earthen structure that irrigates local agriculture and prevents flooding near the town of Prineville, approximately 150 miles southeast of Portland. That belief prompted investigators to notify the White House that Iran had escalted its cyberwar with the United States.

The source told Fox News that the upcoming charges are expected to come out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

****

North Korea reportedly orders more tests to build up nuclear attack capability

FNC: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered officials Friday to improve its nuclear attack capability by conducting more weapons test.

Reuters reported, citing North Korea’s official news agency (KCNA), that Kim watched a ballistic missile test take place but was most likely referring to the country firing two rockets into the sea as a response to South Korea’s new round of sanctions.

“Dear comrade Kim Jon Un said work… must be strengthened to improve nuclear attack capability and issued combat tasks to continue nuclear explosion tests to assess the power of newly developed nuclear warheads and tests to improve nuclear attack capability,” KCNA reported.

Earlier this week, Kim was quoted by state media as saying North Korea had miniaturized nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles. Photographs showed him standing around what was perceived to be a nuclear warhead.

North Korea also “liquidated” South Korean assets at the closed joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Daesong and at a scrapped tourism resort at Diamond Mountain Thursday.

In a continuation of bellicose rhetoric that has spiked in recent weeks, it said North Korea will also impose “lethal” military, political and economic blows on the South Korean government to accelerate its “pitiable demise.”

South Korea’s government called the North Korean statement a “provocative act” and warned the North not to damage any South Korean assets.

The missiles fired by North Korea on Thursday flew about 310 miles before falling into the ocean off the country’s east coast, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said. They were believed to be Scud-type missiles, ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said.

Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon when animosity rises. North Korea hates the annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington, calling them preparations for an invasion. The allies say the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever, are defensive and routine. North Korea warned at the start of the drills Monday of pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

On Wednesday, North Korea printed photos in official media of a purported mock-up of part of a nuclear warhead, with Kim repeating a claim that his country has developed miniaturized atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.

Information from secretive, authoritarian North Korea is often impossible to confirm, and the country’s state media have a history of photo manipulation. But it was the first time the North has publicly displayed its purported nuclear designs, though it remains unclear whether the country has functioning warheads of that size or is simply trying to develop one.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday disputed the North’s claim that it possesses miniaturized warheads.

The United States said Wednesday it has dispatched three B-2 stealth bombers capable of launching nuclear as well as conventional weapons to the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. Strategic Command said the bombers will conduct training with the Australian military during their deployment, which amounts to a show of force at a time of mounting tensions with North Korea.

UN Report, Weapons Trafficking: Hamas, Islamic State, AQ

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Egypt discovers enormous tunnels coming from Gaza Tunnels big enough to fit a truck have been discovered by the Egyptian military on the Sinai-Gaza border. These tunnels are allegedly the source of weapons being used by ISIS and Islamic Jihad in the peninsula, and point to a thriving weapons industry in the Strip.

Alex Fishman

Israel News  Hamas has been digging tunnels on the border of Egypt that are big enough to permit vehicles the size of trucks to go through, according to Egyptian security officials.

The tunnels connect the Gaza Strip with the Sinai Peninsula, and are being built in order to compensate for the tunnels which were flooded or blocked by the Egyptians.

These enormous tunnels, some of which stretch for over three kilometers, are designed to traverse the security zone Egypt set up between the border with Gaza and the Sinai. This security zone – which ranges between half a kilometer and a kilometer in length on the Egyptian side – has been cleared out of any buildings or people. The area has also been flooded in order to block the existing shafts into the tunnels.

These tunnels are meant to transfer fighters and weapons, as well as building materials and other imports in an effort by Hamas to break the economic siege imposed on the Strip, Egyptian officials said.

Israeli security officials don’t know of any tunnels that large crossing into Israel. However, if they do exist, Israel will have to take into account the possibility of the existence of tunnels that are over three kilometers in length, which will make them harder to find.

Israel estimates that the recent increase in the number of tunnel collapses in Gaza in the past several months is due to the increased difficulty in obtaining materials to structurally support the tunnels – principally wood and cement. To replace these materials, Hamas is using fiberglass, which is also illegal to import into the Strip. Hamas still tries to smuggle it in, even though the material can’t support the same amount of weight as cement, and collapses.

The Egyptian government also notes another worrying phenomenon regarding the relations between Hamas and the terrorist organizations in the Sinai: it turns out that Hamas has become a weapons exporter to Egypt. In the past several months, several types of weapons were found by Egyptian security forces which bear the markings of being manufactured by the Hamas military wing.

Amongst the weapons found were solar water heaters filled with explosive materials, which are one of the deadliest weapons ISIS in Sinai uses against the Egyptian military. The solar water heaters are used as IEDs with the ability to take out a tank. A few years ago, Hamas used one of these IEDs and disabled an Israeli tank.

The Egyptian government also claims that ISIS shoots Hamas-made rockets at Egyptian military bases in the peninsula.

Hamas also ships weapons from the Gaza Strip to elements affiliated with global Islamic Jihad which is active in Sinai. These are weapons which were smuggled into Gaza either by the Iranians or from Libya, which then ended up in the hands of the jihadists.

At present, there is a new reason to worry – the export of weapons made in the Strip in industrial quantities is a new phenomenon which indicates a new level of institutionalization of the weapons manufacturing process in the Gaza Strip.

****

But it is much worse especially when the United Nations is pinpointing violations that curiously involves The Turi Defense Group, noted for supplying weapons to Benghazi, Libya.

U.N. Report Sees Array of Nations, People and Companies Breaking Libyan Arms Embargo

WSJ: A United Nations report has found an array of companies, individuals and countries supplying arms to factions in Libya, breaking a long-standing international arms embargo placed on the politically unstable and divided North African country.

In the report, which was submitted to the Security Council in January and is soon to be made public, U.N. investigators allege sanctions were broken in 2014 and 2015 with shipments of military equipment from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey, among others. In some cases, goods were transported across countries, such as Jordan, and in others transport was supplied by firms with close associations to states such as shippers from Ukraine, the report says.

U.N. officials said they are also investigating actions of two U.S.-based companies that investigators said appear to have brokered an arms deal in 2011, as well as an Italian middleman working with a U.K.-based Libyan national on behalf of the Libyan authorities in control of Tripoli.

The Security Council will consider evidence presented in the report and decide what, if any, action to take against U.N. member nations and the individuals allegedly involved.

The Security Council placed the arms embargo on Libya and all warring factions during the Arab Spring revolution in 2011, as part of an international military intervention against former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who eventually was deposed and killed by Libyan rebels.

The arms embargo, as well as asset freezes for several former regime officials and for state institutions such as the sovereign-wealth fund, remain in place as Libya struggles to regain political and security stability.

The weapons in question were destined for Libya’s two rival governments and their allied militias, which have been fighting for control of the oil-rich nation since the summer of 2014, according to the report.

Since 2014, competing authorities have in effect divided Libya into two. The government based in Tripoli is a collection of regional and Islamic militias and allied politicians. The regime based in Tobruk represents many regions across Libya and won the country’s most recent election in 2014. The U.N., however, recently has brokered a new unity government that is still being formed.

Officials from the government in Tobruk have confirmed they have received weapons from friendly allies but say such arms were necessary for self-defense. “I don’t think the Security Council should have any say in who the Libyan government buys or receives weapons from,” said Abdulsalam Nasiya, an official with the House of Representatives in Tobruk.

Saad Sharada, a member of the congress based in Tripoli, said his political allies have received military personnel carriers, but he denied they have procured any weapons.

“Arms and ammunition are continuing to be transferred to various parties in Libya, with the involvement of member states and complex networks of brokering companies that do not appear to be deterred by the arms embargo,” the report states.

The report devotes separate sections to nation states and individuals that investigators believe are complicit in sanctions violations. It includes more than 100 pages of documentation including copies of arms orders, invoices, end-user certificates, as well as serial numbers and photos of armaments which were once held in national militaries but that have ended up in the country.

Libyan and international officials told U.N. investigators the government in Tobruk had been receiving equipment from abroad, through its own procurement operations and from countries supporting it, according to the report. Those countries include Egypt and the U.A.E., according to two people familiar with the situation.

Investigators allege the U.A.E. approved weapons shipments to the Tobruk government, in addition to allowing its national companies to sell weapons to that faction.

Investigators said the U.A.E. has largely been unresponsive to requests for explanation and comment about allegations its government approved direct arms shipments to Libya’s Tobruk-based authorities and allowed U.A.E. companies to ship weapons. A person familiar with the situation said the U.A.E. government wouldn’t be issuing any comment about the report.

The report says Egyptian military hardware, including attack helicopters, ended up in the arsenal of the Tobruk regime. It cites photos of the helicopters, including tail numbers.

U.N. officials contacted Egypt to obtain further information on what investigators believe were official government transfers of arms, according to a person familiar with the situation. Egypt responded that the panel’s information regarding the transfers was incorrect and that it was fully committed to the implementation of U.N. resolutions, the report said.

The Sudanese government is alleged to have shipped ammunition, among other weaponry. The report shows pictures of samples of the ammunition.

Rabie Abdelaty, spokesman for Sudan’s information ministry, said on Thursday that his government has yet to see the U.N. report, but he described the allegations as untrue. “We are for peace, and we support the U.N.,” Mr. Abdelaty said. “We can’t side with anybody who is trying to destabilize Libya or any other country. That’s not how we operate,” Mr. Abdelaty said. He added that Khartoum has deployed more troops to patrol the border with Libya to ensure there aren’t illicit arms flows.

Turkish arms manufacturers are said by the report to have sold and shipped weapons to Libyan actors, while Ukrainian national companies are alleged to have been involved in shipping armaments.

Turkish officials told the U.N. their government was committed to upholding the embargo and that it was investigating incidents detailed in the report in which Turkish arms manufacturers allegedly sold and shipped weapons to Libyan actors, according to the report. Turkish officials didn’t immediately respond to WSJ requests to comment.

And Ukraine in previous responses to the investigators said it was looking into the allegations in the report that its national companies were involved in shipping armaments to Libya.

The U.N. report also says arms shipments had often passed through Jordan en route to Libya. Jordanian officials told U.N. investigators the government had no record of flights using Jordanian airspace to transport illegal cargoes of weapons to Libya. A Jordanian government spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that the allegations in the U.N. report weren’t accurate.

Meanwhile, investigators are looking into an Armenian-registered airline the report alleges transported arms and materiel from the U.A.E. via Jordan on behalf of Libyans allied with the regime based in Tobruk.

The airline Veteran Avia, which is based in the Armenian capital of Yerevan and operates out of Sharjah, U.A.E., couldn’t immediately be reached to comment. Armenian government officials told U.N. investigators the airline confirmed it had flown cargo from the U.A.E. via Jordan to Libya, but that the cargo was humanitarian aid, according to a U.N. official familiar with the situation.

The U.S. companies mentioned in the U.N. report have been named in U.S. criminal cases brought by American authorities over the alleged arms deal in Libya, according to court filings and documents published as part of the 215-page report submitted to the Security Council in January.

Representatives of the two companies—Turi Defense Group and Dolarian Capital—couldn’t immediately be reached to comment. Status of the court cases isn’t clear. Both companies, which the report said worked together to broker the alleged arms deal, have previously denied any wrongdoing. Lawyers for Turi Defense have moved to have the cases dismissed.

U.N. Investigators report on a regular basis about violations of the U.N. arms embargo. The January report to the Security Council underscores how regional actors have exacerbated the continuing political schisms by providing weapons to their favored militias and rival governments.

The U.N. report also cites alleged payments by Libyan Central Bank officials to members of Libyan militias that have been classified as terrorist organizations, namely Ansar Sharia, the group in Benghazi that U.S. officials hold responsible for the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA safe house that killed four American officials.

Two Central Bank checks made out for 6 million Libyan dinars ($4.2 million) were cashed by the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, an umbrella group of militias in that eastern city to which Ansar Sharia belongs. Officials from the Central Bank didn’t reply to U.N. requests for comment or clarification, the report says.

 

Hey John Kerry Read the Genocide Convention

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The Genocide Convention, it IS a Treaty:

Article 2 of the convention defines genocide as

…any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2

Article 3 defines the crimes that can be punished under the convention:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 3

In part from CNS: “I will make a decision on it as soon as I have that additional evaluation and we will proceed forward from there,” Kerry said.

Kerry was responding to a question put to him by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R.-Neb.), who is the sponsor of a resolution that would declare on behalf of Congress that it is in fact genocide.  The Knights of Columbus and In Defense of Christians are sponsoring an online petition asking Kerry  to “declare that Christians, along with Yazidis and other minorities, are targets on ongoing genocide.”

Feb 25, 2016 – Congressman Rohrabacher slams Secretary of State John Kerry with the truth. Many Americans are proud in supporting Israel while ignoring the slaughter of innocent Christians in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt. They are deaf to the cries of Christians in SE Ukraine (Donbass). They ignore the resurrection of Christianity in Russia. Is America still a Christian nation? If so, then why won’t they defend Christians around the world?

     

Report details ISIS atrocities against Christians, presses State for ‘genocide’ label

FNC: Holding a bloody shirt he carries with him to remember the Islamic State’s crimes against Iraqi Christians, Douglas Bazi described for a Washington audience Thursday how he’s suffered at ISIS’ hands: He was kidnapped, had his teeth bashed in with a hammer and watched as his church was bombed.

“There is not ‘life’ in Iraq,” Bazi said, noting his congregation has been targeted so often it is called the “church of the martyrs, or the church of the blood.”

Bazi joined Middle Eastern Christian leaders and human rights advocates from the Knights of Columbus on Thursday as the group, along with In Defense of Christians (IDC), released a powerful and comprehensive report they say makes the case that the terror campaign against Christians and other minorities in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East can only be called one thing: genocide.

The report, along with the personal accounts conveyed at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday, put even more pressure on the Obama administration to officially label the atrocities as genocide.

The State Department and White House so far have not done so, but are facing a congressionally mandated March 17 deadline to make a decision.

“We are forgotten, and we are alone,” Bazi, a former ISIS hostage and now a priest at an Irbil refugee camp, lamented.

Bazi was joined by Irbil-based Dankha Joola, who pointed out that of the 2 million Christians who lived in Iraq before the war, fewer than 300,000 reside there today — many victims of killings and kidnappings, others forced to leave their homes by radicals, Al Qaeda, and now ISIS.

Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, which produced the 278-page document with IDC, hopes this report will help advance their cause.

*** Christian population in the Middle East

*** Map of Christian Persecution in the Middle East

 

“The evidence contained in this report as well as the evidence relied upon by the European Parliament fully support — I would suggest compel — the conclusion that reasonable grounds exist to believe the crime of genocide has been committed,” Anderson said.

The report lists 1,131 Iraqi Christians killed between 2003 and June 9, 2014, including where they were killed and when. It also incorporates 24 pages of witness statements collected between February and March of this year, and nearly 200 documented attacks — including destruction of property, sexual assaults, enslavement, torture, imprisonment and killing — in Iraq, Syria and North Africa. Also included is a documenting of attacks on 125 Iraqi churches from 2003 to 2014.

The report also features a legal brief arguing that the crimes committed rise to the level of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The European Parliament in February already declared that genocide is taking place in the Middle East against Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic and religious minorities at the hands of the Islamic State.

“While we believe this to be the most comprehensive report on this subject to date, covering incidents in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, we continue to receive new reports and new evidence,” Anderson said Thursday. But with new reports pouring in every day, he cautioned: “It may only be the tip of the iceberg.”

There have been widespread reports of crucifixions, beheadings and kidnappings, with women and girls forced into marriages with ISIS fighters, or sold into sexual slavery. In Syria, Christians once accounted for 10 percent of the population, but today their numbers have declined to an estimated 1 million or less. Last summer, ISIS kidnapped nearly 300 Christians from Syrian villages and later ransomed them back for $100,000 per person. The money was raised by the Assyrian Christian diaspora.

On March 4, gunmen stormed a Catholic retirement home in Yemen and gunned down 16 people, including four Indian nuns affiliated with the order established by Mother Teresa. According to reports, the city of Aden where the attack occured has seen its Christian population flee.

While groups like the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, press the administration to make the genocide designation, Congress is applying similar pressure.

There are bills with strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate expressing the sense of Congress that those who commit or support violence against Christians and other ethnic minorities including Yazidis, Turkmen and Kurds for ethnic or religious reasons are committing genocide.

When pressed, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that “you have to get facts from the ground, more than just anecdotal.”

The Knights of Columbus say they were asked to conduct Thursday’s report by David Saperstein, ambassador at-large for religious freedom at the State Department, to give the administration the evidence “on the ground,” and hopes it will clarify matters in Foggy Bottom.

When asked on March 1 why the administration has yet to make the determination, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the word genocide “involves a very specific legal determination that has, at this point, not been reached.”

Advocates say this report proves the legal thresholds have been met, and then some.

“We think the legal question is met and I would reiterate that what is required by the statute is a finding of probable cause, which is not beyond a shadow of a doubt, it that there are reasonable grounds to believe that this crime has occurred and is occurring,” said Anderson, “and I think the facts in this report establish, compellingly, that there are reasonable grounds to believe this crime is being committed.”

The State Department did not return a request for comment, though administration officials have said they recognize and will work to address the violence against Christians and other groups regardless of the words used to describe it.

At least three presidential cadidates — Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz on the Republican side, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side — have called on the administration to designate this as a ‘genocide.’