More Protests Planned, Chaos and Division Ahead

Posted on November 22, 2016November 22, 2016 by Denise Simon

Minimum wage protests planned in 340 cities

TheHill: Organizers behind a movement to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour are promising its “largest, most disruptive protest ever” in response to Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the 2016 presidential election.

On the fourth anniversary of the movement to raise wages, tens of thousands of low-wage workers will protest next Tuesday in 340 cities around the country, as they demand higher pay. Strikes are planned by bagged handlers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and workers at McDonald’s restaurants around the country.

The “Fight for $15” protests will also hit Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Newark International Airport (EWR), and about 20 other airports in major cities, organizers said on a call with reporters Monday.

“Just because the election went a certain way, doesn’t mean we’re going away,” said Kendall Fells, organizing director of the Fight for $15.

“It’s the exact opposite.”

On the campaign trail, Bernie Sanders called for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, while Hillary Clinton also voiced support for an increase in pay for low-wage workers. But Trump’s message on minimum wage was inconsistent, at times indicating he would support an increase in the minimum wage and at other times suggesting workers make too much money.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

Raising the minimum wage is a “winning issue,” Fells said.

“On Election Day, even as Donald Trump won, ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage passed in all five states,” he said.

Fells said there would be “thousands of folks” protesting at each airport.

The Fight for $15 movement is expecting “tens of thousands” of protesters from all walks of life, including baggage handlers, airline cabin cleaners, airport wheelchair attendants, janitors, cooks, home care workers, child care providers, teachers and graduate assistants.

Meanwhile, there is Obama’s mighty pen.

Obama Urged to Free Asylum-Seekers Before Trump Takes Office

About 4,000 women and children are in jail-like facilities

President-elect has promised to deport millions from U.S.

Bloomberg: Immigration advocates are asking the Obama administration to release thousands of detained Central American women and children who want asylum in the U.S., citing concerns that Donald Trump will deport them after his inauguration in January.

Representatives of groups including the Women’s Refugee Commission and the American Immigration Lawyers Association met with White House officials last week to discuss a host of immigration issues, including the fate of about 4,000 Central American detainees, some as young as two years old, who have fled violence in their home countries. They’re housed in jail-like facilities in Texas and Pennsylvania, some for more than a year, as they wait for the government to process their asylum pleas.

Immigration advocates want the president to either end the practice of detaining families altogether, as they’ve been requesting for years, or direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to release families with a notice to appear before a judge on their own recognizance.

The plight of the Central American refugees, who fled violence and gangs in their home countries, is one of several 11th-hour immigration conundrums Obama faces as he prepares for Trump to enter the White House. The Republican campaigned on promises to crack down on undocumented immigrants and to build a wall on the Mexican border, and immigration advocates fear a government that has struggled under Obama to humanely handle a crush of asylum-seekers at the southern border will turn markedly more hostile under his successor.

“The family detention infrastructure is something that President Obama built, and unless he tears it down in the next two months this will be part of his presidential legacy,” said Carl Takei, staff attorney at the the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project.

DACA Applicants

Separately, advocates for about 750,000 young undocumented immigrants granted protection from deportation under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, have pressed the White House to ensure Trump can’t use data compiled by the program to instead target and remove the people from the country. House Democrats called on Obama last week to issue a presidential pardon for the immigrants, who were brought into the country as children and have grown up as “Americans,” Obama said in Nov. 14 news conference.

The White House said last week that the president’s clemency power can’t be used to confer legal status on undocumented residents. Pete Boogaard, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on whether the administration has the authority to release the asylum seekers.

Trump is poised to inherit one of the worst humanitarian crises in a generation along the U.S.-Mexico border. Starting in 2014 scores of women and children fleeing gang violence in Central America began presenting themselves to unprepared border officials along the southern U.S. border. Generally under U.S. law, asylum seekers who can show a “credible fear” of returning to their home countries are entitled to a removal hearing before a judge.

Facing a lack of beds, the Obama administration raced to open additional family detention centers to house large numbers of children, who are required by law to be held in the least restrictive conditions possible.

Specter of Sessions

Trump has promised to crack down on undocumented border crossers while also restricting refugees from terror-prone countries, but he has yet to articulate a policy for the thousands of asylum seekers who enter the U.S. each year. Trump’s top immigration advisers, including Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican who Trump plans to nominate as attorney general, have argued that Obama has been too easy on migrants.

“Instead of removing illegal immigrants, the President has expended enormous time, energy, and resources into settling newly arrived illegal immigrants throughout the United States,” Sessions wrote in a January 2015 “immigration handbook” for Republicans.

The crisis shows no sign of abating. In fiscal 2016 the U.S. apprehended a record 78,000 family members, mainly from Central America, on the southwest border, according to government figures. A record 41,000 immigrants are currently detained in U.S. facilities and half are asylum-seekers, said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, an advocacy group that seeks an end to family detention.

The three family-detention facilities have a combined capacity of about 3,600 beds. The Department of Homeland Security is currently evaluating bids to add another 2,500 beds. Southwest Key Programs, an Austin-based nonprofit that operates shelters for unaccompanied migrant children, has looked at turning an abandoned Wal-Mart store along the border into a “humane shelter” for families seeking asylum, according to Cindy Casares, a spokeswoman for the group.

Advocates have long called on Obama to scrap the facilities because of inhumane conditions, including reports of babies being dressed in prison jumpsuits and punishment meted out to children for playing too noisily. The advocates believe the Central American asylum seekers pose a low flight risk and they recommend alternatives to detention, including wearing ankle monitors to ensure they show up for their court dates.

‘Added Urgency’

Under Trump, the advocates fear, the government could broaden the use of expedited removal -– fast-track deportation proceedings that take place without a judge — a practice that is already being used more frequently with asylum seekers.

“There is an added urgency to make sure that the families that are here get an opportunity to be heard in front of a judge,” said Ben Johnson, executive director at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “There is some concern that those families under the new administration will never have that chance.”

Panic is meanwhile rising along the border as migrants have digested the news of Trump’s election. Immigrants staying in cramped shelters or church basements are trying to leave the border region for cities farther north such as Baltimore or New York, from where they believe it is harder to be deported, said Michael Seifert, an activist with the Southern Border Communities Coalition.

“There’s literally not enough commercial bus space to get the people out,” he said. “They’re all terrified.”

How does this all get packed up and by whom? Soros….

Soros-Funded Group Pushing ‘Sanctuary Campus’ Anti-Trump Protests

The demonstrations are billed as being led by students

FreeBeacon: An organization that has received funding from liberal billionaire George Soros is pushing anti-Donald Trump student protests that call for sanctuary campuses to protect undocumented students.

Thousands of students at more than 80 college campuses have participated in “sanctuary campus” protests, CBS News reported. Students have signed petitions and walked out of classes at their universities “in support of undocumented classmates.”

The protests are billed as though they are being organized by students at the grassroots level, but in fact a D.C.-based immigration activist group is behind them.

United We Dream is the “largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation,” composed of over 100,000 immigrant youth and 55 affiliate organizations in 26 states, according to its website. The group seeks to “organize and advocate for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and families, regardless of immigration status.”

The group issued a “state of resilience and urgency for immigrants” on Nov. 9, the day after Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.

“The most contentious election in a generation is over. Across the country, immigrant youth in orange shirts, and backed by the strength of their convictions, faced the racism of Trump head on in a fight for their lives,” the press release stated.

“Immigrants are declaring a state of urgency and resilience. Over the coming weeks, our families and community members will need to tap into the incredible strength that brought us to this country and which we use to survive,” said Cristina Jimenez, the executive director and co-founder of United We Dream.

“This is a time to mobilize in every city state across our country,” Jimenez later added in the release. “We calling on all people to take action to demand that their mayors and governors declare their cities and states as spaces of safety.”

United We Dream has received tens of thousands of dollars from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Unbound Philanthropy, a private grant-making foundation focusing on migrants and refugees, and a handful of other liberal grant-making organizations have also funded the United We Dream Network since 2009.

Taryn Higashi, the executive director of Unbound Philanthropy, sits on an advisory board of Soros’s Open Society Foundations.

United We Dream has teamed up with Voto Latino, a non-profit organization that “empowers” American latinos, on the campus protests. Actress Rosario Dawson is cofounder and chairwoman of Voto Latino.

“Donald Trump began his campaign disparaging immigrants, calling for mass deportations, and now has confirmed his plans to immediately deport 2-3 million people,” said Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino. “We call on all young people to organize with us in our college campuses and on social media in our community’s fight for justice and dignity, to keep our community informed and to provide immigrant youth and their families protection from deportation and separation.”

Voto Latino tweeted about sanctuary campuses on Nov. 16.

“We look forward to our campus chapters organizing & pushing their schools to become sanctuary campuses! ‪#HereToStay,” the tweet said. The tweet linked to an article about universities facing pressure to become immigrant sanctuaries.

The groups have launched a MoveOn petition calling for sanctuary cities that will be delivered to mayors across the United States. It has garnered more than 100,000 signatures. United We Dream also followed Trump around the campaign trail.

United We Dream did not return a request for comment on its involvement in the campus protests.

Edging to 50,000 a Month, Crossing the Southern Border

Posted on November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 by Denise Simon

It is an invasion.

Just this month:

November 08, 2016 USCIS Announces Addition of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Eligible Countries for the H-2A and H-2B Visa Programs
USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of State, have added St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the list of countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs for the coming year.

November 01, 2016 USCIS to Centralize Processing of Special Immigrant Juvenile Cases
Starting on November 1, 2016, USCIS will centralize the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) program. This means SIJ-based Form I-360 petitions and Form I-485 applications will primarily be adjudicated at one location, the National Benefits Center (NBC). USCIS will retain discretion to require in-person interviews at local field offices to complete adjudications as needed.

October 21, 2016 USCIS Reaches CW-1 Cap for Fiscal Year 2017
USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the numerical limit (the “cap”) of 12,998 workers who may be issued CNMI-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) visas or otherwise provided with CW-1 status for fiscal year 2017.

Notice how Jeh Johnson says they have been detained? Yeah for a hour or two?

On the heels of a handful of lawmakers having decried the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for having failed to provide Congress with information on its efforts to address the surge of illegal aliens at the Southwest border and demanded DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to “take immediate action to quell the surge at the border and enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” Johnson responded in a statement, saying, “In October, a total of 46,195 individuals were apprehended between ports of entry on our southwest border, compared with 39,501 in September and 37,048 in August.”

“Within these totals,” Johnson said, “we have seen corresponding increases in the numbers of unaccompanied children and individuals in families apprehended. We’ve also seen increases in the numbers of those who present themselves at ports of entry along the southwest border seeking asylum.”

Previously, House Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Immigration and Border Security Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and Immigration and The National Interest Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) demanded Johnson “take immediate action to quell the surge at the border and enforce our nation’s immigration laws.”

They also request a briefing to learn about what steps DHS is taking to address this pressing issue. To date, the department has been reluctant to timely provide information to the committees of jurisdiction.

In their letter to Johnsson, the lawmakers stated, “Numerous media reports indicate that this surge is a large-scale effort to enter the United States before this year’s presidential election. The onslaught of illegal immigration reflects continued efforts by aliens from Central America—El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala—to overwhelm our limited resources at the border, which inevitably results in the release of tens of thousands of removable aliens within the United States. In addition, thousands of Haitians and Africans are amassing in the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Mexicali for the purpose of presenting themselves to Customs and Border Protection officers asserting dubious claims of asylum, which will practically guarantee their entry. This group of ‘Other Than Mexicans’ at the Southwest border comprises 70-75 percent of all border crossings.”

This group also includes large numbers of “Special Interest Aliens,” individuals from Muslim countries where radical Islamist jihadists are entrenched.

“The numbers are staggering,” the lawmakers stated in their letter to Johnson. They noted that, “In Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, the Border Patrol apprehended 408,870 illegal aliens at the southern border, 23 percent more than the preceding fiscal year. Of those apprehended, more than 77,000 were members of so-called ‘family units,’ which represents an increase of 95 percent over FY 2015 figures, and nearly 60,000 were unaccompanied alien minors, which reflects a 49 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. On October 31, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that the daily referrals of unaccompanied illegal alien minors averaged 262 over the last week and approximately 237 in October. By comparison, referrals averaged 148 per day in October of FY 2014, the year of the first surge, and 60 per day in October of FY 2015. As of October 27, 2016, the number of minors in [the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)] care is approximately 10,700.”

In his response, Johnson stated, “I have told our border security and immigration enforcement personnel that we must keep pace with this increase. As a result, there are currently about 41,000 individuals in our immigration detention facilities — typically, the number in immigration detention fluctuates between 31,000 and 34,000 – and I have authorized U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement to acquire additional detention space for single adults so that those apprehended at the border can be returned to their home countries as soon as possible. We have also engaged with a number of countries to repatriate their citizens more quickly, and they have agreed to do so.”

“Our borders cannot be open to illegal migration,” Johnson said, noting, “We must, therefore, enforce the immigration laws consistent with our priorities. Those priorities are public safety and border security. Specifically, we prioritize the deportation of undocumented immigrants who are convicted of serious crimes and those apprehended at the border attempting to enter the country illegally. Recently, I have reiterated to our Enforcement and Removal personnel that they must continue to pursue these enforcement activities.”

Johnson said, “Those who attempt to enter our country without authorization should know that, consistent with our laws and our values, we must and we will send you back.”

In conclusion, Johnson said, “Once again, I encourage migrants and their families to pursue the various safe and legal paths available for those in need of humanitarian protection in the United States. Earlier this year, the government of Costa Rica announced its agreement to enter into a protection transfer arrangement with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration to help address the Central American migration challenge. We’ve also established an in-country referral program in countries of origin in Central America. This will enable vulnerable residents in the region to be considered for refugee protection in the United States after being screened and interviewed by DHS officers. We have also announced expansion of the categories of individuals eligible for participation in our Central American Minors program when accompanied by a qualified child. We encourage use of these programs.”

For Iraq and Syria, Iran is Never Leaving, Russia Loves it

Posted on November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 by Denise Simon

Ramadan al-Saadi, Alarabiya.net Saturday, 19 November 2016

In Syria’s Aleppo, Shiite militias point to Iran’s unparalleled influence

BEIRUT — Syria’s government hopes a brutal siege will vanquish rebel holdouts in the city of Aleppo, a key battleground. But Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops aren’t leading the charge.

That task has been taken up by thousands of Shiite militiamen from Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan who are loyal to Iran, a Shiite country and perhaps Assad’s most important ally.

For much of Syria’s civil war, these religiously motivated fighters have reinforced Syria’s badly weakened military. Now, they are playing an increasingly critical role in trying to seize opposition-held eastern Aleppo by coordinating their attacks with government forces and warplanes flown by Russia, another ally of Assad’s.

The government, backed by Russian aircraft, launched a major offensive across northern Syria last week that has brought further devastation to eastern Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war.

The militias appear to be forming a sophisticated ground coalition that has further bolstered Iran’s influence in Syria, alarming even officials in Assad’s government, said Phillip Smyth, an expert on Shiite militias at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“They are building a force on the ground that, long after the war, will stay there and wield a strong military and ideological influence over Syria for Iran,” he said. “And there is not much Assad can do to curb the rising influence of these groups, even though Syrian officials are clearly concerned about this, because the militiamen are literally preventing the overthrow of his government.”

Analysts say Iran has long used Shiite militias in other countries to project its power. The groups include multiple factions that dominate Iraqi politics, as well as the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which is more powerful than Lebanon’s military.

Iran and its militias have frustrated U.S. officials. While both sides find themselves aligned against the Islamic State in Iraq, they are at cross-purposes in Syria, where anti-Assad rebels receive funding and arms from Washington and its allies.

Eventually, analysts say, Iran could even find itself in direct competition with Russia for influence in Syria.

The Shiite militias’ presence in Syria also has fueled Iran’s regional and religious rivalry with Saudi Arabia, a Sunni powerhouse that backs Syria’s Sunni-led rebellion.

Still, the payoff of using militiamen could be substantial. If the Syrian government is able to seize all of Aleppo, the regional balance would tip in Iran’s favor, dealing a blow to Saudi ambitions and the rebels who stormed the city’s eastern areas in 2012, said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics.

“A defeat of the rebels in Aleppo would be a turning point in which Assad captures most of the urban centers of Syria,” he said. “It would be a setback for Saudi Arabia in its rivalry with Iran, which, as a result, would see its influence in Syria increase even more.”

The dozens of militias there have led the way in imposing a crushing blockade of the city’s opposition districts, where more than 200,000 people face worsening shortages of food and medicine. The fighters also call in air raids by Russian and government warplanes that have wrecked hospitals, residences and infrastructure in those areas.

Rebels have indiscriminately shelled government-held western Aleppo, but destruction there has not been as severe.

This month, rebel fighters in Aleppo launched a counteroffensive, but they have struggled to break the siege. Air power – especially Russia’s – has proved a formidable obstacle. The Shiite militiamen have, too, said Zakaria Malahfiji, a member of the Fastaqim rebel force, which is affiliated with the umbrella Free Syrian Army.

“They are fighting with passion, and they fight in well-coordinated attacks,” he said. “I remember one battle where these fighters just kept dying in one spot. One guy would charge, get shot and die, and then another, and then another and then another would do the same thing on the exact same spot. All of them died. They are motivated.”

The hard-line Sunnis of the Islamic State and other religious extremists have overshadowed the revolt against Assad that began peacefully in 2011 before turning into brutal war. Militants linked to al-Qaida have played a prominent role among rebel forces.

To the rebels, the Iranian-backed militiamen are extremists.

“They are spreading Iran’s influence and their extremist ideology, but our revolution is not about religion; it’s about freedom and dignity,” said Abdulmunem Zaineddin, a religious scholar involved with rebel forces in the battles in Aleppo.

The militias say their involvement in the civil war is about defending Shiite shrines in the country, as well as battling extremist Sunni groups.

“We don’t want sectarian violence. We want to protect Syria, to protect all that is sacred to everyone from terrorism, from the terrorist groups paid for by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and the U.S.,” said Hisham Al Mossawi of Harakat al-Nujaba, a militia from Iraq whose fighters also are battling in Aleppo.

It’s unclear how many Shiite militiamen and militia factions are participating in the Aleppo battle. Hundreds and perhaps even thousands of the fighters have been killed during the war, including generals from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Avi Dichter, chair of Israel’s foreign affairs and defense committee, said this month that as many as 25,000 Shiite militants are fighting in Syria. Other analysts say the number is smaller.

Israeli intelligence closely monitors the fighting in Syria and, in particular, Hezbollah’s role in the conflict. Since it fought a devastating war with Israeli forces in 2006, the Lebanese militia has become more powerful, partly because of the battlefield skills honed in Syria.

Hezbollah intervened in Syria early on in the war, helping Assad’s forces rout rebels in key western areas of the country.

“The fighting has made (Hezbollah) a better fighting force and more adept in conventional military warfare,” Dichter said.

In Aleppo, Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards play prominent leadership roles, directing the foreign Shiite militiamen, many of whom are recruited by, and trained in, Iran.

The factions are learning to overcome issues such as linguistic differences, helping them become more adept at coordinating ground assaults, said Smyth, the analyst.

“History proves that whenever Iranians craft groups like these, such as Lebanese Hezbollah, they don’t give up arms, they don’t stand down and they don’t leave territory that they’ve taken,” he said. “They will be in Syria for years and years, and that will have consequences for everyone.”

Iraqi Shiite Militias Complicate Fight to Defeat ISIS in Mosul, Other Areas

(New York, NY) – (CEP) today released updated resources on three powerful Iraqi Shiite militias, as their involvement in the fight for the Sunni-dominated ISIS stronghold of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, is raising fears of the return of sectarian warfare to the area.

The three militias—the Badr Organization, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq—are the most powerful among Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a government-sanctioned umbrella group composed of predominantly Shiite fighters with strong military and financial ties to Iran. In a July report, Human Rights Watch documented killings, disappearances, torture, and the destruction of homes by the groups during the fight to retake Fallujah and other Sunni-dominated areas from ISIS. The organization urged that Iraq prevent the Shiite militias from playing any role in the campaign to drive ISIS from Mosul.

The Badr Organization began in 1983 as the military wing of an Iraqi political party that sought to bring Iran’s Islamic Revolution to Iraq and fought alongside Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. The Badr Organization is run by Hadi al-Amiri, who has a history of instigating sectarian violence in Iraq. He has also been linked to a 1996 attack in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. Air Force servicemen.

Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) is an Iranian-sponsored, anti-American Shiite militia that earned a reputation for targeting U.S. and coalition forces with roadside bombs and improvised rocket-assisted mortars. KH fought with the Assad regime in Syria at the behest of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). KH has remained virulently anti-American, repeatedly boycotting battles against ISIS in which U.S. airpower contributes. In 2009, the U.S. Treasury Department designated KH and its leader, Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi (a.k.a. Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes), for threatening stability in Iraq, declaring that KH and Ibrahimi “committed, directed, supported, or posed a significant risk of committing acts of violence against Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.”

Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) has claimed responsibility for more than 6,000 attacks on American and Iraqi forces. Its founder and leader, Qais al-Khazali, reportedly led the January 2007 attack in Karbala that killed five U.S. soldiers. Today, AAH continues to commit sectarian violence, carry out homophobic attacks, and threaten the “interests” of Western countries participating in strikes in Syria.

Trump has his First Call with Iraq PM on ISIS

Posted on November 18, 2016November 18, 2016 by Denise Simon

Wonder if al Abadi told Trump this: Kurds must give up captured territory once ISIS is defeated, Iraqi leader says as Trump pledged his full support to Iraq.

Iraqi troops expand foothold in Mosul as Islamic State pledges more suicide attacks

Reuters: U.S.-backed Iraqi troops expanded their foothold on the eastern side of Islamic State’s stronghold of Mosul on Friday, as the group pledged to mount more suicide attacks on their offensive to take the city.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) stormed the Tahrir district on the northeastern edge of Mosul, the last major city under control of the Sunni hard-line group in Iraq.

A Reuters correspondent reporting from the CTS-held line in Tahrir saw civilians streaming out of the nearby Aden district where fighting blazed, pushing trolleys containing their belongings and carrying home-made white flags.

The women were still shrouded in black robes imposed by the militants but most had uncovered their faces as they fled intense fighting.

Reuters, go here for a photo essay.

Militants have been steadily retreating from areas around Mosul into the city since the battle started on Oct. 17, with air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition.

“The advance is slow due to the civilians,” said CTS Lt. General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi, adding that the U.S.-trained unit aims to clear the rest of the neighborhood during the day.

A Friday prayer sermon referring to “mujahideen”, or holy warriors, could be heard coming from a mosque under control of the jihadis in the vicinity. An armed man, possibly a sniper, was in the minaret of the mosque.

As the offensive entered its second month, Iraqi government forces are still fighting in a dozen of about 50 neighborhoods on the eastern part of Mosul, which is divided by the Tigris River that runs through its center.

Militants are dug in among the civilians as a defense tactic to hamper air strikes, moving around the city through tunnels, driving suicide car bombs into advancing troops and hitting them with sniper and mortar fire.

A loud explosion was heard several streets away from the CTS lines. An officer said it was a suicide bomber who blew himself up after being surrounded in a house. The CTS unit was using a drone to try to detect insurgents.

The number of fighters who are ready to blow themselves up is increasing, an insurgent commander told Islamic State’s weekly magazine, al-Nabaa, published online on Thursday.

“We’re giving you the good news that the number of brothers ready for martyrdom is very large and, with God’s grace, the brothers who are demanding martyr operations are increasing,” said the commander, who was not named.

The offensive to take Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control in either Iraq or Syria, is turning into the biggest battle in Iraq’s turbulent history since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The CTS became the only unit to have breached the city limits from the eastern side two weeks ago. Other army units have yet to breach the northern and the southern sides.

Iranian-backed militias earlier this week announced the capture of the Tal Afar air base, west of Mosul, part of their campaign to choke off the route between the Syrian and Iraqi parts of the caliphate Islamic State declared in 2014.

The base is located just south of Tal Afar, a mostly ethnic Turkmen town that Turkey would not want to fall under the control of the mostly pro-Iranian militia coalition known as Popular Mobilisation, or Hashid Shaabi.

The Hashid plans to besiege the town for now, a spokesman of Kata’ib Hezbollah, one of the main paramilitary groups making up the coalition, told Reuters on Friday.

Iraqi military estimates put the number of Islamic State fighters in Mosul at 5,000 to 6,000. Facing them is a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government forces, Kurdish fighters and Shi’ite paramilitary units.

Iraqi authorities have declined to give a timeline for recapture of the whole city, but the battle is likely to last for months. Militants have launched waves of counter-attacks against advancing forces, tying them down in lethal urban combat in narrow streets still full of residents.

The Islamic State commander cited in al-Nabaa said the battles with the Shi’ite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation west of Mosul will continue “in long episodes”.

Iraqi authorities have not published a casualty toll for the Mosul campaign overall – either for security forces, civilians or Islamic State fighters. The warring sides claim to have inflicted thousands of casualties in enemy ranks.

A resident said a mother and her three children were killed in Instissar, one of the eastern neighborhood already taken by the CTS, when a mortar shell hit their home, probably fired by Islamic State.

Nearly 59,000 people have been displaced because of the fighting, moving from villages and towns around the city to government-held areas, according to U.N. estimates.

The figure does not include the thousands of people rounded up in villages around Mosul and forced to accompany Islamic State fighters to cover their retreat towards the city as human shields.

In some cases, men of fighting age were separated from those groups and summarily killed, according to residents and rights groups. Human Rights Watch said on Thursday more than 300 former police officers were likely killed last month and buried in a mass grave near the town of Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul.

Mosul’s capture is seen as crucial towards dismantling the caliphate, and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed to have withdrawn to a remote area near the Syrian border, has told his fighters there can be no retreat.

H.E. PM Dr. Haider Al-Abadi discusses on phone with U.S. President elect Mr. Donald Trump the victories achieved against Da’esh.

IRS Audit Proves Taxpayer Data Exposed

Posted on November 18, 2016November 18, 2016 by Denise Simon

The report is here and the numbers mentioned were a random sampling.

IRS exposed taxpayers’ info through shoddy emails, audit shows

Staff sent tax return data through unencrypted messages

WashingtonTimes: A surprising number of IRS employees are sending unencrypted emails containing personal taxpayer information to private accounts, putting that information at risk of being stolen, the agency’s inspector general said Thursday.

Auditors found hundreds of unencrypted emails sent that risked leaking taxpayers’ personal information, after running through a random sample of 80 employees’ emails from the IRS’s small business/self employed division for four weeks in 2015. Extrapolated over a year, that could mean more than 1.1 million emails, covering more than 28 million taxpayers’ information, could have been sent by the division.

“These unencrypted e-mails violated IRM requirements and potentially compromised the security of taxpayer information,” Inspector General J. Russell George said.

Most of the unencrypted messages were sent to other IRS employees, posing a lower risk because they were inside the agency’s firewall. But some 15 percent of the messages were sent outside the IRS — including some that IRS agents sent to their own personal email accounts, for reasons that were unclear.

The IRS, in its official response, said the review didn’t prove that information had gotten into the wrong hands, and said most of the messages identified were at least kept within the agency’s firewall.

“These communications are within the extensive protections of the IRS firewall, and pose a minimal risk of disclosure or access,” Karen Schiller, commissioner of the small business division, wrote. “But, nonetheless, we agree that encryption provides an added layer of protection.”

She said the agency has already upgraded some of its checks since the inspector general’s 2015 review.

IRS officials have repeatedly warned employees to be careful with what’s dubbed “personally identifiable information,” or PII in government-speak. Email is a particular risk, the agency says.

Personal information can be sent within the IRS to other employees who have a need to know, but even then it’s supposed to be encrypted. And sending personal information outside the IRS is forbidden, even if a taxpayer gives OK, unless an exception is specifically approved.

During the four-week test, involving 80 employees, the auditors found 32 of them — 40 percent — broke the rules by sending a total of 326 unencrypted messages containing “tax return information” from more than 8,000 taxpayers.

Of those, 51 were sent outside the IRS. More than half were sent directly to taxpayers, 14 were sent to taxpayers’ representatives, three were sent to other government agencies or third parties, and in six cases employees sent taxpayers’ information to their own personal email addresses. In some cases they sent their own information to themselves — which is still prohibited.

IRS rules allow for employees to be admonished or fired for breaking email privacy — though neither the audit nor the agency’s official response said whether anyone has been disciplined.

In a separate audit released Thursday the inspector general said the IRS didn’t always take steps to protect data transferred in bulk to other federal agencies, state and local governments, banks or contractors.

“It is essential that the IRS fully protect sensitive personal and taxpayer information that it transmits externally,” Mr. George, the inspector general, said.