position:major

  • Top Israeli General: As Long as Erdogan Is in Power, Israel Will Face Problems
    Warning comes amid ongoing efforts at reconciliation between countries; IDF deputy chief of staff also criticized U.S. military’s ’custom of using extensive military force’

    Gili Cohen Mar 18, 2016

    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.709544

    Amid ongoing negotiations toward reconciliation between Israel and Turkey, the IDF deputy chief of staff made rare remarks on Tuesday regarding the negative effects the regime of Recep Erdogan has on the two countries’ relationship. 
    “As long as Turkey is ruled by a party with a strong Islamist orientation, by a ruler as adversarial as Erdogan, as long as this is the situation – we can expect problems and challenges,” Maj. Gen. Yair Golan said at a conference on “The IDF’s current challenges” at Bar-Ilan University.
    Terming Turkey a “very problematic factor,” Golan added that Israel ought not intentionally create hostility and tense relations with Turkey, since Turkey is a “large and powerful country.” Israel should instead strive to reduce tensions with Turkey, “while protecting our principles,” Golan said. 
    “This is a complicated subject but it should not lead us to extremes and undesirable corners,” he added.
    Ties between the two countries deteriorated sharply after a confrontation in the Mediterranean in May 2010 between Israel Navy commandos and passengers on the Mavi Marmara, a ship that was part of a flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Ten of the ship’s passengers were killed in the confrontation and a number of the commandos were injured in the confrontation.
    Recently, senior Turkish officials have said that the crisis between the countries could soon be over. In Israel, however, it has been stressed that sticking points in the negotiations remain, along with the stance that the optimism the government in Ankara is conveying is overstated. 
    In the conference, Golan also criticized U.S.’s military actions, saying that “The United States has made it a custom of using extensive military force in recent years – I’m not sure it’s to its benefit.” The U.S. military is “impressive,” Golan said, but “in very many ways not much better than ours.” 
    "There are things in which they are better and things in which they are less good,” he said.
    Asked about the IDF’s relations with the Russian military, in light of Russia’s campaign in neighboring Syria, Golan said that while the Russian presence in the region cannot be ignored it’s “not necessarily bad.” 
    The Russians “understand excellently” Israel’s red lines and dialogue with the Russian military was very good, Golan added. Coordination to avoid unnecessary friction between the two militaries is carried out on a very high level, he said.
    “Around certain events, when possible friction arose, we sat together and things were immediately corrected,” Golan said. “We are alright with them, don’t worry.”
    Golan also said that there is no need to use military power to invade Lebanon to wipe out the tens of thousands of missiles and rockets in the hands of Hezbollah. “We should go slowly. If in this chaos our situation is relatively comfortable, and I think it’s relatively comfortable, so let’s not disrupt it. And we will relate to threats from a position of strength.”
    Regarding Israel’s southern front with Gaza, Golan said he was “not convinced that this is a major reason for pride, the fact that we gave a number of years for Hamas and other groups to fire on residents of the border area around the Gaza Strip.”

  • Israel Is Building a Secret Tunnel-Destroying Weapon | Foreign Policy
    http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/10/israel-is-building-a-secret-tunnel-destroying-weapon-hamas-us-gaza

    According to intelligence officials, Israeli engineers are working tirelessly to develop what’s being called the #Underground_Iron_Dome — a system that could detect and destroy cross-border tunnels. According to a report on Israeli Channel 2, the Israeli government has spent more than $250 million since 2004 in its efforts to thwart tunnel construction under the Gaza border.

    The United States has already appropriated $40 million for the project in the 2016 financial year, in order “to establish anti-tunnel capabilities to detect, map, and neutralize underground tunnels that threaten the U.S. or Israel,” said U.S. Defense Department spokesman Christopher Sherwood. While the majority of the work in 2016 will be done in Israel, Sherwood added, “the U.S. will receive prototypes, access to test sites, and the rights to any intellectual property.
    […]
    Among the Israeli companies working to develop the new anti-tunnel mechanism are Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the same company that developed the Iron Dome rocket defense system. Both companies declined to provide any details due to security reasons, as did the IDF and other Israeli officials, who fear that such information could play into Hamas’s hands. Yet according to intelligence sources who spoke with Foreign Policy on the condition of anonymity, the system involves seismic sensors that can monitor underground vibrations.

    IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Gadi Eizenkot hinted at these efforts in February. “We are doing a lot, but many of [the things we do] are hidden from the public,” he told a conference at Herzliya’s Interdisciplinary Center. “We have dozens, if not a hundred, engineering vehicles on the Gaza border.

    Yaakov Amidror, a former national security advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former head of Israel’s National Security Council, told FP the confidential new system is not yet operational, but it is “in a testing mode.

    Since the beginning of 2016, nearly a dozen Hamas tunnels have collapsed on the Palestinians who were building them, killing at least 10 of the group’s members. While winter rains have been blamed as the culprit, the wave of collapses has led many here to wonder if Israel’s new secret weapon is already at work.

    Asked by the Palestinian Maan News Agency in February whether or not Israel was behind recent tunnel collapses, the coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, IDF Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, responded, “God knows.

    • In the meantime, Israeli residents of Gaza border towns are growing frustrated with what they perceive as a government that lacks any vision beyond fighting a war with Hamas every two or three years. Israel has fought three wars with Hamas since it withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 — 2008’s Operation Cast Lead, 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defense, and 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. While border residents wish the government and military would do more to protect them from Hamas’s tunnels, many of them also want the government to help the people of Gaza.

      Gaza is a pot that’s about to boil over, and unless something changes there, nothing is going to change here,” says Adele Raemer, who lives a mile from the Gaza border in Nirim, an Israeli settlement. “People can’t live like that without exploding. They are going to go underground and build tunnels if that’s how they are going to make a living.

  • Major challenges for #refugees to access rights in #Turkey. It cannot be considered a safe third country!

    Brussels, 29 January 2016. ECRE is concerned about the Dutch government’s proposal to return all those arriving in Greece back to Turkey without access to asylum procedures, in exchange for a large scale resettlement programme. While the concrete modalities remain unclear, a key feature of the plan would reportedly be based on designating Turkey a “safe third country”.

    http://ecre.org/component/content/article/70-weekly-bulletin-articles/1364-ecre-strongly-opposes-legitimising-push-backs-by-declaring-turkey-a-safe-
    #Turquie #push-back #refoulement #Grèce #pays_sûrs #réfugiés #asile #migrations

  • Vatican Bank is the main shareholder in ’Pietro Beretta’ arms - USAHM Conspiracy
    https://usahitman.com/vbmsipb

    Perhaps few people know that Pietro Beretta arms factory Ltd. (the largest arms industry in the world) and is controlled by the Holding SpA Beretta and the majority shareholder of the Beretta Holding SpA after Gussalli Ugo Beretta, is the IOR (Institute for Works of Religion [commonly known as the Vatican Bank]) private institution founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII and headquartered in Vatican City.

    The story is this, behind this is as follows:

    Rome was not built in a day, nor the Vatican, and less its present opulence. Has its roots in the fourth century of the Christian era, when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and made available to the Pope Sylvester I a colossal Fortunately, it actually turned into the 1st Pope rich history.

    The Catholic Church is the only religious organization in the world that has as an independent state headquarters: Vatican City. With its 2 Km2 Vatican is much smaller than many golf courses in the world, and to follow it without haste does not take much more than an hour; Counting his riches, however, take considerably longer.

    The modern opulence Vatican relies on the generosity of Benito Mussolini , who thanks to the signing of the Lateran Treaty between his government and the Vatican, gave the Catholic Church a number of safeguards and security measures. The “Holy See” got the recognition as a sovereign state, the benefit of tax exemption of their property for the benefit of their citizens, they had to pay duties so imported from abroad. He was granted diplomatic immunity and its diplomats started to enjoy post-privileges of the profession, as well as foreign diplomats accredited to the Holy See. Mussolini promised to introduce the teaching of the Catholic religion in all schools in the country and let the institution of marriage under the patronage of Canon Law, which did not admit divorce. The benefits were enormous given the Vatican including tax benefits, were predominant.

  • Why Assad’s Army Has Not Defected – Article clairement partisan, mais (1) publié dans un canard républicain influent, désormais éloigné des néo-conservateurs, (2) ce paragraphe relativise la ségrégation des sunnites dans l’armée habituellement présentée sur le ton de l’évidence.
    http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-assads-army-has-not-defected-15190

    The Syrian Arab Army has held its own for more than five years; its numbers might have been depleted, as is normal for any wartime military, but a close glance at its military reveals that its core, perhaps unexpectedly to many, is Sunni. The current minister of defense, Fahd al-Freij, is one of the most decorated officers in Syrian military history and hails from the Sunni heartland of Hama. The two most powerful intelligence chiefs, Ali Mamlouk and Mohammad Dib Zaitoun, have remained loyal to the Syrian government—and are both Sunnis from influential families. The now-dead and dreaded strongman of Syrian intelligence, Rustom Ghazaleh, who ruled Lebanon with an iron fist, was a Sunni, and the head of the investigative branch of the political directorate, Mahmoud al-Khattib, is from an old Damascene Sunni family. Major General Ramadan Mahmoud Ramadan, commander of the Thirty-Fifth Special Forces Regiment, which is tasked with the protection of western Damascus, is another high-ranking Sunni, as is Brigadier General Jihad Mohamed Sultan, the commander of the Sixty-Fifth Brigade that guards Latakia.

  • How will Nasrallah retaliate for death of Hezbollah leader in Syria? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/12/syria-samir-kuntar-israel-hezbollah.html

    Kuntar was dispatched to Syria and started working on old plans to bring this front alive. These plans were first brought to life by former Hezbollah military Cmdr. Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in February 2008.

    A Syrian military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “For 2½ years, Kuntar worked on building cells from residents of areas close to the borders with the Golan Heights. He worked on providing them with training, arms and salaries.”

    He added, “His group was getting bigger; his first local officer was called Moafak Badriyeh, a Syrian from the village of Hadar from the liberated part of the Golan Heights. Badriyeh was later killed by Israel. He was responsible for launching rockets at Israeli posts in the occupied Golan Heights and bomb attacks.”

    In March 2014, three major incidents took place in the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights: an attack on March 5, March 14 and March 18. The last attack saw one Israeli soldier killed and seven wounded, while four were injured during the second attack.

    On April 26, four Syrian fighters were killed during a clash with an Israeli patrol in the Golan Heights. A statement issued that afternoon by the popular Syrian resistance read: “Four Syrian resistance heroes were killed Sunday evening, April 26, 2015. Two from Hadar — Youssef Hassoun and Samih Badriyeh — and two sons of the martyr prisoner Walid Mahmoud from Majdal Shams, Nazih and Thaer Mahmoud.”

    An Iranian military source told Al-Monitor that efforts to build the Syrian resistance was a main task executed by Kuntar in coordination with Hezbollah and under the direct supervision of Iran’s Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Nasrallah.

    “This was an ambitious strategic project for the resistance bloc, and Kuntar played an important role in making it happen. He was assassinated by Israel and he already planned his own revenge,” the source said.

    Earlier this year, on Jan. 18, five Hezbollah members and an Iranian general were killed near Quneitra on the border with the occupied Golan Heights, when Israeli helicopters launched an attack on their convoy. The victims included Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Hezbollah’s slain commander Mughniyeh, and Mohammed Issa, who is said to be the Hezbollah commander responsible for the Golan front.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/12/syria-samir-kuntar-israel-hezbollah.html#ixzz3v6CeoiMs

  • China to build filling station on disputed South China Sea island | World news | The Guardian

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/china-to-build-filling-station-on-disputed-south-china-sea-island

    Chinese oil major Sinopec is building a filling station on an island in the South China Sea, as China continues to expand its civilian infrastructure in the disputed waterway, entrenching its reach in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

    The filling station and accompanying storage tank on Woody Island in the Paracels will take a year to complete, the company, whose listed flagship is Sinopec Corp , said on its microblog on Monday.

    #chine #mer_de_chine_méridionale

  • Israël : une députée palestinienne condamnée à 15 mois de prison - Moyen-Orient - RFI - Publié le 07-12-2015
    http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20151207-israel-une-deputee-palestinienne-condamnee-15-mois-prison

    La députée palestinienne Khalida Jarrar, accusée d’incitation à la violence et au terrorisme, a été condamnée ce lundi à 15 mois de prison par un tribunal militaire israélien. Les Palestiniens, qui se sont beaucoup mobilisés pour cette personnalité connue, dénoncent un jugement purement politique.

    Avec notre correspondante à Jérusalem, Murielle Paradon

    Khalida Jarrar avait été arrêtée chez elle, en Cisjordanie occupée le 2 avril dernier, dans un raid de l’armée israélienne. Cette députée palestinienne était accusée d’incitation à la violence et d’appartenance au Front populaire de libération de la Palestine, un mouvement d’extrême gauche considéré comme une organisation terroriste par Israël.

    Le sort de Khalida Jarrar a beaucoup mobilisé. Féministe, militante des droits de l’homme et en particulier des droits des prisonniers, c’est une personnalité connue. Les Palestiniens ont aussitôt vu dans son arrestation par Israël un geste politique.

    Le jugement rendu ce lundi, 15 mois de prison fermes et 2 500 euros d’amende, est dénoncé comme totalement arbitraire, venant d’un tribunal militaire israélien. Khalida Jarrar a déjà passé huit mois en détention, elle devrait donc sortir de prison l’été prochain. Selon une association de détenus, cinq députés palestiniens sont actuellement emprisonnés dans les geôles israéliennes.

    #Khalida_Jarrar

    • Even a Political Trial Can’t Budge Israel’s Silence of the Ewes

      Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar was jailed because of her political beliefs, but few Israelis seem to care.
      Gideon Levy Dec 10, 2015 2:32 AM
      http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.690967


      Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar in Ofer military court, May 2015.Alex Levac

      What is left of concepts like solidarity, sympathy or protest here? And who is left to express them? What could remain of those words when a military court sentences a Palestinian parliamentarian to a prison term for her political activity – and Jewish-Israeli society looks on with complete disinterest?

      It’s unlikely that the Israeli public even heard of it. No man cried out, no woman either. There is not a righteous man in Sodom, nor a righteous woman.

      The banishment, arrest and trial of Khalida Jarrar, not to mention the verdict against her, are among the abominations of the occupation. There have been greater abominations, but this one should have raised some kind of storm in Israel – as it did in the rest of the world – because it concerns an elected official, a fighter for human rights and social justice, a feminist and, of course, an opponent to the occupation.

      She was sentenced to prison solely due to her political activity. That, surely, should have awakened someone here? But we’re only shocked by the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, where there’s a military dictatorship.

      Here’s a brief history of the abomination. A banishment order from the city she lives in; imprisonment without trial; a fabricated indictment, produced in response to the international criticism of her arrest and incarceration, consisting of grotesque charges that even the military prosecution never dared to concoct; the prosecutor’s threat before the court that she would be locked up without trial if it dared release her; and a verdict of 15 months in prison.

      The occupation’s clerks, disguised as prosecutors and military judges – imposters to all intents and purposes - did their job well. This is exactly what is required of obedient bureaucrats in uniform, some of them in skullcaps too.

      The mission was accomplished and Jarrar was neutralized. She will remain in prison for at least seven more months. Her husband, Ghassan, manufactures fur toys. Israel has arrested him 14 times and the furthest he has been allowed to travel in his 55 years is the Ketziot prison in the Negev. He and their daughters, Yaffa and Suha, doctoral students in Canada, will continue to weep, as they did in several court sessions.

      The only person who tried to stop this abomination was IDF Judge Major Haim Balilti, who ordered Jarrar’s release from prison. But Chief Military Advocate Lt. Col. Morris Hirsch threatened that Jarrar would be imprisoned in any case, regardless of the court’s ruling. That had the desired effect on judge Lt. Col. Ronen Atzmon of the appeals court, who did his duty.

      That is how Israel teaches the subjects of its occupation the only lesson it wants them to learn – you must not resist the occupation in any way, on any account, neither with violence nor politics, nor guns nor words. Bow your heads obediently under the boot, raise your hands in subservience and surrender. If you don’t, you will be punished.

      The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the most sophisticated and impressive political movements, is seen by Israeli despotism as a “prohibited organization.” It also has a military wing, with which Jarrar had no contact. Even Jarrar’s visit to a Palestinian book fair was registered as an offense for which there can only be one verdict.

      A lawmaker is banished, arrested, imprisoned without really doing anything wrong or committing a crime – and Israel is silent. Her parliamentary peers – male and female members of the Knesset who grandstand about the “only democracy,” are silent. Apart from MK Aida Touma-Sliman, who visited Jarrar in prison, there was no display of protest or solidarity.

      Where are the MKs, especially the female ones? Hello, Merav Michaeli? Stav Shafir? Meretz? The silence of the lambs, mainly of the ewes. The women’s organizations are silent, the feminists are silent and the legal experts are silent. And, of course, the media, which didn’t even bother to report the verdict, except for Haaretz. Why? What happened? A “terrorist” was sentenced to prison? What’s the story?

      But this is a big story and it should trouble many Israelis, even those who aren’t concerned with the fate of the Palestinians. It won’t stop with Jarrar; it never does.

  • 3 senior commanders detained over stopping of MİT trucks, reports say
    http://www.todayszaman.com/national_3-senior-commanders-detained-over-stopping-of-mi-t-trucks-repo

    According to Turkish media reports, Ankara Gendarmerie Regional Commander Maj. Gen. İbrahim Aydın and former Adana Gendarmerie Regional Commander Brig. Gen. Hamza Celepoğlu and former Gendarmerie Criminal Laboratory head, retired Col. Burhanettin Cihangiroğlu, were detained on Saturday.

    In January 2014, gendarmes stopped three Syria-bound trucks in the southern provinces of Adana and Hatay, after prosecutors received tip-offs that the vehicles were illegally carrying arms to armed organizations in Syria.

    The government quickly dismissed claims at the time that the trucks intercepted and searched by the Turkish military by order of prosecutors in Adana had any weapons. Current Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was foreign minister at the time, asserted that the cargo was humanitarian aid destined for embattled Syrian Turkmens on the other side of the border.

    Testimonials by gendarmerie intelligence officers involved in the interception confirmed, however, that the shipment’s destination was not an area with any Turkmens. The Syrian destination, as disclosed by the drivers, was often a target for reconnaissance by Turkish military personnel who secured the border.

    Moreover, the gendarmes said, the area was populated by radical groups.

    Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials called the 2014 investigation of the MİT trucks “treason and espionage” on the part of the prosecutors because the trucks were claimed to be transporting humanitarian aid to Bayır-Bucak Turkmens, and a case was filed against those involved in the investigation.

    An indictment, which was approved by the Tarsus High Criminal Court in July, seeks a life sentence for Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, former Adana Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca and Adana prosecutors Aziz Takçı and Özcan Şişman, as well as Gendarmerie Commander Col. Özkan Çokay, who were involved in the probe.

  • China Is Absolutely Destroying the US on Clean Energy
    http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/11/china-absolutely-destroying-us-clean-energy

    When world leaders convene on Monday in Paris for two weeks of high-stakes climate negotiations, one of the top items on the agenda will be how developing nations should prepare for and help to slow global warming. Opponents to President Barack Obama’s climate agenda, such as GOP presidential contender Marco Rubio, like to argue that anything the United States does to curb greenhouse gas emissions will be pointless because countries like India and China aren’t doing the same.

    But new data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that this argument is just hot air: For the first time ever, over the last year the majority of global investment in clean energy projects was spent in developing countries. In fact, clean energy investment in China alone outpaced that in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France combined , BNEF found. Across 55 major non-OECD countries, including India, Brazil, China, and Kenya, clean energy investment reached $126 billion in 2014, a record high and 39 percent higher than 2013 levels.

    #Chine #Etats-Unis #climat #énergie

  • West Bank radio station shut down for ‘incitement’ in overnight Israeli raid by IDF — RT News
    https://www.rt.com/news/323014-israel-west-bank-radio

    A Palestinian radio station in Hebron has been stormed and closed down by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as part of an “incitement” crackdown campaign launched by the Israeli government in the wake of deadly terror attacks on Israelis.

    The IDF have raided Radio al-Khalil (which is Arabic for Hebron) based in the West Bank city of Hebron, seizing their broadcasting equipment and leaving a notice signed by Major General Roni Numa, commanding officer of Central Command, saying that the station was to remain shut down for six months.
    […]
    The station has been accused by Israeli authorities of allegedly inciting violence in its broadcasts, which reportedly prompted the shutdown. The radio is very popular in the area and has a strong following.

    The action was taken after broadcasts containing incitement were aired by the station,” the IDF said in the statement.

  • Mapping the Sexism of Street Names in Major Cities - CityLab
    http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/11/mapping-the-sexism-of-city-street-names/414094

    A lot of things are named after people: food, theories, diseases, and among the most common, streets. Martin Luther King Jr. alone has more than 900 streets named after him throughout the U.S. Then there are several streets named after presidents like George Washington, scientists like Isaac Newton, and other historical figures.

    But there’s a glaring problem with how streets get named: few memorialize women. A new interactive map from Mapbox developer Aruna Sankaranarayanan and her colleagues shows just how scarce female streets are in major cities around the world.

    #sexisme #villes

  • Media : Is the US ignoring military burn pits’ harm to Middle East civilians ?
    http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/oct/media-is-the-us-ignoring-military-burn-pits2019-harm-to-mid

    « The US » : comprendre les politiques ET les médias ET les scientifiques,

    The U.S. media has failed to expose the civilian toll of recent wars by largely ignoring burn pits’ toxic effects on local people, a U.S. researcher argues in a new report, suggesting the burn pits are this generation’s Agent Orange.

    The coverage gap helps legitimize war and overlooks the undeniable humanitarian impacts, said Eric Bonds, an assistant professor of sociology and researcher at the University of Mary Washington.

    During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, things such as plastics, Styrofoam, electronics and unexploded weapons were burned in large pits, sending toxics into the air and people’s lungs. Bonds surveyed major U.S. newspapers from 2007 to 2014, and found that of 49 stories that mentioned wartime burn pits, only one mentioned civilian impacts on par with that of soldiers.

    This “silence and selective attention” of the U.S. media extends to the U.S. government and researchers who are well aware of what toxics in the air might do to local citizens, said Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an independent environmental toxicologist who studies the environmental toll of recent Middle East conflicts.

    “This makes me, as a public health researcher, feel extremely uneasy,” said Savabieasfahani, who won the 2015 Rachel Carson prize for her research in the Middle East.

    In comparing the open pit burning to Agent Orange used during Vietnam, Bonds points out the U.S. government has performed some small scale cleanup of Agent Orange-contaminated areas, but has never made amends with the Vietnamese who were most affected and said the burn pits are on the same track.

    “Even as the U.S. government establishes a ‘burn pit registry’ to study the impacts of toxic pollution on soldiers, it is on course to leave Iraqi and Afghan victims exposed to burning-trash fumes unacknowledged and uncompensated,” Bonds wrote in his study published this month in the journal Environmental Politics.

    #criminels #Etats-Unis #fosses_de_brulage #santé #civils #victimes_civiles #moyen-orient #impunité #leadership

  • Why the Russians Decapitated Major Tom - Issue 29: Scaling
    http://nautil.us/issue/29/scaling/why-the-russians-decapitated-major-tom

    It was a little before 7 in the morning in western Russia when Major Tom reentered the atmosphere. Though he had no window to see the approaching Earth, the return had been announced earlier that day, when the braking engines were activated for six minutes, and his recovery capsule separated from the rest of the spacecraft. After having endured 30 days in space, in which he completed 477 orbits around the Earth, it was about time to come back. It was time to face, once again, the effects of gravity. As soon as the capsule reached the atmosphere, the heating and the G forces began. Major Tom was thrown against the roof of his compartment while the air slowed the capsule and the outside temperature rose to about 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). When he reached an (...)

  • Despite mounting violence, IDF-PA security cooperation unlikely to end - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/palestine-authority-israel-security-cooperation-negotiations.html

    On Sept. 28, Palestinian media reported on a Sept. 9 meeting in Ramallah between Hussein al-Sheikh, who is the chief of Palestinian Civil Affairs in charge of coordination with the Israelis, and Yoav Mordechai, the Israeli government coordinator in the Palestinian territories. At the meeting, Mordechai praised the Palestinian security apparatus, stating the “West Bank is the only region with stability and calm amid a region that is full of security risks such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Gaza.” He also declared that Israel will allow additional Palestinian military forces in the West Bank because Israel has new information about certain Palestinian parties who intend to attack Israeli settlers.

    In addition, Mordechai thanked the commander of the Palestinian National Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Nidal Abu Dukhan, for the security information he provides regarding the situation in the West Bank, as well as his intelligence activities in neighboring countries. However, he complained about the weakness of security cooperation with the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, headed by Maj. Gen. Ziad Hab al-Rih.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/palestine-authority-israel-security-cooperation-negotiations.html#ixzz3n

  • Major Zuwara human trafficker shot dead in Tripoli : report |
    https://www.libyaherald.com/2015/09/25/major-zuwara-human-trafficker-shot-dead-in-tripoli-report

    A Zuwara militia leader said to be a key operator in smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean was reported to have been killed early this morning in Tripoli.

    Salah Al-Maskhout was leaving the home of relatives near the Tripoli Medical Centre accompanied by a security team and colleagues when armed men blocked the road and confronted them.

    In the subsequent shootout, he and the eight men with him were shot dead.

    • People smuggler who ’transferred thousands to Europe killed in shootout’
      http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/26/libya-alleged-key-people-smuggler-killed-in-shootout
      “Maskhout was a former army officer under Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s despotic leader who was ousted from power and killed in 2011, Italian media said.

      Italy’s defence ministry has denied allegations they were involved in the attack. A Nato official also said the military alliance was not behind the killings, telling the Guardian it had not carried out any military action in Libya since 2011.

      Reports of the high-profile killing came just a day after the EU’s foreign policy chief, Italian Federica Mogherini, said operations against people smugglers will begin on 7 October. A British warship will be involved in the aggressive naval operation which is aimed at “boarding, seizing and diverting” boats carrying refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean, the UK’s defence ministry said earlier this month.”

  • Russian Meddling in Syria Drives Netanyahu to Moscow - Diplomacy and Defense - Haaretz - Amos Harel - Sep 21
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.676885

    Aside from reducing risk of unwanted clash between Israeli and Russian fighter jets, PM’s visit should be seen in a wider context of tensions between Moscow and Washington.

    The immediate reason for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow on Monday is increased Russian military involvement in Syria.

    On Sunday, the first satellite photos were released from the air base that Russia is building on the Alawite strip of coast in northern Syria near Latakia. Netanyahu, who in an unusual step is taking Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, with him and, at the last minute, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, will devote much of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to preventing direct friction between Israel and Russia in the north.

    The aircraft photographed in northern Syria are Sukhoi 27s. Their main mission, according to experts on the Russian Air Force, is to ensure aerial superiority, not bombardment. That underscores the assessment that Russia has not sent its forces to the region just to fight Islamic State, which is what Russia stresses in justifying its new military deployment, but that Moscow wants to establish a more significant presence. Anti-aircraft batteries will apparently also be deployed to protect the base, as well as a small number of ground forces, tanks, APCs, and a special low-profile unit, in what is reminiscent of Russia’s conduct in the war in Ukraine.

    But beyond reducing the risk of an unwanted clash between Israeli and Russian fighter jets over Syria or Lebanon, it seems that the visit should be seen in a wider context of tensions between Moscow and Washington.

    And although Netanyahu only last week said “commentators” were wrong when they warned of a collapse of ties between Israel and the United States in light of the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu’s current visit to Moscow could be seen as an Israeli jab at Washington. The visit seems to reflect Netanyahu’s lack of faith in the ability or the intent of the United States to protect Israel’s security interests.

    The visit cannot be considered good news in Washington, which led a campaign of condemnation and sanctions against Moscow over its involvement in the war in Ukraine last summer. (Israel did not take a position on that conflict and was duly rewarded by Russia which issued a moderate response to Israel’s actions in the war on Gaza shortly thereafter.)

    The turning point in Russia’s policy in Syria can be traced to about a month ago. It’s interesting that it was a report from Israel — Yedioth Ahronoth’s report on the deployment of Russian fighter jets in northern Syria — that brought the issue to the attention of the world media. A few days later the American media began talking about it. It looks like Jerusalem is encouraging the publication of reports public of developments that would force the United States to intervene. But this time, Netanyahu is adding his high-profile visit to Russia.

    Security sources in Israel who are knowledgeable about preparations for the visit said that Israel wants to ensure that Russian planes will not restrict the Israel Air Force’s freedom of movement on the northern border and will not lead to accidents or aerial battles. To this end, there will be an attempt to set rules of caution and perhaps a coordination procedure. Israel will also tell Russia that it would only consider intervening in Syria if red lines are crossed — namely, terror against Israel from Syrian territory, or an attempt to move advanced weaponry from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    These two red lines are connected to Russia. Most of the advanced arms Syria is getting are Russian. And with regard to terror, Israel is concerned over the third member of the partnership keeping Assad’s regime alive — Iran. Last year there was a series of attacks in the enclave still held by Assad’s forces in the northern end of the Syrian border with Israel in the Golan Heights. It is reasonable to assume that Israel will ask for Russia’s help in reining in attacks led by Iran from the border in the Golan.

    Another question preoccupying Israel involves the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Druze in the Jabal al-Druze region near the border with Jordan. The Druze have in recent months been trying to distance themselves from Assad’s regime, threatened as they are from east and west by Sunni rebel forces.

    Israel has in the past asked the United States to help protect the Druze in light of concern by Druze in Israel and in the Golan Heights for their brethren in Syria. A similar request might be addressed to Putin.

    In an article this week in the magazine Foreign Affairs, the Israeli scholar Dr. Dima Adamsky describes Russia’s current policy in the region as a new and expanded version of Soviet intervention for Egypt during the War of Attrition, 45 years ago.

    Adamsky, of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, writes that the operation was considered a success because the contingent of forces and adviser it sent saved the Egyptian regime and deterred Israel. According to Adamsky, Russia’s new assertiveness in the Middle East serves its supreme goal: attaining regional status parallel to that of the United States, in addition to secondary goals such as creating a buffer zone against jihadists that could strike Russia from the south.

    Russia, Adamsky writes, sees the Arab Spring five years ago as the result of mistaken American Middle Eastern policy and the upheaval in the region almost directly hurt Russian interests when it led to the toppling of Gadhafi’s regime in Libya and endangered Assad’s regime.

    Russia is also working on improving ties with Sunni countries – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Russia played an important role in the agreement two years ago on the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria and to a certain extent also helped put together the Iranian nuclear agreement in Vienna.

    Russia hopes to parlay its renewed ties with Egypt and Syria into arms deals and economic contracts with countries in the region. In Moscow, Netanyahu and Eizenkot will be meeting a major player in the region, who long ago stopped making do with playing second fiddle to the United States.

  • Ethiopia studies Mongolia’s artisanal mining | The UB Post
    http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=16066#comment-50024

    Representatives led by the Minister of Mining of Ethiopia, Tewodros Gebregzabher, are paying a seven-day visit to Mongolia to become acquainted with the nation’s artisanal mining industry and policies.
    On Tuesday, the Ethiopian delegation was received by the Ministry of Mining of Mongolia and introduced to the conventional and artisanal mining sector’s current conditions, as well as its legal environment and achievements.
    During their visit, the delegation will meet representatives from governmental and non-governmental mining organizations to exchange experience on legalizing and formalizing micro-mining, defining its economic contributions, as well as on land reclamation, and the working conditions of micro-miners.
    The Ethiopian team is also studying health and social insurance accessibility for micro-miners in Mongolia. They will meet micro-miners in Bayankhongor Province’s Bayan-Ovoo soum and visit the Monpolymet Group, which is engaged in gold mining land reclamation in Zaamar soum, Tuv Province. The delegation will also become acquainted with the progress of a sustainable micro-mining project which is being implemented in Mongolia with the aid from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

    Mongol News spoke with the Chairman of the Policy Coordination Department of the Ministry of Mining, B.Batkhuu, regarding Mongolia and Ethiopia’s micro-mining conditions.

    Major representatives of the Mongolian micro-mining sectors are small gold mining companies and individuals. A law on micro-mining was also approved to support them, but gold delivery to Mongol Bank is not increasing. Can you explain why?
    It is directly related to poor government policy. Gold reserves at Mongol Bank have drastically decreased, because of the 68 percent tax that was being imposed. At the beginning of 2000, gold delivered to Mongol Bank reached 20 tons, and it dropped to two tons as a result of this tax.
    Some companies were also illegally exporting gold to foreign countries. It was a good decision to cancel the tax in order to keep gold in the country. Now gold reserves are gradually increasing.

    En commentaire Satoshi Murao, cette mention de la mise en place de mesures anti-#ninjas dont je n’ai pas trace pour le moment.

    Mongolia is spearheading countermeasures on the artisanal/small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and the experiences should be shared with the world like this news.

  • The Guardian view on geography: it’s the must-have A-level | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/13/the-guardian-view-on-geography-its-the-must-have-a-level?CMP=share_btn_

    A star is born. Geography, for so long a Cinderella subject, the easy option for students who found physics or chemistry too daunting, is soaring in popularity. According to the Royal Geographical Society, 13% more took the subject at A-level this year than last, up to 37,100 – the biggest jump of any of the major subjects.

    #géographie #cartographie #a_star_is_born

  • Pro-Russia rebels challenge Ukraine government to ultimate tank showdown to end conflict | Daily Mail Online
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3199106/Pro-Russia-rebels-challenge-Ukraine-government-ultimate-tank-showdown-e

    Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebels have challenged the government to a tank biathlon in a ‘clash of the titans’ event to end the ongoing conflict.

    In a challenge reminiscent of gladiator battles or the Siege of Troy, the rebels have suggested the two sides pit their strongest champions against each other in a one-to-one tank battle.

    But the Ukraine government have dismissed the challenge as ‘the height of madness’.

    We call on your champions to compete in a tank biathlon,’ said Major Petr Ruchov, commander of the 1st tank battalion with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

    He continued, in an official rebel press release: ‘According to tradition in ancient times, if the outcome of battle was difficult or uncertain, a duel between the strongest soldiers was appointed.
    This second year of confrontation…can reasonably be regarded as such a situation.
    The DPR announced this week its intention to hold its first-ever tank biathlon contest for local militias and self-defence forces from the neighbouring Lugansk republic, reported news agency Novorossia.
    It suggested that the outcome of the event should settle the ongoing Ukrainian conflict once and for all.

    À l’occasion de la finale du biathlon des tanks aux Jeux militaires internationaux organisés par la Russie qui opposera aujourd’hui la Russie, la Chine, l’Inde et le Kazakhstan.

  • Will Saudi Arabia-Russia talks impact Syrian opposition? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/syria-russia-saudi-arabia-regime-opposition-forces-talks.html#ixzz3iVzzs

    The Syrian official said that the Russian lines of communication had been active on more than one front. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov went to Turkey June 25, where he met with a Syrian opposition delegation and Turkish officials. Yet, the outcomes of these meetings were not encouraging, according to the official. Moscow has, however, continued its communications. A few days later, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem went to the Russian capital at the invitation of Russian officials to discuss what had been achieved with Salman. In the meeting between Putin and Moallem June 29, it was surprising that Putin announced an initiative to establish a coalition against terrorism that includes Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan. Following this visit, Saudi-Syrian channels of communication were indirectly activated through Moscow, in preparation for the main meeting with Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, head of the Syrian National Security Bureau and main figure of the Syrian regime, who, according to Saudi sources, flew on a Russian airplane to Riyadh July 7, to meet with Prince Salman.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/syria-russia-saudi-arabia-regime-opposition-forces-talks.html#ixzz3iWljx

  • ‘Turning back boats’

    What does a policy of ‘turning back boats’ involve?

    #Operation_Relex

    A policy of ‘turning back boats’ was introduced by the Howard Government on 3 September 2001. Under this policy, named Operation Relex, the Royal Australian Navy was directed to intercept and board ‘Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels’ (#SIEVs) – that is, boats that were suspected of carrying people seeking to come to Australia without a visa – when they entered Australia’s contiguous zone (24 nautical miles from the Australian coast).1 The Navy was directed to return these boats to the edge of Indonesian territorial waters, either by operating the boat under its own engine power or attaching the boat to an Australian vessel and towing it.2 The aim of Operation Relex was to deter people from arriving in Australia by boat by denying them access to Australia.3

    Operation Relex ended on 13 March 2002 to enable information relating to the operation to be made available to the Senate Select Committee’s Inquiry into a Certain Maritime Incident.4 It was succeeded by Operation Relex II, which commenced on 14 March 2002 and ended on 16 July 2006.5

    #Operation_Sovereign_Borders

    The Abbott Government’s policy is to turn back boats ‘where it is safe to do so’.6 This is a key component of ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’, the government’s military-led inter-agency border security initiative.7 News reports indicate that since 5 January 2014 asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by boat from Indonesia have been intercepted, loaded on to single-use lifeboats and towed back to just outside Indonesian waters.8 At a Senate Estimates hearing in February 2014 it was revealed that $2.5m had been spent to purchase the lifeboats. 9

    In late June 2014, Australian authorities intercepted two boats of Sri Lankan asylum seekers. The first group, comprised of 37 Sinhalese and four Tamil asylum seekers, was returned directly to Sri Lankan authorities at sea after a cursory ‘enhanced screening’ process to determine whether or not they raised any ‘credible’ protection claims.10 The second group, comprised of 157 Tamil asylum seekers, had set sail from a refugee camp in India. They, too, were subjected to enhanced screening, and then were detained on an Australian Customs vessel for four weeks while the Australian government negotiated with Indian authorities about their possible return. When India refused, they were taken briefly to the Australian mainland and then transferred to offshore detention on Nauru.11 A case was brought before the High Court of Australia on behalf of one of the asylum seekers. Among other things, it was argued that the Australian government had unlawfully detained the asylum seekers at sea.12

    The case was heard in October 2014, and the judgment was handed down in January 2015.13 By a narrow 4:3 majority, the High Court held that the detention was not contrary to Australian law. It is important to stress that the decision turned on an interpretation of the scope of powers conferred on Australian officials under a domestic statute (the Maritime Powers Act). The judges did not engage in any detailed analysis of whether such detention was lawful under international law.14

    In November 2014, Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 38 Sri Lankan asylum seekers.15 The asylum seekers were assessed under the enhanced screening process, which took place on board the Border Protection Command vessel.16 All but one asylum seeker were handed over to the Sri Lankan navy, with that one individual being transferred to an offshore processing facility to further investigate their asylum claims.17

    A total of 15 boats were turned back between 19 December 2013 and January 2015,19 with four of these turnbacks involving the use of Australian-supplied lifeboats.20 Another boat was intercepted in early February 2015. The four asylum seekers on board that boat were subjected to enhanced screening at sea and then transferred to Sri Lankan authorities.21

    On 20 March 2015 a boatload of 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers were intercepted by Australian authorities and returned directly to Vietnam on 18 April, after being subject to an interview process known as ‘enhanced screening’.22 The Commander of Operation Sovereign Borders, Major General Andrew Bottrell, described this return as a ‘take-back’ rather than a ‘turn-back’, as it was a situation in which Australia worked ‘with a country of departure in order to see the safe return of passengers and crew’.23 In May 2015 news outlets reported that a boatload of 65 asylum seekers had crashed onto a reef off West Timor after being intercepted, transferred to another boat and taken back to Indonesian waters by Australian authorities.24

    http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/%E2%80%98turning-back-boats%E2%80%99
    #push-back #refoulement #asile #migration #réfugiés #Australie #Indonésie