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European Commission
December 14, 2018 The EU plan endorsed by the bloc’s 28 national leaders is largely aimed at guarding against what the United States, NATO and the EU say are Russian attempts to undermine Western democracies. But European Commission President Juncker said the bloc should also look within its own ranks in its fight against disinformation and he zeroed in on Orbán whose populist politics have raised hackles in Brussels. Singling out Orbán, Juncker told reporters: “Some of the prime ministers sitting around the table, they are the origin of the fake news.” “When Mr. Orbán for example says ... that migrants are responsible for Brexit, it’s fake news. So let’s not put all the responsibility on others,” Juncker said. EU leaders earlier endorsed plans for an early warning system to alert governments and for tech giants such as Facebook and Google to do more to remove misleading or illegal content. “The spread of deliberate, large-scale, and systematic disinformation, including as part of hybrid warfare, is an acute and strategic challenge for our democratic systems,” the EU summit’s conclusions said. “It requires an urgent response.” The EU executive’s plan, endorsed by governments, will hand more money and power to regulators in Brussels to monitor and flag Russian disinformation. It increases funds for the foreign service EEAS for this to 5 million euros from 1.9 million in 2018. (Source: Reuters)
Somalia
December 17, 2018 The U.S. military carried out four strikes on Dec. 15 in which 34 people were killed and two more on Dec.16 which killed 28. The air attacks targeted Gandarshe, south of the capital, Mogadishu. No civilians were injured or killed in the attacks. The strikes were carried out in close coordination with Somalia's government and were "conducted to prevent al-Shabab from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire, and recruit for future attacks. With these attacks, the U.S. military has carried out at least 46 airstrikes so far this year against al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaida as Africa's most active Islamic extremist group. Al Shabab, which is fighting to establish its version of Shariah law in Somalia, controls parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to stage deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other cities. (Source: Yahoo)
China
Dec. 18, 2018 President Xi of China spoke at a meeting on Tuesday to celebrate the country’s shift 40 years ago to an era of “reform and opening up.” Mr. Xi used the speech to defend policies that he had forged over the past six years to make the Communist Party even more powerful, strengthen the state-run sector of the economy while allowing private business to grow, and put China’s stamp on international affairs. The party’s socialist path, doctrine and policies over the past 40 years, he said, had all been “totally correct” with Chinese characteristics. In his speech, Mr. Xi affirmed the party’s dual approach: supporting the state sector while encouraging private entrepreneurs. And support for the state sector came first. (Source: TheNewYorkTimes)
12 18 2018 A nationwide campaign. What started several years ago as a small government campaign against unregistered churches has turned into all-out war. Now authorities routinely target houses of worship, destroy crosses, burn Bibles and arrest pastors. There are far more Christians in China than there are members of the Communist Party. China's current leader believes in the absolute power of the Party and wants his government to exert control over every aspect of Chinese life. The Christians are standing in the way of totalitarianism, so that's why they've become a target. Christians are experiencing some of the worst persecution in decades in broad efforts to "Sinicize" religion or "adopt Chinese characteristics. On December 9, authorities in the city of Chengdu, in China's southwestern Sichuan province, arrested pastor Wang, along with his wife and 100 members of Early Rain Covenant Church. Authorities shut down the church and charged pastor Wang with "inciting subversion of state power." The term is a catchall charge often used against dissidents and political activists who speak out against the government. Wang and his wife could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. "Separate me from my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and my family – the authorities are capable of doing all of these things," Wang warned in his letter. "However, no one in this world can force me to renounce my faith; no one can make me change my life, and no one can raise me from the dead." Muslims, Buddhists and other faith groups are also coming under intense scrutiny. Early Rain, like scores of other congregations, is outside government control as part of China's burgeoning so-called underground or house church movement. This movement has touched every corner of China. In recent months, Beijing has waged a brutal and widespread crackdown to stop the growth of these unregistered churches. The Communist Party leaders see the church growing way faster than the party is. (Source: CBN): https://tinyurl.com/yamnrydy
December 18, 2018 Central Asians cry out over China's secret detention camps. The "study camp" is believed to be one of the numerous extra-judicial detention centres set up in Xinjiang, holding as many as one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, according to estimates cited by a UN panel. Chinese policymakers talk of Xinjiang, a northwestern border region home to significant Muslim minorities, as an economic bridge to underdeveloped Central Asia. Beijing sees it as a key hub in its ambitious trillion-dollar "Belt and Road" trade and infrastructure drive. It is mainly home to ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic minorities. With Uighurs lacking a historic homeland beyond the region, the stories of separation from loved ones told by citizens of neighbouring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have offered vital insights into the scale of China's crackdown. The fate of 1.5 million Xinjiang-based Kazakhs has been a hot-button issue in Kazakhstan. In Kyrgyzstan, the plight of members of the smaller Chinese Kyrgyz community only recently emerged. While Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have been hesitant to confront China, the United States and Germany have requested UN access to Xinjiang. Beijing previously denied the existence of the re-education camps, but now defends them as "vocational education and training centres" where students study Mandarin, brush up on job skills, and pursue hobbies such as sports and folk dance. (Source: Yahoo)
Israel
December 15, 2018 China project, already sealed and in motion. The US Navy has acknowledged that its longstanding operations in Haifa may change once a Chinese firm takes over the civilian port in 2021, prompting Israel’s national security cabinet to revisit the arrangement, contract signed in 2015. Haifa, the nation’s largest port city, regularly hosts joint US-Israeli naval drills and visits from American vessels. But a 2015 agreement between Israel’s Transportation Ministry and Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) – a company in which the Chinese government has a majority stake – has raised intelligence and security concerns that are only now prompting an interagency review. That agreement granted SIPG control over the port for 25 years. The Chinese company has committed $2 billion to the project and, according to state-run media, plans to transform the port’s bay terminal into the largest harbor in the country. (Source: TheJerusalemPost)
Syria
Dec 19, 2018 U.S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin an immediate pullout of American forces from the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against islamic state. The move follows a call last week between Mr. Trump and Turkish President Erdogan, who has threatened to launch an assault on America’s Kurdish partners in Syria. Earlier this month, Mr. Erdogan moved Turkish military forces to the border and threatened to attack the Kurdish forces within days. The U.S. has relied on the Kurdish forces as the most effective fighting force in Syria against islamic state. In Syria more than 2,000 service members are working alongside Syrian militants. Between Dec. 2-8, the U.S.-led coalition launched 251 strikes against Iraq and Syria, almost all of those in Syria, compared with 90 the previous week. Between Dec. 9 and 15, that figure jumped to 378. Officially, the U.S. military has no authority to battle Iran in Syria. The U.S. military has repeatedly called the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of largely Kurdish and Arab resistance fighters, the most effective ground force in Syria in the war against isis. The U.S. military never said how much it would support the SDF after the defeat of isis, raising fears it would abandon its partners. The SDF now has little choice but to seek an accommodation with the Assad regime or face possible defeat by Turkey. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)
19 December 2018 Over the last days the U.S. has sealed the deal with Turkey for $3.5 billion worth of Patriot missile systems that were signed yesterday by the State Department. A complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria would still leave a sizeable U.S. military presence in the region, including about 5,200 troops across the border in Iraq. Much of the U.S. campaign in Syria has been waged by warplanes flying out of Qatar and other locations in the Middle East. As the U.S. is preparing to pack up, Russia is moving in. With a total U.S. pullout, Russian forces would remain as the dominant air power in Syria. After carrying out a fight in Syria billed as an anti-terror campaign but also buttressing Assad, Russia has begun building a permanent military presence. The Russian parliament ratified a deal with Damascus on the permanent presence. The deal would expand the Tartus naval facility, Russia's only naval foothold in the Mediterranean, and grant Russian warships access to Syrian waters and ports. After losing Hajin, isis will control a diminishing strip of territory along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in the area where U.S.-backed operations are focused. The militants also control some desert terrain west of the river in territory otherwise controlled by the Damascus government and its allies. (Source: DailyMail)
Dec 19, 2018 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that islamic state militants had executed nearly 700 prisoners in nearly two months in eastern Syria. The prisoners were among 1,350 civilians and fighters that islamic state had been holding in territory near the Iraqi border. The jihadists control a shrinking strip of land east of the Syria's Euphrates River around the town of Hajin, which U.S.-backed forces entered this month. At least 5,000 is fighters remain holed up in the enclave, including many foreigners who appear ready to fight to the death. The deliberations on U.S. troops come as Ankara threatens a new offensive in Syria. (Source: Express)
December 14, 2018 A few thousand troops were first sent to Syria three years ago to help the Syrian Kurds fight the islamic state. President Trump indicated in March that the troops would be brought home once the battle is won, and the latest military push to eject the group from its final pocket of territory recently got underway. In September, however, the administration switched course, saying the troops will stay in Syria pending an overall settlement to the Syrian war and with a new mission: to act as a bulwark against Iran's expanding influence. That decision puts U.S. troops in overall control, perhaps indefinitely, of an area comprising nearly a third of Syria, a vast expanse of mostly desert terrain roughly the size of Louisiana. The Pentagon does not say how many troops are there. Officially, they number 503, but earlier this year an official let slip that the true number may be closer to 4,000. Most are Special Operations forces. The area is surrounded by powers hostile both to the U.S. presence and the aspirations of the Kurds, who are governing the majority-Arab area in pursuit of a leftist ideology formulated by an imprisoned Turkish Kurdish leader. Signs that the islamic state is starting to regroup and rumblings of discontent within the Arab community point to the threat of an insurgency. A Turkish threat to invade the area last month forced the United States to scramble patrols along the border with Turkey, which has massed troops and tanks along the frontier. Turkey regards the main Kurdish militia, the YPG, which is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party inside Turkey, as a terrorist organization. Syrian government troops and Iranian proxy fighters are to the south and west. They have been cultivating ties with local tribes and have threatened to take the area back by force. U.S. officials hope the American presence will bring leverage in negotiations over an eventual settlement to end the Syrian war, with the aim of securing some form of autonomy for their Kurdish allies as well as rolling back Iranian influence. But the expectation among many residents, Kurds and Arabs alike, is that the Assad government will eventually restore its authority over the area. All the challenges and complexities of northeastern Syria seemed to be concentrated in the small, strategic town of Manbij. Located beside the Euphrates River, it was liberated from the islamic state by Kurdish forces over three years ago. Now, to the north, lies territory controlled by Turkish troops and their Free Syrian Army allies, and to the south by the Syrian government and its allies, Russia and Iran. In the middle are the Americans. It is one of the few places where the U.S. military has a conspicuous presence. There are three small U.S. bases in and around the town, supporting an American effort to keep apart Turkey and the Kurdish-affiliated Manbij Military Council. In Raqqa, the biggest city in the part of Syria where U.S. troops are based the anger on the streets is palpable. Some residents are openly hostile to foreign visitors. /map/ (Source: Stripes): https://tinyurl.com/ybb9sokq
Turkey
12/19/2018 As the ASSAM congresses demonstrate, Erdogan seems determined to bring back the Ottoman Empire and a Sharia-governed caliphate. Turkey appears to be accelerating its endeavor to establish an Ottoman-style Islamic government encompassing several Muslim nations. One such effort was apparent in early November at the second "International Islamic Union Congress," in Istanbul. The conference is sponsored mainly by the Strategic Research Center for Defenders of Justice (ASSAM), headed by Turkish President Erdogan's chief military advisor, Tanriverdi, a retired Islamist lieutenant general. Other organizers of the congress - the next one of which is to be held in December 2019 - include the Association of Justice Defenders (ASDER), Istanbul's Üsküdar University (ÜÜ), the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW), the International Muslim Scholars Association (UMAD) and the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). The self-described aim of the congress is "to make determinations on an academic and political ground with regard to current problems in world politics, particularly in Islamic world geography, and to offer solutions to decision-makers." Is Turkey aiming to head a global Islamic union governed by sharia? At the first ASSAM conference in November 2017, participants endorsed the aim of "unity of Islam" through establishing the "Confederation of Islamic Countries." At the November 2018 event, Tanriverdi and other prominent supporters of Erdogan promoted the creation of a common Muslim economic market. Participants declared their aim to create an Islamic "superpower of the future on Islamic lands owned by 60 Islamic countries, inhabited by 1,6 billion Muslims, on 19 million km2," constituting "55.5% of world oil reserves and 45.6% of its production, 64.1% of natural gas reserves, and 33% of its production." A model constitution was drafted, according to which the capital of the Islamic confederation is Istanbul; sovereignty "belongs to Shariah [Islamic law]"; and four of the member states -- mainly Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia -- are expected to be European Muslim-majority countries. ASSAM is planning to organize an "International Islamic Union Congress" every year until 2023, to address the "Islamic confederal state" it aims to establish across the Muslim world. Next year, participants will discuss "defense industry cooperation"; in 2020, they aim to determine a "common defense system"; in 2021, they will focus on a "joint foreign policy"; in 2022, the agenda is a "joint justice system"; and in 2023, the plan is to determine "common assistance and security" for the Islamic Union. (Source: ZeroHedge)
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