Archive for month: October, 2014

As military engagement in Iraq escalates again, terror organization Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has captured much of the media attention.

President Barrack Obama announced the United States would be conducting airstrikes of strategic targets in Iraq while supporting local armed rebels to combat the group on ground in Syria.  “Not only is ISIS destroying communities it is literally cutting the heads off culture,” said Haroon Ullah, author of Bargain from The Bazaar, and a U.S. diplomat serving on Senator Kerry’s Policy Planning Staff.

He emphasized the terror group has little support in the Middle East but its ability to adapt and strategize surpasses that of AlQaeeda and any policy to degrade the organization would have to be as calculating as the enemy. “My greatest fear is that five years from now, we’ll still be talking about this challenge,” Ullah said at a forum hosted by International Relations Council’s on Sept. 18, 2014; he said the group is a sophisticated network that is well funded and savvy in recruiting fighters worldwide through social media.

Displaying a world map, Ullah said nearly 7,500 foreign fighters hailing from as far away as Chile are traveling to Iraq to join forces with the militants. He likened ISIS to a business with a careful strategy focused on generating independent income revenues through sales of crude oil, controlling banks and antiquities.

“They are underselling it,” he said, but the loss is generously supplemented by Saudi elites bent on curbing the rise of Shia dominance in the region. “ISIS filled a vacuum,” created by instability of war and sectarian violence and preyed on the population’s perceived grievances, said Ullah. What the group lacks in a charismatic leader it fulfills with acquiring strategic control of

“They have positioned themselves as the legitimate opposition,” he said, adding the terror group is expert in customizing the message to the target audience. Displaying a photo of a handmade ISIS flag poster in front of the Manhattan skyline, Ullah said the group is proclaiming its presence is global.

That is further evident by its use of social media, such as Facebook and alternative social networks to lure recruits to abandon their lives in the West and join as combatants in the Middle East.  Ullah said the recruits are not products of poverty but, in fact, hail from middle class families.

Ullah said comparing ISIS to the archaic techniques of AlQeeda would be similar to equating a third grader against a high school graduate.  ISIS portrays a strong narrative of change in the region by cloaking itself in religious rhetoric yet displaying unabashed hypocrisy in mass murdering Muslims. Religious scholars have unequivocally denounced the terror organization to discourage youth from joining the group.

Ahsan Latif, President of Crescent Peace Society said Muslim Americans bear the responsibility of reaching out to neighboring communities to strengthen relationships and debunk myths that Islam cultivates terrorists. More importantly, he said, Muslim-Americans have a responsibility to reach out to those within the community who feel marginalized, and support them.   

Ullah said discrediting the group in the eyes of its potential supporters is a crucial first step in curtailing its influence. This is apparent in the pan-Arabian media which refer to the group as Daesh; “which translates to a mad horse,” he said.

The derogatory term is despised by the group because of its historic connotation in the region. Ullah said the group’s ultimate goal is political control of the region. He compared it to a regional mafia bullying and intimidating local community.

The war against ISIS does not have an easily distinguishable solution, said Ullah; involving regional partners is critical in any strategy to eliminate the ISIS threat, and a new approach is needed.

“The past four U.S. presidents have bombed Iraq,” he said; the instability of war fuels terror groups and external parties seeking regional dominance.

By; Arooj Ashraf

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This weekend, the Muhammad Ali Center awarded football great and courageous civil rights advocate Jim Brown and Bill Russell its Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award. But the real celebration was for Muhammad Ali himself, a giant now weakened by his three decade struggle with Parkinson’s.

Ali was a champion in the ring. “I am the greatest,” he said, and he was telling the truth. He won his first heavyweight championship at the age of 22, a massive underdog against reigning champion Sonny Liston. He said he would “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” and so he did. And later, as age diminished his speed, he showed a remarkable capacity to take a punch, even inventing what was called the “rope-a-dope” strategy against George Foreman. He is recognized as the greatest fighter of his generation, and along with Joe Louis, of all time.

But Ali was more than a remarkable champion in the ring; he became a hero outside the ring. He stood up to assert his rights, and used his prominence to fight for religious freedom and racial justice. He stood on principle against the fury of the crowd — and sacrificed enormously for his beliefs.

After defeating Liston, Ali announced his conversion to Islam, joining the Nation of Islam. In 1967, he refused a draft order to join the military in Vietnam, claiming conscientious objector status. He stated that “War is against the teachings of the Holy Qur’an. We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers.”

More succinctly he remarked that, “No Vietcong ever called me nigger.” “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

This stance generated public venom, and official prosecution and conviction for draft avoidance. Ali was stripped of his title, his license to fight and his passport. In the prime of his athletic life, he went nearly four years without being able to fight. It is hard to imagine a more costly sacrifice for a world champion.

Ali responded not by getting bitter but by getting bigger. He spoke at colleges against the war and for African-American pride and for racial justice. His courage inspired millions, including Dr. Martin Luther King. Before King delivered his historic Riverside Church address against the war, Ali and Jim Brown visited with Dr. King.

He returned to the ring in Georgia in 1970, with the assistance of State Sen. LeRoy Johnson, the lone African American in the Georgia State House. I was there that evening and had prayer with Ali — what a night. He was victorious on a third round knockout over Jerry Quarry. Later, in 1971, when Ali’s conviction was overturned by a unanimous Supreme Court, he avenged a title match loss to Joe Frazier — he fought three of the greatest fights ever with Joe Frazier.

Three years later, against the odds, in “the Rumble in the Jungle,” against George Foreman in Kinshasha, Zaire, at the age of 32, he won back his title. By the time the fight was over, Ali was not simply a champion, but a HERO — known across the world.

Ali kept growing and living his beliefs. He helped deliver food to millions in Africa. He brought needed medical supplies to embargoed Cuba. In the first (Persian) Gulf War, he traveled to Iraq, met with its dictator Saddam Hussein, and worked to free 15 U.S. hostages. He did much of this even as he struggled with an increasingly debilitating Parkinson’s disease.

Now Ali, once reviled, is hailed across the world. He was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and Sports Personality of the Century by the British BBC. President George W. Bush presented him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of this nation’s highest awards. The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville carries on his work for peace, social responsibility, respect and personal growth.

Giants have big heart and immense courage. Champions show this on the field or in the ring. Heroes demonstrate this in the political and social life of their time. Athletic champions ride on the shoulders of others. Heroes provide the shoulders that others can ride on. Muhammad Ali is surely a transformative hero of our time.

Jesse Jackson is the founder of Rainbow/PUSH.

NT/GJH

US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus says an American warship is headed to the Persian Gulf to conduct air operations against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the rest of the strike group are set to relieve the USS George H.W. Bush, which has been stationed in the region since June.

The Pentagon launched airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq last month. A US-led coalition began military campaign against the group in Syria in September.

Mabus told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that US warplanes have conducted about 25 percent of over 260 bombing missions over Iraq and Syria since the bombing campaign began August 8.

“We can stay for as long as we need to stay based on the normal rotation of our ships,” Mabus was quoted as saying by Stars and Stripes.

“It is sustainable for as long as we need to be there.”

He added that more aircraft carriers are not needed right now, but the Navy is ready to send more carriers if needed.

“Right now we can do whatever we need to do with one carrier,” but, “if there are more missions, we’ll take a look at that,” the secretary said.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it plans to deploy 2,300 Marines to the Middle East to quickly respond to crises in the region.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said his country is establishing a task force in the Middle East which will include several fighter aircraft and be prepared to take rapid actions in the case of “contingencies.”

AGB/AGB

The terrorist ISIL group has made advances on areas near the Syrian border with Turkey, despite airstrikes against the Takfiri militants by a US-led coalition.

According to reports late on Tuesday, the Takfiri terrorists have come within two kilometers of the major Syrian border town of Ain al-Arab situated in the northern province of Aleppo. The town is also known as Kobani to the Kurds.

The Takfiri ISIL terrorists have had the strategic Syrian town under siege during the past several days.

The recent advances have brought the Takfiri group to the closest distance from the besieged town.

There are also reports that the Takfiris have surrounded the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman the First. The militants have taken hostage 20 Turkish soldiers who were guarding the tomb, which lies to the east of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo near the Turkish border.

Ankara regards the tomb of Suleyman Shah as sovereign Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921.

The ISIL has captured nearly 60 Kurdish villages around the city of Kobani in Aleppo’s countryside, located in northwestern Syria.

The ISIL advances come despite the US-led airstrikes on the group’s positions in Syria.

Since September 22, the US and its allies, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan, have been conducting airstrikes against the ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

The airstrikes are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against ISIL positions in Iraq.

This is while Washington has been supporting the militants operating against the government in Syria since March 2011. Many ISIL terrorists have reportedly received training by the CIA in Jordan and Turkey. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been also staunch supporters of militants fighting the Syrian government.

IA/HJL/HRB