Republicans On Paris: What Happened To US Shock And Awe?

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. speaks in Orlando, Fla. Republicans are using the latest attacks in Paris to appeal to U.S. voters jittery about terrorism. Several Republicans, including presidential hopeful Jeb Bush and former candidate Mitt Romney, appeared on the television networks Monday to decry President Barack Obama's policies as half-hearted and to suggest that a U.S. ground war against the Islamic State may be inevitable.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on Monday tried to appeal to U.S. voters jittery about terrorism by decrying President Barack Obama's policies as half-hearted and suggesting that a U.S. ground war against the Islamic State may be inevitable.

The tough-talk is a political gamble. Obama was elected by war-weary voters in 2008 after promising to end the U.S. presence in Iraq. But U.S. sentiment can be fickle and the GOP's message might appeal to many Americans much as President George Bush's vow of "shock and awe" did following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Returning to the work week for the first time since the Paris attacks, Republicans took to U.S. television networks demanding a new military strategy. "We can't negotiate with this threat," GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush told Fox News. "We should have no empathy for our enemies. We should destroy them."

Added another GOP presidential hopeful, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: "I want to fight them in their backyard, so we don't fight them in our backyard." Graham appeared on MSNBC alongside Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said Obama should bring back retired Gen. David Petraeus to lead the fight against the Islamic State.

"Frankly I'm not overwhelmed with 20 airstrikes by the French," he said. "I think it's wonderful but ... more of the same is not going to stop this virus and this disease, which will lead to a threat in the united States' national security."

Mitt Romney, Obama's presidential rival in 2012, said another Democratic president would be dangerous. "There's no question Hillary Clinton has a lot of experience, it's just bad experience.... She's just been wrong time and time again," he told MSNBC.

Romney said he has no intention of running for president in 2016 and declined to endorse any one GOP candidate.

France Vows To Punish IS For Paris Attack That Kill 127

By Lori Hinnant and Greg Keller, AP

Fans gather on the pitch during the International friendly match between France and Germany on Nov. 13, 2015, after an attack. (Getty Images)

PARIS, FRANCE (AP) — French President Francois Hollande vowed to attack the Islamic State group without mercy as the jihadist group admitted responsibility Saturday for orchestrating the deadliest attacks inflicted on France since World War II.

Hollande said at least 127 people died Friday night in shootings at Paris cafes, suicide bombings near France's national stadium and a hostage-taking slaughter inside a concert hall.

Hollande, who declared three days of national mourning and raised the nation's security to its highest level, called the carnage "an act of war that was prepared, organized, planned from abroad with internal help."

The Islamic State group's claim of responsibility appeared in Arabic and French in an online statement circulated by IS supporters. It was not immediately possible to confirm the authenticity of the admission, which bore the group's logo and resembled previous verified statements from the group.

As Hollande addressed the nation, French anti-terror police worked to identify potential accomplices to the attackers, who remained a mystery to the public: their nationalities, their motives, even their exact number.

Authorities said eight died, seven in suicide bombings, a new terror tactic in France. Police said they shot and killed the other assailant.

Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said authorities couldn't rule out the possibility that other militants involved in the attack remained at large.

World leaders united in sympathy and indignation, New York police increased security measures, and people worldwide reached out to friends and loved ones in France.

The violence raised questions about security for the millions of tourists who come to Paris and for world events routinely hosted in the normally luminous capital, where troops were deployed to support police trying to restore order.

One of Europe's most heavily visited tourist attractions, the Disneyland theme park east of the capital, announced it would not open for business Saturday, a rarity.

Hollande said France — which is already bombing IS targets in Syria and Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition, and has troops fighting militants in Africa — "will be merciless toward the barbarians of Islamic State group."

Reflecting fears in other European capitals of the risk of coordinated or copycat attacks, the British government scheduled a meeting of its own emergency COBRA intelligence committee overseen by Prime Minister David Cameron. Italy said it, too, was raising security levels on borders and major public places.

Friday night's militants launched at least six gun and bomb attacks in rapid succession on apparently indiscriminate civilian targets.

Three suicide bombs targeted spots around the national Stade de France stadium, north of the capital, where Hollande was watching an exhibition soccer match. Fans inside the stadium recoiled at the sound of explosions, but the match continued amid rising spectator fears.

Around the same time, fusillades of bullets shattered the clinking of wine glasses in a trendy Paris neighborhood as gunmen targeted a string of cafes, which were crowded on an unusually balmy November night. At least 37 people were killed, according to Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins.

The attackers next stormed a concert hall, the Bataclan, which was hosting the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal. They opened fire on the panicked audience and took members hostage. As police closed in, three detonated explosive belts, killing themselves, according to Paris police chief Michel Cadot.

Another attacker detonated a suicide bomb on Boulevard Voltaire, near the music hall, the prosecutor's office said.

The Bataclan was the scene of the worst carnage.

Video shot from an apartment balcony and posted on the Le Monde website Saturday captured some of that horror as dozens of people fled from gunfire outside the Bataclan down a passageway to a side street.

At least one person lies writhing on the ground as scores more stream past, some of them bloodied or limping. The camera pans down the street to reveal more fleeing people dragging two bodies along the ground. A woman and two others can be seen clinging to upper-floor balcony railings in an apparent desperate bid to stay out of the line of fire.

Le Monde said its reporter who filmed the scene from his apartment balcony, Daniel Psenney, was shot in the arm after he stopped filming, when he went downstairs to help someone who had collapsed in the alley.

Sylvain, a tall, sturdy 38-year-old concert-goer, collapsed in tears as he recounted the attack, the chaos and his escape during a lull in gunfire.

"I was watching the concert in the pit, in the midst of the mass of the audience. First I heard explosions, and I thought it was firecrackers.

"Very soon I smelled powder, and I understood what was happening. There were shots everywhere, in waves. I lay down on the floor. I saw at least two shooters, but I heard others talk. They cried, 'It's Hollande's fault.' I heard one of the shooters shout, 'Allahu Akbar,'" Sylvain told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition that his full name not be used out of concern for his safety.

He was among dozens of survivors offered counseling and blankets in a municipal building set up as a crisis center.

Jihadis on Twitter immediately praised the attackers and criticized France's military operations against Islamic State extremists.

Hollande declared a state of emergency and announced renewed border checks along frontiers that are normally open under Europe's free-travel zone.

In a televised Friday night address he appealed to citizens to maintain "a determined France, a united France, a France that joins together and a France that will not allow itself to be staggered, even if today there is infinite emotion faced with this disaster, this tragedy, which is an abomination, because it is barbarism."

President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters in Washington, decried an "attack on all humanity."

A U.S. official briefed by the Justice Department says intelligence officials were not aware of any threats before Friday's attacks.

The Disneyland Paris theme park announced it would not open for business Saturday but billed the move as a matter of sympathy, not security.

Disney said in a statement it would remain closed "in light of the recent tragic events in France and in support of our community and the victims of these horrendous attacks." Some 14.2 million people visited the attraction last year.

Paris is expected to host 80 heads of state, including Obama, for a climate summit in two weeks. In June, France is scheduled to host the European soccer championship — with the Stade de France a major venue.

And Paris-based UNESCO is expecting world leaders Monday for a forum about overcoming extremism. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani canceled a trip because of Friday's attacks. Hollande canceled a planned trip to this weekend's G-20 summit in Turkey.

France has been on edge since January, when Islamic extremists attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had run cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and a kosher grocery. Twenty people died in those attacks, including three shooters.

On Friday night they targeted young people enjoying a rock concert and ordinary city residents celebrating the end of the work week and cheering their nation's soccer squad as it took on the defending World Cup champions.

France has seen several smaller-scale attacks or attempts this year, including on a high-speed train in August when American travelers overpowered a heavily armed man.

French authorities are particularly concerned about the threat from hundreds of French Islamic radicals who have traveled to Syria and returned home with skills to mount attacks.

"The big question on everyone's mind is: Were these attackers — if they turn out to be connected to one of the groups in Syria — were they homegrown terrorists or were they returning fighters?" said Brian Michael Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior adviser to the president of the Washington-based RAND Corporation. "That will be a huge question."

Scenes Of Horror As A Paris Night Becomes A Bloodbath

Investigating police officers inspect the lifeless body of a victim of a shooting attack outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, France, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. Well over 100 people were killed in Paris on Friday night in a series of shooting, explosions. French President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency and announced that he was closing the country's borders.

PARIS, FRANCE (AP) — The assailants' weapons were those of war: automatic rifles and suicide belts of explosives. The killing was indiscriminate, spread across a swath of the city, in at least six different sites. An ordinary Friday night in Paris transformed into a bloodbath. The word Parisians used over and over as they tried to make sense of the horror was "carnage."

At the packed Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris, the attackers opened fire on a crowd waiting to hear American rock band Eagles of Death Metal perform. One witness told France Info radio he heard them yell "Allahu Akbar" — God is great in Arabic — as they started their killing spree and took hostages. The city's police chief, Michel Cadot, said the assailants also wore explosive belts, which they detonated.

About a mile (1.5 kilometers) from there, attackers sprayed gunfire at the Belle Equipe bar, busy as ever on a Friday night with patrons unwinding from their week. One witness, also speaking to French radio, said the dead and wounded dropped "like flies" and that "there was blood everywhere. You feel very alone in moments like that."

The preliminary death toll there appeared to be 18 dead, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said. White sheets were laid over bodies. To the north, loud explosions reverberated around the national stadium, packed with some 80,000 fans watching France beat Germany in a soccer exhibition match. One of the loud detonations in the chill air so startled French player Patrice Evra that he paused in mid-run, seemingly lost, and kicked away the ball.

A police union official, Gregory Goupil, said the two explosions were suicide attacks and a bombing that killed at least three people — near two of the entrances to the stadium and a McDonalds. The stadium was the first site targeted.

From there, the wave of killings quickly spread. There were 14 dead on one street, five on another, Molins said. The spread of the killings added to the confusion and made a coherent picture slow to form. But the shock was instantaneous, as was the understanding that this was terror and killing on a scale unseen in Paris since World War II.

"The terrorists, the assassins, sprayed the outsides of several cafes with machine guns and went inside," Cadot, the police chief, said. "So there were victims in terrible and atrocious states in numerous places."

Pierre-Henri Lombard was dining in a restaurant in the trendy neighborhood when he heard sounds like the fireworks for France's Bastille Day national holiday. Then the panic began. "Waiters went outside and said it was a shooting. We saw dozens of people rundown the street, a couple were bleeding," he said.

As police, soldiers and the emergency services sprang into action, sirens wailing, helicopters whirring overhead, medical personnel started reporting for work of their own accord to help treat the injured. Five subway lines were shut down entirely, and Paris police told people to stay at home and avoid going out unless absolutely necessary.

At the Bataclan, police launched an assault to free hostages. Haggard-looking survivors were bused away. At the stadium, fans streamed onto the pitch after the match, preferring the relative safety of inside of the stadium to the chaos outside. Police forensic officers dressed in white scoured the blast sites for evidence.

French President Francois Hollande was quickly evacuated from the stadium and soon after declared a state of emergency.

Greg Keller, Samuel Petrequin and Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report.

Cameron: Not Certain 'Jihadi John' Dead

The militant known as Jihadi John. A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British man who appears in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages was not known, officials said.



WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John," according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British man who appears in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages was not known, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday.

Mohammed Emwazi was the target of an airstrike in Raqqa, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Officials were assessing the results of the strike, he said. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that a drone had targeted a vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

Cameron said officials are not yet certain whether a U.S. drone strike killed Emwazi. He said the strike had been a joint effort and that British intelligence agencies were working around the clock to find the British-accented militant, whom Cameron called the militant group's "lead executioner."

Cameron also said the U.S. strike had been "an act of self-defense" and the right thing to do. He said targeting Emwazi was "a strike at the heart" of the Islamic State group. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, appearing at a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia, on Friday said, "We are still assessing the results of this strike." He told reporters extremists "need to know this: Your days are numbered, and you will be defeated."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that U.S. coalition warplanes struck an IS vehicle as it left the governor's office in the city of Raqqa, killing four IS foreign fighters, including a British commander. The Observatory said the bodies were charred, and Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said the commander killed in the attack was most likely Jihadi John but that he does not have 100 percent confirmation.

Emwazi, believed to be in his mid-20s, has been described by a former hostage as a bloodthirsty psychopath who enjoyed threatening Western hostages. Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who had been held in Syria for more than six months after his abduction in September 2013, said Emwazi would explain precisely how the militants would carry out a beheading.

Those being held by three British-sounding captors nicknamed them "the Beatles" with "Jihadi John" a reference to Beatles member John Lennon, Espinosa said in recalling his months as one of more than 20 hostages.

Cameron said Britain has been "working, with the United States, literally around the clock to track him down." "This was a combined effort," he said. "And the contribution of both our countries was essential."

Cameron said that "it will demonstrate to those who would do Britain, our people and our allies harm: We have a long reach, we have unwavering determination and we never forget about our citizens." Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem Friday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "If these reports are correct and several of those people from ISIS were killed today, I mean these people who were brutalizing, terrorizing, murdering people, of course it is really important that we take the fight to them and make them realize that they are going to be contested heavily."

"It's no great secret; I think it is essential for Britain to play its part in the fight against this hideous extremism that is brutalizing the lives of so many people," Blair said. "It is important we play our full part alongside America and other allies and so if the UK government wanted to commit Britain to this fight in Syria, where after all ISIS are really headquartered, of course I will be fully supportive of that."

Among those beheaded by Islamic State militants in videos posted online since August 2014 were U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

A friend of Henning has said she is still "skeptical" following news that "Jihadi John" may have been killed. Louise Woodward-Styles, who organized a candlelit vigil for the taxi driver after he was captured by the terrorists, said that, even if Emwazi had been killed, the family of the 47-year-old would not get closure following his brutal murder.

She said: "I don't think there will be closure, particularly for Alan's family and close friends. "His body wasn't returned home and from that aspect it was something they had to deal with privately. For them to say that Jihadi John has been killed doesn't mean anything. It is something that the Government can say they have done successfully," she said.

She added that she would have preferred Emwazi to have been brought back to the UK to face justice. In the videos, a tall masked figure clad in black and speaking in a British accent typically began one of the gruesome videos with a political rant and a kneeling hostage before him, then ended it holding an oversize knife in his hand with the headless victim lying before him in the sand.

Emwazi was identified as "Jihadi John" last February, although a lawyer who once represented Emwazi's father told reporters that there was no evidence supporting the accusation. Experts and others later confirmed the identification.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait and spent part of his childhood in the poor Taima area of Jahra before moving to Britain while still a boy, according to news reports quoting Syrian activists who knew the family. He attended state schools in London, then studied computer science at the University of Westminster before leaving for Syria in 2013. The woman who had been the principal at London's Quintin Kynaston Academy told the BBC earlier this year that Emwazi had been quiet and "reasonably hard-working."

Officials said Britain's intelligence community had Emwazi on its list of potential terror suspects for years but was unable to prevent him from traveling to Syria. He had been known to the nation's intelligence services since at least 2009, when he was connected with investigations into terrorism in Somalia.

The beheading of Foley, 40, of Rochester, New Hampshire, was deemed by IS to be its response to U.S. airstrikes. The release of the video, on Aug. 19, 2014, horrified and outraged the civilized world but was followed the next month by videos showing the beheadings of Sotloff and Haines and, in October, of Henning.


Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

NIGERIA: Creating Demand For Uptake Of HIV Counselling And Testing

PRESS RELEASE

By Aradhna Duggal, Health Communications

International Federation Of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies

Anne Madden/British Red Cross

According to UNAIDS, Nigeria has the second highest number of new infections reported each year. An estimated 3.6 per cent of the population aged 15-49 years are living with HIV. Even though the situation is dire, the uptake of HIV counselling and testing (HCT) remains low, especially in rural areas. This is mainly because the rural population has limited knowledge about HIV and AIDS and HCT facilities, are far and few.

Some of the towns in Cross River State such as Calabar South have a high prevalence rate of 7.1 per cent, which is above the national prevalence rate of 3.6 per cent. To increase the demand for HCT and other health services at community level, the Nigerian Red Cross Society in collaboration with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) planned and implemented a community-based HCT in three local government areas of Cross River State - Calabar South, Boki and Yala.

Advocacy with community leaders and key decision makers in the target communities was carried out to introduce the project and ensure buy-in from the community. To show their support and consent, town criers announced the presence of the Red Cross in the communities and asked that all community members support the initiative.

To ensure that the volunteers were equipped with adequate knowledge and skills, trainers from Local Agency for the Control of AIDS (LACA) and HCT centres were recruited to train the community-based volunteers and supervisors. During a three day orientation session, 400 community-based volunteers, most of whom are community health workers and staff of LACA, received training. The orientation was carried out simultaneously in all the three local government areas under close supervision of the NACA technical team.

Following the training, the community-based volunteers were deployed to carry out a five day house-to-house visit and counsel people on HIV prevention, treatment and the need for everyone to get tested and know their status. Volunteers used community gatherings, church visits and other social avenues to create awareness on HIV and AIDS and other diseases like malaria.

During this period, volunteers assembled at the health facility on daily basis to register and collect kits and client intake forms. At the end of the day, they returned the forms and kits (both used and unused) to their supervisors. The supervisors in turn handed over these to the health personnel for proper documentation of results and safe disposal.

Out of the 39,248 persons counselled, tested and given results, 330 persons tested HIV positive - 265 in Calabar South; 35 in Yala and 30 in Boki. "Those who tested HIV positive were immediately referred to the health facilities for confirmation and treatment. Their data was also collected and sent to the health facilities for follow up", says Samuel Matoka, IFRC's Health Delegate in Nigeria.

Ten health facilities were identified for referral: four in Yala and Boki and two in Calabar South. "These facilities are managed by health personnel who are trained on HCT and prevention of mother-to-child transmission and other health services. The test kits and monitoring tools are kept at the health facilities, under the supervision of the personnel who were also facilitators of the training", adds Samuel.

While the overall experience of HCT in Cross River State was good, the team faced several challenges. The coordination mechanism between the National Red Cross office and State offices was weak and there were gaps in communication between stakeholders. More time should have been allotted for advocacy, community mobilization and stakeholders involvement.

"Even though those who had tested HIV positive were immediately referred to health facilities, there was no mechanism in place to follow up whether they actually reached out to the health facilities or not", says Samuel. He goes on to add that, "Volunteers should be able to provide long-term support to the communities by following up with people who have tested positive and continue raising awareness about HIV and AIDS".

Elder Bush Criticizes Cheney, Rumsfeld In New Biography

Former President George H.W. Bush, left, applauds with Laura Bush after former President George W. Bush's speech during the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. Former President George H.W. Bush is publicly criticizing for the first time key members of his son's administration. A biography of the nation's 41st president to be published in November, 2015, contains his sharply critical assessments of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.


WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush is publicly criticizing for the first time key members of his son's administration.

A biography of the nation's 41st president to be published next week contains his sharply critical assessments of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

In interviews with biographer Jon Meacham, Bush, now 91, said that Cheney acted too independently and asserted too much "hard-line" influence within George W. Bush's administration, especially after the Sept. 11 attacks. He had even harsher words for Rumsfeld, saying he "served the president badly."

The book, "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush," also contains the elder Bush's ruminations about his son, whom he praised but also called responsible for empowering Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Of Cheney, who was a member of the elder Bush's cabinet, Bush said, "He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with." Bush said he thinks the Sept. 11 attacks changed the vice president, making him more hawkish about the use of U.S. military force abroad.

"His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East," Bush said. Talking about Rumsfeld, the elder Bush used stronger, more personal criticism, the newspaper reported.

"I think he served the president badly. I don't like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything," Bush said. The elder Bush did not suggest in the book that he disagreed with his son about the invasion of Iraq.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein "is gone, and with him went a lot of brutality and nastiness and awfulness," Bush said. He said he worried that the younger Bush used rhetoric that was at times too strong, citing as an example the 43rd president's 2002 State of the Union address, during which he described an "axis of evil."

"You go back to the 'axis of evil' and these things and I think that might be historically proved to be not benefiting anything," he said.

Biafra Not Nigeria's Problem

BY CHUKS ILOEGBUNAM, VANGUARD, Nov. 2, 2015

BIAFRA  is not one of the problems besetting Nigeria. Those unable to appreciate this fact may require a dose of creative thinking. Nigeria’s stubborn thorn in the flesh is its adamant repudiation of the self-evident concept of the changelessness of change, upon which sits a crippling unwillingness to engage that same constancy of change. There are two random but famous declarations – one little remembered today, the other something of a mantra – that neatly wrap up the national antiparty to inexorable change and its management.

On January 15, 1970, there was a ceremony at Dodan Barracks, Lagos, the then seat of political power. Biafran acting Head of State, General Philip Effiong, Colonel David Ogunewe, Colonel Patrick Anwunah, Colonel Patrick Amadi and Police Commissioner Patrick Okeke had gone to submit Biafra’s document of surrender, which officially marked the end of the civil war. “The so-called rising sun of Biafra has set forever,” declared Head of State General Yakubu Gowon, on that occasion. In the leaps and dips of Nigeria’s turbulence, it is common to hear politicians of varying persuasions declaring, as a way of “helping” to stabilise the listing ship of state, that “Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable.”

Between Gowon’s presumption of Biafra’s finality, which rode on the crest of triumphalism and was hailed as prescient by many, including Gowon’s biographer Professor Isawa Elaigwu, and the incessantly voiced exclusion of terms on Nigeria’s oneness, lies the country’s problematic. General Gowon is alive and bouncing. Were he to honestly comment on his 45-year old declaration today, he would readily admit to not having thoroughly considered all sides of everything. For it is clearly outside the bounds of political authority to decree the irreversible amputation of human predilection and proclivity. The current hoopla around Biafra lends credence to the assertion.

Now, there is something baffling in the oft-repeated statement on Nigeria’s unity not being negotiable. The statement does not mean that Nigeria’s unity is a fait accompli. It simply insists on a spiteful denunciation of any thought of mapping out a sustainable road on which the assumed or anticipated national unity must travel, free from iniquity and cataclysms; a method for mastering the imperatives of national unity which is, anywhere in the world, a particularly daunting proposition. It is because Nigeria has kept its back obdurately turned to change that even the littlest molehill on its uncharted road invariably becomes a precipitous mountain.

Why is Nigeria incapable of learning from history? When Biafra came in 1967, it was way ahead of its time. Since January 15, 1970, the world’s political map has continued to be redrawn. Emperor Haile Selassie would have started, and branded any dream in which Eritrea was mentioned a nightmare. Eritrea gained international recognition as an independent state in 1993. South Sudan was only a fictional construct in 1970; it became an independent nation in 2011. Bangladesh was non-existent in 1970; it declared its independence from Pakistan a year later. The Soviet Union dissolved into 12 independent states in 1991. By 1992 Yugoslavia had fractured into about seven independent countries. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into Czech and Slovak Republics. Scotland held an Independence referendum early this year that failed. There is a powerful Catalan movement pushing secession from Spain. Separatist tendencies are not on the wane in Cabinda.

What to bear in mind is that most of the secessions or agitations for secession in the world are along ethnic lines. For an ethnically composite country like Nigeria, the way to avoid potential split props is not by precluding discussion on contentious issues, and it is not by expeditionary repression of peaceful dissent. After all, dissent is not and should never be construed as a crime in a democracy. A country of disparate peoples can only be held together in peace and harmony by the glues of visionary leadership indexed on tried and tested political structures of equity, fairness, justice, innovation and practicality. This cannot be said of Nigeria.

Look at neighbouring Ghana, which, like Nigeria, is multi-ethnic. Who ever heard of secessionist agitation in that country? Here is a point made in a June 28, 2012 Memorandum submitted to the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo: “In our socio-political and economic intercourse all groups (big or small) must be allowed free-play and equitable access to our country’s resources and strategic political command posts, including particularly the presidency. Sustained imbalance in sharing responsibilities and the ‘national cake’ could conceivably induce in those units aggrieved a rethink of the value to them of our much vaunted national unity.”

One possible way of checking skepticism on Nigerian unity is the implementation of the report of last year’s National Conference. Unfortunately, chameleons, who throughout their dubious political careers had hoisted the National Conference placard, turned up on the eve of the last presidential ballot to execrate the idea.

New Russian Military Might On Full Display In Syria

Russian army Lt.-Col. Alexander Yevdokimov stands near a water treatment facility at Hemeimeem airbase, Syria. Nearly a quarter of a century after the Soviet collapse, the air campaign in Syria has proven that the resurgent Russian military machine could again operate far away from the nation's borders.

HEMEIMEEM AIRBASE, SYRIA (AP) — Sleek combat jets loaded with precision bunker-buster bombs roar into the skies as soldiers in desert-style uniforms march past rows of neat housing at this Russian military base at one of Syria's largest airports.

The air campaign in Syria, Russia's first military action outside the former Soviet Union since the war in Afghanistan, shows a revamped Russian military, which sharply differs in both capability and mindset from the old, Soviet-style force.

It is capable of quickly projecting power far from Russian borders, widely uses drones and precision weapons, and cares about soldiers' comfort. The thunder of Syria's civil war couldn't be heard at Hemeimeem, located in the coastal province of Latakia, which has largely been spared the chaos and destruction of more than 4 1/2 years of fighting in Syria.

A small group of journalists visiting the base this week could see a dozen Su-24 bombers taking off into the night with a deafening roar, piercing the darkness with scarlet flames from their engines. Such missions were impossible just a few years ago, when the Russian air force had few planes capable of hitting targets at night.

As part of President Vladimir Putin's sweeping military modernization program, the air force received hundreds of new and modernized aircraft, all equipped with state-of-the art electronics on a par with U.S. and NATO jets.

"All aircraft here at the base are equipped with targeting systems that allow hitting targets with pinpoint precision," said Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov. He dismissed Syrian opposition claims that the Russian airstrikes killed civilians as "sheer nonsense," saying the aircraft have hit ammunition depots, bunkers and other targets away from populated areas. The ministry has released cockpit video to support its claims, just as the Pentagon did during the two Gulf wars.

The precision strikes differ sharply from Russian operations to quash two separatist insurrections in Chechnya, where the Russian military indiscriminately used obsolete, inaccurate weapons, reducing the Chechen capital of Grozny to rubble.

Latakia, the heartland of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite minority, offers the Russian military a safe environment — and a warm welcome from people blaring car horns and chanting "Thanks!" in Russian.

At a refugee camp in Latakia, which houses several thousand mostly Alawite refugees from other provinces in Syria, smiling kids shouted: "Thank you, Putin!" Warmly greeted by the locals and at a safe distance from the front lines, Russian soldiers at the base look calm and relaxed.

Still, Russian military police manning checkpoints with Syrian security forces thoroughly check incoming vehicles, special forces guard key facilities and Mi-24 helicopter gunships sweep around the base on regular patrols looking for any suspicious activity. Pantsyr air defense systems are deployed at the edge of the airfield, completing the security bubble.

Soldiers at the base are visibly proud of their crisp new uniforms and comfortable sand-colored high boots, a stark contrast with the drab Soviet-style military attire worn until recently. Air force support crew attaching heavy bombs and missiles under the warplanes' wings wear shorts and white sports shoes for comfort in very un-Russian temperatures of nearly 30 Celsius (mid-80s Fahrenheit).

On a typical day, each jet flies several sorties during the day and at night. Konashenkov shrugged off U.S. criticism that Russia was targeting moderate rebel groups fighting Assad instead of focusing on Islamic State militants, the main goal declared by the Kremlin. He argued it doesn't matter which of the myriad militant groups owns facilities making suicide belts and rigging trucks with explosives for suicide missions, which the Russian warplanes target.

In another break with the old Russian military tradition, the planners of the Hemeimeem base took care of the troops, a marked departure from Soviet-style neglect of soldiers' comfort. The neat rows of housing units, each holding from two to eight men depending on rank, are equipped with air conditioning, a must in the scorching heat, and there are plenty of wash cabins available.

A field kitchen and a canteen look immaculately clean, a sight to shock anyone familiar with crude ways of the old-style Russian military. At the base's water treatment unit, Lt.-Col. Alexander Yevdokimov spoke enthusiastically about a multilayer filter system that purifies Syrian tap water to the highest drinking standard and prevents any threat of chemical or bacteriological contamination.
"Please try it, it tastes really good!" he told reporters. The base bakes its own bread and cooks prepare no-frills but filling Russian dishes. An army store offers souvenirs, cosmetics and clothing, and smiling attendants at a nearby coffee shop sell candies, cookies and ice cream delivered from Russia.
Konashenkov, a veteran of the war in Chechnya and other post-Soviet conflicts, is keen to highlight the progress the military has made. "Remember Chechnya, where everything was covered in dirt?" he asks, pointing at the base's freshly paved grounds that help keep uniforms and housing units clean.
Officers at the base say its comfortable layout and logistics reflect the personal touch of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is widely popular in the ranks, unlike his predecessor, Anatoly Serdyukov.

Serdyukov, who was ordered by Putin to streamline the bloated and under-funded military after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, conducted painful cuts of the officer corps and made other radical changes, but was eventually sacked amid growling in the ranks.

The military welcomed the appointment of Shoigu, who had served as Russia's emergencies minister for two decades and won a reputation as one of the few Russian officials who could actually get things done.

A latecomer to Putin's inner circle, Shoigu has developed strong personal ties with the president. They have gone fishing together and the defense minister now seems to be one of the few officials whom Putin particularly trusts.

Spending on the military increased under Shoigu's leadership, financing hundreds of new aircraft and missiles and the commissioning of numerous other new weapons. The armed forces have held a series of massive exercises, engaging hundreds of thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft across vast areas from the Baltics to the Pacific and from the Caspian Sea to the Arctic.

The drills paid off when Putin moved to annex Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014. Within hours, waves of Russian transport planes airlifted special forces that quickly blocked Ukrainian troops at their bases without firing a shot. The swift operation took the West by surprise.

Unlike the past, when the military's post-Soviet meltdown forced the Kremlin to rely increasingly on nuclear weapons, it has grown more confident about its conventional forces. The rapid deployment of a sizable expeditionary force by sea and air, an air campaign in which dozens of jets relentlessly pounded targets round the clock for weeks and the launching of long-range cruise missiles from the Caspian were intended to send a clear message: Russia's military could rival U.S. operational capability.

Putin has pointed at the launch of 26 cruise missiles from Russian navy ships in the Caspian at targets in Syria 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away as a signal to the U.S. that Russia can pack a similar punch.

Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, shrugged off the Pentagon's claim that four of the missiles crashed in Iran. "All those targets (in Syria) must have exploded all by themselves then!" he said with a sardonic smile, insisting that every Russian missile hit its target.

Egypt To Launch Special Court For Illegal Immigration

By Ahmed Abbass, Daily News Egypt

Terrorism is the key reason of illegal immigration, says the justice minister

Egyptian Minister of Justice Ahmed Al-Zind said Friday that Egypt will launch a special court for illegal immigration and human trafficking crimes.

During his meeting with William Lacy Swing, the director general of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Al-Zind told the Egyptian official News Agency that the spread of “terror groups like “ISIS and Boko Haram” in Nigeria is key cause to illegal immigration from those countries.

Swing said he appreciates Egypt’s efforts towards illegal immigration and stressed on the importance of brining all those who commit such crimes to trials. He added IOM cooperated with the Ministry of Justice since 2007, especially in training judges.

IOM estimates the number of illegal immigrants to be 1.5 million worldwide.

Approximately, 232 illegal immigrants were reportedly captured by Egyptian coastguards in the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Damietta on their way to Europe. Earlier this month, police forces in the coastal city of Rashid arrested 42 Egyptians who were about to travel to Italy.

The National Committee on Fighting and Preventing Illegal Immigration will release a study on the phenomena based on in-field researching in November.

Committee director Naela Gabr told the official news agency that ten governorates are the top sources of illegal Egyptian immigrants. Those governorates, according to Gabr, are Sharqeya Qaliubiya, Menufiya, Gharbeya, Beheira, and Kafr El-Sheikh, Fayoum, Luxor, and Assiut.

Gabr said this study will improve the national strategy of fighting illegal immigration.
She said after the parliamentary elections, the committee will start to organize visits of Ministry of youth officials, lawyers, and religious men to those ten governorates to promote awareness about illegal immigration and illegal work abroad.

In addition to Egyptians, some Syrian refugees are trying to leave Egypt to Europe illegally as well.

AP EXCLUSIVE: Under Clinton, State's Cybersecurity Suffered

The sign used as the backdrop for press briefings at the U.S. Department of State is seen before a news conference at the State Department in Washington. The State Department was among the worst agencies in the federal government at protecting its computer networks while Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary from 2009 to 2013, a situation that continued to deteriorate as John Kerry took office and Russian hackers breached the department’s email system, according to independent audits and interviews.



WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department was among the worst agencies in the federal government at protecting its computer networks while Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary from 2009 to 2013, a situation that continued to deteriorate as John Kerry took office and Russian hackers breached the department's email system, according to independent audits and interviews.

The State Department's compliance with federal cybersecurity standards was below average when Clinton took over but grew worse in each year of her tenure, according to an annual report card compiled by the White House based on audits by agency watchdogs. Network security continued to slip after Kerry replaced Clinton in February 2013, and remains substandard, according to the State Department inspector general.

In each year from 2011 to 2014, the State Department's poor cybersecurity was identified by the inspector general as a "significant deficiency" that put the department's information at risk. The latest assessment is due to be published in a few weeks.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been criticized for her use of a private email server for official business while she was secretary of state. Her private email address also was the recipient of malware linked to Russia, and her server was hit with malware from China, South Korea and Germany. The FBI is investigating whether her home server was breached.

State Department officials don't dispute the compliance shortcomings identified in years of internal audits, but argue that the audits paint a distorted picture of their cybersecurity, which they depict as solid and improving. They strongly disagree with the White House ranking that puts them behind most other government agencies. Senior department officials in charge of cybersecurity would speak only on condition of anonymity.

"We have a strong cybersecurity program, successfully defeating almost 100 percent of the 4 billion attempted intrusions we experience each year," spokesman Mark Toner said. Two successive inspectors general haven't seen it that way. In December 2013, IG Steve Linick issued a "management alert" warning top State Department officials that their repeated failure to correct cybersecurity holes was putting the department's data at risk.

Based on audits by Linick and his predecessor, Harold Geisel, State scored a 42 out of 100 on the federal government's latest cybersecurity report card, earning far lower marks than the Office of Personnel Management, which suffered a devastating breach last year. State's scores bested only the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. State Department officials complain the grades are subjective.

In late 2014, cyber intruders linked to Russia were able to break into the State Department's email system, infecting it so thoroughly that it had to be cut off from the Internet in March while experts worked to eliminate the infestation.

Clinton approved significant increases in the State Department' information technology budgets while she was secretary, but senior State Department officials say she did not spend much time on the department's cyber vulnerabilities. She was aware of State's technological shortcomings but was focused more on diplomacy, her emails show.

Clinton's campaign staff did not respond to repeated and detailed requests for comment. Emails released by the State Department from her private server show Clinton and her top aides viewed the department's information technology systems as substandard and worked to avoid them.

"State's technology is so antiquated that NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly and effectively," top Clinton aide Ann-Marie Slaughter wrote in an email to Clinton on June 3, 2011.

Slaughter suggested that someone write an article to point out the deficiencies, but Clinton aide Cheryl Mills argued that doing so might alert hackers to their use of private email. Under Clinton and Kerry, the State Department's networks were a ripe target for foreign intelligence services, current and former government officials say, echoing the situation at OPM, which last year saw sensitive personnel data on 21 million people stolen by hackers linked to China.

The Russian hackers who broke into State's email system also infiltrated networks at the Defense Department and the White House, officials say, and no clear line can be drawn between their success and State's dismal security record.

But as with OPM, State's inspector general identified many of the same basic cybersecurity shortcomings year after year, and the department failed to correct them, records show. Officials in the inspector general's office believe the department's cybersecurity shortcomings played a role in the email breach, said two officials familiar with their thinking.

Senior State Department officials disagree. They say the Russian hack was the result of a "well-crafted intelligence operation" designed to look normal to the employee who clicked on the attachment, and it was unrelated to other cybersecurity deficiencies.

No technology can completely thwart the most sophisticated of such hacks, but one official familiar with State's cyber deficiencies argues that the department's sloppy security means officials can't be sure other breaches haven't gone undetected.

State Department officials say that only email was taken in the hack, and that no sensitive databases were breached. The National Security Agency conducted a classified assessment and deemed the breach significant and severe, two officials say. A State Department official said the assessment concluded there was no way to be sure what the hackers accessed.

Those officials, and many others interviewed for this story, declined to be quoted because they were not authorized to address the matter publicly. Although the hacked email system was unclassified, State Department personnel regularly use it to communicate very sensitive information, some of which is routinely withheld on national security grounds when the emails are made public. It would be valuable intelligence for a foreign adversary, officials say.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the committee that funds the State Department, is concerned about cybersecurity problems "that have existed for several years," a senior Leahy aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

While many of the details have been blacked out of the audits, the inspector general has criticized State for not implementing an effective risk management program. Without one, "the department cannot prioritize, assess, respond to, and monitor information security risk, which leaves the department vulnerable to attacks and threats," the IG wrote in the latest report, issued last October.

There are also examples of sloppy management. For example, in 2012, the IG reported that of 116,821 unclassified email accounts, 5,717 had not been used, 529 had passwords set not to expire, 19,335 had been set not to require passwords, and 6,269 users had not logged into their accounts between 2005 and 2011. Such a large volume of unattached accounts makes it easier for hackers to co-opt one of them without anyone noticing.

In 2013, an inspection by the IG into State's cybersecurity office — the Bureau of Information Resource Management's Office of Information Assurance — found waste, mismanagement and dysfunction. The office required State Department agencies to fill out paper spreadsheets to track system updates, and was "unable to locate information in a timely manner," the report found.

State Department officials responsible for cybersecurity acknowledged that the department had gotten behind in its compliance with standards in the Federal Information Security Management Act, known as FISMA, which requires, for example, that agency systems be certified as secure. Many of the State Department systems had not been certified for many years. Officials say they have made great strides in the last year.

"FISMA is very important, but it is process-oriented, and compliance is judged on meeting the process," not whether data is actually protected, Toner said. State Department officials argue that their system for continually monitoring its networks for threats, known as iPost, exceeds FISMA's security standards.

The inspector general and the Government Accountability Office concluded, however, that iPost did not provide a true picture of the risk to State's networks.

Rights Groups Says US-Backed Kurds Displacing Arabs In Syria

Fighters from Kurdish popular defense units YPJ (women) and YPG (men) gather during a short break before heading out to fight for new positions in Kobani, Syria. U.S.-backed Kurdish forces have forcefully displaced thousands of Syrian civilians, mostly Arabs, and demolished villages in northern Syria, often in retaliation for the residents' perceived sympathies for the Islamic State group and other militants, Amnesty International said Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015.


BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed Kurdish forces have forcefully displaced thousands of Syrian civilians, mostly Arabs, and demolished villages in northern Syria, often in retaliation for the residents' perceived sympathies for the Islamic State group and other militants, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

Amnesty said its findings were based on visits to 14 towns and villages in the provinces of Hassakeh and Raqqa this summer, areas that are under Kurdish control. It said the abuses amount to war crimes.

The rights group said at least two villages were entirely demolished. In at least eight other villages, the residents were forced to leave, sometimes threatened with being shot or targeted in U.S. airstrikes. It said the victims were mainly Arab, but also included Turkmens and other Kurds.

Amnesty quoted Kurdish fighters as saying the displacement was carried out for security purposes. A Kurdish official in northern Syria told The Associated Press that forces may have committed minor violations against people suspected of ties to the IS group, but that such actions were not based on ethnicity. The official was not authorized to brief media and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Kurds, Syria's largest ethnic minority, have carved out a semi-autonomous enclave in the north since the start of the civil war in 2011. Kurdish fighters have been among the most successful ground forces battling the IS group. Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, they defeated the IS group in the Syrian border town of Kobani earlier this year and have since expanded their territory along the border with Turkey.

But Amnesty adviser Lama Fakih said the Kurds' treatment of civilians amounted to collective punishment. "In its fight against IS, the (Kurdish administration) appears to be trampling all over the rights of civilians who are caught in the middle."

The London-based group called on Kurdish officials to end such abuses, compensate the families for their losses and hold those responsible accountable.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.