Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Khaled Abu Toameh: U.S. Seen in Middle East as Ally of Terrorists
Many Egyptians and moderate Arabs and Muslims were shocked to hear that the U.S. State Department recently hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation. They were equally shocked when an EU court decided to remove Hamas from the bloc's list of terror groups.Abbas' Fatah promotes rocket attacks
"Just two days after the controversial visit, the Brotherhood called for a war against their fellow Egyptians." — Linda S. Heard, Middle East Expert, Gulf News.
"The Muslim Brotherhood is seeking to return to the political arena through the American door and terrorist attacks. The U.S. policy appears to be devious and unreliable." — Ezzat Ibrahim, columnist, Al Ahram.
"[Ousted Egyptian President] Mohamed Morsi, before his election, described these Jews as descendants of apes and pigs. In English, the Muslim Brotherhood says one thing and in Arabic something completely different." — Mohamed Salmawi, Egyptian columnist
Abbas' Fatah movement has once again demonstrated its support for terror and violence, as Palestinian Media Watch keeps exposing. The above picture showing masked Fatah fighters launching rockets at Israel was posted on Fatah's official Facebook page with a quote from the Quran, indicating that according to Fatah, even Allah sanctions the use of terror attacks:JPost Editorial: Schabas shalom
"If Allah should aid you, no one can overcome you."
(Quran, Sura 3:160, translation Sahih International)
[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page", Jan. 27, 2015]
The text on the flag is Islam's declaration of faith: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."
Another recent Fatah post also showed the rifle as an integral part of the Fatah movement and the way it wants to "resist" Israel.
Schabas’s resignation seals the fate of the misguided UNHRC’s panel of inquiry and its report, slated to be produced at the end of March. By stepping down, Schabas is effectively admitting his own bias, which renders the results of his inquiry inadmissible to any court of justice.UN Watch: UN rights council: Schabas’ resignation “preserves integrity of the process”
The Schabas controversy would be farcical if it were not tragic. The world is in desperate need of a body with international backing and clout to investigate human rights abuses and bring criminals to justice. The UNHRC was supposed to be precisely this body, but it has failed miserably.
As a result, a double injustice has been performed. Not only has Israel, a country that is not perfect but that strives to protect human rights, been singled out for wildly disproportionate censure, but other countries – Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia to name just a few – are allowed to carry on violating basic rights indiscriminately.
It is a small consolation to bid Schabas a hearty “shalom” and witness the trashing of his biased report on purported Israeli war crimes and human rights abuses. Yet while Schabas wasted his time with his “inquiry,” human rights were being abused around the world. The cries for help from Nigeria, Ukraine, and China, however, were met by the UNHRC in Geneva with silence.
Their Gaza probe was run for half a year by a law professor who did paid work for the PLO, but the UN is insisting that Schabas’ sudden resignation under a cloud of bias “preserves the integrity of the process.”
The truth is that Schabas made clear in his resignation letter that he “devoted several months of work” to the project.
As the top expert on the issues, Schabas in those several months of work would have played a leading role in conceiving of the entire project: the scope, framework, methodology, selection of incidents to examine, choice of witnesses, and legal standards to apply.
Schabas would also have had a say in the influential choice of staffers, who do a lion’s share of the work. Finally, Schabas chaired all of the hearings where testimony was delivered and impacted the entire process. He ran the game until the 9th inning.
This is a mistrial. And if Schabas is tainted — because of his ties to the PLO and because of his long record of biased statements and actions — then the taint attaches to the entire commission and report.
NGO Monitor: Swan song for Schabas
The original UNHRC mandate reflects the inherent bias of a body whose agenda, appointments and sessions are controlled by the 56-nation Islamic bloc in the United Nations. The same was true for the infamous 2009 Goldstone investigation of allegations from the previous Gaza war, which even Judge Richard Goldstone denounced belatedly as lacking legitimacy and credibility.Dore Gold Shelve the Schabas report
The appointment of Schabas was designed to succeed where the Goldstone fiasco failed – to produce an indictment of Israel that could be used to promote the opening of case against Israelis in the International Criminal Court. And while his history of bias was well known at the time, and a number of delegates in the UNHRC session criticized both Schabas and the warped mandate, he was approved. (Although the European Union statement denounced the biased mandate, the members of the EU then proceeded to abstain in the vote, rather than taking the principled position and joining the US in voting against this process.) As in many such UN kangaroo courts, the case against Israel by the Schabas Commission was to be based largely on the “evidence” provided by the network of anti-Israel groups claiming a human rights agenda.
Toward this goal, in recent weeks such reports have been published by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’tselem and others. Although claiming to be investigations, each of these documents are based on a combination of unverifiable Palestinian “testimony” and aspirational international law, meaning that legal principles are invented in order to put Israel “in the dock,” to use Schabas’ terminology.
With so much evidence of failure, any continuation of this pseudo-investigation would only serve to highlight the immoral exploitation of human rights and international law as a weapon to target Israel. In contrast, the demise of the UN’s Schabas Commission would mark the long-delayed end to this farce.
How could the U.N. have hired Schabas to begin with? Back in 2009, I was asked by Brandeis University to take part in a debate with Justice Richard Goldstone, who led a U.N. fact-finding commission on an earlier Gaza conflict -- Operation Cast Lead. During the debate, one of the students in the audience asked Goldstone about the validity of his report, considering that the members of his commission had condemned Israel even before they began collecting any facts. He noted that Christine Chinkin, from the London School of Economics, who served on the Goldstone commission, had signed a letter to the Sunday Times on January 11, 2009, saying that Israeli actions in Gaza constituted a "war crime." She took this very public stand before the investigation, of which she was a part, got underway.Elliott Abrams: Schabas resigns ... a bit late
Surprisingly, Goldstone admitted that if his commission had been a legal body then she would have had to disqualify herself, but since it was only a "fact-finding commission," she could remain on. He even confessed to the Jewish newspaper The Forward that "if this was a court of law, nothing would have been proven."
Yet these commissions generate libelous newspaper headlines stating that Israel violated the laws of war or that Israeli soldiers engaged in war crimes. They gather information well after the events they are investigating occurred. The sites they look at could have easily been tampered with, as in fact occurred after Operation Cast Lead. They talk to witnesses who fear Hamas' reaction to their testimony, without any cross-examination of the other side. They are closer to a kangaroo court than a real court.
How does this seem, for basic fairness?The indelible stain on the UN committee once chaired by William Schabas
A judge presides over a trial. The defendant complains about his bias, but the judge does not recuse himself. He runs the trial, and at its end he writes his verdict and decides on the sentence. Then, because he does not want his own biases to become a matter of controversy again, he decides to step aside at the last minute so that another judge can read out what he has written. Same trial, same verdict, same sentence, different voice.
No one could possibly claim that such a procedure is fair, or indeed anything more than an effort to rescue a tainted procedure by an underhanded final act. No one, that is, except the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Richard Goldstone, the South African jurist who prepared the UN report that slammed Israel for alleged war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, distanced himself from that report two years later in a Washington Post op-ed.NY judge takes over UN Gaza probe after Israel critic resigns
“If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document,” Goldstone wrote in 2011 of the damning document that claimed there was evidence of possible Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.
William Schabas, who stepped down Monday as chairman of a UN Human Rights Council commission investigating last summer’s war distanced himself from his report – scheduled to be submitted on March 23 – even before it was written.
But while Goldstone wrote that the conclusions regarding the “intentionality” of Israeli actions that led to the death of civilians and about war crimes would have been different had the committee had all the necessary evidence, Schabas’s premature departure has nothing to do with his feeling that the process he was shepherding was in anyway skewed.
Rather, Schabas quit because Schabas was caught.
New York jurist Mary McGowan Davis will take the helm of a UN probe of last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip after inquiry chief William Schabas stepped down over allegations of anti-Israel bias, a spokesman said Tuesday.UN Watch: Schabas: I didn’t know non-disclosure of conflict of interest was wrong, no one asked
McGowan Davis had served as a justice on New York’s Supreme Court, and chaired the UN follow-up committee to its probe into the 2008-2009 war between Israel and Hamas.
McGowan Davis is thought to be more sympathetic to Israel’s position during the 50-day war than Schabas, according to Haaretz. Nonetheless, Foreign Ministry sources told the paper that the report the committee is slated to publish on March 23 will still be highly critical of Israel.
In his resignation letter, Schabas defends his failure to disclose his paid legal work for the PLO by saying, “I was not requested to provide any details on any of my past statements and other activities concerning Palestine and Israel.”Schabas Resignation Letter Details PLO Sympathy
Well, when he applied last year for a related post, to replace Richard Falk as the UNHRC’s Palestine investigator, Schabas was asked about conflicts of interest. And he denied everything.
In his continuing effort to claim that he is just a victim of the Zionist cabal, Schabas points out that he received only $1300 in compensation for the work he did for the PLO. Therefore, he claims, he had no real financial motive for bias. This argument, however, reveals more about him that what he intends.Schabas resignation may save Israelis at ICC
His description of the work that he did for the PLO is a seven-page legal opinion on issues involving Palestinian statehood and the International Criminal Court. This would likely involve hours of research on obscure issues about which Schabas had a rare expertise. If Schabas had charged a fair price for such work, the bill could have easily been ten times the amount charged, or more. He basically did the work for the PLO close to free of charge.
It’s clear, then, from his own letter, that Schabas acted for the PLO not out of financial motives, but out of at least personal sympathy for the PLO, its mission and its affiliated entities such as the Palestinian Authority (if not out of personal animus towards the Jewish state). It is likely that he took on his UN role for the same reasons, for as he says, he did not receive any compensation from the UN. It could not be clearer that such sympathies have no place in what is supposed to be an impartial investigation.
It will be correctly stated in the coming days that the resignation of William Schabas as the head of the UN Human Rights Council’s inquiry into Gaza war crimes allegations will not likely change the short-term result of a critical report against Israel.PreOccupied Territory: ICC Overturns Nuremberg Convictions (satire)
But that is only half of the story.
In the still unlikely worst case scenario that the International Criminal Court prosecutor opens a full criminal investigation, let alone indicts Israeli soldiers or war policy- makers, Schabas’s resignation may not merely be a diplomatic victory for Israel, but could become a singular and potent legal argument to make in court to save those same Israelis.
It is likely that any ICC case will depend heavily on the evidence collected by the (until now) Schabas Commission.
Israelis may be able to claim that the evidence itself is tainted and non-credible because it was collected by a commission run by Schabas.
Consistency, said the court, demands that all territories be subject to the same principles. “The international community accepts as a given that Jews may not live in the Occupied Territories,” explained court spokesman Zyke Lonbee. “But that axiom must be applied equally, and we must therefore vacate the convictions of Hans Frank, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and other officials directly responsible for implementing policies that cleansed Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and parts of Russia and Ukraine of their Jews.”Liberman: UN Gaza Probe Like 'Cain Investigating Abel's Murder'
Lonbee explained that the Court’s unanimous decision included expressions of regret for the death sentences imposed on the defendants. “The justices wish to apologize for the rush to punish,” said Lonbee. “In fact these men deserve commendation for their alacrity in enforcing what we, in 2015, have only begun to realize is the only policy consistent with the values we hold.”
The review process began with an amicus curiae brief by Human Rights Watch and B’tselem, that pointed out the hypocrisy inherent in prosecuting Nazi leaders for ridding large swaths of Europe of its Jews while insisting that Jews do not belong in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, or East Jerusalem. “It would be unreasonable to expect the Court to accept Jewish communities living unmolested in occupied territory; what it can do, however, is acknowledge that German officials once viewed as criminals for overseeing the same cleansing must have that taint removed from their reputations,” argued the brief.
Amnesty International, in a separate brief, contended that the men should in fact be hailed as forward-thinking heroes. “What the last century demonstrated is that the presence of Jews result in oppression, violence, and crimes against humanity, as this organization has documented extensively,” it said. “Only in hindsight has it become clear that the only crime of the people responsible for removing Jews from most of Europe was merely being ahead of their time.”
Nevertheless, Liberman welcomed Schabas's resignation as a victory for Israeli diplomacy, and as the fruit of efforts by the Foreign Ministry.State Department: UN's Gaza Commission is 'One-Sided'
He added the move "serves to show that even the biggest hypocrites in the international organs cannot ignore the fact that Schabas' appointment to investigate Israel was akin to the appointment of Cain to investigate the murder of Abel," in a reference to the Biblical account of the first murder in history.
Schabas is well-known for his bias against Israel. Speaking in a 2013 panel, Schabas clearly revealed his great eagerness to bring about the prosecution of Israel over its actions in Gaza, even if that involved “twisting things and maneuvering” in the international legal arena.
The United States “remains concerned” about the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) “one-sided” commission of inquiry into Israel’s actions in Gaza, even after the resignation of its head, William Schabas, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday.PLO Accuses Israel of 'Defaming' UN War Crimes Probe
In her daily press briefing, Psaki was asked about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments following Schabas’s resignation, in which he said the committee's report should go unpublished.
“Well, we oppose the creation of the commission of inquiry in the first place. So we remain concerned,” Psaki responded.
“Given the one-sided nature of the resolution that created the commission of inquiry and the history of the HRC stance on Israel, we still don’t believe that such a mechanism as the commission of inquiry contributes to the shared goal and priority of reaching a sustainable and durable agreement. That has long been – has been consistently our view,” she added.
In response to the calls to abandon the "war crimes" probe, the PLO tried to play down the issue of Schabas's conflict of interests.UN body in charge of NGO-accreditation fails to dismiss application from major Bin Laden, Hamas supporter
"This (resignation) is a minor issue. Israel makes a habit of using whatever means they can to attack, defame, discredit and intimidate," senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi told AFP.
She claimed "it's a tactic to avoid accountability and treat Israel as a country that is above the law."
A terrorist front organization is seeking formal UN NGO status. On January 30, 2015, the Islamic African Relief Agency's (IARA) deferred application came before the UN Committee in charge of NGO accreditation. NGO accreditation provides NGOs with real benefits, such as attending international conferences and events, making written and oral statements, organizing side events, entering UN premises, and having opportunities to network and lobby.Brussels Commissioner Reveals Plans to Deploy EU Army In Middle East
At a 2013 UN NGO Committee session, the US representative said that the IARA was designated as a terrorist organization by the US Treasury Department in 2004 "for providing support to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups. They were involved in terrorist financing ... and have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars" to terrorist organizations. The UN press release, on the other hand, described this terrorist patron as an organization "focused on humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and development".
On January 30, 2015 at the UN Committee the US delegate questioned Sudan-based IARA "about funding provided by the organization and its American partner, the Islamic American Relief Agency, to other countries." The representative of Sudan - a member of the UN NGO Committee - stepped in to defend the IARA on the grounds that "the organization had been asked that same question in the past, and that it had submitted a detailed response". Rather than being dismissed as clearly incompatible with "the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations", consideration of the application will continue.
A European Commissioner has revealed EU foreign ministers have discussed the role of the political bloc as peacekeepers in the Middle East.Biden, other Democrats may skip Netanyahu’s speech
In an interview with An Nahar, Christos Stylianides said the role of European peacekeepers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would be on the agenda at the key Brussels meeting this week.
There are concerns amongst eurosceptics that Brussels is looking to use Lebanon as a trial run for its EU army of ‘peace keepers’, stationing a group of soldiers in the south of the country.
An EU military force has been a dream for europhiles for decades, yearning to give the EU more clout by having an armed back up to its political and economic policies. And following the latest battle between Israel and Hezbollah, the senior EU figure spoke of a new ‘presence’ on the Lebanese side.
US Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats may boycott a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of Congress next month, as the administration stews over the appearance, which was planned against the White Houses wishes.PreOccupied Territory: Israel To Send Small Arms To Lilliput (satire)
Biden, who also serves as Senate president, refused to confirm that he would attend the March 3 address, website Politico reported Tuesday. Biden normally sits behind the speaker of the House during addresses by foreign leaders so his absence during Netanyahu’s speech would be noticeable.
Several other Democrats also privately warned they may not attend the prime minister’s speech.
The address, about the importance of thwarting Iran’s march to nuclear weapons, has proved a major point of friction between Jerusalem and Washington, which called the timing “inappropriate” over its proximity to Israeli elections and said the visit was not arranged in accordance with proper protocol.
Sources in Israel’s Ministry of Defense confirmed today that the country would supply small arms to the island nation of Lilliput to shore up the government there in its ongoing conflict with neighboring Blefuscu.IDF officer injured by landmine in Golan
Israel has been pursuing a diplomatic maneuver that observers have characterized as a “pivot to Asia,” emphasizing diplomacy and commercial ventures with countries in the Far East as relations with Europe and other Western states have become more tense. Lilliput, located in the Indian Ocean, represents an additional potential ally to help cushion Israel against a downturn in ties with increasingly hostile Europe, and, to a lesser extent, the US.
Defense analysts called the small-arms aid to Lilliput a good fit. “Some countries only think big in terms of their military ties, but Israel found a more than workable match with Lilliput,” says Sy Zdosnet-Madder of Jane’s. “Lilliput has little use for heavy equipment or an armored corps, given the size and relative isolation from most enemies.” The island nation’s needs have always been defensive, and items such as tanks and an air force would have limited utility there. “Small arms are the way to go,” he said.
A young IDF officer was injured Wednesday in a landmine explosion in the Golan Heights.Threat of violence silences Palestinian journalists
She was treated at the scene and rushed by helicopter to Haifa’s Rambam hospital.
The explosion occurred while the officer was involved in routine work along a fence near the Saar River.
The cause of the explosion weren’t initially clear, and the IDF immediately opened an investigation into the circumstances.
Her status has been reported as stable and there is no apparent threat to her life, Channel 2 news reports.
Sabah said journalists practice self-censorship amid a great deal of frustration and despair, which sometimes curbs their desire to work. This raises the issue of the point of writing: What is the point if not to make an impact or contribute to changing situations for the better.Hamas claims it caught mega spy, accuses PA of colluding with Israel
“Journalists here fear the threats of parties, officials and families given the absence of the rule of law, the lack of respect for human freedom and the spread of chaos and lawlessness,” Sabah said. He admitted that he practices self-censorship whenever he writes about certain issues related to the resistance, especially after he received several anonymous threats by phone and on Facebook, including death threats.
Khalil Shaheen, director of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Unit at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said that journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have faced actual shootings and beatings, in addition to threats, throughout the eight-year Hamas-Fatah split, leading them to apply some sort of self-control in their work.
“They stop writing about sensitive issues, and they no longer pursue investigative journalism. Moreover, there is a kind of indifference because of fear of abuse, but there are rare journalists who have always rejected any tendency toward control for the sake of adventure,” he said.
Individual self-censorship might be a choice, but it is currently a pervasive type of control. It is so prevalent that journalists who do not censor themselves might be taken for troublemakers or nonprofessional journalists.
Islamic terror group Hamas announced the arrest of “the most dangerous collaborator” with Israel on Tuesday, as an official accused Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority of colluding with Israel to assassinate Hamas officials during Operation Protective Edge.Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas accuses PA of providing vital security information to Israel
An unnamed security source told Hamas website Al-Majd that the agent, detained by the movement as he was attempting to cross from Gaza into Israel, has been active for 15 years. The paper claimed the Israeli Shin Bet security service considered the agent one of its most senior handlers.
“The collaborator has been deeply involved in the entrapment of new collaborators numerous times, providing the enemy with names of people who can be blackmailed, or offered [financial] and medical assistance,” the source said.
The man also functioned as a “bank,” distributing money in secret to other collaborators. During the last two wars in Gaza, he tried to reach Hamas officials — presumably in order to expose them to Israeli airstrikes — and attempted also to reveal rocket launchers, the site claimed.
Hamas said on Tuesday that it has evidence that the Palestinian Authority’s security forces had provided Israel with information that led to the killings of Palestinians and the demolition of houses during Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip last summer.Hamas fast rebuilding guerrilla-terrorist forces in Gaza
Salah Bardaweel, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, told the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aksa TV station that his movement possesses documents proving that the PA security forces had supplied Israel with details about figures and houses not only associated with Hamas, but also with Fatah and Islamic Jihad.
The documents would be presented to top Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed during his upcoming visit to the Gaza Strip, Bardaweel said, adding that Hamas is also planning to present the documents to representatives of various Palestinian factions.
In addition, he accused unnamed Fatah officials and PA security forces of supplying the Egyptian authorities with “false and misleading” information in a bid to incite Cairo against Hamas.
Hamas and allied terrorist organizations in Gaza have spent recent months intensively rebuilding their guerrilla terrorist capabilities, which sustained significant damage during Operation Protective Edge last summer.Brutal killing shows Islamic State suffering setbacks
“Their aim is to recover the military infrastructure that was damaged and return it to full capabilities and broaden it,” according to a recent report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Tel Aviv, which is a part of the Israeli Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center, founded by leading members of the Israeli intelligence community.
To that end, Hamas has allocated the necessary funds, personnel, and equipment, despite the shortages suffered by the civilian sector in the Strip, the study found. Its domestic security bodies are part of the effort.
“This stands out especially against the background of the ongoing delay in the civilian recovery of the Gaza Strip,” the report said, adding that it “illustrates well that, as in the past, Hamas’s priorities clearly lie in rebuilding military capabilities at the expense of civilian needs.”
The sick way Islamic State terrorists burned Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh alive should not be misunderstood: It means the organization has suffered defeats in battle and is letting out its frustration in brutal and vicious acts that go beyond even its past depravities.Outrage in Mideast over IS killing of Jordan pilot
The pilot, who was captured on December 24, paid the ultimate price a month ago for the blows the organizations has absorbed in Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and even on the economic “battlefield.”
Jordan claims the terrorist organization killed the pilot on January 3, but the Islamic State hid this fact, possibly in an attempt to get more out of their negotiations over the two Japanese hostages. But Jordan’s insistence on involving the pilot in negotiations tangled the Islamic State in its own lies.
Killing the Japanese hostages was also part of the terrorist organization’s plan to win more public consciousness and create at least the appearance of a successful organization.
However, the reality for the Islamic State is not as simple as it was in the spring and summer of last year. Its territorial expansion has been stopped, mostly in Iraq.
Even in a region accustomed to the violence of war and the little regard the terrorists have for life, both political and religious leaders offered angry denunciations and called for blood as some on television wept on air talking about the killing of 26-year-old Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh.ISIS Issues Fatwa To Justify Burning Of Jordanian Pilot
The head of Sunni Islam’s most respected seat of learning, Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque, even said that Islamic State fighters deserved the Quran-prescribed punishment of death, crucifixion or the chopping off of their arms.
“Islam prohibits the taking of an innocent life,” Ahmed al-Tayeb, the mosque’s grand sheikh, said in a statement.
Al-Tayeb said that by burning the pilot to death, the Islamic State violated Islam’s prohibition on the mutilation of bodies, even at wartime.
Iyad Madani, the leader of the 57-nation, Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest bloc of Muslim countries, condemned the killing.
Following the immolation of the Jordanian pilot, Mu'adh Al-Kasasbeh, the Islamic State's "Fatwa and Research Authority" issued a ruling which stated that burning non-Muslims alive "is completely permissible".SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden: Pilot's Execution 'One Of The Most Disturbing Things I've Ever Seen'
The fatwa was distributed in the streets of Raqqa and also posted on February 3, 2015 on the Twitter account of an ISIS activists' group called "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" (@Raqqa_SI). The following are translated excerpts from it:
"Q: What is the ruling on burning an infidel with fire until he dies?"
"A: The Hanafi and Shafi'i schools [of Islam] hold that burning is completely permissible. They interpreted the saying of the Prophet that 'Only Allah shall torture with fire' as [a call for] humility. [The scholar] Al-Muhallab said: 'This ban is not [an actual] prohibition, but rather a means for [advocating] humility.'
A veteran member of SEAL Team Six says he has never, through all the years of conducting military black operations, seen anything like the deliberate moral depravity displayed during an Islamic extremist group’s execution of Jordanian pilot 1st Lt. Muadh al-Kasasbeh, who was shown being burned alive on a video released to the web Tuesday.Jordan executes 2 Iraqi prisoners in response to ISIS killing of pilot
“I’m actually talking to some other SEALS right now, and in the past 13 and a half years of combat, that’s one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen,” said Rob O’Neill, a former member of the Navy SEAL team responsible for the death of Osama bin Laden.
“I can’t think about anything else right now,” O’Neill said.
Jordan hanged two Iraqis on Wednesday, including a female militant, hours after Islamic State released a video appearing to show a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive, a security source and state television said.Father of Jordanian pilot burned to death by ISIS calls on US-led coalition to avenge son's death
Islamic State militants had demanded the release of the woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, in exchange for a Japanese hostage who was later killed.
Jordan has promised an "earth-shaking response" to the killing of its pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh.
Authorities also executed a senior al-Qaida prisoner, an Iraqi man who was sentenced to death in 2008 for militancy.
Kasaesbeh's father said the two executions were not enough and urged the government to do more to avenge his death. "I want the state to get revenge for my son's blood through more executions of those people who follow this criminal group that shares nothing with Islam," Safi al-Kasaesbeh said.EU chides Jordan for hangings after pilot killed
"Jordanians are demanding that the state and coalition take revenge with even more painful blows to destroy these criminals," he said, speaking to Reuters by telephone.
Islamic State militants had demanded the release of the executed woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, in exchange for a Japanese hostage who was later killed.
The European Union combined a statement of solidarity with Jordan over the killing of one of its military pilots by Islamist fighters with criticism of its immediate execution of two Iraqi jihadists.Liberman praises Jordan’s execution of al-Qaeda prisoners
"While all efforts must be made to counter terrorism and hold the perpetrators accountable, our reaction to the threat posed by (Islamic State) needs to be consistent with our common values on justice and the rights of prisoners," foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Our action has to be guided by the respect of international human rights law and humanitarian law. The European position against death penalty remains unchanged and we believe capital punishment does not serve any deterrent purpose."
The Israeli foreign minister urged world leaders to operate in the same manner as Jordan, with similarly harsh measures, in an effort to “destroy and eradicate” terror.UN Shocked as ISIS Commandeers its Food Aid
“One must praise King Abdullah for his swift and powerful action against despicable terrorism, that this morning a terrorist whose release was sought by the Islamic State and another al-Qaeda operative were executed, and soon other imprisoned terrorists in the kingdom will be executed as well,” Liberman said in a statement.
World leaders should fight the Islamic State in “a similar fashion to that of the Jordanian king, because terror cannot be won with words and declarations, but only with harsh measures,” he said.
Liberman decried any form of negotiations or deals with terrorists, including prisoner swaps and said terrorists must be “destroyed and eradicated.”
The United Nations food agency expressed alarm over images circulating on social media showing its food aid being distributed from boxes bearing the logo of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.The stunningly different fates of two terrorists in Jordan and what they reveal about how the war against terror is going
The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said it was "extremely concerned" over the images, and that it was trying to verify the authenticity of the photographs and determine where they were taken, reports AFP.
"WFP condemns this manipulation of desperately needed food aid inside Syria," Muhannad Hadi, the agency's emergency coordinator for the Syrian crisis, said in a statement late Monday.
"We urge all parties to the conflict to respect humanitarian principles and allow humanitarian workers including our partners to deliver food to the most vulnerable and hungry families," he added.
Regular readers of this blog know about another Jordanian female, an ex-prisoner, also a terrorist, with a different fate: Ahlam al-Tamimi.
Unlike Mrs al-Rishawi who was hanged today, Mrs al-Tamimi is a Jordanian, born, bred, educated and (following an 11 year-period spent outside Jordan) now living with her husband/cousin, in Jordan.
Tamimi has never spent time in any Jordanian prison, and never will. Quite the opposite: she was honored with a reception in Jordan's Family Court in October 2011 when she returned home. (Perhaps because she has a family connection in the court system.) She has her own weekly television program every edition of which is replete with advocacy and glorification of terror. They are recorded in Jordan by her friends and employers in the Hamas terror organization and beamed throughout the world on the Al-Quds TV Network. And she is free to travel throughout the Arab world which it seems she does often, giving lectures and being an honoured guest.
Oh, yes - and in December she was proclaimed the "Success Model" of the students at the Arab world's most important graduate school for journalists, an institution modeled on the Columbia School of Journalism and founded by the woman previously known as Rym Brahimi who graduated Columbia and who then spent years working as an on-camera reporter for CNN. As Princess Rym Ali, she is now the king of Jordan's sister in law.
Tamimi has over and again confessed freely, proudly and happily to the massacre at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria in 2001 for the engineering of which she was convicted, and sentenced to 16 life terms in prison with a judicial recommendation that she live the rest of her life behind bars with no possibility of a commutation of sentence.
