Report: Merger of ISIS and Al-Qaeda Could Cripple Civilized World

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Photo Credit: Reuters By Breitbart News.

As ISIS continues to advance on the Syrian town of Kobani and close in on Turkey’s border, experts in Islamic radical movements think the terror group may merge with its al-Qaeda mother organization soon. Together, the group would represent the greatest terror threat to the civilized world.

“I think Britain, Germany and France will witness significant attacks in their territories by the Islamic State. Al-Baghdadi [the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, otherwise known as ISIS] may reconcile with al-Zawhiri [the leader of the al-Qaeda central organization] to fight the crusader enemy. The attacks by the United States and her allies will unite the two groups,” said Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi researcher who just finished writing a book about ISIS based on his unique access to the organization’s documents and years of research and advising Iraqi security forces.

“I have been monitoring al-Qaeda’s leaders’ rhetoric towards Baghdadi. They are getting softer and softer….The Islamic State, regardless of how big or small it becomes, will come back to its mother: al-Qaeda,” he added.

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Photo Credit: REUTERSTop US Gen. Dempsey: ISIS had ‘straight shot’ to Baghdad airport

By Fox News.

The U.S.’ top military leader said Sunday that Islamic State militants recently came within 15 miles of the Baghdad airport after overrunning Iraqi forces, adding to concerns about whether U.S. airstrikes alone can stop the jihadist army’s foray into Iraq.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, told ABC’s “This Week” that Apache helicopters were for the first time called in to stop the extremists’ “straight shot to the airport.”

“We were not going to allow that to happen,” said Dempsey, acknowledging the risk of using low-flying helicopters instead of fighter jets. “We need that airport.”

However, Dempsey said, there may come a time when he might recommend that American advisers accompany Iraqi troops against Islamic State targets.

Dempsey does not think Baghdad is in imminent jeopardy of being overrun by the Islamic State army but said individual members have infiltrated the surrounding Sunni population, which gives them the capability to fire indirectly into the city.

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War against Isis: US air strategy in tatters as militants march on

By PATRICK COCKBURN.

America’s plans to fight Islamic State are in ruins as the militant group’s fighters come close to capturing Kobani and have inflicted a heavy defeat on the Iraqi army west of Baghdad.

The US-led air attacks launched against Islamic State (also known as Isis) on 8 August in Iraq and 23 September in Syria have not worked. President Obama’s plan to “degrade and destroy” Islamic State has not even begun to achieve success. In both Syria and Iraq, Isis is expanding its control rather than contracting.

Isis reinforcements have been rushing towards Kobani in the past few days to ensure that they win a decisive victory over the Syrian Kurdish town’s remaining defenders. The group is willing to take heavy casualties in street fighting and from air attacks in order to add to the string of victories it has won in the four months since its forces captured Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, on 10 June. Part of the strength of the fundamentalist movement is a sense that there is something inevitable and divinely inspired about its victories, whether it is against superior numbers in Mosul or US airpower at Kobani.

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U.S. Pledges $212 Million in Gaza Aid

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Photo Credit: AP / Adel HanaThe United States on Sunday promised $212 million in immediate aid to help rebuild Gaza Strip infrastructure devastated by recent fighting between Hamas and Israel.

The pledge came during an international conference in Cairo, where nations worldwide committed $5.4 billion for the Palestinian-controlled enclave that borders Egypt and Israel.

“The people of Gaza do need our help desperately — not tomorrow, not next week, but they need it now,” said Secretary of State John Kerry while attending the conference.

Much of the territory’s infrastructure, including at least 100,000 homes, were damaged during a 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas. A ceasefire took hold in August.

Kerry said the money will help the Palestinian Authority meet its budgetary needs for “relief and reconstruction” efforts, including the immediate distribution of food and medicine, repairing the region’s water and sanitation system, and rebuilding homes before winter.

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Ebola Spread 'Bigger than Expected' – WHO

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Fears ‘It Will Be Impossible’ to Stop Ebola Outbreak as Death Toll Climbs

By TVNZ.

The UN special envoy on Ebola says the number of cases is probably doubling every three-to-four weeks and the response needs to be 20 times greater than it was at the beginning of October to control the rapid advance of the deadly virus.

David Nabarro warned the UN General Assembly that without the mass mobilisation of virtually every country, all donor organisations and many non-governmental groups to support the affected countries in West Africa, “it will be impossible to get this disease quickly under control, and the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever.”

Nabarro, who is the Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Ebola Virus Disease, said in his 35 years as a public health doctor dealing with many disease outbreaks and some pandemics he has never encountered a challenge like Ebola because the outbreak has moved from rural areas into towns and cities and is now “affecting a whole region and … impacting on the whole world.”

He said the United Nations, which is coordinating the global response, knows what needs to be done to catch up to and overtake Ebola’s rapid advance, “and together we’re going to do it.”

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Ebola Death Toll Rises to 4,033: World Health Organization

The number of people known to have died amid the worst Ebola outbreak on record has topped 4,000, the World Health Organization said Friday. The Geneva-based United Nations agency said the virus had killed 4,033 people out of 8,399 cases over seven months in seven countries by Oct. 8.

The death toll includes 2,316 in Liberia, 930 in Sierra Leone, 778 in Guinea, eight in Nigeria — and one in the United States. A separate Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 43 people out of 71 cases. Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died Wednesday in Dallas.

Meanwhile, Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday that Ebola infections rates are expected to climb.

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Photo Credit: Liverpool EchoFrom American airliners to British buses, number of Ebola false alarms mounts as panic grows over spread of deadly disease

By ANNABEL GROSSMAN.

Fears surrounding the spread of Ebola have led to a string of false alarms by people fearing they have caught or been exposed to the killer disease.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attempts to tackle the flood of worried Americans – with more than 800 Ebola false alarms coming in each day – a flurry of incidents have seen Hazmat officers boarding planes.

On the other side of the Atlantic, last night a Liverpool coach station found itself at the centre of an Ebola scare after a female passenger arriving from London collapsed and vomited, with others on the bus seen sprinting from the scene.

Medical staff boarded the coach in protective gear and removed the elderly woman, who is from Africa, wearing a protective garment and face mask.

The woman was taken to Royal Liverpool Hospital where doctors confirmed she did not have the disease. It is understood she was feeling feverish and also had stroke symptoms.

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Photo Credit: Liberty VoiceEbola Is Becoming a Global Pandemic: New Reported Cases Worldwide

By Janette Verdnik.

Despite several confident exclamations from officials that the Ebola pandemic is contained, there are more and more reports of possible or confirmed infections. Several nations are admitting to have Ebola-symptomatic cases or that they are bringing infected patients back from Africa for treatment. New reports of possible infections are coming from Australia, Turkey, Brazil and France. Furthermore, health officials in Germany confirmed that a 3rd infected patient arrived into the country.

Bloomberg is reporting that a nurse, Sue-Ellen Kovack, who returned from volunteering in Africa, has developed Ebola-like symptoms. Kovack treated the infected patients with the Red Cross in Sierra Leone and after she developed a low-grade fever, she was hospitalized in Australia. She is being tested for Ebola and this means that Australia now has its first potential case of the deadly disease.

Even though several people and officials say that the Nigeria’s outbreak is over, a Turkish worker has been hospitalized in Istanbul, after he started showing signs of high fever and diarrhea. The 46-year-old man, whose identity has not been revealed yet, returned from Africa 11 days ago to see his family during the Feast of the Sacrifice holiday. After a Nigerian woman was tested negative in mid-August, this is now the second case of a suspected Ebola patient in Turkey.

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Photo Credit: BBCEbola spread ‘bigger than expected’ – WHO

By BBC.

Leading global health experts did not anticipate the scale of the Ebola outbreak, a senior health official has told the BBC.

Chris Dye from the World Health Organization (WHO) said the international response was helping but needed to continue.

Ebola is now entrenched in the capitals of the worst-affected states – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO says.

The outbreak has killed more than 3,860 people, mainly in West Africa.

More than 200 health workers are among the victims.

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Officials Admit a ‘Defeat’ by Ebola in Sierra Leone

By ADAM NOSSITER.

Acknowledging a major “defeat” in the fight against Ebola, international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone approved plans on Friday to help families tend to patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to meet the surging need.

The decision signifies a significant shift in the struggle against the rampaging disease. Officials said they would begin distributing painkillers, rehydrating solution and gloves to hundreds of Ebola-afflicted households in Sierra Leone, contending that the aid arriving here was not fast or extensive enough to keep up with an outbreak that doubles in size every month or so.

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AFRICOM Clarifies: Some U.S. Military Personnel Will Be Testing Lab Samples, Not Patients, in Liberia

By Susan Jones.

General David Rodriguez, commander of the U.S. Africa Command, told a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday that as the U.S. military helps contain the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, “the health and safety of the team supporting this mission is our priority.” But he also said a small number of Americans working in mobile testing labs could have direct contact with sick people, a comment he later corrected (see above).

“As we deploy America’s sons and daughters to support this comprehensive effort, we will do everything in our power to address and mitigate the potential risk to our service members, civilian employees, contractors, and their families.”

Rodriguez said “the majority” of the 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. military personnel will not have direct contact with Ebola patients.

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$500M Worth of US-Bought Planes Destroyed by Afghans, Sold as Scrap for 6 Cents a Pound

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsSixteen military transport planes bought by the United States government for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) at a cost of nearly $500 million were recently destroyed by the Afghan military and sold for scrap parts at around six cents per pound, prompting a government inquiry to determine why millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the ill-fated program.

The Department of Defense purchased for the AAF a total of 20 Italian-made G222 military transport planes at a cost of $486 million. However, the fleet was grounded in March 2013 “after sustained, serious performance, maintenance, and spare parts problems” were discovered, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

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UN Report on ISIS: 24,000 Killed, Injured by Islamic State; Children Used as Soldiers, Women Sold as Sex Slaves

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Photo Credit: Christian PostBy Samuel Smith.

A United Nations report highlighting the human rights violations of the Islamic State’s jihadist campaign in Iraq found that while over 24,000 Iraqi civilians have been injured or killed by ISIS in the first eight months of 2014, and the extremists have taken up the practices of recruiting 12- and 13-year-old soldiers and forcing women and girls into sex slavery.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq released a report last Thursday that investigated ISIS’ violations of human rights by conducting interviews with over 500 internally displaced witnesses. The witnesses told the UN investigators of the atrocious ways in which the terrorists were killing, kidnapping and persecuting citizens of all religious beliefs, including those holding ISIS’ own faith of Sunni Islam.

Using information obtained from a variety of governmental, non-governmental and local media sources, the report states that in the first eight months of 2014, ISIS terrorist and militants from associated groups have killed approximately 8,493 Iraqi civilians, while injuring 15,782.

Many of the casualties occurred in the final two months of the reporting as 11,159 casualties and 4,692 deaths were reported from June 1 until Aug. 31, the time period in which ISIS was able to seize the majority of Iraq’s northern Nineveh province.

“The actual numbers could be much higher,” the report states. “Additionally, the number of civilians who have died from the secondary effects of violence, such as lack of access to basic food, water or medicine, after fleeing their homes or who remained trapped in areas under ISIL control or in areas of conflict are unknown.”

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Creeping Islamism: State Dept endorses handbook calling jihad noble

By Allen West.

We cannot defeat Islamo-fascism as long as we refuse to admit its existence. America, and indeed the West as a whole, must come to the understanding that strategically we are fighting an ideology. However, if we continue to dismiss and make apologies in order to create some sense of comfort for ourselves — then we will never be able to achieve success in degrading or destroying this vile, savage and barbaric enemy. And that is why this latest development in the U.S. State Department is utterly disturbing.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, “The U.S. State Department endorsed on Wednesday a controversial anti-terror handbook published by Canada’s Muslim community that refers to jihad as “noble” and urges law enforcement to avoid using terms such as “Islamic extremism.” You can review it here.

“The handbook, published earlier this month by two Canadian Muslim community organizations, was so controversial that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) flatly rejected the manual and ordered its officers not to use it. Yet the State Department’s official anti-terrorism Twitter feed, called Think Again Turn Away, appeared to endorse the controversial handbook on Twitter and linked to a positive article about it.”

We’ve reported previously about the efforts of “Muslim advocacy” groups to purge training materials being used by the FBI, Department of Defense or local law enforcement agencies which have been deemed offensive and anti-Islamic. Not to mention the UN Resolution 16/18 as promoted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that promotes criminalization of deemed anti-Islamic speech.

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Chinese Gov't Gives Tips on Ensuring Babies are Dead

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Photo Credit: LifeNews Reggie Littlejohn positively glows, perhaps with the radiance of someone whose life has purpose and fulfillment.

The woman with the boy’s name is on a mission to save the girls of China.

As she sat down at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday, WND asked what was the most shocking thing she had encountered in her journey as the world’s leading opponent of forced abortions and sterilizations.

That was easy.

“Best practices – infanticide,” she replied without hesitation.

She described her horror while reading an email train on the official website of the Chinese Communist Party for obstetricians and gynecologists, discussing how best to kill infants born alive during late-term abortions.

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Spanish Ebola Nurse Teresa Romero Ramos 'Followed All Protocols' and Has 'No Idea' How She Contracted Deadly Virus

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Photo Credit: Independent.co.ukBy James Rush.

The Spanish nurse who became the first person to contract Ebola in Europe has said she followed all protocols and does not know how she became infected with the virus.

Teresa Romero Ramos, who helped treat two Spanish missionaries who died after returning from Africa with Ebola, tested positive for the disease on Monday.

In a brief interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the nurse was asked how she may have fallen ill, to which she replied: “I really can’t say, I haven’t the slightest idea.”

Asked whether she followed the safety protocol, Mrs Romero Ramos said: “Yes, I did.”

Dozens of doctors and nurses yesterday demonstrated outside La Paz Hospital, in Madrid, demanding more information about how Mrs Romero Ramos caught Ebola.

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Photo Credit: Enterprise News And PicturesSpanish nurse reported Ebola symptoms many times before being quarantined

By Ashifa Kassam.

A Spanish nurse who was admitted to hospital in Madrid with the Ebola virus, after treating a repatriated patient who later died of the illness, had told health authorities at least three times that she had a fever before she was placed in quarantine.

Teresa Romero Ramos is the first person in the current outbreak to have caught the virus outside of west Africa.

Her first contact with health authorities was on 30 September when she complained of a slight fever and fatigue. Romero Ramos called a specialised service dedicated to occupational risk at the Carlos III hospital where she worked and had treated an Ebola patient, said Antonio Alemany from the regional government of Madrid. But as the nurse’s fever had not reached 38.6C, she was advised to visit her local clinic where she was reportedly prescribed paracetamol.

Days later, according to El País newspaper, Romero Ramos called the hospital again to complain about her fever. No action was taken.

On Monday, she called the Carlos III hospital again, this time saying she felt terrible. Rather than transport her to the hospital that had treated the two missionaries who had been repatriated with Ebola, Romero Ramos was instructed to call emergency services and head to the hospital closest to her home. She was transported to the Alcorcón hospital by paramedics who were not wearing protective gear, El País reported.

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Whippings, Forced Marriages, and Beheadings: Inside ISIS's 'Morality Police'

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A Syrian woman who joined the ISIS morality police and patrolled the streets enforcing strict Islamic State female dress codes has spoken of her experiences after finding the country too much to handle, having witnessed crucifixions and beheadings and being forced into an arranged marriage.

The 25 year-old woman, who has only been identified by pseudonym ‘Khadija’ has spoken to CNN while dressed in a full veiled niqab to hide her face has told the network about life in Raqqa. As a member of the al-Khansaa brigade she was charged with enforcing the morality of the Islamic regime, and patrolled the streets while heavily armed to ensure compliance.

Speaking of the punishment for dissent, she said: “We’d patrol the streets. If we saw a woman who was not wearing the correct sharia clothing, we would grab her. Sometimes, they would be lashed”.

Describing the first time she met the senior figure within the al-Khansaa morality police tasked with carrying out the physical punishments, ‘Khadija’ said: “she’s female, but she’s not a normal female. She’s huge. She has an AK-47, a pistol, a whip, a dagger. And she wears the niqab”.

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Nurse Contracts Ebola in Spain

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Photo Credit: SPANISH DEFENSE MINISTRYBy D News.

In what is believed to be the first infection outside of Africa, an assistant nurse at a Madrid hospital where two Ebola patients died has contracted the virus herself, health officials said Monday.

“Two tests were done and the two were positive,” a spokesman for the health department of the regional government of Madrid said.

How Can Ebola Be Stopped?

The woman works at Madrid’s La Paz-Carlos III hospital where two missionaries who were repatriated from Africa with Ebola died from the disease, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

“We do not know yet if she treated any of the two missionaries,” the spokeswoman said.

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Photo Credit: AP / Paul WhiteSPAIN PLACES HUSBAND OF EBOLA NURSE IN QUARANTINE

By AP.

Spain has placed in quarantine the husband of a Spanish nurse who has tested positive for the Ebola virus in the first known transmission outside West Africa.

Public Health Director Mercedes Vinuesa told Parliament on Tuesday that authorities were drawing up a list of other people who may have had contact with the nurse so that they can be monitored.

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Pakistani Taliban Declare Allegiance to Islamic State and Global Jihad

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / STRINGERBY SAUD MEHSUD AND MARIA GOLOVNINA.

The Pakistani Taliban declared allegiance to Islamic State on Saturday and ordered militants across the region to help the Middle Eastern jihadist group in its campaign to set up a global Islamic caliphate.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, has been making inroads into South Asia, which has traditionally been dominated by local Taliban insurgencies against both the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments.

The announcement comes after a September move by al Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, to name former Taliban commander Asim Umar as the “emir” of a new South Asia branch of the network that masterminded the 2001 attacks on the United States.

Although there is little evidence of a firm alliance yet between IS and al Qaeda-linked Taliban commanders, IS activists have been spotted recently in the Pakistani city of Peshawar distributing pamphlets praising the group.

IS flags have also been seen at street rallies in Indian-administered Kashmir. The trend has been of growing concern to global powers struggling to keep up with the fast-changing nature of the international Islamist insurgency.

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Photo Credit: AP / Hani MohammedShiite rebels are Yemen’s new masters

By HAMZA HENDAWI.

The capital of Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest and perhaps most chronically unstable nation, has new masters. Anti-American Shiite rebels man checkpoints and roam the streets in pickups mounted with anti-aircraft guns. The fighters control almost all state buildings, from the airport and the central bank to the Defense Ministry.

Only a few police officers and soldiers are left on the streets. Rebel fighters have plastered the city with fliers proclaiming their slogan — “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam” — a variation of a popular Iranian slogan often chanted by Shiite militants in Iraq and supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

While the world has been focused on the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, Yemen — located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula — has seen its own sudden, seismic upheaval when Shiite rebels known as the Houthis overran Sanaa two weeks ago.

Now the Houthis, who many believe are backed by Shiite-led Iran, are poised to become Yemen’s version of the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon — top powerbrokers dominating the government and running a virtual state-within-a-state.

Their takeover of the capital also threatens to bring a violent backlash from hard-line Sunnis, creating a sectarian battle that would boost al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, which the United States has been battling for years in a drone campaign and in coordination with the Yemeni military. The rallying cry of fighting against Shiite power could turn Yemen into a magnet for Sunni jihadis from around the region, like Syria and Iraq.

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