Iraq Isis Crisis: Medieval Sharia Law Imposed on Millions in Nineveh Province

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Photo Credit: ReutersBy Jack Moore.

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has imposed a strict set of Sharia laws on the citizens of Nineveh province just days after capturing the provincial capital of Mosul.

In a document circulating on social media attributed to the group, Isis warned tribal leaders and sheikhs not to “work with [the Iraqi] government and be traitors” while proclaiming that women should only go outside if absolutely necessary.

“For women, dress decently and wear wide clothes. Only go out if needed,” read the document as translated by Al Aan TV reporter Jenan Moussa.

Further rules included bans on drugs, alcohol and cigarettes while public gatherings, the possession of guns and the carrying of flags not of the Islamic state were outlawed.

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Photo Credit: AFP / Getty ImagesISIS Just Stole $425 Million, Iraqi Governor Says, and Became the ‘World’s Richest Terrorist Group’

By Terrence McCoy.

Of the many stunning revelations to emerge out of the wreckage of Mosul on Wednesday — 500,000 fleeing residents, thousands of freed prisoners, unconfirmed reports of “mass beheadings” — the one that may have the most lasting impact as Iraq descends into a possible civil war is that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria just got extremely rich.

As insurgents rolled past the largest city in northern Iraq, an oil hub at the vital intersection of Syria, Iraq and Turkey, and into Tikrit, several gunmen stopped at Mosul’s central bank. An incredible amount of cash was reportedly on hand, and the group made off with 500 billion Iraqi dinars — $425 million.

The provincial governor of Nineveh, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said that the radical Islamists had lifted additional millions from numerous banks across Mosul, as well as a “large quantity of gold bullion,” according to the International Business Times, which called ISIS the “World’s Richest Terror Force.”

The declaration isn’t an easy one to fact-check. Not only is the definition of “terrorist” nebulous — are murderous but wealthy Mexican cartels terrorists? — it’s also exceedingly difficult to quantify a terrorist organization’s finances. One of the closest stabs anyone has made comes from the well-versed Money Jihad.

According to its analysis, which drew on journalistic and academic accounts, the cash seizure would make ISIS the richest terrorist organization in the world — at least for the time being.

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Photo Credit: SAFIN HAMED / AFP / Getty ImagesCongress’s Iraq Vets Helplessly Watch Their Gains Lost

By Clara Ritger.

Americans are tired of war. For the 17 members of Congress who served in Iraq, that means watching helplessly as the cities they fought for fall once more to extremists.

Militants believed to be associated with al-Qaida overtook Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, on Tuesday. The group then seized Tikrit, hometown of former President Saddam Hussein, on Wednesday.

Three Republican congressmen who served in Iraq—Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Doug Collins of Georgia, and Brad Wenstrup of Ohio—said it feels like the progress they made has been thrown away.

“Going out across the desert I remember the feelings that you have, wondering if you’re going to make it out alive,” Perry said. “Right now I wonder what that was all about. What was the point of all of that?”

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Iran: 5,000km-Range Missile Can Hit US Indian Ocean Base

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Photo Credit: algemeinerTehran has ballistic missiles able to pound targets over twice as distant as previously thought, and can reach the American mid-ocean strategic base at Diego Garcia, a senior Iranian official has explicitly warned.

“In the event of a mistake on the part of the United States, their bases in Bahrain and (Diego) Garcia will not be safe from Iranian missiles,” said an Iranian Revolutionary Guard adviser to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Majatba Dhualnuri.

Dhualnuri made the statements in the context of talks with the United States and western powers to curb its believed goal of creating nuclear weapons, Israel’s Channel Two reported Monday.

Iranian political and military leaders have, until now, only publicly admitted to possessing ballistic weapons with about a 2,000 km range. Diego Garcia, situated on a lone lagoon in the Indian Ocean, houses major Air Force, naval and submarine, space and communications, and logistics facilities.

The revelation suggests the validity of statements by Israeli leaders in recent years cautioning that the goal of Iran’s missile program and “ballistic umbrella” was to threaten a far wider circle of countries than Israel alone.

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Seven Hours at the Border: Marine Held in Mexico’s New Legal Team Hones Case

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Photo Credit: Fox News The new lawyer for Andrew Tahmooressi, the U.S. Marine held in Mexico for more than two months after mistakenly crossing the border with registered guns, is planning a new legal strategy to win the sergeant’s freedom.

Tijuana-based attorney Lamberto Jesus Esquer Dabdoub will be looking at the prolonged amount of time Tahmooressi was held at the border in the custody of the Mexican military March 31 in what Tahmooressi felt was a failed shakedown.

“Andrew felt something was fishy when the military showed up and wanted to arrest him after the customs officials were willing to accompany him back to the U.S.,” said his mother,Jill Tahmooressi, who plans to travel to Tijuana next week for a news conference with Esquer. “Andrew told me he felt there was an implied expectation of a bribe of some sort by the military but nothing was ever directly requested. He was very uncomfortable with their demeanor.”

The Tahmooressis fired Andrew’s previous attorney amid claims he told the Marine to lie about past travels across the border. The legal shakeup has thrown the already-vague timetable for his case into limbo. But when the case gets back on the docket in Tijuana, Esquer plans to focus on the seven-hour period Tahmooressi spent in custody but without charges at the border between San Ysidro, Calif. and Tijuana.

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Surge in Kids Illegally Crossing into U.S. Alone Strains Border Patrol

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Photo Credit: AP / Brian SkoloffThe flood of young children pouring across the southwestern border is worse than the administration has previously acknowledged, and efforts to deal with unaccompanied minors are overwhelming the Border Patrol, distracting it from going after smugglers and other illegal immigrants, according to an internal draft memo from the agency.

The four-page memo, authored by Deputy Border Patrol Chief Ronald D. Vitiello and dated May 30, contradicts the administration’s argument that the border is secure enough to begin legalizing current illegal aliens already in the U.S.

Instead, Chief Vitiello paints a picture of a government struggling to cope, leaving the children suffering poor conditions, agents unable to focus on major security threats and little sense that it will get better.

Known within the Homeland Security Department as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), their numbers have skyrocketed this year, forcing the department to siphon manpower and money from its other critical border duties.

“The large quantity of DHS interdiction, intelligence, investigation, processing, detention and removal resources currently being dedicated to address UAC is compromising DHS capabilities to address other transborder criminal areas, such as human smuggling and trafficking and illicit drug, weapons, commercial and financial operations,” Chief Vitiello wrote in the memo, which was viewed by The Washington Times.

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North Korea Says it is Holding an American Tourist

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / KCNANorth Korea has detained a 56-year-old man from Ohio, accusing him of an unspecified crime after he traveled to the communist-led country as a tourist, the nation’s state news agency and the man’s family said. The North is now holding three Americans.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency identified the latest detainee as Jeffrey Edward Fowle. It said Friday that he arrived in North Korea on April 29 and authorities were investigating him for committing acts inconsistent with the purpose of a tourist visit. It did not give details.

U.S. officials confirmed the detention but didn’t identify the person for privacy reasons, nor comment on reports that he was held after leaving a Bible in his hotel room.

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“Go To America With Your Child, You Won’t Be Turned Away”

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Photo Credit: KRGV.comCentral Americans say news reports in their countries are encouraging them to make the journey north to the United States.

A mother and child told CHANNEL 5 NEWS that the message being disseminated in their country is, “go to America with your child, you won’t be turned away.”

The woman, Nora Griselda Bercian Diaz, from Guatemala, said she endured threats from the Zetas and extortion from corrupt Mexican police. She eventually crossed the Rio Grande with her 6-year-old Delmi Griselda Paul Bercian by her side.

The woman said she wants a U.S. education for her daughter.

“I want to study,” said the girl who hopes to one day become a doctor.

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3 Times The Obama Administration Has Been Humiliated By Foreign Leaders Since 2013

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kevin LamarqueIn Obama’s America, foreign officials often disrespect top U.S. leaders…

In terms of how America is viewed by citizens of foreign countries under Obama, polling doesn’t quite yet reflect that America is viewed worse under Obama than George W. Bush, but one suspects that it might shortly. While a 2013 Pew global attitudes poll showed most countries viewing Obama’s America more favorably than Bush’s, it also revealed that America’s image in the world has been falling steadily in a majority of countries surveyed since the euphoria of Obama’s first year in office. In some countries — perhaps most hilariously Kenya — Obama’s America in 2013 was viewed less favorably than Bush’s America at the end of his term in 2008…

1.) Karzai refused to meet with Obama

President Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan over Memorial Day Weekend, but despite being commander-in-chief of the world’s only superpower, he couldn’t secure a meeting with the country’s outgoing leader, Hamid Karzai, according to reports.

The ungrateful Afghan leader is currently at loggerheads with the Obama administration, so far refusing to sign a bilateral agreement that would allow a contingent of American forces to remain in the country past 2014.

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Collision Course: Russian Jet Nearly Collides with U.S. Surveillance Aircraft in ‘Reckless’ Intercept in Asia

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Photo Credit: Air Force A Russian Su-27 jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Pacific northeast recently in an aerial clash not seen since the Cold War.

An Air Force RC-135 electronic intelligence jet was flying a surveillance run some 60 miles off the Russian Far East coast, north of Japan, on April 23 when the incident occurred, according to defense officials familiar with the incident.

The Su-27 flew to follow the RC-135, and at one point rolled sideways to reveal its air-to-air missile before flying within 100 feet of the cockpit in an attempt to unnerve the crew.

The showdown was video-recorded by the aircrew.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steven Warren said the Su-27 intercepted the RC-135U as it conducted a routine surveillance mission in international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk during the afternoon of April 23.

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Chinese General Says U.S. Foreign Policy Has ‘Erectile Dysfunction’ Problems

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Photo Credit: APA Chinese general used a regional security conference this weekend to tell a global audience that U.S. rhetoric about the South China Sea risks provoking Beijing.

For the Chinese language audience, the general used language saltier — and perhaps more provocative — words to describe how he feels about U.S. power.

Maj. Gen Zhu Chenghu, a professor at the National Defense University, made the remarks in an interview with Chinese-language Phoenix TV at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore Saturday.

He suggested that if China came to blows with any of its neighbors, the U.S. might not be a reliable ally.

“As U.S. power declines, Washington needs to rely on its allies in order to reach its goal of containing China’s development,” he told the TV station.

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Christian on Death Row for Apostasy: Sudan Shoots Down Hopes of Imminent Release

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Photo Credit: The TimesA day after a senior Sudanese official told media outlets that Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian woman sentenced to death for apostasy, would be freed within days, Khartoum’s foreign ministry on Sunday clarified that that would happen only if an appeal court rules in her favor.

The conflicting statements were the latest twist in the case of Ibrahim, the wife of an American citizen, who was sentenced to death last month after refused to recant her Christian faith.

Based on its ruling that Ibrahim was a Muslim because her father was a Muslim, the court also determined that her 2011 marriage – to Daniel Wani, a Sudanese Christian and U.S. citizen – was invalid and consequently sentenced her to 100 lashes for “adultery.”

Pregnant at the time of her conviction and sentence, Ibrahim has since given birth in prison to a baby girl, Maya, who is now incarcerated together with her and their son, Martin, a toddler just under two years old. The court said she would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the sentence was carried out.

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Sudan Set To Free Woman Sentenced To Death For Refusing To Renounce Her Christian Faith

By Caroline Schaeffer.

Meriam Ibrahim, who gave birth to a daughter while in custody this week, is set to be free, according to foreign ministry officials. Sudanese officials had sentenced the woman to 100 lashings and had given her the death sentence for having abandoned the Islamic faith, the BBC reports.

Ibrahim, 27, was raised as an Orthodox Christian and married an American. A Sudanese judge ruled in May that she should be a Muslim, because it was her father’s faith. The court ruled her marriage void. In the face of all this, she refused to renounce her Christian faith and was sentenced to death by hanging.

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