Kurds Issue Ultimatum to Turkish Government

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThe Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has given a September 1st deadline to the Turkish government, to advance the Kurdish-Turk peace process, the AFP has reported.

“A step must be taken. September 1 is the deadline”, Cemil Bayik, the PKK’s new leader, was quoted as saying by pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.

“If no step is taken before 1 September, it will be understood that the aim is not a solution,” he added. Without providing further detail, Mr Bayik said Kurds would then have to defend themselves.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and Western nations, had announced a ceasefire with the Turkish government back in March of this year.

The truce involved the PKK agreeing to remove its approximately 2000 fighters from Turkey back to northern Iraq, in return for greater constitutional rights for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds.

Read more from this story HERE.

Edward Snowden Asylum: US ‘Disappointed’ by Russian Decision

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Photo Credit: APBy Alec Luhn in Moscow, Luke Harding, and Paul Lewis. The White House expressed anger and dismay on Thursday after Russia granted temporary asylum to the American whistleblower Edward Snowden and allowed him to leave the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for over a month.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was “extremely disappointed” by the decision, almost certainly taken personally by President Vladimir Putin. He said Moscow should hand Snowden back and hinted that Barack Obama might now boycott a bilateral meeting with Putin in September, due to be held when the US president travels to Russia for a G20 summit.

Carney added that Snowden had arrived in both China and Russia carrying with him thousands of top secret US documents. He said: “Simply the possession of that kind of highly sensitive classified information outside of secure areas is both a huge risk and a violation.

“As we know he’s been in Russia now for many weeks. There is a huge risk associated with … removing that information from secure areas. You shouldn’t do it, you can’t do it, it’s wrong.”

With US-Russian relations now at a cold war-style low, Snowden slipped out of Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday afternoon. His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said Russia’s federal migration service had granted him temporary asylum for one year. Snowden had left the airport to stay at an undisclosed location with expatriate Americans, he added. Read more from this story HERE.

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White House: Russia gave us no heads up on Snowden

By Lesley Clark. The Obama administration is “extremely disappointed” with Russia’s decision to allow Edward Snowden to leave a Moscow airport — a decision it made without giving the White House a heads up, Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

The decision came “despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr. Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him,” Carney said, reiterating the administration’s stance that Snowden is neither a dissident, nor a whistleblower.

“He is accused of leaking classified information and has been charged with three felony counts, and he should be returned to the United States as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process and protections,” Carney said.

He said the US would be in contact with Russian authorities, “expressing our extreme disappointment in this decision, and making the case clearly that there is absolute legal justification for Mr. Snowden to be returned to the United States.”

And he said the U.S. is evaluating whether Obama will attend a planned September meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APSnowden Reportedly Receives Temporary Asylum in Russia, Leaves Airport

By Fox News. NSA leaker Edward Snowden reportedly has left the Moscow airport and entered Russian territory after receiving refugee status in the country.

His lawyer told The Associated Press on Thursday that Snowden had crossed into Russia. Anatoly Kucherena said Snowden was issued papers that allowed him to leave Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23.

The American fugitive reportedly has been granted a one-year temporary asylum. A Russian news service also quoted Kucherena as saying that Snowden went to a safe place, but his whereabouts would not be disclosed. Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Overwhelmingly Kills Rand Paul’s Bill to Cut Off Aid to Egypt and, Instead, Rebuild Nation’s Bridges

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Photo Credit: Life NewsThe Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut off aid to Egypt.

The Kentucky conservative proposed the measure as a way to override the Obama administration’s refusal to classify the recent political upheaval in Egypt as a “military coup” — a move that by law would’ve frozen aid to the north African country.

The proposal called for redirecting the $1.5 billion in mainly military assistance the U.S. provides Egypt each year to bridge-building projects in the U.S.

The measure, which failed by a vote of 83-13, was attached as an amendment to a transportation and housing spending bill.

Paul, who is mulling a 2016 presidential run, casted his debate in terms of refocusing U.S. government efforts to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

Read more from this story HERE.

Canada Warns Obama: It’s Trains or the Keystone Pipeline

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On 6 July, a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train carrying 72 tank cars filled with oil exploded after its brakes apparently failed, sending it rolling into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, where it derailed and then exploded. In the conflagration that followed, an estimated 47 people were killed.

Whether Canadians like it or not, the use of such trains has soared in recent years. The Railway Association of Canada reports that as recently as four years ago Canadian railways moved just 500 carloads of crude oil, but that number has now soared to about 140,000 carloads annually.

While currently only about three percent of Canadian crude is currently transported by rail, one industry predicts railway carriage of oil products rising to as high as 25 percent by 2035.

Now, in a breathtaking display of chutzpah, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. is warning President Obama if he does not approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, then he can expect similar oil trains and even trucks to enter the U.S. Ambassador Gary Doer said, “His choice is to have it come down by a pipeline that he approves, or without his approval, it comes down on trains. That’s just the raw common sense of this thing, and we’ve been saying it for two years and we’ve been proven correct. At the end of the day, it’s trains or pipelines.”

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Now Calling Benghazi Phony Scandal

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Photo Credit: APThe White House said bluntly Wednesday that it considers the controversy over the Benghazi attack to be among the so-called “phony scandals” that President Obama has been complaining about in recent speeches — even as new questions were being raised about the lack of progress in the investigation.

Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked at the daily briefing about Obama’s repeated claim — which he asserted most recently during a speech in Tennessee on Tuesday — that Washington is getting distracted by phony scandals. Asked what the president was referring to, Carney listed the scandals over the IRS targeting of conservative groups and over Benghazi.

“What we’ve seen, as time has passed and more facts have become known, whether it’s about the attacks in Benghazi and the talking points or revelations about conduct at the IRS, that attempts to turn this into a scandal have failed,” Carney said.

Carney was specifically referring to claims by GOP lawmakers that the administration misled the public about the nature of the attack, by stressing the connection to an anti-Islam film. The administration denies this. But lawmakers continue to have concerns that extend far beyond the so-called Benghazi talking points.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pakistani Taliban Prison Attack Frees Hundreds of Inmates

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Photo Credit: Saood Rehman/EPAHundreds of prisoners have been freed by Islamists in Pakistan after a spectacular assault by extremists on a jail in the western city of Dera Ismail Khan.

The attack, at around 11.30pm on Monday, involved one large bomb – so loud it rattled windows miles away – to blow a hole in the jail’s walls, followed by a mortar bombardment.

Around 70 gunmen, many dressed in police uniforms, then rushed through the gaps, throwing grenades and firing rocket-propelled grenades, killing six policemen and opening cells to free around 250 prisoners. Authorities said these included 24 wanted terrorists.

The attack, which came on the eve of voting for a new president in the troubled south Asian state, underlines once again the weakness of the Pakistani state and the inability of the country’s law and order agencies to maintain security.

One strike last week targeted an office of the main spy agency, the ISI, while another killed more than 50 Shia Muslims. Six Shia Muslim prisoners – the vast majority of Pakistanis are Sunni – were killed in Monday night’s assault.

Read more from this story HERE.

Egypt Restores Feared Secret Police Units

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Photo Credit: APEgypt’s interim government was accused of attempting to return the country to the Mubarak era on Monday, after the country’s interior ministry announced the resurrection of several controversial police units that were nominally shut down following the country’s 2011 uprising and the interim prime minister was given the power to place the country in a state of emergency.

Egypt’s state security investigations service, Mabahith Amn ad-Dawla, a wing of the police force under President Mubarak, and a symbol of police oppression, was supposedly closed in March 2011 – along with several units within it that investigated Islamist groups and opposition activists. The new national security service (NSS) was established in its place.

But following Saturday’s massacre of at least 83 Islamists, interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim announced the reinstatement of the units, and referred to the NSS by its old name. He added that experienced police officers sidelined in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution would be brought back into the fold.

Police brutality also went unchecked under Morsi, who regularly failed to condemn police abuses committed during his presidency. But Ibrahim’s move suggests he is using the ousting of Morsi – and a corresponding upsurge in support for Egypt’s police – as a smokescreen for the re-introduction of pre-2011 practices.

Ibrahim’s announcement came hours before Egypt’s interim prime minister was given the power to place the country in a state of emergency – a hallmark of Egypt under Mubarak.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: Use Egypt’s Foreign Aid to Rebuild our Crumbling Bridges Here at Home

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Photo Credit: APAimages/Rex FeaturesRand Paul targets Egypt aid

By Julian Pecquet. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) plans to use next week’s vote on transportation spending to end aid to Egypt following the ouster of the country’s freely elected president.

Paul’s amendment comes as a growing number of senators are rebelling against the White House’s decision not to call Mohamed Morsi’s ouster a military coup, a declaration that would automatically freeze the $1.5 billion in mostly military aid the U.S. provides every year.

The foreign aid skeptic proposes spending the money on the country’s crumbling bridges instead, an issue that has bipartisan appeal.

“It is no secret that our nation’s roads and bridges are crumbling at an increasing rate, many of which are in critical stages of disrepair,” Paul said in introducing the amendment.

“Instead of sending taxpayer money to countries that are ineligible to receive our aid, like Egypt, we should be directing that money to these pressing domestic needs.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Morsi supporters pledge to stand firm after massacre

By Patrick Kingsley. Supporters of the overthrown Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have pledged to maintain their weeks-old sit-in in east Cairo, despite the massacre of scores of their comrades by state officials on Saturday.

At least 65 pro-Morsi protesters were shot dead during an eight-hour attack by police officers and armed men dressed in civilian clothes. An ambulance official said the death toll was 72; the Muslim Brotherhood said 66 had died and a further 61 were braindead in hospital.

“No one’s going anywhere,” said Abdel-Rahman Daour, one of several spokespeople at the sit-in outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque. “We either have freedom or we die. We’re not going to live in a country without freedom.”

Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters have camped outside the mosque since late June when the president’s overthrow began to seem likely. Egypt’s interior minister has made it clear that he intends to clear Rabaa as soon as possible, and Saturday’s massacre in a nearby street was considered an attempt to intimidate the protesters.

On Friday hundreds of thousands of anti-Morsi protesters turned out in support of a call by Egypt’s army chief, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, for a crackdown on what he called terrorists – a move sceptics saw as a veiled threat to protesters at Rabaa. Read more from this story HERE.

Snowden Claims US Will Use Torture or Worse if He is Returned but Holder Promises Not to Execute Him

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Photo Credit: APThe US has told the Russian government that it will not seek the death penalty for Edward Snowden should he be extradited, in an attempt to prevent Moscow from granting asylum to the former National Security Agency contractor.

In a letter sent this week, US attorney general Eric Holder told his Russian counterpart that the charges faced by Snowden do not carry the death penalty. Holder added that the US “would not seek the death penalty even if Mr Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes”.

Holder said he had sent the letter, addressed to Alexander Vladimirovich, Russia’s minister of justice, in response to reports that Snowden had applied for temporary asylum in Russia “on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty”.

“These claims are entirely without merit,” Holder said. In addition to his assurance that Snowden would not face capital punishment, the attorney general wrote: “Torture is unlawful in the United States.”

In the letter, released by the US Department of Justice on Friday, Holder added: “We believe that these assurances eliminate these asserted grounds for Mr Snowden’s claim that he should be treated as a refugee or granted asylum, temporary or otherwise.”

Read more from this story HERE.

US Calls on Egypt to “Pull Back from the Brink” While the Muslim Brotherhood Announces the “Free Egyptian Army” Plan

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Photo Credit: Amru Salahuddien/CorbisEgypt: John Kerry calls for leaders to ‘pull back from the brink’

By Reuters. The United States has urged Egypt to “pull back from the brink” after security forces killed dozens of supporters of the deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

US secretary of state John Kerry spoke to two senior members of Egypt’s army-installed interim cabinet, expressing his “deep concern”.

“This is a pivotal moment for Egypt,” he said in a statement. “The United States … calls on all of Egypt’s leaders across the political spectrum to act immediately to help their country take a step back from the brink.”

Thousands of Brotherhood supporters were hunkered down in a vigil at a Cairo mosque on Sunday, vowing to stand their ground despite the imminent threat of a move to disperse them.

Saturday’s bloodshed, following huge rival rallies, left an unknown number of people dead. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDMuslim Brotherhood declares ‘Free Egyptian Army’ plan

By F. Michael Maloof. The head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has declared that his organization plans to create a “Free Egyptian Army” in an effort to reinstate Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammad Morsi, who recently was removed in a coup by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohammad Badie who, like Morsi, already has been arrested for inciting violence, said that the Free Egyptian Army intends to “put their viewpoints into action” to return their elected president.

Badie’s announcement to create the Free Egyptian Army mirrors action by the Syrian opposition in creating the Free Syrian Army, which has been fighting against the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Badie has been jailed on allegations of inciting the violent demonstrations by Brotherhood supporters resulting in more than 100 deaths. His announcement suggests the prospect of increased confrontations with the Egyptian military, leading to greater instability and the prospect of civil war itself, analysts say.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence some 30 years ago when it entered into mainstream politics, even though its goal remains to Islamize the Egyptian society by promoting Islamic, or Shariah law. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: MANU BRABO/APEgypt: Military accused of killing over 100 Muslim Brotherhood followers

By Ruth Sherlock, and Magdy Samaan, and Harriet Alexander. The Muslim Brotherhood said that 66 people were killed and another 61 were “brain dead” on life support machines, after a violent repression of a protest by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. The health ministry put the toll from the night’s violence at 72.

“They were not shooting to wound, they were shooting to kill,” said Gehad El-Haddad, Brotherhood spokesman. “The bullet wounds are in the head and chest.”

The Sunday Telegraph saw the aftermath of the violence first hand on Saturday at a makeshift field hospital close to the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, where dozens of corpses were laid out in a room and blood soaked the carpets.

Hundreds of wounded lay resting and groaning on floor. Doctors and volunteers sought to treat the injured with minimal first aid kits.

Many aimed chants at Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the armed forces, saying: “The people want to execute the butcher.” Read more from this story HERE.