Sunday, July 26, 2015

White House says Turkey has right to defend itself after Kurdish attacks


The White House said late Saturday Turkey has the right to defend itself against terror attacks by Kurdish rebels, after bombing Kurds in northern Iraq.
For months, Turkey had been reluctant to join the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State terror group despite gain made by the group on Turkey’s doorstep. Now, Turkish warplanes are directly striking ISIS locations, which started Saturday in Syria and continued with a bombing run against Kurds in northern Iraq.
The strikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, muddle the U.S.-led right against ISIS. The U.S. has relied on Syrian Kurds affiliated with the PKK to carry out attacks against ISIS militants.
National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks by the PKK, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist group, and said the PKK should renounce terrorism and resume talks with Ankara.
"We urge de-escalation by both sides and encourage everyone to remain committed to the peaceful ‘solution process’ to bring about a just and sustainable peace for all Turkish citizens,” said Pentagon spokesman James Brindle.
Turkish jets hit shelters and storage facilities belonging to the PKK in seven areas in northern Iraq, including Mount Quandil where the group’s headquarters are located, authorities said. It was Turkey’s first aerial raid in northern Iraq against the PKK since Turkey brokered peace talks with the Kurds in 2012. The PKK declared a cease-fire in 2013.
Turkey’s recent shift in policy toward the fight against ISIS also comes amid a closer cooperation between Iran and the U.S. following the recent nuclear agreement. An analyst told The Associated Press the agreement threatened to lessen Turkey’s strategic importance, prompting it to cooperate with the U.S.-led strikes against the extremists.
Turkey conducted raids on the Islamic State following a suicide-bombing by the terror group, which killed 32 people, and an ISIS attack on Turkish forces, which killed a soldier. IT also declared that it had reached an agreement with Washington to open up its southern air bases to coalition aircract, giving itself a front-line role in the fight.
A senior Obama administration official said there was no connection between the move to deepen U.S.-Turkish cooperation against IS and the airstrikes that Turkey is currently carrying out against the PKK. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity.
Fadi Hakura, a Turkey analyst at the Chatham House in London, said Turkish leaders feared that increased cooperation between Tehran and Washington in the battle against ISIS could sideline Turkey from U.S. calculations, providing impetus to allow U.S. fighter jets to use Turkish air bases near the Syrian border.
In addition, Islamic State has grown substantially more powerful in the last year, and controls a wider swath of the Turkey-Syria border, leading Turkish intelligence to change its assessment so that it now views the militant group as an imminent threat to Turkish security, said Hakura.
"The use of the Turkish air base is extremely important," he said. "Before, the U.S. had to traverse 1,000 miles to target IS in Syria. Now it will be much less, so naturally the air campaign will be far more intense and far more effective."
The attacks against PKK positions in Iraq comes amid signs of trouble in the peace process, with Turkey accusing the Kurdish rebels of not keeping a pledge to withdraw armed fighters from Turkey’s territory and to disarm. Turkey is also concerned that Kurdish gains in Iraq and in Syria could encourage its own minority to seek independence.
Tensions between Turkey and the Kurds have flared in days following the ISIS bombing in Suruc on Monday. Kurdish groups have blamed the government for not doing enough to combat ISIS. On Wednesday, the PKK claimed responsibility for killing two policemen in the Kurdish majority city of Sanliurfa.
The PKK said the strikes spelled the end of the peace process aimed to end three decades of conflict in Turkey's mainly-Kurdish southeast that has killed tens of thousands of people.
"Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire," Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party, also said the strikes amounted to an end of the two-year-old truce. It called on the government to end the bombing campaign and resume a dialogue with the Kurds.
While conducting raids, Turkey has simultaneously been clamping down on suspected IS and PKK militants and other groups inside the country. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday nearly 600 suspects were detained in two days of raids in 22 provinces.
"Turkey's operations will, if needed, continue until the terror organizations' command centers, all locations where they plan (attacks) against Turkey and all depots used to store arms to be used against Turkey are destroyed," Davutoglu said.
On Friday, three F-16 jets struck Islamic State targets that included two command centers and a gathering point near the Turkish border in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine Islamic State militants were killed in the raids. The extremists have yet to comment on the strikes.
The Syrian government has so far refrained from commenting on Turkish strikes inside Syrian territory, but Syria's main political opposition group, which is backed by Ankara, welcomed Turkey's move.

Naked Tree Huggers Mount Eucalyptus Trees


There's only one thing worse than a tree-hugger -- and that's a nude tree-hugger.
About 75 folks at the University of California, Berkeley disrobed over the weekend and mounted eucalyptus trees.
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All part of a protest directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- they say the trees pose a fire hazard and need to come down.
“This is a war on trees,” wildlife activist Jack Gescheidt told Campus Reform.
The demonstration was organized by a group Gescheidt founded -- The Tree Spirit Project. Their mission is “to raise awareness of the critical role trees play in our lives, both globally and personally.”
And part of their schtick is to commune with nature while frolicking buck naked in the wilderness.
The federal government doesn’t seem to be swayed by the protest.
BerkeleySide.com reports that FEMA provided $5.7 million for California to remove the trees as part of a fire hazard abatement in Claremont Canyon.
That region was devastated by a deadly fire in 1991. Twenty-five people were killed, 150 injured and more than 3,300 homes were incinerated.
But Gescheidt doesn’t believe trees cause forest fires.
“The claim about trees being flammable is nonsense,” he told Campus Reform. “All living trees and forests are fire resistant.”
So how does he roast marshmallows without a campfire? Maybe he uses tofu and wheatgrass. I hear that stuff is pretty combustible.
Reaction to the nude protest was muted. One critic said the protesters were “about as hot as you’d expect.”
I heard about a guy from Yazoo City, Miss., who was into that tree hugging malarkey. He dropped his drawers and high-tailed it up an oak tree covered in kudzu.
There was one problem, though. That poor fellow couldn't tell the difference between kudzu and poison ivy.
It proves my theory that there are just some things you should not do if you're buck naked -- like shimmy up a tree -- or fry bacon.

Marines killed in Tenn. shooting eligible for Purple Heart if gunman had terror ties, report says


The four Marines who were killed when a gunman opened fire at a Navy Operational Support Center reportedly will only be eligible to receive a Purple Heart award if the FBI declares the shooter had ties to a terror organization.
The Marine Corps Times reports Purple Heart packages are being prepared for the Marines who lost their lives in the shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The FBI has only referred to Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez as a “homegrown violent extremist.”
 “Determination of eligibility will have to wait until all the facts are gathered and the FBI investigation is complete,” Marine Corps public affairs officer Maj. Clark Carpenter told the Marine Corps Times.
The Marine Corps is also looking into the requirements for awarding a Purple Heart to Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, who was injured in the attack, said Capt. Alejandro Aguilera, a spokesman for the 6th Marine Corps District told the Marine Corps Times.
Cheeley was shot in the leg after Abdulazeez pulled up to his recruiting office and opened fire through the storefront window.
To receive the Purple Heart, it must be demonstrated that active-duty troops were killed or wounded by someone in contact with or inspired and motivated by a foreign terrorist organization.
Marines Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, from Hampden, Mass., Sgt. Carson Holmquist, of Polk, Wisc., and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, of Burke, N.C. were all killed in the July 16 attack. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith also died in the attack.
Federal officials are still working to determine whether Abdulazeez had been radicalized to attack the recruiting centers.

Clinton denies sending classified information from private email server


Hillary Clinton told reporters Saturday that she never sent or received classified information using her private e-mail server when she served as secretary of state, and that the facts on the issue "are pretty clear."
The Democratic presidential hopeful spoke briefly about the growing controversy surrounding her use of the server after a Democratic gathering at the Madison County Historical Complex in Iowa. Reporters raised the issue during a news conference that followed the event.
"I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received," Clinton said. "What I think you're seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion, to some extent disagreement among various parts of the government, over what should or should not be publicly released."
Clinton reiterated that she wanted the emails in question to be made public as soon as possible, and expressed no opinion as to whether the Department of Justice should investigate.
"They can fight over it or argue over it. That's up to them. I can tell you what the facts are," she said.
"I think there's so much confusion around this that I understand why reporters and the public are asking questions, but the facts are pretty clear. I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time," she said.
The news conference came on the same day as the Clinton campaign announced that the former secretary of state will testify in October before the House committee investigating the killing of four Americans in a 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya
Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton will testify publicly before the House’s special Select Committee on Benghazi, after months of negotiations about the terms of her appearance.
A tentative date of Oct. 22 has been set.
Intelligence investigators told the Justice Department in a letter this week that secret government information may have been compromised in the unsecured system she used at her New York home.
Republicans responded to Clinton's denial in a statement released late Saturday.
“Hillary Clinton can't help but continue to mislead the American people," RNC spokesman Michael Short said in the statement. "The facts are clear: independent government investigators found that Hillary Clinton possessed information that was classified at the time on her secret email server and now the matter has been referred to the FBI.
"Hillary Clinton's reckless attempt to get around public records laws has jeopardized our national security.”
Clinton used the server and private email for official business that included some exchanges about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi.
The investigation into the deaths of the U.S. ambassador and the three others has grown into a political fight over Clinton's emails and private server and risks overshadowing her 2016 presidential campaign.
“Friday began with the printing of a story that was false,” Merrill said in a statement. “Entities from the highest levels of two branches of government have now made that clear. … We want to ensure that appropriate procedures are followed as these emails are reviewed while not unduly delaying the release of her emails.”
The inspector general of the U.S. intelligence community on Friday alerted the Justice Department to the potential compromise of classified information arising from Clinton's server.
The IG also sent a memo to members of Congress indicating that "potentially hundreds of classified emails" were among the 30,000 that Clinton had provided to the State Department -- a concern the office said it raised with FBI counterintelligence officials.
Though the referral to the Justice Department does not seek a criminal probe and does not specifically target Clinton, the latest steps by government investigators will further fuel the partisan furor surrounding the 55,000 pages of emails the State Department already has under review.
A spokesman for Democrats on the Benghazi committee told Fox News on Saturday that Gowdy's staff proposed to Clinton's attorney hearing dates in October and that on Friday the attorney accepted the Oct. 22 date.
The letter said none of the emails were marked "classified" at the time it was sent or received but that some should have been handled as such and sent on a secure computer network.
Clinton has said she used the private server at her home as a matter of convenience to limit her number of electronic devices.

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