ISR Weekly

Friday, February 6, 2015

Erdoğan wants more power, so he asks for 400 deputies for his former AKP at Turkish elections -- Fethullah Gulen: Turkey’s Eroding Democracy

Friday, February 06, 2015 No comments

Erdoğan wants 400 deputies for his former AKP at Turkish elections
Disregarding opposition criticism of his direct involvement in politics, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again appealed for votes for his former Justice and Development Party (AKP) without explicitly giving the party’s name, declaring that “400 lawmakers” are needed for a “new Turkey.”

“If we want a new Turkey at the June 7 elections, we will give it 400 lawmakers,” Erdoğan said, speaking at a public rally in the northwestern province of Bursa on Feb. 6.

He linked several key issues to this newly set goal, including his desired shift to the presidential system.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

At Prayer Breakfast, Obama Decries 'Distortions' of Faith to Justify Violence

Thursday, February 05, 2015 No comments

Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Thursday, President Barack Obama decried groups like ISIS that commit violence in the name of religion and warned that such "distortions" are not unique to any one group of people.

"We see faith driving us to do right," he said. "But we also see faith being twisted and distorted, being used as a wedge - or worse, sometimes used as a weapon."

ISIL kills 3 of its Chinese members who attempted to leave

Thursday, February 05, 2015 No comments

The Islamic State (IS) has killed three Chinese militants who tried to leave the group, an official from the Kurdish security force in Iraq told the Global Times.

The Kurdish security official said Wednesday that in the past six months, IS has executed 120 of its members who attempted to escape from the group and leave Iraq and Syria. Among the 120, three were Chinese citizens and were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a terrorist organization that is also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

More evidence about Saudi connections to terror organizations emerging at an increased rate

Wednesday, February 04, 2015 No comments

There has long been evidence that wealthy Saudis provided support for bin Laden, the son of a Saudi construction magnate, and Al Qaeda before the 2001 attacks. Saudi Arabia had worked closely with the United States to finance Islamic militants fighting the Soviet Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Al Qaeda drew its members from those militant fighters.

“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” wrote Mr. Graham, who has long demanded the release of 28 pages of the congressional report on the attacks that explore Saudi connections and remain classified.

No limits to ISIL cruelty: Jordan, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia facilited the funding and arming of fighters who eventually joined ISIL

Wednesday, February 04, 2015 No comments

Just when its cruel and degrading ways is thought to have peak, ISIL finds ways to shock even its own supporters: Jordanian Salafis and others react.

Safi al-Kasasbeh, the pilot's father, called for the Jordanian government to do "more than just executing prisoners".

"I call for [IS] to be eliminated completely," he told reporters on Wednesday.

An official Saudi Arabian source quoted by the country's SPA news agency described the killing as a "barbaric, cowardly act, which is not sanctioned by the principles of tolerant Islam... and cannot be perpetrated except by the bitterest enemies of Islam".

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Jordan to Execute al-Qaeda Prisoners After ISIL Burns Pilot Taken Hostage

Tuesday, February 03, 2015 No comments

Jordanian pilot taken hostage by ISIL in December has been killed by the militant group. Jordan will execute al-Qaeda prisoners: Sajida al-Rishawi, Ziad al-Karbouli and four other militants.

The Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December after his plane crashed on the terrorist-controlled territory in Syria, has reportedly been burned alive on Tuesday.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

How Americans really feel about Netanyahu and why it matters

Sunday, February 01, 2015 No comments

By Shibley Telhami January 30

The controversy over an invitation to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address Congress shortly before Israeli elections has polarized the U.S. political scene. Netanyahu has been here before, of course. His transparent support for the Republican candidate for president in 2012, Mitt Romney, generated much resentment in the Democratic Party hierarchy, and certainly in the Obama administration. But this time – together with House Speaker John Boehner – he is a central player in a highly charged national political environment pitting a Republican-controlled Congress against a Democratic president; public and media attention is much greater, and the consequences potentially higher.