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Saturday, August 30, 2014
Excerpts: Saudi re criminal militancy. Over 200,000 Saudis take US citizenship.Syrian refugees over 3 million. 12,000 under jihadist siege in Turkmen town.Jailed Morsi accused of leaks to Qatar August 29, 2014

Excerpts: Saudi re criminal militancy. Over 200,000 Saudis take US
citizenship.Syrian refugees over 3 million. 12,000 under jihadist siege in
Turkmen town.Jailed Morsi accused of leaks to Qatar August 29, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 29 Aug.’14:” Saudi jails 23 more men for
militancy”, Reuters
SUBJECT: Saudi re criminal militancy

QUOTE:”growing radicalism …fueled Saudi’s security concerns”

FULL TEXT:A Saudi Arabian court sentenced 23 men to jail terms of up to 22
years for their role in militant attacks, state media said on Wednesday[27
Aug.], part of a security crackdown in which scores of people have been
imprisoned over the past week.

On Tuesday[26 Aug] state media reported that 17 men had been jailed for
terms of up to 33 years. Last week, 48 men were sentenced to prison terms of
up to 30 years and one was condemned to death for militant crimes.

Those jailed have been convicted of crimes including “breaking allegiance to
the ruler”, espousing a militant ideology, travelling to fight in foreign
conflicts, setting up cells to attack foreigners and manufacturing
explosives.

Al Qaeda militants carried out a wave of attacks against foreign and
government targets in Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2006. Last month the
militant group staged a cross-border raid into the kingdom from Yemen, its
first on Saudi soil since 2009.

That attack, along with growing radicalism stirred by the wars in Iraq and
Syria, have fueled Riyadh’s security concerns.
In February King Abdullah decreed long prison terms for anybody who goes
abroad to fight or joins groups deemed extremist.

Saudi Arabia has detained thousands since 2003 over security offences,
jailing hundreds of them.

Human rights monitors inside the kingdom and abroad say some peaceful
dissidents with no links to militants or Islamists have also been jailed
during the security campaign. Riyadh denies this.


SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 29 Aug.’14:”Why do so many Saudis become U.S.
citizens?, by Abdullah Al-Tuwairgi, Makkah daily
SUBJECT:Saudi/U.S. citizenship
QUOTE:”There are more than 200,000 Saudis who have become US citizens and
most of them still maintain their Saudi citizenship”
FULL TEXT:There are more than 200,000 Saudis who have become US citizens
and most of them still maintain their Saudi citizenship. The Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) in the US pursues some of these people for failing to
pay taxes as American citizens. About 30,000 Saudis, who are tax defaulters,
are in the Kingdom and it seems that they are not serious about settling
their tax obligations. Normally, no US citizen can evade paying taxes.

What concerns me is the large number of Saudis who have US citizenship. The
Kingdom does not recognize dual nationality, but Saudi law allows a citizen
to hold the citizenship of another country in exceptional situations but
only with the permission of the Council of Ministers. If a Saudi becomes a
citizen of another country, the Kingdom will cancel his Saudi citizenship
and all of his rights and privileges as a citizen. When I was a foreign
scholarship student in the US in the late 1980s, I noticed that most Arabs
who acquired US citizenship were from countries where the political and
economic conditions were poor. During those days, only a limited number of
Saudis and citizens from other Gulf states applied for US citizenship, and
this was usually due to their emotional attachment to the US.

I feel that the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC should carry out studies to
determine why such an alarming number of Saudis are rushing to acquire US
citizenship and why some of these people have chosen to forgo their Saudi
citizenship. We have to find out the exact reasons for this problem as the
government has spent a lot of money educating and sending Saudi students
abroad under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program. As a result of
this, the Kingdom has become a victim of the brain drain with the only
winning party being the US.


+++SOURCE” Naharnet (Lebanon) 29 Aug.’14:”U.N.: Number of Syrian Refugees
Tops T,hree Million Mark”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Syrian refugees over 3 million
QUOTE” In addition to the refugees the violence has also displaced 6.5
million people within the country meaning that nearly 50 percent of all
Syrians have been forced to flee their homes””
EXCERPTS:"Syria's intensifying refugee crisis will today surpass a record
three million people," the U.N.'s refugee agency said in a statement, adding
that the number did not include hundreds of thousands of others who fled
without registering as refugees.

Less than a year ago, the number of registered Syrian refugees stood at two
million, UNHCR said, pointing to reports of "increasingly horrifying
conditions inside the country" to explain the surge.

It described "cities where populations are surrounded, people are going
hungry and civilians are being targeted or indiscriminately killed."

The increasingly fragmented conflict raging in Syria has claimed more than
191,000 lives since erupting in March 2011.

In addition to the refugees, the violence has also displaced 6.5 million
people within the country, meaning that nearly 50 percent of all Syrians
have been forced to flee their homes, UNHCR said.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 29 Aug.’14:”Iraq forces mass in bid to break
jihadist siege of Turkmen town”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: 12,000 under jihadist siege in Turkmen town
QUOTE: The planned counter-offensive comes amid reports that US President
Barak Obama is weighing a decision to authorise air strikes”
FUL L TEXT:KIRKUK, Iraq — Iraq was massing forces Wednesday[27 Aug.] for an
operation to break the two-month jihadist siege of the Shiite Turkmen town
of Amerli, amid growing fears for residents short of food and water.

The planned counter-offensive comes amid reports that US President Barack
Obama is weighing a decision to authorise air strikes and aid drops in the
area to help around 12,000 people trapped in the northern town.

According to a civilian volunteer commander, thousands of Shiite militiamen
from groups including Asaib Ahl Al Haq and the Badr Organisation are
gathering in the Tuz Khurmatu area of Salaheddin province, north of Amerli,
in preparation for a battle to break the siege.

And an army lieutenant general said that security forces were mobilising in
the Jabal Hamreen area, south of Amerli, to launch an attack.

Iraqi aircraft have begun targeting positions of Islamic State (IS)
jihadists around Amerli, carrying out nine strikes on Tuesday, an officer
said.

Time is running out for the mainly Shiite Turkmen residents of Amerli, who
face danger both because of their Shiite faith, which jihadists consider
heresy, and their resistance against the militants, which has drawn deadly
retribution elsewhere.

There is "no possibility of evacuating them so far", and only limited
humanitarian assistance is reaching the town, said Eliana Nabaa, the
spokeswoman for the UN mission in Iraq.

UN Iraq envoy Nickolay Mladenov has called for an urgent effort to help
Amerli, saying residents who have been under siege for more than two months
face a "possible massacre" if it is overrun.



Obama 'planning coalition'

People trapped in the city are suffering from a major shortage of food and
water and there is no electricity.

The New York Times reported that Obama is "nearing a decision" on
authorising strikes and aid drops in the Amerli area.

The paper added that Obama is also seeking to piece together an
international coalition for potential military action in Syria, where the US
has begun reconnaissance flights to track IS militants.

The US focus on Syria comes after President Bashar Assad's regime said on
Monday it was willing to work with the international community, including
Washington, to tackle extremist fighters.

But American officials said they did not plan to coordinate with Damascus on
targeting IS militants in Syria, despite Syrian insistence that any military
action on its soil must be discussed in advance.

International concern about IS has been rising after a lightning offensive
by the group through parts of Iraq and a string of brutal abuses, including
the murder of US journalist James Foley.

The mother of Steven Sotloff, another American journalist whom the jihadist
group has threatened to kill if air strikes against it are not halted, on
Wednesday appealed for IS to “not punish my son for matters he has no
control over”.

A UN-mandated probe charged Wednesday that public executions, amputations,
lashings and mock crucifixions have become a regular fixture in
jihadist-controlled areas of Syria.

Public executions

“In areas of Syria under [IS] control, particularly in the north and
northeast of the country, Fridays are regularly marked by executions,
amputations and lashings in public squares,” the independent Commission of
Inquiry on the human rights situation in Syria said.

Jihadists are also pushing residents, including children, to attend public
executions by beheading or a shot to the head, it said.

“Executions in public spaces have become a common spectacle on Fridays,”
said the report, which also accused Damascus of repeatedly using chemical
weapons against civilians.

The US began air raids against IS in Iraq on August 8. At least nine
countries have now committed to providing arms to Iraq’s Kurdish peshmerga
troops, who are fighting IS militants in north and east Iraq.

Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel put the number of countries on board at eight,
while Kurdish regional President Massud Barzani said that Iran has provided
arms and equipment as well, bringing the total to at least nine.

US Chairman of the Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff General Martin Dempsey has
acknowledged that the IS group cannot be defeated “without addressing that
part of the organisation that resides in Syria”.

Syria’s forces on Wednesday[27 Aug.] lost further ground to other rebels,
who seized control of the Syrian crossing with the Israeli-occupied Golan
Heights, a monitoring group said.

The takeover of the Quneitra crossing was led by Al Qaeda’s affiliate Al
Nusra Front joined by a number of rebel groups, the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Heavy fighting with the Syrian army is continuing in the surrounding area,”
said observatory director, Rami Abdel Rahman.


+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 29 Aug.’14:”Egypt’s Morsi accused of leaking secrets
to Qatar”, Associated Press
SUBJECT : Jailed Morsi accused of leaks to Qatar
QUOTE:”Morsi’s response to each question was: ‘I am the legitimate ruler’ “

FULL TEXT:CAIRO — Egypt's ousted and jailed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi
refused to answer a prosecutor's questions about allegations that he leaked
classified documents — some related to the army's budget — to Qatar via the
Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster, Egypt's official news agency reported
Thursday[[28 Aug.].

If the charges are referred to court, it would be the fourth case under way
against Morsi, who was overthrown by the military last summer amid mass
protests against his yearlong rule.

According to Egypt's Middle East News Agency, Morsi refused to answer any of
the prosecutor's questions during a four-hour interrogation session held
inside Borg Al Arab prison, near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Morsi's response to each question was: "I am the legitimate leader," MENA
said.

Morsi and other individuals are accused of passing state security files to
Qatar, a close ally of his Muslim Brotherhood group, "in a way that harms
national security", judicial officials said late Wednesday.

Egypt's General Prosecutor Hisham Barakat ordered Morsi and seven other
detainees held for 15 days in reference to the case, the officials said,
adding that other suspects remain at large. The officials spoke late
Wednesday[27 Aug.] on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised
to talk to reporters.

Morsi already faces charges of conspiring with foreign groups, inciting the
murder of his opponents and orchestrating prison breaks during the 2011
uprising that toppled his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

Authorities claim to have uncovered a network of top Egyptian officials
affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jazeera employees and
high-ranking Qatari officials who leaked the information, and tried to
smuggle the original documents. Officials said the network intended to sell
the original documents to Qatar for $1.5 million.

MENA said some of the documents included information about the army's
secretive budget, a sensitive issue in Egypt. It added that Al Jazeera
network already aired some of the leaked documents.

The case first came to light in March, when Egypt's Interior Minister
Mohammed Ibrahim accused a presidential secretary, Amin El Serafi, of
leaking documents from the safes of the presidential palace, and sending
copies through his daughter and other Brotherhood members to an Arab country
that supports the group, a veiled reference to Qatar. Ibrahim said the
suspects aimed to disclose military secrets in order to destabilise Egypt.

He said that after Serafi's arrest, a Palestinian national who later worked
as an Al Jazeera producer met with a senior editor for Al Jazeera, who
arranged a meeting with top officials in the Arab country. He said a flight
attendant belonging to the Brotherhood attempted to transfer the original
files outside Egypt.

According to MENA, authorities found the original documents in three large
suitcases.

The Muslim Brotherhood won a series of electoral victories after the 2011
uprising that toppled Mubarak, culminating in Morsi's election the following
year, when he became the country's first freely elected leader. His year in
power proved divisive, however and the military toppled him following
massive protests demanding his resignation.

After Morsi was overthrown, authorities launched a sweeping crackdown on his
supporters, leaving hundreds killed and tens of thousands in detention,
including many senior Brotherhood members.

The group's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie has been sentenced to death and
to life in jail, in separate verdicts that could still be appealed. The
government designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group late last
year.

The ouster of the Islamist leader strained relations between Egypt and
Qatar, as Cairo accuses the rich Gulf nation and its Al Jazeera network of
supporting Morsi and his group. The network has denied accusations of biased
reporting.

In June, three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to seven to 10 years in
prison for promoting or belonging to the Brotherhood and falsifying their
coverage of pro-Morsi protests in order to harm Egypt's security.

The trial of the three — Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed
Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed — was condemned by rights groups as
politically motivated.

=======
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

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