AL QAEDA’S GROWING INFLUENCE IN SYRIA
GAZIANTEP, Turkey - Al Qaeda has swept to power with the aim of imposing a strict Islamist ideology on Syrians across large swathes of Syria's rebel-held north, according to a CNN survey of towns, activists and analysts that reveals an alarming increase in al Qaeda-linked control in just the past month.
Al Qaeda-backed militants known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are the predominant military force in northern Syria, according to activists and seasoned observers.
They have a powerful influence over the majority of population centers in the rebel-held north.
Rami Abdul Rahman, from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: "ISIS is the strongest group in Northern Syria -- 100% -- and anyone who tells you anything else is lying."
Source: CNN, Agencies
WESTERN WORLD CANNOT DEFEAT AL QAIDA?
LONDON , England - The new head of Britain's Armed Forces has warned that the West cannot defeat Al Qaida. General Sir David Richards ( photo) said defeating militants was "unnecessary and would never be achieved".However, he argued that it could be "contained" to allow Britons to lead secure lives. General Richards, 58, said the threat posed by "Al Qaida and its affiliates" meant Britain's national security would be at risk for at least 30 years.
The general who laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall yesterday in memory of Britain's war dead, said the West's war against what he described as a "pernicious ideology" had parallels with the fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War.- In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the general disclosed that Prince William was unlikely to serve in Afghanistan but suggested that his brother Harry, training to be an Apache helicopter pilot, could return to front line duty in Helmand province.
He said the British military and the Government had been "guilty of not fully understanding what was at stake" in Afghanistan and admitted that the Afghan people were beginning to "tire" of Nato's inability to deliver on its promises. However, he said the sacrifice being made by the Armed Forces in Afghanistan, where 343 soldiers have been killed since 2001, "has been worth it".- Progress was being made and Nato was "in the right parish". He said: "Don't give up folks, it's all to play for."
- The general also dismissed suggestions that troops badly injured fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan would ever be "forced" to leave the Armed Forces but said most of those seriously wounded wanted to leave to begin new careers.
- He rejected claims by former senior Royal Navy chiefs who said scrapping the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the Harrier force would jeopardise the security of the Falkland islands.
But it is the general's assertion that victory against militants cannot be achieved that is likely to prove most contentious. The general said: "In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation's capital. First of all you have to ask: do we need to defeat it (militancy) in the sense of a clear cut victory? I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved.- "But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children's lives are led securely? I think we can." He also said the real weapon in the war against Al Qaida was the use of "upstream prevention" as well as "education and democracy".
OSAMA BIN LADEN BLASTS U.S FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Osama bin Laden sought to draw a wider public into his fight against the United States in a new message Friday, dropping his usual talk of religion and holy war and focusing instead on an unexpected topic: global warming.The al-Qaida leader blamed the United States and other industrialized nations for climate change and said the only way to prevent disaster was to break the American economy, calling on the world to boycott U.S. goods and stop using the dollar.
- "The effects of global warming have touched every continent. Drought and deserts are spreading, while from the other floods and hurricanes unseen before the previous decades have now become frequent," bin Laden said in the audiotape, aired on the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera.
- The terror leader noted Washington's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and painted the United States as in the thrall of major corporations that he said "are the true criminals against the global climate" and are to blame for the global economic crisis, driving "tens of millions into poverty and unemployment."
- Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders have mentioned global warming and struck an anti-globalization tone in previous tapes and videos. But the latest was the first message by bin Laden solely dedicated to the topic. It was also nearly entirely empty of the Islamic militant rhetoric that usually fills his declarations.
- The change in rhetoric aims to give al-Qaida's message an appeal beyond hardcore Islamic militants, said Evan Kohlmann, of globalterroralert.com, a private, U.S.-based terrorism analysis group.
- The al-Qaida leader's call for an economic boycott helps in the appeal,providing a nonviolent way to participate in opposing the United States.
- "People of the world, it's not right for the burden to be left on the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in an issue that causes harm to everyone," he said. "Boycott them to save yourselves and your possessions and your children from climate change and to live proud and free."
- Al-Jazeera aired excerpts of the message and posted a transcript on its Web site. The tape's authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but the voice resembled that of bin Laden on messages known to be from him. The new message comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day.
- In the new tape, bin Laden refers to the Dec. 18 climate conference in Copenhagen — indicated the message was made recently.
- The message whose length Al-Jazeera did not specify — makes only brief passing mentions of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine and instead hits on issues that could resonate at a time of widespread economic woes.
- "The world is held hostage by major corporations, which are pushing it to the brink," he said. "World politics are not governed by reason but by the force and greed of oil thieves and warmongers and the cruel beasts of capitalism."
- To stop global warming, he called for the "wheels of the American economy" to be brought to a halt. "This is possible if the peoples of the world stop consuming American goods."
- "We must also stop dealings in the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible," he said. "I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America."
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
