Amazon.com Inc. will protest the Pentagon’s decision to award a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing a statement.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
A challenge to the Defense Department’s award announced last month was widely expected by legal experts, analysts and consultants, especially after President Donald Trump publicly derided Amazon’s bid for the high-stakes contract.
Trump had said in August that Amazon’s bid for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract was under review by his administration after complaints from other companies.
Amazon was considered a favorite for the contract, part of a broader digital modernization process of the Pentagon, before Microsoft emerged as the surprise winner.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office announced that a special envoy would be sent to Bolivia to support a “peaceful resolution” to its current crisis after military leaders called on the Bolivian president to resign over election irregularities.
Former U.N. special envoy to Colombia Jean Arnault will act as the U.N. envoy to Bolivia to engage with “all Bolivian actors,” and attempt to support peaceful elections in the country.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, announced that “the secretary-general remains deeply concerned about developments in Bolivia. He reiterates his appeal to all Bolivians to refrain from violence and exercise utmost restraint.”
Former President Evo Morales served as president of the South American nation for 14 years. He was the country’s first indigenous president in modern history and leader of the ruling Movement Toward Socialism Party (MAS).
After Morales’ government failed to remove constitutional restrictions on serving a fourth term, MAS appealed to Bolivia’s courts to allow the president to run again.
The Organization of American States (OAS) declared there were election irregularities in the October presidential election to protect Morales from having a runoff vote. Opposition leaders called for boycotts and protests in reaction to the news.
Morales also faced growing pressure from the OAS, the European Union, the United States and a handful of Latin American countries to hold new elections.
After Morales announced Saturday that he would hold new presidential elections, the Bolivian military joined opposition leaders and protesters in calling for his removal. Morales resigned Sunday at the suggestion of his country’s military chief.
Interim leader
Senator Jeanine Añez was the second vice president of the Senate and declared the highest-ranking official remaining in the line of succession when Morales’ MAS allies resigned en masse after the president’s resignation.
Añez has promised to hold new elections within 90 days, as required by the Bolivian Constitution.
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Bolivia Clashes After Opposition Leader Assumes as President
Jeanine Anez assumed temporary control of the Senate late in the day, putting her next in line for the presidency
The United States, Brazil, Colombia, Britain and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have recognized Añez as interim president.
The governments of Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and the Maduro government in Venezuela have denounced Morales’ resignation and Añez’s inauguration as a coup.
Russia, an important ally of Morales, said on Thursday it was ready to work with Añez. Despite its readiness to work with the interim president, Russia noted she had come to power without having a full quorum in the legislature.
Morales also has called recent events a coup, tweeting “the coup that causes deaths of my Bolivian brothers is a political and economic conspiracy that comes from the U.S.”
Many are concerned about the interim president’s comments on Bolivia’s indigenous community.
In 2013, then-Senator Añez tweeted that an indigenous ritual of the Aymara people was “satanic.” Morales is an Aymaran, and the Andean Earth Mother Pachamama featured prominently in his speeches and policies.
Añez announced she would be bringing the Bible back to Bolivia’s government palace in a speech, while holding a massive Bible. Under Morales, a new Constitution was approved by a 2009 referendum that removed Catholicism as Bolivia’s state religion.
Asylum in Mexico
Morales and some of his allies have been granted asylum in Mexico for their safety.
Morales claimed in an interview with Spanish daily El Pais published on Wednesday that he was still legally president because his resignation had not yet been accepted by the legislature. MAS members control the majority of the legislature and do not recognize Añez as interim president.
Añez said on Thursday that Morales would not be able to take part in upcoming elections because he is barred from running for a fourth consecutive term.
The secretary-general’s office announced it would support all efforts for a “peaceful resolution to the crisis, including through transparent, inclusive and credible elections.”
Fresh protests erupted Wednesday in Bolivia just hours after opposition Sen. Jeanine Áñez was sworn in as interim president. The United States recognized Áñez as Bolivia’s temporary president. The country’s longtime leader, Evo Morales, said he was removed by a coup and that he would continue to fight. He spoke from Mexico where he was granted asylum. The leftist leader resigned Sunday after weeks of protests over a disputed presidential election result. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Morales still has supporters in his country, especially among indigenous Bolivians.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met at the White House Wednesday but did not reach resolutions on major irritants to bilateral relations including Turkey’s recent incursion into northern Syria and its purchase of Russian military hardware. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the release on bail of more than 70 opposition activists arrested in recent weeks and accused of plotting to overthrow the government, he said Thursday.
Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 34 years, has been under increasing international pressure to improve his human rights record, with the European Union threatening the withdrawal of important trade benefits.
“There are over 70 people, please hurry up work on this case so that these brothers can be released on bail,” Hun Sen said in a speech at a new cement factory in the southern province of Kampot, in comments directed at judicial authorities.
Cambodia arrested dozens of people in the run-up to last Saturday, when veteran opposition figure Sam Rainsy had said he would return from self-imposed exile to rally opposition to authoritarian ruler Hun Sen.
But Sam Rainsy did not return to Cambodia, saying he had been stopped in Paris from boarding a flight to neighboring Thailand. He instead flew to Malaysia before arriving in Indonesia on Thursday.
On Saturday, Cambodia also relaxed the house arrest conditions on opposition leader Kem Sokha, who was arrested on treason charges more than two years ago. He says the charges are ridiculous and has called for them to be dropped.
Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy co-founded the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was banned in 2017. By then, Sam Rainsy had flown into self-exile in France after a defamation conviction and other charges he says are political.
On Tuesday, the European Union voiced concern at human rights in Cambodia as it gave a one-month deadline to authorities to respond to a report on its investigation before deciding whether to suspend trade benefits.
Hun Sen said that in addition to ordering the release of the opposition activists, he had ordered the Justice Ministry to withdraw arrest warrants for other opposition activists who had fled to Thailand or were in hiding in Cambodia.
Spanish police said Wednesday they have been unable to locate a Venezuelan former spymaster wanted by the United States for extradition on charges of drug trafficking.
Police told The Associated Press that its officers have been unable to find Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal.
News website El Español reported on Friday that a Spanish court had reversed an earlier ruling throwing out the U.S. arrest warrant and that it had ordered authorities to proceed with the extradition request. A spokesman for the National Court said Wednesday that no decision on the case has been made public at this time.
Carvajal’s lawyer, Maria Dolores de Arguelles, said her client couldn’t be considered a fugitive because the defense has not been officially notified of the court ruling granting the extradition, and no court summons or arrest warrant has been issued.
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Venezuela’s Ex-spymaster to Be Extradited to US
A source tells the AP that a former Venezuelan spymaster is being re-arrested in Madrid and is likely to be extradited to the United States to be tried on drug smuggling and other charges
Carvajal is free on bail, but his passport has been confiscated and he is not allowed to leave the Madrid region, according to the bail terms. He also needs to sign in at the court every 15 days — the next time is Friday.
Anti-drug prosecutors in Spain had appealed a mid-September decision by the National Court rejecting the extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on drug smuggling and other charges.
The extradition needs to be cleared by the Spanish Cabinet, which typically holds weekly meetings every Friday. Appeals can be filed before the country’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop the extradition.
The U.S. had been seeking Carvajal’s extradition since the former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence fled to Spain in late March after publicly supporting the opposition’s efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Prosecutors in New York say Carvajal should face trial for “narcoterrorism” as part of a group of Venezuelan officials who were charged with “flooding” the U.S. with drugs.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ties Carvajal to a 5.6-ton cocaine shipment busted in Mexico in 2006 and accuse him of aiding and protecting Colombian guerrillas.
Russia’s Embassy to Washington says it has lodged a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian national to the United States, where he is suspected of stealing more than $20 million from U.S. consumers through credit card fraud.
In a Wednesday Facebook statement, the embassy also accused Washington of “hunting” Russian citizens across the world.
The statement said that Russia had formally sent an official note to the U.S. State Department, demanding Aleksei Burkov’s rights be respected.
The U.S. Justice Department says Burkov was “charged with wire fraud, access device fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, computer intrusions, identity theft, and money laundering” in the Eastern Court in Virginia on November 12.
“According to court documents, Burkov allegedly ran a website called “Cardplanet” that sold payment card numbers (e.g., debit and credit cards) that had been stolen primarily through computer intrusions. Many of the cards offered for sale belonged to U.S. citizens. The stolen credit card data sold on Burkov’s site has resulted in over $20 million in fraudulent purchases made on United States credit cards,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
If convicted on all counts, Burkov may face up to 80 years in prison.
Burkov was arrested in December 2015 while leaving Israel.
Last month, Israeli Justice Minister Amir Ohana signed an extradition order to the United States for the suspect.
On November 10, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected Burkov’s appeal amid Russia’s protests.
Russia had proposed to exchange Burkov for a U.S.-Israeli national Naama Issachar, who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison in Moscow last month for possession of marijuana.
A potential pardon for Issachar, 26, was reportedly discussed last month when Russian President Vladimir Putin called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his 70th birthday.
Born in New Jersey, Issachar was arrested in April after police found nine grams of cannabis in her luggage during a layover at a Moscow airport.
Issachar was flying from India to Israel when she was detained and wasn’t supposed to exit the airport in Russia.
The U.S. House of Representatives holds its first public hearings this week on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump with testimony by three top diplomats on Wednesday and Friday.
William Taylor, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, are set to testify on Wednesday, followed by Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, on Friday.
All three diplomats have previously testified behind closed doors about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, and probe a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 president election.
Democrats say the open hearings will allow the public to assess the credibility of the witnesses and their testimonies. Republicans are likely to attempt to discredit the impeachment proceedings and poke holes in the witnesses’ testimony.
Here is what you need to know about the three witnesses and their role in the Ukraine affair.
William Taylor
Taylor has served as chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv since June after Trump abruptly recalled Yovanovich. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked Taylor to step into her role. A West Point and Harvard-educated former Army officer and career diplomat, Taylor previously served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. In what Democratic House member Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida called “the most damning testimony I’ve heard,” Taylor told House investigators last month that Trump had explicitly demanded that Ukraine investigate Biden, his son Hunter and other Democrats in exchange for releasing U.S. military aid. The testimony, based on Taylor’s conversation with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union and a Trump campaign donor, contradicted Trump’s assertion that there was no “quid pro quo” with Ukraine. The White House dismissed the testimony as hearsay. Taylor’s text messages to Sondland, in which he said it was “crazy” the administration was freezing Ukraine aid for political investigations, are among the impeachment evidence against Trump.
George Kent
As the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Kent oversees U.S. policy toward Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Like Taylor, Kent, a 27-year veteran of the foreign service, was sidelined by what he described as “unusual channels” of diplomacy toward Ukraine run by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Sondland and Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine. In his closed-door testimony last month, Kent told investigators that Giuliani had been pressing the Ukrainians to conduct “politically motivated prosecutions that were injurious to the rule of law, both in Ukraine and the U.S. He also testified that Sondland “had talked to the president … and POTUS wanted nothing less than (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy to go to a microphone and say investigations, Biden and Clinton.”
Marie Yovanovitch
A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from July 2016 to May 2019, when she was unceremoniously recalled to Washington after Giuliani and his allies waged what her colleagues and Democrats have described as a smear campaign against her. Two Giuliani associates recently arrested for campaign finance violations are accused of lobbying former Republican House member Pete Sessions of Texas for her ouster. Her removal sent shockwaves through the foreign service, with more than 50 former female U.S. ambassadors writing a letter to Trump and Pompeo to protect foreign service officers from political retaliation. Yovanovitch testified last month that she felt threatened, and worried about her safety after Trump said “she’s going to go through some things.” She also told lawmakers that Sondland had recommended she praise Trump on Twitter if she wanted to save her job.
Clashes between protesters and riot police continued well into Tuesday night at a prominent Hong Kong university, extending one of the more violent stretches in the five months of demonstrations.
Police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and students responded by throwing bricks and gasoline bombs.
Clashes continued until police eventually used a water cannon truck and then began a retreat.
The weekday clashes — thus far unusual for the Hong Kong protests which have largely occurred on weekends — followed a day of chaos as protesters erected barricades on roads and subway tracks.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam called the protesters who threw Tuesday’s rush hour commute into chaos “extremely selfish.”
Dozens of passengers aboard a commuter rail line were forced to exit the train when it stopped short of the station.
Thousands of protesters staged a “flash mob” demonstration in the city’s central business district at midday, chanting “five demands, not one less, a reference to their demands for democracy, an independent probe into allegations of police brutality and other issues.
Tensions have escalated in Hong Kong after a policeman shot a 21-year-old protester Monday as he was physically struggling with another protester he was attempting to arrest. The city’s hospital authority says the protester was in critical condition. A man set on fire after he was doused with gasoline in a separate incident is also in critical condition.
Lam denounced the violence Monday, telling protesters it is “wishful thinking” that the Hong Kong government will give into protesters “so-called political demands” in order to quell the violence.
The protests were initially sparked by a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China to face trial, but have since evolved into demands for full democracy for Hong Kong. More than 3,000 people have been arrested since the demonstrations erupted
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement Monday condemning “violence on all sides” and urged “all parties — police and protesters — to exercise restraint.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah visits one of two small parcels of land which, until recently, was leased to Israel as part of the neighbors’ 1994 peace agreement. Jordan’s decision not to renew the lease was made at a time of brewing tensions between the peace partners. Jordanians blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for antagonizing the relationship, with action against Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque and the detention of Jordanian citizens, among others.
During Monday’s visit to Baqura, a 81-hectare enclave along the Jordan River in Jordan’s north, King Abdullah tweeted that “Jordan’s sovereignty over its territory is above all other considerations.” Jordan announced last year that it would not renew its peace treaty annexes with Israel on Baqura and al-Ghamr that gave Israeli farmers free access to the Jordan’s sovereign land. The decision is now in effect.
Jordanian political analyst Osama al-Sharif says the move is “absolutely within Jordan’s rights” under the deal. Still, he says the country’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has underscored Jordan’s commitment to the peace treaty.
Israel’s foreign ministry expressed regret over the move, but says Jordan will allow farmers to harvest their remaining wheat and other crops. Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel described the relations to Reuters as: “We are not on a honeymoon but rather in a period of ongoing arguments.” He says the Israeli government, however, should have tried earlier to convince Jordan to extend the deal.
Al Sharif sees Israeli Prime Netanyahu as responsible for whittling away at Israel’s relationship with Jordan — only one of its two Arab peace partners.
“It’s not Jordan that has been trying to wriggle out of its commitments under the peace treaty,” said Al Sharif. “It’s Israel and the continuation of the building of settlements, Netanyahu’s threat to annex the Jordan Valley and most Israeli settlements in the West Bank, contrary to the Jordan’s position that demands the two-state solution. So, relations after 25 years are not at their best. It also underlines the fact that we have a very frigid peace between Jordan and Israel and the culprit in all of this has always been Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“Not allowing Israel to continue to utilize the two pieces of land or doing Netanyahu any favors was not only logical, but became an urgent public demand,” among Jordanians, Jawad Anani, a lead negotiator for the 1994 peace treaty, told The Washington Post.
Many Jordanians blame Netanyahu for ruining peace chances between Israel and the Palestinians. Al-Sharif says almost daily incursions at the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, where Jordan has a special role as custodian, and other actions by Netanyahu’s government – that Palestinians see as provocative – have soured ties.
The Voice of America’s Russian serviced produced this documentary about the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It looks at Berlin then and today through the eyes of those who were there, including an American soldier, a dissident, a politician, a historian and others.
Iraqi officials expressed “deep regret” on Monday at the death of protesters during weeks of unrest but defended Baghdad’s handling of the situation.
Nearly 300 people have been killed in Iraq since the protests against political corruption, unemployment and poor public services began on Oct. 1.
At a U.N. review of member states’ human rights records in Geneva, diplomats from several countries accused the Iraqi government of using excessive force.
Justice Minister Farooq Amin Othman acknowledged there had been “individual violations” by members of the law enforcement agencies but said they were being investigated.
“…We would like to express our deep regret for the number of people killed,” he told international diplomats gathered at what the U.N calls the Universal Periodic Review.
“Our constitution guarantees peaceful assembly and the objective of our authorities is to protect the protesters,” he said.
Other Iraqi officials said plans were under way to free detained protesters and for electoral reform, both of which were among a package of reforms urged by the United Nations.
‘Unlawful, Indiscriminate and Excessive’ Force
But diplomats from several countries including the United States issued stinging criticisms.
“We recommend that Iraq immediately cease using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, particularly the unlawful use of tear gas canisters and live ammunition, and hold accountable, in a transparent manner, those responsible for this violence,” Daniel Kronenfeld, Human Rights Counselor at the U.S. Mission in Geneva.
The Netherlands called the use of force “unlawful, indiscriminate and excessive”. Germany expressed deep concern and urged immediate steps to prevent further loss of life.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq released a set of recommendations on Sunday, including the release of peaceful protesters and investigations into deaths.
Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Hussain Mahmood Alkhateeb, said the plan envisaged by Baghdad to address unrest was already being implemented and went “wider” than the U.N. proposals.
“No demonstrator will stay in prison unless there is a criminal investigation against them,” he told Reuters.
Asked whether Iraq would consider trying Islamic State fighters on their own soil, as France and the United States has urged, he said: “Iraq believes that countries should take their nationals and this is a policy we are committed to.”
The Ukrainian military and Russia-backed separatist rebels have completed a pullback of troops and weapons from an area in eastern Ukraine embroiled in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people, officials said Monday.
The disengagement near Petrivske that began Saturday followed a recent similar withdrawal in another section of the frontline, where separatists and Ukrainian forces have been fighting since 2014. Ukraine’s military said Ukrainian forces completed the pullback in Petrivske at midday Monday.
The disengagement of forces in eastern Ukraine was seen as a key step to pave the way for a summit of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany on ending the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed plans for holding the summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call Monday, according to the Kremlin.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the summit could be held before the year’s end but wouldn’t comment on a possible date.
“The summit should produce new positive results,” Ushakov said at a briefing. “It’s necessary to take the first steps toward the implementation of the agreement reached in Minsk.”
Germany and France sponsored a 2015 agreement signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk that envisaged broad autonomy for the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and an amnesty for the rebels — provisions that were never implemented because they were resented by many in Ukraine.
A plan by President Sebastian Pinera to draft a new constitution for Chile was criticized Monday by the opposition and even his own political ranks.
The proposal unveiled Sunday by Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel is one of a series of measures aimed at quelling weeks of protests by Chileans over economic inequality and other grievances.
It calls for a new charter to be drafted by a “constituent congress” and then put to a plebiscite, Blumel said.
But the opposition said the proposed process was inadequate, partly because it would rely on current legislators who are viewed with suspicion by protesters. They also said the plebiscite should occur at the beginning of the process, so people’s views could be considered.
“The citizenry is demanding something different,” opposition Sen. Felipe Harboe said. He said people want a “constituent assembly” or some other form of direct participation in writing any constitution.
“Parliamentarians don’t have credibility today,” said Sen. Manuel Jose Ossandon, who is part of Pinera’s governing coalition. “The parliament doesn’t have credibility to do something without the more active participation of the community.”
Karla Rubilar, the government spokeswoman, on Monday rejected the call for a constituent assembly, which would involve the election of a group of citizens to draft the new constitution.
Students in Chile began protesting nearly a month ago over a subway fare hike. But demonstrations quickly blew up into a huge protest movement demanding improvements in basic services and benefits, including pensions, health and education. Chile is one of Latin America’s richest, but most socially unequal countries.
While most protests have been peaceful, at least 20 people have died in clashes between protesters and police.
A key demand of demonstrators has been to throw out the constitution that was drafted in 1980 during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The constitution is the legal basis for the market-driven system that protesters say favors Chile’s affluent minority.
The public health care system is bogged down with months-long waiting times, and those seeking higher education are often saddled with crushing student debt.
Pinera has responded with a series of proposals over the weeks, including an increase in the basic monthly pension of $146, a cut to the salaries of legislators, and a tax hike for people who earn more than $11,000 a month.
But anger in the streets still boils. Protests continued Monday in the capital of Santiago, ahead of a national strike called for Tuesday.
“We’ve seen that, in general, the government arrives late and with a weak response to societal demands,” said Claudia Heiss, a professor at the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Chile, who considers this an opportunity for the government to react in a more convincing way.
Marcelo Mella, an analyst at the University of Santiago, said it is doubtful sectors of the opposition will accept the government’s plan as a legitimate procedure.
Given the low levels of approval for Congress and the government, “legitimacy (of the process) is a very scarce commodity within the political class,” Mella said.
Authorities declared a state of emergency across a broad swath of Australia’s east coast on Monday, urging residents in high risk areas to evacuate ahead of looming “catastrophic” fire conditions.
Bushfires burning across New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland states have already killed three people and destroyed more than 150 homes. Officials expect adverse heat and wind conditions to peak at unprecedented levels on Tuesday.
Bushfires are a common and deadly threat in Australia’s hot, dry summers but the current severe outbreak, well before the summer peak, has caught many by surprise.
“Everybody has to be on alert no matter where you are and everybody has to be assume the worst and we cannot allow complacency to creep in,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
The country’s most populous city has been designated at “catastrophic fire danger” for Tuesday, when temperatures as high as 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) are forecast to combine with powerful winds for potentially deadly conditions. It is the first time Sydney has been rated at that level since new fire danger ratings were introduced in 2009.
Home to more than 5 million people, Sydney is ringed by large areas of bushland, much of which remains tinder dry following little rain across the country’s east coast in recent months.
“Tomorrow is about protecting life, protecting property and ensuring everybody is safe as possible,” Berejiklian said.
Lawmakers said the statewide state of emergency – giving firefighters broad powers to control government resources, force evacuations, close roads and shut down utilities – would remain in place for seven days.
On Monday afternoon, the fire service authorized use of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal, an alarm and verbal warning that will be played on radio and television stations every hour.
NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons urged people to evacuate before conditions worsened, warning that new fires can begin up to 20km (12 miles) ahead of established fires.
“Relocate while things are calm without the pressure or anxiety of fires bearing down the back door,” he said.
Authorities stressed that even fireproofed homes will not be able to withstand catastrophic conditions, which Fitzsimmons described as “when lives are lost, it’s where people die.”
More than 100 schools will be closed on Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, rescue services were moving large animals from high risk areas, while health officials warned that air quality across NSW will worsen as winds blow smoke from the current mid-north coast bushfires south.
The fires have already had a devastating impact on Australia’s wildlife, with about 350 koalas feared dead in a major habitat.
Climate change debate
Australia’s worst bushfires on record destroyed thousands of homes in Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 people and injuring 414 on a day the media dubbed “Black Saturday.”
The current fires, however, come weeks ahead of the southern hemisphere summer, sharpening attention on the policies of Australia’s conservative government to address climate change.
Environmental activists and opposition lawmakers have used the fires to call on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a supporter of the coal industry, to strengthen the country’s emissions targets.
Morrison declined to answer questions about whether the fires were linked to climate change when he visited fire-hit areas in the north of NSW over the weekend.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack on Monday accused climate activists of politicizing a tragedy at the expense of people in the danger zones.
“What we are doing is taking real and meaningful action to reduce global emissions without shutting down all our industries,” McCormack told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
“They don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time, when they’re trying to save their homes.”
The United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq warned Sunday of the need for timely, tangible results in the government’s response to protests that began in early October, and offered a roadmap to address some of the demonstrators’ demands.
The U.N. office issued a statement saying that within a week the government should release all protesters who have been detained since October 1 and accelerate efforts to identify and prosecute those responsible for using excessive force against protesters.
It said there should be public calls for those in the region and elsewhere in the world with influence in Iraq to respect the country’s sovereignty and not interfere with its internal affairs.
UNAMI also called for the finalization of a framework for electoral reform and for anti-corruption action by the country’s political leadership within the next two weeks. It further said that within three months, a constitutional review committee should continue its work on potential amendments.
The United States supported the U.N.’s proposals.
A White House statement late Sunday cited serious concerns about attacks against protesters and internet blackouts.
“Despite being targeted with lethal violence and denied access to the Internet, the Iraqi people have made their voices heard, calling for elections and election reforms,” said the White House press secretary.
Iraq’s Human Rights Commission says at least 319 people have been killed since the protests began.
Demonstrators have complained about corruption, lack of basic services and job opportunities, as well electricity outages. Iraqi leaders have proposed some reforms but those have largely been rejected by the protesters who say they want Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and others to resign.
Abdul-Mahdi met Sunday with President Barham Salih and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Halbousi.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said the officials reaffirmed the need to avoid violence against peaceful demonstrations and to have strict accountability for excessive violence by members of the security forces. It also said they discussed the need for electoral reforms that reduce the chances of party monopolies and give greater opportunities for young people to join parliament and its decision-making.
A Hong Kong police officer shot at masked protesters on Monday morning, hitting at least one in the torso, as anger sparked by the recent death of a student spilled into the rush hour commute.
The shooting, which was broadcast live on Facebook, is the latest escalation in more than five months of seething pro-democracy protests that have engulfed the international financial hub and battered its reputation.
Footage showed a police officer drawing his sidearm in the district of Sai Wan Ho as he tried to detain a masked person at a junction that had been blocked by protesters.
Another unarmed masked individual then approached the officer and was shot in the chest area, quickly falling to the ground, clutching their left side.
Seconds later, two more live rounds were fired as the officer scuffled with another masked protester who fell to the ground. Both were detained by officers.
Hong Kong police said live rounds were fired and that one person was struck.
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Hong Kong Protesters Vandalize Subway Station, Storm Mall
Police made arrests across Hong Kong amid anger over demonstrator’s death and arrest of pro-democracy lawmakers
A pool of blood could be seen near the first individual whose body initially appeared limp, although the person was later filmed conscious and even trying to make a run for it.
The second man was conscious, shouting his name to reporters as he was handcuffed.
Hospital authorities said three people were admitted from the incident, one with a gunshot wound.
Commuter chaos
Hong Kong has been upended by 24 consecutive weeks of huge and increasingly violent rallies, but Beijing has refused to give in to a movement calling for greater democratic rights and police accountability.
Tensions have soared in recent days following the death on Friday of a 22-year-old student who succumbed to injuries sustained from a fall in the vicinity of a police clearance operation the weekend before.
The city has seen four days of violent protests since Alex Chow’s death as well as tens of thousands attending peaceful mass vigils.
Using online messaging forums, activists had called for a general strike on Monday morning.
Flashmob protests sprung up in multiple districts during the commuter period, with small groups of masked protesters targeting subway stations and building barricades on road junctions.
Even before the shooting in Sai Wan Ho, tear gas had been fired in at least two other locations.
One video circulated by protesters on messaging channels from Kwai Fong district showed a police officer trying to drive his motorbike multiple times into protesters who had gathered on a road.
Unpopular police force
Monday’s shooting is the third time protesters have been shot with live rounds by police. The two previous instances last month came as protesters attacked police officers and the victims, both teenagers, survived their wounds.
With no political solution on the table, officers have been left to battle violent protesters and are now loathed by large chunks of the deeply polarized population.
Immediately after Monday’s shooting, crowds of locals gathered to hurl insults at officers who responded with pepper spray and made multiple arrests.
Police have defended their tactics as a proportionate response to protesters who have embraced throwing bricks and petrol bombs as well as vandalizing pro-China businesses and beating opponents.
But an independent inquiry into the police has become a core demand of the protest movement, with public anger fueled by weekly videos of controversial police tactics and aggressive interactions with locals.
In one incident which sparked uproar, a police officer on Friday evening shouting at protesters that he and his colleagues were “opening a bottle of champagne” after the death of the student.
The force said the officer was later reprimanded for his language.
Both Beijing and Hong Kong’s unelected leader Carrie Lam have rejected an independent inquiry, saying the city’s current police watchdog is up to the task.
But last week, in an embarrassing setback, an international panel of experts appointed by authorities to advise the watchdog said it did not currently have the capability or resources to carry out such a huge probe.
The watchdog is due to release a report in early 2020 and in a statement on Monday said the panel’s views should not have been published on Twitter by one of its members.
Voters are going to the polls Sunday in Romania for the country’s presidential election.
Analysts say incumbent Klaus Iohannis will likely be returned to office in a runoff vote.
Centrist liberal Iohannis, unlike some other Eastern European leaders, has not embraced nationalism.
Polls indicate he will receive 40% of the votes Sunday.
His toughest competition is expected to come from former Prime Minister Viorica Dancilla, leader of the Social Democrats.
If no one receives 50% of Sunday’s ballots, there will be a second round of voting November 24.
Britain’s biggest political parties are accusing each other of financial recklessness as they vie to win voters’ trust on the economy ahead of Britain’s Dec. 12 election.
The main opposition Labour Party accused the governing Conservatives on Sunday of spreading fake news with an eye-catching claim that Labour spending pledges will cost 1.2 trillion pounds ($1.5 trillion) over five years.
The figure is based on assuming a Labour government would implement every policy it has adopted in principle. Labour says not all those pledges will be in its official election platform.
Labour economy spokesman John McDonnell said the Conservative figure was “an incompetent mish-mash of debunked estimates and bad maths.”
Treasury chief Sajid Javid stood by the estimate, saying Labour’s proposals were “absolutely reckless.”
Jordan’s king announced Sunday that two pieces of land leased by Israel would be returned to the “full sovereignty” of Jordan as the two countries marked a chilly 25th anniversary of their landmark peace agreement.
Israel has controlled the agricultural lands for over 70 years and had been permitted to lease the areas under the 1994 peace agreement, with the assumption that the arrangement would be extended once again. Even amid mistrust and a looming deadline, Israel was hoping a solution could be found. But King Abdullah II’s announcement to parliament seemed to put an end to that and Jordan is set to reclaim full control of the areas this week.
“I announce the end of the annex of the two areas, Ghumar and Al-Baqoura, in the peace treaty and impose our full sovereignty on every inch of them,” he said.
It marked a new blow to relations that began with great optimism but have steadily deteriorated. Following up on a historic interim peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians a year earlier, Israel’s then-prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin and the late King Hussein of Jordan signed a peace agreement on Oct. 26, 1994 with President Bill Clinton in attendance and all three leaders delivered moving speeches promising warm relations and a better future. It was only the second peace deal between Israel and an Arab country, following Egypt.
The accord remains a vital strategic asset for both countries, who maintain tight security cooperation and joint economic projects. But with little progress toward a Palestinian state, the close contact hasn’t trickled down to the average citizen _ especially in Jordan, where most people have Palestinian roots. Israeli policies in east Jerusalem, where Jordan has custodial rights over Muslim holy sites, have also raised tensions.
Last year, Jordan chose not to renew a clause of the peace treaty that granted Israel use of two enclaves inside Jordanian territory, called Tsofar and Naharayim in Hebrew.
Naharayim, located along the Jordan River in northern Israel, has become a popular tourist site. It includes a small park and picnic area, the ruins of a historic power station and the “Island of Peace,” where Israelis can briefly enter Jordanian territory without having to show their passports.
The site has a painful history. In 1997, a Jordanian soldier opened fire at an Israeli crowd, killing seven schoolgirls on a class trip. After the shooting, King Hussein traveled to Israel to ask forgiveness from the girls’ families. Twenty years after his death, Hussein remains a beloved figure in Israel for what was seen as a courageous act.
A U.N. agency is urging the Iraqi government to address the grievances of its people or risk that the ongoing deadly protests across the country could spiral even further out of control.
Since anti-government protests began Oct. 1, the U.N. Human Rights Office has documented 269 deaths and at least 8,000 injuries, including among members of the Iraqi security forces. The agency blames the majority of these casualties on the use of live ammunition by security forces and private armed militia groups.
U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville says his agency also is following up on reports of multiple arrests of demonstrators and activists. He says protesters and volunteers providing assistance during the demonstrations reportedly have been abducted by unknown perpetrators.
“We are also disturbed by the statement by the High Judicial Council in Iraq that the Federal Anti-terrorism Law would be applicable against those resorting to violence, sabotaging public property and using firearms against security forces. Our concern is centered on the fact that these are acts of terrorism, which may be punishable by death,” Colville said.
The agency is calling on the government to investigate the whereabouts of the people who have gone missing, to promptly investigate the killings and to prosecute all those responsible for these crimes.
Colville says tensions are running very high. He says the relatives and friends of people who have been killed, abducted and otherwise abused are angry. Unless their grievances are resolved, he told VOA. He said the protests and violence in the country could spiral out of control.
“The way the security forces are reacting because they are not abiding by the kind of guidelines set down internationally, which are very much designed not only to save life and stop injuries, but exactly this—to stop tension [from] getting extreme because of deaths. It is a sort of vicious circle of people getting killed and injured. That’s leading to more anger and more demonstrations, more deaths, more injuries and so on. And we are in that cycle in Iraq,” Colville said.
To get out of this deteriorating cycle, Colville said the Iraqi authorities must control the security forces and engage in a meaningful dialogue with the public. He said the government must listen and take stock of its many grievances and work with civil society to reach a sustainable resolution.
Hundreds of pilgrims Saturday from India’s minority Sikh community crossed the international border with Pakistan without a visa for the first time in 72 years to pay homage to one of their holiest shrines.
The rare instance of cooperation to facilitate the religious journey comes amid a sharp deterioration in already tense ties between the nuclear-armed rival countries sparked by recent Indian actions in the disputed Kashmir region. Both India and Pakistan control portions of the Himalayan territory but claim it in its entirety.
Indian pilgrims, including senior politicians and officials, traveled through a newly established 4.1-kilometer cross-border corridor, featuring fenced-off sides and leading straight to the shrine in the Pakistani town of Kartarpur in Punjab province.
Known as the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the temple is believed to have been built on the site where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, spent last 18 years of his life before he died there in the 16th century.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the border corridor, just in time for the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak’s birth on November 12.
“I congratulate you and I am happy to be with you today to see that for the first time people can now come from India [through the corridor] to pay the homage,” Khan told thousands of Sikh devotees inside the newly built sprawling complex around the temple.
The “historic” opening of the Kartarpur corridor, he said, is a testimony to Pakistan’s commitment to regional peace. “We believe the road to prosperity of the region and a bright future for our coming generation lies in peace,” the Pakistani leader asserted.
Khan went on to urge Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work for a negotiated settlement to the Kashmir dispute so the two countries can jointly fight poverty and bring regional prosperity to their two nations.
“I asked Modi, ‘Why can’t we resolve this issue?’ What is happening in Kashmir is beyond territorial issue, it’s about human rights … They are being treated like animals. If PM Modi is listening to me, then I would say that peace prevails through justice. Give justice to the people of Kashmir,” he said.
Former Indian Sikh prime minister, Manmohan Singh, was among the first pilgrims to cross over into Pakistan to pay respect to the shrine.
“I hope India and Pakistan relations improve enormously as a result of this beginning. It is a big moment,” Singh told reporters.
Traditionally strained bilateral relations plunged to historic lows last August when New Delhi ended the special constitutional autonomy for Indian-administered Muslim-majority Kashmir region and bifurcated it into two union territories.
Indian authorities simultaneously imposed a security lockdown and a communications blackout, though it has since been partially eased.
Islamabad rejected the move as a violation of longstanding United Nations resolutions that describe Kashmir as a disputed territory. Pakistan also downgraded diplomatic ties with India.
The territorial dispute has sparked two of the three wars the neighbors have fought since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
The minority Sikh community in India has demanded access to the shrine for decades. But bilateral tensions blocked progress until last year when Pakistan itself offered to open the Kartarpur crossing.
A large number of devotees from countries such as Canada, Australia and Britain also come to Kartarpur through regular entry points and airports in Pakistan to attend the event. Foreign diplomats based in Islamabad also were flown to Kartarpur to witness the inaugural ceremony.
Saturday was the first time since 1947 — when British India was divided into the two separate states of India and Pakistan — that Indian Sikh devotees were able to cross the border and undertake a visa-free visit to the shrine.
Until now, pilgrims had to go through a drawn-out visa process, often hampered by mutual tensions, and undertake a long journey through Pakistan to reach the temple.
Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Modi, while inaugurating his side of the corridor, flagged off hundreds of pilgrims from the Indian border city of Gurdaspur.
The United States welcomed the opening of the Kartarpur border crossing as an “impressive project” and congratulated both India and Pakistan on this initiative.
“We see this as a positive example of neighbors working together for mutual benefit. The newly opened corridor is a step toward promoting greater religious freedom,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus noted in a video message she released via Twitter.
The border corridor, under a bilateral pact, would give year-round visa-free access to about 5,000 Indian Sikhs each day to the temple, arriving in the morning and returning in the evening.
Pakistan has constructed a road and a bridge over the Ravi River, along with dozens of fully equipped immigration reception centers for pilgrims. Officials said the dining area near the shrine can host more than 2,500 pilgrims simultaneously, where they will be served free food during Guru Nanak’s birth celebrations.
Pakistani officials say the massive construction effort has turned the temple into the world’s largest Sikh Gurdwara complex. Already built, or under construction, are a new courtyard, dormitories, locker rooms, a library, a museum, and an embankment to protect the shrine from floods — all in consultation with experts from the Sikh community, the officials noted.
Are the West’s secrets safe in the hands of Britain’s politicians?
It is a question Britain’s intelligence officers are asking themselves — so, too, their counterparts in the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing relationship that includes the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It’s a tie-up that’s been called the most successful espionage alliance in history.
Not since the 1970s, when some British MI5 officers thought Labour Party leader Harold Wilson, who won four general elections, and his most trusted advisers were KGB assets have Britain’s spooks been so uneasy about their political masters. The worries about Wilson and his aides at that time provoked treasonous plots by conservative-leaning rogue elements of the security agencies, which even drew in members of Britain’s royal family.
As Britain heads into its most consequential election possibly in the last 100 years, a vote that will determine whether Britain will leave the European Union or not, fears are mounting within the country’s security circles that Britons can’t trust their own leaders. This includes both those at the top of the country’s main opposition Labour Party as well as among the ruling Conservatives, a party once synonymous with Queen and Country.
For the past year, a former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency, Richard Dearlove, has led a chorus of intelligence warnings about Jeremy Corbyn, widely seen as Labour’s most leftwing leader since the 1920s, and his clique of advisers. Last month, Dearlove said in a TV interview he was “troubled” by Corbyn’s “past associations,” sparking a furious reaction from senior Labour lawmakers, who warned of ‘deep state’ meddling.
Britain’s Conservative-leaning newspapers have taken up the warnings, with The Sun newspaper headlining midweek: “Intelligence Services and Foreign Office ‘Fear Jeremy Corbyn Would Risk National Security’ if He Wins Election.”
Former intelligence chiefs and government insiders say the flow of secret information Britain is supplied from the “Five Eyes” network could start drying up because of a lack of trust by Western partners in Corbyn and his advisers.
Writing in The Times newspaper, retired Labour politician Jack Straw, a former foreign secretary, dismissed allegations of “deep state” interference and warned Western security agencies could “lessen intelligence co-operation with us,” if Corbyn wins the election. He warned Britain’s spooks also would be chary of disclosing some of their most sensitive information with a Downing Street occupied by Corbyn.
“This would not be any ‘deep-state conspiracy,’ but the human reaction of people who give their careers to keep us safe, sometimes at serious personal risk to their own lives,” Straw said.
A former defense secretary, John Hutton, who served in Labour governments, has underscored that a Corbyn premiership would affect the ‘Five Eyes’ espionage alliance and “place a major question mark over the continued operation of a vital source of intelligence.”
At the very least, Corbyn has a radical and what critics say is an anti-Western world-view, notably out of step, they add, with Labour’s previously more centrist leaders. He’s been a long-standing critic of NATO and has called for it to be disbanded, decrying it as an “instrument of Cold War manipulation.” He also has been an opponent of Britain possessing nuclear weapons. He’s voted as a lawmaker against every military action proposed by the government of the day, including intervention in Kosovo.
Corbyn dubs as “friends” Hamas and Hezbollah, and at the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign he spoke at official commemorations to honor the Irish republican dead. And he was on the board of a far-left Labour publication that praised the IRA’s 1984 Brighton bombing, which nearly killed then prime minister Margaret Thatcher. In an editorial, the publication said, “It certainly appears to be the case that the British only sit up and take notice [of Ireland] when they are bombed into it.”
Last year, he provoked fury in the House of Commons when he questioned the British government’s blaming of the Kremlin for the Novichok poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English cathedral town of Salisbury. Corbyn argued Russia should be involved in the investigation.
Dearlove accuses Corbyn of giving aid and comfort to Britain’s enemies. “He has enthusiastically associated himself with groups and interests which I would not say were the friends of the British nation,” Britain’s former top spy said last month.
The alarm of the security establishment is wider than just Corbyn, though, when it comes to the current top echelons of the Labour Party. Seamus Milne, the Labour leader’s director of strategy and his closest adviser, has been an outspoken critic of Western policies throughout a long career as a columnist at the Guardian newspaper. He has argued Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea was “clearly defensive” and the consequence of a NATO manipulated breakup of the Soviet Union.
That insight earned Milne the rebuke of a fellow Guardian contributor, Oliver Bullough, an author of several books on Russia, who accused Milne of living in a “parallel universe.” He noted “the destruction of the USSR was not some Versailles-style treaty imposed from outside. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus did it themselves.”
Conservative lawmaker Bob Seely, a former British army officer and member of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee, has accused Milne of echoing Kremlin propaganda. In 2014, Milne participated in a conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he conducted an onstage discussion with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Some British intelligence insiders say in the event of a Labour election win, the heads of Britain’s security agencies likely would insist on withholding the most sensitive information from Milne, as well as another Corbyn policy adviser, Andrew Murray, a former member of the Communist Party, and regular contributor to Britain’s Communist newspaper, the Morning Star.
Speaking to VOA recently, Norman Roule, who was in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations for 34 years, and served as a division chief and chief of station, says “the U.S. intelligence relationship with the British is the closest on the planet.” He added: “We share so much information with each other, and it’s shared so deeply and immediately that if we have a difference of views, it’s usually because one of us hasn’t gotten around to seeing the other’s file yet,” he added.
Roule said the intelligence agencies would try to remain constant in their work regardless of who was in Downing Street. “You know we don’t really pay attention to what the policymakers argue about and would try to ignore policy differences that creep up and sooner or later the politicians will move on,” he added.
Other U.S. intelligence officials are less sanguine. One former top level CIA official told VOA: “If we have doubts or fears, we will avoid uploading especially sensitive data — some officers will just take it upon themselves to do it, whether there is an order from on high or not.”
Dearlove and other members of Britain’s security establishment have dismissed the idea of a “deep state” working against a Labour government, saying every government of whatever stripe has been loyally served by the British intelligence community.
But it isn’t only Labour that is prompting the anxiety of both British and other Western intelligence agencies. The Conservatives, too, are a cause for unease. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was blocked by his predecessor in Downing Street, Theresa May, from seeing top secret information when he served as foreign secretary on the grounds he couldn’t be trusted because of his tendency to be indiscrete.
As London mayor previously, he had let slip confidential information before it was due to be made public, angering May, who was then Home Secretary. The BBC reported that when Johnson became Foreign Secretary, Downing Street would sometimes convene smaller meetings, or ‘pre-meets,’ to discuss especially sensitive matters so as to exclude Johnson.
Additionally, Johnson’s Conservative Party has accepted large donations from London-based Russian oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin and Russia’s FSB security agency, according to a still-under-wraps cross-party parliamentary committee report. Last week, Downing Street prompted a political outcry by deciding to delay the publication of the report until after next month’s general election.
Downing Street has been accused of sitting on the report detailing the security threat posed by Russia to Britain. The 50-page dossier examines allegations that a Kremlin-sponsored influence campaign may have distorted the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum. The report raises concerns about the flow into the Conservative Party of Russian money from oligarchs linked to the Kremlin, along with a high level of Russian infiltration into the higher ranks of British politics, business, high society and the legal profession.
Members of the cross-party intelligence and security committee said they expected Johnson to approve publication ahead of the election. Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general who chairs the committee, said the report “comments directly on what has been seen as a perceived threat to our democratic processes.”
U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly worried Islamic State fighters captured as the terror group’s caliphate collapsed in Syria will find their way back to the battlefield.
The concern, they say, is most acute for the approximately 2,000 foreign fighters who are being kept in a state of limbo, held in makeshift prisons run by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as their home countries refuse to take them back.
“We’ve gotten kind of fatalistic about this,” Russell Travers, acting director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said Friday.
“There’s a growing likelihood that eventually we could see many of these foreign fighters again when they’ve broken out of prison or been released,” he told an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The greatest midterm concern is the retention of those prisoners and not bolstering the [Islamic State] ranks and not seeing a foreign fighter outflow from Syria.”
For months, U.S. officials at the State Department and the Pentagon have urged countries, especially those who joined the coalition to defeat IS, to repatriate and prosecute their citizens or residents who left to fight for the self-declared caliphate.
But those pleas have largely gone nowhere, as European countries especially have raised concerns, arguing their legal systems will not allow for the successful prosecution of IS fighters whose alleged crimes were committed thousands of kilometers away.
Turkish incursions
Making matters more precarious, Turkey’s incursions into northeast Syria last month forced the main U.S. partner on the ground, the mostly Kurdish SDF, to pull guards from the prisons to fight Turkish-backed forces.
Kurdish officials also said they were forced to evacuate some prisons and move captured IS fighters to makeshift facilities after some areas came under attack.
In the process, about 100 prisoners escaped. And there are fears that if Turkish forces drive deeper into Syrian territory, eventually there may not be anyone left to keep the remaining IS detainees under lock and key.
The question is a critical one for U.S. counterterrorism officials, who believe there are likely a total of 15,000 IS fighters in SDF custody, thousands more than suggested by previous estimates from U.S. military or diplomatic officials.
Should a significant portion get free, it could significantly alter the battlefield in Syria and Iraq, home now to at least 14,000 IS fighters.
“We think it’s substantially higher than that,” Travers said, adding, “That number is going to do nothing but grow.”
“There are already no-go areas at night. We see ISIS flags and we see small areas in which Sharia is being implemented,” he added, using an acronym for the terror group. “The insurgency is alive and kicking.”
The United States is not alone in its concern.
Voicing alarm
Officials from Iraqi Kurdistan have likewise been voicing alarm at the developments in Syria, worried that they could give the Islamic State insurgency a significant boost and give hope and inspiration to IS family members languishing in displaced-person camps across Syria and Iraq.
“These camps are a breeding ground. It’s a ticking time bomb,” said Bayan Sami Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government representative to the U.S.
“You have children growing up in this kind of atmosphere where the parents are unrepentant ISIS fighters, the mother and the father,” she told VOA. “I’m worried that in 10 years’ time, you and I will be having a conversation about a 5-year-old, who, by then, is 15 in these camps. And what will his mindset be?”
According to U.S. counterterrorism officials, the answer could come down, in part, to how IS decides to operate.
For now, officials say the terror group has played to expectations, rallying support around its new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, after a U.S. raid killed former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
As for who is #Qurashi? “We’re not at a point of having confirmation” says #NCTC acting Dir Travers, adding Hajji ‘Abdallah was seen as a “logical choice” to take over if/when Abu Bakr al #Baghdadi died
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) November 8, 2019
What comes next, though, may not be so easy to predict.
“ISIS is a learning organization,” said Travers of the National Counterterrorism Center. “In my own mind, I wonder if they would be content with conducting a prolonged insurgency and staying underground to avoid the kind of pressure they absorbed from the coalition.
“The more we draw down [U.S. forces], the more we siphon resources off to other very high-priority threats, the greater the likelihood we’re not going to understand that dynamic,” he said.