ISIS, BOKO HARAM, AND THE GROWING ROLE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN 21ST CENTURY TERRORISM | BY LOUISE I. SHELLEY12.26.2014

The list of atrocities committed by ISIS continues to grow, with the latest being a chilling pamphlet that details the organization’s policy on treating the women they kidnap and then use as sex slaves. This is the latest account of ISIS’s dealings in kidnapping and human trafficking in which they target women and children, often from the minority Yazidi religion, and sell them for as little as $25 or keep them as slaves.

ISIS is not the only terrorist group to engage in kidnapping and trafficking. Just a few days ago, Boko Haram kidnapped 200 villagers and killed dozens more in Nigeria, further terrorizing the already tormented community. Indeed, human trafficking plays a growing role in the operation of 21st-century terrorist organizations.

Several years ago I gave a public lecture on the topic and mentioned a case that is in the first chapter of my new book, Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime and Terrorism. The White Lace Case in Los Angeles involved women from the former USSR trafficked into high-end prostitution. Many of the women arrived in the United States as part of sports and religious delegations. In order to extend their legal residence in the United States, they had to obtain other visas. One of the leaders of this trafficking ring registered the trafficked women as students at a language skills school, thereby obtaining “student visas” for the prostitutes in her organization. The language school did not focus on providing instruction but instead was a visa mill. This same language school also provided visas to the 9/11 hijackers. In other words, the 9/11 hijackers and the trafficking victims shared the same “facilitator.” This facilitator was a point of intersection of crime and terrorism.

When I finished this talk, a government official approached me. He informed me that he was on a task force studying human trafficking and his role was to find the links between trafficking and terrorism. In his months in this position, he had not found a single example such as this. He asked how I found it. I answered that I had gone and talked to many members of law enforcement who through their investigations understood these links.

At that time, pre -9/11, the links were more subtle and had to be hunted down. But this case, already 15 years ago, shows that there were links at that time between human trafficking and terrorist activity even in the United States. Today they are more direct, especially in many conflict regions of the world. Yet policymakers focus nearly all their attention on more visible crime-terrorism links—primarily drug trafficking—and miss the important links between human trafficking and terrorist organizations.
Human trafficking now serves three main purposes for terrorist groups: generating revenue, providing fighting power, and vanquishing the enemy. For terrorists, human trafficking is a dual-use crime like drug trafficking and kidnapping. It not only generates revenue, but it decimates communities. As we see in Nigeria and Iraq today, trafficking intimidates populations and reduces resistance just as enslavement and rape of women were used as tools of war in the past.

Trafficking and smuggling are part of the business of terrorism, and constitute one activity in the product mix of terrorist groups. Terrorists smuggle drugs, arms, and people. Maoist insurgents in Nepal have exploited the long-standing trade of young girls taken from their country to the brothels of India to finance their activities. Evidence suggests that the LTTE smuggled Sri Lankans to finance their activities and the PKK exploited the porous mountain borders in eastern Turkey to facilitate human smuggling from countries in the Middle East and South Asia. Cells of the Ulster Volunteer Force of Northern Ireland received narcotics as payment from Chinese “snakeheads” in support of their smuggling networks. German authorities in 2006 arrested an Iraqi and a Syrian who smuggled individuals from their home region and were suspected of having links with the Ansar al-Islam terrorist network.

While trafficking and smuggling does generate revenue, they are not central money-making endeavors for terrorists and are committed primarily for other reasons. Pakistani terrorists buy children to serve as suicide bombers. Rebels in Africa trade in children to fund their conflicts and obtain child soldiers. More recently, Boko Haram shocked the world by kidnapping 276 female students and threatened to traffic them. ISIS members have taken young Azidi girls, raped and sold them off for trivial prices. The girls and women may sell for as little as $25 and sometimes even less, suggesting that this is not a revenue-generating operation when a million dollars daily is gained from oil sales. Rather, human trafficking, like slavery in the past, is a way of demoralizing the conquered.

Those not in the direct sight of terrorist groups may also become victims of human trafficking, even as they flee to safety. People displaced by terrorists are vulnerable to trafficking—both sexual and labor. Young girls fleeing with their families from the Syrian conflict today have been trafficked in Jordan and other neighboring states, just as occurred with earlier waves of refugees from Iraq. In Turkey, crime groups in border areas are exploiting the labor of Syrian male refugees who cannot find legitimate employment. Many more illegal migrants face labor trafficking in Europe as they flee the conflict regions of North Africa and the Middle East.

Human trafficking was once a crime associated primarily with a range of small to large crime groups. But as terrorist groups begin to function more as businesses, we unfortunately observe the expansion of terrorist groups into this criminality. Historically, conquering armies have seized inhabitants of conquered areas and enslaved them. But what is different is that traditional practices of the past have been combined with the business acumen of terrorist groups today. In their effort to diversify their revenue, they have capitalized on traditional practices to new advantage. Women and children are disproportionately victims, but they are not alone. Exploitation of trafficking victims may be most acute in conflict and adjoining regions, but it is not confined to these areas.

Pope Francis, in Christmas Address, Focuses on Children’s Plight | By ELISABETTA POVOLEDODEC. 25, 2014

Pope Francis on Thursday used a traditional Christmas address to emphasize the plight of children in areas of conflict, pointing out their “impotent silence” that “cries out under the spade of many Herods,” a reference to the ancient king who slaughtered all the male newborns of Bethlehem, according to the New Testament.

Vast numbers of children today are victims of violence, objects of trade and trafficking, or forced to become soldiers, and they need to be saved, he said.

The pope spoke of “children displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence.” He singled out “infants massacred in bomb attacks,” including in the Middle East and in Pakistan, where 132 children were killed in a Taliban attack on a school this month.

“So many abused children,” Francis said, in one of several off-the-cuff asides during the address, known as the “Urbi et Orbi” message — Latin for “to the city and the world” — that popes traditionally deliver to the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics on special occasions like Christmas.

In calling for global peace and for an end to violence and conflict in the Middle East, Ukraine and parts of Africa, Francis went off script to denounce “the globalization of indifference” that permits suffering and injustice to persist.

“So many men and women immersed in worldliness and indifference” are affected by hardness of the heart, he said, calling for reflection and change. And he chided the Vatican’s bureaucratic machine in another address this week for losing touch with its spiritual side in the pursuit of power.

As Christians exchanged gifts and shared family meals, the pope’s thoughts were with the world’s dispossessed; refugees and exiles; those suffering “brutal” ethnic or religious persecution; and those held as hostages or killed because of their religious beliefs.

“Truly there are so many tears this Christmas,” Francis said from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica before thousands of faithful in the square below. The address was also broadcast live on the Internet.

To underscore his closeness to those suffering religious persecution, a theme of his nearly two years as pope, on Christmas Eve, Francis spoke with displaced Christians who are in a tent camp in northern Iraq and told them that they were like Jesus. Many in the camps have been forced to leave their homes by militants of the Islamic State.

“You are like Jesus on the night of his birth when he had been forced to flee,” the pope told them in a telephone call broadcast live by an Italian Catholic television station. “You are like Jesus in this situation, and that means we are praying even harder for you.”

The pope also denounced abortion, and his thoughts turned to “infants killed in the womb, deprived of that generous love of their parents and then buried in the egoism of a culture that does not love life.”

In his message on Thursday, the pope said he hoped that the world would respond to the plight of the needy by increasing humanitarian aid, and he asked “that the necessary assistance and treatment be provided” for the victims of Ebola.

Closing the address, he called on Jesus’ strength to turn “arms into plowshares, destruction into creativity, hatred into love and tenderness.”

In Britain, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the Church of England, pulled out of the traditional Christmas Day ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral because of what his office described as a “severe cold.”

A draft of the sermon he had planned to deliver, and which was released on his website, reflected on the temporary truce on Christmas Day in 1914, early in the First World War, between British and German soldiers.

“The problem is that the way it is told now it seems to end with a ‘happy ever after,’” the draft said.

It added: “The following day the war continued with the same severity. Nothing had changed; it was a one-day wonder. That is not the world in which we live — truces are rare.”

Welcome to Bethlehem, where Palestinian Santas are tear-gassed

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Tuesday suppressed a peaceful march calling for “Christmas without occupation” in Bethlehem.

Demonstrators marched to the Israeli military checkpoint in northern Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas and hand out gifts to children in the area.

Marchers held up signs reading: “Jesus came with a message of: Peace, Freedom and Justice” and “We want Christmas without occupation.”

Israeli forces prevented demonstrators, some of whom were dressed as Father Christmas, from reaching the checkpoint and fired tear gas at the crowd.

Several people were treated at the scene for tear gas inhalation.

Mazen al-Azza, an activist with the Palestinian National Initiative, told Ma’an that the march had a peaceful Christmas message, but “Israeli soldiers did not miss the chance to suppress it by assaulting journalists and peaceful demonstrators.”

The ancient Palestinian city — said to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ — is now surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements on all sides.

Bethlehem is also cut off from Jerusalem, historically its twin city, by Israel’s separation wall, which runs along the northern side of the city.

Via Ma’an News

The Future of Syria | SEP 29, 2014

DENVER – “Men and nations,” the Israeli diplomat Abba Eban once observed, “do behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” Will this be the case for the United States with respect to Syria – the most intractable and dangerous issue in today’s Middle East?

Until now, US policy has boiled down to pinprick bombings against Sunni extremists and an effort to train some 5,000 Syrian “moderate oppositionists,” who presumably would defeat the other Sunnis, vanquish President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, and finally march victoriously into Damascus – perhaps with a flyover by US aircrafts. Thus, the US has continued to do the wrong – or at best inadequate – thing: listening to and, worse, believing those who have been part of the problem.

President Barack Obama is right that the destruction of the Islamic State is a long-term proposition. But, though Obama correctly identified the Islamic State as what the US does not want in the region, he failed to identity what the US does want for Syria – for which America should be galvanizing support in the region and in the broader international community. Just as Iraq cannot be governed by Shia alone, Syria cannot be effectively governed solely by and on behalf of the Sunni majority.

Syria is the proverbial problem from hell, a country whose borders have little to do with the tribal or sectarian identities found in the Levant. Syria’s borders, as many have noted, were hurriedly and secretly drawn a century ago by the foreign ministers of France and Britain. Syria will never have a day when someone does not mention this fact, or propose a new set of facts. Even the Islamic State, for which history seems to have ended in the seventh century, has pointed out the colonial legacy of the region’s borders.

But the Sykes-Picot line is not Syria’s uniquely underlying problem. After all, borders in Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America are rooted in complex histories that few of us would ever want to relive. In the Middle East, any effort to alter borders is likely to create many more problems than it resolves.

The problems that the US is encountering in Syria have a far more recent pedigree. In the wake of the Arab Spring, and amid growing unrest among Syrians seeking an end to the brutal Assad regime, the US and France sent their ambassadors to visit Hama in July 2011 to urge unity among the fledgling opposition movement. Hama was known for its Sunni population and anti-Assad sentiment, which frequently boiled over into violent protests and even more violent government crackdowns. It was also well known as a hotbed of Muslim Brotherhood activity.

The visit certainly did not unite the opposition. The most important result was the elimination of any possibility of dealing with the Assad government. Indeed, the US decision to side overtly with protesters in Hama spelled the end of any influence over the Alawites, the tribe on which Assad’s regime is based, effectively marginalizing the US.

Syria’s problem is not simply Assad’s presence in power; removing his regime would not by itself harmonize the interests embedded in the country’s patchwork quilt of ethnic and sectarian identities. A far more sustained and thoughtful consideration of Syria’s future, and how the country will be governed democratically, is needed.

Obama has likened his Syria policy to the sustained operations against terrorist cells in the Horn of Africa. No doubt, this approach must be included. But, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey implied when he opened the door to a discussion of a US ground component in the campaign against the Islamic State, US military power cannot be used incrementally and indecisively. It needs to be an element in the solution to a conflict that shows little sign of abating on its own.

There are three concentric circles of US diplomatic engagement: the successful effort in Baghdad to push former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki out and thereby try to win back Sunni hearts and minds; the effort to deepen dialogue with regional states such as Saudi Arabia; and the broader effort to engage international leaders. The Obama administration has used its effort to remove Maliki as a springboard to improve its relationships in the region. But it is far from clear whether regional partners are prepared to cooperate with a Shia-led Iraq at all.

Important as this regional diplomacy is, a US approach that includes unitary governance in Iraq will be problematic, given the reality of Shia leadership. The current thinking about eventual political solutions envisage provisional elections, followed by a constitutional process that the warring parties accept. But the realities on the ground make it highly doubtful that any election process could result in a provisional authority able to create a sustainable political system.

This state of affairs argues for diplomacy at the international level to identify a workable plan for Syria’s future that reasonable people can support. Syria may be unique, but the problems of governing a multi-ethnic country are not. Many of the solutions (a bicameral parliament and highly decentralized provincial structures, for example) are well known.

There will be those who argue that identifying the outlines of an eventual political solution is patronizing to Syrians. But when a country’s dysfunctional governance has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and threatens neighboring countries, such complaints have no place in the debate.

Project Syndicate

Christopher R. Hill, former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, was US Ambassador to Iraq, South Korea, Macedonia, and Poland, a US special envoy for Kosovo, a negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords, and the chief US negotiator with North Korea from 2005-2009.

Maxwell propels Australia to series win – by Dave Middleton, in Dubai | October 10, 2014

Maxwell propels Australia to a series win against Pakistan.

Tourists chase down 216 with five wickets and 40 balls remaining to take unassailable 2-0 lead

Scorecard

A half-century for Glenn Maxwell and another three wickets from Mitchell Johnson helped Australia to a five-wicket victory – and a series win – against Pakistan in the second one-day international in Dubai.

Australia chased down Pakistan’s 215 with 40 balls to spare to take a 2-0 lead in the three-match series, and attention will now turn to completing a sweep in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. A 3-0 result and one more win for the West Indies from their remaining four games against India would see Australia reclaim the world No.1 ODI ranking.

James Faulkner (26*) and Brad Haddin (17) brought Australia home with a 39-run partnership.

After the match it was announced the Tasmanian allrounder would stay on with the Test squad for at least next week’s warm-up match against Pakistan A as cover for Mitchell Marsh, who continues to convalesce from a left hamstring injury.

Maxwell’s 76 came from 81 balls. He worked the ball around with a full array of shots on display but seemed to bat within himself, striking nine fours and a solitary six – an opportunity too good to miss when Shahid Afridi dropped short.

Maxwell made the most of a life when on two as Umar Akmal put down a sharp chance at slip off debutant Raza Hasan (1-68). He responded by taking 12 off the over.

The allrounder fell looking to finish the game quickly, top-edging Zulfiqar Babar (2-52) and was well caught by Asad Shafiq run towards the leg side from slip.

Pakistan’s spinners extracted noticeably more turn than Australia could and the batsmen for the most part played with sensible caution.

Maxwell and George Bailey put together an 85-run partnership before the skipper was run out. His 28 from 67 balls may look a poor strike rate, but Bailey provided an important anchor for the partnership.

Bailey had earlier been given out on 20 after a loud appeal for caught behind, but immediately referred the decision which was overturned by third umpire Richard Kettleborough.

It was the third incorrect decision made by standing umpire Shozab Raza from Pakistan. The Bailey decision followed an earlier not-out to an edge off Aaron Finch that was overturned and, when Australia bowled, an lbw verdict in favour of Nathan Lyon that a review showed to be hitting outside the line and missing a fourth stump, at best.

Finch had survived an appeal for a catch a first slip in the first over and Umar Akmal may possibly find himself in hot water with the International Cricket Council after claiming the catch when television replays showed it bounced in front of him.

Finch (14) stood his ground again when Pakistan went up for an edge behind off Mohammed Irfan (1-42) and was given not out. Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq sent the decision to the third umpire and, without the use of Hot Spot or Snicko, neither of which are in use in this series, and Kettleborough found enough evidence to reverse the decision by Shozab.

Steven Smith (12) couldn’t back up his century heroics from Sharjah, an attempted cut shot off Zulfiqar edged straight into Sarfraz Ahmed’s gloves.

Zulfiqar’s next over brought 20 runs, six of them wides and three swept boundaries to David Warner.

Warner had moved to 29 from 26 balls and would have added six more if it wasn’t for the 216cm (7ft 1in) Irfan on the fence at long-on. He stretched up to snaffle the catch, and pumped his fist a super-charged celebration. In his excitement, he held his hands up for his teammates to slap in celebration, but at his height, none of them could reach, opting instead for an embrace.

 

Mitchell Johnson (3-40) was again the chief destroyer for Australia, helping claw back a fast-starting Pakistan to restrict them to 215 all out in 49.3 overs.

Pakistan’s first 25 overs yielded them 126 runs in their third-highest opening stand against Australia in one-day cricket.

Ahmed Shehzad (61) and Sarfraz Ahmed (65) started cautiously but soon took the attack to Australia, with recalled spinner Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell taking particular punishment.

The next 24.3 overs saw them lose 10-89. Three of those wickets were run-outs and it could have been so much worse with the Australians uncharacteristically inaccurate in the field early.

Bailey dropped a catch as Shehzad chipped to mid-off at waist height from Kane Richardson’s bowling, but Smith took a screamer at first slip; a juggling, diving effort on the rebound to dismiss Afridi and give Johnson his third wicket.

For a team reportedly lacking in confidence after a six-wicket T20 loss and 93-run defeat in Wednesday’s opening ODI, openers Shehzad and Sarfraz played like world-beaters.

Doherty (1-44) got the breakthrough with Shehzad caught at mid-wicket by Smith. An over later, Maxwell caught Sarfraz at point for Johnson’s first.

A touch of Maxwell magic brought the third wicket as Misbah hesitated mid-pitch after an athletic stop. It was all the invitation Maxwell needed with a rifled throw allowing Haddin to catch Misbah (15) just short.

Asad Shafiq (29) struck Richardson for a huge six over long-on and then danced down the track to loft Lyon (1-40) straight for a boundary, but a repeat attempt gave Lyon his wicket with a simple catch chipped to mid-off.

Richardson (1-43) was solid while Faulkner capitalised on Pakistan’s frailties to pick up 1-27 from seven overs.

Australia had been expecting the Dubai wicket to offer extreme turn with the same pitch that hosted Monday’s morning’s Twenty20 international in use.

Both teams made one change for the match, both replacing a quick bowler for a spinner.

As expected, the Tasmanian left-arm orthodox spinner Doherty came into the Australian XI at the expense of allrounder Sean Abbott.

The 22-year-old New South Welshman may have considered himself unlucky having impressed in his debut ODI on Wednesday in Sharjah, especially when Doherty bowled three full tosses in his first over.

Cricket Australia

Mitch Johnson finished with 3-40 from his 10 overs after this catch from Steve Smith PAK vs AUS.

After 25 overs Pakistan were 126/0 and bowled our for 215 all out

Why Kobani Matters | By Joshua Keating | October 8, 2014

Smoke rises following an airstrike on the Syrian town of Kobani. Photo Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty

The latest focal point of the Syrian civil war is Kobani, a small city near the Turkish border where ISIS militants have been battling Kurdish forces since mid-September. ISIS flags are reportedly now flying over parts of the city, which has been under control of local Kurdish forces since 2012. U.S. airstrikes don’t appear to have done much to stop the Islamic State’s advance, and U.S. officials now say the city is on the verge of falling.

This is important for geographical, humanitarian, and political reasons. If Kobani falls, it will give ISIS control of a wide swath of the Syria-Turkey border, putting it one step closer to establishing the “state” implied in its name. Taking Kobani would also establish a corridor linking the group’s de facto capital in the eastern city of Raqqa with Aleppo in the west. Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, is also probably its most important battlefield. It’s the opposition rebels’ last major urban stronghold, but they’ve been besieged for months by both Syrian government forces and ISIS. If it falls, it will be both a humanitarian catastrophe for the city’s 2 million people and a devastating blow to the non-ISIS rebels.

Since coming under Kurdish control, Kobani has been a relatively stable haven for civilians fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria. But the assault has reportedly forced as many as 160,000 people to abandon their onetime refuge. More will follow if the city falls in the coming days.

Beyond the refugee situation, the Kobani crisis is also of major political significance to Turkey, which has been one of the main backers of anti-Assad forces since the beginning but has been extremely reluctant to get involved in the fight against ISIS, much to the irritation of its NATO allies.

The Kobani crisis has sparked protests in at least six Turkish cities by Kurds, who accuse Turkey of not doing enough to stop ISIS. More than a dozen people have been killed in clashes with police, who have used water cannons and tear gas on the protesters. As the Independent puts it, “The likely fall of Kobani may mark an irrevocable breach between Turks and Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.”

This isn’t good news for the future of the anti-ISIS coalition. So far, ISIS’s main obstacle has been that nearly every major actor in the Middle East, from Israel to al-Qaida, is against it. Its main advantage has been that many of these actors don’t get along with each other. Further tensions between Turkey and the Kurds won’t help matters.

A major ISIS bulwark on its borders may finally spur Turkey to take direct military action within Syria. But given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s frustrations with Western countries’ reluctance to target Bashar al-Assad, it’s not clear how much Turkey would work in tandem with other countries. Turkey has been calling for airstrikes against Assad’s forces and the establishment of a no-fly zone in northern Syria, two goals Washington has dismissed, so it’s possible we could end up with yet another military actor with its own agenda operating on the ground in Syria.

The fall of Kobani would also be seen as a sign of the inability of U.S. airstrikes to stop ISIS’s advance. Though it’s not entirely clear that this is actually a major U.S. priority. Airstrikes around Kobani have apparently been fairly sparing, to the alarm of Kurdish forces defending the city, and U.S. officials have said they don’t consider it a major concern. The Obama administration’s near-term priority, as some anonymous officials explained to CNN, is not protecting Syrian cities but damaging ISIS’s command posts and infrastructure enough that it can be rolled back from Iraq. (There are some signs that airstrikes are stopping ISIS’s advance in some instances on the Iraqi side of the border.) After some semblance of stability is returned to Iraq, the thinking goes, the U.S. will turn its attention to Syria, hopefully with some well-equipped and reliable local allies in place by then.

It’s difficult to imagine that Iraq could be stabilized while its neighbor continues to disintegrate, but that seems to be the prevailing idea right now.

Joshua Keating is a staff writer at Slate focusing on international affairs and writes the World blog. 

Girl, 4, dies in school bus in Abu Dhabi | By Binsal Abdul Kader | October 7, 2014

Nizha Ala, died yesterday after allegedly being left locked inside her school bus.

Abu Dhabi: The family members of the four-year-old girl,  Nizha Ala, who died yesterday after allegedly being left locked inside her school bus, said they believed the incident could have been averted.

“When I read similar incidents in newspapers in the past, I prayed to God no family may face such a tragedy. I never imagined this would happen to my family,” Cheriyandilakath Nasser, Nisa’s uncle, told Gulf News yesterday.

Nisa, a KG-1 pupil, boarded the school bus of Al Worood Academy Private School near her residence in Khalidiya in the Abu Dhabi yesterday morning, Asghar Ali, 60, her grandfather, said.

“Her parents were asked to reach the school in the afternoon and, on arriving there, the school officials told them the child was left locked in the school bus and found dead,” Ali said.

The girl’s father, Naseer Ahmad, is from Coorg in Karnataka in India and his wife is from Kannur district in Kerala. Nizha’s older sister is a grade one pupil at an Indian school in Musaffah.

“She was a smart girl. She spread happiness everywhere…in our extended families, too. It is unbearable…we can’t face this…” a tearful Nasser said.

He said he and his family cannot comprehend the fact that the little girl was left inside the school bus.. “How come no one checked the bus after dropping all the children at school?” “It seems no one learned from past experiences,” Nasser said.

He was referring to two similar cases in recent years. On April 24, 2008, four-year-old Aathish Shabin from India, a KG-1 pupil at Merryland Kindergarten in Abu Dhabi, died after he was left locked inside the school bus.

Similar cases

On May 14, 2009, Aimen Zeeshan, a kindergarten pupil from Pakistan at the Model School Musaffah, also died in similar circumstances. She died in a private bus arranged by the parents to take her to school.

Since Nisa boarded the school bus around 6.30am yesterday, the family was under the impression that she was enjoying her time at the school, her grandfather told Gulf News. He runs a small business in Abu Dhabi.

After being notified about the incident, he reached school to see the police and ambulance there.

“When I saw my child’s body being taken to the ambulance I ran after it, but I could not see her,” a weeping Ali said.

Ali said he does not know how to console his daughter, Nisa’s mother. “She was given an injection after being hospitalised.”

He said he did not know whether the child fell asleep in the bus. “Even if she slept, someone could have checked the bus properly,” Ali said.

Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) and Traffic and Patrols Directorate at Abu Dhabi Police said on Tuesday investigations into the incident are ongoing and strict action will be taken, if anyone found guilty of negligence. Adec is providing all assistance to the police in their investigations, Engineer Hamed Al Daheri, Executive Director for Private Schools at Adec, said in a statement. The council will change the regulations related to the contract between schools and transportation companies to ensure safety and security of children. Engineer Hussain Al Harithy of Abu Dhabi Police said new rules will be put in place in cooperation with Adec to ensure the safety of children. Adec and the Traffic Directorate expressed their deep condolences to the family of the child.

The school said its preliminary investigations into the incident found that negligence on the part of a school staff and absence of a large number of students on Tuesday just after Eid holidays contributed to the incident. A female attendant in the bus had recorded the child’s name in the list of students boarded the bus but her name was not among the list of students reached the school , a member of the school management board, who did not want to named, told Gulf News on Tuesday evening. It means child was left behind in the bus and the attendant did not find it, she said. The child was left locked in the bus for around four hours-from 8am to 12pm. The kindergarten students leave the school around 12pm, before other students . Then only the attendant noticed the discrepancy in the lists- the child had boarded the bus but did not reach the school. She immediately rushed to the bus and found the child dead in the bus. The school at once informed the police, who reached the spot and took the female attendant and driver into custody.

About the large number of absent children on Tuesday, she said: “We have around 2300 students but around 1000 of them were absent on Tuesday.”

That’s why the attendant and other staff did not bother much about the child’s absence.

“We express our deep condolences to the family of the deceased child. We are cooperating with the investigations being conducted by the Abu Dhabi Police and Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), she said.

With inputs from Abdulla Rasheed, Abu Dhabi Editor

Smith ton guides Aussies to victory – by Dave Middleton, in Sharjah | Oct 7, 2014

Maxwell chimed in to have Alam (7) well caught by Davi Warner

Steve Smith’s maiden one-day international century against Pakistan

A maiden ODI century to Steve Smith and some sharp fielding has guided Australia to a comfortable win over Pakistan

Scorecard: Pakistan v Australia, first ODI

Steve Smith’s maiden one-day international century and three wickets to Mitchell Johnson have guided Australia to a 93-run win in the first One-Day International against Pakistan in Sharjah.

A battling 46 from Umar Akmal may have silenced his critics after a weak dismissal in Monday’s Twenty20 match, but it was a lone hand for Pakistan who were all out for 162 in the 37th over.

Batting in the extreme heat and humidity of the Arabian afternoon at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Smith hit a brilliant first ton in coloured clothing for Australia to lead the hosts to 8-255.

Smith could not have picked a more opportune time to deliver on his previously unrealised talent at one-day level, with only one other batsman passing 23.

Australia would also be buoyed by the success of their spin attack with two matches to come in this series in Dubai (Friday) and Abu Dhabi (Sunday).

Nathan Lyon (2-33) and Glenn Maxwell (2-29) were threatening throughout, although Maxwell’s figures were spoilt somewhat after he was spanked for three sixes in an over by Pakistan’s last-wicket pair.

Lyon found turn from his first ball, ripping one in from outside off and it wasn’t long before he made the breakthrough.

He had Sarfraz Ahmed (34) well caught by Brad Haddin after the ball had clipped Sarfraz’s glove as he attempted a sweep and bounced over his right shoulder.

Haddin’s reactions, as sharp as ever, allowed him to bobble the catch and claim it as he rocked back onto the turf.

If that catch was good, the one next ball was great.

Captain Misbah-ul-Haq pushed at a fuller ball, inside-edging it to David Warner’s right at leg-slip. He reacted quickly, catching the ball just above the turf.

Fawad Alam survived the hat-trick ball but more woe was to come for Pakistan in the next over.

Johnson had already accounted for opener Ahmed Shezad (4), caught at second slip, and he added his second in the 14th over when Asad Safiq (13) gloved down the leg side.

It left Pakistan reeling as they lost three wickets for four runs in 12 balls.

Maxwell chimed in to have Alam (7) well caught by Warner – a second outstanding piece of fielding – and later picked up a second when Wahab Riaz (5) was caught and bowled.

Sean Abbott, playing his first ODI, picked up Shahid Afridi (5), caught on the midwicket boundary by James Faulkner.

It was the second time in 48 hours that Abbott had claimed the wicket of Pakistan’s hero on debut.

In Monday morning’s T20 international, Abbott had one tail back into Afridi at 142kph to have the Pakistan skipper lbw.

It gave Abbott the curious stat of two wickets for one run in just five balls against Afridi.

Smith reached 101 before falling in the 45th over of Australia’s innings to give Afridi figures of 3-46.

Smith’s 118-ball innings included two sweetly-struck sixes and four fours.

He had scored just 78 runs in four innings during Australia’s tri-series with Zimbabwe and August on his recall to the one-day side, and had been installed at No.3 at the insistence of Michael Clarke.

That represented a disappointing return for Smith, who fell twice while in the 30s, and he had averaged just 20.73 in one-day cricket before this innings.

Smith’s previous best had been an unbeaten 46 against England in Adelaide on the Australia Day weekend in 2011, and he had only passed 40 in one other of his previous 27 innings.

Required to come in to face the second ball of the innings following Aaron Finch’s golden duck, Smith played with the composure and assuredness that saw him become a Test match regular last summer.

George Bailey won the toss and opted to bat first and, after being made to wait while ground officials fixed a sightscreen issue, Finch drove the first ball straight to backward point to gift Irfan and Pakistan the perfect start.

Smith and David Warner quickly righted that ship, putting on an 86-run partnership in the next 18 overs.

Warner had looked set for another big innings to follow his 53 in Monday morning’s Twenty20 international. That was until he flat-batted a low catch to on 43.

Having slog-swept the backwards-cap wearing Alam for a huge six, Bailey (18) top-edged his attempt to repeat the stroke next ball and was well caught by Afridi, running backwards with the flight of the ball at midwicket.

Maxwell provided plenty of entertainment in his brief innings.

Afridi got one to turn away from the bat and it took the edge, only to see it bounce out of Sarfraz’s gloves.

Seven balls later a top-edge flew high and behind the ‘keeper. Shehzad set off in purist from the slips but overran the catch, the ball thudding off his shoulder as the fielders’ knees dug into the turf in an awkward fall.

Maxwell being Maxwell, he was soon reverse-sweeping a boundary, but his luck ran out on 21.

Attempting to go after Pakistan’s 35-year-old debutant spinner Zulfiqar Babar (1-35), he miscued the lofted drive straight down the throat of the 216cm Irfan at deep mid-off.

James Faulkner (11) was lbw to Afridi, the wicket taking him to 381 ODI victims; past Brett Lee and joint sixth-highest, level with Glenn McGrath.

Abbott (3) came in at No.8 and was caught on the fence while Johnson (21) smashed three consecutive boundaries off Riaz (2-61) in the final over before being bowled.

ISIS, Boko Haram and Batman | Thomas L. Friedman | OCTOBER 4, 2014

WHAT’S the right strategy for dealing with a world increasingly divided between zones of order and disorder? For starters, you’d better understand the forces of disorder, like Boko Haram or the Islamic State. These are gangs of young men who are telling us in every way possible that our rules no longer apply. Reason cannot touch them, because rationalism never drove them. Their barbarism comes from a dark place, where radical Islam gives a sense of community to humiliated, drifting young men, who have never held a job or a girl’s hand. That’s a toxic mix.

It’s why Orit Perlov, an Israeli expert on Arab social networks, keeps telling me that since I can’t visit the Islamic State, which is known as ISIS, and interview its leaders, the next best thing would be to see “Batman: The Dark Knight.” In particular, she drew my attention to this dialogue between Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth:

Bruce Wayne: “I knew the mob wouldn’t go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed the line.”

Alfred Pennyworth: “You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them. You hammered them to the point of desperation. And, in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.”

Bruce Wayne: “Criminals aren’t complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he’s after.”

Alfred Pennyworth: “With respect, Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man that you don’t fully understand, either. A long time ago, I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But, in six months, we never met anybody who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.”

Bruce Wayne: “So why steal them?”

Alfred Pennyworth: “Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. …”

Bruce Wayne: “The bandit, in the forest in Burma, did you catch him?”

Alfred Pennyworth: “Yes.”

Bruce Wayne: “How?”

Alfred Pennyworth: “We burned the forest down.”

We can’t just burn down Syria or Iraq or Nigeria. But there is a strategy for dealing with the world of disorder that I’d summarize with this progression:

Where there is disorder — think Libya, Iraq, Syria, Mali, Chad, Somalia — collaborate with every source of local, regional and international order to contain the virus until the barbarism burns itself out. These groups can’t govern, so ultimately locals will seek alternatives.

Where there is top-down order — think Egypt or Saudi Arabia — try to make it more decent and inclusive.

Where there is order plus decency — think Jordan, Morocco, Kurdistan, the United Arab Emirates — try to make it more consensual and effective, again to make it more sustainable.

Where there is order plus democracy — think Tunisia — do all you can to preserve and strengthen it with financial and security assistance, so it can become a model for emulation by the states and peoples around it.

And be humble. We don’t have the wisdom, resources or staying power to do anything more than contain these organisms, until the natural antibodies from within emerge.

In the Arab world, it may take longer for those natural antibodies to coalesce, and that is worrying, argues Francis Fukuyama, the Stanford political scientist whose new, widely discussed book, “Political Order and Political Decay,” is a historical study of how decent states emerge. What they all have in common is a strong and effective state bureaucracy that can deliver governance, the rule of law and regular rotations in power.

Because our founding fathers were escaping from tyranny, they were focused “on how power can be constrained,” Fukuyama explained to me in an interview. “But before power can be constrained, it has to be produced. … Government is not just about constraints. It’s about providing security, infrastructure, health and rule of law. And anyone who can deliver all of that” — including China — “wins the game whether they are democratic or not. … ISIS got so big because of the failure of governance in Syria and Iraq to deliver the most basic services. ISIS is not strong. Everything around it was just so weak,” riddled with corruption and sectarianism.

There is so much state failure in the Arab world, argues Fukuyama, because of the persistence there of kinship/tribal loyalties — “meaning that you can only trust that narrow group of people in your tribe.” You can’t build a strong, impersonal, merit-based state when the only ties that bind are shared kin, not shared values. It took China and Europe centuries to make that transition, but they did. If the Arab world can’t overcome its tribalism and sectarianism in the face of ISIS barbarism, “then there is nothing we can do,” said Fukuyama. And theirs will be a future of many dark nights.

New York Times

Sweden to become first major European country to recognize state of Palestine | By Johan Ahlander | Oct 3, 2014

The United States and the EU are likely to strongly criticize the decision, since they maintain that an independent Palestinian state should only emerge through a negotiated process.

REUTERS – Sweden’s new center-left government will recognize the state of Palestine in a move that will make it the first major European country to take the step, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Friday.

The UN General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in 2012 but the European Union and most EU countries, have yet to give official recognition.

“The conflict between Israel can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law,” Swedish PM Stefan Lofven said during his inaugural address in parliament.

“A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine.”

For the Palestinians, Sweden’s move will be a welcome boost for its ambitions.

With its reputation as an honest broker in international affairs and with an influential voice in EU foreign policy, the decision may well make other countries sit up and pay attention at a time when the Palestinians are threatening unilateral moves towards statehood.

However, there is likely to be strong criticism of Sweden from Israel, as well as from the United States and the EU, which maintain that an independent Palestinian state should only emerge through a negotiated process.

Within the EU, some countries, such as Hungary, Poland and Slovakia recognize Palestine, but they did so before joining the 28-member bloc.

If the center-left government fulfills its plans, Sweden would be the first country to recognize Palestine while being a member of the European Union.

The Social Democrats and Greens hold a minority of seats in parliament and the incoming center-left government is likely to be one of Sweden’s weakest for decades.

The former center-right government would not recognize Palestine as the Palestinian authorities did not control their territory.

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in East Jerusalem. While Gaza’s boundaries are clearly defined, the precise territory of what would constitute Palestine in the West Bank and East Jerusalem will only be determined via negotiations with Israel on a two-state solution, negotiations which are currently suspended.