News and Analysis (12/16/15)

“News of the imminent fall of Tikrit on Tuesday were exaggerated. On the east bank of the Tigris, Iraqi forces took the town of al-Alam, 6 miles northeast of Tikrit, from Daesh (ISIL or ISIS). But Daesh fighters blew up the bridge over the Tigris, stranding a lot of Iraqi forces to the east” …

… and now with reports of evidence of chlorine gas usage, the ground assault on Tikrit has paused accompanied by calls for more air strikes:

“David Cameron is braced for a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia and Egypt when the Government today publishes a long-awaited review into the Muslim Brotherhood which is set to clear it of being a terrorist organisation” …

… while in Jordan, some fear “that the government’s apparent divide-and-control policy could backfire by pushing more Brotherhood supporters into the ranks of extremists like the Islamic State group, seen as the main threat to the country’s stability” …

… and some are asking if Sisi’s insistence on blaming violent acts for which more extreme groups take credit on the MB  push younger members into violence as Nasser did to a previous generation?

“Following several public rallies calling for reform in 2012, Prime Minister Najib Razak promised to scrap the country’s sedition laws, which date back to when the country was a British colony. But last year he went back on that pledge and said the laws would stay and even be strengthened”:

“[A]n expert on extremism … de-radicalization programs that focus on women have only started to take shape in Europe in part because until now their motivations have been misunderstood. ‘I think the general perception is that women are victims and that they are passive, which is not the case’”:

“Women say they wear niqab for religious obligation and identity, not because of family or outside pressure,” and in a more significant U. of Michigan survey 56% of Tunisians, 52% of Turks. 49% of Lebanese, and 47% of Saudis also said it should be up to women to decide what to wear”:

There are already many good reason for the NRA to keep America’s #1 conservative coalition builder on its board. Glen Beck provides us with yet another:

“Khadim was a former Taliban commander who had switched allegiance and aligned his followers with the Islamic State group, which controls about a third of Iraq and Syria in a self-declared caliphate. He had allegedly set up an IS recruiting network across southern Afghanistan”:

“Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had at first been concerned about the payment, fearing the CIA knew about the money and had tainted it with poison, radiation or a tracking device, the Times said, and suggested it be converted to another currency”:

“[A]ngry Christian mobs blocked the highway, ransacked bus terminals and burned two people to death who they suspected of being involved in the bombings”:


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