The video, 27 seconds of footage, was first spotted in April, with the TIME magazine conducting a probe into whether it had been faked for propaganda purposes. On Sunday, the clip emerged on a pro-regime website, triggering a wave of rage online. Human rights organizations, as well as his fellow rebels, have condemned the rebel. However, Khalid Hamad, known by his war nickname Abu Sakkar, didn’t seem to regret his behavior much, labeling it as revenge: “an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth.” In an interview with TIME magazine, he commented on his actions: “We opened his cell phone, and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he was humiliating them, and poking a stick here and there.” Hamad says as a Sunni he hates Alawite Muslims, which once again signals of the increasingly sectarian side of the Syrian conflict. UN warned of it as early as in December last year.“Hopefully we will slaughter all of [the Alawites]. I have another video clip that I will send to them. In the clip, I am sawing another shabiha [pro-government militiaman] with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him into small pieces and large ones,” Hamad said in the interview.The Supreme Military Council has already compiled a poster calling for Hamad’s arrest, saying it wants him “dead or alive” on official Damascus’s behalf.On Monday, Human Rights Watch issued a report on the matter, saying the rebel was also to blame for the cross-border bombing of a Lebanese village that left two killed not long ago.“It is not enough for Syria’s opposition to condemn such behavior or blame it on violence by the government,” Nadim Houry, the watchdog’s deputy director for the Middle East, told TIME magazine.“The opposition forces need to act firmly to stop such abuses.” However with recent reports showcasing lack of unity in the opposition ranks, a unified response to such acts may stay only in the form of calls. The Red Cross for instance brings the following report from within Syria.“Sometimes it can take more than two weeks of negotiations with both sides. With armed groups, maybe half of them will accept and with half we still have to negotiate. Even if you get the green light from both sides, you would have some groups or snipers who would not really follow instructions and would shoot at anyone who is trying to cross,” head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team Marianne Gasser told Reuters.But while some of the opposition factions denounce Hamad’s actions, there are supporters who make portraits of him with the inscription “We Love You.”“These types of atrocities have been happening in Syria since the beginning of the crisis. The international community just didn’t want to admit it,” Ali Haider, Syria’s minister for reconciliation, told the Telegraph. The minister also pointed out that they had documents that were as “horrific” as the video featuring Hamad.“We have seen one of our pilot’s heads cut off and cooked on a grill. We have seen rebels toasting their success by drinking the blood of their victims,” he claimed.All this comes as the UK and France urge for the arms embargo on Syria to be lifted in order to supply the opposition with weapons. This has already drawn criticism from allies, with Austria reportedly circulating a discussion paper among the EU member states on Tuesday pressing that such a move would violate the international law.Lifting the embargo would “constitute a breach of international and EU law” and be contrary to the “principle of non-intervention and non-use of force” laid down in the UN Charter, Austrian press quoted the document. If the weapons fall with al-Nusra Front opposition group, it would also violate UN Security Council resolutions on Al-Qaeda, given al-Nusra’s recent affiliation claims.At least 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began just over two years ago, according to the UN, putting the number of displaced Syrians at more than 850,000. … Read More
US Navy launched its first drone from aircraft carrier
The flight serves as a milestone for the future of drone aviation, and US Navy officers have celebrated the success of its launch. But the flight of the unmanned aircraft, which is the size of a fighter jet, is likely to become the subject of criticism from those who believe drone usage hurts the US image – especially since drones are behind many civilian deaths on foreign grounds. Critics have already condemned the Navy’s $1.4 billion drone prototype program, relaying their concerns over the development of weaponized systems in which humans will have even less control over when it comes to launching attacks. Human Rights Watch has particularly protested the development of drones that carry weapons and are fully autonomous, like the X-47B unmanned aircraft that the Navy launched from the USS George H.W. Bushon Tuesday. This unmanned aircraft can reach an altitude of more than 40,000 feet and has a range of more than 2,100 nautical miles, the Associated Press reports. This model is particularly valuable because it has the capability to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. Developing such drones would allow the US to launch strikes from anywhere in the world, regardless of whether or not a foreign country allows the US on its grounds. The drone is fully autonomous in flight, and relies on computer programs to direct it – unless an operator programs it to operate otherwise. Most drones currently employed by the military fully rely on operators to control it from a remote location. While the X-47B is only intended for testing purposes rather than operational use, the Navy will use it for research purposes to develop advanced unmanned aircraft for use in future conflicts. When it comes to using lethal force, the X-47B still requires human approval. But Human Rights Watch believes the prototype research will lead to the development of drones that conduct deadly attacks with no human intervention.Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch, expressed some of his fears with AP.“For us, the question is where do you draw lines?” he said. “We’re saying you need to draw the line when you have a fully autonomous system that is weaponized. We’re saying you must have meaningful human control over key battlefield decisions of who lives and who dies. That should not be left up to the weapons system itself.” But despite fears over the future of fully autonomous drones that can launch deadly attacks from aircraft carriers, the Navy is hailing the flight of its prototype as a success it has long sought.“US Navy history is made!” the Navy wrote from its official Twitter account. “Was airborne at 11:18A. More to come.” The Navy plans to release videos and photographs of the event, which Read Adm. Mat Winter wrote marks “an inflection point in history on how we will integrate manned and unmanned aircraft on carrier flight decks in the future.” … Read More
French defense budget cuts may hit ‘expensive’ and ‘useless’ Republican Guard
Cour des Comptes heavily criticized the Republican Guard, which stands watch outside the Presidential Palace in Paris. Their report suggested that the Guard – which plays a mostly “symbolic” and “prestigious” role in French society – should be revised and downsized, as it represents a drain on funding that could be better spent elsewhere.“The Cour recommends that a general review of the role of the Guard with a view to reducing the number of recruits to those strictly necessary for security purposes,” the report said. The Cour calculated that the Guard spends 69 percent of its time protecting national palaces, but lack adequate training to fend off an actual attack.The Republican Guard comprises 2,959 soldiers, and costs around €280 million a year to maintain.French Interior Minister Manuel Valls wrote in a statement responding to the recommendations, saying he was in favor of implementing the cuts in order to better defend sites “particularly vulnerable to potential terror attacks.”Recently, France was forced to enact cuts to its military budget amid the ongoing eurozone crisis. The government announced that it was cutting 34,000 jobs in the armed forces by 2019 as part of a new ‘flat budget strategy’ outlined in a five-year plan published in April. The initial plan to shrink the size of the French military were slammed by government officials as “madness,” with many claiming it would leave the country vulnerable to attack.Despite the economic troubles, the French armed forces intervened in Mali in January, lending 4,000 soldiers to fight Islamist militants in the north of the country. In April, the French National Assembly and Senate voted unanimously to extend the campaign in the African nation, fueling fear of a drawn-out and expensive conflict. Unemployment in France is currently at a record high: 3.22 million, the highest since 1997. … Read More
New Israeli submarines can’t be ‘solely for defensive purposes’
The deployment of INS Rahav, allegedly capable of launching cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, to the Israeli navy has set off a number of worrying alarm bells, Jeremy Corbyn, the British MP and deputy head of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament tells RT. “It’s very hard to see how these submarines that Germany is supplying to Israel can be solely for defensive purposes, because there is no sea-based threat to Israel and Israel needs to get on board with the rest of the region and talk peace and talk about the signature they’ve already given to the Mediterranean weapons of Mass Destruction free zone. The delivery of these submarines is yet one more ratcheting up of the danger.” He explained that Israel already has the ability to launch nuclear weapons whether on missiles or from bombs on airplanes and these submarines could also be used – if converted – to deliver nuclear weapons. Corbyn questioned why Germany is paying a very large amount of money to Israel’s defense costs by subsidizing the development and delivery of these submarines. “One just wonders if this isn’t part of a wider European military involvement in North Africa and the Middle East region. It is a very bad day for the development of a peace process across the Middle East,” said Corbyn. His thoughts were echoed by Bruce Gagnon, an anti-nuclear campaigner based in Maine in the US. He told RT that he fails to see how the fleet of new German submarines can be only for defensive purposes and believes they are for projecting power across the region and may be part of a larger global strategy to expand NATO. He also believes that it will be impossible to make any advances on nuclear disarmament when Israel and the US refuse to admit that Israel has nuclear weapons.“The international community must continue to shine a light on Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons, something they don’t want to talk about, something the US doesn’t want to talk about,” said Gagnon. As well as Israel flouting international opinion by developing 200 nuclear warheads, responsibility also lies with the officials who run and oversee the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, explained Corbyn. “The NPT have been very dilatory in their behavior in setting up a nuclear weapons conference for the Middle East,” he said. … Read More
Saudi Arabia launches first anti-domestic violence campaign
According to the World Economic Forum, Saudi Arabia ranks 131st out of 135 countries on gender parity and opportunities for women. Progress in the country has been slow, but local feminists and other women’s rights groups have continued to agitate for more representation in the Saudi government, increased mobility in their day-to-day lives and other egalitarian gains in a country where women are still legally considered minors and require permission from male guardians for simple things like travel and work.But the culture is changing, albeit slowly. Close on the heels of a law allowing women to ride bicycles in “enclosed areas” for “recreational purposes,” two female Saudi Olympians competing in London and the swearing-in of 30 female members of the Shura Council comes a new anti-domestic violence campaign. The very first of its kind in Saudi Arabia.The “No More Abuse” campaign is sponsored by the nonprofit King Khalid Foundation, and is intended to raise awareness about available resources for women and children experiencing violence in their homes and families. The ads depict a woman wearing a hijab but with a clearly visible black eye, and the Arabic text roughly translates to “The tip of the iceberg.” An English language version reads: “Some things can’t be covered.”Continue Reading… … Read More
Israel in the room? Egypt quits nuke talks over ‘inefficiency’ in Middle East
“We cannot continue waiting forever for the implementation of this resolution,” Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday, as talks in Geneva entered second week. Cairo said it was pulling out of the talks “to send a strong message of non-acceptance of the continued lack of seriousness in dealing with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.” Egypt called for more responsibility from member states in “implementing legitimate international resolutions” saying there is “continued lack of seriousness in dealing with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.” Egypt’s comments are largely seen as reference to neighboring Israel, which neither confirms nor denies the possession of nuclear weapons. “Egypt along with many Arab countries has joined the treaty with the understanding that it would lead to a Middle East completely free of nuclear weapons. However, more than 30 years later, one country in the Middle East, namely Israel, remains outside the NPT,” Egypt`s Assistant Foreign Minister Hisham Badr told a news conference in Geneva earlier this month. Arab states and Iran have repeatedly warned that Israeli purported nuclear program threatens peace in the region. US and Israeli officials have said that one of the necessary conditions to enable a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East is Iran`s nuclear program curbed. Meanwhile, Tehran claims its nuclear program solely pursues peaceful purposes such as energy and research. The Geneva talks were meant to prepare for the next major review of the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Held every five years, the next one is scheduled for 2015. The NPT, originated in 1970, was introduced to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. According to the document five states were recognized as nuclear-weapon states: the US, Russia, the UK, France and China. A total of 190 parties have signed the treaty. Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and South Sudan are not signatories to the NPT. Pyongyang withdrew from the treaty in 2003 when it was accused of launching an enriched uranium weapons program. … Read More
What Is TPP? It’s the Biggest Global Threat to the Internet Since ACTA
The TPP agreement is a POWERFUL TRADE AGREEMENT that is being SECRETLY NEGOTIATED between 9 countries: United States, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, and Brunei. Mexico, Canada, & Japan are in the process of joining it. … Read More
