Donald Trump begins his campaign of lies on New Year's Day. Continues his campaign to create fear of immigrants

Echo report published in the Daily Beast by Sean Craig

Trump Wrongly Tying New Orleans Attack to Immigration

Donald Trump's Dangerous Immigration obsession

In a Truly Lie-Social post, the president-elect wrongly tried to tie the truck attack on Bourbon Street—which was carried out by a Texas native and U.S. Army veteran, according to authorities—to migrants, who he has long targeted with hate-filled political rhetoric.

🤥🤥👖🔥 (pants on fire❗)

When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” Trump wrote.

“The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

Trump’s statement followed an erroneous Fox (Fake❗)News report—which the network has since retracted—that claimed the rental truck used by the suspect in the New Year’s Day attack crossed into Texas from Mexico two days earlier.

In fact, the vehicle entered the U.S. from Mexico on Nov.ember 16, driven by a man with no connection to Wednesday’s horrific events.

The FBI identified US-born Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, as the suspect who allegedly drove the truck into a crowd with deliberate intent, killing 15 and injuring dozens more. Authorities say Jabbar was killed after exchanging fire with police.

Officials said Wednesday afternoon there was no evidence tying the attack to the border, though Trump’s inflammatory posts trying to make a link between the two remain up.

He added to his screed at around 9 a.m. Thursday by specifically attacking President Joe Biden. “With the Biden ‘Open Border’s Policy’ I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe,” Trump wrote.

“That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Joe Biden is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER. What he and his group of Election Interfering ‘thugs’ have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten! MAGA.”

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the FBI is investigating the incident as “an act of terrorism.”

The FBI said an ISIS flag was located on the vehicle and that the agency is “working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.”

Genocide is now attributed to the Donald Trump legacy- Mike Pompeo: "Attention!"

Trump’s withdrawal (aka "retreat") virtually guarantees the reemergence of a cohesive ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, officially known as the Islamic State -it does not really exist-and also known by its Arabic-language acronym Daesh, is a Salafi jihadist ... Wikipedia.)

Donald Trump surrendered in North Syria and left the Kurds at risk for genocide.

My "big question" to Secretary Mike Pompeo is this: How can you pretend to the American Secretary of State when you act like what your intention is to be elected a Senator from Kansas? Even more to the point, why aren't you doing something to help save the loyal Kurds who are now living in the jasw of genocide like the Armenians of over a century ago.

Armenian genocide (1914-1923)- was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases—the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert.

Kurdish genocide killing with chemical weapons

Kurd genocide - With so many different ethnic groups living in one region and straddling several borders, the north central Kurdish area of the Middle East has been a continuous battle ground amongst and between the nation-states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

By Andrew Malcolm published in the Kansas.com Wichita Eagle 

Throughout the history of this area, the Kurds have revolted against the Turks, Arabs and the Persians in trying to establish an autonomous or independent state but have always been defeated. In defeat, they’ve pressed for some degree of autonomy which was granted, but inevitably revoked. Cyclically, the Kurds re-organized, rearmed and revolted and were again forcibly put down.

Trump’s withdrawal virtually guarantees the reemergence of a cohesive ISIS.

Echo opinion published in The Witichta Eagle

As if Donald Trump didn’t face enough trouble of his own (impeachment coming!) making, he announced 10 days ago what appeared to be a peremptory withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria.

The decision ignited an immediate domestic firestorm because it gave the green light to Turkey’s aspiring dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to invade Syria and attack the Kurdish forces who had demolished the ISIS caliphate under American tutelage and air power. Erdogan regards Kurds as terrorists, which they are elsewhere. So, his forces moved within hours.

And Trump’s (retreat!) withdrawal virtually guarantees the reemergence of a cohesive ISIS.

Americans have come to realize that Trump is a transactional president, meaning his decisions almost always involve some kind of deal of convenience, not adherence to any particular code or philosophy. This can be quite convenient, self-serving and, in this case, immoral.

What shocked many was Trump’s cold-hearted abandonment of the Kurdish troops who’d done virtually 100% of the deadly fighting to fulfill his loud campaign vow to crush ISIS, and do it quickly.

The U.S. departure leaves another vacuum with ominous implications for the tumultuous area’s future. While Trump’s pullback betrayal surprised aides and military commanders, the bipartisan blowback appeared to surprise Trump. And he went on the defensive.

“We have to bring our people back home,” he said. That’s a campaign message resonating with many Americans tired of costly foreign military involvements. The trouble with that message is the U.S. had only 1,000 special operators in Syria. They’re leaving Syria. They’re not coming home. They’ve simply moved elsewhere.

Trump wrapped his decision in another popular message: “We are getting out of the endless wars.” If U.S. involvement in Syria has been a war, we need more like it. It was a proxy military operation.

The American Special Forces gave intel and strategic advice to Kurdish commanders and, when necessary, called in aggressive air cover from the Incirlik air base in – wait for this, too – Turkey.

Kurds did the dirty, deadly work of annihilating the ISIS caliphate before its terrorist tentacles could do much U.S. damage. In that fight, Kurdish forces lost 11,000 men and women during the last three years. That’s four times U.S. losses in 18 years of Afghanistan fighting.

Then, five days after his Syria withdrawal announcement, Trump blithely dispatched 2,000 additional U.S. troops away from home to Saudi Arabia, another foreign military involvement with no end date, to discourage Iranian adventures. Trump said that transaction was OK with him because the Saudis will finance it.

As Turkey’s troops and proxies bombarded Kurdish forces in northern Syria and killed Kurds, Trump then sought to downplay Kurds’ achievements at our behest. He said they hated ISIS anyway. But isn’t that the art of a good deal, both partners getting something they want?

And Trump also claimed the U.S. owes Kurds little, with a completely cockamamie statement that they were not U.S. allies in World War II. That actually is quite true. Of course, neither was Japan nor Germany, now close U.S. allies for mutually beneficial reasons.

As further cover, Trump said he threatened Erdogan (the name means “born a brave warrior”) to lay waste to Turkey’s economy if he harmed the Kurds. Let’s see now if that vow becomes Trump’s Syrian red line, as empty as former President Barack Obama’s on Syria’s chemical weapons.

In a photo op, Trump signed an executive order giving himself the power to impose “serious” economic sanctions on Turkey, the kind of popular political punishments that have not changed anyone’s behavior in Russia, Iran or Venezuela in recent years.

Trump’s Syrian withdrawal decision came immediately after a phone conversation with the Turkish strongman. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Trump’s sudden Syria withdrawal announcement last December also followed a phone chat with Erdogan. That hasty decision, later ignored by Trump himself, prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who’s written that great powers cannot survive without strong allies.

Being unpredictable like Trump can be helpful when confronting opponents. With allies, not so much. They value reliability and trust, actions not words. Which is why the U.S. could rely on NATO allies post-9/11 to join the hunt for Taliban and al Qaeda, the only time in NATO’s 70-year history that its mutual defense clause has been invoked.

Trump has said that NATO is obsolete. He’s also praised it for following his advice on strategy and vowed support. Allies wonder which presidential opinion is real and enduring, if either.

Despite his belated professed public support for Kurds in the path of Erdogan’s modern military, Trump’s actions cutting them loose are bound to raise questions in the minds of local loyalists helping U.S. military or diplomats elsewhere. Or those asked to in the future.

If, for instance, I was a dedicated Afghan interpreter for the U.S. as Trump resumes talks with the Taliban to withdraw American troops after 6,585 days of that endless war, I’d be completing my own transactional deal right about now: packing up my family to exit the country, too.

---

Betrayal of Kurds is a grave sin against our human condition - Oklahoma echo

https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/letters/letter-to-the-editor-betrayal-is-the-greatest-sin-of/article_79a4ba46-f7f2-5c1e-a706-3618332cbbfa.html

TULSA WORLD opinion letter echo from Pat Malloy in Tulsa:

It is impossible to forget the image of the small Kurdish town of Kobani: rubble and trenches completely surrounded by pure evil.

Kurdish men and women fighting alongside each other against the terrorist ISIS, an illegal caliphate, in what seemed at the time was the last hold out against barbarism at the gate.

An entire world essentially depended on the raw courage of these humble people to fight the dirty fight on behalf of all of us. And fight they did, losing in excess of 11,000 brave souls.

Now, based on the demands of a complete autocrat whose country did nothing to rid the planet of ISIS, our country has engaged in a despicable act of betrayal and treachery.

Betrayal may well be the greatest sin of all. Inherent in the act is an utter violation of trust.

Trust is the cornerstone of all human relations. Therefore, when we betray the Kurds, who have been the US faithful allies, we destroy any and all credibility we have, and what does any country have if it loses the trust of the entire human community? (Answer from Maine Writer- a Trumpzi regieme void of integrity!)

White supremacy - ending domestic terrorism begins with ethical leadership

Dear Donald Trump - the "two sides" to the Charlottesville white supremacy rally in August 2017, were (1) the Ku Klux Klan and (2) those who opposed the white supremacists in the Ku Klux Klan.  Just so you know.  The Ku Klux Klan is an evil cult. 

The Washington Post opinion echo:

We worked to defeat the Islamic State. White nationalist terrorism is an equal threat.

By John R. Allen and Brett McGurk

John R. Allen, is the president of the Brookings Institution and a retired four-star Marine Corps general. Brett McGurk is the Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University and nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Both were special presidential envoys for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS.

We both served as presidential envoys leading the U.S. global campaign to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group. In doing so, we worked with all departments and agencies of the U.S. government to develop a comprehensive and multifaceted campaign to defeat Islamic State terrorists on the battlefield, but also, and crucially, through counterfinance, countermessaging and information-sharing across the United States and globally. U.S. leadership and determined diplomacy built one of the largest coalitions in history, now standing at nearly 80 partners.
These efforts have stopped attacks and saved lives.

In 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) was a global force, seemingly unstoppable, operating with free rein in cyberspace and on widely available social media platforms. It was committing acts of genocide, enslaving thousands of women and girls, and planning terrorist attacks from its havens in Syria that would later be carried out on the streets of Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, Nice and elsewhere. It had open access to military equipment and weapons flowing into Syria. Its ideology spread to the United States and inspired attacks in Florida, Texas and California.

Throughout, nobody questioned America’s resolve to find and defeat these terrorists and protect the homeland. Whenever one of us would hear excuses for terrorism from regional leaders in the Middle East — for example, condemning Islamic State atrocities but agreeing with underlying political grievances — we gave such arguments no quarter or excuse. There is no political justification for acts of mass murder of civilians. When political leaders give such acts cover, even inadvertently, the movement spreads and innocent people die.

Today, the United States now faces a new national security threat. The enemy is not the Islamic State, but domestic and homegrown white nationalist terrorism. And “terrorism” is the term that must be used. The strain of thought driving this terrorism is now a global phenomenon, with mass atrocities in Norway, New Zealand, South Carolina and also, law enforcement authorities suspect, El Paso. The attacks are cheered on by adherents in dark (but readily accessible) corners of the Internet. The terrorist acts may differ from Islamic State attacks in degree, but they are similar in kind: driven by hateful narratives, dehumanization, the rationalization of violence and the glorification of murder, combined with ready access to recruits and weapons of war.

The first step to overcoming this dangerous strain of violence is to speak clearly and without equivocation. It is terrorism directed at innocent American civilians. If the Islamic State or al-Qaeda were committing such acts, the nation would mobilize as one to overcome it. The U.S. government would deploy all legal means at its disposal to root out the facilitators of violence and protect the American people from further harm. The United States would speak with a clear voice and lead the world in a determined response, strengthening alliances and sharing information with its allies. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to white nationalist terrorism, Donald Trump speaks with equivocation, and his rhetoric, wittingly or not, has the effect of providing cover for extremists who excuse their actions in the language of political grievance.

The United States must take a leadership role in overcoming this scourge of terrorism before it gets worse. Left unchecked, the risks increase of an attack on the level of the 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City , which killed 168 people. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray two weeks ago warned that most terrorism-related arrests this year are linked to white supremacist terrorism. The country now confronts a national security emergency on par with the Islamic State threat. It demands moral clarity and a call from the Oval Office directing all assets of the federal government to develop a comprehensive, long-term campaign to protect all Americans. If the president will not act, then Congress and state and local governments must instead. 

The matter is too urgent to wait for new national leadership — at stake is nothing less than the protection of the American people and our way of life.

Focusing on this domestic threat must not diminish American efforts to combat and contain international terrorism. But placing an equal emphasis on the battle against white nationalist terrorism will be the first step in turning around what is now a dangerous national disgrace.

P.S. Maine Writer adds- shame on the Trumpzi administration for enabling white supremacy! 

Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni - an Iraqi Christian Martyr

Haitham Beno (right) and his wife, Almas Shankol, stand with their four sons in front of their newly renovated home in Karamles, a town in the Nineveh Plain area of northern Iraq. The family began rebuilding efforts last year with support from the Knights of Columbus’ $2 million initiative to help residents return to their liberated hometown. Photo by Claire Thomas

http://www.kofc.org/en/columbia/detail/land-of-modern-day-martyrs.html

Return to the Land of Modern-Day Martyrs
Reporting by Inés San Martín*

The Knights of Columbus continues to support efforts to rebuild and resettle a Christian Iraqi town ravaged by the terrorists ISIS

After leaving Holy Spirit Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, on June 3, 2007, Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni and three subdeacons were shot and killed by Islamist gunmen.

Despite being threatened with violence if he did not close the church, Father Ganni had just celebrated Mass for Trinity Sunday. Facing his attackers that day, the 35-year-old native of Karamles, Iraq, responded, “How can I close the house of God?”

The four men’s bodies were recovered and then buried at St. Addai Church, which served a thriving Chaldean Catholic community in the town of Karamles, 20 miles to the east of Mosul. When ISIS later seized Karamles in August 2014, homes were torched, the church was largely destroyed and Father Ganni’s tombstone was smashed.

ISIS was finally driven out in late 2016, and last spring, the Vatican officially opened the cause for canonization of Father Ganni and his companions — a decision welcomed with “great joy and pride” by Najat Sleman, Father Ganni’s aunt, who returned to Karamles after reconstruction efforts began last year.

Sleman’s family now lives in one of more than 350 homes rebuilt thus far through a $2 million initiative by the Knights of Columbus. Announced at the 135th Supreme Convention in St. Louis in August 2017, the project is overseen by the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, a coalition of local churches working together to resettle predominantly Christian towns in the region.

Father Thabet Habib Yousif, a Chaldean Catholic priest and relative of Father Ganni, is serving at St. Addai and coordinating efforts to rebuild in Karamles. He initially returned just two days after the town was liberated, and he has witnessed the slow but steady transformation as hundreds of families — some 1,000 Christians — have now returned to reclaim their ancestral homeland.

“People are very happy to be back,” Father Thabet said. “Their identity is in this town.”

From Shock to Hope

Ghanim Shaba Hanna and his family are among the many who have benefited from the rebuilding in Karamles. 

Repairs to their home were completed in February.

Until 2014, Hanna, his wife and their son lived off Hanna’s salary as a driver, together with income from a mini-store attached to their home. When ISIS arrived, they had three hours to vacate, leaving their possessions behind. They fled to the Kurdish-controlled city of Erbil, where most of the Christians forced out of the Nineveh Plains ended up.

“My home was charcoal when we came back,” Hanna recalled. “The shock of seeing it put me in the hospital for three days. I couldn’t believe what they had done.”

Though still standing, the entire home was blackened by fire. In addition, a bomb that destroyed a neighboring house had left a large hole in the walls of a room on their second floor.

“This is my place, where my roots are,” Hanna said, adding that he didn’t “doubt for a second” he would return when he learned that Father Thabet was helping people come home.

In all, more than 750 houses in Karamles were damaged by ISIS, either totally or partially. Father Thabet has been working against the clock to have as many homes ready as possible before summer ends. Some 40 houses are being repaired simultaneously, in the hope that new families can arrive before the start of the school year.

The work itself is being done by a team of some 50 people, including masons, electricians and plumbers. All are locals, so efforts to rebuild are also a source of employment.

“Whenever new help comes and we reconstruct a house, hope grows and increases,” said Father Thabet.

DETERMINED TO REBUILD

Father Thabet has also been working on finding a temporary home for two Chaldean religious sisters moving to Karamles to teach children at a primary school the committee recently finished rebuilding.

A convent in the town was hit during one of many aerial strikes by the government in an effort to drive ISIS out, and there is a hole in the ground where a three-story building used to be.

“A lot of work still remains, since many houses are still burned and run-down,” said Father Thabet. “If people decide to come back home and nothing has changed from when they left, they will leave Iraq. We can’t afford for this to happen.”

Long term, Father Thabet has his mind set on opening a university, a playground and a meeting center, and on using some of the land owned by the Church to create small farms for young people to grow crops.

Other efforts are already beginning to pay off. For example, a new factory, where dozens will find employment, is being built between the historic St. Barbara Church and the skeleton of a university that never was.

“Karamles is not what it was before the war, but things are changing for the better,” said Almas Shankol, who returned to Karamles in August 2017, with her husband and their six children. “For instance, the town is clean again. We are very grateful for what Father Thabet and the reconstruction team has done for us.”

When visiting the United States recently to speak about their experience, Shankol’s 14-year-old son, Noah, was often asked if he wanted to stay in the United States. His response was always “No.”

“Karamles is my mother,” he said. “We have deep roots there.”

A Saint from Karamles

In 2006, less than a year before his martyrdom, Father Ganni wrote what he called “My last prayer”, after attending the funeral of a priest who had been decapitated by terrorists. 

In the prayer, Father Ganni did not ask God to protect him from suffering. Instead, he wrote: “Lord, give me the strength not to humiliate your priesthood, which I represent.”

A decade later, when Father Thabet first returned to Karamles in October 2016, he entered St. Addai Church and wept at the sight of Father Ganni’s grave.

“Today, when I pass in front of his grave, I greet him as a living person, recalling the memories of an active and joyful man,” Father Thabet said. “Parishioners also stand in front of his grave, speaking to him and asking for his intercession.”

Rami Sadeeq, 26, remembers the day the people of Karamles learned of Father Ganni’s martyrdom. A girl came screaming in tears to share the tragic news with a small crowd.

“It was a very sad moment. Everyone knew him, and he was a very kind person,” said Sadeeq, who now assists Father Thabet in his spare time. “But today we’re very proud. It’s very precious to have a saint from Karamles!”

Many Christians forced out of the region have emigrated. However, those who have decided to remain in a land with a Christian presence since the earliest days of the Church, are steadfast in their conviction, counting on those helping from abroad and those interceding from above.

*INÉS SAN MARTÍN is an Argentinean journalist who covers the Vatican in Rome for Crux. Visit cruxnow.com

Niger- four Americans dead but what happened?

Niger Africa - the mystery of four American deaths

"...if Obama or Hillary Clinton were in office, Republicans would be blaming them personally..." ~ TheWeek (Nov. 3, 2017)

The Region Where ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram Converge

The deaths of three Green Berets near the Mali-Niger border show just how entrenched American security forces in Africa have become since 9/11.

The 12-man group of Green Berets had just finished a meeting in the Niger village of Tongo Tongo, when "suddenly, on the scrubby desert horizon, men on motorbikes appeared," said Dionne Searcey in The New York Times. For two hours, these 50 ISIS-aligned militants engaged U.S. soldiers in a "chaotic firefight," firing on them with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. Four Americans were killed- included Sgt. La David Johnson*, who was separated from his companions; his body wasn't recovered until 48 hours later. Three weeks after, the Niger tragedy hasn't just led to an "unsavory" fight between President Trump and Gold Star families, said Benjamin Hart in NYMag.com. It as also "prompted many to wonder what U.S. troops were doing in the African country, in the first place."

This much is clear: "Niger has been a toe in the expanding American footprint in Africa," said Jason Ditz in TheAmericanConservative.com. President Obam escalated U.S. presence there from 100 military "advisers" in 2013, to about 575 , as part of his stealthy and expansive global war on terror Today, there are about 800. These soldiers are tasked under the 9/11-era Authorization for the Use of Military Force with providing intelligence support to French troops in their fight against Islamist militants connected to ISIS, al Qaida, and Boko Haram. 

The Pentagon says that the U.S. soldiers were pursuing an important ISIS recruiter, but so deep is the secrecy around these operations that we don't know if our troops have been engaging in covert combat missions in Niger. Indeed, several U.S. senators said they had no idea that so many U.S. soldiers were there. 

"Indeed, several U.S. senators said they had no idea that so many U.S. soldiers were there (in Niger)".

When wars are secret, "mission creep" is inevitable, said James Barnett in WeeklyStandard.com. There may indeed be a case for the U.S to support the counter terrorism operations of French and African forces in the region, but our intervention has been based on "the assumption that American soldiers would almost never be in harm's way."

That assumption is no longer valid. The confusion surrounding the four American deaths "is eerily similar to the Benghazi attack," said Zack Beauchamp in Vox.com, and if Obama or Hillary Clinton were in office, Republicans would be blaming them personally. Instead of "another partisan witch hunt", Congress should investigate what happened- and determine how deeply the Trump administration plans to get involved in Africa. In other word, "provide real oversight."

*Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson. (U.S. Army) were also killed in the Niger attack.

Republicans must wake up and pay attention to Battle for Mosul

While the "pop" news media wastes time reporting on every salacious nuance of the Donald Trump "dumping" campaign to destroy the Republican party, the world is on edge watching the outcome of the Iraq Battle for Mosul. Where are the Republicans who should be focused on this important international news? They're cowards for not standing up to support our international leadership.

CNN Reports: Battle for Mosul: Iraqi forces inflict 'heavy losses' on ISIS By Nick Paton Walsh, Max Blau, Madison Park and Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN Mon October 17, 2016
Near Mosul, Iraq (CNN): Iraq's military says it inflicted "heavy losses of life and equipment" on ISIS in a district southeast of Mosul, as Iraqi-led forces close in on the city in the long-awaited battle to recapture it from the terror group.

Iraq military engaged in Battle of Mosul

Hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the beginning of the offensive, Iraq's military said it had inflicted losses and made advances in the Hamdaniya district.

Announcing the offensive in a televised statement early Monday morning, al-Abadi said "the victory bell has rung" in the massive mission to retake the key city, Iraq's second largest, and free more than 1 million residents from the "brutality and terrorism of ISIS."

Iraqi forces gathered in the area of al-Shourah, some 45 kms south of Mosul, as they advance towards the city to retake it from the Islamic State (IS) group jihadists, on October 17, 2016.
"God willing, we will meet soon on the ground of Mosul where we all celebrate the liberation and your freedom," said Haider Al_Abadi.

Haider Al Abadi, Iraqi politician who has been Prime Minister of Iraq since September 2014

The battle for Mosul -- the largest city under ISIS control and the terror group's last remaining stronghold in Iraq -- represents "a decisive moment in the campaign" to defeat ISIS, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said. 

As Peshmerga and ISIS forces exchanged fire Monday, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh heard airstrikes from above coming from some of the nearly 90 coalition and Iraqi planes involved in the operation. "I've just seen a loud airstrike go in right in front of us here," CNN's Nick Paton Walsh said. "That kind of explosive power only happens from some kind of a coalition device."

East of Mosul, CNN 's Hamdi Alkhshali witnessed that at least 45 Kurdish armored vehicles had stormed the village of Kermlesh.
Fighters exchanged heavy machine gunfire and fired artillery and rockets into the nearby villages -- nine of which have been liberated.

Diverse coalition
Before the city was seized by ISIS in 2014, forming part of its self-declared caliphate across stretches of Iraq and Syria, Mosul was inhabited by more than 2 million people. Only about 1 million residents remain today.

Throughout the past year, Iraq's government and its allies prepared for the major offensive to drive ISIS from the northern city, after the humiliating capitulation that resulted in its loss in 2014.

A diverse coalition of as many as 100,000 troops may be involved in the offensive, mostly made up of Iraqi government troops and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters -- although not all will be involved in the assault on the city, securing positions behind the frontlines instead.

Only Iraqi army troops and members of the national police force will enter the city of Mosul, according to Abadi.

The Iraqi-led forces include the Popular Mobilization Units, which plan to target ISIS tunnels and trenches south of Mosul with thermobaric missiles.

In addition, thousands of Kurdish forces have dug in from other directions in the desert surrounding Mosul.

Peshmerga forces stand guard at Kargali village during an operation to liberate Mosul, Iraq.

The Pentagon, lent advisers and air support, recently announced the deployment of 600 additional American troops to aid in Mosul's capture, bringing the number of US personnel to 4,847.

About 3,600 coalition forces from other nations will also be deployed in support of the operation.

Fighters closing in on the city face entrenched ISIS forces, already bombarded from the ground and the air, who are digging in for what could be group's final stand in its last major Iraqi stronghold.

US military officials estimate there are up to 5,000 ISIS fighters in Mosul. ISIS supporters put the number at 7,000.

ISIS militants took measures to combat the effectiveness of airstrikes. Plumes of black smoke rose from oil-filled trenches on fire outside northeastern Mosul, an attempt by ISIS to obscure its fighters' positions during airstrikes, military sources said.

Even still, though, one airstrike hit one of Mosul's main bridges.
Unfortunately, the battle may last weeks or even months, if the operation to retake Ramadi is any indicator.

Iraqi forces have recaptured much of the territory lost to the group, including the cities of Tikrit and Falluja.

What happens next?
As Iraqi-led forces approach the city, Mosul's remaining residents still remain in the clutches of an organization known for exploiting civilians as human shields. 

Airdropped leaflets declaring "it's victory time" told residents to tape up their windows, disconnect gas cylinders, and stay indoors.

As fighting begins, the UN refugee agency says remaining residents fleeing could create "one of the largest man-made displacement crises of recent times."
Where are the Republicans who self righteously say to veterans, "thank you for your service"? They should be focused on this Mosul battle and supporting the military advisers, and covert operations in the Middle East to help rid the world and humanity of evil ISIS.

International urgent help needed more than ever in Falluja Iraq

Fallujah is the story of the world while news media is obsesssed with Trump and Brexit.

Evil ISIS conflict: Falluja 'humanitarian disaster' warning
"One newly opened camp, Amriyat al-Falluja, has only one latrine for 1,800 women, the NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) said."

How will the history of the world evaluate our international paralysis when we are asked to be accountable for this horrific human carnage? BBCNews report

World history will evalute our inept international response to the humanitarian crises, our paralysis to deal with evil while the innocent victims list grows by the tens of thousands.  

What is wrong with our human condition?  We are helpless! Obviously, we learned virtually nothing from the experiences of recorded history.  

We cannot let evil ISIS  continue. It was once a movement that was wrongly pereceived  too small to notice, or an offstoot from the Taliban.  In fact, the evil ISIS hardly made a blip on our political radar screens, but now terrorizes the entire world by acts of terror and by causes carnage among millions of innocent victims.  

Evil groups are  a small blot for a only a little while, but their influence is insidious and they eventually cause humanitarian carnage. This is what we're witnessing now, like the audiences who attended the ancient Roman Colosseum gladiator events, and obviously, as bystanders we've chosen not to act when evil prevails.  We need a universal thumbs down on the evil roots or terrorism and elimination of puppet leaders who garner zealots, jus"tt because they can.

BBC reports- A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Falluja (Iraq) following a civilian exodus from the Iraqi city, aid workers warn.

Some 80,000 people have fled during a four-week government offensive to drive back so-called Islamic State fighters, says the UN. A further 25,000 civilians are likely on the move, the organisation adds.

Aid workers are struggling to provide food, water and medicine to people who are sleeping in the open in hopelessly overcrowded camps outside the city.

"The overwhelming number of people that have come out of Falluja has actually overwhelmed our ability to respond to the people in need," said Nasr Muflahi from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

"We implore the Iraqi government to take charge of this humanitarian disaster unfolding on our watch," he added.

Iraqi government forces have succeeded in retaking most of Falluja, but fighting continues in some parts of the city, which is just 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

We drove into Falluja on a road that snaked through what was once a wealthy suburb but is now deserted. Many homes have been destroyed.

By the side of the road, unexploded shells showed how dangerous these streets remain for civilians if they are allowed to return.

Many tell harrowing escape stories. Some have been caught in crossfire, others drowned in the Euphrates as they tried to swim to safety.

We heard the sound of artillery and gunfire wherever we went.

Many of those who fleeing the fighting have been forced to sleep in the open, and spend their days under the sun in temperatures set to reach 47C (117F) in the next few days.

Aid supplies are running dangerously low in overcrowded conditions. One newly opened camp, Amriyat al-Falluja, has only one latrine for 1,800 women, the NRC said.

The government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is already struggling to meet the needs of more than 3.4 million people across the country who have been displaced by conflict.

The IS group's self-styled Amaq news agency reported on Sunday that about 50 Iraqi troops had been killed and four army vehicles destroyed in "fierce fighting" with IS fighters near Falluja General Hospital in the north-east of the city.

Several civilians have been killed by militants while attempting to escape, including, on Monday, a two-year-old boy who was being carried by his mother.

Some residents were reportedly used as human shields by evil ISIS to slow the advance of government forces, who are being backed by air strikes from the US-led coalition.

Moreover, evil ISIS militants had captured the northern city in January 2014, and held it for longer than any other city in Iraq or Syria - before the Iraqi army launched an operation to retake it.

Republicans are ignoring important issues

Let's take ISIS, for example.

Although the evil Islamic State (ISIS) continues to terrorize the world and victimize the people in the Middle East, the Republicans are imploding because of internal political turmoil over numbers of convention nomination votes.

It's impossible to  understand why the news isn't covering news!
Especially, this important news about progress against ISIS, as reported on CNN:

ISIS: The Business of Terror
ISIS is struggling to fund its war machine



ISIS is loosing oil money like a bucket with a hole in it- but it's fascinating to ponder how the information in this CNN article was verified?  Think about it (or, in Twitter language #TAI.)

It's getting harder for ISIS to finance its evil war machine, due to its shrinking territory and crippled oil business.

ISIS' monthly revenue has fallen by 30% in recent months, according to information and analysis firm IHS.

In March, the group collected only $56 million, a significant reduction from estimated monthly revenue of $80 million in mid-2105.

The decline in revenue is now seriously constraining the ISIS' ability to fund its reign of terror, according to the U.S. State Department and several scholars who track the group.

Already, ISIS has been forced to cut its fighters' salaries in half. Additional pressure is now forcing ISIS to ration medical supplies, according to counterterrorism analysts.

It's a major change for a group that became the world's richest terrorist organization by taxing the people on its territory, selling oil on the black market, smuggling stolen archeological artifacts, and demanding kidnapping ransoms.

CNN last month reported that ISIS was struggling financially, but it was unclear to what extent. Now there's evidence ISIS is taking major steps to compensate.

Lost land, new taxes
ISIS has ceded 22% of its territory to Kurdish, Syrian and Iraqi forces over the past 15 months, according to IHS. During that time, the population living under ISIS rule has fallen from 9 million to 6 million.

"There are fewer people and business activities to tax. The same applies to properties and land to confiscate," said Columb Strack, a senior analyst at IHS.

Tax revenue, which provides roughly half of the group's funding, has fallen by 23% since last summer, IHS reports. As a result, ISIS is desperately finding new ways to squeeze money out of the people still living in its territory.

We already know the group imposes a 10% income tax, 15% business tax, 2% sales tax and 5% fee on cash withdrawals from banks. There's also a mafia-like protection insurance, called jizyah, that Christians are forced to pay.

New rules require anyone who repairs a broken satellite dish to pay ISIS a special fee. People must also pay a religious fine if they are unable to accurately answer questions about the Quran, IHS analysts said.

ISIS is so strapped for cash it has also started giving people accused of violating Sharia law the option of paying a cash fine instead of suffering severe physical punishments, IHS reports.

"This new stance represents a strong indicator of the financial difficulties the group is going through," Ludovico Carlino, senior analyst at IHS, wrote in his latest report.

More air strikes, less ISIS oil (Nevertheless, can't imagine if the landscape will ever recover but, like the dessert sands shrouded Egyptian pyramids and ruins, eventually the earth will reclaim the devastation caused by the war against ISIS.)
The U.S.-led coalition bombing campaign is also hurting ISIS' oil business, according to IHS.

Revenue from crude sales is down 26% from last year, IHS reports. And daily production in the region has dropped from 33,000 barrels last summer to 21,000 barrels.

Crude oil sales account for 42% of ISIS' revenue, but experts said the group has not raised the price it charges smugglers at the wellhead.

Carlino said ISIS cares more about quick sales -- even if that means lower revenue. Plus, many people inside its territory -- who buy ISIS oil -- are running short of spending money.

The terrorist group is also having trouble recruiting engineers and repair its oil and gas equipment, according to Jean-Charles Brisard, chairman of the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism.

"These reasons also explain why ISIS is dedicating large resources to expand itself, notably in Libya," Brisard said.

Even though Libya is 1,400 miles southwest of the ISIS stronghold between Iraq and Syria, experts say the terrorist group is now shifting resources to take advantage of poorly policed coastlines in the region.

Horror never ceases, because, the new potential ISIS business?

It's Drugs.

CNNMoney (New York) First published April 21, 2016

Donald Trump has NO military leadership experience - troops on the ground won't be his own

Although reports about the March 10, Republican primary debate seemed calm in comparisom to past fiascoes, I'd hardly say the discussion was "elegant". War was discusssed. Trump now calls for ground troops against ISIS.  

Included is the Time Magazine grahpic explaining where American troops are already on the ground:

During the March 10, Republican debate fights, Donald Trump had to say something presidential.  Infomercials for wind, steak and magazines were part of his primary election messaging  Putting America's treasured youth into the mix of his lack of public policy experience makes for more headines without substance.

Obviously, Donald Trump has not had an international seurity briefing. Moreover, none of his family would be among the troops on the ground. Didn't Governor Sarah Palin with her family's experience, teach Donald Trump anything at all during her flashin the pan Trump pendorsement?

But Donald Trump didn't always hold this position about ground forces.  

CBS Reports:  Donald Trump: Massive ground force may be needed to fight ISIS

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump suggested at Thursday's CNN Republican presidential debate in Miami that he would be willing to support a massive ground force to take on ISIS.

This is a shift for Trump, who has, as a presidential candidate, often portrayed himself as less hawkish than his Republican opponents.

Trump made the troop comment in response to a moderator's question as to whether he would follow a military commander's advice to increase the number of ground troops to fight the terrorist group.

"We really have no choice," Trump said. "We have to knock out ISIS. We have to knock the hell out of them. We have to get rid of it and then we have to come back here and rebuild our country, which is falling apart."

Radio host Hugh Hewitt pressed on specific numbers.

"I would listen to the generals," Trump said, "but I would - I'm hearing numbers of 20 to 30,000. We have to knock them out fast."

Before Thursday, Trump has often bragged about his reluctance to support wars in the Middle East. "'I was against the war in Iraq," he recently said at a rally in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "We have to be given credit for vision. I was against the war in Iraq because I said it would totally destabilize the Middle East. And that's exactly what happened."

But Trump's position on ground troops has always been amorphous and without specifics. He's even talked about how he has been vague on purpose, saying at a South Carolina rally in December, "I want to be unpredictable. I don't want to tell ISIS what I'm going to do to knock the hell out of them."

This was a claim he has repeated many times on the trail and in television interviews. "I think we have to be unpredictable," Trump told CBS News' John Dickerson in January. "Our enemies know what we are going to do, whether it is battle, whether it is war, whether it is finance. You have to be somewhat unpredictable."

However, Trump's debate suggestion would mean a massive investment of ground troops abroad - a position that was a big part of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's platform during his unsuccessful presidential bid. Trump was critical of Graham's foreign policy platform, telling CNN in July, "All I know is every time I watch Lindsey Graham, he wants to bomb everybody."

Trump has always implied, since announcing his candidacy, that he would be in favor of ground troops on some level. In an August interview with MSNBC'sMorning Joe, Trump said that the United States military should confiscate oil from ISIS-held territories - with ground troops if necessary.

"I would knock out the source of their wealth," Trump said. "The primary source of their wealth which is oil. And in order to do that, you would have to put boots - I would knock the hell out of them, but I would put a ring around it and take the oil for our country. I would just take the oil."

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly has said, to the delight of crowds, that he would "bomb the [bleep] out of ISIS" as president, but has stopped short of calling for a massive infusion of ground troops like he did tonight.

Last December, Trump told Fox News, "I would do whatever you have to do. I've been saying on your show for a long time, take the oil, and you know that. I've been saying it very loud and strong for years. I mean, I've been saying it for years. They've never done it."

While his support for ground troops has been unwavering, Trump has danced around how much he would invest in a campaign against ISIS.

At a press conference in November before a rally in Worcester, Massachusetts, Trump suggested that other countries should take the lead in taking on ISIS and that the United States should only be in a supporting role.

"We've got to get rid of ISIS quickly, quickly," Trump said. "Not for a long time. Let me tell you what I really want to do. I want to get other people to put troops on the ground and we'll back them up 100 percent."

To this effect, Trump was very supportive of Russian president Vladimir Putin's decision to launch airstrikes in Syria in September.

"If Putin wants to knock the hell out of ISIS," Trump said at a Fox Business debate in November. "I'm all for it 100 percent and I can't understand how anybody would be against that."

Trump even told Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes, "If you look at Syria. Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it. Let 'em get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care?"

(We need to care about how to support our American treasure! If Donald Trump wants "troops on the ground", then let him also tell us how to bring them home. Moreover, will he lead them?)

Atlantic Magazine selected best magazine of the year

The Atlantic Named Magazine of the Year!Good news for The Atlantic magazine! In the midst of the chaos surrounding the media circus at the Iowa Caucuses (where a few delegates were selected!) the prestigious "Atlantic" picked up a national award. Regretably, few, except for enthusiastic Atlantic fans, may have noticed. 
Here's my tribute to the well deserved recognition.

Whenever I've had the chance to read Atlantic's investigative reporting, I've found the attention to fascinating detail to be exceptionally interesting and informative!  The writers are not engaged in their ego development. Rather, the articles are focused on educating readers. Two particular articles I've read in Atlantic Magazine have actually changed the way I think about the subjects reported.  

1.  "The Year of Two Popes", January/February 2006, by Paul Eile. This article was written before March 13, 2013, when Pope Francis was elected and after Pope John Paul II died, in Rome.
In this article, I learned just how human the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are, when they're called upon to perform what's, perhaps, the most important of the leadership rituals they're charged with fulfilling, being electing a Pope. Through the risky investigative use of anonymous sources, Eile chronicled the ambitious journey of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as he negotiated with his colleagues as a member of the "Hole See" (the universal government of the Roman Catholic Church) to his election  as Pope Benedict XVI.  Here is my Dropbox url link to this particular article.  file:///C:/Users/Juliana/Dropbox/The%20year%20of%20two%20popes%20The%20Atlantic.pdf
(Many thanks to Charlie Remy for finding this article in electronic media.)
What I learned was no surprise, but a validation about how the campaign to elect a Pope isn't nearly so inspired by the Holy Spirit, as the secret ballot process would often lead the faithful to believe.

2.  "What ISIS Really Wants" was published in March 2015, reported by Graeme Wood. What's compelling about Wood's report is how he transcended the religiouisty of "Islamic" so called mysticism, concepts badly misrepresented by the "Islamic State" (a self declared "califphate"), to explain just how overtly the terrorist group intends to fulfill it's mission of destroying civilization as we know it. It's chilling report, precisely because Wood writes it in the secular media, rather than in a religious journal. Here's The Atlantic Magazine's url link to Wood's article.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

Both articles influenced the way I think about (a) the Vatican - it's not so mystical a place as I might have once been naieve enough to believe and (b) ISIS is even more evil and degrading to the human condiiton than civilization can even imagine and, therefore, must be destroyed.

I'm sharing the links to the two articles as my tribute to The Atlantic Magazine for publishing cutting edge investigative reporting. My tribute is "blogged" with congratulations to Atlantic, for supporting exceptional writers who can explain complicated and emotionally charged topics in a prose even a blogger can understand.  

(Byt the way, a journalist like Eile, who can report on how a Pope is elected in the Sistine Chapel by secret ballot, should also be able to astutely explain how a "caucus" really works!)

http://news.yahoo.com/atlantic-named-magazine-140000592.html;_ylt=A0LEVjnb.7BWLVYAacUPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--

Washington D.C. (February 2, 2016)—The Atlantic was named Magazine of the Year in the 2016 National Magazine Awards for Print and Digital Media. The Ellie Awards, given by the American Society of Magazine Editors, were presented last night at a ceremony in New York City.

“This is a tremendous tribute to the hard work of absolutely everyone at The Atlantic, who are as smart and as decent and as dedicated a group of magazine people as one could hope to be associated with,” said James Bennet, president and editor in chief of The Atlantic.

“This is a unique category, honoring our magazine work in print and in digital, but also in events, video, marketing, and services,” said Bob Cohn, The Atlantic’s president and COO. “The result here underscores our commitment to delivering the idea of The Atlantic wherever and however people want to receive it.”

Across its 10 issues of 2015, The Atlantic published high-impact cover stories that sparked widespread attention and influenced the national conversation. The year began with James Fallows asking why the best soldiers in the world keep losing in “The Tragedy of the American Military.” Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration” took an unflinching look at how the deep reach of America’s criminal-justice system has affected black families. Overt anti-Semitism prompted Jeffrey Goldberg to ask an agonizing question of an entire continent: “Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?”. Goldberg’s piece was also nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Reporting category. And Hanna Rosin reported on mounting pressures among elite students, with “The Silicon Valley Suicides.”

The magazine’s March cover story “What ISIS Really Wants,” was the most-read article on the web in 2015—earning more engagement than anything else measured by Chartbeat. Ten months and 20 million page views later, Graeme Wood’s piece remains The Atlantic’s most-read article of all time, and continues to be a leading source for readers around the globe looking for a clear-eyed explanation of what motivates ISIS.

The award comes as The Atlantic embarks on its largest year of investment and growth, continuing the momentum of record audience, revenue, and profit in 2015. TheAtlantic.com broke three consecutive audience records at the close of 2015 and had 50 percent YOY digital growth, reaching a high of more than 31.5 million unique monthly visitors. Total revenues across platforms and businesses grew 20 percent in 2015. The Atlantic also increased its staff by 50 percent in 2015, and has similar hiring plans this year.

In early January, The Atlantic launched a multi-platform expansion of its coverage of WashingtonPolitics & Policy—across TheAtlantic.com, the magazine, video, and live events—focused on offering a distinctively sophisticated understanding of power and ideas in the U.S. capital. The Atlantic is tripling its Washington reporting team and growing its events and business staffs.These gains follow an expansive redesign of TheAtlantic.com in spring 2015 and the debuts of the Science section and Notes, the site’s return to blogging.

Syrian refugees tragically brave stories - from The Rotarian Magazine

"Yazidis no longer live in the town of Sinjar, because there's hardly any Sinjar left to live in. When ISIS forces invaded in August 2014, they massacred or enslaved whomever they could. Thousands of women were sold as sex slaves", reports Rose George.  ",,,mass graves, including one where only older women were buried, have been discovered...."
Americans are preoccupied with the polarized political stories. We're consumed by right-left/ conservative-progressive presidential candidates, while millions of displaced Syrians are risking death to be free of evident, and irretractable lives under revolution and tyranny. Yet, Americans aren't responding to this humanitarian crises. Instead, we're obessed by polarizing politics. We read about the Syrian disaster as though it's happening on another planet. Complicating our willingness to respond to the Syrians cries for help are the tribal relationships the victims of the carnage have within their own populations.  If Americans find it challenging to understand the differences between the line up of Republican presidential candidates, it's almost impossible to grasp the ethnic divides between Syria's Arabic layers. Therefore, in the absence of human to human communications, it's nearly impossible to know how to respond to Syrians, because we don't know who to protect.

At least a few Syrians are telling their stories about their desperation, for those who are moved to learn about the dire circumstances where they're living. Although their stories are compelling, their situations are complicated.

Rose George is one journalist who reports about how some Syrians are coping in "All I can Do is Tell Their Stories", in February 2016 "The Rotarian" Magazine. America's political polarizations seem insignificant when compared to the desperation of people who tell about the life of at least one woman who has suffered from the hands of the Islamic State, or "ISIS".  
From the February 2016 issue of  The Rotarian

She sends me her alias in a Skype message. Who she is, what she does, and where she does it make it too dangerous to use her real name. She is in Kurdish Iraq, in the northern part of the country, which is in the middle of so many battles, wars, and conflicts that it’s hard for outsiders – and sometimes even for local people – to keep track. But she has a focus amid the chaos: She works with Syrian and Yazidi refugees who have been targeted, tortured, and driven out of their homes by the Islamic State (ISIS).

The name she has chosen to use is "Evin".

She's 32 years old. She is Kurdish, too, although from Turkey, not Iraq, and she has close family ties with Yazidis. “They are Kurds, too,” she says. The world knows little enough about Kurds; Yazidis are even more obscure, although they've been in the headlines in recent years. 

In Iraq, Yazidis numbered some 500,000, many of them living near Mount Sinjar, close to the Syrian border. Their religion is an ancient and syncretic one, with elements from 

1. Zoroastrianism- The ancient pre-Islamic religion of Persia (modern-day Iran). It survives there in isolated areas, but primarily exists in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Persian immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism.

2.  Mithraism,  a mystery religion, practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1- 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery; and

3.  Islam- a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an(or Koran), a religious text, considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh).

Some Yazidi practices resemble Muslim ones: They won’t eat pork, for example. But for centuries, Yazidis have been persecuted, mostly by Muslims, as “devil worshippers.”

Yazidi-  indigenous to the northern Mesopotamia form a distinct and independent religious community and have their own culture. They live primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraq. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s, as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany. In Armenia, the Yazidis are recognized as a distinct ethnic group and generally do not consider themselves to be Kurdish. The issue is controversial and highly politicized

Yazidis no longer live in the town of Sinjar, because there's hardly any Sinjar left to live in. When ISIS forces invaded it in August 2014, they massacred or enslaved whomever they could. Thousands of women were sold as sex slaves. The rest of the population fled, some to Mount Sinjar, where they have been sheltering ever since, suffering through brutal winter and hellish summer temperatures on the mountain. Many have died.

Evin’s route to her work with refugees has been a circuitous one. After earning a degree in humanities, she worked to highlight human rights violations against Kurds in the region known as Kurdistan, which encompasses parts of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran. Then based in Turkey’s Kurdish region, she turned her focus onto huge dams that Turkey is building and their impact on people and the environment. She first visited northern Iraq to see how the dam-building was affecting the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which descend from the Turkish mountains and flow through Syria and Iraq to the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates is already nearly dry.

Then, as the situation in Syria deteriorated, she began to work with humanitarian nongovernmental organizations as a translator. After meeting her fiancé, a Kurd from Syria who was living in Iraq, she went there to marry him and to live, and began to volunteer in the refugee camps, to which thousands of Syrians and Yazidis have fled. She was trying to figure out how to continue her studies when a native Iraqi, who was a 2014 graduate of the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, suggested she apply for a Rotary Peace Fellowship.

There was a problem, however: There was no Rotary club in Iraq to sponsor her. But Evin is resourceful. Her application was taken on by the Rotary Club of Asunción, Paraguay, and she was accepted. “The peace fellowship was a milestone in my life,” she says. She was captivated, first by traveling outside her region to a “whole new world,” and then by the people she met on the fellowship, who came from countries that she had only read about: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the United States. 

Evin traveled to Cambodia, where, having read about the Khmer Rouge, she met people who had suffered under the regime. “I learned so much,” she says, and she shared her own knowledge with the other students in the program. “Kurdistan has so many difficult problems,” she explains, adding that outsiders aren’t aware of most of them. A teacher and peace fellow who promoted music as a peace-building mechanism, for instance, didn’t know that in Turkey, playing Kurdish music could lead to imprisonment.

LaMonte Adams is a lieutenant in the Philadelphia Police Department who studied with Evin at the Rotary Peace Center. His first impression of her was of a quiet person and an intent listener. “I found that she will tell you exactly how she feels and what she thinks about a topic, yet she always does it in the most respectful way possible,” he says. “She will only engage in conversations when she has a relevant opinion that will enhance the discussion. She does not talk just for the sake of talking.”

By the end of the program, Adams says, he considered her the “standout” among a group of talented peace fellows.

“I could not have been more impressed by an individual,” he says. “She is deeply passionate about issues that relate to the lives of people in her community, but is also very concerned about people across the globe.” (Wow....! Amazing statement...)

Now, Evin works for NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and for journalists, setting up interviews and translating. 

She goes wherever she is asked, traveling to Syria three or four times a year and spending a lot of time in the camps with displaced Yazidis and Syrian refugees. 

Although there are schools and international organizations, she says, conditions are poor. People live in tents, which are hot in Iraq’s punishing summer and cold in winter.

She also works with the United Nations and other organizations to document the stories of Yazidi women and girls. “I am trying to do my best to tell anything they want to tell.” 

Evin recounts the story of a young girl whose experience was typical. Her village was overrun by ISIS, and the girl was raped. “They killed all the men; they took the women and children. Girls were sold in the bazaar.” Women who won’t sell are often killed. In Sinjar, recently retaken by Kurdish fighters, mass graves, including one where only older women were buried, have been discovered.

The buying, selling, and mass rape of women and girls by ISIS has been well-documented, including by Human Rights Watch, which published a chilling report last year. ISIS has openly admitted that it uses enslavement and mass rape as a policy. Women are considered spoils of war.

But there’s another, coldly strategic reason for the selling of girls: They can be used to lure foreign fighters.

I ask Evin if it’s easy for the women to talk after so much trauma. “It depends on the woman,” she says. “Some are so strong.” Others are not. She translated for one woman who started laughing when she told how her brother was killed. Another, she recalls, “had been sold several times. She got pregnant. She had an abortion. She was telling me this, and at one point I stopped breathing. She touched my shoulder and said, ‘I’ll be OK.’”

Evin knows her role is a sensitive one. “What upsets me,” she says, “is the approach of journalists who come here and try to make these women talk, to get the detail of how she was raped, just to get one side of the story and attract attention.” The stories can be told, she says, “but you can’t show her face or give her name.” Once, she says, after a girl was interviewed, her face clearly visible, her family – still in captivity with ISIS – was killed.

She feels strongly about the plight of the Yazidis, whom she calls “a peaceful people,” so she continues to live in northern Iraq despite conditions that have only worsened since she arrived. “It used to be safer, and richer, here.”

These are turbulent times in a turbulent region. The UN calculates that ISIS still holds 3,000 Yazidis in captivity. More frightening for Evin is that ISIS wants to target Kurds, too. “We met some ISIS prisoners and asked them who they are fighting against. They said, ‘We are fighting the infidels called Kurds. If we find one, we kill them.’”

A year ago, one of her cousins, a young girl, was killed in Syria. “Murder and killing are a normal part of life here,” she notes. But earlier this year, a nephew also died there in an explosion. “My nephew was like my little brother. His death still really affects me.” She supports Kurds who travel to Syria to help. “They are fighting ISIS, which is the enemy of all humanity.”

One day, she will write all this down. She feels a responsibility to the women she meets. For now, she does her job and works on a master’s degree in history, online. “There’s not much I can do but tell their stories and describe what they face.” When I ask her which women have inspired her most, she doesn’t pause for thought. “All of them.”

By Rose George

The Rotarian  1-Feb-2016

Maine Writer:  Dear God.....we pray for Evin and ask you to help her in her humanitarian efforts....

We must remember how our American feedoms allow us the privilege to debate, but let's also work to eradicate intollerance and hate.  

Also, let's be open to promoting peace efforts, by helping Syrian refugees.