The first uranium ore from the Cigar Lake mine has been processed at the McClean Lake mill after its facilities were modified to enable processing of the high-grade uranium ore. Both facilities are in northern Saskatechewan, Canada.

Mining at Cigar Lake began in March, the culmination of a nine-year development project which saw operator Cameco face the challenges of mining the world’s second largest high-grade uranium deposit. The sandy soil hosting the orebody is frozen prior to mining, preventing water inflow and improving radiation protection. The ore is removed by a jet boring system using water under high pressure, and the resulting ore slurry is piped to underground grinding and thickening circuits before being pumped to the surface. At the surface, the slurry is loaded into special containers for its 70 km journey by road to the McClean Lake mill.

The mill’s majority owner, Areva Resources Canada, and its partners began a $150 million upgrade program in 2012 that increased its capacity to enable it to process Cigar Lake ore. The mill is now the only facility in the world designed to process high-grade uranium without dilution. So far, 1400 tonnes of Cigar Lake ore has been delivered to the mill, which is expected to produce 1 million pounds U3O8 (385 tU) in 2014, ramping up to 18 million pounds U3O8 (6924 tU) by 2018.

“Cigar Lake is a major technological achievement in terms of the ground-freezing and the remote-controlled jet boring techniques representing state-of-the-art in terms of health and safety of the workforce, and is the first major new conventional mine to open since Langer Heinrich in 2006,” Ian Emsley, senior project manager at the World Nuclear Association, said.

The mine secures Cameco’s future supply capacity as the Rabbit Lake mine is expected to run down. “Production will be ramped-up at a measured pace taking account of the current delicate state of the uranium market,” Emsley said.

Areva Mining Business Group senior vice president Olivier Wantz said the start of production at the McClean Lake mill represented a “strategic investment” for the Areva’s mining business.

Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel congratulated all those involved in bringing Cigar Lake – which he described as one of the world’s “most technically challenging” orebodies – into production.

Cigar Lake is owned by Cameco (50.25%), Areva Resources Canada (37.1%), Idemitsu Canada Resources (7.875%) and Tepco Resources (5.0%), and is operated by Cameco. The McClean Lake Mill is owned by Areva Resources Canada (70%), Denison Mines (22.5%) and OURD Canada (7.5%), and is operated by Areva.

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By Nader Saed

A new decision taken by the British Treasury to repeal the sanctions that the London government had unilaterally imposed on six Iranian legal and real entities is apparently a diplomatic measure in line with the legal requirements of the judicial verdict already handed down by the General Court of the European Union (EU). However, by taking the measure, the British government has been also trying to create suitable opportunities to secure its own political and economic interests by reviving bilateral relations with Iran.

In fact, by not seeking an appeals decision against the original verdict issued by the EU court, the British government has been trying to send a positive signal to Iran and show a green light to further interaction with the Islamic Republic in various political and economic fields. This development has come after previous remarks made by the British Prime Minister David Cameron at the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, which created an air of distrust between the two countries and overshadowed relatively positive steps that had been taken to restore political ties between Tehran and London. However, there is no doubt that abstaining from taking any judicial and legal step in order to reverse the original verdict handed down by the EU court has arisen from political reasons. The British statesmen have also continued to pursue their policy of putting pressure on and leveling charges against Iran. At the same time, London has been simultaneously showing the green light to Tehran for the promotion of political and economic ties between the UK and the Islamic Republic. It is true that the British government has accepted to repeal part of the unilateral sanctions it had already imposed against Iran, and its government has given in to the decision of the European Union and has conceded to partial removal of its sanctions regime against Iran. However, there is no doubt that such a measure stems from a doctrine which focuses on making the most of renewed relations with Iran to meet common interests of the two countries, although political and economic aspects of those relations are more prominent.

It is also possible that such a change in Britain’s policies is a confirmation of an official view in the country, which believes that unilateral sanctions regime has been already proven ineffective and London should switch from a path of pressure against Iran to a different path of interaction with Iran. However, expecting the UK to totally switch to a path of interaction and completely stop its animosity against the government of Iran will be both unrealistic and incorrect. Relative interactions that are currently taking place and continued pressures that were rule of the day in the past are all the results of the UK’s profit-seeking policy, which only changes in reaction to conditions of time. Therefore, Iran should not trust the UK as a partner with whom interaction can be continued for a long time.

Outcomes of the new decision by the British Treasury

Another issue about the decision by the British foreign policy apparatus with regard to Iran is the possible positive effects of London’s decision to remove sanctions against a number of Iranian entities. Although some of these entities, including the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) or Moallem Insurance Company (MIC) have an important role in developing the activities of Iran’s energy sector at international level, on the whole, practical outcomes of the resumption of these entities’ activities should be analyzed from a number of viewpoints. Firstly, the revocation of sanctions is specific to Britain and restrictions against Iran resulting from other forms of unilateral embargoes are still in place. Secondly, a lot of prominent state and non-state Iranian personalities are still on the list of the UK’s sanctions. Therefore, it is quite evident that the British government has not totally abandoned its sanctions policy toward Iran altogether.

Another point is the relationship between the new decision taken by the British Treasury and Iran’s nuclear negotiations. The recent measure goes beyond the obligations accepted by parties to the interim agreement that was signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the UK, in the Swiss city of Geneva, last November. It is also beyond the obligations stipulated when the Geneva deal was extended for four months. Therefore, such a measure may have been a signal that Britain is ready to move toward total abrogation of sanctions against our country. Of course, the degree of likelihood of such an expectation is very low because the measure taken by the British Treasury merely covers “persons under sanctions,” without having anything to do with the very nature of regulations that have led to the imposition of the British sanctions against our country. In other words, Britain’s illegal and unilateral sanctions regime against Iran’s nuclear energy program has not changed yet. Therefore, this measure, which is perhaps an effort to reduce tensions that have arisen from the British prime minister’s remarks, and alleviate the tense atmosphere in Tehran toward London, should not be aggrandized out of proportion. It should not be forgotten that when Britain imposed these sanctions against Iranian companies and persons, the British government was not able to submit reliable proof to the European Union court, which would back up its allegations about any connection between these entities and Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Conclusion

At any rate, if Iran’s diplomatic apparatus welcomed the British government’s measure, it could serve as an inventive and motivation for other countries to follow suit and in doing so, it would create substantial disruption in international sanctions regime against Iran. Of course, the exact nature and outcome of this decision should be weighed against its political and indirect consequences. However, the measure taken by the British government to avoid objecting to the original decision of the EU court, on the one hand, while correcting a previous decision by the country’s Treasury on a list of Iranian entities put under the UK’s sanctions, on the other hand, can be considered a positive step.

It seems the new decision proves that the European members of the P5+1 group of countries are not as willing and as serious as before in their commitment to go on with the sanctions regime against Iran. Therefore, instead of mounting pressure on Iran, they have been seeking gradual interaction with the country. The economic interests that underlie the new interactions are among the most important reasons behind this relative change in doctrine, understanding and behavior of the European countries. By appropriate management of this situation and providing European countries with suitable economic incentives, the Iranian government can speed up the process of removing unilateral sanctions against the country. On the other hand, by taking good advantage of the psychological atmosphere created by this decision, which is to some extent related to the British foreign policymaking machinery, Iran will have new capacities to facilitate the realization of the most important goal of the Geneva agreement, which is total abrogation of economic and financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

*Dr. Nader Saed is the Professor of International Law and Director of the Law and International Organizations Group in the Research Institute for International Relations (RIIR) based in Tehran – Iran.

Source: Fars News Agency
http://farsnews.com/
Translated By: Iran Review.Org

The post London Trying To Appease Iran Using New Interaction Doctrine – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Angelica Reyes Hernandez

Texas Governor Rick Perry called out National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border as part of “Operation Strong Safety.” The mobilization is aimed at addressing the recent influx of young unaccompanied Central American immigrants. Perry wanted the National Guard force to support the Border Patrol authorities in rural areas, while the state police concentrated its efforts on highways.[1] However, when it was announced that the National Guard would be thrown into the fray, the effectiveness and rationality of their presence was called into question by news outlets, state and local officials, not to mention Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.[2] After the implementation of the plan began to occur, structural and organizational mistakes became evident. The Washington Post published an article that revealed that the troops had a dearth of relevant responsibility and were chronically unproductive due to deficiencies in the plan.[3] Meanwhile, the Huffington Post announced that the National Guard troops were forced to eat provisions from the food banks until they belatedly received their paychecks. The inability of Perry’s plan to provide basic needs to security personnel demonstrates the lack of planning and care by the Texan governor, the arch “politicizer” that his critics have accused him from being.

Moreover, with the recent beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, social media statements made by affiliates of the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the circulation of an unknown report online regarding safety on the U.S.-Mexico border, certain U.S. politicians have been quick to inflate fears of terrorist entering the U.S. via Mexico. Governor Perry and conservatives such as Rep. Trent Franks (R), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D), claim that there is a threat that ISIL members are already present on the U.S.-Mexican border and allege that these members are ready to cross, if they have not done so already.[4][5] However, due to the lack of credible evidence to support this dangerous assertion, it appears that the whole situation, including calling for the National Guard, is a political strategy designed by Governor Perry to improve his political image leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections.This is evident by his drastic change towards immigration policies and issues from 2010, scarcely two years before the 2012 elections. Throughout his 2012 presidential campaign, Perry’s response to those who criticized him for supporting in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants was rather harsh, as he bluntly said, “I don’t think you have a heart.”[6] However, now he personally chose to deploy National Guard to the border to deal with children crossing the border. The incongruities of his actions speak for themselves.

The Speculation of ISIL in Mexico

The proclamation that ISIL terrorists have crossed the border, or are about to, is a compilation of speculation and assumption. This attempt to alienate immigrants and vouch for greater security for the Mexican border is not a particularly new tactic, as it has been employed in the past. In fact, Texas U.S. Representative Louie Gohmer made an almost identical statement in 2009 linking Mexican cartels to Al Qaeda.[7] He warned of Al Qaeda training camps supposedly stationed in Mexican territory right across the border, and the terrorist group’s new strategy was to, “Come in and act like Hispanics when [in reality,] they’re radical Islamists.”[8] While this notion gained great popularity, particularly among conservatives in support of anti-immigration policies, there has yet to surface any clear evidence that these camps or cartel-Al Qaeda collaboration existed.[9] Coincidentally, Rep. Gohmer was in the process of promoting anti-immigration legislation when he made these remarks.

Same Old Game

Similarly, the reports about ISIL cells in Mexico spread around August 26, which can be attributed to three sources. One would be the comment made by the Rep. Trent Franks from Arizona regarding the ISIL cells in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which was picked up by Buzzfeed (they quickly went viral). Secondly, U.S. government monitoring of social media outlets utilized by ISIL’s extremists discovered posts by expressing their knowledge of the clandestine entry of immigrants into the U.S, and have found that such a method would be viable for future attacks on American soil.[10] Once the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) examined these claims, it concluded that these comments on social media do not amount to a specific, apprehensive, probable plot. Thirdly, two of the most prominent spokespeople about this threat, whosecredibility itself is somewhat questionable, are former CIA covert operations officer, Mike Baker, and former FBI special agent John Guandolo. Agent Baker is best remembered for making similar statements as those by Texas Rep. Gohmer about the cooperation between Al Qaeda, the Mexican cartels, and the alleged training camps on Mexican territory. He said, “[There has been] ‘a lot of communication’ between ISIS and Mexican drug cartels [,] given past efforts by al Qaeda to do likewise.”[11] However, there have not been consequential plots or attacks against the United States since his urgent warnings.[12] On the other hand, Special Agent Guandolo, founder of understandingthreat.com, travels around the nation to warn law enforcement officers of the dangers of Islamist Jihad.[13] He has been so bold as to accuse the newly stepped down Attorney General Eric Holder of complicity with extreme Jihadist to overthrow the U.S. government.[14] Of course, evidence proving such statements or alluding to them has yet to be found.

Consequentially, local authorities are falling victim to this political game of inflating rumors, which promotes overreaction. For example, Gary Painter, sheriff of Midland County, Texas, affirmed that there are active ISIL cells that are on U.S. soil.[15] Quran books allegedly found near the border are the only pieces of supporting evidence for the statement.[16] Needless to say, that such a denunciation could be considered to be racist, since it is essentially alleging that finding a Muslim religious book confirms the presence of a terrorist. While every statement made by this terrorist organization is taken seriously, as it should be, the Texas Department of Public Safety through a law enforcement bulletin has promoted precautions.[17]

Just as some have been spreading the word about the threat, the federal government has attempted to set the record straight about the issue. Pentagon’s Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby has assured the public that, “the Pentagon has no information that leads us to believe that…ISIS [or ISIL] was crossing at the U.S.-Mexican border. That said, we do know they have aspirations to hit Western targets, and it’s something … we’ve got to take seriously and we have to try and be ready for it.”[18] To date, however, there has yet to be one confirmed case of an Islamic militant crossing to American soil via the Mexican-American border, or that such a terrorist threat is likely to occur.

Moreover, Jennifer Lasley, Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Deputy Undersecretary for Analysis mirrored John Kirby’s statement of a looming threat of ISIL members crossing the Mexican-American border, “We to date don’t have credible information that we are aware of, of known or suspected terrorists coming across the border.”[19] DHS’s Secretary Jeh Johnson, confirmed the slim chances of an attack via the Mexican-American border at the Council on Foreign Relations.[20] Though, he emphasizes the dangerous nature of this group in stating, “We know that ISIL is prepared to kill innocent Americans they encounter because they are Americans — in a public and depraved manner. We know ISIL views the United States as an enemy, and we know that ISIL’s leaders have said themselves they will soon be in ‘direct confrontation’ with the United States.”[21] Surprisingly, the allegations have not caused a raucous in Mexico as they have in United States: Mexican authorities have simply debunked the existence of ISIL cells on Mexican territory. An official from the Mexican Embassy in the United States said, “Officials in Mexico and the United States maintain permanent and open channels of communication and nothing indicates that there is even a slight chance of what Governor Perry has declared.”[22] The unconcerned nature by the Mexican Government further reinforces the theory that the situation is a political move by Governor Perry aimed at his upcoming electoral aspirations.

A Political Game

Given the time frame of the deployment of the National Guard, Rick Perry’s desire to run again for the U.S. presidency, the social media comments by ISIL affiliates, and the statements from both former agents Baker and Guandolo, it would not be the first time that politicians like Perry make outrageous and entirely politically-motivated statements to harden their conservative base. In this case, these claims are meant to increase support and to improve the tarnished image of the Texas governor and his aspirations for a new election campaign in 2016.[23]

Perry has taken advantage of an important international security issue by spinning it as one related to the U.S-Mexican border. With the next presidential election unquestionably in mind, Gov. Perry is getting ready to revamp his image and be taken seriously after his disastrous missteps in the last Republican Party primary back in 2012.

One of the political “mistakes” Perry made in 2012 was supporting in-state tuition for unauthorized immigrant children.[24] For the die-hard red states and fellow conservatives, his softer approach on immigration somewhat hindered his image and his chances to win. The GOP also would have refrained from promoting such a pro-immigrant candidate. Therefore, this time around, he has chosen to have a more conservative stance by deploying the National Guard to the border. However, due to all the criticism he had originally received when he first sent the troops to the border by the Hispanic voter population, the Democratic Party, and the condemnation from the Mexican government, the negative publicity has been polarizing and sorely damaged his political image, again. As result, he took the opportunity to alter the content in which he was supporting his authority for the deployment of the National Guard and advocacy for anti-immigration views when the rumors of the ISIL members in Mexico first appeared.[25]

Conclusion

When it comes to elections, everything is fair game in politics. By suggesting a scenario where Texas and the whole country is in imminent danger, opinions regarding anti-immigration laws and the deployment of the National Guard are likely to garner quick support. The militaristic image of the ardently political Governor Perry sending soldiers to the border to handle harmless, impoverished and unaccompanied Central American children can be easily transformed into an image of heroically dispatching boots on the ground to prevent terrorists from entering the country. The same could be said about the anti-immigration mixture of views and laws that seem much more acceptable now that there is a “serious” threat to Americans. In fact, Governor Perry seems to be using his controversial and ineffective decision as his stepping-stone to bash President Obama, and declare his greater competency in issues like national security.[26]

Lastly, it is critical to point out that there have not been any confirmed reports of brigades of Islamic terrorists stealthily crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. Certainly, there are millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. However, looking back to the 9/11 attacks, the hijackers all legally arrived to the U.S. via bona-fide air-travel. In other words, terrorists who desire to enter the country will find means to do so, which do not require illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. There is a lack of dignity inherent to publicizing misleading information that manipulates constituents’ over the security issues. Citizens of Texas, and the U.S. in general, deserve astute, responsible leadership from elected policymakers, such as their governor, free of political manipulation that feeds off constituents’ fear.

Angelica Reyes Hernandez, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

References

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/deployed-by-gov-rick-perry-national-guard-adjusts-to-its-new-role-on-the-texas-border/2014/09/01/24968056-2f90-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

[2] http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-29/isis-threat-us-border-some-border-patrol-agents-believe-it-others-say-not-so-fast

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/deployed-by-gov-rick-perry-national-guard-adjusts-to-its-new-role-on-the-texas-border/2014/09/01/24968056-2f90-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

[4] http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/republicans-are-worried-about-isis-fighters-coming-through-mexico-the-white-house-wants-them-to-stop-20140917

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/opinion/isis-deep-in-the-heart-of-texas.html

[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/deployed-by-gov-rick-perry-national-guard-adjusts-to-its-new-role-on-the-texas-border/2014/09/01/24968056-2f90-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

[7] http://www.infowars.com/former-cia-officer-says-isis-and-mexican-drug-cartels-communicate/

[8] http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/apr/23/louie-gohmert/louie-gohmert-says-al-qaeda-has-camps-drug-cartels/

[9] http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/louie-gohmert-al-qaeda-told-to-act-hispanic-90212.html

[10] http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/26407579/online-posts-show-isis-eyeing-mexican-border-says-law-enforcement-bulletin

[11] http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/08/21/Former-CIA-Officer-A-Lot-of-Communication-Between-ISIS-and-Mexican-Cartels

[12] http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/08/21/Former-CIA-Officer-A-Lot-of-Communication-Between-ISIS-and-Mexican-Cartels

[13] http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-29/isis-threat-us-border-some-border-patrol-agents-believe-it-others-say-not-so-fast

[14] http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-29/isis-threat-us-border-some-border-patrol-agents-believe-it-others-say-not-so-fast

[15] http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/09/15/3567351/texas-sheriff-claims-isis-penetrate-united-states/

[16] http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/09/15/3567351/texas-sheriff-claims-isis-penetrate-united-states/

[17] http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/02/opinion/navarrette-perry-isis-mexico-border/

[18] http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/02/opinion/navarrette-perry-isis-mexico-border/

[19] http://www.latinpost.com/articles/21294/20140912/immigration-border-crisis-homeland-security-addresses-possibility-isis-terrorists-crossing.htm

[20] http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/09/15/3567351/texas-sheriff-claims-isis-penetrate-united-states/

[21] http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/09/15/3567351/texas-sheriff-claims-isis-penetrate-united-states/

[22] http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/09/12/mexico-condemns-texas-national-guard-border-deployment/

[23] http://www.thenation.com/blog/180759/rick-perry-uses-immigrant-bashing-path-2016#

[24] http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/09/21/Perry-Defends-In-State-Tuition-for-Illegal-Immigrants

[25] http://www.thenation.com/blog/180759/rick-perry-uses-immigrant-bashing-path-2016#

[26] http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-29/isis-threat-us-border-some-border-patrol-agents-believe-it-others-say-not-so-fast

The post ISIL And The Mexican Border: A Real Or Convenient Threat? – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

At least 30 people were killed and dozens injured in a suicide bomb blast earlier today in Sana’a, after the resignation of the new Prime Minister over the opposition of the Shiite Houthi rebels.

Based on first reports, there are also children among the victims. The attack comes as a group of supporters and affiliates of the Houthis, who seized control of the capital on September 21, were preparing to demonstrate on Tahrir Square, where the blast occurred, to demand the resignation of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The powerful blast caused panic among the crowd, leaving the square deserted. At first it was beleived to be a car-bomb, but after no trace was found of a a vehicle police indicated a possible suicide bomber.

After the fall of Sana’a, al Qaeda had threatened a war against the Shiite rebels who have been contrasting the government for months. The President in the past hours accepted the resignation of the new Premier, Ahmed Awad ben Mubarak, who was just named Tuesday but rejected by the Houthis.

The post Yemen: Attack In Sana’a Kills Scores appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Deeper cooperation was announced between Cairo and Tripoli to fight Islamic terrorism along their shared 115km border. Libyan and Egyptian give wide media today to a security deal reached yesterday in Cairo between President Abdel Fattah al Sisi and Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al Thinni.

“We need to urgently support all the needs of our (Libyan) brothers to coordinate at the highest level in all areas…in the fields of security and we emphasize the exchange of information to combat terrorism and also emphasize border security and control”, Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb told a news conference.

“We are facing terrorism and terrorism must be faced with strength and power and requires building and training cadres capable of confronting these terrorists”, echoed Thinni.

The main concern of the Egyptian former army chief are the armed groups that caused post-Ghedaffi to fall into chaos, particularly the capital Tripoli and main city of Cyrenaica, Benghazi. These groups are linked to Ansar Bayt al Maqdis, the armed formation based in the Sinai responsible for frequent attacks against Egyptian soldiers and police, especially after the ousting in July 2013 of president Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist militants based in the Libyan coastal city of Derna recently announced their allegience to the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate between Syria and Iraq. A direct threat to nearby Egypt’s internal security and stability.

The post Egypt To Train Libyan Troops In Fight Against Terrorism appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By James Phillips

The air strikes against Islamist terrorist groups in Syria that the U.S. launched on September 22 included strikes against a group that few Americans had heard about before: the Khorasan group. Although sometimes mistakenly characterized as a new terrorist group, Khorasan is a new tentacle of an old organization—the al-Qaeda high-command or core group. The rise of the Khorasan group underscores that al-Qaeda’s core remains a dangerous threat, and that it has grown stronger by feeding off the corpses of failed states and by recruiting foreign fighters. To defeat al-Qaeda, Washington must address the regional trends that gave rise to Khorasan, not merely target the group itself.

The Black Flags of Khorasan

According to U.S. officials, the Khorasan group is a cadre of experienced al-Qaeda operatives dispatched to Syria by Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the al-Qaeda core, to organize terror attacks against Western targets. Many members of the group, estimated to number in the dozens, are veterans of al-Qaeda’s unholy war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This region, part of what was known as Khorasan in ancient times, looms large in the minds of Islamist extremists because of a prophecy attributed to Mohammed that foretold the coming of an unstoppable army bearing black flags that would emerge from Khorasan. To underscore the Islamic connection, al-Qaeda adopted a black flag as its symbol. U.S. officials apparently coined the term Khorasan group, perhaps because they overheard members of Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, refer to the newcomers as “Khorasanis.”

U.S. officials now see the Khorasan group as “the primary Al-Qaeda entity plotting near-term attacks against the West.”[1] It emerged in Syria within the past two years, embedded itself in Jabhat al-Nusra, but operates under the direct orders of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership. Its mission is to recruit, train, and deploy Western militants drawn to the fighting in Syria for attacks on Western targets.

In a sense, it is a fusion cell that applies the “best practices” of various al-Qaeda units. It works closely with Jabhat al-Nusra to recruit militants with Western passports, and it trains them to use sophisticated bombs developed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the franchise based in Yemen. AQAP’s master bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, who developed the innovative bombs used in the failed “underwear bomber” plot and two foiled plots to place bombs on cargo aircraft headed for the United States, reportedly traveled to Syria to build hard-to-detect bombs and train others to do so. Lieutenant General William Mayville, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S. air strikes were launched against the Khorasan group in Syria because it was in the “final stages of plans to execute major attacks against Western targets.”

The emerging Khorasan threat has important implications:

The al-Qaeda core group remains a dangerous threat. Although Osama bin Laden’s successor Zawahiri has been eclipsed in recent months by the rapid rise of the Islamic State (previously called ISIS or ISIL), al-Zawahiri still calls the shots and ensures cooperation between various al-Qaeda affiliates. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified recently that Khorasan had become at least as much of a threat to the U.S. homeland as the Islamic State. The Khorasan revelations indicate that al-Qaeda remains focused on attacking passenger aircraft. A spectacular terrorist attack would help al-Qaeda steal the spotlight back from the Islamic State, a splinter group that al-Zawahiri disowned after it ignored his orders to defer to Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.

Al-Qaeda puts a premium on recruiting foreign fighters. Al-Qaeda itself was built by Arab fighters who coalesced in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. Foreign militants often comprise the most zealous combatants in the various civil wars raging in Arab states. The Khorasan group also recruits foreign fighters because they offer the most direct vehicle for targeting Western countries, particularly if they already possess Western passports.

The record of Khorasan’s leader underscores Iranian tolerance, if not support, for al-Qaeda operations. Khorasan’s leader, Mohsen al-Fadhli, reportedly traveled to Syria from Iran, where he had functioned as a senior facilitator who helped to move al-Qaeda personnel and money through Iran to Syria. A longtime al-Qaeda veteran, Fadhli had extensive experience fighting in Afghanistan and Chechnya before he became an important fundraiser in his native Kuwait. He was close to bin Laden and was one of the few trusted associates who knew about the 9/11 plot before it was executed, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Fadhli’s ability to operate as a facilitator and fundraiser inside Iran for many years raises important questions about Iranian permission, if not active support, for al-Qaeda operations. After initially denying the presence of al-Qaeda leaders in Iran, many of whom fled from neighboring Afghanistan after the 2001 ouster of the Taliban regime, Tehran claimed that it had put them under some form of house arrest. But the Iranian regime refused to extradite them to their native lands or effectively restrict their operations.

Despite the fact that al-Qaeda’s Sunni supremacist ideology conflicts with Iran’s Shia brand of revolutionary Islam, and al-Qaeda affiliates attacked Iran’s allies in Iraq and Syria, Tehran evidently concluded that al-Qaeda plays a useful role in attacking the United States and its Arab allies. The growing strength of al-Qaeda’s two offshoots in Syria also helped to preserve Syria’s Assad regime, a vital Iranian ally, by discouraging Western countries from aiding Syrian rebels, whose cause has been hijacked by al-Qaeda. Iran’s double game in simultaneously fighting and enabling al-Qaeda raises disturbing questions about whether Tehran can be trusted to cooperate against the Islamic State or comply with the terms of any agreement on its nuclear program, if one is reached.

Time for a Paradigm Shift

If Jabhat al-Nusra consolidates victory in Syria, Khorasan will become even more of a threat to the United States and its allies. But rather than focusing narrowly on military strikes against Khorasan, the U.S. must also develop a broad and comprehensive strategy for defeating al-Qaeda’s Islamist revolution. Al-Qaeda sees itself as the vanguard of a global insurgency. Khorasan’s rise in Syria is emblematic of al-Qaeda’s wider exploitation of the “Arab Spring” uprisings to bolster offshoots in Egypt, Libya, Mali, and Yemen. Washington must adopt a paradigm shift,[2] stop treating the al-Qaeda threat as primarily a law enforcement problem, and adopt a comprehensive political, military, and ideological program for defeating al-Qaeda’s global insurgency.

James Phillips is Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy, of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, at The Heritage Foundation.

[1] Matthew Levitt, “The Khorasan Group Should Scare Us,” Politico Magazine, September 24, 2014, http://www.politico.com//magazine/story/2014/09/why-the-khorasan-group-should-scare-us-111307.html#.VC21wF_D_yA (accessed October 2, 2014).

[2] Heritage Foundation Counterterrorism Task Force, “A Counterterrorism Strategy for the ‘Next Wave,’” Heritage Foundation Special Report No. 98, August 24, 2011, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/08/a-counterterrorism-strategy-for-the-next-wave.

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Civilization must reclaim global imagination, inspire on its potential in responding to Islamic State’s cruelties.

By Joji Sakurai

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard got himself into a bit of mischief by describing the strikes as a kind of ultimate spectacle: “the absolute event, the ‘mother’ of events, the pure event.” He attributed to it a single meaning: “the radicality of the spectacle, the brutality of the spectacle” that succeeded in revealing “a triumphant globalization fighting with itself.”

Many people, including this writer, reacted with unease. The comments seemed at once to applaud the terrorists while undermining the reality of the carnage.

The series of beheadings by a group that calls itself the Islamic State are a new act of theater, and once again, use of a metaphor associated with entertainment may come across as an act of praise or of trivialization in the face of grief. The use intends neither, but rather is a modest appeal for all people who oppose extremism to confront a stark reality: The jihadis have harnessed the power of spectacle to hijack the world’s imagination, while global civilization has failed utterly to formulate an adequate response.

If the attacks on the Twin Towers used the iconography of the Hollywood action blockbuster, the beheadings in the desert evoke drama far more ancient – Old Testament strife, Hellenic legend. They have the austere force of the Edipo Re of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, a connoisseur of cruelty, and of some scenes in Ingmar Bergman’s Seventh Seal. The scenes are self-consciously theatrical, yet this does not sap them of their power – a point that global democratic leaders must digest in order to confront the challenge of the Islamic State executioners.

It may sound unlikely, but ISIS is carrying out in extremis the program of the “theater of cruelty” of the influential French dramaturge-demiurge Antonin Artaud. The early 20th-century man of the stage wrote in his manifesto “Theater and its Double” that he strives to create “a theater in which violent physical images crush and hypnotize the sensibility of the spectator seized by the theater as by a whirlwind of higher forces.” Artaud wants to create a theater for “la foule” – the crowd, the mob, the masses – in opposition to tired, insipid old codgers and he appeals to ancient religions: “These gods or heroes, these monsters, these natural and cosmic forces will be interpreted according to images from the most ancient sacred texts and old cosmogonies.” Introducing his second manifesto, Artaud writes: “This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity [italics added] which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid.”

As theater, the work tends to be rubbish, although Artaud has influenced many greats, including director Peter Brook. None of this matters. The key issue is how appealing its message may be to a certain cast of mind. The cocktail of violence-and-purity may find particular, one is tempted to say universal, resonance in the restless, conflicted, often-miserable, never-satisfied adolescent mind – a cast of mind that under the pressure of another set of circumstances, often socioeconomic, can be fertile ground for jihadi recruitment. There are many more serious reasons for the appeal of jihad, from a scarcity of employment opportunities to often cogent arguments about colonial legacies, but one must not ignore the notion that jihad may simply come across as a grand, romantic adventure. Adolescents are mesmerized by purity, impossible goals that most people shed as they mature. Or, obsession with purity can be psychosis: Robespierre wanted a pure revolution, and the Nazis dreamed of a pure race. The jihadis, in many ways, follow a venerable western tradition of idealism, as puritanical and racist, that has always ended in tragedy.

Global leadership certainly must not fight this theater of cruelty with reciprocal tools – an orgy of rah-rah triumphalism or vaudeville of sentimental propaganda. Former US President George W. Bush was a master of both, pledging “shock-and-awe” in Iraq and gazing into Vladimir Putin eyes and claiming to see his soul.

Our global community must – and history tells us we can – find a way to drive rational discourse buttressed by an adequate iconography. Leaders like Ronald Reagan, Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi shared a sharp sense of theatre: In the fight against communism, Reagan, once an actor, urged from Berlin for Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” – the performance was better than any he gave in Hollywood. When King marched with 250,000 in Washington DC, the moment was transcendent in the history of civil rights and an act of consummate dramaturgy. On a quest for reconciliation, Mahatma Gandhi showed not only moral steel but a shrewd sense of theatrics in recognizing the power of a mass hunger strike.

Of course, in a postmodern world, any deliberate attempts at inspiration are suspicious – and on balance, that is perhaps healthy. Yet it is paramount that we awaken from our post-dogmatic slumbers, not to seek a new dogma, but to reclaim the imaginative terrain for our civilized world. A skeptical posture is fine and well, today we must, like Hume, fight passionately for sound sense and reason.

We must be warriors of tolerance, calling to arms our reason, our compassion and our sanity. Our leaders should show the way. US President Barack Obama, for starters, needs to rediscover the magic of his early presidency, the ability to draw millions of supporters, as he approaches its twilight. Germany’s Angela Merkel, who has political clout to burn, can complement her nation’s growing diplomatic muscle with bold symbolism, following in the way of her predecessor, Helmut Kohl, who stood alongside French President François Mitterrand in stirring scenes of post-war reconciliation. In India, Narendra Modi, who was chief minister in Gujarat at the time of horrific revenge killings against Muslims in 2002, can resonate beyond the borders of his country by deploying his charisma in a major gesture of Hindu-Muslim reconciliation.

Calling for such acts of reconciliation and inspiration is not to say military strikes are a bad idea, but suggest that the ultimate battlefield may also have to include the theater of persuasion. Otherwise another group of extremists will simply pop up somewhere else.

While Baudrillard’s analysis is stimulating, bringing a genuinely valuable contribution to the global agora, we must reject his assertion that the 9/11 attacks were a manifestation of globalization at war with itself. Baudrillard is correct to assert that “this is not a clash of civilizations,” but only in the sense that it is global civilization – the civilization of China’s Tang dynasty, of the Sicilian court of Roger II Hauteville, of India’s Muslim Mughal emperors and of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III – in conflict with anti-civilization, a movement that in its purest distillation is simply a disrespect for life.

We must be warriors of trust. Our adventure of globalization has the ability to yield such riches – material, cultural, spiritual and intellectual – or founder under the weight of intolerance and hate.

The message of globalization requires global leadership – and someone to sit in the director’s chair.

Joji Sakurai is a veteran journalist who has reported from Japan, Italy, North Korea, Mongolia, China, France, Britain and Brazil. He covered Japan’s 2011 tsunami crisis and the 2013 historic papal transition in Rome. He graduated from Oxford University with a First in Modern Languages, specializing in French and Italian.

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For weeks before the October 5 presidential elections, polls solidly showed a run-off vote between President Dilma Rousseff, running for reelection on the Workers´ Party (PT) ticket, and environmentalist Marina Silva, head of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). In a distant third place was Aecio Neves, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).

But indecision by Silva —who was the running mate to PSB presidential candidate Eduardo Campos when he died in a plane crash on August 13— and her ultra-conservative opinions on abortion, same-sex marriage, and the fight against homophobia took their toll. Just days before voters headed to the ballot box, Silva dropped to third place.

Official results show that 42 percent of voters chose Rousseff, with Neves following at 34 percent. The two will face off on October 26. Now it´s up to Silva, with 21 percent, to decide which way the scales tip.

For now, she has only said that “Brazil clearly showed it is not ok with the status quo,” referring to the current PT government. But the PSB has yet to officially back either of the finalists, and may leave that up to voters.

After hearing the results, Neves called on Silva to “join forces” to defeat Rousseff. The president said “the Brazilian people crave more progress and says they see in what I represent the most legitimate and reliable force for change.”

“The fight continues and it will be victorious,” she added.

Short and intense campaign

This will be the sixth time the PT and PSDB compete in the second round of a presidential election. The PSDB won in 1994 and 1998 with Luiz Henrique Cardoso (1994-2002). The PT got the presidency in 2002 and 2006 with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2002-2010), and again in 2010 with Rousseff.

Although Neves is categorized as a social democrat, he is a defender of the more liberal economic policies implemented by former president Cardoso, and his proposals are antagonistic to the PT. He will try to convince the electorate, especially Silva´s supporters, that he will get the currently stagnating economy back on track.

Rousseff is favored by major social advances under her administration –the result of programs implemented by successive PT governments. Brazil also became the seventh largest economy in the world during her tenure. For the next four years, the president proposes to promote local industry, protect jobs, encourage investment in infrastructure, and expand the coverage of social programs.

Several analysts believe Rousseff and Neves have the same chance of becoming president.

“Aécio Neves was reborn from the ashes and is going into the second round with a lot of strength. I think Rousseff and Neves each have a 50 percent chance of being elected. It will be a very short and intense campaign,” analyst André César of Brazilian consulting firm Prospectiva told reporters.

Brazil´s 143 million voters also elected governors of the 27 states, 54 of 81 senators and 513 national representatives.

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(EurActiv) — The Madrid regional government has not given health personnel enough training to deal with Ebola properly, including the Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, who is now the first person in the world to contract the virus outside Africa, says Juan Carlos Mejías. Romero was in contact with one of two ill Spanish priests who died of the disease in Madrid’s Carlos III Hospital.

Juan Carlos Mejías is the leader of SATSE, the main trade union in Spain’s health sector, representing 100,000 members. Mejías spoke with EurActiv Spain’s Fernando Heller.

Did the health personnel in the Carlos III Hospital have enough training on Ebola and how to deal with infected patients?

Not at all. We just had a 15-minute-long training on Ebola. Last April, when we had the first suspected Ebola case in La Paz hospital (Madrid), things started to move very slowly. People from the “disease prevention unit” there gave us a short speech, of around 15 minutes, on how to deal with Ebola cases. That was all. Of course, we complained.

But, at least, you got the basic information on the disease, right?

For these kind of pathologies, it is not enough to receive some written information, like leaflets or brochures, something that we, by the way, did not have. You need a very complex and specific training. In particular, the use of the protective equipment and the special suits. People need to be trained almost like NASA astronauts! There is a specific protocol to be followed, in particular, the sequence for putting on and removing the equipment. You need almost 45 minutes to take the suit off (one of the most sensitive and dangerous moments, according to the protocol). But we didn’t have the right training in the Carlos III Hospital at that time (last April).

Ramos said she followed all the appropriate protocols when entering the room of an Ebola patient at Carlos III Hospital, but she acknowledged that she may have made a mistake when removing her protective suit. Do you believe this was a “human error”?

I don’t want to speculate about that, until we have the final results of the ongoing investigations (with the support of The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). But in any case, before making any premature conclusions about a possible human error, you need to have solid scientific evidence. It is very easy to blame the health personnel in the first place.

What are the next steps?

We demand a complete and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the infection. We shall not rest until they (the Spanish health authorities) give us a full explanation of what happened with our colleague. And of course we will continue to demonstrate outside La Paz and Carlos III hospitals, to demand full clarification on how she caught Ebola, and demanding better security measures and training to prevent future cases.

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Two Austrian teenage girls who ran away to Syria to join Islamic State fighters are beginning to regret their decision. Security service insiders told Austrian media that the girls have managed to contact families and one wants to go home.

The pair left home to join Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL) in April. Little information was immediately known, aside from that one had been 16 and one 14 at the time of their departure. Both reportedly married Chechen fighters after their arrival in Syria and became pregnant.

Samra Kesinovic and her friend, Sabina Selimovic, are children of Bosnian migrants, but grew up in Vienna. On their departure from Austria, they left a note, telling their parents: “Don’t look for us. We will serve Allah – and we will die for him.”

Since their departure, pictures have emerged online of the pair brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and wearing the full niqab.

However, Austrian police have claimed that their social media accounts were overtaken and manipulated by IS.

“It is clear that whoever is operating their pages, it probably is not the girls, and that they are being used for propaganda,” a security expert told the Austrian Times.

Interpol released images of the two girls in April, after they disappeared. Both sets of parents have been attempting to make contact and unconfirmed reports have stated that communication has been established.

Both are currently believed to be in Rakka, in northern Syria. According to Vienna-based newspaper Österreich, Samra wants to return home as the horrors of Syria “have become too much.” The newspaper, which is known for its close links both to the security services and the children’s families, says that death is a “constant companion” for the girls.

There is some hope for women wishing to flee IS, however. In recent days, a Syrian woman fled from IS to Turkey.

However, Sabina was reportedly “not yet ready to return.”

Anyway, they may find attempts to return difficult.

“The main problem is about people coming back to Austria. Once they leave it is almost impossible,” said Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, a spokesman for the Austrian Interior Ministry.

The post Pregnant Austrian Teen Who Ran Off To Join ISIS Says She ‘Made A Mistake’ appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The European Commission announced this Friday new development funding of €1.4 billion to Afghanistan for the period 2014-2020. The funds will focus on vital sectors for growth and social stability, such as rural development and agriculture, health, and strengthening democracy in the country.

The signature of the development programme (known as Multiannual Indicative Programme), between European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, and the National Economic Adviser to President Ghani, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, took place this Friday in Washington, in the margins of the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Commissioner Piebalgs said: “This agreement is evidence of the EU’s continued long-term commitment to Afghanistan. Our support is based on lessons learnt through our cooperation with the country and draws on the priorities signalled out by the national authorities. In short, the money will go where it is most needed and could be most effective. We expect these funds to create the conditions necessary to improve Afghan citizens’ livelihoods, by creating jobs, further strengthening Afghanistan’s institutions, and better enabling the population to have their say.”

He added “I welcome the formation of the Government of National Unity, which is an important step in securing the future of all Afghans. The EU looks forward to hearing the Government set out its reform programme at the London Conference next month. In line with other donors, the EU will set aside 20% of its funding to incentivise those reforms.”

Afghanistan funding programme for the period 2014-2020 is the largest under the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI). This exceptional level of support aims to respond to the huge challenges on the ground: Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. About 80% of the population depends on agriculture and associated livelihoods. Seasonal and chronic unemployment are common and increasing.

The EU aims to support to the country during its ‘Transformation Decade’ – as the EU pledged to do at the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan in 2012. The majority of EU funding will be channelled using the major trust funds, particularly the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) administered by the World Bank, and the Law and Order Trust Fund (LOTFA) administered by United Nations Development Programme.

The EU will focus its support to Afghanistan in the next seven years on:

• the development of a vital economic and employment sector: agriculture and rural development (€337 million)
• a social sector with a track record of achieving results and critical for human development: health (€274 million)
• the provision of physical and legal security for citizens through the increased professionalization of the police corps and application of the rule of law (€319 million)
• enhancing the accountability of the state to its citizens through greater democratisation, for instance trough improved parliamentary, media and civil society scrutiny (€163 million)
• €300 million will be used as an incentive component; to be paid based on the achievement of certain results and progress agreed upon – in line with the 2012 Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework (TMAF).

Examples of how the EU is making a difference in Afghanistan

• Improved health services: 65% of the population have access to primary healthcare (up from 9% in 2002) and basic services are now provided to over five million Afghans in ten different provinces.
• Social protection and inclusion of extremely vulnerable children: Between 2006 and 2008 more than 9,000 children benefited from non-formal education, vocational training, recreational activities, sports, health and hygiene education. Social protection programmes helped 1,500 children to enter public schools.
• Water resource management has been improved through the development of a legal framework and specialised training to communities and authorities; resulting in the protection of 40% of Afghan water resources.
• Stronger rural communities: 390 district Development Assemblies have been set-up in 2011, enabling community representation at a higher administrative level, and a wider participation of communities in the design and implementation of development programs.

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(RFE/RL) — The official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has released a video that shows him hiking in the mountains outside Tehran just one month after undergoing prostate surgery.

The video depicts the 75-year-old leader accompanied by his entourage on the hike early on the morning of October 10.

It shows Khamenei saying the hike was arranged on the recommendations of his doctors as physical exercise beneficial to the recovery process.

Khamenei is known to be fond of walks and hiking.

Khamenei underwent prostate surgery on September 8. He told Iranian state TV before the operation that there was “no reason for concern” but asked people to pray for him.

Official comments and state media reports on the health of Iran’s top leader are extremely rare.

Khamenei has the final say on all state matters in Iran and has been the country’s top leader since 1989.

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The Synod of Bishops on Friday denounced “barbaric” violence in the Middle East, saying the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt offers a sign of hope and reconciliation for all families suffering due to armed conflict.

“We join with the Holy Father Francis in emphasizing that no one may use the name of God to commit violence, and that to kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege,” the Oct. 10 message read.

The message, addressed to all families who suffer as a consequence of the numerous conflicts the world is currently undergoing, came in the context of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, whose meetings are taking place Oct. 5 to Oct. 19.

The message offered specific prayers for the families of Syria and Iraq, who have been forced to “abandon everything and flee towards a future without any form of certainty” due to their membership in a certain religious or ethnic community.

The synod fathers also offered their thanks to international organizations and communities for their solidarity and invited “persons of good will to offer the necessary assistance and aid to the innocent victims of the current barbarism.”

“At the same time we implore the international community to act to re-establish peaceful co-existence in Iraq, in Syria, and in all the Middle East,” the statement continued.

In addition to the families of Syria and Iraq, the synod fathers offered their condolences and support to families who are “torn apart and suffering in other parts of the world, and who suffer persistent violence.”

“We wish to assure them of our constant prayer that the Lord may convert hearts and bring peace and stability to those who are now in need.”

The statement concluded with a petition to the Holy Family of Nazareth, noting they also suffered “the painful road of exile” to make each family “a community of love and reconciliation a source of hope for the whole world.”

During the synod, Pope Francis called a special consistory to address the situation of Christians in the Middle East. It will be held at the Vatican on Oct. 20, the day after the conclusion of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family.

The post Sheer ‘Barbarism’ Against Middle East Families Must End appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Big business has tapped into ASEAN’s burgeoning e-commerce market and regional governments have enacted measures to govern the Internet “cloud”. However institutional gaps remain and a region-wide legislation for e-commerce is required.

By Kaewkamol Pitakdumrongkit

The e-commerce market in ASEAN has grown exponentially with the rise in its netizen population. According to a recent UBS survey the prospects for expansion are bright as the number of Internet users increases from the current 199 million to 294 million by 2017, representing a penetration rate of 48% of the ASEAN population, 67% of whom are under 35 years of age.

The UBS report also indicated that ASEAN’s budding online shopping market is now worth between US$548 million and US$1 billion or around 0.12-0.24 percent of the total retail sales. These figures are expected to rise by five percent, making the future markets gross at US$21.8 billion in 2020.

ASEAN’s online markets

Despite impediments such as internet access, payment systems, and logistics infrastructure problems, the region’s growth prospects and young online users make ASEAN one of the world’s lucrative e-market places. With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) rolling out major programmes such as the Master Plan for ASEAN Connectivity and ASEAN Single Window from next year, the prospects of e-trade have become brighter.

Businesses have been swift to tap into ASEAN’s online markets. For example, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant that launched the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO) recently, declared in June that it spent around US$250 million to acquire a 10.35 percent stake in Singapore Post, one of the region’s largest e-commerce logistics providers. On 16 September 2014, the company finished its regional roadshow in Singapore where its founder and executive chairman Jack Ma met with about 150 investors for its IPO.

Two days later, Alibaba’s IPO price topped at US$68 per share, setting the highest record in the US-listed IPO history and garnering US$22 billion capital for the conglomerate. No experienced business leaders will disregard Alibaba’s moves in the region. E-business opportunities in Southeast Asia in fact have tempted big firms to jump on board to reap the benefits of the global value chains.

Like the private sector, ASEAN states have noticed a shining future in e-commerce and undertaken measures such as developing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to foster economic growth and integration and bolster the region’s competitiveness. The governments also came up with schemes to govern the “cloud” (a metaphor for the Internet) in the region. For instance, in November 2002, the ASEAN Leaders signed the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement, with Article 5 contributing to the facilitation of the growth of e- trade.

The 2008 AEC Blueprint incorporated e-commerce as a core element of the Pillar 2 (a competitive economic region) and planned to establish “policy and legal infrastructure for electronic commerce and enable on-line trade in goods”. The Blueprint also envisioned a full harmonisation of legal infrastructure for e-commerce by 2015. Additionally, the ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2015 endorsed in January 2010 aimed to grow ASEAN economies via ICT and enhance regional integration further.

Towards a region-wide institutional framework?

Despite progress made, institutional gaps remain. According to a 2013 UNCTAD study, ASEAN has no binding e-commerce legislation at a region-wide level. Differences among national legislations persist in areas such as privacy and consumer protection laws. Insufficient expertise was cited as a main obstacle to the crafting of effective legal frameworks. This reflects the public sector’s struggle to keep up with a rapidly changing nature of ICT and e-commerce.

Take a look at “cloud computing”, a storage system enabling sharing and accessing data within online networks. In its simplest form, cloud computing can involve using the Internet to access others’ software operating on the latter’s hardware in data hubs situated abroad. As connections in an extensive network of information sharing provide opportunities for new players to emerge, determining the future Internet landscape which e-commerce embeds within is indeed a daunting task.

Institutional frameworks, once put in place, may be obsolete or inapplicable to the new environment as technology and markets hasten forward. Hence, to fulfill the AEC’s objectives, the challenge is not only about creating a region-wide legislation for e-commerce, but also about coining one which will remain relevant in the future.

How can we build the institutional frameworks which continue to be feasible in the years to come? Fortunately, there exist some solutions. First, the private sector needs to be highly involved in providing the governments with information such as business outlooks. Creating effective regional e-commerce legislation requires vision and foresight; the private sector’s inputs are crucial as businesses tend to know the markets better than public officials. Second, capacity building on the government side is also required.

The political factor

Training must be offered to ASEAN personnel responsible for developing the frameworks to get them to gain expertise on technical and legal issues related to ICT and e-trade. Experimental projects should be conducted in the process of developing final frameworks.

An effective way to know whether the frameworks are functional is to test draft protocols in real-world scenarios. Experiments do not necessarily have to be carried out on a large scale and need involve only a few sectors and subsectors. Results from these pilot projects can be used to refine the final frameworks to enhance their practicability.

Building such comprehensive and practical frameworks is not easy. Politics looms large. For governing international issues in general, each state has to face a classic tension between maintaining national sovereignty and security on the one hand, and reaping benefits of the open system on the other. In the realm of e-commerce, security concerns, such as fear of online foreign espionage, prompt countries to refrain from sharing with one another certain information.

Unsurprisingly, ASEAN governments which jealously guard their sovereignty have put up domestic rules to ensure that particular data are stored by governments within their own borders. The cloud’s murky environment further complicates international cooperation in this area. What one considers “safe” data sharing may be perceived as an unacceptable security breach by others.

So, what does it mean to the governance of the Internet and e-commerce? Technological sophistication has made it cloudy, but political sensitivities are making it cloudier. This is the price to pay in the world of sovereign states.

Kaewkamol Pitakdumrongkit is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. She teaches a course on the Political Economy of Southeast Asia.

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The 25th anniversary of the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, presented annually by my sister, Dr. Claire Nader, is an occasion for thinking about our culture’s choices for heroic achievements. In most societies, the heroic designation is given to people who rescue others in serious peril such as a fire, flood, accident or military battle. Taking selfless physical risks to save others prompts admiring recognition in all societies and cultures.

Physical courage, however, is defined differently in the ranking of its awards. For example, what is arguably considered the nation’s most prominent award is the Congressional Medal of Honor, which is given to members of the armed forces for bravery beyond the call of duty. Today, even though much of our warfare is asymmetric, most of the recipients, oblivious to their own safety, valiantly saved their buddies who were under attack.

In other realms, acknowledging achievements demonstrating skills, determination and values, a society reveals what the power structures value. A philosopher once said, “We honor what we value.” Well, there are many major awards honoring athletes, actresses, actors, musicians and artists. Many of these awards are covered by the mass media of sports and entertainment to many millions of viewers. Think of the Heisman Trophy, the Stanley Cup, the Academy Awards and the Emmys. These recognitions mesh with the twin values of entertainment and profit that are prized by establishment interests.

Then there is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered our nation’s highest civilian honor and presented personally by the president at a public White House ceremony. These choices sometimes can have a distinctly political preference, depending on who occupies the White House.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom has been given to more than 500 persons since it was established fifty years ago by President John. F. Kennedy. The official criterion for the award is that the recipients have made “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

Many of the awardees met one or more of the criteria. These, during the President Obama administration, have included Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Ride, Bayard Rustin, Ben Bradlee, retired Justice John Paul Stevens, Dolores Huerta, John Glenn, Bob Dylan, Maya Angelou, Warren Buffett, Congressman John Lewis, Yo Yo Ma, Bill Russell, John J. Sweeney, Stephen Hawking, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Others had careers that transgressed the above-noted standards. For example, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair are all past awardees. They were war-mongers in office—the last two of which should be tried for the illegal invasion and wanton destruction of Iraq and the enormous loss of civilian Iraqi lives that ensued. This invasion constituted a war crime.

Even without the Medal of Freedom, however, these recipients would still be widely recognized and therefore could still be satisfied with their many other honors and awards from previous years.

The aforementioned prizes and other similar highly visible commendations ignore many men and women who have demonstrated great moral courage at personal risk and taken on abuses by entrenched power. Remember, “We honor what we value.” Whistleblowers, who are the silent patriots of our land, have too often historically been devalued, slandered, fired and persecuted by the government agencies or corporate behemoths they accurately exposed. These people, who brought their conscience to work, find themselves ostracized and are often unable to find work in their area of expertise. As a result, they and their families suffer. The fact that clarion calls have been vital and ultimately substantiated provides little protection.

To recognize some of the unsung American heroes who speak the truth of the harmful manifestations of institutional power, there is the annual Ridenhour Prizes that is given before a lively luncheon of civic leaders and reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. This year, Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. received the Ridenhour Courage Prize and Edward Snowden (in absentia) received the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling. Mr. Schwarz started his career in the mid-1970s strengthening the rule of law as Chief Counsel to the Church Committee in the Senate, where he managed the investigations of the rampant violations of the intelligence agencies and the subsequent enactment of reforms by Congress.

The Callaway Award for Civic Courage is one of the awards that come from a small endowment provided by Joe A. Callaway who had a long career in the theatre, as a solo performer (“The American Dream in Politics, Poetry and Humor”) and as a professor at many universities. This award for “civic courage, for integrity in publically advancing truth and justice, at some personal risk,” is awarded to people of unique conviction overcoming overwhelming odds.

This week, Marcy Benstock was recognized for her “decades long battle against powerful interests that support plans to degrade the Hudson River’s ecosystems, increase air and water pollution and divert taxpayer funds from essential public needs.” Her stamina, strategic brilliance and coalition-building carried the day again and again.

The other Callaway awardee was Dinesh Thakur for his “commitment to drug safety globally, at considerable professional and personal peril to challenge fraudulent pharmaceutical industry practices, beginning with his former employer,” and his continuing work in maintaining and advancing best practice standards.

Unfortunately, prior authentic heroes who were recipients of the Callaway Award have received very little media attention and many of these authentic heroes continue to suffer for their remarkable contribution to the well-being and freedom of millions of people who do not know their name.

Again, our culture honors what we value. We need to improve our culture so that the fundamental civic values advanced by courageous whistleblowers are properly and publically appreciated.

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FC Barcelona still supports Catalonia’s push to vote on secession from the rest of Spain despite warnings that independence would mean the club’s exclusion from the Spanish league.

Barcelona ”was one of the first institutions to declare it was in favor of the right to decide,” it said in a statement on Friday, Oct 10, according to FoxSports.

Catalonia’s regional government wants to hold a nonbinding referendum on independence on Nov. 9. A Spanish court has suspended the vote to rule on its legality.

On Tuesday, the president of the Spanish football league, Javier Tebas, said Barcelona and the other football teams in the northeastern region would be excluded from Spanish competitions if Catalonia became a separate state.

Tebas said the country’s sports law entitles only one non-Spanish territory – Andorra – to legally participate in the league or other official competitions. If Catalonia were to gain independence, the law would have to be altered to let Catalan clubs, including Espanyol and second-division teams Girona and Sabadell, back in.

Secessionist sentiment has surged in Catalonia in recent years during Spain’s economic stagnation, and Barcelona’s Camp Nou has become a focal point of the movement with pro-independence cheers a common feature during matches.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique recently attended a massive rally in Barcelona clamoring for the Nov. 9 vote, and former coach Josep Guardiola is an independence supporter.

Polls show that while most of the 7.5 million residents of Catalonia support the vote, only around half favor ending centuries-old ties with the rest of Spain.

The post FC Barcelona Supports Catalonia’s Push For Independence appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Leading health experts  have urged the deployment of alternative trial designs to fast-track the evaluation of new Ebola treatments. In a letter to The Lancet, 17 senior health professionals and medical ethicists, from Africa, Europe, and USA, argue that although randomised controlled trials (RCTs) provide robust evidence in most circumstances, the lack of effective treatment options for Ebola, high mortality with the current standard of care, and the paucity of effective health care systems in the affected regions means that alternative trial designs need to be considered.

They write that, “No-one insisted that western medical workers offered zMapp and other investigational products were randomised to receive the drug or conventional care plus a placebo. None of us would consent to be randomised in such circumstances. In cancers with a poor prognosis for which there are no good treatments, evidence from studies without a control group can be accepted as sufficient for deployment, and even for licensing by regulators, with fuller analysis following later. There is no need for rules to be bent or corners to be cut: the necessary procedures already exist, and are used.”

“We accept that RCTs can generate strong evidence in ordinary circumstances; not, however, in the midst of the worst Ebola epidemic in history”, they conclude. “The urgent need is to establish whether new investigational drugs offer survival benefits, and thus which, if any, should be recommended by WHO to save lives. We have innovative but proven trial designs for doing exactly that. We should be using them, rather than doggedly insisting on gold standards that were developed for different settings and purposes.”

[1] The signatories are: Clement Adebamowo, Oumou Bah-Sow, Fred Binka, Roberto Bruzzone, Arthur Caplan, Jean-François Delfraissy, David Heymann, Peter Horby, Pontiano Kaleebu, Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, Piero Olliaro, Peter Piot, Abdul Tejan-Cole, Oyewale Tomori, Aissatou Toure, Els Torreele, and John Whitehead.

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By Meri Jordanovska

Jovanka Kostovska, from Macedonia’s Commission for Infective Diseases, said on Saturday that the results from the referent laboratory from Germany showed that the Briton Colin Jeffrey, whose death on Thursday triggered panic of Ebola outbreak, did not die of Ebola.

“Even though we were convinced that Ebola was not the cause of death, we were obliged to react according to the international protocols for such a dangerous disease”, said Kostovska.

On Friday, Kostovska downplayed earlier reports that he has the deadly Ebola virus but said final confirmation had to come from Germany.

Authorities said the 35 people that were in quarantine were released on Saturday. Twenty five of them, including one baby, were in quarantine at the hotel Super 8, where Jeffrey stayed before his health condition worsened.

The other 10 people, who had contact with the deceased, mostly medical personnel, stayed at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases for two days.

The cause of death of the Briton will be known after an autopsy is conducted.

Earlier this week a Spanish nurse became the first person to contract the deadly virus outside of West Africa.

Medical experts have described the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as unlike anything seen since the emergence of HIV/Aids.

It started in Guinea and has since spread to other West African countries, sparking fears of a worldwide epidemic.

The disease is untreatable and is transmitted by bodily fluids, with initial symptoms of fever, muscle ache, weakness and headaches, which can lead to failure of the internal organs and death.

About 90 per cent of those suffering from the virus are reported to have died. So far more than 3,860 people have died, mainly in West Africa. More than 200 health workers are among the victims.

The post Macedonia Authorities Say Briton Did Not Die Of Ebola appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Officials in the southern U.S. state of Texas said a health worker who provided care for an Ebola patient who died last week has tested positive for the virus, in the first case of Ebola transmission in the United States.

The state’s health department said Sunday the worker reported a low-grade fever Friday night before a positive preliminary test. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will conduct another test to confirm the infection.

Also on Sunday, Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC, said it was a breach of care protocol that caused the health care worker to contract the disease.

“We’re deeply concerned about this new development,” Frieden said in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday.

“I think the fact that we don’t know of a breach in protocol is concerning because clearly there was a breach in protocol. We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients,” Frieden told CBS.

He said, at this time, it appears only one person may have had contact with the health care worker while she may have been infectious.

However, the case in Texas indicated a professional lapse that may have caused other health workers at the hospital to also be infected, Frieden said.

Part of health care team

The worker was part of the team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States, Thomas Duncan, died last week.

Officials in Texas say the health worker wore full protective gear and complied with CDC guidelines when she had contact with Duncan.

As with Duncan’s case, health officials are working to identify and monitor anyone who may have been exposed after the health worker began showing symptoms.

Texas officials said they knew it was possible that a second person could contract the virus and contingency plans are in place.

The new case comes as several U.S. airports begin a stepped-up program to screen passengers arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where thousands of people have died from the virus.

On Saturday, authorities at New York’s JFK International Airport started taking passengers’ temperatures and asking them questions to determine whether they may have come into contact with an infected person.

The enhanced screening will expand to four other airports Thursday, including the Newark airport in New Jersey, Washington’s Dulles Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare and the international airport in Atlanta.

US airport screening

Together, the five airports receive more than 90 percent of all travelers entering the United States from the three worst-affected West African countries.

Britain is also introducing Ebola screening at certain airports and train stations.

Meanwhile, in Spain, authorities said a woman in Madrid infected with Ebola remains in serious condition, but is showing signs of slight improvement and that the level of virus in her blood is decreasing.

The World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed at least 4,000 people with about 8,400 reported cases.

Outside of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, eight people died in Nigeria and one patient died in the United States.

The post Texas Health Worker Tests Positive for Ebola appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Edward Snowden has hit out at Dropbox and other services he says are “hostile to privacy,” urging web users to abandon unencrypted communication and adjust privacy settings to prevent governments from spying on them in increasingly intrusive ways.

“We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We’re subjects, and we have rulers,” Snowden told The New Yorker magazine in a comprehensive hour-long interview.

There isn’t enough investment into security research, into understanding how metadata could better be protected and why that is more necessary today than yesterday, he said.

READ MORE: ‘Seen’ in New York: Edward Snowden on the run again

The whistleblower believes one fallacy in how authorities view individual rights has to do with making the individual forsake those rights by default. Snowden’s point is that the moment you are compelled to reveal that you have nothing to hide is when the right to privacy stops being a right – because you are effectively waiving that right.

“When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights – you don’t have to justify why you need freedom of speech.”

In that situation, it becomes OK to live in a world where one is no longer interested in privacy as such – a world where Facebook, Google and Dropbox have become ubiquitous, and where there are virtually no safeguards against the wrongful use of the information one puts there.

In particular, Snowden advised web users to “get rid” of Dropbox. Such services only insist on encrypting user data during transfer and when being stored on the servers. Other services he recommends instead, such as SpiderOak, encrypt information while it’s on your computer as well.

“We’re talking about dropping programs that are hostile to privacy,” Snowden said.

The same goes for social networks such as Facebook and Google, too. Snowden says they are “dangerous” and proposes that people use other services that allow for encrypted messages to be sent, such as RedPhone or SilentCircle.

The argument that encryption harms security efforts to capture terrorists is flawed, even from a purely legalistic point of view, Snowden said, explaining that you can still retain encryption and have the relevant authorities requesting private information from phone carriers and internet providers on a need-to-know basis.

And the penchant for close, secretive cooperation with the government will only cost companies money and jobs, Snowden added, because no one would want to buy a phone made by a company that provides inherent backdoors for third parties to access your information.

“The same rights that we inherited our children deserve to inherit the same way,” Snowden said.

“But ultimately we have to remember that political reform in the United States is not going to solve the problem globally. Governments [everywhere] are going to have their own national laws. And these can be terrible governments… so, because of that, you have to use secure communications… the real key is that companies willing to collaborate with the government and compromise their products and services do not deserve to be trusted with your data. Because if they do it for one government, they’ll do it for another government,” Snowden said.

For consumers to retain trust in the services they use, they need to fight for the very idea of privacy, to keep the topic in focus, he said, adding: “I speak with computer scientists and cryptographers every day to try to figure out how we can create solutions” for metadata to be appreciated and viewed as someone’s own private business.

“There are solutions, there are ways forward, and we need to pursue them, to work toward them,” Snowden said. “And we need to say that this is an effort worth doing.”

The whistleblower continues to lead a secretive existence in Russia, where he’s been stranded since June 2013, hiding from his own government, which is seeking to prosecute him for his crimes behind closed doors.

“I’ve told the government again and again in negotiations, you know, that if they’re prepared to offer an open trial, a fair trial in the same way that Dan Ellsberg got, and I’m allowed to make my case to the jury, I would love to do so,” Snowden said. “But to this point they’ve declined.”

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