SRI LANKA - Easter Massacre

Note that Sri Lanka is 70+ % Buddhist, which is not a religion in the sense that they do not worship a god, it is a way of life that believes in coming into harmony with everything.

"After deadly Easter attacks, Sri Lankan officials blame jihadists, admit they had warning" PBS NewsHour 4/22/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A wave of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday has the country grieving, on edge and under a national emergency.  At least 290 people died in the attack, which the government blamed on a little-known Jihadist group.  Police arrested multiple suspects and worked to disarm additional bombs, as officials admitted they had ignored warnings of an attack weeks before.  Judy Woodruff reports.

"As bombing death toll tops 300, grieving Sri Lanka looks for answers" PBS NewsHour 4/23/2019

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SUMMARY:  The death toll from Sri Lanka's Easter massacre has risen to 321, as the country observed a national day of mourning Tuesday.  Although the Islamic State made an unconfirmed claim of responsibility for the bombings, officials in Colombo blamed a local group and suggested the attacks might have been retaliation for the recent mass killing of Muslims in New Zealand.  ITN's Debi Edward reports.

"Sri Lanka remains on edge as authorities investigate bombing suspects" PBS NewsHour 4/24/2019

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SUMMARY:  In Sri Lanka, investigators have learned more about the Islamist militants they blame for a series of Easter Sunday bombings.  At least 58 people have been arrested, many of them from well-off Sri Lankan families whose neighbors expressed shock at their apparent involvement.  The death toll from the attacks now stands at 359.  Debi Edward of Independent Television News reports from Colombo.

VIEWS ON ISLAM - Divergent Voices

"How do we reconcile today’s divergent voices of Islam?" PBS NewsHour 12/23/2015

IMHO:  ISIS is NOT Islam and has no right to speak for all of Islam.

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SUMMARY:  With the rise of the Islamic State group, there have been questions about just who speaks for Islam and what the message should be.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner talks with Manal Omar of the United States Institute of Peace and Asra Nomani, co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, about standing up to violent religious extremism.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  The recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, its perpetrators inspired by jihadist ideology, have reignited a long-running debate about the nature of Islam and its links to violent extremism.

In his address after the San Bernardino killings, President Obama urged Americans not to scapegoat all Muslims.  But he also called on Muslims to combat what he described as a dangerous trend in their faith.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  An extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities.  This is a real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse.

MARGARET WARNER:  The next day, leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S. and a more watchful approach to those living here.

DONALD TRUMP, Republican Presidential Candidate:  We have to look at mosques.  And we have to respect mosques.  But, yes, we have to look at mosques.  We have no choice.  We have to see what’s happening, because something is happening in there.  Man, there’s anger.  There’s anger.  And we have to know about it.

MARGARET WARNER:  Democratic contender Hillary Clinton has taken the opposite tack in discussing Islam.

HILLARY CLINTON, Democratic Presidential Candidate:  Islam is not our adversary.  Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people, and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.

MARGARET WARNER:  This debate extends to the global Muslim community as well.  Jordan’s King Abdullah, who speaks often of a war within Islam, insists Islamic State militants are way outside the mainstream.

KING ABDULLAH II BIN AL-HUSSEIN, Jordan:  These are outlaws.  These are renegades.  They have nothing to do of understanding what our religion is about.

MARGARET WARNER:  The struggle to understand and agree on what Islam represents in an age of terror is sure to continue.

And, for more, we’re joined by two Muslim American women, both former journalists.  Manal Omar is associate vice president for the Middle East and Africa Center at U.S. Institute of Peace.  And Asra Nomani is co-founder of Muslim Reform Movement.  She’s also the author of “Standing Alone:  An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam.”

MALI - Radisson Blu Hotel Attack

"Who was behind the Bamako hotel attack?" PBS NewsHour 11/20/2015

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SUMMARY:  Extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed a luxury hotel in Bamako, Mali, early Friday morning, shooting dozens.  Witnesses said they went room by room, letting guests go if they could recite verses of the Koran.  Malian special forces stormed the hotel, freeing hostages and battling the Islamist attackers into the night.  Judy Woodruff talks to Rudolph Atallah of the Atlantic Council.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The siege today in the capital city of Mali lasted all day before ending this evening.  Islamist gunmen burst into a hotel and seized up to 170 hostages, many of them foreigners.  In the end, scores of hostages were rescued or escaped, but the estimates of the dead ranged from 19 to at least 27, plus two attackers.

And the State Department said one American was among those killed.

The attack on the Radisson Blu brought security forces on the run early this morning.  Mali’s Defense Ministry said extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed the luxury hotel in Bamako just as guests were beginning their day.

MAN (through interpreter):  At this moment, this morning around 7:30, individuals not yet identified, about three or four, we believe, so far, attacked the Radisson Blu hotel.  Sadly, there are deaths.  People must remain calm.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  By some accounts, the attackers carjacked a diplomatic vehicle, drove up to the hotel, and stormed inside.  Witnesses said they shouted Islamist slogans and went room by room, asking guests if they could recite verses of the Koran.  Those who could were let go.

Early on, the owner of the hotel said the assailants locked in as many as 140 guests and 30 employees.  Hours later, Malian special forces stormed the hotel themselves, freeing hostages one floor at a time.

MAN (through interpreter):  The soldiers were very professional.  They took good care of us.  They came to us.  They knocked.  They said: “It’s the security forces.”  And then I looked.  It was them.  I left the room.  They cleared the whole floor.

MAN (through interpreter):  I heard gunshots very early in the morning.  I thought it was firecrackers and didn’t realize it was a hostage situation.  At one point, the Malian forces came to get us.  They knocked on our doors and evacuated us in small groups.  Thank God we’re safe.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  At least six Americans were evacuated during the operation, with U.S. and French special forces assisting the Malians.

A jihadist group previously affiliated with al-Qaida, al-Murabitun, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande vowed to help the former French colony.

"The latest on the Mali hotel attack" PBS NewsHour 11/21/2015

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SUMMARY:  Authorities in the West African nation of Mali say armed Islamic terrorists killed 19 people in Friday’s attack on a Radisson hotel in the capital city of Bamako.  Among the victims were hotel guests from Russia, China, Belgium, Israel -- and one American.  Wall Street Journal reporter Drew Hinshaw joins Megan Thompson via Skype from Ghana with the latest.

WAR ON ISIS - Book Looks at the World of Jihad

"Author poses as Islamic State recruit to understand the world of jihad" PBS NewsHour 6/1/2015

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SUMMARY:  In the new book “In the Skin of a Jihadist,” a journalist goes undercover to understand the mind of a terrorist and his recruitment techniques.  The author, whose identity has been hidden to protect her safety, speaks with Hari Sreenivasan in New York.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  It started with a share on Facebook of this video.  A fake profile named Melodie had friended Abu Bilel.  And he had just sent around the latest video about his guns, his SUV, the money and the glamorous life he had as a jihadist.

Bilel was born in France, went to fight in jihads in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Chechnya, and now was a trusted lieutenant of the leader of the Islamic State.  He had two jobs, to fight and to recruit.

Within minutes, Abu Bilel saw that Melodie had shared his video and began private-messaging her on Facebook.

ANNA ERELLE, Author, “In the Skin of a Jihadist”:  And he asked me if I was a Muslim and if I want to go to Syria, and what is my point of view about mujahideen.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Within three days, he was asking Melodie to marry him, before even seeing her face, knowing only that she was a convert to Islam.

ANNA ERELLE:  He told me, no, it’s not important.  The only thing, it’s like, you are a Muslim.  I am too.

And if we are a — if you want to be — to become a good Muslim, you cannot stay in your country.  You have to come in Syria.  Today, it’s the only country when you can be a good Muslim.  If not, if you stay in your Western country, you will burn in hell because you are not a good person, you are not a good Muslim.  You have to come and help your brother here.

MALI - European's Support for France's Intervention

"How Far Will Europeans Support France’s Counter-Jihad?" by HARVEY MORRIS, International Herald Tribune (IHT) 1/18/2013

It did not require a crystal ball to foresee, as Rendezvous did in our 2013 preview, that Mali would be in the news and that France might be the first to intervene there to counter a perceived terrorist threat to Europe.

Less predictable, however, is the extent to which the French can rely on the support of their European allies now that they have decided to go it alone.

The crisis had been building for the best part of a year since mutinous soldiers staged a coup in Bamako, the Malian capital, last March, and separatist Tuareg tribesmen took the opportunity to seize the north of the country. The tribesmen were quickly pushed aside by radical Islamists, including those behind this week’s hostage-taking in neighboring Algeria.

They were poised to extend their rule this month beyond the two-thirds of the country they already control when the French stepped in at the request of the Bamako government.

As early as last April, Alain Juppé, the then French foreign minister, was warning of the “extremely grave threat” posed by the Qaeda-linked insurgents and their aim of establishing a jihadist regime in northern Mali.

In early September, António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was telling readers of the IHT:

If unchecked, the Mali crisis threatens to create an arc of instability extending west into Mauritania and east through Niger, Chad and Sudan to the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, characterized by extended spaces where state authority is weak and pockets of territorial control are exercised by transnational criminals.

So, did the international community, and Europe in particular, react too slowly to the escalating crisis? Or has France acted precipitously in opting for a military solution to contain the threat?

David Rohde writes elsewhere on Rendezvous that regional experts believe the French had to act.

But, as French troops launched ground operations this week in support of local forces, how far are France’s European allies prepared to be sucked into a potential Malian quagmire?

Germany, Denmark and Britain are among European Union partners that have offered logistical support in Mali.

However, as David Cameron, the British prime minister, assured Parliament when he announced the offer of transport aircraft to assist the French mission, there was no question of putting British boots on the ground.

The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is being even more cautious, limiting its assistance to supplying planes to airlift African troops from the regional ECOWAS alliance.

“Under no circumstances does Germany want to become involved in a messy conflict with no clear end in sight,” Germany’s Der Spiegel commented, “particularly not in an election year.”

Germany held out against intervention in Libya in 2011, eventually spearheaded by France and Britain, siding with Russia in a crucial United Nations vote in defiance of its European allies.

Libya underlined the lack of a common foreign policy, let alone a common defense policy, among the 27 European partners who now face a new crisis in North Africa.

Facing recriminations from some in France that it was only its soldiers who were doing the fighting, European foreign ministers agreed on Thursday to speed up the dispatch of more than 200 military personnel to train Malian government forces to confront the Islamists.

But that was an option that had been on the table since October, when European Union officials said the alliance was considering such a move.

The E.U. also stressed that the trainers, due to be deployed by mid-February at the latest, would not be involved in combat operations.

Commenting on the outcome of Thursday’s meeting, Christophe Giltay of Belgium’s RTL broadcaster, said, “More and more French people are asking themselves if the Europeans have really understood the gravity of the situation.”

Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer and Martin Michelot of the Washington-based German Marshall Fund of the United States wrote this week that “the glacial pace at which decisions are taken at the national level to support France’s efforts in Mali only underscores the need for European leaders to be willing to discuss common security issues.”

Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, said on Thursday some of France’s partners were “willing to help and support France in every way and they did not rule in or rule out any aspect of that, including military support.”

But, according to the German Marshall Fund experts: “The French military is nevertheless facing the hard reality of acting on its own, with very little support from other European allies.”

SYRIA - Civil War Update, Jihadists

"Islamists Fighting with Syrian Rebels Get Arms from Saudi Arabia and Qatar" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 10/15/2012

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Now to Syria, where the death toll continues to climb and there are new reports that most of the weapons sent to aid the rebellion are ending up in the hands of Islamist extremists.

Smoke mingled with sunset in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, as block-by-block battles rage between President Bashar al-Assad fighters and rebels.

MUDAR NAJAR ABU BAKER, Free Syrian Army (through translator): The dead and dying, the innocent, the breast-feeding babies, the children and the old folk, all I desire is that the world shows a little empathy for us. That is all I want.

RAY SUAREZ: To the east, in Deir el-Zour, Internet videos showed casualties in the aftermath of an airstrike. Human Rights Watch reported Sunday the Assad regime is using cluster bombs in civilian areas. They detonate above ground and scatter smaller bomblets.

Based on YouTube videos and eyewitness testimony, the group said its analysts believe the bombs are older Russian munitions of Soviet vintage.

The Syrian government denied it and Russia's foreign minister argued there's no confirmation that the ordnance was supplied by Russia.

And amid the massive human toll, a cultural casualty. The Umayyad Mosque, dating from the 12th century, was partially destroyed over the weekend.

WOMAN: Again, in Aleppo, the Syrian army defeated an armed terrorist group which was trying to occupy the Umayyad Mosque.

RAY SUAREZ: Its state TV said President Assad ordered urgent repairs. Rebels said the Syrian army had been using the mosque as a base.

Meanwhile, Turkey, a former ally of Assad, massed troops and tanks along its frontier with Syria, as refugees kept streaming over the border.

MAN (through translator): Right over there is Azmarin. That's my village. There are so many refugees here now and the camps are overflowing.

Our village has been destroyed. Houses have been burned. The regime has burned down many, many homes. One of those homes was ours.

RAY SUAREZ: For the second time in a week, the Turks also forced a Syria-bound flight to land in Turkey. The Armenian airliner was allowed to fly on after a search found it carried only humanitarian aide, but the flow of lethal assistance to the rebels was raising new questions.

The New York Times reported today that weapons principally from Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ending up mostly with hard-line Islamist groups and jihadists, and not with more secular factions favored by Western nations. The Obama administration has so far declined to ship arms to Syrian rebels, and the State Department today reiterated the concerns about who is being armed.

VICTORIA NULAND, State Department: We have been clear from the beginning that there are issues here as to where this goes and that we need to all work hard to ensure that extremists, jihadists, al-Qaida, other groups who don't share our larger interest in seeing a democratic Syria emerge from all of this, get their hands on weapons that can be used to exploit the situation.

RAY SUAREZ: The U.S. is providing select groups with what it calls nonlethal assistance in the form of communications and logistics.

"Rebels Choose to Work with Jihadists to Expedite Assad Ouster" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 10/15/2012

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SUMMARY: Weapons crossing the Turkish border into Syria are primarily aiding Islamist fighters, a condition that has made the U.S. wary of giving military support to rebels. Ray Suarez talks to former CIA analysts Philip Mudd and Paul Pillar on whether the U.S. should aid extremist rebels to accelerate the demise of Assad.

COMMENT: Need I say? This is NOT good for the West's (including U.S.) security.