Sunday, August 31, 2014

Islamic State fighters begin to blend in and disappear into the crowd

As Islamic State fighters begin to blend in, defeating them no easy matter

By Isabel Coles and Peter Apps BAQIRTA Iraq/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After their lightning takeover in June, flag-waving Islamic State militants paraded through the captured Iraqi city of Mosul in looted U.S.-built Humvees, armored cars and pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns. Today, many…
Reuters

As Islamic State fighters begin to blend in, defeating them no easy matter

By Isabel Coles and Peter Apps
BAQIRTA Iraq/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After their lightning takeover in June, flag-waving Islamic State militants paraded through the captured Iraqi city of Mosul in looted U.S.-built Humvees, armored cars and pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.
Today, many have ditched military-type vehicles that could make them easy targets of U.S. air strikes, and try to blend in with residents, say witnesses. While still terrifying, they are now a far more discreet force.
A Reuters examination of three weeks of U.S. air strikes reveals significant changes in the way the Islamic State operates since the U.S. joined the struggle against them, with fewer militants on the streets of Mosul the clearest sign. It is unclear how the Islamic State’s tactics will further change as a result of the reclaiming of the strategic Mosul Dam by Iraqi government and Kurdish forces or Sunday’s dramatic retaking of Amerli, where thousands had been cut off from food and water, but clearly battlefield strategies are involving on both sides.
The way the Islamic State is adapting shows the scale of problems ahead for President Barack Obama, the Pentagon and U.S.-backed Iraqi and Kurdish forces, as they struggle to reclaim ground from the Sunni militants, who have seized a third of both Iraq and Syria, and want to establish a jihadist hub in the heart of the Arab world.
After forging working arrangements with other armed Sunni groups and tribes angry at the Shi'ite Islamist-dominated central government in Baghdad, the Islamic State is now the most powerful force in parts of northern and western Iraq, with its ranks ranging from 8,000 to 20,000 fighters, according to Iraqi government estimates.
Large areas are under control of the radical offshoot of al Qaeda, and will be difficult to wrest away from them if Iraq's Shi'ite political leaders fail to appease disgruntled Sunnis, many of whom have embraced Islamic State after what they describe as years of discrimination and persecution.
Ousting the jihadists altogether will likely require a two-pronged approach, including ground combat in Iraq carried out by Iraqi security forces, Sunni tribesmen and ethnic Kurdish peshmerga fighters, perhaps with guidance by U.S. Special Operations Forces and American advisers, say Iraqi security officials and experts.
Defeating them would almost certainly require air strikes on Islamic State strongholds in neighboring Syria that could be risky, including the possibility of high civilian casualties given patchy American intelligence on the ground.
"To retake areas requires more than airstrikes. It requires specially trained fighters and the support of the population in these areas," said Ali Al-Haidari, an Iraqi security expert and former officer in the Iraqi military.
Washington needs to decide whether it wants to halt and contain Islamic State or wipe it out entirely, said Hayat Alvi, professor of Middle East studies at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island."If they really want to destroy the Islamic State and stop them being a threat, they are going to have to get a lot more committed," she said.
 
RUSSIAN-BUILT JETS
Since Aug. 8, U.S. warplanes have mounted several strikes a day in Iraq, mostly around three key northern Iraqi battlefields: the Kurdish capital Arbil, Mosul Dam and Mount Sinjar, a strip of ground more than 40 miles (65 km) long where Iraq's ethnic Yazidis had been trapped by the jihadists.
U.S. F/A-18 jets from the carrier USS George H.W. Bush launched the first strikes around Sinjar in what it said was a move to protect Yazidis it feared were facing "genocide". U.S. officials say those planes have now been joined by land-based aircraft and drones from other bases in the region.
"So far, the air strikes have been focused on stopping IS moving forward," says Douglas Ollivant, former lead U.S. National Security Council official on Iraq for both President George W. Bush and Obama. "They've been quite successful, at least within Iraq. Syria is a different matter. So is pushing IS back in Iraq itself."
The increased use of airpower, not just U.S. fighter jets but also the arrival of Russian-built Su-25 attack jets for the Iraqi Air Force, have had a significant impact, say Iraqi and Western officials, though gauging casualties among Islamic State fighters is difficult.
THORNY DYNAMICS
In Mosul, a mainly Sunni city under Islamic State control, the group no longer flaunts its presence. "Their deployment is less than before," said one resident who declined to be identified by name for fear of Islamic State reprisals. "They avoid using machine guns on pickups as they are clear targets for the jets."
U.S. airstrikes also helped Iraqi forces and militia wage a coordinated assault on Islamic State-held towns near northern Amerli, where thousands of Shi’ite Turkmen residents had been cut off from receiving food, water, and medical supplies for two months. On Sunday, the town returned to Iraqi government control.
Even as U.S. air strikes assisted the military campaign, they underscored the thorny dynamics for all sides as the U.S. military, in effect, came to the assistance of not only Iraqi troops but Shi’ite militia elements, who once fought U.S. forces and have been accused by Sunnis of carrying out abuses in the fight against the Islamic State, including extrajudicial killings.
Without American air power, Kurdish forces say they would have been hard-pressed to halt the Islamic State's advance on Arbil. Instead, the Kurds pushed back and on Aug. 24 retook the village of Baqirta some 43 miles (70 km) away.
Several Islamic State leaders have also been killed, said sources in Mosul. The Kurdish government says its fighters have seen vehicles burning and militants struggling to evacuate the dead and dying.
"We feel we are stronger than them," said Nejat Ali Salih, a senior official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Makhmur, an oil and farming center near Baqirta.
 
RUSSIAN JETS
At the start of the Islamic State offensive, Iraq's air force was largely limited to attack helicopters and a handful of propeller-driven Cessna light aircraft firing Hellfire rockets.
By the end of June, however, Russia and Iraq announced a deal to supply the Iraqi air force with Su-25 attack jets. Simple, slow and unwieldy but heavily armored, they are ideal for attacking troop concentrations in the open.
A second batch of Su-25s arrived in July bearing the camouflage patterns and markings used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, London's International Institute for Strategic Studies said after examining assorted photographs. Neither the Iraqi nor Iranian governments have commented on their origin, or who is flying them.
Iraqi military officer Colonel Ali Abdulkareem said the jets halted the Islamic State's advance on Baghdad last month.
Although Iraqi pilots were less experienced than their American counterparts and the weaponry less accurate, coordination with ground forces was improving, Abdulkareem said.
 
"TERRORIST ARMY"
But it won’t be easy to defeat Islamic State in Iraq.
The U.S. air campaign appears to have provoked even more anger from the Islamic State against the Kurds. The Islamic State released a video on Thursday in which it showed 15 Kurdish prisoners and the apparent execution of one of the men. Three of the prisoners urge Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani to end his military alliance with the United States.
"What we are fighting now is a well-trained and well-armed terrorist army," said a senior Kurdish official. "They are very clever in their fighting, we have to admit. They want to make us busy on many fronts. They come to one front, they want all of us to focus on that front, and then they penetrate through another front."
Taking back ethnic Sunni areas looks difficult. During the 2007/08 "surge", U.S. troops worked closely with some Sunni groups against al Qaeda. Some of those they trained now fight with Islamic State, say Sunni fighters and tribal leaders.
Although Islamic State has lost considerable quantities of heavy equipment, advancing mainly Kurdish forces have found fewer bodies than they had expected, say Kurdish fighters. Some Kurdish officials say the bodies could have been removed quickly by retreating militants, though it is also possible the Islamic State may have also had fewer fighters in the path of air strikes than had been expected.
The jihadists are also making substantial new gains in Syria, including capturing a major military airbase on Aug. 24.
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey said on Aug. 21 beating Islamic State in Iraq would require success against the group in Syria, something U.S. officials are now considering.
But unlike Iraq, where the United States has years of ground experience and friendly forces with which it can liaise, a Syrian operation faces formidable hurdles. Washington has no relations with President Bashar al-Assad's government. Air defences operated by both Asaad and IS are more formidable.
Obama on Thursday dampened expectations of imminent air strikes on Islamic State positions in Syria, admitting "we don't have a strategy yet" for confronting the militant group in Syria. The White House said he wants to look deliberately at the options his military advisers are giving him.
"So far, the strikes haven’t targeted the organizational structure of Islamic State, haven’t targeted their stores, haven’t targeted the sources of their strength which are the oilfields and haven’t targeted the smuggling between the Syrian and Iraqi borders," said Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based researcher of Iraq’s armed groups.
"These strikes achieved their target in pushing Islamic State from Kurdistan but they haven't achieved a big victory or big gains," he said.

(Additional reporting by Raheem Salman and Ned Parker; Editing by Jason Szep and Martin Howell)

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As Islamic State fighters begin to blend in, defeating them no easy matter

What might be disconcerting is if they disappeared back to Great Britain, Europe and the U.S. where some of them came from.

 

A look at incentives that 5 states competing for huge Tesla Motors' battery factory can offer

 

A look at incentives that 5 states competing for huge Tesla Motors' battery factory can offer

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Five states are on the short list for a $5 billion factory that Tesla Motors plans to build so it can crank out batteries for a new generation of electric cars.
The Canadian Press

A look at incentives that 5 states competing for huge Tesla Motors' battery factory can offer

By The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Five states are on the short list for a $5 billion factory that Tesla Motors plans to build so it can crank out batteries for a new generation of electric cars.
The package of economic incentives that each state offers will help determine where Tesla builds the factory — Nevada, California, Texas, Arizona or New Mexico. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the winning state will shoulder about 10 per cent of the total cost, meaning at least $500 million worth of incentives.
Tesla already has done initial preparatory work on a potential site near Reno, Nevada, and plans to prepare one other site in coming months. A final decision is expected by year's end.
While officials in each state are keeping confidential the specifics of their packages, here is a look at the types of incentives and advantages each state can offer.
NEVADA
— Few taxes: No personal income tax, franchise tax, estate tax, inheritance or gift tax, and no taxes on corporate shares. No corporate income tax, although voters will decide in November whether to implement one to finance education — a move U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said could undermine efforts to attract Tesla
— Other tax credits or breaks: Up to a 50 per cent abatement on personal property taxes for up to 10 years; a partial abatement on sales and use taxes on capital equipment purchases; and a deferral of sales and use taxes on capital equipment.
— Worker training subsidies: Up to $1,000 per employee for job training if the company provides a 25 per cent match, makes a five-year business commitment and pays at least hourly minimum wages.
— Other advantages: Proximity to the assembly plant in Fremont, California, where Tesla makes its cars; significant deposit of lithium, which is essential to making the batteries.
CALIFORNIA
— Tax and hiring credits: Legislation passed this year offers a tax credit of 17.5 per cent of wages for full-time employees for 15 years, totalling up to $31 million a year that could be split between a battery manufacturer and other industries including aerospace manufacturing. A hiring credit of 35 per cent of wages is available if Tesla locates in a region that has high unemployment and poverty, for wages above certain benchmarks, until 2029.
— Sales tax exemption: New legislation waives the state's share of sales tax, 4.19 per cent, on the first $200 million in equipment purchased.
— Waiver of environmental rules: Some lawmakers are advocating waivers on a host of California's complex environmental review laws that would allow for much quicker building permitting.
— Other advantages: Tesla already has its headquarters and car assembly plant in the San Francisco Bay area.
TEXAS
— Incentive funds: The Texas Enterprise Fund regularly gives companies incentives worth tens of millions of dollars to open facilities in the state, including $15.3 million to SpaceX, a commercial rocket company where Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also chief executive. The Texas Emerging Technology Fund, also run out of Gov. Rick Perry's office, has given $205 million to fund scores of technology startups.
— Other incentives: The state also offers tax refunds, exemption from state sales and use tax on electricity and natural gas in manufacturing.
— Other advantages: Cities and counties have made direct pitches to Tesla, highlighting for example how San Antonio owns its own utility and can provide solar and wind energy.
NEW MEXICO
— Various tax credits or breaks: For investments by manufacturers, and the creation of high-wage jobs and renewable energy.
— Worker-training subsidies: The state pays up to 75 per cent of new worker salaries for up to six months.
— "Closing fund": Local governments can tap public money to finance infrastructure improvements, such as roads and utilities, around a factory. The Legislature provided $15 million for the current fiscal year.
— Other advantages: State officials also tout a diminishing corporate income tax rate, low property taxes, rail connections to California and competitive electricity rates.
ARIZONA
— Job training grant: The state may provide new employers up to 75 per cent of the cost of employee training.
— Tax credits: A company can receive tax credits of up to $30 million for new manufacturing facilities, and a separate tax credit of $3,000 per new employee in each of the first three years. Tesla could qualify for a $5 million tax credit if it installs at least $300 million worth of renewable power capacity.
— Property tax breaks: A factory that is placed in one of seven foreign trade zones in the state gets a break of up to 80 per cent.
— Sales taxes are waived for machinery or equipment used directly in manufacturing, and electricity or natural gas used for businesses engaged in manufacturing.
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A look at incentives that 5 states competing for huge Tesla Motors' battery factory can offer


Alberta's minimum wage increases to $10.20 on Monday

Alberta's minimum wage increases to $10.20 on Monday

On Monday, 26,000 people earning minimum wage in Alberta will start seeing a slight boost in their paycheques. The province is raising the general minimum wage on Sept. 1 from $9.95 to $10.20 an hour, while the liquor server wage will increase from $9.05 to $9.20 an hour. Alberta is the last…
CBC
On Monday, 26,000 people earning minimum wage in Alberta will start seeing a slight boost in their paycheques.
The province is raising the general minimum wage on Sept. 1 from $9.95 to $10.20 an hour, while the liquor server wage will increase from $9.05 to $9.20 an hour.
Alberta is the last province to hit the $10 general minimum wage barrier.
Jay Fisher, with the province's Ministry of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour, said an increase in the average weekly earnings and the consumer price index this year led to the minimum wage jump.
"It's not a huge increase," Fisher said. "We think it's fair for all parties. There are, of course, people who'd like there to be no minimum wage and let the market bear, but that's not Alberta's policy."
Vanessa Vattheuer, who has been working in the service industry for the past five years, says the increase is a good sign.
"It's good they're recognizing that serving is a real job and the cost of living is going up across the board," Vattheuer said.
However, some say minimum wage still has a long way to go. Even with the increase, Alberta workers make less minimum wage than six of Canada's provinces and territories.
"That's all a great idea, but when you're starting with a base wage that's sub-poverty line, it's not good enough," said Siobhan Vipond, secretary treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
"The minimum wage, which affects more women — young women who are working full-time, permanent jobs — cannot support themselves or their family the way they should in a province with the abundance that we have here."

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Alberta's minimum wage increases to $10.20 on Monday


Why Japan's economy is stuck in no man's land


Why Japan's economy is stuck in no man's land

As poor economic data rattles faith in Abenomics following the April consumption tax hike, one analyst told CNBC that uncertainty over the outlook for Japan's economy will linger for some time.
CNBC

Why Japan's economy is stuck in no man's land

As poor economic data rattles faith in Abenomics following the April consumption tax hike, one analyst told CNBC that uncertainty over the outlook for Japan's economy will linger for some time.
"With the consumption tax, we're not done with this... as the government is poised to take it from 8 to 10 percent next October," Paul Sheard, chief global economist at Standard & Poor's Ratings Services told CNBC Asia's " Squawk Box ."
"So if they go ahead with that we're still going to be - for the next year to year and a half - in this no man's land of not knowing whether what [Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko] Kuroda is doing is successful," he added.
Read More Japan inflation rises in July but remains short of BOJ target
Japanese household spending fell 5.9 percent on year in July, worse than expectations for a 3 percent decline, data released Friday showed. Industrial output rose 0.2 percent on month, below expectations for a 1.0 percent rise.
The data add to a series of sub-par economic readings as the effects of the government's sales tax to 8 percent from 5 percent in April drag the economy, fueling uncertainty over the effectiveness of Abenomics - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to boost Japan's long-moribund economy.
Second quarter growth data released in August showed the Japanese economy shrank an annualized 6.8 percent, the largest contraction since the first quarter of 2011 when the economy was hit by the impact of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Have faith
Some economists are optimistic that the fog surrounding Abenomics will soon clear.
"Despite [Friday's] weaker-than-expected data I'm still optimistic about growth prospect for the second half of the year," said Junko Nishioka, chief economist for Japan markets at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The continued recovery in the labor market and the government's proactive stance of spending on public works are encouraging signs, Nishioka said.
Read More Japan has fallen victim to the Keynesian scam
Japan's jobs-to-applicants ratio held steady at 1.10 in July after rising to that level in June for the first time June 1992, data released Friday showed.
More stimulus?
Whether or not the central bank can achieve its key inflation target without additional stimulus is questionable, however.
Nationwide core consumer prices rose 3.3 percent in July, in line with forecasts, Friday's data showed. However, when excluding the effect of the April tax hike core inflation stood at 1.3 percent, below the 2 percent inflation target that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) pledged to meet sometime next year.
"Spare capacity widened again last quarter, and may settle at levels consistent with 1 percent [inflation] rather than 2 percent over the next year or so," said Marcel Thieliant, Japan economist at Capital Economics. "What's more, the exchange rate has been broadly stable lately over the past year, so the boost from import prices is now fading."
"We doubt that the 2 percent inflation target will be reached without additional stimulus," he said.
Read More Abenomics and Modinomics: New BFFs?
"Assuming that Bank of Japan has expanded its policy duration to the next fiscal year, I think 2 percent inflation during the period is achievable," Royal Bank of Scotland's Nishioka added.
The Bank of Japan is will meet this week but most analysts do not expect further monetary stimulus until October.

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Why Japan's economy is stuck in no man's land


Prosecutors: Bikini barista stands offered prostitution, banked $2 million for owner

Prosecutors: Bikini barista stands offered prostitution, banked $2 million for owner

Authorities say the owner of bikini coffee stands in Washington state banked more than $2 million in just three years because her baristas were also selling sex acts. Snohomish County prosecutors charged 52-year-old former nude dancer Carmela Panico with promoting prostitution and money laundering,…
The Canadian Press

Prosecutors: Bikini barista stands offered prostitution, banked $2 million for owner

EVERETT, Wash. - Authorities say the owner of bikini coffee stands in Washington state banked more than $2 million in just three years because her baristas were also selling sex acts.
Snohomish County prosecutors charged 52-year-old former nude dancer Carmela Panico with promoting prostitution and money laundering, alleging that she was the madam of drive-thru brothels throughout the county north of Seattle.
Court documents say the baristas would expose their breasts and genitals and charge for sex acts.
The Everett Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1lliY1P ) Saturday that Panico's attorney told the court she is no longer in the coffee business and has sold off some of her stands and leased others. In a raid last year, investigators found $250,000 at Panico's home.
The investigation into Panico has also resulted in the prosecution of a veteran sheriff's sergeant. Darrell O'Neill is accused of tipping off Panico and baristas to ongoing police investigations in return for sexual favours.
___
Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldnet.com

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Prosecutors: Bikini barista stands offered prostitution, banked $2 million for owner

 I saw one of these and was quite surprised when driving from Seattle to Canada. When I saw the green outfit with the butt cheeks part of the costume missing I kind of thought that they might be selling more than coffee, especially with the bare legs and garter belt and the tattoo of the cross behind her left ear. However, the lady was really beautiful and perfect even if I thought it was inappropriate and sold more than coffee.

I stopped for gas and to go to the bathroom and noticed this little coffee hut on the property outside the main gas station building.

Quote of the day from "Mountain Men" on HIstory Channel

"Freedom also is the freedom to die if you screw up".

How many of you have experienced this much freedom?

Mostly remote backpackers and a few who live remotely in places they have built mostly themselves with their friends help have actually experienced this kind of freedom very much.

A friend of mine who is a musician who has traveled all over the world playing music and singing with other musicians was telling me about someone we both had met who went to South America on 35 dollars he took with him. I couldn't imagine doing something like this but realized it would be possible if you worked your way down to the tip of South America if you were really determined to do this. This guy was a single and very eccentric person but also a very hard worker and a "Never say Die!" kind of person.

Personally, if I was going to south America I would like to go in style and I could whenever my wife or I chose to. But, you've got to hand it to someone who does it on $35 that he took with him over the border into Mexico and then made it to the tip of South America by working his way down to the tip and back.

The worst case scenario for the middle east in a single sentence

"As the Middle East unravels, the U.S. and its allies will be the real losers because we won’t be able to contain these cancers of sectarian war and transnational jihad," Khedery, who  is now chairman and chief executive of the Dubai-based Dragoman Partners, told Akhlaghi. "Radicals will grow in strength on both sides, namely the Salafist ISIS and the Shia militias, eventually driving the entire region towards destabilization, inevitably threatening global energy supplies and the global economy."

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The Worst Case Scenario In The Middle East, In One Sentence

Ali Khedery, the longest continuously serving...
Business Insider

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The Worst Case Scenario In The Middle East, In One Sentence

iraq
REUTERS/Ahmad Mousa
Shi'ite volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), take part in field training in Najaf, August 20, 2014.
Ali Khedery, the longest continuously serving American official in Iraq (2003-09), recently sat down with Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association to discuss American policy in the Middle East.
The candid discussion highlights several mistakes the U.S. made in the 21st century and lays out some troubling potential scenarios for the future if circumstances continue to worsen.
"As the Middle East unravels, the U.S. and its allies will be the real losers because we won’t be able to contain these cancers of sectarian war and transnational jihad," Khedery, who  is now chairman and chief executive of the Dubai-based Dragoman Partners, told Akhlaghi. "Radicals will grow in strength on both sides, namely the Salafist ISIS and the Shia militias, eventually driving the entire region towards destabilization, inevitably threatening global energy supplies and the global economy."
screen shot 2014 06 17 at 4.32.12 am
Morgan Stanley
Iraq accounts for 61% of expected growth in output capacity of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by 2018. And while most reserves are in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Shia south, an Iraq that's on fire is not good for supply lines.
Furthermore, all signs indicate an intensifying Shia-Sunni war stretching from the Mediterranean coast to Iran as the Tehran-backed and Shia-dominated governments of Syria and Iraq face largely Sunni insurgencies dominated by the growing army of ISIS.
And both sides have become increasingly sectarian: In northern Iraq, ISIS has slaughtered hundreds of people whom they consider apostates, while Shia militiamen have committed large-scale killings of Sunnis in southern Iraq.
Syria Iraq Map
Khedery lays significant blame for the current crisis at Obama's feet, noting  that in 2010 " Washington betrayed the promises that the U.S. government had made to the Sunni tribal leaders, the same leaders that had fought al-Qaeda [in Iraq] throughout the 'Awakening.'"
Now ISIS, which evolved out of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has taken over control of Sunni Iraq from the Sunni tribes.
It didn't necessarily have to be this way. Back in December 2010, America's continued support of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made it so that "Iraq’s path toward civil war was really inevitable," Khedery said. That's because  Maliki's new lease on life led him to steer Baghdad "toward a very pro-Iranian and sectarian agenda, which inevitably disillusioned and disenfranchised Sunni Arabs for a second time."
And the subsequent events are what brought us to today's precarious situation.
"Then given Maliki’s misrule in Iraq and Assad’s misrule in Syria and their cooperation along with the Iranians and Hezbollah to wage a campaign of genocide, led to a region-wide sectarian war while the United States under President Obama stood back and watched and did nothing as the violence spiraled further and further out of control," Khedery said.
He added that "the reason why we face strategic defeat in the Middle East is because we are not choosing to act in a forceful way against ISIS." Last week Obama said that the administration still does not have a policy to confront ISIS, which (along with the Iranian-backed Shia militias) are battle-hardened.
"So what will happen is that the spiral of sectarian warfare will increase more and more, radicalizing the Sunni populations more and more and eventually spilling over into countries across the region almost all of which have mixed Shia-Sunni populations,"  Khedery said. screen shot 2014 06 16 at 8.58.01 am
Morgan Stanley


More From Business Insider
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The Worst Case Scenario In The Middle East, In One Sentence

Ali Khedery, the longest continuously serving...
Business Insider

The world's top 10 countries to Travel to:


10. Norway (+ 54%)

Call it the "Frozen" effect. Suddenly travelers are flocking to Norway in droves — with a 54 percent increase over last year. “We have never seen this phenomenon before,” Hege Vibeke Barnes, director of the New York office for Innovation Norway (the country's marketing arm) told Yahoo Travel.

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The world's top travel destinations

Norway is seeing an unprecedented tourism boom, and Greece has finally battled back from recession.  Most popular spot might surprise you... » 

To click through the 10 most visited places please click one of the two sets of word buttons just above. Thanks.