Senin, 02 September 2019
Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire at Lebanon border - Al Jazeera English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnMo2uh_IzY
2019-09-02 07:12:49Z
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Trump Administration Officials at Odds Over C.I.A.’s Role in Afghanistan - The Indian Express
CIA Director Gina Haspel has raised logistical concerns about the plan with other administration officials, emphasising that the agency operatives — who marshal the militias to hunt Taliban, al-Qaida and Islamic State militants — largely depend on the military for airstrikes, overhead surveillance, medical support and bomb technicians. (AP)Written by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Julian E Barnes, Matthew Rosenberg and John Ismay
Senior White House advisers have proposed secretly expanding the CIA’s presence in Afghanistan if international forces begin to withdraw from the country, according to US officials. But CIA and military officials have expressed reservations, prompting a debate in the administration that could complicate negotiations with the Taliban to end the war.
Some administration officials want CIA-backed militia forces in Afghanistan to serve as part of a counterterrorism force that would prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State or al-Qaida as US military troops prepare to leave — in effect, an insurance policy.
But others are skeptical that the shadowy militias, many of which face accusations of brutality, can serve as a bulwark against terrorism without the support of the US military.
CIA Director Gina Haspel has raised logistical concerns about the plan with other administration officials, emphasising that the agency operatives — who marshal the militias to hunt Taliban, al-Qaida and Islamic State militants — largely depend on the military for airstrikes, overhead surveillance, medical support and bomb technicians.
Read | US, Taliban near Afghanistan deal, fighting intensifies in north
Skeptics have also noted that US intelligence agencies do not believe the Islamic State’s presence in Afghanistan justifies a vast increase in resources given limited budgets. The Islamic State’s affiliate there is not an immediate threat to the West, despite its regular attacks on Afghan civilians and continuing fight with the Taliban, according to intelligence officials.
The disagreement about the future of the CIA in Afghanistan underscores the fault lines within the administration between those who want a final withdrawal and those who fear it would expose the United States to terrorist threats. This article is based on interviews with a half-dozen current or former officials briefed on the administration’s discussions. The CIA declined to comment, and the White House declined to respond on the record to a request for comment.
The issue could pose an obstacle as US and Taliban negotiators seek a deal to end the longest war in United States history. The Taliban have made clear that they see little difference between US military troops and CIA officers, and they have insisted in the current peace talks in Qatar that the CIA must leave along with international military forces in the coming months or over the next few years.
The top US negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said over the weekend that the two sides were on “the threshold of an agreement” after the latest round of negotiations. They have broadly covered the fate of the Afghan security forces but have not dealt directly with the militia groups, or US support for them, said a person familiar with the negotiations.
The Afghan government is not part of the negotiations, but the deal is expected to open a path for talks between the government and the Taliban.
Supporters of the plan to expand CIA support for the militias believe it could address the most potent critique of the peace talks: that a withdrawal of US forces would leave the United States with little ability to prevent terrorist groups from once again using Afghanistan as a base of operations.
“The high-end forces, including CIA-supported forces, are not going to win any war for you, but they may degrade the capability of terrorist groups,” said Seth G. Jones, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former adviser to the commanding general of US Special Operations forces in Afghanistan.
But like other former officials, Jones said that ramping up the operations of the militias while drawing down the US military would be impractical and ineffective.
Also Read | US lawmakers seek transparency in Afghan peace deal with Taliban
A peace deal that pulls out US forces but does not disarm the Taliban would give it control of larger parts of Afghanistan, effectively creating a haven for terrorist groups that no increase in CIA support to the militias could counter, Jones warned.
CIA-supported militias operate across Afghanistan and are used by the United States and the Afghan government to target terrorist and insurgent cells.
These militias have taken on increasingly dangerous missions in Afghanistan in the past year, seeking out hard-to-find and well-defended terrorist leaders, a former senior Defense Department official said.
They trace their roots to the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the CIA began assembling a patchwork alliance of warlord-led fighting groups to topple the Taliban and pursue al-Qaida fighters.
After the fall of the Taliban and the establishment of a new Afghan government, the CIA’s shadowy paramilitary arm, known as Ground Branch, began transforming the fighting groups. Some developed into large, well-trained and equipped militias that initially worked outside the auspices of the Afghan government. The militias were used for sensitive and covert missions, including pursuing terrorist leaders across the border into Pakistan’s lawless frontier territory.
In more recent years, the agency’s hold over militant groups and other regional counterterrorism forces and strike teams has waned some, former officials said. Many of the militias now fall under the command of Afghanistan’s own intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security. But there is little doubt they are still advised, and often directed, by the CIA.
The Taliban’s disdain for the CIA’s Afghan counterpart has been apparent in recent months. In July, a bomb targeting the Afghan covert service killed eight members and six civilians, and wounded hundreds more. In January, Taliban fighters infiltrated an Afghan intelligence base in Wardak province, killing dozens in one of the deadliest attacks on the service during the nearly 18-year war.
Fighting in Afghanistan has increased since peace discussions began as both sides try to strengthen their positions. Taliban fighters mounted two attacks over the weekend, including one in the northern city of Kunduz that killed the top police spokesman and wounded the police chief, according to local officials.
In a Fox News interview last week, President Donald Trump alluded to keeping US forces, and perhaps the CIA, in Afghanistan after any deal with the Taliban is reached. “We are reducing that presence very substantially and we’re going to always have a presence and we’re going to have high intelligence,” he said.
Trump said that the troop level in the country would be reduced to 8,600, down from roughly 14,000. The military has pushed a plan to gradually draw down forces, but administration officials have fiercely debated the precise timeline.
The president has been vague about his preferred outcome on the current peace proposal or the plan to expand the CIA role, and Haspel has also withheld her opinion in meetings. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been driving the peace negotiations forward. John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, opposes the current peace deal, largely on worries about whether Afghanistan can keep terrorists at bay on its own.
Senior military leaders are divided. Some believe the peace talks are worth trying, but many remain worried that a troop drawdown that moves too quickly will lead to a collapse of the country.
Increasing the CIA’s role in Afghanistan as troop numbers decrease is not a new idea. In 2014, as the Obama administration considered withdrawing all US troops from the country by 2016, policymakers weighed using the agency-sponsored militias as an Afghan counterterrorism force.
But the CIA-backed militias are deeply controversial within the wider Afghan population. Afghans have charged that they are responsible for attacks that left many civilians dead and use brutal tactics that have turned large swaths of Afghans against the forces. Last month, tribal elders said that a raid by the Afghan-intelligence-backed forces killed 11 civilians in Paktia province, prompting the Afghan government to begin investigating.
While the CIA’s precise footprint in Afghanistan is unclear, the agency invested more resources into the country at the start of the Trump administration in an effort to pursue Taliban fighters. Now, agency paramilitary officers — working often from an annex near the US Embassy in Kabul — team up with militias and other small Afghan intelligence teams across the country to go after al-Qaida, the Islamic State, the Haqqani network and often various factions within the Taliban, current and former officials said.
But small groups of the US military’s Special Operations troops also provide critical support and training for the militias. (CIA teams supported by US commandos, long known as Omega Teams, are now mostly composed of soldiers drawn from the Army’s elite Ranger regiment.)
For the CIA militias to serve as an effective counterterrorism force, those US military teams would need to remain, even if only with a few dozen people, in different parts of the country, current and former officials said.
The exact size and nature of the agency’s presence in Afghanistan are closely guarded secrets, and details about the militia groups the CIA advises are also murky.
Even with continued military support, expanding the agency’s work would mean extending one of the deadliest missions in the agency’s history.
At least 20 CIA members have been killed in Afghanistan during the war, according to current and former officials. In July, an Army bomb disposal technician was severely wounded during a CIA-led mission, and an agency contractor was killed over Memorial Day weekend.
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/discord-at-white-house-over-plan-to-expand-cias-afghanistan-role-5958755/
2019-09-02 07:01:54Z
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Minggu, 01 September 2019
Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters block airport - BBC News
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have blocked roads to the territory's airport, disrupting the operation of the major Asian transport hub.
Trains to the airport were halted and roads blocked. Passengers had to walk to the terminal. Most flights operated as normal, but delays were reported.
Thousands of black-clad protesters then tried to enter the terminal building but were stopped by riot police.
On Saturday, police and protesters clashed during a banned rally.
Live warning shots were fired into the air and tear gas and water cannon used to disperse tens of thousands of protesters.
Images later showed riot police hitting people with batons and using pepper spray on a train in Hong Kong's metro.
Police say they were called to the scene amid violence against citizens by "radical protesters".
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People took to the streets on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the Beijing government banning fully democratic elections in China's special administrative region.
The political crisis in Hong Kong - a former British colony - is now in its third month with no end in sight, the BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonnell says.
What happened at Hong Kong's airport?
Thousands of protesters gathered at the main bus station near Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport on Sunday morning.
Airport staff reinforced by police officers stopped their advance.
The demonstrators then moved to other parts of the complex, blocking roads and other transport links.
The airport is built on a tiny outlying island and can only be reached via a series of bridges.
"If we disrupt the airport, more foreigners will read the news about Hong Kong," one protester was quoted as saying by Reuters.
At one point the airport express train service was suspended. Officials said this was because of debris thrown onto the line.
Following the arrival of riot police, demonstrators first built barricades to slow their advance, then left the airport on foot.
In August, protesters paralysed the airport for several days. Hundreds of flights had to be cancelled.
A guide to the Hong Kong protests
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49544219
2019-09-01 13:49:20Z
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The National Hurricane Center provides an update on Hurricane Dorian (LIVE) | USA TODAY - USA TODAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZddd4P4040
2019-09-01 13:09:59Z
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Hong Kong Protesters Squeeze Access to the Airport - The New York Times
HONG KONG — Prodemocracy demonstrators in Hong Kong began a new campaign on Sunday to squeeze access to the airport, hours after one of the most tumultuous days since protests in the city began in June.
Tens of thousands of people marched through parts of the city center on Saturday despite a ban on the protest by the police. Some protesters gathered around the local government’s headquarters, where they threw bricks and firebombs as the police responded with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons.
On Sunday, demonstrators began congregating at Hong Kong International Airport in a new effort to obstruct access to the critical Asian travel hub. The airport has been off limits to protesters since mid-August, when days of sit-ins lead to assaults on two men from mainland China and hundreds of canceled flights.
With classes set begin on Monday for many Hong Kong students, schools could become the next front in the protest movement, which began over widespread anger over an extradition bill that would allow criminal suspects to be taken to mainland China. Since then, demonstrators’ demands have grown to include a call for universal suffrage and an inquiry into accusations of police brutality.
[How the protests in Hong Kong have evolved, with changing tactics and more violence.]
Hundreds of protesters began to converge on the airport Sunday afternoon, traveling by bus, by car and on foot from a nearby subway station. A court injunction obtained after the airport protests last month allows only ticketed passengers and airport employees to enter the main terminals. But demonstrators gathered outside near the entrances, chanting “Fight for freedom! Stand with Hong Kong.” Some used their cars to block lanes of traffic.
“We have been protesting and occupying for months,” said Daniel Chan, 18, a college student who took a bus to the airport protest. “Still, what we have done seems futile.”
Mr. Chan said he did not intend to do anything illegal, but he was not concerned about the court injunction. “There’s almost nothing left for me to be scared of,” he said. “One document cannot deter me.”
MTR, the Hong Kong subway operator, announced on Sunday afternoon that the Airport Express rail service between the airport and the city center was canceled, and trains to the city were later suspended after protesters threw debris on the tracks. Tung Chung Station, the subway stop closest to the airport, was also closed on Sunday evening because protesters had damaged the facilities, MTR said.
The protests forced many travelers to find alternative routes to the airport. Nicole Zhao, 38, was one of many who had to wend, dodge and hopscotch their way through barriers that had been set up on the roads.
Ms. Zhao, who is from mainland China and works in education, had just landed in Hong Kong from Beijing when she received a notice from the airline suggesting that she postpone her trip.
“What the protesters are doing is crazy,” she said. “This just shows how different the Hong Kong and mainland systems are.”
Other travelers were more supportive of the protests.
Eric Jabal, 47, an education consultant, walked with his roller suitcase and suit jacket on a debris-strewn road, dodging protesters and barricades. He said he had left his home at 12:30 p.m. for an 8:50 p.m. flight to Bangalore and had been walking for 25 minutes after he had been dropped off by an Uber.
But Mr. Jabal, a Canadian who has been living in Hong Kong for 25 years, said he didn’t mind the inconvenience.
“I’m really sad,” he said. “That the failure of leadership has led to such profound unrest among such a broad cross section of people — it’s clearly gone beyond the tipping point.”
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Students have been a major part of the protests all summer, and the beginning of classes on Monday raised questions about whether the start of school would mean a lessening of the movement or whether activism would shift to campuses.
Students have planned two mass assemblies, one in the central business district in the morning and another after school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Many high school students have also negotiated with school administrators to participate in sit-ins or to set aside classrooms for self-study sessions or silent protests on the first day of school.
Education authorities said that students would need parent letters to skip class or to participate in strike activities.
A top government official said on Sunday that the administration “steadfastly opposed” the planned class boycotts, calling them extremely irresponsible.
“Schools are places for learning, and are absolutely not places for expressing political views or demands,” Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung wrote in a blog post.
Earlier Sunday, the Hong Kong police said that they had arrested dozens of people in a subway station that was the scene of some of the most intense violence of the weekend, where officers used clubs and pepper spray on a group of protesters inside a train car.
News footage and videos shared on social media showed members of the police Special Tactical Squad, in dark uniforms with their faces covered, charging into a waiting train car at Prince Edward Station and swinging batons at men and women who cowered on the floor, offering no resistance. After a fury of blows, one officer doused the group in pepper spray and then left.
“The police were out of control,” said Crystal Yip, a 20-year-old college student who was in the station when officers arrived. “They were crazy and they were mad. They were trying to express their anger by attacking people randomly.”
Yolanda Yu, police senior superintendent, said 40 people were arrested in the station on suspicion of unlawful assembly, criminal damages and obstructing officers.
“Protesters used sticks and hard objects to attack police. We used the same level of force to respond to the situation,” Ms. Yu said, replying to a reporter asking why the police had used pepper spray on commuters who were kneeling on the ground.
She said that the police had warned civilians to stay away. “Under chaotic situations, it is indeed hard to determine whether someone is a real journalist, a protester or a violent person,” she said.
The violence in Prince Edward Station began during a dispute between protesters and some older men who were insulting them. One of the men swung a hammer at the protesters, who threw water bottles and umbrellas and later appeared to set off fire extinguishers in the car. After the clashes, the subway system suspended service across much of Hong Kong. Three stations remained closed on Sunday.
The subway operator, MTR, has been a target of vandalism since it began suspending service last month to stations in places near where protests are planned. It continued that pattern on Saturday, stopping service at Sai Ying Pun Station, near the Chinese government liaison office, a site of some protests.
In the wake of the clashes, Chinese news outlets run by the Communist Party urged the Hong Kong government to take tough steps against the protesters and cited experts urging Carrie Lam, the chief executive of the city, to invoke emergency powers. An online outlet controlled by the Communist Party’s law-and-order committee said the Hong Kong protesters were using “terrorist methods.”
“The chaos in Hong Kong cannot go on!” a front-page editorial in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, the party’s main newspaper, said on Sunday. “At this crucial moment, the government of the special administrative region must have the courage and adeptness to apply every legal means to halt the violence and chaos, acting resolutely to detain and arrest violent lawbreakers, applying the law strictly to punish criminals, and swiftly restoring social order.”
An online report from China’s main television broadcaster, CCTV, said that Ms. Lam should invoke emergency powers under a colonial-era ordinance to extinguish the violent protests. That step could empower the Hong Kong government to ban demonstrators from wearing masks, speed up arrests and censor “harmful media,” the report said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/01/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-arrests-airport.html
2019-09-01 09:07:00Z
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Hong Kong: Police violently tackle suspected protesters on metro - BBC News
Riot police have clashed with suspected protesters in Hong Kong's metro system after thousands marched in defiance of a ban.
Protesters lit fires, threw petrol bombs and attacked the parliament building.
In response, police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse crowds, and fired live warning shots as they tried to clear the streets.
Hong Kong has now seen 13 successive weeks of demonstrations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-49540165/hong-kong-police-violently-tackle-suspected-protesters-on-metro
2019-09-01 09:01:14Z
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Hong Kong police storm subway with batons as protests rage - Fox News
How will Hong Kong protests end?
The Hudson Institute’s Chinese strategy Director Mike Pillsbury says President Trump is not directly intervening on Hong Kong protests.
HONG KONG – Protesters in Hong Kong threw gasoline bombs at government headquarters and set fires in the streets, while police stormed a subway car and hit passengers with batons and pepper spray in scenes that seem certain to inflame tensions further in a city riven by nearly three months of pro-democracy demonstrations.
Police had denied permission for a march Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of a decision by China against fully democratic elections in Hong Kong, but protesters took to the streets anyway, as they have all summer. They provoked and obstructed police repeatedly but generally retreated once riot officers moved in, avoiding some of the direct clashes that characterized earlier protests.
Late at night, though, video from Hong Kong broadcaster TVB showed police on the platform of Prince Edward subway station swinging batons at passengers who backed into one end of a train car behind umbrellas. The video also shows pepper spray being shot through an open door at a group seated on the floor while one man holds up his hands.
HONG KONG PROTESTERS DEFY BAN TO CLASH WITH POLICE, HIT WITH TEAR GAS, WATER CANNON
It wasn't clear whether all the passengers were protesters. Police said they entered the station to make arrests after protesters assaulted others and damaged property inside. The TVB video was widely shared on social media as another example of police brutality during the protests. Angry crowds gathered outside Prince Edward and nearby Mong Kok station, where police said they made arrests after protesters vandalized the customer service center and damaged ticket machines.
Also Saturday, two police officers fired two warning shots into the air "to protect their own safety" after being surrounded by protesters near Victoria Park, the government announced. It was the second time police fired warning shots following an incident the previous weekend.
Protests erupted in early June in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory of 7.4 million people. A now-shelved China extradition bill brought to the fore simmering concerns about what many in the city see as an erosion of the rights and freedoms that residents are supposed to have under a "one country, two systems" framework.
The mostly young, black-shirted protesters took over roads and major intersections in shopping districts on Saturday as they rallied and marched with no obvious destination in mind.
Authorities closed streets and a subway stop near the Chinese government office and parked water cannon trucks and erected additional barriers nearby, fearing protesters might target the building. The office would have been the endpoint of the march that police did not allow.
Instead, a group of hard-line protesters decided to take on police guarding government headquarters from behind large barriers that ring the building to keep demonstrators at bay.
While others marched back and forth nearby, a large crowd wearing helmets and gas masks gathered outside. They pointed laser beams at the officers' heads and threw objects over the barriers and at them. Police responded with tear gas, and protesters threw gasoline bombs into the compound.
Then came the blue water. A water cannon truck fired regular water, followed by repeated bursts of colored water, staining protesters and nearby journalists and leaving blue puddles in the street.
The standoff continued for some time, but protesters started moving back as word spread that police were headed in their direction. A few front-line protesters hurled gasoline bombs at the officers in formation, but there were no major clashes as police cleared the area.
Protesters regrouped and blocked a major commercial street by piling up barricades and setting a large fire. Smoke billowed into the air as hundreds of protesters waited on the other side of the makeshift barrier, many pointing laser beams that streaked the night sky above them.
Firefighters made their way into the congested area on foot to put out the fire. Police in riot gear removed the barricades and moved in quickly. They could be seen detaining a few protesters, but by then, most had already left.
As police advanced east down Hennessey Road, protesters made another stand in the Causeway Bay shopping district. They threw gasoline bombs at police, who fired tear gas and water cannons.
Protesters built another fire, a smaller one, in front of Sogo department store. Police waited behind their riot shields while firefighters put out the smoldering fire with extinguishers. When police moved in, the protesters had again retreated.
Other groups crossed Hong Kong's harbor to the Tsim Sha Tsui district, where police said they set fires and threw gasoline bombs on Nathan Road.
Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said Hong Kong citizens would keep fighting for their rights and freedoms despite the arrests of several prominent activists and lawmakers in the past two days, including activist Joshua Wong.
Protesters are demanding the full withdrawal of the extradition bill — which would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China to stand trial — as well as democratic elections and an investigation into police use of force.
"I do believe the government deliberately arrested several leaders of the democratic camp to try to threaten Hong Kong people not to come out to fight against the evil law," Lam said at what was advertised as a Christian march earlier Saturday.
"I do believe the government deliberately arrested several leaders of the democratic camp to try to threaten Hong Kong people not to come out to fight against the evil law."
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About 1,000 people marched to a Methodist church and police headquarters. They alternated between singing hymns and chanting slogans of the pro-democracy movement. An online flyer for the demonstration called it a "prayer for sinners" and featured images of a Christian cross and embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who had proposed the extradition bill.
The Civil Human Rights Front, the organizer of pro-democracy marches that have drawn upward of a million people this summer, canceled its march after failing to win police approval. Police said that while previous marches have started peacefully, they have increasingly degenerated into violence.
The standing committee of China's legislature ruled on Aug. 31, 2014, that Hong Kong residents could elect their leader directly, but that the candidates would have to be approved by a nominating committee. The decision failed to satisfy democracy advocates in Hong Kong and led to the 79-day long Occupy Central protests that fall, in which demonstrators camped out on major streets in the financial district and other parts of the city.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/hong-kong-police-storm-subway-with-batons-as-protests-rage
2019-09-01 06:33:47Z
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