Isis Fighters Advance to Strategic Haditha Dam Near Baghdad; Army Says Floodgates Could Open

A bullet-riddled vehicle belonging to militants is seen at the site of an attack in Haditha, 190 km (120 miles) northwest of Baghdad March 5, 2012.Reuters

The Sunni Islamist insurgents in Iraq are closing in on the second-largest reservoir in the country as they advance to Baghdad.

The Iraqi army has warned it may have to pre-emptively open the floodgates of the Haditha Dam on the Euphrates River, around 120 miles from the capital Baghdad, to stop the militants from unleashing catastrophic flooding.

The fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) are surrounding Haditha from the north, the northeast and the northwest and have reached the town of Burwana where the security forces are trying to stop their march, the New York Times said.

The large dam, which acts as a major flood control structure in central Iraq and accounts for almost a third of the country's electricity generation, is also of strategic importance militarily.

“"There is an increasing risk in the next day or two that ISIS will open the Haditha Dam ... If they open the dam, they can flood the area south of Baghdad as far as Karbala."”

- John R Maguire, former CIA deputy station chief in Baghdad

Weapon of mass destruction

The Iraqi army has warned the personnel manning the dam that they should be prepared to release waters from the reservoir in order to stop the insurgents from using it as a weapon of mass destruction.

The army admitted the opening of Haditha floodgates would cause destruction on both sides.

"Yes, I know, it will be against us and our enemies," an officer told an employee when he was reminded that opening the shutters of the dam would lead to flooding of the town and villages, the NYT reported.

Strategic analysts have also warned the Sunni militia could open the dam, which is located about 125 miles northwest of Karbala, Shiite Islam's third holiest city.

"There is an increasing risk in the next day or two that ISIS will open the Haditha Dam ... If they open the dam, they can flood the area south of Baghdad as far as Karbala," John R Maguire, a retired former CIA deputy station chief in Baghdad, told Newsweek.

The Isis fighters, who started their campaign early this month with the capture of Mosul city in the north, are making quick gains as they advance to Baghdad. On Wednesday they launched an attack on the al-Bakr airbase, known as "Camp Anaconda" during the US-led Iraq War, in the town of Yathrib.

The Isis aims to establish a hardline Sunni Islamist caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria. Their latest advance has come as US military advisers arrived in Baghdad to help Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led administration in dealing with the crisis.

In April, Isis fighters had taken control of the Falluja Dam and opened it, causing widespread flooding in nearby areas. The waters from the dam had reached up to the city of Najaf, and Abu Ghraib near, Baghdad.

In 2003, when US troops marched to Baghdad to oust Saddam Hussein, they had captured the dam to stop the Iraqi administration from destroying it and unleashing floods.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, the US army rangers had identified that the destruction of the dam would cause catastrophic effects throughout the country.

"In addition to its impact on the war front, the resulting flooding as an immediate aftermath and lack of water supply during the summer months would have added to the hardships being experienced by the Iraqi people."

My South African Adventure: Juggling in the Gym and L. Ron Hubbard's Hideaway

L.Ron Hubbard's house

It's always refreshing to see people using their skills and talents to full advantage - and loving what they do as a result.

And that definitely seems to be the case for Natalie and Orlando Vargas, the husband-and-wife team who set up Sircusynergy, a performing arts company based in Joburg that we happened to see doing their thing last Saturday night.

Located for two evenings at the Crossfit 360 Vida gym in the suburb of Craigavon, the troupe of 14 or so wowed the audience with everything from beautifully choreographed and imaginatively scored dance routines to eye-watering acrobatics and death-defying aerial stunts using a range of trapeze, silks and nets.

My favourites though had to be the guy seemingly using every bit of his upper body to juggle a huge cube that changed colour with the light, and a punky-looking pole dancer who climbed, slid and plunged her way up and down her equipment in a fashion that managed to be both sensual and seriously acrobatic at the same time.

Anyway, the idea behind the show entitled "Urban Circus" was to portray ordinary city people living ordinary city lives who, with a bit of imagination, could end up doing extraordinary, fairy tale things.

And nowhere is this concept more pertinent than in Joburg, Natalie believes, where a lot of people don't seem to do much beyond having a few drinks on a Friday night, braai-ing and shopping.

And I would tend to agree. When we moved up to Jozi from the Cape, one of the things that I'd been looking forward to most in the "big city" was indulging in a bit more culture, particularly the theatre and performing arts, which I love.

But so far, I must admit I've been sadly disappointed. It may be that I'm just looking in the wrong places, which is always a possibility, or maybe it's a demand thing, but there just doesn't seem to be that much going on.

Culture

And what there is appears to lurch from one extreme to the other - either light entertainment a la Disney on Ice or stuff that's really pretty dour. Whether you're talking about plays, photography exhibitions or even novels, a lot of culture here seems to be focused on apartheid, what it was like during apartheid, the after-effects of apartheid etc etc.

Which is understandable seeing as the regime only collapsed a generation ago leaving deep societal scars that in many cases have yet to be healed. It's just that it seems so ubiquitous and ending up traumatised isn't necessarily what you always want on a Saturday night.

Anyway, one of the lovely things about Urban Circus was that it was lively, sassy and upbeat – and much more raw than South Africa's current Cirque legend, Madame Zingara, where Natalie and Orlando worked in the early days, before leaving the Cape for Johannesburg to set up Sircusynergy.

They now earn their crust putting on corporate events and offering circus training to both kids and adults, many of whom are part-time artistes and form a pool of talent that can be accessed for shows.

But they also do their bit for the community, teaching performance skills to children from disadvantaged backgrounds in a bid to help boost their confidence and provide them with tools for self-expression – or even start out on a possible career path. It's great.

Another idea that I really liked though was using the CrossFit 360Vida gym, where many of the performers train, as a kind of pop-up venue.

Not only did it look suitably urban with its high ceilings and steel pipes everywhere, but it's a great use of space outside of working hours – and one that the UK, given its crippling cuts to arts budgets outside of London, could perhaps learn a trick or two from, if it hasn't already, that is.

A further unusual spot that we found ourselves at this weekend, meanwhile, was L. Ron Hubbard's former residence, sited on Linksfield Ridge near the Chinese neighbourhood of Cyrildene, where we decided to go for a spot of lunch before our by-appointment-only tour.

Linksfield Ridge House

For those of us who don't know who L. Ron Hubbard is, he was the controversial founder of the Church of Scientology and a prolific writer of science and pulp fiction.

In fact, he was entered into the Guinness Book of Records an amazing three times for his pains – as the world's most published and translated author and the author with the most audio books under his belt.

Anyway, it seems that Hubbard moved to Johannesburg for six months or so in the early 1960s in order to sort out the underperformance of his organisation there.

The view from L. Ron Hubbard's hideaway

And during his time in the city, he rented the lovely Linksfield Ridge House. Thought to have been designed by an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright, it was built by a Greek timber merchant about a decade before and has stunning teak parquet flooring in the living room to prove it.

The place has since been purchased by the Church of Scientology - along with four other residences in the US and UK - and restored to its original glory following a series of insensitive alterations, based on film footage taken by Hubbard using a Bolex 16mm movie camera.

And it's been made into a museum to his memory, preserved just how it was when he lived there and full of tasteful and very collectable 1960s furniture - with the addition of various cabinets of memorabilia in what were the bedrooms, of course.

A fine example of an affluent Joburg home of the period, in fact, and one of the few left in the city apparently. But one greatly enhanced by the glorious views from the French-door-fronted living room and enormous balcony overlooking downtown Johannesburg, perched as the house is on the side of a reasonably substantial hill.

For those interested in such matters, there are also insights aplenty into the workings of Scientology as well as a go on an "E-Meter", which, like a lie detector, appears to measure physiological responses and apparently lets you know whether you're suffering from spiritual blockages caused by past experiences.

Not really my thing, I must confess, so I can't imagine converting any time soon. Still, exactly who was it that said there was nothing to do in Joburg?

Israel to Get the World's First Hover Cars Transport System By 2015

skyTran - a new hover car transport system consisting of two-man vehicles that can travel at high speeds, while suspended from a magnetic track in the airskyTran

It's not quite as exciting as flying cars, but the city of Tel Aviv in Israel is currently testing out a new form of transport, whereby people can ride in two-man hover car vehicles travelling at high speeds in mid-air.

The system works by suspending streamlined, jet-like vehicles in mid-air from a Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) track, using state-of-the-art technology by California-based company skyTran, and the cars can potentially reach speeds of up to 240km/hr.

The initial test will see skyTran build a 500m-long track around the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) by 2015, and if the trial is successful, the city of Tel Aviv wants to roll out a full commercial hover car transport system running through the city by the end of 2016.

Passengers will be able to use their smartphones to order a hover car, which will meet them at a specific station of their choice.

Transport of the future

An example of a skyTran station, which is quite small and can be added to residential areas without much disruptionskyTran

The biggest benefit of travelling by hover car is that there is no interruption in the flow of vehicles being able to enter or exit the skyTran track stream, and users who are faster to board their vehicles can circumvent people who wish to take a longer time, without causing traffic congestion.

The vehicles are also programmed by a computer-controlled system to only go to the destination you ask it to go to and there are no schedules, so people can travel 24 hours a day and just make an order for a vehicle through their smartphone app.

For people who want to travel in a group, multiple skyTran vehicles can be ordered that will zip along the track in a computer-linked caravan, so no members of the part are left behind.

The company also envisions people who shop a lot ordering a second vehicle, piling their shopping into it and then having two vehicles travelling together.

Best of all, skyTran stations can be placed anywhere, even underground or within buildings, the infrastructure is cheap to install and the entire system is powered by renewable energy like solar power.

Bringing hover cars to Tel Aviv

What the inside of a skyTran hover car would look likeskyTran

The commercial hover car transport system that Tel Aviv wants to roll out will take two years to be constructed and cost a total of $80 million (£47m).

skyTran says that if the system is successful, it will be expanded to become a 200km urban and suburban network for commuters, although initially it will be more of a novelty for fun seekers or tourists.

Tickets for the service are expected to cost about $5 and discounts, subscriptions and charges based on the distances travelled per kilometre will also apply.

"Tel Aviv is a world city. It's a destination for people around the world. A centre of commerce," skyTran CEO Jerry Sanders told Reuters.

"Israelis love technology and we don't foresee a problem of people not wanting to use the system. Israel is a perfect test site."

skyTran is currently in advanced planning to provide hover car systems with the cities of Toulouse in France, San Francisco and Kerala in India.

Al-Qaeda Joins Forces with Isis at Syria-Iraq Border Town

A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) holds an Isis flag and a weapon on a street in the city of MosulReuters

Al-Qaeda's official offshoot in Syria has pledged allegiance to Isis at a flashpoint town on the Iraqi border, according to a monitoring group.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims the merger between the two rival groups will allow Isis - an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - to control both sides of the border: Albu Kamal in Syria and Al-Qaim in Iraq.

Al-Nusra Front, the official Syrian franchise for the global terror network, has "pledged loyalty to Isis", according to the Observatory.

"The pledge comes amid advances by Isis in Deir Ezzor province," in eastern Syria, the group told AFP.

A jihadist twitter account confirmed the reports and posted a picture showing an Egyptian al-Nusra commander shaking hands with Omar al-Shishani, the Isis leader of Chechen origin.

The two jihadist groups both have al-Qaeda links but have been fighting each other for months, since Isis became involved in the civil war.

An activist explained that the merger took place days after local rebel brigades, who had been working with the al-Nusra front, signed a declaration excluding the al-Qaeda branch from the Islamic court.

Al-Qaeda cut ties with Isis in 2013 in what was believed to be a bid to reassert influence among rival Islamic groups in Syria.

The jihadist group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reportedly disobeyed orders from network leader Ayman al-Zawahri not to operate independently from al-Nusra in the country. Baghdadi reportedly dismissed Zawahri's orders and attempted to merge the two branches.

Isis and al-Nusra emerged as the two main militant Islamic groups in Syria. Over time, Isis eclipsed al-Nusra in many areas in the north of the country.

As opposed to fighters from Al-Qaeda's official offshoot in Syria, the al-Nusra front, members of Isis have been described by Syrian refugees as "foreign 'occupiers'" whose only goal is creating a caliphate, a proto-state that straddles Syria and Iraq.

Isis and the British Foreign Fighter Phenomenon

A new Isis video, entitled "There is no life without Jihad", has British militants promoting the group's cause.YouTube / aldolh

Former UK counter-terrorism chief Richard Barrett's recent comments have drawn to light the thorny question of just how threatening returnee 'foreign fighters' from Iraq and Syria are to Western governments. While there is no easy answer to this, there are a number of historical precedents from which we can begin to understand that this is not just political 'scaremongering', as some have argued.

Certainly, it has become more prominent of late, but the phenomenon of British fighters travelling to conflict zones in order to join up with jihadist groups is not new. Hundreds of Britons went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight against the Soviet occupation, many more travelled to Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir in the 1990s.

However, before Bin Laden's declaration of total war against the West, the after-effects of the phenomenon were markedly different. Returnees, as a rule, were not deemed a threat to British national security, largely because they did not return to carry out attacks on British soil. However, ever since al-Qaeda adopted the strategy of focusing on the Far Enemy, the level of threat these individuals pose has changed significantly. With an estimated 400-500 British foreign fighters currently in Iraq and Syria, as well as others in Pakistan and Somalia, it is imperative that we understand better the motivations of those who go to fight abroad.

Once the ill-fated 'War on Terror' commenced in 2003, al-Qaeda's job became a lot easier. The thousands upon thousands of civilian casualties that came at the hands of Western bombs was better propaganda than al-Qaeda could have hoped for. On the back of them, Bin Laden and his mentor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, achieved their goal of galvanising a small but significant number of Muslims into waging war against the West.

British nationals were led to travel to conflict zones with a strong jihadist presence, such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, from which they returned, further radicalised. A handful of them, a small, but unpredictable number, soon made plans to attack their homeland. Richard Reid, the would-be shoe bomber, travelled to jihadist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan before attempting to detonate explosives on a trans-Atlantic flight; the 7/7 bombers travelled to the same region to receive training before their assault upon British society in 2006; and Umar Farouk Abu Mutallab (best known as the "underpants bomber") visited jihadist training camps in Yemen before he began to plan acts against the West. Clearly, then, training and fighting abroad is positively correlated with committing terrorism-related offences.

With this history of British extremists returning from abroad to carry out attacks at home, combined with the ever-powerful global jihadist narrative that encourages such attacks, we have every reason to be fearful. These fears should be compounded by the fact that the war in Syria has been a hugely effective recruitment tool for a new generation of British jihadists who are currently fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (Isis). This is a group deemed too extreme for al-Qaeda, one which is driven by the most virulent and, seemingly, popular strain of jihadism to date.

Jihadist would-be foreign fighters do not appear out of thin air. They emerge from a milieu in which extremist thinking is normalised and an alternative form of identity emerges, which is inherently aggressive and confrontational towards modern secular society. Countering extremist recruitment requires creating a social climate that does not tolerate the proliferation of extremism. This entails entering certain spaces, such as the internet, prisons and educational establishments, in order to de-legitimise extremist ideology.

With regards to the internet, which groups like Isis use to great effect, we need to encourage a new wave of online activism in which cyber activists critique the extremist narrative and discredit the organisations and individuals that promote it. We need a lot more de-radicalisation and counter-radicalisation work to be done in prisons and not allow them to become breeding grounds for extremism. Educational establishments should not offer uncritical platforms to hate preachers and should not be afraid to champion democratic and liberal values.

The current phenomenon of jihadist foreign fighters is likely to be with us for many years. This means that we can't afford to rely on a few strongly worded statements from politicians and hope it just goes away. We need a co-ordinated response that incorporates Muslims, non-Muslims, civil society, the public sector and the private sector. We as a society need to become more resilient to extremism by championing values we all share and creating an inclusive civic identity that incorporates people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Abandoning your families and responsibilities for conflict zones, in which you are used by power-hungry extremist ideologues, is not noble or glamorous, it is irresponsible and naïve. That message needs to get through, and we all have a duty in making sure it does.

Ghaffar Hussain is managing director of the Quilliam Foundation, and author of 'A Brief History of Islamism' and 'Modern Muslim Political Thought – The Progressive Tradition'. For more information on Quilliam go to http://ift.tt/11mLFA3.

EU Regulators Could Slap Antitrust Fines on Philips, Samsung and Infineon

EU regulators could slap antitrust fines on Philips, Samsung and InfineonReuters

EU regulators are planning to impose fines on three firms -- Philips, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Germany's Infineon Technologies -- for allegedly fixing the prices of microchips used in mobile SIM cards.

The chips are also used in bank cards, identity cards, passports and in television systems.

The European Union's antitrust arm has charged the firms with operating a cartel and the companies could be fined in late July or in September, an unnamed source told Reuters.

Pursued by the news agency, officials with the European Commission (EC), Philips and Infineon refused to comment. Samsung officials were not available for comment.

Companies that break EU rules can be fined up to 10% of their worldwide turnover. Dutch firm Philips's 2013 turnover stood at €23.3bn ($31.72bn, £18.71bn).

The chipmakers had initially sought to settle the case, which means they plead guilty in return for a 10% reduction in sanctions, but talks collapsed in 2013.

The likely fines follow raids on the companies' European offices, by the EC, in December 2013 and in October 2008.

France Has More Than €2bn to Fund Alstom Stake: Montebourg

French Economy minister Arnaud Montebourg at the 'New Industrial France' conference in Paris, in May, 2014.Reuters

France has enough cash, from previous share sales, to fund its purchase of a 20% stake in troubled conglomerate Alstom, Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg has said.

"Following the sale of [shares in] Airbus, Safran and Aeroports de Paris, we now have over €2bn ($2.7bn, £1.6bn) that will be used to take that stake in Alstom," Montebourg told France's lower house during question time on 24 June, Reuters reported.

Shares in French utility giant EDF, Paris-based telecoms firm Orange, Safran and Airbus were the worst performers on the Paris stock exchange on 23 June, as traders feared the government will need to offload shares in those companies to fund the purchase.

Government ownership in Alstom was a condition set by Paris to back a deal with General Electric, which has been permitted to acquire Alstom's thermal power, renewable power and grid businesses for €12.35bn.

GE beat a combined offer by Germany's Siemens and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Earlier, German politician Peter Ramsauer slammed France's decision to choose US-based GE over Siemens as the preferred buyer of Alstom's energy assets, saying France had put national interests over European interests in approving the deal.

Ramsauer also criticised France's plans to buy a 20% stake in Alstom despite its heavy debts and budget deficit.

The French government agreed on 22 June to acquire a 20% stake in Alstom from shareholder Bouygues. The move will help France strengthen its grip on Alstom, which employs thousands of people in the country.

Paris has the option to buy the 20% stake at a discount from construction group Bouygues, which holds a 29.3% stake. Bouygues has said that the government's option to buy shares will last for 20 months and begin after the closing of the GE-Alstom deal.

Iraq Crisis: Unidentified Jets Bomb Isis Positions as US Advisers Arrive in Baghdad

A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul.Reuters

Unidentified fighter jets bombarded the positions of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) militants in the northern Iraqi city of al-Qaim as the first batch of US military advisers arrived in Baghdad.

Washington has denied carrying out the strikes and it is still unclear whether the Iraqi Shiite administration was behind the attack.

Al Arabiya news website, citing tribal sources, has said Syrian jets had launched the aerial strike.

Meanwhile, the US troops are in Iraq, as promised by President Barack Obama, to assist the ongoing battle against the Sunni insurgents.

About half of the planned 300 American troops have either arrived in Iraq, or are on their way.

The Pentagon has said the troops have already begun to assess the situation. Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby has said the troops in Baghdad include two teams of special forces alongside 90 others comprising intelligence analysts, commandos and support personnel.

The remaining personnel are expected to be in Iraq in the coming days. There are already about 360 US forces in Baghdad providing security for the American embassy in the capital.

"I don't have a fixed date for you as a deadline or an end date, but it's very clear this will be a limited, short-term mission," Kirby told reporters regarding the initial assessment.

The CNN quoted US officials as estimating the number of Isis fighters who are actively involved in the raging battle as 10,000, including those released from prisons.

An official, who is familiar with the matter, said the Isis is functioning as an "increasingly capable military force".

Nevertheless, the Iraqi officials are maintaining that Baghdad's security forces are gaining ground in the conflict, pushing back the insurgents.

Baghdad has maintained the Baiji oil refinery, Iraq's largest facility that meets most of domestic fuel demand, is under the control of security forces. The Sunni militants, who are in dire need of energy resources to fuel the battle, had earlier claimed they seized the plant.

Iraqi military spokesperson Major General Qassim Atta said in a television address that the security forces have also recaptured from the insurgents checkpoints on the border with Syria and Jordan.