This Week In The Middle East

On Wednesday, Iran’s first nuclear power plant was tested at Bushehr nuclear power plant.  “Dummy” fuel rods, packed with lead substituted for enriched uranium (used to stimulate nuclear fuel), were used to test the pressure, temperature, and flow rate of the plant to guarantee that they were at appropriate levels.

Officials released that the next test will utilize enriched uranium but whether or not the plant will eventually become fully operational remains to be seen.  Sergei Kiriyenko, the director of the Russian nuclear agency and Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the director of Iran’s nuclear agency, oversaw the first test. 

Construction of the plant began in 1974 but stopped abruptly with the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.  However In 1998, the Iranian government administered a $1 billion contract with a Russian company to resume the plant’s construction.  Atomstroiexport, Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export company, is completing the plant under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Along with the US, several other European countries and Israel worry that Tehran is attempting to obtain the capacity to construct nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that it’s nuclear program has peaceful intent.  An IAEA official who prefers to remain anonymous supports Iran’s peaceful claims by saying that their stock of low-enriched Uranium would have to be converted into highly enriched uranium in order to be considered “weapon-grade” material; this hasn’t been done.

President Obama is expected to sanction a proposal to remove most combat troops from Iraq within the next 15 months.  It is suspected that the final decision will be released on Friday at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina.

During his campaign, Obama promised to withdraw combat troops within 16 months but not long after being sworn in he requested that the Pentagon provide him with alternative time frames; the Pentagon presented him with 16, 19, and 23 months.  Supposedly, the final plan will withdraw the majority of troops but maintain an estimated 50,000 in Iraq to act as military trainers or advisors.

For the last couple of months, the U.S. Central Command has been discussing how equipment and personnel will be removed from Iraq.  It is undecided what equipment might be returned to the U.S., moved to the Iraqi or Jordanian government, transferred to Afghanistan, or destroyed.  It is assumed that the U.S. military will utilize exit routes through Jordan and Kuwait.

The human rights group Amnesty International is requesting the United Nations place an arms embargo on Israel and the Palestinians.  Amnesty International is in such favor of the embargo because they argue that both sides used weapons provided from abroad to attack civilians throughout the three-week conflict in Gaza.

On Sunday night, Amnesty International published a 38-page report that explained the “Evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international law by all parties”.  Israeli forces utilized white phosphorus (supplied by the U.S.) to kill hundreds of civilians and wreak havoc on their homes.  The use of white phosphorus is constrained by international law, but Israeli officials have claimed that the only shells execute in Gaza were within the grounds of “international law”.  However, Amnesty International reported finding munitions fragments in school playgrounds, hospitals, and homes after the fighting ended.  The majority of the munitions that the Israeli army used were supplied by the U.S. and funded with American taxpayer’s money.  Amnesty reported that the U.S. is set to provide $30 bullion in military aid to Israel according to the 10-year agreement that is in effect until 2017.

Compilation of 3 Articles

On Wednesday afternoon, GEO TV reported that one of their employees, a Pakistani journalist, was shot and nearly beheaded by attackers in a Taliban-operated region of Pakistan.  The victim, Mosa Khankhel, was reporting the recent peace deal formed by the Pakistani government and Taliban militants in Swat Valley moments before his death.  The peace deal resulted from the intense and heightened violence in Swat, however it is not predicted to be all that effective.

The last anyone heard of Khankhel he was with Sufi Mohammed, the Taliban’s representative throughout the peace deal negotiations, and the two were traveling via caravan.  Khankhel went missing on the trip.  Three hours later, his body was found with three bullet wounds and it appeared that his attackers had tried to behead him.

Khankhel was GEO TV’s network correspondent on the Peshawar bureau based in North West Frontier Province.  His death marks the 24-hour period after Pakistan’s government acknowledged the Taliban’s interpretation of shari’a law in the whole Malakand Division (including Swat and it’s neighboring districts).  Meaning that he died a day after Pakistan offered a significant concession to the Taliban in it’s efforts to stop Taliban militants from wreaking havoc on the region with their beheadings, kidnappings, death threats, and demolition of girls’ schools.  The agreement entailed that the government in the Swat Valley recognize shari’a law in exchanged for a 10-day cease fire by the Taliban.

The Swat Valley has become increasingly more dangerous as it is the, “deepest advance by militants into Pakistan’s settled areas”.  The militants have flocked to Swat because it is well outside the federally controlled tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.  Swat has also been infiltrated by forces allied with the Maulana Fazullah’s formerly-banned Islamic group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) which is loya to the Taliban fighters.  The peace deal that Khankhel was covering was the most recent attempt by the Pakistani civilian government which came to power last year to promote peace through diplomacy in areas where Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are perceived to go unchallenged.  However, critics continue to note that most of Pakistan’s previous attempts to negotiate with Taliban have resulted in the resurgence of the fundamentalist Islamic militia.

TNSM was once headed by Sufi Mohammed, who was the last person to see Khankhel alive.  Mohammed was incarcerated in 2002 for his participation in the recruitment of thousand of fighters to challenge U.S. forces based in Afghanistan.  But last year, Sufi Mohammed was released from jail after he negotiated with Pakistani authorities and came to the agreement to cooperate with the government. 

Last May, the Pakistan government released that it had negotiated a peace deal with the rebels in Swat Valley.  A couple months later the Taliban took control of Swat and began a vicious movement against government officials, forcing the leader of the secular Awami National Party to flee due to multiple death threats.  Pakistan is currently under extreme amounts of pressure to reprimand the rebels within its boundaries as multiple attacks have overflowed into Afghanistan and interfered with the U.S./NATO campaign against militants; this overflow, specifically airstrikes, has oftentimes brought about human casualties and thus has sparked more tension between the U.S. and Pakistan.

 

Seven hours worth of surgery completed by four teams of surgeons managed to stabilize the condition of a Connecticut woman at Stamford Hospital after she was attacked by a chimpanzee on Monday.  Dr. Kevin Miller identified the victim as 55 year old Charla Nash who is reported as being in critical but stable condition as of late.  Nash had been summoned to the home of her friend Sandra Herold, 70, to elp calm the chimp, Travis, who had once appeared in TV commercials for Coca Cola and Old Navy.

As soon as Nash got out of her car, Travis immediately jumped on her and began to bite and maul her face.  Stamford Police Captain Rich Conklin reported the attack as “unprovoked, brutal, and lengthy”.  As a result, Nash experienced extensive injuries to her face and hands.  Hand specialists, plastic surgeons, and specialized ophthalmologists, orthopedic surgeons and trauma personnel are currently treating her. 

Herold had asked Nash to come to her house after 14-year-old Travis had escaped.  As Nash was being attacked, Herold continued to attempt to pull the chimp off of her.  After several failed attempted she called 911 and then stabbed Travis with a butcher knife and repeatedly hit him with a shovel.  When the police arrived on the scene they were forced to shoot the chimp multiple times before he returned to the house where he was later discovered dead. 

It remains to be scene if Travis had Lyme disease.  However police believe that the attack may have been provoked by Nash’s new haircut that altered her appearance “significantly”.  Conklin reported that Travis had been acting “rambunctious” forcing Herold to put Xanax in a cup of tea and encouraging him to drink it.  Conklin said that this hadn’t been his divisions first interaction with Travis; in 2003 he had escaped and “wreaked havoc” in the Stamford community for a matter of hours.

Travis’ body was moved from the home and was later taken dismembered and taken to two different locations; his head went to the state lab for a rabies and the rest of his body was taken to the University of Connecticut for an animal autopsy. 

A Royal Air Force officer told CNN that all 18 passengers aboard a helicopter that crashed off the coast of Scotland survived the accident.  The Super Puma crashed an estimated 120 miles east of Aberdeen while approaching an offshore platform.  All of the passengers were be recovered from the water by divers from the five helicopters came to the rescue and it is believed that there are no major injuries.  The RAF was offering helicopter assistance to the Aberdeen Coast Guard during the rescue; victims were using the emergency signal beacons on their lifejackets to summon the rescuers.  It was unclear whether or not the pilot of the Super Puma had issued a mayday before the helicopter crashed.

 

Article 1:

On Wednesday, February 11^th, a group of eight Taliban members launched a suicide attack on Afghan government buildings and a prison.  Their collective attack was said to have been in response to the “mistreatment of prisoners in Afghan jails”, and left 19 people dead and 45 people injured.  The worst of the attacks occurred at the Ministry of Justice where five of the attackers invaded the building and catalyzed a three-hour firefight against Afghan soldiers and police.  It was here that the majority of the casualities occurred; they included both guards and innocent civilians.  An Afghan police officer managed to shoot one of the suicide attackers, although he was able to detonate his explosives outside of the Ministry of Education.  Luckily, his was the only casuality at the Ministry of Education.  Two of the suicide attackers set their explosives off at a prison close to the Khair Khana district, and caused several deaths/injuries.  Later on, two gunman stormed the Justice Ministry and managed to kill three government employees before the police could stop them.  Soon after that, at around one o’clock in the afternoon, a third gunmen was discovered in one of the rooms of the Justice Ministry.  He was later killed in a gun battle.

Wednesdays attacks seem almost modeled after the attacks on Kabul government buildings last October as they were executed in broad daylight, and the attackers were not at all covert when they stormed the buildings.  The Taliban attacks last October consisted of suicide bombers forcing their way into the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and open-firing on it’s workers.  The Taliban admitted to have been targeting the ministry’s “foreign advisors”, but ended up killing six of the ministry’s guards.  

These attacks serve as more examples of the Talibans unwavering determination to disrupt Afghan progress.

 

Article 2:

This past week, it was discovered that Ruth Madoff, wife of accused Wall Street con artist Bernard Madoff, had withdrawn $15.5 million from a Madoff-associated brokerage firm in Massachusetts.  She apparently made the withdrawal in late November and early December, a couple weeks prior to her husbands arrest.

State regulators have issued a complaint against Cohmad Securities as they believe Cohmad to be closely involved in Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme.  Cohmad is denying any such involvement despite the daily wire transactions that show multiple transfers to and from Madoff-related accounts.  These daily reports yield two transactions made from Cohmad to Ruth Madoff, a first withdrawal of $5.5 million on November 25^th, 2008 and a second withdrawal of $10 million on December 10^th, 2008. 

Bernard Madoff was arrested on December 11^th and is being held under house arrest in his lavish Manhattan apartment.  He is up against one charge of securities fraud as he allegedly orchestrated an international ponzi scheme that has squandered the life-savings of multiple investors.  If convicted, he will face a punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine.

Last month, prosecutors tried to retract his $10 million bail after his blatant attempts to move $1 million worth of jewelry and other assets out of government control.  But a judge argued that these actions did not make Madoff a danger to the community or a “flight risk”.  Since then, prosecutors and Madoff’s lawyers have agreed on their decision to further delay a deadline for an indictment or probable cause hearing for Madoff; as of Wednesday, the deadline has been delayed another 30 days. 

Madoff has agreed to the partial civil judgment that the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed against him.  Madoff is well aware that this form of judgment could potentially result in his payment of fines and repayment of former investors.  Also under this agreement, Madoff will continue to freeze his assets and refrain from violating all other securities laws; however, it does not force him to admit/deny any allegations.

 

Article 3:

On Wednesday, Stewart Parnell, the president of the Peanut Corp. of America, and Sammy Lightsey, the manager of the company’s plant in Blakely, Georgia, refused to cooperate with members of Congress.  The two men are under the accusation of knowingly distributing contaminated food have cited the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination in their defense; however, their testimonies to the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee against these accusations barely lasted 10 minutes.  Neither man could offer an opening statement, and neither attempted to deny that their citation of a constitutional amendment was being used to avoid questioning.  Parnell continued to argue protection against self-incrimination in response to every question thrown at him.

Parnell and Lightsey are being held responsible for the salmonella outbreak traced back to PCA that has killed nine people and sickened an estimated 600 others across 43 different states.  Thus, grief-stricken family members representing their dead loved ones have formed a panel that urged committee members to punish the Parnell and Lightsey for intentionally compromised the safety of the nations food supply.  The majority of victims died as a result of eating contaminated peanut butter, for which PCA provided the peanut base.  People all over the nation are outraged and thoroughly sickened that those responsible for the food on our plates fail to keep it edible, nontoxic, and safe in general.  Families of victims refuse to accept that the release of contaminated peanut base was an accident.  An email sent from Parnell to Lightsey discussing the obvious presence of salmonella in a recent shipment but his reluctance to call it back, is undeniable proof that both Parnell and Lightsey were well aware of the situation it’s possible outcomes.

In their latest visit to the PCA plant in Blakely, FDA inspectors discovered an incredibly unsanitary and unsafe facility; mold was found inside a cooler used to store peanut butter products, roaches (both dead and alive) were found in a washroom close to the production area, and salmonella was found in two placed, one of which was only three feet from complete peanut butter products.  The salmonella outbreak has resulted in the recall of more than 1,000 products, thus making it one of the largest food recalls in our nations history.