Why is Ranil attacking India?

There is no polite way to say this, but Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the most repellent and dangerous politicians in the world today.
                                              They Want Vote

2015-03-11

The ruling Bharathiya Janatha Party ( BJP) and the Congress Party in India were shocked by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's statement to the Indian media that Sri Lanka would shoot Indian fishermen who poached into Sri Lankan waters. Ranil portrayed himself as a close friend of India in recent times and campaigned in favour of India's stand to recognize the 13+ as the solution to the Tamil problem in his country.

During Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration, Ranil took the lead to attack Chinese funded projects like the Colombo Port City to win over India. Diplomatic circles look baffled about the sudden change in Ranil with the latter deciding to launch attacks on India. This sudden change in Ranil's stance is viewed by some as a measure to dismiss claims that he is a pro-Indian puppet in a drama while attacking Chinese interests in his country. However, the Rajapaksas never threatened to shoot the Indian fishermen in the manner that Ranil has done.

Ranil's sudden change

There could be some reasons for Ranil's sudden change. Ranil was duly recognized during the days of the Congress administration in India. The Indian Congress viewed Ranil as an alternate leader to Mahinda. The Congress never wanted to oust Mahinda by exerting pressure or force. However, India looked dismayed over the inability of Ranil as Opposition leader to defeat Mahinda. When the BJP took office in India, it viewed Mahinda's dealings with China as a threat to India. Hence, the BJP Government was in favour of witnessing the defeat of Mahinda's Government. The BJP was disgusted over the lethargic attitude of Ranil as Opposition leader to execute obligations. After Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, Ranil visited India several times to meet Modi but those attempts proved futile. Though the BJP and the UNP had historical links, Modi did not meet Ranil and the latter was annoyed over that position of the BJP.

Tamil National Alliance

When the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) stood firm opposing Ranil's attempt to become the candidate at the last presidential election, it confused Ranil. TNA claimed that if Ranil contested Mahinda, Ranil would be defeated. It was the TNA which halted Ranil's run to contest the presidency. Ranil may be guessing that India was behind the TNA stand. When the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) brought the genocide resolution before the Council, Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran spoke against Ranil and his cousin Ruwan Wijewardene who is the State Minister for Defence. Following is an extract of Wigneswaran's speech at the NPC: "I view the assurance given by Ruwan Wijewardena recently when he met the Army in Jaffna that the Army camps would not be removed as being the expression of view of his uncle through nephew. Not only that, when I met his uncle Ranil Wickremesinghe after the elections this is what he told me: "We are going to assure Mahanayake Theras that we would not be removing any Army camps in the North". After telling me this, he, who never smiles like his uncle J.R. Jayewardene, smiled a bit. What I understood from that was 'I am going to keep cool the minds of the Mahanayake Theras, in order to win the forthcoming general elections'.
"When Ruwan Wijewardena expressed the same view before the Army recently I got alarmed. We requested to release at least 5,000 acres of land out of the 6,500 acres occupied by the Army. But the statement made by Ruwan Wijewardena makes us to believe that the Army is not having adequate land space for their accommodation and that there is no attempt to remove even a single soldier, who had been enjoying a cosy lifestyle in the 6,500 acres of land."

"The new government's message to the Sinhala people was that they were not going to reduce the Army and not going to remove their camps. I wish to ask the Prime Minister, who is acclaimed as democrat, as to why he is submerged in an obsolete (Patham Pasali) old political tactics. Because of this reason only I am bringing this motion hurriedly in spite of myself suffering as a result of an unfit physical condition."

Ranil lost the presidency

Following Ruwan's visit to the North, Wigneswaran arrived in Colombo to meet Maithripala. It was after that meeting, Maithri clipped Ruwan's wings in the latter's ministry. Ranil launched severe attacks on Wigneswaran during his interview with the Indian media. Ranil was a person who appeared as the saviour of the TNA and the Tamil people. However, Ranil lost the presidency on four occasions because of northern politics. In 1999, Ranil lost the presidential poll because Prabhakaran exploded a bomb at a meeting in which Chandrika was injured in the eye. In 2005, Prabhakaran prevented the voters in the North from exercising their franchise and Ranil lost. In 2010, Ranil was labelled as a LTTE supporter and the TNA said Ranil will not be able to muster the Sinhala Buddhist vote. Ranil was a person who was labelled as a pro-Indian and a Western supporter.

Therefore, India and the West viewed Ranil as one who could never win an election. It is not clear that Ranil is attacking India and Wigneswaran as a measure of revenge. He knows that a general election is in the offing and is aware that he should be the hero among the Sinhalese to win that election. The Tamil votes will go the TNA. That could be the reason he has decided to play a new character in current politics.

Detour Made At Nugegoda: A Mongrel Nationalism

By Sarath de Alwis -March 11, 2015 

Sarath De Alwis

A terminal response

“As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness.” – Leon Trotsky

‘Inaccuracy and irrelevance’ should not be dismissed as minor irritants in any public discussion. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka couples this erudite disdain to an assertion that my rejoinder to his redefinition of national identity was a ‘misplaced personalized critique.’ Dr. Jayatilleka is a politician and a political scientist. His indignation at my labeling him as ‘Mark Antony of Nugegoda’ is understandable. It was a grievous error on my part. Mark Antony eulogized the Conqueror of Gaul and dictator of Rome. He declared that he had come to bury him and not to praise him.

At Nugegoda Dr. Jayatilleka exhumed the fallen dictator, breathed life in to him, praised him and then urged that he be restored to the Senate. A reasonably impressive coalition of patricians and plebeians cheered and urged him on. It was in fact a great turning point. His rebuttal and explanation is explicit. The Nationalist Turn: A necessary detour? (Colombo Telegraph 9^th March)

Necessary for whom?

Dr.DJ contends that in this case ‘the larger matter is the political dynamics of this island’.

How do we explain the political dynamics of this island? In order to avoid adversarial positioning on this complex and delicate subject it is best that we rely on Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka the political scientist and diplomat. “It is usually the case that the period after a war is one of profound ferment and productivity in the intellectual, artistic and policy realms. From WWII Europe to post Vietnam America, this has been so. Sri Lanka seems a sad exception. We have almost ceased to analyse and think. [Preface -Long War, Cold Peace 2013]

The nation has awoken at Nugegoda. It has begun to think! It has discovered new analytical skills! Dr. DJ himself has summoned his extraordinary powers of recall. He has discovered the expansionist Tamil aspirations of Tamilakam, the Tamil Land expressed by Ponnambalam Arunachalam in 1922 – the year that the League of Nations granted Britain the Palestine mandate.Read More

Who Plundered What And How Much – The Politics Of Inequality

by Ruwantissa Abeyratne

Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands… The result …is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.- Albert Einstein

( March 11, 2015, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) From the look of it and from media reports coming in, the Government of Sri Lanka  has now the daunting  task of determining whether allegations –  that some persons made a lot of money illegally and at the expense of the people  during the previous regime – are true and if so who plundered what and how much.  If money was plundered, apparently they are sitting as capital invested somewhere, according to reports.

Apart from the portentous vulgarity and criminality of corruption and unjust enrichment, this phenomenon, which is not uncommon in some other parts of the world as well, brings to bear the inevitable issue of inequality in society and the crisscrossing of issues straddling the world which is swept under the carpet by those with self serving interests.

What is plundered is plundered.  However, there are two measures that could be taken: recover the plunder; and put a stop to future plundering.

Since the alleged scope and magnitude of the plunder has seemingly never been experienced before in Sri Lanka, once has to wonder whether this is a global political phenomenon steeped in the  history of the world.  Thomas Piketty, in  his now famous book  “Capital in the Twenty First Century” says: “The history of the distribution of wealth has always been political, and it cannot be reduced to purely economic mechanisms. In particular, the reduction of inequality that took place in most developed countries between 1910 and 1950 was above all the consequence of war and of policies adopted to cope with the shocks of war.  Similarly, the resurgence of inequality after 1980 is due largely to the political shifts of the past several decades, especially in regard to taxation and finance.  The history of inequality is shaped by the way economic, social and political actors view what is just and what is not as well as the relative power of those actors and the collective choices that result. It is the joint product of all actors combined”.

Arguably, the most disturbing statement in the book is that there is no natural, spontaneous process to prevent destabilizing and  inegalitarian forces from prevailing permanently.  Since the phenomenon of increasing inequality through corruption would not go away naturally, it would be for the government to take steps to put a permanent stop to it.

According to Piketty, here’s how it works for the plunderer.  Capital, plundered or otherwise, is governed by the simple equation r > g where r stands for the average annual rate of return on capital, including profits, dividends, interest, rents and other income from capital, expressed as a percentage of its  total value, and g stands for the rate of growth of the economy, that is, the annual increase in income or output. Therefore if the rate of growth of the Sri Lankan economy is 7% (the figure for 2013) and the rate of returns on capital of plunderer is greater than 7%, the plunderer keeps getting richer and richer.  This widens the divergence and increases the inequality gap.

Another book that extends this phenomenon to another dimension is Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything“.  Although the book is about climate change and the impasse the world has reached in not being able to tackle the problem head on due to various reasons, Klein brings to bear a point that well fits in with the politics of inequality and the role played by a limited political elite wielding virtually unlimited power and control over the economyby blocking important measures that would otherwise act to the benefit of humanity.  Klein says:  “We have not done the things that are necessary…because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of the crisis.  We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe – and would benefit the vast majority – are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets”.   This statement is as true for inequality as it is to addressing climate change.

My take is that there are two broad philosophical approaches the Government of Sri Lanka can take to address the issue of inequality.  The first is to ensure equal access to education, not merely in theory but in practice where  the young of all regions or provinces  of the country receive education, particularly in science and  technology, language, economics, law and politics so that could compete on a level playing field. The second is to eschew a misconceived policy that is prevalent in the world which says “the government should get out of the way and let private enterprise take over”.  The government has to be innovative in funding innovation that paves the way for private enterprise to take over implementation of the innovative process. Although private enterprise is essential for a robust economy and must not be stultified by excessive nationalistic public control, the role of the government as a  stabilizer is essential to ensure convergence and the reduction of inequality.

In this context,  perhaps the best argument has been forwarded by Mariana Mazzucato who holds the Chair in the Economics of Innovation at the University of Sussex.  In her article “The Innovative State” published in Foreign Affairs (January/February 2015) Professor Mazzucato says: “in countries that owe their growth to innovation, the State has historically served, not as a meddler in the private sector, but as a key partner of it – and often a more daring one, willing to take risks that businesses won’t.  Across the entire innovation chain, from basic research to commercialization, governments have stepped up with needed investment that the private sector has been too scared to provide.    The spending has proved transformative, creating entirely new markets and sectors including the internet, nanotechnology, biotechnology and clean energy”.

Of course, one size does not fit all and the principles referred to in this article should be taken in their broadest sense to fit the Sri Lankan context.  However one fact is incontrovertible – that the wisdom of these principles cannot be discarded and one cannot go deeper into them without deep reflection, which    is a task for the Government.   The author’s position is that of  Albert Einstein who said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

BOC Chairman and CEO must be held responsible 

Wednesday, 11 March 2015

The banking sector was in a state shock with the recent massive bond scandal. Now a committee has been appointed to investigate the deal. The people appointed obviously do not know how and why a bond is issued. These are technical issues that required qualified people. Not laymen.

This sends a bad message that the investigations from the word go is flawed. Thankfully the JVP, JHU and NFF are demanding for action, if not the UNP would have put this issue under the carpet and shared the loot. Mr. Ronald Perera Chairman and Mr. Gunesekara GM Bank of Ceylon must tell the public on what basis BOC arranged a credit line for Perpetual Treasuries three times the Asset value of the firm ammounting to Rs 10 Billion and the names of the owners and directors of Perpetual Ltd.

BOC has a poor track record of doling out money at will on political orders, while the ordinary man is harassed for days to even get Rs 50,000 on security to renovate a house.

The JVP should study this and file a complaint against these two officials at the Bribery Commission immediately. Meanwhile the new bond King Governor Mr. Mahendran should step aside and allow a proper investigation, that is the only way he can save his name and get back the legitimacy to function as the governor and prevent future prosecution, if the government changes after 100 days.

Good Governance Activist

JVP demands resignation of CB Governor 

By Dasun Edirisinghe-March 10, 2015, 7:42 pm

The JVP yesterday demanded the resignation of Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran in view of the investigation being conducted into the alleged shady deal relating to the ten-billion-rupee bond issue to a company owned by his nephew on Feb. 27, 2015.

Addressing a media conference at the party head office, JVP Colombo District MP Sunil Handunnetti said that if the Central Bank Governor would not resign, the President should remove him from the post until investigations were over.

"Former Rajapaksa regime strengthened the family regime, but we are furious that this government, too, is given into nepotism," Handunnetti said.

He said President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a three-member committee to probe the controversial sale of Rs. 10 billion Treasury bonds at 12. 5 per cent interest instead of an earlier decision to issue one billion rupees worth of bonds at 9.5 per cent interest.

The Colombo District parliamentarian alleged that the private company owned by CB Governor’s nephew had carried out shady deals with the former government, too, and those were to be probed by the incumbent government.

Now, the CB Governor had said that his nephew had resigned from the company when he (Arjuna Mahendran) assumed duties as CB Governor; the JVP MP said, adding that if so they should reveal who were the current owners and directors of the company.

Handunnetti charged that the private company known as Perpetual Treasuries (Pvt) Ltd. was in any case not eligible to buy five billion rupees worth of Treasury bonds as a single company according to existing regulations.

He said that the government without shame had argued that they sold those Treasury bonds to pay projects launched by the previous government, and the matter had been discussed the previous day by its ministers, including Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Highways Minister Kabir Hashim.Yet there was no necessity to rush and buy at such high interest, when there were other avenues.

"If this incident had happened in any other country, the Finance Minister too would have resigned," he said adding that such shady deals would affect the country’s economy in several aspects as well as increasing the interest rates of the commercial banks.

The MP said that the investigation into the incident should also go into how the same company had brought bonds through other companies registered with the Central Bank.

The deal was yet not an issue among the general public, but it should be revealed to the country, Handunnetti insisted.

"If the Central Bank governor is cleared by the investigation, he can be reinstated immediately," he added.

Asked why the JVP did not oppose Mahendran’s appointment as the CB governor although they knew he was connected with several companies in the financial field, the MP said if so they had to oppose all appointments of the government as they were all linked with the state institutions of the previous government.

What About A ‘Contempt Of Courts Law’ To Strengthen The FOI

By R.M.B Senanayake -March 11, 2015

R.M.B Senanayake

The Ministers Karu Jayasuriya and Wijedasa Rajapakshe deserve our gratitude for spearheading the Freedom of Information Act. It will be an important step forward for liberal democracy in our country. But there is another barrier to freedom of information (FOI) with respect to the publication of news and information regarding what happens in the courts of our country.

Our courts are not functioning efficiently despite the number of courts being increased. The Marga Institute did a survey of the courts some years ago which shows the poor performance of our courts system. Cases are taking a long time to be finalized and there is a huge backlog of cases both civil and criminal. But nobody dares to criticize the courts system under a mistaken understanding of what constitutes ‘contempt of court’.

Every public official must be accountable for his performance and so should judicial officers. But proceedings are protracted and it seems to be that the lawyers are in charge of the proceedings rather than the judge. There are long delays in both civil and criminal cases. The deterrent effect of legal punishment seems a remote possibility for the would be criminal. True that all crimes are not pre-meditated. Yet there are hardened criminals who can be deterred only by the possibility of being punished and punishment must be swift and certain to be a deterrent. Minister W. Rajapakshe has suggested the re-introduction of the death penalty. The EU does not agree but can we compare the deterrent effects of the courts in Sri Lanka with that of the EU. Only 4% of the criminal cases are said to result in convictions. The Police are both inefficient and corrupt.

But under the mistaken notion that there should be no criticism of the courts, journalists are afraid to comment on what happens in the courts and don’t even like to report news of court proceedings except where the public has a special interest in a particular case. The Journalists attitude is understandable since journalists have been hauled up before courts on contempt charges and I remember even a senior editor like Manik De Siva having to answer in courts.

Courts of justice have an inherent power to punish all persons for contempt of their rules and orders, for disobedience of their process, and for disturbing them in their proceedings etc. Journalists are required to report court proceedings accurately. While in USA the press not only reports court cases but also comments on the judgments of the courts and some of them are critical. The traditional right of the higher courts to punish persons for contempt was not laid down in the law but individual judges decided its scope and enforcement. The relevance of the offence of contempt of court arises because of its implication on publications of court proceedings and judgments.

Contempt by publication

The law on contempt by publication must balance the right of a defendant to a fair trial, with the right of the publisher to freedom of expression. There are also concerns that the procedures for dealing with this form of contempt may not be as fair and efficient as possible. Innocent publication and distribution of matter should not be contempt

So Britain brought a law to define the scope of the offence of ‘contempt of court’ was necessary and passed such a law. India has done the same and even amended the Act several times.

I refer to the need for a new law of Contempt of Court as has been passed in the UK and in India. Presently the journalists do not know the limits with regard to the exercise of the power of the Courts to try persons for contempt of court. In USA journalists report and comment on the judgments of courts without the fear of being hauled up of for contempt of court. So journalists prefer not to take the risk and do not comment on the judgments or proceedings in the local courts. So the courts are completely immune from criticism. But of course our courts system is not functioning efficiently. Cases are not disposed of for long periods. So in the case of criminal cases punishment under the law fails to be a sufficient deterrent to crime.

I remember that Attorney at law and journalist Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena prepared a draft Contempt of Court law. It is necessary to enact such a law and the Minister of Justice should follow up the Freedom of Information law with a Contempt of Court law on the lines of the Indian law.

Democracy does not depend on constitution written on a paper, it is written in hearts and minds of the people who underrated that in our own self interest we have to maintain a civil and orderly society. Every one obeys the norm, rituals, culture and finally the written code of conduct. It is in our hearts and minds not in written papers. Every man should obey the law, including the king, prince, prime minister and the president. In Sri Lanka, we are having a population that has been misdirected by the mindless losers, and has become a lawless country. From this lawless population was selected and elected the corrupted criminals and scoundrels to the seat of power. These scoundrels have converted the law enforcement into a crime enforcement brigade; We need to streamline our courts system to ensure speedy trials.

Finance Minister reassures senior citizens on special interest scheme

By Charumini de Silva- March 11, 2015
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday reassured senior citizens that the special high 15% interest rate scheme for their qualifying fixed deposits would be strictly implemented by all licensed commercial banks.
He said that there were several reports alleging that the 15% special interest rate schemes for senior citizens was not being followed by the banks despite guidelines being issued by the Central Bank. 
This assurance was given at a special media briefing held along with the heads of the Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank and Central Bank officials. While delivering the Interim Budget, Karunanayake announced that senior citizens would receive a higher interest rate of 15% per annum for their Fixed Deposits, up to a maximum level of Rs. 1 million in commercial banks.
Offering a regulator’s point of view, the Central Bank’s Bank Supervision Director Yvette Fernando said: “A senior citizen who has reached 60 years after 31 January could also open a new account and obtain the same interest rate.
It would be only applicable for a maximum FD level of Rs. 1 million.”
The Finance Minister said that the objective of the scheme was to provide relief to senior citizens most in need of it hence the FD limit was fixed at Rs. 1 million.
He said that the Government was incurring around Rs. 10-12 billion for this scheme.
Bank of Ceylon General Manager and Chief Executive Officer D. M. Gunasekara said the 15% special interest scheme for senior citizens had already been implemented by the bank.
Noting that the intention of this was to pass on the benefit of high interest rates to small-time depositors, Gunesekara went on to state: “To ensure that there won’t be any duplicate accounts we will require the national identity card number and a statement from the person opening the account.”
He also explained that it was difficult to impose a 15% interest rate for Joint Accounts as well.
People’s Bank General Manager and Chief Executive Officer N. Vasantha Kumar, verifying the position of existing customers who possess Rs. 1 million in deposits, said that they would have to transfer it to new accounts to obtain the 15% interest rate.

Ravi K says only shady projects stopped, other development work continuing Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said yesterday that his ministry had not reduced or stopped any of the projects that had followed proper procedure. He said that there were many projects, such as the Defence Academy and other road development projects, which were implemented by the previous regime at a high cost and in altered forms. He went on to say that the Government had discontinued a few projects which had not followed due process and had been found to house financial irregularities. “As a Government which follows good governance perspectives, we will definitely carry out the best projects and maximise them for the people’s benefit. We must do what is available and affordable. Always remember that this is the taxpayers’ money that we are recycling,” Karunanayake told journalists yesterday. When asked whether the Government was renegotiating with China, Minister Karunanayake explained that they were negotiating what was best for Sri Lanka. “If we are overpaying we will certainly reduce it, if there is corruption we will stop it and if there is foul play we will eradicate that. Not only for China, but for Iran or any other country the principle will be the same,” Karunanayake responded. However, the projects that were implemented after 8 January would be given the full support of the Government as there was no room for corruption. “Everything else is happening in this economy except corruption.” The Finance Minister said that the Government had channelled most of the funds which were previously allocated for the corrupt projects of the previous government back into the economy. “No matter the size of the obstacle, we will stop corruption and corrupt projects. We will implement new projects and allocate any amount of funds for them,” he stressed. Karunanayake said that the Government was bound to resolve and respond to any of the issues related to new projects and would ensure good governance within the economy.

Sujeewa gets a call from the Chinese embassy

Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Deputy Justice and Labour Relations Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe has recently received a telephone call from a senior official of the Chinese embassy.

Senasinghe says that he received a somewhat threatening call from the deputy at the Chinese embassy in Colombo.

Participating in the Janhanda political interview, the deputy minister said that the Chinese diplomat had telephoned him and asked him to stop making critical comments about China and its projects in Sri Lanka.

Senasinghe has continuously criticized the Chinese funded mega projects that were launched by the Rajapaksa regime, pointing out the massive interest rates the loans from the projects have been obtained.

However, Senasinghe has told the Chinese diplomat that he had no right to speak in such a manner and that intimidation would not be tolerated. The deputy minister has added that the relevant Chinese companies need to be transparent about the transactions if everything was in order.

Netanyahu: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered. The Power of Israel over the United States

03.08.2015

There is only one reason that Netanyahu is received as a Viceroy overseeing and dictating strategic policy to what clearly is a servile colonial legislature

There have been times when history has played tricks with man and..has magnified the features of essentially small persons into a parody of greatness.
Rabindranath Tagore(on Benito Mussolini)

Introduction

How is it that the ruler (Benjamin Netanyahu) of a puny country (Israel) of 8.2 million (6.2 million Jews) with the 37th biggest economy (GDP in current prices) in the world dictates war policy and secures the willing submission of the legislature of the largest economy and most powerful military empire in the world?

Netanyahu He Came, He Saw, He Conquered. the Power of Israel Over the United States by Thavam Ratna

Family of Israeli killed by child in Isis video deny he was Mossad spy

Muhammad Musallam, 19, joined militants after being ‘brainwashed’ and was killed because he wanted to leave, mother says

The mother and father of 19-year-old Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab held by Islamic State (Isis) in Syria, deny their son was a spy.
Kareem Shaheen and Sufian Taha in Neve Yaakov, East Jerusalem

Wednesday 11 March 2015

The family of an Arab Israeli man shown being killed by a young boy in the latest propaganda video for Islamic State (Isis) has denied he was a spy for the Israeli intelligence services.

The video, published by the group’s Furqan media outlet, shows Muhammad Musallam, 19, sitting in a room wearing an orange jumpsuit and talking about how he had been recruited and trained by Mossad. He said his father and elder brother had encouraged him.

It then shows Musallam being escorted to a field and being shot in the head by a boy, described by an older, French-speaking fighter as one of the “cubs of the caliphate”. The boy appears to be around 11.

A grab from a video released by Isis showing 19-year-old Muhammad Musallam, before he was shown being killed by a young boy. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

 

Musallam’s mother, Hind, denied her son was a Mossad agent, saying that Isis had “brainwashed” him and was attempting to take away her son’s honour because he wanted to leave the extremist group.

“Not only have they killed our son but they wanted to destroy his image and our image. Look at our house. I work as a house cleaner and his father is a bus driver. If we were on the Mossad pay roll, I would not need to work. Honour is all we have. And they want to take that from us.”

Hind, 46, said Muhammad, who worked in the fire department in Wadi Joz, East Jerusalem, told his parents four months ago that he planned to go to Turkey with a friend.

“He packed his bag in front of me and he seemed so happy,” she said tearfully. “He asked us for money for his journey. And then he left. After that we did not hear from him.”

Two months after he went missing the family contacted the police, concerned that something had happened to Muhammad en route to Turkey. Then Muhammad contacted the family through Skype and said he was with Isis.

“We saw his face and he was sitting with his friend. He said he would be receiving a lot of money from Isis and that they were going to find him a house and pay for his marriage.” At that time, according to his mother, he seemed enthusiastic to be with Isis.

“I’m sure they brainwashed him. He’s just a kid. He doesn’t know better … They did not give me the chance to hug him or smell him or say goodbye. What kind of people are those. They are the devil. ”

Hind said she had spoken to her son three or four times on Skype. Last time he called he said he was afraid and wanted to come home and asked for money to come home. The family sent him $400 (£265) but did not hear from him again.

Hind used an Arabic slang expression to suggest that joining Isis was easier than leaving. The family believe that a roommate or another member of the group may have told superiors of Muhammad’s plan to leave.

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 Hind Musallam denied her son was a Mossad spy. Photograph: Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Image

Muhammad’s father, Said, a bus driver with the Israeli bus service, Eged, said: “My son was cheated and I am very sad that no one in the Israeli political leadership contacted me. The only one who spoke up for him was [Arab MP] Ahamd Tibi in the Knesset, who said this is the inevitable end of all the kids who join Daesh [Isis’s Arabic acronym].”

The authenticity of the footage, which also appeared on Twitter feeds used by Isis supporters, could not be independently verified by the Guardian.

Israeli security officials said they were aware of the video but could not confirm that it was authentic.

French police were on Wednesday probing whether the French-speaking man in the video was close to the French jihadist gunman Mohamed Merah. “We are checking” the identity of the man, a police source who wished to remain anonymous told AFP.

Several experts, including the journalist David Thomson, who wrote a book about French jihadists, say the man is Sabri Essid, reportedly the half-brother of Merah who shot dead three soldiers in southern France in 2012 before killing three students and a teacher at a Jewish school more than a week later.

Wednesday marks the third anniversary of the start of Merah’s killing spree, which ended with him dying in a shootout with police.

Natasha Underhill, a senior lecturer in international relations at Nottingham Trent University and expert on insurgency and international terrorism, said the conflicts in Iraq and Syria had made it easier for children to be exploited by Isis.

“The legacy of violence in these countries essentially means that these children have become entirely desensitised to the violence,” she said. “This in turn makes them almost immune to it and thus they can be moulded much easier into becoming killing machines.”

Underhill said the use of children in particular was likely to be a message by Isis that the group has longevity, with the ability to indoctrinate youth. “The fear with this is that these youths tend to be much more extreme as they really see no limits to their use of violence,” she said.

Islamic State battling Kurdish forces in northeast Syria

 Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters carry their weapons as they head towards their positions during what the YPG said was an offensive against them by Islamic State fighters, in the More...

 Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters take up positions behind a sand barricade at the frontline against Islamic State fighters, in the western countryside of Ras al-Ain March 10, 2015. 

Wed Mar 11, 2015

(Reuters) - Hundreds of Islamic State fighters have launched an attack on Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, triggering fierce fighting that has killed dozens on both sides, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday.

The Kurdish YPG militia, backed by U.S.-led air strikes, had made significant gains in recent weeks against Islamic State in the region, cutting an important supply route from territory controlled by the militant group in Iraq.

Islamic State appeared to try to seize back the initiative on Tuesday, attacking Kurdish forces using tanks and heavy weapons around Ras al-Ayn town near the Turkish border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An official in a Kurdish-run defence council in the area also reported heavy clashes in the area of Ras al-Ayn and said the Kurdish forces had been forced to withdraw from a nearby village.

"There are martyrs and dead but the number of martyrs is unknown so far," said the official, speaking via Skype.

The fighting continued into Wednesday. It was not clear exactly how many fighters had been killed on both sides.

The Kurdish campaign in northeastern Syria has been closely coordinated with the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting to roll back Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The YPG has emerged as the main partner for the U.S.-led alliance fighting Islamic State on the ground in Syria. Backed by Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and air strikes, the YPG defeated Islamic State in the border town of Kobani in January.

After rapid advances against Islamic State, the YPG announced on Feb. 27 it had seized the strategically important town of Tel Hamis from Islamic State.

The U.S.-led alliance said in a statement on Tuesday that forces opposed to Islamic State had seized key territory near Tel Hamis last week. It did not identify them as the YPG, instead describing the fighters as "anti-ISIL forces".

"KEY TERRAIN"

The statement said the operation in northeastern Syria had "denied (Islamic State) access to primary travel routes historically used to move its personnel and materials into Iraq – namely Tal Afar and Mosul."

It said it would continue to support efforts to attack and defeat Islamic State.

"The determination of these anti-ISIL forces and our precision airstrikes enabled us to deny Daesh this key terrain in Syria," Army Lieutenant General James Terry said.

The battle for Kobani was the first publicly-declared example of U.S.-led forces closely coordinating militarily with a ground force to battle Islamic State.

The United States says it wants to train and equip non-jihadist groups to fight Islamic State elsewhere in Syria. The training is due to get underway in Jordan this month. The U.S. military has not identified which rebels it plans to train.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall and Tom Perry; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Nigeria war expands as Chad, Niger send troops to fight Boko Haram

Nigeria's military says it has reclaimed some towns seized by Islamist Boko Haram militants in the northeast. (Reuters)

By Kevin Sieff March 9

NAIROBI — The fight against Boko Haram is escalating, with troops from Niger and Chad crossing into northeastern Nigeria to fight the insurgency in a further sign that what began as a Nigerian problem has grown into a volatile regional one.
Nigeria war expands as Chad, Niger send troops to fight Boko Haram.odt by Thavam Ratna