Millions of dollars a day from oil sold in the black market is fueling the terrorist activity of the Iraq-Syria Islamic State, according to the US Treasury Department.
ISIS extracts the oil from territories it has captured in Iraq and buyers out to make big bucks are not lacking for the cheap oil causing a drop in the price of crude in the spot market. These oil traders include Kurds and Turks.
Without boots on the ground, US air strikes using jet fighters and drones do not seem to work against ISIS fighters who either hide in caves or mix with the local population.
The recent deadly attack in what was once peaceful Canada is seen as the handiwork of ISIS. Canadian authorities have reason to believe the gunman, a recent convert to Islam, was influenced and funded by the fundamentalist Muslim group. Canada supports the US air strikes against ISIS strongholds in Iraq and northern Syria.The attack in Ottawa is a grim reminder of war without borders and terrorists can strike at the very heart of a nation’s capital.
Canadian authorities see the terrorist attack on its parliament and a national war memorial was meant to intimidate Canada from joining the military campaign against ISIS.
Pope Francis’ visit
The Canadian carnage raises concern (even if there’s no verified information yet from our AFP intelligence service) on the coming visit of Pope Francis to the country in January 2015. That’s only less than 80 days away. The papal itinerary includes a visit to survivors of killer typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban, Leyte.
There are a lot of loonies out there. There were two incidents during a papal visit to the Philippines. On November 27, 1970, a crazed Bolivian painter, Benjamin Mendoza, attempted to kill Pope Paul VI upon his arrival at the Manila International Airport. Dressed as a priest, Mendoza lunged at the Pope with a dagger but was subdued by alert police and military security.
Pope John Paul II who visited Manila twice was also the target of Islamic terrorists but their plot was discovered when the apartment they were renting caught fire. The apartment on Quirino Avenue in Malate was along the route to be taken by the papal motorcade. Discovered in the hideout were firearms and explosives.
Philippine police authorities claimed the suspects in Manila were the same group of suicide bombers in the World Trade Center twin towers in New York.
There was a second attempt on the life of Pope John Paul on St. Peter’s Square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca. The Pope was in an open top vehicle blessing the crowd when he was shot by Agca. The Pope was wounded but survived and years after his death was beatified as saint.
Pope Francis will be protected by an elite team of Filipino troops who served as United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights in Syria. Theirs is a heavy responsibility and a holy one.
Let’s pray for a safe and incident-free Papal visit.
Media madness in Laude case
US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, the suspect in the killing of transgender Jeffrey/Jennifer Laude, is already detained in a Philippine military facility. The victim has been laid to rest. There’s no need for a lynch mob to whip up public frenzy. The US cooperated with Philippine authorities; Pemberton was flown by helicopter from his ship in Subic to Camp Aguinaldo to ensure his presence in court during the prescribed one year trial period.
What more do we want? Symbolically, Pemberton held in Camp Aguinaldo is a better deal than when accused Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was under US embassy custody in Manila throughout his 2006 trial for allegedly raping Nicole, another Filipina in Subic.
We cannot really blame US Ambassador Philip Goldberg for decrying the media circus coverage of the case and for assigning Marine guards to protect the rights of the accused while under detention in a Philippine military base.
Live TV coverage showed a sister of Laude and German boyfriend Marc Susselbeck climb over the fence of the military camp to get near Pemberton. The stocky German shoved a Filipino soldier who tried to stop him. Imagine the consequences if he had gotten nearer the container van holding Pemberton and shot by the prisoner’s US Marines security triggering another international incident involving the Germans.
“We should all be focused on making sure the rule of law is followed to make sure justice is served. Justice for Jennifer Laude and her family should be our goal. I recognized there is a bereaved family and they are very upset,” Ambassador Goldberg said during a TV interview. He said the Embassy had sent its condolences to the Laude family and the US wants to see justice served but cannot see justice done through a media circus coverage of the case.
It’s quite obvious leftist militants are exploiting the Laude killing in calling for the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement. They are playing right into the hands of their Chinese communist supporters who want to advance their own agenda in the West Philippine Sea
A review of the VFA custody clause is in order, but let’s not scrap something we need.
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