Egypt Parliament Removes Prominent Dissenter: Anwar Sadat’s Nephew
President Abdel Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt with advisers from the military and security forces on Thursday in Cairo. Credit Egyptian Presidency
CAIRO — Egypt’s Parliament on Monday expelled one of its few dissenting lawmakers, the scion of a storied political family, having accused him of leaking sensitive information to Western diplomats.
The expulsion of the lawmaker, Anwar Sadat, nephew and namesake of a president assassinated nearly four decades ago, was supported by 468 of Parliament’s 596 members. Eight voted in his favor.
The move had the practical effect of further enfeebling the opposition to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Parliament.
The charges against Mr. Sadat centered on his criticism of a proposed law that domestic and international critics, including Senator John McCain, say could make it virtually impossible for international aid groups to operate in Egypt.
Istanbul Attack Shows the Dangerous New Face of the Islamic State
On Tuesday, three men arrived in a taxi and walked into Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport wielding assault rifles and suicide bombs. They indiscriminately shot their way past a security checkpoint and then set off their bombs, killing 44. The tactic was a familiar one, practiced in Paris and Brussels, but the nationalities of the perpetrators were not: Russian, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz.
It’s not unusual to find Central Asians fighting in Syria or Iraq for the Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, said Seth Jones, a former Defense Department official and now analyst at Rand Corp. “What’s unusual is for them to be at the tip of the spear conducting attacks in Turkey.”
And that raises a pair of new security challenges for a Turkey still reeling from one of the worst terrorist attacks in its history. Large numbers of migrants from former Soviet nations like Uzbekistan already live and work in Turkey, so militants sent into the country from Syria or Iraq have a tight-knit community of expatriates they can disappear into. That means, in turn, that Turkish security personnel who have long focused on their country’s restive Arab and Kurdish populations must now look for signs of radicals hiding among their Caucasian and Central Asian communities as well.
Turkish police have identified Ahmet Chatayev, a Chechen terrorist, as the mastermind of the attack, according to the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak. He is described as working for the founder of the Caucasus Emirate and joined the Islamic State in 2013. Chatayev is currently wanted in Russia on terrorism charges and is sanctioned on a U.N. terrorism list for “training and redeploying” Russian-speaking militants in Syria back into Russia. Quoting unidentified intelligence sources, the Turkish newspaper said Chatayev planned the attack in a rental house in an Istanbul neighborhood near a shopping mall. And it said surveillance video shows the terrorists taking a taxi from the shopping mall to the airport on the day of the attack.
Although Turkey and Western governments believe the Islamic State was linked to the massacre, it remains unclear if the attackers were dispatched to Turkey by top Islamic State leaders. But if the effect of the Istanbul bloodshed persuades the group’s commanders to call on Russian-speaking cadres to launch more terrorist attacks, it would mean the extremists have committed some of their most capable fighters to their foreign terrorist enterprise.
Far-right party in France fails in bid to capture regional office
Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Front party, exits a polling booth during the second round of regional elections in Henin-Beaumont, northern France. (Michel Spingler/AP)
CALAIS, France — French voters turned out in droves Sunday to prevent a surging anti-establishment, anti-immigration party from capturing regional office, a week after the once-fringe group shocked many by leading the nationwide vote in the first round of elections.
As the votes were counted, the initial results made clear that the National Front had been barred from office, and they reinforced the party’s narrative that a sizable minority of France’s citizens are being shut out from power. The group, which has campaigned to stop immigration, slash benefits to non-citizens and restrict France’s ties to the European Union, has already shifted France’s debate around immigration, pushing mainstream leaders to take a harder line against refugees and non-citizens.
National Front leader Marine Le Pen, considered by some to be Europe’s Donald Trump, tailored her message to disaffected voters who feel stuck in the mire of their nation’s listless economy. With a charismatic personality that contrasts with the introverted President François Hollande, Le Pen was powering into the top rung of French politics even before a year bookended by terrorist attacks in Paris and dominated by a refugee crisis in between.
A new video appears to show Russian soldiers in Syria
Russian soldiers and pro-Russian volunteers during a military parade rehearsal in preparation for the Victory Day parade in Simferopol, Crimea, on April 12, 2014. (AFP/Yuri Lashov)
Reports of Russia’s military presence have concerned leaders around the world, and on Saturday media said two Russian planes carrying aid landed in Latakia.
It took a while for Russian leaders to acknowledge reports the country is helping Syria beyond funding and humanitarian aid, but leaders confirmed Wednesday there are Russian advisers in the war-torn country after witnesses in Syria saw Russian ground troops.
A new video uploaded on YouTube appears to show the Russian soldiers in Syria.
World News Forum 
You must be logged in to post a comment.