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By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Posted July 14, 2017

VATICAN CITY (CNS) To understand the current situation in Iraq the evolving and complex conflicts there, and the fear and resilience of its Christians one has to understand its past, which is often ignored or unknown in the West, said a former papal representative to the country.

History is itself a victory over ignorance, marginalization and intolerance; it is a call for respect and to not repeat the mistakes of the past, said Cardinal Fernando Filoni in his book, The Church in Iraq.

(See a related video.)

The book is also a testimonial to the victims of the Islamic terrorism of ISIS, he told the Christians and non-Christians he met when Pope Francis sent him as his personal representative to encounter and pray with these shaken communities that fled the Islamic State.

That brief visit in 2014 was a homecoming of sorts.

The Italian cardinal, now 71, lived in Iraq during a time of great tension and turmoil. St. John Paul II made him the apostolic nuncio the popes diplomatic representative to Iraq and Jordan in January 2001. Several months later, after 9/11, the United States administration started building pressure against Iraq, pushing for military action.

St. John Paul firmly opposed military intervention and, despite the fact that he sent peace-seeking missions to Washington and Baghdad, the United States attacked.

Not even the stern warning of the saint-pope could deter President George W. Bush from his purpose, the cardinal wrote. He said the day of the invasion, March 19, 2003, became a very sad day for Iraq and for the whole world.

The nunciature never shut down, not even during the airstrikes and occupation or the ensuing chaos of looting and revenge.

It was during his tenure there in Baghdad, which ended in 2006, that Cardinal Filoni went through the nunciatures archives, which housed a rich history of documentation and letters, detailing the history of the Vaticans diplomatic relations with Iraq and the establishment of an episcopal see in Baghdad in the 16th century.

Naturally, this caught my eye, he said, and the idea for a book emerged there in the wealth of material buried in an archive.

The books chapters take a historical overview of the churchs long presence in Mesopotamia, dating back to the time of St. Thomas the Apostle, and looks at how the expanding early Christian communities there evolved, faced internal divisions and challenges, and still shared their unique gifts.

Looking at the churchs journey in the past also made him realize: This is unknown to us. And so I thought, writing a book that traced, especially for us in the West, the birth, the evolution of this history up to present day could be of service to Christianity in the Middle East, particularly in Mesopotamia, which is suffering because of expulsions, persecution or discrimination.

Published first in Italian in 2015, The Catholic University of America Press is releasing the English edition toward the end of July in the United States and in mid-August in the United Kingdom.

The cardinal spoke to Catholic News Service in Rome during an interview at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, where he has served as prefect since 2011.

The book looks particularly at how minorities and the country as a whole suffered invasions, despots and Western hegemony, and yet tenaciously held on to its cultures and religious identities.

In order to defend their identity within this great sea of Islam, Christians had to withdraw into themselves, keeping their own language, which dates back to the time of Jesus, that is, Aramaic, he said. While, over the centuries, the everyday spoken language developed into different dialects, the liturgy still maintained the original form of ancient Aramaic, he added.

Even though Christians held on to their traditions and culture, they were truly open and didnt ignore the world around them, learning and speaking Arabic, for example, he said.

This kind of everyday contact between Christians and their Muslim neighbors also led to a sharing of ideas, influence and mutual respect on the local level, Cardinal Filoni said.

For example, he recalled when he lived in Baghdad, he visited a church dedicated to Mary in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood.

I was astounded by the fact that the walls of this church were dirty with what looked like handprints smudged everywhere, he said.

When he asked church members, Why dont you clean this? They said No! Because these are the signs of the Muslim women who come to pray to Mary, mother of Jesus, and as a sign of their prayer, they leave an imprint of their hand.'

Since Mary is revered by Muslims, he said many expectant mothers visit this church to pray to her for protection.

This influence, for example of Mary, in peoples daily lives and similar devotions to prayer, fasting and charity, fostered closer relationships, mutual respect and understanding between Christians and Muslims, he said.

A modern Iraq, full of history, of possibility and responsibility not least because of its huge oil resources, which continue to be a source of discord, jealousy, envy, and oppression should be defended, helped, and supported more than ever, the cardinal concludes in his book.

While the primary responsibility for allowing Muslim, Christian and other minorities to return to their country and help build its future belongs to Iraqs three largest communities Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds the rest of the world is also in some way responsible for this crisis, he told CNS.

We all have to assume responsibility to rebuild, which is very difficult, because once people emigrate, they very rarely go back, he said. But if we can still preserve the coexistence of these even small communities (that remain), this will benefit peace, which is essential so that Christians dont keep leaving behind this ancient land so rich in culture, tradition and history.

Read the original post:
Cardinal hopes church's history of survival in Iraq will help its future - CatholicPhilly.com

DUBAI -- OPEC member Kuwait said on Friday it would be premature to cap Nigerian and Libyan oil production as the two African countries' output needed to stabilize further.

The market is on a recovery track due to rising global demand, Kuwait's OPEC governor Haitham Al-Ghais told Reuters.

In an effort to eradicate a supply glut, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is curbing output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018, while Russia and other non-OPEC producers are cutting half as much.

But oil prices have fallen more than 15 per cent this year due to still-booming supplies and stubbornly high global stocks, which remain way above OPEC targets despite the cut agreement.

A ministerial committee from OPEC and non-OPEC countries, which is headed by Gulf OPEC member Kuwait, meets in Russia on July 24 to discuss compliance with the cuts, from which Nigeria and Libya are exempt due to years of output-sapping unrest.

"All this talk about putting a production cap on Libya and Nigeria is premature," Al-Ghais said. "Data so far is showing that the real spike in production only happened in June."

The official added that output had increased on average by between 300,000 and 500,000 bpd from the two countries combined since the start of the supply-cutting agreement in January 2017.

He said representatives from Libya and Nigeria had been invited to a technical OPEC/non-OPEC committee meeting on July 22 ahead of the ministerial gathering, to give presentations on production from both countries.

"We have to look at the sustainability and stability of production from those countries," said Al-Ghais, who also heads the technical committee. "We need to wait and see more production data before we can make any decision."

The technical committee could make recommendations on Nigeria and Libya, which the ministerial committee would then review. The latter cannot take production decisions but can make recommendations to OPEC and other participating producers, which are scheduled to meet formally in November.

Al-Ghais said that despite production increases from Libya and Nigeria, there were signs of market rebalancing including U.S. government data showing a large drop in stockpiles.

"We feel that the market is on the right way of correcting itself," he said. "Demand will pick up and we expect to see stronger demand in the third quarter."

Originally posted here:
Premature to cap Libya, Nigeria oil output: Kuwait's OPEC governor - BNN

Libya is struggling to control its long borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger.

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti on Thursday proposed a pact with Libya to combat human trafficking during a visit to Tripoli to meet mayors of cities affected by the scourge.

"We will make a pact to liberate our lands from traffickers," Minniti told 13 mayors from south Libya, urging them to mobilise against people smugglers.

Libya is struggling to control its long borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger.

Cities in south Libya have become the first stops for many illegal immigrants' journeys to Europe.

EU interior ministers on July 6 pledged to back an urgent European Commission plan to help crisis-hit Italy, which has been overwhelmed by a wave of migrants arriving by sea from North Africa.

"We have a moral duty to eliminate this traffic that has caused deaths... and extraordinary and unacceptable pressure on my country," Minniti said.

Fayez al-Sarraj, leader of the internationally backed Government of National Unity, said "Libya will do its best to relieve the pressure on the Italian coast", according to a tweet by Rome's embassy to Tripoli, the only Western diplomatic mission to have reopened in the Libyan capital.

Minniti also visited Tripoli in May to hand over four patrol boats repaired in Italy as both countries fight illegal immigration.

The situation has worsened since the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with smugglers exploiting the chaos to increase the flow of illegal migrants to Italy just 300 kilometres away.

Italy has been urging its EU partners to make a "concrete contribution" to dealing with the crisis both in terms of trying to limit departures from Libya and also taking in some of those who survive the perilous journey.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned last week that Italy did not have "unlimited" capacity to keep taking in people, having already accepted around 85,000 of the 100,000 people who have arrived this year.

Read the original here:
Italy proposes Libya pact to curb illegal migration - New Vision

WASHINGTONThe Pentagon has expanded the criteria for the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary medal to include the U.S. campaign against ISIS in Libya.

The geographic criteria for the medal highlights the extent of the American operation to remove ISIS from the Libyan city of Sirte.

The U.S. military operation to liberate Sirte from ISIS was conducted from Aug. 1, 2016 until Dec. 19, 2016, and authorized under the Obama administration. The operation was dubbed Operation Odyssey Lightning.

Service members who participated in Operation Odyssey Lightning from Aug. 1 to Dec.19, 2016 the date Libya ended operations in Sirte, are eligible for the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary medal.

Odyssey Lightning was launched with the support of Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) the current U.N.- and U.S.-backed government that came into existence after extensive political negotiations in December 2015.

The operations primary objective was limited in scope to the removal of ISIS in Sirte, according to officials at U.S. Africa Command. However, the criteria for the GWOT Expeditionary medal for the Libya operation includes Algeria, Chad, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Libya, Niger, Spain, Tunisia and the Mediterranean Sea from the Straits of Gibraltar.

Despite the limited scope of the operation to liberate Sirte, the size and scale of U.S. air support assets needed to assist Libyan ground forces combating ISIS was quite large.

The expansive geographic criteria for the GWOT-E in Odyssey Lightning is a result of regional and offshore U.S. supporting assets to include air, intelligence, strike aircraft and surveillance assets, according to Maj. Audricia Harris, a spokesperson for the Pentagon.

"At any given time there are approximately 5,000-6,000 U.S. personnel on the continent [Africa]," said Robyn Mack, a spokesperson for AFRICOM. Most of those forces operate out Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.

The prosecution of U.S. operation against ISIS in Libya was similar in design to Operation Inherent Resolve, where a U.S. led coalition is battling ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The U.S. has thousands of U.S. troops and supporting air assets outside of Iraq and Syria supporting operations against ISIS to include Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, and Bahrain, according to Harris. Overall, U.S. ground forces in Syria are small in comparison to the tens of thousands of support personnel and air assets outside Iraq and Syria with roughly 5,000 troops in Iraq and a force manning level set at 500 in Syria.

However, the expansive criteria for the Odyssey Lightning campaign also highlights an expanding role of U.S. forces in north Africa and ISIS reach in the region, according to Emily Estelle, an expert covering Libya at the American Enterprise Institute.

It reflects AFRICOMs recognition of the extent of ISISs network in northern Africa. Sirte served as ISISs hub in Africa, from which the group both recruited militants and sent fighters to neighboring states in the Maghreb and the Sahel, Estelle told Military Times.

The U.S. footprint in north Africa has been steadily growing over the last several years because of threats posed by a host of non-state actors like ISIS, Boko-Haram, and al-Qaida offshoots operating in areas of ungoverned spaces.

"We [AFRICOM] maintain several enduring locations such as Garoua, Cameroon; Chebelley, Djibouti; and Agadez, Niger on the African continent which give the United States options in the event of crisis and enable partner capacity building," Mack told Military Times.

In Niger, for instance, the U.S. built a $100 million dollar drone base back in September, primarily to keep tabs on movement of Boko-Haram, according to a report by Reuters.

This base is meant to serve ISR needs across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, and I expect the Maghreb as well, Estelle said. The benefit to [Operation Odyssey Lightning] OOL would be tracking any southward movement of ISIS personnel leaving Sirte.

As U.S. airpower pushed ISIS fighters out of Sirte, the fighters attempted to flee the city and Libya. I expect that AFRICOM dedicated ISR assets from Niger to keep track of ISIS fighters attempting to leave Libya to the south, Estelle explained.

In Chad, the U.S. has a strong relationship with Chadian forces, and it is likely the U.S. is operating small training posts and forward operating bases to monitor the movement of militants in the region, Estelle said.

Algeria has a more tenuous relationship with the U.S., but the U.S. has provided Algeria with access to U.S. intelligence to combatal-Qaidain the Maghreb, or AQIM. In turn, Algeria has opened its airspace to U.S. and French air assets, Estelle said.

It is not entirely clear if the U.S. has ever conducted airstrikes or operations outside of Libya in support of Odyssey Lightning. When asked by Military Times, a spokesperson for AFRICOM responded that "asmall number of U.S. forces have gone in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces and they will continue to do so as we strengthen the fight against ISIS and other terrorist organizations."

Much like the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. brought to bear the force of tens thousands of U.S. ground forces without having to put a large footprint on the ground in Libya. Outside air assets and small surveillance outposts throughout north Africa and the Sahel assisted in the operation to liberate the city of Sirte from ISIS.

Odyssey Lightning was temporarily reinstated at the request of the Libyan government on Jan. 18, 2017 to strike a couple of ISIS camps outside of Sirte. "The ISIS terrorists targeted included individuals who fled to the remote desert camps from Sirte in order or reorganize," Mack said.

Read more from the original source:
US troops eligible for medal for US operation against ISIS in Libya - Military Times

In fact, they justified the violence as necessary to the movement and war, he pleads.

The plaintiff officer is identified as Officer John Doe Smith, a duly commissioned officer acting in the line of duty in East Baton Rouge Parrish. The complaint filed in U.S. district court in the Middle District of Louisiana pleads that on July 17, 2016, he was working as a police officer when he was shot by a person violently protesting against police, and which violence was caused or contributed to by the leaders of and by BLACK LIVES MATTER a militant anti-police organization.

The lawsuit was filed just as the nation remembered the five officers killed and wounded in Dallas on July 7 last year and grieved the execution murder of NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia. The 48-year-old mother of threewas shot in the face this past week as she sat in her law enforcement vehicle.

The execution of five officers and the wounding of six others in Texas last July came just as a Black Lives Matter protest concluded. The Dallas shootings came just one day after Philando Castile of St. Paul, Minnesota, was shot by an officer and the aftermath was live streamed and narrated by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. The video went viral.

Breitbart News reported on July 17, 2016, about the execution of the three Baton Rouge police officers, and the wounding of three others near the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters on that Sunday morning. Breitbart Texas reported that the killer, Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri, was in Houston and Dallas right before his attack. Asreportedby Jerome Hudson for Breitbart News, Long left behind a lengthy, twisted history ofencouraging violence and anti-American sentimentson social media. Long was very active onTwitterand Instagram. He also called the Dallas police sniper, Micah X. Johnson one of us.

The federal complaint charges that plaintiff DERAY MCKESSON was a leader of the national unincorporated organization that is known as BLACK LIVES MATTER and other derivative and/or related organizations. It continues that in 2016 McKesson and the other defendants, Johnetta Nettie Elzie, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Network, Inc., and #BlackLivesMatter:

planned the Summer of Chaos, Weekend of Rage, and used the internet and social media to organize, stage and orchestrate protests and to attend and/or lead multiple protests and violence that accompanied the protests including, among many others, those in Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; McKinney, Texas; Dallas, Texas; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Baton Rouge protests, in large part, took place outside the Baton Rouge Police Department located in front of the former Womans Hospital on Airline Highway. This place is the same area where this shooting took place.

Black Lives Matter lists its principal place of business in California and has been formed as a partnership, the federal lawsuit states. Black Lives Matter Network, Inc., is a Delaware Corporation. It further pleads that Black Lives Matter is a national unincorporated association which states on its website donation payment receipt:

#BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society. It is an affirmation of Black folks contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

Black Lives Matter and its related associations/organizations were created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, as well as, Deray McKesson and Johnetta Elsie, all of who are leaders. The complaint says that Netta Elzie and DeRay McKesson were in Baton Rouge during the protests.

The general allegations in the federal pleading begin with At least eleven (11) police have been shot dead and at least nine (9) more wounded by BLM protesters, activists, and/or supporters.

The pleading chronicles unrest, rioting, property damage, and/or violence in Baltimore; Ferguson and other places in Missouri; McKinney, Texas; Manhattan and Harlem; Tennessee; Phoenix; Minnesota; Oregon; North Carolina; San Diego; Indiana; and other cities and states.

It cites as one example, that after Michael Brown was shot by an officer in Ferguson in 2014, BLM started a mantra of holding their hands in the air and yelling Hands up, Dont shoot. Riots began the next day. The U.S. Department of Justice released a report in March 2015 that found that [Officer] Darren Wilson was not at fault and finding that Michael Brown did not have his hands in the air. This and other actions detailed in the federal lawsuit, including after Alton Sterling was shot by a Baton Rouge Police Officer on July 5, 2016, was seized upon to further incite its followers to take action against police.

McKesson and Elzie were in Baton Rouge for the purpose of demonstrating, protesting and rioting, as well as to incite others to violence against police and other law enforcement officers, the plaintiff officer urges.

Officer John Doe Smith is described as 42 years old, with two (2) children who worked in law enforcement for over 18 years. He was shot in an ambush of Law Enforcement Officers on July 17, 2016, by an activist whose actions followed and mimicked those of another BLM activist who killed several officers in Dallas just days earlier.

The officer has asked for damages, including medical and hospital bills, saying the shot through his abdomen tore up his intestines. He has had to endure 16 surgeries to his abdomen and must now wear a colostomy bag. He has a hole in his large intestine that leaks into the exit wound which in part is a cause for continuing infections. He has also undergone three surgeries after he was shot in the head on his left side and he will have to endure more. His left ear had to be sewn back on. The officer is permanently disabled.

Officer Smith has asked for damages for physical pain and suffering, physical injuries, emotional and mental distress, pain and suffering, humiliation, embarrassment, the loss of employment opportunities and future earning capacity and lost wages, and for all litigation expenses, and other damages.

Breitbart Texas reported in November that the father of one of the officersexecuted in Dallas in July 2016 at a Black Lives Matter protest filed a lawsuit against Black Lives Matter, Rev. Al Sharpton, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, George Soros, and others charging that they inflamed and inspired a War on Police. Tometi, Cullors, Garza, McKesson and Elzie are also named in that lawsuit. Breitbart News reportedlast August that Soros Open Society Institute approved $650,000 in 2015 toinvest in technical assistance and support for the groups at the core of the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Lana Shadwickis a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter@LanaShadwick2.

Officer John Doe Smith Lawsuit Against Black Lives Matter and BLM Leaders

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Wounded Baton Rouge Officer Sues Black Lives Matter, Five Leaders