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Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said yesterday that the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslims, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Al-Sistani, has warned against using his fatwa which led to creating the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in 2014 to confront Daesh, for political or economic gains in favour of non-national projects.

In a statement issued on the 7th anniversary of Sistani's non-binding legal opinion, Al-Kadhimi said: "Our beloved country has gone through very difficult circumstances in those days, which put it before a dangerous existential challenge, had it not been for God's protection and the fatwa issued by the supreme authority, Mr. Ali Al-Sistani that had stopped this terrorist monster that scared the entire world."

"The fatwa has led to the elimination of this organisation during a period the world could not have imagined," he added.

Al-Kadhimi said the fatwa emanated from Al-Sistani's patriotic spirit which only answers to his Iraqi identity, leaving sectarian and ethnic lines separate.

OPINION: Pro-Sistani factions leave Shia forces, but Iraq's PM signals they are here to stay

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Iraq PM: Sistani warned of using PMF for partisan projects - Middle East Monitor

Over her long life the Queen has entertained almost every president that served during her lifetime, theonly notable exception being Lyndon Johnson, who in fact never visited Europe during his time inoffice, his energies in foreign policy being almost entirely focusedon Vietnam.

Including President Truman, whom she met when she was heir to the throne, President Hoover, whom she encountered after hed retired, and now Joe Biden, shes done her bit for the special relationship with a totalof 14of these statesmen. Theonlyother person alive today who might rival that claim is Henry Kissinger.

At any rate, she has had to smoothover the difficult times and make the absolute mostof the good times. As a hereditary monarch descendantof the kings that used to rule the American colonies and major celeb above all party politics, she holds a special place in the special relationship, able tooffer a friendly hand to a president who may be annoyed and disappointed in a British prime minister, which has been a more common situation than many assume.

A toast, then, to 14 veryspecial relationships

Princess Elizabeth and Harry S Truman

Princess Elizabeth and Harry Truman

(AFP/Getty)

Sadly, by the time the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip wenton a tourof Canada her father, George VI was ill with the cancer that was soon to take his life. At just 25 she and Philip nipped down to Washington to be entertained by President and Mrs Truman.

British and US troops were then fighting together in a UN force against communist insurgents in Korea. It was the coldestof times in the Cold War, andone when the Americans were distrustfulof sharing their nuclear secrets with the British.

The Queen and Herbert Hoover

The Queen with Herbert Hoover in 1957

(Popperfoto/Getty)

The elderly Hoover had left the Whitehouse in 1933, but was around long enough to be parked next to the Queen at a dinner in her honour during her visit to see Eisenhower.

The Queen and Dwight Eisenhower

The Queen with Dwight Eisenhower, in 1957

(AFP/Getty)

Ike was an almost grandfatherly figure to the Queen and by the time they met in 1957 Anglo-American relations were in a poor state. The British had kept America in the dark about their collusion with the French and Israelis in the Suez crisis and invasionof Egypt. The Americans sold sterling until the British gave up their imperialist delusions, and remained suspiciousof Britains unreliable spies. Prime Minister Macmillan deployed the Queen to spark some goodwill.

The Queen and John F Kennedy

(PA)

Understandably enough, the Queen felt a littleovershadowed by the super glam Jackie Kennedy, but Jack had spent plentyof time in London before and during the war, when his father Joe served as US ambassador, and was at ease in the Queens company. Somethingof an Anglophile, Kennedy let the British have US nuclear weapons technology, and security cooperation was at last restored.

The Queen and Richard Nixon

The Queen and Nixon, in 1970

(PA)

There is some gossip to the effect that the president tried to pair his eldest daughter Triciaoff with Prince Charles, which would probably have made for some quite dramatic stories and conspiracy theories lateron. The Princeof Wales wasnt up for it. Nixons relations with Labours Harold Wilson were friendly enough, even though hed been a nasty figure for the British left, and Nixon was honoured to attend a cabinet meeting.

With Wilsons successor Heath, the man who took Britain into Europe, Nixon was puzzled by Heaths coldness, which was partly down to the prime ministersodd personality and partly to his faith that the UKs destiny lay across the channel rather than the Atlantic, and didnt want the French to think Britaina mere Trojan horse for American ambitions. The Wilson government had long refused to send British troops to Vietnam, which spoiled the special relationship, and Heath didnt do much to repair it.

The Queen and Gerry Ford

Meeting Gerry Ford in 1976

(PA)

Ford followed after Nixons resignation and was another prospect charmed by the Queen. Notoriously clumsy and noones ideaof an intellectual, (Lyndon Johnson remarked that Ford couldnt fart and chew gum at the same time), Ford nonetheless gracefully accompanied the Queenon the dance floor only for the band to strike up The Lady is a Tramp. The British were soon after a multimillion dollar loan from the US, but it was not forthcoming.

The Queen and Jimmy Carter

The Queen and Jimmy Carter in 1977

(PA)

Carter disliked pomp and was the most informalof presidents, so much so that he reportedly gave the Queen Mother a big smackeron the lips when he was introduced to theold girl at the palace banquet. A good friend to Britain, Carter goton well with prime minister James Callaghan, a fellow Baptist, but couldnt hit itoff with Margaret Thatcher.

The Queen and Ronald Reagan

Meeting Reagan at home in 1984

(PA)

Theonly presidential couple to host the Queen at home, Ronald and Nancy Reagan had the Queen and her consortover to the Reagan ranch in California. The attraction seems mainly to have been the horses, and Queen and president enjoyed their horseback sightseeing in Windsor Great Park. The Queen was happy to make Reagan an honourary knight in recognitionof Americas covert assistance to the UK during the Falkands War. The relationship between Reagan and Thatcher was probably the strongestof anyof the transatlantic pairings, even more than theoriginal special relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

The Queen and George HW Bush

With George Bush snr in 1991

(AFP/Getty)

Bush and John Major had the common, and unhappy, experienceof following two much more charismatic figures, Reagan and Thatcher, which may have deepened their simpatico. The Queens job was to help keep the Bush White House focusedon Britain as its principal European ally, at a time when Germanys industrial power suggested a changeof tack. Bush took her to a ball game, and her visit was memorably parodied in a Naked Gun movie.

The Queen and Bill Clinton

The Queen meets Bill Clinton in 1994

(AFP/Getty)

John Majors Conservatives made the mistakeofoffering their help to the Bush campaignof 1992, and to try and dig up any embarrassing intelligence about the Democrat candidate Clintons time as a student inOxford. They didnt find much, Clinton won the election, and his personal relations with Major were no more than correct. He did, however, rate the Queen, speculating later that shed have made a fine politicianor diplomat. When his mentee Tony Blair became prime minister, the special relationship acquired some intellectual depth third way centrist/triangulating politics and priceless practical purpose in the Irish peace process.

The Queen and George W Bush

With George W Bush in 2006

(AFP/Getty)

Few British prime ministers would be able to geton close terms with presidents as contrasting as Clinton and Dubya, but Blair did, much to the disappointmentof any in his party and the country when it led us to war in Iraq. The Queens meetings with Bush were less controversial than his summits with Blair.

The Queen and BarackObama

The Queen and Obama in 2011

(PA)

If the body language and the affectionate rhetoric were anything to go by, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh seemed very fond of the Obamas despite the president making his speech of thanks for the lavish banquet during the national anthem, which was a rare gaffe. WhenMichelle put an arm round the Queen, a breachof protocol, the Queen defused the anxietyof assorted flu kids and flaks by returning the gestureof support to the First Lady. The warmth made up forObamas lackof interestor rapport with Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

The Queen and Donald Trump

(Getty)

The Palacethrew just about everything at the almost-state visitof Donald, Melania and assorted Trumps but, in the end, the trade deal that Theresa May and then Boris Johnson craved wasnt forthcoming. But the selfies were great.

The Queen and Joe Biden

When the Queen meets the 46th president, he will be her 14th president, and, at a mere 78 yearsof age, somethingof a youngster by Elizabeth IIs standardof longevity. Given that Biden and Boris Johnson arent really a match made in heaven, the tensionsover Brexit and Northern Ireland, and that Johnson has already publicly downgraded the special relationship, the Queen is well aware that she and Prince Charles will have to turnon the charm when Joe and Jill turn up to try and repair whatever damage her prime minster has inflicted.Oneof her tougher assignments.

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From the Suez crisis to the Iraq war, charting modern history through Queens meetings with US presidents - The Independent

The federal Liberal government is facing calls for an independent inquiry following allegations the military failed to respond to a complaint three years ago that Iraqi forces being trained by Canadian troops had committed war crimes.

NDP defence critic Randall Garrison suggests the complaint and concerns about the vetting of other Iraqi forces working with Canada are part of a disturbing pattern going back at least a decade, which is why he believes an independent probe is needed.

What Ive seen over time is that rank and file Canadian troops and lower levels of the officer corps have brought these issues to the attention of senior leaders, and senior leaders appear to have a pattern of telling people just not to pay attention, he said.

Why is that happening? I think there needs to be an independent inquiry. Is this the fault of certain senior leaders? Or is there something systemic here that causes us not to uphold international (law) and even our own national law?

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Military police are currently investigating the handling of an incident in September 2018, where Canadian soldiers were helping with the enrolment of 270 Iraqi troops for a U.S.-led training mission near the northern city of Mosul.

An internal report obtained by The Canadian Press and first reported on by Postmedia says the Canadians were shown videos of war crimes and human rights violations being perpetrated by the Iraqi troops they were there to train.

Yet when the Canadians raised the issue with their commanders, according to the report, they were told the matter would be dealt with and that they were to ignore the videos and carry on.

One of the soldiers involved said he tried to raise the issue with his commanders on three different occasions, but that he and other members of his unit remain uncertain whether appropriate action was effectively taken.

A separate, secret memo obtained by The Canadian Press shows then-defence chief general Jonathan Vance was warned in January 2020 that the vetting of Iraqi security forces with whom Canadian troops might have interacted lacked sufficient depth.

Garrison says the recent concerns are a continuation of issues first raised in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, when the military was accused of having transferred detainees to local authorities despite knowing they might be tortured.

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That is why he believes the inquiry should also include a fresh look at what happened then. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who previously served in Afghanistan, rebuffed NDP calls in 2016 for such an inquiry into the Afghan detainee affair.

Things that were war crimes came to the attention of Canadians, were referred up the chain of command, and nothing happened, Garrison told The Canadian Press.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan in the House of Commons on Thursday questioned the governments decision to extend Canadas mission in Iraq given concerns about the Iraqi forces working with Canadian troops.

Canada is contributing to greater peace and security in the world and remains a strong partner in the fight against (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), Sajjans parliamentary secretary Anita Vandenbeld told Bezan.

We are committed to meeting our obligations under international and domestic law. The Canadian Armed Forces is no longer operating with the Iraqi security forces related to these allegations.

Experts say it is not surprising that Canadian troops found themselves interacting with Iraqi soldiers who may have committed atrocities given the countrys recent history, and that part of their mission is to prevent such behaviour in the future.

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This sounds kind of maybe counterintuitive, but it just reinforces how much were needed there, said Bessma Momani, an expert on Middle Eastern politics at the University of Waterloo.

Yet both Momani and fellow Middle East expert Thomas Juneau from the University of Ottawa said the reports underscore the need for better transparency and accountability when operating in such environments and with such partners.

The government should be more transparent with Canadians about the challenges involved in the mission in Iraq, and about what we are trying to accomplish, Juneau said in an email.

The government should also specifically be more transparent about what it is doing to make sure that Canadian troops deployed in Iraq, or in other comparable missions, comply with international law on these matters (and also on what happens if or when troops fail to comply with international law).

2021 The Canadian Press

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Feds face calls for inquiry into militarys handling of Iraq war crime reports - Global News

Fraunhofer Institute have just unveiled the Quantum System One, the country's first superconducting quantum computer built by IBM.

Five years after IBM made its first five-qubit quantum processor available for users to access over the cloud, the company is now showing off the first quantum computer that it has physically built outside of its New York-based data centers.

All the way across the Atlantic, scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have just unveiled the IBM Quantum System One the country's first superconducting quantum computer that Big Blue was contracted to build especially for the organization.

The device, which contains one of IBM's 27-qubit Falcon processors, came online a few weeks ago and has already been made available to Fraunhofer's scientists and some of the institute's partners. German academics and organizations outside of Fraunhofer will, from now on, be welcome to arrange monthly contracts to use the computer too for research, education and training purposes.

Fraunhofer's partnership with IBM was signed last year, marking the start of a global expansion for Big Blue's quantum hardware. The company released the Quantum System One in 2019, pitching it as the world's first commercial quantum computer; but until now, users have only accessed the device over the cloud, by connecting to IBM's Quantum Computation Center located in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Physically bringing the hardware to a new location for the first time was never going to be easy and the global COVID-19 pandemic only added some extra hurdles. Typically, explains Bob Sutor, chief quantum exponent at IBM, the company would've shipped some key parts and a team of in-house specialists to Germany to assemble the quantum computer, but the pandemic meant that this time, everything had to be done remotely.

IBM's engineers had to rely on NASA-inspired methods of remote assembly. "How do you train people that are thousands of miles away, when you can't just run up to them and say: 'Do this'?" Sutor tells ZDNet. "We had to train local teams remotely and work with them remotely to assemble everything and get this machine running. We developed new techniques to actually put these systems around the world without travelling there. And it worked."

To train German engineers from the local IBM development lab, Sutor's team put together a virtual course in quantum assembly. From installing the computer's refrigeration system to manipulating the Falcon processor, no detail was left out and the device successfully launched in line with the original schedule.

For Fraunhofer, this means that the institute and its partners will now have access to a leading-edge quantum computer built exclusively for German organizations, instead of relying on cloud access to US-based systems.

Since the partnership was announced, the institute has been busy investigating potential applications of quantum computing and designing quantum algorithms that might show an advantage over computations carried out with classical computing.

This is because quantum computing is nascent, and despite the huge potential that researchers are anticipating, much of the technology's promise is still theoretical. Existing quantum processors like IBM's Falcon come with too few qubits and too high an error-rate to resolve large-scale problems that are relevant to businesses. The research effort, therefore, consists of spotting the use-cases that might be suited to the technology once the hardware is ready.

"For users, they need to get in now, they need to understand what quantum computers are, what they're useful for and what are viable approaches using quantum computers that will get them an advantage over using classical computing," says Sutor.

At Fraunhofer, researchers have been looking at a variety of applications ranging from portfolio optimization in finance to logistics planning for manufacturers, through error correction protocols that could improve critical infrastructure and molecular simulation to push chemistry and materials discovery.

Working in partnership with the German Aerospace Center, for example, the institute has been conducting research to find out if quantum algorithmscould simulate electro-chemical processes within energy storage system which in turn could help design batteries and fuel cells with better performance and more energy density.

For Annkatrin Sommer, research coordinator at Fraunhofer, the choice of IBM as a quantum partner was a no-brainer. "We really wanted to go for cutting-edge technology where you have the ability to start developing algorithms as fast as possible," she tells ZDNet.

IBM's offer in quantum computing has some significant strengths. Since the release of its first cloud-based quantum processor, the company now has made over 20 Quantum System One machines available, which are accessed by more than 145 organizations around the world. Two billion quantum circuits are established daily with the cloud processors, and IBM is on track to break a trillion circuits before the end of the summer.

The Falcon processors used in the Quantum System One are 27 qubits, but the company is working in parallel on a chip called Hummingbird, which has 65 qubits. Big Blue recentlypublished a quantum hardware roadmapin which it pledged to achieve over 1,000 qubits by 2023 enough to start seeing the early results of quantum computing. Ultimately, IBM is aiming to produce a million-qubit quantum system.

"If I were to throw out a toy system and say: 'Here you go, play, I don't know if it'll ever get better' no one would care," says Sutor. "People need confidence that the machines and the software and apps on them will reasonably quickly be able to do work better than just classical computers."

For an institute like Fraunhofer, the rapid scaling of quantum technologies that IBM is promising is appealing. And the German organization is not alone in placing its bets on Big Blue. This year will also see an IBM Quantum System One installed in Japanas part of a partnership with the University of Tokyo; and back in the US, the Cleveland Clinichas just placed a $500 million order for IBM to build quantum hardware on-premises.

But despite IBM's credentials, Fraunhofer's research team is also keen to stress that it is too early to tell which approach or approaches to quantum computing will show results first. The industry is expanding fast, and withnew companies jumping on the quantum bandwagon every so often, it is hard to differentiate between hype and reality.

This is why, in addition to investing in IBM's superconducting qubits, Fraunhofer is also investigating the use of different approaches like ion traps or diamond.

"Currently, it's not clear which technology will be the best," says Sommer, "and we will probably have different technologies working in parallel for different use cases. It makes sense to start projects with different approaches and after some time, measure how far you got and if you reached your goals. Then, you decide with which technology you should proceed."

It remains that Germany's shiny new Quantum System One puts the country in a favorable position to compete in what isincreasingly shaping to become a global race to lead in quantum computing.

The German government has already launched a 2 billion ($2.4 billion) funding program for the promotion of quantum technologies in the country, which comes in addition to the European Commission's 1 billion ($1.20 billion) quantum flagship.

Meanwhile, in the US, a $1.2 billion budget was allocated to the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018. And China, for its part,has made no secret of its ambition to become a leading quantum superpower.

The UK government has also invested a total 1 billion ($1.37 billion) in a National Quantum Technologies Programme. In the next few years, the country is hoping to follow Germany's lead andlaunch its very first commercial quantum computer, which will be built by California-based company Rigetti Computing.

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IBM's first quantum computer outside of the US has just gone live - ZDNet

DAHLGREN, Va.

The Innovation Lab at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) hosted its first-ever hackathon in partnership with Microsoft June 2-4.

While the term hackathon may conjure up familiar depictions in media of a raucous semi-sporting event where audiences look on as hackers write line by line of code to break into a borderline impenetrable system, the event does not always quite look like that. This hackathon looked a lot like a room full of smart, creative people working together to develop rapid solutions to difficult problems.

Participants in NSWCDDs first hackathon were challenged to utilize Microsofts quantum computing toolkit to generate solutions to assigned problems.

The Navy is at the forefront of quantum [computing] efforts and Microsoft is very excited to collaborate with the Navy and excited to do this hackathon with the Innovation Lab here at Dahlgren, said Microsoft Technology Strategist Dr. Monica DeZulueta. The caliber of people participating here is phenomenal.

The event kicked off with a quantum computing bootcamp led by Microsoft quantum computing professionals. Participants in the hackathon along with approximately 25 more eager quantum students who joined the event via Microsoft Teams were introduced to quantum computing basics and the Q# programming language.

Quantum computing is a fundamentally different mode of computing from what has traditionally been in use. While classical computing relies on bits of 1s and 0s, quantum computing qbits can exist as 1s and 0s simultaneously.

Although still an emerging field of application, quantum computing holds incredible implications for generating answers to previously intractable problems. From logistics solutions such as flight path optimization to more rapid, higher-fidelity modeling and simulation, quantum computing may play a key role in giving the warfighter the technological advantage over adversaries.

The goal of this hackathon is to get the workforce thinking about quantum computing, said Innovation Lab Director Dr. John Rigsby.

Innovation Lab Deputy Director Tamara Stuart added, Were already seeing how quantum communication and quantum sensors are enhancing our technologies and how we are thinking about these applications in the future. Everybody is expecting a quantum computing revolution to come so we are gearing up.

Rigsby and Stuart said an enthusiastic response followed the call for hackathon participants. Each department across NSWCDD sent its best and brightest minds to compete and vie for the first place title in the bases first-ever hackathon.

When the hacking began in earnest on day two of the event, the spirit of the anticipated battle of the departments shifted from competitive to collaborative as rival teams began to combine brainpower to attack the puzzling set of problems created by Microsoft quantum computing professionals.

Each team presented their solutions on the third and final day of the event. Along with the solutions to the problem set, participants were asked by the events judges to consider potential applications for quantum computing in their everyday work.

Following presentations, judges declared a three-way tie between Dahlgrens Electromagnetic and Sensor System Department, Gun and Electric Weapon Systems Department and the Integrated Combat Systems Department.

Chief Technology Officer Jennifer Clift highlighted the importance of events like this hackathon.

The Innovation Lab is a place for our workforce to explore new technologies and solve complex naval challenges. Our goal is to tap into the entrepreneurial spirit of our talented workforce and provide the resources and environment necessary to discover, innovate and deliver cutting edge capabilities to the warfighter. Events like this hackathon allow our scientists and engineers to learn new skills, collaborate to solve complex challenges, and prepare for future naval technology needs, said Clift.

Stefano Coronado, a scientist from the Electromagnetic and Sensor System Department, said the in-person collaboration was exciting.

This hackathon was a great experience for me, said Coronado.

NSWCDDs Innovation Lab leadership said this is the first of many similar events to come with hackathons hopefully occurring multiple times a year. Plans for the warfare centers second hackathon are already in the works.

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NSWCDD Focuses on Quantum Computing with its First-Ever Hackathon - Naval Sea Systems Command