This is a demonstration of the Ford GT40 MKII V8's engine. Brace yourself. It sounds like a chorus of a dozen Mack trucks redlining simultaneously. It sounds like a really pissed off tiger made of steel tearing through a junkyard and devouring everything in its path. Its ominous, guttural growl is borderline Biblical. It sounds like the apocalypse. Bring your weak-ass import to the altar. This is its reckoning. Press play, hear it roar, and bow down:
[H/T: Car and Driver]
BEIRUT: ISIS is holding at least eight captive Lebanese soldiers in a small farmhouse one hour outside of Arsal, according to Maher al-Ammatouri, the stone worker who was kidnapped and released this week.
Ammatouri said that the soldiers were being held alongside more than 50 other hostages in the cabin, and that some had been badly beaten.
“The Sunni and Christian soldiers are in low spirits, but they are OK physically,” Ammatouri told The Daily Star. “But the soldiers that they [ISIS] know are Shiites have bad injuries.”
At 11:30 Wednesday morning, a group of armed militants descended upon the quarry near the northeastern town of Arsal where Ammatouri was working with a group of men.
Ammatouri, who is 36 and hails from the Druze Chouf town of Barouk, said the militants had singled him out and shuffled him into a waiting car.
His attackers, who had both Lebanese and Syrian accents, identified themselves. “They told me they were from ISIS.”
After an hour of driving through the rocky badlands surrounding Arsal, Ammatouri said they had reached a lone farmhouse “right near the Syrian border.”
The house, Ammatouri said, had no running water or toilets. Inside, he saw at least eight Lebanese soldiers and between 50 and 60 other individuals. At least 10 guards monitored the hostages at all times.
“I wasn’t really allowed to speak to the people because we were always monitored,” he said. He saw no heavy weaponry at the farmhouse but said the captors had guns.
Still, he was able to speak to captive soldiers Ali Hajj Hasan and Saif Zebien. “They said again and again, please try to tell our families that although we are doing OK at the moment, we need them to do whatever they can to save us.”
The Shiite soldiers, he said had been beaten “with electric cables, with bamboo sticks and with electricity tools,” and had visible injuries to their arms and legs.
The other soldiers, however, appeared to be in decent health. All of the hostages sleep on thin foam mattresses, Ammatouri added.
He received two meals, both bulgur wheat, in the thirty-odd hours he was held.
Ammatouri said he was treated civilly by the ISIS members. “They didn’t beat me,” he said, but added that they had taken, and still retained, his mobile phone. The ISIS members told Ammatouri they had kidnapped him because they wanted information about “who was entering and leaving Arsal.”Members of the terrorist group insisted that a prisoner swap was the primary condition of the soldiers’ release. “They told me there is no other solution other than releasing their men from Roumieh Prison.”
ISIS has already executed two Lebanese soldiers it captured during clashes with the Army in Arsal in early August.
Another Islamist group, the Nusra Front, is holding several security personnel it also kidnapped during the Arsal battles. Between them, the two groups have at least 21 captive servicemen.
While negotiations for the release of the captured servicemen have been slow and wrought with political sensitivities, Ammatouri’s family moved swiftly to secure his release.
“The workmen at the quarry called us 10 minutes after he was captured,” said Ammatouri’s brother Bassel.
“We went immediately to Arsal, where the Arsalis were very helpful.”
Ammatouri said he was sure that at least one or two of the ISIS members who kidnapped him had contacts in Arsal.
In close conjunction with MP Walid Jumblatt, the Ammatouri family successfully lobbied for their son’s release.
He was freed around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the day after he was kidnapped.
Ammatouri said his family had not paid any ransom to the kidnappers but did not know if a sum had been offered by Jumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party.
The Druze leader had canceled all his appointments Wednesday, apparently clearing his schedule to deal with Ammatouri’s case.
“Walid Jumblatt took care of the whole thing,” he said.
Back in his Chouf village on the eve of Eid al-Adha, Ammatouri’s family and friends could be heard cheering in the background during his brief telephone call with The Daily Star.
“May God protect those [hostages] who are still with ISIS. I hope everyone will be released soon,” said Ammatouri breathlessly, taking a momentary break from receiving well-wishers.
“The whole country needs to be united and all the sects need to become one in order for the soldiers to be released.”
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called Friday for a quick end to the ordeal of soldiers and policemen held hostage by Islamist militants, while urging the Lebanese to rally behind the Army in the battle against terrorism that is threatening to destabilize the country.
The Lebanese Army, meanwhile, dismantled a 50-kilogram bomb near a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Arsal, in an incident reflecting simmering tension following the deadly clashes between troops and ISIS and Nusra Front militants in the northeastern town in August.
Addressing the Lebanese and Arabs on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday which begins Saturday, Hariri said in a statement: “We renew our call for the need to end the [hostage] ordeal and quickly find solutions that would ensure the safe return of the soldiers to their families and their homeland.”
“Our joy with the Eid will not be complete before we see the kidnapped soldiers in the arms of their families. This is a responsibility worthy of national consensus that requires taking a firm decision regardless of the price,” he added.
In order for Lebanon to defeat terrorism and prevent attacks on its national sovereignty, Hariri said, the Lebanese must stand united behind the Army and security forces.
Referring to the threat of terrorism facing Lebanon following the Arsal fighting, he said: “ Lebanon today needs more than good wishes and intentions.
“It needs a decision to give priority to national interest over our sectarian and political interests. And this matter can only be achieved through restoring prestige to the state and its institutions and rallying around the Lebanese Army and legitimate security forces, because they are solely responsible for confronting terrorism and all forms of attacks on national sovereignty.”
ISIS and Nusra Front militants captured more than 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen during their brief takeover of Arsal.
They have since released seven and executed three. The two groups are seeking to swap the Lebanese hostages with Islamist detainees held at Roumieh prison.
The Cabinet Thursday granted Prime Minister Tammam Salam full mandate to negotiate by “all available means” the release of the hostages, but stopped short of endorsing a swap deal with the militants as demanded by the captors and the hostages’ families. Instead, the Cabinet reiterated its commitment to engage in indirect negotiations with the militants holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen hostage through a Qatari-sponsored mediation.
Salam sought Friday to assure the families of the captured soldiers that the government was negotiating with the kidnappers to secure the release of the hostages. He spoke by telephone with Health Minister Wael Abu Faour who was meeting with the hostages’ families at their sit-in camp on the Dahr al-Baidar highway that links Beirut with the eastern Bekaa region.
“Prime Minister Tammam Salam has expressed to the [hostages’] families his constant concern since the beginning of the Arsal incidents to stay in contact with all the families of the heroic soldiers as part of attempts to take necessary measures and steps to protect their lives, including negotiations with the kidnappers, to secure their release,” a statement released by Salam’s office said.
Noting that progress in the negotiations required a high level of secrecy to facilitate reaching a solution, “Salam has not made promises he could not deliver, but adopted transparency in addressing this complicated, thorny and dangerous file,” the statement said.
The hostages’ families have staged street protests in the past few days, blocking several roads with burning tires, including the Dahr al-Baidar highway, to press for government action to end the hostage ordeal. They have repeatedly urged the government to enter into a swap deal with the militants to secure the release of their loved ones.
After meeting Abu Faour, the families issued a statement saying they will spend the Eid al-Adha holiday at their sit-in camp on the Dahr al-Baidar highway which they vowed to keep blocked until their loved ones are released. Meanwhile, the Army discovered a barrel packed with 50 kilos of explosives near a military checkpoint outside Arsal, the military said in a statement.
An Army unit beefed up security measures in and around the area of Ras al-Sarej on the periphery of Arsal after discovering that the barrel was filled with “explosive chemicals.” Security sources told The Daily Star that the barrel contained paint thinner, which may detonate under certain conditions.
A military expert who dismantled the explosives concluded that the bomb was primed to be detonated remotely, the statement said.
The National News Agency said the explosive container consisted of four compartments: two large ones and two smaller ones that were connected by a thin metal sheet. The Army was tipped off by a local resident who thought the container looked suspicious, the report said.
Last month, three soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb that targeted an Army truck in Arsal.
BEIRUT: With the announcement this week that Iran is planning to donate military equipment to the Lebanese Army, the Islamic Republic made the seemingly unusual move of backing the same armed force as its foes, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
It also marks the latest in a number of pledges from these countries specifically meant to help the Army in its fight to protect Lebanon from belligerent extremist groups lurking on the border, including ISIS.
But is this burst of aid from various directions merely an extension of the regional power struggle or a genuine effort to shore up Lebanon in the face of a common enemy? The answer is a bit of both, analysts say, with Hezbollah and ISIS major considerations for all sides.
“Lebanon’s and the LAF’s role in the fight against groups like ISIS and the Nusra Front has shaped an expansion in the scale, scope, lethality and quality of U.S. military transfers to Lebanon,” Aram Nerguizian of the Center for Strategic & International Studies told The Daily Star.
The American focus on building up the Army is “now principally driven by the U.S. imperative to preserve what little stability still remains in a shattered Levant security architecture,” he added.
Protecting Lebanon became all the more urgent following August’s battle for Arsal, in which Nusra Front and ISIS militants briefly seized control of the Lebanese border town, resulting in scores of deaths and the kidnapping of at least 30 soldiers and policemen, 21 of whom are still in captivity.
The militants are still there, camped out in the barren outskirts of Arsal, and with Hezbollah and the Syrian army consolidating their control of the adjacent Syrian Qalamoun region, it is only a matter of time until similar clashes break out again. At the same time, both groups – along with a third, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – are believed to be seeking to build their support base in Lebanon in order to stir up sectarian unrest akin to that seen in Syria and Iraq.
As a result, bolstering Lebanon’s under-equipped and overwhelmed Army is now seen as so crucial that the U.S. is giving less importance to long-held fears that strengthening the Army could undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge.
“Many of the long-held concerns about transferring ever more capable combat systems to the LAF have grown increasingly moot in U.S. government circles,” Nerguizian said.
This has led to the transfer of “millions of rounds of small, medium and heavy ammunition for LAF ground troops” in 2014 alone, he added, including a sophisticated Hellfire missile variant that features a thermobaric warhead – i.e. one that uses oxygen from the air to create an explosion.
“As the LAF pressed on its fight against these jihadi militant groups, these and other ever more capable and sophisticated combat systems have become available to Lebanon,” he said. “The LAF and the U.S. government are discussing the fiscal feasibility of giving the LAF ground combat systems that many analysts would have dismissed outright as non-viable options for the LAF as recently as a year ago.”
With ISIS, a radical Sunni group that has sworn to persecute the region’s Shiites, at Lebanon’s back door, Iran too has stepped in to offer the Army help in fighting “extremist takfiri terrorism.”
“The donation comprises equipment that would help the Army in its heroic confrontations against this evil terrorism,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, during a visit to Lebanon this week.
The donation, which Shamkhani called “a token of love and appreciation for Lebanon and its brave Army,” is expected to be little more than just that, a token gesture. And that’s assuming that the donation is even approved by the Lebanese government – which is deeply divided over the idea – and proven not to be in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran.
Either way, Nerguizian said that the U.S. was not worried about any challenges to its own influence or ties with the Army: “Barring a shift that Iran can neither sustain nor resource under U.N. sanctions, it cannot be a competitor [with the U.S.] when it comes to building up the LAF from a conventional military standpoint.”
But even though it seems everyone is on the same page about protecting Lebanon from extremist groups, there is still an elephant in the room preventing the Army from receiving all of the pledged assistance: Hezbollah, and by extension, the Saudi-Iranian regional tussle for power.
“I really doubt it [the Iranian donation] will come through; they are already supporting Hezbollah to the extreme,” said Mario Abou Zeid, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center.
“Plus, Hezbollah’s main justification for having its weapons is that the Army is weak, so if the Army was strengthened there would be big questions over its [Hezbollah’s] arsenal. This could lead to another conflict. I can’t imagine them supporting two sides that may at some point conflict on the ground.
“ Hezbollah is also an integral part of Iranian foreign policy; I don’t think it would contribute to weakening it.”
Even more crucially, concerns over Hezbollah and over Lebanon’s four-month presidential vacuum are believed to be behind the delay in Saudi Arabia’s desperately needed $3 billion grant for French weapons, which was announced last December.
The Saudis “want to wait until Lebanon has a president who conforms to their interests and they can get guarantees that the weapons won’t end up in Hezbollah’s hands,” according to an anonymous French source cited in a story in Friday’s edition of Le Figaro.
Abou Zeid agreed that, for the international community as a whole, “Their main concern is about the end user of these weapons ... The international community is afraid that they will go to Hezbollah.”
He also pointed to something else: “The main obstacle in front of the Saudi grant is the absence of a president, plus Parliament is about to renew its mandate a second time, which is totally unconstitutional.”
Nerguizian echoed this point, arguing that the Saudi-French deal was in limbo “in part due to uncertainty surrounding who will be the country’s next president and, subsequently, the next LAF commander.”
The debate over who will fill Lebanon’s top Christian post, which has been empty since Michel Sleiman’s term ended in May, has reached a stalemate, with Iranian-backed March 8 and Saudi-aligned March 14 parties both putting forward rival candidates.
Many observers say that no resolution is expected before a thaw in Saudi-Iranian ties helps reach a compromise on a consensus candidate.
“Of course the Iranian versus Saudi offers is part of their geopolitical rivalry,” said Nadim Shehadi, an associate fellow of London-based policy institute Chatham House. “The difference is that before, Lebanon was the main theater of this confrontation, whereas now it is only one of the theaters and the less intense.”
BEIRUT: With the announcement this week that Iran is planning to donate military equipment to the Lebanese Army, the Islamic Republic made the seemingly unusual move of backing the same armed force as its foes, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
It also marks the latest in a number of pledges from these countries specifically meant to help the Army in its fight to protect Lebanon from belligerent extremist groups lurking on the border, including ISIS.
But is this burst of aid from various directions merely an extension of the regional power struggle or a genuine effort to shore up Lebanon in the face of a common enemy? The answer is a bit of both, analysts say, with Hezbollah and ISIS major considerations for all sides.
“Lebanon’s and the LAF’s role in the fight against groups like ISIS and the Nusra Front has shaped an expansion in the scale, scope, lethality and quality of U.S. military transfers to Lebanon,” Aram Nerguizian of the Center for Strategic & International Studies told The Daily Star.
The American focus on building up the Army is “now principally driven by the U.S. imperative to preserve what little stability still remains in a shattered Levant security architecture,” he added.
Protecting Lebanon became all the more urgent following August’s battle for Arsal, in which Nusra Front and ISIS militants briefly seized control of the Lebanese border town, resulting in scores of deaths and the kidnapping of at least 30 soldiers and policemen, 21 of whom are still in captivity.
The militants are still there, camped out in the barren outskirts of Arsal, and with Hezbollah and the Syrian army consolidating their control of the adjacent Syrian Qalamoun region, it is only a matter of time until similar clashes break out again. At the same time, both groups – along with a third, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – are believed to be seeking to build their support base in Lebanon in order to stir up sectarian unrest akin to that seen in Syria and Iraq.
As a result, bolstering Lebanon’s under-equipped and overwhelmed Army is now seen as so crucial that the U.S. is giving less importance to long-held fears that strengthening the Army could undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge.
“Many of the long-held concerns about transferring ever more capable combat systems to the LAF have grown increasingly moot in U.S. government circles,” Nerguizian said.
This has led to the transfer of “millions of rounds of small, medium and heavy ammunition for LAF ground troops” in 2014 alone, he added, including a sophisticated Hellfire missile variant that features a thermobaric warhead – i.e. one that uses oxygen from the air to create an explosion.
“As the LAF pressed on its fight against these jihadi militant groups, these and other ever more capable and sophisticated combat systems have become available to Lebanon,” he said. “The LAF and the U.S. government are discussing the fiscal feasibility of giving the LAF ground combat systems that many analysts would have dismissed outright as non-viable options for the LAF as recently as a year ago.”
With ISIS, a radical Sunni group that has sworn to persecute the region’s Shiites, at Lebanon’s back door, Iran too has stepped in to offer the Army help in fighting “extremist takfiri terrorism.”
“The donation comprises equipment that would help the Army in its heroic confrontations against this evil terrorism,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, during a visit to Lebanon this week.
The donation, which Shamkhani called “a token of love and appreciation for Lebanon and its brave Army,” is expected to be little more than just that, a token gesture. And that’s assuming that the donation is even approved by the Lebanese government – which is deeply divided over the idea – and proven not to be in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran.
Either way, Nerguizian said that the U.S. was not worried about any challenges to its own influence or ties with the Army: “Barring a shift that Iran can neither sustain nor resource under U.N. sanctions, it cannot be a competitor [with the U.S.] when it comes to building up the LAF from a conventional military standpoint.”
But even though it seems everyone is on the same page about protecting Lebanon from extremist groups, there is still an elephant in the room preventing the Army from receiving all of the pledged assistance: Hezbollah, and by extension, the Saudi-Iranian regional tussle for power.
“I really doubt it [the Iranian donation] will come through; they are already supporting Hezbollah to the extreme,” said Mario Abou Zeid, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center.
“Plus, Hezbollah’s main justification for having its weapons is that the Army is weak, so if the Army was strengthened there would be big questions over its [Hezbollah’s] arsenal. This could lead to another conflict. I can’t imagine them supporting two sides that may at some point conflict on the ground.
“ Hezbollah is also an integral part of Iranian foreign policy; I don’t think it would contribute to weakening it.”
Even more crucially, concerns over Hezbollah and over Lebanon’s four-month presidential vacuum are believed to be behind the delay in Saudi Arabia’s desperately needed $3 billion grant for French weapons, which was announced last December.
The Saudis “want to wait until Lebanon has a president who conforms to their interests and they can get guarantees that the weapons won’t end up in Hezbollah’s hands,” according to an anonymous French source cited in a story in Friday’s edition of Le Figaro.
Abou Zeid agreed that, for the international community as a whole, “Their main concern is about the end user of these weapons ... The international community is afraid that they will go to Hezbollah.”
He also pointed to something else: “The main obstacle in front of the Saudi grant is the absence of a president, plus Parliament is about to renew its mandate a second time, which is totally unconstitutional.”
Nerguizian echoed this point, arguing that the Saudi-French deal was in limbo “in part due to uncertainty surrounding who will be the country’s next president and, subsequently, the next LAF commander.”
The debate over who will fill Lebanon’s top Christian post, which has been empty since Michel Sleiman’s term ended in May, has reached a stalemate, with Iranian-backed March 8 and Saudi-aligned March 14 parties both putting forward rival candidates.
Many observers say that no resolution is expected before a thaw in Saudi-Iranian ties helps reach a compromise on a consensus candidate.
“Of course the Iranian versus Saudi offers is part of their geopolitical rivalry,” said Nadim Shehadi, an associate fellow of London-based policy institute Chatham House. “The difference is that before, Lebanon was the main theater of this confrontation, whereas now it is only one of the theaters and the less intense.”
BEIRUT: Curfews imposed on Syrians in villages across Lebanon amount to a “violation of Lebanon’s international human rights obligations” and create a discriminatory and hostile environment for refugees, Human Rights Watch said in statement Friday.
The watchdog criticized municipalities for adopting the restrictive measures without coordinating with the central government.
In many cases, the curfews were introduced as knee-jerk reactions to the five-day battle between the Army and radical Syrian rebels in Arsal and the subsequent execution of three hostages they abducted during the August conflict.
“The authorities have presented no evidence that curfews for Syrian refugees are necessary for public order or security in Lebanon,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at HRW, noting that his organization had identified at least 45 municipalities that had imposed curfews over the past year.
The NGO observed that vigilante groups had been formed in many towns to help municipal police enforce the curfews from sunset until sunrise, raising concerns about abuses.
The statement cited several incidents of abuse and discriminatory behavior, including restricting refugees’ movements to purchase essentials such as medicine and food, and physical assault, including stabbings, when refugees were discovered in the streets after curfew.
“Municipalities should cease imposing these curfews, which they have no authority to require, and end practices that feed into a climate of discrimination against, and stereotyping of, Syrians in Lebanon,” Houry said.
BEIRUT: Although Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement staunchly oppose a new extension of Parliament’s mandate, the postponement appears to be inevitable given the fact that holding elections has become difficult for security reasons, parliamentary sources in the Progressive Socialist Party said Friday.
“Because it is difficult to hold parliamentary polls on time, the extension of Parliament’s term is bound to happen. But the duration of the delay is still the subject of debate and negotiation,” the sources told The Daily Star.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk last month reiterated that his ministry was not prepared to hold parliamentary elections, scheduled Nov. 16, given the precarious security conditions, in the strongest signal yet that the vote would be postponed, clearing the way for a new extension of Parliament’s mandate which expires on Nov. 20.
The sources supported Machnouk’s statement in which he said that the new extension of Parliament’s term should be for two years and seven months to make it a full four-year mandate after lawmakers, citing security concerns, extended the House’s term for 17 months in May 2013.
The sources hoped that during Parliament’s extended term, a new president should be elected, a new Cabinet should be formed and parliamentary elections should be held.
The sources lamented that the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam has failed to solve the people’s daily problems, such as the water shortage, electricity cutoffs and bad roads.
Describing the situation in Lebanon as worrisome in general, the sources underlined the need for all rival political factions to be in contact with each other in order to discuss divisive issues and contain their differences.
“Resorting to the Lebanese state and upholding national unity are the only guarantee to protect our country and our national security,” the sources said.
Referring to Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb’s meeting this week with Aoun at the latter’s residence in Rabieh during which Chehayeb delivered a letter from PSP leader MP Walid Jumblatt, the sources denied media reports that the letter dealt with the presidential election, the case of the Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by ISIS and Nusra Front, or the building of camps for Syrian refugees.
However, FPM sources said Jumblatt’s letter dealt with the issue of Electricite du Liban contract workers because the Energy Ministry is currently held by Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc.
The contract workers have been protesting for months inside the EDL building to demand full-time employment with the state-run company.
Through his letter, Jumblatt wanted to coordinate with Aoun over a proposal to solve this crisis which is threatening to leave most Lebanese areas without electricity, the FPM sources said.
The PSP sources said Jumblatt’s meetings recently with various political leaders had nothing to do with the presidential election. The sources dismissed as “pure speculation” media reports that Jumblatt was proposing a plan for the election of Aoun as a president for a two-year term during which parliamentary elections could be held.
Referring to the political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a president for more than four months, the sources said the crisis has become more complicated and there are no signs pointing to the election of a successor to former President Michel Sleiman soon.
“But sooner or later, Lebanon will have a Maronite Christian president,” the sources said, urging the rival political leaders to agree on a consensus president.
Meanwhile, political sources said the PSP leader’s moves, which are coordinated with his “permanent ally,” Berri, were designed to promote a candidate for the presidency who can be accepted by all the parties after strong candidates have exhausted their chances for the country’s top Christian post.
Hezbollah is kept updated on the Berri-Jumblatt moves concerning the presidential election, especially since a party delegation visited the PSP leader this week before the latter’s trip for France, the sources said.
While Berri and Jumblatt are seeking to promote a consensus candidate for the presidency, the sources said, Aoun probably can help in choosing one name among candidates viewed as consensus nominees.
In light of the global war on ISIS and other terrorist groups, a security and military consensus applies to Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi, the sources said.
The sources added that consensus over Kahwagi needs Aoun’s approval and a constitutional amendment to allow the Army chief to run for the presidency.
Political consensus, coupled with a compromise among regional powers with influence in Lebanon, requires a president who has political expertise and maintains balanced relations with all the political parties, like former Minister Jean Obeid, the sources said.
They added that a name who combines political, security and military consensus is Lebanon’s Ambassador to the Vatican Brig. George Khoury.
The sources said that moves linked to the extension of Parliament’s term would definitely lead to refocusing attention on the presidential election on the grounds that a House that can secure a quorum to extend its mandate should first meet to elect a new president.
This afternoon at the White House, senior administration officials held a briefing on the U.S. government response to the Ebola epidemic.
He's argued controversial cases involving same-sex marriage, the secrecy of the U.S. drone campaign, and the legality of the bulk-surveillance programs for American phone records. But he's still far from a household name. Now, though, with his recent promotion to serve as the third in command at the Justice Department, Stuart Delery is inching out of the shadows.
Delery, 45, the acting associate attorney general, oversees a vast portfolio that spans civil rights investigations of police departments, environmental crimes, mortgage fraud, consumer protection and billions of dollars in federal grants that the Justice Department administers. He also may be the highest-ranking openly gay lawyer to ever work there.
As assistant attorney general, Stuart Delery oversees the largest litigating division in the Department of Justice. Department of Justice hide caption
Within the government, Delery may be best known for leading an effort to implement the Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Windsor. The high court used that case to declare unconstitutional part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines the institution as between one man and one woman. Last summer, the Delery-led task force concluded its work, and now, he says, "wherever possible, same-sex married couples have the same access to federal benefits and responsibilities as their opposite-sex counterparts."
"It was an unusual project and a satisfying one because it brought a wide range of lawyers here at the Department of Justice in partnership with our counterparts at agencies all across the government, to make the promise of the Windsor decision real, to take the decision in favor of equality that the Supreme Court handed down and to extend that, make it real, for the very concrete benefits that have real impact on the real lives of people across the country," Delery said in an interview with NPR.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced last week he'd step down once a successor is confirmed by the Senate, says the Justice Department will weigh in on the side of full equality, and a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage, if the Supreme Court agrees to hear such a case this term.
Delery defers to the statements of his boss on that front. But there's no doubt the issue carries a special resonance for him. In his Senate confirmation hearing to run the DOJ civil division in 2013, Delery went off script to thank his husband, Richard Gervase, a one-time classmate at Yale Law School, and their two sons.
"My family is the most important thing in the world to me," Delery told NPR. "One of the critical insights ... of the Windsor decision from the Supreme Court was that same-sex married couples face the same joys and challenges as their opposite-sex married neighbors."
That focus on the lives of real people suffuses his to-do list at Justice.
"Protecting the safety of the food that we eat and the medicine we take is a critical priority for the department and for me personally," Delery says.
Just last month, Delery notes, a federal jury in Georgia convicted the former chief executive and two other officials at the Peanut Corporation of America in connection with a widespread salmonella outbreak in peanut butter that sickened more than 700 people.
"We hope this verdict sends a message to executives of the corporations that make much of the food that we eat that they can't put the bottom line ahead of the safety of consumers and the public," he adds.
Another top priority for Delery is protecting service members and their families from predatory lending for homes, cars and for-profit schools. He says the Justice Department has been working with the Pentagon and state and federal prosecutors to get the word out about some of those scams "and hold people accountable for what they're doing."
Over the past few years, using a Civil War-era-whistleblower law known as the False Claims Act, Delery says the department has posted record financial recoveries for health care fraud, procurement fraud and financial fraud — cases that he says are important to ensure not only that taxpayers are getting what they pay for, but also to make sure the services, especially medical services, they receive in exchange are safe and effective.
Civil settlements with banks involved in the 2008 financial crisis are still underway, Delery says.
Former DOJ official Tom Perrelli, who served as associate attorney general for more than two years in the Obama administration, credits Delery's success to his being easy to work with, in terms of both style and substance.
"Stuart's really the consummate professional — what they call a lawyer's lawyer," Perrelli says. "He is very substantive on the issues he works on."
A sign directs voters at a polling site in Atlanta. "Georgia is changing dramatically," Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter says. "There's no doubt that Georgia is next in line as a national battleground state." David Goldman/AP hide caption
A sign directs voters at a polling site in Atlanta. "Georgia is changing dramatically," Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter says. "There's no doubt that Georgia is next in line as a national battleground state."
The Democratic National Committee is running a Spanish language ad on radio stations in North Carolina and Georgia, where there are competitive U.S. Senate races.
"Republicans think we're going to stay home," the ad says. "It's time to rise up."
Democrats see opportunity in Southern states with fast-growing minority populations and an influx of people relocating to the Sun Belt. In Georgia, there's a push to register new voters in hopes of turning a red state blue.
Becks Nix spends most weekends at festivals, like the Fall Festival at Atlanta's Candler Park, working a voter registration booth for the gay rights group Georgia Equality.
"Are y'all registered Georgia voters?" Nix asks passersby.
Anastasia Fort says she needs to check because she just moved to a new neighborhood. Nix tells her how to make sure she's on the voter rolls.
"Because things are tight," Nix says, "we feel like it's even more important that people are not only registered but are actively engaged in what's going on."
Fort admits she's not so engaged. Her friend Steve Stuglin is shocked.
"You're not following? I mean Michelle Nunn's got a chance," he says.
Michelle Nunn is the Democrat in a tight race with Republican David Perdue for an open U.S. Senate seat. Stuglin moved here from Detroit six years ago, bringing his Democratic politics with him. He says Democrats could make gains in Georgia if their voters would just turn out.
"They think it's a lost cause, it's never gonna happen, it's a red state, just deal with it,'" Stuglin says.
But Democratic operatives say Georgia's days as a reliably red state are nearing an end, in part driven by demographics.
In 2000, 75% of Georgia's electorate was white. Now it's just more than 60% white.
"While demography can be destiny, destiny needs help," says Democrat Stacey Abrams. She's House minority leader in the Georgia Assembly, and founder of the New Georgia Project, an aggressive campaign to register minority voters.
"There are 800,000 unregistered African-American, Latino and Asian voters in the state of Georgia," Abrams says.
Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority in the South, with Latinos close behind. Both groups have settled in Atlanta's bustling suburbs.
The New Georgia Project has been canvassing door to door and conducting drives to sign up voters. Abrams says they've registered 87,000.
Georgia doesn't register by party, but the group has targeted populations that tend to vote Democratic.
The question is, will they?
Along with the Senate race, Georgia also has a tightly-fought Governor's contest. Democrat Jason Carter, President Jimmy Carter's grandson, is challenging the Republican incumbent Nathan Deal.
Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie says Republicans still have the edge in Georgia. She doesn't expect this new Democratic new voter push to bear fruit this cycle, even though the registration numbers are impressive.
"The more important number for me is not whether or not you register 87,000 people to vote," she says. "It's whether or not you can get those 87,000 people to the polls."
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter spent last Sunday urging voter turnout in African-American churches around Atlanta.
Carter says what's happening here can alter the political landscape.
"Georgia is changing dramatically," Carter says. "There's no doubt that Georgia is next in line as a national battleground state."
Republican Gov. Nathan Deal visited a charter school in Riverdale, Ga. with rapper Ludacris. David Goldman/AP hide caption
Republican Gov. Nathan Deal visited a charter school in Riverdale, Ga. with rapper Ludacris.
Republicans are taking note of the change. Governor Nathan Deal also campaigned at an African-American church in Macon on Sunday, and appeared at a school last week with the rapper Ludicrous.
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson says Republicans have to expand their electorate.
"That is our battle," Robinson says. "Changing the way people identify themselves by party over the next 20 to 30 years."
On the frontline of that battle is Leo Smith, minority engagement director for the state GOP. For the past year he's been touting Republican values.
"These are ideas of liberty and freedom that Grandmama and them used to talk about," he says. "God bless the child that's got his own. Keep the man outta your house. Man don't work, man don't eat. All those were sort of black value systems that I grew up with that sound really Republican," Smith says.
Smith acknowledges his work is cut out as he sits in the state GOP office surrounded with portraits of the top Republican office holders in Georgia — all white men.
Last night at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 37th Annual Awards Gala, President Obama spoke at length about the need to fix America's broken immigration system.
The White House says the new jobs numbers are evidence its policies are working. It's a message President Obama is taking on the road, but it's unclear if it will move voters in the midterm elections.
"When our manufacturing base is strong, our entire economy is strong. Today, we continue our work to bolster the industry at the heart of our Nation. With grit and resolve, we can create new jobs and widen the circle of opportunity for more Americans."
-- President Obama, National Manufacturing Day Proclamation
American businesses have officially added more than 10.3 million jobs over the last 55 months, the longest streak of private-sector job growth in history. That unprecedented growth is due, in part, to a key cornerstone of our economy: American manufacturing.
Thanks to the hard work of American businesses and the policies of President Obama, our manufacturing sector has added more than 700,000 new jobs since February 2010, the fasted pace of job growth since the 1990s. In fact, manufacturing has grown at nearly twice the rate of the economy overall, marking the longest period of outpacing the economy since the 1960s.
The story of American manufacturing is the story of progress. Take a look at how far American businesses and manufacturers have come in the last four years:
President Barack Obama shows the 2011-2012 class of White House Fellows around the Oval Office.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, a prestigious program dedicated to giving the nation’s most promising leaders insight into the inner workings of the federal government. The inception of the White House Fellows program came at a tumultuous moment in American history, when the disconnect between government and the nation’s youth was growing.
Prominent civic leaders like John Gardner, then President of the Carnegie Corporation, took notice of this widening gulf and sought an opportunity to engage young Americans in meaningful civic participation. Fueled by the crisis at the time, Gardner proposed an experiment in leadership development that would eventually become the basis of President Lyndon Johnson’s establishment of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships by Executive Order 11183.
The ambitious plan hoped to ensure that future generations of Americans could rely upon the leadership of “a reservoir of able men and women with more than ordinary comprehension of government and more than ordinary willingness to serve.”
To achieve this vision, each year the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships selects a group of extraordinary Americans who have demonstrated remarkable achievement early in their careers and places them at the highest levels of the Federal government. Fellows make notable contributions during their year of service and continue to impact our communities, our country, and the world.
President Obama gets low marks for his handling of the economy — and that creates an opening for Republicans heading into next month's midterm elections.
Political signs separate Sen. Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes camps at the annual Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky in August. Stephen Lance Dennee/AP hide caption
Political signs separate Sen. Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes camps at the annual Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky in August.
With fewer than five weeks until election day, the political landscape continues to be tilted against the president and his party. The battle for control of the Senate — the biggest prize this year — remains close and could tip either way.
Likely voters were asked "Do you approve or disapprove of the job being done by Barack Obama as president?" and "Do you approve or disapprove of the way (Named Incumbent) is handling his/her job as a member of the U.S. Senate?" NPR / Democracy Corps / Resurgent Republic poll hide caption
Those are the findings of NPR's latest bipartisan poll of likely voters, conducted by Republican Whit Ayres of Resurgent Republic and Democrat Stan Greenberg of Democracy Corps.
The poll concentrated on the Senate battleground — the 12 states that will determine control of the Senate next year. It found an electorate where nobody likes anybody. The president, the Republicans, and the Democrats were viewed with equal disgust — their favorability ratings all in the low 40s. This is a disgruntled group of voters says Whit Ayres, which this year happens to be good news for his party.
"The direction of the country is overwhelmingly perceived to be in the wrong direction. Barack Obama is exceedingly unpopular in the Senate battlegrounds," he says. "The generic party preference for a Senate candidate favors the Republicans by three points. So the playing field still tilts strongly to Republicans in these 12 battle ground states."
Democrat Stan Greenberg doesn't try to sugarcoat the outlook for his party. But he points out that although not that much has changed since we last polled the Senate battleground in June, the president is a little more popular today, mostly because the public supports his military action again ISIS.
Likely voters were asked what are the most important issues when deciding who to vote for in the election for U.S. Senate. NPR / Democracy Corps / Resurgent Republic poll hide caption
"The mood is bleak, the president's not popular," Greenberg says. "But it's not entirely stable. That is, we're looking at a president that is slightly improved. ...The Democratic candidates, incumbents, are a net positive in their own personal favorability and their job approval. And so they're clearly withstanding the trend that we're talking about."
There's another phenomenon this year that shows up in the poll. In the battleground, Democrats and Republicans are equally energized, highly likely to vote, and they are not up for grabs. Big majorities of both parties say their minds are made up.
"But these elections are still within a point or two and so despite this consolidation, the campaigns matter and can still impact both on preference and on turnout," Greenberg says.
Ayres says he agrees. "Democrats are locked in, the Republicans are locked in, and that's why it's so important the independents prefer a generic Republican by 53% to 37% — 16-point preference," he says.
Rebecca Janes from Arkansas describes herself as an independent and a home-schooler mom. She plans to vote for Republican Tom Cotton for Senate. She says she wants to send a message to President Obama. "I will try to check and balance our current administration at every point I am able to with my vote," she says.
Janes says Obamacare is her most important issue, and across party lines Obamacare is still among the top three issues for voters this year. Jobs and the economy are number one, of course.
But the poll also shows that Democrats have been successful at driving an agenda aimed at their top targets — female voters. Democrats in our poll rank a candidate's position on women and women's issues just behind the economy.
Gwen Clements, a registered Democrat and out-of-work dental assistant from Kentucky plans to vote for Alison Lundergan Grimes for Senate. Or rather, she plans to vote against the incumbent Republican Mitch McConnell.
"For one, I'm a woman," she says. "And he has voted against everything for women. The fair pay, the violence."
Republicans need to pick up six Senate seats to win control and the NPR poll shows the 12 battleground Senate races continue to tilt to the right. But there's no sign yet that a big electoral tsunami is coming, the way it did to help Democrats in 2006 or Republicans in 2010.
"The definition of a wave is when one party wins many seats by one or two percentage points, where every close race goes their way," Ayres says. "The overall environment is very promising for Republicans now but there's not yet evidence of a wave comparable to 2006 or 2010. But one could easily develop. It's like on a hot muggy summer day you know the environment is right for thunderstorms even if none are yet visible on radar, but you'd better keep an eye out for them."
Greenberg says in election after election, "we've watched...Republicans expecting to win control at the Senate, and it's broken at the end for the Democrats, winning almost all the competitive Senate races. That could happen here too. Republican party is very unpopular, president's not very popular, I recognize. Both are at work, but it could tilt one way or the other."
And that's the suspense of this election. History and the number of red states voting tells us that the GOP should win the Senate. But Republicans have fallen short of expectations in the last two cycles. This year things look very good for a Republican Senate takeover, but the battleground races are still too close to call to make that guarantee.
This week, the President convened summits on global public health and on the BRAIN Initiative, hosted the Prime Ministers of India and Israel, welcomed the 2013 MLS Champion Sporting Kansas City to the White House, and traveled to Chicago to speak on the resurgence of the American economy.
Today at Northwestern University, the President revisited the foundation for growth and prosperity that he unveiled more than five years ago, in April 2009, at Georgetown University. In that speech, he called for investing in new energy and technologies, expanding access to education for the country’s workers and children, launching health care reform, managing our nation’s finances, and putting in place financial reform and a stronger system of consumer protections.
It’s worth taking this moment to look back at the distance the economy has come since 2009, and the work left to do to build a more durable economy for the future. When it comes to managing our nation’s finances, we face a very different picture than we did five years ago. As the chart below shows, under the President’s leadership, the deficit has been cut by more than half as a share of the economy, representing the most rapid sustained deficit reduction since World War II.
This afternoon, President Obama welcomed Major League Soccer team Sporting Kansas City to the White House in honor of the team's 2013 MLS Cup championship win.
In his remarks, the President noted the success that Kansas City sports teams are having as of late -- with the Royals advancing to the playoffs, as well as the Chiefs' blowout win over the New England Patriots this past Monday -- but gave credit to Sporting KC for being "the ones who got it all started."
"It's a pretty good day to be from Kansas City," he said.
President Barack Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in the Oval Office, Oct 1, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House this morning, where the two met on a number of issues including the situation in Gaza and the work to degrade and destroy ISIL.
In remarks to the press, the President noted that this meeting "gives us an opportunity once again to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel, and our ironclad commitment to making sure that Israel is secure."
Yesterday, at the White House, some of America’s leading researchers, scientists, and technologists met to discuss how to answer one of our next grand challenges -- the human brain.
In fact, the 3-pound mass between our ears, remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. Nearly 100 trillion neural connections, which help drive our thoughts, emotions, and actions, remain uncharted.
But just like scientists mapped the human genome, catalyzing breakthroughs, creating jobs, and birthing industries, we are now poised to capture a dynamic image of the human brain.
The President’s BRAIN Initiative has amassed more than $300 million in commitments from the private, public, philanthropic, and academic sectors in an all-hands-on-deck effort to accelerate the development and application of new technologies to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how cells and circuits interact at the speed of thought. These technologies will open new windows into the world of the brain, and help us tackle disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury.
That’s why students and scientists, companies and citizens -- and even former competitive snowboarder Kevin Pearce -- are coming together to answer the President’s call to action to take the next great leap in human discovery by unlocking the mysteries of the human brain.
Read the message that Kevin sent to the White House email list this morning about the BRAIN initiative -- and why it's personal for him:
This morning, President Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking the first bilateral summit between the two heads of state.
"It is an extraordinary pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Modi to the White House for the first time," President Obama said in remarks after their meeting. The President recognized the Prime Minister's historic victory in the Indian general election earlier this year, and the two leaders discussed the broad partnership that exists between the United States and India:
Earlier today, White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer sent this message to the White House email list previewing President Obama's week ahead. Didn't get it? Make sure you sign up for email updates here.
Hey,
Last week at the United Nations, President Obama laid out a forceful case that in an uncertain world, American strength and leadership is the one constant.
The United States is leading an international coalition in the fight to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine, and to contain and combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
As the President said on Sunday night: That's how we roll.
This Thursday, speaking to Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, the President will make the case for what has always fueled America's leadership -- and that's America's economic greatness. He'll take a step back from the rush of current events to explain what we've done to recover from the Great Recession and what we need to do to ensure that more middle-class Americans feel that progress in their own lives.
