This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- US surveillance aircraft may have access to Malaysian air bases
- African jihadist group pledges loyalty to ISIS
- ISIS recruiting women from America and Britain
US surveillance aircraft may have access to Malaysian air bases
The US and Malaysia are in discussions to permit US surveillanceflights in the South China Sea to fly out of East Malaysian air bases,on the southern rim of the South China Sea. This is certain tofurther infuriate the Chinese, who blame the US for beingsame way the Nazis annexed territories in Europe.
China has been pursuing a military “salami slicing strategy” to annexSouth China Sea territories belonging to other countries. China hasannexed several islands and shoals in the South China Sea belonging toVietnam and the Philippines and is threatening to annex otherterritories belonging to Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan.
Because of China’s annexations, its relations with Vietnam and thePhilippines have become increasingly hostile. China’s relations withMalaysia have remained friendly, mainly because the Malaysians don’twant to get the Chinese angry, even as China is preparing to annexMalaysian territory. (See “29-Jan-14 World View — China’s military moves to seize Malaysia’s James Shoal”)
Speaking on September 8, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) ADM JonathanW. Greenert said: “[R]ecently, the Malaysians have offered us to flydetachments of P-8s out of East Malaysia. You can see thecloseness to the South China Sea. So we have opportunities and weought to continue to nurture them.”
According to Greenert, the offer is made in appreciation for Americanhelp during the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) thatdisappeared on March 8 and has never been found. A staging site inEast Malaysia would enable the Navy’s maritime patrol aircraft easieraccess for operating over the South China Sea and shipping lanes suchas the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait, through which much ofthe world’s commerce passes.
Malaysia’s defense minister denies that any such permissionhas been granted, but apparently the discussions have been goingon for some time.
This comes at a time when China is increasingly harassing US surveillance planes flying overinternational waters in the South China Sea. Recently, a Chinese jetfighter made several passes as close as 30 feet to a U.S. surveillanceplane in international waters. The incident is reminiscent of anApril 2001 encounter, when a Chinese F-8 interceptor crashed into aU.S. surveillance aircraft off the southern China coast. The Chineseaircraft crashed into the sea, and its crew was killed. The U.S.plane made an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island, and its 24crew members were imprisoned for 10 days. Sea Power Magazine and Malaysia Chronicle
African jihadist group pledges loyalty to ISIS
A new African jihadist group has broken off from Al-Qaeda in theIslamic Maghreb (AQIM) and pledged loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,the leader of the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS).
The splinter group is called ‘Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria’,and AQIM central region commander Khaled Abu Suleimane, whose realname is Gouri Abdelmalek, claimed leadership of the new group andsaid in a statement: “You have in the Islamic Maghreb men if you order themthey will obey you. The Maghreb has deviated from the truepath.”
This is the latest blow to al-Qaeda in the rise of ISIS at the expenseof al-Qaeda, thanks to a generational split between the two organizations, pitting the drawing power ofolder terrorists like Ayman al-Zawahiri running al-Qaeda versus theyouthful al-Baghdadi running ISIS. Even worse for al-Qaeda, theorganization hasn’t been able to pull off anything anywhere near asdevastating as the 9/11/2001 attacks in the years since. But ISIS has been devastating in a different way, taking over large areas in Syria and Iraq anddecapitating Western journalists.Reuters and Al Jazeera
ISIS recruiting women from America and Britain
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area, with its large community of immigrantsfrom Somalia, has been a source of several dozen recruits for theal-Qaeda linked Somalia terrorist group al-Shabaab. In particular,Minneapolis jihadists were involved in the horrific three-day attack on the Westgate shopping mall inNairobi, Kenya, in September of last year.
Now US law enforcement is investigating what may be a new trend –teenage girls from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area who are flying toSyria to join the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS).They may join ISIS with dreams of marrying a jihadist, butmonitoring of extremists’ social media accounts and other writingsshows that male jihadis regard women counterparts as little more thanmating partners. According to one analyst, “ISIS is recruiting thesewomen in order to be baby factories. They are seeing the establishmentof an Islamic state and now they need to populate the state.”
ISIS is also recruiting Muslim girls and women in Europe, particularlyfrom Britain and France. Researchers are discovering that many ofthem are being used to run “brothels” to hold Iraqi girls captured bythe ISIS militias, to be used by the ISIS militia terrorists as theyplease. Reuters and Huffington Post
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Malaysia, China, South China Sea,salami-slicing strategy, James Shoal, Jonathan W Greenert,Al-Qaeda on the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM,Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria, Ayman al-Zawahiri,Khaled Abu Suleimane, Gouri Abdelmalek,Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,Somalia, Minneapolis, St. Paul, al-Shabaab
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