Hasta La Gadget!

Turkey on Saturday released more than 750 soldiers who had been detained after an abortive coup, state media reported, while President Tayyip Erdogan said he would drop lawsuits against those who had insulted him, in a one-time gesture of “unity”.

More than 60,000 people have been detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with the coup attempt, when a faction of the military commandeered tanks, helicopters and fighter jets and attempted to topple the government.

Turkey’s Western allies have condemned the coup, in which Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 were wounded, but have been rattled by the scale of the crackdown since.

The purges have targeted supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding the July 15-16 failed coup. The cleric denies the charges and Erdogan’s critics say the president is using the purges to clamp down on dissent.

State-run Anadolu Agency reported that 758 soldiers were released on the recommendation of prosecutors after giving testimony. A judge agreed, calling their detention unnecessary, Anadolu said.

Another 231 soldiers remain in custody, it said.

Turkey’s military, the second-largest in NATO, has been hard hit in the wake of the coup. On Thursday, 99 colonels were promoted to the rank of general or admiral, following the dishonorable discharge of nearly 1,700 military personnel over their alleged roles in the coup.

About 40 percent of all generals and admirals in the military have been dismissed since the coup.

Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik told broadcaster NTV on Friday that the shake-up in the military was not yet over, adding that military academies would now be a target of “cleansing”.

Turkey’s military is already stretched, given the violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, and threats from Islamic State attacks on its border with Syria.

The army killed 35 Kurdish militants after they attempted to storm a base in the southeastern Hakkari province early on Saturday, military officials said.

The head of the pro-Kurdish opposition told Reuters that the government’s chance to revive a wrecked peace process with Kurdish rebels has been missed as Erdogan taps nationalist sentiment to consolidate support. 

ERDOGAN’S LAWSUITS

In an unexpected move, Erdogan said late on Friday he would drop, as a one-off gesture, all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of “unity” against the coup attempt.

It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics. Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014, the justice minister said earlier this year. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.

It was not immediately clear whether Erdogan would also drop his legal action against German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who earlier this year recited a poem on television suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography, prompting the president to file a complaint with German prosecutors that he had been insulted.

Erdogan also lashed out at the West on Friday, accusing his allies of failing to show solidarity with Turkey over the failed coup, saying those who worried over the fate of coup supporters instead of Turkish democracy could not be friends of Ankara.

“The attitude of many countries and their officials over the coup attempt in Turkey is shameful in the name of democracy,” Erdogan told hundreds of supporters at the presidential palace in the Turkish capital.

“Any country and any leader who does not worry about the life of Turkish people and our democracy as much as they worry about the fate of coupists are not our friends,” said Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and perhaps death on the night of the coup.

He also criticized the European Council and the European Union, which Turkey aspires to be a part of, for their failure to pay a visit to offer condolences, saying their criticism was “shameful”.

Erdogan has blamed Gulen for masterminding the attempted coup and has called on Washington to extradite him. Turkish officials have suggested the United States could extradite him based on strong suspicion while President Obama last week insisted Turkey must first present evidence of Gulen’s alleged complicity in the failed coup.

COURT REPORTERS

On Saturday, 56 employees of Turkey’s constitutional court were suspended from their jobs as part of the investigation into the alleged coup, private broadcaster Haberturk TV reported.

Among those, more than 20 court reporters were detained, it reported.

The number of public sector workers removed from their posts since the coup attempt now stands at more than 66,000, including some 43,000 people in education, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been canceled. The labor ministry said it was investigating 1,300 staff over their possible involvement.

Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a secretive “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.

The government is now going after Gulen’s network of schools and other institutions abroad. Since the coup, Somalia has already shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.

(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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If you are on the lookout for a timepiece that is not only tough as nails, but will also look good when you wear it around your wrist, then the Casio G-SHOCK collection is a name that should be considered by all and sundry right from the get go. This time around, the Japanese company has revealed the Rose Gold MTGG1000AR-1A, being an advanced timepiece that will arrive equipped with GPS Hybrid capabilities and made with G-SHOCK’s legendary resilience.

Forget about machines putting the MTGG1000AR-1A together — it has been specially hand assembled in the Yamagata factory in Japan, where it boasts of the self-adjusting GPS Atomic Solar Hybrid technology that will be able to capture time calibration data using a complementary system for receiving GPS signals and standard terrestrial radio wave signals. Not only that, it will harness the power of the sun thanks to a Tough Solar module that will be protected by a core guard structure that features metal and fine resin for its components.

Other G-SHOCK tools have been adopted, where among them include a Smart Access Crown and a Triple G Resist. You will find that this timepiece arrives with an anti-glare sapphire glass and a Panel Composite Band that is made of solid SS/Fine Resin. The timepiece itself will have a beautiful Rose Gold hue that results in a vintage, yet perfectly finished look.

Some of the key features that showcase its versatility include Airplane Mode, World Time (27TZ, 40 Cities+UTC), LED (Super Illuminator), Daily Alarm, Full Auto Calendar, Stopwatch 924Hr), Countdown Timer (24Hr), Day/Date Display and a case size of 56.0mm. It will not come cheap, however, as the MTGG1000AR-1A will hit the market for $1,900 a pop next month. This is definitely a watch that not only gets the job done, but with aplomb as well, while making you look really, really good.

Press Release
[ Casio’s G-SHOCK range sees MTGG1000AR-1A join the family copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Owning a tablet simply will not do these days. After all, tablets have been in a decline for quite some time already, and it does not look like they are going to persist being a major market device in the future. However, there are still some instances where a tablet is worth having around, especially when you would like to watch movies on a long haul trip without the encumbrance of a notebook. A hybrid solution therefore, is worth checking out, like the E FUN Nextbook Flexx 11A. This is a 2-in-1 tablet that will target the student population, allowing them to start school off on the right foot, without having to burn a huge hole in their pockets.

The E FUN Nextbook Flexx 11A will be powered by a quad-core Intel Atom-based processor as well as the latest Microsoft Windows 10 operating system that will include Microsoft Office Mobile. It offers students with the best of both worlds, where it provides students the convenience of a laptop and the ease-of-use of a tablet. The keyboard can be detached completely, enabling quick versatility, while the touch screen provides students with a better way to connect with content as well as many kinesthetic and visual learners will find it a whole lot easier to understand topics.

Windows Store will arrive pre-installed, enabling games, music and videos to be accessible during a study break. There will also be other apps such as Flashcards Pro and CamScanner HD that make studying and organizing notes a snap. Those who are away from the comfort of their own homes can take advantage of an integrated webcam so that it is a whole lot easier to stay in touch with friends and family over Skype.

Other hardware specifications include 2GB of RAM, 64GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card slot for expansion purposes, a 11.6″ touchscreen at 1366 x 768 resolution, a POGO keyboard, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, front and back cameras with built-in microphone, a USB 2.0 port, microUSB 2.0 port, microHDMI port, and G-sensor, and a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery for ultimate portability. The asking price for the Nextbook Flexx 11A 2-in-1 stands at $229 a pop.

Press Release
[ E FUN Nextbook Flexx 11A 2-in-1 targets the student population copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Test of Iranian Shahab 3 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile

The Associated Press recently revealed the existence of a secret agreement that would allow Iran to restore “its full uranium enrichment capacity,” utilizing more advanced, faster centrifuges, on the 10th anniversary of signing the nuclear agreement. The leak, from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the organization charged with monitoring Iranian compliance with the nuclear accord, has led a number of intelligence agencies to again issue warnings that it “was highly likely” that Tehran will have a nuclear weapon capability within the next 10 to 15 years. Not surprisingly, the news generated renewed anxiety in the Persian Gulf about Iran’s intentions in the region.

The rise of Tehran’s power in the Middle East has often been conceptualized as an Iranian “arc of influence,” which stretches across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. There is also, potentially, a second such arc based on the large Shiite populations along the southern and eastern rim of the Arabian Peninsula. To date, however, the Sunni governments in the Gulf have, for the most part, been able to keep a lid on Shia dissent, and on Tehran’s attempts to mobilize those Shia communities, although they did intervene in Yemen to block Tehran backed proxies from seizing control. The prospect of a nuclear armed Iran and the steady expansion of Tehran’s influence, however, has underscored the fact that Middle East politics are increasingly reorienting themselves along a Sunni-Shia axis.

How will the Sunni governments respond to what they see as the renewal of historic “Persian imperialism” in the Middle East and especially in the Gulf? The evolution of the Syrian Civil War may lend an answer.

Iranian Arc of Influence across the Middle East

Jihadism and its use for political purposes is hardly new. It has been an integral aspect of Middle East history since the eighth century. Even in the 20th century, jihadism has been a recurring theme of Arab nationalism. Wahhabi inspired jihadism played a critical role in the formation of Saudi Arabia. Jihadism was also a prominent and recurring feature of the Muslim Brotherhood led nationalist movements in Egypt and Syria. Its prominence declined during the heyday of the “secular socialist,” military led governments that dominated the region from the 1950s through the 1980s, only to reappear as those regimes turned increasingly to Islamic history and culture to establish their political legitimacy. In that sense, the rise of jihadism since the 1980s is simply the reemergence of a long-standing feature of Middle East politics.

Jihadism burst onto the international stage when the United States and its Gulf allies funded and organized the Afghan mujahideen prior to and during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Called “Operation Cyclone” by the CIA, the campaign relied on militant Islamic groups organized by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to oppose the Moscow-backed government of Nur Muhammad Taraki, and later the Soviets. Between 1978 and 1992, the ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents. They also recruited volunteers from Arab states to join the Afghan resistance fighting the Soviet invasion. Among the “Afghan Arabs” recruited was a young Saudi national named Osama Bin-Laden.

Leaders of the Afghan mujahideen resistance meeting with President Reagen in the Oval Office, February 1983. Picture courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidental Library

In total, the U.S. supplied some $20 billion to train and arm the Afghan resistance. It also supplied Pakistan with an additional $8.6 billion in economic and military assistance. Additional funds from the Afghan resistance came from Great Britain and China. The Arab governments in the Gulf also contributed heavily. Some of those funds were channeled through the CIA, and others went either to the Pakistani ISI or, on a few occasions, directly to the resistance groups. During this period the orientation of the jihadist groups organized by the ISI were anti-Soviet. While they were not necessarily pro-American, they were not overtly hostile to the United States.

The end of the Afghan war, and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, made the anti-Soviet orientation of the jihadist groups irrelevant. In the meantime, the expansion of the American military presence in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf during and after the First Gulf War, and the increased prominence given to the Palestinian cause by jihadist groups, gradually shifted the focus of those militant organizations to opposing the U.S. role in the Middle East.

This reorientation gave rise to al-Qaeda and a range of other jihadist groups. This transformation was further reinforced by the subsequent U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq, and the emergence of a deep seated insurgency against the U.S. led military coalition there. Between the early 1990s and today, a little less than a quarter century, Islamic jihadism reoriented itself into a virulent anti-American and anti-Western ideology; one that has sparked numerous terrorist attacks throughout the world.

Al-Qaeda affiliated, al Nusra Front jihadists in Syria.

Middle East politics are increasingly moving toward a de facto proxy war between the Saudi led Sunni governments in the region and Iran and its Shiite allies. The fact that Tehran will eventually develop a nuclear capability as well, threatens to make the Middle East a larger version of the Indo-Pakistani proxy war in Kashmir. It’s possible that, like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies will increasingly look to third party jihadist organizations, as they have in Syria, to counter Iranian influence in the region. If that happens, then it may well set the stage for a third reorientation of Sunni jihadism to focus on opposing Iran and its Shiite allies, and possibly move it away from its current focus of opposing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and Western culture in general.

The Islamic State (IS) has been both anti-Western and anti-Shiite. Indeed, one of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s singular “contributions” to international jihadism was the demonization and targeting of Shiites. As a result, IS has, to varying degrees, radicalized other jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda, to also target Shiites. A post-Islamic State Middle East, however, could be a very different place.

Islamic State is unique in that it has become largely self-financing, even if that funding has been steadily declining. Stripped of its territorial domain, however, it would be, like other jihadist groups, dependent on outside aid and financing to be effective. It is unlikely that IS, as a militant insurgency rather than a would-be nation state, would prove to be any less anti-American or anti-Western. But a weakened IS could well be supplanted by a better-financed jihadist organization that would focus more on an anti-Iranian/anti-Shiite theme than an anti-American/anti-Western theme.

Former General and CIA Director David Petraeus at 2007 press conference.

It’s also possible, although probably unlikely, that in a post-Islamic State Middle East, al-Qaeda might seek to fill this role. If that happens then Islamic State will have inadvertently accomplished something that would have been inconceivable a decade ago, the rehabilitation, or at least partial rehabilitation, of Al-Qaeda in Washington’s eyes. Interestingly enough, retired Army general and former CIA director, David Petraeus, has already suggested that the U.S. should use “moderate” members of the al-Qaeda backed al-Nusra Front in its fight against the Islamic State.

To date, al-Qaeda has not given any indication that it is prepared to abandon its anti-American/anti-Western orientation. In fact, on July 24, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in an audio interview posted to al-Qaeda’s website, urged militants to kidnap Westerners and hold them hostage to exchange for jailed jihadists. He noted that, “kidnapping was a powerful weapon in the fight against the enemy.” The interview followed an attempt by two men, believed by police to be Middle Eastern, who tried to kidnap a British serviceman while he was jogging near the RAF Marham base, near Norfolk, East Anglia.

On the other hand, on Thursday July 28, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the recently disclosed head of the al-Nussra Front, announced that it was “disassociating” itelf from al-Qaeda and that it would change its name to the Levant Conquest Front (LCF). He added that the decision had the support of al-Qaeda’s leadership and that it was designed to allow al-Nusra Front to expand its cooperation with other Syrian rebel groups. It is also a not so subtle signal to Washington that it need not consider the LCF an enemy.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri

Al-Qaeda’s anti-Americanism, while historic, is also, in part, shaped by its competition with Islamic State for the leadership of the jihadist movement. While the U.S. has decimated al-Qaeda’s senior leadership and severely constrained its ability to operate and to launch attacks against Western targets, the U.S. does not ultimately pose an existential threat to al-Qaeda. The Islamic State, on the other hand, does pose such a threat.

Post-Islamic State, it’s possible that al-Qaeda might moderate its anti-Western rhetoric. It’s also possible that after 15 years of continuous warfare with the US, those views are so deeply engrained that they will never be abandoned. In which case, some other jihadist groups, more focused on countering Iran’s power and less overtly focused on attacking the West, may, with generous funding from the Gulf States, emerge in the Middle East. Such a development, although unlikely to be publically acknowledged by Washington, would probably not be opposed either. This is after all the cauldron of Middle East politics. Stranger things have happened and, if history is a guide, will continue to happen.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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