US Repositions Troops in the Mediterranean
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013 SHAWWAL 18, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Fort Hood shooter Fear and grief Manning creates Arsenal recovers convicted, faces as Lebanon New challenges from poor start, death penalty7 buries its7 dead for US military8 beat20 Fulham 3-1 US repositions troops Max 45º Min 28º in the Mediterranean High Tide 02:18 & 14:44 Obama reviews Syria options; UN pushes for probe Low Tide 08:44 & 21:03 40 PAGES NO: 15908 150 FILS WASHINGTON: The United States is repositioning naval forces in the Mediterranean to give President Barack Obama the option for an armed strike on Syria, although officials cautioned that Obama had made no decision on military action. A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US Navy would expand its presence in the Mediterranean to four destroyers from three. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, en route to Asia, said Obama had asked the Pentagon for options on Syria, where an apparent chemical weapons attack that killed as many as 1,000 civilians has upped pressure on Washington to respond. “The Defense Department has responsibility to provide the president with options for all contingencies,” Hagel said. “And that requires posi- tioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the presi- dent might choose.” He did not elaborate. The defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the USS Mahan, a destroyer armed with cruise missiles, had finished its deployment and was due to head back to its home base in Norfolk, Virginia. But the commander of the US Sixth Fleet has decided to keep the ship in the region, the defense offi- cial said. The official stressed the Navy had received no orders to prepare for any military operations regarding Syria. Obama’s senior national security advisers will con- vene at the White House this weekend to discuss US options, including possible military action, against the Syrian government, another US official said on Friday. A senior State Department official said no final decisions were expected from the meeting, pending a further review of intelligence on the attack. Secretary of State John Kerry planned to attend via videoconference. The meeting was expected to take place yesterday. AT SEA: Photo shows US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage (DDG 61) and the guided-mis- The US president has been hesitant to intervene in sile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) transiting through the Suez Canal. US Defense Secretary Syria’s 2 1/2-year-old civil war, sentiments he repeated Chuck Hagel yesterday strongly suggested the Pentagon is moving forces into place ahead of possi- earlier on Friday. But, in a development that could ble military action against Syria, even as President Barack Obama voiced caution. (Inset) Canisters increase the pressure on Obama, American and and other material that the Syrian military says it uncovered in a raid on a rebel hideout are lined European security sources said that US and allied intelli- up in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus yesterday. Syrian state media accused rebels of using gence agencies had made a preliminary assessment chemical arms yesterday against government troops — Agencies Continued on Page 13 Qaeda blames Is Martin Luther dream a reality? Hezbollah for BIRMINGHAM: When he boarded a is hallowed ground in civil rights history. It Greyhound bus on his way to Princeton was here where children marching for Tripoli blasts University, Glennon Threatt promised equal rights were jailed, where protesters himself he’d never come back here. As a were attacked by snarling police dogs and DUBAI: Al-Qaeda’s North African branch blamed young black man, he saw no chance to battered by high-pressure fire hoses. Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah for fulfill his dreams in a city burdened by the And it was here where four little girls in twin bombs that hit the northern city of Tripoli on ghosts of its segregated past. Helen their Sunday finest were killed when Friday and threatened retribution, a US-based intelli- Shores Lee left Birmingham years earlier, dynamite planted by Ku Klux Klan mem- gence monitoring website reported yesterday. making the same pledge not to return. bers ripped through their church in an Although Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, A daughter of a prominent civil rights unspeakable act of evil. That was the is not operational in Lebanon, its statement shows a lawyer, she wanted to escape a city tar- Birmingham of the past. The city that King growing regional hatred against Hezbollah by radical nished by Jim Crow laws - the “white” and condemned for its “ugly record of brutali- Sunni Muslim groups and a wider, deepening sectar- “colored” fountains, the segregated bus ty.” The city where he wrote his impas- ian divide in the Middle East. seating, the daily indignities she rebelled sioned “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” AQIM said in tweets it knew “with certainty” that against as a child. Both changed their declaring the “moral responsibility to dis- the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was responsible for minds. They returned from their self- obey unjust laws.” The city where the the attack that killed more than 42 people in Tripoli. imposed exile and built successful careers movement came together, found its voice “That vile party... should know that it will meet retri- - he as an assistant federal public defend- and set the stage for landmark civil rights bution soon,” AQIM said, according to the SITE moni- er, she as a judge - in a Birmingham trans- legislation. toring service. Hezbollah, which was once lauded by formed by a revolution a half century ago. The Birmingham of the present is a far both Sunnis and Shiites for its battles against Israel, This week, as the nation marks the different place. The airport is named after has lost support from many Sunnis since it joined 50th anniversary of the Rev Martin Luther a fearless civil rights champion, the late Continued on Page 13 King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech, there Rev Fred Shuttlesworth. The city’s website may be no better place than Birmingham features a ‘Fifty Years Forward’ campaign, to measure the progress that followed the forthrightly displaying photos of shameful WASHINGTON: People arrive at the US National Mall to celebrate the 50th civil rights leader’s historic call for racial events in 1963. anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s ‘I have a and economic equality. This city, after all, Continued on Page13 Dream’ speech yesterday in Washington, DC. — AFP Kuwait credit card PAGE Fear returns; Egypt PAGE users on the rise crackdown widens Brotherhood and MERS linked to bat ATLANTA: Scientists have found the mys- ratory illness has sickened nearly 100 peo- Mubarak in court terious MERS virus in a bat in Saudi Arabia. ple, most of them in Saudi Arabia and the An international research team said the bat Middle East. About half of them died. No CAIRO: Egypt’s former president Hosni the 2011 uprising that force him to resign. virus is an exact match to the first known cases have been reported in the United Mubarak returns to court today to face The case is one of several against the for- human case of Middle East respiratory syn- States. charges over protester deaths, as Muslim mer president, who was granted pre-trial drome. The sample was collected from Bats have been a suspected carrier of Brotherhood leaders make their first release this week by a court. Mubarak was within a few miles of that patient’s home. the virus for some time because they are appearances in court on similar but unre- placed under house arrest by interim The discovery is considered an important known to carry viruses similar to MERS. lated charges. Separate hearings in differ- Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, acting development in the search for the origin of They also harbor other deadly viruses, ent parts of the capital come against the on the basis of special powers granted to MERS, a deadly respiratory illness that is including rabies and SARS. Still, discovery backdrop of continued tension in the him under the country’s state of emer- worrying health officials around the world. of a genetic match doesn’t mean bats are country, which has been rocked by political gency. But it’s likely that something else - per- the direct culprit. “There is no evidence of turmoil since the army ousted Islamist The 85-year-old former president is haps another animal - is spreading the direct exposure to bats in the majority of president Mohamed Morsi in a July 3 coup. being held at a military hospital in Cairo TRIPOLI: A Lebanese gunman fires his weapon virus directly to humans, said Dr Ziad human cases of MERS,” Memish said in a Mubarak, who left prison for house and it was not immediately clear if he during the funeral of a man who was killed in a Memish, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister of statement. Signs of MERS-like viruses have arrest this week, is scheduled to appear at would attend the morning hearing at the car bomb attack, in the northern city of Tripoli Health and lead author of the report. Since been reported in other animals, including a hearing in his retrial on charges of com- Police Academy. yesterday. — AP it was identified last September, the respi- camels. — AP plicity in the deaths of protesters during Continued on Page 13 SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013 LOCAL Number of credit card users increasing fast in Kuwait An ‘addiction’ for some people By Nawara Fattahova would rather pay with debit cards sis.