SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2018 07 Kushner possible Not defeated, next chief of staff Islamic state AFP | Washington, United States onald Trump’s son-in- law and senior adviser transforming: DJared Kushner is on the short-list of potential candi- dates for the president’s next chief of staff, US media said yesterday. Kushner, an influential White experts House adviser and husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, met Washington, United States with the Republican leader to discuss the job, according to ven as the last pockets the Huffington Post, which first of resistance in reported the story. Eeastern Syria “I am not aware that he is hold their ground, under consideration but, as I the Islamic State think all of us here would rec- group is shapeshift- ognize, he would be great in any ing into a new, but role that the president chooses no less dangerous, to put him in,” White House underground form, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders experts warn. said of the news, which was also Also known as ISIS, reported by CBS. or the Islamic State The president has been in Iraq and Syria, the searching in vain for a new group had long been chief of staff after announcing ready to cede the ter- that John Kelly, a retired gener- Jared Kushner and Ivanka (file picture) ritory it once held in al he had reportedly fallen out its self-styled “cali- with, was to leave by the end of also ultimately withdrew his ing a role in the murder of jour- phate,” and has al- the year. candidacy. Kushner was a key nalist Jamal Khashoggi, a case ready begun the Nick Ayres, the 36-year-old player in negotiations with that has rattled the kingdom’s switch to a more chief of staff to Vice President Canada and Mexico to preserve ties with the West. clandestine role, Mike Pence, had been touted a free trade pact between the The news is sure to set off closer to its roots. as favorite to get the job, but North American countries. warnings of nepotism, howev- “ISIS anticipated announced he was taking him- He has also led efforts to draft er, especially considering that its battlefield de - self out of the running, dealing a Middle East peace plan that Kushner had no prior expe - feat and the loss of a blow to the president. the Trump administration said rience in government before the caliphate and pre- Mark Meadows, a North Car- it will unveil in early 2019. Trump’s election. pared accordingly,” said Bruce olina Republican who heads the The 37-year-old has also cul- Like his father-in-law, he left Hoffman, a terrorism expert The hard-right Freedom Caucus in tivated close ties with Saudi New York real estate to become at Georgetown University in Also known group has regularly the House of Representatives, Crown Prince Mohammed bin one of Washington’s most pow- Washington. as ISIS, or the picked off tribal lead- showed more interest -- but Salman, who is accused of play- erful political players. “Hundreds of ISIS fighters Islamic State ers, government officials, were able to flee Syria, bribe in Iraq and police and members of the their way through Syria to Tur- armed forces. key and thereby disappear,” he Syria, the In a television interview said. group last month, the Iraqi Kurd- “Beneath the surface, ISIS has had long ish leader Massud Barzani Police confirm more than 40 always played the long game.” been ready to cede said that IS “is not defeated and In a recent study entitled the territory it once will not be ended easily.” “ISIS’s Second Resurgence,” held in its self-styled “IS was on the ground, now victims of US serial killer Brandon Wallace and Jennif- “caliphate,” and has they are underground,” Barza- er Cafarella of the Washing- ni said, noting that they had agencies to match Little’s con- ton-based Institute for the already begun the returned to many areas they switch to a more clan- Samuel Little fessions to unsolved murders Study of War ( ISW) said the had been driven out of even • across the country. jihadist group “has already destine role, closer to stronger than before. has confessed to 90 The agency said in an earlier restructured its operations to its roots An Islamic State fighter in murders committed report that Little “remembers return to a regional insurgency.” Syria, who spoke to The New between 1970 and 2005 his victims and the killings in “ISIS is finding new sources York Times via WhatsApp, ech- great detail.” of revenue and rebuilding com- oed Barzani’s grim message. Chicago, United States If all 90 confessions are con- mand-and-control over its scat- “Do you think the Americans firmed, Little would be the tered remnant forces in order to can defeat the caliphate?” said deadliest known US serial killer. prepare for a future large-scale destine network, you conduct the fighter, who identified him- S investigators have so far Little admitted to the Tex- insurgency in both Iraq and targeted assassinations, IEDs self only as Yehya. “It’s a war of Uconfirmed that a 78-year- as murder after Bland agreed Syria,” the report said. [roadside bombs] and you wait attrition. When the coalition old drifter -- who could poten- to waive the death penalty in for opportunities.” stops the air strikes, we will tially be the most prolific serial that case, a concession made “to ‘We’ll be back’ Data collected by the CSIS return immediately.” killer in American history -- gain his trust,” the prosecutor The group has managed to show that in some provinces “We didn’t leave for good. is responsible for more than Convicted serial killer Samuel Little. told AFP. smuggle funds to several coun- in Iraq, such as Kirkuk in the We’re still in Syria, even in the 40 murders, authorities said The septuagenarian was to be tries around the Middle East, northeast, the number of at- areas that you think we left. We Thursday. His office also announced transferred back to California, using front companies such tacks attributed to IS doubled still have our suicide bombers Samuel Little has confessed that Little had pleaded guilty where he was already serving a as car dealerships, electronics last year from 2017, with an av- ready to attack. Our informers to 90 murders committed be- to the 1994 murder of Denise life sentence for three murders. stores, pharmacies and curren- erage of 75 a month. are active,” he said. tween 1970 and 2005, target- Christie Brothers in Odessa The former boxer also known cy exchanges that it established ing mainly drug addicts and -- the case that initially led to as Samuel McDowell was first in Iraq, experts said. prostitutes across the country, his extradition to Texas and arrested at a homeless shelter “We’re entering a very risky according to the Federal Bureau spurred him to confess. in Kentucky in 2012 and extra- period,” said Seth Jones of the of Investigation (FBI). The FBI has been working dited to California to face drug Center for Strategic and In - Bobby Bland -- the district at- with federal, state and local charges. ternational Studies (CSIS). “I torney in Ector County, Texas, have no faith that ISIS has been where Little was being held on crushed, defeated.” a murder charge -- announced “They already have gone Thursday that at least six more underground,” he said. “They of his confessions have been are doing what everybody does verified over the last two weeks, who faces a better equipped bringing the total number of opposition, with air and naval confirmed killings to more than capabilities: they have to face 40. Russian air strikes, cruise mis- “He’s talking about things, siles.” cases that happened up to 50 “What do you do in a case years ago, and he’s giving details like that?” he said. “You dis - on all these different murders, perse, you don’t operate in and none of the statements he’s Organisers read out the names of serial killers victims of Lonnie Franklin platoon-size positions the way Members of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) with a flag of the Islamic made have proven to be false,” known as the “Grim Sleeper”, Samuel Little and other Los Angeles serial killers they did in 2014, you go under- State held upside-down, outside the destroyed Al-Nuri Mosque in the Old City Bland said. at a memorial service in Los Angeles, California ground, you build your clan- of Mosul, after the area was retaken from IS. .