1.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Kurds
–
The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group
3.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
4.
Central Intelligence Agency
–
As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
5.
Ansar al-Islam
–
Ansar al-Islam or Ansar al-Islam fi Kurdistan was a Kurdish Sunni Muslim insurgent group in Iraq and Syria. Its ideology follows an interpretation of the Koran and promotes a return to the example of the first Muslims. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the became an insurgent group which fought against the American led forces. The group continued to fight the Iraqi Government following the withdrawal of U. S. troops from Iraq, and sent members to Syria to fight the Government following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. The group was a designated terrorist organization in the United Nations, Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, however, some small elements within Ansar al-Islam rejected this merger, and continued to function as an independent organization. Ansar al-Islam was formed in September 2001 from a merger of Jund al-Islam, led by Abu Abdullah al-Shafii, Krekar became the leader of the merged Ansar al-Islam, which opposed an agreement made between IMK and the dominant Kurdish group in the area, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The group later made an allegiance to al-Qaeda and allegedly received funds from the terror network. Ansar al-Islam initially comprised approximately 300 men, many of them veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War, during its stay in the Biyara region near the Iranian border, there were allegations of logistical support from powerful factions in Iran. The roots of Ansar al-Islam can be traced to the mid-1990s, the group consists of various Islamist factions that splintered from the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan. In 2001, shortly before the 9/11 attacks, leaders of several Kurdish Islamist factions visited the leadership in Afghanistan planning to create a base for al-Qaida in northern Iraq. A document found in Kabul stated the groups objectives, which was to expel those Jews and Christians from Kurdistan and join the way of jihad, rule every piece of land … with the Islamic Sharia rule. This was also confirmed by the Los Angeles Times, based upon interviews with an Ansar prisoner and they received the message from bin Laden that Kurdish Islamic cells should unite. Villagers under Ansar al-Islams control were subjected to harsh sharia laws, musical instruments were destroyed, the only school for girls in the area was destroyed, and all pictures of women removed from merchandise labels. Sufi shrines were desecrated and members of the Kakai were forced to convert to Islam or flee, former prisoners of the group also claim that Ansar al-Islam routinely used torture and severe beatings when interrogating prisoners. Beheading of prisoners had also been reported and it resulted in the deaths of a substantial number of militants and the uncovering of a chemical weapons facility at Sargat. Sargat was the facility of its type discovered in Iraq. S. Ansar al-Sunna became a prominent insurgent group active in the so-called Sunni Triangle, carrying out kidnappings, suicide bombings, in December 2007 the Ansar al-Sunna group formally acknowledged being derived from Ansar al-Islam, and reverted to using that name. Ansar al-Islam remained active after the withdrawal of U. S. troops from Iraq of 2011, Attacks against Iraqi security forces have been claimed by the group, particularly around Mosul and Kirkuk
6.
Black site
–
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. It can refer to the facilities that are controlled by the CIA, U. S. President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6,2006. A claim that the black sites existed was made by The Washington Post in November 2005, after denying the fact for years, Poland confirmed in 2014 that it has hosted black sites. In January 2012, Polands Prosecutor Generals office initiated investigative proceedings against Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, Siemiątkowski is charged with facilitating the alleged CIA detention operation in Poland, where foreign suspects may have been tortured in the context of the War on Terror. The possible involvement of Leszek Miller, Polands Prime Minister in 2001–04, is also considered, black sites operated by the U. S. government and its surrogates were first officially acknowledged by U. S. President George W. Bush in the fall of 2006. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported details of black site practices to the U. S. government in early 2007, and the contents of that report became public in March 2009. On September 6,2006, Bush publicly admitted the existence of secret prisons, the report was submitted to Bush administration officials. On March 15,2009, Mark Danner provided a report in the New York Review of Books describing and commenting on the contents of the ICRC report, according to Danner, the report was marked confidential and was not previously made public before being made available to him. Danner provided excerpts of interviews with detainees, including Abu Zubaydah, Walid bin Attash, black sites are embroiled in controversy over the legal status of the detainees held there, the legal authority for the operation of the sites, and full disclosure by the governments involved. An important aspect of black site operation is that the status of black site detainees is not clearly defined. In practice, inmates in black sites have no other than those given by the captors. The revelation of such black sites adds to the controversy surrounding US government policy regarding those whom it describes as unlawful enemy combatants, approximately 30 detainees are considered the most dangerous or important terrorism suspects and are held by the CIA at black sites under the most secretive arrangements. A further 100 ghost detainees kidnapped in Europe and rendered to other countries must be counted and this process is called extraordinary rendition. Marty also underlined that European countries probably had knowledge of covert operations. Furthermore, the CIA apparently financially assists and directs the jails in these countries, while the US and host countries have signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture, CIA officers are allowed to use what the agency calls enhanced interrogation techniques. These have been alleged to constitute severe pain or suffering under the UN convention, there is little or no stated legal authority for the operation of black sites by the United States or the other countries believed to be involved. In fact, the specifics of the network of black sites remains controversial, the United Nations has begun to intervene in this aspect of black sites. Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz characterized the accusation as libel, while Romania similarly said there was no evidence, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the report added absolutely nothing new whatever to the information we have
7.
Jack Goldsmith
–
Jack Landman Goldsmith is a Harvard Law School professor who has written extensively in the field of international law, civil procedure, cyber law, and national security law. He has been considered one of the brightest stars in the conservative legal firmament. He was a law professor at the University of Chicago when in 2002 and he wrote a book about his experiences there called The Terror Presidency. Goldsmith, along with Benjamin Wittes and Robert M. Chesney, is a co-founder, Goldsmith attended and graduated from Pine Crest School in 1980. He then matriculated and graduated from Washington & Lee University with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in 1984 and he was a professor at the University of Virginia Law School before going to the University of Chicago Law School. He was working there in 2002 when he first joined the administration of President George W. Bush as a political appointee and it authorized certain enhanced interrogation techniques for use with detained enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and other locations. By September 2002, Jack Goldsmith had been hired to work as an adviser to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense. He had participated in discussions related to treatment and this gave him the base for influencing debates within the Bush administration regarding the conduct of the War on Terror. In April and May 2004, the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture and abuse scandal broke, and in June, Goldsmith considered it to be tendentious, overly broad and legally flawed. He worked to have them changed, in June 2004, Goldsmith withdrew as legally defective the Bybee Memo and the Torture Memos, and advised DOD not to rely on the March 2003 memo. At the same time, he submitted his resignation, several years later he said this was to try to force the administration to accept his withdrawal of the memo. OLC legal opinions written in August 2002 related to the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, or torture. Newsweek reported that the CIA had regarded the Bybee memo as a shield against potential prosecution of officials involved in the program. But, Goldsmith was unable to have his office complete what he intended as the replacement legal opinions before he resigned on June 30,2004 and he said later that he had felt he had lost the confidence of the administration. By December 2004, the replacement counsel at OLC had reaffirmed the previous legal opinions, in March 2004, the OLC concluded the e-mail program was not legal, and then-Acting Attorney General James Comey refused to reauthorize it. He is largely sympathetic to the concerns of the Bush administrations terrorism policies and he believed that fear of another attack drove the administration to its focus on the hard power of prerogative, rather than the soft power of persuasion. In the end, he believed the fear and concentration on hard power were counterproductive, Goldsmith claimed to have resigned in 2004 largely because he felt he had lost the confidence of administration leaders. He notes that the White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales asked him to remain, while Addington, Goldsmith wrote in his book, Nobody had said no to them before
8.
Alberto R. Gonzales
–
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th United States Attorney General, appointed in February 2005 by President George W. Bush, becoming the highest-ranking Hispanic American in executive government to date. He was the first Hispanic to serve as White House Counsel, Gonzales had also served as Secretary of State of Texas and then as a Texas Supreme Court Justice. Following partisan calls for his removal, Gonzales resigned from the office in the best interests of the department, on August 27,2007, in 2008, Gonzales began a mediation and consulting practice. Additionally, he taught a political course and served as a diversity recruiter at Texas Tech University. He is also counsel at a Nashville-based law firm, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis and he often writes opinion pieces for national newspapers and appears on national news programs. He was ranked one of Newsmaxs 50 Most Influential Latino Republicans in 2016, Alberto Gonzales was born to a Catholic family in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Humble, a town outside of Houston. Of Mexican descent, he was the second of eight born to Maria. His father, who died in 1982, was a migrant worker and his mother worked at home raising eight children and had a sixth grade education. Gonzales and his family of ten lived in a small, two-bedroom home built by his father and uncles with no telephone and no hot running water. An honors student at MacArthur High School in unincorporated Harris County, Gonzales enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1973, for a four-year term of enlistment. He served one year at a radar site with 100 other GIs at Fort Yukon, Alaska, located north of the Arctic Circle. Subsequently, he received an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy, Gonzales was on the Deans List every semester and served as President of the Freshman Class Council at the Academy. He was on the Superintendents List and Commandants List for two semesters, prior to beginning his third year at the academy, which would have caused him to incur a further service obligation, he left the Academy and was released from the enlistment contract. He transferred to Rice University in Houston, where he was a resident of Lovett College, Gonzales had dreamed of attending Rice as a boy when he sold soft drinks at Rice University football games. He went on to be selected as the Charles Parkhill Scholar of Political Science and he then earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1982. Gonzales has been married twice, he and his first wife, Diane Clemens, divorced in 1985, he and his second wife, the citizens of Texas elected Gonzales to a full six-year term on the Supreme Court in the November 2000 general election with 81% of the vote. In addition to his political and legal career, Gonzales was active in the community and he was a board director of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast from 1993 to 1994, and President of Leadership Houston during this same period. In 1994, and a director for the Association for the Advancement of Mexican-Americans from 1991 to 1992
