NSC STATEMENT ON YARMOUK REFUGEE CAMP SITUATION

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE
April 10, 2015
Statement by NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on the Situation in Yarmouk Refugee Camp

We welcome UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s statement on the situation in Yarmouk refugee camp, and join him in calling for an end to hostilities, access for humanitarian assistance, and safe passage for civilians who wish to escape safely.

The Yarmouk camp has been besieged by the Syrian regime for nearly two years, and its residents have been denied access to food, potable water, and medical supplies.  Those Palestinian refugees living inside the camp are now caught between ISIL and the Syrian regime, which continues to indiscriminately attack civilians, including with artillery and barrel bombs, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2139.

All parties must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law.  The siege of Yarmouk must be lifted and the safe evacuation of civilians must be allowed.  Civilians who manage to leave Yarmouk must be granted immediate and safe passage; families must not be separated; and departing civilians must not be detained.  We further call on the Syrian regime to halt aerial bombardment in order to allow civilians to leave the camp.

We applaud the efforts of the UN Relief and Works Agency to help protect civilians in Yarmouk.  Across Syria, more than 440,000 people are trapped in communities besieged by the Syrian Regime, ISIL and other armed groups.  The terrible toll the war has taken on Syria’s civilians underscores the urgent need for a political solution to end the fighting.  It also highlights the profound need for the perpetrators of sieges and atrocities against the civilian population to be held accountable.

DOD SAYS U.S. AND BRITAIN HAVE FLOWN SEVERAL AIRDROPS SINCE AUGUST 7TH

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

By Claudette Roulo

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2014 – The United States and Britain have flown 14 humanitarian airdrops since Aug. 7 to Yezidi refugees in the Sinjar Mountains in Iraq, a Defense Department official said today.

The Yezidis, a Kurdish-speaking ethnoreligious minority group, fled into the mountain area as terrorist forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant advanced from Syria and northward in Iraq, threatening the Kurdish region. More than 310 bundles of food, water and medical supplies have been delivered to the refugees, providing about 16,000 gallons of water and 75,000 meals, said Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, director of operations for the Joint Staff told a Pentagon briefing. 

“In concert with our military partners, the U.S. military is responding to the United Nations security requests of the international community to do everything it can to provide food, water, shelter to those affected by this humanitarian crisis,” he said.

In addition, U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft, including F-15E Strike Eagles, F/A-18 Super Hornets and MQ-1 Predators, have executed 15 targeted airstrikes to protect U.S. citizens and forces in and around Erbil, Mayville said.

“These airstrikes have helped check the advance of ISIL forces around Sinjar and in the area west of Erbil,” he said.

Damage assessments from the airstrikes are less important than their secondary results, Mayville said, which has been a reduction to the overall threat faced by the refugees and U.S. personnel and facilities.

The current operations in Iraq are limited to protecting U.S. citizens and facilities and U.S. aircraft supporting humanitarian assistance, and to assisting in the breakup of ISIL forces that are besieging the Sinjar Mountains, the general said.

“There are no plans to expand the current air campaign beyond the current self-defense activities,” he noted. “ ...We're going to do what we need to do to protect our facilities, protect our embassy, to protect our American citizens, and to reduce this siege, as well as protect those aircraft that are providing support to Mount Sinjar,” Mayville said.

More than 60 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft are supporting coalition efforts in Iraq, the general said, and U.S. airstrikes are providing Kurdish security forces with time to fortify their defensive positions using supplies they have received from the central government of Baghdad. About 50 to 60 ISR flights are being conducted daily by U.S. aircraft, Mayville noted.

“As a result, the Kurdish security forces are holding territory in the vicinity of Erbil,” he said, “and it has been reported in the media they retook key communities near Erbil itself.”

While U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq have slowed ISIL's operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advance toward Erbil, Mayville said, the “strikes are unlikely to affect ISIL's overall capabilities or its operations in other areas of Iraq and Syria.”

ISIL is still intent on securing and gaining territory throughout Iraq, he said, and it will continue to attack Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, Yezidis, Christians and other minorities.

“I think, in the immediate areas where we have focused our strikes, we've had a very temporary effect,” the general said. “And we may have blunted some tactical decisions to move in those directions and move further east to Erbil.

“What I expect the ISIL to do is to look for other things to do, to pick up and move elsewhere. So I in no way want to suggest that we have effectively contained or that we are somehow breaking the momentum of the threat posed by ISIL,” he said.

Over the weekend, the government of Iraq and Iraqi security forces re-supplied Kurdish forces, Mayville said, noting that the department is considering additional ways to support the Kurds and also examining the possibility of expanding the support provided by an assessment team in Baghdad.

“We are, right now, gripped by the immediacy of the crisis,” the general said. “And our focus right now is to provide immediate relief to those that are suffering.”

THE GENGHIS KHAN "WATER REIGN"

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Climate of Genghis Khan's ancient time extends long shadow over Asia of today
Current drought in Mongolia could have serious consequences
Climate was very much on Genghis Khan's side as he expanded his Mongol Empire across northeastern Asia.

That link between Mongolia's climate and its human history echoes down the centuries, according to findings reported in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

But climate may no longer be the boon it was during the latter, wetter part of Genghis Khan's reign. The early years were marked by drought.

Mongolia's current drought conditions could have serious consequences for the Asia region's human and other inhabitants.

The discovery linking ancient and modern history hinges on wood. Trees provide an extensive climate record in their rings.

The tree rings' tales of ebbs and flows in water availability show that Genghis Khan took power during a severe drought, says Amy Hessl, a geographer at West Virginia University and co-author of the paper.

But, the scientists found, the rapid expansion of Genghis Khan's empire coincided with the wettest period in the region during the last millennium.

"Through a careful analysis of tree-ring records spanning eleven centuries, the researchers have provided valuable information about a period of great significance," says Tom Baerwald, a program director for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program, which funded the research.

CNH is one of NSF's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) programs. CNH is supported by NSF's Directorates for Geosciences; Biological Sciences; and Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences.

"The results also provide insights into the complex interactions of climate, vegetation and human activity in semi-arid regions today," Baerwald says.

Though political realities would also have played into Genghis Khan's power grab, the regional climate at the time appears to have supported his empire's expansion.

The climate provided literal horsepower as armies and their horses fed off the fertile, rain-fed land.

"Such a strong and unified center would have required a concentration of resources that only higher productivity could have sustained, in a land in which extensive pastoral production does not normally provide surplus resources," the paper states.

While the ramifications for past history are significant, so, too, are they for today's.

The scientists believe that human-caused warming may have exacerbated the current drought in central Mongolia, similar to the drought that coincided with Genghis Khan's initial rise to power.

"If future warming overwhelms increased precipitation, episodic 'heat droughts' and their social, economic and political consequences will likely become more common in Mongolia and Inner Asia," according to the paper.

Hessl co-authored the report with scientists Neil Pederson of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Nachin Baatarbileg of the National University of Mongolia, Kevin Anchukaitis of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Nicola Di Cosmo of the Institute for Advanced Study.

-NSF-
Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF

U.S. MILITARY CONTINUES PROVIDING RELIEF TO VICTIMS OF TYPHOON HAIYAN

Right:  A U.S. Navy MH-60S Seahawk helicopter, center, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 prepares to drop supplies over Tacloban Airfield in Tacloban, Leyte province, Philippines, Nov. 14, 2013, in support of Operation Damayan. U.S. military forces were deployed to the Philippines to support  humanitarian efforts in response to Typhoon Haiyan. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ricardo R. Guzma.

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2013 – U.S. military assets have as of early today delivered approximately 655,000 pounds of relief supplies provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development since the start of Operation Damayan, the relief effort in support of the government of the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

The duration and extent of U.S. military support will depend on the request from the government of the Philippines. American forces will be present as long as they are needed, but no longer than required.

In addition to the delivery of relief supplies, U.S. military aircraft have to date logged nearly 650 flight hours, moved nearly 1,200 relief workers into Tacloban and have airlifted nearly 4,900 survivors from typhoon-impacted areas.
Over the last 24 hours, more than 66,000 pounds of food, water and shelter items have been delivered to Tacloban, Borongan and Guiuan -- some of the hardest-hit regions.

At the request of the government of the Philippines, international military forces in the region are also ramping up their support. Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are currently providing aircraft and/or medical personnel to assist in the relief operations. Similar military support from Brunei, Great Britain, New Zealand and Thailand is also expected.
U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific is coordinating efforts by Marine forces in the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility and working with the Philippine government to rapidly deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the areas the Philippine government deems most in need. The U.S.-Philippines visiting forces agreement helped facilitate the speed of this response.

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific’s ability to coordinate with all available Defense Department resources in Pacom’s area of responsibility to respond rapidly to the Philippine government’s request reaffirms the value of the close cooperation the two nations share.

The people of the Philippines are responding to the typhoon’s impact with characteristic resilience, aided by the effective measures their government took to help prepare them for the storm.

In the immediate aftermath of the typhoon, the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade deployed a humanitarian assistance survey team to conduct assessments of impacted areas.

WATER WORLD MARS

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Water for Future Mars Astronauts?

Diversity of Martian soils leaves Los Alamos scientists thirsty for more

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Sept. 26, 2013—Within its first three months on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Rover saw a surprising diversity of soils and sediments along a half-kilometer route that tell a complex story about the gradual desiccation of the Red Planet.

Perhaps most notable among findings from the ChemCam team is that all of the dust and fine soil contains small amounts of water.

“We made this discovery literally with the very first laser shot on the Red Planet,” said Roger Wiens, leader of the ChemCam instrument team. “Every single time we shot at dust we saw a significant hydrogen peak.”

In a series of five papers covering the rover’s top discoveries during its first three months on Mars that appear today in the journal Science, Los Alamos researchers using the rover’s ChemCam instrument team up with an international cadre of scientists affiliated with the CheMin, APXS, and SAM instruments to describe the planet’s seemingly once-volcanic and aquatic history.

Researchers believed the hydrogen seen in the dust was coming from water, a hypothesis that was later corroborated by Curiosity’s SAM instrument, which indicated that all of the soil encountered on Mars contains between 1.5 and 3 percent water. This quantity is enough to explain much of the near-equatorial hydrogen observed beginning in 2001 by Los Alamos’s neutron spectrometer on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

ChemCam also showed that the soils consist of two distinct components. In addition to extremely fine-grained particles that seem to be representative of the ubiquitous Martian dust covering the entire planet’s surface like the fine film that collects on the undisturbed surfaces of a long-abandoned home, the ChemCam team discovered coarser-grained particles up to one millimeter in size that reflected the composition of local rocks. In essence, ChemCam observed the process of rocks being ground down to soil over time.

The ChemCam instrument—which vaporizes material with a high-powered laser and reads the resultant plasma with a spectrometer—has shown a similar composition to fine-grained dust characterized on other parts of the planet during previous Martian missions. ChemCam tested more than 100 targets in a location named Rocknest and found that the dust contained consistent amounts of water regardless of the sampling area.

What’s more, the Rover dug into the soils at Rocknest to provide scientists with the opportunity to sample the newly unearthed portion over the course of several Martian days. The instrument measured roughly the same tiny concentration of water (about 2 percent) in the surface soils as it did in the freshly uncovered soil, and the newly excavated area did not dry out over time—as would be expected if moist subsurface material were uncovered.

The water signature seen by Curiosity in the ubiquitous Martian dust may coincide with the tiny amount of ambient humidity in the planet’s arid atmosphere. Multiple observations indicate that the flowing water responsible for shaping and moving the rounded pebbles encountered in the vicinity of the rover landing area has long since been lost to space, though some of it may still exist deep below the surface of the planet at equatorial locations (water ice is known to exist near the surface at the poles).

Despite the seemingly small measurements of water in the Martian environment, the findings nevertheless are exciting.

“In principle it would be possible for future astronauts to heat the soil to derive water to sustain them,” said Wiens.

While at Rocknest, scientists were also able to test samples that had been characterized by ChemCam with two other instruments aboard the rover: CheMin, a miniaturized apparatus partially developed at Los Alamos that uses X-rays to determine the composition of materials; and SAM, a tiny oven that melts samples and identifies the composition of gases given off by them. The analyses by all three instruments indicate that Mars likely has a volcanic history that shaped the surface of the planet.

A fourth instrument, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), provides additional insights into the volcanic diversity on Mars. APXS analyzed a rock called Jake Matijevic—named in honor of a deceased Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars engineer—and found that it is one of the most Earth-like rocks yet seen on the Red Planet. The rock’s enrichment in sodium, giving it a feldspar-rich mineral content, makes it very similar to some rocks erupted on ocean islands on Earth. ChemCam contributed to the characterization of Jake_M.

The Curiosity Rover is scheduled to explore Mars for another year at least. In the coming months, Curiosity will travel to Mount Sharp, a towering peak nearly three miles in elevation. Mount Sharp appears to contain layers of sedimentary history dating back several billion years. These layers are like pages of a book that could teach researchers much about the geologic and climate history of the Red Planet.