British clergyman known as ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ suspended by charity after claims he was involved in paying ransoms to buy back sex slaves from Islamic State
–Rev. Canon White said his Foundation had helped ‘sex slaves’
-Questions have been raised over how he secured their release
-In Britain it is illegal to pay terrorist organisations such as ISIS
-His charity says ‘alleged incident stemmed from a genuine desire to help’
The Vicar of Baghdad has had his charitable work in the Middle East put on hold after claims he was involved in paying ransoms to buy back sex slaves from ISIS.
The British clergyman, 52, was suspended by his own charity, when the Charity Commission launched an investigation into a Facebook post he made last October.
Rev. Canon Andrew White, who runs the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, reportedly wrote on Facebook that the Foundation had done a ‘huge amount of work with the woman and girls who have been rescued as sex slaves’.
‘This is huge work that we have not been able to really speak much about,’ he said, the Times reports.
British clergyman Canon Andrew White is suspended from his role as President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East
Questions have been raised over how he secured the sex slaves’ release. In Britain it is illegal to pay ransoms to terrorist groups such as ISIS.
White earned the nickname Vicar of Baghdad while serving as the vicar of the city’s St George’s Church, the only Anglican church in the whole of Iraq.
He was forced to leave the country for Israel amid constant threats on his life by Islamic State and now lives in in Amman, Jordan.
Iraq had 1.5 million Christians before the US-led invasion in 2003, but in 2014 all that were left was 250,000 who have been displaced from their homes in the north of the country by the advance of ISIS.
Questions have been raised over how he secured the release of women and girls captured as sex slaves by ISIS
Rev. White earned the nickname Vicar of Baghdad while serving as the vicar of the only Anglican church in the whole of Iraq
The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, confirmed that it had opened a statutory inquiry into the Foundation on June 6.
‘The commission cannot comment further on this live investigation at this time,’ it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Foundation said White has been suspended with pay.
‘The Foundation is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities. It would be inappropriate to comment further on an active investigation other than to say that the Foundation believe at this stage that the alleged incident stemmed from a genuine desire by Canon White to help others,’ the Board of Trustees said.
Canon White, who has a family home in the UK in Liphook, Hampshire, has previously spoken of the horrors he witnessed in Baghdad,
He said in an interview with the Orthodox Christian Network it is ‘impossible’ for Christians to survive in Iraq under the tyranny of ISIS.
Canon Andrew White has previously told horrifying stories of Islamic State barbarism (file photo)
Other ISIS news
ISIS militants tie a ‘spy’ to a crucifix before stabbing him in the heart and shooting him in the head
-The man, identified as Mohammed Al Kadri, was strapped to a metal pole
-He was stabbed in the chest and shot dead as families walked by in Raqqa
-ISIS said he was killed because he had carried out ‘crimes’ against them
-WARNING: Graphic content
Savage ISIS militants stabbed a so-called ‘spy’ in the heart and shot him in the head in a disgusting public crucifixion.
The man, identified as Mohammed Al Kadri, was strapped to a metal pole and stabbed in the chest as families walked by in Raqqa, Syria.
ISIS terrorists said he was killed because he had carried out ‘crimes’ against the fundamentalist group.
ISIS militants blindfolded the man and handcuffed him before he was walked over to be executed
The man, identified as Mohammed Al Kadri, was strapped to a metal pole and had a gun pointed to his head
The graphic images were secretly taken by the rebel anti-ISIS group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.
ISIS started carrying out these sick crucifixions last month. One man dressed in an orange-boiler suit was killed for ‘crimes against the caliphate’.
Images show a heavily-built executioner holding a knife against the chest of the man who was also held in the terror group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
The man, named by the news agency ABNA as Abdulhadi Essa al-Salem, was knifed in the heart before a shot was fired into his head.
Shocking photos posted on Twitter then show the victim being crucified in public.
According to ABNA, he had been accused of co-operating with the US-led coalition.
A knife was then used to stab him in the chest before he was shot in the head with a pistol
ISIS started carrying out these sick crucifixions last month. One man dressed in a orange-boiler suit was killed for ‘crimes the caliphate’
It is the latest gruesome method of execution carried out by ISIS extremists.
On May 8, pictures emerged of another barbaric killing of a man for allegedly being homosexual.
The unidentified young man had been accused of ‘sodomy’, according to local sources, and was punished for this supposed ‘crime’ by being thrown off a five-storey building in Manbij, Aleppo province.
Pictures released by ISIS show the young man fall to his death in front of a large crowd, including dozens of children.
ISIS militants tie a ‘spy’ to a crucifix before stabbing him in the heart and shooting him in the head from Akademi Portal on Vimeo.
Other ISIS news
ISIS snatch over 900 Kurdish civilians in Aleppo in retaliation for offensive on nearby stronghold
-ISIS fighters reportedly forcing 12-year-olds to fight for them on front lines
-Others are forced to dig trenches and missile shelters underneath cities
-At least 26 have been killed for refusing to follow orders, reports reveal
Islamic State militants have abducted 900 Kurdish civilians in Aleppo in retaliation for an offensive on a nearby stronghold.
The jihadis are reportedly forcing their prisoners to dig bunkers and trenches and are sending boys as young as 12 to fight on the front lines wearing ISIS uniforms.
At least 26 of those abducted have been killed for refusing to follow orders, reports reveal.
The abductions come amid fierce fighting for control of Manbij – a key ISIS stronghold in Syria.
The abductions come amid fierce fighting for control of Manbij – a key ISIS stronghold in Syria
Islamic State militants have abducted 900 Kurdish civilians in Aleppo in retaliation for an offensive on a nearby stronghold (file image)
Extremists there are being routed from the town center by the largely Kurdish and U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces.
IS militants began abducting Kurdish civilians in retaliation the offensive on Manbij three weeks ago, said SDF spokesman Sherfan Darwish.
‘Whenever Daesh is defeated, they retaliate against civilians,’ Darwish said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS, adding that there are whole families among those taken.
The abductions have been taking place mostly in areas under IS control, from the western Manbij countryside to the towns of al-Bab and al-Rai.
The reports about the killing of captives could not be independently confirmed and the Islamic State group made no immediate claim over the abductions or the killings.
Many of the civilians are being held in an IS prison in Qabasin and those forced into labor are digging fortifications underneath homes in al-Bab, said Kurdish media activist Rezan Hiddo.
‘They (IS) are digging a city underneath the town to protect themselves from air strikes,’ Hiddo added.
The jihadis are reportedly forcing their prisoners to build shelters and trenches while all males older than 12 are given ISIS uniforms and sent to front lines (file image)
The IS has not engaged in any negotiations for the release of the Kurdish civilians, nor asked for any ransom, Hiddo said, speaking from the nearby Kurdish stronghold of Afrin.
On Friday, the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces battled IS militants inside Manbij having encircled the stronghold in a weeks-long offensive.
The attacked was backed by U.S.-coalition air strikes which reportedly hit targets in the town.
The SDF has lost 89 fighters since launching its campaign for Manbij on May 31, but 463 IS militants have been killed.
The push by the SDF into Manbij has been slow as the U.S.-backed fighters first focused on capturing dozens of villages and farms near the town in the past weeks.
The town lies along the only ISIS supply line between the Syrian-Turkish border to the north and ISIS’s capital Raqqa, to the southeast.
At least 26 of those abducted have been killed for refusing to follow ISIS orders, reports reveal (file image)
If Manbij is captured, it will be the biggest strategic defeat for IS in Syria since July 2015, when the extremist group lost the border town of Tal Abyad.
The U.S. has embedded 300 special forces operators with the SDF, which the White House says are advisers, and French special forces operators are also embedded with the group.
The extremist group has a history of mass kidnappings in areas they control in Syria and Iraq and has mostly targeted Christians and Kurds in the past.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human said that said IS fighters stormed homes in several villages they control near al-Bab, including Arab, Qabaseen and Nairabiyeh, and took with them mostly men.
In 2014, IS abducted nearly 200 Kurdish students near Manbij as they were en route from the Kurdish town of Kobani near the Syrian-Turkish border to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, the provincial capital, to take their exams. Most were later released.
In February 2015, IS kidnapped more than 200 Christians from northeastern Syria. The Christians were released over a period of a year, after IS collected millions of dollars in ransom.
Other ISIS news
Freed hostage tells how Islamic militants were HAPPY as they led her boyfriend away to be beheaded
-Woman said militants were ‘happy’ when they beheaded two men in jungle
-Marites Flor’s boyfriend Robert Hall and friend John Ridsdel were killed
-Islamic thugs executed them in southern Philippines after ransom ran out
The devastated partner of a man who was beheaded by Islamic militants has told how his killers were ‘happy’ after the execution.
Marites Flor was abducted in September by Abu Sayyaf militants, along with three others, two of whom – Flor’s partner Robert Hall and fellow Canadian John Ridsdel – were killed in a jungle in the Philippines.
Flor cried as she recounted how the kidnappers led away Hall to be beheaded after a ransom deadline lapsed last week. Ridsdel had been killed in April.
Marites Flor (pictured) was abducted in September by Abu Sayyaf militants in a Filipino jungle
Islamist extremist group Abu Sayyaf released Flor a day after seven Indonesian sailors were abducted in a separate incident in southern Philippines waters
‘It’s so painful because I saw them moments before they got beheaded,’ Flor said.
‘They [the militants] were watching it and they were happy.’
Flor said she was slapped and threatened and her fellow hostages were beaten when the militants angrily reacted to what they were doing.
‘They told me, “Robert’s head has been chopped off. You’re next,”.’ ‘They treated us like dogs, like children,’ she said.
Flor was abducted with Hall, Ridsdel and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad from a resort on southern Samal island whilst on yachts in September last year and taken to the jungles of the predominantly Muslim island province of Sulu. The militants killed the two Canadians after ransom deadlines lapsed.
The captives were among some two dozen people held by the Abu Sayyaf this year.
On Friday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said seven Indonesians were abducted by armed men who raided their tugboat and took them to Sulu, in a third such recent attack. Six others were released with the vessel, she said.
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who has met Flor, said he was told that Sekkingstad may already be on the way out of captivity, but did not provide details.
He later went into a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador.
Filipino armed forces will continue to pursue Abu Sayyaf, according to defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin (pictured centre)
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has warmed that the extremists will face a major new offensive (pictured Filipino armed forces)
Duterte cut short his speech in a nationally televised police ceremony when officials arrived and brought the 38-year-old Flor, who appeared still distraught, to the stage. Duterte tried to console her and quietly asked a few questions.
Shortly before facing Flor, Duterte asked the Abu Sayyaf militants to stop ransom kidnappings, which he said have given the country ‘a very bad image.’
He warned people against joining the Abu Sayyaf, suggesting a major offensive was forthcoming.
‘There will be, I said, a reckoning one of these days,’ he said.
It is not known if a ransom was paid to secure the freedom of Flor, who appeared in Abu Sayyaf videos tearfully pleading for her life.
In a final video, she called on Duterte to save their lives before the extremists killed Hall a few days later.
Rebels belonging to the larger Moro National Liberation Front and Sulu officials helped negotiate Flor’s release with an Abu Sayyaf commander.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the killings and called on other nations not to pay ransoms if their citizens are abducted.
Other ISIS NEWS
Letters reveal that French cement firm paid taxes to ISIS to protect its business in Syria… that has now become a base for Western special forces
-Lafarge bought cement plant 95 miles northeast of Aleppo in Syria in 2007
-Civil war started in 2011 but firm kept up production at the site until 2013
-‘Worrying deals’ made with ISIS to protect business in Syria, it is claimed
-Reports suggest abandoned site is now a base for Western special forces
A French firm paid taxes to ISIS to protect its cement making business in Syria before the plant became a base for Western special forces, it has been claimed.
Lafarge has been accused of making arrangements with the terror group over the running of its Jalabiya cement works, 95 miles northeast of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
The company, which says its priority has ‘always been ensuring the safety and security of its staff’, bought the site in 2007 before beginning operations there in 2011.
Lafarge has been accused of making arrangements with the terror group over the running of its Jalabiya cement works, 95 miles northeast of the Syrian city of Aleppo. The firm’s Paris plant is pictured above
But it then went on to make ‘worrying deals’ with ISIS to protect its business interests in the country, it has been reported.
The French daily Le Monde wrote: ‘Until 2013, production kept up despite the growing instability in the region due to the civil war which began in 2011.’
In 2013, ISIS began taking control of towns and roads around the factory.
Le Monde reported it had seen letters sent by Lafarge managers in Syria ‘revealing arrangements that Lafarge made with the jihadist group to continue production until September 19, 2014.’
It was on this date that ISIS took over the site and Lafarge halted all activity.
In one case Lafarge – seeking access to its factory for workers and supplies – sent a man named Ahmad Jaloudi on a mission ‘to get permission from ISIS to let employees past checkpoints’.
According to Le Monde, the letters show that Lafarge’s Paris headquarters was aware of the arrangements.
The French firm paid taxes to ISIS to protect its cement making business in Syria before the plant became a base for Western special forces, it has been claimed (file picture)
In another case a ‘pass stamped with an ISIS stamp and endorsed by the (group’s) finance chief in the Aleppo region’ proves the company had struck a deal with ISIS to allow for free circulation of its goods, the newspaper reported.
In order to keep making cement Lafarge bought licences from and paid taxes to ISIS middle-men and oil traders, the newspaper alleged.
Le Monde reports that the site was taken by the Kurdish YPG militia in February 2015, backed by the international coalition against ISIS.
The now abandoned plant has now become a base for French, US and British special forces who ‘quietly support’ Kurdish-Arab forces fighting the terror network, the newspaper claims.
Lafarge – which in 2015 merged with Swiss cement maker Holcim – confirmed to AFP it had owned the Jalabiya cement works ‘between 2010 and 2014’, but did not directly address the allegations.
‘When fighting came closer to the factory, Lafarge’s absolute priority was ensuring the safety and security of its staff while the closure of the factory was being studied,’ the company said.
ISIS ‘expresses joy’ over economic turmoil created by Brexit vote as terror group calls for attacks on Berlin and Brussels to ‘paralyse’ Europe
-The ISIS message reportedly appeared on an encrypted messaging service
-It ‘urged jihadists to strike in Berlin and Brussels’ following historic vote
-ISIS said to have ‘expressed joy’ over economic chaos caused by Brexit
ISIS has called for terror attacks on mainland Europe that will ‘paralyse’ the continent in the wake of the Brexit vote, it has been claimed.
A message on the encrypted messaging service Telegram has reportedly urged jihadists to strike in both Berlin and Brussels following the historic vote.
The terror threat monitor Site revealed how fanatics had ‘expressed joy’ over the economic turmoil and ‘fracturing’ created in Europe by Britain’s decision.
Last month, David Cameron – who this morning announced his intention to resign in October – appeared to suggest ISIS would be ‘happy’ if Britain voted to leave the EU in the referendum.
The Prime Minister named ISIS mastermind Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi alongside Russian president as beneficiaries in the event of Britain leaving the EU.
He said: ‘It is worth asking the question: Who would be happy if we left? Putin might be happy, I suspect al-Baghdadi might be happy.’
Earlier this month, Belgium carried out an anti-terror sweep, charging three men with with ‘attempted terrorist murder’ after raiding dozens of homes in raids linked to a reported threat to fans during a Euro 2016 football game.
Named by prosecutors as Samir C., Moustapha B. et Jawad B., the trio were among 12 people detained during the overnight raids, hours before thousands of people gathered around screens to watch Belgium play Ireland.
The areas searched included neighbourhoods in Brussels where the jihadists behind the gun and bombing attacks in Paris on November and suicide bombings in Brussels in March had planned their assaults.
Prosecutors said they were responding to a need for ‘an immediate intervention’.
