1. SEVENTEEN THOUSAND and more people at today’s anti-Islam march in Dresden Germany
Police estimated that some 17,500 people attended Monday’s rally by the group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA — organized this week as a carol-singing gathering in front of the Semperoper opera house.
2. Here is a picture of the car used in the Nantes attack as posted on Twitter by a woman claiming to be a witness.
3. LIVE STREAM FROM DRESDEN! WATCH NOW!
4. Sinjar battle: Kurds ‘take control’ of large area from IS
(Video at site)
Kurdish authorities say their Peshmerga forces have taken control of a “large area” of the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State militants.
Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani claimed large Peshmerga advances during a visit to nearby Mount Sinjar.
The town, near the Syrian border has been controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants since August.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters backed by US-led air strikes launched a counter-offensive in the area last week.
(Does anyone have evidence that the Peshmerga forces are any less problematic than the IS ones are?)
Thank you Maria J., M., Arun Mark K. and more. In fact a lot more to come as well.
Readers from elsewhere might be surprised at the rage roaring out of the USA in reaction to the police murders here on Saturday. Often in teasing tones, we call them Our Nation’s Finest, the officers of the New York City Police Department.
We’re experiencing the cold-blooded murder of two beat cops with as much shock and horror as if it were the targeted assassination of a senior elected official, just sitting with his $200 haircut in the backseat of a limo.
The New York Times has an article attempting to explain what it must consider an outsize reaction. It puts this tragedy in the context of the Black Power movement and the riots that tore apart many of our cities in the 1970s and 1980s. The NYPD alone lost 81 officers in those expressions of “power to the people”.
Targeted Attack on New York Police Reopens Old Wounds From ’70s
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/nyregion/targeted-attacks-on-new-york-police-reopen-old-wounds-from-70s.html?ribbon-ad-idx=2&rref=nyregion&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&action=keypress®ion=FixedRight&pgtype=article
The Kurds actually like the West. Some wear American flags patches into battle. They are not all Muslims and appear to tolerate Christians like the Yazidis. They do want their own country at this point, having been attacked in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. They don’t appear intent on living under Sharia and give women much greater equality.
In the long run they are probably just as bad as ISIS.
nah, they have always been jew and israel friendly, they were led by a gangster till about 10 years ago (now rotting in a turk jail). they are completely secular, they now control a lot of oil, they have since turkey threw israel under a boat, been trained by the idf. they are ruthless at doing what none of the west have had the balls todo and clean up the savages.
I have asked a kurd why they helped the yardiz, he said they were backward people who couldn’t defend themselves, so they had to, i liked that answer.
these are not like the amahdi who carry water for the jihadists.
The Kurds are the descendents of the Medes who gave the Romns, Byzantium and Iran so much trouble they have always loved independence and under the Ottoman Empire wanted free but didn’t have the military force to gain and maintain freedom.
CBC – Yves Francoeur, Montreal police union boss, says ‘multi-ethnic’ population a risk to officers
Officers ‘not immune to the possibility of attack’ because of Muslim population, he says
The president of Montreal’s police union says officers here are a target for attacks because it’s a “multi-ethnic” city.
Yves Francoeur told Radio-Canada that “police officers are not immune to the possibility of attack because of the ‘multi-ethnic’ character of Montreal.”
When asked about his statements on CBC’s Daybreak, Francoeur said radicalized Islamic attacks are a factor the police need to consider.
He said the police have good relationships with Muslim leaders, but that radical attacks are a concern for the police force.
“We have good co-operation with those communities, who have to face some very extremist individuals in their own communities, but we’re working with them.”
Francoeur said there’s still an ongoing investigation into the man arrested on Friday for allegedly making threats against police, but he believes the man was motivated by religion.
“I know from the investigation, there was a relation with religion, Islamist.”
A spokesman for the Montreal police department has not confirmed that Islam, or any religion, was involved in that arrest.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre called on Francoeur to clarify his comments.
Mtl’s diversity and multicultural character is an added value not a threat for our safety.Mtl police union Pres needs to clarify his thought
— DenisCoderre (@DenisCoderre) December 22, 2014
In the interview, Francoeur also noted that the men involved in the St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa attacks, Michael Zihaf-Bibeau and Martin Couture-Rouleau, were both French Quebecers who converted to Islam and not part of the mainstream Muslim community.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/yves-francoeur-montreal-police-union-boss-says-multi-ethnic-population-a-risk-to-officers-1.2881517
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Montreal Gazette – Police union president under fire after ‘discriminatory’ remark
Montreal’s diversity is an asset, not a threat, Mayor Denis Coderre said Monday in a stern rebuke after the head of Montreal’s police brotherhood union said officers’ safety might be at risk because of the city’s “multi-ethnic character.”
Yves Francoeur kept a low profile Monday after taking heat for his remarks to local media in reaction to the killings of two police officers in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a third near Tampa, Fla., during the weekend.
Asked by Le Devoir why he thought Montreal police could be targeted in an attack like the Brooklyn shooting, Francoeur replied: “We worry in Montreal on account of its multi-ethnic character, on account of the (attacks) in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.”
“When there are mosques on the territory, unfortunately there are people who are more extremist,” he said. “There is work that is being done, but we have close relations with the Muslim community.”
Mayor Coderre joined the chorus of Francoeur’s critics on Twitter. “Mtl’s diversity and multicultural character is an added value, not a threat for our safety,” Coderre tweeted in English after writing a similar message in French.
“Mtl police union Pres needs to clarify his thought.”
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal-based Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, condemned Francoeur for linking ethnic diversity with the risk of violence. “At best, we can say it’s a slip. At worst, it’s a reflection of a state of mind that views diversity as a threat,” Niemi said. “That’s something we hear often in public discourse: that diversity isn’t just a threat to social fabric and cohesion, but also a threat to public safety.”
“We have to be very careful not to make light of a real security issue: the increasing threat of madmen targeting people in uniform and killing them,” he warned, “but to make a sweeping statement to the effect that police officers are at risk because of diversity in Montreal, that’s ill-advised at best.”
Will Prosper, a community activist in Montreal North and former RCMP constable, urged Francoeur to apologize. “That’s the least he could do after insulting Montreal’s diverse communities, because he’s treating them like potential shooters,” Prosper said.
Francoeur turned down the Montreal Gazette’s requests for an interview Monday.
Sergeant Mario Lanoie of the Police Brotherhood said Francoeur is not on holiday, but won’t take any more interviews for a few days “unless some event goes nuclear.”
In one of his last interviews before stepping out of the spotlight, Francoeur elaborated on his remarks on CBC’s morning current affairs show, Daybreak. Asked what he meant when he said Montreal police could be at risk because of the city’s “multi-ethnic character,” Francoeur said “it is one of the factors.”
“It’s a combination of factors, but we have exactly the same in Montreal as we do in New York or London,” he added.
Francoeur told Le Devoir that Montreal should follow the examples of the Toronto and Ottawa forces by ramping up security at neighbourhood stations.
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said Toronto police haven’t increased security, but officers have been told to be extra vigilant.
“I think that any one in the policing sector is vulnerable right now because of the amount of rhetoric and demonizing of police that seems to be creeping up here,” he said. Montreal is no stranger to the kind of violence against police that has recently shaken the United States.
On Feb. 28, 2002, Montreal police Constable Benoît L’Écuyer, 29, was gunned down in the middle of Highway 40 in Anjou. He had been trying to catch up to a suspect fleeing a crash caused by speeding.
In 2003, 23-year-old Stéphane Boucher, who had two warrants outstanding for his arrest at the time of the shooting, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death, a charge that carries a minimum prison sentence of 25 years.
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/police-union-president-under-fire-after-discriminatory-remark
CNN -INDIA – Forced conversions between Hindus and Muslims spark anger.
Better focus energy on stopping LOVE-Jihad. [poo!]
CNN – Saudi Energy Minister, Ali al-Naimi strongly denies the theory that Saudi Arabia is using oil as a weapon.
See? The very picture of innocence…
~~ Tra-la, tra-la ~~
They can claim what they want the facts speak for themselves. AKA QED.