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Rape and child abuse ‘are rife in German refugee camps’: Unsegregated conditions blamed as women are ‘seen as fair game’ in overcrowded migrant centres (dailyamail, Sep 25, 2015)
http://dailym.ai/1R4zNtq
“A culture of rape and sexual abuse is being allowed to take hold in asylum centres across Germany as Europe struggles to cope with the migrant crisis, it has been alleged,
Women’s rights groups and politicians have highlighted assaults against women and children in at least one camp.
And they suggest such incidents may be widespread, with many going unreported to the police.
Campaigners also claimed some men saw unaccompanied women as ‘fair game’, and also blamed conditions in which occupants were unsegregated by gender or nationality.
The warnings came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this month announced there was ‘no limit’ to the numbers of migrants her country would take.
Germany is expected to receive up to one million migrants this year and has since imposed temporary border controls.
But some cities have been struggling to cope with the influx, reporting intolerable pressures on housing and too few staff to process asylum claims.
And other EU countries have accused Germany of encouraging the crisis – then trying to resettle migrants in other EU countries under a quota system…”
From Magyar TV this morning Orban speaking from Austria, roughly and quickly translated:
-Every day 8-10k migrants arriving.
-Subsahara sending people too
-Hungary can’t rely on media to report fairly
-Austria a source of difficulty and misinformation.
-half of European leaders believe the invasion is good for Europe the other half do not believe it.
This is the first crumbling of civilization, as the invasion and resistance continues more and more of our civilization will be damaged and destroyed. Our culture is going to be changed by this invasion and the change will at the least be the removal of several layers of civilization that has been put in place during the 20th century.
Syria’s civil war prompts first ‘Doomsday Vault’ withdrawal (CNN, Sep 25, 2015)
http://cnn.it/1JsSFfn
“The horror of Syria’s civil war is familiar to most, thanks to the ghastly images of death and destruction — and most recently, of fleeing refugees — that have played out across our screens.
But the conflict’s ugly effects have now reached far beyond the devastated streets of Syria and the crowded camps where its refugees huddle, and into the unlikeliest of places: deep below the frozen tundra of an Arctic island.
The Global Seed Vault, something of an agricultural Noah’s Ark, keeps a seed of just about every known crop in the world inside a frozen vault on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.
The vault is meant to be opened only in the event of a catastrophic event, like flooding or drought, that would threaten a crop with extinction, according to Brian Lainoff, a spokesman for the Crop Trust, one of the vault’s international stewards.
No seeds have ever been withdrawn, according to Lainoff, but Syria’s civil war has brought such chaos that it has the guardians of the so-called “Doomsday Vault” sounding the doomsday alarm.
“We just don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Lainoff about the Syria-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, one of the Crop Trust’s 11 global seed banks. “Any day that facility could be hit,” he said.
ICARDA’s gene bank in Aleppo, Syria, includes more than 135,000 varieties of wheat, fava bean, lentil and chickpea crops, as well as the world’s most valuable barley collection, according to Lainoff.
By 2012, Lainoff said, “it had become increasingly difficult to operate” in Aleppo, so ICARDA’s international staff — which had over the years successfully developed new strains of drought- and heat-resistant wheat — fled the country, leaving the center and its critical inventory behind.
Three years later, with no sign of conditions in Syria improving, it had become time to cash in — or perhaps more appropriately, to defrost — its insurance policy.
ICARDA scientists need the seeds from Norway so they can plant and regenerate them at ICARDA facilities in Lebanon and Morocco. With new seeds, they can resume the important research they’ve been doing for decades. They will replace what they had on ice in Norway with some of the newly generated seeds….”
USA – LOS ANGELES -Saudi prince arrested at L.A. compound for alleged sex crime
Saudi prince was arrested at a hillside compound near Beverly Hills on Wednesday after being accused of trying to force a worker to perform a sex act on him, Los Angeles police said.
Police were called to the gated property in the Beverly Glen area, within a gated community on Wallingford Drive, after a caretaker at the home reported a disturbance, officials said. After officers interviewed people inside, a 28-year-old man identified as Saudi prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud was arrested on suspicion of forced oral copulation of an adult.
He was booked and freed on $300,000 bail Thursday afternoon, jail records show. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
LAPD Officer Drake Madison said Al-Saud was booked after 4 p.m.
The LAPD has a consul liaison division that checks with foreign nations’ consulates regarding diplomatic immunity, said Capt. Tina Nieto.
Police determined Al-Saud does not have immunity in this case, she said.
Some foreign royalty do have diplomatic immunity, but it depends on the dignitary’s status in his home country’s government and the level of the offense he commits in the U.S., she said.
Jail records show Al-Saud is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 19.
Attempts to reach the U.S. State Department and the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Los Angeles were not successful Thursday afternoon.
Neighbor Tennyson Collins said a resident reported seeing a bleeding woman scream for help as she tried to scale the property’s 8-foot-high wall Wednesday afternoon.
When Collins drove home from work after 1:30 p.m., police followed his car through the gates and onto the property, which he described as a compound. The website Zillow valued the 22,000-square-foot property at $37 million.
Officers escorted some 20 people out of the house, many of them staff, Collins said.
Police said Al-Saud was renting the home. Collins said various foreign nationals have been renting out the property for weeks at a time over the last year but that the biggest incident up to Wednesday had just been a raucous party or two. One person who rented out the home stationed armed guards at the gates, he said.
“Obviously neighbors aren’t happy about it, but it is what it is,” Collins said of the international visitors.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-saudi-prince-arrest-beverly-hills-20150924-story.html
===========================================================
Saudi prince arrested in LA for alleged sex crime
A Saudi prince was arrested at a hillside compound Wednesday afternoon for an alleged sex crime, authorities said.
Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud, 29, was arrested for allegedly forcing oral copulation with a woman, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He was taken into custody at 4:10 p.m. in the 2500 block of Wallingford Drive.
A caretaker at a home on that street called police to report a disturbance, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A neighbor told The Times that a resident reported seeing a bleeding woman scream for help as she tried to scale the home’s wall Wednesday afternoon.
Al-Saud was released Thursday after posting $300,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 19.
http://abc7.com/news/saudi-prince-arrested-in-la-for-alleged-sex-crime/1001042/
Saudi prince arrested for alleged sex crime in Beverly Hills
3 People Detained in Malaysia After Terrorism Warnings (abcnews, Sep 25, 2015)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-australia-embassies-warn-terror-attack-malaysia-34027658
“Malaysian police said Friday they detained three men, including two foreigners, for questioning over their possible involvement in terrorism after the U.S. and Australian embassies warned of a potential attack at a popular hawker street in Kuala Lumpur.
A Malaysian, an Indonesian and a Syrian, aged between 30 and 51 years, were picked up Thursday as part of an ongoing counterterrorism operation, said national deputy police chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim.
He said one of them often visited Yemen and entered Malaysia a few days ago. No details were given about the others…”
Police Fire Tear Gas to Quell Anti-India Protests in Kashmir (abcnews, Sep 25, 2015)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/police-fire-tear-gas-quell-anti-india-protests-34030248
“Government forces fired tear gas and used batons to quell thousands of anti-India protesters who turned violent Friday after Eid prayers at mosques in the Indian portion of Kashmir, police said.
The protesters, waving Pakistani and pro-militant flags and chanting pro-independence slogans, hurled stones at government forces who tried to stop them from marching in Srinagar and at least two other places in the region.
One person was critically injured after he was hit by a tear gas shell in Sopore, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in the Indian portion of Kashmir, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Authorities tightened security and blocked all mobile and landline Internet services for two days to stop Muslim protesters from uploading pictures of animal sacrifices, especially the slaughtering of cows, which are worshipped by Hindus.
Tensions have been building in the region after a court two weeks ago upheld a colonial-era law banning the slaughtering of cows and the selling beef in the region, a decision resented by Muslims. The Jammu-Kashmir state government is likely to appeal the court ruling…”
This is what is coming to Europe and North America, the fight in Kashmir are the result of the Moslem invasion and occupation of India. We in the west refused to learn from this and have allowed the Islamic conquest to insert many colonists in our nations. Their numbers have grown large enough that they are attempting to take control of all of our institutions.
Gunmen Attack Saudi Police Checkpoints, Killing 3 (abcnews, Sep 25, 2015)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gunmen-attack-saudi-police-checkpoints-killing-34030076
“Authorities in Saudi Arabia say gunmen have opened fire at two police checkpoints in a northern province, killing at least three people.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed police official in Hail province as saying the shootings happened Thursday at two separate police posts. The official identified the dead as two civilians and one soldier.
The official said an investigation has been launched.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, Saudi Arabia has seen a series of recent assaults claimed by affiliates of the extremist Islamic State group. The kingdom is taking part in a U.S.-led coalition targeting the militants in Syria and Iraq.”
The Islamic civil war has spread to Saudi, it will also spread to Europe and North America.
Blowback on Wahhabi-ville.
Yup, eventually people get tired of the repression, in this case there people rebelling want to be the represors, which is not usual in fact it is why religious freedom was written into the Constitution.
Police Program Aims to Pinpoint Those Most Likely to Commit Crimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/us/police-program-aims-to-pinpoint-those-most-likely-to-commit-crimes.html?_r=0
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At the request of his probation officer, Tyrone C. Brown came to a community auditorium here in June and sat alongside about 30 other mostly young black men with criminal records — men who were being watched closely by the police, just as he was.
He expected to hear an admonition from law enforcement officials to help end violence in the community. But Mr. Brown, 29, got more than he had bargained for. A police captain presented a slide show featuring mug shots of people they were cracking down on. Up popped a picture of Mr. Brown linking him to a criminal group that had been implicated in a homicide.
“I was disturbed,” said Mr. Brown, who acknowledges having been involved in crime but denied that he had ever been involved in a killing.
That discomfort was just the reaction the authorities were after.
Interesting but no doubt illegal.
The old flat-foot on the beat was a whole lot better, I’d bet.
He was. Your statement about illegality is interesting since in many ways the rule of law is over, the police, prosecutors and Judges are making the laws up as they go along, doing what they want and ignoring the laws and Constitution. All my life I have heard people warn that something like this was coming and the majority of the people kept saying that it can’t happen here. Well it is happening here and the majority of the people keep saying it can’t happen here.
Yeah, whenever “international law” is invoked I look askance.
Russia announces naval drills in ‘east Mediterranean’
http://news.yahoo.com/russia-announces-naval-drills-east-mediterranean-082138678.html
Moscow (AFP) – Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday said it will hold naval drills in the “east Mediterranean” in September and October, as the West frets over a military buildup by Moscow in Syria.
The exercises include three warships from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, including the Saratov landing ship, the Moskva guided missile cruiser and the Smetlivy destroyer, the ministry said in a statement.
The drills will involve “40 combat exercises, including rocket and artillery fire at sea and airborne targets,” the statement said.
The ministry said that the Mediterranean drills — which were restarted in early 2013 — had been planned since the end of last year and did not link them to the conflict in Syria.
The United States has accused Moscow of sending troops, tanks and fighter jets to Syria in recent weeks, sparking fears that Russia could be preparing to join in fighting alongside its long-st
Russian fighter jets enter Syria with transponders off
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/24/politics/syria-russian-fighter-jets/index.html
Washington (CNN)A U.S. official told CNN Thursday that Russian fighter jets turned off their transponders as they flew into Syria in an apparent attempt to avoid detection. The official said the fighters flew very close to a transport plane that had its transponder on and functioning.
U.S. satellites rapidly saw that the aircraft were there, according to the official.
The assessment over the weekend was that the fighter jets were on their way. The same official said the Russians have begun flying drones around the coastal city of Latakia.
Russia launches drones in SyriaWith no ISIS fighters in the area, the move raises serious questions about the Russians’ intentions with their military buildup, which the U.S. has questioned the purpose of and watched with wariness. The action points to a higher likelihood that the Russian plan is to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather than fight the terror group.
Is Russia preparing to move troops to 2 new Syria bases?
The U.S. has its own effort underway to defeat ISIS but has also said that Assad must go.
Asked about what the U.S. can do about the situation, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told CNN at a press conference Thursday that “it’s a matter of seeing what the Russians do.”
Carter said he hopes the Russians will fight ISIS, “but if it’s a matter of pouring gasoline on the civil war in Syria, that is certainly not productive from our point of view.”
Obama, Putin to meet at U.N. next week
Just ask J.E. Dyer.
That was a sensational article. She’s a map-lover, like me.
I read her blog faithfully.
Each article takes me inordinate amounts of time. I always have to follow links to previous essays, become acquainted with sources she recommends. Copy and dissect the maps, etc. When I’m finished, I feel like I own it.
It’s a luxury; I must indulge selectively.
She is giving people a free education in how to be an intelligence analysis and how to write the reports.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/607595/Migrant-crisis-EU-lost-control-borders-danger-collapse
We’re doomed: EU chief fears union will COLLAPSE over migrant crisis
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, warned the EU was now facing a “critical point” and that the migrant crisis hadn’t even reached its peak.
As he chaired an emergency meeting of EU leaders in Brussels last night Mr Tusk painted a bleak picture of the EU’s future, saying the 28-member bloc was on the verge of breakdown with “recriminations and misunderstanding” pitting nations against one another.
The future of free movement was at stake, he said, as the continent had lost control of its borders as well as a “sense of order”.
The EU was crashing before the invasion.
Time for _Mercy Killing_!!
have to ask Rita, I thinkThat’s something these soulless Euros are into.
Lack of EU migrant strategy reignites Serbia-Croatia tensions
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/24/us-europe-migrants-idUSKCN0RO1AB20150924
Former Yugoslav foes Serbia and Croatia traded embargoes and insults on Thursday in the latest fallout from Europe’s failure to agree a comprehensive response to the tide of migrants streaming north through the Balkans.
After weeks of recrimination and buck-passing, a summit on Wednesday did produce a glimmer of political unity between EU states on measures to help the refugees closer to home, or at least register their asylum requests as soon as they enter the European Union.
But all attempts in recent weeks to stem the flow have only prompted more desperate people to make a dash for Europe before the doors are shut or winter makes the journey too perilous.
ADVERTISING
On Thursday alone, about 1,200 people crossed in boats from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos in under an hour, following the 2,500 who had made the dangerous passage the previous day.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the European leader who has done most to welcome refugees, told her parliament that the EU was “still a long way from where we must get to”.
Nowhere was that more evident than in eastern Europe, where beggar-my-neighbor policies have led countries alternately to try to block the flow or shunt it somewhere else.
Until last week, most of those fleeing war or poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere were finding that the quickest route into the EU, and their preferred destination of Germany, was from Serbia into Hungary.
But since Hungary sealed its border with razor-wire, an overwhelmed Serbia has simply diverted almost 50,000 migrants to the EU’s newest member state, Croatia, which says it also cannot keep pace with the influx.
Demanding that Serbia send at least some of the migrants to Hungary or Romania, Croatia barred all Serbian-registered vehicles from crossing from Serbia.
“MAKING FOOLS OF US”
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said he would not let Serbia “make fools of us … We can function with 4,000 to 5,000 people a day. But more than that will not work, and I will not allow it.”
Related Coverage
› France says it won’t host more than 30,000 refugees: PM
› Hungary mulls ‘corridor’ for migrants as they flood in from Croatia
Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic said Serbia had been “brutally attacked”, and its Foreign Ministry compared the restrictions to racial laws enforced by the Nazi puppet state in Croatia in World War Two.
Belgrade in turn blocked Croatian goods and cargo vehicles, and the escalating dispute threatened to undo 15 years of progress toward reconciling two countries that were enemies during Yugoslavia’s bloody collapse in the 1990s.
In a bid to forestall such disputes, EU leaders on Wednesday night pledged at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for Syrian refugees that remain in the Middle East.
The summit also decided that EU-staffed “hotspots” would be set up in Greece and Italy by November to register and fingerprint new arrivals and start the process of relocating Syrians and others likely to win refugee status to other EU states, while deporting those classed as economic migrants.
The meeting eased some of the acrimony seen at an interior ministers meeting on Tuesday when four eastern EU countries who opposed a plan to distribute 120,000 asylum seekers proportionally among member states were simply outvoted.
That number is still only a fraction of the almost half a million refugees and migrants who have reached the EU this year.
“I am deeply convinced that Europe not only needs a redistribution (of refugees), but that, much more, it needs a long-term process for a fair distribution of refugees among member states,” Merkel told the German parliament.
But Hungary said it might challenge even the existing distribution scheme in court.
“The quota proposal is a typical example of the moral imperialism that Germany forces upon Europe,” Janos Lazar, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, told reporters.
He also said that Hungary might consider simply letting migrants coming from Croatia pass through by train or bus, if Austria and Germany agreed to accept them.
Related Coverage
› German government boosts funding to states for refugees
› Obama, UK’s Cameron spoke about refugees, Syria: White House
PUSHING BACK
Meanwhile the wealthier countries of northern Europe are starting to push back some of the thousands of people who have crossed their borders, reasserting the principle that refugees must request asylum at the point where they enter the 28-nation bloc, one of Hungary’s central demands.
Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said her country, which together with Germany temporarily waived this rule for Syrian refugees three weeks ago, had sent back more than 5,000 migrants to safe EU countries they had crossed.
To the east, Bulgaria, a much poorer, formerly communist state which fears that its borders could also be overwhelmed, said the EU was struggling to catch up with events.
“In the EU we gather only to say how many billions should be allocated and where to relocate the migrants. We cannot take any other decisions that get ahead of events,” Prime Minister Boiko Borisov told reporters.
Germany’s warm welcome for refugees, especially those from Syria, stems partly from the view of business and government there that migration can help counter the effects of an aging population and prevent a shortage of labor.
Nevertheless, many Germans, not least some of the conservative Merkel’s political allies, are concerned about how easily the newcomers can be integrated.
Germany expects to receive 800,000 migrants in 2015, but even last year the population rose by 430,000 to 81.2 million, its biggest jump since 1992, the German statistics office said.
A strong economy means many will find work. German unemployment is expected to fall by 100,000 this year, although
the labor office research institute IAB said it could rise again by 70,000 in 2016 under the influx of newcomers.
(Additional reporting by Angel Krasimirov in Sofia, Michelle Martin and Tina Bellon in Germany, Yannis Behrakis in Lesbos, Greece, Aleksandar Vasovic in Croatia; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
U.N. sees refugee flow to Europe growing, plans for big Iraq displacement
http://www.oann.com/u-n-sees-refugee-flow-to-europe-growing-plans-for-big-iraq-displacement/GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Friday it could see no easing of the flow of refugees into Europe, with 8,000 arrivals daily, and that problems now facing governments may turn out to be only “the tip of the iceberg”.
Hungary, which lies in the path of the largest migration wave Europe has seen since World War Two, said it was seeking support to halt an influx from Croatia after sealing its border with Serbia by building a 3.5-metre-high steel fence.
Amin Awad, regional refugee coordinator for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, told journalists in Geneva the body’s past warnings on the scale of the problem had not been taken seriously.
“I don’t see it abating, I don’t see it stopping. If anything, it gives an indication perhaps that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
Dominik Bartsch, the U.N.’s deputy humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said 10 million people were expected to need humanitarian support by the end of the year in that country, where 3.2 million were already displaced.
He said the United Nations was planning for the displacement of 500,000 people from the Iraqi city of Mosul if Iraqi forces launch an attempt to recapture it from Islamic State.
Top Hong Kong judges defend rule of law in face of China pressure
http://www.oann.com/top-hong-kong-judges-defend-rule-of-law-in-face-of-china-pressure/
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Two top Hong Kong judges on Friday defended the rule of law in an apparent rebuke of China’s top official in the city who recently stoked controversy by saying Hong Kong’s China-backed leader was above the law.
The mainland official, Zhang Xiaoming, said this month Hong Kong’s chief executive had a “special legal position which is above the executive, legislative and judicial institutions.”
The controversy highlighted a passionate debate in Hong Kong about the extent of mainland control.
The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework that gave it separate laws and an independent judiciary but reserved ultimate authority for Beijing.
Hong Kong Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma, speaking at the opening of a new court attended by Zhang, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and prominent foreign judges, said the rule of law was crucial to the financial hub’s success.
Croatia: Interior Minister calls for refugees to be halted at Greek-Turkish border
Migrants are disguising themselves as Syrians to enter Europe
VIENNA — Moving among the tens of thousands of Syrian war refugees passing through the train stations of Europe are many who are neither Syrian nor refugees, but hoping to blend into the mass migration and find a back door to the West.
There are well-dressed Iranians speaking Farsi who insist they are members of the persecuted Yazidis of Iraq. There are Indians who don’t speak Arabic but say they are from Damascus. There are Pakistanis, Albanians, Egyptians, Kosovars, Somalis and Tunisians from countries with plenty of poverty and violence, but no war.
It should come as no surprise that many migrants seem to be pretending they are someone else. The prize, after all, is the possibility of benefits, residency and work in Europe.
Leaders in Germany and other European states say they are prepared to award asylum to legitimate refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Eritrea, but they are issuing more strident warnings they will reject many of the economic migrants streaming over their borders.
“What we see here has nothing to do with seeking refuge and safety,” Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said Monday. “It is nothing but opportunism.”
Many of the asylum seekers tell journalists and aid workers they are from Syria, even if they are not, under the assumption that a Syrian shoemaker fleeing bombed out Aleppo will be welcome, while a computer programmer from Kosovo will not be.
It is common knowledge on the migratory route that some who are not from Syria shred their real passports in Turkey and simply fake it.
A couple of reporters, one a native Arabic speaker, who wandered through the bahnhofs in Vienna found plenty of newcomers whose accents did not match their stories and whose stories did not make sense.
Swimming in the river of humanity are shady characters, too, admitted criminals, ISIS sympathizers and a couple of guys from Fallujah, one with a fresh bullet wound, who when asked their occupation seemed confused.
“Army,” said one. His friend corrected him. “We’re all drivers,” he said.
The refugees report that a forged Syrian passport can be bought on the Turkish border for as little as $200. A reporter for the Daily Mail bought a Syrian passport, ID card and driving license for $2,000 in Turkey under the name of a real man who was killed in the conflict.
An Austrian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there is a thriving black market for Syrian passports in Croatia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria, too.
There are enough pretenders that true Syrians complain about ersatz Syrians.
Syrian war refugees said that Europe offered a welcome to them but that opportunists will quickly wear out the continent’s welcome if they haven’t already.
“Look at these people, what are they doing here? We are the ones who are fleeing from war and slaughter, and now these men are taking away our space,” said Mustafa, 62, from Syria. He had stopped to help a woman who had fainted, letting a group of Afghans use the opportunity to cut in line.
“I don’t understand – we thought the Europeans invited Syrians like us to come,” said one of Mustafa’s companions.
___
At Vienna Westbahnhof, a tight clutch of men are queuing at the ticket windows. Days of rough travel lay behind them. All have one aim: Germany.
When asked by a reporter where they were from, the men answer, “We are from Syria.”
When a reporter switches to the North African dialect, the men laugh nervously. “We are Algerians,” they admit.
Hamza, 27, is from Algiers. “I am illegal, not refugee,” he said. “In my country, the only thing you can do there is either drugs or crimes. So I was in prison several times, for drugs, also for trying to kill another guy.”
Hamza and his mates went to Turkey because the smuggling route to Sardina has been shut down.
“We flew to Istanbul and then took a bus to Izmir. There we destroyed our passports and just mixed with the Syrian refugees. We then took the boat from Izmir to Greece. From there to Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and now we are in Vienna,” he said.
Did Hamza feel guilty? Not at all.
“It’s really easy now to travel with these refugees. We received food and shelter, and a nice welcoming from people so far.”
He’s met Tunisians, Moroccans and Libyans playing the same game.
“So when someone asks us, where do you live? We say Damascus. Where are you from? Answer Syria.”
An Austrian aid volunteer at the train station, Hisham Fares, is of Libyan descent and has worked as an interpreter helping asylum seekers find their way in the present confusion.
“There are people who are trying to benefit from the situation. I’ve met Egyptians who claimed they were Syrians, but the dialect is Egyptian. I’ve also met people from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia or Libya who all are now flying to Istanbul and then go to Izmir where they destroy passports,” Fares said. “I’ve also met Palestinians who live in camps in Lebanon and now claim they were from Yarmouk camp in Syria. Many of them said they have family in Germany and just use this situation to finally get asylum.”
“Most of these people say they’ve lost their passports,” Fares added. “The sad thing is that those Syrians who really are fleeing war will be the ones paying the price.”
Another group of men, standing in line for free food, were speaking English among themselves but with an Indian accent.
One said his name was “Hassan.”
“We grew up in Syria, our fathers worked there for many years,” Hassan said.
He had worked in Syria, in a bank, in Damascus, he said.
When a reporter spoke to them in Arabic, the men smiled and said, “No Arabic, only English.” Asked where they lived in Damascus, they couldn’t really say.
They excused themselves and wandered away.
___
Confronting a surge in migrants falsely claiming to be from war-torn nations, European authorities are seeking to bolster screening efforts, particularly at gateway nations such as Greece and Italy.
Ewa Moncure, a spokeswoman for Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, said officials are deploying interpreters to assess accents and are using geographic and other questions to weed out pretenders.
“You have interpreters working with officers, and they are asking questions,” she said. “If someone claims to be from Syria and he can’t say what the currency is or what the main street is in Damascus, there are going to be questions about his claim.”
Frontex, she said, is moving to double its staff in Greece in the coming weeks to at least 140 people, an effort that may help the agency to identify more false refugees. Those identified as such, she said, should be detained and processed for rapid deportations.
But Greece has been so overwhelmed by the sheer numbers that many are slipping through.
Most economic migrants and war refugees in Vienna say they have arrived without showing a single document to authorities – nor are they photographed, fingerprinted or subjected to biometric measurements.
It will take months to sort out their stories.
http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/migrants-are-disguising-themselves-as-syrians-to-enter-europe-1.370065
GREECE -Lesbos feels the strain of refugees and fears they are here to stay
Out of hell, into limbo: the plight of Syrian refugees in France-reporter ( 8 min )
Israel to Use More Force Against Rock-Throwing Terrorists
http://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-increases-penalties-on-rock-throwers/?
Israel’s Security Cabinet voted unanimously to increase penalties against those who throw rocks, Molotov cocktails, or other projectiles, as well as to allow police to use more force against rock-throwers.
Israel’s Security Cabinet has authorized tougher measures against rock-throwing after a spike in such attacks, including one that killed a 64-year-old man driving home from Rosh Hashana dinner with his daughters. The cabinet also authorized the use of live fire in limited circumstances against rock-throwers.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement announcing the following changes to Israel’s approach to the throwing of rocks, Molotov cocktails, and other projectiles:
Police are authorized to use live fire, not only when their lives are in danger, but when others lives’ are in danger;
Adult rock-throwers will receive a minimum sentence of 4 years in prison;
Imprisonment and fines will be increased on minors aged 14-17 who throw rocks and on their parents, and imprisoned minors will lose their welfare benefits; and
Minimum fines on minors over age 12 and bonds on minors under age 12 will be considered.
Israeli law does not hold children under age 12 accountable for crimes.
Viktor Orbán press conference “We feel that Hungary was let down”
Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban seeks support for Croatian border controls
MECCA – New video shows extent of haj disaster
Iran: Saudi Arabia’s Hajj ‘management’ decried at Tehran protest
REBEL MEDIA + CBC Quebec reporter smashes media’s niqab groupthink in 90 seconds
Welcome to the era of IslamoPHORia
http://libertyunyielding.com/2015/09/24/welcome-to-the-era-of-islamophoria/
For years, we’ve been hearing about the scourge of Islamophobia, a coinage by the left to describe the imaginary wave of discrimination that they perceive has washed over the country in the years since 9/11. As with other forms of putative discrimination, allegations of Islamophobia can usually be easily defanged. Take the case of Muslim parents in Jersey City, N.J, who are outraged that the public schools in their community refused to shut down for Eid al-Adha. The real reasons their demand for “equal time” went unhonored is that it was made seven days before the holiday — very short notice for a school district. In addition, the schools stay open during the Jewish high holidays, which fall around the same time.
Or take the case of the current poster boy for Islamophobia, Ahmed Mohamed (aka Clock Boy). There is, to paraphrase Barack Obama, not a smidgen of evidence that he was singled out based on his faith. But there is plenty to suggest he has become a hero because of it. Consider the recent entries on the 14-year-old’s “social calendar”:
Read more at http://libertyunyielding.com/2015/09/24/welcome-to-the-era-of-islamophoria/
FINLAND – RAW: Protesters attack refugee bus with stones, fireworks in Finland
Protesters threw fireworks, stones and beer bottles at a bus bringing asylum-seekers to a refugee centre in Finland. The bus with the new arrivals was escorted by police as it approached the refugee centre north of Helsinki overnight Thursday into Friday. State broadcaster YLE said the roughly 40 asylum-seekers were met by up to 40 protesters. It was unclear if any arrests were made.
Swedes’ Homes May Be Confiscated to Accommodate Asylum Seekers
One month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Sweden: August 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6550/sweden-islam-multiculturalism
In 1992, the “Threat and Risk Assessment Commission” established that the government should have the option to seize property, especially summer homes, from the Swedish people in a time of crisis.
Despite Sayadi’s commission of three rapes and his sexual molestation of young girls, as well as his systematic criminal activity, he received only a four-year prison sentence, and will not have to face deportation.
Husein wants a Swedish passport so he can go back to Somalia, the country he claims to have escaped from — to “visit his mom and establish business contacts.”
“The situation affects everyone who lives and stays in our little county. The climate has grown tougher, many people feel scared and unsafe and with that comes the risk of increased xenophobia, antagonism and exclusion.” — From a letter to the government from Örkelljunga County leaders. The county swiftly received criticism from the mainstream media, and the Immigration Service let it be known that they have no intention of helping Örkelljunga.
August 3: Ahmad El-Moghrabi, 21, who has no driver’s license, was indicted for driving like a madman through the city of Malmö in February, and nearly killing a mother and baby. On February 11, he drove a luxury Mercedes at high speed, with some other Arab men as passengers, one of whom is a well-known extremist, when the police tried to pull the car over. Instead of stopping, El-Moghrabi sped away at about 150 km/h on the busy inner city street of Amiralsgatan, where the speed limit is 40 km/h.
The police chase ended when El-Moghrabi hit some parked cars. Three people were injured, and the mother and baby sustained life-threatening injuries after being crushed between the cars.
El-Moghrabi fled the scene, but was apprehended later. He has been charged with gross negligence, grievous bodily harm, fleeing the scene of an accident, and driving without a license. His own explanation to the rampage was that he did not want to be caught by the police, as his license had been revoked.
August 3: It was reported that 2000 third-world immigrants are seeking asylum in Sweden — each week. The largest groups were Syrians, then Afghans, stateless people, Eritreans and Somalis. The Immigration Service now reports that there are close to 50,000 asylum seekers living in various housing and rental facilities, and more are on their way to a country that already suffers from a major housing shortage.
YEMEN ‘Real muslim would never do that’: ISIS attacks Yemen mosque during holiday prayers
Victims of China’s Religious Liberty ‘Crackdown’ Appeal to Obama. But Will He Help?
http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/24/will-obama-press-president-xi-jinping-on-chinas-religion-crackdown-its-not-likely/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRohsqTJZKXonjHpfsX56ugrW6G0lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ATcZhMK%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7jHKM1t0sEQWBHm
Earlier this week, as devout American Catholics took to the streets of Washington to celebrate the arrival of Pope Francis, four Chinese human rights activists sat in a small, plain congressional office room on Capitol Hill.
There were neither barricades nor the glaring lights of news camera crews at the press conference hosted by China Aid, an international Christian human rights group.
Two translators were on hand to assist non-English-speaking panelists in telling their stories.
“During the Ramadan of last year, August of 2014, in the town of Yarkand [in Xinjiang region], China’s security forces broke into a house of Uyghur families and started shooting,” said Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, via a translator. “Including a 7-year-old, 12 people were killed.”
The Daily Signal is the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation. We’ll respect your inbox and keep you informed.
According to Kadeer, whose flat palm tapped rhythmically against her leg throughout the event, the Uyghur people—a Muslim, Turkic ethnic minority within China—have faced increasingly violent persecution by a Chinese government that fears radical ties to extremist groups like ISIS. The Washington Post reported that, also during last year’s Ramadan holiday, Chinese authorities forced Uyghur university students to break fast.
UK -‘Enough of Manchester!’: Iranian immigrant begs police to deport him back from UK
Iraqi Priest Pleads for Pope Francis to Help End ‘Genocide’ of Christians
http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/24/iraqi-priest-pleads-for-pope-francis-to-help-end-genocide-of-christians/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRohsqTJZKXonjHpfsX56ugrW6G0lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ATcZhMK%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7jHKM1t0sEQWBHm
As ISIS terrorists forced Father Behnam Benoka and his fellow Christian people from their homes last summer, they left behind possessions, money, documents, and history.
Carrying nothing but faith, Benoka, the former rector of the seminary in Mosul, Iraq, set up a makeshift health clinic at a refugee camp for internally displaced minorities near Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
As he went about recruiting volunteer physicians to dispense free medicine and health care to desperate Iraqis, Benoka received a blessing from a faraway — but closely connected — source: the most powerful religious figure in the world.
Indeed, at his lowest moment last August, Benoka wrote a letter to Pope Francis, asking for love and blessings. Francis answered the prayer with a phone call, vowing to Benoka that “I will never leave you.”
President Obama announces initiative to encourage 1 million US children to learn Chinese over the next 5 years –
https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/647448521109598208
widow of slain hacker JunaidHussain & others urge for attack on Prophet cartoon event in Copenhagen tomorrow
https://twitter.com/Rita_Katz/status/647414135995674625/photo/1
Al Nusra ( al qaeda ) Eid al Adha celebrations in Aleppo Syria
Is the imam using khol or eyeliner ?Looks like eyeliner.OHIO – Groundzero mosque Imam to take Sunday pulpit at First Community Church
Next weekend, a Muslim clergyman from New York will deliver sermons to a religious congregation in Franklin County.
Not in a mosque, but in a Christian church on a Sunday morning.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will take the pulpit at the two campuses of First Community Church.
The Rev. David Hett, the church’s minister of religious life and learning, said inviting Rauf to preach challenges a prejudice that labels Christians as being opposed to Muslims.
“I think it’s a great statement to make to the community and to the world,” Hett said. “I’m pretty sure there’s never been a Muslim leader speaking from the pulpit, preaching on a Sunday morning.”
Rauf, founder and chairman of the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, has spent years challenging such prejudices. His organizations work to educate Americans about Islam.
Rauf will be at the church for three days to present “Exploring the Myths, Realities & Spiritual Practices of Islam” as part of First Community’s Spiritual Searchers programming. He’ll give a lecture next Friday, followed by a workshop on Oct. 3.
On Oct. 4, he’ll preach at Sunday services at the campuses in Marble Cliff and on the Northwest Side.
Rauf said a major thrust of the weekend will be to inform, educate and share the spirit of Islam through Sufism, which is among the things people find most attractive about the faith.
“It enables them to feel closer to God, to make their experience of the creator more real in their life,” Rauf said. “Sufism is essentially the spirit content of Islam.”
Sufi practices include chanting and meditation that are transformative, making the perspective of believers “more real, more full, more substantive,” Rauf said.
Every faith, he said, has a soul, which makes the body alive. And in any faith, believers can fall into a habit of practicing without soul. Sufism can help them find the spirit side.
Just as people of many faiths, or of no particular faith, can feel the impact of Buddhist meditation, they can be affected by Sufi practices, which can help them become more relaxed about their faith and at peace with themselves, Rauf said.
Hett said a goal is to increase the experiential component of the church’s Spiritual Searchers programs.
“We want people to dive more into their hearts and bodies and souls,” he said. “It’s going to be a way to get into the tough questions right away.”
The Rev. Deborah Lindsay, First Community’s minister of spiritual care, said building bridges is part of the DNA of the church. A key is to find ways to have different groups rub elbows with one another.
“It really shifts their thinking,” she said. “We’re moving the needle.”
But, Lindsay said, Christians who accept Muslims as peaceful, God-loving people still ask questions about extremists who kill in the name of the faith. It is important to work toward understanding as the self-proclaimed Islamic State continues to wreak havoc in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
Rauf has agreed to answer tough questions, Lindsay said.
“We’ve got to address this,” she said. “I think you have to do that. It’s just too front and center.”
Rauf said that although he’s seen greater understanding of Muslims in the years since the Sept. 11 terror attack, he has seen greater polarization in the years since President Barack Obama was first elected.
“It’s kind of a religious racism, an antipathy toward another religion,” he said.
Still, he added, “the situation is not static, it’s dynamic,” and he also has seen greater understanding in some circles.
The experience of Islamic immigrants in the U.S. is not much different from that of other immigrants and religious minorities, Rauf said.
Muslims from diverse backgrounds with differing music, traditions and laws will, as generations pass, form a U.S. Muslim culture.
“As Muslims, one of the important issues we have to address is how do we make the transition from being immigrant Muslims from different countries to becoming American Muslims,” he said.
Fees for “Exploring the Myths, Realities & Spiritual Practices of Islam” are $50 in advance or $70 at the door and include the Friday lecture and Saturday workshop, both at First Community Church’s Northwest Side campus at 3777 Dublin Rd. The lecture alone is $15 in advance or $20 at the door; the workshop alone is $45 in advance or $65 at the door.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/09/24/imam-to-preach-at-church.html
Uzbekistan Bans Children From Mosques On Eid Al-Adha Festival
TASHKENT — Uzbekistan’s government has banned people under the age of 18 from attending regular Friday Prayers or special prayer services at mosques across the country, including the Eid al-Adha celebrations that mark the end of the hajj.
The order, issued by Uzbekistan’s Education Ministry on September 23, warns parents they will face a fine of about $750 — equal to 15 months’ salary at the country’s minimum wage — if their children are caught by the authorities inside a mosque during prayer services.
It also warns imams at mosques not to allow anyone under the age of 18 into prayer services.
The Uzbek government frequently expresses concerns about the threat posed by Islamic extremists amid increasing Islamic sentiments in the country.
Ubaidullo Azimov, a local official in Tashkent, told RFE/RL that the government’s position was that “children’s brains should not be distracted” from school studies by religion.
He said the government thinks children should only learn what is taught at school, and that religious studies should take place only after students have finished their high-school studies.
A decree issued by President Islam Karimov on August 18 declared that September 24 is a public holiday in Uzbekistan so that Muslims can celebrate Eid. It makes no specific reference to any ban on children in mosques.
Karimov’s decree also congratulates the country’s Muslims on the holiday.
This year’s Eid celebrations come at the height of Uzbekistan’s two-month cotton harvest.
Despite the public holiday, all university students and employees at state institutions were required to work on September 24 to harvest cotton — including medical specialists, teachers, and workers at state-owned firms.
http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan-bans-children-from-mosques-for-eid/27268142.html
CANADA – QUEBEC – MONTREAL – DDO election signs defaced with anti-Islam message
DOLLARD-DES-ORMEAUX – Anti-Islamist stickers bearing the slogan “no Muslim, no terrorism” were found on election signs in DDO this week.
The signs, some of which were found covering NDP candidate Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, were located at the corner of Sources and De Salaberry boulevards.
Montreal police were alerted to the situation and are looking for anyone with information to come forward.
It’s a message that the Canadian Muslim Forum finds shocking, but not uncommon.
“There are some racist, Islamophobic slogans. It’s very shocking and troubling, but expected because of the toxic sentiment we are witnessing,” said Samer Majzoub, President of the CMF.
While only a handful of signs were vandalized, Mazjoub said the damage is already done.
“The community is feeling the heat, they feel it’s an easy target any time for any reason,” he said.
According to McGill professor Morton Weinfeld, the anti-Islamist sentiment isn’t new, but it is highlighted during the election period.
“The groundwork has been there since before the election – think of Herouxville and the Charte des Valeurs,” said Weinfeld.
“This current election campaign, plus the debate on the niqab have caused what was already there to bubble up to the surface.”
Blanchette-Lamothe’s posters weren’t the only that were defaced.
In the Papineau riding, someone drew a niqab-like covering over the face of NDP candidate Anne Lagacé Dowson.
video on the page :
http://globalnews.ca/news/2238943/ddo-election-signs-defaced-with-anti-islam-message/
Colorado state rep equates Islam with Satanism
KUSA – Calling Allah a “false god” and Muhammed a “false prophet,” Colorado state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt (R-Colorado Springs) once again put himself at the center of controversy– this time by comparing Islam to Satanism.
Klingenschmitt, who intends to run for the state senate and goes by the screen name “Dr. Chaps” on his evangelist internet and satellite TV show, was speaking in a segment on the deadly crane collapse in Mecca.
“There’s two ways you could look at this,” Klingenschmitt said. “You could either say Allah wanted to kill them. Or you could say this is the consequence of their sin when they were really praying to Satan.”
Klingenschmitt did not respond to 9NEWS on Thursday.
Muslim spiritual leaders argue Klingenschmitt is wrong: that theirs is the same God which is worshiped in all Abrahamic religions. They also worry the lawmaker’s words could lead to harm.
“Words are important. They’re very impactful,” said Imam Abdur-Rahim Ali with the Northeast Denver Islamic Center. “When you have somebody in a position of authority who’ll make statements of that nature, irresponsible statements of that nature, and he’s a representative in government and in some religious circles, then I think both people in government and religion have an obligation to speak out against that type of ignorant behavior.”
House Republican leaders declined to comment on this story Thursday, caucus spokesman Joel Malecka told 9NEWS.
State GOP chairman Steve House did weigh in.
“Representative Klingenschmitt has a Constitutional right to free speech,” House wrote in a statement. “However, as I’ve said several times in the past, Gordon does not speak on behalf of our Party, and his hurtful words do not represent our values.”
By now, few observers of Colorado politics would be surprised to hear such a statement from Klingenschmitt, who was rebuked widely by his own party after suggesting that a “curse of God” was behind a brutal attack on a pregnant woman in Longmont earlier this year.
The statement comes on the heels of national controversy over GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson’s statement against the idea that a Muslim ought to be president.
http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/politics/2015/09/24/colorado-state-rep-equates-islam-with-satanism/72756756/
Iran claims Saudi prince’s convoy triggered hajj stampede
Tehran’s Press TV: ‘Saudi authorities seek to hush up the entire story’; second Iranian news agency asserts death toll is 2,000
Iran blamed the convoy of Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince for triggering the panic that started Thursday’s stampede at the hajj in Mina, near Mecca.
Tehran also asserted that the death toll in the tragedy, widely reported at being some 700, was over 1,300, and the semi-state Fars news agency claimed it was 2,000.
Fars reported Friday that “a new video revealed that the convoy of Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud caused panic among millions of pilgrims and started the stampede that has so far claimed the lives of 2,000 in Mina, near Mecca, on Thursday.”
The video was published by Fars and also uploaded to YouTube by Iran’s Press TV. It did not appear to offer a definitive insight into what caused the stampede.
Iran’s Press TV, echoing the claim that the convoy of Saudi King Salman’s son prompted the fatal mass crush, cited a report in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Diyar. “The report said 200 army forces and 150 police officers escorted the prince. The report said the presence of the prince in the middle of the population prompted a change in the direction of the movement of the pilgrims and a stampede,” Press TV said. “The Lebanese daily further said that Salman and his entourage swiftly abandoned the scene, adding that the Saudi authorities seek to hush up the entire story and impose a media blackout on Salman’s presence in the area.”
Former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for his part, held the Saudi government accountable for the tragedy. “The officials in the Saudi government in charge of [maintaining] order in this huge ritual are responsible for the incident and should be answerable to the Islamic world,” he said.
Hours after the stampede, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Saudi authorities to accept their responsibility for the tragedy, saying it was caused by “mismanagement.”
In Tehran Friday, thousands protested in the streets as a senior cleric angrily demanded Saudi Arabia hand over control of the annual pilgrimage to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest body of Muslim nations.
Saudi authorities are investigating what sparked Thursday’s disaster in Mina, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Mecca. Initial reports suggested two crowds coming from opposing directions converged on an intersection, which began pushing and shoving until a stampede began
Countries around the world began reporting on casualties and their missing, including Pakistan, which said at least 236 of its pilgrims were unaccounted for on Friday. Egypt’s Religious Endowments Minister Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa told the state-run MENA news agency the death toll for his country had risen to 14. India said at least 14 of its citizens died in the crush, which also claimed the lives of at least four Turks, three Indonesians, three Kenyans and seven Pakistanis. Authorities in West Africa said 30 pilgrims from Mali and five from Senegal also died.
Among all those countries, Iran immediately appeared to be hardest hit, saying 131 of its pilgrims died and 85 were injured. In Tehran on Friday, thousands of angry protesters cursed Saudi Arabia’s rulers, chanting “death to the al-Saud family.” Iranian state television showed similar protests in several other Iranian cities.
Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, a senior cleric in Tehran, called for the OIC to take over administration of the hajj.
“The Saudi government and authorities involved in hajj should appear before court and be held accountable,” Kashani said. “They should not lie and say, ‘It was because this or that, the weather was hot, it was the pilgrims’ faults.’”
Iran and Saudi Arabia are chief rivals in the greater Middle East. That conflict is on display in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bombing Shiite rebels there Iran has backed.
The hajj pilgrimage is a main pillar of Islam. This year, around 2 million people from more than 180 countries took part in the five-day pilgrimage, which ends Saturday.
Egyptian survivor Wael Abdullah said he just had reached Mina on Thursday when he saw people pushing and shoving to get past one another down one of the narrow streets. People tripped over those in wheelchairs, who also fell to the ground.
“I saw people falling on the ground, other people trampling them … and the situation was out of control,” he said.
The street where the incident took place is about 12 meters (36 feet) wide and lined with barricades, behind which are some of the tents of hajj tour groups, organized by nationality.
Saudi King Salman has ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the incident.
Khamenei offered his condolences to families and relatives of the victims and announced a three-day mourning period in Iran.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossesin Amir Abdollahian, told the official IRNA news agency that his ministry summoned the Saudi envoy to Tehran on Thursday for an official protest over what he called the “inadequate performance of Saudi authorities” in the incident.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-claims-saudi-princes-convoy-triggered-hajj-stampede
REBEL MEDIA – 5 immigration myths debunked in (just over) 5 minutes
THE DAILY BEAST – State Department Hands Over ‘New’ Hillary Clinton E-mails to Benghazi Panel
Foggy Bottom uncovers additional messages related to the oft-investigated attack. Why didn’t they find the e-mails sooner?
The State Department has said over and over again that it turned over all of Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi-related emails to the committee investigating the 2012 attack.
Turns out, that wasn’t quite the case. Foggy Bottom mistakenly failed to produce a “small number” of those emails, a senior State Department official told The Daily Beast.
“Following our second review of former Secretary Clinton’s emails… the Department is producing a small number of emails relating to Benghazi,” the official said. The official could not say precisely how many Benghazi-related Clinton emails the State Department missed in its original review, but characterized it as a “handful.”
The original review through 55,000 pages of Hillary Clinton emails involved hard copies of the emails, which had to be hand-sorted on desks in the State Department. These documents have since been digitized, and in recent weeks the State Department did a second, electronic review of the emails in its possession—and found a number of Benghazi-related emails that it did not previously produce.
The State Department informed the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Friday that it would deliver to them approximately 925 new Hillary Clinton emails relating to Benghazi and Libya, among them a small number of Benghazi-related emails that it had missed.
These 925 new emails fall into three broad categories:
1. Benghazi-related emails that the State Department missed in its original review;
2. Hillary Clinton emails related to Libya which the State Department assessed not to be directly related to Benghazi. This makes up the vast majority of the 925 emails being released;
3. Benghazi-related emails that the State Department had previously assessed (PDF) to be of a “personal nature and unrelated to the former Secretary’s official capacity.”
The State Department believes that by producing emails related to Libya but not explicitly related to Benghazi, it is going above and beyond what it has been expressly been asked to provide to the committee.
Hillary Clinton herself is expected to testify before the Benghazi committee on October 22, the official said. “To accommodate that, the Department undertook another review of the emails provided by former Secretary Clinton to provide such Libya-related emails, and to ensure all Benghazi-related materials have been provided to the Committee.”
But there was also pressure from outside groups to produce these emails. Earlier this week POLITICO reported on a Freedom of Information Act filing by the conservative group Citizens United, which describes approximately a dozen Benghazi-related emails that have been withheld from the group’s previous document requests. Most of these documents also appear to have been withheld from the Benghazi committee, the news organization said.
The new release of emails related to Benghazi and Libya dwarfs the original number of Benghazi-specific emails previously released by the State Department. The Department had previously provided the Benghazi Committee with 296 emails specifically related to Benghazi back in February.
“The documents provided today do not alter the fundamental facts known about the Benghazi attacks,” the senior State Department official told The Daily Beast.
The State Department has already released more than 13,000 pages of Hillary Clinton emails as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act process, and will publicly release additional documents next Wednesday. The State Department has thus far provided 32 witnesses for interviews and over 70,000 pages of documents.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/25/state-department-hands-over-new-hillary-clinton-e-mails-to-benghazi-panel.html
AUSTRIA – Migrant quotas forced on Austrian local authorities
Austria’s upper house changed the constitution Friday to force local authorities to accept a quota of migrants equal to 1.5 percent of their population despite opposition from the resurgent far-right.
The move, mirroring EU efforts to oblige member states to accept more migrants, is aimed at relieving Austria’s overcrowded main refugee centre at Traiskirchen, and comes into effect on October 1.
It was put forward by Chancellor Werner Faymann’s Social Democrats and the centre-right People’s Party, which form Austria’s governing coalition, and votes from the Greens gave it the necessary two-thirds majority.
The far-right Freedom Party, which wants to restrict the number of migrants entering and which is currently topping national opinion polls with around 30 percent of the vote, opposed the move.
In recent months Austria has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of migrants entering from Hungary — having travelled up the western Balkans — bound for northern Europe, in particular Germany.
But 8.5-million-strong Austria also expects around 80,000 asylum claims this year, putting it high compared to other European Union countries on a per capita basis, and Vienna has been a major proponent of EU quotas.
http://www.globalpost.com/article/6656896/2015/09/25/migrant-quotas-forced-austrian-local-authorities
Bill O’Reilly September 25, 2015 Muslim-Americans and Ben Carson
Megyn Kelly Ben Carson responds to fetal organ harvesting defenders
Ben Carson: By keeping out Islam, we protect women
Is there a ‘war on women’? Yes – but not in the US, the Republican candidate told supporters, promising that immigrants are ‘welcome to come to America, but they don’t get to change who we are.’
Is there a ‘war on women’? Yes – but not in the US, the Republican candidate told supporters, promising that immigrants are ‘welcome to come to America, but they don’t get to change who we are.’
Carson was immediately criticized by figures from Hillary Clinton to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which called for him to exit the presidential race.
As examples, he pointed to Sharia law, a diverse system of religious rules followed by some Muslim societies, arguing that it oppresses women and treats them like “chattel.” “We do not want to import that type of ideology into America,” he declared.
In May, Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, issued a statement on Carson’s candidacy:
“If Ben Carson doesn’t trust women to make their own health care decisions, then women can’t trust Ben Carson to be president,” she said.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0924/Ben-Carson-By-keeping-out-Islam-we-protect-women-video
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video – B Carson Spring Arbor Universtity – ( 4 min 01 )
Egyptian police kill nine Muslim Brotherhood members in Cairo raid
CAIRO, Sept 25 (REUTERS) – Egyptian security forces killed nine armed members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in a raid on a Cairo home on Friday, security officials said.
“The Brotherhood members clashed with security forces,” said one of the officials, adding that they were meeting to plan what he called “terrorist attacks”.
The Brotherhood, which was removed from power by the army in 2013, has accused authorities in the Arab world’s largest state of killing members it says were unarmed in similar operations.
In July, the Brotherhood called for a revolt after police killed 13 prominent members in a swoop on an apartment in the Cairo suburb of the 6th of October. The men’s families and lawyers said they were unarmed.
Among the dead in that raid was Nasser al-Hafi, a prominent lawyer for the Brotherhood and a former lawmaker. Egypt’s Interior Ministry said the 13 men were plotting attacks.
Egypt cracked down on Islamists after then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled democratically-elected President Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood after mass protests against his rule.
Security forces shot dead hundreds at a Cairo protest camp and arrested thousands of others, drawing widespread criticism from human rights groups.
Sisi, who went on to become elected president, declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group and says Islamist militants pose an existential threat to Egypt.
A Sinai-based militant group that supports Islamic State has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mursi was ousted.
Diplomats and analysts say Sisi’s clampdown has pushed some members of the Brotherhood, WHICH RENOUNCED VIOLENCE DECADES AGO, to take up arms against the state.
The group says it is committed to peaceful activism.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3249136/Egyptian-police-kill-nine-Muslim-Brotherhood-members-Cairo-raid.html
Wright State University in Ohio?
Ahmed Mohamed’s family retains legal counsel
RVING — The family of a 14-year-old Irving student arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school earlier this month has retained lawyers and is seeking to regain his science project from the Irving Police Department.
Ahmed Mohamed’s parents say they’ve un-enrolled their three children from the Irving School District “BECAUSE OF RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION” and have decided to home-school them. Mohamed’s arrest made national headlines, prompting invites from the White House, Facebook and other tech companies.
“The family says that AHMED HAS BEEN SEVERELY TRAUMATIZED . The family wants justice and to ensure no family will ever have to experience what Ahmed went through again,” a press release sent Wednesday stated.
The family hired Reggie London and Thomas Bowers, well-known for representing Jana Weckerly in her sexual assault case against Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/09/23/ahmeds-family-hires-lawyers-to-help-get-clock-from-irving-police/72675964/
Right Scoop : Ridiculous: Here’s the Muslim part of the Pope’s ‘interfaith’ service at the 9/11 memorial
http://therightscoop.com/ridiculous-heres-the-muslim-part-of-the-popes-interfaith-service-at-the-911-memorial/
Jonathon Spyer, Behind the Lines:
Is Syria on the way to becoming a ‘frozen conflict’?
Neither a grand ‘4+1’ (Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria plus Hezbollah) war against ‘terror’ nor a regime pullout from Damascus to an Alawi enclave in the western coastal area appears to be in the cards
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Behind-the-lines-Is-Syria-on-the-way-to-becoming-a-frozen-conflict-419053
Yaroslav Trofimov, WSJ:
Russia’s Syria Strategy: An Opportunistic Pursuit of National Interests
Russia’s return to the Middle East, with its lightning military deployment to Syria, is fundamentally different from the Cold War. Because Moscow is no longer constrained by ideology, it could ultimately prove more successful in challenging American influence in the region. “Russia today is not trying to spread its own model of life – in part because there is no such model,” said Andranik Migranyan, a professor at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. A perception in the Middle East that the U.S. has pulled back and can’t be trusted to protect its allies helps lubricate Russian ambitions.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-returns-to-mideast-upends-status-quo-1443116010
That it is, this strategy is giving Russia a foothold in the Middle East that will stand for a long time, the only way they could be dislodged is for the US to start funding and arming ISIS and even Obama is refusing to go to that extent.
The new landlord in Syria
The new reality brewing in Syria is gradually becoming clear. Russia has had a military presence there in the past, but now, despite the denials of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his foreign minister, and despite the denials from Moscow, Russia has established a clear presence in Syria and is lending significant power to Assad.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese press first reported the arrival of Russian planes and pilots, and even claimed that Russia would close Syrian airspace to Israel and Turkey. Later, Western sources leaked news that Russia was stationing an advanced anti-aircraft battery in Syria to be operated by Russian soldiers. Satellite images revealed that Russia also stationed assault helicopters and tanks in Latakia, and two Russian cargo planes landed in the Alawite town and unloaded 80 tons of suspected military equipment.
In addition, Iran increased its military presence in Syria and according to rebel reports, established an airbase near Homs for use by its own forces and Russia’s to attack those who oppose the regime. Iran also reinforced troops fighting alongside Assad loyalists.
Russia’s military presence significantly alters the sensitive status quo that has existed in Syria since the uprising began. Russian forces have already become a target for rebel groups, and on Sept. 17, Jaysh al-Islam released a video documenting a Grad rocket attack it carried out against Russian officers at the Latakia airport. The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria even threatened that it would harm Russian interests and citizens if Moscow takes on a direct role in battles.
All this is testament to Russia’s efforts to preserve its presence and influence in the geopolitical regions important to it in Syria — especially the Latakia shoreline — in the event that Assad is overthrown (he is now estimated to control about 30% of Syria’s territory).
This way, Moscow can thwart American and Turkish plans to establish a no-fly zone over northern Syria as well as Western-Arab efforts to forcibly take control of the chemical and biological weapons stockpiles if Assad is ousted. Another possibility is that Moscow will be determined to preserve Assad’s rule in light of advancing rebel forces and the Islamic State group.
One way or another, the recent visits made by Revolutionary Guard commander Qasem Soleimani to Moscow should make it clear that Russia’s actions in Syria are coordinated with Tehran. This assumption was supported by the declaration made by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s security advisor Yahya Rahim Safavi at the Tehran Friday Sermon, saying that Iran and Russia were working together in Syria.
Russia’s air and land forces are already taking an active part in the battles in Syria. It seems that the air base that Russia is establishing in Latakia, which according to reports is closed to Syrian forces, has revealed the new reality in which Russia is the landlord. After Jerusalem announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow, Tehran announced that on the same day Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian is expected to visit as well to discuss increasing cooperation between the two countries.
Regardless, it is important that Israel preserve its essential interests on its northern border to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah and to control the fate of Assad’s chemical and biological weapons caches.
This past June, there were reports that Iran intended to activate its defense pact with Damascus, according to which Iran would participate in Syrian battles on a mass scale. But Tehran denied the reports. It’s possible that Soleimani’s visit to Moscow will be used as an opportunity by Russia to significantly increase its military presence in Syria and in doing so, to fill its role in the Iranian strategy that aspires to preserve its direct involvement in the Syrian battles as a way of preventing a regional Shiite-Sunni war. This also suits Moscow’s goal of preserving its essential national interests in Syria, not the least of which is maintaining the Syrian shoreline.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=13825
Assad doesn’t matter now, Russia and Iran are in control of what is left of Syria and are fighting to retake the areas that ISIS and others now control. There is no realistic way that Russia is going to be stopped, Syria is now a Russian Satrap and will remain so for decades. The only good thing about this is that it will keep ISIS busy in the Middle East and limit the number of fighters they can send to Europe and North America.
One Syrian family finds their problems are not over in Germany
The promised land for most refugees coming to Europe, who are ready to risk their lives to get there. Except that reality is proving very different.
One family discovered they were being moved to east Germany, to Heidenau near Dresden. They didn’t want to go, but they didn’t want to try and play the system in their new home.
“There was an idea of tearing up the papers and applying again from the beginning like other people are doing, but I do not want to do anything illegal.
REBEL MEDIA – French language debate unveils flaws in progressive logic on niqab
Niqab Issue – Canadian Leaders’ Debate 24 Sep 2015