Reader links for May 3 – 2015

This post has all its contents in the comments. For the newest freshest videos and news stories of interest to the Counter-Jihad and the Geopolitics of Islam, please click comments and add to, or read what is posted there.

Some will be integrated into the day’s posts and others not. But this way we can keep a great news flow going without interfering with the conversations about the issues under the various essays and news items in the posts that will be presented throughout the day.

Thank you all for your informative and important contributions.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

11 Replies to “Reader links for May 3 – 2015”

  1. Some 1,400 Migrants Saved by Italy, France in Sea off Libya (abcnews, May 2, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/1200-migrants-rescued-italy-sea-off-libyan-coast-30757089

    “Ships from Italy and France rescued more than 1,400 migrants on Saturday after smugglers’ boats ran into trouble in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya.

    Italian officials said 1,200 migrants were being taken to Italian ports after several different rescue operations by its coast guard and navy, including helping some 200 people aboard motorized rubber dinghies a day earlier south of Sicily. The smugglers’ boats had set out in a spell of warm, calm weather.

    In a French operation, another 217 migrants in three rubber dinghies were rescued by a Marine patrol boat and two suspected smugglers were detained in the seas north of Libya, the Maritime Prefecture in Toulon said. All were being turned over to Italian authorities….”

    • Italy rescues more than 3,400 Europe-bound migrants at sea

      More than 3,400 migrants were rescued at sea Saturday, mainly off Libya, as Europe seeks ways to deal with the flood of people trying to reach its shores following a series of deadly shipwrecks.

      A total of 3,427 people were picked up during the operation coordinated by the Italian coast guard.

      While they said it was a “very busy day”, it was not a record for the coast guard, which coordinated the rescue of 3,791 migrants on April 12 and another 2,850 the following day.

      The migrants — all men — had been on board three boats, the authorities said, adding that two suspected people smugglers were also caught and would be handed over to Italian police.

      In Italy, the coast guard announced late at night that 16 vessels had rescued a total of 3,427 people on Saturday alone in an operation coordinated from their headquarters in Rome.

      http://www.france24.com/en/20150503-italy-libya-migrants-sea-mediterranean

      • Italy: At Least 10 Migrants Found Dead in Sea off Libya (abcnews, May 3, 2015)
        http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-3690-migrants-rescued-mediterranean-day-30767100

        “Italy’s Coast Guard and Navy as well as tugs and other commercial vessels joined forces to rescue migrants in at least 16 boats Sunday, saving hundreds of them and recovering 10 bodies off Libya’s coast, as smugglers took advantage of calm seas to send packed vessels across the Mediterranean.

        The Italian Coast Guard said the bodies were found in three separate rescue operations off Libya’s coast. The Coast Guard was being aided by a tug and a merchant ship in at least some of the rescue efforts. In one of those rescues, a cargo ship found three migrants dead and 105 survivors on a dinghy in the waters north of Tripoli, Libya.

        In yet another dramatic rescue, migrants aboard a motorized rubber dinghy that was deflating were spotted by an Italian Navy helicopter. Boats in distress were being spotted so quickly Sunday, that in one case, a Navy vessel had just finished one rescue of 90 migrants when it immediately went to the aid of another migrant boat. One rescue involved 311 people, including 16 children, saved from a fishing boat in the smugglers’ fleet.

        Sunday’s drama at sea came a day after 3,690 migrants were saved from smugglers’ boats. Most of those migrants were still being taken to southern Italian ports even as the fresh rescues were taking place.

        The soaring numbers sparked the latest round of calls from far-right politicians in Europe for drastic action to stop migrants from reaching European shores, once and for all.

        Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said France should send migrants back across the Mediterranean Sea.

        A French patrol boat on Saturday rescued 217 migrants from three rubber dinghies and detained two suspected smugglers before all were turned over to Italian authorities.

        Criticizing European immigration policy, Le Pen said on Europe-1 radio Sunday that France should send migrants back to their port of departure so “traffickers know that no migrant will come ashore on our coasts.”

        With Italy bearing the brunt of the arrivals for years now, the Italian far right, spearheaded by the anti-immigrant Northern League party, has also been pushing for a radical change in how the migrant sea arrivals are handled. One such suggestion has been to keep rescued migrants aboard large ferries offshore until their asylum applications, a process that can take months or more, are examined. Then those only found eligible for asylum in Europe would come ashore.

        How the others aboard would be sent back to their homelands hasn’t been made clear in these proposals, which hasn’t made any headway in any case.

        Italy and humanitarian officials have been warning for weeks that the smugglers’ boats would continue to head toward Italian shores unabated, and that spells of mild weather and calm seas could see spikes in the arrivals.

        Some of the migrants rescued earlier in the weekend were brought to tiny Lampedusa island, while others were headed to ports in Sicily or in Calabria, in the south of the Italian mainland, on Monday. Temporary shelters for those rescued were running out of room for more even before this weekend’s new arrivals, local authorities had warned….”

  2. DAILY MAIL – Heartstopping video shows the terrifying moment jealous boyfriend leapt over minicab office counter and stabbed love rival to death while chanting verses from the Koran

    Gulam Chowdhury, 24, was jailed for 28 years for a frenzied knife attack
    He stabbed Mohammed Yasser Afzal to death at his workplace last March
    CCTV footage showed him walk into cab office and stab Mr Afzal 20 times
    Judge Timothy Pontius said it was the worst footage he had ever seen

    He brutally stabbed Mr Afzal 20 times with an eight inch knife and the 22-year-old never regained consciousness.

    Judge Timothy Pontius said that the footage was the worst he had ever seen.

    The court heard that Mr Afzal had been in a long-term relationship with Nargis Riaz, 22, who was also seeing Chowdhury at the same time but had not told her strict parents about either boyfriend.

    Ms Riaz had told Chowdhury she was terrified Mr Afzal would show intimate photographs of her he had on his mobile phone to her father – a strict Imam – and expose their relationship to her family.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3064583/Heartstopping-video-shows-terrifying-moment-jealous-boyfriend-leapt-minicab-office-counter-stabbed-love-rival-death-chanting-verses-Koran.html

  3. IS video – : “Gathering of the Monotheists With the Muslim Clans – Wil?yat Dijlah”

    • Islamic State again pushing to capture Iraq refinery at Baiji

      IRBIL, Iraq — Militants from the Islamic State have taken control of half Iraq’s largest oil refinery and have cut supply lines to the 150 or so government troops who are holding out inside the facility, witnesses reported Saturday.

      The surprise Islamic State advance came despite U.S.-led aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions in the central Iraqi city of Baiji, where the refinery is located, and is a reminder of the precarious security situation in central Iraq where elite government troops are stretched thin battling Islamic State forces.

      Speaking from inside the facility, an Iraqi officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to talk to a reporter said government troops were running low on food, water and ammunition. He said the situation was chaotic after 11 months of nearly unbroken siege.

      He said Islamic State fighters control “all the major buildings,” 80 percent of the watchtowers around the facility, and had flanked government positions with “snipers and suicide bombers driving heavily armored car bombs.”

      The Baiji refinery remains one of the most important economic assets in Iraq, even though it has been shut down since last summer, when Islamic State fighters first began trying to capture it. Before last June, it produced about half Iraq’s production of refined products, such as gasoline. In addition to lost revenue, the government’s inability to operate it has forced it to import hundreds of millions of dollars of fuel.

      The loss of the facility, either if captured or seriously damaged, would be a crippling blow to the government and a huge strategic success for the Islamic State. The facility would require billions of dollars and years to replace.[…]

      http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/02/265367/islamic-state-again-pushing-to.html

  4. Egypt Charges 40 Over Allegedly Being Islamic State Members (abcnews, May 3, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-charges-40-allegedly-islamic-state-members-30770897

    “A Nile Delta prosecutor said Sunday he referred 40 people to trial on charges of belonging to the Islamic State group and planning to carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt.

    The announcement marks the first time people in Egypt’s Nile Delta have been accused of belonging to the group, which holds a third of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate.

    Bilal Abu Khadra, a prosecutor in Egypt’s Sharqiya province, said that those charged communicated with Islamic State militants in Syria. He also said the cell’s leader confessed to receiving money from the extremists to recruit and help militants travel to Syria.

    Khadra said 20 of the defendants are detained, while the others will be tried in absentia.

    The Islamic State group gained a foothold in Egypt last November when a Sinai-based militant group declared itself an affiliate of the extremists.

    Amid the burgeoning Islamic insurgency in Egypt, thousands have been arrested in the course of a sweeping crackdown on Islamists since the military’s 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

    In the latest attack on security forces, militants remotely detonated a bomb Sunday in the Sinai Peninsula south of the city of el-Arish, killing an army conscript and wounding two soldiers, security officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters….”

  5. IS Group Claims Iraq Car Bomb Attack That Killed 19 (abcnews, May 3, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/group-claims-iraq-car-bomb-attack-killed-19-30766627

    “The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Sunday for a late-night car bomb attack in the heart of Baghdad that killed at least 19 people, saying it was targeting a Shiite militia.

    The extremist group, however, did not shed any light on accusations by Yazidi lawmakers that it had executed at least 25 prisoners from the minority community in the northern city of Tal Afar.

    The two car bombs in Baghdad went off about 10 minutes apart late Saturday in the Karrada district, known for its restaurants, cafes and ice cream parlors. Police said the dead and wounded were mainly shoppers and people commemorating the birth of Imam Ali, a key figure in Shiite Islam. Two traffic policemen were among those killed.

    The online claim is similar to others the group has issued this past week about bombings in Baghdad, which they describe as revenge for the fighting in nearby Anbar province.

    Iraqi forces are engaged in a see-saw battle in Anbar against Islamic State militants, who control some 65 percent of the province. The fighting has caused 114,000 residents of the provincial capital, Ramadi, to flee to Baghdad.

    At the same time, there has been a major spike in car bombs in Baghdad over the past week, leading some Iraqi officials to claim that militants have infiltrated the capital by hiding among the displaced.

    In a sign of the deteriorating security situation in the capital, Iraqi authorities discovered five bodies of men dumped in different areas, two police officers said. The men, believed to be in their 30s, suffered gunshots to the head and chest and had their hands and legs tied, they added. No identification was found with the victims….”

  6. The Trojan Horse is back… Well, it actually was always there or here when it comes to cultural enrichment accommodation…

    Heads warn Trojan Horse ‘not gone away’ (BBC, May 3, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/education-32573643

    Head teachers have warned that intimidation is still continuing after the investigations into the so-called Trojan Horse scandal.

    A head teachers’ conference has heard claims of threats such as dead animals being left in school playgrounds.

    “Trojan Horse has not gone away,” said Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, head of Anderton Park School in Birmingham.

    Responding to the claims, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: “There is no place for extremism in our schools.”

    The National Association of Head Teachers’ annual conference in Liverpool heard warnings that problems over extremism remained unresolved and schools could still face pressure on issues such as tackling homophobia.

    The so-called Trojan Horse inquiries followed allegations that there were organised attempts by hardline Muslim groups to undermine head teachers and take over schools in Birmingham.

    Head teachers at the conference complained that no governors had been barred as a result of the inquiries and they called for a database which would identify individuals removed from governing bodies.

    Ms Hewitt-Clarkson told the head teachers’ conference: “Trojan Horse has not gone away. Those of us who were involved, we knew it was the tip of the iceberg.

    “We still have dead animals hung on the gates of schools, dismembered cats on playgrounds. We have petitions outside schools, objecting to teachers teaching against homophobia.”

    There were threats on social media, she said, such as “Any head teacher who teaches my children it’s alright to be gay will be at the end of my shotgun.”

    Ms Hewitt-Clarkson said she knew of a school which had found a dismembered cat in the playground, while another had a dog hanging from the railings.

    Head teachers warned that despite the high profile reports following the Trojan Horse claims, the response had been inadequate….”

    • UK – BIRMINGHAM -Problems of Trojan Horse scandal ‘have not gone away’: Headteachers say schools still face intimidation including death threats and dead animals strung up in playgrounds

      Teachers still face intimidation in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal
      Heads say dismembered corpses of animals have been left in playground
      One said she was sent death threats for teaching against homophobia
      Plot allegedly saw hardline Muslims try to seize control of school boards

      Teachers are receiving death threats and dead animals are being left outside schools as part of a renewed intimidation campaign in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal, it was claimed yesterday.

      Heads said schools in Birmingham are being targeted by suspected Islamic hardliners who oppose tough new measures to clamp down on radicalisation in the classroom.

      Speaking at the annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers in Liverpool, school leaders said ‘fear and intimidation is still prevalent’ for teachers who have spoken out over the affair.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066373/Problems-Trojan-Horse-scandal-not-gone-away-Headteachers-say-schools-face-intimidation-including-death-threats-dead-animals-playground.html