Reader links for Sept. 21 – 2015

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

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

59 Replies to “Reader links for Sept. 21 – 2015”

  1. Blasts rock Nigerian city of Maiduguri (BBC, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34311082

    “Three blasts have struck the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the army says.

    A spokesman blamed the Islamist militant group Boko Haram for the attack. The group was founded in Maiduguri.

    Unconfirmed reports say as many as eight people may have died from the blasts.

    Boko Haram attacks have spiked in recent months after it was driven from territory it held.

    The blasts in Maiduguri reflected the “high level of desperation” in Boko Haram, spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement.

    The group wants to establish Islamic rule in the north-east. Two million people have been forced from their homes since the militants launched their insurgency in 2009.

    Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari made combating the group a key campaign pledge as he sought election this year.”

  2. BBC ‘spends £8m’ on project including Syria uprising puppet films (telegraph, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11879088/BBC-spends-8m-on-project-including-Syria-uprising-puppet-films.html

    “The BBC has reportedly spent more than £8million on a digital art project that features a puppet series on the Syrian uprising and a Gaelic birdsong video. The Corporation defended its use of licence fee money to fund The Space website as it faces multi-million pound cuts to its finances. The site includes a puppet series called Top Goon Reloaded, a YouTube series by a group of Syrian artists under the name Masasit Mati described as “an online series of sarcastic and irreverent puppet theatre films”….”

  3. Outgunned and outnumbered: SAS hero storms ISIS hideout and kills six to foil ambush (express, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/606593/SAS-hero-storm-ISIS-hideout

    “The special forces team was smuggling an agent into the war-torn country when up to 30 ISIS militants took them by surprise.

    The British soldiers were outnumbered but still managed to wipe out the ambush, shooting eight terrorists dead in a fierce exchange of fire. Six were taken out by one brave trooper using an automatic shotgun.

    The SAS team had arranged a meeting with Syrian nationals after crossing the border from neighbouring Iraq when they walked into the trap…”

  4. Hardline Muslim students at Jihadi John’s old university ‘refuse to speak to women’ (express, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/606710/Islamic-Society-University-Westminster-Jihadi-John-report-panel-Mohammed-Emwazi-ISIS

    “Some of the hardline members even refuse to speak to female Muslim members of staff at the University of Westminster, the independent panel said.

    But university officials underplayed this “sometimes hostile or intimidatory” behaviour towards women “for fear of appearing Islamophobic”, they added.

    The report was commissioned earlier this year after fears about extremism on its campuses…”

  5. Syrian refugees are now heading to UK but minister refuses to say how many (express, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/606689/Syrians-migrants-heading-UK-minister-refuses-how-many

    “THE first of up to 20,000 Syrian refugees will arrive in Britain this week, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.

    But International Development Secretary Justine Greening declined to say how many were in the first wave David Cameron had promised to welcome from Middle East refugee camps over the next five years.

    Ministers moved to speed up the arrivals by offering the United Nation’s refugee agency more support and expertise to identify the most vulnerable, including women, children, the sick and torture survivors.

    European Union leaders will meet on Wednesday in Brussels to work out how to deal with those arriving from Syria, Afghanistan and Africa.

    Thousands more refugees poured in through eastern European countries at the weekend.

    Ms Greening insisted the UK would still not join a quota system to spread the refugees around Europe…”

  6. Richard Dawkins sparks Twitter storm with comments about arrested US Muslim schoolboy (express, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/606609/Richard-Dawkins-Twitter-storm-arrested-US-Muslim-schoolboy-clock

    “RICHARD Dawkins has sparked a Twitter storm by commenting about the arrest of a young Muslim who was handcuffed after police mistook his home-made clock for a bomb.

    The ethologist posted a series of tweets about 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed and said he was “fraudulent”.

    Dawkins’ also tweeted a link to a video suggesting the clock built by schoolboy was a fraud.

    He said: “If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so”.

    The disgruntled biologist added: “He didn’t only claim to have built it. He claimed, on Youtube, that it was his INVENTION.”

    One Twitter used responded: “What has this got to do with evolutionary biology or atheism? Why are you so annoyed about this kid?”…”

  7. Now refugees FIGHT each other in desperate bid to find safety in Europe (express, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/606691/refugee-crisis-Europe-Croatia-Tovarnik-Syria-train-Austria-Mediterranean

    “DESPERATE refugees fought each other for space on trains tonight in a bid to find sanctuary in Europe.

    Tensions flared in Tovarnik, a Croatian border town, as days of intense heat in eastern Europe gave way to rain.

    Hundreds of people – thought to be from Middle East, Asia and Africa – surged toward a train they hoped would take them to nearby Austria.

    They broke through a line of helpless police officers and tried to climb through the windows of the packed carriages….”

  8. Hiding in plain sight: ISIS jihadists to use migrant crisis to ‘fly straight into UK’ (express, Sep 21, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/606624/Airports-alert-ISIS-jihadis-fly-to-UK-migrant-crisis

    “Passport control officers at airports across the country are under strict instructions to be extra vigilant as authorities fear ISIS fighters could try to use Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton to enter England.

    With resources focused on Calais and the Channel Tunnel to prevent illegal immigrants entering the country, ISIS commanders believe airports are the best way to get fighters into the UK.

    By getting cheap flights from Europe the terrorists are convinced they will be “hiding in plain sight” as they will catch border authorities off-guard.

    A source told the Daily Star Sunday: “Anti-terrorist bosses have said they believe ISIS will take full advantage of the migrant crisis…”

  9. Lethal drones are the industry’s latest headache

    http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/18/lethal-drones-are-the-industrys-latest-headache.html

    Earlier this summer, a Connecticut man rigged a handgun to the top of an unmanned aircraft, posting a video of the device hovering in the woods and firing shots. The spectacle raised more concern about how consumers or law enforcement could wreak havoc with drones, a fast-growing technology with immense potential.

    The leading drone industry group, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and some law enforcement groups have spoken out against equipping the unmanned devices with weapons. But as those stakeholders cannot make laws, individuals and police can make a case for arming drones in most of the United States.

    The prospect of police shooting rubber bullets or spraying tear gas from a drone is slim in the immediate future. But as more UAVs take flight in the U.S., some lawmakers are pushing for clearer restrictions on arming them, in order to reduce fears of users abusing the legal uncertainty.

  10. Russia military backing for Syria counterproductive: Kerry

    http://news.yahoo.com/us-85-000-refugees-2016-100-000-2017-165422619.html

    Berlin (AFP) – Russia’s military backing for the Syrian regime only risks sending more extremists to the war-torn country and could further hamper any effort at bringing peace, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

    German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier “and I agreed that continued military support for the regime by Russia or any other country risks the possibility of attracting more extremists and entrenching Assad and hinders the way for resolution,” Kerry told reporters after a meeting with his German counterpart.

    Washington has been concerned over reports of a Russian military build-up in Syria as a boost to President Bashar al-Assad.

    Moscow however argues that any military backing falls in line with existing defence contracts, although reports have surfaced of secret deployments to the country where Moscow has a Soviet-era naval facility.

  11. Greece’s Year of Tumult Enters New Chapter as Tsipras Dominates

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-20/greece-s-year-of-tumult-enters-new-chapter-as-tsipras-dominates

    Syriza leader returns with stronger-than-expected mandate
    Government must now implement austerity measures for bailout

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    Greek voters had the choice to reject the man who led their country closer than ever to being forced out of Europe’s single currency. Instead, they embraced him.

    Alexis Tsipras and his Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, emerged from a second election in eight months with a level of support barely diminished from the emphatic victory that catapulted him both into power and a standoff with the euro region. Syriza, which took 35.5 percent of the vote versus 28.1 percent for the center-right New Democracy, will enter a coalition with the same small party that helped it rule before.

    • Tsipras returns to power to fight for Greek debt relief

      http://www.oann.com/greeks-vote-on-whether-to-give-leftists-another-chance/

      ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras will return as prime minister on Monday determined to secure debt relief from the country’s creditors in his “first and most important battle” after scoring an unexpectedly clear election victory.

      But easing Greece’s debt burden is just one of many items on a dauntingly long “to do” list ranging from how to revive a crippled economy while implementing austerity polices to dealing with the wave of migrants landing on Greek shores.

      In Sunday’s election voters gave Tsipras and his Syriza party a second chance to tackle Greece’s problems, despite his summer U-turn when he ditched his anti-austerity platform to secure a new bailout deal and avert ‘Grexit’ – a Greek exit form the euro zone.

      The extent of the win means that, rather than needing a patchwork of partners, Syriza will be able to govern with only a single ally, the Independent Greeks. The small right-wing party was also the junior partner in the Tsipras coalition which governed for seven turbulent months until he resigned last month, forcing the election.

      • Political stakes high for Sinn Fein in North Irish crisis talks

        http://www.oann.com/political-stakes-high-for-sinn-fein-in-north-irish-crisis-talks/

        DUBLIN (Reuters) – Sinn Fein’s hopes of becoming the latest European anti-austerity party to break into power will be tested in the coming weeks as it struggles to save Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government from collapse.

        The former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been part of Belfast’s compulsory coalition for years but is seeking a major breakthrough in elections in the larger Irish republic to the south, where its popularity surged during the country’s financial crisis.

        A close ally of Greece’s Syriza, which won re-election on Sunday, Sinn Fein’s dogged opposition to austerity has lifted its support in the republic to an average of around 20 percent in opinion polls this year, from 10 percent in the 2011 election.

  12. Greek Election Triumph for Left Masks Gains for the Far Right

    Anti-immigrant Golden Dawn advances on islands taking refugees
    Result raises specter of mounting xenophobia across Europe

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    The decisive Greek election victory of Alexis Tsipras’s Coalition of the Radical Left masked an advance at the other end of the political spectrum that has implications for Europe as it confronts a refugee influx.

    The anti-immigration Golden Dawn party surged in the Sept. 20 vote on Greek islands hit by a wave of asylum seekers from the war-torn Middle East. The support for the far-right group, whose insignia resembles a swastika and which is under investigation by prosecutors for links to organized crime, highlights the potential of the migrant crisis to stoke nationalist forces in Europe.

    “The eastern Aegean islands have many angry voters who feel the massive refugee inflow is destroying them financially largely because of the impact on tourism,” said George Pagoulatos, professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business. “If the European Union fails to integrate the migrants, that would only raise the popularity and appeal of xenophobic and extreme right-wing parties in Europe.”

  13. U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html?_r=1

    KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

    “At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”
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    Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

  14. Some Iraqis ditch fight against Islamic State for life in Europe

    http://www.oann.com/some-iraqis-ditch-fight-against-islamic-state-for-life-in-europe/

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Some Iraqi soldiers are abandoning their posts and joining a wave of civilian migrants headed to Europe, raising new doubts about the cohesion of the country’s Western-backed security forces in the fight against Islamic State militants.

    Interviews with migrants and an analysis of social media activity show scores of fighters from the national army, police and special forces as well as Shi’ite militias and Kurdish peshmerga have left in recent months or plan to go soon.

    They join more than 50,000 civilians who have left Iraq in the past three months, according to the United Nations, part of an even larger exodus from neighboring Syria and other conflict zones across the Middle East.

  15. Texas attack shows evolution of ‘lone wolf’ militants: U.S. officials

    http://www.oann.com/father-of-texas-shooter-says-someone-pushed-him-into-crime-newspaper/

    WASHINGTON/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – U.S. investigators believe two men killed after opening fire on a Texas event that offered a prize for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad represent an evolving model of “lone wolf” militants who are radicalized partly by themselves and partly through long-distance engagement with organized militants.

    Although the Islamic State movement claimed credit for the Texas shooting, several U.S. officials said investigators have no evidence that either of the men shot dead by security personnel after they opened fire at the Garland, Texas, event traveled to Syria or Iraq. U.S. court documents do show that one of the men, Elton Simpson, once tried to travel to Somalia.

    Officials also said that no hard evidence had emerged to demonstrate that Simpson and the second Texas shooter, Nadir Soofi, attacked the contest venue under direct orders, or encouragement, from Islamic State leaders.

    However, investigators are examining exchanges on Twitter in the days before the attack between Simpson and Junaid Hussain of the Cybercaliphate, an affiliate of IS, as well as between Simpson and Mujahid Miski of Minnesota, another alleged recruiter for violent jihad.

  16. Croatia says wants Greece to stop sending migrants to rest of Europe

    http://www.oann.com/croatia-says-wants-greece-to-stop-sending-migrants-to-rest-of-europe/

    OPATOVAC, Croatia (Reuters) – Croatia will demand that Greece stop moving migrants from the Middle East on to the rest of Europe, Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Monday.

    EU interior ministers are to meet on Tuesday in an attempt to find a solution to Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War Two, with almost half a million asylum seekers reaching its territory this year.

    ?”The flow of migrants from Greece must be stopped. I will seek that at tomorrow’s meeting of EU interior ministers,” Ostojic told reporters at the Opatovac camp where migrants are being housed near the eastern town of Tovarnik.

    “It is absolutely unacceptable to have Greece emptying its refugee camps and sending people towards Croatia via Macedonia and Serbia,” Ostojic added.

  17. Hungary authorises govt to use army in migration crisis

    BUDAPEST, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Hungary’s parliament on Monday passed a law to authorise the government to deploy the army to help handle a migrant crisis which would include powers to use non-lethal force.

    The law stipulates the use of the army, which would be allowed to use rubber bullets, pyrotechnical devices, tear gas grenades or net guns, according to the text posted on Parliament’s website.

    The radical nationalist Jobbik party, which has advocated even tougher measures, supported Orban’s centre-right Fidesz party in the vote, which passed with 151 votes to 12 against and 27 abstentions in the 199-member Parliament.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3243407/Hungary-authorises-govt-use-army-migration-crisis.html

    HUNGARY – Croatia: Hungarian authorities fortify border with new fence

  18. This is a very good think piece with a lot of info about Russia and the Russian action in the Middle East.

    Israel’s Enemies in Washington and Moscow

    http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2015/09/21/israels-enemies-in-washington-and-moscow/?subscriber=1

    Angry over President Obama’s abandonment of Israel in the Iranian nuclear deal, several commentators are now proposing that Israel work with Russia in the Middle East for their mutual interests and concerns. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is too knowledgeable about the roots of international terrorism to fall into such a trap.

    Caroline Glick, Director of the Israel Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy, writes in The Jerusalem Post that while Israel can’t depend on the United States with Barack Obama as its president, Israel can work with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. She writes that “…we need to recognize that Russia is not the Soviet Union. Yes, Russia has superpower aspirations, which include projecting its power in the Middle East. But unlike the Soviet Union, Russia’s actions are not informed by an overarching world view that is inherently anti-Semitic.”

    Let’s look at the record.

    Putin is a former Soviet KGB colonel and his regime is based on the remnants of the old Soviet Union, including its military and intelligence establishment. In a very real sense, Russia is the Soviet Union. Russia sponsors Iran’s nuclear program and considers the regime a Russian ally in the Eurasian geopolitical project conceived by influential Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin. His vision of “Eurasianism” is a revival of the Russian empire that includes Islamic Iran. Dugin has explained in the article, “Eurasianism, Iran, and Russia’s Foreign Policy,” that a “strategic alliance” exists between Iran and Russia, and that Russia “will not cease its efforts to reduce sanctions against Iran” over its support for terrorism and pursuit of nuclear weapons.

    • Bibi’s in Moscow now.

      I’m not going to bother taking down this GOP-meister. Besides substantive errors of fact, he’s bringing in irrelevancies and offers zero options for today or tomorrow. Because one party is an enemy the other doesn’t become a friend by default.

      He cites as evidence of Putin’s antisemitism his “controversial assertion that at least 80% of the members of the first Soviet government were Jews…”
      Debunked? I went through the list with friends to check that out: we found 77%.
      That is, they were born of a Jewish mother – no more, no less. Did they observe the dietary laws? Light candles or do Kaddish Friday nights? Fast on Yom Kippur?

      Lefty liberal Jews – JINOs [aka Jews- in -name only] – are our most pernicious enemies. In this state 80% of Jews voted for 0. Twice.

      From my Home Truth File: “A Jewish liberal is someone who thinks that Mexicans with no US visa have the right to move to East LA but Jews must be prevented from moving to East Jerusalem.”

      Caroline is no naif looking at Putin, but she’ll bang on every door. And inspire the troops by brainstorming. Same goes for David Singer, also cited in this article. I like him a lot, followed him for years.

  19. NETHERLANDS – ROTTERDAM – No charges filed in Thalys train panic

    The Public Prosecutor has decided not to file any charges against the young man who caused the massive commotion in Rotterdam on Friday by jumping on the Thalys train heading towards Paris and locking himself into the train’s bathroom. According to the Prosecutor, the boy is not suspected of a criminal offence that justifies keeping him in custody any longer.

    The Prosecutor announced on Monday that the boy had no identification on him and seems to be known on under nine different identities in different European countries. The Public Prosecutor believes that he is a 16 year old Tunisian boy who has been living a nomadic existence in Western European countries for a few years. He likely wanted to reach Paris without a ticket.

    The police handed the boy over to the Immigration Service on Monday.

    The young man jumped onto a Thalys train just before departure around 7:00 a.m. on Friday morning. He locked himself in the bathroom and did not respond to Thalys employees or the police’s calls to come out. After the attack on a Thalys train on the same route a few weeks ago, the police decided to rather err on the side of caution and closed down a large part of the station until the situation has been resolved.

    The station was closed for about six hours while a SWAT team talked the boy out of the bathroom and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad examined his belongings for any dangerous substances. Nothing dangerous was found.

    The Rotterdam Central Station closure caused major havoc with train traffic across the Netherlands, with many trains being cancel or rerouted.

    http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/09/21/no-charges-filed-in-thalys-train-panic/

    =======================================

    Thalys terror scare youth handed over to immigration officials

    The youth who caused a major security scare when he jumped onto a Thalys high-speed train at Rotterdam station on Friday has been handed to immigration officials.

    Train services to and from Rotterdam were disrupted for several hours as armed police surrounded the train and tried to get the youth to give himself up. He was eventually arrested and taken to hospital suffering from ‘hyperventilation’.

    The youth is not suspected of any criminal offence and is no longer in custody, the public prosecution department said in a statement. He was unarmed and no explosives were found in the train.

    The department say the youth had no ID papers but would appear to be known under nine different identities around Europe. He may be a Tunisian national who has been moving around western European countries for several years. According to the AD, he is 16 years old.

    Security on Thalys trains has been heightened following the attempted attack by a heavily armed gunman a month ago. He too had locked himself in the toilet.

    http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/09/thalys-terror-scare-youth-handed-over-to-immigration-officials/

  20. SOUTH AFRICA -Jihadist couriers? Suspects nabbed at Johannesburg airport with $6M were ISIS-bound, say cops

    JOHANNESBURG – Five men nabbed last month about to board a flight at South Africa’s busiest airport with $6 million stuffed in bags may have made hundreds of such trips with inside help — as part of a cash pipeline to fund the Islamic State, police sources said Monday.

    The suspected couriers were caught at Johannesburg’s main airport, OR Tambo, on Aug. 28, but news the money was headed for the terror network only emerged late Sunday. A senior police officer told Fox News Monday the suspects are believed to have been headed for the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq by way of Dubai, and that one may have made the same trek hundreds of times.

    “It is very likely that the money was going to ISIS,” the police officer said. “We are investigating who these five carrying the money were, and there is one … we are particularly interested in, as records show he was flying to Dubai every two days for a year.”

    The suspects, all South African, were walking down the ramp to the aircraft with 12 bags when approached by agents. The bags contained 23 million South African rand, and $3.77 million in U.S. dollars, officials said.

    The men were stopped when they saw customs officers on the ramp and tried to turn back, but other officers shut the access door behind them, trapping them on the ramp, sources told Fox News. IOL News reported that the men were released after authorities seized the money and took their identities down. Officials released a statement at the time saying the men were stopped by customs officials who used “risk profiling.”

    “The five individuals were escorted back to immigration at international arrivals, booked back into South Africa and escorted to custom,” the statement said.

    The police source said Monday authorities have been working with investigators in Dubai and have not ruled out the possibility the couriers had help from airport workers, noting that the suspects were permitted to board with more than two bags each.

    “There may have been collusion between home affairs and customs officials and the men at the airport,” he said.

    OR Tambo International Airport is the busiest airport on the continent, serving 19 million passengers per year and employing about 18,000 workers.

    Iraqi ambassador to South Africa Hisham al-Alawi told IOL he was not surprised at suspicions the money could have been destined for ISIS.

    “There has been increasing activity in South Africa with regards to recruitment and fund-raising for Isis,” he said. “We are always receiving information about people who are joining. It could also be a possibility that those returning are being sent back to recruit or fund-raise. It is something we must be wary of.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/09/21/5-suspects-stopped-at-johannesburg-airport-with-6m-cash-headed-for-isis/

  21. Susan Rice: U.S. Fighting ‘Growing Terrorist Threat’ in Africa

    http://pjmedia.com/blog/susan-rice-u-s-fighting-growing-terrorist-threat-in-africa/

    National Security Advisor Susan Rice said the U.S. is working with its partners to fight a “growing terrorist threat” in Africa.

    “With our partners, we’re facing down a growing terrorist threat. In Somalia, we continue to provide training, equipment, and funding to support the African Union’s Mission to root out al-Shabaab and strengthen Somalia’s security institutions. In the fight against Boko Haram, we are increasingly providing specialized advisers, training and equipment, and intelligence support to Nigeria and its regional neighbors,” Rice said at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference.

    According to the Washington Post, Kenya has received $100 million in U.S. counterterrorism assistance this year.

    Rice also said the U.S. is working to combat wildlife trafficking in Africa to preserve Africa’s ecology and to shut down the “illicit” transfer of funds to terrorist networks.

    “Critically, we’re working with governments and community leaders to counter violent extremism before radicalization to violence can occur. In Nigeria, Niger and Chad, we’re increasing civilian security and building communities targeted by Boko Haram,” Rice said.

    “We’re supporting efforts in Northern Mali to promote reconciliation and mitigate conflict, particularly in isolated communities and we’re working with governments to responsibly address legitimate grievances that terrorists might exploit, as in Ethiopia, where American legal advisers are training police and lawyers to better uphold the rule of law,” she added.

  22. Ralph Peters: ’2000 Years of Christian Civilization Destroyed on Obama’s Watch’

    http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/09/20/ralph-peters-2000-years-of-christian-civilization-destroyed-on-obamas-watch/

    The Islamic State has managed to destroy two thousand years of Christian civilization in the Middle East in just a couple of years, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters noted on The O’Reilly Factor last week. And he placed the blame squarely on President Obama’s cowardly, feckless, incompetent foreign policy.

    ISIS has been spreading across the Middle East like a plague of locusts, and as they have spread, they have targeted religious minorities, particularly Christians, for destruction. In Syria, tens of thousands of Assyrian Christians have been attacked and displaced.

    They are the forgotten refugees

    A Catholic priest who visited Kurdish Iraq last fall described the wounded souls of the Christians who had taken refuge there. They had been forced from their homes in northern Iraq in the summer of 2014.

    “Without question, we are talking about genocide here. Genocide is not only when the people are killed, but also when the soul of a people is destroyed. And that is what is happening in Iraq now,” Fr. Andrzej Halemba, head of Aid to the Church in Need’s Middle East section, said Oct. 28. “It is the most tragic thing that I have ever experienced.”

    “I have seen people who have been deeply wounded in their soul. In the various crises in this world I have often seen people who have lost everything. But in Iraq there are Christians who have had to leave everything and take flight three or four times. They can see no light at the end of the tunnel.”

    Last spring, hundreds of Assyrian Christians fled to Lebanon after ISIS jihadists stormed their villages in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakeh.

    • He is saying that he are going to out breed us and take over that way, the entire world will collapse into a major war long before that happens.

  23. BBC – Border fences around the world

    how stange .... they forgot to talk about the" Moroccan Wall"

    Moroccan Wall:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan_Wall

    and the Algeria / Morocco fences :

    www(dot)middleeastmonitor(dot)com/news/africa/14015-morocco-and-algeria-build-separation-fences-along-their-borders

    Saudi Arabia Unveils Badass Anti-ISIS Wall That Makes U.S. Border Look Like Swiss Cheese

    http://www.ijreview.com/2015/01/233628-saudi-arabia-anti-isis-wall/

    ————————————————————————–

  24. Slain Marine’s Father Reveals Horrifying Claim His Son Told Him Before He Was Killed: ‘At Night We Can Hear Them Screaming’

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/09/21/slain-marines-father-drops-horrifying-claim-his-son-revealed-to-him-before-he-was-killed-at-night-we-can-hear-them-screaming/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Firewire%20-%20HORIZON%209-21-15%20FINAL&utm_term=Firewire

    Before he was fatally shot in 2012, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father that at night he could hear Afghan officers sexually abusing young boys, but there was nothing he could do about it.

    “At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” Gregory Buckley Sr., the Marine’s father, told the New York Times his son told him. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

  25. Turkey on Fire
    Is President Erdogan behaving more like Bashar al-Assad?

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260166/turkey-fire-robert-ellis

    Two years ago a former supporter, the Lebanese editor Jihad al-Zein, wrote: “Erdogan’s behavior has seemed closer to that of an old-style Arab military ruler,” and who can disagree?

    The Turkish election results in June were a major setback for the ruling AK (Justice and Development) Party and even more so for President Erdogan, who had reckoned that his party would be returned with an overwhelming majority, which would make it possible to change the constitution and give him full executive power.

    Instead of 400 seats in Turkey’s 550-seat parliament, which Erdogan had called for, the AKP ended up with 258, less than its previous 312 and not enough to govern alone. The fly in the ointment, and a big fly at that, was the Kurdish-based HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party), which broke through the electoral barrier and ‘stole’ 80 of the AKP’s seats. Every obstacle was put in the HDP’s way – there were over 120 attacks on party offices, members and vehicles before the election and two bombs exploded at an HDP rally in Diyarbakir, the capital of Turkey’s southeast, where the party’s co-chair Selahattin Demirtas could have been killed.

    There was worse to come. President Erdogan, who until August last year was prime minister, had reckoned on support from the Kurdish ‘ummah’ (fellow Muslims) after his government had secured cultural and linguistic rights for Turkey’s Kurds, which, however, fell short of their demands for regional autonomy. Nevertheless, at the end of February a ten-point plan was agreed on by the AKP government and the HDP, which would have paved the way for a settlement of the conflict.

  26. Germany Arrests ISIS Recruiter Posing as Asylum Seeker

    http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/germany-arrests-isis-recruiter-posing-asylum-seeker#

    A 21-year old from Morocco has been arrested by German authorities at a refugee center near Stuttgart on suspicion of being an Islamic State recruiter. The man was sought under a European arrest warrant issued by Spanish authorities. He used a false identity to pose as an asylum seeker.

    According to The New Observer, this is the first time German authorities have arrested a terror suspect masquerading as an asylum seeker.

    At the same time it was reported the German government seized 10,000 fake Syrian passports, which are being sold to those seeking to gain entry to the EU for around $1,500 each. Possession of a Syrian passport makes claiming asylum a lot easier.

    Out of 213,000 migrants who arrived in April, only 44,000 were from Syria, according to figures from Eurostat, the official EU statistics agency. Others come from a variety of countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and across North Africa.

  27. Arrested at 17, Saudi Protester to Be Beheaded, Crucified

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/arrested-17-saudi-protester-be-beheaded-crucified

    A young protester in Saudi Arabia will be beheaded, after which his body will be crucified in public and left to rot.

    Last week, an appelate court in the kingdom upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, 21, who was arrested in 2012 when he was 17. Al-Nimr was picked up by the police while taking part in a protest by Shiite Muslims in Qatif, an eastern province of the country. The eastern provinces of the desert kingdom are home to Saudi Arabia’s 2.7 million minority Shiites.

    Al-Nimr was charged with a variety of crimes, including being part of a terrorist organization, carrying weapons and throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces. He was also accused of using his phone to encourage others to protest and explaining to them how to give first aid. The charges are based on his confession, which he says was obtained through torture.

  28. France Arrests Citizen Returning From Syria in Concert Bomb Plot

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/france-arrests-citizen-returning-syria-concert-bomb-plot

    France has arrested a man on charges of planning a terrorist attack on a concert hall in France.

    The 29-year-old French citizen, who had travelled to the Islamic State’s de-facto capital of Raqqa and spent a week there, was arrested last month. Officials made the announcement of his arrest on Friday.

    He was charged with “criminal association in relation with a criminal terrorist enterprise.” A handgun was found at his home at the time of the arrest.

    The man was not previously known to security services and was only located by French authorities after a tip-off by a Moroccan national who was arrested in Poland in June and who told authorities that he had travelled to Europe with another man.

  29. Saudi Arabia to Select Experts for UN Human Rights Council

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/saudi-arabia-select-experts-un-human-rights-council

    Saudi Arabia has been appointed to chair of a panel of experts at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), prompting uproar from rights campaigners worldwide.

    Faisal Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.N., is now chairman of a panel of five diplomats charged with appointing independent experts to serve in 77 different positions around the world for the UNHRC.

    The news comes just after Saudi Arabia advertised for eight additional executioners. Numbers of executions have sharply risen this year. In June the country executed its one-hundredth person so far this year, but there have been many more since then.

    “It is scandalous that the U.N. chose a country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key human rights panel,” said U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. “Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights.”

  30. ISIS on New Campaign to Destroy Christian Houses in Nineveh

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/isis-new-campaign-destroy-christian-houses-nineveh

    The Islamic State destroyed 21 houses Saturday belonging to Christians and Shabaks, an ethnic minority group composed of Shiite and Sunni Muslims as well as Kurds. A spokeman for the Democractic Kurdish Party, Said Mamuzini, said the houses were in the Karakush district in the Nineveh plains.

    The destruction is part of an on-going reign of terror being perpetrated by the Islamist organization. “Lately ISIS blew up hundreds of houses in the area of the plain of Nineveh,” Mamuzini said, speaking to Al-Sumaria News.

    Mamuzini added it was part of a campaign by the Islamic State “to inflict fear among the people of the area.”

    Since the beginning of the Islamic State takeover of massive swaths of territory in Iraq culminating in the fall of Mosul in July of 2014, more than 100,000 Iraqi Christians have fled their homes, leaving behind most of their worldly possessions. Christians who stayed behind have been subjected to torture, death and extortion.

  31. Some journalists are beginning to LOOK for the man who asked Trump the Muslim question…

    So people have been suspicious from the very moment Trump was asked a very controversial question by an angry and loud audience member at a townhall event. Some say he could have been a plant by Democrats, or the GOP establishment.

    And journalists are having trouble finding the man:

    on this page :

    http://therightscoop.com/some-journalists-are-beginning-to-look-for-the-man-who-asked-trump-the-muslim-question/

  32. Refugees on benefits trash £1.25m home

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/339848/Refugees-on-benefits-trash-1-25m-home

    Neighbours of mother-of-seven Manal Mahmoud, a jobless Palestinian refugee, have been driven to despair after years of antisocial behaviour.

    One son has been jailed for drug-dealing, another made offensive gestures at onlookers yesterday and the police have been called regularly since the family moved into the riverside London terraced house three years ago.

    The family is one of at least 100 living in homes on state handouts that could fund £1million mortgages.

    Mrs Mahmoud gets £20,000 a year in housing benefits to pay her rent. Yet she said: “I don’t care if people think I am not grateful. I am entitled to live in a house like this even if I don’t pay for it.

  33. EGYPT – Many Egyptian parliamentary candidates test positive to drug use

    The HEC say many of those hoping to run in next month’s parliamentary elections were rejected because they tested positive to drug use

    When the High Elections Committee (HEC), the seven-member judicial body in charge of supervising Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections, announced an initial list of candidates on 16 September, many were taken by surprise.

    HEC’s spokesperson Omar Marwan announced that of 5,955 individuals who between 1 and 12 September applied to run, 535 had their applications rejected. “This represents nine percent of the total number of candidates who had applied,” said Marwan before adding that there were a number of reasons for the remarkably high number of rejections.

    Marwan said many failed to provide necessary documents including proof of military service, proof of clean criminal records, statements about personal wealth and proof they had not received money and donations for campaigning.

    The HEC spokesman, however, said the majority of the rejections were due to candidates failing obligatory medical tests by testing positive for illegal drug use.

    The HEC sub-committee responsible for processing registration applications announced on 16 September that the medical tests of many hopefuls indicated heavy involvement in drug-taking .

    This was confirmed by deputy health minister Nassif Al-Hefnawy who announced that medical labs conducting health tests for prospective candidates found many of them testing positive for drugs like cannabis (active in hashish), opium, opioids (active in Tramadol) and cocaine. Many were also found to be alcoholic, even though this condition is not testable in a medical lab.

    Hassan Nagy, a health ministry official, told Al-Wafd newspaper on 8 September that prospective candidates had undergone rigorous medical tests by as many as 80 hospitals and labs affiliated with the ministry.

    “We were surprised that those who want to represent citizens in parliament are heavy drug users,” said Nagy, adding that “an elected MP should be psychologically and physically fit and one with a drug addiction cannot be so and cannot be trusted for exercising his or her legislative and watchdog roles in parliament.”

    Figures released by the HEC show that eleven hopefuls in the Nile Delta governorate of Gharbiya, 27 in Daqahliyaa governorate, four in Damietta governorate, six in Menoufiya, one in Giza, six in the Upper Egypt governorate of Qena, one in South Sinai, seven in Alexandria and four in Luxor tested positive and were rejected.

    The biggest surprise was that an Islamist candidate affiliated with the ultraconservative Nour Party in Luxor was found to be a user of Tramadol. Nour is the only Islamist force contesting the polls.

    A potential candidate by the name of Sameh Salam in Giza’s constituency of Al-Haram has filed an appeal with HEC after testing positive.

    “This is false. I tested negative last February when the door for registration for polls scheduled for March,” said Salam, insisting that “tests conducted in health ministry hospitals are not correctly conducted and cannot be validated”.

    According to the law on exercising political rights (law 45/2014) and the HEC’s rules, potential parliamentary candidates must undergo rigorous medical tests to check their psychological well-being and physical fitness.

    When Egypt’s parliamentary elections were originally scheduled to be held last March, all potential candidates were forced to undergo medical check-ups.

    But after the elections were postponed until October and November, the HEC said those who had successfully applied last March and aimed to run again would not be required to take medical tests.

    This, however, did not go down well with Egypt’s Administrative Courts, which ruled that those who applied last February must undergo new medical check-ups if to be accepted in next month’s elections.

    The court said “there is a period of seven months between February and September during which the health conditions of many potential candidates could have changed”. Each potential candidate was forced to pay LE2,850 to undergo a medical test.

    Under the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak, parliamentary candidates were not required to pass medical tests. But after joining parliament many were found to be drug users.

    In one case in 1990 four candidates from North Sinai were found to be drug traffickers and they came to be known as “the drug deputies.” They were stripped of parliamentary membership and referred to trial.

    Some reports cite the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) statistics as placing Egypt 12th worldwide in terms of hashish production.

    UNODC estimates that Egypt produces over 18 million kilograms of hashish and over 73 million kilograms of marijuana every year.

    The deserts of Sinai are widely believed to be fertile ground for hashish production.

    Some even believe that Islamist militants fighting the Egyptian army in Sinai, primarily the Beit Al-Maqdis group, use proceeds from drug sales to fund weapons purchases and operations.

    Interior ministry reports show Tramadol smuggling has risen in recent years, primarily coming from war-torn Libya. Statistics also show there are approximately 10 million drug users who live in Egypt.

    Judge Khaled Al-Shabasi told Al-Ahram newspaper on 19 September that prospective candidates who had tested positive on drug use cannot be prosecuted.

    “Drug users can be prosecuted or referred to trial only when they are caught “red handed,” said Shabasi, adding that “it must be proved that they have committed a crime under the influence of drugs in order to face criminal charges.” He urges authorities to change laws to allow prosecuting those who test positive on drug use.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/142066/Egypt/Politics-/Many-Egyptian-parliamentary-candidates-test-positi.aspx