Reader’s links for Oct. 8 – 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.

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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

82 Replies to “Reader’s links for Oct. 8 – 2015”

  1. FBI: Dozens in U.S. in Secret Conversations With ISIS (nbcnews, Oct 8, 2015)
    http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/fbi-dozens-u-s-secret-conversations-isis-n440946

    “Dozens of people in the U.S. are engaged in conversations with overseas supporters of ISIS that the FBI cannot monitor, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.

    He has been warning for months that when ISIS supporters find someone in the U.S., through messages on social media, they then employ software that encrypts their communications, making it impossible for the FBI to follow them, even with a court order.

    “ISIS is sending a poisonous message that buzzes in the pockets of troubled souls, unmoored people, all day long,” Comey told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “The challenge we face is finding those needles in a nationwide haystack, assessing where they are on a spectrum between consuming this poison and acting on it, and disrupting them before they act.”

    When ISIS recruiters find “a live one,” he said, “they move to end-to-end encryption, so the needle we have found disappears on us once it becomes most dangerous.”

    While Comey has discussed the “going dark” challenge before, his comments Thursday represent the first time he has put a number on the size of the problem.

    He said conversations with the technology industry are promising, searching for a way to allow the government, with a court order, to monitor those communications…”

    • With a court order they can access “that persons” home and apply all kinds of technology that can circumvent encryption quite easily. Really no need to converse with the industry. And; we already know about the court orders “in perpetuity.”

  2. Gulf Arabs ‘stepping up’ arms supplies to Syrian rebels (BBC, Oct 8, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34479929

    “Saudi Arabia is responding to the recent Russian air strikes on Syrian rebels by stepping up its supplies of lethal weaponry to three different rebel groups, a Saudi government official has told the BBC.

    The well-placed official, who asked not to be named, said supplies of modern, high-powered weaponry including guided anti-tank weapons would be increased to the Arab- and western-backed rebel groups fighting the forces of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian, Iranian and Lebanese allies.

    He said those groups being supplied did not include either Islamic State (IS) or al-Nusra Front, both of which are proscribed terrorist organisations. Instead, he said the weapons would go to three rebel alliances – Jaysh al-Fatah (Army of Conquest), the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Southern Front.

    The official added that Qatar and Turkey have been instrumental in maintaining Saudi support for Sunni rebels fighting both Assad’s forces and, at times, the extremists of IS. Russia brands as terrorists all rebels opposing its ally, President Assad, including those trained by the US.

    The Saudi official did not rule out supplying surface-to-air missiles to the rebels, a move resisted by many in the West for fear that they would fall into the hands of IS and end up being used to shoot down warplanes of the US-led Coalition or even civilian airliners…”

  3. Channel 4 – Ali Mohammed al-Nimr: Sentenced to death

    Interview with the father of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the activist sentenced to death by crucifixion in Saudi Arabia. He says there are 7 other men who also face the death penalty.

  4. GERMANY – Bavaria wants to send refugees back to Austria, Merkel says no

    The German state of Bavaria plans “emergency measures” to slow arrivals of asylum seekers, including sending some back to neighboring Austria, state premier Horst Seehofer said, directly challenging Chancellor Angela Merkel over the crisis.

    Seehofer says more than 225,000 refugees have arrived in his southern state in less than five weeks and authorities are stretched beyond the limit to house and care for them all.

    The Bavarian cabinet will meet on Friday to agree the measures, although legally the state cannot send back refugees as this would be a matter for the federal government in Berlin, where Merkel has refused to cap the number of arrivals.

    Seehofer told Bild newspaper that the meeting would examine how to integrate refugees. “On top of that will come specific self-defensive measures to limit migration, such as sending back people to the border with Austria and the immediate transfer of newly arrived asylum seekers within Germany,” he said.

    Vienna warned of the risk of violence if the government in Bavaria, the main entry point into Germany for asylum seekers moving north through the Balkans and Austria, went ahead with the plan.

    “If refugees who wish to remain in Germany are sent back to Austria, then you have to expect riots ultimately,” said Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner.

    She was speaking after raising the issue with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere at a European Union meeting in Luxembourg. Both “are naturally very worried”, she said.

    Although in the same conservative parliamentary bloc, Seehofer is at loggerheads with Merkel on handling the refugee crisis as he insists that limits on numbers allowed into Germany are needed.

    Merkel has made clear she will not introduce a refugee cap. “There will not be an entry stop,” she told ARD television late on Wednesday.

    Her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have also dismissed the idea of limits. Vice chancellor and SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel said it was unrealistic to close the borders.

    “We do not have a drawbridge we can lift,” he said, adding refugees are fleeing Syria due to the dramatic situation there.

    “Closing the borders – someone would have to tell us how that’s supposed to work. Are we going to have the army there, with bayonets at the ready? Nobody would do that,” he said, adding the causes of flight, hunger and misery had to be fought.

    The refugee crisis is taking its toll on the popularity of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and also their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which Seehofer leads.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/08/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKCN0S229520151008
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    Bavaria’s premier wants to send refugees back to Austria

    The German state of Bavaria has announced that it might take measures to send refugees back to Austria. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she didn’t support the idea of limiting the number of asylum seekers in any way.

    Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer announced plans to meet with his cabinet this week to discuss “self-defense measures,” which could include sending some refugees back to Austria. Seehofer said state authorities were stretched beyond their limits in their work to house and care for all the people seeking refuge in southern German state. He had previously called on introducing limits to the number of refugees that Germany would accommodate.

    Seehofer said more than 225,000 refugees had arrived in Bavaria in less than five weeks. With about 10,000 refugees arriving in Germany every day, Bavaria has been the main entry point for those fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East and beyond, with most of them entering Germany through Austria.

    Seehofer told the German daily “Bild” that the state government would agree on a wide-ranging package of measures on Friday that included “integration, education and training.”

    “On top of that there will be specific self-defense measures to limit migration, such as sending back people to the border with Austria and the immediate transfer of newly-arrived asylum seekers within Germany,” Seehofer said.

    European interior ministers also met on Thursday to discuss a wider policy of easing deportation as the continent continues to struggle under the largest refugee influx since World War II.

    Opposition and legal hurdles

    Seehofer has clashed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on how to handle the refugee crisis. He has repeatedly insisted on limiting the number of people allowed to seek asylum in Germany. So far, Merkel has refused to introduce any such cap .

    “There will not be an entry stop,” she had told Germany’s state-run ARD television on Wednesday after meeting with her cabinet .

    Legally speaking, Bavaria might not be in a position to send back refugees of its own accord, as this would normally be a matter for the federal government in Berlin. Austria said it would have to “respond” if Bavaria put measures in place that that led to a build up of refugees along the border.

    Austria’s foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, stated that there was no concrete conflict between Bavaria and his country. Austria’s interior minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, added that no action needed to be taken before Seehofer’s cabinet meeting on Friday.

    http://www.dw.com/en/bavarias-premier-wants-to-send-refugees-back-to-austria/a-18771385

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    Video ( in German – from 0:42 to 8:00 )