Reader’s links for Oct. 31 – 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’s links for Oct. 31 – 2015”

  1. I just heard that President Obama is putting 140 US special forces as advisor’s with the so called ‘moderate’ Sunni Muslim fighters in Syria, what he is really doing is using them as a human shield against Russian bombers. That man is truly utterly disgusting, using US special forces like that, perhaps having so far not been able to create his full blown race war he wants to escalate tension with Russia by using US casualties on their much respected armed forces that will force the Republicans to treat Russia more harshly.

    Let me tell my friends on the right in the USA, people like me actively support what Russia is doing in Syria because we know that the moderate Sunni Muslims are working with and for ISIS, and the GOP need to understand that Obama is using these troops as human shields and should call him out on it.

    • He wants the race war to start during the election, look at how the events keep slowly getting more frequent and more violent. Expect all hell to break loose next summer.

    • Canada is pulling out its special forces that were training the Kurds. I suspect America is replacing them with its own.

    • I have been trying to figure out how to say the following.

      Putins is doing several things in the Mideast some good and some bad with a few probably bad but maybe good.

      1) he is fighting ISIS and may end up destroying them, this is good. Since ISIS is the current militant arm of the Bortherhood which Obama supports we ar for the moment opposing this action.

      2) He is moving in to fill the power vacuum that Obama has created, this will probably end up being bad for the west.

      3) He is helping IRan rebuild the Iranian Empire. Granted he wants the Persian Empire to be a satrap of the Russian Empire (which in the long run is a pipe dream). The rebirth of the Persian Empire is a bad thing.

      4) He appears to be establishing a colony in Syria, I say appears because while his actions point in this direction becasue it will take several decades to see if theearly indicators are right or wrong. It depends on how you look at things to see if this is good or bad.

      there are other things (unintended consequences) that will happen which we are going to have to wait for.

      Destroying ISIS is good for the entire world but given the current international political situation it is probably just a temporary set back for the Brotherhood. What we have to remember is that all of the Sunni terror groups are to one extent or another following the orders of the Brotherhood and that all terror groups of the Shiites are following hte orders of the Mullahs in Iran, and that the government in Iran is the sock puppet of the Mullahs.

      So support Putin all you want bur be ready for many things to occur that you aren’t expecting and which you will probably be opposed to, zI say the latter becasue if you weren’t opposed to being a slave you wouldn’t be on this blog.

    • Actions like this can do more harm to the people making the video then good. In Nam the North always talked about the fanatical bravery of the US soldier, you knew that if you were captured you would be tortured so you didn’t surrender you fought to the death and at times committed suicide to keep from being captured. Videos like this make the people on the side of the victim less willing to surrender.

      See the liberty unyeilding article by J.E. Dyer about boots on the ground, it is posted belos.

  2. U.S. Tech Giants May Blur National Security Boundaries in China Deals

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/technology/us-tech-giants-may-blur-national-security-boundaries-in-china-deals.html?_r=0

    HONG KONG — One Chinese technology company receives crucial technical guidance from a former People’s Liberation Army rear admiral. Another company developed the electronics on China’s first atomic bomb. A third sells technology to China’s air-to-air missile research academy.
    Stories from Our Advertisers

    Their ties to the Chinese military run deep, and they all have something else in common: Each Chinese company counts one of America’s tech giants — IBM, Cisco Systems or Microsoft — as a partner.

    Such links, which are generally not well publicized, are now at the center of a debate among some in the American defense community, including former United States military officials, analysts and others. While the cross-border partnerships, under which American tech companies share, license or jointly develop advanced technologies with Chinese counterparts, are a growth area for business, security experts are increasingly questioning whether the deals harm United States national security.

    • The US State Department had to sign off on all of these partnerships, it was either Hillary or Kerry that said they were OK. This is another piece of evidence saying that the Obama administration doesn’t have Americas best interest as its goal.

      • 0, et al., prevented assorted deals between Israel and China.
        I’m not all that sorry, though. The stuff wasn’t cutting-edge Israeli tech, but 0 objected, so it might’ve been too advanced for American comfort.

        DON’T say: Dual loyalty!
        that's dog-whistle, even when it's true

    • I recall years ago when so-called “human rights activists” were complaining about Motorola ICs being used inside PRC landmines. Of course, Motorola communications equipment is used by Chinese internal security apparatus. Years ago, Moto had ads in “Electronics” magazine pushing their secure communications technology because criminals could be listening. Now, companies like GE Medical have moved their headquarters to China. The funniest thing on this stuff was when IBM sold their laptop manufacturing to Lenovo, and a US Senator objected on the basis they were getting US technology. What is it that they already don’t make?

      The best thing we can do is implement trade policies to bring manufacture back to our shores. R&D is connected to manufacture. Perhaps this will create widespread social unrest in China. Considering that in the US we have massive income transfers from government to the non-working, and for the meanwhile avoiding such unrest, this might be the optimal strategy in a strategic sense. An anti-globalist like Trump may slow down the tide of Chinese military-industrial power, and, combined with his anti-illegal alien policies, that may impede our race to “has-been” status.

      • One easy way to do this is to pass a Federal right to work law outlawing the closed shop. This would stop a lot of the inflation and reduce wages to levels the companies could stay in the states and still make enough profit to continue existence. Naturally the left is reacting to this like a vampire to a cross.

  3. Syrian MP: US decision to send troops is an aggression

    Documents
    Indictment of Monzer al-Kassar
    Latest Syria News
    Syrian MP: US decision to send troops is an aggression

    Saudi FM: Assad’s future among sticking points on Syria deal

    Iran to take a seat among world powers for Syria talks

    Russia says it opposes UN resolution on Syrian barrel bombs

    Iran to attend international talks on Syria’s future

    Buy AP Photo Reprints

    DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A Syrian member of parliament says the United States decision to send troops into to Syria is an aggression because it does not have the government’s agreement.

    Sharif Shehadeh told The Associated Press on Saturday that the troops will have no effect on the ground, but Washington wants to say that it is present in Syria.

    American officials say up to 50 special operations troops will be sent to assist Kurdish and Arab forces in northern Syria.

    A U.S.-led coalition has been targeting the Islamic State group with airstrikes since September 2014, killing 12,000 extremists without weakening the group.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-31-07-40-12

  4. Demirtas: ‘Kurdish Obama’ the man to beat in Turkey vote

    Istanbul (AFP) – Selahattin Demirtas, the charismatic leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, is the man in the spotlight after he scored a stunning election breakthrough in June.

    Nicknamed the “Kurdish Obama” for his smooth rhetorical skills, Demirtas propelled his Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) into mainstream politics with a message that embodies the hopes of Turkey’s biggest minority but also appeals to non-Kurds.

    http://news.yahoo.com/demirtas-kurdish-obama-man-beat-turkey-vote-102522033.html
    But he has been the butt of fierce attacks by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has belittled him as a “pretty boy” acting merely as a front for the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

  5. New U.S.-backed Syrian rebel alliance declares offensive against Islamic State

    http://www.oann.com/u-s-backed-syrian-rebels-declare-new-offensive-against-islamic-state/

    BEIRUT (Reuters) – A U.S.-backed Syrian rebel alliance on Saturday announced a fresh offensive against Islamic State in the northeast province of Hasaka, a day after the United States said it would send special forces to advise insurgents fighting the jihadists.

    It was the first declared operation by the Democratic Forces of Syria, which joins together a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia and several Syrian Arab rebel groups, since it announced its formation earlier this month.

    “We announce today the start of the first step in our military operations,” a spokesman for the alliance’s general command said in Arabic in a video statement posted on Youtube.

    World powers and regional rivals are convening in Vienna to seek a solution to the four-year conflict in Syria that has escalated since Russia intervened a month ago with an intense air campaign.

    The video showed several dozen men in fatigues standing outdoors with yellow flags and banners carrying the name of the Democratic Forces of Syria in Arabic and Kurdish.

    The Kurdish YPG has been working closely with the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition since early this year, and has to date proved Washington’s most effective partner on the ground against IS in Syria.

  6. Germany’s ability to act on migrants threatened, Merkel deputy says

    http://www.oann.com/german-governments-ability-to-act-threatened-merkel-deputy-says/

    BERLIN (Reuters) – German’s Social Democrat vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, warned on Friday that a dispute among the conservatives over how to handle record inflows of migrants into the country was jeopardising the government’s ability to act.

    Merkel and Horst Seehofer, the leader of her Bavarian sister party, have frequently clashed over how Germany should deal with the estimated 800,000 to 1 million it expects this year, many of them from war zones in the Middle East.

    Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), has favoured an open-door policy and says Germany can cope.

    Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, the entry point in Germany for many of the migrants, has said the existence of the conservative bloc was at stake if she did not “correct” her asylum policy.

    Gabriel, leader of the Social Democrats, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, said in an interview with Spiegel Online that the conservative parties were acting “irresponsibly” and creating even more uncertainty among the population as concerns mount that Germany cannot deal with the new arrivals.

    “Given the big challenge our country is facing due to strong immigration of refugees, the dispute between the CDU and CSU is now threatening the ability of the government to act,” he said. He cited no examples of government work being held up.

  7. Rapper-turned-terrorist who said ‘Jihad is a lot of fun!’ learns the hard way how wrong he was

    Cuspert — who went by the name Deso Dogg as a rapper and Abu Talha Al-Almani as a terrorist — joined the Islamic State in 2012 after his rapping career in Berlin went south and he started suffering from psychological problems. Cuspert was not considered a high-value target, and the Oct. 16 strike near Raqa was not specifically targeted at him, according to a defense official.

    “Cuspert was a foreign terrorist fighter and operative for ISIL who used social media to take advantage of disaffected youth and potential Western recruits,” Defense Department spokeswoman Elissa Smith said in statement.

    Smith further said Cuspert threatened President Barack Obama and U.S. and German citizens and encouraged ISIS supporters across the world to carry out attacks. He was once an up-and-coming rapper in Germany, and a look at his lyrics reveals a violent mind long before joining ISIS.

  8. This is another must ready from J. E. Dyer. Some history for those who haven’t been taught the facts. US involvement in Nam started with a 50 man advisory group, this was expanded to 7,000 trainers which then exploded to full involvement with our hands tied. Even then we won the war on the ground and the Dems threw it away like they did in the Middle East.

    ‘Boots on the ground’: Saigon on the Euphrates, on steroids

    Regular correspondents of this space may have wondered why I haven’t been writing more recently about the events in Iraq and Syria. (Or Afghanistan, for that matter.)

    The short answer is: because it’s too depressing to watch the Obama administration repeating every mistake of Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam, but from a posture of greater weakness, greater foolishness, and – bonus! – apparent hatred for the United States.

    Who wants to write about that?

    We’ve reached the point at which there is nothing positive or hopeful to say. I think most readers realize that, even if they can’t fully articulate what the problems seem to be. Obama is quite literally doing nothing right, in his political-military approach to these hot spots of the Middle East. There’s nothing in his policy to work with.

    The recent raid on the Islamic State prison, in which Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler, a member of the Army’s Delta Force, was killed, is an illustrative case. It cross-cuts two major concerns: the purpose of U.S. involvement (the most important), and the extent of U.S. involvement, including whether we’re “in combat” or not.

    • 100 bodies, incl 5 children, extracted from 7K9268 A321 crash site

      A passenger plane belonging to a small Russian airline, which was flying over 220 people from an Egyptian resort to Saint Petersburg, has vanished from radars over Sinai. Authorities in Egypt have confirmed the plane has crashed.

    • Crew members ‘raised engine start failures with technicians’

      The Guardian’s Alec Luhn in Moscow has the latest:

      Crew members of the crashed airliner raised the issue of possible engine faults several times to airport technicians in Sharm el-Sheikh, a source at the airport has alleged in an interview with Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

      “This aircraft appealed to the technical service in connection with engine start failure several times over the past week before this happened,” the source said.

      In Moscow MP Vladimir Gutenev has told state news agency TASS he will seek to ban the use of planes that are more than 15 years old.

      The Airbus A321-231 involved in the crash entered service in 1997 and has been operated by Kogalymavia, the company also known as Metrojet, for the past four years.

      Previously it flew for Libyan company Middle East Airlines, Turkish company Onur Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Syrian company Cham Wings Airlines.

      Kogalymavia began as a small regional airline in Russia in 1993, but now its 10 planes mainly fly to Egypt.

      Its planes have been involved in accidents before, including a Tu-154 that caught fire on the runway in Surgut, killing three and injuring 43.

      http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/oct/31/russian-passenger-plane-crashes-in-egypts-sinai-live

    • Islamic State claims responsibility for Russian plane crash in Egypt (tribune, Oct 31, 2015)
      http://tribune.com.pk/story/982742/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-for-russian-plane-crash-in-egypt/

      “CAIRO: A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, the group said in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

      Egyptian security sources earlier on Saturday said early investigations suggested the plane crashed due to a technical fault.

      The claim of responsibility was also carried by the Aamaq website which acts as a semi official news agency for Islamic State.

      “The fighters of the Islamic State were able to down a Russian plane over Sinai province that was carrying over 220 Russian crusaders. They were all killed, thanks be to God,” the statement circulated on Twitter said….”

  9. BREITBART -Sky News Host Islamist Extremists, Declares ‘Celebration’ As Guantanamo Detainee Returns

    Sky News has declared a day of “celebration” following the news that Saudi citizen and former UK resident Shaker Aamer has returned to British soil following 13 years in Guantanamo Bay.

    As part of the package on Mr. Aamer’s return, Sky presenter Sarah-Jane Mee described today as a “cause for celebration” while interviewing, unchallenged, the extremist cleric Suleiman Ghani, one of the leading figures in the “Free Shaker Aamer” campaign alongside the Labour Party’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP.[…]

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/10/30/sky-news-host-islamist-extremists-declares-celebration-as-guantanamo-detainee-returns/

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

    Shaker Aamer in line for £1m compensation

  10. Bangladeshi secular publisher hacked to death (BBC, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34688245

    “A Bangladeshi publisher of secular books has been hacked to death in the capital Dhaka in the second attack of its kind on Saturday, police say.

    Faisal Arefin Dipon, 43, was killed at his office in the city centre, hours after another publisher and two secular writers were injured in an attack.

    They are the latest victims in a series of deadly attacks on secularists since blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death by suspected Islamists in February.

    Both publishers published Mr Roy.

    Mr Dipon was found dead at the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house, in his third-floor office.

    “I saw him lying upside down and in a massive pool of blood. They slaughtered his neck. He is dead,” his father, the writer Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq, said, quoted by AFP.

    Earlier on Saturday, armed men burst into the offices of publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul.

    They stabbed Mr Tutul and two writers who were with him, locked them in an office and fled the scene, police said.

    The three men were rushed to hospital, and at least one of them is in a critical condition.

    Mr Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of radical Islamism, was murdered in February. His wife and fellow blogger Bonya Ahmed was badly injured in the attack.
    Three other bloggers have since been killed.”

  11. Syria conflict: Russia warns US of ‘proxy war risk’ (BBC, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34685183

    “Russia has warned of the risk of a “proxy war” in the Middle East after the US said it would send special forces to Syria.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this increased the need for co-operation between the US and Russia.

    US officials said “fewer than 50” troops would “train, advise and assist” vetted opposition forces in fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS).

    It will be the first time that US troops operate openly in Syria.

    Mr Lavrov said the US had decided on its move “unilaterally and without any reference to the Syrian leadership”.

    He added: “I am convinced that neither the United States nor Russia of course want any kind of slide into a so-called proxy war. But to me it is obvious that this situation makes the task of co-operation between the militaries even more relevant.”

    He was speaking after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Vienna…”

    • Syrian MP: US Decision to Send Troops Is Act of Aggression (abcnews, Oct 31, 2015)
      http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/syrian-mp-us-decision-send-troops-aggression-34873580

      “The United States’ decision to send troops into Syria is an act of aggression because it does not have the government’s agreement, a Syrian member of parliament said Saturday.

      Sharif Shehadeh told The Associated Press that the troops will have no effect on the ground, but that Washington wants to say it is present in Syria.

      “What has happened to make America realize, after five years, that it should send between 30 and 50 military advisers?” asked Shehadeh, referring to the start of the country’s crisis in March 2011 that has since killed more than 250,000 people.

      American officials say up to 50 special operations troops will be sent to assist Kurdish and Arab forces in northern Syria.

      A U.S.-led coalition has been targeting the Islamic State group with airstrikes since September 2014, killing 12,000 extremists without weakening the group.

      The decision to send U.S. troops to Syria comes a month after Russia began launching airstrikes against insurgents in the country. Russia’s airstrikes were agreed upon with the Syrian government.

      “When America sends ground forces into Syrian territories without an agreement with the Syrian government it becomes an intervention and aggression,” Shehadeh said by telephone. “Will America allow Russian ground forces to go into America without an agreement? I think the answer is no.”

      The U.S. has conducted special operations raids in Syria before and is expected to continue to carry out more unilateral raids.

      The U.S. decision came as activists said some rebel groups, as well as the main U.S.-backed Kurdish militia known as the YPG, are preparing for an offensive against IS in its de facto capital of Raqqa. Earlier this month, U.S. cargo planes dropped small arms and ammunition to Arab groups fighting IS in northern Syria in what appeared to be preparation for the attack.

      On Saturday, the Democratic Forces of Syria, a coalition of Arab, Christian and Kurdish factions in northern Syria, declared that they have started an operation to “liberate” areas south of the northeastern city of Hassekeh.

      IS has several strongholds in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh that borders Iraq.

      The announcement was carried by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and social media pages of rebel groups.

      The Rebels Army group carried the statement from the coalition’s spokesman who goes by the name of Abu Ali as vowing to “cleanse Syria’s soil from the filth of terrorist groups.””

  12. Iran Hosts U.S. Activists at Conference on Police Brutality (nbcnews, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-hosts-u-s-activists-conference-police-brutality-n452171

    “TEHRAN — Twenty American activists, writers and commentators flew to Iran this week to participate in a two-week conference on U.S. police brutality and racism.

    Political scientist and commentator Wilmer Leon said he welcomed the opportunity to appear at the Third International Conference of Independent Thinkers and Scholars.

    “The United States holds itself out as being the bastion of human rights, the arbiter of human rights, the shining city on the hill as President [Ronald] Reagan tried to characterize it,” Wilmer told NBC News at the conference center in Tehran earlier this week. “And there are incredible contradictions between what America is supposed to stand for and the practices and atrocities that America continues to engage in.”

    The deaths of unarmed black men have sparked widespread outrage, with the shootings of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 in Florida and 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, among those inspiring protests under the “Black Lives Matter” moniker…”

  13. Benedict Cumberbatch Backs Refugees: ‘F*** the Politicians’ (nbcnews, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/benedict-cumberbatch-backs-refugees-f-politicians-n454376

    “LONDON — Benedict Cumberbatch surprised theater-goers by saying “f*** the politicians” during an impassioned on-stage speech about Europe’s refugee crisis, audience members told NBC News Friday.

    The Oscar-nominated star had just finished a performance of “Hamlet” at London’s Barbican Centre when he criticized the British government.

    “He stayed at the front and gestured for silence,” said Charlotte Fletcher, a 25-year-old public relations worker who was in the audience on Tuesday. “He burst into this magnificent monologue about Syrian refugees, about how they are all fathers, mothers, daughters and sons, just like us.”

    Cumberbatch then attacked plans by the U.K. government to accept 20,000 refugees over the next five years, a figure condemned as too meager by opposition lawmakers and campaigners.

    “Then he just shouted, ‘F*** the politicians!'” Fletcher told NBC News. “It was a wonderful moment. It was very impassioned and from the heart. It was amazing to see an actor just being so impassioned and raw.”

    Another audience member, Rachel Martin, who is from London and in her 50s, described the speech as “so moving.”

    “The show was fantastic but you left in tears after his speech,” she told NBC News. “It was very eloquent, emotional and beautifully put … He gave a four-letter word to the politicians and said, ‘We’ve got to do something about it.'”

    Both audience members said the speech went down well and was received by rapturous applause. However, Fletcher added: “The parents next to me had two young-teenage children and I think they were a bit taken aback!”….”

  14. Rocket hits mosque in eastern Afghanistan, six killed (reuters, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/31/us-afghanistan-mosque-idUSKCN0SP0IP20151031

    “A rocket apparently fired by fighters from the radical Islamic State movement has hit a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, killing six worshippers and wounding four others, a local official said on Saturday.

    The attack in Achin, southeast of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, occurred during evening prayers on Friday, district governor Haji Ghalibhe said.

    It was not clear if it was aimed at the mosque or went astray after being fired at security forces based nearby.

    Islamic State has been building up its presence in Afghanistan while battling both government forces and the Islamist Taliban movement. Nangarhar, on the border with Pakistan, has become one of its main strongholds.

    Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a spokesman for the Nangarhar police chief, said security forces had detained two suspects, one of whom was a foreigner.

    Islamic State’s rise has caused alarm outside Afghanistan, with Russia saying it was concerned about the threat to its central Asian neighbors and U.S. commanders citing the movement as a reason to delay plans to pull out troops next year.”

  15. 11 killed as Pakistanis vote in local government polls (reuters, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/31/us-pakistan-election-idUSKCN0SP0GK20151031

    “Eleven people were killed when rival political parties fired on each other on Saturday as Pakistanis voted in local elections seen as a referendum on the national government halfway through its term.

    The violence occurred in the Khairpur district of the southern province of Sindh, which held the polls along with the central Punjab province. It was not immediately clear which parties were responsible.

    “Eleven people were killed when two groups opened fire,” police deputy inspector general Kamran Fazal told Reuters…”

  16. Lüders:’Wishful thinking’ on Syria at Vienna talks (DW, Oct 31, 2015)
    http://www.dw.com/en/l%C3%BCderswishful-thinking-on-syria-at-vienna-talks/a-18818694

    “The regime of Bashar al-Assad is still strong, and the Western idea of toppling it has proven to be an illusion, according to German Middle East expert Michael Lüders. There are no easy solutions in sight, he told DW…

    There are two different sides in this civil war, which is also a war waged by outside powers. The Western powers – the Americans, the Europeans, Turkey and the Gulf States – want to see the regime of Bashar al-Assad removed. They want to see a new regime in place in Damascus composed of Sunnis, who are the majority population, and, of course, this new Sunni government would then mean an end to the privileged relations Syria has so far enjoyed with Shiite Iran and with Russia. And for that very reason, neither Russia nor Iran, nor China for that matter, want to see this regime removed.

    The future of Bashar al-Assad is not really important from the point of view of Russia and Iran. They don’t care about him as a person. Ultimately, he will probably have to go into exile to Russia or elsewhere. But the decisive question is whether the West accepts that its own perception, the belief that it would be possible to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad, has been proven to be an illusion. It is not possible to topple this regime; it is still strong. Many Syrians, especially religious minorities, continue to support him, not out of love, but out of fear of what might happen after the potential downfall of this regime. That would result in an onslaught by “Islamic State” and possibly their seizing power in Damascus, and religious minorities are, of course, very much afraid of this….”

  17. The complex costs of integrating refugees in Germany (DW, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.dw.com/en/the-complex-costs-of-integrating-refugees-in-germany/a-18818095

    “A German organization representing local municipal governments sounded the alarm this week, saying Berlin will need to feed more money down the chain. So what’s the government planning to spend, and what’s the shortfall?

    Housing, food, supplies, a personal monetary allowance, policing, education, childcare – there’s a long list of potential costs when a country takes in refugees or asylum seekers. To complicate matters further, these costs will vary from person to person, and place to place. Cities such as Munich or Stuttgart, two of the German property ladder’s priciest rungs, might have particular problems finding affordable accommodation. In former East Germany or northwestern cities struggling to overcome the decline of heavy industries such as mining, integrating migrants into the labor market or schools might pose the greatest problem…

    What’s more, the Deutscher Städtetag estimates that the 670 euros is only likely to cover around two-thirds of the actual costs. The group suggests 1,000 euros per person, per month, as a more realistic level.

    One reason why per-person figures are favored over lump sums – even in the legislation – is the current uncertainty as to how many people will arrive in Germany in the coming months and years. The report offered two scenarios, one based on 500,000 new arrivals in 2016 and the other on 1.2 million. This put the total estimated costs for states and municipalities at between 7 billion and 16 billion euros – and, perhaps more importantly, it put the shortfall after implementing Berlin’s new laws at between 3.5 and 5 billion euros.

    However, the report did not call for responsibility to be taken out of towns and cities’ hands – arguing that only they had the flexibility to find solutions tailored to the lay of the land.

    “In economically weak regions, major programs will be needed to integrate refugees into the labor market. In regions with low unemployment, but an expensive real estate market to go with that, massive investment towards social housing will be necessary,” Dedy said.”

  18. Morocco – Three German Tourists Attacked With Knife in Fez

    Fez – A shocking video, posted about an hour ago, shows a group of German tourists badly injured after they were assaulted by two people who attacked them with knives on Friday in Fez.

    The video shows three tourists, two males and one female, in shock after they were attacked by two people, who are reported to be under the influence of hard drugs, known in Morocco as Karkoubi.

    Eyewitnesses told Morocco World News that the assault happened in the Talaa Lakbira, one of the neighborhoods most frequented by foreign tourists visiting Fez.

    As soon as the attack occurred, a group of passerby intervened and pull the attackers down. The video shows a group of people trying to provide support to the victims, while another group is surrounding the authors of the crime.

    The victims have been immediately taken to Fez University Hospital (CHU) to receive the necessary care.

    Fez, known as Morocco’s spiritual capital, and one of the country’s imperial cities, has become in recent years the capital of criminality.

    Between September 15 and October 5, local authorities in Fez arrested 2,664 criminals. With this horrendous crime, it appears that police authorities still have a lot of work to do to enable the city’s inhabitants to live in security.

    Fez inhabitants have for long complained about the successive Moroccan governments’ lack of political will to reinstate the city to its erstwhile glory and their total focus on other cities, such as Tangier, Marrakech, Agadir, Tetouan, Casablanca and Rabat.

    Morocco is a country known for its hospitality and where the safety of foreign tourists is a red line for the government. While these kinds of violent assaults are definitely regrettable, they are very rare.

    http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/10/171573/video-four-german-tourists-attacked-with-knife-in-fez/

  19. CBC -Muslim Montrealer says she was told by Costco employee, ‘Go back to your country’

    Asma Al-Shawarghi, who wears a hijab, appalled by incident which happened in front of her young daughters

    A Muslim Montrealer is filing a human rights complaint against Costco? after a comment allegedly made by a sales clerk.

    Asma Al-Shawarghi, who was raised in Canada, said she was at the Costco store on l’Acadie Boulevard on Oct. 18 and asked a sales clerk whether a coat she was looking at would keep her warm in -40 C weather.

    Al-Shawarghi said the sales representative responded that no jacket would keep her warm at such temperatures, adding, “If you don’t like that, go back to your country.”

    […]She said she decided to go public and file a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission after consulting with friends and family and hearing their own stories of discrimination.

    She said she’s noticed an increase in Islamophobia since the debate over the niqab during the federal election.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/muslim-montreal-costco-complaint-1.3296801

  20. Germany: Pro- and anti- refugee protesters face-off in Passau

    Tensions mounted in Passau’s streets after around 1,300 anti-refugee demonstrators supporting the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and 650 counter-demonstrators met in the centre of the city where they were kept apart by police.

  21. Four-Year-Old Child Stoned In Germany For Kicking Migrant’s Football

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/10/30/four-year-old-child-stoned-germany-kicking-migrants-football/

    A four-year-old boy has been hospitalised after having a stone thrown at him by a resident of a troubled German migrant centre which has seen riots and Islamist violence.

    The young boy, who has not bee identified, suffered “massive bruising” after he inadvertently interrupted a football game taking place at the state of Thuringa migrant centre in Suhl, Germany. The child entered a gymnasium looking for his brothers when he kicked a football, enraging another migrant.

    The child was then beaten around the head “several times” with the ball until a supervisor stepped in to end the violence.

    Unluckily for the small boy, his assailant then caught up with him again after the game, and threw a rock at his head. Admitted to hospital for serious injuries, police said the boy had “massive bruising”, reports Focus.de.

  22. One Out of Two Migrants Go Rogue, “Unaccounted For,” “On the Run” – See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/10/one-out-of-two-migrants-go-rogue-unaccounted-for-on-the-run.html/#sthash.fk7IBTMJ.dpuf

    In a terrible new twist to the invasion horror unfolding in Europe, the migrants are “disappearing.” More than one in two migrants from Camp Shelterschlefe have disappeared, run off. Nobody knows where to.

    “Such a high number of people hiding is ‘completely unacceptable.’” Where are they hiding? Could they be connecting with sleeper cells?

    Is it any wonder that Europeans are scrambling for guns?
    – See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/10/one-out-of-two-migrants-go-rogue-unaccounted-for-on-the-run.html/#sthash.fk7IBTMJ.dpuf