Reader’s links for Nov. 20 – 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

57 Replies to “Reader’s links for Nov. 20 – 2015”

  1. Islam sneaks into Europe –
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbNeqYgDUJI

    Billy Six does undercover reporting at the Springfeld boarder crossing camps.

    Warnings regarding risks of civil war did sound like conspiracy theory, science fiction or simple imagination so far. Blood bath of Paris made it coming true now.

    The killing spree of Friday night followed logic of Mohammedan punishment enthusiasm: It´s not that churches were attacked, but places of worldly pleasure … over there where rock music was listened to, alcohol was drunk and pork was eaten. Since US invasion in Iraq and “Arab Spring” pure Islam is gaining pace in the Orient.

    Western media talks a lot about “necessary reformation” of Islam … while indeed it is literally well underway concerning “renewal” and “returning to the sources”. Muslims who´re born in Europe and converts are in charge … many of them from middle class families and well educated. No small number of Oriental Muslims for who Islam just lived on as a tradition is avoiding the conflict – through migration into Europe. A Melange of people gathers here whose knowledge and identification with “the last revelation of Allah” can´t be more different. What still unites them is common origin. Not impossible for Muslim migrants and their descendants to see themselves within a situation of cultural pressure soon … deciding whether to give up Islamic values or to fight for them.

    Already some days ago (when those videos were made) an Austrian policeman of Spielfeld migration camp at the border to Slovenia put it straight: “They don´t need good weapons and special training. Belief is enough. If they behead several walkers with kitchen knives at same time, but different places – so panic and instability will paralyse everything.”

      • Mali attack: Special forces storm hotel to free hostages (BBC, video, Nov 20, 2015)
        http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34877069

        “Malian special forces have entered the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, to end a siege by gunmen. The hotel says 137 people remain inside.

        The gunmen stormed the US-owned hotel, which is popular with foreign businesses and airline crews, shooting and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic.

        Malian officials said 30 hostages have been freed. State TV earlier put the figure at 80.

        Three people have been shot dead and two soldiers wounded, officials say.

        Interior Minister Salif Traore said the soldiers’ lives were not in danger….”

        • Mali hotel attack: 3 dead after gunmen take captives at Radisson Blu in Bamako (CNN, Nov 20, 2015)
          http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/20/africa/mali-shooting/index.html

          “… Security forces have reportedly begun a counterassault on a hotel in the capital of the West African nation of Mali, where officials say gunmen took dozens of hostages and killed at least three people Friday morning.

          The situation began around 7 a.m. at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, when two or three attackers stormed the hotel, firing guns and taking a number of hostages, officials said.

          By noon, at least 80 hostages had been freed, the country’s state broadcaster, ORTM, reported. The hotel had 140 guests and 30 employees, hotel officials said, though Malian Security Minister Salif Traore said on ORTM that it wasn’t clear how many of the guests were there at the time of the attack.

          The attackers, carrying AK-47 rifles, arrived around 7 a.m. in a vehicle or vehicles with diplomatic plates, said Olivier Saldago, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in Mali. Saldago said the hotel was host to a large delegation to peace talks in the country, a former French colony that has been battling Islamist extremists with the help of U.N. and French forces.

          The gunmen fired as they entered the hotel, and the gunshots went on for several minutes, said witness Amadou Keita, who works at a nearby cultural center.

          Two Malian nationals and a French national have died, a U.N. official said without elaborating. Two security personnel also are injured, Traore said.

          Malian soldiers, with help from U.N. troops, had the hotel surrounded, a journalist for ORTM told CNN from the scene.

          No group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident….”

          • Islamic Extremists Attack Hotel in Mali’s Capital (abcnews, Nov 20, 2015)
            http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/army-20-hostages-freed-mali-hotel-35320085

            “Islamic extremists armed with guns and throwing grenades stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Friday morning, killing at least three people and initially taking numerous hostages, authorities said.

            The Brussels-based Rezidor Hotel group that operates the hotel said early on that the assailants had “locked in” 140 guests and 30 employees.

            Malian troops reacted quickly. As people ran for their lives near the hotel along a dirt road, the soldiers in full combat gear pointed the way to safety. Within hours, local TV images showed heavily armed troops in what appeared to be a lobby area. Malian state TV reported that 80 people in the hotel when the assault began have been freed.

            Malian special forces were freeing hostages “floor by floor,” Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore told The Associated Press. Still, Rezidor Hotel group put out a new statement saying 125 guests and 13 employees were still in the hotel.

            Traore said at least one guest eported that the attackers instructed him to recite verses from the Quran before he was allowed to leave the hotel.

            It was not immediately clear which Muslim extremist groups might be behind the attack, which unfolded one week after the attacks on Paris that killed 129 people. A handful of jihadi groups seized the northern half of Mali — a former French colony — in 2012 and were ousted from cities and towns by a French military intervention.

            French President Francois Hollande said: “We should yet again stand firm and show our solidarity with a friendly country, Mali.”

            Traore said 10 gunmen had stormed the hotel shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” in Arabic before firing on the guards. A staffer at the hotel who gave his name as Tamba Diarra said over the phone that the attackers used grenades in the assault.

            The U.S. Embassy in Mali told citizens to shelter in place amid reports of an “ongoing active shooter operation” at the hotel in Bamako.

            Monique Kouame Affoue Ekonde, from Ivory Coast, said she and six other people, including a Turkish woman, were escorted out by security forces as the gunmen rushed “toward the fifth or sixth floor.”

            “I think they are still there. I’ve left the hotel and I don’t know where to go. I’m tired and in a state of shock,” she said.

            A top official at the French presidency said French citizens were in the hotel but could not give more. The official spoke anonymously in line with presidency policy.

            Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders said that four Belgians were registered at the hotel but their whereabouts were unknown.

            Citing Chinese diplomats in Mali, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that about 10 Chinese citizens were sheltering inside their hotel rooms. The embassy was in phone contact with them and all were reported safe, according to the report. All are employees of Chinese companies working in Mali.

            Five Turkish Airlines personnel were among the freed hostages, Turkey’s state-run news agency said.

            The website of the official China Daily newspaper also cited an unidentified witness as saying one Chinese citizen had been rescued.

            The U.N. mission said it was sending security reinforcements and medical aid to the scene. Ambulances were seen rushing to the hotel as a military helicopter flew overhead.

            Even after the French-led military intervention in early 2013 that forced the extremists from northern towns and cities, the north remains insecure and militant attacks have extended farther south this year, including the capital. In March masked gunmen shot up a restaurant in Bamako that is popular with foreigners, killing five people.

            About 1,000 French troops remain in the country. The Netherlands also has troops working with the UN mission in Mali. According to the Dutch defense ministry, some 450 Dutch military personnel are taking part in the mission along with four Apache and three Chinook helicopters. Most of the Dutch force is based in Gao, but there are a few officers at the U.N. mission headquarters in Bamako.”

  2. Is this the on-the-run Paris jihadist in disguise? Image ‘circulated by French police shows Salah Abdeslam in wig and glasses’ as it emerges he’s also fleeing ISIS commanders who are angry that he backed out of suicide attack

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3326186/Is-new-face-Salah-Abdeslam-Image-terrorist-run-Friday-wearing-wig-glasses-released-French-police.html#ixzz3s2YjfyIL
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  3. The Latest: Romanian Border Police Tighten Controls (abcnews, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-tempers-flare-greek-macedonian-border-35319700

    “… Romanian border police have tightened up controls in response to possible threats, leading to long lines of waiting vehicles at the country’s borders.

    The Romanian police said border controls had been temporarily increased “to prevent people from conflict zones who could carry out activities that are a real threat to internal and foreign security.” It did not elaborate on the possible threats.

    Digi24 television station reported the increased controls began late Thursday and it was taking drivers more than three hours to cross the border crossing at Nadlac into Hungary. Lines stretched for seven kilometers (4 1/2 miles).

    Romania is not on the path that hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers have been taking through the Balkans to get to Western Europe….”

  4. Suicide Blast, Bombings Strike Baghdad, Killing 15 (abcnews, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suicide-blast-bombing-strike-baghdad-shiite-mosque-kill-35320193

    “Bomb attacks on a Shiite mosque and elsewhere in southern Baghdad killed at least 15 people Friday as a top religious official urged unity among Iraqis in the fight against the Islamic State group.

    The deadliest of the attacks targeted the mosque in the Iraqi capital’s Nahiyet al-Rasheed neighborhood. A roadside bomb blast went off on the street outside the mosque just as worshippers were finishing Friday prayers, police said. Within minutes, a suicide bomber inside the mosque detonated an explosives vest. Ten people were killed and 28 were wounded in that coordinated attack, according to police.

    Two separate roadside bombs exploded in commercial areas of southeast Baghdad, killing five people and wounding nine, security officials said.

    Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. Like the police, they spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but near daily attacks in Baghdad are often claimed by the Islamic State group….”

  5. Turkey Protests Russia Over Attacks on Syrian Turkmen Areas (abcnews, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-protests-russia-attacks-syrian-turkmen-areas-35322068

    “Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says it has summoned the Russian ambassador demanding that Russia cease operations in Syria targeting Turkmen villages.

    Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said in a statement Friday that Turkey had received reports of heavy bombardment of Turkmen villages in the Bayirbucak region, in northwest Syria.

    A ministry statement said Ambassador Andrey Karlov was told that the “Russian actions do not constitute to a fight against terrorism but amount to the bombing of civilian Turkmen villages.”

    The statement said that Turkey warned Russia that the operations could lead to “serious problems.”

    Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting local Turkmen sources, said some 20 people were killed in the bombings.”

  6. Donald Trump’s Plan for a Muslim Database Draws Comparison to Nazi Germany (nbcnews, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-he-would-certainly-implement-muslim-database-n466716

    “NEWTON, Iowa — Donald Trump “would certainly implement” a database system tracking Muslims in the United States, the Republican front-runner told NBC News on Thursday night.

    “I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump said in Newton, Iowa, in between campaign town halls.

    “There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases,” he added. “We should have a lot of systems.”

    When asked whether Muslims would be legally obligated to sign into the database, Trump responded, “They have to be — they have to be.”

    On Friday morning, Trump rival Jeb Bush called the comments “just wrong.”

    “You talk about internment, you talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people. That’s just wrong. I don’t care about campaigns,” he said on CNBC. “It’s not a question of toughness. It’s to manipulate people’s angst and their fears. That’s not strength, that’s weakness.”

    Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, sounded incredulous when he was asked about Trump’s comments, telling NBC News: “We’re kind of at a loss for words.”

    “What else can you compare this to except to prewar Nazi Germany?” Hooper asked. “There’s no other comparison, and [Trump] seems to think that’s perfectly OK.”

    Rabbi Jack Moline, executive director of the nonprofit Interfaith Alliance, drew the same comparison Thursday night.

    “My father was in World War II, and he fought to preserve America against what the Nazis were doing,” Moline told NBC News.

    “This is exactly why there is an America, to not be like that,” he said.

    Trump was repeatedly asked to explain how his idea was different. Four times, he responded: “You tell me.”

    He also ignored a question of whether there would be consequences for Muslims who do not register into the hypothetical database.

    Asked where they would be registered, the real estate mogul said Muslims would be signed up at “different places.”

    “I’t’s all about management,” he said. “Our country has no management.”

    Trump tied his reasoning for the database to the need to identify who is in the country legally….”

  7. Mentally disabled six-year-old Syrian migrant is found abandoned in a Turkish coal bunker after his family tied up his legs and left him to die (dailymail, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://dailym.ai/1OVkNjR

    “A six-year-old disabled Syrian boy has been found abandoned in Turkey after someone tied up his limbs and threw him in a coal bunker.

    Cuma Ibrahim is believed to have been separated from his mother while fleeing Syria and may have been left to die by members of his own family.

    He was found starving and suffering from hypothermia in a coalfield bunker in the Yakutiye district of the city of Erzurum, eastern Turkey.

    Turkish authorities have managed to establish that Cuma’s father has died in Syria and that his mother is missing, possibly somewhere in Europe.

    They have made contact with the boy’s grandmother, but she has reportedly refused to have anything to do with him…”

  8. Obama places $5 million bounty on head of key ISIS terrorist in charge of drafting recruits from the US and Europe (dailymail, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://dailym.ai/1kKJB1o

    “A multi-million dollar bounty has been placed on the head of a key Islamic State terrorist in charge of mobilizing foreign fighters in Syria.

    Barack Obama’s administration announced last night that it was offering a reward of up to $5m (£3.3m) for information leading to the location or identification of Tirad al-Jarba, better known as Abu-Muhammad al-Shimali.

    The senior leader of the terrorist group Islamic State heads the moving of foreign fighters into Syria and processing the group’s new recruits there.

    The US State Department said Abu-Muhammad al-Shimali had been associated with the extremist group now known as the Islamic State since 2005, when it was an Al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq.

    It said he was now a leader of its immigration and logistics committee, responsible for moving foreign terrorist fighters — primarily through Gaziantep, Turkey — to Jarabulus, Syria, a border town the group controls.

    The bounty note states: ‘Shimali and the Isis immigration and logistics committee coordinate smuggling activities, financial transfers, and the movement of supplies into Syria and Iraq from Europe, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

    ‘In 2014, Shimali facilitated the travel from Turkey to Syria of prospective Isis fighters from Australia, Europe and the Middle East, and managed Isis’s processing centre for new recruits in Azaz, Syria.’…”

    • So.. They knew about this particular lunar lunatic at least for about 10 years… Who knows… Maybe he was even on their payroll at some point in the past. And now as he outlived his usefulness, the time to say good bye has eventually come.

  9. Tighter border controls needed – Alfano (ansa, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2015/11/20/tighter-border-controls-needed-alfano_1d1e0546-2177-45a5-ae3b-c875ef733172.html

    “ANSA) – Brussels, November 20 – The tightening of EU border controls approved by interior ministers Friday is “a heavy and grave toughening of controls, made necessary by the moment,” Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said. “All EU citizens will be controlled more effectively on their way in and out of external borders,” he said. “That doesn’t mean only showing documents but also police checks on names and criminal records on all interconnected data banks. There will be extra controls on intra-EU flights too”.”

  10. 52% Italians don’t feel safe agst terror – poll (ansa, Nov 20, 2015)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/11/20/52-italians-dont-feel-safe-agst-terror-poll_8583de84-80ee-4caf-a5f0-ce9ccf662c0c.html

    “(ANSA) – Rome, November 20 – Some 52% of Italians don’t feel safe from terror attacks while 47% are not afraid according to an Ixé poll for RaiTre, State TV’s third channel, released on Friday.

    More than eight out of 10 Italians would gladly give up some of their individual freedom for greater security, the poll showed.

    Some 25% are in favour of closing borders, 18% would like to be more closely controlled and 16% would like to see special laws introduced – while 25% are for all these measures together.

    Some 14% said personal freedom is sacred and cannot be sacrificed in the name of security.

    Another poll found 56% were not afraid of Islam and 51% saying a moderate Islam existed.
    A third poll found 50% of Italians against war against terror.”

  11. USA: “Destroying ISIS must be done primarily by Muslim nations” – Sanders

    Sanders blasted countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE for not doing enough to fight against IS

  12. U.S. Pilots Confirm: Obama Admin Blocks 75 Percent of Islamic State Strikes

    ‘We can’t get clearance even when we have a clear target in front of us’

    U.S. military pilots who have returned from the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq are confirming that they were blocked from dropping 75 percent of their ordnance on terror targets because they could not get clearance to launch a strike, according to a leading member of Congress.

    Strikes against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) targets are often blocked due to an Obama administration policy to prevent civilian deaths and collateral damage, according to Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

    The policy is being blamed for allowing Islamic State militants to gain strength across Iraq and continue waging terrorist strikes throughout the region and beyond, according to Royce and former military leaders who spoke Wednesday about flaws in the U.S. campaign to combat the Islamic State.

    “You went 12 full months while ISIS was on the march without the U.S. using that air power and now as the pilots come back to talk to us they say three-quarters of our ordnance we can’t drop, we can’t get clearance even when we have a clear target in front of us,” Royce said. “I don’t understand this strategy at all because this is what has allowed ISIS the advantage and ability to recruit.”

    When asked to address Royce’s statement, a Pentagon official defended the Obama administration’s policy and said that the military is furiously working to prevent civilian casualties.

    “The bottom line is that we will not stoop to the level of our enemy and put civilians more in harm’s way than absolutely necessary,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon, explaining that the military often conducts flights “and don’t strike anything.”

    “The fact that aircraft go on missions and don’t strike anything is not out of the norm,” the official said. “Despite U.S. strikes being the most precise in the history of warfare, conducting strike operations in the heavily populated areas where ISIL hides certainly presents challenges. We are fighting an enemy who goes out of their way to put civilians at risk. However, our pilots understand the need for the tactical patience in this environment. This fight against ISIL is not the kind of fight from previous decades.”

    Jack Keane, a retired four-star U.S. general, agreed with Royce’s assessment of the administration’s policy and blamed President Barack Obama for issuing orders that severely constrain the U.S. military from combatting terror forces.

    “This has been an absurdity from the beginning,” Keane said in response to questions from Royce. “The president personally made a statement that has driven air power from the inception.”[…]

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/us-pilots-confirm-obama-admin-blocks-75-percent-of-isis-strikes/

  13. Turkey summons Russia envoy over Syria border bombing

    Turkey summoned the Russian ambassador after Moscow’s war planes bombed Syrian territory “very close” to the Turkish border, the foreign ministry said Friday, adding to tensions as the two sides seek to narrow their differences over the Syria conflict.

    Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was called in to hear Turkey’s concern over Russia’s bombing of “civilian Turkmen villages… very close to the border” with Turkey, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

    Turkey has asked Russia to “immediately end its operation,” it added.

    Ankara warned that bombing villages populated by the Turkmen minority in Syria could lead to “serious consequences,” the ministry added.

    Turkey also conveyed its “warning and demand” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov.

    Turkish authorities have already summoned the Russian ambassador several times since September 30, when Russia started its hugely controversial air campaign in Syria.

    Turkey protested that Russian aircraft violated Turkish air space and also warned Moscow against supplying arms and support for Syrian Kurdish forces fighting ISIS group in Syria.

    The latest tensions come as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to visit Turkey on Wednesday, with the over four-year conflict that has torn Syria apart and left over a quarter of a million dead at the top of the agenda.

    With momentum growing in long-stalled efforts to find a peace deal for Syria after the Paris attacks, the two sides will be seeking to narrow their differences on the conflict.

    Ankara supports rebels opposing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad but Moscow has refused to abandon the Syrian leader. The Russian air campaign is widely seen as buttressing his regime.

    Russia insists its air campaign is focused against ISIS but Turkey and its allies fear the Russian bombing is mainly hitting anti-Assad rebels.

    Turkey sees the Turkmen minority in Syria as a natural ally in its struggle against Assad. Reports in recent days have suggested Ankara wants Turkmen forces to fight against ISIS militants on the ground as a branch of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

    This would support a planned joint Turkey-US air campaign to clear ISIS from a swathe of the Turkey-Syria border, the reports added.

    “The joint operation with the US on the Syria border won’t be from the ground but from the air,” Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.

    The operation would take place west of the Euphrates river between the towns of Jarablus and Azaz, he added. No details on the timing have been disclosed.

    Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday told Moscow that “if civilians fleeing massacre and cluster bombs head to Turkey, and a new refugee influx emerges, everyone concerned will be held accountable.”

    Turkey is already hosting 2.2 million refugees from the Syria conflict.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Putin on the margins of the G20 summit in the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya on Sunday and Monday.

    Turkey argues that Assad, who Erdogan says has “massacred his own people”, has no place in the future of Syria and cannot run as a candidate in future elections.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/170229/World/Region/Turkey-summons-Russia-envoy-over-Syria-border-bomb.aspx

  14. All 22 US military and civilian personnel accounted for in Mali hotel attack and no injuries reported, Pentagon says – @Reuters

    Mali: At least 27 killed in Bamako hotel attack as hostage situation ends

  15. Iraq: Ten killed, 28 injured in bomb blasts targeting Baghdad mosque

    At least 10 people were killed and 28 injured after militants carried out a coordinated attack against a Shiite mosque in southern Baghdad, Friday, detonating a suicide bomb and roadside bomb within 10 minutes of each other.

  16. Turkey seizes 11 million pills of ‘Syria war drug’: reports

    The Turkish authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria’s civil war, according to media reports.

  17. Italy arrests Syrians with false passports: report

    Italian police have arrested two Syrians trying to travel to Malta on false passports who had Isis-related images on their phones, local media reported on Thursday.

    The two men, aged 19 and 30, were apprehended at Bergamo airport near Milan late on Wednesday after presenting Austrian and Norwegian passports but answering only to Arabic, the Eco di Bergamo daily said.

    They had been trying to board a flight to Malta. Security officials who searched their mobile phones found photographs related to the jihadist Isis group, it said.

    The 30-year-old was also captured posing with a submachine gun, though he insisted it was a photograph of his cousin.

    The younger man reportedly said he kept the images on his telephone in memory of his dead brother.

    Italian security services have been on high alert following coordinated gun and suicide attacks in Paris last Friday claimed by Isis, and warnings from the FBI over possible jihadist attacks at Italy’s historical sites.

    http://www.thelocal.it/20151120/italy-arrests-syrians-with-false-passports-report

    • Two Syrians with fake passports arrested

      Aged 18 and 19

      Rome, November 20 – Police on Friday arrested two Syrian nationals who were trying to leave for Malta from Rome’s Ciampino airport with fake passports. The arrests are linked to the recent arrests of two other Syrian nationals also bearing false passports at Bergamo’s Orio al Serio international airport, sources said.
      The two suspects aged 18 and 19 had fake passports from Norway and France. One of the two has requested asylum in Austria.
      Police are hunting illegal networks helping foreigners transit through Italy by providing them with fake papers and airline tickets in exchange for money or committing crimes for racketeering organizations.
      Security protocols have been ramped up at all Italian airports following last Friday’s bloody Islamic terrorist attacks that left 130 dead. The protocols include extraordinary measures for screening passengers, including those coming from the passport-free Schengen Area.

      http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2015/11/20/two-syrians-with-fake-passports-arrested_e75aaeec-e31a-4e09-9b01-5c1ffc7bb03a.html

  18. The head of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, currently leading opinion polls, called Friday for European Islamic extremists to be incarcerated in Guantanamo-style island prisons

    http://www.thelocal.at/20151120/right-wing-politician-wants-austrian-guantanamo

    A 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death at a refugee reception centre in Western Norway on Thursday night, in one of the worst examples of refugee violence yet seen in the country.

    ”The detained man has been living at the centre for about a year, while the victim hasn’t been here that long,” Jarl Aspen, from the local police, said on Thursday night.

    http://www.thelocal.no/20151120/girl-stabbed-to-death-at-norway-refugee-centre

  19. RT -US sticks to anti-Assad strategy in Syria, won’t share intel with Russia

    President Barack Obama remains committed to America’s ISIS strategy – and says it will eventually work. As part of that strategy, Washington has been refusing to cooperate with President Assad in fighting Islamic State. But the groups who are joining forces to oppose Assad’s regime are partly responsible for the rise of ISIS.

  20. Two cops stabbed in Norway, man arrested

    Norwegian police said Friday they had arrested a man suspected of stabbing two police officers and seriously wounding them in the small southern town of Vennesla.

    The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

    Hospitalised in the neighbouring town of Kristiansand, the two victims are “in serious condition but their lives are not in danger,” a local police spokesman told TV2 television.

    The attack took place in the Vennesla town centre, where police arrested the suspect after launching a massive search.

    “We have no information” on his motive, the police spokesman said.

    Police said the two victims were plainclothes officers but were wearing symbols denoting them as policemen.

    This type of violence is extremely rare in the normally tranquil country that has low crime rates.

    Norwegian police do not normally carry service weapons, but they have been temporarily authorised to do so for the past year because of the heightened risk of a terrorist attack.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/170246/World/International/Two-cops-stabbed-in-Norway,-man-arrested-Police.aspx

  21. France: Defiant Parisians sing and dance one week after deadly attacks

    Some 300 Parisians gathered to dance and sing next to Place de la Republique on Friday, one week after a series of deadly attacks swept the city.

  22. Terror alert raised to maximum in Brussels

    http://centredecrise.be/fr/news/gestion-de-crise/suites-des-attentats-paris-menace-imminente-en-region-bruxelloise
    =================================================

    Brussels (AFP) – Belgium raised its terror alert to the highest level in the capital Brussels on Saturday, with the OCAM national crisis centre warning of an “imminent threat” a week after the Paris attacks.

    “Following our latest evaluation… the centre has raised its terror alert to level 4, signifying a very serious threat, for the Brussels region,” it said, as Europe tightens security after Islamic State militants killed 130 people in the French capital.

    “The analysis shows a serious and imminent threat requiring specific security measures as well as detailed recommendations to the population,” said OCAM, which is part of the Belgian interior ministry, in a statement.

    The centre urged citizens to avoid crowded areas such as concerts and transport hubs in Belgium’s capital, which is also home to the European Union and NATO headquarters.

    The officials declined to add further details until later on Saturday “in order to allow ongoing judicial investigations to follow their course,” the statement said.

    Belgian investigators a few hours earlier charged a third unnamed suspect, arrested the day before, with involvement in terrorism over the Paris attacks.

    This was in addition to Hamza Attou and Mohammed Amri, who were charged earlier this week with aiding fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam on the night of the attacks.

    Brussels resident Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up at a Paris bar, is believed to be in Belgium and is the subject of a huge manhunt.

    The fugitive is closely linked with the alleged Paris attack ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in police raid on Wednesday.

    Both grew up in the poor Molenbeek district of Brussels, described as an extremist hotbed, before going to join the Islamic State group in Syria.

    http://news.yahoo.com/belgium-raises-terror-alert-highest-level-brussels-statement-003243199.html

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