Reader’s links for Nov. 28 – 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

31 Replies to “Reader’s links for Nov. 28 – 2015”

  1. Migrant blunder splitting Germany in two: Weeks ago, Merkel threw open Germany’s doors. Today, amid fears it’s importing anti-Semitism, many worry their way of life is under threat

    Leaked document by German intelligence chiefs: “We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples, as well as a different understanding of society and law. ”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3337002/Migrant-blunder-splitting-Germany-two-Weeks-ago-Merkel-threw-open-Germany-s-doors-Today-amid-fears-s-importing-anti-Semitism-worry-way-life-threat.html

    • Germany: Refugees protest poor living conditions at Lutzow camp

      Some 40 refugees braved the pouring rain and plummeting temperatures to stage a protest in Schwanewede, Lower Saxony, to demand better conditions for migrants and more options for integration, Friday night.


  2. Turkish police fire water cannon, tear gas at Istanbul march

    Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse around 2,000 people marching in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday after a prominent Kurdish lawyer was shot dead in southeast Turkey, a Reuters witness said.

    http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/28/turkey-kurds-protests-idINKBN0TH0GB20151128

    Turkey: Senior Kurdish lawyer killed in Diyarbakir shoot-out

    Top Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci was shot dead after unidentified assailants opened fire on a press conference he and other Kurdish rights activists were giving in the Sur district of Diyarbakir province, Saturday. Police reportedly exchanged fire with the shooters, leading to the death of a police officer.

    • Migrant crisis: Clashes as Macedonia erects fence (BBC, Nov 28, 2015)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34954127

      “Macedonian soldiers are raising a fence on the country’s southern border with Greece to try to manage the flow of migrants better.

      The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says 105,000 migrants have passed through Macedonia after arriving in Greece this month.

      But many people are now stuck trying to enter Macedonia after Balkan countries imposed tougher entry conditions.

      Clashes have occurred in recent days, with more violence on Saturday.

      The BBC’s Balkans correspondent Guy De Launey said the new fence, which does not cover the entire Greek border, is a way for Macedonia to direct migrants towards official crossings.

      More than 720,000 migrants – mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – have arrived in Greece so far this year, according to the IOM…”

  3. IS blamed for mass Yazidi grave found near Sinjar, Iraq (BBC, Nov 28, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34954233

    “A booby-trapped mass grave containing the bodies of at least 110 people from the minority Yazidi sect has been found in northern Iraq, officials say.

    The grave was found close to the town of Sinjar after it was recaptured from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group earlier in November.

    IS captured Sinjar in August 2014, with reports of massacres and enslavement and rape of Yazidi women and girls.

    This is said to be the sixth mass grave found in or near the town.

    The grave is located some 10km (six miles) west of Sinjar, in Nineveh province, senior official Mahma Khalil told AFP news agency.

    It was surrounded by bombs and has not yet been excavated. The estimate of the number of bodies inside comes from witnesses to the victims’ executions…”

  4. Mali attack: Rocket kills three at UN base at Kidal (BBC, Nov 28, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34952987

    “Three people have been killed in a rocket attack on a UN peacekeepers’ base in northern Mali, the UN says.

    Two UN peacekeepers from Guinea and a civilian contractor were killed in the attack in Kidal, officials said.

    Eight days ago, gunmen attacked a hotel in the capital, Bamako, taking scores hostage. Twenty-two people were killed.

    The peacekeeping mission in Mali was approved in 2014 after France led a military campaign to drive out Islamist militants from the north.

    The Minusma force comprises some 10,000 soldiers from dozens of different contributor countries – the majority from Mali’s west African neighbours…”

  5. Morocco arrests Turks suspected of ISIS links

    Moroccan police have arrested three people on suspicion of hacking telecommunications equipment, including two Turkish nationals who are suspected of having ties to Islamic State militant group (ISIS), the Interior Ministry said.

    Authorities say they have uncovered a series of Islamist militant cells in recent months, including three since the Paris attacks on Nov. 13. The statement said this latest group had been active in the eastern city of Oujda.

    “The two Turkish nationals were involved in hacking telephone communications of a Moroccan operator, using developed technical equipment,” it said late on Friday.

    “The investigation showed that the two Turkish are supporters of the Islamic State organisation … and one of them had stayed in a camp in Hama’s province (Syria) where he was trained in handling weapons and took part in battles against the Syrian army,” the statement added.

    Moroccan authorities said the two Turks have had contacts with ISIS operational leaders as they were seeking logistical support. The statement said the Moroccan was also suspected of hacking but gave no further details about him.

    The Turkish men are the latest foreigners, including Europeans, that Morocco has arrested on terrorism charges.

    Around 1,500 Moroccan nationals are fighting with armed groups in Syria and Iraq, 220 have returned home and been jailed and 286 have been killed, authorities said earlier this year.

    Moroccan security officials provided information that helped French police in a raid in the Paris suburb of St. Denis last week, sources say. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected Islamic State group mastermind of the Paris attacks, was killed in the raid.

    Morocco, a Western ally against Islamist militancy, has also suffered bomb attacks by suspected Islamist fighters, most recently in 2011 in Marrakesh.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/171983/World/Region/Morocco-arrests-Turks-suspected-of-ISIS-links.aspx

  6. FINLAND PM Sipilä calls crisis meeting over Kempele rape case

    Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has called a crisis meeting with the Interior and Justice ministers over a suspected rape in his home town of Kempele, near Oulu. MTV reports that the two suspects are asylum seekers from Afghanistan.

    Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has called a crisis meeting to discuss a rape case in his home town of Kempele, just south of Oulu, in which a 14-year-old girl was attacked. The two suspects in police custody are both foreign and aged under 18, with MTV reporting that they are asylum seekers from Afghanistan, aged 15 and 17.

    Two bystanders intervened during the attack, which took place around 10:30 pm on Monday, before police dogs traced the suspected attackers’ tracks to a residential building where the two men were found. They have not yet been interviewed as there is a shortage of interpreters.

    Speaking on Tuesday in Parliament, Sipilä said that he is to meet the Interior Minister Petteri Orpo and the Justice Minister Jari Lindström to consider whether Finnish law should be changed in light of the attack.

    “This is serious, disgusting and reprehensible act, if the information in the public domain is true,” said Sipilä, who added that he wanted to see if asylum seekers should be automatically deported if found guilty of serious offences.

    In September Sipilä had offered his Kempele home to house asylum seekers.

    http://yle.fi/uutiset/pm_sipila_calls_crisis_meeting_over_kempele_rape_case/8478859

  7. US anti-tank TOW missile used in attack on RT journalists in Syria (RT, video, Nov 28, 2015)
    https://www.rt.com/news/323810-us-missile-journalists-attack-syria/

    “A US-made anti-tank missile system was used in an attack on an RT crew in Syria, a mounting body of evidence suggests. Journalists recognized the area, while experts confirmed that a booster found by the Syrian army matches the TOW seen in a rebel video.
    A baldly titled video – ‘Jihadists Launch TOW at Journalists’ – was recently posted online and clearly shows a group of Syrian rebels firing a US-made anti-tank missile launcher. Upon reviewing the video, RT’s Roman Kosarev, who was among the group of Russian journalists which miraculously survived an attack from a similar weapon earlier this week, recognized the area and the chain of events which subsequently unfolded.

    “The landscape is very very reminiscent of the one when we came under fire from militants just a few days ago, on November 23,” Kosarev said. “And actually you can see people running for cover at a distance and I’m pretty sure it must have been us. And that person running in the back must be me.”

    There is no doubt that rebels in the video had been firing a US-made BGM-71 TOW, not so-covertly supplied by Washington to the so-called moderate Syrian opposition, Kosarev insisted, with security and arms experts corroborating his statements…..”

    • They spew Russian propaganda.
      The guy is saying that “supporting ISIS lies in the interest of Turkey and USA, all the players who are trying to hinder Russian intervention in Syria”.
      *******
      In fact Russian propaganda is getting better because partially because clueless Obama policy supports their claims, partially because Erdogan’s policy in Syria. So they mix truth with lies and people do believe them. And the anti-USA feeling is getting stronger in Europe because people blame USA (and so does the Russian propaganda) for the flood of migrants to Europe.

      • I have been left with no conclusion other than that the USA is a major factor in the spread of Islam. Hubris +historic ignorance+a half century of the ruling class being bought by Muslim oil wealth. Islam has had Americas number for a long time.

  8. Syrian refugee plan ‘can be done,’ says Canadian ambassador in Lebanon

    Three months, three countries, 25,000 Syrian refugees: The ambitious numbers underlying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resettlement plan for refugees do not strike Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon Michelle Cameron as unattainable.

    On the contrary, “with the teams we have in place and the scalability of the operation, I am confident it can be done,” Ms. Cameron said, during a sit-down interview with The Globe and Mail at the Canadian embassy in Beirut.

    The details of the plan have come under close scrutiny since they were announced Tuesday, with the criteria adopted to filter Syrian refugees – in particular reports that single men were being excluded over security concerns – coming under fire.

    But Ms. Cameron dismissed these reports as misunderstandings. Single men “are not automatically excluded,” she said, but the aim to resettle the most vulnerable refugees often weeds them out. “You can imagine that when you have a certain number of places … if you are looking to take the most vulnerable refugees, they wouldn’t necessarily bubble up to the top.”

    She acknowledged that Canada’s criteria for resettlement has changed slightly since the plan was announced to reflect the desperate circumstances of Syrian refugees. “The conversation has changed,” she said. “Now, this is a humanitarian operation.”

    While previously the criteria assessed how successfully a refugee could integrate in Canada, those considerations have been relaxed somewhat. “Language requirement was a measure of that, but now we are saying, we can have language classes.”

    The process itself enlists the support of other organizations. Once the UHNCR recommends cases from the field, the Canadian embassy in Beirut carries out health and security checks as well as an interview to assess vulnerability relative to other refugees. The Danish Refugee Council will likely support refugees in completing paperwork and the International Organization for Migration will assist in transporting them to the airport when it’s time to leave. But before this process can even begin, refugees themselves have to agree to be resettled. It is not uncommon for Syrian refugees, many of whom still carry the hope of returning home, to choose to stay.

    This, among other vagaries in the selection process, is part of the reason why Ms. Cameron is tentative about specifying how many refugees will come from host countries Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. “It’s a bit of a moving target, but for me that’s the ideal scenario, that’s not negative, we’re flexible.”

    Being held accountable for meeting a fixed refugee quota would not take into account the variations in needs and desires among Syrian refugees in each country, she added.

    “What we’ve really pushed for from each of the three countries was not to put us into a box, in the sense that as the process is happening there’s going to be different logistical challenges, and one can imagine, in each country there’s going to be different needs and vulnerabilities,” she said.

    Picking 10,000 refugees before Dec. 31 is not the issue for the Canadian embassy in Beirut; the mission has been processing refugee files for years with several thousand waiting in the inventory and more on the way from the UN refugee agency. “It’s not about us picking a date and saying let’s hurry up and get there. That’s not the limiting factor.”

    It’s the process itself – finding the most vulnerable refugees, ensuring they actually want to leave, going through myriads of checks, and dealing with the paperwork from each host country to grant the exit visas – that takes time.

    To meet the respective December and February deadlines, Ms. Cameron said, the embassy has brought in approximately 120 additional staff. “It seems like accelerated processing when you’re looking at the numbers and timelines to get there, but the process is the same,” she said. “We’re still doing interviews, we are still doing health checks, we’re still taking the time to do security screenings.”

    She said the security checks are “robust,” but would not provide details. “We work with our law-enforcement partners and our intelligence partners in the government of Canada and their networks around the world,” she explained. “This isn’t the first time we’re doing this. We have a well-oiled logistical machine.”

    Chartered flights have not yet been arranged to transport refugees to Canada. Until now, the embassy has found booking refugees onto commercial carriers to be more cost-effective. “I don’t necessarily have 300 who are waiting to get on a plane … so when it becomes more efficient… I am sure we will.”

    With the holiday season approaching, she predicts chartered flights might become necessary by mid-December. “But that can be pushed up if all the logistics line up nicely.”

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/syrian-refugee-plan-can-be-done-says-canadian-ambassador-in-lebanon/article27519263/

    =============================================================
    CBC IN LEBANON First Syrian refugees could arrive ‘in next few weeks,’ says Canadian ambassador

    Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan expected to send bulk of Syria’s refugees to Canada

    Canada is ramping up its efforts on the ground in the Middle East to process and screen Syrian refugees for resettlement.

    Canadian military personnel are operating in Lebanon and more visa officers are arriving to assist in the effort.

    But many of the key details of the Canadian government’s effort to resettle 25,000 Syrians remain vague — including when the first chartered planes will depart from the region loaded with refugees.

    Michelle Cameron, Canada’s ambassador to Lebanon, told CBC News that officials have been processing refugee claims “for a while now,” and that the first group of those accepted into Canada will depart by commercial flights.

    “When that balance tips, when we’re accepting refugees at a rate that makes it more efficient to take a contracted [non-commercial] plane… then we’ll tip into that,” Cameron said in an interview at the Canadian embassy in Beirut.

    “I would expect [the first charter planes to depart] in the next few weeks.”

    It seems likely that once charter aircraft begin to operate, the flights will depart from one central location, possibly an airport in Jordan. Refugees from Lebanon and Turkey would be flown there first before making the journey to Montreal or Toronto.

    “There might be a scenario where we need to bring them into one centre to more efficiently make sure they’re going to either Toronto or Montreal, that we have full planes,” Cameron said.

    UNHCR combing through databases

    There are approximately four million Syrian refugees living in the three countries from which Canada will select candidates for resettlement: Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

    There is no application process for Syrians who are interested in moving to Canada. Instead, the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, is combing through its vast database of registered refugees and selecting the most vulnerable for resettlement.

    In Turkey, it’s believed THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT WILL UNDERTAKE THAT TASK. .

    Once the names of candidates are handed over to Canadian officials, visa officers conduct interviews and security checks are carried out.

    “We would be looking to make sure they’re not on terrorist watch lists, that they’re not known members of groups that commit human rights abuses or… members of the [Bashar al-]Assad regime that have committed atrocities against civilians,” Cameron said, referring to the current Syrian government.

    Cameron said she understands that Canadians have questions and concerns relating to the security of the new arrivals, but said her experience in the region as ambassador for the last eight months has reassured her.

    “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO SECURITY CONCERNS if I was in a [Canadian] community receiving Syrian refugees.”

    To assist with the increased demands of screening and processing, an additional 50 Canadian visa officers have arrived in Lebanon. Because of space limitations, they’re operating from a location outside of the embassy.

    Another 50 consular staff members are expected to arrive as the effort swings into high gear.

    Cameron said she’s visited a number of the makeshift settlements in Lebanon where Syrian refugees live in plywood shacks winterized with plastic sheeting. She notes that about 70 per cent of the Syrians living here are doing so under the poverty line.

    Most, if they could, would prefer to return to their homes in Syria if and when the war ended. But the ambassador said the current effort to relocate Syrians to countries further afield reflects the dire state of the long-running conflict.

    “Their hope is going. When they first arrived, many of the Syrian people who were here thought, ‘Oh, maybe just another few months and I’ll get to go home.’ So that really has had a toll on their thinking and their ability to cope with this kind of situation.”

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/syrian-refugees-beirut-canada-stoffel-1.3340357

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  9. REUTERS – Syria army says Turkey increases arms shipments to rebels

    The Syrian army said on Saturday that Turkey had recently increased supplies of weapons, ammunition and equipment to what it described as terrorists in Syria.

    A statement issued by the Syrian army command alleged that weapons were being delivered in shipments which Turkey claimed to be humanitarian assistance.

    The Syrian government describes all the rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists.

    The statement also said Turkey had fired a number of mortar bombs towards Syrian army positions on Friday night.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/28/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-idUSKBN0TH0KU20151128

  10. UK – Tyre slashing was criminal damage but not antisemitic attack, jury decides

    Jewish leaders in London’s Stamford Hill welcome conviction but feel damage to more than 40 vehicles was religiously targeted

    Leaders of one of the UK’s largest Jewish communities have welcomed the conviction of a man over a wave of criminal damage incidents involving cars in north-east London last year.

    Huseiyn Seyfi, 27, was jailed for five months and ordered to pay more than £5,000 in compensation after slashing the tyres of dozens of cars in the Stamford Hill area.

    However, a jury at Snaresbrook crown court found him not guilty of a charge of “committing racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage”.

    Police were called to Darenth Road on 15 November last year following reports of two men slashing tyres. The men fled the scene in a car, which was traced to Seyfi’s home in Ilford, east London. He was arrested on suspicion of racially/religiously aggravated criminal damage and subsequently charged.[…]

    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/27/tyre-slashing-criminal-damage-antisemitic-attack-jury

  11. Gevgelija, 28 November, 2015 (META)

    In today’s clash between migrants and members of the security forces on the border with Greece, 18 police officers were injured, two of whom had severe head injuries and a several police and army vehicles were demolished, announced this afternoon the Ministry of Interior.
    The incident occurred around 13.30 the border at quota 59, where members of the Macedonian Army started raising the wired fence this morning.
    The Ministry of Interior says that the situation is stable and has been normalized.

    http://meta.mk/en/moi-18-police-officers-were-injured-during-clashes-with-migrants-on-the-border-with-greece/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

  12. MACEDONIA – GREECE border – 18 officers injured in migrants clash

    Macedonia’s interior ministry says 18 police officers were injured in a clash with a group of stranded migrants on the country’s southern border with Greece.

    The ministry says two of the officers have been hospitalized in the border town of Gevgelija.

    The clashes erupted after a 32-year-old Moroccan migrant suffered severe burns when he touched a high-voltage cable on the Greek side of the border.

    The migrants, already angry about the fact that Macedonia has started to erect a fence on the border, started throwing stones at police officers who were cordoning off the official checkpoint. Some police vehicles were also damaged, the ministry says.

    http://news.yahoo.com/macedonians-reinforce-fence-alongside-greek-border-103316256.html

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

  13. Japan’s newest and largest mosque opens its doors

    The Ahmadi Muslim community in Japan hopes its new mosque will promote intercultural understanding and dialogue.

    Kamoshida/Newsmakers]

    Nagoya, Japan – The largest mosque in Japan opened its doors on November 20 near the central Japanese city of Nagoya, heralding a new chapter in the East Asian nation’s relationship with Islam.

    Islam has never made more than a marginal impact on Japan, although the history of Japanese relations with Muslims stretches back further than most people imagine, the Japanese included.

    The first mosque in Japan, the Kobe Muslim Mosque, opened in October 1935 and remains a centre for prayer more than 80 years later. Several dozen other mosques have since opened around the country, serving as community centres for a Muslim population numbering in the tens of thousands.

    The first Ahmadi Muslim missionary arrived in Japan in the same year – 1935 – but it is only now that this minority community has had the resources to build its own centre, the Bait ul-Ahad Mosque. They have done so on a grand scale, building the Japan’s biggest mosque with a capacity in its main chamber for 500 people to be at prayer.

    The opening ceremonies were attended by a range of guests, including a Japanese politician and local city officials, as well as leaders of the Ahmadi Muslim community from around the world. At the head of the guest list was Caliph Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the supreme leader of the 20 million-strong global Ahmadi community.

    “This is a milestone of our progress,” Caliph Ahmad told Al Jazeera. “If this mosque is preaching the message of love, peace, and harmony, naturally people will be attracted to it.”

    The main distinction between the minority Ahmadi Muslim community and the majority of Muslims is the former’s belief that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) was the foretold messiah and mahdi who brought his followers back to the spirit of the original Muslim community at the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

    Many in the majority Muslim community dispute Ahmadi views on the caliphate and on continuing revelation in the contemporary age and do not regard their teachings to be part of orthodox Islam.

    […]Ahmadis in Japan number fewer than 300 people, and are mostly Pakistanis

    more on the page :

    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/japan-newest-largest-mosque-opens-doors-151125132433610.html

  14. Austria: Hundreds of anti-refugee protesters march through Spielfeld

    Hundreds of people marched in the village of Spielfeld at the Austro-Slovenian border in protest against the EU migration policy and mass flow of refugees into country, Saturday.

  15. DAILY MAIL – Not so tough now! ISIS fighter cries like a baby after being captured by Kurdish forces

    ISIS fighter shown weeping and moaning after he was taken prisoner
    Peshmerga fighters can be seen looking on in amusement at their captive
    Prisoner is dressed in civilian clothing and possibly captured in Iraq

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3337295/Not-tough-ISIS-fighter-cries-like-baby-captured-Kurdish-forces.html

    DAILY MAIL – Bizarre new ISIS training video shows bloodthirsty Islamist killers kicking each other in the crotch and playing leapfrog

    Bizarre new footage from a jihadi terror training camp has emerged showing ISIS fighters playing playground games like leap frog and forming a human pyramid.

    The 14 minute video also shows one strange exercise where the training instructor kicks each recruit in the genitals and thighs to test their strength.

    The jihadi group claim the training camp was in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, where ISIS have been trying to develop splinter franchises.

    video on this page :

    https://ia801509.us.archive.org/4/items/WA3eddo1HD/W_A3eddo1_HD.mp4

  16. Clinton: Calling Immigrants ‘Illegal’ was ‘Poor Choice of Words’ (nbcnews, Nov 24, 2015)
    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/clinton-calling-immigrants-illegal-was-poor-choice-words-n468996

    “Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton admitted Tuesday that her recent use of the term “illegal immigrants” was “a poor choice of words,” and pledged to stop using the word “illegal” when referring to immigrants.

    “That was a poor choice of words. As I’ve said throughout this campaign, the people at the heart of this issue are children, parents, families, DREAMers. They have names, and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected,” Clinton said during a Facebook Q&A with Noticias Telemundo, an NBC-affiliated Spanish-language network.

    Clinton was heavily criticized for using the phrase at a recent campaign stop in Windham, New Hampshire, where she said, “I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in.”

    In response to a question from immigration rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas on Facebook, Clinton added, “I’ve talked about undocumented immigrants hundreds of times and fought for years for comprehensive immigration reform.”….”