Reader’s links for Feb. 28 – 2016

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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

62 Replies to “Reader’s links for Feb. 28 – 2016”

  1. MOST NEWS SITES OMIT the “M O H A M ME D” part of his name …

    I N D I A – Thane: [ Muslim ] Man kills self after butchering 14 members of family

    In a ghastly crime, a man allegedly murdered 14 members of his family, including seven children, and committed suicide early morning on Sunday in Thane, police said.

    All 15 members (including the accused) from the same family resided at Vadavli village on Kasarvadavli at Ghodbunder road in Thane.

    According to the police, the suspect Mohammed Hasnil Anwar Warekar 35, is a charatered accountant by profession. “The incident is believed to have occured after 1 am on Sunday, where the accused had first poisioned the food of the 14 family members and later slashed their respective throats with a sharp knife. The police who reached the spot after the incident, suspected Hasnil’s role in the case as they found him hanging in the flat with the sharp weapon in his hand,” said a senior police officer.

    “The bodies included Hasnil, his father Anwar Ismail Warekar 60, his mother, wife, three sisters including an unmarried one and one relative along with seven children,” added the officer.

    One lady member of the family, Subiha Bharmar 21, who survived the brutal assault, has suffered injurues and is currently undergoing treatment at the Titan Hospital. “Among the seven kids that were killed includes a 4-month-old child of Subiha and a 6-month-old child of Hasnil,” added the officer. The police are awaiting for Subiha to get well, so that her statement will reveal the fact behind the brutally killings.

    After the incident Parambir Singh, Commissioner of Police visited the spot and ascertain that the reason for the murders. “The registration procedure is currently underway at Kasarwadavli police station. They suspect it to be a family dispute over property, for which investigation is on,” added the officer.

    http://www.mid-day.com/articles/thane-man-kills-self-after-butchering-14-members-of-family/16995168

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

    Thane shocker: Man slits throats of 14 family members, before committing suicide

    Thane: In a shocking case of murder, a man slits throats 14 of his family members and then committed suicide in Kasarwadi area near Thane in Maharashtra, early morning on Sunday.

    “The man hung himself after killing 14 members of his family. The reason behind the killings is not known yet. There is only one survivor and we haven’t recorded her statement yet as she is in a state of shock,” Thane Joint Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dumre said.

    According to Primary investigation, Husnain Warerkar murdered 14 people including seven children, three sisters, his parents and another man from his family before he committed suicide.

    The police say that all members had come together for a family celebration and were later sedated by Warerkar and then killed with a big knife.

    One sister has survived the horror and is admitted in in a private hospital. The police hope that she will be able to throw light on the incident once she recovers.

    The accused was found hanging in his room with knife in hand.

    The bizarre factor here is that the murderer, according to his neighbours, was a cheerful and smart person who showed absolutely no signs of any psychological disorder.

    “It is a sad incident as the man was a very nice person. He was well qualified and worked in a good company. He was calm and composed. It is going to be really hard to figure out the real reason as to why this happened because none of the neighbours, or anyone for that matter was aware of any family dispute,” a neighbour said.

    The police are on the spot and a thorough investigation is underway.

    http://www.abplive.in/india-news/shocker-man-kills-14-family-members-commits-suicide-in-thane-297923

    video – Muslim crescent and koranic verses on top of the main door of the house :

  2. Jude Law’s minders attacked by Calais Jungle migrants during charity visit

    The 43-year-old actor was in Calais to see the migrant camp before it is demolished, but was left shocked as residents behaved ‘like football hooligans’

    A security team guarding Jude Law was attacked by migrants as the Hollywood star visited the jungle camp in Calais.

    The 43-year-old actor was in France with a film crew and Brit-winning singer Tom Odell , 25, to witness the horrors of the squalid makeshift village, which is due to be demolished.

    But shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, their minders were ambushed by some of the migrants and had their phones stolen.

    It is ­understood Jude was already on the production team’s bus when the thugs struck.

    A source said: “We were shocked to see some of the migrants acting like football hooligans.

    “The security team had stones thrown at them, and two had their phones smashed then stolen. Jude and Tom were told to stay in the bus shortly before the ambush as the atmosphere was building.”

    The Talented Mr Ripley star Jude was touring the camp , which he has branded “dangerous”, after calling on the Government to allow children living there entry to the UK if they have family here.

    He was among a group of celebrities which included Dad’s Army actor Toby Jones and comedian Shappi Khorsandi.

    They read out notes from famous historical figures to 200 immigrants fleeing war-torn countries in an event at the makeshift Good Chance Theatre, organised by Letters Live.

    Jude said afterwards: “It’s our ­responsibility as humans to look after our children.

    “The children in the camp at Calais need us. It isn’t a big ask. It is simply the right thing to do.”

    Tom, who sang alongside other ­musicians in the camp, described the experience as “one of the most humbling and inspiring of my life”.

    A number of migrants also performed at the event, which was held in support of aid organisation Help Refugees.

    The camp’s ­demolition by French ­authorities will form part of efforts to discourage refugees from trying to reach Britain on ferries or through the Channel Tunnel.

    Jude and the other stars travelled to the Jungle in the days before it was decided it would be dismantled, making hundreds of ­children homeless.

    More than 100 celebrities have signed an open letter urging David Cameron to step in and help the youngsters.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/jude-laws-minders-attacked-calais-7455214

  3. From Feb. 15, 2015
    Ex-Guantanamo detainee prominently featured in al Qaeda propaganda

    Ibrahim al Qosi, a senior AQAP leader and spokesman, delivered a two-part critique of the Saudi government earlier this month.

    Ex-Guantanamo detainee Ibrahim al Qosi has become a prominent fixture in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) propaganda since early December, when he first revealed that he is a senior leader in the group. Qosi most recently delivered a two-part critique of the Saudi monarchy, entitled “A Message to Our People in the Land of the Two Holy Mosques.”

    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/02/ex-guantanamo-detainee-prominently-featured-al-qaeda-propaganda.php

  4. I slept with a knife next to me’: Kibbutz dwellers fear hidden threat from below

    Since Israel left Gaza, the Israeli military has engaged in a cat and mouse tunnel war with Hamas, while residents near the border live in fear

    KIBBUTZ NIR AM, Israel – At the height of Israel’s war in Gaza in the summer of 2014, the residents of Kibbutz Nir Am woke to startling images on the news – 10 armed Hamas operatives, disguised in Israeli army uniforms, crawling on their stomachs in wheat fields only a kilometre and a half from their community’s border fence.

    The men who arrived into Israeli soil through tunnels were planning to attack Kibbutz Nir Am and the neighbouring Kibbutz Erez, the army reported. All were quickly killed by fire from the Israeli army.

    Since the war, the creeping fear of underground warfare has returned for the residents here, heightened by reports from the army who say the threat is viewed as a top priority and the recent collapse of at least four tunnels across the border in Gaza.

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ground-beneath-our-feet-tunnel-battle-under-israeli-kibbutz-201212233

  5. Leadership: Trying To Survive Moslem Allies

    There is a lot of popular support for Islamic terrorism among Sunni and Shia as it is common to believe that the non-Moslem world is actively at war with the Islam and Islamic terrorists are the only effective weapon to strike back with. This sounds absurd to non-Moslems, especially Westerners and Arab diplomats insist that there is no such terrorist support. But anyone perusing Arab language media immediately sees this support and some of it even shows up in English language versions of Arab media. That despite the fact that the Arab editors of the English language news outlets know that the Arab support for Islamic terrorism is not acceptable to Western audiences and try to remove it from the English language sites.

    The Iranians understand all this, as do other non-Moslems (like Indians) who have lived next to Moslems for a long time. So when the Yemeni Shia complain of Gulf Arab Sunni support for al Qaeda in Yemen it has a different meaning to other Moslems (who take it as fact) and Westerners (who dismiss it as a paranoid delusion).

    http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20160211.aspx

  6. Libya: Live Free And Die

    So far ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has been kept away from oil facilities and major cities by local militias. While ISIL currently controls only a few towns along the coast they are expanding wherever they find little resistance. Thus over 500 kilometers of the 1,800 kilometers long coast is now under ISIL control or threat. ISIL has about 6,000 fighters in those places.

    That force is growing because of local and foreign recruits. A large number of Libyans (several percent of some four million people left in the country) who still believe Islamic terrorism will fix all the problems in Libya and that ISIL is the best practitioner of this savage and ultimately futile strategy. Nearly all older Libyans realize ISIL is a dead (and deadly) end but many teenagers are still believers.

    These pro-ISIL teenagers are often found at the many mosques in the country run by radicalized clergy. In some areas the radical clergy have been arrested or killed and radical mosques turned into moderate ones or destroyed if conversion was difficult. Islam is still important for most Libyans but there is a growing intolerance of the more radical forms. So many of the most radical Libyans are flocking to Sirte and other places under ISIL control. In addition it appears that ISIL is directing many of its new recruits to Libya instead of Syria.

    http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/libya/articles/20160227.aspx

  7. ‘We are Muslims. … We speak out against terrorism’ (DW, Feb 27, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/we-are-muslims-we-speak-out-against-terrorism/a-19078638

    “The organization 12thMemoRise takes to the streets to protest extremism in the name of Islam. The group uses provocative performances to urge people, especially Muslims, to take a stand.

    DW: The German public broadcaster ARD commissioned a documentary about 12thMemoRise after you won a pitch competition this month. What will the film be about?

    Hassan Geuad: A filmmaker is going to accompany us. The idea is to answer why Muslims don’t speak up against terrorism and radicalization.

    Is the documentary going to show the provocative performances you are known for – such as staged executions and slave markets in pedestrian areas?

    The movie is going to show some raw material from our past events, as well, and how we prepare for it. And, of course, it will feature performances that are yet to come.

    Are there plans for new performances?

    We definitely want to do new performances out on the streets. We would like to do protests in Hanover or Berlin, because we haven’t done anything there yet. We want to criticize blindly following scholars or preachers. And we want to criticize peer pressure, of course. We might do something on that in the next few weeks.

    Your performances are provocative. Were there no incidents where passersby took action or called the police – say, when you ran around with a machete, dragging along people you pretended were slated for execution? Were you not running the risk that people thought this was real?

    Would you like to see extremists banned from mosques?

    Yes, and this needs to happen through the Islamic community. If the state does that, Salafists could use that for propaganda purposes and claim the state was fighting Islam.

    We are Muslims. We are not former Muslims or Islam critics. And that’s our advantage. We speak out against terrorism.

    Sure, there was that risk. All items and the protest itself were officially registered with the authorities. Legally speaking, we did nothing wrong. But some passersby were quite shocked.

    The police came after 10 minutes and told us they had received hundreds of calls claiming “IS” was in town. But the protest was necessary. It triggered discussions about how one should deal with Salafists on the streets who are dangerous.

    On-site, we did say some things that we cut out from our videos because we were afraid. We named names and places where dangers are real. We’ve received several death threats after this protest. We receive death threats once a week or every two weeks. I was attacked in Düsseldorf. For one of our protests, we’ve received messages stating that this protest would be our last. We’ve reported that to the police.

    How do you want to combat terrorism?

    We have groups in Germany that are suspected of terrorism. If you’ve already identified who’s dangerous in the Muslim community, the next step should be that we Muslims put pressure on umbrella organizations to strip them of support so that they no longer can speak in the name of Islam and mislead even more Muslims and non-Muslims.

    What does 12thMemoRise stand for?

    The number 12 is respected in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: the 12 tribes in Judaism, the 12 apostles in Christianity and the 12 prophets in Islam. The term MemoRise stands for remembering the similarities. We are up to 15 core members, but for protests such as the slave market we can mobilize up to 50 people.”

  8. ‘Daily Mail running migrant campaign against Sweden’ (thelocal, Feb 27, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.se/20160227/daily-mail-runs-campaign-against-sweden

    “The Swedish Embassy in London believes that the British tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, is running a campaign against Sweden and Swedish refugee policy, according to the TT news agency.

    “Sweden is being used as a deterrent and an argument against allowing more refugees into the UK,” said the embassy in a report to the Swedish Foreign Ministry.

    Now the embassy is to try to counter the negative coverage by working with Swedish organisations in the UK.

    “The tabloid Daily Mail has launched a campaign against Swedish migration policy,” says the report that was sent to, among other people, Swedish State Secretary Hans Dahlgren.

    The embassy said the digital arm of the tabloid, MailOnline, has a very wide reach and that the stories about Sweden have received many racist remarks in the comments section of the website.
    “The Daily Mail characterises Sweden as naive and an example of the negative consequences of a liberal migration policy.”

    The Daily Mail is a right-wing UK tabloid newspaper renowned for taking a vigorous anti-immigration stance throughout its 120-year history. Its circulation in the UK is second only to The Sun.

    More than 160,000 people sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 and another 100,000 are expected to arrive in the country in the coming year, according to Migrationsverket.”

    • I read some that.
      Exposing such goings-on, lid comes off, the stench just about knocks ya out. Mighty embarrassing, I’d say.

  9. U.N. urges Pakistan to resolve Afghan refugees’ status (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/u-n-urges-pakistan-to-resolve-afghan-refugees-status-4600

    “A senior U.N. official has urged Pakistan to resolve the status of more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan whose registration cards have expired or who remain unregistered, Reuters reports.

    While Europe has grappled with the exodus of people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan hosts the world’s largest long-term refugee population, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), most of whom are Afghans who have fled more than three decades of war.

    In December, registration cards providing temporary legal stay to more than 1.5 million Afghan refugees expired, and were granted a six-month extension by the government.

    But Afghans say they are hassled by police for carrying the expired cards, and members of the estimated one million Afghans who are still unregistered also face difficulties with the authorities, aid workers say.

    The issue is now before Pakistan’s cabinet.

    UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner George Okoth-Obbo said his agency was engaged in “continuing discussions” with the Pakistani government to resolve the population’s uncertain situation…”

  10. Nearly 100 Taliban insurgents killed, wounded in ongoing Farah operations (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/nearly-100-taliban-insurgents-killed-wounded-in-ongoing-farah-operations-0191

    “The Taliban militants have suffered heavy casualties in ongoing military operations by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in western Farah province of Afghanistan.

    According to the local security officials, the operations are being conducted in various districts where anti-government armed militants are having presence and conduct insurgency activities.

    An Afghan army official said at least 40 Taliban insurgents have been killed during the operations so far and around 50 others have sustained injuries.

    The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far.

    The Afghan National Security Forces have stepped up counter-terrorism operations as the Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant across the country during the recent months.

    Taliban militants continue to their deadly attacks despite efforts to end the ongoing violence through reconciliation process.

    Nearly 30 people were killed and over 50 others were wounded in two separate suicide attacks in eastern Kunar and capital Kabul on Saturday.”

  11. Two policemen martyred in Helmand explosion (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/two-policemen-martyred-in-helmand-explosion-4602

    “A bomb blast has claimed the lives of two policemen in Lashkargah, the capital of southern Helmand province.

    Omar Zwak, spokesperson for the province’s governor said it was a planted Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that detonated on a police vehicle in Bolan area of the city late yesterday.

    The governor’s spokesperson added that the ford-ranger police vehicle badly damaged and two policemen embraced martyrdom in the explosion.

    No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s explosion but Taliban have been held responsible for this kind of attacks in the past.”

  12. Taliban shadow governor for Faryab’s Khwaja Sabz Posh district killed (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/taliban-shadow-governor-for-faryabs-khwaja-sabz-posh-district-killed-4603

    “The shadow governor of Taliban militant group for Khwaja Sabz Posh district of northern Faryab province has been killed by army, an official said on Sunday.

    Sayed Anwar Sadat, the province’s governor said Mullah Noor-ul-Haq was killed along with a number of his companions when army targeted their position with a rocket in Gaday Qala area of Pashton Kot district last night.

    Pashton Kot is among the districts of Faryab where Taliban have a strong presence.

    Reports suggest that severe clashes erupted between security forces and Taliban in parts of Pashton Kot in which both sides suffered casualties.

    Taliban have not yet commented on the reports.”

  13. A-29s and MD-530s deployed to support Afghan forces in Nangarhar (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/a-29s-and-md-530s-deployed-to-support-afghan-forces-in-nangarhar-0195

    “The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan will have further capabilities expansion with the deployment of two fixed-wing and two rotary-wing close-air support combat aircraft.

    According to the Afghan defense officials, the aircraft have been handed over to the 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces.

    The officials further added that the aircraft include two A-29 Super Tucanos and two MD-530 combat helicopters.

    The commander of the Afghan Air Force (AAF) Gen. Syed Sulaiman Shah told reporters in Nangarhar airport that the A-29s can carry heavy weapons to target the anti-government armed militants…”

  14. Police foil plot to carry out deadly explosion in Baghlan province (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/police-foil-plot-to-carry-out-deadly-explosion-in-baghlan-province-0196

    “The Afghan National Police (ANP) forces thwarted a plot by the anti-government armed militants to carry out a deadly explosion in northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan.

    Provincial police chief Gen. Ewaz Mohammad Nazeri said the militants were looking to detonate a motorycle packed with explosives in Baghlan-e-Markazi district.

    He said the motorcycle was confiscuated and explosives were defused before the militants manage to execute the attack in the central city of the district.

    The anti-government armed militants including the Taliban group have not commented regarding the attack plot so far…”

  15. Afghan police suspected of aiding Taliban killed, detained by army (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-afghanistan-police-idUKKCN0W1088?rpc=401

    “A policeman was killed and another 30 were detained during a joint operation between Afghan troops and U.S. forces last week against police suspected of supporting Taliban insurgents in embattled Helmand province, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

    Reports of fighting between police and soldiers add to the upheaval in the southern province, long a stronghold of the insurgency, where the military has abandoned several outposts. The NATO-led coalition and the Afghan government are trying to overhaul security forces and reverse insurgent gains there…”

  16. Air strike targets suspected IS militants near Libya’s Bani Walid: official (khaama, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security-idUSKCN0W106P

    “Unidentified aircraft carried out air strikes on a convoy carrying suspected Islamic State militants near Libya’s Bani Walid early on Sunday, a member of the city council said.

    Local forces and the United States have both used air strikes against militants in Libya. This month U.S. war planes launched an air strike on a suspected Islamic State training camp in the western Libyan city of Sabratha, killing more than 40 people.

    Islamist militants have taken advantage of political chaos and a security vacuum to expand their presence in Libya. Fighters loyal to Islamic State have taken control of the coastal city of Sirte, about 260km (160 miles) east of Bani Walid…”

  17. British special forces forming SECRET ARMY in Libya to OBLITERATE evil Islamic State jihad (express, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/648121/British-special-forces-forming-SECRET-ARMY-in-Libya-to-OBLITERATE-evil-Islamic-State-jihad

    “UK SPECIAL forces have been sent to Libya in a dramatic bid to form a new army that will wipe out Islamic State insurgents in the region.

    The discreet military deployment comes as ISIS, also known as Daesh, faces a global task force set to eradicate the sick jihadi group.

    They will reportedly jjoin US military counterparts in Misrata – roughly 180km from the Libyan capital Tripoli where they will provide “tactical training” to ground troops in the region.

    Meanwhile Western officials have confirmed British troops are carrying out a mission in Libya, with local sources adding they are “in the background”.

    Two analysts with close connections to Western governments also revealed that “low level training” of rebels has recently taken place.

    The new deployment follows the UK committing to give the Libyan administration 1,000 troops last year. They joined Italian forces in a bid to bring stability to the region….”

  18. Britain would be SAFER from terror attacks if we left EU, defence experts blast (express, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/648070/Britain-SAFER-terror-attacks-left-EU-defence-experts

    “BRITAIN would be safer from terror attacks if it left the EU, senior defence experts said last night.

    The message from intelligence chiefs, senior military officers and former defence secretaries came as a stark contrast to a Downing Street orchestrated letter by 13 former senior military officers, which claimed “within the EU, we are stronger” when it came to facing the threat of Islamic State.

    Last night intelligence chiefs said that vital intelligence gathering on terrorist activates was carried out on a bilateral agreement between member states and not with the EU as an institution.

    Porous borders, they said, were a much greater risk.

    Col Richard Kemp said: “As the generals pointed out, the rise of the Islamic State presents a grave security challenge to us at home.

    “The most important weapon in the fight against terrorism is intelligence. Yet there is and can be no viable EU intelligence sharing mechanism.”

    His views were echoed by Richard Walton, former head of Counter Terrorism Command at New Scotland Yard from 2011-15.

    Mr Walton said that Britain would not suffer if it came out of the EU, as long as it maintained close relations with its neighbours.

    He said: “Membership of the EU does not really convey any benefits that we couldn’t access if we were outside it.

    “The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, meanwhile, is exploiting weaknesses across Europe, porous borders, free movement of firearms, limited police engagement with minority communities, little joined up intelligence, which need addressing urgently to prevent the next attacks.

    “But here in the UK our borders are less porous, we have remarkably few illegal firearms in circulation, and we invest heavily in building the confidence of communities to report suspicious behaviour. We also lead in collaboration between our intelligence agencies and the counter-terrorism police network. Would it really make any difference to the security of our borders if we left the EU?”

    General Julian Thompson, the former Royal Marines officer who led 3 Command Brigade during the Falklands War, said: “What keeps us safer is not the EU, but rather our role in Nato. And this role will not change if we leave the EU. It is rubbish to suggest that the EU would protect us from IS terror attacks, and that we would somehow lose that protection if we left.”

    Downing Street was forced to apologise after it was revealed that Gen Sir Michael Rose’s name had been wrongly included on the letter. Following the publication of the letter Field Marshal Lord Bramall said he had signed because it had been presented as a “fait accompli”, and that it was “not the kind of letter I would have originated myself”.

    At least two other former Chiefs of Defence Staff, Field Marshal Lord Walker and Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, declined to sign the letter along with General Sir Peter Wall, a former head of the Army.

    Speaking last night Air Chief Marshal Michael Graydon, former Chief of the Air Staff, said: “I am undecided as to whether we should leave the EU or stay, but I believe the letter was a mistake. I thought it had a civil service touch to it, and it transpires that’s exactly what it was.

    “Our intelligence relationships are with individual member countries, not Europe, so it is irrelevant whether we are in or not. In fact there are countries in the EU which we are weary about passing information to, because we are not certain about what their priorities are.”

    Some senior officers admitted that, while the basis of the letter was unfounded, the fear was that Britain’s exit would lead to the unraveling of the EU and it’s institutions.

    But former defence secretary Liam Fox rejected this, saying: “To use the fear that the EU will fall apart if we exit as a reason to stay in is the being of arrogance. The EU existed long before we joined it.

    “We don’t share intelligence because we’re in the EU. The major country with which we share intel is the US, and the so-called 5 Eyes which include the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

    “It is childish to suggest that, if Britain withdrew from the EU, the French and the Germans would put their own citizens at risk and stop sharing intelligence with Britain just to punish us for leaving.””

    • Leaving the EU and re-establishing border controls will make Britain much safer from foreign invasion, now try and find some way to protect against the invaders that are already inside Britain.

  19. Egypt migrant departures stir new concern in Europe (reuters, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-egypt-idUSKCN0W108K

    “The European Union fears Mediterranean migrant smuggling gangs are reviving a route from Egypt, officials told Reuters, putting thousands of people to sea in recent months as they face problems in Libya and Turkey.

    “It’s an increasing issue,” an EU official said of increased activity after a quiet year among smugglers around Alexandria that has raised particular concerns in Europe about Islamist militants from Sinai using the route to reach Greece or Italy.

    Departures from Egypt were a tiny part of the million people who arrived in Europe by sea last year; more than 80 percent came from Turkey to Greece and most others from Libya to Italy. Detailed figures on Egypt are not available.

    But as security in anarchic Libya has worsened, EU officials say, more smugglers are choosing to bring African and Middle East refugees and migrants to the Egyptian coast.

    Voyages from Egypt are long, but smugglers mainly count on people being rescued once in international shipping lanes.

    Brussels, engaged in delicate bargaining with Turkey to try and stem the flow of migrants from there, is concerned that the Egyptian authorities are not stopping smugglers. But it is reluctant to use aid and trade ties to pressure Cairo to do more when Egypt remains an ally in an increasingly troubled region.

    “Our major concern is that among smugglers and migrants there may also be militants from the Sinai, affiliated to al Qaeda or Islamic State,” a second EU official said.

    “Controls in Egypt are strict, which limit the activities of smugglers … But sometimes we suspect that they turn a blind eye to let migrants go somewhere else.”

    An Egyptian security official told Reuters that Cairo had more pressing concerns, limiting resources to control migrants.

    “Human smuggling is on the rise in Egypt,” he said. “The authorities are too busy with other issues to deal with this.”

    A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini declined comment…”

  20. The Russia-Armenia alliance is threatening Turkey, a critical U.S. ally

    The Feb. 21 front-page article “For Turkey, high stakes as troubles intensify” highlighted a critical development: The growing military alliance between Russia and Armenia is threatening Turkey, an indispensable U.S. ally and partner in the fight against the Islamic State.

    The announcement that Russia is sending a new set of fighter jets and combat helicopters to an air base only 25 miles from the Turkish border is just the latest example of this alliance.

    The two countries’ economic and military ties run deep, bolstered by economic and security agreements and two military bases — including one just outside the Armenian capital. Most significant, Armenia is the only country in the region that shares a border with Turkey and has Russian troops permanently stationed.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-russia-armenia-alliance-is-threatening-turkey-a-critical-us-ally/2016/02/26/18289900-da5f-11e5-8210-f0bd8de915f6_story.html

    • I am not sure how indispensable Turkey is or how much of an ally. It looks to me like Obama is trying to bluff Russia, he has destroyed the US military and wants to act like we are still the big boy on the block. Putin knows we can’t do anything and he knows Turkey is trying to establish a Sunni Caliphate aka help ISIS. If/when the shooting between Turkey and Russia starts will Obama chicken out or will he order us to attack Russian Troops?

  21. Members of a U.N. peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic allegedly turned to sexual predation, betraying their duty to protect

    The neighborhood is a patchwork of low-slung buildings scorched and looted at the height of the civil war, a place where the United Nations was supposed to come to the rescue. But in a number of homes, women and girls are raising babies they say are the children of U.N. troops who abused or exploited them.

    “Peacekeeper babies,” the United Nations calls such infants.

    Above:

    A 14-year-old breast-feeds her 3-month-old son in Bangui, Central African Republic. She says she was raped and made pregnant by a U.N. peacekeeper from Burundi.

    “A horrible thing,” says an elfin 14-year-old girl, who describes how a Burundian soldier dragged her into his barracks and raped her, leaving her pregnant with the baby boy she now cradles uncomfortably.

    The allegations come amid one of the biggest scandals to plague the United Nations in years. Since the U.N. peacekeeping mission here began in 2014, its employees have been formally accused of sexually abusing or exploiting 42 local civilians, most of them underage girls.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2016/02/27/peacekeepers/

  22. Sharia in UK: Wife-beating and child marriages are shocking reality, claims explosive book (express, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/648205/Sharia-courts-in-UK-New-book-claims-wife-beating-and-child-marriages-are-shocking-reality

    “SHARIA law courts in the UK condone rape, wife-beating and the forced marriage of young girls, a shocking new investigative book has claimed.

    It also says some Islamic clerics support chopping off the hands of criminals while others are in favour of a father having the power to annul his daughter’s marriage if he does not approve of her partner.

    The book was written following a four-year investigation into around 80 Islamic councils across London and the Midlands, in which disputes within Muslim communities are settled.

    Author Elham Manea, a Muslim professor and expert on human rights, described the power held in these courts as “totalitarian” and said they were more extreme than in some parts of Pakistan.

    She gave an example of a British woman who was forced to marry her cousin in Pakistan, where she was raped on her wedding night.

    The woman returned to the UK and pleaded with a Sharia court for an annulment, which was dismissed outright.

    Ms Manea said in her book Women and Sharia Law: “They did not care that she was forced to marry. They did not care that she is being raped in marriage, they do not see that as rape in marriage.”

    She also quoted an imam who supported girls getting married at extremely young ages, explaining there was “no particular age” limit but that “normally, the younger the better”.

    Another said “puberty is the right age”, declaring “in some societies, 12 or 13-year-old women, girls, they are more of less fully fledged women”.

    Ms Manea’s investigation also uncovered shocking attitudes among clerics towards physical punishment and wife beating.

    She said: “A woman will be beaten in the name of religion. Beaten. And it will be legal.”

    One cleric was said to have told her: “A man should not be questioned why he hit his wife because this is something between them.”

    Ms Manea added women from south Asia living in the UK were “up to three times more likely to kill themselves than women in the general population”.

    The book also claimed that Sharia law courts base some inheritance decisions purely on gender.

    One cleric said: “We are very happy to give the woman half and the man double because I think this is a very fair way of dealing with the situation.”

    Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani told The Sunday Times she was “shocked and concerned” that women were being treated in such ways “just because if her gender by self-appointed community or faith leaders via Sharia courts”.

    She said: “There is one law in the UK and that law is set by parliament. No faith-based law trumps the laws of our land.”

    In response to these allegations, the Muslim Council of Britain said the courts had “no enforcement powers and operate only with consent of parties. They receive no public funding and perform an important function”.

    It added: ”The Muslim Council of Britain is committed to ensure that the council apply rules of natural justice in their proceedings, treat parties with equal respect and fairness, have more women members on the council panels and all panel members are given training on judge craft.

    “Muslims must have the same right to see justice in accordance with their faith as other faiths have in the UK.””

  23. World on brink of new FINANCIAL CRASH: Ex-bank chief warns another crisis is ‘certain’ (express, Feb 28, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/648127/financial-crash-Mervyn-King-crisis-Bank-of-England

    “THE world is on the brink of another financial crisis that will come “sooner rather than later”, the former Bank of England governor has warned.

    Mervyn King, who headed the bank between 2003 and 2013, believes the world economy will soon face another crash as regulators have failed to reform banking.

    He has also claimed that the 2008 crisis was the fault of the financial system, not individual greedy bankers, in his new book, The End Of Alchemy: Money, Banking And The Future Of The Global Economy.

    Lord King wrote: ”Without reform of the financial system, another crisis is certain, and the failure to tackle the disequilibrium in the world economy makes it likely that it will come sooner rather than later.”

    A remark from a Chinese colleague who said the West had not got the hang of money and banking was the inspiration for his book.

    Lord King, 67, said without understanding what caused the crash, politicians and bankers would be unable to prevent another, and lays the blame at the door of a broken financial system.

    He said: “The crisis was a failure of a system, and the ideas that underpinned it, not of individual policymakers or bankers, incompetent and greedy though some of them undoubtedly were.”

    Spending imbalances both within and between countries led to the crisis in 2008 and he believes a current disequilibrium will lead to the next.

    To solve the problem, Lord King suggests raising productivity and boldly reforming the banking system.

    He said: “Only a fundamental rethink of how we, as a society, organise our system of money and banking will prevent a repetition of the crisis that we experienced in 2008.””

  24. Beijing is banning all foreign media from publishing online in China

    Sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative ventures, and foreign business units shall not engage in online publishing services,” the rules state. Any publisher of online content, including “texts, pictures, maps, games, animations, audios, and videos,” will also be required to store their “necessary technical equipment, related servers, and storage devices” in China, the directive says. Any “online publication service units” needs to get prior approval from SARFT if they want to cooperate on a project with any foreign company, joint venture, or individual. ……

    …new rules specify that, aside from approved projects, only 100% Chinese companies will produce any content that goes online, and then only after approval from Chinese authorities and the acquisition of an online publishing license. …..

    Companies will then be expected to self-censor, and not publish any information at all that falls into several broad categories, including:

    harming national unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity
    disclosing state secrets, endangering national security, or harming national honor and interests
    inciting ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination, undermining national unity, or going against ethnic customs and habits
    spreading rumors, disturbing social order, or undermining social stability
    insulting or slandering others, infringing upon the legitimate rights of others
    endangering social morality or national cultural tradition
    http://qz.com/620076/beijing-is-banning-all-foreign-media-from-publishing-online-in-china/

    **********************
    That rule was introduced on Feb. 13 and will come into force on March 10.

  25. EGYPT – Egyptian MP who hosted Israeli ambassador at his home gets shoe thrown at him in parliament

    Egyptian MP lauded for throwing shoe at controversial lawmaker

    An Egyptian parliamentarian has garnered support on social media after throwing his shoe at a famous lawmaker once the latter entered the parliament on Sunday.

    Kamal Ahmed made his moves after Tawfik Okasha, who is also a television presenter and owner of the Satellite political-commentary channel Faraeen, hosted an Israeli ambassador for dinner at his home on Wednesday.

    Local videos showed the aftermath of the incident, as other MPs tried to separate the two from clashing.

    The two were later ejected from parliament, which was adjourned for half an hour because of the commotion.

    On social media, Egyptians hailed Ahmed and likened him to Muntathar al-Zaydi, the Iraqi who later became famous for a 2008 incident when he threw his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a Baghdad press conference, saying “this is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog.”

    In a response to a Tweet saying that Ahmed’s shoe should be put on auction, one Twitter user said: “Buy the respectable shoes of Kamal Ahmed who hit Tawfik Okasha with 5 thousand [Egyptian] pounds [$640].”

    While another said: “Muntathar al-Zaydi’s shoes against Bush and Kamal Ahmed’s shoes against Okasha will stay as emblematic icons in history.”

    MPs wanted to grill Okasha over the meeting he had with the Israeli ambassador but the parliament chose to transfer his case to a special committee to probe the incident.

    Mahmoud al-Sharif, one of the House of Representatives’ deputies, said Okasha put the parliament and Egypt in an uneasy situation, which could spiral tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv.

    Okasha is not shy from making fiery statements in support of Israel. In 2015, Okasha urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bomb Iran. He said: “Put your trust in God and bomb it. We are with you. And if you need fuel for the jets, we will give it to you.”

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2016/02/28/Egyptian-MP-lauded-for-throwing-shoe-at-controversial-lawmaker-.html

  26. IRAQ – ISIS Claims Responsibility for Twin Bombing in Baghdad

    An explosion at an outdoor market on Sunday in Sadr City, a southern suburb of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving at least 30 people dead and 60 injured, officials said. ISIS militants claim the attack in a statement circulated online.

    A police officer reported a bomb ripping through the packed Mredi market in the Shiite district of Sadr City, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up amid the crowd that had gathered at the site of the first bombing only minutes later.

    He said those wounded were taken to a near-by hospital. Police sealed off the area of the incident.

    This attack was the deadliest In the recent wave of explosions that have hit commercial areas in and outside Baghdad,

    Furthermore, in the town of Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, three shoppers were killed and 10 wounded in a bomb explosion, another police officer said. Four others were killed in a separate bomb attack in Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, he added.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, though they bore the hallmarks of the ISIS group, which dominates key areas in northern and western Iraq and targets government forces, and civilians.

    The attacks came hours after security forces repelled an attack by IS militants on the capital’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, officials said.

    According to two police officers, three suicide car bombers targeted a security force barracks as gunmen opened fire. The attack left at least 12 members of government and paramilitary security forces dead and 35 wounded, they added. The clashes left a silo on fire.

    The commander of military operations in western Baghdad, Maj. Gen Saad Harbiya, said the situation is “under control” and a local curfew has been imposed.

    Abu Ghraib, about 29 kilometers (18 miles) from downtown Baghdad, is the location of a prison of the same name where U.S. troops abused Iraqi detainees brutally following the 2003 invasion. Iraqi authorities closed the prison in April 2014 due to the unstable security situation in the surrounding area.

    It is halfway between Baghdad and Fallujah, which is controlled by the ISIS group. Security forces prevented ISIS from seizing Abu Ghraib when the extremists swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014.

    http://english.aawsat.com/2016/02/article55347971/isis-claims-responsibility-for-twin-bombing-in-baghdad

  27. DIALY MAIL – Please open the border! Migrants protest in Athens as Greece says up to 70,000 migrants may be ‘trapped’ next month as Pope Francis urges other European countries to ‘share the burden’

    Afghan migrants have staged a protest in Athens pleading for the reopening of the Greek-Macedonian border
    Greece warned tally of refugees could triple next month as a result of a cap on crossings by Balkan countries
    Austria also introduced a daily cap of 80 asylum-seekers and said it would only admit 3,200 migrants transiting
    Some 6,500 people were stuck at the Idomeni camp on Greece’s northern border with Macedonia
    It comes as Pope Francis hailed ‘generous help’ offered by Greece and said a concerted response is needed

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3467992/Greece-says-70-000-migrants-left-trapped-country-Pope-Francis-urges-countries-share-burden-fairly.html
    ====================================================
    Bergoglio : Nations need to share burden of helping migrants

    VATICAN CITY — Bergoglio says a concerted response is needed to Europe’s migrant problem so that countries share equally the burden of helping those fleeing war and other “inhumane” situations.

    Bergoglio is praising Greece and other countries offering “generous” help while being on the frontline of the arrivals. Speaking to people in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, Bergoglio said a “concerted response can be more effective and distribute equally the weight” of helping the migrants.

    He pressed for decisive negotiations by countries to achieve this and said he always keeps the “drama of the refugees” in his prayers.

    Bergoglio also welcomed the news of the cease-fire in Syria with hope and invited prayers so this development might bring relief to those suffering from the civil war and lead to peace.

    http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/769310/pope-nations-need-to-share-burden-of-helping-migrants

    Greece: Camp overcrowded as refugees remain stranded at Idomeni border

    • RT -LIVE from Greek-Macedonian border as thousands of refugees remain stranded

      Ruptly will be LIVE from Idomeni, at the Greek-Macedonian border, on February 28, as thousands of refugees remain stranded following Macedonian authorities’ decision to close their frontier gates to refugees originating from Afghanistan.

    • Greece: ‘Please open the border!’ say refugees stranded in Athens

      many families with young children, mainly from Afghanistan, were left stranded on Athens’ Victoria Square, Sunday, as Greek police prevented them from travelling northwards. The Greek state is trying to prevent a build-up of refugees in the country’s border region due to restrictions on the entry of refugees into neighbouring countries.

  28. DAILY MAIL – USA – INDIANA Mystery of the three young Muslims shot dead execution style at ‘party house’ in Indiana

    The residence wasn’t occupied by its owners and became a party house
    Authorities don’t think the murders are part of a hate crime

    Three young Muslim men were killed execution style in a party house frequented by teens and young adults in Indiana.

    An autopsy released on Friday showed 23-year old Mohamedtaha Omar, 20-year old Adam Mekki and 17-year old Muhannad Adam Tairab all died of multiple gunshot wounds.

    The men died in the shooting on Friday at a house authorities said is frequented by teens and young adults of Chadian and South Sudanese decent.

    Safety Director Rusty York told ABC 21 Alive the home belongs to owners who live in Indianapolis, Indiana.

    ‘Hopefully, you know, we’ll be able to focus in on exactly what the reason was, but as I said before, no reason to believe this was any type of hate crime, or focused because of their religion or their nationality whatsoever,’ York said.

    The deaths have been ruled homicides and that an investigation is underway to find the killer or killers.

    Because they are absent from the residence, the home has devolved into a party spot for the teens and young adults from families of African descent

    Right now, police aren’t considering the murder to be a hate crime, but they have no suspects or leads.

    The property had been under surveillance by Fort Wayne Police Department’s Gang and Violent Crimes unit in the weeks leading up to the murders.

    However, Fort Wayne Police Chief Garry Hamilton said the three men were not known to be affiliated with any gang but haven’t ruled that out as a possibility.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3467517/Mystery-three-young-Muslims-shot-dead-execution-style-party-house-Indiana.html#ixzz41Sq4QxcB

  29. ‘My time is past’: Chechen strongman leader Kadyrov announces he is stepping down (RT, Feb 28, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/politics/333863-kadyrov-resignation-chechen-republic/

    “Ramzan Kadyrov, whose tenure as the President of the Chechen Republic expires in April, said he would step down from his office and end his political career. Earlier, Kadyrov leaked an opposition report that called him a threat to Russia’s security.

    “My time is past. Every human has a limit. I believe Kadyrov has passed his peak,” the Chechen leader said, referring to himself in the third person, in an interview on Saturday.

    Kadyrov has been the president of Chechnya, a southern Russian republic with a turbulent and violent history, since 2007. Before that he served for two years as republic’s prime minister and held several other significant posts related to security and governance before that.

    Speaking to NTV television, Kadyrov refused to speculate who could become president of Chechnya after him, saying his team had plenty of strong candidates. He said would not seek a position in the Russian federal government.

    “Family, personal life, Islamic studies – that’s where I see myself. If there is a need for me to take in hands a shovel, an assault rifle or a backpack – I can do that,” he said, adding that he believes that he’s done his duty to his people.

    After the interview, some Chechen public figures called for mass rallies to plead with Kadyrov to stay in power, but on Sunday he asked them not to do it.

    “Of course, I am happy to see this public support,” Kadyrov said. “It proves once more that a man should dedicate his life to his people. That’s not what I voiced my opinion for,” he wrote on his Instagram account, which he often uses to convey messages online.

    Kadyrov’s shock announcement came days after liberal opposition politician Ilya Yashin published a report, in which he called Kadyrov a threat to Russia’s national security. He accused the Chechen leader of separatism, saying he has a private army, imposes Sharia law in Chechnya in violation of Russian Russia and maintains a lavish lifestyle funded by embezzled money.

    Ironically, the report was leaked online by Kadyrov himself hours before its release. The Chechen leader said the report was blather and that he wanted everyone to see his disregard for it.

    Ramzan Kadyrov became an influential figure in Chechen life as the right-hand man to his father Akhmad Kadyrov, who was a prominent religious and political leader. The Kadyrov clan was among those who pledged allegiance to Moscow in its confrontation with the government of the so-called Ichkerian Republic, which sought to create a radical Islamist state in Chechnya.

    Akhmad Kadyrov, an elected religious leader in Chechnya, opposed the introduction of the fundamentalist Wahhabi version of Islam and eventually became head of the republic as it returned under Russia’s full control.

    A day after Akhmad Kadyrov was assassinated in 2004, his son was appointed deputy prime minister of the Chechen Republic. Due to his age, he was legally barred from becoming Chechen president for two more years, but was widely viewed as the successor and new head of the republic in essence, if not in name”

  30. UK Man [ Muslim ]charged with murdering imam in children’s playground on way home from prayers

    A MAN[ Muslim ] has been charged with the murder of an imam who was killed in a Rochdale playground on his way home from prayers.

    Jalal Uddin is thought to have been walking home from a mosque when he was attacked on February 18.

    The former imam was found with head injuries in the playground by passers-by in Rochdale, Gtr Manchester.

    He was taken to hospital but died shortly after from his injuries.

    Mohammed Hussain Syeedy, 21, has been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

    He will appear at Bury Magistrates Court on Monday.

    A 17-year-old boy previously arrested on suspicion of murder is on bail until April 20.

    Locals said Mr Uddin had been to evening prayers at the Bilal Jamia Masjid Mosque in Bulwer Street before visiting a friend.

    It is believed he was taking a shortcut through the playground on his way home after eating dinner at a friend’s house in South Street.

    Mr Uddin was formerly the imam at the Jalalia Jaame Mosque in Trafalgar Street, Rochdale.

    Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said: “The news that a popular local Imam from Rochdale was murdered returning from prayers at a local mosque is shocking and tragic.

    “Qari Jalaluddin saab was on his return home from Jalali Jame Mosque when he died.

    “We pay tribute to him and his unique contribution to our community in Rochdale. We offer our sincere condolences and prayers to his family, friends and the wider community.”

    http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/497577/murder-imam-Rochdale-playground-man-charged-Bury-Magistrates-Court-monday

  31. BREITBART – Hillary Emails: State Discussed ‘Cooperating,’ ‘Increased Investment’ With Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Government

    TEL AVIV – 1,500 pages of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails provide insight into the level of support the U.S. was considering in 2012 for Egypt’s newly elected Muslim Brotherhood government.

    On August 30, 2012, Robert D. Hormats, the under-secretary of state for economic affairs, wrote to Clinton’s then-Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan to update him on a meeting he held with Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Adviser Khairat al-Shater.

    Shater was later sentenced to life imprisonment and then to death for multiple alleged crimes, including inciting violence and financial improprieties.

    The email reveals Hormats and other U.S. diplomats discussed methods of cooperation with Shater, including an increase in American direct foreign investment.

    Hormats wrote:

    Anne Patterson, Bill Taylor, and I met with Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater. He discussed broad principles of economic development based on 100 large infrastructure projects (over a billion dollars each) as part of Morsi’s Nadah (Renaissance Plan) Plan; ways of cooperating with the US to obtain support for these projects and for SMEs; and his hope for an IMF agreement and increased foreign direct investment from the US, the West, and the Arab world. He also noted that it was a priority for the GOE to build a true democratic system based on human rights and the rule of law.

    Patterson, the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt at the time, was known for her repeated engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood. Taylor was the U.S. Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions; that is, the U.S. envoy to the new leadership that emerged in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring.

    Hormats’ meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood were not secret. But the emails reveal the scope of his discussions with the group about possible future investment.

    In September 2012, the New York Times reported that Hormats had led a delegation of businesses to Egypt to discuss possible private investment.

    That same month, the State Department published a document that received little news media attention. It revealed that in August and September 2012, “Hormats visited Egypt to negotiate possible bilateral debt relief,” but the document did not provide further details.

    After the toppling of Egypt’s longtime president Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi served as president from June 30, 2012 to July 3, 2013, when he was removed from office amidst widespread protests and a military coup. After Mubarak was removed from office, the Obama administration pledged $1 billion in assistance to bolster Egypt’s transition to democracy.

    Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta each visited Cairo and met with Morsi during his tenure as president.

    The meeting that Hormats describes in the email took place while the U.S. was negotiating an aid package to help relieve Egypt’s debt crisis amid concerns from U.S. lawmakers about funding the Muslim Brotherhood.

    The email was sent a week and a half before protesters besieged the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on September 11, 2012, the same day the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi came under attack.

    Following the attacks, Obama stated of Morsi’s government, “I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/02/28/hillary-emails-state-discussed-cooperating-increased-investment-with-muslim-brotherhood-government/

  32. Turkey: Erdogan says he won’t ‘accept’ or ‘respect’ court decision to free journalists

  33. Le FBI traque le djihadiste montréalais sur le web
    http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2016/01/07/le-fbi-traque-le-djihadiste-montrealais-sur-le-web

    „Schließt euch nicht ISIS an“: Kanadischer Star der IS-Propaganda wendet sich gegen die Terrormiliz

    https://www.vice.com/de/read/schliesst-euch-nicht-isis-an-kanadischer-star-der-is-propaganda-wendet-sich-gegen-die-terrormiliz-512
    ========================================================

    Montreal Jihadist Sami Elabi Burning and Shooting Passport

  34. FRANCE – after having punched her 22-month-old son to death a 28 y o Muslim mother put his body in the washing machine and pushed the start button ….

    ====================================================
    Une mère tue son fils et le met dans la machine à laver

    Horreur au sein d’une famille résidant à Drancy: une mère a reconnu avoir “boxé” son jeune fils avant de mettre le corps dans le tambour de la machine à laver et d’enclencher le programme, rapporte Le Parisien.

    En garde à vue, cette mère de 28 ans qui réside à Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis, nord de Paris) est passée aux aveux. Après avoir reconnu avoir battu à mort son fils Haroun, âgé de seulement 22 mois, elle a indiqué avoir placé le corps de l’enfant dans la machine à laver et avoir déclenché un programme. Elle a ensuite sorti l’enfant, l’a rhabillé et l’a déposé dans son lit. Elle a enfin appelé son mari, lequel a découvert le corps de l’enfant inerte et rempli d’hématomes. Le père de Haroun l’a emmené aux urgences où le décès de l’enfant a été constaté. L’autopsie a révélé qu’il était mort avant d’avoir été placé dans le lave-linge.

    La femme est décrite par le voisinage comme une femme sympathique, aux petits soins avec son fils.

    Selon Le Parisien, le couple a également un enfant de cinq ans, emmené en Algérie par son père il y a deux ans, afin de le soustraire aux violences de sa mère.

    La mère infanticide a été écrouée vendredi. Le père a été libéré sans qu’aucune charge ne soit retenue à son encontre.

    http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1505/Monde/article/detail/2630758/2016/02/28/Une-mere-tue-son-fils-et-le-met-dans-la-machine-a-laver.dhtml
    ============================================================
    Drancy : après avoir tué son fils, la mère l’a mis dans la machine à laver

    […]Lors de son audition, «elle pleurait surtout sur son sort », indique-t-on de sources proches de l’enquête.

    http://www.leparisien.fr/drancy-93700/drancy-apres-avoir-tue-son-fils-la-mere-l-a-mis-dans-la-machine-a-laver-28-02-2016-5583813.php

  35. not even a single shocking word ( -like Muslim – Afghan – immigrant – honor killing attempt -) in those articles
    =======================================

    CBC – Johra Kaleki sentenced to 3 years for attack on daughter

    Kaleki stabbed her daughter in the head at the family’s Montreal-area home

    A Montreal woman has been sentenced to just under three years in prison for the attempted murder of her daughter in 2010.

    Johra Kaleki, 42, was charged after she attacked her then 19-year-old daughter with a meat cleaver at the family’s home in Dorval.

    ?Her daughter, Bahar Ebrahimi, had gone out with friends to a nightclub. When she returned home after midnight, she was attacked by her mother.

    Police were called to the house to investigate a domestic disturbance and found Ebrahimi, the eldest of Kaleki’s four daughters, suffering from severe head injuries and lacerations on other parts of her body.

    Prosecutors had asked the court for Kaleki to be sentenced to 10 years in prison. She had been out on bail as she awaited sentencing.

    Crown prosecutor Anne Gauvin said she needs more time to review today’s sentencing decision before deciding whether to appeal.

    She said the judge took into consideration the fact that the victim had reconciled with her mother.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/johra-kaleki-bahar-ebrahimi-attempted-murder-dorval-sentenced-1.3460623

    =====================================
    the Gazette – Mother who attacked daughter with meat cleaver sentenced to three years in prison

    Johra Kaleki and her husband sat alone together in the courtroom on Tuesday to find out how much time she would serve for trying to kill their daughter with a meat cleaver six years ago.

    Sitting in the front row, Ebrahim Ebrahimi shuffled nervously, his head downward as he pinched his nose and occasionally wiped his eyes.

    To his left, Kaleki sat with her arms crossed and eyes shifting around the room as a judge read an 11-page sentence. An overnight bag of personal items she had prepared was placed on the seat beside them.

    “Considering the gravity of the offence,” Quebec Court Judge Yves Paradis said, “and the fact that Mrs. Kaleki poses little or no risk to society, a sentence of three years is appropriate.”

    Kaleki, 44, was found guilty of attempted murder last March for attacking her then 19-year-old daughter, Bahar Ebrahimi, in 2010 when she had come home in the early morning after being out all night.

    A hundred days will be deducted from Kaleki’s three-year prison sentence for time she’s already spent in custody.

    The sentence brought a note of finality to a complicated family matter that’s played out in front of the courts for six years.

    From the very beginning, the victim and her father have supported Kaleki. Bahar had testified in November that the incident brought her and her mother closer together, their relationship now stronger than ever.

    She had pleaded with Paradis to consider a lesser sentence, saying her mother doesn’t deserve to go to prison.

    Paradis said Tuesday that when victims argue for lesser sentences, the court must consider the possibility of them being pressured to do so, especially when the victim is a member of the accused’s family. But it didn’t seem to be the case with Bahar and her mother, he said.

    In November, the Crown had recommended a 10-year sentence, while the defence, which had unsuccessfully argued that Kaleki should be found not criminally responsible for the act, had asked for a three-year suspended sentence.

    Kaleki was not suffering from any mental illness at the time of the attack, Paradis said on Tuesday. Her state of mind was similar to “frustration, anger and rage.”

    “Still,” he said, “it was totally out of character. This rage impaired her judgment.”

    In June of 2010, Bahar came home late after a night spent clubbing with friends. Her parents were discussing it with her in the basement when Kaleki asked her husband to leave, telling him she would handle it. He went outside to smoke; she went upstairs to look for a meat cleaver.

    Somehow she convinced Bahar to lay face down on the ground with her arms extended like a cross and to close her eyes.

    She kissed her and told her that she loved her before striking her “several” times behind the head and neck with the meat cleaver. Bahar’s hands were severely injured from trying to protect herself.

    Kaleki also chased her and choked her when she tried to escape, the court heard during the trial. It’s Ebrahimi who intervened and pulled his wife off their daughter. Bahar was hospitalized for 11 days.

    Ebrahimi, who’s been married to Kaleki for 27 years, later testified that she’s a loving mother and that their other three children who still live at home need her, all details considered in Tuesday’s sentencing.

    Kaleki was given the chance to speak before hearing her fate.

    She approached the stand and soberly expressed remorse for what happened.

    “In my life, I always wanted to be a good mother to my children,” she said, adding that she didn’t know why she attacked her daughter.

    “That person is not me,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

    Kaleki has always said in court that she doesn’t remember what happened that night in 2010. She’s also said she doesn’t remember a long police interrogation that followed during which she recalled the attack in detail and expressed remorse.

    “Is it that something snapped and you lost control?” a detective had asked her.

    “Yes, I did,” she had answered.

    After the sentence was read, two security guards asked Kaleki to stand up and step forward. A third guard took her bag and coat. She passed a tissue paper to Ebrahimi, who wiped his eyes with it and hunched over in his chair.

    He dropped his head in his hands as his wife was handcuffed and brought away.

    http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mother-who-attacked-daughter-with-meat-clever-given-three-years-in-jail

  36. Germany: Violent scenes at “Demo fur Alle” in Stuttgart

    The police were on high alert in the German city of Stuttgart, Sunday, after clashes between rival groups of protesters which saw at least 100 people injured.

  37. Germany: Refugee centre aflame in Sonneberg

    Firefighters struggled to extinguish a large fire that engulfed the top floor of a building being used as a refugee centre in the east German town of Sonneberg on Sunday.

  38. BOSTON Homeland Security releases immigration files of deceased Marathon bomber and friend

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev passed the US citizenship test three months before he and his younger brother detonated two bombs at the Boston Marathon, according to federal immigration records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

    His test results, with correct answers to questions about slavery, the Constitution, and the Louisiana Purchase, are in 651 pages of previously confidential files on the bomber and his friend Ibragim Todashev. Both men were killed in separate incidents after the April 15, 2013, bombings.

    The Department of Homeland Security provided redacted files to The Boston Globe after multiple requests spanning three years. Only 206 pages were released in their entirety, so it remains unclear why the government granted the friends legal residency and put them on the path toward US citizenship.

    But the records show that months before the bombings, Tsarnaev went to the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, swore his allegiance to the United States, and denied any links to terrorism. The records also show that Todashev told immigration officials he had left Massachusetts in September 2011, the same month he allegedly helped Tsarnaev kill three men in Waltham.

    Until now, the government had declined to release the files, citing ongoing criminal investigations. But the mystery stirred debate about why immigration officials granted Tsarnaev and Todashev refuge in the first place, and whether officials missed warning signs about their criminal activity as their cases progressed through US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

    On Sunday, the agency issued a statement saying the cases were processed correctly.

    “US Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) commitment to national security is shared inside and outside of the Department of Homeland Security,” it said.

    “While USCIS found no errors in the processing of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s or Ibragim Todashev’s applications, we are always seeking to strengthen our very intensive screening processes,” the statement said.

    Tamerlan, 26, died in a firefight with police after the bombings killed three people and injured more than 260. The brothers also killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer.

    A month later, an FBI agent killed Todashev during an interrogation in Florida.

    Tsarnaev’s younger brother Dzhokhar, 22, a naturalized US citizen, was sentenced to death last year after a federal trial and is appealing from prison in Colorado.

    If federal officials raised security concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev or Todashev, they did not disclose them in the heavily redacted immigration files. Instead, the files sketch a portrait of Tsarnaev and Todashev, both ethnic Chechens from Russia, as men struggling with unemployment and poverty while trying to cement their ties to the United States, Tsarnaev through citizenship and Todashev through a green card. They had so little income that the government waived their immigration application fees, officials said.

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to America as a teenager in 2003, after securing a visa in Turkey. His family had bounced between Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Dagestan in southern Russia before settling in Cambridge.

    In August 2012, after a 178-day trip to Russia, Tsarnaev stopped by the Cambridge office of Centro Latino, a now-defunct nonprofit, for help in applying for citizenship. He did not stand out; the organization helped hundreds of immigrants of all backgrounds fill out the forms every year.

    “It was really nonincidental,” said a person who used to work at the center and who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He waited in line like everybody else.”

    In his application, Tsarnaev wrote that he wanted to change his first name to that of an early Islamic scholar, Muaz — a move critics later said should have spurred the government to investigate further. He also disclosed a 2009 arrest for assaulting a former girlfriend, and that he was receiving government benefits and had recently traveled overseas.

    On Jan. 23, 2013, immigration officer David McCormack interviewed Tsarnaev and tested his English and knowledge of US history and government. He answered six civics questions correctly to pass: He knew that Africans had been slaves, that there are 27 constitutional amendments, and that the United States bought Louisiana from the French in 1803. He also identified “Joe Biden” as the vice president, said Congress makes federal laws, and that the colonists fought the British over “high taxes.” He correctly read a question about voting and wrote the answer: “Citizens can vote.”

    His sole error was to say that the federal court, and not the Supreme Court, is the highest court in the United States.

    Afterward, the immigration officer checked the box next to the sentence that said: “You passed the tests of English and US history and government.”

    But instead of marking the box that said, “Congratulations! Your application has been recommended for approval,” the officer checked the next box, which said, “A decision cannot yet be made about your application.”

    Reasons for the delay are unclear in the file provided to the Globe. Earlier, a federal report had said that Tsarnaev’s citizenship application was delayed because the government did not have his criminal court records from the 2009 case.

    But those records are in the file provided to the Globe. Homeland Security confirmed on Sunday that records in the file obtained by the Globe show that Tsarnaev furnished those records to the immigration officer and that the officer had recommended him for citizenship, pending a supervisor’s review because of his criminal history.

    All that stood between him and US citizenship was a supervisor’s approval, which was required, and a final swearing-in ceremony.

    Todashev’s file shows he applied for a green card twice. He received asylum shortly after arriving in the United States in 2008 from Russia. The file shows he lived in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Massachusetts, staying in Chelsea, Watertown, Cambridge, and finally Allston before moving to Florida.

    In May 2011, a top immigration official in Atlanta, Paul Onyango, denied his green card application because Todashev had not provided court records from a criminal road-rage incident in Boston. The official said he would not refer Todashev for deportation, however, which Homeland Security said was typical in such situations.

    The next year, Todashev tried again. He was issued a green card on Feb. 5, 2013, according to Homeland Security. But shortly after the bombings, a top immigration official sent the Boston immigration office a memo titled “withholding of adjudication” — suggesting a shift in his case.

    The reason is unclear, because the record is redacted.

    http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/02/28/homeland-security-releases-immigration-files-deceased-marathon-bomber-and-friend/Byftvg8GyYhe8i431mMmmM/story.html