Reader’s links for March 18 – 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

81 Replies to “Reader’s links for March 18 – 2016”

  1. BREITBART – GREECE – Syrians, Afghan Migrants Riot And Fight Over Free Food 24 Hours After Angelina Jolie Visit

    Dozens of migrants are rioting over free food handed out outside a football stadium in Greece, with reports of injuries near the Piraeus port where nearly 5,000 migrants are living at the passenger terminals.

    Local Greek media reports state that rioting began shortly after 7pm, when around 30 people started fighting each other while lining up to receive free food from the Olympiakos Football Club.

    Piraeus Port Authority coast guard officers attended the scene to separate Afghan and Syrian migrants fighting each other.

    The news comes on the same day of reporting migrant-on-migrant stabbings in the area.

    pics :

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/17/watch-syrians-and-afghan-migrants-battle-over-free-football-club-food/

  2. DAILY MAIL – Migrant ‘paedophile’ is dragged through refugee camp after he is accused of raping a seven-year-old girl before being handed over to police on Greece’s Macedonia border

    Migrants pictured dragging away a man in beige jumper, camouflage shorts
    The man was accused of sexually assaulting little girl in the Idomeni camp
    Photographer could not confirm if girl in one of the images was the victim

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3497672/Justice-migrant-camp-Refugees-Greece-Macedonia-border-drag-push-man-accused-raping-seven-year-old-child-turn-authorities.html

    =================================================
    Greece: Thousands of refugees stranded at Piraeus port

  3. REBEL MEDIA – CANADA – CONFIRMED: Millions spent on “Mosque built for no one” and army base renovations

  4. Kurdish Militants Could Also Hit Europe: Turkey’s Erdogan (abcnews, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kurdish-militants-hit-europe-turkeys-erdogan-37743106

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is warning Europe that it, too, could fall victim to attacks by Kurdish militants following a terror attack in Ankara that killed 37 people.

    Speaking at ceremony to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli in the coastal town of Canakkale, Erdogan said, “there is no reason why the bomb that exploded in Ankara cannot explode in Brussels, in any other European city.”

    “The snakes you are sleeping with can bite you any time,” he added.

    Turkey has been wracked by conflict in mainly Kurdish areas of the southeast and suffered a string of attacks, including two on its capital that were claimed by an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.”

  5. Statoil Says Gas Facility in Algerian Sahara Attacked (abcnews, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/statoil-gas-facility-algerian-sahara-attacked-37742971

    “Norwegian energy group Statoil says a gas facility in Algeria has been “hit by explosive munitions fired from a distance,” adding it has no immediate information about casualties.

    In a statement Friday, Statoil said the attack occurred at the In Salah Gas asset in Krechba, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Algiers in the Sahara Desert.

    The Stavanger, Norway-based company said it, and the joint venture organization in Hassi Messaoud, have mobilized their emergency response organizations. Statoil it has been in touch with its three employees at Krechba, who are safe and not injured.

    In January 2013, a band of al-Qaida-affiliated militants attacked the Ain Amenas complex in Algeria. After a four-day standoff, the Algerian army moved in. At least 37 hostages, mostly foreign workers, died in the battle.”

  6. 7 Filipino Militants Killed, Rebel Chief Hurt in Clash (abcnews, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/filipino-militants-killed-rebel-chief-hurt-clash-37742799

    “Philippine troops battled about 100 Muslim militants Friday in fierce fighting that killed seven gunmen and a soldier and wounded a top militant commander long wanted by both the Philippines and its U.S. ally, a Filipino general said.

    Another 16 soldiers and five militants were hurt in the clash that erupted when troops approached rebels from the Abu Sayyaf group in a jungle off Patikul town in predominantly Muslim Sulu province, said Brig. Gen. Allan Arrojado.

    Among them was one-armed rebel commander Radulan Sahiron, who led the Abu Sayyaf faction, Arrojado said.

    The U.S. government has offered $1 million for any information leading to the capture and prosecution of Sahiron, one of the original Abu Sayyaf commanders who has endured years of fighting and has been blamed for several bomb attacks and kidnappings.

    It was not immediately clear if the militants were with captives, including two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipino woman who were abducted last year in a marina on southern Samal Island. The kidnapped victims were believed to be held in Sulu.

    In a recent video posted on a Facebook account linked to the militants, they threatened to kill the hostages unless a huge ransom was paid by April 8. The Philippine military said the government’s no-ransom policy remains and security forces would continue efforts to secure the safe release of the captives.

    The Abu Sayyaf is one of several Muslim rebel groups in the predominantly Catholic nation’s south. The main rebel group has agreed to peace in exchange for autonomy.”

  7. France Pushes for EU Sanctions Against Libyan Officials (abcnews, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/france-pushes-eu-sanctions-libyan-officials-37742969

    “French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says Libyan officials who are blocking the country’s unity government will face sanctions.

    Ayrault is to meet Friday with the head of Libya’s unity government, Fayez Serraj, during a two-day visit to Tunisia. Libya’s unity government, based in Tunis, is supposed to replace two rival administrations in Libya, one dominated by Islamists based in the capital Tripoli, the other in the eastern city of Tobruk recognized by the international community.

    Ayrault said there is a “shared view” in Europe that sanctions should be imposed on “a few people who are blocking the way for reasons of self-interest and financial interest.”

    Ayrault will also meet Tunisia’s top authorities and attend a commemoration of the Bardo museum attack in which 22 people died last year.”

  8. Video: Aussie TV crew attacked in Stockholm (thelocal, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.se/20160318/video-aussie-tv-crew-attacked-in-stockholm

    “An Australian TV station has released a short clip that shows its crew coming under attack in a Stockholm suburb last month.

    The Channel Nine crew, who were working alongside a high-profile Australian news correspondent, Liz Hayes, were confronted in Rinkeby, where the majority of residents are foreign-born.

    The crew was reporting a story about the migrant crisis, the channel said.

    “They were confronted by a group who objected to them filming. There was a series of scuffles and the police were called. The 60 Minutes cameraman and producer were slightly injured but filming continued with police at the scene. The crew have now returned to their hotel and are all fine,” a spokesman for the channel said at the time.

    The show is scheduled to broadcast this Sunday, but Channel Nine has just released this ten-second teaser:

    A spokesman for Stockholm’s police force, Lars Byström, confirmed to The Local at the time that the crew had filed a report, but only about a specific incident.

    “We were told there was a film team and there were some youngsters who were in the car and there was some kind of argument between the team and then the driver drove over the cameraman’s foot.”

    However he later said that police had decided to close the case as “very experienced police officers” had made the decision to focus their resources elsewhere.

    He said no one had come forward in person to report claims that the crew had also been hit or had objects thrown at them by masked men.

    Channel Nine was accompanied in Rinkeby by Avpixlat, a site that accuses other Nordic media of suppressing debate on immigration.

    It has links to the nationalist Sweden Democrats and many current and former politicians from the party write for the site. Mainstream media, including liberal tabloid Expressen and media industry publications Journalisten and Dagens Media, have referred to it as a “hate site” – a description Avpixlat’s editor Mats Dagerlind has rejected.

    Channel Nine told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that it had simply been interviewing Avpixlat staff.

    “We categorically deny any suggestion we were in cahoots with this organization, we merely interviewed them in an effort to get all sides of the story,” said a spokesman.

    Sweden took in record numbers of refugees in 2015, but then decided to re-introduce border checks after local authorities said they were struggling to manage the influx.”

  9. Sweden ready to send refugee aid to Greece (thelocal, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.se/20160318/sweden-ready-to-help-greece-with-refugee-crisis

    “Sweden may offer to send help to Greece if EU leaders manage to strike a deal with Turkey on the refugee crisis.

    After several hours of crunch talks, the EU’s 28 member states agreed around midnight on a plan designed to stem the flow of migrants travelling into the union from Turkey to Greece. They said they would attempt to strike a deal with Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davuto?lu, on Friday.

    “We must put an end to the unregulated, very dangerous escape over the Mediterranean which this year alone has cost several hundred people their lives,” Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Löfven told Swedish media at a late-night press conference in Brussels.

    The proposed EU plan is designed to stop people entering the European Union illegally by boat, with all refugees arriving from Turkey to Greece set to be sent back. For each Syrian returned, another Syrian in Turkey would be resettled within the European Union.

    It has previously been suggested that Turkish citizens will get visa-free travel to Europe from later this summer as part of the deal.

    Greece is also likely to need aid from its European neighbours to examine asylum requests and manage logistical challenges of returning people to Turkey, including sending an extra 1,500 police officers and legal staff to the islands that are the main entry points for refugees travelling to the EU.

    Löfven said that Sweden would be ready to assist Greece if called upon….”

  10. Niger: Border Attacks Kill 3 Security Forces; 4 Injured (abcnews, Mar 18, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/niger-border-attacks-kill-security-forces-injured-37746304

    “Niger’s defense ministry says three gendarmes were killed and four security forces injured in separate attacks this week.

    In a statement Thursday night, the ministry said unidentified gunmen in a pick-up truck and on motorbikes struck gendarmes Wednesday night near the country’s western border shared with Mali and Burkina Faso. One officer was injured.

    Earlier Wednesday night, suspected Boko Haram militants hit near the town of Bosso in a region that has come under regular attack by the Nigeria-based extremists. Three security forces were injured while five assailants wearing explosive belts — three of them women — were killed.

    Niger plans to close its borders for a presidential runoff vote scheduled for Sunday. President Mahamadou Issoufou is running for a second term.”

    • Niger attacked by both al-Qaeda and Boko Haram (BBC, Mar 18, 2016)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35842300

      “Islamist militants from al-Qaeda and Boko Haram have killed four security forces in two separate attacks in Niger, officials have said.

      Three policemen were shot dead by suspected al-Qaeda members in a village near the border with Burkina Faso.

      One soldier was killed and two others wounded when a military convoy was attacked close to Nigeria’s border.

      Thursday’s attacks came three days before Sunday’s controversial presidential run-off election.

      The opposition has said they will not recognise the results of the vote, and their candidate Hama Amadou, is currently receiving medical treatment in Paris after spending moths in jail.

      Niger’s Interior Minister Hassimi Massaoudou says the attack in a market in Dolbel village close to Burkina Faso was the work of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magrib (AQIM), which has been active in the region.

      “The attackers were repelled, and we are currently sweeping the area,” he told the AFP news agency.

      The other attack was carried out by four suicide bombers in southern Diffa region that has often been targeted by Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgents.

      A fifth suicide bomber, a young girl, was prevented from detonating her vest, Mr Massaoudou added.

      Niger has porous borders with Libya, Algeria, Mali and Burkina Faso, which have all been hit by AQIM recently, and Nigeria to the south – making it vulnerable to Islamist attacks.

      The country is rated by the UN as one of the world’s least-developed nations and was recently named as the worst country to live in.”

  11. Bernie Sanders to Sheriff Arpaio: ‘Watch out, Joe’

    PHOENIX — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders ripped into Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio at a rally in northern Arizona on Thursday, after facing criticism from the Clinton campaign for an encounter Sanders’ wife had with the immigration-hardliner sheriff.

    The U.S. senator from Vermont said Arpaio’s arrests of undocumented immigrants, often separating families, were “outrageous and unconscionable.”

    “It’s easy for bullies like Sheriff Arpaio to pick on people who have no power,” Sanders said. “If I am elected president — the president of the United States does have power. So watch out, Joe.”

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/03/18/bernie-sanders-sheriff-arpaio-watch-out-joe/81953200/

    • “people who have no power”

      Illegal aliens have PLENTY of power. They have basically taken over California and there are 600,000 Mexicans in the Chicago area alone. They march in the streets without fear of deportation. The Great and Powerful Obama fully supports them. In Chicago, there’s a park next to the CPS Benito Jurez Academy, recently expanded to accommodate Mexican Anchor Babies and actually flies the MEXICAN flag next to the American flag. This park has statues of “Hispanic” heroes. Who paid for them? The MEXICAN CONSULATE practicing a bit of cultural imperialism: take that, you Yankee FOOLS.

      • Once the rioting and civil war get into full swing many of the illegals will decide it is safer back home where the crazy gringos aren’t killing each other.

  12. Stabbing Surge Stumps NYC Police, Sows Fear Among Residents

    New York City has seen a 20 percent increase in stabbings this year compared with last, and police say they don’t understand why it’s happening or what to do about it.

    While most of the attacks are part of domestic disputes in homes, random assaults without apparent motives are on the rise. As of March 13, police recorded 809 incidents, up from 673 last year. So far there have been 20 attacks in the subways — nine more than last year — including a fatal encounter Wednesday in an East Harlem station.

    Kitchen knives, screw drivers, box cutters and machetes are among the weapons used. The stabbings have overshadowed a promising crime trend showing a 30 percent decline in homicides so far this year from last and a 19 percent drop in shootings. Tabloid headlines reporting a stabbing almost every day in the most populous U.S. city have heightened the police department’s concern about their impact on the public.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-18/stabbing-surge-stumps-nyc-police-sows-fear-among-residents

    • They could turn the city’s crime rate on a dime just by voting in pro-gun people to eliminate ALL of NYC and NY State’s gun control laws. Right now, the criminals rule the streets because the masses are just sitting ducks in the streets. Trump is probably really, REALLY pro-gun because the powers-that-be there in NYC DENIED him a concealed carry license for years. Get rid of all the anti-gun judges: yes, a general purge there needs to happen.

      • It would do a lot, several more states are considering on going to constitutional carry for their residents, Missouri is one. If it goes through they will still issue permits so their residences can carry in states with reciprocal carry agreements. I under stand the constitutional carry will be for residents only.

  13. Health workers rush to contain fresh Ebola outbreak in Guinea

    DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Health workers are rushing to the site of a fresh Ebola outbreak in Guinea to bolster efforts to contain the virus and prepare for the likelihood of more cases, aid agencies said on Friday.

    Four people in the southern region of Nzerekore were tested on Thursday and two of them were found to have Ebola. They were all from Korokpara, a village where three people from the same family have died in recent weeks from diarrhea and vomiting.

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) and aid agencies have sent experts to investigate the origin of the new cases and to identify, isolate, vaccinate and monitor all of their contacts.

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/health-workers-rush-contain-fresh-ebola-outbreak-guinea-131609291.html

  14. EU urges more countries to impose sanctions on Russia over Crimea

    BRUSSELS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – The European Union called on Friday for more countries to impose sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula two years ago, but the Kremlin said Crimea was Russian land and its status non-negotiable.

    In a statement issued on the anniversary of the formal absorption of Crimea into Russia, the 28-nation EU said it was very worried about Moscow’s military build-up in the region.

    The EU also said it would maintain sanctions that ban European companies from investing in Russian Black Sea oil and gas exploration.

    “The European Union remains committed to fully implementing its non-recognition policy, including through restrictive measures,” the European Council, which represents EU governments, said in its statement. “The EU calls again on U.N. member states to consider similar non-recognition measures.”

    The Kremlin responded by saying the issue of Crimea could not be “a matter of negotiations or international contacts”.

    http://www.oann.com/eu-calls-for-more-countries-to-impose-sanctions-over-crimea/

  15. U.S. sees new Chinese activity around South China Sea shoal

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has seen Chinese activity around a reef China seized from the Philippines nearly four years ago that could be a precursor to more land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Navy chief said on Thursday.

    The head of U.S. naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could be a trigger for Beijing to declare an exclusion zone in the busy trade route.

    Richardson told Reuters the United States was weighing responses to such a move.

    China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

    Richardson said the U.S. military had seen Chinese activity around Scarborough Shoal in the northern part of the Spratly archipelago, about 125 miles (200 km) west of the Philippine base of Subic Bay.

    “I think we see some surface ship activity and those sorts of things, survey type of activity, going on. That’s an area of concern … a next possible area of reclamation,” he said.

    Richardson said it was unclear if the activity near the reef, which China seized in 2012, was related to the pending arbitration decision.

    http://www.oann.com/exclusive-u-s-sees-new-chinese-activity-around-south-china-sea-shoal/

    • The article touches on the way the other nations in the region are banding together, it doesn’t mention that one of the reasons for this is the reduced US military power and the fear that the US won’t be able to protect them.

    • Defiant North Korea fires ballistic missile into sea, Japan protests

      SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile which flew about 800 km (500 miles) before hitting the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said on Friday, as the isolated state stepped up its defiance of tough new U.N. and U.S. sanctions.

      A U.S. official told Reuters in Washington it appeared to be a medium-range missile fired from a road-mobile launcher. That would mark North Korea’s first test of a medium-range missile, capable of reaching Japan, since 2014.

      The missile, launched from north of the capital, Pyongyang, flew across the peninsula and into the sea off the east coast early Friday morning, South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

      It appeared the North may have fired a second missile soon after from the same region, with a projectile disappearing from radar at an altitude of about 17 km, the statement said.

      South Korea did not confirm the type of the missiles. But 800 km was likely beyond the range of most short-range missiles in North Korea’s arsenal. The North’s Rodong missile has an estimated maximum range of 1,300 km, according to the South’s defense ministry.

      Friday’s launch quickly provoked a barrage of criticism and appeals.

      http://www.oann.com/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missile-into-sea-yonhap/

  16. Russia says groundwork laid for routing Islamic State in Syria’s Palmyra

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday that conditions had been created for a complete defeat of Islamic State forces in the Syrian city of Palmyra.

    Russia’s air force is continuing air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria at a rate of 20-25 sorties per day, while continuing to withdraw the bulk of its military contingent “according to schedule”, Sergei Rudskoi, a lieutenant-general in the Russian air force, told a news briefing.

    http://www.oann.com/russia-says-groundwork-laid-for-routing-islamic-state-in-syrias-palmyra/

  17. Wealthy Texas Muslims found guilty of slavery offer up this unique defense

    In law, an affirmative defense to a civil lawsuit or criminal charge is a fact beyond those alleged by the plaintiff or prosecutor that, if proven by the defendant, mitigates the legal consequences of the defendant’s otherwise unlawful conduct.

    The affirmative defense offered up by a Muslim couple who pleaded guilty to charges of keeping slaves in their Texas home is likely new to the annals of western law. The couple, Hassan al-Homoud, 46, and his wife Zainab al-Hosani, 39, originally of Qatar, argued that the prophet Muhammad kept slaves and that punishing them is thus “Islamophobic.”

    According to Al Jazeera America, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, who presided over the trial, has agreed to deport them, although he had hoped to impose a harsher sentence, since the crime of engaging in forced labor is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But a plea agreement was reached after the “servants” — one from Bangladesh, the other from Indonesia — refused to testify against them.

    Court documents showed that the two women were held in “virtual slavery,” living in a “rundown apartment with no furnishings, no linens, utensils, clothing, television, reading material or even toilet paper.”

    Homoud pleaded guilty in December to visa fraud, and his wife pleaded guilty to knowledge of a felony and failure to report it.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/03/17/wealthy-texas-muslims-found-guilty-of-slavery-offer-up-this-unique-defense/

  18. ITALY – CEI hails solidarity with asylum seekers

    In final statement released after Episcopal Council

    (ANSA) – Rome, March 18 – The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) has called for solidarity with refugees and migrants, according to the final statement of its Episcopal Council held this week in Genoa and released Friday by CEI Secretary-General Nunzio Galantino.

    Faced with the drama of refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe, bishops at the Conference debated “the scenarios of instability of the Middle East and, even more, of North Africa, turning their solidarity towards those seeking international protection”, according to the statement. The bishops also spoke against ” ALARMIST AND IDEOLOGICAL ” news reports in order to understand the “causes, responsibilities and dimension of a phenomenon which, together with huge problems, ENRICHES the whole country”, thus bringing ” RECIPROCAL ADVANTAGE “.

    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/vatican/2016/03/18/cei-hails-solidarity-with-asylum-seekers_44978f23-4c6e-4f96-91da-8e8576aafa6d.html

  19. BREIT BART – Six Arrested Outside Court During Geert Wilders Trial

    The Netherlands branch of the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) has turned out in support of Dutch campaigner Geert Wilders as he is tried under hate-crime laws for anti mass migration comments made two years ago.

    Campaigners gathered outside Schiphol Airport’s high-security courtroom this morning as Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders was whisked through the 15-foot security gates in a blacked-out car.

    The PEGIDA movement places an emphasis on good natured protests, and dozens of supporters were photographed wearing knitted piglet hats — a sign of defiance against political Islam — waving Dutch flags, and holding placards.

    The daily danger to Mr. Wilder’s life and the high-profile nature of the case means Dutch military police have been stationed outside the court today, and have been searching all cars approaching the site. Six arrests were made after three cars were found to contain pepper spray and knives. The Dutch Public Broadcast Company reports the motives of those arrested is presently unclear and it is unknown whether the armed men were supporters of Mr. Wilders or his enemies.

    PEGIDA released a statement Friday morning stating the arrested men were nothing to do with the pro-Wilders movement, and suggested they may have been linked to an activist movement known as the Dutch Self Defence Army (DSDA). The DSDA themselves have stated today their vehicles were deliberately targeted by security forces and reports of knives having been found are spurious.

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/18/pegida-demonstrate-in-support-of-anti-islamisation-campaigner-geert-wilders-outside-courthouse/

  20. GREECE -Italy-bound migrant flight grounded in Greece

    […] The migrant children were sent to a juvenile welfare centre, police said. It was not clear what happened to the adults.

    Police also seized the Piper aircraft, €34,430 in cash, two cars, 700 grams of cannabis and shotgun cartridges during the raid.

    The police identified the leader of the gang as one of the arrested Iraqis, and said they were continuing their investigation to find other accomplices.

    http://www.thelocal.it/20160318/italy-bound-migrant-smuggling-flight-grounded-in-greece

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

    Greece: Trafficking network arrested flying migrants to Italy

    A group of four Greek nationals and two Iraqis were arrested at Missolonghi airport, in western Greece, Friday, before flying seven Iraqi migrants, including four children, illegally to Italy.

    The small Piper plane used by the traffickers to fly the migrants was grounded at the airport of Mesolonghi, after the criminal group had managed to send to Italy 12 groups of migrants from Iraq. According to the police it is estimated that each passenger had to pay between €4,500 ($5,071) and €7,500 ($8,451).

  21. Followers of Iraqi cleric Sadr rally in Baghdad

    Thousands of Iraqis staged a protest on Friday outside the capital Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone to demand anti-corrpution measures, heeding a call by influential Shiiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

    At around 11 a.m. (0800 GMT), riot police stood aside and allowed leaders of the demonstrators to cut and pull aside barbed wire barriers to allow them to cross a bridge that leads to the zone, which houses government offices, the parliament and embassies.

    “Let’s get rid of them, they’re all thieves!”, chanted the demonstrators as they rushed across the bridge, aiming to hold their weekly Friday prayer at a Green Zone gate that leads to the parliament building.

    The Interior Ministry earlier said it had not authorized any sit-down protest, amid concern about clashes with the forces guarding the zone.

    Sadr earlier rejected the calls to cancel a planned sit-in of the Green Zone, which he called “a bastion of support for corruption.”

    He published a statement on his website on Thursday in response to politicians who asked him to drop the protest over concern that it could lead to violence near the sensitive district, which houses government offices and embassies.

    Sadr called for the sit-in last week to press Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to replace cabinet ministers with technocrats unaffiliated with political parties in order to counter systemic political patronage that has abetted corruption.

    Sadr, heir to a Shiite clerical dynasty in Shiite majority Iraq, has threatened a no-confidence vote in parliament unless technocratic ministers are named soon.

    But his al-Ahrar bloc commands just 34 of 328 seats in parliament, and since he may not be able to vote down an eventual new cabinet, he has had to resort to street protests to maintain pressure on Abadi, leveraging his popularity among the poor in Shi’ite districts of Baghdad.

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/03/18/Iraq-s-Sadr-spurns-calls-to-drop-sit-in-over-bastion-of-corruption-.html

    ===============================================
    Thousands protest corruption in Baghdad, stage sit-in

  22. American IS fighter chose to surrender to Kurds: TV interview

    An American Islamic State fighter in Kurdish custody, identified as Kweis Mohammed Jamal, speaks about his journey to the Islamic State and why he decided to surrender himself to Kurdish forces. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

    • Original – 16 min – video on this page :

      EXCLUSIVE interview with the American-born ISIS fighter

      ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – In an exclusive interview with Kurdistan24 on Tuesday, Mohamad Jamal Khweis, an American-Palestinian Islamic State (IS) fighter revealed his story of joining the extremist group.

      Khweis is a 26-year-old US citizen from the State of Virginia, where he completed high school and received a degree in Criminal Justice from a college. On Monday, he surrendered himself to Kurdish Peshmerga forces near the city of Sinjar (Shingal) in northern Iraq. Khweis’ parents moved from the Palestinian Territories to the United States about “27-28 years ago.”

      “I attended a mosque in America, but not that often…I left the States in the middle of December 2015 and went to Europe. I first went to the UK,” Khweis said

      From London, he moved to Amsterdam and then to Turkey where he met an Iraqi woman whose sister was married to an IS fighter. The pair found contacts who took them to Syria and then to Mosul. “First, we took a bus from Istanbul to Gaziantep…From there, a driver picked us up and took us to the border and then [we went] from Syria to Iraq.”

      “I don’t know the exact places we passed by, but [we arrived] in Mosul on January 16,” Khweis said.

      In the IS-controlled territories, the new recruit was stripped of his identification cards and was given the nickname “Abu Omar.” He then lived with 70 foreign fighters in one house until he was transported to Mosul.

      In the new location, he would spend most of his day in religion classes. “Our daily life was basically prayer, eating, and learning about the religion for about 8 hours.”

      But the lessons the Imam preached did not seem acceptable to Khweis. “I didn’t complete the whole Sheria [Islamic Law]. I didn’t agree with their ideology. That’s when I wanted to escape.”

      The American fighter also explained that the living conditions in Mosul were very difficult. “It is not like Western countries. It is very strict and no smoking there. There are a lot of foreign fighters walking around with weapons, and many are from Central and south Asia,” he said.

      Reflecting on his time in Mosul, he stated, “I stayed there about a month, and I found it very, very hard to live there. I decided to return back home [US],” he continued. “I found someone who could take me back to Turkey. First he said he could help me, but then he said it will be difficult to take me all the way to Turkey. He told me he will take me close to Turkey’s border.”

      Khweis then decided to cross the Kurdish frontlines and contact the Peshmerga forces.

      “I made a bad decision to go …to Mosul. At the time I made the decision, I was not thinking straight. On the way there, I regretted. I wanted to go back home. After things didn’t work out and I couldn’t see myself living in such an environment,” he added.

      “I wanted to go to the Kurds’ side because I know that they are good with the Americans. And I decided to make my journey to go and meet with the Kurds. And when I met with the Kurds, they treated me very well. And I am happy I made that decision,” he said.

      He concluded by addressing people of the United States. “My message to the American people is that life in Mosul is really very bad. The people who control Mosul don’t represent a religion. Daesh [IS] does not represent a religion. I don’t see them as good Muslims.”

      http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/bf92b765-a474-4f3b-8dcd-d90446a60f9c/EXCLUSIVE-interview-with-the-American-born-ISIS-fighter

  23. Large Police Operation Underway in Molenbeek, Brussels

    Brussels raids: Paris attack suspect Abdeslam ‘surrounded’

    Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam has been surrounded and wounded in an anti-terror police raid in Brussels, local media say.

    This has not been officially confirmed. Shots were earlier heard in the Molenbeek area of Belgian’s capital.

    Belgian PM Charles Michel had to urgently leave an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, a BBC reporter says.

    Abdeslam is a key suspect in last year’s Paris attacks in which 130 people died.

    His fingerprints were found in a Brussels flat raided on Tuesday.

    Abdeslam, a French national born in Brussels, had lived in Molenbeek before the 13 November attacks.

    He has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the attacks, claimed by militants from the so-called Islamic State group.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35846954

  24. Germany’s Merkel to Voters: “No Change to Migration Policy”
    “Tectonic shift in political landscape of Germany”

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to continue her open-door migration policy — despite heavy losses in regional elections that were widely regarded as a referendum on that very policy.

    Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was defeated in two out of the three federal states voting on March 13. By contrast, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — an upstart anti-establishment party campaigning against Merkel’s liberal migration policy — surged to double-digit results in all three states: Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.

    In a press conference after the election results were in, Merkel remained defiant. She reprimanded German voters for questioning her handling of the migration crisis: “There are people who did not listen to us at all and simply cast protest votes. We need to solve this [migrant] problem, not through theoretical debates, but by finding a [European] solution to the problem.”

    The elections were the most important in Germany since Merkel allowed more than one million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to enter the country in 2015. Merkel’s migration policy is causing security mayhem in Germany, where mostly Muslim migrants are raping and assaulting women and children with virtual impunity.

    With immigration now the dominant issue in German politics, Merkel’s refusal to reverse her open-door migration policy has alienated many of her traditional supporters, scores of whom are flocking to the AfD to protest Germany’s pro-immigration, pro-EU political establishment.

    The AfD was founded as a Eurosceptic party in 2013 by German economists advocating the abolition of the European single currency, the euro, and opposing financial bailouts of profligate eurozone countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7644/germany-elections-migration-policy

    • If it does turn into a Gender contest that will be hypocrisy on hte part of Hillary and her supporters since she has done more to hurt woman’s rights then anyone else alive.

      • Shallow, stupid comments. Hyping themselves silly.
        And ‘gender’ is soooo ~~ old ~~ soooo 20th century…

        ~~What about the “transgender”, “cisgender”, “gender-free”?~~
        [I don’t know what these words mean, but I read them in some crybully manifesto.]

  25. Every Republican Presidential Candidate Is Hitler
    The “Big Lie” has been around for over fifty years.

    Except for Adolf Hitler’s extermination of the Jewish people, the American bombardment of defenseless peasants in Indochina is the most barbaric act of modern times.”

    That quote didn’t come from some Soviet hack coughing up copy for Moscow, but from Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. (Some years later, McGovern would compare the Communist massacres in Cambodia to the Holocaust and call for some of that barbaric military intervention.)

    Vice President Hubert Humphrey also brought out Hitler when running against Nixon, declaring, “If the British had not fought in 1940, Hitler would have been in London and if Democrats do not fight in 1968, Nixon will be in the White House.” Chicago Mayor Daley had accused Nixon of “Hitler type” tactics.

    McGovern had set a record for comparing Nixon to Hitler, which made him very popular with the left, but he hadn’t originated it. Comparing any Republican presidential candidate to Hitler had been a standard Democratic political tactic for some time no matter how inappropriate it might be.

    Before McGovern was comparing Nixon to Hitler, he was comparing Barry Goldwater to Hitler. Goldwater had a Jewish father and a distaste for Socialism, which would have made him unwelcome in the ranks of the racially and politically pure National Socialists, but that didn’t stop the Hitler accusations from being hurled by the Democratic party and its political allies in the press.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262157/every-republican-presidential-candidate-hitler-daniel-greenfield

    • The left thinks all Republicans are Nazi’s and can be called anything they want but woe betide any Republican that calls a Democrat a Fascist (a lot are) or accuse them of acting like Hitler or Stalin (which Obama does at time, especially when purging our military of competent officers because they don’t support him politically).

      • George McGovern hit on my cousin – when she was 15 years old!
        I only learned about it a few years ago. I’m still shocked, but it’s 100% true.
        Here was this liberal deity, Prince of Progressives. A traitor chasing after a 15-year-old child. I only wish someone would’ve out-ed him.

  26. The Left’s Plan to Cut Loose a Million Prisoners
    The radicals’ assault on the rule of law — and on the institutions that keep Americans safe.

    Radical left-wingers want to free half the nation’s prisoners –including many violent offenders– a move that would cause an upsurge in crime rates for decades to come.

    To many of today’s leftists criminality itself is an illegitimate concept. The mindless chanting of the slogan “no one is illegal” at open-borders rallies is part of the same school of thought.

    Spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union and bankrolled by radical speculator George Soros, the “end mass incarceration” movement wants to reduce the U.S. prison population by 50 percent within the next 10 to 15 years.

    This specific push is called the “Cut50” project.

    “We have the largest incarcerated population in the world despite the fact that we’re a democracy and that we value individual freedoms,” Alison Holcomb, national director of the ACLU Campaign to End Mass Incarceration told public radio station KUOW in Puget Sound, Wash.

    “The overuse of our criminal justice system has resulted in expanding a caste, a second class of citizens that lose their right to vote, that won’t be able to get loans to go to school, that will probably have difficulty renting an apartment and that is not healthy for our society and it’s actually compromising our safety.”

    Like Black Lives Matter supporter and Baltimore riot organizer DeRay Mckesson, Holcomb doesn’t care about property rights.

    She doesn’t want thieves and robbers jailed even briefly. If someone steals property, “why is the response to put that person in a cage?” she said.

    Holcomb’s comrades want to unleash more than a million inmates –including violent offenders– on American society.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262198/lefts-plan-cut-loose-million-prisoners-matthew-vadum

  27. Obama Backed Muslim Brotherhood Egypt Coup Against National Security Team Advice

    Obama usually defends his bad decisions on foreign policy by blaming someone else. He tried to blame General Austin for his ISIS JayVee team line. He blames Netanyahu for his failed outreach to Islamic terrorists in Israel. Benghazi was caused by a video. The Libyan War was caused by bad advice, especially from Hillary Clinton. Also by the Europeans.

    We don’t discuss Egypt much. But, perhaps to get ahead of the blame game, it turns out that Obama rejected the advice of his national security team to back a Brotherhood coup of Mubarak in Egypt. (Yes, I know, the official media narrative is that the overthrow of Morsi was a “coup” but the overthrow of Mubarak was a popular protest, even though both involved the army stepping in. Because the narrative is based on lies and word games.)

    Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates revealed that President Barack Obama disregarded the near unanimous advice of the national security team and decided to depose then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak because he wanted to be on the “the right side of history.”

    “The entire national security team recommended unanimously handling Mubarak differently than we did,” Gates said in a Fox News interview. “And the president took the advice of three junior backbenchers in terms of how to treat Mubarak — one of them saying, ‘Mr. President, you have to be on the right side of history.’”

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/262209/obama-backed-muslim-brotherhood-egypt-coup-against-daniel-greenfield

  28. Far-right French National Front leader Marine Le Pen making surprise visit to Quebec

    MONTREAL – Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far right National Front, is set to arrive Friday in Montreal for a weeklong visit to Quebec and the French possession of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

    News of her visit sparked immediate condemnation in Quebec, with Parti Québécois MNA Bernard Drainville telling a Radio-Canada host she is not welcome.

    “She should get off the plane and get right back on and go home,” Drainville said.

    An agenda posted on Le Pen’s web site says she will hold one news conference Sunday in connection with the international Journée de la francophonie and another one in Montreal on Tuesday.

    Front National Representative Sébastien Chenu, who is travelling with Le Pen, said that a meeting with unnamed federal politicians has been scheduled and a meeting with provincial politicians is “under construction.”

    A spokeswoman for the French consulate in Montreal said Le Pen is visiting Canada as part of a nine-member European trade delegation. Le Pen is a member of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, which is visiting Canada “with a special focus on the EU-Canada trade agreement,” according to the committee’s web site. The trade agreement will soon be up for ratification in the European Parliament.

    The web site says the delegation is supposed to meet next week in Ottawa with “the Trade Committee in the Parliament, civil society and business representatives.”

    In Montreal, the delegation is meeting “regional authorities.”

    Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard will not meet Le Pen, his office said.

    http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/far-right-french-front-national-leader-marine-le-pen-making-surprise-visit-to-quebec

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

    CBC – Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right Front National, visits Quebec

    Philippe Couillard, Pierre Karl Péladeau and François Legault steer clear of controversial French politician

    Premier Philippe Couillard and provincial opposition leaders are keeping clear of the controversial leader of France’s far-right party, the Front National.

    Marine Le Pen is arriving in Montreal today and plans to spend six days in the province.

    During her time in Quebec, she will hold news conferences in Montreal and Quebec City. She’ll also travel to the French self-governing territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, south of Newfoundland, and hold a news conference there.

    Premier Philippe Couillard, Parti Québécois Leader Pierre Karl Péladeau and Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault have all declined to meet her.

    Marine Le Pen has been criticized by many in France for what are seen as thinly veiled racist positions.

    However, the Front National, a one-time fringe party founded in 1972 by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has gained popularity under leadership.

    She has her sights set on the 2017 presidential election and has been striving to clean up the party’s image.

    www( dot )cbc(dot )ca/news/canada/montreal/marine-le-pen-front-national-quebec-1.3497468

    Marine Le Pen to spend week in Quebec

    Marine Le Pen, the president of France’s Front Nationale, an extreme-right conservative political party, is spending a week in Quebec.

    Le Pen is slated to arrive in Montreal on Friday. She is the daughter of longtime former Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

    Marine Le Pen, who was instrumental in having her father expelled from the Front Nationale in 2015, is running in France’s presidential elections in 2017.

    She will be holding several press conferences during her stay.

    On Sunday she will be in Quebec City to take part in La journée de la francophonie where she will speak at a press conference.

    On Tuesday she is slated to meet with the media at a Montreal hotel.

    http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/marine-le-pen-to-spend-week-in-quebec

  29. Belgium: Merkel announces “every irregular migrant” to be returned to Turkey

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that “every irregular migrant” that has arrived in Europe will be returned to Turkey, during a press conference in Brussels, Friday, on the EU-Turkey summit.

    SOT, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor (German): “From the 20th March, so in a few days, will Turkey start to take back every irregular migrant for the necessary conditions to be fulfilled – that means, all the illegals who come over the Aegean to Greece then must be returned. This means that when they embark on this dangerous route they do not only risk their lives, but also they have no prospect of success. Thus we want to end this inhumane smuggler model and also reinforce the external borders. We hope that this will bring to an end irregular migration for the most part. And then, I would like to conclude that this shows once again that a common European solution is still possible; that we want to achieve this important and worthy task with Turkey and everyone has emphasised this again today. Thank you.”

  30. Telling The Truth: Jared Taylor On The 2016 Edition Of THE COLOR OF CRIME

    The New Century Foundation, publisher of American Renaissance, is proud to announce its 2016 update of The Color of Crime. This is the definitive account of interracial crime and race differences in crime rates, based unimpeachably on government statistics. The Color of Crime report also covers topical issues such as police shootings of blacks, immigrant crime rates, and the consequences of “de-policing.” Edwin S. Rubenstein, who writes the National Data column for VDARE.com, is the principal author. I believe the report is irrefutable—and an utter condemnation of the Main Stream Media, which has systematically and deliberately suppressed the truth.

    Here’s an example of The Color of Crime findings:

    Based on current patterns, if New York City were all white, the murder rate would fall by 91 percent and non-fatal shootings would drop by 97 percent. You could lay off most of the police force.

    But it’s best just to let the report speak for itself. You can buy a hard copy here for $9.95 or download a free PDF here.

    The history of The Color of Crime is worth telling because it is an illuminating commentary on our times.

    The first edition of The Color of Crime was published in 1999. What a different era we lived in then! This was during what VDARE.com Editor Peter Brimelow has called “the “interglacial,” that brief thaw between the deep freeze on discussion of race realism and immigration that had set in in the 1960s and returned as an even harder freeze in the early 2000s. It was a fleeting, seven-or eight-year period, during which Brimelow published Alien Nation, The Bell Curve was a best-seller, my own books were published by mainstream houses, American Renaissance conferences were broadcast on C-SPAN, and it seemed that the country might actually come to grips with the reality of race.

    But the hounds of orthodoxy were not sleeping. They had just invented a new name for common sense: “racial profiling.” This was the great sin du jour, much as white privilege and “microaggressions” are some of today’s favorites.

    When we released the first edition of The Color of Crime I held a press conference at the National Press Club to explain why racial profiling was rational. I pointed out that everyone knows men commit more violent crime than women, and that young people are more dangerous than old people. We “profile” all the time; an old woman is not the same potential threat as a young man. No one complains when the police “age profile” or “sex profile,” because it would be crazy not to.

    I explained that, statistically, racial profiling is no different from sex profiling, since blacks are almost as much more dangerous than whites, as men are more dangerous than women. In big cities, by the way, that’s still very much the case. In Chicago, a man is about 20 times more likely than a woman to be arrested for robbery—and a black is about 27 times more likely than a white.

    The country was quite open to a flicker of sanity. My press conference was covered by C-SPAN. [June 2, 1999] (I keep waiting for C-SPAN to purge the file from its archives, but the proof is still there: I once had almost as much hair as Peter Brimelow!) I was then invited on major television programs to talk about racial profiling. Chris Matthews of Hard Ball listened respectfully. Again and again, I explained to television hosts—even to Queen Latifah [December 13, 2000]—that young black men are the most dangerous people in America.

    In those days it was a cinch to get on talk radio. I must have given 50 or 60 interviews about race and crime, and there were massive, enthusiastic call-ins. In several cities, when a radio producer heard me on a rival station he called to get me on his station. Newspapers wrote up the report. The National Association of Police Organizations invited me to speak at its annual conference. [Race Profiling Is Debated At a Meeting For Police, By Michael Janofsky, NYT, August 15, 1999]

    This year, I’m not holding a press conference. It would attract more demonstrators than reporters. C-SPAN would certainly not cover it. Chris Matthews would probably shoot himself before he would ask me to explain why racial profiling is rational.

    No one in the conventional media can bear to hear the obvious: that Chicago doesn’t have a gun problem; it has a race problem.

    We will be pitching the report’s author, Edwin Rubenstein, to talk radio, but it will be a hard slog.

    Anything even approaching the truth about race is too much for today’s coddled blacks and castrated whites. Just this week, students and faculty at Virginia Tech shrieked because the “white nationalist” Charles Murray had been invited to speak on campus—about capitalism.[ Virginia Tech Debates Upcoming Visit by Charles Murray, Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2016] Harvard Law School decided to junk its crest because it memorializes an 18th-century donor who established Harvard’s first law professorship—but whose family owned slaves [ Harvard Law School to ditch controversial shield, By Steve Annear, Boston Globe, March 14, 2016]

    There is no question that compared to just 17 years ago, the country is terrified.

    Or I should say the official United States is terrified. There is now almost an unofficial United States—composed of a rich, multi-faceted, dissident media, none of which existed in 1999. Friendly Internet sites, bloggers, podcasters, and tweeters are going to flash the new Color of Crime all around the world. There’s a very good chance more people will see this year’s report than the one from 1999.

    I hope you’ll be one of them.

    http://www.vdare.com/articles/telling-the-truth-jared-taylors-on-the-2016-edition-of-the-color-of-crime