Reader’s links for March 22 – 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

87 Replies to “Reader’s links for March 22 – 2016”

  1. Mayor: Atlantic City government will shut down for 3 weeks

    ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey, says the resort town’s dismal finances will force a weekslong shutdown of nonessential government services next month if the city doesn’t get state aid.

    Republican Don Guardian said Monday the shutdown would start April 8 and likely last until at least May 2, when quarterly tax revenue is set to arrive. Police, fire and sanitation workers would continue to perform their jobs without pay but would be paid when the tax money comes in.

    http://www.fox5ny.com/news/local-news/111206051-story

  2. Dem says Russian subs ‘dangerously close’ to U.S.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is deploying nuclear-armed submarines “dangerously close” to the United States and European allies, a Senate Democrat said following a trip to the Arctic Circle.

    “No one is suggesting that Putin is contemplating a nuclear launch against a NATO country, but it’s not clear how tethered to reality Putin is,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday. “And it should make us nervous that many of his submarines are starting to get dangerously close to the U.S. and our allies.”

    Murphy made the comments while arguing that the U.S. Navy needs to pursue an aggressive plan to replace aging submarines, which can thwart rival countries from gathering intelligence and maintain the security of global shipping lanes.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2586428

  3. Trump thanks Latina supporter; now mounting backlash threatens her business

    TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – It has been two days since she took center stage, next to the GOP front runner Donald Trump in Tucson.

    Ever since she showed her support for the billionaire, she has been harassed at her business. Before thousands of eyes were on her Saturday afternoon, Trump spotted not her, but her sign which read “Latinas support D. Trump.”

    While KGUN9 was inside Sammy’s Mexican Grill, the phone rang several dozen times, many calling Betty Rivas and her family racists, vulgar names and threatening their business.

    Betty Rivas and her husband Jorge own the restaurant in Catalina, and she posted a photo of her and Trump on stage on her own Facebook page. But, she says some of her friends must not have agreed, sharing the post and putting her family business at the center of this controversy.

    Many of the Facebook posts we came across today were vulgar in nature. We captured screenshots of several that were later deleted from the Sammy’s Mexican Grill Facebook page. They can be viewed above in the media player.

    http://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/trump-thanks-latina-supporter-now-mounting-backlash-threatens-her-business

  4. Exclusive: U.N. lifts North Korea sanctions on four ships at China’s request

    UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council agreed on Monday to a Chinese request to remove sanctions on four ships the United Nations had blacklisted for ties to Pyongyang’s arms trade. The agreement came after China secured assurances the vessels would not use North Korean crews, a U.S. official said.

    China asked the United States on March 16 for help removing the ships from the U.N. blacklist, according to a diplomatic cable sent the same day from the U.S. permanent mission at the United Nations to a group of other U.S. embassies.

    The cable, reviewed by Reuters, showed wrangling between top diplomats from the United States and China over the tough new North Korea sanctions, weeks after Washington had presented a united front with Beijing, Pyongyang’s main ally and trade partner.

    The U.S. mission at the United Nations declined to comment on the cable or make its ambassador, Samantha Power, available for an interview about the cable. The U.S. Treasury Department, which administers U.S. economic and financial sanctions, also declined to comment.

    The removal of the four ships was confirmed in a press release, which was seen by Reuters and will soon be issued by the Security Council, according to U.N. diplomats.

    While Washington has been the driving force behind the toughening international sanctions regime, China conducts 90 percent of the trade with North Korea and is the key to enforcing them.

    http://www.oann.com/exclusive-u-n-lifts-north-korea-sanctions-on-four-ships-at-chinas-request/

  5. Strategic sabotage: China’s new ‘commercial’ foothold in Australia
    By J.E. Dyer March 21, 2016

    Things are starting to happen now that won’t un-happen short of tremendous breaches of convention – or even regime change, or major war.

    One of the most important developments is the leasing of an Australian port to the Chinese firm Landbridge Group. The 99-year lease was announced in October 2015. Landbridge will control port operations for the duration of that lease.

    In the months afterward, Australians have awakened to what happened, and are becoming understandably concerned. The Chinese company didn’t lease just any old port. It leased the port of Darwin, in the Northern Territory facing the Timor Sea. The port provides the Australian navy with its closest base to the South China Sea. However sleepy and laid-back the surrounding area, the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) front-line forces use this base for their operations.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/03/21/strategic-sabotage-chinas-new-commercial-foothold-in-australia/

    • http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/03/21/strategic-sabotage-chinas-new-commercial-foothold-in-australia/

      A secret US State Department poll, which surveyed 1000 Australians on what risk the Darwin port lease to Chinese firm Landbridge poses to the country, found that almost half of Australians saw it as posing “a lot of risk” to national security, and another 46% said it held at least “some risk”.

      That left only 11% of the country of the opinion that it held absolutely “no risk”.

      In October, the Northern Territory government announced that Landbridge Group had been awarded a 99-year lease for the Darwin port — one of Australia’s acknowledged key strategic assets — in return for a one-off payment of $506 million.

      So far, $100 million from the lease has been earmarked for a ship-lift facility, $50 million for power station upgrades, and a further $100 million has been announced to bring forward spending to boost the Territory economy.

      The research entitled “Australians See Chinese Port Deal as a Security Threat”, obtained by The Australian, warns that Landbridge’s alleged ties to the ­People’s Liberation Army “raise concerns port access could facilitate intelligence collection on US and Australian military forces stationed nearby”, and that it’s findings would “likely force Australians to rethink their choices of when to put national ­security ahead of economic gain”.

      http://www.businessinsider.com/most-australians-think-the-chinas-darwin-port-deal-is-highly-risky-to-national-security-2016-3

      • Today’s so hard, I can’t even enjoy sinking my teeth into J.E.
        Confessing that I love slogging through such dense treasure troves shows how off my game I really am.

        • Today is bad and as the information continues to come out the extent of our infiltration and the government refusal to do anything will become clearer. Things are going to get worse as this year grows older, the semi radicalized Moslems are going start looking up to and joining the jihadists in their midst.

  6. Paris terrorist ‘planned attacks in Germany’ (thelocal, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.de/20160322/paris-terrorist-planned-attacks-in-germany

    “Saleh Abdeslam, the man arrested in Belgium on Friday in connection with the Paris attacks, also had Germany in his sights, Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper reported on Tuesday.

    The terrorist network that carried out the attacks was “explicitly” built to carry out other attacks in Europe, including against the Federal Republic of Germany, a high-ranking security expert told Tagesspiegel.

    In fact, the Paris group may have been just one of three groups put together by Isis to carry out attacks in western Europe.

    Security sources told the newspaper that most of the first group was killed in a US airstrike on Raqqa, capital of the so-called “Islamic State” in Syria.

    The second group carried out the Paris attacks – leaving security authorities to hunt for the remaining team.

    Abdeslam is believed to have been one of the leading planners of the Paris attacks in November in which terrorists killed 130 people in suicide bomb attacks, drive-by shootings and the storming of the Bataclan concert hall.

    But he is also known to have made a trip to Germany in October 2015, travelling from Belgium to Ulm, Baden-Württemberg to collect three men who had entered the country disguised as Syrian refugees.

    The men may have been part of the Paris attacks group or have been slated to take part in further attacks in Belgium or Germany, Tagesspiegel’s security source claimed.

    He also travelled through Germany in September 2015 on the way to Vienna and had his identity checked on the border by Austrian police….”

  7. The global philosopher: Should borders be abolished? (BBC, March 22, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35834178

    “There are tens of millions of people in the world who have fled their homeland because of war or persecution. But there are millions more who cross borders to be with family, to retire to a warm climate, or to earn more money. Countries have the right to restrict immigration, at least in theory. The question is whether they should have this right.

    This week the BBC begins a new experiment in philosophy, The Global Philosopher, presented by Michael Sandel. The programme uses a state-of-the-art studio at the Harvard Business School in Boston, which allows people around the world to come together for a global discussion. Here producer David Edmonds sets out some philosophical puzzles connected with borders and immigration.

    According to international law, everyone has a right to seek asylum from persecution or war. There is no automatic right to move elsewhere for economic reasons. But the distinction between refugees and immigrants cannot always be so neatly drawn.

    Compare the wealthy banker who wants to transfer to another financial centre, where the bonuses are higher, with the farmer who wants to emigrate because there’s been a drought and the crops have failed. The latter seems closer to the political refugee. Is there any morally relevant difference between people dying from bombs and others dying from extreme poverty?

    Wealth v Identity

    Two sorts of justifications are usually given for restricting immigration – the first to do with wealth, the second with identity.

    Immigration, it’s often said, would adversely affect the lives of existing citizens. Foreigners might take jobs that would otherwise have gone to locals, or they might drive down wages, or stretch public services, such as health and education. Of course, whether these fears are really warranted is much contested.

    That argument aside, the second rationale for border controls is cohesion. To a philosopher, this is more intriguing. Countries function best, it’s sometimes said, when citizens have a powerful sense of identity – an identity shaped by a shared history, religion, culture. Foreigners threaten that solidarity, and so undermine the fabric of society. If we view many of our compatriots as “them” rather than “us”, perhaps we’ll be less willing to support (through our taxes or labour) the services that glue a nation together. For some countries, that sense of interconnection is fragile. The former Yugoslavia rapidly unravelled in the 1990s when Slobodan Milosevic began to push a Serbian nationalist agenda.

    But if we acknowledge that social cohesion provides a compelling basis for border controls, then we’re forced to conclusions that some would find uncomfortable. For, surely, some immigrants are more likely to threaten our sense of unity than others. That logic points to a system which privileges entry to immigrants who most resemble us – racially, religiously or culturally. Are countries stronger when they are ethnically and culturally homogenous?

    Compatriots v Foreigners

    It’s widely assumed that we have special obligations to our compatriots that we do not have to foreigners. Victims of a hurricane or flood in our own country have more of a claim on us than victims on the far side of the world. But this is a bit puzzling. Take UK citizens living in Dover: why do they owe more to the inhabitants of Middlesbrough, in North England, 260 miles away, than to refugees in a Calais camp just 26 miles away? Or take an indigenous people divided by the border between the US and Mexico: should they have a greater sense of obligation to their distant compatriots than to their tribal members living close, but abroad? Many of the world’s national borders are the result of contingent historical factors – drawn with little regard to sentiment.

    Free Exit v Free Entry

    Most people believe that it’s wrong to prevent citizens from leaving their country – it’s regarded as an infringement of human rights to seal borders. In 1987, former US President Ronald Reagan delivered a famous speech in Berlin, calling on the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”. The power of his appeal lay in the intuition that imprisoning an entire population behind brick, barbed-wire and guard-towers was an abomination. Those who’d attempted to cross the Berlin Wall had been shot, and more than 100 killed.

    But there’s a conundrum here. For if it’s wrong to prevent a person leaving, why is it not equally wrong to prevent that same person from arriving? It’s all very well to have the right to emigrate, but it must feel like a pretty empty freedom if there is nowhere to go.”

  8. Germany increases security in wake of Brussels bombings (DW, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/germany-increases-security-in-wake-of-brussels-bombings/a-19133583

    “German police have increased security at airports and borders in response to the terror attacks at Brussels Airport. But there is no clear evidence yet that the attackers had any German connections.

    Germany’s federal police reported that they had increased security on the borders with Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as well as at airports and railway stations following Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels.

    In a press statement released shortly after midday, the police also said that officers on the ground had been provided with “extra protective equipment suitable for the location.”

    The police did not want to give further details on the measures taken, but following last November’s machine gun attacks in Paris, German security forces drew up an action plan on how to respond to a terrorist attack in a neighboring country, which was leaked to “Der Spiegel” magazine….”

  9. Danish police up patrols after Brussels blasts (thelocal, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.dk/20160322/danish-police-step-up-patrols-after-brussels-blasts

    “Danish police have launched emergency police controls up at Copenhagen airport and at key points around the city, after Brussels was hit by a series of blasts, at its airport and at a metro station.

    Copenhagen Police warned Danes to expect a heightened police presence, saying they were now on “high alert”.

    “We will be more visible. We will, among other things, look out for suspicious behavior and abandoned objects at the airport and at transportation hubs in Copenhagen such as Nørreport and the Central Station, a duty officer with Copenhagen Police told state broadcaster DR….”

  10. Italy at high terror risk, intelligence sources say (ansa, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2016/03/22/italy-at-high-terror-risk-intelligence-sources-say_7f1b5645-8d2e-403e-8cd7-5f6b6e753797.html

    “(supersedes previous)(ANSA) – Rome, March 22 – Italian intelligence sources said in the wake of Tuesday’s terror attacks in Brussels that the risk of such attacks in Italy remains high although there are no signs of an imminent action. The so-called Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks, Russian news agency TASS cited the ISIS-linked Amaq News Agency as saying. An unexploded device and a Kalashnikov rifle were found at Brussels’ Zaventem airport, where government officials earlier confirmed 11 were killed and 81 were wounded in a blast.

    Separately, Egyptian daily Al Watan’s website cited the ISIS-linked Amaq News Agency as saying ISIS “has pledged further operations in Europe” and “stated that the (Brussels) operation was based on high-speed planning and enactment”.

    Italian intelligence sources said the deadly attacks in Belgium came as no surprise, given that intelligence analysts had indicated a high risk of fresh attacks in Europe in the wake of the November 13 Islamist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Belgium and France are both at high risk due to their high numbers of radicalized Muslim citizens or residents and the fact that they house EU institutions. The sources said al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups aim for waves of simultaneous attacks in European capitals, requiring long-term planning and military and logistical capabilities. Italy has gotten generic threats but allied intelligence services have given no indication of any imminent, specific threat. All national prefectures and police stations have orders to reinforce security measures at airports, railway stations, subways, and all areas considered at risk.”

  11. Federal cops worked 3 million extra hours in refugee crisis (thelocal, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.de/20160322/federal-police-worked-3-million-extra-hours-in-refugee-crisis

    “In a sign of the burden placed on the federal police by the huge influx of refugees in 2015, the government has revealed the border cops accumulated almost 3 million hours of overtime last year.

    The exact figures show that up until the end of February the federal police – who have responsibility for securing Germany’s borders and policing public transport infrastructure such as train stations and airports – accumulated 2.7 million hours of overtime.

    The figures come from a parliamentary question by the Green Party seen by Die Welt newspaper.

    Police have been putting in even more hours since the government’s decision in September 2015 to reinstate border checks at the Austrian border, Die Welt reports on information from security sources.

    The largest amount of overtime performed was by the riot police who gathered 880,000 extra hours, or 185 per officer.

    In February the Bavarian state government also revealed that its police force had accumulated over 2 million hours in overtime, the Augsburger Allgemeine reports.

    Bavaria was the German state most affected by the refugee crisis, as most asylum seekers entered Germany at the Bavarian border with Austria and then travelled on to state capital Munich.

    Police Union DPolG, meanwhile, calculated at the end of February that, if police officers were to all take time off as compensation for their overtime in one go, Germany would have no police at all for over a week.

    In North Rhine-Westphalia, officers have worked so many

    extra hours they would be missing from the streets for 18 days.

    Health risks

    “The government has been pursuing policies for years which fail to support the ordinary police officer,” Irene Mihalic, security spokesperson for the Green Party told Die Welt.

    “This attitude is coming back to haunt them now – but the ones who are paying are the ordinary officers who have to carry round this huge weight of overtime,” she added.

    Mihalic warned that the extra work would have health implications for the police force and appealed to the government to swap some of the overtime for rest days, rather than money.

    “Time spent with family and friends isn’t something you can replace with money,” she argued.

    The stress that the refugee crisis placed on the federal police is also evidenced by the large number of stations which were only open part-time, as officers worked in support of colleagues in other parts of the country.

    During the past three months 29 stations were partially shut down. This was due to officers supporting colleagues on other operations, but also due to illness and building works.

    Jörg Radek from the Police Trade Union (GdP) said that the closing of stations was a result of “chronic underfunding.”

    “After the assaults in Cologne, train stations which don’t have the necessary police personnel could become increasingly insecure,” he told Die Welt.”

  12. UNHCR slams Greece’s migrant ‘detention facilities’ (DW, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/unhcr-slams-greeces-migrant-detention-facilities/a-19133677

    “Following a controversial EU-Turkey deal, the agency has suspended activities at Greek holding facilities. More than 1,600 migrants have arrived in Greece despite the implementation of the agreement.

    The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday said it would no longer provide support to mandatory “detention centers” for refugees in Greece.

    “UNHCR has until now supported authorities in ‘hotspots’ on Greek islands, where refugees and migrants were received, assisted and registered,” the UNHCR said in a statement.

    “In line with the policy on mandatory detention, UNHCR has suspended some activities at all closed centers that are now detention facilities,” the organization added.

    The agency’s decision is a response to the controversial deal struck between the EU and Ankara in March that will effectively allow the bloc to return migrants who reached Greece via Turkey.

    In return for Syrian refugees shipped back to Turkey by the EU, the bloc must take in one from a refugee camp in the Anatolian country.

    A prior plan to redistribute more than 100,000 asylum seekers from frontline countries, such as Greece and Italy, to other member states proved inconsequential after several Eastern European countries rejected the terms of resettlement.

    Meanwhile, the EU-Turkey deal was criticized by human rights groups, with Amnesty International saying the agreement marked “a dark day for Europe and a dark day for humanity.”…”

  13. Denmark may strip citizenship from imams (thelocal, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.dk/20160322/denmark-to-strip-citizenship-from-radical-imams

    “Denmark could begin stripping citizenship from imams who preach ideas “contrary to basic Danish values”, in the latest draconian measure brought in to counter the threat of radical Islam.

    The proposal, put forward by the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, is aimed specifically at removing citizenship from Abu Bilal, the outspoken imam of the Grimhøj mosque in Aarhus.

    It has already gained tentative backing from the ruling Liberal Party, the opposition Social Democrats and the Conservative party, meaning it is likely to win a majority in parliament.

    The Danish People’s Party’s immigration spokesman Martin Henriksen told the Berlingske newspaper that the Danish Constitution already allowed limits on the freedom to practice religion.

    “The Constitution says that anyone can practice their faith so long as it is not contrary to morals, or disturbing to the public order,” he said.

    “When imams endorse or recommend stoning, or when an imam tells a woman subjected to violence by her husband that that’s okay, then that constitutes, in my opinion, subversive speech that disturbs the public order.”

    “Some of these imams are Danish citizens, and we think we should deprive them of their citizenship,” he said.

    The president of the Grimhøj Mosque, Oussama El-Saadi, warned that such measures were more likely to fuel Islamic radicalisation than reduce it.

    “We will not solve the problem that way, but risk creating more radicalization,” he told Politiken newspaper. “I do not understand the thinking. Denmark is the best country I could possibly live in and I have no interest in destroying it.”

    He pointed out that Abu Bilal was a stateless Palestinian, meaning removing his Danish Citizenship would make him stateless, which would be problematic under international law.

    The proposals are among those being proposed by Denmark’s parties to be discussed in an upcoming set of meetings with prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen over possible measures to clamp down on radical mosques.

    Marcus Knuth, the Liberal Party’s immigration spokesman, said it was “a really good idea”.

    “You have to come down as hard as possible on these environments. You are not just talking about twisted old imams. These are the mosques that have shaped many Syrian fighters, and they can be a threat to national security.”

    Løkke Rasmussen has called for proposals following the hard-hitting documentary on radical mosques, “The mosques behind the veil”.

    The Danish Prime Minister has already said that he is willing to “push the limits” of the Danish Constitution when considering proposals.

    The Social Democrats’ spokesman, Trine Bramsen, said that her party supported depriving imams of their citizenship in special cases.

    “We are open to all solutions that can stop the radicalised imams,” said Trine Bramsen.”

  14. Racism in Austria at its highest level in years (thelocal, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.at/20160322/racism-in-austria-at-its-highest-in-years

    “Racism in Austria is at its highest level for years according to an annual report released by the anti-discrimination organisation ZARA.

    An increase in the number of racist remarks made on social media is thought to have contributed to the high figure for 2015.

    Last year 927 cases of racism in Austria where registered with ZARA, compared to 794 in 2014 and 731 in 2013. Twenty percent of the incidents in 2015 took place online, compared to 17 percent in the previous year.

    Two thirds of the racist remarks or acts referred to refugees, and were directed towards either asylum seekers or people supporting them. The ZARA statistics are only a guide to the extent of racism in Austria as they just reflect the number of incidents that were registered by people with the organisation.

    The report, however, supports data released by Austria’s police intelligence agency (Bundesamtes für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung) last November, which showed they received 1,201 criminal complaints about racist and xenophobic crimes between January and September, compared to 750 in the same period last year – a jump of 60 percent.

    Some of the online incidents documented by ZARA included people calling for the re-opening of concentration camps for refugees or posting made up stories. For example, one woman posted that a young sick Austrian was not treated in hospital because it was full of refugees, which was shared 5000 times although the hospital and patient concerned dismissed the story as false.

    The organisation also expressed concern at the number of political representatives who were supporting racist ideas, such as banning asylum seekers from swimming pools or promoting anti-Semitic slogans.

    Just a few days ago, state prosecutors decided to charge the chairman of a right-wing group that has links to Austria’s Freedom Party with racism and inciting hate against a minority group.

    Cases such as workplace discrimination against people with darker skin or who wear headscarves appear in the report every year, as do incidences of every-day racism. Last year, for example, when a black man held the doors of a U-Bahn train open, a Wiener Linier employee announced over the loud-speaker that “we must be considerate of our drug dealer”.

    Journalist Ingrid Brodnig, who has written a book about the topic, says often people can feel they are in the majority when they are make such comments online. She believes it is important that people react to hate comments by voicing alternative opinions.

    “Studies since the 1960s show that the moment somebody expresses another opinion to the supposed majority, in that moment where only one voice objects, many people think ‘ah maybe I should think about my words a bit,” she said in an interview with the ORF.

    The report follows the introduction earlier this year of stronger penalties for publishing content that incites hatred, now punishable by a jail sentence of up to three years, extended from two.

    The stronger punishments have not yet been used, however, as the first two incitement cases that have appeared in court since the changes were made were not deemed serious enough.”

  15. Austria consider fences at border with Hungary (thelocal, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.at/20160322/austria-consider-fences-at-border-with-hungary

    “Austria’s Interior Minister has said fences may also be built on the country’s eastern border with Hungary as she continues a plan to make Austria and Europe “into a fortress”.

    Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told the ORF that, following the shut down of the West Balkan route, attention should turn now to the closure of the eastern Balkan route as increasing numbers of refugees are expected to try and travel into Europe via Bulgaria.

    She has predicted as many as 1.1 million refugees could come via the eastern Balkans.

    “If it is necessary then we would build further fences just like in Spielfeld, build containers and put police and soldiers in the area,” she said.

    She has also said that if necessary all 13 official border-crossing points in Austria should be controlled by police and the military. Controls are already in place in some areas of Austria, including it’s borders with Italy, Germany and Slovenia, where at the latter a fence has also been erected.

    “We need to make Austria and Europe into a fortress. We have made decisions, but they need to be implemented. And even if we have a 100-percent-working solution, we still need to be alert on a daily basis because there will always be new ways to get round the system,” the minister said.

    The regional governor of Austria’s eastern Burgenland province, which border Hungary, agrees with the minister’s policy.

    Burgenland governor Hans Niessl was one of the first in Austria to demand tougher controls, as he says they are essential in order to stop human traffickers.

    He said: “If we allow unchecked immigration it will be the end of the social state system, because the more people come in, the less chances there are for others who are socially disadvantaged.

    “Tougher controls and closer cooperation with Hungary is the key to tackling the traffickers.”

    Niessl is also looking at getting permission from the national government to take measures in cutting benefits to people who come from abroad but do not speak German, do not make any effort to gain an education, and from his perspective show no interest in gaining a career.

    He added that as the former border to the Iron Curtain, locals were used to being on the front line, and many felt insecure now once again with revelations that it was even possible for example to catch a shuttle bus taking refugees from Budapest to Vienna.

    Niessl added that the Austrian military also revealed the budget had been increased in order to allow troops to join in the securing the green border of forests and hills as soon as possible.

    He added: “If the Schengen exterior borders cannot be closed, and there are no professional standards, then it’s clear that individual countries need to step in. Everything else would be politically negligent. If we don’t succeed, it will mean the end of the EU.”

    The calls follow an Austrian Secret Service report that suggests the numbers of refugees is not set to decrease this year. It says that as well as Syria, there was evidence that refugees from many other areas will now also be heading to Europe.

    It highlighted the example of a recent Greek coastal intervention in which a boat was found containing 66 migrants. Alongside 32 from Syria and three from Afghanistan, there were also migrants from Myanmar, the Dominican Republic, Tajikistan, southern Sudan, Guinea, Burundi, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Cuba, and Senegal. The same day another boat was found to also contain 66 Burmese refugees. The report added that a large increase in the number of refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan was also expected this year.

    The report declares that the reason for the mass movement was because of the opinion among the asylum seekers that they would get a warm welcome in Germany, and that the attempt to cancel this message had almost no effect. With the population of Africa growing by 30 million a year, and with war and the effects of climate change, many refugees are heading north.

    Thomas Silberhorn, the Parliamentary Secretary to the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, said: “The migration pressure from Africa is far larger than we until now believed possible.”

    Austria currently has a limit of 37,500 asylum applications allowed per year, and she said that there was now around 100 being processed a day but no longer at the borders, and instead the applications were being made inside the country from refugees already there. If it continues at that rate, no more asylum applications will be able to be made from autumn.

    Currently there are 60,000 people applying for asylum already in Austria.”

  16. Three terrorists linked to banned outfits arrested in Karachi (tribune, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1070596/three-terrorists-linked-to-banned-outfits-arrested-in-karachi/

    “The counter terrorism department (CTD) of police has arrested three terrorists accused of involvement in terrorism and sabotage activities.

    “Usman Naeem, Muhammad Umair and Imamdin alias Mavia were arrested from district west, and Kalashnikov and TT pistols were recovered from their possession,” a statement issued by the Sectarian Intelligence Group (SIG) of CTD said on Tuesday.

    Usman and Umair were involved in supplying arms to banned outfits while Imamdin distributed hate material for a proscribed organisation, added the statement….”

  17. Afghan Taliban’s top dissident ‘detained’ in Pakistan (tribune, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1070273/in-custody-afghan-talibans-top-dissident-detained-in-pakistan-front-page/

    “Pakistani authorities have ‘detained’ the chief of a breakaway faction of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Muhammad Rasool, two Taliban leaders claimed on Monday. Mullah Rasool was chosen in early November by several Taliban cadres opposed to Mullah Akhtar Mansoor’s ascendency to head the splinter group.

    The two Taliban leaders, who spoke to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, did not say when Mullah Rasool was taken into custody but confirmed that he had fled recent infighting in southern Afghanistan.

    Dozens of Taliban insurgents, including the breakaway faction’s deputy chief Mullah Mansoor Dadullah and his brother, were killed when Mullah Mansoor’s loyalists launched a major offensive against dissidents in Zabul province.

    Mullah Mansoor’s loyalists captured the areas in Khak-e-Afghan district of Zabul after bloody battles in mid-November. Some, including Mullah Rasool and his second deputy Abdul Manan Niazi, managed to escape.

    “I can confirm that Mullah Rasool has been arrested by authorities in Pakistan after he crossed the border,” one Taliban leader said. He declined to share details. A Taliban leader in Rasool’s camp also confirmed his detention….”

  18. Over 80,000 Afghans face deportation from Europe under secret EU plan (khaama, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/over-80000-afghans-face-deportation-from-europe-under-secret-eu-plan-0404

    “Amid steep rise in the number of Afghan asylum seekers in the European countries, over 80,000 Afghan migrants will face being deported in the near future under a secret EU plan, it has been reported.

    The mass repatriation under a secret EU plan is being mulled amid warnings of a new influx as the country descends into chaos and members of the Afghan government appearing reluctant to cooperate with the repatriation of the migrants.

    According to the The Daily Telegraph, citing the secret EU plan, the European Commission will threaten to reduce aid to Afghanistan that represents 40 per cent of the country’s GDP unless the “difficult” Kabul government agrees to the mass repatriation of tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers.

    Admitting the collapse of the fragile state with the delivery of the financial threat, the Afghan elite in return for Kabul’s cooperation would be rewarded with university places in Europe.

    The potential offer is part of an explicit EU strategy to use aid and trade as “incentives” for foreign governments to take back migrants.

    Sent to national ambassadors on 3rd March, the plan warns there is a “high risk of further migratory flows to Europe, noting record levels of terrorist violence in Afghanistan, which resulted in 11,000 civilian casualties last year, and a failing economy.

    It also adds “There are 1.1 million internally displaced Afghans and 5.4 million sheltering in Pakistan and Iran, whose situation is “precarious, without reliable long-term perspectives.”

    According to reports, around 176,000 Afghans claimed asylum in the EU last year, with around six in 10 eligible for refugee status.”

  19. Drone strike kills eight militants in Nangarhar (khaama, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/drone-strike-kills-eight-militants-in-nangarhar-4756

    “Eight militants have been killed in a drone strike in Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province, states a statement released by the provincial police headquarters this morning.

    According to the statement, the insurgents were traveling in a ‘Saracha’ model vehicle when they came under attack in Khwargi area at 02:30 pm on Monday.

    Everyone inside, including foreign national, were killed and the vehicle completely destroyed, the statement adds…”

  20. Senior Taliban leader arrested, 50 rockets seized in north of Afghanistan (khaama, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/senior-taliban-leader-arrested-50-rockets-seized-in-north-of-afghanistan-0406

    “A senior Taliban leader was arrested during an operation in northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan amid ongoing clearance operations, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said.

    A statement by MoD said the operations are being conducted by 209th Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces in certain northern provinces.

    The statement further added a militant was killed in a separate operation by the Afghan armed forces in Bagh-e-Sherkat area located in the central parts of Kunduz province.

    The senior Taliban leader was arrested during a special military operation conducted by the Afghan armed forces Khanabad district of Kunduz, MoD added.

    According to MoD, the Afghan armed forces discovered and defused an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted near the security commandment of Baharak district in northeastern Badakhshan province…”

  21. Military forces kill 24 militants in southern Afghanistan (khaama, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/security-forces-kill-24-militants-in-southern-afghanistan-4646

    “Military forces have killed 24 militants in newest raids in southern Afghanistan, the military said on Tuesday.

    According to a statement released by the media office of 201st Military Corps which is based in Kandahar, the raids were carried out in Urozgan and Zabul provinces in past 48 hours during which 17 insurgents also sustained injuries.

    The statement adds that a number of weapons and explosive materials were also seized by the military during these operations.

    This comes as insurgents have once again enhanced activities in southern part of the country and government forces have been trying to counter their insurgency.

    On Sunday night, military personnel raided a Taliban run prison and released 16 prisoners in Urozgan’s neighboring Helmand province.

    Officials said 17 militants including six suicide bombers were killed in the shootout in Shoraki area of Nahr-e-Siraj district.”

  22. Afghan forces kill 45 militants including 9 ISIS loyalists in latest operations (khaama, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/afghan-forces-kill-45-militants-including-9-isis-loyalists-in-latest-operations-0411

    “The Afghan national security forces killed at least 45 militants including 9 militants affiliated with the Islamic State Of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

    The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the militants were killed in the latest clearance operations jointly conducted by the Afghan army and security personnel from the other security institutions.

    According to an operational update by the Ministry of Defense (MoD), at least 18 militants were also wounded during the same operations.

    MoD said at least 23 of the militants were killed in Charchino district of Uruzgan province and 13 others were wounded, while 9 ISIS loyalists were killed in Achin and Kot districts of Nangarhar during a separate operation.

    The operational update by MoD further added that the Afghan forces were supported by the artillery unit of the Afghan national army during the operations.

    According to MoD, at least 13 militans were killed and 7 others were wounded during other operations conducted in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand, Alingar district of Laghman, Ajristan district of Ghazni and Shahjoi district of Zabul province.

    The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban militants have not commented regarding the reports so far.”

  23. NATO commander Gen. Nicholson says the coalition will not abandon Afghanistan (khaama, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/nato-commander-gen-nicholson-says-the-coalition-will-not-abandon-afghanistan-0413

    “The commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support and US Forces for Afghanistan General John W. Nicholson said Tuesday that the coalition forces will not abandon Afghanistan.

    During a visit to the restive northern Kunduz province, Gen. Nicholson, said “You may have heard that the Taliban want to take Kunduz again – they will not,” stated Nicholson. “The Taliban want you to think that your government and the Coalition will abandon you — we will not. The Taliban think that by posing threats to you, the brave people of Afghanistan, that you will surrender to them – you will not.”

    Gen. Nicholson joined the acting Afghan Minister of Defense Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai and Acting Afghan Minister of Interior Taj Mohammad Jahid during the official visit to Kunduz province.

    Gen. Nicholson and Omarkhil discussed Resolute Support’s commitment to the Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) as they prepare for the upcoming spring offensive, according to a statement by the alliance…”

  24. Three bomb attacks kill five security force members in southeast Turkey: sources (reuters, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-kurds-idUSKCN0WO233

    “Kurdish militants killed five members of Turkish security forces in three separate bomb attacks on Tuesday near the Syrian and Iranian borders, the army and security sources said, in an intensification of conflict in southeast Turkey.

    Hundreds of security forces personnel, militants and civilians have been killed since a 2-1/2 year ceasefire between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the state collapsed in July.

    One soldier was killed and six more wounded in a bomb attack early on Tuesday in Nusaybin near the Syrian border, the army said. The area has been under a curfew since March 14 when security forces launched operations against militants there.

    Two police officers and one soldier were killed and nine security force members were wounded in a PKK bomb attack on a military vehicle in the town of Yuksekova, near the Iranian border, security sources said.

    A third roadside explosive device planted by the militants below up an armored vehicle in the Mazidagi district of Mardin province, also near Syria, killing one police officer and wounding three others, the sources said.

    Separately, the military said 23 Kurdish militants were killed in clashes in Nusaybin, Yuksekova and Sirnak on Monday.

    The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union, is carrying out a violent struggle for autonomy in the mainly Kurdish southeast. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since it began in 1984.”

  25. VICE NEWS – Palestinian Social Media Uprising: Digital Intifada (Part 1)

    21 min 35

    Leaderless Palestinian youth, inspired by instructional videos and photos on social media encouraging people to “Stab a Jew,” are thought to be behind a new wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank. Uncoordinated and spontaneous attacks by individual young Palestinians, mostly under the age of 25, started to occur almost daily from October 2015, with assailants often using a household weapon — a knife, axe, meat cleaver, screwdriver — before being fired upon by nearby Israeli security forces. So far, the bloodshed has claimed the lives of at least 28 Israelis and 189 Palestinians, 128 of whom Israel says were assailants.

    Israelis believe that Palestinian Muslim youth are being radicalized by Islamic groups through online incitement campaigns. Micah Avni, the son of Richard Lakin who was killed in an attack on a public bus in East Jerusalem in October, has filed a civil action lawsuit against Facebook. He and 20,000 other Israelis are suing the platform CEO.

    In part one of a two-part series, VICE News travels to Israel and the West Bank to talk to young Palestinians about their use of social media, and to Israelis who fear it’s inspiring a Third Intifada.

  26. Brussels: What We Can Learn From Today’s Attacks
    Terrorists attacked Brussels airport and a metro station in the center of the city March 22. Here’s what we can learn from the attacks.
    By Elliot Friedland

    Tue, March 22, 2016

    Europe is reeling from the latest terrorist attacks, this time against Brussels, now confirmed to be terrorist attacks. Three blasts have been reported so far, two in the Zaventem Airport and one at the Maelbeek metro station some 500 meters from the European Parliament.

    Here are three takeaways from this most recent tragic attack.

    This Fight Impacts Everyone

    The attack in Brussels follows Saturday’s attack on Istanbul by an Islamic State suicide bomber that killed four. Countries attacked so far this year by Islamist terrorists either working for groups or in lone wolf attacks (and remember it’s only March) include:

    Afghanistan
    Belgium
    Cote D’Ivoire
    Chad
    Turkey
    Israel
    Iraq
    Somalia
    France
    India
    Libya
    Pakistan
    Egypt
    Yemen
    Cameroon
    Indonesia
    Burkina Faso
    Syria
    Nigeria
    Saudi Arabia
    Mali
    Russia
    Philippines
    Thailand
    Uruguay
    Canada

    That’s attacks on 26 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia in just three months. This is a problem everywhere. It is no longer possible to argue it doesn’t impact you or that there is nothing you can do about it.

    Terrorism Works If You Let it

    This one is difficult to internalize. Terrorism operates by creating an outsized reaction to a highly publicized event. It works to create “terror” in a population by stripping citizens of their feeling of safety, inculcating an atmosphere where people feel they can be attacked anywhere and at any time.

    Societies respond with security measures designed to protect the citizenry and these can at times be heavy handed and worsen community relations, driving more people into the arms of terrorist groups. Public confusion and panic exacerbates the problem. One of the aims of groups like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is to create a backlash of anti-Muslim bigotry and thus instigate a war between Muslims and everyone else. Chaos, hatred and confusion is the favored working environment of terrorists and Islamists since it enables them to advance their goals under the cover of the fog of war.

    Muslim and non-Muslim groups working together against terrorism and the Islamist ideology which spawns it (as distinct from the religion of Islam) in a firm, calm and unified manner is therefore essential to a counter-extremism strategy in civil society.

    http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/three-takeaways-brussels-attacks

    This will not stop until the ideology is defeated

    The countries that have been attacked do not share a cohesive foreign policy platform or common causes except being opposed to the ideology of Islamism.

  27. Int’l Advertising Group Helped Whitewash Saudi Crimes
    A U.S. advertising powerhouse worked with Saudi Arabia for 10 years to whitewash the Saudi’s human-rights record, the UK’s Independent says.

    One of the world’s largest advertising firms has been accused of helping Saudi Arabia whitewash its terrible human-rights record, according to an exclusive report by the UK newspaper The Independent.

    Following the execution of 47 protesters in January, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir took to U.S. media to defend Saudi Arabia’s reputation. The Independent tracked the output of the Saudi-owned news outlet Arabia Now in pushing the Saudi regime’s agenda.

    In an op-ed duly placed in Newsweek titled The Saudis Are Fighting Terrorism, Don’t Believe Otherwise, Al-Jubeir argued the wealthy Gulf kingdom had “arrested extremists within its borders, tried them before specialised courts and imposed the ultimate penalties on those convicted.”

    The piece was distributed by Qorvis MSLGroup, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, the French conglomerate that owns brands which include Saatchi and Saatchi. The company has worked with Saudi Arabia for over a decade, helping with “media relations, advertising, government relations, grass-roots action and online communications,” according to a page about that relationship on the group’s website.

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/intl-advertising-group-helped-whitewash-saudi-crimes

  28. Bill to Designate Brotherhood as Terror Org Gains More Support
    The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act now has bipartisan support. Over 50 members of Congress are now in favor it.

    The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act now has bipartisan support and over 50 members of Congress are cosponsors and/or have voted in favor it. It passed the Judiciary Committee in February and directly calls out the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a Brotherhood front with links to Hamas.

    The Clarion Project thanks all the readers who responded to our requests to contact their congressmen and Senators to ask for position statements and to facilitate briefings for their staff.

    See below for a list of members of Congress who have endorsed the legislation, those who have declared opposition to it and those on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who have yet to take a position.

    If passed, the bill would state that Congress believes that the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria of a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).

    It gives the Secretary of State a period of 60 days to provide a detailed report explaining whether the Brotherhood meets the standard for Foreign Terrorist Organization designation and why. The legislation contains a mountain of evidence in support of designation.

    The legislation explicitly identifies the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities and includes evidence tying them to a Hamas support network.

    The bill (HR3892) was introduced by Rep. Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and referred to the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. Three members are cosponsors (Reps. King, Buck and Trott). The Senate version (S2230) was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and referred to the Foreign Relations Committee, where only Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has signed on. Johnson is also the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

    We encourage readers to contact their representatives and Senators and ask them for a position statement. Please forward any official statement to the Clarion Project so we can update readers on where they stand on the Muslim Brotherhood. A statement of opposition is just as important to know as a statement of support.

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/bill-designate-brotherhood-terror-org-gaining-support

    • For the non Americans, this is mixed news, the 50 members of the house who have either cosponsored or voted for the act are the good news. The ratio of support to opposition means it will probably pass the House. The lack of support in the Senate is the bad news because we have to fight to get more Senators backing the bill. The terror attack in Belgium helps as will all follow up attack in Europe. But CAIR has a large lobbying organization working DC and there are a lot of MB members in the administration who will lobby against the bill.

      Right now it is still anybodies guess which way Congress will go.

      • Senators are elected for 6 years and are the most separated from the voters. The Constitution originally called for them to be appointed by the State Legislatures so they could look out for the states interest and they and the House (elected by the people thus the peoples house) would have to work together to get anything done. This was done to limit the power of the Federal Government. the seventeenth Amendment (ratified in 1913) changed that to the Senators being elected by the people. Now no one in DC was looking out for the rights of the states.

  29. ISIS Targets Isolated Kaka’i Religious Minority in Iraq
    The Kaka’i/Yarsan religion combines Islam and Zoroastrianism. Members are under threat from ISIS jihadis who are threatening to kill them.

    Islamic State fighters have threatened to “pursue and kill” members of the Kaka’i/Yarsan religious minority, dubbing them “infidels who must be eliminated,” according to local media outlet AraNews.

    The Kaka’i minority is thought to number between 500,000 and 1,000,000 and is found mostly in western Iran and eastern Iraq. Many fled with the advance of the Islamic State from the Mosul area into Peshmerga-controlled areas of Iraq. It is a heterodox syncretic religion, which blends elements of Zoroastrianism and Islam. The faith was founded by Sultan Shahak in the 14th Century western Iran among the Guran Kurds.

    Pointing out that “the Kaka’is had earlier suffered several massacres at the hands of jihadis in Iraq,” Kaka’i activist Zaradasht al-Kaki told AraNews “We appeal to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to protect the Kaka’is from these barbaric groups.”

    Fears of persecution led some religious leaders to declare that the group is Muslim in September 2014, creating division with and accusations from other Kaka’i leaders.

    “It is a religion that believes in reincarnation, a doctrine that has nothing to do with Islam” Recep Assi of the Yarstan Institution told Al-Monitor. “Declaring Kakais Muslims would not protect them from persecution, as Muslim religious preachers still deemed Kakais heretics even after they announced they were Muslims.”

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/isis-targets-isolated-kakai-religious-minority-iraq

  30. Sharia in Denmark

    The issue of parallel Muslim societies has sparked renewed debate in Denmark after a three-part television documentary, “The Mosques Behind the Veil” was aired at the beginning of March on Danish TV2.

    The documentary consists of an undercover investigation into claims that Muslim imams are working towards keeping parallel societies for Muslims within Denmark.

    The filmmakers had two young Muslims — brought from outside Denmark — go undercover in Gellerupparken, an area best described as a predominantly Muslim ghetto in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city. For three months, the two lived as a fictitious couple, Fatma and Muhammed, while visiting eight different mosques in Aarhus, Odense and Copenhagen — the three largest cities in Denmark — with hidden cameras. The goal was to hear what imams say behind closed doors about Danish law and authorities, gender equality and general contact with Danish society, such as Muslim women participating in the Danish job market. There are approximately 140 mosques in all of Denmark.

    The film is similar in concept to the British BBC Panorama documentary, “Secrets of Britain’s Sharia Councils,” which aired in April 2013. The BBC went undercover to document the discrimination practiced in British sharia councils against Muslim women. (The existence of British sharia councils were no secret to the British; the Danish film, it turned out, documented a Danish sharia council for the first time).

    For the purpose of the documentary, Fatma was given a personal cover story — based on real-life dilemmas — for which she would seek advice from the different imams: Her husband is violent, and she does not wish to have sex with him. She cannot get pregnant and his family has found a second wife for him. She consulted with a Danish girlfriend about the violence, which has left her bruised, and the girlfriend told her to go to the police.

    What do the imams think she should do?

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7648/denmark-sharia

  31. Feds gain postponement of iPhone hearing

    The Justice Department may not need Apple’s help any longer.

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Citing a new possible way to access a locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino terrorist attack, the Justice Department on Monday convinced a federal court to cancel a Tuesday hearing on whether Apple should be forced to help the FBI break into the device.

    Government lawyers had insisted for months they needed Apple to write special software so the FBI could bypass security features on the iPhone being used by the San Bernardino shooter, Syed Farook, and obtain what could be critical information for their ongoing terrorism investigation.

    But the Justice Department unexpectedly told the court just hours before a scheduled hearing that it may not need Apple’s assistance after all.

    “On Sunday, March 20, 2016, an outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking Farook’s iPhone,” federal prosecutors said in a filing Monday afternoon. “Testing is required to determine whether it is a viable method that will not compromise data on Farook’s iPhone. If the method is viable, it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple Inc. (‘Apple’) set forth in the All Writs Act Order in this case.”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/feds-move-to-cancel-iphone-hearing-221062#ixzz43ectFmCO
    Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

  32. Greece delays sending refugees back to Turkey under EU deal

    Greece will not be able to start sending refugees back to Turkey from Sunday, according to the government, as the country struggles to implement a key deal aimed at easing Europe’s migrant crisis.

    • Greece: Refugees hold sit-in protest at Idomeni train station

      Hundreds of refugees held a sit-in protest at Idomeni train station, Tuesday, in protest at their lack of access to resources. Protesters, many of whom were children, held signs reading “We love Germany” and “We are dying here, help us.”

    • Greece: Central Macedonia governor urges EU to act on refugee crisis

      Governor of Central Macedonia Apostolos G. Tzitzikostas urged the European Union to address the refugee crisis during a visit to the Idomeni refugee camp, Tuesday.

      “All these immigrants, about 50,000 today, are in Greece and they cannot go anywhere because the borders in the north are closed. We urge the world and the European Union to act and act soon,” Tzitzikostas said.

    • Greece: Hundreds of refugees leave Lesbos on Athens-bound ferry

      Hundreds of refugees boarded a ferry bound for Athens at the Mytilene port in Lesbos, Tuesday.

      The refugees left for Athens following the implementation of a deal between Turkey and the EU regarding the refugee crisis. The agreement in which European countries will take in one Syrian refugee directly from Turkey, for every refugee returned to Turkey came into force at midnight on Saturday. The EU has also offered Turkey €6 billion ($6.70 billion), once an initial €3 billion ($3.40 billion) that was agreed to in November 2015, has been spent.

  33. France launches major anti-racism and hate speech campaign

    French government to invest more than £70m in three-year plan, while tightening the law on hate crime and cracking down on racism online

    The French government has launched a major campaign to contain the country’s steep rise in racism and hate speech, using the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks to tighten the law on hate crime and crack down on racism online.

    “Racism, antisemitism, hatred of Muslims, hatred of foreigners and homophobia are all rising in an unbearable way in our country,” the prime minister, Manuel Valls, said.

    After January’s terror attacks at the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and at kosher supermarket, which left 17 people dead, the French president, François Hollande, vowed to make the fight against racism one of his main personal causes.

    The government will spend €100m (£72m) on a three-year plan, including the setting up of a new unit to monitor and fight “hatred online”.

    “Passivity on the internet is over,” Hollande said. Teacher training will be reinforced, headteachers will be encouraged to report incidents and pupils will be taken to visit memorial sites.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/17/france-launches-major-anti-racism-and-hate-speech-campaign

  34. You could be BANNED from US because Merkel’s open door policy has let in so many jihadis (express, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/654800/Brussels-attacks-Ted-Cruz-Republican-visa-waiver-programme-Europe-jihadis-ISIS

    “BRITONS could be prevented from visiting the US on holidays and business trips because Angela Merkel’s disastrous open door immigration policy has let so many jihadis into Europe.

    Presidential frontrunner Ted Cruz has tonight called for an historic visa agreement between European nations and America to be torn up following the horrific Brussels bombings.

    The Republican senator, who is battling Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination, said Europe is “paying the price for disastrous immigration policies” and claimed its population contains so many radical Islamists that the current travel arrangements pose a security threat to the US.

    Under the US-Europe Visa Waiver Programme citizens of a number of European countries, including Britain, can travel to the US for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa.

    The programme was set up in the 1980s to boost the flow of trade and tourism across the Atlantic, and was based on the presumption that citizens from Westernised nations did not pose a security risk.

    But Mr Cruz said the sickening events in the Belgian capital, which come just months after the Paris terror attacks, meant a radical rethink of the scheme is now required. …”

  35. Tony Blair blames ‘FLABBY liberalism’ for rise in terror in wake of Brussels attacks (express, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/654787/Tony-Blair-says-flabby-liberalism-to-blame-for-rise-in-terrorism

    “FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair has blamed “flabby liberalism” for the rise of terrorism.

    The former Labour leader, speaking before today’s deadly attacks in Brussels, pointed towards a failure among the elite to take action on tackling extremism due to “guilt”.

    Mr Blair, who was PM for a decade, said there needs to be a firmer centre ground approach, warning the West’s feeling of guilt has left Britain’s liberal values vulnerable to abuse.

    He said: “One of the problems with the West is that it constantly can be made to feel guilty about itself – and I’m not saying there aren’t things we should feel guilty about.

    “The centre has become flabby and unwilling to take people on. We concede far too much.

    “There’s this idea that you’re part of an elite if you think in terms of respectful tolerance towards other people. It’s ridiculous.

    “We’re in a situation where we have to fight back.”

    Many people feared they would be branded intolerant to other cultures, he said, adding the concept of multiculturalism has been corrupted.

    But inaction on extremist thinking, often not broached by politicians as they view it as a “toxic issue”, has allowed it to spread, he continued.

    The 62-year-old added: “The truth is this extremism is being incubated in school systems, formal and informal, which are teaching children a narrow minded and often hateful view of those who are different.

    “This extremist thinking is what you have to attack, if you don’t attack the ideology you’ll never defeat the violence.”….”

    • The very memes the left started to prevent us from attacking the leftist ideology are what is being used to prevent us attacking Islamic ideology.

      • Hits like this will encourage the quest for truth – close enough, hard enough, it’s got to happen. Just how costly it will be is the unkown here.

        • This is true, taking a hard and dispassionate look at what has happened ideally the push (invasion) wouldn’t have come for another 15 to 20 years. That much longer would have made this a walkover for the left and the Moslems. However they moved and are now stuck with the Western Giant slowly awakening and getting ready to kicka– like it is famous for.

          If you read history the West never fights their wars until the last minute, we will disarm and refuse to face facts until it is too late for anything but fight a total war with very few rules to limit the barbarity. We have waited so long this time that I doubt if the Laws of War written down in the Geneva Convention will survive much longer.

  36. #StopIslam – Row erupts on Twitter as fallout from Brussels terror attacks rages on (express, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/654722/StopIslam-Row-erupts-Twitter-fallout-from-Brussels-terror-attack-ISIS

    “THE fallout from the horrific Brussels terror attacks divided social media after the incendiary hashtag #StopIslam became one of the most shared phrases in the world this afternoon.

    Celebrities, senior Muslim figures and musicians all waded into the debate after it emerged that evil jihadis from Islamic State (ISIS) were behind the sickening bombings.

    At least 34 people were killed and almost 200 injured when twisted Islamist maniacs detonated a suitcase full of nails at the American Airlines check-in desk at Brussels airport and a further device on the city’s Metro system.

    But the social media reaction immediately divided opinion between those who feel Islam needs to take more responsibility for acts carried out in its name and others who say people who blame ordinary Muslims for terrorist attacks are racist.

    The hashtag was initially started by people who believe that the religion inspires people to carry out violent and bloody attacks on non-Muslims. It has since been removed from the trending topics sidebar by Twitter. …”

  37. video in French – 4 min 26

    Migrants : Génération identitaire à Calais (Pierre Larti)

  38. D.C. Area College Students Arrested after Bomb-Making Materials Found in Dorm RoomIn Fairfax, Virginia, George Mason University police officers raided a dorm room in Jefferson Hall last week after responding to a report that flames were shooting out of the window.

    Court documents state when police confronted the residents in the room, they found a leafy green substance. When they returned with a search warrant, police discovered a tool box containing match books, shaved match heads, a mortar and pedestal, lighter fluid, hand sanitizer candles and a PVC pipe.

    According to the bomb squad, the materials were being used to make explosive materials.

    Two of the people were arrested on alcohol and drug-related charges. One suspect was charged with possessing bomb-making materials.

    All three of the people arrested were students at the university, but the school is not releasing their identities.

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/03/22/dc-area-college-students-arrested-after-bomb-making-materials-found-in-dorm-room/

    • Wonder what the Moh coefficient is…
      George Mason is notoriously left, BLM, jew-hating. All the special snowflakes.

  39. US Airstrike Hits Al-Qaida Training Camp in Yemen (abcnews, Mar 22, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/yemeni-officials-witness-airstrike-hits-al-qaida-base-37846710

    “The U.S. military conducted an airstrike Tuesday against an al-Qaida training camp in Yemen, causing dozens of casualties, a Pentagon spokesman said.

    Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the training camp was located in the mountains, and was being used by more than 70 terrorists belonging to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

    Cook did not specify the location of the camp. But Yemeni security officials and a witness said the airstrike hit a former military base that had been taken over by al-Qaida militants about 75 kilometers (47 miles) west of the terror group’s stronghold city of Mukalla.

    “We continue to assess the results of the operation, but our initial assessment is that dozens of AQAP fighters have been removed from the battlefield,” Cook said.

    A tribal member at the site said about 40 people were killed and wounded in the Brom Maifa district on Tuesday. He didn’t give a breakdown and said that bodies were still being counted. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety.

    The Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to reporters…”