Reader’s links for March 31 – 2016

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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

142 Replies to “Reader’s links for March 31 – 2016”

  1. German prosecutors indict suspected returned ‘Islamic State’ fighter (DW, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/german-prosecutors-indict-suspected-returned-islamic-state-fighter/a-19156091

    “German prosecutors have indicted a 25-year-old suspected “Islamic State” fighter who returned from Syria after receiving weapons training. The man was arrested on March 7 in Cologne.

    Shahid Ilgar Oclu S. was indicted in a Dusseldorf court on Thursday on charges of being a member of two foreign terrorist organizations in Syria.

    In the fall of 2013, the 25-year-old is alleged to have gone to Syria where he received weapons training with Jund al-Sham, a largely Chechen jihadist group operating in northern Syria with fighters from Turkey, Germany, the Caucuses and Austria.

    According to the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy at West Point, more than 30 German fighters joined Jund al-Sham in 2013 and 2014, many later joining the Islamic State…”

  2. Belgian police carry out raid linked to foiled French terror plot (france24, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.france24.com/en/20160331-belgian-police-carry-raid-linked-foiled-french-terror-plot

    “Police on Thursday carried out a new raid in northern Belgium in connection with a foiled attack plot in France whose main suspect Reda Kriket was charged this week with membership of a terrorist organisation, prosecutors said.

    “A raid is under way in connection with the Kriket case. It is taking place at Marke, in the town of Courtrai” in northwestern Belgium, Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, told AFP.

    Soldiers and police officers could be seen taking part in the operation near a busy motorway, according to images from local media…”

  3. No tight ‘abaya’ in Saudi soon (emirates247, Mar 30, 2016)
    http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/no-tight-abaya-in-saudi-soon-2016-03-30-1.625729

    “Saudi Arabia is set to ban women from wearing tight abayas (gowns) in public places following a surge in harassment incidents, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

    The Shura (appointed parliament) in the conservative Gulf Kingdom will debate the decision shortly at the request of a female member, Sada said.

    It quoted “informed sources” as saying the decision would authorize the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the country’s feared religious police, to arrest woman who violate the new rule.

    “The decision follows a large increase in incidents involving harassment and molestation of women,” it said.

    “According to the sources, the Shura is expected to unanimously vote in favor of the new rule which bans women from wearing tight abayas in shopping malls and other public places in the Kingdom.””

  4. Obama believes Pakistan will win terror war (tribune, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1075669/condolences-for-lahore-obama-believes-pakistan-will-win-terror-war/

    “The United States believes Pakistan will succeed in the ongoing war against terrorism, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday while acknowledging Islamabad’s counter-terrorism efforts.

    Speaking to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the telephone, the American leader said Pakistan has shown great progress in the war against terrorism. Obama made the phone call to offer condolences on Sunday’s deadly suicide bombing in Lahore….”

  5. Afghanistan opposes deportation of Afghans in large number from Europe (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/eu-may-return-80000-afghan-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-5774

    “Afghanistan has opposed deportation of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees in large number from Europe.

    “For now the Afghan Government is opposite [sic] for the forcible deportation because the situation is not good in Afghanistan,” said Hafiz Ahmad Miakhel, media advisor to the ministry.

    “Most of the Afghans leave the country because of the insecurity, some districts are under the control of the Taliban, also Taliban and Daesh fighting against the Afghan police.”

    The European Union (EU) has reportedly drafted confidential plans to deport about 80,000 Afghan asylum seekers and refugees to Afghanistan.

    Besides other options, the confidential plans also include force deportation despite the surging violence in the warn-torn country.

    According to ABC news, the idea has been leaked as new UN figures show a jump in the number of Afghans trying to reach Europe because of worsening security and economic situation.

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

    • Ghani says he has no sympathy for citizens fleeing the country (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
      http://www.khaama.com/ghani-says-he-has-no-sympathy-for-citizens-fleeing-the-country-0498

      “Amid steep rise in the number of Afghan citizens abandoning the country mainly due to growing instability, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has said he has no sympathy for the citizens for fleeing the country.

      In an interview with BBC, President Ghani said “We have to make commitment, 549 young men and women graduated from the military academy, 13 of them women. They are making a commitment to defend this country, others on whom we have spent, tens of hundreds of millions of dollars want to leave under the slightest pressure.”

      President Ghani questioned the perspective of the Afghan citizens leaving the country with an aim to find better place to take refuge…”

    • President Ghani: ‘No sympathy for Afghan migrants’ (BBC, video, Mar 31, 2016?
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35932120

      “Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has taken a tough stance on the tens of thousands of his citizens who are fleeing the country to make the dangerous journey to Europe.

      “I have no sympathy,” he told the BBC’s Yalda Hakim, while calling on his countrymen to remain in the war-ravaged nation and join in the effort to rebuild it.”

  6. Taliban suffer heavy casualties in Kapisa military operation (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/taliban-suffer-heavy-casualties-in-kapisa-military-operation-0494

    “The Taliban militants have suffered heavy casualties during a military operation in the eastern Kapisa province of Afghanistan.

    According to the local government officials, the operations were conducted in Nejrab district to curb the activities of the anti-government armed militant groups.

    An official of the Afghan national army serving with the 201st Silab Corps said around 30 Taliban militants were killed in the operation.

    The official further added that the clearance operation is still underway to fully clear the areas from the militants…”

  7. Key Taliban leader among 48 killed in Afghan clearance operations (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/key-taliban-leader-among-48-killed-in-afghan-clearance-operations-0496

    “A key leader of the Taliban group involved in recruitment of militants for the group has been killed along with 47 others in the latest counter-terrorism operations.

    The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Mawlavi Abdul Wahab was killed along with 9 others and 16 more were wounded during a raid in Marjah district of Helmand.

    According to a statement by MoD, at least 39 others were killed in separate operations conducted in Kunduz, Takhar, Ghani and Khost provinces.

    The statement further added that 7 militants were killed in the outskirts of Kunduz city and 3 others were wounded, while 5 militants were killed in Eshkamish district of Takhar and 3 more were wounded…”

  8. Several injured as hundreds of Afghan and Syrian refugees clash in Greece (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/several-injured-as-hundreds-of-afghan-and-syrian-refugees-clash-in-greece-0497

    “Hundreds of Afghan and Syrian refugees entered into a violent clash in Greece amid ongoing refugee crisis in the Greek and Macedonian territories.

    According to the officials in Greece quoted by local media, several people were injured in the clash that erupted on Wednesday night.

    At least two of the refugees are in critical condition as over seven people were wounded and shifted to hospital for treatment.

    Quoting eyewitnesses and port authorities, the local Thema newspaper reported that clashes started at the E2 port gate and quickly spread to the E1 gate, as police forces were absent.

    The report further added that the fights erupted when some Afghani illegal immigrants attacked a Syrian woman for unknown reasons.

    The migrants were hurling stones and using other objects to beat each as the skirmish continued for at least three hours, according to the report.

    This comes as scores of Afghan refugees have been stranded along the Macedonia and Greece border after Macedonia closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants late last month.

    Hundreds of Afghans are leaving the country and are mainly heading towards Europe amid deteriorating security situation in the country, often risking their lives by passing through dangerous routes, specifically the Iranian territory and the Turkish coast.

    Several people were injured in a similar clash between the Afghan and Syrian refugees in Croatia late in the month of September last year.”

  9. Kabul police seize 19 tons of alcoholic beverages (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/kabul-police-seize-19-tons-of-alcoholic-beverages-4778

    “Kabul’s 101st Asmayee Zone police have seized 19 tons of different kinds of alcoholic beverages on the main Kabul-Torkham highway, an official said on Thursday.

    Major General Abdul Rahman Rahimi, Kabul Police Chief added that the drinks were being brought to Kabul from Pakistan in a trailer vehicle.

    Three suspects were detained with the truck (registration number 0412) in Pul-i-Charkhi area and police said two of them are from Pakistan…”

  10. Over 200 Taliban insurgents killed or wounded in ongoing Shindand operations (khaama, Mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/over-200-taliban-insurgents-killed-or-wounded-in-ongoing-shindand-operations-0501

    “Over 200 Taliban insurgents have been killed or wounded in the ongoing military operations in western Herat province of Afghanistan, local officials said Thursday.

    The operations are being conducted in Shindand district with the officials saying over 70 per cent of the district has been cleared of militants so far.

    Provincial governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi said the operations will cotinue until the district of Shindand has been fully cleared of militants.

    He said at least 100 Taliban insurgents have been killed so far and around 110 others have been wounded…”

  11. Pakistan to suffer from growing instability in Afghanistan: Rabbani (khaama, mar 31, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/pakistan-to-suffer-from-growing-instability-in-afghanistan-rabbani-0502

    “Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani has said Pakistan will suffer equally from deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

    He was speaking during a gathering organized in the Embassy of Pakistan to mark the Pakistan Day.

    Rabbani further added that the instability of the two neighboring countries are inter-related, emphasizing that Pakistan will suffer if the security situation worsens in Afghanistan.

    Meanwhile, the Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Syed Abrar Hussain, said peace and stability in Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan…”

    • US, Russia deny report of deal to give Syria’s Assad refuge in another country

      The U.S. and Russia hit back Thursday against a report claiming embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad will be given refuge in another country as part of an agreement between Washington and Moscow on the future of Syria’s peace process.

      The al-Hayat newspaper, citing an unnamed senior diplomatic source with knowledge of the alleged agreement, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has already told several Arab countries about the plan.

      The source also said the agreement was welcomed by members of the U.N. Security Council, the Jerusalem Post reported.

      But U.S. and Russia later denied that any agreement was in place.

      http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/31/russia-denies-report-deal-to-give-syrias-assad-refuge-in-another-country.html

      • There is nothing to Russia’s advantage if they force Assad out, after all they are winning and forcing him out would give Putin the same reputation Obama has, that of stabbing his allies in the back.

        I smell some press agent in the pay of the Saudi’s behind this story.

  12. FRANCE – PARIS – Pig’s heads found on fence at Moroccan ambassador’s Paris home

    Paris (AFP) – Two pig’s heads were found Thursday attached to the fence of the Moroccan ambassador’s residence in a chic suburb of the French capital, police said.

    “The pig’s heads were discovered by security staff on Thursday at 9:00 am. The ambassador was present,” a police source told AFP.

    The embassy, situated in Neuilly-sur-Seine to the west of Paris, has filed a formal complaint to police.

    “We don’t want to interpret this act, it’s up to the authorities to investigate,” an embassy official said.

    Anouar Kbibech, head of the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM) and the Morocco-linked Group of Muslims in France (RMF), said there was an “unhealthy atmosphere” in France “in which Muslims are the target of acts of stigmatisation”.

    “The attack on the ambassador’s residence shows that this provocation has moved up a level,” Kbibech said.

    This latest desecration is aimed at the embassy of a country which is an ally of France, engaged in the prevention of radicalisation and the fight against terrorism,” he added.

    Pig’s heads have been left outside mosques in several French cities in recent years and a rise in anti-Muslim acts was recorded in the wake of the gun and suicide attacks on Paris in November last year which left 130 dead.

    https://news.yahoo.com/pigs-heads-found-fence-moroccan-ambassadors-paris-home-154847122.html
    ===========================================================
    Rabat Denounces Hanging of Pig’s Heads in Morocco’s Ambassador House in Paris

    Rabat – The act of hanging two pigs’ heads on the fence of the Moroccan ambassador’s residence in Paris is “reprehensible, abject and unacceptable,” said here on Thursday communication minister, government spokesperson Mustapha El Khalfi.

    ”All legal measures have been taken to identify the perpetrators,” he added at a press briefing following the cabinet meeting.

    The embassy of Morocco in France filed a complaint following the discovery on Thursday morning of two pig’s heads attached to the fence of the Moroccan ambassador’s residence in the French capital, diplomatic sources said.

    Morocco’s ambassador to France, Chakib Benmoussa, informed French and Moroccan authorities of ”this malicious act,” the sources added.

    Pig’s heads have been left outside mosques in several French cities in recent weeks.

    www( dot )moroccoworldnews( dot )com/2016/03/183354/rabat-denounces-hanging-of-pigs-heads-in-moroccos-ambassador-house-in-paris/
    =======================================

    Pig heads spiked on fence of Moroccan ambassador’s Paris home

    Two pig heads were found on Thursday attached to the fence of the Moroccan ambassador’s residence in a chic suburb of the French capital, police said.

    “The pigs’ heads were discovered by security staff on Thursday at 09:00. The ambassador was present,” a police source told AFP.

    The embassy, situated in Neuilly-sur-Seine to the west of Paris, has filed a formal complaint to police.

    “We don’t want to interpret this act; it’s up to the authorities to investigate,” an embassy official said.

    Anouar Kbibech, head of the French Council for the Muslim Faith and the Morocco-linked Group of Muslims in France, said there was an “unhealthy atmosphere” in France “in which Muslims are the target of acts of stigmatisation”.

    “The attack on the ambassador’s residence shows that this provocation has moved up a level,” Kbibech said.

    He has previously been the victim of seemingly religiously motivated attacks with vandals spraying offensive graffiti at his home in 2013.

    Pig heads have been left outside mosques in several French cities in recent years.

    A rise in acts targeting Muslims has been recorded in the wake of the gun and suicide attacks on Paris in November last year that left 130 dead.

    Police in the UK last week arrested two men suspected of leaving a pig’s head outside an Islamic school in Portsmouth in January of this year.

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pig-heads-spiked-fence-moroccan-ambassadors-paris-home-208994514

  13. Arrest George Soros
    Use existing criminal and civil laws to shut down his anti-American juggernaut.

    It is time to hold radical ringleader George Soros to account for the growing civil unrest that he has helped to foment in this presidential election cycle and his efforts to shut down Donald Trump rallies using physical force and intimidation.

    Soros, the billionaire speculator, is the preeminent funder of the activist Left in America, which means he is the Number One funder of the domestic terrorism that is part and parcel of the Left.

    Soros makes no secret of his contempt for leading GOP candidate Trump. In January he said “Donald Trump is doing the work of ISIS.” Ideas like banning entry to the U.S. by Muslims might “convince the Muslim community that there is no alternative but terrorism.”

    Soros favors the decline of the U.S. and spends lavishly on activism to bring that collapse about. He has spent an estimated $7 billion or more on giving left-wing groups the resources to screw up the country.

    He has used his vast fortune to topple governments in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. He “broke” the British pound, was accused of wreaking havoc on the Malaysian ringgit, and was called an “economic war criminal” in Thailand. A French court convicted him of insider trading.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262364/arrest-george-soros-matthew-vadum

  14. How Putin Is Out-Maneuvering Obama in Syria
    Russia moves to save its brutal ally — and is encountering little resistance.
    March 31, 2016
    Joseph Klein
    12

    In what has become a monthly ritual, the United Nations Security Council received a briefing on March 30th regarding the very dire humanitarian conditions in war-torn Syria. Stephen O’Brien, the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, delivered the latest assessment. He noted as positive developments a respite in violence in some parts of the country since the cessation of hostilities came into effect one month ago, and some limited progress on access for the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged and hard-to-reach areas. However, he said that many of the 4.6 million people in need “still remain outside our reach due to insecurity and obstructions by the parties.”

    Syrian authorities are still throwing bureaucratic hurdles in the way of getting timely approvals for delivery of critical medical supplies, food, and other aid. The “daily misery” in the affected areas “shames us all,” O’Brien said.

    The so-called peace talks conducted by UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, which are intended to find a political solution that brings an end to the conflict, got off to a belated start this February. And once they began, they have proceeded in a stop-and-go fashion. They are now in adjournment until the second week of April.

    Mr. de Mistura tried to put the best face on the peace process to date. At least, he said, there were “no breakdowns, no walkouts and no de-legitimization.” Perhaps that is so for right now. But there has been no substantive progress either. This lack of progress is reflected in a paper produced by the Special Envoy, acting as a facilitator, which purported to show a number of potential areas of common ground between the government and the opposition. It sidestepped what he called “the mother of all issues, the transition, the political transition, the political process.” The “elephant in the room,” namely Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s future role, was ignored as well.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262362/how-putin-out-maneuvering-obama-syria-joseph-klein

  15. ISIS’ European Matrix
    How the terror commandos spin their web of death.

    “ISIS have 400 trained fighters in Europe who are poised to unleash more terror attacks with orders to wait for the right time to cause maximum carnage,” the British Daily Mail reported on March 23, 2016. ISIS terror commandos already struck in Paris on November 13, 2015, and in Brussels on March 22, 2016.

    Abdel Hamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the terror attacks in Paris who operated from Belgium, said that around 90 jihadists had traveled from Syria to France and that “they were spread out around the Paris region: Syrians, Iraqis, British, French and Germans.”

    ISIS jihadists receive their training in special training camps in Syria and Iraq. The focus of their training is on how to plot and carry out terror attacks in Europe. Last January, the European police organization Europol claimed in an alarming report that such training camps not only are in existence in Syria and Iraq, but also in the European Union and the Balkan countries. Terror attacks on soft targets are also being planned in Europe itself, the report warns. This finding proved to be right: Both terror attacks in Paris and Brussels were partially planned and prepared from Brussels.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262336/isis-european-matrix-emerson-vermaat

  16. Pakistan on the Mediterranean
    Analysis: Turkey aids ISIS while benefiting from havoc the terrorists create

    From the beginning, Erdo?an has looked at the Syrian refugee crisis not as a humanitarian tragedy but an arrow in his quiver. Inside Turkey, he has offered Sunni refugees Turkish citizenship if they settle in Turkish provinces currently dominated by the Shi‘ite offshoot Alevi sect. And, whereas the world condemns ISIS “genocide” against the Yezidi, the Yezidi who sheltered in Turkey were then victimized, again, by local AKP-run municipalities who refused to provide services offered to Sunni refugees.

    Allowing Turkey to choose which refugees to send to Europe and promising to eliminate visa restrictions for Turks only rewards Erdo?an for his behavior and gives him additional leverage in his dealings with the West. Nor is this the type of policy Erdo?an’s neighbors would support. Earlier this year, King Abdullah II of Jordan told Congress, “The fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy and Turkey keeps on getting a slap on the hand, but they are let off the hook.” He added that, “radicalization was being manufactured in Turkey.”

    Abdullah’s message fell on deaf in ears in Washington, Brussels, Paris, and Berlin. It is Erdo?an who has the initiative as he pursues the Islamicization of Turkey and neo-Ottoman imperialism. He has built a Pakistan on the Mediterranean: an incubator of terror that markets itself as the only available partner of the West, with tragic results.

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/pakistan-on-the-mediterranean/

    • Jordan’s King Abdullah Says ‘Terrorists Going to Europe Is Part of Turkish Policy’
      Middle East Eye reports some startling criticism of Turkey from King Abdullah of Jordan, who is a nominal ally of the Turks, during a visit to Washington in January. The details of the King’s remarks are said to have been kept secret until now.

      Evidently feeling snubbed by the late cancellation of a meeting with President Obama, Abdullah told a group of high-ranking congressional leaders that Turkey was enabling the spread of Islamist terrorists into Europe and pushing a “radical Islamic solution” to problems in the Middle East.

      http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/03/30/terrorists-going-to-europe-is-part-of-turkish-policy-says-jordans-king-abdullah/

      • in vino veritas
        I’ll bet the King was drunk at the time. Occasionally he says intemperate things that have to be walked back. I’m sure it’s true and I’m sure he said it, but he’s usually much more careful.

  17. Terrorism, Enclaves and Sanctuary Cities
    How sanctuary cities facilitate the growth of terror enclaves in America.

    In the wake of the terror attacks in Belgium, news reports once again focused on how so-called “No Go Zones” in Europe create neighborhoods where communities develop that, although are geographically located within major cities, insulate themselves from their surroundings, fostering the mindset that cooperating with law enforcement is dangerous and even traitorous.

    The residents eye law enforcement officers with great suspicion if not outright animosity. The situation is exacerbated because while they fear law enforcement, they may well also fear their neighbors who may take revenge against them for cooperating with law enforcement.

    These neighborhoods become “cultural islands” that eschew the cultures and values of the cities and countries in which they grow — a virtual malignancy that ultimately comes to threaten its host city and country because within this cocoon radical Islamists are shielded from law enforcement, find shelter and support and an ample supply of potential terror recruits.

    These communities are inhabited by many Muslim refugees who cannot be effectively screened.

    This makes assimilation by the residents of these isolated communities unlikely if not impossible and creates breeding grounds for crime and, in this era and under these circumstances- breeding grounds for terrorism.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262320/terrorism-enclaves-and-sanctuary-cities-michael-cutler

    • We’re both scavenging at the same time, bringing goodies home to the kids, the folks watching the house-
      ~~ kinda intimate moment ~~

  18. U.S. Navy: Latest Somalia-Bound Arms Shipment Originated in Iran

    A large arms shipment intercepted in the Indian Ocean by French naval forces earlier this month originated in Iran, the United States Navy has said.

    Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, told CNN that the weapons were likely destined to go to Yemen by way of Somalia, though he would not indicate whether they were headed to Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

    French authorities affiliated with the multinational Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) intercepted the arms shipment on March 20. After a helicopter from the French battleship FS Provence spotted an unmarked dhow in the northern Indian Ocean, French forces searched the ship and discovered “several hundred AK47 assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank weapons,” according to the CMF. The weapons were determined to have been headed to Somalia and then seized in line with United Nations Security Council resolution 2244, which prohibits the shipment of arms to the country.

    A similar shipment, also believed to be headed to Yemen by way of Somalia, was intercepted in February. Stephens said that this is the third such weapons seizure since September.

    http://www.thetower.org/3162-u-s-navy-latest-somalia-bound-arms-shipment-originated-in-iran/

    • If Iran can set up a Shiite base in Somalia this is another region Saudi will have to watch and to buy mercs to fight in.

  19. BREITBART – Turkey: Gulen ‘Islamic Cult’ May Be Coming to U.S. Military Bases

    Charter schools that may soon be operating on military bases in the United States are linked to what the Turkish government describes as an Islamic cult run by Fethullah Gülen, a powerful cleric living in Pennsylvania.

    The allegations come from lawyer Robert R. Amsterdam, founder of international law firm Amsterdam and Partners LLP, writing at The Hill.

    As Amsterdam forthrightly discloses early in the piece, his firm has been “engaged by the Republic of Turkey – a key NATO ally in a hotbed region – to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the operations and geopolitical influence of the Gülen organization, which is behind the Coral Academy of Science and over 140 other public charter schools scattered across 26 American states.”

    This is a reference to the Muslim cleric Gülen, whom Amsterdam describes as “a reclusive but influential Imam living under self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania to avoid criminal prosecution in his native Turkey.” Gülen is a powerful and determined opponent of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The Coral Academy of Science in Las Vegas is negotiating with the United States Air Force to open a charter school at Nellis Air Force Base this fall. Amsterdam says his firm’s investigation revealed that the Gülen organization “uses charter schools and affiliated businesses in the U.S. to misappropriate and launder state and federal education dollars, which the organization then uses for its own benefit to develop political power in this country and globally.”

    He also alleges that the organization abuses the H1-B visa program to import Turkish teachers into the United States, improbably claiming there are no qualified American teachers available for the positions, and then controls these Turkish educators by holding their visas hostage, even using the threat of deportation to force salary kickbacks from the teachers.

    Amsterdam says that contributions, both voluntary and coerced, from Gülen’s estimated six million followers around the world give his organization assets worth $20 billion to $50 billion.

    Amsterdam describes the schools’ secret agenda as trying to “instill Turkish culture and Gülenist ideology in our American students,” with an eye toward creating “a Gülenist following of high achievers, incubated in our local community schools across the country.”

    He says this agenda has been pursued by Gülenist schools in other countries and warns, “there is great peril in allowing it to flourish in this country,” noting that Gülen’s organization has been described by international authorities as a cross between a secretive political movement and a cult.

    There is little doubt that Gülen has great influence in Turkey and has been fighting a political war against the Erdogan government, with many Turkish news stories ultimately tracing back to Gülen, although the international press does not always mention him. For example, the Turkish government’s recent crackdown on several news agencies is part of the Erdogan-Gülen war, as Erdogan has accused them of having ties to Gülen. Zaman, for example, a formerly anti-Erdogan publication, was accused of having ties to Gulen before being seized and turned into a newspaper that now runs headlines like “Praise Heaped on Erdogan! The Most Courageous Leader.”

    “Erdogan accuses Gülen of conspiring to overthrow the government by building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media. Gülen denies the charges,” the UK Guardian reported in early March, echoing the accusations leveled by Amsterdam at The Hill.

    Amsterdam cites estimates that Gülen’s network of schools, and the followers they indoctrinated, ultimately gave him control over “more than half of the entire Turkish police force.” As the Guardian recalls, it was a corruption investigation in 2013 by “police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gülen,” targeting Erdogan’s inner circle, that kicked off the feud between the former political allies.

    Gülen was in the Turkish headlines again on Thursday, as Hurriyet Daily News reports the Turkish General Staff denying that “some members of the military allegedly linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement were planning a coup d’état” while Erdogan is visiting the United States.

    The General Staff further accused media outlets floating such speculation of seeking to undermine the morale of the armed forces and said it would take legal action against them. Given that one of the outlets in question is Newsweek, the prospects of such legal action succeeding seem remote.

    One opposition party politician insisted that Turkey’s political system is too strong to suffer a coup and offered the rather circular argument that if Gülen’s operation — which he referred to as the “Fethullahist Terror Organization” or FETO — was strong enough to pull off a coup, they would not need one; in essence, they would be able to take over the government without the fireworks of attempting to overthrow the Turkish armed forces.

    The Gülen movement prefers to be known as “Hizmet,” and through its news portal on March 25, it published an editorial from Gülen strongly denouncing the Brussels terror attack.

    “Regardless of the perpetrators and their stated purposes, every terrorist attack is a murder and an attack on the sanctity of life itself, and deserves condemnation in the strongest terms. Neither a religion nor any human being with a conscience can condone such cruelty,” he wrote. “Those who carry out such attacks and who support the perpetrators are oblivious to the ethos of the religion that they proclaim, and inflict the biggest damage to the religion’s reputation in the world. Those who consciously perpetrate such acts have lost touch with their very humanity, and do not represent any religious identity.”

    Such sentiments are unlikely to alleviate the suspicions of Gülen’s critics, who charge that his influence is a national security threat.

    “In light of Gülen’s modus operandi elsewhere, the Department of Homeland Security should be asking itself why such a non-transparent, religion-based organization would seek to establish itself on our military bases, teaching the children of our service men and women,” Amsterdam concludes at The Hill.

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/03/31/turkey-gulen-islamic-cult-may-be-coming-to-u-s-military-bases/

  20. CBC CANADA –Tom Mulcair calls Donald Trump a ‘fascist,’ urges Trudeau to denounce him

    Tough talk from NDP leader appears in video from party event sent to media

    NDP Leader Tom Mulcair condemned Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump as a “fascist” and criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not denouncing the billionaire business mogul.

    “Donald Trump is a fascist. Let’s not kid ourselves, let’s not beat around the bush,” Mulcair said in a question-and-answer session after a speech to party staff last Tuesday.

    A video clip of Mulcair’s toughly worded remarks surfaced Thursday, just over a week before he faces a leadership vote at his party’s convention in Edmonton.

    CBC News requested and received the video clip from Mulcair’s office after it first appeared on BuzzFeed News, which reported that it had obtained the video from the NDP. The 38-second clip has been edited, and does not include the question Mulcair is answering. The leader himself tweeted other clips from the event to his followers last week.

    “I will not hesitate to point out the fact that Mr. Trudeau just shrugs his shoulders when he’s asked about Donald Trump and says, ‘Oh the relationship between Canada and the United States goes beyond any two individuals.’ I’m sorry, if a fascist becomes president of the United States, I want to be on record as having opposed it long before that election,” Mulcair says in the clip.

    Mulcair pointed to Trump’s policy proposal to ban non-U.S. Muslims from entering the country and build a wall along the Mexican border as proof of what he called fascist tendencies.

    Trudeau won’t ‘pick fight’ with Trump

    Trudeau has been asked to assess Trump’s meteoric rise — and enduring popularity despite his off-colour and offensive remarks — but has repeatedly demurred.

    “I’m not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now. I’m not going to support him either, obviously,” Trudeau said during a recent town hall meeting.

    In a separate interview with Rosemary Barton on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics, Trudeau was asked why he wouldn’t “speak more forcefully” against Trump. “Anti-Muslim rhetoric, anti-woman rhetoric, building walls against people — why don’t you say what you actually think about him?” Barton asked Trudeau.

    “I respect the American electoral process. I have faith in what [Abraham] Lincoln referred to as ‘the better angels of American nature,’ and I am looking forward to who I am going to work with after Nov. 4,” Trudeau said in the interview at the end of his official visit to Washington earlier this month.[…]

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tom-mulcair-donald-trump-fascist-1.3513166

    video on this page :

    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/mar/31/canada-thomas-mulcair-donald-trump-fascist-video