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Islamic State’s income drops 30 percent on lower oil, tax revenue: IHS (reuters, Apr 18, 2016)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-syria-islamic-sta-idUKKCN0XF0D5
“Islamic State’s income and the population under its control have both fallen by about a third, a U.S.-based analysis firm said, describing the declining revenue as a threat to its long-term rule over its self-proclaimed caliphate.
Revenue for the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, fell to $56 million a month in March from around $80 million a month in the middle of last year, the analysis company IHS said.
Daily oil output dropped to 21,000 barrels from 33,000 barrels over the same time frame, as production facilities suffered damage from air strikes carried out mainly by a U.S.-led coalition.
“Islamic State is still a force in the region, but this drop in revenue is a significant figure and will increase the challenge for the group to run its territory in the long term,” said IHS senior analyst Ludovico Carlino in a report…”
Remember this when you hear fools talking about how we need to raise the price of oil, money is a weapon of war and cutting the enemy off from sources of revenue is a real good idea.
Plus the lower oil prices helps the west’s economy despite what the left wing economists say.
Ankara’s crackdown on Kurds spills across border on Syrian civilians (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) (RT, Apr 18, 2016)
https://www.rt.com/news/340014-ankara-shelling-syrian-civilians/
“While Ankara claims its ongoing military crackdown only targets terrorists, civilians often fall victim to the offensive – and not just in Turkey’s Kurdish-populated provinces, but also across the border in Syria where people suffer from cross-border shelling daily.
Turkish authorities have banned journalists and human rights organizations from covering its military operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Nusaybin district in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin.
The only way to get a glimpse of the ongoing military action is to observe the so-called anti-terrorist operation from the relative safety of a Syrian town of Qamishli, which lies only 200 meters away from the Turkish army’s positions.
But journalists on Syrian territory are under the constant threat of stray shells coming from the Turkish side. RT has obtained an exclusive footage showing the Turkish military operation against Kurds from a local stringer….”
Syrian rebels declare new ‘battle’ against government forces after truce violations (reuters, Apr 18, 2016)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-syria-rebels-idUKKCN0XF0FI?rpc=401
“Syrian rebel groups on Monday announced a new “battle” against government forces which they said was a response to violations of a fragile cessation of hostilities deal in place since the end of February.
The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, said in a statement they would respond “with force” against any army units that fired on civilians.
The statement was sent to Reuters by Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office of the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. It said the groups were setting up a joint operations room.
It gave no geographic location for the new battle.”
Has something happened to the format of this site? I can no longer see images, videos or links.
I am in Australia.
It’s just started working again, odd.
6,500 soldiers in the streets of Paris as migrants turn Metro station into war zone
Perhaps the oddest thing about the migrant invasion of Europe is that so many Europeans are adapting, apparently with little protest, to seeing the streets they live and work in militarized.
There is no strategy on the part of European governments to reverse this trend and restore the non-militarized situation that was normal – seemingly permanent – for as much as 70 years. Until the Islamist attacks in 2015, it had been that long since Paris was a war zone.
The difference, in the period May 1940 to August 1944, was that there was a war being fought to liberate Paris from the German occupation. There was a vision for restoring a non-militarized Paris, one in which the streets were roamed by neither enemy marauders nor French soldiers keeping order.
In 2016, there is no such vision or strategy.
The implications for France’s future are appalling. Every day that goes by invites the citizens to develop increased comfort with being in cities patrolled constantly by combat-armed soldiers. That situation is far more dangerous than the migrant invasion itself. The point of Western civilization is to not live with militarized streets: to not have the guns of a national army constantly trained on the people.
But in the biggest cities of Europe, the imagination of the people seems to have grown startlingly dim. The only option they can see is arming someone else to protect them. If they ever knew any history, they apparently have forgotten it. No national government, ever, anywhere, has been trustworthy with that situation. Indeed, in the last quarter millennium, France has been the scene of some of the worst abuses in Western Europe perpetrated by national governments against their people.
http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/04/17/6500-soldiers-streets-paris-migrants-turn-metro-station-war-zone/
Thanks Richard. Well put.
She does an excellent job on all of her articles but this one is one of her best.
CANADA – QUEBEC –Anti-Muslim graffiti scribbled on Eastern Townships library exhibit
Portraits that showcase everyday Quebec Muslims defaced with message calling them terrorists
Anti-Muslim messages were written on portraits displayed in an Eastern Townships library exhibition meant to showcase the everyday lives of Muslims in Quebec.
The exhibition, at the Éva-Sénécal library in Sherbrooke, Que., aims to show the many ways Muslim citizens participate in Quebec society.
Two of these portraits and the book that accompanied the exhibition were vandalized with anti-Muslim messages — a move denounced by organizers.
“We were shocked because this exhibition was meant to bring people together. When we see these insulting messages calling them terrorists, it’s sad,” University of Sherbrooke professor Michèle Vatz Laaroussi said
“It shows that this kind of exhibition is necessary, but it also shows us that we have not achieved our goals of breaking down prejudices, breaking down misconceptions and <eradicating racism and Islamophobia. There is still much work to do,” she lamented.
The Éva-Senécal library filed a complaint with Sherbrooke police.
Both images were removed from the exhibition, which runs until the end of April.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-muslims-vandalized-exhibit-1.3540003
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/anti-muslim-graffiti-scribbled-eastern-162000723.html
BBC- Islamic State ‘could control two thirds of Libya’
Taxi drivers without proper background checks ‘were allowed to sexually exploit children as young as five in Lancashire town in scandal dubbed the next Rotherham’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3545196/Taxi-drivers-without-proper-background-checks-allowed-sexually-exploit-children-young-five-Lancashire-town-scandal-dubbed-Rotherham.html#ixzz46BiKoJUf
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
German Foreign Office warns German tourists not to criticise the Turkish government:
Website of the Auswärtiges Amt: Turkey, Travel and Safety information – Particular criminal rules:
“It is strongly advised not to make remarks against the turkish state in public, or to express sympathy with terrorist organisations.”
(“Es wird dringend davon abgeraten, in der Öffentlichkeit politische Äußerungen gegen den türkischen Staat zu machen bzw. Sympathie mit terroristischen Organisationen zu bekunden.”)
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Laenderinformationen/00-SiHi/TuerkeiSicherheit.html?nn=338384#doc336356bodyText6
Please note that by Turkish definition, Kurdish organisations are terrorist per se.
Muslim Brotherhood Day on Capitol Hill
On Monday, April 18, legislators’ offices will be visited by individuals associated with a group unknown to most lawmakers: The United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). In the interest of helping members of the U.S. Congress understand precisely who their interlocutors are, permit a brief introduction: The USCMO is the latest in a long series of front organizations associated with, and working to advance, the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.
Members of Congress should be clear about the true nature of that agenda. It is laid out most authoritatively in a document introduced into evidence by federal prosecutors in the course of the largest terrorism financing trial in the nation’s history, U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation et al. Written in 1991 by a top Muslim Brotherhood operative, Mohamed Akram, and entitled “The Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal of the Group in North America,” this internal correspondence was meant for the eyes only of the organization’s leadership in Egypt. So, the document is direct and to the point: It explicitly states that the mission of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America is “destroying Western civilization from within … by [the infidels’] hands and the hands of the believers so that Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
There are two other important facts legislators should know about Akram’s memo.
First, the document helpfully attaches a list of 29 groups under the heading “Our organizations and organizations of our friends: Imagine if they all march according to one plan!” A number of the identified Muslim Brotherhood fronts — and many others that have come into being since 1991 — are members of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations. Representatives and associates of such fronts will be among the Islamists in congressional offices on Monday.
Second, the memo describes in detail the Muslim Brotherhood’s favored technique for accomplishing its stated goal of “destroying Western civilization” — at least until such time as they are strong enough to use violence decisively: “civilization jihad.” This sort of jihad involves employing stealthy, subversive means like influence operations to penetrate and subvert our government and civil society institutions. (The successful application of these means have been chronicled extensively in the Center for Security Policy’s “Civilization Jihad Reader Series.”)
With the launch of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations in March 2014, the Muslim Brotherhood has secured a new instrument for its subversion: a self-described U.S. “political party” meant to dominate and mobilize Muslim voters across the country and get them marching according to one plan. The object is to elicit support for the Muslim Brotherhood’s demands from candidates and to help achieve what the Islamic supremacists would regard as favorable outcomes in the 2016 elections. (For more on the USCMO, its purpose and activities to date, see “Star Spangled Sharia: The Rise of America’s First Muslim Brotherhood Party.”)
Unfortunately, some members of Congress have already embraced the Council of Muslim Organizations. For example, two with longstanding ties to assorted Muslim Brotherhood fronts, Reps. André Carson (D-Ind.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), spoke at the USCMO’s inaugural banquet in June 2014. Neither has disavowed the USCMO’s subsequent participation in anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas and pro-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations and its fundraising on behalf of Islamic Relief USA, a large, U.S.-based Islamic supremacist charity.
Another reason lawmakers and their staffs should be leery of this new Muslim Brotherhood front group is its avowed intention to make common cause with radical non-Muslim entities like the Black Lives Matter movement. At a conference in December 2015 convened by two of the Muslim Brotherhood’s most virulent fronts, the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America, leading USCMO figures publicly discussed how they could impart lessons to African-Americans by holding up the Brotherhood as the community that staged revolutions across the world.
Congress is on notice: As long as organizations associated with Islamic supremacism like the USCMO and its member organizations dominate “Muslim Advocacy Day” on Capitol Hill, it will actually be Muslim Brotherhood Advocacy Day. And legislators should have nothing to do with either its participants or its programs.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/homeland-security/276636-muslim-brotherhood-day-on-capitol-hill
2016 Oklahoma Muslim Day at the Capitol
Turkey will cancel agreements on migrants if EU doesn’t keep its word -foreign minister
ANKARA, April 18 (Reuters) – Turkey will cancel its agreements with the European Union on migrants ¨if the EU doesn’t keep its word on the deal, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.
Cavusoglu made the comment in a speech to parliament. Turkey and the EU last month sealed strong>a controversial deal intended to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara.
http://news.trust.org/item/20160418144218-h8awm
Italy: EU should replicate Turkey migrant deal with African nations
The agreement to curb migrant flows from Turkey to the European Union should be replicated with African nations, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Saturday.
The EU has offered Ankara 3 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars) to accept the repatriation of migrants who land in Greece. In return, the EU has pledged to take in Syrians still in Turkey.
“Albeit agreed in an emergency situation and hence perfectible,” the agreement “should not remain a one-off case,” Renzi wrote in a letter to EU leaders dated Friday, published a day later on his government’s website.
If that were not to happen, “we would be witnessing an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed in one geographical area compared to other areas that are no less important when tackling the issue of migration,” the Italian premier said.
Renzi’s letter presented a separate four-page “Migration Compact” in which the Italian government opened up to EU debate several ideas. The paper suggested that the EU could offer African nations MONEY, as well as ENTRY QUOTAS for WORKERS, students and researchers, in return for them tightening border controls with the help of on-the-ground EU police missions, all “in line with international standards.”
http://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2016/04/18/italy-eu-should-replicate-turkey-migrant-deal-with-african-nations
ISRAEL – Initial report: Explosion on bus in Jerusalem, 20 hurt
A bus in Jerusalem reportedly exploded Monday afternoon on Hebron Way, according to MDA
Medical emergency Services said at least 20 people were injured in the incident.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Initial-report-Jerusalem-bus-explodes-on-way-to-Hebron-451611
Police: No doubt Jerusalem bus explosion terror attack
The head of police in Jerusalem announced on Monday evening that the bus explosion in the capital earlier in the day was caused by a bomb. He said there was no doubt that the incident was a terrorist attack.
Police said that an empty bus on Hebron Road exploded and the injuries occurred after another bus nearby was damaged in the incident. Two people were in critical condition. Medical Emergency Services also said that at least seven were in moderate condition and another nine in light condition.
When we arrived to the scene of the incident we saw [numerous] people injured, lying on the ground. They were suffering from injuries including burns and bruises and were given primary health care,” a spokesperson for Magen David Adom said.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Initial-report-Jerusalem-bus-explodes-on-way-to-Hebron-451611
Greece: Refugees block rail tracks in Idomeni, refuse to budge
SOT, Abdu from Raqqah (in Arabic): “You’re seeing the decisions, they’re not for our rights or anything. There are no decisions in the interest of our rights. The decisions aren’t in the interest of the refugees here. The refugees are dying slowly. What else do you want? It has forgotten us, Europe has forgotten us. Europe has truly forgotten us. It no longer has its humanity.”
SOT, Ares Ahperidis, spokesperson for Greece’s railway companies (Greek): “The line was closed for 31 days. Today we tried to reopen it and let a train pass in order to take cargo stationed there. At the moment all the wagons are going through Bulgaria, the cost is 25 percent higher via Bulgaria, and it takes five days more compared to the journey via Macedonia. There are many trains stationed in Nis, that are waiting for the line to reopen to reach Greece via Macedonia.”
Greece: Refugee run over by police van during Idomeni clashes
Greece: Muslims smash police van after it hit refugee in Idomeni – reports
Peters: Politicians ‘Put Happiness of the Saudi Royal Family Above the Survivors of 9/11’
U.S. to Send 200 More Troops to Beat ISIS in Iraq, Ashton Carter Says
The United States will send 217 more troops, including additional special operations forces, to Iraq as part of a growing train-and-advise effort to help the struggling government fight ISIS, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Monday morning in Baghdad.
The financially strapped Iraqis have also accepted America’s offer of Apache attack helicopters and an additional HIMARS rocket system as they prepare to try to retake the city of Mosul from the terror group, Carter said. The United States will also contribute $415 million to the Peshmerga, a Kurdish military group.
The move will boost the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq to 4,087, a senior U.S. military official said.
The announcement came as Carter visited Iraq as part of a swing through the Middle East in which he also asked allies in the region to help in the effort to rebuild parts of Iraq destroyed during the war with ISIS.
Carter said the Mosul effort will bring U.S. troops “closer to the action” by remaining close to Iraqi forces as they advance toward the city.
[…]Now the United States wants to try to capitalize on some of that momentum as Iraq struggles with economic and political turbulence.
A senior defense official said the additional help wasn’t a deep strategy shift but an advancement of what started last year.
Speaking of the plans to retake Mosul, the official said: “That is where I believe the toughest fight is going to be. I do expect that we’re going to accept more risk and we’re going to bring in resources as appropriate to protect and buy down that risk, absolutely.”
On his arrival in Baghdad, Carter met with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, military commander overseeing the fight against ISIS, was well as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi. He also planned to have a phone call with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/u-s-send-200-more-troops-beat-isis-iraq-ashton-n557641
US defence secretary in Baghdad to plot assault on ISIL in Mosul
‘No jail for ” HARMLESS JIHADIS ” , they’ll get more radicalized in prison’ – EU counter-terror chief
German proposal to tax petrol for migrant crisis
Brussels, April 18 – Germany has proposed taxing petrol to help pay for the migrant and refugee crisis, EU sources said Monday, saying German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had “already discussed it” with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker”. Germany has ruled out an Italian proposal to use Eurobonds. The Italian idea was part of a migration compact sent to the EU Friday, which includes efforts to forge agreements with countries of origin and transit.
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2016/04/18/german-proposal-to-tax-petrol-for-migrant-crisis_6c87729a-060e-4540-acc0-7760977779be.html
Welcome to Britain – Allah Akbar!!!
Welcome to Britain – Allah Akbar!!!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=54c_1460913232
Belgian PM backs minister’s comment that some Muslims cheered attacks
BRUSSELS, April 18 (Reuters) – Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel backed his outspoken interior minister over comments that a significant number of Muslims had cheered the Brussels bombings, and said supporters of terrorism were a cancer that needed removing.
Jan Jambon told Belgian daily De Standaard in a Saturday interview that a significant part of the Muslim community had danced with joy after the attacks that killed 32 people on March 22.
Jambon, part of the Flemish separatist N-VA party, faced criticism from fellow ministers and opposition, some demanding he back up his views with evidence, others that he apologise immediately.
Michel provided backing for his minister late on Sunday, saying the national security council had been told about expressions of support for the Brussels attackers.
“I can confirm that there have been endorsements for the attacks,” Michel said in a statement, although this was only from a small minority.
“We must neither generalise nor gloss over this,” Michel said, adding that Jambon had not been generalising.
Jambon said in the De Standaard interview that previous governments had disregarded warning signs for years and that current measures would not have immediate success.
“A significant part of the Muslim community danced following the attacks … That is the real problem,” Jambon told De Standaard.
“Terrorists we can pick up, remove from society. But they are just a pimple. Underneath is a much more difficult cancer to treat. We can handle it. But not overnight,” he added.
Michel’s government has come under fire over its handling of the security before the bombings. Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens offered to step down in late March over lapses although Michel asked both to stay on.
The transport minister did resign last Friday, following accusations she lied about an EU report that criticised security at Brussels Airport.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3545486/Belgian-PM-backs-ministers-comment-Muslims-cheered-attacks.html
Samantha Power’s motorcade hits, kills 7-year-old boy in northern Cameroon
MAROUA, Cameroon (AP) — U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power’s trip to Cameroon’s front lines in the war against Boko Haram started horrifically Monday as an armored jeep in her motorcade struck and killed a young boy who darted into the road.
The incident occurred near the small city of Moloko, in northern Cameroon, where Power, her aides and accompanying journalists were headed to meet refugees and others displaced by the years of brutal attacks across West Africa.
All those meetings included small children.
Power said she learned of the death with “great sorrow.”
She said she met with the boy’s family to “offer our profound condolences and our grief and heartbreak.”
Power returned to the scene of the bloody accident several hours later to meet the 7-year-old boy’s mother and father, while residents of his village stood solemnly on a sandy expanse.
The motorcade was moving at a fast clip, at times exceeding 60 mph, while villagers lined up along the sides of the road. But when the boy darted onto the two-lane highway, there was no time for the sixth car in Power’s convoy to react. The driver was Cameroonian.
At the moment of impact, a man could be seen running up the embankment, with his arms held high, to the street to try to stop the child. A Cameroonian helicopter traveling overhead as part of a large security contingent saw the collision.
The vehicle that hit the boy initially stopped, but was ordered by American security forces to continue traveling through the unsecured area. An ambulance in the U.S. caravan immediately attended to him.
The boy was rushed to a local hospital, though his condition was already hopeless, according to people familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Several U.S. officials were visibly affected, with one Power aide turning away to cry as his boss met with refugee children shortly afterward.
The motorcade moved at a significantly slower pace for the rest of the day.
Officials did not immediately identify the boy. U.S officials wouldn’t comment immediately on any plans for compensation to the boy’s family.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a37ba2c9a5dc4288b6e50aa6448218ea/un-ambassadors-motorcade-hits-kills-boy
AUSTRIA – Vienna – Identitäre Bewegung –
IDF uncovers terror tunnel from Gaza into Israel
HOW THE DEMOCRATS DESTROYED DETROIT
Detroit, now synonymous with failure and decline, was once the emblem of American progress and prosperity. As the late biographer and scholar Matthew Josephson observed in the 1920s: “Nowhere in the world may the trend of the new industrial cycle be perceived more clearly than in Detroit. In this sense it is the most modern city in the world, the city of tomorrow.” University of Michigan historian Jeffrey Mirel puts it this way: “Throughout the 1920s, Detroit was the shining star of the new era, the very center of the American economic universe, where capitalism and technology combined to produce the greatest goods for the greatest numbers.”
To most Americans, Detroit is best known as the home of the “Big Three” auto makers—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—who made the U.S. and the rest of the world mobile. During the decades of the early to mid twentieth century, the auto industry’s need for massive quantities of steel, glass, copper, and (later) plastic gave rise to numerous enterprises related to car manufacture that employed hundreds of thousands of additional blue-collar workers in and around the city. The assembly line was perfected here, and brought with it the idea that a middle-class lifestyle could be enjoyed by industrial workers.
In World War II, Detroit was the arsenal of democracy, producing tanks, jeeps and a host of other weapons that helped win the war. In the postwar years the city boomed, building American cars that in turn symbolized the American Dream—of mobility, financial stability, and success. By the 1950s Detroit had grown to become the fifth largest city in the United States, home to nearly two million residents. By 1960, it had the highest per capita income of any city in the country.
As the Sixties progressed, Motown Records—founded in Detroit by one of its native sons, Berry Gordy Jr.— produced such megastars as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Jackson Five, the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Commodores, and Gladys Knight & the Pips who made the music America hummed. The city school system, meanwhile, turned out capable graduates. Hard as it is to believe today—when Detroit has the desolate, bombed-out look of a conquered nation—a generation ago there were few more exciting and attractive places for Americans to live.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1880
I am sure that there are a lot of Brits that can change Democrats to Labor and Detroit to some city in Britain.
Jordan cancels plan for security cameras on Temple MountPM says kingdom will halt program, aimed at preventing violent clashes at holy site, because of Palestinian opposition
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jordan-cancels-plan-for-security-cameras-on-temple-mount/
Hamas to execute 5 members for ‘collaborating’ with Israel
Gaza military court sentenced five Palestinians to death by hanging or firing squad. One of them allegedly gave Israel information about tunnel locations.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4793201,00.html
Secret Cables Link Pakistan Intel Org to Deadly Attack on CIA
Recently disclosed documents suggest that Pakistan’s intel agency paid a terror group to perpetrate a deadly attack on the CIA in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s intelligence agency paid a Taliban-affiliated terror group in Afghanistan to perpetrate one of the deadliest attacks on the CIA in the agency’s history, according to inferences made in recently-declassified U.S. government cables and documents.
On December 30, 2009, a Jordanian suicide bomber blew himself up in Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, located near the border with Pakistan, killing seven CIA employees. The bomber, a Jordanian doctor and double agent, tricked the Americans, telling them he would lead them to Ayman al-Zawahri, now head of al-Qaeda and, at the time, second in command.
A document dated January 11, 2010 , issued less than two weeks after the bombing, reports how the head of the Haqqani network, a Taliban-allied organization designed as terrorist by the U.S., met twice with senior officials of Pakistan’s intelligence agency (the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI) the month of the bombing.
During the first meeting, funding for “operations in Khowst [Khost] province” were discussed. “Funds were later provided to tribal elders in Khowst province for their support of the Haqqani network,” according to the cable.
At the second meeting, ISI officials gave “direction to the Haqqanis to expedite attack preparations and lethality in Afghanistan.”
Although heavily redacted, a cable issued the following month specified the head of the Haqqani network as well as another individual were given $200,000 “to enable the attack on Chapman.” The cable specifically mentions a number of individuals involved in the operation, including an Afghan border commander who was given money “to enable a suicide mission by an unnamed Jordanian national.”
The Jordanian mentioned is assumed to be the suicide bomber, Humam al-Balawi, whom the CIA had cultivated as an al-Qaeda informant. Codenamed “Wolf,” al-Balawi turned out to be a double agent, perpetrating the deadliest attack against the CIA in the 15-year history of the war in Afghanistan.
https://www.clarionproject.org/news/secret-cables-links-pakistan-intel-org-deadly-attack-cia
Philippines Terrorists Threaten to Behead Canadian Hostages
The terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, has released a clip threatening to behead two hostages unless a ransom is paid.
The terrorist group Abu Sayyaf has vowed to kill two Canadian hostages if a ransom is not paid within 10 days.
The group sent out a video message of the two Canadians pleading for their lives.
“This is a final, urgent appeal to governments — Philippine, Canadian – and families,” one of the hostages says in the video. “If $300 million (Philippine pesos) is not paid for me by 3 p.m. on April 25, they will behead me.”
The hostages, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, were abducted in September, along with Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Marites Flor from a vacation resort in the southern Philippines. The other two hostages were not mentioned in this video.
https://www.clarionproject.org/news/philippines-terrorist-threaten-behead-canadian-hostages
IRBIL, IRAQ—
U.S. Special Forces together with Kurdish peshmerga on Monday launched a helicopter attack against an Islamic State commander, killing him and two of his bodyguards, Kurdish national security sources said.
Salman Abd Shaib al-Jabouri, also known as Abu Saif, was killed as he traveled near Hamam Ali, south of Mosul, the security sources said.
http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-islamic-state-commander-killed-united-states-peshmerga/3290646.html
A Muslim father has failed to persuade a judge to rule his sons should be circumcised.
The man argued that circumcision would be in accordance with his religious beliefs.
But the boys’ mother, who is separated from their father, disagreed.
At a Family Court hearing in Exeter, Mrs Justice Roberts said the boys, who are six and four, should first reach an age where they can make the decision for themselves.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-36074482
ISIS leaves EU migrant scheme in tatters after bombing refugee camp before Merkel visit (express, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/662075/Islamic-State-attacks-refugee-camp-Turkey-Merkel-cancel-visit
“ISLAMIC State (ISIS) mortar shells have hit a refugee camp in Turkey, forcing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu to cancel the opening ceremony of a migrant settlement….”
Migrant crisis: Many feared dead in Mediterranean (BBC, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36071737
“Many people are feared to have drowned after the boat they were being transferred to by traffickers capsized in the Mediterranean, survivors say.
The 41 survivors, migrants mainly from East Africa, spoke to the BBC from the southern Greek city of Kalamata, where they are being held after their rescue.
They said up to 500 people had died, though there has been no official confirmation of the incident….”
At least 400 refugees travelling by boats from Egypt to Italy have drowned in the Mediterranean sea, reported BBC Arabic citing Somalia’s Ambassador to Egypt.
Earlier in the idea, Somali media reported that hundreds of Somali youth had died when their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
Despite the reports, which were also relayed by MSF, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is yet to confirm the incident.
http://egyptianstreets.com/2016/04/18/400-refugees-drown-while-crossing-from-egypt-to-italy-reports/
A Pakistan court on Monday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for their role in a pedophile ring accused of abusing dozens of children over many years in Pakistan’s Punjab province, their defense lawyer said.
The discovery of the pedophile ring last year shocked Pakistan and led to a rare sanctioning of police officers for negligence after dozens of families came forward to say their children had been abused and then blackmailed by members of a wealthy family.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-sexcrimes-idUSKCN0XF26Z
IS rockets kill Syrian children in southern Turkey (BBC, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36077052
“Rockets fired from northern Syria have killed four Syrians, three of them children, in the Turkish border town of Kilis, local officials say.
The five Katyusha rockets came from part of Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants, the Kilis governor’s office said.
Turkish artillery fired back at IS positions across the border, Turkey’s Hurriyet news daily reported…”
Arabic-speaking student kicked off Southwest flight (CNN, Apr 18, 2016)
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/17/us/southwest-muslim-passenger-removed/index.html
“One day, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was proudly asking the U.N. secretary-general a question. The next, he was booted from a Southwest flight and questioned by the FBI.
For the 26-year-old student at University of California, Berkeley, it was a shocking turn.
Now he’s pushing for an apology from the airline and spreading the word about what happened, which he calls a clear case of Islamaphobia….”
Probably a put up job, he deliberately did things to get kicked off, thus setting the airline up for a massive law suit and make it harder to remove people in the future. Enough actions like this and some terrorists will get through and destroy another plane.
Protests against French forces in Mali turn deadly (france24, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.france24.com/en/20160418-mali-kidal-deadly-protests-against-french-forces
“Demonstrators stormed an airport runway in northern Mali on Monday to protest against arrests by French forces of people suspected of links to Islamist militants who operate in the region, local officials and witnesses said.
Security forces fired warning shots and teargas to deter the mostly female protesters in the town of Kidal who also ransacked and set fire to airport facilities, said a local official, witnesses and the U.N. mission in Mali, MINUSMA.
The protests appear to mark a deterioration in relations between foreign forces and the local community in Kidal, a town at the centre of a separatist movement and violence by Islamist militants, some of whom are linked to al Qaeda….”
False Moral Equivalence as a Tool to Demonize Israel
Among the many tools mobilized for the demonization of Israel, one frequently used is a mode of argument known as false moral equivalence. The term “moral equivalence,” originates from a 1906 address by American philosopher William James.[1] It is the claim that there is no difference between two actions of greatly varying character. It is frequently used to emphasize similarities between two otherwise dissimilar acts. False moral equivalence undermines norms and values in a society, blurring the lines between good and evil also right and wrong.
False moral equivalence comparing Israel’s actions to those of the Nazis was used by several prominent social-democratic politicians, including French President François Mitterrand,[2] Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme[3] and Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. [4]
When two dissimilar realities are linked such as Israel and Nazism, use of one side of the equivalence will eventually automatically bring to mind the other – however distorted the comparison may be. Subsequent repetition results in an acceptance, where the false moral equivalence is no longer countered or questioned.
False moral equivalence should not be confused with moral relativism. The latter lends itself to the justification of behavior by claiming that they are acceptable in a certain culture’s values or were common practice during certain periods of history.[5]
Moral equivalence embodies comparisons, defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as: “The act or process of comparing: as the representing of one thing or person as similar or like another, or the modification of an adjective or adverb to denote different levels of quality, quantity, or relation.”[6] Comparisons innately lend themselves to frequent abuse.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7813/israel-moral-equivalence
PA Health Minister Jawad Awwad confirmed Sunday that President Mahmoud Abbas had given him the go ahead to put together an aid package including medical professionals, supplies and medicine.
“We don’t forget our friends, a deadly earthquake has hit Ecuador, there are many victims, we care for Ecuador and we will help the people of Ecuador no matter how moderate our capabilities are,” Faisal Abu Shahla, a representative of Fatah, stated.
This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
“http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestine-Sends-Humanitarian-Aid-to-Ecuador-Earthquake-Victims–20160418-0008.html”. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. http://www.teleSURtv.net/english
Europe more afraid of migrants than terror: rights monitor (france24, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.france24.com/en/20160418-europe-more-afraid-migrants-terror-rights-monitor
“STRASBOURG (FRANCE) (AFP) – Europe is more scared of the migrant influx than of terrorism, a European rights monitor said in a report published on Monday.
In an annual report, Nils Muiznieks, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, described 2015 as “a year of fear and insecurity” for the continent.
“In such an atmosphere, governments tend to neglect their human rights obligations and public opinion sometimes encourages this trend,” he warned the 47-nation council, which is based in Strasbourg.
Muiznieks pointed to the impact on public mood from two terror attacks in Paris — a January assault on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, followed by the coordinated bloodshed in November that killed 130 people.
But “even more widespread than fear of terrorism was a growing fear occasioned by continuing migrant inflows,” he said, describing it as a “multi-faceted fear” which had affected many European countries.
“For some, the influx signalled the helplessness of individual governments and Europe as a whole to control borders.
“For others, the continuing arrivals and the attending strains exacerbated doubts about Europe?s ability to manage diversity and fed anti-Muslim prejudices, which were already widespread.”
Muiznieks expressed concern over that fact that governments were focussed more on cutting welfare entitlements than integrating new arrivals.
“What is more, a growing trend in many countries augured huge problems in achieving integration in the future,” he said.
The report also sounded the alarm over insecurity in eastern Ukraine, which had prompted the government in Kiev to seek exemption from certain rights obligations, and over media freedom in parts of eastern Europe, including Poland, and the Balkans.”
Hundreds of Syrian refugees to be housed in UK city plagued by homelessness (express, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/661999/Syrian-refugees-Birmingham-homelessness-migrant-crisis-social-housing
“A MAJOR city has pledged to house hundreds of Syrian refugees despite being gripped by homelessness and demands for social housing.
Birmingham city councillors will “put their arms out to welcome” 500 migrants under the Tory Government’s resettlement scheme.
There were 18,834 individual applicants on the council’s homeless register as well as 464 homeless families in 2009 according to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The controversial decision to house refugees comes as part of city council’s plan to make Birmingham a “City of Sanctuary” for Syrian asylum seekers.
During a meeting at a city church, council leader John Clancy said: “This city will put its arms out to welcome refugees from those UN camps, 500 of them over this next few years….”
Turkey Builds Mega-Mosque in U.S., Blocks Churches in Turkey
On April 2, a gigantic Ottoman style of mosque was opened in Lanham, Maryland by the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The mosque, according to Turkish officials, is “one of the largest Turkish mosques built outside Turkey.”
Funds to build it, as reported by the Turkish pro-government newspaper, Sabah, came from Turkey’s state-run Presidency of Religious Affairs, known as the Diyanet, as well as Turkish-American non-profit organizations.
The mosque is actually part of a larger complex, commonly referred to as “Maryland kulliye.” A kulliye, as such Islamic compounds were called in Ottoman times, is a complex of buildings, centered on a mosque and composed of various facilities including a madrassa (Islamic religious school).
Erdogan recited verses from the Quran inside the mosque after the mosque was opened.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from the American soil, in Turkey, Christians have for decades been deprived of the right to build their places of worship.
The 2015 report by Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches revealed many violent, repressive and discriminatory practices against Protestant Christians in Turkey. According to the report, hate crimes, physical and verbal assaults as well as threats against Protestant Christians were commonplace in 2015 — as in previous years.[1]
“No development with regard to uncovering the perpetrators of these actions has occurred despite making known the content of the threats, the telephone numbers, email addresses, Facebook profiles and YouTube links of those making the threats in an official complaint,” according to the report.
Christians also experience many problems in the compulsory “religion and ethics” classes, which are mostly about indoctrinating schoolchildren in the teachings of Islam. An obligatory declaration of faith is one of the more serious problems facing Christians.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7859/turkey-mosques-churches
Palestinian media reported Monday morning that the Egyptian army flooded a Hamas tunnel in the southern part of Gaza Strip, trapping seven Palestinian workers who were inside it.
The tunnel flooded was a commercial tunnel, used by Hamas to smuggle commodities into Gaza Strip, and not a military tunnel.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Egypt-floods-Hamas-tunnel-seven-Palestinian-trapped-451571
EURO TERROR CRISIS: German diplomat calls for creation of EU FBI to tackle extremists (express, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/662110/German-diplomat-European-FBI-tackle-extremists
“A LEADING German diplomat has called for the creation of a Europe-wide law enforcement agency similar to the American FBI with powers to arrest and detain terror suspects.
Wolfgang Ischinger warned the current security arrangement on the continent amounted to a “fair-weather” police force that is ill-equipped for the threat from Islamic State.
Mr Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, said the attacks in Paris and Brussels had laid bare the flaws in national security agencies and their ability to share intelligence.
The diplomat said: “The EU is suffering a serious credibility and identity crisis and must show its citizens that it can be a problem solver and is not itself part of the problem.
“Take the fight against terrorism. The attacks in Paris and Brussels have shown how unsatisfactory is the data exchange between the security agencies.
“Why have we not had the courage in the face of this dramatic threat to promote a European FBI?”
Europol, Europe’s existing ‘police force’, has its hands tied as it only acts a support service for the law enforcement agencies of EU member states.
It means that Europol officers are unable to arrest suspects or act without the approval of national authorities….”
BERLIN (AP) — Germany says a unilateral decision by Israel to keep the Golan Heights would breach international law.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman was responding to a question about comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Sunday that his country will never withdraw from the strategic plateau bordering Syria.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. The move was unanimously rejected the same year by the U.N. Security Council.
http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:c7dee6223b274dc7a194525260dfb2f2
Muslims label AfD ‘Nazis’ over plan to ban minarets (thelocal, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.de/20160418/populists-face-backlash-over-anti-islam-plans
“The Central Council of Muslims responded in unequivocal terms to a hard anti-Islam stance announced by the populist Alternative for Germany party over the weekend.
“For the first time since Hitler’s Germany there is a party that once again is discrediting a whole religious community and threatening its existence,” Central Council of Muslims chairman Aiman Mazyek told public broadcaster NDR on Monday morning.
He was responding to interviews with the AfD leadership published on Sunday that commit the party to a tough anti-Islam line.
“Islam is a political ideology that is incompatible with the [German] constitution,” AfD spokeswoman Beatrix von Storch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) in an interview.
While she allowed that “many Muslims belong in Germany,” she insisted that “Islam does not belong in Germany.”
The party’s deputy chairman Alexander Gauland went further in comments to the FAS, turning to medical terms and dubbing Islam a “foreign body” in German society.
“Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity, but always intellectually linked with taking over the state,” he said, warning of the “Islamization of Germany.”…”
Sweden’s housing minister quits after extremism row (thelocal, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.se/20160418/swedens-housing-minister-quits-after-row
“Sweden’s minister for housing and IT, Mehmet Kaplan, has announced he is stepping down following a week of controversies.
Stefan Löfven told a press conference in Stockholm on Monday that his minister for housing, urban development and information technology would be leaving his position on the government.
“I have received Mehmet Kaplan’s resignation request and I have approved it,” said the Prime Minister….”
Major terrorism trial resumes in Graz (thelocal, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.at/20160418/major-terrorism-trial-resumes-in-graz-austra
“The trial of an Islamic preacher accused of recruiting and murdering for the terrorist group ISIS has resumed today in Graz.
The court case against Islamic preacher Mirsad O., and co-defendant Mucharbek T., was heard in private this morning to protect witnesses giving testimony from being identified.
The defence team are hoping to call 40 witnesses in total, including one Christian priest whom the second defendant claims he lived with in Syria. They have also put in an evidence request for a transcript of secret service communications.
The trial is expected to run on for some time, with the court also waiting for a CD of preachings carried out by Mirsad O. to be translated from Bosnian into German….”
Morocco, a Historic and Essential Partner of EU: French State Secretary (morocco, Apr 18, 2016)
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/04/184455/morocco-a-historic-and-essential-partner-of-eu-french-state-secretary/
“Morocco is a historic and essential partner of the European Union (EU), French secretary of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir said.
“Morocco is a historic and essential partner for the EU. We achieve mutual benefits from this relationship,” he added in an interview with Moroccan daily “L’Economiste”.
The strength and stability of relations between EU and Morocco is a priority for France, Desir pointed out, adding that his country has supported the appeal made by the Council of the European Union following the EU court ruling on the agriculture agreement between the EU and Morocco….”
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…
A Palestinian man recently shot and killed by Israeli security forces after attempting a stabbing attack had chosen a life of bachelorhood for solid theological reasons, according to a news report.
He wanted to hold out for the 72 virgins promised to terrorist “martyrs” but that was not the only factor.
“Martyrs” are also granted the perk of possessing the sexual potency of 100 men, according to the Muslim faith.
http://www.worldtribune.com/perks-of-martyrdom-called-irresistible-for-palestinian-bachelor-stabber/