Reader’s links on April 27 – 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

85 Replies to “Reader’s links on April 27 – 2016”

  1. Australia’s Refugee Camp in Papua New Guinea to Close (abcnews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ruling-leaves-refugees-papua-guinea-camp-limbo-38696285

    “Papua New Guinea’s prime minister says it will close its asylum seeker detention center after the island nation’s Supreme Court ruled that Australia’s detention of the men there is illegal.

    Peter O’Neill said in a statement on Wednesday that the facility on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island would be closed and the country would immediately ask the Australian government to make arrangements for the asylum seekers currently held there.

    Australian officials have been scrambling to respond to a court ruling that has thrown into jeopardy its policy of refusing to accept asylum seekers who try to reach its shores by boat. Australia pays Papua New Guinea and the island nation of Nauru to hold them in detention camps instead.”

  2. Bangladesh Jails 2 Hindu Teachers for Insulting Islam (abcnews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bangladesh-jails-hindu-teachers-insulting-islam-38696286

    “A court has jailed two teachers in southern Bangladesh for making derogatory comments about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

    Magistrate Anwar Parvez told The Associated Press the case began when students at Hijla High School in Bagerhat district complained that the assistant teacher of a science class on Sunday dismissed the Quran as the word of Allah and said there was no heaven.

    Parvez said Tuesday that a mob including students, parents and villagers attacked the teachers from a small, Hindu community with sticks, forcing them to lock themselves in a room until police intervened.

    The magistrate said the assistant teacher pleaded guilty to publicly insulting a religion, and both he and the school’s head teacher were then sentenced to six months behind bars.”

    • The central point is this: Apparently, most people in Bangladesh think this episode makes sense. They actually think that it is fair and just for two people to be sent to jail for simply expressing a personal thought in public. If we let people from Bangladesh into Canada, we are automatically letting in people who think that way. We are letting in people who will go to the polls and vote for whomever is willing to turn our country into another Bangladesh the fastest, and I really don’t think that’s a good idea. It is less than ideal for democratic countries to allow people in who’s first vote will be for the eradication of democracy and the banning of free speech.

      I’m also not crazy about the idea of letting in people who think that attacking Hindus with sticks is an acceptable way of showing their feelings…

  3. ‘It’s like the Wild West’ Child sex assaults RAMPANT in migrant camps, refugees claim (express, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/664745/child-sex-assaults-rampant-greece-migrant-camps

    “CHILD sex attacks and muggings are rampant in “Wild West” migrant shanty towns in Greece, refugees have claimed.

    Migrants in Greece have recently been moved from the abandoned Ellinikon International Airport in Athens to new camps around the country.

    But it is claimed that many residents are refusing to move due to alleged widespread child sex assaults.

    Speaking of the new camps, an Afghan father-of-five told the Times: “It’s like the Wild West there… I’m not going back. Neither are my children.”

    While another migrant mother said: “Weird things happen here after midnight…..”

    • It should be clear to these people that it was a huge mistake to come to the EU. They should be sent back to where ever they came from at once no exceptions. It is unfortunate that children are being abused but their parents put them in harms way by going on this trek to expand islam into the EU. I have no sympathy for any of them.

        • That is what I was wondering, I don’t remember reading of a lot of child molestation in the wild west. Of course if they caught one there would have been an impromptu necktie party.

  4. State STOPS taking Syrian refugees because Obama won’t release their security information (express, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/664765/Kansas-Barack-Obama-Syrian-Refugees-Sam-Brownback-Migrant-Crisis-Syria

    “KANSAS has pulled its plans to resettle Syrian refugees in the state after the US government failed to file security information files on them.

    Governor Sam Brownback said he repeatedly asked federal government for documentation on the screening of refugees that would be relocated from Syria to Kansas.

    But he decided to withdraw the plans, claiming Barack Obama’s administration has not provided the files.

    He said: “Because the federal government has failed to provide adequate assurances regarding refugees it is settling in Kansas, we have no option but to end our cooperation with and participation in the federal refugee resettlement programme.”

    Kansas has received a less than a dozen Syrian refugees since the resettlement programme was set up….”

  5. ‘Highway robbery’: Tehran protests assets freeze for US victims of ‘Iranian terror’ (RT, Apr 27, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/news/341068-iran-terror-us-assets-freeze/

    “Iran has summoned the Swiss Ambassador in Tehran, who represents American interests in the country, to relay a formal note of protest regarding a US Supreme Court ruling that froze $2 billion of the country’s assets to compensate American victims of “Iranian terror.”

    During the meeting with Ambassador Giulio Haas the Iranian Foreign ministry has presented an official note of protest over the ruling by the US Supreme Court last week that approved the transfer of about $2bn of frozen Iranian assets to the families of victims of terrorist attacks.

    The attacks in question pertain to the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 US servicemen, and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans….”

  6. US must explain Afghan anti-terror failure, seek intl help to fix it – ex-president Karzai to RT (RT, Apr 27, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/news/341070-us-afghanistan-terror-failure-karzai/

    “The dire security situation in Afghanistan is a vivid example and consequence of extremism being used as a geopolitical tool by some states, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai told RT in an exclusive interview ahead of the Moscow Conference on International Security.

    “Using extremism as a tool for anybody must not be allowed – any state, no matter who that state is,” Hamid Karzai told RT’s Maria Finoshina.

    Specifically, Karzai noted US interference in Afghanistan in the Cold War era as a pretext to wage war against the rival USSR. At that at the time countries, such as the US and Pakistan were “trying to impose radicalism as the best way to fight the Soviet Union.” The policy has led to the current spreading of terror groups, for which the US and Afghanistan are now “paying a heavy price”….”

    • History, big guy. Recycle and peddle that script to those digging for “root causes”. That’s an end in itself for those who won’t take responsibility. Divide and conquer wouldn’t work without locals eager to tear each other apart and fight for scraps.

      The future holds promise only for those open to change. When the fat alpha dog won’t ease his hold, there’s only circling back to its own vomit.

  7. Al-Nusra Front Militants Arriving in Syria’s Latakia From Turkey (sputniknews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160427/1038670695/nusra-front-latakia-turkey.html

    “Militants of the al-Nusra Front terrorist group keep on arriving in the north-eastern regions of the Syrian province of Latakia from the territory of Turkey, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

    MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, the Russian ministry said the extremists were building up their powers in Latakia’s north-eastern parts.

    “According to information received from civilians and opposition representatives, militants of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist grouping continue arriving in north-eastern regions of the Latakia province from territory of Turkey,” the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website on Tuesday.

    Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with forces loyal to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting against numerous opposition and extremist groups.”

  8. Iran Imprisons Four Journalists on Propaganda and Espionage Charges (sputniknews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160427/1038670591/iran-journalism-crackdown-propaganda-espionage.html

    “The verdict signals a pushback by the ruling regime after the country’s moderates racked up massive gains against Islamist parties in the February general elections.

    On Tuesday, Iran issued prison sentences to four journalists on security-related charges, according to the privately-owned Tasnim news agency. The verdict suggests that the country’s hardliners maintain control over the judiciary, despite reform advances in the February elections.

    The four journalists were found guilty of charges including “spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” and “acting against national security and contacting foreign governments.” The imprisoned journalists appeared to favor the political opposition with reporting that was often critical of the country’s theocracy…”

  9. ECHR rules Turkey to pay 1 million euros to main opposition CHP (hurriyetdailynews, Apr 26, 2016)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/echr-rules-turkey-to-pay-1-million-euros-to-main-opposition-chp.aspx?pageID=238&nID=98350&NewsCatID=338

    “The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Turkey to pay the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) 1 million euros for pecuniary damages over the confiscation of a substantial portion of the party’s assets by the Constitutional Court following an inspection of its accounts for the years 2007 to 2009.

    The European court concluded that the “high standard of foreseeability required as regards the laws that govern the inspection of the finances of political parties had not been satisfied in the applicant party’s case.” “Accordingly, the confiscation orders had not been ‘prescribed by law,’ in breach of Article 11,” it added….”

  10. ECHR fines Turkey for violating Alevis’ right to religious freedom (hurriyetdailynews, Apr 26, 2016)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/echr-fines-turkey-for-violating-alevis-right-to-religious-freedom.aspx?pageID=238&nID=98352&NewsCatID=339

    “The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Turkey guilty of violating the right to religious freedom of Alevis and discriminating against them by withholding public funds for Alevi worship houses “with no objective and reasonable justification.” As a result of the verdict, Turkey has been ordered to pay 3,000 euros in damages to each of the 203 applicants.

    “The assessment made by the domestic authorities of the Alevi faith equates in particular to a refusal to recognize the religious nature of that faith. This also has numerous consequences liable to adversely affect, among other matters, the organization and continuation of the religious activities of the Alevi faith and their funding,” the ECHR ruled, adding that refusing the applicants’ claims amounted to denying the religious nature of the Alevi faith on the part of the state and “constituted an interference with the applicants’ right to freedom of religion as guaranteed by Article 9 § 1 of the Convention.”

    Twelve of the ECHR’s 17 judges held that the case constituted a violation of Article 9, which protects religious freedoms, while 16 said there had been a violation of Article 14, which calls for the securing of rights and freedoms without discrimination on any grounds. …”

  11. Outlawing Tatar Mejlis in Crimea part of continued ‘suppression’, Turkey says (dailysabah, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2016/04/27/outlawing-tatar-mejlis-in-crimea-part-of-continued-suppression-turkey-says

    “Turkey has condemned Tuesday’s Crimean court decision to prohibit the activities of the legislative body, Tatar Mejlis, calling it part of a continued campaign of “intimidation” and “suppression.”

    In a statement issued Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the Crimean Tatar Mejlis was “the democratically elected and legitimate representative and decision-making body” of the Crimean Tatars.

    “Prohibition of the Mejlis’ activities is the latest step taken by Russia that targets the unity and integrity of the Crimean Tatars in the aftermath of the [2014] annexation of the peninsula,” said the statement.

    “With this decision, Crimean Tatars once again face a new step whereby they are forced to yield to and surrender to policies of intimidation and suppression….”

  12. Egypt Official Says Sinai Bombing Kills 3 Police, Wounds 8 (abcnews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-official-sinai-bombing-kills-police-wounds-38700294

    “Egypt’s state news agency says three policemen have been killed in a roadside bombing in the turbulent north of the Sinai Peninsula.

    MENA quoted an unidentified security official saying that the Wednesday explosion targeted an armored personnel carrier in the city of el-Arish, wounding another 8 policemen.

    The official says the wounded were taken to the military hospital in el-Arish.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack. A local affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on security forces in Sinai since 2014.

    Egypt has for years been fighting a Sinai-based Islamic insurgency. The attacks have grown more frequent and deadlier since 2013, when President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, then the defense minister, led the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.”

  13. Jordan Bans Lebanese Band, Says Songs Contradict Religion (abcnews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/jordan-bans-lebanese-band-songs-contradict-religion-38699322

    “A popular Lebanese rock band says Jordanian authorities have banned them from performing because their songs promote religious and sexual freedom.

    Jordan’s Antiquities Department initially told Mashrou’ Leila (“Leila’s Project”) it could not perform at a Roman Theater in the capital Amman because the show contradicts the venue’s “authenticity.”

    However, Amman governor Khalid Abu Zeid told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the group was banned because its songs “contradict” religious beliefs.

    The decision could prove embarrassing for Western ally Jordan. The kingdom portrays itself as an island of tolerance in a region where fundamentalist Islam is on the rise.

    The band has performed three times before at the Roman Theater.

    Guitarist Firas Abou Fakher says the group has become “large enough” to make it a target for political attacks.”

  14. Asylum seeker confesses in Vienna court to pool rape

    An asylum seeker from Iraq accused of raping a ten-year-old boy in a toilet cubicle at a swimming pool in Vienna pleaded guilty in court yesterday

    Twenty-year-old Amir A., who is from Iraq and married with a child of his own, claimed that was a “sexual emergency” when he attacked the schoolboy last December at the Theresienbad in Vienna’s Meidling area.

    http://www.thelocal.at/20160427/asylum-seeker-confesses-in-court-to-raping-boy-at-vienna-pool

  15. Paris Terror Attacks Suspect ‘Thinks He Lives in a Video Game,’ Lawyer Says (abcnews, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/paris-terror-attacks-suspect-thinks-lives-video-game/story?id=38701239

    “Terror suspect Salah Abdeslam was described by his Belgian lawyer as “a little moron” who “is worth gold” in the investigation into the Paris attacks last November.

    In an interview with Jean Quatremer for the French newspaper Liberation, lawyer Sven Mary opened up about his client and what it was like defending Abdeslam.

    “He’s a little moron from Molenbeek involved in petty crimes; more of follower than a leader. He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray. He is the perfect example of the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ generation who thinks he lives in a video game,” Mary said….”

  16. Report: The Foreign Fighters Phenomenon in the EU – Profiles, Threats & Policies

    Of a total estimated 3,922 – 4,294 foreign fighters from EU Member States, around 30% have returned to their home countries.
    A majority of around 2,838 foreign fighters come from just four countries: Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, with Belgium having the highest per-capita FF contingent.
    There is no clear-cut profile of a European foreign fighter. Data indicates that a majority originate from metropolitan areas, with many coming from the same neighbourhoods, that an average of 17% are female, and that the percentage of converts among foreign fighters ranges from 6% to 23%.
    The radicalisation process of foreign fighters is reported to be short and often involves circles of friends radicalising as a group and deciding to leave jointly for Syria and Iraq.
    http://icct.nl/publication/report-the-foreign-fighters-phenomenon-in-the-eu-profiles-threats-policies/

  17. reuters – In Damascus, young Syrians try to revive their lives

    By a military checkpoint in Damascus’s Old City, just a mile from the battered frontline between government and rebel-held territory, young Syrians sit on a garden wall smoking, drinking beer or soft drinks, and talking about anything but the war.

    It is a week night, but the Damascenes are keen to head out to a strip of new bars that have opened in the last few months — some to socialize and others to work in the venues.[…]

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-damascus-idUSKCN0XO11I

    Slideshow –

    http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/in-damascus-young-syrians-try-to-revive?articleId=USKCN0XO11I&slideId=1134716092

  18. Qatar National Bank: Database leak gives data on al-Jazeera journalists and British ‘spies’

    A 1.4GB trove of internal documents, files and sensitive financial data purporting to be from the Qatar National Bank (QNB) has been leaked online.

    The massive data dump appears to contain hundreds of thousands of records including customer transaction logs, personal identification numbers and credit card data. Additionally, dozens of separate folders consist of information on everything from Al Jazeera journalists to what appears to be the Al-Thani Qatar Royal Family.

    However, it is a folder listed as “SPY, Intelligence” that quickly catches the eye. Upon analysis, it contains a slew of records listed as Ministry of Defence, MI6 (the UK foreign intelligence service) and Qatar’s State Security Bureau, also known as “Mukhabarat”.

    The MI6 file, which sits alongside similar documents reportedly from Polish and French intelligence, opens up an in-depth report on an alleged agent. This includes names of close relations, phone numbers, social media accounts and credit card data. Furthermore, in one instance, a file marked “wife”, opens a photo showing a woman and two children. There are roughly a dozen of these intelligence dossiers included in the Qatar data dump.

    The alleged banking leak also openly lists a folder marked “Al Jazeera” that stores nearly 30 separate profiles alongside a Microsoft Excel file that holds more than 1,200 records – including national ID numbers, telephone numbers and home addresses. Much like the intelligence files, the Al Jazeera disclosure contains a number of entries labelled “SPY” and also includes images of the person alongside social accounts, banking data and passwords.

    When contacted, multiple sources confirmed to IBTimes UK the data is legitimate.

    On the customer-facing side, the data dump contains a number of folders that are likely to concern users. Some of the listed database spreadsheets are labelled: “Account Master”, “User Profile” and “Transactions” however, much like the rest of the contents, IBTimes UK is still in the process of verifying the entire leak. It remains unknown how current the data is – and how or when it made its way into the public domain.

    The massive leak was initially uploaded at Global-Files.net however was quickly removed without explanation. Then, a separate well-known whistle-blowing website mirrored the entire data dump in an easily-accessible format.

    In response to questions from IBTimes UK, Maha Mubarak, QNB media relations officer said: “It is QNB Group policy not to comment on reports circulated via social media. QNB would like to take this opportunity to assure all concerned that there is no financial impact on our clients or the bank. QNB Group places the highest priority on data security and deploying the strongest measures possible to ensure the integrity of our customers’ information. QNB is further investigating this matter in coordination with all concerned parties.”

    The same statement has since been posted online.

    After analysing the data Simon Edwards, cybersecurity expert with Trend Micro, said: “The breach seems to be a classic attack on a bank, with the majority of data leaked online exposing customers’ bank account details, such as account numbers, credit cards and addresses.

    “There’s also a lot of information on banking transactions, suggesting that the perpetrators were trying to expose specific transactions. This theory can be further strengthened by the hacker’s attempts to profile the bank’s customers into different categories, mostly focusing on Qatar’s TV network along with other foreign agencies, some of which are categorised as ‘spies’.”

    He added: “Interestingly, there is also additional data about mainly foreign bank account holders, which includes information such as their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, along with ‘friends’ associated through those social networks. This data doesn’t appear to have come directly from the bank itself, rather the perpetrator used the data held by the bank to then build up profiles of further targets.”

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/qatar-national-bank-1-4gb-database-leak-gives-data-customers-journalists-spies-1556787

  19. SWEDEN – Turkey Attempted to Stop Broadcast of Assyrian Genocide Documentary

    The Turkish Embassy in Sweden officially asked the Swedish television channel TV4 last week to not air a documentary on the Assyrian Genocide. The documentary Seyfo 1915 — The Assyrian Genocide by the director Aziz Said and produced by the Assyrian Federation of Sweden was scheduled to be aired on Sunday 24 April, the day Assyrians and Armenians commemorate the victims of the genocide perpetrated by the ruling Young Turks during the late phase of the Ottoman Empire.

    TV4 received an email note from the Turkish Embassy, signed by Arif Gulen, the press counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. The editors of TV4 published the note on the TV4’s media blog in Swedish and English.

    The Embassy’s press officer asks the TV4 editors to reconsider airing the documentary, because “conventional wisdom suggests that broadcasting of a documentary film comprising one-sided views of ‘the 1915 events’ will fail to serve the principle of objectivity of broadcasting.”

    The letter goes on stating that “there is no historical, academic or legal consensus on how to define ‘the 1915 events'” and that “only a competent international tribunal can determine whether a particular event is genocide.”

    The letter triggered an immediate but strong response by TV4’s program director: “We can never accept this. We will protest against any attempt to exert pressure that threatens freedom of expression,” commented Viveka Hansson in a written statement. “The email is polite, though the message cannot be mistaken,” she added and called the letter a “a clear attempt to censor Swedish media” based on opinions not appreciated in Turkey.[…]

    http://www.aina.org/releases/20160426193430.htm
    ===============================================================
    Note from the Turkish Embassy

    To whom it may concern,

    I have been informed that a documentary film, “Seyfofilmen” would be broadcasted on the Channel TV4 Fakta on Sunday, April 24, 2016.

    First of all, I fully respect freedom of expression and your esteemed Channel’s full liberty to broadcast on any issue.

    I don’t want to prejudge the content of Seyfofilmen. However, I would like to provide you with some information regarding the events of 1915.

    As you are aware, in the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the WWI all people of the Empire have greatly suffered regardless of their religious or ethnic origin.

    To recall that period of History in a fair and objective manner is a prerequisite not only for shedding light on the present and future, but also for expressing our indebtedness to all those who have suffered.

    There is no historical, academic or legal consensus on how to define “the 1915 events”.
    Genocide is a specific crime defined by international law. The 1948 UN Convention stipulates what genocide is and states that only a competent international tribunal can determine whether a particular event is genocide.

    Conventional wisdom suggests that broadcasting of a documentary film comprising one-sided views of “the 1915 events” will fail to serve the principle of objectivity of broadcasting.

    I hope you will review the subject once more and reconsider your decision on broadcasting of the above-mentioned documentary film with a balanced and sensible attitude.

    Yours sincerely,

    Arif Gülen
    Press Counsellor
    Turkish Embassy in Stockholm

    http://tv4gruppen.se/TV4s-medieblogg/Valkommen-till-TV4-huset/mediebloggen/Viveka-Hansson/Patryckningar-mot-TV4-fran-Turkiets-ambassad/

  20. Muslim ‘girls only’ swimming sessions ripple Danish waters

    Hundreds of young Muslim girls have flocked to swimming lessons in Copenhagen’s immigrant-heavy Tingbjerg district after Hovedstadens Svømmeklub (Capital City Swimming Club) introduced segregated swimming sessions.

    The girl-only sessions, which also take place with windows and doors to the swimming hall blacked out, were set up in response to religious and cultural requirements put forward by parents, reports Berlingske.

    http://www.thelocal.dk/20160427/muslim-girls-only-swimming-sessions-ripple-danish-waters

  21. Russia: At least 9 detained in raid on suspected terror cell in Khimki

    Security forces raided a suspected ‘terror cell’ in the city of Khimki, Moscow Region on Wednesday, during which at least nine suspects – seven men and two women – were detained on suspicion of working as recruiters

  22. Chernobyl and Communism
    Taboo themes of the Left.

    Chernobyl has been much in the news, with good reason. Thirty years ago, on April 26, 1986, as Lydia Smith noted in the International Business Times, “one of the four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine exploded. It was the most catastrophic nuclear disaster the world has ever witnessed, sending massive amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere and forcing the mass evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine and Belarus.”

    Other sources confirm that the damage continues, so it’s not just a matter of history. The same could be said for another April memorial in Poland. There president Andrzej Duda and government officials gathered at the Powaski military cemetery in Warsaw to attend the funeral of Zygmunt Szendzielarz. As Monika Scislowska of the Associated Press explained, the ceremony was to remind Poles “about facts and figures from the past that were taboo themes under decades of communism — for example, resistance against the regime and the persecution it was met with.” That persecution has a back story.

    In August of 1939, Stalin and Hitler signed a pact that gave the Baltic states to the USSR and divided up Poland between the USSR and National Socialist Germany. In September 1939, when both regimes invaded Poland, Szendzielarz was attached to the Wilno cavalry brigade. As Scislowska recalls, the officer “fought against the Nazi German and Soviet invasion in September 1939 and later led an underground resistance movement.” Col. Szendzielarz, codename Lupaszka, “continued his fight for Poland’s sovereignty after communism was imposed on Poland in 1945.”

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262645/chernobyl-and-communism-lloyd-billingsley

  23. How many of the readers knew that Hitler and Stalin were allies for a while?

    How many know that Russia massacred the Polish Officers that they captured?

    How many think this is ancient history that doesn’t matter?

  24. Why the Left Loathes Western Civilization
    The motivation behind leftist hate for the West.

    This month, Stanford University students voted on a campus resolution that would have their college require a course on Western civilization, as it did until the 1980s.

    Stanford students rejected the proposal 1,992 to 347. A columnist at the Stanford Daily explained why: Teaching Western civilization means “upholding white supremacy, capitalism and colonialism, and all other oppressive systems that flow from Western civilizations.”

    The vote — and the column — encapsulated the left’s view: In Europe, Latin America and America, it loathes Western civilization.

    Wherever there is conflict between the West — identified as white, capitalist or of European roots — and the non-West, the left portrays the West as the villain.

    I am referring to the left, not to liberals. The latter generally venerates Western civilization. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, frequently spoke of defending “Christian civilization.” Today, the left would likely revile any Westerner who used such language as xenophobic, racist, and fascist.

    The left similarly describes any suggestion that anything Western is superior to anything non-Western. Likewise, it dismisses virtually all Western achievements, but regards criticism of anything non-Western as racist, chauvinistic, imperialist, colonialist, xenophobic, etc.

    That is why the left is so protective of Islam. America’s left-wing president, Barack Obama, will not use, and does not seem to allow the government to use, the words “Islamic terrorism.” And, criticism of Islam is labeled “Islamophobic,” thereby morally equating any such criticism with racism. It is not that the left is sympathetic to Islam, for it has contempt for all religions. It is that many Muslims loathe the West, and the enemies of my enemy (the West) must be protected.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262646/why-left-loathes-western-civilization-dennis-prager

      • Real good question, the left started pushing the idea that the students should have control of the schools back in the 60s and this is the logical result.

      • Blame the academic administration of the institution, not the students. Who are these people?

        Another legacy of the Vietnam era. Student deferments encouraged many young men to pursue post-graduate degrees. [No-interest government loans helped a whole lot.] Those are the people running the show.

        Right into the ground.

        • Yeah, we changed the draft laws towards the end but for the most part they were set up to see that the kids of politicians and their friends didn’t have to serve. Despite what the left keeps saying the kids of a lot of rich families served, generally doing their best to keep the people they were serving with from finding out they were rich. This was a way they could make friends with ordinary people without wondering if the friends were after money.

          • A pile of steaming trash slithered into graduate schools. Teach-ins, anti-war protests, and “grape and lettuce-pickers’ solidarity demonstrations” replaced conventional course work.

  25. The Netherlands Now Allows Citiizens to Insult Foreign Leaders

    The Netherlands is going to abolish a law which considers insulting a foreign state leader as a criminal offence. The law states that insulting head of a friendly country carries 2 years of imprisonment.

    The decision to abolish the law has been taken following Turkey’s attempt to prosecute a German satirist. MPs of two Dutch Liberal parties Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) and Democraten 66 (D66) demanded to the government to abolish the low earlier this week, as stated by Dutch News.nl.

    The Netherlands’ justice minister, Ard van der Steur stated that he is considering whether the proposal can be given priority in the parliament, but the minister confirmed that he has no plan to remove the ban on insulting the Dutch monarch.

    The law was not used for many decades in the Netherlands. Last time it was used in 1968 when the writer, Geert Mark who was working in a student’s newspaper, then, was fined for comparing US president Lyndon Johnson to a war criminal.

    Notably, President Erdogan’s son was accused of money laundering and bringing unauthorised money into the country, recently.

    http://www.australianetworknews.com/netherlands-now-allows-citiizens-insult-foreign-leaders/

    Deutsche Welle – Böhmermann’s Erdogan poem prompts private criminal complaints, too

    The Turkish president filed his complaint with Angela Merkel weeks ago, successfully. Now, hundreds of German residents have lodged complaints about a poem treading a thin line between satire, stereotypes and slurs.

    Besides a possible prosecution at the request of the Turkish government, hundreds of people in Germany have filed criminal complaints against comedian Jan Böhmermann. Böhmermann’s lewd poem insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might have been removed from broadcaster ZDF’s website, but it’s liable to be aired in a German court at some point in the future.

    “The approximate number of criminal complaints is moving high in the three-figure region,” Mainz’s senior public prosecutor Andrea Keller told the local “Rheinische Post” daily on Wednesday.

    Keller said it was too early to tell whether a court case against the comedian would go ahead. Her office wanted to question Böhmermann before making this decision.

    In the meantime, Keller said, Mainz prosecutors had received both Turkey’s official complaint and the German government’s authorization to investigate the allegations/strong>.

    All complaints against Böhmermann – be they from private persons, Erdogan himself, or his government in Ankara – would be “collated into one case and investigated.” The prosecutors’ office was still waiting for a statement from Erdogan’s attorney.

    The fragile feelings of Turkey’s most powerful man

    “To be a comedian, you need intelligence – and that kind of comedian which brought on this interesting issue, is bereft of any intellect himself,” Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, told DW’s Conflict Zone this month. “Because what I’ve seen is bordering on racism, it’s disgusting, and even the chancellor herself has agreed to turn it to the German courts … I think that you have to make a distinction between satire, caricature, and insulting. This is insulting. If you have seen this video, it goes beyond any kind of freedom of speech. I don’t want to say ‘draw lines,’ but we have to make a distinction between what is an insult and what is satire.”

    In a sense, however, Böhmermann’s allies might argue he was making precisely this distinction, albeit in particularly poor taste.

    The broadcast followed days after a separate satirical song about Erdogan prompted Turkey to call in its German ambassador to complain. As such, it seemed a response to Ankara’s litigious and diplomatic efforts to protect its head of state’s evidently fragile feelings, at home and abroad. Böhmermann introduced the segment by defending the “Extra 3” song, saying that this – under German law – was completely acceptable.

    The 35-year-old then referred to his own upcoming tirade on air as a “smear poem,” acknowledging that it would push the boundaries of German law and might not make the final edit of his “Neo Magazin Royale” weekly show. The set-up for the poem was a discussion with co-star Ralf Kabelka, playing Erdogan, about the coexistence of German laws guaranteeing artistic freedom and allowing prosecution for libel.

    To make this point, Böhmermann then used a mixture of rhyming accusations – most of them absurd and well below the belt, with just a few a little closer to the nose as well. Sex with goats and other farm animals, sodomy, a child-porn habit and undersized genitalia all made the list, but so did physical abuse of Kurds and Christians, violence against women, and repression of minorities.

    Days numbered for lèse-majesté law in Germany

    In Turkey, insulting the president is a criminal offence – but one that was rarely pursued in court in the past. Since Erdogan switched from head of government to head of state almost two years ago, Turkish prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases on the basis of this law – against journalists, academics, cartoonists, even a 16-year-old schoolboy speaking at a student protest. In February this year, a Turkish man filed charges against his wife for comments she had made in their home.

    Germany, too, has a law criminalizing insults against foreign heads of state. Chancellor Merkel agreed to allow Böhmermann to face a criminal investigation under paragraph 103 of the criminal code, but she also announced plans to abolish the law. Other political parties in the Bundestag are pushing for this process to be fast-tracked.

    Merkel has since called it a “mistake” to refer to the Böhmermann poem as “knowingly offensive,” but she has stuck by her decision to pass the complaint on to prosecutors in Mainz.

    Böhmermann appeared once on “Neo Magazin Royale” after the contentious show aired, never once mentioning Turkey. The closest he came was the flippant question: “Right now, who wouldn’t want to walk in my shoes?” He then announced that he would take a brief break from broadcasting – but has since said he will return to the airwaves on May 11.

    http://www.dw.com/en/b%C3%B6hmermanns-erdogan-poem-prompts-private-criminal-complaints-too/a-19217835

  26. http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262646/why-left-loathes-western-civilization-dennis-prager

    Mexican drug traffickers help Islamic terrorists stationed in Mexico cross into the United States to explore targets for future attacks, according to information forwarded to Judicial Watch by a high-ranking Homeland Security official in a border state. Among the jihadists that travel back and forth through the porous southern border is a Kuwaiti named Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir, an ISIS operative who lives in the Mexican state of Chihuahua not far from El Paso, Texas. Khabir trained hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen and has lived in Mexico for more than a year, according to information provided by JW’s government source.

    Now Khabir trains thousands of men—mostly Syrians and Yemenis—to fight in an ISIS base situated in the Mexico-U.S. border region near Ciudad Juárez, the intelligence gathered by JW’s source reveals. Staking out U.S. targets is not difficult and Khabir actually brags in an Italian newspaper article published last week that the border region is so open that he “could get in with a handful of men, and kill thousands of people in Texas or in Arizona in the space of a few hours.” Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz, Mexico’s top diplomat, says in the article that she doesn’t understand why the Obama administration and the U.S. media are “culpably neglecting this phenomenon,” adding that “this new wave of fundamentalism could have nasty surprises in store for the United States.”

    This disturbing development appears on the Open Source Enterprise, the government database that collects and analyzes valuable material from worldwide print, broadcast and online media sources for the U.S. intelligence community. Only registered federal, state and local government employees can view information and analysis in the vast database and unauthorized access can lead to criminal charges. Updated data gathered on Khabir reveals he’s 52 years old and was ordered to leave Kuwait about a decade ago over his extremist positions. Khabir is currently on ISIS’s (also known as ISIL) payroll and operates a cell in an area of Mexico known as Anapra, according to the recently obtained information.

    A year ago Judicial Watch reported on an ISIS camp in this exact area, just a few miles from El Paso. JW’s April 14, 2015 report identified Anapra as the location of the ISIS base, details that were provided to JW by sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. Anapra is situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. At the time JW reported that another ISIS cell was established to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas to target the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming. Sources told JW that, during the course of a joint operation, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation.

    http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2016/04/cartels-help-terrorists-in-mexico-get-to-u-s-to-explore-targets-isis-militant-shaykh-mahmood-omar-khabir-among-them/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Judicial%20Watch%20Tipsheet%20-%20Template%202%20%2819%29&utm_content=

    • La jihad trova un alleato in Messico: i Narcos

      A parlare con spavalderia è lo sceicco 52enne Mahmood Omar Khabir, cacciato dal Kuwait una decina d’anni fa per le sue posizioni estremiste e oggi al soldo dell’Isis. Khabir in realtà è una sorta di «mercenario» della jihad: prima di stringere un patto con Al Baghdadi, e approdare in Messico, ha istruito centinaia di giovani guerriglieri alqaedisti in Pakistan, Afghanistan e nello Yemen per conto di Al Zawahiri (di cui è stato consigliere in Egitto). Da oltre un anno si troverebbe nello Stato di Chihuahua, a pochi chilometri dal confine con gli Stati Uniti. I jihadisti valicherebbero il confine con l’aiuto dei narcotrafficanti per esplorare obiettivi di attacchi futuri. Una delle basi dello Stato islamico si troverebbe a circa otto chilometri dal confine, in una zona conosciuta come Anapra, ad Ovest di Ciudad Juarez. Ad Anapra Khabir indottrina miliziani sostenendo di aver costituito una cellula di 200mila uomini pronti al martirio e in parte già introdotti nel tessuto sociale del Sud degli Usa. Sono per lo più siriani e yemeniti, ma ci sarebbero anche cittadini americani partiti per la Siria per combattere tra le fila del Califfato e poi rientrati illegalmente.

      «L’amministrazione Obama e i media americani stanno trascurando colpevolmente il fenomeno – rivela il ministro degli Esteri Claudia Ruiz – non riusciamo a capire se si tratti di una strategia, ma questa nuova ondata di integralismo potrebbe riservare brutte sorprese agli Stati Uniti». Anche perché la cellula messicana è riuscita a importare armi leggere, munizioni e persino dispositivi per bersagli aerei direttamente dall’ex arsenale iracheno di Saddam Hussein. L’unico a manifestare una certa inquietudine è stato il governatore repubblicano del Texas, Greg Abbott, che ha informato il candidato alla Casa Bianca Donald Trump. Durante un discorso pubblico Abbott ha annunciato che i terroristi dell’Isis avrebbero già più volte varcato il confine in missione esplorativa. «Credo sia un possibilità molto reale», ha detto facendo riferimento all’ingresso di combattenti dello Stato islamico.

      http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/jihad-trova-alleato-messico-i-narcos-1249792.html

  27. Turkey bombing in Bursa: Female suicide bomber attacks near city’s Grand Mosque

    A female suicide bomber has blown herself up outside a historical mosque in Turkey, injuring at least seven people.

    Footage showed people fleeing an explosion near the Grand Mosque of Bursa on Wednesday afternoon.

    Police cordoned off the blast site by an entrance to the mosque, with extensive damage to nearby shops and cafes visible.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-bombing-in-bursa-female-suicide-attacker-targets-grand-mosque-a7003901.html

  28. the right scoop – O’KEEFE: NC officials ENABLE male reporter posing as SEXUAL PREDATOR to use female bathroom

    James O’Keefe and crew paid a visit to both UNC Asheville and Appalachian State to see if the NC laws are being enforced. Not only did they find they weren’t, but they also found that one Title IX compliance official turned a blind eye to admitted sexual exploitation of females in the girls bathroom.

    http://therightscoop.com/okeefe-nc-officials-enable-male-reporter-posing-as-sexual-predator-to-use-female-bathroom/

  29. Migrant crisis: Austria passes controversial new asylum law (BBC, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36152927

    “Austria has passed a controversial new law that restricts the right of asylum and allows most claimants to be rejected directly at the border.

    Rights groups say the law undermines the principle of protection from war and persecution.

    It comes days after Austria’s far-right came top in the first round of a presidential election.

    Austrian officials say they are also considering building a fence at the main border crossing with Italy.

    The new asylum law lets the government declare a “state of emergency” over the migrant crisis and reject most asylum-seekers, including those from war-torn countries such as Syria.

    It also limits any successful asylum claim to three years.

    “These amendments are a glaring attempt to keep people out of Austria and its asylum system,” said Amnesty Europe director Gauri van Gulik.

    But Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said Austria had no other choice as long as “so many other EU members fail to do their part” to limit the influx of migrants and refugees.

    “We cannot shoulder the whole world’s burden,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the police chief in Tyrol said Austria was proposing building a 400m fence at the Brenner crossing in the province….”

    • Die Welt 27.7.2016, 19:08
      Austria: “State of Emergency” Act
      Austria resolves tough asylum law

      The Austrian parliament has tightened asylum rules drastically. On Wednesday, the parliament in Vienna adopted an amendment that allows Emergency regulations.
      Austria may proclaim a “state of emergency” in the refugee crisis in the future. As a result, protection seekers might get little chance at all to seek asylum.

      This is the consequence of the amendment of the asylum law, that a large majority of the Austrian Parliament decided on Wednesday.

      The “state of emergency” is defined as a threat to public order and internal security. Such decision by the government will have to be approved by Parliament.
      In this case, applications for asylum seekers will only be accepted from certain refugees. This includes people who have close relatives in Austria, unaccompanied minors, and women with small children.
      Everyone else would have to return to the neighbouring countries.

      An “emergency” will initially be limited to six months, but can be extended to up to two years.

      With this amendment, Austria gave itself one of the toughest asylum laws in the EU. The possibility to deny the refugees application for asylum at the border exists otherwise only in Hungary.

      The Greens sharply criticized the amendment. “The right of asylum is completely undermined,” said Green Party leader Eva Glawischnig. The law would be eroded. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) justified the step. “The capacity limit is oriented at the the Austrians,” said Sobotka.
      Many organizations, such as the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, have spoken out against the legislative package. For the right FPÖ on the other hand, the measures do not go far enough.

      Österreich verabschiedet hartes Asylgesetz
      http://www.welt.de/politik/article154819341/Oesterreich-verabschiedet-hartes-Asylgesetz.html

  30. Indirect taxes forbidden in Islam, says Maulana Sheerani (tribune, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1093041/indirect-taxes-forbidden-in-islam-says-maulana-sheerani/

    “The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani has termed the collection of indirect taxes as forbidden according to the Islamic principles.

    “Under the Islamic principles only progressive taxation can be levied on the masses,” he said on Wednesday while addressing a seminar organised by the council in Islamabad on the fundamentals of Islamic economy and current problems facing the country.

    The statement came a day after the country’s top Islamic advisory body had suggested abandoning paper currency in favour of gold and silver coins while urging the government to adopt an Islamic economic system.

    The Islamic legislative advisory body has opined that the indirect taxes are collected by the government from consumers instead of taking the levy from ‘big feudal’, capitalists and others, which is illegal keeping in view the Islamic injunctions.

    Maulana Sheerani went on to say that in case of sales tax, all the people have to pay the same amount whether they are labourers or landlords.

    The statement may open a new Pandora’s Box for the government, as a case is already pending in the Supreme Court of Pakistan about the status of interest on loans.

    The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collects sales tax under General Sales Tax Act of 1990, which is amended time to time. The indirect taxes constitute over 60% of the total tax collection, suggesting the government’s heavy reliance on such instruments.”

  31. Bulgarian town bans face veil in public (tribune, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1093116/bulgarian-town-bans-face-veil-in-public/

    “A Bulgarian town that is home to a Roma minority practising an ultraconservative form of Islam on Wednesday banned Islamic face veils in public, a first in the country.

    The town council of Pazardzhik in southern Bulgaria voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban in all administrative buildings, schools, shops and on the street. Driving with a full-face veil, or niqab, was also outlawed.

    The council justified the measure by saying that a veil impeded identification. Fines of 300 leva (150 euros, $175) can be levied, rising to 1,000 leva for repeat offenders….”

  32. US war on terror failed because sanctuaries in Pakistan remained intact: Karzai (khaama, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/us-war-terror-failed-because-sanctuaries-in-pakistan-remained-intact-karzai-0769

    “The former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said the US-led war on terror failed because the extremists’ sanctuaries remained intact in Pakistan.

    During an interview with the Russia Today television network, Karzai said Washington should focus on cutting down extremists’ financial sources and training grounds if the country remains sincerely determined to fight terror in all its forms, and its intentions are true.

    “The war against terrorism will not succeed unless we fight it in the sanctuaries, in the training grounds, in the motivational factors, in the financial resources to them,” the former President said.

    Karzai further added that the reason the United States and its allies failed to provide lasting security to Afghanistan and to do away with extremism and with radicalism is because they began to fight it in Afghan villages, where terrorism wasn’t there anyway in the first place….”

  33. Taliban militants disguised as married couple arrested in north of Afghanistan (khaama, Apr 27, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/taliban-militants-disguised-as-married-couple-arrested-in-north-of-afghanistan-0772

    “Two key Taliban group militants were arrested as they were escaping from Dahana-e-Ghori district in northern Baghlan province, disguised as married couple.

    According to the local security officials, the two Taliban militants were identified as Mawlavi Jumadin and Qari Juma Khan.

    Provincial security chief Gen. Ewaz Mohammad Nazari confirmed that the two militants were involved in insurgency activities and were operating under the leadership of Majeed Akhundzada.

    He said the two militants had disguised as a couple and were arrested during a search operation of the Afghan security forces.

    Gen. Nazari further added that the militants were arrested hours after a gun battle between the militants and Afghan security forces which left 5 militants dead….”

    • FYI it is called MU or the University of Missouri or UMC.

      It use to be a world class engineering school and one of the two top journalism schools in the US. That was before the left got control of the school.

      • I’m English,
        so Mea Culpa.
        (That I can’t spell, but then again I am dsylexic)
        And yes , I hate the fact that I can’t spell my own disorder!

        • I live 35 miles from Columbia so I know this quite well, most people on both coasts should know better but refuse to learn. The sad thing is that MU use to be a major world class school, after Nam the left kept gaining more and more control and it is now a fairly useless school.

          Another mistake people make is with the name of the State Capital, the correct name is “Jefferson City” city is the last word in the name. If you have a complaint with that take it up with the people who built and named the city.

  34. HOUSTON – April 26 2016 – Kerry on Terrorism’s Appeal: ‘Regular Meals, Companionship’ – Not Necessarily Religion

    Religion does not necessarily play a role in radicalization of Muslims, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday night, citing political repression and denial of rights as relevant factors, along with the lure of “regular meals [and] companionship.”

    In a speech at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Kerry acknowledged that “you don’t have to be poor or repressed or receive special training” to become a recruit of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

    http://www.wcbm.com/2016/04/27/kerry-on-terrorisms-appeal-regular-meals-companionship-not-necessarily-religion/

  35. CBC – Who are terror group Abu Sayyaf?

    Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf gained notoriety in Canada for beheading a Canadian hostage. Five years ago Adrienne Arsenault travelled to the Philippines, where she met a man who was kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf. She revisits that story.