Reader’s links for May 14 – 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

79 Replies to “Reader’s links for May 14 – 2016”

    • The author and editors are living in a different universe from the rest of us.

        • Not fast enough.

          Like Lincoln said, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, with the public finally taking a hard look at the left wing media they are discovering that the leftist have lied to them for a long time. Now the leftist media is paying the price.

  1. Off topic for this item, but since I can’t see any other way to provide general information I will do it here.
    In your Blogroll column on RH side The Gates of Vienna entry needs the link updated, which you will see if you click on it.

  2. Sikh soldier wins right to wear turban in US army (BBC, video, May 14, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36292482

    “A Sikh solider who was forced to shave off his hair and beard to join the US Army has won the right to wear a black or camouflage turban and grow his facial hair.

    Captain Simratpal Singh, who was awarded a bronze star for valour for his service in Afghanistan,
    mounted a legal challenge to an executive order that was passed by President Reagan in the 1980s which called for all troops to look uniform.

    Since his victory, three more Sikh soldiers have received religious accommodations.”

    • I expect Trump will rescind that order and reinstate Reagan’s.

      The Citadel has correctly reaffirmed uniformity of its military school students by refusing
      to permit a new recruit to flaunt her allegiance to sharia, female genital mutilation, violence–including mass rape–against women by wearing the hijab.

      • Combat is going to force the military to rescind all of Obama’s changes. Way too many good men and women are going to die proving Obama and the left wrong.

        • First woman in combat captured by the enemy will bring the Hannibal solution – always hotly denied – to the US military.
          Unless the men in her unit are too busy pleasuring each other. Too many years of don’t-ask-don’t tell, then tell-flaunt-recruit.
          Feh.

  3. After ISIS: Inside the Iraqi City Left in Ruins (abcnews, May 14, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/isis-inside-iraqi-city-left-ruins/story?id=39073778

    “It was one of the biggest cities in Iraq — the capital of Anbar Province and a strategic hub for travelers going west to Syria and Jordan.

    Once a bustling city along the banks of the Euphrates with a booming population of nearly 850,000, Ramadi is now a ghost town, destroyed by the ISIS takeover almost one year ago….”

  4. Suicide Bombers Attack Town Outside Baghdad, Kill 6 People (abcnews, May 14, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suicide-bombers-attack-town-baghdad-kill-people-39113336

    “An official says more than a dozen suicide bombers have attacked a residential and government complex outside Baghdad, killing at least six people.

    The police chief of the town of Amiriyat Fallujah, Col. Ali al-Issawi , says at least 14 suicide attackers broke into the complex Saturday at dawn. In addition to homes, the complex also includes a police station and several government offices.

    Al-Issawi said five of the attackers blew up themselves while clashing with security forces, while others holed up inside the buildings, and were later killed. He added that five troops and one civilian were killed, while another 18 people were wounded.

    The town is located a few miles south of Fallujah, the main Islamic State-stronghold in Anbar province, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad.”

  5. Bangladesh Police Say Buddhist Monk Killed in Monastery (abcnews, May 14, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bangladesh-police-buddhist-monk-killed-monastery-39112696

    “A 75-year-old Buddhist monk has been killed in a monastery in southeastern Bangladesh, police said Saturday.

    The body of Maung Shue U. Chak was found Saturday morning by his daughter-in-law when she went to give him some food, local police official Abul Khayer said. His throat had been slit overnight.

    While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the killing, it follows a slew of murders in recent years of members of religious minority groups, foreigners, atheist bloggers and secular publishers in Bangladesh by suspected Islamist radicals. The killings have come amid growing concern that religious extremism is gaining ground in the Muslim-majority nation of 160 million.

    The Islamic State group and an al-Qaida-linked group have claimed responsibility for some of the recent killings, but the authorities in Bangladesh insist that neither of the groups has a presence in the country. Instead, the authorities have blamed political opposition and local militant groups for the violence.

    Last month, suspected Islamist militants killed two prominent gay rights activists, an atheist student and a university professor.”

  6. Cameroon Says 5 Boko Haram Leaders Arrested; Dozens Freed (abcnews, May 14, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cameroon-boko-haram-leaders-arrested-dozens-freed-39113036

    “Cameroon’s government says the multinational joint forces fighting Boko Haram have arrested five leaders of the extremist group and freed dozens of women and children held captive.

    Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma said Saturday that the raids targeted Boko Haram’s bases in the Madawaya forest earlier this month.

    He said the operation freed 28 children along with at least 18 women.

    The spokesman said Boko Haram had set up camp in the forest after fleeing another military operation in neighboring Nigeria. He said the fighters had been training young girls and women as suicide bombers.

    Boko Haram’s nearly 7-year insurgency, which has launched attacks beyond Nigeria’s borders into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, has killed at least 20,000 people, according to Amnesty International.”

  7. Desperate ISIS jihadis to unleash CHEMICAL WEAPONS as terrorists lose grip on stronghold (express, May 14, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/670226/Islamic-State-ISIS-chemical-weapons-defend-Mosul-Iraq-Daesh-stronghold

    “ISLAMIC State militants will unleash chemical weapons in a desperate bid to defend its stronghold of Mosul, a senior officer has warned.

    The Iraqi city has been the headquarters for the depraved death cult for nearly two years but troops are preparing an assault to recapture the city.

    Australian deputy commander of international troops training in Iraq Brig Roger Noble has warned that ISIS could deploy chemical weapons to stave off an attack from soldiers.

    He said: “Chemical weapons are part of the equation and the Iraqi army plans for and operates with that as part of the equation. They would expect the full raft of enemy capabilities to be employed.”…”

  8. Leaked wiretaps of ISIS agents show Ankara routinely ignores terrorist cross-border activity (RT, May 14, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/news/343002-ankara-wiretaps-isis-border/

    “Thousands of ISIS associates have been routinely crossing into Syria aided by contacts in Turkey, phone calls tapped by Ankara security forces and handed to the media by opposition MP Erem Erdem reveal. He accuses the government of a massive cover-up.

    Transcribed phone recordings belonging to Ilhami Bali, well known in Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) ranks and suspected of staging high-profile bomb attacks in Ankara and the mainly-Kurdish border city of Suruc, detail the lack of control along the Syrian Turkish border. The 98-kilometer (61-mile) stretch of border has only two crossings, the Jarablus and Al Rai entry points across from Turkey’s Gaziantep and Kilis.

    Pressured by the international community to impose stricter border controls to stem the flood of militants into Syria, Ankara has been erecting walls at key crossing points, but to no avail as surveillance data from the Municipality of Ankara Provincial Security Department revealed….”

    • After I read a few reviews of this recently published book on undercover operations in Gaza, I realized that Western and Soviet and Arab-state intelligence services must be methodically infiltrating the IS and the neutralization of its caliph is imminent: “The Ghost Warriors: Inside Israel’s Undercover War Against Suicide Terrorism”

      • Taking out the ISIS Caliph is a good thing but it will not stop ISIS for long, bin Laden died but al Qaeda is alive and well. What no longer taught in the West is that you win wars by removing the enemies will to resist. Taking out a group leader usually means that a new leader will take his place. The west is fighting this war so as to not hurt people and this (in their culture) shows that we are weak. If you go in hard and heavy from the start and continue until the enemy i crushed you win the war, if you play patty cake with them the war drags on and on.

        Colonel Peters has it right, go in hard fast and devastate the country then pull out, repeat as needed until they stop attacking.

  9. German government plans to spend 93.6 billion euros on refugees by end 2020: Spiegel (reuters, May 14, 2016)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-germany-costs-idUSKCN0Y50DY

    “Germany’s government expects to spend around 93.6 billion euros by the end of 2020 on costs related to the refugee crisis, a magazine said on Saturday, citing a draft from the federal finance ministry for negotiations with the country’s 16 states.

    The figure is likely to stoke concerns, particularly among growing anti-immigration movements, on the impact of new arrivals on Europe’s largest economy which took in more than a million people last year, many from Syria and other war zones….”

  10. Kurdish Militants Claim Responsibility for Downing Turkish Army Helicopter (sputniknews, May 14, 2016)
    http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160514/1039611578/kurds-downing-turkish-helicopter.html

    “The People’s Defence Force (HPG), the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Saturday claimed responsibility for downing a Turkish military helicopter, refuting the Turkish General Staff’s claim that the crash took place due to a technical malfunction…”

  11. Deutsche Welle – German police chief concerned at growing anti-refugee violence

    Germany’s federal police chief says there have been 45 arson attacks on refugee shelters so far this year. He warned of the potential threat posed by organized right-wing extremist crime.

    The head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, has warned of a new dimension to violent attacks on asylum-seekers in the country in an interview published on Saturday.

    Speaking to newspapers of the Funke media group, Münch said the “increasing level of violence was especially of concern,” adding that 45 arson attacks had been carried out on refugee shelters so far this year.

    “The perpetrators are predominantly male, and nearly 80 percent come from the place where the offense was committed,” he said.

    Although Münch said there was no sign that the attacks were being organized at a national level by right-wing extremist groups, there was a danger of such organization occurring at some stage.

    He said there was a possible risk that “criminal or even terrorist structures” could arise on the basis of anti-refugee sentiment and that German police were taking this threat “very seriously.”

    In recent months, Germany has seen opposition to the government’s liberal policy on refugees become more vocal and take on a more organized form in the guise of the political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the “anti-Islamization” movement PEGIDA. In 2015, Germany took in some 1.1 million people seeking asylum, many of them fleeing conflict, poverty or persecution in the Middle East and Africa.

    ‘Imams must do more’

    In the interview, Münch also called on the Muslim community in Germany to do more to help combat radical Islamism.

    “We do not sense any objections to the work of the police,” he said. “But some communities have a problem recognizing that their faith is being abused by radicals.

    “We need more commitment here – from imams as well,” Münch added.

    The police chief also said he saw a risk that radical Salafists could exploit the difficult situation asylum-seekers to Germany often found themselves in. He said young, male Muslim refugees wanted to find friends and practice their religion, which could lead to their coming under the influence of a Salafist preacher at a mosque who might radicalize them.

    “Radical activities in mosques certainly worry us,” he said.

    http://www.dw.com/en/german-police-chief-concerned-at-growing-anti-refugee-violence/a-19257795

  12. Re Martin.

    Press needs to discontinue using ‘right wing extremist group’ since the term sounds like an epithet.
    ‘Pro ethnic German group’ is the positive and accurate term.

    • They won’t stop. Brain’s hardwired left.
      “The Holy Month of Ramadan”
      “The Prophet Moh, pubh”

      Remember when the media used to call Saddam Hussein’s team, “Saddam’s Elite Republican Guard”?

  13. RUSSIA – MOSCOW – When the fight of migrants on Khovansky a cemetery in Moscow there are victims.

    On Khovansky a cemetery in Moscow there was a mass brawl involving hundreds of migrants. Among the victims are a policeman, said a source of»Interfax». The number of victims among the participants of the TBD — according to some media reports, nearly a dozen of them. Initially it was reported that a brawl involving up to a hundred people, but then began to receive evidence of a much larger conflict: about 400 participants who used firearms, shovels, sticks, bits and pieces of rebar. The cause of the massacre — the redistribution of spheres of influence at the cemetery. At 15:30, the MIA reported on the suppression of conflict. Detained about 50 people.

    http://en.news-4-u.ru/when-the-fight-of-migrants-on-khovansky-a-cemetery-in-moscow-there-are-victims-chronicle.html

    Mass brawl in the cemetery khovanskoye

    In a mass brawl that occurred on Saturday, may 14, at khovanskoye cemetery in Moscow, was attended by representatives of various national diasporas. Natives of Dagestan and Chechnya attacked people from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, said RIA Novosti a source in the administration of the cemetery.

    According to the interlocutor of the Agency, the attackers wanted to expel the Tajiks and Uzbeks with Khovansky and to occupy this territory. The source noted that the customer service of this large cemetery (Khovanskoye is the largest cemetery of the capital) brings a large income, from-for what there was a conflict.

    One of the employees of the cemetery noted that the attack was “long-planned”. “They [the attackers] came in from all sides and directly in front of the customers they beat everybody and shot the car” — said the source RIA Novosti. Also, according to him, about the impending attack was known.

    Currently, the fight is completely suppressed. Detained over 100 participants of the clashes. In addition, police detained three natives of the North Caucasus that, after the fight, hiding from the guards, the car knocked down two people.

    On Saturday on Khovansky a cemetery there was a fight in which took part, according to various estimates, from 100 to 500 people. It became known about death of two people, the exact data on victims yet. In the main Department of the MIA of Russia in the capital said that the conflict arose because of the distribution service territories of the cemetery.

    http://rushincrash.com/forces/the-media-told-the-details-of-the-mass-brawl-in-the-cemetery-khovanskoye/

    • RT -Hundreds in mass brawl at Moscow cemetery, 3 killed, National Guard deployed

      Up to 400 people took part in a mass brawl at a Moscow cemetery, most of them reportedly migrants [ read Muslims ], armed with bats, sticks, and metal bars. At least three people have been killed in the fight, the Investigative Committee said.

      At least 29 people have been hospitalized, TASS reported citing Moscow’s Health Department. Four of them are in critical condition.

      Gunfire was heard at the scene. Police and National Guard forces intervened to deal with the fight.

      Some of those involved in the fight were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, a source in law enforcement told TASS.

      Eyewitnesses also heard gunfire, saying the shooting lasted for at least 15 minutes.

      Some 50 people have been detained, while three tried to flee the scene in a car. They ran over and killed two people.

      “Police have found and seized firearms at the scene. The conflict has been contained and arrests continue,” the Interior Ministry told TASS.

      About 200 people have been participating in the fight, which was taking place at the front entrance to the Khovanskoe cemetery, officials say. Other sources place the number at up to 400.

      Initial reports that a police officer was killed while trying to intervene in the fight have not been confirmed by police officials.

      The shooting and the elevated security in the area caused massive traffic jams near the cemetery. People posted footage from the scene, with the sounds of shooting heard in the distance.

      “When we were approaching the cemetery, there was only a small traffic jam, with the police gathering nearby. We drove past the cemetery, and started hearing gunshots, but we didn’t pay much attention. And when we were going back, the shots stopped, but the cars along the roads had broken windows. We drove on, and saw some 50 migrants lying on the ground, surrounded by special forces, and medics were carrying a dead body,” a witness told Komsomolskaya Pravda radio.

      One of the visitors to the cemetery told LifeNews that she and her husband were leaving the grounds after visiting their daughters grave. As they stood in the traffic jam on their way out, two large men jumped into the back seat of their car.

      “Immediately, some 15 people with bats and sticks ran up, they started to hit the car,” the woman said. The attackers tried to pull the two men from the car, shouting, “they killed two of ours.” The husband got out of the car to stop the attack, and was hit in the temple. He is now in hospital.

      The conflict at the cemetery didn’t happen due to nationality issues, but because of a turf war, the Interior Ministry told Interfax.

      Several diasporas participated in the fight, according to the cemetery’s administration, as cited by RIA Novosti. Among them were people from the Central Asian former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who were allegedly attacked by citizens of Chechnya and Dagestan from the North Caucasus. The latter wanted to chase the former from the territory and set up their own businesses providing services for the cemetery. It reportedly yields quite an income.

      “They came and told us, ‘You’d be working for us’. You’ll give us the whole sum, and we’ll give you back 10 percent. We didn’t agree, so they arrived, all armed, about 100 people, and shot people dead, just for that money,” one of the injured told LifeNews.

      A cemetery employee told RIA Novosti the attack had been “planned long ago.””They entered from all sides and beat everyone up and shot at cars, right in front of the clients,” he said.

      Among the seized weapons, are several out-of-order assault rifles, used to frighten the ‘enemy,’ a source in law enforcement told RIA Novosti. However, police discovered other lethal and non-lethal weapons.

      The entire cemetery is now covered in brick debris, and bullet casings are scattered everywhere.

      This was the first time the newly formed National Guard has been deployed, with 200 special forces servicemen participating in the operation.

      The people who started the conflict may be murder suspects, the Interior Ministry reported, as cited by Interfax. They may be those who hit the two victims with a car while trying to escape the scene.

      The fight was started by migrants hiding from the migration service, cemetery officials said. “Today’s case isn’t the first one. Illegal migrants [often] try to hide on cemetery grounds from the migration services. [They] deliberately cause disturbances and behave aggressively towards visitors and administration.”

      The Khovanskoye cemetery is in outskirts of Moscow to the southwest.

      https://www.rt.com/news/343023-cemetery-migrants-fight-killed/

    • Moscow cemetery brawl: Three dead and 50 arrested (BBC, May 14, 2016)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36293547

      “Three people have been killed and 23 taken to hospital after a mass brawl at a Moscow cemetery, apparently sparked by a dispute about jobs, police say.

      Russian news reports said up to 200 people took part in the brawl at the south-west Khovanskoye cemetery.

      Police said two of the victims died after being run over by a car as people escaped from the scene.

      Police spokeswoman Sofya Khotina said the three people in the car, who were armed with pistols, were arrested.

      The brawlers fired guns and fought with shovels, shovel handles, steel bars and baseball bats, Russian news reports said.

      More than 50 people were arrested in total, according to Russia’s interior ministry.
      Reports said police officers fired into the air in an attempt to quell the violence.

      Police believe the brawl was caused by a territorial dispute between two different groups of workers, fighting over the cemetery’s lucrative services business.

      Reports said they were from ethnic groups from ex-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus.
      The Khovanskoye cemetery is a massive 200-hectare (500-acre) site on Moscow’s southwestern outskirts.”

  14. GERMANY – Pig’s Head With Insulting Inscription Found Near Merkel’s Office

    German police are searching for the unknown person responsible for lobbing a pig’s head with an insulting inscription addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at one of her constituency offices, German media reported.

    The unusual “gift” was placed at the constituency office in the town of Stralsund, Focus wrote.

    According to reports, the police found the animal’s head on Saturday morning. Law enforcement officers have not disclosed the content of the inscriptions, but pointed out that the insulting text was personally addressed to Merkel.

    http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20160514/1039614942/pig-head-merkel.html

    Unbekannte legen Schweinskopf vor Merkels Büro

    Beleidigung gegen Kanzlerin Angela Merkel: Vor ihrem Büro in Stralsund haben Polizisten einen abgeschlagenen Schweinskopf entdeckt. Wer die Tat verübt hat, versucht die Polizei zu ermitteln.

    Vor dem Wahlkreisbüro von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) in Stralsund haben Unbekannte in der Nacht zum Samstag einen Schweinekopf mit beleidigender Aufschrift abgelegt. Nach Polizeiangaben bemerkte eine Funkstreife den abgeschlagenen Tierkopf gegen 5.40 Uhr. Die beleidigende Aufschrift habe sich gegen Merkel gerichtet.

    Polizei ermittelt wegen Beleidigung gegen Angela Merkel

    Den genauen Wortlaut wollte das zuständige Polizeipräsidium Neubrandenburg auf Nachfrage der Nachrichtenagentur AFP nicht nennen. “Es handelt sich um Täterwissen”, sagte ein Sprecher. Bislang gebe es noch keine Verdächtigen. Die Kriminalpolizei ermittelt den Angaben zufolge wegen Beleidigung zum Nachteil der Bundeskanzlerin sowie wegen Verstoßes gegen das Tierkörperbeseitigungsgesetz.

    Merkel hat seit 1990 ihren Wahlkreis im Nordosten und immer das Direktmandat gewonnen.

    http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/angela-merkel–unbekannte-legen-schweinskopf-vor-ihrem-buero-in-stralsund-ab-6850940.html

      • I quit listening to her when she stated he lacks empathy.
        Idiot trying to pass herself off as knowledgeable.
        She apparently hasn’t heard of Trump’s saving the farm of a woman who recently lost her husband.
        Or the young mother dying of cancer whose son Trump has promised to help after her passing.
        Both appeared at his rallies without notifying him in advance.
        They were heartily welcomed by Trump. Tearful reunions for all of us to witness.

  15. WaPo – David Petraeus: Anti-Muslim bigotry aids Islamist terrorists

    David Petraeus is a retired U.S. Army general who commanded coalition forces in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 and Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011 and served as CIA director from 2011 to 2012.

    Almost 15 years after the 9/11 attacks, and five years since the killing of the chief architect of those attacks, the United States and the world face a resurgent threat from terrorism. This stark reality should inform the national debate as we prepare to elect our next commander in chief.

    As states across the Middle East have collapsed into civil war, Islamist extremist groups such as the Islamic State have exploited the upheaval to seize vast swaths of territory, which they have used to rally recruits, impose totalitarian rule over the people trapped in these areas and plot attacks against the rest of the world.

    Few responsibilities that our next president inherits will be more urgent, important or complex than thwarting these terrorist plans, reversing the conditions that have enabled their rise and combating the broader Islamist extremist ideology that animates them.

    It would be a mistake to minimize the continuing risk posed by these groups. Although al-Qaeda’s senior leadership ranks have been dramatically reduced, and while encouraging progress is being made against the Islamic State in Iraq and, to a lesser degree, Syria, these remain resilient and adaptive organizations. While Islamist extremist networks do not pose an “existential” threat to the United States in the way that Soviet nuclear weapons once did, their bloodlust and their ambition to inflict genocidal violence make them uniquely malevolent actors on the world stage.

    Nor can they be “contained.” On the contrary, from Afghanistan before 9/11 to Syria and Libya today, history shows that, once these groups are allowed to establish a haven, they will inevitably use it to project instability and violence.

    Moreover, the fact is that free and open societies such as ours depend on a sense of basic security to function. If terrorism succeeds in puncturing that, it can threaten the very fabric of our democracy — which is, indeed, a central element of the terrorist strategy.

    For that reason, I have grown increasingly concerned about inflammatory political discourse that has become far too common both at home and abroad against Muslims and Islam, including proposals from various quarters for blanket discrimination against people on the basis of their religion.

    Some justify these measures as necessary to keep us safe — dismissing any criticism as “political correctness.” Others play down such divisive rhetoric as the excesses of political campaigns here and in Europe, which will fade away after the elections are over.

    I fear that neither is true; in fact, the ramifications of such rhetoric could be very harmful — and lasting.

    As policy, these concepts are totally counterproductive: Rather than making our country safer, they will compound the already grave terrorist danger to our citizens. As ideas, they are toxic and, indeed, non-biodegradable — a kind of poison that, once released into our body politic, is not easily expunged.

    Setting aside moral considerations, those who flirt with hate speech against Muslims should realize they are playing directly into the hands of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

    The terrorists’ explicit hope has been to try to provoke a clash of civilizations — telling Muslims that the United States is at war with them and their religion. When Western politicians propose blanket discrimination against Islam, they bolster the terrorists’ propaganda.

    At the same time, such statements directly undermine our ability to defeat Islamist extremists by alienating and undermining the allies whose help we most need to win this fight: namely, Muslims.

    During the surge in Iraq, we were able to roll back the tide of al-Qaeda and associated insurgents because we succeeded in mobilizing Iraqis — especially Sunni Arabs — to join us in fighting against the largely Sunni extremist networks in their midst. Later, we took on the Iranian-backed Shiite militia, with the important support of the Shiite-majority Iraqi security forces.

    Likewise, the rapid ouster of the Taliban regime after 9/11 was made possible by our partnership with Muslim fighters of the Afghan Northern Alliance. And in Southeast Asia, it was by working with the government of Indonesia — the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world — that Jemaah Islamiah, once one of al-Qaeda’s most capable affiliates, was routed.

    The good news is that today, hundreds of thousands of Muslims are fighting to defeat the terrorists who wish to kill us all. This includes brave Afghan soldiers fighting the Islamic State and the Taliban, as well as Persian Gulf forces in Yemen battling both Iranian-backed Houthis and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. And it includes Arab and Kurdish forces who are battling the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In fact, we should do more to support these partners of ours.

    Inescapably, clearing territory of entrenched terrorist networks and then holding it takes boots on the ground. The question is — whether in Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria or Mali — do the bulk of those boots need to be our own or those of local Muslim partners?

    I fear that those who demonize and denigrate Islam make it more likely that it will be our own men and women who ultimately have to shoulder more of this fight — at greater cost in dollars and lives.

    We should also acknowledge that patriotic Muslim Americans in our intelligence agencies and armed forces — many of them immigrants or children of immigrants — have been vital assets in this fight with radical Islam.

    It has also been through building ties of trust and cooperation between law enforcement and Muslim communities in the United States that we form our most effective defense against homegrown radicalization and lone-wolf attacks.

    Again, none of this is to deny or diminish the reality that we are at war with Islamist extremism — a fanatical ideology based on a twisted interpretation of Islam. Nor is it to minimize the need for smart, intelligence-driven measures to prevent terrorists from infiltrating our borders and exploiting our immigration policies.

    But it is precisely because the danger of Islamist extremism is so great that politicians here and abroad who toy with anti-Muslim bigotry must consider the effects of their rhetoric. Demonizing a religious faith and its adherents not only runs contrary to our most cherished and fundamental values as a country; it is also corrosive to our vital national security interests and, ultimately, to the United States’ success in this war.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-petraeus-anti-muslim-bigotry-aids-islamist-terrorists/2016/05/12/5ab50740-16aa-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

    • Petreus has been officially disgraced. He’s just glad for the invitation to comment by the revered Washington Post, pbuh.
      The Post will do almost anything to destroy Trump. It’s painful to watch them squirm, every semblance of professionalism and neutrality gone. Like bugs after you pick up the rock that’s been on top of them.

        • Did you ever stop and think about how stupid the modern feminists have to be to think that exposing themselves is going to change anything?

          • You’re right, of course.
            I just like to see these evil Mohammedans dissed. Tariq – ‘Prince of the Brethren’ – Ramadan gets a naked breast in the face.
            Like the 2-year-old boy mooning the cop who was writing a parking ticket for Mom.

  16. Czech Republic: Front National advisor addresses anti-Islam rally in Prague

  17. North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty to Using Force Against Muslim Woman to Obstruct Her Free Exercise of Religion on an Airplane

    Gill Parker Payne, 37, of Gastonia, North Carolina, pleaded guilty today in the District of New Mexico to one count of using force or threat of force to intentionally obstruct a Muslim woman, identified as K.A., in the free exercise of her religious beliefs.

    According to court documents, on Dec. 11, 2015, Payne and K.A. were on board a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Albuquerque, New Mexico. K.A. was wearing a religious headscarf, known as a hijab. Payne was seated several rows behind K.A. on the airplane, and did not know her. Payne admitted that he saw that K.A. was wearing a hijab and was aware that it is a religious practice of Muslim women to wear a headscarf.

    Payne further admitted that shortly before landing, but while still in-flight, he walked up the aisle to where K.A. was sitting and stopped next to her seat. Payne proceeded to tell K.A. to take off her hijab, stating something to the effect of, “Take it off! This is America!” Payne then grabbed the back of the hijab and pulled it all the way off, leaving K.A.’s entire head exposed. As a result, K.A. felt violated and quickly pulled the hijab back up and covered her head again.

    “No matter one’s faith, all Americans are entitled to peacefully exercise their religious beliefs free from discrimination and violence,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Using or threatening force against individuals because of their religion is an affront to the fundamental values of this nation, and the Civil Rights Division will continue to be vigilant in protecting the religious liberties guaranteed to all Americans.”

    “This prosecution sends a clear message to anyone who contemplates the use of threats or intimidation to interfere with the right of individuals, including members of our Muslim community, to express their faith without fear,” said U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez of the District of New Mexico. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to protecting the religious rights of Muslims in New Mexico by aggressively prosecuting those who wish to perpetrate hate crimes against them.”

    “All Americans, regardless of their differences, deserve to be treated with respect,” said Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division. “As the lead agency for enforcing federal civil rights laws, the FBI will continue to hold accountable those individuals whose intolerant acts harm others. I would like to thank the FBI staff in Albuquerque and Charlotte, North Carolina, for their work on this case, as well as the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Albuquerque Aviation Police.”

    A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.

    This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Albuquerque Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Vierbuchen of the District of New Mexico and Fara Gold of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/north-carolina-man-pleads-guilty-using-force-against-muslim-woman-obstruct-her-free-exercise

  18. Turkish military helicopter shot down by Kurd rebels

    “Six Turkish soldiers were killed on Friday in a clash with Kurdish militants in Turkish Kurdistan, the southeast of the country, while two more lost their lives when a military helicopter sent to the scene crashed, the army said.

    The six troops were killed and eight others wounded in fighting with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near a military base in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province.”

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=935_1463223055

    • Turkey: 8 soldiers dead in clash with PKK, helicopter crash

      ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Eight Turkish military personnel have died in combat with Kurdish rebels and in a subsequent helicopter crash near the country’s border with Iraq, the military said Friday. At least six rebels were also killed in the fighting.

      Clashes broke out early Friday with rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, near the town of Cukurca, in Hakkari province, killing six soldiers, a military statement said. Eight other soldiers were wounded.

      A military helicopter sent to the area to support the soldiers later crashed, killing its two pilots, the military said, adding that the crash was due to a technical fault.

      Fighting between the PKK and the government forces picked up again in July when a more than two-year-old peace process collapsed. Around 400 security force members have died since then.

      The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its allies, has waged a three-decades-long insurgency against Turkey, in a bid to gain autonomy for Kurds in the southeast of the country. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.

      PKK-linked rebels have staged multiple bomb attacks against Turkish police and troops, which in turn have carried out tank-backed security operations in flashpoint areas.

      On Thursday, four Kurdish rebels were killed while loading explosives onto a truck in the mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir province, hours after a separate blast targeting the military in Istanbul wounded eight.

      The United Nations Committee against Torture on Friday expressed serious concerns over law enforcement officers’ conduct during the renewed fight against Kurdish militants, including allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees and reports of extrajudicial killings.

      The committee called for the prosecution of alleged perpetrators as well as their commanders and said the victims should be adequately compensated.

      It said Turkey had not yet created an independent body to investigate allegations of ill-treatment and torture. It also criticized the practice by police officers of filing counter-charges of resisting police arrest or insulting police officers against those who lodge complaints of police brutality.

      Separately, the U.N. human rights body welcomed an invitation by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry for U.N. investigators to probe alleged violations committed by the security forces in their campaign against the rebels, but sought assurances that the mission would be granted “full and unhindered access.”

      https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-10-soldiers-dead-clash-pkk-helicopter-crash-061340043.html

  19. Doug Saunders, the Globe and Mail’s self-appointed Dhimmi-in-chief, has an op-ed making some claims about the Muslim rape crisis in Sweden, which he claims is neither a rape crisis nor Muslim related. He cites a certain Swedish professor and links to some Swedish-language statistics. Given Saunders’ well-documented history of mendacity, I suspect the article is filled with half-truths and omissions, but not being a fluent speaker of Swedish, I can’t parse the links or respond with stats from Swedish sources. Eeyore, do you know any Swedes itching to tear Saunders and his ilk a new one with actual facts direct from Sweden? In particular, Sauders’ claims that the definition of rape is so expansive in Sweden that this is solely responsible for the observed rise (which even he doesn’t deny).

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/swedens-rape-crisis-isnt-what-it-seems/article30019623/

    In particular, when did the redefinition of rape occur? If it happened after the rise in rapes, then it can’t solely be responsible.

  20. Turkey president’s daughter to marry in Istanbul

    ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday will see his younger daughter Sumeyye marry defence industrialist Selcuk Bayraktar at a large-scale and high security ceremony in Istanbul.

    Turkish media pictures earlier showed Sumeyye, 30, wearing an Islamic headscarf, sitting in the front seat of the bridal car.

    Erdogan and his wife Emine have four children — eldest son Burak who is rarely seen in public, Bilal and two daughters Esra and Sumeyye.

    Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is expected to be Sumeyye’s witness and army chief Hulusi Akar for the groom at the wedding ceremony to be attended by some 6,000 guests, media reports said.

    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1103250/turkey-presidents-daughter-to-marry-in-istanbul/

  21. Turkey: 3 hospitalised as football fans set stadium alight

    Fans of the Turkish football club Eskisehirspor set their own stadium in Eskisehir on fire after losing against Medipol Basaksehir on Saturday.

  22. Report: During Obama Administration, U.S. Stopped Going After Terror-Supporting Charities

    Under the administration of President Barack Obama, the Treasury Department stopped blacklisting domestic charities that collect funds for terrorist organizations, Eli Lake of Bloomberg View reported on Thursday.

    Lake explained that targeting charities that front for terrorist organizations was a “key tool” of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism after 9/11. During the Bush presidency, the Treasury targeted eight such charities located in the United States, including “al-Qaeda fronts such as the U.S. branch of the al-Haramain Foundation and the Benevolence International Foundation. In this period, the U.S. government also blacklisted groups that raised money for the Palestinian terror group Hamas, including the Holy Land Foundation, and for the Lebanese militia and political party Hezbollah, like the Good Will Charitable Organization.”

    In contrast, the only charity to be designated under the Obama administration was the Tamil Foundation, which funded the Sri Lankan terrorist organization the Tamil Tigers. The group was blacklisted in February 2009, a month after Obama’s inauguration.

    http://www.thetower.org/3361-report-during-obama-administration-u-s-stopped-going-after-terror-supporting-charities/

  23. How the Israelis Captured Nazi Mastermind Adolf Eichmann

    The tortuous route to apprehending the Holocaust’s chief henchman was full of surprises. No one could believe what squalor Eichmann lived in, or how ordinary he seemed.

    “It was well known that there was at least one strong Jewish underground unit that had been working ceaselessly since the end of the war in all parts of the world, tracking down Nazi war criminals who had evaded the Allied net in 1945. He had heard that its members were fanatically devoted to their task, brave people who had dedicated their lives to bringing some of inhuman monsters responsible for Belsen, Auschwitz, and other hellholes to justice.”

    Jack Higgins, The Bormann Testament, a novel that was originally published in 1962 with a different title: The Testament of Caspar Schultz.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/14/how-the-israelis-captured-nazi-mastermind-adolf-eichmann.html

    • Over the past couple of decades he has been rewriting his novels (changing names but just about nothing else) I use to enjoy his works but stopped when he did to much recycling.

      • I’ve read more than enough accounts of the capture myself.
        Time to go hunting for today’s villiains. Plenty of targets.

  24. Excellent, good on you Denmark!
    Out! Copenhagen Evicts Notorious Islamist Organization

    Copenhagen Municipality informed the Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir that it is no longer welcome to use state-funded rooms and locations for its meetings and dealings, thus marking the end of Denmark’s long-drawn-out legal battle with the notorious Islamists.

    The decision to bar Hizb ut-Tahrir from undermining democracy in state-owned premises came just days after the Danish government tightened the screws in its public information law in a bid to cripple extremist associations and groups promoting violent radicalism.

    The doors to taxpayer-funded facilities have finally been shut for the notorious Islamist organization after years of failed attempts by the state of Denmark in an uphill battle against the Islamists’ tirades against Jews, homosexuals and Western democracy.

    http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160513/1039555335/denmark-hizb-ut-tahrir-eviction.html

  25. Moscow: Peace in Syria without Kurds impossible

    ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – It is impossible to solve the current situation in Syria and discuss the structure of future Syria without Kurdish participation, said a Russian official on Friday.

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Gennady Gatilov, told reporters in Moscow that Kurds possess strong political and military weight in Syria.

    He stated that it is impossible to speak of addressing Syria’s current problems and future structure without the participation of Kurds in peace dialogue.

    http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/85ad8a54-7e37-43be-a59d-4069460d7fa9/moscow–peace-in-syria-without-kurds-impossible