Reader’s links for June 5 – 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

70 Replies to “Reader’s links for June 5 – 2016”

  1. REVEALED: ISIS terrorists plotting devastation in London during England Euro 2016 match (express, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/676902/REVEALED-ISIS-terrorists-plotting-devastation-London-England-Euro-2016-match

    “EXCLUSIVE: BRITISH Special Forces have been taking part in a multi-national counter-terrorist operation, as it emerged Islamic State is plotting attacks on London and other cities during Euro 2016.

    Intelligence chiefs fear militants are planning “a summer of carnage” after retrieving data from the laptops and mobile phones of terror suspects Mohamed Abrini and Salah Abdeslam…”

    • It truly is not hard to figure out who the bad guys are when they are ACTUALLY SHOOTING AT YOU.
      Too bad they make sure that you are not able to shoot back–“guns is bad” don’cha know.
      That process is known as “control”.
      So–how’s that workin’ for us?

      • This is why we in the States are fighting so hard to hold onto our guns, we are where Britain was in the 1930s and are trying to turn things back to where both nations were in the 19 teens. At that time there were no gun control laws in Europe and if some city had a law against carrying a gun and you were caught you paid a small fine and were given your handgun back.

  2. “Madison’s attorneys never contested his guilt at trial. They instead focused on saving his life by presenting evidence that Madison suffered lasting psychological damage from physical abuse as a youngster.
    There was testimony that Madison was abused by his drug-addicted mother, a stepfather, some of his mother’s boyfriends and family members.
    ‘This history of abuse and his dysfunctional upbringing certainly doesn’t excuse what happened here but certainly provides a basis for understanding the type of person Michael Madison evolved into,’ defense attorney David Grant told the judge Thursday.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3624908/I-thinking-mutilated-child-cut-child-Father-lunged-smirking-serial-killer-tried-attack-teenage-daughter-s-murderer-smiling-court.html#ixzz4Agr4AZeU

    Could have been a suicide bomber, a social justice warrior or just hell-bent.

    Socialist Plantations: the zoos that demoralize everyone to become inhuman.

    • The escape of infant oppression, to hate back as a matter of pride, yearning for the cloak of respectibility to shield them, becomes their prime directive.

      Fodder for a refuge that provides justification, superiority, blamelessness, and guarantee.

      Islam, Communism and the endless marches for the self-objectified.

      The worst are the converts who go further, instead of retracing their steps, creating greater layers of fantasy, until they have kill to feel alive.

      The little girl imprinted in Madison had to kill the real little girls outside who revealled he’s an imposter. They came to a man and found a fe-male.

      The little Muhammad in Mohammad has to kill those kufar who expose him as sick and submissive towards women. They came to a Muslim and found a mouse.

      The little men in feminists has to attack real men for exposing them as fake as the mud on their faces.
      They came to a woman and found a female.

      Resentment creates new minds of scheming battles and dreams, to find all ways for painlessness without repentance.

      When drugs, sex, and gambling fails, and still unable to know they cannot play God, they find The Religion, Socialization and Identity of Peace who say, “yes they can!” Allah, The State and their gonads are agreeing with them all the way.

  3. OT-
    Quad-amputee Marine told by VA crisis hotline to ‘call back when he was less irate’?

    Corporal Todd Nicely, USMC, doesn’t take life lying down. He doesn’t come off to anyone as a morose guy who feels sorry for himself. That’s a good thing, since he lost most of all four limbs in an encounter with a land mine in Afghanistan in 2010. He’s one of only five veterans (as of 2016) to survive the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as a quadruple amputee.

    It’s essential to know this about Todd Nicely, before taking in the update that he shot himself this week after reportedly getting the run-around from the Veterans Administration crisis hotline. He’s recovering, according to the latest news from Friday, 3 June; he didn’t succeed in killing himself. But in frustration at a situation whose particulars we don’t fully know, he did try.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/06/04/quad-amputee-marine-told-va-suicide-hotline-call-back-less-irate/

    • When Obama took office my Primary Care Doctor quit the VA, he had worked there before the Clintons, lived through the Clinton era and helped return the VA to a good hospital system. He said he was old and tired and couldn’t live through that again.

      • My primary care doctor is retiring early. Tired of rushed patient time, waste paperwork, defensive medicine.
        Poor me! Just when I’ll be needing more care, I’ll get less. Poor all of us!

        • A good friend has several friends that are doctors and nurses, over 2/3rds pf of them are changing professions since they have to spend 1 hour filling out paperwork for every hour they spend working in medicine.

  4. Philippine president-elect urges public to kill drug dealers

    MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president-elect has encouraged the public to help him in his war against crime, urging citizens with guns to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods.

    In a nationally televised speech late Saturday, Rodrigo Duterte told a huge crowd in the southern city of Davao celebrating last month’s presidential victory that Filipinos who help him battle crime will be rewarded.

    “Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun — you have my support,” Duterte said, warning of an extensive illegal drug trade that involves even the country’s police.

    If a drug dealer resists arrest or refuses to be brought to a police station and threatens a citizen with a gun or a knife, “you can kill him,” Duterte said. “Shoot him and I’ll give you a medal.”

    The 71-year-old Duterte won the May 9 presidential election on a bold promise to end crime and corruption within six months of his presidency. That vow resonated among crime-weary Filipinos, though police officials considered it campaign rhetoric that was impossible to accomplish.

    Human rights watchdogs have expressed alarm that his anti-crime drive may lead to widespread rights violations.

    Duterte has been suspected of playing a role in many killings of suspected criminals in his city by motorcycle-riding assassins known as the “Davao death squads,” but human rights watchdogs say he has not been criminally charged because nobody has dared to testify against him in court

    In his speech on Saturday, Duterte also asked three police generals based in the main national police camp in the capital to resign for involvement in crimes that he did not specify. He threatened to humiliate them in public if they did not quit and said he would order a review of dismissed criminal cases of active policemen, suggesting some may have bribed their way back onto the force.

    “They go back again crucifying the Filipino,” he said. “I won’t agree to that.”

    “If you’re still into drugs, I will kill you, don’t take this as a joke. I’m not trying to make you laugh, son of a bitch, I will really kill you,” he said to loud jeers and applause.

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/58fc2315d488426ca2512fc9fc8d6427/philippine-president-elect-urges-public-kill-drug-dealers

  5. German right-wing leader blasts ‘dictator’ Merkel

    Berlin (AFP) – A German right-wing populist politician has attacked Chancellor Angela Merkel as a “dictator” who is trying to “replace the German people” with migrants, a Sunday newspaper reported.

    Alexander Gauland, of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told a rally outside Berlin that Merkel’s liberal asylum policy was radically transforming the face of the country, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said.

    He called Merkel a “chancellor-dictator” to applause from the crowd and said Germany’s mainstream parties were pursuing a policy of “human flooding”, an “attempt to gradually replace the German people with a population coming from all parts of the earth”.

    The remarks could later be seen in a video posted on YouTube from the rally in the town of Elsterwerda Thursday.

    Gauland, 75, is seen twice reading from a sign held by a member of the crowd: “Today we are tolerant and tomorrow foreign in our own country,” a far-right slogan used by the neo-Nazi NPD party.

    The hardline deputy AfD leader drew widespread condemnation late last month by saying most Germans would not want footballer Jerome Boateng, whose father is Ghanaian, as a neighbour — a comment Merkel’s spokesman slammed as “vile and sad”.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-wing-leader-blasts-dictator-merkel-093952973.html?ref=gs

  6. Diplomatic tag as countries find new ways of standing up to China

    SINGAPORE (Reuters) – When U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter spoke at a key Asian summit at the weekend, he used the word “principled” 38 times, floating his vision of a U.S.-backed “security network” of countries in the region.

    Several delegations were quick to respond to the idea at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, but it seemed to evolve into a form of diplomatic tag-team wrestling as a loose coalition of nations lined up to criticize China.

    Nations including Japan, India, France and Vietnam joined calls for greater respect for international law to resolve worsening tensions over the South China Sea, a dig at Beijing which has said it will not accept any ruling by a U.N.-backed court on the dispute.

    Chinese officials, meanwhile, stressed Beijing’s commitment to being a peaceful, lawful and inclusive nation but said it would not be bullied.

    “No one has the right to point their fingers at China,” said Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the joint staff department of China’s Central Military Commission, as he faced a string of questions at one public forum at the summit on Sunday.

    “Belligerence does not make peace.”

    Sun was sharing a podium with Vietnamese deputy defense minister Nguyen Chi Vinh, who said he was cutting short his own responses to allow his Chinese counterpart more time to rebut criticisms raised of Beijing.

    http://www.oann.com/diplomatic-tag-as-countries-find-new-ways-of-standing-up-to-china/

    • This is going to be interesting if Trump becomes El Presidente. As Pat Buchanan points out, does the US really want to become involved with territorial disputes with PRC? PRC is a regional superpower in comparison to all their neighbors. Is the US going to do a straight up reevaluation of interests that date back to WW2 or continue down the present path. Hillary promises to maintain the present path. PRC is working all the angles to be able to take on US military power and WIN.

      • If we don’t stand up to China freedom of the seas is a thing of the past and most of our trade in the Orient just tripled of quadrupled in cost. Japan and South Korea are major trading partners and us pulling out will put the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand in the position of being open for Chinese domination and conquest.

        Do you really want us to leave our trading partners at the mercy of communist conquers? Remember the only nations that don’t need overseas trading partners are the ones where they live in mud huts. Do you want the US to revert to the mud hut economy?

        • FYI the US has always had an economy that depends on foreign trade and our first wars including the Revolution were fought either partially or totally to secure freedom of the seas so our economy could continue to grow. We have just lived through8 years of Marxist economic policies that have put our economy on the brink of a major depression. Do you really want us to follow with 8 years of massively reduced foreign trade and the loss of all allies to help us fight when the people trying to conquer the world attack us over here? Actually attack us again,

        • not if we want to survive, this is the result of the isolationists getting their way and the US disarming and withdrawing from the world. If this hadn’t happened we wouldn’t be facing a war with China. The problem is that the isolationists are like the left, they refuse to admit when their policies cause major wars.

          • We need the sea. Not a hard sell if the next President explains some simple geography.
            Keep the Persian Gulf free of adventuresome Persians. And the So. China sea open to non-Chinese.

  7. Turkish warplanes target Kurdish militants, at least 27 killed: army

    DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey and the army killed 27 fighters near its borders with Iraq and Iran, the armed forces said on Sunday.

    Conflict in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast has been at its most intense level in two decades since a two-year-old ceasefire by the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) collapsed last July.

    Air strikes on Saturday destroyed gun positions and shelters and caves used by PKK fighters in the Gara area of northern Iraq and the countryside of Lice district in Diyarbakir province, the military statement said.

    It did not give a death toll but state-run Anadolu Agency cited security sources as saying small groups of PKK militants were killed in those strikes.

    Seven PKK militants were killed in a clash in Semdinli near the Iraqi and Iranian borders on Saturday, while air strikes in Semdinli on Friday killed 20 PKK fighters, the army said.

    PKK guerrillas also launched an attack on a military outpost in Sirnak province overnight and in the ensuing clash one PKK fighter was killed along with a member of the state’s ‘village guard’ militia, security sources said.

    http://www.oann.com/turkish-warplanes-target-kurdish-militants-at-least-27-killed-army/

  8. Saudi Arabia expands its anti-Iran strategy beyond the Middle East

    RIYADH (Reuters) – Under King Salman, Saudi Arabia is expanding its confrontation with Iran well beyond the Middle East, no longer relying heavily on Western allies to smother Tehran’s ambitions outside the Arab world.

    Since Salman came to power early last year, and Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers, Riyadh has adjusted its strategy for countering the efforts of its Shi’ite Muslim rival to build influence in Africa, Asia and even Latin America.

    Most notably, the Sunni power has used Muslim networks to push states into cutting off contacts with Iran, including by creating an Islamic Coalition against terrorism without inviting Tehran to join.

    “Iran is the one that isolated itself by supporting terrorism,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a recent news conference. “That is why the world reacted to Iran, and particularly the Islamic world, and basically said ‘enough is enough’.”

    Tehran denies it sponsors terrorism, and points to its record of fighting the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State through backing for Shi’ite militias in Iraq and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

    Riyadh is alarmed by Tehran’s support for the Shi’ite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, and cut off military aid to the Beirut government after it failed to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. Likewise, Saudi forces have launched a war on Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen.

    But all this is part of its long-standing diplomatic, economic and military efforts to contain what it sees as a pernicious expansion of Iranian activity in Arab nations. Now it is attempting to orchestrate support elsewhere, including from countries such as Pakistan and Malaysia through its creation last November of the coalition against terrorism.

    http://www.oann.com/saudi-arabia-expands-its-anti-iran-strategy-beyond-the-middle-east/

    • Watching this Adel al-Jubeir, I see a poor choice for foreign minister. A ssssnake unable to modulate his hissss, even when trying to ssssound human.
      The new king is a real piece of work. His inner circle is lamentable. There are better people out there – none good, but better. This bunch may collapse the whole tent prematurely.

  9. Polygamy: Europe’s Hidden Statistic

    A few years ago, Sweden’s Center Party, one of the four parties in the center-right governing coalition at the time, proposed legalizing polygamy. The idea caused outrage; the proposal was dropped. The party’s youth division, however, refused to let go: “We think it is important for the individual to decide how many people he or she wants to marry,” said Hanna Wagenius, head of Center Youth, predicting that polygamy would be legal in ten years, when her generation would enter parliament and make sure of it.

    Sweden is not the only place in Scandinavia where “idealistic” youths have advocated polygamy. In 2012, the youth division of Denmark’s Radikale Venstre Party (“Radical Left”), then part of the governing coalition in Denmark, also proposed that polygamy should be legalized in Denmark. The move came four years after an Iraqi asylum seeker, who had worked for the Danish military in Iraq as a translator and then fled to Denmark, arrived with two wives. As Denmark does not recognize bigamy and as he refused to divorce his second wife, he returned to Iraq. “It is unacceptable that we are so narrow-minded in Denmark, and will not help a man who has helped us. We want to do something about that,” Ditte Søndergaard, head of Radikale Venstre Youth, said at the time. The proposal, however, did not find favor with any of the other political parties.

    As far-fetched as these proposals may sound, they signify the shifts taking place in the West regarding fundamental ethical issues of gender equality and the willingness to accommodate Islamic sharia law. They are also proof of an enduring willful blindness to the detrimental effects of the practice of polygamy, not only in terms of financial costs to the state, but also to the Muslim women and children, whose rights these young politicians purport to support.

    Muslim polygamy is only rarely debated in the media. The practice, therefore, despite its spread across the European continent — spanning, among other countries, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands — continues largely to hide under the public radar. As the practice is illegal across the continent and therefore not supposed to exist, there are no official statistics of polygamous marriages anywhere in Europe.

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8199/polygamy-europe

  10. Obama’s Refugee Policy: Yes to Potential Terrorists, No to Victims of Genocide

    The Obama administration has been escalating a policy that both abandons Mideast Christians and exposes Americans to the jihad.

    Late last year it was revealed that 97% of Syrian refugees accepted into the U.S. were Sunni Muslims — the same Islamic sect to which the Islamic State belongs— while fewer than half-a-percent were Christians.

    This disparity has since gotten worse. From May 1 to May 23, 499 Syrian refugees — a number that exceeds the total number of refugees admitted during the last three years — were received into the United States. Zero Christians were among them; 99 percent were Sunni (the remaining one percent was simply listed as “Muslim”).

    These numbers are troubling.

    First, from a strictly humanitarian point of view — and humanitarian reasons are the chief reason being cited in accepting refugees — Christians should receive priority simply because currently they are among the most persecuted groups in the Middle East. Along with the Yazidis, Christians are experiencing genocide at the hands of ISIS, as the State Department recently determined. The Islamic State has repeatedly forced Christians to renounce Christ or die; has enslaved and raped them, and desecrated or destroyed more than 400 of their churches.

    As Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) put it this March, “Without doubt, Syrians of all confessions are being victimized by this savage war and are facing unimaginable suffering. But only Christians and other religious minorities are the deliberate targets of systematic persecution and genocide.”

    Sunni Muslims are not being slaughtered, beheaded, and raped for refusing to renounce their faith; they are not having their mosques burned, nor are they being jailed and killed for apostasy, blasphemy, or proselytization. On the contrary, non-ISIS affiliated Sunnis are responsible for committing dozens of such atrocities against Christian minorities every single month all throughout the Islamic world.[1]

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8161/obama-refugee-policy

  11. CBC – Federal study disputes claim diaspora communities breed extremists

    Research says RCMP, CSIS and police need to build ties with ethnic communities to counter radicalization

    Canada’s immigrant communities are not breeding grounds for terrorists, as some would argue, but should be enlisted to reduce any violent radicalization in their midst, says a newly released report.

    The research, ordered by the Harper government in 2014, appears to repudiate Conservative measures that alienated Muslim communities in the months before last year’s election.

    The authors examined four diaspora communities in Canada — Afghan, Somali, Syrian and Tamil — and found them to be willing allies for rooting out extremism among their often young and isolated members.

    “More resilient diaspora communities represent the best line of defence against violent extremism,” says the March 30 report, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act.

    “Diasporas are not a threat, as some of the mainstream discourse on counterterrorism has often implied, but rather Canada’s most valued asset in the fight against terrorism.”

    The authors found a mutual distrust between these communities and security agencies, driven partly by news media and academics who have “framed diaspora communities as partly complicit in terrorist activity, a source of threat for host countries like Canada.”

    “It has fostered suspicion and even discrimination against certain diaspora groups.”

    The research says security agencies such as the RCMP and CSIS need to build trust, especially among Muslim groups in Canada who can often alert police to potential terror activity.

    ********************************************************************
    “Dispelling ISLAMOPHOBIA and other forms of discrimination should be a centrepiece of any community engagement strategy surrounding anti-radicalization, as it has fuelled distrust of the state and wider Canadian society in Muslim diaspora communities.”
    *******************************************************************

    Helps restore balance

    The $180,000 study for Public Safety Canada was carried out over a year by the Kitchener, Ont.-based Security Governance Group, a private consultant firm.

    Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service analyst Phil Gurski, a specialist in homegrown radicalization, applauded the findings, saying they can help restore the balance between “hard security” — surveillance, arrests and charges — and “soft security,” or building trust within ethnic communities.

    “We had the balance fairly good a couple of years ago, and then some unfortunate things happened towards the end of the Harper government that kind of maligned the trust we had built with communities and put us back a few steps,” Gurski said in an interview.

    Among those setbacks was the government’s removal of Hussein Hamdani in April 2015 from the Cross Cultural Roundtable on National Security, AFTER A QUEBEC BLOGGER ALLEGED Hamdani harboured terrorist sympathies.

    The removal resulting from “baseless allegations” was “the biggest blow to the government’s relationship with the Muslim community,” said Gurski, who was Hamdani’s colleague and friend. “It had a chilling effect.”

    The incident was followed by last summer’s niqab controversy, in which the Harper government pressed to have Muslim women remove their face covering at citizenship ceremonies, and the Oct. 2 announcement by Conservatives Kellie Leitch and Chris Alexander of a “barbaric cultural practices tip line,” allowing citizens to call RCMP anonymously with allegations about their neighbours.

    Not too late

    Gurski, who was a CSIS officer from 2001 to 2013 and then with Public Safety until retirement last year, said it’s not too late to rebuild trust.

    “The communities are willing to play ball again, despite the disappointments they had toward the end of the Harper government,” he said.

    Sara Thompson, who teaches criminology at Toronto’s Ryerson University, said the report’s findings parallel her own work with the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society.

    “Our findings are remarkably consistent: on the whole the communities under examination should not be viewed as ‘suspect’ but rather as important allies in efforts to prevent radicalization,” she said.

    “Community-based tripwires are often activated via a concept known as ‘leakage’ — the tendency among radicalized individuals to broadcast their views and intentions to commit violent acts in advance, typically to friends, family, acquaintances and/or community members.”

    The Trudeau government campaigned last year on a promise to create an Office of the Community Outreach and Counter-radicalization Co-ordinator, working with provinces and others to build bridges to Canada’s ethnic communities. The federal budget in March promised $35 million over five years for the office, but nothing more has been announced.

    A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said $3 million has been reserved to create the office this fiscal year.

    “Work is at an early stage of development, but we will be informed by entities like the successful models in Calgary and Montreal,” said Scott Bardsley, referring to deradicalization centres in those two cities.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/radicalization-rcmp-terrorism-csis-muslim-violence-1.3613341
    =================================
    video – Radicalization as a Social Phenomenon – Phil Gurski

    Phil Gurski, President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting, discusses the need to approach radicalization from a real­ world, social, perspective. With more than three decades of experience at CSIS, Gurski argues that we shouldn’t ascribe too much importance to social media and understand that radicalization is a human phenomenon. Instead, social media is used to share information, have doubts resolved and extremist beliefs confirmed.

    This interview is part of The SecDev Foundation’s Prevent Violent Extremism: A Social Media Research Portal –

  12. Germany: Ramadan Advent Calendar to help Muslim and Christian relations

    Nadia Doukali, initiator of Ramadan calendar, said she “will be happy if the calendar is used to establish a dialogue between Muslims and Christians,” as she presented her creation in Frankfurt, Sunday.

  13. KAZAKHSTAN – Manhunt on for ‘over 20 religious radicals’ after shootout, attack on military HQ in Kazakhstan

    Three people were killed and 10 others injured by suspected Islamists, who stole weapons from gun shops and attacked a military base, the country’s Interior Ministry said. Earlier, local media reported firefights and mass evacuations in the city of Aktobe.

    A shop manager and two soldiers were killed by the assailants, who targeted the city located in north-western Kazakhstan on Sunday, officials said. The people, including nine soldiers were injured in clashes.

    The attackers first robbed two gun shops and then used the stolen weapons to attack a nearby base of the national guard, the report said.

    The ministry said that the attackers were “followers of non-traditional religious sects,” a term used to describe radical Islamists.

    Local media reports suggested that there were from 20 to 30 gunman engaged in the shootout. Some media said the gunmen took several hostages.The website Tengrinews.kz put the number of casualties higher, citing medical sources as saying that some 20 people with gunshots were taken to the hospital.

    https://www.rt.com/news/345468-kazakhstan-shooting-hostages-attacks/

  14. SYRIA -Saudi Preachers Plan to Convince Syrian Militants to Fight During Ramadan

    Saudi Arabian Wahhabi preachers arrived in Syria to convince militants to fight during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the head of one of the settlements in Syria’s Aleppo province said.

    About 40 Wahhabi preachers from Saudi Arabia arrived in war-torn Syria in order to convince local militants to fight during the holy month of Ramadan, the head of one of the settlements in Syria’s Aleppo province said.

    “Some 40 Wahhabi preachers — graduates of specific educational institutions located in… northwestern Saudi Arabia — arrived in the region of Aleppo and eastern Qalamoun in the vicinity of Damascus… Saudi preachers arrived with a mission to convince Nusra Front terrorists, as well as [militants] from Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, who consider themselves part of opposition, that THE LIMITATIONS IMPOSED ON MUSLIMS DURING RAMADAN DO NOT EXTEND TO JIHAD “ the settlement head said. [ that means : the jihadists don't have to fast ]

    He added that the militants plan to conduct a number of terror attacks and to capture several strategic positions controlled by Damascus.

    Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and militant groups, such as Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) and Nusra Front, which is outlawed in many countries, including Russia.

    Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar; this year it will runs from June 6 to July 5; Muslims observe the holiday by fasting during the daytime. Itis considered a time for spiritual reflection and increased devotion.

    http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160604/1040777276/saudi-arabia-militants-ramadan.html

  15. Switzerland’s voters rejects basic income plan (BBC, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36454060

    “Swiss voters have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to introduce a guaranteed basic income for all.

    Final results from Sunday’s referendum showed that nearly 77% opposed the plan, with only 23% backing it.

    The proposal had called for adults to be paid an unconditional monthly income, whether they worked or not….”

  16. Journalist Killed in Somalia; a Dangerous Country for Media (abcnews, June 5, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/journalist-killed-somalia-dangerous-country-media-39626056

    “Unidentified gunmen shot dead a female journalist in Somalia’s capital Sunday, a radio producer at state-run Radio Mogadishu said.

    Sagal Salad Osman, a producer for the station, was shot outside a university in the west of Mogadishu on and later died at a hospital in the city, Mustafa Hussein said…”

  17. NPR Photographer and Translator Killed in Afghanistan (abcnews, June 5, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/npr-photographer-translator-killed-afghanistan/story?id=39627664

    “NPR photographer David Gilkey and NPR Afghan translator Zabihullah Tamanna were killed on assignment in Afghanistan, NPR said today.

    NPR said they had been traveling with an Afghan army unit near Marjah, in southern Afghanistan when the convoy came under fire and their vehicle was hit by shellfire.

    Gilkey was traveling on assignment with NPR reporter Tom Bowman and NPR producer Monika Evstatieva, who were not harmed, NPR said…”

  18. Afghanistan: MP Sher Wali Wardak killed in Kabul bomb blast (BBC, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36455738

    “An Afghan lawmaker and at least three other people have been killed in a bomb explosion in the capital, Kabul.

    MP Sher Wali Wardak was injured in the blast outside his house and died on the way to hospital, officials said.

    No group has so far admitted carrying out the attack….”

  19. Top Bangladesh policeman’s wife killed (BBC, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36454433

    “Suspected militants in Bangladesh have killed the wife of a senior police officer who is playing a leading role in investigating a spate of murders committed by Islamists, officials say.

    Mahmuda Aktar was shot in the head in Chittagong in front of her six-year-old son.

    Her husband, Supt Babul Aktar, is investigating the banned Islamist Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh group.

    Police say Mrs Aktar may have been killed because of her husband’s work…ô

  20. Iraq violence: Civilians ‘shot as they flee Falluja’ (BBC, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36455650

    “Civilians fleeing Falluja, an Iraqi stronghold of the so-called Islamic State (IS), are being shot as they leave, an aid agency says.

    The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said families it had interviewed described people being shot dead as they crossed the Euphrates River.

    The NRC, that runs refugee camps near Falluja, said up to 50,000 people remained in the city…”

  21. 13 soldiers martyred, 108 militants killed in latest clearance operations (khaama, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/13-soldiers-martyred-108-militants-killed-in-latest-clearance-operations-01171

    “At least 13 soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces lost their lives in the latest counter-terrorism operations across the country.

    The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said at least 108 militants including two commanders of the militants were also killed and 61 others were wounded.

    According to a statement by MoD, the operatoins were conducted in Nangarhar, Kunar, Logar, Paktika, Ghazni, Khost, Maidan Wardak, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul, Daikundi, Herat, Ghohr, Farah, Baghlan, Balkh, Jawzjan, Kunduz, Nimroz, and Helmand provinces.

    The statement further added that the clearance operations were conducted jointly with the security personnel belonging to the other security institutions, including the Afghan police and Afghan Air Force.

    At least 38 of th emilitants wre killed in Helmand, 12 were killed in Nimroz, 20 in Nangarhar, 17 in Ghor, 5 in Farah, 2 in Ghazni, and 2 others in Helmand and Herat provinces, MoD added.

    According to the Ministry of Defense, at least 13 soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) also lost their lives as they continue to suppress the terrorists belonging to the local and international terrorist organizations.

    The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.”

  22. Money from Afghanistan’s ‘conflict jewels’ fuels war: activists (reuters, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-mining-idUSKCN0YR0XS

    “The illegal mining of some of Afghanistan’s most important minerals is funneling millions of dollars into the hands of insurgents and corrupt warlords, according to activists and officials who say the money is fuelling the conflict.

    The mountains of Afghanistan hold as much as $1 trillion to $3 trillion in mineral resources, according to estimates by the U.S. and Afghan governments, including world-famous lapis lazuli, a deep blue, semi-precious stone that has been mined in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province for thousands of years.

    “In the current circumstances, where 50 percent of the mining revenue is going to the Taliban, and before that it was going to armed groups, by any reasonable definition lapis is a conflict mineral,” said Stephen Carter, a researcher for Global Witness, a non-profit watchdog that investigates the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict…”

  23. Kurz: Keep asylum seekers on islands (thelocal, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.at/20160605/kurz-keep-asylum-seekers-on-islands

    “Asylum seekers to the European Union should be held on islands rather than be allowed direct access to the continent, Austria’s foreign minister has said.

    Sebastian Kurz suggested in an interview with Die Presse newspaper published on Sunday that the bloc follow the “Australian example” to discourage migrants from setting out on the often perilous journey to Europe.

    Under Australia’s harsh and much-criticised immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are turned back or sent to Pacific camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea where they are held indefinitely while their refugee applications are processed.

    They are blocked from resettling in Australia even if found to be refugees.

    “The Australian model of course cannot be completely replicated but its principles can be applied in Europe,” the minister said, adding that he was skeptical about the impact of a recent agreement with Turkey aimed at reducing the number of migrants traveling to the continent.

    A similar model was used in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, with new arrivals being held on Ellis Island as they travelled to New York, he said.

    Kurz added that the EU should adopt a resolution whereby those who try to enter Europe illegally lose their right to demand asylum.

    Some 204,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe since January, the United Nations refugee agency said this week.

    More than 2,500 people have died trying to make the journey this year — the vast majority of them on crossings between Libya and Italy — as Europe battles its worst migration crisis since World War II.

    Many migrants saved from the sea are already directed to Greek islands or the Italian island of Lampedusa.

    Austria, governed by a coalition of social-democrats and conservatives, welcomed some 90,000 asylum seekers last year, but since then Vienna has hardened its conditions of asylum and tried to close the migrant route from Greece to the north of Europe via the Balkans.

    Last month a candidate from the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) narrowly lost the election for the largely ceremonial but coveted post of president.”

    • This is hard on the islanders but keeps the mainland from being as easily conquered.

      • Keep the Japs in New Guinea, prevent their advance to Australia whatever the cost.
        I used to listen to The General and other friends of the family reviewing the War in the Pacific. Corduroy roads and leapfrogging.

        • That portion of WWII will keep people discussing things for centuries.

          Here is one for you, should MacArthur have leapfrogged around the Philippines? Tactically yes Strategically no. Was his decision to retake the Philippines based on his sense of failure for not stopping the invasion or his strategic sense that we would need them as an ally in the future?

          This discussion will continue as long as there is are military leaders.

          • I know. I’ve heard it flogged to death and it’s still intriguing.
            General MacArthur was such a complicated person -hands-on general and politician – it’s hard to know.

            I’m tainted because I heard everything from officers who worshipped him. He had plenty of critics but I never bothered looking them up. It would feel disrespectful.

  24. Attacks against male obstetricians common, says doctor (saudigazette, June 6, 2016)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/attacks-male-obstetricians-common-says-doctor/

    “Male gynecologists and obstetricians report have been attacked on several occasions by men who do not want them to examine their pregnant wives or deliver their babies.

    Dr. Mohammad Idrees, an obstetrician at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Jeddah’s Mosadiyah area, said 20 percent of men coming with their wives to the hospital go as far as verbally and physically assaulting the doctors once they find out that their wives may give birth under the supervision of a male doctor…”

  25. Ramadan in the United Kingdom: Muslims to Fast 19 Hours (moroccoworldnews, June 5, 2016)
    http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/06/188283/ramadan-in-the-united-kingdom-muslims-to-fast-19-hours/

    “Like in other European countries, Ramadan in the United Kingdom will begin on Monday June 6.

    Most European countries announce that their Muslim communities would start the holy month of Ramadan on Monday.

    Earlier on Sunday, Anwar Kbibech, President of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, announced that Ramadan in France would begin on Monday

    Muslims in the United Kingdom like in other European countries will fast up to 19 hours a day. This makes fasting very challenging, especially for people who are addicted to cigarettes or coffee.

    During this month, Muslims are supposed to abstain from who have to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having martial relations from dawn until sunset.

    Sadiq Khan, the newly elected mayor of London, who will also be fasting, said coffee is what he is going to miss the most in Ramadan.

    In an opinion piece published on the Guardian, Khan said Ramadan offers an opportunity to Muslims to break the suspicion and stereotypes that surround Islam.

    “As Ramadan starts, I’m aware that it’s a great opportunity to do things in the community and break down the mystique and suspicion around the religion,” he said.”

    • Celebrating this lunar lunacy is helping to build up that “mystique and suspicion” around this so called religion of yours…

  26. reuters Exclusive: Saudi’s deputy crown prince to visit U.S. for talks – sources

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince is expected to visit Washington in mid-June for talks with top U.S. officials, possibly including President Barack Obama, amid growing friction between the longtime allies, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

    Mohammed bin Salman, son of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, has been leading a drive to end the kingdom’s dependence on oil and liberalize its economy. He also serves as defense minister, and his discussions with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and other top U.S. officials are expected to include the conflict in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition last year began a military campaign against Houthi rebels who receive some Iranian support.

    The civil war in Syria also is expected to be on the agenda. Riyadh is seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has provided military support to rebels fighting him.

    One of the sources said the deputy crown prince will be in Washington from June 14-16 and then will travel to New York for meetings with financial firms, and possibly to Los Angeles. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because the visit has not been formally announced.

    A White House official said, “We don’t have any visit to announce at this time.”

    Prince Mohammed’s talks in Washington will come at a sensitive time for U.S.-Saudi relations and energy markets.

    U.S.-Saudi ties have cooled under Obama. Many Gulf Arab monarchies, including Saudi Arabia, have privately said they have been disappointed by what they consider the U.S. retreat from the region under Obama, allowing Iran to expand its influence, especially after a nuclear deal was reached last year.

    Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen has also been a focus of concern. This week, the United Nations added the Saudi-led coalition to an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights during conflict.

    Separately, the Saudis have mounted a campaign to defend the kingdom’s counter-terrorism record in advance of the expected declassification this month of 28 pages from a 2002 congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

    Critics say those documents could implicate Saudi officials in the attacks on New York and Washington. Riyadh denies that, and has called for the documents to be made public.

    In oil markets, OPEC again this week failed to adopt a clear oil-output strategy at a meeting attended by the new Saudi energy minister, Khalid al-Falih.

    Prince Mohammed, whose father has delegated him unprecedented powers, has launched a plan aimed at ending the kingdom’s oil dependence by 2030. But it would require shaking up a bureaucracy that has stymied changes in the past, challenging powerful religious conservatives and building up a private sector currently reliant on state spending.

    Obama and Prince Mohammed, along with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, met in the Oval Office in May 2015. Obama visited Riyadh in April when he attended a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

    http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0YP2KA

  27. Islamic State Kills Dozens of Its Own in Hunt for Spies (abcnews, June 5, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/islamic-state-kills-dozens-hunt-spies-39619014

    “In March, a senior commander with the Islamic State group was driving through northern Syria on orders to lead militants in the fighting there when a drone blasted his vehicle to oblivion.

    The killing of Abu Hayjaa al-Tunsi, a Tunisian jihadi, sparked a panicked hunt within the group’s ranks for spies who could have tipped off the U.S-led coalition about his closely guarded movements. By the time it was over, the group would kill 38 of its own members on suspicion of acting as informants.

    They were among dozens of IS members killed by their own leadership in recent months in a vicious purge after a string of airstrikes killed prominent figures. Others have disappeared into prisons and still more have fled, fearing they could be next as the jihadi group turns on itself in the hunt for moles, according to Syrian opposition activists, Kurdish militia commanders, several Iraqi intelligence officials and an informant for the Iraqi government who worked within IS ranks.

    The fear of informants has fueled paranoia among the militants’ ranks. A mobile phone or internet connection can raise suspicions. As a warning to others, IS has displayed the bodies of some suspected spies in public — or used particularly gruesome methods, including reportedly dropping some into a vat of acid…”

      • They want everyone totally dependent on the government, this is why they impose regulations that drive the small businesses out of business. Impose minimum wages that drive medium sized businesses out of business and want us to be disarmed and helpless in the face of the Islamic invaders and the drug gangs that are crossing our southern border.

        Contrast this with Donald Trumps position that we should have the right to carry firearms for self defense anywhere in the nation, and the attitude of the Philippine government that is calling on the citizens to defend themselves and their kids from the drug lords.

        • He asked a yes or no question. One not subject to nuance.
          “Do you BELIEVE in the Constitutional right…?”

          Believe it or not, that’s the law. You can try to repeal it, but that’s another subject.

          • This is the danger from the left that way too many people don’t understand, if they can change the laws and Constitution by re interpreting them we have no rights that will always exist. Everything will be subject to the whim of the left wing political leaders.

            • Those Supreme Court appointments are crucial. I’m terrified the election will be stolen, and now that Justice Scalia is so conveniently dead…