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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.
German asylum seekers refuse to work insisting ‘We are Merkel’s GUESTS’ (express, Aug 18, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701556/German-Asylum-seekers-refuse-to-work-insisting-We-are-Merkel-s-GUESTS
“ASYLUM seekers in Germany are refusing to undertake work to counteract boredom – using Chancellor Angela Merkel’s generous hospitality as an excuse…”
‘Grossly offensive’ burkinis promote honour killing, blasts former Tory MP (express, Aug 18, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701704/Grossly-offensive-burkinis-promote-honour-killing-Louise-Mensch
“BURKINIS promote honour killings and should be banned, a former Conservative MP has blasted…”
Desperate Calais mayor FINALLY admits migrant crisis is ‘out of control’ (express, Aug 18, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701655/Desperate-Calais-mayor-finally-admits-migrant-crisis-out-control
“THE migrant crisis in the French port town of Calais is “out of control”, the town’s increasingly frustrated mayor Natacha Bouchart told French TV channel France 3.
She said: “About 2,500 migrants are living in one refugee camp, but then you have another area called the north zone, which should have been shut down a long time ago, which is run by people smugglers, No Borders, and activists, and another 4,500 or 5000 migrants live there.”
The mayor of Calais also said that the French Army needs to come and protect the camp and its surroundings and added: “There are not enough policemen protecting the area. I’ve been asking the government for more than a year now that they send the Army to protect the area surrounding the camp and the port…”
Channel 4 – Calais Migrants: The children living in “The Jungle” camp
When all else fails push your liberal agenda by using children.
2016 newest poster child
http://a57.foxnews.com/media2.foxnews.com/2016/08/18/0/0/081816_dotcom_syrianboy_1280.jpg?ve=1
A lot of the media are using his picture.
http://vladtepesblog.com/wp-content/uploads//2016/08/Syrian-boy-Soros.jpg
British drivers in Calais call for heightened security following violent migrant attacks (express, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/701692/british-drivers-call-more-security-calais-violent-attack-migrants-french-military-hookem
“BRITISH drivers are seeking military protection after a series of violent attacks by migrants in Calais.
Atrucker or tourist could be killed unless the army is brought in to restore order and end the chaos, they warn.
More than 8,000 migrants desperate to get to Britain have now gathered at the French port.
UK-registered vehicles have been pelted with missiles while mobs brandishing chainsaws and petrol bombs try to ambush ferry-bound traffic.
Migrants outnumber police eight to one, making it virtually impossible to enforce the law…”
Top MoD guard faces AXE to cut costs despite ‘INEVITABLE’ terror attack on British soil (express, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701740/Ministry-of-Defence-Police-axe-ISIS-attack-UK-soil-Bernard-Hogan-Howe
“AN ELITE police unit that guards the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) could be disbanded despite fears of a terror attack.
The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) were almost stood down from their protective role at the Westminster building in order to cut costs, according to an MoD source.
But Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, has said the possibility of an ISIS-inspired terror attack on the capital is a case of “when, not if”.
The source said: “This decision will be seen as an own goal, leaving the building defenceless to a lone wolf attack.”
The MDP is tasked with guarding military establishments across the country – including Britain’s nuclear deterrent Trident…”
More than HALF of London police live OUTSIDE the capital and ‘WON’T be able to stop ISIS’ (express, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/701721/Metropolitan-Police-London-commuter-cops-South-of-France-ISIS
“THE Metropolitan Police could struggle to respond to an Islamic State terror attack because more than half of the force live outside the capital full time – with some living as far away as the South of France.
Just 8,896 of the Metropolitan police’s 18,179 full-time officers live in London with many choosing to live in the Home Counties such as Surrey and Hertfordshire, according to a chilling report.
But some “commuter cops” choose to live further afield – meaning responding to emergency situations such as terror attacks or riots may be difficult, the author of the report warns…”
Burka ban in France – Identity check in Paris –
a Muslim woman had to remove her face veil and show her face and identity papers to the police
Two things of note in the video, 1) the police are wearing more armor then normal, not full riot/combat gear but enough body armor that they are expecting trouble. 2) when the Muslima talked back to the policewoman the one man reacted violently.
Both items are indicators that the French police are working to take back the streets as the reports say.
I would love to see the intel reports that have led the French Government to start asserting itself so strongly.
UK and Australian citizen Scott Richardson held in Dubai (BBC, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37114401
“A 42-year-old man has been arrested in Dubai and held without charge for three weeks after sharing a charity post on his Facebook page.
Scott Richards, who holds both British and Australian citizenship, promoted a charity drive to buy blankets and tarpaulins for refugees in Afghanistan.
Strict new laws prohibit the operation of any charity not registered in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Richards has been denied bail and access to legal representation.
Laws created last year prohibit donations or advertising fundraising campaigns without prior written approval from the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai.
Penalties for violating the law include prison terms between two months and one year and a fine of up to 100,000 dirhams (£20,000, $27,000)…”
https://bbcwatch.org/2016/08/18/bbc-coverage-of-choudary-conviction-ignores-his-bbc-appearances/
What took them so long? Twitter FINALLY removes the hate-filled account of ISIS preacher Anjem Choudary – a year after he was charged for spreading messages of terror (dailymail, Aug 19, 2016)
http://dailym.ai/2b3JHMf
“Twitter has finally bowed to pressure and removed the account of hate preacher Anjem Choudary – a year after he was charged for inviting support for ISIS.
The social media site had previously ignored repeated requests from UK authorities to take down his offensive material, jurors at the Old Bailey heard during his trial.
By contrast, it has taken Twitter a matter of minutes to tackle potential copyright infringement of Olympics coverage – sparking criticism from its own users…”
http://globalnews.ca/news/2890098/rcmp-investigating-peterborough-plane-crash-as-national-security-issue/?utm_source=Home&utm_medium=EditorsPick&utm_campaign=2015
Another mohammad
http://gatesofvienna.net/
Essay on European demographics.
https://www.rt.com/news/356472-france-rabbi-stab-strasbourg/
Strasbourg stabbing: Jewish rabbi knifed by man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in daylight attack
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/strasbourg-stabbing-jewish-rabbi-knifed-8663645
A Jewish rabbi has been stabbed by a knifeman in a sickening broad daylight attack.
The stabbing took place in the Jewish quarter of the north east French city of Strasbourg.
The attacker was restrained by a witness before being arrested by police following the broad daylight attack in the middle of the street.
As reported by French news site DNA, several witnesses heard the man shout Allahu Akbar when carrying out the assault.
The 62-year-old Hasidic man does not have serious injuries. He is thought to be in a stable condition in hospital.
the local . fr
[…] police are reportedly ruling out terrorism.
[…]the suspect had previouly attacked a member of the Jewish community in 2010.
[…]the man had a history of psychiatric problems.
according to BFMTV, citing sources close to the enquiry, said an anti-semitic motive has so far not been established and terrorism has been ruled out.
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160819/strasbourg-jewish-man-hurt-in-knife-attack
RT – France: Jewish man stabbed in Strasbourg
A 62-year-old Jewish man was stabbed in the French city of Strasbourg, Friday. During the assault, the alleged offender was reportedly heard shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
http://fitnaphobia.com/2016/08/video-totalitarian-islam/
Report: Illegal Migrants from Terror-Linked Countries Surging at Southern Border
U.S. officials are trying to establish closer cooperation with various Latin American nations to combat an increase in the number of illegal migrants from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East attempting to sneak into the United States.
Between October 2015 and May 2016, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), detained 5,350 African and Asian migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Reuters.
The apprehensions of illegals from Africa and Asia during that period marks an increase from those that took place in all of 2015 (4,261) and 2014 (1,831).
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/08/18/report-illegal-aliens-terror-linked-countries-surging-southern-border/
Hackers targeted Trump campaign, Republican Party groups: sources
Reuters) – Hackers targeted the computer systems of presidential candidate Donald Trump and Republican Party organizations as well as Democratic Party networks, sources familiar with investigations into the attacks said.
At least one Trump staff member’s email account was infected with malware in 2015 and sent malicious emails to colleagues, according to one insider for the Republican candidate’s campaign and an outside security expert. It was unclear whether or not the hackers actually gained access to campaign computers.
In the past month, U.S. security officials have said that starting last year, hackers infiltrated computers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and her party’s congressional fundraising committee.
U.S. officials said they have concluded that Russia or its proxies were responsible, leading to calls by some Democrats and cyber security officials for the Obama administration to blame Russia publicly. Kremlin officials have dismissed the allegations as absurd, but there is anxiety in Washington over the possibility that a foreign power might be using hacked information to meddle in the Nov. 8 U.S. election.
http://www.oann.com/hackers-targeted-trump-campaign-republican-party-groups-sources/
Russia rehearses swiftly moving military hardware to Crimea
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian naval and land forces have practiced swiftly moving military hardware and troops to annexed Crimea as part of a logistics exercise which foreshadows much larger war games there next month, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
The training exercise comes at a time of heightened tension between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow accused Kiev of sending saboteurs into the contested peninsula to carry out a series of bombings. Kiev has flatly denied that.
President Vladimir Putin flew into Crimea on Friday where he planned to hold a meeting of his Security Council.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement issued late on Thursday that Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister, had observed part of the training exercise which took place in the Russian port of Novorossiisk.
It said specialized logistic troops had cooperated with Russian Railways and the country’s merchant fleet to rehearse moving troops, armor and technical equipment to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Vessels from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had also taken part, including a submarine, a large landing ship, mine-sweepers and an unspecified number of guided missile cruisers. Around 2,500 troops and up to 350 armored vehicles had also been involved.
http://www.oann.com/russia-rehearses-swiftly-moving-military-hardware-to-crimea/
Islamic State claims responsibility for attack on Russian traffic police
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a traffic police post outside Moscow on Wednesday in which both attackers were killed, calling it revenge for Russia’s aerial bombing campaign in Syria.
The militant group made the claim via the Amaq news agency, which it regularly uses to issue statements, and released a video in which the purported attackers said they wanted to take revenge for Russia killing Muslims in the Middle East.
Russia has been bombing militants in Syria since September last year, part of a military campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Islamic State called on its members to carry out jihad or holy war in Russia in a YouTube video last month, after which the Kremlin said such threats would not affect its fight against international terrorism.
“We have taken the path of jihad on the orders of our Amir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” one of the purported attackers said on the video released by Amaq, speaking in a mix of Arabic and Russian.
The video named the attackers as Uthman Mardalov and Salim Israilov.
http://www.oann.com/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-for-attack-on-russian-traffic-police/
German conservatives call for partial ban on face veil
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have agreed that women should be banned from wearing the face veil in schools and universities and while driving, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Friday.
The move follows an influx last year of more than 1 million, mainly Muslim, refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and growing security fears among the public after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager.
Regional interior ministers belonging to Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Christian Social Union (CSU) allies presented a declaration in Berlin on tougher security measures, including more police and greater surveillance in public areas.
Among the more disputed proposals is a call for a partial ban on the burqa and niqab garments. Lorenz Caffier, interior minister for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said the full body veil is a barrier to integration, encourages parallel societies and suggests women are inferior.
“We all reject the full veil – not only the burqa but also other types of full veil that only leave the eyes visible … It has no place in our society,” de Maiziere told reporters.
“Baring one’s face is essential for our communication, co-existence and social cohesion and that’s why we’re asking everyone to show their faces. We want to introduce a law to make people show their faces and that means that those who breach that law will have to feel the consequences.”
The conservative interior ministers want to ensure women show their face while driving, when they register with authorities, at passport controls and at demonstrations. They also want civil servants, teachers, students at schools and universities, judges and witnesses in court to be banned from wearing the full veil.
http://www.oann.com/german-conservatives-call-for-partial-face-veil-ban/
Germany: Interior Minister backs ban of full face veils in public
German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere demanded a legal rejection of full face veiling in all public places, during a press conference in the Maritim hotel in Berlin, Friday.
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Minister of the Interior (German): “Who fights against us cannot remain German citizen when he also has another nationality. This doesn’t concern a very big group, but I think this is a matter of principle which we want to answer. I hope that our coalition partner will agree on this.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Minister of the Interior (German): “We reject full veiling, not just burqas but as well the ways of veiling which only leave the eyes visible. We all reject this (CDU and CSU). It doesn’t fit in our open society. For our communication, for living together and the cohesion, showing your face is constitutive in our society.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Minister of the Interior (German): “Those who want to work at public offices cannot work fully veiled. The headscarf is another debate, we are talking about full veiling here. This applies to kindergartens, schools and universities, teachers, pupils and students. In court, judges, guards and witnesses. This applies to everywhere where an identification is required, in registration offices, in registry offices, traffic checks, identity checks, and of course also demonstrations.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Minister of the Interior (German): “I think we developed a smart and constitutional point of view which requires to be put into legislation.”
>>>>> US MOVES NUCLEAR WEAPONS from Turkey to Romania <<<<<<<<
Two independent sources told EurActiv.com that the U.S. has started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania. According to a recent report by the Stimson Center, since the Cold War, some 50 U.S. tactical nuclear weapons have been stationed at Turkey's Incirlik air base, 100 km. from the Syrian border. During the failed coup in Turkey in July, Incirlik's power was cut, and the Turkish government prohibited U.S. aircraft from flying in or out.
A source said U.S.-Turkey relations had deteriorated so much following the coup that Washington no longer trusted Ankara to host the weapons. The Romanian foreign ministry firmly dismissed the report that the country will house U.S. nukes. While it has never been officially confirmed, it is public knowledge that Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy host U.S. nuclear weapons.
http://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/us-moves-nuclear-weapons-from-turkey-to-romania/
J.E.Dyrer says she doubts these reports, 1) the nukes are under NATO control which makes it unlikely they would be moved to Romania. 2) Romania probably wouldn’t want them, putting them there is a major move against Russia.
Having quoted Dyrer this is Obama we are talking about, he and his two stooges in the position of Sec of State caused this mess and the current bad feelings between the US and Russia so he might be that stupid.
http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/08/19/theyve-got-nothing-progressive-left-keeps-showing-true-colors/
They’ve got nothing. The progressive left keeps showing its true colors
Obama is certainly not on the air reassuring Americans, or our allies, about the imperiled U.S. nuclear weapons in Turkey. Not even as think-tank analysts issue a non-partisan warning that the weapons could fall into terrorists’ hands – and reports emerge about Turkey potentially allowing Russia to start using Incirlik airbase – and rumors fly that the nukes have been moved to Romania (! – the most confrontational place they could possibly go, from Russia’s perspective*) – and Russia moves 40,000 troops to the border of Ukraine for another…exercise.
The last part of the last sentence is what worries me.
Beach brawl blamed on Burkini ban now blamed on Muslim men trying to claim beach (express, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701599/Beach-brawl-blamed-Burkini-ban-blamed-Muslim-mem-trying-claim-beach
“A VIOLENT flare-up linked to France’s burkini ban was today blamed on Muslim men who tried to ban locals from an area of beach.
Residents of Sisco, in the French island of Corsica, claimed that three men of Moroccan descent tried to ‘privatise’ the beach they were on by lobbing stones and vile insults at anyone trying to enter.
Three brothers of Moroccan origin and two villagers were arrested yesterday in connection with what some French media are calling a ‘burkini brawl’ after local authorities revealed that the group of tourists taking pictures of burkini-clad Muslim women did not trigger the violent scuffles.
The two Corsicans have since been released, but the three Muslim brothers remain in custody.
All five face immediate trial on charges of ‘gang assault’ and were due to appear in court. In addition to these charges, the three brothers are being accused of ‘violence involving the use of weapons.’
The scuffle, which left five people injured, got so out of hand that more than 100 police officers had to rush to the scene to break up the fight.
Yesterday, one of three Muslim brothers told French TV station iTele that he and his family were having a peaceful “picnic” but other witnesses claimed they had spent the day physically and verbally attacking tourists and local youths, in an effort to privatise the beach and make sure people stayed away.
But according to Nicolas Bessonne, the local prosecutor in charge of the case, said: “The three brothers tried to claim the beach for themselves, and privatise it. They threw stones at people who got too close to them and tried to intimidate them. Tensions rose, and insults and threats were exchanged.
“Tourists were involved, and the Muslim brothers did indeed threaten and insult a Belgian tourist taking pictures of the creek and a group local youths. And that’s when the fight broke out.”
On Tuesday, Ange-Pierre Vivoni, the mayor of Sisco, imposed a burkini ban on his beaches, and asked locals to “respect the town’s secular rules.””
Muslims and Corsicans find it increasingly hard to live together as burkini row deepens (express, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701955/Muslims-Corsicans-increasingly-hard-live-together-burkini-row-deepens
“THE burkini row in Sisco, a small beach town on the French island of Corsica, has brought to light the already tense relationship between local villagers and the island’s Muslims.
Two embittered communities that are finding it difficult to coexist.
Following a weekend plagued by violence after an altercation took place between villagers and three families of North African origin over a burkini, the tiny island, which, according to a study by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), has the highest number of anti-Muslim incidents in France, has become the focus of Europe’s gaze.
Sisco was not the first occasion local Corsicans have clashed with Muslims.
In January 2015 a French flag was burned down and replaced by a Moroccan one at a nursery school in Ajaccio and in February 2016, a halal butcher’s shop was sprayed with bullets.
In April 2016, a mosque was burned down.
The Muslim community in Corsica is big and long-established. According to official figures, 42,000 Muslims currently live on the island, making up 13 per cent of the population. The majority – including those involved in the Sisco fight – are of Moroccan descent.
Laurent Marcangeli, the mayor of Ajaccio, said: “Before, Corsicans and immigrants would keep to themselves, and there was less tension. The problem now is between the children born from immigrant parents and the local youths.”
What’s more, Corsicans are incredibly traditional, and as an island, have not had to deal with multiculturalism. But immigration has been on the rise for more than 10 years now, upsetting the status quo.
According to Mr Marcangeli, locals are “suspicious of Islam,” and have no intention of letting Muslims take over the island.
In addition the tradition of seeking personal revenge is still very much alive and well in Corsica. People would rather sort quarrels out in private, rather than seek help or advice from the authorities, which is what happened in Sisco last week.
Moreover, Corsica is one of the poorest regions in France: one out of five people live below the poverty line, and this has exacerbated racial tensions.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front party, is a popular figure in Corsica, and will probably “make the most” out of last weekend’s flare-up during her upcoming presidential campaign, said Ajaccio’s mayor.”
Muslims and Serbs. Muslims and Croats. Muslim and Corsicans. Muslims and…
‘Refugees NOT welcome’ as 66% of Germans turn on Merkel over migrants (express, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701859/Refugees-NOT-welcome-as-66-of-Germans-turn-on-Merkel-over-migrants
“GERMANY’S patience with migration is wearing thin in the wake of migrant sexual assaults and terror attacks, a devastating new poll has revealed.
In a nightmare scenario for German chancellor Angela Merkel, her oft-repeated phrase “we can do it”, in relation to absorbing hundreds of thousands of migrants, has been widely derided.
A YouGov tracker poll revealed how two out of three Germans don’t agree with the phrase, which now haunts Mrs Merkel, as the country creaks under the pressure of waves of newcomers.
Political opponents like the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), have also thrown the soundbite back in her face and garnered huge numbers of new supporters in the process.
A YouGov poll showed how 66 per cent of those polled did not agree with Merkel’s boast, up from 51 percent last September.
The growing resentment towards the German leader could threaten her grip on power, with elections set for autumn next year.
As her authority ebbed away Mrs Merkel was even criticised from within her own Christian Democrats party, with MEP Karl-Georg Wellmann saying: “Many of our voters understand it as if we could, indefinitely, continue to take in more people.
“Chancellor Merkel might not even mean to say that, but this is how it’s being perceived — and that’s why people I meet in my constituency tell me that they are just sick of hearing that sentence.”
AfD deputy leader Alexander Gauland received a rapturous reception at a rally in August last year when he yelled: “We don’t want to do this, at all.”
At the time the party was polling at just three per cent, by June this year it had surged to 14 per cent.
The inability of Germany to integrate the influx has also caused concern, with the shock revelation this week that the top 30 German companies had employed just 54 migrants.
More than one million migrants arrived in Germany last year, with a third of them refugees from Syria.
Merkel has increasingly come under fire for her immigration policies which have seen around 16,000 refugees arrive in Germany every month.
She has faced a backlash and seen her popularity among voters nosedive, with many blaming her open door refugee policy for a spate of terror attacks in Germany.
The country has been hit by four separate outrages in recent weeks, including when an axe-wielding Afghan refugee attacked passengers on a train near Wurzburg and a Syrian refugee carried out a suicide bombing at a music festival near Ansbach.
Germans were also left reeling by the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees estimates that another 200,000 people will apply for asylum in 2017.”
The inability of Germany to integrate the influx has also caused concern, with the shock revelation this week that the top 30 German companies had employed just 54 migrants.
If the Moslems don’t want to ingratiate what the the Germans suppose do to? Also if the Moslems don’t have the skills necessary to work for the companies or are insisting on special accommodations before they will work why should the companies hire them?
Immigrants are suppose to change to fit their host country, the host country isn’t suppose to change to fit the immigrants desires. When the latter occurs the people aren’t immigrants they are conquers
DAILY MAIL – SYRIA – Hundreds of ISIS jihadis flee Syrian stronghold using civilians as HUMAN SHIELDS to avoid being hit by coalition airstrikes
A column of more than 100 cars fled the city of Manbij, northern Syria
Syrian Democratic Forces routed hundreds of ISIS Jihadis from the city
Leaders decided against calling in an airstrike due to the human shields
The ISIS terrorists have led fled to the north towards the Turkish border
It is understood that many of the terrorists went north towards Turkey, which is only 20 miles away.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748588/Hundreds-ISIS-cowards-flee-Syrian-stronghold-using-civilians-HUMAN-SHIELDS-avoid-hit-coalition-airstrikes.html
Syrian planes said to bomb Kurdish-held area for first time
Syrian government warplanes bombed Kurdish-held areas of the northeastern city of Hasaka on Thursday for the first time in the country’s five-year-old civil war, killing at least 13 people, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and a monitoring group said.
The powerful YPG, a crucial partner in the U.S.-led war against Islamic State, said it would “not be silent” over what it called it an act of flagrant aggression. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.
People’s Protection Units (YPG) spokesman Redur Xelil said the air strikes had hit Kurdish districts of the city, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish groups, and positions held by a Kurdish security force known as the Asayish.
“There are martyrs and wounded,” he told Reuters.
Government forces were also bombarding Kurdish districts of Hasaka with artillery, and there were fierce clashes in the city.
“Every hand spattered with the blood of our people will be held to account through all possible and available means,” the YPG said in a statement.
The YPG and Syrian government forces have mostly left each other to their own devices in the conflict, during which Kurdish groups have exploited the collapse of state control to establish autonomy across much of the country’s north.
The government, which routinely uses its air force against rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in western Syria, still has footholds in the cities of Qamishli and Hasaka, both in the Hasaka governorate.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war using a network of activists, said warplanes had targeted Kurdish security forces’ positions in the northwest and northeast of Hasaka city.
It said clashes were also taking place in a number of places around Hasaka.
At least thirteen people, including children and women, were killed as a result of shelling by the army on Kurdish-controlled areas in the city, the monitor said.
Syria’s complex, multi-sided war has created a patchwork of areas across the country controlled by the government, rebels, Kurdish forces or Islamic State.
The YPG makes up a significant portion of the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish and Arab alliance fighting Islamic State insurgents in Syria.
Last week the SDF, backed by air strikes from the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, said they had ousted Islamic State from the city of Manbij near the Turkish border after a two-month campaign.
The recent fighting marks the most significant violence between the YPG and government forces since several days of fighting in Qamishli in April.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-hasaka-idUSKCN10T11T
======================================================
US moves forces from Syrian location after ‘unusual’ attack nearby
The military pulled US special operations forces from their northern Syria position after the Syrian military began bombing nearby, attacking Kurdish positions in and around the city of Hasakah, according to a US defense official Friday.
The official indicated it was a relatively small number of US forces that moved out of their locations. It was not immediately clear how many are left, if any, in northern Syria.
No US forces were wounded during the Syrian bombing, according to officials.
Still, the attack in the Hasakah area has deeply unsettled Pentagon officials. US special operations forces have been in the area for months conducting training and advisory missions with the Arab and Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the major US ally in the region.
When the bombing began, coalition forces on the ground tried to call the Syrian aircraft on a common radio channel, but there was no response, according to Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis.
He declined to say which coalition forces tried to reach the Syrians. But US personnel quickly called the Russians on a previously established channel to try to determine who was firing. Davis said the Russians assured the US it was not them. The US at that point made it clear through the Russians that the US would “take whatever action is necessary” to defend US forces on the ground if the strikes continued.
The US quickly sent fighter jets to the area, but by the time the US planes arrived, the Syrians were withdrawing.
There were a total of two Syrian SU-24 aircraft hitting Kurdish targets in four locations, the official said.
Davis called the entire situation “very unusual” and said the Pentagon was “hard pressed” to think of another time when Syrian forces came so close to attacking the US, even if that was not their intention. He underscored it is well known that US forces are in the area. But Davis said that there had been “tensions” between Kurds and Syrian-controlled enclaves in the area in the days before the bombardment.
The Pentagon has now increased air patrols in the region and plans to continue that, he said.
http://www.wptz.com/politics/us-moves-forces-from-syrian-location-after-unusual-attack-nearby/41279132
US scrambled jets over N. Syria after 2 Syria Su-24s bomb dangerously close to US SOF on the ground. Say Dod Spox Capt. Davis.
https://twitter.com/jamiejmcintyre/status/766664118057234432
All US SOF safe in N. Syria, after its planes bomb nearby. DoD Spox warns Syrian jets cud b shot down “well advised not to interfere w/ US
https://twitter.com/jamiejmcintyre/status/766665107904598016
U.S. Military Comes Under Attack from Syrian Regime Airstrikes (nbcnews, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-military-comes-under-attack-syrian-regime-airstrikes-n634521
“A Pentagon spokesperson confirms that the Syrian Air Force dropped bombs Thursday in an area where U.S. Special Operations forces were operating on the ground.
U.S. Special Operations forces “were in the area at the time,” Captain Jeff Davis said, adding that they are “all safe.” Davis also confirmed that this is the closest U.S. forces on the ground have come to an attack from the Syrian regime…”
Syrian war: US scrambles jets to Hassakeh (BBC, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37136536
“American fighter planes have been scrambled to the Syrian city of Hassakeh to protect US special forces on the ground from Syrian government aerial attacks, the US military says.
The Pentagon said the Syrian planes were leaving as its jets arrived.
People in the north-eastern Syrian city say government warplanes have hit Kurdish districts there for the past two days.
Thousands are reported to have fled their homes.
Hassakeh is mainly under the control of a Kurdish militia, the YPG…”
SYRIA – Pentagon issues implicit threat to shoot down Syrian warplanes
The Pentagon issued a terse warning Friday that the U.S. would act to defend its troops after a close call in Northern Syria in which a pair of Syrian warplanes bombed dangerously close to U.S. special operations forces and the U.S. military scrambled fighter jets.
“We will ensure their safety and the Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk,” said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
Asked specifically if that meant the U.S. would shoot down Syrian warplanes that threated U.S. forces, Davis said, “We have the inherent right to self defense. When anybody is striking against U.S. forces, and U.S. forces are at risk, we have the right to take action.”
The incident Thursday involved a “small number” of U.S. special operations advisers who are working with Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State in Northern Syria in an area the Pentagon says was “well-known to everybody to include the regime, that the coalition is actively engaged in operations against ISIL.”
A pair of Syrian planes, identified by the Pentagon as Russian-made Su-24s, bombed a location where Kurdish fighters were in operation with the American advisers.
There were no casualties reported, but the Pentagon said the Syrians had no business attacking an area where the coalition was fighting the Islamic State.
“We view instances that place coalition personnel at risk with the utmost seriousness,” Davis said.
The U.S. quickly scrambled aircraft to confront the Syrian planes, which were departing the area when the coalition planes arrived.
The U.S. also called the Russians on a safety of flight hotline, and they insisted the planes were not Russian aircraft.
The warning to Syrian warplanes was delivered through the Russians, according to the Pentagon.
“We did make clear that U.S. aircraft would defend troops on the ground if threatened,” Davis told reporters at the Pentagon.
As a result of the Syrian attack, the U.S. has increased combat air patrols over areas where U.S. troops are located in Syria.
About 300 U.S. special operations forces are advising and assisting counter Islamic State fighters in Syria, according to the Pentagon.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pentagon-issues-implicit-threat-to-shoot-down-syrian-warplanes/article/2599757
SKY NEWS – Rebranded Nusra Front Uniting Syria’s Rebels
[... no thing to do with A Q ... ???? ]Intense fighting between Kurdish YPG and Syrian NDF in Hasakah 18 08 2016
Lancé les missiles de croisière Calibre contre les objets du groupement terroriste Jabhat al-Nusra
Aujourd’hui, à 10.55h du matin, au cours de l’exécution des manœuvres de combat, les petits bâtiments lance-missiles de la flotte de la mer Noire «Zeliony Dol» et «Serpoukhov» ont effectué 3 lancement de missiles de croisière «Calibre» de la la partie orientale de la mer Méditerranée contre les cibles du groupement terroriste «Jabhat an-Nusra» sur le territoire de la Syrie.
En résultat, le poste de commandement et la base des terroristes en périphérie de la cité Dar-Taaza, ainsi que l’usine de fabrication des munitions de mortier et le grand depôt avec armement dans la province d’Alep, ont été éliminés.
Le contrôle objectif a confirmé la déstruction des cibles envisagées.
Pour assurer la sécurité des civils, le corridor de survol des missiles a été planifié au-dessus du terrain inhabité.
Sweden: Marriage of 132 child refugees given approval
Swedish auditor Ola Nilsson says they have found the marriages wrong despite the tax office’s approval
One hundred and thirty-two refugees in child marriages who came to Sweden in 2015 got the seal of approval from the national tax office, in violation of the law setting the minimum marriageable age at 18, according to a local auditor responsible for children’s rights.
“The tax office should not give approval for these children [marriages]. We warned the tax office,” auditor Ola Nilsson told Anadolu Agency on Thursday, adding that the Swedish Social Child Office tried to put refugees who entered into child marriages under protection.
Nilsson said that they found a total of 132 married refugees under 18 years old in 80 municipalities, adding that the couples had presented marriage documents from their countries of origin.
On a separate note, Swedish media reported that several orphaned refugee children staying in shelters in Sweden are suspected of being forced to sell sex.
According to the reports, Police Commissar Mattias Sigfridsson from the southern county of Scania (Skane) said that they have sped up investigation of the claims.
Sydsvenskan daily reported on Aug. 9 that as many as 15 children would disappear from their rooms in a shelter at night and return in the morning with valuables, including money and luxury gold watches.
Aftonbladet daily also reported that unattended refugee children were suspected of being sexually exploited in the coastal town of Malmo, Scania, adding that many cases have been filed to the police without leading to convictions.
Southern Skane municipality found 32 cases of refugee children who were allegedly exploited for prostitution, according to Sydsvenskan. The cases were discovered by personnel working in shelters, the Swedish Migration Board, and social services.
http://aa.com.tr/en/europe/sweden-marriage-of-132-child-refugees-given-approval/631091
The Temple Mount and UNESCO
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is known throughout the world for the many places it designates as World Heritage Sites. There are more than one thousand of these, distributed unequally in many countries, with Italy at the top, followed by China.
The largest single category of sites consists of religious sites, categorized under the heading of cultural locations (as distinct from natural ones). Within this category, UNESCO has carried out many dialogues with communities in order to ensure that religious sensitivities are acknowledged and guaranteed. UNESCO has undertaken many measures in this field.
In 2010, the organization held a seminar on the “Role of Religious Communities in the Management of World Heritage Properties.”
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8548/temple-mount-unesco
The Burkini Battle: What Really Happened in Corsica
After investigating, the French prosecutor revealed what really happened on the beach — and it’s much worse than a a fight about a burkini.
Nicolas Bessone, prosecutor of Bastia, Corsica, gave a press conference on Wednesday, August 17, in which he presented the result of the four-day police investigation into the fight at Sisco beach on Saturday 13 August.
Three Muslim brothers from the Lupino neighbourhood in Bastia and two villagers from Sisco had been arrested on Wednesday and held in detention, where they were interrogated about the incident.
He insisted that the protagonists were neither Islamic radicals nor racists and described the fight as a territorial battle between a Muslim family from Lupino and the Sisco villagers.
According to Mr. Bessone, three Muslim brothers arrived on the beach on Saturday with their female companions and attempted to “privatize” it. The Muslim women, contrary to initial press reports, were not wearing burkinis but were swimming in full Islamic dress.
The first incidents broke out early in the day when the Muslims put up a no entry sign to keep people from coming on to the beach. A couple already on the beach were forced to leave, as were two young boys canoeing in the creek. Tourists, including a Belgian who took a photograph and local passers-by who got too close were insulted, threatened and pelted with stones.
A group of village teenagers then arrived on the beach as they usually did on a Saturday afternoon. At this point the situation deteriorated and conflicting versions were given to the investigators. One teenager claimed he was hit by one or more of the three Muslim males.
The father of the teenager was informed his son was being molested and when he arrived on the scene he too was beaten. Several witnesses indicated to the police that harpoons and a baseball bat were used in the attack.
https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/burkini-battle-what-really-happened-corsica
Please click over and read the rest of the article, it is important.
In typical Islamic fashion the Moslems are trying to take over the beach and force the locals out. The Corsican’s are fighting back with the same passion that the Moslems use. This area is now a flash point for the civil war that is simmering under the surface.
When a Female Liberal Journalist Tweets About Sharia
CNN Journalist Sally Kohn has drawn fire for tweeting that many progressive Muslims believe in sharia law in response to Donald Trump’s positions.
When CNN journalist Sally Kohn tweeted that many progressive Muslims whom we should support against the extremists believe in sharia, she was right.
When outraged commentators pointed out that Kohn, a woman and a liberal, not to mention a lesbian, would personally fare quite poorly under a sharia system they were right as well.
o how can they both be right?
Literally translated, sharia means “a way to water” and refers to the vision of Islam by which a Muslim is supposed to live their life, drawing the follower closer to Allah, as well as to Islamic religious law.
There are many different interpretations of sharia, and different Muslims interpret “the path” differently. Although the interpretations differ, the idea that the “sharia” is what ought to be followed is shared by many if not most Muslims around the world.
The process by which this somewhat nebulous idea is brought down to more specific instructions is called fiqh. Over the past 14 centuries, different schools of Islamic jurisprudence have taken their understandings of sharia, which is based on the Quran, the hadiths (traditions about Islam which include sayings of Mohammed) and the oral tradition of Islam. From these sources have emerged different systems of rules.
Some anti-Islamist scholars, such as Sheikh Hisham Kabbani of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, see the hardening of sharia into set rules rather than a more flexible system as a perversion of what sharia is meant to be.
https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/when-female-liberal-journalist-tweets-about-sharia
UN: Up to 30% of Foreign ISIS Fighters Have Returned Home
The UN says the returnees represent a growing threat, since some may attempt to carry out terrorist attacks in their home countries.
Between 10 and 30 percent of foreign fighters who travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight for the Islamic State have returned to their countries of origin, according to a report by the Committee of the U.N. Security Council on ISIS and al-Qaida as reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
The report highlights the growing threat posed by these returning jihadists, some of whom may attempt to carry out terrorist attacks in their home countries.
“Some returnees have left conflict zones after they were disappointed in ISIS and changed their minds about the conflict,” the report states. “In the assessment of the member States, they are in the lower part of the spectrum of risk, while some persons have returned with the specific intention and the willingness to commit terrorist attacks, as evidenced by the attacks in Paris and Brussels.”
The report also states the international police agency Interpol has a database of some 7,000 names of foreign fighters among the estimated 30,000 foreign fighters currently in Iraq and Syria.
For more information on the Islamic State, see Clarion Project’s Special Report: The Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL)
https://www.clarionproject.org/news/un-30-foreign-isis-fighters-have-returned-home
Clarion Project report on ISIS
http://www.clarionproject.org/sites/default/files/islamic-state-isis-isil-factsheet-1.pdf
LGBT Tortured, Killed With Impunity in Turkey
‘ISIS and its mentality is supported, protected and living not only in Iraq, Syria, and other countries, but also in [Turkey].’ –human rights activist.
LGBT individuals beheaded, burnt to death in Turkey
As Turkey is increasingly sliding into Islamist fascism, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community in the country is being subjected to unspeakable crimes.
The latest victims were living in Istanbul.
23-Year-Old Transgender Raped and Burnt To Death in Istanbul
Hande Kader, a 23-year-old transgender from Turkey, was burned to death after getting tortured and raped in Istanbul. Kader had been missing since August 6. Her burnt dead body was found on August 14. She was last seen getting in a car in the Harbiye district in Istanbul.
“She was murdered in a savage way,” Michelle Demisevich, a transgender journalist, told the newspaper Hurriyet. “It is thought that she was raped by more than one person. According to my friends who identified her dead body, she had been exposed to brutal violence and torture. Those who committed such inhumane torture also burned her as if torture were not enough!”
“The Murderers Are Not Punished”
Demisevich said that most of the previous murderers of transgender people have not been apprehended. Investigations of these murders can drag on for years.
“Many transgender people were killed at the beginning of this year. But the murderers of so few of them have been caught.
“Two people tried to murder our friend called Azeri Gulsen in October, 2014 in her house in Istanbul. She stayed alive by accident. When we found her at her house, she was lying in blood on the floor. Seven or eight lawyers defended her at the court, some MPs also got involved but not a single step has been taken. The police have not even completed the investigation. However, they have camera recordings. And it has been two years,” she said.
“This was the case in 1980s, 1990s, and in 2000s, as well,” Demisevich added.
“A citizen of Turkey has been burnt to death. She was raped. What else could be more important than that? But the police say, ‘Will we exert ourselves to take care of a faggot?’ Both the police and the judiciary have this mentality. They do not think handling the case of a transgender, a transvestite, a faggot or a pansy is fitting for them.
https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/lgbt-tortured-killed-impunity-turkey
ITALY – Capalbio asks residents to host migrants
Capalbio, August 19 – The city of Capalbio on Friday posted a notice signed by the mayor with information on how residents can host the 50 migrants slated for reception there, either by renting their vacant apartments or by hosting a migrant in their own home.
The notice provided the phone number of a hotline that residents can call if they wish to apply to host migrants, with the expectation that “in the face of a great European and national emergency such as refugee reception, no one can turn away from their duty to solidarity and welcoming”.
Capalbio, A FASHIONABLE LEFTWING SUMMER WATERING HOLE on the southern Tuscan coast, has been the subject of controversy in recent days over resistance there to the expected migrant arrival.
On Friday, ANSA learned that Democratic Party (PD) Senator Monica Cirinnà was among the signers of a letter sent to Mayor Luigi Bellumori on Thursday, also signed by city residents and business owners, urging solidarity and welcoming in response to a petition that opposed hosting the migrants.
“We don’t want to forget our history and tradition of welcoming by lending ourselves to exploitative hypocrisy and denials,” the letter said.
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2016/08/19/capalbio-asks-residents-to-host-migrants_ae0a5bf9-2634-44ef-991a-0024fbf44173.html
Sky News -Migrant Misery In Italy
Show acceptance for migrants, beat terror says Mattarella (ansa, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2016/08/19/show-acceptance-for-migrants-beat-terror-says-mattarella_7cfebd73-4e7c-4ba1-be4d-9dd9ff2212c6.html
“Italy must show solidarity for migrants but make sure they respect the law, President Sergio Mattarella said at the annual meeting of the influential Catholic lay organisation Communion and Liberation Friday. “We must not allow ourselves to be defeated by fear,” Mattarella said.
The Italian president added that “we will defeat terrorism with our civilisation”.
He said the “utmost severity must be shown” for people traffickers. Italy must also patch up social wounds to show more solidarity, he said. “Our country is marked by age-old fissures,” he said.
“To these have been added new divisions, produced by the natural change in conditions, not always managed in a balanced way, and those provoked by the long economic crisis of the past years.
“We must work hard to patch up the wounds and make Italy more robust, more supportive, more competitive, and more important for European construction.
“Saying that a country that was “not united becomes weaker,” Mattarella also observed that “selfishness does not generate a civic renewal”.
He warned against a growing tendency to close oneself away on the Internet, only “connecting with those who think the same way, in restricted and closed circuits”.”
Islamist Ugandan Group Hacks 51 to Death in Congo
The brutal attack carried out by machetes is believed to have been carried out by the ‘Allied Democratic Forces,’ a Ugandan insurgent group.
At least 51 people have been murdered by an Islamist-linked militia in the Congo in a brutal massacre where militants hacked apart civilians with machetes.
The army says the attack was carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces, a Islamist group originating from Uganda which merged with other disparate militias. The group has carried out an insurgency against the Ugandan and the Congolese governments since 1996.
The group is based in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province and is reported to have links with the Somalian Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
The killings took place on Saturday night in the town of Beni. Government estimates initially put the death toll at 36, but on Sunday local mayor Edmond Masumbuko put the toll at 42.
NGOs have counted more casualties. “Our team on the ground has counted 51 bodies slain with machetes,” said Teddy Kataliko, a member of a local NGO alliance.
He told AFP that civilians were angry with the government for failing to protect their family members. “They decided to hold private funerals and refused to allow the government to bury them, because it could not guarantee their security while they were still alive,” he said.
In 2014, the Congolese army launched an offensive against the ADF bases in North Kivu province and have since driven them from many of their former strongholds.
In 2015, the leader of the ADF, Jamil Mukulu, was arrested in Tanzania and extradited to Uganda.
https://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamist-ugandan-group-hacks-51-death-congo
Battle for control of the DRC: Who are the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF/NALU)?
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/battle-control-drc-who-are-allied-democratic-forces-adf-nalu-1526272
Colin Powell tells MSNBC he has no memory of dinner conversation with Clinton about private server
the guardian – Nice becomes latest French city to impose burkini ban
The French Riviera city was the scene of last month’s truck attack on Bastille Day revellers that left 86 people dead
[ and 400 wounded ]Nice has become the latest French resort to ban the burkini, the full-body Islamic swimsuit that has sparked heated debate in secular France.
Using language similar to the bans imposed in a string of other resorts on the French Riviera, the city barred clothing that “overtly manifests adherence to a religion at a time when France and places of worship are the target of terrorist attacks”.
[…]Fifteen resorts in the south-east and others elsewhere in France have already banned the burkini, including the nearby city of Cannes, where three women were each fined €38 (£33) under the ban at the weekend.[…]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/19/nice-becomes-latest-french-city-to-impose-burkini-ban
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NYT – France’s Burkini Bigotry
[…]This hysteria threatens to further stigmatize and marginalize France’s Muslims at a time when the country is listing to the Islamophobic right in the wake of a series of horrific terrorist attacks. And with presidential elections scheduled for next spring and the right-wing National Front’s popularity on the rise, French officials and politicians have leapt to support the mayors.
[…]The British chef and television star Nigella Lawson wore a burkini on an Australian beach in 2011, presumably of her own free will . Meanwhile, the world has watched Muslims proudly compete at the Olympics in Rio in body-covering sportswear.
[…]But at the heart of the dispute is something far darker: French politicians’ paternalistic pronouncements on the republic’s duty to save Muslim women from enslavement — by dictating to them what they can and can’t wear. The burkini rumpus is also a convenient distraction from the problems France’s leaders have not been able to solve: high unemployment, lackluster economic growth and a still very real terrorist threat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/opinion/frances-burkini-bigotry.html
reuters – U.S. withdraws staff from Saudi Arabia dedicated to Yemen planning
The U.S. military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, U.S. officials told Reuters.
Fewer than five U.S. service people are now assigned full-time to the “Joint Combined Planning Cell,” which was established last year to coordinate U.S. support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.
That is down from a peak of about 45 staff members who were dedicated to the effort full-time in Riyadh and elsewhere, he said.
The staff withdrawal, which U.S. officials say followed a lull in air strikes in Yemen earlier this year, appears to reduce Washington’s day-to-day involvement in advising a campaign that has come under increasing scrutiny for causing civilian casualties.
The U.S. military personnel were withdrawn from Riyadh in June, U.S. officials said.
“The shift does not diminish U.S. commitment to supporting Saudi-led military operations. The JCPC forward team that was in Saudi Arabia is now in Bahrain,” said Chris Sherwood, a Pentagon spokesman, who added that U.S. aerial tankers continue to refuel Saudi aircraft.
The U.S. officials said the reduced staffing is unrelated to the growing international concerns over civilian casualties in the 16-month civil war that has killed more than 6,500 people in Yemen, about half of them civilians.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that as the strikes intensify again, the U.S. might decide to readjust its support. strong>Peace efforts in Yemen have stumbled, and the Saudi-led coalition’s air campaign against Iran-allied Houthi rebels has been stepped up once more.
The conflict has brought Yemen close to famine and cost more than $14 billion in damage to infrastructure and economic losses.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, declined to confirm details about the positioning of U.S. military personnel, but played down such moves.
“The relationship between the kingdom and the U.S. is a strategic one. If true, this move reflects something at a tactical level,” Asseri told Reuters. “The U.S. may move its assets, but that doesn’t have any impact on the bilateral relationship between the countries.”
EXTENSIVE U.S. SUPPORT
Since the campaign began, the U.S. military has conducted an average of two refueling sorties every day. The United States also has provided limited intelligence support to the coalition but officials stress that Washington has not selected targets.
American officials have said they have sought ways to help the coalition improve targeting and have ensured Saudi access to precision-guided munitions. The Pentagon also has sent U.S. military lawyers to help train their Saudi counterparts on how to ensure the legality of coalition strikes.
In recent months, however, the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations and even some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the coalition air strikes.
An annual U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year. Saudi Arabia has said the report is based on inaccurate information.
On Tuesday, a coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres in Yemen, killing 19 people and prompting the group to evacuate staff from six hospitals, citing a “loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent fatal attacks”.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-usa-saudiarabia-idUSKCN10U1TL
Shock report: Feds vetting immigrants for terrorists ask if Communists, not ISIS
A new analysis of how the United States “vets” immigrants reveals that written visa and citizenship surveys ask if applicants are World War II Nazi veterans or sympathizers, but not members of ISIS, al Qaeda or other Islamic terror groups at war with America.
While State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service branch of the Department of Homeland Security do ask if immigrants have been involved in terrorism, the most well known of over a dozen terrorist groups aren’t listed in applications, according to the analysis from homeland security expert Mark A. Sauter.
He said that federal officials told him that the questions about terror group involvement are required by federal law, meaning that congressional action is needed to include modern-day threats in the written questions.
However, detailed written questions are asked about Nazi cooperation, as are questions about whether applicants are drunks, polygamists, or Communists. One survey does single out Colombian terror organizations in the written questions, though they have never attacked inside the U.S.
The lack of specific questioning about the biggest threat to the United States as the country eyes thousands in line from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere seeking residency raises new questions about how immigrants are vetted, and gives ammunition to Republicans like presidential candidate Donald Trump who has called for “extreme vetting” to weed out likely terrorists.
What’s more, he added in his report seen here, the U.S. doesn’t have “readily available” statistics on how many immigrants who apply or are allowed in have admitted terrorist ties when asked. USCIS provided him with a list of groups it considers terrorist, but current groups like the “Muslim Brotherhood,” often singled out by the Trump camp, was not on it.
From his report:
What we learned: During the visa and immigration process, someone seeking to become a US citizen is specifically asked in writing if he/she has been a Communist or World War II Nazi — and in many cases, whether he/she was a member of a Colombian terrorist organization — but is not specifically asked in writing whether he or she is or has been a member of ISIS, al-Qaida or other named Islamist terrorist groups.
The government does ask general questions applying to other terrorist groups. But it does not keep readily available information on the number and affiliations of applicants who admit being part of ISIS/al-Qaeda/other terrorist groups and appears to have no statistics at all on the number of applicants who say “No” when asked if they support the US Constitution.
The Nazi question is asked so that if applicants who did work for Adolf Hitler lie, that perjury can be used to deport them if they are ever outted. But it would appear to be out of date since an applicant would have to be about 90 years old to have been a Nazi in the timeframe given on USCIS form, “March 23, 1933-May 8, 1945.”[…]
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/extreme-feds-ask-immigrants-if-theyre-communists-nazis-but-not-isis-al-qaeda/article/2599734?custom_click=rss
Sailor Denied ‘Clinton Deal’, Gets 1 Year in Prison for 6 Photos of Sub
The photos contained ‘confidential’ information, the lowest level of classification.
A former Navy machinist mate who admitted taking photos inside a nuclear submarine was sentenced to a year in prison Friday, with a federal judge rebuffing a request for probation in light of authorities deciding not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information on a private email server as secretary of state.
Kristian Saucier’s attorneys argued in a court filing last week that Clinton had been “engaging in acts similar to Mr. Saucier” with information of much higher classification. It would be “unjust and unfair for Mr. Saucier to receive any sentence other than probation for a crime those more powerful than him will likely avoid,” attorney Derrick Hogan wrote.
U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill sentenced Saucier to one year in prison and a $100 fine, along with six months home confinement, 100 hours of community service and a ban on owning guns, his legal team says. Prosecutors had asked for six years behind bars.
“We’re very pleased,” says Greg Rinckey, another defense attorney for Saucier.
Rinckey says he’s not sure if the judge was swayed by significant media attention comparing Saucier’s case with the Clinton email controversy.
“He cryptically made some comments about selective prosecution and how that didn’t play any factor. Do I think it may have? Sure. But I think there was enough mitigation that the judge was able to depart from the sentencing guidelines [on that basis alone],” Rinckey says.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-08-19/sailor-denied-clinton-deal-gets-1-year-in-prison-for-6-photos-of-sub
Mass brawl in Bangladesh over TV soap Kiranmala (BBC, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37128640
“An argument about a popular TV drama in Bangladesh erupted into a mass brawl involving hundreds of people, with 15 people badly injured, police say.
Villagers in Habiganj district had gathered in a cafe to watch Indian-made Bengali fantasy drama Kiranmala.
But when two men disagreed about the plot, others took sides and soon hundreds of people were fighting with sticks and knives.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
Kiranmala, a sci-fi drama about a warrior princess who saves mankind from evil, is wildly popular in Bangladesh.
The brawl erupted in the cafe in Dhol village, 176km (109 miles) north-east of Dhaka.
Local police chief Yasinul Haque told the BBC’s Shyadul Islam: “Two men were involved in an argument over the episode, which turned into a group clash. There were hundreds of people attacking each other with sticks and knives.
“Police had to fire nine rubber bullets and five shells of tear gas to control the crowd, and at least 15 people needed hospital treatment.”
New agency AFP reported that at least 100 people were hurt during the fighting…”
Murderer Avni Metra to be extradited from UK to Albania (BBC, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-37130065
“A double murderer who posed as a refugee to enter the UK illegally is to be extradited.
Avni Metra, 53, came to Britain in 1998, one year after he killed two brothers in his native Albania.
He was convicted in his absence of both murders and possession of firearms, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
District judge Margot Coleman told Metra, who had argued he would not get a fair trial abroad, his life in Britain was “based on a lie”.
Metra, who was living in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, was arrested by Scotland Yard detectives on 8 June as he drove through Watford, after a tip-off from the Daily Mail.
He told an earlier extradition hearing: “There is no justice in Albania. There is only corruption.”…”
After France and Sweden now Italy also asking members of the public to take in refugees
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2016/08/19/capalbio-asks-residents-to-host-migrants_17345d74-ca3a-4a3f-abe8-b046378cb6da.html
Controversial Berlin historian dies aged 93 (thelocal, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.de/20160819/controversial-berlin-historian-dies-aged-93
“German intellectual Ernt Nolte became controversial in the 1980’s when he triggered one of the most explosive historical debates of post World War II Germany.
In 1986, Nolte, an author of respected academic work on fascism, published an essay entitled “The Past That Won’t Go Away”, suggesting that a direct causal link could have existed between the Soviet “class massacre” and the “social massacre” later committed by the Nazis.
In the article the historian provocatively asked “didn’t the Gulag archipelago happen prior to Auschwitz?”
Nolte, who died this week at the age of 93, suggested that Stalin’s forced-labour camps and the killing of millions of peasants in the Soviet Union were forerunners of the Nazi crimes.
One of the concerns that arose following Nolte’s hypothesis, was the potential threat of minimizing Nazi crimes. His thesis was mostly refuted by the historical community, and he was was heavily criticized by sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who accused Nolte of trying to whitewash the past in a column for “Die Zeit”.
The controversy was not only intellectual but also thoroughly political. Right-wing intellectuals argued that a similar approach should be taken towards different totalitarian states, whereas left-wing intellectuals thought that the Nazi crimes could not be equated with the crimes of the Soviet communism.
Despite criticism, Nolte did not alter his point of view. Refuting the reproach made to him that he had turned into a right-wing revisionist, he argued that it was actually public opinion that had shifted to the left.
But he found himself ever more isolated in the academic community and in public opinion. In 2000 Angela Merkel, then head of the CDU, rejected the offer to hold a speech in his honour when he was awarded a prestigious academic award.
The debate not only create a more complex argument though, since then other historians have tried to propose more comprehensive arguments to the question of the Holocaust and its causes.
Nolte later said he was not embittered by the isolated position he found himself in.
In an interview with Die Welt in 2006 he said he saw himself as a historical thinker rather than a historian. “That’s the way I want to be seen and when all my work is considered in its entirety I believe that description will be justified.””
Very controversial… For the loony, radical leftists that is…
Tourists shy away from France in shadow of attacks (thelocal, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160819/tourists-shy-away-from-france-in-shadow-of-terror-attacks
“Visitors to hotels, guesthouses and campsites in France dropped by nearly five percent in the second quarter of the year, further underlining the effect of jihadist attacks on Paris, official figures showed Friday…”
Suspected German IS supporter taken back into police custody (DW, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.dw.com/en/suspected-german-is-supporter-taken-back-into-police-custody/a-19489015
“A 27-year-old man suspected of having links to the extremist group “IS” has been detained by police again after being previously released. He and an acquaintance reportedly discussed ways of carrying out terror attacks…”
Hundreds of migrants resisting deportation from Germany at the last minute (DW, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.dw.com/en/hundreds-of-migrants-resisting-deportation-from-germany-at-the-last-minute/a-19487757
“Some 35,000 deportations took place in Germany in the last 18 months. More than 600 were abandoned, however. Pro-free movement groups are offering information on how to successfully hinder a deportation…”
Number of car arsons in Berlin explodes in 2016 (thelocal, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.de/20160819/number-of-car-arsons-in-berlin-explodes-in-2016
“Politically related car arsons in Berlin have dramatically increased in 2016 and have already overtaken last year’s numbers.
Berlin has seen a dramatic increase in car arsons so far in 2016, with both politically related arson and non-political arson on the rise.
In 2015, the police reported 179 cases of car being set on fire in the capital, 38 of which were political. But police figures seen by DPA last Friday show 213 cases recorded so far this year, 64 of which are suspected to have been politically motivated.
Authorities believe that the far-left scene are culpable for a large number of the acts, after an ongoing conflict with police started when officers raided an occupied house in the Friedrichshain district in January…”
Danish Turks withdraw children from private schools (thelocal, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.dk/20160819/danish-turks-withdraw-children-from-gulen-linked-schools
“Hundreds of Danish Turks have withdrawn their children from Danish schools with alleged links to the US based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding last month’s attempted coup, Danish media reported on Friday.
A document circulating on Facebook listed 14 private schools in Denmark as being linked to Gulen and urged parents to “Save your children from Fethullah Gulen’s terror organisation’s schools”, according to a translation from Turkish by broadcaster TV 2.
A total of 366 students had been pulled out of the schools after the summer break, the broadcaster said.
At the Hillerød Private School 35 kilometres northwest of Copenhagen, 45 out of around 180 students had left, according to its deputy head Jørgen Skaastrup.
Parents “do not dare let their children go to a school that Erdogan has labelled a terrorist school”, Skaastrup told AFP…”
Former Danish PM: Obama a ‘disaster’ in Syria (thelocal, Aug 19, 2016)
http://www.thelocal.dk/20160819/former-danish-pm-obama-a-disaster-on-syria
“In a video message posted to Facebook on Thursday evening, Anders Fogh Rasmussen appealed to the US to be the world’s “policeman” and to stop “leading from behind”.
Denmark’s former prime minister and the former secretary general of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Thursday that US President Barack Obama’s failure to act when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people in 2013.
“Obama’s decision to draw the infamous red line to Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria and then not follow it up with action was, in my opinion, a disaster,” Rasmussen said in a video message posted to Facebook.
“It created doubts about America’s commitment to lead, thus inflaming the enemies of freedom and it left the Syrian population at the mercy of a ruthless dictator,” he continued.
The former PM and Nato head said “our enemies” have taken advantage of “America’s reluctance to involve itself in the fight against tyranny and oppression”.
Rasmussen pointed specifically to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the terrorist group Isis as having benefited from “the vacuum” created by “American hesitation and retrenchment”.
“The world needs a policeman and that policeman needs to be the United States of America,” Rasmussen said.
He called on the next president of the US to “lead from the front, not from behind”….”