Reader’s links for September 26 – 2016

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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.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

112 Replies to “Reader’s links for September 26 – 2016”

  1. NYC – City Launches Advertising Campaign to Combat Islamophobia

    Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the marketing campaign, and showed off ads, on Monday.

    NEW YORK, NY — The city has launched a new advertising campaign intended to combat racial discrimination and violence against Muslims.

    The city’s Community Affairs Unit, Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Commission on Human Rights will undertake a social media campaign aimed at promoting “respect, understanding and support for the city’s diverse Muslim communities.”

    The city will be sharing new ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the slogan “I am Muslim, I am NYC.”

    The ads are just the first step in a campaign launched by the city to try to increase public awareness about the Muslim community. The city will also host community safety forums, develop a workshop in partnership with NYU called “Understanding Islam,” host a “Progressive and Inclusive Cities” forum with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and religious leaders, and launch a “city-wide media campaign in late spring 2017” to educate New Yorkers. The city did not say exactly what the media campaign would entail as of yet.

    “Now more than ever, it is important for every New Yorker to stand united as one city and reject hate and violence,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “In New York, everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Agnostic and Atheist — it doesn’t matter. We are all New Yorkers and we all deserve to live safely and free from hatred or discrimination. We will not tolerate discrimination or violence of any kind and we will not rest until all New Yorkers, including our Muslim brothers and sisters, are treated with the dignity they deserve.”

    The city notes they’ve increased investigations into discrimination over race, national origin and religion by 60 percent in the last two years. The city also takes a not-so-subtle shot at Republican nominee Donald Trump and the current presidential race saying attacks on Muslims have surged due to “political vitriol.”

    “To combat xenophobia and Islamophobia, we must come together in solidarity to develop strategies against it,” said Commissioner Nisha Agarwal of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in a statement. “Our recent convening with Muslim community leaders, immigrant advocates, and refugee rights advocates is leading to the creation of a shared action plan.”

    http://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/city-launches-advertising-campaign-combat-islamophobia
    ========================================
    NYC – City combats Islamophobia with social media campaign

    The city is hitting the streets and social media to combat Islamophobia.

    The Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and Office of Immigrant Affairs announced Monday the launch of its campaign to promote respect and understanding for the thousands of Muslim New Yorkers.

    Despite the New York’s history of tolerance and diversity, the NYC Commission on Human Rights said the number of investigations into discrimination went up 60% in the last two years.

    “In New York, everyone deserves to be treated with respect,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Agnostic, and Atheist — it doesn’t matter. We are all New Yorkers and we all deserve to live safely and free from hatred or discrimination.”

    The campaign’s biggest component is a social media push that will feature real New York Muslims and a hashtag #iammuslimnyc. The ads will direct people to the online hub, NYC.gov/iammuslimNYC, which contains a downloadable fact sheet about legal protections in place to help Muslim Americans, such as laws that punish businesses and landlords from discriminating against someone for their religion.

    The site will also have hotlines for people to contact the city if they face discrimination.

    The campaign also includes community safety and fair treatment forums in locations across the city.

    NYU’s Islamic Center is also teaming up with the city with a workshop called “Understanding Islam,” that will help private and public employees understand more about the religion.

    A pilot workshop is slated for next month.

    http://www.amny.com/news/city-combats-islamophobia-with-social-media-campaign-1.12367873

  2. German broadcaster sues Turkey over confiscated video (thelocal, Sep 26, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.de/20160926/german-broadcaster-sues-turkey-over-confiscated-interview

    “German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle said Monday it had filed a civil complaint after a Turkish minister’s office confiscated a taped video interview with him.

    No comment could immediately be obtained from the Turkish authorities after the public broadcaster filed suit in an Ankara civil court.

    DW said it interviewed Turkish Minister of Youth and Sports Akif Cagatay Kilic on September 5 for its show “Conflict Zone” on a range of issues “previously communicated to the ministry.”

    Topics included Turkey’s failed coup in July and the wave of arrests that followed, as well as press freedom and women’s rights, it said.

    But immediately afterwards, ministry staff confiscated the recording, angering DW, which has since demanded its return.

    “These actions have nothing to do with the rule of law and democracy,” said DW’s general director for radio and television, Peter Limbourg, in a statement.

    “We call on the Turkish side now, though judicial channels, to immediately return our video material.”

    The ministry had said in a statement on September 6, quoted by DW, that in the interview “the questions that were asked were not those that had been submitted in advance”.”

  3. UK – BRISTOL MUSLIM ‘PAEDOPHILE RING’ TRIAL</strong Girls as young as 12 were ‘given drugs and alcohol before being` raped by group of seven Somali men in Bristol’

    Some of the girls were allegedly given drugs and alcohol and were “pestered again and again” by the men for sex

    YOUNG girls were abused, raped and trafficked for sex by seven Somali men, a court has heard.

    Some of the alleged victims were as young as 12 and were forced into sexual abuse that was “degrading, violent and horrible” in inner city Bristol.

    The men behind the alleged rapes regarded some of the group of teenagers as “cheap and easy” and the abuse became routine.

    So much so that one of the girls wrote down detailed accounts of her trips to Bristol, in which the prosecution says she noted down coded messages about what was happening to her – referencing sex and oral sex.

    Some of the girls were given drugs and alcohol and “pestered again and again” for sex by the men, the court heard.

    Anna Vigars, prosecuting, described some of the girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as “vulnerable” and said they believed they were in relationships with the men.

    Seven Somali men went on trial at Bristol Crown Court at the beginning of September accused of a total of 46 charges, including rape, rape of a child under 13, sexual assault, trafficking for sexual exploitation and false imprisonment.

    The defendants are Sakariya Sheikh, 23, known as “Zak”; Abdirahman Galal, 26, known as “Ramsey”; Mohammed Osman, 29, known as “I-Man”; Mohammed Dahir, 24, known as “Kamal”; Nuridin Mohamoud, 22, known as “Ahmed”; Abdirashid Abdulahi, 23, known as “Abs” or “Older Abs”; and Nasir Mahamoud, 23, known as “Ace”.

    A ban preventing the media from reporting the case until the alleged victims had finished giving their evidence was lifted on Monday following an application by the Press Association.

    The jury was told that the majority of the alleged offences took place between 2011 and 2012, as the girls travelled to Bristol by train to meet the men.

    The court heard that on one occasion in March 2013 a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by Sheikh and another man at a flat in the city.

    On another occasion a girl who had just turned 12 a month prior to the alleged offence was raped by Galal. It left her feeling “dirty” and “regretful”.

    Mrs Vigars told the jury the majority of the offences were committed against one girl who found “all the attention and excitement she had been missing at home” with the defendants.

    She said: “Young men who gave her drugs and alcohol and who used her again and again for sex, pestering her sometimes by threats, sometimes going on and on, relentlessly grinding her down into submission and sometimes by using physical violence.

    “You will hear the word rape many times over the next few weeks.

    “Rape – it is perhaps every woman’s worst nightmare. It doesn’t have to involve a knife in an alleyway or a stranger.

    “It can almost come routine and that’s what we say was happening to her. She would come over to Bristol regularly and she would be raped repeatedly by men she knew.

    “They knew her as someone who was easy and cheap. She wasn’t cheap and easy. She was vulnerable because she was so young.”

    The court heard that the girl kept a diary of her trips to Bristol, in which she left coded messages about what was happening in her life, with references to sex and oral sex.

    “There are not too many young girls writing a diary … She was giving blow jobs to X, Y and Z and she had sex with A, B and C.

    “It is clear the diary was kept as she was going along and was a record of what was going on day by day. What it does give is a clear indication of how often she was expected to give oral sex or have sex with men when she came to Bristol.

    “There are other occasions which are so routine and part of her life and happening so often that she can’t remember the detail.

    “How can anything like that come so routine that it didn’t stand out? The reality is that these men exploited her vulnerability and her longing to be wanted, they had sex with her as much as they wanted to.

    “Many of them she didn’t want to have sex with but she did so because that was what she was told to do and she went along because she was forced.

    “Her relationships with certain men were about being in charge and using her for what they wanted.

    “They had no interest in whether she got anything out of it or what she wanted. They wanted sex and didn’t consider whether she was consenting or not.

    “It was about power and control and exploitation of her vulnerability.”

    All defendants deny the charges they face – some claim they do not know the girls or have said they have been wrongly identified.

    The trial was adjourned until Thursday.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1857627/girls-as-young-as-12-were-given-drugs-and-alcohol-before-being-raped-by-group-of-seven-somali-men-in-bristol/

  4. Why Sweden could deport hundreds of refugee children (thelocal, Sep 26, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.se/20160926/why-sweden-could-deport-hundreds-of-lone-refugee-children

    “Several hundred lone refugee children could now be sent home from Sweden due to a change in how the rule on exceptional circumstances is applied when making asylum decisions.

    Minors refused asylum in Sweden cannot be directly sent back to any country where there is no orderly system of processing them back in, but several are now due for deportation.

    That is down to a new position adopted by the Swedish migration agency (Migrationsverket) from April this year onwards which alters how case workers should think when working with young people in the category.

    The migration agency’s legal department has decreed that 16 and 17-year-olds who are not considered to have grounds for asylum but who are also not able to be sent home directly can be given temporary residence permits in Sweden before being deported when they turn 18.

    According to the migration authority’s Director of Legal Affairs the agency has clarified when the rules about exceptionally distressful circumstances should be applied in cases of lone refugee children seeking asylum.

    “We and our experts saw that our people in the authority were having a difficult time applying this rule, which often ended up in them giving out permanent residency due to especially distressing circumstances. What we now say is that the rule should not be automatically applied, but rather the individual case and the links to Sweden that the young person has should determine it,” Fredrik Beijer told Swedish news agency TT.

    Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Radio spoke to one minor who had his asylum application rejected.

    “The crux of the decision is that they will keep me here until I am 18 then send me back to Afghanistan,” 17-year-old Mohammad Nabavi told the station’s Ekot show.

    Nabavi was born as a refugee in Iran and has never been in Afghanistan. According to the old application of the rule he and others in similar situations would likely have been allowed to stay in Sweden.”

  5. Copenhagen police arrest teen as car fires continue (thelocal, Sep 26, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20160926/copenhagen-police-look-for-answers-as-car-fires-continue

    “Eleven car fires were reported in and around Copenhagen over the weekend, bringing the total number of vehicles torched this year to over 200.

    Police said on Monday that a 17-year-old boy was arrested for one of the fires, a car torched on Jorisvej in Amager.

    The teen was reported to the police after acquaintances noticed that he had suffered burns.

    “He simply burned himself. We were contacted by people who know him, who could tell us about his burns,” Copenhagen Police inspector Jens Møller Jensen told TV2.

    The teen appeared in court on Monday and admitted to the Amager fire, news agency Ritzau reported. The 17-year-old denied, however, that he had torched the car on behest of another, which police believe is the case.

    Although this is now the second arrest in connection to the fires, they show little sign of slowing down.

    On Monday, Møller Jensen told TV2 that investigators are working on several different theories.

    The first is that the car fires and their media coverage have had a snowball effect that has inspired others to do the same. Another possibility is that one or more perpetrators are engaged in what investigator Møller Jensen called “an exciting game with the authorities”.

    “We are looking at the times and locations [of the fires] and trying to establish a pattern,” he told TV2.

    The investigator said that police are also considering the possibility that some of the incidents are actually insurance scams in which car owners are using the spate of car fires to provide a viable cover for torching their own vehicles in order to get an insurance payout.

    “I think however that that could only be a very small part of it,” Møller Jensen said.

    He said an investigation unit has been established and that police have increased both video surveillance and night patrols in hopes of putting an end to the arson.”

  6. Danish nationalists hand out cans of ‘refugee spray’ (thelocal, Sep 26, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20160926/danish-nationalists-hand-out-cans-of-refugee-spray

    “The nationalist Danes’ Party elicited strong reactions went it took to the streets of Haderslev to hand out cans of what it called ‘refugee spray’.

    he party, which was founded by a former Neo-Nazi and wants to see all non-Western immigrants kicked out of Denmark, put labels on cans of hair spray reading ‘Refugee Spray: Legal [and] effective’.

    The party’s chairman, Daniel Carlsen, said the spray is a necessary legal alternative to pepper spray, which is illegal in Denmark.

    He said that Haderslev was the perfect location to hand out the cans, given the reports of local women being harassed by refugees and asylum seekers.

    “I don’t think it is provocative. We are tackling an actual problem in our society, where many Danes feel unsafe. Partially because there are so many migrants in the country and partly because one isn’t allowed to defend one’s self,” he told TV Syd.

    The cans of ‘refugee spray’ brought out strong feelings.

    One woman interviewed by TV Syd said she “can’t even find the words to describe how outraged” she was by the spray.

    “I think it is disgusting. I’m simply so offended,” local resident Helle Byg said.

    Another woman, Charlotte Bech, was overcome by emotion and gave a tearful interview to the TV station.

    “They’ve been through so much and then they’re told that they are so undesirable that we had to make a spray to use on them. One thing is the opinion that we don’t have the capacity [for refugees] or an opinion that some of them might not fit in to our culture. But to make a joke out of it is not okay,” Charlotte Bech of Silkeborg said.

    Others were happy to accept the spray cans.

    “It’s great. It matches bloody well with my attitudes and opinions. It is after all them [refugees] who we are protecting ourselves against at the moment,” Diana Nielsen told TV Syd.

    Carlsen said in a video posted to Twitter that 137 people took the spray and that the party plans to distribute them again next week.

    The nationalist Danes’ Party is no stranger to controversy.

    Earlier this year it was behind an advertising campaign featuring the white silhouettes of playing children with the slogan “Your children deserve a Danish Denmark.”

    A few months later, it tried to piggyback on the popularity of the Icelandic football team by posting a racist image to Facebook insinuating that France’s national team should not be allowed in the Euro 2016 tournament because of the African heritage of its players.

    The Football Association of Iceland released a statement slamming the ad, which cautioned that “Europe and Denmark [will] be transformed into an African backyard”.

    The party is currently trying to gather the 20,000 verified signatures necessary to qualify for the next parliamentary election.”

  7. Daesh militants kills 5 civilians in Egypt’s Sinai (gulfnews, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/egypt/daesh-militants-kills-5-civilians-in-egypt-s-sinai-1.1902586

    “Al Arish: Egyptian officials say Daesh militants have killed five Egyptian civilians and dumped their bodies, wearing orange jumpsuits, in a restive corner of the Sinai Peninsula.

    They say two of the men were beheaded and the others shot in the head over accusations they had collaborated with the Egyptian army, which is fighting the insurgents in the area around the city of Rafah and the town of Shaikh Zuweid, where the bodies were found. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to release the information to journalists.

    The army has been battling militants in the area for years, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. The army often claims it has killed dozens of militants. Journalists are banned from the area.”

  8. Over 100 prisoners released from Taliban prisons by Afghan forces (khaama, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/over-100-prisoners-released-from-taliban-prisons-by-afghan-forces-01951

    “Over 100 inmates were released from the Taliban-run prisons during the operations conducted by the special forces of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said.

    According to a statement by MoD, the operations were conducted in Nahr-e-Saraj, Marjah, and Nawzad districts.

    The statement further added at least 101 prisoners were kept in the cells by the Taliban insurgents who were released during the operations by the Afghan forces.

    No further details were given regarding the operations and it is yet not clear if the prisoners were ordinary civilians or members of the security institutions or government staff…”

  9. Inflammatory sermons: Capital mutes Lal Masjid cleric, MWM leaders (tribune, Sep 27, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1188939/inflammatory-sermons-capital-mutes-lal-masjid-cleric-mwm-leaders/

    “ISLAMABAD : The capital administration on Monday barred 11 scholars, including s and Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) leader Allama Amin Shaheedi, from delivering sermons at any public place in Islamabad.

    The Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) has also banned the entry of 16 clerics of various sects in the city limits for a period of two months. The step has been taken on the advice of the Special Branch of police to maintain peace and order in the city during Muharram. Special Branch is an intelligence wing of the police that monitors the activities of religious and political personalities.

    Among the Lal Masjid scholars, ICTA has restricted speeches of Maulana Abdul Aziz, Maulana Abdul Razzaq Haidri, Qari Ahsanullah and Maulana Abdur Rehman Muaviah in Islamabad.

    From the MWM side, it has banned public speeches of Allama, Amin Shaheedi, Allama Nasir Abbas Jafri, Sheikh Mohsin Ali Najafi, Agha Shifa Najafi, Dr Zafar Iqbal Jalali, Maulana Liaquat Ali Rizvi, and Maulana Imtiaz Hussain Kazmi.

    The 16 clerics who have been barred from entering the capital include Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) central leader Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi, ASWJ general secretary Khadim Hussain Dhaloo, Hafiz Muhammad Daddique, Allama Tahir Ashraf, Maulana Ilyas Ghuman, Maulana Muaviah Azam, Maulana Abdul Khaliq Rehmani, Allama Ghazanfar Tunsavi, Allama Jaffar Jatoi, Zakir Maqbool Hussain, Hafiz Tasaddaq Hussain, Maulana Muhammad Iqbal, Maulana Yousaf Rizvi, Pir Irfan Al-Mashahdi, Maulana Khadim Hussain Rizvi, and Dr Asif Ashraf Jalali. All these clerics belong to Deobandi, Barelvi and Shia schools of thought.

    Meanwhile, an order issued by Islamabad District Magistrate Mushtaq Ahmad said that these clerics are “sectarian agitators, firebrand speakers, and are likely to indulge in sectarian activities, deliver provocative sectarian speeches/sermons aiming to create animosity and hatred between various religious sects.”

    Administration said any breakdown of law and order in the city could also be exploited by terrorists. The order comes into force at once…”

  10. ‘Americans are on our side’: Al-Nusra commander says US arming jihadists via 3rd countries (RT, Sep 26, 2016
    https://www.rt.com/news/360690-us-arms-nusra-syria/

    “US weapons are being delivered to Jabhat Al-Nusra by governments that Washington supports, a militant commander told the German media, adding that American instructors were in Syria to teach how to use the new equipment.

    “Yes, the US supports the opposition [in Syria], but not directly. They support the countries that support us. But we are not yet satisfied with this support,” Jabhat al-Nusra unit commander Abu Al Ezz said in an interview with Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper from the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo.

    According to the commander, the militants should be receiving more “sophisticated weapons” from their backers to succeed against the Syrian government.

    “The fight is difficult. The regime is strong and gets support from Russia,” he explained.

    Al Ezz said that Jabhat Al-Nusra “won battles thanks to TOW rockets. Due to these rockets, we reached a balance with the regime. Our tanks came from Libya via Turkey, joined by the [BM-21] multiple rocket launchers,” he said.

    The government forces have an advantage because of aircraft and missile launchers, but “we have the American-made TOW missiles, and the situation in some areas is under control,” Al Ezz added.

    When asked if the TOW missiles were initially intended for Jabhat Al-Nusra or if the group obtained them from the moderate Free Syrian Army, the jihadist clarified: “No, the missiles were given to us directly.”

    He also said that when Jabhat Al-Nusra was “besieged, we had officers from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and America here… Experts in the use of satellites, rockets, reconnaissance and thermal security cameras.”

    The journalist asked specifically if the US instructors were really present among the jihadists’ ranks and Al Ezz replied: “The Americans are on our side.”

    He also said that Jabhat Al-Nusra has been paid for achieving specific military goals during the Syrian conflict.

    “We got 500 million Syrian pounds (around $2.3 million) from Saudi Arabia. To capture the Infantry School in Al Muslimiya years ago we received 1.5 million Kuwaiti dinars (around $500,000) and Saudi Arabia’s $5 million,” Al Ezz said.

    The money came from the “governments” of those states, not private individuals, he said.

    “Israel is now giving us support because Israel is at war with Syria and with Hezbollah,” Al Ezz said.

    The West also “paved the way” for jihadists coming to Syria, saying that “we have many fighters from Germany, France, Britain, America, from all the Western countries,” the commander said.

    ‘Al-Nusra using ceasefire to regroup, prepare for new attacks’

    In the interview, he confirmed claims made by Moscow and the Syrian government that the militants were using the Syrian ceasefire, agreed by Russia and US on September 9, to prepare for a new offensive.

    “We do not recognize the ceasefire. We will regroup our groups. We will carry out the next overwhelming attack against the regime in a few days. We have regrouped our forces in all provinces, including Homs, Aleppo, Idlib and Hama,” Al Ezz said.

    He said that Jabhat Al-Nusa would not let trucks with humanitarian aid enter Aleppo “as long as the regime [forces] are along the Castello Road, in Al Malah and in the northern regions.”

    “The regime must withdraw from all the territories, and we will let the trucks in. If a truck is going in anyway, we will detain the driver,” he said.

    The idea of a transitional government in Syria is also not supported by Jabhat Al-Nusra, the commander said.

    “We accept no one from the Assad regime or of the Free Syrian Army, which is described as moderate. Our goal is to overthrow the regime, and establish an Islamic state in accordance with the Islamic Sharia,” he said.

    As for the people who represent the Syrian opposition at the Geneva talks, Al Ezz said that “these people are weak, they’ve got a lot of money. They’ve sold themselves.”

    “There are mercenaries in Syria, Alloush fights with Al Nusra-Front,” he said talking about Mohammed Alloush, a leader in the Jaysh al-Islam group, part of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) in the peace talks. “The group that was housed in Turkey and which was turned into the Free Syrian Army, used to be part of Al Nusra-Front.”

    The commander openly confirmed that Jabhat Al-Nusra “are part of Al Qaeda,” the terrorist network responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

    “Actually, we were inside one group together with the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). But the Islamic State has been used in accordance with the interests and political purposes of the big powers like America, and the group has drifted away from our principles. Most of the IS leaders are working with intelligence services, and it’s now clear for us. We, the Jabhat Al-Nusra, have our own way,” Al Ezz said.

    The interview with Jabhat al-Nusra’s commander was taken at a stone quarry in Aleppo on September 17 by Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger journalist Jurgen Todenhofer on his seventh trip to war-torn Syria.”

  11. BREITBART -‘Emotions, Revenge, Repressed Homosexuality’… How The Media Covered For Orlando Terrorist Omar Mateen

    Seventeen pages of transcripts between the Orlando police and Omar Mateen – the dead Islamic terrorist who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Florida – have now been released.

    https://info.publicintelligence.net/FL-OmarMateenTranscripts.pdf

    Despite the drastic attempts by the establishment media to portray Mr. Mateen as a scorned, mentally ill, repressed homosexual, the documents reveal one crucial point: Omar Mateen ranted at the police about America’s fight against the Islamic State, mentioning the war and air strikes at least 20 times in total.

    There had previously only been summaries of the 17 pages released by the FBI, which gave media outlets the wiggle room to try and portray Mr. Mateen as something other than an Islamic fundamentalist. He is even as specific, throughout the conversations, telling police his motive was the death of Abu Wahib, and Islamic State commander killed by U.S. backed forces in May.

    But the establishment media went to significant lengths to cover for Mr. Mateen and his motives:

    1. Washington Post: ‘He was not a stable person’: Orlando shooter showed signs of emotional trouble (June 12)

    The Washington Post, increasingly recognised for its spin rather than news coverage, reported that “Mateen claimed allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi… no evidence had emerged by late Sunday pointing to actual ties to terrorist groups or a significant association with jihadist causes”.

    They describe Mateen as having a “blemish free record” and underscored their point with a quote from U.S. President Barack Obama who said: “We have reached no definitive conclusions”.

    2. Associated Press: Orlando Shooter’s Imam Blames Mental Illness: ‘This Has Nothing To Do With ISIS’

    It’s not terrible that wire agencies liek AP report the words of Mateen’s imam. But let’s have some context maybe? Is it likely the imam was going to blame radical Islam? Is he a credible or reliable source? The answer of course is no, but AP doesn’t provide any context such as a similar denial by the Tablighi Jamaat mosque representatives during the San Bernardino shooting. The American public deserves to know these religious leaders first job is to protect Islam, not be reliable news sources.

    3. BBC (and the rest): Seddique Mateen said his son became “very angry” after seeing two men kissing

    While evidently an attack on an LGBT nightclub, Mateen doesn’t mention his target once in his very frank exchange with the police in the transcript. If the two men kissing in downtown Miami was really his motive, why did he rant about Syria and Abu Wahib?

    His ex-wife said he had strong views on homosexuality, which may have been true and may have served as a rationale for him picking the Pulse nightclub to target. But what is deeply obvious from this transcript is that he was a man hell bent on revenge – deranged by it, even – for the U.S. involvement in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State targets.

    4. POLITICO: It was gay revenge, not terrorism

    Politico so badly wanted this to be a “revenge” attack on a lover, rather than Islamic terrorism, they relied on a dubious Univision interview with a man named “Miguel” who claimed to be Mateen’s lover. But this was even after the FBI already declared none of its investigations had found any evidence of a secret, gay, double life from Mateen. Instead, as one gay dating website spokesman put it, it looks to have been a “hoax” – and one that the media went for, hook, line, and sinker. Why? Because “Islamic terrorism” was a conclusion they never wanted to have to reach.

    5. Guardian: CIA has not found any link between Orlando killer and Isis, says agency chief

    Except that’s not really what CIA director John Brennan said. What he was talking about was a “direct” (that’s the quote) link between Mateen and ISIS operatives. Which is to say he was not communicating with someone in Syria who was directing him. But who thought he was? Maybe the Guardian did, but as we know a lot of these ISIS operatives and cells are “inspired” rather than instructed. Instead, their instructions emanate from magazines, videos, and social media. But this headline was clearly too good to pass up for the Guardian.

    Like U.S. President Obama, the media was unwilling to follow the obvious links, and ones that are now so glaringly obvious given the transcript details.

    No doubt many of these outlets will now fall back on his the claim that Mateen was simply using ISIS as a cover up for his repressed homosexuality.

    But demonising gay people is easier than attributing blame to Muslim terrorists.

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/09/26/emotions-revenge-repressed-homosexuality-media-covered-orlando-terrorist-omar-mateen/

  12. Health insurance companies demand more money for asylum seekers
    DÜSSELDORF. The head of the health insurance company AOK Rheinland / Hamburg, Günter Wältermann, has called for higher tax subsidies due to rising numbers of asylum seekers. “For an unemployment benefit II recipients the federal agency currently pays 90 euros a month to the health insurance. The average monthly cost at more 138 euros, “he told the Rheinische Post.

    This difference must be applied permanently by the taxpayers. “Otherwise contributors shoulders alone a whole of society – health care of refugees and long-term unemployed” warned Wältermann.

    Rising additional contributions

    Background are the warnings of the health insurance association, the rising number of unemployed asylum seekers will lead to increasing additional contributions. Next year, this is expected to rise by 0.3 percentage points to an average of 1.4 percent then. The additional contribution must be provided solely by the workers.

    The federal government had tapped the liquidity reserve of the health fund to treat sick asylum seekers in August. A total of 1.5 billion euros were withdrawn from the actually provided emergency money pot. (Ho)
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2016/krankenkassen-fordern-wegen-asylbewerbern-mehr-geld/

  13. Friedrich Ebert Foundation Legal Opinion: All refugees should receive language training and Hartz IV

    Given the difficulties in the “repatriation” of rejected asylum seekers, the call for integration programs for all is louder. By the time asylum seekers would be distributed to the municipalities, and people would have to “bad perspective to stay” as long as no prospect of a quick return home there, for access to language training and work.

    So it says in a report, which have drawn the political scientist Dietrich Thränhardt and the social worker Karin Weiss for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). Even when returning to the home country German knowledge and professional skills of advantage could be – for those affected and for the country of origin.

    The SPD close Foundation also pleaded on Monday for an abolition of Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz. Instead, each refugee should receive Hartz IV benefits. Thus one could save a “considerable bureaucratic burden”. The FES also spoke out in favor of strengthening the responsibility of the municipalities in the Refugee Policy.
    “Enforcement of mandatory minimum standards”

    At the same time it stresses that this must with the associated “enforcement of mandatory minimum standards”. Otherwise was “in view of increasing skepticism in the population quite conceivable that some municipalities would use a newly conceded competence to be less attractive to refugees.”

    Chancellor Angela Merkel has meanwhile expressed again for refugee agreements with other Mediterranean neighbors. The model which the EU-Turkey Agreement. You know that “we must do everything we can and also want that a situation like that is not repeated in the late summer of last year,” Merkel said in Berlin on Monday, pointing to numerous people who were drowned trying to escape in the Mediterranean.

    EU-Turkey Agreement as a key

    Merkel spoke of a duty to find legal means for refugees to us or a good stay to offer them near their home. The EU-Turkey Agreement was a key. “These are mechanisms that we must also look at other countries, for example in Egypt or Tunisia and others, to introduce.”

    The refugee agreement between the EU and Turkey stipulates that all illegal immigrants in Greece asylum seekers be deported to Turkey. [b]For each returned Syrian refugee another Syrians from Turkey may legally and directly enter the EU since April 4.[/b]

    These statements show how much Merkel has intensified its course in the refugee crisis
    (google translate)
    http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/friedrich-ebert-stiftung-neues-gutachten-alle-fluechtlinge-sollen-sprachkurse-und-hartz-iv-bekommen_id_5991266.html

  14. Holidays, Motivation and Shaheeds

    The new wave of knife stabbing terror in Israel this past week, almost in sync with the terror attacks in the USA, raises the question: “Why now?” The most facile answer is pointing to the Muslim “Id al Adha” – “holiday of offering” – that also took place last week. The holiday has great significance for Muslims because their entire calendar has only two holidays, both of them at the end of a period of trying to come closer to Allah: Id al Fitr at the end of the Ramadan month of fasting and Id al Adha at the close of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

    These holidays are the culmination of a period in which religion, faith in Allah, stringent observance of the commandments and the avoidance of sin, in addition to the vilification of infidels, are paramount.

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/19535

  15. Austria’s Graz airport stops woman with husband’s entrails

    Bemused customs officials in Austria have stopped a Moroccan woman, who travelled to Graz airport with a bag containing her husband’s entrails.

    The man’s intestines had been wrapped carefully in two containers, Austrian media reported.

    The woman, who has not been named, explained that she suspected her deceased husband had been poisoned, according to Kleine Zeitung.

    She wanted a toxicology test carried out on her husband’s tissue.

    He died during an operation in Morocco, the newspaper reported.

    When the woman arrived in Graz, a doctor was called to examine the intestines but said a proper investigation could not be carried out without the whole body.

    Police said the woman had not broken any laws. The entrails have been stored temporarily ahead of further forensic investigation.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37470527

  16. Leaked FBI Data Reveal 7,700 Terrorist Encounters in USA in One Year; Border States Most Targeted (breitbart, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/09/26/leaked-fbi-data-reveal-7700-terrorist-encounters-usa-one-year-border-states-targeted/

    “Leaked documents with sensitive FBI data exclusively obtained by Breitbart Texas reveal that 7,712 terrorist encounters occurred within the United States in one year and that many of those encounters occurred near the U.S.-Mexico border. The incidents are characterized as “Known or Suspected Terrorist Encounters.” Some of the encounters occurred near the U.S.-Mexico border at ports-of-entry and some occurred in between, indicating that persons known or reasonably suspected of being terrorists attempted to sneak into the U.S. across the border. In all, the encounters occurred in higher numbers in border states.

    Some of the documents pertain to the entire U.S., while others focus specifically on the state of Arizona. The documents are labeled, “UNCLASSIFIED/LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE” and contain data from the FBI-administered Terrorist Screening Center, the organization maintaining the Terrorist Screening Database, also known as the “Terror Watch List.”

    The leaked FBI data are contained in a fusion center’s educational materials, specifically the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center’s (ACTIC) “Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST) Encounters Briefing” covering from July 20 2015 through July 20 2016. The leaked documents are composed of 10 individual pages, but Breitbart Texas chose to release only nine of them due to page 10 containing contact information for ACTIC.

    Page Two of the documents contains a map of the entire U.S. with the numbers of encounters per state. The states with the highest encounters are all border states. Texas, California, and Arizona–all states with a shared border with Mexico–rank high in encounters.

    Page Three shows a map of where the encounters occurred in the state of Arizona. The majority from this map occurred in Phoenix, a major destination point for people who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The map also shows that encounters occurred at ports-of-entry, likely from persons either walking up and asking for asylum or from Sinaloa cartel attempts to smuggle them into the U.S. in vehicles. Most significantly, the map shows that many of the encounters occurred near the border outside of ports-of-entry, indicating that persons were attempting to sneak into the U.S.

    Page Six shows a pie chart indicating that the majority of encounters in Arizona were with Islamic known or suspected terrorists, both Sunni and Shi’a. Eighty-nine encounters were Sunni, 56 were Shi’a, 70 were “Other International Terrorist Groups or Affiliates,” and only 52 were with “Domestic Terrorism.”

    Page 7 contains definitions to help understand the maps.

    Breitbart Texas provides the leaked documents and data below:…”

  17. Swiss parliament paves way for nationwide burqa ban (RT, Sep 27, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/news/360871-swiss-burqa-ban-parliament/

    “Switzerland’s parliament has approved a draft bill aiming for a nationwide burqa ban, initiated by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Its backers also launched a public petition with the same goal.

    The draft bill was approved on Tuesday, with 88 MPs of the lower house voting in favor and 87 voting against the move. The draft legislation should be now reviewed by the Council of States, which represents all 26 Swiss cantons. Back in January the body signaled that it is likely to vote against such a measure, citing small numbers of women wearing the burqa in the country.

    Tuesday’s vote was based on a SVP proposal which had roots back in 2014. An SVP MP and an anti-immigration advocate Walter Wobmann said that the main goal is to “maintain public order and respect for the dignity of women.” Earlier in September Wobmann urged the banning of hijabs from passports, saying that “it is unacceptable that you can wear a hijab in a photo but not a cap.”

    The SVP-linked activists have meanwhile launched an initiative called “Yes to disguise ban.” On its website the project calls for an amendment to the Swiss constitution so that it contains a new article, banning the burqa across the country.

    “No person shall cover [his/her] face in public and in places accessed by the public (exempt for holy places),” the statement by the initiative reads.

    The paper adds that “no one is allowed to force a person to conceal [his/her] face because of their gender.” However it also states that exemptions are allowed in the case of “medical, security, climatic” reasons. The initiative must gain a minimum of 100,000 votes by September 15, 2017 for the move to be handled by authorities…”