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. The Disgraceful Gitmo Exodus

    As Barack Obama prepared to enter the final year of his presidency, he sat down for an interview with Olivier Knox to discuss a bold new policy change. He had announced a year earlier that the United States would be ending its decades-long isolation of Cuba and seeking rapprochement with the authoritarian Communists who run the island nation 90 miles from Florida. In this December 14, 2015, interview, Obama described his new approach in greater detail. The change he proposed dominated headlines for days.

    There was other big news in the interview—though this the media didn’t treat as such. The president declared that he remained committed to closing the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, despite strong objections from Republicans and some Democrats. Obama had campaigned in 2008 on closing Guantánamo and as one of his first acts upon taking the oath of office signed Executive Order 13492 directing his national security team to shutter the facility within a year:

    The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order. If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

    Almost seven years later, much to Obama’s frustration, the facility remained open. Closing it had proved much more challenging than Obama had theorized as a candidate trying to win an election and a new president acting on his idealism. It turned out that the jihadists who remained in Guantánamo were there for a reason. Many of them were truly, as the cliché had it, “the worst of the worst.” Al Qaeda leaders, top Taliban officials, the men who planned the 9/11 attacks, veteran jihadists caught plotting follow-on attacks on U.S. interests, and even those al Qaeda operatives believed to be charged with carrying out the next wave of assaults on the U.S. homeland.

    The news in the president’s interview wasn’t that he intended to make good on his promise to close Guantánamo, however belatedly. It was instead the president’s attempt to mislead the American people to accomplish his controversial objective.

    “I am absolutely persuaded, as are my top intelligence and military advisers, that Guantánamo is used as a recruitment tool for organizations like ISIS,” Obama said, endeavoring to create a national security rationale for closing the detention facility. “And if we want to fight them, then we can’t give them these kinds of excuses.”

    This isn’t true. There is virtually no evidence that jihadists use Guantánamo as a significant recruiting tool, and national security experts from across the political spectrum who have tested the claim have judged it false.

    He wasn’t finished. “Keep in mind that between myself and the Bush administration hundreds of people have been released and the recidivism rate—we anticipate, we assume that there are going to be—out of four, five, six hundred people that get released—a handful of them are going to be embittered and still engaging in anti-U.S. activities and trying to link up potentially with their old organizations,” Obama said.

    That wasn’t true. When Obama made this claim, 653 detainees had been released. Of that group, 196 had been confirmed (117) or suspected (79) of returning to jihadist activity upon their release. Those numbers came from the office of the director of national intelligence and represent the U.S. government’s official count of Guantánamo recidivism. Nearly one-in-three former detainees returned to the fight, not a “handful,” as the president suggested.

    There was more. “The bottom line is that the strategic gains we make by closing Guantánamo will outweigh, you know, those low-level individuals who, you know, have been released so far.”

    Again, false. The U.S. government—under George W. Bush and Barack Obama—has released dozens of veteran jihadists whose terror résumés include senior positions in al Qaeda and like-minded groups. And of course Obama had himself transferred five senior Taliban officials to Qatar in order to secure the release of Bowe Bergdahl.

    So, at a time of escalated threat levels from international terrorists, the president of the United States is releasing dangerous jihadists against the advice of the military and intelligence professionals who have studied the threat for years, and he’s lying to the American people to downplay the threat.

    more:

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-disgraceful-gitmo-exodus/article/2004371

  5. British ambassador to UN accuses Russia of war crimes in Syria

    The accusation at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council comes after an “unprecedented” surge in bombing in Aleppo.

    http://news.sky.com/story/rebels-say-push-for-peace-in-syria-is-futile-as-russian-backed-bombing-intensifies-10592957

    Russia is partnering with the Syrian government to carry out war crimes, Britain’s ambassador to the UN has said.

    Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Matthew Rycroft said the push by the US and Russia to stop the fighting is “nearing the end of its life”.

  6. U.S. slams Russian ‘barbarism’ in Syria, Moscow says peace almost impossible
    [By Michelle Nichols and Yara Bayoumy]
    By Michelle Nichols and Yara BayoumySeptember 25, 2016

    By Michelle Nichols and Yara Bayoumy

    UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States on Sunday called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism,” not counter-terrorism, while Moscow’s U.N. envoy said ending the war “is almost an impossible task now” as Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow, bombed the city of Aleppo.

    The United Nations Security Council met on Sunday at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the escalation of fighting in Aleppo following the announcement on Thursday of an offensive by the Syrian army to retake the city.

    “What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the 15-member counci

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-ambassador-u-n-russias-action-syria-barbarism-155911439.html

    • I am not sure which nation bombed the “aid” convey but I am sure that Obama will work to make this situation worse so the next President will find it impossible to bring about any type of peace for many years.

    • Syria conflict: US and UK rhetoric ‘unacceptable’ – Russia (BBC, Sep 26, 2016)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37473098

      “Russia has criticised the US and UK for using “unacceptable” tone and rhetoric in speeches on Syria at the UN, after being accused of “barbarism”.

      On Sunday, US permanent representative Samantha Power said Russian and Syrian forces were “laying waste” to besieged rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo.

      Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that such language might damage efforts to end the five-year civil war.

      Activists meanwhile reported dozens of fresh air strikes on Aleppo overnight…”

  7. No-fly zone would ‘require war with Syria and Russia’ – top US general

    Speaking to the US Senate, the Pentagon’s leaders blamed Russia for the Aleppo aid convoy attack, but admitted they “had no facts.” Only US coalition planes should be allowed over Syria, they said, though that would require war against both Syria and Russia.

    Defense Secretary Ash Carter and General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday to report on the ongoing military operations and “national security challenges” faced by the US. They also asked the senators for more reliable funding, saying the uncertainty was hurting the defense industry.

    “Not only our people – our defense industry partners, too, need stability and longer-term plans to be as efficient and cutting-edge as we need them to be,” Carter told the senators.

    https://www.rt.com/usa/360317-carter-dunford-syria-russia-senate/

  8. Iran’s supreme leader tells Ahmadinejad not to run again for president

    Ahmadinejad had not announced any plans to run in the vote scheduled for May, but has made several speeches in recent months, prompting speculation of a political comeback.

    DUBAI – Iran’s supreme leader has told former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not to stand again in next year’s elections, state media reported on Monday, effectively eliminating a major challenger to pragmatist incumbent Hassan Rouhani.

    Ahmadinejad had not announced any plans to run in the vote scheduled for May, but has made several speeches in recent months, prompting speculation of a political comeback.

    http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Irans-supreme-leader-tells-Ahmadinejad-not-to-run-again-for-president-468722

  9. Fears for Mexico’s economy grow as the peso nears the 20 to the dollar mark

    The battered Mexican peso has tumbled to historic new lows in recent days, nearing a psychological barrier of 20 pesos to the U.S. dollar and causing anxiety on the streets, at businesses and in the halls of government.

    Among other factors, many point to the recent rise in U.S. presidential polls of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee who has vowed to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and has been widely accused here of Mexico-bashing.

    “There is a very clear relation with the [U.S.] electoral process,” Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto told Radio Formula last week, linking Trump’s improved standings in the polls to the peso’s doldrums.

    The Mexican currency plunged to a record low of about 19.90 to the dollar last week and has hovered near 20 to the dollar for days. Exchange houses are already posting signs offering a 20-peso exchange rate, a jarring sight for many here.

    http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-peso-20160924-snap-story.html

  10. Multiple victims reported in shooting near mall in Houston

    HOUSTON, Texas — There are reports of as many as seven people hurt after an active shooter incident in Houston.

    The shootings happened at a strip mall near Weslayan near Bissonnet.

    Emergency crews are setting up at in the strip mall parking lot.

    A nearby neighborhood is blocked off by police.

    The shooter was reportedly taken down by an officer.

    http://wreg.com/2016/09/26/multiple-victims-reported-in-shooting-near-mall-in-houston/

  11. Knives out for young pretender Macron in French presidential race

    PARIS (Reuters) – Inside the election war rooms of Paris, French politicians on both left and right are waking up to the threat Emmanuel Macron poses ahead of next year’s presidential election and stepping up attacks on the fresh-faced former economy minister.

    Macron quit President Francois Hollande’s government last month, pledging to “transform France” and taking the most concrete step so far towards a presidential bid he has not yet made official.

    Government and opposition politicians have branded the 38-year-old former M&A banker a “traitor” and “populist light”.

    With poll after poll showing far-right leader Marine Le Pen assured of getting to the second round but losing the runoff in May to whoever faces her, Socialists and conservatives realize Macron’s pitch for the middle ground could cost them the remaining place.

    “Macron is a danger for us,” a government minister said on condition of anonymity. “He’s going to steal votes on the left and the right, although he can’t possibly do more than 18 percent and reach the second round himself.”

    Former prime minister Alain Juppé, the leading candidate in the center-right’s primaries, called Macron “Brutus” after his resignation from Hollande’s government, and also has reason to fear him, even if his entourage plays down that threat.

    “There’s a window for him if (former president) Nicolas Sarkozy wins the primaries and Hollande is not a candidate,” Juppé’s campaign chief Gilles Boyer told Reuters. “But he’s prisoner of events beyond his control.”

    http://www.oann.com/knives-out-for-young-pretender-macron-in-french-presidential-race/

  12. Squeezing North Korea: old friends take steps to isolate regime

    SEOUL (Reuters) – From kicking out North Korean workers and ending visa-free travel for its citizens, to stripping flags of convenience from its ships, Cold War-era allies from Poland to Mongolia are taking measures to squeeze the isolated country.

    More such moves, with prodding from South Korea and the United States, are expected after North Korea recently defied U.N. resolutions to conduct its fifth nuclear test.

    North Korea’s limited global links leave most countries with few targets for penalizing the regime on their own.

    Mounting sanctions over the years have made Pyongyang more adept at evasion and finding alternative sources for procurement, a recent paper by experts at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found.

    Nonetheless, South Korea has been especially active in pushing the North’s allies for unilateral action in hopes of reining in Pyongyang’s arms program.

    http://www.oann.com/squeezing-north-korea-old-friends-take-steps-to-isolate-regime/

  13. This is it: The real battle for Syria has started
    By J.E. Dyer September 25, 2016

    In the space of about a week, the Syria problem has been put beyond the reach of Obama’s abstract, dithering policies. The media are still pontificating about what Obama could or should be doing, but at this point, that’s all moot. A classic maneuver campaign has been inaugurated by the conventionally armed Russia-Iran-Assad alliance, and that campaign is what will shape the developments to come.

    No campaign is ever preordained for success. So we don’t yet know the outcome of this one. What we do know is that it will be the condition around which all other reactions organize themselves in the Syrian theater.

    Securing the urban corridor

    The campaign feature the West is generally aware of is the assault on Aleppo, which was launched in earnest on Friday, and is being described by Syrians as the “most intensive” aerial bombardment of the entire Syrian civil war.

    But Aleppo is just one of three major efforts to retake territory launched by the Russian alliance in the past week. The second is in Homs, where locals also describe the most intensive bombardment of the war.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/09/25/real-battle-syria-started/

    • This is one of the most important analysis that I have read about the Syrian conflict, it spells out what has happened and what probably will happen in the short run. In the medium run the situation is in flux because of the Presidential election, to a large extent events are dependent on who wins the election. Putin is going to continue to push to increase the power that Obama has let him gain in the Middle East.

      Right now all we can do is pray that Trump wins and that the war doesn’t go kinetic until the US has a chance to rebuild our military forces. Erdogan is going to avoid pissing off the Russian Bear as much as he can but he will continue to attack the Kurds, the only allies the US had that fought against ISIS instead of working with ISIS.

    • Russia: Lavrov questions Obama’s authority over the US military

      Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the US security system is dictating foreign policy on Syria rather than obeying the White House, on Monday, in Moscow

      SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia (Russian): “When the humanitarian convoy was hit on September 19, we demanded that an investigation be conducted. [US Secretary of State] John Kerry, a good partner of mine, behaved in a way he has never done before, he said that the investigation could possibly be carried out, but we know who did it, it was either the Syrian Army or Russia. But in any case that it is Russia’s fault. Obviously he was being cornered by strong criticism from the US military apparatus and despite the fact that the US commander-in-chief and President Barack Obama, always supported, as I was told, cooperation with Russia, and he confirmed it himself during the meeting with President Putin in China. It seems to me that the military may not be obeying their commander-in-chief too much.”

      SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia (Russian): “In practice they do everything in order not to touch al-Nusra at all. The American Coalition hits ISIS, yes, we can see that. But they only started seriously hitting them after the Russian Air Forces were deployed to Syria, on the request of the legitimate government of the country who are, by the way, members of the UN. But they are not hitting Jabhat al-Nusra at all. I asked John Kerry directly, even if it isn’t him personally that someone in the United States, someone from the coalition led by them, wants to save al-Nusra, protect it from attack, not to allow it to weaken in order, for example, to channel all the opposition with al-Nusra in the direction of Damascus when they [the US] are done with ISIS, they [the opposition and al-Nusra] will seize power and so on. He swore that it is not true, but I will repeat that he said many things that were refuted later by the military and the US intelligence service.”

      SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia (Russian): “Therefore the brakes on the operations of this agreement are very stiff. And I think all of this is just a search for excuses not to cooperate with us, by referring to the fact that it is impossible to implement [an agreement] it in the current humanitarian situation. And why is the humanitarian situation worsening? It is Russia’s fault and we will not investigate anything.”

        • Well, the majority of Russians would always support a strong-man if and only if his policy is successful.
          Putin policies were successful in Crimea (Western countries did nothing but talk. ).
          Putin policy in Syria and connected with it an anti-USA propaganda is successful (that is mainly due to really bad US policy in the Middle East);
          his policy is successful in regards to anti-EU propaganda (that is also because of Merkel & EU policies re migrants)
          his polices are successful as regards to revival of Russian patriotism (sometimes erroneously named “nationalism”) .
          As for extremism…. really, everywhere extremism is on the rise, just look what is going on in USA (BLM) and elsewhere.

          BTW. In Russian TV ** a new boss of ??????? ??????? ???????? (Russian foreign intelligence service) Narishkin said about thousands of Russian agents working in foreign countries “These are men of exceptional ability and professionally trained, and therefore it is not proper to talk about them on television” .
          I wish majority of US and Canadian people had the same view even on our counterespionage people as that guy.

          ** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4BGOsfzk_M (at 37:58)

          • Unless they have changed the name (which is always possible) call it the FSB.

            The left has stopped the teaching of patriotism in the US schools and most reporters think the US is military and intelligence is evil. Combine those two and you get reporters and anchors who hope they are preventing the US from advancing any policy.

  14. AP Bomb Case is Latest Hardship for NJ’s Muslims

    The case of the New Jersey Muslim man charged with planting bombs in New York and New Jersey is the latest of many challenging moments for the state’s large Muslim population. They will soon get their say at the ballot box.

  15. AP -Bomb Case is Latest Hardship for NJ’s Muslims

    The case of the New Jersey Muslim man charged with planting bombs in New York and New Jersey is the latest of many challenging moments for the state’s large Muslim population. They will soon get their say at the ballot box.

  17. Germany: Justice minister calls for clampdown on Internet hate speech

    German Minister of Justice Heiko Maas threatened social media companies with legal prosecution if they don’t clamp down on web-based hate speech. Maas was speaking at a press conference with European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova, in Berlin on Monday.

    SOT, Heiko Maas, German Minister of Justice (German): “We want hate crimes to disappear from the Internet within 24 hours. In order to do so, companies will have to make more effort than they are making right now.”

    SOT, Heiko Maas, German Minister of Justice (German): “I don’t exclude the use of legal means as a final measure, concerning the [establishment of] responsibility and the arrest of platform operators. Or to make rules that improve transparency, so that platform operators themselves will have to publish reports about how many postings were reported and how many were deleted.”

    SOT, Heiko Maas, German Minister of Justice (German): “Complaints by ‘normal users’ are not taken seriously enough by the [operating] companies. When an organisation such as Jugendschutz.net reports something, they quickly and extensively delete [the offending post], but when normal users report something, it’s mostly not the case. That’s why the companies should take their own users and customers far more seriously than is the case today.”

  19. Canada worked with other countries to secure Homa Hoodfar’s release

    Canadian-Iranian professor Homa Hoodfar has been freed from prison and flown out of the country.

    IRNA filed a brief article Monday, saying she was freed on humanitarian grounds. Similar reports were filed by other Iranian media at the same time.

    The Canadian government confirmed the news around 11 a.m. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quoted in a press release saying “Canadians are relieved that Dr. Hoodfar has been released from jail and will soon be reunited with her family, friends and colleagues.”

    He added that Canada worked with other countries to secure Hoodfar’s release.

    “In the absence of diplomatic representation ocf its own in Iran, Canada worked closely with others who were instrumental in helping secure Dr. Hoodfar’s release – most notably Oman, Italy and Switzerland. I would like to extend our sincerest appreciation for their support.

    “I would also like to recognize the cooperation of those Iranian authorities who facilitated her release and repatriation. They understand that cases like these impede more productive relations,” he is quoted as saying.

    Kaveh Ehsani, a friend of Hoodfar’s in Chicago, declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. Other family members did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    “I am jubilant,” said Kimberly Manning, an associate professor of political science at Concordia and principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute who has been actively championing for the release of Hoodfar.

    She told the Montreal Gazette she didn’t know Hoodfar’s condition after some 114 days in a notorious Iranian prison.

    The only certainty is that, if Hoodfar’s release has been secured, she will be returning to an ecstatic and warm homecoming in Montreal by many friends, colleagues and students who have been fighting for her freedom.

    Hoodfar, 65, was questioned and barred from leaving Iran in March after travelling to the country to visit family following the death of her husband. Her family said she was imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison since June. Hoodfar until recently taught anthropology and sociology at Montreal’s Concordia University.

    http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/homa-hoodfar-released-from-iranian-jail-reports

    Canadian Homa Hoodfar released from Iranian prison

    Canadian professor Homa Hoodfar was released Monday from an Iranian prison where she was held for over 100 days.

    The Iranian foreign minister said she was released for “humanitarian reasons.”

    “Homa Hoodfar, the retired professor of Canadian universities, who had been detained in Iran based on some accusations was released this afternoon for humanitarian reasons including illness, and left Iran to Canada, through Oman,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed the news in a statement Monday morning.

    “Canadians are relieved that Dr. Hoodfar has been released from jail and will soon be reunited with her family, friends and colleagues,” the statement reads.

    He also says that Italy, Switzerland and Oman have been helping Canada since our country doesn’t have diplomatic representation in Iran.

    Hoodfar, 65, was being held for “dabbling in feminism” since June 6. She was born in Iran but has lived in Montreal for 30 years. She holds Canadian, Irish and Iranian citizenship.

    The former anthropology professor was hospitalized late last month due to “rapidly declining health,” according to her family.

    It was not immediately clear if she was released for health reasons.

    Hoodfar travelled to Iran in February for both professional and personal reasons. Her family told Global News in June that she did some research at the country’s parliamentary library, but the trip was focussed around visiting with family.

    Her niece Amanda Ghahremani said Hoodfar’s research concerns “improving the daily lives of women” in the Middle East and Muslim countries — particularly those in impoverished or marginalized communities.

    When Hoodfar tried to return to Canada in March, she was detained at the border and her passports and computers were seized and she was interrogated. She was released on bail.

    She was arrested again on June 6 and was imprisoned in Evin prison, which has been linked to acts of torture.

    In August, her family claimed that Iranian officials violated several laws, including preventing her lawyer from having access to her or her case file.

    They also said solitary confinement and psychological pressure made Hoodfar disoriented and severely weakened.

    Qasemi said Hoodfar had left Iran and was traveling to Canada via the Gulf state of Oman.

    “[Canadian] officials have also been providing consular assistance to her family and will continue to do so until their loved one has arrived home safely,” Trudeau said.

    http://globalnews.ca/news/2963446/canadian-homa-hoodfar-released-from-iranian-prison/

  20. Migrants Are Racist to Blonde Women, Swedish Ethics Professor Says

    Professor of Ethics Ann Heberlein has argued that blonde people in Sweden are subjected to racist abuse and violence from “people with a non-European appearance”.

    Ms. Heberlein, who appears regularly on Swedish Radio’s “Thoughts for the Day” and “Philosophical Room”, says blonde and Swedish victims of this racism choose to stay silent because “anti-racist” left wingers say that as a “privileged” group, ethnic Swedes have no right to complain.

    The professor at Lund University describes the racist abuse hurled at white women in Sweden, with phrases like “Svenne (meaning ethnic Swede) whore” and “bloody racist whore” shouted at them by people with migrant backgrounds.

    Ms. Heberlein notes that when Swedes answer back to these “unwelcome overtures”, they’re met with further “abusive epithets and sometimes physical violence”.

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/09/26/migrants-racist-blonde-women-sweden/

  21. Damascus Has Audio of Daesh Talks With US Military Before Strike on Syrian Army

    The Syrian intelligence possesses an audio recording of conversation between Daesh terrorists and US military prior to the Washington-led coalition’s airstrikes on the government troops near Deir ez-Zor on September 17, the speaker of the People’s Council of Syria said Monday.

    “The Syrian Army intercepted a conversation between the Americans and Daesh before the air raid on Deir ez-Zor”, Hadiya Khalaf Abbas said as quoted by the Al Mayadeen broadcaster.

    US warplanes hit Syrian government troops near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor on September 17, leaving 62 military personnel killed and a hundred wounded. The Pentagon said initially that the airstrike was a mistake and targeted Daesh militants.

    The head of the Syrian parliament, added during her visit to Iran that after the coalition’s airstrikes on the government troops US military directed terrorists’ attack on the Syrian army.

    The attack on government positions put to test a US-Russia brokered nationwide ceasefire that came into being in Syria earlier that week. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last Friday it was necessary to separate Daesh terrorists from “moderate” opposition forces in order to salvage the truce.

    Britain, Australia and Denmark confirmed their air forces’ participation in the deadly airstrikes.

    The politician noted that the details would be made public later.

    Syrian Army soldiers that survived U.S. bombs in Deir Ezzor. pic.twitter.com/BrvN6wBR06

    https://m.sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160926/1045706456/us-airstrike-daesh-army.html

  22. Armed Men Kill Soldier, Civilian in Mali’s Timbuktu: Army (abcnews, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/armed-men-kill-soldier-civilian-malis-timbuktu-army-42364510

    “An army spokesman says armed men in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu have killed a soldier and his cousin.

    Col. Souleymane Maiga said Monday that the men were targeted at a home Sunday night.

    A neighbor said four men in a truck shot the soldier outside then followed the cousin inside, killing him and injuring a child.

    A local leader says the two men were a part of the Arab community in Timbuktu. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the leader said the attack bore the marks of one by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The leader and the neighbor spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

    Northern and central Mali remain unstable despite a French-led intervention in 2013 that drove extremists from strongholds.”

  23. Nigeria Military: 8 Soldiers Killed in Attacks by Extremists (abcnews, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/boko-haram-leader-video-denies-reports-death-42357525

    “Islamic extremists have killed eight soldiers and wounded 17 in two attacks in northeastern Nigeria, the country’s military said Monday.

    The attacks bring the official toll to 10 troops killed and 24 wounded this past week after a lull during which the extremists confronted a leadership struggle. The Islamic State group’s West Africa Province claimed more than 40 soldiers from a multinational army were killed in one attack last week.

    Extremists attacked an army position Sunday at Logomani, 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria’s biggest city, an army statement said. The troops killed 22 fighters while losing four soldiers, it said.

    Later Sunday, extremists ambushed a military convoy near Bama, 70 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, the statement said. An officer, three soldiers and three insurgents died…”

  24. Kurdish Rebel Attacks on Soldiers in Turkey Kill 10 (abcnews, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pkk-attack-military-vehicle-turkey-killed-hurt-42357221

    “Kurdish rebels staged two attacks against security forces in southeastern Turkey on Monday, killing 10 security force members and wounding eight others, the country’s state-run news agency reported.

    Anadolu Agency said militants belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, launched an attack in the afternoon against soldiers providing security along the construction of the Sirnak-Van highway in Sirnak province near the border with Iraq.

    Six soldiers were killed and two wounded in the assault. Anadolu said an operation has been launched to apprehend rebels in the area, with officials saying one of the militants responsible has been killed.

    Earlier Monday, Anadolu reported Kurdish rebels had detonated a roadside bomb in Mardin province, near the border with Syria.

    The blast targeted soldiers and village guards traveling on a highway, killing four soldiers and wounding six…”

  25. Turkish Markets Hit by Moody’s Rating Downgrade (abcnews, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkish-markets-hit-moodys-rating-downgrade-42358140

    “Turkish financial markets took a battering Monday after ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the country’s credit grade to junk status to account for a series of shocks to the economy that included bombings and an attempted coup.

    The Istanbul 100 stock index fell 3.8 percent and the national currency, the lira, also took a hit. The dollar was up 0.4 percent at 2.9796 lira.

    The sell-off is largely due to Moody’s statement late Friday that it was cutting Turkey’s government debt rating to Ba1 from Baa3. The downgrade means Moody’s joins Standard & Poor’s in rating Turkey below investment grade. That’s important because it will likely cost the government more to borrow on capital markets and prompt some investment funds to sell Turkish assets…”

  26. Saudi King Reduces Salaries, Perks for Senior Officials (abcnews, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-king-reduces-salaries-perks-senior-officials-42365022

    “Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is reducing the salaries and benefits of senior government officials as lower oil prices continue to pinch the kingdom’s economy.

    The royal decree published Monday orders a 20 percent reduction in the salaries of ministers, among them the king’s successors: Crown Prince and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, and Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

    The decree also includes a 15 percent reduction in benefits toward a car and housing for members of the country’s highest consultative body, the Shura Council.

    The decision comes as the government tries to rein in spending and boost the appeal of private sector jobs amid complaints of unemployment and low wages.

    The changes are to start with the Islamic new year, which falls on October 1.”

  27. Saudi women file petition to end male guardianship system (BBC, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37469860

    “A petition signed by more than 14,000 Saudi women calling for an end to the country’s male guardianship system is being handed to the government.

    Women must have the consent of a male guardian to travel abroad, and often need permission to work or study.

    Support for the first large-scale campaign on the issue grew online in response to a trending Twitter hashtag.

    Activist Aziza Al-Yousef told the BBC she felt “very proud” of the campaign, but now needed a response.

    In the deeply conservative Islamic kingdom, a woman must have permission from her father, brother or other male relative – in the case of a widow, sometimes her son – to obtain a passport, marry or leave the country…”

      • I am not 100% sure, but I think that both Qatari and Kuwaiti women can not marry non-citizens. They also will have to get dispensation. I also heard that if they marry non-citizen they will loose their citizenship (which mean they will loose really a lot of money)

  28. France’s Hollande: Jungle camp to be demolished by end of year (BBC, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37469013

    “French President Francois Hollande has vowed to dismantle the “Jungle” migrant camp “definitively, entirely and rapidly” by the end of the year, during a visit to the port of Calais.

    He strongly urged the UK to “play its part” in the humanitarian effort.

    Mr Hollande was meeting police, port officials, and politicians but is not expected to visit the camp itself.

    The fate of the camp and up to 10,000 people living there has become central to France’s presidential campaign.

    Mr Hollande said that just because the UK had made a “sovereign decision” – an apparent reference to the UK’s vote to leave the European Union – it was not “absolved from its obligations to France”.

    He said he was determined that the UK government would support the humanitarian effort, and said his own government was committed “until the end”…”

  29. Racist Radicals Rule Charlotte
    White lives don’t matter when Soros-funded race riots are underway.

    White people don’t enjoy full protection from the police in riot-torn Charlotte, North Carolina because the authorities there are intimidated by the violent racist Black Lives Matter movement that dominates so many cities.

    This toxic mix of racism and left-wing radicalism is everywhere it seems and this kind of rioting has become commonplace under President Obama who views it as essential to drive the fundamental transformation of America.

    The rioting blacks leverage white guilt and the outrageous yet powerfully resilient lie that police and the entire American system of governance are irredeemably racist, biased against them because their ancestors came from Africa. Reasoning with these people and their supporters, pointing out that America is the least racist nation on earth and that the president of the United States is African-American, as are leaders and innovators in more or less every field of human endeavor, is pointless.

    Obama is a master of rhetorical duplicitousness. He typically tries to have it both ways by denouncing the violence in front of television news cameras and then encouraging it by saying the rioters’ cause is just. After a Black Lives Matter-sympathizing sniper killed five cops in Dallas this summer during an anti-police protest, cold-as-ice Obama even had the audacity to attend their memorial service and lecture the dead men’s widows about police brutality.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264306/racist-radicals-rule-charlotte-matthew-vadum

  30. Award-winning Assad critic’s passport confiscated in Britain (CNN, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/26/europe/britain-syria-erhaim-passport-row/index.html

    “An award-winning Syrian journalist and prominent critic of President Bashar al-Assad says Britain’s Border Agency confiscated one of her passports at the request of the embattled Syrian regime.

    Zaina Erhaim told CNN Monday that officials at London’s Heathrow Airport seized her recently-issued Syrian passport upon her arrival early Friday morning and questioned her for 90 minutes in the presence of her 7-month old baby.

    Airport officials told the 31-year-old activist that the Syrian government had reported the passport as stolen, and that the document would be returned to authorities in Damascus, Erhaim told CNN over the phone from the UK.

    The Turkey-based activist, who traveled to the UK to speak at an Index on Censorship forum in London, was told to raise the issue with her government when she questioned the confiscation…”

  31. Albanians who came to UK on back of lorry jailed for multi million pound drug operation (express, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/714547/Albanians-UK-back-lorry-jailed-multi-million-pound-drug-operation-cannabis-cocaine

    “THREE Albanian drug barons who came to Britain on the back of a lorry have been jailed for more than 21 years for running a multi million pound cocaine and cannabis dealing operation.

    Ariolt Kuka, 22, told police he was trying to support his family back home when caught with a consignment worth more than £1 million of the 82 cent pure drug.

    Sander Lleshi, 24, and Marjan Deda, 23, were also jailed for their roles in the gang – though Deda was only involved in the production of cannabis.

    ‘I do it to make money to send to my family.’

    Asked what drugs were involved Kuka replied: “I don’t know it’s over a million, it was just an example.

    “I don’t do it, this is the second time, they say send this back and they give me some money.”

    They entered Britain illegally and are believed to have pending asylum claims.

    The judge, Mr Recorder Matthais Kelly QC, told them: “Class A drugs and in particular cocaine are deadly drugs.

    “They wreak social havoc upon our society, they destroy lives and families, they are a blight on many of our cities, they have destroyed numerous lives.

    “You were engaged in a deadly trade and deadly drugs, the two of you who are concerned in class A drugs.”

    The judge noted that the cannabis production was also “on a large and professional scale”.

    He continued: “None of you can claim to be mere, unfortunate drug users roped into this trade.

    “This was an operation on a massive commercial scale.”

    Kuka was jailed for 12 years, Lleshi for six years and eight months and Deda for three years.

    The trio were arrested after police raided a property in Drayton Gardens, Uxbridge, west London and found a cannabis factory consisting of 40 plants and bags of fertiliser on July 4.

    Bill Mcgivern, prosecuting, said: “With regards to Kuka, he was involved in the supply of 15 kilos of cocaine, 82 per cent purity which is just below imported levels.

    “He had a leading role – that is based on his deliveries of two kilos of cocaine to Mr Lleshi.

    “He was stopped later that same day in possession of 13 kilos of cocaine.

    “There is also text messaging, and these show him negotiating prices, discussing deliveries and supplies.”

    Kuka and Lleshi were arrested after collecting plastic bags containing cocaine from a property in Rowan Road, Uxbridge, west London and getting into a minicab.

    When stopped Kuka said it had nothing to do with his girlfriend, who was also in the cab.

    He said: “It’s not mine, it’s over £1 million in that car.”

    He told police he was given £1000 to drop off the drugs but the judge rejected any assertion that this was merely an “isolated incident”.

    Kuka, of Yeoman Street, Southwark, and Lleshi, of Royston Avenue, Chingford, east London, admitted possessing a controlled drug with intent to supply and were jailed for 12 years and six years eight months respectively.

    Deda, also of no fixed address, admitted being concerned in the controlled production of cannabis and was jailed for three years.

    More than £3,000 that was found on the trio upon their arrests has also now been forfeited.”

  32. Islamic preacher GUILTY of racial abuse after calling woman ‘SLUT’ for wearing tight jeans (express, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/714550/Islamic-preacher-guilty-woman-slut-tight-jeans-Birmingham

    “AN ISLAMIC street preacher has been guilty of abusing a woman by branding her a “slut” for wearing tight jeans.

    Unemployed Krissoni Henderson, 31, also called police officers “satanists” and “terrorists” when they arrested him the next day.

    Victim Noor Alnaeimi, who is a Muslim, was listening to a Christian street preacher when she overheard Henderson abusing young women at 5.30pm on July 4 this year, Birmingham Crown Court heard today.

    The 38 year old told magistrates he turned towards her and called her a “slut”, a “prostitute”, “Satan” and a “Kafir” – non believer – as he told her she would “burn in hell” for wearing “tight jeans”.

    The ex-body builder, who admitted to having “smoked drugs” and being a burglar in the past, also branded Ms Alnaeimi the “devil” during the verbal attack in New Street, central Birmingham.

    Henderson, of Birmingham, was found guilty of using religiously aggravated threatening words and behaviour against Ms Alneaimi.

    Ironically, his wife turned up to court with him earlier this month wearing tight jeans and a revealing top…”

  33. Russia and the West’s Insane Syrian War
    A war that only Islam can win.

    Russia and the West are fighting to decide whether Syria will be run by Sunni Islamists backed by Saudi Arabia or Shiite Islamists backed by Iran. This insane civil war has burned up countless lives, not to mention plenty of dollars, rubles, euros and pounds. The only certain winners of this war, once the dust has settled, will chant “Allahu Akbar” and call for the death of the infidels.

    Sadly this is nothing new. Russia got the PLO started before Bill Clinton decided to become its sugar daddy. Smuggling weapons to the Mujahedeen to fight the Russians got us into Afghanistan. Except these days it’s the Russians who, through the Iranians, are funneling weapons to the locals to fight us. Between us and the Russians, we’ve put wagonloads of weapons into the hands of Jihadis in Iraq and Syria. The consequences will be felt in Moscow, New York, London and Paris.

    The West and the Warsaw Pact countries used to fuel foreign wars. These days the war is at home.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264307/russia-and-wests-insane-syrian-war-daniel-greenfield

  34. Russia launches MASSIVE military drill with Pakistan and ‘prepares missiles’ for WAR (express, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/714546/Russia-military-exercise-Pakistan-Putin-prepares-Iskander-missile

    “RUSSIA has sent a chilling warning to the West that its influence is spreading across Asia with the announcement of a two-week military drill with Pakistan.

    For the first time in modern history the two Cold War enemies will be conducting training exercises together.

    Elsewhere, Vladimir Putin’s solders have been testing their ability to launch the latest ballistic missile in the east of the country.

    About 200 troops – 70 Russian and 130 Pakistani – will take part in the Friendship 2016 war games, which started on Saturday…”

  35. One dead and three injured in Malmo shooting as bomb found outside primary school (express, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/714291/Malmo-gun-attack-shooting-Sweden-several-injured

    “ONE person has died and three others have been injured following a gun attack in Malmo just hours after a bomb was found outside a primary school.

    Witnesses reported hearing 20 gunshots fired in bursts of three during a football derby at around 7pm local time between Malmö FF and Helsingborgs IF on Sunday.

    One eyewitness claimed the shots were fired by people in an Audi which drove off at high speed.

    Police found shell casings at the scene in Censorgatan and say the suspects may have escaped by moped – four people were injured, including one who was shot in the head.

    Officers are treating the incident as attempted murder…”

    • Asylum Crisis in Sweden: Number of ‘no-go zones’ rises, police lose control

      The inflow of asylum seekers in Sweden, a country with one of the most liberal laws towards refugees, is putting an increasing strain on the country’s police. There are now reportedly 55 areas in the country, where the law is not fully upheld.

  36. Gang armed with baseballs bats, chains and knives smash their 4×4 into car and chase occupants before beating one to death (dailymail, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807669/Gang-armed-baseballs-bats-chains-knives-smash-4×4-car-chase-occupants-beating-one-death.html

    “A gang armed with baseballs bats, chains and knives allegedly smashed their 4×4 into a car and chased the occupants before beating one to death last night.

    Up to eight men pulled up in two cars before beating the victim in his 30s and stabbing him multiple times in Dagenham, East London, according to witnesses.

    Residents said they heard screaming and shouting at the scene with smashed glass left on the ground, before dozens of police officers and a helicopter arrived.

    One witness told the London Evening Standard that he saw a group of people in a vehicle begin chasing three men in another car – before killing one of them…”

  37. Muslim Dictator Plagiarizes Obama
    September 26, 2016
    Daniel Greenfield
    1

    That seems about right.

    Obama and his people worked hard to help Muhammadu Buhari take over Nigeria over its Christian former president. So Muhammadu Buhari, the country’s former Muslim dictator, ripping off Obama’s speech seems like a perfect case of synchronicity.

    Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari apologized Saturday for plagiarizing President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech and said he will punish those responsible.

    The announcement came as Obama is set to meet Buhari, the leader of Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, next week in New York.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/264215/muslim-dictator-plagiarizes-obama-daniel-greenfield

  38. ‘Pools of blood’ in London shopping centre after teenager knifed in broad daylight (express, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/714570/stab-knife-teenager-attack-Lewisham-shopping-centre-evacuated

    “A SHOPPING centre has been evacuated after a teenager was knifed in south-east London in front of horrified shoppers.

    Police rushed to Lewisham Shopping Centre after a boy was stabbed in broad daylight.

    Eyewitnesses reported seeing “pools of blood” around the mall, in Molesworth Street.

    Shoppers claim they were evacuated after the attack.

    One twitter user posted: “Lewisham centre being evacuated due to a stabbing of a school boy.. what’s wrong with this world!!?”…”

  39. Heroic teenage boy saves 18-year-old girl grabbed by gang of men at Oktoberfest (express, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/714577/Heroic-teenage-boy-saves-girl-grabbed-gang-men-Oktoberfest-Germany

    “A TEENAGE girl was grabbed by three thugs who tried to drag her away as she was on her way to meet her parents before visiting famous German beer festival Oktoberfest.

    The 18-year-old was travelling to a suburb to see her parents before going on to the event that sees millions of revellers descend on the German city of Munich, when she was attacked.

    The teen had travelled from the Bavarian city of Gilching, 14 miles west of Munich, when she was brutally attacked at a bus stop by the gang of three men who pounced on her from behind, carrying her bey her feet and arms towards a bike rack.

    But a heroic teenage boy who witnessed the men trying to abduct the 18-year-old stepped in, saving her from the thugs…”

  40. Obama’s Email Alias With Clinton Raises Disturbing Questions
    New FBI revelations cement belief that Clinton is an unrepentant, serial liar.

    President Obama has provoked even greater concern regarding Hillary Clinton’s far-reaching email scandal with revelations that he used an undisclosed pseudonym in email communications that were routed through her private email server. The email dates back to 2012 during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state and information relating to it was disclosed by the FBI as the agency released its second batch of documents in connection with its investigation of Clinton’s alleged inappropriate handling of government emails and possible security breaches.

    During the course of the Bureau’s interview with Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest advisors, investigators showed her the email. A shocked Abedin then asked, “How is that not classified?” according to the FBI report. She then asked if she could keep a copy of the email but it is not known whether the FBI assented to her request.

    The word “congratulations” was written in the email’s subject heading. Aside from that and the president’s use of an undisclosed pseudonym, little is known about the about the substance of the mysterious 2012 email and White House lawyers have refused to disclose it citing the “presidential communications privilege” but Abedin’s reaction to it provides some clues.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264303/obamas-email-alias-clinton-raises-disturbing-ari-lieberman

    • Obama’s Conflict Tanked the Clinton E-mail Investigation — As Predicted

      Hillary couldn’t be proven guilty without proving the president guilty as well.

      […]Thanks to Friday’s FBI document dump — 189 more pages of reports from the Bureau’s year-long foray (“investigation” would not be the right word) into the Clinton e-mail scandal — we now know for certain what I predicted some eight months ago here at NRO: Any possibility of prosecuting Hillary Clinton was tanked by President Obama’s conflict of interest.

      As I explained in February, when it emerged that the White House was refusing to disclose at least 22 communications Obama had exchanged with then-secretary Clinton over the latter’s private e-mail account, we knew that Obama had knowingly engaged in the same misconduct that was the focus of the Clinton probe: the reckless mishandling of classified information.

      To be sure, he did so on a smaller scale. Clinton’s recklessness was systematic: She intentionally set up a non-secure, non-government communications framework, making it inevitable that classified information would be mishandled, and that federal record-keeping laws would be flouted. Obama’s recklessness, at least as far as we know, was confined to communications with Clinton — although the revelation that the man presiding over the “most transparent administration in history” set up a pseudonym to conceal his communications obviously suggests that his recklessness may have been more widespread.

      Still, the difference in scale is not a difference in kind. In terms of the federal laws that criminalize mishandling of classified information, Obama not only engaged in the same type of misconduct Clinton did; he engaged in it with Clinton. It would not have been possible for the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton for her offense without its becoming painfully apparent that 1) Obama, too, had done everything necessary to commit a violation of federal law, and 2) the communications between Obama and Clinton were highly relevant evidence.

      Indeed, imagine what would have happened had Clinton been indicted. The White House would have attempted to maintain the secrecy of the Obama-Clinton e-mails (under Obama’s invocation of a bogus “presidential communications” privilege), but Clinton’s defense lawyers would have demanded the disclosure of the e-mails in order to show that Obama had engaged in the same misconduct, yet only she, not he, was being prosecuted. And as most experienced criminal-law lawyers understand (especially if they’ve read a little Supreme Court case known as United States v. Nixon), it is an argument that Clinton’s lawyers would have won.

      In fact, in any other case — i.e., in a case that involved any other unindicted co-conspirator — it would be the Justice Department itself introducing the Obama-Clinton e-mails into evidence.[…]

      This is also why the Justice Department and the FBI effectively rewrote the relevant criminal statute in order to avoid applying it to Clinton. In his public statements about Clinton, Obama has stressed that she is an exemplary public servant who would never intentionally harm the United States. In rationalizing their decision not to indict Clinton, Justice Department officials (in leaks to the Washington Post) and the FBI director (in his press conference and congressional testimony) similarly stressed the lack of proof that she intended to harm the United States.

      As I’ve repeatedly pointed out, however, the operative criminal statute does not call for proof of intent to harm the United States. It merely requires proof of gross negligence. This is entirely lawful and appropriate, since we’re talking about a law that can apply only to government officials who have a special duty to preserve secrecy and who have been schooled in the proper handling of classified information. Yet the Justice Department frivolously suggested that applying the law exactly the way it is written — something the Justice Department routinely tells judges they must do — would, in Clinton’s case, potentially raise constitutional problems.

      Alas, the Justice Department and the FBI have to take that indefensible position here. Otherwise, Clinton would not be the only one in legal jeopardy.

      I will end with what I said eight months ago:

      To summarize, we have a situation in which (a) Obama knowingly communicated with Clinton over a non-government, non-secure e-mail system; (b) Obama and Clinton almost certainly discussed matters that are automatically deemed classified under the president’s own guidelines; and (c) at least one high-ranking government official (Petraeus) has been prosecuted because he failed to maintain the security of highly sensitive intelligence that included policy-related conversations with Obama. From these facts and circumstances, we must deduce that it is possible, if not highly likely, that President Obama himself has been grossly negligent in handling classified information.

      http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440380/obama-email-alias-clinton-why-fbi-didnt-prosecute-hillary

    • Deal nears to speed release of Hillary Clinton emails

      A potential compromise is in the works that could result in more of Hillary Clinton emails recovered by the FBI being made public before the election.

      Last week, a judge ordered the processing under the Freedom of Information Act of a relatively meager 1,050 pages of the FBI-found emails before Election Day. Government lawyers say there are about 5,600 Clinton, work-related emails the FBI turned over to State Department beginning in July, although some are duplicates of records already processed and released.

      However, during a court hearing in a separate FOIA lawsuit Monday, another judge pushed for a deal that could accelerate the release of those messages, perhaps three-fold in advance of the election.

      Acting on a case brought by Vice News journalist Jason Leopold, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the two sides to try to work out a compromise to devote more of State’s resources to processing Clinton’s emails in the coming weeks, rather than other records Leopold has requested.

      Ryan James, an attorney for Leopold, said that if it was “not possible” for State to allocate more resources to the Clinton email disclosure, Leopold would be “willing to sacrifice” pages he’s due of other Clinton-related records in order to get more of the emails released. About 2,200 pages of assorted records are scheduled for processing in the coming month in Leopold’s case.

      Speaking of the FBI-recovered emails, James said: “We believe those records are more important.”

      Initially, Justice Department attorney Robert Prince did not sound terribly receptive to the proposal. He said the email-focused part of Leopold’s suit against the State Department doesn’t even encompass the full set of FBI-provided emails, and that Leopold previously agreed to limit the Clinton email-related portion of his suit to the roughly 54,000 pages of emails Clinton turned over on paper in December 2014.

      The Vice News reporter initially submitted a very broad request for almost every Clinton-related record at State, but later agreed to narrow it to Clinton emails, as well as other records on specific topics.

      But Contreras said it would be odd to penalize Leopold for not having foreseen that some emails would be obtained by the FBI.

      “No one knew these documents existed….and these documents should have been in the 55,000,” the judge said.

      Prince said the fact they weren’t in the roughly 54,000 pages of emails Clinton turned over did not necessarily reflect any impropriety. And there might be valid reasons these emails weren’t in that set, he argued.

      “Just because Secretary Clinton deleted an email does not mean anything untoward happened here,” Prince said, noting that federal employees are generally not obliged to save all emails, even those that are-work related.

      “I’m not suggesting that,” Contreras replied.

      However, the judge said he believed both sides could work out a compromise that would reallocate some of State’s resources to the Clinton email project.

      “It seems to me that if the two of you actually spoke to each other, you could reach some agreement,” Contreras said. “I’m not going to order that everything be produced by Election Day. That’s just impossible.”

      The judge called a recess in the hearing and ordered the two sides to confer about a possible arrangement. After a half-hour break, Prince returned to the courtroom shortly before noon to say Justice Department and State Department lawyers handling the case were open to a re-allocation of resources, but needed approval from a State Department FOIA official who could not immediately be reached, Eric Stein.

      Both sides said they were optimistic that a deal could be worked out, perhaps even before a hearing scheduled Monday afternoon in another suit where Leopold is seeking Clinton email-related records directly from the FBI. That case is before yet another judge, further complicating the situation.

      Leopold’s lawyer mounted a last-minute bid during the morning hearing to try to get any additional emails that may be released sent “directly” to the Vice News reporter through his attorney, apparently in lieu of them being made public on State’s website. The request echoed a debate among transparency advocates about whether records the government discloses should be immediately released to all via the internet, or sent to the requester some time before everyone else gets them.

      Contreras turned down James’ request that Leopold have first dibs on any additional emails.

      “I’m happy with them posting it on the website. FOIA is about informing the public what their government is up to and that means everybody,” the judge said.

      http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/clinton-email-release-foia-228674

    • Here’s A List Of Obama Admin Officials Who Used Alternate E-Mails To Conduct Government Business

      The Obama administration from the top down managed to operate around the eyes of the public often by using pseudonyms when communicating with one another online.

      Although President Barack Obama previously claimed to CBS he only found out about Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server through news reports, Politico reported Friday that an FBI news dump shows he communicated with Clinton on her private server using a fake name.

      The idea of using a fake name to communicate through e-mail is not an unusual one to Obama administration appointees. Clinton and even her daughter Chelsea obscured their names when communicating with one another. Chelsea went by the alias “Diane Reynolds” when talking to her mother over e-mail the night of the attack in Benghazi.

      According to CBS News, Clinton, instead of using her formal state.gov email address, used the email [email protected] or would sign off as “Gert” or “Gertie” to her friend Betsy Ebeling in Chicago. Another e-mail address she used was [email protected].

      A “Richard Windsor” appeared to be an official at the EPA. The individual had an official epa.gov e-mail address, but it was later discovered through FOIA requests and public records that [email protected] not only did not exist, but the e-mail address belonged to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

      “I don’t know any other agency that does this,” said Anne Weismann, chief counsel of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which called upon the EPA’s inspector general to investigate the matter in 2012.

      It did not stop at just the EPA. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, among other appointees, used secret e-mail accounts to conduct business, the Associated Press reported.

      In June 2013, the AP asked for HHS’s unpublished secret email accounts from the agency, which the department initially resisted.

      “The Health and Human Services Department initially turned over to the AP the email addresses for roughly 240 appointees — except none of the email accounts for Sebelius, even one for her already published on its website. After the AP objected, it turned over three of Sebelius’ email addresses, including a secret one. It asked the AP not to publish the address, which it said she used to conduct day-to-day business at the department,” the AP reported. “Most of the 240 political appointees at HHS appeared to be using only public government accounts.”

      Eventually, the AP published Sebelius’s secret email — KGS2(at)hhs.gov — “over the government’s objections because the secretary is a high-ranking civil servant who oversees not only major agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services but also the implementation of Obama’s signature health care law. Her public email address is Kathleen.Sebelius(at)hhs.gov.”

      The AP notes that “at least two other senior HHS officials — including Donald Berwick, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Gary Cohen, a deputy administrator in charge of implementing health insurance reform — also had secret government email addresses.”

      The Internal Revenue Service disclosed last year that Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the agency’s targeting of conservative organizations controversy, also had a private e-mail account she may have used for government business.

      Lerner’s second e-mail, discovered by the D.C. watchdog group Judicial Watch, is registered to the name “Toby Miles.”

      “It is simply astonishing that years after this scandal erupted we are learning about an account Lois Lerner used that evidently hadn’t been searched,” Tom Fitton said in a statement to The Washington Times.

      The use of a non-public pseudonym for e-mail communication within a government agency was done by address for Seth D. Harris when he was the acting labor secretary.

      Did anybody at the Justice Department hold administration officials accountable for the use of such alternate emails? Unfortunately, the task would have been difficult for Attorney General Eric Holder who had two secret aliases — Lew Alcindor and Kareem Abdul Jabar, — to communicate through email at DOJ.

      http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/25/heres-a-list-of-obama-admin-officials-who-used-alternate-e-mails-to-conduct-government-business/

    • 12 Biggest Bombshells In FBI’s Clinton Investigation Notes

      The FBI released 189 pages of notes late Friday from 46 interviews it conducted as part of its Hillary Clinton email investigation.

      The documents provide new information about questionable activity on the part of Clinton aides and computer technicians who managed her private email server. The notes also reveal new details about Clinton’s and President Obama’s email practices.

      A dozen of the most interesting revelations are listed below.

      Obama’s Iran negotiator might have had Gmail hacked while negotiating nuclear deal[…]

      Clinton IT tech’s infamous Reddit post explained?[…]

      Hillary’s lawyer asked computer technician about “wiping” computer data[…]

      Clinton also had a Gmail account[…]

      Obama’s email address uses a pseudonym […]

      Did Huma Abedin lie to the FBI?[…]

      Cheryl Mills was told of concerns about Clinton’s email system Pagliano, Clinton’s computer technician, told the FBI that he told Mills of concerns that Clinton’s email setup violated federal records laws.[…]

      FBI’s description of Clinton insider Sidney Blumenthal[…]

      Allegations of State Department “interference” in email classifications[…]

      Ex-Clinton aide was scared of Hillary finding out about her FBI interview[…]

      Clinton deleted 1,000 emails with Gen. Petraeus[…]

      Official thought it was “not possible” for Pagliano to handle Clinton’s system[…]

      Pagliano was against housing Clinton’s server in her basement[…]

      details on this page :

      http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/25/12-biggest-bombshells-in-fbis-clinton-investigation-notes/

  41. Debunking the Biggest Immigration Lies
    Exposing the dangers of the “Mexican Border Deception.”
    September 26, 2016
    Michael Cutler
    10

    John Adams famously stated, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

    Knowledge is power. Nations go to great lengths to steal the secrets of their enemies for a variety of purposes. Conversely, nations seek to protect their own secrets jealously and often provide false information, known as “disinformation,” to confuse and confound their enemies.

    A historic example of such disinformation was a military operation launched by the Allies during the Second World War known as “Operation Fortitude” also known as the “Calais Deception,” wherein the Nazis were convinced that the Allies would launch an attack as Pas de Calais when in reality, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, was planning to attack German forces at Normandy to begin the liberation of France.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264305/debunking-biggest-immigration-lies-michael-cutler

  43. Documents: Mall shooting suspect confesses to slayings

    …Cetin also appeared to have blogs on the site Tumblr that had not been updated in many months. They included seemingly random posts about serial killer Ted Bundy, a collection of selfies, the top-secret Area 51 Cold War test site and photos of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The two blogs linked back to each other and one of them linked to what appeared to be his Twitter page…

    http://bigstory.ap.org/dc0ea5f29a0f4b3192100ab6163470d8

  44. “Christian Girls are only Meant for One Thing, the Pleasure of Muslim Men”

    Islamic law, always harsh, is still harsher for women. According to the Koran, men have “authority” over women and may beat them if they are “disobedient” (4:34). According to Mohammad, the prophet of Islam, women are less intelligent than men — two women are needed to equal one man’s testimony — and the majority of hell’s population is made up of women, who are likened to donkeys and dogs in their ability to distract a man from his prayer and thereby annul it.

    What, then, is Islam’s view of women who are “infidels”? They are at best “meant for one thing, the pleasure of the Muslim man,” as one Muslim told a group of young Christian girls in Pakistan before terrorizing and murdering one. In the Koran, (see 4:24), non-Muslim women seized in a jihad can be bought and sold as sex slaves for Muslim men, as the Islamic State has been doing.

    Emily Fuentes, communications director for Open Doors, a human rights organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, said:

    Unfortunately, more and more women are the target of [Muslim] terrorist groups. There are numerous international incidents of women being kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert from Christianity to Islam by radical extremist groups…. Many are also sold on the open market. This brutality is not only occurring in the Middle East but in Africa and in many other places. In many of these countries, women are subject to persecution because they are considered second-class citizens because of their gender. As minorities in both gender and faith, Christian women face double the persecution. Although we don’t have an exact number, we know that millions of women are being persecuted…. In these Muslim-dominated countries, Christian women are systematically deprived of their freedom to live and are denied basic human necessities.

    Christian women are double damned: barely tolerated both as women and as non-Muslim “infidels; it becomes clear why they are the greatest recipients of Islamic abuse.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8969/christian-girls-muslim-men

  45. Clarion’s Role in Exposing ISIS-Linked Imam in Maryland
    The Maryland imam arrested for involvement in a pro-ISIS terrorist plot has been on our radar for months. We shared that info with the authorities.

    As the Clarion Project wrote about yesterday, an imam in Maryland has been arrested for involvement in a pro-Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist plot, but he’s been on our radar for months.

    We published the first article exposing him in July, prompting his mosque to label us as “anti-Islamic,” a rather dangerous label to have placed upon you by an ISIS supporter with over 1,000 Facebook “likes.”

    We can now publicly reveal from our Muslim sources that the cleric threatened a Muslim woman who criticized his extremism. The preacher, Imam Suleiman Anwar of the Islamic Jurisprudence Center (who is also known by his actual name of Suleiman Bengharsa), also sent her a “letter to America” that expressed his solidarity with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, perhaps by accident.

    The imam was not just talking to himself. Our Muslim sources provided us with information prior to his arrest about supporters of his outside of Maryland who discussed fundraising for him, despite their disagreements with some of his opinions.

    The imam denied supporting ISIS to the Detroit News, but the FBI and his own private messages tell a different story. Below is the message he sent to the Muslim who dared to directly challenge him:

    https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/clarions-role-exposing-isis-linked-imam-maryland#

  46. Iraqi Militia Finds Horrifying Pic of Saudi Slave Market
    Fighters from the state-backed Popular Mobilization Units found the picture of a slave for sale on the phone of a dead ISIS fighter.

    Fighters of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) seized a jihadi’s phone after he was killed fighting in the Iraqi town of Al-Shirqat. On it they found a picture of a young woman, believed to be a Yazidi, kneeling on the floor in front of a crowd of men.

    Using location tracking data from the phone the militia identified the event as a slave auction in Saudi Arabia.

    “Our investigation officer was appalled at the set of images involving what we believe to be an Iraqi Yazidi woman taken as a sex slave,” a spokesperson from the PMU told the Sun Online.

    The Yazidis are an Iraqi ethnic group with their own religion, who have been persecuted by the Islamic State who regard them as devil worshippers. Many Yazidi women and girls were kidnapped in 2014 and taken into sex-slavery.

    There were “images were of the auction in Saudi Arabia of the woman and sexually explicit materials of the fighter and the woman in a hotel. Location data was observed on the image file as enabled by default on many smart phones,” he added.

    https://www.clarionproject.org/news/iraqi-militia-finds-horrifying-pic-saudi-slave-market

  47. Moroccan threatened over cartoon posted by killed Jordanian

    Well-known Moroccan cartoonist Khalid Geddar has asked for police protection after being threatened for reposting a drawing that led to the murder of a Jordanian writer, he said on Monday.

    Geddar, who runs the satirical magazine Baboubi, reposted on Facebook on Sunday, as a posthumous tribute, a cartoon previously posted by Nahed Hattar who was shot dead outside an Amman courthouse earlier that day.

    Hattar had been facing charges over the illustration he posted on Facebook under the title “God of Daesh” (the Islamic State group) showing a bearded man in bed smoking with two women lying on either side, and addressing God as a servant.

    http://oi65.tinypic.com/4kjosk.jpg

    Any depiction of God is prohibited under Islam.

    Hattar was hit by three bullets before the alleged assassin was arrested at the scene.

    Geddar said he received several threatening messages and comments, including: “Your fate is death and slaughter — you are the enemy of God.”

    “I consider this comment to be a direct threat, a call to kill me just because I republished the drawing that led to the death of the Jordanian writer,” he told AFP.

    He called on the authorities in Morocco to protect him, saying: “The police must investigate and cannot leave unpunished such calls for hatred, violence and death.”

    Geddar republished the illustration accompanied by a quote from French cartoonist Charb, who was killed along with 11 others in the attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 in Paris.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/244704/World/Region/Moroccan-threatened-over-cartoon-posted-by-killed-.aspx

    • Moroccan Caricaturist Threatened to Be Slaughtered (moroccoworldnews, Sep 26, 2016)
      http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/09/197367/moroccan-caricaturist-threatened-slaughtered/

      “Kahlid Gueddar Moroccan Caricaturist and editor in chief of Babobi newspaper calls upon Moroccan authorities to protect his life after he shared the cartoon that caused the death of Jordanian Nahed Hattar

      Not long after Jordanian author was gunned down while leaving the courthouse in Jordan, Moroccan caricaturist, Khalid Gueddar, shared the cartoon that caused Nahed Hattar to be arrested last August, and subsequently killed by an extremist last week.

      The cartoon shows a bearded man in bed with two women in heaven while “God,” impersonated as an old bearded king, opens the entrance of his tent and asks if the man needs something. The bearded man gives “God” a number of orders before he asks Him to knock on the door next time.

      Although the caricature criticizes the extremist’s perception of heaven and the afterlife, it stirred uproar in Jordan and other Muslim countries, for it involves a degrading depiction of God, which many Muslims consider provocative…”

  49. Theft from German public transport up 25 percent (DW, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/theft-from-german-public-transport-up-25-percent/a-35888569

    “A German newspaper reports that public transport users reported nearly 45,000 crimes on trains and at stations last year. The 25 percent increase follows a similar rise the previous year.

    The figures, published in the national daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on Monday showed that 44,800 bags and hand luggage were registered stolen in 2015, a rise of about a quarter on 2014.

    The Federal police statistics cited by the paper covered minor crimes committed in German railway stations and on trains, and were released ahead of the police’s annual report, which is due to be published shortly.

    The paper said last year’s increase, follow a nearly 20 percent rise recorded in the previous year.

    Police have blamed professional criminals, who they said travel internationally to carry out offenses. Often they work in groups of three to six people and use distraction techniques before stealing purses or wallets.

    Good will and the willingness to help are often exploited by asking the victim to help read the train schedule or help with using a machine, the paper said.

    Migrant link not highlighted

    The report didn’t mention whether the increase in thefts was linked to the huge influx of migrants arriving in Germany over the past two years.

    But in June, police said migrants were linked to 69,000 attempted or actual crimes in the first quarter of 2016.

    More than 1.1 million refugees entered the country in 2015 alone, according to German interior ministry figures.

    Police have warned the public to keep cash, credit cards and valuables as close to the body as possible, and not in clothes that are hung up on the backs of chairs on trains. They also warned that rucksacks were particularly vulnerable to theft.

    Additional police officers have been stationed at many German railway stations in recent months following the New Years Eve attacks in Cologne, that saw around 1,500 women report being sexually assaulted and robbed by suspects of mainly North African and Arab appearance.

    Contrary to the nationwide trend – the increased surveillance was seen as partly responsible for a 20 percent fall in street crime committed in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, where Cologne is located, in the first six months of this year.”

  50. Prosecutor wants to lift immunity of MP Diether Dehm for smuggling refugee (DW, Sep 26, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/prosecutor-wants-to-lift-immunity-of-mp-diether-dehm-for-smuggling-refugee/a-35888090

    “Federal authorities have accused the parliamentarian of trafficking a young African refugee. But the leftist politician said he “was at peace” with his decision to reunite the boy with his father.

    The public prosecutor’s office filed a request to remove the Left Party’s Diether Dehm’s immunity as a federal parliamentarian, German newspaper “tageszeitung” (TAZ) reported on Monday.

    Authorities accused him of facilitating the illegal entry of an African migrant in August, which prosecutors say is ground enough to remove his legal protection.

    Earlier this month, Dehm confirmed that he had taken a young African refugee first to stay in his holiday home on Italy’s Lake Maggiore. He then transported the boy through Switzerland to Germany, where he was reunited with his father.

    The 66-year-old leftist politician told German daily “Bild” that the boy had not registered with border officials upon entering.

    “I was at peace with myself, and I still am now,” Dehm said.

    Dehm appointed Paul Gauweiler, a conservative former MP of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), as his legal representative. He described Gauweiler as a “good friend and blood brother.”

    The Left Party has previously been targeted by federal authorities, including the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic spy agency.

    In 2012, business newspaper “Handelsblatt” reported that more than one-third of the Left Party’s MPs had been under surveillance for suspected extremist views, an allegation the party denies.
    Open doors

    Mass irregular migration to the EU last year sowed the seeds of a political crisis in Germany and the rest of Europe.

    Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “open door” policy towards migrants fleeing war in the Middle East prompted her opponents and even allies to criticize her approach to migration.

    The Left Party maintains an open position to refugees, especially those escaping the brutal conflict in Syria. However, individual members have been accused of using anti-immigrant rhetoric.

    Germany is set to process more than one million asylum applications in 2016, according to the Federal Migration Office.”