Reader’s links for October 3 – 2016

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

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

82 Replies to “Reader’s links for October 3 – 2016”

  1. Magyar TV:
    At Serbian border migrants are under the impression that the Hungarian border will be opened wide to them in two days as a result if the referendum. Some migrants believe that 50% of Hungarians voted to let them in. They also demand passage to Europe because of deteriorating weather due to approaching winter. They have many demands.

    • I bet, Nazi collaborator, now liberal comrade Soros’ organizations spreading the rumors.

      • FOX News – Hungary hopes to deploy thousands of ‘border hunters’ in bid to stop migrants

        Hungary is recruiting thousands of so-called “border hunters” to patrol its razor-wire boundary fence, planning to equip the special unit with night-vision goggles, riot gear and dogs in an effort to keep migrants at bay, The Washington Post reported.

        The nation is hoping to attract 3,000 border hunters to support the 10,000 police officers and soldiers already trying to keep migrants – many of whom have come from war-torn Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Iraq – at bay in Serbia, the BBC reported. Hungary hopes to have the hunters in place by May. Recruits must be 18 and pass a psychological test. They will be trained for six months before going on duty.

        “Hungary does not need a single migrant for the economy to work or the population to sustain itself or for the country to have a future,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. “Every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk.”

        Those in favor of strict border control have strongly tied migration to an increased threat of terrorism. A series of billboards around the country notes the November terror attacks in Paris “were carried out by migrants.” The ads also say that “since the beginning of the migration crisis more than 300 people died in terrorist attacks in Europe.”

        Opponents, however, say the anti-migration platform is rooted in racism.

        “They have launched this extremely vile campaign to portray migrants as rapists and terrorists who can only be stopped if we put up walls to protect our Christian identity,” Hungarian Helsinki Committee Co-chair Marta Pardavi told The Post. “To them, it doesn’t matter that it’s not true what they’re saying. They have created a great opportunity for racists.”

        More than 100,000 migrants remain holed up in Greece and Italy, the countries where most asylum seekers begin their European trek. The European Union has said all of its countries must help with resettlement, but Hungary is one of several countries suing the E.U. in an attempt to overturn that edict.

        Voters in Hungary on Sunday cast ballots on a referendum about establishing future migrant quotas, however, turnout failed to meet required thresholds for the measure to pass.

        http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/10/03/hungary-hopes-to-deploy-thousands-border-hunters-in-bid-to-stop-migrants.html
        =====================================

        uk-express – Now Hungary bolsters border police with RIOT GEAR and sniffer dogs to keep out migrants

        HUNGARY is recruiting 3,000 “hunters” to patrol its borders in 4x4s, armed with riot gear, night-vision googles and sniffer dogs in an effort to keep out migrants.

        The newly-stationed police will support the 10,000 officers and soldiers who already patrol Hungary’s borders.

        Prime minister Viktor Orban aims to have the border hunters in place by May and is currently spearheading a recruitment campaign which welcomes applications from anyone over the age of 18 who can pass the physical and psychological tests.

        The notoriously right wing politician said: “Hungary does not need a single migrant for the economy to work or the population to sustain itself or for the country to have a future.”

        He added: “Every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk.”

        The number of migrants reaching Hungary’s border with Serbia is estimated to be around 200 per day.

        Border hunters will patrol the 110-mile razor wire fence the Hungarian government erected last year along the border with Serbia.

        The announcement of Mr Orban’s recruitment of border hunters comes after the result of Hungary’s referendum on EU migrant quotas was revealed.

        A whopping 92.3 percent of Hungarian voters rejected EU quotas, but Mr Orban has faced criticism for his immigration policies, which opponents have labelled as “racist”.

        Hungarian Helsinki Committee Co-chair, said: “They have launched this extremely vile campaign to portray migrants as rapists and terrorists who can only be stopped if we put up walls to protect our Christian identity.

        “To them, it doesn’t matter that it’s not true what they’re saying. They have created a great opportunity for racists.”

        Despite the high percentage of voters rejecting EU migrant quotas, the result of the referendum cannot become law as the turnout was just 42 percent, which is below 50 per cent threshold required to make the referendum valid in Hungarian law.

        http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/716916/hungary-viktor-orban-migrants-border-police-immigration-serbia-refugees

    • euronews – EU discord following Hungary migrant vote? Parliament and Commission react

  2. LAPD issues citywide tactical alert after protests erupt in South LA over fatal police shooting

    SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) —
    Protests erupted at a South Los Angeles intersection Sunday night not far from where a teenager died in an officer-involved shooting after police say he fled from a suspected stolen vehicle.

    Shortly before 10 p.m., authorities issued a citywide tactical alert and asked protesters standing at the intersection of Western Avenue and 108th Street to disperse or they would be arrested. As the evening went on, at least four people were taken into custody.

    http://abc7.com/news/citywide-tactical-alert-issued-as-protests-erupt-in-south-la/1536612/

  3. Emotions Still Boiling Over After Police Shooting Of Black South LA Man; Garcetti’s House Egged

    http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/10/02/mayors-house-egged-overnight-as-emotions-run-high-amid-deadly-police-shooting-of-black-man-in-south-la/

    SOUTH LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Raw emotions were still boiling over Sunday night in a South Los Angeles community after the deadly police shooting of a black teen.

    Just before 8 p.m. a protest broke out at Western Avenue and 108th Street in South L.A. Sky9 was above the scene as drivers started doing donuts in the intersection and some young people were seen tagging businesses with spray paint.

    People in the community were upset over the use of lethal force by officers on 18-year-old Carnell Snell, Jr. after a chase.

    Snell was shot just two houses away from where he lived.

  4. Spaniards, Exhausted by Politics, Warm to Life Without a Government

    MADRID — For the past 288 days, Spain has plodded along without an elected national government. For some Spaniards, this is a wonderful thing.

    “No government, no thieves,” said Félix Pastor, a language teacher who, like many voters, is fed up with the corruption and scandals that tarnished the two previous governing parties.

    Mr. Pastor, a wiry, animated 59-year-old, said Spain could last without a government “until hell freezes over” because politicians were in no position to do more harm.

    After two grueling national elections in six months, and with a third vote possible in December, no party has won enough seats or forged the coalition needed to form a government. For the first time in Spain’s four decades as a modern democracy, this country of 47 million people has a caretaker government.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/world/europe/spain-socialists-sanchez-rajoy.html?_r=0

  5. Some Deutsche Bank Clients Unable To Access Cash Due To “IT Outage”
    Tyler Durden’s picture
    by Tyler Durden
    Oct 3, 2016 1:22 AM

    While it now seems that Friday’s rumor of a substantially reduced Deutsche Bank settlement with the DOJ, which sent the stock price soaring from all time lows, was false following a FAZ report that CEO John Cryan has not yet begun the renegotiation process, and in the “next few days” is set to fly to the US to discuss the proposed RMBS misselling settlement with the US Attorney General, Germany’s largest lender continues to be impacted by the public’s declining confidence, exacerbated over the weekend by a disturbing “IT glitch.”

    For one, it remains unclear if Friday’s report halted, or reversed, the outflow of cash from DB’s prime brokerage clients, which as Bloomberg first reported last week was a major catalyst for the swoon in the stock price. However, as UniCredit’s chief economist Erik Nielsen notes in a Sunday notes, one thing is certain: “so long as a fine of this order of magnitude ($14 billion) is an even remote possibility, markets worry.”

    There is also the threat of the bank’s massive derivative book, which despite attempts of many pundits to gloss over, over the weekend none other than JPM admitted that that is what the markets will likely be focusing on for the foreseeable future: “In our opinion it is not so much funding issues but rather derivatives exposures that more likely to trouble markets going forward if Deutsche Bank concerns continue. This is especially true if these concerns propagate into a confidence crisis inducing more rapid unwinding of derivative contracts.”

    Indeed, as we first hinted last Thursday…

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-02/some-deutsche-bank-clients-unable-access-cash-due-it-outage

  6. Bill Clinton accuser Kathleen Willey: Hillary was complicit in his sexual misconduct

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bill-clinton-accuser-kathleen-willey-hillary-was-complicit-in-his-sexual-misconduct/article/2603352

    One of several women who have accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct is speaking out, saying Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be exempt from criticism over her handling of the affairs that nearly ended her husband’s presidency in the 1990s.

    Kathleen Willey — a former volunteer White House aide who accused Bill Clinton of making aggressive, unwanted advances during a private meeting in 1993 — said she holds Hillary Clinton responsible for smearing her and the many other women who have come forward with stories about their treatment at the hands of her husband.

    “This no longer about Bill Clinton’s transgressions or his infidelities or girlfriends or sex … it’s not about that anymore,” Willey told the Washington Examiner. “What it’s about is the actions that his wife has taken against the women that he has raped and assaulted.”

  7. Russia’s Putin suspends plutonium cleanup accord with U.S. because of ‘unfriendly’ acts

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday suspended an agreement with the United States for disposal of weapons-grade plutonium because of “unfriendly” acts by Washington, the Kremlin said.

    A Kremlin spokesman said Putin had signed a decree suspending the 2010 agreement under which each side committed to destroy tonnes of weapons-grade material because Washington had not been implementing it and because of current tensions in relations.

    The two former Cold War adversaries are at loggerheads over a raft of issues including Ukraine, where Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and supports pro-Moscow separatists, and the conflict in Syria.

    The deal, signed in 2000 but which did not come into force until 2010, was being suspended due to “the emergence of a threat to strategic stability and as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States of America towards the Russian Federation”, the preamble to the decree said.

    It also said that Washington had failed “to ensure the implementation of its obligations to utilize surplus weapons-grade plutonium”.

    The 2010 agreement, signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called on each side to dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning in nuclear reactors.

    http://www.oann.com/russias-putin-orders-plutonium-cleanup-program-with-u-s-to-be-suspended/

    • Worst mistake of the USA was to decommission nuclear weapons and to destroy the nuclear fuel. We’ve even had shortages of tritium such that they, I understand, are using commercial reactors to breed it. All because the American left wants to make us exactly like other states.

      • Those are part of the actions that are fueling the push to get Trump elected. With luck he will win by such a big margin even the left will have trouble spinning the results.

        If I had my way we would not only rebuild our nuclear arsenal but would start launching our own astronauts and position satellites with kinetic kill weapons that we could program to hit targets of our choice. What we have forgotten is that the nation that controls low and high earth orbits control the earth. Kinetic kill weapons can do the damage of a nuke without the radiation.

  8. Protesters jeer at Merkel in Dresden as Germany marks reunification

    DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) – Protesters jeered at German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday as she attended celebrations in the eastern city of Dresden to mark 26 years since Germany’s reunification.

    Holding placards reading “Merkel must go”, right-wing protesters also shouted the slogan as Merkel, who has faced criticism for her open-door refugee policy, and President Joachim Gauck arrived for the celebrations and greeted spectators.

    German media estimated the number of protesters at “several hundred”.

    Dresden was the cradle of the anti-Islam PEGIDA grassroots movement, whose weekly rallies attracted around 20,000 supporters at their height at the start of 2015.

    Last year’s arrival of around a million migrants, mainly Muslims fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has increased social tensions.

    In a short statement, Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, called for “mutual respect” in the political debate and said she wished that all sides could work together to tackle the new problems regardless of their different political views.

    http://www.oann.com/protesters-jeer-at-merkel-in-dresden-as-germany-marks-reunification/

    • Germany: Pegida march met by counter-demo in Dresden

      Several thousand Pegida supporters marched through Dresden, Monday, to mark German Unity day with a protest against the government. Pegida founder Lutz Bachmann was present among the crowd.

      The protest gathered at the main bus station near the central station in Dresden, before marching around the area of festivities and reaching the final location at Lignerallee across from the city hall.

  9. Taliban launch fresh attack on Afghan city of Kunduz (BBC, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37538449

    “Taliban militants have launched a co-ordinated attack on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, officials say.

    The militants attacked from four sides of the city in the middle of the night.

    Mahmood Danish, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Afghan forces had repelled the attack…”

  10. Syrian rebels advance on symbolic IS-held town of Dabiq (BBC, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37541058

    “At least 15 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have been killed in clashes with Islamic State militants, as they move on the group’s stronghold of Dabiq.

    A monitoring group reported that the rebels were killed by landmines that exploded while they attempted to secure the village of Turkman Barih.

    One rebel commander said he expected to reach Dabiq, which is about 5km (3 miles) to the west, within 48 hours.

    Dabiq holds great symbolic value to IS and features heavily in its propaganda.

    The small town is named in Islamic apocalyptic prophecies as the site of an end-of-times showdown between Muslims and their “Roman” enemies…”

    • BATTLE FOR DABIQ: US marines 48 HOURS from taking site of ancient ISIS apocalypse prophecy (express, Oct 3, 2016)
      http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/717019/ISIS-battle-Dabiq-US-forces-48-hours-site-ancient-APOCALYPSE-prophecy

      “US SPECIAL forces are on the cusp of victory in a key town in northern Syria where ISIS fanatics have warned of a monumental clash of civilisations that could trigger an apocalyptic battle between the extremists and the West…

      Turkish troops backed by American commandos are just a few miles from the town and are predicted to reach Dabiq within the next 48 hours.

      Progress stalled over the weekend as the barbaric terror group’s hardened militants were said to have booby-trapped the area surrounding Dabiq.

      Speaking on Sunday evening, Brett McGurk – the special presidential envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition – said opposition forces had moved to within a “few kilometres” of the town.

      The senior American diplomat wrote on Twitter: “Coalition actively supporting Syrian opposition forces as they advance to within a few kilometres of ISIL’s weakening stronghold #Dabiq.”….”

      • Hang on….So if ISIS gets defeated at DABIQ does that mean their prophecy and green book are full of sh*t?

        • It will be spun that this isn’t the battle of the Prophecy.

          Also a point that is only of interest to the vets, the US troops are Army not Marines. The reporter needs to learn more about the military.

  11. Morocco Dismantles Cell of Women Islamic State Extremists (abcnews, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/morocco-dismantles-cell-women-islamic-state-extremists-42529041

    “Morocco’s Interior Ministry says authorities have detained 10 women linked to the Islamic State group who are suspected of plotting suicide attacks and trying to recruit other women to join the extremists.

    The ministry said in a statement that the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations dismantled the cell of women extremists Monday, in operations in eight towns.

    The ministry chemical products seized at the home of one suspect could be used in explosives.

    The women allegedly declared allegiance to IS, and some have family ties to Moroccan fighters with IS in Syria or Iraq, the statement said. The women are in custody pending further investigation.

    Radicalization among disenchanted youth is a growing problem in Morocco, and authorities have stepped up operations against suspected IS cells.”

  12. The other corrupt Clinton foundation you’ve never heard of

    Three months after leaving the White House in 2001, former President Bill Clinton arrived in India to cheering throngs purportedly to help those who had just lost a million homes in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed 20,000 and injured 166,000.

    In classic Clinton style, he solemnly promised that his new nonprofit — called the American India Foundation (AIF) — would rebuild 100 villages. Rajat Gupta, his millionaire co-chairman, pledged $1 billion for the victims.

    It never happened. Years later, AIF’s annual reports were reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation and show only seven villages were partially rebuilt by Clinton’s group, and a mere $2.7 million of $53 million raised over a decade went to the earthquake victims.

    The rest went for completely unrelated projects, including “accelerating social change,” fighting AIDS, “sustainable development,” and working for “digital equalizers.”

    Paltry aid for the victims notwithstanding, Clinton handsomely profited from the charity as AIF’s top officers poured more than $13 million into the Clinton Foundation and others generously gave to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s political campaigns.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/10/03/corrupt-clinton-foundation-youve-never-heard/

  13. Indian and Pakistani Troops Exchange Fire in Kashmir (abcnews, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/india-pakistan-troops-exchange-fire-border-kashmir-42525294

    “Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other in disputed Kashmir on Monday, as Indian troops searched an army camp elsewhere in the region where suspected militants killed an Indian paramilitary soldier.

    Indian army Lt. Col. Manish Mehta said Pakistani troops fired without provocation using small arms and mortar shells in the Poonch sector of the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir.

    Pakistan’s army said in a statement that its troops were responding to unprovoked firing by Indian soldiers.

    Both sides said the exchange of fire was continuing…”

    • This is one of the major flash points, any time they start shooting at each other sensible people get nervous.

  14. This one is thought provoking, Dyer is thinking about what the New Race designation will mean and why it should be opposed. I will have to think about this for a while before I decide if I agree with her.

    Obama’s new ‘race’ category: The Trojan Horse that would turn us into the Middle East
    By J.E. Dyer October 2, 2016

    I posted on this gambit of Obama’s on Saturday, but didn’t say much about it at the time. I won’t go into a terribly extended discussion here either. But I do want to make sure people are thinking hard and clearly about this appalling move. It has a unique power to destroy America: a diabolically insidious power nothing else has had.

    I’ll start by simply copying here some thoughts I composed for email correspondents.

    It’s an invidious political move, which is why it was slipped quietly into the Federal Register as a proposed regulatory change, just before the weekend. As usual.

    The original demand of Syrians was to not be classified by the political narrative of the time about what Asia is. Syrians in fact ARE “white,” in racial terms – unlike Chinese. Syrians are Caucasians. The geopolitical perception of an older era actually obscured that reality about the Syrians, by setting them in the Near East: part of an alien Asia divided into Near East and Far East.

    But no one thinks of Syria as part of an Asian “Near East” anymore. In fact, outside of wonks at the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom, no one thinks of Syria (or Saudi Arabia, etc.) as being in “Asia” at all. That area is all imagined today as the “Middle East.”

    And the politics of race have shifted too. In the current political narrative of race, Caucasian is equated so firmly with “white European” that college kids are aghast at the idea of non-Europeans being “Caucasians.”

    Yet in reality, Asia, including Southwest Asia, and North Africa have Caucasians of varying pigmentation all over them. Beyond the Arabs; India, Pakistan, Iran – all absolutely stuffed with Caucasians. Ancient, indigenous non-Arab peoples in Iraq, the Levant, and across North Africa (even the Horn of Africa). The Caucasus itself, of course, is IN Asia.

    Politics has divided “Caucasians” to a greater extent than it has the other major gene groups. The Caucasian world, all by itself, IS the globe’s front line of geopolitical confrontation – and it has encompassed West Asia, North Africa, and Europe (centered on the “Great Crossroads”) in that regard for many centuries.

    Geography has played a big role, of course. In the Great Crossroads, it magnified the import of the same kinds of invidious tribal distinctions that other peoples also fight over (i.e., in Asia, Africa, and the Americas). Ultimately, the historical persistence of the pattern and its import has been unique, in the Caucasian-dominated Great Crossroads.

    Now, what Obama and the MENA-race activists want is a political distinction in post-modern America, land of grievance and entitlement, for…wait for it…a bunch of people who are increasingly Muslim, as opposed to Christian and Jewish. They want to export to America the pattern of the Great Crossroads, and distinguish Caucasian from Caucasian for political purposes.

    Remember how badly it turned out to distinguish Caucasian from “Black African,” for political purposes? Remember how ugly, destructive, and stupid it has been? (Even apart from slavery, which has been practiced everywhere by everyone against everyone.)

    Yet at the time, the advocates of that and other like distinctions claimed to have only good intentions. This is no different.

    Consider just this one point. Classifying the Caucasian MENA peoples as a separate “race” will mainly divide whom from whom, depending on who is politically motivated to embrace the new race or not? That’s right: Muslims from Jews and Christians.

    The new “MENA race,” if it can be installed as part of an accepted narrative, will serve to bolster the false, latter-day political narrative that Jews and Christians are colonizing interlopers in the MENA region. (Because that’s what “white Caucasians” are, wherever they go. The narrative says so.)

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/10/02/obamas-new-race-category-trojan-horse-turn-us-middle-east/

    Click through and read the rest of the article, is is very thought provoking.

    Before this article I knew that From India West and possibly from further East there are Caucasians of varying degrees of color. Some are genetically Caucasian but are almost black in color. This new race debate (which we have probably lost before it started) will cause people to think about and change their minds about what makes up the “White Race” and with luck will show that the true racists are the left and the Moslems.

  15. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/10/03/hungary-hopes-to-deploy-thousands-border-hunters-in-bid-to-stop-migrants.html

    I have been combing the Western press to get their reading on the Hungarian referendum. Pretty much every news account mis-reports the failure to turn out 50% of the electorate as making it “invalid.”

    Our “Man on the Ground” Cross Ware has explained this at several sites I visit including here and GOV. He has pointed out that there was a lower turn out for the referendum to join the EU than this one. Was that also “invalid?”

    The Daily Mail went so far as to call it “A Huge Blow” for Orban…

    Read the last para of the report I linked above. It seems not a single Western journalist knows, or was willing to research, the diff between invalid and mandatory. Are they really this shallow or, are they just towing the EU line?

    As usual, someone from the CJ was willing to step up and do yomen’s work to keep us abreast of developments and educate us. Thank you Cross Ware.

    • You ask Are they really this shallow or, are they just towing the EU line?

      They are both, it is impossible to overestimate the stupidity of the MSM reporters and they will always follow the Socialist line even when it shows how stupid they are.

  16. ‘Totally unrealistic’: Austrian FM blasts EU refugee quota plan (RT, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/news/361434-austria-migrant-quotas-unrealistic/

    “The plan on refugee quotas imposed by the EU is “totally unrealistic,” says Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz. He adds that migrants are not eager to stay in such European countries as Romania , Hungary or Poland, preferring Austria or Germany.
    “I think the measure to distribute [some] 160,000 refugees throughout EU member states in two years is wrong… The European Union should no longer cling desperately to it [the refugee quota plan], [Europe] should say goodbye to it,” Kurz said in an interview with German Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

    According to the minister, the target of EU “is totally unrealistic.”

    The distribution of refugees by EU quotas doesn’t function, because many countries are not ready to receive a high number of asylum seekers, he said.

    “The debate on the distribution of refugees by quota may jeopardize the entire European Union. It is a dangerous [issue] that causes unrest, misunderstanding and hostilities.”…”

  17. Russia’s Campaign ‘Saved Syria From Repeating the Fate of Libya and Iraq’ (sputniknews, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://sputniknews.com/politics/20161003/1045953136/russia-syria-libya-fate.html

    “Moscow’s limited military engagement in Syria has helped to bring stability to several regions of the embattled Arab country and boost morale of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies, Syrian political analyst Osama Dannura told RIA Novosti, adding that Russia’s campaign saved Syria from repeating the fate of Iraq and Libya…”

  18. European Welfare for Refugees: Hard to Retain ‘the Glass-is-Half-Full Scenario’ (sputniknews, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/20161003/1045953796/european-welfare-refugees.html

    “The number of refugees receiving social benefits is soaring to new heights in Germany. The Federal Employment Agency reported that about half a million refugees received benefits back in June amid the economic tensions. Sputnik spoke with Navid Nasr, a journalist from Croatia, who said that the statistics hardly looked surprising.

    “From interviews repeatedly done with the refugees crossing into Europe from Syria and Turkey, predominantly their country of choice is Germany and Sweden. When asked specifically why, it’s not necessarily due to political reasons,” Nasr told Sputnik.

    He further said that their choice for Germany and Sweden is owed to the fact that these countries will provide them with greater social benefits, in terms of economic aid.

    Talking about whether this is a burden for the German welfare system, Nasr said, “One side of the debate will tell you that what these people will bring to the table, will offset any short term drain on the German social welfare state, because in the main sense we are talking about the educated people. We are talking about engineers, doctors, etc.”

    However, the journalist said that on the other hand, people will look at a different side saying that in other large cities in Germany there is little integration and large scale unemployment.

    “We are mostly not talking about the educated, eager to integrate segment of Syrian and Iraqi society, so I don’t know if the argument about the upper middle class seeking to improve their lives economically really holds true here,” Nasr said.

    Talking about the economy in Europe and the West in general, Nasr said that in the “EU countries it is hard to maintain the glass-is-half-full-rosy-colored-scenario much longer. We are talking about unemployment figures that are astronomical not just in Greece but in Spain, Portugal even in Croatia, although figures have gone down from last year here but it is still very high, over 20% unemployment.”

    Looking at the situation in Europe, it explains why the refugees are going to those countries that can provide them with the benefits of social welfare and a better quality of life, such as Germany and Sweden.

    Considering another reason why these refugees are headed to Germany, Nasr said, “I am not opposed to arguments raised by some people saying that the German state has played its role as the central member of NATO in destabilizing Syria and Libya and causing therefore, political and social chaos on the ground which is responsible for this wave of refugees.”

    The journalist said that these arguments really resonate with him but the issue is that it won’t resonate with the ordinary people, for example, German workers. They will be resentful of this and it will cause tensions just like it already has in the eastern part of Germany. Nasr added that it doesn’t seem likely that people’s quality of life in the near future will improve because of the current economic conditions in Europe. “The benefits will be cut; salaries will be dropping so I don’t think people who are looking at it with rose colored glasses are going to be accurate in the long term,” Nasr concluded.”

  19. Finnish Pupils Try Walking in Refugees’ Shoes to Promote Integration (sputninknews, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://sputniknews.com/art_living/20161003/1045948615/finland-school-refugee-role-play.html

    “Border checks, dangerous journeys by bus and in rickety boats, refugee camps, angry traffickers and paperwork at the embassy. Over 200 Finnish pupils got to experience life as a refugee in an unconventional school outing.

    Last week, Finnish pupils took part in what was called “Refugee day,” arranged by Red Cross Åland in cooperation with Godby Secondary School and a number of other organizations. The students participated in the role play scenario aimed at acquainting the pupils with life as a refugee and they were even assigned code names to make the situation more realistic.

    “This is the second time we’ve held such an event. We hope that this will be able to counter xenophobia and increase the understanding of refugees’ situation. It is of special importance that some of the quota refugees, who arrived at the Åland archipelago in November, also took part in the role playing scenario, in the roles of aid workers of the Red Cross,” Olof Collin at the Red Cross Åland told Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.

    The adverse weather conditions, involving both wind and rain, were far from optimal for the events usually held at the school, yet helped to make the experience of being a refugee even more lifelike.

    Representatives of the Finnish news agency FNB were on the beach in Haraldsby, when a boat filled with “refugees” arrived. Schoolchildren, which were quickly driven by “smugglers” to the next stop, described the experience as “hard” and “cold.”

    “People have been screaming at us, forced us into the forest among the branches and shrubbery. The whole thing was very difficult. The hardest thing we had to endure was the sea voyage, which was very cold and wet,” a pupil said, as quoted by Hufvudstadsbladet.

    Last year, Finland took a record 32,476 asylum-seekers and 1,034 “quota refugees,” Finland’s Migration Service reported. About 20 of them have settled down on the Åland Islands, which are an autonomous Swedish-speaking region of Finland. The archipelago of roughly 30,000 enjoys a broad autonomy, maintaining its own government, police force and tax service. Åland’s contribution to Finland’s integration effort was largely criticized as “deficient,” with Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö of the right-wing populist Finns’ Party being among the most vocal critics. In particular, Ålandic Democracy, a local nationalist party, opposes receiving “high-risk” refugees.

    Previously, MP Teuvo Hakkarainen of the populist-nationalist Finns’ Party, which often clashes with the Swedish-speaking Åland, proposed that all the country’s homosexuals should be relegated to Åland. When last year’s migrant crisis was at its peak, the very same Hakkarainen proposed sending all incoming refugees to Åland since it was Finland’s richest province.”

  20. UK – ‘NHS CRAZY’ Doctor suspended over ‘racial discrimination’ against Muslim surgeon in hijab paid £50k to stay off work… even though he was cleared

    Vladislav Rogozov, 46, was cleared by the General Medical Council but is still not allowed back to work by NHS trust

    AN NHS trust has paid a doctor £50,000 to stay off work even after he was cleared of discriminating against a Muslim who refused to remove her hijab.

    Vladislav Rogozov, 46, was suspended after claiming a surgeon walked out of an op when he asked her to remove the headscarf.

    He has been cleared by the General Medical Council but is still not allowed back to work.

    The anaesthetist made the request as he feared the hijab, which he said was spattered with blood, may risk infecting the patient.

    The Czech-born doc worked at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

    He revealed the 2013 incident in an interview with an online blog.

    Dr Rogozov said: “After a long discussion held with respect, decency and factual arguments, the surgeon refused and left the operating room.”

    He also claimed Muslim staff took prayer breaks during ops and one doctor recited the Koran in surgery.

    The doctor, thought to earn £80,000 a year, was suspended in February.

    A source said: “It seems crazy the hospital trust are forking out thousands of pounds to a doctor who they won’t allow back to work.

    “It’s no secret the NHS is being squeezed for every penny, but this has dragged on for eight months unnecessarily.

    “The GMC reviewed the facts of the case and found he had no case to answer, so he is free to work again if the hospital will let him.”

    It is understood Dr Rogozov was informed by the GMC last month he had not breached medical protocols and would face no further action by the medical watchdog.

    The hospital’s investigation, meanwhile, remains ongoing.

    Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Trust said the GMC case resulted from a public complaint and it was conducting its own probe.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1894951/doctor-suspended-over-racial-discrimination-against-muslim-surgeon-in-hijab-paid-50k-to-stay-off-work-even-though-he-was-cleared/

  21. Clinton Campaign Cancels Joint Events With Bernie Sanders

    http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/02/clinton-sanders-split-campaign-trail/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29

    Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders are having a campaign-trail split following the leak of a recording in which Clinton disparaged Sanders’ younger supporters.

    Instead of having joint events on Monday, Sanders is going to Iowa and Wisconsin on Wednesday, reports TheHill.com.

    The split gives the establishment media three days to shift their attention away from Clinton’s recorded speech, where she showed contempt for Senders’ supporters.

    “There’s just a deep desire to believe that we can have free college, free healthcare, that what we’ve done hasn’t gone far enough, and that we just need to, you know, go as far as, you know, Scandinavia, whatever that means, and half the people don’t know what it means but it is something that they deeply feel,” she said.

  22. France: The Ticking Time Bomb of Islamization

    by Yves Mamou
    October 3, 2016 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9058/france-islamization

    Recently, two important studies about French Muslims were released in France. The first one, optimistically entitled, “A French Islam is Possible,” was published under the auspices of Institut Montaigne, an independent French think tank.

    The second study, entitled, “Work, the Company and the Religious Question,” is the fourth annual joint study between the Randstad Institute (a recruiting company) and the Observatory of Religious Experience at Work (Observatoire du fait religieux en entreprise, OFRE), a research company.

    Both studies, filling a huge knowledge-deficit on religious and ethnic demography, were widely reported in the media. France is a country well-equipped with demographers, scholars, professors and research institutes, but any official data or statistics based on race, origin or religion are prohibited by law.

    France has 66.6 million inhabitants, according to a report dated January 1, 2016 from the National Institute of Statistics (Insee). But census questionnaires prohibit any question about race, origin or religion. So in France, it is impossible to know how many Muslims, black people, white people, Catholics, Arabs, Jews, etc. live in the country.

    This prohibition is based on an old and once-healthy principle to avoid any discrimination in a country where “assimilation” is the rule. Assimilation, French-style, means that any foreigner who wants to live in the country has to copy the behavioral code of local population and marry a native quickly. This assimilation model worked perfectly for people of Spanish, Portuguese or Polish descent. But with Arabs and Muslims, it stopped.

  23. Which Nation is (Still) the Number One Sponsor of Terrorism?

    by Peter Huessy

    On September 14, the Iranian Foreign Minister wrote in the New York Times that, “coordinated action at the United Nations to cut off the funding for ideologies of hate and extremism” is needed along with “a willingness from the international community to investigate the channels that supply the cash and the arms” to terrorists. He concluded with an appeal to “join hands with the rest of the community of nations to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and violence that threatens us all.”

    Given that in 2015 alone there were some 11,774 terrorist attacks in 92 countries, killing 28,300 people, one can agree that such action is needed. The irony, of course, is that the US Department of State released its annual report in June on state sponsors of terrorism, and Iran was the gold medalist for the world’s number one terrorist nation — an honor it has held since 1984. Only two other countries were listed as state sponsors of terror: Syria and Sudan.

    Having Iran’s Foreign Minister call for an end to terrorism is like having Bonnie and Clyde call for law and order.

    The report makes clear, along with other available evidence, that much of the terrorism in the world is Iran’s handiwork — especially the terrorism directed at America.

    The report emphasized that Iran “remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to [terror] groups around the world.” Iran provided arms and cash to terrorist groups and to nearly 30 Shia terrorist militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Hezbollah, as well as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Shia militias in Bahrain.

    On September 13, 2015, the US Central Command officially reported that Iran is specifically responsible for killing at least 500 American soldiers through the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    And the current defense minister in Iran, appointed by President Rouhani, orchestrated the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 American soldiers.

  24. FBI Allowed 2 Hillary Aides To “Destroy” Their Laptops In Newly Exposed “Side Agreements”

    Just when you think the Hillary email scandal can’t get any more bizarre and corrupt, it does. According to a just released letter from the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte (R – Virginia), to Attorney General Lynch, the FBI apparently struck “side agreements” with both Cheryl Mills an Heather Samuelson to “destroy” their “laptops after concluding its search.”

    While we parse the letter to understand what basis for action the FBI may have had when pusuing such a course of action, we can’t help but note that the FBI appears to have acted as a co-conspirator in what appears to be an unprecedented case of destruction of key evidence.

    Below are some of the key excerpts from the letter (full document attached at the end of this post):

    As part of the Judiciary Committee’s ongoing oversight of Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State, the Justice Department (DOJ) provided in camera review’ of certain immunity agreements. After a specific request from the Committee, based on references made in the immunity agreements to certain “side agreements,” DOJ subsequently provided in camera review of those “side agreements” between DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Beth Wilkinson, the lawyer representing both Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson. Like many things about this case, these new materials raise more questions than answers. Please provide a written response to the below questions and make DOJ staff available for a briefing on this matter no later than October 10, 2016.

    1. Why did the FBI agree to destroy both Cheryl Mills’ and Heather Samuelson’s laptops after concluding its search?

    2. Doesn’t the willingness of Ms. Mills and Ms. Samuelson to have their laptops destroyed by the FBI contradict their claim that the laptops could have been withheld because they contained non-relevant, privileged information? If so, doesn’t that undermine the claim that the side agreements were necessary?

    7. Please explain why DOJ agreed to limit their search of the Mills and Samuelson laptops to a date no later than January 31, 2015 and therefore give up any opportunity to find evidence related to the destruction of evidence or obstruction of justice related to Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.

    8. Why was this time limit necessary when Ms. Mills and Ms. Samuelson were granted immunity for any potential destruction of evidence charges?

    9. Please confirm whether a grand jury was convened to investigate Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server. Disclosure is authorized under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)(3)(A)(i) and (e)(3)(D).

    Of course, since this will be promptly spun as just more “plumes of smoke” we hope people will stop trying to “criminalize behavior that is normal.”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-03/fbi-allowed-2-hillary-aides-destroy-their-laptops-newly-exposed-side-agreements

    • Goodlatte Presses Justice Department on Secret Agreements with Top Clinton Advisors

      Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today pressed Attorney General Loretta Lynch about a secret agreement to destroy the laptops of top advisors to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

      As part of the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing oversight of Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State, the Justice Department provided a private review of certain immunity agreements entered into during the investigation. The immunity agreements mentioned secret side agreements between the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Beth Wilkinson, the lawyer representing Cheryl Mills, chief of staff and counselor to Secretary Clinton, and Heather Samuelson, senior advisor to Secretary Clinton. After reviewing the side agreements, the Committee has learned that the FBI agreed to destroy Mills and Samuelson’s laptops after inspecting them.

      In his letter to Attorney General Lynch, Chairman Goodlatte calls on the Justice Department to provide information about the side agreements and answer the many questions they raise about the FBI’s investigation.

      Below is the text of the letter. The signed copy can be found here.

      October 3, 2016

      Dear Attorney General Lynch:

      As part of the Judiciary Committee’s ongoing oversight of Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State, the Justice Department (DOJ) provided in camera review of certain immunity agreements. After a specific request from the Committee, based on references made in the immunity agreements to certain “side agreements,” DOJ subsequently provided in camera review of those “side agreements” between DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Beth Wilkinson, the lawyer representing both Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson. Like many things about this case, these new materials raise more questions than answers. Please provide a written response to the below questions and make DOJ staff available for a briefing on this matter no later than October 10, 2016.

      Why did the FBI agree to destroy both Cheryl Mills’ and Heather Samuelson’s laptops after concluding its search?
      Doesn’t the willingness of Ms. Mills and Ms. Samuelson to have their laptops destroyed by the FBI contradict their claim that the laptops could have been withheld because they contained non-relevant, privileged information? If so, doesn’t that undermine the claim that the side agreements were necessary?
      Have these laptops, or the contents of the laptops, in fact been destroyed, thereby making follow up investigations by the FBI, or Congressional oversight, impossible?
      For both the Mills and Samuelson laptops please provide individual numbers on the following:
      How many total documents were reviewed by the FBI filter review team from the Mills and Samuelson laptops?
      How many documents did the FBI filter review team deem to be privileged and withhold from the FBI investigative team?
      How many documents were ultimately turned over from the Mills and Samuelson laptops to the FBI investigative team?
      How many documents were withheld from the FBI investigative team from each laptop for lack of relevancy?
      How many documents were withheld from the FBI investigative team because they fell outside the date range agreed to between DOJ and Ms. Wilkinson in the side letters dated June 10, 2016?
      Please indicate how many documents were withheld from the FBI investigative team because they were both not relevant AND outside the agreed upon date range.
      How many classified documents, broken down by national security classification level, were on each of the Mills and Samuelson laptops?
      Please provide the privilege log for all documents withheld by the filter review team from the FBI investigative team for both the Mills and Samuelson laptops. If no such log was created, please create one in the same manner the Department requires private parties to satisfy their obligations under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26.
      Please provide any opinion, memo, or other materials, whether formally endorsed or not, from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel, or the FBI Office of the General Counsel related to the following:
      DOJ and FBI procedures on privilege review.
      The validity of Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson’s claim of attorney client privilege with respect to Secretary Clinton.
      The ability of Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson to sit in on the investigative interview of Secretary Clinton.
      Please explain why DOJ agreed to limit their search of the Mills and Samuelson laptops to a date no later than January 31, 2015 and therefore give up any opportunity to find evidence related to the destruction of evidence or obstruction of justice related to Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.
      Why was this time limit necessary when Ms. Mills and Ms. Samuelson were granted immunity for any potential destruction of evidence charges?
      Please confirm whether a grand jury was convened to investigate Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server. Disclosure is authorized under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)(3)(A)(i) and (e)(3)(D).
      Please confirm whether the immunity agreements listed on n. 2 and the “side agreements” between Beth Wilkinson and DOJ, dated June 10, 2016, are the entirety of the immunity agreements granted as part of the Department’s investigation into Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.

      https://judiciary.house.gov/press-release/goodlatte-presses-justice-department-secret-agreements-top-clinton-advisors/

  25. A Shia cleric explains Islam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8lm4ifR_EI
    Apologists often say there are many types of Islam(when b/n 80 and 90% are Sunnis). Here the second biggest branch is explained.
    Surely there are peacedul sects, like the Ahmadis and the Suffis, but they are a tiny (and persecuted for heresy) minorities.

  26. AP – US suspends contacts with Russia on Syria

    WASHINGTON – The State Department says the U.S. is suspending bilateral contacts with Russia over Syria. That comes after last week’s threat by Secretary of State John Kerry to suspend contacts amid new attacks on the city of Aleppo.

    The department said in a statement Monday that Russia had not lived up to the terms of an agreement last month to restore the cease-fire and ensure sustained deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged cities.

    As part of the suspension, the U.S. is withdrawing personnel that it had dispatched to take part in the creation of a joint U.S.-Russia center. That center was to have coordinated military cooperation and intelligence if the cease-fire had taken hold. The suspension will not affect communications between the two countries aimed at de-conflicting counter-terrorism operations in Syria.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-suspends-contacts-with-russia-on-syria/2016/10/03/ee95feac-8990-11e6-8cdc-4fbb1973b506_story.html
    ===============================================
    sputniknews- State Dept: Washington Halts Bilateral Contact With Moscow Over Syria

    According to the US State Department, the US has officially stopped all bilateral contact with Russia on Syria.

    “The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the Cessation of Hostilities,” US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday.

    The US will withdraw personnel who were preparing to establish the Joint Implementation Center (JIC). Kirby added that channels will remain open to address air operations over Syria.

    Kirby also blamed the Russian and Syrian governments for the collapse of the ceasefire, though it was a US strike on Syrian government positions that started renewed fighting.

    “Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments — including its obligations under international humanitarian law and UNSCR 2254 — and was also either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherrence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed,” Kirby’s statement said.

    On September 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new peace plan to address the conflict in Syria. The ceasefire deal was later shattered by numerous violations, which resulted in intensified fighting between the Syrian government and militants in Aleppo. The Syrian government later announced an end to the ceasefire regime.

    Earlier on Monday, Lavrov stressed the importance of upholding the Syrian agreements.

    “We are convinced that the strict implementation [of these agreements] could help establish efficient coordination in the fight against terrorism, strengthen the ceasefire regime and expand access to civilian population in need of humanitarian aid.”

    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20161003/1045961362/us-halts-russia-cooperation-syria.html

  27. Turkey: Erdogan condemns EU for failing to deliver €3 bln for refugees

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reproached the EU for failing to keep its promise of providing €3 billion ($3.40 billion) as part of the EU-Turkey refugee deal, in Ankara on Monday.

    SOT, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish President (Turkish): ”They [the EU countries] have promised €3 billion. Only €179 million has arrived, which is not coming for us but for refugees directly. The deadline for what has been promised is over. The year is coming to an end. Supposedly, there is another €3 billion. They [the EU countries] give promises but never keep them. We will not be an impostor nor are we going to be gullible. Whether they will give it or not, we will place our humanitarian, conscientious and religious responsibilities onto [helping] those people who are fleeing the bombs.”

  28. Germany: ‘Fortress Europe’ protesters demand closure of borders in Dresden

    Several dozen supporters of the extreme-right, anti-refugee and anti-Muslim ‘Fortress Europe’ (Festung Europa) movement rallied at Dresden’s ‘Blue Wonder’ on Monday.

    SOT, Tatjana Festerling, Fortress Europe leader (German): “We are in war against the great delusion of pluralism, the politicians and the psychopaths who make it possible to use the Afro-Arabian invasion and Islam as a weapon of mass destruction against us.”

  29. Italy: more than 6,000 migrants rescued in sea off Libya

    ROME – The Italian coast guard says 6,055 migrants have been rescued in one day in the Mediterranean off Libya. Nine bodies were recovered.

    The coast guard said it coordinated a total of 39 rescues Monday in the sea about 30 miles north of Tripoli. Smugglers took advantage of the first day of calm seas after days of rough waters to launch vessels crowded with migrants who pay them in hopes of reaching European shores.

    Most of the vessels were rubber dinghies, but there were also two rafts.

    Doctors Without Borders said the dead included a 23-year-old pregnant woman.

    Italian coast guard and navy ships, as well as vessels in European Frontex sea patrols and several humanitarian organizations, participated in the rescues.

    Two migrants needing medical care were flown to Sicily’s Lampedusa island

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/10/03/italy-more-than-6000-migrants-rescued-in-sea-off-libya.html

  30. Man stabbed to death in Danish asylum centre (thelocal, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20161003/man-stabbed-to-death-in-danish-asylum-centre

    “North Zealand Police said on Monday that a man who was found dead at Center Sandholm on Sunday had been killed in an apparent stabbing.

    “The man was stabbed several times with a knife and the North Zealand Police are investigating it as a murder case,” a police press release said.

    Police said that the stabbing appeared to be the result of some sort of disagreement between residents at the Center Sandholm.

    Police said a 34-year-old man who until recently lived at the centre was a person of interest…”

  31. Police probe Copenhagen shootings for connection (thelocal, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20161003/police-probe-three-copenhagen-shootings-for-possible-connection

    “Three shootings in the greater Copenhagen area in under 24 hours on Sunday have police investigating whether the incidents could be related…

    Næstved was also home to a shooting on Friday night in which a 30-year-old man was struck multiple times in what police said was a gang-related conflict. One person was arrested for that shooting.”

  32. Tunisia sentences 31 to death for attack on minister (ahram, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/245158/World/Region/Tunisia-sentences–to-death-for-attack-on-minister.aspx

    “A Tunisian court has handed 31 people death sentences over a 2014 attack on the home of then interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou, a judiciary spokesman said on Monday.

    The 31, who included Algerians as well as Tunisians, were sentenced in absentia and some are reported to be already dead.

    Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed the attack on the minister’s family home in the western border region of Kasserine, which left four police officers dead.

    Ben Jeddou was not in the house at the time.

    Those convicted were found guilty of “wilful homicide and membership of a terrorist group” and were also sentenced to 36 years in prison.

    A total of 46 people were prosecuted over the attack, said the spokesman for Tunis district court, Sofiene Sliti.

    Among the 15 remaining defendants, eight were sentenced to between three and 10 years in jail for “membership of a terrorist group” and “involvement in terrorism-related matters”.

    The court, which issued the rulings on Friday, dismissed cases against the remaining seven, Sliti told AFP.

    Among the 31 sentenced to death were Seifallah Ben Hassine, an associate of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and founder of the militant group Ansar al-Sharia…”

  33. President Erdo?an: UN a burden on humanity (hurriyetdailynews, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/president-erdogan-un-a-burden-on-humanity.aspx?pageID=238&nID=104507&NewsCatID=338

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has sent strong messages to the European Union over its attitude toward Turkey and the United States over its policies in the Middle East.

    The EU must decide whether it wants to continue on its path with or without Turkey, Erdo?an said, describing the ongoing impasse between Ankara and Brussels as “the end of the game.”

    “If the EU wants to admit Turkey as a full member based on an objective assessment, there is no obstacle to that. We are ready. But if they have no intention of admitting us and think they can continue stalling the process through unreasonable demands, they are wrong. They should know that that game is over,” Erdo?an said Oct. 1.

    “It’s the EU’s choice whether to continue on its path with or without Turkey. They will make that choice themselves. They should not try to throw this responsibility on our shoulders through their cunning tactics,” he added.

    Turkey and the EU have been engaged in longstanding negotiations over visa exemptions to Turkish citizens in return for implementing a readmission agreement as part of a broader agreement between the two to stop the mass flow of refugees through the Aegean Sea. The two sides earlier agreed to put the visa waiver deal into effect in June, before the date was pushed backed to October.

    “October is important in terms of our relations with the EU. As you all know, the visa-free regime that the European Union promised to Turkey is supposed to enter into force this month,” Erdo?an said during an address to parliament for the start of the legislative year, claiming that Brussels was attempting to make Turkey compromise “in the fight against terrorism.”

    “Let me be clear on this: This attitude is an explicit manifestation of the fact that the European Union does not want to keep its promise to Turkey. Let me be clearer still: Let them decide!” he added.

    Turkey criticizes US over ‘inconsistency in Middle East’

    Erdo?an also slammed the U.S. for the “inconsistency and disjointedness” of its policies on the Middle East, as one part of the Obama administration continues to insist on allying with Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), an organization that Ankara regards as an associate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

    “We are making efforts to continue our relations with the U.S. in the spirit of our traditional alliance.

    However, we have been witnessing grave signs of inconsistency and disjointedness in U.S. policies in our region, particularly in recent times,” Erdo?an said.

    “A section of the U.S. administration insists on working jointly with the PKK/PYD-YPG [People’s Protection Units] terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq, while another section tries to pursue policies that are sympathetic to our sensitivities,” he added.

    Ankara believes that the Department of Defense is in favor of continuing cooperation with the PYD, particularly in the upcoming Raqqa operation, while the State Department has urged the administration to be sensitive to Ankara’s concerns.

    “This situation is apparently caused by the upcoming presidential elections in the U.S., so we will continue to work to solve this problem without harming the vital interests of our country,” Erdo?an said.

    ‘Turkey should be at Syria table’

    Addressing Turkey’s unilateral Euphrates Shield Operation targeting ISIL and the PYD in northern Syria, Erdo?an stressed that the move had stopped the PYD from linking two of its cantons through a “terrorist corridor” along Turkey’s southern borders.

    “The successful continuation of the operation has shown us that if the necessary support is provided, Syria can fight DAESH [an Arabic acronym of ISIL] with its own children. The argument of those who try to use one terrorist organization, the PYD-YPG, to fight against DAESH, has been refuted with the Euphrates Shield Operation,” he said.

    “We as Turkey cannot stay away from the table. We have to be at the table,” Erdo?an stressed, recalling that Turkey shares a 911-kilometer border with Syria and a nearly 350-kilometer border with Iraq.

    ‘Anti-Saudi bill unfortunate’

    Another issue that Erdo?an raised in his address to parliament was legislation recently passed by the U.S. Congress, allowing lawsuits to be filed against Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 attacks, describing the legislation as “unfortunate.”

    “First of all, this legislation is clearly against the ‘personal nature of criminal responsibility,’ a universal legal principle. We are hoping that this wrong step will soon be taken back, as it has the potential to create a dangerous debate over the sovereign rights of states,” he said.”

  34. Former torture methods reemerge in Turkish prisons: Human Rights Association (hurriyetdailynews, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/former-torture-methods-reemerge-in-turkish-prisons-human-rights-association.aspx?PageID=238&NID=103887&NewsCatID=339

    “Notorious former prison torture methods have reemerged during the state of emergency declared after the July 15 failed coup attempt, in addition to overcrowding and poor conditions in Turkey’s jails, according to the Human Rights Association (?HD).

    The association’s lawyer, Gülseren Yoleri, said rights violations started immediately after the arrests were made following the failed seizure of power, believed to have been masterminded by the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ).

    “Being detained for 30 days and getting no help from lawyers is torture in itself. Law and justice are necessary for everybody,” Yoleri told daily Cumhuriyet on Sept. 14, describing what the ?HD has monitored in Istanbul’s Silivri Prison.

    “There are preventions regarding [medical] treatment. They are saying, ‘We can’t take you to hospitals due to the state of emergency.’ The prison is also full beyond its capacity. Inmates are having to sleeping in turns due to lack of space,” she added.

    Yoleri also noted that inmates crammed into small cells had to take turns at windows in order to get fresh air.

    “Many have been experiencing health problems and some are thinking about engaging in a hunger strike. There is chaos in the prisons. Disciplinary punishments have increased. Strip searches are obligatory when entering and exiting cells. When one rejects it, violence steps in,” she said.

    ?HD lawyer Yoleri cited the case of a female teacher who applied to the ?HD to describe the torture she experienced.

    “She said, ‘I saw my husband on the fourth day of his detention and he had bruises on his face. When I asked what happened, they told me that they could also detain me. He was very scared and I was threatened,’” she said.

    Also saying the ?HD had two weeks ago visited the districts of ??rnak and Nusaybin in Turkey’s restive southeast, Yoleri stated that she heard about torture in detention centers there too.

    “They said, ‘The old methods of torture have reemerged. They described the torture tools used, including ones with electricity,’” she said.”

  35. LE PEN BOMBSHELL: Shock poll shows growing number of French back anti-migration hardliner (express, Oct 3, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/717073/National-Front-party-Marine-Le-Pen-poll-France-anti-migration

    “THE French presidential race has been rocked after a opinion poll showed leader of the National Front party, Marine Le Pen, is by far the most popular political figure among right-wing supporters, and also gaining ground among left-wing circles.

    According to the poll carried out by Odoxa for French television station France 2, 74 per cent of those who consider themselves ‘conservative’ and who claim to support right-wing politics want the head of the country’s leading anti-immigrant party to play a more influential role in French politics, both now and in the future.

    Only 53 per cent of right-wing supporters claimed to feel the same way about France’s former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, and 67 per cent for Alain Juppé, who is currently favoured to win the spring 2017 presidential election.

    The opinion poll also said 50 per cent of the French population – both left and right-wing – think that Ms Le Pen is a ‘major’ political player and that she should be given more power.

    Only 33 per cent said the same thing about Mr Sarkozy, and 27 per cent about Mr Hollande…”

  36. Hillary Clinton considered drone attack on Julian Assange – report (RT, Oct 3, 2016)
    https://www.rt.com/usa/361459-secretary-clinton-drone-assange/

    “Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reportedly wanted to drone Wikileaks founder Julian Assange when she was secretary of state.

    According to True Pundit, Clinton and the state department were under pressure to silence Assange and Wikileaks in the months before the whistleblowing site released a massive dump of 250,000 diplomatic cables from 1966 up to 2010, dubbed CableGate.

    “Can’t we just drone this guy?” Clinton asked, according to unidentified state department sources.

    Published by True Pundit on Sunday, Wikileaks posted a link to the story on their official Twitter account on Monday, along with a screenshot of the article.

    Clinton and the state department held numerous meetings to discuss what could be done about Assange and his site which had already exposed damning military secrets about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq before the promised document dump was to come. The department was under pressure from both the White House and foreign governments to silence Wikileaks.

    True Pundit reports the people in the room with Clinton on November 23, 2010 laughed at her comment, until it became clear that the then-secretary of state was serious. Clinton was reportedly fuming and referred to Assange as a “soft target.”

    After Clinton’s drone suggestion, the state department considered offering a reward to anyone whose help secured the Australian journalist’s capture and extradition to the US. Unnamed sources reported a $10 million price was discussed at the meeting.

    Following the meeting, Clinton aide Ann-Marie Slaughter emailed Clinton and aides Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan with the subject, “RE an SP memo on possible legal and nonlegal strategies re Wikileaks.”…”

  37. Ashura is next week —- October 11th

    video – Iranians getting ready to celebrate covering themselves with mud

  38. Russia deploys advanced anti-missile system to Syria for first time, US officials say

    Russia has deployed an advanced anti-missile system to Syria for the first time, three US officials tell Fox News, the latest indication that Moscow continues to ramp up its military operations in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

    It comes after Russia’s actions led to the collapse of a cease-fire and the cut-off of direct talks with the U.S.

    While Moscow’s motives are not certain, officials say the new weapon system could potentially counter any American cruise missile attack in Syria.

    Components of the SA-23 Gladiator anti-missile and anti-aircraft system, which has a range of roughly 150 miles, arrived over the weekend “on the docks” of a Russian naval base along Syria’s Mediterranean coastal city of Tartus, two US officials said.

    It is the first time Russia has deployed the SA-23 system outside its borders, according to one Western official citing a recent intelligence assessment. The missiles and associated components are still in their crates and are not yet operational, according to the officials.

    The U.S. intelligence community has been observing the shipment of the SA-23 inside Russia in recent weeks, according to one official.

    While the purpose is not clear, one US official asked sarcastically, “Nusra doesn’t have an air force do they?” speaking about the Al Qaeda-linked group in Syria. The Islamic State also does not fly any manned aircraft or possess cruise missiles, in a sign that Russia is directing its actions to protect itself against any potential attack from the United States or its allies.

    The SA-23 can fire two different types of missiles. A smaller missile is used against aircraft and cruise missiles and is known by NATO as Gladiator. The larger missile is used against intermediate-range ballistic missiles and jamming aircraft and is known as Giant. Both missiles use the same type of warhead containing over 300 pounds of explosives, according to military-today.com.

    Three years ago, President Obama weighed military action against the Assad regime’s chemical weapons facilities as well as airbases housing the regime’s attack helicopters and jets. US Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean were prepared to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in a limited strike to cripple the regime.

    Russia deployed a separate air defense system, the S-400, to Syria after a Russian jet was shot down by a Turkish warplane last November. Since the S-400 deployment, the U.S. military has been careful about flying manned aircraft inside the range of the system, despite repeated pledges by the US military that its airstrikes in Syria are focused on ISIS, not the Assad regime.

    Monday, the Pentagon announced it conducted an airstrike potentially killing a “prominent” al-Qaeda linked operative in Syria. Officials said they were still assessing the strike and have not released the name of their target.

    Hours after the State Department announced it was cutting off talks with Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said he had suspended a Russia-U.S. deal on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium. Putin’s decree released by the Kremlin cited Washington’s “unfriendly actions.”

    Top US officials have recently accused Russia and the Syrian regime of indiscriminant bombing in Syria using incendiary and bunker busting bombs on civilians. Two weeks ago, a UN aid convoy was bombed, killing dozens of aid workers attempting to deliver critical supplies to the more than 200,000 Aleppo residents trapped inside the eastern portion of the city, once Syria’s most populated. In the past week, hundreds of civilians, including children, have been killed, according to local reports.

    Russia began its air campaign in Syria on Sept. 30, 2015 following a weeks-long buildup of fighter jets and attack aircraft. Long-range bombers flying from Russia and Iran have also been used to attack Syrian rebels, some backed by the United States.

    Days after Russian bombs started falling in Syria, President Obama predicted that Russia and Iran would find themselves mired in a “quagmire.”

    “[A]n attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire. And it won’t work,” he told reporters in a White House press conference on Oct. 2, 2015.

    On Friday, the one-year anniversary of the Russian strikes, the State Department acknowledged that Russia had succeeded in its goal of propping up the Assad regime.

    “It is a grim anniversary…It is hard not to assess that they have succeeded in bolstering the regime,” said Mark Toner, a State Dept. spokesman.

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/10/03/russia-deploys-advanced-anti-missile-system-to-syria-for-first-time-us-officials-say.html

    UN: Churkin discusses US-Russian relations as Russia takes on UNSC presidency