Reader’s links for October 16 – 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

87 Replies to “Reader’s links for October 16 – 2016”

  1. U.S. warship targeted in failed missile attack from Yemen: official

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Navy destroyer was targeted on Saturday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, the third such incident in the past week, U.S. officials said.

    Multiple surface-to-surface missiles were fired at the USS Mason sailing in international waters in the Red Sea but the warship used on-board countermeasures to defend itself and was not hit, one defense official said, citing initial information.

    The latest attack could provoke further retaliation by the U.S. military, which launched cruise missiles on Thursday against three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen in response to the two previous failed missile firings against the Mason.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-warship-again-targeted-failed-missile-attack-yemen-000745899.html

    Richard: Video at site.

    • I wonder what Obama is going to do this time? He sure isn’t going to react as harshly as he should. In between his hatred of the US and his attempts to damage or destroy us and the lefts hatred of the US and the useful idiots thinking that surrendering will always prevent violence the world is in a real big mess. One that will take many years and a lot of lives to straighten out.

        • Either Iran or Iranian puppets. Either way Obama isn’t going to fight, to actually fight would prove that his foreign policy has been wrong from day1.

  2. “,,,blaming the rise of Trumpism on alternative media…”

    I think these words sort it out quite nicely. This article gives us another heads up about government Internet control. Obama slowly disrobes, like a stripper teasing, until once the average, stupid dolt sees him for the monster he is it is way too late. Boiled frog, anyone?

    http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/10/14/obama-enters-the-media-wars-why-his-recent-attack-on-free-speech-is-so-dangerous-and-radical/

    • President Obama:
      “The answer is obviously not censorship, but it’s creating places where people can say ‘this is reliable’ and I’m still able to argue safely about facts and what we should do about it.”

      Creating a safe space for ideas made public is the same as a having schools with gun-control… one sociopath can turn the place into a Mecca.

    • I know it’s easy to forget about the pipeline beginnings of this war, which were quite well documented at the time if you go back to sites like zerohedge in those days, complete with maps showing competing NG proposed pipelines. And don’t forget, too, that much of it was about spoiling the Russian near-monopoly on NG supply to Europe, so this has some credibility.

      • That was part of it, even a big part but nothing is that simple, there were other reasons including Obama’s work to destroy all European influence in the Middle East. The pipeline was pushed to remove the grip Russia had and to an extent still has on Western Europe through their being one of the major suppliers of natural gas. That grip was loosened when the US started exporting natural gas.

        I doubt if we will ever know all of the reasons for the Iraqi war, I do know that it has morphed into a religious war on the part of the Moslems and a Hegemonic war (in part) by the Russians. And we must remember that the left in the west is working hard to weaken the west so they can take over, this is a good reason to go into a war that will generate a lot of “refugees” to flood Western Europe.

  3. Here’s the question I always have about these reductionist arguments that pipelines/oil are responsible for wars:

    Has this war been less costly than the value of the gas that is carried in that pipeline?

    I seriously doubt it.

    There have been billions spent on the war, and the war endangers the world.

    Is it really reasonable to think that the evil United States, Russia and France would spend billions to manufacture a terrible and dangerous war so that we could, maybe, get rid of Assad, and maybe make the same billions back, maybe even lose billions in the end?

    In the real business world, a business is deemed to be worth about 11% – 18% of annual sales + inventory.

    • Buying the gas would have been cheaper, but on several sides the idea was to prevent the pipelines. As I said above the pipelines were part of the reason for the war but the religious motives are larger as are Russias hegemonic reasons. These are partially fueled by Putins desire to rebuild and the Russian Empire/Soviet Union and partially by a desire to get Iran to step on the Sunnis so the Sunni Moslems in Russia will keep quiet.

      We in the west want simple motives that are easy to understand but reality rarely has simply motives especially when you are talking about the actions of 2 or more nations.

      • Yes, that makes sense.

        Territory expansion motivated by a sense of nostalgia is more important to Putin than mere economics.

        • But then, what is the motivation of France, England, and the US, who are implicated in this Pipeline conspiracy?

          The motivation is simply stoping Putin’s expansion?

          The motivation is also to play Assad against Shias agains Sunnis?

          The motivation is also, for Obama, to take America down a notch by not having us act in our own self-interest.

          The motivation is also, for Obama, not to be pro-active, but to let the Muslims work it out for themselves.

          The motivation is also, for Obama, to have as little ISIS bleed-over into the US as possible so that he can continue his reign through the Democrat Party’s beating Trump in the election. (This would not have been so important to Obama – who hates the Clintons – were Jeb Bush to have been the nominee).

          • Your learning, any and all of them could be part of the mix. Think about what is in other nations best interest and which are the most likely.

            The one on Putin add in that the more turmoil in the Mideast the fewer terror attacks in Russia and the less attention the world pays to his actions in the breakaway Republics and Eastern Europe.

    • It’s not about Syrian oil, but about running a pipeline through Syria.

      It’s not about profits, but about leverage over Russian monopoly and influence in European fuel supply.

      It’s not about human lives if lives are not the priority.

      You ignore the weapons contractors’ lobby for promoting war for profit.

      Who’s the Reductionist now?

      • I get what you’re saying. But the notion that War is for Oil is reductionist, and, as an argument, it is essentially Communist in it’s methodology, using Economics as the primary driving factor in the shaping of history.

  4. Another example of Hungary turning east out of necessity in preparation of Huxit (if required), opening trade doors for not just Hungary but the V4 as well, I am sure, in order to retain the support between the central European partners.

  5. Liberals seem not to understand the danger of burying reminders of the past they find troubling

    George Santayana must be turning over in his grave. He is the essayist and philosopher known best for his admonition that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

    Throughout much of the Obama years, we have seen wholesale efforts to erase a past that liberals find too odious to contemplate, especially the chapter of American that includes the enslavement of African blacks. In the interests of racial healing, we are told, statues have been torn from their foundations and Confederate flags have been lowered for the last time.

    The problem with this type of cleansing, as with book burning, is not only that the past is prologue and as such offers lessons for future generations. It is also that a too-broad brush is being used to wipe away reminders of “America’s original sin.” Distinguishing good from evil, innocence from guilt, is not all that easy.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/10/15/liberals-seem-not-understand-danger-burying-reminders-past-find-troubling/

    • Suspects blow up themselves, 3 officers killed in ISIL raids in Gaziantep (hurriyetdailynews, Oct 16, 2016)
      http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/suspects-blow-up-themselves-3-officers-killed-in-isil-raids-in-gaziantep.aspx?pageID=238&nID=105007&NewsCatID=341

      “Three police officers were killed and eight others were wounded on Oct. 16 in an explosion that occurred when a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant detonated himself during a raid on a house in the ?ahinbey district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep, while another suspect also detonated himself during a separate operation in the province.

      The raid came after Gaziantep police received information about a cell that was suspected of plotting a suicide bomb attack on an Alevi cultural association center in the city. Arriving the Güneykent neighborhood of ?ahinbey and closing the entrances and exits to the area, police entered the cell house. After seeing the police, a militant inside the house reportedly detonated himself.

      Three police officers were killed in the explosion and eight people, four of whom are of Syrian origin, were wounded, Gaziantep Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said as he visited the scene. The governor also said an ISIL militant was found dead at the scene after the explosion.

      Gaziantep police on Sept. 17 detained a suspected ISIL militant who possessed pictures of a cemevi, a house of worship used by adherents of the Alevi sect, and was confirmed to be preparing a terror attack.

      Interrogating the suspect after his detention, police confirmed a terror attack plot targeting the cemevi in the Düztepe neighborhood of Gaziantep and initiated wide measures around the house of worship, suspecting the attack still could be carried by militants in contact with the detainee.

      On Sept. 23 police had also taken extensive measures upon intelligence of a possible bomb attack by ISIL targeting Friday prayers.

      Security measures were taken in all mosques across Gaziantep as police closed roads and put barricades around the central Ulu Camii. Worshippers were only able to enter the mosque after a body search.

      Militant detonates self in second raid

      Police teams, meanwhile, initiated a search inside the house and seized a computer and hard disks for further inspection.

      Meanwhile, a couple of hours after the initial operation at the ISIL cell house, police teams conducted another raid on an apartment in the Burak neighborhood of the Gazikent district in Gaziantep as they suspected a link between the two addresses.

      In the raid, another explosion occurred on the third and fourth floors of the apartment as another ISIL militant reportedly detonated himself during the operation.

      The suspect was identified as Mehmet Kadir Cabel, ISIL’s provincial leader who was tasked with planning attacks, providing financial support and administering the suicide bomb cells in the city for the group, according to security sources.

      Cabel’s two children and wife were captured alive in the operation.”

  6. New FBI files contain allegations of ‘quid pro quo’ in Clinton’s emails

    FBI interview summaries and notes, provided late Friday to the House Government Oversight and Intelligence Committees, contain allegations of a “quid pro quo” between a senior State Department executive and FBI agents during the Hillary Clinton email investigation, two congressional sources told Fox News.

    “This is a flashing red light of potential criminality,” Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who has been briefed on the FBI interviews, told Fox News.

    He said “there was an alleged quid pro quo” involving Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy and the FBI “over at least one classified email.”

    “In return for altering the classification, the possibility of additional slots for the FBI at missions overseas was discussed,” Chaffetz said.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/16/new-fbi-files-contain-allegations-quid-pro-quo-in-clintons-emails.html

  7. French police clash with migrants at Calais camp ‘the Jungle’

    French police clashed heavily with refugees and migrants for several hours at the makeshift Calais camp also known as ‘the Jungle’.
    Police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets against the migrants, later charging the crowds of people gathered at the edge of the camp. The migrants threw rocks and tear gas shells back at officers. There were no known casualties.

  8. The Vatican Submits to Islam (2006-2016)

    by Giulio Meotti

    If 9/11 was the declaration of jihad against the West, 9/12 will be remembered as one of the most dramatic knee-bends of the Western cultural submission to Islam.

    On September 12th 2006, Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) landed in Bavaria, Germany, where he was born and first taught theology. He was expected to deliver a lecture in front of the academic community at the University of Regensburg. That lesson would go down to history as the most controversial papal speech of the last half-century.

    On this, the 10th anniversary of the speech, the Western world and the Islamic world both owe Benedict an apology, but unfortunately, the opposite happened: the Vatican has apologized to the Muslims.

    In his lecture, Pope Benedict clarified the internal contradictions of contemporary Islam, but he also offered a terrain of dialogue with Christianity and Western culture. The Pope spoke of the Jewish, Greek and Christian roots of Europe’s faith, explaining why these are different from Islamic monotheism. His talk contained a quote from the Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman”.

    This keg of dynamite was softened by a quotation from a Koranic sura of Mohammed’s youth, Benedict noted, “when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat”, and which says: “There is no compulsion in religion.”

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9120/vatican-islam

  9. The Soviet-Palestinian Lie

    The recent discovery that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), was a KGB spy in Damascus in 1983, was discarded by many in the mainstream media as a “historical curiosity” — except that the news inconveniently came out at the time that President Vladimir Putin was trying to organize new talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Predictably, the Palestinian Authority immediately dismissed the news. Fatah official Nabil Shaath denied that Abbas was ever a KGB operative, and called the claim a “smear campaign.”

    The discovery, far from being a “historical curiosity,” is an aspect of one of many pieces in the puzzle of the origins of 20th and 21st century Islamic terrorism. Those origins are almost always obfuscated and obscured in ill-concealed attempts at presenting a particular narrative about the causes of contemporary terrorism, while decrying all and any evidence to the contrary as “conspiracy theories.”

    There is nothing conspiratorial about the latest revelation. It comes from a document in the Mitrokhin archives at the Churchill Archives Center at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Vasily Mitrokhin was a former senior officer of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence service, who was later demoted to KGB archivist. At immense risk to his own life, he spent 12 years diligently copying secret KGB files that would not otherwise have become available to the public (the KGB foreign intelligence archives remain sealed from the public, despite the demise of the Soviet Union). When Mitrokhin defected from the Russia in 1992, he brought the copied files with him to the UK. The declassified parts of the Mitrokhin archives were brought to the public eye in the writings of Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew, who co-wrote The Mitrokhin Archive (published in two volumes) together with the Soviet defector. Mitrokhin’s archives led, among other things, to the discovery of many KGB spies in the West and elsewhere.

    Unfortunately, the history of the full extent of the KGB’s influence and disinformation operations is not nearly as well-known as it should be, considering the immense influence that the KGB wielded on international affairs. The KGB conducted hostile operations against NATO as a whole, against democratic dissent within the Soviet bloc, and set in motion subversive events in Latin America and the Middle East, which resonate to this day.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9090/soviet-union-palestinians

  10. Survey: Almost 50% of Americans Say No to Mosques Near Them
    According to Chapman University nearly half of respondents said they would oppose the construction of any mosques near them.

    Almost half of Americans would feel uncomfortable with a mosque in their neighborhood, according to a recent poll conducted by Chapman University in California.

    The third annual survey of American fears polled 1,511 Americans about what they feared most.

    Some 41 percent of respondents said they feared a terrorist attack on the nation, the thing Americans feared the second most, after government corruption (60.6%). “Roughly one third” responded that “Muslims are more likely to be terrorists and that the Muslim immigration should be banned,” according to The Orange County Register.

    This week, a seven-year-old boy from Florida was beaten by his classmates in an alleged anti-Muslim attack that pushed his parents to leave the country and return to Pakistan.

    Abdul Aziz was in first grade in Cary, North Carolina, when his classmates tried to force him to eat non-halal food. When he refused five of his classmates punched him in the face, kicked him in the stomach and twisted his arm while shouting “Muslim, Muslim” at him.

    “He was born and raised [in the United States]. He was born in Florida. As American as you can think of. He likes Captain America. He wants to be president of the United States of America,” his father Usmani told The Huffington Post, speaking over Skype from Pakistan.

    https://www.clarionproject.org/news/survey-almost-50-americans-say-no-mosques-near-them

  11. Netherlands – October 2014 – Dutch schoolchildren at the mosque

    pic :

    http://oi66.tinypic.com/2nuul2t.jpg

    ==================================================
    Article in Italian :

    La scuola olandese sottomette i bimbi ad Allah

    La nostra sottomissione? Sta in questa fotografia. Dove le maestre costringono gli scolari a pregare Allah

    La foto risale al 30 ottobre 2014. Mostra bambini e bambine della scuola elementare di Vinkenbuurt, olandesi autoctoni biondissimi, prostrati per terra a pregare Allah nella moschea Ghulzar-e-Madina a Zwolle, capoluogo della provincia di Overijssel, nella zona centro-orientale dell’Olanda. Vinkenbuurt è un villaggio di appena 300 anime. La visita alla moschea rientrava nel progetto «Altre culture». L’imam Maulana Tahier Wagid Hosain Noorani ha accolto calorosamente i bambini, ha risposto in modo divertente e comprensibile alle loro domande, ha fatto loro ripetere le lettere dell’alfabeto arabo, ovviamente ha elogiato l’islam quale religione di pace e di amore. Quindi ha mostrato loro come pregano i musulmani e, quasi come in un gioco, i bambini hanno voluto imitarlo. Bambini e bambine che si sottomettono all’islam tra lo sguardo quasi divertito delle loro professoresse eccezionalmente ammesse in moschea senza velo. Le adulte che non partecipano al rito di iniziazione alla fede islamica, restando «fuori campo», ma che tuttavia hanno patrocinato e acconsentito alla resa dei propri figli all’islam, sembrano raffigurare la nostra Europa decadente e relativista che affida rassegnata e sconfitta il proprio futuro alla forza e al fascino del culto di Allah e alla venerazione di Maometto. Quest’immagine potrebbe passare alla Storia come uno dei momenti emblematici del processo di islamizzazione dell’Europa. Due anni fa questi bambini si sono ingenuamente prostrati in moschea emulando le gesta dei fedeli servitori di Allah. È possibile che questi stessi bambini, tra dieci o venti anni, tornino a pregare nelle moschee da convertiti all’islam o siano costretti a farlo nel contesto di un’Olanda islamizzata sul piano demografico, ideologico e politico.

    Se finora ci siamo concentrati sulla guerra scatenata dai terroristi islamici che sgozzano, decapitano, massacrano e si fanno esplodere, se finora abbiamo individuato nell’immagine degli aerei conficcati nelle Due Torri Gemelle lo spartiacque della nostra Storia contemporanea quale culmine della capacità aggressiva del terrorismo islamico globalizzato, è ora di prendere atto che l’immagine dei bambini cristiani di fede o di tradizione che si prostrano ad Allah in una moschea d’Europa è di gran lunga più devastante perché attesta il successo islamico di sottometterci all’interno stesso di casa nostra, scardinando la nostra civiltà degradata, scoperchiando l’inconsistenza della nostra spiritualità nichilista, conquistando la nostra anima frantumata dal relativismo che ci ha sottratto la nozione di verità, imponendo l’islam come l’alternativa al tracollo del nostro sistema di valori e di regole.

    Quest’immagine ci fa toccare con mano come la sottomissione dell’Europa all’islam sarà la conseguenza del suicidio della nostra civiltà più che della sconfitta sul campo in una guerra che è in atto ma di cui noi ci rifiutiamo di prendere atto, semplicemente perché siamo sopraffatti dalla paura di guardare in faccia alla realtà dell’islam, ai contenuti violenti di ciò che Allah prescrive nel Corano e di ciò che ha detto e ha fatto Maometto. Le vite dei nostri figli e dei nostri nipoti sacrificate sull’altare di un Allah violento e di un Maometto criminale saranno l’atto finale dell’estinzione di un’Europa che, dopo essersi volontariamente ridotta a una terra di nessuno, viene trasformata in una terra di conquista islamica. Non per mano dei terroristi tagliagole, bensì dei terroristi taglialingue, quelli che ci impongono di sospendere l’uso della ragione per legittimare acriticamente l’islam, di consentire loro di radicarsi dentro casa nostra arroccandosi in seno alle moschee e alle scuole coraniche dove si pratica il lavaggio del cervello, che è la loro vera arma vincente, nelle macellerie e nei negozi halal, sotto il velo delle fedeli e le tuniche dei fedeli servitori di Allah, nei centri studi dove si promuove l’islamofobia, nei centri di formazione degli imam che indottrinano i musulmani e convertono i non musulmani, negli enti caritatevoli e nelle banche islamiche che barattano i loro soldi con la nostra anima. Ma, soprattutto, accogliendo incondizionatamente milioni di clandestini islamici che incarnano la bomba demografica che determinerà la sostituzione della nostra popolazione e l’estinzione della nostra civiltà. Riflettiamo attentamente sulla foto dei nostri bambini cristiani prostrati in moschea. Se riusciremo a fare in modo che ciò non si ripeta mai più, allora potremo bloccare la follia epocale del suicidio della nostra civiltà.

    Magdi Cristiano Allam

    http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/scuola-olandese-sottomette-i-bimbi-ad-allah-1319638.html

  12. Candidates and Radical Islam: Results of Our Survey
    We recently asked our readers three questions about radical Islam and the U.S. presidential candidates. Here are the results.

    We recently asked our readers three questions about radical Islam and the U.S. presidential candidates. Here are the results of the survey, in which 2, 410 people participated.

    Question #1: Do you think the US presidential candidates are sufficiently addressing the threat of radical Islam?

    Close to 83 percent of our readers answered no, while seven percent answered yes. (Eight percent said “maybe,” while two percent said they didn’t know.)

    Question #2: In terms of radical Islam, what do you think the candidates’ priorities should be?

    The top concerns listed were radicalization and home-grown terrorism, followed by Iran, ISIS and other terror organizations, Saudi Arabia, helping to fight terror in Europe and sharia law in America.

    Question #3: If you were running for president what would your policies be regarding radical Islam?

    Here are the top comments:

    https://www.clarionproject.org/news/candidates-and-radical-islam-results-our-survey

  13. German bomb plotter ‘was in Syria two months ago’

    A bomb plot suspect found hanged in his cell in Germany was in Syria two months earlier with a group of Islamists, his brother said in an interview published Saturday.

    The suspect, Jaber al-Bakr, arrived in Germany from Syria in 2015 and gained refugee status, but returned to Syria earlier this year, his brother Alaa al-Bakr told the German daily Die Welt.

    “The last time that we spoke was two months ago, he was in Idlib (northwest Syria). He told me then that he was very angry and sad because of the war,” he told the paper from his house in the Damascus region.

    He said his brother, 22, was involved in “humanitarian aid” with the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham rebel group in Syria, a rival to the Islamic State (IS) group.

    Jaber al-Bakr may have joined IS, although he believed the group “did not represent Islam,” Alaa al-Bakr said.

    He said his brother was radicalised in Germany and may have been influenced by a Muslim leader or a mosque in Berlin or near Berlin. He also told Die Welt he did not believe his brother committed suicide in prison.

    “I’m sure it was the police who killed him,” he said.

    Jaber al-Bakr was arrested in the city of Leipzig late on Sunday after a manhunt that began some 48 hours earlier when police raided his apartment and found explosives.

    But on Wednesday he was found hanged in his cell after an apparent suicide. The death sparked cries of outrage and concern that Germany may never learn the plans for an attack he was suspected of planning against a Berlin airport.

    Police have given no indication they believe Jaber al-Bakr had travelled to Syria, but sources close to the investigation have told German media that he had been to Turkey at least once last summer

    https://www.thelocal.de/20161015/german-bomb-plotter-was-in-syria-two-months-ago

    • Deutsche Welle – Bomb suspect’s brother blames German police

      Alaa Albakr, the brother of terrorism suspect Jaber Albakr who died in custody in Germany, spoke with DW from Syria. In the exclusive interview he expressed a desire for ‘revenge’ against refugees who turned in his brother.

  14. US, UK say they’re weighing new sanctions on Syria, Russia

    LONDON — The United States and Britain say they’re considering new economic sanctions on the Syrian and Russian governments because of their conduct in war-ravaged Aleppo.

    After a 10-nation meeting in London, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said crimes against humanity were occurring daily in Syria.

    Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson are expressing hope about a diplomatic effort with Russia and several other countries that Kerry began on Saturday.

    But they said they’re planning to increase pressure on Russia and Syria to halt airstrikes on Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

    Johnson and Kerry said sanctions could be applied against Syria and its supporters.

    Johnson also spoke of trying to advance prosecutions of “war criminals.”

    http://www.metronews.ca/news/world/2016/10/16/diplomats-forge-new-track-to-end-syria-violence-but-no-truce.html

    ==================================================
    Freedom fighters in Aleppo _


    • UK: Countries will continue to support Syrian opposition and create more terrorists – Kerry

      US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of bombing US-backed moderate opposition rather than militants from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra), speaking at a joint press conference alongside UK’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at London’s Lancaster House, Sunday.

      “Russia has not even focused most of its efforts on al-Nusra, which is al-Qaeda. 80 to 85 percent of their bombing has been done against the opposition, the moderate opposition, not the extreme, but the moderate opposition in Syria,” Kerry said.

      He continued, “the Russians should understand, and Assad needs to understand, that that does not end the war. So even if Aleppo were to fall, even if they have utterly destroyed it, which they are doing, that would not change the fundamental equation of this war because other countries will continue to support opposition and they will continue to create more terrorists and Syria will be the victim in the end, as well as the region.”

      Johnson called on Syrian President Bashar Assad, alongside Russian and Iranian authorities “to show mercy, show mercy to those people in that city [Aleppo], get that ceasefire going, get the negotiations going in Geneva and let’s bring this slaughter to an end.”

  15. UK: Kerry and Johnson call for immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Yemen

    United States Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson alongside UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Yemen to end violence between the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels, speaking after their meeting in London, on Sunday.

    “One of things we think is absolutely vital is that there should be a ceasefire and the UN should lead the way in calling for that ceasefire,” Johnson stated.

  16. Axelrod: Maybe Clinton should reconsider final debate

    Democratic strategist David Axelrod on Saturday suggested that Hillary Clinton skip her third and final presidential debate with Donald Trump.

    The former White House adviser to President Obama responded to Trump’s call for a drug test before his next debate with Clinton later this month.

    “You have to wonder if @HillaryClinton will/should reconsider next debate, given the depths to which this has sunk,” Axelrod tweeted.

    Drug testing?!? You have to wonder if @HillaryClinton will/should reconsider next debate, given the depths to which this has sunk.
    — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 15, 2016

    Trump, the Republican nominee, floated the idea of a drug test during a campaign rally Saturday in New Hampshire, comparing himself and Clinton, the Democratic nominee, to athletes preparing for a big event.

    “Athletes, they make them take a drug test, right? I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” Trump said.

    “Why don’t we do that? We should take a drug test, prior, because I don’t know what’s going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, ‘Oh, take me down,’ ” Trump said, imitating Clinton.

    Clinton and Trump are scheduled to take the stage together for their final debate Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

    The pair debated last weekend in their first joint appearance since a leaked tape from 2005 showed Trump boasting about trying to sleep with a married woman and groping women without their consent.

    More than half a dozen women have come forward this week accusing the real estate tycoon of groping or kissing them without their consent. Trump has vehemently denied the accusations and slammed media outlets for publishing the women’s stories.

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/301196-axelrod-maybe-clinton-should-reconsider-final-debate

  17. India: Lights and mic gets cut as Putin speaks about NSA wiretapping journalists

    Russian President Vladimir Putin joked “did I say something wrong?” as the lights and microphone cut out as he was speaking to journalists about the United States’ National Security Service (NSA) spying on media workers, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Goa, Sunday.

    SOT, Vladimir Putin, Russian President (Russian): “Regarding this information. Well, yes. I do not remember when it was, you probably remember it better than me. It was before the tragic events in Boston at the marathon, a few months before we informed our American partners – FSB did it by my order. They sent them an official written notification that we were working on certain people, they posed a danger and we suggested to work on them together. There was no reply. After some time [Head of the Federal Security Service, Alexander] Bortnikov came to me and said that they did not reply. I said: ‘Write again’. He wrote once again. Yes, this is the direct speech. He wrote once again. As I remember, we received an answer after the second or the third attempt: ‘They are the citizens of the United States, do not bother us, we will deal with it by ourselves’. I said: ‘Ok, if so, so be it’. The terror attack during the marathon in Boston took place one or two months after it. By the way, this is an additional evidence of the fact that the position of those who stand for cooperation, especially in combating against terrorism, is correct, of course. We always adhere to this point of view. But there are examples of positive cooperation. For example, during the preparation and holding of the Olympic Games in Sochi, the American side and American special services established a real business partnership with us and helped us in ensuring security. And we thank them for that.”

    SOT, Vladimir Putin, Russian President (Russian): “All of you are the objects of surveillance of appropriate services. And you are laughing vainly. And I will say why. Because you are the holders of certain information. You are involved in the presidential pool and can hear or see something, talk to someone. You are talking freely on the phone with an unsecured line and broadcast everything you think is necessary or everything you think or assume about. It is of interest, because a case can be launched for each of you and monitor your conversations. All this is systematised, counted, analysed. This is what the NSA [National Security Service] of the USA does. Russian [security services] work strictly within Russian law. And, as we learned from the former employees, the NSA violates even American law. We act only according to our courts’ decisions, but they do not use such decisions, as it turned out. And this is the substantial difference in the actions of Russian and American special services. Regarding the fact that someone recruited someone [Brazilian President Michel Temer] somewhere – I do not know anything about it and it is not interesting for me. And you know, there are some other things. To a certain degree the person is guided by the interests of the state and of the people of his own country. And I cannot imagine – even theoretically – that another approach is possible. I simply cannot imagine it. That is why we always work with representatives of the current authorities and strive to establish very kind and trusting interstate relationships.

    [Lights in room malfunction] Did I say something wrong? So that it can be a benefit for the relations between our countries. We have very warm relations with Brazil, nothing has been changed since the moment when there was a change of power. Ah, blue colour. I am very embarrassed, because I did not know that and we did not chose them [the Bandi jackets]. They just brought it to me. How is it called? Bandi. They brought the bandi that they had, I put it on and went.”

  18. Germany: PEGIDA rallies in Dresden to mark second anniversary of foundation

    Hundreds of supporters of far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim PEGIDA rallied in front of the Opera House in dresden, Sunday, to mark the second anniversary of the movement’s foundation.

    A PEGIDA activist called for a referendum on allowing Muslims into Germany, stating “I think we have the right to decide that we don’t want a large number of Muslims in our country and rightly so, therefore we demand a national referendum for this topic in Germany.”

    Police were deployed to prevent any violence between the PEGIDA rally and counter-protesters that were demonstrating nearby.

    SOT, PEGIDA supporter (German): “My friends this is your special day today, which you have through your boldness, endurance, tenacity, civil courage and patriotic life helped your homeland in these last two years, so that the direction of the wind slowly changes in Germany.”

    SOT, PEGIDA supporter (German): “I think we have the right to decide that we don’t want a large number of Muslims in our country and rightly so, therefore we demand a national referendum for this topic in Germany.”

  19. USA – NC – Republican HQ in Orange County firebombed

    Hillsborough police are investigating the apparent weekend firebombing of the Orange County Republican headquarters, an incident that one GOP official called an act of “political terrorism.”

    Police say the incident occurred when a bottle of flammable liquid was thrown through the front window of the office on Ja-Max Dr.

    The words, “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else” were spray painted on the side of an adjacent building.

    “This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety via fire, and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation,” Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said in a statement. “Acts like this have no place in our community.”

    Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of state GOP, called it “political terrorism.”

    “The office itself is a total loss,” he said. “The only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been.”

    Later, Woodhouse said, “Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent, all Americans should be outraged by this hate-filled and violent attack against our democracy … Everyone in this country should be free to express their political viewpoints without fear for their own safety.”

    The incident comes barely three weeks before an election marked by heightened tensions and passion on both sides.

    On Sunday the Bangor Daily News reported that about 20 cars were vandalized with spray paint outside a Saturday rally for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

    Earlier this year violence broke out with protesters at a Trump rally in Chicago. And one protester was sucker-punched at a Trump rally in Fayetteville.

    “You hope (the firebombing) is an isolated incident,” said Ferrel Guillory, a political analyst at UNC Chapel Hill. “It always happens that toward the end of the campaign, emotions get both frayed and intensified.”

    N.C. Democratic Party Chair Patsy Keever called the bombing “outrageous.”

    “I’m appalled that this would happen, certainly we don’t need violence for any reason,” she said. “Clearly this is outrageous that anybody would do this kind of destruction to either party’s buildings or people.”

    The mayor of Hillsborough said law enforcement officials are investigating the incident.

    In the meantime, Woodhouse said he’s sending an advisory to county Republican offices across the state warning them to take extra caution.

    Anyone with information is asked to call the police department’s tip line at 919-732-3975.

    http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article108627627.html

    • What I like about the links on Vlad is that I get thrown up on youtube and can surf off from there. I am just back from youtube surfing where I got to see the last two Milo presentations.
      I admire this man. Yes, he is profane but he speaks a truth. And that is that no matter what your stripe you can believe in an America that is strong, that defends the freedom of speech and supports religious freedom. Most importantly all the SJW shit is just that. A bunch of losers screaming into the media microphone to denigrate what has made this country and other free countries great.
      I’m now off to Longmier on Netflex. Happy trails to all my Vlad friends.

  20. Woman raped on UK beach and teen BOYS are among suspects (express, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/721721/Folkestone-rape-Sunny-Sands-beach-gang-rape-kent-police

    “A WOMAN has been raped on a beach in Folkestone, sparking three arrests.

    The attack happened on the Sunny Sands beach in the town at about 8pm yesterday.

    Police rushed to the scene and launched a helicopter to find the suspects.

    They arrested two 16-year-old boys and an 18-year-old man.

    A spokesman for Kent Police said: “Kent Police are investigating the reported rape of a woman on Sunny Sands beach, Folkestone, at about 8pm on Saturday 15 October 2016.

    “An 18-year-old man and two 16-year-old boys have been arrested in connection with the incident and remain in custody.

    “The National Police Air Service helicopter was used to help locate one of the suspects.”

    Anyone with information can call 01843 222289 quoting reference ZY/37152/16, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.”

  21. Migrant children leave France’s ‘Jungle’ camp for UK (thelocal, Oct 16, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.fr/20161016/migrant-children-start-leaving-frances-jungle-camp-for-uk

    “A first group of unaccompanied migrant children left the Calais “Jungle” camp for Britain on Saturday, days after a French minister said the UK had a “moral duty” to take them in.

    The Calais prefecture confirmed that around two dozen unaccompanied minors were bound for a new life in Britain, where they had family members, although it added that there was no “no deal for a larger-scale plan” evacuation of children.

    “Five Syrian minors and one Afghan minor have just been transferred to the United Kingdom. From Monday, around 10 more minors will follow, then on Tuesday, about 10 more,” a spokesman told AFP…”

  22. Islamic State flag is legal in Sweden, prosecutor rules (thelocal, Oct 16, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.se/20161016/islamic-state-flag-is-legal-in-sweden-prosecutor-rules

    “A Swedish prosecutor has ruled that the ISIS flag does not constitute hate speech and is therefore legal under Swedish law.

    Prosecutor Gisela Sjövall announced last week that she would not prosecute a 23-year-old man who had posted the black ISIS flag on his Facebook page in June.

    Police in Laholm, a town on Sweden’s west coast, had launched a criminal investigation into the man, who comes originally from Syria, on suspicion of committing “hate speech”.

    “Put simply, one can say that he is expressing contempt for “all others”, and not against a specific ethnic group,” Sjövall told Sweden’s SVT broadcaster.

    She said that while the swastika had now come to symbolise a hatred for Jews, the same could not yet be said of the IS flag.

    “Up until now, we haven’t come to that point,” she told the local Hallandsposten newspaper. “That could change in ten years.”

    According to Sweden’s hate speech laws, for an image or statement to represent “incitement to hatred”, it needs to threaten or disparage a group of persons in connection to race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religious belief or sexual orientation.

    “If there had been anything in the text [posted alongside the flag] with more specific formulations about certain groups, for example homosexuals, the ruling could have been different,” Sjövall continued. “For me, there are no doubts about the decision not to prosecute.”

    When the man was questioned in June, he told police he did not in fact support Islamic State.

    “He claims that this is not an IS flag, but instead a symbol which has is used within Islam, and which has been used for many hundreds of years before it was misappropriated by IS,” his lawyer Björn Nilsson told the local Hallandsposten newspaper.

    The black “Banner of the Eagle” is one of the flags flown by the prophet Mohammad in Islamic tradition.

    It was banned from a public demonstration in the Netherlands in August 2014, and forbidden in Germany (for non-educational purposes) from September 2014….”

    • Great… So if you hate everyone and everything (except Mahoundianism related stuff) equally, you are off the hook… Just dont be an Islamophobe! lol

  23. Nearly 40 immigrants evacuated in new asylum fire (thelocal, Oct 16, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.se/20161016/nearly-40-immigrants-evacuated-in-asylum-centre-fire

    Nearly 40 people were evacuated from an asylum centre in southern Stockholm on Saturday night, after a major fire broke out.

    “The fire is under control but there is still a fire in some parts of the building,” Ulf Tholén from the Stockholm fire service told TT newswire at 9.45am on Sunday morning. He said he expected the fire to continue burning for at least three more hours.

    A police patrol discovered the fire at the centre in Fagersjö, southern Stockholm, shortly before 1.30am, alerting staff at the centre, who began to evacuate the residents. “It was one of our patrol as who were passing by and who saw that the facade of the building was on fire,” Carina Andersson, from the Stockholm Police, told the newswire.

    Police are investigating the crime as a serious arson attack, but so far have no suspects.

    “It’s going to take some time before the technical investigation can be carried out, and of course we will interview everyone who was on the scene,” said Sven-Erik Olsson from the Stockholm police.

    The fire came only a day after staff at the centre discovered and prevented another arson attempt. A canister of oil had been put in an oven which was then set at a high temperature.

    The asylum centre is for immigrants who have already been granted permission to stay in Sweden. It houses 37 residents in two blocks of 13 housing units…”

  24. Bangladesh hangs Islamist extremist leader over 2005 blast (ahram, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/245923/World/International/Bangladesh-hangs-Islamist-extremist-leader-over–b.aspx

    “Prison authorities in Bangladesh’s southern city of Khulna on Sunday executed a senior Islamist extremist whose banned group has been linked to the murder of foreign hostages, police said.

    Asadul Islam, 42, a leader of the outlawed Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), was hanged for his role in a 2005 blast that killed two judges.

    Bangladesh has blamed the JMB for a July 1 attack on an upmarket Dhaka cafe in which 22 people, mostly foreign hostages, were shot and hacked to death.

    “He was hanged to death at 10:30 pm (1630 GMT) in Khulna jail,” Khulna Police Commissioner Nibhas Chandra Majhi told AFP, adding that there was heavy security around the jail to prevent any violence.

    Islam, also known as Arif, was one of seven senior JMB officials, including founding leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman, sentenced to death for a bomb attack on a minibus that killed two lower court judges on November 14, 2005.

    Six of the men, including Rahman, were executed in March 2007 by a military-backed caretaker government as part of a nationwide crackdown on Islamic extremists.

    Arif was sentenced in absentia and was not detained until July 2007. He has been held in Khulna jail ever since. In August the Supreme Court dismissed his final appeal…”

  25. Marriage of Saudis to non-Saudis: 17 amendments recommended (saudigazette, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/marriage-saudis-non-saudis-17-amendments-recommended/

    “RIYADH — Some 17 amendments have been recommended to the law governing the marriage of Saudis to non-Saudis, Al-Eqtisadiah Arabic daily quoted competent sources as saying.

    A Saudi man planning to marry a non-Saudi woman must be earning at least SR3,000 a month, have suitable accommodation, must not be less than 40 and above 65 years of age. A non-Saudi woman must not be less than 25 years of age and the age difference between the two must not exceed 30 years.

    The applicant must sign on the representations accredited by the competent authority that approval of marrying a non-Saudi does not mean granting her rights to obtain Saudi citizenship. The applicant should also authorize the Interior Ministry to access civil record data.

    A Saudi woman marrying a non-Saudi man must not be less than 30 and not more than 55 years of age. The age difference between the two should not exceed 10 years.

    If a Saudi woman has some disability or illness or has special circumstances (such as unknown parents) and is receiving support from the Ministry of Social Affairs, she can marry a non-Saudi man even if she is 27 years of age.

    A non-Saudi man must not have another Saudi or non-Saudi wife or have been married to a Saudi previously.

    He must submit proof that he has no criminal records in his country as well as in the Kingdom, a medical report to prove that he is free of infectious and genetic diseases. He should not be working or has worked in a foreign army or included on the list of people banned from entering the Kingdom.

    His monthly income should not be less than SR5,000. He must have proper
    accommodation and permanent residency.

    He must get a written undertaking from the Saudi woman he is planning to marry that the marriage does not mean his eligibility or the eligibility of her children from him to get Saudi citizenship.”

  26. Pakistan, India exchange fire at LoC (tribune, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1199907/pakistan-india-exchange-fire-loc/

    “Pakistan and Indian border troops exchanged on Sunday firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Bhimber sector, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

    According to ISPR, “Pakistan Army gave a befitting response to the Indian side.”

    The exchange of fire began at 4:30 am and lasted till 7am. No loss of lives has been reported thus far. Unprovoked firing has continued over the course of this month.
    Attack on Indian army camp in Baramulla kills one

    The recent exchange of fire at the LoC comes just two days after the Foreign Office said of Friday ceasefire violations alongside the Line of Control (LoC) and meddling in the internal affairs of its neighbours reflect India’s nervousness.

    Tensions have been running high between Pakistan and India since the Sept 18 deadly attack on an Indian military base in Uri, in the disputed Himalayan state. New Delhi whipped up war hysteria, especially after conducting self-styled “surgical strikes” in the Pakistani side of Kashmir — a claim strongly denied by Islamabad.

    Around 100 people have been killed and thousands injured in violent protests triggered by the killing of a young popular freedom fighter Burhan Wani by Indian security forces in the disputed Himalayan valley on July 8.”

  27. Young woman set on fire by husband in West of Afghanistan (khaama, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/young-woman-set-on-fire-by-husband-in-west-of-afghanistan-02086

    “A young woman was set on fire by her husband in western Herat province of Afghanistan as the Afghan police forces have launched an operation to arrest the perpetrator.

    According to the local government officials, the 23-year-old woman was doused with petrol and was set on fire in Injel district.

    The officials further added that the incident has likely taken place due to an argument between the couple and the husband of the woman managed to flee the area after the incident.

    This comes as numerous incidents involving murder of women have been reported during the recent months across the country.

    The Taliban militants executed a 19-year-old girl in Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan earlier in August while a 22-year-old woman was shot dead in July by her relatives on charges of having relations with an stranger over the telephone.

    The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in its report released late in November last year said “statistic of violence against women, obtained from the registered cases of violence against women during the first six months in 1394 exceeds 2579 cases.”

    The report further added that figure was reported 2403 cases during the six months in 1393 which shows 7.32 percent increase in 1394, the last solar year.”

  28. India foils beheading plans by ISIS loyalists based in Afghanistan (khaama, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/india-foils-beheading-plans-by-isis-loyalists-based-in-afghanistan-02088

    “A group of six men have reportedly been arrested in India as they were planning to behead some people on instructions of a loyalist of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group based in Afghanistan.

    According to local media reports, citing the security sources, the six men were part of an Islamic State-inspired group and were arrested from Kerala earlier this month.

    The Afghanistan-based handler had allegedly asked the men to behead at least three people and release the gruesome footage of the execution after recordings…”

  29. Work begins on ‘Great Wall of Calais’ as Britain forks out £2.5m to stop illegal entries (express, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/721813/Great-Wall-of-Calais-built-France-costing-Britain-2-5m-migrants-crossing-lorries

    “BUILDING has begun on the huge blockade dubbed the ‘Great Wall of Calais’ – the 13ft high wall erected to prevent migrants from jumping onto UK-bound lorries.

    The massive £2.5m wall, funded from the British public purse, will be completed by the end of the year, according to the Government.

    Running 0.6 miles along the motorway leading to the French port at Calais, the wall has been designed to prevent stowaways getting into lorries or getting into the road.

    The Home Office said the wall will stop migrants using projectiles in attempts to “disrupt, delay or even attack vehicles approaching the port”.

    On Saturday, the first of the concrete panels which make up the wall were moved into place…”

  30. Low morale ‘is forcing UK border staff to quit’ (express, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/721822/Low-morale-forcing-abusive-UK-border-staff-quit-union

    “BORDER guards are leaving due to “abusive” conditions, a top union official said today.

    Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the ISU, claims Border Force suffers from low morale and high staff turnover.

    She said civil servants are drafted in with just two days training to cover gaps, despite an increase in fraudulent ID cards, a migration crisis and the terror threat.

    Ms Moreton said 70 per cent of recruits leave within a year because of shifts being changed without notice, meaning personal arrangements have to be altered.

    Staff miss breaks and have to sit at desks for hours, the ISU boss said.

    One guard had 210 changes to shifts last year, and staff in northern France are bearing the brunt of the changes, despite 12-hour shifts before travelling back to England.

    In a survey in 2015 more than a fifth wanted “to leave Border Force as soon as possible” and Ms Moreton said “it has not improved, if anything it is worse in many areas”.

    She added: “It is possible to run these types of systems well and not incur these horrendous costs to staff.

    “It is not to say all of these types of contract are inherently abusive. It is the way it is being applied which is abusive.”

    A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to maintaining and increasing staff morale and rewarding staff for good performance.””

  31. SAS hero killed ISIS fighter with AXE just before he abuses sex slaves (express, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/721750/ISIS-fighter-about-abuse-SEX-SLAVES-killed-AXE-SAS-hero-Syria

    “AN ISIS soldier poised to torture a group of sex slaves to death was killed by an elite SAS trooper with a blow to the head after his gun jammed.

    The SAS man freed the group of women during a joint British and American mission to northern Syria.

    The crack team were tasked with liberating women captured by ISIS to serve as sex slaves and jihadi brides for extremist fighters.

    According to military sources, the women who refused would have been raped and dipped in acid or crucified as is standard for women living in the so-called Islamic State.

    Petrified northern Syrians handed video footage of women subjected to the horrific fate to intelligence sources, reducing SAS troopers and US soldiers to tears.

    The task force were helicoptered in to the town to take out brutal ISIS fighters carrying out the atrocities on women, assisted by aerial drones.

    The joint US and British team mounted a two hour attack on the Syrian territory, with American soldiers killing ten ISIS fighters in one swoop and a drone destroying a truck loaded with jihadi gunmen trying to make a getaway.

    After storming the town using automatic grenades launchers, the SAS team tried to free the group of women being held hostage.

    But one heroic trooper, who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq, found his gun jammed when he attempted to kill one of the vile men.

    As he moved through a house attempting to find the women, ISIS fighters opened fire on him, and the unnamed hero had to resort to using an axe to defend himself.

    With a jihadi launching himself at the trooper, the SAS man picked up an axe and hit him over the head with it killing him instantaneously.

    The brave British troopers then found the dozen women who had been holed up in an attic and cellars in fear for their lives.

    Our source said: “Members of Isis had been in the area for a few months and had been rounding up pre-pubescent girls who they wanted to become jihadi brides.

    “If the parents protested they were shot dead or beheaded. Some of the girls ran away but were captured and we received reports that they were crucified or dipped in acid and suffered the most appalling deaths.

    “A rescue mission was launched. Up to 30 fighters were killed. Some escaped. There were no prisoners.

    “The girls and their families were relocated from the village to northern Iraq where they have been welcomed and offered homes.””

  32. ‘Soon this town will explode’ German mayor says refugees putting future at risk (express, Oct 16, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/721685/Refugees-putting-town-future-risk-explode-german-mayor

    “THE mayor of the picturesque German ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen has penned a letter to the government of Bavaria saying refugees in her town are out of hand and she fears for the future.

    The letter by centre-left SPD mayor Dr. Sigrid Meierhofer to Maria Els, vice president of the government of Upper Bavaria, talks of an “explosive situation”.

    It was leaked to the local newspaper and is part warning, part cry for help.

    “There has been an increasingly worsening situation in recent weeks around the registration centre Abrams,” wrote the mayor.

    Frau Meierhofer went on to argue that if no help was forthcoming in helping to defuse the situation the centre for 250 people could not continue operating.

    Around 150 of the residents are Africans, 80 percent of them unaccompanied young men. In the previous year it was mostly occupied by Syrian families. Mayor Meierhofer makes it plain that the current occupiers of the building have become “problematic” with frequent clashes. The mayor added that she is increasingly concerned about “public order and security.”

    Curfews on migrants entering certain areas, like the spa park in town, have been implemented in the past few weeks.

    Police officers have responded to more incidents in the past six weeks in and around the centre than in the past 12 months put together. Deputy police chief Thomas Holzer said: “The blacks are in charge.”

    He went on: “There are brawls, fights and property damage. The blacks occupy the best wi-fi places, choose who sleeps in what room. The situation is a problem for us and causes some concern. In September, we recorded a quarter of our annual operations.”

    Repeat offenders at the centre have been moved to some of the other 11 facilities in the area, but the problems persist.

    Local social media speaks gravely of sexual assaults of the worst kind taking place in the accommodation centre, but Holzer said he cannot confirm this.

    Frau Meierhofer explained in her letter that the complaints from locals were accumulating and that they were not from the far-right or other extremist groups. “They are expressing their trials and tribulations to us”, she writes.

    “Massive problems with refugees in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,” wrote the local Merkur newspaper which obtained the letter the mayor wrote.

    A local official was outraged that the letter, and the deputy police chief, identified black Africans for causing the trouble in town, saying such “stereotyping” was unacceptable.

    But the mayor’s office insisted she was telling it like it is, not as bureaucrats elsewhere would like it to be.”

      • In the Mercur there were 319 comments, however the newspaper deleted the comments and just wrote that “editorial staff the right to restrict the possibilities for commentary in order to avoid misuse” .
        Pity that one can not see the deleted comments, they must have been very “interesting”

        • When the papers delete the comments you know the comments aren’t being kind to the invaders.

  33. yahoo news- AFP – HUNGARY -Huge press freedom rally in Budapest after top daily closed

    Budapest (AFP) – Several thousand people marched in Budapest Sunday to demand press freedom and protest against the sudden closure of Hungary’s top-selling political daily Nepszabadsag which had criticised the government.

    Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been attacked abroad for clamping down on opposition as well as for stifling basic freedoms and the paper’s closure is viewed by critics as the latest example of his crackdown.

    The 53-year-old premier’s crusade to restrict critical voices in the media began soon after he won a two-thirds majority at the 2010 election.

    The newspaper, with a staff of 90, was suddenly closed down last week. The management has said the decision was entirely an economic one and not politically motivated.

    The marchers, numbering between 2,000 and 3,000 according to an AFP estimate, shouted slogans such as “They are stealing our freedom!” and held up banners like “Stop the dictatorship of Fidesz”, the ruling party.

    “We want that this ambiguous situation ends and the owner clearly says what he intends to do,” said Peter Peto, the paper’s deputy editor.

    Nepszabadsag’s publisher since 2014 is Mediaworks, owned by Austrian magnate Heinrich Pecina, who has said the paper’s financial losses over the last decade were behind the drastic move.

    And in extracts of an interview published online on Saturday Pecina defended the decision saying it had been governed by economics not politics.

    “There is a mutual respect between me and Viktor Orban, but no form of dependence,” he told the Austrian weekly Profil.

    The ruling Fidesz party meanwhile held a parallel press conference that press freedom was guaranteed in Hungary.

    Orban’s Fidesz party has called the paper’s suspension a “rational economic decision, not a political one”, pointing to debts and a huge drop in sales.

    But opposition parties, activists and journalists at the paper blamed the move on Orban’s government cutting off oxygen for media that do not toe the government line.

    They also said the timing was suspicious, coming a week after Nepszabadsag, which has often been critical of Orban, made corruption allegations against two close allies of the prime minister.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/huge-press-freedom-rally-budapest-top-daily-closed-182246435.html

    • It probably was economic reasons tha closed the paper, the one sided reporting and massive distortion of the news has caused many people to stop buying papers.

  34. Battle for Mosul: Operation to retake Iraqi city from IS ‘begins’

    A military operation to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State (IS) has begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says.

    The long-awaited assault from Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi government and allied forces is backed by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq.

    Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has been under IS control since June 2014.

    The UN has warned that the humanitarian impact could be “enormous”, and affect up to 1.2 million people.

    Mosul is the group’s last major stronghold in Iraq. The loss of the city, officials say, would mark the effective defeat of IS in the country.

    In an address broadcast on state television in the early hours of Monday, Mr Abadi said: “The hour has come and the moment of great victory is near.”

    “Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh,” he added, using another name for IS.

    Dressed in military uniform and surrounded by Iraqi officers, he vowed that only government forces would enter Mosul, a Sunni-majority city.

    t was from there that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate – a state governed in accordance with Islamic law – in territory controlled by the group in Iraq and Syria.

    An operation to retake the city, capital of the northern Nineveh governorate, has been planned for months.

    Brig Gen Haider Fadhil told AP news agency that more than 25,000 troops would take part in the offensive.

    The US envoy to the coalition against IS, Brett McGurk, said on Twitter: “We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation.”

    Thousands of leaflets have been dropped in recent days warning that the offensive was imminent.

    There are no firm figures on how many people remain in Mosul, but there were more than two million there when IS took it more than two years ago.

    The group has lost almost a quarter of the territory it once controlled, according to new data.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37674693

    NYT – Iraqi Forces Attack Mosul, Seeking to Dislodge Islamic State

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/world/middleeast/in-isis-held-mosul-beheadings-and-hints-of-resistance-as-battle-nears.html

  35. Greece: Clashes erupt near Thessaloniki after refugee mother and son killed by car

    Refugees clashed with police in a camp close to Thessaloniki, on Sunday, after a refugee mother and her son were reportedly killed by a passing car.

    • The reporter is one of the members of the coup, she refuses to accept the idea that she is suppose to be unbiased and report fairly on both political parties.

  36. /www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-16/latest-wiki-dump-reveals-heavy-press-collusion-over-hillarys-excellent-health-medica

    (Zero Hedge) – Among the latest, ninth round of Podesta email releases by Wikileaks this morning, is a July 31, 2015 email by Hillary Clinton’s National Press Secretary Brian Fallon who lays out the agenda for the day’s rollout of Clinton’s tax record and, more importantly, Hillary’s “excellent health” medical statement, where once again the media, listed as “AP, Politico, WSJ, WaPo, etc” is exposed as coordinating and colluding with the campaign to send a message that Hillary is in great health.

    In the email written in the early hours on Friday, Fallon writes that in the “rollout plan” for that same day, the campaign will “Pitch the first round of stories to the travelling press corps (AP, Politico, WSJ, WaPo, etc) with a 2 pm embargo.”

    He goes on to say that for these stories “we will provide the full text of HRC’s physician’s letter, summarizing that she is in excellent health and is medically fit to perform the duties of President. We will push that she is the FIRST presidential candidate to release this info.”

  37. Sorry, China: Why the Japanese Navy is the Best in Asia

    http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/sorry-china-why-the-japanese-navy-the-best-asia-18056

    The best navy in Asia has a total of 114 warships and 45,800 volunteer personnel. It has a large fleet of fast, powerful destroyers, thoroughly modern diesel-electric attack submarines, and amphibious ships that can haul tanks and other ground forces. It can hunt submarines, square off against invasion fleets, and shoot down enemy ballistic missiles. Despite all of that firepower, this is not in fact a navy at all, but an armed cohort of civil servants.

    Technically, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is a “self-defense force” designed to overcome the country’s constitutional limits on armed forces. It is, ship for ship, the best navy in Asia.

    • Quality against quantity. in the short run quality will win, in a long war quantity will end up winning.

  38. Assange: Why I Created WikiLeaks’ Searchable Database of 30,000 Emails from Clinton’s Private Server