Reader’s links for January 13 – 2017

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.Reader’s links for January 11 – 2017

About Eeyore

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

109 Replies to “Reader’s links for January 13 – 2017”

  1. The Return of Islam’s Child-Soldiers
    Kidnapped, enslaved, beat, and indoctrinated in Islam.
    January 13, 2017
    Raymond Ibrahim

    Past and present, Muslim militants continue relying on the same inhumane tactics to terrorize “infidels.” The devastating effects of one of these occurred last August in Turkey: a child “recruited” by the Islamic State blew himself up in a suicide attack that left at least 51 people—mostly fellow children—dead.

    This child was one of countless, nameless, faceless children seized, beat, and indoctrinated in Islam, until they become willing “martyrs” and executioners. Known as the “cubs of the caliphate,” they are graduates from “schools [established by ISIS] to prepare hundreds of children and teenagers to conduct suicide attacks.” The Islamic State is fond of showcasing these abducted children turned criminals.

    A few days ago, it posted a video of its “cubs,” most who appear to be about 10 years of age, walking around an abandoned amusement park, where they savagely execute hostages tied to rides. One child, reportedly only four years old, shoots five rounds into a tied up victim while screaming “Allahu Akbar!” Another little boy slits the throat of his victim next to a kiddie train before planting the knife in his back. Last November ISIS posted another video of four children—one Russian, one Uzbek, and two Iraqis, aged between 10 to14—executing civilians.

    One Christian clergyman explained the Islamic State’s strategy: “They dislocate the families, they take the newborn babies, and they put them in Islamist families,” where they are indoctrinated in jihad, or what is called in the West, “terrorist activities.”

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265446/return-islams-child-soldiers-raymond-ibrahim

  2. ISRAEL-TURKEY PIPELINE HANGS ON CYPRUS PEACE TALKS

    The greatest beneficiary of a failure in Geneva would be Russia and its efforts to further expand its widening strategic footprint in the Eastern Mediterranean.

    Israel hopes to market its natural gas to Turkey, and via Turkey to the EU, but this aim may hang on the outcome of the potentially historic Cypriot peace negotiations currently underway in Geneva. Since an undersea gas pipeline from Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field to Turkey requires crossing Cyprus’s economic exclusion zone, failure to reach an agreement could force Israel to return to an older plan of marketing its natural gas via Egypt.

    However, in the new energy and geopolitical realities of the region that emerged in 2016, Israel’s selection of Egypt as its major export option could result in the Russia’s rise as a central player in Eastern Mediterranean energy.

    http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Israel-Turkey-pipeline-hangs-on-Cyprus-peace-talks-478167

    • Political Islam’s Made-in-Cyprus Trojan Horse

      Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, which forced Christians out of their ancestral homes, has created the phenomenon of ‘bizonality,’ a geographical separation between Muslims and Christians. Strangely, this new reality has even become the basis of the UN-led Cyprus negotiations — despite the Security Council’s own resolutions condemning Turkey’s actions.

      http://www.clarionproject.org/blog/cyprus/political-islams-made-cyprus-trojan-horse

    • Cyprus talks stumble over fate of Turkish troops

      Any deal to reunify Cyprus must include the withdrawal of some 30,000 Turkish troops from the eastern Mediterranean island, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades says.

      • If things go the way I think they are Cyprus will be reunited by removing all of the Moslems from the land they have stolen.

    • Cyprus: Protesters denounce terms of UN land settlement negotiations

      Dozens of protesters demonstrated against the terms proposed by the UN for the reunification of Cyprus, outside the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Thursday.

      SOT, Alecos Michaelides, Protester (Greek): “We can’t accept Turkish military troops staying in Cyprus after the solution. We don’t accept the guarantor status of Turkey and implied protection after a solution of the Cyprus problem, and of course the legalisation of the status quo that was enforced after the invasion in 1974.”

      SOT, Orthodox Priest at protest (Greek): “We can’t be talking about solution and human liberties in Cyprus, when in the northern occupied part of the island religious, historical and cultural monuments are being destroyed on a daily basis. Monuments that show the Greek identity and history over 3,500 years.”

  3. BREITBART – FRANCE – DIJON – Investigation Launched After Pig Heads Hung On Site of Future Mosque

    The Dijon prosecutor has launched an investigation after a number of pig heads were hung on the gates of a building recently purchased by an Islamic association prior to its conversion to a place of worship.

    Six sawn-halves of pigs heads were discovered on the gates of the building in Genlis, a small town near Dijon, France on Friday morning. Further to the pig heads, further “cold cuts” of pork were discovered thrown into the yard.

    France’s Le Figaro reports the comments of the local Mayor, who said the Association of Socioculture and Muslim Culture of Genlis (ASCMG) had “acquired this building with the aim of making it a place of worship in the future. This announcement, made in the regional press last week, had unleashed [bad feelings]”.

    The mayor told the paper he condemned the act of placing pig parts on the mosque and that he supported the work of the association. Speaking this morning, he remarked: “[The police] have taken samples and I hope the person or people of this act will be held accountable… hatred linked to religion has no place in our commune where everyone must live in full harmony and respect for each other”.

    Algerian-origin Socialist politician Kheira Bouziane supported the mayor’s position, remarking: “The ASCMG has been promoting a peaceful inter-religious dialogue since 2013… today’s insult aims to divide”.

    Anti-racism activist group spokesman Maryna Schcherbyna joined the mayor in a call for punishment, remarking this afternoon: “SOS Racisme… demands that justice be done”. She also referred to a 2016 case in the same town where the then-mayor Georges Grossel had called in a Facebook post for pork to be served in canteens. SOS Racisme demanded his resignation at the time — he was suspended from the mayorality and fined €2,000.

    Local broadcaster Le Bien Public reports the attack comes two days before a public consultation is due to be held on the project.

    The Dijon prosecutor has opened an investigation into what is being termed as a public provocation of discrimination or racial hatred, although police presently have no leads to pursue.

    The Genlis case follows a significant number of other cases across Europe where Islamic centres of worship were defaced with pig parts. In Islam, pigs and their meat are considered unclean, or “haram”, and the leaving of bacon and other meat at mosques is considered a hate-crime and in some cases severely punished.

    Breitbart London reported in 2016 on the placement of a pig’s head on the steps of the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in protest against her policy of mass migration from predominantly Muslim countries. In November 2016, two Polish migrants were jailed in the UK for throwing rashers of bacon inside a mosque.

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/13/investigation-launched-pig-heads-hung-site-future-mosque/

  4. Military Court Convicts David Of Murder For Killing Disarmed, Wounded Goliath (Satire)

    A panel of military judges voted to convict Israelite military personality David, son of Jesse, on First-Degree Murder charges after the latter beheaded a Philistine fighter despite the Philistine lying helpless on the ground.

    Justice Maya Heller read the verdict out this morning in proceedings that followed a fraught period among the Israelites, given the security situation and the widespread, grassroots opposition to prosecuting any Israelite soldier for taking measures to defend himself and his people, regardless of the prevailing Rules of Engagement.

    David incapacitated the Philistine champion Goliath with a slingshot stone to the forehead, striking him from a distance and embedding the stone in Goliath’s skull. The Philistine in his heavy armor fell and no longer presented a threat to David or the rest of the Israelite military camp, but David nevertheless beheaded the incapacitated enemy warrior, in violation of the Rules of Engagement.

    A grassroots movement sprang up that called for the charges to be dropped, and vociferous demonstrations took place at which populist rhetoric railed against the military and political leadership for sending a soldier into battle to defend the nation, then betraying him by putting him on trial for that defense.

    At the reading of the verdict, Colonel Heller spent two hours reading aloud from a scroll and refuting, one by one, each of the arguments put forth by the defense during the trial. Advocates for David called the move excessive, and criticized Israelite media for making the family of the slain Goliath into the victims of the incident. “The man was trying to kill us, and David saved us from him – now all of a sudden Goliath’s the victim?” challenged Azaria, an activist. “This is a travesty.”
    http://www.preoccupiedterritory.com/military-court-convicts-david-of-murder-for-killing-disarmed-wounded-goliath/

  5. From Asharq Alawsat:
    In Paris: Another Vanity Confab on Palestine
    […]
    Peace is just peace, bitter pill administered by the winner of a war and reluctantly swallowed by the loser. Adding any adjective to peace modifies it into nothingness.

    The root cause of the Israel-Palestine problem is the intervention by the outside world, notably the United Nations, in a war-and-peace situation which is the most intimate and exclusive kind of relationship between nations.

    That intervention has prevented Israel from dictating its terms as victor, as every victor in history has done, and has persuaded, first Egypt and Jordan and then the Palestinian authority, not to admit defeat and accept the new status quo resulting from it. The result is the stalemate in which the outside do-gooders do nothing but diplomatic gesticulations such as this weekend’s conference in Paris.

    Unless the do-gooders of Paris are prepared to enter the foray and force the Israelis out, all talk of returning to the 1967 “borders” is disingenuous to say the least. Those were ceasefire lines, not borders and, in a sense, symbolized a fragile status quo that led to war.

    In any case, Gaza, which Israel took from Egypt, has already been abandoned to its fate. It is unlikely that Egypt would want to have it back. That leaves the West Bank; which Israel took from Jordan which had in turn took it from the UN mandate.
    […]
    http://english.aawsat.com/2017/01/article55365486/paris-another-vanity-confab-palestine

  6. Elder Of Ziyon – always good, this time especially perceptive:
    The Economist unwittingly predicts the Palestinian future

    The Economist writes what we’ve been saying for several years now, that the Arab world has far higher priorities than the Palestinian issue.
    […]
    One day very soon, a prominent Arab leader – probably from the Gulf – will say out loud what they have been saying privately for years, that Palestinians have been hijacking the world’s attention to the detriment of everyone, not least the Palestinian Arabs themselves.

    The Palestinians will respond by resorting to the gimmicks that have worked in the past – such as “Jerusalem is under attack” or “our children are being killed.”

    And the Arabs will simply respond that there are far more Muslims worshipping at Al Aqsa Mosque today than at any time it was under Jordanian control. That fewer Palestinians have been killed in 70 years than the number of Arabs killed by other Arabs in any given year. That the “genocide” that they claim they are suffering is somehow going in reverse.

    The public solidarity with the puerile Palestinians is ending. The question is whether the Palestinians can learn to grow up before their cause disappears from Arab radar, and then from Western priorities as well.

    http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-economist-unwittingly-predicts.html

  7. the atlantic – The Details About the CIA’s Deal With Amazon

    A $600 million computing cloud built by an outside company is a “radical departure” for the risk-averse intelligence community.

    The intelligence community is about to get the equivalent of an adrenaline shot to the chest. This summer, a $600 million computing cloud developed by Amazon Web Services for the Central Intelligence Agency over the past year will begin servicing all 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community. If the technology plays out as officials envision, it will usher in a new era of cooperation and coordination, allowing agencies to share information and services much more easily and avoid the kind of intelligence gaps that preceded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

    For the first time, agencies within the intelligence community will be able to order a variety of on-demand computing and analytic services from the CIA and National Security Agency. What’s more, they’ll only pay for what they use.

    The vision was first outlined in the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise plan championed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and IC Chief Information Officer Al Tarasiuk almost three years ago. Cloud computing is one of the core components of the strategy to help the IC discover, access and share critical information in an era of seemingly infinite data.

    For the risk-averse intelligence community, the decision to go with a commercial cloud vendor is a radical departure from business as usual.

    In 2011, while private companies were consolidating data centers in favor of the cloud and some civilian agencies began flirting with cloud variants like email as a service, a sometimes contentious debate among the intelligence community’s leadership took place.

    As one former intelligence official with knowledge of the Amazon deal told Government Executive, “It took a lot of wrangling, but it was easy to see the vision if you laid it all out.” The critical question was would the IC, led by the CIA, attempt to do cloud computing from within, or would it buy innovation? Money was a factor, according to the intelligence official, but not the leading one.

    The government was spending more money on information technology within the IC than ever before. IT spending reached $8 billion in 2013, according to budget documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The CIA and other agencies feasibly could have spent billions of dollars standing up their own cloud infrastructure without raising many eyebrows in Congress, but the decision to purchase a single commercial solution came down primarily to two factors.

    “What we were really looking at was time to mission and innovation,” the former intelligence official said. “The goal was, ‘Can we act like a large enterprise in the corporate world and buy the thing that we don’t have, can we catch up to the commercial cycle? Anybody can build a data center, but could we purchase something more?

    “We decided we needed to buy innovation,” the former intelligence official said.
    A Groundbreaking Deal

    The CIA’s first request for proposals from industry in mid-2012 was met with bid protests to the Government Accountability Office from Microsoft and AT&T, two early contenders for the contract. Those protests focused on the narrow specifications called for by the RFP. GAO did not issue a decision in either protest because the CIA reworked its request to address the companies’ complaint.

    In early 2013, after weighing bids from Amazon Web Services, IBM and an unnamed third vendor, the CIA awarded a contract to AWS worth up to $600 million over a period of up to 10 years. The deal, handled in secret, was first reported by FCW in March 2013, sending ripples through the tech industry.

    A month after the deal became public, IBM filed a bid protest with GAO that the watchdog eventually upheld in June, forcing the CIA to reopen bids to both companies for the contract. A legal struggle between Amazon and Big Blue ensued, and AWS filed a lawsuit against the federal government in July 2013, claiming the GAO sustainment was a “flawed” decision.

    In October, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler sided with Amazon and overturned GAO’s decision to force the CIA to rebid the contract. Big Blue went home, AWS claimed victory under the deal’s original financial specs, and nearly 18 months after the procurement was first released, the CIA and Amazon went to work.

    It is difficult to underestimate the cloud contract’s importance. In a recent public appearance, CIA Chief Information Officer Douglas Wolfe called it “one of the most important technology procurements in recent history,” with ramifications far outside the realm of technology.

    “It’s going to take a few months to bring this online in a robust way, but it’s coming,” Wolfe said. “And I think it’s going to make a big difference for national security.”
    Securing New Capabilities

    The Amazon-built cloud will operate behind the IC’s firewall, or more simply: It’s a public cloud built on private premises.

    Intelligence agencies will be able to host applications or order a variety of on-demand services like storage, computing and analytics. True to the National Institute of Standards and Technology definition of cloud computing, the IC cloud scales up or down to meet the need.

    In that regard, customers will pay only for services they actually use, which is expected to generate massive savings for the IC.

    “We see this as a tremendous opportunity to sharpen our focus and to be very efficient,” Wolfe told an audience at AWS’ annual nonprofit and government symposium in Washington. “We hope to get speed and scale out of the cloud, and a tremendous amount of efficiency in terms of folks traditionally using IT now using it in a cost-recovery way.”

    Many agencies within the IC already have identified applications to move to the cloud. In a recent report, National Reconnaissance Office Chief Information Officer Donna Hansen said her agency had picked five applications, including its enterprise resource planning software, to migrate to the IC cloud. As with public clouds, the IC cloud will maximize automation and require standardized information, which will be shared through application programming interfaces, known as APIs. Amazon engineers will oversee the hardware because AWS owns the hardware and is responsible for maintaining it just as they do in the company’s public data centers.

    Whenever Amazon introduces a new innovation or improvement in cloud services, the IC cloud will evolve. Company officials say AWS made more than 200 such incremental improvements last year, ensuring a sort of built-in innovation to the IC cloud that will help the intelligence community keep pace with commercial advances. Wolfe said AWS’ capacity to bring commercial innovation from places like Silicon Valley to the IC is one of the contract’s greatest benefits. Whenever AWS introduces new products, the CIA will be able to implement them.

    “The biggest thing we were trying to do—the visionary folks a couple years ago—was answer the question, ‘How do we keep up?’” Wolfe said. “The mission we have is important. The pace and complexity is really not [diminishing], in fact, it may be increasing. We feel it is very important to deliver the best IT and best products and services we can to our customers in the IC.”

    What of the data, though? Intelligence agencies are drowning in it, collecting and analyzing an amalgamation of information from sensors, satellites, surveillance efforts, open data repositories and human intelligence, among other sources. Is that data really secure in the cloud?

    The CIA is convinced it is.

    • The IC cloud “will be accredited and compliant with IC standards,” says a senior CIA official familiar with the IC cloud. It will, for example, be able to handle Sensitive Compartmented Information, a type of classified information. “Security in the IC cloud will be as safe as or safer than security on our current data centers,” the senior CIA official says. Because the IC cloud will serve multiple tenants—the 17 agencies that comprise the IC—administrators will be able to restrict access to information based on the identity of the individual seeking it. The idea is to foster collaboration without compromising security. Visually, the IC cloud can be thought of as a workspace hanging off the IC’s shared network—a place where data can be loaded for a variety of tasks like computing or sharing. The IC cloud gives agencies additional means to share information in an environment where automated security isn’t a barrier to the sharing itself. This could prove vital in situations reminiscent of 9/11, in which national security is an immediate concern.

      Cloud vendors, including Amazon, have argued that cloud infrastructures can be more secure than traditional data centers because there are fewer points of entry, but the leaks by Snowden illustrate the potential threat from inside an organization. Snowden was able to access and download classified information intelligence officials said he shouldn’t have been able to access.

      To access information within the IC cloud, analysts must have the proper permissions. In addition, the standardized environment and automation means all activity within the cloud is logged and can be analyzed in near real-time.

      Some government officials view cloud computing as inherently less secure than computing on locally controlled servers, but the CIA’s acceptance of commercially developed cloud technology “has been a wake-up call” to those who balk at it, according to John Pirc, a former CIA cybersecurity researcher who is now chief technology officer at NSS Labs, a security research firm.

      “You hear so many people on the fence about cloud, and then to see the CIA gobble it up and do something so highly disruptive, it’s kind of cool,” says Pirc. “To me, this removes the clouded judgment that cloud isn’t secure. Their moving forward with this should send a message to the rest of the industry that cloud is something you shouldn’t be afraid of.”

      Pirc is no stranger to disruptive technologies. At the CIA’s research labs in the early 2000s, he recalls virtualization—a technology that allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on the same servers, allowing for far more efficient computing—before it became an integral component of many IT enterprises. Intelligence agencies use commercial off-the-shelf technology all the time, but to Pirc, the importance of the cloud capabilities the CIA gets through leveraging Amazon Web Services’ horsepower is best exemplified in computing intelligence data. Scalable computing is critical for fostering shared services and enhanced collaboration between disparate intelligence agencies.

      “What it allows them to do is spin up servers and add more [computing power] fast, and when you’re computing intelligence data, the more compute power you have, the faster you can react,” Pirc says. “In the private sector, compute is all about money and profit, but from my viewpoint when I worked for the agency, you’re working with extremely time-sensitive information. Being able to have that compute power, something that might have taken a couple of hours might instead take a few seconds. Profits aren’t lost when you make mistakes in the intelligence community—people die when you make mistakes.”

      A test scenario described by GAO in its June 2013 bid protest opinion suggests the CIA sought to compare how the solutions presented by IBM and Amazon Web Services could crunch massive data sets, commonly referred to as big data.

      Solutions had to provide a “hosting environment for applications which process vast amounts of information in parallel on large clusters (thousands of nodes) of commodity hardware” using a platform called MapReduce. Through MapReduce, clusters were provisioned for computation and segmentation. Test runs assumed clusters were large enough to process 100 terabytes of raw input data. AWS’ solution received superior marks from CIA procurement officials, according to GAO documentation, and was one of the chief reasons the agency selected Amazon.
      Limited Details

      The CIA declined to comment when Government Executive asked about the extent of the IC cloud’s capabilities or that of the National Security Agency’s cloud. Amazon also declined to describe the IC cloud’s technical capabilities.

      It is a good bet, though, that the AWS-built cloud for the IC will have capabilities at least equal to existing capabilities Amazon has already implemented across government.

      For example, the company provides the cloud bandwidth for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s collection of more than 1 billion trade records and more than a terabyte of new data per day through its Market Information Data Analytics System. This example may be prescient given that now-public surveillance efforts indicate the IC collects billions and perhaps trillions of pieces of metadata, phone and Internet records, and other various bits of information on an annual basis. The potential exists for the CIA to become one of AWS’ largest customers.

      Within the intelligence community, examples abound where the cloud’s capabilities could significantly boost the mission.

      As the geospatial hub of the community, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ingests, analyzes, metatags and reports all geo-intelligence and multisource content in its flagship program called Map of the World. Geospatial data’s importance to the IC has increased in recent years, as evidenced by NGA’s nearly $5 billion budget and its staff nearly doubling in size since 2004. For intensive applications like ingesting or analyzing geospatial data, scalable computing could have a significant impact on mission performance. The cloud also could improve the way the agency shares its large data sets.

      What the IC has done with cloud is not easily replicable, according to American Council for Technology President Rick Holgate, but it is worth paying attention to.

      “The IC has a model other agencies should look to and aspire to in terms of transforming the way they think about delivering services across a large enterprise,” Holgate says. “They are looking to common platforms and service delivery models across an entire enterprise, and not just gaining cost efficiencies, but to provide foundational capabilities to really allow it to operate.”

      Whether or not the IC cloud serves as an example for the rest of government, the CIA’s quest to buy innovation will loom large for years to come.
      Time to Share

      The Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise lays out a vision for the IC’s 17 agencies to securely discover, access and share information. The goal: greater mission success.

      In essence, ICITE (pronounced EYEsite) changes the business model for intelligence agencies by requiring that they share services.

      Cloud computing—behind the IC’s firewall—is one element of that vision. Think of it as the intelligence community sharing information behind a walled castle apart from the rest of the world operating on the Internet.

      The Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency are leading IC cloud development; the NSA’s privately hosted cloud was launched in 2013. Importantly, it was made available to users on new and legacy systems so that personnel on any of its systems could use it. The cloud built by Amazon Web Services at the behest of the CIA will be a shared resource for services on an as-needed basis. Intelligence agencies can order a variety of services like storage, computing, analytics, database services or application hosting. Both clouds will work in complementary fashion, according to senior CIA officials.

      Other ICITE components include a common desktop, an IC-wide applications mall, and network requirement and engineering services.

      The Defense Intelligence Agency and National-Geospatial Intelligence Agency have piloted shared desktop capabilities across their agencies for several thousand users. Those capabilities eventually will spread throughout the IC.

      In essence, ICITE changes the business model for intelligence agencies, mandating shared services. Instead of each agency building out its own systems, select agencies—either one or two of those with larger budgets—are responsible for governing its major components.
      The Elephant in the Room

      In cloud computing, there’s Amazon Web Services and then there’s everybody else.

      IT research firm Gartner had to rescale its famed infrastructure-as-a- service “Magic Quadrant” study in 2013 to accommodate Amazon Web Services’ enormous competitive lead.

      The quadrant ranks cloud providers based on their ability to execute operations and the comprehensiveness of their vision. For several years there hasn’t been even a close challenger to AWS. Gartner’s 2014 quadrant shows that AWS captures 83 percent of the cloud computing infrastructure market.

      In the combined cloud markets for infrastructure and platform services, hybrid and private clouds—worth a collective $131 billion at the end of 2013—Amazon’s revenue grew 67 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to Gartner.

      While the public sector hasn’t been as quick to capitalize on cloud computing as the private sector, government spending on cloud technologies is beginning to jump.

      Researchers at IDC estimate federal private cloud spending will reach $1.7 billion in 2014, and $7.7 billion by 2017. In other industries, software services are considered the leading cloud technology, but in the government that honor goes to infrastructure services, which IDC expects to reach $5.4 billion in 2017.

      In addition to its $600 million deal with the CIA, Amazon Web Services also does business with NASA, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most recently, the Obama Administration tapped AWS to host portions of HealthCare.gov.

      http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/

        • This is [a] disaster waiting to happen.

          Anyone who thinks that cloud computing can be made secure is certifiably insane.

          Imagine what sort of fallout would happen if the Russians or Chinese hacked this information.

  8. Ambassador Samantha Power: ‘The United States needs the UN’

    Cutting US funds to UN would be ‘extremely detrimental’: Power

    US Ambassador Samantha Power on Friday warned that cutting US funding to the United Nations would be “extremely detrimental” to American interests, one week before Donald Trump’s administration takes office.

    Power told reporters in her final news conference that “countries like Russia and China” would benefit from Washington’s reduced standing at the United Nations if funding were withdrawn, as some Republicans have called for after the UN Security adopted an anti-Israel resolution.[…]

    https://www.afp.com/en/news/824/cutting-us-funds-un-would-be-extremely-detrimental-power

    U.N. chief prepared to meet U.S. lawmakers amid push to cut funds

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is prepared to meet with U.S. lawmakers, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday, as some U.S. senators push to cut funding to the world body over a Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements.

    The United States is the largest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 percent of the $5.4 billion core U.N. budget and 28 percent of the $7.9 billion U.N. peacekeeping budget. […]

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-un-idUSKBN14X2DN

  9. ‘Enormous danger’ 10,000 leave Europe to RAPE and MURDER for ISIS, security chief warns (express, Jan 13, 2017)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/753908/Security-chief-ISIS-enormous-danger-OSCE-Sebastian-Kurz

    “AROUND 10,000 people from European countries have “set out to rape and murder in Syria and Iraq” under the Islamic State, the new chairman of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has said.

    Sebastian Kurz made the remarks during his first speech in his new role, warning that those who return from the Middle East countries pose an “enormous danger” to Europe.

    Mr Kurz, who is also Austria’s foreign minister said that stronger action against terrorism by radicalised and extremist Islamists was needed across all the 57 member states that comprise the group.

    He told the Permanent Council: “We know that around 10,000 people from the OSCE area have set out to rape and murder in Syria and Iraq.

    “They are also an enormous danger when they return.”

    “We want to contribute to strengthening co-operative security and defusing existing conflicts.”

    The 30-year-old politician wanted to particularly focus on young people who were being radicalised.

    He said: “Youth is the population group most widely affected by radicalisation in its various forms.

    “As a politician or decision maker it is therefore crucial to listen to youth.

    “As the Chairman of the OSCE I want to go even one step further – we must give a voice to youth and let them become a partner in our efforts to counter violent extremism.

    “We must work together to identify and address root causes and triggers for the seduction and radicalisation of young people.

    “And we must empower our youth to address this phenomenon in our societies.

    “Tolerance and respect will enhance their resilience against these con men.”

    He added: “Armed conflicts continue to take thousands of lives, and have caused displacement and devastation in recent years.

    Mr Kurtz proposed that member states exchange their knowledge about de-radicalisation programmes and learn from one another.

    Peter Neumann, from King’s College, London, who is a terrorism expert has been appointed to co-ordinate the various approaches as an OSCE Special Representative on Countering Radicalisation and Violent Extremism.

    Part of his new strategy would see Austria take up a role of political “bridge builder” as a way of improving relations between East and West.

    He said: “Austria will be true to its role as a bridge builder, a place of dialogue, and will act with openness and as an honest broker.

    “Only together we can ensure the security and stability in the OSCE region.

    “We need a strong organisation that has the ability to act, that can effectively, efficiently and quickly fulfil all the tasks delegated to it by the 57 participating States.”

    The OSCE incorporates a number of countries across the globe and not just in Europe.

    Along with the likes of the UK, France and Germany the likes of the United States, Russia and Mongolia are also members.

    It is the world’s largest regional security organisation with the aim of securing “stability, peace and democracy”.

    Mr Kurz became one of the world’s youngest ever Foreign Ministers of any country when he was appointed on December 16, 2013 at the age of 27.”

  10. German Court: Burning Down A Synagogue Isn’t Anti-Semitism, It’s Just Anti-Israel

    A German regional court has now declared that burning down synagogues isn’t anti-Semitic – it’s just anti-Israel. As the Jerusalem Post reports, according to the court spokesperson, Johannes Pinnel, the three German Palestinian Arabs who threw Molotov cocktails at a Wuppertal synagogue in July 2014 weren’t doing anything anti-Jewish. Rather, they were attempting to create “attention” over the “Gaza conflict” between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas. The three terrorists, Mohamed E., Ismael A., and Mohammad A., were given suspended sentences.

    Burn down a synagogue in Germany, get off scot-free.
    VideoNetanyahu: Israel to reassess U.N. ties after settlement vote

    http://www.dailywire.com/news/12410/german-court-burning-down-synagogue-isnt-anti-ben-shapiro?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=011317-news&utm_campaign=position3

  11. Palestinians: A Strategy of Lies and Deception

    by Bassam Tawil
    January 13, 2017 at 1:30 pm

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9762/palestinians-a-strategy-of-lies-and-deception

    The Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, still believe that they can fool all of the people all of the time. This has always been the Palestinian strategy: nothing new here. Yet one likes to think that world leaders and decision-makers in the West will eventually – perhaps today? – wake up to the fact that the Palestinians are playing them for fools.

    Last week’s terror attack in Jerusalem, where a Palestinian tourist rammed his truck into a group of soldiers, killing four and wounding scores of others, rips the mask off of Abbas and his PA leadership in Ramallah. By either failing or consciously refusing to condemn the terror attack, they expose their cowardice, but, equally importantly, that terrorism directed against Jews is just fine by them.

    • Required reading:

      The Soviet Roots of Terrorism

      The (Russian) Roots of Islamic Terrorism

      For some real insight into this elaborate and murderous farce, please read through, “The Communist Roots of Palestinian terror “. It is but a chapter from David Meir-Levi’s new book, ”History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression”. Here are just a few of the many money quotes:

      From: The Communist Roots of Palestinian terror

      The PLO came on the scene at a critical moment in Middle East history. At the Khartoum conference held shortly after the Six-Day war, the defeated and humiliated Arab states confronted the ‘new reality’ of an Israel that seemed unbeatable in conventional warfare. The participants of the conference decided, among other things, to continue the war against Israel as what today would be called a ‘low intensity conflict’. The PLO’s Fatah forces were perfect to carry out this mission.

      The Soviets not only armed and trained Palestinian terrorists but also used them to arm and train other professional terrorists by the thousands. The International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (CPSU), the Soviet Security Police (KGB), and Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU) all played major roles in this effort. From the late 1960s onwards, moreover, the PLO maintained contact with other terror groups – some of them neo-Nazi and extreme right-wing groups – offering them support and supplies, training and funding.

      … Mahmoud Abbas, later to succeed Yassir Arafat as head of the PLO, was a graduate of [Moscow’s] Patrice Lumumba U, where he received his Ph.D. in 1982 after completing a thesis partly based on Holocaust denial.

      [Here comes one of the real corkers. Everyone is likely familiar with how:]

      Faced with Arafat’s threats of civil war, he [Jordan’s Hussein] offered the PLO leader a position in the Jordanian parliament. Arafat refused, saying that his only goal in life was to destroy Israel. [emphasis added]

      [In the above, we see Arafat as the courageous, genocidal anti-Israeli Lion of Islam™.]

      By 1973, Arafat was a Soviet puppet (and would remain such until the fall of the USSR). His adjutants, including Mahmoud Abbas, were being trained by the KGB in guerrilla warfare, espionage, and demolition; and his ideologues had gone to North Vietnam to learn the propaganda Tao of Ho Chi Minh.

      [Communist misinformation plays no small part in what follows:]

      Arafat was particularly struck by Ho Chi Minh’s success in mobilizing left-wing sympathizers in Europe and the United States, where activists on American campuses, enthusiastically following the line of North Vietnamese operatives, had succeeded in reframing the Vietnam war from a Communist assault on the south to a struggle for national liberation.

      Ho’s chief strategist, General Giap, made it clear to Arafat and his lieutenants that in order to succeed, they too needed to redefine the terms of their struggle. Giap’s counsel was simple but profound: the PLO needed to work in a way that concealed its real goals, permitted strategic deception, and gave the appearance of moderation:

      “Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.”

      At the same time that he was getting advice from General Giap, Arafat was also being tutored by Muhammad Yazid, who had been minister of information in two Algerian wartime governments (1958-1962): wipe out the argument that Israel is a small state whose existence is threatened by the Arab states, or the reduction of the Palestinian problem to a question of refugees; instead, present the Palestinian struggle as a struggle for liberation like the others.

      Wipe out the impression that in the struggle between the Palestinians and the Zionists, the Zionist is the underdog. Now it is the Arab who is oppressed and victimized in his existence because he is not only facing the Zionists but also world imperialism. [emphasis added]

      [And there you have it, the transformation is complete. We see Arafat’s—along with the Palestinian peoples’—conversion from fearsome Mujihadeen over to squalling, perpetual victims.

      The Palestinian-Israeli conflict’s importance cannot be overstated. This agonizingly drawn out modern day Grand-Guignol, served as the mask for Islamic jihad right up until it finally slipped free forever one innocent morning on September 11, 2001.

      Communist Russia’s role in Islamic terrorism is not limited merely to Arafat and his brood of genocidal leeches. Please also read “The (Russian) Roots of Islamic Terrorism” by Antero Leitzinger.]

      [From the same article:]

      In the PLO’s original founding Charter (or Covenant), Article 24 states: “this Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the west Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in the Gaza Strip or the Himmah area.”

      For Arafat, ‘Palestine’ was not the west Bank or the Gaza Strip, which after 1948 belonged to other Arab states. The only ‘homeland’ for the PLO in 1964 was the State of Israel.

      However, in response to the Six-Day war and Arafat’s mentoring by the Soviets and their allies, the PLO revised its Charter on July 17, 1968, to remove the language of Article 24, thereby newly asserting a ‘Palestinian’ claim of sovereignty to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

      Part of the reframing of the conflict, along with adopting the identity of an ‘oppressed people’ and ‘victim of colonialism’, then, was the creation, ex nihilo, of ‘historic Palestine’ and the ancient ‘Palestinian people’ who had lived in their ‘homeland’ from ‘time immemorial’, who could trace their ‘heritage’ back to the Canaanites, who were forced from their homeland by the Zionists, and who had the inalienable right granted by international law and universal justice to use terror to reclaim their national identity and political self-determination.

      That this was a political confection was, perhaps inadvertently, revealed to the West by Zahir Muhse’in, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, in a 1977 interview with the Amsterdam-based newspaper Trouw:

      The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.” [Emphasis in Original.]

      Arafat himself asserted the same principle on many occasions. In his authorized biography he says, “The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasir Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel.”

      [And this same murderous farce continues, unchallenged by the global community, to this very day.]

  12. Kremlin blames UK for Trump ‘sex storm’ as top Tory says relations with Russia are ‘about as bad as it could get’ without us being at WAR

    Russia’s relations with Britain went into the deep freeze last night as Moscow blamed MI6 for the dossier of sordid claims about Donald Trump.

    In an alarming Twitter post, the Russian embassy in London suggested the dossier’s alleged author, former British spy Christopher Steele, was still working for MI6 and ‘briefing both ways’ against Mr Trump and Moscow.

    Mr Steele, who spied in Moscow in the 1990s, was last night in hiding after vanishing shortly before the damning dossier made headlines around the world. Neighbours said he had asked them to look after his three cats, and there were claims last night he was in an MI6 safe house.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4113576/Former-MI6-spy-hiding-Russians-Trump-dirty-dossier-1million-two-years-working-undercover-supplying-FBI-information-cracked-open-corruption-FIFA.html#ixzz4VgRboed5
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    • Believe as much of this as you want, personally I am taking almost all of the stories about the sex scandal and the whereabouts of Steele as being made by the alt left to discredit Donald Trump. The only reason I posted this is the report that Britain and Russia are on the brink of war. Newspapers have caused wars in the past and their causing another one wouldn’t surprise me.

  13. Republican Senators Introduce Bill to Defund UN Over Anti-Israel Resolution

    On Thursday, Republican Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced legislation that would defund the United Nations over the Security Council’s passage of UN Resolution 2334, which calls Israeli construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem “illegal.”

    The “Safeguard Israel Act” states that the U.S. government will be prohibited from giving any money to the UN, or any of its affiliates, until President Barack Obama confirms the UN resolution has been repealed and can certify that he has done so. America provides the UN with 22 percent of its budget, contributing $8 billion to the largely anti-Israel organization annually.

    Read more at 1776 Coalition: http://www.1776coalition.com/rise-up-1/republican-senators-introduce-bill-to-defund-un-over-anti-israel-resolution/#ixzz4VgT59Zul

  14. Hungary plans automatic detention of asylum seekers

    Hungary is planning automatic detention of all asylum seekers until their asylum procedure is completed due to an increased terrorist threat, a senior minister said Thursday. They would not be allowed to leave transit zones designated for migrants. Under EU law, detention is only for exceptional cases. Last year, a gay Iranian refugee won a case against Hungary at the European court in Strasbourg for being incarcerated for 58 days.

    https://euobserver.com/tickers/136521

    Hungary to introduce automatic detention for asylum-seekers

    Refugees seeking asylum in Hungary may now be facing automatic detention for the full length of the asylum process, in violation of European law.

    János Lázár, who heads the prime minister’s office, announced today that the Hungarian government will no longer allow refugees to move around the country while their cases are under review. At the moment, Hungary maintains several open camps, where refugees waiting for a decision on their cases are allowed to leave for other purposes.

    “Automatic detention for the full length of the asylum procedure is absolutely not in accordance with EU law or the Strasbourg case law,” explained Márta Pardavi, Co-Chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. While the wording of Lázár’s announcement was unclear regarding which specific legal procedures the government is changing, his comments highlighted that refugees will no longer have freedom of movement.

    The EU’s recast reception conditions directive states that “the detention of applicants should be applied in accordance with the underlying principle that a person should not be held in detention for the sole reason that he or she is seeking international protection.”

    Moreover, the directive emphasizes that “with regard to administrative procedures relating to the grounds for detention, the notion of ‘due diligence’ at least requires that Member States take concrete and meaningful steps to ensure that the time needed to verify the grounds for detention is as short as possible, and that there is a real prospect that such verification can be carried out successfully in the shortest possible time. Detention shall not exceed the time reasonably needed to complete the relevant procedures.”

    Residing in open camps currently allows refugees to take walks outside, attend church services and travel to events hosted by Hungarian civil society organizations such as MigSzol and Artemisszió.

    Lázár’s announcement may be part of an ongoing government effort to limit contact between refugees and Hungarian society.

    In December, the Bicske refugee camp near Budapest was closed down. Refugees residing there had access to events, mentors, workshops and language classes offered by Hungarian civil society groups in Budapest. After being moved to remote camps — Kiskunhalas in southern Hungary and Körmend near the Austrian border — refugees from the Bicske camp have far less contact with Hungarians and Hungarian NGOs.

    The nature of open camps has allowed individuals to step in when the Hungarian government has failed to provide acceptable living conditions for refugees. In Körmend, the parish priest invited refugees sleeping in cold camps in the middle of winter to stay in a community building.

    Lázár’s comments were ambiguous and it remains unclear how the government will implement its new policy, but it appears that daily life for refugees in Hungary may be worsening even further.

    http://budapestbeacon.com/featured-articles/hungary-to-introduce-automatic-detention-for-asylum-seekers/43729

    • Website of the Hungarian Government

      Prime Minister’s Office
      János Lázár
      Minister of Prime Minister’s Office

      Alien police detention must be reinstated
      January 12, 2017 11:02 PM

      The Government has decided to reinstate alien police detention, János Lázár, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said at the press conference Governmentinfo 75 which he held jointly with Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács.

      Mr Lázár told the press: no one may freely move in the territory of Hungary until the assessment of the asylum application submitted, and in the event of refusal, no one may leave the country until the assessment of the application on a final and absolute basis.

      The Minister referred to the increased threat of terrorism and security risks as the reason for the measure, and in his evaluation, the pressure of migration weighing upon Hungary may increase in 2017. The Government asked the Interior Minister to make the necessary preparations for reinstating alien police custody urgently.

      As he said, the meetings of the European Commission and the European Council held in the autumn and in December failed to yield tangible results, and were unable to resolve the crisis. The situation of those who are already within the borders of the EU continues to remain problematic. He further said that the number of those heading for Hungary from the Serbian border is also on the increase, and therefore the protection of the borders must be significantly upgraded.

      The Minister was also asked about the status of the Körmend reception centre. He said in reply that the reinstatement of alien police detention will solve the problems, and there will be no need for the operation of the facility. At the same time, he said thanks to the city’s leadership and those living there, indicating that the Government is ready to reward their cooperation with developments.

      NGOs must be transparent

      Mr Lázár was asked at length about statements made by government-party politicians regarding civil society organisations. He said in explanation for the plans concerning the transparency of the sector that everyone has the right to find out who wants to influence their opinion from abroad. There are at present no regulations of this kind with respect to non-governmental organisations, despite the fact that they form part of political life, he added, indicating: the Justice Ministry will prepare a balanced proposal which will equally apply to everyone. However, there is at present a debate about a non-existent proposal. The Government does not want to „clear anyone out of the way”, he stressed.

      At the same time, he asked members of the press to manifest some empathy towards his fellow-politicians who responded to foreign attempts to manipulate public opinion with a degree of sensitivity. As an example, he pointed out: it is evident that half a million illegal immigrants were organised to approach the Hungarian border with foreign assistance, and US businessman György Soros stated on a number of occasions that in the absence of a genuine opposition, he and his networks constitute the opposition in Hungary.

      The Minister also told the press that the Government will file a report with the police against unknown perpetrators regarding the case of the construction of metro line 4. As he said, OLAF has closed the investigation of the project which had been ongoing as of December 2012. Its report renders an account of a „series of international left-wing crimes”. The socialist and free democrat city leadership and multinational corporations may have jointly committed these crimes under the leadership of former Mayor of Budapest Gábor Demszky, he added, indicating that suspicions of fraud, corruption, abuse of power and cartel practices have also emerged.

      The European Commission would impose a fine of HUF 76.6 billion on Hungary due to the irregularities, the Minister said, who agreed with Mayor of Budapest István Tarlós that the fine must be shifted onto those who were responsible for the transactions.

      Hungary has adequate energy reserves

      Hungary has adequate energy reserves, and is able to meet the emerging demands even in the event of the most extreme weather circumstances, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stated. Mr Lázár said: at the beginning of the winter, they increased the quantity of gas to be stored by 13 per cent, and a sufficient quantity of electricity is also available.

      He said: at present, the daily gas consumption amounts to 87 million cubic metres, but there is available capacity for a substantially larger quantity as well. At the beginning of the winter, there were 3.7 billion cubic metres of gas in the storage facilities, he added, and so gas is available without any restrictions.

      The Minister also told the press: the Government offers its assistance to every local government with providing care for the homeless and helping those in need or in trouble. The local governments must contact the Ministry of Interior for any help they need.

      Mr Lázár also appealed to the homeless, asking them to contact a shelter designated for the homeless within the shortest possible time, and in addition to local governments, he also thanked the civilians who have helped.

      The Minister further reported that the Government will assess any municipal and other investor requests for additional expenditures for ongoing projects more stringently in the future.

      Mr Lázár said: the competent ministry may decide on extra expenditures below 15 per cent. However, in the case of additional expenditures between 15 and 30 per cent, the Minister of the Economy has a right of veto, subject to the involvement of a forensic expert. There will be no scope at all for the approval of extra expenditures in excess of 30 per cent.

      He also told the press: they wish to disburse all HUF 9,000 billion of EU development funds by the end of next March, and all calls for proposals will be published with respect to the EU funds available for the period extending to 2020 by the end of March this year, and decisions on the awarding of the calls will be adopted by the end of the year, at the latest.

      As he said, they are planning to disburse funds worth minimum HUF 2,200 billion, but this sum may be as high as HUF 2,700 billion which may significantly contribute to a minimum 4 per cent economic growth.

      In answer to a question, he said: last year, in the case of projects worth some HUF 1,300 billion, excess requests worth HUF 230 billion were received by the Government. They wish to make these funds transparent in the future with the involvement of forensic experts.

      • The Minister was further queried about the topics on the agenda of the Budapest meeting of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his answer, he mentioned energy and economic cooperation, and the Paks 2 project. At the same time, Mr Lázár rejected all claims or provocations to the effect that „we would yield an inch on any national interest, whether in the West or in the East”. If the new block of the nuclear power station is not built, the country’s energy dependence on Russia will further increase, he pointed out, adding that the Government’s position is clear: „we do not want the Russians to cross the Carpathians”. A fair relationship between the two countries which is based on mutual respect is in the best interest of the Hungarian economy, he said.

        Mr Lázár confirmed that the Prime Minister invited the Israeli Prime Minister to Hungary in person by telephone. He was, however, unable to tell when the visit will be due.

        He informed the press that the Prime Minister will visit the City of Szeged on 30 January and will meet with socialist mayor László Botka. He reiterated: the Government promised grants for the implementation of an industrial park of 200 hectares at the seat of Csongrád County inter alia, but as he said, the city has also received substantial government funding for the implementation of ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure).

        In answer to a question, the Minister said that the Government and the Prime Minister do not wish to further concern themselves with the changes made to an interview with the Prime Minister at the publishing company Pannon Lapok. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will not file for criminal investigation in the case, and leaves the settlement of the affair and of the issue of accountability to the publisher.

        At the press conference Governmentinfo 75, Mr Lázár also told the press: the Government authorised the Prime Minister’s Office to further review government support institutions and to look into the operation of state-owned companies. He added: state-owned companies may also undergo changes and staff streamlining this year.

        He further said that they will initiate a legislative amendment in order to make it easier for those availing themselves of the new family housing benefit to build residential buildings. Construction regulations will be simplified with respect to running water, holiday zones and garden plots.

        The Government heard Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga’s report on the new government securities market strategy. The target continues to remain to reduce the sovereign debt to 65 per cent to GDP by 2020. At the same time, based on the country’s economic performance, the sovereign debt can be financed more cheaply at present. The Hungarian population finances 40 per cent of the total sovereign debt, Mr Lázár told the press, while foreign creditors now only have a share of 40 per cent. In other words, the country’s exposure has decreased.

        The Cabinet has further decided that there is no need any more for any auxiliary money market solutions, and as part of this has decided on the phasing out of the settlement bonds which will remain on sale until 31 March. He added: the total proceeds of the land auctions from last year and this year amounting to some HUF 270 billion, too, will be used in their entirety for the reduction of the sovereign debt.

        Mr Lázár was also asked about the continued construction of the M0 express road. He said in reply that they would like to close the route disputes this year, and to invite the relevant public procurements in the second half of the year. The construction works may begin in 2018 and may be completed by 2022.

        Mr Lázár further told the press that the Government acknowledges the Miskolc mayor’s request, and there will be no prison hospital in the city.

        http://www.kormany.hu/en/prime-minister-s-office/news/alien-police-detention-must-be-reinstated

  15. Fmr Clinton Spox: There Are Developments That ‘Call Into Question The Legitimacy’ of Trump’s Win ‘Every Day’

    On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” former Clinton campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon stated, “Every day there are new developments, new shoes dropping, so to speak, that call into question the legitimacy of his [President-Elect Donald Trump’s] win.”

    Fallon said, “Every day there are new developments, new shoes dropping, so to speak, that call into question the legitimacy of his win. First it was with respect to Russian interference. They tried to deny — the Trump folks did, that Russia was behind this, now they’ve been forced to admit that. Then they tried to say that it was not for the purposes of trying to help Donald Trump, they were just trying to sow confusion and they were targeting both sides. And now, folks in the government have concluded that it was actually to try to tip the election Donald Trump’s way. And now, with respect to the FBI, we see that Jim Comey’s actions are sufficiently questionable that the internal watchdog at DOJ thinks that they merit an independent review. So, I think Donald Trump is just trying to cling to whatever legitimacy still is in effect here.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/01/13/fmr-clinton-spox-there-are-developments-that-call-into-question-the-legitimacy-of-trumps-win-every-day/

    ( 5 min 41 )

  16. reuters -U.S. says it has not received formal invitation to Syria talks in Astana

    The United States has not received a formal invitation to Syria peace talks being organized by Russia and Turkey to be held in the Kazakh capital of Astana on Jan. 23, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

    “To my knowledge we have not received … a formal invitation to the talks,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a daily briefing.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-idUSKBN14X279

    ==============================

    WaPo- First sign of enhanced U.S.-Russia relations under Trump: An invite to Syria talks

    Russia has invited the incoming Trump administration to Syrian peace talks it is sponsoring later this month with Turkey and Iran, part of a process from which the Obama administration pointedly has been excluded.

    U.S. participation, especially if an agreement is reached, would be the first indication of the enhanced U.S.-Russia cooperation that President Vladi­mir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump have forecast under a Trump administration.

    The invitation, extended to Trump’s designated national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, came in a Dec. 28 phone call to Flynn by Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador in Washington, according to a transition official.

    The official said that “no decision was made” during the call and that “I don’t have anything additional on U.S. attendance at this time.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity based on ground rules set by the transition team.

    A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the United States would attend the talks, according to Turkish media. To be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, the talks are tentatively scheduled to begin Jan. 23, three days after Trump’s inauguration. Syrian government and opposition representatives are also expected to attend.

    The Astana meeting will follow an unsuccessful year-long attempt, spearheaded by the Obama administration and Russia, to implement a cease-fire and begin peace talks in Syria. Moscow and Washington have accused each other of sabotaging that effort. Russia initiated the new process, aiming to demonstrate its own leadership role on the regional and global stages.

    Meanwhile, the timing of the Flynn-Kislyak call has prompted questions about whether they also discussed sanctions on Russia that President Obama was widely reported to be preparing — and announced the next day — and whether Trump, as president, will enforce them or even allow them to stand.

    The transition official said Friday that he did not know whether Flynn was aware at the time of the call that sanctions were about to be announced. But “I can tell you that during his call, sanctions were not discussed whatsoever,” the official said.

    Trump conceded at a news conference this week that “I think it was Russia” that was responsible for hacking Democratic email accounts during the presidential campaign. He had previously questioned a U.S. intelligence assessment of Russian responsibility. But he continues to reject the intelligence conclusion that Russia leaked the hacked information to promote his candidacy over that of Hillary Clinton.

    The Senate Intelligence Committee will “expeditiously” conduct an investigation of the intelligence conclusions, the chairman and ranking Democrat announced Friday. Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said in a statement that the scope of the inquiry would include, but would not be limited to, Russian activities and intentions, as well as “any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns.” It said the committee would, when possible, hold open hearings; issue subpoenas for testimony, if necessary; and produce classified and unclassified reports of its findings.

    Trump and Flynn have called for increased cooperation with Russia on a number of fronts, and both have criticized the current administration, alleging missed opportunities and weak leadership.

    The Flynn-Kislyak call was first reported Friday by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who said transition officials described two separate conversations between them, both initiated by Flynn. The first call, on Dec. 19, was to express condolences for the terrorist killing of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. The second, on Dec. 28, was to express condolences for the crash of a Russian plane carrying a choir to Syria, to discuss a Putin-Trump telephone call after the inauguration, and to discuss a Russian invitation for a Trump administration official to visit Kazakhstan in late January.

    Trump spokesman Sean Spicer, asked about Ignatius’s column in a conference call with reporters, offered a somewhat different account of communications between the two. Flynn and Kislyak exchanged merry-Christmas texts on Dec. 25, Spicer said, and a subsequent call on Dec. 28 began with a text message from Kislyak to Flynn asking for a phone conversation. Flynn responded positively, and Kislyak placed the call, which “centered on the logistics” of a post-inauguration call between Trump and Putin, Spicer said.

    “That was it, plain and simple,” he added.

    Russia and Iran have provided decisive military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against U.S.-backed rebel forces, as well as al-Qaeda-allied fighters. Trump has been critical of Iran while calling for a counterterrorism alliance with Russia and saying Assad’s ouster should not be a primary U.S. interest.

    Rex Tillerson, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday that “Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iran are dictating the terms of how things are going to play out in Syria today, absent our participation,” and called for increased U.S. engagement in the conflict.

    But, he said, any cooperation with Iran in Syria “is contrary to American interests.”

    Although the United States and Turkey are NATO allies and both members of the coalition against the Islamic State, their interests have diverged somewhat in Syria and over the circumstances surrounding and following an unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey this past summer.

    Russia, seeing an opportunity for advantage, has patched up differences with Turkey that began with the Turkish downing of a Russian plane that skirted its airspace while in action over Syria. Over the past several months, Putin and Erdogan have spoken frequently and began late last year to plan the Astana conference, along with Iran. It remains unclear which of the non-terrorist opposition groups, variously backed by the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others in the region, will attend the talks.

    A cease-fire, to be implemented in anticipation of the negotiations, has been only partially observed, with Assad’s forces attacking long-held rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus.

    While many Obama administration officials have thrown up their hands at the intractability of the Syria problem, the administration gave its public approval to the Astana meeting, even without an invitation.

    Secretary of State John F. Kerry said earlier this month that the administration was “encouraging” the talks. “We hope that could produce a step forward,” he said during a final news conference at the State Department. But the greater objective, Kerry said, was beginning separate, U.N.-sponsored talks among all the Syrian players in Geneva.

    Those talks — a resumption of a failed earlier effort last year under U.S.-Russia auspices — are scheduled to begin Feb. 8 in Geneva.

    Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. envoy in charge of that process, said Wednesday that “the U.N. is supportive” of the Kazakhstan meeting. “The U.N. is being kept informed, and .?.?. [is] ready to contribute and support so that we have a successful Astana meeting,” which, he said, could be a steppingstone to a successful Geneva meeting.

    While Turkey has closely coordinated with Russia on the meeting, the Turkish government has also been anxious over the absence of the United States and has pushed for its inclusion.

    “The United States should definitely be invited, and that is what we agreed with Russia,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday, according to Turkish media reports. “Nobody can ignore the role of the United States.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/first-sign-of-enhanced-us-russia-relations-under-trump-an-invite-to-syria-talks/2017/01/13/81d443d6-d9b9-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html

  17. Intelligence Committee will investigate possible Russia-Trump links

    The Senate panel could use subpoenas to secure testimony from Obama officials and the Trump team.

    Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said late Friday that his committee will investigate possible contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, reversing himself one day after telling reporters that the issue would be outside of his panel’s ongoing probe into Moscow’s election-disruption efforts.

    Burr and the intelligence panel’s top Democrat, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said in a joint statement that the committee’s probe would touch on “intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns” as well as Russian cyberattacks and other election meddling outlined in an intelligence report released last week.

    The committee will use “subpoenas if necessary” to secure testimony from Obama administration officials as well as Trump’s team, Burr and Warner said.

    The bipartisan Senate announcement came hours after several House Democrats aired their frustrations with FBI Director James Comey following a classified briefing on Russian election disruption. The Democrats were livid that Comey refused to confirm whether he is conducting an inquiry into potential Trump ties to Russia — a question that he publicly declined to answer earlier this week.

    Burr said late Thursday that he did not plan to touch on possible contacts between Trump emissaries and Russia, asserting that the issue likely falls under the FBI’s purview. “We don’t have anything to do with political campaigns,” the Republican said.

    But Warner had said during a Tuesday committee hearing that he wanted the probe to touch on possible contacts between Moscow or its emissaries and political campaigns, putting the two senators potentially at odds. Warner told reporters late Thursday that his view hadn’t changed, meaning that the Friday joint announcement effectively brought Burr around to the Democrat’s perspective.

    The Senate move also creates a split with the House, where intelligence panel chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) told POLITICO earlier on Friday that Congress should not be investigating any possible contacts between Russia and the Trump camp.

    “House committees don’t go operational like that, that I know of,” said Nunes, who is a member of Trump’s transition team. “It’s a law enforcement issue.”

  18. In Germany there was a large fight in Police Academy between Arab and Turkey students and officers for policemen. Couple of people were injured and at least two people expelled.
    (I also read elsewhere that it was not a first such fight between different groups of students in Police Academy)
    Ermittler-Azubis rasten aus Wilde Schlägerei an Polizeiakademie
    Charlottenburg –

    Polizeieinsatz bei unseren künftigen Ordnungshütern! Mindestens zwei Polizeischüler sollen sich in ihrer Ausbildungsstätte eine Schlägerei geliefert haben. Mitte vergangener Woche wurde angeblich eine Einsatzhundertschaft in die Kantine der Polizeiakademie an der Charlottenburger Chaussee gerufen.

    Zunächst hieß es, es gebe eine Massenschlägerei zwischen Polizeischülern. Zudem habe es mehrere Verletzte gegeben, darunter auch Ausbilder, die den Streit schlichten wollten. Bereits kurz nach dem Einsatz soll es zudem die Anweisung gegeben

    haben, die Sache „behördenintern“ zu regeln. Ob das tatsächlich stimmt, ist bislang zwar unklar. Doch wie der KURIER aus zuverlässiger Quelle erfuhr, soll es zwischen zwei arabisch- und türkischstämmigen Polizeischülern tatsächlich erst zu einem Streit und im weiteren Verlauf auch zu einer Schlägerei gekommen sein. Polizeiintern soll zudem bekannt sein, dass es immer wieder zu Konflikten zwischen den beiden Volksgruppen kommt.
    http://www.berliner-kurier.de/berlin/polizei-und-justiz/ermittler-azubis-rasten-aus-wilde-schlaegerei-an-polizeiakademie-25499936