Reader’s links for February 15 – 2017

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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.

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

About Eeyore

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

106 Replies to “Reader’s links for February 15 – 2017”

          • Something is going on in North Korea that isn’t obvious, last year Kim Jong Un’s wife disappeard for 8 or 9 months, Kim himselmf disappeared for a while.

            During the disappearance rumors surfaced of a family coup with Kim’s sister taking charge of the natoins with different explinations give for this. Now Kim’s older brother has been murdered by two North Korean women.

            The scary thing is that from all indications no one in that family is what most people would call stable and who ever ends up controlling the nation has control of several nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them to at least the west coast of North America.

  2. https://www.apnews.com/3bee2ab678f14eb992bbdba39cba85c3/White-House:-Mideast-peace-may-not-be-2-state-solution

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration suggested Tuesday that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians may not come in the form of a two-state solution — a position that could represent a dramatic shift from what has been U.S. policy for more than 20 years.

    Speaking to reporters ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior White House official said Trump is eager to begin facilitating a peace deal between the two sides and hoping to bring them together soon.

    But the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the meeting beforehand, said it will be up to the Israelis and Palestinians to determine what peace will entail — and that peace, not a two-state solution, is the goal.

    For decades, the U.S. position has been that Israelis and Palestinians must work through direct negotiations to establish two states living side by side, with Palestinians to ultimately create an independent state. All serious peace negotiations in that have time have assumed that the two-state solution was the basis for future peace.

  3. https://newsline.com/charges-dropped-muslim-student-fabricated-hate-crime/

    The Washtenaw Country Prosecutors Office will not be pursuing any legal action on a Muslim student at the University of Michigan for fabricating a hate-crime.

    In November, a female student at the University of Michigan told police that a white man instructed her to remove her hijab. The man according to the student said that he will light up her hijab with a lighter if she would not remove it. The University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security issued an alert for the incident and labeled it as an act of “hate intimidation” and “ethnic intimidation.” The alleged crime was reported after

    In the investigation that followed, Ann Arbor police department with the cooperation of the campus police as well as the FBI, released a report saying that the incident is a hoax. The conclusion came after they have reviewed multiple surveillance videos of the area where the alleged incident took place as well as interviewed possible witnesses.

  4. Skyscrapers on Mars? UAE to build planet’s first city (alaraby, Feb 15, 2017)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2017/2/15/skyscrapers-on-mars-uae-to-build-planets-first-city

    “International hot-spot Dubai could face serious competition soon, as the United Arab Emirates confirmed plans to build the first city on Mars as part of a 100-year national programme.

    The Mars 2117 project was announced by Emirati leaders on the sidelines of the World Government Summit attended by more than 100 representative from foreign governments, six major international organisations, as well as leading international tech companies.

    The 100-year plan will involve identifying and training national cadres that “can achieve scientific breakthroughs to facilitate the transport of people to the Red Planet over the next decades,” local Gulf News reported.

    Abu Dhabi is expected to employ specialised international organisations and scientific institutes to contribute to the ambitious project, although details of the vision were not shared.

    But if the rise of Dubai is anything to go by, lavish skyscrapers and out-of-this-world structures should be expected on Mars…and possibly a man-made beach too.”

  5. 12 Saudi soldiers killed in recent Yemen border fighting (alaraby, Feb 15, 2017)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/2/15/12-saudi-soldiers-killed-in-recent-yemen-border-fighting

    “At least 12 Saudi soldiers have died on the southern border since early February, according to an unusual series of official reports released as the country fights Yemeni rebels.

    In separate dispatches since February 5, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has carried photographs of funerals for the “martyrs” it said died “defending the southern borders.”

    The most recent report, published late on Monday, named Jaber Haroubi as the latest soldier to be killed.

    SPA also quoted the father of another military casualty, Mohammed al-Manjahi, as saying he was proud of his son…”

  6. Rohingyan girls forced to become child brides after fleeing to Malaysia (asiancorrespondent, Feb 15, 2017)
    https://asiancorrespondent.com/2017/02/rohingyan-girls-forced-become-child-brides-fleeing-malaysia/

    “THE slight girl in a turquoise headscarf held back tears as she recalled what happened when she fled to Malaysia from Burma‘s violence-hit Rakhine state. Just 12-years-old at the time, she was forced to wed a man she did not know, and who was more than a decade older than her.

    The teenager, who is not being named by Reuters because she is still only 13, is like hundreds of Rohingya girls escaping persecution, violence and apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, only to be sold into marriage to Rohingya men in neighbouring Malaysia, migrant groups and community members said…”

  7. REVEALED: The STAGGERING number of Greeks paying ZERO income tax amid financial crisis (express, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/766937/Greeks-paying-ZERO-income-tax-amid-financial-crisis

    “AN ASTONISHING number of Greek households are paying no income tax at all – a shocking new chart has revealed.

    As the country tries to clamber out of its debts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said more than half of homes are paying zero income tax.

    The average in Europe for households making no contribution stands at around 8 per cent – but in Greece it is above 50…”

    • And the libs in the US are starting a campaign of not paying their Federal taxes, they say they are doing this because President Trump is a tyrant. If he really was a tyrant how many of the protesters, tax and otherwise, would have courage enough to protest him and his actions?

      Having said that back to Greece, this refusal to pay taxes and the refusal of the Greek government to prosecute those who refuse to pay is one of the reasons for the economic mess in Greece.

      • These hypocrits think using their tax money to build the wall is wrong because they don’t believe in the wall, but they think it is good to force Catholic Nuns to pay for abortions.

  11. Pakistani immigrant, 27, sexually abuses girl, 6, and gets suspended sentence (express, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/767521/pakistani-immigrant-sex-abuse-rape-girl-Germany-suspended-jail-sentence

    “AN IMMIGRANT in Germany has been given a mild 20 month suspended jail sentence for sexually abusing a little girl in an asylum seekers home in Berlin that led to her father being gunned down by police.

    The victim’s mother Zaman burst into tears when she heard the verdict and cried out in the courtroom: “How can this be? He should be locked up in a place where he cannot do this again. He destroyed my life on this day.”

    The court heard how the 27-year-old man lured the six-year-old girl away to a quiet spot where he could assault her away from prying eyes.

    The attacker, Pakistani refugee Tayyab M. told the court in Germany it “didn’t’ matter” to him whether he had sex with a child or an adult – just that the act itself was completed for his gratification.

    “I did it, it just happened spontaneously,” he said. “It wasn’t planned.”

    When police arrived at the migrant home in the Moabit district of Berlin to arrest the Pakistani suspect her father tried to lunge at him with a knife.

    Iraqi Husam al-S., 29, had been in Berlin with his family for four months when he died in a hail of gunfire in a bid to exact revenge on his daughter’s abuser.

    Others in the accommodation centre had told him what he had done to his daughter Asiye in the centre on September 27 last year.

    As police led Tayyab away in handcuffs the girl’s father lunged at him with a knife screaming: “You will not survive!”

    Syrian refugee called Eyhab, 18, who witnessed what happened, said: “Tayyab was sitting with the little girl and playing her music on his mobile phone.

    “That seemed funny to us: the two did not know each other.” He said he then vanished with the little girl.

    “Later we found the two of them behind a shed,” he added, saying the little girl was “practically undressed. He was on top of her and I pushed him away.”

    Eyhab said he called security guards at the centre in the Moabit section of Berlin and they in turn called police.

    As he was being led away the little girl’s father made the lunge for her attacker which cost him his life.

    “He ignored several calls to stop, whereupon several policemen opened fire on him,” said a police spokesman. The fatal bullet entered his heart.

    Ahmed H., 30, said: “I heard at least three gunshots. He went down. He died in a clinic leaving behind his wife and his three children aged, six, three and ten.”

    Bodo Pfalzgraf, the police union leader in Berlin, defended the officers who killed him – now at the centre of a probe – saying: “The officers had to prevent lynch mob justice and also protect themselves in a life-threatening situation.”

    Judges at the trial said they handed down a mild sentence – agreed with by the prosecution – because the abuser had confessed his crime. Admitting to his actions spared the child from having to give evidence against him.

    But a child psychologist had quizzed her beforehand. He told judges that she said the man bit her vagina after stripping her as she toyed with hius mobile phone,

    Judges said the attack was “very short” and in such cases suspended sentences were the norm.

    The abuser came to Berlin in 2015 as a political refugee. He applied to de-register from his asylum home in Berlin to another city in Germany following his conviction.

    It is unclear whether Germany intends to deport him back to his homeland.”

  13. FBI needs to explain why Flynn was recorded, Intelligence Committee chairman says

    The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that the most significant question posed by the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn is why intelligence officials eavesdropped on his calls with the Russian ambassador and later leaked information on those calls to the press.

    “I expect for the FBI to tell me what is going on, and they better have a good answer,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which is conducting a review of Russian activities to influence the election. “The big problem I see here is that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded.”

    Flynn resigned Monday night, days after The Washington Post reported that intelligence officials had recorded Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. before Trump took office. Those recordings, The Post reported, appeared to contradict Flynn’s own claims that he had not discussed easing U.S. sanctions on Russia.

    Although it remains unclear whether Flynn himself was being monitored for any reason, his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were intercepted because the Russians’ calls are routinely monitored.

    The president also criticized the leaks in a tweet early Tuesday morning.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/02/14/fbi-needs-to-explain-why-michael-flynn-was-recorded-gop-intelligence-chairman-says/?utm_term=.d88d92b214f5

  14. America’s spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying.

    The United States is much better off without Michael Flynn serving as national security adviser. But no one should be cheering the way he was brought down.

    The whole episode is evidence of the precipitous and ongoing collapse of America’s democratic institutions — not a sign of their resiliency. Flynn’s ouster was a soft coup (or political assassination) engineered by anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. The results might be salutary, but this isn’t the way a liberal democracy is supposed to function.

    Unelected intelligence analysts work for the president, not the other way around. Far too many Trump critics appear not to care that these intelligence agents leaked highly sensitive information to the press — mostly because Trump critics are pleased with the result. “Finally,” they say, “someone took a stand to expose collusion between the Russians and a senior aide to the president!” It is indeed important that someone took such a stand. But it matters greatly who that someone is and how they take their stand. Members of the unelected, unaccountable intelligence community are not the right someone, especially when they target a senior aide to the president by leaking anonymously to newspapers the content of classified phone intercepts, where the unverified, unsubstantiated information can inflict politically fatal damage almost instantaneously.

    http://theweek.com/articles/680068/americas-spies-anonymously-took-down-michael-flynn-that-deeply-worrying

  15. The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn

    If we are to believe the Trump White House, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn just resigned because he lied about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the vice president. As White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway told NBC’s “Today Show” on Tuesday: “Misleading the vice president really was the key here.”

    That sounds about as credible as when the president told CIA employees that the media had invented the story about his enmity toward the spy agency, not even two weeks after he had taken to Twitter to compare the CIA to Nazis. It’s about as credible as President Donald Trump’s insistence that it didn’t rain during his inauguration. Or that millions of people had voted illegally in the election he just won.

    The point here is that for a White House that has such a casual and opportunistic relationship with the truth, it’s strange that Flynn’s “lie” to Pence would get him fired. It doesn’t add up.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-14/the-political-assassination-of-michael-flynn

    • BREITBART EXCLUSIVE – NSA Whistleblower: Agency ‘Absolutely’ Tapping Trump’s Calls

      William Binney, a former highly placed NSA official turned whistleblower, contended in an exclusive interview today that the National Security Agency (NSA) is “absolutely” monitoring the phone calls of President Donald Trump.

      Binney was an architect of the NSA’s surveillance program. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001 after spending more than 30 years with the agency.

      Asked whether he believes the NSA is tapping Trump, Binney replied: “Absolutely. How did they get the phone call between the president and the president of Australia? Or the one that he made with Mexico? Those are not targeted foreigners.”

      Binney further contended the NSA may have been behind a data leak that might have revealed that Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, allegedly misled Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump administration officials about the contents of his phone calls with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.

      Regarding Flynn’s case, Binney stated of the NSA:

      on this page :

      http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/15/exclusive-nsa-whistleblower-agency-absolutely-tapping-trumps-calls/

    • Battle brewing between the NSA and Trump administration?

      Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano weighs in on the relationship between the NSA and the Trump administration.

    • MoAThe Dangerous Precedence Of The Hunt Against Flynn … And Trump

      […]Nunes told me Monday night that this will not end well. “First it’s Flynn, next it will be Kellyanne Conway, then it will be Steve Bannon, then it will be Reince Priebus,” he said. Put another way, Flynn is only the appetizer. Trump is the entree.

      http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/02/the-dangerous-precedence-of-the-hunt-against-flynn-and-trump.html#comments

      zero hedge –What Michael Flynn and the Russian Ambassador REALLY Discussed

      National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was fired by Trump. Flynn was caught discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador even before Trump took office.

      Sounds bad, right?

      Maybe …

      But Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake – the former senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast, who covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI – notes:

      One White House official with knowledge of the conversations told me that the Russian ambassador raised the sanctions to Flynn and that Flynn responded that the Trump team would be taking office in a few weeks and would review Russia policy and sanctions. That’s neither illegal nor improper.

      If true, then all that happened is that the Russian ambassador asked about sanctions, and Flynn responded that he couldn’t say anything until he got marching orders from the Trump administration after it took the helm.

      In other words, just more anti-Russia hysteria.

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-15/what-michael-flynn-and-ruskies-really-said

    • the daily caller EXCLUSIVE: How the Nation’s Spooks Played the Game ‘Kill Mike Flynn’

      National Security Advisor Gen. Michael T. Flynn (ret.) — who resigned Monday — was the victim of a “hit job” launched by intelligence operatives, Obama government holdovers and former Obama national security officials, according to former intelligence officials who spoke with The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.

      The talk within the tight-knit community of retired intelligence officers was that Flynn’s sacking was a result of intelligence insiders at the CIA, NSA and National Security Council using a sophisticated “disinformation campaign” to create a crisis atmosphere. The former intel officers say the tactics hurled against Flynn over the last few months were the type of high profile hard-ball accusations previously reserved for top figures in enemy states, not for White House officials.

      “This was a hit job,” charged retired Col. James Williamson, a 32-year Special Forces veteran who coordinated his operations with the intelligence community.

      Noting the Obama administration first tried to silence Flynn in 2014 when the former president fired him as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Williamson called Monday’s resignation, “stage Two of ‘Kill Mike Flynn.”

      Former intelligence officials who understand spy craft say Flynn’s resignation had everything to do with a “disinformation campaign” and little to do with the December phone conversation he had with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

      They charge officials from America’s top spy counsels leaked classified government intercepts of Flynn and President Trump’s conversations with world leaders and had “cutouts” — friendly civilians not associated with the agency — to distribute them to reporters in a coordinated fashion.

      The issue of leaks was a prime topic for Trump when he tweeted Wednesday, “Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia.”

      “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Retired Col. James Waurishuk, who spent three decades in top military intelligence posts and served at the National Security Council, said in an interview with TheDCNF. “We’ve never seen to the extent that those in the intelligence community are using intelligence apparatus and tools to be used politically against an administration official,” he said.

      “The knives are out,” said Frederick Rustman, who retired after 24 years from the CIA’s Clandestine Service and was a member of its elite Senior Intelligence Service.

      The intelligence community’s sprawling bureaucracy is organizing to topple the Trump presidency, Rustman charged in an interview with TheDCNF.

      “I would not be surprised if Trump did not finish four years because of the vendetta they have out for him,” he said, calling the move on Flynn just a “mini-vendetta.”

      Williamson told TheDCNF in an interview, “I truly believe it’s orchestrated and it’s part of an overall strategy. The objective is to piece-by-piece, dismantle the Trump administration, to discredit Trump. This is part of an overarching plan.”

      D.W. Wilber, who has over 30 years of experience in security and counterterrorism with the CIA and the Defense Department agrees.

      “It appears to me there has been a concerted effort to try to discredit not only General Flynn, but obviously, the entire Trump administration through him. He just happened to be the first scalp,” Wilber told TheDCNF in an interview.

      Williamson agreed, telling theDCNF, “There are individuals who are well versed in information operations — we used to call that propaganda. They know how to do it. strong> It’s deliberately orchestrated.”

      Retired Marine Col. Bill Cowan, who often interacted with the intelligence operatives in combat zones, believes Mike Pompeo, Trump’s new CIA Director, must clean house. Otherwise, the administration will encounter four years of attacks.

      “The director, Pompeo, if he doesn’t get a hold of the agency and its personnel, he can expect four years of this: clandestine, undercover disinformation, misinformation, psychological information to undermine this administration and this president,” he told TheDCNF.

      Charles Goslin, a 27-year old former CIA operations officer also believes that many insubordinate intelligence staff are working within the National Security Council within the White House.

      “With the NSC, I think that’s where the leaks are coming from on calls to foreign leaders. That’s where they undermined Flynn to the point where he got hammered,” Goslin told TheDCNF in an interview.

      Goslin noted, “When Trump came in, even though they were able to staff key NSC positions, for the most part it’s still staffed by previous administration holdovers and bureaucratic appointees.”

      “I don’t think they have any loyalty to the current administration,” the former CIA operations officer said, adding, “the NSC is going to be a hard one to fix.”

      All of the former intelligence officials say the rage against Flynn dated back to when the decorated general headed up the DIA. There he garnered a reputation to balk at the “politicization of military intelligence” in order to conform with President Obama’s world views.

      Flynn refused to downplay the threat posed by the Islamic State and other radical Islamic groups throughout his two-year reign at the DIA. He was fired after offering congressional testimony that was at odds with the Obama administration’s posture on the Islamic threat.

      Waurishuk, who interacted with Flynn as deputy director of the Special Operations Command and in other security matters, said Flynn was a “straight shooter” who always demanded accurate threat assessments and never bent to continue pressures of political correctness.

      Waurishuk worked in military intelligence in the Obama administration. He told TheDCNF Obama officials “know Flynn and they hate Flynn because he would call them out. So, this was their opportunity to wage what is a personal vendetta in some respects.”

      California Republican Rep. Devon Nunes, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has promised to hold hearings on the leaking of classified information to reporters. The date has yet to be set for the hearings.

      http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/15/exclusive-how-the-nations-spooks-played-the-game-kill-mike-flynn/

  16. Trump launches all-out war on his own intelligence agencies as he says malicious NSA and FBI leakers are ‘illegally’ giving out classified information to reporters ‘like candy’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4227238/Trump-says-NSA-FBI-illegally-leaking.html#ixzz4YlSBSZ3f
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    Donald Trump is pushing back against a growing chorus of suggestions that he and his aides had improper contact with the Russian government during his presidential campaign, saying malicious leakers inside the U.S. Intelligence Community touched off the scandal by talking to reporters.

    ‘The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy. Very un-American!’ he tweeted.

    The president faces accusations that he was needlessly sympathetic to Moscow, along with renewed suspicions that his foreign policy was informed by threats of blackmail from Vladimir Putin’s government.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4227238/Trump-says-NSA-FBI-illegally-leaking.html#ixzz4YlSOWMrq
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    • As this scandal unfolds I want everyone reading to remember how the groups rioting say they are trying to make the US ungovernable. Is this political assassination of Michael Flynn and the coordinated campaign by the Dems part of the campaign to start a civil war?

  17. China warns U.S. against fresh naval patrols in South China Sea

    China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday warned Washington against challenging its sovereignty, responding to reports the United States was planning fresh naval patrols in the disputed South China Sea.

    On Sunday, the Navy Times reported that U.S. Navy and Pacific Command leaders were considering freedom of navigation patrols in the busy waterway by the San Diego-based Carl Vinson carrier strike group, citing unnamed defense officials.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said tension in the South China Sea had stabilized due to the hard work between China and Southeast Asia countries, and urged foreign nations including the U.S. to respect this.

    “We urge the U.S. not to take any actions that challenge China’s sovereignty and security,” Geng told a regular news briefing on Wednesday.

    The United States last conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the area in October, when it sailed the guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur near the Paracel Islands and within waters claimed by China.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-usa-idUSKBN15U16Y?il=0

    • They are taking advantage of the alt left working to destroy the Trump administration, the alt left doesn’t care how many of our allies are sold into slavery or killed as long as they can seize total power in the US.

  18. Russia tells White House it will not return Crimea to Ukraine

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday it would not hand back Crimea to Ukraine or discuss the matter with foreign partners after the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump expected the annexed Black Sea peninsula to be returned.

    Moscow says an overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to become part of Russia in a 2014 referendum wanting protection from what the Kremlin cast as an illegal coup in Kiev.

    Ukraine says the referendum was a sham held at gunpoint after Russian troops illegally annexed the peninsula, that Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by people power, and that Moscow should return Crimea.

    “We don’t give back our own territory. Crimea is territory belonging to the Russian Federation,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told a news briefing on Wednesday.

    The 2014 annexation prompted the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on Russia, plunging Western relations with the Kremlin to their worst level since the Cold War.

    White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that Trump expected and wanted to get along with Russia, but was expecting Moscow to hand Crimea back.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about Spicer’s comments, said President Vladimir Putin had already explained why Crimeans had turned to Russia.

    “The theme of returning Crimea will not be discussed … Russia does not discuss its territorial integrity with foreign partners,” Peskov told a conference call with reporters.

    http://www.oann.com/russian-foreign-ministry-says-crimea-will-not-be-returned-to-ukraine-2/

  19. Kremlin denies allegations it violated U.S. missile treaty

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is committed to honoring its international obligations, including in relation to missiles, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, responding to reports it had violated a treaty with the United States by deploying a new ground-based missile.

    “Russia has been and remains committed to its international commitments, including to the treaty in question,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a daily telephone briefing.

    “Nobody has formally accused Russia of violating the treaty,” he said.

    On Tuesday, media reported, citing U.S. officials, that Russia had deployed a ground-launched cruise missile despite U.S. complaints that this violated an arms control treaty banning ground-based U.S. and Russian intermediate-range missiles.

    http://www.oann.com/kremlin-denies-allegations-it-violated-u-s-missile-treaty/

  20. Here’s what happened to student who recorded prof calling Trump election ‘act of terrorism’

    Last December, I wrote about a college professor who delivered an in-class rant in which she vented that Donald Trump is a white supremacist and that his election was an “act of terrorism.”

    In my report, I noted that the school’s president, Dennis Harkins, was in receipt of a letter from an attorney accusing the teacher, Olga Perez Stable (“Unstable” would be more fitting) Cox, of using “hate speech” and “bullying tactics.”

    So has Orange Coast College, the college in question, taken disciplinary action? You bet — though not against the unhinged prof but against the student who videotaped her screed.

    According to Campus Reform, the student, Caleb O’Neil, has received a one-semester suspension and will be required to write an apology letter to professor as well as a three-page, double spaced essay discussing why he videotaped the professor despite “knowing that it was a violation of the course syllabus.” Videotaping is a violation of the course syllabus? That should come as no surprise, considering what a loose cannon the teacher is.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/02/15/heres-happened-student-recorded-prof-calling-trump-election-act-terrorism/

  21. Germany: Police raid homes of Imams suspected of spying for Turkey

    German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson confirmed that police had searched the homes of four imams suspected of spying for the Turkish government, at a press conference in Karlsruhe, Wednesday.

    SOT, spokesperson of German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (German): “The starting point of today’s searching measures was a criminal complaint by Volker Beck, a member of the Bundestag, as well as the additional findings of the federal constitutional protection and the federal news service. This is the reason why we searched today the home of four Islamic clerics in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. They are said to have gathered suspicious information about so-called followers of the so-called Gulen movement. And they have done it indeed under an mission from the Presidency of Religious Affairs [Diyanet], which then passed this information on to the Turkish Consulate General in Cologne.”

    SOT, Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (German): “In today’s searching measures, evidence has been recovered and other means of communication, data carriers, and written documents, which we will now examine and will insofar be verified.”

    • Who feed Merkel raw meat? They have to have done something like this for her courts to approve this action.

      • Germany is riddled with Turk agents. It’s a huge problem. They’ve got eyes in second-generation communities abroad and make threats against extended family living in Turkey.

        Erdoff disciplines these expatriates. As he becomes increasingly tyrannical, things will get worse for the Turkish diaspora. Local enforcers – the Grey Wolves – operate openly in Germany.

  22. France: Anti-CETA activists march on Euro Parliament as trade deal gets green light

    Anti-free trade activists rallied outside the European Parliament (EP) offices in Strasbourg, Wednesday, as the body approved the vast majority of the Comprehensive economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada.

  23. Flynn’s ouster: Blood in the water; lighthouse in sight
    By J.E. Dyer February 14, 2017

    The ironic thing about the mounting frenzy over former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his resignation Monday night, ably recounted by Ben Bowles, is that there is so little actual substance to the case against him.

    After all the noise – today’s, last week’s, last month’s – it remains the case that the only thing Flynn is “alleged” to have done is speak to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in a phone conversation that possibly included discussion of U.S. sanctions against Russia. I put “alleged” in scare quotes because the anonymous individuals conveying this implication to the Washington Post have actually been pretty careful not to make even that specific an allegation. To hear them tell it, the awful thing Flynn did would seem to boil down to having been caught talking to the ambassador in a monitored phone call.

    The whole thing is smoke and mirrors, creating an impression of impropriety around which anonymous voices, and a few congressional Democrats and Washington insiders, have rallied with bloodthirsty sanctimony.

    Frankly, everyone who’s out there babbling credulously about the bread crumbs being tossed out on this should be embarrassed at being taken for a fool.

    Remember that. There’s no there there.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/02/14/flynns-ouster-blood-water-lighthouse-sight/

    • This article is a must read for all who want to understand what is happening in DC.

      J. E. Dyer is a career intelligence analyst, her take on what is happening in DC right now is from the viewpoint of a retired professional trained at reading what is happening in enemy politics. This training and experience serves her and us well when she starts looking at the Machiavellian actions that are now occurring in DC. We are seeing an attempted coup by unelected bureaucrats who are working to subvert the will of the voters. The Bureaucrats have won the first round, now it is time for Trump to counter punch, which he is very good at. Many people are upset because Trump is counter punching at his critics that are not in office but they either don’t realize or don’t want us to realize that the Trump critics who are not part of the bureaucrats or elected officials and all tied to the same shadowy money men who are bankrolling the Democrats and who are pulling the strings of the opposition to Trump and his agenda of restoring freedom to the US.

  24. Real — and real stupid — civil disobedience: Americans refusing to pay their taxes to spite Trump
    By Howard Portnoy February 15, 2017

    When the liberal Left is not busy blocking vehicular traffic — which could soon come with a very high price — they demonstrate their opposition to Donald Trump’s policies by engaging in other, more productive pursuits … like coloring. As in coloring books. (Going outside the lines can give the protester a real adrenaline rush.)

    Now a group of anti-Trump Americans has hit on a form of protest that is not only more adult but represents a genuine form of civil disobedience. In fact, it is the form of civil disobedience that got liberal icon Henry David Thoreau tossed in jail. Namely, some Americans are withholding their taxes this year, but not in the government sense of the term. Rather, they are refusing to send a check to Uncle Sam to cover their income tax burden.

    The Guardian explains:

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/02/15/real-real-stupid-civil-disobedience-americans-refusing-pay-taxes-spite-trump/

  25. Yemeni officials say Saudi-led airstrike kills 5 (abcnews, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/medical-group-warns-severe-shortages-yemens-taiz-45506585

    “At least one Saudi-led airstrike near Yemen’s rebel-held capital killed at least five people on Wednesday, the country’s Houthi rebels and medical officials said.

    The head of the Houthis’ media office, Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnomi, told The Associated Press an airstrike hit a group of women attending a funeral and a second airstrike hit first responders in Arhab, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Sanaa. He said the strikes killed and wounded dozens of people.

    Medical officials said five bodies were recovered from the scene, mostly women, and that the toll was likely to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters…”

  26. Dutch intelligence agency warns of child jihadists (abcnews, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dutch-intelligence-agency-warns-child-jihadists-45508092

    “The Netherlands’ main intelligence service says it’s treating Dutch children in conflict zones in Iraq and Syria as “jihadist travelers” since they may have received military training.

    At least 80 Dutch children are in those areas, either having been born there or taken there by one or both parents, the General Intelligence and Security Service said Wednesday in a new report. It says fewer than 20 percent of the children are age 9 or older.

    The report said because children in territory controlled by the Islamic State group “sometimes receive weapons and combat training from as young as nine,” intelligence officials consider them jihadi travelers.

    Dutch authorities routinely detain people returning from Syria if they are suspected of extremist links, but have so far not detained any children…”

  27. Nigerian asylum seeker arrested after refugee aid worker stabbed to death in Germany (express, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/767784/Nigerian-asylum-seeker-arrested-Ahaus-Germany-Soopika-P-Martin-Botzenhardt

    “A NIGERIAN asylum seeker has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing a refugee worker to death in the German town of Ahaus.

    The 22-year-old woman, only identified as Soopika P, died from her injuries in the early hours of Saturday morning after she was repeatedly stabbed in the head, neck and breast.

    Police were called to the town close to the Netherlands border in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia after neighbours heard the woman’s cries for help shortly after midnight and saw a man bending over her.

    The woman died later in hospital from severe blood loss.

    Officials have now arrested a 27-year-old Nigerian man at Basel train station, in Switzerland.

    During a check-up in Basel he had identified himself with his German asylum certificate. He is currently detained in Switzerland.

    The chief prosecutor in Münster Martin Botzenhardt confirmed that a Nigerian asylum seeker had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter…”

  28. France: Protesters pepper sprayed in Paris at anti-police brutality rally

    Riot police deployed pepper spray on protesters in Paris on Wednesday, who were marching against police violence

  29. Bumps in the Road: Trump vs. Obama

    Home Commentary Bumps in the Road: Trump vs. Obama
    Bumps in the Road: Trump vs. Obama
    Michelle Malkin February 15, 2017 at 11:45 am 1 Commentary, Lead Stories
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    The resignation of national security advisor Michael Flynn has the anti-Trump media declaring the new administration a “mess,” in “turmoil” and thrown into “chaos.”

    Funny, these same Chicken Littles barely shrugged their shoulders during the turmoil-laden first 100 days of Barack Obama’s first term. Some perspective is in order.

    Remember the withdrawal of Obama’s pick for National Intelligence Council chairman, Charles Freeman, in March 2009? Obama had tapped the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia for the sensitive post despite abundant conflicts of interests. Freeman had served for four years on the board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a company owned by the Chinese communist government. The state-owned firm has invested in Sudan and Iran. Freeman also led the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group funded by the Saudi government. And he chaired Projects International, a consulting firm that had worked with foreign companies and governments.

    Obama knew all that and looked the other way at Freeman’s role as a de facto lobbyist for Saudi royalty. Even worse, he ignored Freeman’s Jew-bashing and tyrant-coddling record with a Blame America axe to grind. Freeman carped that our country exhibited “an ugly mood of chauvinism” after the 9/11 attacks and condemned his fellow countrymen for connecting the dots of Islam and Saudi-funded jihad: “Before Americans call on others to examine themselves,” he fumed with Jeremiah Wright-style bombast, “we should examine ourselves.”

    In fine form, Freeman inveighed against the “Israel Lobby” in his resignation letter.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=20706?omhide=true

  31. Australians Fleeing Largely Muslin Areas

    “This is not only white flight, it is every kind of flight. Every type of Australian is fleeing these new ghettos” claimed the One Nation populist, citing research on diversity and societal cohesion which suggests the country’s identity and social fabric are beginning to fray.

    “Culture and integration matter to Australians,” he told colleagues in the Australian parliament’s upper house, condemning the “coldness and arrogance of [the] political elites” who refused to recognise this.

    “In our fraying society, self-segregation has become a reality. We the people are seeking to protect our children, our daughters, our property, our liberty,” he stated bluntly.

    Sex attacks on women and girls have become increasingly common in Europe since the advent of the migrant crisis. The German authorities and media came under heavy criticism for apparently attempting to cover up an outbreak of mass sex attacks on New Year’s Eve 2015/16, while assaults in neighbouring Austria rose by 133 per cent in 2016.

    More recently, Sweden was shocked when a gang rape was live streamed on Facebook, and Italian populist Matteo Salavini called for the introduction of chemical castration for sex offenders after a Nigerian migrant was accused of attempting to rape a 62-year-old woman working at an asylum centre.

    http://conservativeforce.com/2017/02/australians-fleeing-largely-muslin-areas/

  32. TERRIFYING BRAWL: 100 UK-bound migrants involved in violent clashes at motorway rest stop (express, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/767717/France-migrant-brawl-turf-war-100-violence-explode

    “A VICIOUS brawl broke out between more than a hundred Britain-bound migrants on Monday night leaving six people badly injured.

    The fight between rival Eritrean and Sudanese gangs was reportedly sparked by an argument over a “strategically located piece of land” – which both sides tried to claim – that “quickly escalated out of control,” an anonymous police source told AFP.

    The fight took place near a motorway rest area in Steenvoorde, a northern French town located some 25 miles from the Grande-Synthe migrant camp, which is home to thousands of undocumented migrants.

    Britain-bound trucks often stop at the Steenvoorde rest area on their way to the UK.

    Migrants were said to have been arguing over a piece of land located a stone’s throw from the parking lot….”

  37. NYT – Andrew Puzder Withdraws From Consideration as Labor Secretary

    The fast food executive Andrew F. Puzder withdrew his nomination to be President Trump’s labor secretary on Wednesday amid growing doubts among Republican senators that he can be confirmed.

    Democrats claimed victory.

    “The simple truth is that given his relationship to employees at the companies he runs, he was not fit to lead a department responsible for defending workers’ rights,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.

    The chief executive of the CKE Restaurants fast-food chain, owner of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., had come under intense fire from Democrats and liberal groups who accused him of mistreating his workers, opposing the minimum wage and supporting automation in the workplace. The attacks on his policy views were compounded by intense scrutiny of his personal life, including allegations that he abused his ex-wife in the 1980s.

    Senators were privately shown a videotape of Mr. Puzder’s wife appearing incognito on Oprah Winfrey’s television show and detailing her claims of abuse, which she later recanted.

    Conservatives, including the editors of National Review and Breitbart News, focused their fire on his employment of an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper and his failure to pay taxes for her services.

    The groundswell of opposition had led several Republicans to waver in their support for Mr. Puzder ahead of his confirmation hearing on Thursday morning.

    Mr. Puzder’s hearing was delayed multiple times as he sought to extricate himself from his business and investments, however as recently as last week he said through a spokesman that he was “all in.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/politics/andrew-puzder-withdrew-labor-secretary.html

    Did Oprah Winfrey Torpedo Labor Nominee Andrew Puzder?

    As the White House grapples with the fallout from the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, another controversy for the new administration has emerged: their pick for Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the Cabinet post.

    Lisa Fierstein, Puzder’s wife from 1973 to 1987, appeared on Winfrey’s show in March of 1990 in a segment about “High-Class Battered Women.” On the show, Fierstein, in disguise as “Ann,” describes alleged abuse by Puzder and its impact on her life.

    “I wound up losing everything, everything,” Fierstein told Winfrey. “I have nothing. He has a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz. He has the home. He has everything. He was an attorney and he knew how to play the system.” She also claimed that Puzder told her: “I will see you in the gutter. This will never be over, you will pay for this.”

    According to Politico, she filed a court petition in 1988 (which was dismissed) alleging that Puzder “assaulted and battered me by striking me violently about the face, chest, back, shoulders and neck, without provocation or cause,” and left “bruises and contusions to the chest, back, shoulders and neck” as well as “two ruptured discs and two bulging discs,”

    A couple months after filing the petition, Fierstein also sought a protective order against Puzder, alleging he “physically assaulted” her and left her with “permanent personal injuries.”

    Fierstein has since retracted her allegations, writing in an email to Puzder that she only made them because she was counseled to do so.

    She also wrote a statement to the Republican National Committee late last year calling Puzder “one of the finest men I have ever known.”

    “Many years ago I impulsively filed for divorce and was counseled to file allegations that I regretted and subsequently withdrew over 30 years ago. Andy is a wonderful father, a great person, and was a good husband,” she wrote. “He and I have long ago worked out any differences that occurred over 30 years ago and I cannot recall a single incident involving the police.”

    She also told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) that she now regrets appearing on Winfrey’s show. “Upon reflection, I believe I became a pawn in the debate and believe strongly that my attorney’s advice was tainted as a result of his own personal agenda,” she wrote.

    Reps for Puzder didn’t immediately return requests for comment from NBC News, but he denied the allegations in a deposition at the time and told the St. Louis-based Riverfront Times, “There was no physical abuse at any point in time.”

    more :

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-oprah-winfrey-might-bring-down-trump-labor-nominee-andrew-n721116

  38. 12 TSA Agents Just Indicted For Smuggling $100 Million Worth Of Cocaine

    The Department of Justice announced Monday that 12 former and current TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) employees were indicted for smuggling 20 tons, or $100 million worth of cocaine out of Puerto Rico over the course of an 18-year operation. This isstrong> not the first time TSA agents have been caught running drugs or breaking other laws.

    According to a DOJ press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico:

    “During the course of the conspiracy, the defendants smuggled suitcases, each containing at least 8 to 15 kilograms of cocaine, through the TSA security system at the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (LMMIA). Sometimes as many as five mules were used on each flight, with each mule checking-in up to two suitcases. From 1998 through 2016, the defendants helped smuggle approximately 20 tons of cocaine through LMMIA.”

    more :

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-15/12-tsa-agents-just-indicted-smuggling-100-million-worth-cocaine

  40. Millions of UK families on brink of poverty, report from leading think tank finds (RT, Feb 15, 2017)
    https://www.rt.com/uk/377424-millions-poverty-low-income/

    “Rising prices and stagnating incomes have left millions of British families on the very brink of poverty, a report from a leading think-tank has warned.

    According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), between 2014 and 2015 up to 19 million people were living below the Minimum Living Standard (MLS) – up by four million since the financial crisis back in 2008.

    The MLS figure corresponds to what the public thinks is a fair amount of money for a decent living.

    Chief executive of the JRF, Campbell Robb, said: “This could be a very difficult time for just-managing families as rising inflation begins to bite into finely-balanced budgets.

    “The high cost of living has already helped push four million more people below an adequate income, and if the cost of essentials such as food, energy and housing rise further, we need to take action to ease the strain,” he said….”

  41. Migrants should be given voting right before naturalization – German Commissioner (RT, Feb 15, 2017)
    https://www.rt.com/news/377490-germany-migrants-voting-rights/

    “Non-naturalized migrants should be granted limited electoral rights, according to a migration policy paper, drafted by an expert panel led by the German government’s commissioner on migration, Aydan Oezoguz.

    The 50-page concept proposes a series of reforms aimed at making it easier for migrants from non-EU countries to settle in Germany as well as at giving them access to the German labor market and political system.

    The paper says that Germany has to face the new reality of becoming “a country of immigrants,” like the US. It urges people to regard migration as something “normal,” which is an indispensable part of the globalized world…”

  44. Danish nationalists slammed for distributing ‘racist’ flyers to residents’ homes (thelocal, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.thelocal.dk/20170215/danish-nationalists-slammed-for-distributing-return-tickets-to-residents-homes

    “The far-right Danes’ Party (Danskernes Parti) is once again generating headlines thanks to a controversial stunt clearly meant to provoke.

    The party, which caused an uproar in September by distributing cans of hair spray re-labelled as ‘refugee spray’ and was criticized in March for what many considered to be racist bus ads, has tried to capitalize on the latest national debate on Danishness by distributing fake plane tickets to residents of Brøndby Strand.

    The Danes’ Party, which was founded by a former neo-Nazi and enjoys only marginal support, distributed flyers to Brøndby Strand postboxes that one resident told The Local made her too scared to even check her postbox.

    The flyers were made to look like one-way airline tickets “to the strangers/foreigners in Brøndby Strand, with love [from the] Danes’ Party.

    The “airline ticket home” was designed to show a flight from Copenhagen Airport to “Langtbortistan”, which roughly translates to “Far-away-istan”. It also included an Arabic text reading “have a good trip home”.

    The flyers set off a heated debate on Facebook. Although some social media users expressed their support for the ad campaign, the majority of comments slammed the far-right party’s message as “disgusting”, “evil” and “racist”.

    But the debate on social media was nothing compared to what the actual residents of Brøndby Strand felt…”

  46. Morocco: Interior Ministry Tightens Stranglehold on Islamist Organizations (moroccoworldnews, Feb 15, 2017)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2017/02/208318/morocco-interior-ministry-tightens-stranglehold-islamist-organizations/

    “Morocco’s Ministry of Interior has been tightening its stranglehold on Islamist organizations, reported the daily newspaper Assabah on Tuesday.

    The ministry’s representatives have been instructed to strictly surveil various Islamist groups, including the Movement of Unit and Reform (MUR), the Tablighi Jamaat, and associations that support the Salafist detainees.

    This decision follows the ministry’s mission to ensure security and keep an eye on any Islamist organizations that contain extremist members “who excitedly interact with political incidents on social media platforms,” the newspaper noted.

    The source recalled the arrest of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) members who glorified the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey in late December, saying that their posts harmed the domestic and foreign policy of Morocco.

    The ministry has instructed its representatives across the country to maintain up-to-date intelligence on “members in any organization the defend a particular ideology” in order to preserve their control.

    Assabah also referenced a document circulating online classifying the MUR and the “illegal” Adl Wal Ihssane as the most important organizations to be kept under surveillance.

    Following the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, the ministry issued a communiqué warning that any citizens expressing sympathy for acts of terrorism or those who commit them may face imprisonment.”

  48. Fresh migrant inflow into Italy in 2017, Frontex (ansamed, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/libya/2017/02/15/fresh-migrant-inflow-into-italy-frontex_3e9dae19-d95e-444b-b8a1-2923f515986c.html

    “Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri told ANSA Wednesday it was “realistic” to expect the same number of arrivals of migrants on the central Mediterranean this year as last, some 180,000.

    He said that, aside from talks with African nations, Frontex was working in the short term on boosting registration in hotpots and increasing repatriation.

    Noting that at least 60% of migrants arriving in Italy were economic ones, Leggeri said “we must be ready in the hotspots, for screening and identification, so as to obtain the evidence for the ‘laissez passer’ and travel documents in non-EU consulates, for their return to countries of origin. We are working with Italy on this”….”

  49. 10 ISIL suicide bombers killed in fierce clashes during attack on Turkish base in Syria (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 15, 2017)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/10-isil-suicide-bombers-killed-in-fierce-clashes-during-attack-on-turkish-base-in-syria-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=109776&NewsCatID=352

    “A total of 10 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bombers were killed in fierce clashes with Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) members during an attack on a temporary base belonging to the Turkish army in northern Syria, the Turkish military has said. ..”