Reader’s links for February 23 – 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.

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

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

About Eeyore

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

86 Replies to “Reader’s links for February 23 – 2017”

  1. Report: US consulate translator detained in Turkey (abcnews, Feb 23, 2017)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/report-us-consulate-translator-detained-turkey-45683626

    “Media reports say police have detained a Turkish employee of the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Adana for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish rebels.

    The Dogan news agency report said Thursday the man works as a translator for the consulate and is suspected of membership of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies, including the United States.

    The report said police raided his home but could not find him there. Consulate officials later handed the man over to police, according to the report.

    The U.S. Embassy said it has a policy of not commenting on mission employees. A press officer at Adana police headquarters said she had no information and could not confirm the report.”

  2. Afghanistan finalizes law to criminalize Bacha Baazi (khaama, Feb 23, 2017)
    http://www.khaama.com/afghanistan-finalizes-law-to-criminalize-bacha-baazi-02966

    “The Afghan government for the first time has finalized a law to criminalize the bullying and sexual abuse of children (Bacha Baazi).

    Officials in the ministry of justice of Afghanistan have said the draft law finalized by the government criminalizes the abuse of children.

    A spokesman for the ministry of justice Aman Riazat told BBC’s Afghanistan service that the draft law has been approved by the cabinet of ministers.

    He said the abuse of children has been criminalized in the draft law and the perpetrators will face prosecution by the government.

    The latest step by the government to finalize the draft law prohibiting Bacha Baazi comes as numerous reports emerged during the recent years regarding the worsening situation of the children subjected to abuse and bullying.

    The issue attracted attention of the global human rights activists as there are concerns regarding the health and mental condition of the victims of the stigma.

    The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission also expressed concerns regarding the mental situation of the victims, saying the majority of the children kept as slave are repeatedly raped.

    On the other hand, the international human rights activists are saying that in majority of cases the victims become perpetrators which help the stigma to further continue after they become adults and keep other children as their slaves.”

  3. IS forcing children, disabled into suicide cars: US general (france24, Feb 23, 2017)
    http://www.france24.com/en/20170223-forcing-children-disabled-suicide-cars-us-general

    “Islamic State jihadists are forcing children and disabled people into explosives-laden trucks and making them drive at Iraqi security forces in Mosul, a general from the US-led coalition has said.

    The barbaric tactic, coupled with other increasingly desperate battlefield measures, is a sign the IS group knows defeat is inevitable, officials say.

    The jihadists have used exploding trucks, known in military circles as VBIEDs — vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices — and pronounced “Vee-Bids,” to devastating effect in numerous engagements during the Mosul offensive and elsewhere in Iraq…”

  4. Minister blasts Sweden Democrats’ Wall Street Journal op-ed: ‘They’re lying about Sweden’ (thelocal, Feb 23, 2017)
    http://www.thelocal.se/20170223/minister-morgan-johansson-blasts-sweden-democrats-wall-street-journal-op-ed-theyre-lying-about-sweden

    “Sweden’s justice and migration minister has accused anti-immigration party leaders of lying about Sweden after they wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump was right in his comments about immigration.

    He spoke hours after Sweden Democrat bosses Jimmie Åkesson and Mattias Karlsson wrote in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “Mr Trump did not exaggerate Sweden’s current problems” when he falsely suggested that immigration had sparked a rising crime wave in the country.

    “If anything, he understated them. Sweden took in about 275,000 asylum-seekers from 2014-16 – more per capita than any other European country,” they wrote, adding that “riots and social unrest have become a part of everyday life” and vowing to “make Sweden safe again”.

    “For the sake of the American people, with whom we share so many strong historical and cultural ties, we can only hope that the leaders in Washington won’t make the same mistakes that our socialist and liberal politicians did.”

    Sweden’s justice and migration minister Morgan Johansson told The Local on Thursday that the government would submit its own opinion piece to the newspaper to counter the claims…”

  5. Amnesty slams Switzerland’s ‘illegal’ treatment of migrants at Italian border (thelocal, Feb 23, 2017)
    http://www.thelocal.ch/20170223/amnesty-slams-switzerlands-illegal-treatment-of-migrants-at-italian-border

    “Amnesty International has criticized the actions of Switzerland in turning back migrants at the Italian border last year, saying it acted “illegally”.

    In a press release accompanying its annual report 2016/17, published on Wednesday, Amnesty said the Swiss authorities “had illegally turned back several thousand asylum seekers to Italy”.

    Among them were “several hundred unaccompanied minors, many of them who had relatives in Switzerland,” it said.

    Switzerland’s border guards hit the headlines last summer when reports emerged that migrants trying to get into the country at the border with Italy in the canton of Ticino were being turned back.

    Italy complained that Switzerland’s actions were causing hundreds of migrants to become stranded in the Italian city of Como, with makeshift camps springing up around the train station…”

  6. Geneva reveals secret operation to legalize illegal workers (thelocal, Feb 23, 2017)
    http://www.thelocal.ch/20170223/geneva-reveals-secret-operation-to-legalize-illegal-workers

    “In a first for Switzerland, nearly 600 illegal workers have been ‘regularized’ since 2015 in a secret operation in Geneva.

    Code-named operation Papyrus, it aims to “lift institutional hypocrisy and put an end to the exploitation of people without papers,” said Geneva’s economy minister Pierre Maudet when the scheme was finally revealed to the press on Tuesday.

    The Geneva authorities, workers’ unions and immigrant associations have for more than 15 years been striving to find a way of dealing with the numerous undocumented migrants working in the canton.

    Most are from Latin America, the Balkans and the Philippines. Three quarters of them work in domestic service, others in restaurants or construction…”

  7. Compulsory Quran teaching gets panel’s endorsement (tribune, Feb 23, 2017)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1336177/na-committee-compulsory-quran-teaching-gets-panels-endorsement/

    “The National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training on Wednesday unanimously passed the Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Bill, 2017.

    Chairman of the committee MNA Col (retd) Dr Amirullah Marwat said the bill was a good step and would benefit children.

    Under the proposed bill, Quran will be taught with Nazra from grade one to five and from the sixth grade onwards the students will be taught Quran with translation.

    Minister of State for Federal Education and Vocational Training Balighur Rehman thanked the chairman and members of the committee for approving the bill. He said that it was the need of the hour to introduce this bill…”

  8. USA: Bannon warns mainstream media to take Trump seriously

    Top Donald Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus showed their unwavering support for the US President and warned mainstream media to take his promises seriously in a joint interview during the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday at the Gaylord National Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

  9. Factors to consider about Sharia law and M103
    There is no monolithic understanding of the Sharia — there is a spectrum of interpretations ranging from the very liberal to the extreme conservative. In fact, the inherent diversity and pluralism of the Sharia may be the best tool we have to counter the violent and antimodern narratives of extremists.

    https://www.thestar.com/amp/opinion/commentary/2017/02/20/factors-to-consider-about-sharia-law-and-m103.html

  10. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sweden-fox-news-immigrant-convict-assault-donald-trump-fake-advisor-usa-a7599506.html

    A Swedish “expert” who appeared on Fox News to discuss immigrant violence has a conviction for violent crime in the US.

    Nils Bildt was described as a “Swedish defense and national security advisor” when he appeared as a guest on the TV station to speak about the perceived problems of his native country which Donald Trump referred to at a rally in Florida.

    But it has emerged that Mr Bildt, himself an immigrant in the US, was arrested in June 2014 for assault and battery against a law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice and public inebriation after threatening an official.

  11. The Arizona Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would allow the government to seize the property of people who help plan a demonstration that turns violent.

    If the bill becomes law, prosecutors could charge people and seize assets for conspiracy to riot even if the so-called conspirators didn’t participate in any violence.

    As Phoenix New Times columnist Stephen Lemons wrote last week, the bill comes as a right-wing response to the violence and damage at recent protests in Washington, D.C., and on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

    “You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,” Arizona State Senator John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, told the Arizona Capitol Times.

    News of the bill’s passage in the State Senate shocked many Democrats and others who have found a much-needed outlet in public protests and demonstrations since the election of Donald Trump.

    http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/plan-a-protest-lose-your-house-arizona-senate-passes-sb-1142-charging-provocateurs-with-racketeering-9109154