Reader’s links, January 9, 2018

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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

113 Replies to “Reader’s links, January 9, 2018”

  1. A federal investigation into Jane Sanders’ land deals while serving as president of Burlington College has heated up, advancing to sworn testimony in front of a grand jury.

    According to VT Digger, the Vermont U.S. Attorney’s office has interviewed a witness in front of a grand jury. Former Burlington College board member Robin Lloyd said she testified on October 26 about her development role at the college.

    “I helped provide a timeline of what happened — and when — in terms of development,” Lloyd said. “It was general questions about donors, and money coming in.”

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/08/grand-jury-takes-sworn-testimony-against-jane-sanders/

  5. FBI agents’ text messages spur congressional probe into possible news leaks

    Republican-led House and Senate committees are investigating whether leaders of the Russia counterintelligence investigation had contacts with the news media that resulted in improper leaks, prompted in part by text messages amongst senior FBI officials mentioning specific reporters, news organizations and articles.

    In one exchange, FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page engaged in a series of texts shortly before Election Day 2016 suggesting they knew in advance about an article in The Wall Street Journal and would need to feign stumbling onto the story so it could be shared with colleagues.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/house/368003-fbi-agents-text-messages-spur-congressional-probe-into-possible-news-leaks

  6. Iran lawmaker says 3,700 arrested in days of protest, unrest

    TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian reformist lawmaker said Tuesday that some 3,700 people were arrested in the days of protests and unrest that roiled Iran over the past two weeks, offering a far higher number than authorities previously released.

    The protests, which vented anger at high unemployment and official corruption, were the largest seen in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, and some demonstrators called for the overthrow of the government. At least 21 people have been killed in the unrest surrounding the protests.

    The official news website of the Iranian parliament, icana.ir, quoted Mahmoud Sadeghi of Tehran as saying that different security and intelligence forces detained the protesters, making it difficult to know the exact number of detainees. He did not elaborate, nor did he say where he got the figure.

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/01/09/iran-lawmaker-says-3700-arrested-in-days-protest-unrest.html

  7. FGCU police presence planned for start of ‘White Racism’ class

    When a “White Racism” class meets Tuesday at Florida Gulf Coast University, at least two campus police officers will be on guard as a precaution.

    Today marks the start of the spring semester at FGCU, and Tuesday will be the first time the class meets. The course has caused controversy due to its name and garnered national media attention.

    “We have prepared for any possible distractions related to Tuesday’s first class of the White Racism course, but we are expecting normal campus civility as our students engage in this and other courses at the spring semester’s start,” Susan Evans, FGCU’s spokeswoman and chief of staff, said in an email.

    Ted Thornhill, the assistant professor of sociology who will teach the class, said he received some disturbing emails and voicemails after news of the class spread. He also said a couple of students enrolled in the class talked to him about safety concerns.

    https://www.news-press.com/story/news/education/2018/01/08/fgcu-police-presence-planned-start-white-racism-class/1011007001/

    • Does anyone care to guess just how many active law enforcement officers would be assigned to cover a “people-of-color” racism class?

      • What i want to know is how is this class going to be different from so many other classes?

  8. Kosher store near Paris hit by arson attack on anniversary of Jewish supermarket shooting

    A suspected arson attack that burnt down a French kosher grocery store near Paris on Tuesday has revived anti-Semitism fears in France, three years to the day since a deadly assault on a Jewish supermarket by a jihadist gunman.
    A suspected arson attack on a French kosher grocery store has revived anti-Semitism fears.

    The incident took place in Créteil to the south east of Paris in France’s Val-de-Marne department.

    The fire at the store Promo & Destock in Mont-Mesly in Créteil was signaled to the authorities at around 5am on Tuesday morning.

    One or more of the individuals involved in the incident smashed the window pane before setting the store on fire.

    https://www.thelocal.fr/20180109/kosher-store-near-paris-set-on-fire-on-anniversary-of-terror-attack

    • Dear Madi,

      Any sentence containing the words: “[C]orrupted”, “pResident Obama”, and “Democrats” is (at the very least) a triple redundancy—maybe even more…

  10. Fire breaks out at Trump Tower: Left reacts on cue
    By Ben Bowles January 9, 2018

    Early Monday, the media carried reports of a fire at Trump Tower in Manhattan that injured three people. According to NBC News and other outlets, the “fire began in a cooling unit that contains heaters for use during this time of year, and said flames came out a vent just before 7 a.m. on Monday. The fire was reported after Secret Service agents noticed smoke.”

    One of the people inured was a firefighter who was hurt when debris fell on him. Fortunately there were no fatalities.

    Make that fortunate to some:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/09/fire-breaks-trump-tower-left-reacts-cue/

  11. The unexpected cause some experts are suggesting behind the anti-regime protests in Iran
    By LU Staff January 8, 2018

    First, global warming was linked to the Syrian civil war, then the rise of the Islamic State, then the UK’s “Brexit” vote, and now some experts say man-made climate change played a “massive” role in ongoing Iranian protests.

    Iran has been hit with a wave of protests in recent weeks, resulting in more than 1,000 arrests and 20 deaths. While protesters vent their frustration with rising egg prices and economic stagnation, some scholars say man-made global warming is the real culprit.

    “You have climate change, shortage of water, they can’t grow their crops, and now they’re getting their cash handouts taken away,” Amir Handjani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, told E&E News.

    “Iran has had a drought for 14 years, and many of these people who come into these provincial cities and towns are there because they could not function as farmers anymore; there was no water for their farms,” Barbara Slavin, who directs the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative, told E&E News.

    It’s nearly identical to the argument some experts made in connecting global warming to the Syrian civil war — a long drought forced people into cities and sparked revolts amid government mismanagement.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/01/08/unexpected-cause-experts-suggesting-behind-anti-regime-protests-iran/

    • Iran: Khamenei warns of ‘retaliation’ against the US over role in recent protests

      Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned the United States that there would be “some sort of retaliation” on behalf of Iran over the alleged US role in a recent spate of nationwide protests, speaking in Tehran on Tuesday.

      Accusing the United States of having fomented some of the protests, Khamenei added that “these extreme and psychotic episodes won’t be left without a response.”

    • The colonization can be reversed if the Europeans will fight back, having people stand up and say it can’t be reversed is just another way of committing national and cultural suicide.

      • And genocide.
        The old-fashioned, literal kind.

        Seems all that criminalizing of Holocaust denial and Sieg-Heiling pug-dogs comes to naught. All those Dead-Jew museums littering Europe, and Federika Mogherini of the EU curtsies to the Ayatollahs.

    • He’s great: ‘Send ’em back!’
      We’re told migration is just something we have to get used to?
      – -Then RE-migration has to be part of the package.
      – -Comes from one direction? Goes back the other direction!

  14. France’s War against Firefighters and Police

    by Yves Mamou
    January 9, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11697/france-firefighters-police

    France’s Minister of the Interior, Gerard Collomb, was clearly happy on January 1st. Why? No terrorist attack had occurred on New Year’s Eve. Collomb warmly thanked the 140,000 police officers, soldiers, firefighters, and civil security associations who had been mobilized to block any potential terrorist attack. To give just an inkling of the size of this security deployment on New Year’s Eve, consider that the entire French army (land forces only) consists of only about 117,000 active-duty soldiers.

    All French governments since 2015 have denied that Islam is at war with France, but the Ministry of the Interior nevertheless mobilized higher numbers of security personnel than the French army has soldiers, to make sure that this New Year’s Eve would be a peaceful event.

    In a press release, Minister Collomb said:

  15. Canada: Trudeau’s Support for Islamists a Warning to America

    by Thomas Quiggin
    January 9, 2018 at 4:30 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11679/trudeau-support-islamists
    Send

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada has an nine-year long record of supporting the Islamist cause while refusing to engage with reformist Muslims. With respect to ISIS fighters returning to Canada, Trudeau has argued that they will be a “powerful voice for deradicalization” and that those who oppose their return are “Islamophobic.” Furthermore, the Government of Canada is not adding the names of returning ISIS fighters to the UN committee responsible for the listing of international jihadists.

    Many Canadians (and others) are starting to believe that Prime Minister Trudeau’s position on reintegrating and deradicalizing ISIS fighters is unreasonable, if not delusional. Canada’s “Centre for Community Engagement and Deradicalization” has no leader and no deradicalization centre. Nor does it appear to have plans for a program which could operate inside or outside of government. It is also not clear that the law of Canada could force a returning ISIS fighter to attend such a program, even if it did exist. In France, a similar government sponsored program was a failure.

  16. Calling Out Europe: Where Is the Diplomacy of Truth?
    Gatestone’s Person of the Week: Fiamma Nirenstein, Counter-Terrorism Expert

    by Ruthie Blum
    January 9, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11708/fiamma-nirenstein-interview
    Send

    As an expert in global terrorism, anti-Semitism, Middle East wars and European policy, Fiamma Nirenstein has been following the popular uprising in Iran with particular interest. Nirenstein – award-winning journalist, best-selling author, former MP of the Italian Parliament and a fellow at the JCPA and says that just as former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s election and foreign policy were instrumental in the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, President Donald Trump is probably responsible for the street demonstrations across Iran that could lead to the downfall of the ayatollah-led Islamic Republic.

    Nirenstein says that Europe, which has been silent on the uprisings in Iran, can no more take credit for this welcome turn of events than it could for the defeat of the U.S.S.R. — or even of Hitler’s Third Reich. It is America, she asserts, that has always been at the forefront of the struggle for freedom from the bondage of dictators; it is America that always saves Europe.

    • Macron collaborates for oil contracts with Total. He was put where he is by global corporate interests. Fascist.
      Mogherini, the “EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy”, is a seasoned diplomat. She’s Vichy.

      • “Calling Out Europe: Where Is the Diplomacy of Truth?”

        “Diplomacy of Truth?!? We ain’t got no Diplomacy of Truth. We don’t need no Diplomacy of Truth. I don’t have to show you any stinking Diplomacy of Truth!”

        Capisce?

  17. What Does Mueller Want With Ivanka Trump?
    By Rick Moran January 6, 2018

    The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into the involvement of the president’s daughter, Ivanka, in the June 2016 meeting held in Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and several Russians.

    Ivanka was not present at the meeting. Ivanka had nothing to do with the meeting. But according to the Times, she “exchanged pleasantries” with the Russians on their way out the door, which Mueller apparently thinks makes Ivanka a collusion suspect.

    Washington Examiner: “According to the Los Angeles Times, the president’s eldest daughter spoke to Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin as they exited Trump Tower following the meeting. A source told the paper that the two exchanged pleasantries by the Trump Tower elevator.”

    “Mueller reportedly wants to know about every interaction between Trump’s family and inner circle and those at the meeting,” the article went on to say. “Mueller has also recalled one participant in the meeting for questioning as part of the federal probe into ties between the Russians and the Trump campaign.”

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/mueller-want-ivanka-trump/

  19. CBC – Samantha Bee on Trump: He’s been such a disgrace to the Oval Office

    ( 12 min )

    Canadian comedian Samantha Bee says she feels that U.S. President Donald Trump has been a disgrace to the Oval Office and has no reservations when it comes to doing political satire about him. Bee sat down with Rosemary Barton recently in her midtown Manhattan office to talk about taking jabs at Trump, while speaking out on issues like sexual harassment and free speech in comedy.

    • CNN – Proposed panel to assess Trump’s mental health

      In an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, Rep. Jamie Raskins (D-MD) explains his proposed panel to assess President Trump’s mental health.

      • The failure of the left to accept the results of the election shows more mental illness then all of Trumps actions.

          • Hey, come’on, yucki. We all know that these whinging loons owe a lot to Trump. Just try to imagine all of the life-enhancing Primal Scream therapy they underwent during the 2016 presidential election night. It must have been soooooo therapeutic.

  20. Trump’s Economy Booming
    Leftists are having to talk their comrades down from ledges.
    January 9, 2018
    Matthew Vadum

    President Trump’s economic boom is undeniably underway which means that the Left will grow increasingly strident and desperate in the lead-up to this year’s midterm congressional elections and beyond.

    The better things go under Trump, the more looney the Left becomes. Left-wingers need something new to excite their base but they’re not likely to find it anytime soon. They’re going to recycle the same old garbage.

    Despite potentially the ensnaring of a handful of people in FBI perjury traps, the crazy Trump-Russia electoral collusion conspiracy theory is going nowhere.

    Because the lies in the Fusion GPS dossier aren’t helping the Left move the needle toward impeaching Trump, these people are back to the bogus sexual harassment allegations and the claims that Trump is mentally incompetent that conveniently emerged during the 2016 campaign. Richard Wolff’s wacky tell-all book is being attacked even on the Left and Wolff comes across as emotionally disturbed and malicious in TV interviews. His 15 minutes of fame are almost up.

    But President Trump’s “economic sanity” should be beyond question, Charles Gasparino writes in the New York Post.

  21. A Lot of Blood on a Lot of Hands Created the Iran Threat
    Where is the punishment of the Mullahs for the American blood they have shed?
    January 9, 2018
    Bruce Thornton

    The mullocracy in Iran is bragging that it has crushed the demonstrations against the regime that broke out on December 28. Regime change from within still remains a forlorn hope, as the theocratic police state has employed its usual brutal violence and intimidation to deny the protestors any momentum. Burning identification cards and electrical bills seem the last recourse for those brave Iranians abandoned by the so-called “global community” that averts its gaze from the destruction of human rights it pretends to worship.

    So it goes in the 40-year history of bungling, indifference, greed, appeasement, and sheer stupidity that have defined the West’s response to the most consequential jihadist movement in modern times. A lot of blood has stained a lot of different guilty hands.

    Start with Jimmy Carter and our terminally blinkered state department. Carter’s foreign policy team completely misinterpreted the Iranian revolution of 1979. Trapped in the fossilized narrative of anticolonialist resistance, nationalist self-determination, and hunger for human and political rights, our foreign policy savants missed the profoundly religious motives of the resistance to the Shah. The clerical class and the revolution’s godfather, the Ayatollah Khomeini, were driven by hatred of the modernizing, anti-Islamic program of the Shah and his father, such as the relaxation of sharia laws governing women, popular culture, and religious minorities, a program that Khomeini called the “abolition of the laws of Islam” and an existential threat to Islam itself. And they were particularly angered at the subsequent weakening of the clerics’ power and authority over social, private, and political life.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268950/lot-blood-lot-hands-created-iran-threat-bruce-thornton

  22. VICE -No One Is Sure Which Country Is Helping North Korea Make Its Missiles

    Last year, Michael Elleman, a weapons expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, published an alarming claim about North Korea’s recent missile gains: they may have been getting technology from a one-time Soviet factory.

    Elleman rooted his analysis in a close examination of the rockets used on North Korea’s latest tests — which looked a lot like ones that were once made in the Yuzhmash factory, in the eastern Ukrainian town of Dnipro.

    But at the factory itself — which since the fall of the Soviet Union has been rebranded as a space-exploration agency — officials were in a panic. They adamantly denied having anything to do with North Korea. And they let VICE News visit, the first time American cameras were allowed inside, in an attempt to prove they had nothing to hide.

    • Who is helping North Korea with their missiles, China, Russia and Iran.

      Next question.

      • I was blown away reading in most reliable Israeli sources (including the BESA [Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies]):
        _South_ Korea provides IRAN with much weaponry and technical assistance. Stuff that’s killed and maimed our soldiers in Iraq.
        They violated sanctions with impunity, have been making out like bandits since 0’s Deal. Chaebol are grotesque.

        A Family Affair: Koreans also meet and greet ~ socialize ~ in Iran.
        ==> Time for SoKo to man-up and hit bootcamp.

        • “South Korea provides IRAN with much weaponry and technical assistance.”

          Thank you, yucki. I was unaware of this and it enrages me beyond all measure.All of which is just one more reason why South Korea deserves (in a big way) to be hung out to dry.

          My previous work with a high tech company that makes million-dollar PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) reactors gave me ample proof of South Korea’s perfidy.

          This firm’s biggest South Korean client (their name rhymes with “hamstrung”) thought nothing of extracting the equipment’s embedded digital operating source code—one of the most expensive, profitable elements of all—and using it to control their own knockoffs of these high-value semiconductor fabrication tools.

          As in: The time for worrying about South Korea’s longstanding status as whatever sort of shivering hostage to Nork artillery threats is long past. Either these mercenary little “pretend-ally” shites toe the line, or they can indulge themselves in figuring out how to duck-and-cover when North Korea’s (supposed) gazillion artillery shells begin raining down on their treacherous, conniving butts.

          Pakistan and South Korea are right at the top of America’s “frenemy” list. Fü¢k them both with a crowbar.

  23. What Happens When Socialists Run Out of Money
    The future of socialism is trading sugar for beans on social media.
    January 9, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    Prime Minister Thatcher once famously observed that socialists “always run out of other people’s money.” But what actually happens when socialism runs out of money?

    Venezuela, a once wealthy nation with black gold coming out of the ground, is a test case.

    The socialist regime ran out of other people’s money, and then out of money, years ago. The government met protests by its starving population with a 40% minimum wage hike. That’s the usual socialist solution to what leftists call ‘income inequality’. The problem is that 40% of nothing is still zero.

    The “Strong Bolivar” introduced by former dictator Hugo Chavez, who died of an overdose of Cuba’s socialist medicine, leads the world in one economic category: a 3,000% inflation rate. Currently a dollar will buy you 111,413.23 bolivars. Wait a while and there will be a better bargain in bolivars because economists are forecasting a 30,000% inflation rate. In Venezuela, even the poorest American can become a millionaire in bolivars. The only question is why would anyone actually want bolivars?

    The socialist currency of the revolution isn’t counted, it’s weighed on scales. The only thing “strong” about the bolivar is the exercise you get from carrying bags of them everywhere. You could forge bolivars, but the fake money would cost you more than the real money. If you can actually print bolivars, go ahead and get in touch with the Venezuelan government which can’t afford to print its own money.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268930/what-happens-when-socialists-run-out-money-daniel-greenfield

  24. Did DOJ’s Fusion GPS Man Shut Down Hezbollah Drug Investigation?
    January 9, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    This is a potential collision of two major recent scandals.

    1. Bruce Ohr, a top DOJ official, met with Fusion GPS people. And Fusion GPS hired his wife to go after Trump. Fusion GPS is the smear firm which the Hillary campaign used to create the dossier accusing Trump of Russian collusion. The dossier was then funneled into the DOJ and FBI. And was potentially used to justify illegal eavesdropping on Trump officials by Obama officials. Not to mention the current Mueller coup.

    2. We recently learned that Obama Inc. had shut down investigations targeting Iranian terror, including an investigation that would have gone after Hezbollah and its drug smuggling schemes.

    This FOX News story asks whether Bruce Ohr is connected to both scandals.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/268962/did-dojs-fusion-gps-man-shut-down-hezbollah-drug-daniel-greenfield

    • The Democrats are stealing elections from other Democrats but are unable to say that, they have to try and tar the Republicans with the same corruption.

    • Protests as Spain holds refugees in Malaga prison

      Perhaps someone needs to remind all involved about what happens to “illegal aliens” that attempt to cross Mexico’s southern border.

      As in, THEY SIMPLY DISAPPEAR (into unmarked graves).

      Yet, America and Europe continue to be lambasted for their “brutal and criminalizing treatment” of all these parasitic, predatory invaders.

      Is it just me, or has the time come to give every last one of these Third World hell hole sources of sick, murderous fü¢ks the rigid digit?

  28. the daily caller – Google’s New Fact-Check Feature Almost Exclusively Targets Conservative Sites

    Google, the most powerful search engine in the world, is now displaying fact checks for conservative publications in its results.
    No prominent liberal site receives the same treatment.

    And not only is Google’s fact-checking highly partisan — perhaps reflecting the sentiments of its leaders — it is also blatantly wrong, asserting sites made “claims” they demonstrably never made.

    When searching for a media outlet that leans right, like The Daily Caller (TheDC), Google gives users details on the sidebar, including what topics the site typically writes about, as well as a section titled “Reviewed Claims.”

    Vox, and other left-wing outlets and blogs like Gizmodo, are not given the same fact-check treatment. When searching their names, a “Topics they write about” section appears, but there are no “Reviewed Claims.”

    In fact, a review of mainstream outlets, as well as other outlets associated with liberal and conservative audiences, shows that only conservative sites feature the highly misleading, subjective analysis. Several conservative-leaning outlets like TheDC are “vetted,” while equally partisan sites like Vox, ThinkProgress, Slate, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Salon, Vice and Mother Jones are spared.

    Occupy Democrats is apparently the only popular content provider from that end of the political spectrum with a fact-checking section.

    Big name publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times are even given a column showcasing all of the awards they have earned over the years.

    The Robert Mueller fact check (pictured above) is a case in point for Google’s new feature.

    Ostensibly trying to sum up the crux of the post, the third-party “fact-checking” organization says the “claim” in a DC article that special Counsel Robert Mueller is hiring people that “are all Hillary Clinton supporters” is misleading, if not false.

    The problem is that TheDC’s article makes no such claim. Their cited language doesn’t even appear in the article. Worse yet, there was no language trying to make it seem that the investigation into the Trump administration and Russia is entirely comprised of Clinton donors. The story simply contained the news: Mueller hired a Hillary Clinton donor to aid the investigation into President Donald Trump.

    Still, the Washington Post gave the claim, which came from Trump himself, its official “Three Pinocchios” rating. The method applies to several other checks. Claims concocted or adulterated by someone outside the TheDC are attributed to TheDC, in what appears to be a feature that only applies to conservative sites.

    Examples of such misattribution and misrepresentation are aplenty.

    For instance, using Snopes.com, an organization with highly dubious fact-checking capabilities, Google’s platform shows an article by TheDC to have a so-called “mixture” of truth.

    The “claim” made, according to Snopes.com and Google, is “a transgender woman raped a young girl in a women’s bathroom because bills were passed…”

    A quick read of the news piece shows that there was no mention of a bill or any form of legislation. The story was merely a straightforward reporting of a disturbing incident originally reported on by a local outlet.

    And like Snopes, another one of Google’s fact-checking partners, Climate Feedback, is not usually regarded as objective.

    Even Vox pointed out the absurdity of the educator’s literary tirade on Mother Nature’s purported racial prejudice, and the damage it might have done to real arguments of apparent racism. While Snopes got some flak for its choice, no one seems to have noticed the absurdity of the world’s go-to search engine providing fact-checks to purposefully irreverent content, rather than hard news stories.
    Overall, such inclusion embodies Google’s fact-checking services, which, as many presciently feared, are biased, if not also downright libelous.

    more:

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/09/googles-new-fact-check-feature-almost-exclusively-targets-conservative-sites/

  30. Daily Mail: David Cameron Thought Barack Obama Was ‘Narcissistic, Self-Absorbed’ (breitbart, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/09/daily-mail-david-cameron-thought-barack-obama-narcissistic-self-absorbed/

    “The right-hand man of former British Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed the private thoughts of the leader on his meetings with former U.S. President Barack Obama.

    Bemoaning the fact that Obama always considered himself the smartest man in the room and caused “real-world disasters”, Britain’s Daily Mail reports the remarks of the former Downing Street adviser:

    David Cameron thought Barack Obama was one of the ‘most narcissistic, self-absorbed people’ he had ever dealt with, his former strategy guru has claimed.

    While in office the two leaders had a cosy bromance and were pictured high-fiving and playing rounds of golf and ping pong together.

    But Steve Hilton tore into Mr Obama for thinking he was ‘smarter’ than everyone else in the room.

    And he claimed that his old boss Mr Cameron would get wound up by the ex President’s self absorption.

    Read more at the Daily Mail”

  31. Overton Window Shifts As Orban Throws Down the Gauntlet on Muslim Migration, EU Demands Demographic Decline (breitbart, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/09/overton-window-shifts-as-orban-throws-down-the-gauntlet-on-muslim-migration-eu-demands-demographic-decline/

    “Europe may be turning the corner on mass migration — at least in the popular discourse around the subject.

    Writing — in a letter to the editor of the Financial Times — reader Will Thompson stated yesterday:

    Sir, I read with great interest your report “Hungary and Poland fight their corner in clash with EU” (January 3), highlighting the competing visions among members of what the EU should look like. Perhaps certain matters such as immigration and judicial reform as raised by Viktor Orban and Mateusz Morawiecki should be reserved for the state. I can’t help but feel that if only these subjects had been discussed and taken seriously earlier within the EU we might not have ended up with a Brexit.

    The fact that such a letter is being published in a key globalist outlet in 2018 is symptomatic of the overreach of the establishment in recent years. As Mr. Thompson says, without a push towards a United States of Europe, the European Common Market or a free trading Europe would almost certainly have remained attractive enough to Britons to not vote for Brexit, or have a referendum at all.

    There are still — as there always will be — the extremists on the pro-EU side, not least Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship.

    Avramopoulous wrote for Politico Europe recently, stating: “Migration is our new reality. The time has come to start thinking, talking and acting about migration in a more comprehensive and long-term way, putting in place policies aimed at promoting integration and inclusion”.

    In the piece he states his intention to move hundreds of thousands of more Libyans into Europe, lashing out at anti-mass migration advocates along the way:

    Unfortunately, the recent discourse on migration — influenced by rising nationalism, populism and xenophobia — has limited our opportunities to put in place smart, forward-looking migration policies, at both the national and European levels.

    …

    We must start to be honest with those citizens who are concerned about how we will manage migration. We may not be able to stop migration. But we can be better, smarter and more proactive at managing this phenomenon.

    When Avramopoulous says “managing this phenomenon” he is of course referring to the managed decline of Europe. We’ve seen it economically and culturally, but the man whose nation was wrecked by EU overreach is talking about demographic decline.

    At the tail end of last year the Pew Research Center revealed that Sweden’s Muslim population could hit 30 per cent by 2050 if current migration patterns continue, with the figure hitting 14 per cent continent-wide unless there are radical changes to Europe’s attitudes and policies towards mass migration.

    And while the party line across Europe is to insist the migrant crisis has abated, the pull factors remain, with France recently revealing a 100,000-strong asylum application list for 2017. The crisis in some nations is becoming even more serious, see Sweden for an example, a nation which recently announced a raise in its retirement age in order to financially accommodate migrants.

    This is why Viktor Orban can now say things that would have had him hauled in front of the European Court of Human Rights (or something) back in 2014: “We do not consider these people to be Muslim refugees,” but as “Muslim invaders”.

    This, after addressing a conference in Germany where he declared “2018 will be the year in which the will of the people will be restored, and that the European people will step-by-step ensure that decisions made in relation to immigration must serve their interests.”

    Truly the Overton Window surrounding the debate on mass migration has shifted. This year represents an opportunity on both sides of the Atlantic, rather than doing deals for illegal immigrants and phoney border “walls”, to put the issue to bed once and for all.”

  32. Italian Archbishop: Uncontrolled Immigration Will ‘Crush’ European Society (breitbart, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/09/italian-archbishop-uncontrolled-immigration-will-crush-european-society/

    “Immigration must be “rational,” says the fiery Italian archbishop Luigi Negri, because uncontrolled immigration leads to the “crushing and extermination of our society.”

    “You can’t just open the doors, as if it were a party,” Negri states in an interview with Italian media Tuesday. It is essential to “highlight the economic, human and cultural costs of immigration,” since failing to do so means caving into “ideology.”

    “I am a Catholic and therefore I believe in welcoming diversity,” said Negri, the recently retired archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio and a close friend of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “but this cannot be unmeasured because otherwise it leads to a crushing and extermination of our society.”

    “This is not the way that Christian Europe down through the centuries integrated elements of novelty that contributed to bringing about its richness,” he said.

    Asked why the globalist movement is pushing so hard for increased immigration, Negri said that they are ideologically driven to seek a homogeneous culture where everyone thinks the same…”

    • Pope Francis: Migrants Must ‘Conform to the Rules of the Country’ Hosting Them (breitbart, Jan 9, 2018)
      http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/09/pope-francis-migrants-must-conform-to-the-rules-of-the-country-hosting-them/

      “Pope Francis returned to the topic of immigration Monday, insisting that migrants have an obligation to respect the laws of their host country as well as its cultural identity.

      Those who are welcomed, the Pope said in his yearly address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, “must necessarily conform to the rules of the country offering them hospitality, with respect for its identity and values.”

      Francis also recognized that it is not the place of the Vatican to try to tell nations how to fashion their immigration policies, or how many migrants to take in.

      “The Holy See has no intention of interfering in decisions that fall to states, which, in the light of their respective political, social and economic situations, and their capacities and possibilities for receiving and integrating, have the primary responsibility for accepting newcomers,” he said.

      While reiterating his frequent call for a welcoming attitude toward strangers in need, the Pope peppered his address with welcome dashes of realism as well as acknowledgement of the difficulties faced by nations overrun by immigrants.

      In this vein, Francis recognized that not all migrants are “always guided by the best of intentions,” while also underscoring the primary responsibility of political leaders toward their own citizens…”

  33. Sweden Orders Investigation Into Rising Number of Reported Rapes – Reports (sputniknews, Jan 9, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201801091060626212-sweden-probe-rape-cases/

    “The Swedish government has tasked the country’s National Council on Crime Prevention to look into reasons behind the increasing number of reported rapes in Sweden, local media reported Tuesday.

    The Local(.)se reported that it would be up to the council to decide which factors — a particular type of situation or perpetrator, for example — were behind the deteriorating statistics…”

    • Sweden Orders Investigation Into Rising Number of Reported Rapes

      Barn-door slammen efter horsey-trotten. Yah.

  35. Filthy Conditions in Refugee Camps Threatening the Lives of Unborn Rohingyas (sputniknews, Jan 9, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/asia/201801091060621062-filthy-rohingya-refugee-camps/

    “Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are staring at a health crisis with around 48000 women expecting to deliver babies in the filthy environment inside the overcrowded camps. Experts say the situation is “enormously serious” and requires immediate international aid and attention…”

    • “…48000 women expecting to deliver babies in the filthy environment inside the overcrowded camps.”

      Make them a deal. Convert to Christianity and receive full medical assistance as part of having your child baptized. Stick with your Muslim bull hockey and you’re on your own.

  37. Netanyahu Says Iran Plans to Send 100,000 Shia Fighters to ‘Colonize’ Syria (sputniknews, Jan 9, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801091060626561-netanyahu-shia-colonization-syria/

    “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Iran intended to send 100,000 Shia fighters to Syria in an effort to “colonize” the country.

    “As part of Iran’s plans of conquest and colonization of Syria, they want to bring in as many as 100,000 Shias, Shia fighters… not Iranians, under Iranian command,” Netanyahu said during a lunch with NATO ambassadors in Jerusalem.

    Netanyahu stressed that this move might escalate tensions in the region and would lead to the emergence of new terrorist groups born out of Daesh and Al Qaeda…”

    • Don’t waste your breathe, Bibi-habibi.
      Sputnik knows our cherished NATO cares less for the welfare of the Nation-State of the Jewish people than Soviet Russia in its day.

  39. US spy plane circled between Russian airbase & port facility during Syria drone attack – MoD (RT, Jan 9, 2018)
    https://www.rt.com/news/415374-drones-syria-terrorists-russian-defense/

    “Moscow has noted “strange coincidences” surrounding a terrorist attack on a Russian airbase and port facility in Syria, in which guided combat drones were deployed by militants. These include a US spy plane spotted in the area.

    The Russian Ministry of Defense consciously didn’t point any fingers when talking about the January 6 attack on Russia’s airbase and port facility in Syria, the Tuesday statement said, but added that technology used in the attack was telling.

    Advanced training in engineering in “one of the developed countries” would be necessary to program the principal controllers and bomb-release systems of an aircraft-type combat drone, the statement stressed. “Not everyone is also able to get exact [attack] coordinates from the space surveillance data,” it added.

    The ministry noted that a US Navy Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft was flying over the region between the Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus for some four hours around the time of the drone attack. An earlier Pentagon statement allowed the Russian military to “take a new look at some strange coincidences” surrounding the incident, it said.

    The Saturday attack targeted both Khmeimim Airbase and the maritime logistics facility in the city of Tartus, and involved as many as 13 combat drones. The assault was successfully repelled by the Russian anti-aircraft defense systems and electronic warfare specialists.

    It was the first time terrorists had used such sophisticated technology in the conflict, the ministry said, adding that the technical assessment showed that the drone could have been obtained “only from a country possessing state-of-the-art technologies.”

    Earlier on Tuesday, the US said it was “concerned” over the incident. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankin-Galloway, however, claimed that “those devices and technologies can easily be obtained in the open market.” He later also told Sputnik that the US already saw what it called “this type of commercial UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] technology” being used in Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) missions.

    Russia has repeatedly warned that US military supplies aimed at supporting “moderate” Syrian militants eventually end up in the hands of terrorists.”

    • Russia says troops left in Syria are enough to repel attacks (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
      http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-troops-left-syria-repel-attacks-52229362

      “Russia said Tuesday that a recent series of drone attacks on its military bases in Syria would have required assistance from a country possessing satellite navigation technology — a statement that appeared to be aimed at the United States.

      Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces repelled a series of drone attacks Saturday on the Hemeimeem air base and a naval facility in Tartus, adding that out of the 13 drones involved, seven were shot down and six were forced to land without inflicting any damage.

      Without blaming any specific country, the ministry said data for the attacks could only have been obtained “from one of the countries that possesses know-how in satellite navigation.”

      In Tuesday’s statement, it noted a “strange coincidence” of a U.S. military intelligence plane flying over the Mediterranean near the two Russian bases at the moment of the attack.

      The U.S. and Russia support opposing sides of the Syrian civil war.

      Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Syria last month and ordered a partial troops pullout, and the Kremlin said late Monday that the number of Russian troops left in Syria is sufficient for fending off any attacks by militants.

      Asked Tuesday whether the withdrawal could have been premature in view of the drone attack, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian forces in Syria have “all the necessary means” to counter any challenge.

      Syria’s President Bashar Assad has recovered major territory from rebels in Syria in the past two years, largely because of Russia’s military support. His forces are currently battling rebels on two fronts, in the northwestern Idlib province and in the eastern suburbs of Damascus.

      Opposition activists have reported airstrikes and shelling of rebel-held Damascus suburbs that killed and wounded dozens. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes attacked several suburbs of Damascus, including Saqba, where a man and a child were killed and 13 others were wounded.

      The Observatory and the Syrian Civil Defense, first responders known as the White Helmets, reported airstrikes on other suburbs, including Harasta and Douma.

      Syria’s state news agency SANA said rebel shelling of the capital Tuesday killed five people and wounded 30. SANA said 15 shells struck the central, predominantly Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma. The capital has been shelled on a near-daily basis in recent weeks.

      Turkey’s foreign minister accused Syrian government forces of attacking moderate opposition fighters under the guise of fighting extremists.

      Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comments came a day after Syrian government forces captured 14 villages as they advanced on Idlib, the largest rebel-held enclave in the country’s north, amid a wave of airstrikes. The troops aim to reach a rebel-held air base and secure the road linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.

      The government offensive around Idlib has forced thousands of civilians to flee toward the border with Turkey.

      Cavusoglu said Syrian government attacks on moderate opposition forces would “axe” peace efforts.

      Turkey, which backs the opposition, and Russia and Iran, whose wide-ranging support for Assad has turned the war in his favor, have taken the lead in Syria peace efforts over the past year.

      The U.N. humanitarian chief arrived in Damascus Tuesday to assess the humanitarian situation and discuss with government officials ways of improving access and aid delivery.

      Mark Lowcock’s visit is the first by the head of the U.N.’s humanitarian agency since December 2015. The U.N. estimates that more than 13 million people need basic aid and protection across Syria. Lowcock is expected to meet government officials and visit the central city of Homs during his three-day visit.”

  40. Suicide bomber targeting police kills 6 in Pakistan (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bomb-targeting-police-kills-pakistan-52233225

    “A suicide bomber targeting a police truck in Pakistan killed six people and wounded 17 on Tuesday, officials said.

    Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief of the city of Quetta, where the attack took place, said four of those killed and most of the wounded were policemen.

    The Pakistani Taliban claimed the attack, saying a suicide bomber targeted a police contingent returning from duty at the provincial assembly building…”

  42. Greece limits Sharia law after European Court challenge (abcnews, Jan 9. 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greece-limit-sharia-law-european-court-challenge-52230284

    “Lawmakers in Greece voted Tuesday to limit the powers of Islamic courts operating in a border region that is home to a 100,000-strong Muslim minority, scrapping procedures dating back more than 90 years.

    The proposed law passed easily, with backing from parliament’s largest political parties. It eliminates rules that referred many civil cases involving members of the Muslim community to Sharia law courts. Greek courts now will have priority in all cases.

    The changes — considered long overdue by many Greek legal experts — follow a complaint a Muslim woman who lives in the northeastern Greek city of Komotini made to the Council of Europe’s Court of Human Rights over an inheritance dispute.

    Legislation concerning minority rights was based on international treaties following wars in the aftermath of the Ottoman empire’s collapse. The Muslim minority in Greece is largely Turkish-speaking. Minority areas were visited last month by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a statement that the new law respects the “special characteristics” of Greece’s Muslim minority, while redressing past injustices against community members “who were excluded from the legal guarantees and freedoms that all Greek citizens must enjoy.”

    Greek governments in the past have been reluctant to amend minority rights, as many disputes between Greece and Turkey remain unresolved.

    Currently, Islamic court hearings are presided over by a single official, a state-appointed Muslim cleric.

    In parliament Tuesday, Constantine Gavroglou, minister of education and religious affairs, praised opposition party support for the bill. He said the current rules stemmed “from policies that were hostile toward the minority and sought to create second-class citizens.”

    “This is not just a technical adjustment, it’s a very important day for parliament … because of the broad support that is key when addressing issues of democracy and people’s rights,” Gavroglou told lawmakers.

    The extreme-right Golden Dawn party rejected the bill, arguing that it failed to adequately outline what powers would be retained by Islamic courts and did not address the issue of locally elected clerics who operate in an unofficial, but influential capacity.”

  43. Germany indicts Syrian on charges of promoting Islamic State (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-indicts-syrian-charges-promoting-islamic-state-52229840

    “A 37-year-old Syrian mathematician has been formally charged in Germany on allegations of promoting the Islamic State group, obtaining bomb-making instructions and other crimes, prosecutors said Tuesday.

    The man, who wasn’t identified, is alleged to have posted videos on social media between July and December 2016 in which he urged support for IS and attempted to solicit new recruits for the group.

    German prosecutors said they considered another post, in which the suspect praised the killing of Jordanian author Nahed Hattar , a prominent critic of IS, to constitute incitement.

    Frankfurt prosecutors, who are handling the case, said police also found manuals for making rifle silencers, explosives and detonators at the man’s home and office at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The man, who came to Germany in 2005 on a Syrian government scholarship, has been in detention since February 2017.

    Prosecutor Alexander Badle said while in prison the man tried to recruit a fellow inmate, who he believed to be a Muslim, to carry out a bomb attack that he claimed would be financed from Qatar. After learning the inmate was a Christian, the suspect is alleged to have threatened to kill him if he spoke to police.

    Badle said the main charge, “recruitment or support for a foreign terrorist organization,” carries a penalty of up to five years.”

  44. Kashmir civilian, rebel killed during anti-India fighting (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kashmir-civilian-rebel-killed-anti-india-fighting-52231571

    “A young man was killed and two others wounded Tuesday when government forces fired at anti-India protesters in disputed Kashmir following a gunbattle that killed one militant, officials said.

    Indian troops cordoned off the southern Kokernag area on a tip that rebels were hiding there.

    Senior police officer S.P. Vaid said troops gunned down one militant but at least one other escaped while injured during the fighting.

    As the fighting raged, anti-India protests erupted in Kokernag and some neighboring villages in solidarity with rebels fighting against Indian rule, leading to clashes between rock-throwing residents and government forces who fired bullets, shotgun pellets and tear gas.

    At least three were reported injured in the clashes and a young man who was hit by bullets died in a hospital…”

  45. Tunisian government denounces protesters after rioting death (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/tunisian-government-denounces-protesters-rioting-death-52232130

    “Tunisia’s prime minister promised Tuesday to crack down on rioters after violent protests over price hikes left one person dead and raised fears of broader unrest in the country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

    During clashes in several regions over recent days, a 45-year-old protester died while dozens were arrested and several police were injured. On Tuesday, masked riot police ringed a demonstration in the capital, Tunis, and the atmosphere remained tense…”

  46. Egypt says its forces kill 8 suspected militants in Sinai (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-forces-kill-suspected-militants-sinai-52230609

    “Egypt says security forces have killed eight suspected militants in a shootout in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

    The Interior Ministry said Tuesday the firefight broke out when the forces raided a suspected hideout in el-Arish city. It said the militants were planning attacks targeting security forces, and were in possession of explosives, rifles and ammunition.

    Egypt has been battling militants in the northern part of Sinai Peninsula for years, but the insurgency became far more deadly after the 2013 military ouster of Mohammed Morsi, an elected but divisive Islamist president.

    An Islamic State affiliate based in the Sinai has carried out a number of high-profile attacks in recent years, mainly targeting security forces and Egypt’s Christian minority.”

  47. Egypt sentences 23 to life in prison over 2013 violence (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-sentences-23-life-prison-2013-violence-52235122

    “An Egyptian court has sentenced 23 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life in prison on charges linked to the unrest that followed the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president.

    The court sentenced another 223 defendants to 15 years on similar charges, which included belonging to a terrorist group, murder and planning attacks against the state. Another 22 got three years, and 109 were acquitted.

    The suspects were arrested when security forces raided a 2013 sit-in held to protest the removal from power of President Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader and a senior Brotherhood figure. Morsi has been jailed and sentenced to death.

    The Brotherhood won a series of elections following Egypt’s 2011 uprising but is now outlawed as a terrorist group.

    Tuesday’s ruling can be appealed.”

  48. Italy nabs mob clan controlling bakeries, funerals, migrants (abcnews, Jan 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-nabs-mob-clan-controlling-bakeries-funerals-migrants-52229412

    “Police in Italy and Germany seized 50 million euros ($60 million) in mafia assets Tuesday and arrested more than 160 people, accusing them of running a huge mob-controlled commercial and political empire involving everything from bread and wine sales to funeral services, migrant housing and garbage recycling.

    Prosecutors in southern Italy said the ‘ndrangheta’s Farao-Marincola clan had its hand in just about every commercial enterprise in the Calabrian town of Ciro and nearby areas, and that its grip extended throughout Italy and into Germany to launder its profits.

    Specifically, prosecutors accused the bosses of driving out all the baking competition in Ciro so that residents and restaurants were forced to buy bread from the one mob-controlled bakery in town. And they said that Italian restaurants in Germany, meanwhile, were forced to import Italian wine, olive oil and other goods from a clan-controlled Italian restaurant association.

    “They controlled all the economic activity in entire towns,” Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told a press conference. “It concerned all commercial activity, and obviously political power as well.”

    Carabinieri police said “dozens” of public administration officials were among the 169 people arrested.

    Italy’s ‘ndrangheta has increasingly eclipsed the Cosa Nostra in power and wealth, infiltrating all sectors of Italian economic and political life and spreading out from its base in Calabria to Rome, Milan and beyond. The ‘ndrangheta’s presence in Germany first made headlines in 2007, when a family feud between Calabrian clans turned a birthday party at a Duisberg pizzeria into a massacre that left six dead.

    Prosecutors said in this case, the Farao-Marincola clans managed to exert such control because of their wealth and ability to corrupt politicians and didn’t need to resort to the violence that long characterized traditional Mafia activity.

    In Germany, the federal criminal police office said 11 people were arrested in western Germany, accused of blackmail and money-laundering. The arrests took place in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse, Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia.

    “The detentions and seizures are an important success against the infiltration of mafia structures and methods in our economy,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. “We will not allow criminal organizations like the ‘ndrangheta to use Germany … and do their criminal business here.”

    Italian prosecutors said the Italian suspects were accused of mafia association, attempted murder, extortion, money-laundering and illegal weapons possession, among other charges.”

  49. ARD – Das Erste – Themenabend “Flucht aus Europa”

    Der Fernsehfilm “Aufbruch ins Ungewisse” (WDR/ARD Degeto), am Mittwoch, 14. Februar 2018, um 20:15 Uhr, schildert das Schicksal einer Familie, die unter lebensbedrohlichen Umständen vor der Verfolgung durch ein totalitäres System flieht, aus einer ungewöhnlichen Perspektive: In naher Zukunft: Europa ist im Chaos versunken. Rechtsextreme haben in vielen Ländern die Macht übernommen.

    Aus dem demokratischen Staat, der Deutschland einmal war, ist ein totalitäres System geworden, das Andersdenkende, Muslime und Homosexuelle verfolgt. Jan Schneider (Fabian Busch) hat sich als Anwalt auf die Seite enteigneter Opfer gestellt. Als er erfährt, dass ihn das Regime erneut ins Gefängnis stecken will, beschließt er zu fliehen. Sein Ziel ist die Südafrikanische Union, die nach einem Wirtschaftsboom politische und ökonomische Stabilität genießt. Ein Frachter soll ihn, seine Frau Sarah (Maria Simon) und die beiden Kinder Nora (Athena Strates) und Nick (Ben Gertz) gemeinsam mit anderen Flüchtlingen nach Kapstadt bringen, doch die Schlepper setzen ihre Passagiere in viel zu kleinen Booten vor der Küste Namibias aus.

    Eindrückliche Bilder entstanden unter der Regie von Kai Wessel nach dem Drehbuch von Eva Zahn, Volker A. Zahn, Gabriela Zerhau.

    “Aufbruch ins Ungewisse” ist eine Produktion der Hager Moss Film in einer deutsch-südafrikanischen Ko-Produktion mit Two Oceans Production im Auftrag des Westdeutschen Rundfunks Köln und ARD Degeto für Das Erste, gefördert vom FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, dem Department of Trade and Industry South Africa (dti) und der national film and video foundation South Africa (nfvf).

    Die Redaktion haben Sophie Seitz (WDR) und Christine Strobl (ARD Degeto)

    Die sich um 21:45 Uhr anschließende Gesprächsrunde bei “Maischberger” wird sich auch mit dieser Perspektive befassen.

    http://www.daserste.de/specials/ueber-uns/themenabend-flucht-aus-europa-100.html

  50. al jazeera – Quebec parties oppose marking day against Islamophobia/strong>

    Quebec opposition parties say they oppose designating the anniversary of a deadly Quebec mosque attack a national day to combat Islamophobia.

    Two political parties in the Canadian province of Quebec say they are opposed to a recent call from Muslim leaders to designate January 29 – the date six Muslim men were killed in a Quebec City mosque last year – a national day against Islamophobia.

    The right-wing party Coalition Avenir Quebec and separatist Parti Quebecois say they oppose the demand for several reasons, including being uncomfortable using the term “Islamophobia”, Montreal newspaper La Presse reported late on Monday.

    Last Friday, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and dozens of other Muslim and community groups called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make January 29 a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia.

    “The CAQ does not intend to support this demand,” the party told La Presse. “We believe January 29 should be devoted to commemorating the memory of the victims of this terrible tragedy. It was an intolerable act committed by a single person and not by an entire society. Quebecers are open and welcoming, they are not Islamophobic.”

    A spokesperson for the Parti Quebecois leader, meanwhile, said the party “chooses not to use the term ‘Islamophobia'” because it is controversial, and “prefers the expression ‘anti-Muslim sentiment'”.

    The Parti Quebecois is the largest opposition party in the Quebec legislature, holding 28 out of 125 total seats, while the CAQ is the third-largest party with 21 seats. Quebecers will vote in provincial elections next October.

    ‘The perils of hate’

    A gunman shot and killed six Muslim men at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City, the provincial capital, on January 29 last year. Several others were injured.

    As the one-year anniversary of the deadly attack approaches, Muslim leaders say turning January 29 into a day to combat racism will “enable Canadians to collectively remember the victims of the attack”.

    It will also “enhance public education about the perils of hate, bigotry and Islamophobia”, they said in an open letter.

    “The ongoing impact being felt within the Quebec Muslim community and more broadly, Canadian Muslim communities, one year after the attack speaks to the urgent need for our elected leaders to stand firmly against Islamophobia and the agents of bigotry,” Ihsaan Gardee, NCCM executive director, said in a statement.

    The Canadian government has not confirmed whether it will grant the groups’ demand. In a brief email to Al Jazeera, a spokesperson for Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly said Ottawa “has received and noted” the proposal.

    “As we approach the one-year anniversary, Canada continues to condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a centre of worship and refuge,” spokesperson Simon Ross said.

    “Canadians continue to stand with victims and the families affected by this attack. Our government will continue to work toward promoting a diverse and inclusive Canada. We must condemn all forms of discrimination including Islamophobia.”

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/quebec-parties-oppose-marking-day-islamophobia-180109071230493.html

    • CBC – Quebec opposition parties against marking mosque shooting with day against Islamophobia

      Parti Québécois, Coalition Avenir Québec take issue with term ‘Islamophobia’ in commemorating Jan. 29 attack

      Nearly a year after six Muslim men were gunned down in a Quebec City mosque, political leaders are still struggling to reach agreement on how to commemorate the attack.

      Both the Parti Québécois and Coalition Avenir Québec, the province’s two main opposition parties, have come out against a proposal made last week by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, taking issue with the idea that the day should be devoted to action against Islamophobia.

      CAQ spokesperson Samuel Poulin said that, instead, the anniversary should be “dedicated to commemorating the memory of the victims of this terrible tragedy.”

      “It is the intolerable act of one person and not that of an entire society. Quebecers are open and welcoming, they are not Islamophobic,” he said in a statement.

      The PQ contends the term Islamophobia is too controversial, and points out there is already an international day for the elimination of racial discrimination.

      Spokesperson Bruno-Pierre Cyr said the party does, however, support a day of commemoration to mark the day of the attack, which he called a “despicable gesture.”

      Six Muslim men were shot and killed and 19 others were wounded in an attack on the mosque during prayers last Jan. 29.

      Alexandre Bissonnette of Quebec City is to stand trial in March on six charges each of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

      Liberals open to idea, but non-committal
      Quebec’s Liberal government said it is open to the council’s proposal, but hasn’t made any firm commitment.

      In a year-end interview, Premier Philippe Couillard told CBC’s Debra Arbec he plans to table a motion to express solidarity with the Muslim community when the National Assembly resumes in February, after the anniversary has passed.

      ?”I suspect it will be adopted unanimously,” he said last month.

      The PQ is the largest opposition party in the Quebec legislature, holding 28 out of 125 total seats, while the CAQ has 21 seats. Quebec is holding provincial elections this October.

      A smaller opposition party, Québec Solidaire, which holds three seats in the National Assembly, has said it supports the proposal.

      The federal government said in a statement it has “received and noted” the proposal from the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

      “We must condemn all forms of discrimination including Islamophobia,” the statement from office of the minister of Canadian Heritage said.

      Designation meant to start a conversation

      Razia Hamidi, the Montreal representative for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said Tuesday that criticism of the proposal is misguided.

      Designating a day to counter Islamophobia isn’t meant to suggest all Quebecers are Islamophobic, she told CBC Montreal’s Daybreak.

      Instead, she said, it would “enable a broader conversation about how to address underlying issues” in society.

      Like the national council, Boufeldja Benabdallah, vice-president of the Quebec City mosque, wants the anniversary of the shooting to be more than just a commemoration.

      He said the government should take concrete steps to “encourage inclusion” and ensure nothing like the attack ever happens again.

      http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-mosque-shooting-islamophobia-1.4478861