Reader’s Links, Feb. 9, 2018

Daily Links Post graphic

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

108 Replies to “Reader’s Links, Feb. 9, 2018”

  1. The Fight of Our Lives
    A new documentary exposes the growing threats to the West.
    February 9, 2018
    Mark Tapson

    Editor’s note: The world premiere of The Fight of Our Lives will be held at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California on Monday evening, February 19, through the support of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. For details, click here.

    “Civilizations, empires, great powers, can fall apart very fast. Collapse can come suddenly, like a thief in the night. And we should be very wary of assuming that our civilization, the civilization of the early 21st century West, will oblige us by declining gradually.”

    That warning from noted historian Niall Ferguson is the opening and the theme of the vital new documentary The Fight of Our Lives: Defeating the Ideological War Against the West from filmmaker Gloria Z. Greenfield.

    Greenfield’s previous work includes Body and Soul – The State of the Jewish Nation in 2014 (which I reviewed for FrontPage Mag here), Unmasked Judeophobia in 2011, and The Case for Israel – Democracy’s Outpost in 2009. She is the president of Doc Emet Productions, the simple and powerful motto of which is “Truth in film.” Unlike, say, propagandist Michael Moore’s front-and-center, demagogic presence in his films such as Fahrenheit 9/11, director Greenfield gets out of the way and crafts her narratives about anti-Semitism, history, Judeo-Christian values, freedom, and democracy from the authoritative, articulate arguments of the many intellectuals who lend their expertise to her projects.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269274/fight-our-lives-mark-tapson

  2. The ‘Abnormalization’ of Trump
    What media coverage of a military parade tells us about the Left’s madness.
    February 9, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    President Trump’s proposal for a military parade was met with total and absolute hysteria. Just like any and every other proposal that he makes. Military parades are a “public demonstration of power is characteristic of authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China,” the media screeched.

    That must be why we have them every year.

    The National Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C. has been an annual event since it was revived to honor World War II veterans. But it’s subdued compared to other parades across the country which still include tanks and other heavy military equipment. We’ve been having military parades since 1776.

    Jefferson, Lincoln and countless other presidents reviewed them and took part in them. And they weren’t just limited to days set aside to honor veterans or for the occasional victory celebration.

    The military reflects the character of a nation’s government. In authoritarian states, military parades represent the repressive power of the tyranny. In free nations, they show the power of the people. A tank, like a gun, is a tool that is not good or evil. It’s the use that men make of it, that makes it so.

    We knew that during the Cold War.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269269/abnormalization-trump-daniel-greenfield

  3. Saudi Graduate of Al Qaeda Terror Training Camp Arrested In Oklahoma
    Alleged classmate of 9/11 hijackers attended US flight school in 2016.

    On February 6, The New York Times published a chilling report on the arrest in Oklahoma of a foreign national who had attended an al Qaeda training camp. The defendant in this case is Naif Abdulaziz M. Alfallaj, a 34-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia who has been residing in the U.S. since 2011. Allegedly he attended a terror training camp in Afghanistan in 2000 when four of the 9/11 hijacker/terrorists also attended training sessions at that very same camp.

    Here is an excerpt from the Justice Department’s press release on the arrest:

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269276/saudi-graduate-al-qaeda-terror-training-camp-michael-cutler

  4. Clinton Ally in State Dept Admits Passing Blumenthal/Shearer Material to Steele
    February 9, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    “Devin Nunes is investigating me. Here’s the truth,” is the Washington Post headline. It’s meant to carry the insouciant house style of viral social media.

    But it’s the paper most closely linked to the effort to overturn the 2016 election (democracy dies in darkness) giving a key suspect a forum to defend himself. And no amount of bravado can change that.

    The man being investigated in Jonathan Winer, formerly of the State Department, who has Clinton ties. And his piece is an attempt to spin his role in acting as one interface between Clintonworld and the Steele dossier.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269284/clinton-ally-state-dept-admits-passing-daniel-greenfield

  5. Islamic State fighters move to Syria’s Idlib, clash with factions, sources say (reuters, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-idlib/islamic-state-fighters-move-to-syrias-idlib-clash-with-factions-sources-say-idUKKBN1FT1CT?rpc=401&

    “BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters battled Syrian insurgents in the northwestern province of Idlib on Friday, a monitoring group and a rebel commander said, accusing pro-government forces of opening a corridor for the jihadists to reach the region…”

  6. Dem Senator Leading Trump-Russia Investigation and Steele Used Russian Oligarch’s Lobbyist as Middleman

    Each day seems to bring new incredible revelations about the Steele dossier, the piece of Clinton campaign opposition research that was used to justify eavesdropping on a Trump associate.

    Like, what if the guy who claimed to be looking into Russian collusion was colluding with Russia.

    Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been leading a congressional investigation into President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, had extensive contact last year with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch who was offering Warner access to former British spy and dossier author Christopher Steele, according to text messages obtained exclusively by Fox News.

    “We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country,” Warner texted the lobbyist, Adam Waldman, on March 22, 2017.

    “I’m in,” Waldman, whose firm has ties to Hillary Clinton, texted back to Warner.

    Of course it does.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269283/dem-senator-leading-trump-russia-investigation-and-daniel-greenfield

  7. UN Warns of Sexual Violence in Greek Migrant Camps, Calls for Gender Segregation (breitbart, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/09/un-warns-sexual-violence-greek-migrant-camps-calls-gender-segregation/

    “The United Nations refugee agency is urging Greece’s government to provide separate housing and washing facilities for women and children at island refugee camps, citing the risk of sexual violence.

    The UNHCR says it has received reports from about 180 camp residents who say they have suffered some form of sexual or gender-based violence after arriving in Greece.

    A UNHCR statement Friday said the situation is particularly worrying in the crowded refugee camps of Moria on Lesvos and Vathy on Samos, where toilets and washing facilities are “no-go zones” after dark for unaccompanied women and children.

    It cited a woman in Moria who said she had not showered for two months for fear of attack.

    The UNHCR called on Greece to do more to protect camp residents.”

  8. Hezbollah Border Dispute Places Region On Edge
    Israel employs combination of deterrence and diplomacy to keep enemies off balance.
    February 9, 2018
    Ari Lieberman

    The winds of war are once again brewing on Israel’s tense northern border. A series of Iranian inspired provocations in Syria and Lebanon are creating the perfect storm for outbreak of hostilities and full-scale conflagration.

    On Tuesday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun met with Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the presidential palace in Baabda where the three discussed Israel’s construction of a border wall and alleged violations of Lebanon’s maritime rights. Following the meeting, Aoun’s office released a belligerent statement accusing Israel of undermining stability and threatening Lebanese action “at various regional and international levels to prevent Israel from building the cement wall…and from the possibility of infringing on Lebanon’s oil and gas wealth and its (territorial) waters.”

    Midweek, Lebanon’s so-called Higher Defense Council released a statement calling on Lebanon’s armed forces to confront Israel’s “aggression” on land and sea. Contemporaneous with the HDC statement, Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah issued pamphlets and a video threatening to attack Israel’s offshore gas rigs.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269278/hezbollah-border-dispute-places-region-edge-ari-lieberman

  9. Iraqi Kurds Systematically Executed Hundreds of Captured Daesh Fighters- Report (sputniknews, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802091061526276-kurds-executed-daesh-fighters-iraq/

    “Iraqi Kurdish soldiers have been accused of conducting mass executions of captured Daesh fighters by Human Rights Watch (HRW.) The alleged massacre occured after a clash between the two groups near the Iraqi-Syrian border in late August through early September.

    HRW said on Friday that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters detained Daesh fighters at a school in Sahel al-Maliha, a town 45 miles northwest of Mosul — the site of one of the last major battles against Daesh in Iraq. Coalition forces, including many Kurdish fighters, wrested control of the city from Daesh in July 2017.

    “The evidence suggests that Asayish security forces [the Kurdistani security force] conducted mass executions of captured [Daesh] suspects night after night for a week, perhaps killing scores or even hundreds of male detainees,” said Lama Fakih, HRW’s deputy Middle East director in the statement…”

  10. California Dem #MeToo Leader Accused of Groping
    February 9, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    The Democrats took over California and ended democracy. But like all leftist tyrannies, the revolution ends in fratricide. (Or whatever the correct post-cis term is.) And their legislators continue their rate of spectacular implosions.

    California Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, the head of the Legislative Women’s Caucus and a leading figure in the state’s anti-sexual harassment movement, is accused of groping a male staffer from another lawmaker’s office.

    Daniel Fierro told The Associated Press on Thursday that Garcia stroked his back, squeezed his buttocks and attempted to touch his crotch in a dugout after a legislative softball game in 2014.

    Fierro didn’t report it at the time but in January told his former boss, Democratic Assemblyman Ian Calderon, who reported it to Assembly leaders. The Assembly is now investigating Garcia.

    Whether this really happened or it’s a dirty trick coming from inside the house, it shows the state of the Dems. And what’s left of them.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269281/california-dem-metoo-leader-accused-groping-daniel-greenfield

  11. #MediocrityToo
    The coming mania for inclusion will erode standards of merit and excellence.
    February 9, 2018
    Heather Mac Donald

    If the #MeToo movement only reduces sexual predation in the workplace, it will have been a force for good. Its most likely result, however, will be to unleash a torrent of new gender and race quotas throughout the economy and culture, on the theory that disparities in representation and employment are due to harassment and bias.

    Hollywood and the media are already showing the effect. It’s no coincidence that The Today Show now has two female anchors. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pledged to double its female and minority members by 2020. Actress Natalie Portman’s sneer in presenting the best director prize at the recent Golden Globe movie awards—“And here are the all-male nominees”—will become the standard response to any perceived lack of “diversity” in entertainment. The Wall Street Journal’s pop music critic, Jim Fusilli, for example, groused that females were underrepresented among Grammy award nominees. “No groups led by women are among the nominees in the Best Contemporary Instrumental, Best Jazz Instrumental, Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Contemporary Christian Music album categories. “There is no Grammy category comprised entirely of women,” he complained. Six female music industry executives then complained to the Recording Academy’s board of trustees that the Recording Academy’s leadership suffered from “inclusion issues across all demographics.” In response, management has penitently promised to overcome the “unconscious biases that impede female advancement” in the music industry. The National Hispanic Media Coalition is planning to protest at the Academy Awards because of the paucity of Hispanic Oscar nominations. Even before the Hispanic protest, Hollywood execs were experiencing quota fatigue, given the pressures from feminist, LGBTQ, and disability activists to hire by identity category.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269268/mediocritytoo-heather-mac-donald

  12. Consumer Protection Offices More Expensive Than Trump Tower

    The servants of the people live well while protecting the people from the other people. But who protects the people from their servants?

    Mick Mulvaney, the CFPB’s acting director, graciously allowed The Daily Caller News Foundation to take an exclusive tour on Feb. 1 of the federal office — founded by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — that has been widely criticized for cost overruns and extravagance.

    “There was interest to move this above a Class C Building,” said a CFPB source familiar with the renovation and the operation of the building. “Now it’s a Class A building,” he told TheDCNF.

    The Building Owners and Managers Association International, which represents owners and managers of all commercial office buildings, describe Class A buildings as “the most coveted buildings in the marketplace.”

    The $124 million spent to date for the 303,000 square foot office building is $409 per square foot, more than Trump World Tower, which cost $334 per square foot or Las Vegas’ Bellagio Hotel and Casino, priced at $330 per square foot.

    That doesn’t mean the offices are actually fancier than the Bellagio. This is the government. Getting value for taxpayer money is a foreign concept. But it is working hard on a gym.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269286/consumer-protection-offices-more-expensive-trump-daniel-greenfield

  13. NYPD ignored more than 1,500 federal requests to detain immigrants last year, official says

    New York City police ignored all 1,526 requests from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain undocumented immigrants for up to 48 hours last year, a top NYPD official said Wednesday.

    The Daily News reported that Oleg Chernyavsky, the NYPD’s legislative affairs director, revealed the numbers at a City Council meeting.

    The number of requests for 2017 was nearly 20 times higher than the 80 the department received over the previous year. Chernyavsky said the department responded to just two of ICE’s 2016 requests because those immigrants had federal arrest warrants.

    Under New York City law, prisoners can only be handed over to ICE if they’ve been convicted of one of 170 crimes and federal officials present a warrant.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/08/nypd-ignored-more-than-1500-federal-requests-to-detain-immigrants-last-year-official-says.html

  14. Justice Department’s No. 3 official to resign: New York Times

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department’s third-ranking official, Rachel Brand, plans to step down after just nine months on the job, the New York Times reported on Friday, at a time when President Donald Trump has taken aim at senior law enforcement officials.

    Brand was next in line of succession to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia and whether the Republican president has unlawfully sought to obstruct the ongoing probe.

    Rosenstein oversees Mueller’s investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter last year.

    Brand’s resignation is the latest sign of turmoil at U.S. law enforcement agencies, which have come under sustained attack by Trump and his Republican allies in recent months. The Times reported that Brand will resign, citing two people briefed on her decision.

    News of her departure comes a week after Trump approved the release of a previously classified memo written by Republican lawmakers that portrayed the Russia investigation, initially handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and now headed by Mueller, as a product of political bias against Trump at the Justice Department and FBI.

    Trump also has criticized Sessions for recusing himself.

    On Feb. 2, just hours before Trump approved the release of the Republican memo, Sessions offered praise for Rosenstein, the department’s No. 2 official, and Brand, saying they “represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.”

    Neither Brand nor a Justice Department spokesman could be immediately reached for comment.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-brand/justice-departments-no-3-official-to-resign-new-york-times-idUSKBN1FT2XP

  15. Germany: Merkel Pays High Price for Fourth Term
    “This will not be long.”

    by Soeren Kern
    February 9, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11871/merkel-fourth-term

    Negotiators from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), their Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) have agreed in principle on a deal for a new “grand coalition” government—one that, in fact, is the same as the one that governed prior to the last election in September 2017.

    The deal, if formally ratified by the SPD’s rank and file members at a special party congress on March 4, would ensure that Germany has a new government by Easter—and that Merkel, already in power for 12 years, will remain in office for a fourth tenure as chancellor, albeit in a much-weakened position.

    Unusually, the 177-page agreement, reached on February 7, is subject to review in two years, when the parties will reassess the coalition. Analysts have speculated that it may be an opportunity for Merkel finally to step down.

  16. Strzok-Page text says Obama ‘wanted to know everything.’ Here are the next questions
    By J.E. Dyer February 8, 2018

    There have been two major new blasts of information in the last 48 hours. One is the less-redacted version of the Grassley-Graham memo that was released on Monday.

    The other is a fresh batch of 2015-2016 texts between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which were included with an interim report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on its probe of the DOJ/FBI Hillary Clinton email investigation.

    Regarding the Grassley-Graham memo, Kimberley Strassel has a nice tweet-thread summary, including the point that the “Clinton friend” referred to in the memo appears to be Sidney Blumenthal.

    Kimberley Strassel
    ?
    @KimStrassel

    1) Why isn’t the (mostly) unredacted Grassley memo front page news? Here’s why: Because it confirms the Nunes memo and blows up the Schiff talking points (which the media ran with).

    LU contributor Jeff Dunetz highlighted that yesterday as well. That still leaves two other names: the associate of Blumenthal who gave Blumenthal the information (I assume that person, for now, to be Cody Shearer), and Blumenthal’s contact at the State Department. As discussed in my 5 February post on the Grassley-Graham memo, it’s likely we know who that individual is. I wrote about him and his extensive links to high-level Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, back in December.

    But it’s the Strzok-Page texts I want to look at today, and in particular, the one that has social media on fire right now. It’s a text from 2 September 2016, in which Lisa Page utters the fateful words:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/08/strzok-page-text-says-obama-wanted-know-everything-next-questions/

  17. Gruesome Things ISIS is Doing in Areas It Still Controls
    Home > Political Islam > Worldwide > Movements > Gruesome Things ISIS is Doing in Areas It Still Controls
    By Meira Svirsky Thursday, February 8, 2018

    ISIS stoned a woman to death in Al-Shajara, Syria, a city they still control in the southern part of the country. Even though she lived with her husband, the terror group accused her of adultery.

    Abu Mohammed, who lives in Al-Shajara related the circumstances of her death as well as the whipping of two young men to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, “The army of Khalid ibn al-Walid, an ISIS organization, burst into an apartment five days ago, shooting and arresting all the people inside. [Later], in the main square, ISIS presented two youths and a woman who were in the apartment at the time, saying they were all arrested for adultery. They stoned the woman to death because she was married and the youth were whipped, each of them 80 times without mercy because they are single.

    “The woman’s husband was in the apartment when ISIS terrorists burst in but was able to flee and reach an area controlled by the Free Syrian Army. People in the city had whispered to ISIS that adultery was happening there. ISIS brought these people as witnesses to testify as to why they raided the apartment. “

    https://clarionproject.org/gruesome-things-isis-areas-still-controls/

  18. Trump promises developments on the Democratic memo

    Washington continues to wait for the president to release the rebuttal to the Republican memo alleging bias in the FBI and DOJ;

    Catherine Herridge goes in-depth for ‘Special Report.’

    • CBS – Trump will not declassify Democrats’ current memo, White House says

      President Trump will not declassify the memo from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee as it currently is written, the White House announced in a letter Friday night. The Democrats’ memo is a rebuttal to the GOP memo about surveillance of a former Trump campaign official is expected to be released soon.

      “Although the president is inclined to declassify the Feb. 5th memorandum, because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time,” the letter from White House counsel Don McGahn to Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, reads.

      The White House letter said Justice Department officials will be available to help “should the committee wish to revise the February 5th memorandum to mitigate the risks identified by the department.”

      Democrats had concerns with the GOP memo over sensitive information as well, but the president declassified that. Some Republicans have claimed the Democratic memo involved more substantial information about law enforcement sources and methods.

      At the White House’s request, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray also sent a letter to the White House identifying the areas of concern in the Democratic memo.

      On Friday, the president met with FBI Director Christopher Wray, the principal associate deputy attorney general and the White House counsel’s office to discuss the Democratic memo, according to the White House. The president was given five days to oppose the release of the Democratic memo, after the House Intelligence Committee voted to release it earlier this week.

      Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee had initially opposed the release of the Democratic memo, even as they voted to release the Republican-crafted memo.

      Rep. Justin Amash, R-Michigan, said Friday night he has read both memos, and the Democratic memo, like the GOP memo, does not endanger national security and should be released.

      Both the Republican and Democratic #FISA memos should be released. I’ve read both memos. Neither one endangers national security. The American people deserve the opportunity to read both memos.

      — Justin Amash (@justinamash) February 10, 2018
      The four-page GOP memo, released last week, argues that FBI surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page was authorized in part because of claims in the unverified Trump dossier authored by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. The memo claims that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified before the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought without the Steele dossier information. But there is no direct quote from McCabe’s (behind-closed-doors) testimony about the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

      Mr. Trump claimed that memo “totally vindicates ‘Trump,'” even though some Republicans like Rep. Trey Gowdy, the only Republican on the House Intelligence Committee to have actually seen the FISA applications, said the memo has nothing to do with the Russia probe.

      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dem-fisa-memo-trump-today-2018-02-09-live-updates/

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

      the daily caller – BREAKING: President Trump Will NOT Approve Release Of Democrats’ House Intel Memo

      President Trump has decided to not release the memo compiled by Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee due to the document containing classified information.

      WH letter to Nunes on POTUS decision not to declassify the Dem memo: pic.twitter.com/1ejQtzCgK3 — Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) February 10, 2018

      A letter from White House counsel Don McGahn sent to Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, explained why the memo won’t be released at this time.

      The letter claims that the memo “contains numerous properly classified and especially secretive passages.”

      However, the letter also claims that President Trump is “inclined” to release the memo.

      WH tells DOJ, FBI to assist @HouseIntelComm in redacting classified info from Dem memo. McGahn letter says President “inclined” to release memo, but is “unable to do so at this time.” — Kayla Tausche (@kaylatausche) February 10, 2018

      The memo has been said to contain details that counter claims made in a memo written by Republican members of the House Intel Committee. The Republican memo outlines how an anti-Trump dossier written by Christopher Steele was used as a justification to surveil Carter Page.

      http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/09/trump-democrat-house-memo/

  19. US appeals court tosses ‘international terrorism’ verdict against Arab Bank (middleeasteye, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-appeals-court-tosses-international-terrorism-verdict-against-arab-bank-838002936

    “A US appeals court has thrown out a 2014 jury verdict finding Arab Bank Plc liable for knowingly supporting militant attacks in Israel linked to Hamas.

    Friday’s decision by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ends more than 13 years of litigation over Arab Bank’s liability, which the Jordanian lender has disputed, for 24 attacks in and around Israel in the early 2000s.

    The appeals court said jurors in Brooklyn were instructed incorrectly by the trial judge that under federal law, Arab Bank committed an “act of international terrorism” by knowingly providing material support to Hamas, which the Department of State designated in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organisation.

    In August 2015, 11 months after the verdict, Arab Bank had reached a confidential settlement with 597 victims or relatives of victims of 22 of the attacks, pending the bank’s appeal of the verdict, court papers show.

    Both sides agreed to forgo a retrial if the verdict were thrown out.

    “The plaintiffs will receive meaningful and very substantial compensation for their injuries,” their lawyer, Gary Osen, said in an email. “Today’s decision doesn’t diminish the fact a jury found Arab Bank liable for knowingly supporting Hamas.”

    In a statement, Arab Bank said “the district court’s errors at trial all but dictated an adverse outcome. The bank is pleased to put this case behind it”….”

  20. Erdo?an sues K?l?çdaro?lu for ‘attack on personal rights,’ demands 250,000 TL (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-sues-kilicdaroglu-for-attack-on-personal-rights-demands-250-000-tl-127051

    “Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has filed a lawsuit against main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu over an alleged “attack on personal rights,” for a speech the latter gave in a parliamentary group meeting.

    Erdo?an demanded 250,000 Turkish liras in compensation from K?l?çdaro?lu over his remarks during the CHP group meeting on Jan. 7.

    Before the complaint, the president had blasted K?l?çdaro?lu for a speech he delivered to neighborhood heads (muhtars) in Ankara, during which the CHP chair had accused Erdo?an of “abetting terrorist organizations.”

    “If you can prove that the [ruling] Justice and Development Party [AKP] has supported the DAESH, then I will resign from this post,” he said, using the Arabic synonym for the Islamic State of the Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
    K?l?çdaro?lu on Jan. 6 accused the president of aiding terrorist organizations in Syria, including the ISIL.

    “You [Erdo?an] are aiding and abetting terrorist organizations. Why aren’t you filing a complaint against me for saying this?” he said, criticizing the president for repeatedly suing him for his comments.

    Following K?l?çdaro?lu’s comments, CHP lawmaker Mahmut Tanal filed a criminal complaint against Erdo?an for “abetting terrorist organizations,” on Jan. 8.

    Erdo?an’s lawsuit is the latest in a string of complaints that the President’s lawyers have filed against K?l?çdaro?lu for “attacking personal rights.” The last suit was announced on Jan. 12, to the tune of 150,000 Turkish Liras.

    On Jan. 8, Erdo?an’s lawyers filed a complaint against the CHP leader, arguing that K?l?çdaro?lu had used arguments used by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), by referring to alleged phone conversation recordings between Erdo?an and his relatives.”

  21. European Parliament’s ‘rights in Turkey’ resolution null and void: Turkish Foreign Ministry (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/european-parliaments-rights-in-turkey-resolution-null-and-void-turkish-foreign-ministry-127039

    “The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Feb. 8 dismissed the European Parliament’s (EP) resolution titled “The current human rights situation in Turkey” and said the resolution adopted on Feb. 8 “is far from understanding the current conditions Turkey faces.”

    Turkey defined the resolution as “null and void.”…”

  22. Turkish government stops relocating Syrians to Istanbul (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-government-stops-relocating-syrians-to-istanbul-127084

    “The Turkish government has stopped registering and relocating Syrians in Istanbul due to the increasing population, the Interior Ministry has told daily Hürriyet.

    “Records of Syrians living in 81 cities – and first and foremost Istanbul – are being updated,” the ministry source said on Feb. 8, describing part of the measures taken to limit the influx of refugees to the country’s historic central…”

  23. Egyptian police kill 3 Hasm terrorists, arrest 14 others in nationwide security campaign (ahram, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/290665/Egypt/Politics-/Egyptian-police-kill–Hasm-terrorists,-arrest–oth.aspx

    “Egypt’s interior ministry said it killed three members of the banned Hasm terrorist group in a shootout in an under-construction residential building in Cairo, which came as part as an extensive campaign that lead to the arrest of 14 others in a number of governorates.
    In an official statement, the interior ministry said it had killed the three men following a raid on the Cairo apartment, which they had been using as a hideout to prepare for an attack on a security checkpoint.

    Police identified one of the three men as Brotherhood member Salah El-Din Omara.

    The men were found in possession of three machine guns and an amount of ammunition.

    According to the police, the three men were involved in a number of attacks against several senior police in 2017 and 2018, the latest being shooting targeting Daqahliya deputy security director on 9 January this year…”

  24. Don’t mix migration with security – Gentiloni (ansamed, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2018/02/09/dont-mix-migration-with-security-gentiloni_c3c90c53-846c-40b5-91f2-3f1664530661.htm

    “Italian premier Paolo Gentiloni said Friday “let’s not mix the migratory situation we are facing with that of security.” He said “those who are fanning the flames (of anti-migrant sentiment) is finding room. But we are working on the opposite side. And it we do so we will have the majority of citizens” by our side.

    Gentiloni added that “justifying Fascism is outside the Constitution”. He said that “no one is minimising criminal actions” such as the murder of Pamela Mastropietro near Macerata but this did not justify the actions of rightist activist Luca Traini who shot six migrants in a drive-by spree.”

  25. A 24-year-old Bangladeshi woman has been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged over what police allege was an “Islamic State-inspired attack” following a stabbing incident at Mill Park, in Melbourne’s north on Friday.
    Police allege the woman, identified as Momena Shoma, is a Bangladeshi national who travelled to Melbourne on February 1 on a student visa and was renting a room in the home of a man identified by neighbours as Roger, a 56-year-old nurse.
    She was charged with one count of engaging in an act of terrorism and was remanded in custody. She did not make any application for bail.
    Police were called to the home in Callistemon Rise about 4:20pm on Friday where they found the man with neck and shoulder injuries after being stabbed while he was asleep.
    A neighbour heard a commotion and went to the man’s assistance.
    The man underwent surgery and is in a serious but stable condition.
    His young daughter was present at the time but was not injured.
    Ms Shoma made no application for bail and was remanded in custody.
    Police are executing search warrants at the home in Mill Park and at another home in Bundoora, where the woman had previously stayed.
    However, police said there was no suggestion the residents of the Bundoora home was involved in any way.
    The woman had been enrolling in a course at La Trobe University and police said it is understood she was wearing a black burqa at the time of the incident.
    Victoria Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Ross Guenther appealed to the community not to retaliate.
    Neighbours said she had arrived the day before the incident and had planned to stay for about 10 days.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-10/mill-park-stabbing-court-appearance-islamic-state-attack/9418824