Reader’s Links, Feb. 19, 18

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About Eeyore

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

88 Replies to “Reader’s Links, Feb. 19, 18”

  3. New Indonesia web system blocks more than 70,000 ‘negative’ sites (reuters, Feb 19, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indonesia-communications/new-indonesia-web-system-blocks-more-than-70000-negative-sites-idUKKCN1G30K4?rpc=401&

    “Indonesia has blocked more than 70,000 websites displaying “negative” content such as pornography or extremist ideology in the first month of using a new system to help purge the internet of harmful material, the communications minister told Reuters…”

  4. Iraqi court sentences Turkish woman to death for joining IS (reuters, Feb 19, 2018)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-turkey/iraqi-court-sentences-turkish-woman-to-death-for-joining-is-idUSKCN1G30OG?il=0

    “An Iraqi court has sentenced a Turkish woman to death by hanging for joining Islamic State, a spokesman for the criminal court in Baghdad said in a statement on Monday.

    Ten other women of various nationalities were sentenced to life in prison, he said. All the verdicts can be appealed.

    “The court has issued ten verdicts of life in prison against ten women after convicting them of terrorism, and sentenced to death by hanging another terrorist who holds Turkish citizenship,” said Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar.

    Thousands of foreigners have been fighting on behalf of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

    A German woman was sentenced to death last month for belonging to the group and a Russian fighter was also sentenced to death in Iraq last year for joining the hardline group.

    Iraq declared victory in December over Islamic State, which had seized control of nearly a third of the country in 2014. The group has been driven out of all population centres it once controlled on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border, but members have continued to carry out bombings and other attacks in Iraq.”

  5. “Leo Hohmann – 2/12/2018 – The Truth Behind Immigration & Stealth Invasion”
    The Official Hagmann Report – Published on February 18, 2018

  8. Hungary’s Orban calls for global anti-migrant alliance with eye on 2018 elections

    BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian leader Viktor Orban called on Sunday for a global alliance against migration as his right-wing populist Fidesz party began campaigning for an April 8 election in which it is expected to win a third consecutive landslide victory.

    Popular at home but increasingly at odds politically and economically with mainstream European Union peers, Orban has thrived on external controversy, including repeated clashes with Brussels and lately the United Nations.

    Those conflicts, mostly centered on migration since people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa flooded into Europe in 2015, have intensified as the elections approach and Orban poses as a savior of Europe’s Christian nations.

    “Christianity is Europe’s last hope,” Orban told an audience of party faithful at the foot of the Royal Castle in Budapest. With mass immigration, especially from Africa, “our worst nightmares can come true. The West falls as it fails to see Europe being overrun.”

    Orban is widely credited for reversing an economic slump in Hungary and controlling its public finances, culminating in a return to investment-grade for its debt, which was cut to ‘junk’ during the 2008 global economic crisis.

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/hungarys-orban-calls-global-anti-migrant-alliance-eye-172952366–business.html

  9. Hungarian leader calls Christianity ‘Europe’s last hope’

    BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s prime minister says that “Christianity is Europe’s last hope” and that politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris favoring migration have “opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam.”

    Viktor Orban said Sunday during his 20th annual state of the nation speech that his government will oppose efforts by the United Nations or the European Union to make migration acceptable to the world.

    He conjured the image of a Western Europe overtaken by Muslims, saying that “born Germans are being forced back from most large German cities, as migrants always occupy big cities first.”

    Orban claimed that Islam would soon “knock on Central Europe’s door” from the west as well as the south.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/hungarian-leader-calls-christianity-europes-last-hope-180335705.html

  10. As Peter Thiel ditches Silicon Valley for LA, locals tout ‘conservative renaissance’

    The outspoken libertarian’s departure is a sign of the times, say LA conservatives, as Silicon Valley faces criticism for silencing alternative viewpoints

    If the billionaire tech investor and noted libertarian Peter Thiel really does leave Silicon Valley for Los Angeles to escape what he views as an increasing intolerance for conservatives, the city’s growing community of conservatives will be there to welcome him.

    Among LA’s right-leaning residents are the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, the political commentator Dave Rubin and the blogger Bill Whittle. There’s also the former members of the defunct Friends of Abe, a secretive group of Hollywood conservatives that fractured in 2016 over the candidacy of Donald Trump.

    “Silicon Valley has long despised the American right and it’s beginning to flex its muscles against us,” said Michael Knowles, an LA-based podcaster for The Daily Wire, referring to a lawsuit filed by conservative media site PragerU against YouTube for allegedly “censoring” conservative videos.
    Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand
    Read more

    “It’s a sign of the time that Peter Thiel is heading down here because there’s been a conservative renaissance in Los Angeles,” Knowles said.

    PragerU’s chief marketing officer, Craig Strazzeri, added: “It’s both astounding and sad – but unfortunately not surprising – that there are parts of this country where you are socially and professionally shunned if you support the duly elected president of our country. That might be changing in Los Angeles.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/16/peter-thiel-silicon-valley-move-la-conservatives-welcome

  11. Like Father Like Son: Alexander Soros Donates $650K to Democratic Committees and Campaigns

    When Democrats talk about evil “Republican billionaires” like Sheldon Adelson and the dreaded Koch Brothers, it’s always in apocalyptic terms. They are trying to “buy” elections and hide their influence with “dark money” schemes.

    Somehow, Democrats never get around to mentioning their own billionaires and the massive amounts of money contributed to Democratic causes by the likes of Tom Steyer, Mark Cuban, and J.B. Pritzker, who is running for governor of Illinois.

    And, of course, George Soros.

    Soros’s reach is international. He has a huge network of international do-gooder organizations that promote his pet causes. And he is a reliable, if sometimes shadowy, contributor to Democratic Party causes in the U.S.

    But Soros’s son Alexander is emerging as a major player in Democratic politics. According to the Federal Election Commission, Alexander contributed $650,000 to Democratic campaigns and various committees in 2017.

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/like-father-like-son-alexander-soros-donates-650k-democratic-committees-campaigns/

  12. The inane strategies for preventing more Parklands begin pouring in from the Left
    By Ben Bowles February 18, 2018

    [Ed – An earlier version of this story referenced a ridiculous-sounding tweet by Maxine Waters that turned out to be bogus. We apologize for any misinformation we helped foster.]

    Since last week’s tragic shooting in Parkland, Fla., a number of recommendations have been made — some good, some not — for rectifying this recurring national nightmare. Typically, the bad ideas vastly outweigh the good.

    One of the more thought-provoking recommendations was made last October by Leah Libresco, a former writer for Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight. Libresco spent three months analyzing the 33,000 gun deaths that occur in the U.S. per year. Her findings were published in The Washington Post under the headline “I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.”

    The text that followed is seldom quoted by the Left, which seems to feel it knows all it needs to know to put an end to gun violence. Libresco wrote:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/18/maxine-waters-no-one-gun-no-exceptions-except/

  13. NLRB lawyer creates legal conflicts in bad advice about Damore retaliation claim
    By Jerome Woehrle February 18, 2018

    You can object to your employer’s diversity policy as being discrimination — but not if you point to scientific research explaining why it is not needed to remedy discrimination against women. Such a reasoned explanation can be deemed “sexual harassment.” That’s the gist of a bizarre advice memo from a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board. Its logic, if accepted by courts, would create a conflict between the First Amendment and protections against harassment, and undermine protections against retaliation for complaining of unlawful discrimination.

    On January 16, an NLRB lawyer issued her advice memo recommending dismissal of James Damore’s complaint against Google for firing him. Damore was fired for his internal 2017 memo objecting to Google’s diversity policies, which he argued were themselves discriminatory. Google’s diversity policies sought to advance women in ways that Damore viewed as discriminatory against men. The policies were based on the assumption that women were wrongly underrepresented at Google. To explain why the “underrepresentation” was the result of gender-based differences, rather than discrimination, Damore pointed to scientific research about gender-based differences.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/18/nlrb-creates-legal-conflicts-bad-advice-damore-retaliation-claim/

  16. London hosts ‘Modest’ Fashion Week to celebrate hijabs and long hemlines – just a month after women in Iran burned headscarves in protest at Islamic dress
    The event celebrates modest clothing from hijabs to abayas and long hemlines
    Running alongside London Fashion Week, tickets cost up to £200 per person
    It comes just weeks after women around the world burned their hijabs

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5405599/London-Modest-Fashion-Week-showcase-Islamic-dress.html

  17. World’s Largest Science Organization Gives Top Honor To Conspiracy-Monger Michael Mann

    The world’s largest science organization is bestowing a top honor on a climate propagandist who spends lots of his time making ridiculous, inflammatory comments.

    If you need another example of scientific establishment’s deteriorating credibility since the election of Donald Trump, here it is: The world’s largest science organization is bestowing a top honor on a climate propagandist who spends lots of his time making hateful, inflammatory comments about the president, his family, his administration and GOP lawmakers on social media.

    Michael Mann, a Penn State University professor and infamous author of the so-called “hockey stick” graph to show the planet is warming, will receive the 2018 “Public Engagement with Science” award by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this weekend. The award will recognize Mann’s “tireless efforts to communicate the science of climate change to the media, public and policymakers.”[…]

    http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/17/worlds-largest-science-organization-gives-top-honor-conspiracy-monger-michael-mann/

  18. Jordan: Turkish FM warns ‘nothing can stop us’ if Syrian gov. forces aid YPG in Afrin

    Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said nothing could stop Turkish soldiers if the Syrian army decides to aid Kurdish fighters in Afrin, speaking from Amman on Monday.

    “Since the start of our campaigns, we have said that the aim of our Afrin, i.e. ‘Olive Branch’ operations, as well as the Shield Euphrates one, is clear: eliminating the terrorists in this region,” said Cavusoglu.

    • Turkey renames US Embassy street after Syria offensive (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
      http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-renames-us-embassy-street-syria-offensive-53195661

      “Turkish authorities on Monday renamed a street where the U.S. Embassy is located with the name of Turkey’s military offensive in Syria that had led to tensions between the allies.

      Ankara municipal workers put up the new sign in Turkish for Olive Branch Street, replacing the one named after late Ankara governor Nevzat Tandogan.

      Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch last month to drive a Syrian Kurdish militia out of northwest Syria. The militia group is a major U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State group. Turkey regards them as terrorists…”

    • Turkey warns it may hit Syrian troops in Kurdish enclave (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
      http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/syrian-tv-pro-government-forces-enter-kurdish-enclave-53191992

      “Turkey threatened on Monday to hit back at Syrian pro-government troops if they deploy in an enclave in northern Syria to protect a Kurdish militia that Ankara is battling there.

      The warning by the Turkish foreign minister came shortly after Syrian state media said pro-government forces will begin entering the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in the country’s northwest “within hours,” after reaching an agreement with the Kurdish militia in control of the region.

      The official SANA news agency said the forces will deploy in Afrin to “bolster” local forces in confronting Turkish “aggression,” suggesting the Syrian government and Kurdish fighters have struck a deal under which the government forces would help repel an ongoing Turkish offensive on the enclave.

      The agreement may prompt Turkey to pull out and end a month-long air and ground offensive that aims to oust the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, from Afrin. Ankara considers the YPG a “terrorist group” linked to its own Kurdish insurgency within Turkey’s borders…”

    • Syria: Convoy of Aleppo residents arrives in Afrin amid reports of YPG-Syrian govt. deal

      A convoy of residents of Aleppo was greeted by thousands of people in Afrin on Monday, in a show of unity amid an escalation of Turkish shelling of numerous villages in the Kurdish-dominated region.

      A significant number of convoy members reportedly hailed mostly from Aleppo’s mostly Kurdish districts.

      The convoy arrived in Afrin following Syrian State TV reports of a deal between pro-Syrian government forces and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to allow forces loyal to the Syrian government in the Afrin region. Authorities have not confirmed these reports.

      According to local media, armed troops are due to enter the city imminently, following an YPG-Syrian government agreement to deploy pro-Syrian government fighters on the Turkish border.

    • Turkey: Syrian troops entering Afrin would ’cause a disaster in the region’ – Turkish Deputy PM

      Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag commented on the recent Syrian State TV reports of a deal struck between the Syrian government and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to allow forces loyal to the Syrian government to enter the Afrin region, during a press conference in Ankara, Monday. Syrian authorities have not confirmed these reports.

      “Terror organisations PYD [Democratic Union Party] and YPG are the common enemy of Turkey and Syria,” insisted Bozdag, adding that they were “established to demolish the territorial unity of Syria, to harm the political unity and wipe off the sovereignty of the Syrian State on that land.”

      “The fight of the Turkish Armed Forces against the terror organisations in the region will continue until the last terror elements die off,” added the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister.

      Bozdag concluded that “the idea of sending troops to Afrin to defend the PYD and YPG or making any steps in that direction would cause a disaster in the region.”

      YPG spokesperson Nouri Mahmoud has denied that an agreement has been reached between the YPG and Syrian government, stating “There is no agreement. There is only a call from us for the Syrian army to come in and protect the borders,”

      SOT, Bekir Bozdag, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister (Turkish): “It is not an issue that the Syrian regime sends some security forces in to the region. I should underline here once more that the fight of the Turkish Armed Forces against the terror organisations in the region will continue until the last terror elements die off. Terror organisations PYD [Democratic Union Party] and YPG are the common enemy of Turkey and Syria.

      These terror organisations are the terror organisations, which are established to demolish the territorial unity of Syria, to harm the political unity and wipe off the sovereignty of the Syrian State on that land. In the same manner, they are also a threat to the territorial unity of Turkey, its border security and the safety of life and property of our citizens.

      These terror organisations are the common enemy of Turkey and Syria. Reaching to the idea of sending troops to Afrin to defend the PYD and YPG or making any steps in that direction would cause a disaster in the region. It doesn’t look possible to tolerate sending troops to Afrin to defend groups which are trying to demolish and divide their land from the regime.”

  19. Canada: Anti-immigrant groups demand apology from Trudeau over false hijab story

    Asian-Canadian protesters joined forces with several far-right and anti-immigrant groups at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday, to demand an apology from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

  20. Germany: Meet Jens Spahn, Merkel’s Possible Successor
    “I am a burkaphobe.”

    by Soeren Kern
    February 19, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11912/germany-jens-spahn

    Chancellor Angela Merkel has sparked a mutiny from within her own party over a controversial coalition deal that allows her to remain in office for a fourth term. The deal, in which Merkel agreed to relinquish control over the most influential government ministries, has led a growing number of voices from within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to say — publicly — that it is time to begin looking for her successor.

    In a prime-time interview with ZDF television on February 11, Merkel, already in power for 12 years, rejected the criticism and insisted that she will serve another full four-year term. “I ran for a four-year term,” she said. “I promised those four years and I’m someone who keeps promises. I totally stand behind that decision.”

    Merkel, who has been called the “Teflon Chancellor” because of her political staying power, may indeed manage to eke out another four years in office, albeit in a much-weakened position. Her decision in 2015 to allow into Germany more than a million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East sparked a mass defection of angry CDU voters to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the third-largest party in the German parliament. As a result, in Germany’s inconclusive election in September 2017, Merkel’s party achieved its worst electoral result in nearly 70 years.

    The coalition deal, reached on February 7 between her center-right CDU, their Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), must still be formally ratified by the SPD’s 460,000 rank and file members in a postal vote that begins on February 20. The outcome of that vote will be announced on March 4.

  21. Turkey Threatens to Invade Greece

    by Uzay Bulut
    February 19, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11907/turkey-greece-invasion

    In an incident that took place less than two weeks after the Greek Defense Ministry announced that Turkey had violated Greek airspace 138 times in a single day, a Turkish coast guard patrol boat on February 13 rammed a Greek coast guard vessel off the shore of Imia, one of many Greek islands over which Turkey claims sovereignty.

    Most of the areas within modern Greece’s current borders were under the occupation of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th century until the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1832. The islands, however, like the rest of Greece, are legally and historically Greek, as their names indicate.

    Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), however, and even much of the opposition seem intent on, if not obsessed with, invading and conquering these Greek islands, on the grounds that they are actually Turkish territory.

    In December, for instance, Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu, the leader of the main Turkish opposition CHP party, stated that when he wins the election in 2019, he will “invade and take over 18 Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, just as former Turkish PM Bulent Ecevit invaded Cyprus in 1974.” He said that there is “no document” proving that those islands belong to Greece.

    • While you read this article remember that Erdogan has one goal in life, reestablish the Ottoman Empire, he will go along with anything that will do this. Also remember that Turkey has a fairly large Army of Turks inside Germany and has a large army of Sunni fighters inside all of the Western European nations. This is just one of the very active flash points in the world and one that is generally ignored, Erdogan has destroyed the Turkish Military in his purges and is not only facing Greece (a very weak nation) but also Russia, Iran and thanks to the deal with the Greeks allowing them to take over a port China.

      The stage is being set for a major war and it is just a matter of time before one of the flash points explodes.

      • He sure runs his dirty mouth.
        Metin Gurcan is an interesting guy. Experience on the ground, describes the “hood incident”:

        As a former special forces officer, I was assigned as a liaison team commander of Turkish special forces with the US 173rd Airborne between November 2003 and May 2004. Today I shudder, sensing the same operational environment at Manbij.

        Exactly as in the April-July 2003 period, Turkish and American soldiers are moving all over Manbij in the same operational environment without coordination, practically as hostile forces on the ground, again guided by local forces and translators…

        …At the end of the day, special forces that serve in chaotic areas like Manbij have to rely on the guidance of local forces and translators. As happened during the hood incident, if the local guides and translators want to ignite a conflict, they can easily do it — which is the dynamic that frightens me now. The blood feud between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) elements that provide guidance to Turkish troops and the Kurdish YPG elements that do the same for the Americans are well-known. Because of that all-consuming feud, even if Turkish and American soldiers try to avoid direct contact, they can be manipulated well by a process of which they are not even conscious.…

        https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/02/turkey-united-states-rhetoric-over-manbij-escalates.html
        ……
        Video and comments at the link.
        On these Arab newsites Turk trolls run rabid. They’ve got the aggressive bark of their pack-leader down pat.

  23. Egypt: 3 troops killed in anti-militant operation in Sinai (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-troops-killed-anti-militant-operation-sinai-53193156

    “Egypt’s military says three troops, including an officer, were killed in restive Sinai in fighting with militants.

    They are the first casualties Egypt has announced from an offensive Cairo launched on Feb. 9.

    Military spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said Monday that two other officers and a conscript were wounded in the fighting, part of the sweep aiming to end a years-long insurgency by Islamic militants.

    He says four militants were also killed.

    The operation covers north and central Sinai and parts of Egypt’s Nile Delta and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya. It involves land, sea and air forces, and the army claims to have destroyed hundreds of targets and killed dozens of fighters.

    The army’s figures cannot be independently confirmed as journalists are banned from the area.”

  24. Philippine forces arrest alleged ex-Islamic State commander (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/philippine-forces-arrest-alleged-islamic-state-commander-53192936

    “Philippine police and army troops have arrested an Arab man they believe was a former commander of the Islamic State group along the Syria and Turkey border in a raid on a Manila apartment, where they found bomb-making materials and an IS-style flag, the national police chief said Monday.

    Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa said Fehmi Lassoued, who is reportedly from Egypt, and his Filipina companion, Anabel Moncera Salipada, were arrested last week based on intelligence provided by foreign counterparts.

    He said investigators were looking into possible links between the two suspects and local and foreign militant groups, and whether they were involved in any terrorist activity…”

  25. 2 Kuwait royals sentenced for insulting parliament speaker (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kuwait-royals-sentenced-insulting-parliament-speaker-53194776

    “A lawyer says two Kuwaiti ruling family members have been found guilty of insulting the country’s National Assembly speaker.

    Sheikh Athbi Al Sabah, a nephew of Kuwait’s ruling emir and former head of Kuwait’s National Security Office, and Sheikh Khalifa Al Sabah, the publisher of the now-shuttered Al Watan newspaper, were among six people sentenced Monday.

    Lawyer Saud al-Hamdan, who represented speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim, confirmed the sentences to The Associated Press.

    Those convicted could not be immediately reached for comment.

    Al-Hamdan says they received five-year prison sentences and 5,000 Kuwaiti dinar ($16,700) fines.

    The case involves a group on the mobile phone messaging app WhatsApp that sought to spread fabricated videos of Kuwaiti judges receiving bribes.

    Sheikh Athbi faces another five-year prison term in another trial over the group.”

  26. Inside Lesbos’ Moria camp, home to thousands of trapped refugees and migrants (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/inside-lesbos-moria-camp-home-thousands-trapped-refugees/story?id=53014062

    “In his office inside the Moria camp, Giannis Balpakakis, the camp’s director, who is appointed by the Greek government to run it, lets out a sigh.

    “The only problem is that there are a lot of people and it is difficult for us,” he says when asked why the camp is crowded and dirty. “If you have an apartment with one kitchen and two bedrooms and this apartment is for two people and in the same apartment you put 10 people you will have a problem. This is the problem.”

    New containers were recently added in the camp, increasing the capacity from 2,000 to 3,000, he says, but it’s still not enough. People keep arriving to the island and the camp is crowded, he says — so crowded that staff members clean the bathrooms and toilets only to find them dirty again one hour later.

    “We may make mistakes, we may not be able to get to everything, but we are trying really hard,” he says. “All of us here are striving for the betterment of the people. I’m not saying that it’s the best, but we earnestly try. Everyone talks countless hours on the phone, to get everything in order, to strive, but I say to you honestly the problems that we have here are huge. Why? Because we constantly have new people. There is this stress, to welcome 100 people today, then 200 tomorrow, then another 100.”…”

  27. IS ambushes Iraqi Shiite-led force, killing 27 fighters (abcnews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ambushes-iraqi-shiite-led-force-killing-27-fighters-53192975

    “Islamic State militants ambushed a group of Iraq’s Shiite-led paramilitary fighters, killing at least 27 more than two months after Baghdad declared victory over the extremist group, officials said Monday

    The Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of mostly Shiite militias, said in a statement that the attack took place southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, where the paramilitaries were conducting overnight raids.

    The attackers were disguised in army uniforms and manning a fake checkpoint, the statement said, adding that ensuing clashes lasted for at least two hours and that some of the militants were killed while others fled the area.

    Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, an Iraqi military spokesman, blamed IS “sleeper cells” and said Iraqi forces were searching the area to find the perpetrators.

    IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency…”

  28. Iraqi Archbishop: Muslim ‘Slow-Motion Genocide’ of Christians Began 1400 Years Ago (breitbart, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/02/19/iraqi-archbishop-muslim-slow-motion-genocide-of-christians-began-1400-years-ago/

    “The violent Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East did not begin with the Islamic State’s rise to power in 2014, said Iraqi Archishop Bashar Warda, but rather many centuries ago.

    “Having faced for 1,400 years the slow-motion genocide that began long before the ongoing ISIS genocide today, the time for excusing this inhuman behavior and its causes is long since past,” said the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil in a forceful speech last week at Georgetown University.

    According to the archbishop, Islamic persecution of Christians in the Middle East began with the founding of Islam itself in the 7th century, and thus is a permanent fixture of Islam that was present from the very beginning.

    “The harsh truth to this question is that without an end to this persecution and violence there is no future for religious pluralism in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East for that matter,” he said.

    Warda’s thesis coincides exactly with that of Jesuit scholar Father James V. Schall, who wrote in 2016 that Islam’s consistent advocacy of violence has been practiced “from its seventh century beginning.”

    In a sobering essay titled “Realism and Islam,” Schall, who taught Political Philosophy at Georgetown University for many years and has written more than two dozen books, insisted that the Muslim religion must be evaluated on its own terms rather than through the lens of the Judeo-Christian West.

    Violence is intrinsic to the nature of Islam itself, and is not just a symptom of extremism, Father Schall wrote. Its purpose, he proposed, “is, ultimately, religious and pious.”

    Recalling numerous acts of Islamic terror and violence in recent years, Schall suggested that the most plausible way to judge such continuing violence is by looking back at Islam over the centuries.

    “To make this assessment, we have to acknowledge that Islam, in principle, is actually and potentially violent throughout its entire history.” Moreover, he wrote, the basic reason for this method “is obedience to the Law of Allah.”

    “What we see now is little different from what has been seen throughout the centuries wherever Islam is found,” he says.

    The reason that violence accompanies Islam wherever it goes, Schall suggested, is that it is part of the essence of Islam and is called for in the religion’s sacred texts.

    “The designated and determined goal of the conquest of the world for Allah has been reinvigorated again and again in world history from the time of Mohammed in the seventh century,” Schall declared. “These revivals and expansions, which have only been temporarily halted by superior counterforce, have roots in the Qur’an itself and in its commentaries.”

    In the past, scholars like Thomas Aquinas and Hilaire Belloc were convinced that the threat to the West did not come from Muslim “extremists,” but rather from Islam itself. Belloc famously called Islam “the most formidable and persistent enemy” of Western civilization.

    Such historical realism can be found not only among Christian scholars, but among those raised as Muslims as well.

    In 2016, a former Muslim recounted his story in a USA Today article titled “The Quran’s Deadly Role in Inspiring Belgian Slaughter.”

    The writer, Nabeel Qureshi, said that he when began to investigate the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad’s life, “I found to my genuine surprise that the pages of Islamic history are filled with violence.”

    The author downplayed other explanations that have been given for Islamic radicalization, such as the State Department’s suggestion that a “lack of opportunity for jobs” was to blame.

    “ISIL’s primary recruiting technique is not social or financial but theological,” Qureshi wrote, recalling that the Islamic State appeals to the highest sources of authority in Islam, the Quran and hadith (the collection of the sayings of the prophet Muhammad), reminding Muslims of their duty to fight against the enemies of Islam.

    Qureshi wrote that the Internet “has made the traditions of Muhammad readily available for whoever wishes to look them up, even in English,” effectively bypassing centuries of tradition and their imams’ interpretations.

    When Muslims do this, “they are confronted with the reality of violent jihad in the very foundations of their faith,” he said.

    In his address last week, Archbishop Warda called for historical honesty from both Muslims and Christians. Sugar-coating the historical reality of Islam, as well as the roots of violence in its foundational texts, will benefit no one.

    “When a people have nothing left to lose, in some sense it is very liberating and from this position of clarity and newfound courage I must speak to you honestly on behalf of my people and speak to you the truth,” Warda said.

    The typical Muslim response to Islamic State atrocities, he said, falls along the line of “ISIS does not represent Islam,” but rarely goes further, with no recognition of past persecution of Christians or any expression of remorse for it.

    “We object that one faith has now the right to kill another. There needs to be a change and a correction within Islam,” he said.

    Estimates suggest that the Christian population in Iraq has fallen to some 200,000, down from about 1.5 million in 2003.

    “So many of our people have fled, and so few of us are left,” Warda said.

    “While it is true that our numbers are small, the number of Apostles were also small,” he said.”

  29. Hungary’s Orbán Calls for Patriotic Alliance to Save Europe, ‘We’ll Fight Together to Stop the Soros Plan’ (breitbart, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/19/orban-patriotic-alliance-save-europe/

    “Viktor Orbán has called for patriotic EU allies to join Hungary in its fight against the globalist war on nation states which would see the West fall.

    “Dark clouds are gathering over Europe because of immigration,” the conservative prime minister warned an audience in Budapest on Sunday, at the nation’s annual state of the union address.

    “Nations will cease to exist, the West will fall, while Europe won’t even realise that it has been invaded,” he said, declaring that “Christianity is Europe’s last hope” against rising “Islamisation” taking place on the continent.

    “Absurd as it may sound, the danger we face comes from the West, from politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris,” he said, stating that liberal politicians who “opened the way for the decline of Christian culture” in Europe are determined “to force Hungary to adopt their policies that have made them immigrant countries”.

    “Hungary will only express solidarity with Western European leaders who want to rescue their country and its Christian culture,” said Orbán, slamming repeated demands from Brussels that unwilling nations be forced to take a share of third world migrants arriving to the bloc.

    “We are not alone,” the prime minister added, pointing to governments in the fellow Visegrád nations of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland, which stand with Hungary in rejecting the quotas, and praising Austria, Bavaria in Germany, and Croatia for “turning in a patriotic direction”.

    “We will fight together to stop Soros’s plan in Brussels and the United Nations, ” Orbán said, accusing the globalist financier of using his vast wealth to buy influence not only in Brussels — where his Open Society Foundations lists almost a third of MEPs as “reliable allies” — but also at the United Nations (UN), proposals of which seek to normalise mass migration.

    “If we have enough allies – and we can have enough allies – then I am sure we’ll succeed,” he told supporters.

    “We will not remain silent and watch the execution of the Soros Plan: if need be, we will make use of stronger legal tools,” continued Orbán, highlighting the “Stop Soros” legislative package his government presented to parliament last week, which could see open borders NGOs assisting illegal migration taxed to provide funds for border protection.

    “If they do not stop their dangerous activities, we will simply expel them from the land, no matter how powerful or rich they may be.”

    With his Fidesz party on track to win a landslide third consecutive victory in April, Orbán highlighted how the conservative administration has “prevented the Islamic world from flooding us from the south” with its erection of effective border walls to counter illegal immigration.

    “We Hungarians have a future only if we remain Hungarians, if we cultivate our language, protect our Christian and Hungarian culture, and if we guard our independence and Hungarian freedom,” he added.”

  30. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), an open borders-backing NGO fronted by former Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband has been accused of “hushing up” allegations of more than 30 crimes.
    UK government ministers froze funds to the NGO, which is a major partner of globalist billionaire George Soros, “based on direct reporting of sexual harassment and fraud”, it was reported this week.

    With nearly five and a half million pounds of taxpayer cash at stake, a team from the IRC was sent to look into claims made over the body’s behaviour in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/16/soros-backed-migrant-importation-ngo/

  31. Former prof recounts her ‘escape’ from political correctness
    Toni Airaksinen
    Toni Airaksinen
    New York Campus Correspondent
    @Toni_Airaksinen
    on Feb 16, 2018 at 2:44 PM EDT
    A professor who taught at California State University-East Bay for over 20 years recently published a book detailing how she “escaped” from the culture of political correctness on campus.
    Loretta Breuning says her “ah-ha” moment came when she realized that she was lying to her students for “fear of sounding right-wing,” and decided to take a stand against “ideological despotism.”

    https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10530

  32. Source: Hurricane police call in FBI after ISIS flag is found flying at southern Utah high school – The Salt Lake Tribune

    Police have enlisted the help of the FBI after an ISIS flag was found in place of an American flag on a Hurricane High School flagpole Thursday morning.

    Following hours of investigation, including analysis by federal agents, Police have determined the flag swap was not executed by the infamous terrorist group.

    “… based on information we received from the FBI we do not believe this act was perpetrated by someone linked to the Islamic State,” Hurricane police said in a news release.

    https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/utah-isis-flag-high-school/

  33. MOSCOW – The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on churchgoers in Russia’s predominantly Muslim Dagestan region.

    At least five people were killed and four wounded when a gunman opened fire with a hunting rifles on people leaving a Sunday service at a Russian Orthodox church in the Dagestan city of Kizlyar.

    Authorities say the gunman was a local resident, and his wife has been detained for questioning. But police haven’t commented on the possible motive for the attack.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/world/isis-claims-responsibility-for-church-shooting-in-russia-1.3809133

    • Russia: Injured officer recalls gunfight against Dagestan church shooter

      Injured police officer Magomed Ramasov, who was the first person to respond to Sunday’s Dagestan church shooting, recounted the gunfight with the shooter, from his hospital bed in a Kizlyar hospital on Monday.

      Ramasov recalled that as soon as he arrived at the site of shooting, “I ran out and started shooting at him. I drove him away from the women, further, towards the deadlock.” He went on to say that “more police units arrived, encircled [the site] and started shooting at him, and then they neutralised him.”

  34. The anarchist thugs of Antifa are branching out into obstructing immigration law enforcement, apparently no longer content with shutting down conservative speakers and beating up those they promiscuously label “fascists.”

    A case in point was last Thursday, Feb. 15, when about 70 activists surrounded a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) van that was attempting to enter the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. The anarchists chanted “no more deportations,” “Trump and Pence must go,” “f–k ICE,” as well as slogans in the Spanish language.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269362/antifa-thugs-target-ice-matthew-vadum

  35. PM Netanyahu Addresses the Munich Security Conference

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCohT0ye4hs
    …………
    Text of speech: http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Speeches/Pages/speech_sarid180218.aspx

    Excerpts:
    • “Iran is not Nazi Germany. There are many differences between the two….One advocated a master race, the other advocates a master faith….But there are also some striking similarities. Iran openly declares its intention to annihilate Israel with its six million Jews….Iran seeks to dominate our region, the Middle East, and seeks to dominate the world through aggression and terror. It’s developing ballistic missiles to reach deep into Europe and to the United States as well.”

    • “Henry Kissinger said that Iran must choose between being a country or a cause. Well, the regime in Iran has chosen to be a cause. The commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Ali Jafari, said, ‘we’re on the path to the rule of Islam worldwide.’…Once armed with nuclear weapons, Iran’s aggression will be unchecked and it will encompass the entire world. Look at what they are doing now, before they have nuclear weapons. Imagine what they will do later if, G-d forbid, they’ll have them.”

    • “Just as was true 80 years ago [in the 1938 Munich Agreement with Hitler], an agreement that was seen as appeasement has only emboldened the regime and brought war closer. The nuclear agreement with Iran has begun the countdown to an Iranian nuclear arsenal in little more than a decade. And the sanction relief that the deal provided has not moderated Iran. It’s not made them more moderate internally and it’s not made them more moderate externally. In fact, it’s unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond.”

  36. Russian toll in Syria battle was 300 killed and wounded: sources

    About 300 men working for a Russian private military firm were killed or injured in Syria on Feb. 7, according to three sources.

    A Russian military doctor said around 100 had been killed near Deir al-Zor where U.S.-led coalition forces attacked forces aligned with Syrian President Assad.

    The wounded were sent to four Russian military hospitals, according to five sources.

    A source with ties to the Wagner group which employs private ex-military contractors said the U.S.-led forces warned Russian regular forces that they were preparing to strike. He does not know if the warning was passed on to the contractors.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-casualtie/russian-toll-in-syria-battle-was-300-killed-and-wounded-sources-idUSKCN1FZ2DZ

  37. Gaza Fence Protests as an Infrastructure for Terror Attacks
    ___Analysis: In a small and painful operation Saturday, the Popular Resistance Committees succeeded in undermining the stability along the border fence and leading to escalation; Hamas likely fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets in an attempt to imitate Syrian aerial defense, which last week shot down an F-16 plane.

    IDF strikes in Gaza on Saturday night, in response to the attack near the border fence which wounded four Israeli soldiers, hit “high-quality targets” serving Hamas military forces including an attack tunnel. The Popular Resistance Committees, which planted the explosive device, used civilian protests at the fence, which have been occurring every Friday, to mask the placing of the device.

    The protesters left a Palestinian flag on a pole at the fence. The pole was filled with explosives that wounded members of the bomb disposal unit and others. In the new reality,every object placed along the fence has the potential of being an explosive device.

    https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5119329,00.html

    • The Gaza Escalation: A Message from Iran

      Of course, Hamas is behind the ambush at the Gaza border fence. No other organization in Gaza can initiate such an attack without a green light from Hamas. We know that Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is in direct contact with the military leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He is trying to escalate the situation in order to send a message to Israel not to carry out further attacks in Syria.

      http://jcpa.org/gaza-escalation-message-iran/

  38. Where Are the Indictments of Obama’s Foreign Colluders?
    The collusion fraud continues.
    February 19, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    The indictments are in.

    Team Mueller indicted a bunch of Russians associated with a troll farm for interfering with an election in the United States. Russian troll farms generally don’t follow United States law. But foreigners are not allowed to interfere with elections in the United States. Unless they’re named Christopher Steele.

    The Clinton campaign employed a British foreign agent who used Russian intelligence sources to put together opposition research meant to interfere with the results of a United States election. Collusion between the Clinton campaign, Steele and the Russians doesn’t require an endless fishing expedition.

    Foreigners interfering in United States elections are not a new phenomenon. Muslims in Gaza famously ran a phone bank for Obama. A Hamas political adviser had declared that he hoped Obama would win.

    There was no investigation. Nor did anyone indict the Gazans running the phone bank.

    The indictment states that, “the Federal Election Campaign Act… prohibits foreign nationals from making any contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, or disbursements for electioneering communications.” But Obama had chosen to accept untraceable donations from abroad. He had failed to ask for proof of citizenship and his website had even allowed donations from Iran and North Korea.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269354/where-are-indictments-obamas-foreign-colluders-daniel-greenfield

  39. Progs Love a Man in a Uniform
    Why the media fell in love with North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong.
    February 19, 2018
    Bruce Thornton

    The “uniform” the eighties band Gang of Four was singing about is not the one our Armed Forces wear. Our military uniforms are the emblem of a superb professional fighting force that is accountable to Constitutional limits, and commanded by a civilian president elected by the sovereign people. No, progressives love the uniform worn by the “strong man,” the “man on horseback,” the “great leader,” what in Latin America is called a “caudillo,” or “cacique,” or more crudely, “El Gran Chingon,” the thugs with the gaudy Gilbert-and-Sullivan uniforms bedecked with rows of phony medals.

    Hence the left’s admiration for Castro, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Chavez, and most recently Kim Jong Un’s sister, the head of propaganda for the North Korean terror state whom the left’s media lackeys effusively praised during her appearance at the Olympics. No matter how blood-stained, any tyrant can be an object of the left’s affection, as long as he or she is on the side of “revolution” against the hated capitalists and the repressed bourgeoisie. This century-long love affair explains the endless parade of useful idiots making pilgrimages to totalitarian hell-holes like Stalin’s Russia or Chavez’s Venezuela or Castro’s Cuba, there to swoon over the Potemkin heaven on earth.

    It also accounts in part for the surreal, cult-like worship of the tin-pot messiah Barack Obama, whose very trouser crease could thrill the starry-eyed pundit, whose banal rhetoric could send tingles down the leg of the most hard-bitten journalist. That’s why Obama’s use of Executive Orders and his “phone and pen” to subvert the Constitution’s separation of powers was celebrated by the same progressives who squeal about any Republican president’s “imperial overreach.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269356/progs-love-man-uniform-bruce-thornton

  40. Antifa Thugs Target ICE
    The Left interferes in immigration law enforcement — and plans to escalate its lawlessness.
    February 19, 2018
    Matthew Vadum

    The anarchist thugs of Antifa are branching out into obstructing immigration law enforcement, apparently no longer content with shutting down conservative speakers and beating up those they promiscuously label “fascists.”

    A case in point was last Thursday, Feb. 15, when about 70 activists surrounded a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) van that was attempting to enter the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. The anarchists chanted “no more deportations,” “Trump and Pence must go,” “f–k ICE,” as well as slogans in the Spanish language.

    Although the two ICE agents in the van at the time were unharmed and there were no arrests, the action was viewed by anarchists as a successful test of the tactic. Antifa intends to expand its use of the approach. Given Antifa’s ugly track record, this could mean violent, terroristic attacks on law enforcement.

    The nighttime action was leftist retaliation for ICE officers doing their jobs by enforcing the law. ICE reportedly detained more than 200 illegal aliens in Los Angeles during a recent five-day enforcement sweep.

    Radical leftist Rabbi Aryeh Cohen bitterly complained to the Los Angeles Times about ICE doing what it is supposed to do.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269362/antifa-thugs-target-ice-matthew-vadum

    • Antifa intends to expand its use of the approach. Given Antifa’s ugly track record, this could mean violent, terroristic attacks on law enforcement.

      That is the logical next step, given the goals of antifa subverting the police by making them afraid to do their jobs is the next step in their path to power.

  41. Ex-UN Official: 3,300 United Nations Pedophiles in 66,000 Abuses
    February 18, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    CNN would report on this because it currently cares so much about the children. But it only cares about those “children” who can be groomed to support its political agenda. And this story is about how the left empowers the abuse of children. Many of them belonging to minority groups.

    UN staff have carried out thousands of rapes and other sexual violations against women and children over the last decade, according to a former senior United Nations official.

    “There are tens of thousands of aid workers around the world with pedophile tendencies, but if you wear a UNICEF T-shirt, nobody will ask what you’re up to,” Andrew MacLeod, the former chief of operations at the UN’s Emergency Co-ordination Center, said in an interview with british tabloid The Sun on Monday, adding that an estimated 60,000 cases of sexual exploitation had been comitted over the last decade by 3,300 pedophiles working in the organization.

    “Child rape crimes are being inadvertently funded, in part, by United Kingdom tax-payers,” he added.

    In an interview with CNN last week, MacLeod argued that aid jobs throughout the developed world are used by abusers as an easy way to gain access to vulnerable women and children.

    There have been multiple scandals of this sort involving UN peacekeepers. Oxfam has been caught in its own scandal. And the Peace Corps is notorious for its sexual assault rates. But these are all lefty institutions so we can’t talk about them for very long. It interferes with the narrative

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269353/ex-un-official-3300-united-nations-pedophiles-daniel-greenfield

    Richard: This is the outfit some people what to equip with their own army so they can punish nations that don’t follow their resolutions. This is what they do when the UN is a weak corrupt debating society. Think of what they would do if they were a strong orginization capable of enforcing their resolutions.

  43. ‘Pig supporters not welcome’: Pro-police stores threatened, vandalized, harassed

    St. Louis antique store owner Cherri Elder formed positive relationships with police patrolling in the area, so she decided to display an American flag containing a thin blue line — a symbol for police sacrifice — in front of Elder’s Antiques.

    But the gesture didn’t go over well with everybody.

    “People came by, they would cuss at you, they would harass you,” Elder told KMOV-TV, “they would harass the customers.”

    Elder told the station she took down the thin blue line flag to avoid continued trouble.

    “I thought things were getting better,” she told KMOV. “But apparently it’s not.”

    What happened?

    A month after taking down the thin blue line flag — which is now displayed inside her 32-year-old store — Elder told the station she found a large handwritten sign on the front window of Elder’s Antiques that read: “Pig supporters not welcome. Flag goes down or you go down.”

    On the right bottom corner of the sign was a hammer and sickle — presumably standing for communism and the former Soviet Union — along with the letters “MLM,” which KMOV said often stands for Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/02/19/pig-supporters-not-welcome-pro-police-stores-threatened-vandalized-harassed/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TheBlaze%20Daily%20PM%202018-02-19&utm_term=TheBlaze%20Daily%20PM%20-%20last%20270%20days

    Richard: Read the rest of the article.

  45. Michael Moore Participated In Russia-Sponsored Anti-Trump Rally

    Progressive director Michael Moore participated in an anti-Trump protest in New York that was organized by Russians, according to information released Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

    Rosenstein announced indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday against 13 Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 election, highlighting how the Russians used social media to stir up strife and anger on social media using memes and unwitting Americans to do their bidding. One Russia-sponsored event was a protest of then President-Elect Donald Trump on Nov. 12, 2016, called “Trump is NOT my President,” and it involved Moore. (RELATED: Mueller Confirms: Russia Used Anti-Trump Resistance To Stoke Division)

    On the day, Moore tweeted:

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/19/michael-moore-russian-anti-trump-rally/

  46. Germany: Antifa counter-protesters hit Anti-Merkel rally in Hamburg

    Anti-Merkel demonstrators were met with Antifa counter-protests in Hamburg on Monday, amid a heavy police presence.

    About 230 people demonstrated against German Chancellor Angela Merkel under the slogan ‘Merkel Muss Weg’ (‘Merkel must go’), while some 800 left-wing demonstrators gathered to counter-protest.

    Anti-Merkel demonstrators held signs calling on the borders to be closed and to “end the Merkel dictatorship.”

    Left-wing demonstrators chanted “We are all antifascists” and held signs condemning the far-right presence in the German Bundestag.

    Some 700 police officers were reportedly on site.

  47. Nearly 90 percent of Turkish citizens support cross-border military operation in Syria: Survey (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/nearly-90-percent-of-turkish-citizens-support-cross-border-military-operation-in-syria-survey-127594

    “Some 89 percent of Turkish citizens support the country’s ongoing military operation in the northern Syrian town of Afrin, according to a survey conducted by the A&G Research Center.

    “[The Turkish public] supports these kinds of [cross-border military] operations to clear the problem of terrorism,” said A&G founder Adil Gür, evaluating the survey results on Feb. 12 in an interview with daily Sabah.

    The survey was conducted by A&G with a total of 3,225 households in 42 Turkish provinces.

    Government officials have repeatedly said since the launch of “Operation Olive Branch” on Jan. 20 that it is “not an invasion” and only aims to remove the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from across Turkey’s southern border.

    “Some 54 percent said the operation is against the YPG, 20.2 percent said it is being carried out against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] and over 5 percent said the operation is against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant [ISIL],” Gür said.

    “They see no difference between the YPG and the PKK,” he added…”

  48. 284,000 Syrian children born in Turkey since start of war: Interior Minister Soylu (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/284-000-syrian-children-born-in-turkey-since-start-of-war-interior-minister-soylu-127568

    “Some 284,777 children of Syrian origin have been born in Turkey since the Syrian crisis triggered a mass migration into the country in 2011, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Feb. 18.

    “Up until today, the number of children who have arrived in Turkey as a result of the Syrian war is 1.31 million. That means this sacred nation has ignored black propaganda and has saved all these children. Some 284,777 children have been born in these lands,” Soylu said at a fund-raising event in the Black Sea province of Trabzon for the construction of an orphanage in Somalia.

    “There is another striking number: Due to the civil war in Syria, 10,000 children [in Turkey] have lost all of the relatives they had been dependent on,” he added, as reported by Do?an News Agency.

    Nearly 700,000 Syrian students

    Soylu said the number of students of Syrian nationality at Turkish universities was 20,429, while the number of Syrian students attending schools in Turkey was 669,780.

    “The reason I have expressed these numbers is to show the great accomplishment of this sacred nation. Therefore, building an orphanage in Somalia also suits us,” he said.

    Meanwhile, running a campaign to provide education to the estimated 1.5 million Syrian children in Turkey, UNICEF has announced on its website that nearly 350,000 Syrian children in Turkey are devoid of enrolling in an educational program.

    Soylu also stated that there are 400,000 orphans worldwide who are the children of refugees and asylum-seekers, whose numbers alone are over 12 million. There are also 23 million internally displaced children around the world, he noted.

    The orphanage in Somalia will reportedly cost a total of 550,000 Turkish Liras to build and will partly be funded by private sector businesses.”

  49. Resentment rising against Syrian refugees in Turkey’s urban centers: International Crisis Group report (hurriyetdailynews, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/resentment-rising-against-syrian-refugees-in-turkeys-urban-centers-international-crisis-group-report-127548

    “Resentment against Syrians living in Turkey is rising, particularly in the country’s urban centers where most Syrians live, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned in a recent report.

    The ICG particularly flagged up the hard-scrabble Istanbul district of Sultangazi as a site where tensions are rising amid an influx of refugees.

    “Public services such as health and education, already strained by the district’s rapid expansion, have been further overstretched by the refugee influx. Locals complain about long lines at hospitals, crowded classrooms, skyrocketing rents, packed buses and piled-up trash. The sense that the Syrian influx has worsened the quality of life is sowing resentment among hosts, irrespective of political affiliation,” the ICG warned in its report.

    Sultangazi is home to pious Sunni Muslim conservatives, left-leaning Alevis, Turkish ultra-nationalists and Kurdish-speaking communities, who now live side by side with up to 50,000 Syrians, as well as approximately 8,000 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Azerbaijan.

    “In conversations with Crisis Group, residents referred to their quarter as ‘a district of victimhood’ because it brings together so many different people – citizens and non-citizens – who have had to leave their hometowns behind for political or economic reasons,” the report stated.

    Rising inner-city pressure

    The ICG’s warning about Sultangazi came after an earlier report published last month called “Turkey’s Syrian Refugees: Defusing Metropolitan Tensions,” which focused on the rising intercommunal violence in the metropolitan areas.

    That report stated that violence between host communities and Syrian refugees increased threefold in the second half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 and at least 35 people died in these incidents during 2017, including 24 Syrians.

    “The potential for anti-refugee violence is highest in the metropolitan areas of Istanbul, Ankara and ?zmir where host communities see Syrians as culturally different and resent their competition for low-wage jobs or customers, especially within the informal economy,” the report warned.

    According to estimates by local ICG researchers, Turkey is currently hosting some 3.4 million registered and around 400,000 unregistered Syrian nationals.

    The ICG report advised the Turkish government to reach out to constituencies who may sympathize with the opposition parties in order to prevent tensions between the communities. Opposition parties also have a role to work constructively to bridge the divides, it added.

    “They need to be careful not to spread misinformation or exploit the growing angst about Syrians among their constituents,” the ICG stated.”

  50. Egyptian army kills 4 ‘takfiris,’ arrests 417 ‘criminal elements’ in north and central Sinai (ahram, Feb 19, 2018)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/291256/Egypt/Politics-/Egyptian-army-kills–takfiris,-arrests–criminal-e.aspx

    “Four “takfiris” were killed by the Egyptian Armed Forces in northern and central Sinai, the army said in a statement on Monday, as comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 enters its second week.

    The term “takfiri” refers to Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

    Military spokesman Tamer El-Rifai said that one non-commissioned officer and two soldiers were killed, while another two other officers were injured.

    Forces also arrested 417 wanted criminal elements and destroyed 27 vehicles, four hideouts and 224 weapons caches.

    Army engineers also uncovered and diffused 101 IEDs, which were planted to target security forces during operations, the army said.

    Law enforcement forces also released a number of suspects after ascertaining their non-involvement in any open investigation cases or violence.

    El-Rifai’s statement is the 10th military communiqué on the sweeping counter-terrorism operation since it began on 9 February.

    Since the beginning of the operation, a total of 65 takfiris have been killed and hundreds of criminal suspects have been arrested, according to military statements.

    Land, sea and air forces have carried out security patrols to combat attempts to smuggle arms or infiltrate Egypt’s southern and western borders, El-Rifai added.

    Forces involved in the operation have also located a number of farms used to grow illegal narcotics and seized large amounts of drugs and communication facilities, he said.

    Operation Sinai 2018 was launched on Friday, 9 February involving land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards.

    The operation targets “terrorist and criminal elements and organizations” in northern and central Sinai, as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert.”