Reader’s Links, March 18, 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

130 Replies to “Reader’s Links, March 18, 2018”

  1. Special Forces rush to stop lethal HAND GRENADES reaching UK as ISIS plots attack (express, Mar 18, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/933310/isis-hand-grenades-uk-sas-operation-terror-police-mi6

    “SPECIAL FORCES have mounted a major operation to stop a lethal batch of hand grenades being smuggled into Britain by Islamic State terrorists.

    Intelligence officers at MI5 fear terrorists have purchased hundreds of the M75 grenades. Originally manufactured in Macedonia, they were shipped to Sweden by criminals as part of an arms cache stolen in the Balkans in 2010.

    The threat emerges at at a time when Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service is fully engaged in thwarting potential Russian reprisals in the aftermath of the Salisbury poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

    SBS teams were last night working with the Border Force to monitor all maritime movements across the English Channel.

    In addition, military liaison officers have been placed at the national air traffic control centre at Swanick and RAF Bulmer in Northumberland.

    Swanick monitors all aircraft approaching the UK via their transponders.

    However it is feared that small aircraft which could be used to smuggle in the grenades would have these identification tags turned off. In this case, experts at RAF Bulmer can track them on a special system called the ‘dark space’ and alert the Commandos.

    MI5 first warned about the threat five years ago, when convicted one-eyed murderer Dale Cregan used grenades, sourced from the Balkans, as his calling card in attacks on other gang members around Manchester.

    In 2013 Cregan was sentenced to life in prison following convictions for the murders of four people, including two police officers – PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes – and three attempted murders.

    His use of hand grenades was viewed as his “calling card” after he threw the same M75 grenades at three of his victims after shooting them. A stash of ten grenades was found on his property shortly before his conviction in 2013.

    However, last night’s operation was sparked by fresh evidence that a new batch was making its way to Britain.

    Sweden has suffered more than 150 grenade-related attacks -including grenades being thrown at police cars – and more than 20 deaths since 2015, an unprecedented number for peacetime Europe. Many are related to organised crime syndicates, who are thought to be working alongside jihadists.

    More than 400 Islamic State extremists who fought in Syria are believed to be hiding among 180,000 asylum seekers in Sweden and are actively seeking to carry out IS’s pledge to strike cities in Europe and the UK.

    The grenades are part of a batch of 2,000 stolen from a factory in Macedonia in 2010. Each one is packed with 3,000 tiny steel balls.

    They can be bought on the black market for as little as £10. Many are given away as sweeteners to criminals and terrorists who purchase AK47 assault rifles, which cost around £870 on the black market.

    Last night a senior source said:“We have reason to believe that fresh attempts will soon be made to smuggle a number for these hand grenades into the country be sea or, possibly, by air.

    “These small, deadly devices can be dismantled and packed into small packages before their components are reassembled for use. Once in the UK they become difficult to locate, regardless of the amount of resources assigned to finding them. That’s why so much emphasis is being placed in their interception.

    “Clearly, hand grenades placed into the hands of criminal gangs is concerning. That concern escalates with Islamic extremism.””

  2. Trump: ‘Mueller probe should never have been started’

    Share to Facebook
    Share to Twitter
    Share to Google+

    Autoplay: On | Off

    President Trump asserted on Saturday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia should never have been opened in the first place.

    “The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

    “It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!”

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/378976-trump-mueller-probe-should-never-have-been-started

  3. Mueller Wants Trump’s Business Records. What’s the Russia Connection?

    The investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election has expanded to include President Trump’s family business, with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, subpoenaing the Trump Organization for documents related to Russia.

    For more than 30 years, Mr. Trump has repeatedly sought to conduct business in Russia. He traveled to Moscow in 1987 to explore building a hotel. He applied for his trademark in the country as early as 1996. And his children and associates have met with Russian developers and government officials on multiple occasions in search of joint ventures.

    But the company says nothing has come of it. Mr. Trump tweeted in January last year, shortly before his inauguration: “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA — NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!”

    So what about the Trump Organization’s Russian connections might be of interest to Mr. Mueller?

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/business/trump-organization-russia-mueller.html

    Richard: Mueller is getting desperate, the entire Russia narrative is coming apart and the corruption at the top of the FBI is being made public. Given the composition of the investigation we have to ask if Mueller is a member of the Deep State who is out to destroy Trump so he and his friends can maintain the unconstitutional power they have stolen?

  4. Russians Vote on New Putin Term as Tensions Flare With West

    Russians headed to the polls in presidential elections expected to hand Vladimir Putin an easy victory, keeping him in power until 2024.

    Putin, 65, already Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin after more than 18 years at the helm, is seeking a fourth term amid an escalating stand-off with the West and economic malaise.

    “I am confident that the program I am offering for the country is right,” Putin told reporters Sunday after voting at a polling station at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-17/russians-vote-on-new-putin-term-as-tensions-flare-with-west

  5. PUTIN’S POISON Boris Johnson claims Russia has been developing chemical weapons to kill enemies for a decade

    The Foreign Secretary revealed the chemicals watchdog will visit Britain tomorrow

    BRITAIN has proof the Kremlin has been developing chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies, Boris Johnson revealed today.

    The Foreign Secretary announced that chemical watchdogs will come to the UK tomorrow to test the novichok used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5839359/boris-johnson-russia-nerve-agent-chemical-weapons-andrew-marr/

  6. In California’s rural, conservative north, there are big dreams for cleaving the state

    The two young, blond women in figure-flattering ball gowns hoisted whiskey and shotguns.

    An auctioneer rattled off bids. Above the stage in the banquet hall hung a green flag for the 51st state of Jefferson, with its pair of Xs called a “double-cross” representing a sense of rural abandonment.

    Hundreds of people packed into the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9650 hall on this chilly Saturday night, ready to crack open wallets to help fund their dream of carving — out of California’s northernmost reaches — a brand new state.

    Someone offered $350 for a state of Jefferson belt buckle. Someone else won a lamb, still in its mother’s womb, that should be born in time to be butchered for Easter. Outside, vehicles bore bumper stickers supporting President Trump and the 2nd Amendment.

    “We Okies are fun, aren’t we?” one man quipped.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-state-of-jefferson-activists-20180317-htmlstory.html

  7. Fearing deportation under Trump, these immigrants prepare to become untraceable

    A few months back, Lorena Jofre was planning to buy a condominium in Miami-Dade County to finally move into her own place with her 7-year-old daughter.

    Jofre, who has lived much of her life in uncertainty, also planned to exchange her old car for a new one, thanks to a better paying job. She even hoped to return to college to become a teacher or a social worker.

    But her plans have since drastically changed.

    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article204035729.html#storylink=cpy

  8. Cambridge Analytica denies using Facebook data for Trump campaign, says it’s cooperating with the social network

    Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm used by the Trump campaign during the 2016 elections, insisted on Saturday that it did not misuse or hold data obtained from Facebook users, despite having been sanctioned by the platform for doing so.

    On Friday, Facebook announced that it had suspended Cambridge Analytica, suggesting the firm had not been honest about deleting user data sent to it by the makers of a popular psychology test app.

    That particular app, called “thisisyourdigitallife,” was itself banned by Facebook back in 2015. However, the social network has accused Cambridge Analytica of holding that data, despite assurances to the contrary.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/17/cambridge-analytica-denies-using-facebook-data-for-trump-campaign-says-its-cooperating-with-the-social-network.html

    • Who cares? Jealous?
      Not illegal – unlike the voter fraud that accounts for your stranglehold on the popular vote in urban ghetto-plantations.

      Maybe we found a way to short-circuit the bought- & paid- for corporate media. If you hadn’t been so dismissive of us Deplorables, you would’ve choked us off the internet as well. As you’re frantically attempting to do right now.

      You’re all dirty: Google-FB-YT-Twitter-iCloud/Wapoo/CIA…
      Yet our President continues to use you against yourselves:
      ~~ I'm rubber, you're glue ~~
      ~~ nyah, nyah, nyah ~~

  9. Ben lost his legs for his country, how could they take away his wheelchair?: The most seriously injured British soldier sues MoD after pay cut and lack of care (dailymail, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5514165/Afghanistan-hero-sues-MoD-pay-cut-lack-care.html

    “The most seriously wounded British soldier from the war in Afghanistan is to sue the Army after claiming that defence chiefs cut his pay, put vital medical treatment in jeopardy – and failed to provide him with wheelchairs.

    Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 33, who suffered devastating injuries when he was blown up by the Taliban, is to bring the legal action after what his family last night described as years of broken promises and ‘deception’ by top brass over his care.

    The former paratrooper was not expected to survive after losing both legs and suffering brain damage when his Land Rover hit an anti-tank mine in Helmand Province in 2006. His recovery, which has included learning to walk and talk again, has astounded doctors.

    He was allowed to stay in uniform and has been held up as an example of the Army’s commitment to wounded troops.

    But today The Mail on Sunday can reveal the shocking story of Ben’s struggle for basic equipment and specialist care. Now, his furious family is suing the Ministry of Defence for Breach of Statutory Care.

    As a serving soldier, Ben is not allowed to talk to the media. Speaking on his behalf, his mother Diane Dernie, 60, said: ‘Under an agreement reached with us and the NHS in 2016, the MoD is supposed to provide Ben’s wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and specialist medical services not available to us locally on the NHS.

    ‘We have learned, contrary to what the Army has told us, that charities have provided two of Ben’s wheelchairs from funds donated by the public. This was a deception on their part.

    ‘We cannot suffer in silence any longer. We need a long-term care plan in place for Ben now.’…”

  10. North Korea to Meet for Talks With U.S., South Korean Delegations in Helsinki
    Comes ahead of U.S.-North Korea summit expected by May

    SEOUL—North Korea will hold talks in Finland with a U.S. delegation and former South Korean government officials, Seoul’s foreign ministry said, ahead of denuclearization discussions between Seoul and Pyongyang next month and the first U.S.-North Korea summit expected by May.

    The talks in Helsinki would be unofficial, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said, declining to say when the meeting would take place. She wouldn’t identify attendees except to say that the South Korean delegation would include civilian academics alongside former government officials.

    South Korea’s semiofficial Yonhap news agency reported that Washington’s former ambassador to Seoul, Kathleen Stephens, would attend. Neither Ms. Stephens nor the U.S. Embassy in Seoul could be reached immediately for comment.

    Unofficial meetings involving North Korea and the U.S., sometimes known as Track 2 talks, have been held before.

    But the news of the discussions in Finland follows a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days concerning Pyongyang’s nuclear program. On Saturday, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho concluded a three-day visit to Sweden that included talks with his Swedish counterpart and a meeting with the prime minister.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-to-meet-for-talks-with-u-s-south-korean-delegations-in-helsinki-1521376228

  11. German spy agency said North Korean rockets can reach Europe – paper

    ERLIN (Reuters) – North Korean rockets can now be fitted with nuclear weapons and could reach Germany and central Europe, a top official with Germany’s foreign intelligence agency told lawmakers this week, according to a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

    BND Deputy Director Ole Diehl told lawmakers during a closed-door meeting that the assessment was “certain,” the newspaper reported, citing participants in the briefing.

    At the same time, Diehl said the agency viewed talks between North and South Korea as a positive sign.

    No comment was immediately available from the BND.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-spy-agency-said-north-korean-rockets-reach-124230807–finance.html

  12. Nolte: Disgraced Media Already Hit with Massive Layoffs in 2018

    By the time President Trump’s presidency is over, one of the biggest pieces of fake news we will look back on is when we were told by the media that Trump was good for the media business. According to what is happening in a place called the real world, the truth is that business for the media is horrible.

    We will start with the Denver Post, which announced Thursday that, between April 9 and July 1, 30 jobs will be cut from its newsroom. That is a massive 30 percent cut of its current staff of 100 journalists. Just 10 years ago according to the far-left Washington Post, the Denver Post employed 600 journalists. That is close to a 90 percent reduction in only a decade.

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/03/16/nolte-disgraced-mainstream-media-swamped-massive-layoffs/

  13. Big Tech needs to face a Theodore Roosevelt-style trust busting
    Originally published March 17, 2018 at 6:00 am Updated March 18, 2018 at 4:20 am

    The giants of the technology sector are falling from public favor. Busting them up isn’t an impossibility.

    Is it time to break up Big Tech? Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at New York University, thinks so. Silicon Valley and Seattle should pay attention.

    Galloway is no socialist Luddite. He’s a veteran entrepreneur and beneficiary of the industry. He’s also author of “The Four,” a penetrating book about Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet.

    “The Four” also come in for most of his wrath in this bracing, mandatory read in Esquire.

    A few quotes to whet your appetite:

    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/economy/big-tech-needs-to-face-a-theodore-roosevelt/

  14. Left-wing Racism: Non-White MP Attacked for Daring to Oppose Chain Migration Bill Given ‘His Background’ (breitbart, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/18/left-wing-racism-non-white-mp-attacked-daring-to-oppose-chain-migration-bill-given-his-background/

    “Ranil Jayawardena MP was branded a “disgrace” by left-liberal politicians during a bid to stop a chain migration bill, with one white left-winger questioning how he could dare to oppose it given “his background”.

    Labour’s Steve McCabe, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, accused the Tory of attempting a “spiteful, rambling filibuster’, and asserted that “Many will wonder how someone from his background can have developed such views”.

    Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam slammed the 62-year-old, once a member of former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet, for his “disgusting” comments.

    “This is a Labour MP basically stating that a Conservative MP who happens to be brown is not acting brown enough, and should think more like a brown person,” Kassam observed.

    Mr Jayawardena, a Brexit supporter representing North East Hampshire, was elected as the Tory Party’s local candidate in a U.S.-style open primary ahead of the General Election in 2015.

    He argued against the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill on the grounds that it would put the British public at risk and incentivise “child” migrants to make dangerous journeys to the United Kingdom in order to act as a bridgehead for their extended families.

    He cited the experience of Angela Merkel’s Germany, “where a similar situation arose when up to one million refugees and migrants entered in 2015.”…”

  15. 65-Year-Old Swedish Woman On Trial For ‘Hate Crime’ Describes Intensive Harassment from Police (breitbart, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/18/65-year-old-swedish-woman-trial-hate-crimes-describes-intensive-harassment-police/

    “A 65-year-old woman in Sweden, who is facing either a fine or prison sentence if found guilty of ‘hate crime’, released her side of the story in a YouTube video describing a large-scale investigation and harassment from police

    65-year-old Christina, who faces eight charges of hate speech for claiming on social media that mass Muslim migration would lower the general IQ of the country, said that police had forced her into six separate interrogations and raided her home.

    In court, Christina denied the hate speech charges, according to local newspaper Jönköpings-Posten, which said she refused to comment on specific statements.

    The paper also expanded on more of the statements allegedly made by the 65-year-old, who is said to have written that immigrants were parasites and that they, “scream, they stink, they kill, they rape, they burn cars and more. How do I/we get rid of them? I’ve had enough.”

    In her YouTube video, Christina claimed that she had spoken the truth about mass migration and Islam. She said that she had been subjected to six interrogations which lasted several hours each, and that police had seized several of her belongings including a new iPad.

    She also said police had a 150-page file on her activities that were being monitored by the anti-hate speech group Näthatsgranskaren since 2016…”

  16. Putin on track for commanding win as Russians head to polls

    http://www.oann.com/putin-on-track-for-commanding-win-as-russians-head-to-polls/

    UST-DJEGUTA, Russia (Reuters) – Russians voted in a presidential election on Sunday that was expected to give Vladimir Putin an easy victory, but his opponents alleged officials were compelling people to come to the polls so that a low turnout does not tarnish the win.

    Opinion polls give Putin, the incumbent, support of around 70 percent, or nearly 10 times the backing of his nearest challenger.

    Another term will take him to nearly a quarter century in power — a longevity among Kremlin leaders second only to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

    Many voters credit Putin, a 65-year-old former KGB spy, with standing up for Russia’s interests in what they view as a hostile outside world.

    Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region, alleged Kremlin meddling in the U.S. presidential election, and Moscow’s bombing campaign in Syria, have been condemned in the West. But for most people at home, they have only burnished Putin’s reputation as a strong leader.

  17. China propaganda kicks into overdrive as ‘helmsman’ Xi re-anointed president

    BEIJING (Reuters) – With pictures of ecstatic citizens standing in applause, happily tearful legislators and even a social media game, China’s propaganda drive has kicked into high gear following Xi Jinping’s unanimous reappointment as president.

    Xi’s face dominated the front pages of major Sunday newspapers, many carrying the same editorial from the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily using language once more associated with Mao Zedong to say he was a “leader loved and respected by the people” and “helmsman of the country”.

    “The voyage of a great country cannot do without a helmsman,” the paper wrote.

    The military’s official People’s Liberation Army Daily pledged its loyalty to Xi in its editorial, saying his election would ensure the country’s long-term peace and stability. Xi is also head of the armed forces, the world’s largest.

    There was never any doubt that the largely rubber-stamp parliament would not have re-elected Xi as president on Saturday, especially following a constitutional amendment a week earlier which lifts presidential term limits, meaning Xi can stay on indefinitely.

    http://www.oann.com/china-propaganda-kicks-into-overdrive-as-helmsman-xi-re-anointed-president/

  18. Not The Onion: GoFundMe pages have been started up for Andrew McCabe
    By Howard Portnoy March 18, 2018

    Perhaps the inspiration was a now-viral tweet on Friday by veteran NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell, which suggested that “a friendly member of Congress” hire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe “for a week” so “he could possibly qualify for pension benefits.”

    Regardless of where it started, the idea developed legs:

    Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., asked McCabe on Twitter to “call him.”

    “I could use a good two-day report on the biggest crime families in Washington, D.C.,” he wrote.

    Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) tossed out a few crumbs of his own, tweeting:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/03/18/not-onion-gofundme-pages-started-andrew-mccabe/

    • zero hedge – McCabe Bailout: Dozens GoFundMe Campaigns Launched; Dem Congressman Offers Job For Full Pension

      Despite being fired for lying under oath and leaking to the press in a manner that “lacked candor,” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has received an outpouring of support from the left. In addition to Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) offering him a temporary job so he can receive his full retirement benefits, dozens of people have set up GoFundMe accounts, which have already raised tens of thousands of dollars.

      Some have expressed surprise that the same people who have long railed against “the man” are so overwrought that an FBI Official – who was found corrupt in an IG investigation demanded by Democrats that and that was directed by an Obama IG appointee – was fired by an administration they don’t like, that they’ve put the closest thing to “Agent Smith” on a pedestal and are now giving him money.

      So far 39 GoFundMe donation campaigns have been set up for the former Deputy Director who’s now left with a reduced pension.[…]

      Meanwhile, McCabe isn’t “losing his pension.” While the Friday termination will impact him financially to some degree, the most significant impact is that he doesn’t get to start taking it for another seven years, and he will likely lose his lifetime medical benefits for he and his wife.

      Considering McCabe’s number of years at the agency and estimations of his high-level pay grade, formulas published by the US Office of Personnel Management for law enforcement officers show that his yearly payout could hit in the area of $60,000 each year, if McCabe were to retire after his birthday on Sunday.

      If he were to be fired before Sunday, it appears likely McCabe could be docked his pension until he hits another, later age milestone.

      Experts disagree — and caution that predicting payouts is complicated given the complex federal system and each individual’s personal career particularities — but, per federal rules, McCabe may not be able to draw an annuity until a date ranging just shy of his 57th birthday, and as late as his 62nd. That could put the value of his uncollected pension in the realm of a half-million dollars. -CNN

      Furthermore, McCabe can earn his full pension if he’s employed in any federal position for just another day or so.

      With those 20 years, he would need to just go to work with the federal government for another day or so in any job he pleases, whether that’s as a election security analyst for a Wisconsin congressman or a typist for a day, to get full benefits, said the former official who spoke to The Fix. The job doesn’t matter so much as the fact that he’s working within the federal government with the same retirement benefits until or after his 50th birthday. (Though this former official stressed that it would probably look more ethical if McCabe worked for at least a pay period rather than just one day.) -WaPo

      Ironically, nobody knows just yet the full extent of McCabe’s malfeasance which the DOJ’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility recommended firing him over. Once the full OIG report is published, those offering McCabe jobs may need GoFundMe campaigns of their own.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-18/mccabe-bailout-dozens-gofundme-campaigns-launched-dem-congressman-offers-job-full

    • CNN – Could congressman’s offer save McCabe’s pension?

      Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was hours away from retiring and receiving full benefits. Now multiple Democrats are offering McCabe a job and say he could get his pension by working a few more days for the federal government.

    • CNN – Journalist: The real reason Trump wanted McCabe fired

      Investigative journalist Michael Isikoff discusses Trump’s reaction to the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

    • Constitutional Law Expert Slams McCabe: Should Be ‘Worried About Prison’

      As news and excited reactions pour down the collective American brainstem in a semi-rigorous attempt to make sense of Andrew McCabe‘s firing, one liberal legal expert and constitutional law professor is simply not there for partisan response efforts.

      Instead, it appears McCabe’s ouster was in line with the law and he should probably be thankful he’s not facing criminal charges for the behavior that led to said ouster.

      George Washington University School of Law Professor Jonathan Turley predicted McCabe’s firing some time ago. Turley discussed the firing today in an interview with CNN‘s Michael Smerconish.

      First, Turley moved to dismiss widespread liberal accusations that McCabe’s firing was some sort of heavy-handed political payback by the Trump administration. […]

      https://lawandcrime.com/legal-analysis/constitutional-law-expert-slams-mccabe-should-be-worried-about-prison/

      • Him, Comey, Brennan and all the others should be worried about prison. This is why I am suspicious about the new claims coming in about the data mining outfit and the Trump Campaign. The deep state and the anti trumpers are getting scared and worried they have had an investigation of well over a year and found nothing, now there is a new outfit making accusations! Don’t you find that suspicious?

        • Of course…. it looks very suspicious when it seems that there was a coordinated effort by several news agencies to publish the same unsupported allegations about manupulating facebook datas more or less at the same time

      • zerohedge – Edward Snowden: Facebook Is A Surveillance Company Rebranded As “Social Media”

        NSA whistleblower and former CIA employee Edward Snowden slammed Facebook in a Saturday tweet following the suspension of Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) and its political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, over what Facebook says was imporoper use of collected data.

        In a nutshell, in 2015 Cambridge Analytica bought data from a University of Cambridge psychology professor, Dr. Aleksandr Kogan, who had developed an app called “thisisyourdigitallife” that vacuumed up loads of information on users and their contacts. After making Kogan and Cambridge Analytica promise to delete the data the app had gathered, Facebook received reports (from sources they would not identify) which claimed that not all the data had been deleted – which led the social media giant to delete Cambridge Analytica and parent company SCL’s accounts.

        “By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.” -Facebook

        Of note, Cambridge Analytica worked for Ted Cruz and Ben Carson during the 2016 election before contracting with the Trump campaign. Cruz stopped using CA after their data modeling failed to identify likely supporters.

        Cambridge Analytica has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in a statement.

        In response to the ban, Edward Snowden fired off two tweets on Saturday criticizing Facebook, and claimed social media companies were simply “surveillance companies” who engaged in a “successful deception” by rebranding themselves.

        ==============================================
        twitter @Snowden

        Facebook makes their money by exploiting and selling intimate details about the private lives of millions, far beyond the scant details you voluntarily post. They are not victims. They are accomplices.

        https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/975106627513729024

        =========

        Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as “surveillance companies.” Their rebranding as “social media” is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.

        https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/975147858096742405

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

        Snowden isn’t the first big name to call out Silicon Valley companies over their data collection and monitoring practices, or their notorious intersection with the U.S. Government.

        In his 2014 book: When Google Met WikiLeaks, Julian Assange describes Google’s close relationship with the NSA and the Pentagon.

        Around the same time, Google was becoming involved in a program known as the “Enduring Security Framework” (ESF), which entailed the sharing of information between Silicon Valley tech companies and Pentagon-affiliated agencies “at network speed.” Emails obtained in 2014 under Freedom of Information requests show Schmidt and his fellow Googler Sergey Brin corresponding on first-name terms with NSA chief General Keith Alexander about ESF Reportage on the emails focused on the familiarity in the correspondence: “General Keith . . . so great to see you . . . !” Schmidt wrote. But most reports overlooked a crucial detail. “Your insights as a key member of the Defense Industrial Base,” Alexander wrote to Brin, “are valuable to ensure ESF’s efforts have measurable impact.” -Julian Assange

        Kim Dotcom has also opined on social media’s close ties to the government, tweeting in February “Unfortunately all big US Internet companies are in bed with the deep state. Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. are all providing backdoors to your data.”

        =============================================
        twitter @KimDotcom

        Because YouTube belongs to Google and Google is the biggest supplier of user data to the US Govt. Everything you do on any Google service, any search, any email, ends up in the NSA spy cloud. And Google provides custom search technology to the Govt to spy on you better.

        Unfortunately all big US Internet companies are in bed with the deep state. Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. are all providing backdoors to your data. You may have noticed they all favor the Democrats. Why? Obama made them feel special for sharing your data. Privileges!

        .@Google has built a custom search engine for NSA/CIA to index the global mass surveillance data from FVEY

        […]

        https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-18/edward-snowden-facebook-surveillance-company-rebranded-social-media

      • Facebook suspends whistleblower’s account after report

        Facebook says the suspension is due to reports Christopher Wylie’s former employer allegedly held onto 50 million Facebook profiles’ worth of information.

        Data analyst Christopher Wylie says his personal Facebook account has been suspended following reports where he detailed how his former employer, Cambridge Analytica, allegedly used misappropriated Facebook user data to target people.

        Wylie, who gave “whistleblower” reports published Saturday by The Observer and the New York Times detailing how 50 million Facebook profiles were affected, announced the suspension Sunday in a tweet.

        Facebook said Sunday the suspension is the same as the one the company levied Friday against Cambridge Analytica and related parties such as Wylie for reportedly using private data that was collected by a personality quiz app. While users had to opt in to share their personal information with that app, they did not opt into having that information shared with Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked on the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign.

        Facebook asked the firm to delete the information in 2015 when it was discovered the data had been passed on, and Cambridge Analytica maintains that it did. However, Wylie’s claim that it did not would be violation of that trust if true.

        Wylie’s attorney, Tamsin Allen, told CNET sister site CBS News that Facebook “privately welcomed” his assistance on the issue before the suspension took place, which Facebook announced on Friday. However, Facebook says that Wylie is refusing to help with the issue until his suspension is lifted.

        “Mr. Wylie has refused to cooperate with us until we lift the suspension on his account. Given he said he “exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles,” we cannot do this at this time,” Paul Grewal, VP and deputy general counsel, said in a statement.

        Wylie, who left Cambridge Analytica in late 2014, told The Observer that his former employer made use of the personal data in an effort that cost $1 million.

        “[We] built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis that the entire company was built on,” Wylie said in the Saturday report.

        https://www.cnet.com/news/christopher-wylie-facebook-account-suspended-after-whistleblower-report/

        ============================================
        Canadian whistleblower at heart of Facebook data scandal once worked for Liberals

        OTTAWA — The Canadian whistleblower at the centre of an international scandal that saw a firm help the Trump campaign capitalize politically from private Facebook information got his start in politics with the Liberal Party of Canada.

        Reports by The New York Times and The Observer of London say U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign hired a data-analytics company that harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users.

        The data expert who spoke out about controversy helped found the company behind the leak — he’s a 28-year-old Canadian named Christopher Wylie.

        One of the reports says at age 17, Wylie worked in the office of Canada’s opposition leader, who at that time was then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

        The report also says that when he was 18, he learned all about data while working for officials on former U.S. president Barack Obama’s campaign team, and later introduced one director to the Liberals.

        https://www.cp24.com/news/canadian-whistleblower-at-heart-of-facebook-data-scandal-once-worked-for-liberals-1.3848119

      • euronews – Facebook: “One of the largest data breaches in the history of the company”

        Investigations have been launched in the US and UK into a data analytics firm which, it is claimed, harvested private information from more than 50 million Facebook users while developing techniques to support President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

      • PBS – How a data analytics firm allegedly ‘weaponized’ Facebook to swing votes in 2016

        On Friday, Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica, a UK-headquartered data analytics firm, for allegedly using user data to devise election advertising strategy, particularly for undecided voters, in the run-up to the 2016 election. The U.S. arm of the firm reportedly received information on 50 million American voters from Facebook without disclosing its intentions to the social media giant. Molly Wood, host of Marketplace Tech, joins Megan Thompson for more.

      • Channel 4 – Cambridge Analytica boss under fire from MPs

        The boss of the controversial data company Cambridge Analytica is under fire from MPs tonight. Alexander Nix is accused of making false statements when he gave evidence to parliament last month.

        Tonight we have new evidence, which appears to contradict Mr Nix’s evidence to MPs about his company’s use of the Facebook data. Andy Davies reports.

      • NBC News – Cambridge Analytica harvested millions of Facebook users data during election

        Cambridge Analytica was able to access user data through a paid personality survey app, which company insider Christopher Wylie told ITN Channel 4 News was used to influence and wage a “culture war” by Steve Bannon during the 2016 election.

      • al jazeera – ‘Cambridge Analytica harvested data of 50 million Facebook users’

        The attorney general for the US state of Massachusetts says he will investigate how millions of Facebook profiles were harvested by a US firm called Cambridge Analytica.

        It was employed by President Donald Trump’s election campaign to provide personal details of potential voters.

        Newspaper reports say details from 50 million profiles were gathered, but the users did not know.

        Al Jazeera’s Rob Matheson reports.

      • Deutsche Welle – Cambridge Analytica Documentary

        Originally from the Deutsche Welle documentary “How Trump Won,” but it was deleted from their channel for some reason

        ( 42 min 28 )

        9:50 : «… the first is Breitbart News, the fake news website that supports Trump…»

    • Ranking Member Schiff on ABC’s This Week: Members Must Speak Out Now Against Firing Mueller

      On Sunday March 18, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to discuss protecting Special Counsel Mueller, the premature shutdown of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation, Cambridge Analytica’s use of strong>illegally harvested Facebook data and the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

    • CBC – Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data: Companies under investigation

      There are investigations in the U.S. and the U.K. after a report about how Cambridge Analytica obtained information from 50 million Facebook profiles. The allegations are in a report from whistleblower Christopher Wylie in the New York Times and the Guardian.

  19. Senegal closes schools linked to Turkish cleric in exile (abcnews, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/senegal-closes-schools-linked-turkish-cleric-exile-53831086

    “Senegal’s government has closed more than a dozen schools linked to a man the Turkish government considers a terrorist, underlining Turkey’s growing influence in predominantly Muslim West Africa.

    About 3,000 children in Senegal have been affected as Turkey reduces the influence of Fethullah Gulen, who is labeled a terrorist by Turkey’s government.

    The schools closed last year were linked to Hizmet, a moderate Islamic movement developed from the teachings of Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in exile in the U.S. and accused by the Turkish government of being behind a 2016 coup attempt.

    The issue has taken center stage in West Africa with the recent visit by Turkey’s president. About 30 countries have been affected in Africa.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali recently, meeting with heads of state and bringing along Turkish business leaders to increase investments in Africa. Erdogan pointedly thanked the countries for closing the Gulen-affiliated schools.

    “Most of the countries that were exploited by the (Gulen) terror organization were in Africa,” Erdogan said at the beginning of the week-long trip. Schools in Gambia, Guinea, Somalia, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Gabon, Senegal and now Mali have been transferred to his government’s Maarif Foundation, he said.

    In Senegal, the Maarif Foundation opened three new schools.

    Gulen had a large footprint abroad: A report from Turkish intelligence says that the Gulen network had about 2,800 schools, education institutions, foundations, NGOs and hospitals in about 170 countries.

    The school closures in Africa will be seen in Turkey as a positive step in the fight against Gulen, said Emre Caliskan, a researcher at Oxford University specializing in Turkey and Africa relations.

    But schools are only a part of Turkey’s efforts to strengthen its footprint in Africa. Turkey has increased its embassies in Africa from 12 in 2003 to 41 today.

    “Turkey needs the support of African countries and other nations in the United Nations,” said Caliskan.

    Murat Kadir, a coordinator for the Maarif Foundation in Senegal, said only some of the students from the former Gulen schools have transferred to the three schools the foundation opened in November 2017 with about 120 students in Senegal. They plan to add two more, he said.

    The remainder of the 3,000 students whose schools were closed in Senegal has had to find other institutions.

    Fady Ndao, whose 16-year-old daughter studied at a Gulen school, College Sultan, before it was closed said she chose to go to a Senegalese school instead of transferring to the new Turkish government one in Dakar.

    “If it is for political reasons, that is truly not right,” she said of the school closures. “We are Senegalese in Senegal. We have a right to choose a good education here.””

  20. India: Pakistan shelling kills 5 family members in Kashmir (abcnews, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/india-pakistan-shelling-kills-family-members-kashmir-53830363

    “Five members of a family were killed and at least eight other people injured Sunday in cross-border shelling between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in disputed Kashmir, officials said, as the two rivals traded blame for initiating the violence.

    The five were killed after a shell fired by Pakistani soldiers hit their home in the Poonch region of India-controlled Kashmir along the militarized Line of Control that divides the Himalayan territory between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, said S.P. Vaid, the region’s police chief.

    A police statement said the dead included a 35-year-old man and his 32-year-old wife, and three of their children — two young boys and a teenage boy. Two of the couple’s daughters, one 7 and the other 12, were among the injured.

    Local residents said the family had gathered in their kitchen for breakfast when a shell hit their home.

    Vaid said authorities were evacuating civilians from the area amid shelling and firing.

    India’s army said its soldiers were responding to what it called an unprovoked violation of the 2003 cease-fire agreement between the two countries.

    Authorities in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir said at least six civilians, including five women, were wounded in the Indian firing and shelling along the frontier.

    Farooq Hadier Khan, prime minister of the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, condemned Indian shelling of border villages and visited a hospital to meet injured residents, an official statement said.

    Like in the past, both countries blamed the other for starting the firing, insisting they were only retaliating.

    The violence comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, who have accused each other of harassing their diplomatic staff in the two capitals.

    This year, soldiers from the two nations have also been engaged in fierce border skirmishes along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, as well as a lower-altitude 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating India-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab…”

  21. Why have the MSM ignored a mass murder in S. Carolina that occurred last week?
    By Howard Portnoy March 17, 2018

    To say that the media have mass murder on the brain is an understatement. The networks and print dailies have been utterly obsessed with the school shootings in Parkland, Fla., last month, at times to the exclusion of other news stories.

    Part of the fascination with this particular tragedy, apart from the obvious — children were the victims — has been the highly publicized, if nebulous, demands for change by survivors of the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which in turn has spawned a nationwide adult-approved children’s crusade against guns.

    So why have the media neglected to cover the killings of four family members at the hands of a fifth in Charleston County, S.C. on March 10? You would think this was a golden opportunity for gun control zealots to renew their calls for stricter gun laws, especially in light of the fact that one of the victims was again a child, age 15.

    Yet apart from coverage by a local station, CBS affiliate WCSC, and a wire dispatch from the Associated Press, the story has gone largely unreported.

    Tom Blumer of NewsBusters has an interesting theory as to why, and that has to do with the fact that the murder weapon was not a gun.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/03/17/msm-ignored-mass-murder-s-carolina-occurred-last-week/

  22. Attack on polio vaccination team in Pakistan kills 3 (abcnews, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/official-polio-workers-killed-ambush-tribal-region-53829315

    “Militants have ambushed a polio vaccination team in a remote tribal region in Pakistan, killing two of the medical workers and seriously wounding another two, officials said Sunday.

    The gunmen also attacked tribal police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps when they responded to the attack late Saturday, killing one paramilitary and wounding another.

    Polio workers have come under attack on several occasions since it was revealed that the CIA used a polio vaccination campaign as a ruse to get information on Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. commandos in Pakistan in 2011.Those revelations fed into claims by Islamic extremists that the vaccinations are part of a Western plot against Muslims.

    Pakistan is one of the only countries in the world where polio is still endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

    An official in Pakistan’s restive Mohmand Agency, Younus Khan, said two workers from the seven-member polio vaccination team went missing after the attack but later returned unharmed. He says security forces are still searching for the attackers.

    Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the attack…”

  23. Abu Dhabi signs $1.45B offshore deal with Total (abcnews, Mar 18, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/abu-dhabi-signs-145b-offshore-deal-total-53831888

    “The state oil company of the energy-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates says it has signed a deal worth $1.45 billion with French oil giant Total SA granting it stakes in offshore fields.

    The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. made the announcement in a statement Sunday.

    It said Total would be granted a 20 percent stake in the Umm Shaif and Nasr concessions and a 5 percent stake in the Lower Zakum concession, paying participation fees of $1.15 billion and $300 million, respectively.

    The oil firm says the deals have a 40-year term.

    Lower Zakum produces some 450,000 barrels of oil per day, while the Umm Shaif and Nasr fields produce some 460,000, as well as some 500 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas.”

  24. Capitol Police arrest male Dem operative for assaulting female Trump administration official
    By LU Staff March 17, 2018

    U.S. Capitol Police have arrested a male Democratic operative for assaulting a female Interior Department communications official following a House budget hearing Thursday.

    The assault happened after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke finished testifying on the department’s 2019 budget proposal before the House Committee on Natural Resources. The suspect identified himself as a reporter with American Bridge and pushed a female Interior Department communications official to the floor, chasing after Zinke, The Daily Caller News Foundation learned.

    Interior Communications Director Laura Rigas was “greatly alarmed and extremely irate that a female senior member of my DOI Communications team was physically assaulted today by a Democrat staffer from the PAC American Bridge,” she told Politico.

    Interior officials filed a police report, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned, but it has not yet been processed, police said. It will be made public in seven to 10 days once processed. American Bridge did not respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment.

    “We are appalled to hear of the events following yesterday’s hearing where a member of Secretary Zinke’s staff was victim to an assault,” committee spokeswoman Katie Schoettler told TheDCNF.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/03/17/capitol-police-arrest-male-dem-operative-assaulting-female-trump-administration-official/

  25. Battle for streets: Arab crime clans ‘infiltrating & undermining Berlin police force’

    • If this isn’t stopped now Berlin will be lost to the German Government, this is the goal of the Islamic Invaders, the destruction of the German Government so it will be easier for them to take over the nation. With this tactic working this well in Berlin the Germans need to look at the other police forces because they are infiltrated like the Berlin Police is.

      • I quoted this comment the other day from a farrr-rrright Anon:

        Make no mistake. It is too late.

        There are 80 million people living in Germany. Assuming about 10 million of them in the age bracket 18 – 28 years old. Of which 1 million today already are Turks in second generation. About 3 million Muslims joined exactly that age bracket in the last 3 years. Young males.

        That makes for 4 million Muslims out of a total of 13 million, or 15%. They are now family reunioning, shipping in their wives into Germany, typically bigamists with multiple wives, so their share goes up to 7 million Muslims out of a total of 17 million in that age bracket, bringing the ratio up to 45%.

        Did I mention that with 1,3 children per female, indigenous Germans cannot replace their population, or culture, or national heritage. A clear majority of Muslim children already now.

        We are witnessing a new generation of a Muslim country. Within 10 – 15 years, they will staff the army, operate nuclear installations, run political parties, their children will outnumber their German hosts in the banks, local government, corporate life, you name it.

        Prepare for it. This train already left the station.

  26. SAS sniper’s ‘one in a million’ shot slays ISIS chief from ONE MILE away (express, Mar 18. 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/933518/SAS-kill-ISIS-who-dares-wins-uk

    “AN SAS sharpshooter has pulled off a “one in million” shot to kill an ISIS commander from almost a mile away in near total darkness.

    The elite sniper shot dead the terrorist chief with what senior defence sources said was a shot achieved at a range of more than 1,500m with a window of opportunity of just 15 seconds.

    A source said: “The shot was one in a million. Getting a one-round, one-kill head shot at night using thermal imagery in a 15-second target window is about as close to impossible as you can get but he pulled it off.

    “He is definitely the best sniper around at the moment.”

    The British serviceman is understood to be a sergeant with the SAS G-Squadron, which has been deployed on counterterrorist operations in Syria and Iraq for the past three months.

    He is understood to be a veteran of numerous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan where he is said to have notched up more than 100 kills.

    Military insiders said the sniper was using a US-made McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, which fires a huge .50 calibre round.

    A source told the Daily Star Sunday an SAS unit got intelligence that an Isis commander was arriving at a safe house in a village close to the Syrian border.

    The source added: “The village was in the hands of Isis gunmen so there was absolutely no chance of organising a capture mission. To do so would have been suicide.

    “It is always preferable to capture rather than kill because of the potential to gather more intelligence. Instead a kill mission was planned. The SAS team had hoped that the Isis commander would arrive during the day because a night shot was regarded as too dangerous.

    “But as evening approached the team realised that they were going to have to either abort or go for a night shot. The sniper said he wanted to take the shot and was given a ‘go order’.”

    As the car pulled up to the house the sniper fixed his sights on a figure matching the description of the commander.

    He had just 15 seconds to steady himself, take aim and fire.

    The source said: “The bullet struck the ISIS commander in the back of the head and basically took off his face. He died instantly.””

    • UK: Scuffles break out as Tommy Robinson speaks in London’s Hyde Park

      Scuffles erupted in central London on Sunday as dozens of English Defence League (EDL) activists gathered to hear the movement’s founder Tommy Robinson speak.

      Robinson’s far-right group of followers was confronted by opposition, sparking fights and prompting police intervention.

      Many of those attending carried Islamophobic placards, claiming their free speech was being infringed upon.

      Stephen Lennon, who uses Tommy Robinson as a pseudonym, then gave a speech to those gathered at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ corner despite leaving the EDL in 2013.

  27. SYRIA – Turkish-backed Muslim jihadists celebrate as Erdogan proclaims Afrin city center ‘entirely under control’

    Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army forces celebrated the occupation of Afrin on Sunday, after declaring full control over the city following an eight-week offensive to drive out Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces.

  28. EXCLUSIVE: HOW A SOROS-FUNDED NGO LOBBIED ONE EU COUNTRY AGAINST ANOTHER

    Civil Liberties for Europe, spun off of Soros’ Open Society Foundation, tried to convince the German Foreign Ministry to intervene against a controversial Hungarian law targeting Soros’ NGO donations

    In recordings of a meeting in Amsterdam in January – between Dénes and someone he thought was a supporter – Dénes talked about his organization’s work to pressure Hungary to overturn a law limiting foreign funding for NGOs that was an attempt to rein in Soros’s activities in the country. The European Commission has said the law goes against the values of the European Union.

    Dénes’s remarks show a focused effort by his organization to influence Hungarian law by leveraging German influence against the country. He detailed attempts to convince Germany to put heavy economic pressure on Budapest to abrogate the NGO law, because German companies have invested heavily and are major employers in Hungary.

    http://www.jpost.com/International/Exclusive-How-a-Soros-funded-NGO-lobbied-one-EU-country-against-another-545200

  29. Assad visits army positions in eastern Ghouta

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday visited army positions in Syria’s eastern Ghouta, the president’s Telegram account said.

    “In the line of fire in eastern Ghouta … President Assad with heroes of the Syrian Arab army,” a caption said next to photographs of Assad in a crowd of men in military clothing, some perched on top of tanks.

    The photographs were taken in a street lined with damaged building fronts with a couple of parked tanks.

    http://www.gulf-times.com/story/585545/Assad-visits-army-positions-in-eastern-Ghouta

    the guardian – Muslim terrorists in Syria’s eastern Ghouta discussing ceasefire with UN – statement

    Main rebel group in talks about aid and evacuation of sick and wounded as President Assad visits troops

    The main rebel group in the southern pocket of Syria’s opposition-held eastern Ghouta has said it is negotiating with a United Nations delegation about a ceasefire, aid and the evacuation of urgent medical cases.

    “We are engaged in arranging serious negotiations to guarantee the safety and protection of civilians,” said Wael Alwan, the Istanbul-based spokesman for Failaq al-Rahman.

    “The most important points under negotiation are a ceasefire, ensuring aid for civilians and the exit of medical cases and injured people needing treatment outside Ghouta.”

    However, a general evacuation of civilians and rebels was not on the table, he said.

    The news came as Syrian state-run TV carried images of President Bashar Assad visiting troops on the front line in the newly captured areas of eastern Ghouta.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian government was in control of more than 80% of the area, which has been a rebel stronghold since 2012.

    In a month-long assault, pro-Syrian government forces have marched into much of eastern Ghouta, the last major insurgent bastion around Damascus.

    Troops have splintered Ghouta into three besieged zones in one of the bloodiest offensives of the seven-year war, with rebels facing their worst defeat since the battle of Aleppo in 2016.

    A number of patients requiring urgent medical attention have been evacuated from the northern pocket and some aid has entered the area. This has not yet happened in the southern pocket.

    Figures close to the two main rebel groups – Failaq al-Rahman in the south and Jaish al-Islam in the north – have told Reuters discussions are under way for the transfer of Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam fighters to opposition-held areas in northern and southern Syria respectively.

    After a morning of calm, shelling and ground battles resumed across eastern Ghouta on Sunday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

    The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday at least 20,000 people had left eastern Ghouta in the past week, most from the southern pocket through the Hammouriyeh area.

    The Observatory said about 50,000 people had left the southern pocket in the past 72 hours and thousands left on Sunday.

    On Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad visited army positions in Syria’s eastern Ghouta, Syrian state media reported. “In the line of fire in eastern Ghouta … President Assad with heroes of the Syrian Arab army,” read a caption next to photographs of Assad in a crowd of men in military uniforms, some perched on top of tanks.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/18/rebels-syria-eastern-ghouta-discussing-ceasefire-with-un-statement

  30. Nigeria’s Christians Today, Europe’s Christians Tomorrow

    by Giulio Meotti
    March 18, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12042/nigeria-christians

    Usually, Africa only breaks through to the West when Western targets are attacked by terrorists. First, two US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in Somalia in 1993. Then Al Qaeda attacked US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Then, only a few days ago, Islamic State published a video purporting to show an ambush in Niger in which four US soldiers were killed last October. The West was silent. The West does not seem to care about the ongoing Islamic terrorist genocide on Africa’s biggest Christian population in Nigeria.

    A few days ago, the Coliseum in Rome was lit up red to protest the persecution of Christians. Italy’s most famous landmark was illuminated at the behest of “Aid to the Church in Need” to draw attention to the intense and enormous massacres Christians are suffering.

    Writing for The Spectator, Douglas Murray rightly asked: “Who will protect Nigeria’s northern Christians?”. In the last attack, 15 Christian villages were ethnically and religious “cleansed”. First, extremist Muslims ransacked Christian towns and cleared them of Christian religious symbols, and then murdered 19 Christians . In just one month, more than 80 Christians have been murdered, often hacked to death with machetes.

    Not a day passes in Nigeria without Christians being torn to pieces, in schools, churches and homes. It is a project of ethnic cleansing on a level with the terrible news coming out of Syria.

  31. Syrian Su-24 Allegedly Shot Down Near Qalamoun Mountains – Free Syrian Army (sputniknews, Mar 18, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201803181062666982-syrian-army-aicraft-shot-down/

    “Jaysh Tahrir al-Sham rebels have shot down a regime warplane over the Eastern Qalamoon mountains after launching a new wave of attack, Free Syrian Army reported.

    The moment of Su-24 falling was filmed and posted on Twitter. The crashed plane has started to drop sharply, leaving behind a trace of black smoke, and has fallen to the ground.

    According to Al-Masdar News, the aircraft fell into territory controlled by Syrian government forces, while the pilot has shot himself clear. His fate is still unknown.

    The jihadists have already announced the resumption of the offensive on the positions of the Syrian military in the area, Al-Masdar News noted…”

  32. Erdogan’s Unrequited Arab Love

    by Burak Bekdil
    March 18, 2018 at 4:30 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12043/erdogan-unrequited-arab-love
    Send
    Print

    The events in the last couple of weeks seem to confirm that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions for a Turkey-led ummah (Muslim community) are not welcome in the Arab world. This emerging divide among Sunni Islamists — Turkey, Saudi Arabia et al — is important for the West.

    In Turkey, a hysteria has set in. It appears a national competition of patriotism has captured the Turkish imagination. Screams of martyrdom and jihad can be heard echoing across the country. Even children are not spared from the ugly “death talk.”

    There is a story behind this jihadist euphoria. In 2016, Turkey’s Religious Affairs General Directorate (Diyanet), the ultimate religious authority in the country, issued comic books to the nation’s children telling them how glorious it is to become an Islamic martyr. One cartoon was a dialogue between a father and his son. “How marvelous it is to become a martyr,” the father says. Unconvinced, the son asks: “Would anyone want to become a martyr?” “Yes” the father replies, “one would. Who doesn’t want to win heaven?”

      • He has been setting the stage to go into the Balkans in the near future, Eastern and Western Europe will follow quickly. If Merkel and others hadn’t let so many enemy soldiers in side Europe the Turks would have a hard time. The way it is, they are probably going to be lucky to keep the below the Arctic Circle and out of Britain.

  33. The Boy From Petersburg Who Became The Man From Moscow

    by Amir Taheri
    March 18, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12038/vladimir-putin-reelection
    Send
    Print
    Share
    33

    Today Russians go to the polls to elect their president, and, if opinion polls are right, they will re-elect the incumbent Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

    When recruited by President Boris Yeltsin as an aide, Putin was regarded as a rising star reflecting the Russian mood of the 1990s which favored rapid westernization. Putin was a boy from Saint Petersburg, the city built by French and Italians for Peter the Great, the westernizing tsar.

  34. Did the Mossad kill a Russian general for peddling deadly nerve agent to Syria?

    A Soviet general behind the development of a deadly nerve agent suspected of being used in a poisoning attack last week in the UK had raised concerns in Israel in the 1990s. The Jewish state was worried that he was trying to sell his knowledge to Syria, and he later died in mysterious circumstances, according to a report published Friday.

    The general, Anatoly Kuntsevich, described as a leading chemical weapons expert, had led the development of a highly potent Soviet-designed nerve agent called Novichok, which Britain says was used on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/did-the-mossad-kill-a-russian-general-for-peddling-deadly-nerve-agent-to-syria/

  35. Qatar accuses UAE bank of ‘financial warfare’ (alaraby, Mar 18, 2018)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/3/18/qatar-accuses-uae-bank-of-financial-warfare

    “Qatar has accused a UAE bank of attempting to damage its economy through a series of bogus off-shore foreign exchange transactions, Reuters has revealed.

    Central Bank of Qatar’s (CBQ) legal team sent a letter to the US treasury asking it to investigate NBAD Americas – the US subsidiary of largely state-owned First Abu Dhabi Bank (FSB) – about attempts to manipulate the Qatari riyal.

    “We believe NBAD has participated in an extraordinary and unlawful scheme to wage financial warfare against Qatar, including through the manipulation of Qatari currency and securities market,” the letter said, according to Reuters.

    FAB said it upholds the highest ethical standards and abides by laws and regulations, the news agency reported.

    “As the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) works closely with all of its regulators in the markets in which it operates, to sustain and uphold the high standards of governance and regulatory compliance across the group,” the bank said.

    Qatar has accused the UAE before of attempting to ruin its economy and waging “financial warfare” against Doha last year.

    This was done through offshore transactions of the Qatari riyal to give the impression traders were losing confidence in the riyal and that Doha’s economy was struggling, Reuters reported…”

  36. Why Isn’t Trump Tweeting This?

    A potentially scandalous case of Russian collusion — with liberals.

    Over the last two weeks at The American Spectator, journalist Kevin Mooney reported a significant story he has been investigating for at least a year. The potential political repercussions could expose one of the most disturbing Russia-collusion scandals of the Trump era — and it doesn’t implicate Donald Trump. To the contrary, it would implicate some of Trump’s loudest critics on the left. These leftists, it is alleged, might have worked against some of Trump’s biggest supporters in the Rustbelt; supporters that won him the presidency. And yet, for some reason, the story hasn’t blipped on Donald Trump’s radar screen — or Twitter screen. Trump hasn’t talked about it, including in his raucous rally in Western Pennsylvania on behalf of Rick Saccone in the Saccone-Lamb congressional race in a district that Trump won by 20 points.

    Okay, what’s the story?

    As Kevin Mooney reported in two exclusives (posted here and here), there indeed appears to be some serious Russian meddling going on. It’s not, however, the meddling being pushed by the party line at CNN and MSNBC. This meddling would be Russian funding of U.S. environmental groups, which, in turn, used those Russian resources to work against fracking in the United States and the Keystone pipeline.

    “While allegations of the Donald Trump campaign colluding with Russians to alter the presidential election outcome remain unproven at best,” wrote Mooney, “a clear money trail and U.S. intelligence reports demonstrate Russia’s active campaign of funding U.S. environmental groups.”

  37. #GetHamasOffTwitter
    @TheMossadIL
    Mar 16
    https://twitter.com/hashtag/GetHamasOffTwitter?src=hash
    A recognised terror organisation using @Twitter as a platform to call for a Day of Rage, which directly resulted in the deaths of 2 Israelis. #GetHamasOffTwitter
    Report @HamasInfoEn

    References this article in a tweet [Translation]:

    http://hamas.ps/en/post/1208/hamas-calls-for-mass-participation-in-‘friday-of-rage’

    We congratulate the heroic and courageous operation of Jenin, which is a confirmation of the determination of our Palestinian people to continue the path of resistance.

    • ^^^ WATCH^^^
      IDF’s mounted laser used to safely & remotely detonate roadside bombs

      The IDF chose to make relatively rare use of a vehicle mounted Directed Energy Warfare (DEW) system called THOR—developed by the Israeli Rafael Advanced Defense Systems—in order to destroy a large explosive device that was discovered on the border of the Gaza Strip last December.

      In the incident, observers from the Gaza Division identified two terrorists who tried to exploit the IDF’s focus on dealing with disturbances near the security fence in the area of the Gaza neighborhood of Shuja’iyya, in order to plant an explosive device.

      https://www.israelandstuff.com/watch-idfs-mounted-laser-used-to-safely-remotely-detonate-roadside-bombs

      ……..
      TheMossad Says: Also mountable on sharks, dolphins, geckos and griffons.

  38. One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s closest friends is benefiting from an exclusive agreement between his data analytics company and the Liberal Party of Canada.

    Data Sciences Inc, run by Trudeau’s boyhood friend, Tom Pitfield, is providing the party with “digital engagement” and support services for its powerful voter-contact database, Liberalist.

    Neither the party nor Pitfield would say how much the agreement is worth to the firm, which Pitfield set up after his friend was elected party leader.

    RELATED STORIES
    Federal agency gives money to think tank with ties to Trudeau government
    Trudeau says child care budget plan ‘huge’ as critics call it overselling
    PM highlights money for parks, conservation as U.S. changes course on climate
    PHOTOS
    Parliament Hill
    The sun sets behind Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, November 5, 2015. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

    Pitfield’s wife, Anna Gainey, is the president of the Liberal Party and also a close friend of Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire. The two families vacationed together at the Aga Khan’s resort in Bahamas over the Christmas holidays.

    A spokesman for the Liberal Party of Canada says Gainey does not get involved in decisions involving her husband’s company.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/liberal-party-s-exclusive-deal-with-data-company-benefits-trudeau-friend-1.3346830

  39. To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
    Were you near the Raleigh fire? Detectives may already know.
    Posted 5:05 a.m., March 15, 2018

    By Tyler Dukes, WRAL public records reporter

    RALEIGH, N.C. — In the many months since Adrian Pugh was shot and killed at his home on Saint Albans Drive, Raleigh police had managed to piece together a few important details of his final moments.

    http://www.wral.com/to-find-suspects-police-quietly-turn-to-google/17377435/

  40. HAPPENING NOW: GOP Uncovers Voter Machine Errors in PA Election
    HAPPENING NOW: GOP Uncovers Voter Machine Errors in PA ElectionBREAKING NEWS BY AMY MORENO MARCH 15, 2018
    ?Share?Tweet
    The GOP has uncovered voter fraud in Pennsylvania.
    Republicans are citing “voting machine” errors, where machines miscalibrated, swapping a Saccone vote for an unwanted Lamb vote.

    https://archive.fo/8jPDL#selection-299.0-385.128

  41. SAN DIEGO – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officers arrested 115 individuals for violating federal immigration laws in the San Diego and Imperial counties during a three-day targeted enforcement operation that ended Thursday. Fifty of the immigration violators arrested were convicted criminals and seven others illegally re-entered the U.S. after removal. All but seven of the arrests took place in San Diego County. Seven others had re-entered the United States after being removed on the basis of an Immigration Judge’s final order of removal. Depending on the alien’s criminal history, an alien who illegally reenters the United States, after having been previously removed, has committed a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.

    https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2018/03/ice-arrests-115-illegal-aliens-in-southern-california-operation/

  42. Israeli tech takes on Judea and Samaria rock terror
    Israeli innovation aims to protect Judea and Samaria residents from rock attacks.

    Judea and Samaria residents are well-acquainted with rock terror that threatens them on every journey – whether they are driving to work, to school, to pick up their kids, or are heading back home.

    Now, an Israeli company is offering an innovative new solution to protect motorists from rocks thrown by Arab terrorists.

    Jacob Steiman, CEO of Meteor Lamination says his company’s new invention will save lives and provide security for drivers and passengers across Judea and Samaria.

    The new innovation is a 350-micron thick transparent sticker affixed to the vehicle’s windows that protects against the entry of glass splinters and rocks into the car.

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/243304
    …..
    How about stoning homocidal rock-throwers?