Reader’s Links, March 28, 2018

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

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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

165 Replies to “Reader’s Links, March 28, 2018”

  1. Inspector General Michael Horowitz Announces IG Investigation into FBI/DOJ FISA Court Abuse…
    Posted on March 28, 2018 by sundance

    DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released a public statement stating the OIG intention to investigate the fraudulent FBI FISA Title-1 surveillance application submitted to the court against U.S. person Carter Page; and the surrounding issues of the FBI using Christopher Steele to underwrite their evidence therein:

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/28/inspector-general-michael-horowitz-announces-ig-investigation-into-fbi-doj-fisa-court-abuse/

    • This is all well and good but the IG doesn’t have authority over anyone who isn’t working for the Department of Justice, he can’t issue supeona’s which means he can’t compel testimony and he can’t prosecute anyone. What we have here is the illusion of a band aide when we need a surgeon. Without a new (and this time honest) Special Counsel we will be unable to remove the corruption from the Department of Justice.

      I agree with the people who saw the new Special Counsel must have US Marshals to enforce the supernovas he gets a Judge to issue, to arrest the people he gets indictments on and to do the investigation. Right now we have the DC FBI investigating itself and we don’t know who is honest and who is crooked. Even if we bring in FBI agents from outside DC they will be investigating their bosses and will be worried about their careers if they find any dirt on the DC bosses.

  2. Islamic State leads police to a crocodile-infested river where they “dumped the bodies of ‘infidel’ British couple” who went missing in South Africa

    The British couple, Mr and Mrs Saunders, had taken part in a special episode of the BBC’s popular show Gardeners World in the days before their disappearance. Old world British gardening show meets reality — twenty-first century Islam.

    The BBC is whistling past the graveyard on this and any other story that casts Islam in a poor light. That’s the real story here — no matter how gruesome, how many, how relentless or how destroyed Europe is — the bad guys are those of us who talk about it. We are targeted and smeared.

    https://gellerreport.com/2018/03/brit-couple-isis-crocodile.html/

  3. Knife attacker kills three in Sudan mosque (MEE, Mar 28, 2018)
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/knife-attacker-kills-3-sudan-mosque-690243066

    “A man attacked worshippers with a knife inside a mosque in Sudan’s eastern state of Kasala on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding several others, a police officer told AFP.

    Kasala police chief Yahi Sulayman said it took place when worshippers had gathered for evening prayers in a mosque in Kasala city, which borders Eritrea.

    “Three people have been killed and several wounded,” Sulayman said.

    Residents said the attacker had tried to address worshippers who refused to listen to him and then started stabbing them.

    “People in the mosque then retaliated and killed the attacker,” Sulayman said, adding that the identity of the attacker had not been established…”

  4. US judge allows 9/11 lawsuits against Saudi Arabia to proceed (MEE, Mar 28, 2018)
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-judge-allows-911-lawsuits-against-saudi-arabia-proceed-242046471

    “A US judge in New York on Wednesday rejected Saudi Arabia’s request to dismiss lawsuits accusing it of helping in the 9/11 attacks.

    The cases are based on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (Jasta), a 2016 law which provides an exemption to the legal principle of sovereign immunity, allowing families of the victims to take foreign governments to court.

    The families point to the fact that the majority of the hijackers were Saudi citizens, and claim that Saudi officials and institutions “aided and abetted” the attackers in the years leading up to the 9/11 attacks, according to court documents.

    US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan said the plaintiffs’ allegations “narrowly articulate a reasonable basis” for him to assert jurisdiction under Jasta.

    Daniels also dismissed claims against two Saudi banks and a Saudi construction company for allegedly providing material support to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden to carry out the attacks, saying he lacked jurisdiction.

    The Saudi government has long denied involvement in the attacks in which hijacked planes crashed into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington, DC, and a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.

    Riyadh and its Gulf allies had strongly opposed Jasta, which was initially vetoed by then-President Barack Obama. The US Senate overturned the veto by overwhelmingly adopting the legislation.

    Critics of the law say it is politically motivated and an infringement on the sovereignty of foreign nations.

    Wednesday’s ruling comes during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the US. President Donald Trump heaped praise on the Saudi royal during a meeting at the White House last week.

    Jim Kreindler, a lawyer for about 850 victims’ families in the case against the Saudi government, said his clients are watching bin Salman’s visit to Washington carefully…”

  5. Saudi Arabia foils foreign-funded terror plots /gulfnews, Mar 28, 2018)
    http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-arabia-foils-foreign-funded-terror-plots-1.2195853

    “Saudi authorities have reportedly foiled an attempt to undermine security and incite chaos in the kingdom by arresting a woman and her two sons and recovering a cache of weapons.

    The suspects, all Saudi nationals, were supported by parties outside the kingdom, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Wednesday.

    “The security agencies were able to monitor the woman and the two sons in Jeddah, in possession of the money that had been given to them by two people to fund the terrorist attacks against Saudi Arabia,” a security source told Sabq.

    The operation also led to the discovery of weapons, ammunition and other items hidden in the house of the suspects in Dammam, the main city in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

    Authorities are questioning the suspects to know more about the plot, Sabq added.
    According to the news site, two other sons of the arrested mother are being held in prison for their links with terror groups and their participation in operations in conflict zones.”

  6. ‘High-ranking’ al Qaeda militant killed in weekend strike in Libya: Pentagon (ahram, Mar 28, 2018)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/293643/World/Region/Highranking-al-Qaeda-militant-killed-in-weekend-st.aspx

    “One of the militants killed in a U.S. air strike in Libya over the weekend was a “high-ranking” official in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

    The strike on Saturday, the first against al Qaeda militants in Libya, killed “two terrorists” as part of efforts to deny militants a safe haven in the country’s vast desert.

    The military had previously acknowledged the weekend strike, but had not until now said who the target of the strike was.

    In a statement, the U.S. military said Musa Abu Dawud, the senior al Qaeda militant, had trained recruits in Libya to carry out attacks in the region.

    “He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack U.S. and Western interests in the region,” U.S. Africa Command said.

    The Saturday strike had hit on the outskirts of the city of Ubari and was carried out in coordination with the internationally recognised Government of National Accord in Tripoli.”

  7. Gunmen attack central Mali hotel, one dead: witnesses (reuters, Mar 28, 2018)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mali-security/gunmen-attack-central-mali-hotel-one-dead-witnesses-idUSKBN1H43DV?il=0

    “Unidentified gunmen killed one person and wounded at least two others late on Wednesday in an attack on a hotel in the central Mali town of Bandiagara regularly frequented by United Nations staff and humanitarian workers, two witnesses said.

    Five men approached the entrance to the Hotel la Falaise on foot at around 9.30 p.m. (2130 GMT) and opened fire. At least three people – a soldier guarding the entrance and two hotel workers – were struck by bullets. The soldier later died, the witnesses said.”

  8. ISIS militant nabbed in Turin, ‘was poised to attack’ (ansa, Mar 28, 2018)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/03/28/isis-militant-nabbed-in-turin-was-poised-to-attack-2_a2355629-da58-4c28-82e3-e01891b8b85d.html

    “An Italo-Moroccan accused of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist terror group was arrested in Turin on Wednesday and police said he had been planning to use trucks for attacks and seeking ‘lone wolves’ to carry them out.

    He was the second alleged terrorist to be arrested in Italy in two days. Elmahdi Halili, 23, the author of the first ISIS propaganda message in Italian, was captured at the end of a probe by anti-terrorism police in the northwestern Italian city.

    At the moment of his arrest, Halili reportedly shouted “Tyrants! I’m going to prison with my head held high”.

    Turin Police Chief Francesco Messina said “he is a very motivated individual, with no intention of repenting”.

    Messina said “we had to act immediately to eliminate this threat: Halili could have carried out attacks”.

    “He had moved from self-indoctrination to trying to contact others, ‘lone wolves’, who could carry out terrorist actions, and he was weighing how to use knives and how to prepare trucks for attacks,” Messina said.

    In some cases he met these lone wolves, Messina said, who were Italians converted to Islam, Ghanaians and Moroccans, often already known to police for other crimes.

    Messina said “it was a threat in a fluid context, not precise but very delicate.” He said “Daesh (ISIS) has been defeated on the field of battle but its propaganda continues”.

    The head of the DIGOS special security police in Turin, Carlo Ambra, who coordinated the operation, said “it was time to intervene.

    “We couldn’t afford to let him identify a target to strike.

    “There was a need to act immediately”.

    Ambra said the operation was called ‘Love and Hate’ because “Halili said that Islam is a balance between these two feelings: love for believers and hate for unbelievers”.

    Halili’s younger sister told reporters: “He had sworn to us that he wouldn’t do it any more.

    “And, instead, we are here in the same situation as before”, she said in the family home in the outlying Turin district of Lanzo. Halili was already arrested in Brescia in 2015 and plea-bargained a term of two years for apology of terrorism, police said.

    The probe, codenamed Balkan Connection, identified people able to enlist fighters for ISIS. These included the Brescian foreign fighter Anas El Abboubi who was arrested and then released by a parole court and went to fight in Syria.

    He is believed to have died.

    Police on Wednesday carried out searches across northern Italy – in Milan, Modena, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia – and also in Naples against individuals suspected of links to extremist Islamist circles, police said.

    A number of Italians who have converted to Islam are also involved in the probe, as well as citizens of foreign origin, police said.

    Charges against them include waging a campaign of radicalization and proselytism via the Internet, judicial sources said.

    On Tuesday in Foggia an Italo-Egyptian was arrested on charges of teaching children to kill for jihad.

    An Italian teacher from Foggia who works in Ferrara has been placed under
    investigation in that probe, judicial sources said Wednesday.

    The teacher is said to have converted to Islam.

    An investigation by anti-mafia police showed the man had been in contact with the Foggia Islamic cultural centre run by Mohy Eldin Mostafa Omer Abdel Rahman, sources said.

    In response to the arrests and an alert from EU border agency Frontex on possible migrant landing infiltrations, anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini on Wednesday called for an end to all migrant landings in Italy because of the terror threat.

    “The risk of terrorism if very high: after the arrests and Frontex’s alert on the possibility of there being terrorists infiltrated among those landing, we ask for an immediate move, an ironclad control on all our borders by land and sea and the suspension of all further landings on our coasts,” he said.

    In an interview with La Stampa newspaper Wednesday, caretaker Interior Minister Marco Minniti said “the picture of the ISIS threat remains unchanged.

    “May the new government continue with the deportation of those who have been radicalised”.”

  9. France still wrestling with how to overcome ‘insidious enemy’ that is radical Islamism (thelocal, Mar 28, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.fr/20180328/frances-ongoing-struggle-to-overcome-homegrown-radical-islam

    “French president Emmanuel Macron has denounced “underground Islamism” as a new row has again flared in France over how to counter the influence of radical Salafist interpretations of Islam. Some have called for an outright ban.

    In the wake of Friday’s shootings by Radouane Lakdim, officials disclosed his links starting in 2013 with “the Salafist movement”, a Sunni Muslim branch originating in Saudi Arabia which promotes a strict conservative lifestyle.

    While a majority of Salafists disdain violence as they adher to the fundamentalist traditions of “pious ancestors”, some of its followers embrace using force to promote their beliefs.

    “It is not only the terrorist organizations, the armies of Daesh, the imams of hate and death that we are fighting against,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.

    “What we are fighting against is also this underground Islamism … which indoctrinates on our soil and corrupts daily,” he said, denouncing this “insidious enemy that requires every citizen to be vigilant and civic-minded.”

    Former Socialist prime minister Manuel Valls also addressed the issue in a radio interview Tuesday.

    “It’s not about forbidding a religion or even an idea, but I’m saying very clearly that we must forbid the spread of Salafism, because it’s the enemy.”

    “Of course not all Salafists are terrorists, but all the terrorists are Salafists,” he said.

    Many of the jihadist attackers who have struck France since the January 2015 massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris were later found to have frequented Salafist circles.

    Legal experts almost unanimously dismiss the idea of a ban, saying any effort to outlaw a religious movement would run counter to freedom of belief and never hold up in court.

    Other critics say such moves would only drive extremist preachings underground, making it harder for authorities to monitor young people at risk of falling under the Salafists’ sway.

    But outrage over the killing of Arnaud Beltrame, the French officer whose throat was slit by Lakdim after taking the place of a hostage, and three other people could put new pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to take more aggressive measures.

    Some lawmakers have also renewed calls for “preventive detention” of the most radicalised Islamists already on watchlists, after it emerged Tuesday that Lakdim had been on the lists and was summoned for an interview with the authorities days before his attacks in southern France.

    “Our country must launch an extensive campaign to eradicate Salafism,” the rightwing Figaro daily wrote in a front-page editorial Tuesday.

    “With all due respect for the apostles of ‘living in harmony’, this virus is incompatible with our freedom to live, move and think.”

    Foreign financing

    Macron, who pledged in January a “restructuring of Islam in France”, had already signalled his determination to clamp down on Salafist mosques and imams.

    Confronted in 2016 by a Montpellier resident who said “a Salafist is a citizen like any other”, he replied: “There are associations which do not respect the laws of the republic in the name of their religion, these I want to dismantle.”

    Yet France has already passed several laws since 2012 aimed at curtailing extremism, most recently last year’s tough anti-terror laws which enshrined many measures of the state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.

    The government estimates there are about 2,500 mosques and prayer halls in France, about 120 of which are considered to be preaching radical Salafism.

    Authorities have shut down some of them, most recently in December in Marseille, where the Algerian imam El Hadi Doudi was accused of distributing texts liable to incite hatred.

    Police said several people who attended his As-Sounna mosque had claimed allegiance to Al-Qaeda or had fought in Iraq and Syria, and this month officials confirmed that Doudi would be deported.

    Far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Monday reiterated her calls to block foreign financing of mosques — a reference to the funds provided by Saudi Arabia for Salafist mosques around the world.

    But Prime Minister Edouard Philippe appeared to pour cold water on the idea of outlawing Salafism outright, though he admitted “a real question about the combat of civilisations” was posing a threat to French values.

    “We cannot prohibit an idea,” Philippe told parliament on Tuesday.

    “We can punish the behaviour it provokes, if it disrupts the public order, the country’s laws or the minimum standards of social life,” Philippe said, garnering widespread applause from lawmakers.””

  10. Channel 4 – Revealed: Cambridge Analytica data on thousands of Facebook users still not deleted

    Facebook said it took steps to ensure harvested campaign data had been “destroyed”. But Channel 4 News has now discovered that data on thousands of people in Colorado is still circulating – and Channel 4 News has been to speak to those whose privacy was breached.

  11. Inspector general opens probe of alleged bias in FBI, DOJ

    The investigation will determine if anyone in the ranks broke the rules when convincing federal judges to sign off on surveillance during the Russian collusion probe.