Reader’s Links, April 29, 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.

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

103 Replies to “Reader’s Links, April 29, 2018”

        • Omri Ceren:
          Some ppl might criticize Michelle Wolf for thinking her viciousness toward Sanders would go over well with her audience, or in worst case would be downplayed as good fun & defended as free speech.

          And sure those are gross things for her to think but have to admit she was right.
          ………
          I don’t tweet, but I read those the ElderOfZion rates ‘funniest’. They lead me to others…it’s hard to stop.

          Just the header, I *rarely* click to read a thread.
          => Fire, Knife = Be careful! Recreational-drugs /-Addictive-behaviors = Just-say-no! <=

          The Mossad has my personal guarantee: a fast hit of dark humor that spoofs itself and "insiders" everywhere.
          https://twitter.com/TheMossadIL/

  1. “Without God we are lost”

    https://youtu.be/x8oxQ_RaypU

    In this very short clip I sense that Matt, having once been a priest who blocked Christians from finding G_d, now blocks Athiests from doing so.

    When Matt replaced Jesus for their inner G_d, he made Clones for Truth that had no defense against liars. When he replaced nothing with their inner G_d, he makes Clones for Love that have no defense against predators.

    The children who must develop into adults to find their own inner G_d, are all being cut down by their priests and marxists. Creating runts.

    Jordan tried to explain that the universe is what you perceive: the wider the two brain hemispheres can see, the more detail it has.

    In my opinion, to overstimulate or repress the left brain hemisphere in a person, (the past, present, future insights replaced with a fake origin, present and future heven-hell or an Eternal-Reset Ground Zero),
    to take that “I Am Who I Am” away and replace with Allah or Socialism respectively, is to destroy their soul. Without the Soul of Man there are no Saints. Society returns to fatalistic slavery. And Sam Harris woud not survive the fire because in the time it took to intellectualize and rationalize why you should save him, it would be too late.

    • It is like, there are adults who just do not like kids.
      The infant grows up through the reptilian, mammaliam and conscious stages, (unlocking Sexual, Socialist and Sentient phases) and when they are at the top they pull out the rungs from the children beneath them so they cannot climb that ladder. The riches of religion, that originally had the purpose of creating wholely minds, is denied to others.

      Probably because a Baptist is too far removed from the very first John the Baptist and what he taught.

      “(46) Jesus said, “From Adam unto John the Baptist there has been none among the offspring of women who has been more exalted than John the Baptist, so that such a person’s eyes might be broken. But I have said that whoever among you (plur.) becomes a little one will become acquainted with the kingdom, and will become more exalted than John.”
      http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas/gospelthomas46.html
      What should have been a final exposition of discovering ‘G_d is within you,’ became God is Dead.

      The rationale of the right brain – the feminine refuting there ever existed a left brain and would be outraged if there was one – seems the dance I am hearing. ‘We protect ourselves because of instincts’ does not explain self-harm. All the lowest levels presented as highest acolades of intellectual profundity.

  2. Taliban, Daesh Conduct Attacks in Afghanistan, Leading to 17 Victims – Reports (sputniknews, Apr 29, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804291064010701-afghanistan-special-operations-militants-taliban-daesh/

    “An unexploded rocket belonging to the Taliban radical movement went off in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, resulting in at least 11 civilians dead or injured, the Khaama Press news agency reported Sunday.

    The explosion took place in the vicinity of Surkh Rod district at around 07:00 a.m. local time (02:30 GMT), the Khaama Press news agency reported, citing the provincial government. Several women and children are among the victims.

    According to the local authorities, Taliban militants fired a rocket late on Saturday but it did not go off.

    The radical movement has not commented on the issue yet…”

  3. Islamic State ally stakes out territory around Lake Chad (reuters, Apr 29, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nigeria-security/islamic-state-ally-stakes-out-territory-around-lake-chad-idUKKBN1I006L?rpc=401&amp;

    “ABUJA/MAIDUGURI (Reuters) – From the shores of Lake Chad, Islamic State’s West African ally is on a mission: winning over the local people.

    Digging wells, giving out seeds and fertiliser and providing safe pasture for herders are among the inducements offered by Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), which split from Nigeria’s Boko Haram in 2016.

    “If you are a herder, driver or trader, they won’t touch you – just follow their rules and regulations governing the territory,” said a herder, who moves cattle in and out of ISWA territory and whose identity Reuters is withholding for his safety. “They don’t touch civilians, just security personnel.”

    The campaign, which has created an economy for ISWA to tax, is part of the armed insurgent group’s push to control territory in northeastern Nigeria and in Niger…”

  4. Iraq’s IS trials bring swift verdicts, almost all guilty (abcnews, Apr 29, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqs-trials-bring-swift-verdicts-guilty-54808904

    “Iraq is holding huge numbers of detainees on suspicion of ties to the Islamic State group — around 11,000, according to Iraqi officials — and they are being rushed through counterterrorism courts in trials that raise questions over whether justice is being done. At the same time, families are often left in the dark about where their loved ones are being detained or what their fates are.

    The Associated Press last week attended several trials being held in Tel Keif, north of Mosul.

    Throughout the system, the trials are usually short, often less than 30 minutes, and most end with guilty verdicts. Convictions are based on confessions that defendants and rights groups say intelligence agents extract by intimidation, torture and abuse. Also used as evidence are reports from anonymous informants, raising the possibility of false accusations made as revenge against rivals. The same defense lawyer works dozens of cases, with little knowledge of the defendants.

    Moreover, even limited involvement with IS can bring harsh punishment. Under Iraq’s terror law, only three punishments are permitted — 15 years in prison, life imprisonment or execution by hanging. All verdicts are reviewed by Iraq’s Supreme Court.

    “The system is built on an unjust foundation,” said one defense lawyer, Mahfoudh Hamad Ismael. “These suspects’ cases are done and finished the first day they enter a security detention center or an intelligence facility.”

    The swift, truncated sessions reflect in part how Iraq’s judicial system has been overwhelmed by the influx of detained IS suspects. Rights groups have long criticized Iraqi courts, saying they struggle to uphold due process. Now they must work through thousands captured in broad sweeps carried out as Iraqi forces retook the northern city of Mosul last year.

    Many Iraqis are also thirsty for quick retribution against a group that was notorious for its atrocities…”

  5. Philippines makes ban on workers going to Kuwait permanent (abcnews, Apr 29, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/philippines-makes-ban-workers-kuwait-permanent-54809226

    “Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday that a ban on Filipino workers from heading to Kuwait that’s been in effect since February would now be permanent, inflaming a dispute sparked by complaints of the abuse of Filipina housemaids and workers in the Gulf country.

    Kuwait on Wednesday expelled the Philippine ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Manila over the dispute. The highly unusual move came as a surprise in Kuwait, a typically sedate and oil-rich nation that has been both a long target of Duterte’s criticism and heavily reliant on Filipina nannies and maids.

    “The ban stays permanently,” Duterte said at a news briefing in southern Davao City after arriving from Singapore, where he attended a summit of Southeast Asian leaders. “There will be no more recruitment for especially domestic helpers. No more.”

    There was no immediate reaction from Kuwaiti officials…”

  6. Video at site

    Trump Dares Dems: Don’t Fund Wall, ‘We’ll Close Down The Country’

    TRANSCRIPT:

    TRUMP “But to protect our families we must secure our borders. The good thing about the caravan. People are watching. People are watching. You watch how horrible — They are coming in from Honduras. They are coming in from other places. They are taking this long trek up Mexico. We want Mexico to help us and we have to demand it. But Mexico is going to help us. But there are hundreds of people out of maybe 2,000.

    “And our laws are so corrupt and stupid, I call them the dumbest immigration laws on Earth. If a person puts their foot over the line, we have to take them into our country. We have to register them. We then have to ask them a couple questions. Lawyers are telling them what to say, how unsafe they are. And once they say that we have to let them go to come back to court in like a year. Only one problem, they don’t come back. Welcome to the United States. This is the law. We have at the border the greatest people, the border patrol, the I.C.E. Agents. These are great people. These are great people.

    “The laws are so corrupt, they are so corrupt. One of the reasons they do it is because the Democrats actually feel and they are probably right, that all of these people pouring across are going to vote for Democrats. They will vote no matter what we do. So there is a theory they do it for that. They do it for a lot of reasons. A lot of times they don’t even know what they are doing or why they are doing it. But we have to have borders and we have to have them fast. We need security and we need the wall. And, again, that wall has started. We have $1.6 billion. We come up again September 28. If we don’t get border security we have no choice, we’ll close down the country because we need border security.”

    https://news.grabien.com/story-trump-warns-if-dems-dont-fund-wall-well-close-down-country

  7. Kim Says He’ll Give Up Weapons if U.S. Promises Not to Invade

    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday.

    In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country’s only known underground nuclear test site.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/29/world/asia/north-korea-trump-nuclear.html

  8. Kim Promises to Shut Main Nuclear Test Site in May — and Let Foreign Media Watch

    North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has promised to close his main nuclear weapons test site in May and said he will invite South Korean and American media to witness the shutdown.

    Ahead of an historic meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump expected within the next three to four weeks, Kim told South Korea’s president that two tunnels at the nuclear test site are still in good condition, playing down international speculation that the site was so badly damaged by nuclear explosions that it can no longer be used. Kim’s pledges to Moon at their historic summit on Friday were detailed in Seoul on Sunday by Moon’s chief communication official.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-29/kim-pledges-to-invite-media-to-witness-nuke-site-shutdown-in-may

  9. Hacked electronic road sign reads ‘Hail Hitler’ in Arizon

    An electronic road sign displayed an anti-Semitic message early Friday morning on a highway on the outskirts of Phoenix.

    The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office received a call at 2:25 a.m. about an electronic road sign along Hunt Highway that read “Hail Hitler,” an incorrectly spelled reference to the Nazi salute.

    The road sign was hacked by an unknown person and the words on the sign were changed, said Navideh Forghani, public information officer for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.

    Officers tried to turn off the sign, but it required a password and officers could not immediately reach the private company that owned the sign.

    Forghani said police reached out to Pinal County’s Public Works department for help and they covered the sign to hide the message from others.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/04/28/hacked-electronic-road-sign-reads-hail-hitler-arizona/561089002/

    • Someoine ought to file a FOIA to illuminate the name of the company that didn’t have a back-up, after-hours plan in the first place.

  10. Amsterday airport closed by power failure

    Passengers abandon cars and walk to airport amid cancellation chaos on one of year’s busiest weekends for travel

    Travellers going through Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport today are being warned to expect serious delays after a total power outage overnight forced officials to close the airport.

    Passengers with morning or delayed overnight flights are enduring long queues at desks to rebook or check luggage, which are expected to last all day, as the electricity failure meant all check-in systems were down.

    The outage, shortly before 1am, affected around 18,000 households and required Schiphol terminals to be evacuated and incoming travellers by road and train to be halted because of the security risk.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/amsterdam-schiphol-airport-closed-flights-latest-power-outage-delays-passengers-departures-arrivals-a8327886.html

  11. ‘You Just Don’t Know What To Expect:’ Subway Attacks Leave Straphangers On Edge

    NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Subway safety fears are growing after several high-profile violent incidents.

    Surveillance videos shows a man arguing with an MTA clerk just before police say he lit several matches and threw them into the booth’s money slot in an attempted arson. Another image appears to show him making a menacing gesture with his hand, as if pointing a gun.

    http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/04/27/subway-safety-fears/

    • Remember one goal of the left is to make our nations ungovernable, this breakdown of social order is part of their plan.

  12. OAP TOT AGONY Britain’s oldest new parents, aged 63 and 65, have baby, 1, taken away by social services

    The couple, who spent £100,000 on a surrogate mum, are said to be ‘devastated’ after social services took their one-year-old baby from them

    A COUPLE have become Britain’s oldest new parents — only to have their baby taken from them by social services.

    The 63-year-old mum and her partner, 65, are “devastated” after bosses stepped in and took the child from them.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6167725/oldest-new-parents-baby-social-services/

    • This is an interesting read about a medical team that has experience in assisting birth without a surrogate, which includes assessing long-term health and ability to care for a child (which grandparents have done for eons). The lead physician points out that although conception before 35 is easiest, families with mothers in their 60’s have the time to pass along their values without needing nursery care while working.
      https://m.jpost.com/Metro/Having-a-baby-at-age-60-463899#/

  13. Central Americans will seek asylum at southern US border

    By ELLIOT SPAGAT
    Associated Press
    AP Photo
    AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik

    TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — U.S. immigration lawyers are telling Central Americans in a caravan of asylum-seekers that traveled through Mexico to the border with San Diego that they face possible separation from their children and detention for many months. They say they want to prepare them for the worst possible outcome.

    “We are the bearers of horrible news,” Los Angeles lawyer Nora Phillips said during a break from legal workshops for the migrants at three Tijuana locations where about 20 lawyers gave free information and advice. “That’s what good attorneys are for.”

    The Central Americans, many traveling as families, on Sunday will test the Trump administration’s tough rhetoric criticizing the caravan when the migrants begin seeking asylum by turning themselves in to border inspectors at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing, the nation’s busiest.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_MIGRANT_CARAVAN_TXOL-?SITE=TXMCA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2018-04-28-16-37-24

  14. University of Texas to Treat Masculinity as a ‘Mental Health’ Issue

    The Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin recently launched a new program to help male students “take control over their gender identity and develop a healthy sense of masculinity.”

    Treating masculinity as if it were a mental health crisis, “MasculinUT” is organized by the school’s counseling staff and most recently organized a poster series encouraging students to develop a “healthy model of masculinity.”

    The program is predicated on a critique of so-called “restrictive masculinity.” Men, the program argues, suffer when they are told to “act like a man” or when they are encouraged to fulfill traditional gender roles, such as being “successful” or “the breadwinner.”

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/university-of-texas-to-treat-masculinity-as-a-mental-health-issue/

  15. French museum discovers half of its collection are fakes

    A state-owned French art museum has discovered that more than half of its collection consists of worthless fakes and experts fear that other public galleries may also be stuffed with forgeries.

    An art historian raised the alarm after noticing that paintings attributed to Etienne Terrus showed buildings that were only constructed after the artist’s death in 1922.

    Experts confirmed that 82 of the 140 works displayed at the Terrus museum in Elne, the artist’s birthplace in southern France, were fak

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/28/french-museum-discovers-half-collection-fakes/

    • I was under the impression that the most valuable pieces on display are reproductions. Just too expensive to keep insured and protected from environmental degradation.
      I know that 20 years ago the Harvard’s Fogg and Sackler Museums displayed only 10% of their collections, and of that only 20% original.

      • Last I heard there are twice as many Van Gogh’s in the US then he painted. Adding all of those overseas the number reaches close to 4 times the number he did.

        The very entertaining movie “How to Steal a Million” is about forging paintings, the movie is on You Tube for $2.99 sorry it isn’t free.

  16. Russia’s floating nuclear plant heads out to sea

    It is to be towed to Murmansk, a city of 300,000 people, where its reactors are to be loaded with nuclear fuel.

    A controversial floating nuclear power plant made by Russia has headed out for its first sea voyage.

    The floating plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, was towed out of the St Petersburg shipyard where it was constructed on Saturday.

    It is to be pulled through the Baltic Sea and around the Norwegian coast to Murmansk, a city of 300,000 people, where its reactors are to be loaded with nuclear fuel.

    The Lomonosov is to be put into service in 2019 in the Arctic off the coast of Chukotka in the far northeast, providing power for a port town and for oil rigs.

    Rosatom, the state-owned atomic energy corporation, is the owner of the nuclear power plant.

    https://news.sky.com/story/russias-floating-nuclear-plant-heads-out-to-sea-11349888

  17. Rep. Louie Gohmert has compiled a dossier on the professional record of Robert Mueller. It’s not pretty
    By Jeff Dunetz April 28, 2018

    One thing heard over and over from politicians of all persuasions is that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is an honest and capable prosecutor. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) disagrees – and proves it. The Texas Republican has put together a 48-page research document (below) that “unmasks” the spin about Mueller and exposes him as a prosecutorial tyrant.

    Gohmert writes:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/04/28/rep-louie-gohmert-compiled-dossier-professional-record-robert-mueller-not-pretty/

  18. Parent outraged over sexually explicit question found on HS homework assignment
    By Ben Bowles April 28, 2018

    You’ve got to hand it to schools with their “zero-tolerance” policies. A first-grader dares to point his finger as a pretend gun and he’s suspended. A kindergartner whispers grace before tucking into her lunch and she is greeted with a tongue-lashing by the “lunch lady.”

    Schools know what’s good for their young charges. They know that firearms and prayer are bad. They also know that sexual indoctrination is good. So when Chicago Public Schools sanctions a sex ed curriculum that includes teaching fifth-graders how to perform anal sex, the district is somewhat surprised when parents raise objections.

    Maybe it was the reality that schools see no problem teaching kindergarten-age children about masturbation that prompted Duval County Public Schools to permit the following question on a homework handout for an eleventh-grade course in anatomy:

    Ursula was devastated when her boyfriend broke up with her after having sex. To get revenge, she had sex with his best friend the next day. Ursula had a beautiful baby girl 9 months later. Ursula has type O blood, her ex-boyfriend is type AB blood, and his best friend is type A blood. If her baby daddy is her ex-boyfriend, what could her baby’s possible blood type(s) NOT be?

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/04/28/parents-outraged-sexually-explicit-question-found-hs-homework-assignment/

    The school is in Jacksonville Florida.

  19. Real reason GOP lawmakers are retiring? Fear of assassination, says one congressman
    By LU Staff April 28, 2018

    Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks says the flood of departing GOP members of Congress this year might be related to fear of “assassination risk” from violent “leftists” following the deadly shooting attack on the Republican’s baseball practice in 2017.

    “One of the things that’s concerning me is the assassination risk may become a factor,” Brooks said in a radio interview with the Dale Jackson Show.

    Brooks was speaking about the first congressional baseball practice Thursday, the first time the team had practiced at the Simpson field in Alexandria, Va., since the June attack that wounded six, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.

    “You have to wonder with that kind of disproportionate retirement number whether what happened in June played a factor,” Brooks said.

    “I don’t think any of these people who are retiring would say that, but just looking at the numbers,” Brooks said. “That’s out of whack.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/04/28/real-reason-gop-lawmakers-retiring-fear-assassination-says-one-congressman/

  20. Facebook’s Censorship in Germany

    by Stefan Frank
    April 29, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12224/facebook-censorship-germany

    A court in Berlin has issued a temporary restraining order against Facebook. Under the threat of a fine of 250,000 euros (roughly $300,000 USD) or a jail term, Facebook was obliged to restore a user’s comment that it had deleted. Moreover, the ruling prohibited the company from banning the user because of this comment.

    This is the first time a German court has dealt with the consequences of Germany’s internet censorship law, which came into effect on October 1, 2017. The law stipulates that social media companies have to delete or block “apparent” criminal offenses, such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint.

    As many critics pointed out, this state censorship makes freedom of speech subject to the arbitrary decisions of corporate entities that are likely to censor more than absolutely necessary, rather than risk a crushing fine of up to 50 million euros ($65 million USD). According to a newspaper report, Facebook’s censors have just ten seconds to decide whether to delete a comment or not.

    The case with which the court in Berlin had to deal was that on January 8, 2018, the Swiss daily Basler Zeitung posted an article with the title “Viktor Orban speaks of Muslim ‘invasion'” on its Facebook site. The blurb read:

  21. Sweden’s Minister of Social Affairs, Annika Strandhäll, told newspaper Aftonbladet that the country’s elderly and not refugees, are overloading the healthcare system.

    The Swedish health care system is so overloaded that the care queues for surgery are so long that patients literally start to rot, Aftonbladet reported earlier.

    Strandhäl is convinced this is not due to mass migration to Sweden. When readers of Aftonbladet claim that it is the acceptance of refugees that has made Swedish healthcare worse, the minister answers:

    “That’s not true, that’s not true! We have a rapidly aging population in Sweden. Life expectancy increases by 3.5 hours a day and we have a larger number of chroniclers with life-long relationships with healthcare today than 30 years ago.”

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/04/swedish-minister-says-the-countrys-elderly-are-the-problem-and-not-refugees/

  22. Redouane Ahrouch, the founder and the president of Belgium’s “Islam” party, refused to look women in the eye during a TV debate. He also didn’t shake their hands. One of the women said she felt “humiliated” and “worthless” afterwards, Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen reports.

    When the Islam party was created, one of its goals was to promote better integration of Belgium’s Muslim population. But, just after Ahrouch had been elected, he switched his position and recently said he wants to create an Islamic State in Belgium.

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/04/founder-of-islam-party-treats-belgian-women-like-trash-during-tv-debate/

  23. FBI Never Investigated Abedin/Clinton Laptop Emails In October 2016…
    Posted on April 28, 2018 by sundance
    As many people are aware, CTH has decided to go back through two years of documents, releases, reports, testimony, media interviews; including interviews with fired FBI Director James Comey; question all prior assumptions; re-examine the entire framework within all the known granular DOJ and FBI activity; and finally contrast it all against the full scope of released messaging between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

    Within this project some breakout discoveries need to be highlighted. One of those discoveries pertains to the Fox News interview with James Comey and Bret Baier.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/04/28/fbi-never-investigated-abedin-clinton-laptop-emails-in-october-2016/

  24. HOUSTON — A Texas father has been released from jail after police say he brought a gun to a hospital to stop the staff from taking his son off of life support.

    George Pickering II’s son was declared “brain-dead” after he suffered a massive stroke in January. The hospital ordered a “terminal wean” which is a process that slowly ends a person’s life by removing life support. The staff had even notified an organ donation organization that Pickering’s son was a donor.

    Pickering, however, wasn’t ready to let go — now, his son, George Pickering III, is still alive and well because of it.

    http://fox13now.com/2015/12/22/father-brings-gun-to-hospital-to-buy-time-for-his-brain-dead-son/

  25. Saudi Arabia: ‘Iran world’s greatest terror sponsor’ – Sec of State Pompeo

    Newly-appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted the need for unity in the Persian/Arabian Gulf and singled out Iran as the region’s chief antagonist during a press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh on Sunday.

    Pompeo pointed the finger at Tehran, adding that Saudi security was a ‘priority’ for the United States

    “Iran destabilises this entire region. It supports proxy militias and terrorist groups,” he said. “It supports the murderous Assad regime as well. Unlike the prior administration, we will not neglect the vast scope of Iran’s terrorism. It is indeed the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world.”

    He also assured that the US ‘will continue to assist Saudi Arabia with its defence needs and support its right to defend its own borders.’

  26. “Update Brazil – 28/04/2018”
    Allan Dos Santos and Jeff Nyquist
    Terça Livre – April 28, 2018

  27. One person killed and three others wounded in shooting at night club
    Police investigate shooting at La Isla Encanto nightclub in West Palm Beach
    One person was killed and three others wounded in the shooting
    Officials say two of the victims are security guards at the club
    By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 08:32 EDT, 29 April 2018 | UPDATED: 08:53 EDT, 29 April 2018

    e-mail
    View comments
    One person has been killed and three others have been wounded in a shooting at a West Palm Beach nightclub.

    The shooting took place overnight on Saturday at the La Isla Encanto nightclub.

    The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

    Law enforcement officials told WPTV that two of the victims were armed security guards at the club.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5670957/One-person-killed-three-wounded-shooting-night-club.html

  28. Man, 18, arrested after car ploughs into crowd of pedestrians in hit and run horror (express, Apr 29, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/952700/newport-crash-newport-cambrian-road-closed-police-hit-and-run

    “A VIDEO has surfaced showing the moment a car ploughs into a crowd of revellers outside a nightclub critically injuring four people as police arrest an 18-year-old man.

    Piercing screams can be heard as the Blue Ford C Max drives into a crowd of clubbers outside The Courtyard in Newport, south Wales.

    Injured people can be seen on the floor as the car flees the scene at 5.30am this morning.

    Three women and a man were rushed to hospital, where two of the woman are said to have life-changing injuries.

    The burnt-out shell of the car was found dumped two miles away by Gwent Police, who have said they do not believe the incident to be terror-related.

    The driver was reported to have sped off in the direction of Maindee, Newport.

    Superintendent Glyn Fernquest said: “This is a shocking incident for everyone involved.

    “Specialist officers are currently investigating and are appealing for information in relation to identifying the driver of this vehicle…”

  29. CBC – How cities are being redesigned to protect pedestrians from vehicles

    Businesses and architects respond to call for better protection for pedestrians

    Brad Done watched carefully as a machinist drilled a hole into a bright yellow metal tube about a metre long and 10 centimetres across at his Surrey, B.C., business, Reliance Foundry.

    The pole is called a bollard, designed to be set into the ground to keep vehicles away from people and buildings.

    The demand for this product is so strong it’s become the main focus of his business, which once forged metal into tools and other products for B.C. industries.

    “The bollard business for us is thriving, it’s now our No. 1 sales product.”

    Some bollards are just ugly metal tubes filled with concrete, Done said.

    Increasingly, though, designers are looking for decorative barriers made from cast iron or stainless steel. Some serve double duty as bicycle racks.

    It’s this market that Reliance is homing in on. Bollards with decorative metal covers help disguise the beefy metal and concrete barriers beneath.

    “We ship product into every state in the U.S. and every province and territory in Canada,” he said on a tour of his warehouse.

    “We have product in front of the Federal Reserve, Apple headquarters, Cirque du Soleil, major hotel chains, major restaurants, just about everything.”

    His company alone is now selling about 15,000 bollards a year.

    Attacks using vehicles on the rise

    Worldwide, the number of deliberate attacks using vehicles against pedestrians has been on the rise.

    Since 2006, more than 200 people have died and 1,000 injured in these attacks around the world. Most are linked to terrorism.

    In New York’s Times Square, Claire Weisz an architect and urban designer, showed CBC News changes made to protect pedestrians, such as bollards and granite slabs.

    “You’re looking at a Times Square today that went through a complete replanning.”

    She pointed to a nearby metal pole that did its job as designed.

    “When a car came through here in a deliberate act, that car was impaled over there on two of these bollards. The bollard didn’t go anywhere and the car didn’t go any further.”

    Barriers have saved lives

    Weisz said early attempts at improving security were often hard to look at, but more recent measures have made public spaces more attractive and functional.

    “You have to have designers, artists, community members, security experts [... and no imams .??? ...] all in the room together. This simply can’t be an engineered solution.”

    In Vancouver, Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, agreed with the approach.

    Standing on a busy Vancouver street, he noted that although deliberate attacks are on the increase, so are accidents.

    He said urban designers have to be creative to protect people from vehicles.

    Yan said concrete planters, benches and landscaping are part of the solution.

    Public art can also be about the safety of pedestrians, and something that is quiet, as opposed to something that is explicit, that I think really broadcasts fear as opposed to an element of safety.”

    In New York, Weisz said the public has to understand there are limitations.

    “You’re never going to come up with something that works all of the time. That’s just a fact we all have to live with.”

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/how-cities-are-being-redesigned-to-protect-pedestrians-from-vehicles-1.4637526

  30. Iraq jails 19 Russian women for life for joining IS (alaraby, Apr 29, 2018)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/4/29/iraq-jails-19-russian-women-for-joining-is

    “Iraq on Sunday sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State group, the latest in a series of heavy verdicts against foreign women linked to the jihadists.

    The head of Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court, which deals with terrorism cases, said the women were found guilty of “joining and supporting IS”, according to an AFP journalist at the hearing.

    Six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also condemned to life in prison on Sunday on the same charge.

    The women, who have the right to appeal against the sentences, entered the court one-by-one dressed in black headscarves and pink blouses, most of them accompanied by their children.

    They addressed the court through a translator, a Russian-language professor at Baghdad University hired by their embassy for the trial.

    “We will contact the parents to inform them of the verdict,” a Russian diplomat at the hearing told AFP.

    IS took over nearly one third of Iraq in a blistering 2014 offensive, seizing control of the country’s second largest city, Mosul, among others.

    Baghdad declared military victory over the jihadists in December, after expelling them from all urban centres.

    It has detained at least 560 women and 600 children identified as jihadists or relatives of suspected IS fighters, and is wasting no time in putting them on trial…”

  31. Alan Kurdi photo left Canadian government scrambling, emails reveal

    OTTAWA—In the hours and days after three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body washed up on a beach in Turkey, Canadian immigration officials were focused on fashioning and tweaking their formal responses — words that ultimately rang hollow as the world mourned the little boy’s death.

    New documents obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act provide a revealing look at the often-frantic flurry of internal government communications that erupted in the days after a heart-rending photo of the toddler’s corpse rocketed around the world.

    The email trail reveals federal staffers grappling with the painfully slow wheels of bureaucratic red tape as they try to respond to a torrent of media requests, all the while fussing with the minutiae of wording government statements that did little to address the most burning questions.

    The Canadian Press requested all emails dealing with the subject Syrian refugees that were received and obtained by David Hickey, then-director general of communications for the federal Immigration department, for the three days following the death of Alan Kurdi.

    The ensuing documents totalled 532 pages.

    On the morning of Sept. 3, 2015, the photo of Alan lying dead on the beach appeared in newspapers around the world. Canada, which was in the throes of a federal election campaign, was linked to the boy in initial media reports that mistakenly stated his family’s application to come to Canada had been rejected.

    “I need urgent responsive lines,” a staffer at the Canadian embassy in Beirut asked of the Immigration department.

    Communications staffers immediately went into damage control. Emails that began early in the morning went back and forth, discussing media lines aimed at correcting the public record — the Kurdi family had not been rejected by Canada — while also highlighting the commitment of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees.

    One bureaucrat tried to move the conversation away from message control, stressing the “need to focus on the migrant issue” and asked them to consider naming Alan Kurdi in the government response.

    “Doesn’t matter how many thousands, a three (year-old) boy is dead,” wrote Jean-Bruno Villeneuve, assistant director of media relations for Immigration.

    But the ensuing conversations only became more bureaucratic.

    Transcriptions of every media report and copies of every news story were shared among the staffers, as well as the increasingly frustrated requests from journalists, still awaiting the government’s official response.

    Meanwhile, communications staffers worked on a draft statement and continued to loop more and more departmental heads into the conversation, asking for input and approval on wording. Here and there, a word would be changed, and the newly revised draft would have to once again be circulated for approvals, which were required at the deputy minister level of multiple departments and from the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister’s Office.

    Finally, at about 4 p.m. on Sept. 3, the much-discussed, three-line government response was posted to the Immigration Department’s website.

    But emails continued well into the night as officials realized the public conversation was shifting away from the dead child and toward why Canada wasn’t doing more to help Syrian refugees.

    Since this was happening during an election campaign, some officials questioned how to handle their messaging during the writ period.

    “Given this ‘special electoral period’ would we have the capacity (as we normally would) to set the record straight by using factual data, or would this be viewed as partisan?” one embassy staffer asked.

    As Sept. 3 rolled into Sept. 4 and more media requests from across the world continued to pour in, the emails show communications staffers pressing their superiors for answers to the increasingly detailed questions they were getting on immigration and refugee policy.

    The documents also show government staffers were warned not to speak directly to media, as they began to hear of a rally planned near a departmental office.

    Bureaucrats focused on trying to highlight the positive aspects of Canada’s refugee programs and finding accurate numbers of Syrian refugees who had been admitted to Canada, leaving questions and concerns being raised about the country’s refugee policies simply hanging. Hours went by with little progress and they tried to “manage expectations” of journalists whose deadlines were being missed.

    As Sept. 4 drew to a close, an “urgent” response to questions from Maclean’s magazine was still being batted around when one official realized another department — Foreign Affairs — should have been looped into the approvals process.

    The final 22 pages were withheld from release, citing an exemption in the Access to Information Act that prevents disclosure of records involving advice or consultations with cabinet ministers or their staff.

    Alan Kurdi’s aunt, Tima Kurdi, has recently written a book about how the photo of her nephew washed up on a Turkish beach “changed the entire tone of conversation about refugees.”

    But despite the fact it left the Canadian government scrambling behind the scenes — and ultimately saw the new Trudeau government welcome more than 51,800 Syrian refugees, according to the latest government figures —Tima Kurdi believes political leaders are still not doing enough.

    “It pains me that there are so many people who suffer and nobody knows about them and all those politicians, I don’t think their hearts have woken up,” she said in an interview.

    “They don’t actually take action, they only talk. So, I encourage people to come out from their silence. I encourage them to talk to their politicians and their leaders. We need to have a political solution to end the war to let those people go home and rebuild their lives.”

    http://canadanewsmedia.ca/2018/04/29/alan-kurdi-photo-left-canadian-government-scrambling-emails-reveal/

  32. Israel’s Nuclear and Conventional Deterrence

    BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 814, April 29, 2018

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the years ahead, Israel could face the growing prospect of WMD terrorism – i.e., attacks involving chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons. In this connection, it is vital that Israeli officials do their utmost to prevent perfidious enemy manipulations of humanitarian international law. This is especially urgent with regard to enemy use of “human shields,” an illegal form of military deception that could be used to deter Israeli retaliation. Perfidy can originate with both state and sub-state foes, and could conceivably involve primitive nuclear devices such as “dirty bombs” (weapons that do not involve genuine chain reactions, but instead attach conventional explosives to fissile materials).

    Under authoritative international law, the practice of moving civilians into designated military areas, or, vice versa, of moving military assets into civilian towns or villages, violates the law of war (aka the law of armed conflict or humanitarian international law). This violation is generally regarded as a species of “perfidy,” but informally, it is more often referred to as the problem of “human shields.” Whatever one might prefer to call such barbarous behavior, Israel’s senior military planners must ensure that it will never get in the way of essential counterterrorism.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-nuclear-deterrence/

      • Interesting to compare and contrast two analysts I admire greatly. Writing for different audiences, they’re coming to similar conclusions.

        Prof. Beres piece from April 22:
        Prospects for Israel’s Descent into Regional Chaos and War: The Trump Effect
        http://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/33908

        And Lee Smith from April 23:
        Trump’s Grand Strategy: Get the US out of the Middle East, Now
        http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/260390/trump-strategy-middle-east

        • Of course Prof. Beres is wrong to blast PT. But a balanced history isn’t his objective. Not for this publication.

          Basically, the world’s a mess. Seat-of-the-pants makes military intelligence professionals nervous. Amateurs playing at a war of shadows makes for a pathetic spectacle.

          Beres is reacting, in part, to the CW-facility bombing in Syria that troubled many of us. Also the giddiness in Israel over PT – ‘he actually likes us!’ – is imprudent. Get a grip, he’s saying.

          “The moderate Sunni states” – the PR package – is abject nonsense. We’re backing our Strong Horse, fine, but it’s still a house of cards poised over an abyss.

          Meanwhile, we continue to fund, train, and equip Iranian proxies!

          PT’s in no position, perhaps, to crack down on the MB at home. Europe is being devoured, ‘destroying its wretched house with its own miserable hands,’ in Brethren lingo.

          But nobody’s talking about the grave, _acute_ threat posed by the MB to Egypt and Jordan. The countries in the region see no change from the 0 regime that left them for dead. They need political and diplomatic support that’s AWOL.

          Our depleted military can’t explain everything. There’s extensive rot in the Nation’s intelligence agencies, together with Deep State treachery within the 5-Eyes. The Mideast is acutely attuned to Deep State business.

          We’re likely to right ourselves after this ongoing Coup is terminated. But these analysts are focused on Israel. Our absence, our missteps will cost Israel dearly. No rosy-scenarios, no kidding.

          • No rosy-scenarios

            No they aren’t, I don’t know what to add to what you said. O and the left hurt us badly, so badly we are having to withdraw from the position of being the worlds policeman and only move when our direct interests are at risk. I wish I could see a way to move Israel up the list of US vital interests but I don’t.

            Pray enough people in the Middle East are afraid of the Sampson option and will resist the calls to destroy Israel.

  33. Egypt’s Al-Azhar blasts French anti-Semitism manifesto calling for Quran to be ‘amended’

    A senior official in Egypt’s top Islamic authority has slammed a controversial French manifesto that calls for certain passages of the Quran to be redacted.

    Deputy to the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Abbas Shoman, said on Wednesday that the signatories of the open letter should “go to hell”, local daily al-Masry al-Youm reported.

    “The people making these strange, perverse and unacceptable demands must correctly understand Allah Almighty’s book,” Shoman urged.

    “If they rely on their misguided understanding they can go to hell with their wrong ideas,” he added.

    The manifesto published on Sunday in the Parisien newspaper blamed “Islamist radicalisation” for what it said was “quiet ethnic purging” in the Paris region, with abuse forcing Jewish families to move out.

    The nearly 300 signatories, who include ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and former prime minister Manuel Valls, called for Quranic verses that support the “murder and punishment of Jews, Christians and disbelievers” to be removed.

    Shoman said the demands were “unjustified” and that the signatories had failed to understand the meaning of the Islamic holy book.

    “The Quran does not contain any verses that command the killing of anyone that has not committed a crime that necessitates that, such as premeditated murder,” the Sheikh said.

    “The Quran is not responsible for people misunderstanding its meaning” he added. 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Al-Azhar is one of the most prestigious institutes of Sunni Islam in the world.

    The manifesto has also sparked anger from French Muslims, who have said their religion was being unfairly “put on trial”.

    Tareq Oubrou, imam of the Grand Mosque of the southern city of the Bordeaux, pointed out that Islam was not the only religion whose ancient holy texts contain anachronistic passages.

    “Any number of holy texts are violent, even the Gospel,” Oubrou said.

    Muslims believe that the Quran is the permanent word of Allah that was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the Arabic language.

    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/4/27/go-to-hell-egypts-al-azhar-blasts-french-anti-semitism-manifesto

  34. A tree gifted to President Donald Trump by French President Emmanuel Macron has disappeared.

    The pair planted the sapling, taken from the site of a World War One battle in north-east France, during Mr Macron’s state visit last week.

    Mr Macron said the tree would be a reminder of “these ties that bind us”.

    But a Reuters photographer on Saturday took a shot of only a yellow patch of grass on the White House south lawn where the tree once stood.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-43941146

  35. US State Department Report codifies administration’s ME policy
    These comments offer a further premonition that what Trump has termed “the deal of the century” is likely to implode on arrival.

    The annual human rights report released by the US State Department on Friday reflects a new, Trumpian Middle East policy. In a distinct shift from previous years, the State Department refrained from referring to the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip as “occupied territories,” as these areas are designated under UN Resolution 242 of 1967.

    The decision to favor the neutral terminology “Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza” demonstrates the adoption of US Ambassador David Friedman’s policy views. Tacitly, the new terminology also indicates the administration’s close alignment with the Israeli Right, which has pushed forward legislation to annex West Bank settlements in recent months.

    https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/US-State-Department-report-codifies-administrations-Middle-East-policy-552962
    …….
    [0’s & Soros’ agents found plenty of collaborators within the American community that considers the Jerusalem Post an authoritative voice.]

    • Not “American”, English-speaking community. Who also read Haaretz.
      The author here, is “a researcher at the University of Oxford where she specializes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the post-Oslo era.”

  36. CBC – Is Trump a threat to democracy?

    ( 7 min 29 )

    Former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright is worried about the future of democracy in her own country.

    In her new book, Fascism: A Warning, she tracks the decline of democracy around the world.

    The CBC’s Wendy Mesley speaks with Albright about the forces behind authoritarianism in today’s world.

    Albright understands fascism well, she was a refugee herself whose family escaped Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and settled in the U.S.

    + comments

    • She was Sec of State, but only found out that her parents had converted from Judaism after she read it in the newspaper. Odd. Like John Kerry.

  37. Has an American militia moved to Canada?

    ( 6 min 55 )

    The armed U.S. paramilitary group called the three percenters have come to Canada, according to an investigation by CBC’s The Weekly.

    Extremism experts call it a far-right “prepper” militia movement arming to defend Canada from what they see as “the inevitable invasion by Muslims.”

    The CBC’s Wendy Mesley speaks to deradicalization expert Maxime Fiset about what he calls “the most dangerous group in Canada.”

  38. Bahaaaaaaa! What a load of S-H-I-T!!!!

    No one in Canada has the balls to do anything! PERIOD!

    Facebook is fakebook, rantbook, no one in Canada actually does anything they mouth off about. 3% in Canada don’t even know the real threepers in USA nor even how to contact them.

    That is a fat, cuck extradinor. He does not know what he is talking about.

      • Sorry yucki. I have had my Middle East Christian friends ask me if there is a Christian militia in Canada. Sorry, no. The patriot movement can’t even plan rallies together without fighting constantly.

        I think it is a mixture of it is too early in the Canadian movement, most Canadians have their head in the sand, Canadian culture is very laid back and non-reactive, there are a bunch of crazies and opportunists in the movement now ( a nice crazy person is ok, but truly lunatic people are not) ., etc.