Reader’s Links post, October 2, 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

116 Replies to “Reader’s Links post, October 2, 2018”

  1. Pakistani Christians Demand End To Persecution (eurasiareview, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.eurasiareview.com/02102018-pakistani-christians-demand-end-to-persecution/

    “Dozens of Pakistani Christians gathered outside the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland, to protest the persecution of their coreligionists in their homeland.

    They gathered for the Sept. 27 rally from several Western European countries where they have received asylum, including Germany, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

    The protesters wielded signs and placards that read “Save Pakistani Christians” and “Stop targeting Christians in Pakistan.”

    Speaking through bullhorns, their representatives called on the U.N. to apply pressure on Pakistan to repeal its dreaded blasphemy laws, which are often used by the dominant Muslim majority against religious minorities.

    Four members of the European Union’s parliament also participated in the rally in support of Pakistan’s Christians. They urged their parliament’s human rights committee to devote more attention to the situation of religious minorities in Pakistan.

    “The protest was organized by different human rights NGOs to draw the attention of the United Nations to the suffering of Christians in Pakistan due to blasphemy and other discriminatory laws,” Asher Sarfraz, a Pakistani Christian rights advocate who lives in Germany and participated in the event, told ucanews.com.

    Hundreds of Christians have fallen foul of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws on what rights advocates have called trumped-up charges. People convicted of blasphemy are sentenced to long prison terms and sometimes death. Many of the accused have been lynched by irate mobs.

    “[Many Christians] have been falsely accused of blasphemy and other crimes,” said Sarfraz, who is CEO of Christians’ True Spirit, which advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians in the South Asian nation. “They are easy targets under false pretenses.”

    Pakistan’s government claims that the rights of religious minorities are fully upheld in the conservative Muslim nation. Christians, however, insist that they have long faced both deep-seated prejudice and institutionalized discrimination because of their faith.

    “For decades religious minorities in Pakistan, especially Christians, have been victims of discrimination and all sorts of oppression,” Sarfraz said.

    Most of the country’s four million Christians languish in grinding poverty, reduced to lowly menial jobs such as garbage collecting and street sweeping. Many better-paying jobs and government positions remain inaccessible to them.

    There have also been numerous reported cases of Christians being targeted by vigilante Muslim mobs and unscrupulous individuals. Arson attacks on Christian homes and other crimes are common. Local Christian say that officials are often reluctant to act against the perpetrators in such cases.

    “Christian women and young girls are kidnapped, raped, forced to convert to Islam and forced to marry Muslim men,” Sarfraz said. “The situation for Christians in Pakistan is getting worse and worse. We want the U.N. and the world to take notice.””

    • Many of the accused have been lynched by irate mobs.

      Calling these mobs “irate” is like describing the ocean as, “rather damp”.

      These are the usual murderous herds of Islamic scumbags that like nothing more than summarily executing some random Infidel for farting sideways within a mile of the nearest (often imaginary) Koran or mosque.

  2. Iraq population exceeds 38 million, 45% under age of 15 (memo, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181002-iraq-population-exceeds-38-million-45-under-age-of-15/

    “The Iraqi Ministry of Planning announced on Monday that the country’s population exceeded the ceiling of 38 million people this year, 45 per cent of which are under 15- year-old.

    In its statement, the ministry’s Central Statistical Organization said that Iraq’s population reached 38,124,182 people in 2018.

    The statement cleared up that the number of males registered 19,261,253 people, forming 51 per cent of the total population, while the number of females amounted 18,862,929, by 49 per cent of the total population.”

    “The province of Baghdad got the highest position between the governorates in terms of population, where it amounted to 8,126,755 people, by 21 per cent of the total provinces’ population,” the statement added.

    According to the statement, “Nineveh province ranked second after Baghdad in terms of population, with 10 per cent of the total provinces’ population, followed by Basra province by 8 per cent, while the province of Muthanna was the least populated, reaching 814,371 people, by 2 per cent.””

  3. Corker, Menendez Scuttle Rand Paul Efforts to Block Billions in U.S. Funding for Afghan Forces Sexually Abusing Boys (breitbart, Oct 1, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/10/01/corker-menendez-scuttle-rand-paul-efforts-to-block-billions-in-u-s-funding-for-afghan-forces-sexually-abusing-boys/

    “Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) last week tried to block billions in U.S. taxpayer funds from going to the Afghan military and police forces unless its’ units stopped sexually abusing young boys, but he was opposed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee leaders.

    During a committee business meeting last Wednesday considering the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Paul proposed an amendment to withhold all U.S. funding for all Afghan security forces unless the U.S. government’s watchdog in Afghanistan could verify those forces were not using children as child soldiers or sex slaves.

    The U.S. is slated to provide Afghan security forces — military and police — with $4.92 billion in 2019 for equipment, training, supplies, services, infrastructure repair and other funding.

    Paul told other members, according to a transcript of the business meeting first obtained by Breitbart News: “I think that the committee is right to be gravely concerned with sexual trafficking and abuse of young people around the world in a variety of countries. I think we shouldn’t turn a blind eye towards when our allies are responsible for this, as well.”

    Specifically, Paul referred to the common Afghan practice of “bacha bazi” — or using boys as young as 10 years old for sex. Some U.S. troops who have deployed to Afghanistan have tried to stop instances of sexual abuse when they have come across it, but have been punished for doing so, according to reports.

    He brought up the case of former Army Special Forces Capt. Dan Quinn, who beat up an Afghan commander for keeping an approximately 10-year-old boy chained to his bed as a sex slave and beating up his mother when she tried to rescue him. Quinn was relieved of command as a result.

    “His complaint was we’re putting people into power who could do things even far worse than things the Taliban did, and that these views were expressed to him as he traveled throughout Afghanistan,” Paul said during the committee meeting.

    “My amendment would say that no Afghan entity is allowed to receive funds from the U.S. until the Special Inspector General (SIGAR) verifies that there are no child soldiers or sex slaves, commonly known as bacha bazi, being utilized by any individual or unit within the department,” he said.

    However, Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) and Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-NJ) backed a counter-amendment to require the Departments of Defense and State to report on implementation of recommendations made by SIGAR on ending the practice.

    Corker said he had “major concerns” with Paul’s approach, calling it unachievable.

    “While I enthusiastically support the spirit of Senator Paul’s amendment, and understand what he’s trying to do, I have major concerns with the approach his amendment takes. It would guarantee the withdraw of U.S. support for Afghanistan by setting an unachievable standard requiring the SIGAR verification that there are zero cases of sexual slavery or the utilization of child soldiers by any unit or even individual within the Afghan military or police forces,” he said.

    Corker added that such a withdrawal of U.S. support would be problematic from a “broad U.S. national security standpoint,” but eliminate the U.S.’s ability to try to end the practice.

    Paul argued that blocking U.S. funds would provide some punishment for the practice and have some effect, whereas requiring a report would have “no effect.”

    “Having a report on this will have no effect, and I think essentially turns a blind eye to a horrific practice that’s going on there,” he said. “I think many of us here would say we should have zero tolerance for having sex slaves.”

    “We can’t have zero tolerance for sex slaves? Sure, we should, and if there’s evidence of it, they shouldn’t be getting any of our money. And so I absolutely think that we need a stronger version of it, and that the second degree would gut it and make it meaningless and in essence show tacit support for allowing the practice to continue,” he added.

    Paul’s amendment failed, while Corker’s passed.

    The current Leahy Law already requires U.S. military aid to be cut off to any foreign military unit implicated in gross human rights violations, which includes bacha bazi. But another U.S. law states that military aid should be provided to Afghanistan “notwithstanding any other provision of law,” which has been used to evade cutting off that aid.

    Quinn is not the only former service member who had been punished for trying to stop instances of bachi bazi they encountered. His fellow Army Green Beret Sgt. First Class Charles Martland was nearly discharged for participating in the beating up of the commander.

    A 2015 New York Times article told the story of Marine Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley Jr., who told his father he was instructed to look the other way on bacha bazi. He was later killed by one of a group of boys living in barracks with an Afghan police commander, one floor below where the Marines slept.

    Another Marine, Maj. Jason Brezler, who had known of the Afghan commander from a previous deployment was punished and nearly discharged for trying to warn a Marine unit about the same Afghan police commander, by emailing a classified report on the Afghan commander to fellow Marines over his personal email to fellow Marines who were deployed.

    SIGAR earlier this year said in a report that there was no formal policy instructing troops to ignore the practice, but said the U.S.’s continuing to provide assistance to Afghan units for which there is credible information of a gross violation of human rights “undermines efforts by U.S. government officials to engage with the Afghan government on the importance of respect for human rights and rule of law.””

    • During a committee business meeting last Wednesday considering the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Paul proposed an amendment to withhold all U.S. funding for all Afghan security forces unless the U.S. government’s watchdog in Afghanistan could verify those forces were not using children as child soldiers or sex slaves.

      Q: How do you separate an Afghan commander from his “best boy”?

      A: With a crowbar…

      • So Borker not only likes to grope teenage girls, he good for little boys, too?

        So long as they have an available orifice, it’s game on!

    • Rand Paul’s rightly disgusted. Horrible for our soldiers. But that’s what’s there. What to do?

      It doesn’t make sense to deal with Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan (the NW Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas) as countries. There’s no way to sort out the tribes, no logical boundaries.

      Maxima Cloaca: Incomprehensible, ungovernable.
      Zookeepers, maybe.

  4. Sorry if this was posted already. I checked through the Reader´s Links, but didn’t see it.

    Youtube comment sums it up: She is just a puppet for the BBC instructed to try to shut him down by any manipulative means possible. The good thing is that Tommy is very sharp, quick witted, articulate and fast in his replies. She was no match against him. She tried to deceive and hoodwink the viewers but failed. Tommy was able to identify and debunk the false and twisted claims very well. People like Tommy are a threat to the Leftist ideology and unfortunately they are like a cancer throughout the media, the law society and political mainstream.?

    • Defy The Narrative™ at your own peril. Propaganda Media (regardless of nation) cannot tolerate the least challenge to their paper-mache, pseudo-factual edifice of distortions and lies.

      England is more than fortunate to have someone like Tommy Robinson out at the pointy end of things. Imagine the trajectory of these matters without such a brave man voicing simple truths who then takes the endless brickbats of government or media syndicates (let’s face it, that’s what they are) as part and parcel of confronting these ham-fisted, Multi-Culti social engineers.

      Every last European country desperately needs their own Tommy Robinson.

      When that happens, a starter’s pistol will be fired and a shred of hope for The Continent might emerge.

    • What amazes me is how deaf the woman is to having a reasonable conversation and debate.

    • Italy: Hundreds protest as Salvini visits Naples</strong

      Hundreds of activists took to the streets of Naples, on Tuesday, to protest a visit by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

      The protesters made multiple attempts to reach the building where Salvini was meeting with local police authorities, but their efforts were repeatedly blocked by riot police.


  5. Sh*tstorm in Serbia: Migrants allegedly use cemetery as a bathroom:

    In the Serbian town of Loznica, the waves are on the rise: in a video posted on Facebook, one sees migrants running around under a cemetery in underpants, temporarily camping, washing themselves next to the well, and allegedly using the cemetery as a toilet.

    For months there has been a coming and going of migrants. Despite complaints from many citizens, the authorities have so far found no solution. After the release of the video, it came to a Shitstorm on Facebook. 20 city residents then wrote to the authorities in a letter to finally finish this.

    (Video at link)
    https://www.wochenblick.at/shitstorm-in-serbien-migranten-nutzen-angeblich-friedhof-als-toilette/

    • Sh*tstorm in Serbia: Migrants allegedly use cemetery as a bathroom

      A person is obliged to wonder whether these “migrants” haven’t hired a PR agency to outline for them the very best way of outraging any given host country they set foot in.

      Something tells me that Serbians are far less hesitant to be called, “racist”.

    • I watched the clip, and it looks like a homo-erotic get-together.
      I saw there are houses situated around the cemetery. Imagine living there and having to endure the smell..

  6. Woman stabbed in Brisbane, man charged

    A man who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted another man at a home in Brisbane’s south has been charged with attempted murder.The injured 26-year-old woman was found at the intersection of Gemstone Crescent and Gregory St in Acacia Ridge on Monday night. She was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital in a serious condition with stab wounds to her upper body and head.

    An Afghanistan-born man, 36, has been charged with attempted murder, entering a dwelling with intent, and assaulting another man who was at the home at the time.
    His case was briefly mentioned in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday and has been adjourned until Wednesday.

    https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/woman-stabbed-in-brisbane-man-charged/

  7. Some interesting economic news. Clearly PT is waging economic war against the Red Chinese with good effect. They are now forced to conceal real economic news by decree (this story not included herein). Essentially, employing millions via debt financing is coming to an end (ghost cities, canals and other make-work projects).

    PT’s economic sanctions will have unintended negative effects on the U.S. economy because no complex system will be managed in totality. I believe he has incorporated this calculation. The net benefit will be to tear down the existing paradigm that has hollowed out U.S. manufacturing, and to reset the world monetary system. While this path will be fraught with war, so would be the existing trajectory, but fought from a less debilitated stance were the status-quo politicians be permitted to continue their Keynesian debt ride.

    I believe few understand the real-world machinations of debt and tangible assets as does PT. He has spent a career successfully using one to obtain the other. Russia, Iran, China and the central banks of most emerging economies are desperately trying to attain insurance against economic catastrophe by attaining gold. The day of reckoning will be when they sit at the table on Reset Day. This will be the day when each player must show their cards, and their gold will be counted. He who has the gold makes the rules, as they say.

    Reset Day will find gold recalibrated, by the players, to a value-per-ounce commensurate to the value required to extinguish their debts. (Once one considers the hundreds of trillions in world-wide debt, and the paper gold to physical gold ratio at greater than 100:1, the true value of an ounce begins to become apparent).The world reserve currency in which gold is priced may have not yet been invented, or revealed. It may be a gold-backed crypto or an IMF manifestation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR). It may not be the Chinese yuan because the Chinese now have the vicarious benefit of hindsight, and know that the reserve currency comes with considerable burdens. Further, while the Chinese have been raping their land to extract gold at a ruthless rate, they may be far from the 8,000 tons purportedly held by Fort Knox. The real question then becomes how much gold is in Fort Knox? Has it been sold off piece-meal since Carter?

    https://jimrickards.blogspot.com/

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/370740-guggenheim-offers-to-loan-trump-white-house-a-golden-toilet

  8. Red-state Dems face nightmare scenario on Kavanaugh

    Senate Democrats up for reelection this year in deep-red states face a nightmare decision on how to handle Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

    Vulnerable Democrats are hoping Republicans will force him to withdraw his nomination, allowing them to avoid politically divisive votes.

    The Democrats in the toughest position are Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.).

    Heitkamp and Manchin are undecided, and both are seeking another six-year term in states that Trump won by double digits in 2016. Donnelly is in much the same boat but said on Friday that he would vote ‘no’ on Kavanaugh.

    All three voted for President Trump’s first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, in 2017.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/409372-red-state-dems-face-nightmare-scenario-on-kavanaugh

  9. D.C. restaurant hires guards after anti-Kavanaugh crowd harasses Ted Cruz and wife

    WASHINGTON — The upscale Italian restaurant Fiola will hire security guards after protesters confronted Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife while dining at the restaurant last week.

    “We are now living in the aftermath of this PR disaster,” the owner said in an email to customers.

    Last Monday, the senator and Heidi Cruz were chased out by about a dozen protesters regarding Ted Cruz’s support of embattled Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

    In the email sent last weekend, owner and chef Fabio Trabocchi said the restaurant had to temporarily take down social media accounts because of hateful comments, and reservation lines were inundated with callers taunting staff and threatening to destroy the restaurant. The email said Trabocchi and his wife, Maria Font Trabocchi, have personally received death threats.

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/10/01/washington-dc-restaurant-hires-guards-after-anti-kavanaugh-crowd-harass-ted-cruz-wife

  10. Chinese warship came within 45 yards of USS Decatur in South China Sea: US

    The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Decatur had to maneuver to avoid a collision on Sunday after a Chinese warship came within 45 yards of its bow as the American ship transited a disputed island chain in the South China Sea on Sunday, U.S. defense officials said.

    The close encounter that the U.S. Navy characterized as “unsafe and unprofessional” comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and China.

    “At approximately 0830 local time on September 30, a PRC LUYANG destroyer approached USS DECATUR in an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in the South China Sea,” said Capt. Charlie Brown, a U.S. Pacific Fleet Spokesman.

    (MORE: Reporter’s notebook: Flying with the US military as it keeps tabs on China over the South China Sea )

    Gaven Reef is located in the Spratly Islands chain in the South China Sea where China claims seven man-made islands as its own.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/chinese-warship-45-yards-uss-decatur-south-china/story?id=58210760

    • Chinese warship came within 45 yards of USS Decatur in South China Sea: US

      This is “chicken” at a multi-million dollar level.

      Plowing through the hull of Red China’s crappy little tin can might have been the better choice. Perhaps not just before the midterm elections but, at some point, it’s going to become a specific option whenever Beijing attempts to project power in the East Asian seas.

      Left unchecked, this crap will continue unabated. Of that, there is no dispute.

      Anyone who doubts this is welcome to suggest a better solution.

  11. House targets environmentalist group over ties to China; worries it acts like foreign agent
    By Daily Caller News Foundation October 2, 2018

    House lawmakers sent a letter Monday to the environmental group Earthjustice demanding documents regarding its ties to foreign officials and environmental activists, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

    The letter from top Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources is the fourth sent to environmental groups over their ties to foreign governments. It’s the second letter related to environmental opposition to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, Japan.

    Lawmakers say Earthjustice’s political activities may require them to register as a foreign agent, according to a copy of the letter obtained by TheDCNF. Earthjustice is an environmental law firm often represents environmental activists in litigation. (RELATED: The Trump Administration Will Side With Environmentalists And Defend An Obama-Era Policy Before The US Supreme Court)

    “The Committee is concerned that your organization’s political activities within the United States in opposition to the relocation of [Marine Corps Air Station] Futenma and the continued military presence in Okinawa may require compliance with” the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Republicans wrote to Earthjustice president Abigail Dillen.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/02/house-targets-environmentalist-group-over-ties-to-china-worries-it-acts-like-foreign-agent/

  12. Ford/Kavanaugh questioner: ‘I do not think a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case’
    By J.E. Dyer October 2, 2018

    On Friday, it was widely reported that Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona sex crimes prosecutor who questioned Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford in the 27 September Senate hearing, said she wouldn’t bring a case based on Ms. Ford’s testimony.

    On Monday, Mitchell published a memo in which she spelled out her reasons. The reasons capture numerous discrepancies in Ford’s recounting of events, which Ford has now given in multiple settings and iterations. Mitchell’s bottom line comes on page two of the memo:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/02/ford-kavanaugh-questioner-i-do-not-think-a-reasonable-prosecutor-would-bring-this-case/

  13. I highly recommend this Mark Steyn video report on the state of dhimmitude in the world 02/10/2018

  14. German Man Arrested in Turkey for Calling Erdogan ‘Child Murderer’ – Reports (sputniknews, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201810021068521792-turkey-german-arrest/

    “German-Turkish relations have deteriorated since the failed coup against Turkish President Erdogan in 2016 and the crackdown on the opposition that followed.

    Turkish police reportedly arrested a German national in August for defaming President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media in 2014 and 2015, Der Spiegel wrote.

    According to the weekly newsmagazine, Huseyin M., a German citizen of Turkish descent who lives in Brunswick, Germany, was detained while on a holiday near the city of Izmir in western Turkey.

    He was taken to a police station and told that he had twice insulted Erdogan on his Facebook page calling him a “dictator” and a “child murderer.”

    Huseyin M. has denied the accusations.

    Released shortly after his arrest, Huseyin M. was barred from leaving the country but was later put in jail because he has no permanent address in Turkey.

    According to Spiegel, the first court hearing of Huseyin M.’s case is scheduled for October 11.

    According to Turkish criminal law, Huseyin M. could receive a prison sentence of up to four years on charges of insulting the president.

    The German Foreign Ministry said that it was aware of what was going on and that Huseyin was being provided legal advice from the German Consulate…”

  15. Deutsche Welle -Terror in Camp Moria

    Im Flüchtlingslager Moria auf der griechischen Insel Lesbos soll eine Gruppe von IS-Anhängern die Menschen tyrannisieren. Unter dem Deckmantel der Religion gehen sie kriminellen Machenschaften nach. Zwei DW-Reporter gehen den Gerüchten auf den Grund.

  16. Turkey arrests 417 for transferring foreign currency abroad (telegraph, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/02/turkey-arrests-417-transferring-foreign-currency-abroad/

    “Turkish prosecutors ordered the detention of 417 suspects in a money-laundering investigation into the transfer of about 2.5 billion lira (£323 million) worth of foreign currency to bank accounts abroad, broadcaster CNN Turk said on Tuesday.

    The vast majority of the recipients of the funds were Iranian citizens resident in the United States, it added, citing a statement from Istanbul’s chief prosecutor.

    Istanbul police teams were launching raids across a series of provinces, searching properties and detaining many people, the broadcaster said.

    State-owned Anadolu news agency said 216 of the suspects had so far been detained in operations across 40 provinces.

    Police, the prosecutor and other judicial authorities were not immediately available to comment on the report, which was carried by other Turkish media.

    The investigation was aimed at those who “targeted the economic and financial security of the Turkish Republic,” the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said, according to CNN Turk…”

  17. Anti-terror raid in France: 11 arrested in Muslim centre suspected of extremist activity

    Police in Northern France have made a dawn raid on a Muslim club suspected of extremist activity.

    The activities of Centre Zahra France are under particularly close watch given its leaders’ clear support for several terrorist oganisations and movements espousing ideas contrary to (French) republican values – local prefect’s office.

    • Grande-Synthe : “C’est Israël qui est derrière ça” accuse le Centre Zahra, visité par la police

      Ce mardi 2 octobre, près de 200 policiers ont mené une opération à Grande-Synthe. Trois hommes ont été placés en garde à vue, des armes et des ordinateurs ont été saisis.

    • ‘Prevention of Terrorism’: French Police Raid Anti-Israel Shiite Islamic Centre (breitbart, Oct 2, 2018)
      https://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/10/02/french-police-raid-anti-israel-shiite-islamic-centre/

      “About 200 police raided the headquarters in northern France of a Shiite Islamic association and the homes of its leaders who are suspected of supporting “terrorist organisations”, security sources said.

      The operation against the Zahra Centre France in Grande Synthe, a suburb of the port city of Dunkirk, was staged as part of the “prevention of terrorism” procedures, regional authorities said in a statement.

      A security source told AFP that 11 people had been arrested, while French authorities also froze the financial assets of the centre which is headed by Yahia Gouasmi, who is known for his anti-Zionist views and links to Iran.

      Police have been closely following the activities of the Zahra Centre “because of the strong support by its leaders for several terrorist organisations and in favour of movements backing ideas that are contrary to the values” of France.

      On its website, the association says its purpose since its foundation in 2009 has been “to make known the message of Islam through the eyes of the Prophet and his family.”

      It was unclear whether the arrests were linked to a suspected plot in France to bomb a gathering of Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in June.

      Police swooped on six people in Belgium, France and Germany after authorities revealed the alleged plot, including an Iranian diplomat.

      France is still on high alert after a wave of Islamist attacks since 2015 in which 246 people have lost their lives.”

      • Anti-Terror Raids on French Muslim Association, Police Seize Weapons (breitbart, Oct 2, 2018)
        https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/10/02/anti-terror-raids-on-french-muslim-association-police-seize-weapons/

        “French police detained three people and seized weapons during raids of a dozen homes and the headquarters of a Muslim association based outside the port city of Dunkirk during an anti-terrorism operation early Tuesday, officials said.

        Authorities froze the funds of the Centre Zahra France, along with those of three other organizations and four men linked to the groups.

        Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the prefecture of the region was in the process of closing the prayer room of Zahra France, headquartered in Grande-Synthe. He said the three detained were taken in for illegal weapons possession. Police didn’t say what types of weapons were found.

        About 200 police officers searched homes and the headquarters of the association.

        Some French media reports said that Zahra France was a leading center for Shiite Islam in Europe and is suspected of links to Iranian-backed Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, and fighting in Syria or to the Palestinian Hamas. The information couldn’t be immediately confirmed.

        One Zahra France official cited in the order to freeze funds, Yahia Gouasmi, 68, told CNews TV channel that the weapons were solely “for the security of the center” and mainly belonged to Zahra France’s security detail.

        “Everything is false,” said Jamel Tahiri, 43, also among the four whose funds were being frozen. “We’re transparent. Everything is on internet.”

        Zahra France’s site describes the goal of the association as “to make known the message of Islam through the regard of the Prophet and his family.”

        A statement by the prefecture of the north region, announcing the police operation, said the association has been “particularly followed due to marked support by its leaders for movements advocating ideas contrary to the values of the (French) Republic.”

        The small town of Grande-Synthe is known as a magnet for migrants seeking to cross the English Channel to Britain, and as a draw for smuggling activity that often thrives where migrants congregate. However, there was no known link between Zahra France and migrants.”

    • France points finger at Iran over bomb plot, seizes assets

      France said on Tuesday there was no doubt Iran’s intelligence ministry was behind a June plot to attack an exiled opposition group’s rally outside Paris and it seized assets belonging to Tehran’s intelligence services and two Iranian nationals.

      The hardening of relations between Paris and Tehran could have far-reaching consequences for Iran as President Hassan Rouhani’s government looks to European capitals to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal after the United States pulled out and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran.

      “Behind all this was a long, meticulous and detailed investigation by our (intelligence) services that enabled us to reach the conclusion, without any doubt, that responsibility fell on the Iranian intelligence ministry,” a French diplomatic source said.

      The source, speaking after the government announced asset freezes, added that deputy minister and director general of intelligence Saeid Hashemi Moghadam had ordered the attack and Assadollah Asadi, a Vienna-based diplomat held by German authorities, had put it into action.

      The ministry is under control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,

      “We deny once again the allegations against Iran and demand the immediate release of the Iranian diplomat,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

      The incident was a plot “designed by those who want to damage Iran’s long-established relations with France and Europe,” he said.

      The plot targeted a meeting of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) outside the French capital. U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and several former European and Arab ministers attended the rally.

      It unraveled after Asadi, an accredited diplomat in Austria, was arrested in Germany, two other individuals were detained in Belgium in possession of explosives, and one other individual in France.

      On Monday, a court in southern Germany ruled the diplomat could be extradited to Belgium.

      “We cannot accept any terrorist threat on our national territory and this plot needed a firm response,” the diplomatic source said.

      TARGETED ASSET FREEZES

      The asset freezes targeted Asadi and Moghadam. A unit within the Iranian intelligence services was also targeted.

      The French government gave no details of the assets involved, describing its measures as “targeted and proportionate”.

      The diplomatic source said the freezes covered assets and financing means in France, although neither individual at this stage had any assets in the country.

      “We hope this matter is now over. We have taken measures and said what we needed to say,” the source said, suggesting Paris was seeking to turn a page on the issue.

      France had warned Tehran to expect a robust response to the thwarted bombing and diplomatic relations were becoming increasingly strained.

      French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke to their Iranian counterparts about the issue at the U.N. General Assembly after demanding explanations over Iran’s role.

      An internal French foreign ministry memo in August told diplomats not to travel to Iran, Reuters revealed, citing the Villepinte bomb plot and a toughening of Iran’s position toward the West.

      Paris has also suspended nominating a new ambassador to Iran and not responded to Tehran nominations for diplomatic positions in France.

      While not directly linked to the plot, the diplomatic source said a French police raid on a Shi’ite Muslim faith center earlier on Tuesday was aimed at also sending a signal at Iran.

      The deterioration of relations with France could have wider implications for Iran.

      France has been one of the strongest advocates of salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Tehran agree to curbs on its nuclear program in return for a lifting of economic sanctions.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-security/france-points-finger-at-iran-over-bomb-plot-seizes-assets-idUSKCN1MC12X

      =================================================
      France Freezes Iranian Intelligence Assets In Sign Of Worsening Relations

      France says it has frozen the assets of Iran’s Ministry of Security and Intelligence, as well as of two Iranian men thought to be members of the country’s intelligence service, in a sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.

      The French government made the announcement in its official gazette on October 2, identifying one of the men as Assadollah Assadi, the same name as an Iranian diplomat who has been arrested over an alleged plot to bomb an Iranian opposition group in France in June.

      The asset freeze also applied to Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, said to be the deputy minister and director-general of intelligence, and to the internal security directorate of the Intelligence Ministry.

      “An attempted attack in Villepinte was foiled on June 30. An incident of such gravity on our national territory could not go unpunished,” said a joint statement by the Foreign, Interior, and Economy ministries.

      Worsening relations between Paris and Tehran come as the Iranians are trying to maintain ties with Europe after the United States pulled out of a nuclear accord that curtailed Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. France has been one of the staunchest advocates of salvaging the 2015 deal.

      A German court said on October 1 it had approved Assadi’s extradition to Belgium, where he is accused of masterminding the plot. Assadi was accredited as a counsellor at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna before his July detention in Germany.

      Iran has denied the existence of any such plot, with Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying the allegations were “aimed at damaging EU-Iran relations.”

      “We deny the accusations and forcefully condemn the Iranian diplomat’s arrest and call for his immediate release,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in an October 2 statement.

      France gave no details of which assets are involved in the freeze, describing its measures as “targeted and proportionate.”

      It added that the government had acted against the “instigators, authors, and accomplices” of the foiled attack.

      “Behind all this was a long, meticulous, and detailed investigation by our [intelligence] services that enabled us to reach the conclusion, without any doubt, that responsibility fell on the Intelligence Ministry,” the Reuters news agency quoted an unidentified French diplomatic source as saying.

      The source added that Moghadam had ordered the attack.

      On June 30, Iranian opposition supporters gathered in Villepinte for a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a Paris-based umbrella bloc of opposition groups that back the overthrow of Iran’s clerical leadership.

      That day in Brussels, law enforcement authorities apprehended two Belgian nationals of Iranian origin — a husband and wife — with 500 grams of explosive and a detonation device found in their car.

      Meanwhile, French police detained an alleged accomplice of the pair in Paris. He was also described as a Belgian national of Iranian descent.

      Assadi was taken into custody in Bavaria on July 1 on a European arrest warrant.

      German prosecutors allege that he is an intelligence agent who met in late June with the husband-and-wife team in Luxembourg, where he handed the couple the explosives.

      https://www.rferl.org/a/france-freezes-iranian-intelligence-assets-over-suspected-bomb-plot-in-june/29520990.html

      • France blames Iran for foiled Paris bomb plot (BBC, Oct 2, 2018)
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45722523

        “French officials say Iran’s ministry of intelligence was behind a plot to bomb a rally of Iranian opposition groups in Paris in June.

        In a statement, the French government said it had frozen the assets of two senior Iranian officials.

        Iran insists the alleged plot is a fabrication, but has called for talks.

        In a possibly linked development on Tuesday, police in the French city of Dunkirk raided a Shia Muslim centre that has close ties to Iran…”

    • France: 11 arrested, weapons ceased in raid on Islamic centre in Dunkirk

      Eleven people have reportedly been arrested on suspicion of ‘supporting terrorist organisations’ in a police raid on the headquarters of the Shiite ‘Zahra Centre France’ in Dunkirk, Tuesday.

      Around 200 police officers took part in the raid in which weapons were also ceased, though Yahia Gouasmi, the head of the centre claimed they were legally acquired and belonged to a “shooting club.”

  18. Best-Selling German Newspaper Tells E.U.: Protect Israel and End Iran Trade (breitbart, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/10/02/protect-israel-and-end-iran-trade-says-best-selling-german-newspaper/

    “Germany’s top-selling paper Bild wants a halt to all bi-lateral E.U. trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran because of its support for global terrorism and commitment to the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

    “This Iran cannot at this time be an ally,” Bild‘s foreign policy editor Julian Röpcke wrote on Monday. “Neither in the fight against terrorism, nor as as oil supplier or trade partner.”

    Röpcke, who reports on the Syrian war, described recent missile attacks by Iran as delivering a “message of terror. Because they carry the meter-long inscriptions ‘Death to Israel and ‘Death to the USA’ — and that is deadly serious for the mullahs.”

    Röpcke wrote that Iran’s rockets were not fired against Islamic State terrorists, “rather against those who stand in the way of the corrupt regime in Tehran. Against those who do not want to stand inactively by when Iran’s leader again and again propagates the ‘extermination’ of Israel.” Bild has a daily circulation of 1,580,977…”

  19. Orbán Praises Trump, Slams Clinton, Rebukes EU Migration Commissioner: ‘This Man Is Our Employee’ (breitbart, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/10/02/orban-praises-trump-slams-clinton-rebukes-eu-migration-commissioner/

    “Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has praised Donald Trump’s anti-globalist UN address, criticised Hillary Clinton’s actions as Secretary of State, and slammed EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos for propagandising for mass migration.

    In an interview transcript seen by Breitbart London, the conservative-populist prime minister told Kossuth Radio that he could not begin to say how much his country “suffered during the term in office of Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton”.

    Orbán said that after the election of President Trump, “massive weights were lifted from the shoulders of leaders and citizens in many countries” burdened by “unwarranted attempts” to bend their will to that of the D.C. establishment, and that the path was now open to “establish a partnership on the basis of [national] interests”.

    “President Trump is becoming something more than an individual person… in the world, his presence is more like that of an icon: a manifestation that represents something much more than his person alone does,” Orbán added, highlighting the extent to which the American maverick has shaken up the established world order.

    Prime Minister Orbán contrasted President Trump’s address to the United Nations, in which he declared “We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism”, with that of the European Union’s Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avrampoulous, which emphasised the supposedly urgent need for more migration and more multilateralism, rather than stronger borders and national sovereignty.

    “At the end of the day, this fine fellow, who is a [European] Commissioner, is our employee, he is paid by us… his job is to represent us. If, however, he is unable to represent every member-state, he should refrain from voicing opinions in the name of the EU, because this raises a major problem for democracy,” Orbán warned.

    “This fine fellow went there and said that migration is good, migration must continue, a migrant resettlement programme must be implemented, [and] the EU unreservedly wants to take part in the UN’s Migration Compact, which supports the relocation of people from one part of the world to another… He has received no authorisation from anyone to say any of this,” he added.

    “This is a matter of dispute in the European Union today: this is opposed not only by the Hungarians, not only by most Central Europeans, and not only by the V4; but it is also opposed by the Italians, and indeed by the Austrians and the Bavarians… It is therefore no wonder that there are many of us on this continent who look forward to the European Parliament elections next May, so that we can finally send people like him packing,” the Hungarian leader concluded bluntly…”

    • Israeli public overwhelmingly in favor of Trump’s policies

      • Pew Research Center data shows 80% of Israelis have an overall positive view of the U.S. and 86% say that the U.S. takes Israeli interests into account, up from 69% who said the same in 2013
      • 65% believe it would be best if U.S. was leading world power.
      http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/02/israeli-public-overwhelmingly-in-favor-of-trumps-policies/
      …….
      It’s even bigger than it looks. First, left-wing poll-takers. Then, 20% of the population polled is Muslim.
      Tards go for the Strong-Horse. Not that they won’t contest him, but the draw of a Strong-Horse leader is profoundly Arab, goes back thousands of years.

      It’s Haartez, Jew-ish Israelis who hate him. They’re the usual suspects: leftie academics, the media, die-hard socialists. They go to Berlin and London to trash the Jewish State, become popular Pallywood cinematographers. They celebrated 0, argue on behalf of the Twisted-Ragheads.

      Soros-kinda folk. The person who was my neice.

  20. 75 Percent of Pre-Trial Prisoners in Berlin Are Foreigners (breitbart, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/10/02/75-percent-pretrial-prisoners-berlin-foreigners/

    “The number of foreign-born prisoners in Berlin is increasing according to new figures that show 90 different countries are now represented in the German capital’s prison system.

    Convicted criminals without a German passport are now a majority in the German prison system at 51 percent of the total population and according to new data, 75 percent of prisoners in pre-trial detention are foreigners as well, Berliner Morgenpost reports.

    While the total prison population in Berlin has dropped 18.5 percent within the last eight years, foreign-born prisoners have increased by 20 percent over the same period with there now being a total of 3,930 prisoners across Berlin in seven prisons and a detention centre.

    Moabit prison accounts for the highest number of foreigner prisoners with a significant 73 percent of the total prison population while Heidering prison boasts 57 percent of its prisoners coming originally from overseas with Turks making up the single largest share of foreign-born prisoners.

    The new figures follow a trend in other areas of the country such as Munich where it was reported last year that nearly half of the suspects in current investigations were foreigners. Among them, asylum seekers counted for around 10 percent of the total number of suspects despite being a much lower proportion of the population overall.

    In neighbouring countries that have also been affected by the migration crisis, the number of foreign-born suspects has also risen in recent years. In Italy, which has, until recently, has seen a stream of migrants come from Africa across the Mediterranean, the number of foreign suspects is around one out of every three.

    In Austria, the previous government revealed that in 2016 migrant sex assaults had increased by 133 percent and earlier this year in January the current conservative-populist government revealed that asylum seekers made up 45.9 percent of the criminal suspects with foreign backgrounds.

    To increase transparency regarding the origins of sex attackers, the Austrian government proposed last month that police should indicate both the nationality of sex attackers and whether or not they were asylum seekers.”

    • And the ones who aren’t:
      How many are 2nd or third generation?
      How many are in trouble because they were defending themselves or others from criminal tards? Or simply acted out their frustration and rage? Saw tards getting away with just about anything, figured ‘why not’?

  21. US airstrike in Somalia kills 9 al-Shabab extremists (abcnews, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-airstrike-somalia-kills-al-shabab-extremists-58225052

    “The U.S. military says it has conducted an airstrike that killed nine al-Shabab extremists after its fighters attacked Somali government forces.

    The U.S. Africa Command statement says the airstrike on Monday was carried out about 40 kilometers (24 miles) northeast of the port city of Kismayo.

    The statement says another extremist was wounded. It adds that according to its assessment, no civilians were injured or killed in the airstrike that was carried out in coordination with the Somali federal government.

    The U.S. military has carried out 24 airstrikes, including drone strikes, this year against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Somalia this month marks the first anniversary of al-Shabab’s deadliest attack, a truck bombing in the capital, Mogadishu, that killed 512 people.”

  22. Suicide bomber kills 13 at election rally in Afghanistan (abcnews, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suicide-bomber-kills-13-election-rally-afghanistan-58225485

    “A suicide bomber struck an election rally in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding around 40, a provincial official said.

    The attack, the first since campaigning began last week ahead of elections for the lower house of parliament, underscored the widespread violence gripping the country 17 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban.

    The vote is scheduled for Oct. 20 but it’s unclear if the balloting will go ahead in areas controlled by the Taliban, who have seized several districts across the country in recent years and who carry out near-daily attacks.

    Tuesday’s attack targeted a rally for Abdul Naser Mohmand, an independent candidate, who was unharmed.

    “Most of the people killed or wounded are elders who had gathered for the campaign rally,” said Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. He said some of the wounded were in critical condition, indicating the death toll could rise…”

    • Afghanistan: At least 13 killed in Nangarhar election rally suicide blast

      At least 13 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide attack at an election campaign rally in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Tuesday.

      According to Provincial Governor Spokesperson Ataullah Khogyani, the assailant blew himself up at a rally by parliamentary candidate Abdul Nasir Mohmmand in the Kama district.

  23. The Latest: Group says 34 migrants feared dead off Morocco (abcnews, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-group-34-migrants-feared-dead-off-morocco-58229789

    “A Spanish nonprofit group says 32 adult migrants and two children are feared dead in waters off the Moroccan coast after waiting to be rescued from a semi-sunken boat for more than 36 hours.

    Walking Borders founder Helena Maleno said 26 survivors were taken ashore to the Moroccan town of Nador on Monday afternoon.

    Maleno says they told her that 34 people had died or disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea.

    The Morocco-based Spanish activist says the migrants first contacted her early Sunday and that she alerted Spanish authorities with the boat’s approximate location.

    Spain’s Maritime Safety and Rescue Agency says the information was conveyed to Moroccan authorities since the location Maleno provided was within the African country’s jurisdiction.

    Moroccan authorities weren’t immediately available for comment.”

  24. Pakistan official: Roadside bomb kills 3 on security convoy (abcnews, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistan-official-roadside-bomb-kills-security-convoy-58228150

    “A Pakistani official says a roadside bomb has hit a security convoy in the country’s southwest, killing three members of a provincial paramilitary force and wounding eight.

    Ahmed Jan, a senior official of the force, says Tuesday’s explosion took place in the Awaran district of Baluchistan province.

    Jan says the bomb was remotely detonated. The Baluchistan Levies is a force in charge of maintaining law and order in the tribal areas of the insurgency-plagued province.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Similar attacks in the past were claimed by Baluch separatists fighting a low-level insurgency for over a decade. Islamic militants also operate there.

    Meanwhile, the military says troops killed seven “terrorists” and wounded three who fired at them from across the Afghan border in North Waziristan.”

  25. France freezes funds of Iranian govt security section (abcnews, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/france-freezes-funds-iranian-govt-security-section-58225443

    “French authorities on Tuesday froze the assets of the interior security section of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry as well as those of two Iranians, one a diplomat who is a suspect in an alleged aborted bid to attack an Iranian exile group.

    A joint statement by France’s interior, economy and foreign ministers made clear the move to freeze funds was linked to the allegedly aborted attempt to bomb the June 30 rally outside Paris by the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, or MEK.

    The move was “preventative, targeted and proportionate,” the statement said. It noted France’s determination to fight terrorism, especially on French soil.

    “This act of an extreme gravity envisioned on our territory could not go without a response,” it said.

    One of the two Iranians identified in the announcement is Assadollah Asadi, a Vienna-based Iranian diplomat wanted in Belgium on suspicion he was part of the failed plot to bomb the MEK rally near Paris. He was apprehended in July near the German city of Aschaffenburg on a European warrant after a couple with Iranian roots was stopped in Belgium and authorities reported finding powerful explosives in their car. A Germany court on Monday approved his extradition to Belgium.

    The other Iranian identified in the statement is Saeid Hashemi Moghadam. His role in the plot was not immediately clear…”

  26. Turkey to use national currency in trade with Russia (AA,Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/turkey-to-use-national-currency-in-trade-with-russia/1270715

    “Turkey for the first time will import 30,000 tons of high-protein wheat from Russia using Russian rubles, the Russian-based SovEko analytical center said Tuesday.

    Some 17,000 Russian rubles (around $260) per ton of wheat is expected to be paid.

    Doing trade using national currencies is expected to reduce losses caused by currency conversion, said a statement by the center.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier announced that Turkey would increase the use of national currencies in its trade with major trading partners such as Russia.

    President Vladimir Putin, for his part, supported this, saying that the use of national currency in bilateral trade would minimize the negative impact of external factors.

    At a Sept. 17 meeting between the two leaders, Putin said that Turkish-Russian relations are “developing positively,” adding: “In terms of trade, they’re growing intensely.””

  27. CBC – Canada to admit nearly 1 million immigrants over next 3 years

    Canada will welcome nearly one million immigrants over the next three years, according to the multi-year strategy tabled by the Liberal government today in what it calls “the most ambitious immigration levels in recent history.”

    The number of economic migrants, family reunifications and refugees will climb to 310,000 in 2018, up from 300,000 this year. That number will rise to 330,000 in 2019 then 340,000 in 2020.

    The targets for economic migrants, refugees and family members was tabled in the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon.

    Hussen said the new targets will bring Canada’s immigration to nearly one per cent of the population by 2020, which will help offset an aging demographic. He called it a historic and responsible plan and “the most ambitious” in recent history.

    “Our government believes that newcomers play a vital role in our society,” Hussen said. “Five million Canadians are set to retire by 2035 and we have fewer people working to support seniors and retirees.”

    In 1971 there were 6.6 people of working age for each senior, Hussen said, but by 2012 that ratio had gone to 4.2 to 1 and projections show it will be at 2 to 1 by 2036, when almost 100 per cent of population growth will be a result of immigration; it stands at about 75 per cent today.

    Hussen said immigration drives innovation and strengthens the economy, rejecting some claims that newcomers drain Canada’s resources and become a burden on society.

    He said the government is also working to reduce backlogs and speed up the processing of applications in order to reunite families and speed up citizenship applications.

    The federal government’s own Advisory Council on Economic Growth had recommended upping levels to reach 450,000 newcomers annually by 2021. Hussen said the government is taking a more gradual approach to ensure successful integration.

    “At arriving at these numbers we listened very carefully to all stakeholders who told us they want to see an increase but they also want to make sure that each and every newcomer that we bring to Canada — bringing a newcomer to Canada is half of the job. We have to make sure that people are able to be given the tools that they need to succeed once they get here,” he said.

    Focus on integration: Rempel

    Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel was critical of the plan, suggesting the government needs to do a better job of integrating newcomers.

    “It is not enough for this government to table the number of people that they are bringing to this country. Frankly the Liberals need to stop using numbers of refugees, amount of money spent, feel-good tweets and photo ops for metrics of success in Canada’s immigration system.”

    She said the Liberals need to bring Canada’s immigration system “back to order” by closing the loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement that has seen migrants cross into Canada at unofficial border crossings only to claim refugee status.

    She also said the immigration system should focus on helping immigrants integrate through language efficiency and through mental health support plans for people who are victims of trauma.

    Dory Jade, the CEO of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants, welcomed the news although he suggested the numbers should be higher.

    “Canada will greatly prosper and grow once the 350,000 threshold has been crossed,” he said. “Nevertheless, we are witnessing a very positive trend.”

    The Canadian Council of Refugees also welcomed the news, but wanted more, saying the share for refugees was only increased slightly from 13 per cent this year to 14 per cent in each of the next three years.

    Calls for longer-range forecast

    In past, there has been a one-year figure for how many immigrants will be permitted into the country, but provinces and stakeholders have called for longer-range forecasts.

    A statement from Ontario’s Immigration Minister Laura Albanese, before the announcement, said the province supports the introduction of multi-year levels plans “to provide more predictability to the immigration system and inform program planning.”

    “Significant variation in year-to-year immigration levels can dramatically impact the requirement for provincial year-to-year resources. A longer term outlook would help in planning for appropriate service levels and use of resources.”

    The statement said Ontario supports growth in immigration levels, particularly in economic immigration categories to support the growing economy.

    Diversity drives innovation

    During the government’s consultation period, the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance presented “Vision 2020,” what it called a “bold” three-year plan to address growing demographic shifts underway in the country, calling for increased numbers in the economic, family and refugee categories.

    It recommended a target of 350,000 people in 2018, which climbs to 400,000 in 2019 and 450,000 by 2020.

    Chris Friesen, the organization’s director of settlement services, said it’s time for a white paper or royal commission on immigration to develop a comprehensive approach to future immigration.

    “Nothing is going to impact this country [more] besides increased automation and technology than immigration will and this impact will grow in response to [the] declining birth rate, aging population and accelerated retirements,” he told CBC News.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/immigration-canada-2018-1.4371146

    • CBC – Canada to admit nearly 1 million immigrants over next 3 years

      Why doesn’t Canada just open its veins right now and get everything over with?

  28. Germany will ease immigration rules to attract foreign job seekers –Govt

    Worker-starved Germany will ease immigration rules to attract foreign job seekers, including giving well-integrated irregular migrants in employment a shot at staying, ministers said Tuesday.

    In a deal hammered out after marathon talks deep into the night, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU, their Bavarian allies CSU and the centre-left SPD agreed on a new strategy to combat fast-ageing Germany’s worker shortage.

    Migrants without residency permits who are awaiting decisions on their asylum applications or their deportation may get to stay if they are gainfully employed and can show they have joined the fabric of German society.

    Job seekers from outside the EU — including, for example, cooks, metallurgy workers or IT technicians — can also come to Germany for six months to try and find employment, provided they speak German.

    Manpower from the bloc of around 500 million people would not suffice to keep the German economy ticking, the coalition noted.

    “That’s why we need workers from third countries,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told a press conference about the strategy that has yet to become a law and be passed by parliament.

    At the same time, the ministers were at pains to stress the continued “separation of asylum and employment migration”, mindful that Germany has been deeply polarised by the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers since 2015.

    Immigration has become a hot potato issue in recent years over the record influx of mostly Muslim migrants, many fleeing war in Iraq or Syria.

    Railing against the newcomers, the far-right AfD has become Germany’s biggest opposition party with more than 90 seats in the Bundestag.

    The government ministers stressed that the new immigration rules are not designed to allow failed asylum applicants to win residency in Germany by switching over to become employment migrants.

    Rather the new rules are aimed at providing a “pragmatic solution” for migrants who, for instance, have been in Germany for a protracted period because they cannot be deported if they face the risk of torture in their country of origin.

    A list of criteria would be drawn up for such cases, said the ministers.

    It’s a “pragmatic solution that reflects reality,” said Employment Minister Hubertus Heil, adding that it would avoid cases of Germany “sending the wrong people back.”

    With unemployment at a record low since reunification, companies in Europe’s biggest economy have been complaining that a chronic shortage in workers is threatening growth.

    In the areas of mathematics, computing, natural sciences and technology, a record 338,200 jobs went unfilled in September, reported business weekly Handelsblatt on Tuesday, quoting data from the Cologne-based German Economic Institute.

    Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the new rules will be of particular help to Germany’s small-and-medium sized companies, “which in the past have suffered as they are in competition with big companies that have poached the well-trained people”.

    https://punchng.com/germany-eases-immigration-rules-to-attract-foreign-job-seekers/

    • – Speech by Commissioner Avramopoulos at the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration – Road to Marrakech

      Ladies and Gentlemen,

      I would like to thank Louise Arbour for organising this event and for her boundless enthusiasm with which she leads the preparations towards the adoption of this Compact.

      The outcome of the intergovernmental negotiations on the Global Migration Compact is a positive development for all of us.

      Our efforts to better manage migration have already borne fruit. Indeed, in Europe, we have managed to overcome the migration crisis compared to three years ago.

      But the situation remains fragile and we know that other parts of the world are still facing pressing migratory challenges.

      On top of that, migration remains a divisive topic across the globe.

      The reality however is that migration and human mobility are part of our history and are here to stay.

      It is our shared task to shape solutions.

      No country can do this alone, but together we can set up a humane, dignified and secure mechanism for governing human mobility globally.

      And this is what this Global Compact is about: to deliver concrete results.

      The European Union has made significant progress in developing all the building blocks of a comprehensive migration policy that are contributing to achieve many of the objectives for safe, orderly and regular migration.

      More recently, we have for example proposed to expand the competences of the future European Asylum Agency to assist Member States to, for instance, process asylum applications faster and assess vulnerabilities.

      We have made a clear call to our Member States to enhance legal pathways to Europe.

      This is essential to both reducing irregular migration, as well as to creating a better management of labour migration, based on the needs of our economies.

      We proposed to significantly strengthen the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to better manage our borders and to streamline the EU rules on return of irregular migrants, in order to prevent abuses.

      To implement these measures, we propose to increase the EU budget for migration management to reach almost €35 billion for the next 7 years.

      But we all know this is not a European challenge. Building strong partnerships with countries of origin and transit is equally important if we want to have a truly comprehensive and effective migration management policy.

      In that respect, let me mention, for instance, our cooperation with Turkey, Niger, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt as well as with countries of origin like Guinea, Gambia or Afghanistan, to name just a few.

      We are willing to further expand the number of our partners in established regional frameworks.

      Our Leaders have also decided last week to hold an EU – League of Arab States summit in early 2019 in Cairo.

      A good example of innovative cooperation is also the Joint Task Force between the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations set up in Abidjan in November 2017 to address the complex Central Mediterranean situation.

      This has allowed providing assistance and support for return and resettlement in a record time to more than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers that were stranded in Libya.

      But, of course, we are determined to do even more in the future.

      To that end, in June, the European Commission has proposed to the EU Member States to increase the EU external action budget by 30% to €123 billion for the period 2021-2027.

      Part of it will be used to support migration management and to address the roots causes of migration

      In the same perspective, on 12 September, we have also launched a new Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs with Africa, promoting a substantial increase of private investment, boost trade, enhance job creation.

      This shows our commitment to engage with partner countries in the coming years.

      I am therefore looking forward to working with all of you on the implementation of the global compact on migration.

      Thank you for your attention.

      https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2014-2019/avramopoulos/announcements/speech-commissioner-avramopoulos-73rd-session-un-general-assembly-global-compact-safe-orderly-and_en

      • Dental Extractions at Jemaa El Fna Square, Marrakech, Morocco

        Sort out that annoying tooth thanks to the kind help of this elderly smiling gentleman with the pliers and a proven record of thousands of successful extractions on his table . And if you need dentures , choose the set that fits you

    • euronews -Tear-inducing art aims to encourage empathy towards migrants

      + comments on the YT page


    • Intergovernmental Conference 2018

      The Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, will be held in Marrakech, Morocco on 10 and 11 December 2018.

      This Intergovernmental Conference is convened under the auspices of the General Assembly of the United Nations and held pursuant to the “New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants” (19 September 2016) which decided to launch a process of intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.

      https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/intergovernmental-conference-2018

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

      Marrakech, Morocco | 10 — 11 December 2018

      The Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration takes place in Marrakech, Morocco on the 10th and 11th of December, 2018.

      The Conference is convened under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly and is held pursuant to resolution 71/1 of 19 September 2016, entitled “New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants,” which decided to launch a process of intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration.

      The modalities for the Conference were further elaborated in resolutions 71/280 of 6 April 2017, 72/244 of 24 December 2017 and 72/L.67 of 31 July 2018.

      http://www.un.org/en/conf/migration/

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

      Explainer: What is the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and regular Migration?

      The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is the first-ever agreement on a common approach to international migration in all its dimensions. Want to know more about Migration and the GCM? Watch this two minute explainer.

      «««……48% of migrants are females……»»»

  29. euronews – Raw Politics: Macron and Merkel lead the way in public confidence survey

  30. NYT – Special investigation – Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes
    as He Reaped Riches From His Father

    The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s.

    By DAVID BARSTOW, SUSANNE CRAIG and RUSS BUETTNER

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html

    • New York state tax department reviewing fraud allegations involving Trump in NYT article

      New York state tax officials are investigating allegations detailed in an exhaustive New York Times investigation into Donald Trump and his family’s business dealings.

      The Times reported that Trump and his family committed “instances of outright fraud” in order to transfer millions of dollars from the real estate empire of the president’s father, Fred Trump, to his children without paying the appropriate taxes.

      “The Tax Department is reviewing the allegations in the NYT article and is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation,” a spokesman from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said in an email to CNBC.

      https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/new-york-state-tax-department-reviewing-fraud-allegations-involving-trump-in-nyt-article.html

    • the gateway pundit – EPIC! Democrat Senator SLAMMED at Presser: “Do You Honestly Believe Judge Kavanaugh Was Leader of Teenage Irish Catholic Rape Gang?

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/10/epic-democrat-senator-slammed-at-presser-do-you-honestly-believe-judge-kavanaugh-was-leader-of-teenage-irish-catholic-rape-gang/

      ===============================================
      Conservative reporter confronts Durbin on Kavanaugh (sparks fly @2.54)

      (Sparks fly at 2.54)Conservative reporter William J. Kelly confronts Durbin on Judge Brett Kavanaugh asking, “Senator, do you really believe Kavanaugh was the leader of a teenage Irish Catholic rape gang?”

      Kelly also asks Durbin why he has dismissed the 500 cases of rape and sexual abuse in Chicago Public Schools under Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

      Kelly is the host of the Citizen Kelly Show on AM 1590 WCGO and contributor to Washington Times, Daily Caller and American Spectator.


    • REPORT: FBI Done With Kavanaugh Probe by Tomorrow – Chuck Schumer Attempts to Delay Confirmation Vote AGAIN

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/10/report-fbi-done-with-kavanaugh-probe-by-tomorrow-chuck-schumer-attempts-to-delay-confirmation-vote-again/
      ===================================================
      FEINSTEIN CONTINUES TO ATTEMPT TO DELAY KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION

      Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced Tuesday that this week is too soon for the Senate to vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

      “Well, I believe it is. I believe it’s too soon,” Feinstein told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to Reuters. “It’s Tuesday and we have to put all the facts together.”

      Feinstein also indicated that the FBI report should not be made public.

      “It would seem to me that if people are going to be identified, this ought to be held very close,” Feinstein said.

      http://dailycaller.com/2018/10/02/dianne-feinstein-kavanaugh-confirmation/

    • Trump delays meeting with Rosenstein until after Kavanaugh confirmation process

      Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton discusses how President Trump delayed his meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

    • the gateway pundit – BOOM! Former Long-Time Boyfriend of Christine Ford DROPS A BOMB! — Proves FORD LIED UNDER OATH to Senate Committee!

      A Former long-time boyfriend of Dr. Christine Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he witnessed Dr. Ford coaching a friend on how to take a polygraph examination.

      This is in direct conflict with Christine Ford’s testimony under oath to the the US Senate.

      on this page :

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/10/boom-former-long-time-boyfriend-of-christine-ford-drops-a-bomb-proves-ford-lied-under-oath-to-senate-committee/

    • Christine Blasey Ford’s Ex-Boyfriend Told Senate Judiciary He Witnessed Her Coach A Friend On Polygraphs

      An ex-boyfriend of Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford told Senate investigators he witnessed her coach a friend on how to take a polygraph, contradicting her sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Commitee last week.

      In a sworn statement provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, a man who claims to be an ex-boyfriend of Christine Blasey Ford says that he personally witnessed Ford coach a friend on how to take a polygraph exam. If true, it would mean Ford provided false testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week when she claimed she had never had any discussions with anyone about how to take a polygraph.

      The troubling allegations about Ford’s polygraph history and potentially false testimony were revealed Tuesday in a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, to attorneys for Ford. Ford and her attorneys have thus far refused to provide all polygraph-related documents and media to the Senate for review.

      “The full details of Dr. Ford’s polygraph are particularly important because the Senate Judiciary Committee has received a sworn statement from a longtime boyfriend of Dr. Ford’s, stating that he personally witnessed Dr. Ford coaching a friend on polygraph examinations,” Grassley wrote. “When asked under oath in the hearing whether she’d ever given any tips or advice to someone who was planning on taking a polygraph, Dr. Ford replied, ‘Never.’”

      “This statement raises specific concerns about the reliability of her polygraph examination results,” he continued. “The Senate therefore needs this information.”

      The sworn statement from Ford’s ex-boyfriend directly contradicts what Ford repeatedly told the Senate under oath last week about her alleged lack of experience with polygraph exams, suggesting that Ford may have lied to the Senate panel.

      “During some of the time we were dating, Dr. Ford lived with Monica L. McLean, who I understood to be be her life-long best friend,” the ex-boyfriend, whose name was redacted from the statement he gave to the Senate, wrote. “During that time, it was my understanding that McLean was interviewing for jobs with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

      “I witnessed Dr. Ford help McLean prepare for a potential polygraph exam,” he said. “Dr. Ford explained in detail what to expect, how polygraphs worked, and helped McLean become familiar and less nervous about the exam.”

      At last week’s hearing, Ford was specifically asked by Rachel Mitchell, an experienced sex crimes prosecutor who was hired by the committee to question Ford and Kavanaugh, whether she had advised anyone on how to take a polygraph.

      “Have you ever had discussions with anyone, beside your attorneys, on how to take a polygraph?” Mitchell asked.

      “Never,” Ford responded.

      “And I don’t just mean countermeasures,” Mitchell said, “but I mean just any sort of tips, or anything like that.”

      “No,” Ford said.

      “[H]ave you ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test?” Mitchell continued.

      “Never,” Ford replied again.

      The ex-boyfriend also said in his statement that during their six-year-long romantic relationship, Ford never mentioned the alleged assault against her, Brett Kavanaugh, or a fear of flying.

      Federal law makes it a crime to provide false information to congressional officials in the course of an investigation. A person convicted of lying to Congress can be imprisoned for up to five years under the statute.

      In his letter, Grassley also repeated his request of Ford to provide her therapists’ records to the Senate for review. According to Ford, she first shared details of the alleged sexual assault against her with a marriage therapist and an individual therapist. Despite providing portions of the notes to a report for the Washington Post, Ford has thus far refused to disclose the records to the Senate.

      “I renew my request for notes from therapy sessions in which Dr. Ford discussed the alleged assault by Judge Kavanaugh,” Grassley wrote. “The Washington Post reported that some notes were provided to The Post, and Dr. Ford’s testimony indicated that these notes were highly relevant to her allegations.”

      “These notes have been repeatedly cited as corroboration even while written 30 years after the alleged event and in apparent contradiction with testimony and other public statements regarding several key details of the allegations, including when the alleged attack occurred, how many individuals were present in the bedroom in which the attack was alleged to have occurred, and how many individuals attended the party,” Grassley noted.

      “Please provide the requested materials to the Senate Judiciary Committee immediately,” the letter from Grassley concluded.

      The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be a Supreme Court Justice was favorably reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee last Friday and is currently pending before the full Senate, which is awaiting the completion of a supplemental background check investigation by the FBI before it votes on whether to confirm Kavanaugh.

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Doi7sslU8AAdgNq.jpg

      http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/02/christine-blasey-fords-ex-boyfriend-told-senate-judiciary-witnessed-coach-friend-polygraphs/

  31. Manchester Students’ Union BANS clapping to avoid triggering anxiety (express,Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1025675/university-of-manchester-students-union-clapping-ban-jazz-hands

    “CLAPPING has been banned at University of Manchester Students’ Union events in an extraordinary move to avoid causing anxiety for students, according to a student newspaper, prompting a furious backlash against so-called snowflakes.

    Students at University of Manchester Students’ Union events should use jazz hands rather than clapping, whooping and cheering, The Mancunion said, to avoid triggering anxiety.

    The sound of clapping is said to “pose an issue” to anxious students.

    A motion was passed to change the union’s constitution at the end of last month, according to the paper.

    The article said: “Jazz hands will be used instead of traditional clapping, whooping, and cheering at University of Manchester Students’ Union (SU) events, following a change to the SU constitution passed by the first Senate session of the academic year, held on Thursday 27th September…”

  32. Birmingham stabbing: Three men stabbed on Birmingham High Street – police cordon (express, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1025886/birmingham-stabbing-high-street-west-midlands-police

    “POLICE have rushed to Birmingham city centre after initial reports of a stabbing in which there were three people were stabbed.

    Three people were stabbed in a horrifying incident this evening near a McDonald’s.

    A huge police cordon is in place on Bull Street where it meets Dale End in the town centre.

    The attack happened around 6pm and officers told a reporter from the Birmingham Mail there has been “several casualties”.

    Twitter users report that up to 100 youths were hanging around the scene before the incident.

    According to a witness at the scene, it took around 10 minutes for police to arrive.

    Another witness told Birmingham Live: “Just another example at the decay of this city.”

    An officer said the incident involved a “fight between kids”.

    The Midland Metro said in a statement: “Police Incident reported in lower Bull Street….”

  33. ‘49 pieces of hardware’: Syria gets S-300 missile system & more from Russia in wake of Il-20 downing (RT, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.rt.com/news/440152-russia-delivers-s300-syria/

    “The S-300 air defense system and dozens of additional hardware pieces have been delivered to the Syrian military to boost security of Russian personnel there, Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu, told President Vladimir Putin.

    “We have completed the delivery of the S-300 system,” Shoigu said Tuesday. The hardware supplied to Syria consisted of 49 pieces of military equipment, including radars, control vehicles and four launchers, he added.

    The delivery is meant to protect Russian troops in Syria, coming in wake of the downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane in mid-September.

    A unified air defense control system in Syria will be completed by October 20, Shoigu told the Security Council. Russia will “prepare and train” the Syrian crews to operate the S-300 within three months.

    Earlier, Shoigu said that Syrian air-defense posts will be equipped with automated control systems that were previously only supplied to the Russian military.

    The reinforced Syrian defenses will be able to suppress satellite navigation, radars and communications systems of combat planes over the Mediterranean Sea. This, Shoigu said, might “cool some hotheads down and avert them from ill-judged acts that endanger our troops.”…”

  34. Knifeman ‘goes on the rampage’ on London train and stabs one person putting Hackney Central station on lockdown – while three people are stabbed in Birmingham city centre in commute chaos (dailmail, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6232587/Knifeman-goes-rampage-stabs-commuters-east-London-train.html

    “A knifeman has been arrested by police this evening following a stabbing on the London Overground.

    One person was knifed in the attack at Hackney Central station in East London, his condition is not thought to be life-threatening.

    Pictures from frightened commuters show hundreds of passengers evacuating the station with service suspended between Highbury & Islington and Stratford following the incident.

    It came at the same time as three people were injured in a stabbing in Birmingham – the latest example of violent crime plaguing Britain’s streets.

    Witness Leon Bruff, 29, who was in the same carriage as the attack, said passengers ‘trampled over each other’ to escape the ‘maniac’.

    Mr Bruff The Sun how the knifeman yelled: ‘Don’t mess with me, I’ll kill you’ while storming the train which was full of commuters and TfL staff.

    The father-of-three added that the knifeman’s blade was at least ’12 inches long’.

    One traveller described chaos at the east London station, and commuter Nick Renaud-Komiya said he saw a man with a knife.

    ‘There was a sea of people running in my direction, it took me a couple of seconds to register that something wasn’t right,’ the 28-year-old said…”

  35. Disturbing report by Deutsche Welle, ISIS runs refugee camp Moria on Lesbos, Greece:
    https://www.dw.com/en/terror-at-the-moria-refugee-camp/av-45685604

    The only thing that seems to work is crime: drugs, prostitution and violence. Recently more and more refugees from Deir ez-Zor, one of the last strongholds of Islamic State in Syria, have been arriving in the camp. Since then it seems that crime in the camp has taken on a new quality. A group of Syrians is said to be controlling most of the illegal activities. Anyone who doesn’t toe the line or is in the way can expect physical violence or even death threats. The perpetrators often cite Sharia law as their justification. More and more graffiti glorify IS. The Greek authorities take no action.

    • Terror in Camp Moria

      Im Flüchtlingslager Moria auf der griechischen Insel Lesbos soll eine Gruppe von IS-Anhängern die Menschen tyrannisieren. Unter dem Deckmantel der Religion gehen sie kriminellen Machenschaften nach. Zwei DW-Reporter gehen den Gerüchten auf den Grund.

  36. Turkey Aims to Completely Rid Northern Syria of U.S.-Allied Kurdish Militia (breitbart, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/10/02/turkey-aims-completely-rid-northern-syria-u-s-allied-kurdish-militia/

    “Turkey intends to completely clear northern Syria of Kurdish militiamen from the U.S.-allied People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ), considered by Ankara to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) terrorist group, Turkish officials indicated this week…”

  37. Turkey court upholds life sentences for prominent journalists (kurdistan24, Oct 2, 2018)
    http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/c916409f-661d-4789-9411-f5754841f336

    “A regional Turkish court in Istanbul upheld aggravated life sentences on Tuesday for six journalists, among them two of the country’s most prominent journalists Ahmet Altan, Nazli Ilicak, and the former’s economist brother Mehmet Altan for “subliminal messages” in support of the overthrow of the government.

    Highly critical of the policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration, the journalists were among hundreds of other media workers, including Kurdish reporters, detained with charges of supporting terrorism in the aftermath of the failed 2016 army coup.

    The life sentences against the group came in February, a month after Ahmet Altan, one of the most prolific, best-selling modern Turkish novelists and the former editor-in-chief of the now shut down Taraf newspaper, was freed only to be arrested again the day later.

    Ilicak is 74, Ahmet Altan is 68, and his younger brother Mehmet is 64.

    Prosecutors argue the journalists collaborated with plotters of the coup—which the government blames on the friend-turned-foe Gulenists, once powerful followers of the US self-exiled Turkish-Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

    Mehmet Altan was released in June months after a request by the Constitutional Court that saw his rights violated, despite a lower court’s refusal to abide by the ruling of the supreme judicial authority. However, the former professor at Istanbul University now faces the prospects of detention and jail again.

    “This unpleasant vaudeville which begins with a ‘subliminal message,’ continues with ‘moral compulsion’ and reaches to its apex with the regional court’s accusation of ‘creating an abstract danger’ has shown us some facts,” Altan, the novelist, said in his defense.

    “First, somebody wants us to stay in jail with a sick obsession. Second, it is not possible within the framework of the law to keep us in jail. Third, some members of the judiciary who are frustrated by their desperation of being stuck where the law and the quest of those who want us jailed clash, take the risk of being disgraced and even committing a crime,” he added, in words targeting the country’s judiciary under Erdogan’s rule.”

  38. JIHADI ‘ISLAMIC STATE’ RING SPANNING 17 PRISONS UNCOVERED AND DISMANTLED (newswee, Oct 2, 2018)
    https://www.newsweek.com/jihadi-islamic-state-ring-spanning-17-prisons-uncovered-dismantled-1149747

    “A jihadi network claiming to have links to the Islamic State and spanning 17 prisons has been uncovered and dismantled in Spain.

    In total, 25 prisoners have been questioned and connected to the organization, which worked in prisons to radicalize inmates. The majority of the suspects are Moroccans or Spanish citizens of Moroccan ancestry, Agence France-Presse reported. One was also Danish, and the remainder were Spanish citizens who had converted to Islam.

    “Although the investigation began by focusing on an inmate in a particular prison, to date the illegal activity of the group extended to 17 prisons, which account for 55 percent of jails that house prisoners linked to jihadist terrorism,” the European country’s Interior Ministry said in a Tuesday statement, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

    The Interior Ministry explained that the group’s existence alone was a threat, but it was even more worrying as several radicalized members were set for release. Although the group did not reportedly have a “concrete plan” to launch a specific attack, those connected with the organization had a “belligerent state of mind towards prison staff.”

    Two of those connected to the jihadi group had been jailed in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, an anti-terrorism source told the AFP. That attack left more than 1,800 people injured and 191 dead, becoming Europe’s worst terrorist assault.

    Previous research has shown that Europe’s prisons are a prime location for jihadi groups to recruit and radicalize. One 2016 study found that more than half of the foreign fighters heading to the Middle East from Europe had previous criminal records, with about 27 percent being radicalized while in detention.

    “Jihadism offered redemption for crime while satisfying the personal needs and desires that led them to become involved in it, making the ‘jump’ from criminality to terrorism smaller than is commonly perceived,” said the report, which was published by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s College in London.

    The United Nations has also warned that prisons can often become “incubators for terrorism by constituting environments where violent extremism can thrive.”

    Estimates suggest that some 5,000 European nationals have traveled to Syria, Iraq and other destinations to join jihadi movements. As conflicts in Iraq and Syria wind down, many in Europe are concerned about what will happen when and if these individuals return home.

    According to the ICSR report, the problem of radicalization is a “social problem” that is largely due to the existence of “a ‘Muslim underclass’ in the big European cities,” who often reside in “ghettos.” Young people in these communities who become disenfranchised from society may seek out alternatives and a sense of purpose with extremist groups.”

  39. Packages sent to Pentagon suspected to contain ricin, ‘suspicious envelope’ sent to Trump amid scare at Cruz office in Texas

    Authorities at the Pentagon found at least two packages suspected of containing ricin, a spokesman said Tuesday, with the news coming amid a scare at Sen. Ted Cruz’s office in Houston involving a “white powdery substance” that turned out to not be hazardous.

    A Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Fox News that two packages — addressed to U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and the Navy’s top officer, Admiral John Richardson — are suspected of containing ricin.

    The packages never made their way into the Pentagon, but were flagged in a mail delivery building next door on Monday, the spokesman said. Initial tests were positive for ricin, a poison made from castor beans, but the FBI is now doing analysis to make final determinations.

    “On Monday, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency detected a suspicious substance during mail screening at the Pentagon’s remote screening facility,” Col. Rob Manning said in a statement to Fox News. “All USPS mail received at the Pentagon mail screening facility yesterday is currently under quarantine and poses no threat to Pentagon personnel.”

    Late Tuesday, the U.S. Secret Service said it had received a “suspicious envelope” addressed to President Trump the day before. The agency said the envelope “was not received at the White House, nor did it ever enter the White House.”

    The Secret Service declined to comment further, except to say it was “working jointly with our law enforcement partners to fully investigate this matter.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/packages-sent-to-pentagon-suspected-to-contain-ricin-suspicious-envelope-sent-to-trump-amid-scare-at-cruz-office-in-texas

    • I don’t know if it was jihadists or Dems that mailed the packages (Not that there is much difference between the two groups) and it really doesn’t matter, this is the opening move in a major offensive in the US against everyone who opposed both the Far Left and Islam. Watch your backs because things are gong to get worse.

      • Leftists. The MO is nearly infallible as a way of knowing. It seems that leftists, who do not believe in Jenna, don’t want to die in the process of killing their ideological (simulacrum) enemies.

        Jihadis generally try to be killed in the process, or otherwise don’t rely on the mail for jihad.