Reader’s links, October 3, 2018

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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

122 Replies to “Reader’s links, October 3, 2018”

  1. The US is withdrawing from the “optional protocol” in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, John Bolton has confirmed. He said it follows a case brought by Palestine, challenging the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem.
    “I am announcing that the president has decided that the United States will withdraw from the optional protocol and dispute resolution to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Bolton said.

    “This is in connection with a case brought by the so-called state of Palestine, naming the United States as the defendant, challenging our move of our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

    The decision will see the US opting out of having to attend the International Court of Justice in the case of disputes, as outlined in Article I of the “Optional Protocol Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes.”

    https://www.rt.com/usa/440247-us-palestine-vienna-convention-protocol/

  2. Packages sent to Pentagon that had suspicious substance are believed to have been mailed by a former Navy sailor, officials say

    Packages with suspicious substances sent to the Pentagon, White House and Sen. Ted Cruz’s office in Texas this week were part of a coordinated effort by a former Navy sailor, officials told Fox News.

    Investigators said one of the envelopes, addressed to either Defense Secretary James Mattis or the Navy’s top officer, Adm. John Richardson, contained a return address leading them to believe it came from the sailor, whose name has not been disclosed.

    A Pentagon spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday that at least two of the envelopes contained castor seeds — the substance from which the poison ricin comes from.

    Officials say a tip from the White House led the Pentagon to discover the two packages sent to the Pentagon — and now both are in the hands of the FBI for further testing.

    The packages never made their way into the Pentagon, but were flagged in a mail delivery building next door on Monday, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Fox News.

    “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 revealed 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.”

    Word of the incidents in the Washington area came as authorities said two people were taken to the hospital Tuesday after being exposed to a “white powdery substance” at Sen. Ted Cruz’s office in Houston. The Houston Fire Department said on Twitter that the entire 9th floor of the Phoenix Tower was evacuated before all tests came back negative for any hazardous substance. An official for the Republican told Fox News authorities did not “yet know what was the substance.”

    Ricin is a poison that can take several different forms, but as a purified powder it can be deadly. It’s also one of the easiest poisons to manufacture.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/packages-sent-to-pentagon-that-had-suspicious-substance-are-believed-to-have-been-mailed-by-a-former-navy-sailor-officials-say

  3. Rédoine Faïd case: French gangster evaded police in burqa
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45732226

    Faïd, 46, was detained on Wednesday in the town where he grew up north of Paris. Six others are being held.
    He broke out of jail on 1 July, escaping in a helicopter flown by a flying instructor who had been taken hostage.
    After three months on the run Faïd was tracked down to a block of flats.
    He was sprung out of prison in Réau, south-east of Paris, by three heavily armed men. He had been serving a 25-year sentence for masterminding a botched robbery in which a policewoman was killed in 2010.
    He was recaptured shortly after 04:00 on Wednesday in the town of Creil. Three other people in the flat were detained and three more arrested elsewhere.
    French prosecutor François Molins revealed that police had been monitoring mobile phones used by the gang that took part in the jailbreak and had tracked down a young woman in Creil, where Faïd grew up.
    Last weekend, the woman “let into her car a person dressed in a burqa whose figure suggested he might be a man”.

  4. Contains video:
    Man Allegedly Caught Trying to Rape Child in Fez Hammam
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/10/254577/man-caught-rape-child-in-fez-hammam/

    A video is going viral on social media showing a group of men confronting another man for trying to rape a child in a public hammam (sauna) in Fez.
    The three-minute video shows the accused man walking around the hammam, begging the other men to let him go.
    At one point, the man can be heard saying, “Please let me go; I will never do it again.”
    The man filming asked people not to touch the man and tried to explain why they were conducting a kind of “citizen’s arrest” in the hammam.
    The man behind the camera then explained to viewers,
    “Brothers, we caught this man who brought a kid with him to the hammam to rape him.”
    In the video, which was filmed on a phone, the man filming asked the man he accused to show his face. The alleged rapist begged not to, saying he would “never do it again.”

  5. Immigration detainee Ebrahim Toure finally free after more than five years
    By BRENDAN KENNEDYInvestigative Reporter
    Fri., Sept. 21, 2018
    Ebrahim Toure’s first steps as a free man in five-and-a-half years were hesitant. He paused briefly outside the back gates of the Immigration Holding Centre, clutching a garbage bag of his belongings.

    Then the four friends who came to pick him up cheered and ran to him from across the parking lot. Gebere Mageraga reached Toure first, wrapping him in a bear hug. Toure grinned. “I’m just so happy,” he said.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2018/09/21/immigration-detainee-ebrahim-toure-finally-free-after-5-12-years.html

  6. The Salvini effect: what’s behind Matteo Salvini’s popularity?

    In 2013, Italy”s Northern far right league, led by a man named Matteo Salvini won just 4% of the vote. It rebranded itself as “The League” and the latest polls project that if a national election was held today, it would win 33% of the vote. Matteo Salvini, now Interior Minister, leads a hardline posture on immigration as he hits out at the EU”s mismanagement of the migration crisis.

  7. LONDON – Security failures may have played a role in the stabbing death of a policeman during an extremist attack on Parliament last year in London, Britain’s chief coroner said Wednesday.

    Coroner Mark Lucraft said “shortcomings in the security system” meant armed officers weren’t guarding an entrance to Parliament when an extremist stabbed policeman Keith Palmer to death on March 22, 2017. Palmer was one of five people killed by 52-year-old Khalid Masood in the attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament. Masood was then shot dead by police.

    Speaking at an inquest, Lucraft said armed officers were not aware they were supposed to remain “in close proximity” to the gates outside the Parliament building. He said if they had been stationed there “they may have been able to prevent” Palmer from suffering fatal injuries.

    https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-coroner-cites-security-shortcomings-in-officers-death

  8. The Turkish-Dutch Denk party wants to take on media that give a ‘negative image’ of them, chairman Selçuk Öztürk told in an interview.

    Öztürk says the media creates “distance between citizens and politics” and that’s a reason to take on the media.

    The Dutch-Turkish MP with two passports says media in the Netherlands are intentionally creating a negative image of his party.

    Öztürk doesn’t give media examples, but says he met a woman from Aruba who ‘gained a bad image’ of his party Denk. Later the woman said she realised the MP is actually a completely different person and ‘very nice’.

    It isn’t the first time Öztürk has wanted to have more control of the media. Earlier he called journalists “a fourth power, that can do what they want ”and he vowed for“ more countervailing power against the media.

    The Denk party attracts a lot of Muslim votes and is quickly expanding in migrant dominated areas.

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/10/muslim-majority-party-in-the-netherlands-wants-to-take-on-media-that-criticise-them/#.W7UXyYtHrmI.twitter

  9. ‘Don’t leave us with the French!’

    Theresa May inspires German demand to quit the EU

    THERESA May has inspired a German exit from the European Union after a former industry leader and influential politician came out in support for the British Prime Minister’s Conservative conference speech.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1026343/Brexit-news-Theresa-May-Conservative-conference-speech-German-Hans-Olaf-Henkel?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-news-showbiz+%28Express+%3A%3A+News+%2F+Showbiz+Feed%29&utm_content=FaceBook

  10. jihad watch – Netherlands: Muslim preacher says female genital mutilation is “recommended”

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/10/netherlands-muslim-preacher-says-female-genital-mutilation-is-recommended

    https://twitter.com/DeNieuweMaanNTR/status/1047150064517492737

    ================================================
    Salafisme in Nederland: hoe denken moslims erover? | De Nieuwe Maan

    Salafisme in Nederland ligt meer dan ooit onder het vergrootglas. Vormt salafisme een belemmering voor de integratie?

    Zo kwam onlangs het onderzoek van Mohammad Nazar Soroush naar buiten, waarin gesteld wordt dat een groeiende groep jonge salafisten onze samenleving afwijst. En dat uiteindelijk de politiek geen greep gaat krijgen op deze jonge groep salafisten. De Amsterdamse burgemeester Femke Halsema zei recentelijk dat ze salafistische moskeeën wil kunnen sluiten in een ‘uiterste geval’. En zet een streep door het plan om in de strijd tegen radicalisering samen te werken met salafistische moskeeën.

    Wat zegt deze ontwikkeling over godsdienstvrijheid in Nederland? Deze gasten reageren in de uitzending. Aan tafel: Umair Bantvawala (islam prediker), Abdelhamid Bouzzit (woordvoerder Samenwerkingsverband Islamitische Organisaties Regio Haaglanden, SIORH) en Nourdeen Wildeman (bekeerling).

  11. Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has suspended the Islamic Society of North America-Canada (ISNA- Canada) for funding groups allegedly linked to terrorist organisations like the Hizbul Mujahideen. The CRA has banned the Mississauga-based Islamic charity organisation for a year starting from 12 September and has also ordered it to pay a fine of $5,50,000.

    The Canadian government auditors have alleged that ISNA-Canada “failed to conduct any meaningful due diligence” when it transferred $1,36,000 to India’s Kashmir region where groups like Hizbul Mujahideen have been in an armed conflict with the Indian forces. The CRA said that the Islamic charity has acted as a ‘conduit’ for many organisations which supports terrorist activities in other countries. “It is the CRA’s view that the society’s resources may have, directly or indirectly, been used to support the political efforts of Jamaat-e-Islami and/or its armed wing Hizbul Mujahideen,” CRA has stated, according to an India Today report.

    According to Sputnik International, CRA audit documents reportedly allege that ISNA-Canada donated $90,000 to the Relief Organization for Kashmiri Muslims (ROKM) between 2007 and 2009 and funded an additional $46,000 to the Kashmiri Relief Fund of Canada, which had previously raised funds for the ROKM.

    “Our research indicates that ROKM is the charitable arm of Jamaat-e-Islami, a political organisation that actively contests the legitimacy of India’s governance over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, including reportedly through the activities of its armed wing Hizbul Mujahideen,” the CRA said. The audit was conducted in 2011 and covered the period from 2007 to 2009. The results were conveyed to ISNA-Canada in 2014 but the CRA only sanctioned the charity on 5 September 2018.

    https://www.firstpost.com/world/canada-suspends-fines-isna-canada-over-funding-hizbul-mujahideen-in-india-islamic-charity-denies-charges-5307311.html

  12. ‘Warning shot’ fired at wanted Muslim cleric’s US compound (yahoo, Oct 3, 2018)
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/warning-shot-fired-wanted-muslim-clerics-us-compound-172100475.html

    “A security guard at the Pennsylvania compound of a Turkish-born Muslim cleric fired a shot near an “unwanted person” outside the gate, state police said Wednesday.

    The suspected intruder fled the scene, and troopers were unable to find him.

    Police were called to Fethullah Gulen’s longtime home in the Pocono Mountains after a security guard fired a “warning shot in the air” around 8:30 a.m., according to a statement from the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values, a group that promotes Gulen’s philosophies.

    The man, “who appeared to be armed, attempted to enter the retreat center,” and the guard responded by firing the shot, the statement said. No injuries were reported.

    State police said they are continuing to investigate…”

  13. Two separate explosions hit Kirkuk, at least eight casualties reported (kurdistan24, Oct 3, 2018)
    http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/74c5f3d3-974f-49dc-afbc-e132cb62f0fb

    “Two explosions rocked the city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, injuring at least eight people.

    Afrasiyaw Kamil, the Director of Kirkuk Police, said the two explosions occurred in different locations.

    Kamil told Sulaimani-based Xendan news outlet a car bomb caused one blast while a sticky-bomb was responsible for the other.

    The Police Director did not reveal the number of casualties the attacks caused…”

  14. French political leader Marine Le Pen announced on Twitter today that she will meet Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

    Marine Le Pen
    ?
    @MLP_officiel
    Je serai lundi à #Rome avec Matteo Salvini pour évoquer, à l’invitation de l’Union Générale du Travail, « la croissance économique et les perspectives sociales dans une Europe des Nations ». Il existe une alternative à l’UE et nous la construisons ! MLP cc @matteosalvinimi

    02:24 – 3 Oct 2018
    2,415
    1,168 people are talking about this
    Twitter Ads information and privacy
    “I will be on Monday in Rome with Matteo Salvini to discuss, at the invitation of the General Union of Labour, economic growth and social prospects in a Europe of nations,” Le Pen said.

    The leader of the National Rally, the former Front National added that “there is an alternative to the EU and we are building it”.

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/10/marine-le-pen-to-meet-matteo-salvini-there-is-an-alternative-to-the-eu-and-we-are-building-it/#.W7T6c8C8V_g.twitter

  15. Morocco doesn’t want migrants either..

    Morocco’s foreign minister rejects EU’s migrant centers
    https://www.dw.com/en/moroccos-foreign-minister-rejects-eus-migrant-centers/a-45736038

    Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said he rejects the European Union’s plan to build asylum centers in North Africa, according to an interview with German national daily Die Welt.
    The EU wants to reach migration deals with Middle East and northern African countries, such as Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, similar to the one it has with Turkey, and has suggested building migrant “reception centers” in these countries to hold asylum seekers.

  16. Police respond to incident at cleric Fethullah Gulen’s US compound
    https://www.dw.com/en/police-respond-to-incident-at-cleric-fethullah-gulens-us-compound/a-45743094

    Pennsylvania State Police were summoned on Wednesday to the rural compound of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
    A spokesman for Gulen said a compound security guard fired a warning shot at an armed intruder, who subsequently fled the vicinity. There were no known injuries or arrests.
    Photographs shared online showed several police cars parked around the gated retreat in Saylorsburg, located in the Pocono Mountains.

  17. Lefty Nazis: Feminist Journal Accepts Hitler’s Rants Rewritten as Intersectionality
    “Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism.”
    October 3, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    From Mein Kampf to Our Struggle.

    Just how willing is the left to accept and justify the most deranged forms of hatred? Some academics chose to test that by submitting hoax papers to academic journals. And they discovered that the left has no more lines.

    None at all.

    Editor’s note: For the past year scholars James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian have sent fake papers to various academic journals which they describe as specialising in activism or “grievance studies.” Their stated mission has been to expose how easy it is to get “absurdities and morally fashionable political ideas published as legitimate academic research.”

    To date, their project has been successful: seven papers have passed through peer review and have been published, including a 3000 word excerpt of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, rewritten in the language of Intersectionality theory and published in the Gender Studies journal Affilia.

    All they had to do was turn My Struggle… into Our Struggle.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271499/lefty-nazis-feminist-journal-accepts-hitlers-rants-daniel-greenfield

    • Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship
      Posted on October 2, 2018
      by Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian

      This essay, although hopefully accessible to everyone, is the most thorough breakdown of the study and written for those who are already somewhat familiar with the problems of ideologically-motivated scholarship, radical skepticism and cultural constructivism.

      Part I: Introduction

      Something has gone wrong in the university—especially in certain fields within the humanities. Scholarship based less upon finding truth and more upon attending to social grievances has become firmly established, if not fully dominant, within these fields, and their scholars increasingly bully students, administrators, and other departments into adhering to their worldview. This worldview is not scientific, and it is not rigorous. For many, this problem has been growing increasingly obvious, but strong evidence has been lacking. For this reason, the three of us just spent a year working inside the scholarship we see as an intrinsic part of this problem.
      We spent that time writing academic papers and publishing them in respected peer-reviewed journals associated with fields of scholarship loosely known as “cultural studies” or “identity studies” (for example, gender studies) or “critical theory” because it is rooted in that postmodern brand of “theory” which arose in the late sixties. As a result of this work, we have come to call these fields “grievance studies” in shorthand because of their common goal of problematizing aspects of culture in minute detail in order to attempt diagnoses of power imbalances and oppression rooted in identity.

      We undertook this project to study, understand, and expose the reality of grievance studies, which is corrupting academic research. Because open, good-faith conversation around topics of identity such as gender, race, and sexuality (and the scholarship that works with them) is nearly impossible, our aim has been to reboot these conversations. We hope this will give people—especially those who believe in liberalism, progress, modernity, open inquiry, and social justice—a clear reason to look at the identitarian madness coming out of the academic and activist left and say, “No, I will not go along with that. You do not speak for me.”

      This document is a first look at our project and an initial attempt to grapple with what we’re learning and what it means. Because of its length and detail, it is organized as follows, putting the factual information up front and more detailed explanations thereafter.

      Our methodology, which is central to contextualizing our claims;
      A summary of this project from its beginning until we were eventually exposed and forced to go public before we could conclude our research;
      An explanation of why we did this;
      A summary of the problem and why it matters;
      A clear explanation of how this project came to be;
      The results of our study, including a full list of all of the papers we submitted, their final outcomes, and relevant reviewer comments to date;
      A discussion of the significance of the results;
      A summary of what may come next……….
      https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/

      It is worth to read the whole article, it is long, but very interesting.

  18. China Struggles with Belt and Road Pushback

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: China, in an implicit recognition that at least some of its Belt and Road-related projects risk trapping target countries in debt or failing to meet their needs, has conceded that adjustments may be necessary.

    The Chinese are responding to pushback on the Belt and Road Initiative by conceding that changes may be required. “It’s normal and understandable that development focus can change at different stages in different countries, especially with changes in government,” Wang Jun, deputy director of the Department of Information at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges told the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper. “So China can also make some strategic adjustments when cooperating with these countries, but it’s definitely not a reconsideration of the B&R (Belt and Road) Initiative.”

    The Chinese concession, initially made public in an August 27 speech by President Xi Jinping and reaffirmed by the Global Times, came in the same week that Pakistan, during a visit of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, demanded that China expand its US$50 billion-plus investment in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The CPEC is the single largest country infrastructure investment related to the People’s Republic’s Belt and Road Initiative. Pakistan insists that it be expanded to include manufacturing and poverty reduction projects.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/china-belt-road-pushback/

  19. A rare U.S. government update on Hezbollah in Latin America
    Todd Bensman, PJM

    [Ed. – Worth the read. One note: Bensman emphasizes that the State Department report affirms no presence of international terrorist bases in Mexico in 2017. But he also seems to be thinking in terms of — mainly — groups like Hezbollah, and probably Hamas and Al Qaeda. An ISIS camp right on the U.S. border, literally yards from New Mexico and close to El Paso, Texas, was reported by Mexican authorities and known to U.S. authorities in 2014, but Bensman doesn’t mention it at all. Apparently, neither does the State Department report. That is extremely interesting.]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/03/a-rare-u-s-government-update-on-hezbollah-in-latin-america/

    Hezbollah South of the Border: A Rare U.S. Government Update

    As a working journalist in 2007, I traveled to Nicaragua to find out why Iran had just set up shop in the country after the election of U.S nemesis President Daniel Ortega. In Managua, I found the Iranian compound in a posh neighborhood, guarded by a coterie of Nicaraguan troops. For about three days, I episodically knocked on the tall metal gates asking to interview the new Iranian ambassador. “Soon, very soon, but not today,” a polite aide always told me.

    Frustrated that all I was getting to see was the peak of a limp Iranian national flag jutting up over the tall gates, I clambered up to the roof of a tall neighboring building and shot some photos of the compound’s interior, spy-like, then went off to interview Sandinista leaders and regular citizens about the Iranians encamped in their country.

    Then, just as now, there was good reason for public interest and inquiry. What Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah were doing at that time in Venezuela, Bolivia, and the Tri-Border Area of South America mattered on several American security and foreign policy counts. For one thing, as the 1992 and 1994 Hezbollah bombings of Jewish facilities in Argentina demonstrated, Iran and Hezbollah in America’s backyard projected a credible threat of physical retaliation against American interests and allies should saber-rattling ever go military over Iran’s nuclear program. That’s no less true today, as President Trump and various Iranian leaders trade war cries over sanctions and nukes. A U.S.-Mexico border, meanwhile, beckons just a few countries away.

    https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/hezbollah-south-of-the-border-a-rare-u-s-government-update/

  20. Hundreds of guns stolen from Tennessee UPS facility
    Tom Knighton, Bearing Arms October 3, 2018

    [Ed. – That’s a lot of guns, and as Tom Knighton says, this theft means someone knew they were there. It’s definitely not out of the question to think this is about something organized, and that it may not be ordinary crime. Stay safe out there, amigos.]

    Now it seems that somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 guns were recently stolen from a UPS facility in Tennessee.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/03/hundreds-of-guns-stolen-from-tennessee-ups-facility/

    Hundreds Of Guns Stolen From Tennessee UPS Facility

    Posted at 2:00 pm on October 2, 2018 by Tom Knighton

    https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2018/10/02/hundreds-guns-stolen-tennessee-ups-facility/

    Richard: The reporters mind runs to the firearms being used in crime, mine is ringing a major warning bell about the communists who were talking abut armed insurrection and targeted assassination. While it might be a street gang with good info stealing the guns for criminal purposes given the current political climate in the US and the calls for violence by the Dem politicians the theft makes more sense as a leftist political group rather then a criminal gang.

  21. Germany: 20,000 protest ‘far-right shift’ and CSU government in Munich

    At least 20,000 people rallied in Munich on Wednesday against what they perceive as a shift to the far-right in German politics, while also decrying the regional Christian Social Union government.

  22. Guard at Fethullah Gulen’s compound in Poconos fires warning shot to scare away intruder, prompting police response

    A security guard fired a “warning shot” in response to an apparent intruder at Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen’s compound in the Poconos on Wednesday morning, prompting a response by Pennsylvania State Police.

    An unidentified male, who appeared to be armed, attempted to enter the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center property on Mount Eaton Road in Ross Township, Monroe County, around 8:30 a.m., according to a statement from Gulen’s nonprofit, the Alliance for Shared Values.

    After the guard fired the shot into the air, the male fled the scene, according to the statement. No injuries were reported, and police have since left the scene.

    State police at Lehighton described the male as a Caucasian wearing all dark clothing. Troopers completed a search of the area but were unable to locate him. They did not say whether the male was armed.

    The guard’s weapon was fired in the area where the male was located outside the security gate, according to state police, who said the investigation is continuing.

    In its statement, the Alliance for Shared Values said staff at the compound is fully cooperating with state police in the investigation.

    Alliance officials said the armed entry comes on the heels of a statement from Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization would launch overseas “operations” against supporters of Gulen.

    “It is well-known that the Turkish government under (Turkish President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan has devised kidnapping plots against Mr. Gulen, as well as executed successful kidnappings of his supporters around the world,” said Alliance officials in a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon.

    Gulen is a reclusive Muslim cleric who leads a movement that is critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He resides on the gated, 26-acre compound and has lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years.

    Trained as an imam, or prayer leader, Gulen gained notice in Turkey some 50 years ago, promoting a philosophy that blended a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.

    Supporters started 1,000 schools in more than 100 countries, including about 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the U.S. In Turkey, they have run universities, hospitals, charities, a bank and a large media empire with newspapers and radio and TV stations.

    Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan has long accused Gulen of plotting to overthrow the officially secular government from the safety of his Poconos compound.

    In July 2016, the Associated Press reported that Turkish authorities blamed Gulen for a coup attempt, saying “there are signs that Gulen is working closely with certain members of military leadership against the elected civilian government.”

    The failed uprising left at least 270 people dead, and resulted in Turkish officials to send the United States a formal request demanding the arrest of Gulen.

    Gulen denied any involvement in the coup and has said the Turkish government used the failed uprising as an excuse to crack down on his followers.

    In April, a Turkish court issued arrest warrants for Gulen, and for seven other people tied to his religious movement for their alleged involvement in the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey.

    http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-fetullah-gulen-compound-investigation-20181003-story.html

  23. Tucker on claims made by Christine Ford’s ex-boyfriend

    We need to know more about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but we don’t.

    • Associated Press – Letter by law profs urges rejection of Kavanaugh

      WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and sexual misconduct allegations against him (all times local):

      8:45 p.m.

      Hundreds of law professors have signed onto a letter urging the Senate to reject Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

      The letter was shared in a New York Times op-ed and signed by more than 650 law professors. The letter will be sent to the Senate on Thursday.

      The letter says that in his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Kavanaugh “displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for election to the highest court of the land.”

      The letter also says Kavanaugh gave “intemperate, inflammatory” responses and was “discourteous” to senators.

      Kavanaugh is accused of sexually assaulting a woman decades ago when the two were in high school. He has steadfastly denied it.

      7 p.m.

      A massive coalition of U.S. Christian churches attended by 40 million people wants Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw his Supreme Court nomination.

      The National Council of Churches says the conservative jurist has “disqualified himself.” The group says in a statement that at last week’s dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he showed “extreme partisan bias,” demonstrating he lacks the temperament to join the high court.

      The group says Kavanaugh told “outright falsehoods.” And it is criticizing his judicial record on voting rights, health care and other issues on which the group has taken liberal-leaning positions.

      Kavanaugh is a Roman Catholic who has said religion is an important part of his life. The council does not represent Roman Catholics.

      Three women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct during the 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the claims.

      4:30 p.m.

      Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers say they’ll turn over notes from her therapy sessions and any recordings of her taking a lie detector test to the FBI, if the bureau agrees to interview her.

      Ford’s attorneys, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said Wednesday they haven’t heard back from the FBI about scheduling an interview about Ford’s claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago.

      The response came a day after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley accused the attorneys of “withholding material evidence.”

      The senator said he is requesting the recordings because the committee has obtained a letter that “raises specific concerns” about the reliability of Ford’s polygraph test.

      A man identifying himself as Ford’s former boyfriend said in the letter he saw Ford coach a friend on how to be less nervous during a polygraph examination.

      https://apnews.com/53b1f1b71d9a4e589b4109279e414deb/The-Latest:-Letter-by-law-profs-urges-rejection-of-Kavanaugh

    • Christine Ford’s ex-boyfriend directly contradicts Ford’s sworn testimony

      The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Christopher Bedford and Judicial Watch Director of Investigations Chris Farrell on how Christine Blasey Ford’s ex-boyfriend claimed that Ford had helped her close friend prepare for a polygraph test, despite her testimony that she had never given polygraph “tips or advice.”

  24. 15 Militants Killed in Security Raid in Egypt’s Arish (aawsat, Oct 3, 2018)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1415276/15-militants-killed-security-raid-egypt%E2%80%99s-arish

    “Fifteen suspected militants were killed during a raid by the Egyptian security forces near al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, state news agency MENA and security sources said on Wednesday.

    The men were suspected of planning attacks on security checkpoints ahead of the 45th anniversary of Egypt’s October 6 1973 war with Israel, the sources and MENA said, quoting an interior ministry statement.

    The news agency did not identify the suspects nor say whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces.

    Police seized a number of automatic weapons in the raid on a farm West of al-Arish where the terrorists were hiding, MENA said.

    The raid comes as the Egyptian army, backed by police, push ahead with a military operation to crush terrorists behind a wave of attacks on civilians and military personnel in Sinai…”

  25. UN extends mandate to fight people-smuggling off Libya’s coast (mee, Oct 3, 2018)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/unsc-extends-mandate-search-vessels-libyan-coast-believed-be-smuggling-migrants-817007703

    “The United Nations Security Council renewed a programme that allows a European Union naval force to search and seize vessels off the coast of Libya that are believed to be trafficking migrants to Europe.

    Proposed by the UK, all 15 members of the UNSC voted in favour of the extension on Wednesday afternoon.

    The programme will remain in force until 3 October 2019.

    The resolution calls for “an end to the ongoing proliferation of, and endangerment of lives by, the smuggling of migrants and trafficking of persons in the Mediterranean Sea”.

    It gives countries and agencies the ability to intercept, search and seize vessels that are believed to be smuggling migrants between Africa and Europe.

    The vote to extend the programme, known as Operation Sophia, came after earlier disagreements with the United States over the phrasing of the UNSC resolution, diplomats told AFP.

    The US had wanted to remove parts of the text that it deemed were too easy on migration, the diplomats said.

    “Too many migrants, many of them women and children, continue to risk their lives to try to cross the Mediterranean in the hands of smugglers,” said Antoine Michon, the political coordinator of France’s mission to the UN.

    Mediterranean crossings becoming deadlier

    The treatment of African asylum seekers in Libya has drawn international condemnation, after it was revealed that European countries were pushing migrants back to Libyan detention centres rife with abuse, torture and other inhumane treatment.

    In early September, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) released a report that found while the number of overall Mediterranean crossings was down, they had become deadlier.

    In the central Mediterranean, one of every 18 people crossing to Europe died or went missing between January and July. That’s up from one death for every 42 people over the same period a year earlier.

    “With the number of people arriving on European shores falling, this is no longer a test of whether Europe can manage the numbers, but whether Europe can muster the humanity to save lives,” said Pascale Moreau, the director of UNHCR’s Europe bureau…”

  26. Turkish Parliament Speaker says Security Council should have permanent muslim member (memo, Oct 4, 2018)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181004-turkish-parliament-speaker-says-security-council-should-have-permanent-muslim-member/

    “The Turkish Parliament’s Speaker, Binali Y?ld?r?m, said Wednesday that the United Nations Security Council must have a permanent Muslim member State.

    Y?ld?r?m explained during an event organized in Istanbul that the number of UN member states is 194 countries while there are 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Y?ld?r?m said one in four of the UN’s member states has a Muslim majority.

    According to Y?ld?r?m, the veto was granted to the Security Council five permanent members after the Second World War, to prevent the outbreak of new wars and achieve global stability. “But today we see that the veto has moved away from its objectives and became a tool to start wars” he added.”

  27. European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs does not recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over Sahara (memo, Oct 4, 2018)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181004-european-parliaments-committee-on-foreign-affairs-does-not-recognise-moroccos-sovereignty-over-sahara/

    “The Vice Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, Anders Primdahl Vistisen, insisted that Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara is not recognised, in the context of the debate on the EU-Morocco draft agreement that aims at expanding tariffs to include products from Western Sahara.

    The Danish European MP explained in a report on a draft opinion to the European Union’s International Trade Commission that “it is important to note that this agreement does not provide for the recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.”

    Vistisen stressed that “the position of the European Union remains supportive of the United Nations’ efforts to reach a just and lasting settlement accepted by the two parties of the Western Sahara conflict, based on the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination, in accordance with the relevant UN regulations.”…”

  28. Netherlands Considers Extraditing Said Chaou to Morocco (moroccoworldnews, Oct 3, 2018)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/10/254550/netherlands-extraditing-said-chaou/

    “A Dutch court might extradite suspected drug lord Said Chaou, subject to two Moroccan international arrest warrants, to Morocco.

    The court of Breda in the southern Netherlands has decided that it “cannot maintain” a previous decision to keep Dutch-Moroccan Chaou in the Netherlands, reported Dutch newspaper Bode on Tuesday.

    The Dutch court ruled against Chaou’s extradition in February 2018, with the justification that he would not receive a “fair” trial in Morocco. However, the Dutch prosecution service appealed the decision to the Dutch Supreme Court.

    The decision not to extradite was based on an argument that the North African country had “tortured” Chaou’s co-defendants to pressure them into giving false testimony against Chaou.

    The Dutch police arrested Chaou in June 2017 on charges of “drug trafficking, corruption, and criminal conspiracy.”

    In addition to his criminal record, the Moroccan justice department suspected that Chaou had provided financial and logistical support for the Hirak Rif protests…”

  29. Man wanted for murders of 8 family members extradited from Pakistan to UK (dawn, Oct 3, 2018)
    https://www.dawn.com/news/1436601/man-wanted-for-murders-of-8-family-members-extradited-from-pakistan-to-uk

    “A man wanted by British police for allegedly causing the deaths of eight people in a West Yorkshire town has been extradited back to the UK from Pakistan, a statement issued on Wednesday said.

    Shahid Mohammed, 36, will be presented at the Leeds Magistrates Court on Thursday after his extradition from Pakistan, a press release issued by the British High Commission on behalf of West Yorkshire Police said.

    He will be formally charged with the murders of five children and three adults following a house fire in Birkby, Huddersfield in 2002.

    Aged between 54 and as young as six months old, the eight members of the family were asleep in their home when petrol was poured through the letterbox and a petrol bomb put through the window, BBC reported.

    According to the handout, Mohammed, a former resident of Huddersfield, was extradited to the UK by officers from West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, with assistance from the National Crime Agency, the British High Commission in Islamabad, the Crown Prosecution Service and local authorities in Pakistan…”

  30. ‘These things happen,’ says woman while forgiving husband who stabbed her during pregnancy (hurriyetdailynews, Oct 3, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/these-things-happen-says-woman-while-forgiving-husband-who-stabbed-her-during-pregnancy-137501

    “A Turkish woman has told the court she has forgiven her husband for stabbing her while pregnant because “these things happen in every home.”

    The man, who was unidentified, was arrested in April 2017 after stabbing his pregnant wife amid a quarrel during breakfast at their home in Istanbul’s Bahçelievler district.

    The Bak?rköy 17th Heavy Penal Court ruled on Oct. 3 to release the man, after his wife withdrew her complaint.

    “I want him to be released. We have been in a desperate situation for the past two years with our kids. He repeatedly apologized. These things happen in every home,” the woman told the court.

    Although the prosecutor presented the indictment, asking the court to sentence the suspect to 20 years in jail for attempted murder, the judge released him pending trial.

    “I am so regretful, so sad. I ask for forgiveness. I have spent 15 months in jail,” the man told the court in the latest hearing.

    “It was the first time he did such a thing. I trust my husband,” the woman was heard telling her friends after the court adjourned the case.”

  31. Turkish President Erdo?an blasts ‘global smear campaign’ (hurriyetdailnews, Oct 3, 2018)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/president-erdogan-vows-democracy-not-possible-with-media-137491

    “President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has urged Turkish academics to lend support to his government’s efforts to fight what he called an “international smear campaign” by foreign media and academic circles against Turkey amid an economic turbulence and the fight against “multiple terror organizations.”

    “There is so much inaccurate information against us in Western media. We need to work to correct them. We need the support of our academics in what I call a national campaign against all of it,” Erdo?an said in a speech he made to mark the beginning of the new academic year in Ankara on Oct. 3.

    “They can back this struggle by explaining the truth about our country on their own merits,” said the president.

    Erdo?an also said democracy is not possible with the media, arguing that even the most powerful countries in today’s world are being ruled by the media as his latest trips to the United States and Germany have shown.

    “I have seen that these giant countries are being governed by the media and not by their leaders. Because whenever I spoke with them they were saying, ‘Our media says this, our media writes that.’ And I told them, ‘Just forget the media, tell me what your people say,’” he said.

    Erdo?an was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly where he held several bilateral talks with foreign leaders before paying a three-day state visit to Germany last week.

    International media have long been criticizing the Turkish government for pressure imposed on the media and journalists in Turkey, which is the world’s worst jailor of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

    In the past, the Turkish media had run Turkey claiming itself as the fourth power, but what the government cares about is the people itself, the president said.

    “What is important for us is how our people judge us. Democracy is empowered by the people. There is democracy if there are people. Democracy is not possible with the media,” he said.

    “And it is not possible for a politician to pursue sound politics if he or she is afraid of the media,” said Erdo?an.”

  32. Traini gets 12 years for migrant shooting spree (ansa, Oct 3, 2018)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/10/03/traini-gets-12-years-for-migrant-shooting-spree_f3719e9b-1c30-48d0-a514-2dcb13fe40de.html

    “(ANSA) – Macerata, October 3 – A Macerata court on Wednesday handed down a 12-year jail sentence for rightist militant Luca Traini, 29, for shooting and wounding six African migrants in Macerata on February 3 in ‘revenge’ for the murder and dismemberment of a Roman woman allegedly by a Nigerian drug pusher who had nothing to do with Traini’s targets.

    Furthermore, he was sentenced to pay compensation to the plaintiffs.

    He will also have to serve three further years on parole after his jail term is served.
    The maximum possible sentence was 22 years.

    Traini was found to have been of sound mind when he carried out his crimes.
    He is expected to appeal.

    The prosecutor’s office had reduced its sentence request to 12 years based on extenuating circumstances for Traini and given that he opted for a summary judgment.

    During his hearing earlier Wednesday, Traini apologised in court and said “I made a mistake”.

    “I don’t have any racial hate, I wanted to bring justice against drug dealers; there was a bombardment of news about the spread of drug dealers due to immigration, even my ex-girlfriend took drugs,” he said, reading from a prepared statement.

    “In prison I gained a new understanding of the facts,” he said, adding that he had a difficult childhood but is “neither crazy nor borderline”.

    Traini went on his spree three days after the discovery of the body of Pamela Mastropietro outside Pollenza near Macerata.

    A Nigerian drug pusher, Innocent Oseghale, has been charged with her rape, murder and dismemberment.

    He says they had consensual sex, she died of an overdose and he disposed of the body because he was afraid he might be accused of murder.

    Traini picked his targets at random and then went to a monument in Macerata where he posed wrapped in an Italian flag.

    Police found Nazi literature and far-right memorabilia in his home.

    In 2016 he stood unsuccessfully in local elections for the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party.”

  33. Wikipedia Bans Breitbart and Alex Jones’ InfoWars as Factual Sources (sputniknews, Oct 4, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201810041068575351-wikipedia-bans-breitbart-infowars-factual/

    “Wikipedia editors voted to ban the use of Breitbart as a source “due to its unreliability,” and prohibited editors from citing Alex Jones’ InfoWars.

    Wikipedia editors claimed that the two outlets “should not be used ever as a reference for facts” and called InfoWars a “conspiracy theorist and fake news website,” Vice’s Motherboard reported.

    “We have something over 2,500 links to Breitbart, many of them as sources in articles,” the editor who proposed the ban argued. “I think that Breitbart is not a reliable source… It’s my view that we should not source anything to Breitbart other than strictly factual and uncontroversial facts about Breitbart on the articles related to Breitbart and its people.”

    The proposal launched a flurry of discussion among Wikipedia editors, with the majority believing that Breitbart should be banned except as a source of attributed opinions or pertinent commentary. Thus, Breitbart was “deprecated,” meaning it will no longer be accepted as a source of facts on English-language pages.

    Another Wikipedia editor wrote that Breitbart has a “[l]ongstanding reputation for publishing utter falsehoods, fabrications and blatant distortions about living people it opposes, and having no meaningful fact-checking structure in place whatsoever,” calling the outlet “completely inappropriate for Wikipedia.”

    “There is a very clear consensus here that yes, Breitbart should be deprecated in the same way as the Daily Mail,” Wikipedia administrator Fish+Karate wrote in a post announcing the change. In February 2017, Wikipedia prohibited citations from the Mail due to its “reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism, and flat-out fabrication.”

    Wikipedia editors debated InfoWars’ reliability, deciding to apply a “Snowball Clause” to it, meaning that Jones’ controversial outlet has a “snowball’s chance in hell” of being cited on the encyclopedia, save for exceptional cases. Wikipedia has classified InfoWars as a “conspiracy theorist and fake news website” and called it “a generally unreliable source.” In light of that, Wikipedia has declared that InfoWars “should not be used for determining no ability, or used as a secondary source in articles.”

    Wikipedia hasn’t brought down the hammer only on right-wing sources, though. Editors also voted last week to forbid factual citations from the website Occupy Democrats, saying the progressive, activist outlet is not a reliable news source.

    Neither Breitbart nor Jones commented on Wikipedia’s decisions. InfoWars was recently banned from a variety of social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, due to violations of those sites’ rules.”

  34. London BLOODBATH – Teen stabbed REPEATEDLY in savage North London attack (express, Oct 4, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1026560/London-bloodbath-Maida-Hill-stabbing-teen-stabbed-injured-police-suspect

    “A TEENAGER has been repeatedly stabbed on Randolph Avenue, in North London, in the latest brutal attack in the capital.

    Police were called at 9.24pm to deal with the incident.

    In a statement they explained: “Officers and London Ambulance Service attended and found a male in his late teens suffering from stab injuries.

    “He has been taken to hospital where his injuries have been assessed as non-life threatening or changing.

    “Efforts to trace the suspect(s) are ongoing”….”

  35. Canada: Islamic veil allowed in legal hearing (thejakartapost, Oct 4, 2018)
    http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/10/04/canada-islamic-veil-allowed-in-legal-hearing.html

    “A judge cannot refuse to take testimony from a woman because she is wearing an Islamic veil, a court ruled on Wednesday.

    A citizen may wear any religious attire in a courtroom so long as their “religious beliefs are sincere” and they do not “conflict with another person’s constitutional rights,” the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled unanimously.

    Montrealer Rania El-Alloul, a Muslim, was expelled from a courtroom in 2015 for wearing a hijab.

    Judge Eliana Marengo of the Court of Quebec had cited a court ruling that every person must be “appropriately dressed” and compared El-Alloul’s headscarf “to a hat or sunglasses.”

    But Marengo did not take into account the right of El-Alloul “to religious expression,” the three appeals judges ruled.”