Reader’s Links for November 29, 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

130 Replies to “Reader’s Links for November 29, 2018”

  1. Police Commissioner Wants to End Internet Anonymity for Swedes (breitbart, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/29/police-commissioner-wants-to-end-internet-anonymity-for-swedes/

    “Swedish Police police commissioner at the National IT Crime Centre Björn Andersson has said he wants to get rid of anonymity for Swedes online claiming that it contributes to computer fraud.

    The police commissioner said that he wants to replace it with state-guaranteed digital credentials for users to “secure” their activities online, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

    Andersson argued that Swedish internet users should not only have state-guaranteed credentials similar to a driving licence while making purchases online but also when engaging in discussions on internet forums and platforms as well.

    “Today, computer fraud is the most common in Sweden and we can list crime area by crime area where the fundamental mistake is that we have anonymity on the internet,” Andersson said.

    “We need to shift focus from punishing the crimes to instead create the conditions for a secure internet environment,” he added.

    The comments come only months after the Minister for Housing and Digitisation Peter Eriksson and Minister for Justice Morgan Johansson said they were working with social media companies to end anonymity to combat “hate speech” online.

    “The troll accounts that exist today — as well as in Sweden — must end. You have to point out to the big platforms and tell them you have a responsibility, you have to clean up and get rid of this,” Eriksson said in March.

    Sweden has been an active campaigner not only against hate speech but so-called “fake news” as well, giving £1.2 million to mainstream media outlets to fact-check and counter ‘false’ information online.

    The government has placed pressure on social media companies like Facebook to delete both hate speech and accounts spreading fake news. In April, Facebook went as far as allowing the Swedish government greater access to the platform to flag and ban “fake accounts.””

  2. Swedish school bans centuries-old Christian tradition but celebrates Muhammad’s journey to heaven

    Horrible, but typical of the continuing islamization of Sweden.

    Swedish school bans centuries-old Christian tradition but celebrates Muhammad’s journey to heaven

    By Emma R., Voice of Europe, 28 November 2018:

    Prohibition of the Swedish Christmas tradition Lucia has sparked debate in Sweden. In Motala, the Lucia celebration has been cancelled at Kärrbacken School.

    According to preschool manager Anna Karmskog, they want to avoid discrimination, offensive treatment and do not want to “exclude” anyone.

    It is also seen from an “equality perspective”. Many people buy Lucia costumes for one occasion. It does not feel right to force the parents to buy these, she says.

    Furthermore, many children are reported to be anxious and sad in a large crowd, and the “gender perspective” as the children “walk in a row” is questioned. The school has not discussed the cancellation with the parents.

    https://gellerreport.com/2018/11/swedish-school-goes-muhammad-caless-xmas.html/

    • Prohibition of the Swedish Christmas tradition Lucia has sparked debate in Sweden. In Motala, the Lucia celebration has been cancelled at Kärrbacken School.

      Just so people know what’s being destroyed (two minute video clip):

  3. Iranians Are Not True Muslims

    Iranians are Muslim in name only. Most Iranians consider Islam an invader. We have a saying in Persian that the way you take your first step points your path for the rest of your journey. To elucidate this, please allow me to elaborate and give a brief account of Islam.

    Islam’s very first step was that of violence aimed at decimation of any people that stood in its path of conquest. It all started with Muhammad when his own Quraysh tribe chased him out of his hometown of Mecca. He was a troublemaker who earned the “crazed poet” epithet. He escaped from Mecca and settled in Medina where a large tolerant Jewish community lived. There he found enough peace to start his campaign of gathering a bunch of thugs with the promise of booty in this world as well as eternal pleasure of a sensual paradise if people followed his edict.

    The rest is history. One of the very first things he did was to turn on the Jews of Medina – an easy and convenient target to kill, loot and enslave. Being amply rewarded for this thuggery, his followers expanded their range. To this day, the goal is the same. Destroying any and all people who refuse to surrender everything they are and have to this creed of savagery and slavery.

    https://gellerreport.com/2018/11/iranians-not-muslims.html/

  4. Muslim arrested in Italy in chemical attack plot to poison water supply
    By Pamela Geller – on November 28, 2018

    Media news reports (the little there is of this) refer to the attacker as “Palestinian” — a euphemism for jihad. “Palestinianism” is jihad. The suspect is reportedly a member of the Islamic State group. It’s all Islam.

    Palestinian arrested in Italy on suspicion of planning chemical attack – reports

    TOI, November 28, 2018:

    A Palestinian man is arrested in Italy on suspicion that he was planning a chemical attack, local news outlets say.

    The man, reportedly a 38-year-old member of the Islamic State group, is reportedly arrested in the town of Macomer, in Sardinia.

    He is said to have planned to poison the water supply in the town with rat poison. There are also reports that he was planning to attack army personnel.

    According to reports, the man was tracked by law enforcement for a while before his arrest this morning.

    https://twitter.com/poliziadistato/status/1067729152726495233

    https://gellerreport.com/2018/11/iraly-chemical-attack-jihad.html/

  5. Report: Terrorists from Taliban, ISIS sneak in with migrants

    new report on the security flaws at the U.S. border confirms President Trump’s claims that terrorists from mostly Middle East criminal networks have hidden among migrants entering the country illegally.

    There have been at least 15 confirmed cases of terrorists from groups like ISIS and the Taliban trying to enter the nation, and at least 100 total migrants from nations that harbor terrorist groups have crossed the border since 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks, according to the report from the Center for Immigration Studies.

    “While President Trump may have raised the prospect of terrorist border infiltration to gain political advantage, facts would support his contention that Middle Easterners from places like Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, as well as from South Asia and the Horn of Africa, do indeed routinely travel the same routes as Hondurans to the U.S. southern border and that some terrorist suspects have traveled among them,” the new analysis said.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/report-terrorists-from-taliban-isis-sneak-in-with-migrants

  6. CNN fired contributor Marc Lamont Hill Thursday following his apparent call for the destruction of the state of Israel and his defense of violence by Palestinians during an appearance at the United Nations.
    A CNN spokesperson told Mediaite, “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN.”

    The terse statement simply reflects Hill’s employment status but does not say anything about Israel or condemn his remarks.

    https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2018/11/29/cnn-fires-marc-lamont-hill-after-anti-israel-comments/

    • CNN fired contributor Marc Lamont Hill Thursday following his apparent call for the destruction of the state of Israel and his defense of violence by Palestinians during an appearance at the United Nations.

      Haw haw!

      [/Nelson Muntz]

  7. Richard: When you are a Democrat crimes pays and pays very well, a Republican that did what she did would be in the pen for the rest of their lives not living high on the hog from a pension that most people can only dream of. $11,000 a month.

    Broward elections supervisor Brenda Snipes will receive $130,000 per year in pensions after she resigns

    Outgoing Florida elections official Brenda Snipes certainly won’t be suffering financially after resigning amid controversial botched vote counts in the November 6 elections.

    The Broward County elections supervisor will reportedly be raking in almost $11,000 a month in pension benefits come January, the Sun Sentinel reported.

    The 75-year-old Democrat will be collecting $58,560 a year from her earlier career as an educator, and the state will be doling out an additional $71,000 a year for Snipes’ time as the Broward County Supervisor of Elections.

    Snipes will be receiving the generous pension benefits even as she resigns amid backlash over Broward’s handling of ballots for the Nov. 6 election, especially affecting the U.S. Senate race between Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2018/11/28/broward-elections-supervisor-brenda-snipes-will-receive-130000-per-year-in-pensions-after-she-resigns-697532

  8. Federal agents have reportedly raided the Chicago City Hall office of a lawyer who previously did tax work for President Trump.

    The Chicago Sun-Times reports that federal agents removed everyone from the office of Chicago Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke on Thursday morning, covering the floor-to-ceiling windows with brown paper.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/418928-federal-agents-raid-office-of-tax-firm-that-previously-worked-for

  9. At the Centenary of the End of WWI, Is the World Safer?

    At the Centenary of the End of WWI, Is the World Safer?
    By Emil Avdaliani
    November 29, 2018
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    President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron at the commemorative ceremony marking the centenary of Armistice Day, photo via Office of the President of the Russian Federation

    BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,020, November 29, 2018

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Earlier this month, world leaders gathered in France to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, which ushered in a century of wars and ethnic cleansing. Though the commemoration served as a unifying moment for leaders, the world is as divided as it has been since the end of the Soviet Union.

    It all began on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, then the center of Bosnia, a province annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. On that day, Gavrilo Princip, a member of the ultranationalist group “Black Hand,” stood on the corner of Appel Quay and Franz-Josef Strasse eating a sandwich. The 19-year-old Bosnian Serb was part of a group of student assassins, the Young Bosnians, who hoped to capitalize on the visit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, to Sarajevo to attend military exercises. The Young Bosnians smuggled semi-automatic pistols and handheld bombs over the Serbian border. Their first attempt to assassinate Ferdinand ended with a bomb rolling off the side of his car, killing a few bystanders.

    But a motorcade carrying Ferdinand and his pregnant wife, Duchess Sophie Chotek, took a wrong turn on Appel Quay, and Princip was given a second chance to carry out the conspiracy. Two shots killed the couple and catapulted Europe into World War I.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/centenary-end-wwi/

  10. Sanctuary Cities For Gun Rights? Oregon Militias Try New Political Tactic

    2018-11-05 Source: IJPR by: Jonathan Levinson

    A new kind of gun law is on the ballot in 10 Oregon counties this year. The so-called “Second Amendment Preservation Ordinances” would give those county sheriffs the authority to determine if state and federal gun laws are constitutional and bar county resources from being used to enforce them.

    The measures represent a new legal strategy from gun rights groups.

    “It’s a brand-new approach,” said Rob Taylor, an Oregon gun rights activist who is pushing these ordinances. “It’s something that really hasn’t been tried in a lot of places.”

    Taylor runs the Committee for the Preservation of the Second Amendment. The group wrote and shepherded the ballot measure to Election Day with help of the Oregon chapters of militia groups like the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.
    Source: IJPR

    https://gundynamics.com/articles/sanctuary-cities-for-gun-rights-oregon-militias-try-new-political-tactic

  11. BREAKING: Feds Raid Office of Chicago Lawyer Who Previously Did Tax Work For Trump

    On Thursday, feds raided the Chicago City Hall office of a lawyer who used to do tax work for President Trump.

    According to the Chicago Sun Times, federal agents removed everyone from the office of Chicago Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke and put brown paper on the doors.

    Ed Burke previously helped Donald Trump with his property taxes, reducing Trump’s tax burden on his Chicago skyscraper by $14 million.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/11/breaking-feds-raid-office-of-chicago-lawyer-who-previously-did-tax-work-for-trump/?omhide=true

    • The quiet coup is starting to turn noisy, this is not going to end well for anyone in the US.

  12. Judicial Watch Files Amicus Brief Defending the Appointment of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General
    NOVEMBER 29, 2018

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    Calls Maryland Attorney General’s Request for Federal Judicial Action to Enjoin Whitaker’s Appointment ‘Naked Attempt to Wage Political Battle in the Courts’

    (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it has submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in support of President Trump’s choice of Matthew Whitaker for acting United States attorney general (State of Maryland v. United States of America, et al. (No. 1:18-cv-02849)).

    Less than a week after President Trump on November 7 appointed Matthew Whitaker, then-chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as acting attorney general, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, on behalf of the State of Maryland, filed a motion, asking the court to prohibit the administrative substitution of Whitaker to replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions as one of nine defendants in a pending lawsuit.

    Judicial Watch argues that the “State of Maryland’s naked attempt to wage a political battle in the courts should be denied” and its motion both misstates the law and is fatally flawed on procedural grounds.

    Judicial Watch argues that the appointment is valid, as acts performed by a person acting under the color of official title are valid “even though it is later discovered that the legality of that person’s appointment or election to office is deficient.” Judicial Watch contends that “Supreme Court precedent suggests the de facto officer doctrine would apply” and precludes issuance of an injunction in this case.

    According to the Judicial Watch brief, the doctrine “springs from the fear of chaos that would result from multiple and repetitious suits challenging every action taken by every official whose claim to office could be open to question and seeks to protect the public by insuring the orderly functioning of the government despite technical defects in title to office.”

    https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-files-amicus-brief-defending-the-appointment-of-matthew-whitaker-as-acting-attorney-general/

  13. Syrian air defense downs several ‘enemy targets’ in southern Syria – reports
    Published time: 29 Nov, 2018 19:54
    Edited time: 29 Nov, 2018 21:20
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    Syrian air defense downs several ‘enemy targets’ in southern Syria – reports
    Kiswah town © Google maps
    250618
    Syria’s air defense forces have shot down “enemy targets” in Kiswah town, located south of Damascus, according to state media.
    The report by the SANA news outlet does not specify the “enemy” that was targeted.

    Military sources told SANA that the incoming projectiles were heading toward the al-Kiswah area.

    “Our air defense systems repelled an attack by several enemy targets over the al-Kiswah area in the south of the country and shot them down,” a Syrian military source said, as quoted by Ikhbariya television.

    An unconfirmed report from Ria Novosti said that an Israeli Air Force jet and four Israeli missiles were taken down.

    Israeli Defense Forces have refused to comment on Israel’s alleged part or losses in the attack, with a spokesperson telling RIA that they’re not commenting on reports in foreign media.

    https://www.rt.com/news/445179-syria-defence-south-conflict/

  14. Anybody Looking at What’s Happening to Europe?

    While we watch a third world invasion from Central America knocking on our southern border with Mexico, is anybody watching what’s happening to Europe? Canada? Australia?

    Immigrants overrun each of those Western entities by the millions.

    What’s most interesting: their leaders invite the invasions of their countries against their countrymen and women. Worse, against their successful cultures!

    “It cannot be too often repeated that an extravagantly multicultural nation is poorly positioned to compete with nations that have not succumbed to the siren call for more “diversity.” Think of Japan. In facing the real dangers of overpopulation following World War II, Japan showed that she could achieve a unanimity of purpose that is hard to imagine in a multicultural nation. Whatever measures may be required to tame population growth, their difficulty will increase strictly in proportion to the amount of diversity in the population. In a multicultural nation patriotism withers under the onslaught of internal competition between ethnic groups. The nation is then less favorably positioned to deal with external competition. Everyone within the multiethnic nation suffers.” —Garrett Hardin, Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and

    https://godfatherpolitics.com/anybody-looking-at-whats-happening-to-europe/

    • This is a very damning report, she is doing a very good job of summarizing the corruption in the DOJ, now if she will do one on the Mueller investigation.

  15. Inter-Houthi Bickering Intensifies in Yemen (aawsat, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1483561/inter-houthi-bickering-intensifies-yemen

    “Differences among Yemen’s Houthi militias are on the rise against a backdrop of corruption and bias accusations facing the Iran-backed group’s leadership.

    Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leading militias in Yemen, now faces the heat of blame for the group’s recent battleground defeats.

    Amassing casualties and disbanded militia ranks are the two chief grievances parties from inside the insurgency are blaming on al-Houthi’s poorly assigned officials.

    “Houthis have put Major General Yehya Ashami, a top insurgent leader, under house arrest in Sanaa,” a source speaking on condition of anonymity said.

    “There is a chance for moving the Major General to Saada, one of the group’s key strongholds,” the source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

    In Hodeidah, a flashpoint Red Sea port city, Yemeni Army Forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition continued advances towards the city’s eastern gate, as Houthis retaliated by attacking civilian targets, especially in Hodeidah’s pro-government surrounding villages.

    Ongoing Houthi crimes against Hodeidah citizens include indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire targeting civilian households, mosques and public institutions.

    “Houthi militias continue their flagrant violations against civilians in Hodeidah, where they indiscriminately shelled houses in al-Haq district, south of Hodeidah, with mortars and destroyed a number of houses, displacing hundreds of local families,” another source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

    “Indiscriminate shelling by Houthis on residential neighborhoods has caused dozens of civilian casualties comprising innocent men, women, children and elderly who are only considered as collateral damage by Houthis in their all-out war against Yemenis.”

    This comes at a time when army forces, backed by Arab Coalition air forces, continued making progress on battlefields in Al Bayda province in central Yemen and Saada.

    As for ongoing relief operations in Yemen, the Saudi King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) distributed 37 tons of food baskets in 6 villages of Dhale Governorate in Yemen, benefiting 3,000 people.

    The distribution comes within the framework of humanitarian projects, which have so far reached 294, being provided by Saudi Arabia.”

  16. British MPs call for judge-led inquiry on human rights abuses post 9/11 (mee, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-parliament-calls-judge-led-inquiry-british-human-rights-abuses-post-911-1658224909

    “British parliamentarians have called for the reopening of a judge-led inquiry into the UK’s involvement in post-9/11 human rights abuses, accusing the government of a “woeful” response to an investigation that detailed the country’s role in rendition and the mistreatment of detainees.

    The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition accused the government of being evasive when an oversight body published evidence of the abuses following an investigation that lasted several years.

    That oversight body – Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) – said it had seen documentary evidence that the UK government and its intelligence agencies had financed, planned or suggested more than 50 rendition operations and had supplied questions to be put to detainees whom they knew or suspected were being tortured on more than 400 occasions.

    The chair of the group on rendition, former Home Secretary Ken Clarke, accused the government of attempting to “bury” its response to the investigation by quietly publishing it unannounced last week on a day when British politicians and media were concentrating on the details of a newly released plan for withdrawal from the European Union…”

  17. Middle East activists say Trump’s travel ban is locking them out of key UN meetings (mee, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/trump-s-travel-ban-blocks-middle-east-rights-activists-un-access-1576300620

    “As a result of US President Donald Trump’s travel ban, the number of human rights campaigners from the Middle East able to visit Washington and New York has dropped sharply, starving decision-makers there of valuable input, according to former officials and experts.

    Activists, lawyers and rights defenders from Yemen, Syria and elsewhere told MEE they were denied US visas and thus blocked from taking part in United Nations meetings in New York, as well as talks with US lawmakers and officials in Washington.

    “I advocate for moving the UN out of New York. It’s a hostile environment,” said Rasha Jarhum, a women’s rights campaigner from Yemen who was due to address the UN Security Council earlier this month to discuss how women bear the brunt of the ongoing conflict there.

    Jarhum’s US visa request was declined, however, and while she ended up speaking via video link, she said she was unable to meet diplomats afterwards or take part in valuable, closed-door discussions.

    “The Security Council claims it is a peacekeeping body, but it is failing in that duty if it is preventing peace-makers like me from speaking at its events,” Jarhum told MEE.

    Jarhum, founder of the Peace Track Initiative, said her visa rejection also nixed a planned visit to Washington, where she hoped to lobby US lawmakers against re-arming Saudi Arabia amid an uproar over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    “We need to fix this as soon as possible. It’s not only about Yemen; we have colleagues from Syria, Somalia, Libya, Iraq,” she said…”

  18. Anti-Muslim hate crimes up 207 percent in Canada’s most populous province in 2017 (mee, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/Canada-hate-crimes-Muslim-community-1963855246

    “Police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims were up by more than 200 percent last year in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, raising concerns among Muslim and other advocacy groups across the country.

    “The data, while very unsettling for our communities, unfortunately does not surprise us; 2017 was an immensely difficult year for the Canadian Muslim community,” said Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).

    The year began with an attack on a mosque in Quebec City in January 2017 that left six Muslim worshippers dead and many others wounded. The shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette, said he viewed far-right websites before the shooting and was angered by reports that Canada was taking in refugees and asylum seekers, but he disputed whether his crime was Islamophobic.

    Quebec province, where that attack took place, also saw a surge in hate crimes last year, with the most substantial increase coming in the number of crimes committed against the Muslim population, Statistics Canada found.

    Statistics Canada released its annual hate crimes data on Thursday, which showed that police across the country received 2,073 hate-crime reports in 2017, 664 more than the year before.

    The total marks an all-time high for hate crimes reported to police in Canada since the data was first collected in 2009, the agency said.

    The numbers were largely the result of increased hate crimes targeting Muslims, Jews and Black people across Canada, it said.

    There were 349 anti-Muslim hate incidents reported across Canada in 2017, an increase of 151 percent from the year before. In Ontario, 124 more anti-Muslim hate incidents were reported last year – a 207-percent increase from 2016.

    Anti-Muslim hate crimes almost tripled from 41 reported incidents in 2016 to 117 last year in Quebec, the agency said, and the incidents peaked in February, the month after the attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City.

    Last week, the NCCM released an open letter calling for 29 January – the day of the mosque shooting – to be designated a National Day of Action Against Hate and Intolerance in memory of the victims. More than 100 community groups across Canada signed on to that request.

    For Gardee, the statistics demonstrate that Islamophobia “is getting more intense and more pervasive” in Canada.

    “This new data reveals Islamophobic hate crimes peaked in February 2017, signalling that the shooting very much set the tone for the increase in hate crimes against Muslims for the remainder of the year,” he said in a statement.

    “And these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg – approximately two-thirds of hate crimes are never even reported to police for a variety of reasons including fear of retaliation, shame, and fear of not being believed by police.””

  19. Refugee footballer from Bahrain held at Bangkok airport (alaraby, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/11/29/refugee-footballer-from-bahrain-held-at-bangkok-airport

    “A former Bahrain national team footballer who was given refugee status in Australia after fleeing political repression in the Gulf state has been detained in Bangkok, rights groups said on Thursday.

    Hakeem Alaraibi was arrested in 2012 and convicted two years later in absentia on charges of vandalising a police station as part of a government crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests.

    The footballer, who said he was playing in a match during the alleged crime, was granted refugee status in Australia in 2017, where he has played for semi-professional club Pascoe Vale FC, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD).

    But he was detained at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday during a personal trip, rights groups said, fearing he will be sent back to Bahrain on an Interpol red notice, a non-binding request to comply with national arrest warrants.

    AFP could not reach Alaraibi on his personal phone number but in a video interview from an airport detention room posted by Australian channel SBS he said he wanted to go back to Australia.

    “They want to kill me in Bahrain,” he said.

    Thai immigration did not immediately reply to a request for comment…”

  20. US displays Iran weapons used in Yemen, Afghanistan (gulfnews, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/us-displays-iran-weapons-used-in-yemen-afghanistan-1.1543520609728

    “Washington: The United States on Thursday displayed pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons deployed to militants in Yemen and Afghanistan, a move by President Donald Trump’s administration to pressure Tehran to curb its regional activities.

    Much of the hardware presented by the Pentagon was handed over by Saudi Arabia.

    If Iran were found to be shipping arms to Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries, it would be in violation of UN resolutions.

    “We want there to be no doubt across the world that this is a priority for the United States and that it’s in international interest to address it,” said Katie Wheelbarger, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs.

    The presentation, the second such one in the last year, is part of a government-wide effort to take a harder line toward Tehran.

    Iran has denied supplying the Al Houthis in Yemen with such weaponry and described the Pentagon’s previous arms display as “fabricated.”

    Weapons to Yemen

    The Pentagon offered a detailed explanation of why it believed the arms on display came from Iran, noting what it said were Iranian corporate logos on arms fragments and the unique nature of the designs of Iranian weaponry.

    The United States acknowledged it could not say precisely when the weapons were transferred to the Al Houthis, and, in some cases, could not say when they were used. There was no immediate way to independently verify where the weapons were made or employed.

    This included a “Sayyad-2” surface to air missile, which the Pentagon said had been interdicted by the Saudi government in early 2018 on the way to Al Houthi militants in Yemen.

    The Pentagon cited a corporate logo of an Iranian defence firm in the warhead section, which was not displayed, and writing in Farsi on the missile as evidence that it was Iranian.

    A US defence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the Pentagon did not know if the Houthis had actually used this type of missile before.

    The Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital Sanaa, have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia in recent months, part of a three-year-old conflict.

    Under a UN resolution, Tehran is prohibited from supplying, selling or transferring weapons outside the country unless approved by the Security Council.

    A separate UN resolution on Yemen bans the supply of weapons to Al Houthi leaders.

    It was unclear what impact, if any, such public displays of weaponry will have on Iran, US allies and militants in the region.

    A short-range missile on display was fired just five days after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley did a similar presentation last year.

    “I haven’t heard anybody say this is a political stunt. This is simply putting out in broad daylight Iran’s missiles and small arms and rockets and UAVs and drones,” US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, told a news conference on Thursday after being asked whether the weapons display was done for propaganda reasons.

    Hook said that today Al Houthi rebels had fired missiles into Saudi Arabia and that while the United States had the military option on the table, the preference was to use diplomatic efforts to deal with Iran.

    The United States has also long accused Iran of providing weapons to Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

    The Pentagon on Thursday displayed a number of “Fadjr” rockets, that it said had been provided to the Taliban. It said they were Iranian because of the unique markings on the rockets and the paint scheme, along with the markings on them.

    The Taliban is known to buy weapons on the black market and defence officials could not say why they were sure these missiles and other weapons had not been simply bought by the militants.”

  21. Lebanon army ‘detains several hundred Syrians’ (gulfnews, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/lebanon-army-detains-several-hundred-syrians-1.60652856

    “Beirut – Lebanon’s army has detained around 400 Syrians in raids on refugee camps in the eastern Bekaa valley, mostly for overstaying their residence permits, a military source said Thursday.

    Almost eight years into Syria’s war, neighbouring Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrians, many of whom live in the east of the tiny Mediterranean country.

    On Wednesday, the army in the Arsal area detained “33 people with arrest warrants, 56 people without identity papers, and 300 others over expired documents”, it said in a statement.

    The military source said all were Syrians, and that those with no or out-of-date documents had been handed over to the security forces.

    Those arrested had “committed an action against the law”, they told AFP, without providing any further details.

    Lebanon’s army from time to time sweeps down on Syrian refugee camps, especially those in the east of the country.

    Tens of thousands of Syrians live there, many from towns and villages on the other side of the Syrian-Lebanese border.

    Arsal mayor Basel Al Hojeiri said that some of those who had been detained on Wednesday were then released overnight, complaining that the way in which the raids were carried out was “not right”.

    “They come to arrest a certain number of wanted people, and end up detaining 400,” he said.

    “They detain this huge number to then determine which ones are wanted among them, when it would be much better if they directly arrested those they wanted without bothering everybody else,” Al Hojeiri said.

    Last year, the army detained dozens of Syrians in mass raids on camps in Arsal, sparking a controversy after it announced four of them had died in custody.

    Images circulated on social media showed dozens of bare-chested men lying down on the ground under the scorching sun with their hands tied.

    Rights organisations demanded an investigation into the cause of their deaths.

    Many Syrians live in tough conditions in Lebanon, and depend on international aid organisations for their survival.

    Since the start of the year, around 8,000 Syrians have gone home from Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

    Lebanese security forces however claim tens of thousands have taken part in these returns, which are coordinated between Beirut and Damascus.

    They waive late fines for those whose residency papers have expired if they agree to return to Syria.

    The Syrian conflict has killed more than 460,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.”

  22. Spanish Authorities Prevent Forced Marriage of Spanish Minor to Moroccan (moroccoworldnews, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/11/259080/spanish-authorities-forced-marriage-minor-moroccan/

    “In Alicante, Spain, the Guardia Civil prevented the forced marriage of a 17-year-old girl to a 37-year-old man from Morocco.

    The Guardia Civil detained the girl’s father and brother, who worked together to orchestrate the forced marriage. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, a source alerted authorities about the situation soon before the minor was sent to Morocco. While the minor was born and raised in Spain, her family is Moroccan.

    When authorities met with the minor, they learned the girl’s family had prohibited her from leaving the home freely or attending school. She also revealed to the police that her family abused and mistreated her throughout her adolescence.

    In March, after her family had announced that she would be married to a man from a small town in Morocco, the teen attempted to commit suicide. After the suicide attempt, the family brought her to meet her future husband in Morocco and then returned to Spain, according to El Pais.

    Spanish authorities arrested the minor’s 29-year-old brother on charges of domestic abuse and coercion. The minor has been provided protection at a youth shelter in Spain and hopes to continue her studies.”

    • This one is a couple of years old but it is something that should be shown every so often. I don’t know what her degree is in but she is right on just about everything she talks about.

  23. Austrian jihadist recruiter gets eight-year jail term (thelocal, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.at/20181129/austrian-jihadist-recruiter-gets-eight-year-jail-sentence

    “An Austrian man under whose influence two couples went to Syria to join the Islamic State (Isis) group taking their nine children with them was on Wednesday jailed for eight years.

    The 38-year-old was convicted of recruiting for Isis while a 24-year-old Bulgarian was given seven years after being found in possession of plans for terrorist attacks.

    Prosecutors said the older man played “a central ideological role” in a radical religious grouping and had convinced several people to travel to Syria to join Isis.

    Among those who prosecutors said left under his influence were two sets of parents who took their nine children to Syria. They subsequently returned to Austria and were themselves convicted.

    The younger man convicted on Wednesday had himself originally gone to Syria before returning in 2015.

    A raid at his home revealed a USB stick containing instructions on how to use explosives and chemical weapons, including how to detonate devices using a mobile phone.

    Around 300 people have either left or been intercepted trying to leave Austria to fight in Syria or Iraq since 2011, according to the interior ministry. Some 50 have died there while around 100 have come back.”

  24. Uighur woman shares ‘horrendous’ China crackdown details with US Congress (DW, Nov 29, 2018)
    https://www.dw.com/en/uighur-woman-shares-horrendous-china-crackdown-details-with-us-congress/a-46513704

    “China’s treatment of its religious minorities, particularly the Uighurs in far-western Xinjiang province, was thrust into the limelight after a Uighur woman detailed the abuse she said she suffered in an internment camp.

    A hearing organized by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on Wednesday examined the state of religious freedom in China and the growing restrictions imposed by authorities on religious bodies and practices.

    The hearing, headed by Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Chris Smith, was focused mainly on the increasingly disturbing reports of persecution against the Uighur ethnic minority in Xinjiang province, as well as suppressive campaigns targeting other religious groups.

    Mihrigul Tursun, a Uighur survivor of the internment camps in Xinjiang, and two experts on China’s religious affairs testified at the hearing.

    Tursun shared some gruesome details of her detention, saying that she was interrogated for four days in a row without sleep, had her hair shaved and was subjected to an intrusive medical examination following her second arrest in China in 2017. After she was arrested a third time, the treatment grew worse…”

  25. FGM crisis: Warning issued as cases DOUBLE – ‘Just the tip of the iceberg’ (express, Nov 30, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1052200/female-genital-mutliation-crisis-fgm-cases-double-barnardos-local-government-association

    “LEADING groups tackling the growing problem of female genital mutilation (FGM) among children have warned a “worrying” and “alarming” spike in the number of cases is just the “tip of the iceberg.”…”

  26. CBC – HAMILTON – ONTARIO – ‘Ring leader’ of Locke Street vandals gets jail time as 5 plead guilty

    Defence lawyers argued accused were motived by social justice

    A group of people who were part of a vandalism spree on Locke Street in March have pleaded guilty for their roles in the flurry of mischief.

    Local anarchist and activist Cedar Hopperton pleaded guilty before the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton Thursday morning to one count of mischief over $5,000 and one count of counseling to commit mischief.

    Following a joint submission by his lawyer and the Crown, Hopperton was sentenced to a year in custody, less four months for time served, which will be followed by a year of probation.

    “See you all soon, take care of each other,” said the 31-year-old as he was escorted out.

    “Love you,” responded a group of supporters who packed the centre of the courtroom.

    Hopperton was described in court as the “ring leader” of a crowd of masked group of 15-40 people who pelted buildings and vehicles with eggs and rocks and had earlier in the day invited people to attend a “militant and confrontational march.”

    According the Crown and a victim impact statement read in court, the crowd was interpreted by those in the neighbourhood as a violent mob that left people afraid and shaken.

    Tammy Kovich, who the court heard handed out flyers advertising the demonstration, pleaded guilty to one count of mischief over $5,000. She was given a nine-month conditional sentence which will be broken down into three month chunks made up of house arrest, curfew and terms, along with 12 months of probation.

    Matthew Lowell-Pelletier and David Prychitka also pleaded guilty to mischief over $5,000. They were sentenced to 18 months probation and 100 hours of community service.

    A fifth participant, Tyler Nadeau, pleaded guilty to two counts of mischief over $5,000 but was not sentenced Thursday. A pre-sentence report has been requested and he’ll be back before the court for sentencing on Feb. 5.

    Barred from Locke Street
    Conditions for all of the accused include being barred from the section of Locke Street South between Main Street and Aberdeen Avenue. They’re also not allowed to participate or organize any sort of protest unless it remains peaceful.

    Defence lawyers for the accused and the Crown clashed over whether or not an order to provide DNA be part of sentencing, with the defence lawyers arguing it amounted to an unnecessary invasion of privacy.

    In the end, Justice Joe Fiorucci ruled only Hopperton would have to provide DNA, referencing the fact the Hamilton resident was previously arrested during the G20 protests in 2010 and pleaded guilty to one count of counselling mischief.

    Hopperton was also ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution to the victims, while the other three will have to pay $1,000 each.

    more :

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/locke-street-vandalism-1.4925673

    video March 2018

    • Communists and Protesters in the Streets of Hamilton

      MARCH 25 2018 – Today at Locke St. in Hamilton, Canada – there was a planned march by the people in Hamilton and other friends to walk in solidarity with the city of Hamilton ever since that night when anarchists destroyed the local shops.

      Unfortunately, these anarchists believed these were Nazis and White Supremacists who just wanted to make an excuse to march for the city.

      So then these anarchists came and march to protest against the rally.

  27. Germany: Neubrandenburg uncovers statue of Karl Marx after 16 years

    The town of Neubrandenburg, in former East Germany, has put back up its memorial of Karl Marx on Thursday after it had been stored away for 16 years.

    The statue of Karl Marx by architect Gerhard Thieme has been revealed at a new location in a park next to the Friedrich-Engels-Ring street. About 80 people came to the event, laying flowers on the pedestal after the statue was uncovered.

    The location and the decision of putting the memorial back up was reportedly a point of controversy over the last few years. “One and another one said ‘I would like to have him back in our city’ because it reminds us of a certain time,” Neubrandenburg mayor Silvio Witt said. “That was the goal of this long discussion. I wanted to put this memorial back up without the ideology,” Witt added.

  28. euronews – Steve Bannon wants to prepare future far-right leaders

    New institute in Italy to prepare conservative leaders of the future

    ( 5 min 18 )