Contributor’s Links post for January 16th, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

142 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for January 16th, 2019”

  1. US Program Trained UAE Pilots for Airstrikes Targeting Yemen (sputniknews, jan 16, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901171071544730-us-trained-uae-pilots-yemen/

    “The United States ran an aircrew training program to prepare United Arab Emirati personnel for air raids over Yemen, the poorest Middle Eastern nation, according to a new report that shows the Pentagon’s involvement in the conflict has been much deeper that official statements suggest.

    US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) escorted half a dozen UAE F-16s to advanced Red Flag training exercises and “assisted 150 airmen in challenging ex[ercise] to prepare for combat ops in Yemen,” an official US Air Force memo dated December 18, 2017, states. The document was obtained from AFCENT through a Freedom of Information Act request, Yahoo News reported Thursday…”

  2. Turkish Prosecutors Want Turkish NBA Player Enes Kanter Extradited (sputniknews, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201901171071545055-turkish-prosecutors-nba-enes-kanter/

    “Turkish prosecutors submitted paperwork this week for the extradition of Turkish NBA player Enes Kanter, alleging that the New York Knicks center belongs to the Gülen movement, which Ankara blames for the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

    Additionally, Turkish media outlets are reporting that prosecutors are seeking an Interpol “Red Notice” for Kanter, which essentially requests that the basketball player be located and be provisionally arrested pending his extradition.

    According to the Daily Sabah, prosecutors wrote in their extradition request that Kanter had provided funding for the organization, which is headed by US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, a one-time ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. Both requests were submitted to the Turkish Ministry of Justice.

    The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the two requests stemmed from past complaints filed by Erdo?an and former NBA player Hidayet Turkoglu over alleged insults made by Kanter via social media in 2016.

    Kanter reacted to the reports on social media, telling his hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter that the “Turkish Government can NOT present any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing.” He later added that he’s never even been cited for a parking violation in the US and that he has “always been a law-abiding resident.”…”

  3. Secret Kremlin Documents Tell a Story Hardly Anyone Knows
    Vladimir Bukovsky’s book exposes the Soviet regime’s collaboration with our own political class.
    January 16, 2019
    Michael Ledeen

    I will never forget the day Vladimir Bukovsky, the celebrated Soviet dissident, walked unsteadily across a bridge to freedom, having been swapped with the head of the Chilean Communist Party. He was one of my heroes, and became a friend while studying psychology at Stanford University. He spent years in the Gulag, but the KGB was unable to break him, and his first book, To Build a Castle, will long remain one of the classic testimonies to the evils of Soviet Communism.

    When the Soviet Empire fell, in part as the result of Bukovsky’s tireless efforts to destroy Communism, many of us hoped it would be possible to get our hands and minds on the Kremlin’s archives, but there were endless bureaucratic hurdles, some of them shamefully on our side of the great divide. In the end, many of these were overcome by a handful of private citizens. A group of us bought a laptop computer and a scanner, taught Bukovsky how to use them, and off he went to Moscow.

    For a brief period, the Soviet archives, even the secret ones, were accessible to investigators, and we thought Bukovsky might well be able to get his electronic hands on the documentary history of Soviet Communism, one of the most malevolent forces in twentieth-century history. We hoped that the Soviet documents would enable our citizens to understand what had really happened in the Cold War, and help us frame a more realistic foreign policy in the future. Moreover, we and Bukovsky wanted to stage a trial of the Communists, along the lines of the Nuremburg trials of the Nazi leaders after World War II.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272536/secret-kremlin-documents-tell-story-hardly-anyone-michael-ledeen

    • … the documentary history of Soviet Communism, one of the most malevolent forces in twentieth-century history.

      If there’s one thing to be sure of, it’s that even the most active Western imagination probably cannot remotely conceive of what actually happened in the USSR. Whatever you can think of, the reality was probably worse, a lot worse.

      Having read Solzhenitsyn’s, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” as a preteen, plus his “Gulag Archipelago” later in life, my imaginative faculties are well-informed and yet I know that there’s no possible way for me to comprehend a tiny fraction of what really went on. Re-reading the books a hundred times would likely make no difference.

      Seemingly off-topic but not by much; it’s been gratifying to see the meme of an Islam–Communism (including Socialism) intersection turning up more often at Vlad Tepes Blog. Even those in the know can find it rather alarming to visualize how well these diabolical ideologies mirror each other.

      It helps to have the background filled in about how:

      • Both ideologies fetishize the “Cult of Personality”
      • Very rarely is either belief system adopted without serious conflict
      • Either mindset openly incites and uses violence against all dissent
      • They’re strongly reliant upon information control and deception
      • Compliant nations often inflict great harm to their own populations

      That’s a quick Handful of Hell®, right there. It’s easy to add another dozen or two similarities to the list (and I invite this). Here’s a less-well-known equivalency that returns us to the original topic.

      • Punitive use of torture and unwarranted prolongation of it

      While seemingly obvious, many less-informed readers may not fully understand the psychopathology involved with needlessly extending agonistic torture well past the point of extracting information.

      Aside from excruciatingly slow murder (e.g., China’s “Death of a Thousand Cuts”), the unnecessary extension of torture has only one purpose, to psychologically break, if not maim, all disobedience and dissent, peaceful or not. The sole other valid explanation of torturing for sheer pleasure exceeds the boundaries of all consideration save planning near-term kinetic solutions.

      Islam’s predating of Culturally Marxist Communism in no way diminishes the barbarism both answer with in response to even slight provocation. Likewise, brutal internal controls are a routine feature of civilian daily life.

      While the USSR’s Dynasty of Demons clearly surpassed Hitler’s death toll, in no way could they remotely approximate Mao’s final numbers (variously estimated between sixty million to one hundred million people)—and that doesn’t even count all of the post-revolution female live-birth infanticides and gender selective abortions.

      None of which holds a flickering candle to Islam’s near-hemispheric genocide. Mughal India alone lost so many of its Hindus that only centuries later did the Subcontinent”s population recover to levels predating Islam’s 1000 AD invasion..

      Overall estimates of lost life which include Islamic slavery balloon to elephantine numbers like 250 MILLION dead.

      Yet, Caucasian males are being trumpeted as the absolute worst menace to society and greatest threat to world stability this planet has ever known.

      All of which decidedly ignores how erasing the contributions of Judeo–Christian Enlightenment-based Caucasian Culture would see this world returned to pre-colonial European existence.

      In a supremely ironic finale, one of the only differences between Modern Leftism and Islam is that Leftists intend to set the world back around five hundred years, while Islam is aiming for something more like Mohammad’s time, all FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

  4. Hasher Jallal Taheb: Alleged DC Muslim plotter intended to use IEDs, anti-tank rocket

    ATLANTA – Federal authorities on Wednesday announced a terrorist case against a metro Atlanta Muslim accused of plotting to destroy the White House and other Washington D.C. government buildings.

    Hasher Jallal Taheb of Cumming, Georgia, was arrested in Gwinnett County and appeared briefly in court in downtown Atlanta in the case brought the FBI.

    “His alleged intent was to attack the White House and other targets of opportunity in the Washington, D.C. area,” U.S. Attorney B.J. Pak said.

    Pak said Taheb intended to use IEDs and an anti-tank rocket to carry out the attacks.

    The criminal complaint, which accuses him of plotting to destroy a government building, said a community member contacted law enforcement in March 2018 to say that Taheb had become radicalized.

    On Aug. 25, 2018, Taheb allegedly put his vehicle up for sale. An FBI informant reached out to show interest and met with the suspect days later.

    Taheb allegedly said he planned to travel to “hijra,” a term said to refer to Islamic State territory and he was selling the car to fund the trip. But he didn’t have a passport.

    He allegedly told the informant he wanted to attack the White House and Statue of Liberty in jihadist attacks.

    Authorities said all threats have been neutralized and the suspect was believed to have been acting alone.

    https://www.boston25news.com/news/breaking-news/hasher-jallal-taheb-dc-attack-suspect-had-hand-drawn-diagram-of-west-wing/905533356

    Georgia Muslim arrested in plot to attack White House, federal prosecutors say

    • … the suspect was believed to have been acting alone.

      Fools, idiots, and microcephalic slackjaws! There are no “Lone Wolf” Muslims. When will these relativist £ü¢kwits finally realize that no Islamic terrorist acts alone. Not even if he’s the only person stranded on a desert island.

      Jihad will always be there, hovering like some evil fairy, ready to etch away all love, family, and achievement with its disfiguring ideological acid. No beauty or joy is ever allowed to survive Islam’s withering embrace. And with those jewels is discarded the gold of human spirit that they are set in.

      ISLAM IS A SPIRITUAL GULAG.

  5. German Woman Charged over Years in ISIS-controlled Territory (aawsat, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1548461/german-woman-charged-over-years-isis-controlled-territory

    “German prosecutors have filed terrorism charges against a German woman arrested after allegedly spending several years in a part of Syria controlled by ISIS.

    The Associated Press quoted federal prosecutors as saying Wednesday that 32-year-old Sabine Ulrike Sch., whose full name wasn’t disclosed in line with privacy rules, faces charges of membership in a terrorist organization, looting and violating weapons laws.

    They said she traveled to Syria in late 2013 and married an ISIS militant, living with him in houses seized by the group. She allegedly received weapons training between 2014 and mid-2017 and wrote blogs praising life in territory controlled by the terrorist organization. Her husband died in fighting in 2016.

    The woman was captured by Kurdish forces in September 2017 along with the wives of other ISIS militants and returned to Germany in April.”

  6. 5 Militants Killed by Egypt Police in Arish (aawsat, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1548801/5-militants-killed-egypt-police-arish

    “Five militants were killed by police forces in the city of Arish in the northern Sinai region, said the Interior Ministry Wednesday.

    It said that security forces raided the militants’ hideout place on a deserted farm and a shootout ensued.

    They confiscated explosives and weapons at the scene.

    Egypt has been battling extremist militants for years, but the insurgency gained strength after the 2013 overthrow President Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Egypt last year launched a wide-scale security operation focused on northern Sinai, where an affiliate of the ISIS group has carried out many attacks in recent years.”

  7. Saudi and the UAE try to block US-Taliban peace talks in Qatar (memo, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190116-saudi-and-the-uae-try-to-block-us-taliban-peace-talks-in-qatar/

    “An Afghan diplomat has revealed that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have made it clear to Washington that they will not participate in the US-Taliban peace talks if they are held in Qatar. The Taliban, he added, insist on holding the meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha, where the group has long had a quiet presence, with the full knowledge of the Americans.

    Reuters reported on Sunday that Taliban officials have said that they refuse to hold this month’s scheduled talks in Saudi Arabia. A senior member of the Taliban in Afghanistan told Reuters that the group was not supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and resume the stalled peace process.

    “In fact, differences between Saudi Arabia and Qatar have completely destroyed the peace process,” the Taliban commander involved in the negotiations said. “The Saudis are pressuring us unnecessarily to declare a ceasefire which was not even sought by the American delegation.”

    A Taliban official confirmed that the Gulf crisis and the Saudi and UAE refusal to hold talks in Doha have blocked a peace agreement to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.

    The Saudi and UAE Embassies in the Afghan capital Kabul have declined to comment on these statements, said the news agency.

    Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid refused to confirm the date or venue of the next meeting, although many sources in the group have speculated that they might take place next Tuesday.”

    • It’s curious that the normally diligent Chappell neglected to mention Communist China’s biggest debt trap. Then again, it’s not in Africa.

      Another key difference is that raw natural resources were not bled out against the receivables in question. Something far more refined and precious was squandered to pay down this obligation.

      The multibillion dollar burdens African “leaders” have acquired represent clumsy work by raw beginners. Costs of extraction and transportation from the Dark Continent back to Red China negate large large portions of actual export value. Much of that loss is only made up for by a near-century of (supposed) stability that the repayment contracts specify.

      It seems to have been ignored that few sub-Saharan nations attain the almost geological time frame of a century’s existence without power changing hands more often than a professional poker player.

      None of which alters this biggest debt trap’s unbelievable dimensions or corresponding devastation. If the limited resource taken in return were ordinary gold, that could be replaced with comparative ease.

      Instead, something requiring extensive refinement and purification was shipped abroad. As usual, it’s loss was barely felt by those at the helm. Only below decks in the boiler room of this debtor nation’s economy did the poorly spelled overtime and double shifts begin taking their toll.

      Skilled, home-owning workers, being forced to compete with laborers in a rice-bowl economy could lead to just one thing:

      MASSIVE AMERICAN JOB LOSSES TO RED CHINA.

      Beijing’s two-pronged military and economic threat is only now becoming apparent to what remains a too-small number of Western citizens. The perpetually winking nod given by a handful of previous American administrations and ongoing business interests has seen emboldened Maoists trigger a Transpacific Cold War.

      With unearned wealth insulating many of them from their own mistakes, ham-fisted elites on both shores are pulling up all ladders as they immolate the middle and lower classes below. How curious it is that barely over two years of a semi-competent business approach towards this multi-dimensional geopolitical conflict has rendered a verdict of Beijing’s intense discomfiture and America’s resurgent hegemony.

      Unrelenting time will tell if too many authorizing signatures underscore the devil’s contract that sold out America’s blue collar soul. The scales of justice delayed continue to tip and sway even as parties on both sides of this much larger pond seek to distract public attention away from their own gross malfeasance.

      As with so many irksome endeavors, much relies upon execution.

  8. Saudi: MBS’ global campaign to silence critics exposed (memo, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190116-saudi-mbs-global-campaign-to-silence-critics-exposed/

    “The scope of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s attempt to silence critics was exposed yesterday in a report by the New Yorker. Details of a global campaign – run by the Saudi government – revealed that thousands of Saudis have faced threats and intimidation for criticising the Crown Prince, despite not holding strong political views.

    According to the report the Crown Prince, also known as MBS, has authorised the use of blackmail, intimidation and forced repatriation of anyone found to be critical of him or his policies, including roughly 90,000 Saudi students studying abroad on government scholarship programmes.

    While the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi exposed the brutality with which Riyadh goes after its dissidents, victims cited in the report suggest that the Saudi government’s campaign to clamp down on critics is far greater than previously anticipated.

    Despite his claim to be a reformer, the Crown Prince – who has spent millions to polish his image – is accused of using the country’s embassies and back channels, outside the gaze of the international community, against his critics. These tactics are said to be not only used for vocal and prominent dissidents like Khashoggi, but for thousands of Saudi citizens; a claim which suggests that the Saudi government’s anti-dissent net is cast far and wide across the globe.

    According to the report’s author, MBS has heeded no national boundaries in going after his critics because of his “obsessive need to control his reputation”. This has meant that Saudi citizens who possessed little or no political profile have been targeted by the Crown Prince’s indiscriminate campaign.

    The number of people trying to flee his grasp has more than doubled following his appointment as Crown Prince in 2015. The report said that Saudi asylum seekers had increased from 575 cases to 1200 in 2017; not to mention that there is a swelling number of Saudis who, like Khashoggi, opted for self-exile under separate visa processes.

    Critics cited in the report – whose real identity was not revealed over fears for their safety – said that a campaign of fear, blackmail and intimidation via social media was used to lure them into the Saudi embassy in various countries. The campaign typically saw family members and friends being threatened in Saudi Arabia.

    Saudi also resorts to various tactics for leverage to lure its citizens into face-to-face meetings with government officials. One Saudi asylum seeker who fled to Frankfurt, Germany in the summer of 2018 received a text alert, as her plane touched down, that the Saudi government had frozen her bank account. Her national identification card and all the privileges afforded to Saudi citizens, including passport renewals, e-banking and residency permits, had been revoked. She was instructed to return to Saudi Arabia to fix the issue.

    The tactics mentioned in the report are very similar to the way in which Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey prior to his gruesome killing by a group of Saudi hit men on 2 October. The Washington Post journalist was instructed to visit the embassy in order to obtain a divorce certificate so that he could marry his Turkish fiancé, Hatice Cengiz.

    While Saudi has a history of clamping down on critics, this took a more aggressive turn under MBS. The Crown Prince, the report said, had issued “standing orders to negotiate the return of dissidents” which officials in Riyadh admitted to Reuters gave them permission to “act without going back to the leadership”.

    Analysts described the strategy as “pre-emptive censorship,” which they say has become a trademark of Saudi Arabia under MBS. Hala Al-Dosari, a Saudi academic and scholar in residence at New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, was cited saying: “What MBS wants is total control of the discourse. He has no tolerance for anyone who might challenge or even complicate his image.”

    The report said that this chilling effect is also being felt by many of the roughly 90,000 Saudi students studying abroad on government scholarships. In recent years, many of them have been threatened that their tuition will be revoked or suspended in retaliation for perceived criticism of the government.

    One Saudi asylum seeker in Germany who was asked if the international community will be able to apply pressure on MBS to end his campaign against critics of the country said: “The world let him get away with murder [referring to Khashoggi]. So things are worse for us. He feels stronger, not weaker, now, like no one can touch him.””

  9. Egypt’s Sisi prohibits travel of senior officials, Al-Azhar Grand Imam (memo, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190116-egypts-sisi-prohibits-travel-of-senior-officials-al-azhar-grand-imam/

    “Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree yesterday prohibiting senior state officials from travelling abroad without obtaining his permission.

    The decision is to include the sovereign ministries and supervisory, judicial and security agencies and states that: “Permission for travel abroad on an official trip should be approved by the President of the Republic. This applies to the prime minister, deputy prime ministers, and ministers of defence, interior, foreign affairs and justice, as well as the heads of […] security agencies and their deputies.

    Though not explicitly mentioned, it seems that Al-Sisi has issued the decree in a bid to penalise Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar – a prestigious university in Egyptian capital Cairo and the largest religious institution in the Islamic world. Arabi 21 explains that the decree includes “all those who hold a position as prime minister, namely the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar […] even though the position of Sheikh Al-Azhar is not subject to the government or the presidency”.

    Activists and politicians have slammed the move on social media, Arabi 21 adds, saying they “consider it a form of domination [which] infringes on the post of Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar and his status by forcing him to obtain “permission” from Sisi to travel”.

    Al-Sisi has been trying to crack down on El-Tayeb consistently. In December a statement entitled “the Islamic jurist who tortured us” was published on the front page of an Egyptian government magazine, which commentators interpreted as indicative of the long-standing feud between the two.”

  10. German court rules deported Tunisian should not be returned to Germany (reuters, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-tunisia/german-court-rules-deported-tunisian-should-not-be-returned-to-germany-idUSKCN1PA2S6

    “A German court ruled on Wednesday that a suspected Islamist militant who was deported to Tunisia in July must not be returned to Germany, saying it no longer believed the man faced torture or human rights abuses in his native land.

    Sami Aidoudi was deported in July, despite a court ruling hours before he left that said he should be allowed to stay. Another court demanded he be returned to Germany, saying he could be tortured in Tunisia.

    In the latest ruling on Wednesday, a court said he should not be returned because he had not been “tortured or had his human rights mistreated since his deportation to Tunisia.”

    It also said Germany had received reliable assurances at the highest political and diplomatic levels that Aidoudi would be protected from torture and human rights abuses…”

  11. Militia groups battle in Libyan capital, breaking four-month truce (reuters, jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security/militia-groups-battle-in-libyan-capital-breaking-four-month-truce-idUSKCN1PA2GG

    “Rival militias clashed in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday and at least five people were killed and 20 wounded, the health ministry said, splintering a four-month-old, U.N.-brokered ceasefire.

    Armored vehicles could be seen in southern Tripoli where militia groups had fought for a month until September, part of the widespread factional conflict plaguing Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

    A United Nations-engineered ceasefire agreed then had managed to hold for the most part until now.

    But on Wednesday a militia known as the 7th Brigade, or Kaniyat, and a collection of factions called Tripoli Protection Force fell back into fighting in the same southern district.

    The 7th Brigade and some allied groups triggered the August fighting in a bid to challenge the dominance of four “super militias”, including the Tripoli Protection Force, in the streets of the capital.

    The U.N. mission in Libya warned in a statement against any breach of the ceasefire deal.

    “Any party initiating a confrontation will be held fully responsible,” it said.

    The internationally-recognized government in Tripoli, backed by the United Nations, has been working on a new security plan since the ceasefire deal but achieved little as Libya, long a major oil producer, lacks a national police force or army.”

  12. Iran says it will be ready for new satellite launch in a few months (reuters, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-satellite-rouhani/iran-says-it-will-be-ready-for-new-satellite-launch-in-a-few-months-idUSKCN1PA1K8

    “LONDON (Reuters) – Iran will be ready for a new satellite launch in a few months’ time after a failed attempt this week, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, ignoring U.S. and European warnings to avoid such activity…”

  13. Taliban officials say Pakistan applying pressure over Afghan talks (gulfnews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/taliban-officials-say-pakistan-applying-pressure-over-afghan-talks-1.61476669

    “The arrest of a senior Taliban leader in Pakistan this week underlines a push by the government in Islamabad to pressure the insurgents to open talks with the Afghan government, Taliban officials said.

    Hafiz Mohibullah, a senior military commander who has been closely involved in talks with the United States, was arrested in Peshawar, close to the border with Afghanistan, at the weekend but was subsequently released.

    “After his arrest, Pakistani authorities started raids on many other houses of the Taliban movement, their friends and commanders in different places in Pakistan,” said one senior Taliban leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The Taliban confirmed that Mohibullah had been released on Wednesday and spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he was safe.

    The move came as talks between Taliban representatives and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad hit a stumbling block after the insurgents issued a statement on Tuesday threatening to stall peace talks.

    Khalilzad, who arrived in Kabul on Tuesday, was due to meet Taliban representatives in Qatar last week but the meeting was cancelled.

    The Taliban have so far refused to talk to the Afghan government, which they dismiss as a puppet regime put in place by foreign powers.

    According to Taliban sources, the dispute highlights a split that has emerged among countries with an interest in the region, with Pakistan and the United States pushing the Taliban to open talks with Kabul and other countries, including Iran, supporting the Taliban’s stance.

    “Iran and Qatar are supporting Taliban’s way but Pakistan is saying what the Afghan government and the US wanted,” he said.

    Officials in Islamabad say Pakistan is keenly aware that Afghanistan will continue to need huge amounts of foreign aid to keep its shattered economy afloat after any peace settlement and have been working closely with the United States.

    Islamabad fears that any hasty withdrawal of foreign forces could trigger an uncontrolled collapse of the Afghan government, leaving a vacuum that could send tens of thousands of refugees across the border.

    The Afghan government regularly accuses Pakistan of providing support to the Taliban. Pakistani officials deny this but say they have a degree of influence which they have been using to try to persuade the movement to accept peace talks.”

  14. Moroccan Court Sentences Married Woman to Prison for Kissing Man (moroccoworldnews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/263477/moroccan-court-married-woman-prison/

    “A married woman has lost her appeals case after the Court of Cassation in Bouleman in the Atlas Mountains sentenced her to adultery for kissing a man.

    According to Legal-Agenda, the defense said the court’s decision had no basis.

    The woman’s lawyers appealed the court’s initial ruling, but they failed to change the court’s decision.

    The court had sentenced the woman to four months in prison and imposed a fee of MAD 5,000 on her.

    For the court, the woman’s confession to the judicial police was sufficient to prove infidelity, leading to her sentence in accordance to Article 493 of the criminal code.

    Article 493 of the penal code says that “evidence of offences under articles 490 and 491 may be established either by a record prepared by a judicial police officer certifying violation of the offence, by confession in letters or documents by the accused or by a legal confession (Morocco 1963).”

    “It is clear from the provisions of the contested decision that the court’s decision was based on the right to convict the appellant for the crime of infidelity as she confessed in her statement to the judicial police that she exchanged kisses with a strange man,” the Court of Appeals said.

    The court defined the act as an “act of marital infidelity against the husband and a betrayal of the marital relationship and loyalty and trust between the spouses.””

  15. Women lawmakers suggest ‘sterilisation of men’ to control population (tribune, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1888987/1-women-lawmakers-suggest-sterilisation-men-control-population/

    “The women lawmakers in Sindh Assembly demanded “sterilisation of men” as a measure to control growing population of the country. During the debate on a resolution “to control population and launch of awareness campaign,” all political parties except lawmakers from religious parties, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), supported the resolution in the provincial assembly.

    As the session started with Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) MPA Rana Ansar moved a private resolution and said, “There is no proper planning in controlling population in the province. We lack resources and attach great importance in giving birth to more children. It’s a population bomb and we need to devise a comprehensive strategy to deal with it.”…”

  16. Canadian citizen killed in suspected ‘honour’ killing (tribune, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1889486/1-canadian-citizen-killed-suspected-honour-killing/ 

    “A 40-year-old Canadian citizen was killed in a suspected case of ‘honour’ killing in what was reported initially as a suicide.

    The victim, Safia Nasir, embraced Islam and married a resident of Lahore’s Samnabad area a few years ago. The couple also had a nine-month-old child from the marriage.

    Police were called to the scene and were told that Safia was trying to kill herself. However, when police arrived, the victim was already dead and initial investigation led the police to believe that all was not as it seemed.

    Police said initial investigation suggests that she was strangled by a noose and then her murder was disguised as a suicide.

    Details remain unclear as police gather more evidence and wait for forensic reports to come back.”

  17. Security forces kill mastermind behind Orakzai blast: ISPR (tribune, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1889678/1-security-forces-kill-mastermind-behind-orakzai-blast-ispr/

    “Security forces on Wednesday killed four terrorists in an intelligence-based operation on a hideout in Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

    According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the four terrorists, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan commander of Orakzai District Muhammad Islam, were killed along with three others as part of the ongoing Operation Raddul Fasaad (RuF)…”

    • Now you see them … now you don’t. Did you know that it’s all done with smoke and mirrors? Full disclosure: it’s mostly smoke and not-so-many mirrors. Capiche?

      Is it yust me or would it be worth lobbing a few extra million into the defense budget for development of a close proximity, incoming “arrival beacon”? This nose-mounted, nonlethal audio-photo emitter would—using a directionally beamed high amplitude siren and focused megalux xenon strobe—give those on the Christmas list ground only enough time to look up and smile for the camera. That is, if smiling’s what they’d do right then …

      After all, it’s not like this incoming beacon will give anything away that the subsequent detonation won’t make explicitly clear in several nearby districts.

  18. More terror funding ops flagged – Bank of Italy (ansa, Jan 16, 2019)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/business/2019/01/16/more-terror-funding-ops-flagged-boi_54fb3bb1-4445-409a-b1a4-9753d1669982.html

    “The number of terror funding operations has increased and for the first time in 2018 passed 1000 to 1066 compared to 981 in 2017, the Bank of Italy said Wednesday.

    In 2015 they were just 273 of such operations, the BoI’s financial information unit (UIF) said.

    There was, howver, a slowdown in the second half of last year, the UIF said.”

  19. 16 migrants saved from freezing to death in Croatia (ansamed, Jan 16, 2019)
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/europe/2019/01/16/16-migrants-saved-from-freezing-to-death-in-croatia_18c6b664-048c-4123-b31a-f4d179fc68e7.html

    “Sixteen migrant including six children were saved Tuesday on the Pljesevica mountain, which marks the border between Bosnia and Croatia. They are all in precarious health conditions after being exposed to freezing temperatures in the snow-covered zone.

    Reports were from Croatian police who, alongside the civil protection and a police special forces unit equipped for extreme weather conditions, conducted the rescue operation.

    The 16 migrants, the nationalities of some of whom have not yet been established, including 6 children between the ages of 1 and 10 and 5 women, crossed the Croatian-Bosnian border in recent days on the slopes of the Pljesevica, one of the most
    inaccessible and isolated mountains of the Dinaric Alps. Their sighting was made possible through intense monitoring by Croatian border police, who have been watching the zone for months in the awareness that groups of migrants have for quite some time been trying to reach Europe using this dangerous route.

    The extreme weather conditions include temperatures of below 15 degrees Celsius and 50 cm of snow.

    All have been given medical treatment and two of the women and the children have been hospitalized in Gospic in central Croatia with hypothermia.”

  20. Suspected TERROR PLOT to ‘destroy’ White House TOMORROW foiled as Georgia man charged (express, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1073400/white-house-terror-attack-arrest-donald-trump-georgia-man-washington-dc

    “A TERROR plot allegedly targeting US federal buildings, including the White House, has led to a Georgia man being charged.

    The suspect has been identified as 21-year-old Hasher Jallal Taheb, of Cumming, Georgia. Taheb is charged with “intent to destroy by fire or explosive a building owned, possessed or leased by the United States or any department or agency thereof, or any institution or organisation receiving federal financial assistance”. The suspect appeared in a federal court in Atlanta Wednesday.

    All threats have been “neutralised”, the United States attorney for the district of Georgia, Byung Jin “BJay” Pak, confirmed.

    Mr Pak said of the suspect: “His alleged intent was to attack the White House and other targets of opportunity in the Washington DC area by using explosive devices including an improvised explosive device and an anti-tank rocket.”

    Anti-tank rockets are guided missiles designed to defeat armoured vehicles.

    It was unclear if the suspect ever obtained the weapons…”

  21. Videos: “MICHAEL STRAHAN Just Celebrated An 11-Yr-Old Boy Dancing In Drag On GMA…Now, He’s Trying To Shame Trump? [VIDEO]”
    100percentfedup – January 16, 2019
    https://100percentfedup.com/michael-strahan-just-celebrated-an-11-yr-old-boy-dancing-in-drag-on-gmanow-hes-trying-to-shame-trump-video/

    Videos: “2010: Obama Invites National Championship Football Team To White House…You Won’t Believe What He Fed Them”
    100percentfedup – January 16, 2019
    https://100percentfedup.com/2010-obama-invites-national-championship-football-team-to-white-house-you-wont-believe-what-he-fed-them/