Contributor’s Links post for January 19th, 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

91 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for January 19th, 2019”

  1. Militia Fighting in Tripoli Leaves 13 Killed, 52 Injured – Health Ministry (sputiknews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901191071624917-fighting-militias-tripoli-leaves-people-killed/

    “At least 13 people were killed and 52 others injured in violent clashes between local armed groups, which erupted in the Libyan capital of Tripoli earlier this week, the Libyan Health Ministry said in a statement shared with Sputnik.

    “The number of people killed in the clashes, which erupted last Wednesday, grew to 13 people while 52 people, including women and children, have been injured,” the statement read.

    The fighting between rival groups — militias from Tripoli and 7th Brigade from the nearby town of Tarhunah — have recently intensified…”

    • In Mexico, how is it possible that the governor of the state is OMAR FAYAD?
      What happened to Mexico in that area?

    • FUEL thieves or SABOTAGE

      From the video I would say fuel thieves, there were too many people there at the break before the fire for it to be a sabotage or terror attack.

      • As usual (for Islamic and hyper-corrupt countries, there’s a bumper crop of irony. In this case, it’s that Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos) and the offshore Gulf fields ought to have made all of Mexico wealthy, on a par with Saudi Arabia.

        According to apocryphal tales, the corruption is so pervasive that Mexico ends up paying to take each barrel of oil out of the ground.

        • That is what happens when you let left wing politicians take control of your country and keep control for decades. Where the left controls the government there is massive corruption.

    • The Latest: Mexico to investigate pipeline explosion

      Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says the attorney general’s office will investigate an illegal pipeline tap in central Mexico that killed 66 and wounded dozens of others.

      At an early morning press conference he said that the office will open an investigation to determine whether the explosion was intentional — caused by an individual or group — or whether the fireball occurred due to the inherent risk of clandestine fuel extraction from ducts.

      Lopez Obrador called on townspeople to give testimony not only about Friday’s events in Hidalgo, but about the entire black market chain, including who punctures the pipelines, who informs locals about collecting fuel in containers, and how fuel is then put to personal use or sold.

      He said: “I believe in the people, I trust in the people, and I know that with these painful, lamentable lessons, the people will also distance themselves from these practices.”

      https://www.apnews.com/1c106a2272dc413db4e11db6fc2361c2

      • Mexico vows fuel theft crackdown after deadly pipeline blast

        MEXICO CITY, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to step up efforts to stamp out fuel theft on Saturday after an explosion at a pipeline killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more.

        The blast at the pipeline, which was ruptured by suspected thieves, sent flames shooting into the skies in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan in the central state of Hidalgo on Friday.

        Video footage showed residents scrambling to fill containers from the burst pipe and badly burned victims, raising questions about the management of an issue Lopez Obrador has made a top priority since taking office on Dec. 1.

        Veteran leftist Lopez Obrador launched a crackdown on fuel theft on Dec. 27 and ordered pipelines to be closed temporarily to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

        http://news.trust.org/item/20190119083708-0ujtg

        • Contrast and Compare:

          In comparison to less fortunate others; supposedly, Mexico is close to a Second World country.

          For the nonce, we’ll ignore how the “Second World country” that Mexico’s close to is an America which has been dragged down by its hyper-corrupt, invading, Culturally Marxist southern neighbor.

          With all that oil wealth washing about down south, it would seem unlikely that Mexico should have much in common with Third World nations. Like, let’s say … Nigeria.

          The corruption in Naija is so profound that its domestic cottage industry of advance-fee scamming (i.e., “The Nigerian Scam”) enjoys such world prominence to where it has attained that ne plus ultra of market dominance, having other countries or criminal organizations copying its business model.

          To wit: Mega corporations like General Electric and Westinghouse refuse to accept any and all emails that have the word “Nigeria” in their subject line.

          But wait, there’s more! These same US corporate giants will not accept email that has the word “Nigeria” appearing anywhere within the message’s text body.

          In fact, some of these big name industries will not accept any email at all from Nigeria.

          Let’s presume that there are at least a few honest businesses in Nigeria (a yuge leap of faith, I know). How are they supposed to succeed while being denied access to some of the world’s biggest economic movers and shakers?

          This is how corruption can utterly stagnate nearly all fronts of a country’s material progress.

          Why compare Mexico with Nigeria?

          Each country annually loses billions of dollars in oil revenues due to pipeline sabotage, tapping, diversion, and ever-present corruption. Nigeria’s own problems with attacks upon the Adibawa-Okordia pipeline in the Niger Delta has seen catastrophic pollution of waterways, farmland, and fisheries. This is environmental damage that will take decades to remediate.

          Does anybody really expect Mexico to do much better? The Mexican government (to some, an oxymoron), in conjunction with its narco-warlord presumptive royalty, continue to deny all Mexicanos their collective legacy.

          Reason #2,417 why The Wall must be built.

  2. What happened to my post re Mexico explosion?
    They say over 1,000 people went during the day to fill up on gas leak.
    It’s a remote area.
    How did they know there was a gas leak?

      • Hezbollah and Al Shabaab are very active in those areas.
        And that explains Omar Fayad.
        Mexico’s Obrador needs Trump help. There will be a price to pay.
        FINALLY: EU just announced tariffs on all China steel imports.
        God Bless Donald J. Trump.

        • Genocidal Hezbollah, murderous Al Kebaab, on-the-take Federales, and ruthless narco-warlord wannabe royals, all unleashed upon one of the Northern Hemisphere’s most hapless buncha £ü¢kwits ever to predate the “Palestinians”. What could possibly go wrong?

          No further heat need be added to this bubbling $h!thpøt caldero de pozole lest it explode like a frijole-inflated, turista ravaged gringo gut.

  3. Assuming this was gasoline because of its volume and colour, it becomes more volatile when it is atomized in a high-pressure spray, like in a carb.

  4. Receivers.

    Mens’ Razors are sexist they say on The View
    Cheaper than Women’s pink against blue.
    While cutting the same, (as each of them do)
    Their voice is to shame and equal these two.

    Supply and Demand affects prices when few
    Manufacture more means less for one hue
    World Market Share and not Timbuktu
    “That’s Racist!” declare this Board Room review.

    It boils down to Privileges and Preferences; who
    If they had the reigns would make fair to undo
    The Patriarchy; Minorities the new
    Receivers they feed and charge it to you.

  5. Austria: Michelle’s killer is said to be 28 years old — Everyone knew about the serial offender and IS killer+++
    For talks with insiders from Steyr, the weekly “Wochenblick” once again went to the location of the brutal murder of 16-year-old Michelle F. by an asylum seeker from Afghanistan. The results of these detailed talks and extensive research are remarkable…

    A group of young girls are offered drugs for sale at the Steyr train station by a group of asylum seekers from Afghanistan who are known to the authorities. The girls refuse, which leads to an argument. One of the teenagers takes pictures of the asylum seekers with her mobile phone. The dispute escalates. More and more Afghans appear. Up to 80 migrants, the police will be told later, are besieging and threatening the young women. Suddenly one of the asylum seekers pulls out a knife…He is Saber A., the ringleader of the brutal asylum-seeker gang. That Saber A., who a few months later will kill his girlfriend, 16-year-old Michelle F., with two stab wounds in her back in her nursery. I was told this story by one of the teenage girls who was there at the same time. She was also one of Michelle’s best friends. “Everyone was afraid of Saber,” she explains to me. She would have known him well because of his relationship with her friend. What she tells me in the kitchen of her mother’s apartment in Steyr about the presumed murderer makes me freeze my blood.The Afghan, for example, would have bragged time and again that he had been to Iraq for the Islamic terror militia”Islamic state” and that he had also killed a human being there. This crime in Iraq, for which he would be threatened with the death penalty in his home country, was, by the way, also the reason why he was tolerated in Austria as “entitled to subsidiary protection” despite a negative asylum decision.Because of his membership in the “IS” the other inhabitants of the asylum accommodation “Maradonna” in Steyr district Münichholz are said to have admired and respected him. Because of his membership in the “IS” the other inhabitants of the asylum accommodation “Maradonna” in Steyr district Münichholz are said to have admired and respected him. The young girl tells me in exactly the same kitchen where she had eaten and laughed so often with her friend Michelle F. that at a spontaneously erected memorial in front of the crime scene Islamic ” tributes ” for Saber A. would be repeatedly made.
    Read more:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/01/austria-michelles-killer-is-said-to-be.html

  6. Richard: I don’t know what to make of this article, it is from the Drudge Report but reads like somthing out of a serial killer novel. Make up your own mind.

    Is a Serial-Killer Gang Murdering Young Men Across the U.S.?

    by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

    Dozens of college-age men dead from ‘accidental’ drownings—but a team of retired detectives say the boys were drugged and killed by a shadowy gang with a sinister symbol.

    On the evening of Dec. 15, 2016, Dakota James called his friend Shelley in a panic.

    He was cold, disoriented, and scared out of his mind, wandering the streets of downtown Pittsburgh, trying to find someone—anyone—who would help him.

    “I don’t know where I am,” he told her, sobbing. “I’m so cold. Please help me. I’m lost.”

    Shelley didn’t hesitate.

    click through to read the rest.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-a-serial-killer-gang-murdering-young-men-across-the-us

  7. China offers to even out trade imbalance

    OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 1:33 PM PT — Friday, January 18, 2019

    A new bombshell report is indicating that President Trump’s aggressive trade strategy on China could result in a historic new agreement. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that China has offered a way to completely slash its trade imbalance with the U.S.

    During mid-level talks in Beijing earlier this month, China reportedly said it will go on a six-year buying spree to greatly boost imports from the U.S. The report suggested the move would cut China’s trade surplus to zero by 2024.

    President Trump has made cutting the trade deficit with China a chief priority of his trade strategy, repeatedly claiming he wants a fair and reciprocal deal.

    https://www.oann.com/china-offers-to-even-out-trade-imbalance/

    • During mid-level talks in Beijing earlier this month, China reportedly said it will go on a six-year buying spree to greatly boost imports from the U.S. The report suggested the move would cut China’s trade surplus to zero by 2024.

      Did anyone spot the “gotcha” or two?

      Isn’t 2024 right about the time (a reelected) Trump will leave office?

      Has Red China ever fulfilled a single trade agreement?

      Most important of all: Will the Chicoms even be in business another Five Year Plan five years from now?

      A bit less easily discerned is the second catch-22. As in: that “six-year buying spree” will likely do ZERO to rebalance the Sino-American trade deficit much less actually bring “China’s trade surplus to zero”.

      Anyone who believes that steaming silo full of commie bull puckey has been smoking a bit too much of that Shanghai Sailfish
      three strand nylon rope.

      Most importantly: Maotown offering America “a six-year buying spree” has £ü¢k all to do with reality. Playing Supermarket Sweep is not the equivalent of rewriting patently abusive and discriminatory product testing and import quota laws that strangle US exports to The Mainland. Legislation that will remain a fundamental obstacle to meaningfully fair trade (and the Chicoms damn well know it).

      As they made the transition from job-creating (but totally inefficient) manual labor on large-scale projects like freeways, the commies routinely bought short lifetime Japanese Hitachi bulldozers and other Asian-manufactured heavy equipment specifically to deny US-based Caterpillar Inc. any chance to sell them machines of much higher quality.

      This was done with the explicit goal of maiming America’s economy and perpetuating today’s usurious and record trade imbalance.

      If Trump is truly serious about rubbing Beijing’s flattened snout in this pile of rice-flecked $h!t, then that promised “buying spree” had better not be spent importing bulk-agriculture stocks like wheat, soybeans or rice.

      Likewise, raw materials such as coal and timber mean exactly diddlysquat when it comes to redressing this crapped-on-carpet of an economic balance sheet.

      Either Communist China regularly pre-orders and purchases multimillion dollar quantities of finished, value-added, high ticket, industrially manufactured capital equipment and mass-produced consumer goods (AND STUDIOUSLY HONORS THOSE CONTRACTS) or they can find a perpetually unlit pinkish orifice into which their halfhearted offers can crammed harder than some meth-laced premed boning up for a graded final.

      Your thoughts please, Richard.

      • First, with luck Pence will follow Trump into the oval office although this is far from certain, and that is one of my real big worries about the future.

        Second given the signs that the Chicoms are getting desperate (threats of war, seizing control of ports in Africa (ones that will not pay off for decades) and other moves to find liquid assets to prop up their economy you question about Communist China existing 6 years from now is a valid point. They are printing a lot of money to prop up their economy and try to keep us from restoring our economic power along with our military.

        My best guess 6 years from now the entire world will be in a massive war that will destroy a lot of nations with others (some large some small) coming into existence and some of them collapsing before anything even semi resembling peace is restored.

        I am also struck by the way China and the rest of the world is ignoring the Japanese carriers and their attendant vehicles. Is this being done out of ignorance or hoping that if we don’t talk about them they will go away?

  8. Mueller team: Sensational BuzzFeed story on Cohen lying to Congress ‘not accurate’
    By J.E. Dyer January 19, 2019

    Well, that was quick. In a “bombshell report” on Thursday 17 January, BuzzFeed alleged that Donald Trump ordered his one-time lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the dates of Trump business dealings with Russians in the Trump Tower Moscow project. In the report, the authors referred to documents held by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as validating the claim.

    On CNN on Friday, one of the reporters, Anthony Cormier, acknowledged that he had not actually seen at least some of the texts and emails alluded to in the BuzzFeed article.

    And on Friday evening, a spokesman for the Mueller team issued a statement that the article’s allegations about what the team has documentation of are inaccurate.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/19/mueller-team-sensational-buzzfeed-story-on-cohen-lying-to-congress-not-accurate/

  9. Chris Cuomo’s reaction to yesterday’s bombshell: Mueller ‘didn’t do the media any favors’
    By Howard Portnoy January 19, 2019

    When an exasperated Donald Trump called the press “the enemy of the people” back in October of 2018, many on the Left were aghast. They speechified on how the Constitution — a document they normally decry as outdated or worse — ensures a free press, as though the media’s daily exaggerations and out-and-out lies about the current president were somehow good for the nation.

    The media can save their righteous indignation. Last night one of their own outed them, albeit inadvertently. Shortly after the Mueller team issued its bombshell dismissal of BuzzFeed’s story on Michael Cohen lying to Congress, which it said was “not accurate,” CNN’s Chris Cuomo said this:

    Mueller didn’t do the media any favors tonight, and he did do the president one, because as you saw with Rudy Giuliani and as I’m sure you’ll see with the president himself, this allows them to say, ‘You can’t believe it. You can’t believe what you read, you can’t believe what you hear, you can only believe us. Even the special counsel says that the media doesn’t get it right.’ [Emphasis added]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/19/chris-cuomos-reaction-to-yesterdays-bombshell-mueller-didnt-do-the-media-any-favors/

    • The entire video is Cuomo saying that black is white and crying because his side lose the 2016 election, then he gets upset because for once Mueller corrects a news report that is wrong. From his reaction he was expecting Mueller to either shut up or lie about the report so President Trump would could be charged with a crime.

  10. Salvini LASHES OUT at Brussels over 670 migrants waiting to be relocated – ‘ZERO response’ (express, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1074656/EU-news-Matteo-Salvini-migrants-Italy-Brussels-migration-policy

    “MATTEO Salvini lashed out at Brussels pledging to keep Italy’s ports closed to migrants unless the European Union agrees to relocate 670 people from Italy to other EU member states.

    The Italian Deputy Prime Minister claimed to have sent Brussels a list of 670 migrants currently waiting to be relocated from Italy by the European Union. Mr Salvini said he is yet to receive any responses from Brussels and vowed to keep his ports closed to future arrivals in the Mediterranean unless the issue is solved first. The anti-immigration leader claimed to have reduced the number of migrants landing in Italy from 1000 to just 53 from last year.

    He said: “On immigration, Europe is yet to move a finger.

    “I have sent a list of 670 migrants ready to be relocated from Italy to other European countries.

    “For now I have received zero responses.

    “In that case, we will continue to seal off, control, and close all our ports.

    “We have only welcomed 53 arrivals from the beginning of the year.

    “This time last year the number was already one thousand.”

    Mr Salvini, who leads the nationalist, anti-immigrant League party, pledged to create a “new European spring” ahead of the European Parliament elections in May and to work with Poland’s ruling populists.

    He pledged to rally Eurosceptic allies to take on the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and forge a “new equilibrium” to challenge the traditional pro-EU axis between Paris and Berlin.

    Mr Salvini believes he has much in common with Poland’s populists, including opposition to accepting migrants and criticism of the way in which Brussels imposes rules on national budgets.

    But his admiration and support for Vladimir Putin have put him at odds with some in Poland where opposition leader Grzegorz Schetyna branded the Lega party a “nationalist, radical and pro-Russian party”.

    Speaking alongside his Polish counterpart Joachim Brudzinski during a visit to Warsaw, Mr Salvini said: “The Europe that will be born in June will have a different pace compared to the one of today, which is guided by bureaucrats.

    “In Europe, one has always spoken about a French-German axis. We are preparing for a new equilibrium and a new energy in Europe.

    “And Poland and Italy will be the protagonists of this new European spring, of this rebirth of true European values.

    “I proposed to the leader of PiS Jaroslav Kaczinski and I intend to propose to others a pact for Europe with common points following the model of the agreement between Lega and M5S for the Italian government in which Italians, Polish, Spaniards, Danes and the others can decide whether to agree or not.

    “We will work on that before the election.

    “Italy and Poland will be protagonists of a new Europe, with less bureaucracy and more attention to families and security.””

  11. Four boys ranging in age from 12 to 14 are charged with kidnapping and raping a girl in Delaware (dailymail, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6610103/Four-boys-ranging-age-12-14-charged-kidnapping-raping-girl-Delaware.html

    “Four juvenile males between the ages of 14 and 12 have been charged with kidnapping and raping a girl.

    Kabarshenay Ellis-Pinkney, 14, Louis Miller and Joseph James-Carter, both 13, and Ja’den Glover, 12 were arrested on Wednesday in New Castle County, Delaware on first-degree rape and kidnapping charges.

    Police say that the four dragged a girl into a home in Bear, a suburban community about 11 miles southwest of Wilmington, on December 11 and forcibly raped her.

    After the assault, Miller and James-Carter went on to threaten the victim with a weapon and warn her not to tell anyone what had happened, according to police.

    Detectives from the New Castle County Division of Police Family Services Squad launched an investigation and identified the four suspects.

    After executing search warrants, police said they found further evidence tying the four suspects to the crime, and arrest warrants were obtained.

    All four were arrested without incident and charged with felony counts of first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree conspiracy, and second-degree unlawful sexual contact, according to police.

    Miller is also charged with one count of felony possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, one count of felony aggravated menacing, one count of misdemeanor terroristic threatening, one count of misdemeanor theft under $1,500, and one count of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

    James-Carter is also charged with one count of felony possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and one count of felony aggravated menacing.

    Miller is being held in lieu of $65,500 secured bail. The other three suspects are being held pending cash bail of $104,000.

    It was unclear whether the four had lawyers who could speak on their behalf.

    Police say that the investigation led them to be concerned that there may be other victims.

    Anyone with information pertaining to the case is urged to contact New Castle County Police at 302-395-2745.”

    • Kabarshenay Ellis-Pinkney, 14, Louis Miller and Joseph James-Carter, both 13, and Ja’den Glover, 12 were arrested on Wednesday in New Castle County, Delaware on first-degree rape and kidnapping charges.

      Much like the ever-informative Mohammed Coefficient at Gates of Vienna, it might be extremely useful to create some sort of similar-but-different Folami Fa’Nay Nay Factor or some such to twig readers about what mass media will no longer report.

  12. Police probe south London mosque-based Scout group linked to Islamic extremist over claims it segregates boys from girls and urges children to be ‘Muslim first’ (dailymail, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6609735/Mosque-based-Scout-group-investigated-police-links-Islamic-extremist.html

    “A mosque-based scout group is being investigated by police after links to an ‘Islamic extremist’ preacher and claims that the group leader encouraged girls as young as five pose in videos, advocating wearing the hijab.

    The scout group for ages 10-14, based in Lewisham Islamic Centre in south east London, is linked to Imam Shakeel Begg, who has in the past lost a libel case against the BBC for dubbing him an extremist.

    The Telegraph uncovered these links in an investigation that also found that the scout group leader Ahammed Hussain segregated groups by gender, going against the organisation’s values.

    Hussain has since been suspended pending a police investigation into safeguarding concerns.

    It was he who admitted encouraging members to be ‘Muslim first’, despite the Scouts commitment to ‘British values’.

    Facebook records also show that Hussain promoted a group that’s owner donated money to David Irving, the Holocaust denier who described Hitler as a ‘great man’.

    Back in December, the new chief ambassador for the global scouts movement – Bear Grylls – said the scouts can lead the fight against extremism by recruiting young Muslims in the UK.

    He told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘We have hundreds of mosques every week, reaching out, asking, ‘Can we start up groups?’

    Contrary to the Scouts leading the fight against extremism, court records between 2010 and 2014 reveal that the mosque invited Bilal Philips and Haitham al-Haddad to speak at the mosque.

    The first was described by the US government as a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings.

    He wasn’t able to complete his address due to being banned from the UK in 2010.

    The latter, al-Haddad, has advocated female genital mutilation and denounced homosexuality as a ‘criminal’ act.

    Shakeel Begg has also slammed UK police and said they are leading a campaign against Muslims, attempting a ‘genocide’ against them.

    He also promoted a group that described ISIS executioner Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful man’.

    A spokesperson for the Henry Jackson Society, an anti-terrorism group, called Shakeel Begg an extremist ‘categorically’ and described Hussain’s association with extremist groups as ‘concerning’.

    A spokesman for the Scouts said they were ‘opposed to extremism in any form’ and added that they reported the allegations to the Met Police.

    They added: ‘The safety of young people in our care is our number one priority.’

    The Mail Online has reached out to both Hussain and the Lewisham Islamic Centre for comment.”

  13. PELOSI FLIES COMMERCIAL! Speaker Pelosi Spotted at Reagan Airport – Flees DC as Trump Stays at White House

    PELOSI FLIES COMMERCIAL! Speaker Pelosi Spotted at Reagan Airport – Flees DC as Trump Stays at White House
    by Kristinn Taylor January 18, 2019 492 Comments

    1.0KShare 227Tweet Email

    Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was spotted walking through Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport late Friday afternoon with a carry-on bag on wheels. Pelosi was accompanied by at least one aide and a security detail. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump remained at the White House prepared to negotiate with Democrats on funding border wall security to reopen the partial shutdown federal government.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/01/speaker-pelosi-spotted-at-reagan-airport-as-president-trump-stays-in-d-c-during-govt-shutdown/?omhide=true

  14. EU Backs Financial Punishment for Nations That Reject Progressive Values (breitbart, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/19/eu-parliament-backs-punishing-countries-reject-progressive-values-sanctions/

    “Members of the European Parliament have voted in favour of introducing financial sanctions as punishment for patriotic countries that reject the bloc’s progressive “European values.”

    MEPs voted Thursday in Strasbourg, France, to back the European Commission’s proposal to cut EU budgetary disbursements to member states deemed to have broken the so-called “rule of law,” with 397 MEPs voting in favour and 158 against (69 abstaining), reports Politico.

    The votes were notably split along eastern/western divides, with those in favour coming from establishment western European parties with those against coming from conservative and right-wing eastern parties.

    European Commission budget chief Günther Oettinger said, “The current definition of the scope of the proposal provides for a proper balance between the (budget) and other aspects of the Union mechanism, for example, Article 7 of our Treaty.”

    “It’s not a question of sanctions per se, it’s a question of the protections of the European money.”

    “If there is a financial penalty, it must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence or breach of the principles of the rule of law,” Mr Oettinger added.

    The proposal was widely seen as formalising another mechanism to punish Hungary and Poland for their perceived infringement on the Brussels rule of law and rejection of “European values,” with both nations being net beneficiaries of EU funds.

    Hungary and Poland have come to blows with the bloc over national matters, with Poland’s reform of the Communist-era-dominated judiciary, Hungary’s legal reforms to stop the interference of foreign-funded civil society groups, such as billionaire philanthropist George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), in domestic affairs, and both countries’ rejection of the forced redistribution of third-world migrants.

    The countries right-wing and conservative governments have all had Article 7 proceedings triggered against them; if invoked, it would result in the countries losing voting rights, and may now result in loss of funds, also.

    Hungary condemned the results of the vote, with the government’s Minister for State for EU Policies Szabolcs Takács saying, “Hungary cannot be blackmailed into giving up her stance on migration.

    “Today’s European Parliament vote on the MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework) Rule of Law proposal is yet another attempt to punish Central Europe with obvious political intention and will only lead to further conflicts in the EU.”

    On the same day, the EP approved a “Rights and Values” programme in the next MFF, earmarking 1.8 billion euros for it.

    Arch Europhile and critic of pro-sovereigntist nations like Hungary Guy Verhofstadt MEP (pictured left with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker) applauded the move, his group the progressive Aliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) writing that the scheme would “support those actors that defend European values across the EU, such as NGOs” while host nations may be strangled for funds if deemed to have breached “European values.”

    Sophie in‘t Veld, member of the ALDE and listed as a “reliable ally” of Soros’s civil society groups, said, “Today, the European Parliament is taking an important step to defend European values.

    “There is a consensus about setting up a mechanism to withhold EU money from Member States that fail to respect human rights and the rule of law.”

    “But it is a carrot and stick approach: we are also setting up this new Rights & Values fund of 1.8 billion euros, specifically intended to support NGOs that do stand up for European values,” Ms in‘t Veld added.

    ?Citizens of European Union member states are set to go to the polls in May to elect MEPs, with Eurosceptic parties set to make gains and displace the dominance of progressive parties in the parliament.

    In January, populist Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini met with Poland’s governing conservatives, seeking to form a “new European Spring” to combat the “French-German axis” in a battle for the future of Europe.

    “It will be the best answer to all the Eurosceptics… and maybe their popular movements will give life to a new European spring, a dream that someone stole from us in the name of finance and banking.””

  15. Austria: Four out of Ten ‘Underage’ Migrants Lied About Their Age (breitbart, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/19/austria-four-ten-underage-migrants-lied-age-2017/

    “The Austrian government has released statistics showing that in 2017, four out of every ten migrants who claimed to be underage were lying in order to have a better chance of getting asylum.

    The statistics come after medical tests showed that 347 migrants out of 867 who were flagged as potentially being adults, were found to be at least 18 or older, Kronen Zeitung reports.

    The asylum seekers in questions were subjected to medical examinations including X-ray and physical, dental, and radiological tests which cost the Austrian taxpayer 1.2 million euros. The results follow similar tests done in 2015 and in 2016 where nearly a thousand migrants were found to be lying about their real age.

    “Underage” migrants have also been involved with several high-profile crimes in both Austria and neighbouring Germany where some cities, such as Hamburg, have found that up to half of the underage asylum seekers are over the age of 18.

    The most well-known case of a migrant claiming to be underage and going on to murder a young woman was that of Hussein Khavari, the rapist and killer of German student Maria Ladenburger. Tests found that he was an adult, while his own father claimed that Khavari could be as old as 33.

    Earlier this month, another young girl, 16-year-old Manuela K., was found dead in the town of Wiener Neustadt, discovered under a pile of leaves by her own mother. Syrian migrant Yazan A., who claims to be 19 years old, was arrested shortly after the discovery of the young girl’s body and later admitted to the murder.

    Earlier this week, Austrian authorities announced they would be conducting exams to determine whether Yazan A. was indeed the age he has claimed which could see his potential sentence in the case go from a maximum of 15 years in prison to a maximum life sentence if he is found to be over the age of 21.”

  16. Survivors: Up to 117 migrants missing in capsizing off Libya (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/survivors-117-migrants-missing-capsizing-off-libya-60491288

    “A rescue official says survivors have told rescuers that up to 117 migrants might have died when a rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya.

    Flavio Di Giacomo of International Organization for Migration says three survivors were plucked to safety by an Italian navy helicopter on Friday, and they say 120 were aboard when the dinghy left Libya.

    The navy says its airplane launched life rafts after it spotted the sinking dinghy Friday with about 20 people aboard. It wasn’t immediately clear if some migrants had already fallen off.

    The Italian Coast Guard says Libya asked a nearby cargo ship to search for survivors, but no one was found.

    The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Libyan authorities as saying a dispatched Libyan coast guard boat turned back after mechanical problems.”

  17. Official: Police kill 4 insurgents in shootout in Pakistan (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/official-police-kill-insurgents-shootout-pakistan-60488792

    “Counter-terrorism officers killed four insurgents, including two women, in a shootout on a highway in eastern Punjab province on Saturday, officials said.

    Senior officer Rai Tahir said insurgents traveling in a car opened fire when police stopped them near the city of Sahiwal. He said the police officers were acting on intelligence gleaned from a previous operation. No officer was hurt in the shootout.

    Tahir said three suspects escaped on a motorcycle and are being pursued by police, adding that insurgents often use women and children as human shields during travel.

    The four people killed were identified by relatives as residents of the Kot Lakhpat area in the suburbs of Lahore — grocery store owner Mohammad Khalil, 42, his wife Nabila, 38, their 13-year-old daughter Areeba and their friend, Zeeshan Javed, who was driving the car and police said was on the country’s wanted terrorist list.

    Kalil was survived by his wounded son, Umair, who told a local TV reporter that the family was going to attend a wedding.

    Hundreds of people took to the streets in provincial capital Lahore and in Sahiwal, accusing police of killing innocent citizens in what they said was a staged shootout to showcase police performance.

    Police Chief Amjad Saleemi ordered a probe into the shootout by a joint investigation team, comprising representatives of various security agencies, seeking a report within three days.”

  18. French military says airstrikes kill 15 extremists in Mali (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/french-military-airstrikes-kill-15-extremists-mali-60488960

    “The French military says it has carried out airstrikes in central Mali that killed some 15 members of an unnamed extremist group that had been preparing an attack.

    A statement on Saturday says the airstrikes were carried out on Jan. 10 in coordination with the West African nation’s armed forces. The statement says the extremists had been planning an attack on a “symbolic institution” in the Dialoube region.

    Mali is under threat from a number of extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization. Suspicions about alleged support for extremism have led to a growing number of deadly clashes among communities in the country’s central region.

    France’s 4,500-strong Barkhane counterterror force in West Africa is the country’s largest overseas military operation.”

  19. Egypt says kidnapped Christian man is police forensic expert (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-kidnapped-christian-man-police-forensic-expert-60488450

    “Egyptian security officials say a Christian man who has been kidnapped by suspected Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula is a police forensic expert.

    They identified him Saturday as 45-year-old Adeeb Nakhlah, who lived and worked in el-Arish until 2017 when he fled following a spate of attacks targeting Christians there.

    The officials did not say whether Thursday’s kidnapping of Nakhlah was planned given his profession.

    They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

    Militants led by the Islamic State group have for years been battling security forces in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

    The militants have targeted Christians since December 2016, killing more than a 100 of them in attacks on churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote monasteries.”

  20. Private guards in Kenya to carry guns after extremist attack (abcnews, jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/private-guards-kenya-carry-guns-extremist-attack-60488079

    “Kenya plans to allow many more private security guards around the country to carry firearms following a deadly attack by Islamic extremists in Nairobi.

    The Kenyan government agency monitoring private security says the goal is to enhance the guards’ ability to protect the public because they are often the first responders before state security forces can get to the scene.

    The Private Security Regulatory Authority made the announcement on Friday, three days after attackers laid siege to the dusitD2 hotel, shopping and office complex.

    A security company confirmed that two employees were killed in the attack.

    Authorities plan a vetting process to expose any suspected criminals within security companies before guards are licensed to have guns. Currently, very few private guards in Kenya are allowed to carry guns.”

    • It has my vote and would hasten the collapse the UN by cutting of the majority of funding for the UN.

  21. The Persistence of European Anti-Semitism

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The fight against anti-Semitism on the international level continues to be characterized by restraint combined with ignorance – a potentially deadly combination. European hand-wringing and the spouting of clichés will never suffice; the extent of the rot must be acknowledged if it is to be effectively confronted.

    Almost every day in Europe there is a statement, a workshop, or a symposium on anti-Semitism. An international conference on the problem recently took place in Vienna, for example, under the auspices of Austrian PM Sebastian Kurz. Do such activities have any effect on European anti-Semitism, which grows by the day? Do they create any obstacle to the enormous diffusion and radicalization of online anti-Semitism – Jew-hatred 2.0?

    Judging from the past ten years, little will change. Eloquent speeches are given, appeals are published, clichés are uttered about confronting Jew-hatred with a “resolute fight” and “with all the severity of the law” – and after some head-shaking and hand-wringing, everybody returns to business as usual.

    For years, the main problem of the diverse European authorities responsible for the fight against anti-Semitism has been that they reside in a culture of clichés. True, there is a greater awareness of the need to confront the spread of Jew-hatred. But to do so, it is essential to act knowledgeably and avoid double standards.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/european-anti-semitism/

  22. King: Does It Matter Taxpayers Pay for Pence’s Security When She Teaches at Christian School

    • Another attack on Christianity, and one that is trying to apply a Religious Test to working for or marrying into anyone elected to a Federal Office or working for the Federal Government. Toe the far left radical line of be kicked out of society.

  23. Now this is funny and, well, sad I guess. The Saudi girl who fled and was accepted in Dystopia has already gobbled bacon for the first time, and apparantly smoked weed and drank wine. (Just heard the weed and wine bit on the radio) Consequently she’s getting death threats now so someone hired a security guard so she’s never alone. –Kinda like being a woman back in good ol’ SA!

    https://sputniknews.com/world/201901161071540501-saudi-girl-bacon-canada/

  24. Norway detains Russian suspected in stabbing, terror plot (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/norway-detains-russian-suspected-stabbing-terror-plot-60491624

    “A Norwegian court has ordered a 20-year-old Russian man detained for four weeks ahead of a trial for allegedly stabbing a woman at a supermarket and plotting a terror attack.

    The Oslo District Court issued the ruling Saturday after the stabbing Thursday at the Kiwi grocery store in downtown Oslo. The victim, a woman in her 20s, remains in critical condition.

    Norway’s PST domestic intelligence agency is probing the stabbing as a terror-related attack, saying the suspect was plotting to kill several people. His possible links to Islamic extremists are being investigated.

    The man had traveled from Russia to Norway via Sweden and is believed to have acted alone, his lawyer Ola Lunde told the NTB news agency. Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said he was from Russia’s Bashkortostan region near Kazakhstan.”

  25. German aid group rescues 47 migrants from Mediterranean Sea (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-aid-group-rescues-47-migrants-mediterranean-sea-60492873

    “The German aid group Sea-Watch says it has rescued 47 people from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea.

    The NGO says its Sea-Watch 3 boat had headed to the area Friday after its reconnaissance aircraft overheard communications about a rubber boat foundering but were unable to get there in time to help any survivors. Some 117 people are thought to have died in that sinking.

    They said Saturday the aircraft reported another rubber boat in distress and Sea-Watch was able to rescue all 47 people on board.

    The agency says it hasn’t been able to contact Libyan authorities, but has informed both Maltese and Italian officials.

    It was not immediately clear where they would take the people rescued. The Italian port of Lampedusa is the closest possibility.”

  26. US airstrike in Somalia kills 52 al-Shabab extremists (abcnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-airstrike-somalia-kills-52-al-shabab-extremists-60492253

    “The U.S. military on Saturday said it had carried out its deadliest airstrike in Somalia in months, killing 52 al-Shabab extremists after a “large group” mounted an attack on Somali forces.

    The U.S. Africa Command said the airstrike occurred near Jilib in Middle Juba region. There were no reports of Americans killed or wounded.

    The U.S. statement did not say whether any Somali forces were killed or wounded by the al-Qaida-linked extremists. Al-Shabab via its Shahada news agency asserted that its attack on two Somali army bases killed at least 41 soldiers. It described the location as the Bar Sanjuni area near the port city of Kismayo.

    There was no immediate comment from Somalia’s government.

    In neighboring Ethiopia, state television cited the defense ministry as saying more than 60 al-Shabab fighters had been killed and that four vehicles loaded with explosives had been “destroyed.” Ethiopia contributes troops to a multinational African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia and has troops there independently under Ethiopian army command.

    Al-Shabab controls large parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out high-profile suicide bombings and other attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere.

    The Islamic extremist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a luxury hotel complex in the capital of neighboring Kenya on Tuesday, the latest high-toll assault inside that county in retaliation for Kenya sending troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabab.

    The United States has dramatically stepped up airstrikes against al-Shabab in Somalia since President Donald Trump took office, carrying out at least 47 such strikes last year. Some have targeted top al-Shabab leaders or key financial officials; the extremist group funds its attacks with an extensive network of “taxation” and extortion…”

    • To hell with trade agreements.

      Again—just like with many other recent ventures—one is obliged to wonder if this poker-player president had advance knowledge but intentionally kept schtum so that Beijing would squander extra gazillions of yuan pumping up the Huawei G5 balloon before Trump showed up, needle in hand.

      PS: I do believe the phrase, “short and curlies” fits in somewhere.

  27. London stabbing: Two ‘dangerous individuals’ sought in connection with Park Lane murder (express, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1074688/london-news-stabbing-new-years-day-park-lane-murder-tudor-simionov-police-statement

    “POLICE investigating the stabbing of a Park Lane bouncer have released new images of two ‘dangerous individuals’ wanted in connection with the New Year’s Day murder in Mayfair, west London…

    Three men and a woman also received knife injuries during the attack; they have all been released from hospital.

    Following investigations, Police are now appealing for information for the whereabouts of Ossama Hamed, 25, and 23-year-old Nor Aden Hamada, who are both wanted in connection with the murder.

    The men have been described as “dangerous individuals” by police and urged any member of the public with information to contact them immediately…

    Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Hamed and Hamada, or who has information that could assist this investigation, including any footage from that morning, is asked to contact the incident room on 101 and quote 3276/1Jan or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

    For an immediate sighting of Hamed or Hamada, please dial 999.”

  28. Muslim women raise their voices in unison at Women’s March (mee, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/muslim-women-raise-their-voices-womens-march-1572072622

    “WASHINGTON – They chanted. They shouted. They danced. With their bright blue hijabs, they were difficult to miss.

    Dozens of Muslim women joined thousands of protesters at the Women’s March in Washington on Saturday to protest against what they say are President Donald Trump’s unjust policies targeting their communities as well the wider public.

    Their presence was conspicuous and drew praise from fellow protesters who joined their contingent to show unity.

    Blocks away from the White House, the women chanted in support of Black Lives Matter, refugees and democracy, calling on Trump to “move” and “get out the way”.

    “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go,” they sang together.

    The chanting grew louder, angrier and more animated as the protesters passed the Trump Hotel along the route of the march.

    Jinan Shbat, outreach manager at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), lauded the energy of the marchers, calling it “empowering”.

    “It’s absolutely amazing, seeing all these people here supporting each other,” she said. “This administration has been seeking to divide us for two years, and I feel like every year we just come back stronger.”

    Shbat said Trump’s travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries remains a major worry for women in the community, many of whom are struggling to unite with their families.

    “Here in the United States, on top of that, the rhetoric that the president has been spreading about Muslims has been hurting visibly Muslim women,” she added.

    “If our president allows the hate to continue, unfortunately, Muslims tend to be the main target.”

    Wafa May Elamin, a 26-year-old Sudanese American demonstrator, said she was personally affected by the ban, which made her feel unwelcome. Sudan appeared on Trump’s first executive order, but was later dropped in revised versions of the ban.

    Still, Elamin said she was heartened by the solidarity of the gathering.

    “If I was to define ‘support’ it would be this – the Women’s March,” she told MEE.

    As the protesters gathered before the march, prominent Muslim activist Linda Sarsour urged the women to be proud of their faith and contributions to society in the United States.

    “It was important to us to make sure we were here as a visible force, to make sure that people do not ignore us, do not erase us from the conversation, that no one talks about Muslims without Muslims, and to show that we are also unapologetic about our identities and that we are also part of the feminist movement in America,” she told MEE.

    Draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, young activist Roudah Chaker enthusiastically shouted slogans through a megaphone. She said she was at the march to fight for the rights of Arabs, Muslims, African Americans and all marginalised people in the US.

    “They all connect, because everybody is being oppressed by the same president,” she told MEE between rounds of chants. “The government is oppressing all these people, and all these people need to have rights in this country.”

    Lorie Hershberger, a therapist from Michigan, echoed the tone of solidarity, saying she becomes emotional when she thinks about the bigotry against Muslims in the US.

    “We have a lot of Muslims in our community in Michigan, and they are wonderful people,” she said.

    One woman marched with a sign that echoed Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s call to “impeach the mother****er”, referring to Trump. The latter part of the word, however, appeared in Russian – a nod to the ongoing investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

    Trump, who regularly uses name-calling against opponents, had hit back against Tlaib, calling her comment “disgraceful”.

    Asked about Trump’s remarks, the demonstrator answered without words, shaking her head with an incredulous look.

    Nikki Lavailey, a 23-year-old marcher who works in the health-care industry, held a sign featuring new members of Congress from various ethnic backgrounds, including Ilhan Omar, a Somali American Democrat who first came to the US as a refugee.

    In November, Omar and Tlaib became the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress, joining a wave of fellow women of colour who emerged victorious in last year’s midterm election.

    “I just think for America, this is a time when we need women to step into a place of power and make the choices for us,” Lavailey said.

    On Saturday, demonstrators held signs ridiculing the president, often poking fun at his dishonesty, relationship to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his comb-over hairdo.

    Many held small unflattering effigies portraying Trump, modeled after the giant balloon that was flown over the London during the US president’s visit to the UK.

    The march featured a myriad of ideologies and demands ranging from denouncing Trump and condemning racism to promoting equal pay and reproductive rights for women.

    On the edge of the demonstration, a few Uighur women waved the light blue flag of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has rounded up as many as 1 million Muslims and detains them in concentration camps.

    Demonstrators from Code Pink, a women-led anti-war activist group, called for peace and the rejection of Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico.

    Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, said that opposing US foreign wars is a women’s issue.

    “Women are the ones who are most hurt by wars,” she told MEE. “They’re the ones who have to keep the families together once men go off to war… Women are the ones who suffer when the budget goes into the military and is not there for the families’ needs, like health care and a good education system.””

    • “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go,” they sang together.

      Which is just Jackin’ Jim Dan Dandy with them, until this herd of mooing pro-Islam rape magnets milch cows finally fecking realizes that (long before homo sapiens ever even existed):

      Demolishing “all the walls” usually implies prior neutralization of those who threaten to breach them.

      Which, in turn, became more familiarly known as the time-honored tradition of MOB (Moving One’s Borders). Nowadays, tittyfingered Western politicians spend most of their time moving the less troublesome goalposts.

      Any organism since the first walled-cell prokaryote emerged (almost four billion years ago) has busily constructed some sort of defensive perimeter—and then immediately set about dislodging, consuming or just plain exterminating all external competitors.

      As with the misandrous Feminazi Manginafesto®, this claque of “borderless” Pollyannaish, Leftist smear-of-utopian-pap-mongers expects mankind to unilaterally fling aside over a thousand centuries of life or death genetic level programming. Fight or flight? Pish tosh! Heterosexuality? Who says? Fighting ability? What’s that? Territoriality? Ickypoo!

      This biological level of self-abasement self-loathing is key in qualifying during the early heats that win any hope of pursuing their unalluringly boyish favors. All that’s required of us is to become squirmy, supine, self-micturating metrosexuals.

      The whole “borderless” psychopathology reeks of obsessively defying certain natural boundaries. A few of it’s symptoms are gender fluidity, gay marriage, prepubescent transexuality, delinking nuclear families, and joining the LGBTQXYZ&#@ Pronoun-Sensitive Cult of Victimhood™.

      Then there’s that trendy new fad of capriciously-gallivanting-around-in-whatever-£ü¢kall-throwback-hellhole-for-some-last-minute-decapitating-gang-rape. None of which even begins to send sane minds politely edging their way towards the panic room faster than this latest Culturally Marxist Postmodern epidemic—with its hemorrhagic willkommenskultur, septic antifascism, Magical Thinking™, and manifestly delusional excursions far afield from objective reality’s normal limits.

  29. VICE News – Why Latinos Are Converting to Islam

    Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups within Islam in America. VICE’s Lee Adams travels to Houston Texas, the home of America’s first Islam in Spanish center, to investigate what’s behind this phenomenon and how America’s current political climate might be related.

    As a former gang leader, Jaime “Mujahid” Fletcher claims that Islam saved his life, inspiring him to found the Islam in Spanish center. He dedicated himself to translating Muslim texts for a Spanish-speaking audience.

    We spoke to Jaime and other recent Latino Muslim converts to find out why two of America’s most discriminated groups are coming together

    • Why Latinos Are Converting to Islam

      It’s great pseudo-religious camouflage that deflects any unwelcome scrutiny of the outright hatred usually being directed at Western Caucasians (especially males).

      And these are your dregs on Uggs.

      Any questions?

  30. Bulgaria charges six after terrorism financing arrests (reuters, jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bulgaria-crime/bulgaria-charges-six-after-terrorism-financing-arrests-idUSKCN1PD0JX

    “Bulgarian prosecutors have charged five Syrian citizens and a Bulgarian woman alleged to be members of a crime group which had sent more than 25 million euros ($28 million) to foreign terrorist organizations since 2016.

    Bulgarian special police forces arrested 43 people on Friday in coordinated raids on a suspected terrorism financing ring. [L8N1ZI3RN]

    Rumyana Arnaudova, the chief prosecutor’s spokeswoman, said on Saturday one of the six accused, who were all residents of Bulgaria, had been indicted in absentia and an international arrest warrant issued for him.

    The crime group had been operating in Bulgaria since 2016 and had indirectly financed a terrorist organization operating in another state, Arnaudova said without giving more detail.

    She said the financing had been carried out across the border through a traditional Muslim “hawala”, an informal trading system based on trust and personal ties.

    The group had also bought at least 100 cars in Bulgaria and transported them through Turkey to Syria, where they were provided to members of terrorist organizations, Arnaudova said.

    Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev said on Friday that the financing for the terrorist organizations had been sent abroad and did not represent a direct terrorist threat within Bulgaria.”

  31. Rohingya insurgents attack police in western Myanmar, wounding six: state TV (reuters, jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-military/rohingya-insurgents-attack-police-in-western-myanmar-wounding-six-state-tv-idUSKCN1PD0P7

    “Six Myanmar border guard police have been wounded in an attack by Rohingya Muslim insurgents in Rakhine state, government media reported on Saturday, amid fears of escalating violence in the region.

    About 10 armed attackers from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) ambushed a border guard post near Wet Kyein village in Maungdaw township in the north of the state on Wednesday, according to the government-controlled Myanmar TV network.

    A government spokesman could not be reached for comment…”

  32. Moroccan Police Find ‘Suspiciously-Missing’ Danish Woman in Marrakech (moroccoworldnews, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/263810/moroccan-police-danish-woman-marrakech/

    “Marrakech judicial police located a 24-year-old Danish woman of Somali origin “who was missing under suspicious circumstances.” The police found her in coordination with the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) said in a statement Friday.

    The Danish national’s father had filed a missing persons notice with the Marrakech police.

    The father said that his daughter had been unreachable by phone since she had left home in England for Morocco, according to the DGSN statement.

    The woman’s family suspected a criminal act, noted the notice.

    The police investigations revealed, “It was not a question of disappearance.”

    The 24-year-old Danish woman “was found safe and sound in Marrakech and under normal circumstances with a person she had just met,” the DGSN explained.

    The judicial investigation is ongoing, under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office, according to the statement.”

  33. Turkey walked upward path over last 16 years: Erdogan (aa, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/politics/turkey-walked-upward-path-over-last-16-years-erdogan/1369304

    “Turkish president said on Saturday that Turkey has witnessed an upward trend over the last 16 years.

    In a rally looking ahead to March 31 local elections, Recep Tayyip Erdogan rolled out the full slate of mayoral hopefuls for the Black Sea city of Samsun.

    The president touted ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party mayoral candidate Mustafa Demir — a former public works and housing minister — as well as the 17 district mayor nominees.

    “Turkey has walked an upward path over the last 16 years and will continue that rise,” said Erdogan, also the AK Party leader, referring to AK Party rule since 2002.

    “But there are traps lying again ahead of us. Take a look at the events we’ve faced in the last five or six years. Which of them could be the work of minds thinking of this country and the nation’s interests? Look at the Gezi protests of 2013 or FETO’s coup attempt in 2016,” added Erdogan.

    In summer of 2013, relatively small demonstrations in Istanbul’s Gezi Park grew into a nationwide wave of protests against the government that left eight protesters and a police officer dead.

    The government later said the protests were an attempt to overthrow it by Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) members who infiltrated the police and court system.

    On July 15, 2016, a FETO coup attempt in Turkey left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

    Turkey accuses FETO – led by U.S.-based Gulen – of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

    Erdogan later attended a closed-door dinner with local party members at Samsun’s TUYAP Expo and Congress Center.”

  34. Swedish citizens arrested in Spain on drugs charges (thelocal, Jan 19, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.es/20190119/swedish-citizens-arrested-in-spain-on-drugs-charges

    “Two people from Sweden have been arrested in Barcelona on suspicion of serious drugs and weapons offences.

    The pair were detained at the request of the Swedish police and have already been charged in absentia in the Scandinavian country.

    Authorities in Sweden have been searching for the two suspects since the autumn of last year, news agency TT reports.

    “We have been looking for them for a long time and they are suspected of belonging to a criminal network in northwestern Stockholm,” Mats Lindström of Stockholm Police said in a press statement.

    “The Spanish police have assisted us in this work and they are now under arrest,” Lindström added.

    The process for extradition of the two arrested individuals to Sweden has been initiated.”