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.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272805/leftism-not-just-wrong-evil-mark-tapson
Conservative commentator Dennis Prager once made an insightful distinction between the political left and right. The right, he noted, generally sees the left as wrong but not evil, whereas the left sees the right not merely as wrong but as evil. This was a valid assessment once upon a time, but as the left has increasingly exposed itself in the Trump era as rabidly illiberal, irrational, and immoral, it is time for the right to acknowledge that the left is not merely wrong, but evil.
What is evil? Let us set theological explanations aside for the moment and settle on a practical definition upon which most can agree: if cruelty means the willful disregard for human suffering, even taking pleasure in inflicting suffering on others, then evil is profound cruelty. It is a malevolence so dark and bottomless that ordinary people cannot fathom it. Psychologists may prefer less highly-charged terms to describe people who commit unconscionable acts, but evil is as evil does, and what leftism has done over and over again throughout history and around the world is provide a worldview which justifies perpetrating unimaginable horrors on untold numbers of victims.
To be clear: evil is hardly the sole domain of the left. It can inhabit individuals of any color, sex, political persuasion, or religious belief. But as an ideology, Progressivism – the rebranding of Communism – embraces totalitarianism and absolute statist control, which always and everywhere leads to misery, corruption, and brutality, and never elevates humanity. Can anyone look objectively at the ghastly devastation wrought by Communist in the 20th century – the gulags and the mass starvation, the torture and executions, the existential fear and hopelessness, the tens of millions dead and countless more lives destroyed – and not conclude that leftism is an ideology of evil? Add to that its unholy alliance with fundamentalist Islam today to subvert the whole of Western civilization, and there can be no doubt.
At the core of the true leftist is a hatred for anyone and anything that stands in the way of his or her lust for power over others: the nuclear family, Christianity, the Constitution, Donald Trump, etc. As David Horowitz had noted on numerous occasions, during a presidential debate in October 2016, candidate Trump spoke more naked truth about leftists than any establishment Republican would ever have dared when he said that his opponent Hillary Clinton had “tremendous hate in her heart.”…………cont.
Thank you Michelle! Well said.
Very well said, you spelled out in detail how the current war between the left and the right is a war for the survival of freedom, if we lose freedom dies for many Centuries.
Michelle, please permit me to join this Greek chorus in applauding your post.
“Progressivism – the rebranding of Communism – embraces totalitarianism and absolute statist control, which always and everywhere leads to misery, corruption, and brutality, and never elevates humanity.”
Sadly, for all of their noble intentions (see: Road to Hell), even the various, seemingly laudable, causes of Social Justice closely align, if not directly intersect, with Cultural Marxism’s Communist agenda. Time and again, this is proven by how these utopian visions are so susceptible to the Law of Unintended Consequences™.
Equally sad is how patently the world is not yet ready to properly equate, much less openly address, Socialism as merely being proto-Communism. Not:
• Social Democracy
• Marxism
• Collectivism
• Bolshevism
• Maoism
• Trotskyism
• Leninism
• Marxism-Leninism
• Sovietism
• Stalinism
• Communalism
• Eurocommunism
• Neo-Marxism
• Titoism
• Totalitarianism
• Radical socialism
• State ownership
• State socialism
• Rule of the proletariat
Just plain,
goodbad old Communism.NOTE: — This is yet another shared trait of Communism and Islam. Not:
• Fundamentalist Islam
• Islamism
• Radical Islam
• Moderate Islam
• Jihadism
• Pan-Arabism
• Salafism
• Sunnism
• Wahhabism
• Shiism
• Sufism
• Yazidism
• Qtubism
• Ahmadism
• Twelvers
• Nasserism
• Talibanism
Like Communism, there’s just plain Islam. As it was so eloquently put by the Little Sultan:
Yet, over and over again, this same vinegared Communist wine is trotted out in one more shiny, new-and-improved, as-seen-on-television, not-available-in-stores, for-a-limited-time-only-offer, operators-are-waiting, CALL NOW!, free-range recycled glass bottle.
Until that fundamental quantum leap of sociopolitical calculus (i.e., Socialism is Communism) becomes accepted wisdom … the Venezuelas will only continue amidst the usual Prog, Pomo, Leftist, Anarchic, Crypto-Islamic, gospel choir of, “It just hasn’t been done right yet!”
Evidently, Socialism’s Chomolungma of skulls still awaits the final crowning of its apex with one ultimate bullet-pocked brain bone from the Communist omelet’s last egg because, as we all know, “They’re always one execution away from utopia.” (hat tip: Alex Newman).
This reminds me of rhis Jewish concept: there is a minimum standard for a society to be ethical. From an article on wikipedia, we see the 7 laws of Noah. I would say that Communism comes under idolatory, rather than the usual notion of spirits etc. The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions against worshipping idols, cursing God, murder, adultery and sexual immorality, theft, eating flesh torn from a living animal, as well as the obligation to establish courts of justice.
The Transapocalypse is upon us: New Transgender Law in Australia could make it illegal to call individuals “He” or “She” (and so much more)
Looks like I will be spending a lot of time in gaol if I live long enough as I won’t be spending 10secs on anyone trying to decipher their “persecuted minority claim”. Tasmania is a prime target for sharia as it has only a small population with minimal industry and high unemployment while the left has always been noxiously present in that isle and the Woodstockees all moved there on welfare and now run many councils (I wonder if they can still claim welfare once elected?). My father was one of the original greens who worked to stop the always pointless Franklin dam but as soon as the socialists took over the now incredibly embarrassing “greens” he and many others left. The actual Tasmanian core are very NZ like and hard working and honest. In Hobart you never had to lock your doors until 1990 when the welfare parasites had made their mark. But it is the hordes of mainland pseudogreen bludgers and the many pretend indigenous(complete with blonde hair and blue eyes and tribal land claims). who have swung the politics there,,, addendum….there are NO real Tasmanian aborigines left as they are racially different to the mainland tribes who wiped them out when they took over the mainland. But that is okay as it wasn’t done by whites. There is an overworn fallacy about how the whites wiped out the Tasmanians by hunting them but that has been proven to be rubbish. In official document examining books still ignored by the Left(author Keith Windschuttle), it has been shown that only 186 were killed and those were killed attacking homesteads or by a possee after attacking one. Smallpox, measles and influenza did the damage as they were one of the most remote untouched and hence vulnerable groups of mankind. The mainland lie about smallpox blankets has been destroyed by the simple fact that all outbreaks started in the north where contact with Indonesian fishermen (still with no respect for borders) landed for water and far away from any whites. Tasmania is ruined by the Left.
[golf clap]
They are starting the program to create eunuchs to be the bureaucrats and harem guards for the new Caliphate.
“They are starting the program to create eunuchs to be the bureaucrats and harem guards for the new Caliphate.”
Exactol!
[/Mammy Yokum]
I miss that comic strip.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272811/stop-medieval-diseases-medieval-wall-daniel-greenfield
Stop Medieval Diseases With a Medieval Wall How the legalization of illegal migration and homelessness is leading to a new wave of disease outbreaks.
Daniel Greenfield
The media recently reported that Los Angeles County’s ongoing typhus epidemic had infected Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood.
“Who gets typhus? It’s a medieval disease that’s caused by trash,” she wondered.
Greenwood is partially correct. The typhus outbreak, like the hepatitis outbreak, was directly caused by social justice policies that legalized public vagrancy, and leaving trash and human waste on sidewalks. The piles of trash, human waste and people combine to create horrifying diseased conditions. Before Greenwood, many Los Angeles patients who had been diagnosed with typhus were indeed homeless.
“There are rats in City Hall and City Hall East,” she complained. “There are enormous rats and their tails are as long as their bodies.”
The rats are a problem, but the fleas that carry the virus that Greenwood has can live on a variety of animals, including stray cats and possums. That’s why the typhus outbreak isn’t just happening in Skid Row, but has spread to Long Beach and Pasadena. And while the homeless encampments act as incubators for the disease, it’s not the only social justice policy spreading disease across America.
Or at least in California and Texas.
“It’s never been considered a very common disease,” Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, noted, “but we seem to see it more frequently. And it seems to be extending across from Southern California all along the Mexican border into southeastern Texas and then into the Gulf Coast in Florida.”
America never had much of a history of typhus, but Mexico did. And our brief episodes of typhus invariably involved immigrants and migrants carrying the disease from Europe or Mexico.
The first outbreak of the disease in this hemisphere occurred in Mexico back in the 17th century and there have been 22 major outbreaks since then, caused in part by refugees and crowded conditions. Typhus was so associated with Mexico that it was even known as Tabardillo or Mexican typhus fever. There was extensive debate as to whether Mexican typhus was different than European typhus….cont.. well worth a read
I SUPPORT CORTEZ!
Behind pay wall so read it here. Beautiful insanity from the left should ensure a PT reelect.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-07/meet-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-republicans-secret-weapon-2020
“Cover-Ups and Corruption: The Record of Robert Mueller”
USA Survival – Published on February 7, 2019
Anti-Semitic Attack in Tram in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany — Perpetrator is a Man with North African Appearance+++
Yesterday morning, a group of young people was insulted and attacked by an as yet unknown perpetrator in a tram near Rheinland street in Frankfurt/Main. Around 11 a.m. the incident occurred in line 12 towards the Schwanheim terminus. A total of nine young people in a school class, among them a pupil of Jewish faith, were on their way to a funeral when the perpetrator first verbally attacked them.According to initial findings, he insulted the group in an obscene manner. Anti-Semitic hostility is also said to have occurred. Afterwards he tried to kick one of the pupils in the face with his foot, which could be averted by the quick reaction of his victim. At the tram stop ‘Harthweg’ the perpetrator left the train and went away unidentified.The police are now looking for an 18 – 20 year old man with a North African appearance, long, curly and brown hair, of thin stature and an angular face as well as brown eye colour. He wore a dark red NY-Yankee cap, dark sweatpants and black shoes.He is said to have spoken poor German and sentences without the use of genera. State security was called in and witnesses are asked to report with clues on 069 / 755 – 53111.
Read more:
https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/02/anti-semitic-attack-in-tram-in.html
Iran’s Khamenei: ‘Death to America’ Chant Should Not Be Taken Personally by U.S. Citizens (breitbart, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/02/08/irans-khamenei-warns-european-union-u-s-cannot-be-trusted/
“The popular Iranian chant of “Death to America” is directed at President Donald Trump and U.S. political leaders, not the American people, Iran’s supreme leader said Friday.
“As long as America continues its wickedness, the Iranian nation will not abandon ‘Death to America’,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian Air Force officers marking the 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, according to his official website.
“‘Death to America’ means death to Trump, (National Security Adviser) John Bolton, and (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo. It means death to American rulers,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The cry of “Death to America” has long featured in the Islamic republic, with leaders and the public alike using it to vent their perception of America’s supposed interest in working against the country.
Iran even holds an annual “Death to America” rally every November to commemorate the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, leading to a 444-day hostage crisis in which the Iranian regime held 52 Americans prisoner.
Any attack on the country will also draw the same response:
Khamenei warned that Europe “cannot be trusted” just seven days after Iran agreed a deal with the European Union (E.U.) to evade U.S. trade sanctions.
“These days there’s talk of the Europeans and their proposals. My advice is that they shouldn’t be trusted, just like the Americans,” he said.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t have relations with them. This is about trust,” he added.
Khamenei then accused Europe of hypocrisy over human rights, criticising France’s treatment of protesters in Paris.
“They (anti-riot police) attack protesters in Paris streets and blind them, then they have the audacity to make human rights requests of us,” he said.”
“The popular Iranian chant of “Death to America” is directed at President Donald Trump and U.S. political leaders, not the American people, Iran’s supreme leader said Friday.”
I’ll be happy to believe that right after Khamenei receives his complimentary .50 caliber third eye.
PS: How can this beturbaned rectal cavity even spew such crap with a straight face?!?
Either he is a beter actor then I think or is so stupid he believes his own propaganda. Maybe a combination of the two.
Turkey Wants to Make Nusra Into Political Group Like Hezbollah – Source (sputniknews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201902081072247706-turkey-nusra-political-group/
“Turkey wants to turn Nusra Front (a terrorist group banned in Russia) into a political force similar to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, a source in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) has told Sputnik.
“Turkey is trying to handle the Nusra matter in Syria’s north, and they [the Turks] want to make this group a political group, like Hezbollah in Lebanon”, the source said.
The Turkish government hasn’t yet confirmed the information.
The source in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) has also stated that Turkey wants to involve the Nusra Front terrorist group* in a new army in the north of Syria, where Ankara wants to set up a safe zone.
“Under the Turkish plan, Nusra will be involved in the national army in the north, which Turkey is trying to build now”, the source said.
According to the source, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which unites various opposition forces, and the SNC were both “working to enhance the Turkish agenda in the north — to create a safe zone 32 kilometres [19.8 miles] deep, taking the territory of 460 square kilometres [178 square miles]”.
“There are meetings between the Coalition and Nusra Front to agree upon arrangements for the merger and formation of a new army in the Syrian north”, the source stressed.
The source has also commented on the United States’ stance regarding the plan.
“The US said we have no problem with any Turkish project in Syria’s north as long it takes our allies’ [the Kurds’] interests into account”, the source said.
The statement comes after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out last week that Nusra militants were building up forces in Idlib in the north of Syria, where Russia and Turkey agreed to set up a demilitarised zone along the contact line between Syrian government forces and the armed opposition. The zone was supposed to have no heavy weaponry or extremist fighters. Russia has warned that the presence of Nusra militants in Idlib violates the agreements on the zone…”
Sweden Sees Sharp Increase in Women With Mutilated Genitals Amid Immigration (sputniknews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902081072241393-sweden-fgm-immigration/
“In total, there are an estimated 40,000 women of immigrant background who have undergone genital mutilation in Sweden, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare. The figure has been rising in step with mass immigration to the Scandinavian country, jeopardising its commitment to feminism and equality.
Swedish hospitals are seeing an increase in girls and women with mutilated genitals (FGM) who have been looking for treatment. Stockholm’s Södersjukhuset hospital alone has seen a drastic increase of 80 percent over the last two years. Since its inception in 2003, however, the increase is a mind-boggling 2,000 percent, national broadcaster SVT reported.
“At first we had 10-15 women looking for treatment. Last year, the figure was up to 280 visits”, senior physician Cecilia Berger told SVT. According to her, the youngest patient was only five years old.
Södersjukhuset has one of Sweden’s oldest gynaecological receptions, specialising in patients who have undergone FGM. At the so-called Amel reception (“Amel” translates as “Hope” from Arabic), patients receive guidance assistance and surgical procedures to restore their sexual organs.
Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare has estimated the number of FGM survivors living in Sweden at 40,000 girls and women (of which about 7,000 under the age of 18). The largest groups are girls and women from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt and the Gambia, which also happen to be the countries with the highest incidence of FGM seen internationally.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that up to 140 million girls and women in the entire world have been genitally mutilated, whereas the United Nations’ children’s fund UNICEF puts this figure at 200 million. The overwhelming majority of these are found in the Islamic world, such as parts of the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East. Each year, about 3 million girls are at risk of being subjected to some kind of genital mutilation.
The National Board of Health and Welfare has singled out immigration as one of the reasons for the occurrence of FGM in Sweden.
In Sweden, FGM (formulated as “operations on female genital organs designed to mutilate them and produce permanent changes) has been banned since 1982, regardless of whether consent has been given or not.
?In 2014, Sweden formed the “world’s first feminist government” when a centre-left coalition between the Social Democrats and the Greens came to power. Sweden’s commitment to equality is also enshrined in its “feminist” foreign policy formulated by Foreign Minister Margot Wallström.”
‘If you do not pursue exposing our political motives, we won’t print the naked photos of you we obtained.’
The National Enquirer blackmails the head of Amazon.
From: Fine, Jon [jf***@*****nk.com] (Deputy General Counsel, AMI)Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2019 5:57 PMTo: Martin Singer (Mr de Becker’s attorney)Subject: Re: EXTERNAL* RE: Bezos et al / American Media et al
Marty –
Here are our proposed terms:
1. A full and complete mutual release of all claims that American Media, on the one hand, and Jeff Bezos and Gavin de Becker (the “Bezos Parties”), on the other, may have against each other.
2. A public, mutually-agreed upon acknowledgment from the Bezos Parties, released through a mutually-agreeable news outlet, affirming that they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces, and an agreement that they will cease referring to such a possibility.
3. AM agrees not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos (the “Unpublished Materials”).
4. AM affirms that it undertook no electronic eavesdropping in connection with its reporting and has no knowledge of such conduct.
5. The agreement is completely confidential.
6. In the case of a breach of the agreement by one or more of the Bezos Parties, AM is released from its obligations under the agreement, and may publish the Unpublished Materials.
7. Any other disputes arising out of this agreement shall first be submitted to JAMS mediation in California
Thank you,
Jon
Deputy General Counsel, Media
American Media, LLC
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6680669/National-Enquirer-threatened-publish-explicit-nude-photos-Jeff-Bezos-mistress.html
Paedophiles who raped boy, 12, executed in the street in front of mob (express, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1084384/yemen-child-rapists-paedophiles-public-execution-firing-squad
“TWO paedophiles who raped and murdered a 12-year-old boy have been publicly executed in Yemen.
Wadah Refat and Mohamed Khaled were marched at gunpoint through a baying mob of bloodthirsty spectators who gathered to watch the grizzly spectacle in the port city of Aden. Horrifying images from the scene show the men lying face down before being shot dead by a firing squad. Refat, 28, and Khaled, 31, were sentenced to death for abducting, raping and murdering the boy.
Their trial was told the perverts’ young victim was playing outside the house of one of the men who dragged him inside and carried out their sickening attack.
When sentencing the pair, a judge said: “After the rape, they could not silence the cries of the child who begged for help, one of them grabbed a knife and cracked his neck.”
Death sentences in Yemen are are usually carried out by firing squad though stoning, hanging and beheadinf are permitted under the country’s penal code. Executions are not always held in public.
Human Rights Watch director Sarah Leah Whitson condemned the execution.
She said: “Public execution is an even more grotesque violation of human rights, particularly in a country where the ability of the accused to obtain adequate legal representation and the coverage of the process is highly limited.”…”
DAILY MAIL – A bullet in the back for raping a boy: Two paedophiles, 28 and 31, are publicly executed in Yemen for raping and murdering a 12-year-old
Wadah Refat, 28, and Mohamed Khaled, 31, raped and murdered 12-year-old
They were both executed by military in front of a crowd in Aden, Yemen
A 33-year-old woman also sentenced to death in connection with murder
The woman’s execution however, has been postponed as she is pregnant
Yemen has executed two men for abducting, raping and murdering a 12-year-old boy by shooting them in public.
Wadah Refat, 28, and Mohamed Khaled, 31, had been convicted of raping and murdering a boy named Mohamed Saad in May last year.
Hundreds had gathered in the port city of Aden on Thursday to watch the men get shot dead in front of the baying crowd.
The boy had been playing next to a house where one of them lived, when the pair set upon him, dragged him into the home and raped him.
‘After the rape, they could not silence the cries of the child, who begged for help, so one of them grabbed a knife and slit his throat,’ court documents seen by El Mundo states.
A 33-year-old woman has also been sentenced to death for helping Refat and Khaled dismember the boy’s body.
Her execution has been postponed as she is pregnant, according to the website.
Yemen has one of the highest execution rates per capita in the world, and shooting is the most common method.
Islamic Sharia law is applied in the country and a number of crimes are punishable by death, including murder, rape and terrorism.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6682085/Two-paedophiles-28-31-publicly-executed-Yemen-raping-murdering-12-year-old-boy.html
G.R.A.P.H.I.C.
Finnish basic income trial: creates happiness, but not jobs (abcnews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/finlands-basic-income-trial-major-60932517
“A nationwide experiment with basic income in Finland has not increased employment among those participating in the two-year trial, but their general well-being seems to have increased, a report said Friday.
The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, or Kela, said “it was not yet possible to draw any firm conclusions” from the first half of the experiment, where about 2,000 randomly selected, unemployed people aged 25-58 got tax-free income of 560 euros ($636) a month with no questions asked.
Finland is looking into ways to reshape its social security system and became in January 2017 the first European country to launch the trial, which will end in 2020.
Proponents say that universal basic income can empower people to start new businesses, knowing that they would continue to receive monthly income no matter how well their new venture does. Critics say it would merely reduce incentives for people to look for work.
In the Finnish experiment, the basic income is below what unemployment benefits pay, which is 32.40 euros a day, or almost 1,000 euros ($1,135) a month — subject to income tax of about 30 percent. The basic income is tax free, but barely enough to live on for someone paying rent, so it keeps pressure on the recipients to join the work force.
Minna Ylikanno, a researcher with Kela, said the basic income recipients appeared less stressed, healthier and more confident in the future than a 5,000-member control group of unemployment benefits recipients.
The report found that those on basic income and the unemployed people in the control group ended up working roughly the same number of days.
“The basic income may have a positive effect on the wellbeing of the recipient even though it does not in the short term improve the person’s employment prospects,” Ylikanno added.
The participants in both the trial and the control group were selected randomly among those who received unemployment benefits from Kela in November 2016 , Ylikanno told The Associated Press.”
Iraqi Shite militia detains commander who criticized Iran (abcnews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqi-shite-militia-detains-commander-criticized-iran-60933590
“An official with the Iraqi government-sanctioned umbrella of mainly Shiite paramilitary groups says a militia commander was arrested after he criticized Iran’s influence in the country.
The official from the Popular Mobilization Forces said on Friday that Aws al-Khafaji, commander of the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigade, was detained the previous night.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Al-Khafaji had earlier told a local TV station that Iraqis should not only oppose American and Turkish presence in Iraq but also Iran’s interference.
A statement from the Popular Mobilization Forces says four Baghdad offices of al-Khafaji’s group were closed because they were located in residential neighborhoods. It said members were arrested after rejecting the closure.”
ISIS threat: Merkel warns terror group ‘far from defeated’ in war-torn Syria (express, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1084487/isis-syria-iraq-islamic-caliphate-angela-merkel-german-intelligence-agency-bnd
“ISIS has not been defeated and is morphing into an asymmetrical warfare force after losing most of the territory it once controlled in Syria, according to Angela Merkel.
The German Chancellor issued her warning at the inauguration of the Berlin headquarters of the country’s foreign intelligence agency BND. Her remarks contradicted statements by US President Donald Trump who claimed the Islamist terror group had been routed and that what was left of its self-proclaimed caliphate would be recaptured within days.
Mrs Merkel said: “The so-called Islamic State has been luckily driven out of its territory but this unfortunately doesn’t mean that Islamic State has disappeared.
“It is transforming into an asymmetrical warfare force. And this, of course, is a threat.”
She said monitoring events in Syria would be one of the BND’s top priorities alongside tracking cyber threats and fake news designed to influence democratic elections.
Mr Trump said he expected a formal announcement as early as next week that the coalition fighting the militants has reclaimed all of the territory it previously held…”
Sudan’s doctors union says 57 killed in recent protests (abcnews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/sudan-official-beatings-led-iconic-protesters-death-60935823
“Sudan’s Doctors Syndicate says the government crackdown on protests has left at least 57 dead, including three who died of torture, since they began in mid-December…”
ISIS leader flees coup attempt as just 500 jihadis left try to cling on to power (express, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1084294/isis-news-islamic-state-syria-Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi-dead-terror
“ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has survived an attempted coup by foreign fighters as what is left of the bloodthirsty terror group faces total annihilation, according to intelligence sources.
A bounty has now been placed on the head of Abu Muath al-Jazairi, a veteran foreign fighter believed to be behind the moves to overthrow the extremist cleric. The attempt on al-Baghdadi’s life is believed to have taken place on January 10 in a village near Hajin in the Euphrates River valley, where ISIS is desperately clinging to its last sliver of territory. Regional intelligence officials said the plot led to fierce fighting between the foreign jihadists and the terrorist chief’s bodyguards.
Al-Baghadi survived the attack and was whisked away to a desert hideout.
An intelligence source said: “They got wind of it just in time. There was a clash and two people were killed. This was the foreign fighter element, some of his most trusted people.”
Iraqi officials and their British and US counterparts believe al-Baghdadi has been with the 500 remaining ISIS fighters who have regrouped after two years of heavy battlefield losses.
Among them are senior leaders and the remnants of the ranks of foreign fighters who flooded into Syria and Iraq between 2013 and 15 and swelling the ranks of the extremist force to at least 70,000.
They are hemmed in by US-backed Kurdish forces on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border and by Iranian-backed Shia militias on the other.
US President Donald Trump has predicted they will be wiped out as early as next week.
Al-Baghdadi, who suffered a permanent injury in an airstrike four years ago, has been hunted by the armies of four countris as well as tens of thousands of militia since he anointed himself as caliph in the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul in 2014.
ISIS fighters have been fleeing besieged areas each day for the past three weeks with several thousand members and their families surrendering to Kurdish-led forces near Deir ez-Zor.
Kurdish forces believe the remnants of the group have enough weapons and personnel to survive for at least another month, if they choose to hold firm.
Donald Trump told members of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS the group’s territory in war-torn Syria and Iraq will be recaptured as early as next week.
He said: “It should be formally announced some time, probably next week, that we will have 100 per cent of the caliphate.””
Daesh Leader Barely Escapes Death as His Foreign Fighters Turn on Him – Report (sputniknews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201902081072250909-daesh-leader-failed-coup/
“The terrorist group has been rapidly losing territory over the last two years due to efforts by Russian and Syrian forces, as well as the US and its allies. The group has lost most of its forces and resources, leading it to go into hiding.
Daesh* leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was reportedly attacked in a village near Hajin by some of the terrorist organisation’s foreign fighters in an apparent coup attempt, The Guardian reported, citing anonymous intelligence sources. Baghdadi reportedly survived the alleged coup attempt, with his bodyguards taking him into hiding in the nearby desert.
Soon after the attack, which allegedly took place on 10 January, Daesh* placed a bounty on the head of one of its veteran militants — Abu Muath al-Jazairi. While the bounty doesn’t explicitly reveal the reason why the veteran foreign terrorist fighter has fallen in disfavour, intelligence officials, cited by The Guardian, suggest that he led the unsuccessful coup attempt aimed against the leader.
“They got wind of it just in time. There was a clash and two people were killed. This was the foreign fighter element, some of his most trusted people”, the intelligence source reportedly said.
Over the course of the last two years, Daesh* has lost most of its territory in Syria and Iraq, resorting to hunkering in hideouts located in the remaining territories under its control. In December 2017, Iraq officially declared the end of the war against Daesh*, and one year later US President Donald Trump announced that American troops had managed to defeat the terrorist organisation, noting that its remnants could be cleared out by regional forces.
At the same time, Turkey and Damascus are still planning to conduct operations against the remaining terrorist forces in Syria.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia”
France Refuses to Accommodate Economic Migrants From German NGO Ship – Reports (sputniknews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902081072248626-italy-france-germany-economic-migrants/
“A group of migrants disembarked in Sicily earlier in January, prompting the Italian government to launch an investigation into the organisation Sea Watch, which owns the ship.
According to Sky TG24, Paris refused to take in part of 47 migrants on board the ship of the German NGO Sea Watch. The broadcaster reported, citing sources in the Italian interior Ministry that France stated it would “only take people who need protection, not economic migrants”.
At the same time, Rome reportedly expects “Paris to show goodwill” by helping to “repatriate undocumented Senegalese who are on Italian territory as soon as possible”.
France and Italy engaged in a quarrel earlier, in January, after Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio accused Paris of being responsible for the migrant crisis. According to the Italian politician, France “never stopped colonising Africa” and was impoverishing African countries and causing people there to flee for Europe.”
FOX News – Benjamin Hall sits down with a captured Muslim Caliphate commander
Iraqi mosque place for body and soul as worshippers keep fit after prayer
The faithful at a mosque in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja have been keeping fit after prayer through a series of exercises inside the holy building.
Footage from Thursday shows a group of men and boys participating in a guided workout after prayer.
“This project was my idea, with coordination of a coach. He is working as a medical assistant and he gave us sport and health-related advice,” the mosque’s imam said.
“It’s been a month and a half and we are keeping up with vital sports activities,” worshipper Saman Abdullah shared.
‘A Slow-Motion Coup Attempt’: Fitton Blasts Schiff, Dems’ New Trump Investigations
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced a new, wide-ranging probe into Russian election meddling and Trump’s foreign business dealings.
Whitaker, Nadler spar over Robert Mueller’s investigation
FEB 08 2019 -French Yellow Vest Protesters in Italy – ( San Remo )
U.S. Special Envoy to Venezuela suggests self-exile for embattled President Maduro
U.S. humanitarian aid arrived in trucks at a Colombian border town, but the Venezuelan military has barricaded a bridge at the border crossing in an apparent attempt to block the aid.
While humanitarian aid tries to comes in, the U.S. special envoy to Venezuela — Elliot Abrams — is saying Nicolas Maduro should get out. Abrams suggested self-exile for the embattled leader on Thursday.
“I think it is better for the transition to democracy in Venezuela that he’d be outside the country, and there are a number of countries that I think would be willing to accept him,” he stated.
Abrams said he believes there are countries who would be willing to accept Maduro and members of his regime should they seek it.
https://www.oann.com/u-s-special-envoy-to-venezuela-suggests-self-exile-for-embattled-president-maduro/
He got some of the gold out so he may have enough to live on in the style he became accustom to.
Iran: Khamenei takes aim at ‘brazen’ West over Yellow Vest hypocrisy
Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke to military officials in Tehran on Friday, marking the 40th anniversary of the Army Air Force commanders’ historical allegiance with Imam Khomeini.
Speaking at the meeting, Khamenei urged the officials not to trust Europeans, saying “protesters on the streets of Paris are attacked, to the point that some have lost their eyes. Protesters in Paris are attacked by the French government’s armed forces.”
“This is the way that they behave towards their people. Then they brazenly demand that we observe human rights. Do they even know what human rights are?” Khamenei pointed out. “They brazenly and arrogantly demand something. They should not be trusted and they should not be respected.”
On Washington, Khamenei said that “‘Down with USA’ means down with Trump, Bolton, and Pompeo. ‘Down with USA’ means down with the few who are running that country. We have no issue with the American people.”
Interesting video I just picked up on Jihad Watch: How I became radicalized
How I became radicalized:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/02/uk-muslims-convert-homeless-man-to-islam-try-to-recruit-him-for-jihad-threaten-and-assault-him-when-he-refuses
Vlad, this is the video I meant, sorry.
Thank you JAB
China Sent 95 Ships to Intimidate Philippines’ Projects in South China Sea (sputniknews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201902081072260028-amti-report-chinese-vessels-thitu-island/
“China has reportedly deployed a fleet of nearly 100 ships to the Thitu Island, one of several disputed islands in the South China Sea, in an effort to stop ongoing construction work being carried out by the Philippine government.
According to a Wednesday report published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a think tank run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing recently began dispatching vessels from the Subi Reef, which lies roughly 12 nautical miles from Thitu.
On December 3, 2018, with construction days away from beginning on Thitu, China deployed at least 24 vessels to the disputed island, the report notes. Construction had previously been halted due to poor weather and rough seas.
For the remainder of the month, and going into January 2019, the size of the Chinese fleet, composed of vessels with the People’s Liberation Army-Navy, China’s Coast Guard and various fishing ships, fluctuated as they stationed themselves near the contested island as construction commenced.
“The fishing boats have mostly been anchored between 2 and 5.5 nautical miles west of Thitu, while the naval and coast guard ships operate slightly farther away to the south and west,” the report explains.
“This deployment is consistent with prior examples of China’s ‘cabbage strategy,’ which employs concentric layers of fishing, law enforcement and naval vessels around contested areas.”
On December 20, 2018, satellite imagery showed 95 Chinese vessels near the island, before many were recalled, leaving the overall tally at 42 ships by January 26, 2019. Two of the vessels spotted during December 20 observations were identified by AMTI as a PLAN Type 053H1G frigate and a CCG Type 818 cutter.
“The drop in the number of government vessels, mirroring the reduction of the militia presence, suggests Chinese forces have settled into a pattern of monitoring and intimidation after their initial large deployment failed to convince Manila to halt construction,” the report concluded.
According to the Philippine Star, “Chinese coast guard vessels and militia fishing boats” have also been spotted near Sandy Cay, a shoal located some 2.5 nautical miles from Thitu Island. Also known as Pag-asa Island, it is claimed by the Philippines, China, Taiwan and Vietnam and is the second largest of the Spratly Islands.
The Philippine government’s plan to build a beaching ramp on Thitu to allow Filipino ships to better transport repair materials and to lengthen the island’s runway to accommodate larger planes was initially announced in April 2017.
Earlier this week, the AMTI report was criticized by Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana over its claims that ongoing construction efforts would also include land reclamation, the Manila Bulletin reported.
“As of now, only the beaching ramp is being undertaken. Next is the concreting of the runway. The third phase is the lengthening of the runway, which will entail the reclamation of about 300 meters,” Lorenzana explained to reporters on Thursday.
“Reclamation means there is land before, and you are reclaiming the land back. Since there is no land, but the water, we call it filling up the space with stones, gravel and soil.”
Lorenzana issued a statement on the presence of Chinese vessels on Friday, stressing that building efforts would continue and that other claimants in the disputed water should “respect Philippine sovereignty” and behave in a “civilized manner befitting members of the global community.”
“Having undergone careful planning and consideration, with full respect to international law and rules-based order governing civilized states, implementing these improvements is a legitimate undertaking and well within our rights as a sovereign nation,” Lorenzana said in the statement.
The Philippine Star reported that aside from the focus on the runway, the government will also be working on constructing better barracks for soldiers, sewage disposal systems, storage facilities for fishermen and lighthouses, among other projects.”
Massachusetts Bill Would Legalize Abortions Up to Birth, Repeal Parental Consent Law
https://www.lifenews.com/2019/02/08/massachusetts-bill-would-legalize-abortions-up-to-birth-repeal-parental-consent-law/
Massachusetts Democrats have taken a page from New York’s radical left and are pushing a bill to legalize abortion at any time during the pregnancy.
Currently, abortions in the state are banned after 24 weeks unless the woman’s life is in danger due to the pregnancy or, if the pregnancy would pose a “grave impairment of her physical or mental health.” The bill, known as the Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access Act (ROE Act), would get rid of the “grave impairment” language so that an abortion could take place after 24 weeks if the pregnancy risks “her physical or mental health, or in cases of lethal fetal anomalies, or where the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb.”
The bill would give doctors much more latitude in deciding to conduct abortions and would delete the section in current Massachusetts law that requires doctors to “take all reasonable steps … to preserve the life and health of the aborted child,” including having life-supporting equipment in the room. It would also repeal existing law that requires a minor to get her parents’ consent before an abortion.
Woman in her 30s killed in horrific STABBING in Ewell, Surrey (express, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1084574/uk-knife-crime-latest-ewell-stabbing-surrey-police
“A WOMAN in her 30s has been stabbed to death in a leafy Surrey village.
Two men have been arrested over the brutal murder in Ewell, which took place near a girls’ school on London Road around 3pm in broad daylight. One eyewitness reported seeing a man get out of a black 4×4 which had mounted the kerb and chase the woman before she fell to the ground. Passers-by reportedly performed CPR on the victim, who died later. Police believe at least one of the suspects and the victim are known to each other.
There are unconfirmed reports the woman was attacked as her children were in the car.
An air ambulance landed at the scene close to Meadow Primary School on Sparrow Farm Road.
Surrey Police spokesman said: “Sadly we are now able to confirm that the woman who was attacked, has died. Two men have been arrested in connection with the attack”.
Emergency services, including an air ambulance, scrambled to the incident near London Road, Ewell around 3pm.
An eyewtiness told Surrey Comet one of the men attacked the woman after getting out or a car and chasing her.
The eyewitness said: “About 2:55pm i saw a black 4×4 mount the curb and a male got out and chased this woman a couple of feet then grabbed her and she fell to the ground.
“I spoke to the 999 services and then turned around by which point the car was gone and members of the public were helping the young woman wrapped her up and was performing CPR
“The ambulance and police then arrived so I left as I was shaken up and had to go back to work.”
Angela Scollan, a local resident, tweeted: “I am shocked to share the news that a young lady got stabbed and killed outside my house in London Road Ewell KT17 today at 3pm.
“Her life ended because someone decided to take her life during the school run in broad daylight!”
A Police spokesman said: “Surrey Police officers were called to London Road, Ewell at 3pm today (Feb 8) following a report that a woman in her 30s, who was in the road was stabbed by a man who got out of a vehicle.
“A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder while a second man has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. These arrests did not happen at the scene.”
Chief Inspector Michael Hodder said: “This was a tragic and shocking incident in which a woman has lost her life after being attacked in broad daylight. Our thoughts are with her friends and family at this time
“At this stage we believe the victim and suspect are known to each other. We realise there will be a number of questions about what has happened which we will try to answer when we can and would ask the public not to speculate…”
Leftism – Not Just Wrong, But Evil
We cannot afford a lack of moral clarity in our political civil war.
February 8, 2019
Mark Tapson
Conservative commentator Dennis Prager once made an insightful distinction between the political left and right. The right, he noted, generally sees the left as wrong but not evil, whereas the left sees the right not merely as wrong but as evil. This was a valid assessment once upon a time, but as the left has increasingly exposed itself in the Trump era as rabidly illiberal, irrational, and immoral, it is time for the right to acknowledge that the left is not merely wrong, but evil.
What is evil? Let us set theological explanations aside for the moment and settle on a practical definition upon which most can agree: if cruelty means the willful disregard for human suffering, even taking pleasure in inflicting suffering on others, then evil is profound cruelty. It is a malevolence so dark and bottomless that ordinary people cannot fathom it. Psychologists may prefer less highly-charged terms to describe people who commit unconscionable acts, but evil is as evil does, and what leftism has done over and over again throughout history and around the world is provide a worldview which justifies perpetrating unimaginable horrors on untold numbers of victims.
To be clear: evil is hardly the sole domain of the left. It can inhabit individuals of any color, sex, political persuasion, or religious belief. But as an ideology, Progressivism – the rebranding of Communism – embraces totalitarianism and absolute statist control, which always and everywhere leads to misery, corruption, and brutality, and never elevates humanity. Can anyone look objectively at the ghastly devastation wrought by Communism in the 20th century – the gulags and the mass starvation, the torture and executions, the existential fear and hopelessness, the tens of millions dead and countless more lives destroyed – and not conclude that leftism is an ideology of evil? Add to that its unholy alliance with fundamentalist Islam today to subvert the whole of Western civilization, and there can be no doubt.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272805/leftism-not-just-wrong-evil-mark-tapson
This is goining to be MASSIVE, but unreported by the mainstream media.
BREAKING: Tommy Robinson To EXPOSE The BBC’s Fake News Against Him
https://www.politicalite.com/breaking-news/breaking-tommy-robinson-to-expose-the-bbcs-fake-news-against-him/?fbclid=IwAR0-9pkIkDfKCWD68guiW29c0CKvM8j_d2KlUm1TKzFzrEk_jX92b4y_DiY
Danny Tommo on facebook confirms the place and time the evidence will be shown in front of BBC HQ in Manchester on a giant screen to anyone who can get there.
https://www.facebook.com/events/848340922173378/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDglNgh8Huw
This is video evidence that the MSM FABRICATES the news.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Falsely Claims to be Native American
February 8, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272808/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-falsely-claims-be-daniel-greenfield
Get China and Russia Out of Venezuela – and the Western Hemisphere
by Gordon G. Chang
February 8, 2019 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13700/venezuela-china-russia
“What are our national security interests in Venezuela?” Adam Smith, the Washington Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, asked Erin Burnett on January 29 during her CNN primetime show. “The idea that we’re going to go in and do battle in Venezuela over who should be running that country, I don’t see a single U.S. national security argument for doing that.”
Not a single interest, Chairman Smith? In December, two Russian Tu-160 Blackjacks landed near Caracas. The Mach 2, nuclear-capable bombers can launch cruise missiles with a range of 3,410 miles, putting the U.S. homeland at risk from the airspace over Venezuela. The Blackjack bombers also buzzed America’s West Coast as they left the region last month.
Representative Smith charged President Trump with making Venezuela policy “on whims and fantasies and no reality behind it.”
On the contrary, Trump policy is based on the reality that the U.S. must be involved in the resolution of the Venezuelan crisis and not on the whims or fantasies that bad actors on their own will produce constructive solutions.
How Should the US Handle Saudi Nuclear Power Aspirations?
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,084, February 7, 2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The US is on the horns of a dilemma regarding Saudi Arabia’s interest in nuclear power. Washington would like to cajole Riyadh into a deal that would strengthen non-proliferation, but the kingdom is well aware of the competitors vying for its business and is not necessarily receptive to such arguments. This is a concern for the US, which does not want a Russian or Chinese nuclear energy market to flourish in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is planning to develop 16 nuclear reactors over the next quarter century, for which it is willing to invest $80 billion.
Nuclear energy is crucial to Riyadh for three reasons. First, the growing demand for electricity in the kingdom due to economic growth and development requires more energy, and nuclear power can provide clean energy. KACARE (King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy) reports that the “annual increase in domestic demand for energy ranges now between six percent to eight percent and that the Kingdom will have to increase its generated power by 80 GWe by 2040.”
Second, Riyadh wants to diversify its energy mix. By using nuclear energy to supply domestic demand, the kingdom would be able to reduce its dependence on its own crude oil and export more of it instead.
https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/saudi-nuclear-power/
Sabbath.
How many Yellow Vests will be maimed this weekend?
Too many
This reminds me of rhis Jewish concept: there is a minimum standard for a society to be ethical. I would say that Communism comes under idolatory, rather than the usual notion of spirits etc. Wikipedia: The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions against worshipping idols, cursing God, murder, adultery and sexual immorality, theft, eating flesh torn from a living animal, as well as the obligation to establish courts of justice.
WSJ – Saudi Arabia Sought Vice’s Help to Build a Media Empire
Riyadh builds alliances with Western news outlets to reshape its image, battle rivals
One sunny afternoon in August on a yacht off the Red Sea coast, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Vice Media Executive Chairman Shane Smith discussed an unlikely collaboration.
A Saudi government-controlled company had already hired Vice to produce documentaries on social reforms in the ultraconservative kingdom. The new proposal would elevate relations to a joint venture,similar to Saudi pairings with other Western media outlets, according to people briefed on the meeting.
Prince Mohammed was advancing a Saudi strategy evident in the earlier joint ventures: Build an international media empire to combat the kingdom’s rivals and remake its image in the West,according to bankers, consultants and people with knowledge of the Saudi effort.
“In their view, the problem is that they haven’t been telling their own story up to now, and they’d like to start,” said Elana DeLozier, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Saudi Arabia’s government press office and royal court didn’t comment in response to questions about Saudi media ventures.
Amazon Inc. founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday pointed to additional efforts on the part of Saudi Arabia to polish its image in the Western media. In a blog post, Mr. Bezos alleged National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc. had tried to blackmail him and potentially colluded with Saudi Arabia to damage his reputation. The National Enquirer last year published a front-page cover of Prince Mohammed and nearly 100 pages dedicated to his kingdom’s reform efforts. Saudi individuals also have held talks about a possible investment in AMI, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
When asked on Friday in Washington whether Saudi Arabia played any role in the dispute with Mr. Bezos, Adel al-Jubeir, the minister of state for foreign affairs, said: “As far as I know: flat no.”
AMI said it “believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos.”
Prince Mohammed moved to control media assets soon after his father, King Salman, became king in January 2015, as it became clear that rivals were winning in the opinion-shaping realms of culture and news. Qatar’s Al Jazeera has long been the region’s dominant news voice—and more recently a nuisance to Riyadh in its feud with its smaller neighbor.Turkish entertainment is widely consumed across the Arab World—despite a move last year by a Saudi-owned pan-Arab broadcaster to take Turkish TV dramas off the air.
The Saudi effort to control the narrative became more difficult after the Oct. 2 killing by Saudi operatives of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi sparked an international backlash.
The talks with Vice about a business partnership are unlikely to move forward, according to the people familiar with the discussions. Vice said it was reviewing its deal with government-controlled Saudi Research and Marketing Group, or SRMG, to produce documentaries about Saudi society.
But SRMG has already expanded the Saudi media footprint in several languages, including Farsi, the language of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s rival. SRMG has an Arabic broadcast joint venture with Bloomberg LP and a news venture with the Independent, the U.K. online newspaper, to produce content in Arabic, Farsi, Turkish and Urdu.
SRMG was headed until last year by a confidante of the crown prince, Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed, who took the role of chairman in 2015 after two funds operated by a Saudi government-owned bank bought a majority stake. Prince Bader soon began investing in the company’s suite of titles, including English-language site Arab News and Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
The Saudi government also has taken over the popular entertainment firm MBC Group and its news broadcaster Al Arabiya.
MBC began airing a Persian-language channel last year that is set to begin another new channel in Iraq in March. That plan has already provoked opposition from Iran-backed factions there, which have TV channels of their own and accuse Saudi Arabia of seeking to poison the society of majority-Shiite Iraq.
“It is quite difficult to consider such huge investment in international media in different languages without seeing it as part of the ongoing struggle…between the Saudi regime and its opponents,” said Fatima El-Issawi, an expert on Arab media and senior lecturer at the University of Essex in the U.K.
The Saudi connection with Vice came in 2017 through Prince Mohammed’s younger brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and a fan of Vice’s provocative approach to news, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The Brooklyn-based firm had built its reputation and young audience with documentaries exploring subjects such as Japanese pornography and new varieties of illicit drugs—topics largely off-limits in conservative Saudi Arabia.
Prince Khalid initiated his brother’s meeting on the yacht last year, believing Vice, in partnership with SRMG, could speak to young Saudis more attracted to online platforms like YouTube than the satellite channels their parents watch, said one of the people familiar with the talks.
Despite the setbacks in the Saudi relationship, Vice Media, which suffered stalled revenue growth last year and recently said it would cut 10% of its workforce, already has some Middle East partners and remains open to working with others, according to people familiar with the company’s Mideast operations.
As Saudi Arabia invests more deeply in media, its Western partners have taken steps to show they are preserving editorial independence.
The Independent hired consultants to monitor the foreign-language sites produced with SRMG to ensure editorial standards are met and the journalism doesn’t become a mouthpiece for Saudi views, a spokesman and journalists at the publication said.
“Any idea that the Independent might avoid criticism of Saudi Arabia is absurd—as is plainly evident from our coverage in recent months, particularly in relation to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” the spokesman said.
Bloomberg is putting in place editorial rules to ensure its partnership with SRMG, creating an Arabic platform known as Bloomberg Asharq, doesn’t dilute its brand and adheres to its standards, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg has structured its partnerships in other regions similarly.
In one media venture that competes with the influence of Saudi rival Iran, individuals connected to the Saudi royal court funded and helped launch Iran International, a Persian-language broadcaster in London, according to British corporate records and people familiar with the channel.
Some journalists at Iran International have complained that management is pushing a pro-Saudi, anti-Iran line at the 24-hour channel, which broadcasts via satellite to the Middle East, Europe and the U.S., and can be viewed in Iran.
Saudi Arabia is making “a systematic and very persistent push in a new direction in the media sphere,” said Negar Mortazavi, Iran International’s former Washington correspondent, who left the organization last year. “The Saudis want influence and credibility, and are paying a lot for it.”
A spokesman for Iran International said it “is not funded by the Saudi government, the Iranian government, or any other government,” and described it as a public-service news channel that adheres to strict international standards of impartiality, balance and accountability.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-sought-vices-help-to-build-a-media-empire-11549621800
DAILY MAIL Saudi Arabia warns targeting Mohammed bin Salman over Khashoggi murder ‘is a red line’
Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said the Crown Prince had no part in his death
Al-Jubeir told reporters linking him to Khashoggi’s murder crossed ‘a red line’
US lawmakers previously stated they think the Crown Prince had a hand in it
‘For anyone to think that they can dictate what we should do, what our leadership should do, is preposterous,’ Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Washington, where many US lawmakers have stated they believe Prince Mohammed is responsible for Khashoggi’s killing last year at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
‘Our leadership is a red line,’ al-Jubeir added.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6684075/Saudi-Arabia-warns-targeting-Mohammed-bin-Salman-Khashoggi-murder-red-line.html
The Intercept – Glenn Greenwald – Jeff Bezos Protests the Invasion of His Privacy, as Amazon Builds a Sprawling Surveillance State for Everyone Else
THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER HAS engaged in behavior so lowly and unscrupulous that it created a seemingly impossible storyline: the world’s richest billionaire and a notorious labor abuser, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, as a sympathetic victim.
On Thursday, Bezos published emails in which the Enquirer’s parent company explicitly threatened to publish intimate photographs of Bezos and his mistress, which were apparently exchanged between the two through their iPhones, unless Bezos agreed to a series of demands involving silence about the company’s conduct.
In a perfect world, none of the sexually salacious material the Enquirer was threatening to release would be incriminating or embarrassing to Bezos: it involves consensual sex between adults that is the business of nobody other than those involved and their spouses. But that’s not the world in which we live: few news events generate moralizing interest like sex scandals, especially among the media.
The prospect of naked selfies of Bezos would obviously generate intense media coverage and all sorts of adolescent giggling and sanctimonious judgments. The Enquirer’s reports of Bezos’ adulterous affair seemed to have already played at least a significant role, if not the primary one, in the recent announcement of Bezos’ divorce from his wife of 25 years.
Beyond the prurient interest in sex scandals, this case entails genuinely newsworthy questions because of its political context. The National Enquirer was so actively devoted to Donald Trump’s election that the chairman of its parent company admitted to helping make hush payments to kill stories of Trump’s affairs, and received immunity for his cooperation in the criminal case of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, while Bezos, as the owner of the steadfastly anti-Trump Washington Post, is viewed by Trump as a political enemy.
All of this raises serious questions, which thus far are limited to pure speculation, about how the National Enquirer obtained the intimate photos exchanged between Bezos and his mistress. Despite a lack of evidence, MSNBC is already doing what it exists to do – implying with no evidence that Trump is to blame (in this case, by abusing the powers of the NSA or FBI to spy on Bezos). But, under the circumstances, those are legitimate questions to be probing (though responsible news agencies would wait for evidence before airing innuendo of that sort).
If the surveillance powers of the NSA, FBI or other agencies were used to obtain incriminating information about Bezos due to their view of him as a political enemy – and, again, there is no evidence this has happened – it certainly would not be the first time. Those agencies have a long and shameful history of doing exactly that, which is why the Democratic adoration for those agencies, and the recent bipartisan further empowerment of them, was so disturbing.
Indeed, one of the stories we were able to report using the Snowden documents, one that received less attention that it should have, is an active NSA program to collect the online sex activities, including browsing records of porn site and sex chats, of people regarded by the U.S. Government as radical or radicalizing in order to use their online sex habits to destroy their reputations. This is what and who the NSA, CIA and FBI are and long have been.
IF BEZOS WERE the political victim of surveillance state abuses, it would be scandalous and dangerous. It would also be deeply ironic.
That’s because Amazon, the company that has made Bezos the planet’s richest human being, is a critical partner for the U.S. Government in building an ever-more invasive, militarized and sprawling surveillance state. Indeed, one of the largest components of Amazon’s business, and thus one of the most important sources of Bezos’ vast wealth and power, is working with the Pentagon and the NSA to empower the U.S. Government with more potent and more sophisticated weapons, including surveillance weapons.
In December, 2017, Amazon boasted that it had perfected new face-recognition software for crowds, which it called Rekognition. It explained that the product is intended, in large part, for use by governments and police forces around the world. The ACLU quickly warned that the product is “dangerous” and that Amazon “is actively helping governments deploy it.”
“Powered by artificial intelligence,” wrote the ACLU, “Rekognition can identify, track, and analyze people in real time and recognize up to 100 people in a single image. It can quickly scan information it collects against databases featuring tens of millions of faces.” The group warned: “Amazon’s Rekognition raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns.” In a separate advisory, the ACLU said of this face-recognition software that Amazon’s “marketing materials read like a user manual for the type of authoritarian surveillance you can currently see in China.”
BuzzFeed obtained documents showing details of Amazon’s work in implementing the technology with the Orlando Police Department, ones that “reveal the accelerated pace at which law enforcement is embracing facial recognition tools with limited training and little to no oversight from regulators or the public.” Citing Amazon’s work to implement the software with police departments, the ACLU explained:
With Rekognition, a government can now build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone. If police body cameras, for example, were outfitted with facial recognition, devices intended for officer transparency and accountability would further transform into surveillance machines aimed at the public. With this technology, police would be able to determine who attends protests. ICE could seek to continuously monitor immigrants as they embark on new lives. Cities might routinely track their own residents, whether they have reason to suspect criminal activity or not. As with other surveillance technologies, these systems are certain to be disproportionately aimed at minority communities.
Numerous lawmakers, including Congress’ leading privacy advocates, wrote a letter in July, 2018, expressing grave concerns about how this software and similar mass-face-recognition programs would be used by government and law enforcement agencies. They posed a series of questions based on their concern that “this technology comes with inherent risks, including the compromising of Americans’ right to privacy, as well as racial and gender bias.”
In a separate article about Amazon’s privacy threats, the ACLU explained that the group “and other civil rights groups have repeatedly warned that face surveillance poses an unprecedented threat to civil liberties and civil rights that must be stopped before it becomes widespread.”
Amazon’s extensive relationship with the NSA, FBI, Pentagon and other surveillance agencies in the west is multi-faceted, highly lucrative and rapidly growing. Last March, the Intercept reported on a new app that Amazon developers and British police forces have jointly developed to use on the public in police work, just “the latest example of third parties aiding, automating, and in some cases, replacing, the functions of law enforcement agencies — and raises privacy questions about Amazon’s role as an intermediary.”
The Intercept – Glenn Greenwald – Jeff Bezos Protests the Invasion of His Privacy, as Amazon Builds a Sprawling Surveillance State for Everyone Else
THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER HAS engaged in behavior so lowly and unscrupulous that it created a seemingly impossible storyline: the world’s richest billionaire and a notorious labor abuser, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, as a sympathetic victim.
On Thursday, Bezos published emails in which the Enquirer’s parent company explicitly threatened to publish intimate photographs of Bezos and his mistress, which were apparently exchanged between the two through their iPhones, unless Bezos agreed to a series of demands involving silence about the company’s conduct.
In a perfect world, none of the sexually salacious material the Enquirer was threatening to release would be incriminating or embarrassing to Bezos: it involves consensual sex between adults that is the business of nobody other than those involved and their spouses. But that’s not the world in which we live: few news events generate moralizing interest like sex scandals, especially among the media.
The prospect of naked selfies of Bezos would obviously generate intense media coverage and all sorts of adolescent giggling and sanctimonious judgments. The Enquirer’s reports of Bezos’ adulterous affair seemed to have already played at least a significant role, if not the primary one, in the recent announcement of Bezos’ divorce from his wife of 25 years.
Beyond the prurient interest in sex scandals, this case entails genuinely newsworthy questions because of its political context. The National Enquirer was so actively devoted to Donald Trump’s election that the chairman of its parent company admitted to helping make hush payments to kill stories of Trump’s affairs, and received immunity for his cooperation in the criminal case of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, while Bezos, as the owner of the steadfastly anti-Trump Washington Post, is viewed by Trump as a political enemy.
All of this raises serious questions, which thus far are limited to pure speculation, about how the National Enquirer obtained the intimate photos exchanged between Bezos and his mistress. Despite a lack of evidence, MSNBC is already doing what it exists to do – implying with no evidence that Trump is to blame (in this case, by abusing the powers of the NSA or FBI to spy on Bezos). But, under the circumstances, those are legitimate questions to be probing (though responsible news agencies would wait for evidence before airing innuendo of that sort).
If the surveillance powers of the NSA, FBI or other agencies were used to obtain incriminating information about Bezos due to their view of him as a political enemy – and, again, there is no evidence this has happened – it certainly would not be the first time. Those agencies have a long and shameful history of doing exactly that, which is why the Democratic adoration for those agencies, and the recent bipartisan further empowerment of them, was so disturbing.
Indeed, one of the stories we were able to report using the Snowden documents, one that received less attention that it should have, is an active NSA program to collect the online sex activities, including browsing records of porn site and sex chats, of people regarded by the U.S. Government as radical or radicalizing in order to use their online sex habits to destroy their reputations. This is what and who the NSA, CIA and FBI are and long have been.
IF BEZOS WERE the political victim of surveillance state abuses, it would be scandalous and dangerous. It would also be deeply ironic.
That’s because Amazon, the company that has made Bezos the planet’s richest human being, is a critical partner for the U.S. Government in building an ever-more invasive, militarized and sprawling surveillance state. Indeed, one of the largest components of Amazon’s business, and thus one of the most important sources of Bezos’ vast wealth and power, is working with the Pentagon and the NSA to empower the U.S. Government with more potent and more sophisticated weapons, including surveillance weapons.
In December, 2017, Amazon boasted that it had perfected new face-recognition software for crowds, which it called Rekognition. It explained that the product is intended, in large part, for use by governments and police forces around the world. The ACLU quickly warned that the product is “dangerous” and that Amazon “is actively helping governments deploy it.”
“Powered by artificial intelligence,” wrote the ACLU, “Rekognition can identify, track, and analyze people in real time and recognize up to 100 people in a single image. It can quickly scan information it collects against databases featuring tens of millions of faces.” The group warned: “Amazon’s Rekognition raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns.” In a separate advisory, the ACLU said of this face-recognition software that Amazon’s “marketing materials read like a user manual for the type of authoritarian surveillance you can currently see in China.”
Beyond allowing police departments to “store citizens’ crime reports on Amazon’s servers, rather than those operated by the police,” the Amazon products “will allow users to report crimes directly to their smart speakers,” an innovation David Murakami Wood, a scholar of surveillance, warned “serves as a startling reminder of the growing reach that technology companies have into our daily lives, intimate habits, and vulnerable moments — with and without our permission.”
Then there are the serious privacy dangers posed by Amazon’s “Ring” camera products, revealed in the Intercept last month by Sam Biddle. As he reported, Amazon’s Ring, intended to be a home security system, has “a history of lax, sloppy oversight when it comes to deciding who has access to some of the most precious, intimate data belonging to any person: a live, high-definition feed from around — and perhaps inside — their house.”
Among other transgressions, “Ring provided its Ukraine-based research and development team virtually unfettered access to a folder on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service that contained every video created by every Ring camera around the world.” Biddle added: “This would amount to an enormous list of highly sensitive files that could be easily browsed and viewed. Downloading and sharing these customer video files would have required little more than a click.” About the Ring surveillance in particular, the ACLU explained:
Imagine if a neighborhood was set up with these doorbell cameras. Simply walking up to a friend’s house could result in your face, your fingerprint, or your voice being flagged as “suspicious” and delivered to a government database without your knowledge or consent. With Amazon selling the devices, operating the servers, and pushing the technology on law enforcement, the company is building all the pieces of a surveillance network, reaching from the government all the way to our front doors.
Bezos’ relationship with the military and intelligence wings of the U.S. Government is hard to overstate. Just last October, his company, Blue Origin, won a $500 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to help develop military rockets and spy satellites. Bezos personally thanked them in a tweet, proclaiming how “proud” he is “to serve the national security space community.”
Then there’s the patent Amazon obtained last October, as reported by the Intercept, “that would allow its virtual assistant Alexa to decipher a user’s physical characteristics and emotional state based on their voice.” In particular, it would enable anyone using the product to determine a person’s accent and likely place of origin: “The algorithm would also consider a customer’s physical location — based on their IP address, primary shipping address, and browser settings — to help determine their accent.”
All of this is taking place as Amazon vies for, and is the favorite to win, one of the largest Pentagon contracts yet: a $10 billion agreement to provide exclusive cloud services to the world’s largest military. CNN reported just last week that the company is now enmeshed in scandal over that effort, specifically a formal investigation into “whether Amazon improperly hired a former Defense Department worker who was involved with a $10 billion government contract for which the tech company is competing.”
Bezos’ relationship with the military and spying agencies of the U.S. Government, and law enforcement agencies around the world, predates his purchase of the Washington Post and has become a central prong of Amazon’s business growth. Back in 2014, Amazon secured a massive contract with the CIA when the spy agency agreed to pay it $600 million for computing cloud software. As the Atlantic noted at the time, Amazon’s software “will begin servicing all 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community.”
Given how vital the military and spy agencies now are to Amazon’s business, it’s unsurprising that the amount Amazon pays to lobbyists to serve its interests in Washington has exploded: quadrupling since 2013 from $3 million to almost $15 million last year, according to Open Secrets.
JEFF BEZOS IS AS ENTITLED as anyone else to his personal privacy. The threats from the National Enquirer are grotesque. If Bezos’ preemptive self-publishing of his private sex material reduces the unwarranted shame and stigma around adult consensual sexual activities, that will be a societal good.
But Bezos, given how much he works and profits to destroy the privacy of everyone else (to say nothing of the labor abuses of his company), is about the least sympathetic victim imaginable of privacy invasion. In the past, hard-core surveillance cheereladers in Congress such as Dianne Feinstein, Pete Hoekstra, and Jane Harmon became overnight, indignant privacy advocates when they learned that the surveillance state apparatus they long cheered had been turned against them.
Perhaps being a victim of privacy invasion will help Jeff Bezos realize the evils of what his company is enabling. Only time will tell. As of now, one of the world’s greatest privacy invaders just had his privacy invaded. As the ACLU put it: “Amazon is building the tools for authoritarian surveillance that advocates, activists, community leaders, politicians, and experts have repeatedly warned against.”
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/jeff-bezos-protests-the-invasion-of-his-privacy-as-amazon-builds-a-sprawling-surveillance-state-for-everyone-else/
When you leave your house you are on camera, when you are on the computer or talking on a phone someone is listening. Not paranoia fact, we need some tech companies working to help us regain our privacy. But that won’t haappen for a few years to a few decades.
“Not paranoia, fact…”
As has long been the case, it’s not a matter of whether or not you’re paranoid. It’s a matter of whether or not you’re paranoid enough.
Reports: Russian authorities make deal with Google
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian news reports say that Google has agreed with national authorities to delete links to websites banned in Russia.
The daily Vedomosti reported Thursday that Google has reached an agreement with the Russian state media oversight agency, Roskomnadzor, to regularly receive updated lists of banned sites and delete links to them upon review. The newspaper says Google has already removed about 70 percent of the banned websites from its search results.
The RIA Novosti news agency quoted Roskomnadzor as saying it has established a “constructive dialogue” with Google.
Last December, Roskomnadzor fined Google 500,000 rubles ($7,600) for failing to delete links to the banned sites. It threatened to cut access to Google if it fails to comply with the demand.
“We’re committed to enabling access to information for the benefit of our users in Russia and around the world,” Google spokesman Nu Wexler said. The company offered no further official comment.
https://apnews.com/c11e7a0ab049432483dc3cd3d20a2bbb
Collusion? Rep. Adam Schiff Met with Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson in Aspen Last July
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the new House Intelligence Committee chairman, is facing calls to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after photos emerged of him at an undisclosed meeting (colluding?) with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, a key figure in the Russia collusion scandal.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/collusion-rep-adam-schiff-met-with-fusion-gps-founder-glenn-simpson-in-aspen-last-july/
Nigerian military battles Islamic State in Mallam Fatori, Borno state (thedefensepost, Feb 8, 2019)
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/02/08/nigeria-military-iswa-mallam-fatori-borno/
“Nigerian troops with air support fought Boko Haram in Mallam Fatori in the Lake Chad area near the border with Niger, the army said, while Islamic State claimed its fighters had carried out a series of attacks in the area.
Troops deployed in Mallam Fatori, killed and wounded “scores of” Boko Haram insurgents during a fire fight at about 6 a.m. on Thursday, February 7, Colonel Ezindu Idimah said in a Friday statement.
Idimah said the militants in 10 technicals – pickups trucks with mounted guns – and on motorcycles were “lured from their hide out in Tumbun Gini to a place very close to” the troops’ defensive location in the Abadam Local Government Area and several were neutralized in the ensuing firefight. Three technicals that attempted to escape were pursued by the Nigerian Air Force and “many more” were killed.
Among items recovered were an anti-aircraft gun, AK-type assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and ammunition, Idimah said.
The statement did not mention military casualties.
ISIS had earlier claimed fighters from its Islamic State West Africa province affiliate attacked the military in the area over several days.
Via its Amaq propaganda agency, ISIS claimed that an attack in Mallam Fatori on February 7 led to “deaths and injuries” among the Nigerian military.
ISIS claimed Islamic State West Africa province fighters on February 5 attacked a military base in “knari” – likely meaning Malum Kaunari which is very close to Mallam Fatori. The February 6 statement said two soldiers were killed, the base was burned and weapons and ammunition were captured…”
Haftar’s Libyan National Army says it hit Chad rebels in new airstrikes (thedefensepost, Feb 8, 2019)
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/02/08/libya-national-army-airstrikes-chad-rebels-haftar/
“Forces loyal to Libyan General Khalifa Haftar that they had carried out airstrikes against Chadian fighters in southern Libya.
Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army said in a statement on Friday, February 8 that it had hit “three groups of Chadians and their allies.”
The “violent and painful” strikes targeted groups near Marzouk in southern Libya, the LNA added, without giving further details.
The LNA on Sunday announced it had carried out an air strike against “Chadian opposition” groups in the same area.
It was not immediately possible to verify if the Chadian groups the LNA targeted have any links to Chadian fighters France said it hit with airstrikes in recent days.
Chadian President Idriss Deby said on Thursday that a column of rebels had been “destroyed” in the series of French strikes after trying to cross into the country from Libya.
An anti-Deby rebel group, the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR), had crossed into northern Chad with “three columns” of vehicles, according to one of its members, Mahamat Doki Warou. The UFR was created in January 2009 from an alliance of eight rebel groups.
The LNA in mid-January announced the start of an offensive intended to “purge the south of terrorists and criminal groups,” including rebels from Chad.
The marginalized region has seen bloody ethnic fighting between Tubu, Tuareg and Arab ethnic groups since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi’s regime in 2011.
Libya remains profoundly divided, principally between an internationally recognized Government of National Accord and a rival administration in eastern Libya supported by Haftar’s LNA.
The U.N.-backed unity government based in Tripoli has struggled to assert its authority outside the west.
Security and stability has also been undermined by myriad militia and jihadists.”
Iran’s Missiles to Hit Aggressors like Thunderbolt: Cleric (tasnimnews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/02/08/1942862/iran-s-missiles-to-hit-aggressors-like-thunderbolt-cleric
“Tehran’s Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami highlighted the country’s preparedness to counter any foreign threats and said the Islamic Republic’s missiles will hit any aggressor “like a thunderbolt”…”
Iran, Iraq Ink Deals to Boost Cooperation in Electricity Industry (tasnimnews, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/02/08/1942930/iran-iraq-ink-deals-to-boost-cooperation-in-electricity-industry
“High-ranking officials from Iran and Iraq on Friday signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and a contract to boost cooperation between the two countries in the electricity industry…”
Disgusting! Chelsea Clinton Launches Racist, Anti-Semitic Attack On Candace Owens
This rotten apple didn’t fall far from the Clinton tree. Chelsea, daughter of America’s first super-predator POTUS, launched a veiled racist and anti-Semitic attack against Candace Owens, accusing her of supporting Hitler.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/disgusting-chelsea-clinton-launches-racist-anti-semitic-attack-on-candace-owens/?omhide=true
HRW Warns against ‘Guantanamo on the Euphrates’ (aawsat, Feb 8, 2019)
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1582046/hrw-warns-against-%E2%80%98guantanamo-euphrates%E2%80%99
“Any transfers of suspected foreign militants and their relatives out of Syria should be transparent, Human Rights Watch told Agence France Presse, as camps in the northeast fill with families of different nationalities.
With the crumbling of ISIS, France is now considering bringing dozens of accused French militants, as well as their wives and children, back home from the detention centers and camps run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
“We would definitely like to be present (during the transfer), or at least there should be some transparency,” Nadim Houry, HRW’s director of counter-terrorism, told AFP in the northern Syrian town of Amuda late Wednesday.
“As we speak, there may already be transfers happening. There’s been a total lack of transparency, and bad things happen in the dark,” he warned.
Tens of thousands of foreigners are estimated to have joined ISIS since 2014, but they have streamed out of its collapsing territory in recent years.
The SDF, who are bearing down on the shrinking pocket of ISIS territory in east Syria, told AFP they were detaining foreign fighters on a “daily basis.”
The SDF are also holding hundreds of women and children who were born to alleged ISIS militants, including French nationals, in two main prison camps in the north.
Authorities at one of the camps, Al-Hol, say they have received more than 1,000 foreign nationals since fighting against ISIS’s last positions ramped up in mid-December.
On Wednesday, dozens of foreign women and their young children, who had recently arrived from the battered ISIS pocket further south, could be seen waiting in a reception area in Al-Hol.
The women wore black veils covering everything but their blue eyes and called out to their pale, thin children in English and French.
They were waiting to be assigned tents in the cordoned-off section of the camp where foreigners are held, and were not allowed to speak to reporters.
French sources have told AFP that an estimated 50 adults and 80 children could be brought back to France, but authorities have not confirmed any planned transfer.
“While this debate is taking place in France, it’s not clear it has manifested itself in any concrete measures on the ground,” said Houry, whose team plans to visit foreigners in the camps.
HRW is seeking clarity on the numbers that might return, what route they would be transferred through, and whether children would be separated from their parents.
France has a responsibility not to leave its citizens, including children under seven years old, in legal limbo in a “Guantanamo on the Euphrates,” Houry said.
“We are confident that once they actually hit France, there is a mechanism in place,” he said.
“What we’re concerned about is what is going to happen between now and then. We’re in a grey zone.””
BREAKING: SECOND WOMAN COMES FORWARD — Accuses Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of RAPE IN COLLEGE
Meridith Watson accuses Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of rape.
Ms. Watson’s attorney fired off a letter on Friday to the embattled Virginia Attorney General.
The woman, Meredith Watson, claims she was raped by Fairfax in 2000 while they were students at Duke University.
This is DEVASTATING!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/breaking-second-woman-comes-forward-accuses-virginia-lt-gov-justin-fairfax-of-rape-in-college/?omhide=true
Kingdom, first non-EU country, admitted to ECHA (saudigazette, Feb 8, 2019)
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/558723/SAUDI-ARABIA/Kingdom-first-non-EU-country-admitted-to-ECHA
“The European Council for High Ability (ECHA) has recently approved the accession of Saudi Arabia, represented by King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (MAWHIBA) to ECHA, as an associate member, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said Friday.
The Kingdom has become the first non-EU country to receive this membership, given its leading role locally, regionally and internationally in the discovery and care of talented people.
This has come as a new achievement being added to the record of achievements by the Kingdom under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense”
Two caught using botox injections punished in Camel Festival (saudigazette, Feb 8, 2019)
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/558732/SAUDI-ARABIA/Two-caught-using-botox-injections-punished-in-Camel-Festival
“The Disciplinary and Penalties Committee in the ongoing Third King Abdulaziz Camel Festival disclosed that it has identified two people, a Kuwaiti and an Emirati, violating the regulations during their participation in the competitions on Friday.
The two cheats were uncovered by the medical committees for using botox injections, which are banned by the Camels Club rules. The Camel Festival is ongoing at a location some 140 km northeast of Riyadh.
The committee identified the cheats as Muhammad Bin Faleh Bin Shaleh Al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti, and Muhammad Bin Khalfan Al-Mazroui, a UAE national.
The Disciplinary and Penalties Committee stressed that it has issued a decision to bar the two immediately from participating in all rounds of the 3rd Camel Festival.
The committee has also deprived the two violators from taking part in the next three editions of the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival.
The committee said it received reports from the medical committees, heard the two violators’ statements and issued the penalties, in line with the Violations and Penalties Regulations approved by the Camels Club.
Accordingly, they were charged for cheating and tampering. The regulations incriminate the use of filler and botox injections, or the like. The committee stressed that the sophisticated equipment used by the Club enabled the committee to uncover the cheating and tampering. _ SPA”
Saudi Arabia deporting Rohingya despite UN calls to give them refuge (mee, Feb 8, 2019)
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-deports-rohingya-despite-un-calls-give-them-refuge
“Saudi Arabia has continued to deport Rohingya to Bangladesh despite calls from the United Nations to give members of the stateless minority refuge in the Gulf kingdom…”