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.
Attacks Reported in Nigeria Before Polls Open; President Votes (voanews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.voanews.com/a/nigeria-election-attacks/4801007.html
“Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was among the first to cast a ballot in his hometown of Daura when the polls opened Saturday for the country’s delayed election.
Just hours before voting began, explosions were heard in the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri. The source of the blasts was not immediately clear, but Boko Haram insurgents have repeatedly targeted Maiduguri.
In another northeastern town, Geidam, Reuters news agency reports attacks from Islamist militants have forced families to leave their homes. One resident, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said, “We have fled, along with our wives and children and hundreds of others.” He said, “We are right now running and hiding in the bushes.”
Nigeria’s president says polling stations will be safe Saturday when the country holds national elections after a one-week delay…”
The Latest: Nigeria’s leader already claiming election win (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-nigeria-finally-begins-voting-president-61255462
“Nigeria’s president says he will be congratulating himself at the end of the election after he was among the first Nigerians to cast their ballots.
A jovial President Muhammadu Buhari brushed aside reporters’ questions about whether he would accept a loss to top challenger Atiku Abubakar in a race some observers now see as too close to call.
Buhari, voting in his northern hometown of Daura, jokingly checked the ballot his wife was casting to see whom she had voted for.
The president called the voting process smooth but in other parts of the country some officials were reporting concerns with a delayed opening of polls and a heavy security presence perhaps intimidating potential voters.”
“Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was among the first to cast a ballot in his hometown of Daura when the polls opened Saturday for the country’s delayed election.”
This ensured that he would be far away when “spontaneous” gunfire erupted at the polling stations.
The Daily Meddler “ISIS’s last march: Truckloads of the final fighters and their jihadi brides – carrying designer knockoff bags – line up to leave terrorists’ last frontline after US-coalition airstrikes prompt their surrender”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6735849/Truckloads-ISIS-fighters-jihadi-brides-line-leave-terrorists-frontline.html
This belittling of what an extreme toxin islam is. The muslim-deception: “we are just like you,” has been turned around by the Socialist Media to mean, “they are just like us.”
And what is odd about this picture of a hundred or so Fundamental muslims waiting to be taken to prison, is that
WesternAmerican values of humanity have been applied. If it were the other way around and these kufar were captured by them, their women would be raped and their men mass-beheaded. Sharia Law.So all that will happen when released, is 2125 prayers later and meeting 15 year old jihadi brides looking for bad boys, is Truckloads of Peace descending upon their children.
The Communists torture and indoctrinate prisoners. Social-fear becomes the standard trigger-of-control, before ever being let out and then constantly watched.
For these mentally-submissive koranimals, who had undergone childhoods of abuse, therapy may take a lifetime or never. Death remains their Heaven. “We love death more than you love life.”
Settling them to live with the tattooed, vaping, sex-addled, ignorant sheeple, is placing pyschopaths among the sociopaths. Those who give pain join those who seek pain for their only sense of life. LGBTQ+m.
The bonfire of the sanities.
“ Death remains their Heaven. “We love death more than you love life.””
How churlish of us to deny them their most heartfelt desires.
Let us all assist them to their beloved paradise at once.
PS: I swear, TSJWI (This
Stuff$hït Just Writes Itself)!Germany: “I am entitled to do this!” — Syrian man sexually harasses underage girl on bus and insults and threatens passengers+++
Harassment or bodily injury to the detriment of a girl occurred on Friday afternoon in a line 7644 bus.The so far unknown 12 to 13 year old girl got on the bus at the stop Ledergraben in Reutlingen in the direction of St. Johann-Würtingen at about 4.20 pm. At the stop “Südbahnhof” she got off at the front doors of the bus. As she walked past, a 37-year-old Syrian sitting in front of her in the bus hit her buttocks with his hand. Crying, the girl then turned to the 37-year-old and asked the reason for his actions, what was dismissed by him with the words “I am entitled to do this”. The victim then left the bus. In the further course of the accusation, the accused then made vulgar abuse and threats against other passengers who had observed the events and also expressed their incomprehension. The bus driver then informed the police, who met the accused on the spot and, after the police measures had been completed, placed him in an appropriate clinic because of his mental condition. The police station in Pfullingen asked the injured girl and witnesses of the incident who had not yet contacted the police to call 07121/9918-0 in order to clarify the facts of the case.
Read more:
https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/02/germany-i-am-entitled-to-do-this-syrian.html
“In the further course of the accusation, the accused then made vulgar abuse and threats against other passengers who had observed the events and also expressed their incomprehension.”
Fortunately for the malefactor, his soon-emptied bus was headed directly to the hospital terminus where a team of surgeons just barely managed to save his life.
To the great disappointment of all involved (especially the patient), their efforts met with little success when it came to reattaching his mysteriously eviscerated genitalia.
However, post-op doctors called it a win after they were able to medically trim and cauterize the stump of his missing hand.
Under the guise of “mental health” ….now prescribing suicidal insanity:
“Cultural Humility” training scheduled for Feb. 28 in Poughkeepsie
https://twitter.com/DailyFreeman/status/1099048088788963329
And it only gets worse:
Outrageous!!
The Pedophile Project: Your 7-Year-Old Is Next On The Sexual Revolution’s Hit Parade
https://twitter.com/OliverMcGee/status/1098814101436928003
Communist Humiliation is to denounce yourself before a Stadium of Socialists before you are shot. Cultural Humiliation like Cultural Marxism I thought was claimed to be a myth.
“Cultural Humility” training scheduled for Feb. 28 in Poughkeepsie
Just like how gun control means using both hands, so does
Sensitivity“Cultural Humility” training teach people that they should always remember to remove any headgear whenpissingstanding over the freshly turned earth of their enemy’s mass grave.Meanwhile, back in Poughkeepsie…
(T = 00:02:42)
Turning Bombs into Knives | Taiwan and China | China Uncensored
Chicago Deletes Database Because it’s Not Politically Correct
China’s Secret War Against America | American Thought Leaders
At this fast food drive through, the person taking your order might not be a person at all
The drive through window is often considered the most harrowing assignment inside a fast-food restaurant.
A nonstop whirlwind of multitasking, the gig involves organizing multiple orders, communicating with the kitchen, counting money and negotiating with an endless stream of customers who range from polite and coherent to angry and inebriated — all for a minimum wage reward.
If that juggling act wasn’t hard enough, a giant timer hangs in many drive through kitchens, adding urgency to each task, former workers say.
Though the drive through gantlet has broken many a fast food worker, the newest employee at Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard in Denver will not be feeling the heat anytime soon. That’s because she’s an artificially intelligent voice assistant — emotion-free and immune to stress — with the ability to operate a drive through window without fatigue, bathroom breaks or compensation.
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/At-this-fast-food-drive-through-the-person-13636317.php
The far left through their increases in the minimum wage are forcing the businesses to turn to robots to do the work. This reduces the number of entry level jobs and the kids will not learn good work habits. It also forces the factories to use more and more robots (union wages are based on multiples of the minimum wage) which once again reduces the number of available jobs.
This reduction of the number of jobs is coming at the same time the left is starting to push for a guaranteed annual income. I don’t know if the left has been working to lower the number of jobs so they could have more people on welfare and push for more Socialism or not. I do know this is a problem that we have to discover a solution for before it does more damage to the idea of a free market and a free people.
“That’s because she’s an artificially intelligent voice assistant — emotion-free and immune to stress — with the ability to operate a drive through window without fatigue, bathroom breaks or compensation.”
Pure semi-liquid manure. First off, the “assistant” possesses no, as in £ü¢kiñg ZERO, “Artificial Intelligence” (it’s only an Expert System)*. And secondly, while this appurtenance may not break for the bathroom, it still breaks, all of which requires software or hardware updates, routine maintenance, and general upkeep. Those all cost money.
This entire notion that robots “work for free”, is just another thorn dug deep into the side of people who didn’t “Learn to Code”, and who will never be able to manage the automation that replaces them.
* My oft-repeated distinction between true Artificial Intelligence and mere Expert Systems is crucial. Much like Malca’s outstanding insistence upon using International naming standards when identifying the countries of our enemies, so is it equally vital to never give any quarter in the MSM’s latest effort to stampede ignorant television slaves over a cliff of hopelessness as they are confronted with advanced technology (i.e., having their noses smashed in it, much like Orwell’s “boot stamping on a human face – forever”).
It’s a naked attempt at returning our world to the Dark Ages.
Just like the MSM’s intentional efforts to trigger race wars in America (e.g., Smollett, Covington and Trayvon Martin – the list inexorably grows), so are these journo-termites seeking to ignite a Luddite uprising amongst the Great Unwashed™.
To continue, such a revolt would give the Globalists their most eagerly anticipated excuse for rounding up and warehousing us drones in concentration camps—and then getting on with the job of dehumanizing what they fob off upon everyone else as heavily downsized, modern human life (except when it comes to them farting through silk, of course).
Upkeep always costs, just not as much as a 2 or 3 shifts of people. They are forcing the either population to learn to code so they can find some typeo f work.
Richard: This tech is the beginning a the creation of true cyborgs and has much more dangerous potential.
RAT’S CHILLING Zombie rat CYBORGS controlled by the human MIND in ‘Frankenstein’ tests are steered through maze in bizarre experiments
When the human ‘manipulator’ thought about moving their left arm, the rat turned left and same with the right arm
SCIENTISTS have created mind-controlled rats that can be directed through a maze by the power of human thought.
Researchers implanted micro-electrodes to the rat’s brain and connected it to the brain of a human volunteer who was hooked up to a computer.
Unbelievably, when the human ‘manipulator’ thought about moving their left arm, the rat turned left.
The same with the right arm.
Blinking sent signals to the rat to move forward and after continuous research with six ‘cyborg rats’ the scientists were able to direct the rodents through incredibly complex mazes.
Movement-related thoughts in the mind of the manipulator sent signals to the computer, which then translated those signals into instructions and sent them to the brain of the rat.
The team at Zhejiang University first started with just a few tubes and then moved on to something to intricate designs with tight turns and multiple levels.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8490580/zombie-rat-cyborgs-controlled-by-the-human-mind-in-frankenstein-tests-are-steered-through-maze-in-bizarre-experiments/
Pavlov … Does that name ring a bell?
Humans have been using their minds to control others since day zero. Those rat zombifiers ain’t got nuthin on Islam.
The tech is crude, wait and it will be scarier.
Doing it the old fashion way isn’t as much fun as playing with the new toys.
Venezuela protests flare, soldiers defect ahead of border aid operation
CUCUTA, Colombia/URENA, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuelan troops fired tear gas at angry protesters unable to cross into Colombia on Saturday after President Nicolas Maduro closed the border to stop the opposition bringing U.S. humanitarian aid into the South American nation.
Demonstrators set up barricades and burned tires in the Venezuelan border town of Urena, as attention turned to whether National Guard troops stationed at the border crossing would fulfill Maduro’s orders to block humanitarian aid from reaching a sick and hungry population.
https://www.oann.com/showdown-looms-as-venezuela-opposition-to-confront-border-troops-over-aid/
Venezuela protests flare, soldiers defect ahead of border aid operation
I guess the troops wanted to eat, too.
If there are ludicrous arguments to be made on behalf of Islamic terrorists, the Left will find them
By LU Staff February 23, 2019
On Thursday, the debate over the disposition of Hoda Muthana was ratcheted up a notch. Muthana, for those who haven’t been following the story, is an Alabama-born ISIS wife and sympathizer living in Syria and now begging to come home. A day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that “Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” attorneys from a group that calls itself the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ahmed Ali Muthana, the woman’s father. The suit argues his daughter and her 18-month-old son should be allowed to return to the U.S. and that her citizenship – which the U.S. government disputes – should be recognized.
Although opinions on the woman’s future vary across party lines, most on the Left see the issue in strictly black and white terms, which is to say they believe that refusing to allow Muthana to return is “un-American.” Witness the reaction of Jason Johnson, politics editor for “The Root,” who was a guest Friday on “MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle“:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/23/if-there-are-ludicrous-arguments-to-be-made-on-behalf-of-islamic-terrorists-the-left-will-find-them/
Saudi crown prince defends China’s right to put Uighur Muslims in concentration camps (telegraph, Feb 22, 2019)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/22/saudi-crown-prince-defends-chinas-right-put-uighur-muslims-concentration/
“Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’’s crown prince, on Friday defended China’s use of concentration camps for Muslims, saying it was Beijing’s “right”.
“China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremisation work for its national security,” Prince Mohammed, who has been in China signing multi-million trade deals much to the annoyance of his Western allies, was quoted as saying on Chinese state television.
Xi Jinping, China’s leader, told the crown prince the two countries must strengthen international cooperation on de-radicalisation to “prevent the infiltration and spread of extremist thinking”.
China has detained an estimated one million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps, where they are undergoing re-education programmes allegedly intended to combat extremism.
The Uighur are an ethnic Turkic group that practices Islam and lives in Western China and parts of Central Asia.
Beijing has accused the minority in its Western Xinjiang region of supporting terrorism and implemented a surveillance regime.
Uighur groups had appealed to Saudi’s powerful young prince to take up their cause, as the ultraconservative kingdom has traditionally been a defender of the rights of Muslims worldwide.
But Muslim leaders have so far not broached the issue with China, which has in recent years become an important trading partner with the Middle East.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, became the first to condemn Beijing, however, describing China’s treatment of its Uighur population as “a great cause of shame for humanity” last month and asking it to close the “concentration camps”….”
Saudi crown prince defends China’s right to put Uighur Muslims in concentration camps
I’ll say it again. Anyone looking for answers—remember: better the ugly truth than a beautiful lie—had best keep their eye on Communist China. Few other situations will provide anything even slightly as instructive compared to Beijing’s gloves-off approach.
Whether the West adopts any of these policies is irrelevant. Failure to learn from the unique object lesson being placed before us would be foolish in the extreme. Some key points:
• Tracking MSM non-coverage of the Uighur threat
• Profiling NGO whitewash of any Xinjiang terrorism
• Examining the true contours of Islam in Red China
• Monitoring Arab love–hate for the CCP (e.g., MbS)
• Synthesizing all of these irreducible data points into a coherent long term strategy for defeating the ummah
Italy’s immigration policies risk WRATH of Pope Francis as he challenges Matteo Salvini (express, Feb 22, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1091179/italy-news-matteo-salvini-immigration-migrant-crisis
“POPE Francis has spoken out against the anti-immigration policies launched by the country’s interior minister Matteo Salvini.
The head of the Catholic Church was seen proudly holding a pin reading “Let’s open our harbours” during a meeting focused on welcoming migrants and people in need. The sentence on the pin has become the catchphrase for people fighting Mr Salvini’s anti-immigration rules, who during the summer of 2018 started closing the Italian harbours to dinghies and rescue ships carrying asylum-seekers. Pope Francis happily took a picture with Nandino Capovilla, an Italian priest who runs an organisation called Amadou near Venice, helping young refugees get back on their feet, with the pin in his hand.
Mr Capovilla was attending ‘Free from fear’ (Liberi dalla paura), a meeting in Sacrofano, 25km north of Rome, together with the Pope and a number of families and associations giving a home or a job to migrants in Italy.
The priest published the picture on his Facebook profile, from which it went viral.
The Pope has called multiple times for people and politicians to be more welcoming towards immigrants.
In December last year he warned governments to stop blaming migrants for all the evils.
He said: “Political speeches accusing migrants of all evils are no longer sustainable, and they deprive the poor of all hopes.
“Keeping someone under threat means reducing them to an object and depriving them of dignity.”
A month later, in January, Pope Francis urges all EU leaders to seek “a common response” to the migrant crisis.
The Pope’s clear stance against Mr Salvini’s anti-immigration policies, launched in a bid to curb illegal immigration in the country, comes as the interior minister is facing a trial.
In late summer 2018 Mr Salvini didn’t allow the 177 migrants aboard the Italian coastguard ship Diciotti docked at the Catania harbour to leave the boat for six days in a bid to force other EU member states to immediately take in the asylum-seekers, most of which came from Eritrea.
This decision sparked outrage across Italy’s liberal and left-wing movements and Europe.
And the court of southern Italian city Agrigento has decided to move against the minister and tried to trial him.
But the majority of the MPs in the Italian Upper Chamber, which has to give the authorisation to the court to proceed to the investigation into Mr Salvini, is likely to grant him a legal immunity and prevent the process from starting.”
China and Indonesia set to CLASH as tensions over South China Sea ESCALATE (express, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1091337/south-china-sea-latest-indonesia-clash-tensions-escalate-world-war-3
“INDONESIA plans to assert its authority over the South China Sea in a move that is likely to antagonise china and escalate the dispute over the hotly contested area of the Pacific Ocean.
Indonesia is set to clash with China after the Republic plans to assert its authority over the South China Sea by developing lucrative fishing grounds in the waters. China claims almost all of the South China Sea and frequently criticises the US and its allies over naval operations near Chinese-occupied islands. Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan all have competing claims for territory in the region.
On Friday, Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordination Minister for Maritime Affairs said the Natuna Islands on the edge of the South China Sea would be developed into a fishing hub, the Jakarta Post reports.
The waters off the island are rich in gas and fish stocks and the Indonesian Government plans to build cold-storage facilities and use satellites and drones to help Indonesian fishing vessels operating in the surrounding waters.
The hub is set to be operational by the end of the year.
China and Indonesia have previously clashed over the waters around the Natuna Islands.
Mr Pandjaitan said: “We would also be providing refuelling tankers for our fishing boats… so no one can claim that [the area is their] traditional fishing zone.”
Indonesia has embarked on an aggressive campaign to curb illegal fishing over the past few years, seizing hundreds of foreign vessels – even blowing up some in public displays.
The Republic declared the issue as an “international problem” that “requires cross border cooperation” at a UN Ocean Conference in 2017.
Earlier in the month the US Navy sent two guided-missile destroyers close to the location of several territorial conflict zones in the South China Sea.
The US defended the move, with Commander Clay Doss saying the two warships were there to “preserve access” to waterways “governed by international law”.
The rising military tension between China and the US comes against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter trade war between the two superpowers.
The two sides are trying to hammer out a deal ahead of a March 1 deadline when US tariffs on $200billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to increase to 25 per cent from 10 percent.
Escalating tensions between the United States and China have cost both countries billions of dollars and roiled global financial markets.
The two countries are also at odds over regional security, including Washington’s overtures to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.”
China is going to keep pushing until a war (hopefully a limited war) starts in that region, while a lot of people will scream that this isn’t the US’s fight after WWII we did guarantee the safety and protection of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. If we don’t stand with them and help them the US will have lost all credibility we have left.
“China is going to keep pushing until a war (hopefully a limited war) starts in that region…”
The Chicoms had best do it flipping, flaming quick. Their economic sand—or whatever they counterfeit and knock off in place of it—is running down fast as increasingly restless natives have become real eager to turn over the Politburo’s hourglass (and not in a nice way).
Fully projecting the PLA’s power will take more than just bolting together one or two carriers. As in: How many other keels were laid, or existing vessels refitted, to flesh out the escort groups for those flat-tops? Now, what about all-weather training, exec and non-com manning, crew rotation, pilot flight-deck time, live-fire gunnery exercises, fleet navigation and underway refueling maneuvers?
That probably equals more than what Beijing’s hemorrhaged into those African debt traps. What’s really putting time pressure on their Long Game’s away schedule is how each and every one of those financial sinkholes represents a ticking time bomb whose clock is swiftly running down.
As Communist China attempts to further unfurl their rhodium-plated OBOR master plan (for world domination – and we all know it), the money pits are yawning open into the hellish hard-currency incinerators they so often become in aspiring kleptocracies. Those Mandarins can’t manipulate the yuan fast enough to feed all but the smallest furnaces.
All of which is a recipe for disaster. Just ask the dosimeter-toting guards based at those submarine pens in Saida Bay. That glow-in-the-dark water park Moscow’s been running in Murmansk is merely one of many slowly splitting, highly aromatic, and astronomically expensive Fabergé Easter eggs left behind by the USSR.
Be it a Cold War II or just another old-fashioned, homespun hot conflict, the Mainland rapidly is approaching a “use ’em or lose ’em” end phase of their ongoing empire-wide bankruptcy. Yes, that makes their already-itchy trigger fingers even more worrisome, but—much like with Taiwan’s infrastructure-punch deterrent—the Chicoms have too much to lose.
Just as with Venezuela’s tactical micro-implosion, history’s biggest Command Economy is set for a strategic mega-detonation when the Perfect Storm of its
overheated Ponzi scamunsustainable fiscal model finally undercuts their Potemkin economy’s foundations.I am hoping that China or the EU are the ones who touch off the massive econ collapse.
Yes the closer they get to collapsing the more they are thinking of using their military to seize enough treasure from other nations to stave off their collapse. The thing we can’t do is let our fear of their nuclear arsenal stop us from resisting their actions. While the Collapse of China won’t bring peace to the world it will remove on of the major bad actors. Just as the collapse of Iran will remove another bad actor.
the gateway pundit –MASSIVE CROWD of Thousands Rally in Salford, England in Support of Tommy Robinson and Against Far Left BBC Propagandists (VIDEO)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/massive-crowd-of-thousands-rally-in-salford-england-in-support-of-tommy-robinson-and-against-far-left-bbc-propagandists-video/
Swedes Want to Kick Hungary’s Orban Out of EU Parliament Group (breitbarrt, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/23/swedes-want-to-kick-hungarys-orban-out-of-eu-parliament-group/
“Candidates for Sweden’s Moderate Party have called on the party of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to leave the European People’s Party (EPP) ahead of the European Parliament elections.
The Swedish Moderates, along with the “centre-right” Christian Democrats, are also members of the EPP, and according to Moderate candidate Tomas Tobé it is time for Orbán’s Fidesz to leave it, Metro reports.
“With regard to Hungary, it is clear that the government’s dismantling of the rule of law is contrary to the fundamental values of the EU,” Tobé alleged.
The Moderate candidate also said his party backs the EU’s Article 7 proceedings against Hungary, which could see sanctions and fines imposed on the Central European nation.
The Article 7 process was triggered following a report accusing the Orbán government of corruption, abuse of migrants, and other accusations of the government interfering the activities of the press and academia — allegations which the Hungarians deny.
Tobé boasted that the Article 7 proceedings “in the long run can lead to the country being deprived of its voting rights within the EU,” adding: “I am very critical of the development in Hungary and do not believe that Fidesz should remain in the [EPP] group, it is time for them to leave now.”
While Hungary and Viktor Orbán may have adversaries within the EPP, they have staunch allies elsewhere, such as Poland’s governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) who have said they would veto any attempts to introduce sanctions on Hungary.
Orbán has also made a solid ally in populist Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini following a meeting between the pair last year, in which Orbán called Salvini his “hero” for closing Italian ports to NGO migrant ferries.
Salvini has also seen a dramatic rise in popularity in Italy, with an EU projection for the upcoming election in May revealing that his party, the League (La Lega), could become the second-largest in the European Parliament after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).”
Pakistani police arrest 2 men trying to blow up gas line (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistani-police-arrest-men-blow-gas-line-61255302
“Pakistani counterterrorism police say they have arrested two insurgents attempting to blow up the main gas pipeline in the central city of Bahawalpur…”
Iraq: 5 fishermen killed in suspected IS attack (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraq-fishermen-killed-suspected-attack-61257042
“An Iraqi security official says five fishermen have been killed in an attack by Islamic State group militants on a camp site near the Therthar lake, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Baghdad…”
India police arrest Kashmir activists amid rising tensions (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/india-police-arrest-kashmir-activists-amid-rising-tensions-61256852
“Police have arrested at least 200 activists seeking the end of Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, officials said Saturday, escalating fears among already wary residents that a sweeping crackdown could touch off renewed anti-India protests and clashes.
The crackdown comes amid high tensions between India and Pakistan following the Feb. 14 suicide car bombing of a paramilitary convoy by a local Kashmiri militant. Forty Indian soldiers died in the attack, the worst against Indian government forces in Kashmir’s history…”
Young Pakistani man, woman slain in suspected honor killing (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/young-pakistani-man-woman-slain-suspected-honor-killing-61258726
“Pakistani police say a young man and a woman have been killed in the country’s commercial hub, Karachi, allegedly by relatives over a perceived affront to family honor.
Officer Idrees Bangash says Saturday that Naseeb Khan, 25, and Bibi Dakhtar 20, were found dead with slit throats in the city’s western suburbs three days ago.
Bangash said initial findings revealed that they both belonged to the conservative Pashtun tribe and resided in the same neighborhood. They went missing last year. He suspects they were killed on the orders of an elders’ council. He added that the woman family’s has absconded, and no arrests have yet been made.
More than 1,000 women are slain every year by relatives in so-called “honor killings” in the conservative, Muslim-majority country.”
ITV News Exclusive: Homesick ‘Jihadi Jack’ wants to return to UK but ‘no one cares’ about him
French Muslims and the Secular State
by Denis MacEoin
February 23, 2019 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13771/france-muslims-secular-state
Islam has a history largely forgotten today: Schools seem largely to ignore or suppress topics related to Western-Islamic, Indian or Middle Eastern rivalries or contacts. To many modern Westerners, Islam seems to have popped up out of nowhere, from across the Mediterranean.
One feature of those discarded histories is that, as Europe moved through the late Middle Ages on towards the eighteenth century, Western societies were in many ways not greatly different from those in the Islamic world. Western laws on crime, male-female relations, education, diplomacy, slavery, punishment, the upbringing of children, and so on, were not entirely remote from those in the Muslim world. While Christians were monogamous and Muslims practised polygamy and slave concubinage, sexual relations were monitored for impropriety and punishments for extra-marital affairs were severe. The use of execution as a punishment for a range of crimes was common in both polities. What education there was tended to come from religious schooling. The long-lasting Islamic slave trade across the Sahara was eventually matched by the Transatlantic trade from Africa into North America. Western distaste for Islam was for the most part expressed in theological terms, just as Muslim distaste for Christianity seemed a mirror image of that. Both Christians and Muslims mistreated Jews, Christians more harshly on the whole. The Holocaust did not happen because of Islamic anti-Semitism.
‘Robert Kraft Not The Biggest Name Involved’ In Florida Prostitution Case, ESPN’s Schefter Reports
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Friday that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is “not the biggest name involved” in a prostitution case in South Florida.
“On Friday morning, police in Jupiter, Florida charged prominent New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — who is worth an estimated $6.6 billion — with soliciting prostitution at a local spa,” The Daily Wire reported. “Local police claim that there is inculpatory video evidence.
Following the news about Kraft, Schefter reported on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that Kraft is supposedly not the biggest name involved.
“There are people down there in that area I’m told who say this story is going to heat up and get a lot worse,” Schefter reported. “I don’t mean involving Robert Kraft, I’m talking about with all the human trafficking that has gone on down there, I’m also told that Robert Kraft is not the biggest name involved down there in South Florida, and we will see what police turn up in the report.”
“We got 25 names today, there are 175 more names coming,” Schefter later said. “Now some will just be regular people whose names we don’t know. But there could be other names that we do know, and that’s how it was exp
https://www.dailywire.com/news/43843/breaking-robert-kraft-not-biggest-name-involved-ryan-saavedra?utm_medium=email&utm_content=022319-news&utm_campaign=position1
Richard: Is this case related to the Epstein case? Are any of the names on this list ones that flew down to Epstein’s private Island?
WATCH: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Talks Tax Rates, Suggests ‘$10 Million’ Is ‘Enough’
On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appeared on the series premier of SHOWTIME’s “Desus & Mero.”
During her segment, Ocasio-Cortez talked about the Green New Deal, and explained her support for a marginal tax rate of 70% on individuals making more than $10 million a year:
If you make more than $10 million in one year, which is a pretty good year … your ten millionth and one dollar gets taxed at 70%, which, by the way, we used to have marginal tax rates under Republican presidents of 90%, and it was when we experienced some of the largest rates of economic [growth in the United States].
…It really comes down to the question of, isn’t $10 million enough? Like, when does it stop, right? At what point is it immoral that we’re building Jeff Bezos a helipad when we have the most amount of homeless people in New York City?
https://www.dailywire.com/news/43859/aoc-her-proposed-marginal-tax-rates-isnt-10-frank-camp?utm_medium=email&utm_content=022319-news&utm_campaign=position5
Mueller’s Team Denies Media Collusion
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors vehemently denied new allegations from Trump confidant Roger Stone that they leaked news of his imminent indictment to CNN. (Fox News)
Read more at http://americanactionnews.com/articles/mueller-s-team-denies-media-collusion#7FEC6vG58dDmtLHH.99
ISIS bride who married 3 jihadis says she’ll ‘have no problem returning to US’ as dad sues (express, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1091465/isis-bride-hoda-muthana-us-return-syria-donald-trump
“HODA Muthana who joined ISIS in 2014 and married three jihadis claims she’ll have no problem returning to the US after her father filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and his administration for blocking her return.
The ISIS bride is currently in a Syrian refugee camp waiting to be allowed back into the US, despite joining the terrorist group. Her father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, has filed a lawsuit against the Republican firebrand and his administration for saying they will block her from re-entering the country as she is not a US citizen. Mr Trump tweeted: “I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Methane back into the country.”
In a statement released Wednesday, Mr Pompeo said Hoda is not a US citizen and “will not be admitted into the US”.
He added: “She does not have any legal basis, no valid US passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States.”
As Hoda’s father was only living in the US as a Yemeni diplomat when she was born, she is not a citizen.
The children of diplomas are not given citizenship if they are born in a foreign country where their parents are posted.
But the 24-year-old, who fled her hometown of Hoover, Alabama in 2014 and has since married three jihadis, told NBC: “I know in fact that I was a citizen.
“When I tried filing for a passport it was very easy.
“It came in 10 days.
“So, I thought I didn’t have a problem, and I’m sure there is no problem and I know my lawyer hopefully is working on it and he will win the case.“
Hoda said she will do time in prison when she returns but she is not worried about it.
She also said she would rather return to the US than anywhere else.
Mr Ali Muthana filed a lawsuit in the federal court in Washington saying his daughter is a US citizen and should be allowed to return back to the US with her 18-month child.
Hoda’s lawyer Hassan Shibly said she is willing to pay for joining the sick terrorist group if she is allowed to return to the US with her child.
Mr Shibly said: “She literally expressed fear that she will possibly have to spend decades in jail potentially and she’s still willing to come back to America.
“She is accountable for her actions. She’s going to have to answer to God for her decisions.””
“She also said she would rather return to the US than anywhere else.”
Oddly, she’s one of the only people who feels that way.
Al-Qaeda armed with US WEAPONS: Fears Bin Laden’s terrorists using weapons from Washington (express, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1091444/al-qaeda-return-us-weapons-saudi-arabia
“AL-QAEDA are armed with US weapons, according to a recent report which suggests Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have transferred the weapons to the militant group.
An investigation by CNN earlier this month has uncovered reports that Saudi Arabia and its ally, the UAE, have transferred American-made weapons to Al-Qaeda linked fighters Sunni Muslim, and other factions waging war in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition have been using the US-manufactured weapons as a form of currency to buy the loyalties of militias and influence the complex political landscape, according to local commanders and analysts. In doing so they are breaking the terms of its arms sales with the US.
A US defence official confirmed there was an ongoing investigation into the issue…”
Here is my answer to that. Remember, this was during the Obama years
https://www.minds.com/media/681650542107172874
“Remember, this was during the Obama years”
It’s nothing that a little canned sunshine won’t cure.
Altogether a less than inspiring story for both PT and the Israelis, who had such high hopes.
The honeymoon not quite over, a month later there’s the Khashoggi info op.
US-Gulf States Relations: Mutual Sobering?
Unfortunately, there’s substance to current reports. The Saudis have used al-Q to fight Houthis (poorly), the UAE simply pays them to be left alone.
Kinda icky, but there it is. Lipstick on the MbS Pig, he’s a clumsy killer. Omniscient Twitterati™ fed comic-book GCC/UAE “Little Sparta”. But fact is, there are layers of ooze.
Pushing Al-Qaeda out of Yemen Impossible Due to Its Ties with Government
https://theglobepost.com/2018/08/02/al-qaeda-yemen-al-islah/
As soon as the al-Q/Gulf ties were corroborated, the govt mouthpieces sang along with Thomas Wictor. Fake news.
UAE forces decimating Al Qaida in Yemen
https://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/uae-forces-decimating-al-qaida-in-yemen-1.2265798
ISIS Bride Vows Son ‘Will Grow Up to Be a Jihadist’ as Crumbling Caliphate Evacuated (breitbart, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/23/isis-bride-vows-son-will-grow-up-to-be-a-jihadist-as-crumbling-caliphate-evacuated/
““My son will grow up to become a jihadist,” a woman cried proudly as she stepped off a bus ferrying people out of the Islamic State group’s last sliver of territory in eastern Syria…”
Cyprus accuses Turkish forces of new violation of border (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cyprus-accuses-turkish-forces-violation-border-61262283
“Three days before ethnically split Cyprus’ rival leaders meet in hopes of finding a way to revitalize reunification talks, the country’s foreign ministry says Turkish forces in the breakaway north are throwing up new impediments for Greek Cypriots living in a village abutting a British military base.
The foreign ministry said Saturday that a new fence erected along a rural road in Strovilia blocks farmers from reaching their fields.
The ministry said the U.N. peacekeeping mission has noted the actions as breaching the area’s military status quo.
Turkey has kept 35,000 troops in the Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when it invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece.
In 2000, Turkish forces had advanced their positions further into Strovilia.”
IT WAS A DEEP STATE SET-UP: Trump Campaign Volunteer Papadopoulos Introduced to ‘Russian’ Mifsud by FBI in London!
As the Mueller Investigation and the corrupt FBI investigations unravel we are finding out additional information on how the Trump team was set up by US and foreign agents. London appears to be the hotbed for spies from all countries and that’s where the Trump sham appears to have started.
Candidate Trump’s unpaid volunteer George Papadopoulos was indicted by the Mueller team for lying. We still don’t know what he lied about, but we are finding out about the FBI’s involvement in setting him up.
Papadopoulos was in an interview with former Secret Agent and author Dan Bongino when he shared this –
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/it-was-a-deep-state-set-up-trump-campaign-volunteer-papadopoulos-introduced-to-russian-mifsud-by-fbi-in-london/?omhide=true
Police: Somali lawmaker shot dead in Mogadishu (abcnews, Feb 23, 2019) https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/police-somali-lawmaker-shot-dead-mogadishu-61261658
“A police officer in Somalia says Islamic extremist gunmen shot dead a prominent lawmaker in the north of the capital, Mogadishu, late Saturday.
Capt. Mohamed Hussein said Osman Elmi Boqore, the country’s oldest legislator estimated to be over 80, was shot dead by gunmen who pulled up near his car as he was being driven through Karan district.
Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, which is allied with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the murder of Boqore, an outspoken politician and one of the country’s longest-serving members of parliament…”
Confirmed: John Fry, the IRS Analyst Who Leaked Michael Cohen’s Tax Returns, is a Far Left Trump-Basher Who Supports Beto O’Rourke
IRS leaker and criminal John Fry is a Trump-bashing loon.
Confirmed: John Fry, the IRS Analyst Who Leaked Michael Cohen’s Tax Returns, is a Far Left Trump-Basher Who Supports Beto O’Rourke
Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft February 23, 2019 127 Comments
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Guest post by Joe Hoft
IRS leaker and criminal John Fry is a Trump-bashing loon.
John Fry, an IRS Analyst was arrested this past week for releasing former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s tax returns to creepy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti. Although Fry’s social media accounts were suspended, what was found wasn’t surprising.
CNN reported that Fry was charged by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California with unauthorized disclosure of a suspicious activity report, or SAR. Banks file SARs on any transactions that could be illegal.
Learn more about RevenueStripe…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/confirmed-john-fry-the-irs-analyst-who-leaked-michael-cohens-tax-returns-is-a-far-left-trump-basher-who-supports-beto-orourke/?omhide=true
BBC – ‘IS families can’t stay in refugee camps,’ Syrian Kurds leader
====================================================
As thousands of foreigners flee Daesh’s crumbling caliphate, the burden which is already too heavy for us 2 handle is getting even heavier. This will remain as the biggest challenge awaiting us unless governments take action and fulfill their responsibilities for THEIR CITIZENS.
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1099427962871574528
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Yet another evidence of how Turkey provided Daesh terrorists with safe&free passage to and from Syria. The stamps on this Daesh member’s passport found in a hospital in Baghouz suggests that he went back and forth between TR/Syria freely several times.
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1097608490267353088
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unconfirmed info say that the Brithish journalist John Cantlie who was seen laslty during Musel battle is still alive and is moving around Hajeen town in Deir ez zor.
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1084529956703617030
===========================================
74yo German must move out from flat to make room for migrants
Yellow vest protester in France shot in back of head by police
Neon Nettle February 23, 2019
[Ed. – Violence intensifying.]
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/23/yellow-vest-protester-in-france-shot-in-the-back-of-head-by-police/
Yellow Vest Fireman Protester Shot in the Back of Head By Police Violence against demonstrators by French police intensifies
A fireman, who joined with the Yellow Vest protest movement in France, has been shot in the back of the head by French police causing severe brain injuries. Olivier Beziade, father-of-three children, was shot from behind by a police officer using a controversial flash ball gun. Beziade can be seen wearing a high-visibility jacket synonymous with the Yellow Vests, as he lies motionless on the floor. Videos across social media show Beziade being treated by medics as he lays on the floor covered in blood.
READ MORE: https://neonnettle.com/news/6206-yellow-vest-fireman-protester-shot-in-the-back-of-head-by-police
© Neon Nettle
that happened on JAN 12 2019
Iran Has Plans to Neutralize US Oil Sanctions: Top Official (tasnimnews, feb 23, 2019)
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/02/23/1952845/iran-has-plans-to-neutralize-us-oil-sanctions-top-official
“Iran has devised initiatives to foil the US sanctions on its oil exports, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said, noting that the country has multiple ways to sell its crude…”
Homegrown Torpedoes Fired in Iran’s Naval Drill (tasnimnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/02/23/1953961/homegrown-torpedoes-fired-in-iran-s-naval-drill
“The Iranian Navy fired various types of homegrown torpedoes during a war game underway in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman…”
Yemeni Forces Kill, Injure over 30 Saudi-Backed Militants in Sana’a (tasnimnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/02/23/1954014/yemeni-forces-kill-injure-over-30-saudi-backed-militants-in-sana-a
“Yemen’s army and fighters from popular committees made gains in their fight against Saudi-backed mercenaries in Sana’a province, managing to kill and injure over 30 militants and liberate new areas…”
Campaign starts nationwide to lobby for healthy marriage (saudigazette, Feb 23, 2019)
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/559811/SAUDI-ARABIA/Campaign-starts-nationwide-to-lobby-for-healthy-marriage
“Health authorities in Kingdom have intensified a campaign advocating healthy marriages in a bid to create awareness about genetic diseases.
In Saudi Arabia, one main factor contributing to the spread of genetic diseases is the high rate of consanguineous marriages, as nearly half of Saudi citizens preferring to tie the knot with their cousins. As a result, hereditary blood diseases become prevalent in the Kingdom, a major health concern in the country…”
Ethiopian maids expected to arrive before Ramadan (saudigazette, Feb 23, 2019)
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/559804/SAUDI-ARABIA/Ethiopian-maids-expected-to-arrive-before-Ramadan
“The first groups of newly recruited housemaids from Ethiopia are expected to arrive in the Kingdom before the fasting month of Ramadan, which starts early May, according to industry sources.
The sources, however, did not reveal the exact cost of recruitment but said it might be between SR7,500 and SR8,000.
They said a number of Saudi recruitment offices had finalized contracts with their counterparts in Addis Ababa during the past few weeks to bring the workers to the Kingdom…”
Princess is appointed new Saudi envoy to Washington (mee, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/princess-appointed-new-saudi-envoy-washington
“Saudi Arabia replaced its ambassador to Washington, a royal decree announced on Saturday, as the fallout over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, the conflict in Yemen and women’s rights tests relations between the two allies.
Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan was appointed the new envoy, replacing Prince Khalid bin Salman, who was appointed vice defence minister, AFP reported.
Princess Reema, daughter of a former long-time ambassador to the United States, is the first woman to hold the post, Reuters said.
She is familiar with US politics and society, having lived in Washington when her father Prince Bandar was ambassador (1983-2005), and studied at US universities, the National website reported…”
VOMIT
US condemns Turkey’s indictment of 16 civil society figures (mee, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-condemns-turkeys-indictment-16-civil-society-figures
“The United States on Saturday condemned Turkey for indicting 16 civil society, media and business leaders involved in anti-government protests in 2013, saying the US was “gravely concerned.”
“The ability to exercise the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association is fundamental to any healthy democracy,” Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement. “We urge Turkey to respect these freedoms and to release all those held arbitrarily,” he said, quoted by Reuters.
He urged Turkey to respect its citizens’ freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly “and to release all those held arbitrarily.”
Still, Turkish prosecutors are seeking life sentences, MEE reported earlier this week. The indictments stem from massive public protests in 2013. The 16 people are alleged to have used the protests as part of a plot to overthrow the government.
Rights group Amnesty International dismissed the allegations against the 16 as an “outlandish” attempt to “silence some of Turkey’s most prominent civil society figures,” AFP reported…”
Global watchdog gives Iran till June to comply with anti-money laundering rules (memo, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190223-global-watchdog-gives-iran-till-june-to-comply-with-anti-money-laundering-rules/
“Iran has until June to fix its anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules or face increased international scrutiny of its banks, a global watchdog said on Friday.
Foreign businesses say Iran’s compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rules is key if it wants to attract investors, especially after the United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran last year.
France, Britain and Germany have tied Iran’s compliance and removal from the FATF blacklist to a new channel for non-dollar trade with Iran designed to avert US sanctions.
Last October the Paris-based FATF gave Iran until February to complete reforms that would bring it into line with global norms, or face consequences. But at a meeting this week the watchdog concluded that Iran had not done so.
Marshall Billingslea, US assistant Treasury Secretary for terrorist financing, who chaired the FATF meeting, said Iran had until June before countermeasures would automatically kick in.
“That is a significant indication from the FATF that time has expired, the action plan is overdue and we expect it to be implemented without delay,” Billingslea told journalists.
FATF members worldwide would be required to step up supervision of Iranian bank branches on their territory, including on-site inspections, Billinglsea said.
In the absence of compliance, the FATF called on its members to advise their banks to scrutinise all business with Iran, including obtaining information on reasons for intended transactions, stepping up controls on transactions and identifying patterns of transaction for further scrutiny.
Iran’s central bank welcomed the deadline extension granted by the FATF and called in a statement for the “remaining bills to be approved as soon as possible”, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
The government of President Hassan Rouhani and his supporters in parliament have been trying to secure the adoption of four bills to bring Iran into compliance with FATF regulations.
Two of the bills have been approved but the process has been slowed by hardliners who oppose passing such legislation, arguing it could hamper Tehran’s financial support for allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which the United States lists as a terrorist organisation.”
‘I was like a prisoner’: Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong recall beatings (memo, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190223-i-was-like-a-prisoner-saudi-sisters-trapped-in-hong-kong-recall-beatings/
“Two sisters from Saudi Arabia who fled the conservative kingdom and have been hiding out in Hong Kong for nearly six months said they did so to escape beatings at the hands of their brothers and father, reports Reuters.
The pair, who say they have renounced their Muslim faith, arrived in the Chinese territory from Sri Lanka in September. They say they were prevented from boarding a connecting flight to Australia and were intercepted at the airport by diplomats from Saudi Arabia.
Reuters could not independently verify their story.
Asked about the case, Hong Kong police said they had received a report from “two expatriate women” in September and were investigating, but did not elaborate.
The Saudi consulate in Hong Kong has not responded to repeated requests from Reuters for comment.
The case is the second high-profile example this year of Saudi women seeking to escape their country and spotlights the kingdom’s strict social rules, including a requirement that females seek permission from a male “guardian” to travel.
The sisters, aged 18 and 20, managed to leave Hong Kong airport but consular officials have since revoked their passports, leaving them stranded in the city for nearly six months, their lawyer, Michael Vidler, said.
Vidler, one of the leading activist lawyers in the territory, also confirmed the authenticity of a Twitter account written by the two women describing their plight.
On Saturday, dressed in jeans and wearing sneakers, the softly spoken women described what they said was a repressive and unhappy life at their home in the Saudi capital Riyadh. They said they had adopted the aliases Reem and Rawan, because they fear using their real names could lead to their being traced if granted asylum in a third country.
They posed for pictures but asked their features not be revealed.
Every decision had to be approved by the men in their house, from the clothes they wore to the hairstyle they chose – even the times when they woke and went to sleep, the sisters told Reuters.
“They were like my jailer, like my prison officer. I was like a prisoner,” said the younger sister, Rawan, referring to two brothers aged 24 and 25 as well as her father.
“It was basically modern day slavery. You can’t go out of the house unless someone is with us. Sometimes we will stay for months without even seeing the sun,” the elder sister, Reem, said.
In January, a Saudi woman made global headlines by barricading herself in a Bangkok airport hotel to avoid being sent home to her family. She was later granted asylum in Canada.”
Erdogan says safe zone on Syria border must be under Turkey’s control (reuters, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey/erdogan-says-safe-zone-on-syria-border-must-be-under-turkeys-control-idUSKCN1QC0TX
“Any safe zone along Turkey’s border with Syria must be under Turkish control, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk…”
Gunmen kill three Guinean peacekeepers in Mali (reuters, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mali-security/gunmen-kill-three-guinean-peacekeepers-in-mali-idUSKCN1QC0QC
“Unidentified gunmen killed three Guinean members of a U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Mali in what the force described as a robbery gone wrong, far from the northern area where troops have been attacked by insurgents.
The peacekeepers were in a rental vehicle on their way to return to Guinea for leave when they were stopped 44 kilometers (27 miles) southwest of Bamako on Friday night, the mission, known as MINUSMA, said.
U.N. peacekeepers and French forces are stationed in central and northern Mali to combat well armed jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State seen as threatening security across Africa’s Sahel region.
A MINUSMA spokesman said that the attack was a botched robbery, which would distinguish it from targeted attacks by jihadists using mortars and mines in the north of the country that have made Mali the deadliest U.N. mission with more than 160 peacekeepers killed.
Still, such an incident so close to the capital is rare and underscores how precarious the security situation has become in Mali, where government troops struggle to maintain control of vast swathes of sparsely populated desert.”
30 million Egyptians screened for hepatitis C as part of new campaign (ahram, Feb 23, 2019)
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/326024/Egypt/Politics-/-million-Egyptians-screened-for-hepatitis-C-as-par.aspx
“More than 30 million Egyptians have been screened for hepatitis C and a number of chronic diseases as part of the state’s “100 Million Lives” campaign launched last October, the health ministry said on Friday.
In press statements, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said a total of 6,999,000 citizens had been screened for the virus as of Friday in Cairo alone, out of a total of 7,760,000 targeted for screening in the capital.
Around 17,250,000 people were screened in the governorates of Cairo, Suez, Kafr El-Sheikh, Menoufiya, Ismailia, Beni Suef, Aswan, Sohag, the Red Sea and North Sinai, representing an average of 81 percent of the targeted population, in the campaign’s second phase which launched on 30 November.
More than 13 million Egyptians where screened in the first phase of the campaign which kicked off in October.
The third phase, which includes the governorates of New Valley, Giza, Gharbiya, Daqahliya, Sharqiya, Minya, and Qena, will begin in March.
The number of those screened during both the first and the second phases totals 30.3 million out of the country’s 104 million population, making it the country’s largest ever anti-hepatitis C campaign.
As of 2015, some 22 percent of Egypt’s population had hepatitis C.
Over the past three years, Egypt has been using a variety of new medications to combat the virus.
In 2016, the health ministry announced it had achieved a 96 percent cure rate of the disease nationwide.
The health ministry has vowed to completely eliminate the disease from Egypt by 2022.”
Belgium to Deport Black Widow Malika El Aroud to Morocco (moroccoworldnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/02/266523/belgium-malika-el-aroud-morocco/
“The Belgian Aliens Litigation Council (CCE) ruled on Friday in favor of expelling Malika El Aroud, known as “the black widow,” to Morocco, concluding that she would not be subjected to torture in her country of origin…”
Spain, Morocco Reach Agreement on Repatriation of Migrants (moroccoworldnews, Feb 23, 2019)
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/02/266545/spain-morocco-agreement-repatriation-migrants/
“Until now, migrants rescued in the Mediterranean between Morocco and Spain were “automatically taken to Spanish ports.” From there, they would proceed to apply for asylum in Spain or continue to another EU country.
But the latest agreement between Madrid and Rabat seeks to make it possible for Salvamento Maritimo, Spain’s rescue services, to repatriate migrants to the nearest Moroccan port.
“Given our good relations with Morocco, Salvamento Maritimo will assist the Moroccan Navy if so required. In that event, rescued individuals will be taken to the nearest safe harbor, which in this case will be Moroccan,” a Spanish government source told Spanish outlet El Pais.
According to the newspaper, “the new guidelines are meant to go into effect immediately, although their future will depend on the outcome of the [Spanish] snap general elections called for April 28.”
Some sources said that the new agreement is set to increase the death rate in the Mediterranean.
Now that Spain’s Salvamento Maritimo is set to coordinate with the Moroccan navy, migrants will avoid both entities, even at the peril of their lives in deep sea, argued Ismael Furio, a spokesman for Salvamento. “This kind of measure could turn us into someone to avoid. Deaths will rise. They will stay away from anything that smells of repatriation.”
While a number of EU countries recently closed their ports to migrants rescuing ships, Spain opted for a more humanitarian approach. In recent months, however, pressure has been mounting on authorities to considerably curb the number of migrants reaching the country.
As far as Spanish authorities are concerned, the deal is part of an initiative to positively respond to societal pressure.
The goal seems to be to secure reelection in the April general elections.
But also involved in the move is the need for Spain to get more engagement from its Moroccan ally. Madrid has been Rabat’s most steadfast supporter at the EU, and Spanish authorities want more reciprocity from Morocco on border security, El Pais’ sources suggested.”
Authorities to conduct security audit of NGOs (tribune, Feb 23, 2019)
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1916894/1-authorities-conduct-security-audit-ngos/
“The government has initiated a security audit of international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the country in accordance with the National Action Plan (NAP), reported Express News.
Authorities will take action against those NGOs which are found involved in ‘suspicious’ activities.
Previous records of the organisations and their activities will also be closely checked during the audit. According to sources, inquiries will focus on collaboration between NGOs operating in Pakistan and their links to other countries.
An investigation will also be carried out regarding personnel who entered the country and left during the last three years…”