Contributor’s links post for April 24, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

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

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

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

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

About Eeyore

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

162 Replies to “Contributor’s links post for April 24, 2019”

  1. The Egyptian Brotherhood Goes to Washington
    Parading around the U.S. Capitol as hearty advocates for human rights.
    April 24, 2019
    Hany Ghoraba

    Spring has arrived in Washington D.C. And a sure sign of the changing seasons in America’s capital is the annual parade of Islamist lobbyists, who come in March and April to the heart of Western democracy to advocate, under the guise of human rights, for Islamist causes and to misrepresent the beliefs held by ordinary Muslims.

    Just a week before American Islamists descended on the Capitol to push for Islamist-friendly policies during the fifth annual National Muslim Advocacy Day, their Egyptian Islamist allies did the same. On March 24 and 25, Egypt Advocacy Day took place in Washington D.C. Sponsored by Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski, Egyptian activists and Western human rights lobbyists came together to warn policymakers against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and encourage the U.S. government to ensure Egypt works “to uphold the democratic principle of peaceful transfer of power.”

    Representatives of prominent human rights organizations Human Rights Watch, Project on Middle East Democracy and Human Rights First were happy to take part in this effort, seemingly unconcerned that the organizers of this lobbying day are prominent officials of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was removed from power in 2013 following enormous protests against its own abuse of powers.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273536/egyptian-brotherhood-goes-washington-hany-ghoraba

  2. US Adds 2 Individuals, 3 Entities to Sanctions List Over Links to Hezbollah (spuntiknews, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201904241074427008-us-hezbollah-links/

    “In early November 2018, the United States, which designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, imposed a batch of sanctions against several individuals over their alleged links to the group, as well as the Gaza-based Hamas.

    WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The United States has imposed sanctions on two individuals over links to the Hezbollah terrorist group’s business operations, plus three entities that helped Hezbollah evade US sanctions, the Department of the Treasury announced in a press release on Wednesday.

    “Today, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) further targeted the global business operations of Hizballah by designating two individuals and three entities acting as conduits for sanctions evasion schemes,” the release said.

    Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Belgium-based Wael Bazzi for acting for or on behalf of his father and Hezbollah financier, Mohammad Bazzi and Lebanon-based Hassan Tabaja for acting for or on behalf of his brother and Hizballah member and financier, Adham Tabaja, the release said.

    OFAC also designated Belgium-based Voltra Transcor Energy BVBA, Belgium-based OFFISCOOP NV, and United Kingdom-based BSQRD for being owned or controlled by Wael Bazzi, the release added.

    The companies have helped Hezbollah evade sanctions with practices that include accessing the formal financial system by using family members acting as proxies, according to the release.

    Earlier this week the United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information that leads to the disruption of Hezbollah’s financial networks, according to officials…”

      • I suppose that this is where I’m supposed to thank you, Richard.

        How ironic that dead center in PJW’s finale, he slips in some TED Talks whose over-moneyed suckers audience members can pay $10,000 to hear the latest and greatest memes.

        Ironic in how people willing to squander money like that are exactly the same sort of blinkered Philistines who pay screwball architects like Norman Foster exorbitant sums for instant eyesores that are hailed as glistening achievements (remember, fresh turds glisten, too).

        Since I cannot bring myself to say, “I told you so!”, permit me to ask, DID ANYONE OUT THERE DOUBT FOR ONE MOMENT THAT THINGS WOULD TURN OUT SOME OTHER WAY THAN WHAT I PREDICTED ALL ALONG?

        If these preening, self-aggrandizing assholes cannot do a complete Dresdner Frauenkirche-level reconstruction on Notre Dame, then just put the entire corpse under glass like Lenin’s cadaver and turn on the chillers. Add a few light limiting baffles and cowlings to permit optimal viewing of the Rose Window and:

        SUMMARILY EXECUTE ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO SMUGGLE SO MUCH AS A WET MATCHBOOK INTO THE RUINS.

        It now strikes me that—just as with how Islam views the Holocaust as merely a well-started but otherwise incomplete job—so will these barbaric swine take it as a perennial challenge to finish that unfulfilled Islamo-PoMo wet dream. Most assuredly, the Rose Window shall perish, too—just as I originally predicted. It only awaits a Muslim of equal inbreeding and determination to kill himself rubbing this last handful of salt in the wound.

        These bastards will not be content until the destruction is complete. As if the Bamiyan Buddhas weren’t warning enough. No matter how meticulously they are reconstructed, will any modern substitute for that pair of near-two hundred foot tall giants ever convey the awe and majesty accrued from ALMOST TWO THOUSAND YEARS at NEARLY TEN THOUSAND FEET ALTITUDE of towering over meek eyes that may as well have marked such monuments as coming from another galaxy.

        Peel away the scaffolding from either mountain or island and will what once was wrought with the grandeur of pure human adoration for beauty ever truly shine forth again with that same ancient glory?

        Although it was only a lack of verdigris, experiencing the Frauenkirche firsthand left my inadequately tutored eye with an impression of ersatz or composite materials that only my more recent Notre Dame research reveals was missing patina.

        Islam blasted both of these priceless treasures back to their original condition … jumbled heaps of stone. Even perfectly rebuilt, will they thereafter manage to withstand even another half-century of exposure to Islam’s withering touch?

        Left unneutered, Islam will be a perpetual menace to everything our world holds dear. Shall we live in one constant hostage crisis or beard these malefactors in their lair? Pause now to recall which culture was built on taking hostages.

        To date, Muslim immigrants have been invited into Western homes for casual interrogation and we, in our innocence, have not realizing that every last item of value around us is being sized up—not for theft but—by the most odious vandals in all history.

  3. Masked Men Open Fire at Cafe in Northern France, Flee Scene in Van (VIDEOS) (sputniknews, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201904241074428173-masked-men-france/

    “Law enforcement agencies are conducting an operation after a shooting incident in the French city of Tourcoing in the Nord department.

    On Wednesday, three people wearing black clothes and masks broke into a café in the city of Tourcoing and opened fire, according to social media reports.

    Local news outlet La Voix Du Nord reported that the gunmen ran into a cafe at 4:30pm local time (3:30pm BST) and fired at the establishment with shotgun shells and 9mm rounds.

    They then reportedly fled the scene on the van shortly after the shootout.

    There is no information about casualties or injuries so far. Law enforcement officers have reportedly arrived at the scene.

    Alleged videos of the scene have been circulating on Twitter. One of the clips shows a group of three men in black with firearms getting into a white van in a rush.

    Another video shows what looks like a cafe window with bullet holes.”

  4. Sri Lanka attacks: Government admits ‘major intelligence lapse’ (BBC, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48044636

    “Sri Lanka has admitted a “major intelligence lapse” before the Easter Sunday bomb attacks which killed 359 people and wounded more than 500.

    An Indian intelligence warning from the beginning of the month about planned attacks was not properly shared by the authorities, parliament heard.

    President Maithripala Sirisena has moved to sack the defence secretary and inspector general of police.

    Eight of the nine attackers have been identified as Sri Lankan citizens.

    The government is investigating whether the Islamic State (IS) group was involved in the attacks which targeted churches and high-end hotels.

    Police are still searching for the leader of a local Islamist group, Zahran Hashim, who was among eight people in a photograph released by IS. It is not clear whether he was among the nine suicide bombers.

    It has emerged that one of the attackers once studied in the UK and Australia before returning to Sri Lanka…”

  5. Boom! Trump Accuses UK of Helping Obama Admin Spy on His Campaign — As Gateway Pundit Reported in May 2018

    On Wednesday President Donald Trump tweeted out a stunning report by former CIA analyst Larry Johnson on OANN. Johnson accused the United Kingdom of helping the Obama administration spy on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/boom-trump-accuses-uk-of-helping-obama-admin-spy-on-his-campaign-as-gateway-pundit-reported-in-may-2018/?utm_source=TGPemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:553016019&utm_campaign=Auto%20Send%20from%20The%20Gateway%20Pundit%20on%20April%2024,%202019%20at%2011:06:06%20AM

  6. Italy requests EU plan against migrant wave from Libya (abcnews, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-requests-eu-plan-migrant-wave-libya-62603554

    “Italy’s government has written to the European Union asking it to prepare a plan of action to address the risk of a new wave of migrants escaping from the armed conflict in Libya.

    Italy’s Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero spoke on Wednesday at a joint news conference in Rome after meeting with the United Nation envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame. Moavero didn’t provide additional details on Italy’s request.

    Italy’s anti-immigration Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has ordered that migrant rescue boats cannot enter Italian ports.

    Salame downplayed Italy’s fears that a huge number of African refugees could leave Libya trying to reach Europe.

    “We know that about 700,000 migrants are in our country now, but not even a minority of them wants to cross the Mediterranean,” Salame told journalists.”

    • A proxy war with interesting players.
      Just look at the Euro side, Italy vs France. This is not how mates cooperate; there’s a whiff of obsolete imperial rivalry.

      And let's also look at Micron's apparent fascination with his little brown brothers in Chad and Mali. Not today, but soon…

      – – Italy has been playing for ITS oil corp, ENI, in Libya.
      – – France is pulling for ITS oil corp, Total.

      The oil is mainly in the east, Gen. Haftar’s domain. He’s a Sisi-like strongman who’s the only hope against the MB/IS/al-Q “moderate jihadis”, commonly referred to as the “UN-backed govt”.

      – – – There is no “govt”: this UN-backed-WHATEVER has no army, no nothing. A disparate bunch tardish tribal warlords, mercenaries of Qatar, Turkey, plus-. Familiar faces from the “JV”-days of “ISIL”. A cesspit, a massive potential threat.

      A staging ground for…? all those tanks Qatar been acquiring…?
      https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/03/13/with-tank-buy-from-turkey-qatar-continues-quest-to-stockpile-a-whole-lot-of-main-battle-

      No good guys on either side in Libya. No small thing, but it’s impossible to know what’s really going on there. (Or so I’m told.)

      I’m pro-Haftar because I hate his enemies’ allies. I also think he’d be able to secure the Med coast against the migrant stream. (If he’s paid off, like the Turk.) The other side is more likely to facilitate the flow, to open the taps to the max.

      Italy is anti-Hafar because it wants to secure ENI’s hold on the eastern oilfields, Hafter’s territory. Micron is pro-Haftar, figuring Total has a chance to beat out ENI if Haftar likes him.

      Italy’s in bed with especially bad hombres here. The ones who will pour Nafris into Europe. The hypocrisy of the Italian govt – anti-migrant extraordinaire – is awesome!

      But Italy’s miffed: Libya was its former colony, one of those “enduring special relationships”. Micron didn’t even discuss these matters with his fellow Euro, the sneaky little trickster!

      • He’s a Sisi-like strongman who’s the only hope against the MB/IS/al-Q “moderate jihadis”, commonly referred to as the “UN-backed govt”.

        Back when the squirrels were barely farting themselves awake after hibernating all winter, I was howling about how the coming “Arab Spring” would teach Western strategists one vital lesson:

        Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.

        With Qaddafi duck plucked and stuffed, the parrilla ready for some carne Al-Assad, the memo’s been written, re: Morsi. No remorse.

        Syria has gone from the fryer to the fire, the wisequack’s been cacked, and Egypt’s pyramid scheme is in de Nile.

        Right now, America’s biggest job in the region is keeping Russia and the Chicoms from throwing more of that cheap Venezuelan gasoline on the bonfire.

        There is no “govt”: this UN-backed-WHATEVER has no army, no nothing.

        You’re telling me you know nothing about those “no nothing” Blueberries in Gaza that were gunrunning running a terrorist Fed-X cunningly disguised as a UN ambulance?

        A disparate bunch tardish tribal warlords, mercenaries of Qatar, Turkey, plus-. Familiar faces from the “JV”-days of “ISIL”. A cesspit, a massive potential threat.

        The foregoing is so redundant that I’m not even going to start on how redundant it is because I haven’t seen something that redundant since I retired after being declared redundant by the Department of Redundancy Department.

        PS: Great analysis. Go Haftar. And our yucki’s typing with impressive speed and strength, so let’s all call it a win!

        • Yay!
          Typing’s ok, eyeballs less accommodating, so to speak. Maybe another week.
          …..
          We’re getting nothing but crafted, specious reports about Libya. Part of it is that no one really knows the score, but everybody’s trying to shape perceptions.

          Haftar’s jabbing to get some of the tribals in the opposite camp to switch sides. Something they do all the time. Then it’s whether or not he can HOLD them till he’s strong enough to ELIMINATE them altogether.

          • Thank you, Dolink. People were concerned. I’ll throw a link over the fence to Rita who was yust esking.

            PS: “… there’s a whiff of obsolete imperial rivalry.

            The Ancien Régime does cling fast in unexpected ways. Why, it’s almost as if Elizabeth would rather die than live to see Chuckles on the throne. Personally, I think there’s a lot of Brits who would feel the same way about that genetically crosswired, jugeared Muslim butt-snorkeler warming the Crown by a single degree.

            Hist! Rumor has it that the Ponce of Wales is so popular amongst the goat humpers because his Dumbo-flaps offer such a firm grip whilst he’s gargling on their hummus pumps.

  7. Conservative Scholar On The Russia Collusion Hoax: “It Was A Coup Attempt” Against Trump (VIDEO)
    Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft April 24,

    Conservative Scholar On The Russia Collusion Hoax: “It Was A Coup Attempt” Against Trump (VIDEO)
    Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft April 24, 2019 99 Comments

    303Share 146Tweet Email

    Guest post by Mike LaChance at American Lookout

    Victor Davis Hanson is a conservative academic and writer. He was recently interviewed for his thoughts about the Mueller Investigation, the media, the Democrats and the deep state.

    He did not hold back at all. He claimed that the Russia collusion hoax was a coup attempt against Trump.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/conservative-scholar-on-the-russia-collusion-hoax-it-was-a-coup-attempt-against-trump-video/?utm_source=TGPemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:553016019&utm_campaign=Auto%20Send%20from%20The%20Gateway%20Pundit%20on%20April%2024,%202019%20at%2011:06:06%20AM

  8. Fire guts shanties in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camp (abcnews, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/fire-guts-shanties-bangladesh-rohingya-refugee-camp-62598359

    “A fire in a sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Wednesday destroyed more than two dozen huts and a mosque, an official said.

    Mikaruzzman Chowdhury, the top government official at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, said no injuries occurred in the fire, which broke out in a camp in Kutupalong. He said 28 huts and a mosque were destroyed.

    Chowdhury said firefighters were able to douse the blaze before it spread further.

    More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state to escape an army-led crackdown on the minority group that started in August 2017. Critics have described the campaign as ethnic cleansing, or even genocide, on the part of security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.”

  9. A Mexican train called ‘The Beast’ delivers 300-400 S. Americans to US border in one trip

    IXTEPEC, Mexico (AP) — The train known as “The Beast” is once again rumbling through the night loaded with people headed toward the U.S. border after a raid on a migrant caravan threatened to end the practice of massive highway marches through Mexico

    A long freight train loaded with about 300 to 400 migrants pulled out of the southern city of Ixtepec on Tuesday. They sat atop rattling boxcars and clung precariously to ladders alongside the clanking couplings. Most were young men, along with a few dozen woman and children. Mothers clambered up the railings clutching their infants. Migrants displayed a Honduran flag from atop the train.

    The train known in Spanish as “La Bestia,” which runs from the southern border state of Chiapas into neighboring Oaxaca and north into Gulf coast state Veracruz, carried migrants north for decades, despite its notorious dangers: People died or lost limbs falling from the train. Mexican authorities started raiding the trains to pull migrants off in mid-2014 and the number of Central Americans aboard the train fell to a smattering.

    But about a week ago, a longtime migrant rights activist, the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, noticed a change: Large numbers of migrants started getting off the train in Ixtepec, the Oaxaca town where his Brothers on the Road shelter is located.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=68511?omhide=true

      • Why doesn’t it ?!

        Let’s ask the timeless question: Cui bono?

        Howzabout we follow the money, eh? Whoa, nellie! There’s a fucking ton of immigrant money in America that Western Union never gets to send south.

        Who’s counting those frijoles and which cazuelas are they sticking to?

        • Immigrant legals services (non- or for-profit’s no matter – somebody’s paying the rent). Just look at the big money Catholic and Lutheran “charities” rake in with their immigrant resettlement boiler rooms.

        • Somewhere in the Social Security Administration is a Master CPA (tied to a chair) who actually knows how much the fed hoovers up in false paycheck deductions for false names that never retire to claim them. Just this little scam has to be worth bazillions a year that help float this bankrupt system.

        • Six digit salary prison guards whose unions specifically prohibit new hires to force massive overtime expenditures at migrant-packed jails.

        • Title loan and check cashing offices debt traps that shave percents (or way more) from transactions for those without a regular bank account.

        • Poverty pimps who lock down huge government grants for retraining illiterate farm workers over to be neurosurgeons.

        • Entire gray economies that spring up around serving undocumented (i.e., illegal) alien cultures and communities.

        • Border towns that obtain major cash flow from day-tripping shoppers and workers (legit or otherwise) who nevertheless live in Mexico.

        • Job security for the serried ranks of cops, district attorneys, public defenders, judges, bailiffs, parole officers, bail bondsmen, skip tracers, ICE and the gigantic government work forces that thrive on immigrant processing or crime.

        This list could go on for pages.

        The 1% and their political puppets know damn well how catastrophic unrestricted immigration is for America’s middle class.

        Maybe they’ll apologize about it from behind the blindfold.

  10. Beware Soros-Funded Hijacking of US Census

    “Are you a U.S. citizen?”

    Only in self-defeating, sovereignty-eroding America is the idea of asking whether people living in America are American citizens for the American census a matter of controversy.

    On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the Trump administration can include a citizenship question on the high-stakes 2020 Census questionnaire. Thank goodness, the conservative majority indicated support for allowing it. There’s already such a question on the annual American Community Survey administered by the Census Bureau. It was asked in long-form questionnaires sent to a sample of households in 2000. And it was regularly asked in historical census forms from 1820-1950.

    But we live in a Trump-deranged age, so now it’s tantamount to an international human rights crime to ask anyone about citizenship status at any time for any reason. Heaven forbid we inconvenience or discomfit legal noncitizens or illegal immigrants with a question!

    Open borders activists, left-wing immigration lawyers and identity politics radicals exploded on cue:

    —Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder decried the “unconstitutional and irresponsible action” to “suppress the count in minority communities.”

    http://www.theconservativeinsider.com/beware-soros-funded-hijacking-of-us-census/?roi=echo3-55862210431-51390921-fa1bcfcb1212cc7634a7b863b992e2c5

  11. Trump warns Mexico over guns drawn on US troops: ‘Better not happen again!’

    President Trump on Wednesday warned Mexico after their soldiers reportedly drew guns on U.S. troops at the border last week, while also calling on America’s southern neighbor to do more to halt another north-bound migrant caravan.

    “Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border. Better not happen again! We are now sending ARMED SOLDIERS to the Border. Mexico is not doing nearly enough in apprehending & returning!” he tweeted.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-warns-mexico-after-guns-drawn-on-us-troops-better-not-happen-again?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20foxnews%2Fpolitics%20%28Internal%20-%20Politics%20-%20Text%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21%20Mail&roi=echo3-55862210431-51390924-859b0660986deb13b6c17186b6f369bb

  12. How Palestinian Leaders Encourage Terrorism

    by Bassam Tawil
    April 24, 2019 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14134/palestinian-leaders-encourage-terrorism

    Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas recently reaffirmed his longstanding commitment to pay families of Palestinians who were imprisoned for or killed during terrorist attacks against Israelis. “We have been paying the families of the prisoners and martyrs since 1965,” Abbas told Arab League Foreign Ministers during an emergency meeting in Cairo on April 21.

    Abbas’s insistence on paying millions of dollars to families of Palestinians who murder or attempt to murder Jews, has cost the Palestinians a heavy price. In the past two months, Abbas’s government has been unable to pay full salaries to its 200,000 employees. The reason? Israel has begun deducting, from the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, the same amount the PA government pays each month to the families of the prisoners and “martyrs.”

    Facing a sharp financial crisis, the PA government says it has been forced to pay its employees only 50%-60% of their salaries because Israel has been deducting the large sums of money that were supposed to go to the families of prisoners and terrorists who carried out attacks against Israelis.

  13. The European Union: Nurturing Instability and Terrorism in the Middle East

    by Naomi Linder Kahn
    April 24, 2019 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14011/european-union-palestinians-instability

    Under the guise of “agricultural assistance,” the Palestinian Authority is taking over Area C (the area placed under full Israeli jurisdiction in the Oslo Accords, pending a full peace agreement which would establish sovereignty over the area for one side or the other), with the help of massive European financial support — in violation of the law, and of international agreements signed by the EU.

    Over the past decade, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has implemented a long-term program aimed at taking control of strategic locations in Area C of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. The PA’s apparent objective is to annex these areas and bring them under PA control, as part of its larger plan for the unilateral creation of a Palestinian state. This plan was publicized in 2009, in an official PA document written by then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; since its publication, it has been carried out virtually unhindered, with the help of massive European funding.

    Since 2013 there has been a marked acceleration of the plan’s execution, mainly through intensive, large-scale agricultural activity, with the understanding that this tactic, as opposed to illegal construction, enables the PA to take control of vast tracts of land relatively quickly. This activity, carried out under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority’s “Roots Project” (???? or Juthoor), enables massive land grabs to be more easily presented to international media outlets and foreign benefactors as “humanitarian aid.”

  14. TRUMP WIN? Mexico Arrests ‘Hundreds’ Of Central American Migrants Attempting To Form Caravan

    Mexican authorities are reportedly cracking down on migrant caravans from Guatemala and Honduras traveling through southern Mexico, and Monday night, Mexican immigration authorities arrested nearly 400 illegal immigrants near the town of Pijijiapan, not far from Mexico’s border with Guatemala.

    The Associated Press reports that journalists traveling alongside the caravan witnessed hundreds of migrants at the “tail end” of the 3,000 person group being detained and arrested by Mexican immigration officials, “wrestling migrants into police vehicles for transport and presumably deportation.”

    Raids continued throughout the day on Monday, with immigrants reporting they were being “hunted” by immigration officials and targeted for deportation back to Central America.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/46337/trump-win-mexico-arrests-hundreds-central-american-emily-zanotti

  15. The ‘Wimbledon Prowler’ unmasked: Married chip shop owner pleads guilty to 21 burglaries on multi-million pound homes in 10-year spree that saw him linked to raids on Boris Becker and Nicolas Anelka (dailymail, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6955483/Wimbledon-prowler-pleads-guilty-21-burglaries.html

    “A burglar dubbed the ‘Wimbledon Prowler’ is facing years behind bars after admitting stealing more than £500,000-worth of jewellery and valuables in a decade-long reign of terror.

    Asdrit Kapaj broke into multi-million pound homes across the affluent suburb in south-west London, even targeting the mansion of tennis legend Boris Becker.

    Married father of-two Kapaj, who the court heard came to the UK after unrest in his native Kosovo, owned a fish and chip shop in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, but drove down to London to carry out his overnight raids…”

  16. europravda – New Zealand, France to host summit in bid to stop extremist content on social media

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement that she will co-chair a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris next month that will seek to have world leaders and tech companies agree to a pledge,called the Christchurch Call, to eliminate extremist content on social media,…

  17. EU PLOT: Brussels plans HUGE new powers – including IGNORING states on crunch decisions (express, apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1118283/eu-news-european-union-foreign-policy-eu-plot-Gunther-Oettinger-hans-olaf-henkel

    “EUROPEAN Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has floated controversial proposals which would allow the bloc to make far-ranging decisions on foreign policy, even if some member states disagreed, as well as levying taxes on a Europe-wide level.

    And German MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel has warned the idea, if taken to its natural conclusion, could result in Brussels making decisions about going to war or even authorising the use of nuclear weapons. Budget commissioner Mr Oettinger wants to ditch the long-established EU principle of unanimity, which if agreed would pave the wave for the bloc to make momentous decisions about foreign and tax policy even if some member states disagreed. Speaking in Vienna, Mr Oettinger argued the EU was in a “value competition” with autocracies and dictatorships.

    Speaking in Vienna, Mr Oettinger argued the EU was in a “value competition” with autocracies and dictatorships.

    As such, it should make decisions in common foreign policy areas and some relating to tax by “qualified majority” to prevent a situation where it took weeks to obtain the agreement of all member states.

    In his speech, entitled A Plea for the European Union, he said: “Europe comes too late, no one is interested in the opinion of Europe anymore by then.”

    In terms of taxation policy, he said there were “a few types of taxation that should be defined on a European level”, such as the Financial Transaction Tax and the Digital Tax.

    Realistically, however, the unanimity principle will remain in the case of taxes.

    Othmar Karas, delegation leader of the Austrian People’s Party in the European Parliament, and Evelyn Regner, delegation leader of Austria’s Social Democratic Party of Austria also supported German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proposal in November 2018 to soften the unanimity principle in the European Council on foreign policy issues.

    In January, the European Commission asked for a gradual departure from the unanimous EU tax policy.

    Unanimity is also an issue in the election European Parliamentary election campaign, with voting taking place between May 23 and May 26.

    In the European Council of Heads of State and Government, the majority of decisions are made with a qualified majority.

    About 80 percent of all EU legislation are adopted under this procedure.

    A qualified majority is achieved when 55 per cent of the Member States, which make up 65 per cent of the population, support a proposal.

    However, the principle of unanimity currently applies to the common foreign and security policy, labour protection, citizenship, the EU budget, social security and taxation.

    He called on the EU to “finally fight for its own value system” and strengthen the European single market, adding: “We need to get better, for example in the area of artificial intelligence.”

    However, Mr Henkel told Express.co.uk: “While I agree that Mr Oettinger is usually one of the more reasonable Commissioners, advocating less bureaucracy and more subsidiarity, less harmonisation and more competitiveness, here he is wrong.

    “Foreign policy as well as security policy or social policy should remain purely under the authority of democratically elected Nation States. Since we have a common market, it is absolutely correct that ‘Brussels’ decides on behalf of the other Nations.

    “And it is also correct that ‘Brussels’ exercises an independent cartel and monopoly authority which has the right to for instance fine German, French or Dutch companies. Otherwise the common market wouldn’t work.

    “However, can anybody imagine that ‘Brussels’ decides on a common policy in the Near East and not Berlin, Paris or London?

    “Could anybody agree, that ‘Brussels’ decides to go to war with an adversary nation without the consent of the German Bundestag, the French Assemble Nationale or the British House of Commons?”

    Mr Henkel said Brussels should only undertake tasks which could not be done by individual nations, and where it had been proven that centralisation was better than subsidiarity.

    He added: “How about suggesting that we have a true European air traffic control system? How about suggesting that plugs for electric cars are completely standardised? How about introducing a true common market also for agricultural products without subsidies?

    “The disappointing experience with a ‘one size fits all’ European currency should actually tell Mr Oettinger that harmonisation should not be an objective by itself and can be harmful if it ignores the existing different economic cultures.

    “The same is true for foreign policy which one cannot separate from defence policy. Does he really think, that Brussels should decide on the use of atom bombs?””

  18. Heavily armed men seen escorting migrants; CBP concerned about escalation
    Fox News April 24, 2019

    [Ed. – This IS of concern. One possibility is that it’s because coyotes are having to arm themselves more now on the Mexican side of the border, and they can’t just abandon their weapons when they enter the U.S. But the straight-line possibility that they intend to be more heavily armed when facing the U.S. Border Patrol isn’t to be dismissed.]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/04/24/heavily-armed-men-seen-escorting-migrants-cbp-concerned-about-escalation/

    Heavily armed men escort migrants across US border, surveillance video shows
    William La Jeunesse
    By William La Jeunesse | Fox News

    New government video obtained by Fox News shows heavily armed men at the U.S.-Mexico border escorting a migrant mother and son into the United States. Border Patrol officials told Fox News this is an unusual event and express concern that it will become a more regular occurrence – possibly leading to violence.

    U.S. Border Patrol surveillance cameras caught the armed smugglers escort the migrant family at 10 p.m. Saturday near the town of Lukeville in the southwest corner of Arizona.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/heavily-armed-men-escort-migrants-across-us-border-surveillance-video-shows

  19. Hezbollah & Iranian Tentacles in Michigan

    Clarion Project discovered that a private Islamic school in Dearborn, Michigan is linked to diehard supporters of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. The school teaches students from kindergarten through 9th grade.

    Armed with more details on this and other developments in the Great Lake State, Clarion Intelligence Network researcher Alex VanNess spoke with Steve Gruber of WJIM:

    https://clarionproject.org/the-muslim-brotherhoods-reach-into-michigan-2/?utm_source=Clarion+Project+Newsletter&utm_campaign=12c6504b9b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_17_12_03_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_60abb35148-12c6504b9b-5908801&mc_cid=12c6504b9b&mc_eid=65230079c6

  20. A ‘Big Thanks’ to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib

    The indomitable Raheel Raza offers a “big thanks” Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for proving that, far from fear-mongering, anti-Islamists have been correct all along to sound the alarm. In the process, Raza details the latest brutal human rights abuses from Islamist countries:

    Since Islamists waged a declaration of war against the West on September 11, 2001 (by their own admission), they have made a concentrated effort to push the victim narrative.

    Hence, at the same time many in the West have been duped and brainwashed into thinking the Islamists are the victims, a number of Islamists have successfully infiltrated the corridors of power in the West.

    When fellow-concerned Muslims and I exposed Islamists as well as their mosques and organizations for pushing radical messages, we were labeled “fear-mongers” and told we were not really “in touch with Islam.”

    Today we see that the situation has gone way past “fear mongering,” with Islamists blatantly touching our daily lives with their global subversive agenda.

    While Christians and other non-Muslims are being ethnically cleansed from Muslim-majority countries, let’s take a quick look at what’s happening within those countries:

    https://clarionproject.org/big-thanks-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib/?utm_source=Clarion+Project+Newsletter&utm_campaign=12c6504b9b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_17_12_03_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_60abb35148-12c6504b9b-5908801&mc_cid=12c6504b9b&mc_eid=65230079c6

  21. College Speaker Says Putting a Child on a Diet is Akin to Sexual Molestation, Compares Personal Trainers to Nazis

    A “fat and body positive” sex therapist who recently gave a speech at St. Olaf College in Minnesota is making waves after comparing personal trainers to Nazis and childhood diets to sexual molestation.

    The speaker, Sonalee Rashatwa, made headlines in 2018 for declaring that being thin is a white supremacist beauty ideal while speaking at a college in Vermont.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/college-speaker-says-putting-a-child-on-a-diet-is-akin-to-sexual-molestation-compares-personal-trainers-to-nazis/?utm_source=TGPemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:553016019&utm_campaign=Auto%20Send%20from%20The%20Gateway%20Pundit%20on%20April%2024,%202019%20at%2003:06:08%20PM

    • These fat proselytizers are a public health menace.
      “fat proselytizers” – they’re all obese, and they advocate for the obese. Talking “body image”? Like cv-disease and diabetes are “image issues”?!

  22. Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Defects to West with Strategic Documents from Inside the Regime

    On Tuesday the Islamic State of Iran Crime Research Center and Banafsheh Zand broke the news of the prominent Iranian defection of Brigadier General Ali Nasiri, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Protection Bureau.

    According to the ISICRC Staff Ali Nasiri fled Iran and reportedly entered a US Embassy in one of the Persian Gulf countries carrying important strategic document and seeking political asylum.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/iranian-revolutionary-guards-commander-defects-to-west-with-strategic-documents-from-inside-the-regime/?utm_source=TGPemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:553016019&utm_campaign=Auto%20Send%20from%20The%20Gateway%20Pundit%20on%20April%2024,%202019%20at%2003:06:08%20PM

    EXCLUSIVE: IRGC Commander believed to have defected to the West

    Brigadier General Ali Nasiri, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Protection Bureau, is said to have fled to the West after a fallout with the representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC.

    On Thursday, April 11th, during a meeting among the senior IRGC intelligence officials, Nasiri and Hossein Taeb, the representative of the Supreme Leader to the IRGC came to blows. The following days, when Nasiri failed to show up for work, it was revealed that he had actually left the country.

    Nasiri, already commander of the Seyyed al-Shohada unit of the Guards in Tehran Province, was appointed in 2017 by Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

    The website of the Al-Mayadin news agency which is affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah posted the news without much detail on Saturday, April 13, but removed it only after half an hour.

    Nassiri is said to have gone to a US embassy in one of the Persian Gulf countries while carrying important strategic documents, seeking political asylum. The IGGC’s Protection Bureau was established in 1984, to oversee aviation and flight security (hijacking and bombing), as well as protection for regime and government officials, and foreign dignitaries visiting Iran.

    On Friday, April 19, without referencing Nasiri, the state-run Fars News Agency, reported: “By the decree of Maj. Gen. Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier General Fathollah Jomayri was appointed head of the Protection Bureau of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.” Jomayri was previously, commander of the Imam Sadiq Guards Unit of Bushehr Province, as well as the al-Ghadir Guards Unit of Yazd Province.

    http://isicrc.org/irgc-basij-and-hezbollah/exclusive-irgc-commander-believed-to-have-defected-to-the-west

  23. Clinton-Era State Department Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiring With Chinese Agents

    The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that a former State Department employee who also happened to be a Clinton appointee, pleaded guilty to conspiring with foreign agents.

    The FBI arrested Candace Marie Claiborne on March 28th, 2017. She made her first appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia the following day.

    According to the DOJ, Candace Marie Claiborne, a former employee of the U.S. Department of State, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States, by lying to law enforcement and background investigators, and hiding her extensive contacts with, and gifts from, agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in exchange for providing them with internal documents from the U.S. State Department.

  24. The Future of the China-Russia Alliance

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Odds are that China and Russia will prove to be long-term US rivals. However, it may just as well be that their alliance will prove to be more tactical than strategic, with the China-Russia relationship resembling US-Chinese ties: cooperation in an environment of divergence rather than convergence.

    Addressing last year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, then US defense secretary Jim Mattis dismissed fears first voiced in 1997 by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, that long-term US interests would be most threatened by a “grand coalition” of China and Russia “united not by ideology but by complementary grievances.”

    On the contrary, Mattis suggested. China and Russia have a “natural non-convergence of interests” despite the fact that both countries have defined their relationship as a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” he argued.

    “There may be short-term convergence in the event they want to contradict international tribunals or try muscling their way into certain circumstances but my view – I would not be wasting my time going to Beijing…if I really thought that’s the only option between us and China. What would be the point of it? I’ve got more important things to do,” Mattis argued.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/future-china-russia-alliance/

    Richard: Welcome to the beginning of a tri polar world, instead of 2 superpowers we are entering the era of one superpower and two great powers. This is the situation as we head into WWIII, Mattis is right China has more in common with the Pacific countries that ring the South China Sea and with India then they do with Russia. Since the US is the ally of India and the Pacific nations we are included in that relationship.

    Given what is happening if China wants to expand its territory they will have to look at Islamic nations and Russian territory rather then India and the Pacific nations. I wonder how long it will take China to realize this?

    • look at Islamic nations and Russian territory…
      My Russki said: “The author should bite his tongue for saying that!”

      And he was stationed in the PRC as an officer in the Soviet Army. Fraternal commie partners? uh, no. NO. NO.

      Deep in every Russian is fear and loathing for swarms of yellow [illegitimates] pouring over the border. It’s visceral – mixed up with terror of the tardish horde, slavers. They must study it from an early age in school.

      Broad margins protect Russia, the real Russia.

  25. NATIONAL MEDIA BLACKOUT: Driver ‘Purposely’ Plows Over Eight People With Car, Police Believe

    The national media has ignored a potentially huge story.

    Tuesday evening, a driver in Sunnyvale, California deliberately ran over eight people with his car, police believe, according to multiple news reports.

    “A car plowed into a group of pedestrians in Sunnyvale, California Tuesday night, and police say the crash may have been intentional,” said ABC7. “Eight victims were taken to the hospital, some with serious injuries. The driver was arrested.”

    The name of the driver has not been released.

    “Around 6:40 p.m., a man in a dark sedan was seen by witnesses speeding through the busy intersection before plowing through the group of people,” the report continued. “The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the group was possibly targeted by the driver, a man who they believe purposely turned into the group while driving full speed.”

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/national-media-blackout-driver-purposely-plows-over-eight-people-with-car-police-believe/

    Driver charged with murder after allegedly ramming car into crowd in Montrose, killing young nurse

    By Samantha Ketterer and John D. Harden Updated 6:50 pm CDT, Thursday, March 22, 2018

    A man was arrested and charged with murder after allegedly speeding through a crowded parking lot near a Montrose bar early Thursday and plowing a car into a crowd, killing a young nurse and injuring two others, authorities said.

    Cordale Robinson, 25, was charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the attack, Houston police said.

    Houston Methodist San Jacinto Hospital identified the victim as Jared Jacobs, 25, a nurse at the intensive care unit.

    “Jared was an eager recent graduate of nursing school who was already an incredible asset to the ICU,” according to the statement. “His colleagues describe a bright smile and welcoming personality that lifted everyone around him.”

    The hospital also praised Jacobs’ “superb nursing skills and dedication to his patients,” adding. “His eternally positive outlook and wonderful sense of humor made him a favorite of patients and co-workers alike.”

    https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bellaire/news/article/Driver-hits-several-people-in-Montrose-parking-lot-12772851.php

    Richard: FOX also has a report

  26. Exclusive: Gold worth billions smuggled out of Africa (reuters, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-africa-smuggling-exclusive/exclusive-gold-worth-billions-smuggled-out-of-africa-idUSKCN1S00IT

    “Billions of dollars’ worth of gold is being smuggled out of Africa every year through the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East – a gateway to markets in Europe, the United States and beyond – a Reuters analysis has found.

    Customs data shows that the UAE imported $15.1 billion worth of gold from Africa in 2016, more than any other country and up from $1.3 billion in 2006. The total weight was 446 tonnes, in varying degrees of purity – up from 67 tonnes in 2006.

    Much of the gold was not recorded in the exports of African states. Five trade economists interviewed by Reuters said this indicates large amounts of gold are leaving Africa with no taxes being paid to the states that produce them.

    Previous reports and studies have highlighted the black-market trade in gold mined by people, including children, who have no ties to big business, and dig or pan for it with little official oversight. No-one can put an exact figure on the total value that is leaving Africa. But the Reuters analysis gives an estimate of the scale.

    Reuters assessed the volume of the illicit trade by comparing total imports into the UAE with the exports declared by African states. Industrial mining firms in Africa told Reuters they did not send their gold to the UAE – indicating that its gold imports from Africa come from other, informal sources.

    Informal methods of gold production, known in the industry as “artisanal” or small-scale mining, are growing globally. They have provided a livelihood to millions of Africans and help some make more money than they could dream of from traditional trades. But the methods leak chemicals into rocks, soil and rivers. And African governments such as Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia complain that gold is now being illegally produced and smuggled out of their countries on a vast scale, sometimes by criminal operations, and often at a high human and environmental cost.

    Artisanal mining began as small-time ventures. But the “romantic” era of individual mining has given way to “large-scale and dangerous” operations run by foreign-controlled criminal syndicates, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo told a mining conference in February. Ghana is Africa’s second-largest gold producer.

    Not everyone in the chain is breaking the law. Miners, some of them working legally, typically sell the gold to middlemen. The middlemen either fly the gold out directly or trade it across Africa’s porous borders, obscuring its origins before couriers carry it out of the continent, often in hand luggage.

    For example, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a major gold producer but one whose official exports amount to a fraction of its estimated production: Most is smuggled into neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. “It is of course worrisome for us but we have very little leverage to stop it,” said Thierry Boliki, director of the CEEC, the Congolese government body that is meant to register, value and tax high-value minerals like gold.

    The customs data provided by governments to Comtrade, a United Nations database, shows the UAE has been a prime destination for gold from many African states for some years. In 2015, China – the world’s biggest gold consumer – imported more gold from Africa than the UAE. But during 2016, the latest year for which data is available, the UAE imported almost double the value taken by China. With African gold imports worth $8.5 billion that year, China came a distant second. Switzerland, the world’s gold refining hub, came third with $7.5 billion worth.

    Most of the gold is traded in Dubai, home to the UAE’s gold industry.

    The UAE reported gold imports from 46 African countries for 2016. Of those countries, 25 did not provide Comtrade with data on their gold exports to the UAE. But the UAE said it had imported a total of $7.4 billion worth of gold from them.

    In addition, the UAE imported much more gold from most of the other 21 countries than those countries said they had exported. In all, it said it imported gold worth $3.9 billion – about 67 tonnes – more than those countries said they sent out.

    “There is a lot of gold leaving Africa without being captured in our records,” said Frank Mugyenyi, a senior adviser on industrial development at the African Union who set up the organization’s minerals unit. “UAE is cashing in on the unregulated environment in Africa.”

    The Dubai Customs Authority referred Reuters’ queries to the UAE foreign ministry, which did not respond. The UAE government media office referred Reuters to the UAE federal customs authority, which also did not respond.

    Not all the discrepancies in the data analyzed by Reuters necessarily point to African-mined gold being smuggled out through the UAE. Small differences could result from shipping costs and taxes being declared differently, a time-lag between a cargo leaving and arriving, or simply mistakes. And gold analysts say some of the trade, especially from Egypt and Libya, could include gold that has been recycled.

    But in 11 cases, the per-kilo value that the UAE declared importing is significantly higher than that recorded by the exporting country. This, said Leonce Ndikumana, an economist who has studied capital flows in Africa, is a “classic case of export under-invoicing” to reduce taxes.

    Matthew Salomon, an American economist who has researched the use of trade statistics to identify illicit financial flows, said the issue deserves scrutiny. “Persistent discrepancies in the trade of particular goods and between particular countries … can identify significant risks of illicit activity,” he said…”

  27. Egypt to set up 4 medical centers in Africa: Minister (ahram, Apr 24, 2019)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/330598/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-to-set-up–medical-centers-in-Africa-Ministe.aspx

    “Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed said on Wednesday said that Egypt has started setting up four medical care centers in Africa starting with Chad.

    The minister said the steps comes within the initiative by Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for treating one million African nationals from Hepatitis virus C.

    The minister also noted the project includes the treatment of all African nationals living in Egypt.

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt tweeted late on Tuesday that the country has been offering free checkups and treatment to 11,000 foreigners for hepatitis C.

    “The Egyptian Ministry of Health provided virological tests and free treatment for 11,000 foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers,” the tweet read.

    Egypt has the unfortunate distinction of ranking first in the world for infection with the hepatitis C virus, with seven million people, or around 10 percent of the population, being infected in 2007. Infection rates in India and China stood at around one percent of their populations at the same time.

    In reaction to these alarming figures, the government has launched several programmes to combat and treat hepatitis C, most recently the National Campaign to Eradicate the Hepatitis C Virus and Detect Chronic Diseases launched by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi under the slogan ‘Good health for 100 million,’ which targets citizens over the age of 18.

    The campaign began in October 2018 and aims to eradicate the virus by 2020 and slash death rates from chronic diseases that cause 70 percent of deaths in Egypt.
    World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Egypt John Paul Eissa has praised the campaign, telling a news conference before its launch that although Egypt topped the list of countries with the most people infected with the hepatitis C virus, it also had the greatest capacity to combat it. The campaign was the first of its kind in the region and the world as a whole, he said.

    As of January 2018, 221,675 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered in Egypt, with 3,118 newly registered in 2018, according to a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt.

    The number of Syrian refugees registered with the organization reached 127,414, comprising 57 percent of the total number of refugees registered in the country, according to the report.

    In second place came Egypt’s neighboring Sudanese refugees with 36,196, followed by Ethiopians with 14,564 and Eritreans with 12,959.

    South Sudanese refugees in Egypt totalled 10,518, while there were 6,732 Iraqis registered and 6,714 Somalis.

    Other nationalities formed 6,579 of the total population of refugees registered in the country.”

  28. Seasonal Worker in Spain Warns Moroccan Women, ‘Don’t Come’ (moroccoworldnews, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/04/271374/seasonal-worker-spain-warns-moroccan-women/

    “When Samira Ahmad (not her real name) left her native Morocco and got on a bus to Spain in April 2018, she felt a mix of pride and self-fulfillment. She had made the final cut of Moroccan women selected to join Spain’s prized strawberry industry as seasonal workers.

    As she embarked on her Spanish journey to register as a migrant worker just miles away from Morocco, Ahmad told a Guardian reporter, she thought the opportunity was the happy ending she had been expecting, having struggled to make ends meet for herself and her family.

    To Ahmad’s unpleasant surprise, however, the work and the environment she was promised were the total opposite of the labor exploitation and other inhumane treatment she and many other compatriots faced in strawberry fields in Spain’s Andalucia region.

    “Before I left my home I was like a hero to everyone,” the Guardian article quoted the Moroccan woman. “Nobody in my village had ever had the chance to go and work in a rich country like Spain. But it has turned out to be the worst decision of my life.”

    A final fight for reputation
    Ahmad said she and other seasonal workers were mistreated, sexually abused, and exploited on a regular basis.

    “Ahmad’s life is in ruins,” the article commented. “She is destitute, divorced and for the past 10 months has been living in hiding, surviving on handouts with nine other Moroccan women who – like her – claim they faced human trafficking, sexual assault and exploitation on the farm where they were hired to work.”

    According to the news outlet, Ahmad and eight other Moroccan seasonal workers have filed a complaint with Spain’s Civil Guard, the military police.
    The women put all their hope in that legal procedure, but they appear to concede that no substantial result may come out.

    All they want, according to the article, is to have their names cleared so they can return home. Many of the seasonal workers say that their families have disowned them after learning about their experiences in Spain. The families think they work as prostitutes, the article noted.

    “We knew we couldn’t go home because we still hadn’t been paid and we had to prove that the things that we had told the police were true,” said one of the women.

    Little interest from authorities
    In the meantime, both Spanish and Moroccan authorities have been nonchalant, even dismissive at times, in how they have treated stories like Ahmad’s.

    According to the Guardian article, authorities in both countries have “downplayed” the extent of the tragedy the women report to have faced daily.

    While the Spanish courts have been obstructing progress in the case, according to the article, Morocco’s employment ministry, responsible for the paperwork of Spain-bound seasonal workers, has played down what it sees as alarmist reports. According to the ministry, cases of abuse and labor exploitation are not as widespread as reported.

    Like Ahmad, the Spanish women’s rights advocacy groups defending the cause of vulnerable seasonal workers appear to think that authorities from both countries would do little in such cases. They say the system is skewed against the most vulnerable populations.

    “In Morocco they are deliberately looking for those who are cheap and vulnerable to do this work, namely rural women with young children who only understand Arabic, cannot understand their contracts written in Spanish or claim their rights. It is a rigged system,” said Alicia Navascues, a women’s rights activist.

    ‘Don’t come’
    Spain’s booming strawberry industry is its most important agricultural product. Each year, seasonal workers—almost all women—leave Morocco to work in neighboring Spain in an industry that is now labeled the “red gold” of the stuttering Spanish economy.

    Over 20,000 Moroccan women are expected to join in this year’s harvest, the Guardian noted.

    But Ahmad and her friends have a message to those preparing to embark on the Spanish journey: Don’t be lured.

    “I didn’t think that such stories could be true in a rich country like this,” Ahmad said of instances when, as she prepared to travel to Spain, she would dismiss reports of sexual abuse and exploitation coming from the women who preceded her cohort.

    Now that she experienced firsthand the stories she once ignored, Ahmad is an outspoken critic of what was once her most prized dream. She says she does not want others to experience the same plight as her and her friends. “I say to the women coming now, please don’t come. If bad things happen nobody will help you. Turn around and go home to your families.””

  29. YPG/PKK forms new Armenian terror group in Syria (aa, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/politics/ypg-pkk-forms-new-armenian-terror-group-in-syria/1461899

    “The YPG/PKK formed a new terror outfit comprising of foreign terrorists on Wednesday, including those of Armenian descent, in areas it occupies within territories of Syria.

    The terrorist group was named after Armenian terrorist Nubar Ozanyan and formed in the wake of France declaring April 24 as a day of commemoration of the events of 1915.

    The YPG/PKK declared the organization’s intention to be “the defense of Rojava against Turkey,” and that it embraced the terrorist Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) as its precursor.

    In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women and children.

    Founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War, ASALA is responsible for hundreds of bloody terror acts.

    During 1975-1984, ASALA martyred over 30 Turkish diplomats and officials in various attacks. The Armenian terrorist acts intensified from 1980 to 1983, when 580 of the 699 attacks occurred. The terrorist attacks ended in 1986.

    Ozanyan was killed in 2017, fighting for the YPG/PKK as the so-called Middle East commander of TKP/ML TIKKO, a sub-group which carried out assassinations and bombings and clashes with security forces in Turkey.

    Turkey’s position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.

    Turkey objects to the presentation of these incidents as “genocide,” describing them as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.”

    • ~ You say “Armenian”, I’ll say “Rohingya” ~
      ~ ~ tra-la-la ~~
      Then let’s call the whole thing off.

  30. PKK supporters try to raid TRT World’s London office (aa, Apr 25, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/pkk-supporters-try-to-raid-trt-world-s-london-office/1462061

    “A group of 50 PKK sympathizers invaded a building in London late Wednesday where the offices of Turkish international news channel TRT World are located.

    The group hung a poster in the lobby of Abdullah Ocalan, the convicted leader of the terrorist organization, and waved a flag with his picture on it.

    British police emptied the lobby after about an hour and took security measures around the building.

    No TRT employees were harmed and its offices were not damaged during the incident.

    Supporters of the terrorist organization are known for their attacks on Turkish workplaces and mosques across Europe.

    Although the organization is banned in the U.K., the police have tolerated activities by its supporters, including rallies.

    London’s Metropolitan Police have failed to stop the display of PKK symbols and posters of Ocalan during the rallies even though it is forbidden to carry symbols of banned organizations.

    The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years and has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women and children.”

  31. Austria’s ban on Muslim Brotherhood symbols has further aims (aa, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/austria-s-ban-on-muslim-brotherhood-symbols-has-further-aims-/1461284

    “On March 1, 2019 something unprecedented took place in a Western country and it has gone nearly unnoticed. The logo of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with logos of other non-terrorist and terrorist organizations, was added to the list of symbols banned in Austria. In many countries, right-wing groups and lobbies have long been trying to have the Muslim Brotherhood banned. Many observers argue, however, that the real goal of these efforts is not to threaten the Muslims Brotherhood, which is already weak and politically defeated in many Arab countries, but actually to threaten civil society activists and politicians with a Muslim background in the West.

    People who make a difference, such as the newly elected U.S. Congress women Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, as well as political activists such as Linda Sarsour, have been repeatedly targeted by the far-right, which speaks of these figures as belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. In the U.S., there have been three legislative attempts to implement a bill to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. As rightly criticized by civil society, this would in fact not primarily hit the Muslim Brotherhood itself, but rather American Muslim associations that do social justice work and are an important voice of nonviolent political opposition to injustice and racism.

    As the Network Against Islamophobia (NAI), a project of the Jewish Voice for Peace, argued, the Trump administration could easily “use this legislation and an executive order to target national and local Muslim civil liberties and other organizations that work on behalf of Muslim communities.” In the U.S., the so called “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2017” was not enacted due to foreign policy considerations. But similar attempts can be seen in other places. In April 2014, the British prime minister of the time commissioned an internal review of the Muslim Brotherhood to determine whether or not it was possible to associate the organization in the UK and abroad with extremism and terrorism. The report led neither to a ban of the Muslim Brotherhood, nor to its designation as a terrorist organization.

    Austria has thus been the first country to designate the Brotherhood as an extremist organization. This could only happen at the backdrop of a legislation prepared long beforehand. After World War II, Austria outlawed symbols of National Socialism by issuing the Prohibition Act of 1947. Decades afterwards, following the rise of Daesh, a coalition government formed by the conservative ÖVP and the Social Democrats outlawed the use of symbols associated with Al-Qaeda and Daesh in 2014. The Symbol Act of 2019 was enacted this year in March by a right-wing government composed of the right-wing extremist Freedom Party and the restructured People’s Party headed by Sebastian Kurz. It extended the ban to the PKK, Hamas, the military wing of Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Turkish nationalist “Grey Wolves”, the Croatian fascist Ustashe, and organizations designated as terrorist by EU legal acts. The government claims that “the symbols and gestures of the organizations mentioned in the amended law are against the constitution and contradict our basic democratic values.”

    While terrorist and non-terrorist organizations are included in this new list, white extremist organizations with many links to the governing FPÖ, such as the Identitarian Movement, are not mentioned in this act at all. But most importantly, the legislation allows the minister of interior to expand this list to include other groups with a decree at any time. This enables the minister to potentially crack down on any “foreign” civil society organization that protests the government and is considered a threat to the government. With this warrant, the minister of interior (currently from the FPÖ) can potentially go after every oppositional Muslim organization.

    The official interpretation of the law by the lawmakers has already revealed in the case of the banning of Muslim Brotherhood symbols that it is not targeting the Muslim Brotherhood itself, but rather those Muslim civil society organizations that criticize the government for its anti-Muslim policies. The interpretation widely drew on a report written by a central figure in the anti-Muslim think tank world, Lorenzo Vidino, whose fellows at the European Foundation for Democracy systematically target the most vocal Muslim civil society organizations across Europe with the aim of criminalizing and subsequently excluding them from the public sphere. In the “The Muslim Brotherhood in Austria” report, which was drafted for the Ministry of Interior, a link was made between numerous Muslim people active in civil society, who are well-known in the Austrian society.

    The government has already declared that it will implement a new legislation in an attempt to crack down on what it calls “political Islam” in summer 2019. At the backdrop of an attempt to minimize the role of civil society organizations in Austrian political life, Austrian Muslim organizations seem to function as a playground for implementing more authoritarian policies.

    More importantly, this legislation will not remain limited to Austria. As a long-time member of the European Union (EU) with a stable economy and a still well-working social system, its anti-Muslim legislations have become models for other right-wing parties to imitate. German politicians from the center-right as well as politicians from the eastern part of the EU often draw on the Austrian experience in implementing anti-Muslim legislation, from the Face Veil Ban Act of 2017 to the Islam Act of 2015. The Symbol Act could be yet another example for “transatlantic learning”.

    – Farid Hafez is a senior research scholar at the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University and a senior researcher at Salzburg University.

    * Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu Agency.”

  32. Teacher denies being ‘mole’ for rightwing migrant protests (ansa, Apr 24, 2019)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2019/04/24/teacher-denies-being-right-wing-mole_32e2808f-2d05-4c23-998e-5f7341eef0d5.html

    “A nursery school teacher suspected of providing neo-fascist group CasaPound with confidential information about foreigners being assigned council flats on the outskirts of Rome called the allegations “truly absurd” on Wednesday. “I go out to go to school and that’s it,” the teacher told ANSA.

    CasaPound allegedly used information leaked from a civil servant to stage protests when migrants were assigned council homes.”

  33. UN study warns war has already reversed development in Yemen by 21 years (france24, Apr 24, 2019)
    https://www.france24.com/en/20190424-yemen-war-humanitarian-disaster-development-united-nations-undp-study

    “A UN Development Program (UNDP) study released Tuesday estimates the war in Yemen and subsequent humanitarian disaster means the country has already lost more than two decades in terms of development.

    The study found that if even if the war were to end this year, it will have caused economic losses of $88.8 billion. If the conflict lasts until 2030, it would leave 71 percent of the population in extreme poverty, 84 percent malnourished and cause economic losses of $657 billion.

    The UNDP’s Yemen representative, Auke Lootsma, said that “even if there were to be peace tomorrow, it could take decades for Yemen to return to pre-conflict levels of development”.

    A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels since 2015. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven the country to the brink of famine.”

  34. Birmingham stabbing: Police launch inquiry after teen stabbed to death in HORRIFIC attack (express, Apr 25, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1118566/Birmingham-Stabbing-latest-news-knife-crime-Harborne-UK-sajid-javid

    “WEST Midlands Police have launched a murder inquiry following a stabbing in Birmingham on Wednesday evening.

    According to police, a teenager was attacked in Harborne. The victim was pronounced dead at 7.15pm. The 18-year-old victim was found on Tennal Road with fatal injuries by West Midlands Police.

    A 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

    West Midland Police have put a cordon in place and have urged any witnesses to come forward.

    Detective Inspector Michelle Allen said: “A young man has sadly lost his life.”

    Forensics teams and 30 officers converged on the scene in the Quinton area of the city…”