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 must use it while we can.
Has anyone seen Imam of Peace’s latest thread? It’s Part 1 and I’m waiting with impatience for Part II.
It will be very interesting to see if Nancy Pelosi takes the bait.
Although I was unsure of him for quite some time, this thread gives me full confidence in him, albeit a tiny side reserve only.
The thread must be unrolled on Twitter for more details.
https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1154426961646649345
Germany: Attempt to commit murder – Six Afghans arrested+++
On the 13th of July a group of several people attacked a young man on the Kolping street in Rheine and injured him life-threateningly with blows, kicks and stabs. “Immediately after the crime 4 accused persons had been arrested, in 3 cases a judge ordered the detention on remand”, explained Chief Public Prosecutor Stefan Lechtape in Münster yesterday,”After successful investigations and searches, two further suspects have now been arrested.” “A wanted 19-year-old Afghan from Rheine could be arrested in the police station there on last Monday “, Thomas Götze, head of the homicide commission, summarized today. “We successfully completed our search for an 18-year-old Afghan last Tuesday with the arrest in Lengerich.” At the request of the public prosecutor’s office in Münster, the arrested were brought before the magistrate. “For both accused persons a judge approved the prosecution’s request and issued an arrest warrant for attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm,” the senior prosecutor continued. The two men are in remand. “On the basis of clues, we have received some clues for clarifying the facts of the crime,” added the chief detective. “The Homicide Commission is investigating these indications and is now concentrating on clarifying the still unclear background to the crime.
Read more:
https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/07/germany-attempt-to-commit-murder-six.html
Swedish Broadcaster Under Fire for Shaming Orienteering as Too White (sputniknews, Jul 26. 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/viral/201907261076367264-swedish-broadcaster-under-fire-for-shaming-orienteering-as-too-white/
“While the tax-financed broadcaster contended there are too many “Svenssons” and too few immigrants on the track, Swedish users have countered that immigrants on the contrary were quite well-versed in orienteering, having made their way from their home countries to the far north.
Swedish national broadcaster SVT has landed in hot water for its recent publication about the perceived lack of “cultural and ethnic diversity” in orienteering, a traditional Nordic pastime.
Diversity is virtually non-existent in Swedish orienteering associations, which are overwhelmingly white and Swedish, the state-sponsored broadcaster claimed, presenting it as a problem.
The article appeared in connection with O-ringen, the world’s largest orienteering competition, previously known as “Swedish Five Days”, taking place in Östergötland County.
Among others, the article featured team Motalas AIF’s youth leader Lotta Haraldsson, who suggested that orienteering largely consists of “average Svenssons” and university-educated people. The latter feature she found strange given orienteering is “such a cheap sport”.
Maria Krafft Helgesson, the chair of the Swedish Orienteering Association, joined in by confirming the Swedes’ numerical superiority. She ventured that breaking the “homogenity” of the sport was a challenge for the future.
SVT’s angle has raised many eyebrows.
“You could reason that diversity and multiculturalism from a left-wing liberal perspective would imply allowing immigrants exercise recreational activities rooted in their own cultures, instead of trying to foolishly push them into a typical Swedish sports branch. Forcing all immigrants to eat ham hock with root mash and orient in forests and wilderness is something that from that very perspective is often referenced as postcolonial cultural fascism”, Mats Dagerlind of the Samnhällsnytt outlet wrote, wryly pointing out the left’s inconsistency.
He also pointed out that SVT rarely covers mixed martial arts competitions “in the suburbs” complaining that “Pelles and Kalles”, a Swedish expression for average Joes, are too few.
“That can’t be true. Sounds like fake news. Multiculture is great at orienteering to the next social office and welfare system”, a user tweeted.
?“They would sweep the podium in orienteering. After all, they have found their way to the far north, and that is super long from the starting point”, another sarcastic Swede suggested.
?“The lack of orienteerers from MENA is due to the fact that orienteering is a typical part of Swedish culture. You know, the one that according to left-wing media doesn’t even exist”, yet another one tweeted.
“Not to mention cross-country skiing! There, the very ground is white”, another witty reply said.
Others pointed out that there was “too little multiculture” in Sweden’s labour market. A user suggested that 80 percent of migrants coming from North Africa were living on subsidies.
Some even called the journalists “damn predictable and stupid”, suggesting that SVT was merely taking cues from the US media, who have been consistently challenging the perceived lack of diversity in various occupations and sports, producing headlines such as “The Unbearable Whiteness of Hiking”.
?Orienteering is a traditional sphere of sports excellence and a family pastime in Scandinavia. As of 2018, 83,573 Swedes were members in an orienteering club. In the past six years alone, membership has increased by over 11,000 people.”
Sweden’s Blood Banks Running Dry Amid Stabbing Wave (sputniknews, Jul 26, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201907261076367823-swedens-blood-banks-running-dry-amid-stabbing-wave/
“Between 2011 and 2017, 267 people were stabbed to death in Sweden, making knife attacks the deadliest type of violent crime.
Several Swedish cities and municipalities are facing blood shortages, which the authorities ascribe to an unlucky combination of factors including summer holidays and a wave of knife attacks.
Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city, is currently experiencing the most extreme shortage, to the point that volunteers have been urged to donate blood at healthcare centres in the city with SMS mailout. The biggest shortages are for blood groups O+ and A+.
One potential reason for the shortage is a recent wave of knife attacks in the city, according to Jan Holgersson, unit manager for clinical immunology and transfusion medicine at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
“It can be trauma cases like the stabbings recently, but it can also be due to traffic accidents, major operations, or patients with blood disorders”, Holgersson said, as quoted by the daily newspaper Aftonbladet.
Fellow unit manager for the Sahlgrenska’s blood bank GeBlod, Stefan Jakobsson, also named the recent wave of stabbings as one of the reasons.
“It leads to a huge pressure on us working at the blood station”, Jakobsson told Swedish Radio.
Another reason for the shortage is the summer holidays. Blood can typically only be used for up to six weeks after donations, and with many Swedes taking lengthy holidays over the summer season, regular donors are less likely to donate at this time.
Apart from Gothenburg, low levels of blood have been reported in other cities, such as Uppsala and Gävle.
In most areas, sufficient knowledge of the Swedish language is required, and it is up to the nurse to assess the the donor’s skills. However, a Stockholm clinic, has bestowed the right to donate blood upon the speakers of English as well.
In recent weeks, Sweden has seen a spate of knife attacks, with two young men stabbed to death in Gothenburg alone, triggering nationwide media coverage and heated debates.
Despite the fact that shootings have increased sharply in Sweden in recent years, with 2018 becoming a record year with 45 deaths, knife attacks are still the deadliest method of violence. Between 2011 and 2017, 267 people were stabbed to death in Sweden, compared to 190 people shot using firearms.”
Iranians manage to surf the web despite tide of censorship (abcnews, Jul 26, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iranians-manage-surf-web-tide-censorship-64581278
“Iranian authorities have sought to limit Western cultural influence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They began blocking popular sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube when activists used them to organize mass protests and document a crackdown after a disputed election in 2009.
That hasn’t stopped Iranians from accessing such sites through virtual private networks, or VPNs, and other services. It also hasn’t prevented a number of top Iranian officials from using the sites to broadcast the official line. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif frequently tweets in English, and accounts believed to be run by the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani regularly post on their behalf.
Khamenei himself has urged the nation’s youth to “smartly use the cyberspace to slap the enemy in the mouth,” and pro-government accounts have proliferated on Twitter and Instagram.
Rouhani, a relative moderate in Iran’s clerical establishment, vowed to expand internet freedom when he was elected in 2013 but has failed to fully deliver on those promises, in part because the judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners. In 2018, authorities blocked Telegram, an app that had been used by tens of millions of Iranians to send encrypted messages, after it was used to organize protests over economic hardships.
YouTube also remains largely off-limits, as it’s hard to download and view videos while using the workarounds.
“YouTube is like an online university, but it’s blocked,” Akbari said.
Hard-liners fear that full access to the internet would allow Western countries to penetrate the Islamic Republic and foment unrest against the ruling clerics.
“Cyberspace is controlled by foreigners,” said Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahhedi Kermani, a hard-line cleric who leads Friday prayers in Tehran. “They want to make the people pessimistic about the government.”
Authorities have developed their own closed system, known as the “national information network,” that blocks many foreign sites and slows access to others. Some refer to it as the “halal net,” applying the term used for that which is permitted under Islam. Officials say it is designed to protect the country from cyberattacks and U.S. sanctions. Iran is also developing its own services for messaging, online banking and entertainment, part of a larger push for self-sufficiency amid Western sanctions.
The government has taken steps to expand access and widen bandwidths, with Rouhani claiming earlier this month that all towns and 78% of villages have access to high-speed internet. But many Iranians say surfing the web remains a disappointing experience.
“The number of users has grown at a much faster rate than the speed of the country’s internet,” said Danial Behzadi, an information technology expert. “In general, the internet in Iran is relatively slow, expensive and has poor neutrality.”
The sanctions have also created barriers, with the U.S. government barring many tech firms from providing services in Iran. The Trump administration has ramped up sanctions, including on the country’s vital oil industry, since withdrawing the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers last year.
Users trying to download apps frequently encounter messages saying such services are prohibited, and some American companies suspend accounts when they realize the users are in Iran.
The sanctions also restrict the ability of Iranians to shop online.
Iranians are unable to use major credit cards or online services like PayPal because the country is cut off from the international banking system. Amazon refuses to ship to Iran because of the sanctions. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the online retail giant said it suspected Iranian embassies and diplomatic missions abroad had purchased more than $50,000 in goods, everything from books and apparel to toys and pet products.
Akbari recalls having to purchase a new keyboard for her laptop. When Amazon refused to send it to Iran, she asked a relative to buy one in Dubai.
“This is just an example,” she said. “There are thousands of things you see on the internet you want to buy, but you can’t.”
Despite the limitations — or perhaps because of them — Iranians have become skilled at evading censors through proxy servers and VPNs.
Software developer Mehdi Beygi said he recently received an email from a popular coding platform saying that his account had been restricted because of U.S. sanctions.
“It’s normal,” he said. “I’ll bypass the ban, as always.””
“Trump sounds off on the Mueller hearings on ‘Hannity’ | FULL INTERVIEW”
Fox News – Published on July 25, 2019
“Russian Meddling in American Energy”
The Heartland Institute
Published on April 18, 2019
Interestingly, the NYT continues in the polarization parade today, quoting Mueller on Russia’s interference “as we sit here”
and reporting that impeachment is under discussion.
Boris Johnson’s Ancestral Turkish Village Applauds His ‘Ottoman Genes’ (breitbart, Jul 26, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/07/26/boris-johnsons-ancestral-turkish-village-applauds-his-ottoman-genes/
“A village in central Turkey where Boris Johnson traces his Turkish ancestry to is abuzz with excitement and pride over the news that a man they see as one of their own has become the new prime minister of Britain.
Residents of the mainly farming village of Kalfat, in Cankiri province, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Turkish capital Ankara, gathered at its main assembly place on Tuesday to celebrate after Johnson won a Conservative Party leadership contest triggered by the resignation of Theresa May, according to town administrator, Bayram Tavukcu. Johnson took office as British prime minister on Wednesday.
Residents here dismiss as “political rhetoric” past comments by Johnson that were sometimes deemed to be anti-Muslim or anti-Turkish and said they hope that he will visit Kalfat while in office.
“We were honored that someone who has Ottoman genes, who comes from these lands, has become the prime minister of a prodigious country,” said Adem Karaagac, the former administrator of the village of 1,300.
Johnson’s paternal great-great-grandfather, Haci Ahmet Riza Efendi, was born there in 1813 and the house he lived in is still standing. The family members were known as the “Sarioglangiller” which roughly translate as “of the family of the blond boy,” Karaagac said, though it was not known if Johnson inherited his blond hair from his Turkish ancestry….”
Salvini to Macron: We Are Not Your Colony! (breitbart, Jul 26, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/07/26/salvini-macron-we-are-not-your-colony/
“Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini has challenged France to open up its ports, as ongoing tensions over mass migration between the two countries have once again flared.
The populist interior minister reacted to comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron who slammed Salvini for not attending a conference on migration earlier this week in Paris, Il Giornale reports.
Referring to a migration conference in Helsinki earlier this month, Salvini said: “Who are you? We’re not your employees or your waiters. We went to the official meeting in Helsinki where all of us ministers were there.”
“Italy will not be your refugee camp … There is the port of Marseille, don’t come and put pressure on us. If you expect us to sign a document where ships arrive in Italy, you are wrong. Italians are no longer going to be anyone’s slaves,” Salvini added.
Salvini’s firebrand rhetoric comes after Macron announced earlier in the week that 14 member states of the European Union had agreed to a Franco-German proposal to send incoming migrants to various countries in what was a labelled a “solidarity mechanism”.
The new push for a mechanism to distribute migrants comes as migrant transport NGOs have resumed activities in the Mediterranean despite the closed ports policy enacted by the Italian populist coalition.
The situation has led to Sea Watch captain Carola Rackete being arrested after she forced her way through the Italian blockade after waiting for two weeks with dozens of migrants aboard her vessel.
Other NGOs have also resumed their activities off the coast of Libya in the search and rescue (SAR) zone, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) which announced their new mission with their new ship, the Ocean Viking, would begin later in the month.
This is not the first time Salvini and the French president have clashed, with Macron calling himself the “chief adversary” of Salvini and other populists in Europe, while Salvini has labelled the French leader a “hypocrite”.”
Italy: Carabiniere cop stabbed to death by Africans+++
Two men thought to be of African origins are being sought in connection with the stabbing to death over the night between Thursday and Friday of an on-duty Carabiniere police officer in the Italian capital. The 35-year-old Carabiniere Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega is believed to have been with other colleagues in the process of arresting two men believed to be behind a case of theft and extortion when one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed him several times. Both men were able to escape. Cerciello Rega was taken to the hospital but died of the injuries sustained in the attack.
Read more:
https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/07/italy-carabiniere-cop-stabbed-to-death.html
Boris Has Arrived
PRO-PEDOPHILE Documentary on Amazon Prime? “I, Pedophile”
AUGUST 2017 – MOROCCO – Fifteen teens and children ‘treated for rabies after gang raping an infected donkey’
The youngsters – aged seven to 15 – were reportedly rushed to hospital after discovering the animal had the disease
Fifteen children and teenagers from a small rural town in Morocco have been treated for rabies after reportedly gang raping an infected donkey.
The youngsters – aged seven to 15 – were rushed to hospital after discovering the animal had the disease, according to local reports.
The youths, from a small tribal group, spent a week at the Mechraa Belksiri Hospital, while the donkey was killed to prevent further people being infected, reports Al-Akhbar newspaper.
The families of the fifteen young people are said to have reacted in “distress and horror” after being mocked throughout the small town in the north-western region of Gharb-Chrarda-Béni Hssen.
Al-Akhbar reports that local authorities are searching for anyone else who may have had similar contact with the animal.
The number of infections is feared to be much higher, as some families reportedly took their children to hospitals outside the region to avoid humiliation.
Parents in the small town are also secretly having their children vaccinated in case they had approached the animal, reports claim.
Rabies is almost always fatal as soon as symptoms show, but treatment before this happens is very effective, according to NHS Choices.
The disease attacks the brain and nerves and is usually caught from the bite or scratch of an infected animal, most often a dog.
It is found throughout the world, particularly in Asia, Africa and Central and South America – but very rarely in the UK in a small number of wild bats.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/fifteen-teens-children-treated-rabies-10999810
====================================================
HADITHS – Prescribed Punishments (Kitab Al-Hudud)
(30)Chapter: One who has intercourse with an animal
Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas:
The Prophet said: If anyone has sexual intercourse with an animal, kill him and kill it along with him. I (Ikrimah) said: I asked him (Ibn Abbas): What offence can be attributed to the animal/ He replied: I think he (the Prophet) disapproved of its flesh being eaten when such a thing had been done to it.
Abu Dawud said: This is not a strong tradition.
==============================================
‘Asim reported from Abu Razin on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas saying:
There is no prescribed punishment for one who has sexual intercourse with an animal.
Abu Dawud said: ‘Ata is also so. Al Hakam said: I think he should be flogged, but the number should not reach the one of the prescribed punishment. Al-Hasan said: He is like a fornicator.
Abu Dawud said: The tradition of ‘Asim proves the tradition of ‘Amr b. Abi ‘Amr as weak.
[ ====> scroll down to # 30 ... but read all the page if you have time... ]https://sunnah.com/abudawud/40
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Trump’s Merit-Based Immigration Proposal Will Boost Economy—FreedomWorks’ Adam Brandon [WCS Special]
TENSIONS FLARE Iran ‘fires ballistic missile 1,000km in provocative test’ amid tanker row with UK and US
IRAN has reportedly test fired a ballistic missile as tensions continue to escalate in the Gulf.
The Shahab-3 missile travelled 1,000km, but did not pose a threat to shipping or US bases, according to a Pentagon official.
Iran is believed to have tested the medium-range missile on Wednesday in a bid to improve the “range and accuracy” of its weapons.
News of the provocation emerged after Boris Johnson ordered the Royal Navy to accompany all British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
This ramping up of the navy’s protection mission by Boris Johnson comes in the wake of Iran seizing Brit tanker the Stena Impero.
It marks a dramatic escalation of the crisis with Iran following weeks of heightened tensions in the region.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9587313/iran-fires-ballistic-missile-test-tanker-row-us-uk/
N. Korea says missile test was warning to South ‘warmongers’
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s test of a new missile is meant as a “solemn warning” over rival South Korea’s weapons development and plans to hold military drills with the United States, Pyongyang said Friday as it continued its pressure campaign ahead of potential nuclear talks.
South Korea’s military later said that the flight data of the weapon launched Thursday showed similarities to the Russian-made Iskander, a short-range, nuclear-capable missile. A North Korean version could likely reach all of South Korea — and the 28,500 U.S. forces stationed there — and would be extremely hard to intercept.
https://apnews.com/ef8e8e174c8b42a496b84484b2b58c74
Shock Video: DC Tourist Savagely Beaten, Stomped, Spit on by Gang of Youths at Hilton Hotel Where Reagan Was Shot
A tourist was savagely beaten, stomped and spit on by a gang of over a dozen youths at the entrance to the Washington Hilton Hotel around 1 a.m. on July 14, according to Washington, D.C. police who released hotel surveillance video showing the brutal unprovoked attack. The Hilton–located about twelve blocks north of the White House at 1919 Connecticut Avenue and T Street, NW–is a key part of official Washington, playing host to presidents, foreign dignitaries, business and political gatherings including the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. It is also where President Ronald Reagan was shot by a would-be assassin in 1981.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/shock-video-dc-tourist-savagely-beaten-stomped-spit-on-by-gang-of-youths-at-hilton-hotel-where-reagan-was-shot/
Hong Kong Protests Become a Global Problem(Bloomberg) — Tensions between Hong Kong and the government in Beijing are increasingly spilling outside China’s borders.
China’s foreign ministry this week accused the U.S. of being a “black hand” behind protests that have rocked Hong Kong since early June, while Secretary of State Michael Pompeo urged Beijing to “do the right thing.” An encounter at an Australian university between supporters and critics of the Hong Kong demonstrators ended with punches being thrown.
With no end to the protests in sight — hundreds of people staged a sit-in at Asia’s busiest airport Friday — the dispute over Hong Kong’s future risks dragging in parties from all over the world. That could include diplomats, tourists, universities and multinational businesses caught up in the territory’s tinderbox political climate.
For the Trump administration and the Communist Party in Beijing, the issue has become one of many flash points ranging from trade to technological dominance to corporate espionage. The debate over Hong Kong is getting more heated, just as U.S. negotiators prepare to restart trade talks next week in Shanghai.
https://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-protests-become-global-110005325.html
AI experts from top universities SLAM ‘predictive policing’ tools in new statement and warn technology could ‘fuel misconceptions and fears that drive mass incarceration’
Prominent thinkers in the fields of artificial intelligence say that predictive policing tools are not only ‘useless,’ but may be helping to drive mass incarceration.
In a letter published earlier this month the experts, from MIT, Harvard, Princeton, NYU, UC Berkeley and Columbia spoke out on the topic in an unprecedented showing of skepticism toward the technology.
‘When it comes to predicting violence, risk assessments offer more magical thinking than helpful forecasting,’ wrote AI experts Chelsea Barabas, Karthik Dinakar and Colin Doyle in a New York Times op-ed.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7287341/AI-experts-release-statement-slamming-predictive-policing-digitizing-stop-frisk.html
Defense Secretary Esper: We will create create a more lethal military force
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:00 PM PT — Thursday, July 25, 2019
At a ceremony outside the Pentagon Thursday, Mark Esper gave his first remarks as the nation’s 27th Secretary of Defense. He vowed to “continue strengthening the U.S. military,” and build “a more lethal force.”
President Trump and Vice President Pence were in attendance as Esper announced his plans to reform the department and make the most use of “every dollar Congress” grants it.
https://www.oann.com/defense-secretary-esper-we-will-create-create-a-more-lethal-military-force/
Saudi Arabia suspends visas to people from Congo over Ebola
Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the Ebola outbreak there, even as the World Health Organization recommends against travel restrictions.
Some Muslims in Congo had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month. A letter from the Saudi foreign ministry to Congo’s embassy in Riyadh, obtained by The Associated Press and dated Wednesday, says the kingdom made the decision to protect pilgrims and others.
The letter refers to the WHO decision this month to declare the year-long Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo a global health emergency. More than 1,700 people have died in the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history.
Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa’s Ebola outbreak a few years ago in which more than 11,000 people died.
The new decision affects anyone coming from Congo, including non-citizens.
Congo’s government has not responded publicly.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/saudi-arabia-suspends-visas-people-congo-ebola-64582952
==============================================
Saudi Arabia bans travellers from Congo before haj over Ebola fears
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 26 (Reuters) – S audi Arabia has banned entry to travelers coming from Democratic Republic of Congo over fears Ebola could spread during next month’s haj pilgrimage.
The decision, announced in a note issued on Wednesday by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cited last week’s decision by the World Health Organization to declare the Ebola outbreak an international emergency.
The WHO committee, however, had urged countries not to restrict trade or travel.
“The granting of arrivals visas for people entering from DRC has been stopped, to conserve the wellbeing of pilgrims,” the ministry’s note said.
The outbreak has killed over 1,700 people since it was declared nearly a year ago.
About 3% of Congo’s population is Muslim, according to polling by the New York-based Congo Research Group. People from sub-Saharan Africa make up about 10% of the more than 2 million annual pilgrims to the holy city of Mecca.
Saudi Arabia suspended pilgrimage visas for travellers from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia during the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people.
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-ebola-saudi-congo/saudi-arabia-bans-travellers-from-congo-before-haj-over-ebola-fears-idUSL8N24R4LY
GOP set sights on origins of Russia probe
Antifa victim Andy Ngo sits down with OAN
Storm Area 51: Meme Creator Fears Slaughter as Millions Sign Up to “See Them Aliens”
Flags of inconvenience: noose tightens around Iranian shipping
LONDON/DUBAI/PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Somewhere on its journey from the waters off Iran, around Africa’s southern tip and into the Mediterranean, the Grace 1 oil tanker lost the flag under which it sailed and ceased to be registered to Panama. Iran later claimed it as its own.
The ship carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian crude was seized by British Royal Marines off Gibraltar, raising tensions in the Gulf where Iran detained a UK-flagged ship in retaliation.
https://www.oann.com/flags-of-inconvenience-noose-tightens-around-iranian-shipping/
ARD-Professor will Öko-Stasi
Ist das noch Umweltbewusstsein oder schon Öko-Diktatur? Heftige Kritik an Professor Niko Paech (58, Uni Siegen) und dem Deutschlandfunk!
Paech ist u. a. Referent der „Tele-Akademie“ des SWR (ARD). Im Radio-Interview fordert er die Deutschen auf, Nachbarn wegen ihrer Klimasünden ins Verhör zu nehmen. Und der Deutschlandfunk verbreitet das auch noch als „Tipps“ des Professors unkritisch weiter.
„Warum hast du eine Kreuzfahrt gebucht? Wer gibt dir das Recht, einen SUV zu fahren? Warum musst du eine Flugreise in den Skiurlaub auch noch tätigen?“, so Paechs Ideen für das nachbarschaftliche Klima-Verhör. Der Professor: „Wir brauchen wieder im zwischenmenschlichen Bereich ein Regulativ!“
Im Klartext: Menschen sollen ihre Nachbarn hochnotpeinlich zur Rede stellen – um sie zum Umdenken zu bringen.
Verkehrspolitiker Oliver Luksic (39, FDP) mahnt zur Besonnenheit: „Wenn wir Bürger für Umweltschutz gewinnen wollen, brauchen wir Maß und Mitte.“ Und warnt: „Die Klima-Debatte nimmt immer mehr hysterische Züge an. Was kommt als nächstes, die Öko-Stasi?“
Auch Hubertus Knabe (60), ehemaliger Direktor der Stasi-Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, warnt: „Die Aufforderung, seine Nachbarn zur Rede zu stellen, erinnert an totalitäre Staaten, in denen man dazu angehalten wurde, seine Mitbürger zu agitieren.“
Der DDR-Experte weiter: „Der nächste Schritt ist, die Nachbarn öffentlich an den Pranger zu stellen oder bei der Öko-Polizei zu denunzieren, wenn sie nicht nach den eigenen Vorstellungen leben. Eine beunruhigende Vorstellung.“
Knabe kritisiert auch den Deutschlandfunk: „Was hier als ,Tipps‘ verkauft wird, ist in Wahrheit Indoktrination. Am Ende schaden die verantwortlichen Journalisten damit sich selbst, weil niemand mehr einsieht, dass er dafür auch noch Gebühren zahlen muss.“
Der Deutschlandfunk weist die Vorwürfe zurück. „Weder haben wir einen ,Tipp‘ gegeben, noch haben wir uns seine Sicht zu eigen gemacht.“ Man biete „zu den relevanten Themen stets ein vielfältiges Spektrum, das auch konträre Meinungen umfasst, die wir als Standpunkte zur Debatte in die sozialen Medien einbringen.“
Auch Paech wehrt sich: „Eine autoritäre Politik lehne ich grundsätzlich ab, weil sie keine Mehrheit erhielte und auch meinem Freiheitsverständnis widerspräche.“
Paech zu BILD: „Das hat nichts mit Öko-Stasi zu tun!“ Es entspreche „aufgeklärtem Bürgersinn“, wenn Menschen durch „vorgelebte Beispiele für ein ökologisch anständiges Leben diejenigen bloßstellen, die durch ihre Rücksichtslosigkeit das Überleben der Zivilisation gefährden“.
Auch Grünen-Politiker Dieter Janecek (43) fordert eine „Debatte über klimaschädliche Lebensstile“. Janecek zu BILD: „Es gibt kein Freiheitsrecht auf unbegrenzte Klimazerstörung.“
Simone Peter, Präsidentin des Bundesverbands Erneuerbare Energie und Ex-Grünen-Politikerin, sagte zu Paechs Verhör-Vorschlag, es sei „kindisch, andere wegen ihres Konsums zu dissen“. Gegenüber BILD bekräftigte Peter: „Unser Wohlstand hängt nicht vom CO2-Fußabdruck des Einzelnen ab! Die Politik muss den Einstieg in eine moderne, CO2-freie Industrie organisieren!“
https://m.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/ard-professor-will-oeko-stasi-63490914,view=amp.bildMobile.html
Dr. Niko Paech
Chinese official urged Hong Kong villagers to drive off protesters before violence at train station
HONG KONG (Reuters) – A week before suspected triad gang members attacked protesters and commuters at a rural Hong Kong train station last Sunday, an official from China’s representative office urged local residents to drive away any activists.
Li Jiyi, the director of the Central Government Liaison’s local district office made the appeal at a community banquet for hundreds of villagers in Hong Kong’s rural New Territories.
In a previously unreported recording from the July 11 event obtained by Reuters, Li addresses the large crowd about the escalating protests that have plunged Hong Kong into its worst political crisis since it returned to Chinese from British rule in 1997.
Li chastises the protesters, appealing to the assembled residents to protect their towns in Yuen Long district and to chase anti-government activists away.
“We won’t allow them to come to Yuen Long to cause trouble,” he said, to a burst of applause.
“Even though there are a group of protesters trained to throw bricks and iron bars, we still have a group of Yuen Long residents with the persistence and courage to maintain social peace and protect our home.”
https://www.oann.com/chinese-official-urged-hong-kong-villagers-to-drive-off-protesters-before-violence-at-train-station/
Protesters calling for ‘free Hong Kong’ converge on airport
HONG KONG (Reuters) – More than 1,000 protesters calling for democracy and some chanting “free Hong Kong” converged on the Chinese-ruled city’s airport on Friday as Singapore advised its travelers to avoid protest areas in the territory.
Hong Kong airport authorities said operations wouldn’t be affected, but advised passengers to arrive early given the risk of disruption.
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The former British colony, which returned to China in 1997, is embroiled in its worst political crisis for decades after two months of increasingly violent protests that have posed one of the gravest populist challenges to Communist Party rulers in Beijing.
The demonstrations, mushrooming up almost daily, saw the defacement of China’s main representative office last weekend, triggering warnings from Beijing this was an attack on China’s sovereignty.
More protests are expected on Saturday with demonstrators outraged at an attack on Sunday at a train station by armed men who police sources say included some with triad backgrounds. Some 45 people were wounded.
Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula, guaranteeing its freedoms, including the freedom to protest not enjoyed on the mainland, for at least 50 years.
https://www.oann.com/protesters-calling-for-free-hong-kong-converge-on-airport/
Border Patrol apprehends previously deported child sex offender, convicted contract killer
By Daily Caller News Foundation July 26, 2019
U.S. Border Patrol agents Saturday apprehended a convicted contract killer and a child sex offender who tried to reenter the country illegally.
Agents from the Three Points Station arrested a man near Sells, Ariz., after he tried to illegally reenter the country, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The agents identified the man as a 35-year-old Guatemalan citizen named Jose Juana-Zapata.
CPB claims that Border Patrol agents also conducted a biometric background investigation. This investigation indicated that a court in Philipsburg, Pa., had convicted Juana-Zapata in 2008 on a murder-for-hire charge and sentenced him to three years behind bars. (RELATED: Border Patrol Nabs 3 Criminal Illegals Trying To Enter US)
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/07/26/border-patrol-agents-apprehend-previously-deported-child-sex-offender-and-convicted-contract-killer/
Queer-feminist artist strips naked in front of school children on class trip to art installation
By Howard Portnoy July 26, 2019
Today our class went to an art gallery to see paintings by Mare Tralla, a queer-feminist artist from Estonia. We also met the artist, who is now living here in London. I didn’t really understand the exhibit or its title, which was “No ‘But’ Can Be Used as an Excuse for Sexism!” But at one point Tralla opened her robe and showed us her fat, saggy old body. Gross!
This putative diary entry, written from a child’s perspective, might well reflect an adult’s reaction to the same experience.
The European Union Times notes that the installation was comprised not only of paintings by Tralla but of works by Estonian male artist Marko Maetamm that appeared behind shrouds containing slogans like “‘But he is a nice guy!” Can Not Be Used as an Excuse for Sexism!” and “‘But he smiles always!’ Can Not Be Used as an Excuse for Sexism!” Get it?
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/07/26/feminist-artist-strips-naked-in-front-of-school-children-on-class-trip-to-art-exhibit/
Saudi king hosts 200 from Christchurch shootings for Haj
Aya Al-Umari says she feels like her brother will be accompanying her and will constantly be in her prayers when she travels to Makkah next month to take part in the annual Haj pilgrimage.
Al-Umari is one of 200 relatives and survivors from the Christchurch mosque shootings who are travelling to Saudi Arabia as guests of King Salman.
The Saudi ambassador to New Zealand on Friday said farewell to the pilgrims at the Al Noor mosque, one of two mosques where a gunman killed 51 people in March.
Al-Umari’s 35-year-old brother Hussein was among those killed.
She said it’s an honour that King Salman is sponsoring the trips, a fact reinforced in her visa documents stating she’s travelling as a guest of the custodian of the two holy mosques.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/07/26/saudi-king-hosts-200-from-christchurch-shootings-for-haj/
UK to fight extremism, no matter which ideology it has (DEBATE)
‘Risks’ posed by far-right extremism are now recognised as a ‘terror threat’ in the UK.
The reclassification was one of the final acts by home secretary Sajid Javid, before he became the country’s new finance minister.
YouTube ad policy bans keyword ‘Christian’
When the founder of a Christian veterans group tried to upload a YouTube ad for his organization, he received an odd rejection, informing him the keyword “Christian” was no longer acceptable under the site’s ad targeting policy
Mexico, a strict gun-control nation, had more than 3,000 murders in June
“Mexico has only one gun store and stringent gun controls, neither of which prevented the murders,” Breitbart News Second Amendment columnist AWR Hawkins noted on July 23.
The lone gun store in Mexico is run by the government. CBS News reported that the government store is the only place a firearm can be “legally” purchased.
“All firearms must be registered and the type and number of guns one can own are highly regulated,” Hawkins noted.
Source: World Tribune
https://gundynamics.com/articles/mexico-a-strict-gun-control-nation-had-more-than-3-000-murders-in-june?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=20190726145311
BBC – Transgender treatment: Puberty blockers study under investigation
(13 min 15 )
England’s only NHS youth gender clinic lowered the age at which it offers children puberty blockers, partly based on a study now being investigated.
The study’s full findings have not been published – but early data showed some taking the drugs reported an increase in thoughts of suicide and self-harm.
The clinic said data was from a “small sample” and so no “meaningful conclusion” could be drawn from it.
Children as young as 11 are now being offered these hormone-blocking drugs.
CBC – MONTREAL – Confronted for speaking Arabic, mother says it was a racist attack
Montreal police are investigating after a video circulated online of an enraged man making unwelcome comments to a mother who was speaking Arabic to her daughter.
WALSH: Ilhan Omar Claims White Men ‘Cause Most Of The Deaths’ In America. She’s Wrong. Here Are The Facts.
Imbecilic bigot Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) claimed in a recently resurfaced interview on Qatari propaganda network Al Jazeera that Americans should be “fearful” of white men who are “causing most of the deaths within this country.” These racist and blatantly false comments came in response to a question about Islamophobia. The interviewer asked if Islamophobia might be the result of a reasonable fear people have about Islamic terrorism. Omar could have responded that we shouldn’t fear anyone based on race, ethnicity, or religion, and that each person should be judged according to his or her own merits — but instead, she took the opportunity to fear monger about the dreaded white man.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/49891/walsh-ilhan-omar-claims-white-men-cause-most-matt-walsh?utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=072619-news&utm_campaign=position1
Comedian D.L. Hughley: Trump Supporters Worse Than Devil Worshippers
“You could worship the devil and be a better human being.”
According to comedian D.L. Hughley, worshippers of Satan are better people than those Trump supporters who merely want to “Make America Great Again.”
According to Fox News, the comedian issued his denunciation of Trump supporters on TV One’s “The D.L. Hughley Show.” The comedian said he could never be friends with a Trump supporter.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/49909/comedian-dl-hughley-trump-supporters-worse-devil-paul-bois?utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=072619-news&utm_campaign=position4
CBP official: Texas teen detained as alien never said he was a U.S. citizen; claimed Mexican nationality
By LU Staff July 26, 2019
The rule of law will require some intensive sifting of evidence on this case. The original reporting, still being used as the baseline story among major media outlets, was that Francisco Erwin Galicia, 18, was born in Dallas, Texas and has always been a U.S. citizen. He was released on Tuesday from a detention center in Pearsall, Texas after being detained at an inland Border Patrol checkpoint with a group of illegals in early July. The detention period was about three weeks.
There were already unusual factors in the story, although the media mentioned them only in lower paragraphs readers often don’t get to. Galicia’s attorney, Claudia Galan, said on Tuesday that his mother “had incorrectly applied for a tourist visa for him that suggested he had been born in Mexico.” The Border Patrol and ICE told news agencies that Galicia had provided “conflicting reports regarding status of citizenship” while he was in detention.
Galicia was traveling with his 17-year-old brother, Marlon, at the time he was detained. Marlon was born in Mexico (i.e., after Francisco was born in Dallas), and is not a U.S. citizen. He was in the U.S. illegally, and was returned to Mexico after the Border Patrol stop.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/07/26/cbp-official-texas-teen-detained-as-alien-never-said-he-was-a-u-s-citizen-claimed-mexican-nationality/
Bureau of Land Management to go West
Penny Star, Breitbart
[Ed. – Unfortunately, to Colorado. Very progressive-activist-ridden place, Colorado. We’ll see if moving there really makes a positive difference. Wyoming would be better.]
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/07/25/bureau-of-land-management-to-go-west/
Trump’s Bureau of Land Management Leaving Swamp for Western Land It Oversees
The Department of Interior (DOI) announced last week that it will be moving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) headquarters to Colorado, and a number of senior management staffers will be located in 11 Western states, including 50 people in Nevada.
“A meaningful realignment of our operations is not simply about where functions are performed; rather, it is rooted in how changes will better respond to the needs of the American people,” Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said in a statement. “Under our proposal, every Western state will gain additional staff resources.”
Bernhardt said:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/07/25/rumps-bureau-of-land-management-leaving-swamp-for-western-land-it-oversees/
Former federal prosecutor: Mueller ‘clearly did not run this investigation’
Guy Benson, TH July 25, 2019
[Ed. – It’s Andrew McCarthy, and I understand the time it has taken him to acknowledge realities others have been clear on for a long time. These are the people he walked the halls with for years. I have a similar, viscerally sad feeling about ugly revelations I fear we are going to see in the coming months regarding perversion of national intelligence capabilities, and exploitation of the vast monies that flow through the Pentagon. When this time is all done, I doubt any agency of the federal government will have been immune.]
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/07/25/former-federal-prosecutor-mueller-clearly-did-not-run-this-investigation/
Former Federal Prosecutor on Mueller: ‘He Clearly Did Not Run This Investigation’
In my initial reactions post yesterday, I described what appeared to be knowledge gaps and cognitive shortcomings on the part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Out of respect for his career of service and patriotism, I somewhat soft-pedaled these points. On my Fox News radio program last evening, however, longtime Assistant United States Attorney Andrew McCarthy was more candid. He said the proceedings made him viscerally sad, stating outright that after watching hours of testimony, he believes the venerable lawman was not in control of the investigation that bore his name:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2019/07/25/former-federal-prosecutor-its-clear-to-me-that-mueller-did-not-run-or-understand-his-investigation-n2550577
ARIZONA – ‘Cooler filled with male genitalia’ found in raid of Phoenix body-donation company
33 plaintiffs say Biological Resource Center lied to families and treated the deceased with a lack of dignity or respect.
A head sewn onto a mismatched body, a bucket of limbs and a cooler filled with penises are among items found by FBI agents during a raid on a Phoenix body-donation business.
The now-shuttered, for-profit Biological Resource Center specialized in accepting the bodies of people after they had died, and in exchange offering their families free pickup of the bodies plus the cremated remains of the body parts the company did not sell.
Arizona is a regulatory-free zone for the body-parts industry. At least four body donation companies are operating in Arizona, in addition to a non-profit cryonics company that freezes people after they die with the intent of one day bringing them back to life.
An FBI special agent, during a January 2014 raid of the Biological Resource Center, stumbled on what he described as “various unsettling scenes.” The agent’s grisly eyewitness account of the raid was recently revealed in a civil lawsuit against the business and its owner, Stephen Gore. The case is set for trial Oct. 21 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Thirty-three plaintiffs have sued the Biological Resource Center, saying the remains of their family members were obtained through “false statements,” that body parts were being sold for profit to various middlemen, and that they were not stored, treated or disposed of with dignity or respect.
Reacting to the Biological Resource Center case, Arizona passed a law in 2017 that says body donation companies are not allowed without a state license. However, the law has not yet been implemented or enforced.
All four body donation companies known to be operating in Arizona are accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks, which the Biological Resource Center was not.
The Phoenix company was raided after a nationwide criminal investigation.
Efforts to reach Gore, who is listed in court filings as representing himself in the civil action, were unsuccessful.
‘Frankenstein’ head observed
In his declaration contained in the civil lawsuit’s court file, former Phoenix FBI special agent Mark Cwynar said he “personally observed various unsettling scenes” while inside Biological Resource Center.
Many of the body parts he saw were piled on top of one another with no apparent identification to indicate what bodies they came from or to whom they belonged, he said.
In addition to a “cooler filled with male genitalia,” Cwynar testified that he also saw a “large torso with the head removed and replaced with a smaller head sewn together in a ‘Frankenstein’ manner.”
Cwynar said he saw:
Large male torsos with limbs and genitalia removed.
Buckets and coolers with various body parts, including a bucket of heads, arms and legs.
Body parts piled on top of each other throughout the facility, with no apparent identification.
Steel freezers with frozen body parts inside with no apparent identification.
Court documents included a report from two experts for the plaintiffs that referred to a 2013 request to use at least two Biological Resource Center bodies for the purpose of “plastination for education.” The experts said plastination, which is a way of preserving entire human bodies, should require separate consent because the preservation is more permanent and the bodies are often publicly displayed.
In October 2015, Gore tearfully pleaded guilty to conducting an illegal enterprise after accusations that he had provided vendors with contaminated human tissue and used body parts in ways that the donors had not permitted.
In a letter to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville before his December 2015 sentencing, Gore wrote that he felt overwhelmed, but that he was working in an industry with “no formal regulations” to reference for guidance.
“I could have been more open about the process of donation on the brochure we put in public view,” Gore wrote. “When deciding which donors could be eligible to donate, I should have hired a medical director rather than relying on medical knowledge from books or the internet.”
Research by plaintiffs’ lawyers says Gore’s highest level of education was high school, and that he did not have any licenses or certifications applicable to body donation program operations.
Torso with head: $2,400
The Biological Resource Center was a for-profit body donation company that accepted donations of bodies after people died. The company gave donors and their families free transportation services to pick up the body, plus free cremation.
One of the problems is that some families thought that a body “donation” meant their loved ones’ bodies were being given to a charity to help with disease research. Some mistakenly thought the Biological Resource Center would be donating their loved ones’ organs, not knowing that organ donation and body donation are not the same thing.
Not all were aware the Biological Resource Center often dismembered and sold various body parts.
A 2013 price list that is part of the court file indicates sale prices for body parts:
Whole body with no shoulders or head: $2,900.
Torso with head: $2,400.
Whole spine: $950.
Whole leg: $1,100.
Whole foot: $450.
Knee: $375.
Pelvis: $400.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2019/07/19/cooler-penises-frankenstein-head-found-phoenix-body-donation-company/1720254001/
An English Misunderstanding of Iran
by Amir Taheri
July 26, 2019 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14585/the-english-job-jack-straw
The English Job
Understanding Iran and Why It Distrusts Britain
By Jack Straw
390 pages; published by Biteback Books, London 2019.
The subtitle of Jack Straw’s new book promises to help the reader in “understanding Iran”.
However, what one gets in 390 pages may best be described as a misunderstanding of Iran today — a misunderstanding that has prevented Britain, along with other Western powers, from developing a realistic Iran policy and has helped prolong the crisis caused by the Islamic Republic’s unorthodox behavior in the international arena.
Straw’s misunderstanding, perhaps caused by his “absolute infatuation” with his imaginary Iran, has three aspects.
The first is that he thinks that because Iran, as he reminds the reader, is an ancient civilization — and has produced great poets, weaves exquisite carpets and offers one of the world’s hautes cuisines — it deserves indulgence for its weird activities in other domains such as hostage-taking, hate-mongering, human rights violations and the export of terror in the name of revolution. It is like granting Stalin indulgence because one appreciates Pushkin and Tchaikovsky and enjoys a dish of borscht with a glass of “little water” on the side. In another register, what would you say if we gave Hitler a pass because we like Schiller, Beethoven and potato salad? That Cyrus the Great was a great king and, arguably, even the founder of human rights, as Straw suggests, does not justify, to cite just one example, the mass murder of Syrians by a mercenary army led by the Iranian mullahs.
Muslim Couple Who Underwent Government Deradicalization Program Were Suicide Bombers Behind Roman Catholic Cathedral, Killing Over 20 During Sunday Mass
I have long written on the inherent failures of jihad de-radicalization programs. They are doomed to failure because they do not address the root cause, the motive for holy war – Islamic texts and teachings.
These counter terror and “deradicalization” programs are nothing more than charters for surrender. Of all the absurd and ludicrous responses by leftist elites to the jihad threat, “deradicalization” ranks as the most inane. How can a program claim to address the ideological motive behind acts of war without addressing the ideology? These absurd programs are based on the idea that Islam is a Religion of Peace, and that jihad terrorists are misunderstanding it. But this is false, so the programs are a failure.
The only deradicalization center in France, for example, was closed down because of the high failure rate, which was foredoomed since it was never going to deal with motive.
https://gellerreport.com/2019/07/deradicalization-fails-chuch-bombing.html/
WATCH: Google Places Whistleblower Who Talked To Project Veritas On Administrative Leave
Google has placed Greg Coppola, a senior software engineer, on administrative leave for telling the truth about Google’s far-left bias in its search engine results.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/watch-google-places-whistleblower-who-talked-to-project-veritas-on-administrative-leave/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=daily
Isis suspects in Syrian camp raise thousands through online crowdfunding campaign
Fundraising comes amid growing concerns over radicalisation at al-Hol camp
Women detained in a camp for Isis families in Syria have raised thousands of pounds through an online crowdfunding campaign.
The fundraising effort, named “Justice for Sisters”, was launched last month with the help of an intermediary in Germany, and appears to be aimed at soliciting donations from sympathisers in Europe.
The campaign comes amid growing concerns over radicalisation at al-Hol camp, which is holding thousands of suspected female Isis members and their children, many of whom are still loyal to the terror group.
Security services in the UK and around the world are concerned that citizens detained in Syria who still hold extremist views will eventually find their way back home. The British government believes that women can pose as significant a risk to national security as returning male fighters.
The Justice for Sisters campaign is one of two known fundraising efforts for women in al-Hol, the other of which is a campaign explicitly aimed at raising funds to pay smugglers to help them escape.
Analysts have warned that deteriorating conditions at the camp could potentially lead to more women seeking to smuggle themselves out, and potentially more fundraising campaigns to help them.
The latest effort began last month, when videos and letters written in German, Arabic and English from women claiming to be detained in the camp were posted to an Isis-affiliated channel on the Telegram messaging service.
The women, at least some of whom appear to be European citizens, complained of poor conditions in the camp. One message, written in English, says that “life in the hands of the kuffar [non-believers] is not easy”.
“Most of all, we need water, electricity and financial help. Many children and women are malnourished and need fruit, vegetables and milk. Everything is there but many sisters cannot afford it,” read one message.
The group shared handwritten letters and photographs purporting to be from inside the camp. In one picture, four women hold signs made out of cardboard to demonstrate the authenticity of the campaign. One sign reads: “Free Prisoners. Your sisters in Al Hol”. On another is written: “Germany”.
The group shared handwritten letters and photographs purporting to be from inside the camp. In one picture, four women hold signs made out of cardboard, designed to demonstrate the authenticity of the campaign. One sign reads: “Free Prisoners. Your sisters in Al Hol”. On another is written simply: “Germany”.
Participants shared links to several PayPal MoneyPool accounts, which collectively raised more than €3,000 (£2,600). They may not be the only accounts associated with the campaign, however, and the total amount raised is likely to be higher.
In an apparent effort to avoid being taken down by PayPal, they used coded messages to disguise the aim of the fundraising. One was labelled “Honeymoon in Vienna”, while another claimed the funds were to be used for a boxing event.
In a message posted on the encrypted Telegram channel, a member of the group reminded potential donors: “Please don’t use Islamic terms in the donation, there’s danger of the Account being closed by PayPal.”
The campaign was promoted by a man believed to be an administrator for a number of Isis Telegram channels, who also tweeted that the fundraising effort was genuine. The Telegram channel was eventually closed. It is unknown whether the campaign is still ongoing.
The campaign was revealed by the Rojava Information Centre – a collection of international media activists based in northern Syria. The Independent reviewed chat logs and screenshots from the Telegram channels and four PayPal campaigns shared by the group.
Although the group’s creators told donors that the funds were for women and children in the camp to buy food, the amount raised could be used to pay smugglers to help them escape.
Similar fundraising campaigns have claimed to have had success in freeing women from al-Hol camp in recent months. One such effort, set up with the explicit aim of freeing women, was launched by al-Qaeda supporters based in Idlib, northern Syria, in January.
The “Free the Female Prisoners” campaign said this week that it had succeeded in freeing its fourth woman from the camp.
In a Telegram post, the campaign announced, “Glad tidings! Your brothers in this campaign have managed – with Allah’s help and the collaboration of various parties and money from altruists – to secure the release of an immigrant sister from al-Hol refugee camp and ensure she reached liberated areas”, in a reference to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.
It previously released a poster detailing what donors were paying for. It said “$8,000 secures the full release of a sister and the Golden share $4,000 covers half the cost.”
While it is unclear exactly how many women have managed to escape the camp, researchers working on the ground in Syria have heard anecdotal evidence that it is occurring.
“It’s incredibly expensive and costs thousands of dollars, and therefore very few can afford to leave. But some women have been able to smuggle themselves out of the camp,” said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, who recently visited the camp.
“They are desperate to get out. Conditions in the camp are terrible,” she added. “For foreign women, it is also a way to escape justice since they may be prosecuted in their home countries.”
The campaigns come amid reports of worsening conditions in al-Hol, and warnings from camp authorities that they are in danger of becoming overwhelmed. The camp is currently home to some 70,000 women and children who were detained while leaving the last Isis stronghold in Syria earlier this year.
Many of them were local residents who became trapped within Isis areas by the battle, but the majority were the wives and family members of fighters who showed little sign of abandoning the group.
Al-Hol, and a number of smaller facilities, are controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish and Arab militia backed by the US. Al-Hol is the largest of those camps, and is comprised mostly of women and children from Syria and Iraq, together with around 11,000 foreign citizens.
The deputy commander of the US-led coalition to defeat Isis told The Independent that the potential for radicalisation in the camps was “the biggest long-term strategic risk” in ensuring its total defeat.
In recent weeks, there have been a number of incidents in the camp which have caused alarm. In a video purportedly released by camp residents, the black flag of Isis was hoisted in the camp while women and children can be seen chanting Isis slogans. Guards are frequently attacked by extremists inside the camp.
Conditions at al-Hol were heavily criticised in a Human Rights Watch report released on Tuesday. During three visits to the area reserved for foreign women and children last month, the group “found overflowing latrines, sewage trickling into tattered tents, and residents drinking wash water from tanks containing worms”.
The report added: “Young children with skin rashes, emaciated limbs, and swollen bellies sifted through mounds of stinking garbage under a scorching sun or lay limp on tent floors, their bodies dusted with dirt and flies. Children are dying from acute diarrhoea and flu-like infections.”
Foreign governments – including the UK – have shown little willingness to take back their citizens from the camps over fears they will pose a significant security risk. There are thought to be at least 19 British women currently at al-Hol and other camps in the area, together with at least 30 of their children.
The plight of British children stuck in Syria made the headlines earlier this year when the infant child of Shamima Begum, named Jarrah, died in the al-Hol camp. The British teenager fled her home in Bethnal Green, London, to join Isis in Syria in 2015.
While access to al-Hol is extremely restricted, the ability of its residents to receive funds sent from abroad presents a new challenge to camp authorities. Money transfer facilities are present in the main part of the camp, and foreign detainees could in theory receive money with the help of a Syrian living in the camp.
The use of anonymous messaging apps and online money transfer platforms have been utilised by extremist groups in recent years to avoid detection. The last few years has seen an attempt by these platforms to seek out and remove any fundraising by extremists.
“They are clearly alert to the risk, and PayPal has acquired some heavy hitting people from the security world in the last year or so,” according to Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank focused on international defence and security.
“These crowdfunding websites do close out access to extremist actors, but it’s very challenging. The bad actors know these places are on the lookout for them, they will do everything they can to cover their tracks,” he added.
A British government spokesperson told The Independent: “It is an offence to provide financial assistance to someone where they know or suspect it could be used for terrorist purposes and we work closely with the financial sector who are required to disclose any suspicions they have concerning terrorist financing.”
They added that “anyone returning from engaging in the conflict in Syria and Iraq will be investigated by the police to determine if they have committed crimes or pose a threat to our national security”.
A spokesperson from PayPal said they could not comment on specific cases, but added: “At PayPal, we take seriously our responsibility to ensure money moves around the world in compliance with laws and regulations. If we find evidence of any violation of our policies or national laws, we will take appropriate action.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-syria-camp-al-hol-paypal-telegram-online-crowdfunding-a9021006.html
ITALY ROME – DAILY MAIL – ‘North African thieves’ stab cop to death on the streets of Rome provoking outrage and vow from Matteo Salvini to condemn them to ‘forced prison labor for as long as they live’
Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was knifed to death in Rome last night
Grisly blade attack came just 43 days after the Carabiniere officer got married
He was confronting two suspected thieves who had stolen a women’s purse
The news could pour petrol on an already widespread anti-immigrant sentiment
An Italian paramilitary officer has been stabbed to death in the heart and back after he confronted two suspected Maghrebi thieves for allegedly snatching a woman’s purse.
Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was knifed eight times in Rome last night and died in hospital despite desperate attempts from doctors to save him.
The grisly blade attack came just 43 days after the Carabiniere officer, from Somma Vesuviana, Naples, got married.
Police are now scouring the capital for two North African men in their twenties who are believed to have carried out the stabbing, according to Roma Today.
Italy’s hardline anti-immigrant interior minister Matteo Salvini tweeted: ‘Manhunt in Rome, to stop the b****** who killed a Carabiniere with a knife last night.
‘I’m sure they will find him, and that he will pay for his violence to the end: forced labor in prison for as long as he lives.’
The two suspects were being questioned by Rega for allegedly committing what is known as a ‘return horse’ crime in Italy.
Widespread in the European country, it involves stealing someone’s belongings before negotiating a price with their victim to return it.
According to the Carabiniere – the national gendarmerie – the supposed North African thieves had demanded 100 euros for the return of the woman’s purse.
But as Rega moved in to intercept the suspected thieves, they pulled out a knife and stabbed the officer before fleeing.
This morning, detectives and forensics teams descended on the blood-splattered crime scene to hunt for clues.
If the suspected North African men are found to have killed the officer, it will pour petrol on an already fiery anti-immigrant sentiment which has been sweeping the country.
Salvini, who leads the far-right Northern League party which has a power-sharing agreement with the Five Star movement in government, has pushing for a clampdown on illegal migrants and asylum seekers.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7289383/North-African-thieves-stab-cop-death-streets-Rome.html
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Cop stabbed to death in Rome
Manhunt underway, Salvini says ‘bastards’ will be caught
(ANSA) – Rome, July 26 – A massive manhunt has been launched for two men thought to be from North Africa after an on-duty Carabiniere police was stabbed to death in the Italian capital in the night between Thursday and Friday. The 35-year-old Carabiniere Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega is believed to have been with other colleagues in the process of arresting two men believed to be behind a case of theft and extortion when one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed him several times.
Both men were able to escape.
Cerciello Rega was taken to the hospital but died of the injuries sustained in the attack.
He was stabbed eight times, with one of the blows hitting the heart.
He leaves behind a widow, whom he married just 43 days ago.
“They killed him,” the woman said in tears at the mortuary of the Santo Spirito hospital.
Cerciello Rega was a popular figure who did volunteer work in addition to his regular job.
Around 100 friends and relatives from his region of origin, Campania, came up to Rome to pay their respects.
“Mario was a lovely lad,” said Sandro Ottaviani, the commander of Rome’s Piazza Farnese Carabinieri station.
“He never held back at work and he was figurehead for the whole district.
“He always helped everyone. He did voluntary work, accompanying sick people to Lourdes and Loreto.
“Every Tuesday he went to Termini train station to feed the needy”. The attack took place in via Pietro Cossa, in the affluent and central Prati district of Rome.
He was in the process of detaining two men who were trying to extort 100 euros from a person in exchange for the return of a stolen bag. At least four people are being questioned at a Carabinieri barracks in relation to the case. Premier Giuseppe Conte said the officer’s murder was a “deep wound for the State”.
President Sergio Mattarella sent a message to the Carabinieri expressing his “profound sadness” at Cerciello Rega’s death and reiterating his esteem for the force.
Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini vowed that the culprits will be brought to justice.
“My first thought goes to that 35-year-old lad, who has been married for a month and had just celebrated his birthday, and those two bastards,” League leader Salvini told Radio Rai.
“We are working to catch them as soon as possible”.
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2019/07/26/cop-stabbed-to-death-in-rome_52f95340-906f-4c50-ae89-af25b2ab4fe3.html
From 2016:
A rescue service in need of rescue?
Södertörns Fire Department pursues diversity in new employees.
This has resulted in men with both education and solid experience have not received employment at Södertörn while people with no experience whatsoever from that line of work got employment at the same recruitment occasion.
The fire fighters also tell about an organisation where they no longer successfully can perform their duties, where call outs goes wrong, and the public and the fire fighters are exposed to danger.
The question is if they in their eagerness to fight discrimination themselves started to discriminate?
Germany: Climate activists take over Stuttgart airport to demand change
Hundreds of young climate activists took over Stuttgart airport on Friday, to raise awareness for climate change and call for action to prevent climate change.
Around 300 young environmental activists from ‘Fridays for Future,’ Schutzgemeinschaft (SG) Filder and the Climate and Environmental Protection Alliance Stuttgart (KUS), came together to raise awareness of the impact of frequent flying and bring attention to alleged low taxation on fuel at Germany’s Stuttgart airport.
Young protesters, joined by a few elderly activists, were seen at Terminal 1 unfurling a massive banner reading ‘Don’t melt our future,’ chanting slogans and holding protest signs.
The protest coincided with the last day of school before the summer vacation in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, which sees a surge in air travel.
Authentic footage from the Chernobyl disaster
33 years have passed since the Chernobyl accident.
As its reality recedes, the memory of suffering is replaced by post-apocalyptic imagery from tourists, documentary crews and TV shows.
Yet the story of the plant’s demise remains harrowing.
test 01
UK – Teenager who brutally raped and murdered 14-year-old girl named as Ayman Aziz
Ayman Aziz subjected Lithuanian national to horrific levels of violence in a two-hour attack
The identity of a teenager who brutally raped and murdered a 14-year-old schoolgirl can be revealed for the first time after a court ruling.
Ayman Aziz, 17, contacted Viktorija Sokolova online and lured her to a Wolverhampton park, where he subjected her to horrific levels of violence in a two-hour attack before dumping her body on a bench.
He was handed a life sentence and ordered to serve at least 19 years behind bars at Wolverhampton Crown Court in February after being found guilty of her murder.
Aziz could not be identified in reports at the time as reporting restrictions because of his age were imposed.
Although the trial judge agreed to lift those restrictions following an application by media organisations, the teenager’s lawyers challenged that decision and the restrictions remained in place pending an appeal.
Adam Kane QC argued the reporting restrictions should not be lifted because they would have an adverse effect on Aziz’s rehabilitation.
He also said the teenager, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has been “bullied and threatened” in detention and has stopped attending educational classes as a result.
But the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and two other senior judges rejected Aziz’s challenge at the Court of Appeal, meaning he can now be named.
The judges also rejected an appeal by Aziz, who watched the hearing over a video link from the young offenders’ institution where he is detained, against his minimum term.
The teenager denied any wrongdoing during a three-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court but was found guilty by a jury on December 14 last year over the attack on Viktorija.
Lithuanian-born Viktorija – described in court by her mother as her “one and only” – was contacted by Aziz on Facebook Messenger and lured to Wolverhampton’s West Park late on April 11 2018.
She was savagely beaten in a pavilion before being dragged 150 yards to a bench, where her body was later discovered by a dog walker.
Sentencing Aziz, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said the teenager carried out the “truly shocking” attack after watching pornography and carrying out internet research.
He was caught on CCTV as he attempted to cover up the offence by hiding bloodied clothing, having deleted Facebook messages and hurled his victim’s phone towards a lake.
Detectives believe he used a hammer, which has never been found, to launch the assault on his victim – who suffered a fractured skull, brain injuries and shattered vertebrae.
Throughout his trial, Aziz showed no remorse, gave no evidence in his defence and simply nodded as he was ordered by the judge to be taken to the cells.
In a victim impact statement, Viktorija’s mother Karolina Valantiniene said her daughter had “many beautiful plans for the future” – learning how to drive, finishing school – and she had spoken of “buying her a beautiful prom dress”.
She added: “Many times, I’ve asked why are there such terrible people on the Earth. To realise you don’t have your child any more, and never will again. Because she was my one and only daughter. Someone dared to raise his hand against her and take her away from me. Why?”
Lord Burnett said full reasons for the Court of Appeal’s decision will be given at a later date.
Commenting on the ruling, Detective Inspector Caroline Corfield, of West Midlands Police, said: “I am pleased with the outcome of the hearing today. It means a lot to Viktorija’s family that the name of her killer has been made public.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/viktorija-sokolova-rape-murder-wolverhampton-ayman-aziz-a9021351.html