Contributor’s links for July 31, 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 must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

121 Replies to “Contributor’s links for July 31, 2019”

  1. Ep. 1034 A Disastrous Night for the Democrats. The Dan Bongino Show 7/31/2019.

  2. Why is the Left ACTIVELY Fighting against Election Integrity? | Tom Fitton’s Issue Update

  3. “Controversial” new free speech rules at Alberta’s Keyano College panics journalists| Ezra Levant

  4. U.S. has intel that Osama bin Laden’s son and heir, Hamza, is dead, officials say

    The officials would not provide details of how Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role. It is unclear if Washington has confirmed his death.

    WASHINGTON — The United States has obtained intelligence that the son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Hamza bin Laden, is dead, according to three U.S. officials.

    The officials would not provide details of where or when Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role in his death. It is unclear if the U.S. has confirmed his death.

    Hamza bin Laden’s last known public statement was released by al Qaeda’s media arm in 2018. In that, he threatened Saudi Arabia and called on the people of the Arabian peninsula to revolt.

    Hamza bin Laden is believed to have been born around 1989. His father moved to Afghanistan in 1996 and declared war against the U.S. Hamza went with him and appeared in al Qaeda propaganda videos. As leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden oversaw operations against Western targets that culminated in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and on the Pentagon.

    Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 during a raid on his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound. Hamza was not found at the compound. Letters seized from the compound suggested the elder bin Laden wanted his son to join him in Abbottabad and was grooming him as a leader.

    In a September 2017 article, counterterror expert and former FBI agent Ali Soufan said, “Hamza is being prepared for a leadership role in the organization his father founded” and is “likely to be perceived favorably by the jihadi rank-and-file. With the Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ apparently on the verge of collapse, Hamza is now the figure best placed to reunify the global jihadi movement.”

    In February, the State Department announced it would pay as much as $1 million for information on Hamza bin Laden’s whereabouts.

    The department’s Counterterrorism Rewards Program described the younger bin Laden on Twitter as “an emerging al Qaeda leader” who “has threatened attacks against the United States and allies.”

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-has-intel-osama-bin-laden-s-son-heir-n1037236

  5. Even the peacekeepers aren’t safe in the Democrat stronghold of Chicago

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot hailed the work of anti-violence activists across the city while responding to questions about two women who were shot and killed at an Englewood neighborhood intersection where one group has camped out every summer day since 2015.

    “The continuing use of firearms by people who clearly have no regard for the consequences is a challenge that we are facing in a lot of areas across the city,” Lightfoot said. “This organization was stood up to try to reclaim territory in a neighborhood and that’s exactly the kind of effort that we need.”

    Chantell Grant and Andrea Stoudemire were standing at the corner of 75th Street and Stewart Avenue just before 10 p.m. Friday when someone in a blue SUV opened fire. Both women were shot several times and later died.

    The two mothers were familiar faces at the Englewood intersection, where members of the group Mothers Against Senseless Killings camp out in the summer in hopes of breaking the cycle of violence in the neighborhood by transforming a corner with a history of bloodshed into a lively hangout for mothers and their children.

    Police have no reason to believe the women were targeted — one was shot from half a block away, said police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who stood next to Lightfoot at a news conference outside her City Hall office. The gunmen were apparently after a young man who was also shot and had been recently paroled for aggravated battery, Johnson said.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=73496?omhide=true

  6. MOROCCO – 20th anniversary of King Mohammed VI’s coronation: allegiance ceremony

  7. Media Moves to Protect Antifa From Trump’s Threats of Declaring it a Terrorist Organization

    President Donald Trump has come out against Antifa, threatening to declare the organization, whose members he called “gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats,” a major organization of terror, which, as he also pointed out, “would make it easier for police to do their job.”

    But because Trump is for it, the media is against it.

    “Trump wants to declare Antifa a terrorist organization, even though right-wing extremists have been more violent,” wrote Newsweek in the headline of a story by Christina Zhao.

    “Trump Warns ‘Gutless’ Antifa May Be Branded A Terror Group As Far-Right Killings Climb,” read the headline on Mary Papenfuss’ piece on Huffington Post. “The loose collection of groups of anti-fascist protesters haven’t been linked to a single death, while right-wing extremists tally mounts,” read the subhead.

    The media has two talking points on this. One is to assert that Antifa is a loose-knit organization ? so loose-knit, in fact, that because “Antifa is a loosely linked collection of groups of protesters who take on right-wing demonstrators on an ad-hoc basis, rather than a single organized group,” then “designating such protesters as part of a terror group risks branding any demonstrators against a right-wing ideology as terrorists,” Papenfuss wrote.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=73442?omhide=true

  8. A Trip Down Memory Lane: Baltimore Welcomes Diversity
    July 30, 2019 ~ Ann Corcoran

    Editor: This week the President challenged local Democrat elected officials to fix their decaying cities with special attention to Baltimore. But, I am seeing no mention of the unsuccessful push there for more than a decade to rebuild Baltimore with immigrants.

    This is a post I wrote in May of 2015 at Refugee Resettlement Watch as Baltimore was in flames.

    Changing American cities by changing the people (pushing out African Americans!)? Is it possible that diversity doesn’t build economic strength, but in fact further destroys African American communities?
    Baltimore: Thousands of impoverished refugees poured into city in last ten years; fuel for the fire?

    Is Baltimore a failed social experiment in the government’s (and big business’s) push for more diversity in your towns and cities?

    Can we call it a first spectacular failure for Obama’s Task Force on New Americans plan to seed communities with third-worlders?

    https://fraudscrookscriminals.com/2019/07/30/a-trip-down-memory-lane-baltimore-welcomes-diversity/

    • Baltimore’s Biggest Democrat Rats
      Rep. Cummings praised a Baltimore politician who stole toys from poor children.
      July 31, 2019
      Daniel Greenfield

      When President Trump referred to Baltimore as a “disgusting rat and rodent infested mess”, he could have just as easily been talking about its two-legged Democrat rats as its four-legged Norwegian rats.

      Charm City’s Norwegian rats (rattus norvegicus) usually only come out at night and munch on trash in the shadows of housing projects, while its Democrat rats (rattus democratus) sashay around in the light of day and munch on taxpayer goodies in the marble houses of government.

      If you want to see a good example of rattus democratus in its native Baltimorean habitat, draw the curtains, send the kiddies to bed, and take a close look at Nathaniel T. Oaks. Oaks had spent much of his adult life as an elected misrepresentative in Maryland. He’s been a member of more committees, task forces, and subcommittees than anyone can count. These include the Maryland Bicycle Caucus, the Minority Health Disparities Subcommittee, and the Task Force on African-American Entrepreneurship.

      In 1989, Oaks was caught stealing $10,000 from his own campaign fund. He was convicted of perjury and misconduct in office, and got off with a suspended sentence and community service.

      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274454/baltimores-biggest-democrat-rats-daniel-greenfield

    • The Shame of Baltimore’s Schools
      How the Democrats destroyed public education in Charm City.
      July 31, 2019
      Frontpagemag.com

      Editors’ note: It was a typical weekend in American politics. President Trump told the truth about a failed congressional Democrat who for 23 years has represented the constituents of one of America’s most inhospitable cities, and the Democrats responded by doing the only thing they really know how to do: smearing Trump as a racist. “Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore,” said Trump, calling it a city that “ranks last in almost every major category.” In a report about this latest dustup, NBC News said: “It was not clear what set of statistics Trump was referencing.”

      The uncertainty of the Democrat mouthpieces at NBC is somewhat understandable, since there is in fact a host of statistics that show why, as Trump also said, “no human being would want to live” in Baltimore. Perhaps the president was referencing the fact that Baltimore has the fifth highest murder rate of any city in the United States. Or maybe he had in mind the city’s astounding 22 percent poverty rate. Or perhaps he was thinking of Baltimore’s violent crime rate, which is more than 5 times higher than the national average.

      Or maybe President Trump was reflecting on the multitudinous failings of the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) system, which are laid bare in Shame of the Schools, John Perazzo’s pamphlet for the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

      As Perazzo points out, BCPS currently spends an astronomical $16,000 per year in taxpayer funds on each K-12 student in its jurisdiction, a figure that is more than a third higher than the national average. And what do Baltimore’s children and their taxpaying parents get in return for those expenditures? A student population where a paltry 11 to 13 percent of all youngsters from fourth grade through high school are able to read or do mathematics with proficiency. As Perazzo notes in Shame of the Schools, 13 of the

      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274457/shame-baltimores-schools-frontpagemagcom

  9. Trump sees his base growing from Democratic sparring

    The president’s reelection campaign hopes to use some of the Democratic presidential candidates’ most liberal stances to draw new working-class and independent voters to Trump.

    By GABBY ORR

    07/30/2019 05:04 AM EDT

    When the Democrats running for president all agreed at their first debate — via a raised hand — that public health insurance should cover undocumented immigrants, the Trump campaign saw an opening.

    The campaign war room immediately clipped the video and shared it on social media. President Donald Trump tweeted about it. It was a tactic, people assumed, to rile up Trump’s steadfast but limited base ahead of 2020.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/30/donald-trump-democratic-2020-sparring-1440498

  10. Woke & Broke: Gillette Gets $8 Bill Writedown
    July 31, 2019
    Daniel Greenfield

    Toxic wokeness among major corporations with garbage products is a real problem.

    It works like this. A major brand has a garbage product that it overcharges for, but its brand is one of the 2 or 3 names consumers know, and it’s part of a vast megacorporate umbrella of garbage brands just like it. So to “refresh” its brand, its ad people tell it to take a leftist stand.

    And then maybe consumers will stop switching to better alternatives.

    Didn’t work so well for Gilette.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274488/woke-broke-gillette-gets-8-bill-writedown-daniel-greenfield

  11. “Trump: $16 Billion to Baltimore Was ‘Stolen or Wasted, Ask Elijah Cummings Where it Went’”
    by Zachary Stieber – July 30, 2019
    https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-16-billion-to-baltimore-was-stolen-or-wasted-ask-elijah-cummings-where-it-went_3022553.html

    “”President Trump has given $16 billion in 2018 alone to Elijah Cummings’ district in federal grants.”

    “My question to you guys is this: what are you actually doing with the money?”
    Trump War Room – July 29, 2019
    https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1155999940050485248

    • What are you actually doing with the money?

      Baltimore – The birthplace of Nancy Pelosi.

      “WOW! Nancy Pelosi Lectures Trump, Spouts Off on Rat-Infested Baltimore from 5 Star Hotel Rooftop Restaurant in Venice, Italy with Fellow Democrats” by Jim Hoft – July 29, 2019
      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/wow-nancy-pelosi-spouts-off-on-rat-infested-baltimore-from-5-star-hotel-rooftop-restaurant-in-venice-italy-with-fellow-democrats/

      “To @RepCummings with love from Ghana, where we’re solemnly observing 400 yrs since the first enslaved Africans arrived in America. Thank you Elijah for fearlessly speaking truth.”
      Nancy Pelosi – July 28, 2019 – Twitter
      https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1155595722626084869

      • Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address – March 4, 1865

        With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
        http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/inaug2.htm

        Rub Raw the Sores of Discontent

        “The despair is there; now it’s up to us to go in and rub raw the sores of discontent, galvanize them for radical social change. We’ll give them a way to participate in the democratic process, a way to exercise their rights as citizens and strike back at the establishment that oppresses them, instead of giving in to apathy. We’ll start with specific issues — taxes, jobs, consumer problems, pollution — and from there move on to the larger issues: pollution in the Pentagon and the Congress and the board rooms of the megacorporations. Once you organize people, they’ll keep advancing from issue to issue toward the ultimate objective: people power. We’ll not only give them a cause, we’ll make life goddamn exciting for them again — life instead of existence. We’ll turn them on.” — Saul Alinsky
        https://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/tag/saul-alinsky-obama/

        “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” – Abraham Lincoln

    • Will China Invade Hong Kong? Or Taiwan Instead?

      Xi Jinping has no good options dealing with runaway Hong Kong. To compensate, he may put pressure on Taiwan.

      Xi Jinping’s choices on Hong Kong are all atrocious, so the Chinese ruler could just enlarge the problem and cause an incident elsewhere. An audacious act would not be out of character for Xi.

      For many, an invasion of Taiwan or some other belligerent act seems inconceivable, but the events of the last few weeks have been nothing short of extraordinary. Unfortunately, anything can happen now.

      Beijing made headlines on Wednesday when Wu Qian, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, called last weekend’s protests in Hong Kong “absolutely intolerable” and suggested China might send in troops, pointing out that the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s “mini constitution,” allowed the Hong Kong government to request the assistance of the Chinese military.

      https://www.thedailybeast.com/will-china-invade-hong-kong-or-taiwan-instead?ref=home

  12. Lord Christopher Monckton, ICCC13 (Panel 5: Advancing from Theory to Practice)

    • I know this one is about a year old but the information is something people need to keep in mind, especially with China starting to crack down on Hong Kong.

  13. NYT – Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA

    Jeffrey E. Epstein, the wealthy financier who is accused of sex trafficking, had an unusual dream: He hoped to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch.[…]

    […]Mr. Epstein attracted a glittering array of prominent scientists. They included the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who discovered the quark; the theoretical physicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking; the paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould; Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and best-selling author; George M. Church, a molecular engineer who has worked to identify genes that could be altered to create superior humans; and the M.I.T. theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, a Nobel laureate.

    […]Mr. Epstein was willing to finance research that others viewed as bizarre. He told one scientist that he was bankrolling efforts to identify a mysterious particle that might trigger the feeling that someone is watching you.

    […]Mr. Epstein told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use his New Mexico ranch as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give birth to his babies

    […]One adherent of transhumanism said that he and Mr. Epstein discussed the financier’s interest in cryonics, an unproven science in which people’s bodies are frozen to be brought back to life in the future. Mr. Epstein told this person that he wanted his head and penis to be frozen.

    more:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html

  14. channel 4 – Capitalism combats climate change? Bank of England says business will benefit from saving the planet

    If you needed clear evidence of climate change, then the latest Met Office figures provide it.

    New analysis has revealed that the UK’s ten warmest years on record have all happened since 2002, while the most recent coolest year was way back in 1963. Met Office experts said the cluster of extreme temperatures were consistent with the warming global climate. So is Britain equipped to cope? And if not, who’s coming up with solutions?

    The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has said that “capitalism is part of the solution” to tackling climate change.

    In an exclusive interview with Channel 4 News about climate change, Mr Carney challenged the view of some environmental campaigners that the pursuit of GDP growth is incompatible with tackling climate change.

    + comments on the YT page

  15. FBI Director Goes To Court To Protect Document Which Was Previously Released In Redacted Form; Hmmm

    Kathleen Kavalec has become a familiar name to those of us who follow the Russia collusion probe on a daily basis. Kavalec served as the State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary. She met with dossier author Christopher Steele in October of 2016, ten days before the FBI submitted their first application to the FISA Court for a warrant to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Kavalec found a number of anomalies in Steele’s story and emailed the FBI two days later about her suspicions.

    Kavalec’s email, and the documents attached to it, were publicly released several months ago in response to a FOIA request by conservative political advocacy group Citizens United, albeit in heavily redacted form. The group has filed a new FOIA request to obtain the documents in unredacted form and the FBI has gone to court to prevent that from happening.

    The Hill’s John Solomon, a well-connected and highly regarded investigative reporter who follows this case closely, wrote that the FBI’s strenuous fight to keep these records private is “tantamount to giving up the keys to President Trump’s nuclear briefcase, aiding the enemy or assisting terrorists.” He added that, “normally, such Freedom of Information Act cases don’t merit public attention. This one does.”

    Why is the FBI fighting so hard to prevent the release of these documents? The FBI maintains, as they always do, they are concerned that sources and methods will be revealed. In a sworn affidavit, an FBI official claimed, “We know that terrorist organizations and other hostile or foreign intelligence groups have the capacity and ability to gather information from myriad sources, analyze it and deduce means and methods from disparate details to defeat the U.S. government’s collection efforts.”

    In court, this official argued that “The FBI can’t afford to jeopardize the fragile relationships that exist between the United States and certain foreign governments.” He also claimed that “FBI special agents have privacy interests from unnecessary, unofficial questioning as to the conduct of investigations and other FBI business.”

    FBI Director Christopher Wray has gone to great lengths to guard documents pertaining to their counter-intelligence investigation. Clearly, this information doesn’t include sources and methods or it wouldn’t have gone out to Clinton, the DNC and the media during the 2016 election season.

    Solomon summarizes what this lawsuit is all about:

    It’s about protecting the bureau’s reputation from revelations its agents knew derogatory information about Steele and his work before they used his dossier to support a surveillance warrant targeting the Trump campaign and failed to disclose that information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

    Citizens United’s president, David Bossie said, “Only through our litigation will the American people discover what the political operatives inside the Obama State Department and FBI were doing in 2016 with the fake Steele dossier before the FISA court.”

    Solomon describes one of the documents the FBI is trying to protect:

    It’s a five-page memo that Kavalec downloaded from Steele from an internet storage site after meeting with him on Oct. 11, 2016. She sent it to then-FBI section chief Steven Laycock, now an assistant director, two days later.

    The document, according to my sources who have seen it, lays out a theory that Steele and some liberals spread late in the 2016 campaign that unusual computer pings between a Trump Tower server and Alfa Bank in Russia might be a secret communication channel by which Trump and Vladimir Putin were hijacking the election.

    The theory has been written about in the media. Kavalec downloaded the file from Steele via a commercial internet download service and transmitted it to Laycock on non-classified email.

    It’s noteworthy that when these documents were previously released, Laycock’s name was redacted.

    Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) has seen the documents and said that “the memo is based on open source media reporting and that the FBI’s claim that revealing it would harm sources and methods is completely unfounded.”

    In former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony last week, he said the “Alfa Bank theory is not true.”

    Moreover, Kavalec transmitted this information in a non-classified manner.

    Why is Christopher Wray, who became the FBI Director after all of this occurred, trying to hide this information? Solomon’s sources tell him:

    It’s because the State Department included notations on Steele’s five pages of research strongly calling into question his Alfa Bank theories before sending it to the FBI. In other words, they challenged the veracity and quality of Steele’s intelligence.

    Under the FBI’s human source rules, a U.S. government’s negative assessment of an informer’s information would constitute “derogatory information” that would have to be disclosed to the FISC if Steele’s work was being used to support a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant.

    Eight days after Kavalec sent Laycock her annotated version of Steele’s Alfa Bank research, the FBI submitted to the FISC an application that won the agency permission to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

    The bureau did not include State’s assessment. Instead, agents declared they possessed no derogatory information about Steele.

    Wray’s attempts to stonewall requests for FBI records are becoming familiar. But the FBI has actually gone to court to fight this particular one.

    Two questions.

    What are they trying so hard to hide?

    Is it time for Trump to think about a replacement for Christopher Wray?

    https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/07/31/fbi-director-goes-court-protect-document-previously-released-redacted-form-hmmm/

  16. Swiss, Dutch Suspend Funding to UN Palestinian ‘Refugee’ Agency (breitbart, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/07/31/swiss-dutch-suspend-funding-to-un-palestinian-refugee-agency-over-ethics-probe/

    “Switzerland and the Netherlands have suspended payments to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees after a leaked internal report alleged corruption, sexual misconduct and mismanagement at the agency’s highest levels.

    The two European nations have said that the funds would be frozen pending a UN investigation into the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

    Senior officials at UNRWA, which faces a financial crisis after President Donald Trump’s decision to cut the U.S.’s $360 million contribution last year, are charged with “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives,” according to the report, which was obtained by AFP.

    The Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation said its country had “expressed to the UN in New York and to UNRWA its great concern and asked for clarification. The Netherlands is also in consultation with other donors,” according to a statement to Al Jazeera.

    Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch minister of development cooperation, “would like to hear what steps the UN plans to take based on the outcome of the investigation,” the statement said…”

  17. Woke Media Hit With MORE Layoffs, Gawker Relaunch CANCELED, Leftist Media Faces Collapse

  18. NEW DOCUMENTS Show FBI Agents Went to James Comey’s Home to Retrieve Memos! | Tom Fitton

  19. Islamic State claims 25 Nigeria soldiers killed in Benisheikh assault (thedefensepost, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://thedefensepost.com/2019/07/31/nigeria-iswap-benisheikh-borno/

    “Islamic State in a Wednesday statement claimed its fighters killed 25 soldiers in an assault on a military base in Benisheikh in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state.

    ISIS said fighters from its West Africa Province affiliate attacked the Nigerian Army base in Benisheikh on Monday, July 29. It claimed that around 25 soldiers were killed and others injured in clashes that lasted several hours, after which the insurgents seized weapons and ammunition, and burned the base.

    The Nigerian military has not yet commented on the incident, but there were multiple reports of insurgent activity in the Benisheikh area…”

  20. Libya’s Sarraj Admits to Receiving Arms from Turkey (aawsat, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1837556/libya%E2%80%99s-sarraj-admits-receiving-arms-turkey

    “The head of Libya’s Government of National Accord, Fayez al-Sarraj, has admitted for the first time that the GNA has been receiving weapons from Turkey.

    “We are protecting ourselves, cooperating with friendly states, acting as we deem necessary to protect our people,” Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted Sarraj as saying.

    He said the end of the war on Tripoli is near. It will end with the defeat of the forces loyal to Libyan National Army (LNA) leader Khalifa Haftar, added Sarraj…”

  21. 12% of Mauritanians infected with hepatitis (memo, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190731-twelve-per-cent-of-mauritanians-infected-with-hepatitis/

    “Twelve per cent of Mauritania’s four million people suffers from various types of hepatitis (A-B-C), according to a government medical institute.

    The director of the National Institute of Hepatic and Viral Diseases (governmental), Mustafa Ould Mohamed, said that between 10 and 12 per cent of Mauritanians are infected with hepatitis.

    This came in a speech he delivered on Monday in Nouakchott during the commemoration of the World Hepatitis Day, which was held under the slogan “Let us invest in the elimination of hepatitis.”

    Ould Mohamed said that his country had made efforts to eradicate the disease. Efforts included the establishment of a special institute for hepatic and viral infections in May…”

  22. Turkish military shipment arrives at Syrian border (memo, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190731-turkish-military-shipment-arrives-at-syrian-border/

    “Turkey sent military reinforcements to its southern Sanliurfa province late Tuesday, according to Anadolu Agency reporters on the ground.

    A 12-vehicle military convoy, including armored vehicles carrying commando units and buses, arrived in the province’s Ceylanpinar district as part of Turkey’s recent military reinforcements along the border with Syria…”

  23. Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif accuses Saudi Arabia of 9/11 attacks, arming Islamic State group (alaraby, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/7/31/iran-fm-accuses-saudi-arabia-of-9-11-arming-is

    “Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif on Wednesday accused Saudi Arabia of perpetrating the 11 September 2001 attacks, just hours after he told the world that Iran was “ready for dialogue” with the kingdom.

    He also accused the controversial kingdom of arming the extremist Islamic State group.

    “If Saudi Arabia is ready for dialogue, we are always ready for dialogue with our neighbours,” he said earlier on Wednesday, according to the IRIB news agency.

    “We have never closed the door to dialogue with our neighbours and we will never close the door to dialogue with our neighbours.”

    Just hours later, Zarif lashed out at Saudi Arabia, accusing the country of having been responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

    “Kill 3,000+ Americans but remain a US client and you can have nuclear weapons – even get help in acquiring them,” the foreign minister said in a tweet.

    Attached to the tweet was a video of US National Security Advisor John Bolton – the Trump administration’s most strident Iran hawk – discussing the United States’ withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal last year.

    While Saudi Arabia does not have a nuclear weapons programme, but does plan to develop at least two nuclear plants in the future.

    Several Trump insiders have publicly advocated for the US to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday aims to curb such transfers.

    While President Donald Trump has remained a firm ally of Saudi Arabia – refusing to condemn the kingdom over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and blocking congressional attempts to ban US arms sales to the country – the former businessman has devoted much of his presidency to attacking Iran.

    After withdrawing from the nuclear deal last year, Trump reinforced sanctions on the Islamic Republic in an attempt to force Iran back to the negotiating table for a tougher and more favourable deal for the US.

    “But refuse to bow to #B_Team’s whims, you can’t even possess peaceful nuclear energy,” Zarif added in the Wednesday tweet.

    “It apparently matters not that “Iran is killing ISIS” while US’ clients arm it,” he added, accusing Saudi Arabia of arming the extremist group.”

  24. The Brotherhood’s secrets (ahram, Jul 31, 2019)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/341933/Egypt/0/The-Brotherhood%E2%80%99s-secrets-.aspx

    “Muslim Brotherhood members in Turkey have been busy exchanging accusations of corruption. Members of the Brotherhood Youth Group have used Twitter and Facebook accounts to accuse Brotherhood leaders living in Turkey of embezzling millions of dollars.

    Four members of the Brotherhood’s Shura Council are said to have lined their own pockets with millions of dollars from Qatar and other donors at a time when the group’s rank and file are struggling to make ends meet in Turkey.

    “They embezzled funds to buy luxury flats and cars in Turkey,” Amr Hassan, a young Brotherhood member, wrote on his Facebook page.

    Hassan named Mahmoud Hassan, Ibrahim Mounir, Mohamed Al-Ibiari and Mohamed Al-Beheiri, all members of the group’s Shura Council, as the worst offenders.

    Amir Bassam, another member of the group’s Shura Council, joined the finger pointing, saying corruption and embezzlement were endemic among the group’s leaders.

    “We can’t allow this to continue, not at a time when some of the group’s members are facing starvation on the streets of Istanbul,” said Bassam.

    “Secretary-general Mahmoud Hussein, spokesperson Ibrahim Mounir, Brotherhood Africa official Mohamed Al-Beheiri and the manager of the Brotherhood’s office in London Mahmoud Al-Ibiari embezzled large sums to buy real estate in Turkey and set up bank accounts in the names of family members.

    “Hussein admitted he used donations to buy property, as well as spending $100,000 on a car. And this at a time the group’s younger members are eking by on 200 Turkish lira a month, or else have had all financial assistance removed,” said Bassam.

    Essam Talima, a preacher, said on a Brotherhood TV channel broadcast from Turkey that Hussein, Mounir, Al-Beheiri and Al-Ibiari had bought an apartment building valued at $1 million and “10 members of the Shura Council have demanded an investigation into the misuse of funds.”

    Maher Farghali, an expert on Islamist movements and former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Al-Arabiya TV that “the Brotherhood has a long history of milking funds from charitable organisations in Europe and elsewhere, particularly Qatar.

    “The group’s technique, particularly in Europe and the non-Islamic world, is to present itself as a victim of Arab autocracies.

    “The leaders use the money to spend on themselves and also to fund so-called Islamic centres which are then used to collect more donations and spread the Brotherhood’s extremist version of Islam.

    “They know how to sell themselves as victims, using the pose to amass personal wealth and at the same time spread their jihadi and takfiri ideology, incubating extremist movements and terrorist cells in Europe, something the world discovered when hundreds of Muslim Europeans joined Islamic State in Syria.”

    The accusations of corruption were reaching a crescendo just as part two of political thinker and researcher Tharwat Al-Khirbawi’s bestseller The Secret of the Temple was published.

    The book, which is thoroughly sourced, lays bare the inner workings of the outlawed group Muslim Brotherhood and casts light on the actions of its founder, Hassan Al-Banna.

    It details the relationship between the Brotherhood’s Al-Banna and the British intelligence service MI6, the role of the Brotherhood in assassinating Syrian-born singer Asmahan in 1944 and in the arson that consumed Downtown Cairo in January 1952, much of the material being drawn from the memoirs of Abdel-Rahman Al-Sanadi, first chief head of the Brotherhood’s clandestine armed wing.

    In an interview with MBC Misr channel on 26 July Al-Khirbawi, 62, noted “the story of Brotherhood leaders embezzling donations is hardly new, beginning with Hassan Al-Banna himself who in 1928, the year the Muslim Brotherhood was founded, somehow managed to obtain a large donation from the Suez Canal Company, headquartered in Ismailia.

    “In 1948, the Brothers were particularly busy, exploiting the war in Palestine to collect money for Jihad. Ahmed Al-Sokkari, Al-Banna’s deputy, resigned after he discovered Al-Banna had embezzled most of the funds.

    The Secret of the Temple Part 2, published by the General Egyptian Book Organisation, also details the influence of the Masos on Al-Banna’s thinking.

    “Louis Antoine, who was the Grand Master of a Masonic lodge in France, was the director of the Suez Canal Company when it made a donation to Al-Banna. Al-Banna adopted elements of Masonic structural organisation, including the requirement members swear an oath to the organisation and its leader.”

    While Al-Khirbawi denies the oft-stated claim Gamal Abdel-Nasser swore allegiance to the group in 1945, perhaps the most remarkable episode in The Secret of the Temple concerns the Brotherhood’s relationship with the British occupation authorities and intelligence service in Egypt. Al-Khirbawi claims the assassination of Asmahan, the Syrian born singer and sister of musician Farid Al-Atrash, was ordered by Hassan Al-Banna on the instructions of British intelligence.

    “Al-Banna was instructed by MI6 to kill Asmahan in 1944,” writes Al-Khirbawi. “British intelligence asked Al-Banna to arrange her assassination because of her German contacts. In turn, Al-Banna asked Abdel-Rahman Al-Sanadi to arrange her murder because, in Al-Banna’s words, she was a loose woman who spread immorality and an infidel to boot, having been born to a Druze family.”

    Al-Khirbawi’s book also includes revelations about the Muslim Brotherhood involvement in the wave of attacks against Jews living in Cairo following the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948. When the Egyptian police learned the Brotherhood was behind the attacks the group was banned.

    “In response,” says Al-Khirbawi, “Al-Banna ordered the assassination of Mahmoud Fahmi Al-Noqrashi, the prime minister and interior minister.”

    According to Al-Khirbawi, when members of the Brotherhood’s armed wing later learned that Al-Banna had given the government a list of their names in return for not being prosecuted, they determined to exact their revenge and kill him.

    “The Brotherhood’s leaders have long claimed that Al-Banna was killed by the Egyptian police, but Al-Sanadi’s memoirs make clear this is not true,” says Al-Khirbawi.

    The first part of Al-Khirbawi’s Secret of the Temple appeared in November 2012, four months after Mohamed Morsi had been elected president. It focused mainly on the Muslim Brotherhood’s relationship with the Masonic movement, the group’s deals with the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak, and relations between Brotherhood leaders and MPs on the one hand, and American officials and congressmen on the other.

    In March 2016, Al-Khirbawi published The Heart of the Brothers, an account of his involvement with the Brotherhood and the reasons behind his decision to leave.

    Al-Khirbawi defected from the Brotherhood’s ranks in 2002. He told MBC Misr on 26 July that his books seek to portray the true face of the group.

    *A version of this article appears in print in the 1 August, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: The Brotherhood’s secrets “

  25. Report Finds Muslims Lack Basic Religious Freedom in US Prisons (mwn, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/07/279473/religious-freedom-us-prisons/

    “A report published this month by the civil rights organization Muslim Advocates found that Muslims in US prisons are being denied basic religious freedoms, such as access to halal food and the right to pray.

    The report also found that Muslims are dramatically overrepresented in US prisons, accounting for about 9% of state prisoners. Muslims only represent 1% of the US population.

    “We don’t know for certain why there are so many, or why the numbers are growing,” said Yusuf Saei, the study’s main author. “Possible factors are the growth of the Muslim population in the U.S. generally, increased surveillance, harsher sentencing, and enforcement for Muslim communities, as well as conversions in prison.”

    To get these numbers, Muslim Advocates requested religious preference data from every state and based its report on the records it received from 34 states and Washington D.C.

    Analysis of court cases show dietary requirements are not met
    After getting a proper grasp of how many Muslims are in state prisons, the organization then analyzed discrimination complaints put forward by Muslims in prison and found that “numerous Muslim prisoners face obstacles to practicing their faith.”

    Many of these complaints stemmed from prisons refusing to comply with the dietary restrictions of Muslims, especially during Ramadan.

    Out of 163 cases of discrimination put forward by Muslim prisoners in the federal court and evaluated in the study, nearly 40% involved food.

    In one case, a prisoner alleged that the prison failed to provide him religious meals for four consecutive days during the month of Ramadan. Another alleged that he had
    to submit 15 requests to receive halal meals, over a period of about nine months before, before the request was finally accepted.

    The frequency of discrimination cases against Muslims in prisons is likely much higher than cases brought to court, due to the difficulties prisoners face in filing a lawsuit.

    “To file such a lawsuit, a prisoner must pay fees and overcome other serious obstacles to litigating, including the inability to obtain legal representation, fear of retaliation, difficulty conducting legal research, and lack of materials for mailing,” said the report.

    Requests to celebrate Eid al-Fitr routinely denied, praying limited
    The study found that another common complaint from Muslim prisoners is that requests to celebrate Eid al-Fitr are frequently denied, and work exemptions are not given. In Vermont and Alabama, policy says that “there are no work proscriptions required” for Muslims.

    “Considering that Christian holiday meals and festivity requests are routine or easily granted approval, these claims signal disparate treatment of Muslim prisoners,” said the report.

    The second most common complaint, accounting for 57 of the 163 cases, or 35%, regards obstacles to prayer and worship.

    The report referenced a case at one institution where Muslim inmates were banned from praying inside the chapel, even though other religious groups were permitted to do so. The Plaintiff in the case explained that this rule forced him and other Muslim inmates to pray outside in extreme weather conditions including cold, snow, and rain.

    In other cases, prisoners were banned from praying in the outdoor yard or prison dayroom and were sent to administrative segregation when they tried to do so. One prison even went as far as banning Muslims from praying in their own cells, the report says.

    Widespread inconsistencies in prison policy
    Since an analysis of court cases can not provide an accurate picture of discrimination, for the aforementioned reasons, the third part of the study analyzed the policies in state prisons across the US regarding religious freedom.

    The report found dramatic inconsistencies from state to state, with “some providing an appropriate level of accommodation in their policies, and others seemingly ignoring or downplaying the basic religious needs of Muslim prisoners.”

    For example, while some states are fully accommodating of prayer, with seven state religious

    handbooks recognizing the importance of group prayer in Muslim daily practice and
    instruct that daily group prayer be allowed where possible, other states are much less accommodating.

    The study also found “numerous examples of restrictions on Muslim practice that are needless, excessive, and without any legitimate justification,” and are therefore in breach of federal law. Muslim Advocates cited several of these “restrictive, and at times ridiculous” laws in its report as examples.

    While 17 states are completely accommodating of religious headgear, most of the states have odd restrictions in their policy. One odd law, in Colorado, says head coverings are allowed outside of the cell, but only if they are covered with another head covering such as a stocking or baseball cap and are “not visible.”

    “These restrictions on head covering are arbitrary. As the Colorado policy shows, non-religious headgear is allowed outside of cells. A baseball cap brim surely obscures the face more so than most Muslim headgear, which is brimless and, with the exception of a face veil, leaves the face unobstructed,” the report points out.

    Changes must be made
    As well as pointing out the flaws in the current prison system with regards to the rights of Muslims, the report outlined what changes it recommends to rectify these issues.

    The suggestions include allowing Muslims to adjust their work hours during Ramadan, training guards on how to conduct respectful searches of religious property, and allowing head coverings throughout their facilities. Muslims Advocates also said that the growing Muslim representation in US prison “should be enough of an incentive to implement the suggestions nationally.”

    “As civil rights lawyers, our takeaway is that many state prisons are failing to respond to the needs of this significant population of Muslims,” said Saei, the study’s main author. “It is simply unreasonable for so many state prisons to deny these people basic necessities […] particularly when other prisons are already doing this with ease.””

  26. Man stabs to death sister over ‘mobile phone dispute’ in Faisalabad (tribune, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2025311/1-man-stabs-death-sister-mobile-phone-dispute-faisalabad/

    “Police on Wednesday managed to trace an alleged culprit behind the murder of a 28-year-old girl in Faisalabad with her own brother believed to have taken her life over a ‘mobile phone’ dispute.

    Police found the victim’s body from Gugera Branch Canal a few days ago, who was identified as Afshan,

    As no one coming forward to claim the body, Afshan was then buried by authorities.
    During investigation, however, it was found that the victim belonged to Sammundri city.

    According to police, her brother, Adnan, first tortured and killed her in a fit of rage over an argument on a mobile phone.

    He was then taken into police custody where he confessed to having committed the crime.

    Adnan said that he killed her with a dagger when she was asleep. He then proceeded to dump her body into the canal.

    A case has now been registered against the suspect with an investigation underway.

    Incidents of similar nature have become commonplace in the country with earlier this year a man took his sister’s life as well as his brother in-law’s in Mansehra for tying the knot without the family’s consent.”

  27. Turkey warns Interpol over FETÖ members (hdn, Jul 31, 2019)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-to-fight-terror-groups-with-resolution-national-security-council-145389

    “Turkey has warned Interpol that its decision not to issue a red notice for FETÖ members would damage the global anti-terror fight as well as the founding purpose of the international police organization.

    “Removal of some terrorists, including so-called officials of the PYD/YPG, an offshoot of the PKK terror organization in Syria, from the red notice and not issuing a red notice for some FETÖ terrorists would give a big damage on fight against terror at the global level as well as the founding purpose of the Interpol,” said Turkey’s top security body at a bimonthly meeting late July 30.

    The National Security Council (MGK) held a six-hour meeting under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and with the participation of top civilian and military officials during which all security and foreign issues were largely deliberated.

    Turkey has long been pushing Interpol and other countries to cooperate in its fight against FETÖ members who fled the country before or after the July 2016 failed coup. Many FETÖ members enjoy liberty and continue their anti-Turkey propaganda in Western countries despite Ankara’s pressure on the said countries.

    Western countries do not regard FETÖ as a terror organization and argue that the evidence provided by Turkey on the members of the organization are far from convincing…”

  28. Blimp over Greek island of Samos to monitor illegal crossings from Turkey (hdn, Jul 31, 2019)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/blimp-over-greek-island-of-samos-to-monitor-illegal-crossings-from-turkey-145403

    “The European Union border agency Frontex has provided the Greek coast guard with a crewless blimp to monitor illegal crossings in the Aegean Sea.

    The blimp started to fly over the Greek island of Samos on July 30. The Greek island is a major arrival point for migrants who travel by sea in small smuggling boats to reach Europe as it is just across the Turkish resort town of Ku?adas?.

    The project will last 28 days, during which the airship will fly continuously 24 hours a day. Greece’s merchant marine ministry said the 35-meter airship can fly as high as 1,000 meters.

    A ministry statement issued on July 29 said the blimp has been equipped with radar and a thermal camera and is able to provide real-time, 24-hour monitoring of the surrounding sea.

    Not only will the blimp help officials tackle the illegal trafficking of migrants but also narcotics and any other criminal activity.

    In a statement, Greek officials said that the Greek Coast Guard has become the first EU Member State coast guard to use a zeppelin to police a maritime region and tackle cross-border crime.

    If the project is found to be successful, more airships will be deployed over other Greek islands.

    The Greek Deputy Minister of Migration, Yorgos Kumutsakos, said in a statement to the private television station, ANT1, that the zeppelin will allow authorities to detect ships that try to reach Greece when they leave Turkey, and thereby to inform the Turkish authorities, who will approach the vessel in question.

    The Greek minister said that “there are no hot returns.”

    “Everything will be done in accordance with international law,” he said.”

  29. One year on, Denmark’s ‘burqa ban’ has resulted in 23 fines (thelocal, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20190731/one-year-on-denmarks-burqa-ban-has-resulted-in-23-fines

    “A controversial ban on wearing face-masking garments in public, widely referred to as the ‘burqa ban’, came into effect in Denmark on August 1st last year.

    Since then, 23 people have been fined under the law, according to National Police figures reported by Kristeligt Dagblad…”

  30. French robbery gang target victims with poisoned cigarettes (thelocal, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.fr/20190731/french-robbery-gang-target-victims-with-poisoned-cigarettes

    “Several people have been robbed in central France after being poisoned by cigarettes that they were handed on the street, the local prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

    The six victims, all young people, had smoked between two and four roll-up cigarettes offered by people they met on the street in the past few days in the central French town of Roanne.

    Several were robbed of their smartphones and other personal items.

    Investigators said the tobacco appeared to have been sprayed with a noxious substance that left the smokers delirious, lethargic or in a comatose state.

    One of the victims was so disturbed he swallowed gravel and another reacted aggressively when the emergency services tried to help him.

    Some were treated in hospital for their symptoms.

    The public prosecutor for Roanne, Abdelkrim Grini, said while previous such attacks have been reported on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, these were the first known cases on the mainland.

    The prosecutor’s office said tests were being carried out on cigarette butts and the victims’ blood samples to try to identify the toxic substance used in the cigarettes.

    Investigators suspect local gangs of being behind the scam”

  31. 9/11 Top Cop Bernie Kerik: Ilhan Omar Is a ‘Terrorist Supporter’ and ‘Sympathizer’ (breitbart, Jul 31, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/07/31/9-11-top-cop-bernie-kerik-ilhan-omar-is-a-terrorist-supporter-and-sympathizer/

    “Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is a “terrorist supporter” and “terror sympathizer,” said Bernie Kerik, former New York City police commissioner, in a Tuesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host John Hayward.

    Democrats and the broader left regularly frame accurate analysis of Islamic terrorism as “right-wing fearmongering” and “Islamophobic,” noted Hayward.

    “This isn’t about fearmongering,” replied Kerik. “This is about preventive maintenance, if you will. That’s what this is about, making sure that it doesn’t happen again, and for those that disagree, one, they don’t know what they’re talking about, and two, they have a problem with this country.”

    Kerik continued, “And if they have a problem with this country, you don’t want to live here? Go somewhere else. I don’t care if you’re in Congress. I don’t care if you’re a guy living out on the street. It doesn’t make any difference to me. Love this country — love this flag — or get out. I don’t care if you were born here. Even if you were born here, if you find someplace else you like, go there. We don’t want you here in the first place.”

    “I’m so sick of this political nonsense, this political rhetoric, denouncing this country, victimizing countries that are our enemies,” Kerik stated. “I’m tired of it. I’m sick of it. Maybe it’s more personal to me because I lived through [9/11], but I promise you, the people that worked for me and with me and were down there during that time, they’re all supporting this country and making sure it doesn’t happen again.”

    Kerik reflected on Omar’s 2013 comments regarding al-Qaeda, highlighting her 2019 keynote address in March before the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles, California.

    “If you look at [Ilhan Omar’s] history and listen to her interviews, and I’ve said this in the past, she is a radical supporter, she is a terror supporter, if you will,” said Kerik. “People will look at me and say, ‘That’s terrible for you to say that.’ Well, the Muslim Brotherhood is a terror organization. When you have United Arab Emirates that says the Muslim Brotherhood is a terror organization, I would tend to believe them since they’re in the region and they pretty much know the enemy. Well, this is a woman who was a keynote speaker and fundraiser for them.”

    In 2007–2008, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, an Islamic terrorist organization.

    “This is a woman that wrote to a federal judge asking for leniency for a convicted terrorist. I call that a ‘terrorist supporter,’ [or] a ‘terror sympathizer,’” added Kerik.

    Kerik reflected on his work in the Middle East. “I get it. I lived there. I spent ten years in the Middle East. I worked for the King of Jordan for five years. I lived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for four and a half years. I worked for the Sheikh of Dubai. I was the minister of interior for Iraq. I know how to say ‘al-Qaeda,’ and I know what it means. I know what it means to her. I also know what it means to every American.”

    Kerik concluded, “So I’m not a big fan of hers. I don’t think she should be in Congress, at all. I would say what the president said, if you don’t like it here in this country, then go back where you came from.”

    Breitbart News reported in March: “The district represented by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has seen more men and boys attempt to join foreign terrorist organizations over the last 12 years than any other district in the United States.”

    In an August 2018 with Al Jazeera, a news media outlet operated by Qatar’s government, Omar was asked about “Islamophobia.” She replied, “I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country.””

  32. France: Nantes rally honours body found in river following police action

    Residents gathered in the western French city of Nantes on Wednesday, to honour the 24-year old man who fell in the Loire river during a police action in June and whose body was retrieved on Monday.

    The rally was organised by a number of unions and political parties, to protest against police’ brutality which resulted in the death of Steve Maia Canico on the night of the Fete de la Musique (Festival of Music) on June 21.

    Many held flowers and carried signs demanding “Justice for Steve,” calling for French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner’s resignations. The crowds marched along the streets of the city, where riot police was deployed.

    “It is not normal to discover the body of the guy who fell in the Loire [river] during the Festival of Music on June 21st, five weeks later,” claimed a woman who joined the protest.

    Canico’s body was found on Monday, several hundred metres from the spot where he was seen for the last time on the night between 21 and 22 June, when police forces dispersed the revellers allegedly forcing some into the river. According to many participants, police deployed tear gas and used batons during the action.