Contributor’s links for Aug. 22, 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

72 Replies to “Contributor’s links for Aug. 22, 2019”

  1. US Unable to Make Persian Gulf Insecure: Iran’s Zarif (tasnimnews, Aug 22, 2019)
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/08/22/2080841/us-unable-to-make-persian-gulf-insecure-iran-s-zarif

    “Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif highlighted the US administration’s plots against the Middle East region and said the Islamic Republic is trying to protect the Persian Gulf’s security and the US should know that it is unable to make it insecure…”

  2. Erdogan deporting Syrian refugees (saudigazette, Aug 23, 2019)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/575248/Opinion/Editorial/Erdogan-deporting-Syrian-refugees

    “AT first sight, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s record over the handling refugees fleeing carnage in Bashar Assad’s Syria is admirable. Turkey hosts more than 3.6 million refugees many of whom are housed in massive camps not far from the border with their homeland. The best of these camps, which the authorities have been eager to show off to media and visiting officials from around the world, are self-contained fully-serviced townships, with stores, workshops, schools, hospitals and perhaps most importantly, especially for children, psychological services to try and help them cope with the traumatic horrors they have experienced.

    The greater part of this major relief effort has been funded by the international community. It would have been absurd to expect Syria’s neighbors, particularly Turkey and Jordan to shoulder by themselves the immense costs involved. But it is now clear that not all the camps are showcases. All are guarded by Turkish police and military. Originally Ankara said its major concern the regime in Damascus might seek to strike at its refugee citizens. However, it was clear from the outset that the guards were there to keep those in the camps from leaving. For sure Syrians were allowed out for neighborhood visits but no one was permitted to head elsewhere in Turkey without specific authorization.

    More than eight years on from the start of Assad’s campaign to crush his own people, many Syrians refugees have had enough of camp life. Depression is widespread and still on the increase. Some inmates, who have lost all hope, have taken their own lives. It is therefore hardly surprising that there has been a steady trickle of Syrians, abandoning camp life and sneaking away to big conurbations. Istanbul of course has been the greatest draw. It is being estimated that there are now over a million Syrians in the city. However, according to the authorities, only half of these have been registered and given the right to be there.

    Thus a major round up has begun with Syrians unable to produce the right papers being scooped off the streets by police and, ostensibly to be sent back to the largely southern province in which they were first registered as refugees. Turkish protests that this is merely to enforce its laws are undermined by that fact that detained refugees are being forced to sign statements in Turkish, which they do not properly understand, agreeing to be sent back to Syria, specifically to Idlib province, currently the chaotic crucible of fighting between Turks, Kurds, the Free Syrian army, Daesh (the so-called IS) and its satraps and the ruthless troops of the Assad regime. Effectively, against international law, these unfortunates are being deported. And many of them are being sent to a part of the country which is not their home and where they have no obvious means of surviving.

    Moreover, the Istanbul round-up is splitting up families, including mothers from their husbands and children. And the arrest of unregistered refugees appears to have given a green light to racists who have begun to harass Syrians on the street and threatening homes and businesses in the districts where they have clustered. Assad of course cares nothing for these people, so they have no government to protect them. Only the international community can drive home the message to Erdogan that ending his welcome for Syrian refugees in heartless and unacceptable.”

  3. Netanyahu hints at Israeli involvement in Iraq blasts (reuters, Aug 22, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-israel-iraq/netanyahu-hints-at-israeli-involvement-in-iraq-blasts-idUSKCN1VC2HY

    “JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Thursday of possible Israeli involvement in attacks against Iranian-linked targets in Iraq.

    A series of blasts in the past few weeks have hit weapon depots and bases belonging to paramilitary groups in Iraq, many of them backed by Israel’s regional foe Iran. The groups blamed the United States and Israel for the blasts on Wednesday.

    In an interview with Russian-language Israeli television Channel 9, broadcast on Thursday, Netanyahu was asked whether Israel would operate against Iranian targets in Iraq if needed, he said:

    “We are operating – not just if needed, we are operating in many areas against a state that wants to annihilate us. Of course I gave the security forces a free hand and instructed them to do anything necessary to thwart Iran’s plans.”

    Netanyahu did not directly name Iraq as one of those areas…”

  4. Brotherhood’s internal wars (ahram, Aug 22, 2019)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/344148/Egypt/Politics-/Brotherhood%E2%80%99s-internal-wars.aspx

    “In a letter leaked to the media and political analysts on 16 August, young Muslim Brotherhood detainees argue the group’s leaders should resign and make way for those “qualified to reach a deal with Egypt’s ruling regime and secure our release”.

    The letter claims the “resignation request” was approved by 350 young members of the Brotherhood.

    The four-page letter made it clear the group’s young detainees were fast losing hope of ever being released.

    “We feel despair because we think political conditions in Egypt will not change anytime soon,” said the letter. “Yet some leaders, particularly those living abroad such as Mahmoud Hussein, still think Egyptians will revolt and change the regime. They are living in an imaginary world, and have shown they are incapable of learning any lessons from the past.

    “We wonder how these irresponsible people became leaders in the first place,” the letter continued.

    “The Brotherhood’s leaders have two choices: either to resign or take a step backwards to reach a solution with the regime in order to help secure the release of young Brothers before they lose their future and life,” said the letter.

    Brotherhood leaders living in Turkey have accused security forces of dictating the letter in a bid to drive a wedge between the group’s members. The Brotherhood’s website Ikhwan Online insists the letter betrays the fingerprints of the security forces. “The words and the style of the writing,” it said, “show clearly it is the work of Egypt’s security apparatus.”

    Amr Farouk, an expert on Islamist movements, posted on his Facebook page that he is convinced the document was produced by young Muslim Brothers. It is telling, he said, that the letter was produced on the sixth anniversary of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in clearance.

    Farouk argues the text of the letter shows rifts within the group deepening.

    “The letter appeared two weeks after other young members accused Brotherhood leaders living in Turkey of embezzling millions of dollars from Qatar and other donors,” says Farouk.

    “I expect these rifts to widen even more as Egypt moves towards greater economic and political stability.

    “It appears some of the group’s leaders still bet that things could change in Egypt and the group will return to power. What the letter reveals is that young members behind bars have lost all hope in this prospect and want the leadership abroad to adopt a more realistic way of thinking.

    “Essentially, they are demanding pragmatism from their leaders. They want them to reach a deal that could save the group from collapse. The problem is that Brotherhood leaders who fled to Turkey still reject any deal.”

    Many of the group’s leaders, including its supreme guide Mohamed Badie, were arrested following the dispersal of sit-ins in Cairo and Giza in August 2013. Convicted of charges that range from manslaughter and terrorism to sabotage, they are facing life behind bars.

    In its latest edition the weekly magazine Al-Mossawar published a long piece on the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian government, beginning in 1948 “when the war in Palestine erupted, and the Brotherhood was accused of mounting terrorist attacks against Jews, cinemas and cabarets and of mobilising its secret underground armed militia to kill former prime minister and interior minister Mahmoud Fahmi Al-Noqrashi”.

    Penned by Helmi Al-Namnam, a former minister of culture, the article plots the periodic clampdowns on the group, beginning with the failed assassination of Gamal Abdel-Nasser in October 1954, after which “most of its leaders and members were arrested and sentenced to life in prison”. When Nasser subsequently pardoned many members of the group, they simply reformed and, in 1965, staged a second assassination attempt.

    In the wake of the October War in 1973 Anwar Al-Sadat decided to pardon the group and set most of its members free. “Soon,” writes Al-Namnam, “they were inciting violence against president Sadat due to his decision to sign a peace treaty with Israel and most of the group’s members were rounded up and returned to jail.

    “In response the Brotherhood cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman issued a fatwa denouncing Sadat was an infidel and calling for his murder.”

    Sadat was assassinated on 6 October 1981.

    *A version of this article appears in print in the 20 August, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Brotherhood’s internal wars”

  5. Military commanders appointed by presidential decree (hdn, Aug 22, 2019)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/military-commanders-appointed-by-presidential-decree-145970

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on Aug. 22 appointed new military generals and admirals to land, naval and air force commands, a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette said.

    A total of 127 commanders from all three commands have undertaken new positions.

    Some 72 commanders in the land forces, 25 in the naval forces and 27 in the air forces command have been appointed with the presidential decree, within the context of Supreme Military Council (YA?) decisions taken at the shortest-ever YA? meeting on Aug. 1.

    Lt. Gen. ?eref Öngay, commander of the Land Forces Training and Doctrine Command (EDOK), has been appointed as the commander of the Third Army. Yavuz Türkgenci, chief of staff of Land Forces Command, has been appointed as the commander of EDOK.

    Lt. Gen. Ali Sivri, the commander of 4th Corps, has been appointed as the commander of the Aegean Army. Lt. Gen. Sinan Yayla has undertaken the duty of commander of the 2nd Army, a position he has been carrying out on commission.

    YA? was convened on Aug. 1 to discuss the promotions and dismissals of the high-ranking military personnel under the leadership of Erdo?an, and with the participation of key civilian and military officials, including Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Chief of General Staff Gen. Ya?ar Güler.

    At the meeting, the composition of the top military brass of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has remained the same.”

  6. Over 80,000 anti-terror operations launched in 8 months: Minister (hdn, Aug 22, 2019)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-neutralizes-635-pkk-terrorists-since-start-of-2019-145967

    “Turkey has launched 80,570 counterterrorism operations against the outlawed PKK in the first eight months of 2019, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Aug. 22

    As a result of these operations, some 635 PKK terrorists have been “neutralized,” according to figures provided by the minister.

    Turkish authorities use the word “neutralized” in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

    “We’ve been combating PKK terror for 40 years. We have neutralized 635 PKK terrorists in 80,570 operations since the start of this year,” Soylu told reporters in the capital Ankara.

    “We have 3 martyrs in [southeastern district of] Silopi. We know what we’re fighting for, we will not step back,” he added.

    “There is a network giving money, strategy, and psychological support [to the PKK]. For this reason, we took a step on Aug. 19, as you know,” Soylu said.

    The three mayors suspended on Aug. 19 in eastern and southeastern Turkey do not reject any affiliation to the illegal PKK group, but their argument is only based on “being elected,” Soylu said.

    “They say nothing besides being elected… They don’t refute contacts with the terrorist organization,” he added.

    “Both moral support and food supplies are going from those municipalities to terrorists,” said Soylu.

    “Democracy is not a Trojan Horse. The elections are not a civil court. You cannot be justified by law just by entering the election,” he said.

    Adnan Selçuk M?zrakl?, Ahmet Türk, and Bedia Özgökçe Ertan — who were elected by overwhelming majorities in the March 31 local elections as mayors of the southeastern provinces of Diyarbak?r and Mardin and the eastern province of Van, respectively — have been suspended over alleged terror links.

    Quoting anonymous officials from the ministry, state-run Anadolu Agency said that all three ousted mayors had allegedly continued “supporting the aims, ideological rhetoric and actions of the PKK.”

    Anadolu claimed that the three mayors “aimed to make the municipalities a contact center for the PKK.”

    Anadolu also claimed that the mayors allegedly tried to “provide jobs and financial support to the relatives of PKK terrorists who had been neutralized in counter-terrorism operations and put pressure on the relatives of soldiers martyred in counter-terror operations.””

  7. Switzerland wants ‘total travel ban’ for failed asylum seekers (thelocal, Aug 22, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.ch/20190822/switzerland-wants-total-travel-ban-for-failed-asylum-seekers

    “In a surprise move, the Swiss government on Wednesday outlined draft measures that include a travel ban for people permitted to stay in the country on a temporary basis after having their bid for asylum rejected.

    Under the draft law, the around 40,000 holders of ‘F’ permits in Switzerland – a group made up of people who have their bid for asylum rejected but cannot be deported because they face danger in their home country – would not be allowed to travel overseas.

    People who travelled to their home country would automatically lose their right to live in Switzerland, while exceptions would only be made in cases where short-term trips home were being used to prepare for a future definitive return, according the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) website…”