Contributor’s links for September 12 , 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

118 Replies to “Contributor’s links for September 12 , 2019”

  1. BREAKING: Van Filled With 1,000 Gallons of Gasoline Found in Downtown Baltimore Parking Structure Ahead of Trump’s Visit

    A large area of downtown Baltimore was evacuated on Monday after a van filled with 1,000 gallons of gasoline was found in a parking garage — just days before President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the city.

    President Trump will be attending the 2019 House Republican Conference Member Retreat in the city on Thursday, less than one mile from where the van was found.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/09/breaking-van-filled-with-1000-gallons-of-gasoline-found-in-downtown-baltimore-parking-structure-ahead-of-trumps-visit/

  2. Yazidi Former Sex Slave to Face German Islamic State Jihadi in Court (breitbart, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/09/12/yazidi-former-sex-slave-face-german-islamic-state-jihadi-court/

    “A 28-year-old Yazidi former sex slave named Shatha Salim Bashar is scheduled to testify in German court next month against one of the fourteen Islamic State jihadis who allegedly enslaved and raped her, used her as a human shield, and forced her to watch her best friend die.

    The defendant in the case is a German national who became one of the many European residents to migrate to the Islamic State and become soldiers for its now-fallen “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. Shatha was abducted from her village on Iraq’s Sinjar Mountain in 2014 and spent over three years as a slave.

    The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq created an Office of Kidnapped Affairs to rescue Yazidis and reunite them with their families. The Yazidis are a small religious minority of Kurdish extraction often persecuted by fundamentalist Muslims who view their unusual faith as devil worship.

    According to the KRG, 360,000 of the estimated 550,000 Yazidis left in Iraq are currently living as refugees or otherwise displaced from their homes. The Office of Kidnapped Affairs gave some grim statistics to Fox News:

    At least 1,293 Yazidis were killed on August 3 and over the following few days at the beginning of the ISIS invasion. A total of 6,417 Yazidi were kidnapped at that time – 3,548 females and 2,869 males. Some 3509 Yazidis are documented as having survived the ordeal: 1192 women, 337 men, 1033 girls, and 947 boys. Chillingly, 2,908 Yazidis are deemed still missing – 1323 females and 1585 males.

    The number of orphans produced by the invasion stands at 2,745 and the number of Yazidis who have emigrated out of Iraq, their ancestral homeland, is documented to be more than 100,000.

    Moreover, 80 mass graves have been discovered in the Sinjar region, and the Islamic terrorist outfit blitzed 68 of their religious temples throughout the four-year war.

    Shatha’s harrowing story is all too typical of the Yazidis victimized by ISIS, which might very well have wiped them out if left to its dark devices:

    She was kidnapped alongside her mother, her sister, and two younger brothers. In the beginning, she pretended to be the mother of her youngest brother, aged just 3 – in the hopes she would be spared violation if ISIS militants believed she was not a virgin.

    But Shatha was violated by every one of her 14 enslavers. Moreover, the tiny young woman was used as a human shield by ISIS, thrust onto the frontlines in Syria and forced to watch her best Yazidi friend die on the battlefield. Her reunification months later should have been one of jubilation – but her friend’s family also arrived with smiles, thinking the women were rescued together. Shatha was the one to break the shattering news.

    The fate of young Yazidi men captured by ISIS was no better, as they were brainwashed and tortured into joining the terror state’s “Cubs of the Caliphate” child soldier force, as was the case with Shatha’s two brothers.

    The Kurdish government believes some of the ISIS fighters held prisoner in Iraq could be brainwashed Yazidis who will never be returned to their families if they are inadvertently “repatriated” to foreign companies.

    At the moment, Yazidis rescued from ISIS do not always have homes to return to, because a huge portion of their population is living in decaying refugee camps, as Shatha does. Some of the former ISIS slaves need extensive deprogramming and could still be dangerously loyal to their onetime captors. Yazidis who return home could still be attacked by ISIS remnants or other militant groups.

    Some Yazidis have returned home only to find the brutal Islamic State burned their farmland, looted their houses, stole their crops, and destroyed their farm equipment. For good measure, ISIS left Yazidi territory strewn with land mines.

    Many Yazidis say they are afraid to return home until the minefields are cleared, basic security is established, infrastructure is restored, and adequate supplies are provided by the Iraqi government for the difficult task of rebuilding their ravaged villages.

    Sympathetic Iraqi officials worry that discrimination against the Yazidis will prevent them from getting what they need, especially since one of their most urgent requirements is fertilizer, and fertilizer is tightly controlled because it can be used to make explosives.

    Among the most painful issues to resolve is the disposition of babies with ISIS fathers borne by the Yazidi women they raped. There are only believed to be a few hundred of these babies alive, but they are uncomfortably trapped between Yazidi tradition (which does not allow converts or marriage outside the religion) and the Iraqi legal system, which seems determined to classify the babies as Muslim.

    A group of Yazidi journalists met with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) on Wednesday to discuss the horrors of ISIS occupation and “the bitter reality that we are living in,” as one of the visitors put it.

    Fortenberry’s constituency in Nebraska includes the largest groups of Yazidis living in the United States, and he was instrumental in getting the State Department to classify the Islamic State’s actions against Iraqi Yazidis as genocide.

    “In the past, when our grandparents or great-grandparents, they were telling us that the Yazidis had been in the past subjected to genocide, but we couldn’t believe it, we couldn’t understand it because there was nothing written, nothing documented,” one of the Yazidi journalists said at the meeting, emphasizing the importance of documenting the ISIS atrocities and giving testimony for the record as Shatha Salim Bashar intends to do.

    “You as journalists have to continue to tell this story. It’s easy for the world to forget, to move on,” Fortenberry told his guests.”

  3. KENYA – Rangwe MP demands law to combat farting on planes

    Rangwe MP has demanded a law to combat farting on planes arguing that it can cause ‘discomfort and insecurity on board’ flights.

    Dr Lilian Achieng Gogo made the comments while MPs were debating the adoption of a report on the consideration of the protocol to amend the convention of offenses and certain acts committed on board aircrafts.

    TRANSPORT LAW

    MPs want basic systems introduced aboard flights to check the level of discomfort that passengers undergo through especially during long flights.

    The amendments to the Montreal protocol of 2014, were presented to the House on July 6, 2019, by the government and have since been undergoing public participation by the Transport Committee chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing.

    MP Gogo bitterly complained of how she has had to endure periods of uneasiness that she says should now be a thing of the past if security aboard aircraft is to be enhanced.

    https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Rangwe-MP-demands-law-to-combat-farting-on-planes/1056-5270570-3nrolu/index.html

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    BBC -PIDGIN – Kenyan lawmaker wan control how pipo dey mess inside plane

    One Kenyan Member of Parliament don demand say make di kontri lawmakers pass law wey go help flight crews deal wit passengers wey dey battle wit mess for plane.

    Lilian Achieng Gogo, wey dey represent Rangwe constituency for western Kenya, tell her fellow lawmakers say passengers wey dey mess anyhow don dey become security threat because di smell dey affect fellow travellers for di plane.

    “E get one annoying tin wey pipo dey always ignore and dis na di level of messing inside aeroplane… If dem no manage dis one well, e fit cause disturbance and insecurity for plane,” she tok.

    Madam Gogo bin dey contribute to one motion about amendments to one law wey concern offences wey pipo dey commit for aircraft.

    Among tins wey she suggest make dem change na di law wey go allow flight crews to give medicine to passengers to help reduce mess for dia belle.

    “We need to get systems of di food wey dem dey give for inside plane and we need to get basic medical systems wey go fit reduce di level of gas wey pesin fit mess out inside di flight.”

    Di lawmaker explain say mess na very annoying tin wey fit lead to fight among passengers inside plane.

    “Mess dey terrible inside di plane. We need to get basic provision of medicines like Eno[medicine]… yes we need to do dis and e suppose be practice wey we need to add join our law.

    Madam Gogo also want all local and international flights to get paramedics inside di plane plus also check di amount of alcohol wey dem dey serve give passengers

    “Di drinking wey dey happun for flights dey terrible, e dey worse than wetin dey happun hia on ground. We need to get system wia we go fit manage and control… also we need to get pipo medical history before dem go serve dem certain alcoholic drinks for dia own security.”

    https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-49679337

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    DAILY MAIL – Kenyan MP demands law to combat FARTING on planes

    Kenyan MP Lilian Achieng Gogo said that farting can cause ‘discomfort and insecurity on board’ flights. She suggested using anti-flatulent drugs

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7456645/Kenyan-MP-demands-law-combat-FARTING-planes-anti-flatulence-drugs-passengers.html

      • I’m so naive. Here I thought fart-absorbing seat cushions on planes was some top-secret spin-off of NASA or MIT high tech. Is nothing sacred? Phhhhhhhht. Take that neighbor! Ha-ha. Now what’re you lookin’ at? Wasn’t me no sir-eee. You smelt it you delt it, sucka! Then along comes this friggin’ snowflake who wants to drug the world into a gasless nirvana. Life is hard, sweetie, don’t take this away from us. But let a tard pray to Mecca in the galley aisle just to impose his friggin’ supremacy on the rest of us, and watch him cut cut the cheese with his arse high, and no doubt a rose blooms somewhere on Allah’s great Earth.

        No wonder Friday the 13th is bad luck. Ugh.

  4. “#TommyRobinson #HomeVerySoon #OhTommyTommy #BackWhereHeBelongs”
    Danny Tommo – Published on September 12, 2019

  5. Jeffrey Epstein flew to Virgin Islands with 11, 12-year-old girls in 2018, witness says

    An air traffic controller told the U.S. Marshals Service she saw Jeffrey Epstein get off his plane with girls as young as 11 on two occasions in 2018.

    The controller, who worked at the Cyril E. King Airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a year, said she saw Epstein disembark his plane with two white girls “who appeared” to be 11 to 12 years old. On a second occasion, the controller recalled seeing Epstein leave his plane with a girl who looked to be 16 to 18 and of mixed race.

    In the interview, the controller said she used binoculars to spot Epstein from the airport control tower, which was about 50 yards away from the convicted sex offender’s plane. Epstein owned his own island, St. James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/jeffrey-epstein-witness-girls-virgin-islands

  6. Internal DOJ memo cleared Flynn of being Russian agent – but it’s missing, his attorneys say

    Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s legal team charged in court Tuesday that the Department of Justice cleared Flynn of being a Russian agent in a memo as far back as January 2017 — but that prosecutors still haven’t produced the document.

    The claim came as Flynn’s lawyers said in a status conference in a Washington, D.C., courthouse that they are now seeking to have the case against him thrown out, accusing the prosecution of “egregious conduct and suppression” of possibly exculpatory evidence.

    “We’ve … learned that there was a letter dated January 30th, 2017, or an internal memo from the Department of Justice, that completely exonerates Mr. Flynn of being an agent of Russia, and that document has not been produced to us yet,” lawyer Sidney Powell said, according to a transcript of Tuesday’s hearing obtained by Fox News.

    FLYNN LEGAL TEAM ACCUSES PROSECUTORS OF MISCONDUCT

    Powell continued: “So they had a lot of information that they didn’t disclose. They also have knowledge of a letter from the British Embassy that completely discredits [Trump dossier author] Christopher Steele and undoes the whole Steele dossier debacle.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-memo-cleared-flynn-of-being-russian-agent-but-its-missing-flynn-attorneys-say

  7. CBC – Green Party candidate resigns after anti-Muslim social media post

    Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has accepted Erik Schomann’s resignation, the party’s candidate for Ontario’s Simcoe North, after an anti-Muslim social media post surfaced.

  8. UN report details possible ‘war crimes’ by many sides in Syrian war (thedefensepost, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://thedefensepost.com/2019/09/12/un-syria-war-crimes/

    “A United Nations investigation has found that various parties, including the Syrian government and rebels, Turkey-backed fighters and the United States, may have committed “war crimes” in the country’s civil war.

    The report, released on Wednesday, September 11 said that some U.S. air strikes and nighttime raids by the U.S.-backed local Syrian Democratic Forces against ISIS in the country’s northeast may qualify as indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

    The report also reiterated charges that the Syrian government’s ongoing assault on Idlib, backed by Russia, has caused a “devastating human rights and humanitarian catastrophe” with pro-regime “striking dozens of hospitals, educational facilities, markets, schools, bakeries and agricultural lands.”

    “Such attacks may amount to the war crime of deliberately attacking protected objects and intentionally attacking medical personnel,” the report read.

    The report said Syrian rebel groups such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Jaysh al-Izza have likewise been firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian neighborhoods.

    The U.N. investigation also reiterated a charge of war crimes against Turkey-backed forces in the Kurdish enclave of Efrin. The documented crimes include allegedly extorting the local population, “hostage-taking, cruel treatment, torture … and pillage.” The report also said that insurgent attacks by groups linked to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) were killing civilians.

    Regarding U.S. operations, the investigation focused on air strikes in support of the YPG-led SDF as it advanced on the Islamic State’s final pocket in Syria’s east earlier this year during the final phase of Operation Jazeera Storm.

    The report cites an airstrike in early January on a residential home near Sha’afah, south of Hajin, that killed 16 civilians, including a number of children. The Islamic State used civilian-occupied buildings for military operations during the SDF’s campaign, but states that “the Commission found no indication of any ISIL presence or military target in the wider area of the building struck at the time of the attack.”

    “The evidence obtained regarding this incident indicated that international coalition forces failed to employ the necessary precautions to discriminate adequately between military objectives and civilians.”

    “The Commission finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that international coalition forces may not have directed their attacks at a specific military objective, or failed to do so with the necessary precaution,” the report said.

    “Launching indiscriminate attacks that result in death or injury to civilians amounts to a war crime in cases in which such attacks are conducted recklessly.”

    The report also notes an alleged U.S. airstrike on 29 January that struck a gathering of women and children preparing to leave ISIS-held territory and turn themselves over to the SDF.

    James Jeffrey, the U.S. envoy to the Coalition to defeat-ISIS, rebuffed the findings on Thursday.

    “We take extreme care in every military operation,” Jeffrey told journalists in Geneva when asked about the report, AFP reported.

    “We do not accept the findings of that particular body,” he said.

    The U.N. report also detailed reports of civilian casualties during ongoing nighttime raids by SDF special operations units in Syria’s east, where ISIS sleeper cells continue to coordinate insurgent attacks on the local Coalition-backed authorities.

    In one late-night raid, two Coalition helicopters circling a building ordered women to come out separately from the men, according to the report.

    “Afterwards, the men from the house were ordered to leave. While the exact unfolding of events is under investigation, three men and one pregnant woman, all reportedly unarmed, were subsequently shot by SDF. The following day, villagers protested against SDF and reportedly burned down SDF checkpoints,” the U.N. report read.

    The SDF are perceived as less popular in Syria’s majority-Arab east than in some Kurdish-majority areas. Such raids have led to protests and riots in Deir Ezzor province over perceived mistreatment and corruption by the U.S.-backed forces and affiliated political bodies.

    U.S.-led Coalition troops and the SDF control a swath of northeast Syria, mostly on the east side of the Euphrates river. The Syrian government has recaptured most of the rest of the country on the west side of the river with the military support of Russia and Iran. The last rebel holdout in Idlib province is slowly collapsing as pro-regime forces advance in an offensive declared earlier this year.

    Syria’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced several million others.”

  9. Top Turkish Court Orders Release of Jailed Cumhuriyet Journalists (aawsat, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1899566/top-turkish-court-orders-release-jailed-cumhuriyet-journalists

    “Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals ordered on Thursday the release of six former employees of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper who were jailed on terrorism-related charges, two of the newspaper’s lawyers said.

    The top court’s ruling that the journalists should be released is binding and the lawyers told Reuters they expected it to be implemented immediately.

    The journalists due to be released are Hakan Kara, Mustafa Kemal Gungor, Guray Oz, Onder Celik, Bulent Utku and caricaturist Musa Kart. They had been sentenced to less than five years in jail, which usually leads to a suspended sentence in Turkish courts.

    The newspaper’s former accountant, Emre Iper, was not expected to be released, the lawyers said.

    The journalists were accused of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the banned leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) and the network of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey says was behind a failed 2016 coup. Gulen denies any involvement.

    The journalists had been in and out of jail for more than two years since being sentenced. They were briefly freed while appealing their convictions, which were upheld in February by a court in Istanbul. They were then returned to Kandira prison near Istanbul to serve the rest of their sentences.

    Lawyers for the newspapers said they were expected to be released later on Thursday.”

  10. Mnuchin Says US still Pursuing ‘Maximum Pressure’ against Iran (aawsat, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1899596/mnuchin-says-us-still-pursuing-maximum-pressure-against-irana

    “The United States is still pursuing its campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday, even after President Donald Trump parted ways with his hardline national security adviser John Bolton…”

  11. Arab Quartet Condemns Iranian Intervention in Arab’s Internal Affairs (aawsat, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1899191/arab-quartet-condemns-iranian-intervention-arab%E2%80%99s-internal-affairs

    “The Arab quartet committee on Iranian interventions has condemned Tehran’s continued support for terrorist and subversive acts against Arab states.

    These include its continued firing of ballistic missiles from Yemen’s territory into populated cities in Saudi Arabia, including the holy sites, in violation of 2015’s Security Council resolution 2216, which states that militias should not be armed.

    In a statement issued at its 12th meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, the quartet committee, comprising of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt as well as the Secretary-General of the Arab League, stressed its support for the measures taken by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to address these aggressive acts to protect their security and stability.

    It also condemned the Iranian-backed Houthi militias’ drone attacks at two oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia and acts of sabotage against commercial vessels in UAE’s territorial waters and the Sea of Oman.

    The committee denounced Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah’s provocative speech, which included abuses rejected by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Yemen.

    It said his speech marked a blatant interference in these countries’ internal affairs, intended to provoke sedition and incite hatred. It is an extension of the critical role played by this terrorist party, which is one of Iran’s arms that target destabilizing regional security and stability, the statement added.

    It also called on the Lebanese government to “denounce Nasrallah’s statements and blatant interventions by one of its main components in line with the commitment to the brotherly relations, which bind Arab countries to the Lebanese Republic.”

    The ministerial committee further expressed its “condemnation of the direct Iranian threats to international navigation in the Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as well as its threat to international navigation in the Red Sea through its regional proxies.”

    Among these threats are Houthis’ targeting of a Saudi oil tanker in Bab al-Mandeb strait, in violation of principles of the international law.

    It also slammed the “Iranian and Turkish interference in the Syrian crisis, and its serious implications on the country’s future, sovereignty, security, stability, national unity, and territorial integrity,” noting that such intervention doesn’t serve the efforts made to settle the Syrian crisis peacefully.”

  12. Spain, Saudi sign $991m defence deal (memo, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190912-spain-saudi-sign-991m-defence-deal/

    “Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) and Spanish shipbuilder Navantia signed a $991 million deal to adapt Navantia’s combat management systems for Saudi navy corvette ships.

    An announcement, reported by the Saudi state news agency SPA, said the contract was signed earlier in the week at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2019 exhibition at London’s ExCeL .

    The collaboration on Combat System Integration (CSI) on the Saudi navy’s Avante 2200 corvettes is thought to be part of the kingdom’s modernisation programme, Vision 2030, which will have the “potential to boost the localisation of the Kingdom’s technology capabilities by up to 60% and benefit other Saudi organizations”, SPA reported…”

  13. France: Saudi princess complicit in beating up workman (memo, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190912-france-saudi-princess-complicit-in-beating-up-workman/

    “A French court today found the daughter of the King of Saudi Arabia complicit in violence with the threat of a weapon and complicit in kidnapping, and sentenced her to a ten month suspended prison sentence, Reuters reported.

    In their indictment, prosecutors had accused Princess Hassa Bint Salman of ordering a bodyguard to beat up a workman in her luxury flat in Paris.

    According to the indictment, workman Ashraf Eid told police the bodyguard bound his hands, punched and kicked him and forced him to kiss the princess’ feet after she accused him of filming her on his cell phone at her father’s residence on the exclusive Avenue Foch in September 2016.

    The 43-year-old princess, the sister of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, was tried in absentia and denied any wrongdoing.

    An international arrest warrant for the princess was issued in November 2017.”

  14. US offers $5 million reward for Syria Al-Qaeda operatives (alaraby, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/9/12/us-offers-5-million-reward-for-syria-al-qaeda-operatives

    “The US State Department on Thursday offered $5 million rewards for three senior Al-Qaeda militants based in Syria.

    The State Department said it would pay $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of three leading Al-Qaeda operatives from the Hurras al-Din faction in Idlib.

    Hurras al-Din is a hardline Syria-based Islamist militant group, which is said to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda and include a large number of foreign jihadi fighters.

    The three militants named by the US State Department were Jordanian Sami al-Uraydi, Egyptian Abu ‘Abd al-Karim al-Masri, Syrian Faruq al-Suri.

    Sami al-Uraydi is a senior Hurras al-Dina religious figure and member of the group’s shura council. He is wanted for his involvement in “terrorist plots against the United States and Israel”.

    Faruq al-Suri was named by the State Department as the leader Hurras al-Din.

    “Al-Suri is a veteran member of al-Qa’ida (AQ), having been active in the terrorist organization for decades,” the State Department said in a statement on their website. He fought with Al-Qaeda linked groups in Afghanistan and Iraq and was detained in Lebanon from 2009 to 2013. He became the military commander of al-Nusra Front but left the group in 2016.

    Al-Masri was also named as a member of Hurras al-Din’s shura council.

    Hurras al-Din have been targeted in a number of US airstrikes in recent months, including one in late August which killed 40 people.

    Hurras al-Deen was established in February 2018 and has some 1,800 fighters, including non-Syrians, according to the Observatory.

    Mohanad Hage Ali, director of communications and a fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center told The New Arab that the group have tried to distance themselves from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib, since the latter’s split with Al-Qaeda.

    “The premise of its foundation is to resume links with Al-Qaeda Central and the fact that non-Syrian jihadists are the core base of its leadership means its logical to assume that it was plotting an attack and using Syria for this,” he said.”

  15. Some intelligence services give support to FETÖ: Turkish FM (hdn, Sep 12, 2019)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/some-intelligence-services-give-support-to-feto-turkish-fm-146529

    “Some foreign intelligence organizations give support to FETÖ – the group blamed for the July 2016 failed coup attempt in this country, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu said on Sept. 12.

    Turkey has cooperation agreements with other countries to fight terrorism, which have spurred some positive steps; however, some foreign governments have not taken a stand FETÖ. Some foreign intelligence agencies have even given support to the group, Çavu?o?lu said in a speech at the district governorship course event.

    “When we talk to some of our interlocutors, our interlocutors know very well what activities the PKK receives today in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France and even the U.K. My interlocutors better tell me how they collect money voluntarily or compulsorily from weddings. But they’re not on the line we want to take,” he said.

    Çavu?o?lu noted that recently, Turkey welcomed steps by Germany, Britain and France against the PKK, but those steps stop short of FETÖ. “Unfortunately, we still see that these countries have not taken any concrete steps regarding FETÖ,” he said.

    “As the Ministry of Interior and Foreign Affairs, we have to work in close cooperation in the fight against terrorist organizations such as FETÖ and PKK, which pose a threat to our security. Thanks to our cooperation to date, we have brought many terrorists to our country and brought them to justice. We also endeavor to dissolve the terror nests in those places,” he said.

    That is why the government has recently appointed 94 Interior Consultants, he noted.

    Turkey has so far demanded the extradition of 568 people from 94 countries over their suspected links to FETÖ.

    A total of 23 countries have accepted Turkey’s demand, handing over 109 FETÖ suspects. Some 44 countries, on the other hand, rejected Turkish authorities’ demand.

    FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fethullah Gülen orchestrated the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.

    Turkey also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.”

  16. Greece: Students protest state-appointed Muslim cleric (aa, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/greece-students-protest-state-appointed-muslim-cleric/1580358

    “Students in a high school of Greece’s Turkish minority prevented the entrance of a Greek-appointed mufti (Muslim cleric) by calling him an “unwanted” person, according to local media.

    Western Thrace region of Greece is home to a Muslim-Turkish minority numbering around 150,000 people.

    The minority has the right to elect its own muftis according to international treaties, however, the Greek state does not recognize this and appoints the muftis itself…”

  17. Head of controversial Moria migrant camp in Greece resigns (ansamed, Sep 12, 2019)
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2019/09/12/head-of-controversial-moria-migrant-camp-in-greece-resigns_99a90ce1-0f32-41e1-bc81-8a0a412c276c.html

    “ATHENS – The head of one of Greece’s most notoriously overcrowded reception and identification centers in the village of Moria on the North East Aegean island of Lesvos has resigned, stating that he is “worn out” from the ongoing difficult situation…”

  18. ‘Terrorist’ recruiter with dual nationality stripped of Swiss passport (thelocal, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.ch/20190912/terrorist-recruiter-with-dual-nationality-stripped-of-swiss-passport

    “Switzerland said Wednesday it had revoked the citizenship of a dual national for the first time after he was convicted of recruiting jihadist fighters for a terrorist organisation.
    The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said it had decided to revoke the nationality of a dual citizen who had received a lengthy prison sentence for spreading “propaganda and recruiting fighters for an Islamist terrorist organisation”.

    In a statement (here in German), it argued that Swiss law made it possible to revoke citizenship for a dual national “who has seriously harmed Switzerland’s interests and reputation, and who has thus compromised the country’s security.”

    He can still appeal the decision to Switzerland’s highest court.

    The SEM did not identify the man or say which other nationality the held, nor which terrorist organisation he was convicted of recruiting for.

    According to Swiss daily Blick however, the man in question was a 33-year-old Turkish-Swiss citizen who had been sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars over his activities in Switzerland linked to the Al-Nusra Front in Syria.

    In late May, Bern said it had identified around “a dozen dual nationals suspected of participating in crimes linked to terrorist activities abroad.”

    It said at the time that criminal proceedings had been launched against most of them, while the others were already in detention abroad where they also faced criminal charges.”

  19. Danish mayors call for scrapping of citizenship handshake law (thelocal, Sep 12, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20190912/danish-mayors-call-for-scrapping-of-citizens-handshake-law

    “A law requiring newly-nationalized Danes to shake hands with a representative at their citizenship ceremonies should be scrapped, say a number of Social Democratic mayors prior to the party’s upcoming national congress.

    As part of new rules on citizenship which came into effect on January 1st, participants at citizenship ceremonies are required to shake hands with their mayor or local official.

    The new ceremony was provided for by a citizenship bill agreed last year by the previous government and the Danish People’s Party. It was seen by critics as targeting Muslims who, for religious reasons, do not shake hands with members of the opposite sex.

    It was also linked to a significant increase in the cost of the citizen application process.

    The Social Democrats abstained from the 2018 vote which passed the handshake law, saying shaking hands is a natural gesture and does not require legislation.

    But Social Democrat mayors now want the law to be rolled back, broadcaster DR reports…”