Contributor’s links for September 14 , 2019

Posted on by

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

125 Replies to “Contributor’s links for September 14 , 2019”

  1. When I was young and foolish, I had the brainwashed idea that the South Africans and the Rhodesians were the incarnation of the Nazis, a view heavily pushed by EVERY western source. However when push came to shove in Africa, it was these same “Nazis” who were the ONLY ones willing to try when we were in dire peril and showed us the absolute opposite of their media portrayal. So I have no hesitation in supporting them here or elsewhere.

    Legacy of a ‘Liberator’.
    by Hannes Wessels

    by Hannes Wessels

    I’m certainly shedding no tears upon the departure of Robert Mugabe from this world but I look back upon his life and his monstrous misrule, cognizant of the fact that he was only a player on a bigger political stage, with an influential supporting cast that enabled the tragedy that befell his country, the continent and even the world. The fact is, he was only able to get to where he did and stay there, through the enthusiastic encouragement of many people in high places and much of that support was drawn from influential leaders within the Western democracies.

    By all accounts, a quiet, introspective and thoughtful child. The son of an unidentified father, he went to a Jesuit mission school where he was noticed for his diligence and intelligence. One cannot help but speculate on what else might have transpired at this critical juncture in his life but these institutions were, we now know, in many cases, run by sexual deviants. Mugabe, later, expressed an unhealthy hatred of homosexuals, despite exhibiting a mincing gait and limp-wristed hand gestures that have left many wondering about his own sexual orientation and whether he may have suffered some sort of sexual and mental trauma at a young age that shaped him into the sinister personality he became.

    His admirers like to refer to him as a ‘guerrilla fighter’ but this is a misnomer; he was never a combatant in any shape or form although he occasionally dressed as one; and this was the reason he was treated with disdain by real ‘fighters’ such as his armed-wing commander, Josiah Tongogara.

    Tongogara, incidentally, may have been one of Mugabe’s early victims in his rise to power. He died in a mysterious car-crash having just returned to Mozambique from the Lancaster House talks in London which convened late 1979, where he made a big impression as a charismatic and rational man.

    Having grown up happily on Ian Smith’s farm near Selukwe, Tongogara expressed a fondness for the then former premier and reached out to General Walls, who then commanded the Rhodesian military, in a spirit of real reconciliation. According to Walls, Tongogara was of the view that it was they – the ‘fighting men’ who should settle this and ‘to hell’ with the politicians. This message would not have been lost on Mugabe or the conniving Peter Carrington and the guerrilla commander was soon on a Maputo mortuary slab.

    Ironically, given her perceived profile as being non-political, it was the Queen of England, who played the decisive role in propelling Mugabe to power. After the country’s first and arguably, only universal suffrage, free and fair election in February 1979, a moderate, black majority government led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, was elected. British PM at the time, Margaret Thatcher, promised to recognise the new leadership but reneged some months later at a Commonwealth Conference in Lusaka, following direct intervention from Her Majesty who implored her to change course which she duly did. This handed resolution of the issue to Foreign Secretary, Lord Peter Carrington who stitched up the settlement reached at Lancaster House and smoothed Mugabe’s path to power.

    The BBC and most of the mainstream media like to tell us that Mugabe started off well and deserves recognition for commendable governance in the early years of his long tenure. This does not bear close scrutiny. The truth is, he took control of an economy primed for rapid growth and the best structured and governed country in Africa, with more blacks in schools per capita than anywhere else on the continent. Even radical black nationalists like Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere and Mozambique’s Samora Machel, reminded him of his serendipitous situation and entreated him not to make the same mistakes as they had done.

    He ignored them and quickly set about destroying ‘the jewel of Africa’ by dragging the country into an encounter with a command economy where he and his cronies would attempt to control all the levers in the public and private sector, while following a vaguely Marxist blueprint.

    Tax levels were hiked to being some of the highest in the world, the best civil service in Africa was smashed, and his stated commitment to a non-racial meritocracy was a lie from the start. In all sectors, black political allies, regardless of their experience or qualifications were ushered into positions way beyond their ability. Anti-white racism was institutionalised throughout the public sector. Detention without trial was the order of the day and pressure on political dissenters mounted.

    When the threat of an effective opposition appeared early in the 80’s in Matabeleland, Mugabe reacted ferociously. A systematic, state-sponsored genocide ensued and within three years of Zimbabwe’s independence, approximately 20,000 innocents were killed. The world looked the other way; British PM, John Major’s government rewarded him with a knighthood.

    He returned from the investiture to Zimbabwe to announce that gays and lesbians should be evicted, before referring to like-minded people as “… worse than dogs and pigs … beasts … guilty of sub-human behaviour,” and called for them to be removed from society.

    In the late 90’s, the Americans, despite Mugabe’s policies, were still cheering him on. Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tom MacDonald, was gushing in his praise of him and reached the astonishing conclusion that the country was an ‘An African success story.’

    In 2000, in a fit of pique, after losing a referendum that would have granted him near dictatorial power, four thousand white farmers, (.03% of the total population) their families and dependents were ‘ethnically cleansed’ and the economy collapsed triggering the worst hyper-inflation in history. This resulted in soft sanctions and a travel-ban on the president and some of his cohorts but he was still warmly welcomed to The Vatican as a ‘devout Catholic’.

    Zimbabwe now teeters on the brink of becoming a ‘failed state’ but when surveying the wreckage, one must remain mindful that this tragedy was only possible because the Western world, not only allowed it to happen, but enthusiastically aided it.

    In a world obsessed with political correctness which forbids criticism of tyrants when they are black, Mugabe was accountable to no one and no institution and this is legacy. If the liberals who ruled and their media acolytes had removed their racist blinkers and applied the same rules to African despots as they do to their European counterparts the history of Zimbabwe would have been a happier one. Sadly, this message has not been lost on the people who govern and are now taking South Africa into the same abyss.

  2. The Villains Who Care.
    by Hannes Wessels

    by Hannes Wessels

    I’ve said it before, but I think I can confidently state that I belong to one of the most hated minorities on the planet. Born in Rhodesia, of Afrikaans and German parentage, I’m a 63-year-old white, male, Christian, heterosexual and I was a soldier in an army, internationally vilified as being motivated by a strong desire to maintain white privilege through entrenched, racist supremacy. Like most of my lot, just to be further alienated from the ‘virtue-signaling’ mainstream, we also liked to hunt, fish, drink beer in our male orientated sports clubs and chase women.

    The good news for the millions who hate the likes of me and my compatriots is there are very few of us left and soon we’ll be all gone. There were never that many of us in the first place; the European population of what was then Rhodesia was roughly 250,000 at its peak and then many of my generation lost their lives in the ‘Bush-war’ that ended in 1980 when the country was finally ‘liberated’ by Robert Mugabe. This brought unbridled joy to the entire world but obviously not us and many whites left the country with very little to show for their decades of commitment to the country they loved. While the international community cheered, Rhodesians were jeered because they were not convinced a terrorist could transform into a saint overnight; but nobody was listening and nobody cared what they thought anyway. The majority view was their plight was well deserved.

    Some of us decided to stay and try and make the most of an unfortunate situation. It was never easy, but we muddled and struggled through with mixed success until 2000 when our ‘liberators’ decided to seize all white-owned farms and in so doing, collapsed the economy and introduced millions to abject poverty. The ‘land invasions’ came at a time when my generation was approaching middle-age and most, as a result of the ethnic cleansing, were left bereft of homes and livelihoods in a hostile world with few employment options and no social security safety net to catch them. Being white, they were not enthusiastically welcomed as immigrants around the world. The anguish and hardship that followed triggered suicides, alcoholism and early deaths from stress-related diseases like cancer. Our ranks were further thinned to the point there are now only a few thousand of us left.

    Against this backdrop, ‘home’ continues to be a sub-continent where despots dominate and misrule, the looting of national exchequers by tiny, politically connected elites, continues on a gargantuan scale, extreme poverty is endemic and exploding, infrastructures are collapsing and natural resources are being plundered in an unholy alliance which brings corrupt officials and, in many cases, their Chinese paymasters, into joint ventures that threaten to turn these countries into an environmental catastrophe.

    True to form, the UN, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), Western diplomats and myriad NGO’s are present, cognisant but mostly ineffective. They don’t want to upset anyone by being too critical of the people who wield power because they will probably be accused of ‘racism’ or ‘neo-colonialist’, so much more sensible to shut up, do nothing, keep your well-paid job and enjoy the good life that being an expat in Africa brings. God alone knows how many billions the charlatans who run and manage these aid and environmental organisations have squandered over the last 60-plus years and achieved very little apart from boosting the sales of fancy four-wheel drives and pushing up the prices of housing in the safer suburbs of the capitals where they live in fine style with the help of inexpensive servants.

    In general terms, the situation that exists today in the countries I know is almost hopeless and certainly heart-breaking; but out there in the gloom a few candles flicker and they are carried by the very few and they are mostly surviving members of that afore-mentioned, hated white minority that fought the forces of ‘liberation’ and enraged the world.

    They are all getting old now but Trevor, in western Zimbabwe, shot through both legs in the war, is quietly running a successful anti-poaching operation while supervising the provision of water to wildlife in the parched wilderness where no rivers flow. Thanks, is no small part to him, tourists are back, elephant, buffalo and lion numbers are rising, and illegal hunting is under control.

    Derek, in northern Mozambique has been in the thick of the fight to save the elephant in the ‘badlands’ south of the Rovuma where Somali gunmen shoot to kill, corrupt officials conspire, and Islamic-inspired terrorists are seeking to establish a caliphate. He works with little and seeks no glory, but his life has been, and remains, on the line.

    Willy, in central Mozambique, north of the Save River, is on a lonely, self-funded, mission, trying to restore this massive tract of magnificent bushveld to its former wild glory. Poachers, with the quiet consent of the authorities, have devastated the wildlife to the point only a few scattered pockets survive but he is determined to nurture and protect what is left and do the continent and indeed the world a small service.

    Trevor, across the river, is trying to do the same. Both men are trying, but fighting a losing battle, to stem the flow of illegally harvested hardwoods to China. The corruption that exists at all levels of the bureaucracy and law-enforcement agencies, appears too organised and established, to stop the timber traffic. The international community looks on with interest.

    Andy and Rich, working with limited resources, have led the fight to stop illegal hunting and snaring in south-eastern Zimbabwe, restore road infrastructure and saved a treasured wilderness from being rendered lifeless.

    Darrell and Ian are making similar endeavours in central and southern Zambia where the wildlife authority reduced itself to penury and paralysis through corruption and mismanagement. They, along with their scouts and support from the private sector, have filled a void and turned the tide on the killing fields. In the Zambezi Valley, the national park has been returned to being a true refuge and the game populations are soaring.

    Dale, in South Africa, paralyzed below the waste by enemy gunfire in the prime of life, works from a wheelchair to grow fruit and vegetables that alleviate some of the poverty in the nearby shantytown. Despite his handicap he insists he can continue to help the poor people he feels are worse off than he.

    What these men all have in common is a shared history, in that all were soldiers once, all have been and remain victims of debilitating racial discrimination and not one of them is performing these arduous and dangerous tasks because they expect to get rich. They are all jointly committed by a deep love of Africa, its wildlife and its people and they are driven by a powerful, selfless desire to protect those forms of life that cannot protect themselves against the ravages of insatiable human greed. And they share something else; none of them are liberals, none are products of a nanny-state and they are men who act decisively and say little. And tragically, when they are gone, the Africa they fought to protect and nurture will probably be destroyed.

    http://africaunauthorised.com/?p=3067

    • Very good. Maybe this is our future, too. If so, our luckiest lot will be in a zoo, fed through a cage.

      • Defeat is not an option, previously I posted the speech where Patrick Henry famously said: “Give me Liberty or Give me Death”. here is is again. Always remember Defeat is suicide and suicide is not an option.

        https://www.history.org/almanack/life/politics/giveme.cfm

        St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia
        March 23, 1775.

        MR. PRESIDENT: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

        Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

        I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves, and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free² if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending²if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!

        They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable²and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

        It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace²but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me,strong> give me liberty or give me death!

        • The White South Africans are planning to retreat to a redoubt where they can make a last stand. If/when push comes to shove in the US there are a lot of people who aren’t thinking of last stands. They are thinking of going on the offensive, We Europeans have become trapped in the idea of defense only and no offense. According to the movie “The Desert Rats” the British General in charge of defending Tobruk said that this was not a mind set that he was going to take and kept making offensive raids on the Germans who had surrounded the city. Of the modern politicians only Reagan, Margret Thatcher and Donald Trump. The others have either surrendered or played defense, the offensive actions don’t have to be kinetic but they have to strike at the heart of Cultural Marxism.

          Always remember defeat is not an option, never surrender fight back and win. We have the skills to win and as long as we don’t surrender we will eventually win. REMEMBER DEFEAT IS NOT AN OPTION.

          • They are waging war already and ONLY death will stop the globaloleftists and as they ignore all votes that disagree with them, then all of them. Without their presence in politics and the bureaucracy islam would be back on its face where it belongs. Civil war is the only real hope as I see Johnson being betrayed left right and centre. But it has to be soon before the traitors hand over the armed forces to the EU. Deal with the Left and especially in law and the bureaucracy as well as politics then islam will be much easier to handle and control.

            • Yes they are waging war but right now we can’t return kinetic action with kinetic action. The time for kinetic action is rapidly approaching but we have to wait. We have to show we are the ones trying to be reasonable and use peaceful means to stop the violence, You and I both know that the chances of peaceful means working is somewhere near zero but we have to play the publicity game until we get enough people on our side to win. Until that times comes we work to preserve our freedom, culture and nations in everyway but kinetic. We also get ready for when the time to be kinetic arrives. In the US I think it will arrive shortly after Donald Trump wins re-election.

              • Trying to continue to assume the high moral ground is pointless as every leftist thinks she/he lives there already as that is the emotional lying façade of Leftism that sucks in the idiotically naïve. Pacifism by ignoring and turning the other cheek just encourages them as it always has. Both the Left and muslims are becoming more arrogant and blatantly violent every day and the longer we wait the harder it will be. I can hope that Trump’s re-election ignites it but that assumes a fair vote and there is no guarantee of that in a western state where any bureaucracy with >70% leftists exists. They see misinforming, obstructing, cheating and vote rigging as their duty. Lenin learnt well from islam. look at the Brexit shambles as IMO They WILL force a second vote a la Lisbon. It is submit or fight

                • Remember all of the events around the world are connected. Look at what Iran is doing, if they don’t back off the war there will become real big engulfing the entire middle east. This will spread to Europe and North America. As I said it is better for them to start the war then for us to start the war. Not because it gives us the moral high ground but because it gives us a propaganda advantage. Information is a weapon that we haven’t been using since the fall of the Soviet Union and one we need to start using again.

                  We also need to start realizing that Foreign Trade is a weapon and we need to start using it. Trump is doing this with China and they are starting to cave. Iran is getting desperate, their ordering the attack on the Saudi refinery is an attempt to cause the Saudi economy to sink the the very shaky position that the Iranian economy exists in.

                • Another thing to think about, what percentage of the population will support the actions you purpose? You need one third of the population supporting any type of civil war for it to have a chance to succeed. They don’t have to fight but they have to support the fight.

              • When Trump wins the 2020 election the left will rebel, that is when we can start fighting all of our enemies. Timing is everything when you are deliberately starting a war. You need to get the enemy to commit some really evil act that lets you fight back.

                The war will start (probably a lot sooner then either of us expect) and it won’t be too long after that when we start doing things that no one will even thing about now. The trick is to ensure that everyone knows that if we don’t win the war every thing they love will be destroyed.

  3. Now fifty years after my first brochure on the subject, I present the scholars my latest book entitled Theory and practice of Muslim State in India. Its raison detre is that in my earlier endeavours, no attempt had been made to trace the relationships between the injunctions contained in Islamic religious literature and the attitudes and actions of Muslim kings and conquerors. Ordinarily, historians writing on medieval Indian history refer to Muslim chronicles and histories as their only sources materials. The study of Islamic scriptural literature like the Quran, the Hadis, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the Shariat is ignored in historical studies as it is considered to belong to the domain of religion rather than to that of history. However, the study of this literature reveals that Muslim invaders and rulers were not cruel or fanatical by themselves as such, but they became so by pursuing the malevolent ideology as projected in the Quran and the Hadis against non-Muslims.
    Muslim invaders and rulers of India belonged to different races and different countries. They belonged to different sects. Their rule extended for about a thousand years in various parts of the country. Their chronicles are written in different languages. But their behaviour follows a uniform pattern. Even those rulers and nobles who had converted to Islam from Hinduism, considered their bloody acts against Hindus as acts of righteousness. The source of this uniformity of action is the Quran, the Hadis and the Sunnah which they quote with pride. These scriptures do not belongs only to the past. They are in operation even now. Pious Muslims in all places and at all times seek or provoke Jihad with an appeal to Islamic Scriptures. -K.S.Lal

  4. Woman Injured As Explosion Hits City Centre of Lund, Sweden – Reports (sputniknews, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201909141076801316–explosion-hits-city-centre-of-lund-sweden—reports/

    “The blast occurred at approximately 2:40 AM local time, injuring a woman who was passing the store, according to media reports.

    An explosion rocked the city of Lund, Sweden on Saturday night, wounding a passerby, police say. The incident occurred near a grocery shop which was the target of the blast, Svenska Dagbladet reported, citing a police spokesman.

    “We currently have no suspects or detainees; we are analysing the testimonies of witnesses,” Svenska Dagbladet quoted the official police spokesman as saying.

    The newspaper also cited witnesses as saying that the woman, who is in her twenties, sustained shrapnel wounds. The woman has been taken to hospital; her condition is unknown, according to Aftonbladet.

    Police said they received 17 calls from locals complaining about a loud bang. Following the calls, the police, a bomb squad, as well as emergency services rushed to the scene.

    The explosion smashed the door and the windows of the grocery store and reportedly triggered a water leak in the building. The windows in neighbouring houses were also shattered by the blast.”

  5. Fire at Saudi Arabia Aramco Oil Facilities Caused by Drone Attack (sputniknews, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201909141076800885-fire-at-saudi-arabia-aramco-oil-facilities-caused-by-drone-attack—reports/

    “Earlier in the day, a blast followed by fire was reported at the Saudi Aramco Abqaiq facility in the eastern part of the kingdom.

    Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for drone attacks on two Saudi Aramco factories, the group’s spokesman said in a statement broadcast by Al Masirah TV. The spokesperson went on to say that the rebels deployed 10 drones overall in both attacks.

    He also vowed that the scope of Houthi attacks against the kingdom would be broadened.

    Earlier, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry stated that the fire at two Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais was caused by drone attacks. The official added that the blaze was brought under control by the company’s security forces.

    “The industrial security teams of Aramco have started dealing with fires at two of its facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais as a result of… drones”, local media quoted the spokesman as saying. “The two fires have been controlled.”

    The ministry official did not identify those responsible for the attack in his comment.

    Earlier in the day, the Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya reported the explosion and fire at the Saudi Aramco Abqaiq facility in Buqyaq, near Dammam, in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. According to videos posted by social media users, gunfire was heard in the background…”

  6. London crimewave: Horror as man hacked to death by machetes gang (express, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1177812/London-news-camden-murder-machete-gang

    “A GANG armed with Samurai swords and machetes brought bloodshed to a busy high street as they hacked a man to death.

    Bystanders fled in terror as the group of at least five men attacked the 23-year-old in Camden Town, north London. The victim, a Somalian national, named only as Asant, was treated by paramedics but pronounced dead at the scene. Police said a second man, in his mid-20s, was found nearby with a stab wound and was taken to hospital where he was in a stable condition last night.

    A friend of Asant’s, who asked to stay anonymous, said he was a “regular guy” who was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

    Describing the attack, he said: “There were loads of us here when a group of men jumped out with Samurais.

    “We were all scared. Everybody just scattered and ran.

    “There were loads of us here but he must have been one of the slowest.

    “He probably stopped to help others because that’s the kind of person he is, and got in the way.

    “He was the best of all of us and he had a big heart. We were crying in the street.”

    The witness said police arrived promptly at the scene on Thursday night and were “quick to jump on everyone”.

    No arrests have been made…”

  9. Netherlands: Islamic Primary School Distributes Anti-Gay Literature (breitbart, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/09/14/netherlands-islamic-primary-school-distributes-anti-gay-literature/

    “Islamic primary schools across the Netherlands have distributed anti-LGBT literature which claims Allah destroyed an entire people based on their homosexuality.

    The material is part of the sex education in Islamic schools and comes from the book Help! I am Growing Up released by the Islamic organisation ISBO for 44 schools across the Netherlands, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting reports.

    On the topic of homosexuality, the book states that “the prohibition in Islam is based on having intercourse with someone of the same sex,” and goes on to condemn transgender people saying that Allah “cursed” boys who dress as girls.

    When asked about the material the Education Inspectorate told the broadcaster, “With regard to teaching materials, the inspectorate always looks at how this is applied in the context. These examples do not in themselves give cause to assume that legal limits are being exceeded.”

    Professor of Pedagogy Micha de Winter of Utrecht University holds a different view: “An important aspect of citizenship education is that children learn to think critically and to make their own choices. This textbook very clearly describes how you should live and whatnot.”

    “That does not relate to the Western way of living together, in which people have a great deal of freedom to choose how they want to live,” Winter added.

    Earlier this year in the United Kingdom, Muslims in Birmingham objected to a school programme quite the opposite of the Dutch textbook that celebrated, rather than condemned, LGBT lifestyles.

    Muslim parents held signs outside of the school bearing slogans such as, “Say No To Sexualisation of Children.”

    In May, a different school in Birmingham saw LGBT activists harassed and attacked with eggs by Muslim protesters.”

  10. With Salvini Gone, New M5S-Democrat Govt Invites Migrants to Land in Italy (breitbart, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/09/14/with-salvini-gone-new-m5s-democrat-govt-invites-migrants-land-in-italy/

    “An NGO migrant transport with 82 migrants aboard says it has been given permission to dock at a tiny Italian island.

    Ocean Viking’s crew said Saturday that Italian authorities instructed the ship to sail to Lampedusa island.

    The Ocean Viking, which had appealed for days for a European port of safety, is operated by two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee.

    It isn’t clear if Italy’s new government is softening its anti-migration policy. The previous coalition banned NGO ships from bringing migrants to Italy.

    Fifty of those aboard were picked up on Sept. 8 from a flimsy rubber dinghy launched from Libya by people taffickers. Thirty-four other migrants were picked up the next day in the Mediterranean. A woman about to give birth and her husband were taken to Malta earlier in the week.”

  11. Yemeni officials say rebel shelling kills 13 civilians (abcnews, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/yemeni-officials-rebel-shelling-kills-13-civilians-65610396

    “Yemeni security officials say shelling by Houthi rebels has killed at least 13 civilians including women and children in the provinces of Hodeida and Taiz.

    The officials said Saturday the attacks killed at least 11 people, including six from one family, south of the Red Sea city of Hodeida in the past 24 hours.

    They say another two children were killed by mortar fire late Friday in the Salih district in the southwestern province of Taiz.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

    Yemen’s war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against the internationally recognized government, which is supported by a Saudi-led coalition.

    The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and thrust millions to the brink of famine.”

    • They want to turn 5 million people into criminals overnight, they will have as much luck with that as they will in getting people to surrender their firearms.

    • I should have added that a lot of the people they are counting on to help grab the guns and arrest the NRA members are NRA members themselves.

      I don’t Michelle that the time for kinetic action is rapidly approaching, if/when the left tries to seize the privately owned guns it will not only have arrived the kinetic action of hte Second Civil War will have started big time.

  15. Tom Fitton: Finally, a Prosecution of the Deep State? NEW DOJ/State Docs CONFIRM Coup against Trump

  18. Italy: Migrants Drift to Leftist-controlled Areas for Higher Welfare Benefits (breitbart, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/09/14/italy-migrants-drift-to-leftist-areas-due-to-higher-benefits/

    “Underage migrants from Muslim-majortity Albania and Kosovo often end up in leftist-controlled areas due to higher benefits, according to a report.

    The report, which comes from the Italian Ministry of Labour, states that most Albanian migrants, who form the largest group of underage migrants who came into Italy between 2018 and 2019, end up in the leftist regions of Emilia Romagna or Tuscany, Il Giornale reports.

    A source in the Municipality of Florence told the Italian paper: “This suggests the existence of a racket organised and governed by someone who takes them mainly to these cities.”

    “The problem derives from many years of the leftist government. I work for a left-wing administration and I see the limits of goodwill that creates opportunities for those who want to take advantage of it,” the source added.

    Florence hosts around 270 underage migrants, 80 per cent of which came illegally from either Albania or Kosovo.

    “The municipal government finds them there and delivers them to social services like a parcel,” the source said and added: “They do not check whether they are really unaccompanied or, as often happens, if they have relatives in Italy.”

    The total cost of unaccompanied foreign minors in Florence alone is around five million euros.

    Leftist-run areas in Italy have been known to favour migrants in the past for social services, including social housing.

    In Sesto San Giovanni, the leftist government had allocated 29 of 36 available apartments to non-EU nationals in 2017. The policy was later reversed earlier this year following the election of right-wing mayor Roberto Di Stefano.

    Mass migration saw a decline over the past year thanks to the policies of League (Lega) leader and former interior minister Matteo Salvini, who closed Italy’s ports to migrant transport NGOs — but now many fear the new Five Star-Democratic Party (PD) coalition could undo his policies and reopen the country to mass migration once more.”

  21. Florida Coast Guard Receives Mysterious Radio Calls Threatening to Set Off Depth Charges and Sink Their Ships in the Gulf

    The U.S. Coast Guard is appealing for information from the public after a command center was sent a series of violent threats and hoax calls.

    The transmissions were received via marine band radio off the coast of Florida. The unknown culprit, speaking in an American accent, cited links to the Russian government and threatened to set off anti-submarine weapons known as “depth charges” and shoot down planes.

    The latest threat was sent to the Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg command center on August 13 via VHF channel 22A, the Coast Guard confirmed to media yesterday.

    The mysterious individual behind the most recent broadcast appeared to be the same person who made previous threats that started with him saying “Mayday” three times before talking about “scrambling all jets we are under nuclear attack,” officials said this week.
    Ads by scrollerads.com

    Audio of the calls was published to the Coast Guard website yesterday but was not working at the time of publication. Navy Times reported it obtained a copy of the August 13 transmission, which lasted roughly 70 seconds and contained a series of bizarre threats.

    According to the website, a voice was heard saying: “The next time you send off any aircraft off of any aircraft carriers, or helicopters, I will set off all the depth charges in the Gulf and sink your ships… close down all airports of America, otherwise I’ll set off the depth charges.”

    https://www.newsweek.com/florida-st-petersburg-coast-guard-threat-hoax-radio-calls-depth-charges-sink-ships-1459072

  23. Hong Kong police break up scattered clashes between rival protesters

    HONG KONG (Reuters) – Baton-wielding Hong Kong police moved in to break up scuffles on Saturday between pro-China protesters and those denouncing perceived Chinese meddling in the Asian financial hub, the latest in months of sometimes violent clashes.

    The pro-China demonstrators chanted “Support the police” and “China, add oil” at a shopping mall, adapting a line used by anti-Hong Kong government protesters and loosely meaning: “China, keep your strength up”.

    https://www.oann.com/hong-kong-protesters-plan-mall-sit-ins-after-hill-top-human-chains/

  24. No, Trump doesn’t need to change his demeanor or style of communication
    By J.E. Dyer September 14, 2019

    This essay must start with a human and personal point, which is that I value and have often enjoyed and profited from the writing of the conservatives I’ve been reading throughout my life. Nothing here is about attacking or despising other writers. For what it’s worth, I think everyone in this mix is doing the best he or she can, at a time when things are happening that are much bigger than we are.

    Donald Trump isn’t the reason for the big happenings. He is, rather, a beacon in them, a sort of lighthouse that keeps dragging us back to reality through the fog of our elaborately constructed viewpoints, and against their powerful underwater currents. As a force, he isn’t what our cognitive baffles expect to see. He is what we need to see.

    The prompt for this article is a piece by Conrad Black at NRO, posted on 9/11/2019. In it, Black opens with these words: “This is the time for President Trump to deprive his enemies of the last weapon that could be employed against him that could cause him any harm: the largely false, but still troublesome, issue of his personality and routine behavior.”

    Black finds much to praise in the effects Trump is producing, and he makes the point in fairness that “In Trump’s defense, no president since Richard Nixon’s last days in office has been subjected to such malicious and widespread hostility as this one.” Allegations of wrongdoing by Trump keep coming to naught as well, whereas some against Nixon remain unadjudicated. The sheer unfairness of the malice and hostility against Trump is unprecedented.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/09/14/no-trump-doesnt-need-to-change-his-demeanor-or-style-of-communication/

    • This is a very good analysis of who and what Trump is, it also does a good job of pointing out the weaknesses of our enemies.

    • As soon as they began to hesitate, obstruct, then talk of a the classical EU “second vote” it became quite clear that both houses in the UK needed a cleansing and the more they cheat the more certain is that it will be a bloody one. I had so much faith in the Westminster system and to see it betrayed as it has been is the one factor that has made me realize that ONLY force will save the UK. If Johnson can achieve the no deal Brexit exit it may be avoided but that will NOT remove the leftist rot just as a Trump re-election will not change the leftist contamination of the law and education as well as the bureaucracy in the USA. Only fear and the threat of violent retribution will control them as it ALWAYS has. Talking to them is pointless. Meeting them halfway is pointless.

      • Yup and those civil wars are coming to all Western Nations. Not as fast as you want but coming, civil wars are hard to start because you have to convience at least one third of the population to support the war. Not fight he war support the war. That civilian support is as necessary as the smaller percentage needed to fight the war.

  26. Democrats have become so much of a farce that they are beyond satire
    By Howard Portnoy September 14, 2019

    In March, the deep thinkers at the New York Times asked via a headline “Is Satire Possible in the Age of Trump?” Despite the usual accuracy of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines — which holds that “any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no” — the answer turned out to be mixed. “There has been no shortage of Trump satire,” asserts author Ben Greenman in one breath only to utter “But Trump satire can be a difficult row to hoe” in the next.

    But a new development, captured in a tweet posted yesterday, suggests that maybe Betteridge predicts the right answer to the Times question after all. The tweet by Seth Dillion, CEO of the satirical site the Babylon Bee, reads simply, “We really are trying to do satire when we write stuff like this” and links to an article at the Bee titled “Democratic Candidates Announce Plan To Dangle Stacks Of Cash In Front Of Potential Voters.”

    The piece would appear to be a send-up of candidate Andrew Yang’s announcement during Wednesday’s Democratic debate that his campaign would be giving a “freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to ten American families.” But when you check the date on the Babylon Bee article, you find that it was published on June 24 of this year — nearly three months before Yang’s “fool and his money” proclamation. (RELATED: Andrew Yang’s Oprah-style give-away promo from Dem debate may not be … legal) In the current socialist-driven Democratic political climate, June’s joke becomes September’s reality.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/09/14/democrats-have-become-so-much-of-a-farce-that-you-can-no-longer-satirize-them/

  27. France: Migrants speak out amid looming eviction from Dunkirk camp

    Migrants shared their thoughts amid a looming eviction from a camp at Grande-Synthe, near the French port city of Dunkirk, on Friday.

    Migrant from Kurdistan called on French authorities not to clear the camp, saying, “What people are going to do after that?”

    Migrant from Iran stressed that “you cannot stop these people. If you close this place, they’ll go to another place.”

    “We tried to go to London. But I don’t want to stay in France. All the people, not just me, everyone [wants] to go to the UK,” noted migrant from Afghanistan.

    The disused gym in Dunkirk, which reportedly houses more than 70 families, is expected to be cleared in the coming days.

    On Thursday, the makeshift migrant camp in Calais, which had housed some 500 people, was cleared.

    Earlier this week, Border Force patrols intercepted 86 people, which is believed to be the highest number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel in a day.

  28. Diversity is not our strength, but is extremely costly in countless ways. Black Axe.

    Organized Crime in Nigeria
    en.m.wikipedia.org

  29. BBC – The Africans risking death in jungle trying to reach US –

    ( 9 min 07 )

    The Darien Gap is one of the world’s most dangerous jungles – full of drug traffickers, thieves and poisonous animals.

    So why are thousands of Africans trying to cross this jungle in South America?

    The BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga joined one group.

    Video journalist: Mohamed Madi

  32. MEMRI’s youtube account deleted

    YouTube Censors MEMRI, Removing – For ‘Inappropriate Content’

    – MEMRI TV Clip Exposing Anti-Gay Statements By Sheikh Abu Abdillah In Queens, N.Y.

    A MEMRI TV clip posted on February 26, 2018 on the MEMRI TV YouTube channel exposed Sheikh Abu Abdillah Ismaeel making anti-gay statements in a Friday sermon at the Masjid Ahlul Quran Wa Sunnah mosque in Queens, N.Y. In the MEMRI TV clip, Sheikh said: “Satan slowly but surely is getting at the Muslims, trying to get our religion to change… either to become extreme bloodthirsty murderers… or to become fags.” He continued: “As far as I am concerned, it’s not politically incorrect, it doesn’t go against any constitutional laws to call them a fag, a homosexual, a lowlife, a savage.” People, he said, were trying “to take a Quranic verse and misconstrue it, to take a hadith and misconstrue it, to justify homosexuality, to justify terrorism, to justify murder, to justify stealing or violating people’s property.”

    YouTube: “Video Removed: Inappropriate Content”

    On August 26, YouTube removed this MEMRI TV clip from the channel, posting the message “Video Removed: Inappropriate content.”

    YouTube also posted on the page a notification explaining that the video had been “flagged for review” – that is, by YouTube users – and that YouTube had subsequently “determined that it violates our guidelines.” It added, “We’ve removed it from YouTube and assigned a Community Guidelines strike, or temporary penalty, to your account” and warned: “If you receive three or more of one of the types of strikes listed above, we may have to disable your account.”

    MEMRI Appeals YouTube Decision To Remove Clip; YouTube Rejects Appeal

    MEMRI appealed YouTube’s decision to remove the clip, explaining that it is part of the research of the MEMRI Reform Project, which exposes hate speech including anti-LGBTQ sentiment and supports reformists who speak out against such hate speech.

    This appeal was rejected by YouTube, which stated: “After further review of the content, we’ve determined that your video does violate our Community Guidelines and have upheld our original decision.”

    It should be noted that at the end of every MEMRI TV clip it is stated: “MEMRI is a non-partisan, independent research institute providing research, analysis, and translation of primary materials covering a wide range of issues, including terrorism and ideological trends in the Middle East. These video clips are provided as a public service to an international viewing audience to bridge the language gap and better educate and inform. Material about statements by terrorists and extremists is provide to alert the public to threats, and in no way constitutes an endorsement of such activities.”

    YouTube Removed MEMRI’s Previous YouTube Channel – Which Had Over 60,000 Subscribers And Hundreds Of Millions Of Views

    MEMRI’s current YouTube channel has almost 3,000 subscribers and 700,000 views. MEMRI’s previous YouTube channel, which had more than 60,000 subscribers and hundreds of millions of views, was terminated in July 2016; despite MEMRI’s numerous appeals for information to resolve the outstanding issues and to regain access to the account, we were never successful in doing so.

    An article published March 2, 2017 by Tablet magazine, “Why Is YouTube Punishing People Who Translate and Expose Anti-Semitism on Its Platform?” highlighted the termination of our YouTube account. It stated: “For years, YouTube has been taking down videos that translate and expose anti-Semitism and punishing those who post them. Perhaps the most notable victim of this censorship is MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute.”

    The article went on to describe the importance of MEMRI’s work, saying: “MEMRI translates television and media from across the Middle East, highlighting both bigotry and those activists who seek to fight it.” It also explains YouTube’s flagging system and how an account can be terminated like MEMRI’s was: “YouTube’s system for identifying problematic content relies on users flagging and reporting allegedly objectionable videos. Site staff then sort through the reports and remove content at their discretion. Unfortunately, this process is easily gamed by those bigots and their sympathizers who don’t want MEMRI’s material out there.”

    =======================================================
    View the clip of Abu Abdillah Ismaeel here ; read some of his statements from the clip below:

    Abu Abdillah Ismaeel: “An imam, a gay imam, a fag, a homosexual – these words are all synonymous, as far as I am concerned. I don’t need this politically correct… How? How? When this country was established, they weren’t okay. Homosexuality wasn’t okay. So as far as I am concerned, it is not politically incorrect, it doesn’t go against any constitutional laws, to call them a fag, a homosexual, a lowlife, a savage.

    “This is what they were then. This is what they were back in the time of Lot, and this is what they will always be. Like it who likes it. Dislike it who dislikes it. Freedom of speech…

    “We don’t call to attack them – gay-bashing or any of those things. That is the responsibility of the rulers, of the governments around the world. If they don’t do anything, we leave the affair to Allah, and we seek refuge in Allah from that. Other than that, it is not for any of us to try to take matters into their own hands. So I’m just letting the brothers know in advance in case anyone gets the wrong idea.”

    https://www.memri.org/reports/youtube-censors-memri-removing-%E2%80%93-inappropriate-content-%E2%80%93-memri-tv-clip-exposing-anti-gay

  34. the guardian – Edward Snowden in exile: ‘you have to be ready to stand for something’

    Edward Snowden has spent the last six years living in exile in Russia and has now decided to publish his memoirs, Permanent Record.

    In the book he reflects on his life leading up to the biggest leak of top secret documents in history, and the impact this had on his relationship with his partner, Lindsay Mills.

    The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill, who helped break Snowden’s story in 2013, has been given exclusive access to meet him

    • DER SPIEGEL – Interview with Edward Snowden

      ‘If I Happen to Fall out of a Window, You Can Be Sure I Was Pushed’

      In a DER SPIEGEL interview, whistleblower Edward Snowden talks about how he managed to mislead the most powerful intelligence agency in the world, about his life in Russia and about why the internet must be reinvented.

      Book a suite in a luxury hotel in Moscow, send the room number encrypted to a pre-determined mobile number and then wait for a return message indicating a precise time: Meeting Edward Snwoden is pretty much exactly how children imagine the grand game of espionage is played.

      But then, on Monday, there he was, standing in our room on the first floor of the Hotel Metropol, as pale and boyish-looking as the was when the world first saw him in June 2013. For the last six years, he has been living in Russian exile. The U.S. has considered him to be an enemy of the state, right up there with Julian Assange, ever since he revealed, with the help of journalists, the full scope of the surveillance system operated by the National Security Agency (NSA). For quite some time, though, he remained silent about how he smuggled the secrets out of the country and what his personal motivations were.

      Now, though, he has written a book about it. It will be published worldwide on September 17 under the title “Permanent Record.” Ahead of publication, Snowden spent over two-and-a-half hours patiently responding to questions from DER SPIEGEL.

      DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Snowden, you always said: “I am not the story.” But now you’ve written 432 pages about yourself. Why?

      Edward Snowden: Because I think it’s more important than ever to explain systems of mass surveillance and mass manipulation to the public. And I can’t explain how these systems came to be without explaining my role in helping to build them.

      DER SPIEGEL: Wasn’t it just as important four or even six years ago?

      Snowden: Four years ago, Barack Obama was president. Four years ago, Boris Johnson wasn’t around and the AfD (Germany’s right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany) was still kind of a joke. But now in 2019, no one is laughing. When you look around the world, when you look at the rising factionalization of society, when you see this new wave of authoritarianism sweeping over many countries: Everywhere political classes and commercial classes are realizing they can use technology to influence the world on a new scale that was not previously available. We are seeing our systems coming under attack.

      DER SPIEGEL: What systems?

      Snowden: The political system, the legal system, the social system. And we have the proclivity to think that if we get rid of the people we don’t like, the problem is solved. We go: “Oh, it’s Donald Trump. Oh, it’s Boris Johnson. Oh, it’s the Russians” But Donald Trump is not the problem. Donald Trump is the product of the problem.

      DER SPIEGEL: A system failure.

      Snowden: Yes. And that’s why I’m writing this book now.

      DER SPIEGEL: You write that you wanted to tell the truth. What was the biggest lie people told about you?

      Snowden: Oh, God, there’s a zillion of those. The biggest was ?

      DER SPIEGEL: ? that you are a Russian spy?

      Snowden: Not even that one, but that it was my plan to end up in Russia. Even the NSA admits that Russia wasn’t my intended destination. But people repeat it because it’s guilt by association. It’s part of this typical warfare, that is going on at the moment. The facts don’t matter. What you know is less important than what you feel. It’s corrosive to democracy. Increasingly we cannot agree about things. If you can’t even acknowledge what is happening, how can you have a discussion about why it is happening?

    • DER SPIEGEL: Why couldn’t you?

      Snowden: If I had told this to Lindsay, or to my family, and they didn’t immediately call the FBI, the government could say they were a member of a conspiracy according to U.S. laws.

      DER SPIEGEL: You never told Lindsay about your doubts and thoughts so that she could understand a bit more about what was going on with you?

      Snowden: I think she could see a change in my mood. But I had to be careful. If you love someone, you don’t tell them things that could put them in prison.

      DER SPIEGEL: Are you expecting to return to your home country at some day?

      Snowden: It seems more and more likely that someday I will be able to go back. You don’t see the same allegations against me in 2019 that you did in 2013. All the claims about this tremendous harm to national security have fallen away. At the same time, the public benefits of what happened in 2013 have become more and more clear.

      DER SPIEGEL: You describe your arrival in Moscow as a walk in the park. You say you refused to cooperate with the Russian intelligence agency FSB and they let you go. That sounds implausible to us.

      Snowden: I think what explains the fact that the Russian government didn’t hang me upside down my ankles and beat me with a shock prod until secrets came out was because everyone in the world was paying attention to it. And they didn’t know what to do. They just didn’t know how to handle it. I think their answer was: “Let’s wait and see.”

      DER SPIEGEL: Do you have Russian friends?

      Snowden: I try to keep a distance between myself and Russian society, and this is completely intentional. I live my life with basically the English-speaking community. I’m the president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. And, you know, I’m an indoor cat. It doesn’t matter where I am — Moscow, Berlin, New York — as long as I have a screen to look into.

      DER SPIEGEL: So there is no outside life?

      Snowden: Of course there is. I’m meeting friends in town and I’m going out to eat for dinner. I’m walking around in the park with Lindsay. I ride the metro. I ride cabs. And I’m regularly condemning the Russian government’s human rights record and their refusal of free and fair elections. But I am not taking selfies in front of the Kremlin, because the U.S. government would use that to attack me and discredit all of the work that I do.

      DER SPIEGEL: The whistleblower for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, suffered through a long prison sentence and is back in prison right now. The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was imprisoned and is waiting to be extradited to the U.S. Are you next?

      Snowden: I hope not. But look, if I had wanted to live a safe life, I would still be sitting in Hawaii in paradise with the woman I love collecting a huge paycheck to do almost no work. But what makes a life? It’s not just who we think we are, it’s the choices we make. If I can’t return home to my country, I will at least know that I made it better. And no matter what happens, that’s something I can live with.

      DER SPIEGEL: Western authorities accuse the Russian government on a regular basis of being one of the biggest disrupters in the digital world. Are they right?

      Snowden: Russia is responsible for a lot of negative activity in the world, you can say that right and fairly. Did Russia interfere with elections? Almost certainly. But do the United States interfere in elections? Of course. They’ve been doing it for the last 50 years. Any country bigger than Iceland is going to interfere in every crucial election, and they’re going to deny it every time, because this is what intelligence services do. This is explicitly why covert operations and influence divisions are created, and their purpose as an instrument of national power is to ask: How can we influence the world in a direction that improves our standing relative to all the other countries?

      DER SPIEGEL: Are you demanding the abolishment of intelligence services?

      Snowden: I think one of the biggest problems in the world of intelligence is the refusal to separate covert action, propaganda and influence from intelligence. We need intelligence. Intelligence reduces the likelihood of war. The problem is when these services become an institution of their own that is not responsive to the desires of lawmakers, policymakers and the public, but in fact is shaping it and directing it. They will always say: Look, if you know this or that, people will die. But it’s almost never true.

    • DER SPIEGEL: What’s the solution?

      Snowden: We have to stop bulk collection. If you’re watching everyone in the world all of the time just in case they become dangerous, that’s really problematic, because it changes the character of society.

      DER SPIEGEL: Is the internet broken?

      Snowden: Oh, no. It works all too well — but for the wrong people.

      DER SPIEGEL: Is it possible to reinvent the internet, as internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee has suggested?

      Snowden: I respect Tim Berners-Lee greatly. He is pushing for a re-decentralization of the internet. The idea is that we can make an internet that is more individually owned without having to be incredibly difficult to maintain and administer.

      DER SPIEGEL: How might that work?

      Snowden: What do we have today? We have Facebook, Google, big datacenters all over the world, and these guys are remotely administering the computers. You send your requests out to Google. When you are looking for the right way, you ask Google Maps. Google processes the request and sends the results back to you. It’s the same with voice recognition, Siri, Alexa and the rest. But today, phones are enormously more capable than they used to be. Requests are increasingly solvable without relying on the cloud. And as that happens, we can start to move all of these capabilities back to the edges because, after all, why does Google need to know where you’re going? They don’t need to know that for a maps application to function, even though they claim they do.

      DER SPIEGEL: But people seem to be content with using Facebook, Google Maps and Siri?

      Snowden: Look at the phone on this table. Could you tell me what it is doing while the screen is off?

      DER SPIEGEL: Not really.

      Snowden: Well, I can tell you with some authority that this phone is communicating hundreds or thousands of times every minute. It’s contacting an ad network, analyzing your behavior, tracking your location and so on. The central problem is that it’s happening invisibly. Let’s assume you could simply poke an icon and all the hidden activity would stop, would you do that?

      DER SPIEGEL: Of course.

      Snowden: But right now, that is not an option that is made available to us. They just say: Scroll down this window, click “I agree,” and you’re life is getting better. And if nobody else will challenge this, I’m going to do it my goddamn self, because the primary thing right now is the visibility of this predation.

      DER SPIEGEL: What was the hardest moment for you in the last six years?

      Snowden: Leaving Lindsay. Because that’s the real crime that I’m guilty of. I am probably the worst boyfriend in the history of the United States.

      DER SPIEGEL: As a former spy, you know how to disinform and to disrupt. Why should we believe anything you write in your book?

      Snowden: You shouldn’t. It was a very difficult book to write, and I think I have been overly honest. In fact, the lesson you should be taking from it is: Question me, doubt me, be skeptical. But then be skeptical as well of the people who are actually in charge.

      DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Snowden, thank you very much for this interview.

      https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-edward-snowden-about-his-story-a-1286605.html

  37. Iraqi Security Forces Detain Group of Terrorists Plotting Attack Against Shiite Pilgrims (sputniknews, Sep 14, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201909141076804367-iraqi-security-forces-detain-group-of-terrorists-plotting-attack-against-shiite-pilgrims/

    “Iraq’s security forces detained six terrorists, who planned to carry out an attack against Shiite Muslims during the annual pilgrimage of Arbaeen, the organization’s press service said on Saturday.

    “The security services of the city of Samarra [north of Baghdad] were able to detain a network of terrorists consisting of six criminals planning an attack during the pilgrimage of Arbaeen,” the statement read.

    Earlier, the Baghdad Operational Command reported that 78 people have been detained in Iraq since August on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks during the Shiite Ashur holiday, celebrated earlier in September.

    The Shiite Arbaeen pilgrimage will take place from October 19-20.”

  41. Hong Kong Police Break Up Scuffles Between Pro- Beijing, Anti-Government Protesters
    1,635 views
    •Published on Sep 14, 2019
    63

    • Hoo Boy… Miss the UK and the rule of law much?
      There was a time in our lives that my husband spent 4-6 months of the year in mainland China. That was roughly 2004-2014. China is a police state. What impressed me most during my few trips to China was how frightened the people were of their gov’t (sound familiar)? Especially taxi drivers. When getting into a taxi at a hotel or major area you were handed a slip of paper on which you could report the driver for any infraction… Forget just not tipping the guy, you could actually report the driver to the gov’t!
      Well, I could go on for quite some time but just one other thing, I never saw a faucet in China that didn’t have it clearly marked “non-potable”. Even in 4 star hotels! So if you wonder why China uses one million plastic bottles of water per minute or whatever the insane number is, it is because China can’t deliver potable water even to Bejing!
      Unfortunately, the UK is a rotted shell of itself unable to deliver democracy even to its own citizens let alone Hong Kong.
      I too miss the British and watching Hong Kong wave the American flag and sing our anthem upsets me. What do you expect America to do?

      • They want us to land several hundred thousand troops and say that if you mess with Hong Kong you mess with us. We both know we can’t do more then place more sanctions on China (which will probably cause the Chinese economy to collapse) but nothing more. Most of the kids in Hong Kong don’t understand this anymore the most of our kids.