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.
Iraq: Several shootings kill 3 officials in Diyala
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191024-iraq-several-shootings-kill-3-officials-in-diyala/
“An Iraqi security source reported that six Iraqis were killed on Thursday including three government officials by unknown gunmen in separate shootings that took place in Diyala province, eastern Iraq, Anadolu Agency reports.
“Unknown gunmen opened fire at Saad Sreiwi, head of Abu Seida Area Council, northeast of Diyala province and left him dead along with his son and another person,” a police source told Anadolu Agency.
In another shooting in the same area, the police source said that “another unknown gunmen shot the mayor of same area Abu Harith al-Rabaie dead”…”
Baghdad on lockdown as fresh Iraq protests threaten Green Zone
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/10/24/baghdad-on-lockdown-as-fresh-protests-threaten-green-zone
“Anti-government protests resumed on the streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq on Thursday evening, hours ahead of the planned resurgence of mass rallies that left over 150 dead and thousands injured earlier this month.
Iraqi security forces closed three bridges and the Green Zone in Baghdad, as an estimated 300 people defied the security presence to gather in the capital’s Tahrir Square.
The rallies issued calls for the country’s entrenched political class to be “uprooted”, calling them “all thieves”.
Anti-Iran sentiment also characterised Thursday’s rallies, with demonstrators chanting: “Baghdad is free, Iran get out!”, as well as “Qassim Soleimani get out of our country,” referencing the chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who hold sway over powerful Shia militias in Iraq.
Protesters and government officials alike have accused Iran and other foreign powers of interfering in the movement…”
Interior ministry notifies ban on JUI-F’s ‘militant wing’
https://www.dawn.com/news/1512681/interior-ministry-notifies-ban-on-jui-fs-militant-wing
“The interior ministry on Thursday issued a notification announcing a ban on the “militant wing” of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
The proscription of Ansar-ul-Islam, which the ministry referred to as a “private militia/Razakar Force” of the JUI-F, comes days before the Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led party is slated to lead an anti-government ‘Azadi March’.
According to the notification, the federal government had “reasons to believe that Ansar-ul-Islam is capable of functioning as a military organisation, in violation of the prohibition contained in Article 256 of the Constitution”.
The ban was imposed after approval by the federal government and obtaining the consent from all four provincial governments under Article 146(1) of the Constitution, which allows the federal government to delegate any of its powers to the provinces, conditionally or unconditionally, with the consent of the provincial governments…”
YPG/PKK terror group as dangerous as Daesh: Erdogan
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/ypg-pkk-terror-group-as-dangerous-as-daesh-erdogan/1625176
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday urged the world to understand that YPG/PKK terror group is as dangerous as Daesh.
“For democracy, rule of law and human rights, I invite the whole world to see, accept and take a position. YPG/PKK is as dangerous a terrorist organization as Daesh,” Erdogan said, at a ceremony for new district governors in the capital Ankara.
He reiterated that Turkey does not have any problem with its Kurdish brothers, but rather with terrorist organizations.
Erdogan also mentioned that a safe zone in northern Syria will allow nearly two million Syrian refugees to return to their homes.
The Turkish president also recalled that his country is not eyeing Syria’s territorial integrity…”
‘Turkey cares about Serbia’s role for peace in Balkans’
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkey-cares-about-serbias-role-for-peace-in-balkans/1625220
“Turkey attaches importance to Serbia’s role in the continuation of peace and stability in the Balkans, the head of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said on Thursday.
At a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Zarko Obradovic in the capital Ankara, Volkan Bozkir said they are happy about the progress Serbia has made in all aspects.
“We attach importance to Serbia’s role in the continuation of peace and stability in the Balkans,” said Bozkir.
He added: “It is important for us to have a friendly country like Serbia in that geography.”
The trade volume between Turkey and Serbia was €800 million ($881.4 million) two years ago and is expected to reach €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by the end of 2019.
Obradovic said that they consider Turkey “as a big and powerful country.”
He said that the Serbian government attached importance to Turkey’s investments in the country.”
EU Parliament fails to pass resolution on migrant rescues
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2019/10/24/eu-parliament-fails-to-pass-resolution-on-migrant-rescues_0a7abe65-f341-4c50-a28d-0e201a9de017.html
“The European Parliament on Thursday rejected the text of a resolution on search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean that would have required member states to keep their ports open to NGO ships rescuing migrants at sea. The resolution did not pass by two votes: 288 in favour, 290 against and 36 that abstained.
M5S abstains from EU Parliament resolution vote, PD ‘yes’
MPs of the Five Star Movement (M5S) abstained Thursday from the voting on a resolution on migrants that was narrowly rejected by the European Parliament. A total of 36 MPs abstained. Among the 290 against the text, most were from the PPE, with Forza Italia, the right-wing nationalist parties including the League, and the ECR with Fratelli d’Italia, as well as some MPs from Renew Europe. Voting in favour of the resolution were 288 EU PMs including socialists and democrats with the Italian Democratic Party (PD) as well as most of those from the Liberals party, the GUE and the Greens.”
Good start, anyway.
Denmark passes law enabling withdrawal of jihadists’ citizenship
https://www.thelocal.dk/20191024/denmark-passes-law-enabling-withdrawal-of-jihadists-citizenship
“An expedited bill, enabling the immigration minister to revoke the passports of Danes who join foreign militant groups, was passed by parliament on Thursday.
The law is aimed primarily at individuals who have fought for the Islamic State (Isis) terror group in Syria and Iraq.
All parties on the right voted in favour of the bill, as did the governing Social Democrats. Left-of-centre parties the Social Liberals, Red Green Alliance and Alternative voted against, while the Socialist People’s Party abstained.
Passing of the bill makes it possible for Minister for Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye to strip individuals termed ‘foreign fighters’ (fremmedkrigere) of citizenship without trial.
Individuals stripped of their passports under the law will be given a four-week window in which they can appeal against the decision.
A number of objections had been raised over the process the law provides for, including that a person can simply be informed their passport has been withdrawn via Denmark’s secure email system, e-boks, potentially while they are in a conflict zone.
A provision has now been included to enable dispensation to be applied for if the four-week deadline for appeal is not met.
“It will be viewed as being that if you can’t (appeal) on time, you will be able to exceed the four-week deadline and it will ultimately be a judge that decides whether it was out of your control to appeal by the deadline,” Tesfaye said to DR Nyheder on Wednesday.
During the first reading of the bill on Wednesday, a majority emerged in favour of a so-called ‘sundown clause’, which puts an expiration date – summer 2021 – on the law, by which time parliament will have to vote to re-pass it.
“We proposed a bill without a sundown clause but received a large number of responses during the hearing period from organizations that felt it was a good idea,” Tesfaye told Ritzau on Wednesday.
“That’s way I decided to include the clause, so as many as possible can back the bill. That means that, by the end of the next parliamentary period in summer 2021, we must reconfirm the law,” he continued.
“We will then be in a situation whereby we can assess how the law has worked. Perhaps there will be a need to adjust a little,” he said.”
Europe via the Indian Ocean? New wave of illegal immigration hits France’s Mayotte
https://www.france24.com/en/20191022-europe-via-the-indian-ocean-new-wave-of-illegal-immigration-hits-france-s-mayotte
“French President Emmanuel Macron is currently visiting Mayotte, France’s most impoverished department. Located in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique, the island is faced with daunting challenges: scarce water resources, sky-high birth rates, poverty, crime plus illegal immigration from neighboring Comoros. What’s new is that asylum seekers from various war-torn regions now see Mayotte as a viable entry point into Europe, one that is thought to circumvent the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean….”
AG Bill Barr Announces Durham Probe is Now a CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION!
BREAKING: DOJ Administrative Review Into Russia Probe Takes Serious Turn
The U.S. Department of Justice’s administrative review into the origins of the Russia investigation has a taken a major turn into a full-fledged criminal investigation.
The review, led by U.S. attorney John Durham, has shifted from being an administrative review into being a criminal investigation, The New York Times reported, noting that the move gives Durham “the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges.”
The Times immediately tried to frame the move as being seen by many that Trump is “using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies.”
“Mr. Barr’s reliance on Mr. Durham, a widely respected and veteran prosecutor who has investigated C.I.A. torture and broken up Mafia rings, could help insulate the attorney general from accusations that he is doing the president’s bidding and putting politics above justice,” The Times added.
DOJ guidelines state that federal investigators must have a “reasonable indication” that a crime has been committed before they can open up an investigation, and that “there must be an objective, factual basis for initiating the investigation; a mere hunch is insufficient.”
“Mr. Durham has indicated he wants to interview former officials who ran the C.I.A. in 2016 but has yet to question either Mr. Brennan or James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence,” The Times added. “Some C.I.A. officials have retained criminal lawyers in anticipation of being interviewed.”
Fox News reported on Tuesday that Barr’s investigation had “expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr.”
“The sources said Durham was ‘very interested’ to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea,” Fox News added. “The two Obama administration officials were at the helm when the unverified and largely discredited Steele dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page.”
The Daily Beast reported at the start of the month that Barr and Durham were interested in “what the Italian secret service knew about Joseph Mifsud, the erstwhile professor from Malta who had allegedly promised then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign aide George Papadopoulos he could deliver Russian ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton.”
“The Italian justice ministry’s public records show that Mifsud had applied for police protection in Italy after disappearing from Link University, where he worked and, in doing so, had given a taped deposition to explain just why people might want to harm him,” The Daily Beast continued. “A source in the Italian Ministry of Justice, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast that Barr and Durham were played the tape.”
The Daily Beast added that another source with the Italian government confirmed that Barr and Durham “were shown other evidence the Italians had on Mifsud.”
Barr and Durham have also reached out to Australia and the United Kingdom as part of their investigation into the origins of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-doj-administrative-review-into-russia-probe-takes-serious-turn
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NYT – Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry Into Its Own Russia Investigation
The move is likely to open the attorney general to accusations that he is trying to deliver a political victory for President Trump.
[…]
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/john-durham-criminal-investigation.html