Reader’s Links, October 25, 2019

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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

133 Replies to “Reader’s Links, October 25, 2019”

    • OT: I have found a work around on my problem with firefox not getting into my gmail account (where videos are sent) I will have to talk to my friend the techi to see what can be done to fix the problem.

        • Hopefully I can get this fixed, right now to access my gmail account, youtube and some of the message4s on yahoo email I have to use comodo dragon. The problem there is that I can’t find out how to add on a video downloader.

  3. Austria: An already married Afghan man marries two local girls (17, 18 years old) to have sex+++
    The story is really unbelievable: A 34-year-old Afghan, who is said to have a wife and seven children in his home country, lives a particularly wild life in Linz. Because his wife is far away, but he apparently doesn’t want to give up sex, he is said to have drugged two local girls (17 and 18 years old) with Crystal Meth and married them in a Linz mosque.According to Muslim rules, this kind of ” temporary marriage ” allows flings. The man was arrested in Linz on Monday after hints from the drug scene. During the house search, police officers found money and a small amount of marijuana.The asylum seeker is said to have married a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old girl (both allegedly drug addicts) under Islamic law in a mosque located in Humboldt street in Linz in order to have sex with them without a bad conscience. The Afghan is said to have sold several kilograms of marijuana and about 90 grams of crystal meth, and also supplied Afghan dealers. He did not cooperate in the interrogations. He was arrested on Tuesday and handed over to the Linz prison.
    More:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/10/austria-already-married-afghan-man.html

    • Maxims Bernier stated quite clearly what he stood for. Rosemary Barton, Evan Soloman, Don Martin, CTV and CBC were ruthless in their coverage of Maxime.
      Isn’t it wonderful in a democracy everyone has the right to say what they think. I.e. Let’s look at what Warren Kinsella had to say:

      “It’s been quite a day.
      So, a few things.
      After a decade or more, I’ve deactivated my Twitter and Facebook. I’ve had it. I may be back on social media, I may not. I don’t know.
      I’m pulling back from other media too. My family and my work colleagues don’t deserve what they have been going through. on of them even had to change their cell number today, it got so bad. also I am sick, so enough is enough.
      I am a lawyer, I’m not interested in getting disbarred. as Jody Wilson-Raybould knows too well, lawyers are not permitted to simply break vows of confidentiality. Only the client can let you do that. the client here, hasn’t.
      I’ve been researching, writing about and opposing racism for more than three decades. Maxime Bernier and his People’s Party are indisputably racist. they are bigots. They have anti-Semitic and homophobic members. If someone wants to join forces with me to beat Bernier, I will always welcome it. I’m proud to oppose bigots like Bernier, paid or not. and the client who wanted to expose and oppose bigotry? they deserve credit not criticism. the work we were doing ended many months ago. It was always going to be disclosed, by law. it was in no way inappropriate or wrong. OPPOSING ORGANIZED BIGOTRY IS ALWAYS APPROPRIATE AND RIGHT. We were and and are fiercely proud of the work we did.
      We hired someone. That person made anti-Semitic interolent remarks and stole from our company. We got rid of that person. It’ doesn’t surprise me, in the slightest, that person would do something that would later assist Bernier’s intolerant political party. it’s what a hater would do.
      all the journalists calling and texting: I get it. You have a job to do, and it’s the final weekend. but I’m just not going to respond anymore. So, stop trying. Sorry.
      Finally: I hold no party membership with anyone. I regard myself as an independent. as a firm, we have worked for every single party——or candidates running under the banner of every single political party. Everyone, except Bernier’s. WE DON’T HELP RACIST. Any of you who are depicting Maxime Bernier as in any a victim are assisting a racist. You are helping him. You should stop doing that. That’s all I got to say. Comments are open—-on this my first and last platform——but KEEP IT CIVIL.
      The picture above? It’s my favourite place on Earth. when I kick the bucket, that’ where you’ll find me. Thanks”

      I supported Max Bernier, I am older now, I have always obeyed the law, followed the rules, volunteered, worked hard, raised a family. I have worked in politics, and followed what politicians have had to say most of my adult life. I understand fully we live in an era if you do not think like people some people you are a racists, xenophobic, Islamophobic, hater.

      I can not help but wonder, does this man realize what vitriol is. Shame on him and his collaborating foot soldiers. I do so hope he disappears out of sight for good. Canadians are tired of the rot.

  5. German justice released Islamist after anti-Semitic terrorist attack – No one knows where the synagogue attacker at this moment resides.+++
    After the terrorist attacks in Halle, people Germany-wide are discussing better protection for Jewish institutions. But the bitter truth is evident in the case of Mohamad M., who climbed over the fence of a Berlin synagogue armed with a knife on October 4. Using the words “Fuck Israel” and “Allahu Akbar”, he threatened passers-by and policemen – and today he walks around at large. Where the knifeman who is particularly dangerous for Jews lives at the moment: it is unknown! Security forces of the synagogue had to put the Syrian (23 years old) out of action with pepper spray. But: police and justice allegedly saw no reason for arrest. The next morning they released the presumably mentally ill refugee.On the advice of his roommate, Mohamad M. then admitted himself to a psychiatric ward. Now it turns out: The Syrian has left the inpatient treatment. This was reported by the newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Mohamad M. is said to have been traumatised by torture in Syria and to have a drug problem.A friend of Mohamad M. tells the BILD newspaper in a different way: Only two months ago he had visited M., he had not detected or noticed anything about psychological problems.
    Yesterday a reporter from thr tabloid BILD rang the bell in M.’s former flat-sharing community. A roommate expressed concern: “He no longer lives here. We don’t know where he is either.” The Syrian’s lawyer didn’t want to comment when asked.And the Berlin judiciary? Play down the incident ! On request, Chief Public Prosecutor Michael Steltner defended the decision to let Mohamad M. go. The fact that he used a knife in the terrorist attack, with which he allegedly simply ” was juggling “, was not sufficient for a longer arrest.For Josef Schuster (65 y/o), President of the Central Council of Jews, this reasoning is outrageous.
    Schuster commented on the BILD newspaper: “Before the background of the perpetrator had been investigated, he was already released again and would have had all possibilities to strike again. The behaviour of the Berlin public prosecutor’s office had caused deep uncertainty among the Jewish community.Interior policy expert Christoph de Vries ( Christian Democratic Union, CDU) comments for the tabloid BILD: “The fact that Mohamad M. was released after his anti-Semitic terror attack and has now been able to vanish is a real scandal.”
    More:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/10/german-justice-released-islamist-after.html

  6. As long as our surveillance of ourselves is profitable it will continue to expand. Privacy, and its attendant info have become mere formalities that no one seems to take very seriously. Breaches and doxxing are commonplace. Reality is giving a smug Queen’s wave as it blows by Fiction stuck with a flat by the roadside.

    I complained I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet. I complained i hated red-light cameras at intersections. I thought they invaded my privacy. Now we’ll have the rise of biometrics. (And the rise of all kinds of cosmetic trickery to fool it.) Sometimes I wish we’d never left the age of paper. I’m gonna start selling fake moustaches on the street corner for five bucks.

    https://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2019/10/corporations-use-money-usa-2020-event.html?m=1

  7. France’s Macron Takes Flak for Saying Wearing Muslim Veils in Public is None of His Business (sputniknews, Oct 25, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201910251077145411-frances-macron-takes-flak-for-saying-wearing-muslim-veils-in-public-is-none-of-his-business/

    “President Macron’s latest comments on Muslim headwear in public, one of the most contentious issues du jour in France, come two weeks after a conservative politician confronted a French Muslim woman over wearing a hijab at a regional assembly.

    French President Emmanuel Macron has found himself on the end of some heavy criticism after saying that whether the matter of Muslim headscarves should be worn in public is none of his business.

    Speaking to reporters in Reunion during his visit to the island on Thursday, Macron said: “The wearing of the veil in the public space is not my business. That is what secularism is about. The wearing of the veil in public services, at school, when we educate our children – this is my business.”

    Macron immediately took flak for what his critics called a neglect for public affairs.

    “For the first time in the history of the Republic, a public affair is not the government’s business,” said Le Figaro columnist Gilles-William Goldnad. “Running away rather than being brave.”

    “Islamic totalitarianism is taking root everywhere in our society with the veil being worn and Macron is washing his hands of it,” said Karim Ouchikh, a lawyer of Algerian heritage who converted to Roman Catholicism from Islam. “France needs a strong president and not a Pontius Pilate. I call for resistance to this tragic renunciation.”

    “For him, anything that can help defraud France should benefit from a collaboration that is as active as it is discreet,” tweeted Jean Messiha, a National Rally member and former senior Defence Ministry official. “It is urgent that we defeat the Macronist power.”

    One user wrote: “‘The veil in the public space is not my business,’ says Macron. Just like: the situation of hospitals, the reform of the baccalaureate, the Yellow Vests, the radicalisation, the suicide of police officers, the attacks, the growing crime rate. In short, France.”

    “So 70% of French people, who consider the veil undesirable in society, are not Macron’s business…. Give us Ataturk and Nasser!” quipped conservative politician Julien Odoul.

    Odoul, the leader of the National Rally fraction in the regional assembly of Bourgogne-France-Comte in eastern France, got embroiled in a controversy earlier this month after he confronted a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf in the assembly.

    In a video of the altercation he posted to Twitter, he told the woman – who was accompanying her son on a school trip – to remove her hijab, saying that wearing it was a “provocation” that couldn’t be “tolerated” after the killing of four Paris police officers this month by a radicalised Muslim among their ranks.

    “Madame has ample time to wear her veil at home, on the street, but not here, not today,” he said, insisting France’s state secularism was enshrined in the law.

    The woman pledged to file two legal complaints relating to racism, one in Dijon and one in Paris.

    Following the row, Macron warned against “stigmatising” Muslims or linking Islam with the fight against terrorism. In an April 2018 TV interview, the president admitted he wasn’t “especially happy that some [Muslim] women choose to wear the headscarf when out in public, but it must be tolerated.”

    Headscarves have been at the centre of multiple controversies in France, which is estimated to have around 6 million Muslims. French law bans full-face coverings in public, while the hijab – which leaves the face open – is banned only in schools and government offices. However, Muslim mothers are allowed to wear it on school trips.”

  8. ***BREXIT AND BRITISH VALUES
    video – 7 minutes 18 seconds
    A reminder to Boris Johnson and our dysfunctional political elite of the British values our proud Nation once held. Nicholas Szkiler

    • 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.

      WASHINGTON — For more than two years, President Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russia investigation, portraying it as a hoax and illegal even months after the special counsel closed it. Now, Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into how it all began.

      Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to convene a grand jury and to file criminal charges.

      The opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director under whose watch agents opened the Russia inquiry, and has long assailed other top former law enforcement and intelligence officials as partisans who sought to block his election.

      Mr. Trump has made clear that he sees the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies.That view factors into the impeachment investigation against him, as does his long obsession with the origins of the Russia inquiry. House Democrats are examining in part whether his pressure on Ukraine to open investigations into theories about the 2016 election constituted an abuse of power.

      The move also creates an unusual situation in which the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into itself.

      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.

      It was not clear what potential crime Mr. Durham is investigating, nor when the criminal investigation was prompted. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

      Mr. Trump is certain to see the criminal investigation as a vindication of the years he and his allies have spent trying to discredit the Russia investigation. In May, Mr. Trump told the Fox News host Sean Hannity that the F.B.I. officials who opened the case — a counterintelligence investigation into whether his campaign conspired with Moscow’s election sabotage — had committed treason.

      “We can never allow these treasonous acts to happen to another president,” Mr. Trump said. He has called the F.B.I. investigation one of the biggest political scandals in United States history.

      Federal investigators need only a “reasonable indication” that a crime has been committed to open an investigation, a much lower standard than the probable cause required to obtain search warrants. However, “there must be an objective, factual basis for initiating the investigation; a mere hunch is insufficient,” according to Justice Department guidelines.

      When Mr. Barr appointed Mr. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, to lead the review, he had only the power to voluntarily question people and examine government files.

      Mr. Barr expressed skepticism of the Russia investigation even before joining the Trump administration. Weeks after being sworn in this year, he said he intended to scrutinize how it started and used the term “spying” to describe investigators’ surveillance of Trump campaign advisers. But he has been careful to say he wants to determine whether investigators acted lawfully.

      “The question is whether it was adequately predicated,” he told lawmakers in April. “And I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”

      Mr. Barr began the administrative review of the Russia investigation in May, saying that he had conversations with intelligence and law enforcement officials that led him to believe that the F.B.I. acted improperly, if not unlawfully.

      The F.B.I. opened the investigation in late July 2016, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, after receiving information from the Australian government that a Trump campaign adviser had been approached with an offer of stolen emails that could damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

      F.B.I. agents discovered the offer shortly after stolen Democratic emails were released, and the events, along with ties between other Trump advisers and Russia, set off fears that the Trump campaign was conspiring with Russia’s interference.

      The F.B.I. did not use information from the C.I.A. in opening the Russia investigation, former American officials said. But agents’ views on Russia’s election interference operation crystallized by mid-August, after the C.I.A. director at the time, John O. Brennan, shared intelligence with Mr. Comey about it.

      The C.I.A. did contribute heavily to the intelligence community’s assessment in early 2017 that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and tried to tip it in Mr. Trump’s favor, and law enforcement officials later used those findings to bolster their application for a wiretap on a Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

      The special counsel who took over the Russia investigation in 2017, Robert S. Mueller III, secured convictions or guilty pleas from a handful of Trump associates and indictments of more than two dozen Russians on charges related to their wide-ranging interference scheme.

      In his report, Mr. Mueller said that he had “insufficient evidence” to determine whether Mr. Trump or his aides engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the Russians but that the campaign welcomed the sabotage and expected to benefit from it.

      Mr. Barr is closely managing the Durham investigation, even traveling to Italy to seek help from officials there to run down an unfounded conspiracy that is at the heart of conservatives’ attacks on the Russia investigation — that the Italian government helped set up the Trump campaign adviser who was told in 2016 that the Russians had damaging information that could hurt Clinton’s campaign.

      But Italy’s intelligence services told Mr. Barr that they played no such role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said in a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Barr has also contacted government officials in Britain and Australia about their roles in the early stages of the Russia investigation.

      Revelations so far about Mr. Durham’s investigation have shown that he has focused in his first months on the accusations that Mr. Trump’s conservative allies have made about the origins of the Russia inquiry in their efforts to undermine it. Mr. Durham’s efforts have prompted criticism that he and Mr. Barr are trying to deliver the president a political victory, though investigators would typically run down all aspects of a case to complete a review of it.

      Mr. Durham is running the investigation with a trusted aide, Nora R. Dannehy, and a pair of retired F.B.I. agents. Other prosecutors are also assisting, people familiar with the investigation said.

      In interviewing more than two dozen former and current F.B.I. and intelligence officials, Mr. Durham’s investigators have asked about any anti-Trump bias among officials who worked on the Russia investigation and about one aspect of the investigation that was at the heart of highly contentious allegations that they abused their powers: the secret application seeking a court order for a wiretap on Mr. Page.

      Law enforcement officials suspected Mr. Page was the target of recruitment by the Russian government, which he has denied.

      Mr. Durham has also asked whether C.I.A. officials might have somehow tricked the F.B.I. into opening the Russia investigation.

      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. Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked them as part of a vast conspiracy by the so-called deep state to stop him from winning the presidency.

      Some C.I.A. officials have retained criminal lawyers in anticipation of being interviewed. It was not clear whether Mr. Durham was scrutinizing other former top intelligence officials. Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the former director of the National Security Agency, declined to say whether he had spoken with Mr. Durham’s investigators.

      Mr. Durham also has yet to question many of the former F.B.I. officials involved in opening the Russia investigation.

      As Mr. Durham’s investigation moves forward, the Justice Department inspector general is wrapping up his own inquiry into aspects of the F.B.I.’s conduct in the early days of the Russia investigation. Among other things, the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is scrutinizing the application for a warrant to wiretap Mr. Page.

      Mr. Barr has not said whether Mr. Durham’s investigation grew out of the inspector general’s findings or something that prosecutors unearthed while doing interviews or reviewing documents. But the inspector general’s findings, which are expected to be made public in coming weeks, could contribute to the public’s understanding of why Mr. Durham might want to investigate national security officials’ activities in 2016.

      Though the inspector general’s report deals with sensitive information, Mr. Horowitz anticipates that little of it will be blacked out when he releases the document publicly, he wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers on Thursday and obtained by The New York Times.

      Mr. Durham has delved before into the secret world of intelligence gathering during the Bush and Obama administrations. He was asked in 2008 to investigate why the C.I.A. destroyed tapes depicting detainees being tortured. The next year, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appointed Mr. Durham to spearhead an investigation into the C.IA. abuses.

      Career prosecutors had already examined many of the same cases and declined to bring charges, and in an echo of the Russia investigation, they fumed that Mr. Holder was revisiting the issue. Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, then the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that the abuses had been “exhaustively reviewed” and that a new inquiry could put national security at risk.

      After nearly four years, Mr. Durham’s investigation ended with no charges against C.I.A. officers, including two directly involved in the deaths of two detainees, angering human rights activists.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/john-durham-criminal-investigation.html

    • PRAVDA – U.S. Justice Department Russia probe review now criminal investigation: source

      WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Justice Department review of the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now a criminal investigation, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

      The person, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to say whether a grand jury had been convened in the investigation, which was first reported by the New York Times.

      U.S. Attorney General William Barr launched a review earlier this year to investigate President Donald Trump’s complaints that his campaign was improperly targeted by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies during the 2016 election.

      Democrats and some former law enforcement officials say Barr is using the Justice Department to chase unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that could benefit the Republican president politically and undermine former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

      The Democratic chairmen of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees blasted the reported move, saying it raised “profound new concerns” that Barr had turned the department into “a vehicle for President Trump’s political revenge.”

      “If the Department of Justice may be used as a tool of political retribution or to help the President with a political narrative for the next election, the rule of law will suffer new and irreparable damage,” Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff said in a statement late Thursday night.

      As part of his inquiry, Barr has asked Australian and British justice officials for assistance and visited Italy twice, meeting intelligence agents in Rome in August and September to learn more about people mentioned in Mueller’s report. Trump has also contacted foreign officials over the review, the department has said.

      Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte this week said that the meetings established that Italy had no information in the matter and was not involved. A letter reviewed by Reuters showed Australia offered to assist in May.

      Mueller’s investigation found that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump, and led to criminal convictions of several former campaign aides. But Mueller concluded that he did not have enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy with Russia.

      Barr appointed Connecticut State Attorney John Durham to lead the review of whether U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies acted properly when they examined possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, which ultimately led to the Mueller investigation.

      Trump, who calls the Russia investigation a witch hunt and a hoax, says U.S. officials launched the probe to undermine his chances of winning the White House, although he and his supporters have provided no evidence.

      Trump is also grappling with a Democratic-led impeachment inquiry focused on his request in a July telephone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination to face Trump in the 2020 election.

      Schiff is leading the impeachment inquiry being conducted along with the House foreign Affairs and Oversight panels.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/u-s-justice-department-russia-probe-review-now-criminal-investigation-source-idUSKBN1X4027

  10. Chinese orienteering team disqualified from Military World Games after being caught cheating (telegraph, Oct 24, 2019)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/24/chinese-orienteering-team-disqualified-military-world-games/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget

    “All may be fair in love and war, but cheating on the sports field leads to disqualification, a group of Chinese soldiers discovered after they were kicked out of an international military competition.

    The Chinese orienteering team was disqualified from the Military World Games, which China is hosting, after its troops took first, second, and fourth for women and second for men in the middle-distance competition on Sunday.

    The event tests runners on their speed and map-reading abilities by navigating unknown terrain equipped only with a map and compass.

    But it later emerged the runners had received illegal assistance from spectators and used previously prepared markings and paths that only their team knew about.

    Following a joint protest by Russia, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Poland and Austria, the jury decided to disqualify the entire Chinese team, the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) said.

    An appeal from the Chinese athletes was rejected…”

  11. GOV.UK: LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS IN PUBLIC LIFE TO PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS
    includes video – 1 minute 36 seconds – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QX1AcgRURs
    Accountability – Honesty – Integrity – Objectivity – Selflessness – Openness – & Leadership continue to convey the standards of behaviour expected by the public of those who serve them.
    [It would almost be funny if it were not so tragic!
    In what kind of men would we expect to find these 7 principals actively at work? Christian men! Adam, where art thou!]
    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/841620/Scan_Nicola_Richardson_20191024-085013_1487_001.pdf
    +
    To mark our 25th anniversary, we’ve made some short films with our Committee members talking about the Principles and what they mean in practice: Watch our videos on the 7 Principles of Public Life

  12. Another ‘Asian’ Child Rape Gang Convicted in England (breitbart, Oct 25, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/10/25/another-asian-rape-gang-convicted-england/

    “Banaris Hussain, 36, of William Street, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, was found guilty of one count of rape; Umar Zaman, 31, of William Street, Crosland Moor , was found guilty of two counts of rape; and Samuel Fikru, 31, of HMP Armley, was found guilty of two counts of rape, according to an official police statement.

    Three other men from Huddersfield aged 38, 32, and 32, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty of one count of attempted rape, one count of rape; and four counts of rape and one count of rape of a girl under 13, respectively.

    Detective Chief Inspector Richard McNamara, of Kirklees District Safeguarding Unit, said the men were responsible for “depraved and heinous crimes”, having “purposely and repeatedly targeted and abused three vulnerable young girls for their own sexual gratification.””

  13. GOV.UK: INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF DAY
    Islam, together with other religions, is part of what defines the fabric of modern Britain, and its rich tapestry of faiths and beliefs. In the UK, there are 73 denominations of Islam, and over 3000 mosques. Diversity is a strength, and part of our national identity. Islam is a religion that teaches harmony, tolerance and diversity. [Someone else who does not know his Quran! Adam, where art thou!]
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/international-freedom-of-religion-or-belief-day-simon-collis-message

  14. After a soccer player’s hijab slipped off during a game, her opponents paused mid-play to huddle around her (abcnews, Oct 24, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/soccer-players-hijab-slipped-off-game-opponents-paused/story?id=66502213

    “A group of female soccer players are earning praise for helping an opponent in a display of good sportsmanship.

    Teammates from Jordan’s Shabab Al Urdon Club had just kicked the ball away from one of their opponents, a player from the Amman Club, when that player suddenly stopped mid-match.

    The athlete, who was not identified, turned away from the action as her hijab came loose and her hair began to show…”

  15. Lebanese protesters dig in, setting up tents to bloc roads (abcnews, Oct 25, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/lebanese-protesters-dig-setting-tents-bloc-roads-66521548

    “Hundreds of Lebanese protesters set up tents, blocking traffic in main thoroughfares and sleeping in public squares on Friday to enforce a civil disobedience campaign and keep up the pressure on the government to step down.

    Banks, universities and schools remained closed on the ninth day of nationwide protests, triggered by new proposed taxes that followed public spending cuts…”

    • Amir Taheri:
      Why Iran’s Soleimani Misreads Lebanon

      The uprising in Lebanon has shaken the parallel universe created by Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s depiction of Lebanon as the bridgehead for the conquest of the Middle East by Khomeinist ideology. The mullahs regard Lebanon as their most successful attempt at empire building, worth every cent of the billions of dollars invested there.

      Tehran media often boast that Lebanon is the only country where the Islamic Republic controls all levers of power. In Iraq, Iran has to contend with powerful Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties that, while prepared to accommodate Tehran, refuse to act as puppets. In Syria, Tehran has to contend with Bashar al-Assad and remnants of his constituency who regard the Iranian presence as no more than an evil necessity for survival.

      I think Soleimani is wrong to write-off Lebanon as a nation-state and reinvent it as an Iranian bridgehead. Having known Lebanon for more than half a century, I can tell him that there is such a thing as “Lebanese-ness” that transcends sectarian and political divides.

      https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1960756/amir-taheri/why-soleimani-misreads-lebanon

    • The Mass Demonstrations in Lebanon: What Do They Portend?

      The demonstrations throughout Lebanon over the last week erupted spontaneously and saw a full range of the population participating and calling on the leaders of all communities to form a new government and change the current order. The immediate trigger for the protest was a decision to impose a tax on WhatsApp calls; at the heart of the demonstrations, however, is the worsening economic situation and paralysis of a “unity government” hard-put to progress toward solutions that can improve the situation. The mass protest reflects the despair and exasperation with a corrupt leadership.

      On the other hand, there are signs that all components of the leadership, including Hezbollah, are not interested in changing the current system, and therefore supported a “recovery plan” that was hastily drafted by the cabinet. The plan entails placing the tax burden on the stronger socio-economic levels, but implementation is expected to be difficult.

      Clearly the public, which continues with the protests, has little faith in the plan. It is difficult to assess whether the protest will ebb soon or lead to the cabinet’s resignation or even to anarchy. It seems that Lebanon’s salvation can only be achieved with GENEROUS FOREIGN AID, preferably from the West and from Gulf states so as to prevent Hezbollah and its patron, Iran, from assuming complete control over the country. That horse done left the barn~

      https://www.inss.org.il/publication/the-mass-demonstrations-in-lebanon-what-do-they-portend/
      …….
      Iran is losing the Middle East, protests in Lebanon and Iraq show

      https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/22/iran-losing-middle-east-iraq-lebanon-protests-bad-governance/

      • A President with the business and economic knowledge to know how to take down enemy economies and the courage to use them. The CCP is worried that they won’t be able to survive until the 2020 election.

    • Skirmishes erupt between rival groups at Beirut protest

      Hezbollah supporters and anti-government protesters fought in the streets of downtown Beirut

    • Lebanon protests: Riot police intervene as Hezbollah supporters scuffle with protesters

      Groups of people chanting in solidarity with the country’s powerful Shi’ite Hezbollah group walked into a peaceful demonstration on Friday in Beirut briefly scuffling with protesters and prompting riot police to intervene.

      Dressed in plain black t-shirts common to Shi’ite Hezbollah and Amal movement supporters, the men shouted, “We heed your call, Nasrallah,” in reference to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

  16. Swiss indict 2 men accused of recruiting people for IS (abcnews, Oct 25, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/swiss-indict-men-accused-recruiting-people-66520987

    “Swiss prosecutors have indicted two men accused of recruiting people for the Islamic State group.

    The attorney general’s office said Friday that the two face charges of supporting and participating in IS. Both lived in northeastern Switzerland, and their names weren’t provided.

    The main suspect, a Swiss-Italian dual citizen, allegedly traveled to IS-controlled territory in Syria and on his return recruited several people for the group.

    Prosecutors say the other suspect, a dual citizen of Switzerland and North Macedonia, tried to travel to Syria via North Macedonia, where police stopped him. He allegedly recruited one person for IS. Both men are accused of spreading propaganda for the group.

    The case against the first suspect was opened in February 2015 and was later expanded to include the second suspect.”

    • Thank you. The export file name is easy to change. The one in the video itself is correct.

  20. The Siege in Sinaloa Mexico made clear America’s Interests in the Middle East are Marginal at best

  22. Hong Kong Protest is First Confrontation in “New Cold War”—Marion Smith | American Thought Leaders

  25. Russia Will Test Its Ability to Disconnect from the Internet

    The nascent RuNet is meant to allow the country to survive an attack — and Putin to monitor and control the population.

    Russia will test its internal RuNet network to see whether the country can function without the global internet, the Russian government announced Monday. The tests will begin after Nov. 1, recur at least annually, and possibly more frequently. It’s the latest move in a series of technical and policy steps intended to allow the Russian government to cut its citizens off from the rest of the world.

    https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/10/russia-will-test-its-ability-disconnect-internet/160861/

  32. Facebook News debuts with ‘free money’ for publishers
    Social network launches its dedicated journalism section that pays media partners for ‘high-quality’ content

    Facebook opened a news hub today, where it pays publishers to host their headlines and drive visitors to their websites as a way to make amends with the industry that has been battered by the rise of the social network and other platforms.

    CEO Mark Zuckerberg is due to host media partners at an event in New York City today to unveil Facebook News. Publishers have been working with Facebook for months to launch the news service, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg News, Meredith Corp., Condé Nast, Hearst and others.

    Facebook’s news initiative is the latest in a long line of products that have been tested by the social network to improve media fortunes on the platform. Over the years, Facebook has built fast-loading Instant Articles; a “suggested videos” tab, which highlighted videos from prominent publishing partners; and Watch, the YouTube video rival.

    https://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-news-debuts-free-money-publishers/2209996

  33. China blasts ‘arrogance and hypocrisy’ of US VP Pence speech

    Beijing (AFP) – Beijing slammed US Vice President Mike Pence for his “arrogance and hypocrisy” on Friday after he voiced support for Hong Kong democracy protesters and accused the NBA of kowtowing to China.

    Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing that the United States should “cease expressing irresponsible opinions”.

    In a wide-ranging speech on US-China relations, Pence on Thursday also lashed Beijing over its trading behaviour, assertive military posture and treatment of religious minorities.

    Pence rebuked the NBA for “siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech” over a tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey earlier this month that voiced support for demonstrations in Hong Kong.

    China, a major basketball market, retaliated by ending sponsorships and cancelling broadcasts of two pre-season games held in the country.

    NBA commissioner Adam Silver later said China had asked the NBA to fire Morey, which Beijing has denied.

    https://sports.yahoo.com/china-blasts-arrogance-hypocrisy-us-vp-pence-speech-101324791–nba.html

  34. Why No Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran Will Ever Last

    No deal with the Islamic Republic is likely to last, no matter who is proposing it. The reasons lie in the ruling ideology of the Islamic Republic, which is dedicated to exporting the revolution abroad as a central tenet of the resistance.

    The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is responsible for “fulfilling the Islamic mission of Jihad in God’s way and of struggling for the cause of extending the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world.” As declassified CIA documents from 1980 show, Iran has looked for ways to create an empire based on Khomeini-ist Shiite principles since the fall of the Shah. The regime has never veered from this course.

    The targets at risk in the Gulf today, including Bahrain, Iraq, and the Levant, have been the targets of Iran’s ideological outreach and strategy since the early post-revolutionary days. As Tehran’s ideology is driven by an apocalyptic vision and a sense of divine mission, no pragmatic consideration can ultimately deter it from its goals, and “deals” are seen as no more than temporary stopovers on the way to the fulfillment of that mission.

    Iran sees the IRGC not as a terrorist tool but as a force carrying out a divine undertaking: first enforcing the way of jihad among Muslims (who have thus far been the primary targets), and then anyone else who refuses to bow before it.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/iran-deals-wishful-thinking/

  35. Israeli Security Officials Warn of Looming Iranian Threat

    Israel’s political-defense echelon is speaking with one voice about the threat posed by Iran. Despite the multiple blows to Iran’s interests by Israel’s “campaign between the wars,” the downing of the American drone and the attacks on Saudi oil facilities (along with Iran’s persistent progress on the nuclear track) have shown that Tehran is actually upping its ante. Iran is increasingly audacious in the Gulf, and we can only assume it will act the same against Israel.

    Over the past two years Iran attempted to attack Israel four times. The current assessment is that Iranian strikes could be direct or, more likely, circuitous: from Syria or from Iraq; via terrorist attack, missile fire or drone strike, similar to the one in Saudi Arabia.

    Israel has good intelligence about Iran’s plans, but it isn’t perfect. Israel’s physical defenses against these potential threats are solid, but not hermetic. The operational challenge posed by Iran is significant and requires special preparations in the immediate term.

    It also means Israel must prepare for the consequences: If it sustains a serious blow, Israel could respond on Iranian soil, and this could boil over into a multi-front campaign against Hizbullah, and perhaps elements in Syria and Gaza as well.

    We mustn’t view all this as an indication of impending war. Israel can do quite a lot to prevent it: from intelligence-diplomatic efforts; to major preventative action to disrupt Iran’s machinations and exact a steep price; to making Tehran understand that Israel is prepared to go all the way, so that the ayatollah regime knows it will pay dearly if Israel is harmed.

    https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/10/25/as-iran-grows-more-audacious-israel-must-confront-new-security-reality/

    • Arms Embargo on Iran Due to Expire in 2020

      In 2015, in a concession to the Iranians, U.S. negotiators agreed that the UN’s conventional-arms embargo on Iran would be lifted in five years. The embargo is set to expire on Oct. 18, 2020. In the 1990s, China and Russia sold Iran a variety of weapons systems, which the Iranians then reverse-engineered. By this time next year, America’s two most potent geopolitical rivals will have a green light to sell advanced missiles to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. There is a good chance Iran’s numerous proxies in the Middle East will benefit as well.

      Both China and Russia possess technology that will make Iran’s already formidable military production even better. Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Wednesday that if Iran can upgrade its arsenal, it would be “the greatest missile power in the Middle East.” The problem is that any extension of the arms embargo would require agreement from both China and Russia, either of which can veto resolutions at the UN Security Council.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-24/iranian-mayhem-in-the-middle-east-is-about-to-get-worse

    • In many ways a war would help Iran, their economy is tanking and the population is shall we say upset, granted the leaders don’t really care about the people but they have to pay attention when massive unrest happens. A war would give them the chance to appeal to the patriotism of the Iranian people. Granted they would be hard pressed to win a war with Israel and would be unable to win a war with the US but desperate people do desperate things.

  36. The Growing Hizbullah Threat to the Druze in Lebanon and Syria

    In Lebanon, Hizbullah is leveraging its political allies within the Druze political establishment to isolate and weaken Walid Jumblatt, currently the most prominent Hizbullah and Syrian regime critic among the country’s Druze. Hizbullah is granting perks and privileges to Jumblatt’s main rivals. Clashes have erupted between pro- and anti-Jumblatt forces in Lebanon, leading to several deaths.

    The Druze of Suwayda province in southern Syria have enjoyed more than half a decade of relative autonomy. Druze community militias have established checkpoints and enacted community policing. Today, as the Syrian regime seeks to consolidate its power and authority across the entire country, there have been multiple clashes between Druze militias and pro-regime forces. A number of prominent Druze military leaders in the province have been killed or faced assassination attempts.

    Hizbullah – and by extension Iran – have established a wide network of political, military, and cultural relationships in Druze areas of Syria as part of a concerted effort to seize control of decisionmaking. As a result, 60% of all local armed groups in Suwayda province, including Bedouin militias, are now affiliated with Hizbullah.

    https://www.mei.edu/publications/divide-and-conquer-growing-hezbollah-threat-druze

  37. The Jihadi “Insider” Threat

    On Oct. 3, Mickael Harpon, 45, a French police employee, stabbed five colleagues at the Prefecture of Police in central Paris, killing four police officers and seriously injuring a woman. Harpon, who had worked at the station since 2003, held top-secret security clearance that gave him access to all computers in the police directorate of intelligence. He converted to Islam a decade ago, stopped wearing Western clothes and stopped talking to women. Colleagues had reported Harpon in 2015 for voicing support for the attack on the Charlie Hebdo journal offices, but nothing was done.

    This major terrorist incident raises the larger question of the insider threat in law enforcement, intelligence, military agencies and strategic infrastructure facilities (airports, petrochemical and power plants).

    On Sep. 5, Abdul Alani, an American Airlines mechanic born in Iraq and a U.S. citizen since 1992, was arrested in Miami. In July, he drove up to a Boeing 737 at Miami International Airport, opened a compartment below the cockpit, and glued a piece of foam inside navigation equipment so that pilots wouldn’t be able to tell how fast or high they were flying. The blockage triggered an alert when pilots powered up the plane, and they canceled the takeoff.

    In 2013, a technician at the airport in Wichita, Kansas, was arrested as he tried to plant what he thought was a bomb. He had told an FBI undercover agent that he wanted to carry out jihad for al-Qaeda. In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security found that the Transportation Safety Authority had failed to identify 73 aviation workers with security badges who should have triggered terrorism-related red flags.

    https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Paris-police-headquarters-stabbings-the-insider-threat-605726

  38. Dept. of Justice’s probe into the Russia hoax turns into criminal investigation

    OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 7:01 AM PT — Friday, October 25, 2019

    Attorney General William Barr’s probe into the origins of the Russia investigation is turning into a criminal case. The change reportedly allows U.S. attorney John Durham, who was chosen by Barr to lead the probe, to subpoena documents as well as witness testimonies and to file criminal charges if necessary. This comes after reports last week said Barr was expanding the investigation after Durham found something “significant.:” However, it’s still not clear what exactly prompted the switch.

    The probe was first launched in May as an administrative review into the origins of the Russia hoax. President Trump has repeatedly denounced former special council Robert Mueller’s Russia probe by calling it a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” When asked whether he prompted the attorney general to open the investigation, however, the president said he hadn’t, but also said he appreciates Barr’s work.

    “No, I didn’t ask him to do that…but, I think it’s a great thing that he did it,” he stated. “It was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the people of this country.”

    https://www.oann.com/dept-of-justices-probe-into-the-russia-hoax-turns-into-criminal-investigation/

  39. More Russian military police arrive in Syria under peace deal with Turkey

    MOSCOW/ANKARA (Reuters) – Russia sent about 300 more military police and more than 20 armored vehicles to Syria on Friday under an accord between Ankara and Moscow that has halted Turkey’s military incursion into northeast Syria.

    The deal, sealed on Tuesday by Presidents Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, requires that Russian military police and Syrian border guards remove all Kurdish YPG militia from within 30 km (19 miles) of the Turkish border by next Tuesday.

    The military police, from the southern Russian region of Chechnya, will help with the withdrawal of Kurdish forces and their weapons to 30 km of the Syrian-Turkish border, Interfax news agency reported the defense ministry as saying.

    Ankara regards the YPG as a terrorist group aligned with Kurdish militants who have waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984.

    Turkey launched its offensive against the YPG on Oct. 9 after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces out of northeast Syria. Ankara halted its assault under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that called for a YPG withdrawal from the border area. The Putin-Erdogan deal built on and widened that agreement.

    https://www.oann.com/more-russian-military-police-arrive-in-syria-under-peace-deal-with-turkey/

      • “Locals”: Syrians are tapped out.
        How many Russian mercenaries can Wagner scratch up? Maybe the ‘Stans will empty a few more prisons.

        Iran recruits shitte jihadis from Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Cannon-fodder puts on Syrian uniforms, takes over regions cleansed of Sunnis. That’s already been observed by IDF intel.

        Their loyalty is to Velayat-i faqih, not any stinkin’ nation. Hardly appealing to Putin, never mind the neighbors.

        For his part, the filthy Turk isn’t using genuine, TurkISH, NATO-quality soldiers. The ethnic cleansers are aloha-snackbar, TurkMEN jihadis.

        Ethnic Kurds, Assyrian Christians, Yazidis, and other autochthonous minorities are to be murdered/expelled. The Sultan plans to GIFT their homelands (and homes!) in northern Syria to vassals who will be loyal to him.

        [RE: PTrump’s “blood & sand” – Disingenuous, at best. This is the breadbasket of the Euphrates Basin. The location of critical oil and gas pipelines, current and projected.
        Tens of thousands of American soldiers are concentrated in actual sand around the Gulf. Mix & match works neither for topography nor blood-type. Echoing “blood & soil” is VILE rhetoric. Fire this speech-writer.]

        Besides the Turkmen savages (the scant few not “martyred” as anticipated), there are millions of Arabs now sheltering in Turkey. Having fled the Assad regime, can they be trusted?

        • Can they be trusted?

          They can be trusted to do what is in their best interest, of course we don’t know what they consider to be in their best interest.

          If I were in Putin’s boots I would recruit a force from the locals who are scheduled for the grave, this would give him a fighting force who is going to be at least semi loyal to the people paying them.

          • The goon squads have been fighting each other, switching sides during this whole war. Seems like an endless supply…
            …and now they’re breeding a fresh supply in the West. All those little mad Mohs. Creepy.

  40. Hong Kong court raises concerns by banning disclosure of police details

    HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s High Court on Friday banned people from disclosing personal information about the police and their families, widely targeted in protests that have gripped the Chinese-ruled city for months, prompting concern among legal experts.

    Pro-democracy activists have attacked police with petrol bombs, rocks and lasers shone in their eyes, furious at social media footage of random beatings, especially one against protesters cowering on the floor of a subway train.

    One officer this month was slashed in the neck with a knife.

    Police have responded to the violence with tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and occasional live rounds, wounding several.

    Protesters are angry about what they see as creeping Chinese interference in Hong Kong, which Britain returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula intended to guarantee freedoms that are not enjoyed on the mainland.

    China denies meddling. It has accused foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, of inciting the unrest.

    https://www.oann.com/hong-kong-set-for-more-subdued-weekend-of-protests/

  41. The Impact on Iran of the Turkish Invasion in Syria

    Iranian President Rouhani condemned Turkish President Erdogan’s decision to invade Kurdish territory in Syria. Large-scale protests by the Iranian Kurdish minority (estimated at eight million) broke out against Turkish institutions throughout Iran. Yet Tehran does not want to risk its relationship with Ankara, which allows it to circumvent U.S. sanctions and constitutes an essential channel for the supply of Iranian gas to major European countries.

    The Turkish invasion challenges the wish of Iranian policymakers to expand Tehran’s “strategic depth” in Syria. Moreover, there are quite a few Salafist-jihadist militias on the ground alongside the Turkish army, some of which originated in al-Qaeda, that perceive Iran’s Shiite Islam as a heresy and its practitioners as worthy of persecution. For Iran’s security establishment, the deployment of Salafist militias operating under a Turkish umbrella is intolerable. Deployment of Sunni militias could limit Iranian maneuverability in northern Syria.

    The Iranian regime has high hopes that the international community will turn its eyes to the Turkish aggression and divert attention from Tehran’s attempts to expand its strategic depth.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/turkey-invasion-syria-kurds-iran/

  42. It’s official: ‘White man’ is now an insult in the English language
    By Howard Portnoy October 25, 2019

    The crusade against people of pallor is nothing new. For years now, we’ve been witnessing the rise of anti-white sentiment on the Left, a group that ironically professes to champion “inclusion” and “diversity.” In September, Williams College, a prestigious liberal arts college, held a symposium celebrating “New Voices in Science and Technology.” In case the title was too subtle for ignorant white academics to grasp, the organizers made it clear that only “historically underrepresented groups” were welcome. Maybe if whites were confused about the message, it’s because progressives never come out and say in plain language what they mean.

    That was until Wednesday. Remember the date: Oct. 23, 2109. It’s the day the phrase white man (and variants thereof) became a dirty word among speakers of English. What occasioned the linguistic upheaval was the storming of the closed-door House “impeachment” inquiry by several dozen Republican congressmen who felt strongly that the president’s due process rights were being violated.

    The media reacted with a single voice. Here’s MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/09/17/williams-college-holds-sci-tech-symposium-white-academics-need-not-apply/

  43. VATICAN – “They stole the statues, wearing work clothes and holding cameras,” a witness testified

    • Pope asks forgiveness for theft of controversial Amazon idols

      VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from Amazon bishops and others at a Church assembly on Friday after conservative Catholic militants stole statues they considered pagan idols from a church and dumped them in the Tiber river.

      “First of all, this happened in Rome, so as bishop of the diocese, I ask forgiveness from the persons who were offended by this gesture,” he said at the start of the last session of the three-week assembly, known as a synod.

      The synod is discussing the future of the Church in the Amazon and threats to its environment.

      Francis said there “was no idolatrous intention” in using the statues, which depicted a pregnant woman, at a side event in the Vatican when the assembly began.

      Replicas were put in a nearby church with other artifacts from the Amazon and stolen on Monday. The militants posted a video of the theft and claimed responsibility in a statement to a Catholic news organization.

      The next day, the Vatican accused ultra-conservative Catholic social media of fomenting hate, saying in an editorial that the statues were “an effigy of maternity and the sacredness of life”.

      Hard-line conservative media said the statue was of a pagan goddess known as Pachamama. The Vatican said it was an indigenous traditional symbol of life.

      In his remarks, the pope used the phrase “the pachamama statues” but in the transcript the word pachamama was in italics.

      Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope used the word as a means to identify the statues because that is the way they have become known in the Italian media and not as a reference to the goddess.

      Francis said Italian police had recovered the statues. The Vatican had yet to decide on a suggestion by police who found the statues that they be used in the synod’s final Mass on Sunday, he said.

      On Saturday, members will vote on a final declaration which the pope, who has attended most of the sessions, can use to write his own document, known as an Apostolic Exhortation.

      The synod’s most contentious issue has been whether elderly married men could be ordained as priests only in the Amazon to say Mass in the vast region because of the shortage of priests..

      Conservatives oppose the proposal, saying it would be a slippery slope leading to the end of the tradition of celibacy in the rest of the 1.3 billion-member Church.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-synod-amazon-theft-forgiveness/pope-asks-forgiveness-for-theft-of-controversial-amazon-statues-idUSKBN1X427A

      Video shows Bergoglio blessing the pagan idol

    • VATICAN NEWS _ Pope Francis announces retrieval of indigenous statues

      The Holy See Press Office has provided a transcription of Pope Francis’s remarks concerning several indigenous statues, stolen earlier this week and thrown into the Tiber River. The Holy Father spoke off-the-cuff following the liturgical prayer that opened the afternoon session of the 15th General Congregation of the Synod for the Amazon.
      Pope Francis’ words

      Good afternoon. I want to say a word about the statues of the pachamama that were taken from the church of the Transpontina – which were there without idolatrous intentions – and were thrown into the Tiber.

      First of all, this happened in Rome, and, as Bishop of the Diocese, I ask pardon of the persons who were offended by this act.

      Then, I want to communicate to you that the statues which created such attention in the media, were retrieved from the Tiber. The statues were not damaged.

      The Commander of the Carabinieri desires that you should be informed of this recovery before the news is made public. At the moment, the news is confidential, and the statues are being kept in the Italian Carabinieri Commander’s office.

      The Commander of the Carabinieri has expressed his desire to follow up on any indications that you would like to give concerning the manner of publication of the news, and any other initiative you may want to take in this regard: for example, the Commander said, “the exhibition of the statues during the Holy Mass for the closing of the Synod”. We’ll see.

      I have delegated the Secretary of State to respond to this.

      This is a bit of good news. Thank you.

      https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-francis-comments-on-statues-stolen-from-church.html

      • Mind-boggling sesecration.
        May as well do a Notredame on the place before the “new Italians” convert it to a mosque.

  47. Russian military faces tall order following Putin-Erdogan Syria deal

    …The Russians have invested a great deal of energy and initiativeness into the deal and are irritated with critical comments coming from Washington.

    “I mean, they are just jealous. Their initiative failed; they failed, and all they want now is for us to quarrel with Turks. They weren’t [very] creative in helping to fix the situation on the ground, but they will get creative in mounting troubles for us and Turks. [It’s as] simple as that,” a senior Russian military official told Al-Monitor…

    “[There’s a risk] of being pulled into a potentially large-scale ground operation, which we have managed to avoid in the previous four years…. The operation is formally that of peacekeeping and counterterrorism, but in order to implement it, Russia would need to deploy larger forces and more equipment far away from our military bases in Hmeimim and Tartus. This will make the air force support for the troops more difficult…

    “Objectively speaking, the Russian engagement [in the] ground operation plays [an] American card. The air space east of the Euphrates is [still] the zone of control of the Americans, and we’ll have to deal with this issue…”

    “Russian troops become a target for radical and terrorist elements of various Syrian National Army factions as well as the Kurds. Russians may fall prey to ‘side attacks’ on Turkish forces.”

    …the Russian military assessment is that there are seven prisons in the so-called autonomous administration of north and east Syria that house supporters of the Islamic State and at least eight camps for internally displaced persons, including militants’ wives and children.

    “There is now an issue of returning them to their countries. This issue is much more complicated than it seems. Who will they return as? As someone who visited a foreign country as a tourist? Or as someone who participated in combat…?”

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/10/russia-military-turkey-ypg-syria.html
    …..
    not gonna be a cakewalk

  49. CBC – Young people sue government over climate change

    The impending lawsuit from 15 young Canadian activists will claim Ottawa’s role in perpetuating the climate crisis violates their fundamental rights to life, liberty and equality.