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.
Germany: Berlin announces new measures to tackle far-right extremism after Halle attack
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer outlined Berlin’s new measures to tackle right-wing extremism following the recent anti-Semitic attack in Halle, during a press conference in the German capital on Wednesday.
One of the new measures is a tightening of Germany’s gun control laws, which Seehofer outlined.
“It is very important for me that we do everything possible to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of extremists, or if they [the extremists] have already got [access to weapons] – to deprive them from weapons in a legal way,” he said.
Seehofer added that when handing out firearms licenses an official request should be made to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence service.
“It is absolutely out of the question that we withdraw the personnel fighting Islamic terror and put them in a fight against right-wing extremism,” he added.
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht also spoke at the press conference and outlined new measures to tackle online hate speech; mandating that social media platforms report posts containing hate speech to authorities rather than just deleting them speedily.
What Baghdadi’s Death Tells Us About the Real Terror Threat
Always look for the country behind the curtain.
October 30, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
What’s the best place to look for the terrorist leader of a defeated Islamic terrorist group? When his men are on the run, look for his hideout in or near the country that sponsors him.
We didn’t find Osama bin Laden hiding in a cave in Afghanistan, but in a compound in a Pakistani military city. And Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former Caliph of ISIS, wasn’t hanging out in his home turf, but in an area controlled by Turkey and its allied Islamist militias right off the Turkish border.
Osama bin Laden’s death confirmed the reports of his ties to Pakistan, and Baghdadi’s death confirmed the rumors of the links between ISIS and Turkey. Those links may not as run as deep as those between Pakistan, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda, but when Baghdadi wanted someplace to hide out with his family, he didn’t huddle with his forces, but picked a location under the shadow of the Turkish military.
As Robert Spencer, an expert on the theology and geopolitics of Islamic terrorism, noted, “It strains credulity that Turkey, with its interests in northern Syria, did not know he was there. Al-Baghdadi was killed in Barisha in the Idlib province, a town of no more than 2,500 people right on the Turkish border.”
Where did we actually find the Caliph of ISIS? Allegedly, he’d been living in the home of Abu Mohammed Salama, a Hurras al-Din leader. The Islamic terror group, whose name means Guardians of Religion, had been listed as Al Qaeda in Syria in its Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation. Hurras al-Din had formerly been part of Tahrir al-Sham which has been cooperating closely with Turkey.
One of Tahrir’s four components was the Al-Nusra Front, which was formerly the official Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. While the US bombs Tahrir al-Sham, Turkey, a NATO member, works with it.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/what-baghdadis-death-tells-us-about-real-terror-daniel-greenfield
(Richard: Cops Intel people, Accounts and Economists all look for patterns, so do good reporters.Caroline Glick has done this with the actions of the Dems.)
Trump, Israel and the Democratic Crack-Up
Israel has good reason to be deeply worried.
October 30, 2019
Caroline Glick
Nearly every week, the Democrats reach new heights of radicalism. Israel has good reason to be deeply worried.
Until 2000, the peaceful transition of power in the wake of elections was a feature of American democracy that everyone took for granted. In 2000, the Democrats shifted. They refused to accept the election results in Florida that gave Bush his victory in the state, and through it, in the electoral college, until the Supreme Court ruled that the results were legitimate. Even afterwards, many Democrats considered Bush’s victory and his presidency illegitimate.
Democrat party’s radicalization
In retrospect, the Democrats’ refusal to accept the legitimacy of the 2000 election results marked the beginning of the party’s radicalization.
Since Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, the speed and depth of the party’s radical transformation has gone into overdrive.
The day after the election, Democrats coined a new term in American politics, “resistance.” Until then, the side that lost a presidential election was the “opposition.” But the Democrats don’t simply “oppose” Trump, they “resist” him.
The distinction is profound. An opponent recognizes the basic legitimacy of the person he opposes. A resister does not. The purpose of the anti-Trump resistance is not to offer an alternative path for governing. It is to nullify Trump’s is presidency by among other things delegitimizing and dehumanizing Trump his family, associates and supporters. The resistance seeks to paralyze Trump’s presidency to prevent him from wielding the power of office and oust him from that office as quickly as possible.
To this end, for instance, the Democratic minority in the Senate has used procedural rules to slow-roll Trump’s appointments to senior positions in the executive branch and impede his ability to govern.
Read More At: https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/trump-israel-and-democratic-crack-caroline-glick
US Had New ISIS Leader in Custody
October 28, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
Like Osama bin Laden, Al-Baghdadi was no longer the functional leader of his Islamic terror group by the time we hunted him down, but there is an important difference. While Al-Baghdadi had handed down operational control, he remained the Caliph.
As such, the entire basis for the Islamic State and its alliances depended on him. Now he’s dead and the Caliphate may be gone with him. Abdullah Qardash, the man Baghdadi had appointed to replace him while heading ISIS, is now, in theory, in charge. And, like his boss, we had him in custody and let him go.
Like Baghdadi, Abdullah Qardash had been in Camp Bucca. The two apparently met and bonded there.
There’s been some debate as to when exactly Baghdadi had been released from Bucca. The most famous account pegged it as being in 2009.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/10/us-had-new-isis-leader-custody-daniel-greenfield
Top Republican Devin Nunes claims Adam Schiff coached a Trump impeachment inquiry witness in ‘unprecedented’ scenes during behind closed-door testimony
The most senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee last night accused Democrat panel chair Adam Schiff of coaching a Trump impeachment inquiry witness during closed-door testimony.
Republicans and Democrats clashed angrily during Tuesday’s deposition of by Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official overseeing Ukraine policy.
Representative Devin Nunes told Fox News: ‘I have never in my life seen anything like what happened today.’
Nunes claimed: ‘I mean, they’ve been bad at most of these depositions, but to interrupt us continually to coach the witness, to decide… what we’re going to be able to ask the witness,’ he described the conduct as ‘unprecedented.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7629669/Devin-Nunes-claims-Adam-Schiff-coached-Trump-impeachment-inquiry-witness-unprecedented-scenes.html
Rep. Nunes examines Schiff’s obliteration of House Intelligence Committee
A large-scale anti-terror raid in three cantons across Switzerland has led to the arrest of 11 suspected jihadists including five minors.
Around 100 federal police agents along with cantonal police from Schaffhausen, Bern, and Zurich took part in the raids which were conducted by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPC), the State Minors’ Ministries of Winterthur, and the Canton of Bern, 20minutes reports.
Four of the minors arrested were located in Zurich and were aged between 15 and 17. The other, also a teen, was arrested in Bern. All of the underage suspects will be tried by the ministries for minors in both Bern and Winterthur, while the MPC will prosecute the adults.
All 11 suspects are thought to be supporters of either Islamic State or al-Qaeda and are also facing charges of participation in a criminal organisation.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/10/30/11-suspected-jihadists-arrested-in-swiss-raids-including-several-minors/
EXCLUSIVE: First-Ever Look Inside Epstein’s Private Island
A group of 54 United Nations members issued a statement Tuesday defending China for building over 1,000 concentration camps to imprison, torture, indoctrinate, rape, and kill Muslims, crediting the camps with building “a stronger sense of happiness” in the country.
Belarus, often considered the last dictatorship standing in Europe, delivered the statement on behalf of the China-allied nations at the General Assembly in response to a group statement condemning China’s human rights atrocities.
China has built hundreds of concentration camps in western Xinjiang province – home to the nation’s Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority – since late 2017, which it has used to imprison up to 3 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz Muslims. Survivors of the camps, mostly Kazakhs or Uyghurs married to foreign nations who appealed abroad for their freedom, say they were subject to forced sterilization and beatings, forced to memorize Communist Party propaganda songs, affirm their loyalty for dictator Xi Jinping, and serve as sex slaves for guards at the camps. Some also accused China of using the prisoners for slave labor to manufacture products sold in, among other places, the United States.
The Chinese government published the favorable statement in full.
Belarus, claiming to speak on behalf of other draconian states like Russia, Bolivia, Pakistan, and Democratic Republic of Congo, condemned “politicizing human rights issues by naming and shaming” human rights violators.
“Faced with the grave challenge of terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a series of counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers,” Belarus said, using China’s preferred term for the concentration camps. “The past three consecutive years has [sic] seen not a single terrorist attack in Xinjiang and people there enjoy a stronger sense of happiness, fulfillment and security.”
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2019/10/30/dictatorships-u-n-chinas-concentration-camps-bring-stronger-sense-happiness/
Sanders and Warren base their wealth taxes on misleading numbers
by Nicole Kaeding
| October 30, 2019 12:06 PM
Print this article
Wealth tax proposals from Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, are underpinned by the idea that the economy is rigged in favor of the wealthy, and new data from two liberal economists claim the richest 400 Americans had a lower tax rate in 2018 than the poorest among us. This makes for sensational headlines and good stump speeches, but this narrative of extreme inequality has been roundly disputed in the economic community, and policymakers should steer clear of thinking that there’s a gold mine of untaxed wealth.
Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman’s new book, The Triumph of Injustice, is the source of these explosive claims. The headline-making data are well outside the mainstream of the economics professions’ due to questionable assumptions made by the two economists. Their results differ substantially from those of government agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation that have evaluated the same issue.
According to Saez and Zucman, who have consulted for Warren’s and Sanders’s presidential campaigns, the bottom 10% of households paid approximately a 25% effective rate in federal, state, and local taxes in 2018. This calculation, however, leaves out key tax provisions that drive down tax rates for the poor. The federal (and some states’) tax code provides generous tax credits for low-income individuals, chief among them the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. These credits are so generous that some households can receive refunds in excess of their income tax liability, making their effective income tax rates negative. These refundable provisions are in the tax code specifically to offset the regressivity of other taxes, such as payroll taxes.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-and-elizabeth-warren-base-their-wealth-taxes-on-misleading-numbers
BREAKING: Top Republican Devin Nunes Accuses Adam Schiff of Repeatedly Coaching Witnesses, Refusing to Allow GOP Lawmakers to Ask Questions (VIDEO)
Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft October 30, 2019 130 Comments
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) joined Sean Hannity along with Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Tuesday night on FOX News.
Nunes told Sean Hannity that shifty Adam Schiff was coaching impeachment witness during the secret chamber hearings on Tuesday.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/breaking-top-republican-devin-nunes-accuses-adam-schiff-of-repeatedly-coaching-witnesses-refusing-to-allow-gop-lawmakers-to-ask-questions-video/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily
Shifty Schiff’s Star Tuesday Witness, Alexander Vindman, Is Connected to Obama’s Russian Ambassador and Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson
Yesterday Colonel Alexander Vindman was the witness in Adam Schiff’s basement chamber of secrets. No doubt he brought with him to the Capital tricks and not treats.
During questioning on Tuesday Colonel Vindman admitted he shared the read-outs of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelenzky with several other secret operatives.
When Rep. Jim Jordan asked him who he shared the readouts with — Rep. Adam Schiff SHUT DOWN the questioning!
FOX News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge reported that Colonel Vindman may have violated the federal leaking statute 18 USC 798 when he leaked the president’s classified call to several other opertaives.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/shifty-schiffs-star-tuesday-witness-alexander-vindman-is-connected-to-obamas-russian-ambassador-and-fusion-gpss-glenn-simpson/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily
“Michelle Obama calls out White Flight… You’re still running…”
by Kane – October 30, 2019
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/michelle-obama-calls-out-white-flight-youre-still-running/
And the Oscar for the biggest racists goes to Michele Obama. What is the point other than to promote more division and hate. Please stop, please just go away, find a good shrink who may be able to help you deal with your hate, for the love of God.
Creating division and hatred, and compounding the effect by imputing the source to the target is classic neo-Marxist tactics.
“This young man was savagely attacked by a gang of rejects & heartless scum! After this happened @dillondanis offered to pay for BJJ classes….”
The General – October 29, 2019 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/GenRickDeMarco/status/1189365931132231680
“I am so proud of this young man for taking me up on my offer and getting into the dojo. Showing up is half the battle and that applies to everything in this life. We’re all in this together, let’s go champ!”
Dillion Danis – October 16, 2019 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/dillondanis/status/1184509889365921797
Thomas More Law Center
https://www.thomasmore.org/
“ACT/PoR 10-28-2019 Meeting with Richard Thompson”
ACT ClevelandCenter – October 29, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: Three Recent Events that Indicate AG Barr and His US Attorney John Durham May Be Further Along than Previously Suspected!
EXCLUSIVE: Three Recent Events that Indicate AG Barr and His US Attorney John Durham May Be Further Along than Previously Suspected!
Joe Hoft by Joe Hoft October 30, 2019 260 Comments
1.0KShare 192Tweet Email
Attorney General Bill Barr and his US Attorney John Durham may be further along in their investigation labeled “investigating the investigators” than previously suspected. Here are three recent events that indicate this is the case.
1. US Attorney Durham is overseeing a criminal probe –
Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reacted last week to the news that the Durham investigation is now a criminal probe –
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/exclusive-three-recent-events-that-indicate-ag-barr-and-his-us-attorney-john-durham-may-be-further-along-than-previously-suspected/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily
videos at site
Finally, a sane voice from the trans community:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq0H1Y1jE4s
A message I fully agree with and a person I gladly embrace!
Today’s Scott Adams (the Dilbert guy)’s periscope is really, really good.
Scott is a trained negotiator and a trained hypnotist, and his predictions have a high rate of success. He is a ‘persuasion’ professional and expert.
OK, there are some tech difficulties, but he has Representative Matt Gaetz on. Scott has analyzed Rep. Gaetz’s communications and has labelled him the most persuasive Republican after Donald Trump.
At the end of the broadcast, he muses on the persuasive powers of ‘The Hero Dog’ that took down Abu Bakr being adopted by Trump as the next White House Dog.
Oh, did I mention? President Trump’s people monitor this Periscope…
Everyone’s Upset by Mike Pence’s China Speech | China Uncensored
Every SJW’s WORST NIGHTMARE!!
Ireland’s Destiny
He is issuing a call to arms, not physical arms, not yet but that is coming.
Anti-Trump ‘Whistleblower’ Worked With DNC Operative Who Sought Dirt On Trump From Ukrainian Officials
OCTOBER 30, 2019 By Madeline Osburn
A new report from RealClearInvestigations reveals that the anti-Trump “whistleblower” who prompted the current impeachment proceedings against President Trump is a registered Democrat who worked with a Democratic National Committee opposition researcher who dug up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
Federal documents reveal that the whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, previously worked in the Obama administration with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan. RealClear reports that Ciaramella remained there into the Trump administration, and headed the Ukraine desk at the National Security Council, eventually transitioning into the West Wing, until June 2017.
He then “left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia,” RealClearInvestigations reported. Ciaramella is a Yale graduate who reportedly speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and Arabic.
Officials told RealClear that Ciaramella strongly opposed Trump’s foreign policy.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/30/anti-trump-whistleblower-worked-with-dnc-operative-who-sought-dirt-on-trump-from-ukrainian-officials/
The Soloman Island chain is in a position that would allow any military force there to cut off the sea routes to Australia. Think of Australia with out the ability to import or export without Chinese permission. This ties in with the Chinese moves in the South China Sea, China is positioning their forces to establish total Control of the entire Pacific Ocean.
Why is China leasing Tulagi in the Solomon Islands? | DW News
Wealth Redistribution Through Climate Activism | Piers Corbyn Interview
Watch: Drone footage of military raid that killed Baghdadi
VOA – Pentagon Releases Footage of Raid on Al-Baghdadi
The Pentagon released footage, Wednesday, October 30, of the U.S. Special Forces operation, that led to the death of Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Among the images released by the Defense Department was grainy black-and-white footage of U.S. troops approaching on foot the high-walled compound in northwestern Syria where Baghdadi was holed up.
The Pentagon also released video of airstrikes on a group of unknown fighters on the ground who opened fire on the helicopters that ferried U.S. forces in for the assault on Baghdadi’s compound in Syria’s Idlib province.
Before and after pictures of the isolated compound were also released.
The compound was razed by U.S. munitions after the raid, leaving it looking like “a parking lot with large potholes,” said Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command.
At last ~ a feel-good movie ~
DAILY MAIL – Shocking photos of Congresswoman Katie Hill are revealed showing off Nazi-era tattoo while smoking a bong, kissing her female staffer and posing nude on ‘wife sharing’ sites
Katie Hill, 32, has been seen in a series of shocking photographs obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com
Hill was pictured kissing and brushing her young female staffer’s hair, who DailyMail.com can identify as Morgan Desjardins from Santa Clarita, California
The then 22-year-old began a throuple relationship with Hill and her husband Kenny Heslep shortly after she started working for Hill in 2017
Texts and photos between Hill, Heslep and Desjardins reveal their throuple was steamy at first, but ended with Hill leaving them ‘high and dry’
The congresswoman was also seen posing naked while smoking a bong on 9/11 in 2017, as a tattoo of a Nazi-era Iron Cross on her bikini line is on full display
The tattoo could open the congresswoman to accusations of hypocrisy, after she criticized racist Facebook posts that included a similar-looking cross
Sources revealed Hill and Heslep also posted Hill’s naked photos online in 2016 under a thread called ‘WouldYouF**kMyWife’ and ‘wifesharing’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/index.html
Michael Baden Thinks Epstein Was Murdered
“Enemies Within Series: Philip Haney – National Security Meltdown, Islamic Saturation in U.S. Government” + Source Links
by TUW Media – October 30, 2019
https://www.theunitedwest.org/2019/10/30/enemies-within-series-philip-haney-national-security-meltdown-islamic-saturation-in-u-s-government/
“Enemies Within Series: Philip Haney – National Security Meltdown – Islamic Saturation in U.S. Govt” Sharia Crime Stoppers – October 30, 2019
Phil Haney mentioned this event:
https://thearabdailynews.com/2019/09/23/american-muslims-for-palestine-hosts-conference-nov-28-30-2019/
Canada
https://thearabdailynews.com/2019/09/05/canadians-for-justice-and-peace-in-palestine-release-new-video-series/
What did Putin and Orban discuss in Budapest?
An EU organization puts illegal abusers above sexual abuse survivors:
“Case study #2: Narratives and strategies of far-right extremists”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2mqlkhi9-Y
Poll
https://twitter.com/RANEurope/status/1189442126712582145
Homepage:
https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awareness_network/ran-contacts_en
Enviro Activists Now Claiming Netflix is Causing Climate Change
Climate change religionists have found a new thing to get all mad at because it is “destroying” the earth: Netflix.
Global warming activists are now targeting Netflix as yet another cause of climate change, according to the New York Post.
The activists are claiming that Netflix is “a waste of resources at all levels.”
https://godfatherpolitics.com/enviro-activists-now-claiming-netflix-is-causing-climate-change/
Syria’s defense ministry calls on SDF to join government forces
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/10/30/syrian-arab-army-sdf-turkey/
“Syria’s defense ministry on Wednesday, October 30, called on Syrian Democratic Forces members to join the Syrian army and “confront Turkish aggression” in the country’s largely autonomous northeast.
“The General Command of the Armed Forces is ready to welcome members of SDF units who are willing to join them,” the government-controlled SANA news agency reported the ministry as saying in a statement.
The statement said that the “sons of a united Syria, Arabs and Kurds,” face “one enemy” in “retrieving every inch of Syria’s beloved territory.”
The interior ministry also called on the SDF-affiliated Asayish police forces to join the government’s security services, according to SANA…”
Niger soldiers killed in attack on Blabrine military base in southeast Diffa region
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/10/30/niger-soldiers-killed-blabrine-diffa/
“Niger’s defense ministry on Wednesday, October 30 said 12 soldiers were killed in a predawn raid on a military base in the southeastern Diffa region, which has long been a target of Nigeria-based Islamist fighters.
Another eight soldiers were wounded in the attack on the Blabrine military unit according to a provisional toll, the ministry said in statement read on state radio.
The attack was “very probably” carried out by Boko Haram, the statement added.
“The Blabrine military unit was targeted last night. The situation is ongoing,” a municipal source earlier told AFP on condition of anonymity. The source said the raid began at around 3:00 a.m.
“There have been deaths and military equipment has been torched,” a senior official in Diffa said…”
Ayatollah Khamenei Urges Countering Plots to Foment Insecurity in Iraq, Lebanon
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/10/30/2130162/ayatollah-khamenei-urges-countering-plots-to-foment-insecurity-in-iraq-lebanon
“Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei called on people of Iraq and Lebanon to make remedying the insecurity the priority and pursue their legitimate demands within the framework of law…”
US, Gulf Countries Slap Joint Iran-Related Sanctions on 25 Targets, Including Hezbollah
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1968901/us-gulf-countries-slap-joint-iran-related-sanctions-25-targets-including
“The United States and six Gulf countries agreed to jointly impose sanctions on 25 corporations, banks and individuals linked to Iran’s support for militant networks including Hezbollah, the US Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
The blacklisted targets were announced by the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) nations – which also include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – as US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin traveled in the Middle East.
All 25 targets were previously under sanctions by the United States.
“The TFTC’s action coincides with my trip to the Middle East, where I am meeting with my counterparts across the region to bolster the fight against terrorist financing,” Mnuchin said in a Treasury statement.
“This action demonstrates the unified position of the Gulf nations and the United States that Iran will not be allowed to escalate its malign activity in the region,” he added.
In Jerusalem on Monday, Mnuchin said the United States would increase economic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.
Sanctions reimposed on Tehran by President Donald Trump after he withdrew the United States from world powers’ 2015 nuclear pact with Tehran have dried up Iranian oil revenue and cut Iranian banks’ ties to the financial world.
Tensions between the United States, its Gulf allies and Iran spiked in recent months after attacks on oil tankers and a September strike on Saudi oil facilities, which the United States blamed on Iran, but that Tehran has denied.
Twenty-one of the targets announced on Wednesday comprised a vast network of businesses providing financial support to the Basij Resistance Force, a paramilitary group that the US Treasury says works for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
A senior Treasury official said the group attacks demonstrators and students, recruits child soldiers and engages in torture.
The Treasury said shell companies and other measures were used to mask Basij ownership and control over multi-billion-dollar business interests in Iran’s automotive, mining, metals, and banking industries, many of which operate across the Middle East and Europe.
Four individuals targeted were Hezbollah-affiliated and help coordinate the group’s operations in Iraq, it said.
Earlier this month, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the international body that sets standards on combating terrorist financing – said it had given Iran the final deadline of February 2020 to comply with international norms, after which it would urge members to apply counter-measures.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday welcomed the move by Paris-based FATF, saying in a statement that the IRGC “continues to engage in large-scale, illicit, financing schemes to fund its malign activities.””
US releases first images of Baghdadi raid
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-releases-first-images-baghdadi-raid
US reimposes sanctions on Turkey, a week after lifting them
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191030-us-reimposes-sanctions-on-turkey-a-week-after-lifting-them/
“The US House of Representatives approved sanctions against Turkey yesterday over its military operation and presence into northern Syria, only a week after President Donald Trump lifted them.
The measure passed by 403-16, including 176 members of the Republican party voting in support and a mere 15 opposing it, showing the widespread sentiments against Turkey’s operation, its relations with the US, and the increasing split between Washington and Ankara…”
Saudi Arabia to allow foreign universities to open local branches
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191030-saudi-arabia-to-allow-foreign-universities-to-open-local-branches/
“Saudi Arabia has announced plans to allow foreign universities to open branches in the Kingdom in a drive to modernise the county’s education system. Minister of Education Dr Hamad Al-Sheikh said yesterday that a new Law of Universities was approved by the Council of Ministers to allow for what has been described as “remarkable qualitative changes in the Kingdom’s higher education sector.”
Speaking about the new law, Al-Sheikh said that it would bring about a qualitative leap in the progress made by Saudi universities. “It would also be instrumental in raising the efficiency of spending, developing financial resources and human capabilities for universities in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.”…”
Abused Bangladeshi housemaids struggle for justice at home
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191030-abused-bangladeshi-housemaids-struggle-for-justice-at-home/
“Traumatised Bangladeshi women who return home after being tortured and abused working in the Middle East rarely get justice because brokers intimidate them and they cannot afford legal aid, a rights group said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
In interviews with 110 returnees, 86% did not receive their full salaries, 61% were physically abused, 24% were deprived of food and 14% were sexually abused, local migrant rights group Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program (OKUP) found…”
Morocco’s CTM Denies Issuing Discriminatory Notice Against Sub-Saharan Immigrants
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/10/285716/moroccos-ctm-discriminatory-sub-saharan-immigrants/
“CTM, a popular transportation company in Morocco, has denied reports of a recent move by the company to prevent “undocumented Africans” from travelling onboard its buses to a number of destinations across Morocco.
“Following instructions from authorities+, it is strictly forbidden to sell CTM tickets to Africans who have no Moroccan residency permit,” read a statement that made the rounds yesterday on social media.
The statement, allegedly issued by CTM, appeared to put all “Africans” living in Morocco in the same prejudiced basket of Europe-hungry migrants…”
Moroccans Call on Foreign Minister to Stop Schengen Visa Delays
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/10/285708/moroccans-foreign-minister-schengen-visa/
“The complicated procedure Moroccans face to obtain the visa Schengen has led to the signing of an international petition, reported Arabic speaking newspaper Al Massae on October 29.
Signatories Sent the petition to the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nacer Bourita, France’s ambassador to Morocco Helene Le Gal, and the Spanish ambassador to Morocco, Ricardo Diez Rodriguez, demanding an immediate intervention to end the frustrating situation.
According to the petition, Moroccans applying for Schengen zone visas are often forced to wait over three months to retrieve their passports. The petition also complains about centers repeatedly postponing appointments and the amount of paperwork involved in the applications.
All applicants, from, university professors, executives, or journalists, to professional sportsmen, or officials experience the same issues while trying to obtain a visa…”
Police Arrest 111 Suspects for Alleged Irregular Migration in Oujda
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/10/285694/police-arrest-111-suspects-for-alleged-irregular-migration-in-oujda/
“Judiciary police of the city of Oujda, eastern Morocco arrested 111 suspects for irregular migration on the morning of Tuesday, October 29. The migrants all originate from sub-Saharan African countries and allegedly intended to cross the Mediterranean.
The group included 27 women, six minors, and five infants.
Investigations conducted by the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) led to the arrest of a 35-year-old woman, suspected of hosting irregular migrants in a rented apartment. Police also made arrests as part of an operation to dismantle the human trafficking network.
The operation is in line with the DGSN’s aims to control irregular migration.
Morocco, thanks to its geographic location, is a major irregular migration hub for people seeking to reach Europe. In August, Morocco’s government announced that authorities aborted 57,000 irregular migration attempts in 2019.
In September, police in Oujda dismantled a criminal network involved in irregular migration. Police arrested two Moroccan women and 90 sub-Saharan nationals. The list of migrants included seven women and 15 minors.”
3 terrorists ‘neutralized’ in Turkey
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/3-terrorists-neutralized-in-turkey/1630935
“Turkish gendarmes “neutralized” three armed YPG/PKK terrorists in the country’s east and southeast, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
According to a ministry statement, Turkish gendarmes neutralized two armed YPG/PKK terrorists during an air-assisted operation in the rural area of eastern Mus province.
The ministry said an armed terrorist was also “neutralized” during an anti-terror operation in the rural area of southeastern Diyarbakir province.
Turkish authorities often use the term “neutralized” in their statements to imply terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
According to the Interior Ministry’s statement, the internal security operations that were launched by the Provincial Gendarmerie Commands in Mus and Diyarbakir are still in progress in both regions.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including many women, children, and infants.”
Migrants disembark from Ocean Viking after 12 days at sea
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/10/30/migrants-disembark-from-ocean-viking-after-12-days-at-sea_7db515de-2877-4841-90f3-92b98753b4b0.html
“Over 100 asylum seekers picked up in the Mediterranean by the NGO-run search-and-rescue ship Ocean Viking were able to disembark in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on Wednesday. “The #OceanViking docked in the port of Pozzallo, Italy,” said the SOS Mediterranee NGO. “After more than 12 days of uncertainty at sea, 104 survivors can finally disembark in a place of safety”.
The interior ministry gave the OK for the ship to dock after France and Germany agreed to receive 70 of the asylum seekers.
The migrants include 41 minors, 14 of whom are under 15.
The migrants were taken to the hotspot at Pozzallo.
Two pregnant women and two children, aged three year and 15 months, were taken to hospital at Modica.
In all, the migrants were 55 men, 12 women and 47 minors of whom 31 unaccompanied.”
Di Maio says Turkey is a risk to security, moots Assad talks
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/10/30/di-maio-says-turkeys-a-risk-to-security-moots-assad-talks_725dc652-5376-45a1-aa83-79e9908a6a4c.html
“Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio blasted Turkey as a danger to Europe as he reported to parliament on the situation in Syria on Wednesday and mooted the idea of talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “Turkey’s aggression puts the security of Italy and the whole EU at risk because foreign fighters could regain freedom and they are already doing so,” 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Di Maio told the Senate when asked about Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria. “The Turkish aggression is unjustified and seeks to accomplish an unacceptable act of ethnic engineering”.
He also addressed the issue of possible talks with Assad.
“I think the time is right to make a tiny step forward on the issue of whether or not to talk to Assad,” he said.”
Man arrested for stalking 17-yr-old girl
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/10/30/man-arrested-for-stalking-17-yr-old-girl_62062705-4bd1-470d-b085-22fde9f74103.html
“A 22-year-old Tunisian-Italian was arrested Wednesday for allegedly stalking his 17-year-old ex girlfriend for four months.
The man committed at least seven episodes of violence and threats, police said.”
Germany: Asylum-seeker found dead in prison had ‘bones fractured’ before death
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-asylum-seeker-found-dead-in-prison-had-bones-fractured-before-death/a-51031190
“A new medical report into the death of asylum-seeker Oury Jalloh while in detention suggests he sustained significant injuries before his burnt body was found in a German prison cell in 2005…”
Why’d it take so long to release that report?
Germany announces plans to combat far-right extremism and online hate speech
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-announces-plans-to-combat-far-right-extremism-and-online-hate-speech/a-51049129
“After the deadly attack on a synagogue and killing of a politician, the German government has set out its new measures to tackle far-right extremist violence. Opposition politicians say the plans are long overdue.
Tightening of gun laws, more protection for political figures at all levels and an obligation to report online criminal content for social media networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter: those were just some of the measures announced by the German government on Wednesday as part of a new strategy which aims to combat far-right extremism and hate speech on the internet.
For more than a year, Germany’s Interior and Justice Ministries have wrangled over the new bill, but recent far-right extremist violence in Germany resulted in the German Cabinet upping the tempo and hashing out a new packet months earlier than planned.
In June, pro-refugee regional official Walter Lübcke was gunned down at his home in central Germany by a right-wing extremist. Just three weeks ago, a heavily armed man killed two people after trying and failing to carry out a mass shooting in the local synagogue in the eastern city of Halle.
Investigations into the suspect of the Halle attack have found that 27-year-old Stephan B. had often visited websites which circulated anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
‘Actions, not just words’
After the terrorist attack in Halle, it was important that the “government’s words were followed by actions,” German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) said on Wednesday.
Similarly, Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) said the German government “is confronting right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism by all means enabled by of the rule of law.”
“What the disinhibition and unleashing of hatred in the net can lead to was shown again in the terrible attack on the Jewish community in Halle,” she added.
Several new measures are included in the new package which will see Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, taking on a more prominent role in the monitoring and prosecution of hate online.
What’s included in the new measures?
– According to the package, online service providers such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will be obliged to report hate speech to German authorities, and also pass on the IP address of the conspicuous user. Until now, such social media giants have only been required to delete hate speech within a certain time period.
– Gun laws will be tightened, with each request for a weapons permit to be checked by the BfV.
– Existing prevention programs that aim to tackle right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism, racism and enmity towards any targeted group will be developed and financing “maintained at a high level.”
– While local politicians will be afforded the same special protection against defamation and slander as state and federal politicians, attacks against paramedics and emergency medical professionals will be treated in the same way as resistance against enforcement officers. Legal changes will also make it easier for people threatened by far-right extremist violence to block access to their private email address.
Opposition demanding more
Already on Wednesday, opposition politicians were voicing their skepticism over how the obligation to report hate would be implemented. Konstantin von Notz, a Green Party politician who serves as the party’s internet policy spokesperson, told Deutschlandfunk radio that the online “big players” have so far been dealt with “very mildly,” adding that financial penalties for not reporting and deleting hate speech should be in the “high tens and hundreds of millions.”
“Otherwise you won’t be able to hold these companies to account…This is the only lever you can use to deal with corporations that follow an economic, stock company logic,” von Notz said, adding that the measures were “long overdue.”
The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the new measures. “Obligating sites to disclose information will not effectively combat hate crime,” said FDP politican Benjamin Strasser.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Data Protection Commission said it will be observing the developments closely as Wednesday’s proposals move toward becoming law.
“At this point it’s too early to say whether this is good or bad,” commission spokesperson Dirk Hensel told DW. “But there will certainly be questions to be asked regarding the ethics of private companies deeming what counts as a conspicuous post on social media.”
Complications could also arise if a referral turns out to be a mistake, by which point private data will already have been shared between private companies and German domestic intelligence.”
French move to extend ban on religious symbols sparks fears of ‘radical’ secularism
https://www.france24.com/en/20191030-french-move-to-extend-ban-on-wearing-religious-symbols-sparks-fears-of-radical-secularism
“Weeks after a far-right politician unleashed controversy by asking a woman accompanying children to remove her veil, the Senate on Tuesday approved an amendment that would extend a ban on wearing religious symbols to those supervising school trips. Some say French secularism is becoming too extreme, while others believe it is being used to shroud Islamophobia.
France’s Senate on Tuesday approved an amendment that would extend a controversial 2004 law banning people from wearing overt religious symbols – including the Islamic veil, the Jewish kippah and large Christian crosses – to the adults accompanying children on school trips. The law currently prohibits such symbols from being worn in all public institutions including schools, libraries and government buildings.
The latest amendment was proposed and voted through by a Les Républicains majority in the Senate in a latest sign that the conservative party of Nicolas Sarkozy is shifting further right. President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche party is firmly opposed to the bill and enjoys an overwhelming majority in the lower chamber (National Assembly) so it is unlikely to pass into law. But the proposal has relaunched a debate that has roiled France for more than 15 years.
The amendment was first proposed in July, but it captured public attention in mid-October when a councillor from the far-right Rassemblement National party (National Rally, formerly the Front National), Julien Odoul, released a video of himself confronting a woman attending a regional assembly meeting with a group of schoolchildren. In the video, Odoul demands that she remove her Islamic veil “in the name of laïcité” (secularism) – an ideal that is an integral part of France’s national values.
‘Legal but not necessarily desirable’
As Odoul’s video went viral on social media, his actions drew varied responses from Macron’s party. Marlène Schiappa, the minister for gender equality, wrote on Twitter that “it is by publicly humiliating mothers in front of their children that we create divisions” in French society, noting that the veiled woman was with her own child, who started to cry when Odoul demanded that she take off her veil.
“Who does he think he is, stigmatising someone who is accompanying children on a school trip?” the government’s official spokesperson, Sibeth Ndiaye, told France 3 television.
Some senior cabinet members framed the issue differently, arguing that wearing a headscarf while supervising schoolchildren is no crime – but that it should not be encouraged. Wearing the veil in such situations “is legal, but not necessarily desirable”, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told radio station France Info.
“The law does not prohibit veiled women from accompanying children, but we do not wish to encourage the phenomenon”, which is “not in agreement with our values”, Jean-Michel Blanquer, the education minister, told BFMTV.
Macron seemed reluctant to enter the fray, staying silent on the issue until he told an audience at the opening of the European Judaism Centre on Tuesday in Paris that “those who want to sow hatred and division” sometimes use the principle of secularism to “target particular religions”.
But the president appeared to balance those remarks by telling the socially conservative magazine “Valeurs Actuelles” (Real Values) in an interview published Wednesday that while he remained opposed to the Senate’s latest bill he would fight against all forms of “communitarianism” – referring to a form of self-segregation among immigrants that France feels is antithetical to successful integration.
While for Les Républicains the proposal to ban the veil on school trips is part of a “desperate search for traction”, Macron finds himself “trapped between his own desire not to talk about it and the fact that laïcité has become such an important value for many voters”, said Emile Chabal, a specialist in French politics and modern history at Edinburgh University.
Moreover, Macron’s moves reflect his tendency to “look to the right as opposed to the left when the going gets tough”, Chabal said.
Culture wars
It may seem strange to associate secularism with the right when the concept has traditionally been identified with the left. The idea originated in the totemic 1905 law on the separation of church and state, which was driven through by a staunchly secularist left-wing government after France’s decades-long struggle for ascendancy between the Catholic right and anti-clerical left.
Ever since 1989, when France experienced its first such media storm over the “Headscarf Affair” – in which three Muslim girls refused to attend school because their principal’s insistence that they not wear the veil – “the never-ending public controversies over laïcité have been incited through the sense of culture wars propagated by the right, and especially the far-right”, said Itay Lotem, a lecturer in French studies at the University of Westminster.
For Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen, who has sought to rehabilitate the far-right party since she took its helm in 2011, “fights over laïcité are the gift that keeps on giving”, Lotem said. Such debates “allow people to express Islamophobia without resorting to language that can be easily dismissed as racist”.
In this context, “the changing focus of debates on Muslim headscarves – from pupils to women who wear burkini to go swimming and then over to mothers who perform a benevolent service [for] their children’s classes – also reflects a growing radicalisation of the laïcité argument”.
Despite its appropriation by populist nationalists, the “political and intellectual classes” remain “very much attached to the concept of laïcité”, said David Lees, a French politics expert at Warwick University. This, in turn, has “translated into a lack of clear and consistent challenging of the extreme-right’s narrative around Islam and French society”.
At the same time, “the French as a whole” tend to see laïcité as “part of their national identity”, Lees noted. This means that such measures as the ban on wearing religious symbols during school trips “inevitably garner support for the right and extreme-right – and the centre-left and centre have tended simply to follow this path without really asking any difficult questions”. “
Swedish police alarmed by the rise of Nigerian ‘death cult’ gang kidnapping victims with help of VOODOO MAGIC
https://www.rt.com/news/472253-sweden-nigerian-death-cult-gang/
“A criminal gang notorious for its brutality is gaining a foothold in major Swedish cities, police have warned. The drug-traffickers and people-smugglers from Nigeria are known for using “black magic” to coerce people into crime.
The ‘Black Axe’ – a group described as nothing but a ‘death cult’ that kills, kidnaps, resolves internal conflicts with machete fights and uses voodoo as an instrument of blackmail – has firmly established itself in Sweden and is now coming to the city of Uppsala in the latest concerning development, local police have said.
“Unfortunately, we see signs of that,” Jale Poljarevius, a local police spokesman told the Swedish SVT broadcaster. So far, it is mostly about drug trafficking and prostitution – yet, the “black magic” footprint of the gang is already clearly visible.
“They are holding women hostage and are tricking them [into believing] through the use of voodoo that it will end up badly for them if they quit the job,” Poljarevius said. “Yet, it is also about selling cocaine and heroin.”
Now, the police fear that the group’s rise in the city would lead to a wave of gang violence, as it will have to fight for its place in the sun in an already extremely crowded criminal environment. “There is a lot of cocaine but not so many users so the market is quite saturated. It would lead to violence rather than cooperation,” the police spokesman said.
Network of evil
Uppsala appears to be just the latest battleground for the gang that has already entrenched itself in other major cities like Gothenburg, or Sweden’s capital of Stockholm. In early October, the Swedish media reported that 15 people linked to the dreaded mafia have been charged with “particularly serious drug offenses” in what was described as one of the Swedish Customs Administration’s “largest investigations ever.”
A 179-page lawsuit filed with the Gothenburg District Court says that “the organization is estimated to have sold drugs worth a total of 112 million Swedish Krona ($11.51 million) … amounting to approximately 42 kilograms of cocaine, 50 kilograms of heroin and 40 kilograms of heroin/cocaine mix,” Expressen newspaper reports.
Around the same time, the Swedish prosecutors admitted that the group has also long been active in Stockholm. “They have really heavily established themselves over the past five years,” a local police spokesman Lennart Karlsson, told the Ekot newspaper.
The gang lures migrants from West Africa with a promise of jobs only to drag them into criminal activities afterwards. According to police, they particularly use a Stockholm mosque frequented by the people of West African origin for recruitment purposes. “People … [are] told to come there and get contacts to get a job. The Black Axe members hang out outside and [recruit] them,” Karlsoon explains.
In their methods, the criminals heavily rely on juju – a Nigerian version of the voodoo magic – as they perform rituals and then convince their exploitation victims – mostly migrants – that the gang would “obliterate their souls” should they disobey orders or report its members to police. But they do not shy away from more “traditional” blackmail methods involving kidnappings and killings.
In early September, a man of Nigerian origin was arrested in Stockholm’s Arlanda airport as he tried to smuggle 70 capsules of heroin and cocaine in his body. He told the investigators that he was forced to act as a drug courier by the Black Axe after they killed his father and threatened to also kill his mother in his native Nigeria.
“They threaten but we also know that they simply murder people. However, there is no indication that this happened in Sweden. Yet, it did happen in their home country [Nigeria] and in other countries where the network is established,” Prosecutor Karolina Lindekrantz told the Swedish media.
Arrived on refugee wave
Over the years, the Black Axe has evolved into an international crime syndicate that challenges law and order across the world from Europe to Canada, where the group has held an iron grip on the local Nigerian community since after 2005, and runs large-scale smuggling operations as well as millions of dollars-worth money laundering and fraud schemes.
However, the gang’s taking root in Europe is relatively recent. Stemming from a nationalist student movement that turned into a ruthless organized group after the 1980 military coup in Nigeria, the group gained power through terror tactics in that and other nations – but did not gain a foothold in the EU until 2015.
Then, at the height of the refugee and migrant crisis, Black Axe members arrived to Sicily and engaged in a turf war with the notorious Cosa Nostra mafia – only to start collaborating with it soon afterwards. From there, the gang spread its influence in other European countries, including Austria and the Netherlands.
Now Swedish media describes it as a business-like, tech-savvy organization, excelling at modern technologies and keeping a low profile to stay largely below the police radar.
“In my opinion, it is one of the world’s most effective crime syndicates,” Stockholm police spokesman Karlsoon has admitted. “So, unfortunately for us, they [will] probably have a pretty bright future.””
Black Axe are alive and well in Canada.
Canadians who help build The Wall on our northern border can jump to the head of the skilled-labor visa/green-card queue.