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.
Swedish man forced on his knees by immigrant with gun in Örebro:
https://twitter.com/SamnyttSimon/status/1188422161058402304
More context here:
https://samnytt.se/video-invandrare-mordhotar-och-tvingar-ned-svensk-kille-kna/
Seems to be a roadrage incident.
Protester Shot, But Hong Kong Govt Keeps Making It Worse
Hong Kong police suspect weapons like petrol bombs are being made on university campuses
Hong Kong Protesters Clash With Police Again, Schools Close
Student protesters hunker down at Hong Kong campuses in anticipation of clashes with police
Crowds return to Hong Kong’s financial centre for another lunchtime protest
Hong Kong wakes up to fourth consecutive day of protest disorder and stand-offs
Hong Kong to shut all schools on Nov 14 as protests cripple city
Battlegrounds across Hong Kong as protesters face off with police
avelins and arrows: HK protesters take up arms
Taiwan’s tourism industry affected by China’s ban on individual travel permits
Ep. 1109 This Impeachment Farce is a National Disgrace. The Dan Bongino Show 11/13/2019.
#50 How Bolivia Overthrew Evo Morales—Was it a Coup? | Jhanisse Vaca-Daza
UN says G5 Sahel needs more support to battle terrorism, as Macron signals force revamp
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/11/13/un-guterres-g5-sahel-joint-force-support-terrorism-macron/
“The G5 Sahel Joint Force faces persistent training and equipment shortfalls at a time of spiralling violence in the battle against militant Islamist groups in the region, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday, November 12.
The report, submitted to the U.N. Security Council by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, came as the European Union’s diplomatic chief said the bloc will increase its presence and the level of support it gives to its partners fighting terrorism in the troubled Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa. And later on Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to soon take decisions on how France can help tackle violence in the Sahel, and signalled a revamp of the regional force.
Spearheaded by France and launched in 2017, the G5 Sahel Joint Force (FCG5S) is a planned 4,500-strong joint counter-terrorism force comprising troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Mauritania, but the initiative has been undermined by lack of training, poor equipment and a shortage of funds.
“To fully play its role and yield more tangible results, the Joint Force will need more support,” Guterres said in the report which covers the period between May and October 2019.
Sahel security deteriorates
“The security situation continued to deteriorate across the Sahel region, with attacks by terrorist groups against civilians and security forces and persistent violence along community lines,” Guterres said.
Terrorist groups have strengthened their foothold across the Sahel, destabilising large swaths of territory and stoking ethnic violence, in Mali and Burkina Faso in particular, he said.
Many armed groups are active in the Sahel region, including Islamic State-affiliated groups, but the majority of attacks are attributed to JNIM, which formed in March 2017 from a merger of several smaller groups including the Sahara branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine and al-Mourabitoun. JNIM’s leadership has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
“I remain deeply concerned about the spiralling violence in the Sahel, which has spread to coastal States of West Africa, along the Gulf of Guinea,” Guterres said. He had warned in July of a potential expansion of West African insurgency towards Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Ivory Coast.
Since January more than 1,500 civilians have been killed in Burkina Faso and Mali, and more than one million people have been internally displaced across the five countries – more than twice the number displaced in 2018.
“Burkina Faso experienced the most significant rise in internal displacement, with more than 486,000 displaced persons compared with 80,000 people in 2018,” Guterres said. Access has become increasingly difficult, but 12 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Lack of funding hinders G5 Sahel
“The Joint Force continues to face significant training, capability and equipment shortfalls, which hamper its full operationalization,” Guterres said in the report. “The lack of air assets, armoured vehicles and transport capabilities and individual protection equipment compounds the threat posed by the use of improvised explosive devices.”
In July the European Union announced €138 million in additional funding for the force, having previously given €115.6 million, but despite pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support for FCG5S from international donors, funds have been slow to arrive.
Citing the European Union coordination hub, the report said that of the more than €430 million pledged, equipment worth €56 million has been delivered to date.
In July 2018, E.U. said it would finance the construction of a new FCG5S headquarters in Mali’s capital Bamako, after a complex JNIM bomb and gun attack on its previous base in Sevare. But the report notes that a permanent location has yet to be identified, and that following protests, the temporary headquarters was moved in June and again in September.
Guterres has long-called for regular U.N. funding for the force, but the U.S. has pushed back against direct funding, preferring instead bilateral funding for individual states.
The report notes that the U.S. “provided equipment and training to troops operating under the Joint Force, including $15 million to the armed forces of Chad, $15 million to Mauritania and $21 million to the Niger.”
A State Department official told The Defense Post last week that, using funding for financial years 2017 and 2018, “the U.S. obligated approximately $242 million in bilateral security assistance to the G5 countries, of which $111 million is going directly to G5-designated forces of each country.”
The G5 Sahel leaders have repeatedly called for a mandate under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter – measures which could authorize the use of sanctions or military intervention in situations where peace and security is threatened.
President Mahamadou Issoufou said in July that Niger will use its position as a non-permanent member of the Security Council from 2020 to push for U.N. funding for the Joint Force.
“Failing that, what we are proposing is that there should be an international coalition of countries to fight terrorism in the Sahel, just as there was a coalition against Daesh in the Middle East,” he said.
Previously in May, Burkina Faso called for an international coalition to tackle terrorism in the Sahel.
Guterres said he was “particularly encouraged by the commitment made” by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at their September 14 Extraordinary Summit on Counter-Terrorism, saying it “illustrates a willingness to take ownership and address the challenges facing their countries.”
ECOWAS leaders decided to mobilize “up to a billion dollars for the fight against terrorism,” Issoufou said after the meeting. The money, paid into a common fund from 2020 to 2024, will help reinforce the military operations of the nations involved, and those of the joint military operations in the region.
Slow operationalization
The report period “was marked by low-intensity activity” by the Sahel force due to the rainy season “and the impact of persistent equipment and training shortfalls on its operations,” Guterres said.
It noted two FCG5S operations conducted: Operation Dessi 2 between May 25 and June 8 in the border area between Burkina Faso and Niger; and Operation Ça’igha 2 between June 18 and 25 in the border area between Mali and Mauritania.
“More activities may have been undertaken by units operating under the Joint Force,” the report said, pointing to operations in September and October in the tri-border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger when arms and ammunition were seized, and in the border area between Chad and Niger in which five suspected terrorists were arrested .
But, “there was no official communication” and these activities “were not reflected in the information received through the coordination mechanisms and other channels.”
But Gutteres said he was “encouraged by the comprehensive request received from the Force for all battalions, which illustrates readiness on the part of the Force to step up operations in the near future.”
At full operating capacity, the force will have seven battalions spread over three border zones, each covering a strip 50 km (30 miles) wide on both sides of the border. It is also expected that a counter-terrorism brigade will be deployed in northern Mali.
Macron signals G5 Sahel force revamp
“The Joint Force remains an important part of a series of national, regional and international security responses in the Sahel,” Guterres said.
“The responsibility to combat terrorism cannot be outsourced to the G5 Sahel countries, the region or the continent,” he added, saying that “the entire international community has a responsibility to contribute to the collective effort of tackling extremist violence.”
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday pledged to take decisions “in the coming weeks” on how France can help tackle violence in the Sahel.
He said progress had been made “on the security situation” and decisions would be announced on revamping the G5 Sahel Joint Force.
Following talks with his counterparts from Chad, Niger and Mali, Macron said France was “confirming and consolidating its commitment” to its military role in the region, and that additional military resources would be forthcoming by early next year.
On November 5, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said that France expects a new international special operations task force to deploy in Mali by 2020 to help train local troops. Around a dozen countries have been approached to join the unit, named “Takuba,” which means “sabre” in the Tuareg language.
The French plans for a new Sahel task force were first reported in early October. The aim is to improve basic training for Sahelien military forces, beginning with Mali, freeing up personnel from its Operation Barkhane mission, enabling them to focus on pursuing insurgents and preventing attacks.
Macron’s comments come just days ahead of a key counter-terrorism summit – at the request of France, members of the U.S.-led Global Coalition Against ISIS will meet in Washington on November 14. The meeting comes after U.S. officials said in August that the U.S. will seek additional contributions from the Global Coalition Against ISIS to combat the group and its affiliates in Africa.
Long-standing Sahel insurgency
Among topics Macron discussed with his Sahel counterparts was the northeastern Mali flashpoint of Kidal, a rebel-held town mainly ruled by Tuareg separatists since the 2012 rebellion which he said needed to be brought visibly under state control.
The 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state was exploited by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda who took key cities in Mali’s desert north.
France began its Operation Serval military intervention in its former colony early the next year, driving the jihadists from the towns, and the MINUSMA peacekeeping force was then established.
But the militant groups have morphed into more nimble formations operating in rural areas, and the insurgency has gradually spread to central and southern regions of Mali and across the borders into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Large swathes of Mali remain outside government control, and inter-ethnic bloodshed is a regular occurrence.
The Serval mission evolved in August 2014 into Operation Barkhane, and roughly 4,500 French troops are deployed in the region, including around 2,700 soldiers in Mali.
But Barkhane has a growing international dimension, with European partners sending more troops and equipment. Denmark is to send two helicopters and up to 70 troops to support Barkhane in December and Estonia is to almost double the size of its Barkhane contingent in 2020. Chinook helicopters from the United Kingdom currently support the operation.
Operation Barkhane focuses activity in insurgent-hit Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and troops work alongside other international operations, including the the G5 Sahel Joint Force and the roughly 14,000-strong MINUSMA U.N. stabilization mission in Mali.”
EU to ‘increase presence and improve support’ for Sahel partners fighting terrorism
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/11/13/eu-support-sahel-terrorism-mali/
“The European Union will increase its presence and the level of support to its partners fighting terrorism in the troubled Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, the bloc’s diplomatic chief said on Tuesday, November 12.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Defense Formation, the outgoing High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that ministers discussed E.U. missions and operations, but that the focus of the meeting “was put on our African missions, in particular in the Sahel.”
“We have 16 missions and operations currently ongoing under the E.U. flag, with more than 5,000 men and women in uniform serving the European Union,” Mogherini said.
She said that member states had agreed with her call to ensure that E.U. missions and operations have adequate human and financial resources to fulfil their mandates.
“We have decided to increase our presence and improve the level of support we are giving to our Sahel partners,” Mogherini said. “This is an investment in European Union security, both in terms of fighting terrorism but also organized crime.”
Noting that there was no detailed discussion and no decisions were taken, Mogherini said that member states agreed to “step up their efforts and their presence to support security forces, and also their political and diplomatic efforts in the Sahel, especially in Mali.”
“There will be more coordination between the different manifestations of the E.U. there,” she added.
The ministers also “discussed the need to improve our increase in our presence and our work in the Horn of Africa,” Mogherini said, noting that the Operation Atalanta maritime mission which has been successfully focusing on anti-piracy measures “might now need to refocus also on other maritime security challenges, but that is for discussion for the ministers for the months to come.”
Mogherini’s comments come just days ahead of a key counter-terrorism summit – at the request of France, members of the U.S.-led Global Coalition Against ISIS will meet in Washington on November 14. The meeting comes after U.S. officials said in August that the U.S. will seek additional contributions from the Global Coalition Against ISIS to combat the group and its affiliates in Africa.
The E.U. dedicates significant resources to development in the Sahel, but the key on-the-ground contribution to defense and security is European Union Training Mission – Mali, which has a mandate until May 2020 and costs around €20 million ($22 million) per year to maintain.
Around 620 troops from 22 member states and five non-E.U. states work with the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa), and around 14,000 FAMa personnel have been trained since the mission was established in February 2013.
EUTM-Mali’s objectives are to improve FAMa capacity, contribute to the political and security stabilization of Mali, and support the restoration of state control over the whole country.
EUTM-Mali also works to support the operationalization of the G5 Sahel Joint Force (FCG5S) through dedicated advice and training. Launched in 2017, the planned 4,500-strong joint counter-terrorism force comprises troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania.
At full operating capacity, the G5 Sahel force will have seven battalions spread over three border zones, each covering a strip 50 km (30 miles) wide on both sides of the border. It is also expected that a counter-terrorism brigade will be deployed in northern Mali.
France spearheaded the G5 Sahel initiative, but it has been undermined by lack of training, poor equipment and a shortage of funds.
Despite international pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support for FCG5S, funds have been slow to arrive. In July the European Union announced €138 million in additional funding for the force, having previously given a total of €115.6 million. In July 2018, E.U. said it would finance the construction of a new FCG5S headquarters in Mali.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has long-called for regular U.N. funding for the force, but the U.S. has pushed back against direct funding, preferring instead bilateral funding for individual states.
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday pledged to take decisions “in the coming weeks” on how France can help tackle violence in the Sahel.
He said progress had been made “on the security situation” and decisions would be announced on revamping the G5 Sahel Joint Force.
Following talks with his counterparts from Chad, Niger and Mali – Idriss Deby, Mahamadou Issoufou and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita – Macron said France was “confirming and consolidating its commitment” to its military role in the region, and that more military resources would be forthcoming by early next year.
France-led Operation Barkhane gains international support
In 2012 a Tuareg separatist uprising against the state was exploited by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda who took key cities in Mali’s desert north.
France began its Operation Serval military intervention in its former colony early the next year, driving the jihadists from the towns, and the MINUSMA peacekeeping force was then established.
But the militant groups have morphed into more nimble formations operating in rural areas, and the insurgency has gradually spread to central and southern regions of Mali and across the borders into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Large swathes of Mali remain outside government control, and inter-ethnic bloodshed is a regular occurrence.
The Serval mission evolved in August 2014 into Operation Barkhane, and roughly 4,500 French troops are deployed in the region, including around 2,700 soldiers in Mali.
But Barkhane has a growing international dimension, with European partners sending more troops and equipment. Denmark is to send two helicopters and up to 70 troops to support Barkhane in December and Estonia is to almost double the size of its Barkhane contingent in 2020. Chinook helicopters from the United Kingdom currently support the operation.
Operation Barkhane focuses activity in insurgent-hit Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and troops work alongside other international operations, including the the G5 Sahel Joint Force and the roughly 14,000-strong MINUSMA U.N. stabilization mission in Mali.
On November 5, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said that France expects a new international special operations task force to deploy in Mali by 2020 to help train local troops. Around a dozen countries have been approached to join the unit, named “Takuba,” which means “sabre” in the Tuareg language.
The French plans for a new Sahel task force were first reported in early October. The aim is to improve basic training for Sahelien military forces, beginning with Mali, freeing up Barkhane personnel and enabling them to focus on pursuing insurgents and preventing attacks.
Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Sahel
Many armed groups are active in Mali and the wider Sahel region, including Islamic State-affiliated groups, but the majority of attacks are attributed to JNIM, which formed in March 2017 from a merger of several smaller groups including the Sahara branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine and al-Mourabitoun. JNIM’s leadership has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
JNIM regularly reinforces its opposition to “occupier” France, and in September warned the G5 Sahel governments that attacks against their forces would continue while they support the Operation Barkhane force.
That threat was underscored in late September, when at least 40 Malian soldiers were killed in simultaneous raids claimed by JNIM in Boulkessi and Mondoro, near central Mali’s border with Burkina Faso, one of the deadliest attacks against Mali’s military in recent insurgent violence. The troops were from a battalion under FCG5S command.
Islamic State claimed two significant attacks in Mali earlier this month, saying its fighters were responsible for an attack on a military base in Indelimane that killed at least 49 people, and for a roadside bomb blast that killed a French soldier between Gao and Menaka the following day. ISIS said that attack was also in the Indelimane area.”
SDF secures ‘ticking time-bomb’ ISIS prisoners in Syria against alarming odds
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/11/13/isis-prisoners-syria-sdf/
“The Syrian Democratic Forces is struggling to secure thousands of Islamic State adherents languishing in prisons across northeast Syria, a situation made worse by the Turkey-led invasion last month that has overwhelmed the supply lines and forced the redeployment of guards to the front lines.
During a visit to a detention facility for ISIS prisoners on Tuesday, November 12, a small contingent of guards kept watch over hundreds of men crammed into large rooms. The prisoners are wearing orange jumpsuits indistinguishable from the ones they forced captives to wear before executions that were broadcast on social media. Two thousand of them are sick of wounded, according to the prison warden, Hussein, yet he says they are still dangerous men.
In another area of the prison, the guards cautioned us not get our faces near a small opening in a secure door. We could take pictures, they said, but these men were the ones who attacked a few months ago, and they were dangerous. In that incident, one man pretended to be dead and others rushed the guards when they went to retrieve the body. Ten men escaped the cell but not the prison, they said.
Prisoners were able to overwhelm the guards because the SDF had redeployed some of the guards miles away to the front lines when the Turkish military and affiliated rebels fighting under the banner of the Syrian National Army invaded northeast Syria on October 9.
The SDF was ill-prepared for the invasion because they had a relationship with their Coalition partners that was based on trust and a mutual understanding: the SDF and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) contingent would fight ISIS and keep watch over captured fighters and their families, and the U.S. would keep troops at the border to deter Turkey.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had for months been threatening to invade the area in order to oust the predominately Kurdish YPG, which Ankara considers inextricably linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. Some senior SDF figures are former PKK, but the YPG was nonetheless the Coalition’s best hope to destroy ISIS, which once controlled an area the side of Great Britain across Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Despite the coordination between the SDF and the Coalition on the ground, two staff members told us there is no money from the Americans for the detention center.
The prison was put together about four months ago and holds 5,000 men, including 3,700 captured in Baghuz, where ISIS made its last stand in Syria seven months ago. The others are from battles in Raqqa, Tabqa and Manbij. Their wives and children are held in camps nearby, but most of the men say they don’t know where.
The situation in these facilities is not sustainable, and the Islamic State gestated in prisons like this. A senior U.S. State Department official on Monday said “it is a ticking time bomb to simply have the better part of 10,000 detainees, many of them foreign fighters, and tens of thousands of family members in a situation that is not all that secure.”
The ISIS prisoners are in an information blackout, so they aren’t supposed to know about the incursion, or that their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed on October 27. Nonetheless, one man told The Defense Post that the prisoners began to feel hope again “about a month ago.”
“That’s when you [journalists] began showing up,” said the man, who identified himself as Bassem, originally from the Netherlands.
There are some indications the prisoners are coordinating their stories: two men told us they were given only a piece of bread and seven dates to eat every day – a claim we were later told was untrue, but had no other explanation for. Two also said the last time they saw their families was on February 26, the day they were captured near Baghuz.
The Defense Post agreed not to reveal the names or faces of any guards we met at the prison, or to give its exact location. We also agreed not to take photographs of the outside areas for security reasons, but guards said it had already been fired on, and another nearby site was attacked in a car bombing.
Putting more pressure on the security situation is the worsening humanitarian crisis: the prison needs about 2,000 liters of water a day. That used to be piped from wells in areas have become the front line of the war with Turkey. The wells were bombed and the line destroyed, so now the water has to be delivered. A tanker truck marked “drinking water” was parked outside when we arrived. Food is also a problem, and Hussein said some guards are buying food for the prisoners out of their own supplies.
People are also in desperate need of medical treatment. The stench from the few hundred men crammed into the meshfah, or clinic, is overwhelming. We spoke to a Syrian man and three foreign fighters through medical masks…..”
#Turkey will continue to send #ISIS militants back whether their countries like it or not, no concession on this policy and those countries who do not get out our way will have to bear consequences, says Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1194599192381014017
Lots more interesting stuff on that Twitter channel:
https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1194738072904196101
From the same person:
Erdo?an’s Pelican conspiracy in Turkey’s propaganda war
https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/04/30/opinion-erdogans-pelican-conspiracy-in-turkeys-propaganda-war/
[..]
the Turkish group secretly and relentlessly works behind the scenes to shape Turkish public opinion, disseminate false narratives, fuel all kinds of conspiracies, disparage the government’s opponents and manipulate government agencies according to the desires of one man, namely Erdo?an. The Pelican group complements the two other robust propaganda centers, namely the office of Erdogan, popularly known as “the Palace,” and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which are at the disposal of the Turkish president.
“Erdogan is guilty of genocide..Get the f*ck out of America”, shouts a man who pissed off at @RTErdogan’s coming to the US as he crashes live TV broadcast of #Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT from Washington DC.
https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1194674984876216321
Right on!
More from Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu:
Turkey says Germany, Netherlands agree to take back Islamic State detainees
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-turkey-islamic-state/turkey-says-germany-netherlands-agree-to-take-back-islamic-state-detainees-idUSKBN1XN1ED
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Wednesday that Germany and the Netherlands had agreed to take back German and Dutch Islamic State detainees and their families from Turkey, after Ankara started to repatriate the fighters this week.
On Monday, Turkey said it had deported two of the detainees, a German and an American, and added that it will deport another 23 European nationals in the coming days.
Turkey holds hundreds of Islamic State suspects in its jails and says it has captured another 287 during its military offensive in northeast Syria against Kurdish YPG fighters – an incursion which has further strained ties with its NATO allies.
“We have our own policy and we are implementing it without compromise. Those who want to step out of our way will, but those who don’t will face the consequences,” Soylu said in the southeastern province of Van on Wednesday.
“I would like to especially thank two countries here. One is Germany and the other the Netherlands,” he added. “As of last night, they have confirmed that they will take back terrorists from Daesh (Islamic State) who are citizens of their countries and their wives, children and all the others,” he said.
Turkey has said it will deport the detainees to Ireland, Germany, France and Denmark.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Tuesday that France would take back 11 suspected Islamic State members from Turkey. Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney also said that two Irish nationals set to be deported from Turkey had the right to return to Ireland.
On Monday, Greek police said that Turkish police came to the border post at the Greek town of Kasanies and requested that one of the detainees, a U.S. citizen of Arab descent, be admitted to Greece as he had been arrested for exceeding his stay in Turkey.
Greek police said that a check carried out in a database of Greek and cooperating countries did not find anything against him, and that the man has been refused entry to Greece and sent back to Turkey. Turkish state media said on Wednesday he was in the buffer zone between Turkey and Greece.
Turkey’s offensive against the YPG, U.S. partners in the battle against Islamic State in Syria, prompted concern that the detained Islamic State militants could break out and regroup amid the chaos.
Washington says that nearly all the 10,000 Islamic State suspects held by the SDF in Syria remain in captivity, but a senior U.S. State Department official described them on Tuesday as a “ticking time-bomb” and urged states to take back their citizens.
Qatar signs agreement to supply gas to China
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191113-qatar-signs-agreement-to-supply-gas-to-china/
“Qatar Petroleum (QP) has signed a ten-year agreement to supply 800,000 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) annually to China’s Wanhua Chemical Group, the company announced yesterday.
The company said that the agreement will go into effect starting January 2020 and last ten years…”
Sweden arrests man suspected of ties to Iran executions
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191113-sweden-arrests-man-suspected-of-ties-to-iran-executions/
“Swedish authorities arrested an Iranian citizen suspected of connections to the execution in 1988 of around 3,000 socialist prisoners in Iran, according to local media on Wednesday, Anadolu reports.
Citing security sources, Swedish media reported that a 58-year-old Iranian citizen was detained in Stockholm’s Arlanda airport.
The suspect was brought before a court and remanded in custody for “violating international law”.
Although the suspect was not officially named, some news outlets suggested he was former prosecutor Hamid Nouri.
The suspect’s lawyer, Lars Hultgren did not respond to questions, the local media added.
In 1988, the Iranian government cracked down on socialist and communist former allies against the Shah regime.
The process lasted for around five months and resulted in the execution of around 3,000 people from socialist and communist groups.
This arrest in Sweden is the first international case regarding those executions in Iran.”
Egypt, UAE among biggest buyers of German arms
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191113-egypt-uae-among-biggest-buyers-of-german-arms/
“Germany’s arms exports to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has significantly rose in the first half of this year despite the two countries’ involvement in the Yemen conflict, according to a report released on Wednesday, Anadolu reports.
Egypt has become the second biggest customer of the German weapons industry with €800 million ($880 million) in purchases, according to the government’s arms exports report for the first half of this year.
The UAE, another actor involved in the Yemen conflict, ranked sixth among the biggest customers, with Berlin approving the sale of more than €206 million (over $226 million) worth of arms exports to this country.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative-left coalition government promised last year to stop arms exports to countries intervening in Yemen’s civil war.
But the government has since attracted heavy criticism from the opposition as it continued arm deliveries to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE…”
Trump says Europe should be paying more to cover costs of Syrian refugees
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-trump-syria/trump-says-europe-should-be-paying-more-to-cover-costs-of-syrian-refugees-idUSKBN1XN2U1
“U.S. President Donald Trump said after talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that Europe should pay more to cover the costs related to Syrian refugees.
“I think that frankly Europe should be paying for this to a large extent. As of this moment Turkey’s been paying for most of it,” Trump said at a joint White House news conference with Erdogan.”
Morocco’s BCIJ Arrests ISIS-Linked Suspect in Southern Morocco
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/11/286729/morocco-bcij-isis-linked-suspect-southern-morocco/
“The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) arrested an ISIS-linked extremist on Tuesday, November 12, in the city of Guelmim, southern Morocco.
According to the BCIJ statement, investigations revealed that the terror suspect is promoting ISIS extremist ideology through electronic apps to “serve the agenda of this terrorist organization.”
The suspect’s brother is an ISIS fighter, currently operating in Syrian Iraqi conflict zones, the statement added.
The BCIJ agents seized several electronic devices, mobile phones, and electrical cables during the operation.
Police put the suspect in custody for further investigation…”
Security forces launch Operation K?ran-6 in eastern Turkey
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/security-forces-launch-operation-kiran-6-in-eastern-turkey-148641
“Turkey launched Operation K?ran-6 to eliminate terrorists in the country’s east, the Interior Ministry announced on Nov. 13.
The counter-terrorism operation is underway in the rural areas of Van, Hakkari, and ??rnak provinces, the ministry said in a statement.
A total of 2,360 police, gendarmerie, and village guards have joined the domestic operation.
On Aug. 17, Turkey launched Operation K?ran against PKK terrorists in Van, Hakkari, and ??rnak provinces, followed by the launch of Operation K?ran-2 on Aug. 27 in Mardin, ??rnakand Batman provinces.
The third phase of the operation was launched on Sept. 21 against terrorists in Bestler-Dereler and Herekol regions of ??rnak and Siirt provinces.
On Sept. 24, Turkey launched Operation Kiran-4 in the eastern Kars, A?r?, and I?d?r provinces.
Operation K?ran-5 was launched in the eastern Diyarbak?r, Bingol and Mu? provinces on Nov. 8.”
Italy must boost support for asylum system – EU court
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/11/13/italy-must-boost-support-for-asylum-system-eu-court_1327e8da-60d2-4d19-84c7-ba2a62a0abea.html
“Italy must boost support for its asylum system, the European Audit Court said Wednesday.
“Probably the support for the judicial authorities will become the most urgent need of the Italian asylum system,” it said.
Italy has “sufficient capacity to cope with the arrival of migrants,” the court said.
These arrivals had “dropped sharply”, it said.
It was also able to handle first-instance asylum requests, the court said.
But it was not able to cope with the high number of appeals, it said.
On average, the court said, it took “over four years for an asylum request filed in 2015 to reach the phase of final appeal”.
The court also said that the effect of relocation of migrants across the EU has only been “partial”.
Italy has faced waves of migrants from North Africa in recent years, but the flow has dropped recently.
The previous government banned NGO run migrant rescue ships from entering Italian waters.”
Migrant integration not enough for stay permit – court
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/11/13/migrant-integration-not-enough-for-stay-permit-court_c7e0d4ae-72cb-496d-a472-bea3bae7c7f3.html
“The supreme Court of Cassation on Wednesday ruled that in order to issue a stay permit for humanitarian reasons, the fact that a migrant is socially and economically integrated into Italian society is not enough, and credible evidence of human rights violations in the home country is also required.
The ruling affirms an appeal by the Italian interior ministry filed during Matteo Salvini’s tenure that maintained stay permits couldn’t be issued on the basis of integration alone, but that the “specific compromise” of human rights in the migrant’s country of origin must also be taken into consideration.”
Islamic State returnees ‘will not face arrest in Germany’
https://www.thelocal.de/20191113/isis-returnees-will-not-face-arrest-in-germany-sources
“Nine German nationals suspected of supporting the Islamic State group who are being deported from Turkey this week will not face immediate arrest when they return, German security sources said Wednesday…”
Woman seriously injured after bombing in Lund, Sweden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26tMZ4Mn5x4
I think it is this incident (in Swedish):
https://www.friatider.se/polisens-film-visar-n-r-bomboffret-i-lund-slungas-till-marken
C. Can you check your junk mail please to see if my emails are going in there?
I need the video of the train. When I went to go do it, the video had been taken down.
Thanks.
Greek coastguard rescues 48 migrants crossing the Aegean
The crew of the Greek coastguard patrol boat jumps to life as they pull 48 migrants out of a rubber dinghy in the sea off the island of Samos.
They will soon join the masses at the hugely overcrowded camp on Samos. Over 6,000 people currently live there, 10 times the camp’s nominal capacity.
Navarro: Trump is making sure China is dealt with
Joe diGenova: This was an embarassment for Dems, great day for Trump
Rep. Gohmert sounds off on Bill Taylor’s testimony
Rep. Louie Gohmert discusses George Kent and William Taylor’s testimonies during the first public impeachment hearing.