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.
Norwegian Muslims to Distribute Quran in Aftermath of Public Burning (sputniknews, Dec 5, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201912051077488124-norwegian-muslims-to-distribute-quran-in-aftermath-of-public-burning/
“The recent Quran burning by anti-Islam activists sparked a debate on the line between religious hatred and free speech and sent shockwaves through Norway’s growing Islamic community.
Following the uproar created by the recent attempt to set fire to Islam’s central scripture, three Muslim organisations will distribute free copies of the Quran to Norwegians in an attempt to prevent future instances of Quran burning.
The Norwegian Muslim Arts and Culture Association, the Islamic Literature Association and the Minhaj-ul-Quran Mosque in Oslo intend to distribute a total of 10,000 copies of the Quran at several stands in the Norwegian capital and possibly Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, sometimes seen as the nation’s cultural capital, the newspaper Vårt Land reported.
The Quran distribution will be funded by the three organisations, as well as donations by private individuals. The action is intended as a response to the burning of the Quran by the organisation Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN) during a demonstration in Kristiansand over two weeks ago.
“I believe many people are curious about what the Quran contains and what Muslims stand for. We hope this project can help demystify the Quran’s content,” Hamza Ansari, board member of the Norwegian-Pakistani Minhaj-ul-Quran mosque in Oslo, told Vårt land.
According to the Islamic Literature Association, the Quran teaches how to “show love and spread knowledge”, which is why is it seen as an effective vehicle against “hate and racism”.
Incidentally, a similar idea was set forth by former Labour Culture Minister Hadia Tajik, the first Muslim to serve in the Norwegian government. In 2014, at the height of Daesh’s so-called “caliphate”, she proposed giving Muslim youth the Quran before the extremists got to them.
The Quran burning in Kristiansand, which resulted in violent clashes and arrests, sparked a heated debate in Norway concerning the border between free speech and religious hatred.
While some argued that such actions were destructive, drawing historic parallels with the 1938 Kristallnacht, when Nazis carried out massive pogroms against Jews, others, including Justice Minister Jøran Kallmyr, insisted that Quran burning was indeed covered by the freedom of speech and suggested that police overstepped their powers as it interfered to stop the fire.
Meanwhile, the Quran burning has sent ripples across the Muslim world, with Turkey, Pakistan and Iran issuing their formal condemnations. Additionally, the Norwegian flag was torched during a demonstration in Karachi, while calls to boycott and ostracise Norway were made on social media.
SIAN, an organisation set up in the early 2000s to stop the spread of Islam, pledged reruns of the Quran burning, which stressing that they would have preferred a debate.
Muslims currently make up about 5.7 percent of Norway’s population due to mass immigration of the recent decades.
In 2013, Norway’s first complete Quran translation was accomplished. According to Aqil Qadir of the Norwegian-Muslim Arts and Culture Association, it contains explanations based on the modern world in a “unique interpretive style”.”
“… a heated debate in Norway concerning the border between free speech and religious hatred.”
There is no debate. That’s your own opinion, and that’s your own property.
There are no sacred cows.
Religious hatred is to hate all other religions but your own. That’s what it should be. You can curse everything else, but do not curse the holy spirit or else nothing will come out of you that is not just another fake copy. Don’t surrender your soul for peace.
For piss-christ’s sake.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/sep/28/andres-serrano-piss-christ-new-york
However, import more generically lower-IQ humans – no fault of their own – just breeding for welfare and get-rich opportunism – that are much closer to animals, or kill off the most intelligent as in Russia and China and indoctrinate through the schools. Then the offended plebians simply react to reward and pain. And need the all-seeing eye to keep them in check.
Civilization has gone.
John Spatan in the movie Demolition Man was cytogenetically unfrozen in the future to find people are bred into tameness, and he was their direct brute ancestor.
But what if Jesus was unfrozen? To find out, by political selection, bonobo monkeys were their direct ancestors?
That suffering was eradicated; sleep was induced by tranquillizers, and chem-sex acted upon demand? The Naughty Step was the Religion of Shame. Everyone agreeable, in fear of individualism and forced to leave the legally protected Safe Space. Outlaws.
“I Am Who I Am” holding the same terror as it had back then. This Fisher of Men now without John The Baptist to refer to.
Appreciate that you are still permitted, in some countries, to have your own unedited bibles.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-fines-church-bible
It’s not a bad thing. People will read for themselves how bad the book is.
Or use it to line the parrot’s cage.
Pentagon Denies Report Alleging Additional 14,000 US Troops to Middle East (sputniknews, Dec 5, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/military/201912051077487118-pentagon-denies-report-alleging-additional-14000-us-troops-to-middle-east/
“The Wall Street Journal broke the news earlier in the day, citing unnamed officials, that the Trump administration was sending dozens of ships to the Middle East, adding that the decision was allegedly expected to come by the end of this month.
Pentagon Press Secretary Alyssa Farah in a statement disputed reports that the US military was considering sending 14,000 troops to the Middle East to counter Iran.
“This reporting by the @WSJ is wrong. The US is not sending 14,000 troops to the Middle East to confront Iran,” Farah said on Wednesday in a Twitter post linked to the article.
?Farah also told Senator Josh Hawley in a Twitter post the same message after the lawmaker said he looked forward to hearing why the Pentagon was sending more troops and if the US military was preparing for a land war.
The WSJ said earlier on Wednesday, citing sources that the additional deployment would double personnel sent to the region since the US military buildup began in May – exactly a year after the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), also known as Iran nuclear deal…”
Worthy article on economics:
https://mises.org/wire/abc-market-economy-0
Skating on the sleeve.
https://youtu.be/9Ps7AMmiSpc
An interesting approach to the open borders debate:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50666436
Germany: Fridays for Future protesters were paid for their participation in the rally+++
A Leipzig based organisation paid extras for their appearance at the Fridays for Future protest last Friday, as reported by the newspaper “Leipziger Volkszeitung”. The participants received 50 euros for standing there in silence with masks and protest posters. The client speaks of an art project. According to an advertisement in a job portal, a total of ten to twelve people were recruited for the project. The statists appeared from 01:00 p.m. in black clothes and with protest posters in front of the administrative court in Leipzig and finished their work at 05:30 p.m..
More:
https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/12/germany-fridays-for-future-protesters.html
Iran ‘has been secretly stockpiling short-range ballistic missiles in Iraq to threaten US troops and allies’ (dailymail, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7758747/Iran-secretly-stockpiling-short-range-ballistic-missiles-Iraq.html
“Iran has been secretly stockpiling short-range ballistic missiles in Iraq amid fears they could be fired at US troops by Tehran-backed militias, American officials say.
The Iranian regime has exploited the unrest in Iraq, which has seen hundreds of protesters shot dead and Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resign, to get the missiles into the country, US intelligence believes.
Officials added that Iran-backed militias have stepped up attacks against US positions in recent weeks with larger rockets than had been previously seen.
The missiles also pose a threat to US allies in the region including Saudi Arabia and Israel, officials told the New York Times…”
“Secretly”?
Israel’s been bombing them for a year.
Magyar M1-
-migrants in Bosnia complaining it’s cold
-being stopped at all Balkan borders
-complaining they were mislead by Turks in Turkey
-they’ve spent all their money
Conservative students feel they are unable to express their views at British universities, study finds (telegraph, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/05/conservative-students-feel-unable-express-views-british-universities/
“Conservative students feel they are unable to express their views at British universities, a study has found.
Researchers at King’s College London (KCL) asked over 2,000 students about their views on free speech on campus and in society.
The majority (59 per cent) of Conservative-voting students said they believe that those who share their views are “reluctant” to express themselves at university.
This compared to just 36 of those voted Labour and 37 per cent of those who voted for the Liberal Democrats. Students who voted for the Green Party were the most comfortable with expressing their views, with just 32 per cent saying that their like-minded peers would self-censor on campus.
A quarter of students – irrespective of their political persuasion – said they are unable to express their views at university because they are scared of disagreeing with their peers, according to the KCL study.
It also found that over one in five students (22 per cent) think freedom of expression is under threat at their own universities, but half think it is under threat in society as a whole.
In February, the Government published guidance for universities on free speech, which said that speakers should not be banned from campus just because they “offend, shock or disturb” students.
It was the first time in 30 years that ministers have intervened to protect free speech at universities, and follows widespread concern about censorship of unfashionable views.
It says that universities have a legal duty to uphold free speech, and that the starting point should be that any event can go ahead, so long as it is within the law.
Earlier this year, the former equalities chief warned that universities are allowing free speech to be curtailed on campuses in favour of “rule of the mob”, as he said vice-Chancellors must stop behaving like “frightened children” and take a stand.
Trevor Phillips, who wrote the National Union of Students’ original “no platforming” policy in the 1970s, said that it is now being used in an “ugly” and “authoritarian” way.
He said that the policy was designed to counter the rise of the far-Right on campuses and ensure that National Front speakers were barred from addressing students.”
Illegal Migrant Boat Capsizes En Route to Spain, 58 Drowned (breitbart, Dec 5. 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/05/illegal-migrant-boat-capsizes-en-route-to-spain-58-drowned/
“Scores of migrants who swam through rough Atlantic Ocean waters to safety from a capsized boat while 58 others drowned were receiving care Thursday in Mauritania after one of the deadliest disasters this year among people making the perilous journey to Europe.
The boat that left Gambia a week ago had been carrying at least 150 people, including women and children. It was headed toward Spain’s Canary Islands when it tried to approach the Mauritanian coast to get fuel and food, Laura Lungarotti, chief of mission in the West African nation with the U.N. migration agency, told The Associated Press.
“Many drowned. The ones who survived swam up to the Mauritanian coast close to the city of Nouadhibou,” she said. “The Mauritanian authorities are very efficiently coordinating the response with the agencies currently present” in the northern city…”
Iran developing nuclear-capable missiles, European powers warn UN (BBC, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50671003
“Three European powers have warned the UN that Iran is developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in violation of a Security Council resolution.
A letter sent by the UK, France and Germany says Iran tested a Shahab-3 missile variant “equipped with a manoeuvrable re-entry vehicle” that could deliver a nuclear weapon.
Such activity is “inconsistent” with a resolution endorsing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, it argues.
Iran has denied the allegation.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the letter was a “desperate falsehood” put out by the European powers “to cover up their miserable incompetence in fulfilling bare minimum” of their obligations under the nuclear deal.
Security Council Resolution 2231 “calls upon” Iran not to “undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology”.
Iran has insisted that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and denied that its ballistic missile programme violates the resolution.
But the European letter says that video footage of a test posted on social media on 22 April showed the use of a Shahab-3 booster that was “a Missile Technology Control Regime Category-1 system”, according to the Associated Press.
As such, it was “technically capable of delivering a nuclear weapon”.
The Missile Technology Control Regime, which was established to address nuclear proliferation, says Category 1 systems are capable of delivering a payload weighing at least 500kg (1102lbs) a distance of at least 300km (186 miles).
AP said the letter also listed three other examples of Iranian activities that the UK, France and Germany considered to be “inconsistent” with resolution 2231:
The launch of a ballistic missile, reportedly a Shahab-3, on 24 July
The launch on 2 August of a Borkan-3 liquid-propelled medium-range ballistic missile by Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom Iran has been accused of arming
The unsuccessful launch of a Safir satellite launch vehicle on 29 August
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the letter, and instructed Israeli diplomats to present a “complete list of Iranian violations of the nuclear agreement” at a Security Council meeting on 19 December that is expected to discuss Iran.
Iran has breached a number of commitments under the deal in recent months in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision last year to abandon the deal and reinstate economic sanctions.
Mr Trump wants to force Iran to negotiate a new agreement that would place indefinite curbs on its nuclear programme and also halt its development of ballistic missiles. Iran has refused to negotiate unless the US first lifts its sanctions.
The five other parties to the deal – the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia – have tried to keep it alive. But the sanctions have caused Iran’s oil exports to collapse, the value of its currency to plummet and the inflation rate to soar.
In a separate development, US officials said a US Navy warship deployed in the Gulf of Oman had seized advanced missile parts believed to be headed from Iran to Yemen. The parts were on board a small boat stopped last week, they said.
The US defence department also denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that it was considering sending dozens more warships, other military hardware, and as many as 14,000 additional troops to the Middle East to counter Iran.”
Sydney police charge 21-year-old with plotting terror attack (BBC, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50666573
“Australian police have arrested a 21-year-old man in Sydney on three separate terrorism charges.
Police allege that the man, who has not been named, was a member of Islamic State and was in the early stages of preparing for “terrorist acts”.
He is also accused of posting extremist content online, and of attempting to radicalise two teenagers.
It comes days after two were killed in a London knife attack, carried out by a man convicted of terrorism offences.
Police said their arrest was carried on Wednesday morning at a home in Riverwood, where the Australian-born man lived with his parents.
Authorities allege that, while planning for the attack, the man downloaded a dossier on weapons and tactics to use in a terrorist attack.
He also attempted to influence teenagers to act upon his extremist views, said the Australian Federal Police.
“It was fair to say there was a continuum of radicalisation … to the point of encouraging politically motivated violence,” said Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney.
He said the arrest was the result of a six-month investigation, but added that the attack had not been imminent.
The man is expected to appear in court on Thursday and faces life imprisonment if found guilty.”
France shuts down: Mass strike hits trains, Eiffel Tower (abcnews, Dec 5, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mass-strike-pensions-tangles-transport-france-67511426
“The Eiffel Tower shut down, France’s vaunted high-speed trains stood still and several thousand people protested in Paris as unions launched open-ended, nationwide strikes Thursday over the government’s plan to overhaul the retirement system.
Paris authorities barricaded the presidential palace and deployed 6,000 police as activists – many in yellow vests representing France’s year-old movement for economic justice – gathered in the capital in a mass outpouring of anger at President Emmanuel Macron and his centerpiece reform.
Unions and their supporters fear that the changes to how and when workers can retire will threaten the hard-fought French way of life. Macron himself remained “calm and determined” to push it through, according to a top presidential official.
The Louvre Museum warned of strike disruptions, and subway stations across Paris shut their gates. Many visitors – including the U.S. energy secretary – canceled plans to travel to one of the world’s most-visited countries amid the strike.
Unprepared tourists discovered historic train stations standing empty Thursday, with about nine out of 10 of high-speed TGV trains canceled. Signs at Paris’ Orly Airport showed “canceled” notices, as the civil aviation authority announced 20% of flights were grounded.
Some travelers showed support for the striking workers, but others complained about being embroiled in someone else’s fight.
“I had no idea about the strike happening, and I was waiting for two hours in the airport for the train to arrive and it didn’t arrive,” said vacationer Ian Crossen, from New York. “I feel a little bit frustrated. And I’ve spent a lot of money. I’ve spent money I didn’t need to, apparently.”
Vladimir Madeira, a Chilean tourist vacationing in Paris, said the strike has been “a nightmare.” He hadn’t heard about the protest until he arrived, and transport disruptions foiled his plans to travel directly to Zurich.
Beneath the closed Eiffel Tower, tourists from Thailand, Canada and Spain echoed those sentiments.
Bracing for possible violence along the route of the Paris march, police ordered all businesses, cafes and restaurants in the area to close. Authorities banned protests in the more sensitive neighborhoods around the Champs-Elysees avenue, presidential palace, parliament and Notre Dame Cathedral.
Police carried out security checks of more than 6,000 people arriving for the protest and detained 65 even before it started. Embassies warned tourists to avoid the protest area.
The mood was impassioned in the crowd massed on Boulevard Magenta in eastern Paris.
Health workers showed up to decry conditions in hospitals. Students pointed to recent student suicides and demanded government action. Environmentalists emphasized that climate justice and social justice are one and the same. And young and old roundly condemned the new retirement plan, which they fear would take money out of their pockets and reduce the period of repose the French expect in the last decades of their lives.
Eric Mettling, who joined the yellow vests at the start of their movement, said the general strike had brought together social movements across France in a manner unprecedented in recent memory to denounce “the social crisis.”
Skirmishes broke out between police firing tear gas and protesters throwing flares at a protest in the western French city of Nantes, and thousands of red-vested union activists marched through cities from Marseille on the Mediterranean to Lille in the north.
Lacking public transport, commuters used shared bikes or electric scooters despite near-freezing temperatures. Many workers in the Paris region worked from home or took a day off to stay with their children, since 78% of teachers in the capital were on strike.
The big question is how long the strike will last. Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne said she expects the travel troubles to be just as bad Friday, and unions said they’ll maintain the Paris subway system strike at least through Monday.
Public sector workers fear Macron’s reform will force them to work longer and shrink their pensions. Some private sector workers share their worries, while others welcome the reform.
Joseph Kakou, who works an overnight security shift in western Paris, walked an hour to get home to the eastern side of town Thursday morning.
“It doesn’t please us to walk. It doesn’t please us to have to strike,” Kakou told The Associated Press. “But we are obliged to, because we can’t work until 90 years old.”
To Macron, the retirement reform is central to his plan to transform France so it can compete globally in the 21st century. The government argues France’s 42 retirement systems need streamlining.
While Macron respects the right to strike, he “is convinced that the reform is needed, he is committed, that’s the project he presented the French in 2017” during his election campaign, the presidential official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.
After extensive meetings with workers, the high commissioner for pensions is expected to detail reform proposals next week, and the prime minister will release the government’s plan days after that.”
https://twitter.com/EvanosNews/status/1202603892820844544
https://twitter.com/CharlesBaudry/status/1202601998039879685
https://twitter.com/ClementLanot/status/1202604550089330690
DAILY MAIL – Police fire tear gas and water cannon at protesters as France is paralysed by worst nationwide strike for decades: Sixty-five arrested in Paris as schools shut, public transport stops and Eiffel Tower closes in protest at Macron’s pension reforms
Half a million protesters marched in several cities on Thursday in the largest nationwide strikes in decades
Some 65 people arrested in Paris as hooded youths lit fires, looted stores and hurled fireworks at officers
Around 90 per cent of high-speed TGV trains were cancelled and 30 per cent of flights were grounded
Police in Paris barricaded the presidential palace and deployed 6,000 officers to deal with demonstrators
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7759497/France-paralysed-nationwide-strike.html
Erdogan warns NATO allies to back its fight against terror
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/erdogan-warns-nato-allies-back-fight-terror-67515520
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Turkey dropped its objection to a NATO plan to bolster the defense of Poland and Baltic states neighboring Russia but warned allies that it expects support in its fight against terrorism.
Erdogan made the comments to Turkish journalists in London on Thursday, a day after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment to collective defense at a summit meeting.
Turkey had threatened not to endorse the plan for Poland and the Baltic nations, after other NATO members criticized its military operation in Syria, launched to drive away Syrian Kurdish fighters away from its border. Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters as terrorists.
Erdogan said: “We said ‘yes’ to this business but you (NATO allies) should not leave us alone in the fight against terrorism.””
Anti-headscarf law activist sues Iran in US over harassment (abcnews, Dec 5. 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/anti-headscarf-law-activist-sues-iran-us-harassment-67513251
“An Iranian-American activist famous for her campaign against the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, for women has sued Iran in U.S. federal court, alleging a government-led harassment campaign targets her and her family.
Masih Alinejad’s lawsuit seeking monetary damages comes in the aftermath of nationwide protests in Iran over spiking gasoline prices that reportedly killed at least 208 people in November.
Dissent continues as Iranian authorities separately said on Thursday that they broke up a plot to cause a gas explosion at a student dormitory at a Tehran university.
But even before the latest unrest, authorities had already announced that women face a possible 10-year prison sentence for sending videos to Alinejad’s “White Wednesday” civil disobedience campaign against the mandatory head covering.
The harassment, including the imprisoning of her brother, was to “preclude Ms. Masih Alinejad from continuing her career as a journalist, author, and political activist working to criticize the Iranian government and bring international attention to the regime’s human rights abuses, in particular women’s rights,” alleges her lawsuit, filed on Monday in Washington.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday…”
Turkish committee backs contentious maritime deal with Libya (abcnews, Dec 5, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkish-committee-backs-contentious-maritime-deal-libya-67512874
“The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Thursday endorsed a controversial deal on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean reached between Turkey and Libya’s U.N.-supported government.
The committee approved the agreement which would give Turkey access to an economic zone across the Mediterranean, paving the way for a final vote in the parliament’s general assembly later in the day.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the agreement last week with Libya’s Tripoli-based government, led by Fayez Sarraj, which controls some of the country’s west. The two also signed a security cooperation agreement.
The deals sparked outrage in the Libyan parliament, which is based in the east and is aligned with the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter. The parliament denounced the agreements as a “flagrant breach” of Libya’s security and sovereignty, saying they would grant the Turkish government the right to use Libyan airspace and waters as well as build military bases on Libyan soil.
Greece, Cyprus and Egypt have also criticized the boundary agreement, calling it a serious breach of international law. The deal has added tension to an ongoing dispute with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt over oil-and-gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said he discussed the issue and other differences between Greece and Turkey with Erdogan on the sidelines of a NATO summit Wednesday in London, adding that both leaders “noted disagreements.”
Since 2015, Libya has been divided between two competing governments, one in the east, based in Benghazi, and the other in the west, in Tripoli. While the LNA and the eastern government enjoy the support of France, Russia and key Arab countries, the Tripoli-based government is backed by Italy, Turkey and Qatar.”
Cyprus to launch Hague court case over Turkey’s gas drilling (abcnews, Dec 5. 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cyprus-launch-hague-court-case-turkeys-gas-drilling-67512660
“The president of Cyprus says authorities are launching legal action at the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Turkey’s exploratory gas drilling inside Cypriot waters.
President Nicos Anastasiades said Thursday this is part of his government’s pledge to use “all legal means” at its disposal to defend the sovereign rights of ethnically divided Cyprus.
He said Turkey has been notified of the legal action through its embassy in the Greek capital, adding that difficulties may crop up.
Turkey, which doesn’t recognize Cyprus as a state, has been drilling in waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights since July.
Ankara claims almost half of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone and says it’s acting to defend its rights and those of breakaway Turkish Cypriots to the area’s energy reserves.”
Libyan officials collect evidence of Russian fighters in war (abcnews, Dec 5, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/libyan-officials-collect-evidence-russian-fighters-war-67510409
“Officials in Libya’s U.N.-supported government say they plan to confront Moscow over the alleged deployment of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside their opponents in the country’s civil war.
Libyan and U.S. officials accuse Russia of deploying fighters through a private security contractor, the Wagner Group, to key battleground areas in Libya in the past months.
They say the Russian fighters are backing commander Khalifa Hifter, whose forces have been trying for months to capture the capital Tripoli. The U.N.-supported Government of National Accord is based in Tripoli.
The GNA has documented between 600 to 800 Russian fighters in Libya and is collecting their names in a list to present to the Russian government, according to Khaled al-Meshri, the head of the Tripoli-based government’s Supreme Council of State.
“We are going to visit Russia after we collect all evidence and present to the authorities and see what they say,” al-Meshri told The Associated Press last week. He did not say when that visit would take place.
Moscow has repeatedly denied playing any role in Libya’s fighting…”
Pelosi OKs drafting of impeachment articles
Rep. Biggs pushes back on Pelosi’s impeachment announcement
EU Commissioners Slammed for Singing Marxist Anthem ‘Bella Ciao’ (breitbart, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/05/leftist-european-commissioners-slammed-singing-far-left-bella-ciao/
“Members of the new European Commission have been slammed for singing the far-left Marxist song “Bella Ciao” in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The song, which is largely associated with the partisans of Italy during the Second World War and various Marxist groups, was sung by Head of Business Affairs Paolo Gentiloni, European Green Deal executive vice president Frans Timmermans, and several other leftists, Corriere Della Sera reports.
The incident was immediately slammed by populist Italian leader Matteo Salvini, who said: “Congratulations to the [Italian Democratic Party] and 5 Stars for the choice of Gentiloni as Italy’s representative in Europe.”
He addedsarcastically that they could then sing the Communist-linked song “Bandiera Rossa” at the Sanremo music festival and then go on an international tour.
Brothers of Italy (FdI) firebrand leader Giorgia Meloni also reacted with indignance to the incident, labelling the commissioners the “European Soviet Union”.
“Is it only I who considers this ridiculous little theatre by the highest European institutions scandalous? Do they not have anything more important to look after?” Meloni added.
Fulvio Martusciello MEP, a member of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI), said that prior social democrat commissioners would have never engaged in such partisan behaviour.
“It is no coincidence that the commissioners who sing are all socialists. We are serious people and we would never have acted with such stupidity,” Martusciello said.
All three parties make up the Italian centre-right alliance which enjoys the highest polling numbers in Italy, with Salvini’s League (Lega) consistently topping opinion polls.
The leftist government coalition of the Democratic Party (PD) and the Five Star Movement (M5S), meanwhile, enjoys the confidence of just a third of the population.
Salvini recently slammed the coalition government led by Prime Minister Giussepe Conte, stating that his support for changes to the European Union’s Stability Mechanism (ESM) could spell financial disaster for the Italian people and erode national sovereignty.”
Tucker: Impeachment witnesses had no evidence, only opinions
Brussels Sees Surge of ‘Glue-Addicted’ North African Children (breitbart, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/05/brussels-sees-surgeglue-addicted-north-african-children/
“The Belgian capital of Brussels has seen the arrival of dozens of migrant street children in recent months, many addicted to glue-sniffing and alcohol.
The minors, who are generally between the ages of nine and 14, are said to have mainly come from Algeria and Morocco, and have travelled to the Belgian capital in their dozens since June of this year, broadcaster BX1 reports.
Many of the young migrants have come not directly from North Africa but from other European Union member states like France, Spain, or Sweden.
David Lowyck, director of Minor Nkado Centre, a centre for minor migrants, said that the children often live on the street or in squats and live by means of petty theft.
“They are also children who are addicted to glue, ether or alcohol. Real street children,” he added.
“It’s hard to know if these children are really from human trafficking but since some have already been arrested for theft far from Brussels, it is believed a network uses these children,” Lowyck said.
Lowyck went on to note that few of the children stay at the centre for more than a night at a time before going back on the streets, saying: “We do not serve alcohol, and they cannot use drugs here, so they are quickly reminded of their addictions and leave.”
The French capital of Paris has experienced a similar phenomenon in recent years, with Moroccan street children causing havoc in certain areas of the city and committing robberies.
Last year it was revealed that French police had arrested a total of over 1,500 Moroccans after they joined forces with Moroccan police to identify and help deport the migrants back to their native country.
Hower, while many of the migrants were detained, just six of them were actually deported, and both forces determined that in at least 42 of the 219 files examined, the migrants were actually adults and not children.”
Radical Swiss Imam Faces Allegations of Welfare Benefit Fraud (breitbart, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/05/radical-swiss-imam-faces-allegations-welfare-benefit-fraud/
“Radical Islamic imam Abu Ramadan, a migrant from Libya, is accused of illegally obtaining as much as 590,000 Swiss francs (£455,335/$596,700) between 2003 and 2017.
The 66-year-old, who lives in the municipality of Nidau, is accused of fraud for not declaring income while he was receiving state welfare benefits from the Swiss government, 20 Minutes reports.
Ramadan has denied the charges and disputed the accusations levelled against him, telling Swiss media that he is trying to clarify any misunderstandings with officials but did not want to comment any further on the case.
The charges are not the only legal problems for the radical imam. He is also accused of inciting hatred against Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Shiite Muslims during a sermon at the Ar’Rahman mosque in Biel.
Ramadan has also recently lost his refugee status, and if found guilty of any of the charges he could be deported from the country.
He would not be the first imam to be deported from Switzerland for hate preaching. In May, a Somali imam, who was also an asylum seeker, was deported after his asylum application was rejected.
The imam was said to have preached at the infamous An’Nur mosque in Winterthur, an area of Switzerland that has become known as a hotbed for Islamic extremism. He had previously been arrested after calling for the death of Muslims who refused to participate in prayers.
Swiss journalist Kurt Pelda warned of the danger posed by the An’Nur in 2015 stating: “We do not know exactly what he has done in Syria, but there is every indication it has to do with ISIS… ISIS has a cell in Winterthur in the An’Nur mosque, let there be no doubt.”
In late November, Swiss authorities arrested an alleged Islamic State fighter who had been living in the country as an asylum seeker for six months.”
PICS – Contemporary architecture in Russia
https://varlamov.ru/3695180.html
@-Martin
Like it a lot! Gaudi is dancing in his grave!
Trial Begins for Migrants Accused of Drugging, Raping, Murdering Teen (breitbart, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/05/trial-begins-migrants-accused-drugging-raping-murdering-italian-teen/
“Four African migrants face charges of voluntary homicide, aggravated sexual violence, and distribution of illegal narcotics to a minor, one year after teen Desirée Mariottini was found dead in Rome.
The four men, Yussef Salia, Mamaodu Gara, Brian Minteh, and Chima Alinno, saw their first hearing this week with one of the defendants, Mamaodu Gara, complaining to the court of the absence of an interpreter during a prior hearing in October, Il Giornale reports.
“I am not responsible for the death of this girl, I ask her mother and family for forgiveness and excuse, and I respect their pain,” Yussef Salia told the court.
The court also heard from witnesses. Some said they had been the ones who had attempted to contact emergency services to help the 16-year-old but claim the suspects prevented them from doing so. The next hearing has been scheduled for January 15th.
The alleged murder of Ms Mariottini shocked much of Italy when prosecutors claimed that the migrants involved had purposely given her a number of drugs that would lead to her overdose and death and took turns raping her.
Her body was discovered in an abandoned building on Via dei Lucani in the San Lorenzo district of Rome in October 2018. In the investigation that followed, investigators found several witnesses, mainly homeless drug addicts, who said they saw the sex attacks.
Just months after the alleged murder, three Albanians and two Moroccans were arrested for locking up four Italian girls after luring them with alcohol and drugs. The migrants are accused of taking turns sexually abusing one of the girls as they filmed the ordeal on their phones.
Earlier this year, another Italian teen girl came forward claiming to have been raped by Moroccan migrants in the city of Trissino. The 15-year-old said that her older friend had “sold” her to the migrants in exchange for drugs.”
SAUDI ARABIA – MWL chief tells media to present Islam’s true image
RIYADH — Secretary General of the Muslim World League (MWL) Sheikh Mohammed Al-Essa has emphasized the role of Muslims in general and the media and Islamic organizations in particular in presenting the true image of Islam and Muslims as well as in removing misgivings about Islam and confronting the ways of distorting its image. He also cautioned against some young men being lured into dangerous ideas that have nothing to do with Islam and Muslims.
The MWL chief made the remarks while addressing a session titled “Islamophobia: an intellectual crisis or media crisis” at the Saudi Media Forum, which began in Riyadh on Monday. He underscored the role of media in effectively confronting the phenomenon of Islamophobia, and its role in changing the stereotype image created by the hostile media under the guise of Islamophobia.
Al-Essa lauded the role of the Saudi Media Forum in dealing with various topics of importance in a professional and objective manner. “Islamophobia is a term that must be explored in all its details, starting with the causes, analysis and solutions, and comparing it with the controversies around it from all aspects,” he said while pointing out that the negative effects of this term have increased with the presence of extremist and terroris organizations and falsely linking them with Islam in addition to the lack of positive dialogue of Muslims with others.
“This gap has multiplied the negative effects of Islamophobia,” he said. The MWL chief stressed the important and prominent role played by the media in confronting such challenges facing Islam and Muslims.
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/584024
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jihad watch – Secretary General of Muslim World League demands media present “true image of Islam”
The Secretary General of the Muslim World League (MWL), Sheikh Mohammed Al-Essa, want everyone to know what he claims is the “true image of Islam.” He is concerned about “dangerous ideas that have nothing to do with Islam and Muslims.”
So he wants you to ignore the obvious connection between Islam and a host of human rights abuses. He and many others like him want you to think that the Islamic genocide against Christians, the persecution of other religious minorities, the murder of gays, the Sharia inferiority of women, Sharia-justified pedophilia (child marriage), the Shi’ite practice of slicing open children’s skulls and smearing their blood all over them for the festival of Ashura, the expansion of Sharia in Indonesia’s Aceh province, cruel blasphemy laws in Pakistan, the Palestinian jihad against Israel, the violent commands in the Quran and Hadiths, etc., are all figments of your imagination. And if you think otherwise, then you’re “Islamophobic.”
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Essa’s argument is absurd, but it has gained much traction in the West. Making it worse is that Islamic supremacists know the truth about themselves, and recognize how gullible too many Westerners are, particularly Leftists.
Al-Essa made his speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a country that is bending over backwards in the face of its financial woes to make it look as if it is reforming in a direction of modernization, yet it remains a major exporter of Wahhabism globally.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/12/secretary-general-of-muslim-world-league-demands-media-present-true-image-of-islam
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Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_bin_Abdul_Karim_Issa
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About the electric automobiles, aka TESLA, and recharging stations.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7755753/Chaos-California-Tesla-drivers-stranded-hours-half-mile-long-line-charge.html
Near-Record 79 Illegal Boat Migrants Reach UK over One Day (breitbart, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/05/near-record-79-illegal-boat-migrants-reach-uk-one-day/
“A near-record 79 illegal migrants crossed the English Channel from Continental Europe in five boats on December 4th, followed by 19 more in the small hours of December 5th.
It is the second-highest number of illegal aliens to cross the Channel in a single day on record, according to the BBC, behind an influx of 86 migrants in six boats on September 10th.
Forty-eight of the migrants were collected in three boatloads by Border Force vessels off the coast of Kent, while another 11 were picked up by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
Home Office officials detained 20 more after their boat was found discarded on a Kingsdown beach, with the migrants having made it all the way to shore by themselves without anyone intercepting them.
Then, in the early hours of Thursday, November 5th, the Border Force picked up another boatload of 19 illegals presenting as Iranians and Iraqis — 11 men, four women, and four minors.
Boat migrants — like thousands more illegals who enter or attempt to breach the British border through other means, such as via stowing away on lorries and ferries or breaking into the Channel Tunnel — are coming from safe, Western European countries, principally France. However, only a tiny minority have been sent back across the Channel, thanks in no small part to burdensome European Union asylum regulations.
These regulations require EU members — which the United Kingdom still is for the time being, despite the British people’s vote to Leave the European Union more than three years ago — to return illegal migrants not to the last EU member-state they were in, but the first EU member-state they entered. That means it is very difficult to execute a deportation if this cannot be determined.
Over 1,700 illegals having crossed the Channel in 2019 so far, with the Tories under both Theresa May and her successor Boris Johnson having failed to heed Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage’s advice to “stand up to the EU and France” to resolve the crisis.
“The first duty of the British government is to protect its citizens. In this age of random terrorist atrocities, it cannot afford to take any chances when it comes to meeting this responsibility,” said the MEP in December 2018.
“Anybody who disagrees with me might like to recall that five of the eight terrorists who murdered 130 people and injured another 413 people in Paris in November 2015 entered the EU illegally via the Mediterranean,” he warned.”
Check Out Israel’s Newest AIr Defense Technology
– beware of junk sold as drone-defense:
The Snake Oil of the CUAS trade
[Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems]
https://dronemag.eu/business/drone-defence/the-snake-oil-of-the-cuas-trade/
Ep. 1127 Pelosi Melts Down – The Dan Bongino Show.
A new conservative news news website Bongino Report
https://bonginoreport.com/
Mexican governor tells media a cartel attack force crossed U.S. border en route a target — then withdraws claim
By J.E. Dyer December 4, 2019
On 30 November, an attack force from a faction of Los Zetas cartel headed west from Nuevo Laredo, just across the U.S. border from Laredo, Texas, to initiate a battle with Mexican state security forces in the town of Villa Union.
The attack involved an intense gun battle in the city center in Villa Union. But there were also extended shootouts between the Zetas force and state police in the hours afterward, as authorities chased the cartel attackers around the countryside. The Mexican army dispatched helicopters to help police with the situation.
In all, the death toll was 19, including 4 state police officers and 2 civilians reportedly kidnapped and killed by the cartel thugs (some reports indicate up to 23 killed).
The early U.S. reporting suggested the cartel force used at least 14 vehicles to transport a contingent of about 150 gunmen.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/12/04/mexican-governor-tells-media-a-cartel-attack-force-crossed-u-s-border-en-route-a-target-then-withdraws-claim/
Omar says impeachment should be handled like the prosecution of a mob boss
Cobra
The U.S. Constitution and Sharia law
https://nccs.net/blogs/articles/the-u-s-constitution-and-sharia-law
First time ever?!
R?????? K??? @COLRICHARDKEMP
Even the left wing New Statesman declares Corbyn unfit to be Prime Minister. Is this the first time they have repudiated a Labour leader at a general election?
https://twitter.com/COLRICHARDKEMP/status/1202449553699614721
Leader: Britain deserves better
On the eve of a new decade, there is an acute need for an alternative political and economic settlement that no party at present represents
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/election-2019/2019/12/leader-britain-deserves-better …
……
Trashing BoJo, nonetheless, unable to stomach the POS running as Labour candidate.
Sauce for the goose: Lindsey Graham urged to subpoena Adam Schiff’s phone records
By Daily Caller News Foundation December 5, 2019
Indiana Rep. Jim Banks is calling on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham to subpoena phone records for Rep. Adam Schiff, a lawyer for the Trump “whistleblower,” and Joe and Hunter Biden.
Banks cited in a letter to Graham Wednesday House Democrats’ impeachment report from Tuesday that revealed Democrats obtained AT&T phone records that showed phone calls involving GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, journalist John Solomon, and a former associate of Giuliani named Lev Parnas.
Schiff, a California Democrat, and his fellow House Democrats said the phone records show the call participants were working to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden related to Ukraine. Parnas worked closely with Giuliani and Solomon to investigate the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/12/05/sauce-for-the-goose-lindsey-graham-urged-to-subpoena-adam-schiffs-phone-records/
Lotsa diplo-chatter over the last few weeks. Nothing specific, of course, but plausible enough in light of significant deployments of all actors. Seth lists a few today:
Seth Frantzman
@sfrantzman Follow Follow @sfrantzman
Thread: A lot of #IranNews today
– Intelligence agencies have tracked Iranian short-range ballistic missiles into Iraq, US official says
https://twitter.com/sfrantzman/status/1202615665527599104
What’s behind the wave of Middle East protests? (BBC, video, Dec 5, 2019)
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-50663878/what-s-behind-the-wave-of-middle-east-protests
They’ve got the facts, pretty much, but the Bloomberg spin induces emesis.
Grab yer VOMIT bag-Taken to Brink by Trump, Gulf States Are Backpedaling on Iran
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-02/taken-to-brink-by-trump-gulf-states-are-backpedaling-on-iran
LEAK: DOJ IG Report Has 104 Criminal or Admin Investigations of Misconduct by FBI Employees
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has over 100 criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct related to FBI employees, according to a leak to investigative reporter Paul Sperry.
“The criminal investigations involve serious allegations of official misconduct,” Paul Sperry said on Thursday.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/leak-doj-ig-report-has-104-criminal-or-admin-investigations-of-misconduct-by-fbi-employees/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=daily
Trump on impeachment: It’s a big fat hoax
HuffPost Pro-Syrian Regime ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ On A Canada Speaking Tour
Vanessa Beeley has been called “the Syria conflict’s goddess of propaganda.”
A British blogger accused of disseminating Russian propaganda about the Syrian conflict is currently touring Canada for a series of conferences. Described by the tour organizers as an “internationally-acclaimed independent journalist,” Vanessa Beeley openly supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is a blogger for various conspiracy theory and “alternative facts” websites.
Assad began a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy activists in 2011, which eventually erupted into a civil war that, over the past nine years, has left hundreds of thousands dead and forced millions more to flee.
Beeley has repeatedly claimed that terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and the 2015 mass shooting on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were “false flags” staged by the authorities. “Did you take one moment to reflect upon how many times you have been duped by your governments and their media megaphones?” she wrote on her blog in a 2015 article titled Charlie Hebdo Provocation.
The Guardian’s former middle east editor Brian Whitaker said Beeley was “the Syrian conflict’s goddess of propaganda“ in a hard-hitting exposé about her journalistic methods.
Beeley did not respond to HuffPost’s repeated interview requests.
Syrian rescue workers “legitimate targets”
Titled “Canada’s Dirty War Against Syria: the White Helmets and the Regime-Change-War Billionaires,” Beeley’s conference series was organized by the Hamilton, Ont. chapter of the Stop the War Coalition, whose positions on the Syrian conflict have caused dissent amongst anti-war activists.
+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’
Beeley is expected to repeat accusations that the Syria Civil Defence, a volunteer search and rescue organization also known as the White Helmets, is associated with Jihadi terrorist organizations and has been staging bombings attributed to the Syrian regime in order to help topple the totalitarian government there.
+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’+’
The Russian authorities are particularly fond of this theory, delegitimizing the White Helmets, who, for years, have been documenting possible war crimes committed by Russian and Syrian military with GoPro cameras affixed to their helmets.
“The data they collect from the GoPros totally undercuts the Russian and regime narrative that they are only targeting terrorists,” says Kristyan Benedict, crisis campaigns manager for Amnesty International UK.
“It’s information that could be used in future prosecutions against Russian and regime pilots, and that’s the thing those governments are most afraid of,” he adds.
Beeley has often stated that the Civil Defence’s rescue volunteers were “legitimate targets,” since they are “members of internationally recognized terrorist organizations.”
With this rhetoric, she is attempting to justify a military tactic used by both Russia and the Syrian regime, says Benedict. Known as a “double-tap,” which consists of bombing the same public place a few minutes after a first strike in order to target first responders providing assistance to the victims.
“She’s basically advocating for a war crime,” he says. “A deliberate strike against humanitarian workers is a war crime.”
In 2012, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns labelled the practice of double-taps a war crime. The Syrian regime and Russia both continue to deny using “double-taps” despite damning evidence to the contrary.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/vanessa-beeley-pro-syrian-regime-conspiracy-theorist-canada_ca_5de93b71e4b0913e6f8ce286
La Presse – Conférence controversée d’une complotiste annulée à l’Université de Montréal
La conférence controversée prévue pour lundi à l’Université de Montréal n’aura finalement pas lieu, a annoncé l’institution d’enseignement jeudi. La conférencière, Vanessa Beeley, défend le président Bachar al-Assad dans le conflit qui déchire la Syrie depuis près de 9 ans. Elle adhère également à des thèses de complot, et prétend entre autres que les attentats qui ont eu lieu à Paris en 2015 ont été faussement attribués à des terroristes islamistes.
L’historien Samir Saul, qui avait organisé cette conférence, a perdu l’accès à la salle où celle-ci devait avoir lieu, dans la foulée de la polémique causée par la tenue de l’événement.
« N’ayant pas l’assurance que cette conférence se déroulerait de façon sereine et sachant que la salle qui avait été réservée […] pouvait contenir seulement une vingtaine de personnes, l’unité qui avait prêté la salle a alors retiré son autorisation », écrit la porte-parole de l’UdeM, Geneviève O’Meara.
La location de la salle avait été autorisée par les départements des relations industrielles et de travail social, qui logent à proximité.
Le professeur Samir Saul a confirmé l’annulation de l’événement par courriel en affirmant que « l’événement n’aurait pas lieu, car la salle n’est pas disponible ». Il n’a pas voulu répondre à d’autres questions, prétextant qu’il devait se rendre à son cours.
La visite prévue de Vanessa Beeley, une Britannique qui écrit notamment pour des médias de propagande russe, comme Russia Today, avait plongé l’Université de Montréal dans l’embarras. Samir Saul avait placé l’événement sous l’égide du Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CÉRIUM) et du Groupement interuniversitaire pour l’histoire des relations internationales contemporaines (GIHRIC).
Les deux centres de recherches ont tour à tour nié avoir donné leur assentiment et ont demandé au professeur de les dissocier de la rencontre avec Mme Beeley. Le département d’histoire a lui aussi pris ses distances. « Il était hors de question que le département d’histoire cautionne l’événement », a écrit son directeur Jacques Perreault, jeudi matin.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/education/201912/05/01-5252499-conference-controversee-dune-complotiste-annulee-a-luniversite-de-montreal.php
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The White Helmets & the billionaires funding Regime Change
Germany plans to deport ‘criminals’ to war-torn Syria and Afghanistan
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/12/05/germany-syria-afghanistan-deport-criminals/
“Interior ministers from Germany’s federal states said on Thursday, December 5 that they plan to ease deportation rules to allow Syrians convicted of serious crimes to be returned to the war-torn country.
The move has been pushed by conservative and far-right lawmakers following a series of high-profile crimes involving migrants in recent years.
“The will to deport criminals to Syria as well as Afghanistan is there,” Joachim Grote, chairman of the conference of interior ministers and a member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, told reporters after a meeting in Luebeck in northern Germany.
But Grote admitted implementing the policy would be tough as Germany has “no contact person in Syria.”
A further complication is that each German state will have to debate the issue before deportations can resume.
Germany has put deportations to Syria on hold since the start of the conflict, which has killed 370,000 people.
The suspension has been extended every six months.
But major crimes have sparked calls for the policy to be relaxed in the case of criminals such as the 24-year-old Syrian man convicted for killing a German man in the eastern city of Chemnitz last year.
The murder led to protests by far-right groups.
Merkel, in power for 14 years, has been under pressure ever since 2015 when she decided not to close German borders to a mass influx of refugees and migrants.
The move earned her much praise but also sparked an angry backlash that fueled the rise of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been vocal in calling for deportations.
The Pro Asyl migrant charity said the deportation ban should be extended again “given the disastrous human rights and military situation in Syria.”
It called for “an indefinite extension” to the ban.
Germany’s foreign ministry lists no region of Syria as safe on its website.”
Top General: Iran Self-Sufficient in Defense Industry
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/12/05/2153598/top-general-iran-self-sufficient-in-defense-industry
“Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said the Islamic Republic has gained full self-sufficiency in the field of defense…”
IRGC Chief Highlights Failure of Plots against Iran
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/12/05/2153653/irgc-chief-highlights-failure-of-plots-against-iran
“Hostile plots against Iran have failed and the enemies have received heavy blows from the Islamic Republic, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said…”
Iran working on nuclear-capable missiles: European powers
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/584294/World/Europe/Iran-working-on-nuclear-capable-missiles-European-powers
“Britain, France and Germany have accused Iran of developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in a letter dismissed by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Thursday as “a desperate falsehood”.
UN ambassadors for the three countries said in the letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that Iran’s actions were “inconsistent” with the UN resolution enshrining a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. But Zarif on Twitter said the Europeans were covering up their own “miserable incompetence” at abiding by the nuclear deal and were “bowing to US bullying”.
The letter referred to footage shared on social media in April this year of the test flight of a new Shabab-3 medium range ballistic missile variant that was “technically capable of delivering a nuclear weapon”.
The European powers also pointed to three other launches this year, including that of the Borkan-3, a new medium-range ballistic missile tested by Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen on Aug.2, 2019.
The letter, dated Nov.21, 2019 said these flights were “the latest in a long series of advances in Iranian ballistic missile technology”.
Iran’s UN ambassador responded in a letter saying the European powers were using “unreliable sources” and “outdated reports” to make misleading arguments.
Iran has always denied plans to develop nuclear missiles and claims that its nuclear program is only for peaceful energy production and medical purposes. — AFP”
US says Iran protest death toll may surpass 1,000
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/584292/World/America/US-says-Iran-protest-death-toll-may-surpass-1000
“The United States said Thursday that Iranian authorities may have killed more than 1,000 people in a crackdown on demonstrations, which Washington cast as the clerical regime’s worst-ever internal challenge.
“It appears the regime could have murdered over 1,000 Iranian citizens since the protests began,” Brian Hook, the US pointman on Iran, told reporters.
He acknowledged that information was difficult to verify but said: “We know for certain it is many, many hundreds.”
Hook said that “many thousands” of Iranians have been wounded and that at least 7,000 protesters have been detained.
Protests broke out on Nov. 15 in Iran, which is under sweeping sanctions from the United States, after the government abruptly hiked fuel prices.
Hook said the ensuing crackdown showed that the regime has had to rely on brute force and was losing support even with its traditional working-class base.
“This is the worst political crisis the regime has faced and its 40 years,” Hook said.
His death toll is sharply higher than the figure of 208 dead given by Amnesty International, which said that the figure may be higher but that it was cautious due to the difficulties in verifying information.
The United States, which considers Iran’s regime its top enemy, has appealed for Iranians who can circumvent restrictions on the Internet to send footage of the protests.
Hook said the United States has received photos or videos from 32,000 people and was basing its estimate on their information, as well as reports from outside groups.
Iran has dismissed the high death tolls reported by foreign sources as “utter lies” and has so far confirmed only five dead — four security force personnel killed by “rioters” and one civilian.— AFP”
Trump says Iran crackdown ‘brutal’ and ‘horrible’
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/584295/World/America/Trumpsays-Iran-crackdown-brutal-and-horrible
“US President Donald trump on Thursday called a crackdown on demonstrations in Iran “brutal” and said the United States would react “strongly” to any threat from Iran to its interests in the region.
“They’re killing a lot of people and they’re arresting thousands of their own citizens in a brutal crackdown,” trump said at a meeting with UN diplomats at the White House.
Calling it a “horrible situation,” trump warned that any new threat from Iran “will be met very strongly.”
Earlier, Brian Hook the US pointman on Iran said that Iranian authorities may have killed more than 1,000 people in a crackdown on demonstrations, which Washington cast as the clerical regime’s worst-ever internal challenge.
He acknowledged that information was difficult to verify but said: “We know for certain it is many, many hundreds.” Hook said that “many thousands” of Iranians have been wounded and that at least 7,000 protesters have been detained.
Protests broke out on Nov. 15 in Iran, which is under sweeping sanctions from the United States, after the government abruptly hiked fuel prices.
Hook said the ensuing crackdown showed that the regime has had to rely on brute force and was losing support even with its traditional working-class base.
“This is the worst political crisis the regime has faced and its 40 years,” Hook said.
The United States, which considers Iran’s regime its top enemy, has appealed for Iranians who can circumvent restrictions on the Internet to send footage of the protests.
Hook said the United States has received photos or videos from 32,000 people and was basing its estimate on their information, as well as reports from outside groups.
Iran has dismissed the high death tolls reported by foreign sources as “utter lies” and has so far confirmed only five dead — four security force personnel killed by “rioters” and one civilian. — AFP”
Erdogan condemns associating Islam with terrorism
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191205-erdogan-condemns-associating-islam-with-terrorism/
“Turkey’s president on Wednesday condemned those who use the word ‘Islam’ as an adjective to describe terrorism, Anadolu reports.
“Islam is a religion of peace,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during an event at a venue in east London organized by the AK Party’s UK branch presidency where he and First Lady Emine Erdogan met representatives of the Turkish community following a NATO summit in London.
Underlining that racism, discrimination, anti-Semitism and hostility towards Islam have recently increased in Europe, Erdogan said far-right movements are mostly targeting Muslims and the Turkish community.
“The last European Parliament elections have once again demonstrated that identity politics is becoming increasingly dominant in Europe,” he said, adding the media and some politicians have deepened these prejudices with their irresponsible statements.
Erdogan also touched on Turkey’s fight against terrorism….”
Energy minister: Turkey to begin oil exploration in Libya soon
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191205-energy-minister-turkey-to-begin-oil-exploration-in-libya-soon/
“Turkey will begin oil and gas exploration and production studies in the Eastern Mediterranean soon after signing a memorandum of understanding with Libya last week, the energy minister announced yesterday.
Turkey Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said the move comes after Ankara signed an agreement on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea with the UN-recognised Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA).
Egypt and Greece both rejected the agreement.
Donmez explained that the agreement needs to be approved by the parliaments of both countries before exploration begins.
On 27 November, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a closed-door meeting with Fayez Al-Sarraj, chairman of the GNA, at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul which lasted over two hours.”
Turkey: 39 women killed in gender-based violence in November
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191205-turkey-39-women-killed-in-gender-based-violence-in-november/
“At least 430 women were killed across Turkey in the first 11 months of 2019, with 39 murdered in November, 36 in October and 53 in September, according to a report by KCDP women’s rights organisation that monitors violence against women.
On Monday, 20-year-old university student and ballerina Ceren Özdemir was stabbed to death in front of her home in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Ordu. The suspect was arrested last night by police and he confessed to the murder.
The suspect escaped from prison on 1 December, he had been detained in 2005 after being convicted of murder. He has escaped from prison once before.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that an investigation will be opened into how the suspect escaped from prison and went on to murder Ceren.
“The investigation is going on. We’re speaking about a murderer with a knife who killed someone he never knew,” said Soylu
Last week, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed authorities will continue to fight abuse, harassment, discrimination and violence against women.”