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.
Yemen rebels close Sanaa airport over virus
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/3/14/yemen-rebels-close-sanaa-airport-over-virus
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Saturday they would suspend passenger flights in and out of Sanaa airport for two weeks to prevent the introduction of novel coronavirus…”
Libya’s Tripoli government declares emergency, shuts down ports, airports
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-libya/libyas-tripoli-government-declares-emergency-shuts-down-ports-airports-idUSKBN21116A
“Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord has declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus and will close all air and sea ports from Monday, Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj said on Saturday.
Serraj also said, in a broadcast address, that his internationally recognized government had earmarked 500 million Libyan dinars ($360.54 million)to combat the disease if it reached Libya, though no cases had been confirmed so far.
Libya, split for years between rival governments that have been fighting a war for nearly a year, lacks adequate isolation and other facilities to combat the virus, the head of its disease control center told Reuters on Thursday.”
Al Qaeda praises Taliban while reacting to group’s peace deal with the U.S.
https://www.khaama.com/al-qaeda-praises-taliban-while-reacting-to-groups-peace-deal-with-the-u-s-04511/
“The Al Qaeda terrorist network reacted to the signing of the peace deal between the United States and Taliban in Afghanistan, praising the Taliban group for its alleged ‘great victory’ over America and its allies.
Referring to Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of Taliban, as the ‘Emir of the Faithful’, the terror network called on all Afghans and mujahideen to bolster the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — a totalitarian regime the jihadists have been fighting to resurrect since 2001.
In its new statement, Al-Qaeda’s general command reminds readers of Mullah Omar’s defiance in the face of American pressure in late 2001, the Long War Journal report, after obtaining the latest statement of Al Qaeda terrorist network.
“Ayman al-Zawahiri and his comrades in al-Qaeda’s general command call on all “scholars,” wealthy donors, and others “to support the Islamic Emirate” in its quest to found a ‘nation of Islam ruled by the noble sharia of Allah’,” the report further cites the Al Qaeda statement.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims the Taliban agreed to “break” with al-Qaeda, while helping the U.S. to “destroy” Ayman al-Zawahiri’s organization in Afghanistan.
However, the Long War Journal reports that “The text of the written agreement doesn’t not call for that. Instead, the Taliban has supposedly agreed to prevent al-Qaeda and others from using Afghan soil to plot attacks against the U.S. and its allies — a promise the group has long made, but failed to keep.” “The Taliban’s political delegation also agreed to three provisions stipulating that the group would prevent terrorists who threaten the U.S. from operating inside Afghanistan. But the terms of those same provisions are vague, while no verification or enforcement mechanisms are set forth in the text released late last month,” the report by Long War Journal added.
The U.S. and Taliban group signed a peace deal late last month after observing a 7-day reduction in violence. The two sides signed the agreement after almost 18 months of negotiations in Qatari capital of Doha.
However, there are fears that the latest trends in Taliban attacks in remote parts of the country and the growing political tensions could undermine the peace process, specifically the launch of intra-Afghan peace talks.
The State Department confirmed that the Taliban group has taken steps to stop attacks against the coalition forces and in the cities but the group is still killing too many Afghans in the countryside.
Morgan Ortagus, a State Department spokesperson said the current high level of violence by the Taliban is unacceptable.
“We acknowledge the Taliban have taken steps to stop attacks against the Coalition and in cities,” Ortagus said in a statement, adding that “But they are killing too many Afghans in the countryside.”
She also added “This must change. Violence at these levels risks drawing both sides into a vicious cycle, serves no one, and undermines peace.””
Turkey ‘neutralizes’ 11 PKK terrorists in N Iraq
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-neutralizes-11-pkk-terrorists-in-n-iraq-152961
“Turkish security forces “neutralized” 11 PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the Defense Ministry announced on March 14.
The terrorists were neutralized in Metina region in air-backed operations, the ministry said on Twitter.
It added that operations will continue without letup.
Turkish authorities often use the term “neutralized” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
YPG/PKK terrorists often seek shelter in northern Iraq, just across the Turkish border, to plan terrorist attacks in Turkey.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
It has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.”
the gateway pundit – Johns Hopkins and Gates Foundation Hosted Coronavirus Pandemic Simulation Last October
Just a few months before the Covid-19 outbreak, an exercise was held by world elites called Event 201, where they simulated a global pandemic of a coronavirus that transmitted from bats to humans. Taking place in October, the event was hosted by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Bloomberg School Of Public Health, World Economic Forum, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The simulation analyzed the health impacts, as well as the economic, lifestyle, and trade fallout from the virus.
From the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security website:
The Event 201 scenario
Event 201 simulates an outbreak of a novel zoonotic coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe pandemic. The pathogen and the disease it causes are modeled largely on SARS, but it is more transmissible in the community setting by people with mild symptoms.
The disease starts in pig farms in Brazil, quietly and slowly at first, but then it starts to spread more rapidly in healthcare settings. When it starts to spread efficiently from person to person in the low-income, densely packed neighborhoods of some of the megacities in South America, the epidemic explodes. It is first exported by air travel to Portugal, the United States, and China and then to many other countries. Although at first some countries are able to control it, it continues to spread and be reintroduced, and eventually no country can maintain control.
There is no possibility of a vaccine being available in the first year. There is a fictional antiviral drug that can help the sick but not significantly limit spread of the disease.
Since the whole human population is susceptible, during the initial months of the pandemic, the cumulative number of cases increases exponentially, doubling every week. And as the cases and deaths accumulate, the economic and societal consequences become increasingly severe.
The scenario ends at the 18-month point, with 65 million deaths. The pandemic is beginning to slow due to the decreasing number of susceptible people. The pandemic will continue at some rate until there is an effective vaccine or until 80-90 % of the global population has been exposed. From that point on, it is likely to be an endemic childhood disease.
The Center For Health Security YouTube channel posted several videos from the event, which they tab as “Event 201, A Global Pandemic Exercise”
On October 16th, 2019, Bloomberg news posted:
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum and Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation Host Pandemic Exercise and Livestream
Underscoring immediate need for global public-private cooperation to mitigate
severe world-wide economic and societal impacts of pandemics
Business Wire
NEW YORK — October 16, 2019
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, with the World Economic Forum
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will host Event 201, a multimedia
global pandemic exercise on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019, in New York City. The
public may register and participate in the simultaneous virtual exercise in
English, 8:50 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EDT at centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/.
The exercise underscores the need for global public-private cooperation to
mitigate economic and societal impacts of severe pandemics.
In recent years, the world has seen a growing number of epidemic events, about
200 per year, which strain limited resources. A large global pandemic would be
disruptive to health, economies, and society. Economic studies show that
pandemics could be the cause of an average annual economic loss of 0.7% of
global GDP—or $570 billion.
Event 201, played by 15 leaders of businesses, governments, and public health,
will illustrate realistic policy problems that must be addressed under
pressure during a pandemic At the video-driven exercise, players will be
presented with a scenario that reveals unresolved and controversial policy and
economic issues that could be solved with sufficient political will, financial
investment, and attention.
“In addition to challenging health and health systems, pandemics can cause
severe cascading economic and societal consequences,” said Tom Inglesby, MD,
director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg
School of Public Health. “Neither governments nor private industries alone can
adequately respond to a severe pandemic; they must work together. We’ve
designed Event 201 to engage leaders in compelling ways to help them
understand the decisions needed to prepare for and respond to biological
threats.”
“Outbreaks of infectious disease are inevitable, but the economic damage they
cause is not,” said Ryan Morhard, project lead for Global Health Security at
the World Economic Forum. “Sustained attention from a broad multistakeholder
coalition is needed in advance of a severe pandemic to save lives and minimize
economic and societal consequences.”
Chris Elias, president of global development at the Gates Foundation, noted
that “Event 201 and its predecessor simulations like Clade X are crucial tools
to understand not only what is needed to effectively respond to global public
health crises, but also the consequences of what happens when we are not
prepared.”
The exercise is supported by funding from the Open Philanthropy Project.
More information is at centerforhealthsecurity(dot)org/event201, #Event201,
@JHSPH_CHS, @wef and @gatesfoundation.
EVENT 201 IS A FICTIONAL EXERCISE AND DISEASE
Editor’s note: RSVP for a confirmed seat, information about camera and
recording limitations; access same day to video, graphics, audio, photos and
interviews. See Event 201media advisory and other materials
Other media reported on the event, such as Forbes, and concluded that the public was not ready for such an outbreak.
www(dot)thegatewaypundit(dot)com/2020/03/johns-hopkins-and-gates-foundation-hosted-coronavirus-pandemic-simulation-last-october/
Iran horror: Prisoners in jail holding Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe dying in large numbers
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1255385/iran-news-Nazanin-Zaghari-Ratcliffe-prison-latest
“POLITICAL prisoners in the Iranian jail where British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held are dying in large numbers, an inmate said last night.
Nazanin was due to be released on medical furlough from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison but, despite the regime’s efforts to keep her alive as a valuable hostage, this is being blocked by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, her husband Richard said. It was feared the 41-year-old, jailed since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow Iran’s government, which she denies, had contracted coronavirus. But in recent days she has rallied. Last night one political prisoner, arrested during the November anti-regime demonstrations, described the hellish conditions being endured by inmates there.
His words – smuggled out of Evin through the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) opposition group – reveal a complete lack of medical attention as more and more inmates develop symptoms.
“The situation here is that really we’re all ill. We all have a dry cough. We all have fever. There are inmates who are suffering from a fever as high as 42 or 41 degrees. If you touch their forehead, your hand would burn,“ said the prisoner, known only as Meqdad.
“All we can do is try to reach the clinic by pushing and shoving. And once there, the guards tell us there is no doctor or that the doctor is not coming, return to your ward or we will use force.
“There are no test kits available. If, by chance, we happen to find a doctor, all they do is to aim their digital thermometer at us, without even approaching us.
“All they give are expectorant syrup. They do not even have any antihistamine – you cannot even find anti-allergy shots here. You cannot find even a pill for cold here,“ he said.
Any pretence of maintaining hygienic standards has long since been abandoned.
“Hygienic conditions here are awful,” he added.
“Prisoners who are imprisoned for embezzlement or financial fraud have money. They can afford to buy disinfectants for themselves from outside the prison, but we political prisoners are without that kind of money. We cannot even buy alcohol to clean our hands; we do not have detergents to wash our hands with.”
Chillingly, he told of a “number” of inmates transferred to Massih Daneshvari hospital who have not returned.
“They never came back,” he added.
“It seems that those whom the regime was unable to kill during the November uprising are being liquidated in the prison by coronavirus. They can eliminate whoever they choose, under the guise that the prisoner has contracted coronavirus, and the prisoner is taken away without anyone knowing about his whereabouts. “
And there was no evidence of the large-scale medical furloughs promised by the regime.
“Raissi (Ibrahim Raissi, the Head of the Judiciary) says they are setting 54,000 prisoners free. That is pure nonsense.
“Only the prisoners who spy on other prisoners were given furlough and their number does not exceed 10 people.
“We urge the UN and WHO representatives who are currently in Iran to come and visit us.
“Come and see what conditions I am having to survive in Ward 4, where guards do not dare approach us for the head count, where they address us from a distance while wearing masks and gloves.
“Come and conduct snap inspections, especially wards 209 and 240 that are run by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and also wards 1A and 2A of the IRGC intelligence prison which aren’t even officially part of the system.”
Nazanin, from north London, had flown to Iran to introduce her parents to the couple’s young daughter Gabriella.
The Foreign Office has been trying to secure her immediate release on medical grounds. But claims this was due to happen by Iran’s ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinijad failed to materialise.
Last night, Richard said: “Nazanin is still there. Last week Iran’s Ambassador tweeted that she was about to be released. Every day it was ‘tomorrow’. Her bags are packed.
“My reading is that Iran’s foreign ministry wants her to come out temporarily because she remains a valuable asset for Iran. But this is being blocked by the Revolutionary Guard which is asserting its control.
“We were really convinced she got Covid-19 last week. She had all the symptoms but she’s recovered. We’re hoping she’s had it and survived it but, of course, she could simply have had something similar.
“They’re not testing anyone and they’re not treating anyone there. She’s high profile and we know that when they ran out of detergents and disinfectant in her ward, it would be the same throughout the prison.
“Only those of the elite class who fell foul of the regime are being allowed to buy in provisions. She is certainly not being given that option.
“We are very worried and are keeping a close eye on things. “
Iran says it has had 10,000 coronavirus infections and 429 deaths.
But yesterday Iranian opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) said that more than 4,000 Iranians had died after contracting the virus.
Of those, 650 were in the holy city of Qom, where clerics continue to reject government advice.”
Jihadi behind soldier beheading terror style plot claimed £1m legal aid
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1255366/Jiahdi-terror-parviz-khan-Birmingham
“THE LEADER of an al-Qaeda terror cell who plotted to behead a British soldier claimed more than £1million in legal aid – and could be back on the streets next year.
Jobless Parviz Khan, 49, was jailed for life in 2008 for the plot to kill, and for sending equipment to terrorists in Pakistan. The Birmingham-based extremist, who planned to slaughter a serviceman “like a pig”, received £1,696 a month in benefits while plotting his atrocity, including £160 a week as an allowance to care for his elderly mother. He was arrested before identifying a target and admitted the plan at Leicester Crown Court in February 2008.
Records show the married father of four claimed £1,072,398 in legal aid, of which £345,842 went to his solicitors and the remainder to barristers representing him.
Derby-born Khan is eligible for parole in February 2021, having served a minimum 14 years of his life sentence from being on remand after his arrest in 2007. Three members of his gang have already been released.
Zahoor Iqbal, 41, Mohammed Irfan, 42, and Hamid Elasmar, 55, were freed in October 2009 with African recruit Basiru Gassama, 41, who was deported to Gambia.
In covert recordings Khan, codenamed Motorway Madness during surveillance operations, said: “It would terrorise British soldiers and young Blair is going to go crazy.”
Nigel Rumfitt QC said of the beheading plan: “The initial idea was to approach him [the soldier] in Broad Street [in Birmingham] and lure him into a car, then take him to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off ‘like a pig’.”
After the trial Det Supt Liam O’Brien described Khan as “a dangerous man who had deep and entrenched views”. He warned at the time: “I strongly believe that, if we hadn’t taken action, we would be talking about the kidnap and murder of a British soldier.”
Khan was a keen Sunday league footballer and cricketer before he was radicalised during several trips to Pakistan. He then became a fanatic who spoke of the July 7 bombers as “brothers”.
Arrested four months after naming his third child Usamah – a version of Osama – Khan was “training” his three-year-old daughter to marry a Mujahideen fighter.
Critics slammed the level of public funding for Khan, contrasting it with reports that families of victims of the London Bridge, Westminster and Manchester Arena attacks were denied legal aid.
Rakib Ehsan, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said: “Hard-working British taxpayers will be understandably miffed over the eye-watering amounts of public money spent on funding the legal defence of Islamist extremists.
“Much of the wider public continue to hold fears over convicted terrorists being freed from prison and into their local communities.”
David Green, director of think tank Civitas, said: “He should have received a whole of life sentence, which would have excluded any possibility of parole.”
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “Payments are sent directly to solicitors and barristers to ensure a fair trial so criminals can be properly convicted.””
It’s a rackateering operation: the courts and lawyers in cahoots steal vast sums from the taxpayers.