Reader’s Links for July 10, 2020

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

74 Replies to “Reader’s Links for July 10, 2020”

  1. I think this is something to keep an eye out for:
    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/07/10/iran-opposition-hosts-massive-summit-to-expose-mullahs-on-terrorism-coronavirus-n628761

    Iran Opposition Hosts Massive Summit to Expose Mullahs on Terrorism, Coronavirus
    BY TYLER O’NEIL JUL 10, 2020 12:02 PM EST

    Ayatollah Khamenei (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
    Next Friday, the international resistance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), will meet for a massive global summit. The summit aims to rally the West against the mullahs, exposing the Iran regime’s terrorism and its horrific response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, which the opposition claims has killed nearly 70,000 in Iran (the regime’s reported count is 12,000). The summit also aims to energize “Resistance Units” in Iran, building the movement from inside, as well as outside, the country.

    “The gathering will echo the demands of the Iranian people expressed in the November 2019 and January 2020 uprisings for regime change,” MEK spokesman Shahin Gobadi, who is based in Paris, told PJ Media in a statement. “Activities of the Resistance Units inside Iran will be a major feature of the unique event, which will be watched throughout the country.”

    “Iranians and hundreds of political dignitaries and lawmakers will join them and will warn about the mullahs’ growing use of terrorism. They will urge the international community to adopt a resolute policy in response to Tehran’s human rights abuses, terrorism, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” Gobadi added.

    Ramesh Sepehrrad, a Ph.D. professor at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, hailed the tenacity of the free Iran movement.

    “The free Iran movement stands on four decades of hard-earned experiences and sacrifices, and continues to grow at home and abroad through the leadership of an organized and authentic opposition group,” Sepehrrad told PJ Media. “Resiliency, audacity, and steadfastness seen among the Iranian diaspora in organizing such an elaborate global summit is just one dimension of it. The other dimension is seen among the youth, women, labor movement, teachers’ unions, and the broader population who organize and support the engine for change at home.”

    “The nationwide protests and total rejection of the regime is multi-generational and cuts across all sectors of the society,” Sepehrrad insisted. “Even the regime’s insiders are speaking of the imminent downfall. It is for this reason this global summit, taking place online during the pandemic, will draw in thousands in solidarity with the people of Iran. It is a historic event to watch, research, and study.”

    INTERPOL Responds to Iran Arrest Warrant for Trump
    The summit will take place in cities around the globe, including Washington, D.C., Paris, and Berlin, linked via an internet live-stream. Persians inside Iran, ex-patriots, resistance leaders, foreign dignitaries, and journalists will attend in person or virtually.

    Notable foreign dignitaries include former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Al Gore’s 2000 running-mate former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), former French Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, Canada’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission Ken Blackwell.

    This is not the first foreign meeting of the free Iran movement. In 2018, the NCRI held a similar — though smaller — conference in Paris. A senior Iranian diplomat allegedly attempted to bomb that summit, which also included Giuliani. A co-ordinated intelligence operation between French, German, and Belgian services thwarted the event before the summit. The French foreign ministry insisted there was no doubt Iran’s intelligence ministry had hatched the bomb plot. France expelled the diplomat and imposed sanctions, further undermining the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, which France had supported.

    After two years in prison, that diplomat will finally face trial before a Belgian court, at around the same time as the global summit. France, the Netherlands, and Turkey have also expelled Iranian diplomats or have implicated them in recent terror acts.

    Khamenei’s regime has grown increasingly desperate in recent months. After Iran-backed Iraqi militias stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, President Donald Trump authorized a strike against Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani, the Iran regime’s primary leader of terrorist acts outside the Islamic Republic. This important strike neutralized one of Iran’s senior leaders, undermining its foreign influence.

    Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes infamously shot down a Ukrainian airliner by mistake, killing 176 people on board. Persians took to the streets in cities across Iran, condemning Soleimani and chanting, “Death to Khamenei!”

    This unrest followed protests last November, as Iran reduced fuel subsidies by 50 percent and instituted rationing, in part due to pressure from the Trump administration after America withdrew from the Iran deal.

    Then the coronavirus pandemic came, just before parliamentary elections. Tehran appears to have suppressed information about the coronavirus in order to avoid a low turnout in the elections. Voting fell to the lowest level since 1979, and Khamenei accused the country’s enemies of exaggerating the threat of the coronavirus right before the election.

    The outbreak appears to have begun in Qom, the mullahs’ spiritual center. Satellite images from space showing mass graves appear to have confirmed the opposition’s claims that Tehran has vastly under-reported the death count from the coronavirus pandemic. This past weekend, Iran recorded its highest number of deaths from COVID-19 in a 24-hour period, at 163. The true number is likely higher.

    The summit on July 17 will not only call on the West to crack down on the mullahs and energize opposition from within Iran, but it will also include a memorial for the nearly 70,000 Persians who have died from coronavirus in Iran, according to the MEK.

    While Iran insists the MEK has a history of terrorism, the opposition party has insisted that terrorist acts the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attributed to it were really perpetrated by a Marxist-Leninist faction called Peykar. In 2012, the State Department removed the MEK from its list of terrorist organizations.

    The MEK and NCRI are far from perfect, but they represent the most realistic leadership for the free Iran movement, and their summit marks an important salvo against Khamenei’s oppression. It is high time for such a massive summit against this terrorist regime, and the world should pay attention.

  2. SERBIA – BELGRADE – JULY 10 2020 – Demonstrators attempt to storm Serbian parliament on 4th night of protests

    BELGRADE, Serbia — Police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators who tried to storm Serbia‘s parliament on Friday, the fourth night of protests against the Balkan country president’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

    Demonstrators — who were defying a ban on mass gatherings amid a spike in virus infections — threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police guarding the domed parliament building in central Belgrade and removed the metal fences in front of it. Smoke rose above the entry stairway.

    Police first used their shields to push back the protesters and prevent them from entering the building. But after repeated attacks, they fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, and then ended up in running battles with demonstrators.

    more:

    https://globalnews.ca/news/7165192/serbia-parliament-protests-belgrade/

    ========================================

    Riot Police Break Up Anti-Government Protests In Belgrade

    BELGRADE – Police fired tear gas multiple times to break up a demonstration in Serbia’s capital on a fourth night of anti-government protests sparked over the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Angry protesters threw firecrackers and stones at riot police guarding the parliament in Belgrade on July 10, breaking through a barrier to reach the building. Police used their shields to push back the demonstrators and then chased people through the streets to break up the demonstration.?

    Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the “thugs” who sparked incidents in front of the parliament building didn’t cause any serious damage and he told Serbs not to worry.

    “The perpetrators will be defeated, the majority of them will be arrested, and they will have to answer for all the crimes they committed,” Vucic told Pink television in a live broadcast from Paris, where is he participating in normalization talks with Kosovo hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    more:

    https://www.rferl.org/a/belgrade-protests-serbia-coronavirus-vucic/30720424.html

  3. the guardian – Ghislaine Maxwell requests bail release due to ‘unprecedented’ Covid-19 risks

    Maxwell awaits trial over alleged involvement in Epstein crimes
    Lawyers in court papers ask for Maxwell be released on bail

    Ghislaine Maxwell should be released on bail while awaiting trial for her alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring because of “the Covid-19 crisis and its impact on detained defendants”, the British socialite’s lawyers argued in Manhattan federal court papers filed on Friday.

    Maxwell, 58, was arrested on 2 July at her Bradford, New Hampshire, home. She faces up to 35 years in federal prison if convicted.

    Her lawyers insisted that Maxwell is not a flight risk, and said she was trying to keep a low profile amid unrelenting “carnival-like” media scrutiny.

    “As this court has noted, the Covid-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented health risk to incarcerated individuals, and Covid-19-related restrictions on attorney communications with pre-trial detainees significantly impair a defendant’s ability to prepare her defense,” Maxwell’s lawyers claimed in their bail argument.

    “Simply put, under these circumstances, if Ms Maxwell continues to be detained, her health will be at serious risk and she will not be able to receive a fair trial.”

    Maxwell’s legal team proposed several bail conditions, including a $5m personal recognizance bond co-signed by six financially responsible people, backed by property in the UK worth over $3.75m. They also proposed limiting her travel to the New York City area, turning in all her travel documents, imposing home confinement in New York City with GPS monitoring, and restricting visitors to her immediate family, close friends and lawyers.

    Maxwell is due to appear in court Tuesday for bail arguments and her arraignment.

    Law enforcement officials in Manhattan have accused Maxwell of “slithering away” into hiding following Epstein’s arrest last July and repeatedly lying about her alleged involvement in his abuse of underage girls.

    On Friday, Maxwell’s lawyers claimed that rather than hide, she contacted federal prosecutors through her lawyers shortly after Epstein’s arrest, and they “maintained regular contact” with them. Maxwell would have also been willing to turn herself in authorities advised them of her impending arrest, they said.

    In arguing that Maxwell isn’t a flight risk, her legal team insisted that she “has never once attempted to ‘hide; from the government or her accusers, and has never shown any intent to leave the country.”

    Prosecutors said Epstein, a convicted sex offender, and Maxwell had a “personal and professional” relationship, as well as an “intimate relationship” from about 1994 to 1997. Epstein killed himself in jail last August.

    “Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims for abuse,” Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, said at a press conference several hours after the arrest. “In some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse.

    “She set the trap. She pretended to be a woman they [alleged victims] could trust.”

    The 17-page Manhattan federal court indictment against Maxwell charges her with crimes such as conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and perjury.

    Many women have alleged that Maxwell lured them into Epstein’s orbit, recruiting them to give him massages, where they were then pressured into sexual activity. Until Maxwell’s indictment, she had never faced criminal charges for these allegations.

    Maxwell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein or women linked to him.

    “Ever since Epstein’s arrest, Ms Maxwell has been at the center of a crushing onslaught of press articles, television specials and social media posts painting her in the most damning light possible and prejudging her guilt. The sheer volume of media reporting mentioning Ms Maxwell is staggering,” her lawyers argued in the court papers.

    “The ‘open season’ declared on Ms Maxwell after Epstein’s death has come with an even darker cost – she has been the target of alarming physical threats, even death threats, and has had to hire security guards to ensure her safety. The media feeding frenzy, which has only intensified in recent months, has also deeply affected her family and friends,” they said.

    They said later that “Ms Maxwell will be at significant risk of contracting Covid-19 if she is detained, and she will not be able to meaningfully participate in the preparation of her defense due to the restrictions that have been placed on attorney visits and phone calls in light of the pandemic.”

    Maxwell’s legal team also contended that after Epstein died, “the media focus quickly shifted to our client — wrongly.”

    “But sometimes the simplest point is the most critical one: Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein,” they wrote.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/10/ghislaine-maxwell-bail-release-covid-19-jeffrey-epstein