Reader’s Links for August 17, 2020

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

90 Replies to “Reader’s Links for August 17, 2020”

    • Friday afternoon at 2:00 I went into the VA with Pneumonia, I have spent the past few days cutoff. So far this month I has spent 10 of the 17 days in the VA. I am getting better but next Monday I have an appointment at the Cardio Clinic.

      I want my friends to pray for me (I don’t think I am at much risk) and for Tara’s Husband Shannon, as I was coming home from the VA she was being rushed to a hospital with what they think was a mini stroke. She is starting to pull herself together but was pretty broken up when I talked to her. If I can find a laptop I can afford I will get it to take to the VA with me so when they keep me I won’t lose contact with you guys.

      • Oh man Richard! Please take good care of yourself!

        Do you know you are the first regular at this site? So its very important that you stay here as a central pillar of this community.

        Please get well soon

        V

        • We are working on it, I think there are going to be some big changes made in my meds soon, changes that will help a lot.

          I am leaving instructions with Tara to notify you if I die so in this case while no contact is scary it is better then getting an obit.

          • Richard, “If I die” is not an option. Please, please take good care of yourself. I always read your every word. Keep on the sunny side.

            • Its not my time but I do like to have all bases covered just in case. I am 73, my father reached 86 and I think I should be able to reach 96 or more so like I said this isn’t my time but I am covering my bases.

      • He was rushed to hospital with a mini stroke. (I have to start checking for mistakes)

        • Richard-
          As Mum used to say – “Bite your tongue!” – for saying such terrible things.

          I count on you.
          I look for you every day, even on Sabbath when I’m not here. You are solid gold.

          Refuah sheleima –
          – to YOU
          – to Tara, her husband

          I need your mother’s name. By tradition it’s:
          • Richard, son of ____,
          • Tara, daughter of____.
          (Always the mother’s name.)
          Then my Russki can say it with Torah, now that minyan has resumed (outdoor, “socially distanced”).

          I am praying for you now myself. Psalms you know well, that we share. Let’s keep at it here, because heaven is still a stretch.…

          • My mother was Ruth, I don’t know here mother’s name or his. I will get them tomorrow morning.

            Shannon has a blood clot in his neck that is breaking up, one portion is lodged in his brain and they are operating to remove it before the artery ruptures.

  1. Belgian kids get beaten up by gangs of muslims in Leuven, Belgium. They’re forced to kneel and apologize:
    https://www.tscheldt.be/gezocht-meer-info-over-gruwelvideo-uit-leuven/

    This seems to be anti-gay violence. They’re going after kids on Tik-Tok especially (they simply assume those are all gay).

    It’s a goon squad of about 600 guys in Belgium and the Netherlands who organize through Telegram. Going by the language they use, they’re motivated by islam. Article in Dutch:
    https://www.nieuwnieuws.nl/5148389/online-anti-lhbt-knokploeg-ontdekt-na-schokkende-video/

    A muslim kid called Jamal Mounir (18) came out of the closet at 14, 4 years ago. His parents pressured him to jump under a train. He was thrown out of the house when he turned 18, who earlier pressured him to commit suicide. People in the Telegram group call on his parents to kill him, “to slaughter him”. Article in Dutch:
    https://www.linda.nl/meiden/mounir-op-straat-gezet-homoseksueel/

  2. ‘Scholar’ Claims Landmarks of Western Architecture Were ‘Stolen’ from Islamic World
    BY ROBERT SPENCER AUG 16, 2020 4:33 PM EST

    In yet another installment of what is apparently a never-ending series of articles designed to make their readers take no pride in their own culture and heritage, the UK’s Guardian on Thursday published a lengthy, breathlessly enthusiastic article entitled: “Looted landmarks: how Notre-Dame, Big Ben and St Mark’s were stolen from the east.”

    They are beacons of western civilisation. But, says an explosive new book, the designs of Europe’s greatest buildings were plundered from the Islamic world – twin towers, rose windows, vaulted ceilings and all.

    Plundered! Of course! When has the Judeo-Christian West done anything except steal, oppress, and kill?

    The Guardian article highlights the “discoveries” of a “Middle East expert” named Diana Darke, author of a new book called (what else?) Stealing from the Saracens, which the Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright calls “an exhilarating, meticulously researched book that sheds light on centuries of borrowing.”

    “Borrowing” is a more polite word than Diana Darke herself used, but otherwise Wainwright is completely on board with her project, reporting her dismay at finding that it was not common knowledge in the West that everything we have, everything we have done, everything we have made, has come from Islam: “I was astonished at the reaction,” she lamented. “I thought more people knew, but there seems to be this great gulf of ignorance about the history of cultural appropriation. Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia, I thought it was about time someone straightened out the narrative.”

    Sure. And who better to do that than the illustrious Diana Darke, who is often featured on the BBC, as well as in the Guardian. It’s easy to see why she would be the British intelligentsia’s favorite “Middle East expert”: her new book, with its ridiculous claims, is yet another example of the UK elite’s ongoing efforts to compel Britons to believe that Islam is part of their own culture and heritage, so that they will be shamed into fearing to oppose mass Muslim migration into Britain, as well as jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women and others. It’s just more of Britain’s continuing cultural suicide.

    In this case, the deception and sleight of hand are clumsy and obvious. Note that the subtitle of the Guardian article claims that “the designs of Europe’s greatest buildings were plundered from the Islamic world.” A centerpiece of Diana Darke’s case for that is that “Notre-Dame’s architectural design, like all gothic cathedrals in Europe, comes directly from Syria’s Qalb Lozeh fifth-century church.”

    A fifth-century church. Islam arose in the seventh and eighth centuries. What exactly does the design of a pre-Islamic church in Syria have to do with the Islamic world? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. It just happens that the site of this church was conquered by Muslims several centuries after it was built, so for Diana Darke, the Guardian, and their luckless readers, this becomes an example of how the West “stole from” or “plundered” the Islamic world.

    Even more ridiculous is the claim that the Dome of the Rock was the basis for church architecture in Europe, when the Dome of the Rock itself was patterned after the great cathedral in Constantinople, Hagia Sophia. St. Mark’s in Venice was also patterned after Hagia Sophia, although Darke claims it was based on the Dome of the Rock. The interior of St. Mark’s is covered on virtually every available space with Christian art, as was the interior of Hagia Sophia. Which is its more likely influence? If those who built St. Mark’s were imitating the Dome of the Rock, why didn’t they opt for a more austere interior?

    This nonsense from Diana Darke is part of a much larger effort. Another example of the same cultural self-abnegation came last fall, when the British Museum ran a lavish exhibition called “Inspired by the East,” about how Western art had been massively influenced by Islamic art. Never mind that the Islamic influence on Western art was severely limited by the fact that Sharia forbids representation of the human form. That fact might have reflected negatively upon Islam and Sharia, and was left to the background.

    Did the British Museum host an exhibition on how Western art influenced the Islamic world, a topic about which there is a great deal that could be said, ranging from the cultural appropriation of Byzantine church architecture to the stylistic similarities of Shi’ite iconography to Western art? Of course not. The objective here is to get Westerners to despise their own heritage, not revere it.

    The British Museum, Diana Darke and the Guardian are doing the British public, and people all over the Western world, a grave disservice by misleading them about their own culture and heritage, and doing so in a way that is designed to render them complacent and defenseless in the face of a genuine threat: that of jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women and others.

  3. Here is Caroline Glick’s take on the Beirut blast(s):
    https://www.newsweek.com/lebanon-hezbollahs-potemkin-village-opinion-1524342
    Two days after the port of Beirut was destroyed last Tuesday, the first of three U.S. military C-130 cargo planes arrived in the devastated city. U.S. relief from the three shipments is valued at $17 million.

    U.S. commander of Central Command (Centcom), Marine General Frank McKenzie, called the chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Gen. Joseph Aoun and expressed “U.S. willingness to continue to work with the LAF to help provide aid and assistance to meet the needs of the Lebanese people during this terrible tragedy.”

    If Lebanon were a normal country, McKenzie’s statement would make sense. But it isn’t. And as the circumstances surrounding the destruction last Tuesday of the port in Beirut—and much of the surrounding 10 miles of the city—demonstrate, Lebanon is not really a country at all. Its national institutions and leaders are not actually national institutions and leaders. The best way to describe them is as front companies and front men for Hezbollah.

    Hezbollah has long been the most powerful military force in Lebanon. And in 2008, Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese legion, seized control of the country in a coup. Ever since, nothing has happened in Lebanon without Hezbollah’s permission.

    Hezbollah’s control of Lebanon isn’t a secret. In 2018, Hezbollah’s political bloc won an absolute majority of seats in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab—who resigned along with his government, on Monday—was hand-chosen by Hezbollah for the post. President Michel Aoun, too.

    International “experts” have long downplayed the significance of Hezbollah’s control of the country. True, they acknowledge, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization with one of the largest missile arsenals in the world. True, the LAF operates in support of Hezbollah and has never challenged it on anything. But, it is argued in places like the Pentagon and the French Foreign Ministry, Lebanon is a state. The government is elected. It makes decisions beyond Hezbollah—and its arsenal of well over 200,000 missiles pointed at Israel from launchers located in private homes and schools throughout the country.

    Aside from that, supporters of continued aid to the LAF argue, LAF forces cooperate with Centcom. They train with U.S. soldiers. If given sufficient arms and training, maybe one day they will challenge Hezbollah—or better yet, make it disappear in a poof.

    All of these fantasies, which have informed U.S. Lebanon policy since 2006, went up in the mushroom cloud over the port of Beirut last week. Those explosions showed that despite its national trappings, Lebanon’s government and national institutions are fronts.

    Like front companies, they perform duties not directly related to covering for Hezbollah, like opening docks in the morning. But they do so to hide their primary purpose, which is to enable Hezbollah’s operations.

    Two aspects of the blasts at the port last Tuesday drive home this point. First, there is the issue of ammonium nitrate—widely viewed as the cause of the destruction.

    The Lebanese government and Hezbollah insist there was only one explosion at the port last Tuesday. An initial fire broke out in a warehouse holding fireworks and that fire, they maintain, detonated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since 2013.

    The official government/Hezbollah line is that the ammonium nitrate arrived at the port on the Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged ship that set sail from Georgia with its ammonium nitrate cargo en route to Mozambique. The ship was impounded because port authorities declared the leaky ship was not seaworthy, and its crew couldn’t pay the transit fees. Port officials then offloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it at Hangar 12, the warehouse that exploded.

    There are many problems with this account. For starters, the Georgian ammonium nitrate firm Rustovi Avot, which allegedly exported the ammonium nitrate seven years ago, has only been active in ammonium nitrate for the past three years.

    Second, as strategic analyst David Wurmser explained in a detailed forensic analysis of the blasts published over the weekend, Lebanese experts claim Beirut, not Mozambique, was always the ship’s true destination. The port inspectors who initially seized the Rhosus told a Lebanese television reporter that Iran paid for the ammonium nitrate cargo.

    Wurmser noted Hezbollah controlled both Hangar 12 and Hangar 9, the site of the initial fire. Both hangars were located directly adjacent to the sea—prime real estate for parties keen to bring in and export items without having them examined or noticed by anyone.

    As for Mozambique, officials there claim they had no knowledge of the shipment.

    In 2015, Britain and Cyprus arrested Hezbollah operatives caught with thousands of kilograms of ammonium nitrate. This past May, acting on information from Israel’s Mossad, German intelligence agencies discovered hundreds of kilograms of ammonium nitrate stored in southern Germany by Hezbollah cells. Germany responded to the discovery by outlawing Hezbollah, which until then had been legally operating throughout the country.

    Destruction in Beirut, Lebanon
    Connecting the dots, Wurmser concludes Hangar 12 was not a storage area for a single shipment of ammonium nitrate transiting from Georgia to Mozambique. Instead, it was Hezbollah’s shipping dock for ammonium nitrate to its cells around the world.

    Following Tuesday’s devastation, President Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, announced that those responsible for the blasts would be held to account. Twenty port officials were arrested. But it is hard to argue they are responsible for what happened. Port officials tried repeatedly to get the ammonium nitrate removed from Hangar 12, only to be blocked by Hezbollah.

    The second aspect of the devastation that points to the true significance of Hezbollah’s control of Lebanon is the fact that Hezbollah and Aoun are lying about the blasts. There were two blasts at the port, 28 seconds apart, not one.

    As the videos of the blasts show, about half an hour after the fire broke out at Hangar 9, a first explosion occurred. Whereas the official story claims the blast came from fireworks stored at the warehouse, Wurmser and other experts dismiss this. The explosion, Wurmser explains, “produced thick whitish-gray ‘dirty’ smoke, consistent with some high explosives and even rocket fuel.”

    Wurmser contends the second, and most destructive, blast was weapons-grade ammonium nitrate, although arguably a larger quantity than claimed.

    Sunday, Italy’s Corriere Della Serre interviewed explosives expert Danilo Coppe, who argued that ammonium nitrate was not the cause of the second blast.

    “You can clearly see a brick orange column tending to bright red, typical of lithium participation, which in the form of lithium-metal is the propellant for military missiles. I think there were armaments there,” Coppe said.

    Lebanese politicians also point their fingers at Hezbollah, and its missile stores at the port. Lebanese Minister of Administrative Progress May Shadiaq said, “We have time and again called for closing all illegal routes, but Hezbollah wouldn’t agree. Hezbollah smuggles arms from Iran through illegal passages. Beirut’s port and airport is completely controlled by Hezbollah.”

    Lebanon imports 80 percent of what it consumes, and 90 percent of its wheat. Seventy percent of Lebanese imports entered the country through the now-destroyed port in Beirut. Yet, despite their country’s utter dependence on it, Lebanese port officials had no ability to secure the port.

    Notwithstanding their official titles and procedures, Beirut’s port officials were Hezbollah’s front men. The officials now being blamed for the port’s destruction couldn’t seize anything Hezbollah wanted to keep, or see anything Hezbollah wanted to keep hidden. They had no control over what entered or exited the port that they ostensibly controlled, as officers of the ostensible Lebanese government. They had no power to secure the installation they were ostensibly running.

    This then brings us to the U.S., and its pledge to work with the LAF to provide humanitarian aid to Lebanon. Following the port’s destruction, protesters by the tens of thousands took to the streets demanding a revolution and the ouster of Hezbollah and Iran from Lebanon. Footage released Sunday showed LAF forces, joined by civilian-clad gunmen, shooting protesters in cold blood and LAF forces beating protesters with truncheons.

    Aside from the despair, there is nothing new about the protests or the calls for Hezbollah and Iran to be chased from Lebanon. For nearly a year before the outbreak of COVID-19, millions of Lebanese protested throughout the country with the same demands.

    The U.S., and the world governments now lining up to fund Lebanon’s reconstruction and relief, should listen to the cries of the Lebanese people. The LAF is not the solution to Lebanon’s problems. As a front company for Lebanon, like the port, it is a façade for Hezbollah’s power.

    It is hard to see a happy end to Lebanon’s problems. But the first step towards rationally coping with them is for the U.S. and its allies to recognize the truth revealed last Tuesday. Lebanon has no independent “national institutions” that can serve as counterweights against Iran’s Hezbollah, the most powerful terrorist organization in the world.

    • channel 4 – How the Beirut explosion brought Lebanon to the brink of collapse

      […]the whole Lebanese system is based on corruption, nepotism and negligence.

      For many Lebanese, this is the final straw.

      They’ve been protesting against the government since last autumn, furious about the way the country is run by factions who divide power amongst themselves, and who have led Lebanon into a devastating economic crisis.

    • Seismological Data: Six Explosions before Massive Beirut Blast

      The tremendous explosion in Beirut was preceded by six smaller explosions 11 seconds apart, according to seismological data collected by Israel’s Tamar engineering group, which has for decades dealt with demolition and controlled explosions.

      While sensors in Israel clearly detected the tremors caused by the huge blast, the six others were discovered using CY603, a seismographic network of six sensors located in the sea between Cyprus and Lebanon, installed in the framework of IRIS, an international geological project for the prediction of earthquakes and the detection of weapons testing in the Mediterranean basin.

      Each of those six explosions was equivalent to several tons of explosives. The sixth explosion was several times bigger.

      According to Aharon (Arik) Goren, head of the Israeli Explosives Safety Center, “If there were really 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port, as it was declared, it would have been equivalent to the power of about 850 tons of TNT…but that still isn’t enough to explain the 43-meter-deep crater that was created.”

      “According to the accepted formulas, the crater should have been less deep. The unusual depth could be explained by…the explosion of weapons that weren’t reported.”

      https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/44662

    • Avi Issacharoff:
      Hezbollah, Lebanon’s enemy within, remains untouchable despite port catastrophe

      It is hard to be certain that the Port of Beirut explosion is completely unrelated to Hezbollah. Regardless, it has damaged the organization’s ability to maneuver against Israel and inflict serious injury on it. Hezbollah’s legitimacy has taken a blow and it will now need to focus on the rehabilitation of Lebanon, and especially Beirut. Yet we should bear in mind that this is Hezbollah, and it may attempt to strike just to prove its fearlessness.

      Another thing to bear in mind is that Hezbollah is first and foremost a guerrilla army, and that currently there is no other internal force that can threaten it.

      There are of course other militias in Lebanon – almost every ethnic group has its own private army: the Phalangists with their anti-tank missiles and machine guns are still fighting for the Christians; the Palestinians in the refugee camps have enormous caches of weapons, and they even have regional and brigade commanders; the Druze are the third armed ethnic group.

      Yet none of these groups can challenge or threaten the fourth armed ethnic group, the Shiites, headed by Hezbollah.

      Another fact can be ascertained by examining the photos of the Lebanese demonstrators. For the most part they are young men and women, mainly Sunni and Christian, but also some Shiites.

      Young, attractive, and perhaps naive, they are reminiscent of Israel’s left-wing demonstrators. Nasrallah is watching these demonstrations and allowing them to let off steam — up to a point.

      Then he will give one of his famous speeches to deliver a warning of what will happen if the demonstrators resort to force. He is allowing them to express their rage, knowing that their resistance will eventually die down. Why? Because these are the rules in Lebanon and this is how the state has proceeded for dozens of years. The demonstrators can enjoy themselves breaking into government offices — but they can’t touch Hezbollah.

      https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-lebanons-enemy-within-remains-untouchable-despite-port-catastrophe/

          • “NeverTrumper Michael Hayden of CIA, NSA: Breitbart News ‘Illegitimate’”
            by Joel Pollak – march 10, 2017

            Excerpt:

            Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) director Michael Hayden did his best in 2016 to elect Hillary Clinton. Worse, Hayden made the inflammatory and frightening claim on CNN at the time that Donald Trump was a “clear and present danger” to the country.
            https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2017/03/10/michael-hayden-breitbart/

            “Directing the Disorder”
            William F. Jasper – August 10, 2020

            Excerpt: Subtitle “Pressure From Above and Below”

            One of the CFR’s most potent (and disturbing) demonstrations of its clout has been its ability to bring out a string of retired generals and admirals to openly criticize (or outright condemn) President Trump, especially concerning his statements and actions in response to the BLM/Antifa rioting and revolution. Some of them even imply seditiously that they might favor a military coup to remove the president by force. One of the most outrageous appeals in this regard came from retired general John Allen (CFR, and now president of the leftist-globalist Brookings Institution), who wrote a scathing anti-Trump, pro-BLM screed for the CFR-aligned Foreign Policy journal. Another came from retired admiral William McRaven in the New York Times. More blasts have come from retired admiral James Stavridis (CFR, now an officer in the globalist, immensely wealthy Carlyle Group) in Time, as well as retired admiral Michael Mullen (CFR) and retired general Michael Hayden (CFR). Still more blistering attacks have come from generals James Mattis, Barry McCaffrey, and others who are not CFR members but have been given positions to fire their salvos from CFR media platforms. This level of unprecedented seditious and treasonous activity by general officers is beyond outrageous, and indicates that the insiders of the Deep State are pulling out all stops to scuttle not only Donald Trump but the American Republic as well.
            https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/36507-directing-the-disorder

      • Good girl Maxine, keep talking. She is such a peach, at Dick Gregory’s funeral, part of her mourning was to stand and call Donald Trump, an ego maniac, a liar and the most deplorable person she had ever met. “When I get through with Donald Trump, he’s going to wish he was impeached. White supremacists’ White House”.

        She visited Cuba often, loved Castro, wrote to him asking him to not extradite cop killer Joanne Chesimard.

        Endorsed Hill and then switched to Obama.

        During the LA riots, when the stores were being looted, she said “ There were mothers who took this as an opportunity to take some milk, to take some bread, and to take some shoes….they are not crooks”.

        The Liberal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and
        Ethics, named Maxine to its list of corrupt members of Congress in 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2011. Her relatives made more than 1 million dollars doing business with companies, candidates and causes Waters helped.
        In 2009 she was named “Porker of the Month” and came under investigation for more ethics violations .
        She has the honour of being called the “Poverty Pimp”, she does not live in her district, she lives in a gated community.

        She is bff with Louis Farrakhan. Swamp girl should step down. She hates Donald Trump and that is exactly everyone should vote for Trump.

  4. Nigel Farage: Illegal migration poses genuine national security risk

    Nigel Farage has criticised the mainstream media for its portrayal of migrant crossings in the English Channel.

    Speaking with talkRADIO’s Miek Graham, the Brexit Party leader said: “Every portrayal of who is coming across the channel on the BBC or Sky news will show you a heavily pregnant woman or a six-year-old boy.

    “85 per cent of those that come are young, single men under the age of 30 and in most cases we do not have a clue who any of them are but it’s a pretty fair bet that amongst them are a sprinkling of people with ISIS style sympathies”

  5. Pakistan: Thousands of protesters decry Israel-UAE deal in Rawalpindi

    Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Rawalpindi on Sunday, against the US-brokered peace deal between Israel and the UAE.

    Protesters were seen holding up flags of Jamaat-e-Islami party and banners with slogans which condemns the deal.

    “Since 1948, no Muslim country did this shameful act like the one the United Arab Emirates did on this August 13 by a signing a deal with Israel,” said Leader of Jamaat e Islami Sirajul Haq while addressing the crowds.

    Haq called on the protesters to organise demonstrations in the capital Islamabad.

    The Israel-UAE treaty, which was announced on Thursday, establishes diplomatic ties between the two countries, and has triggered severe backlash in parts of the Arab and Islamic worlds.

    • ‘We are all Hamas’: Increasing Collaboration between Foes of India and Israel

      During Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza (2014), a viral Facebook post emerged featuring militia men flying Palestinian flags and wearing headbands belonging to Hamas’s Qassam Brigades. “We are all Hamas,” the caption read.

      This sort of militant propaganda is common in the Middle East, particularly during times of conflict. In that sense, this post seems unremarkable.

      But this post was not made by Hamas, nor by their traditional Arab backers. It was posted by the Pakistani branch of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a group often called the South Asian version of the Muslim Brotherhood.

      This striking display of trans-national unanimity is a perfect example of a larger truth: the enemies of Israel and India are increasingly making common cause. Whereas once the alliance was primarily an abstract ideological bond, now the Islamists of the Middle East and South Asia are openly mobilising their networks, coordinating and campaigning for each other’s causes. The Islamist ummah is uniting like never before.…

      For Islamists in South Asia and the Middle East, the reality of Hindu and Jewish sovereignty in lands that were formerly ruled by Islam strikes a nerve, thereby fueling accusations of injustice and human-rights violations, which while seemingly founded in good-nature, genuinely conceal a dark ulterior motive: the revival of Islamist rule….

      But with much of the Arab world moving in a less-Islamist direction, and the Palestinian issue holding less potency than it used to, Islamists must find a new rallying point to sustain their cause. That point has increasingly become Kashmir. Given that the Palestinian struggle has long served as a beacon of Islamists aspirations, this rhetoric comes with a built-in constituency.…

      Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists all have numerous countries and regions in which they are a majority. Not so Hindus and Jews, and they share a common foe. The faster they come to understand their fates as being intertwined, the better.

      Their respective foes, for their part, have already come to this realisation.

      https://www.meforum.org/61390/collaboration-between-foes-of-india-and-israel

  6. “Antifa – Black Lives Matter Mob Brutally Attacks Man in Portland; Knocks Him Out Cold with Kick to the Head (Video)”
    By Kristinn Taylor – August 17, 2020
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/antifa-black-lives-matter-mob-brutally-attacks-man-portland-knocks-cold-kick-head-video/

    Here’s your police replacement

    2 Video clips – Watch the mutt wearing a “Security” vest & black t-shirt with studs on the sleeves. He’s the guy that kicks the man in the head.

    “This is the moment immediately before. The mob assaults him and makes him sit in the ground while they search his belongings. When he stands up, they brutally beat him. ”
    Andy Ngô – August 17, 2020 – Twitter
    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1295236260114493445

  7. China’s Wuhan goes wild as water party attracts thousands

    Crowds packed out a water park over the weekend in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged late last year, keen to party as the city edges back to normal life.

    The popular Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park was filled with people frolicking in swimsuits and goggles for an electronic music festival, many perched on rubber dinghies or wading up to their chests in water.

    • DAILY MAIL – Thousands of Wuhan revellers flaunt social-distancing rules as they cram into a concert at a water park at the former COVID-19 epicentre

      Pictures show the outdoor park packed out by mask-free partygoers in the former coronavirus ground zero
      Mask-free visitors are seen standing shoulder to shoulder in water despite the escalating COVID-19 pandemic
      It comes as Hubei has offered people free entries to hundreds of scenic spots in a bid to boost local economy

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8635095/China-partygoers-cram-Wuhan-water-park.html

  8. paul j watson – Viral Shadowgate Documentary Deleted by Facebook and YouTube After Film Maker’s Arrest

    Movie was going viral with millions of views.

    The Shadowgate documentary, which went viral after one of its producers was arrested on Friday, has now been removed by both YouTube and Facebook.

    Journalist Millie Weaver was charged with alleged “robbery, tampering with evidence, obstruction justice, and domestic violence” after police officers apparently from a local SWAT team showed up at her Ohio home Friday morning and took her to the Portage County Jail in Ravenna.

    The Portage County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that there was a “secret indictment” against Weaver but refused to give further details.

    A woman claiming to be Weaver’s mother later commented that there had been a family dispute over a $50 cellphone on April 25, but that she had almost immediately dropped all charges against Weaver and expressed shock that her daughter had been arrested.

    The arrest occurred on the eve of Weaver releasing Shadowgate, a documentary that purports to expose the “operational role the shadow government played behind the scenes carrying out the coup against President Trump.”

    After the documentary received millions of views following its upload to Facebook and YouTube, both websites censored the film, with YouTube claiming the movie violated its rules against “hate speech.”

    Weaver is expected to appear in front of a “tentative bond meeting” later today.

    The full Shadowgate documentary can still be seen below.

    Weaver is expected to appear in front of a “tentative bond meeting” later today.

    There is also a live protest against her arrest taking place in Ohio right now.

    https://summit.news/2020/08/17/viral-shadowgate-documentary-deleted-by-facebook-and-youtube-after-film-makers-arrest/

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

  9. London stabbing: Police restrain man and rush him to hospital after knife attack in Brent (express, Aug 17, 2020)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1323898/London-news-stabbing-police-crime-scene-brent-hospital-st-marys-road

    “A MAN has been rushed to hospital after being found with stab wounds in north London.

    Police have cordoned off part of St Mary’s Road in Brent where the man was found. Officers had to restrain him as he initially refused treatment for his injuries. He has since been taken to hospital.

    Brent MPS tweeted: “A crime scene is in place in St Marys Road, Brent, after a man was found with stab injuries.
    “The man was restrained by officers, who believed he had a serious injury, after he refused treatment.
    “He was taken to hospital.
    “His injuries were assessed as non life-threatening.”
    More to follow…”

  10. ‘National Humiliation’: 1,000 Illegal Boat Migrants Reach UK in 10 Straight Days of Channel Crossings (breitbart, Aug 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/17/uk-migrant-crisis-1000-illegal-boat-migrants-reach-uk-10-straight-days-channel-crossings/

    “Over 1,000 illegal boat migrants crossed the English Channel in small rubber dinghies in just 10 days this month, as Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage brands the growing crisis a “national humiliation”…”

    • UK: migrants escorted by Border Force in the port of Dover

      UK Border Force officials escort migrants in Dover’s port, after picking them up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel.

      The British authorities have increased navy and air surveillance in the area as more than 1,000 migrants have arrived on Britain’s shores in the last 10 days after crossing the Channel in small boats.

  11. ‘She’s Taking Us for a Ride’: Farage Investigates ‘Migrant Hotel’ in Home Secretary’s Own Constituency (breitbart, Aug 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/17/shes-taking-us-ride-farage-investigates-migrant-hotel-home-secretarys-own-constituency/

    “Nigel Farage has criticised Priti Patel for failing to tackle the English Channel migrant crisis, releasing footage that appeared to show another hotel completely occupied by illegal boat migrants in the home secretary’s own constituency of Witham in Essex.

    The episode is the latest in a series of Farage Investigates. In one report last month, the Brexit Party leader had uncovered a hotel in the north of England turning away British tourist staycationers because the government was using it to house the increasing number of illegal aliens arriving on Britain’s shores from France….”

  12. 3 Indian troops, 2 militants killed in Kashmir fighting (abcnews, Aug 17, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/indian-troops-militants-killed-kashmir-fighting-72420070

    “Two paramilitary soldiers and a policeman were killed in a rebel attack Monday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, triggering a later gunfight in which two attackers died, officials said.

    Police said militants attacked police and soldiers who were on patrol in the northern Kreeri area, leaving two soldiers and a police officer dead.

    Police and soldiers immediately launched a search operation in the area, resulting in a gunbattle with the attackers inside an orchard, said Gul Junaid Khan, a paramilitary spokesman. He said two militants were killed in the fighting.

    It was the second militant attack in four days. On Friday, rebels attacked a police party in the region’s main city of Srinagar and killed two police officers.

    None of the rebel groups that have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989 immediately claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.

    The violence comes amid more than a year of near-daily fighting between Pakistani and Indian soldiers along the highly militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Scores of soldiers and civilians have died on both sides.

    India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in its entirety. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

    India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies.

    Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.”

  13. CBC – Trump attacks mail service, threatens to withhold money

    U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly made the unfounded claim that mail-in voting will lead to fraud.

    • CBC lol lol lol lol lol lol. The Canadian Liberal Left Loon Broadcasting Corporation. Nobody listens, they just keep getting bailouts from the Liberal Left Loon Party.

  14. Bahrain: Video of burqa-clad woman breaking Hindu idols goes viral, Islamists hail and celebrate on social media

    The Ministry of Interior, Bahrain has issued a statement regarding the viral video and said that the Director-General of Capital Governorate Police the 54-year-old woman was summoned for intentionally damaging a shop in Juffair and breaking religious idols.

    In the video, one can see two women standing near an aisle where idols of Hindu gods are kept on the shelf. One of the women then picks up the idols and then throws it on the floor and breaks it. Soon, Islamists took to social media to celebrate the breaking of idols and hailing the woman for doing so.

    Some were of the opinion that smashing of idols must only be done when ‘Allah commands it’ and such arbitrary breaking of idols without direct instructions from Allah is unfair.

    The Ministry of Interior, Bahrain has issued a statement regarding the viral video and said that the Director-General of Capital Governorate Police the 54-year-old woman was summoned for intentionally damaging a shop in Juffair and breaking religious idols. The ministry has further stated that legal proceedings are underway.

    https://www.opindia.com/2020/08/bahrain-burqa-woman-break-hindu-idol-ganesha-viral-video/

    • “Both in the East and the West, Islam does not sanction the rule of selfish desires. It has come to ABOLISH all such concepts, LAWS, customs and traditions, and to replace them with a new concept of human life, and to create a new world on the foundation of submission to the Creator”.

      • NOTE. The government of Canada will commit 1.2 billion dollars over the next 5 years to address the challenges by thousands of asylum seekers who have walked across the border.

        The Canadian government is earmarking 45 million dollars for anti-racism strategy.

        At the Muslim Family Conference, April 14, 2018, the Keynote speaker Egyptian, Omar Abdulkafi called Jews monkeys, pigs, aggressors and filth.

        Just more DIVERSITY

  15. DAILY MAIL – RUSSIA – Father and wannabe influencer is quizzed by police in Russia after posting a video holding his six-week-old daughter by one leg because ‘babies should be treated like monkeys’

    Igor Kravtasov, 35, from Moscow, admitted he’d been ‘careless’ with the child
    Wife Darya Getmanskaya, 27, the girl’s mother, has been detained for ten days
    The child is undergoing medical checks in a Sochi hospital after the incident

    His wife Darya Getmanskaya, 27, the girl’s mother, has been detained for ten days, too, after failing to intervene, and social services are considering whether to strip the couple of their parental rights, say reports.

    This follows an outcry by Russian childcare experts when the juggling footage went viral.

    […]’We are descended from monkeys, so we need to develop this activity in early childhood…

    ‘This helps the correct formation of bones.

    ‘Ligaments and joints become more mobile.’

    […]

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8634507/Wannabe-influencer-quizzed-police-Russia-posting-video-holding-baby-daughter-one-leg.html

  16. DAILY MAIL – FRANCE – Riot police are sent to Marseilles to enforce mask-wearing as increasing number of restrictions is met with violent resistance

    French government sending police to Marseille region to enforce mask wearing
    Government said that 130 police officers are being sent to the Marseille region
    Nation saw scattered incidents of violence by people refusing to wear masks

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8636211/Riot-police-sent-Marseilles-enforce-mask-wearing.html

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

  17. Italian girl, 15, ‘is raped on the beach by two “unaccompanied minors” being housed in migrant accommodation’ (dailymail, Aug 17, 2020)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8636525/Italian-girl-15-raped-beach-two-unaccompanied-minors.html

    “A 15-year-old girl has claimed she was raped on a beach by two underage boys, thought to be migrants.

    The girl, from Venice, was reportedly sitting alone on Lignano beach, north-east Italy, waiting for some friends when she was approached by three boys.

    Two of them raped her, according to local media, while the third stood by and watched.

    When they left she called emergency services sparking a man-hunt across the area that led to their arrest.

    The alleged rape took place on August 15, a major public holiday in Italy known as Ferragosto when families and friends meet for long meals.

    The girl had travelled 60 miles from her home in Venice on August 14 to spend the public holiday with some friends, it has been reported.

    But as she sat waiting for some friends, who had gone to bring another group to the beach, on August 15 she was approached by the three boys.

    The three alleged migrants had reportedly travelled to Lignano from Milan, on the other side of the country.

    Two of the boys are Albanian and one is Egyptian, according to Conservative Italian newspaper Il Giornale. They are reportedly aged between 16 and 17.

    The Northern League Security Councillor of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Pierpaolo Roberti, told the publication: ‘More controls and stricter measures, up to chemical castration for those who commit crimes of a sexual nature (are needed).’

    He added: ‘The worrying cultural climate in which certain phenomena occur is a sign of a total lack of any kind of values.'”

  18. One angry woman posted a video — a bit too angry for my taste at the end — she gets to Anne Frank in comparing what happened. I omitted including the link to the letter itself in case LD decides to tone it down, write a new letter, and post the link to youtube.
    (Aug 16, 2020) Yesterday, two women walked into Mother’s Market in Costa Mesa, which locked the front doors as they called the cops to have them arrested for “trespassing.” Take it from an attorney who was present: it’s not trespassing when you lock them in — it’s false imprisonment (and a fire code violation) and the cops should have arrested the employees. See my letter to Costa Mesa Police Chief here:

    • one vocal woman – the ladies deliberately tested how the store would react, then their attorney was outraged that the police made the error of arresting them for trespassing. The claim is that the store manager locked the ladies into the store.
      Anyone who invokes Nazis in this case has no clue and eviscerates her own cause. This attorney, though, does have sincere outrage on her side.
      http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2020/05/the-nations-maskers-keep-up-the-good-fight-against-the-virus/
      (Apr 22, 2020) Epic Speech by Leigh Taylor Dundas at 420 Reopen California Gridlock Rally

      • I’m totally grossed out by such trivialization of the shoah.
        Just when antisemitism is soaring, we need this? from people on “the right”? Carried away self-dramatizing, zero empathy. Jew-ish Americans top the list.

        I saw some pretty raw stuff at the Conservative Treehouse in comments about Kushner under a UAE-Israel article. They were quickly smothered, but it shows how jew-hate is so close to the surface – scratch & sniff, it’s there.

        Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism after George Floyd
        https://www.meforum.org/61385/joffe-on-anti-zionism-and-antisemitism

  19. PKK Says Shot Down Turkish Helicopter in Iraq
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/08/17/pkk-turkish-helicopter-iraq/

    “The Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) said Monday it had shot down a Turkish helicopter in Iraqi Kurdistan in retaliation for the death of one of its commanders last week.

    Last Tuesday’s Turkish drone strike had also killed two high-ranking Iraqi officers, sparking renewed tensions with Baghdad.

    In a statement Monday, the PKK said its forces in the mountainous Zagros region had “been able to score a direct hit and shoot down a Turkish helicopter.”

    “Ten minutes after the shooting-down of the first helicopter, our forces hit another one … forcing it to flee,” the militant group said.

    The mayor of Kani Massi, near the Turkish border, confirmed that a Turkish helicopter had crashed nearby.

    Servest Aqrawi told AFP that he was unable to confirm the second hit or the extent of the damage, given the difficulty of accessing the combat zone.

    The PKK dedicated Monday’s operation to its “martyr” Akid Karzan and the two Iraqi officers killed “by the Turkish occupation army.”

    Turkey, which has had a military presence in Iraq’s autonomous region for a quarter of a century, launched a cross-border ground and air operation against the PKK in the mountainous region in mid-June.

    Last Tuesday’s strike had prompted Iraq to summon the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad for the third time in two months.

    Then on Friday, Turkish bombardment killed three Kurdish fighters in the region.

    Ankara defends its right to bomb the PKK, which it considers to be a “terrorist” organization, and accuses Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan of turning a blind eye to the group’s activities.

    Baghdad for its part has sought to rally support to end Ankara’s offensive on its soil.

    The US and the EU also consider the PKK a terrorist organization.”

  20. Rouhani Slams Trump for Cruelty to Iranians
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/08/17/2329207/rouhani-slams-trump-for-cruelty-to-iranians

    “Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at his American counterpart for taking the most vicious actions against the Iranian people and violating the JCPOA.

    Addressing a cabinet session on Sunday, Rouhani hammered the incumbent US president for committing the worst crimes against the Iranian nation.

    He said Donald Trump’s move to pull the US out of the JCPOA and impose illegal sanctions on Iran was a violation of not only the rights of Iranians, but also a multilateral agreement with several other countries.

    Slamming the US government as a bully and violator of the international law, the president hailed the Foreign Ministry for its diplomatic efforts and derided the US’ humiliating failure in its push to extend a UN arms embargo on Iran.

    The US suffered an embarrassing diplomatic defeat on Friday when the United Nations Security Council rejected a proposal to indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Iran.

    The embargo on conventional arms is due to expire on October 18 under the terms of a resolution that blessed the Iran nuclear deal, signed in July 2015 and officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).”

  21. Islamic Revolution Front on Victory Path: IRGC General
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/08/17/2329535/islamic-revolution-front-on-victory-path-irgc-general

    “Despite the growing concord among the arrogant powers, the Islamic Revolution front is gaining victories while the Greta Satan is in the position of weakness, the deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said.

    Addressing a military ceremony in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz on Monday, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said the “evils and arrogant powers” in the world have joined hands and their growing unity is becoming more blatant every day.

    However, he added, it is obvious that the righteous front of the Islamic Revolution is in the position of power and victory, while the wrong front of the Great Satan is in the position of failure and weakness.

    In a speech in November 2018, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei branded the US government as the loser of confrontation with the Islamic Republic over the past 40 years, saying the fact in confrontation between the US and Iran is that “the victorious side in this challenge has been the Islamic Republic of Iran and the loser has been the US.”

    The Leader also highlighted the diminishing influence of the US government in all areas of power, saying Washington has even discredited “liberal democracy” which is known as the basis of Western civilization.”

  22. Iraqi PM Says Country Still Needs US Help
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2453891/iraqi-pm-says-country-still-needs-us-help

    “Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said Monday ahead of a much anticipated trip to Washington that his country still needs US assistance to counter the threat posed by the ISIS group and that his administration is committed to introducing security sector reforms as rogue militia groups stage near-daily attacks against the seat of his government.

    Kadhimi said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press that Iraq currently does not need direct military support on the ground, and that the levels of help will depend on the changing nature of the threat.

    Kadhimi is slated to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington this week to conclude a strategic dialogue launched in June to reconfigure US-Iraq ties…”

  23. Rights group: Yemen detainees being tortured in Saudi
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200817-rights-group-yemen-detainees-being-tortured-in-saudi/

    “Hundreds of Yemenis detained in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan prison have been subjected to systematic torture and ill-treatment by soldiers and officers, the SAM Organisation for Rights and Liberties has said.

    Information obtained by the group from former Yemeni detainees revealed that they had been subjected to severe torture by their captures including electrocutions, crucifixions, being held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods, being denied contact with the outside world including lawyers and family, as well as denial of health care.

    SAM’s Chairman, Tawfiq Al-Hamidi, said the Yemeni detainees include more than 500 recruits who were fighting against the Houthis along Saudi’s border noting that 28 of them had been arrested for asking to visit their families during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, while a number are fishermen who were detained by the Yemeni Coast Guards for unknown reasons and handed over to Saudi Arabia.

    According to the rights watchdog at least one detainee died of torture.

    SAM noted the case of Ahmed Saleh Al-Fateqi and Ali Al-Komani who had been subjected to daily torture after being detained in solitary confinement for months. Al-Fateqi and Al-Komani are still in detention.

    It called for an investigation into the enforced disappearance of Yemenis in Saudi prisons.”

  24. Iran holds UAE responsible for destabalising security in Gulf
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200817-iran-holds-uae-responsible-for-destabalising-security-in-gulf/

    “Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said yesterday that the Islamic Republic would “continue to provide aid to all resistance movements against the Israeli occupation”, warning “the Gulf states against creating a foothold for Israel in the region.”

    Speaking at a press conference, Brigadier General Hatami said: “What happened with the Emirates constitutes a betrayal of the Palestinian people, and the UAE bears the responsibility for destabilising security in the Gulf region, if this happens because of the presence of the Israeli occupation in it.”

    He also discussed the accelerating regional and international developments and confirmed that “these developments put us in front of a changing environment, which requires us to deal with these changes properly.”…”

  25. Iraqi officials sentenced to 7 years over corruption charges
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200817-iraqi-officials-sentenced-to-7-years-over-corruption-charges/

    “Iraq’s Commission of Integrity yesterday sentenced two officials to seven years in prison over “misusing more than seven million dinars ($5.8 million) of public funds.”

    “Martyrs Foundation former board members have committed violations as the head of the expedition to renovate the temple of Agerguf, 30 kilometres west of the country’s capital of Baghdad,” the commission said in a statement.

    The statement noted that the defendants had “intentionally” misused public funds and “abused their positions by committing multiple violations.”

    “After reviewing evidence, carrying out administrative investigations, checking a report by the state’s Board of Financial Supervision, as well as the presumption of the convicts’ escape, the commission issued a sentence in absentia to seven years in prison against the defendants in accordance with the provisions of Article 340 of the Penal Code,” the statement read…”

  26. Turkey FM: Biden support of opposition is confession of US involvement in coup attempt
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200817-turkey-fm-biden-support-of-opposition-is-confession-of-us-involvement-in-coup-attempt/

    “Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has suggested that US presidential candidate Joe Biden’s comments in support of the Turkish opposition is evidence that the US was involved in the failed coup attempt in 2016.

    In the video clip that went viral on Turkish social media over the weekend, Biden was recorded telling reporters in January that “We can support those elements of the Turkish leadership that still exist and get more from them and embolden them to be able to take on and defeat Erdogan.”

    He then stressed that he meant, “Not by a coup, not by a coup, but by the electoral process.”

    Referring to the last remark about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s defeat being “not by a coup,” Cavusoglu interpreted it in an interview with the Turkish news channel Canl? TV to mean that “We tried a coup in the past, it didn’t happen. So now let’s change tactics and methods.”

    The last coup attempt in recent Turkish history occurred on the night of 15 July, 2016, when sectors of the Turkish military led an armed uprising in major cities such as Istanbul and Ankara before being countered by both Turkish civilians and other military personnel.

    Since then, the government under Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been purging state, public, and military institutions of Gulenists – those who follow the exiled US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen – who Erdogan has accused of conducting the coup attempt.

    Although there was no evidence of the US government’s involvement in that incident, Cavusoglu now suspects the involvement of the administration under former President Barack Obama due to the comments by Biden, who was Obama’s vice-president at the time.

    In another interview with the Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency, Cavusoglu addressed Biden’s remarks and stated that “We strongly reject such impositions,” saying that his open plans to topple Erdogan in the Turkish elections in 2023 are “ignorant” of the Turkish nation and are “strange” coming from a statesman such as the US presidential candidate.

    The comments from Biden, although at least eight months old, come amid already increasing tensions between the US and Turkey over the past year due to a myriad of issues including Turkeys purchase of the S-400 missile defence system, its military intervention in Syria, and the US Congress’ blocking of arms sales to Turkey.

    Overall, however, Erdogan and US President Donald Trump reportedly enjoy a more cordial relationship, with the two often having phone calls and with Trump having shown support for Turkey’s intervention into Libya in support of the UN-backed government.”

  27. Greece secretly expels over 1,000 refugees, abandoning them at sea
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200817-greece-secretly-expels-over-1000-refugees-abandoning-them-at-sea/

    “Greece has been found to have secretly and illegally expelled over 1,000 refugees from its shores in recent months, abandoning many of them at sea around the border of Greek territorial waters.

    According to a report by the New York Times and based on evidence from witness testimony, researchers and the Turkish coastguard, at least 1,072 refugees and migrants were left abandoned at sea by Greek officials spanning 31 separate occasions since March this year.

    The refugees, largely made up of Syrians fleeing the conflict in their country, were forced onto damaged life boats at the border between Greek and Turkish, while others were left in their own boats after the engines were disabled by Greek officials.

    One personal testimony documented by the NYT was that of a Syrian mother named Najma Al-Khatib who fled into Turkey late last year with her two sons as the Syrian regime army advanced northwards. After her husband died of cancer in Turkey, she attempted to reach Greece three times this year, first failing as the smuggler did not arrive, then intercepted and turned away by Greek forces on her second time.

    On the third attempt on 23 July, Al-Khatib and her sons were detained by Greek police after landing on the island of Rhodes, and were then taken to a makeshift detention site. Under the cover of darkness, they were then removed from there with 22 others – including two babies – and abandoned by the police in a life raft without rudders or motors. It was the Turkish Coast Guard who then saved them.

    “It was very inhuman,” she told the NYT. “I left Syria for fear of bombing — but when this happened, I wished I’d died under a bomb.” She then made a fourth attempt on 6 August, at which her boat was stopped by the Greek officials and had its fuel removed and pushed back into Turkish waters.

    It is not only refugees attempting to reach Greece who have been expelled, however, but also those who already legally resided and worked in Greece, with human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) having documented how the authorities rounded them up and secretly deported them without legal action.

    An example of this was a 30-year-old Syrian X-ray technician named Feras Fattouh, who was arrested by Greek police in the port of Igoumenitsa on 24 July. Despite having legally lived in Greece since November last year with his wife and son – with documents to prove it – he was robbed by the police and then transported around 400 miles east to the Turkish border where he was secretly put on a dinghy with 18 others and sent across the river.

    Fattouh was expelled alone, with his wife and son remaining in Greece. “Syrians are suffering in Turkey,” he told the NYT. “We’re suffering in Greece. Where are we supposed to go?”

    Despite the evidence, including footage taken by passengers, the Greek government has denied the reports. According to government spokesman Stelios Petsas, “Greek authorities do not engage in clandestine activities.” He insisted that “Greece has a proven track record when it comes to observing international law, conventions and protocols. This includes the treatment of refugees and migrants.”

    Over the past nine years of the Syrian conflict, an influx of millions of refugees flowed through Turkey and into Europe until the migrant deal between the European Union and Turkey in 2015. After the EU failed to deliver its part of the deal, include the provision of money and other benefits to help Turkey keep the refugees from entering Europe, Turkey finally opened its border to Greece in February this year and let the refugees make their passage.

    Since then, the Greek border guards and police have committed numerous human rights violations against the refugees attempting to enter Europe, including pushing back and shooting at refugee boats, detaining and torturing them at secret black sites, stripping them naked and stealing from them before sending them back across the border.”

  28. Taliban IED experts blown up by own bomb in a mosque in North of Afghanistan
    https://www.khaama.com/taliban-ied-experts-blown-up-by-own-bomb-in-a-mosque-in-north-of-afghanistan/

    “A group of Taliban sustained casualties as they were busy manufacturing an improvised explosive device, roadside bomb, in a mosque in North of Afghanistan.

    The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said the incident took place in a mosque in Chahabar Bolak district of Balkh.

    The statement further added that a group of 8 Taliban IED experts were busy manufacturing a bomb inside a mosque in Sikandar Khel Village.

    The premature explosion caused by IED killed four Taliban militants and wounded at least four others, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement.

    According to Shaheen Corps, the explosion killed Zarif son of Najmuddin, Abdul Basir son of Abdul Basir, Abu Bakar son of Talib and Habib son of Arzankar.

    The explosion also destroyed a large cache of explosives and other materials which the group was using to manufacture IEDs, the statement added.

    The Taliban group has not commented in this regard so far.”

  29. Turkey arrests 26 suspects for FETO, PKK terror links
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkey-arrests-26-suspects-for-feto-pkk-terror-links/1944652

    “Turkish security forces arrested 26 people for their suspected links to the PKK terror group and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in southeastern Turkey, security sources said on Monday.

    Local counter-terrorism police in the Sirnak province nabbed suspects during anti-terror operations held on Aug. 10-16, said the sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

    The suspects were sent to a local courthouse which released 13 of them. The legal procedures continue for the remaining suspects.

    FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the July 15, 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, in which 251 people were martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

    Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

    In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU — has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.”

  30. Belgium: Migrant gang called ‘Criminal Justice’ is attacking young LGBT people and sharing videos of beatings on Telegram
    https://rmx.news/article/article/belgium-migrant-gang-called-criminal-justice-is-attacking-young-lgbt-people

    “Last week, a video went viral of a group of migrant youths beating two victims in Leuven, Belgium, after which they forced a White teenage boy to apologize and lick their shoes. In the video, the word ‘Zemmel’ is heard, which is a slur that Moroccans commonly use for gay people.

    An investigation by Het Laatste Nieuws found that the video is a connected to a gang of youths called “Criminal Justice“ or “Criminal System”, which the paper says is hunting young LGBT people in Belgium.

    They communicate through a Telegram group chat of 600 members with a sole goal: to beat up young members of the LGBT community, film these attacks, and share the images.

    After Het Laatste Nieuws gained access to their group communication chats, the video from last week is apparently just one of many disturbing videos.

    The images were circulating withing a chat group on Telegram app called “Criminal Justice“. The same name could also be seen displayed in the video from Leuven, Belgium. According to Sceptr, the chat group mostly contains Chechens, and they explicitly glorify violence against gay people with hundreds of videos.

    In addition, members are encouraged to actively search online for people who in their view deserve a beating, with members of the LGBT community a particularly popular target.

    Death threats in chat say that gays must be slaughtered
    Criminal Justice also reportedly has an Instagram page, but the Telegram group has the most members. About 400 videos and photos have been shared between 600 memnbers, and explicit violence is central to all of them.

    In addition to images taken from the internet, members have recorded videos in the Belgium cities of Blankenberge, Antwerp, Roeselare, and Leuven.

    Messages that HLN was able to obtain show that group members consciously look for young LGBT people with whom they make contact through the chat functions of TikTok and Instagram. Then they physically track them down via their IP addresses or through other identifying information.

    According to the newspaper’s information, the gang is not afraid to use knives and firearms when approaching their victims. Death threats are also being made in the chat with someone writing, “Gays must be slaughtered.“

    “I had to get on my knees and apologize. What if I hadn’t?“
    There is remarkably little willingness to speak out among the young victims, yet HLN recorded testimony from one young man from Antwerp. He says that he was chased and threatened together with a friend at Groenplaats in Antwerp.

    “A little further down the road from us, two men were playing loud music. When we left, they suddenly started to chase us. And a little later I was threatened via Instagram. I agreed to talk to them, which I shouldn’t have done. They threatened me badly. I had to get on my knees and apologize. What if I hadn’t? Then I would have been beaten badly.”

    The perpetrators’ modus operandi is remarkably similar to brutal beating from the video in Leuven. There, too, the video seems to serve as a kind of “hunting trophy” and is shared via social media.

    The witness from Antwerp believes that the group managers deliberately incite young people to commit aggression.

    Victim forced to lick attacker’s shoes or else
    The video from Leuwan is believed to have been an attack on gay teenagers or what the attackers believed to be gay teenagers based on chat records obtained by Het Laatste Nieuws. The facts of the case are still being investigated by the public prosecutor of Leuven. According to the newspaper, the victim from Antwerp did not file a complaint.

    Het Laatste Nieuws also placed the video of the anonymous victim from Antwerp online today. It shows how a boy is forced to his knees where he has to lick the shoes of one of the perpetrators twice. Then he gets another punch in the face.”

  31. Nunes on Durham probe: It wasn’t until Barr that we got a real investigation

    Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., talks to FOX Business’ Lou Dobbs about the latest news on the probe into the origins of the Obama sedition.

  32. Good riddance to Bill Morneau. Next Justine, Freeland, Alghabra, Hussein, Khalid, Bibeau, the friends of Islamic Relief.