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.
Kyle Rittenhouse speaks out from jail… New Audio Released
by Kane – September 1, 2020
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/kyle-rittenhouse-speaks-out-from-jail-new-audio/
Kyle Rittenhouse’s message to the people along with his Attorney #Kenosha
Patriot News – September 1, 2020
Portland Riots Continue: Leftist Democrat Politicians Frantic Over Public Backlash by William F. Jasper – September 1, 2020
Excerpt:
“On Sunday, August 30th, I read that Governor Kate Brown announced a new plan to address the lawlessness happening in Portland,” Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said in a press release. “I was surprised to read that the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office was part of the plan since the Governor’s Office never contacted me.”
“Had Governor Brown discussed her plan with my office, I would have told her it’s about changing policy not adding resources,” Sheriff Roberts continued. “Increasing law enforcement resources in Portland will not solve the nightly violence and now, murder. The only way to make Portland safe again, is to support a policy that holds offenders accountable for their destruction and violence. That will require the DA to charge offenders appropriately and a decision by the Multnomah County Presiding Judge not to allow offenders released on their own recognizance, and instead require bail with conditions. The same offenders are arrested night after night, only to be released by the court and not charged with a crime by the DA’s Office. The next night they are back at it, endangering the lives of law enforcement and the community all over again.”
“For all of us in law enforcement, keeping our community safe is our first priority,” Sheriff Roberts avowed. “Had Governor Brown asked me, I would have told her that no amount of human resources will stop the ‘cycle of violence’ (her term) that is making Portland unsafe. For that to occur, the criminal justice system will need do its part and hold offenders accountable.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/36894-portland-riots-continue-leftist-democrat-politicians-frantic-over-public-backlash
Kate Brown begged outside police to help in Portland — Everyone said no… by Kane – September 1, 2020
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/kate-brown-begged-outside-police-to-help-in-portland-everyone-said-no/
Most agencies will not help Portland police with protests
KGW News – September 1, 2020
Nearby police agencies will not come to Portland’s rescue at nightly protests
KGW News – September 1, 2020
Australian Police State
BREAKING: Police ARREST pregnant woman for Facebook post
Red Pill Germany
German ‘Journalist’ Spreads Vile Misinformation About Events in the USA
Hey guys, today I want to show to you that not only US cable news is very partisan, even to the point of inaccurate or false reporting. Also German activist journalists spread misinformation about the USA via German newspapers.
From Loving Life 2020
Zimbabwe to return farms to overseas farmers
Twenty years later, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has effectively reversed his predecessor Robert Mugabe’s most divisive policy, land reform, by offering seized land back to foreign farmers.
Why can’t the negro grow his own food,since all we ever hear in the western world is how intellectually brilliant he is?
Simon Paul Evans Full Revs
In this rant I tell gates what i would do to him if he came at me with a needle, and what you should do to fight this utter BS
Ex-President of Banned Turkish Biker Gang Allegedly Behind Grenade Attack (breitbart, Sep 2, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/09/02/ex-president-banned-turkish-biker-gang-allegedly-behind-grenade-attack/
“The former president of the banned Turkish-background Osmanen Germania motorcycle club has been accused of being the mastermind behind a grenade attack on a shisha bar in Germany.
Gallifet W., 31, was in court in Saarbrücken on Monday to answer allegations that he masterminded the attack in the city in August 2016. The episode is believed to have been connected to a gang war between the “Osmans” and the Kurdish-background Bahoz biker gang.
While the Osmans have been revealed to have links to the Turkish nationalist Grey Wolves and have many Turkish-background members, Gallifet W. is said to have come to Germany from the Congo, German tabloid Bild reports.
Prosecutors allege that two members of the Osman biker gang from Hesse carried out the grenade attack.
Intercepted phone data, including WhatsApp chats, reportedly revealing conversations between the 31-year-old and the global president of the Osmans has also been submitted as evidence in the case.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the Osmanen Germania biker gang, banned in 2018, was behind “serious crimes”.
Due to its links with both the Grey Wolves and the AKP party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the group has also been accused of targetting Erdogan’s political opponents in Germany, as well.
The Grey Wolves in Germany have clashed with Kurdish groups in recent years, with many of the Kurdish groups supporting the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is also allied with the far-left extremist Antifa movement.
The most recent clash between the two groups took place in neighbouring Austria, in the country’s capital of Vienna in June.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz condemned the violence, calling out the Turkish government, saying “that there must be an end to Turkey trying to influence the people here in Austria and instrumentalising them for their conflicts”.”
Saudis say ‘all countries’ can fly to, from UAE over kingdom (abcnews, Sep 2, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-arabia-countries-fly-skies-72767498
“Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that flights to and from the United Arab Emirates “from all countries” will now be able to use its airspace — a statement apparently allowing flyovers by Israel following a deal to normalize UAE-Israel relations.
The vaguely worded statement avoided naming Israel directly. However, the announcement came just days after the kingdom allowed the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight to use its airspace to reach the UAE. Any direct flight between the two nations would need to use Saudi airspace to be commercially viable.
The statement makes no mention of the kingdom’s rival, Iran, nor Qatar, which Saudi Arabia is currently boycotting. Flights to and from those countries to the Emirates would, in theory, not need to use the kingdom’s airspace.
The Saudi Press Agency said the move comes in response to a “request by the UAE” for flights to and from the country.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan wrote on Twitter that the kingdom’s “firm and established position toward the Palestinian cause will not change.” However, even he did not directly name Israel in his tweet.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the announcement in an online video, signaling it directly involved his country.
“For years, I have been working to open the skies between Israel and the East,” he said. “Now there is another tremendous breakthrough — Israeli planes and those from all countries will be able to fly directly from Israel to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and back. Flights will be cheaper and shorter, and it will lead to robust tourism and develop our economy.”
Earlier this week, Jared Kushner, the U.S. president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, flew with a high-level Israeli delegation to the UAE on the first direct commercial passenger flight between the two countries, a Star of David emblazoned on the jet’s tail. The flight traversed Saudi airspace, signaling at least acquiescence for a breakthrough U.S.-brokered deal by the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations with Israel.”
Iran nuclear deal members resolved to preserve agreement (abcnews, Sep 2, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-nuclear-deal-members-meet-us-pressure-mounts-72748674
“Representatives of Iran and the world powers working to save the nuclear deal with Tehran agreed Tuesday in Vienna to do everything possible to preserve the landmark 2015 agreement in their first meeting since the United States announced a bid to restore United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Helga Schmid, the European Union representative who chaired the meeting, said afterwards on Twitter that the “participants are united in resolve to preserve the #IranDeal and find a way to ensure full implementation of the agreement despite current challenges.”
Iranian representative Abbas Araghchi did not comment after the day of talks, but ahead of the meeting said the U.S. move would “definitely be an important discussion” topic with delegates from France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China.
President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action unilaterally in 2018, saying that it was a bad deal and needed to be renegotiated.
The deal promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, but with the reinstatement of American sanctions, the other nations have been struggling to provide Iran the assistance it seeks.
Complicating the matter, the U.S. announced recently it was triggering a 30-day process to restore virtually all U.N. sanctions on Iran, invoking a “snapback” mechanism that is part of the JCPOA agreement. Washington’s argument is that as an original participant it still has that right, even though it left the deal.
Other signatories to the JCPOA agreement have rejected that argument, setting the stage for a potential crisis in the Security Council later this month, with the U.S. claiming to have re-imposed sanctions and most of the rest of the world saying the Trump administration’s action is illegal and ignoring it.
After U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to the U.N. to invoke snapback on Aug. 20, Indonesia’s U.N. Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani, whose country held the rotating council presidency, said there was overwhelming opposition in the 15-member body to the U.S. position. He said it was unlikely there would be any action on Washington’s demand.
Niger’s U.N. Ambassador Abdou Abarry, who took over the rotating council presidency on Tuesday, said: “Up until there would be maybe new facts, and I haven’t seen any yet, we are staying at the level of the Security Council aligned with this position as expressed by the president, ambasador Djani.”
Chinese representative Fu Cong told reporters after the Vienna meeting that the member countries all agreed that the U.S. no longer has “the legal ground or legal standing to trigger snapback” and that in China’s view Washington was using it to “try to sabotage or even kill the JCPOA.”
He suggested the other countries were also not prepared to “just wait and see” whether Trump is reelected in November.
“The U.S., even though it is a superpower, is just one country,” Fu said. “So other countries are moving on.”
The Russian delegate to the JCPOA, Mikhail Ulyanov, took a swipe at the U.S. ahead of the meeting, tweeting that Tuesday’s talks involved “participation of all (not self-proclaimed) participants of the nuclear deal.”
Afterward, he tweeted that the meeting “demonstrated that its participants are fully committed to the nuclear deal and are determined to do their best to preserve it.”
The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something Iran insists it does not want to do.
However, since the U.S. withdrawal, Iran has been steadily violating its restrictions on the amount of uranium it can enrich, the amount of heavy water it can possess, and the purity to which it enriches its uranium. That’s all to put pressure on the other nations involved to come ahead with more economic incentives.
It now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount — or the purity — it had before the nuclear deal was signed.
Those working to save the deal also note that despite the violations, Iran continues to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to access all sites in the country.
Last week, Iran held out an olive branch to end one issue of contention, agreeing to allow IAEA inspectors into two sites where the country is suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material in the early 2000s.
Iran had insisted the agency had no right to inspect the sites, since they dated to well before the JCPOA came into effect.”
Migrants trying to reach Europe pushed to deadly Atlantic (abcnews, Sep 2, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/migrants-reach-europe-pushed-deadly-atlantic-72765979
“Migrants are increasingly crossing a treacherous part of the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago near West Africa, in what has become one of the most dangerous routes to European territory.
About 4,000 people have survived the perilous journey this year. More than 250 others have died or gone missing, according to the International Organization for Migration. That’s already more than the number of people who perished trying to cross the Western Mediterranean in all of last year.
In the week that The Associated Press spent in the Canary Islands to report this story, at least 20 bodies were recovered.
The increase in traffic to the Canaries comes after the European Union funded Morocco in 2019 to stop migrants from reaching southern Spain via the Mediterranean Sea. While arrivals to mainland Spain decreased by 50% compared to the same period last year, landings in the Canary Islands have increased by 550%. In August alone there were more than 850 arrivals by sea to the Canaries, according to an AP tally of numbers released by Spain’s Interior Ministry and reports by local media and NGOs.
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This story was funded in part by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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Hawa Diabaté was fleeing her native Ivory Coast by boat with her 2-year-old daughter, Noura, to what she believed was continental Europe. The only person who wasn’t crying on the boat was Noura.
Unlike the 60 adults on board, only Noura was oblivious to the risks of crossing the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean in an overcrowded rubber dinghy.
As the waves quickly got bigger and people more nervous, Noura told her mother, “Be quiet, mama! Boza, mama! Boza!”, Diabaté recalled. The expression is used by sub-Saharan migrants to celebrate a successful crossing.
After several hours in the ocean, it was finally “Boza.” Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service brought them to safety on one of the Canary Islands.
Arrivals this year are still low compared to the 30,000 migrants who reached the islands in 2006. But they are at their highest in over a decade since Spain stemmed the flow of sea arrivals to just a few hundred a year through deals with West African countries.
The striking shift in migration back to the Canaries has raised alarms at the highest levels of the Spanish government. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s first trip abroad following the pandemic lockdown was to Mauritania, one of the main departure points. Most recently, the interior ministry announced a donation of 1.5 million euros in border surveillance equipment to six West African countries.
But human rights organizations say those arriving to Spanish shores are only a fraction of those departing.
“We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Sophie Muller, the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees’ representative in Spain, who recently visited the archipelago. “They are taking impossible routes.”
It can take one to 10 days to reach the Spanish islands, with the closest departure point being in Tarfaya, Morocco (100 km, 62 miles) and the furthest recorded this year in Barra, in The Gambia (more than 1,600km, 1,000 miles). It is common for migrants to run out of food, water and fuel after only a few days.
On August 19, 15 lifeless Malians were spotted inside a wooden boat by a Spanish plane 148km, 92 miles from the island of Gran Canaria and towed back to port. At nightfall, workers pulled the bloated corpses, one by one, out of the boat with a crane. The next day, police collected what was left behind as evidence: a wallet, a dozen cell phones, windbreakers and waterproof boots.
Less than 24 hours later, another migrant boat was rescued and brought to the island with 12 people and four dead, as the AP watched. The survivors had witnessed their comrades die along the way.
“They almost didn’t speak,” said José Antonio Rodríguez, who heads the regional Red Cross immediate response teams. “They were in a state of shock.”
One of the 12 rescued died before he could reach a hospital.
Human rights organizations aren’t just concerned with the high number of deaths.
“There’s been a change in profile,” said Muller, the UNHCR representative in Spain. “We see more arrivals from the Sahel, from the Ivory Coast, more women, more children, more profiles that would be in need of international protection.”
The Interior Ministry of Spain denied requests by the Associated Press to share nationalities of recent arrivals to the Canary Islands, claiming the information could impact international relations with the countries of origin. But UNHCR estimates that around 35% of those arriving by boat come from Mali – the nation at war with Islamic extremists where a coup d’état recently toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Around 20% of arrivals are women and 12% under 18, Muller said.
Kassim Diallo fled Mali after his father was killed in an extremist attack targeting an army base near his village in Sokolo in late January.
On Feb. 29, the 21-year-old got aboard a rubber boat in Laayoune in the Western Sahara with 35 other men, women and children. After nearly 20 hours in the water, his group was rescued and brought to the island of Fuerteventura.
“It is not normal. A human being shouldn’t do this. But how else can we do it?” said Diallo.
Like most of those who crossed by boat to the archipelago this year, Diallo has been stuck on the islands for months. Although forced return flights to Mauritania have been halted by the pandemic, the Spanish government has also forbidden newly arrived migrants from going to the mainland, even after travel restrictions were lifted for nationals and tourists. Only a few groups, mainly women and children, have been transferred on an ad-hoc basis via the Red Cross.
“Blocking people from leaving the Canaries has turned the islands into an open-air prison,” said Txema Santana, who represents the local office of the Spanish Commission to Help Refugees.”
Charlie Hebdo Attack: Who Are The Fourteen Alleged Accomplices On Trial In Paris? (sputniknews, Sep 2, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202009021080347342-charlie-hebdo-attack-who-are-the-fourteen-alleged-accomplices-on-trial-in-paris/
“Fourteen people have gone on trial in Paris accused of assisting Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, the two jihadist gunmen who stormed Charlie Hebdo’s offices in the Rue Nicolas-Appert on 7 January 2015.
The Kouachi brothers were eventually killed by anti-terrorist forces after a manhunt.
A few days a former prison buddy of the brothers, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a police officer and then three customers and an employee during a siege at a kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes district. Coulibaly was later shot by police.
Because of its historical importance the trial in Paris – which is due to last until 10 November – is being videotaped for the national archives. So who are the 14 on trial?
Ali Riza Polat
Prosecutors say Ali Riza Polat, 35, was the link man between the Charlie Hebdo attack and the Jewish supermarket siege.
Polat, who is of Kurdish origin, allegedly bought the weapons which were used by Coulibaly and the Kouachis and later tried to flee to Daesh-controlled Syria via Dubai and Lebanon.
BFMTV says Polat was convicted of selling drugs in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny in 2007 and became a convert to radical Islam while in prison around May 2014.
A close friend of Coulibaly, he faces life in prison if convicted.
Mickaël Pastor Alwatik
Mickaël Pastor Alwatik, from the Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine, has been tied by the prosecution to two guns and a glove used by Coulibaly.
His DNA was found on a Tokarev semi-automatic pistol and a revolver found at Coulibaly’s home and a glove the gunman used at the Hyper Cacher scene.
Alwatik is believed to have met Coulibaly while they were at Villepinte remand centre, in north Paris. He has reportedly told police Coulibaly showed him Daesh videos from Iraq and Syria but denies being a jihadist himself.
Mohamed Fares
Mohamed Fares, 31, has reportedly admitted to police he was a middleman who arranged for the sale of a Tokarev T33 assault rifle used by Coulibaly but has denied knowing what he planned to do with the gun.
Fares, from Lille, was only arrested in March 2018 after an investigating magistrate received an anonymous tip-off by email.
Amir Ramdani
Amir Ramdani also met Coulibaly at Villepinte remand prison and there is evidence they met frequently between October 2014 and the attacks in January 2015.
Ramdani met Coulibaly on 6 January, only hours before the attack, but has told police he owed him 200 euros.
Samir Makhlouf
Samir Makhlouf – sometimes referred to as Saïd – was also a friend of Coulibaly’s and his DNA was found on a Taser which the terrorist had on him during the supermarket siege. Makhlouf says he cannot explain why his DNA was on the Taser.
Willy Prevost
Willy Prevost, 34, had been a friend of Coulibaly since childhood and lent him the motorcycle he used in the assassination of Paris police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe.
Prevost and Coulibaly both grew up in the Grigny neighbourhood and met up again after the latter was released from prison in 2014.
Coulibaly had prevailed on Prevost to buy a Renault Scénic van, the vehicle he used to travel to the Hyper Cacher supermarket.
Christophe Raumel
Christophe Raumel, 30, only knew Coulibaly through their mutual friend, Prevost.
The pair bought bulletproof vests, a knife and a Taser together and handed them over to Coulibaly but Raumel has said he thought he was planning to use them in a heist, not a terrorist attack. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Metin Karasular
The owner of a garage in Belgium, Metin Karasular is accused of supplying “assault rifles, rocket launchers, ammunition and bulletproof vests” to Coulibaly and the Kouatchis.
Karasular claims to have links to the Kurdish nationalist PKK group and insists he had no sympathy with jihadists.
Michel Catino
Michel Catio, a 60-year-old unemployed Italian national, is accused of assisting Karasular to supply the weapons.
Miguel Martinez
A garage owner in Charleville-Mézières, north-eastern France, is also accused of being involved in the supply chain. Martinez reportedly converted to Islam 20 years ago.
Abdelaziz Abbad
Abdelaziz Abbad, who has been separately convicted of an unrelated murder, is accused of assisting Martinez.
Hayat Boumeddiene
Coulibaly’s partner, Hayat Boumeddiene, is being tried in absentia.
Boumeddiene, now 32, married Coulibaly in an Islamic ceremony in 2008.
She participated in a number of vehicle scams which helped to finance the 2015 attacks.
Boumeddiene reportedly fled to Syria, via Madrid and Istanbul, in the wake of the attacks.
She appeared in the Daesh propaganda magazine Dar-Al-Islam, saying: “Muslims are not humiliated here.”
Reports last year suggested she had been killed in a US air strike but she was later seen at a camp where former Daesh members were being held.
She later fled the al-Hol camp and remains the subject of an international arrest warrant. She faces 20 years in prison if convicted.
The Belhoucine brothers
Mohamed Belhoucine and his brother Mehdi are also being tried in absentia.
The brothers are believed to have been killed while fighting with Daesh in Syria or Iraq. Mohamed Belhoucine provided email addresses which were used by some of the other defendants.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia”
Coyld someone please explain how French law allows “tried in absentia”? This woukd mean no self-defense or ability to question witnesses?
France: Charlie Hebdo attack trial begins at Paris court
The trial of the January 2015 attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, police officers and a kosher supermarket has begun at the Court of Appeal of Paris on Wednesday.
The trial kicked off following months of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fourteen defendants will stand trial and face a variety of charges over allegations they helped the perpetrators carry out the attacks that killed 17 people over three days in January 2015.
Three defendants, who either fled or are presumed dead, will be tried in absentia. If convicted, they could face a sentence of anywhere from 10 years to life in prison.
2015 Paris attack survivors question why the trial took FIVE YEARS to start
turkish radio & television – TRT- How is the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo defending its reprinting decision?
turkish radio & television – TRT- Why would Charlie Hebdo republish controversial cartoons?
turkish radio & television – TRT- Macron refuses to condemn Charlie Hebdo’s republishing decision
Counter Terrorism and Security Expert at the University of Exeter Tallha Abdulrazaq weighs in.
test _01
Egypt’s Al-Azhar slams Charlie Hebdo for Mohammed cartoons reprint
Egypt’s highest Muslim authority Al-Azhar on Wednesday condemned French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s decision to reprint cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, as the trial opened over the subsequent 2015 terror attack on its Paris office.
“The insistence on the CRIMINAL ACT to republish these offensive cartoons embeds hate speech further and inflames the emotions of faithful followers of religions,” Al-Azhar’s Observatory for Combating Extremism said on its Facebook page.
[…]
Al-Azhar, also considered the foremost religious institution for Sunni Muslims, said the contentious decision to reprint the caricatures was “an unjustified provocation of the emotions of nearly two billion Muslims around the world”.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200902-egypt-s-al-azhar-slams-charlie-hebdo-for-mohammed-cartoons-reprint
Sicily’s Migrant Centers Unsuitable to Host People Amid COVID-19 Pandemic (sputniknews, Sep 2, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202009021080347838-sicilys-migrant-centers-unsuitable-to-host-people-amid-covid-19-pandemic/
“Overcrowded migrant shelters in Sicily are highly exposed to coronavirus contamination and totally unsuitable to host people amid the pandemic, Sicilian Health Chief Ruggero Razza said in an interview.
The Sicilian government has been in confrontation with Rome over a rising number of COVID-19 cases on the Mediterranean island. Sicilian Governor Nello Musumeci tried to close all migrant centers in August but was rebuked by the central government, which said that the public health and migrant policies were within its competence.
“The conditions of these state structures, which are almost always overcrowded, are definitely unsuitable for hosting people, especially in the midst of a pandemic. In the hotspot of Lampedusa we have observed, having visited it personally, very serious shortcomings coupled with a particularly high exposure to the contagion in relation not only to the migrants, but also to the personnel,” Razza said.
He said the situation elsewhere on the island was “less serious” but still subpar. Infections continue to occur at the reception center in the popular resort town of Pozzallo infections, while another shelter saw migrants and five cultural mediators fall ill with the virus. A pregnant migrant woman who gave birth on board a helicopter on Tuesday also tested positive.
“The embarrassment is that these structures are within the competence of the [central] state, the order of the president of the region aimed precisely at ensuring health security for Sicilian migrants and citizens. We all know how it turned out,” Razza said.
On the upside, he said, Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte has recently contacted Governor Musumeci to plan for a technical meeting on Wednesday. The Sicilian authorities want to remind Rome of the fact that the region has been dealing with a twin disaster.
“We will once again reiterate the arguments of Sicily which, amid the indifference from Europe and until now also from the central state, is facing alone an emergency inside another emergency,” Razza said.
He noted that Sicilian task force medical experts continue visiting various migrant reception centers. According to Governor Musumeci, over 7,000 migrants arrived in Sicily in July, and more than 3,000 in August.
Overall, the island’s medical facilities are coping well with the pandemic and prepared for a possible second wave, the official said.
“There are currently about 1,100 infected people. However, this is a fact and a trend that should not cause more concern than needed, especially if one compares it with the data from other regions of the country even less populated than ours,” Razza said.
The cases for the large part are asymptomatic and the number of hospitalizations and patients in intensive care is relatively low, the official concluded.
“It is also ready to face a new possible wave. It is clear that no one wants to expect such situation, but we have a plan that can ensure medical assistance in the event of a surge in hospitalization requests,” Razza said.
The region has enough personal protective equipment, having secured PPE deliveries straight to the front-line during the first wave. That equipment remains available for Sicilian doctors, according to Razza.”
Czech mayor calls CCP ‘rude clowns’ after threats over Taiwan trip
Prague district mayor warns China will pay ‘heavy price for bullying’ Czech Senate president
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3999278
That same day, the Mayor of Prague district Reporyje, Pavel Novotny, on his Facebook page posted a photo of a scathing letter he addressed directly to Wang in response to his threat. In the subject line of the letter, Novotny demands an immediate apology for Wang’s threats made against his country.
In the letter, Novotny condemns Wang for having “crossed the lines” of diplomatic norms. He then chastised the foreign ministry for threatening the Czech senate speaker in such a way and behaving like “unmannered rude clowns.”
He then demanded that China apologize for the threat “right now” with a formal apology delivered within 24 hours to the Czech foreign minister, who Novotny claimed agrees with him. However, he lamented that the minister dare not express this sentiment publicly due to a pact between the “not very sane” Czech President Milos Zeman and his “co-conspirator” Prime Minister Andrej Babis and communist China.
Novotny said that Wang should be “ashamed” of his threat and he called on China’s top diplomat to acknowledge his mistake or face a “heavy price for bullying.” Taking a jab at China’s notorious dept-trap diplomacy, the Reporyje mayor then said that his side’s reaction would be the same even if the communist autocracy invested “14x more than our friends from Taiwan.”
He called on Wang to “wake up” and swore that he “will not s*** on us.” Novotny closed by demanding a copy via email so that he can keep his “diplomatic f*** up” in his archives and warned him not to “p*** him off.”
Gutfeld on the New York City exodus and De Blasio’s response
Fox News – September 1, 2020
US college expels 15 Chinese scholars; New alliance to counter China?; China flood: 17ft in 24 hrs
India-China Faceoff: Why Beijing Is So Angry? | India Today Exclusive
France Has Foiled at Least Six Terror Attacks in Recent Months (breitbart, Sep 2, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/09/02/france-has-foiled-least-six-terror-attacks-recent-months/
“Jean-François Ricard, who heads the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) has said French security services have foiled at least six terror plots in recent months.
Ricard spoke to French media on Monday, stating that the terrorist threat, particularly from radical Islamic extremists, remains high in France. He said that several French members of Islamic State remain free in Syria or have crossed the border into Turkey.
He added that some French former members of the terror group have returned to France and “set up new structures”. He also warned that there was a threat from mentally unstable individuals who may be influenced by radical Islamic rhetoric and ideology, L’Opinion reports.
Currently, there are believed to be around 250 Islamic radical French men and women in custody along the Iraqi-Syrian border area and around 300 children. At least 170 adults have returned to France, and Mr Ricard said all were being tried or had been tried by French courts.
This week, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that over 8,100 individuals were now on the French terrorist watch list known as the Reporting Index for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalisation (FSPRT).
During a visit to the headquarters of France’s domestic security agency, the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI), Darmanin said that radical Islamic terrorism still posed the biggest security threat to France.
“The fight against Islamist terrorism is a high priority of the government,” Darmanin said and added: “We will fight tirelessly… We will never give up relentlessly hunting down these enemies of the Republic.”
“It is fuelled by the propaganda of terrorist groups, inspired by jihad veterans, but also by the grip that the proponents of radical Islam are trying to have in some of our neighbourhoods,” he said.
A leaked DGSI report from earlier in the year showed that at least 150 French neighbourhoods were controlled in some shape or form by radical Islamists.”
India-China Faceoff: Trump Administration Corners Beijing, Backs New Delhi
India-China Faceoff In Ladakh: US, Australia, Japan & South Korea Support New Delhi Against Beijing
India-China Standoff At LAC | Multiple Intrusion Attempts Of Chinese Troops Foiled By Indian Army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OubUnxBObs
India-China Faceoff: Indian Army Captures Pangong North Finger 4 Ridgeline | Breaking News
3,501 views
•Sep 2, 2020
India-China Faceoff: Top Five Developments | India Today Exclusive
India-China Faceoff In Ladakh: US, Australia, Japan & South Korea Support New Delhi Against Beijing
10,277 views
•Sep 2, 2020
How India gave Tibetans the opportunity to start reclaiming their land
Salon owner calls Pelosi’s indoor hair salon visit a ‘slap in the face’
Pelosi: The American People Need To Elect The New President, ‘Not Vladimir Putin’ | Deadline
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sits down with Nicolle Wallace to discuss the how Congress is fighting back after the intel chief said he would stop in-person briefings, the president’s failure to contain coronavirus, and why it is so crucial that everyone votes in the upcoming election.
“IT WAS CLEARLY A SETUP” Nancy Pelosi responds to HAIR SALON visit controversy
EXCLUSIVE: Salon owner joins Tucker, pushes back on Pelosi’s claim she was ‘set-up’
Erica Kious denies Nancy Pelosi’s claim that she was set up after video surfaces of the House speaker’s maskless visit.
Thailand’s shocker to China, no Kra Canal any more
107,908 views
•Sep 2, 2020
China-Russia’s Relationship Health in Question; Leaked Documents Reveal China’s 220,000 Spies
At about 14 minutes he is talking about the Russians that were in the Soviet Union when it collapsed and are not breaking contract with China.
Now instead of not
He knows nothing about wily Vlad.
He’s projecting HIS black and white that have little to nothing to do with the way a Kissenger or Putin balance decisions.
ndia-China Faceoff: US Backs New Delhi Over Chinese Aggression | India Today’s Geeta Mohan Reports
ndia: China violated previously-reached understanding | WION News
Sassy yesterday you said this wasn’t urban guerilla war because we don’t have tanks on streets. That is late stage guerilla war when the fighting has moved out of the cities to the country side and then back to the cities will massive units of fighters. We are in the early stage of the Urban Guerilla war when the numbers of the people in the insurrection are small and they are looking to get publicity and people.
Here is the url of the Amazon dot com page for urban guerilla war manuals and other guerrilla manuals. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=urban+guerilla+war+manuals&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss If the leaders of the current communist insurrection haven’t read at least some of these they have read the people who taught the authors.
As I said last night the guerillas in the US don’t need money so they aren’t committing crimes to fund the rebellion, the people in the Southern Guerilla wars need the money and funded the fight by committing crimes. In one of the coming stages the guerillas will extort money from the rich to be left alone, this will be done to prove to the rich that they aren’t in charge rather then to generate money for the cause.
Hopefully we can stop the insurrection well before it reaches the stage of tanks on the streets.
New Gun Owners Surge Realizing the Government Won’t Protect its People Amid Riots, Pandemic & Crime
China to expand military overseas; Trump visits Kenosha; Barr tightens rules on FBI’s surveillance
U.S. issues advisory on N. Korea’s ballistic missile procurement activities
India-China Faceoff: Reasons Behind Beijing’s Anger On Indian Army | WATCH
India-China Faceoff: ‘Clear Message To Chinese That We Know To Respond’, Says Major Gen GG Dwivedi
India Captures Chinese Camp in Border Clash
LEBANON – Macron Rebukes French Journalist over Lebanon-Related Article
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday faced accusations from opponents of trampling on press freedom after he personally berated a prominent reporter over an article the head of state described as “unprofessional and mean.”
Macron sternly rebuked Le Figaro journalist Georges Malbrunot, a specialist on the Middle East, after his press conference Tuesday at the end of a two-day visit to Beirut.
Ironically for some, Macron’s sharp words came minutes after he had loudly defended the importance of freedom of expression in France as the trial over the January 2015 deadly massacre at the Charlie Hebdo weekly gets underway.
“What you have done, taking into account the sensitivity of the subject, is irresponsible,” Macron told Malbrunot to his face, according to images broadcast by the LCI channel.
“You have always heard me defend journalists, I always will. But I tell you frankly, what you did was grave, unprofessional and mean,” he added.
LCI television said Macron was angered by an article detailing head-to-head talks between the French president and Lebanese MP Mohammed Raad, a leading Hizbullah figure.
But it appeared Macron was angered most by a previous article penned by Malbrunot saying the president was considering sanctions against Lebanese politicians who resist reform.
Macron had mentioned the article during the press conference, criticizing those who write “the worst nonsense… without any verification.”
– ‘Doing his job’ –
Malbrunot, a veteran reporter who was held hostage for several months in Iraq in 2004, told AFP: “I was very surprised by the virulence of this attack, which is unacceptable.
“I have talked the incident over with the Elysee. For me the incident is closed,” he added.
The presidency said Macron was angered that Malbrunot had not sought out a response beforehand to the claims in the article.
“The president reproached (Malbrunot) for not giving the Elysee the possibility of reacting to information,” the Elysee said, adding it had now spoken with Malbrunot and Le Figaro and that it also considers the incident closed.
But politicians on the right expressed consternation over Macron’s tirade, especially as it came a day before the opening of the trial of 14 suspects over the January 2015 massacres on targets including Charlie Hebdo.
MP for the right-wing Republicans Olivier Marleix wrote on Twitter that the “way Macron gives lessons to Georges Malbrunot… is astounding.”
“How can he at the same time claim ‘I am Charlie’ and at the same time try to humiliate a journalist who is just doing his job,” added Gilles Platret, the vice president of the Republicans.
Macron was in Beirut for a second time since a devastating August 4 explosion killed 190 people and wounded thousands, to urge political reform in the disaster-hit country.
“Just a reminder. Georges Malbrunot is a journalist. He was just doing his job to inform,” wrote Le Figaro’s political editor Albert Zennou.
Macron has had a prickly relationship with some journalists during his three years in power and has rarely held press conferences, preferring to communicate through social media.
His off-the-cuff reactions to situations have at times dismayed even close aides, notably in 2018 when he told a jobseeker to “cross the road” and find a job.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/274620-macron-rebukes-french-journalist-over-lebanon-related-article
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Georges Malbrunot : Liban: le pas de deux d’Emmanuel Macron avec le Hezbollah
Le chef de l’État rencontrera, mardi, le chef du bloc parlementaire du mouvement chiite pro-iranien, convié à la résidence des Pins parmi d’autres responsables politiques.
Le Hezbollah a encore du mal avec la métaphore macronienne. «Il faut arrêter de discuter du sexe des anges», avait enjoint Emmanuel Macron aux chefs de parti, reçus à la résidence des Pins à l’issue de sa première visite le 6 août dans un Liban, meurtri par la tragique explosion qui avait tué près de 200 personnes, deux jours plus tôt au port de la capitale.
Sur un ton très ferme, le président de la République avait sommé ses interlocuteurs de s’engager sur la voie des réformes indispensables à la survie d’un pays au bord de la faillite. Parmi eux, Mohammed Raad, chef du bloc parlementaire du Hezbollah, demanda ensuite à des proches de lui décrypter cette image auquel un pieux musulman chiite n’est guère familier. Mais le représentant du Parti de Dieu pro-iranien, qui domine la scène politique grâce à son arsenal militaire, n’en voulut point à Macron. Et pour cause! Il eut droit, à l’issue de la rencontre, à un aparté de huit minutes avec le chef de l’État. Première fois depuis la naissance du Hezbollah, en 1982, qu’un président français échangeait en direct avec un de ses membres. «Cela équivaut à une reconnaissance internationale», se félicitait quelques jours après un proche de la mouvance, classée terroriste par les États-Unis, la Grande-Bretagne et l’Allemagne.
«Je veux travailler avec vous pour changer le Liban», lui avait dit Macron, selon une source française à Beyrouth. «Mais prouvez que vous êtes libanais, avait-il ajouté. Tout le monde sait que vous avez un agenda iranien. On connaît très bien votre histoire, on sait votre identité particulière, mais vous êtes libanais, oui ou non? Vous voulez aider les Libanais, oui ou non? Vous parlez du peuple libanais, oui ou non? Donc rentrez à la maison, avait recommandé Macron, quittez la Syrie et le Yémen, et faites le boulot ici pour construire un État parce que ce nouvel État va aussi bénéficier à vos familles».
Quelques instants après, lors de sa conférence de presse, Macron enfonçait le clou en réponse à une journaliste libanaise qui lui demandait s’il pouvait accepter des membres du «Hezbollah terroriste» dans un futur gouvernement. «Le Hezbollah a des députés élus par les Libanais, il fait partie de la scène politique», assurait Macron. Sous-entendu: je ne peux pas le rayer de la carte. Message bien reçu au fief du parti dans la banlieue Sud. Le lendemain, Hassan Nasrallah, chef du Hezbollah, saluait «la visite positive» de Macron. «Emmanuel Macron a réellement une approche différente de celle des États-Unis, se félicite l’analyste Walid Charara, proche du Hezbollah. Après l’explosion, il a dit publiquement aux Américains que leur politique de pressions allait échouer, qu’ils allaient étouffer le Liban, et que la seule force qui ne s’effondrerait pas, c’est le Hezbollah.»
Mais il en faut beaucoup plus pour briser la méfiance réciproque, comme le rappelle une note de cadrage du ministère des Affaires étrangères en date du 23 janvier 2019 adressée au chef de la diplomatie, Jean-Yves Le Drian, qui appelle à «exercer (…) des pressions (…) sur les acteurs qui entravent le bon fonctionnement des institutions et perturbent les équilibres traditionnels du pays: Gebran Bassil (alors ministre des Affaires étrangères) et le Hezbollah». En coulisses, des messages ont été passés ces dernières semaines entre Paris et la formation chiite. Selon la source française précitée, «Macron leur a dit en substance: on ne vous ennuie pas sur la question de vos armes et sur deux ou trois points qui vous importent ; mais en contrepartie, vous mettez de l’oxygène dans le système. Acceptez de jouer le jeu, car on ne peut plus continuer comme cela, et vos partisans couleront avec le système.»
Réparer les dégâts
Certes, le Hezbollah, dont les circuits financiers échappent au système bancaire, n’est pas visé par la menace d’Emmanuel Macron de sanctionner les responsables libanais, s’ils s’obstinaient à refuser «le nouveau contrat politique» qu’il appelle de ses vœux. Mais dans la bataille qui s’est engagée pour choisir un nouveau premier ministre à la place de Hassan Diab, démissionnaire, le Hezbollah est, dans un premier temps, resté sourd aux appels de Paris. «Fort de l’accord Chine-Russie-Iran, il se sent pousser des ailes», regrettait le 15 août un diplomate. «Pourtant, l’explosion du 4 août l’a affaibli», ajoutait-il.
De nombreux Libanais lui imputent une part de responsabilité. Pour la première fois, le 8 août, l’effigie de Hassan Nasrallah fut exhibée au bout d’une corde par des centaines de manifestants en colère. «Beaucoup lui en veulent, y compris pour son bilan politique car il cogérait le pays», constate le diplomate. Sous l’effet de la déflagration, le Parti de Dieu a commencé de perdre sa couverture chrétienne. Son allié, le Courant patriotique libre de Gebran Bassil, gendre du président de la République, Michel Aoun, se fissure. Quant au patriarche maronite, Mgr Bechara Boutros Rahi, qu’Emmanuel Macron rencontre ce mardi, il appelle, désormais, à se distancier de la milice pro-iranienne.
Fort de sa supériorité militaire, le Hezbollah a toujours été pour un État faible et des dirigeants sans grande volonté politique. Saad Hariri, l’ancien premier ministre, remplit cette case: jusqu’à ces derniers jours, le Hezbollah le soutenait, avant de se raviser et d’accorder sa bienveillance à Mustapha Adib, choisi lundi par les ténors sunnites.
Son futur gouvernement de mission souhaité par Paris n’est pas encore formé. Le Hezbollah n’y était, jusqu’ici, guère favorable. Il a adouci sa position. «Le Hezbollah veut un gouvernement qui réussisse tout d’abord à réparer les dégâts causés par la catastrophe du port, puis qu’il pose des jalons pour l’avenir», souligne Walid Charara. Mais il restera vigilant sur le contenu des réformes qui seraient proposées au Parlement, présidé par son allié le président de la chambre, Nabih Berri.
Mohammed Raad aura-t-il droit ce mardi soir à un nouvel aparté avec Emmanuel Macron à la résidence des Pins? La formation chiite est prête à un pas de deux avec lui, mais elle s’interroge. «Est-ce qu’il y a un mandat américain pour soutenir les efforts français?», se demande Walid Charara. En attendant, la veille de l’arrivée de Macron, Hassan Nasrallah a affirmé qu’il était prêt à discuter du «nouveau contrat politique» que le chef de l’État tente de mettre sur pied au cours de sa visite au Liban. «À condition qu’il s’agisse d’un dialogue libanais et que ce soit la volonté de toutes les parties libanaises», a ajouté Nasrallah. Un oui mais, en quelque sorte.
https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/liban-le-pas-de-deux-d-emmanuel-macron-avec-le-hezbollah-20200831
Jumpin' Jupiter!CDC Director Redfield discusses coronavirus vaccine timeline and fighting the spread of COVID-19
Chancellor Gold. Will the flu vaccine impact whether I can receive the COVID-19 vaccine?
Dr. Fauci weighs in on 6M US coronavirus cases, deaths and comorbidit
The top health official speaks to “GMA” about the CDC’s adjusted numbers that listed 6% of deaths solely caused by COVID-19 and what it means for those with underlying conditions.
Canada mulls global vaccine contribution as Trump turns back on alliance
OTTAWA — Canada is still considering a contribution to the international vaccine coalition known as COVAX, which aims to equitably distribute a COVID-19 vaccine to poorer countries that can’t afford one.
The decision stands in contrast to Tuesday’s decision by the Trump administration in the United States to opt out of the alliance of more than 150 countries because the program is linked to the World Health Organization.
President Donald Trump ended U.S. funding to the WHO in July because he says it is being unduly influenced by China and needs to be reformed.
A spokesman for Karina Gould, Canada’s International Development Minister, says the Trudeau government is working on the details of a spending commitment to what’s called the “COVAX Facility,” which is designed to ensure developing countries have fair access to a COVID-19 cure.
COVAX also allows investing countries to be given early access for up to 20 per cent of their populations.
The initiative is aimed at circumventing so-called vaccine nationalism — the scramble by individual countries to secure vaccines for their own populations, often by pre-buying doses directly from pharmaceutical companies.
https://www.cp24.com/news/canada-mulls-global-vaccine-contribution-as-trump-turns-back-on-alliance-1.5089623
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WHO – The COVAX facility
Global procurement for COVID-19 vaccines
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/act/covax-facility-background.pdf?sfvrsn=810d3c22_2&download=true
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Germany: Elon Musk arrives at CDU meeting for talks over COVID vaccine
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was filmed arriving at a CDU/CSU party meeting in Berlin on Wednesday. The billionaire entrepreneur was expected to hold talks with economy minister Peter Altmaier.
It comes after Musk’s trip to Tubingen where he visited the biotech company CureVac, which is partially owned by the German government, developing a potential vaccine for COVID-19.
Groups Behind Riots Being Investigated by Department of Justice: Top Official
The heads of organizations believed to be behind the recent riots in the United States are being probed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), a top law enforcement official said late Monday.
“This is something that I have talked to the attorney general personally about. And I know that they are working on it,” acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Chad Wolf said.
Wolf, responding to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on the host’s show, didn’t specify which groups, but Carlson had just asked why the leaders of Black Lives Matter and Antifa haven’t been charged.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/groups-behind-riots-being-investigated-by-department-of-justice-top-official_3483998.html?ref=brief_News&utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email
Portland Shooting Victim Aaron Danielson ‘Hunted’ Down, ‘Executed’: Witness
A friend of the man shot dead in Portland over the weekend described the shooting as an execution.
Chandler Pappas said he was with Aaron “Jay” Danielson in downtown Portland when the shooting happened. Both were wearing hats marking them as supporters or members of Patriot Prayer, a conservative group that has clashed with leftwing activists in the past.
“They identified our hats, [said] ‘got a couple of them right here, got a couple of them right here. Pull it out. Pull it out,’” Pappas told a conservative YouTube channel.
That’s when a gun appeared and someone fired at the men.
“It didn’t even register that someone was pointing a gun at us until the shots went off and he took off running,” Pappas said. “I turn to check on my partner and he’s on the ground,” he later added. “They blew his heart out.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/portland-shooting-victim-aaron-danielson-hunted-down-executed-witness_3483932.html?ref=brief_News&utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email
abc news – DHS withheld July intelligence bulletin calling out Russian attack on Biden’s mental health
The Trump campaign has repeatedly engaged in a similar line of attack.
In early July the Department of Homeland Security withheld publication of an intelligence bulletin warning law enforcement agencies of a Russian scheme to promote “allegations about the poor mental health” of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to internal emails and a draft of the document obtained by ABC News.
The draft bulletin, titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election,” was submitted to the agency’s legislative and public affairs office for review on July 7. The analysis was not meant for public consumption, but it was set to be distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement partners two days later, on July 9, the emails show.
Just one hour after its submission, however, a senior DHS official intervened.
“Please hold on sending this one out until you have a chance to speak to [acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf],” wrote DHS Chief of Staff John Gountanis, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
That was nearly two months ago. But the bulletin was never circulated.
In a statement to ABC News, a DHS spokesperson confirmed that the product was “delayed,” explaining that it failed to meet the agency’s standards.
According to the draft bulletin, analysts determined with “high confidence” that “Russian malign influence actors are likely to continue denigrating presidential candidates through allegations of poor mental or physical health to influence the outcome of the 2020 election.”
“High confidence means what it sounds like — that they are highly confident that their assessment is accurate and they don’t use that language very often,” Elizabeth Neumann, a former assistant secretary of Homeland Security during the Trump administration, told ABC News.
The document mentions Iranian and Chinese efforts to criticize Trump, but focuses on — and takes its title from — Russia’s attacks on Biden’s mental fitness. It is a line of attack also utilized by both President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign.
Beyond warnings of Russia’s purported activity, critics said the decision to withhold the document will fuel concern that the Trump administration has sought to politicize intelligence, particularly after an announcement over the weekend that senior intelligence leaders will cease congressional election security briefings due to alleged leaks from lawmakers, and will instead provide only written reports.
“We are hearing concerns being raised publicly that, in this administration, intelligence community reporting is being modified or blocked for political reasons — or to not anger the president,” said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and the former undersecretary for intelligence at DHS under President Barack Obama.
“By blocking information from being released that describes threats facing the nation,” Cohen continued, “it undermines the ability of the public and state and local authorities to work with the federal government to counteract the threat.”
As an example of Russian efforts to raise doubts about Biden’s mental acuity, the draft bulletin points to a March story on a Russian proxy website that “refuted media claims that the candidate’s gaffes are a result of a stutter, instead arguing these verbal miscues are symptoms of dementia.”
The DHS spokesperson said that while the agency “generally does not comment on leaked documents, this particular draft product lacked the necessary context and evidence for broader dissemination outside of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.”
“After briefing the Acting Secretary and he asked questions,” the spokesperson continued, “[Office of Intelligence and Analysis] career leadership decided to delay the product for further review.”
In a statement to ABC News regarding the DHS bulletin, Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said, “We don’t need or want any foreign interference.”
“There’s no question that the President has been tougher on Russia than any president before him, imposing sanctions and expelling diplomats, in contrast to the Obama-Biden Administration, which choked in the face of Russian interference,” he said. “President Trump will beat Joe Biden fair and square.”
The White House declined to comment.
Biden camp accuses Trump of ‘speaking from the same script’ as Russia
The Trump campaign’s effort to depict Biden, who turns 78 shortly after Election Day, as mentally unfit for office has emerged as a central tenet of its multi-million dollar strategy to paint Biden as a feeble puppet of the “radical left.”
It dates back to 2018 when, at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner, Trump jabbed his future 2020 opponent: “There’s talk about Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe, getting into the race … the guy who keeps making outrageous statements thinks he has a shot at being president?”
And while Trump, himself 74, first tweeted the “Sleepy Joe” nickname in April of last year, he and his campaign increased attacks on the former vice president’s mental state earlier this spring as Biden emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Trump repeatedly targeted Biden in remarks and on Twitter while his campaign in May launched a Facebook ad blitz that raised questions about his “geriatric mental health.”
In June the Trump campaign ran a brutal television ad titled “Fortitude” that worked to paint a dire picture of Biden’s mental state.
The next month — around the time the DHS memo was submitted — Trump said in a radio interview, “[Biden’s] record is terrible. He can’t even talk about his record. He forgets his record, he forgets everything.”
On Tuesday, the president said, “Biden doesn’t know he’s alive.”
In a statement to ABC News, Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, decried “the lengths to which Donald Trump will go to manipulate and conceal intelligence for partisan political purposes.”
“He is blocking the intelligence community from sharing with federal and state law enforcement a crucial finding: that Russia is disseminating false and scurrilous attacks on the health of Joe Biden — one that aligns with Trump’s own constantly-backfiring attacks,” Bates added. “And why would he do this? Because Russia and the Trump campaign are speaking from the same script of smears and lies.”
In the intelligence draft bulletin, analysts point out that Russia’s current line of attack targeting Biden’s health echoes its efforts in 2016 to “[raise] serious doubts about [then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s] physical capability,” particularly after she fell ill at a 9/11 memorial event in New York City.
At the time, Trump and his surrogates leveled similar attacks against Clinton, calling into question her physical fitness for office. Weeks after the 9/11 memorial incident, Trump said during a debate that Clinton “doesn’t have the stamina” to be president.
After months of warnings from law enforcement and the intelligence community of Moscow’s ongoing efforts to meddle in the November election, if it had been circulated, the July bulletin would have served as one of the most explicit and specific examples to date of Russia’s intentions.
In August, the Office of Director of National Intelligence publicly reported “that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” Biden, adding that “some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”
Trump later disputed that finding, claiming that “the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump, because nobody’s been tougher on Russia than I have, ever.”
On Saturday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced it would halt in-person congressional briefings about election security, citing concern over “unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information.”
Newly minted Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote to congressional leaders that “this approach helps ensure… that the information ODNI provides the Congress … is not misunderstood nor politicized.”
Democrats fired back, calling Ratcliffe’s decision “a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public’s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy.”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf reacted Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” saying his agency will “continue to have in-person briefings with members of Congress and staff,” but defended Ratcliffe’s decision.
In their statement to ABC News, the DHS spokesperson added that “[the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis] is committed to fulfilling its mission to keep the Homeland safe and secure, which included the sharing of three reports on election security in August 2020 with state and local partners.”
On “This Week,” Wolf added that Russia, China, and Iran continue to engage in “disinformation campaigns to sow discourse within the U.S.”
In the August statement from ODNI, intelligence officials concluded that “China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection.” Iran, it found, “seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections.”
In the July draft bulletin, in addition to reports of Russian interference, analysts said Iranian state media has “amplified public discussion by medical professionals alleging that [President Trump] suffered from psychosis and narcissistic personality disorder.” In China, state media outlets have “questioned [President Trump’s] health and suggested that a debate about the mental health of a U.S. president is indicative of deeper problems with democracy.”
With just two months until ballots are tallied, Cohen said the safety and efficacy of our election depend on collaboration within the law enforcement community and transparency about malign foreign meddling.
“One of the ways you counteract these threats,” Cohen said, “is by providing state and local authorities, political parties, and the general public access to information about both the methods being used to spread this disinformation and the contents of this disinformation campaign so people know, when they see this material, that it is inaccurate and is to be disregarded.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dhs-withheld-july-intelligence-bulletin-calling-russian-attack/story?id=72747130
abc news – DHS withheld bulletin calling out Russian attack on Biden’s mental health
ABC keeps getting worse.
Ownership changed?
I think the Propaganda Media sources are having a contest to see who can sink lowest, right now ABC is leading but I am sure the others are trying to figure a way to out do ABC.
Chinatowns remove communist party flags; 3-story high mudslide; Three Gorges Dam faces biggest flood
French Anti-Jihadist Forces Kill Civilian in Mali
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/09/02/french-forces-kill-civilian-mali/
“French anti-jihadist troops in Mali killed a civilian on Tuesday and wounded two others after a bus refused to slow down in a volatile area despite their orders, the French army command said.
The incident occurred about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city of Gao in Mali’s troubled north.
The French soldiers fired warning shots in the ground but two bullets ricocheted and hit the windscreen, wounding three people, including one fatally, the French army command said.
“The seriously wounded person was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital of the (French) Barkhane force in Gao, but died of his injuries,” it said.
“All steps have been taken to ascertain the exact sequence of events,” it said, expressing its “sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.”
But bus company director Abdoulaye Haidara disputed the army command’s version of events, telling AFP that his driver had denied refusing to stop and did not hear any warning shots.
Mali is now under the control of a junta that seized power in a putsch two weeks ago.
Swathes of its territory are outside of the control of central authorities and years of fighting have failed to halt an Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since emerging in 2012.
France has deployed more than 5,000 troops in its Barkhane anti-jihadist force in West Africa.
A key part of French strategy to combat terrorism in the turbulent region lies with the so-called G5 Sahel force — a scheme to create a 5,000-strong joint force gathering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger.
But the force lacks equipment, training, and funds.”
Mr. Stupid never learned to handle firearms properly.
Like tards shooting guns in the air to celebrate everything. Frequent stories: oops! – bullet fell down, into someone’s head.
India-China Faceoff: ‘We Can’t Stand Where We Are, We Need To Move Ahead,’ Says Bharat Karnard
Nothing Can Escape Iran’s Air Defense Shield: Commander
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/09/02/2340180/nothing-can-escape-iran-s-air-defense-shield-commander
“Iran’s Air Defense is capable of detecting any flying object of any size, a top commander said.
In comments on the sidelines of unveiling of new military products, Air Defense Commander Brigadier General Alireza Sabahi Fard said Iranian radars can detect any flying object with any cross-sectional area.
Iran’s Air Defense has gained the capability to detect, intercept and detonate all types of aerial targets, he added.
On the new air defense products unveiled at the ceremony, the commander said ‘Emad’ is a smart, advanced and unique system used to exercise and simulate various combat scenarios.
The war game system has been developed by local experts to counter the new threats, the general noted, saying only a few advanced countries are in possession of such system.
The Air Defense also unveiled ‘Kashef-99’, a 3D phased-array radar system that is carried on a vehicle, suitable for detecting small aircraft and objects.
Kashef-99 can detect 300 targets simultaneously within a range of 12 kilometers.
A few days ago, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei commended the Iranian Air Defense forces for their contribution to national security, saying, “The country owes its security to Air Defense’ preparedness and wakefulness.””
7 Terrorists Sentenced to Death for 2014 Dalwah Attack in Saudi Arabia
https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2484631/7-terrorists-sentenced-death-2014-dalwah-attack-saudi-arabia
“The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced to death on Wednesday seven terrorists for carrying out the 2014 al-Dalwah attack in al-Ahsa in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Three others were sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Ten out of the 12 convicts appeared in court for their sentencing.
In November 2014, three militants opened fire at dozens of people in the village, killing eight people.
The court ordered the death penalties, including execution and crucifixion, to the first four defendants and the death penalty for defendants No. 6, 7 and 12. The defendants No. 8, 10 and 11 were sentenced to 25-year jail terms, starting from the date of their detention.
The court also ruled to confiscate weapons, ammunition and bullets seized from the defendants.”
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India has now deployed warship in South China Sea! | Philippines to call US if attacked by China!
This one is interesting, India is starting to develop a working alliance with the US to oppose China and its attempt to cut India off from the rest of the world. The Indian Navy is suppose to be fairly good despite not having the most modern ships although they are working hard to change that fact. Their Naval tradition goes back to the 1700s when the Brits formed what was then called the Bombay Marine to work as a coast guard anti-pirate force to protect the fleets of trading vessels that were sailing in and out of the Indian Ports. I know that in WWII they provided convoy escorts but don’t know much else, about their history.
Starting last year I started seeing articles about how India was working to modernize their Navy so they could project power and cut China off from their attempts to build bases on the Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Iran accused of waterboarding and electrocuting protesters: Amnesty
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-accused-waterboarding-and-electrocuting-protestors-amnesty
“Iran’s security forces have been accused of torturing prisoners to gain confessions and imprisoning hundreds of protesters during a sweeping crackdown last year.
Amnesty International said it had gathered dozens of testimonies from some of the at least 7,000 people it estimates were arrested, including children as young as 10.
Torture methods mentioned to Amnesty included waterboarding, beatings, electric shocks, pepper spraying genitals, sexual violence, mock executions and extracting fingers and toe nails…”
Waterboarding isn’t torture.