Reader’s Links for September 12, 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

131 Replies to “Reader’s Links for September 12, 2020”

  1. Defense Minister: Iran Constantly Boosting Missile Power
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/09/12/2347116/defense-minister-iran-constantly-boosting-missile-power

    “Missile capabilities constitute a main component of Iran’s defense power and continue to grow constantly, Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said.

    Speaking to Tasnim in Zanjan on Saturday, Brigadier General Hatami said one of Iran’s main priorities has always been boosting the missile power.

    “We continue to enhance this capability,” he added.

    The minister also noted that the two homegrown long-range missiles that were unveiled in August, named after former IRGC Quds Force Commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, are of great significance for Iran.

    He said the range of the two new missiles has been extended by three times compared to their previous generation…”

    • Trevor Loudon – “The Enemies Within: China and the American Left”
      American Freedom Alliance – June 3, 2020

  2. Iran Executes Wrestler Whose Case Drew International Attention
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2503421/iran-executes-wrestler-whose-case-drew-international-attention

    “Iranian state TV on Saturday reported that the country’s authorities executed a wrestler for allegedly murdering a man, after President Donald Trump asked for the 27-year-old condemned man’s life to be spared.

    State TV quoted the chief justice of Fars province, Kazem Mousavi, as saying: “The retaliation sentence against Navid Afkari, the killer of Hassan Torkaman, was carried out this morning in Adelabad prison in Shiraz.”

    Afkari’s case had drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrayed him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran’s theocracy in 2018. Authorities accused Afkari of stabbing a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz amid the unrest.

    Iran broadcast the wrestler’s televised confession last week. The segment resembled hundreds of other suspected coerced confessions aired over the last decade in the country.

    The International Olympic Committee in a statement Saturday said it was shocked and saddened by the news of the wrestler’s execution, and that the committee’s president, Thomas Bach, “had made direct personal appeals to the Supreme Leader and to the President of Iran this week and asked for mercy for Navid Afkari.”

    The case revived a demand inside the country for Iran to stop carrying out the death penalty. Even imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, herself nearly a month into a hunger strike over conditions at Tehran’s Evin prison amid the coronavirus pandemic, passed word that she supported Afkari.

    Last week, Trump tweeted out his own concern about Afkari’s case.

    “To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him,” Trump wrote. “Thank you!”

    Iran responded to Trump’s tweet with a nearly 11-minute state TV package on Afkari. It included the weeping parents of the slain water company employee. The package included footage of Afkari on the back of a motorbike, saying he had stabbed the employee in the back, without explaining why he allegedly carried out the assault.

    The state TV segment showed blurred police documents and described the killing as a “personal dispute,” without elaborating. It said Afkari’s cellphone had been in the area and it showed surveillance footage of him walking down a street, talking on his phone.

    Last week, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency dismissed Trump’s tweet in a feature story, saying that American sanctions have hurt Iranian hospitals amid the pandemic.

    “Trump is worried about the life of a murderer while he puts many Iranian patients’ lives in danger by imposing severe sanctions,” the agency said.”

  3. Six Pakistanis arrested for involvement in brawl
    https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/597874/SAUDI-ARABIA/Six-Pakistanis-arrested-for-involvement-in-brawl

    “A video that went viral on the social media, showing several people involved in a brawl in a residential neighborhood in Jeddah governorate, led the security authorities to determine their identities and arrest them, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) cited the Media Spokesman for Makkah Region Police Maj. Muhammad Al-Ghamdi as stating Saturday.

    They are six expatriates of Pakistani nationality, whose ages ranged between their twenties and thirties. It turned out that the melee broke out due to a previous dispute among them. “All of them were arrested and legal measures were taken against them,” Maj. Al-Ghamdi added.”

  4. Iran’s foreign minister calls on European countries to refuse ‘US economic terror’
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200912-irans-foreign-minister-calls-on-european-countries-to-refuse-us-economic-terror/

    “The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Germany, France and the UK to stand against “US economic terrorism” if they want “full implementation of the nuclear agreement”.

    Zarif tweeted: “Iran rejects nuclear weapons for religious and strategic reasons,” noting that they are “much more important than any deal”.

    “But if the three European countries (UK, Germany and France) want to fully implement the confidence-building measures and enhanced transparency provided by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, they must reject the economic terrorism of the US, just as they rejected its destructive step in the United Nations Security Council,” he added.

    All remaining countries in the Iranian nuclear agreement have renewed their adherence to it as “a main element in the structure of the international nuclear deterrence,” after the US failed to pass its draft resolution to reimpose the international sanctions on Iran in the Security Council.

    On 10 September, 2020, the UK, Germany and France called on Iran to: “Fulfil its nuclear obligations and maintain the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”

    The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab met with his counterparts, German Heiko Maas and French Jean-Yves Le Drian, in Kent on Thursday.

    After the meeting, Raab announced on Twitter that the meeting agreed that Iran should not possess a nuclear weapon, and stated that Iran should abide by its nuclear pledges and maintain the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, stressing their determination to hold it accountable.

    Iran signed the nuclear deal in 2015 with the US, Germany, France, the UK, China and Russia, collectively known as the P5+1 countries, but Washington withdrew in May 2018.”

  5. British Muslim medics face ‘shocking Islamophobia’ from patients: report
    https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/9/12/british-muslim-medics-face-shocking-islamophobia-from-patients-report

    “Muslim frontline medical workers have disclosed Islamophobic abuse they face from patients under their care, senior management and colleagues according to a Huffington Post report.

    The NHS workers revealed they were described as terrorists and warned to “go back” to their own country, even though most were born, raised and educated in the UK.

    The report surveyed more than 100 Muslim medics in partnership with British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) and exposed institutional and systemic Islamophobia across the NHS, with many accusing senior managers and colleagues of racism and discrimination.

    Some 80% of those surveyed said they face abuse from patients, some of which were rejected by patients from carrying out their job.

    “I’ve had patients say they don’t want to be treated by me because I am Muslim,” graduate paramedic, Madiyah Bandali said, according to the report.

    “One patient asked: ‘What’s Osama Bin Laden’s daughter doing here?’ after seeing my hijab.

    “I get Islamophobic remarks at least once a week. It’s worse when something has happened and Islam is in the news.

    “People make terrorist comments and tell me: ‘Go back to your own country’. Most colleagues stick up for me. The most hurtful thing is when they don’t and tell me to grin and bear it,” the 21-year-old said.

    Meanwhile, hijab-wearing trainee GP, Sabeeta Farooqi said she has been asked unwarranted questions about terrorism and bombings by patients.

    “The conversation came out of nowhere and I tried to get him back to his clinical problem and reminded him that’s why he was there,” she said. “I avoided his questions as I didn’t want a confrontation.”

    Kiran Rahim, 34, a paediatric registrar working in London, revealed she was trained to accept such comments.

    When subjected to abuse from patients, the medics are taught to say: “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

    “It was very much a view of: ‘The patient is always right’,” she said. “But I did not feel comfortable apologising for someone’s Islamophobia.

    “As I’ve become more senior, I have realised NHS staff are not here to be abused. I now simply tell patients I don’t have to stand for their abuse or treat them.”

    In some cases, the comments are a lot more sinister.

    “So many times, I have been told to ‘go back to my country’ by patients,” a 35-year-old male nursing associate said. “Sometimes, they tell me I smell, and I have been called a P*** and terrorist so many times.

    “I was on one ward where a patient passed away and his family came and said: ‘You bloody P***. You killed our dad. Go back to your country.’ I hadn’t even looked after that patient. I was just on the ward.”

    Muslims in the UK regularly face anti-Muslim abuse across all aspects of life, in rhetoric that is regularly spewed by the country’s most senior politicians and echoed by right-wing media.

    In July, a study on the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy found that it reinforced negative stereotypes about Muslims and Islam.

    The study, published by SOAS University of London in conjunction with universities of Durham, Coventry and Lancaster, said students who supported Prevent were nearly three times more likely to see Islam as intolerant to non-Muslims, compared to those who believed Prevent was damaging university life.

    Forty-three per cent of the 2,000 students surveyed thought that Islam was a religion that discriminated against women.

    “It appears that Prevent has become strongly associated with the presumed dangers of radical Islam and with a perception that Muslims are dogmatic, intolerant and prone to violence,” Mathew Guest, one of the report’s authors, wrote in an op-ed for Open Democracy.

    “Our research suggests that universities could do much more to tackle the roots of Islamophobia and ensure that they are not complicit in maintaining racism,” Guest said.

    “As centres of critical thinking, universities have the capacity and the moral obligation to take a lead in addressing our latest ‘acceptable’ prejudice.””

  6. UN chief calls on EU to ‘share out’ migrants from Lesbos after devastating fire
    https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/9/12/un-calls-on-eu-to-share-out-lesbos-migrants

    “The UN secretary-general urged European Union members on Saturday to take in thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who have been left homeless and destitute in Greece after a devastating blaze at a camp.

    The Moria facility on the Greek island of Lesbos, which previously housed up to 12,000 people, was destroyed overnight on Tuesday after an apparent arson attack by migrants who have long complained about conditions there.

    “It’s an immense tragedy,” UN chief Antonio Guterres told French channel TV5monde in an interview broadcast on Saturday.

    “In my opinion the only solution is transferring these refugees to the continent and I hope there will be European solidarity.”

    The former Portuguese prime minister continued: “You can’t expect the country (Greece) on the frontline to resolve everything. There needs to be shared responsibility within the European Union.”

    Tensions rose on Lesbos on Saturday after hundreds of asylum seekers protested after a third night of sleeping rough in doorways and by roads.

    Police fired teargas when some of them began throwing stones, an AFP reporter at the scene said.”

  7. How to Steal an Election

    by Chris Farrell
    September 9, 2020 at 5:00 am

    How does one ensure their political allies are ideologically synchronized, and know exactly how to disrupt a presidential election? What about the “journalists” in the news media and the babblers on social media — how does one get them onboard with the planned nationwide revolutionary disruption? Easy! Publish a report titled: “Preventing a Disrupted Presidential Election.”

    In one of the greatest public disinformation campaigns in American history — the Left and their NeverTrumper allies (under the nom de guerre: “Transition Integrity Project”) released a 22-page report in August 2020 “war gaming” (their term) four election crisis scenarios: 1. A decisive Trump win; 2. A decisive Biden win; 3. A narrow Biden win; and, 4. A period of extended uncertainty after the election. The outcome of each TIP scenario results in street violence and political impasse.

    TIP organizers and leaders include Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks, Nils Gilman of the “independent” Berggruen Institute in California, and John Podesta, the longtime fixer and handler of the Clinton political dynasty. The nominally Republican members of group include former Republican National Chair Michael Steele, journalist David Frum, and former magazine editor Bill Kristol.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16474/how-to-steal-an-election

    How to Steal an Election – Part II

    by Chris Farrell
    September 12, 2020 at 5:00 am

    Having established the Left’s documented plan to disrupt the 2020 presidential election, let’s examine further some of the information operations techniques now being deployed against the American public to persuade and influence the election “season” ahead.

    The very publication of the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) report and the subsequent news media reporting about it are components of psychological warfare within the broader information warfare campaign aimed at spreading demoralizing rumors to Trump supporters. The goal is to break down and weaken support before, during and after election day. Demoralized and unmotivated supporters do not make their support for their candidate public. They do not campaign in neighborhoods or post yard signs. They do not vote. They do not volunteer at polling places. They become convinced their hopes are a lost, and highly controversial cause. They do not wish to be called a racist, or a hater, or identified with other fringe elements. They stay at home and watch TV.

    Having been psychologically conditioned (through the COVID-19 pandemic) to withdraw, isolate, and lock-down — on largely fiat orders of various government officials — many Americans will react to the “irregular” and extra-legal tactics of the Left. The Left relies on this reaction to suppress voter turnout and use varying forms of terror, such as reprisals and the threats of reprisals, against those who do not cooperate or who challenge the projected accusations detailed in the TIP report.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16491/transition-integrity-project

  8. Migrants rescued by Danish tanker land in Italy after 40 days at sea
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-maersk/migrants-rescued-by-danish-tanker-land-in-italy-after-40-days-at-sea-idUSKBN26311F

    “A group of migrants who had been blocked aboard a tanker in the Mediterranean for more than a month were allowed to land in Sicily on Saturday after Italy agreed to take them in, NGO Mediterranea said.

    The 25 people still at sea disembarked late on Saturday in the port town of Pozzallo, in Sicily, in southern Italy, due to health reasons, ending a “nightmare”, the statement said.

    “The longest and most shameful stand-off of European maritime history ends,” Mediterranea tweeted after the landing.

    The migrants had been transferred on Friday to the Italian charity ship Mare Jonio, operated by Mediterranea, after being anchored off the coast of Malta on the Maersk Etienne – operated by Maersk Tankers – since August.

    The people aboard were “in serious psycho-physical conditions that make it impossible for them to stay on the petrol tanker”, Mediterranea said after the transfer.

    The Maersk Etienne’s crew had rescued the migrants, including a pregnant woman, on Aug. 4 near Malta from a wooden dinghy that had been at sea for days and sank immediately after the rescue operation.

    Neither the Maltese, Italian nor Libyan authorities had let the migrants come ashore, according to Maersk Tankers, the operator of Maersk Etienne.

    “This 40-day blockage is intolerable,” French NGO SOS Mediterranee said on Twitter, calling on countries of the European Union to provide a solution for almost 300 migrants aboard a ship operated by Spanish group Open Arms.

    For years Italy has been the primary route into Europe for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and other migrants, while Libya’s west coast has been a main departure point for African migrants hoping to reach Europe.

    Numbers started falling due to an Italian-led effort to disrupt smuggling networks and support the Libyan coast guard to intercept boats, but have picked up in 2020.”

  9. Police Officers Able to Conceal Identities After Radical Tactics Escalate – American Action News
    By AAN Staff
    3 minutes

    Rochester, New York police officers are being allowed to cover their name tags to mitigate the threat of violence from anarchists.

    Rioters confronting police in the city were using the personally identifiable information on their uniforms to find out where they live, their children’s names, where their children go to school, and even their parents’ phone numbers.

    Many called in front of law enforcement to taunt their loved ones.

    The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo reports:

    https://americanactionnews.com/politics/2020/09/11/police-officers-able-to-conceal-identities-after-radical-tactics-escalate/

  10. Rochester Officers Cover Names After Protesters Shout Their Addresses, Kids’ Names, Make Taunting Calls To Parents In Front Of Them

    Rochester Police Department (RPD) officers have been given permission to cover up their names displayed on their tags to avoid harassment from left-wing protesters, who are screaming out their home addresses, kids’ names and schools, and making taunting calls to their parents in front of them. They are also spreading personal information about the cops via social media.

    “The past couple of months officers names have been researched by protesters to put personal information out to the public, putting the safety of their families in jeopardy,” said a statement from RPD Chief La’Ron Singletary, who announced his resignation earlier this week.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/rochester-officers-cover-names-after-protesters-shout-their-addresses-kids-names-make-taunting-calls-to-parents-in-front-of-them?itm_source=parsely-api?utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=091120-news&utm_campaign=position7

  11. Saudi coalition strikes Al Houthi military facility
    https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-coalition-strikes-al-houthi-military-facility-1.73800318

    “A Saudi-led coalition today bombarded a military facility manned by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Al Houthi militia in the rebel-held capital of Sana’a, according to a media report.

    The coalition jets mounted multiple strikes at dawn against the rebels’ military engineering complex in eastern Sana’a, Saudi television Al Arabia said.

    The strikes targeted centres for making ballistic missiles and drones, it added, citing witnesses.

    The attacks come after the Riyadh-based alliance has announced intercepting and destroying a series of explosive drones and missiles launched by Al Houthis targeting Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

    Al Houthis plunged Yemen into a civil war in late 2014 when they toppled the internationally recognised government and overran parts of the country including Sana’a.

    In 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE initiated a military campaign in Yemen against the Al Houthis in response to a request from the government there.”

  12. 6,000 people to participate in phase 3 trials of Chinese coronavirus vaccines: Egypt’s Health minister
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/379842/Egypt/Politics-/,-people-to-participate-in-phase–trials-of-Chines.aspx

    “Some 6,000 people in Egypt will participate in phase 3 clinical trials of two Chinese coronavirus vaccines, a statement by the Health Ministry cited Minister Hala Zayed as saying, as part of an international effort to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine.

    Zayed said on Friday in remarks to the media that the two vaccines belong to a leading Chinese company in the field of vaccine manufacturing, but did not name the company.

    According to the statement, the trials have been carried out in three other countries: Bahrain, the UAE and Jordan.

    Zayed said volunteers will receive two injections, 21 days apart, and will be monitored over the year.

    Volunteers take a PCR test to make sure they have not been infected with the virus, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in the statement.

    Zayed said a national committee has been formed to supervise the clinical research. The committee will be headed by Mohamed Hassani, assistant health minister for public health initiatives, and will include professors at the ministry, the health services in the country’s Armed Forces, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Justice and the Egyptian Drug Authority.

    Phase 3 involves testing the efficacy and safety of the vaccine before it is licensed, and involves several thousands of volunteers.

    Chinese state-owned bio-pharm company Sinopharm, through its China National Biotec Group (CNBG) unit, has two inactivated vaccines.

    In July, Abu Dhabi-based G42 Healthcare and Sinopharm initiated phase 3 trials in the UAE, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported. A month later, the Bahraini Health Ministry said Sinopharm started phase 3 trials.

    Also, phase 3 trials by Sinopharm’s CNBG have started in Morocco, Peru and Argentina.

    CNBG trials are expected to include around 10 countries, with 50,000 people participating, CNBG vice president Zhang Yuntao said, adding that the unit is expected to produce 300 million doses of the vaccine annually, and may be able to raise production capacity to 1 billion doses.

    In July, Zayed said that Egypt had secured 30 million doses of a promising British vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish company specialised in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical fields. In September, however, she said final clinical trials were halted after a participant in the United Kingdom showed indications of an adverse reaction.

    The Oxford vaccine is still subject to trials, but it has reached advanced stages in many countries and has reached the last phase of trials in Brazil.

    In July, Egypt was selected by China to serve as a future African hub for manufacturing a coronavirus vaccine if one is developed by Beijing, the Egyptian health ministry said following a meeting with China’s Ambassador Liao Liqiang.

    Egypt has so far reported 100,708 coronavirus cases and 5,607 deaths.”

  13. Soldier martyred in North Waziristan IED attack
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2263727/soldier-martyred-in-north-waziristan-ied-attack

    “A Pakistan Army soldier embraced martyrdom on Saturday when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded near security forces’ check post in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district, according to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).

    The military’s media wing, in a statement, said that 33-year-old Sepoy Sajid embraced martyrdom near Road Boya in Miranshah.

    Security forces cordoned off the area for clearance operation, the statement added…”

  14. 3 Turkish soldiers killed, 1 hurt in eastern Turkey
    https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/3-turkish-soldiers-killed-1-hurt-in-eastern-turkey-158199

    “Three Turkish soldiers were killed and another was wounded during an operation in eastern Turkey, the Interior Ministry said on Sept. 11.

    A gendarmerie captain and two gendarmerie specialist sergeants were killed, while a gendarmerie lieutenant colonel was injured in the operation carried out in Çatak district of Van province, the ministry said in a statement.

    At least three terrorists were neutralized in the same operation, which was part of the ongoing Operation Y?ld?r?m-10, the ministry added.

    The National Defense Ministry on Twitter offered condolences to the families and relatives of the fallen soldiers and the Turkish nation.

    Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

    The terrorists’ affiliation was not mentioned, but the terror group PKK has been active in the region.

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

    118 YPG/PKK terrorists neutralized in 10 days

    Turkish security forces neutralized 118 YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Iraq and northern Syria in the last 10 days, the National Defense Ministry said on Sept. 12.

    The ministry added that of this figure, 21 terrorists had been neutralized over the past 24 hours alone.

    “Our operations against the PKK terrorist organization continue with determination,” it said.

    Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.”

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