Reader’s Links for January 14, 2021

 

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

67 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 14, 2021”

    • He admired his speaking ability and considering that, Hitler mesmerised audiences almost always as he was a gifted orator, who can argue with that? Pre WW2 the US and many other nations, had many , many people, not Nazis who recognized his oratorical skills and admired them. What is wrong with that? Wagner was an extreme anti-Semite but it doesn’t taint his music for most.

      This is the kind of metastatic “criticism” that irks me totally(not a criticism of Nik for posting it).

    • Marcus: Much appreciated. Tucker is the only reason I still have TV.

      I’ve changed cable/Internet provider. I opted for Internet and phone service only. That means no T.V.

      Next Tuesday, the 19th, I lose my TV. On Wednesday, the 20th, an acquaintance technician will be connecting one of my laptops to my TV.

      TO ANYBODY HERE: I would truly appreciate getting the link to Tucker Carlson’s show of the previous day.

      • I’ve never lived in a home with a TV. I only watched at friends and neighbors’ homes, camped out on their floors for Major Events.

        Though I never bothered getting one when I moved out of my parents’ house, I think I lost a lot.
        (Maybe some stuff I'm better off NOT knowing?)

        I miss references to:
        – – Popular culture. It’s like listening to jokes in a foreign country even though you speak the language – you don’t get it.
        – – Trends in humor, fashion, social mores.
        – – Slang, brand names.

        I have a very short attention span for ordinary video. (I had more exposure to big-screen movies. Small screen: if I like it, it’s exceptional.)

        – I can’t understand many dialects and non-standard English. (Fast-talking New Yorkers, Black ghetto lingo.)

        – I’m easily distracted by excessive body language. (At the same time I might intuit more than the average person.)

    • Interesting site. many thanks to both of you.
      BTW despite the comments about “proxies”,
      I recommend using VPNs as IMO it is stupid not to do so as we all know that you can no longer be certain that you can trust your own government, let alone the ideological lunatics, whom you dared to upset, who really want to track down your address. I find that without a VPN I cannot access not a few sites..

    • Iran Positions “Suicide Drones” in Yemen

      Imagery seen by Newsweek indicates the presence of Iranian Shahed-136 loitering munitions, also called “suicide drones,” deployed to the northern Yemeni province of Al-Jawf, an area controlled by the Houthi Shiite Muslim rebel movement.

      An expert said, “They are forward deploying or prepositioning these drones in order to stage an attack against a variety of targets they have within range.” The UAVs have an effective range of 2,000-2,200 km.

      https://www.newsweek.com/iran-suicide-drones-yemen-red-sea-tensions-1561395

  1. We know grey zone methods include infiltration by spies, imposters and trolls. We have even seen, we believe, a clever attempt at reverse machine translation to make it seem like the commenter was not a native English speaker. Creative, except the troll lacked an ear and an eye for the written accent, which usually includes missing conjunctions. Here is grey zone work far less subtle:

    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/hongkong-taiwan-military/

  2. This description of information warfare is interesting in that the source is the World Economic Forum, which is a significant disinformation source in itself, and a likely CCP proxy (think Klaus Schwab.)

    Note the graph depicting countries best equipped to handle grey zone aggression. I posit that, given the levels of political and economic chaos impacted by the pandemic, this graph is in fact inverted to effect false complacency and to enhance CCP and globalist grey zone efforts.

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/what-is-information-warfare

  3. A rare public statement against a fiat currency competitor. My guess is this is a first step towards clearing the way for government-sanctioned crypto currencies or, better, a globalist-sanctioned world reserve crypto currency to replace the USD. Renegade Bitcoin has done a fantastic job to raise awareness and legitimacy of crypto in the public eye, however it’s not theirs, then it must go:

    https://summit.news/2021/01/13/ecb-head-christine-lagarde-calls-for-global-regulation-of-reprehensible-bitcoin/

  4. Belgian King’s Car Attacked During Protests Over Black Man’s Death in Police Custody – Video (sputniknews, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/202101141081765626-belgian-kings-car-attacked-during-protests-over-black-mans-death-in-police-custody–video/

    “Belgium’s prosecutor’s office has seized CCTV images and appointed a coroner to perform an autopsy as well as toxicology tests to shed light on the death of the young black man.

    Protesters attacked the car of Belgium’s king in Brussels on Wednesday as they rallied over the death of a black man who was arrested by police for breaking the country’s coronavirus curfew, The Daily Mail reported.

    Around 500 people, some of them holding Black Lives Matter placards, took part in the protest. About 100 were arrested, according to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne.

    ?Pictures from the scene show King Phillipe’s car being hit by rocks near the Gare du Nord train station, while the local EPA news agency reported that the royal was travelling from his workplace in Brussels to his residence, Laeken Palace.

    ?The 23-year-old black man, who died in police custody last week is only identified by his initials I.B., while Belgian media say that his name is Ibrahima Barrie.

    ?Barrie was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly attempted to run away from police, who were questioning a group of men who had gathered in downtown Brussels despite the coronavirus lockdown.

    Barrie was then taken to a police station where he fainted before being transported to a hospital. He was pronounced dead at 20:22 local time.

    His lawyer claims that an initial autopsy showed he died from a heart attack.
    Though there’s no evidence Barrie had taken drugs prior to his death, he had three ecstasy pills on him at when he was arrested.

    Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden has condemned his death but also said breaking lockdown rules was “totally unacceptable.””

  5. WW3 fears: Iran deploys ‘suicide drones’ as Tehran plots new attack – satellite images (express, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1384071/world-war-3-iran-news-suicide-drones-israel-attack-rouhani-soleimani-usa-trump-pompeo

    “IRAN has deployed deadly “suicide drones” in northern Yemen, an area controlled by Tehran’s Houthi allies which is just a few hundred miles from Israel, analysts have claimed.

    If accurate, the reports will alarm both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming US President Joe Biden, especially given the heightened state of tensions between both nations and Iran. Significantly, Iran blamed Israel for the assassination in November of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizedeh – and has vowed to respond.

    An insider told Newsweek the weapons in question were Shahed-136 loitering munitions.

    The source added: “The Iranians have delivered to their Houthi proxies in Yemen advanced UAVs.

    “They are forward deploying or prepositioning these drones in order to stage an attack against a variety of targets they have within range.”

    The unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are believed to have a range roughly 1,240 to 1,370 miles, putting the whole of Israel and much of the Middle East in general, including Saudi Arabia, within range.

    Yemen is the scene of a bloody, ongoing civil war.

    Al-Jawf is under the control of Ansar Allah, or Houthi, Zaidi Shiite Muslim rebel movement, a foreign militia which has close links with the regime of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani…”

    • JCPA: Iran’s Man in Yemen Is a Revolutionary Guard Officer

      Arab commentators suggest that Iranian General Hassan Irlu was behind the terrorist attack at Aden airport two weeks ago when three guided missiles hit, just as a plane carrying new government ministers landed. The terrorist attack killed 26 people and wounded about 100. Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said he had intelligence that Iranian experts carried out the attack.

      Placing an Iranian “ambassador” with Houthi rebels in Yemen is a violation of international treaties. This Iranian move shows Iran’s attempt to recover from Qassem Suleimani’s assassination and increase its terrorist activities in the Middle East.

      Iran places great importance on the battle lines in Yemen and wants to directly monitor battle management and political negotiations conducted by the UN envoy to Yemen. The Iranian military also seeks to monitor the secret contacts of the Yemeni government with Saudi Arabia.

      General Hassan Irlu has been named the Iranian governor of Sanaa and is tasked by Iran to plan and carry out attacks on Israeli targets, if necessary.

      Israel is conducting a very cautious policy with the Houthis in Yemen. Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed in November 2019, that Iran had begun equipping the Houthis with precision missiles. Israel has excellent intelligence information about what is happening in Yemen and the Houthi rebels’ ties to Iran’s “Revolutionary Guards.”

      Irlu has become a key figure in the operation of Houthi rebels under Iran’s directions, but Israel is currently not initiating any actions against the Houthis in Yemen. Israel does not seek to open a new front even though all indications are that Iran plans to turn northern Yemen into a base for attacks on Israeli targets.

      https://jcpa.org/irans-man-in-yemen-is-a-revolutionary-guard-officer/

    • Seth Frantzman:

      …These are supposedly “advanced UAVs.”

      The report is unclear regarding most of the details, only noting that these drones might have a range of some 2,200 kilometers – which puts them conveniently just within range of Israel. In the past, Iran has claimed long ranges for its drones. It operates drones that are basically like cruise missiles: They are given a target coordinate and fly to it without needing to communicate with their base. In this sense they operate like a German V-1 rocket more than a modern drone; they don’t really “loiter” over a target.…

      When it comes to loitering munitions, Iranian technology helped the Houthis build the Qasef and Samad series of drones, some of which have a long range. These have links to the Iranian Ababil drone series. Iran also has something called the Raad and Karrar, which are more like cruise missiles.…

      Tehran is very openly bragging about its UAV capabilities and regularly lists its arsenal. It’s unclear from where a Shahed-136 new UAV could emerge if it hasn’t been named as such in Iranian media. A search of Iranian media did not produce any examples of this drone.…

      https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/reports-that-iran-has-expanded-kamikaze-drone-base-in-yemen-655409

  6. Iran tests missiles under apparent watch of US nuclear sub (abcnews, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-tests-missiles-apparent-watch-us-nuclear-75251087

    “Iran fired cruise missiles Thursday as part of a naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, state media reported, under surveillance of what appeared to be a U.S. nuclear submarine dispatched to the region amid heightened tensions between the countries.

    Helicopter footage of the exercise released by Iran’s navy showed what resembled an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine, the USS Georgia, which the U.S. Navy last month said had been sent to the Persian Gulf — a rare announcement aimed at underscoring American military might in the region.

    Iran’s navy did not identify the submarine, but warned the boat to steer clear of the area, where missiles were being launched from land units and ships in the gulf and the northern part of the Indian Ocean. When asked for comment on the reported submarine sighting, Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, responded: “We don’t talk about submarine operations.”

    Later Thursday, Iran’s state-run media claimed that a “foreign” vessel had “intended to approach the naval drill” and departed soon after the Iranian Navy’s warning, without elaborating.

    The two-day drill began on Wednesday with the unveiling of the largest vessel in the Iranian Navy, the latest in a series of Iranian military exercises during the waning days of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Over the weekend, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard held a naval parade in the Persian Gulf shortly after seizing a South Korean tanker in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Last week, Iran deployed unmanned aircraft to stage a large-scale drone maneuver across half the country.

    Iran’s state TV broadcast footage of the missile launches on Thursday but didn’t provide their range or other details. In July, Iran said it test-fired cruise missiles with a range of some 280 kilometers (some 275 miles).

    “Enemies should know that any violation and invasion of Iranian marine borders will be targeted by the cruise missiles from both coast and sea,” said Adm. Hamzeh Ali Kaviani, the spokesman for Thursdays’ exercise.

    Tensions are rising as Iran ramps up pressure on the West over the Trump administration’s sanctions campaign against the Islamic Republic.

    Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. in 2018 from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile program among other issues in withdrawing.

    Following the re-imposition of unprecedented American sanctions on Iran, Tehran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development as a series of escalating incidents pushed the two countries to the brink of war at the beginning of last year.”

  7. ITALY and CCP FLU: How crazy they have become?

    A 12-year-old girl is suspended from school. Her crime: Hugging her classmate. The crackdown on a 12-year-old girl is the worst news in recent years.

    Reading the comments – all in Italian: “Bah, I feel more sorry for the little girl’s friend who is now a victim of this madness, so much so that she screamed and experienced a hug as an attack! Who knows what paranoid parents she has …”

    https://twitter.com/RadioSavana/status/1348879010458185733

  8. Fire destroys hundreds of homes in Rohingya refugee camp (abcnews, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/fire-destroys-hundreds-homes-rohingya-refugee-camp-75247434

    “A fire raced through a sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Thursday, destroying hundreds of homes, officials said. No casualties were reported.

    The UNHCR said more than 550 homes sheltering about 3,500 people as well as 150 shops were either totally or partially destroyed in the fire.

    The fire broke out early Thursday in Nayapara Camp in Cox’s Bazar district, where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are staying. Nayapara is an old camp that was started decades ago.

    Mohammed Shamsud Douza, a senior refugee official, said firefighters took two hours to bring the blaze under control.

    No serious injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire was not immediately known.

    The U.N. agency said affected families were being provided shelter materials, winter clothes, hot meals and medical care.

    A video showed many refugees searching through charred corrugated iron sheets for valuables.

    “This is another devastating blow for the Rohingya people who have endured unspeakable hardship for years,” Save the Children’s country director in Bangladesh, Onno van Manen, said in a statement. “Today’s devastating fire will have robbed many families of what little shelter and dignity was left to them.”

    About 700,000 Rohingya fled to the camps in Cox’s Bazar after August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim group following an attack by insurgents. The crackdown included rapes, killings and the torching of thousands of homes, and was termed ethnic cleansing by global rights groups and the U.N.”

  9. Sudanese protesters rally, demand detention centers closed (abcnews, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/sudanese-protesters-rally-demand-detention-centers-closed-75252304

    “Dozens of Sudanese rallied in the capital, Khartoum, on Thursday to demand the closure of illegal detention centers following the alleged torturing and killing of a man by a paramilitary force whose members once formed the backbone of a militia accused of war crimes in Darfur.

    The death of Bahaa el-Din Nouri, snatched last month while sitting at a coffee shop last month, has reignited debate over the mandate of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, which activists have long held responsible for several human rights violations…”

  10. UN watchdog confirms another Iranian breach of nuclear deal (abcnews, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/watchdog-confirms-iranian-breach-nuclear-deal-75247230

    “The United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency confirmed Thursday that Iran has informed it the country has begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal, which would be another violation of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers.

    Iran maintains its plans to conduct research and development on uranium metal production are part of its “declared aim to design an improved type of fuel,” the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said.

    Uranium metal can also be used for a nuclear bomb, however, and research on its production is specifically prohibited under the nuclear deal — the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — that Tehran signed with Germany, France, Britain, China, Russia and the United States in 2015.

    Since the unilateral American withdrawal from the deal in 2018, the other members have been working to try and preserve the accord, and Germany slammed the new Iranian move as a “completely wrong signal and not likely to build trust.”

    The Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press that as the other members are committed to the deal and the “future American government has also expressed its willingness to return” to it, Iran “must not continue to undermine the core provisions” of the accord.

    “It is long overdue for Iran to return to full compliance with its commitments,” the ministry said.

    The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something Iran insists it does not want to do. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed.

    On Sunday, IAEA inspectors visited the Isfahan plant where Iran has said it plans to conduct the research, and officials were informed by Tehran on Wednesday that “modification and installation of the relevant equipment for the mentioned R&D activities have been already started,” the agency said.

    Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, repeated that in a tweet on Wednesday, adding that “natural uranium will be used to produce uranium metal in the first stage.”

    He told Iran’s official news agency IRNA that the move will elevate Iran to the level of “progressive nations in production of new fuels.”

    Although uranium metal in theory can be geared toward generating electricity, experiments with metal alloys are prohibited under the nuclear deal because uranium metal is a key material in the making of nuclear weapons. The process involves converting high-enriched uranium gas into metal that provides the cladding, or outer covering, for the fuel rods that power a nuclear reaction.

    “Iran had not previously experimented with this step in the process, but in order to make a bomb, you would have to,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, based in Washington.

    It was the latest in a string of violations of the nuclear deal that Iran has undertaken since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out in 2018, saying it needed to be re-negotiated.

    Tehran has been using the violations to put pressure on the other signatories to provide more incentives to Iran to offset crippling American sanctions re-imposed after the American pullout. President-elect Joe Biden, who was vice president when the deal was signed during the Obama administration, has said he hopes to return the U.S. to the deal.

    The timing of the uranium metal announcement, Kimball said, left little doubt about Iran’s intentions.

    “They know there’s someone named Biden who’s going to be in the White House next week and they want him to act as soon as possible to waive nuclear-related sanctions,” he added. “They are looking for ways to underscore that their patience has run out.”

    Britain, France and Germany said last week that Iran “risks compromising” chances of diplomacy with Washington after Tehran announced another violation — that it was starting to enrich uranium to 20% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

    The foreign ministers of the three European nations said in a joint statement then that the Iranian activity “has no credible civil justification.” They said the enrichment was a clear violation of the deal and “further hollows out the agreement.”

    Those working to save the deal also note that despite the violations, Iran continues to allow inspectors to access all sites in the country.”

  11. French Black Supremacist, Alleged Bomb Maker, Accidently Blows Up Apartment (breitbart, Jan 14, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/14/french-black-supremacist-accidently-blows-up-apartment/

    “A French black supremacist accidentally caused an explosion in an apartment and injured himself while handling chemicals, allegedly to make explosives.

    A fire broke out at a residence in the commune of Saint-Leu-la-Forêt on Wednesday shortly after 8 am, reportedly caused when the suspect mishandled chemicals.

    As a result of the blast, the suspect’s hands were seriously injured, and a woman who was in the apartment at the time was also wounded, Le Point reports.

    Local police say that the man in the case is well-known to them and to intelligence services. An official told the magazine: “He’s a black supremacist, he doesn’t hide it.” Intelligence services labelled him a “black nationalist, who defends an ideology of the superiority of blacks over whites”….”

  12. January 14, 2021
    NO AGITATORS/PROVOCATEURS JANUARY 6?

    He saw four distinct groups of them and J. Michael Waller knows professional agitators when he sees them, having been trained to be one and observing hundreds of demonstrations and protests since the 1970s. Just a sample:

    “Then, from the north, a column of uniformed, agile younger men walked briskly, single-file, toward the inaugural stand. They came within two feet of me. Their camouflage uniforms were clean, neat, and with a pattern I couldn’t identify.

    “Some had helmets and GoPro cameras. Some uniforms bore subdued insignia, including the Punisher skull. These were the disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. I had seen them in groups of two or three among the marchers on Connecticut Avenue from the Ellipse.

    “Now there were a good three dozen of them, moving in a single, snakelike formation. They were organized. They were disciplined. They were prepared. ‘We’re taking the Capitol!’ the first or second announced.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/426036/

  13. Who really won in the Caucasus?
    Russia’s growing role in south Caucasus leads to housing reconstruction

    “Over 300 buildings have been reconstructed using construction materials provided by Russia as part of humanitarian work underway to reconstruct 450 buildings.”

    Russia is growing its influence in the southern Caucasus region of Nagorna-Karabakh, reconstructing another 300 buildings, its new agency says. Moscow’s role is growing after Turkey prodded Azerbaijan to attack Armenians in the disputed area.

    From Russia’s point of view, this squabble between two former Soviet Republics can be patched up with some peacekeepers and proper policing. Turkey sought to push a war in the Caucasus and enabled a greater Russian role.…

    While Russia sorts things out between Armenia and Azerbaijan it is Ankara that shows its prodding of Azerbaijan to war has not resulted in anything for Turkey. Ankara begged Baku to let it send troops to get a foothold. It also sent a few Syrian mercenaries as cannon fodder.

    The US also lost influence in not bothering to even discuss the conflict with Azerbaijan and Armenia. Where once Caucasus countries looked to the US for global leadership, from Georgia to Armenia and Azerbaijan, they all look to Moscow now, as they historically did during the Soviet era. Russia defeated Georgia in a war in 2008 and Armenia is dependent on Russia, despite putting out feelers to the West.

    https://www.jpost.com/international/russias-growing-role-in-south-caucasus-leads-to-housing-reconstruction-655390

  14. Three Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Shootout Near Afghan Border
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/01/14/pakistan-soldiers-killed-afghan-border/

    “Three Pakistani soldiers were killed Thursday in an exchange of fire with militants in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said.

    North Waziristan was once a focal point in the global war on terror, but attacks have decreased in recent years following a series of army offensives against homegrown and foreign militants.

    As well as the soldiers, three militants were killed on Thursday during two separate intelligence-based operations on militant hideouts.

    “During an exchange of fire, three soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom), while two terrorists and a bomb-making expert were also killed,” Pakistan’s military said in a statement.

    In 2014, the army launched a massive operation to wipe out militant bases in the region, to end a near decade-long insurgency that cost thousands of lives.

    Two years later, the army claimed to have cleared the last militant stronghold there after a three-month-long operation.”

  15. Iran Opens New Projects in Free Trade, Industrial Zones
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2021/01/14/2432623/iran-opens-new-projects-in-free-trade-industrial-zones

    “he Iranian President inaugurated 60 projects in the country’s free trade and economic zones on Thursday.

    In a videoconference on Thursday morning, President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated 60 economic and infrastructural projects in six different free trade and industrial zones and special economic zones.

    The projects include industrial plants, steel production factories, oil refineries, and port development plans in the free zones in various provinces.

    The projects are expected to provide employment for more than 3,200 people.”

  16. If FBI knew about Capitol ‘insurrection’ in advance, how was Trump’s speech the trigger? – Liberty Unyielding
    Howard Portnoy
    3-4 minutes

    If FBI knew about Capitol ‘insurrection’ in advance, how was Trump’s speech the trigger?

    Dems walk the articles of impeachment to the Senate in an inane attempt at pomp. (Image: YouTube screen grab)

    Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump again, according him the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. The lone charge this time is inciting an insurrection, and the only evidence offered in support of the charge was the president’s incendiary language in a speech on Jan. 6, which promoters of impeachment say fueled the attack on the Capitol.

    The single article of impeachment was carefully worded. Trump “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a county anymore,’” the document states. Trump also urged supporters to “go … peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol, but that language is conveniently omitted.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/14/if-fbi-knew-about-capitol-insurrection-in-advance-how-was-trumps-speech-the-trigger/

  17. https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/14/if-fbi-knew-about-capitol-insurrection-in-advance-how-was-trumps-speech-the-trigger/

    Dems walk the articles of impeachment to the Senate in an inane attempt at pomp. (Image: YouTube screen grab)

    Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump again, according him the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. The lone charge this time is inciting an insurrection, and the only evidence offered in support of the charge was the president’s incendiary language in a speech on Jan. 6, which promoters of impeachment say fueled the attack on the Capitol.

    The single article of impeachment was carefully worded. Trump “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a county anymore,’” the document states. Trump also urged supporters to “go … peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol, but that language is conveniently omitted.

    But there’s a much bigger piece of evidence that has emerged that Democrats are willing to overlook. Namely, on Jan. 5, the “FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to co

  18. War Looms Between Sudan, Ethiopia
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2740861/war-looms-between-sudan-ethiopia

    “Sudan warned that there will be serious consequences after Ethiopia’s recent military violations, stressing that the air sorties at the border contribute to increasing security tensions.

    Ethiopia has pushed large reinforcements to its border with Sudan, while the Sudanese army still maintains its military deployment within its territory and the areas it has retaken in the last period.

    The Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accompanied by the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohammad Othman al-Hussein, and a number of senior Sudanese army commanders, arrived at the Sudanese-Ethiopian border to inspect the forces at the front lines.

    On Monday, Ethiopian militias attacked al-Fashqa area, killing five women and a child. Later, the army found the body of one of the two women who went missing during the attack.

    Sources reported that the Sudanese army combed the areas after the attack of the Ethiopian forces.

    They predicted possible military confrontations after the Sudanese and Ethiopian armies conducted ground maneuvers near the border.

    In a strongly worded press statement, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said that an Ethiopian military aircraft crossed the Sudanese-Ethiopian border in a “dangerous and unjustified escalation.”

    The ministry warned that the latest incident “could have dangerous consequences, and cause more tension in the border area.”

    The ministry called on Ethiopia not to repeat “such hostilities in the future given their dangerous repercussions on the future of bilateral relations between the two countries and on security and stability in the Horn of Africa.”

    Meanwhile, a Sudanese military helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from Gedarif, an eastern province bordering Ethiopia.

    The military said the crew tried to land the plane, but it caught fire after hitting the ground, adding that all three members of the crew survived.

    The Sudanese government spokesman, Minister of Culture and Information Faisal Mohamed Saleh denied allegations that the Sudanese forces had entered Ethiopian territory.

    Saleh asserted during his interview with Bloomberg Asharq that the Sudanese army responded decisively to the Ethiopian violations of the Sudanese border after the joint border committee failed to make any progress.

    He reiterated that the conflict between the two countries has nothing to do with demarcating the borders, which are internationally agreed upon, and there is no dispute over them, which Addis Ababa denies.

    Recent reports indicated that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are now involved in the mediations aiming to ease tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia.

    Member of the Sovereignty Council Mohammad al-Faki Suleiman is expected to visit Saudi Arabia to clarify Sudan’s position on the conflict with Ethiopia.

    Sudan’s National Borders Commission on Wednesday accused Ethiopia of violating the historical border agreements signed between the two countries

    Moaz Teqno, head of the commission, described Ethiopia as “evasive and procrastinating” in implementing the agreements signed between the two countries on marking the border.

    Teqno briefed the ambassadors, diplomats, and representatives of regional and international organizations to Sudan on the dispute between Khartoum and Addis Ababa.

    Over the past years, Ethiopia has continued to encroach on Sudanese lands, build settlements and expel Sudanese farmers, in clear violation of all agreements, stated Teqno.

    “The Ethiopian infringements on the Sudanese territory have continued since 1957,” asserted Teqno, noting that Ethiopia also evaded its obligations in the border agreements which could be traced back to as early as 1903.

    Ethiopia’s ambassador to Sudan Yibeltal Aemero told the briefing that “all the recent unprecedented action of the Sudanese army will complicate the bilateral relations, including the pending task of the re-demarcation of the common boundary with huge implications to peoples of the two countries and the region at large unless corrected urgently.”

    Aemero accused Sudanese troops of taking advantage of the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region to enter the territory and loot property, kill civilians and displace thousands of people.

    The ambassador stated that his country supports the Sudanese people and has not resorted to the military option, noting that the Sudanese army’s attack must end because it will complicate relations.

    The border between Sudan and Ethiopia is about 725 km and was determined in the 1903 agreement.

    Border tension between the two countries escalated during the conflict in Tigray region, after Ethiopian forces and militias attacked Sudanese forces inside their territory, killing three individuals and a high-ranking officer.

    The Sudanese army redeployed within its territory and regained control over more than 80 percent of the areas that had been witnessing an Ethiopian presence for many years.

    The negotiations to demarcate the border between Sudan and Ethiopia last December failed to reach an agreement.”

    • We’re rooting for Sudan.
      China’s guano is all over Ethiopia.
      Dams on the Blue Nile, refusing to negotiate minimum water volume release, reckless disregard for 100 million Egyptians.

    • Israel: 162 Ethiopian Jews Arrive on New ‘Rock of Israel’ Operation Flight

      On Thursday morning, Israel welcomed another 162 Ethiopian Jews, members of the Falash Mura community, who landed in the Jewish state to make their aliyah.

      The newly-made Israelis made their way into the Jewish state on the fifth flight conducted as part of the so-called “Rock of Israel” operation.

      “I am extremely excited to see these new arrivals in Israel,” Pnina Tamano-Shata, Israel’s Minister of Aliyah and Integration, who is of Ethiopian origin herself, said.

      “We have begun to correct this old wrong, and it gives me the strength to continue to act,” she added.

      Under the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Israel, the new immigrants will have to go for a two-week quarantine before reuniting with their families.

      Under “Rock of Israel,” the Jewish state intends to fly in a total of some 2,000 Ethiopian Jews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in October, unveiling the plan.

      https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/01/14/israel-162-ethiopian-jews-arrive-on-new-rock-of-israel-operation-flight/

  19. Greece Seeks to Send 1,450 Migrants Back to Turkey
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2741231/greece-seeks-send-1450-migrants-back-turkey

    “Greece is pushing to return 1,450 people currently in migrant reception centers on Lesbos and other Aegean islands to Turkey, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said on Thursday, calling on Ankara to respect asylum agreements with the European Union.

    Mitarachi said Greece had submitted a request to the European Commission and EU border agency Frontex for the immediate return of the migrants, who he said had arrived from Turkey and whose asylum applications had been rejected.

    The move comes ahead of a planned resumption of talks to resolve longstanding territorial disputes between Greece and Turkey following months of tensions between the two NATO allies in the Aegean.

    Migrant returns to Turkey, under a 2016 EU-Turkey agreement, largely dried up last year due to the coronavirus crisis. But Mitarachi said conditions were now in place for them to resume thanks to new technology and COVID-19 testing procedures.

    “We expect Turkey to step up its efforts … First, to prevent the passage of boats departing from its shores bound for our country and European Union. And second to accept the return of migrants,” Reuters quoted Mitarachi as saying.

    He said most of the 1,450 individuals slated for return were on the island of Lesbos, where a fire last year destroyed the main camp housing irregular migrants, while others were on the islands of Kos, Samos and Chios.

    Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees used Greece as their entry point to Europe through Turkey in 2015 and 2016, until the deal between Ankara and the EU reduced the flow across the Greek and Turkish land and sea borders.

    Turkey hosts more than three million refugees and migrants, many from Syria, while tens of thousands are waiting in Greece for asylum applications to be processed, mostly in camps where conditions have been described as dire.”

  20. 12 importers responsible for artificial oil shortage, panel told
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2280002/12-importers-responsible-for-artificial-oil-shortage-panel-told

    “The Senate Standing Committee on Interior was informed that 12 top oil importers had been responsible for creating artificial oil shortage in the country.

    The panel, which met under the chairmanship of Rehman Malik, at the Parliament House on Thursday, was told that the FIA had identified those involved in the malpractice.

    The committee was given a detailed briefing by the petroleum secretary and FIA additional director general with reference to the failure of the concerned departments to control corruption and hoarding by the oil marketing companies (OMCs), which had caused inconvenience and unrest all over the country.

    The body was told that the FIA had detected top 12 oil importers who were responsible for creating oil shortage in the country.

    The panel was further informed that the malpractice, which resulted in kick-back of millions of dollars, had foreigners based in Dubai, UK and Malta involved.

    It was noted that the diesel was imported illegally from Iran by using forged documents from Alhamriya Dubai and that the refinery’s owner and partners were involved in it.

    The body was apprised that the artificial shortage and stockpiling of petroleum products was a major problem which caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

    In addition, the petroleum secretary gave detailed briefing as to how the wet and dry mechanism was used for the purpose.

    The companies ensured to make the petrol stations dry from Karachi to Khyber and only make them wet after the rise of price of oil through hidden hoarding and ships from the high sea, the petroleum secretary said.

    The committee was told that the owners had their networks in Dubai and UK and that some highly influential smugglers had been identified.

    An in-camera meeting will be held next week where the FIA will explain the mechanics adopted by the importers for creating artificial shortage of oil and the benefit drawn out of it.

    The panel decided to constitute a sub-committee to look into the details and resolved to take all those involved in the crime to task.

    The committee served a detailed questionnaire to the Ogra chairman and directed him to come up with a comprehensive plan to stop the shortage of oil in future.”

  21. Doctor ‘imprisons, tortures’ sister for four years to deny inheritance in Lahore
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2279988/doctor-imprisons-tortures-sister-for-four-years-to-deny-inheritance-in-lahore

    “In yet another case of violence against women, a doctor allegedly confined his sister to a room in his house for four years during which he subjected her to torture in a bid to avoid having to pay her share of inheritance, the Punjab Police confirmed on Thursday…”

  22. IED expert among two terrorists killed in North Waziristan operations
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2279968/ied-expert-among-two-terrorists-killed-in-north-waziristan-operations

    “Three soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred during two separate intelligence-based operations (IBOs) on terrorists’ hideouts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Thursday.

    According to the military’s media wing, two terrorists including an improvised explosive device (IED) expert also killed during the operations.

    The ISPR added that Sepoy Azaib Ahmed from Karak, Sepoy Ziaul Islam from Bannu and Lance Naik Abbass Khan from Orakzai District were martyred during the exchange of fire…”

  23. Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan vow to deepen ties
    https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-azerbaijan-pakistan-issue-joint-declaration-161620

    “Top diplomats of Turkey, Pakistan and Azerbaijan have agreed to take concrete steps to further deepen their bilateral and trilateral ties at the three-way meeting held in Islamabad, vowing support to each other in disputes concerning Nagorno-Karabakh, Cyprus and Jammu and Kashmir.

    Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi came together at the second round of Trilateral Dialogue on Jan. 13.

    The ministers issued the “Islamabad Declaration” following their meeting and held a joint press conference. They agreed to enhance their joint efforts in combating particularly Islamophobia, discrimination and persecution of Muslim minorities at the regional and international fora and renewed their resolve to strengthen cooperation in peace and security in line with various international and regional instruments to combat all forms and manifestations of terrorism, transnational organized crime, trafficking of drugs, narcotics, human trafficking, money laundering, crimes against cultural and historical heritage and cybercrimes,” according to the declaration…”

  24. UN urges US to drop Houthi terrorist designation
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/un-urges-us-to-drop-houthi-terrorist-designation/2110345

    “The UN urged the Trump administration on Thursday to reverse its decision to label Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terror group, warning the move could exacerbate the country’s dire humanitarian crisis.

    The UN’s aid chief Mark Lowcok told the Security Council the decision will push the impoverished nation into “a large-scale famine on a scale that we have not seen for nearly 40 years.”

    Yemen, which has been locked in a civil conflict exacerbated by regional interests since 2014, imports 90% of its food through commercial channels. The Houthis control commerce in areas they govern.

    The US announced the decision, which will take effect on President Donald Trump’s last full day in office next Tuesday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation is intended to hold the rebel group “accountable for its terrorist acts, including cross-border attacks threatening civilian populations, infrastructure, and commercial shipping.”

    The Houthis are the de facto authority across a wide swath of the badly-impoverished and food scarce nation, and concerns have mounted that designating the group as a terror organization could hinder the distribution of badly-needed aid during the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

    Aware of repeated concerns voiced by the UN and humanitarian groups, Pompeo said the US would issue licenses to exempt “certain humanitarian activity and imports into Yemen.”

    Lowcock said that plan is insufficient to prevent the looming humanitarian fallout from the US decision.

    “Aid agencies give people vouchers or cash to buy commercially imported food in the market. Aid agencies cannot – they simply cannot – replace the commercial import system,” said Lowcock. “What this means is that what the commercial importers do is the single biggest determinant of life and death in Yemen.”

    Yemen has been beset by violence and instability since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital of Sanaa. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

    According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict has claimed 233,000 lives.”

  25. Belgians are now a minority in their own capital of Brussels
    https://rmx.news/article/article/belgians-are-now-a-minority-in-their-own-capital-of-brussels

    “For the first time, Belgians have become a minority in their own capital of Brussels, which incidentally is also the de facto capital of the European Union, Belgian Pmagazine reports based on data from the country’s statistics office.

    The politically correct term for this development is called “diversity”, but the less “correct” term, but the one that may be just as appropriate, is “colonization”. In Brussels-City, where the coronavirus figures are skyrocketing, nearly 80 percent of the population is of foreign origin.

    This is the first time that Statbel, the Belgian statistics agency, has thus mapped the origin of the Belgian population. The census was taken not only by counting current nationalities, but also those of parents. If the first nationality with which an individual or at least their parents entered in the national register was not Belgian, then that person is not considered of Belgian ethnic, according to the statistical agency.

    Ten years ago, 74.9 percent of the inhabitants of all of Belgium were still “Belgian Belgians”, as the statistical office refers to ethnic Belgians. Today that ratio it is 67.9 percent, marking a serious drop in the number of Belgians.

    On Jan. 1, 2020, the kingdom’s population consisted of 67.9 percent Belgians of Belgian origin, 19.7 percent of Belgians of foreign origin (i.e. Belgians with one or two parents of foreign nationality or Belgians whose first registered nationality is foreign) and the remaining 12.4 percent are non-Belgians. This represents respectively 7,806,078, 2,259,912 and 1,426,651 inhabitants.

    These trends are occuring Western countries. For example, France’s native population has been following and could become a minority within the next decades, which holds true for Norway as well.

    The diversity of origin within the population living in Belgium is increasing because 10 years ago, in 2010, the share of Belgians of Belgian origin was 74.3 percent, that of Belgians of foreign origin 15.5 percent and that of non-Belgians 10.2 percent.

    The proportion of Belgians of Belgian origin also increases with age. In Belgium, it reaches 54.3 percent among 0-17 year olds, 66.3 among 18-64 year olds and 87.3 among over 65s.”

  26. Black Lives Matter Activist Who Stormed Capitol on Jan. 6 Charged
    By Zachary Stieber
    January 14, 2021 Updated: January 14, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    The Black Lives Matter activist who was seen storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was charged, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

    A new court filing says John Earle Sullivan, 26, told FBI agents last week that he was at the Capitol when the breach happened. He said he entered through a window that had been broken out. He also said he was present when Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was shot dead by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb into the House Speaker’s Lobby through a window.

    Sullivan showed agents some of the footage he captured inside the building, which he and others entered illegally.

    Videos showed Sullivan and others breaking through a barricade, with the Utah man shouting: “There are so many people. Let’s go. This [Expletive] is ours! [Expletive] yeah. We accomplished this [expletive]. We did this together. [Expletive] yeah! We are all a part of this history. Let’s burn this [Expletive] down.”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/black-lives-matter-activist-who-stormed-capitol-on-jan-6-arrested-charged_3657333.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-01-14-4

  27. Does Telling Muslims ‘How to Behave’ Provoke Hatred and Terrorism?
    BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM JAN 14, 2021 12:58 PM ET

    Does a firm stance against Islam provoke anger, resentment, and violence from Muslims? And does the opposite—pandering to and appeasing Muslims—win their appreciation, respect, and cooperation?

    Far too many in the West are convinced that the answer to both of these questions is an emphatic yes.

    Recently, on Dec.7, 2020 in Berlin, for instance, in a speech to the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, Helge Lindh of the Social Democratic Party blasted what he characterized as “Islamophobia” and insisted that Germans need to strive to “understand Muslims instead of trying to change them…. Let’s not go on telling Muslims what modern Islam is.”

    Many of his complaints were directed against the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which not only takes a firm stance against Muslim immigration, but had scheduled me to speak on Islam—and announced it in the days before Lindh spoke. (German language video here; English forthcoming.)

    At one point the social democrat said: “If we tell Muslims what we expect from them, how they should behave, we will humiliate them and reap hatred.”

    Is this true? No; quite the opposite.

    Consider the forgotten lessons of the (much distorted) colonial era, when European nations dominated and controlled much of the Muslim world. After 1,200 years’ worth of jihads that had permanently conquered some three-quarters of Christendom and terrorized the rest, Europe militarily managed to eclipse and essentially defang Islam throughout the 1800s and early 1900s.

    Far from being resentful and turning more zealously to jihad, Muslims questioned the superior strength of Islam; for the first time in history, Muslims looked with awe and respect on the West. The result was Westernization and secularization.

    After all, it was one thing to adhere to sharia and jihad when Islam was conquering and subjugating non-Muslims, as it had done for over a millennium. It was quite another thing for Muslims to remain confident in the Islamic way when the despised infidels were conquering and subjugating the lands of Islam with great ease—displaying their superior weapons and technology, not to mention all the other perks of Western civilization.

    As a historian of the period puts it, “Napoleon’s invasion introduced educated Egyptians to the ideas of the French Revolution,” which “generated a gnawing and uncomfortable feeling among them that the ‘umma’ [the Islamic community] was not as perfect or as strong as they had imagined. Such uncertainty was the basis of new ideas and conceptions.”

    Thus, and for the first time in over a millennium, Muslims began to emulate the West in everything from politics and governance to everyday dress and etiquette. During the colonial era and into the mid-twentieth century, all things distinctly Islamic—such as Islam’s clerics, the woman’s “hijab,” and the Salafi beard—were increasingly seen by Muslims as relics of a backward age, to be shunned. Many “Muslims” were Muslim in name only.

    One need only turn to the history of Turkey to demonstrate this forgotten chapter of wholesale emulation of the West. Prior to the colonial era, Turkey was for centuries the Muslim world’s jihadi state par excellence (first under the Seljuk, then Ottoman dynasty). It prosecuted the jihad against Europe, swallowing up much of the Balkans for centuries, and enforced sharia.

    Following the meteoric rise of the West, however, far from clinging more tenaciously to Islam, Turkey apostatized in all but name. It abolished the Ottoman Empire, the final caliphate of the Islamic world, and disavowed its Islamic identity and heritage—even discarding the once sacrosanct Arabic script for the Latin alphabet in order to be more European. Turkey went from being the standard bearer of Islam and the embodiment of jihad for some five hundred years to being possibly the most Westernized Muslim nation in the world.

    Similarly, all of the popular Arab nationalist movements that appeared in the twentieth century were distinctly secular and westernized, certainly in comparison with the religious rhetoric that prevailed in earlier times. As late as 1953, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser mocked the idea that women should wear the hijab on Egyptian national television in front of a packed live audience—to widespread laughter and agreement. (In the 1950s, few Egyptian women wore the hijab; today the majority of women in Egypt veil themselves.)

    Needless to say, the European powers that dominated Muslim lands took a much sterner, no-nonsense approach towards Islam than any contemporary Western state would ever consider; and yet the Muslim mainstream, far from being “humiliated” or “resentful,” followed their lead.

    Indeed, it is precisely when the West began to operate on the advice that German politician Lindh and countless like him insist is key to “winning Muslim hearts and minds”—that is, groveling, blaming the West for everything, and praising Islam—that Muslims began to turn to sharia and jihad.

    It is no coincidence that the return of “Islamic fundamentalism,” as it was called in the 1970s, followed close on the heels of the cultural revolution that took the West by storm in the late 1960s. This new culture of sexual licentiousness, moral relativism, godlessness, and Western self-hatred prompted Muslims, who once admired and emulated the West when it was still characterized by moral restraint, to respond with contempt. Another aspect of the 1960s—the hyper-criticism of the West and its values by leftist Western intellectuals—exacerbated matters. Muslim opinion concerning the West swiftly soured and turned hostile.

    The West had earned Muslim respect in the era of Western might and confidence. But by the 1970s, Western intellectuals were pushing once Westward-looking Muslims back to Islam. Consider the realm of historical studies alone: Western civilization is now portrayed as the root cause of all the world’s woes. Islamic civilization is now portrayed as just another noble victim of Christendom’s depredation. The objective history of the relationship between Islam and the West has been turned on its head.

    Like Lindh, Western academics and intellectuals today make it a point to praise Muslim achievements even where there are none—as when Barack Obama ordered NASA to make Muslims “feel good about their historic contribution to science.” Far from winning Muslims over, such self-loathing and sycophantic behavior has naturally prompted even more revulsion among Muslims—and continues to do so.

    When the West was confident and proud of its own heritage, it attracted Muslims over to emulation—even when it was ruling over them in their own lands. Now, forever apologizing for its “sins” and demonizing its own heritage, while promoting hedonism and an overall dishonorable lifestyle, it cannot even prevent increasingly disgusted Muslims from attacking it on its own territory. Germany, where politicians such as Lindh insist that “If we tell Muslims what we expect from them, how they should behave, we will humiliate them and reap hatred,” perfectly embodies this.

    In short, and as Osama bin Laden once said, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.” Confidence, assertiveness, and power are more attractive and breed admiration and emulation—particularly amongst those bred on primordial notions of might makes right, which has long been the central idea behind Islam—whereas timidity, weakness, and dissolution breeds contempt from those same people.