Reader’s Links for February 25, 2021

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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

115 Replies to “Reader’s Links for February 25, 2021”

  1. Hidden Russiagate docs expose more misconduct, evidentiary holes: ex-investigator

    As a senior House Intel investigator and Trump administration official, Kash Patel helped unearth critical misconduct by the intelligence officials who carried out the Trump-Russia probe.

    In his first extended interview since leaving government, Patel tells Aaron Maté that still-classified documents expose more malpractice, as well as major evidentiary holes in the pivotal — and largely unquestioned — claims of a sweeping Russian interference campaign to elect Trump in 2016. According to Patel, the release of these critical documents was “continuously impeded.”

    “I think there were people at the heads of certain intelligence agencies who did not want their tradecraft called out, even though it was during a former administration, because it doesn’t look good on the agency itself,” Patel says. Among the tradecraft that Patel criticizes is the hastily produced and highly consequential “Intelligence Community Assessment” of January 2017, as well as the FBI’s reliance on Crowdstrike — the DNC contractor that generated the Russian hacking allegations despite later admitting, behind closed doors, that it lacked concrete evidence.

    Patel also discusses other aspects of his time in the Trump White House: a secret mission to Syria; Trump’s record on foreign wars; and the January 6th riot at the Capitol.

    Guest: Kash Patel. Former senior government official in the Trump administration, where he served as senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, and chief of staff to the acting Secretary of Defense. Previously, Patel served as a top investigator on the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee, where he was instrumental in exposing US intelligence misconduct in the Trump-Russia investigation.

  3. NBC News – New Details On Rioter Accused Of Stealing Nancy Pelosi’s Laptop

    New video appears to show 22-year-old Riley Williams expressing neo-Nazi sympathies.

    Her attorney told NBC News the video was meant as a joke to mock Nazis, and would not confirm nor deny that she was in it.

  4. Confirmation hearing for Health Secretary appointment: RAND PAUL asks Transgender Biden nominee for Health if he/she/it would ban child genital mutilation and sex hormone therapies. Transgender nominee refuses to answer the question.

    https://youtu.be/3y4ZhQUre-4

  6. Meet the New President of the United States….Barack Obama – Frontpagemag
    Wayne Allyn Root
    5-6 minutes

    Back to finish the job with his third term.

    I’ve written thousands of columns and commentaries. This is the most important I’ve ever written.

    This is my chance to play the modern-day Paul Revere. “The commies are coming. The commies are coming.” Yes, I am reporting a communist takeover. But the leader of this attack is not who it appears to be.

    Republicans, conservatives and capitalists are sick right about now. We’re in shock. We can’t believe Donald Trump is no longer president. We can’t believe Americans voted against the greatest economy — perhaps in history — the greatest jobs picture ever, the greatest improvement in middle-class incomes ever and the greatest economic comeback ever, which Trump produced after the COVID-19 lockdown and economic collapse. Remember 33% gross domestic product in Q3 2020? That was the biggest number in history. Who would vote against all that? You

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/meet-new-president-united-states-wayne-allyn-root/

  9. Israel COVID vaccine data released for first-time in peer-reviewed journal

    A study conducted by the Clalit HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) studying the effectiveness of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine among 1,200,000 people – half of whom received the vaccine and half who did not – became the first large scale study to be published in a peer-reviewed journal on Wednesday after it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    While the study had been published in Israeli media earlier this month, it had not been peer-reviewed until Wednesday.

    The study evaluated the vaccine’s effectiveness in five areas of interest: coronavirus infections confirmed with a PCR test, symptomatic COVID-19, hospital admission for COVID-19, severe cases of COVID-19 and death due to COVID-19.

    The coronavirus vaccine prevents 57% of symptomatic cases within about two weeks after the first dose and 94% of symptomatic cases starting seven days after the second dose, according to the study.

    Clalit is the largest HMO in Israel, insuring 4.7 million patients, about 53% of the country’s population.

    The study, which evaluated the data of over a million patients, was one of the first to analyze the effectiveness of the vaccine on such a large scale. The large amount of detailed data also allowed researchers to estimate vaccine effectiveness for specific subpopulations, something that randomized clinical trials were unable to do. The efficacy of the vaccine was found to be high and similar to the efficacy reported in clinical trials.

    https://www.jpost.com/health-science/covid-vaccine-prevents-57-percent-of-symptomatic-cases-after-1st-dose-clalit-660123

    • Pfizer-BioNTech testing booster of their COVID-19 vaccine in new trial

      Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said on Thursday they are testing a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

      They are also in talks with regulatory authorities about testing a vaccine modified to protect specifically against the highly transmissible new variant found in South Africa and elsewhere, known as B.1.351, as a second arm of the same study.

      The companies believe their current two-dose vaccine will work against the South African variant as well as one found in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. But the studies will allow the vaccine makers to be prepared if and when more protection is necessary, they said.

      “The rate of mutations in the current virus is higher than expected,” Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in an interview. “It’s a reasonable probability that we would end up with regular boosts. And for potent vaccines, it may be that you need to do a strain change every few years, but not necessarily every year.”

      https://www.jpost.com/health-science/pfizer-biontech-testing-booster-of-their-covid-19-vaccine-in-new-trial-660186

  10. Greece to Manufacture New Border Surveillance Drones
    https://greekreporter.com/2021/02/24/greece-to-manufacture-new-border-surveillance-drone/
    Greece will manufacture a new, innovative, border surveillance drone. Named the IDEX 2021: LOTUS, which represents the next generation of unmanned surveillance aircraft, the aerial vehicle will be manufactured by a Greek firm.

    The Greek company Intracom Defense (IDE) signed an agreement with the European Commission for the tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, which has been specially designed for border surveillance and reconnaissance and what the company calls “high value targets.”
    A grant agreement for 9.7 million euros which was approved last July will secure the funding necessary for the production of the drone, called a Low Observable Tactical Unmanned System, or LOTUS.

    The grant was part of the European Defense Industrial Development Program, or EDIDP.
    According to IDEX, the LOTUS has a number of innovative characteristics, including:

    – Stealth properties, hiding it from enemy forces
    – Stand-off operational capabilities
    – Airworthiness and interoperability based on NATO standards
    – Reliable communications
    – Extensive adoption of Artificial Intelligence
    – Cybersecurity and Expandability to support additional missions

    In addition, the firm says that some of the platform’s advanced features cannot be incorporated in existing designs, which will provide LOTUS with a strong competitive advantage relative to other UAVs .

    The LOTUS program will be based on prior experience and know-how acquired through the collaboration of IDE with key partners in previous RPAS designs, including HCUAV, which has already been flight-tested, and DELAER, which is expected to perform flights next year.

    Greece, in cooperation with the participating EU member nations, now has a unique opportunity not only to demonstrate the country’s industrial capability to develop state-of-the-art technologies, but also to collaborate with a wide group of participating private and public sector EU partners.
    The consortium of companies and entities taking part in the LOTUS program is coordinated by IDE and comprises of industrial, scientific and military groups from Greece, Cyprus , Spain, and the Netherlands.

    Greek firms and groups participating in the LOTUS production include IDE, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, ALTUS, CFT, the University of Patras and the Hellenic Air Force Telecommunications and the Electronics Depot.

    Cypriot firms taking part in the development of the new drone include SignalGenerix, Cyric and Geoimaging. Embention, a Spanish firm, will also take part, alongside the Netherlands’ RHEA Group.
    The Hellenic Ministry of Defense (HMoD) will be able to field its respective operational requirements and to achieve its self-sufficiency within a 5-year plan, bypassing the obstacle of non-controlled critical systems with the development of the trailblazing drone system.

    Moreover, with the development of the LOTUS UAV, the HMoD will have the opportunity to acquire further systems and knowledge which will effectively fill a confirmed capability gap in the country’s defense.

  11. CBC – Moderna co-founder answers your questions on vaccines

    Derrick Rossi, co-founder of Moderna Therapeutics, answers viewer questions about the mRNA technology he helped develop and which is now being used in the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.

    • Barnyard stench was so strong, there just had to be a pony somewhere…
      Guess what?
      He pays taxes in Massachusetts!
      Lotsa, lotsa taxes.

  12. S P I T Norway S P I T

    AHLC chair: End Israeli-Palestinian conflict with land for peace formula

    The formula of “land for peace” must be revived to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide said as she called for renewed efforts for peace through the creation of two-states.

    “I emphasized to the meeting how important it is to resume a political process,” Søreide said. “Israelis and Palestinians must negotiate a permanent peace agreement based on the formula of peace for land.”

    She spoke at the end of a virtual international meeting to facilitate donor funding for the Palestinians, known as the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), which last convened in June.

    The 15-member AHLC chaired by Norway, is unique in that it includes representation by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

    PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Finance Minister Shukri Bishara participated in Tuesday’s meeting, as did Haim Regev of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell co-hosted the meeting.

    https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/ahlc-chair-end-israeli-palestinian-conflict-with-land-for-peace-formula-659959

    • The govt of Norway incurred a BLOOD DEBT for their “Oslo Accords” initiative. Some decent Christians there apologized in 2013:

      ““Forgive us Israel as a nation for the Oslo Agreement dividing up the Land of Israel, for the money from Norway ending up supporting terrorist organizations, for not moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s eternal undivided capital Jerusalem, for not standing up to defend Israel in a world with increasing hostility, and for the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attitude of politicians and media in Norway,” the apology says.

      The apology also asks forgiveness for Norway hindering Jews from entering the country until 1851, for sending Jews to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust, and for rejecting Jews who sought to come to Norway after the war.

      “We hope to do what we can to rectify mistakes,” said Pastor Terje Ligerod, head of the delegation.”
      http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Norwegian-group-coming-to-Knesset-to-apologize-for-Oslo-Accords-333876

  14. Biden: It’s Okay to Finance China’s Military
    Gordon G. Chang
    5-6 minutes

    (Image source: iStock)

    Wall Street wants to finance the enemy, and the Biden administration is opening the door wide.

    How can this be?

    On January 26, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License No. 1A, which permits Americans to continue acquiring shares in certain companies associated with “Communist Chinese Military Companies,” known as CCMCs, until May 27. The previous deadline, set by the Trump administration, was January 28.

    The General License delayed a portion of the application of President Trump’s landmark Executive Order 13959, issued November 12, 2020.

    EO13959 stopped investors, subject to wind-down provisions, from purchasing or possessing shares in any company designated a CCMC. In short, Trump ordered Americans to stop financing China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17099/finance-china-military

  16. Gangs Kill 18 Villagers in Northern Nigeria
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/02/25/gangs-kill-18-northern-nigeria/

    “Gangs of thieves have killed 18 people in several attacks in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, the government said Thursday.

    Gunmen on motorcycles stormed into several villages in Igabi and Chikun districts of Kaduna state on Tuesday and Wednesday, shooting residents, burning homes, and stealing livestock, Samuel Aruwan, the state internal security commissioner, said.

    “Security agencies have reported a sequence of attacks by armed bandits on soft targets in Igabi and Chikun local government areas occurring over the last 48 hours,” he said in a statement.

    Gunmen invaded Anaba village in Igabi district, killing seven people and burning “several houses along with warehouses and barns,” Aruwan said.

    In another attack, a gang stormed Barinje village in Chikun district, shooting eight people dead and abducting some residents.

    Aruwan said the gunmen also wounded an “unspecified number” of people who were being treated in the hospital.

    He said the raids were reprisals for the killing of several so-called bandits in “targeted air operations” after an attack on Tuesday by cattle thieves that left three people dead.

    Northwest and central Nigeria are a hub for gangs of cattle thieves and kidnappers who raid villages, killing and abducting residents and looting and burning their homes.

    Earlier this month, bandits killed 19 people in attacks on villages in Kaduna’s Birnin Gwari and Kajuru districts.

    The gangs have no ideological leanings but there is concern they are being infiltrated by jihadists from the northeast waging a more-than decade-old insurrection.”

  17. Burkina Faso Military Kills 11 ‘Terrorists’ in Jihadist-Plagued North
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/02/25/burkina-faso-kills-11-terrorists/

    “Burkina Faso’s armed forces said Thursday they had killed 11 “terrorists” during an operation in the country’s jihadist-plagued north after a recent surge in attacks.

    The ground and air operation was launched “in the forest of Bangao and in the areas of Tasmakat, Fourkoussou and Bidy in Oudalan province on February 23 and 24,” the armed forces in a statement.

    “The toll was 11 terrorists neutralized and one captured,” the statement said, adding that there were no military losses.

    The military also seized weapons, ammunition, and transport and communications equipment.

    “Following recent recurring attacks against the civilian population in Oudalan province, the national armed forces planned and carried out search operations to find the terrorists and secure the population,” the statement added.

    Nine civilians were killed and nine more wounded in an attack on a convoy of vehicles traveling in Oudalan province on February 18.

    Two women were killed by an improvised bomb in Yagha province on Tuesday.

    Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, is struggling with a jihadist insurgency that began in neighboring Mali in 2012 and spread into its territory in 2015.

    More than 1,200 people have died and a million have fled their homes.”

  18. UN rights experts urge Biden to address rights violations at Guantanamo Bay prison
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/biden-guantanamo-bay-prison-address-rights-violations-un-rights-experts

    “A panel of UN rights experts said the Biden administration’s current review of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility should address “Kafkaesque” human rights violations against the 40 prisoners currently held there, which the experts said includes torture and ill-treatment.

    In a statement on Tuesday, the experts noted that many of the remaining detainees are elderly and vulnerable after suffering from “unending deprivation of freedom and related physical and psychological torture” that has compromised their physical and mental integrity.

    “Many of the individuals currently and previously held at Guantanamo Bay have spent the bulk of their lives in a Kafkaesque situation where the rule of law was meaningless and the coercive and brutal power of the State ascendant,” the UN experts said.

    “Democracies can and should do better and the United States must clearly put this dark chapter in its history behind it and demonstrate that it is not only prepared to close the prison facilities but ensure that such practices cannot be used again, and that the crimes committed there will not remain unpunished.”

    Earlier this month, the Biden administration launched a formal study of the military prison with the intention of closing the facility.

    “We welcome the goal of closing the detention facility, consistent with our previous calls to end impunity for the human rights and humanitarian law violations committed during the ‘war on terror’,” the experts said.

    The panel, however, also called for independent investigations into the allegations of extraordinary rendition, torture, and secret detention that surround the legacy of the prison.

    The experts, which include UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Agnes Callamard and special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer, urged for “a transparent, comprehensive, and accountability-focused review of the operation and legacy of the prison and the military commissions”.

    Closing Gitmo
    Closing the prison had been a campaign promise of the Obama administration, where Joe Biden served as vice president.

    Currently, 40 detainees remain imprisoned at the camp. Six have been cleared for release and 25 others have not been charged or tried for a crime.

    In a video hearing on Tuesday, Yemeni detainee Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman made a case for his release before the Periodic Review Board, which decides which detainees are eligible for transfer out of the prison.

    Being approved for transfer by the review board requires an inmate to be cleared by six federal agencies: the departments of State, Defence, Justice and Homeland Security, as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Odni) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    The Odni includes the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the agency that oversaw the alleged torture of many of those held at the prison.

    Nine detainees have either been charged with a crime or convicted through a military tribunal and, therefore, cannot be processed through the review board. Still, legal scholars have argued that the men can be tried and imprisoned in federal facilities.”

  19. EU calls Iran to reverse nuclear decision
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210225-eu-calls-iran-to-reverse-nuclear-decision/

    “The European Union urged Iran to reverse actions inconsistent with a 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers, Anadolu Agency reports.

    Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed deep concerns in a statement about Tehran’s decision to temporarily suspend special audit rights for International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inspectors.

    “We continue to call on Iran to stop and reverse all actions that are inconsistent with its commitments under the JCPOA,” said Borrell, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

    The statement said inspectors would have reduced knowledge about “Iran’s nuclear fuel cycle,” including research and development on advanced centrifuges, which limits the agency’s ability to verify if material and activities remain exclusively for peaceful purposes.

    Borrell, however, repeated the bloc’s support and commitment to the nuclear agreement and welcomed “the prospect of a US return to the JCPOA and Iran’s return to full JCPOA implementation.”…”

  21. Child labour runs rampant on capital streets
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2286123/child-labour-runs-rampant-on-capital-streets

    “The twin cities are home to thousands of skilled and unskilled workers who trek down from regions like Swat, North Waziristan and Peshawar in search of finding better employment opportunities. Many among them are children, who like their parents, must also contribute to the family income if they are to break bread at day end.

    Left with little option, many of these youths find themselves on busy thoroughfares, often running from traffic signal to traffic signal; trying to sell anything ranging from garlands to sanitary products to moving cars…

    Although the federal capital has various government and non-government organisations functioning for children’s rights, so far little has been done to rehabilitate the many child labourers working in deplorable conditions, on the city’s busiest thoroughfares…

    A senior government official, when consulted to shed some light on the legalities around child labour, said on conditions of anonymity that laws exist but are seldom enforced. “Every time anyone is booked for enforcing child labour, the most time they serve in prison is six months and then go back to their old ways.

    If we are to make any difference, the government should focus on drafting stricter penalties. We need to start taking pictures and preparing data on these people so that if they’re caught again they have no way of escaping the law,” he told The Express Tribune.”

  22. FATF gives 4th extension to Pakistan to fully implement ‘action plan’
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2286250/fatf-gives-4th-extension-to-pakistan-to-fully-implement-action-plan

    “The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday gave fourth extension to Pakistan to fully implement a 27-point action plan and “strongly urged” it to meet the remaining three conditions about terror financing investigations and the United Nations Security Council resolutions.

    Against the government’s hopes of exiting the grey list this time, the FATF plenary found the country’s progress on three out of remaining six points less than satisfactory. Pakistan would remain on the grey list till June 2021, a statement issued by the FATF from Paris saiad.

    “The FATF takes note of the significant progress made on the entire action plan. To date, Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and has now largely addressed 24 of the 27 action items,” according to the FATF

    It added that as all action plan deadlines have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan before June 2021.

    It was the fourth extension that Pakistan has managed to secure due to significant progress that it made during the last almost one and half years. Pakistan had been put on the grey list with effect from June 2018 and got 15-month time to implement a 27 points action plan…”

  23. Bomb attack targets US-led coalition convoy in Iraq
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/bomb-attack-targets-us-led-coalition-convoy-in-iraq/2157285

    “A convoy of trucks carrying logistical supplies for the US-led international coalition fighting the Daesh/ISIS terror group came under a bomb attack Thursday in central Iraq, according to security sources.

    The convoy was hit with an explosive device planted alongside a road in Babylon Governorate.

    The attack caused damage to one of the trucks but there were no initial reports of casualties.

    The coalition has yet to comment on the attack.

    Similar attacks on coalition convoys have been carried out in recent months.

    Washington claims that Iran-backed Iraqi groups are responsible for the attacks.”

  24. While we’re focused on The Big Bad Bomb, there may be scads of dirty little bombs wielded by substate entities. Deniability doesn’t even have to be plausible in our world today.

    Weapons-grade Uranium and Radiopharmaceutical Production

    A simple nuclear weapon in the kiloton range—likely to be delivered by ship or van or assembled on site— is well within the capabilities of technically unsophisticated states, subnational groups, and international terrorist organizations such as al Qaida. The IAEA defines a “significant quantity” of fissile material as the amount required to make a first-generation Nagasaki-type implosion bomb: 8 kg for plutonium or 25 kg of U-235 contained in HEU. Modern nuclear weapons may require as little as 1 to 3 kg of plutonium or 5 to 10 kg of HEU.

    HEU may be the preferred nuclear weapon material for terrorists for other reasons as well. Uranium metal can be handled relatively safely by hand and the low radiation it emits is easily hidden by even modest shielding, making smuggling extremely difficult to detect. Sixty kilograms of weapons-grade HEU could easily fit into a five-liter container.

    In 2002, the US National Research Council warned that the inavailability of HEU was the “primary impediment” to the development of a terrorist bomb, and there is abundant evidence that terrorist groups have been trying aggressively to obtain nuclear materials.
    https://www.ippnw.org/pdf/heu-medical-fact-sheet.pdf

    h/t Abu Yahuda

  25. Tunisia: NGO says migrant flows to Italy up sharply
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2021/02/25/tunisia-ngo-says-migrant-flows-to-italy-up-sharply_79840953-f9fe-4a86-bcf7-0affbeb741c8.html

    “A considerable increase in the number of undcoumented migrants who have arrived in Italy from Tunisia has taken place since January 1 of this year, said Romdhane Ben Amor, communications officer for the NGO Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).

    He said 558 Tunisian migrants disembarked on Italian shores in January 2021, compared to 94 in the same period last year and 31 in 2019.

    According to Ben Amor, recent popular protests in Tunisia have fueled a new wave of migration.

    “The rate of irregular migration has recently grown, led by over 1,400 protests since January,” he said.

    “The demonstrations have seen police respond with excessive violence and arrest young protesters,” he said.

    He said the methods with which the police have faced the protests intensifies frustration among young people and increases the flow of irregular migration.

    Sixty-five attempts to cross to Italian shores have been thwarted since the start of 2021, compared to 47 in the same period last year and 12 in 2019, FTDES said.

    Ben Amor said 1,051 people have been arrested for crimes connected to migration since the start of the year, compared to 887 in the same period in 2020 and 223 in 2019.

    The region of Sfax reported the highest increase in irregular migration to Italy, with nearly 30% of departures, followed by Mahdia (26%), Tunis (over 16%) and Nabeul (about 13%), he said.

    “The Tunisian Coast Guard has by now become an affiliated force with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), acting by proxy for Frontex, and is dedicated to intercepting irregular migrants outside territorial waters. There is a dangerous tendency on the level of security relations and information exchange on the topic of irregular migration among Tunisia and the European Union,” Ben Amor said.”

  26. ‘This is no longer asylum. This is what I call migratory invasion,’ says French philosopher Zemmour
    https://rmx.news/article/article/this-is-no-longer-asylum-this-is-what-i-call-migratory-invasion-says-french-philosopher-zemmour

    “Modern French and European jurisprudence has usurped the original idea of asylum rights, initially meant to protect those fighting for liberty, said popular French author and philosopher Eric Zemmour on French television channel CNews’ political talk show Face a l’info.

    “It began with an idea linked to [French writer] Victor Hugo and [Soviet writer] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, prestigious individuals and great freedom fighters who demanded asylum,” Zemmour said. He was referring to the French writer who was exiled from France between 1851 and 1870 as a fierce opponent of the second rule of Emperor Napoleon III. He spent most of those years on the British island of Jersey and later Guernsey.

    “In the 1950s, it was a few hundred Soviet families who fought against communism, while in the 1960s it was Argentinians and Chileans who fled their respective dictatorships. Until the 1960s, we are talking about several thousand people at most,” he said. “Now the numbers have become enormous: 100,000 to 130,000 people a year, and in 2019, 170,000 people. This is no longer asylum. This is what I call migratory invasion”.

    “This means they found a new system to come to Europe and establish themselves in Europe,” Zemmour said. “Once in the European Union, they are actually ‘shopping’ for the best place to stay, be it France, Italy or Great Britain. Even if refused asylum in say Spain or France, they will just move on to another country [within the EU].”

    Zemmour said the migrants are taking advantage of the multitude of legal procedures created for their very interests.

    “Why all the endless judicial procedures? Because there are associations of migrants, who defend these people and pay for their legal interventions, in order to nullify the state decisions about revoking their asylum rights,” he said.

    “Today, the right of asylum has left its original definition … We have extended and invented new cases … The legal proceedings dismiss these people, but 95% are never expelled. They stay and wear us out. We never expel them … ”

    Zemmour is a popular author and commentator whose appearances on CNews channel have drawn in record audiences. His firm stance against mass migration and his opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron has drawn the ire of the left-wing government, which has mounted a campaign to silence him.

    Overall, fewer than 40 percent of migrants who have been given deportation orders actually leave Europe, according to the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Many migrants who are deported also end up coming back to Europe.

    France is undergoing rapid demographic change, which could see ethnic French people become the minority over the coming decades.”