[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Hezbollah condemned the brutal attack on the unarmed safe locals of Diraz town and on the young believers who have held a sit-in for many months for the sake of their religious reference, religion, homeland and dignity, adding this pushed the Bahraini regime court to consider them as wanted .
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hezbollah warned that causing any physical or moral harm to Sheikh Issa Qassem paves the way to unpredictable consequences spatially and chronologically.
Hezbollah blamed Al Saud terrorist regime for Diraz attack, adding that when Bahrain’s king got reassured that his master Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... disregards the human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... pleads and cares about sustaining the US-Bahraini ties, he sent his elite troops in addition to hundreds of military vehicles and planes to clear the sit-in.
Hezbollah stressed that Sheikh Qassem is a noble, pious religious scholar and represents a national symbol that guarantees the civil peace, adding that his eminence grants the Bahraini nationality its value.
"A family that came to Bahrain from the desert centuries ago unjustly revoked Sheikh Qassem’s nationality."
Hezbollah finally called on the independent states and organizations to denounce the crime and exert their efforts to protect the national leader Sheikh Qassem, hailing the sacrifices of Diraz locals.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
One Iranian tool warns against actions against another Iranian tool
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2017 0:46 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to boost anti-terror cooperation with Britain in a condolence message to Prime Minister Theresa May over the “inhuman” attack in Manchester, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
“We firmly condemn this cynical, inhuman crime. We expect that those behind it will not escape the punishment they deserve,” Putin said in a statement published by the Kremlin.
“The Russian head of state confirmed his readiness to bolster anti-terrorism cooperation with our British partners, both on a bilateral basis and in the framework of broader international efforts,” it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Paging Mr le Carré. Mr John le Carré, please come to the white courtesy phone.
[Wash Times] The Manchester massacre underscores complaints from counterterrorism analysts that Europe has fallen into denial about the threat of Islamic terrorism.
For instance, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is on record as saying terrorism is "part and parcel" of urban life.
Furthermore, London police said in March that they could not assign a motive to a vehicle attack in which a Muslim British citizen followed the Islamic State tactical playbook by driving an SUV over pedestrians on crowded Westminster Bridge.
After the Brussels airport/subway bomb attacks in March 2016, U.S. officials said the Belgian capital was behind the times in basic intelligence-sharing.
Manchester Arena, with the largest capacity of any venue in Great Britain, exercised little security in the areas where people gathered before entering the concert Monday night. The foyer is where 22 concertgoers were killed and 119 others were injured by a suicide bomber. Fans said there was virtually no physical inspection of bags and knapsacks at the gates
#1
The introduction of oral contraceptives in the 1960's has resulted in a steady population decline in the west. If the zeks will not reproduce, new immigrants (from regions that still produce) must be imported. It is the only method of sustaining 'big government.' Long-term social and cultural outcomes are of no consequence to a politician. Those who live inside the castle walls enjoy a totally separate social and cultural environment.
Anyone remember the term "acceptable losses?" We are now openly told by the MSM that we must... "get used to" terrorism. It's all simply a cost of doing business.
TWADDLE! The population can fall as well as rise. What matters is GDP per head. There's an optimum population density and when exceeded population can fall without any economic problems (quite the opposite!)
#4
Theoretically, BP, I agree with you. But the actions of the elites would seem to indicate that they don't. The obvious conclusion for the natives is that they are under attack not only from the colonists but from the elites.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/24/2017 12:47 Comments ||
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#5
It's not a matter of economics, but of psychology. If they've to admit being wrong about Muslims, they'll have to examine the rest of their beliefs.
#6
Just to explain. A falling population lowers rents.
This is normally good for the wealth of the population but bad for the establishment. The reverse is also true.
#12
The problem isn't population density for Socialist Europe, it is its age.
The youth are having fewer kids, but the older population pretty much is staying the same. There simply isn't enough workers to support their socialist structure anymore. So they have to import workers to keep it propped up. But by doing so are hasting their own doom by committing cultural suicide.
#14
What percentage of these "immigrants" are actually working and what percentage is on the dole? It is very obvious why, after WWI why immigrants were needed but not so obvious, except in Germany, why so many were needed after WWII.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/24/2017 15:20 Comments ||
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#15
You need to define "working" DB.
The immigrants serve as middlemen between the taxpayers and the elite pockets.
Vis a vis BPs rent scenario. It doesn't matter where the imms get their money, work or the dole (aka taxes) it winds up in the rentees, aka elite, pockets.
#18
"In a world where we subsidise failure,"
Intones a deep voice from a trailer,
"The least, always starving,
Insist we keep carving,
Obese in their ghetto regalia."
[AnNahar] Efforts are underway to remove hundreds of refugees from an unhygienic makeshift camp at an ex-Olympics facility in greater Athens, a migration ministry source said Tuesday.
"We are down there today to register the refugees' needs and officially inform them that they should relocate to organised camps," the source told AFP.
Some 700 mainly Afghan refugees are living at the camp at Hellinikon -- which until 2001 was the Athens airport -- in crumbling flight lounges and abandoned sports facilities later built for the 2004 Olympics.
Rights groups have repeatedly labelled the makeshift camp on the coastal Athens front unsuitable for long-term accommodation and called on the government to find alternative arrangements for the refugees.
In February, some of the refugees went on hunger strike to protest against the lack of hot water and suitable food.
The ministry source said the relocation to other facilities would be "gradual" and declined to give a timeframe.
The refugees were initially deposited at Hellinikon from late 2015 onwards as a temporary measure, as Greece's leftist government scrambled to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people of all ages landing on Europe's doorstep to escape war and poverty.
Many of them slept at the port of Piraeus, at Hellinikon and at another improvised camp on the northern Greek border for months before organised camps could be created with the help of volunteer groups and EU funds.
Overall, some 60,000 people including many young Syrians, Afghans and Paks, have been stuck in Greece for the past year after neighboring countries along the migrant route into Europe shut their borders.
At the start of the 2015 influx, Afghans were originally viewed as refugees and allowed to continue their journey from Greece to other countries in Europe.
But many now face deportation -- despite growing insecurity that saw civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit a record high in 2016 -- after a disputed deal between EU and Kabul to send migrants colonists back.
#3
Things like some of the refugees went on hunger strike to protest against the lack of hot water and suitable food make me look on Scrooge with a different mindset. If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population
[Ynet] Turkish police said on Tuesday they are seeking 144 people including police, soldiers and prosecutors, over suspected links to the network of a US-based holy man blamed by Ankara for orchestrating last year's failed coup.
In raids across 42 provinces, 35 of the 144 wanted people have already been detained, the police said in a statement, adding that the suspects were thought to be using ByLock, an encrypted messaging app the government says was used by preacher Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... 's followers.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] Former four-star general Akın Öztürk denied any involvement in a failed July 15, 2016, coup when he appeared before a court on May 22 in a trial against more than 200 soldiers regarding events at the Turkey’s General Staff Headquarters on the night of the putsch.
“It is the biggest punishment for me to be tried for such treason. What would be a greater punishment for a soldier who spent 46 years in such a uniform? My Dear Nation, my commanding officers that have taught me, everyone should know that I neither contributed nor knew about this treacherous coup attempt,” Öztürk said in his defense.
The Ankara 17th High Criminal Court began on May 22 a high-profile case against 221 suspects, including former high-ranking generals who have been accused of perpetrating the coup attempt.
Öztürk, along with generals Mehmet Terzi and Mehmet Partigöç and 34 others, appeared in the dock for leading the “Peace in the Nation Council,” the leading body of the failed coup. Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of being the head of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), is being tried in absentia.
As the first general to read his defense, Öztürk denied taking part in the coup attempt, saying there had been a campaign of manipulation against him.
“In the press, there was news that ‘Akın Öztürk confessed’ before I had even given a statement. This is the beginning of a persuasion operation against me. Even if the anonymous witnesses’ statements which indicate that I took part in the meetings with putschists in Çukurambar, Ankara, were lies, [the press] published them as if they were true,” he said.
‘Gen Hulusi Akar was relaxed’
Öztürk also denied that he was in a group which was established to make Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar the head of the coup attempt.
“I did not take part in the group that was established to bring Akar to the leadership of the coup nor did I make any attempt to do so. He can be asked about that,” he said.
Answering a question concerning a previous statement in which he argued that Akar was at ease during the incidents at the headquarters, Öztürk said, “The Chief of General Staff was relaxed but anxious.”
Asked if Akar could have left, Öztürk said: “There were armed soldiers outside. There was no one around him but there were armed soldiers at the door.”
Öztürk also said he certainly did not remember Ömer Faruk Harmancık forcing Akar to sign a two-paged manifesto of the committee, but added: “It might have happened after I left.”
He said Akar did not appear as if he could stop the coup attempt. “He was saying that we were disgraced as the TSK [Turkish Armed Forces]. He was very upset. He did not [give orders in order to arrest the putschists].”
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05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has become the biggest money laundering center in Europe, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has said, slamming the government for allowing vast flows of illegitimate cash into the country.
"Corruption, drugs, prostitution, money ... You can launder [money] in Turkey whenever you want. The name of these dollars is clearly ’error and omission,’" Kilicdaroglu said, addressing his party group at parliament on May 23.
The CHP leader slammed government for allowing the inflow of unregistered money that paves the way for money laundering.
"You issued the laws, you brought it about. You have acquitted bribery and now Turkey is one of the biggest money laundering countries in Europe," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has confirmed that it has blocked Austrian participation in some NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... programs due to Vienna’s constant anti-Turkish stance on various EU platforms, Turkish diplomatic sources told the Hurriyet Daily News.
"Turkey has been taking appropriate measures regarding Austria’s participation in NATO activities on the grounds that Austria brings its anti-Turkey attitude to the EU platforms," a Turkish diplomatic said on condition of anonymity.
Turkey’s blocking of Austria, which is not a NATO member, in projects for 2017 such as ones for military training, has been continuing for months, another Turkish official confirmed.
A NATO meeting is planned for May 24 at the 28-nation alliance’s Brussels headquarters with the participation of Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... .
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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#2
Wondering why Turkey is still part of NATO after shafting the US's ability to use their territory to strike into Iraq. I know that wasn't a NATO operation but serious heat should have been put on the organization if airspace and territory are denied to fellow members like that.
[IsraelTimes] Shiite leader wants to build bridges through interfaith outreach, via preachers who understand American culture.
What are the odds that Iranian money and Iranan spies are not involved in some way?
When the Islamic Institute of America
...the largest mosque in Michigan or maybe America...
bought a Baptist church, the plan initially was to remove the pews -- until the mosque’s leader objected, in part because he saw keeping the benches as a way of showing Islam’s compatibility with its sister faith.
"We’re sending a message to non-Moslem visitors and friends -- particularly our interfaith community and Christians," Imam Hassan Qazwini,
... the very connected, English-speaking Shiite imam who is also listed in our archive as Sayyid Hassan al-Qazwini. He is reportedly Hezb'allah's man in America, a supporter of Hamas, friend of Louis Farrakhan and Ron Paul in antisemitic mode, had a long private talk with Barack Obama in 2008, and was called upon to say the opening prayer for the 108th Congress. There was also a little matter of embezzlement in six figures, but his youth movement made it clear that would have to go away. He talks about refusing Saudi funding and peace a lot...
one of the top Shiite Moslem leaders in the US, said from what is now the institute’s lecture hall.
"We use the same benches you sat on. We’re using the same stage your pastor used to disseminate our message, which is not too different from your message," he added. "The gap that exists between us is not that huge."
Qazwini said reaching out to Christians, Jews and others has never been more important, with a US president who has said Islam hates the US and polls finding most Americans holding negative views of the faith. He sees education and outreach as the primary missions of the Islamic Institute of America in the bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... suburb of Dearborn Heights, which has one of the largest and oldest Arab-Moslem communities outside the Middle East.
Qazwini, who comes from a family of prominent American Shiite scholars and is of Iraqi descent, said he hopes to quell fears and misunderstandings through regular interfaith gatherings and a media division that will produce short videos and other internet-based programming.
"You will listen. We will tell. Then you will see the light and convert, yes?"
Next year, the center plans to launch a seminary aimed at equipping a new generation of Moslem leaders who can help forge a better understanding of Islam in the West. He said the seminary would not only help produce well-rounded scholars who can engage with the wider world, but also better serve their US-born congregants.
A small step up from using Iran-provided clergy, and of course they will be Shiite rather than Sunni.
"One of the issues we Moslems face in the country is ... the huge gap that exists between leaders coming from the Middle East to lead our Islamic institutions and their congregations. For most of those leaders, including myself, it takes years to adapt with the environment, with the American psyche, mentality and even lifestyle," he said.
About that death-to-apostates thing...
Qazwini’s new institute is just a few miles from the Islamic Center of America, one of North America’s largest mosques and where he served for 18 years before leaving in 2015.
Liyakat Takim, a professor of global Islam at McMaster University in the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario, said the US has one or two Islamic educational institutions, but "none with the same vision" offered by Qazwini.
Why is a Canadian academic being consulted on an American issue?
"For the longest time, the Moslem community has imported scholars from abroad or sent them abroad to study," said Takim, who knows Qazwini. "They’re not always conducive to the environment we have in America. This can create a younger generation that can preach a message which is amenable to the American environment."
Takim said Qazwini is "a man of great vision," and delivering on his plans for the institute will be "an exceptional feat and a great challenge," given rising anti-Moslem sentiment.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2014 found Americans view Islam less favorably than other major religions and atheism. Another Pew survey found 38 percent of Americans think Islam is more likely than others to encourage violence among its followers, while 50 percent think it is not more likely.
President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s campaign was marked by anti-Moslem rhetoric and, since being inaugurated, he’s sought to enact a travel ban from several Moslem-majority countries.
Qazwini said perceptions of Islam are hurt by acts of violence or terror committed by people who call themselves Moslem. He criticizes the media for rushing to associate someone’s crime with his religion if that person is or appears to be Moslem. Just because somebody acts "in the name of religion," it "doesn’t mean the religion is acting," he said.
Still, he can understand the fears.
"If I put myself in a non-Moslem’s shoes, I fully understand how they feel," he said. "There’s a massive, massive bombardment of anti-Islamic literature, imagery that leads viewers and readers to believe Islam is not compatible with the 21st century. It is our job as Moslems to change that and to contribute. ... Maybe we can’t do it all, but at least we try."
Qazwini said his institute seeks to educate Moslems and non-Moslems alike, and make them feel comfortable in each other’s company.
[DAWN] In a presser Tuesday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar remained unapologetic regarding a sweeping crackdown against social media users which is being criticised by the opposition as an undemocratic and coercive move to keep critics in check.
Instead, the minister said he was stepping up efforts to track internet users' activities online and hunt down undesirable elements.
How is that different than what the opposition said?
"For the last two weeks, posts making a mockery of Pakistain Army have surfaced," he said in his briefing. "I believe that no Pak can have made these remarks against the Army," he said.
"After the [ISPR] tweet and subsequent clarification, [the reaction] I saw on social media was a matter of concern for me," he said. "Such posts are not tolerable."
"Twenty-seven IDs have been identified, of which six were interviewed and the rest are in queue. There has been no arrest and no 'harassment'," he claimed.
"The people under interrogation are allowed to bring their lawyers along with them during questioning," the interior minister said.
"Their devices will be checked forensically, and if they have not been wiped [to destroy incriminating evidence], the accused will be tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! ," he promised.
"It is being made to seem [in the midst of this crackdown] that social media is under attack," he stated during the briefing.
"This is not the case: in fact, the Constitution, Pakistain, our institutions and the values of our country are under attack by a section of social media," he claimed.
The interior minister seemed particularly perturbed by the lack of standard operating procedures and rules on social media.
"A free-for-all system cannot be allowed. [Social media] has wide outreach, and it shapes public opinion," he said.
In a move bound to raise serious privacy concerns, the interior minister also said he wants to clamp down on online anonymity, saying that authorities had proposed that each person's social media accounts be connected with their cell phone numbers by law.
Claiming that the Federal Investigation Agency's crackdown on 'blasphemous' posts had resulted in a dramatic drop in offensive material being posted online, Nisar vowed to expand the fight to cover derogatory remarks against the state as well.
"We will move ahead despite the criticism. Those who want to create hindrances in the path of these reforms, keep at it. Do not threaten me. We will ensure the implementation of these changes in line with the law and Constitution," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, if the NSA does it, why can't I sort of argument, right?
[Jpost] US President Donald Trump ended his 28-hour trip to Israel Tuesday afternoon extolling the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace but leaving no clear indication of how he plans to help bring it closer.
Trump, who flew from Tel Aviv to Rome on the third leg of his first trip abroad as president, made no mention in seven public appearances in Israel of a Palestinian state, a two-state solution or settlements, something one senior government official said was a refreshing break from Trump’s predecessor. For a POTUS to visit Israel without some "peace plan" (utopian in form, genocidal in real world consequences) --- very pleasantly surprised
[SCMP] The wife of Jakarta’s Christian governor told a tearful presser Tuesday her husband had withdrawn his appeal against a blasphemy conviction and two-year jail term for the good of Indonesia.
But a challenge filed by prosecutors against his sentence ‐ which was far higher than the one-year suspended jail term they had recommended ‐ will still go ahead.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! this month for insulting the Koran while campaigning for re-election, a shock decision that stoked concern about rising religious intolerance in the world’s most populous Moslem-majority nation.
The blasphemy allegations against Purnama, Jakarta’s first non-Moslem governor for half a century and first ethnic Chinese leader, sparked mass protests spearheaded by radicals. They contributed to him losing last month’s vote to lead the capital to a Moslem challenger.
The governor had vowed to appeal but his family unexpectedly announced Monday he was dropping the challenge.
His wife Veronica Tan said the decision had been taken to try to end the drama that has divided Indonesian society in recent months.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Wash Times] The Manchester massacre underscores complaints from counterterrorism analysts that Europe has fallen into denial about the threat of Islamic terrorism.
[AnNahar] Efforts are underway to remove hundreds of refugees from an unhygienic makeshift camp at an ex-Olympics facility in greater Athens, a migration ministry source said Tuesday.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Former four-star general Akın Öztürk denied any involvement in a failed July 15, 2016, coup when he appeared before a court on May 22 in a trial against more than 200 soldiers regarding events at the Turkey’s General Staff Headquarters on the night of the putsch.
[SCMP] The wife of Jakarta’s Christian governor told a tearful 
