[FreeBeacon] The Supreme Court said Thursday that federal agents can be forced to pay out of their own pocket for religious liberty violations.
The decision allows three Moslem men to seek monetary damages from FBI agents who allegedly placed them on the no-fly list as retaliation for turning down requests to become informants. Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
"This is a good decision that makes it easier to hold the government accountable when it violates Americans' religious liberties," said Lori Windham of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs in Thursday's case, Muhammad Tanvir, Jameel Algibhah, and Naveed Shinwari, are Moslem citizens or green card holders who say FBI special agents attempted to recruit them as informants in the New York City area and abroad. For example, Algibhah alleges that agents asked him to attend particular mosques, behave like an bad boy, and engage on online Islamic forums.
All three men refused, citing their Moslem faith. They said informing amounts to bearing false witness, worshiping under false pretenses, and betraying the trust of fellow Moslems. A short time later, the agents added them to the no-fly list.
"The agents relied upon what they assumed would be the irresistible coercion of the no fly list—causing each [plaintiff] to be placed on the list and then either threatening to keep him on the list for refusing to accede to the FBI's demands, or offering the incentive of being removed from the list in exchange for services as an FBI informant," the plaintiffs' lawyers wrote in a brief to the justices.
In turn, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Though their names have since been removed from the list, they are still seeking monetary compensation directly from the agents responsible. The men want to recoup the cost of wasted plane tickets or job opportunities lost due to their inability to travel. Tanvir couldn't obtain a full refund from his airline after he had to cancel a trip to visit his ailing mother in Pakistain.
The Trump administration opposed the plaintiffs before the justices. In court papers, the Justice Department said the plaintiffs can only sue the agents in their official capacities, meaning the government would cover the cost of any financial judgment against them. RFRA says plaintiffs can seek damages "against a government," not individuals, the DOJ argued. They also warned that putting agents on the hook for their mistakes or abuses would badly affect split-second national security decisions.
In his opinion for the Court, Thomas said RFRA's text creates an expansive definition of "government" that covers individual officials.
"A ’government,' under RFRA, extends beyond the term's plain meaning to include officials," Thomas wrote. "And the term ’official' does not refer solely to an office, but rather to the actual person ’who is invested with an office.'"
The decision also noted that qualified immunity is available as a defense against such lawsuits, which could blunt the practical impact of Thursday's decision.
#4
Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Once again, the FBI at it again. I could care less that the chaps are Muslim. To summarily put them on a no-fly list because they wouldn't play with the Bureau is simply disgusting. That is justice. For once.
[KhaamaPress] A medical unit of the Afghan National Army (ANA) provided medical service to locals in southwestern province of Nimroz, said the Ministry of Defense in a statement.
Officials did not provide further details but said the special unit treated patients and supplied them prescribed medicine.
"#ANA medical team provided medical services for the residents of Delaram district of Nimroz province," said the MoD in a tweet. "ANA doctors treated the patients and provided medicine for them," the tweet added.
This came at a time the security officials reiterated their commitment to serve Afghan people not only protecting them from terrorism, but also in other areas such a health.
[IsraelTimes] Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi becomes the first Arab leader to praise Morocco’s decision to normalize ties with Israel.
"I followed with great interest the important development regarding the agreement between Morocco and Israel to normalize relations between them with American mediation. If this step bears fruit, it would create further stability and cooperation in our region," Sissi says.
Sissi was the first leader to praise the United Arab Emirates’ decision to establish open ties with Israel back in August.
A report earlier Thursday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was planning a trip to Cairo to meet him, the first such visit in a decade
[NEWS.YAHOO] More than 3,000 troops took part in a military parade in Azerbaijan on Thursday to celebrate reclaiming control over broad swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding lands in a conflict with Armenia.
The parade attended by Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... , who strongly backed Azerbaijan, also involved dozens of military vehicles, and a flyby of combat aircraft. The display, which also featured a Ottoman Turkish commando brigade and Ottoman Turkish drones, was held a month after a Russia-brokered deal ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev showered The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... with praise, hailing its support for the ex-Soviet Caspian Sea nation as "an example of our unity, our brotherhood."
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.
In 44 days of fighting that began in late September and left more than 5,600 people killed on both sides, the Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim much of the separatist region along with surrounding areas.
In his speech, Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s continued support to Azerbaijan, saying that "as long as Turkey and Azerbaijan work hand in glove, they will continue to overcome all difficulties and run from one success to the next."
Erdogan voiced hope that Armenia would "take lessons" from its defeat and noted that Turkey was ready to reopen the border with Armenia if it takes unspecified "positive steps."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2020 00:00 ||
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[DW] Germany's Interior Ministry says a ban on deporting Syrians will not get extended. Critics see this as a violation of international law protecting refugees. Here is a look at the legal backdrop.
The ban on deportation, which has been regularly renewed since 2012, is intended to protect Syrians in Germany from being forcibly returned to the ongoing conflict in their home country.
That has meant even rejected asylum-seekers, including criminals, must be allowed to remain in Germany. Critics say there is no safe way to return Syrians to their country. Sure there is: airdrop at 500 ft Continued on Page 49
#1
Germans view this as squarely America's fault. If we had not made the war much worse there, these people would still be at home. But we did, and they're in Germany now. They see the US alliance as nothing but an unwanted millstone around their necks, and want no more of the wars we drag them into in Afghanistan or anywhere else.
#2
If we had not made the war much worse there, these people would still be at home
That's fucking stupid. These people are economic refugees as much as war refugees of the Syrian/ISIS/Turkey festivities
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2020 5:02 Comments ||
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#3
Is that you, Herb?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2020 5:02 Comments ||
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#4
#2 so we're responsible for the Syrian War? How?
Posted by: Herb Chaque1395 ||
12/12/2020 6:50 Comments ||
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#5
Germans view this as squarely America's fault.
There is a significant contingent in Germany that reflexively blames everything bad on America, and credits everything good to themselves. This is not, however, an exclusively German trait. When trailing daughter #2 did an internship in Tokyo, one of her colleagues regularly pulled her aside to blame everything wrong in his life on “you Americans”, completely ignoring Japanese agency — and his own — in the situation.
After doing internships in both Japan and Germany, td#2 feels no need to live in those countries ever again, which makes me sad.
[AnNahar] EU politicians on Thursday reached a long delayed deal on tougher rules to curb terror content online, including an obligation that platforms take down offending material within an hour.
The regulation, which will need final approval by European Parliament and EU ministers, will also give national authorities the power to order content removals in other member states.
"Today's agreement is an important milestone in helping to prevent future attacks," EU vice-president Margaritis Schinas said, after EU member states and the European Parliament finalized the proposed regulation.
French Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... Minister Clement Beaune hailed the compromise, calling it "a major step forward, led by La Belle France", though the details of the accord were not yet available.
The plan was launched in 2018 after a series of deadly terror attacks in La Belle France, Belgium and other EU countries, perpetrated by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... inspired attackers, many indoctrinated through the internet.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... concern that the measures would infringe free speech slowed the adoption of the regulation.
To address these concerns, a complaint mechanism for individuals is included in the proposal, the EU commission said.
Sources said governments will also have the power to object to a takedown order from a partner country in a complaint that would have to be scrutinized within 72 hours.
The rules became an even higher priority after last year's Christchurch mosques attack in New Zealand, which was broadcast live on Facebook.
[Jpost] Support has dropped slightly at the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... for a General Assembly resolution that referenced the most holy site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, as solely the Moslem site al-Haram al-Sharif.
Liberia changed its vote from absent, to "no," when the UNGA voted on the annual resolution in New York late Thursday afternoon.
This placed Liberia in a small group of ten countries, including Israel that opposed the text, which condemned Israeli practices against the Paleostinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The other eight countries who opposed the measure, which passed 147-10, were: Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Hungary, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea and the United States.
In 2019 the resolution was approved by 157-9. This year there were 16 abstentions, compared to 13 last year, with Austria and the Czech Republic, Uruguay and Slovakia, changing their votes in Israel’s favor from "yes" in support of the Paleostinians, to "abstain."
The other 14 countries that abstained were: Belarus, Cameron, Columbia, Haiti, Honduras, Kiribati, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Togo, Uruguay and Vanuatu.
Brazil warned that it could also change its vote unless the UN adopted more inclusive language on when referencing the Temple Mount/al Haram al Sharif.
"Brazil supported this resolution because of its commitment to the protection of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... ," the Brazilian representative said.
"However Brazil believes that the language of any future resolutions should reflect the importance and historical significance of the holy sites of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions, especially the Temple Mount/al Haram al Sharif. It should take into consideration the respective religious and cultural sensitivities. The future choice of language may affect Brazil’s support for this resolution," he said.
The resolution was one of seven pro-Paleostinian and anti-Israeli texts the UNGA approved Wednesday, following the passage of an additional six pro-Paleostinian and anti-Israeli resolutions earlier this month. Additional votes are expected to be held.
The United States and Israel were the only two countries to consistently vote against all resolutions.
Among the seven that were approved Thursday was a resolution against Israeli illusory sovereignty on the Golan Heights, which was approved 151-3, with 20 abstentions, harking a drop in support from last year when it was approved 157-2, with 20 abstentions. For the first time Liberia joined Israel and the US in opposing the measure.
[AlAhram] "We also spoke about how questions about arms exports must be discussed within NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... . We said that we want to coordinate with the new U.S. administration about The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ," Merkel said
EU leaders plan to discuss arm exports to Turkey with NATO allies and Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslem colonists... said on Friday, after Greece pushed for an arms embargo on Ankara.
Merkel spoke after a summit where the bloc's 27 leaders agreed to prepare limited sanctions on Ottoman Turkish individuals over an energy exploration dispute with Greece and Cyprus but postponed any harsher steps until March.
"We also spoke about how questions about arms exports must be discussed within NATO. We said that we want to coordinate with the new U.S. administration about Turkey," Merkel told a news conference.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and NATO are planning to hold a summit with U.S. President-elect Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Candidate for president in 2020. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... after he takes office in January. Many EU states are also members of the NATO alliance.
Merkel's comments underlined a hardening stance on Turkey among EU governments, many of whom have in the past resisted punitive measures on Ankara, a NATO ally, candidate for EU membership and host to Syrians fleeing civil war who would otherwise seek refuge in Europe.
But member states have also grown increasingly critical of Turkey's involvement in Libya and its purchase of a Russian weapons system, among other flashpoints. The United States is already poised to impose sanctions on Turkey over those purchases, Rooters reported this month.
Tensions have also flared over Turkey's decision to send oil-and-gas drilling ships to waters off southern Cyprus where Greek Cypriot authorities have already awarded hydrocarbon exploration rights to Italian and French companies.
Turkey says it is operating in waters on its own continental shelf or areas where Ottoman Turkish Cypriots have rights. Its president Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he was not concerned by any sanctions the bloc might impose.
The EU exported only 45 million euros ($54.53 million) worth of arms and ammunition to Turkey in 2018, including missiles, according to EU statistics office Eurostat, but sales of aircraft amounted to several billion euros.
The United States, Italia and Spain were the top exporters of arms to Turkey from 2015-2019, according the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading conflict and armaments think tank.
EU governments agreed in October 2019 to limit arms sales to Turkey but stopped short of a bloc-wide ban. The bloc currently bans arms sales to several states including Russia, Belarus, Syria and Venezuela ...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... EU governments including Finland, La Belle France, Germany, Italia, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden said last year they were halting or restricting arms export licence approvals for Turkey
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/12/2020 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced a member of the Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... group to life imprisonment Friday for his involvement in the 2005 liquidation of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The defendant, Salim Ayyash, has never been arrested and was not in court at the Special Tribunal for Leb
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] The year 2020 is on track to have the lowest number of security-related deaths in Israel’s history — two — following an overall calm year on the country’s military front, according to new figures from the Israel Defense Forces.
"We are ending a year in which we successfully fulfilled the primary mission of the IDF: providing defense and security. We thwarted every attempt to infiltrate into Israel and we saw a drop in the number of casualties and in the number of rockets fired at Israel," IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi tells news hounds in a year-end briefing.
According to an IDF tally, 174 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel by December 2020, the majority of them in February during a two-day round of fighting between the IDF and the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... This amounts to a roughly seven-fold decrease from the previous two years, when 1,296 and 1,164 projectiles were fired, respectively.
Kohavi says Israel has also been succeeding in driving Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... out of Syria, with the military seeing a substantial decrease in the number of Iranian-backed fighters in the country, as well as in the amount of weapons transported into and through it to Tehran’s proxies.
"Iranian entrenchment in Syria is in a clear trend of slowing down as a direct result of IDF activities, though we still have a way to go to reach our goals on this front," the army chief says.
[AnNahar] Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... on Friday blasted as "politicized" the lead investigator’s decision to indict caretaker PM Hassan Diab and three allied ex-ministers over Beirut’s colossal port explosion on August 4.
The group called on the investigating judge Fadi Sawwan to reconsider his decision, saying it lacked a legal and constitutional basis and that the four were being selectively charged.
In a statement, the party said it is "keen to ensure that all measures taken by the investigating judge are far from politics, conform to the provisions of the Constitution, and are made on logical and legal grounds, which we did not find in the recent procedures."
Hizbullah added that "we categorically reject the absence of unified standards which we believe has politically targeted some individuals while unfairly ignoring others."
Hizbullah urged the "competent investigating judge to re-approach this important file again and to take legal measures to ensure that the desired truth is reached by unified standards totally far from politicization."
Sawan on Thursday, charged with negligence outgoing premier Hassan Diab and former ministers of finance, Ali Hasan Khalil, public works, Yusef Fenianos, and transport, Ghazi Zaiter.
Diab, who is backed by Hizbullah, resigned in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion and remains in his post in a caretaker capacity, as Lebanese officials have failed to agree on a new Cabinet.
The four were the most bigwigs to be charged in the investigation and are set to be questioned next week by investigating judge Fadi Sawwan. He was named by the government to the post a few days after the earth-shattering kaboom, and has been conducting his probe mostly in secrecy.
The explosion in the port was caused by the ignition of a large stockpile of kaboom that had been stored at the port for six years, with the knowledge of top security officials and politicians who did nothing about it. It killed more than 200 people and maimed thousands, devastating large parts of the capital Beirut.
The decision to charge bigwigs — including one in office — was significant in Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , where a culture of impunity has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites.
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.
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...Candidate for president in 2020. 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
