[HotAir] For years now, opponents of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center have had a simple mantra: "Cop city will never be built."
And you have to give the activists credit for trying. Not only did they camp out in the forest and attempt to tie up the project in the courts, they also resorted to arson on a number of occasions, targeting both police and the construction companies that were working on the project. Here's a report from January 2023:
This group of anarchists didn't stop with legal protest. In fact, they openly vowed on many occasions, "If you build it we will burn it."
And yet, here we are in January 2025 and the Atlanta Public Training Center is nearly complete and is already being used.
Atlanta’s new public safety training center that’s been the subject of protests for years is finally built, and officials must now find a way to balance security with community building.
A first look at the 85-acre, now-$115 million complex in the South River Forest in unincorporated DeKalb County featured walking trails, dog kennels, classrooms, a six-story burn building and even a barn near the front entrance that will house 11 horses...
Crews are still putting on the finishing touches, but officials expect the center to be fully up and running in the first quarter of 2025.
Despite all the chanting, arson and threats, Cop City has been built. Police gave local media outlets a tour of the new facility just before Christmas.
So what happens next? Will the activists follow through on their promise to burn the place down? The police chief seemed prepared for an attempt.
"If you want to protest the training center, if you want to protest how police are trained, we’re going to give you an environment to do that in and we’re going to protect your right to do that," Schierbaum said. "If your intent, however, is to damage or burn, then we’re going to arrest you, and we do have an effective plan to make sure that does not happen here."
I hope he's right about having an effective plan because the left-wing holy warriors responsible for all those arson attacks mentioned above (and many more) are probably not going to stop now. They failed to stop it being built but they can still keep their other promise: "If you build it, we will burn it."
[ZeroHedge] A graphic court transcript of a rape victim from a notorious Pakistani-heritage grooming gang operating in the north of England caught the eye of U.S. readers on social media platform X recently.
Billionaire Elon Musk quickly jumped onto the subject, attacking Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, and rekindling a long-smoldering debate in the United Kingdom on what is often called the “Grooming Gangs” scandal.
But what exactly is the scandal? Why did it take so long for the systematic exploitation and rape of thousands of girls to be exposed?
Why are Musk and others taking aim at the current prime minister, given the scandal emerged more than a decade ago? And what have investigations revealed?
For decades, children, specifically poor white girls in various towns in northern England, were targeted and groomed by Pakistani-heritage men, while—as later investigations, court cases, and reporters revealed—local officials turned a blind eye to the abuse due to fears of being labeled racist or destabilizing community relations.
But it took decades to come to light.
Not really. It was repeatedly exposed over the decades, only for the government at all levels to firmly brush it back under the rug.
In the 1990s, rumors began to emerge that men of Pakistani descent living in northern England towns were involved in raping children.
For example, the parents involved in the Coalition for the Removal of Pimping (CROP), later renamed Parents Against Child Exploitation (PACE), participated in a 2004 documentary that claimed white schoolgirls were being groomed for sex by Asian men in Bradford.
The result was “Edge of the City,” which was due to be screened on Channel 4.
However, it was pulled hours before airing, after claims the British National Party wanted to exploit the situation and the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police saying it might trigger race riots.
Groups such as The National Assembly Against Racism also lobbied against the documentary.
Member of Parliament Ann Cryer, representing Keighley, publicly raised concerns about the abuse of two girls in her constituency in 2002.
In doing so, she became the first public figure in Britain to speak out about allegations of “young Asian lads” grooming underage white girls in West Yorkshire.
She was shunned by her party, which ran the country from 1997 to 2010, and she said no one wanted to know, despite holding “constant” meetings with West Yorkshire Police and social services.
In 2014, Cryer said in The Guardian that she believed other politicians had heard similar stories but chose to ignore them.
Cryer added that she asked a Muslim councillor of Pakistani heritage to approach mosque elders with a list of 35 alleged perpetrators.
The imams reportedly dismissed the matter, saying: “It’s nothing to do with us.”
In 2007, the women and children’s rights campaigner and journalist Julie Bindel was one of the first to report in The Times of London that many northern towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire were experiencing a significant rise in “pimping” within the Asian community.
“It was a very uncomfortable scenario, not least because many of these crimes had an identifiable racial element: the gangs were Asian and the girls were white,” Bindel wrote.
“The authorities, in the shape of politicians and the police, seemed reluctant to acknowledge this aspect of the crimes; it has been left to the mothers of the victims to speak out.”
ANDREW NORFOLK 2012: THE TIMES INVESTIGATES
Although there were prosecutions the patterns didn’t come to light until a journalist joined the dots further.
Andrew Norfolk, a The Times of London journalist, was instrumental in breaking the Rotherham grooming scandal.
At least 1,400 children, girls as young as 11, had been raped by multiple attackers and sexually exploited in the South Yorkshire market town.
Norfolk’s series of investigations on grooming gangs resulted in many articles from 2011 onwards.
One investigation revealed a confidential 2010 police report that warned thousands of such crimes were being committed in South Yorkshire each year by networks of Pakistani-heritage men.
Offenders were identified to police but not prosecuted.
One of the alleged crimes—for which no one was prosecuted—included a 13-year-old girl who was found at 3 a.m. with disrupted clothing in a house with a large group of Asian men who had fed her vodka.
Despite a neighbor reporting the girl’s screams to police, authorities arrested the child for being drunk and disorderly and did not question the men.
Norfolk’s reporting won him prestigious journalistic accolades, including such as the Paul Foot Award in 2012, the Orwell Prize in 2013, and the Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards in 2014.
Speaking to the BBC in 2024, Norfolk said that even he “massively underestimated” the scale of the abuse.
“They were treated like sub-human species for the pleasure of these men,” he said.
Norfolk said he came up against a “conspiracy of silence” when he tried to elicit responses from police forces and councils.
A 2012 Office of Children’s Commissioner study under a Conservative government was the first to set out the scale of the sexual exploitation of children and young people in Britain.
It identified 16,500 children who were at “high risk of sexual exploitation” between 2010 and 2011.
However, Norfolk criticized the report on the BBC at the time as a “missed opportunity,” saying it generalized the issue to all men and failed to address the racial and cultural factors central to the crimes.
“In a country which has a 7 percent Asian population, 35 percent of the identified abusers were Asian. And if you break that down further, less than 2 percent of the population of this country is Pakistani, and overwhelmingly, the men doing this are of Pakistani origin,” he said.
“And there was a chance to venture into sensitive areas here to try to begin the process of understanding why this crime model has put down such deep roots, and it’s been missed, and that’s a great shame,” he said.
There have been reports of grooming gangs in towns and cities, including Rochdale, Telford, Oxford, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Bradford, Keighley, and more.
GB News said that it identified 50 towns and cities where child exploitation gangs have operated or are operating.
The gangs often operate through takeaway restaurants and taxi drivers, using these locations to groom and abuse children, according to a government report.
REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS
Numerous reports and investigations have been conducted into the grooming gangs scandal, including those in Rochdale, Oxford, and Huddersfield, among others.
Professor Alexis Jay released a 2013 report that was commissioned by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council into the scale of abuse of 1,400 children, in Rotherham, from 1997 to 2013.
“In just over a third of cases, children affected by sexual exploitation were previously known to services because of child protection and neglect,” Jay said in the report.
“It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered,” she said, adding that children had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness violent rapes, and threatened they would be next if they told anyone.
Jay said agencies relied too heavily on traditional community leaders such as elected members and imams as the “primary conduit of communication with the Pakistani-heritage community.”
In 2022, she chaired a national inquiry into various forms of child sexual abuse, which did not extensively address the racial elements of grooming gangs.
Some of her recommendations included setting up a national child protection authority and making not reporting abuse a criminal offense.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND FEAR OF RACIST LABEL
Several investigations said that political correctness influenced authorities’ inaction and failure to make decisive interventions.
Commenting on Jay’s Rotherham report, former Conservative leader Theresa May said there was “inadequate scrutiny by councillors, institutionalised political correctness, the covering up of information, and the failure to take action against gross misconduct.”
A government review covering 2004 to 2013 found that Greater Manchester Police and children’s social care failed to protect vulnerable children in Rochdale and said that they were “left at the mercy of their abusers.”
One senior investigating officer told the review investigators that at one point the issue was so widespread that they wanted “any Pakistani-looking taxi driver” carrying a female child passenger to be “stopped by division from tomorrow until further notice.”
“If the driver can’t account for the fare ... snatch them, arrest the driver, impound the car, let’s go into it big style and disrupt it,” the officer said. However, the officer said that none of these drivers were ever stopped.
The officer explained that there are “huge Pakistani, Indian communities up there, and a large proportion of the taxi drivers are from that background.”
“I can only guess that [Greater Manchester Police] patrols were frightened of being tarnished with a race brush for doing it,” the officer said.
The Telford Inquiry found that more than 1,000 children who had been groomed with child sexual exploitation were ignored because of “nervousness about race.”
In one case, the Inquiry heard about a school where attempts to raise concerns about the involvement of a Pakistani heritage grooming gang led to overt allegations of racism on the part of school staff from council personnel.
“It is difficult to conceive of a more wrong-headed response or one more designed to discourage complaint,” the report found.
In 2023, former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set up a Grooming Gangs Task Force comprised of specialist officers.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
01/10/2025 02:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11144 views]
Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
#1
I have daughters. If 1400 of them were found to brutalized, raped and tortured within a limited geographic area, the landfill would be the new place to hail a cab.
#2
They speak like this is in the past. It's not, and all those rapists are still on the streets. Now, let's take a look at the nastiness up in Scotland.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/10/2025 8:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Considering the espionage against the US and the brutalization of its citizens, perhaps a reevaluation of their government is in order.
#5
Where are the soccer hooligans when you need them?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/10/2025 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
#6
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
-- Eph.6
#7
250,000+ girls raped (and counting) over the decades. I can't wrap my brain around that. Yet the authorities wash their hands and consider those children as slags, effectively unpersons.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
01/10/2025 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] After scrutiny from pro-Israel groups, Morningstar says situation too complicated, won’t advise on any ‘contiguous territorial disputes’; watchdogs, investors pan ‘mystifying’ move
When investors need help navigating business decisions in conflict zones they turn to specialized firms that are supposed to help them keep clear of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... abuses. But one of the biggest firms offering advice on environmental, social, and governance issues recently announced that when it comes to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, it will no longer have anything to say.
The conflict is just too complicated to weigh in on, Morningstar announced last month, following years of pressure by pro-Israel groups who charged that the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) field effectively fuels Israel boycotts.
The company said it devised a new policy that ends coverage of human rights issues connected to "disputes concerning contiguous territories" after an investigation of alleged anti-Israel bias in the company’s research and analysis.
"This means we won’t cover those areas because human rights issues, when related to contiguous territorial disputes, are less likely to be objective, reliable, or consistent, and subject to complex geopolitical factors, divergent views and conflicting partisan media reports," Morningstar said in a statement posted to its website.
The policy change caps off a series of reforms implemented by Morningstar in response to scrutiny by a coalition of pro-Israel groups, including the Jewish Federations of North America, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League.
After initially rejecting allegations that the company inappropriately downgraded Israeli companies and companies doing business in Israel, Morningstar changed course in 2022 when it was on the verge of being blacklisted by Illinois’s public pension systems. The company appointed two people as independent experts and asked them for detailed feedback about its operations.
The experts, retired US diplomat Alejandro Daniel Wolff and Vanderbilt University law professor Michael Newton, issued recommendations, such as eliminating the use of the term "Occupied Paleostinian Territory" from its research products.
In a report released December 31, the experts announced that Morningstar had implemented changes that adequately address the concerns, noting that the "Israel/Paleostinian conflict area" was now excluded from analysis entirely.
The coalition of pro-Israel groups welcomed the news in a statement, saying it merely wanted Israel held to the same standards as any other country.
"Our coalition believes structural anti-Israel bias is a form of antisemitism, and we applaud Morningstar’s efforts and good faith cooperation to root out anti-Israel bias from their products," the statement said. "The experts’ recommendations and the framework Morningstar developed should serve as a model for the entire ESG industry to ensure that credit ratings are not infected with anti-Israel bias."
Other regions also now ineligible for analysis under the new rule are the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine; the Essequibo region of Guyana; Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... between India and Pakistain; Nagorno Karabakh, contested between Armenia and Azerbaijan; and Western Sahara in Africa, Morningstar told the news outlet Responsible Investor.
The outlet quoted a variety of voices, including investors and watchdogs, who were critical of the exclusion of contiguous territorial disputes.
Phil Bloomer, executive director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, for example, called the new rule "mystifying."
"This is the reality of most 21st-century conflict," he said. "Investors need access to more, not less data and understanding of the role of business in contributing to human rights risks and abuse in acute and chronic conflicts."
The conclusion of the dispute at Morningstar comes as conservative and pro-Israel groups escalate pressure on another ESG company over the same issue. MSCI is currently pushing back against allegations that it discriminates against Israel with investment ratings that rely on biased sources of information.
[IsraelTimes] Far-left groups Code Pink and Jewish Voice for Peace tie catastrophic fires to funding for Israel, prompting condemnation from Jewish groups
US Jewish groups condemned anti-Israel activists on Thursday for blaming the Los Angeles wildfire crisis on Israel.
Several anti-Israel groups and commentators linked the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and US military spending on Israel to the catastrophic fires.
Code Pink ... a U.S. anti-war group. The group describes itself as a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. It was founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and of the other usual antiwar suspects. Its website lists hysterical allegations of US war crimes, and states that thousands of civilians were killed in Fallujah in 2004. Maybe it was millions. Benjamin was a 2000 candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket. She lost... , a far-left activist group, said on Instagram, "When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home."
That sure sounds like a threat that pro-Hamas types are setting fires as punishment. Something for the new head of the FBI to look into?
The group also said it was pressuring Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Senator Alex Padilla at his Washington, DC office, tying the war to climate change.
The New York branch of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, in an Instagram post about the fires, said, "Instead of putting resources toward making our country livable, our government is putting billions toward Israel’s genocide of Paleostinians in Gaza."
Fatima Mohammed, a leader of New York’s hardline anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime, posted an image of the fires and said, "The flames of Gaza will not stop there."
"Dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences," she said. "There are climate consequences that will find us all."
Commentator Mehdi Hasan also linked US military aid to Israel to the Los Angeles fire department’s budget.
The Los Angeles Fire Department is mainly funded by the city of Los Angeles, while military spending for Israel comes from the federal government.
Anti-Israel activists have previously tied funding for Israel to unrelated issues, such as New York libraries.
New York Congressman Ritchie Torres, one of Israel’s most outspoken supporters in Washington, lashed Code Pink for blaming Israel for the fires.
"The nature of Antisemitism is to scapegoat the Jewish People and the Jewish State for everything wrong in the world — no matter how tenuous the causal connection," he said on X. "The modus operandi of Antisemitism is slanderous scapegoating: when in doubt, blame the Jews."
"Codepink’s rabid anti-Zionism and insatiable animosity toward Israel drives them to make an absurd, incomprehensible claim," the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, said on X. "What does it say about a group that will find a way to use any tragedy to foster incitement and antisemitism?"
Amy Spitalnick, the head of the progressive Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called the Code Pink statement "the latest example of a relentless scapegoating of Israel or Jews for virtually any global problem."
Spitalnick also warned against right-wing rhetoric blaming the fires on diversity initiatives. Elon Musk, in a post on X about the fires, said, "DEI means people DIE."
#2
More proof that the Left has become a collection of social agenda idiots, always looking for something to whine about for attention and $$$$$.
BTW: Imagine Code Pink'ers under Islamic rule for a sec. If they were lucky, they would be publicly flogged, and placed in prison for gang raping. Otherwise, just a big sword swinging in a public execution.
[ZeroHedge] Texas lawmakers pre-filed around two dozen border and immigration bills ahead of the state’s 2025 legislative session aiming at securing its border with Mexico without relying on the federal government’s progress in tackling illegal immigration.
Good for them. I had no idea such a thing was possible.
With some 11 million non-citizens entering the United States under the Biden administration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican-led legislature began crafting laws to address what they considered an invasion of the country caused by lax border policies.
While President-elect Donald Trump has vowed a mass deportation operation and praised the state’s efforts to stop illegal immigration through Operation Lone Star (OLS), it appears the GOP-led legislature isn’t taking any chances that future presidents will protect the Texas-Mexico border.
Abbott initiated OLS to counter a rise in illegal immigration, the illegal drug trade, and human smuggling that rose sharply in 2021.
The operation pays for Texas troopers and National Guard members at the border as well as the prosecution and jailing of illegal immigrants, primarily for trespassing and evading arrest.
With the state’s 89th legislative session convening on Jan. 14, notable Texas border bills include renewed attempts to create a Texas Division of Homeland Security, a Texas Border Protection Unit, and bills aiding the incoming president’s efforts to secure the border.
Other bills focus on restricting public assistance for illegal immigrants, while HB 219 and HB 89 would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in Texas.
TEXAS SOVEREIGNTY
The Texas Border Protection Unit Act, HB 354, is similar to HB 20, which was introduced in the 2023 legislative session and died on a point of order. Filed by Republican Rep. Brisco Cain, the bill would give law enforcement officers the authority to arrest those crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally, just like federal border patrol agents.
Law enforcement in the unit would also have the authority to “deter persons attempting to cross the border unlawfully” with non-lethal crowd control measures.
The bill states the “security of Texans and the sovereignty of this state” have been threatened by transnational cartels, which are trafficking fentanyl and illegal immigrants.
The unit would also manage the construction and maintenance of the state’s border wall and physical barriers, such as buoys in the Rio Grande and razor wire.
“Voters have given us a clear mandate: secure the border and support Trump in achieving these priorities,” Cain told The Epoch Times via a text message.
Cain said even with Trump’s commitment to securing the border, Texas has a constitutional duty to protect its citizens.
“Federal measures can often fall short or fail to address the unique challenges we face as a border state,” he stated.
HB 354 would ensure that the “safety and sovereignty of Texans” aren’t left to the mercy of future administrations, he said.
State Republican Sen. Bob Hall filed Senate Bill (SB) 135 in a second attempt to establish the Texas Division of Homeland Security. It is similar to HB 127, which failed to progress and died in the 2023 legislative session.
The division would coordinate border security and related crimes within the state and with federal law enforcement.
Hall also filed SB 81, which would give Texas DPS officers the authority to arrest and deport people to Mexico who enter Texas illegally.
It would give law enforcement the power to arrest and prosecute criminals attempting to traffic drugs and illegal immigrants.
ICE AGREEMENTS
Republicans are also introducing legislation that would require sheriffs to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
SB 658 and SB 134 would mandate that sheriffs request and, if offered, enter into written agreements with ICE to help protect the border.
These partnerships are known as 287(g) agreements and would help supply extra manpower and logistical support to crackdown on illegal immigration, and aid mass deportation under Trump.
SB 658 would require sheriffs in counties with a population of 250,000 or more to request and possibly enter into written agreements with ICE to “enforce federal immigration law.”
The measure would also set up a grant fund to reimburse sheriffs for additional costs associated with cooperating with ICE.
SB 134 is broader in scope, requiring all county sheriffs to apply for an agreement with ICE or face a loss in state grant money.
Similarly, HB 1491 would require county commissioners to apply and enter into agreements with ICE if offered to enforce federal immigration laws.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
Two other house bills deal with protecting children crossing from Mexico into Texas unlawfully.
Under the proposed HB 256, the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) would conduct rapid DNA tests on those entering the United States illegally who are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and are suspected of misrepresenting a family relationship.
Likewise, HB 1072 would require OLS officers to fingerprint and interview children unlawfully crossing the border if there is reason to believe they are being trafficked or in danger.
Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan recently pledged to help locate children who have lost touch with federal authorities after crossing into the United States during the Biden administration. Estimates put the number of such children at more than 300,000, according to an August 2024 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General.
LEGAL CHALLENGE
After hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants arrived at the U.S. southern border, Abbott in 2024 invoked the invasion clause of the United States and Texas constitutions to justify the state’s ongoing border operations.
The idea of state sovereignty was also behind Texas’s SB 4, which became law in March of 2024 and has remained in limbo pending an appeals court ruling.
Under SB 4, illegal immigrants who enter Texas outside legal ports of entry could be arrested on Class B misdemeanor charges and sentenced to up to six months in jail. Repeat offenders could face second-degree felony charges and sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Judges are granted leeway under SB 4 to drop the charges if the illegal immigrants agree to return to Mexico.
U.S. Department of Justice and civil rights groups sued to stop SB 4, saying immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, not the states.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Arizona v. United States that federal law preempted state law when it comes to immigration.
Texas is betting the decision could be reversed under a more conservative high court.
The U.S. Supreme Court briefly allowed SB 4 to go into effect in 2024 before sending it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which once again placed it on hold pending a ruling on the case.
[JonathanTurley] There is an interesting defamation case out of New York in which the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit by Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (NOI) against the Anti-Defamation League (“ADL”) and individual defendants Jonathan Greenblatt, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper. Not only did the court reject the claim that canceled speeches resulted from alleged defamatory statements, but it also noted that the statements about NOI are protected opinions.
In Farrakhan v. Anti-Defamation League, Judges Susan L. Carney, Joseph F. Bianco, and William J. Nardini upheld the lower court’s dismissal of what they described as Farrakhan’s “sprawling allegations.”
District Court Judge Denise Cote (S.D.N.Y.) first dismissed the case, noting that it was based on a publication that quoted Farrakhan at length. She also noted that, after quoting Farrakhan, the ADL post titled “Farrakhan Predicts Another Holocaust” was clearly an opinion piece. The so-called “Ticketmaster Letter” ended with the hyperlinked statement that “[y]ou can learn more about Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam on our website.”
The actual quotes from Farrakhan made this action doubly difficult:
“A Jewish man said to me, ‘You know, we say never again. Never again will we be in the oven. Never again.’ I said, ‘Hold it.’ You can say that to men, but you can’t say that to God. Because the Bible says, behold the day cometh that shall burn — as a what? —as an oven. And those who do wickedly, He will slay them and leave them neither root nor branch…The War of Armageddon is to decide who will live on this earth.”
“I’m saying to the Jews: if you want salvation, if you want to get back into the paradise of God, come with the Messiah, that’s your ticket. Some of you have already recognized your brother as that. But that’s an invitation to them to break them apart from those who are about to be destroyed. God is not unjust; when he kills you, you know you deserved it.”
The Second Circuit rejected the causal effect of the publication in leading to Farrakhan being blocked on two speech platforms run by third parties — Morgan State University and Vimeo. It found that the claims were mere speculation on the underlying nexus.
It also found no concrete injury from acts like ADL-supported creation of the “U.S. National Strategy [t]o Counter Antisemitism.”
The panel, however, then held that the objections to Farrakhan as pushing anti-Semitic views were protected statements of opinion. The court ruled that whether Farrakhan and the NOI are anti-Semitic is a statement incapable of being proven true or false. It is left to the judgment of the reader and the perceived meaning of the quoted statements themselves.
[IsraelTimes Nearly all House Republicans, several Democrats back legislation punishing the ICC for going after Netanyahu and Gallant, but measure will face bumpier path through Senate
The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court to protest its decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over Israel’s campaign against the Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... terror group in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Lawmakers voted 243 to 140 in favor of the "Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act," which would urge sanctions on any ICC official or entities backing The Hague who advance "any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies."
The sanctions include blocking or revoking visas and prohibiting US property transactions.
The legislation states that the US and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, which accordingly has no jurisdiction over their conduct.
Forty-five Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... joined 198 Republicans in backing the bill. No Republicans voted against the measure, but Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie abstained, saying afterward that the House "should not get involved in disputes between other countries."
The House vote, one of the first since the new Congress was seated last week, underscored strong support for Israel’s government among President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... ’s fellow Republicans, who now control both chambers in Congress.
Trump will be sworn in on January 20 for a second term as president.
"America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel," Florida Republican Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a House speech before the vote.
The breakdown of the vote was largely the same as the one on similar House legislation last year that failed to advance out of the Senate, though, the number of "Nos" was slightly lower amid absences due to former president Jimmy Malaise Carter
...only the second worst president ever. Now the third worst, after Obama and Biden... ’s funeral and the wildfires in Los Angeles.
The legislation still needs to be okayed in the Senate, where it will have a harder time passing, although newly appointed Republican majority leader John Thune has promised swift consideration of the act so Trump can sign it into law shortly after taking office.
In order to be passed in the Senate, Republicans will need to recruit around seven Democrats to vote with them, which may be difficult given that the outgoing Biden administration has to date refrained from backing such punitive measures against the court, not wanting to delegitimize the international body whose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... it supports.
Congressional Republicans have been denouncing the ICC since it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.
The warrants effectively bar Netanyahu and Gallant from entering the ICC’s 124 member states. Neither Israel nor the US are members of the court.
The charges against the two men allege that they committed the war crimes of directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza and of using starvation as a method of warfare by hindering the supply of international aid to Gaza.
Chief prosecutor Karim Khan also alleged that they committed the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts as a result of the restrictions they allegedly placed on the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel has strongly rejected the substance of the allegations, insisting that it has funneled massive amounts of humanitarian aid through the crossings along the Gaza border, and that any problems with the distribution of that aid to the Paleostinian civilian population are a result of inefficient operations by the aid organizations on the ground, difficulties arising from the ongoing conflict in the territory, and the looting of aid by Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Israel has also rejected allegations that it targets civilians, insisting that civilian casualties caused by the operation have resulted in large part due to Hamas’s tactic of embedding its fighters and installations within Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led Lions of Islam stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 46,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, of whom Israel says it has killed at least 18,000 in Gaza as of November, in addition to about 1,000 inside Israel during the onslaught.
The ICC has said its decision to pursue warrants against the Israeli officials was in line with its approach in all cases, based on an assessment by the prosecutor that there was enough evidence to proceed, and the view that seeking arrest warrants immediately could prevent ongoing crimes.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed by an IDF strike in Gaza back in July. While Khan had initially sought arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction... , and Yahya Sinwar as well, the two were killed before the warrants were issued in November.
The Republican-led House passed the act seeking to sanction the ICC in June, but the measure was never taken up in the Senate, which at the time was controlled by a Democratic majority.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s migration and displaced ministry on Wednesday said that over 700 nationals were repatriated from the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava) housing those with links to ISIS.
"The new convoy [of returnees] consists of 193 families which total 715 people," ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas told Rudaw.
It is the first batch of people to be repatriated to Iraq in 2025 with Baghdad frequently repatriating its nationals from the camp.
Al-Hol camp in Rojava’s Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has notoriously been branded a breeding ground for terrorism.
Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the 40,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the defeat of the group in 2019.
In late December, an Iraqi politician told Rudaw that the country was preparing to repatriate over 700 ISIS-linked nationals from the camp.
Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria have repeatedly called on the international community to repatriate their nationals from the camp, but their calls have largely gone unanswered as most countries are unwilling to bring back their citizens due to security concerns.
The repatriation of ISIS-linked citizens has sparked opposition in Iraq, with tribes unwilling to accept and welcome people associated with the group that committed heinous human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses and war crimes from 2014 to 2017, when they controlled vast swathes of the country.
Most repatriated individuals are resettled in al-Jada camp in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, to be prepared for reintegration into their communities and then returned to their hometowns.
[Ynet] Defense Minister Israel Katz has directed the military to submit a plan for the "complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza," emphasizing that the plan will proceed if the terrorist group does not release the hostages by the time U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
In a statement from Katz’s office, the defense minister underscored during a high-level security meeting that the release of hostages remains the top priority for Israel’s security establishment. The meeting included IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Defense Ministry Director-General Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir and senior military commanders.
"We cannot allow ourselves to be drawn into a prolonged war of attrition while the hostages remain in Hamas tunnels, their lives at risk and enduring severe suffering," Katz said. He also instructed the military to outline potential obstacles to implementing the plan, including humanitarian concerns, leaving key decisions to the political echelon.
Katz dismissed discussions of political solutions for Gaza, saying that no Arab or international actor would assume responsibility for Gaza’s civilian management without the total collapse of Hamas. "Our commanders and soldiers are conducting a heroic fight, but we must adapt our strategy to deliver a decisive military victory and conclude the war in Gaza," he added.
And that's why narrow-focus like Galant had to go.
The proposed "total defeat of Hamas" would focus on dismantling the group’s remaining military units, concentrated in areas such as Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where most hostages are believed to be held. However, the IDF has refrained from large-scale operations in these areas, fearing harm to the hostages—a decision made with the approval of Israel’s political leadership.
Katz warned against a prolonged war that could exact a heavy toll without achieving a strategic victory. "We must not settle for a war of attrition that costs us dearly while failing to deliver the fruits of victory and the decisive defeat of Hamas," he said.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
01/10/2025 08:36 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Family members of Elizabeth Tsurkova, a Russian-Israeli researcher held in captivity in Iraq since her abduction in 2023, met yesterday with the government’s point man on hostages, Gal Hirsch, and with foreign coordinators of the issue who are visiting Israel, Hebrew media reports say.
The Israel Hayom daily cites unnamed officials familiar with the details as saying the goal is to advance indirect talks with Baghdad to free Tsurkov, noting that this is the first public evidence of efforts by Jerusalem to secure her release via mediators.
The newspaper quotes an unnamed senior diplomatic official as voicing hope that recent positive regional developments, including the decision by Iran-backed Iraqi militias to stop launching attacks on Israel, “will also create the opportunity to bring Elizabeth home.”
[IsraelTimes] Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun tells lawmakers he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.
His comments are seen partly as a reference to the Hezbollah terror group’s arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.
According to Reuters, lawmakers burst into the longest applause of the speech after Aoun’s statement, while Hezbollah parliamentarians remained still.
Before Israel dealt it a series of setbacks in recent months, the Iran-backed Hezbollah over the years amassed far greater powers than the Lebanese army and took over southern Lebanon in violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
He also vows to end the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon from which the IDF is slated to finish withdrawing at the end of the month.
“I pledge to oversee the activation of security agencies and to discuss a strategic defense policy that enables the state to remove Israeli occupation from all territories,” Aoun says.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Lebanese Parliament elected on Thursday the army commander, Joseph Aoun, as president of the country, to be the 14th president of the Lebanese Republic.
This comes after more than two years of a presidential vacancy, following the end of the term of former president Michel Aoun ...former president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... Thus, Joseph Aoun is the fourth commander of the army who holds this position, as Emile Lahoud, Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... , and Michel Aoun preceded him.
Joseph Aoun served as Commander of the Lebanese Army. He held this mission since March 8, 2017, succeeding General Jean Kahwaji. The beginning of his military career in the army dates back to 1983.
Aoun was promoted until he attained the rank of brigadier general in 2013. He continued to hold military ranks, reaching the rank of general in 2017, with his appointment as army commander, occupying this position during one of the most sensitive periods in Leb ...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. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... During this period, Lebanon witnessed major security and political challenges, most notably the ''Dawn of the Outskirts'' battle in 2017, which the army fought with the resistance against terrorist organizations in the barren lands of the town of Arsal and al-Qaa, on the border with Syria.
The country also witnessed security challenges after the outbreak of protests on October 17, 2019, and the expanded Israeli war on Lebanon that lasted more than 60 days in 2023, which imposed new obligations on the Lebanese army, with the signing of the ceasefire agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2025 02:07 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] After several years of political vacuum, Lebanon's parliament has elected a new president. The post was taken by former Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun. He replaced his namesake, General Michel Aoun, who left the post in October 2022.
“Aoun the Second,” as some regional publications jokingly call him, is considered a creature of Washington and a “living instrument” with which the White House plans to unravel the protracted crisis in the Middle East.
ATTEMPT NUMBER 13
For more than two years, Lebanon has been in a state of crisis, both economic and political. Since General Aoun's retirement, members of the Lebanese parliament have met more than a dozen times to approve a successor, but behind-the-scenes disagreements have prevented the government vacuum from being overcome each time.
Some complications were added by the fact that, according to the National Pact adopted in 1943, the president is elected from among the Maronite Christians. The position of prime minister is invariably occupied by a Sunni, and the speaker of parliament by a Shiite.
This is done in order to balance Lebanon's motley ethno-confessional palette and keep the country from sliding into another period of fragmentation. Although Muslims have served as president at least five times since the pact was adopted, no one has dared to completely upset the balance of power.
By February 2023, the "final list" of candidates for the presidential post had been formed. In addition to Commander-in-Chief Aoun, it included the director of the International Monetary Fund's branch in the Middle East and Central Asia, Jihad Azour, and former MP Salah Hannin.
However, Aoun quickly became the unofficial leader, especially after his candidacy was publicly supported by the heavyweight of Lebanese politics, the leader of the Christian center-right Marada party, Suleiman Frangieh. By giving up his presidential aspirations in favor of Aoun, he gave him a serious advantage in the race.
At the same time, Aoun, even being the only real candidate for the presidential seat and the absolute leader of the "final list", was able to win only on the second attempt. In the first round, he collected only 71 parliamentary votes out of the 86 required. The remaining parliamentarians either submitted blank ballots (which symbolizes a public expression of no confidence in the candidate) or spoiled them.
Only the thirteenth session put an end to the protracted presidential race, but this did not reduce the political differences.
A FRAGILE BALANCE OF INTERESTS
Since Aoun is considered a Western-oriented figure, his appointment to the presidency is expectedly not to the liking of pro-Iranian forces. The Shiite parties Hezbollah and Amal demonstratively submitted blank ballots, thus emphasizing their contempt for the “pro-American figure.”
The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by Aoun the First (Michel Aoun), acted in a similar manner. However, in the case of the FPM, the hostility towards the commander-in-chief is connected with his excessive focus on cooperation with Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese, not without reason, consider the Saudis their regional competitors and are suspicious of Riyadh's "excessive involvement" in the country's affairs. In this sense, the FPM and the Shiite parties acted as tactical allies.
However, Washington managed to overcome the resistance of Aoun's opponents rather quickly. Especially since big stakes were placed on the figure of the commander-in-chief.
The US hopes to use Aoun’s hands not only to weaken Iran’s influence in a single Arab country, but also to push Lebanon toward a gradual “détente” with Israel according to a scenario that is advantageous to Washington; to try to drive a wedge into the weakened “Axis of Resistance.”
Considering that Aoun bases his rhetoric on the theses “Lebanon is for the Lebanese” and “the army is the country’s support,” ending the confrontation with Tel Aviv could well be presented as a contribution to national security and a step toward fully normalizing relations. Even considering that Lebanon’s status as a “hostile state” is enshrined in Israeli law.
In a sense, the new Lebanese president may repeat the trajectory of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was the first to decide to normalize relations with the Jewish state, even against public opinion. In exchange for such steps, Washington is ready to multiply investments in Lebanese state institutions and the economy.
Aoun's appearance on the political map of Lebanon is partly to Israel's advantage.
Moreover, the former commander-in-chief had previously, willy-nilly, played along with Tel Aviv by slowing down the deployment of government troops in the south of the country during the escalation between Hezbollah and Israel. Israeli forces, in turn, took advantage of Beirut's delay and strengthened their positions, which subsequently forced Hezbollah units to retreat deeper into Lebanese territory.
Now Aoun is ready to move forward and seek the disarmament of Shiite militias. In his first statement, he hinted at an intention to seek “the exclusive right of the state to bear arms,” indicating a desire to limit the military activity of Hezbollah and its allies.
The ambitious plans of the former commander-in-chief have already met with the support of high-ranking Israeli officials, in particular, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
On the other hand, given the strong polarization of Lebanese society, Aoun's initiatives could have the opposite effect. Limiting the freedom of action of Shiite forces, coupled with rapprochement with Israel and the United States, could provoke a deepening of the domestic political crisis, which would push forces "offended" by the results of the last elections to change the balance of power in their favor.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] The wife of the former Syrian president, Asma Assad, is suspected of having ties to British intelligence before her marriage to Bashar al-Assad. This was reported by the Sky News Arabia TV channel, citing documents presented by an opposition Syrian journalist on January 8.
According to the TV channel, Asma's mother, Sahar al-Akhras, could have organized secret meetings with representatives of British intelligence and special forces for her future son-in-law, and Asma herself could have cooperated with MI5 and MI6.
"Journalist Nizar Nayouf has published documents that he says... contain further details about British intelligence links to Asma al-Assad, as she was hired by the American bank JP Morgan in London with the support of British intelligence officer Eliza Bowler, who secured her the job," the publication notes.
In addition, the authors of the article specify that the former president of the country, Hafez al-Assad, could have known about the contacts with foreign intelligence and was against such a marriage. It is also noted that the publication was unable to verify the authenticity of the documents.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on December 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Bashar al-Assad had resigned as president of Syria and left the country, ordering a peaceful transfer of power. He arrived in Russia, where he and his family were granted asylum. Asma al-Assad arrived in Russia before her husband for treatment.
On December 25, The Telegraph reported that Asma was experiencing a relapse of acute leukemia. It was specified that the former president's wife was isolated to prevent the infection from being transmitted to her, and is now prohibited from being in the same room with other people.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] As for the Syrian energy sector, on which the Americans eased sanctions, the situation has predictably worsened in the month since Assad fled.
Expectedly, for those in the know. Although in the first days, enthusiastic supporters of HTS (banned by the Russian Federation and elsewhere) wrote to me in the comments about generators brought to Aleppo, not understanding (or understanding) that the effect is purely advertising, and that it is impossible to provide a city of 2 million even in partial supply mode, even in certain areas for more than a week, without payment.
What is he, some kind of bloody-handed capitalist??
For information, according to official data for 2021, the deficit was 1 GW in Latakia alone! And this is Latakia with a population of less than 700 thousand, and not industrial Aleppo.
In general, the situation has worsened even where the supply was 3 hours to 3 hours, it became an hour to 10 without power, and on average in the country and even worse.
What happened? After all, the power plants were not bombed by Israel, there were no military actions around them, and the "Assad underground" did not sabotage them. Moreover, after the dissolution of the Syrian army, as well as the capture of all bases and special government facilities that were supplied with priority, these capacities also disappeared somewhere!
It is quite funny at the same time, the rhetoric of the new authorities to the population that the criminal regime has ruined everything so much that now we must be patient, although Assad, when he fled, did not take a single turbine or power plant with him, not to mention beach and wedding photos.
Therefore, it is not enough to have power plants and substations - you also need to have fuel (gas and fuel oil) for them, which Iran previously shipped to Assad on credit (the lion's share in the form of oil).
Partially, Iranian oil still covered the need for automobile fuel.
A simple calculation will show that it is necessary to purchase at least 2 million barrels monthly - and this is a billion dollars, well, or sit on the neck of Qatar and other bay guys, while simultaneously canceling subsidies for electricity prices.
So now Qatar and Turkey have driven 2 floating power plants with a capacity of 800 MW (which also need fuel, but okay, a little - they will give it, as humanitarian aid for now), it was announced that they plan to increase the supply by almost 50 percent (!).
And again I see a wave of delight in the networks, tears of gratitude, etc.
Well, and I, as in the story with the generators in Aleppo, again cannot help but note the main emphasis on the media, because in practice - this is a pea for an elephant, and even then, to return the energy supply, at least to the times of the criminal regime.
This is one of the reasons why Turkey is planning a military operation in Syrian Kurdistan to take control of Syrian oil from the Kurds and the US, which could at least partially solve the above-described problems. Hence the rhetoric in the style of "Al-Shaddadi in 3 days". Hence the continuing hypothetical option in relations with Russia - oil in exchange for bases.
Of course, this will not solve all of Syria’s economic problems.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/10/2025 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
#1
The Prophet didn't have electricity and managed just fine!
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.
.jpg "Kashmir")
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...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. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
