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Iran money man zapped in Gaza
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 6: Politix
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-Land of the Free
The resurrection of 'new atheism'
[Al Jazeera] As white supremacy reigns supreme in the US, a new book seeks to bring back to the fore one of its ideological branches.

Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)

#1  And what if white supremacy isn't really reigning but its instead a pathetic excuse used by proponents of multiculturalism to explain their failure.?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/05/2019 2:43 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
The many mothers of Sudan's revolution
[Al Jazeera] On April 10, the photograph of 22-year-old engineering student Alaa Salah chanting in front of a crowd of protesters went viral, capturing the world's attention and breaking an international media blackout on Sudan's protests.

She was quickly branded the "symbol" of the Sudanese revolution, her image defying spurious normative ideas of Moslem women as oppressed and politically passive. The international media obsessed over her act of courage and exceptionalised it, missing a critical opportunity to look into the central role Sudanese women have played in the revolution so far and the broader historical context in which their activism has emerged.

In fact, the history of Sudan has been dotted by iconic female figures: from the Kandaka (the Nubian queen) of Meroe, whose military strategy prevented Alexander the Great from conquering Nubian lands in 332 BC, to Dr Khalida Zahir, Sudan's first woman doctor who was tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
by the British in 1946 for opposing colonial rule, to Fatima Ibrahim a prominent communist and leader of the Sudanese Women's Union, who fought for women's right to vote, equal pay and maternity leave.

It is important for us, two women from the Gezira and Darfur, to point out that while some of these feminist icons from central and northern Sudan have received recognition, the critical role working-class women and women from marginalised regions have played as drivers of popular resistance against dictatorship, political marginalisation and state violence in Sudan for decades has largely been overlooked.

In this sense, Alaa is the daughter of not just prominent Sudanese feminists but also of generations of ordinary women from across Sudan who have been at the forefront of anti-regime resistance. Their fight for dignity and freedom has laid firm foundations from which now she and countless other young women protesters can step in their courageous struggle against the regime.

Posted by: Fred || 05/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Secretive 'hero' blogger rips into Kremlin, one click at a time
[France24] He is wheelchair-bound and has limited use of his hands but Alexander Gorbunov, the author of hugely popular social media accounts in Russia, has emerged as one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics.

Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and using his right index finger to type, the 27-year-old author of StalinGulag skewers the "hypocrisy" of Putin's system and the everyday injustices ordinary Russians face.

Known for his dry wit and generous use of profanities, StalinGulag has built a near 1.5 million strong army of followers on Twitter and Telegram, with a total media outreach believed to include several million more.

For years the StalinGulag author's identity remained one of Russia's best-kept secrets but Gorbunov blew his cover after authorities began harrassing his 65-year-old mother and 80-year-old father last week.

Gorbunov, an intelligent, soft-spoken man with a goatee, said he and his wife have been on tenterhooks.

"They can easily arrest and put in prison anyone," Gorbunov told AFP in an interview, saying that even a short stint in jail could kill him.

"They don't care."

In an increasing crackdown on dissent, Putin in March signed laws that allow courts to fine and briefly jail people for showing disrespect towards the authorities and to block media for publishing "fake news".

- 'Damn hero' -

Gorbunov, who is a successful self-taught financial trader by day, dreads publicity but this week revealed his identity to BBC and later spoke to AFP after gun-toting police inspected his parents' home in the North Caucasus city of Makhachkala.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/05/2019 07:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sri Lanka
What explains rich-kid terrorists
From a bit ago, but a good overview touching on a number of names already in our archives.
[CNN] Sri Lankan Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said Wednesday that most of the gunnies who killed at least 253 people at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday were "well-educated and come from maybe middle- or upper-middle-class. So, they are financially quite independent, and their families are quite stable financially."

Two of the jacket wallahs were the sons of a wealthy Sri Lankan spice trader, Mohammed Ibrahim, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

This likely runs counter to what many people may believe about suicide bombers. After all, why would well educated, upper-middle-class folks with seemingly everything to live for blow themselves up and kill so many innocents?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  If you believe islam creates utopia then removing the evidence it does not (islamic countries are shit-holes compared to western nations) is their natural response.

Rich kids are just able to get the evidence.

Who you going to believe? The koran or your own lying eyes?

Unfortunately they choose koran.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/05/2019 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Well in the Sri Lanka example, daddy seems to have been the wellspring.

In general, when a rich kid goes splodeydope, I think the dynamic is something like:
1 - make the kid feel guilty because he's rich.
2 - convince him X, Y or Z is keeping his brethren down and he helped by being rich
3 - the only way to expiate his guilt is to uplift his poor, downtrodden brethern by killing all the X, Y or Z's
4 - and by the way, if you kill yourself in the process, that's all to the good - shows true remorse and you get 72 raisins as a reward.
Posted by: Sloluting Pholuper6540 || 05/05/2019 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Or consider Patty Hearst. To avoid being forced into a marriage she invented a cult which captured and brainwashed her with Stockholm syndrome to the point where she was spraying bullets with her pretend terror group. All because she was a spoiled rich entitled bitch.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/05/2019 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  The SLA was a real terrorist group. Her "kidnapping" may be as you said above

The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an American left-wing terrorist organization active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders, and other acts of violence.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/05/2019 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Just as there's always someone smarter, there is always someone richer, and some rich kids decide the way to even things up is to become a Bond villain.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/05/2019 12:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Because it's islam.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/05/2019 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Life needs purpose. Most people get absorbed in work, others in sports teams. The idle rich don't have that so they are fertile ground for anything that provides a purpose. In the past that meant Christianity and/or the military service, now Communism and Islam are filling the bill.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/05/2019 17:28 Comments || Top||

#8  They take their religion seriously. Their families have enough money that whether they work or not isn't an immediate existential issue, so they have time to learn about the infidels (who not surprisingly shock them more than the familiar vices of the folks back home), and the opportunity to join jihad.
Posted by: james || 05/05/2019 18:21 Comments || Top||

#9  To be fair, Osama bin Laden was only one of his father’s fifty-six children from his twenty-two wives. That’s less than 2% gone bad. And of Osama’s 20+ children, I am only aware of one who seems to have chosen to walk in his papa’s footsteps, though there may be others who are quieter about it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/05/2019 21:19 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Baghdadi’s defiant message could cut both ways
[Rudaw] The release of a video by the propaganda arm of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) group purportedly featuring its self-declared caliph has understandably fueled speculation over possible motives. A tacit acknowledgment of the group’s defeat in Syria in March by the man said to be His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
was offset, so to say, by his claim that the April 21 Easter bloodbath in Sri Lanka was "vengeance for their brothers in Baghouz".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Culture Wars
Progressive Parents Devastated After Son Comes Out As Straight
[Babylon Bee] OAKVALE, CA‐Progressive parents Willow and Arthur Riverstone are reeling after their son Sebastien came out to them as straight.

"This is a bombshell we'll be feeling for the rest of our lives," Arthur told reporters. "I mean, we love our son and we want to support him, but we never thought he'd be one of the straights."

Sebastien, who is fourteen and currently attending Oakvale Highschool as a freshman, broke the news to them last Wednesday when he wanted to invite a girl named Sophia to come over and hang out.

"We were hoping she was at least transgendered, but no dice," said Willow.

"We're still trying to decide if we would attend the wedding if you know... he's serious about this," Arthur said. "I just wasn't prepared for this. We didn't raise him this way. I mean, what's he going to do? Give us grandkids? I don't know how the environment is going to handle this, let alone me and my wife." The man broke down sobbing.

The Riverstones are attending support group meetings for progressive parents affected by their children coming out as straight. "It's helped a little," said Willow. "But the pain is real. You have to accept it and not let it control you."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/05/2019 07:07 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I feel their pain. It will only get worse when the couple refuses to abort their children...
Posted by: European Conservative || 05/05/2019 15:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Remember, Moonunit Zappa is a Republican. How else can you rebel against left wing loonies?
Posted by: Winky Hupeans3277 || 05/05/2019 17:08 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
19[untagged]
8Islamic State
7Hamas
5Taliban
5Commies
3Sublime Porte
2Govt of Sudan
2Govt of Syria
2al-Nusra
2Hezbollah
2Arab Spring
2Moslem Colonists
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Iran
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Govt of Qatar (MB)

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In no particular order...
Steve White
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tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2019-05-05
  Iran money man zapped in Gaza
Sat 2019-05-04
  Israel strikes Gaza targets in response to heavy rocket fire Saturday
Fri 2019-05-03
  Taliban militants blow up one of the oldest shrines of Ghazni city
Thu 2019-05-02
  Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
Wed 2019-05-01
  Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated businessman Malek sentenced to 25 years in prison
Tue 2019-04-30
  Gunmen kill pastor, worshippers in Burkina Faso church
Mon 2019-04-29
  Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years
Sun 2019-04-28
  Father, brothers of alleged Sri Lanka bombing mastermind killed
Sat 2019-04-27
  Sri Lanka - Inside help?
Fri 2019-04-26
  Jihadists 'blow themselves up' as soldiers raid suicide vest factory in Sri Lanka
Thu 2019-04-25
  Trump says sending ‘armed soldiers’ to US-Mexico border
Wed 2019-04-24
  Saudi Arabia beheads 37 for terrorism crimes, most of them minority Shiites
Tue 2019-04-23
  IS claims Sri Lanka blasts
Mon 2019-04-22
  Sri Lanka explosions, 24 arrested, 290+ dead, 8 kabooms
Sun 2019-04-21
  3 churches bombed at Easter services in Sri Lanka 262 Dead

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