[DAWN] Julian Assange's lawyers have filed a court complaint in Spain against a group of Spaniards they allege extorted the WikiLeaks founder whom they say may have been the victim of "espionage", a source in his defence team said Saturday.
Assange, who for seven years lived holed up in London's Ecuadoran embassy where he had taken refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape accusations, was tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... on April 11 after Quito terminated his asylum.
The 47-year-old founder of WikiLeaks, which exposed everything from US military secrets to the wealthy's tax evasion, is now awaiting sentencing for breaching his British bail conditions in 2012.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said the complaint was against "a group of Spaniards who allegedly engaged in extortion." The source told AFP the complaint was also against various employees of the embassy and Ecuador's foreign ministry "who could be responsible," without detailing how.
The source added a probe was ongoing into the alleged extortion, as well as "espionage" that could have taken place against Assange, without giving further details.
According to online daily eldiario.es, four Spaniards have videos and personal documents of Assange which they somehow obtained via an alleged spying system that included security cameras set up in the embassy in London.
The Spaniards allegedly tried to extort three million euros ($3.3 million) out of WikiLeaks not to publish any of it, the report says.
If confirmed, it is unclear how the Spaniards got access to the alleged spying system and were able to get the information about Assange.
It is also unclear whether his lawyers accuse the embassy and ministry employees targeted in the complaint, reportedly made to Spain's top-level National Court, of being behind the alleged espionage.
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04/28/2019 00:00 ||
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Has the world turned into a series of dime novels from the glory days of the early century, or is it just me?
[KhaamaPress] The leader of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... has boycotted the upcoming consultative peace Jirga (assembly of leaders) as a various prominent politicians have already boycotted the gathering, citing it as a move by the government to lobby for the upcoming presidential elections rather raising voices for reconciliation.
Sources close to Hekmatyar have confirmed that the leader of Hezb-e-Islami will not participate in the gathering.
In the meantime, reports indicate that that Mohammad Karim Khalili
...2nd vice president under Hamid Kharzai, finance minister for the Mujahideen government after the Soviets were driven out, and one of the leaders of the Hezb-e Wahdat political party of Hazaras...
has also boycotted the consultative peace Jirga.
This comes as the former President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ...A product, and probably the sole product, of the Southern Alliance... has warned the government to refrain from convening the consultative peace Jirga, emphasizing that the gathering is not favor of the country considering the current situation.
[Rudaw] Germany has stopped processing some applications for asylum by Syrian refugees, pending a new assessment of the security situation in the war-torn country, according to a report on Saturday.
German media group Funke, quoting the interior ministry, said decisions on some asylum applications from Syrians have been 'postponed' with changes expected to be made to ministry guidelines.
Delegations from Iran, Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... met in Kazakhstan on Thursday seeking an end to the Syrian conflict.
As a consequence of the Germany's halting of some asylum applications, refugee organizations fear 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 Moslems .. 's government will reject more applications from Syria if there is no longer armed conflict there, say Funke.
According to the Funke report, those affected are asylum seekers awarded "subsidiary protection" ‐ exposed to serious danger, acts of war, the death penalty or torture in their home country.
According to government figures, 17,411 Syrians were awarded the status in 2018.
Germany has been deeply polarised by Chancellor Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to open the country's borders to those fleeing conflict and persecution at the height of Europe's migrant crisis.
Since then, the influx of over a million asylum seekers ‐ mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan ‐ has fuelled the rise of the far-right, anti-Islam AfD party.
[Rudaw] Hashd al-Shaabi, an Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitia established to fight 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), should withdraw from Syria so that Iraq does not get dragged into a conflict between Iran and the US and Israel, firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] Children born to Yezidi mothers raped by 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) captors will not be accepted into the Yezidi faith, the Spiritual Council clarified on Saturday, days after it implied "all" survivors would be taken in.
In a new statement published on Saturday, the council said coverage of its earlier statement was "distorting the truth".
"About the decision to accept the female survivors and children, we did not mean the children born as a result of rape at all, but those who were born from Yezidi parents and were kidnapped during the invasion of Sinjar [Shingal] by ISIS on August 3, 2014," the council clarified Saturday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
The earlier statement, published on Wednesday and signed by the council’s deputy head Hazim Tahseen Saadi, did not specifically mention children born out of rape, but it did say the community would accept "the return of all the ISIS survivors as we consider what happened to them outside of their will".
By implication, this appeared to include children born of rape.
The Yezidi faith does not accept marriage and conception between Yezidis and non-Yezidis, nor does it allow conversion.
Speaking to Rudaw, Murad Ismael, head of Yezidi rights group Yazda, said the clarification was the result of opposition from within the Yezidi community itself.
"The clarification came as a result of strong opposition by some factions of the community, including Yezidi political parties, religious figures, and some tribal and community leaders. For many people this was seen as too much and a clear violation of Yezidi religion," he said.
Ismael believes the first statement was issued without first conferring with the wider community and without consideration for its legal implications.
"Obviously the previous statement included all Yazidi women and their children. I think they attenuated the language due to sensitivity but it was clearly meant to accept all children," Ismael said.
"I do agree that the first statement was done in a rush, without consultation with the wider community, and without a plan of execution. For example, legality around this was not discussed. Iraqi law states clearly that all children born to a Moslem parent should be registered as a Moslem," he added.
The Yazda chief warned the decision will have "catastrophic outcomes" for the children themselves.
"As a humanitarian and advocacy organization for the rights of Yezidis and other religious minorities, we are saddened by the rejection," Ismael said. "We will continue to seek other avenues to address this issue. The issue of captives is the most important one to us."
"There will be catastrophic outcomes if we fail to address issue of children born out of rape. Children are children and they should never be treated as criminals ‐ regardless to who were the biological parents."
"However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... we abide by and respect the statement of the council as the highest authority of the Yezidi faith," he added.
Thousands of Yezidi men and elderly people slaughtered by ISIS gunnies and buried in mass graves during the 2014 genocide. Women and children were kidnapped and sold into slavery ‐ many facing years of repeated sexual violence.
Of 6,417 Yezidis kidnapped by ISIS, the fate of 2,992 remains unclear, according to Yezidi Affairs Office from the KRG Ministry Religion and Endowment.
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[Jpost] The armed wing of Hamas is using increasingly complex methods of raising funds via bitcoin, researchers say, highlighting the difficulties regulators face in tracking cryptocurrency financing of outfits designated by some as terrorist groups.
The Gaza-based Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, which is proscribed by the United States and the European Union, has been calling on its supporters to donate using the digital currency in a fundraising campaign announced online in late January.
Originally, it asked donors to send bitcoin to a single digital address, or wallet.
Continued on Page 49
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An Iraqi intelligence officer has claimed that 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.... chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdad has sought to return back to Iraq over the past few weeks after many of his supporters were killed in Syria’s military campaigns.
"Al-Baghdadi has been trying to enter Iraq for weeks, but he could not due to the strict security measures applied on the Iraqi-Syrian border," the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Russia Today TV channel on Saturday.
"Al-Baghdadi is currently hiding in Jabal Abu Rajmin in the Syrian city of Palmyra, backed by some close aids, mostly of Saudi, Tunisian and Iraq nationalities," the officer said, adding that the murder of a large number of Islamic State forces of Evil in Syria "prompted Baghdadi to seek return to Iraq."
No reports about al-Baghdadi have been heard since September 2017, when he urged supporters to wage attacks against the West and keep fighting in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Al-Baghdadi emerged as leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups that later became Islamic State, in 2010. In October 2011, the US officially designated al-Baghdadi as a terrorist. It has offered a reward of up to $25m (£19.6m) for information leading to his capture or death.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as 
Moqtada 
[Jpost] The armed wing of Hamas is using increasingly complex methods of raising funds via bitcoin, researchers say, highlighting the difficulties regulators face in tracking cryptocurrency financing of outfits designated by some as terrorist groups.
