Category Archives: terrorism

Right-wing demonstrators attack police station in Magdeburg | News | DW.COM | 09.10.2016

The incident at the central station in the northeast German town of Magdeburg, 156 kilometers (97 miles) west of Berlin, had started on Saturday late afternoon with the arrest of a 32-year-old man for an attack on a pedestrian. The victim sustained head injuries.Police said they were hindered in making the arrest by several, partially-masked individuals who had taken part in a demonstration of right-wing extremists in Dessau-Rosslau, 60 kilometers to the south east.The suspect had resisted arrest, attempting to take a baton from one of the officers. Magdeburg police said he had only been arrested by using “considerable effort and with the use of pepper spray.”Eleven of the man’s associates tried to get to the arrested man but had been pushed back by police before being expelled from the station.There were also reports that the extremists were calling on a further 50 of their number to recover the man from custody.A total of nine men and two women between the ages of 15 and 33 were arrested.Right wing violence on the riseThe number of violent crimes with a right-wing political motive has been rising substantially in Germany. Figures from the interior ministry for 2015 recorded 1,485 violent far-right crimes, up from 1,029 in 2014.The ministry reported a large increase in the broader category of “hate crimes” such as offences of a racist or antisemitic nature, or targeting people because of their religion. They rose 72 percent in 2015 to 10,373 from 5,858 the previous year.At the time, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said, “The rise in right-wing politically motivated crime is above all evident in xenophobic incidents.””That is unacceptable and will be met with strong measures by the police and justice system,” the interior minister said.

Source: Right-wing demonstrators attack police station in Magdeburg | News | DW.COM | 09.10.2016

Trump says ‘I was wrong and I apologize,’ then calls uproar over lewd comments a distraction – Chicago Tribune “never really apologize and claim that others are worse than you are?”

caught on tape making shockingly crude comments about a married woman he tried to seduce, Donald Trump declared in a midnight video, “I was wrong and I apologize.”Yet he claimed the astonishing revelations amounted to “nothing more than a distraction” and argued his words were not nearly as egregious as former President Bill Clinton’s marital affairs.

Source: Trump says ‘I was wrong and I apologize,’ then calls uproar over lewd comments a distraction – Chicago Tribune

By ‘saying nothing’ on his birther lie, Donald Trump re-embraces the deplorables: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

And by saying nothing, Donald Trump said everything.By saying nothing, he confirmed what any thoughtful person has known for months — that his campaign for president is really about racism.Unfair trade deals, tax cuts, job creation, phony chants of change? They’re all accessories.The real message of Trump’s campaign — the one that appeals to all the extremists and haters who help fill his gigantic basket of deplorables — is raw racism.There’s nothing the least bit complicated about Trump’s message, an unmentioned promise so powerful it’s capable of moving his supporters to violence. It goes like this: I’ll keep the blacks in their place and kick the Mexicans and Muslims out. Together, we’ll make America white again.But he won’t.Because he can’t.Top elected officials in Ohio, from Sen. Rob Portman on down, should be ashamed of themselves for openly supporting such a repugnant human being.It is profoundly disappointing that Republican members of Congress and four holders of Ohio statewide offices silently condone Trump’s unique brand of hate and racism. History will treat only Gov. John Kasich kindly on this issue.

Source: By ‘saying nothing’ on his birther lie, Donald Trump re-embraces the deplorables: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

Air Force, Running Low on Drone Pilots, Turns to Contractors in Terror Fight – The New York Times – Using mercenaries is just so wrong – Remember the Hessians? 

Over the next two years, the Pentagon plans to add six more operated by contractors, the officials said. The number and identities of contractors working on the drone flights are considered classified information, the Air Force said. But Pentagon officials said there at least several hundred contractors, many of them former drone or fighter pilots who are making double or triple their military salaries.

“This is opening up a whole new can of worms — we have seen problems with security contractors on the battlefield since 9/11, and there’s been an improvement in oversight in that area, but that came after a decade of problems,” said Laura A. Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University, who has written extensively about the United States’ use of military contractors. “With drones, this is a new area where we already do not have a lot of transparency and with contractors operating drones there’s no clearly defined regime of oversight and accountability.”

Source: Air Force, Running Low on Drone Pilots, Turns to Contractors in Terror Fight – The New York Times

North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed | US news | The Guardian

Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said protesters reported that six people had been bitten by security dogs, including a young child. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said. Preskey said law enforcement authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.There were no law enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Preskey said. The crowd dispersed when officers arrived and no one was arrested, she said.The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline that is slated to cross the Missouri River nearby.The tribe is challenging the army corps of engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in southern North Dakota. A federal judge will rule before 9 September whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access pipeline.Energy Transfer Partners did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.The tribe fears the project will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and millions farther downstream.

Source: North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed | US news | The Guardian

Palestinian who filmed Hebron shooting faces threats to his life | +972 Magazine

Last week B’Tselem filed a complaint with Israeli police, claiming that Hebron police prevented Abu Shamsiya from submitting his own request following threats he received on the internet.Abu Shamsiya describes how last Sunday he arrived at the police station in Hebron to file a complaint about the threats, which included comments such as “I will kill you, you disabled asshole,” “your time will come,” and threatening videos. After a lengthy wait he was told that the station was too busy and that he should return the following day. The next day, after another long wait, he was told that he could not file a complaint, since the only officer who could deal with issue was not present. Abu Shamsiya returned for a third day, waiting a number of hours to be helped. When he approached one of there investigators, he was told to go home and threatened with arrest should he refuse to do so.

Source: Palestinian who filmed Hebron shooting faces threats to his life | +972 Magazine

Erdogan vows to ″destroy terrorists″ as force step up offensive against IS and Syrian Kurds | News | DW.COM | 29.08.2016 aka: Kurdish Genocide is still his only aim!

After months of deadly attacks across the country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to “destroy terrorists.” In Syria, Turkish forces have ramped up their offensive against “IS” and Kurdish-led forces.

Source: Erdogan vows to ″destroy terrorists″ as force step up offensive against IS and Syrian Kurds | News | DW.COM | 29.08.2016

‘Mr Brexit’ meets Mr Brexit: Nigel Farage to stump with Trump | US news | The Guardian “Racist Birds” Gather together the same feathers – apologies to birds. LOL

Nigel Farage, the anti-EU British politician and former Ukip leader, will appear with Donald Trump at a rally on Wednesday, a week after the US presidential candidate branded himself “Mr Brexit” and tapped one of the leading American supporters of Brexit to run his campaign.The Trump campaign confirmed that Farage would appear with Trump at an evening rally in Jackson, Mississippi, to tell US voters “the Brexit story” of how he triumphed over the electoral odds. Farage will not endorse Trump.Trump hopes to ride to victory a populist wave of nationalist enthusiasm comparable to the movement behind Britain’s June vote to leave the European Union. As leader at the time of Ukip, Farage was a key promoter of the Brexit.

Source: ‘Mr Brexit’ meets Mr Brexit: Nigel Farage to stump with Trump | US news | The Guardian

Danish MP: EU a bigger threat than Russia – The Local – You have to wonder – who is paying who for good words about Putin? Or are these people who would have also welcomed support for their ideas by Hitler or Stalin?

In an interview with Mandag Morgen, Krarup said that the EU is an existential threat to Denmark and is a much bigger problem than Russia. “For Denmark? Yes, without a doubt. Just Schengen alone is a catastrophe. It’s something that will make Denmark disappear from the world map if we don’t pull ourselves together. That national borders have been disbanded is a threat against Denmark’s existence,” she told the magazine.  She went on to that although she views Russian President Vladimir Putin as “an exponent of an despotic, non-democratic system that we don’t want in Denmark”, she would welcome his help in dismantling the EU in its current form.  “I don’t want an EU like the one we have time. I want the EU buried and replaced by a forum for free trade. That’s our policy. If Putin or Marine Le Pen [France’s most powerful Eurosceptic, ed.] can help with that, that’ just fine,” she told Mandag Morgen, adding she’d also except help from “Satan himself”. This isn’t the first time that Krarup, who is DF’s defence spokeswoman, has made controversial comments about Russia. Last month, she told broadcaster DR that Russia should be viewed as a “future ally” and accused the West of “a demonizing of Putin that has been grotesquely ridiculous and really stupid”.

Source: Danish MP: EU a bigger threat than Russia – The Local

Woman fined for wearing headscarf on Cannes beach – The Local – French racism rules over idea that French are cosmopolitan and freedom loving.

A journalist for France 4, Mathilde Cusin, watched the incident unfold. “I felt like I was watching a pack of hounds attack a woman who was sitting down, in tears, with her young daughter,” she said.”Racist terms were used freely,” said Siam. “I was stunned. I heard things which no one had ever said to me, like ‘Go home!’ and ‘we’re Catholics here!'”While some people defended the 34-year-old, Siam says around three quarters of beachgoers took the side of the police and demanded that she remove the veil or leave the beach. In the end, she paid the €11 fine, and has since contacted the Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie, a French organization which protects Muslims’ rights.Siam said the incident left her feeling “humiliated” and that she felt she was fined simply for being a Muslim.The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, has supported the police officers, arguing that they were within their rights to fine anyone considered to be wearing an “ostentatious” symbol of faith, and that he had “no reason to doubt their judgment,”, according to La Depeche newspaper.

Source: Woman fined for wearing headscarf on Cannes beach – The Local