Greece: A "No-Go" Zone in Athens? - Maria Polizoidou

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by Maria Polizoidou

"I don't know any more if we, as a police force, have the political mandate to clear the area. This region is a matter for the army now." — Stavros Balaskas, vice president of the Greek Federation of Police Officers, April 6, 2019.

• "[T]he neighborhood has... platoons, companies, battalions, Kalashnikovs. I don't know any more if we, as a police force, have the political mandate to clear the area. This region is a matter for the army now." — Stavros Balaskas, vice president of the Greek Federation of Police Officers, April 6, 2019.
• "...[T]here are now too many illegal immigrants in Exarchia who are drug traffickers [and] gun traffickers... they have essentially taken over the whole place." — Michalis Chrysochoidis, a former Greek Minister of Citizen Protection, who was responsible for the 2002 dismantling of the "November 17" domestic terrorist organization, April 8, 2019
• In Exarchia, these groups -- which conduct criminal activities and terrorize local residents -- have, in effect, created a "no-go zone," where even police are afraid to enter.

According to Stavros Balaskas, vice president of the Greek Federation of Police Officers, anarchist gangs in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia have "platoons, companies, battalions, Kalashnikovs. I don't know any more if we, as a police force, have the political mandate to clear the area. This region is a matter for the army now." Pictured: A street in Exarchia following a riot, in December 2008. (Image source: Xenos2008/Wikimedia Commons)

An assault on members of the Hellenic Coast Guard during a drug raid in Athens on April 4 highlights a growing problem in Greece. Some opponents of the far-left Syriza-led government attribute the increasing drug traffic in the country to a dangerous alliance between political anarchists and illegal immigrants. The anarchists might be considered the Greek equivalent of the "far left". According to Reuters:

"Many self-proclaimed anarchists - the word stems from the Greek 'anarchia' or absence of authority - say they are pacifist, but certain groups have few qualms about using violence. Six years of recession have fuelled a new wave of left-wing militancy, according to officials, anarchists and court testimony."

The April 4 incident was sparked when Greek authorities arrested a Syrian national on a ferry at the Piraeus Port; he was carrying 200 grams of marijuana, which he said he had purchased from an Egyptian drug dealer in the Exarchia neighborhood of Athens.

Eight members of the Coast Guard and a prosecutor immediately went to Exarchia to raid the supplier's apartment, located in one of 50 buildings in the neighborhood that are occupied by illegal-immigrant squatters. When the officers and prosecutor arrived at the building, they arrested two female suspects, a Greek-Australian and a Syrian national, and confiscated 1.5 kilograms of cannabis and a Glock pistol.

On their way out of the building, the officers were ambushed by a masked mob, wearing helmets and bulletproof vests, and armed with knives, clubs and assault rifles. Two Coast Guard officers were stabbed in the attack, and their weapons taken.

According to the authorities, the building in which the incident took place is near a weapons cache possibly connected to the "militias" of Exarchia -- a neighborhood infamous for previous violent attacks on police. As the Chairman of the Union of Police Officers, Dimosthenis Pakos, said in an interview after the assault, "You don't go for a walk in Exarchia [without being accompanied by] an army."

In an interview with SKAI TV, Stavros Balaskas, vice president of the Greek Federation of Police Officers, agreed, referring to Exarchia as "a state within a state":

"[T]he neighborhood has a structure inside. There are platoons, companies, battalions, Kalashnikovs. I don't know any more if we, as a police force, have the political mandate to clear the area. This region is a matter for the army now."

Michalis Chrysochoidis, a former Minister for Citizen Protection who was responsible for the 2002 dismantling of the "November 17" domestic terrorist organization, told SKAI TV this month:

"...[T]here are now too many illegal immigrants in Exarchia who are drug traffickers [and] gun traffickers... they have essentially taken over the whole place... [I]f there is no immediate operational and judiciary reaction to this phenomenon, the problems will... multiply for society."

On April 11, in what appeared to be a public relations operation aimed at restoring a modicum of dignity to the security forces that had been attacked a week earlier, heavily armed police units raided two buildings in Exarchia in search of drugs and weapons. During the raid, three people were arrested for drug possession, and 90 others were brought in for questioning. Most of them turned out to be illegal or unregistered immigrants.

As of 2017, there were an estimated 3,000 undocumented immigrants living in Athens in privately-owned buildings that are illegally occupied by Greek anarchists.

In the two years since then, the number has likely increased. In Exarchia, these groups -- which conduct criminal activities and terrorize local residents -- have, in effect, created a "no-go zone," where even police are afraid to enter.

It is unclear how these groups get organized and who finances them. It is also unknown how many of the immigrants have ties to ISIS and al-Qaeda.

One thing, however, is certain: In the absence of political will to get to the bottom of the alliance between anarchists and illegal immigrants, the future of other neighborhoods across the country is in jeopardy.

Maria Polizoidou, a reporter, broadcast journalist, and consultant on international and foreign affairs, is based in Greece. She has a graduate degree in "Geopolitics and Security Issues in the Islamic complex of Turkey and Middle East" from the University of Athens.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14082/greece-no-go-zone-athens

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Terror attack foiled in Samaria - Arutz Sheva Staff

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by Arutz Sheva Staff

Alert officers foil the attack

Israeli Border Police on Saturday morning foiled an attempted terror attack at Samaria's Tapuah Junction.

The terrorist, a Palestinian Authority Arab of approximately 20 from the town of Sanniriya, arrived at the scene armed with a knife

Officers stationed in the area noticed the suspect's behavior and began chasing after him. A policeman at the scene noticed the chase and blocked the suspect's path with a squad car.

The suspect then drew a knife and began attempting to open the squad car's door in order to stab the officer. In response, the officer shot the suspect, injuring him.

No one else was injured.

According to Petah Tikva's Beilinson Hospital, the terrorist arrived in severe condition and his life is in danger.


Arutz Sheva Staff

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262108

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The Mueller report is walking around naked as a jaybird, and James Clapper insists he can see its new collusion clothes - Monica Showalter

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by Monica Showalter

If you can't have real collusion with the Russians, "passive collusion" will have to do.

James Clapper is making a fool of himself — and now wants you to be his bigger fool.
Get a load of his hot take on the Mueller report, reported by the Daily Caller:

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he believes the Mueller report demonstrates "passive collusion" from President Donald Trump if not "active collusion."
Clapper suggested Thursday that candidate Trump was perhaps "unwittingly" advancing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, in a CNN interview reported by Fox News.
"If there wasn't active collusion proven, then I think what we have here is a case of passive collusion where in some cases, unwittingly, to include candidate Trump himself, who retweeted messages that had been planted by the Russians in social media," the CNN national security analyst said in an interview with Anderson Cooper. "That's a small, but important, example of how members of the campaign were used and manipulated by the Russians."

He's resorting to this claptrap because there is no there there. If there's no real collusion to denounce, then seeing some 'unwitting' collusion will have to do. This rather nullifies the entire meaning of the word 'collusion,' the words here are 'useful idiot,' the sort of phrase that might upset the left. So virtual collusion it is, in the absence of any real collusion. It's come to this.

What's more, he's covering his keister. The former director of National Intelligence under the Obama administration is widely believed to be one of the sleazy political operatives involved in the creation and dissemination of the now discredited 'Steele dossier,' which was one of the pretexts for the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Judicial Watch is still after him for that one, and is seeking all of his correspondence with former Obama administration CIA director John Brennan. Remember this?

James Clapper, the chief intelligence official in the Obama administration, has admitted that he discussed the salacious and unfounded claims in the dossier with CNN reporter Jake Tapper, and may have discussed it with other journalists as early as January 2017. Clapper later signed on to be an analyst at CNN in August 2017. The dossier was written by ex-British spy Christopher Steele.

He was part of the Deep State plot to spread it all around in the press that President Trump was in bed with the Russians. The facts show that actually, it was Democrats in bed with the Russians.

Now the Mueller report is out, and that presents a problem. He can see that the media is blindsided. He can see that there's no evidence of any collusion with Russians. His solution, then, is to act the role of the charlatan, insisting that with all his fancy specialized knowledge, all his refinement, the Mueller report indeed shows collusion, but only for those with the refinement to see it.

Sorry, pal, the emperor's new collusion is nonsense. And Clapper himself is the one walking around without any clothes.


Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/the_mueller_report_is_walking_around_naked_as_a_jaybird_and_james_clapper_insists_he_can_see_its_new_collusion_clothes.html

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High School Students Assigned to Tabulate "Privilege" Based on Race, Gender, Sexuality, Religion - Sara Dogan

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by Sara Dogan

Add 25 points for being white or male, deduct 100 points for being black, 500 for identifying as transgender.

Parents in the community of Saratoga Springs, New York are up in arms after a shocking assignment that asked students to tabulate their “privilege” by adding or subtracting points for their race, gender, religion, appearance, disability status, and other factors was given to students at a public high school.
The “Privilege Reflection Forms” were given to students in a business class at Saratoga Springs High School, apparently with the approval of school administrators who considered it a useful tool to enlighten students on their relative status in society. According to the worksheet provided, students were told to calculate how privileged they are by adding or subtracting sums for possessing different attributes.
For instance, Caucasian students completing the form are directed to add 25 points for being white, whereas African-American students are told to subtract 100 points for being black. Males are told to add 25 points whereas females are told to subtract 50 points. Nor does the lesson stop there. Straight students are told to add 20 points for the privilege they derive from that status, while gay students are told to subtract 150 points. And if a student identifies as transgender, they are supposed to deduct a whopping 500 points.
The offensiveness of the scoresheet only increases from there. Under a section on religion, Jewish students are instructed to add 25 points (apparently Jews are the most privileged religious group), and Christian students to add 5 points, but Muslim students are told to deduct 50 points—that is unless a student is both black and Jewish, in which case they should deduct 25 points, as a note on the assignment specifies. Students are also asked to rank their own appearance and add 10 points for having an attractive face, but to subtract 10 points if they are overweight and subtract 40 points if they are “disfigured.” 
And then it gets even worse. A section of the form on “Disability” uses horrifically offensive and outdated language, asking students to add 25 points to their total for being “able-bodied” but to subtract 20 points for “social autism,” deduct another 30 points for being “immobile” and a full 50 points for being “retarded.”
A diagram at the bottom of the form explains that students who score from 50-100 should consider themselves “privileged” while those scoring in excess of 100 are “very privileged” and should “check it [their privileged status] daily.” By contrast, those scoring -100 or less are “very disprivileged”—if that’s even a word.
Parent Michelle King whose daughter received the scorecard in class called it “Absolutely offensive and appalling.”
“I cannot comprehend as a parent whose child, whose daughter, was handed this, how anyone can say this was acceptable,” King told a local news program.
Astoundingly, when questioned about the assignment, administrators at Saratoga Springs High School acknowledged that the offensive terminology should have been retracted, but refused to admit that the exercise as a whole was inappropriate.
School district spokeswoman Maura Manny said that the privilege scorecard had been discussed at a recent faculty meeting, along with other potential activities for students. Manny also released a prepared statement about the lesson which said “our school district continues to champion efforts fostering and facilitating growth in becoming a culturally competent school community.” It also highlighted the district’s belief in “equity of opportunity.”
A statement released by the school district claimed: “An unmodified version of the privilege reflection form was distributed to students without the removal of insensitive words. The district does not condone the use of the document with these insensitive words.” The school district’s statement notably did not condemn the exercise as a whole.
But parent Michelle King still has questions. “How did it get into the school, and how did the principal say it was acceptable?” she asks.  For now, she is receiving no answers.
To learn more about the Freedom Center's campaign to halt indoctrination in K-12 schools, please visit  www.stopk12indoctrination.org.  To read the K-12 Code of Ethics CLICK HERE. To order the Freedom Center’s new pamphlet, “Leftist Indoctrination in Our K-12 Public Schools,” CLICK HERE. To donate to the Stop K-12 Indoctrination campaign, CLICK HERE.


Sara Dogan

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273523/high-school-students-assigned-tabulate-privilege-sara-dogan

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How to Counter 7 Lies in Turkey's Denial of the Armenian Genocide - David Swindle

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by David Swindle

The historical truth of the genocide and the mendacity of its present-day Islamist deniers are dark and disturbing subjects.

Next week, on the 24th, is the commemoration of the Armenian genocide, 114 years after the Ottoman Empire started systematically murdering 1.5 million Armenians, as well as Greek and Assyrian minority Christians.

One man and the state he leads will not be participating in this important recognition of historical truth. Turkey's anti-Semitic, Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, fancies himself the reviver of a neo-Ottoman Empire and has undertaken to spread his ideological influence globally. That includes Armenian genocide denial.

While Turkey has long fought the recognition of the Armenian genocide internationally, the situation under Erdoğan's Islamist ideology has led him into an alliance with the international Muslim Brotherhood and its American affiliates. This has given Turkish propaganda a reach into the United States that didn't exist at these levels before. Samantha Rose Mandeles wrote at The American Spectator in February on how Turkish diplomats have spoken at and influenced prominent Muslim groups since 2014. One such organization officially embracing Turkey's genocide denial is the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), an umbrella group of over 30 Islamist charities and mosques, which published a "Statement on 1915 Turkish-Armenian Events" that forwards Turkey's denialism.

American Muslim organizations that founded the USCMO include American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), ICNA, Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), MAS, Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), and The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed). Today, 32 Muslim organizations and mosques affiliate with the group.

Now Turkey has gone a step farther: actively distributing Armenian genocide denialist propaganda to American Muslims. Last year, MAS's 21st annual West Coast convention took place from November 22 to 24 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. The conference featured booths from Muslim charities and businesses. But Turkey was the only Muslim government present, represented by two booths. There, amid complimentary Turkish flags, hats, and t-shirts, they distributed free books and pamphlets challenging the regime's enemies, including the Armenian people. 

A good example of the Turkish propaganda on offer is Our Neighbours of a Thousand Years: The Armenians, a slick, 52-page book filled with pictures and even a miniature CD in the back with folk songs. While the title seems friendly and inviting, the book contains questionable historical claims and shaky arguments about Armenian-Turkish relations.
These falsehoods include the following:

1. The book quotes Erdoğan at the beginning demanding that all death and suffering of the period be treated the same, ignoring the historical question of who was responsible: "a fair humanitarian and conscientious stance requires an understanding of all the pain experienced in this period regardless of religion or ethnic origin." This is akin to insisting that equal historical weight be given to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust and to the Nazis responsible for their deaths.

2. The book claims that the Ottoman Empire did not seek to exterminate the Armenians — that it sought only to relocate them. The decision to forcibly relocate Armenians was supposedly the result of a "life or death struggle," and had it not been done "to secure both fronts during this time [sic] war," then there would have been "heavy casualties among Muslims."

3. The book alleges that Armenians and Turks "lived side by side, amicably" for centuries; the conflict allegedly started with "the armed actions by the Armenians." Thus, Turkey claims that rising Armenian nationalism provoked the conflict. This ignores the fact that pogroms against Armenians occurred in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1909.

4. It alleges that Armenians collaborated with Turkey's enemies during the war and committed violent crimes: "they were involved in manslaughter and looting incidents in cities and towns, that there is a need for a radical measure for the security of the state and that on this account, it had been decided to transfer the Armenians rioting from the war zones to other regions."

5. The pamphlet asserts that the Ottoman government did have a plan to feed and support the Armenians who were forced to relocate; however, there were "certain setbacks and abuses in implementation" that "caused many Armenians to have bitter memories of this period etched in their brains."

6. Any abuses of Armenians were supposedly done by "disobedient state officials," and documents proving that such events occurred supposedly disprove genocide claims because "they also prove that the Ottoman Government did not intend for such incidents to occur, on the contrary, penalized those who committed such crimes."

7. Finally, the pamphlet asserts that in the 1970s, Armenian terrorists murdered Turkish diplomats and that it was around this time when "forged documents and photographs" and "dubious memoirs" emerged supporting the idea of the genocide. This historical revisionism collapses by doing the most basic historical research into the period. The truth of the genocide was affirmed in the 1918 memoir by Henry Morgenthau, who served as the United States' ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918, and Winston Churchill's 1929 history of the First World War, The World Crisis. It is evidenced even by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkish president from 1923 to 1938. Ataturk named the nationalist group responsible for the genocide: "These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred ..."

To summarize: Today, Turkey claims that the Ottoman Empire's policy was one of relocation, not extermination, and that it was both morally justified and existentially necessary because it was provoked by alleged Armenian nationalism, violence, and treason. 

Where to begin? All of these historical points and arguments may seem like a lot to unpack. However, the book skips something that should be obvious in any document purporting to tackle a controversial historical subject: there are no sources whatsoever to back up any of these dubious claims.

"This booklet is publication of Prime Ministry of Republic of Turkey," the book notes on the last page in the poor English that characterizes much of the text. How is it that a state with the resources of Turkey cannot manage to produce a book that would earn a college freshman a passing grade? 

The Turkish-backed USCMO's insistence that what is needed is a "proper investigation of these events by independent historians" rings hollow, given that substantive historical work has been done for generations now, and an abundance of contemporaneous evidence from 1915 makes the denialist position so untenable that it almost starts to make sense that Turkey would not even bother with standard academic conventions like a works cited page. 

Where do we find clear evidence affirming the Genocide? The New York Times' archives going back to 1915 are a good place to start. An article summarizing the Times coverage and evidence of the genocide notes how "extensively" it was covered, with "145 articles in 1915 alone by one count — with headlines like 'Appeal to Turkey to Stop Massacres.' The Times described the actions against the Armenians as 'systematic,' 'authorized,' and 'organized by the government.'"

The pamphlet's claim that the Ottoman government's policy was relocation, not extermination, and that atrocities were isolated incidents by officials acting on their own, is not tenable when the sheer numbers are considered. The Times notes, "The University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has compiled figures by province and district that show there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by 1922." Likewise, the vastness of the numbers missing engulfs Turkey's suggestion that any meaningful number of the Armenians killed were done so in reasonable self-defense.

The historical truth of the genocide and the mendacity of its present-day Islamist deniers are dark and disturbing subjects to process. However, history has offered a silver lining in the form and people of the Armenian diaspora. In countries around the world, over the generations since the genocide, Armenians have built prosperous communities, in harmony with their neighbors.

Living well is indeed the best revenge, and it is this sense of peace that Turkey is now striving to disrupt among Armenian-Americans. But we can fight back together. 

I will continue to advocate for recognition of historical truth, clear-eyed resolve in confronting Erdoğan's imperial impulses, and a unified opposition to the threat of Islamist totalitarianism both abroad and right here in sunny Southern California. It's time for Armenians, Jews, Christians, women, moderate Muslims, and everyone with a moral conscience to come together to recognize the common threat Islamism poses to the peace of all our communities.


David M. Swindle is Southern California associate for the Counter-Islamist Grid and director of research for The Israel Group. Follow him on Twitter at @DaveSwindle.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/04/how_to_counter_7_lies_in_turkeys_denial_of_the_armenian_genocide.html

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China's Aggression in the South China Sea - Debalina Ghoshal

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by Debalina Ghoshal

A long-standing territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila over -- one of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, resurfaced in full force recently

• As protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy on April 10 in Manila, to express their outrage at China's naval aggression, U.S. and Filipino troops conducted a joint military exercise in the South China Sea, aimed at preparing the Philippines to "deal with any potential island invasion."
• Any such shift on the part of Manila towards Moscow should cause Washington to step up its engagement with the Philippines, to prevent Chinese and Russian attempts at controlling the South China Sea's rich resources and China possibly seizing it as a maritime chokepoint.

Increased Chinese encroachment on the Spratly Islands should be cause for alarm in Washington. This month, U.S. and Filipino troops conducted a joint military exercise in the South China Sea, partly aimed at preparing the Philippines to "deal with any potential island invasion." Pictured: The US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (top center) maneuvers alongside the Philippine Navy offshore patrol vessel BRP Ramon Alcaraz and landing platform dock BRP Tarlac in support of Exercise Balikatan, on April 5, 2019. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Barker)

A long-standing territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila over Thitu Island (also known as Pagasa), one of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, resurfaced in full force recently, when more than 200 Chinese boats were spotted in the vicinity of the island. Thitu Island is controlled and administered by the Philippines, and Filipino civilians and military personnel inhabit the island. Sovereignty over the island is claimed by the Philippines, China, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Increased Chinese encroachment on the Spratly Islands -- and a recent "goodwill visit" of Russian Navy ships to the Philippines -- should be cause for alarm in Washington.

In recent years, Beijing-Manila relations improved to the point where Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed 29 cooperation agreements, including a memorandum of understanding on joint oil and gas development in the South China Sea.

In response to criticism in the Philippines over what was viewed as Duterte's dangerous appeasement of Beijing -- which historically has failed to respect Manila's claimed maritime borders or its claimed rights to the South China Sea's valuable resources -- Duterte justified his position on the grounds that "China is [in the South China Sea]... that is the reality, and America and everybody should realize that they are there."

The sighting of the Chinese vessels near Thitu, however, concerned even Duterte, who told Beijing to "lay off" the island, yet stopped short of threatening military action.

This is where the United States and Russia come into play.

As protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy on April 10 in Manila, to express their outrage at China's naval aggression, U.S. and Filipino troops conducted a joint military exercise in the South China Sea, partly aimed at preparing the Philippines to "deal with any potential island invasion." According to Channel News Asia:

"If they [Filipinos] were to have any small islands taken over by a foreign military, this is definitely a dress rehearsal that can be used in the future," Major Christopher Bolz, a US Army Special Forces Company Commander who took part in planning for the exercises, told CNA.

Two days earlier, two Russian destroyers and a tanker -- classified by the Russian Navy as "large, anti-submarine ships" -- docked in the Philippines; it was the second Russian Navy visit to the Philippines this year. The first visit was in January, the same month that Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced that Manila should "revisit" its Mutual Defense Treaty with the U.S.

Lorenzana said that a review of the Mutual Defense Treaty was necessary: under its current terms, the U.S. "will only come to our aid when the metropolitan Philippines is attacked."

"He [Lorenzana] disclosed that one of the areas he wanted clarified was what would trigger mutual responses of aid. For instance, he asked whether the Philippines had to get involved if a shooting war broke out between China and the US 'somewhere there in Mischief Reef.'"

It should be noted that Lorenzana's concern was expressed at least five months before the recent arrival of U.S. troops in the South China Sea to train with the Philippines military for a "potential island invasion." Nevertheless, his statements were one indication that Manila was further distancing itself from Washington, and more likely with a view to Moscow as a backup, particularly as Russia has increased its influence in the region.

Any such shift on the part of Manila towards Moscow should cause Washington to step up its engagement with the Philippines, to prevent Chinese and Russian attempts at controlling the South China Sea's rich resources and China possibly seizing it as a maritime chokepoint.

Debalina Ghoshal is an India-based non-resident fellow at the Council on International Policy in Canada.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14068/china-aggression-south-china-sea

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Mueller report shows probe did not find collusion evidence, reveals Trump efforts to sideline key players - Brooke Singman

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by Brooke Singman

But the Dems are not giving up so easily...

Department of Justice releases redacted version of the Mueller report

The Justice Department posts online a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election online; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.

After two years of suspense, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released into Washington’s partisan scrum Thursday showing investigators did not find evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia – as Attorney General Bill Barr declared last month – but revealing an array of controversial actions by the president that were examined as part of the investigation’s obstruction inquiry.

READ THE REPORT

This included President Trump allegedly telling his White House counsel in June 2017 to inform the acting attorney general that Mueller had conflicts of interest and "must be removed." The report said Trump also fumed over the original appointment -- lamenting it would mean the "end of my presidency" -- first telling then-DOJ leader Jeff Sessions he should resign, and later trying to get Session to take back control of the probe.

Mueller ultimately did not reach a conclusion on whether the president's conduct amounted to obstruction, stating: "[W]hile this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

But even though Barr's DOJ determined they did not have evidence to pursue such a case, the details in the report only fueled Democrats' mounting calls to not only see the unredacted report but have Mueller testify.

"This is exactly why we need to hear directly from Special Counsel Mueller and receive the full, unredacted report with the underlying evidence," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler tweeted, highlighting that section.

 Trump and his legal team, though, declared victory upon the release of the report.
"No collusion, no obstruction," Trump said.

The swift reactions indicated the release of the report is only likely to fuel, not quiet, the long-raging debate in Washington over the Russia probe and serve as fodder going into the 2020 election year.

As stated in Barr’s summary last month and reiterated again at a press conference earlier Thursday morning, though, the special counsel did not find clear evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russia.

“[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” the report said, while also saying there were "links" between the two.

“While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Among other things, the evidence was not sufficient to charge any Campaign official as an unregistered agent of the Russian government or other Russian principal,” the special counsel report stated.

The version of the more than 400-page report that the Justice Department made public Thursday includes redactions, consistent with Barr’s plan to black out portions of the document—including grand jury material, information the intelligence community believes would reveal intelligence sources and methods, any material that could interfere with ongoing prosecutions and information that could implicate the privacy or reputational interests of “peripheral players.”

The redactions in the report were color-coded, labeled with the reasoning behind each redaction, with categories including "grand jury material," "personal privacy," "investigative technique;" and "harm to ongoing matter."

The report, meanwhile, went in depth on the obstruction of justice question, despite the lack of a decision on that front. In Barr's summary to Congress last month, he said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found the evidence was “not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

The report itself noted that they obtained evidence about the president’s “actions and intent,” and that presented “difficult issues that would need to be resolved” if they were making a traditional judgment.

The report looked at 10 episodes related to the allegations of obstruction of justice, including:
“The campaign's response to reports about Russian support for Trump; Conduct involving FBI Director Comey and Michael Flynn; The President's reaction to the continuing Russia investigation; The President's termination of Comey; The appointment of a Special Counsel and efforts to remove him;  Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel's investigation; Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence; Further efforts to have the Attorney General take control of the investigation; and Conduct toward Flynn, Manafort, [REDACTED]; conduct involving Michael Cohen.”

The report revealed that the president reacted to the news a special counsel had been appointed by telling his advisers that it was “the end of my presidency. I'm f---ed,” and demanding that Sessions resign. Once Sessions submitted his resignation, the president did not accept it.

The report also detailed Trump's alleged effort to have Mueller sidelined, amid reports at the time that the special counsel’s office was investigating the president for obstruction of justice. The report detailed a dramatic moment where the president's White House counsel apparently rejected the push.
“On June 17, 2017, the president called [White House Counsel Don] McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre,” the report stated, referencing the Watergate scandal.

The report also revealed that when the media reported of the president’s request for McGahn to have Mueller removed, the president directed White House officials “to tell McGahn to dispute the story and create a record stating he had not been ordered to have the special counsel removed.”

“McGahn refused to back away from what he remembered happening,” the report said.

The report went on to explain that two days after the initial request to McGahn, the president made another attempt to “affect the course of the Russia investigation.”

“On June 19, 2017, the president met one-on-one in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a trusted advisor outside the government, and dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions,” the report said.

“The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, the investigation was ‘very unfair’ to the president, the president had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the Special Counsel and ‘let [him] move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections.’”

Lewandowski, according to the report, said he understood what the president wanted Sessions to do.
“Lewandowski did not want to deliver the president’s message personally,” the report said, “so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to deliver it to Sessions.”

Dearborn ultimately did not follow through with the task.

The report also said “substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst” for the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey was his “unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation.” But the report said the evidence “does not establish that the termination of Comey was designed to cover up a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia.”

The report stated that while the areas the special counsel investigated “involved discrete acts, the overall pattern of the President’s conduct towards the investigations” shed light on the “nature” of his acts. The special counsel determined that the actions investigated are divided into “two phases,” which they said reflected “a possible shift in the President’s motives.”


The first phase was related to the firing of Comey. “During that time, the President had been repeatedly told he was not personally under investigation. Soon after the firing of Comey and the appointment of the Special Counsel, however, the President became aware that his own conduct was being investigated in an obstruction-of-justice inquiry,” the report said, adding that “at that point, the president engaged in a second phase of conduct, involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.”

The evidence detailed in the report related to allegations of obstruction of justice, though, is likely to come under intense scrutiny from congressional Democrats and could be used in their sweeping Trump-related investigations.

The president’s legal team, in anticipation of obstruction of justice claims in the report, has prepared their own report to counter the allegations.

“They assumed all along that there was going to be a finding of no collusion, so the rebuttal is about obstruction,” a source close to Trump’s legal team told Fox News. “They are preparing a rebuttal to presumed allegations which will be refuted.”

The special counsel wrote that they sought a voluntary interview with the president, but after more than a year of discussing the prospect of one, the president declined. The president did, though, agree to answer written questions on certain Russia-related topics. But according to the report, he “did not similarly agree to provide written answers to questions on obstruction topics or questions on events during the transition.”

Mueller’s team also said that, while they believed they had the “authority and legal justification” to do so, they decided not to issue a grand jury subpoena to obtain the president’s testimony.

Fox News' Adam Shaw, Jake Gibson, Catherine Herridge, and Bill Mears contributed to this report.

Brooke Singman

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-releases-redacted-version-of-special-counsels-russia-probe-report

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Man caught with 2 gas cans entering St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, police say - Danielle Wallace, Stephen Sorace, Nicole Darrah

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by Danielle Wallace, Stephen Sorace, Nicole Darrah

Attempted copy cat crime?

A man was taken into custody in New York Wednesday night after entering St. Patrick’s Cathedral carrying two canisters of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid and two butane lighters, authorities said.

The 37-year-old man, whose identity will be released once he is formally charged, was stopped by a cathedral security officer, New York City Police said. As the man was turned around, he spilled some gasoline on the floor and walked south onto Fifth Avenue and over to 50th street.

Cathedral security notified two Critical Response Command (CRC) officers-- part of a "striker team"-- outside the cathedral.

Investigators said the man was cooperative but acted evasively and offered police inconsistent answers. He told officers that he was “cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue” and that "his car ran out of gas," police said. But when police checked the man's minivan, it's gas tank wasn't empty.

The man was taken into custody and brought to the Midtown North Station House, police said. It is too early to consider terrorism but “I think, if added to that the events at the iconic location of Notre Dame and all of the publicity around that, I think this is an indicator of something that would be very suspicious,” John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence & counterterrorism of the NYPD, said.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation. Officials said a "heavy police presence" was in the area of the church, which is located on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

The incident at St. Patrick's Cathedral occurred days after Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral was badly damaged in a fire. engulfed with flames for hours.

Two-thirds of the cathedral burned before the fire was brought under control. The incident is being investigated as an accident.


Danielle Wallace, Stephen Sorace, Nicole Darrah

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/st-patricks-cathedral-new-york-city

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Raise Taxes on Everyone Richer Than Me - Daniel Greenfield

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by Daniel Greenfield

"Nobody should earn more than a million dollars," Bernie Sanders (1974).

"Nobody should earn more than a million dollars," Bernie Sanders declared in 1974.

During his original Senate run, the socialist candidate claimed that “concentrations of wealth” were the greatest threat to America and could be ended with a 100% tax on wealth over $1 million a year.

In 2016, Bernie Sanders made over $1 million. He didn’t self-impose a 100% tax on his own wealth. That same year he gave less than 1% of his income to charity and bought a third home. As a young man, Bernie had claimed that a million was more money than anyone could spend in a lifetime. Now that he had a million, he discovered just how many things he could enjoy spending all that filthy lucre on.

In the early days of his campaign, Bernie’s fans touted him as the sort of ordinary guy who flies coach and gets scrunched in there with the rest of us. Then the money began pouring in and Bernie chartered a Delta 767 and took a jaunt to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis with the mostly empty plane serving a menu of lobster sliders, crab salad, red lentil soup, herb crusted lamb loin, chocolate ganache, fine cheeses and white wine. As the old Soviet anecdote went, Bernie was finally living under communism.

“You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants,” Bernie had ranted about the economy. A year later, he had discovered that he needed a choice of lamb loin or lobster sliders.

And Bernie Sanders was willing to do anything to hang on to the good life. Even campaign for Hillary. As long as his nemesis was willing to charter the bill for his private jets so he could fight the 1 percent.

 “I’m not shocked that while thousands of volunteers braved the heat and cold to knock on doors until their fingers bled in a desperate effort to stop Donald Trump, his Royal Majesty King Bernie Sanders would only deign to leave his plush D.C. office or his brand new second home on the lake if he was flown around on a cushy private jet like a billionaire master of the universe,” Hillary's rapid response director groused.

After Hillary lost, Bernie continued spending six figures on private jets. He had discovered that a million dollars could buy you the privilege to avoid not only coach, but rubbing elbows with the proletariat.

Bernie Sanders may be pushing socialized-medicine-for-all, but when he develops a serious medical problem, he’ll jet off to the best hospital in the world, while you wait around for the death panels. There will be no rationing of procedures and no delays while fourteen different components of the medical system debate who will pay for what. He will get the care he wants. And he’ll get it while you bleed.

The best medical care, like a third home or a jet, is something you can buy. And Bernie is willing to buy. He just doesn’t want the herd of rabble he is running to rule to have the same privilege that he does.

In his old age, Bernie is getting pretty testy about a bunch of socialist punks challenging him over his wealth. "I didn't know that it was a crime to write a good book which turns out to be a bestseller," he told the good people of Gary, Indiana while trying to sell them one-size fits all marching band uniforms.

“I wrote a best-selling book,” he declared in a bootstrapping invocation of capitalism and the American Dream. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”

But the average American would have more luck following in the footsteps of Andrew Carnegie or Jeff Bezos. Bernie Sanders isn’t writing best-selling books because he’s the next Stephen King. You too can be a millionaire if you convince a German corporation owned by billionaires that millions of gullible idiots will buy anything with your name on it. And if you can afford to pay someone else to help.

Outsider in the House, Bernie’s original memoir, was co-written with an English prof. Our Revolution had just one author. But a ghostwriting and editing firm noted that copy-editing on Bernie’s book had been done by Tom Cherwin, who bills himself as a “ghostwriter and editor”. Bernie’s latest tax return shows a $10,000 editorial payment. That’s a sizable payment for merely editing Bernie’s rantings down to size.

There’s no crime in selling your gullible followers a ghostwritten book and then using the checks that the billionaires making money off your class warfare tract send you to live it up. Making money isn’t a crime.

Unless Bernie Sanders wins.

But Bernie is making it clear that he’s no longer opposed to millionaires. After all he’s part of the 1%. His latest tax proposal is named the "For the 99.8 Percent Act". Forget the 99%. After making a few million, Bernie is shaving off .2% to make room for him and other struggling socialist millionaires fighting the influence of wealth and power by those who, as of right now, have more of it than he does.

“We are the 99.8%,” is the new fractional message of the fractional candidate.

The proposal starts with estates of $3.5 million. Bernie’s own fortune is estimated at $2.5 million.

The theme here is, “Tax everyone richer than me.” The old socialist still believes it’s a crime to make too much money. He just upgraded his estimate of what too much money is. $2.5 million is just right. But when you’ve got $3.5 million, then you’re suddenly a capitalist oppressor of the proletariat.

"Our bill does what the American people want by substantially increasing the estate tax on the wealthiest families in this country and dramatically reducing wealth inequality," Bernie declared of his plan to target the 0.8%.

But what of the Americans who might still want to target that other 0.2% that Bernie occupies? Go and write a best-selling book and stop bothering him. A man works hard all his life denouncing millionaires, makes his first $2.5 million, and suddenly a bunch of socialists start acting like his money is a crime.

Maligning the 0.8% doesn’t have the same rhetorical heft as the 1%. That’s why Senator Elizabeth Warren, his fellow socialist millionaire, has a plan to target “ultra-millionaires”. They, like the 0.2% are the people wealthier than the self-proclaimed American-Indian and her paleface Hahvadh husband.

Warren’s estimated net worth is around $10 million. So she’s going after those with $50 million.

Bernie and Liz both believe that money is the root of all evil. But only evil people have more of it than they do. Envy is simple human nature. That’s why the Ten Commandments are none too fond of it. And why progressives are none too fond of the Ten Commandments. It’s natural to believe that I earned my money the hard way, but that the gains of anyone who gained more than me are ill-gotten.

Leftism just codifies this nasty trait into a conspiracy theory posing as an economic theory. And Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren show us the exact numerical correlation between wealth and envy.

Bernie is convinced that his dubious sources of wealth are moral. He put his name on a book, durn it. Warren is equally convinced that there’s nothing wrong with the even more dubious ways that she amassed her wealth. But that “great concentrations of wealth” are an evil that we must fight.

They are passionate about imposing 50% and 77% tax rates on anyone wealthier than they are.

As a millionaire, Bernie is still a class warrior. He’s just in a class of wealthy men who fly private jets and rant about the evils of the men who own private jets. The goal posts of class warfare always move to transform anyone poorer than you into the working class and anyone richer into an evil capitalist.

In Los Angeles, I see Bernie bumper stickers on BMWs, Teslas and sports cars worth millions. I see Bernie signage on houses worth tens of millions. The owners, like Bernie, see no contradiction in their politics.

Socialism takes from some and gives to others. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren didn’t get rich and famous by accidents. They’re ambitious lefties with no scruples who were hungry for what others had. And, whether they had to go through asbestos victims or millennial dupes, they got what they wanted. It’s not the American Dream. But it might just be the Cuban Dream. Or the North Korean Dream.

Now that they’re in the 1%, they want what the 08% has. And if they make it into the 0.8%, they will inveigh against the 0.6%. If they became billionaires, they would argue fiercely that their billions are moral, but that it’s time we did something about the scourge of anyone with $10 billion or more.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273507/raise-taxes-everyone-richer-me-daniel-greenfield

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Jihad Against Churches - Joseph Klein

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by Joseph Klein

The symbolism of Notre Dame burning.

The cause of the tragic Notre Dame Cathedral fire remains under investigation. Although authorities so far are treating the fire as an accident, rather than as an act of terror, Islamists have wasted no time celebrating what happened as a major defeat for the “Crusaders.”

A jihadist media group linked to ISIS carried an image of the iconic 850 year-old cathedral on fire next to their warning, “Wait for the next.” In truth, we do not have to “wait for the next.” During the last three years, as the migrant population coming to Europe from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa rose dramatically, so has the number of attacks on Christian churches and religious symbols.  “Countless churches throughout Western Europe are being vandalized, defecated on, and torched,” Raymond Ibrahim has reported in an article published by Gatestone Institute. He noted that “in European regions with large Muslim populations, there seems to be a concomitant rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols.” And we must not forget the July 2016 attack against Fr. Jacques Hamel, who was killed by two young Islamists in the middle of mass at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church. They slit the priest’s throat while screaming "Allahu Akbar." ISIS claimed responsibility.  

The vicinity of Notre Dame itself has been the scene of prior Islamist crimes. On June 6, 2017, an Algerian-born journalist named Farid Ikken, who had moved to France on a student visa, attacked a police officer with a hammer outside the Notre Dame Cathedral. He reportedly shouted "c'est pour la Syrie" ("this is for Syria") during the attack and then claimed he was a soldier of the caliphate.

On September 4, 2016, a car containing seven canisters of gas and pages with Arabic writing was found parked near Notre Dame. Three female jihadists were reportedly planning to blow up the car outside the cathedral, but the plot was foiled in time.

More than 1000 attacks on Christian churches, crucifixes, icons, and statues were registered in France alone in 2018, according to a German news site referenced by Mr. Ibrahim. In February of this year, nine churches were desecrated in France during an 11-day period. Mr. Ibrahim described some truly disgusting examples of desecration that occurred this past February and March. In one example he described, “Vandals plundered Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nîmes and used human excrement to draw a cross there; consecrated bread was found thrown outside among garbage.” In another example, “Vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner.”

Also, last month, a Pakistani immigrant, who had arrived in France quite recently, allegedly tried to burn down the organ of the Saint-Denis basilica and destroyed some stain glass. The year before, pro-migrant activists alongside illegal migrants had stormed this same basilica to protest changes in France’s asylum law.

Germany has experienced a similar pattern of attacks on churches and holy objects, with four separate churches vandalized and/or torched in March alone. “Before Christmas 2016, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, where more than a million Muslims reside, some 50 public Christian statues (including those of Jesus) were beheaded and crucifixes broken,” Mr. Ibrahim reported.

Some of the perpetrators are not shy about their motivation. A German report quoted by Mr. Ibrahim stated:  "Crosses are broken, altars smashed, Bibles set on fire, baptismal fonts overturned, and the church doors smeared with Islamic expressions like 'Allahu Akbar.'"

European government leaders and the mainstream media have been in denial about the Islamist source of many of the attacks. Instead, they try to kill the messenger. They brand as racists and Islamophobes those who point out that the rising number of Islamist attacks on Christian churches and religious symbols in Europe tracks the dramatic increase of migrants from Muslim-majority terrorist-prone countries.

Some French authorities are blaming what they call “militant secularism” for the church attacks in their country. That is patently absurd. Militant Islam, which teaches hatred of Christians and Jews, is the driving ideology behind many of the attacks. And the attacks are not just occurring in “secular” Europe or in Muslim countries in the Middle East where Christians are becoming a dwindling, persecuted minority. Last January, for example, there was a double bomb attack on a Catholic church in the Philippines, which killed at least 18 people. ISIS claimed that “two martyrs of the Islamic state carried out a double suicide attack.”  Approximately 80 percent of the Philippine population is Roman Catholic. The Catholic Church still plays an important role in Philippine life. "Militant secularism" is not being used as a convenient excuse for the church attack by Philippine government authorities.

In 2017, a propaganda video was released by ISIS militants in the Philippines threatening the life of Pope Francis, and showing a church set on fire as well as the destruction of statues of Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph. “After all their efforts, it would be the religion of the cross that would be broken,” the narrator said as a church in flames was displayed.

In Nigeria, which is split between a majority-Christian south and a majority-Muslim north, the ISIS-linked Boko Haram terrorist group and other Muslim terrorists have slaughtered Christians and burned churches. More than 6,000 Christians were killed or maimed by Islamist terrorists during 2018 alone. “We are deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria, including the burning of churches and the killing and persecution of Christians,” President Trump said during a joint press conference at the White House in April 2018 with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who is himself a Muslim and has condemned the attacks but done little to stop them. “It’s a horrible story,” President Trump added. The horrible story is continuing in 2019.

Islamists justify their murder of Christians and desecration of churches, as well as their murder of Jews and desecration of synagogues, by pointing to verses in the Koran. One example is found in Koran (9:29): "Fight against Christians and Jews until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low."

We may not know what really caused the Notre Dame fire for quite some time. Terrorism cannot be entirely ruled out just yet, although investigators presently believe the fire started accidentally. We do know, however, that Islamists have targeted Notre Dame, the Vatican, and churches all over the world repeatedly in the past. Their jubilation at what happened this week to an enduring symbol of the Christian faith reveals the depth of their hatred for anything symbolic of Judeo-Christian values and of Western civilization. They will kill and destroy anything they consider infidel whenever they are given the chance. That is who they are. Our answer must be to value life, protect freedom, stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us, and rebuild.

Joseph Klein is a Harvard-trained lawyer and the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom and Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations & Radical Islam.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273515/jihad-against-churches-joseph-klein

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