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Why should Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen operate charter schools on U.S. Military bases?

March 31, 2016

Why should Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen operate charter schools on U.S. Military bases? The Hill, Robert R. Amsterdam, March 31, 2016

(Mr. Gulen professes an interesting Islamic doctrine. According to Wikipedia,

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish preacher,[5]former imam,[5][6]writer,[7] and political figure.[8] He is the founder of the Gülen movement (known as Hizmet meaning service in Turkish). . . .

Gülen teaches an Anatolian (sort of Hanafi) version of Islam, deriving from Sunni Muslim scholar Said Nursî‘s teachings.

. . . .

Gülen does not advocate a new theology but refers to classical authorities of theology, taking up their line of argument.[50]His understanding of Islam tends to be moderate and mainstream.[51][52] Though he has never been a member of a Sufitarekat and does not see tarekat membership as a necessity for Muslims, he teaches that “Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam” and “the inner and outer dimensions must never be separated.”[53]

Sufism:

Sufis strive for ihsan (perfection of worship) as detailed in a hadith: “Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him; if you can’t see Him, surely He sees you.”[4] Jalaluddin Rumi stated: “The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr.”[5] Sufis regard Prophet Muhammad as Al-Insān al-Kāmil, which is a concept that describes Muhammad as the primary perfect man who exemplifies the morality of God.[6] Sufis regard Prophet Muhammad as their leader and prime spiritual guide.

— DM)

A secretive Islamic movement is trying to infiltrate the U.S. military by establishing and operating publicly-funded charter schools targeted toward children of American service personnel.

That charge may sound like a conspiracy theory from the lunatic fringe, but it is real and it is happening right now.  The most immediate threat is in Nevada, where Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas (CASLV) is currently negotiating with the United States Air Force to locate a charter school at Nellis Air Force Base, with classes starting this fall.  What is not widely known is that CASLV is part of a nationwide organization of charter schools and other businesses headed by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive but influential Imam living under self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania to avoid criminal prosecution in his native Turkey.

Our law firm has been engaged by the Republic of Turkey – a key NATO ally in a hotbed region – to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the operations and geopolitical influence of the Gülen organization, which is behind the Coral Academy of Science and over 140 other public charter schools scattered across 26 American states.  Our investigation, still in its early stages, reveals that the Gülen organization uses charter schools and affiliated businesses in the U.S. to misappropriate and launder state and federal education dollars, which the organization then uses for its own benefit to develop political power in this country and globally.

Aside from defrauding American taxpayers, the Gülen organization has an even more ominous objective in the United States.  The organization is one of the country’s largest recipients of H1-B “specialty occupation” visas, which it uses to import Turkish teachers into its charter schools, supposedly because local U.S. talent is not available to fill math and science teaching positions in its charter schools.  The Gülen organization illegally threatens to revoke these visas unless the Turkish teachers agree to kick back part of their salary to the organization.

More importantly, the Turkish teachers in Gülen organization charter schools are evaluated not on the basis of their teaching skills, but rather on whether they achieve monthly goals in a secret point system designed to instill Turkish culture and Gülenist ideology in our American students. The goal, we are told, is to develop a Gülenist following of high achievers, incubated in our local community schools across the country.

The Gülen organization has been able to grow in the U.S. largely because it conceals both its identity and its motives.  The first line of defense for Gülenist charter schools and companies has been to deny any affiliation with Fethullah Gülen (their officers and directors claim that they are merely “inspired by” Gülen’s religious teachings), as if the simple creation of business entities in which Fethullah Gülen himself holds no ownership interest could alter his ultimate control over the organization.  In reality, the governing boards of the Gülen charter schools are populated disproportionately by loyal Turkish men answering to a handful of Imams who rule over defined regions across the U.S., reporting ultimately to Gülen in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

In Nevada, CASLV is a three-campus school operating under a charter held by tax-exempt Coral Education Corp., headquartered in Reno.  Three of Coral’s board members are Turkish, one of whom was formerly the Principal at two other Gülen organization charter schools, the Sonoran Science Academy at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and the Bay Area Technology School in California.

Unfortunately, Nellis Air Force Base is not the Gülen organization’s first stab at a U.S. military base.  The organization successfully opened a school on Davis-Monthan AFB in 2009, and it tried but failed to gain access to Marine Corps Base Hawaii and Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois.  In California, Magnolia Public Schools applied for a charter in Oceanside, where Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is located, although it temporarily withdrew its application after our law firm pointed out Magnolia’s connection to the Gülen organization earlier this year.

Lest there be any doubt about the objectives in the United States, the strategy of subtly indoctrinating school children into the Gülen movement is a familiar one overseas, and there is great peril in allowing it to flourish in this country.  In his native Turkey, Gülen created a network of hundreds of schools that have produced – over the past three decades – a vast cadre of followers now prepared to perform his bidding from official positions in government, law enforcement, the judiciary and the media.  Although precise numbers are impossible to verify, some have estimated that he currently controls more than half of the entire Turkish police force. The Economist newspaper compared Gülen’s influence in Turkey to the Freemason infiltration of law enforcement and judicial elites in Europe during the last century. Numerous documented cases in Turkey involving planted evidence, tainted prosecutions and illegal incarceration of Gülen critics underscore that he is quite willing to abuse his power and influence.

The same game plan is playing out, at last count, in 101 countries on every habitable continent.  With an estimated six million followers globally and assets in the range of $20-$50 billion, the Gülen organization has managed to conceal a great deal about its doctrine, mission or objectives.  Whether Gülen’s followers are classified as a religious sect, a commercial enterprise, a political movement or – as Dutch legislators concluded – a cult, it should be a matter of significant concern for our security and regulatory authorities.

In light of Gülen’s modus operandi elsewhere, the Department of Homeland Security should be asking itself why such a non-transparent, religion-based organization would seek to establish itself on our military bases, teaching the children of our service men and women.

Categories: Education, Fethullah Gülen, Islamisation, Turkey, U.S. Military
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Terrorism, Enclaves and Sanctuary Cities

March 31, 2016

Terrorism, Enclaves and Sanctuary Cities, Front Page Magazine, Michael Cutler, March 31, 2016

(Here’s a link to an excellent article by Victor Davis Hanson titled The Weirdness of Illegal Immigration. — DM)

sanctuary-cities

In the wake of the terror attacks in Belgium, news reports once again focused on how so-called “No Go Zones” in Europe create neighborhoods where communities develop that, although are geographically located within major cities, insulate themselves from their surroundings, fostering the mindset that cooperating with law enforcement is dangerous and even traitorous.

The residents eye law enforcement officers with great suspicion if not outright animosity. The situation is exacerbated because while they fear law enforcement, they may well also fear their neighbors who may take revenge against them for cooperating with law enforcement.

These neighborhoods become “cultural islands” that eschew the cultures and values of the cities and countries in which they grow — a virtual malignancy that ultimately comes to threaten its host city and country because within this cocoon radical Islamists are shielded from law enforcement, find shelter and support and an ample supply of potential terror recruits.

These communities are inhabited by many Muslim refugees who cannot be effectively screened.

This makes assimilation by the residents of these isolated communities unlikely if not impossible and creates breeding grounds for crime and, in this era and under these circumstances- breeding grounds for terrorism.

While there are no actual “No Go Zones” in the United States, there are neighborhoods scattered around the United States, where the concentration of ethnic immigrant minorities is so great that police find themselves unable to make the sort of inroads that they should be able to make in order to effectively police these communities. Adding to the high density of these aliens in these communities is the issue of foreign languages often being the prevalent language in such “ghettos.” This gives new meaning to the term “Language Barrier.”

Back when I was an INS agent, we had an expression- “Big cases- big problems; Little cases- little problems; No cases- no problems!” That phrase applies to all law enforcement officers.

When police or other law enforcement officers are put into a classic “no win” situation, their commonsense solution is to make their own survival and well-being their priority by minimizing their contacts with such enclaves and taking the fewest actions possible within those communities.

Not unlike the “No Go Zones” of European countries, these communities in the Unites States also tend to shield foreign nationals who may be fugitives from justice both inside the United States and in other countries. Terrorists and their supporters are able to go about their daily lives- undetected by law enforcement agencies.

Implementation of sanctuary policies in such cities greatly exacerbates the threats posed to national security and public safety- turning those cities into magnets that attract still more radicals and fugitives and terrorists who need to “fly under the radar.”

Any community that provides safe haven for illegal aliens willfully endangers the lives of it residents.

Even as concerns about increased threats of terror attacks are the topic of a succession of Congressional hearings, so-called “Sanctuary Cities” continue to flourish- with the tacit approval of the administration even though they are clearly operating in violation of federal law.

Consider these provisions of Title 8, U.S.C. 1324(a) Offenses:

Harboring — Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) makes it an offense for any person who — knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.

Encouraging/Inducing — Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) makes it an offense for any person who — encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.

Conspiracy/Aiding or Abetting — Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(v) expressly makes it an offense to engage in a conspiracy to commit or aid or abet the commission of the foregoing offenses.

I focused on this threat to public safety and national security in my article for The Social Contract’s Winter, 2016 Edition, “Sanctuary Cities Endanger – National Security and Public Safety.”

My January 23, 2015 FrontPage Magazine article, “Sleeper Cells: The Immigration Component of the Threat” took a hard look at how failures of the immigration system enable terrorists to enter the United States and, in the parlance of the 9/11 Commission, embed themselves in communities across the country.

Incredibly, New York’s Mayor Bill De Blasio, not content to simply continue the dangerous- indeed deadly sanctuary policies, has amped up the threats to New York and New Yorkers- and indeed the United States, by issuing “Municipal Identity Documents” to illegal aliens.

Reportedly hundreds of thousands of individuals have been issued these identity documents that provide a host of benefits to those to whom the cards have been issued.

Criminals, fugitives and terrorists use multiple false identities. It is therefore beyond comprehension how any mayor would be willing to provide municipal identity documents to illegal aliens. It is especially confounding that New York City’s mayor would do this, given that New York City suffered the greatest number of fatalities on September 11, 2001.

De Blasio is certainly cognizant that NYC is a major terror target. On February 17, 2016 he joined Senator Chuck Schumer, the architect of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, in preparing a letter in response to the administration’s proposal to cut counter-terrorism funding in half. A copy of the letter was posted on the official NYC website under the title, “Transcript: Mayor de Blasio and U.S. Senator Schumer Call on White House to Fully Restore Critical Anti-Terror Funds.”

The Observer’s March 15, 2016 report, “De Blasio Makes Bipartisan Push to Reverse Obama Terror Cuts” focused on De Blasio’s appearance before a Congressional hearing in which he made an impassioned plea to have the funds reinstated.

If Mr. De Blasio is really that concerned about the threat of terrorism, perhaps he (and Senator Schumer) should read the 9/11 Commission Report and the companion report, “9/11 and Terrorist Travel – Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.”

Consider this excerpt from Chapter 12 of the 9/11 Commission Report:

For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons. Terrorists must travel clandestinely to meet, train, plan, case targets, and gain access to attack. To them, international travel presents great danger, because they must surface to pass through regulated channels, present themselves to border security officials, or attempt to circumvent inspection points.

In their travels, terrorists use evasive methods, such as altered and counterfeit passports and visas, specific travel methods and routes, liaisons with corrupt government officials, human smuggling networks, supportive travel agencies, and immigration and identity fraud.

Page 9 of 9/11 and Terrorist Travel reported:

“The 19 hijackers used 364 aliases, including different spellings of their names and noms de guerre.4 As they passed through various countries, their names were recorded by governments and their intelligence and border authorities.”

Providing official identity documents to illegal aliens, whose true identities are unknown and unknowable, enables them to create new false identities and a level of credibility they are easily able to exploit as an embedding tactic. Criminals and terrorists use changes in identity the way that chameleons use changes in coloration- as camouflage that enables them to hide in plain sight, often among their intended victims.

Donald Trump has recommended that the United States, at least temporarily, bar Muslims from entering the United States.

In my judgement this solution is not realistic. While the President can order a ban on the admission of all foreign Muslims, it would be impossible to implement. Terrorists and others who were determined to enter the United States could simply lie about their religious beliefs. Aliens who enter the United States without inspection are not screened. We already have large numbers of Muslims living in the United States.

The First Amendment provides for freedom of religion and understandably, many Americans are repulsed at the thought of making religious distinctions where the admission of aliens is concerned.

A far better solution would be to beef up the enforcement of our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States and focus a major component of the enforcement effort on seeking to locate and apprehend illegal aliens, irrespective of religion, from countries associated with terrorism.

My December 20, 2015 article for Californians for Population Stabilization, “Effective Interior Enforcement of Immigration Law Vital to Nat’l Security” expounded on how national security would be greatly enhanced by not only securing our borders but enforcing our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.

Much has been made of the need to develop effective intelligence. What is seldom, if ever, discussed is the role of informants. In my assignment to the Unified Intelligence Division of the DEA and then when I was assigned to the Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force, one of my key responsibilities was to use my authority as an INS agent to cultivate informants.

Aliens who would be arrested would, under certain circumstances, be provided with the opportunity to become informants and cooperating witnesses to identify those aliens who are engaged in terror-related activities, thereby providing invaluable intelligence. Those who cooperated could be permitted to remain in the United States and even possibly, granted lawful status provided that they could be effectively vetted and that their assistance was particularly meritorious and yielded significant results.

Deporting those illegal aliens who could not- or would not cooperate would shrink the size of the haystack in which some very deadly needles are hiding.

Either way, our security would be greatly enhanced.

Categories: Europe, Illegal immigration, Islamic immigration, Islamic State, Islamic terrorism, Islamisation, No go zones, Obama's America, Sanctuary cities
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ISIS Commander Claims To Be In UK

March 31, 2016

ISIS Commander Claims To Be In UK, Investigative Project on Terrorism, March 31, 2016

(Please see also, ISIS’ European Matrix.– DM)

Al-Jazrawi is believed to be a Saudi who, according to Italy’s Il Tempo newspaper, is part of an effort by ISIS to transfer operations to Libya with a goal of attacking Europe.

********************

An ISIS commander with a reliable presence on Twitter claimed to be in Scotland or elsewhere in the U.K. this week.

Abu Amer al-Jazrawi posted a photo March 24 under a now-deleted account “Jazrawi_Dar3a,” showing Japanese food he claimed he was eating.

1450 (1)

Three days later, al-Jazrawi posted a tweet from a different account, “Jazrawi_Joulan” claiming he was in Scotland along with a picture of a barren landscape similar to Scottish moors. “Scotland yesterday. No kuffar around,” he wrote. “Just my family and the creation of Allah.”

“Journey took 8 hours by plane,” he wrote in a separate tweet.

Wednesday, al-Jazrawi tweeted a notice of a meeting for Muslim converts in Crewe, England, which is located 36 miles south of Manchester.

Al-Jazrawi does not appear in the photos, and it is not known whether he was telling the truth about his location. But his tweets come at a time when the world is on alert against the threat from ISIS infiltration of Europe.

The task we face is not unlike that faced by Western intelligence agencies that must pore through thousands of pieces of information looking for facts.

Al-Jazrawi is believed to be a Saudi who, according to Italy’s Il Tempo newspaper, is part of an effort by ISIS to transfer operations to Libya with a goal of attacking Europe.

“Among the team of prominent jihadist elements there would be Abu Amer al-Jazrawi, a Saudi commander in the organization,” Il Tempo reported in February.

Al-Jazrawi was described by the Libyan newspaper Libya Herald described as ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s personal representative in Sirte, Libya.

Last year, ISIS announced that it created a continent-wide jihadist network to help slip jihadis undetected in and out of Europe, which the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported in December. Intelligence sources have since corroborated much of what ISIS announced in its “Black Flags” publications, evidenced by a New York Times report published this week.

The IPT has observed a pattern of bragging from al-Jazrawi, who tweeted during the Paris attacks last November, “Syrians were sent by Islamic state as special undercover sleeper cell agents.”

As it turned out, several of the members of the Paris/Brussels cell fought in Syria and infiltrated the flow of Syrian refugees into Europe.

 

Categories: Europe, Islamic State, Libya, UK
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ISIS’ European Matrix

March 31, 2016

ISIS’ European Matrix, Front Page Magazine, Emerson Vermaat, March 31, 2016

Matrix

“ISIS have 400 trained fighters in Europe who are poised to unleash more terror attacks with orders to wait for the right time to cause maximum carnage,” the British Daily Mail reported on March 23, 2016. ISIS terror commandos already struck in Paris on November 13, 2015, and in Brussels on March 22, 2016.

Abdel Hamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the terror attacks in Paris who operated from Belgium, said that around 90 jihadists had traveled from Syria to France and that “they were spread out around the Paris region: Syrians, Iraqis, British, French and Germans.”

ISIS jihadists receive their training in special training camps in Syria and Iraq. The focus of their training is on how to plot and carry out terror attacks in Europe. Last January, the European police organization Europol claimed in an alarming report that such training camps not only are in existence in Syria and Iraq, but also in the European Union and the Balkan countries. Terror attacks on soft targets are also being planned in Europe itself, the report warns. This finding proved to be right: Both terror attacks in Paris and Brussels were partially planned and prepared from Brussels.

On Saturday March 26, 2016, the Italian anti-terror police arrested Jamal Eddine Ouali, a 40-year-old Algerian who forged lots of identity papers for illegal immigrants and terrorists linked to the ISIS attacks in Paris and Brussels. Ouali was arrested near the southern city of Salerno. He had provided forged identity papers to Mohammed Belkaid, Salah Abdeslam and Najim Lachraaoui, all of whom were members of the ISIS terror commandos that struck in Paris and Brussels.

At least two of the ISIS terrorists who were involved in the terror attacks in Paris entered Europe as asylum-seekers. Ahmad Al-Mohammad and Mohammed Al-Mamoud arrived in Greece early October 2015 and then traveled to France via the so-called Balkan route. They carried forged Syrian passports and blew themselves up near the Stade de France on November 13, 2015.

ISIS operative Salah Abdeslam is a Belgian-Moroccan from the problematic Brussels immigrant neighborhood of Molenbeek. Back in September 2015, he drove from Brussels, possibly via Italy to collect forged identity papers, to the Central Railway station of the Hungarian capital of Budapest. It was there that he picked up two other important ISIS operatives, Mohammed Belkaid and Najim Lachraaoui. These two operatives had arrived in Budapest by mingling inconspicuously among the flow of asylum seekers. Abdeslam provided them with forged identity papers. Lachraaoui’s new identity was Soufiane Kayal and Belkaid’s new identity was Samir Bouzid. Lachraaoui, just 24 years old and also a Belgian Moroccan, was the bomb maker for the Paris and Brussels attacks. Nail bombs were used in the terror attacks in Brussels. Lachraaoui is originally from Schaarbeek, another troubled neighborhood of Brussels. He had left for Syria in 2013 where he joined ISIS. But on March 22, 2016, just three days after Salah Abdeslam had been arrested by the Belgian anti-terror police, he blew himself up in the entrance hall of Zaventem airport, near Brussels. Another ISIS operative who blew himself up at the airport was a 29-year-old Belgian Moroccan man named Ibrahim el Bakraoui. His 27-year-old brother Khalid el Bakraoui blew himself up in the Brussels metro station of Maalbeek. The total number of those who died is now 35, more than 200 people have been injured.

Crime is rampant among North African immigrants in Europe, and Ibrahim el Bakraoui’s career path from petty crime to jihadist terrorism is not exceptional at all. He was involved in armed robbery back in January 2010. He shot at police with a kalashnikov. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, but in October 2014 a judge lamely ruled that Ibrahim Bakraoui should be released. Less then one year later, in June 2015, he traveled to Turkey. He was subsequently apprehended by the Turks in the city of Gaziantep, near the Turkish-Syrian border. They rightly assumed he was on his way to Syria to join the jihadists.  On July 14, 2016, the Turks expelled Bakraoui to the Netherlands, not to Belgium, warning that he is a dangerous jihadist. Due to a series of fateful miscommunications there was nobody to arrest Bakraoui upon his arrival at Amsterdam’s airport of Schiphol, even though he had violated the conditions of his release. Then in March 2016 he would be one of the suicide bombers in Brussels, an ISIS operation.

On behalf of ISIS, a Belgian-Moroccan named Hicham Chaib claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels. Hicham Chaib is now living in Raqqa, the so-called ISIS capital in Syria. In an atrocious ISIS video message, Chaib claimed that there would be more attacks. The British Daily Mail reported: “Brussels slaughter ‘just a taste’ of what is coming, warns ISIS chief executioner in chilling new video threatening further attacks on the West.” War criminal Chaib is “responsible for countless beheadings, crucifixions and amputations in Syria,” the Daily Mail writes. “At the end of the nine-minute video, the 34-year-old executes a kneeling ISIS prisoner, shooting him in the head.”

Belgian authorities just cannot cope with the most serious security threat since the Second World War. Belgium’s various police forces are understaffed and there is lack of communication between them. There are no-go areas in Brussels where well-armed Moroccan criminals dominate the neighborhood. Radical Muslims and terrorists can also count on the solidarity of fellow Muslims in the neighborhood. This is why it took five months before Salah Abdeslam, a very dangerous ISIS operative, could be arrested in Molenbeek.

It has become all too clear that the official policy of “multiculturalism” is not conducive to society’s health. Neither is mass immigration from the culturally-backward Muslim world.

Patrick Kanner, France’s minister for Cities, Youth and Sports, told French radio on Easter Sunday: “We know that there are today around a hundred neighborhoods in France which have potential similarities to what has happened in Molenbeek.”

It’s a dire warning.

Categories: Brussels terror attack, Europe, Islamic invasion, Islamic State, Islamic terrorism, Islamic training camps, Islamisation
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Trump’s Dramatic Reading of Song About Woman And Snake: “Think About ISIS … Illegal Immigration”

March 31, 2016

Trump’s Dramatic Reading of Song About Woman And Snake: “Think About ISIS … Illegal Immigration” Washington Free Beacon via You Tube, March 30, 2016

(This appears to have been at a Trump rally. — DM)

Categories: Donald Trump, Islamic immigration, Islamic State, Viscious snake
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At least FIFTY ISIS supporters are working as baggage handlers, cleaners and catering staff at Brussels airport, claim police

March 31, 2016

At least FIFTY ISIS supporters are working as baggage handlers, cleaners and catering staff at Brussels airport, claim police, Daily Mail (UK), John Stevens Brussels, March 31, 2016

Police at Brussels airport have claimed at least 50 Islamic State supporters are working there as baggage handlers, cleaners and catering staff.

In an astonishing open letter, the officers said they have warned about the terrorist sympathisers whose security badges give them access to planes, but they remain employed.

The airport police, who are threatening to go on strike because of security deficiencies, also said they have raised the issue of terrorists scouting the airport to plan possible attacks.

Brussels surveilancePolice at Brussels airport have claimed at least 50 Islamic State supporters are working there as baggage handlers, cleaners and catering staff. A soldier is pictured at the airport today

The extraordinary claims come after the Mail reported how the family of two of the bombers involved in the attacks last week said they had worked as cleaners at the airport.

‘Some people suspected of having fought in Syria came to the airport as “false tourists”. We reported their presence but we do not know if anything was done with that information,’ the airport police wrote in their letter.

The officers said they had raised suspicions about certain staff members including those who apparently celebrated after the Paris attacks in November that killed 130 people.

‘When we checked these people, we were surprised more than once. It was men with a radical ideology and a long police history,’ the officers continued.

‘Even today, there are at least 50 supporters of the Islamic state who work at the airport. They have a security badge and have access to the cockpit of a plane.

Brussels surveilance1In an astonishing open letter, the officers said they have warned about the terrorist sympathisers whose security badges give them access to planes, but they remain employed.

‘In the past, a number of people had their badges revoked because they had IS sympathies. But clearly not everyone, especially in store personnel, cleaning services and baggage where we find the most suspicious people.’

Police raised concerns about inadequate security at the airport just four days before the attack took place.

The Belgian police union, NSPV, told the interior ministry on Friday 18 March that they would go on strike unless it was improved.

Alain Peeters, the general secretary, said: ‘The sad events of 22 March demonstrate that our concerns are justified. We demand more security and more staff.’

Officers have said that they will not return to work when the airport re-opens unless staffing numbers are increased and that no vehicles can approach within 100 metres of the temporary check-in hall that is being built.

Brussels security 2The airport police, who are threatening to go on strike because of security deficiencies, also said they have raised the issue of terrorists scouting the airport to plan possible attacks.

The police have complained that they are not sufficiently resourced and do not have enough new uniforms to go around let alone the most up-to-date weapons.

An uncle of Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui last week told how the brothers had been employed at the airport and would have gained intimate knowledge of the terminal destroyed in the carnage.

The man, who asked not to be named, told the Mail: ‘They worked cleaning at the airport and in a restaurant. They didn’t finish high school in the end. They cleaned the airport in the summer months.’

Ibrahim, 29, and bomb-maker Najim Laachraoui detonated suitcase bombs in the airport. A third man, only known as ‘the man in the hat’ or ‘the man in white’ was also seen on airport CCTV but ran when his bomb failed to explode.

Khalid, 27, blew up a nail bomb on a Metro train at Maelbeek station shortly after the airport attack.

 

 

Categories: Brussels airport security, Brussels terror attack
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Russian State-Owned Media Outlet Reveals Which Russian Military Hardware Will Remain In Syria After Withdrawal

March 31, 2016

Russian State-Owned Media Outlet Reveals Which Russian Military Hardware Will Remain In Syria After Withdrawal, MEMRI, March 31, 2016

On March 20, 2016, the Russian state-owned media outlet Sputnik published an article entitled “Not Coming Home: What Russian Hardware Stays in Syria After Pullout and Why.” The article lists the military hardware slated to remain in the Hmeymim Air Base in Syria, after the withdrawal started on March 15, 2016. In a MEMRI report published on March 15, additional hardware is mentioned. On March 14, the day of the announcement of the Russian withdrawal, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia’s naval base at Tartus and its strategic Hmeymim airbase will continue to operate as before. On March 17, while honoring Russian officers who participated in the Syrian campaign, Putin said that Russia can build up its military campaign in Syria in a “few hours.”[1] .

The following are excerpts from the English version of the Sputnik article:[2] published on the sputniknews.com website on March 20, 2016 (the text has been lightly edited for clarity):

27430Russian Su-30 jets landing at the Hmeymim Air Base.(Source: Sputniknews.com, March 20 2016)

Putin: Russia Can Build Up Its Military Presence In Syria In Just A Few Hours

“Nearly 20 Russian combat aircraft, an air defense system and some 2,000 personnel will stay at Hmeymim airbase in Syria. According to experts, the task force has several goals – fighting terrorism, supporting President Bashar Assad, and controlling the region… A squadron of Su-24 tactical bombers, including 9-12 aircraft, will be kept on duty in Syria. During the main stage of the campaign, these aircraft were responsible for the bulk of the airstrikes.

“The newest Su-30 and Su-35 jet fighters will also stay at the Hmeymim airbase for aerial protection, a Defense Ministry source told the Russian daily business newspaper Vedomosti. A source close to the military command confirmed to RBK that Su-35 4++ generation jets will stay at the base. Russia deployed four Su-35s to Syria on January 31, 2016. The Defense Ministry has not reported their withdrawal.

“Moscow will also keep its air defense system in Syria. ‘Russian air defenses will be on combat duty in Syria and will be used against all targets posing threats to the Russian forces,’ Putin said [at a March 17, 2016 ,ceremony honoring  Russian military and defense personnel who participated in the Russian air campaign in Syria].[3] He added that, an S-400 medium- and long-range complex and a Pantsir-S1 air-defense system will stay on duty in Syria. In addition, Ka-52 and Mi-28N attack helicopters have been spotted at the airbase, but their exact number is unknown.

“According to military expert Viktor Litovkin, the rest of the Russian task force will accomplish its goals. He outlined several main objectives: conducting airstrikes on terrorist targets, supporting the Syrian Army and its allies, and controlling the airspace in the region. ‘All three aircraft [Su-24, Su-30 and Su-35] are capable of carrying out airstrikes against terrorists. But the Su-24 is not designed for aerial combat, and needs the support of jet fighters,’ he told RBK..

“In addition to the jets, Syrian airspace and Hmeymim air base will also be protected by an S-400 air defense system,’ Ruslan Pukhov, the director of the Analytic Center for Strategies and Technologies, said. [.. ]He added that with an S-400 deployed to the base, the Russian Aerospace Forces could not only establish a no-fly zone over the Hmeymim airbase, but also over the entire province of Latakia where the bulk of the Syrian Army is concentrated. The system has a maximum acquisition range of 600 km and a maximum strike range of 400 km. ‘Within this radius, any aircraft can be tracked and then escorted by jets, ‘Pukhov explained.

27431Russian Su-24 tactical bombers at the Hmeymim airbase in the Latakia Governorate of Syria. (Sputniknews.com, March 20, 2016)

“According to Litovkin, attack helicopters may be used against small groups of enemies and armored targets which cannot be hit by bombers.’ The Ka-52 and the Mi-28N are armed with the Vikhr and Ataka anti-tank missiles as well as a 30-mm gun,’ the expert said…

“What is more, some 200-300 civil specialists will remain at Hmeymim base. Military personnel will not be able to maintain aircraft and helicopters on their own. ‘As many as 2,000 [Russian] personnel are required to operate the base. However, not all of them will be involved in combat missions,’ Pukhov concluded. Both experts agreed that the rest of the Russian forces in Syria will be sufficient for the current objectives. ‘Amid the peace talks the intensity of combat has decreased. This is why the current configuration of the Russian forces in Syria is rational,’ Litovkin said. At the same time, at his meeting with the troops [Russian military and defense personnel who had participated in the Russian air campaign in Syria], Putin stressed that Russian can build up its military presence in just a few hours…

“It is evident that this is not about a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria. Russia will keep a small force at the Hmeymim base. It will also continue its technical and military assistance to Damascus…”

 Endnotes:

[1] Sputniknews.com, March 17, 2016.

[2] Sputniknews.com, March 20, 2016.

[3] Sputniknews.com, March 17, 2016.

Categories: Russia - Syrian war
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Cartoon of the Day

March 31, 2016

Via Town Hall

Climate change threat

Categories: Climate change, Humor, Obama
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Malkin: Nuclear Jihad: The Threats Are Inside Our Tent

March 31, 2016

Malkin: Nuclear Jihad: The Threats Are Inside Our Tent, Truth Revolt, Michelle Malkin, March 30, 2016

michelle_malkin_54

The specter of nuclear jihad is terrifying, but the chilling fact is that homeland security has already been in meltdown for years. We’re doing ourselves in.

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It’s not over. It’s never over. After last week’s deadly airport and subway bombings in Brussels, the Belgian government remains on high alert for jihad attacks and espionage at its nuclear facilities.

One Belgian nuke plant security guard was murdered recently and his ID is missing. Two of the Brussels bombers reportedly spied on the home of a top senior scientist in the country’s nuclear program. ISIS has been implicated in an alleged insider plot to obtain radioisotopes from one of Belgium’s nuclear plants for a dirty bomb. Two former Belgian nuke plant workers left their jobs to fight for ISIS in Syria.

This is all according to plan. The al-Qaida house organ, Inspire magazine, has urged its followers to conduct attacks using “specialized expertise and those who work in sensitive locations that would offer them unique opportunities” to wreak havoc.

Could Islamic terrorists and other criminal menaces now exploit homeland security vulnerabilities at our own nuclear power plants and other utilities here in the U.S.?

Answer: They already have.

In 2011, a little-remembered Department of Homeland Security intelligence report warned of the ongoing enterprise of jihadi infiltration at nuclear, utility and other infrastructure facilities. The memo, titled “Insider Threat to Utilities,” warned that “violent extremists have, in fact, obtained insider positions.” Moreover, “outsiders have attempted to solicit utility-sector employees” for damaging physical and cyber attacks.

“Based on the reliable reporting of previous incidents, we have high confidence in our judgment that insiders and their actions pose a significant threat to the infrastructure and information systems of U.S. facilities,” the bulletin detailed. “[I]nsider information on sites, infrastructure, networks, and personnel is valuable to our adversaries and may increase the impact of any attack on the utilities infrastructure.”

No kidding, Captain Obvious and First Lieutenant Duh!

Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. nuclear industry has spent more than $2 billion upgrading security — including more than doubling the number of armed guards at entrances and checkpoints surrounding the plants.

But when the threats are coming from inside the tent, all those armed forces outside the perimeters are for show.

South Jersey jihadist and al-Qaida-linked radical Sharif Mobley held positions at several nuclear power plants in Salem County, New Jersey, before moving to Yemen. He had passed several federal background checks as recently as 2008. In December, Mobley was sentenced to 10 years in prison after shooting a guard during an attempted escape from detention on terrorism charges.

How many radicalized Muslims — homegrown converts, foreign business visa holders and foreign students — are working inside America’s sensitive infrastructure? Thanks to our suicidal refusal to profile international visitors and workers from jihadist breeding grounds, nobody knows!

Politically correct politicians and terror-coddling grievance groups condemn monitoring and tracking of Muslim refugees and Muslims enclaves (such as those in Minneapolis and Maine where tens of thousands of Somalis have resettled). They cried “Islamophobia” when homeland security officials wanted to interview Muslim visa holders from terror-sponsoring nations after the 9/11 attacks.

And consider this: There are now more than 100,000 Muslim students accepted into U.S. college and universities every year from the Middle East and North Africa. Nuclear engineering is one of the fields of study for which F-1 foreign student visa holders can obtain work and extended residency through the Optional Training Program. None are screened for jihadist loyalties and sympathies.

How many legal visa holders (let alone illegal visa overstayers) who entered through these pipelines have gained access to sensitive facilities? Nobody knows!

Earlier this year, DHS admitted it doesn’t investigate 99 percent of illegal visa overstayers who entered here on business or tourism — 500,000-plus in 2015 alone, including thousands from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen. The feds still haven’t compiled up-to-date visa overstay data for those who came in as foreign students and guest workers (including high-tech foreigners working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Then there are the security breaches involving who knows how many illegal border-crossers, fake document users and deportation violators. Dozens of illegal immigrants using fake Social Security numbers were swept up in immediate post-9/11 raids at nuclear sub bases, power plants and Navy aircraft carriers. But it didn’t take long for the feds to hit the snooze button.

In 2011, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio arrested Cruz Loya Alvares, who was working at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station despite being a Mexican illegal immigrant who had been deported in 2000. He paid human smugglers to bring him back, secured work in construction, and somehow escaped re-deportation despite being cited by Mesa County Police for driving with a suspended license.

In 2012, another Mexican illegal immigrant, Nestor Martinez-Ochoa, who worked in construction, was arrested after trying to enter the same Palo Verde nuclear power plant with a fake ID — not by federal authorities, but again by Arpaio’s office.

These arrests are exceptions, not the rule. Worksite enforcement under President Obama is a joke.

The specter of nuclear jihad is terrifying, but the chilling fact is that homeland security has already been in meltdown for years. We’re doing ourselves in.

Categories: Nuclear jihad, Obama and Islam, Obama's America
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Journalism in Turkey: Newsroom vs. Courtroom

March 31, 2016

Journalism in Turkey: Newsroom vs. Courtroom, Gatestone Institute, Burak Bekdil, March 31, 2016

(Please see also, Turkey to Host UN’S First Global Humanitarian Summit. — DM)

♦ According to a report by the Turkish Journalists Association, 500 journalists were fired in Turkey in 2015; 70 others were subjected to physical violence. Thirty journalists remain in prison, mostly on charges of “terrorism.” There are also many journalists among the 1,845 Turks who have been investigated or prosecuted for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he was elected in August 2014.

♦ After the secular daily newspaper Cumhuriyet published evidence of arms deliveries by the Turkish intelligence services to Islamist groups in Syria, President Erdogan himself filed a criminal complaint against Cumhuriyet’seditor-in-chief, Can Dundar, and the Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul.

♦ At a March 25 hearing, the Istanbul court ruled for the whole trial to be held in secret.

♦ “We came here today to defend journalism…We said we would defend the people’s right to access information. We defended that and we were arrested.” — Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet.

♦ The trial clearly exhibits how Erdogan’s authoritarian rule diverges from Western democratic culture.

“Turkey is where many journalists may have to spend more time at their attorneys’ offices or in courtrooms than in the newsrooms, where they should be,” a Western diplomat joked bitterly. “Don’t quote me on that. I don’t want to be declared persona non grata,” he added with a smile.

He was right. According to a report by the Turkish Journalists Association, 500 journalists were fired in Turkey in 2015; 70 others were subjected to physical violence. Thirty journalists remain in prison, mostly on charges of “terrorism.”

Needless to say, the unfortunate journalists are invariably known to be critical of Erdogan. There are also many journalists among the 1,845 Turks who have been investigated or prosecuted for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he was elected in August 2014.

One of them is Sedat Ergin, editor-in-chief of Turkey’s most influential newspaper, Hurriyet. On March 25 Ergin had to appear before a penal court on charges of insulting Erdogan, with the prosecution demanding up to four years in jail for him. The veteran journalist says he is devastated to have been taken to court for the first time in his 41 years as a journalist on such an accusation. After his trial Ergin told reporters: “… in the year 2016 courthouse corridors and the hearing rooms have become the habitats of journalists in Turkey. Freedom of the press in Turkey in 2016 is now confined to court corridors.”

On that same day, two more journalists were in a courtroom, but they are not as lucky as Ergin in terms of the prison sentences demanded by the prosecution.

In May 2015, the secular daily newspaper Cumhuriyet published on its front page video and photographic evidence of arms deliveries by the Turkish intelligence services to Islamist groups in Syria. A month later, President Erdogan himself filed a criminal complaint against Cumhuriyet’seditor-in-chief, the prominent journalist, Can Dundar, and the newspaper’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul. In a public speech, Erdogan said: “He who ran this story will pay heavily for it.”

Dundar and Gul were arrested and remained behind bars for over 90 days, until Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that their detention violated their rights. They were released, but must now stand trial on charges of espionage, as well as aiding a terrorist organization that aims to topple Erdogan’s government. The case is a serious threat to the two journalists’ liberty, especially when Erdogan’s “weight” in the courtroom remains easily felt, if not seen.

1535Can Dundar (right), editor-in-chief of Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Erdem Gul (left), Cumhuriyet’s Ankara bureau chief, were arrested after the paper published evidence of arms deliveries by the Turkish intelligence services to Islamist groups in Syria. They remained behind bars for over 90 days, until Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that their detention violated their rights.

At the March 25 hearing, the Istanbul court ruled for the whole trial to be held in secret. A group of opposition MPs protested the decision and refused to leave the courtroom. The court decided to file a criminal complaint against them for “obstructing justice.”

“We came here today to defend journalism. We gathered here before and said the same thing. We said we would defend the people’s right to access information. We defended that and we were arrested,” Dundar said.

It seems that Erdogan has no intention of leaving the journalists alone. The trial also clearly exhibits how his authoritarian rule diverges from Western democratic culture. On March 25, a group of Western consuls-general in Istanbul attended the journalists’ trial in a show of solidarity. The diplomats included Leigh Turner, the British Consul-General, who shared images from outside the court and messages of support for the journalists on Twitter. Now Erdogan thinks he has new enemies.

The day after the court hearing, Erdogan spoke:

“The situation of those who attended this hearing is very important. The consuls-general in Istanbul come to the courthouse. Who are you, what are you doing there? This is not your country, this is Turkey … Diplomats can operate within the boundaries of missions. Elsewhere is subject to permission.”

Now is that a new jurisprudence in diplomacy — that foreign diplomats in Turkey should be confined to their mission buildings and not observe most important political trials without permission from the Turkish government? In addition to the court’s blackout on the Dundar-Gul case, Erdogan now wants political confinement for the journalists.

By pursuing life sentences so aggressively for the journalists, Erdogan is in fact trying to achieve another political goal: He is giving messages at many wavelengths to any other investigative journalist who may in the future publish another embarrassing report on his administration.

Not really peaceful and free times for Turkish journalism.

Categories: Erdogan, Press freedom, Turkey
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