Archive for July 3, 2016

Why Not the Worst?

July 3, 2016

Why Not the Worst? Power LineScott Johnson, July 3, 2016

(The Video is at the link. I was not able to find it on YouTube. — DM)

Considering the Democratic presidential nominees since 1992 — Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton — we find a parade of repugnant characters. What a crew. Who is the most repugnant of them all?

We can be overwhelmed by the present. At the time I thought Bill Clinton was an extraordinarily bad man, but Barack Obama has helped me understand how good we had it with Bill Clinton. Not to say that Clinton isn’t the most repugnant, but we now have a larger context within which to judge him. Perhaps Hillary Clinton will lend a similar context to our judgment of Obama. Ah, the uses of history.

Have the Democrats ever nominated a more repugnant human being for president than Hillary Clinton? Now that is a difficult question. The questions comes to mind in connection with her seven-minute interview with Chuck Todd about her session with the FBI yesterday (summary and video accessible here). She had graciously consented to give Todd five minutes. She told NBC’s Todd she was “eager” for the meeting and “pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department [sic] in bringing its review to a conclusion.” It was a historic occasion; she is the first presidential candidate to be summoned by the FBI to give evidence as the subject of a pending criminal investigation.

(Embedded video goes here — DM)

The question also comes to mind in connection with the release of the House Benghazi Committee report last week. The supplemental report by Jim Jordan and Mike Pompeo does an excellent job of setting forth Madam Hillary’s duplicity on the Benghazi attack. Steve Hayes takes up this aspect of the supplemental report in “The Benghazi lie in black and white.” Like her husband, Clinton is a sickening liar. And that may not be her worst trait!

Happy Independence from ?? Day

July 3, 2016

Happy Independence from ?? Day, Dan Miller’s Blog, July 3, 2016

(The views expressed in this post represent my views but not necessarily those of Warsclerotic or its other editors. — DM)

How will Obama tell us to celebrate Independence Day tomorrow? Will He speak of Independence from The Dead Constitution? Independence from Islamophobia, or perhaps Independence for Safe Space Demanders? Let’s get ready to celebrate our own Independence Day tomorrow and then on November 8th.

Some get it, some don’t. Oh well. What difference does it make, Now? What difference will it make as Bill Whittle’s young American Fascists become government officials and increase their authority over us? We need to keep that from happening.

As Stephen Kruiser wrote at PJ Media, our great lefty “journalists” had to get into the game. One complained about the playing of God Bless America at sporting events. Gersh Kuntzman, somewhat reminiscent of Obama’s mentor Jeremiah Wright, wrote,

It’s time for God to stop blessing America during the seventh-inning stretch. Welcome to the July 4 holiday weekend — when once again, baseball fans will be assaulted by the saccharine-sweet non-anthem “God Bless America” at stadia all over this great land. But no matter which home team you root, root, root for, “God Bless America” should be sent permanently to the bench.

Oh well. Chuck him.

In a Los Angeles Times editorial, Mark Oppenheimer wrote about the National Flag:

I come from flag-ambivalent America. My neighborhood is peopled by gays and Jews, professors and social workers, and Catholics of the Dorothy Day persuasion. Yoga practitioners and yoga teachers. Vegetarians. Bicycling enthusiasts. We love the Fourth of July, with its long weekend, its parades, its backyard barbecues (veggie burgers available). It wouldn’t be Independence Day without flag bunting on floats, flags lining our Main Streets, flags adorning houses. But we aren’t much for patriotic symbolism the rest of the year. For us, it’s an article of faith that crude patriotism quickly turns on the underdog, the minority. We know how the flag is used to impose loyalty tests, which we find un-American.

And then, of course, there’s always the danger of fireworks. As Stephen Kruiser wrote in the PJ Media piece linked above,

Modern American leftists are emotionally constipated, offense-seeking, finger-wagging shrews who are motivated solely by the desire to make everyone else as miserable as they are. The really weird thing is that they are under the impression that it is the conservatives who are like that. They’re either in the midst of the longest-running collective psychotic break ever, or they know the truth about themselves and that merely compounds their misery. Puritans in the 1600s probably smiled more in a day than a crusading twenty-something American social justice warrior media hack will in a lifetime should he or she live to 100.

Much of our past is now deemed “racist” or otherwise too distressing to study and is therefore shuttered from K1-12 and much of academia. I guess some of us old farts will be able to remember and speak about bits and pieces of the past, at least until more of it is deemed offensive and therefore politically incorrect. Can we restore the study of actual American history in place of bland and inoffensive fabrications? We had better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCUzD5eBTNU&list=PL6yPolYMK1lq89tvN91tzRe89G93ZMexl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArgMK2kAjzw

But how did any of them survive without welfare, Obamacare, free stuff, affirmative action, safe spaces, multiple government regulations, political correctness and the gloriously all-embracing peace of Islam? Come to think of it, how did any of them survive without the beneficent, ever-flowing help of Dear Leader Obama?

Can we — will we —  keep her that way?

Finally, Grandpa Jones

Will we kick out ol’ Dan Tucker, I mean Barack and Hillary, and make America right again this November? Let’s make November 8th our Independence From The Leftist-Obama-Clinton Debacle Day. It may well be our last chance.

Obama-Hillary-copy

Bangladesh: ISIS pays Italy back for role in Libya

July 3, 2016

Bangladesh: ISIS pays Italy back for role in Libya, DEBKAfile, July 3, 2016

Dhaka_high_powered_Dragunov_sniper_1.7.16

The Islamic State struck the West again on June 1, when it activated a local Bangladeshi cell for a murderous, hostage-taking attack on the Artisan Bakery and O’Kitchen Restaurant, a favorite haunt of foreign visitors near the diplomatic zone of Dakha, the capital. A large contingent of Italian businessmen dining there that night was specifically targeted by ISIS in revenge for the Rome government’s military intervention in the campaign to eject the Islamists from Libya.

DEBKAfile intelligence and counter terror sources note that the long Islamist arm reached into the Indian subcontinent, 7,000km away, to settle its score with Italy, rather than sending its killers by the obvious route from the ISIS capital Sirte in Libya to Italy across 1,200km of Mediterranean Sea. This tactic saved them the risk of running the gauntlet of the Italian Navy boats which are fanned out across the Sidra Gulf to staunch the flow of migrants (an important source of income for ISIS) and intercept terrorists heading for attack in Europe.

Bangladesh is the world’s second largest manufacturing center after China for the major Western fashion houses, netting each year 26.5 Billion USD, 75 pc of its foreign currency earnings. Among the important Italian fashion houses manufacturing in Bangladesh are Prada, Milan, and Benetton.

Italian special operations contingents are the largest Western force operating on several fronts in Libya since early January. They are fighting to capture the key port town of Sirte together with British and US special forces and alongside local Libyan forces.

On April 29, DEBKAfile reported: “ISIS fighters smashed a force of Italian and British Special Ops troops on Wednesday, April 27 in the first battle of its kind in Libya. This battle will result in the delay of the planned Western invasion of Libya, as the encounter proved that European forces are not ready for this kind of guerilla warfare. The sources also said the planners of the invasion were surprised by the high combat skills of the ISIS fighters.”

The Bangladesh attack was therefore not the first contretemps suffered by Italy in its fight on Islamist terror.

Inside Libya, the fighting continues unresolved for lack of air support. The US, Italy, France and the UK cannot agree on which of them will supply air cover for the ground forces battling for Sirte and which will assume command.

In early June, overall command of the campaign was given to NATO. That decision did not break the allied impasse either, because its members remained at loggerheads over respective air force contributions, provision of the logistic intelligence required for aerial operations and, lastly, funding.

Due to insufficient air cover, western and Libyan special forces are stuck in the parts of Sirte they have captured, but cannot advance towards the city’s center or root out the ISIS fighters.

The fact that ISIS was able to operate a terror cell in far-away Bangladesh to strike a counterblow in the battle in Northern Africa, testified to the global scope of the terror organization’s command and communication reach.

Just like the November 2015 Paris attacks, the terrorists were in telephone contact with their masters in the Middle East, once in a while sending pictures of the victims they murdered inside the restaurant.

In the attack, the terrorists killed 9 Italian businessmen, 7 Japanese businessmen, one US citizen, 3 local citizens, and one Indian.

The hostages were executed by beheading with machetes.

The counter terrorism sources report that, just as in the terror attacks in Brussels, Paris and Istanbul, the attackers in Dakha were previously known to local security and intelligence agencies, at least five of the seven terrorists were known to the Bangladesh security agencies, who claimed they were unable to stop them.

U.N. Official ‘Accidentally’ Crushes Own Throat Right Before Testifying Against Hillary Clinton

July 3, 2016

U.N. Official ‘Accidentally’ Crushes Own Throat Right Before Testifying Against Hillary Clinton

Source: U.N. Official ‘Accidentally’ Crushes Own Throat Right Before Testifying Against Hillary Clinton | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

Call it conspiracy theory, coincidence or just bad luck, but any time someone is in a position to bring down Hillary Clinton by testifying they wind up dead. In fact, there’s a long history of Clinton-related body counts, with scores of people dying under mysterious circumstances.

Perhaps the most notable is Vince Foster. Foster was a partner at Clinton’s law firm and knew the inner workings of the Clinton Machine.  Police ruled that death a suicide, though it is often noted that Foster may have been suicided.

Now, another official has found himself on the wrong end of the Clintons. That John Ashe was a former President of the United Nations General Assembly highlights the fact that no one is safe once in their sights.

And as you might have guessed, there are major inconsistencies with Ashe’s death. It was not only conveniently timed because Ashe died just a few days before being set to testify against Clinton in a corruption case, but official reports indicated he died of a heart attack.

The problem, however, is that police on the scene reported Ashe died when his throat was crushed during a work-out accident.

 The New York Post’s Page Six reported that after Ashe was found dead Wednesday, the U.N. claimed that he had died from a heart attack. Local police officers in Dobbs Ferry, New York, later disputed that claim, saying instead that he died from a workout accident that crushed his throat.

Adding to the mysterious nature of Ashe’s death was the fact that he had been slated to be in court Monday with his Chinese businessman co-defendant Ng Lap Seng, from whom he reportedly received over $1 billion in donations during his term as president of the U.N. General Assembly.

And then there was this: During the presidency of Bill Clinton, Seng illegally funneled several hundred thousand dollars to the Democrat National Committee.

Source: The Conservative Tribune via The Daily Sheeple

It must be coincidence, right?

If former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne is to be believed, this is business as usual for the Clintons. Excerpt via Zero Hedge:

BYRNE: I feel so strongly that people need to know the real Hillary Clinton and how dangerous she is in her behavior. She is not a leader. She is not a leader.

SEAN: She does not have the temperament?

BYRNE: She doesn’t have the temperament. She didn’t have the temperament to handle the social office when she was First Lady, she does not have the temperament.

SEAN: She’s dishonest.

BYRNE: She’s dishonest, she habitually lies, anybody that can separate themselves from their politics and review her behavior over the past 15 years…

Byrne is the author of the newly published book Crisis Of Character – a first-hand Clinton exposé.

Trump: “Incitement and preaching of hate by the Palestinian leadership…must end immediately”

July 3, 2016

Trump: “Incitement and preaching of hate by the Palestinian leadership…must end immediately” Jihad Watch

After seven and a half years of Obama ignoring “Palestinian” incitement and pressuring Israel to make disastrous concessions to the “Palestinian” jihadis, this is most refreshing. The “Palestinian” airwaves are filled with genocidal incitement on a constant basis. Yet few American politicians have ever been willing to point to this as a source of the ongoing violence.

Trump7

“Trump: PA must act against ‘barbaric’ attacks on Israelis,” Times of Israel, July 2, 2016:

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called Friday for the Palestinian Authority to take action against violence by Palestinian terrorists, shortly after an Israeli man was killed in a shooting attack on his family’s car in the West Bank.

“Yet another terrorist attack today in Israel — a father, shot at by a Palestinian terrorist, was killed while driving his car, and three of his children who were passengers were severely injured,” Trump wrote on Facebook.

“I condemn this latest terrorist attack and call upon the Palestinian leadership to completely end this barbaric behavior,” he wrote.

“I also call upon President Obama to recognize and condemn each and every terrorist attack against our allies in Israel. This cannot become the ‘new normal.’ It has to stop!”

A day earlier, Trump urged the PA to take steps to halt incitement to violence, in his response to the “heinous murder” of 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.

“I am shocked by the heinous murder of 13 year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel, who was attacked by a Palestinian terrorist while she was sleeping in her bedroom. I extend my deepest condolences to the Ariel family,” Trump said.

“The continuing incitement and preaching of hate by the Palestinian leadership, and the glorification of terror must end immediately. I call upon the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to condemn this murder and to take concrete steps to end this barbaric behavior.”

By Saturday afternoon, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had yet to condemn either attack, although he has condemned previous violence against Israeli civilians. The PA also came under criticism for referring to Ariel’s killer as a “martyr.”

Trump vowed Thursday that as president he would protect Israel “100 percent,” telling a supporter at his rally in New Hampshire that, “Israel is a very, very important ally of the United States and we are going to protect them 100% — 100%. It’s our true friend over there.”…

Salami on Qods Day: Over 100,000 Missiles in Lebanon Alone Are Ready to Annihilate Israel

July 3, 2016

Salami on Qods Day: Over 100,000 Missiles in Lebanon Alone Are Ready to Annihilate Israel, MEMRI-TV via YouTube, July 3, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWH_xpDf4sM

The blurb beneath the video states,

Speaking at a sermon in Tehran prior to the Friday prayers marking Qods Day, IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami said that the ground is ready today for the annihilation of the Zionist regime, elaborating that over 100,000 missiles were waiting in Lebanon alone and that tens of thousands of other missiles were placed throughout the Muslim world in order to wipe “the accursed black dot” from the map of the world. Salami also threatened Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to keep their promises, saying that Iran would “completely destroy any place that constitutes a threat to our regime.”

Islamist Extremism in America: The Islamic Jurisprudence Center

July 3, 2016

Islamist Extremism in America: The Islamic Jurisprudence Center, Clarion Project, Jonathan Ruano de la Haza, July 3, 2016

Sulaiman-Anwar-640-320Sheikh Suleiman Anwar of the Islamic Jurisprudence Center. (Photo: © Screenshot from video)

In June 2015, Sheikh Suleiman Anwar founded the Islamic Jurisprudence Center (IJC) in Clarksburg, Maryland. The center’s mission was “to promote and advance the understanding of and compliance with Islamic law (Sharia) in all aspects of life.”

This mission statement might seem tame, except that Anwar’s webpage reveals a worldview that is remarkably extreme compared to that of most Muslim organizations in the West. Anwar wants total Sharia according to the Saudi model, where the hands of thieves are cut off. He rejects secular liberal democracies and pluralism within Islam.

Here we explore Anwar’s Islamist worldview and show what happened when it is implemented in Muslim countries.

Why is Suleiman Anwar important?

Anwar deserves greater scrutiny for a number of reasons. He is the microcosm of the globalization of Islamist concepts.

In 2004 and 2006 respectively, Anwar completed two master’s degrees in Islamic jurisprudence at the International Islamic University (IIU) in Islamabad, Pakistan, and the University of Sana’a in Yemen. Funded by Saudi money, IIU is an Islamist university teaching a rigid Saudi version of Islam and rejecting all other interpretations of Islam.

The atmosphere on IIU’s campus is Orwellian. IIU alumni Amna Shafqat recalls burqa clad women distributing pamphlets to IIU students, which call for the release of terrorist Afia Siddiqui and the murder of blasphemers and blaspheming cartoonists (like theCharlie Hedbo cartoonists).

Worse still, IIU is a key recruiting ground for the Jamaat-e-Islami, Tazeemi Islami, and other Islamist parties, which sometimes serve as gateways to terrorist organizations.

This was the environment in which Anwar pursued his master’s degree and his webpage and Facebook page contain Islamist ideas which mirror the beliefs swirling around IIU’s campus.

Anwar also used his position as Imam in order to promote Islamism. After completing his studies in Yemen, Anwar returned to the United States and served as Imam for the Islamic Society of Annapolis (May 2009-April 2010) and then the Tazkia Center and Masjid Umar (January 2011-October 2014). He accepted invitations to deliverJumu’a Khutbas (sermons) and lectures at fourteen Islamic organizations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. and Toronto, Canada.

Thanks to YouTube, there is a record of what Anwar said at one of these events. In September 2010, he openly endorsed the Khilafah or Islamic Caliphate along with an extreme form of Sharia: “We are not living under the Khilafah. There is a big fitna [i.e. social unrest] going on, if you haven’t noticed. – and much of the fitna is happening because we don’t have Khilafah. And then there are many people who don’t want Khilafah, because they want to continue being criminals so that their hands don’t get cut off.”

The Fatwas

In early 2016, Anwar started issuing fatwas or Islamic rulings as executive director of the IJC. Two of these fatwas merit our attention. On March 20, 2016, Anwar issued an Islamic ruling denouncing purportedly “pseudo-Islamic organizations” and “pseudo-Imams” as disbelievers for telling Muslims that “it is permissible to live by a partial Sharia (instead of its totality).”

Anwar’s support for total Sharia governance is troubling, since even implementing partial Sharia governance has negative consequences for people’s lives.

For instance, Mauritania, Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Malaysia maintain the apostasy law on their books.

This law says that Muslims will face the death penalty for leaving Islam.

Although rarely used, the apostasy law’s existence has fostered a climate of fear that forces ex-Muslims to live in the closet. It also gives extremists an implicit license to murder ex-Muslims and even secular Muslims on the grounds that they are apostates of Islam. I personally know Pakistani and Nigerian ex-Muslims who are forced by this law to conceal their innermost thoughts and feelings while in public. One of them temporarily fled his community, because he came out as an atheist. He was only welcomed back to his community after agreeing to revert to Islam.

On June 13, Anwar wrote another fatwa on the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). These organizations subscribe to Islamic beliefs that range from moderate to conservative and are politically linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Anwar, however, thought that they were not Islamic enough.

His fatwa declared that “anyone who supports CAIR, ISNA, MAS, or ICNA, or any organization affiliated with them in any way, is a kafir (disbeliever) and a traitor to Allah and His Messenger.”

He added that this fatwa was meant to prevent Muslims “from dying upon kufr (disbelief), and consequently entering hellfire.” In effect, Anwar was supporting an unelected theocracy that outlawed pluralism within Islam and quashed secular democratic sentiments. Anwar despised the “Interfaith system,” since it “promotes equality of the religions.” He also accused these Muslim organizations of betraying Islam for promoting “the secular, divisive, corrupt, and immoral democratic system of government and encouraging Muslims everywhere to believe in and implement such beliefs.”

The scary thing is that the ideas contained in Anwar’s June 13 fatwa have actually been implemented in some Muslim countries.

A principle problem in the current war in Syria and Iraq is extremists dehumanizing people from other Islamic sects for not conforming to their vision of Islam. According to this extremist perspective, these other Islamic sects are a source of fitna (i.e. social unrest) and the logical way to achieve peace is by exterminating them. Likewise, anti-secular and anti-democratic sentiments have also had harmful consequences for many Muslim-majority communities.

The secular democratic system plays a key role in representing and managing the differences of religions and cultures in a peaceful way. The rejection of this system has resulted, for instance, in the use ofPakistan’s blasphemy law in order to persecute Shia, Ahmadi, Christian, and Hindu religious minorities.

The United States’ free speech laws allow a person like Anwar to promote extremism. Yet Anwar’s fatwas should not be the final word on Islam or on how political, economic, and cultural orders should be organized. Resident Americans of different backgrounds belong to an open society where ideas are studied and judged on their merits.

When Anwar issues his fatwas and calls upon Muslims to reject religious pluralism, secularism, and democracy, and embrace a political order like Saudi Arabia’s, liberal-minded people cannot afford to stand by and do nothing.

The preservation of an open society, which protects civil liberties and embraces cultural and religious diversity within reason, depends upon good people exposing and discrediting absolutist ideas which go against the principles of a free nation.

Op-Ed: Brexit coincides with India’s and Pakistan’s entry into the SCO

July 3, 2016

Brexit coincides with India’s and Pakistan’s entry into the SCO

by Alfredo Jalife-Rahme

Professor Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, reputed to be a leading Latin American expert in geopolitics considers that the UK exiting the EU at the same time India and Pakistan become members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (OCS) is an acid test, proving that the world is alive. De-globalization is at work.

Source: Brexit coincides with India’s and Pakistan’s entry into the SCO, by Alfredo Jalife-Rahme

Today the Shanghai Cooperation Organization represents two thirds of the world’s population. Furthermore, its members include the world’s number one global economy (China) and the leading military power on conventional war (Russia).

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 laid down a US unipolar geo-strategy and toxic, financial globalization, that sowed monstrous inequality at the local/regional/global levels. This was harnessed by mass unemployment and suffocating austerity.

Half a century after dangerous period of deregulation under Thatcher and 27 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Brexit marks the start of a sorrowful route to de-globalization [1]. This involves geostrategic changes that emphasize the dynamic trend of multi-polarity.

Brexit shifts a geostrategic plate and this will have serious consequences for the new global order, now defined as having three poles, with the US, Russia and China occupying one each.

In the short and medium term, Brexit ranks of equal importance to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the long term, in the style of Fernand Braudel, Brexit is “anti-Waterloo”: it reverses the rising trajectory of Great Britain, begun with its decisive military triumph 201 years ago in the old Belgium, now the headquarters of a dismembered European Union.

An editorial in a Chinese newspaper, Global Times, notes: “The future landscape of global policy will probably to lead bigger changes, similar to those witnessed in geological history when the former supercontinent Gondwana ruptured, 180 million (sic) years ago [2]”.

The EU’s scattered geostrategic pieces will be divided up between the US, Russia and China, in the back seat.

Perhaps in selected assertions of the three superpowers, we can locate the core of the new global order, brought about by Brexit: the US declares that Russia has won; China asserts that the dollar has won and the Euro has lost and Russia assures that China has won.

As a “premonition”, three days before Brexit, George Soros the evil mega-speculator – who used migrants and free circulating capital, to demolish the EU and the euro – was already making Russia out as the “emerging global power”, in unison with the EU’s swooning ” [3].

Already, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Orban, had held Soros culpable for fuelling the migrant crisis in the Middle East to sink Europe [4].

It was no coincidence that Soros has been one of the leading winners of the financial tsunami caused by the Brexit, having bet that the value of listed shares would fall and gold would rise. [5].

Now Soros bets on the routing of Deutsche Bank, the leading German/European bank. This benefits the “banksters” on Wall Street and in the City [6].

An article I wrote last year is worthy of Cassandra:
“Great Britain is abandoning the EU for China: a geo-financial alliance with ‘Hollandization’; when the biggest reserves of Chinese currency complement the financial know-how of the City (London), a multipolar framework for a new 21st century geo-financial order is constructed.” [7].

Taking a position not far off from my thesis, Thierry Meyssan, Director of Voltaire Network, argues that Brexit, supported by Queen Elizabeth II of England, and the reorientation of Great Britain to the Chinese yuan, is tantamount to the fall of the Berlin Wall; it represents the “new hand of cards in global geopolitics.” [8].

In a previous article, my thesis was [9] “fate’s geostrategic coincidence: the same day the EU began to implode, the Shanghai Group (SCO) had its 16th summit in Tash¬kent (Uzbekistan). Tsar Vladimir Putin and the Chinese Mandarin Xi were in attendance. They approved a protocol for India and Pakistan, the two big nuclear powers [10], [11], to enter. The end of an era!

Indeed, Fate dealt out two coincidences of geostrategic consequences. This is because the day after Brexit, and after attending the 16th Summit of the Shanghai Group in Tashkent, Putin made a 2-day visit to China, where he set out the detail of his strategic ties with Xi.

The two geostrategic coincidences in Eurasia – at Tashkent and at Pekin– had been made to evaporate by disinformation spread by mass media in a “West” in angst.

At a financial meeting in St Petersburg, 7 days before Brexit, Tsar Putin speaking with legendary sarcasm, accepted that:
“probably the US continues to be the only (sic) global superpower”, however he is ready “to work with whoever the winner may be of this year’s Presidential Race in Washington.”
However, “he does not want the US to tell him how to live.” [12].

The same day as Brexit, two nuclear powers on the Indian subcontinent became part of the Shanghai Group: India equipped with 110 to 120 nuclear warheads [13], and Pakistan, with 110 – 130 warheads [14].

Daily Times claims that ” Pakistan’s entry into SCO is highly instructive in the changing geopolitical scene” [15].

Somewhat less enthusiastically than Pakistan, The Hindu exults that “India and Pakistan will be full members of the SCO” [16]. The inference is that China sponsor Pakistan and Russia following its lead with India.

Everything is not rosy in the Shanghai Group. Given that, according to Yang Jin, of the Academy for Social Sciences in China:
“Global financial crisis, the depressed prices of raw materials of basic necessity (staple commodities) and the deterioration caused by economic sanctions applied on Russia has had negative effects on stability (sic) and the SCO economies”, when the “big powers (read: EU and “Plan Brzezinski”) have made incisive incursions in regional matters and disturbed the joint interests of SCO members”.
This “has hampered circular cooperation” and that, beside the pairing of the superpowers, China and Russia, it holds the membership of four Central Asians countries – Kazakhstan, Kurdistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan– with a “number of disputes on territory, water resources and ethnicity ” [17].

What will be impetus that will give the incorporation of two nuclear powers such as India and Pakistan into the Shanghai Group, which has not developed as expected for 16 summits?

The serious problem with unfolding the SCO is that it has to define its overriding objective, when persists the dilemma of forming a group of “Eurasian military security ” to be a counter force to NATO and/or integrating into a common place trade bloc.

The biggest geostrategic issue caused the transcendental coming together of the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon.

The People’s Daily declares the “compromise of an implacable association (sic) between China and Russia” [18], while Cao Siqi comments that “China and Russia strengthen global stability” and “have reached a consensus against US hegemony” [19].

An editorial in Global Times considers that the “US pressure stimulates much closer ties between China and Russia”, when “Washington is unable to destroy the Chinese dragon and the Russian bear at the same time” [20]. The ancient regime is toppled; let’s breathe life into the new era!

Alfredo Jalife-Rahme
Translation
Anoosha Boralessa

[1] Hacia la desglobalización, par Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, Jorale/Orfila (2007), ISBN 978-9685863223.

[2] “Shock waves of UK exit’s impact will rearrange the face of global politics and markets”, Anbound, The Global Times, June 27th, 2016.

[3] “Soros sees Russia emerging as global power as EU fades”, Andy Bruce & Kit Rees, Reuters, June 20th, 2016.

[4] “Hungarian Prime Minister accuses billionaire investor George Soros of trying to undermine Europe by supporting refugees travelling from the Middle East”, Jennifer Newton, Daily Mail, October 30th, 2015.

[5] “Billionaire Soros Was ‘Long’ on Pound Before Vote on Brexit”, Francine Lacqua & Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam, Bloomberg, June 27th, 2016.

[6] “Soros had Deutsche Bank ’short’ bet at time of Brexit fallout”, Arno Schuetze, Reuters, June 28th, 2016.

[7] «Gran Bretaña abandona a EU por China: alianza geofinanciera con “holandización”», Alfredo jalife-Rahme, La Jornada, 25 de Octobre de 2015.

[8] “The Brexit reshuffles world geopolitics”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 28 June 2016.

[9] “Brexit: ganó el nacionalismo británico/Perdió la globalización/Derrota de Obama/Triunfo de Putin”, Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, La Jornada, 26 de Junio de 2016.

[10] « Ташкентская декларация », Сеть Вольтер, 24 июня 2016.

[11] «“Un nuevo significado, un nuevo peso”: La organización que unirá casi a la mitad del planeta», Russia Today, 24 de Junio de 2016.

[12] «Presidente ruso Putin dice acepta rol de superpotencia de EEUU, diluye elogios a Trump», Grigory Dukor, Reuters, 17 de Junio de 2016.

[13] “Indian nuclear forces, 2015”, Hans M. Kristensen & Robert S. Norris, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, September 1st, 2015.

[14] “Pakistani nuclear forces, 2015”, Hans M. Kristensen & Robert S. Norris, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, September 1st, 2015.

[15] “Pakistan’s entry at SCO significant in changing geopolitical scenario”, Daily Times, June 26th, 2016.

[16] “India, Pakistan become full SCO members”, The Hindu, July 11th, 2015.

[17] “SCO needs to overcome diverse demands”, Yang Jin, Global Times, June 26th, 2016.

[18] “China, Russia pledge “unswerving” partnership”, People’s Daily, June 27th, 2016.

[19] “China, Russia to strengthen global stability”, Cao Siqi, Global Times, June 27th, 2016.

[20] “US pressure spurs closer Sino-Russian ties”, Global Times, June 27th, 2016.

83 killed as 2 blasts rip through Ramadan crowds at Baghdad shopping areas (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

July 3, 2016

83 killed as 2 blasts rip through Ramadan crowds at Baghdad shopping areas (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Published time: 2 Jul, 2016 22:41 Edited time: 3 Jul, 2016 08:18

Source: 83 killed as 2 blasts rip through Ramadan crowds at Baghdad shopping areas (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT News

Two blasts have ripped through busy market areas in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, killing around 80 people and injuring 160. The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for one of the attacks.

Iraqi officials quoted by AP put the death toll from the first attack, in Karrada district, at 78 and said that more than 160 people had been injured.

Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan confirmed that the first blast had come from a car bomb.

Eyewitnesses said on Twitter that many shops burned down as a result of the explosions, and there are fears that the number of casualties could grow.

Karrada, an upper middle class district in the Iraqi capital, is mostly inhabited by Shia, but also has quite a large Christian minority. The area becomes very busy after sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.

https://twitter.com/Khaqani_M/status/749364331200978944/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Shortly after the explosion hit Karrada, eyewitnesses said that a second blast targeted the Shaab neighborhood, which is located in the northern part of the city.

AP said that at least five people were killed in that bombing and another 16 were injured. Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia said a suspected homemade explosive device was used to hit a market.

https://twitter.com/josiahalessoy/status/749381581597532161/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has in an online statement claimed responsibility for the attack in Karrada, Baghdad.

The tactics resemble Islamic State’s signature, as the terrorists frequently choose Shia-populated civilian areas in the capital as targets.

Iraqi security officials are attempting to restore order amid the state of panic that has ensued following the attacks, Altaf Ahmad, a local journalist, told RT.

“Major roads leading to the venue of the explosion [in Karrada] have been cut off. We know that the car bomb that went off in the area that is known to be crowded at this time. After sunset, after the break of fast during the holy month of Ramadan many people start to go out… We are expecting that the number could rise to 100 casualties,” Ahmad said.

Meanwhile, Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at Pan-African News Wire, said the pattern of bombing in Baghdad reminded him of what happened in Istanbul.

“There is some affirmation that Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. This follows a pattern for the last week with the attack in Istanbul. The sectarian divisions inside the country have exacerbated and there’s been a reaction on both sides,” Azikiwe told RT.

He also noted that Islamic State had suffered tremendous losses over the past several months and could be committing such attacks in order to avenge their retreat.

“They moved to other geopolitical regions, in Libya, for example, in western part of the country. A lot of these attacks are done for propaganda reasons,” he added. “[These attacks] definitely appear to be coordinated.”

Earlier this week, at least 12 people were killed and 32 injured in another suicide attack west of Baghdad, where an attacker wearing a suicide vest targeted a Sunni mosque in Abu Ghraib.

READ MORE: At least 12 killed in suicide attack on Abu Ghraib mosque

Islamic State was recently pushed out of Fallujah by Iraqi forces, but the terrorist group still controls Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which is located in northern Iraq.

 

Bennett: We must make sure terrorism doesn’t pay

July 3, 2016

Bennett: We must make sure terrorism no longer pays Education Minister lauds new measures adopted by Security Cabinet to counter spread of ‘viral terror’, emphasizes need for targeted action.

By Shai Landesman

First Publish: 7/3/2016, 1:06 PM

Source: Bennett: We must make sure terrorism doesn’t pay – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva

Speaking to Arutz Sheva today (Sunday), Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the Security Cabinet, commented on the series of resolutions aimed at countering the murderous spike in terror attacks over the past few days, which were adopted at last night’s Cabinet meeting.

Bennett opened the interview by speaking about the late Michael Mark, who was murdered on Friday. The Minister said that Mark was, “a very central figure in southern Har Hevron, in Otniel, and in Judea and Samaria society as a whole. He was a man who radiated great light. This is a serious blow, and the town of Otniel has absorbed several of those in the past few years.

“We will continue to support the town not only in terms of security, but in other spheres such as education, where progress has already been made.”

Terrorist’s families must stop getting pensions from the PA

As to the Cabinet meeting, the Minister said there was a very serious and thorough discussion, and he was happy that many of the proposals that he raised were adopted. “Now the test is in the implementation,” Bennett added, “and we’ll follow proceedings and make sure the resolutions are indeed implemented.”

In describing the resolutions themselves, Bennett first addressed the decision to prevent the transfer of funds from the Palestinian Authority to the terrorist’s family. “The family of Hallel Ariel’s murderer is supposed to receive a very large stipend from the PA in perpetuity. This is obscene. That’s the way it worked until now. We’ve decided this will simply not happen anymore.”

When asked if prevention is practicable, seeing as the transfer of the funds is simply done directly from one bank account to another, the Minister said that it is certainly possible. “We can and must stop it. The country that pulled off the Entebbe operation can stop money from arriving at a bank account. It’s key to make sure that happens.”

‘Viral Terror’

“We’re dealing with a ‘viral terror’ which is very different from the terror of the 2nd intifada”, said Bennett, referring to the period of terror characterized by suicide bombing from 2000-2005. “This is not terror that’s organized from the top by commanders who recruit someone, equip him, and send him to commit an attack. Rather, in this case, there is a systematic web of incitement from the top, through social and other media, resulting in individuals with various issues deciding that rather than just simply commit suicide by themselves, they should go and murder Jews, without anyone really controlling and commanding them.”

In the face of this kind of terror, Bennett thinks, the response needs to focus on two plains: destroying the glory to which the terrorist aspires, and making sure his family is harmed rather than benefits. “We need to employ new tools to change the equation for any potential terrorist. As things stand, it pays to commit a terrorist attack as a terrorist attains everlasting glory and his family is financially set for life. Through social media we can damage the glory element, by making sure to show publicly that the terrorist doesn’t get a burial among other things, and we can make sure that the family doesn’t benefit and in fact even suffers.”

Bennett also suggested that family members who specifically express knowledge of or praise for an attack should be punished more severely.

‘We need to build much more’

The Minister claims that these are all practical measures that have already been legally examined and shouldn’t encounter resistance from the Supreme Court or other judicial bodies.

Later in the interview, Bennett was asked about the announcement that 42 new housing units are to be built in Kiryat Arba, and claims that this represents the mere recycling of old building tenders, rather than anything new tailored to deal with the new reality.

“There is indeed a recycling, which is why we’re pushing for much more broad construction,” he acknowledged.

“The thing that will most deter terrorists from acting would be the knowledge that for every murder they commit another neighborhood or town will be built.

“The power of Jewish Home in the government is limited, but we’re exerting all the pressure we can. We need to build far more than 42 new housing units. More proposals are on the table and the matter is still open for discussion.”

‘If these decisions are implemented, things will change’

Finally, Bennett was asked if he sees a shift in attitude from the new Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman as compared to his predecessor, Moshe Yaalon.

Policy has changed in the realm of returning the bodies of terrorists for burial, for example. Yaalon was in favor of returning the bodies as a way of trying to calm tensions with the Palestinians, whereas under Liberman, it appears that the bodies will not be returned.

“I don’t give grades to Defense Ministers,” Bennett answered, “what’s important is that what was decided upon actually happens. I think that if the new resolutions are carried out, we’ll see a change. Not everything that I proposed was adopted and that’s OK, that’s the nature of a Cabinet, but many things were decided upon and I want us to meet in a week to see that things were implemented, that the terrorist’s families did not receive any funds. It’s good that the terrorist’s family has already been arrested, we’ll follow matters and see.”