Elected Officials to be Charged with Treason by Unconstitutional Assembly

Venezuela lawmakers approve treason trials

for opposition leaders

By Andrew V. Pestano 

Venezuela's pro-government Constituent Assembly unanimously voted to put opposition leaders,

supportive of U.S. economic sanctions, on trial for treason. Photo by Cristian Hernandez/EPA

UPI -- Venezuela's Constituent Assembly, condemned as unconstitutional by the international community, has unanimously voted to put opposition leaders -- who support U.S. sanctions -- on trial for treason.

The pro-government legislative body's action came days after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions last week against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's regime.

The Constituent Assembly issued a decree Tuesday, seeking to "jointly initiate with the appropriate state organs an historic trial for treason against the homeland of those who may be involved in promoting these immoral actions against the interests of the Venezuelan people."

That would be themselves and Nicolas Maduro.

During a televised address, Diosdado Cabello, a key ally of Maduro, said the Democratic Unity Roundtable opposition coalition "worked in a sustained manner to achieve" the U.S. sanctions that harm Venezuelans.

Cabello did not reveal exactly how the treason trial process would move forward, nor was it said which opposition leaders will be put on trial.

Wednesday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized the Venezuelan regime and the Constituent Assembly's Commission of Truth, Justice and Peace for "measures taken by authorities to criminalize leaders of the political opposition."

"The Commission, recently established by the Constituent Assembly, does not meet the basic requirements of transparency and impartiality, to conduct investigations that are independent and free from political motivation on human rights violations and abuses," OHCHR Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

A report by the U.N. office said extensive human rights violations and abuses committed amid anti-government protests show "the existence of a policy to repress political dissent and instil fear in the population to curb demonstrations."

"The generalized and systematic use of excessive force during demonstrations and the arbitrary detention of protestors and perceived political opponents indicate that these were not the illegal or rogue acts of isolated officials," the report noted.

Muslim Judge Overrules Muslim Council in London

Judge rules child must leave Muslim foster home

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter
The Times

The girl had been placed with a family who she said often did not speak English at home and encouraged her to learn Arabic

A girl at the centre of a care dispute was removed from her Muslim foster parents yesterday and reunited with her family as a judge urged councils to seek “culturally matched placements” for vulnerable children.

The five-year-old, a native English speaker from a Christian family, was taken to her grandmother’s home after a court ruled that she should not remain in the placement organised by the London borough of Tower Hamlets.

Judge Khatun Sapnara, a practising Muslim, said it was in the girl’s best interests to live with a family member who could keep her safe, promote her welfare and meet her needs “in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion”. The judge ordered the council to conduct an urgent investigation into the issue.

Tower Hamlets - I'm guessing that's Canary Wharf in the background

The girl will be sent to live with her grandmother following the court ruling. 

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly placed into foster care by social workers in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets. 

Sent to live with two Muslim families in six months, one family allegedly suggested she should remove her necklace bearing a cross and learn Arabic, The Times reported.  

Confidential local authority reports on the case seen by the newspaper alleged the girl was “very distressed” and had begged not to return to the family as “they don’t speak English”.

Local authorities are required to consider a child’s religion, racial origin, and cultural and linguistic background when placing within foster care.

The London borough of Tower Hamlets claimed there were "inaccuracies" in the reporting of the story.

It said the girl had been fostered in a temporary placement with an English speaking family of mixed race.

Tower Hamlets, London

Half of Britons Think Islam is ‘Threat to West,’ Study Reveals

Great! Brits are waking up and, somehow, truth is getting through

More than half of Britons believe Islam “poses a threat to the West,” despite the UK becoming more tolerant and open overall, a new study has claimed

Muslim men stand in line on Westminster Bridge during an event to mark one week since a man drove his car into pedestrians then stabbed a police officer in London, Britain, March 29, 2017. © Stefan Wermuth / Reuters

Following recent Islamist-inspired terrorist incidents in Westminster, Manchester and London’s Borough Market, 42 percent of people say they now have less trust for Muslims in Britain, while 52 percent believe Islam poses a threat, the Populus poll published by campaign group Hope not Hate shows.

The figures also reveal that a quarter of English people think Islam is a “dangerous religion that incites violence.”

Older people are more likely to express Islamophobic views, the poll finds, “painting a worrying set of views” which Hope not Hate said would require “significant effort” to address.

The increase in negative attitudes towards Muslims comes despite an overall improvement in attitudes among Britons towards different groups in society. The report found that two-fifths of the population have a liberal outlook, compared to 22 percent six years ago.

The study asked more than 4,000 people in England 140 questions relating to current events.

It found responses to Brexit had left Britain more divided, with attitudes towards race and faith becoming increasingly polarized since the last poll in 2011. But the survey saw more positive views towards immigration since Brexit, with more than half of respondents saying they believe immigration is good for the country - up by 15 percent in five years.

Islamophobia monitoring group Tell MAMA said in a statement the poll is “both heartening but also worrying.” It said a “slippery slope” could be ahead if changes are not made.

“[The poll] shows a divide between the wider public and British Muslim communities, and with the divides becoming stark.

“If we are to ensure that community tensions, extremism and marginalization are to be tackled in our country, we have to find ways which address the concerns of the wider public, whilst also ensuring that British Muslims feel like they have a future and a space in the United Kingdom.

“If we don’t collectively make a change, there is a slippery slope ahead which does not bode well,” it added.

There is a pretty stark liberal slant to this piece. It acknowledges the Brits are more appreciative of immigrants in general, but less appreciative of Muslims specifically. Yet, it seems to fault the Brits who are less appreciative of Muslims rather than the Muslims themselves. 

One gets the impression from Hope not Hate and Tell MAMA that all that is needed is a more focused propaganda campaign to enlighten those poor slobs who think that Muslim radicals murdering innocent civilians is not good for the country. Or the Muslim men grooming, drugging, gang-raping young British girls might be anti-British, somehow. Or Muslim majority councils placing little, blonde, British girls in the care of Salafist Muslims who can't speak English and who teach them that British women are all whores and prostitutes, might not be edifying to those girls.

Islam is not compatible with British law or values in any way, shape or form. Islam becomes more and more Sharia-friendly with every increase in the percentage of the population. Muslims reproduce much faster than any other demographic in Britain so that percentage is increasing rapidly, and that's a problem because Islam is volatile! Muslims quite simply go insane at the suggestion of someone insulting Mohammed. 2 years ago there were 1.5 million British Muslims supporting ISIS.

Muslims immigrate from countries with vast Muslim majorities; countries that are no longer fit to live in. They bring with them a virulent anti-Semitic, anti-Christian attitude. And they bring with them, and seem determined to keep those values which destroyed their old countries and made them unfit for life. 

This will be the legacy of Islam in the UK and do-gooder liberal organizations seem determined to make it happen.

YouTube - Part of Deep State? Seriously?

‘Economic censorship’:

YouTube bans advertisers from Ron Paul videos

YouTube stands accused of censorship, following the company’s decision to bar former Congressman Ron Paul and his online news program from receiving advertising revenue for a number of videos which Paul recently posted.

Upon “manual review,” the website has found a series of videos posted by the Ron Paul Liberty Report “unsuitable for all advertisers,” effectively denying Paul and his online news program potential revenue from views.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called it “economic censorship,” noting that the ‘unsuitable’ videos featured the former congressman’s criticism of president Donald Trump’s decision to send more American troops to Afghanistan, as well as criticizing the US Senate Intelligence Committee for terming Wikileaks a hostile foreign intelligence service last week.

Or maybe it was his recent column on 'deep state'? Ron Paul: Vote All You Want, the Secret Government Won't Change

Dr. Paul, a 12-term ex-congressman and three-time presidential candidate, is known for views that often contradict those of Washington’s political establishment, especially on issues of war and peace.

“We have no violence, no foul language, no political extremism, no hate or intolerance,” Daniel McAdams, co-producer of the Ron Paul Liberty Report, told RT America. “Our program is simply a news analysis discussion from a libertarian and antiwar perspective.”

'Antiwar perspective' is 'anti-deepstate' perspective!

McAdams, who also is executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, added that the YouTube demonetization “creates enormous financial burdens for the program.”

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why it decided to exclude Paul’s videos from gaining advertising benefits.

However, the website’s guidelines say YouTube reserves the right to demonetize videos on “controversial issues and sensitive events,” further explaining that it could be “video content that features or focuses on sensitive topics or events including, but not limited to, war, political conflicts, terrorism or extremism, death and tragedies, sexual abuse, even if graphic imagery is not shown.”

YouTube has done the same to a number of political commentators. Most recently, those affected by the advert ban include left-wing online blogger Tim Black and right-wing commentator Paul Joseph Watson. Their videos have registered millions of views on the website.

“Demonetization is a deliberate effort to stamp out independent political commentary – from the left or the right,” Black told the Boston Globe’s Hiawatha Bray. “It’s not about specific videos... It’s about pushing out diversity of thought and uplifting major news networks such as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.”

Previously, YouTube demonetized popular videos by Diamond and Silk, two black women who strongly support Trump, as well as the work of left-wing humorist Jimmy Dore.

“YouTube needs to take a hard look at its own extreme political intolerance before preventing alternative, peaceful political views from being shared as advertising partners on its platform,” McAdams told RT America.

Video producers can appeal demonetization, a YouTube spokesperson told the Boston Globe.

“Many creators, including Diamond and Silk, have submitted and successfully won appeals.”

However, the Ron Paul Liberty Report was “not given answers but rather canned non-responses,” when the program asked for an explanation from YouTube, McAdams said.

How is it that unelected, basically unknown people with no serious oversight and no accountability have removed free speech from American society. Is it time to nationalize social networking, or create a bureaucracy to oversee it?

The Most Insane Story You will Read This Week, Maybe This Year

Christian child forced into Muslim foster care

Concern for girl who ‘had cross removed and was encouraged to learn Arabic’

The Times
Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter

A white Christian child was taken from her family and forced to live with a niqab-wearing foster carer in a home where she was allegedly encouraged to learn Arabic.

The five-year-old girl, a native English speaker, has spent the past six months in the care of two Muslim households in London. The foster placements were made, against the wishes of the girl’s family, by the scandal-ridden borough of Tower Hamlets.

The five-year-old girl, whose identity The Times is protecting, with her present foster carer. Her mother is said to be horrified by the alien cult­ural, religious and linguistic environment in which her daughter has spent the past six months

In confidential local authority reports seen by The Times, a social services supervisor describes the child sobbing and begging not to be returned to the foster carer’s home because “they don’t speak English”.

The reports state that the supervisor heard the girl, who at times was “very distressed”, claiming that the foster carer removed her necklace, which had a Christian cross, and also suggested that she should learn Arabic.

It is understood that the child told her mother that when she was given her favourite Italian food to take home, the foster carer would not allow her to eat it because the carbonara meal contained bacon.

More recently, the girl is said to have told her mother that “Christmas and Easter are stupid” and that “European women are stupid and alcoholic”.

In any decision regarding a foster placement, local authorities are required to give due consideration to the child’s “religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background”.

Tower Hamlets refused to respond to requests to explain why it had chosen to place a white, English-speaking Christian child with Muslim foster carers, including one household where she was unable to understand the language spoken by the family.

Her first carer, with whom the girl lived for four months, is believed to have worn a niqab outside the family home. The carer at her present foster placement wears a burka, fully concealing her face, when she accompanies the child in public.

The wearing of a niqab or burka generally indicates adherence to a conservative, Salafi-influenced interpretation of Islam that is often contemptuous of liberal western values.

To protect the child, The Times has chosen not to identify her or the unusual circumstances that led to her being taken into care earlier this year.

The girl’s mother is said by friends to have been horrified by the alien cultural, religious and linguistic environment in which her daughter has spent the past six months.

“This is a five-year-old white girl. She was born in this country, speaks English as her first language, loves football, holds a British passport and was christened in a church,” said a friend.

“She’s already suffered the huge trauma of being forcibly separated from her family. She needs surroundings in which she’ll feel secure and loved. Instead, she’s trapped in a world where everything feels foreign and unfamiliar. That’s really scary for a young child.”

In some areas of the country, a longstanding shortage of foster carers from ethnic-minority backgrounds frequently leads to non-white children being, of necessity, placed with white British foster parents. It is far less common for the reverse to take place.

Published fostering statistics for England show that of the 51,800 children who were in foster placements last year, 39,900 (77 per cent) were white, as were 52,500 (84 per cent) of the 62,400 approved foster carers.

The 2011 national census found that 80 per cent of England’s population was white British, falling to 45 per cent in London and 31 per cent in inner-city Tower Hamlets.

Across the capital last year, 39 per cent of fostered children and 42 per cent of foster carers were white. In Tower Hamlets, only 24 per cent of looked-after children were white.

No figures were published nationally or at local authority level to show how many children were placed with foster carers of a different ethnicity.

Tower Hamlets declined to reveal how many cross-cultural foster placements it was overseeing. The council also refused to say whether it had a shortage of white British foster carers. It cited confidentiality obligations and accused The Times of putting at risk the stability of a vulnerable child’s foster placement and schooling.

Ten years ago a council report warned of a need to “recruit foster carers from a range of backgrounds” in Tower Hamlets to enable it “to match carers and children, taking into account a number of factors including ethnicity, religion, language, culture and location”.

The under-represented communities that it sought to target in 2008 in adverts for new foster carers were “Caribbean, African, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi (for older children) and white”.

More recently the council has earned public notoriety. In 2015 it was stripped by the government of many of its powers after its former mayor, Lutfur Rahman, was found guilty of corrupt and illegal electoral practices.

In April this year an Ofsted inspection of the council found “widespread and serious failures in the services provided to children who need help and protection”.

Rating the children’s service as inadequate, it condemned an “entrenched culture of non-compliance with basic social work standards”.

The Department for Education said it was unable to comment on cases but a spokesman stressed that “when placing a child in a foster home, the local authority must ensure that the placement is the most appropriate way to safeguard the child and support their welfare. A child’s background is an important consideration in this decision.”

Unless you're a Salafist Muslim, in which case you are saving the child from the evils of western society and teaching her to believe an insane religion and how to become an invisible woman. 

Is this craziness the consequence of having a Muslim majority on the council? Or of having a Muslim/Labour majority council? Whatever it is, there appears to be an unspoken agenda here that is extremely abusive to one little, white, Christian, British girl.

Tower Hamlets, London

840,000 Muslims in Europe Feel Disconnected from Their Country

Every fifth European doesn’t want a Muslim neighbor - survey

© Mike Kemp / Getty Images

Around a fifth of European citizens do not want to live next door to adherents of the Islamic faith, a fresh survey has revealed.

The research, which was carried out by Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation as part of the Religious Monitor 2017 project, saw 10,000 people interviewed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and the UK, which between them are home to some 14 million Muslims.

“20 percent of citizens questioned say they do not want to have Muslims as neighbors,” Bertelsmann Stiftung said.

According to the survey, the level of concern over Islam is the highest in Austria (28 percent) and lowest in France (14 percent).

According to Muslimpress, the same survey revealed that around 31 percent of people in the five countries didn’t want to live near refugees in general, regardless of their religion.

Bertelsmann Stiftung also addressed discrimination against Muslims in the European labor market in its paper.

“Everywhere, except in the UK” highly religious Muslims have more difficulty finding a job in accordance with their qualification than less devoted Islam followers, according to the foundation’s findings.

Is there a difference between 'highly religious' Muslims and 'radical' Muslims? Obviously, some employers don't think so. 

“I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…

impossible…for any human being to read the biography

of Mohammed and believe in it, and then emerge a

psychologically and mentally healthy person.”

- Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan

Muslims were also being paid less, especially in Germany, as they usually occupy low-wage positions, it added.

“So far, no country in western Europe has found a convincing strategy that addresses both equal opportunity as well as respect for religious diversity,” Yasemin El-Menouar, Islam expert at Bertelsmann Stiftung, said.

At the same time, other data gathered by Religious Monitor 2017 suggested that Muslims are well-integrated into mainstream society in Europe.

Second- and third-generation Muslims living in Europe have much better knowledge of the local language, better levels of education and better jobs, compared with those who are recent arrivals to the EU.

Well, Duh! What would you expect?

The children of most immigrants are learning the tongue of their country of residence as their first language, Bertelsmann Stiftung said.

Over 90 percent of immigrant kids have French as their primary language in France, with 80 percent of Muslims born in Britain learning English as children.

“Seventy-five percent of Muslims regularly spend their free time with non-Muslims,” the research said.

According to Bertelsmann Stiftung, around 94 percent of Muslims, interviewed by the foundation, said that they felt connected with their European country they live in.

Which, of course, means that 6% don't. 6% of 14 million Muslim is 840,000 people who feel no connection to the land they live in. Many of them probably resent that their children or grandchildren prefer to speak English or French or German and hang around with non-Muslim friends. How many of them want their children to live in the ways of the 'old country', which, of course, they would never want to live in again?

Ron Paul: Vote All You Want, the Secret Government Won't Change

Former congressman Ron Paul is outspoken. When he retired from Congress, he called lawmakers psychopathic authoritarians to their faces. He’s also called Donald Trump an authoritarian and asserted Hillary Clinton could have run as a Republican. And just last week, Paul took aim at the foundational structure of American ‘democracy.’

In a recent episode of his web show, the Liberty Report, Ron Paul discussed the Department of Homeland Security’s decision last month to take a more active role in U.S. elections. Secretary Jeh Johnson said he was “considering whether elections should be classified as ‘critical infrastructure,’ affording them the same kinds of enhanced protections that the banking system and the electrical grid receive,” POLITICO reported.

The potential move came on the heels of the notorious DNC leak in July, which exposed intentions within the Democratic Party to manipulate the primary race against Senator Bernie Sanders. Politicians and the media quickly blamed the hack on Russia, failing to cite conclusive proof of their allegations yet spawning the narrative that the Kremlin and other foreign threats could compromise U.S. elections.

On his show, Paul took issue with the notion that the Department of Homeland Security, an agency riddled with incompetence and failed objectives — case in point, the TSA — (Security screeners at Kennedy and Newark airports have consistently failed to find weapons and bombs being smuggled by undercover operatives posing as airline passengers) is capable of securing U.S. elections.

Speaking on DHS’s decision to become more involved in the process following the DNC hack, Ron Paul offered a scathing indictment of the federal organization, arguing it will capitalize on troubling events to seize power:

“They may have false flags and they may do a lot of things, but no matter how an emergency comes up, they’re going to make use of it. And the use of it isn’t to say ‘Hey, how are we going to protect the American people?’ Are they worrying, when they talk about doing something about rigged elections, [that] the votes are counted? No, they’re making sure that the votes aren’t counted and they’re irrelevant and the government has all this power.”

Ron Paul speaks about rigged elections from personal experience. In 2012, when he ran for president within the Republican Party, he was silenced by the media and the political establishment. Primaries and caucuses in Maine and other states showed irregularities, and at more than one caucus event, the lights were simply turned off when Paul supporters stood up to Republican leadership. At another caucus, police assaulted and arrested them.

“The elections don’t matter. This is a ritual that we go through,” Paul observed last week. Instead, he referenced a seemingly omnipotent power much more influential than the ‘will of the people.’

“My belief is that the control is the Deep State,

and people have to realize that,” he said.

Michael Lofgren, a former Republican congressional aide, has written extensively on the Deep State and describes it as “a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.”

Lofgren continues:

“The Deep State does not consist of the entire government. It is a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies: the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department.”

Lofgren notes the financial system is also under the influence of the Deep State and that certain areas of the judicial system, namely, the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, are manipulated by the opaque, shadowy apparatus.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established during the cold war to oversee foreign surveillance. Out of nearly 34,000 requests for surveillance, the FISC refused 11.

As Ron Paul observed:

“Those powers are already there and I think those individuals who are behind the scenes who really find out what the policies are going to be, regardless of who’s in office, know exactly what we argue: that this place, our country, and our financial system and foreign policy is very precarious and something terrible is going to happen.”

One of those things, he argued, is the continued usurpation of civil liberties:

“This is where the real enemy is right now. Sure, we have to have a national defense. But I don’t agitate and read and study and try to change people’s minds because I think somebody is going to invade us. I want to change foreign policy so we are less in danger. But really, the greatest danger since 9/11 has been the taking away of our liberties. Our civil liberties have been undermined. This will only add fuel to the problems we have already.”

He concluded:

“We do accept the notion that our elections are rigged, but we certainly don’t come down on the side of believing that the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA will unrig our elections.”

“It is a distressing thing to think that — [this is probably a] true statement — no matter what you do [with] your vote, whether you vote or not, the Deep State is in charge and that is what we have to deal with.”

Nevertheless, Paul remained positive:

“But it is good to be politically active, to preach this message, to show people exactly what the government’s doing to us and why we should be involved.”

“But of course, the whole purpose, in the end, has to be that we change our economic philosophy, we change our attitude about protection of our civil liberties, and we change our attitude about getting involved in the internal affairs of other nations, occupying other countries, and being involved in nation-building. If we do those three little things then, believe me, the world would be much more peaceful and we would all be much more prosperous.”

This article (Ron Paul: Vote All You Want, the Secret Government Won’t Change) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedler and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.

Libyans Who Once Opposed Gaddafi Now Regret Western-Led Regime Change

Who actually benefits from American-led wars across the globe? The aftermath of American-led conflicts shows it is not the common people, though the military and politicians vow they are liberating and protecting them.

The Sunday Mail, Zimbabwe’s “leading family newspaper,” has published accounts of a number of Libyans who expressed regret over Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow in 2011, despite the fact some of them even took up arms against him. 

As one said:

“‘I joined the revolution in the first days and fought against Gaddafi,’ former revolutionary fighter Mohammed, 31, said from the southern city of Murzuq. ‘Before 2011, I hated Gaddafi more than anyone. But now, life is much, much harder, and I have become his biggest fan.’”

In 2011, we were told Gaddafi was going to commit grave bloodshed against his own people and that as a result, the international community needed to intervene to protect Libyan civilians. This proved to be false, according to an analysis of statistics obtained by Human Rights Watch. Further, an investigation conducted by Amnesty International also found a number of claims against Gaddafi were fabricated, as noted by the Independent:

“Nato leaders, opposition groups and the media have produced a stream of stories since the start of the insurrection on 15 February, claiming the Gaddafi regime has ordered mass rapes, used foreign mercenaries and employed helicopters against civilian protesters.

“An investigation by Amnesty International has failed to find evidence for these human rights violations and in many cases has discredited or cast doubt on them. It also found indications that on several occasions the rebels in Benghazi appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence.”

Is it possible that Hillary didn't properly secure the Benghazi embassy because she thought the rebels there were on her side?

The so-called “no-fly zone” the U.N. Security Council Resolution authorized did not allow for regime change, something NATO representatives further promised their Eastern counterparts would not happen. The resolution only authorized the coalition forces to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory. The resolution requested that the coalition immediately inform the Secretary-General of such measures.

What this “no-fly zone” actually entailed was a full-scale assault on Gaddafi’s forces to ensure none of his aircraft could fly within his own country’s airspace. It also meant anything capable of taking out a coalition warplane would also have to be destroyed.

All of these NATO bombs were allegedly intended to protect civilians.

Furthermore, a Libyan rebel commander went on record to admit his fighters included al-Qaeda-linked jihadists who had fought against U.S. troops in Iraq. These fighters, known at the time as al-Qaeda in Iraq, are now referred to as ISIS. It should be no surprise that ISIS now has a stronghold in Libya following the fall of Gaddafi.

Before the NATO onslaught, Libya had the highest standard of living of any country in Africa. This meant the people enjoyed state-sponsored healthcare, high literacy rates, and other benefits that come with living in a relatively prosperous society. 

In 2015 alone, the country fell 27 places on the U.N. Human Development Index ratings. According to UNICEF, there are now two million Libyan children out of school.

Consumers of corporate media might also be surprised to learn Libya had an inclusive and progressive democracy where decision-making was conducted at the local level. It was not the dictatorship Sacha Baron Cohen incorrectly portrayed in his film, The Dictator.

Regardless of one’s views of Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader was able to provide stability and good governance to the people of Libya. It may be the case that he was responsible for torturing scores of dissidents, but one should bear in mind that the United Kingdom would actually send those dissidents to Gaddafi, knowing full well they would be tortured.

Making this corruption even juicier, former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who essentially had Gaddafi assassinated, was actually under investigation for having accepted 50 million euros from Gaddafi for his election campaign.

Are we supposed to trust these corrupt politicians to protect the interests of civilians?

To the warmongers within the American political establishment, the destruction of the Libyan way of life was nothing but a game.

As stated by Libyan medical student, Salem:

“We thought things would be better after the revolution, but they just keep getting worse and worse.

“Far more people have been killed since 2011 than during the revolution or under 42 years of Gaddafi’s rule combined.

“We never had these problems under Gaddafi.

“There was always money and electricity and, although people did not have large salaries, everything was cheap, so life was simple.

“Some of my friends have even taken the boat to Europe with the migrants because they feel there is no future for them here.

“I would like to escape this mess and study abroad but I have been waiting a year for a new passport and, even when I do get one, it will be hard to get a visa because all the embassies left in 2014.

“So now I feel like a prisoner in my own country. And I have started to hate my own country.”

This article (Libyans Who Once Opposed Gaddafi Now Regret US-Led Regime Change) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Darius Shahtahmasebi and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.

It should also be pointed out that there were few, if any, migrants passing through Libya on their way to Europe while Gadaffi was in power. Now, they are endless and many end up being held prisoner for months as they are ransomed by lawless gangs. Female migrants frequently suffer from rape, ransom and slavery. There is very little law and order as there are several groups of criminal and/or terrorist gangs vying for control of the country.

Are the tactics used in Libya similar to those being used in Syria? It seems obvious that western interference in both Libya and Syria have managed to accomplish only despair for the people and have literally manufactured the migrant crisis in Europe. Actions in both countries are both illegal and immoral and we will probably learn absolutely nothing from it.

War Refugees Travel on Vacation to Their Home Country

Translated from Swedish by Google

Morganbladet

How can one allow a refugee reception system in which "refugees" are considered to be safe even though they are not at risk in their country of origin? That question can be asked to the government.

Helsingborgs Dagblad reports  that the border police in Skåne react to refugees from Iraq, who have been granted a permanent residence permit for protection reasons, nevertheless make unrestricted travel back to Iraq.

It raises six often fully booked planes a week from Malmö Airport to Iraq. 

Most travelers are Iraqis who have been granted a residence permit in Sweden because they stated that they are at risk of being detained, tortured or killed in their country of origin. Yet, these people can travel to Iraq and sometimes spend months there.

The police have responded to this and mean that several distributed PUT permits should be re-examined. 

Many critics of Swedish immigration policy have long claimed that there are serious shortcomings, not to mention catastrophic deficiencies, how immigration and refugee policy work, and, inter alia, it is unreasonable if asylum reception relies on "refugee" as the sole source of information for granting That person's PUT.

More and more seem to come to the conclusion that there is no self-purpose of granting refugees PUT. 

Skåne Co., Sweden

Belgium Opens 189 Terrorism Cases in 2017, Focus on ‘Homegrown’ Extremists

The New Normal in Belgium

© Francois Lenoir / Reuters

Belgian prosecutors have opened more than 20 new probes against people suspected of terrorism-related offenses on average every month since the start of the year, with the total number reaching 189 to date, local media report.

The figure is already nearing the mark for similar cases opened throughout 2014, when the total number was 195. The average number of monthly cases opened also exceeds last year’s figure, which amounted to 22, the Belgian newspapers De Tijd and L'Echo report.

The Belgian media also report that the focus of investigators’ attention has now shifted from extremists who left Belgium to fight alongside terrorist groups in the Middle East, as it was in 2015, to “home-grown radicals” who have never left for Syria or Iraq, as well as towards increasingly younger suspects.

Investigations were also opened into cases in which Belgian citizens became victims of terrorist attacks in other countries, such as Spain, Turkey or Sweden. The Belgian authorities say that the risk of a terrorist attack in the country remains high.

All Belgian law enforcement and security services “from local police to state security service” are now working “primarily on terrorism” and collect as much information on possible terrorist threats as “never before,” the newspapers report.

They add that the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has recently been strengthened through an increase in the number of magistrates from 24 to 32, with 12 of them now working solely on terrorism-related cases.

So far, 289 people have been tried for terrorism-related offenses since January 2015, according to media reports.

Belgium was hit by one of the worst terrorist attacks in Europe in recent years when in March of 2016 suicide bombings at Brussels Airport and the city’s metro killed 32 people and left scores more injured.

It was later revealed that one of the suicide bombers, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, was known to the authorities for his criminal background, while Turkey had also warned he was a “foreign terrorist fighter.”

Belgium has a substantial migrant population and the largest per capita number of fighters that left to join terrorists in Iraq and Syria, according to a study by the Hague-based International Center for Counter-Terrorism, released in April of 2016.

In one of the latest incidents, explosives, loaded AK-47s, police and other uniforms as well as three handguns, ammunition and two bulletproof vests were found during raids in Brussels in early July. Two men suspected of “participating in activities of a terrorist group” were arrested following the discovery of the arsenal.

Meet Hameed: 12yo Yemeni Boy is Battling Cholera after Having 23 Surgeries & Losing Arm

This is a disgraceful exercise in man's inhumanity

and just as disgraceful is the lack of concern of western countries

which just keep selling arms to the combatants as though the

blood of those children was not on their hands

May God have mercy on the beautiful people of Yemen

Arhab, Yemen

A 12-year-old Yemeni boy has undergone 23 surgical operations, including the amputation of his left arm, after falling victim to the war in his country that left him with terrible scars. He is now battling cholera.

Hameed has had a rough childhood. In 2014, the boy was electrocuted when a high-voltage cable fell from a transmission tower during armed clashes in Yemen’s Amran governorate. The shock was enormous, but the kid survived.

For the past several years, he has been in and out of the hospital with various health-related problems.

“Even a slight cough affects him badly. He’s very weak. His elbow has been damaged by frequent falls,” Hameed’s father, Faraj Al-Asadi, told RT.

“As you can see, his neck is injured as well. These tragedies come from war. The boy spent a month in intensive care before regaining consciousness. He’s undergone surgery many times and will need more operations. Look at all his injuries.”

Hameed, his face and body awash with heart-stopping scars, is also battling with repeated cholera infections.

More than half a million people in Yemen have been infected with cholera since the outbreak began in spring, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week. 

"The total number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen this year hit the half a million mark, and nearly 2,000 people have died since the outbreak began to spread rapidly at the end of April," the WHO said in a statement. 

Yemen's cholera epidemic is currently the “largest in the world,” the WHO says. The disease has been spreading like wildfire due to worsening hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to the water supply across the country. Local residents are cut off from clean water.

“Half of the people who are affected by the cholera are children, and a quarter of the people who have died from suspected cholera cases are children," Marie Claire Feghali, regional communications manager with Red Cross, told RT.

A few key reasons contributed to the deadly disease outbreak in Yemen.

“Everything in the country has collapsed. That includes the water system, the health system, it also includes the fact that there’s no garbage collection in the country. Cholera is a water-borne disease. When you don’t have garbage collection, when you don’t have proper treatment of the water, it’s a whole number of factors that cause this cholera outbreak to be as serious as it is and as it was.”

“The situation in Yemen in general is extremely bad. It’s a man-made situation. It’s due to the fact that there’s a war going on in the country and there are people, who are civilians, who are paying the highest price,” Feghali said.

Yemen's ongoing conflict and a “man-made” humanitarian catastrophe has “no end in sight,” the head of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in the war-torn country said in August, warning that nearly 7 million people are at risk of starvation.

Around 70 percent of Yemenis are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Roughly 60 percent have no prospects of securing their next meal as nearly 7 million “are close to slipping into a state of famine,” Auke Lootsma, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director said earlier this month. 

The Saudi-led coalition launched its aerial bombing campaign in support of the ousted Yemeni president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in March 2015. The campaign targets the remnants of the country’s military loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi rebels. The casualties in the fighting have surpassed 10,000 dead and 40,000 injured by January 2017, according to the UN estimates, with civilians making up a large share of victims. The bombing failed to bring victory to the Saudi-backed side in the conflict, but devastated Yemeni cities and infrastructure.

"Since March 2015, OHCHR has documented 13,609 civilian casualties, including 5,021 killed and 8,588 injured. These numbers are based on the casualties individually verified by the UN human rights office in Yemen," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesman Rupert Colville said in July. 

Colville, however, noted at the time that the “overall number” of civilians killed could be much higher and estimated it to be over 11,000.

Some two-third of the verified civilian deaths were caused by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, while the rest of the victims were killed by Houthi rebels and terrorist groups Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, Colville told Anadolu Agency. 

Leading humanitarian organizations have named the aerial bombing the main cause of civilian deaths in the country.

The Saudi-led coalition has struck civilian targets on numerous occasions, but acknowledged only few of the attacks, calling them “mistakes” caused by “bad intelligence.”

The military campaign is supported by a tight air and naval blockade on Yemen, backed by the US. The situation has effectively led to healthcare collapse, according to Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien.

A UN report, leaked last week, indicates that Riyadh-led coalition strikes have resulted in hundreds of Yemeni children being killed or maimed. The confidential draft was to be presented by the UN Secretary-General, but it was first seen and published by Reuters and Foreign Policy (FP) magazine. The report alleges, that Saudi forces and their Gulf allies were complicit in over half of the deaths and injuries of children in Yemen last year.

“The killing and maiming of children remained the most prevalent violation” of children’s rights in Yemen, the 41-page paper says, as cited by FP. “In the reporting period, attacks carried out by air were the cause of over half of all child casualties, with at least 349 children killed and 333 children injured,” the report added, urging that Riyadh and its allies be added to a black list of countries violating children's rights.

video 2:50

Refugee Hate Preacher Received $620K in Social Benefits in Switzerland

FILE PHOTO © Ina Fassbender / Reuters

A Libyan immigrant who called on Allah to “destroy” non-Muslims during his prayer in a Swiss mosque claimed $620,000 in social benefits for over a decade from a predominantly Christian state, local media report.

In his hate speech, imam Abu Ramadan called on Allah “to destroy the enemies of our religion,” Switzerland’s SRF broadcaster reported, citing an audio recording in its possession.

The “enemies” according to the preacher included “Jews, Christians, Hindus, Russians and the Shia [branch of Islam].”

Ramadan received some 600,000 Swiss francs ($620,000) in social benefits from the Swiss government over the last 13 years, according to research conducted by the Rundschau program of SRF and the Tages Anzeiger newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the imam came to seek refuge in Switzerland in 1998 after he fled his homeland, explaining that he’d been pursued by authorities for spreading religious propaganda for the Muslim Brotherhood.

With political asylum granted and a residence permit, the 64-year-old Ramadan hardly ever worked, instead living on social payments from 2004 until 2017.

Ramadan, who can barely speak French or German according to news outlets, is said have preached in small towns of Biel and Neuchâtel, as well appeared on the Libyan Islamic channel, Tanaush TV.

In addition, research found the imam’s pictures at luxury hotels, made when he accompanied pilgrims to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Through a statement by his lawyer, the preacher claimed to Tages Anzeiger that he respects other religions. "Love, tolerance and generosity are my guideline in my relations with Muslims and non-Muslims," the imam insisted.

However, according to the tape obtained by the Swiss outlets, he also preached that “a person who befriends a disbeliever is cursed until the Day of Judgment.”

Social welfare official Christian Hauri said his department had no “means to research our clients.” But the head of the social and security department of the city of Biel, Beat Feurer, believes the imam should be deported.

“This is someone who does not call directly for jihad but creates the mental breeding ground for it,” says the Swiss-Tunisian rights activist, Saida Keller-Messahli.

Last year, Denmark discovered that dozens of its citizens who left for Syria and Iraq to fight alongside Islamic State continued to receive social benefits at home. In total, the jihadists received the hefty sum of 672,000 kroner (around $94,500) from municipalities and state-subsidized funds.

The situation was blamed on a lack of awareness in the municipalities and the sluggishness of the country’s intelligence services, who failed to issue a warning about the dangerous individuals.

Moreover, the British housing and child welfare system has unwittingly “supplied” terrorists with “hundreds of thousands of pounds,” a former independent reviewer of UK terrorism legislation, Lord Carlile, claimed last year.

“[Such activity] has increased during the rise of ISIS. Certainly, the government should ensure that there is no more triage available when housing benefits recipients are known to have gone to another country,” Carlile said.

The travel expenses of the terrorists who organized the 2016 Brussels bombings, which killed 32 and injured some 300, were partially funded by falsely claimed British social benefits, a UK criminal investigation discovered.

Good grief!

Muslim 'Instant Divorce' Unconstitutional, India's Supreme Court Rules

By Ed Adamczyk  

Muslim women in Mumbai protest the practice of "instant divorce" or "triple talaq" by which a Muslim man can divorce

his wife by announcing it three times. India's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the practice is unconstitutional.

Photo by Divyakant Solang/EPA

UPI -- India's Supreme Court declared the "instant divorce" practice among the nation's Muslim population to be unconstitutional Tuesday after decades of campaigns by women's groups.

The court, by a 3-2 vote, struck down the legality of a divorce by which a Muslim man can formally dissolve his marriage to his Muslim wife by simply repeating "talaq," or "divorce," three times.

The "triple talaq" process typically leaves the wife with no alimony or other compensation. 

A survey in India, conducted in 2015 by the Muslim women's activist group Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, indicated that one in 11 Muslim women were subjected to the triple talaq.

Some Muslim clerics have also recognized instant divorces if the word "talaq" is texted or emailed to the wife, The Guardian reported Tuesday.

The court determined that the practice is discriminatory to women. The ruling noted that the triple talaq was "not integral to religious practice, and violates constitutional morality," and thus is not fundamental to Islam and does not have constitutional protection.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who supported the petition to the court, said the ruling "grants equality to Muslim women and is a powerful measure for women empowerment."

The court did not rule on other forms of divorce within Muslim law, where reconciliation is possible. The verdict only concerns "instant divorce," in which there is no counseling or compromise.

The "triple talaq" practice has already been banned in Pakistan, Bangladesh and much of the rest of the Muslim world.

"It's a very happy day for us. It's a historic day," Zakia Soman, co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, said. "We, the Muslim women, are entitled to justice from the courts as well as the legislature."