Here We Go: Migrants on the Move; Is Europe Prepared or Will It Be 2015 All Over Again?

As Turkey opens path to Europe, one refugee describes

war-like scene at border with Greece

Will Angela Merkel throw Germany's doors wide open again?

Refugees arrived at Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria Friday, upon news that borders were open

CBC Radio

An Iranian refugee who is trying to cross the border from Turkey into Greece described babies and elderly people waiting in freezing conditions, as Greek officials fired tear gas.

"It's like a war," Parvin told As It Happens which is withholding her full name because she fears for her safety. 

Hundreds of other refugees arrived at Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday morning.

Parvin arrived in the Turkish town of Edirne, near the Greek border, after hearing the news that Turkey is not stopping refugees from entering Europe. 

A Turkish official announced that the country was opening the border, after an airstrike in Syria's Idlib province by Russian-backed Syrian government troops killed 33 Turkish soldiers on Thursday night. 

This makes a lot of sense! Russia-backed Syria attacks Turkish troops who were among rebel troops in Idlib, and Turkey gets mad and punishes Europe. Erdogan's plans to expand the Turkish caliphate are being stymied, so he is responding by just trying to hurt anyone he can. Or, is this part of the plan, to fill Europe with Muslims?

Turkey will no longer close its border gates to refugees who want to go to Europe , a senior official

told media on Friday, shortly after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in northern Syria.

(Ozan Kose/AFP, via Getty Images)

There are some 3.6 million Syrians in Turkey, and the country has threatened for years to "open the gates" in several disputes with European states. Turkey struck a deal in 2016 with the European Union to stop the number of migrants entering Europe.

NATO held emergency talks on Friday to try to diffuse the situation between Turkey and Russia. 

Parvin has been living in Turkey for the past three years, after leaving Iran because she feared the government.   

She said she decided to go to the Pazarkule border post with Greece because she does not feel safe in Turkey and fears that she will be sent back to Iran. 

"It's not important which city. It's not important which country. We want to live like a human. Like a person. Have citizenship from another country," she said. 

Does she mean a non-Islamic country? 

Greek border security guards stand in front of refugees from Turkey trying to cross the Greek Turkish border on Friday. (Osman Orsal/Getty Images)

Bulgaria sent 1,000 troops to its border with Turkey. At the Pazarkule border crossing post, where Parvin is waiting, refugees were met with barbed wire fences and tear gas. 

Both countries said they would not allow the refugees to enter.

Weather is cold and rainy

Parvin said the weather is rainy and cold, and children are shaking. She says that there is no food, water or toilets and she is trying to stay warm by a fire while waiting in a forest near the border. 

Migrants stand around a fire while they are camping next the Greece border, along the Turkey-Greece border near Edirne. (Ozan Kose/AFP, via Getty Images)

Parvin said she has not been stopped from going back into Turkey, but that she does not want to return to the conditions she was living in before, which she describes as "hell". 

Instead she is pleading with Greece and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to "open the door." 

If they do not, Parvin said she will continue waiting at the border as long as she can. 

Missouri Farmer Sues Monsanto and Wins $265 million

Missouri Farmer Wins $265 Million Verdict Against Monsanto

Jury finds that because of neighbors use of dicamba,

a peach farmer is going out of business

PHOTO BY JJ GOULIN/ISTOCK

BY CAREY GILLAM, Sierra Club

A Missouri peach farmer notched a rare courtroom victory this month, defeating the former Monsanto Co. and chemical giant BASF in the first of what is expected to be a series of court fights over claims that the companies are responsible for pesticide damage that has wiped out orchards, gardens, and organic farm fields in multiple states.

On February 14, a unanimous jury awarded Bill Bader and his family-owned Bader Farms $15 million in compensatory damages. The following day, they added on another $250 million in punitive damages to be paid by Bayer AG (Monsanto’s German owner) and BASF. The jury found that Monsanto and BASF conspired in actions that created what Bader’s attorney called an “ecological disaster” designed to increase profits at the expense of farmers such as Bader.

The verdict followed three weeks of documentary evidence and testimony introduced in US District Court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The evidence proved that Bader Farms suffered extensive damage to its peach business from dicamba, a herbicide sprayed by neighboring farmers that drifted into the Bader orchard. The dicamba did so much damage that the Bader farm is essentially being forced out of business due to the loss of 30,000 peach trees, according to Bader attorney Bill Randles. 

“It’s very sad,” Randles said in an interview with Sierra. “He’s been the ‘peach guy.’ Now . . . his peach farm cannot survive.”

The Bader lawsuit is one of many brought by farmers around the country blaming Monsanto and BASF for dicamba damage to their fields, gardens, and trees. Dicamba has been used by farmers for decades to kill weeds on their fields but historically was not sprayed during hot summer months because of the tendency of the herbicide to become volatile and drift long distances where it could kill non-targeted plants. 

Monsanto upended that caution when it introduced genetically engineered soybeans and cotton designed to tolerate a direct spray of dicamba. The company said fields planted with its new GMO crops could be sprayed with new dicamba formulations developed by Monsanto and BASF that would not drift away from the targeted fields. That meant farmers buying the GMO seeds could use the dicamba herbicides at will to help fight weeds even during the warm months of the season and not worry about harming a neighbor’s fields, the companies said. 

Monsanto announced in 2011 that it would work with BASF to introduce the new dicamba system because its “Roundup Ready” system, which was based on the use of glyphosate herbicides and glyphosate-tolerant crops, had led to an epidemic of glyphosate-resistant weeds.

Scientists warned that while the new system might work well for people buying the special seeds, it would threaten the production of farmers growing anything other than Monsanto’s GMO soybeans and cotton. Publicly, Monsanto and BASF scoffed at the concerns and assured regulators that their new dicamba cropping system would not create problems.

This was, I believe, Monsanto's plan all along, to make products that would kill almost everything, then invent seeds that are resistant to their products. That way they have control of the whole planting and weeding industry. 

What I don't understand is why Bayer was stupid enough to buy Monsanto in the first place.

But internal corporate communications introduced at trial by Randles showed that the companies secretly predicted there would be thousands of complaints about dicamba damage and even planned how to avoid liability. The documents also showed that the companies believed many cotton and soybean farmers would buy the special GMO seeds not because they wanted or needed the weed control but as a defensive measure against drift.  

“They knew they were going to hurt people, and they planned to make money off of it. It is that simple,” Randles said. “There were a lot of documents in which they privately acknowledged the harm they’re causing.” 

The jury largely agreed with the Bader Farms’s allegations, finding that Monsanto was negligent in distributing its GMO dicamba-tolerant seeds before new herbicides were released, which encouraged farmers to spray old versions of dicamba. The jury also found that Monsanto and BASF were negligent because even their new dicamba herbicide formulations drifted off target despite the companies’ representations that they would not. 

Bayer said that it would appeal the verdict and that there was “no competent evidence presented” attaching liability to Monsanto’s products. BASF said it was “surprised by the jury’s decision” and would join in the appeal. 

“BASF is convinced of the safety of its products when they are used correctly following the label instructions and stewardship guidelines,” the company said in a statement.

Lawsuits similar to Bader’s have been brought by roughly 140 farmers and have been combined as multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the federal court in Cape Girardeau. The same judge who oversaw the Bader trial, Judge Stephen Limbaugh, is overseeing the MDL. 

Randles said he is confident that the jury verdict will be upheld. 

“They’re going to pay. Can they stall it? Yes,” Randles said. “Can they overturn it? No.”

This Week's Global Terrorism Stories 20-8 - London, Iran, Germany, Israel, Toronto, Russia

British woman pleads guilty to plotting

bomb attacks in London

By Clyde Hughes

Prosecutors said she was arrested after disclosing plot details to undercover investigators.

Photo by London Metropolitan Police/EPA-EFE

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A British woman pleaded guilty to terror-related charges in a London court Friday, in connection to a plot to bomb a hotel and the city's historic St. Paul's Cathedral.

Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a Muslim convert and Islamic State supporter, entered the plea in Central London Criminal Court.

Born Michelle Ramsden before converting in 2007, she was accused of preparing terrorist acts and disseminating of terrorist publications. The judge set her sentencing for May 11.

Authorities said Shaikh admitted plans to undercover officers for a suicide-bombing at the cathedral, and said she wanted to kill as many victims as possible. Metropolitan Police also said she shared terrorist documents on a messaging app for weeks last year as she was plotting the attacks. She was arrested last fall.

The 36-year-old woman began following Islamic militants online and became severely radicalized in 2015, police said, adding that she wanted to strike a historic landmark at peak visiting hours.

Built in 1675, St. Paul's was the first cathedral built after English Reformation when King Henry VIII moved the Roman Catholic Church from Britain. It has long been a tourist attraction and has hosted major events in London.

Anti-terrorism monitoring group blacklists Iran

By Danielle Haynes

President of Iran Hassan Rouhani speaks at the 74th General Debate at the United Nations General Assembly
on September 25. The Financial Action Task Force had given Iran until February to pass anti-terrorism
legislation, but it didn't. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- An international antiterrorism group voted to keep Iran on its blacklist for failing to stop financing terrorism, the group announced Friday.

The Financial Action Task Force made the decision during its three-day meeting in Paris.

The monitoring group had given Tehran a February deadline to halt the bankrolling of terror groups and individuals by passing legislation on the issue. Since it didn't, the FATF moved Iran back onto its blacklist, imposing sanctions on Iran from the member countries.

The FATF had temporarily moved Iran onto a so-called gray list in 2016 to give it more access to the international banking system as it worked toward passing legislation.

The move will likely complicate Tehran's efforts to do business in the European Union after the United States re-imposed sanctions after breaking from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- the so-called Iran nuclear deal.

The FATF also voted to move several other countries onto its gray list of non-compliant nations, including Albania, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Uganda. It removed Trinidad and Tobago from the gray list entirely.

Shock as Ryanair CEO says

'terrorists are generally Muslim'

In racist remarks, calls for profiling of Muslim men at airports

Is it racist if it is true?

London: Muslim men should be profiled at airports as terrorists will “generally be of a Muslim persuasion”, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said in an interview published Saturday, sparking accusations of racism.

“Who are the bombers?” the budget airline’s controversial chief executive said while discussing airport security in the interview with the Times newspaper.

“They are going to be single males travelling on their own... If you are travelling with a family of kids, on you go; the chances you are going to blow them all up is zero.”

“You can’t say stuff, because it’s racism, but it will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion. Thirty years ago it was the Irish.”

A spokesman from the Muslim council of Britain accused O’Leary of “Islamophobia”.

O’Leary was “encouraging racism”, Labour MP Khalid Mahmoud told the newspaper.

“In Germany this week a white person killed eight people. Should we profile white people to see if they’re being fascists?”

It may come to that if truth continues to be politically incorrect and unacceptable to governments and media. The growth of far-right extremists are a consequence of the lack of effort, or acknowledgment, of the governments and media that there is a severe problem with Muslims living in Europe. Until they do, we can expect far-right extremists to continue to grow in numbers and in violence.

Car rammed German parade crowd in ‘attack’

injuring dozens

© Elmar Schulten/Waldeckische Landeszeitung via REUTERS

A silver Mercedes was intentionally driven into a crowd during a parade in the central German town of Volksmarsen on Monday, according to police, injuring around 30 people. One suspect has been arrested.

The incident unfolded at around 2:30pm local time during a Carnival procession in the town, when the silver station wagon ran through a barrier and plunged into the crowd, German media reports.

The male driver was arrested at the scene, with police describing him as a 29-year-old German from the region. Frankfurt prosecutors have said that he is also injured, so cannot be questioned yet.

RT✔

@RT_com

A silver Mercedes was intentionally driven into a crowd during a parade in #Germany's #Volksmarsen injuring around 30 people, no sign it was politically-motivated – police https://on.rt.com/abkx 

ISCResearch

@ISCResearch

#Breaking: A car rushed into the crowd gathered for #Carnaval in #Volkmarsen (#Germany)

At least 10 people were injured, including children.  

The driver was arrested. It is not known if this is an accident or an attack. (Hessenschau)

A police spokesman said that the suspect drove his car into the crowd “deliberately,” according to newspaper Die Welt.However, the driver’s motives remain unclear and investigators are currently treating the case as attempted homicide.

Meanwhile, Bild cites police as saying that although they assume it was an attack, there are no indications it was a politically-motivated crime. German tabloid Bild reported that the man was known to police, and had a record of harassment and trespassing.

Eyewitnesses told HNA that it sounded like the vehicle drove faster as it was approaching the people.

Several of the victims - including children - have sustained serious injuries, police said.

The town was celebrating Rose Monday, a traditional event held annually on the Monday before the start of the Christian period of Lent. Volkmarsen has a population of around 6,800 people, of whom some 1,500 were expected to attend the parade.

All other carnivals in the state of Hesse have been cancelled as a “precautionary measure,” police said on Twitter, adding that they currently have no information about the possibility of similar ramming incidents taking place elsewhere in Germany.

Update 25/02/2020: Nearly 60 people have been reported as injured today. A second man was arrested at the scene, and is accused of filming the incident, prosecutors told Reuters. His suspected links to the driver are being investigated. Still no name or motive identified.

The incident comes less than a week after a gunman carried out mass shootings at two hookah bars in Hanau (6th story on link), Germany, killing nine people. The suspect was later found dead at his home along with the body of his mother.

Israel intercepts 12 out of 14 missiles fired from Gaza in latest cross-border flare-up – IDF

The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets from Gaza, in Sderot, southern Israel February 24, 2020.

©  REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israel has shot down twelve projectiles, hours after the IDF carried out attacks inside Syria and Gaza. The Israeli military has claimed that its initial strikes were aimed at terrorist targets.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Twitter that air sirens had gone off in southern Israel on Monday, after fourteen projectiles were fired into Israel from Gaza. The IDF claims that twelve of the missiles were successfully intercepted.

Videos posted to social media purportedly show Israel’s Iron Dome anti-air defense system in action. There are no reports of injuries. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks.


🇵🇸🇾🇪🇮🇶🇸🇾🇱🇧🇦🇫🇳🇬🇮🇷🇮🇳🇵🇰
@g8sin
Occupied Palestine is under attack by Hamas. #BREAKING


Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the media that he believes the rocket barrage has prompted Tel Aviv to seriously consider a “large-scale operation” in the Gaza Strip.

The missile attack comes just hours after Israeli fighter jets launched airstrikes on Sunday, claimed to have targeted Islamic Jihad positions in Syria and Gaza.

Footage posted by Palestinian media purportedly shows an Israeli strike on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The clip shows a large explosion, followed by smoke rising from a nearby structure.

The flare-up in violence follows a spike in Palestinians’ outrage after the Israeli army used a bulldozer to scrap (scrape) the body of man who was shot dead by the IDF for trying to place an explosive at the border fence.

What's the problem with that? He's in Paradise raping virgins now, right?

Man arrested in Toronto hammer attack now facing
terrorism-related charge

Saad Akhtar, 30, charged with 1st-degree murder

in death of Scarborough woman

CBC News

Police said Tuesday that Saad Akhtar, 30, of Toronto had his charges updated to first-degree murder including terrorist activity. 

The charge was updated because of a collaborative investigation with the RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told CBC News.

Police say the attack appears to be an isolated incident and there is no further known threat to the public.

Investigators did not say what led them to upgrade Akhtar's charge, except that "evidence was discovered" that "led investigators to believe the homicide may have been a terrorist-related offence." 

The arrest stems from Friday evening, when police were called to the area of Sheppard Avenue and Havenview Road, east of McCowan Road, for a possible medical complaint.

They arrived to find a woman lying in the street, wounded. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim has been identified as 64-year-old Hang-Kam Annie Chiu of Scarborough.

Homicide Insp. Hank Idsinga said in a statement the Toronto Police Service is "committed to working with our partners … to ensure a successful outcome for this case."

"Today's announcement is a result of the good work that is done when the dedication of our members, the assistance of the public, and the involvement of our intelligence partners comes together to investigate an incident of national security," said RCMP Supt. Christopher deGale, in a statement.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-4200 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 416-222-TIPS.

Police foil plot to attack school in southwest Russia

By Clyde Hughes

Investigators said the boys were planning the assault for May.

File Photo by FotograFFF/Shutterstock/UPI

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Authorities have arrested two teenage boys who were plotting a shooting attack at a school in southwestern Russia, investigators said Wednesday.

Moscow's Federal Security Service said it arrested the 14-year-old boys and found at least one gun at an abandoned bomb shelter in Saratov, which is located about 430 miles southeast of Moscow. Officials said they were planning to use a shotgun and an "incendiary mixture" in the attack.

The FSS said one of the boys made a video that described a coming attack in May, which he said would be an act of revenge. One of the boys planned to kill at least 40 people, his accomplice said.

Authorities said the teens often visited online communities that promote mass murder and suicide, and planned to build bombs with information they found on the Internet.

"The thwarted attack was organized by two Russian citizens born in 2005," the FSS said.

"The teenagers were nabbed at an abandoned bomb shelter, where they kept a sawed-off hunting shotgun."

'Just Leave': Afghanistan Withdrawal is No-Brainer, But 'Deep State' Controls US Foreign Policy, says Ex-Virginia lawmaker

An honor guard carries the remains of a US Army soldier killed in Afghanistan ©  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

A truce between US troops and the Taliban in Afghanistan could result in American forces finally exiting the country, but there are powerful interests that want the war to continue, former Virginia senator Richard Black told RT.

The week-long ceasefire agreement between the two foes appears to be holding, and could pave the way for further negotiations that could lead to a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan – some 20 years after the US invasion in October 2001. But pulling out from the country is far easier than Washington makes it seem, Black, a retired state lawmaker and veteran, told RT America's Rick Sanchez.

They talk about how it's so difficult to get out [of Afghanistan]. The best way to get out is to leave. You just leave.

According to Black, Afghanistan serves as a prime example of how US foreign policy rarely changes, even when new administrations take the reins in Washington. The phenomenon is the result of powerful interests working behind the scenes, the retired lawmaker argued.

Look at Obama, he got the Nobel Prize and went on to be the bloodiest president since George Bush... 

There is a deep state and it actually controls

what the presidents do

And that has been the case since they assassinated JFK

He noted that despite the enormous blood and treasure spilled, there is little to show for the US invasion in Afghanistan and other countries that were selected for military 'interventions.'

"I don't think you can identify any particular thing that we've done where we can say 'this is a real achievement, this has really brought about a change for the better in some way,'" Black argued.

They have all accomplished what they were intended to accomplish - the movement of the inventories of war.

Watch the full interview below:

Merkel's Rudderless Party Sinking as SS Hamburg Lists Sharply to Port

‘Chaotic Demoralized Union’: Merkel’s CDU laments ‘bitter day’ after losing big in Hamburg state election

Germany's Social Democratic Party and the Greens won big during the Hamburg election,

leaving CDU far behind © Patrik Stollarz / AFP

Leadership chaos and the recent scandal in Thuringia – where the CDU sided with the tabooed AfD – led voters to punish the chancellor’s party in Germany’s second-largest city, its top-tier members and opponents believe.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) achieved its worst ever result in the city state of Hamburg on Sunday, scoring only 11.2 percent of the vote and trailing far behind its center-left rivals, the Social Democrats and Greens, who won the support of 39 and 24.2 percent of residents respectively.

This is one of the most embarrassing state election defeats in the CDU’s history, according to Der Spiegel, second only to the 1951 vote in Bremen, where it garnered just nine percent. Unsurprisingly, morale among the Christian Democrats – already dubbed the ‘Chaotic Demoralized Union’ in the media – was as low as their election result.

“It is a bitter day for the CDU in Germany and a historically bad result in Hamburg,” lamented the party’s secretary general Paul Ziemiak. "For us as a union there is nothing to gloss over,” added Daniel Gunther, prime minister of northern state Schleswig-Holstein.

The bitter defeat didn’t come out of the blue; the Christian Democrats have suffered from the leadership crisis which broke out after party leader and designated Merkel successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer – or AKK as she came to be known in German media – suddenly stepped aside, sending the party into a tailspin and blowing open the race for the chancellorship.

With AKK no longer at the helm – although she technically leads the CDU – the party lacked the determination and vision needed to win. The defeat in Hamburg was about “leaderlessness,” as Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans put it on ARD.

Referring to the selection of a new leader, he said it was important that AKK “has the right to act in order to organize the whole thing,” but failed to mention that Kramp-Karrenbauer’s abdication was due to organization and management skills she couldn’t show.

Earlier this month, a CDU branch in the eastern state of Thuringia defied AKK’s instructions and voted with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to unseat the Left Party’s State Premier Bodo Ramelow and install the little-known Thomas Kemmerich, from the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

The move, which Merkel called “unforgivable,” broke with a consensus among mainstream parties of not cooperating with the right-wing group, and “noticeably overshadowed the Hamburg election campaign,” according to CDU’s major candidate Marcus Weinberg.

“These developments have made us famous and ultimately cost a lot of votes,” he admitted, explaining why voters handed the Christian Democrats their worst result. "Despite a creative and committed election campaign, our own election goals were clearly missed,” Weinberg said.

Meanwhile, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, head of the Left Party in Thuringia, agreed with the judgement, saying “the taboo breach has hit [CDU] all the way to Hamburg.”

Some say, however, that the “leaderlessness” and the Thuringia scandal aren’t the biggest problems in the party.

“The problems are homemade,” a high-ranking CDU member who refused to be named told Die Welt newspaper. He said the mood within the party was poisoned by envy and resentment instead of mutual support. “Internally, we tend to be malicious when one of us fails – and we don't realize that it all falls back on all of us,” he revealed.

Later in the year, the chancellor’s center-right party faces a string of local elections in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Leipzig in the east, the results of which will likely affect the nationwide vote in 2021.

According to recent polls by ARD and Bild, CDU – and its Bavarian allies – still holds the ground with between 26 and 27 percent of voter support, but as the Hamburg vote has shown, predictability is no longer a feature of German politics.

Here's a prediction you can take to the bank - if Germany continues to list to port, especially in the national elections next year, and if they continue to ostracize the AfD, there will be a very rapid and violent rise in far-right extremism. You cannot continue to ignore the presence of Islam in a post-Christian country.

Doomsday Prophecies of Ancient Methane Being Released as Temperatures Rise are WRONG, say Scientists

Another bit of climate hysteria demolished by real scientists

FIle photo: © Augustin/Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'Environment (LGGE)/Handout

The climate change movement has long warned that, as global temperatures rise, we run the risk of releasing vast reserves of trapped methane into the atmosphere and bringing about the end of days. New research says: probably not.

Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York studied methane emissions from a period in Earth's history which bears many similarities to our current climate, examining ice cores taken from the last period of deglaciation some 8,000 to 15,000 years ago.

By closely examining air samples extracted from these frozen ice cores, the researchers found that even if the methane in these vast stores is released, it won't actually reach our atmosphere. 

“Our data shows we don't need to be as concerned about large methane releases from large carbon reservoirs in response to future warming,” said Vasily Petrenko, a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Rochester. “We should be more concerned about methane released from human activities." 

When carbon-based life (plants and animals) decays, the remains freeze and the carbon contained within becomes trapped in the permafrost seen across regions including vast swathes of Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada.

Later, when the water in this permafrost melts, the soil becomes waterlogged and creates the ideal breeding ground for microbes that consume the newly-thawed carbon and produce methane. 

Meanwhile, in the oceans, methane hydrates – formed under immense pressures at low temperatures – are found in sediments on the ocean floor along the subaquatic borders of the continents. If ocean temperatures rise, the current theory goes, these hydrates will destabilize and release the methane gas into the atmosphere, wreaking havoc around the globe. 

The team took ice core samples from the Earth's past to see just how much methane from these ancient deposits is actually released during periods of warming, and found that the actual amount of emissions from ancient carbon reservoirs was quite small. 

“The likelihood of these old carbon reservoirs destabilizing and creating a large positive warming feedback in the present day is also low,” said Michael Dionysus, a graduate student involved in the research.

Instead, the researchers argue that numerous natural 'buffers' actually prevent the majority of the carbon from reaching the atmosphere. 

In the case of methane hydrates, most of the greenhouse gas is dissolved and oxidized by microbes in the oceans long before it makes it to the surface. The same goes for deeper deposits of methane in permafrost, which the researchers believe are consumed by bacteria in the soil and turned into carbon dioxide. 

Methane is believed to be a far more powerful GHG than CO2, by those who believe CO2 is a GHG.

This Week's Global Terrorist Stories - 20-7 - Germany-3; Canada; Crimea; UAE; Pakistan

Suicide bomber kills at least 10 people in southwest Pakistan

Police officers guard a damaged vehicle at the site of a bomb blast in Quetta. © Reuters / Naseer Ahmed

An explosion has rocked a rally in Quetta, southwest of Pakistan, killing at least ten people and injuring many others.

The blast in the Balochistan province capital happened as demonstrators gathered outside the local Press Club on Monday. A suicide bomber set off a device near a police vehicle; two police officers are among the victims.

Medics told Reuters that they had “received ten bodies so far and 35 injured in Civil Hospital” after the incident.

Nobody has so far taken responsibility for the attack, but Islamic State, Pakistani Taliban and Baloch insurgent groups have been active in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

UAE Supreme Court upholds life sentences
for Hezbollah-linked terror cell

Abu Dhabi: Five people had life sentences upheld by the UAE’s State Security Court on Monday.

The Federal Supreme Court found them guilty of establishing a cell linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The court turned down an appeal filed by Ali N. D., Fadi A.S., and Abul Rahman T.S., all Lebanese, against their life imprisonment and upheld the lower court’s ruling.

The top court also upheld the 10 years’ jail sentence handed down to Hussain M.B. and Ahmad N. M., both Lebanese.

Ahmad N.M was also fined Dh3,000 for possessing a firearm without a licence.

The court cleared Moustafa H.K., Swedish, Hussain A. Z., Ali H.N., Mohsen Al Q, and Jihad M.A., all Lebanese, from all charges.

Last year, three men were sentenced to life in prison for setting up a terrorist cell with links to Hezbollah.

The Federal Court of Appeals sentenced another two men to 10 years each in jail and acquitted five others.

The men, described as Arab, were convicted on charges of planning to commit terrorist crimes and acts of vandalism against vital installations in the country.

The 11 defendants, all Lebanese except for a Swedish of Lebanese origin, all of whom have lived and worked in the UAE for more than 15 years, were arrested in late 2017 and early 2018.

They were charged with establishing a cell linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The court ordered them to be deported from the country after their sentences end, confiscated all their communications equipment, computers and mobile phones and charged them with all the judicial expenses.

The State Security Prosecution charged members of the Hezbollah cell with spying for the intelligence of foreign countries to carry out terrorist acts in the UAE. They communicated pictures and maps of vital facilities to agent of Hezbollah, who handed them over to intelligence of a number of foreign countries.

The UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, classified Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation in 2016 and warned its citizens and resident expatriates against any links to it.

Home-made bombs tested on PETS:
Columbine-style school massacre thwarted
in Crimea, 2 teen suspects arrested

Operative shows home-made explosive devices, seized from the suspects in Kerch. © FSB

Two teenage fans of Vladislav Roslyakov, who killed 20 of his classmates in a Columbine-copycat shooting in the Crimean city of Kerch two years ago, were preparing similar school attacks, the Russian security service has revealed.

The suspects, who “were disciples of extremist ideology and followers of Vladislav Roslyakov” wanted to target two schools in Kerch, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement Tuesday.

Police discovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with striking elements at their homes as well as spare parts to make more IEDs, which the teens had purchased on the internet. Disturbingly, the two had already been testing their home-made bombs.

Pet animals were used to test the effectiveness of the trial versions of those explosive devices.

One of the arrested youths has been known to the FSB as he had praised the Kerch shooter, thus initiating an inevitable engagement with police. This did not prevent him from joining the same neo-Nazi internet community, of which his idol Roslyakov used to be a member.

The teens thoroughly prepared for their attack, not only making bombs, but also obtaining the layouts of the schools they’d planned to target. They also used to be the admins of so-called online ‘Death Groups,’ in which they tried to persuade others to carry out school massacres, the FBS said.

A classmate of one of the suspects told RT that he'd openly talked about his plans to stage a massacre, saying that he just liked what Roslyakov had done.

"He hates people. He was a pariah at school, after all," another student said, explaining the possible motives of one of the arrested teens.

In October 2018, Russia was stunned by a brutal massacre at the Kerch Polytechnic College, in which Roslyakov killed 20 people, students and teachers alike, and injured dozens of others.

He first set up an explosive device and then fired indiscriminately with a pump-action shotgun, duplicating the tactics of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who attacked their classmates in Colorado in 1999. Roslyakov was also dressed in black and white like Harris; and, just like him, he committed suicide at the college’s library after the heinous act.

Chechen exile's Berlin park killer linked to Russia's FSB - Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, The Insider

A person walks past The entrance to the Russian Embassy on December 6, 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

© Getty Images / Carsten Koall

By Bryan MacDonald

When a Chechen exile was shot dead in a Berlin park last summer it strained relations between Germany and Russia. A new investigation suggests his alleged killer may have been trained by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

A joint report from Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, the US-government funded Bellingcat website and Russian outlet The Insider claims to have obtained the phone records of "Vadim Krasikov," which they say is the real identity of Vadim Sokolov, the man German police accuse of carrying out the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. 

Khangoshvili was regarded as a terrorist by Moscow for his role in conflicts in the Caucasus during the early 2000s. He moved to Germany after apparently surviving an assassination attempt in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 2015. The deceased was born in Georgia and previously served in its military.

According to the probe, in 2019 Krasnikov/Sokolov visited training facilities belonging to the FSB Special Purpose Center at least eight times. The last trip supposedly took place just a few days before he traveled to the European Union. In April 2019, the investigators contend Krasikov spent four days at an FSB base near the village of Averkievo, which is used as a shooting range. Krasikov also supposedly twice visited Moscow building where the FSB's anti-terror center is located.

The team's research also asserts that Krasnikov/Sokolov traveled to Bryansk, near the Ukranian border, to pick up a passport before his departure. They say one of Krasikov/Sokolov's regular contacts was Eduard Bendersky, said to be "chairman of the Vympel Charitable Fund For Former FSB Spetsnaz (Special Forces) Officers."

From February to August 2019, the group alleges Krasikov/Sokolov and Bendersky spoke on the phone at least 20 times, with the frequency increasing as time passed. Bendersky told The Insider he didn't know Krasikov/Sokolov.

Khangoshvili was killed in the German capital's Kleiner Tiergarten Park last August, while traveling back from a mosque. Soon after, police detained Sokolov/Krasikov.

Der Spiegel is Germany's most famous news magazine, The Insider is edited by Roman Dobrokhotov, a Russian liberal opposition activist, and journalist who worked with numerous Moscow titles, and also contributed to US state broadcaster RFE/RL. Bellingcat's founder Eliot Higgins was previously a 'fellow' at pro-NATO pressure group Atlantic Council, which is funded by the British government, branches of the US military and various American defense contractors (IE, Deep State). Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Bellingcat of being a front for Western intelligence services attempting to manipulate public opinion. (So have many other people, some of whom are not Russian).

Berlin's Foreign Ministry believes Russia hasn't fully cooperated with the investigation of Khangoshvili murder. It expelled two Russian diplomats in December. Moscow retaliated by kicking out a pair of German embassy staff. President Vladimir Putin denied the involvement of Russian special services in the murder, and claimed that Khangoshvili was involved in the fighting in the Caucasus on the side of terrorist forces. Putin called him a "cruel and bloodthirsty person."

"In just one of the attacks in which he took part, he killed 98 people. He was one of the organizers of explosions in the Moscow metro," said the President. Putin's first point referred to a June 2004 attack on Russian security forces in Ingushetia and Dagestan, in which 98 military personnel were killed. His second reference was likely to the 2010 Moscow metro bombings when 40 lives were lost, with over 100 people injured. No specific evidence was presented.

Interesting, Putin denies Russian involvement, and then justifies the murder. 

Canada set to deport 96yo ex-SS death squad member as
Russia probes massacre of disabled kids in 1942

Canada took 25 years to deport this guy, and he's not gone yet?

FILE PHOTO © Global Look Press / Scherl

Canada started a deportation procedure for Helmut Oberlander, an ex-member of the dreadful SS Einsatzgruppe, whose death squad have slaughtered 214 disabled Soviet orphans back in 1942. The heinous crime is now probed by Russia.

"The deportation process has begun but it is far from over," Ron Poulton, a lawyer for Oberlander, told RIA Novosti, adding, "there is no extradition proceedings." The country's Supreme Court has previously upheld the decision to strip the man of Canadian citizenship over war crimes allegations.

It comes days after Russia's Investigative Committee requested Canadian criminal files related to the 96-year-old man who enlisted as an interpreter in the SS Sonderkommando 10A — part of the wider Einsatzgruppe D deployed to the south of the Nazi-occupied part of the Soviet Union.

The notorious death squad was basically tasked with elimination of Soviet commissars, partisans Jews, Roma and other "racially impure" people — in line with Hitler's sick vision of clearing out the conquered lands for German colonists.

Back in 1942, when Soviet forces were still on defensive, Sonderkommando 10A descended on an orphanage in the southern city of Yeysk, forcing 214 disabled children into sealed trucks. The helpless victims died from the exhaust gasses and were buried in a mass grave uncovered after the Red Army liberated the surrounding Krasnodar region.

Now, Russian authorities, which relaunched a criminal investigation into the despicable murder last October, insist that such crimes have no statute of limitations. They point out that several interpreters and members of the Sonderkommandos acting in the Krasnodar area were arrested and convicted in the 1940s and 1960s.

Oberlander, an ethnic German and a native of Ukraine — part of the USSR back in the day —remained in the Sonderkommando from September 1942 up until July 1943, when it was disbanded. He immigrated to Canada in the 1950s, concealing his SS membership during naturalization process.

When Ottawa's immigration service learned of the cover-up, the former SS-man claimed he was merely an auxiliary, tasked with doing translation, polishing boots and protecting German communications.

The explanation didn't sit well with Canadian authorities, who launched de-naturalization and deportation process back in 1995. The fugitive lost and regained his citizenship several times during the decades-old proceedings, until the final decision was made last year.

And he may be deported this year if he lives long enough. Where, in the 25 years it took to process this deportation, is there any justice?

Shooting spree at two bars in German city of Hanau

leaves ‘multiple dead’

Shootings at two hookah bars in the German city of Hanau and nearby Kesselstadt have resulted in multiple deaths, local media reported. Police suspect they are related, and that the perpetrator is still at large.

Video of the mass police response was posted to social media on Wednesday evening local time, along with speculation that up to eight people may have been killed at the two locations. Those reports are unconfirmed as of yet.

Citing law enforcement sources, the tabloid Bild said eight people have been killed and five more injured.

EHA News

@eha_news

#BREAKING

Dead and wounded after two shootings in #Germany's #Hanau city; large number of police forces at the scene

German media reported that the first incident happened at Kurt-Schumacher-Platz, in central Hanau, and involved eight or nine gunshots fired from a moving car. The shooting in Kesselstadt happened shortly afterward and is being treated as related.

EmrePTV

@EmrePtv

Dude a guy in my little hometown Hanau Germany started shooting and already killed 7 people wtf is happening take care of each other guys!! #hanau #kesselstadt #amoklauf #mainkinzigkreis

A third shooting, in the Lamboy district, has been reported by the local TV Hessischer Rundfunk, but remains unconfirmed as of yet.

Hanau is a city of about 100,000 residents, located just east of Frankfurt on the Mein, in the German state of Hesse.

German shooting: Police ID suspected gunman;

cities hold vigils, protests

By Clyde Hughes & Danielle Haynes

People mourn as they gather at the Marktplatz in Hanau, Germany, on Thursday. Photo by Sascha Steinbach/EPA-EFE

Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Germany's federal prosecutor on Thursday identified the suspected gunman who attacked two hookah bars, killing nine people, as Tobias R.

Though officials declined to fully identify the suspect, local and international media, including Bild and CNN, determined his full name was Tobias Rathjen based on his age, place of birth and a website and YouTube channel on which he left xenophobic rants.

Authorities said he attacked two hookah bars in Hanau, Germany, late Wednesday and may have been motivated by xenophobia.

The shooting was classified "suspected terroristic act of violence" by regional interior minister Peter Beuth.

Rathjen's body was later found by authorities at his home, along with that of his mother. Police took his father into custody.

"This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness," Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky said. Police said there are "no indications of further perpetrators."

Hookah bars are popular in Germany, authorities said.

A hookah bar is an establishment where patrons share shisha (flavoured tobacco) from a communal hookah or from one placed at each table or a bar.

A hookah and a variety of tobacco products are on display in a Harvard Square store window in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

In Western countries, shisha parlors are often owned and operated by people from the Arab world or South Asia where use of the hookah is a centuries-old tradition. Many shisha parlors incorporate such elements as Islamic decor and Arabic music or Indian music and have traditional decor.

Peter R. Neumann, the founding director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, said the shooter appeared to have had a hatred for foreigners and non-whites, according to his social accounts. The gunman called for the "extermination" of various Muslim-majority countries in North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, according to a manifesto authorities believe belonged to him.

"He justifies his call for killing the populations of entire countries in explicitly eugenicist terms, saying that the science proves that certain races are superior," Neumann said.

CNN reported that Rathjen left a message on his personal website saying he felt an "aversion" to specific ethnic groups, including Turks, Moroccans, Lebanese and Kurds. Both his website and YouTube channel were removed from the Internet.

Police said he didn't have a criminal record.

Dozens of cities in Germany, including Hanau, held vigils to memorialize those killed in the attacks. The event in Hanau turned into a protest, with attendees holding signs decrying racism and xenophobia.

So, he sounds like a Nazi, but there doesn't seem to be any indication that he belonged to a far-right hate group. Curious. Far-right violence is a remarkably stupid way of expressing your racial bias. It invariably ends up with the victim's gaining sympathy, increased protection, and more rights.