Islam - Current Day > Italy slowing migrant rescue ships; Muslim Hackers Attack Danish Hospitals for Quran Burning; Palestinian's 3rd Attempt to kill Swedish Cops

..

Italy approves clampdown on migrant rescue ships, fines charity

File photo. Health officers assist migrants to leave the Geo Barents ship of the MSF docked at the port of La Spezia, Italy, 28 January 2023. Doctors Without Frontiers (MSF) said on 25 January that the Geo Barents conducted its third rescue of the last few days and has 237 asylum seekers on board, adding that 107 people, including 36 minors and five women, were picked up from an overloaded dinghy in the latest operation. [EPA-EFE/LUCA ZENNARO]

EURACTIV.com with Reuters

 Feb 23, 2023

Italy’s parliament on Thursday (23 February) passed into law a government decree establishing a code of conduct for migrant charity ships, despite criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian groups that it will imperil lives.

The new set of rules is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to crack down on the rescue vessels, which her government says encourage people to make the perilous trip across the Mediterranean from northern Africa.

Charities deny this, saying migrants set to sea regardless of whether rescue boats are in the vicinity.

Under the new law, ships have to request access to a port and sail to it “without delay” after a rescue, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress, and disclose detailed information about their rescue activities.

Previously, vessels operated by charities, or non-governmental organisations (NGOs), often spent several days in the central Mediterranean and regularly completed multiple rescues before heading north towards Italy.

Captains breaching the new rules risk fines of up to €50,000, and repeated violations can result in their vessels being impounded, the law stipulates.

Hours after the parliamentary vote, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said its Geo Barents vessel had been blocked for 20 days and the organisation fined 10,000 euros.

The sanctions were imposed after MSF was accused of withholding some information about a rescue it completed last week, when the Geo Barents took 48 migrants to the Adriatic port of Ancona, a spokesperson for the charity said.

“We are assessing what legal actions we can take to challenge what happened. It is not acceptable to be punished for having saved lives,” MSF said in a tweet.

‘Exploitation, forced labour’

Nicola Molteni, a deputy interior minister and member of the hard-right League party, told the upper Senate before its final vote on Thursday that “if immigration is not controlled, it creates exploitation, forced labour, illegal labour.”

Humanitarian groups said banning multiple rescues would cause ever more deaths while the United Nations urged Italy to withdraw the decree.

“This is simply the wrong way to address this humanitarian crisis,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Roman Catholic Church in Italy last month said the new measures violated international law and should be scrapped.

NGOs also complain the government is forcing them to take migrants to distant northern Italian ports, far from where they carry out the rescues.

The new obligations have significantly increased costs for the NGOs and only a few boats have taken to sea in recent months. But their reduced sailings have done nothing to slow the arrival of migrants.

Government data shows 12,667 people have reached Italy so far this year, more than double the same period of 2022. The missing migrants project says at least 157 people have been reported as missing, presumed dead, this year.

An internal interior ministry document seen by Reuters said out of 105,000 migrants who arrived in Italy in 2022, only around 10% were brought ashore by NGO boats.

Hacker group: Now we attack Danish hospitals

The hacker group Anonymous Sudan writes in a post on Telegram that they want to attack the websites of Danish hospitals, and right now all the websites of the Capital Region's hospitals are inaccessible

All hospitals in the Capital Region are down.  Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

Now it's crazy again.

In a message on Telegram, the hacker group Anonymous Sudan writes on Sunday afternoon that they will attack several Danish hospitals and that 'more will be affected in the coming hours'.

Ekstra Bladet has tried to access several websites belonging to Danish hospitals, and the hospitals under the Capital Region are not accessible, including Rigshospitalet's website.

For example, if you try to visit Herlev or Hvidovre Hospital's website, it says:

'The Capital Region's websites, including the websites of all the region's hospitals, are temporarily unavailable. We are working to make the system work as intended.'

'More will be hit'

In their posting, the hacker group writes that 'some hospitals in Denmark have been attacked due to Koran burnings, and that more will be exposed to attacks in the coming hours.'

However, it is still not confirmed that it was an attack against the hospitals, but Ekstra Bladet is trying to get a comment from the Capital Region.

Has nothing to do with Anonymous

Earlier this week, the websites of several Danish airports were affected by crashes, and here too the hacker group Anonymous Sudan took responsibility.

Swedish websites have also been hit by crashes, and in these cases too, the group has assumed responsibility. The group claims that the attacks are a response to the Koran burnings that have taken place in Denmark and Sweden.

In an interview with Ekstra Bladet earlier this week, Steffen Friis, an IT expert at the cyber security company Vipre Security, explained that the group Anonymous Sudan has nothing to do with the well-known hacker group Anonymous.

This is an attack on free speech, which does not exist in Islam. Nor will it exist in Europe when the numbers of Muslims grow. Perhaps Anonymous could assist with tracking Anonymous Sudan?

Palestinians who stabbed police in Norrköping are wanted in custody

Published 3/2/2023

Samnytt

56-year-old Khaled Anan is wanted in custody for Monday's knife attack against a police officer outside the police station in Norrköping. According to the arrest warrant, he is suspected of murder on probable grounds.

The prosecutor assesses that there is a risk that Khaled Anan, a Palestinian who according to his own statement has a background in the PLO and is now a Swedish citizen, will continue to commit crimes if he is released. The detention hearing will be held at 15:00 today.

Anan is still being treated in hospital after being shot by police in connection with the arrest.

"Unacceptable"

The police authority stated yesterday that the condition was stable and not life-threatening for the knife-cut police officer. National Police Chief Anders Thornberg took the opportunity to call the stabbing "unacceptable".

- Violence directed at a police officer is an attack on the entire Police Authority, our employees should feel safe in their work and at their workplace, this is completely unacceptable, he said in a statement.

Khaled Anan is previously convicted of attacking Swedish police officers. The first time already in 2001, which Samnytt previously reported on.

He was treated until this summer in a forensic psychiatric ward for a petrol attack on police officers in 2013. The administrative court, which made the decision to release him, then considered "that there is no longer a considerable risk that he will relapse into serious crime as a result of the mental disorder."

The administrative court should be sent to prison for this lunacy!  All devout Muslims are mentally ill and incurably so.

Military Madness > What's a Vacuum Bomb? Could hackers start WWIII? Finland, Sweden warm to NATO, good grief!

..

Explainer: What are vacuum bombs?

By Danielle Haynes

   

An RPV-16 thermobaric rocket launcher is seen at a military fair in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2019. Ukrainian officials and

human rights organizations have accused Russia of using so-called vacuum bombs during its invasion of Ukraine.

File Photo by VoidWanderer/Wikimedia

March 1 (UPI) -- Human rights organizations and Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using so-called vacuum bombs on Ukrainian targets, weapons that are particularly brutal and deadly and could constitute a war crime.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova told reporters Monday that Russia used the weapon against a Ukrainian army base in the town of Okhtyrka.

"The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large," she said.

Sumy region administrative chief Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said 70 soldiers died in the blast, according to Politico.

The White House declined to confirm Russia's use of such weapons against Ukraine on Monday.

"I don't have any confirmation of that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime."

But what exactly are vacuum bombs and what makes them so uniquely deadly?

Vacuum bombs are known by a few names, including thermobaric or aerosol bombs, or fuel air explosive. According to Human Rights Watch, such weapons are more powerful than other explosives of comparable size.

The way in which they detonate and inflict damage and injuries is also "particularly brutal," the organization said.

The bombs comprise a container of fuel and two different explosive charges. The first charge opens the container and disperses the fuel in a cloud, which mixes with the surrounding air.

The cloud of fuel spreads before the second charge detonates, creating a powerful, high-temperature blast wave by way of the fuel cloud.

A 1993 study conducted by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said the effects of a vacuum bomb on humans are "unique and unpleasant."

Those who happen to be near the detonation point of the bomb are "obliterated," according to the CIA in a separate study.

"Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible, injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs and possibly blindness," the CIA study said.

Because the shock wave causes minimal brain damage to those who aren't instantaneously killed, victims are often conscious and suffer for a time as they suffocate, the Defense Intelligence Agency said.

BBC News reports there are no international laws specifically banning the use of vacuum bombs, but if Russia is proven to have used them against Ukraine, the country could be tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.

==========================================================================================

Russia’s space agency chief warns hackers could start war

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said attempts to target Russian satellites

would lead to serious repercussions

Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos State Corporation, © Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov

The chief of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has warned hackers attempting to disrupt the operation of the country’s satellites that their actions could be construed as a “casus belli – that is, an event that justifies a war.”

Dmitry Rogozin’s comment came shortly after a cyberattack on Russia’s RKA Mission Control Center. Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel on Wednesday, the official said that “those who are attempting to do this” should know that “it is a crime, which calls for a very severe punishment.” 

Rogozin went on to stress that the disruption of operation of “any country’s space forces is a so-called casus belli,” which is a Latin term used to describe an event that either leads to or justifies the beginning of a war.

The Roscosmos chief also threatened the people responsible that his corporation would identify them, and hand the data over to Russian security services so that they could open a criminal investigation against the hackers.

Earlier, several Telegram groups claimed that the NB65 hacker group, which is allegedly linked to Anonymous, had successfully breached Roscosmos’ communications with Russia’s satellites.

However, Rogozin dismissed the claims, saying that while there were attempts to penetrate the system, Roscosmos’ defense managed to fend them off.

Since February 24, when Moscow started a war against Ukraine, websites of the Kremlin, Russian ministries, banks, and media – including RT – have been targeted by hacker or DDoS attacks. Anonymous declared a “cyber war” on Russia on the day Moscow’s troops and military hardware invaded Ukraine.

Explaining the need for the military action, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was seeking to “demilitarize and denazify” the Eastern European country, as well as to protect from persecution the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass republics. Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed these claims as merely a pretext to invade a sovereign country, alleging that Moscow’s endgame is the installation of a pro-Russian puppet regime in Kiev.

Personally, I think they would be happy with a government that wasn't vociferously anti-Russian or played into the hands of NATO and America's games.

==========================================================================================

Neutral Finland, Sweden warm to idea of NATO membership

By JARI TANNER

FILE - Finland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto, left and his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde take part in a joint press conference with Sweden's Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist, and his Finnish counterpart Antti Kaikkonen, in Stockholm, Sweden, Feb. 2, 2022, after talks on European security. Throughout the Cold War and in the decades since it ended, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO, until now. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels. (Anders Wiklund, TT News Agency via AP, File)

HELSINKI (AP) — Through the Cold War and the decades since, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO — until now.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels.

A poll commissioned by Finnish broadcaster YLE this week showed that, for the first time, more than 50% of Finns support joining the Western military alliance. In neighboring Sweden, a similar poll showed those in favor of NATO membership outnumber those against.

“The unthinkable might start to become thinkable,” tweeted former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, a proponent of NATO membership.

Neither country is going to join the alliance overnight. Support for NATO membership rises and falls, and there’s no clear majority for joining in their parliaments.

But the signs of change since Russia began its invasion last week are unmistakable.

The attack on Ukraine prompted both Finland and Sweden to break with their policy of not providing arms to countries at war by sending assault rifles and anti-tank weapons to Kyiv. For Sweden, it’s the first time it’s offering military aid since 1939, when it assisted Finland against the Soviet Union.

Apparently sensing a shift among its Nordic neighbors, the Russian Foreign Ministry last week voiced concern about what it described as efforts by the United States and some of its allies to “drag” Finland and Sweden into NATO and warned that Moscow would be forced to take retaliatory measures if they joined the alliance.

The governments of Sweden and Finland retorted that they won’t let Moscow dictate their security policy.

“I want to be extremely clear: It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said.

Finland has a conflict-ridden history with Russia, with which it shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border. Finns have taken part in dozens of wars against their eastern neighbor, for centuries as part of the Swedish Kingdom, and as an independent nation including two fought with the Soviet Union from 1939-40 and 1941-44.

In the postwar period, however, Finland pursued pragmatic political and economic ties with Moscow, remaining militarily nonaligned and a neutral buffer between East and West.

Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, choosing a path of peace after centuries of warfare with its neighbors.

Both countries put an end to traditional neutrality by joining the European Union in 1995 and deepening cooperation with NATO. However, a majority of people in both countries remained firmly against full membership in the alliance — until now.

The YLE poll showed 53% were in favor of Finland joining NATO, with only 28% against. The poll had an error margin of 2.5 percentage points and included 1,382 respondents interviewed Feb. 23 to 25. Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24.

“It’s a very significant shift,” said senior researcher Matti Pesu from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “We’ve had a situation in the past 25-30 years where Finns’ opinions on NATO have been very stable. It seems to now to have changed completely.”

While noting that it’s not possible to draw conclusions from a single poll, Pesu said no similar shift in public opinion occurred after Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia and the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, “so this is an exception.”

In Sweden, a late February poll commissioned by public broadcaster SVT found 41% of Swedes supported NATO membership and 35% opposed it, marking the first time that those in favor exceeded those against.

The Nordic duo, important partners for NATO in the Baltic Sea area where Russia has substantially increased its military maneuvers in the past decade, has strongly stressed that it is up to them alone to decide whether to join the military alliance.

In his New Year’s speech, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto pointedly said that “Finland’s room to maneuver and freedom of choice also include the possibility of military alignment and of applying for NATO membership, should we ourselves so decide.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted last week that for Helsinki and Stockholm “this is a question of self-determination and the sovereign right to choose your own path and then potentially in the future, also to apply for NATO.”

There are no set criteria for joining NATO, but aspiring candidates must meet certain political and other considerations. Many observers believe Finland and Sweden would qualify for fast-track entry into NATO without lengthy negotiations within months.

Though not members, Finland and Sweden closely cooperate with NATO, allowing, among other things, the alliance’s troops to exercise on their soil. Helsinki and Stockholm have also substantially intensified their bilateral defense cooperation in the past years, and both have secured close military cooperation with the U.S., Britain and neighboring NATO member Norway.

Niinisto’s office said Thursday that he would meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday “to discuss Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the effects of the war on the European security order, and bilateral cooperation.”

The Finnish head of state is one of the few Western leaders who has kept a regular dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin ever since Niinisto took office in 2012. Niinisto has a seemingly good rapport also with Biden and two leaders have maintained close contact throughout the Ukraine crisis.

In December, Biden called Niinisto and said he was pleased with Finland’s decision to buy 64 Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighter jets to replace the country’s aging F-18 fighters. Biden said the move would pave the way for closer U.S.-Finnish military ties in future.

Because that's what it is all about. You buy our war machines and we will love you forever.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said this week that her Social Democratic Party would discuss possible NATO membership with other parties but didn’t set a time frame. She said everyone agrees that the events of the past weeks have been a game-changer.

“Together we see that the security situation has changed remarkably since Russia attacked Ukraine. It is a fact that we have to acknowledge,” Marin said.

___ Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.

It seems our Swedish and Finnish friends have no clue as to why Russia attacked Ukraine. If they understood that it was to keep NATO away from their borders they might think again about the wisdom of joining NATO. It seems to me that it would put the Nordic countries in a much more dangerous situation to flirt with NATO as Ukraine has done.

This must be a very frightening turn of events for Putin as I think he probably expected the opposite to happen. Perhaps he didn't account for the effect of the left-wing media and the NATO-Washington propaganda machines.