This Week's Terrorist Attacks and Stories - 20:26 > Canada, Philippines, France, Somalia, Pakistan, Russia

Canada: Armed man detained near PM Justin Trudeau's residence

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Suspect 'breached main pedestrian entrance' to Rideau Hall in Ottawa

AFP

Canadian police stand guard outside Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Canada on July 2, 2020, after an armed man who entered the grounds was arrested in the property that is home to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country's Governor-General.

Image Credit: AFP

Ottawa: Canadian police on Thursday arrested an armed member of the country's military who entered the grounds of an Ottawa estate that is home to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country's governor-general.

The suspect "breached the main pedestrian entrance" to Rideau Hall with his vehicle at about 6.30am (2.30pm UAE), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

The car was disabled on impact, so he entered the property on foot before being "rapidly contained" by RCMP officers on patrol and arrested a short time later without incident.

"The individual arrested by the RCMP is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces," police said, without immediately revealing his identity. Charges are pending.

The RCMP and the Canadian defence ministry said the two sides were collaborating on the investigation.

Rideau Hall is the official residence of Governor General Julie Payette. Trudeau and his family live on the property at Rideau Cottage.

"The Prime Minister and his family, as well as the Governor-General, were not present on site at the time of the incident," the RCMP said. The normal residence for the Prime Minister is being renovated.

It has become apparent that he was gunning for Trudeau whom he blamed for everything wrong in his life including Covid19 lockdown, having his truck repossessed, running a very anemic looking skeleton of Parliament, and running up spectacular debts. The last two are certainly valid complaints, but shooting the PM is not the Canadian way. We will just continue to give him all the rope he wants until he hangs himself with it.

The gate leading to the estate was damaged.

Payette is the official representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Canada's formal head of state due to its membership in the Commonwealth.

Duterte signs Philippines anti-terrorism law,
giving sweeping powers to security forces

FILE PHOTO © REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

The Philippines president has signed into law a hotly debated anti-terrorism law weeks after he claimed insurgent groups fighting against the government have taken advantage of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Overwhelmingly supported by both houses of parliament earlier this month, the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act has now been approved by Rodrigo Duterte, local media reported on Friday, citing presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

The legislation sets up a new entity called the Anti-Terrorism Council, which will be able to permit security forces to arrest terrorist suspects without a court warrant and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. Existing laws prescribe that such detainees must be brought to court within three days.

It also outlaws“inciting others” to commit terrorism “by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, banners, or other representations tending to the same end.”

Members of law enforcement agencies will now be less accountable for misconduct – they will no longer be required to pay roughly $10,000 for every day of wrongful detention. 

Duterte also vowed to be tougher on terrorism and insurgency. In June, he said that Abu Sayyaf – a local Islamic State offshoot – as well as the rebellious Communist Party of the Philippines had taken advantage of the Covid-19 crisis.

The counter-terrorism law has been met with stiff opposition from local rights groups and activists, who urged the government to reverse the measure. Critics argued the definition of terrorism is too vague and could herald a crackdown on those who simply “displeased the president.”


The Department of the Interior and Local Government, which oversees the national police force, dismissed those concerns, assuring the populace that “people have nothing to fear from this bill; it is only the terrorists and their supporters who should fear it.”

And maybe a few outspoken journalists?

French homegrown ISIS terrorist sentenced to 30 years for aggravated murder & leading group of jihadists

FILE PHOTO: Members loyal to the ISIL wave ISIL flags as they drive around Raqqa © Reuters / stringer

A senior French ISIS member, who converted to Islam at 21, has been locked up for 30 years. It’s the first time a Paris court has imposed a sentence for jihadist crimes committed in Syria.

Tyler Vilus, 30, was found guilty of aggravated murder, being a member of a terrorist group, and heading up a group of Islamic State fighters in Syria. 

The homegrown terrorist is believed to have been part of the Al-Muhajireen (the immigrants) brigade of foreign jihadists that carried out executions and torture, which he denied. Vilus was found to have overseen executions as a member of the religious police in the Syrian town of Ash Shaddadi.

A 2015 IS propaganda video shown in court features a man believed to be Vilus standing close to two blindfolded prisoners, a member of the Syrian Army and a Free Syrian Army fighter, who are shot in the head. 

Public prosecutor Guillaume Michelin said that Vilus “hasn’t changed one bit” since his time in Syria. He asked the court to give him a life sentence with no chance of parole for 22 years, calling on the court to “put a definite end to the bloodshed.”

“All the steps in the accused’s journey are interlocked with the construction of the caliphate,” he said. The judge, however, said that he wanted to give Vilus a “glimmer of hope.” Vilus’s case is the first successful French prosecution of an Islamist militant for crimes committed in Syria.

Vilus was arrested at an Istanbul airport in July 2015 with a Swiss passport. He left France for Syria in 2012, not long after converting to Islam when he was 21 years old. He is thought to have known many French jihadists who were fighting in the so-called Caliphate. The IS fighter admitted to being in contact with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is understood to be the mastermind of the November 2015 terrorism attacks in Paris.

His mother, Christine Riviere, dubbed ‘Mama Jihad’ by the French media, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2017 for her “unfailing commitment” to jihad. She visited her son in Syria three times and helped bring young girls there in an effort to find him a wife. 

5 dead, 16 injured in attacks in Somalian cities

By Christen McCurdy

July 4 (UPI) -- A car bomb attack and a land mine explosion killed five people and hurt 16 others in two major Somalian cities Saturday.

In Mogadishu, the country's capital, a suicide car bomber targeted a tax collection center. The car bomber died and six others were injured.

In Baidoa, five people were killed and 10 hurt after a land mine detonated on the outskirts of the city near a restaurant.

According to the BBC, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for both incidents. The militant group has carried out similar attacks in the recent past, including a suicide bombing on a Turkish military base in Somalia at the end of June.

The group, which is linked to al-Qaida, said they were targeting tax collectors and soldiers.

Somalia's government has been battling al-Shabab for control of the country for more than 10 years.

"The Somali government condemns in the strongest terms the attacks against the civilians," the Somali Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism said in a statement.

Karachi factory fire was an act of terrorism: JIT report

KARACHI (Dunya News) - Dunya News has obtained the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report of the Baldia factory tragedy while Sindh government will release a 27-page report tomorrow.

According to the JIT report, the factory fire was not an accident, it was an act of terrorism. The fire was started in the factory for non-payment of Rs. 200 million (roughly $2.7 mn USD) as extortion money.

I don't know how that makes it a terrorist act as opposed to an organized crime racket?

According to report, MQM s Hamad Siddiqui and Rehman Bhola demanded extortion money from the factory owner but the initial investigation had not mentioned about the extortion money anywhere in the FIR or in the investigation.

JIT has recommended withdrawing the previous FIRs and filing of new FIRs under terrorism provisions in its report and also recommended including the names of Rehman Bhola, Hamad Siddiqui, Zubair Charia in the new FIR.

JIT has also recommended including the names of Umar Hassan Qadari, Dr. Abdul Sattar, Ali Hassan Qadri, Iqbal Adib Khanum and four unknown persons in the FIR.

It has also recommended to cancel the passports of the accused and put their names on the ECL.

Police role has also been criticized in the JIT report as police had failed to investigate the case in the right direction.

Russian court fines journalist for column ‘justifying terrorism’
in high-profile controversial case

Svetlana Prokopyeva in front of the court house. ©Facebook / svetlana.prokopyeva.9

By Jonny Tickle

A military court in Pskov has handed a Russian journalist a $7,000 fine for an article in which she blamed police brutality for a bombing incident at a regional office of the FSB, Russia’s main security agency.

The case has provoked outrage from the journalist’s supporters, who believe that the criminal charge is an attack on free speech.

Svetlana Prokopyeva was found guilty of justifying terrorism after writing a 2018 story in which she speculated about the motives behind a bombing in Arkhangelsk.

The journalist argued that the 17-year-old assailant acted in response to the “repressive actions” of the government and the police. She claimed that the authorities are responsible for creating an environment that pushes citizens to fight back.

Just moments before the Archangelsk explosion, a user on messaging app Telegram wrote that he was going to bomb the local FSB office. Thought to be written by the perpetrator, the statement claimed that the FSB “fabricates cases and tortures people.”

The attack, which killed the bomber and injured three officers, was classified as an act of domestic terrorism.

Prosecutors asked that Prokopyeva’s crime be punished with a six-year prison term, but the Second Western District Military Court opted for a fine of 500,000 rubles ($7,000) instead.

Prokopyeva, who works as a freelance journalist for American state media RFE/RL, expressed her argument during an interview with Echo of Moscow, a leading Russian radio station, which later became a written text titled ‘Repression for the state’.

During the trial, she denied justifying terrorism and said her goal was to prevent future terrorist attacks, claiming in court that she “did nothing that goes beyond professional duty.”

Her supporters have called the case a landmark for freedom of speech in Russia, and have claimed that it was fabricated to intimidate critics of the government and law enforcement. In several cities, protestors staged rallies in support of the journalist, with some people being detained.

Syndicate-100, a group of self-proclaimed independent Russian media outlets, called the sentence “a warning to everyone who works in this profession.” The Russian Union of Journalists called the verdict “blatantly unfair,” demanding “its full justification.”

Torture Chambers: Like Something Out of 'The Blacklist'

Seven TORTURE CHAMBERS & cells inside shipping containers discovered in Dutch police raid after crack of encrypted chat app

©  Politie Landelijke Eenheid

Six Dutch men have been arrested after a Franco-Dutch police operation to crack the EncroChat encrypted text app led authorities to seven shipping containers outfitted as grisly torture chambers and cells near the Belgian border.

Police arrested six men after snooping on their alleged plans to kidnap and take hostage fellow criminals, discussed in detail over EncroChat for months, Dutch authorities revealed on Tuesday. The kidnappers were apparently quite meticulous in their planning, with several “teams” preparing to snatch up their victims and one “observation team.” The authorities conducted their raid on June 22, swooping in right as it seemed the men were ready to strike – through their assumed victims had been tipped off by police and gone into hiding.

Another shed used by the group in Rotterdam contained over two dozen weapons, as well as police clothing, bulletproof vests, and other police accoutrements like flashing lights. Some 24 kilograms of MDMA was also found onsite. The selection of goods suggested the men intended to kidnap at least some of their victims by setting up roadblocks and pretending to be cops.

Some 800 arrests have been made across Europe since the decryption of EncroChat, which had 60,000 subscribers and was based in France, promising “worry-free secure communications” to its users.

According to the UK’s National Crime Agency, however, it was a “criminal marketplace” used by gangs around the world for money laundering, selling drugs and other illicit merchandise, and plotting against rival gangs. The raids based on information from EncroChat have led to over 27 tons of drugs seized in the UK and Netherlands.

Islam - Current Day - Boko Haram Attack UN Aid Helicopter, Murder 5 y/o Child

Muslims attack UN aid helicopter, murder two civilians,

including a five-year-old child

“Boko Haram Terrorists Attack UN Helicopter, Kill Five-year-old Child, Others,”

Sahara Reporters, July 5, 2020 

Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a United Nations aid helicopter in Nigeria’s North-East region.

The terrorists, according to the UN, launched the attack on Thursday in Damasak, Borno State, killing two civilians including a five-year-old child in the process.

Edward Kallon, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, on Saturday said both fatalities and several others injured in the attack were on the ground.

A humanitarian helicopter was hit, sustaining serious damage.

Islam - This Day in History > Palestinian Kills 16 on Israeli Bus, Injures 27

The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 attack was a suicide attack on 6 July 1989 carried out by Abd al-Hadi Ghanim of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.  

On a crowded Egged commuter bus line No. 405 en route from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem (Israel), Ghanim seized the steering wheel of the bus, running it off a steep cliff into a ravine in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim.  16 civilians died in the attack—including two Canadians and one American, and 27 were wounded. 

The incident is described as the first Palestinian suicide attack despite the fact that the attacker survived. 

Attack

On 6 July 1989, Egged commuter bus line No. 405 began its regular route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. When the bus passed Neve Ilan, Ghanim attacked the driver, seized the steering wheel of the bus and pulled the bus over a steep precipice into a ravine in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim. The driver was unable to stabilize the bus; as a result the vehicle rolled down the depth of the ravine and caught fire. Some of the passengers were burned alive. 

Sixteen civilians were killed in the attack, including two Canadians and one American, and 27 were wounded. Students from the Telz-Stone yeshiva who heard the screaming rushed to the scene to administer first aid. One of them, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, went on to found ZAKA, a volunteer rescue service organization. 

Perpetrator

The perpetrator, who survived the crash, received medical treatment for his injuries in an Israeli hospital. After the attack, it was revealed that the perpetrator was a 25-year-old Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant named Abd al-Hadi Rafa Ghanim who originated from the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Ghanim was convicted and given 16 life sentences for murder, hijacking and terrorism. On 18 October 2011, Ghanim was released to Gaza as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. 

In popular culture

In the NBC drama Heroes, the character Hana Gitelman, along with her grandmother and mother, were on board when the attack happened. Of the three, Hana was the sole survivor and in the series, she is turned into a superhero.

Israeli singer Ruhama Raz recorded the song "As Rachel Waited" (כחכות רחל), which she wrote in memory of her sister, Miriam Tzerafi, who was killed in the attack.

#Ozzone 2-9 > Are You Exhausted Spiritually?

#Ozzone - 2-8 > Are You Ready for This? Sanctification, Without Which No-one Will See God

Islam - Current Day - Islamization in Europe

Banning Islamic Calls to Prayer may silence Danish church bells

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Danish political parties push for ban on calls to prayer,
sidestep constitutional issue by not mentioning Islam

© Swen Pförtner/ dpa/ Global Look Press

Several Danish political parties are urging the government to investigate banning calls to prayer due to the disruption they cause. But the move makes no mention of Islam because of likely issues with Denmark’s constitution.

Denmark’s second-largest party, Venstre, is leading the parliamentary push to ban prayer calls such as those played through loudspeakers by mosques, arguing that they’re “very disruptive.”

The Danish People’s Party, the Conservatives, and the New Right joined Venstre in presenting a resolution on the issue to parliament, Danish news outlet DR reports. Together, the four parties command 71 of the seats in Denmark’s 179-seat parliament.

Venstre member of parliament Mads Fuglede said the move is sparked by the disruption caused by the calls to prayer, which are known in Arabic as the adhan, and the fact they have not traditionally been heard in Denmark.

“For Venstre, it is not about a single religion, although I realise that prayer calls are often linked to Islam. Prayer calls are not something we have a tradition for in Danish society. We think that it will be very disruptive in Denmark,” Fuglede explained.

The debate about minaret calls in Denmark has rumbled on for several months, ever since a mosque in Gellerupparken, near Aarhus, played the call from a local football field instead of from the mosque, as the latter was shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It was the first time a public call to prayer had been heard in the Scandanavian country, and lawmakers have been debating its legality.

The resolution put forward by the four parties this week does not specifically mention Islam or any religion, referring instead to a ban on prayer calls using speakers in a public place.

Rasmus Stoklund, a spokesman for the ruling Social Democratic Party, says the government “essentially agrees” that prayer calls shouldn’t be allowed in Denmark, and Integration Minister Mattias Tesfaye is investigating the legality of having them banned.

However, the proposed ban would potentially violate the constitution if it is aimed specifically at Islam, and there are fears that it could affect Christian churches too, if the law is too broad. 

“If we make legislation now, we also run the risk of it hitting the church bells of the Danish Church, and that we are on edge with constitutional rights on religious freedom and various conventions,” Stoklund said.

Calls to prayer violate regulations in many countries, but the laws are being relaxed in some places. Denmark’s neighbor Sweden first allowed them to be played in public in 2013. 

The issue has also been debated in the UK, in recent months, as mosques there were permitted to call worshipers to personal prayer through loudspeakers for the first time, so as to encourage them to stay – and pray – at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. The development prompted calls from leading clerics for the practice to be allowed to continue in the future.

'I'M GOING TO STAB THEM' 

Glasgow knife attacker named as ‘loner’ asylum seeker who ‘vowed to stab hotel neighbours for making too much noise’

Holly Christodoulou, Brittany Vonow, The Sun

A CRAZED asylum seeker told pals he was going to "stab" his loud neighbours the night before he went on the Glasgow knife rampage.

Sudanese national Badradeen believed his fellow hotel guests were "making noise to deliberately annoy him".

Siraj (pictured) said the suspect had called him to say he was going to stab his loud neighbours

Credit: SKY NEWS

A paramedic covers his face after the horror unfolded at the Glasgow hotel

Credit: Alamy Live News

The "loner" made the chilling threat to friend, Siraj, just hours before launching into the frenzied stabbing spree.

Six people were knifed in the horror yesterday - including a dad-of-two cop - with armed police shooting Badradeen dead.

Siraj, 22, told Mail Online: "He said that he was going to attack two guys in the room next to his because they're were making noise to deliberately annoy him.

"I said 'No No No' and that it was just that the hotels walls were thin and it was just noise."

But he said Badradeen told him: "No. They hate me. And I hate them. I am going to stab them."

HORROR ATTACK
Siraj warned hotel staff at the Park Inn but he later woke to find blood splattering the walls.

Badradeen, who is believed to have been in the UK for around six months after travelling from Sudan, has been described as having "big hair" and a cute face.

One fellow hotel guest, who saw Badradeen holding a knife, said he was "fed up" and wanted to go back home.

The knifeman was aged in his 20s and his mental health had been declining for around "three months".

It comes after Sky News today reported that a liaison worker had spoken with hotel staff about 11pm on Thursday - warning of concerns for the man's state of mind.

It was further claimed that just minutes before the attack unfolded on Friday, the asylum seeker had spoken with an immigration solicitor on the phone.

The lawyer said he would raise concerns with a "safeguarding" team at the Home Office but minutes later at 12.50pm, the man began the knife rampage.

BLOODBATH
Police shot dead the suspect after the attack at the hotel, which is being temporarily used to house 100 asylum seekers.

Guests were alerted to the stabbing spree when screams rang out at the city centre hotel after the knifing around 1pm yesterday afternoon.

Cop David Whyte, 42, today remains in hospital in a stable condition - attacked as he arrived at the scene just two minutes after it began to unfold.

Witnesses yesterday revealed how they found the reception area strewn with blood and victims lying inside and on the street.

A 17-year-old boy and the other victims, all men, are aged 18, 20, 38 and 53 and remain in hospital.

Police Scotland today confirmed three other people who were injured were asylum seekers staying at the Park Inn Hotel while the other two people who were injured were hotel staff.

All of them remain in hospital. One is critical but stable, and two are stable, at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Two others are in stable conditions at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

A hero delivery driver yesterday told how he tried to stem the blood of a handyman caught up in the violence.

And a traumatised friend recounted how his pal screamed "help me" after being stabbed by the "calm" knifeman.

Daniel Redhead said: "I saw him trying to fight the guy off as he was stabbing him."

It comes after it was reported the knifeman had threatened other refugees rehoused in a hotel recently after complaining about living conditions, the Telegraph reports.

Emergency services flooded to the scene in GlasgowCredit: EPA

Ako Zada, an activist from Kurdish Community Scotland, told the Telegraph: “The attacker was a Sudanese asylum seeker and he’d been telling his friends that he was very hungry in the hotel.

"In the past few days he was threatening people, and it was reported to the staff the day before.

"Sitting in a hotel for three months was a big issue - they said it was like being in prison."

During lockdown, the hotel has been used to help shelter asylum seekers and trafficking victims by accommodation provider Mears Group.

Fears were raised in April over social-distancing measures among the men, women and families moved into shelter amid the coronavirus crisis.

In the wake of the attack, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: "The toughest of days for Glasgow. My thoughts and best wishes are with those injured, and my deep gratitude goes to our emergency services, especially Police Scotland.

"I’m proud to call this city home and I know the strength and humanity of its people will always see it through."

Boris Johnson tweeted his support to those affected, saying: "Deeply saddened by the terrible incident in Glasgow, my thoughts are with all the victims and their families.

"Thank you to our brave emergency services who are responding."

Police officer David Whyte is in hospital after rushing towards danger

Credit: Spindrift Photo Agency. All Rights Reserved.