Deep State > Biden Delays JFK Files Release Again; WaPo's Contradiction; Who Runs American Democracy?

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Release of JFK records delayed again, with Biden citing

Covid-19 and national security

23 Oct, 2021 13:31

John F Kennedy rides in the presidential limousine with his wife Jacqueline and Texas Governor John Connally,

minutes before his assassination in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963 © Wikipedia

Is it just me or was John Connolly's door not shut?

President Joe Biden has ordered the remaining files on President John F. Kennedy’s assassination to remain hidden until next December, citing the coronavirus pandemic. He’s not the first president to delay releasing the files.

In a memo on Friday, Biden wrote that the remaining files concerning the assassination “shall be withheld from full public disclosure” until December 15 next year, nearly 60 years after Kennedy was shot dead as his motorcade rolled through Dallas, Texas.

Biden’s memo states that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the National Archivist have been prevented from checking in with every agency affected by the files, and can’t determine whether releasing the unredacted documents would impact national security.

Therefore, Biden wrote, “temporary continued postponement is necessary to protect against identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations.”

Some information already deemed appropriate will be released this December, while the remainder will stay secret until at least next December.

Although Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for Kennedy’s murder, he never stood trial as he was shot dead two days later by Jack Ruby. As a result, Kennedy’s murder has spawned countless conspiracy theories, and a majority of Americans still believe that sinister forces were behind the assassination.

Sinister forces like Deep State working through American intelligence. Apparently, they still are.

These theories have persisted for decades, and in 1992, Congress ruled that all records surrounding the shocking murder “should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.” However, multiple administrations since have stalled on this disclosure.

Former President Donald Trump promised via tweet in 2017 to allow the “long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.” Despite Trump’s promise, a pledge that many thought he’d follow through on due to his status as a political ‘outsider’ in Washington, only a selection of material was released, and some of this material remained redacted.

Whenever the Biden administration releases the rest of these documents, they will at least be easier for the general public to view. At present, the 250,000 or so records released so far are viewable only at NARA’s location in College Park, Maryland. Biden’s memo orders NARA to digitize these files and make them available online.

Washington Post's ‘conspiracy theory’ quiz declares existence of

‘deep state’ fake news, contradicting its own reporting

8 Oct, 2021 15:49

FILE PHOTO: A protester holding a sign referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory speaks at a protest against the 2020 presidential election results in Phoenix, Arizona, November 5, 2020 © Reuters / Cheney Orr

If you believe in a “Deep State” embedded in the US government, then you’re falling down the conspiracy “rabbit hole,” the Washington Post claims. Yet the Post believes this theory too. It just doesn’t call it a ‘Deep State’.

Nine in 10 Americans believe at least one conspiracy theory, researchers found earlier this summer. Yet conspiracy theories run the gamut from ‘Bigfoot exists’ to ‘the Holocaust never happened’, and the Washington Post published a quiz this week to remind its readers which ones to believe and which to discard. The answers tell a story in themselves.

In a series of multiple-choice questions, the statement “There is a ‘deep state’ embedded in the government that operates in secret and without oversight” is marked as false. 

“For much of the past four years, Republicans have speculated that a ‘deep state’ was working to undermine President Donald Trump,” the Post explained, adding: “While the FBI and CIA do conduct covert operations, there’s little evidence for a separate Deep State.”

Yet this is untrue, according to the Washington Post’s own reporting. The Post revealed in 2013 that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence maintains a “black budget” of $52.6 billion mapping “a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny,” which spends these funds on spy operations and occasionally lethal action abroad. The public didn’t know that the NSA spied on Americans’ communications for a long time, until the Post published Edward Snowden’s leaks that same year, and the Post was instrumental in drawing attention to the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program.

Even before Snowden’s revelations, the Post in 2010 described the US national security and intelligence apparatus as “a hidden world, growing beyond control.” This leviathan, the paper described, is “hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight,” while “no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it, or exactly how many agencies do the same work.”

Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who first reported Snowden’s leaks, described the Post’s about-turn on the existence of the Deep State as an example of “how the Trump era corrupted almost every mainstream institution in the US, especially media corporations.”

The CIA’s experiments with mind-control and psychological torture, which were carried out on Americans during multiple presidential administrations, are not the stuff of conspiracy theory. These experiments took place between 1953 and 1973, with some information on the program, known as MKUltra, only declassified in 2001. Another question in the Washington Post’s quiz even highlights this CIA program as an example of a conspiracy that actually took place.

The term ‘Deep State’ has been used in recent years to describe the bureaucrats and intelligence agency operatives who worked to frustrate and stymie former President Donald Trump’s agenda. When invoked by Republicans and Trump supporters, the term is ridiculed as a conspiracy theory, but those involved openly admit to working against the former president from behind the scenes.

General Mark Milley, commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went behind Trump’s back to assure his Chinese counterpart that he and the national security establishment wouldn’t let Trump do anything “rogue” after his election loss last year. Milley admitted to consorting with Beijing, and with Democrat politicians, in a recent book by Washington Post reporters Robert Costa and Bob Woodward.

Time Magazine lionized the “well-funded cabal of powerful people” who worked to ensure that Trump lost his re-election bid. In the words of the magazine, “they were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.” 

New Yorker author David Rohde, who has written a book on the Deep State and the conspiracies surrounding it, told Vox last year that the Deep State exists, and can be described as “a permanent government or an institutional government” made up of “incredibly large and powerful organizations like the FBI and the CIA and the NSA.” Whether by the FBI’s ‘Russiagate’ investigation – which was predicated on several lies – or unnamed ‘intelligence sources’ planting false stories in the media to hamper Trump’s planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, this “permanent government” did work against Trump before and during his four years in office. 

Curiously, the Washington Post’s quiz now describes the claim that “Donald Trump colluded with Russians to steal the presidency in 2016” as false, after four years of articles pushing the notion that there was, in fact, “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact, it seems, largely depends on who’s in office.

It's not the people who run US democracy, Ron Paul tells RT

2 Nov, 2021 22:44 

Former Congressman Ron Paul on RT, November 2, 2021

A new poll showing other countries unimpressed with American democracy and healthcare is not a surprise, as the US has turned corporatist and has too much democracy but too little freedom, former congressman Ron Paul tells RT.

A new Pew Research poll of 16 advanced economies showed widespread belief that the US healthcare system is below average or downright bad, while only 17% thought American democracy was a good model for other nations.

“We deserve a lot of that criticism,” Paul told RT on Tuesday. He blamed the results on “corporatism,” which he says is the underlying philosophy of the government as currently practiced in the US.

The retired physician who represented Texas in Congress for decades added that “it’s not the people voting, it’s really the corporations that run things,” from healthcare to schools and the military-industrial complex.

We’re a long way off from what people think is democracy.

No, we’re a long way off from freedom.

Democracy is fine when electing officials, Paul explained, but when it gets to the majority dictating to the rest how to live, what to believe, even how to practice medicine, it becomes a problem. What the US has now is a combination of big business and big government running things, he added.

“A good republic, a good system, wouldn’t have us spending trillions and trillions of dollars, taking advantage of the fact that we have the reserve currency of the world and people still trust us to take care of the dollar. But that’s ending, and that’s why I think people are starting to say ‘Can we really trust the Americans?’” Paul said, adding that the US is headed for a “major” financial and banking crisis as a result.

He also believes the entire US pandemic response was “essentially wrong,” from the initial lockdowns to mandates and government interference in how doctors practice medicine – which Paul contrasted with the way things were back when he was a practicing physician.

The Pew poll, made public on Monday, showed that 16 developed nations ranked the US highly on technology, entertainment and education. However, a median of 48% thought American healthcare was below average and 18% considered it the worst. Meanwhile, only 17% thought the US political system set an example worth following, while 57% said it used to, but not in recent years. American democracy ranked the highest in Italy at 32%, and the lowest in New Zealand, where only 8% of respondents said it was a good example.

Americans were far more critical of their own political system, with only 19% telling Pew it was a good example, while 72% said it used to be, but no longer.

When did the transition occur? Probably when the military-industrial complex began to take over during Eisenhower's presidency. The US has been largely controlled by  Deep State ever since.

Islam - Current Day > IS Terrorist Shot in Paris; Egyptian Beheads Man in Ismailia; Hospital Massacre in Kabul

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Knife-wielding attacker shot by Paris railway security after shouting

‘France is ruled by the Islamic State’ – media reports

2 Nov, 2021 08:45

© AFP / Eric Piermont

Officers at France’s Saint-Lazare station have reportedly shot a knife-wielding man who ran at staff shouting, “Allahu Akbar! France is ruled by the Islamic State,” following a routine request to follow Covid safety protocols.

The man was shot on Monday evening, after he threatened station staff with a knife, leaving one security officer seriously injured, according to France’s BFMTV.

According to French media, he was previously known to police, having committed acts of violence, but had not been known to the intelligence services or been considered a terrorist threat prior to the incident.

Having initially been stopped for failing to wear a mask in compliance with Covid safety measures, he reportedly became aggressive with staff, before pulling out a knife and running at security officers, screaming, “Allahu Akbar! France is ruled by the Islamic State.”

Despite managing to harm one of them, the assailant was quickly shot twice, falling onto the tracks. He was subsequently rushed to hospital, where he is believed to be undergoing treatment. 

“The two agents used their service weapons to defend and neutralize him. The injured individual was taken care of by the emergency services,” French media reported, citing a press release from the SNCF, which operates the country’s rail network.

An investigation into the incident has been launched by the Paris prosecutor’s office and the judicial police. 

Egypt: Man beheads compatriot in front of passers-by,

wanders Ismailia streets

Gruesome crime leaves witnesses screaming in terror

Published:  November 02, 2021 03:51

Samir Salama, Associate Editor

  

Abu Dhabi: A man cut off the head of his compatriot in front of passers-by and wandered the streets, amid screams of terror in Egypt’s northern city of Ismailia on Monday, local media reported.

Immediately, police imposed a security cordon at the crime scene and called in witnesses, starting a murder investigation.

Videos of the crime were widely circulated on social media across Egypt.

Egypt’s Public Prosecutor pledged in a statement “to quickly finish the investigations into the killing of the victim and the injury of two others on the main road in Ismailia.”

According to preliminary information issued by the authorities, “the killer, who works in a furniture store of the victim’s brother, has psychological issues and has previously been treated at an addiction clinic.”

The websites circulated testimonies of some witnesses who blamed the crime on “the murderer’s mother being raped by the victim,” which has not been confirmed by the investigations so far.

Dr. Sawsan Fayed, professor of sociology, told Asharq Al Awsat the recent spread of this type of crime can be attributed to several factors, the most important of which is mental illness, noting that “there are people who suffer from violence since birth, a condition that is difficult to treat and needs training and hard work.”

Dr. Fayed added: “Among the causes of horrific crimes are hallucinations, behaviour disorders, and addiction to synthetic drugs that cause hallucinations and lack of awareness, in addition to the media and frequent exposure to scenes of murder, blood and crime, which leads people to become accustomed to it, making killing an easy process.”

She pointed out that “in many crimes, we usually hear a sentence from the accused saying that he does not know how he committed his crime, which suggests that he was not conscious at the time of the crime.”

Fayed said that avenging honour is one of the reasons why the accused or the killer boasts of his act, as happened in Ismailia, where the murderer did not conceal his crime, but walked with the body of the victim in the street, perhaps due to his desire to show everyone that he had exacted revenge, as is being rumoured.”

In recent years, a number of crimes have rocked Egypt, including the so-called “martyr of chivalry” case that took place at the end of 2019, in which a university student killed another young man who objected to his harassment of a girl in the street.

Fayed stressed “the importance of education and culture to confront the spread of crime,” noting that “society is suffering a crisis of values, and all religious, cultural and educational institutions must play their role to address this value imbalance that causes the spread of crime.”

She called for “developing plans to treat addiction and remove stigma about mental illness.”

Explosions, gunfire at Afghanistan military hospital kill at least 15

By UPI Staff

A man carries a child after a bomb attack Tuesday at a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.

More than a dozen people were killed in two explosions at the facility. Photo by EPA-EFE

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- More than a dozen people were killed and many others were injured Tuesday after two explosions and gunfire at a military hospital in Afghanistan, authorities said.

The explosions occurred at Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital in downtown Kabul.

A Taliban security official said at least 15 people were killed and there were more than 30 injured. Officials at the interior ministry told Al Jazeera 19 were killed.

One of the explosions occurred at the entrance to the 400-bed hospital. Pajhwok reported that two of the three assailants were killed by security forces.

No group immediately claimed credit for the attack, but the Taliban has been targeted in recent months by the Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghan ISIS offshoot.

The hospital was previously targeted in 2011 by Taliban suicide bombers and again in 2017 when Islamic State gunmen disguised as medical personnel killed 30 people in a six-hour gun battle.

The Taliban have been in charge of Afghanistan since they ousted the U.S.-backed government in August in the run-up to the U.S. military withdrawal.

Military Madness > NATO's Bluff Called by Russia; ISIS-K Bolstered by US-Trained Troops; Russia's Drone Inventory; Prince Charles 'Great Reset' Requires Military-Style Campaign

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Russia explains why there is no more diplomacy with NATO

1 Nov, 2021 13:19

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left,

arrive for a meeting in New York in September 2021. © Sputnik / Russian Foreign Ministry

Past negotiations between Moscow and NATO wound up achieving nothing as the US-led military bloc was more interested in lecturing the Russian side and looking to score political points, the country’s top diplomat has claimed.

Speaking to reporters in Rome after the G20 leaders’ summit on Sunday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the efforts of long-running Russia-NATO Council meetings, designed to reduce tensions, had largely failed. According to him, “when there were still meetings between the council and our representatives, they only wanted to teach us how to live.”

“Every time, they demanded to convene the council to discuss Ukraine. Their whole interest was whipping up propaganda and putting pressure on Russia,” Lavrov argued. “We rely on facts, and the facts are that NATO does not want any co-operation with us.”

“We rely on facts, and the facts are that NATO

does not want any co-operation with us.”

Sergey Lavrov

Last month, the bloc announced it would expel eight Russian diplomats from its Brussels headquarters, reportedly over claims of involvement in undisclosed ‘espionage’. In response, Moscow said it would suspend all direct bilateral ties with NATO, bringing home its entire delegation and shuttering the bloc’s offices in Moscow.

Since then, Lavrov has claimed that the state of relations between Russia and NATO can’t be described as “catastrophic,” because “to be catastrophic you have to have at least something.” Instead, he said, there are now no formal ties between the two, and the Kremlin has instead built relations with individual member states on their own.

The bloc’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, has insisted it is ready for constructive talks with Moscow, insisting that “the proposal to convene a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council remains relevant. And now it depends on Russia whether it will react in a positive way.”

However, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has written off the offer as empty rhetoric. “Yes, we heard the statement by Mr. Stoltenberg about his alleged readiness to discuss security issues with Russia,” she confirmed. “There is nothing behind these statements in practical terms.”

US-trained Afghan soldiers & spies joining ISIS terrorists

to ‘resist’ Taliban – reports

1 Nov, 2021 01:49 / 

A suspected ISIS member sits blindfolded in a Taliban Special Forces car in Kabul, Afghanistan,

September 5, 2021 © Reuters / WANA

The Taliban has long accused Washington of funding ISIS, and now they’re indirectly right, as a growing number of US-trained Afghan soldiers and intelligence officials are joining the terrorist group’s ranks to fight the Taliban.

The US spent a staggering $88 billion arming and training Afghanistan’s military, only for Afghan forces to crumble before the Taliban’s lightning fast reconquest of the country in August. Though the Taliban have promised amnesty to these personnel, stories of violent reprisals have circulated, and according to the Wall Street Journal, a “relatively small, but growing” number of former Afghan soldiers and spies are flocking to the only outfit currently resisting Taliban rule – Islamic State terrorist group.

Islamic State’s Afghan offshoot, IS-K, is eagerly absorbing these US-trained recruits. According to the former security officials and Taliban members the Wall Street Journal spoke to, some former government troops have joined for a paycheck, and others for lack of a better alternative to Taliban rule. 

“If there were a resistance, they would have joined the resistance,” former spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil told the paper, adding that “For the time being, ISIS is the only other armed group.”

Though IS-K and the Taliban are both Islamic fundamentalist groups, their ideologies differ. The Taliban are a predominantly Punjabi nationalist organization with no stated goals beyond Afghanistan’s borders, and a tolerance for the country’s other Muslim sects. IS-K, by contrast, view Shiites and other Muslim sects as apostates and aim to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate, as IS attempted to do several years ago in Iraq and Syria.

Initially suppressed by the Taliban, IS-K mounted a resurgence amid the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, carrying out a suicide bombing outside Kabul Airport in August that killed around 200 Afghans and 13 US troops. For the US military, it was the deadliest day in Afghanistan since 2011.

It is unclear what “critical expertise in intelligence-gathering and warfare techniques” these new recruits will bring to IS-K, given that the supposedly 300,000-strong Afghan military they came from folded before the Taliban in a matter of weeks, with its members often fleeing or surrendering without firing a shot.

However, the fact that these US-funded fighters are signing up to a hardline terror group within months of the US leaving Afghanistan illustrates a problem that decision-makers in Washington evidently haven’t learned from in four decades of experience. 

Just as the US-funded Afghan Mujahideen would eventually morph into the Taliban in the late 1980s and 1990s, and the Afghan military is on track to bolster ISIS-K’s ranks, the disaffected Iraqi soldiers left without a job following the US invasion in 2003 ended up providing a steady stream of recruits for ISIS several years later.

Of course, the quality of these 'soldiers' has to be rather questionable.

The US security establishment has already begun to sound the alarm about ISIS-K’s resurgence, with US Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl telling the Senate last week that the group could be in a position to attack the West from Afghanistan within six months. 

So, it sounds very much like the USA is not happy about their US-trained Afghan soldiers bolstering ISIS-Ks ranks as they present more of a danger to the USA than the Taliban.

The Taliban, at least publicly, are unperturbed. “We are not faced with a threat nor are we worried about them,” Mawlawi Zubair, a senior Taliban commander, told the Wall Street Journal. “There is no need, not even a tiny need, for us to seek assistance from anyone against ISIS.”

Russia reveals size of growing drone army

2 Nov, 2021 15:43

Russian Ministry of Defense conducts a test-flight of a new reconnaissance drone in 2019.

©  Russia’s Defense Ministry

The Russian military is expanding its arsenal of unmanned vehicles, allowing operators to watch and engage hostile forces from the safety of command posts miles away from the action, President Vladimir Putin has revealed.

During a meeting with defense chiefs in the south-coast city of Sochi, Putin disclosed that the country has at least 2,000 drones for use in reconnaissance missions and, increasingly, to play combat roles. According to him, scientists and engineers now “need to continue working on them, working as hard as we have been recently, using artificial intelligence and the most up-to-date achievements of modern technology.”

“We know very well how unmanned aircraft has proven itself in armed conflicts in recent years, how effective and also how dangerous it can be for us, bearing in mind what we saw in Syria – terrorist attacks using unmanned aerial vehicles. We have learnt to repel these attacks, and we are doing it quite effectively,” the Russian president went on.

In July, Russian state-backed developers unveiled a deadly new Orion-E drone, equipped with rockets and bombs, that could destroy both tanks and armored infantry carriers while flying at high altitude.

Several weeks ago, Moscow used the Zapad 2021 military exercises to show off new unmanned combat robots that can destroy tanks without putting Russian ground units in harm’s way.

According to a report last month by specialists at one of the country’s top military academies, Russia would be able to repel any incoming amphibian craft along the country’s vast coastline using a huge fleet of attack drones to conduct an air assault before the targets were able to reach the shore.

Prince Charles calls for ‘military-style campaign’ to force

‘fundamental economic transition’ & combat climate change

May the Queen live forever!

2 Nov, 2021 02:20

Britain's Prince Charles delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)

in Glasgow, Scotland, November 1, 2021. ©  Reuters / Yves Herman

The heir to the British throne warned the audience during his speech at the COP26 climate conference that world governments had no choice but to engage in a “military-style campaign” across an otherwise-doomed planet.

The countries of the world must put themselves “on a war-like footing” to address the looming climate crisis, Prince Charles said in his opening speech to the climate conference in Glasgow on Monday. He warned the assembled heavies that climate change posed “an even greater existential threat” than the Covid-19 pandemic.

Acknowledging that tackling climate change “will take trillions, not billions of dollars,” he admitted that some countries, “many of whom are burdened by growing levels of debt, simply cannot afford to go green.” The prince then proposed a solution beloved by green-minded billionaires around the globe: “putting a value on carbon, thus making carbon capture solutions more economical.” 

Carbon credits – which effectively allow companies to buy rights to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide – have been the focus of climate change jet-setters for years, unlocking the ‘value’ of nature’s commons without forcing the emitters-in-chief to actually cease their environmentally-unfriendly activities. 

The prince issued a plea for “countries to come together to create the environment that enables every sector of industry to take the action required,” without specifying what exactly that action might be – only that it must involve a “military-style campaign” if it hopes to achieve success.

Here we need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector. With trillions at its disposal, far beyond global GDP and with the greatest respect beyond even the governments of the world’s leaders, it offers the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.

He reminded the attendees that “the eyes and hopes of the world are upon you” because “time has literally run out,” presumably referring to event organizers’ insistence that it would be one of the last chances to rope the world’s governments into committing to carbon-cutting goals that would keep planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above “pre-industrial” levels. That was the goal agreed upon in Paris in 2015, and for deep-pocketed environmentalists like the prince, it remains an absolute-must in order to “lay the foundations for a sustainable future.”

Does a 'sustainable future' include the future of the poor and middle-class? Or does it just include the elite and wealthy people?

The conference was a high-enough priority that leaders like Prince Charles and US President Joe Biden flew their less-than-sustainable private jets to Scotland for the occasion, hosted by UK PM Boris Johnson. The decision to hold such a gathering in-person during a global pandemic may have contributed to several regrets on the conference’s invitations list, as China’s Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not travel to the event.

The prince on Sunday deemed the conference the “last chance saloon” to save the planet after declaring last week that world leaders faced a “dangerously narrow” window to fight climate change. Predicting environmental catastrophe has become something of a hobby for the royal, who was also an early proponent of the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” and its now-ubiquitous “Build Back Better” slogan.

Ozzone 5-19 > Some extraordinary things happen to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him

 

Islam - Current Day > Lebanese Desperation; Moroccans Beat Up Old Woman on Bus; 12 y/o Executes 2 Soldiers;

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Lebanon diplomatic crisis with Gulf states worsens

as envoys expelled, imports banned

Aoun seeks to heal rift; Mikati government cannot afford to resign, minister says

Published:  October 30, 2021 18:57

Reuters

  

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati gestures meets with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al Rai at the government palace in Beirut on October 26, 2021. Mikati, in a phone call with Kordahi on Friday evening, asked him to put the national interest first and “take the right decision to fix Arab relations with Lebanon,” a statement by his office said.

Beirut: Lebanon’s government cannot afford to resign over a growing diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states, a member of a Lebanese crisis group of ministers said on Saturday following a near three-hour meeting over the widening rift.

“The country cannot be left without a government,” due to other pressing matters, and would continue to work to resolve the rift, Education Minister Abbas Halabi said after the meeting.

Lebanon’s president, meanwhile, said he wants good relations with Saudi Arabia, looking to heal a rift with the kingdom. In a tweet, Michel Aoun said Lebanon is keen on having the best relations with the Saudis and on strengthening links via bilateral deals.

The row over critical comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen had spurred calls by some top politicians for Kordahi’s resignation, while others opposed the move.

Saudi Arabia expelled Lebanon’s envoy and banned all Lebanese imports on Friday, and Bahrain and Kuwait followed suit, giving the top Lebanese diplomats 48 hours to exit.

Kordahi’s resignation would have knock-on effects that could threaten Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s coalition government.

But Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said Mikati’s contacts with officials from a number of states showed opposition to the resignation of the government, formed only last month after a 13-month stalemate.

“They told Mikati, ‘if you are thinking about resignation, take that out of your head,’” he said.

Richard Michaels, deputy head of the US mission in Lebanon, had joined the crisis meeting in Beirut, a US Embassy spokesperson said, declining to comment further.

Mikati had asked Kordahi on Friday to consider Lebanon’s “national interests” but stopped short of asking for his resignation.

Kordahi has been publicly backed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group and has declined to apologise or resign over the comments, which have dealt the worst blow to Saudi-Lebanese relations since Saad al-Hariri’s 2017 detention in Riyadh.

The minister’s political patron, Suleiman Frangieh of the Hezbollah-allied Marada Movement, told a news conference he had refused an offer by Kordahi to resign and would not name a successor to him should he do so.

Yet a group of former Lebanese prime ministers called on Saturday for Kordahi to resign, saying his comments had inflicted a strong blow to relations with Gulf Arab nations.

Fouad Seniora, Hariri and Tammam Sallam, some of the country’s top Sunni politicians, said in the statement that Kordahi’s remarks “harmed Lebanon’s supreme national interest”. 

“Remove this minister, who will destroy our relations with the Arab Gulf before it’s too late!” tweeted Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Lebanese Progressive Party. “For how long, stupidity, conspiracies and proxies in domestic and foreign Lebanese policies will exacerbate?” he added without elaborating.

Bahaa, the son of ex-Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al Hariri, meanwhile, called for the Lebanese government’s resignation, and not only Kordahi, in order to contain the crisis.

“Thanks to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries for hosting the Lebanese community and drawing a distinction between them and the system of quotas and sectarianism that has caused terrible deterioration in relations between Lebanon and its Arab brethren,” Bahaa said on Twitter.

If Kordahi resigns, ministers backed by Hezbollah and its Amal ally could follow suit at a time when the government is already paralysed by a dispute over an inquiry into the August 2020 explosion that devastated parts of Beirut.

A senior political source told Reuters that the United States and European nations were in contact with Lebanese officials to prevent the government from falling and there were no immediate indications any ministers would resign.

The row comes as Lebanon struggles with a financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history.

Mikati has been hoping to improve ties with Gulf Arab states strained for years because of the influence wielded in Beirut by the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia had already in April banned all fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon, blaming an increase in drug smuggling that it said Lebanon had failed to address, a ban now extended to all goods.

Great setback

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abu Al Gheit said the crisis caused by Kordahi's comments has led to a "great setback'' to Lebanon's relationship with the Gulf countries.

He urged Lebanon's president and prime minister to take ``necessary steps'' to ease the tension, especially with Saudi Arabia. He did not elaborate which steps should be taken.

Abu Al Gheit also called on Gulf officials to review measures that could have negative consequences on Lebanon's already battered economy.

Elderly woman in Belgium called ‘racist’, thrown off bus

with head injury after suspected fight with Moroccans

30 Oct, 2021 11:04

Source: @tomvangrieken Twitter account

A video of a scuffle on a bus in Antwerp has surfaced online showing an elderly woman apparently thrown off the bus following a fight. Police are investigating the incident.

In the minute-long clip, a woman with a shopping trolley is seen on a bus, involved in an apparent heated argument with a group of people. Laughter and the crying of a child is heard in the background while someone calls the woman a racist. The video then cuts off, and continues with the woman screaming on the ground outside the bus, her head covered in blood. She holds on to her overcoat and trolley, her clothes soaked in blood.

A person still inside the vehicle is apparently lecturing the victim. The voice behind the camera says, “She was sent away from the bus… She offended a Moroccan and look what happens to her,” according to local media.

The video emerged on social media and was shared on Twitter by, among others, Belgian MP Tom Van Grieken, the leader of the regional right-wing Vlaams Belang party. In his post, he called the suspected offenders “beasts,” warning, “I never put disclaimers, but these images are really not for sensitive viewers.”

WARNING! DISTURBING VIDEO

The incident happened on Wednesday evening, when the 57-year-old woman was traveling on a bus full of passengers from Antwerp to a village near the city. The actual fight is not seen in the video, but the result appears to be a gaping wound on the woman’s head. She was hospitalized with a serious injury and her condition is still “worrying,” local media reports, adding that the bus driver was so shocked by the incident, he required counseling.

An investigation has been launched, with Antwerp police studying the video and also looking for a fuller picture. “It’s a cut version of what has happened. In such incidents it is not immediately clear who did what,” a police spokesperson told the media. At least one suspect has been identified and questioned, but no arrests have been made so far.

Come on, you guys. Don't be looking for an excuse to excuse the Moroccans for what they did, even if the old lady did say something stupid. There is no justification for beating an old woman bloody. These idiots need to be returned to Morocco.

ISIS releases video of 12-year-old child executing 2 Nigerian soldiers

"I don’t have any feelings anymore."

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Monday, November 01, 2021

Christians hold signs as they march on the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. | AFP via Getty Images/KOLA SULAIMON

Islamic State in West Africa Province, which is an offshoot of the Boko Haram, has reportedly released a video showing a 12-year-old child executing two Nigerian soldiers with an AK-47.

The 17-minute video, titled “Makers of Epic Battles,” carries the footage of ISWAP’s child soldier shooting to death two Nigerian soldiers, according to Sahara Reporters.

“There are no words to describe how awful it is,” Tomasz Rolbiecki, a researcher on the Islamic State’s attacks worldwide, wrote on Twitter after analyzing the video.

“In general, the video is mainly covering the attacks from ISWAP's spring campaign in northern Borno and Yobe, although there are also clips from southeastern and southwestern parts of Borno state,” the researcher was quoted as saying. “Most of the footage had been published in photo reports long before this video was released. Daesh has been doing it for years. However, there is also some new material.”

Terrorist groups, such as ISWAP, have killed tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria and displaced millions in an attempt to discard Western influence and impose strict Islamic Sharia law, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said, responding to the news about the video.

ISWAP often tries to radicalize those whom they have taken captive. If they are unable to, they might use them as slaves, suicide bombers or ransom them back to family and friends. Often, those who are taken do not ever return to their homes or families.

Last week, Nigeria’s army said it had killed the new leader of ISWAP, Malam Bako, in a military operation two weeks after announcing the death of the group's former head Abu Musab al-Barnawi, Reuters reported.

ISWAP, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, has been fighting against the Nigerian armed forces for over a decade.

“If confirmed, Bako would be the fourth leader of an Islamist insurgent group in West Africa to die this year, after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in May, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in August and al-Barnawi this month,” the newswire said.

However, Sahara Reporters noted, “The Nigerian army has repeatedly claimed that the insurgency has been largely defeated and frequently underplays any losses.”

The Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, has called its child soldiers “cubs of the Caliphate.”

In 2017, a 13-year-old boy, identified as Mohammed and former “cub,” shared that his uncle recruited him. “He took me to Sharia classes and then he told me: ‘Son, now you have to go to the training camp,’” he was quoted as saying at the time.

Mohammed was sent to Baiji, where IS and Iraqi government forces fought for the country’s largest oil refinery. “We had a car bomb. It was Abu Hudhaifa, a 14-year-old boy from Aleppo, who went in,” he recalled. “We attacked the Iraqi forces after the morning prayer. The driver of the car bomb blew himself up and we entered the refinery, but we did not find anyone. It was a trap: they had let us in to encircle us.”

He was among 100 fighters at the refinery, and only 30 escaped alive.

“One day, I saw a boy sitting alone. I asked him why he was acting like a robot,” Roueda Abbas, a teacher at a rehab center for ex-child soldiers, was quoted as saying. “He came next to me and said: ‘When I was with them, they beheaded people in front of my eyes. They cut hands and legs. Now I have no feelings. Even if you kill my father in front of me, I wouldn’t cry. I don’t have any feelings anymore.’”

Obviously, this is much better than any western influence!

Climate Change > Biden's 85-car Motorcade; Trudeau to Destroy Canada to Save the World; PM BoJo - Hyperbole King; Swiss Reject Fuel Surcharges;

..

‘Very green’: VIDEO of Biden’s massive 85-car motorcade

ahead of climate summit leaves critics stunned

30 Oct, 2021 20:18

US President Joe Biden leaves after meeting Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi ahead of the G20 summit

in Rome, Italy ©  REUTERS/Remo Casilli

US President Joe Biden has left many confused after he took an 85-car motorcade to his meeting with the Pope ahead of a massive summit on climate change.

On his way to meet Pope Francis on Friday, Biden traveled with a massive motorcade, caught on camera and likely extended from his usual entourage due to a Covid-19 restriction in Italy limiting the number of passengers in each vehicle. A typical motorcade for the president includes a couple dozen vehicles, plus vehicles to block traffic. 

Biden led a group of about a dozen people into his meeting, and his motorcade was filled with security details as well as press who shadow and report directly on the president. It reportedly involved 85 vehicles. 

Footage of the long line of gas-guzzling vehicles moving their way through the slim streets of Rome left many confused, especially since climate change is an issue the president and the Pope so often talk about. The meeting also took place ahead of a planned climate summit in Glasgow where the president was expected to tout over $500 billion in new spending on environmental programs, which is part of his larger $1.75 trillion spending package that has been stuck in Congress negotiations. 

Many critics noted the likely massive carbon footprint Biden’s trip has left, especially when the vehicles being used are not exactly environmentally friendly, including the 244-horsepower vehicle carrying the president, referred to as The Beast. Most of the vehicles are SUVs, vans, etc, typically vehicles that receive low gas mileage. 

“But remember folks,” pundit Darren Grimes tweeted in reaction to video of the extended fleet of vehicles, “YOU must stop driving YOUR car. YOU must stop flying abroad. YOU must stop eating meat. YOU must stop using a gas boiler. YOU must immiserate YOUR life in the name of saving the planet.”

“Just a vanity visit,” commentator Steve Milloy said, adding: “Very green.”

Canada will put a cap on oil and gas sector emissions,

Trudeau tells COP26 summit

'That's no small task for a major oil and gas producing country.

It's a big step,' PM says in speech

John Paul Tasker · 

CBC News · Posted: 

Nov 01, 2021 11:46 AM ET

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday Nov. 1, 2021.

(Phil Noble/The Associated Press)

Canada will impose a hard cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Calling the promise "a major commitment" that should inspire other resource-rich countries to dramatically curb their own emissions, Trudeau said Canada is prepared to limit the growth of one of the country's largest industries to help the world hold the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"We'll cap oil and gas sector emissions today and ensure they decrease tomorrow at a pace and scale needed to reach net-zero by 2050," Trudeau said during his two-minute speech in front of other world leaders gathered in Scotland.

"That's no small task for a major oil and gas producing country. It's a big step that's absolutely necessary."

In 2019, Canada's oil and gas sector accounted for 191 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions — 26 per cent of the country's total emissions. The country's second-largest source of emissions is the transport sector, which emitted 186 megatonnes.

Since 1990, emissions from the oil and gas sector have nearly doubled — an increase largely attributed to a dramatic expansion of the oilsands industry.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the lobby group that represents oil and gas interests, has argued that Canada accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of the world's GHG emissions and global climate change efforts should be directed at coal, which still accounts for half of all emissions.

If Canada were to get to zero net emissions, that means the world's GHG emissions would drop by 1.5%, which would not result in a measurable difference in the global temperature, but will result in a spectacular difference in our standard of living.

Trudeau seems to be completely unaware that we live in the 2nd largest country in the world; that there are hundreds if not thousands of kilometers between our major cities; that we have bitterly cold and very dark winters. 

How does he plan to move goods from tide-waters to the interior cities? Will tractor-trailers and trains run on batteries, regardless of the temperature and the mountain slopes? Will we warm our houses by solar panels when the temperature outside is -40 deg.? Will windmills work in an ice-storm? 

Majority of Swiss refuse to pay more for fuel & heating

to meet climate change goals – survey

31 Oct, 2021 23:53

FILE PHOTO. Traffic on the A52 motorway passes a Shell gas station near the village of Hinteregg, Switzerland.

© Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann

The majority of Swiss are reluctant to fund climate change goals from their own pocket, a new survey has shown. Younger people, and those living in rural areas, are especially unwilling to pay more for gas, heating and air travel.

The 2050 carbon neutrality goals, outlined by the Switzerland authorities, are out of step with the population's readiness to pay increasingly higher bills to fund them, according to a new survey. The poll, conducted among some 23,000 people, was commissioned by the Tamedia and 20 Minuten media groups early in October with its findings published Sunday.

The rejection of footing higher bills for fixing climate change turned out to be high across the entire Swiss society, with the exception of the supporters of the Green Party. Women have demonstrated somewhat better climate awareness, with the majority, however, still unwilling to spend significantly more.

'Better climate awareness' reveals where this media outlet stands. They stand right with those who are desperately working to increase climate alarmism. 

Overall, some 67% of respondents either found fuel price hikes unacceptable, or were ready to pay a maximum of ten percent on top of their regular bills. Some 61% of polled women were against paying more for a tank of gas, while among young men between 18 and 34 a whopping 80% refused to spend more at the pump. People living in rural areas have demonstrated higher sensitivity to fuel prices. 

The Swiss turned out a bit more welcoming towards climate-minded price hikes in aircraft travel and heating. The majority of the surveyed, however, are still against such moves: some 57% of the respondents either rejected plane ticket price hikes altogether, or agreed to no more than $44 in additional charges. A similar number of respondents – some 60 % – refused to pay significantly more for home heating.

Back in June, the Swiss narrowly rejected a proposed “carbon dioxide law” during a nation-wide referendum. The flopped legislation, which came as an additional package to the standing CO2 Act, envisioned new hiked fees and taxes on fuels that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If adopted, the bill would have introduced additional taxes on all fossil fuels, including natural gas, as well as placed additional fees on airline tickets.

PM Johnson calls on humanity to ‘defuse that bomb’ of climate change

in Bond-inspired speech at COP26

Boris Johnson - King of hyperbole

1 Nov, 2021 15:58

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain November 1, 2021. © Steve Reigate/Pool via REUTERS

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that climate change is like a “doomsday device” from a James Bond film and there is no time left on the countdown, as he called on the global community to step up their commitments.

Speaking on Monday during the plenary session of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Johnson claimed that nations around the world needed to get serious on climate change “today” otherwise it would be too late for the children of the future.  

Referencing one of Scotland’s most famous fictional sons, James Bond, the PM asserted that there was no time left to wait. “We are in roughly the same position as James Bond today, except that the tragedy is this is not a movie and the doomsday device is real,” he stated. 

Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change. It’s one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now.

Johnson said if conferences actually solved things, then we would not need the 26th edition of the UN’s climate change conference, noting that instead, COP26 was a “lifeboat for humanity.” 

“We may not feel much like James Bond. Not all of us necessarily look much like James Bond. But we have the opportunity and the duty to make this summit the moment when humanity finally began to defuse that bomb,” he added, ending his 007 references. 

Johnson said it was the children of tomorrow that leaders needed to be thinking about, noting that future generations would judge them with “bitterness and resentment” if they failed to deliver. 

The prime minister’s remarks were followed by speeches by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, long-time environmental campaigner Prince Charles, and famed wildlife broadcaster David Attenborough. 

As world leaders spoke, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg retweeted an open letter accusing Johnson and his international colleagues of “betrayal.” 

“Millions will suffer as our planet is devastated – a terrifying future that will be created, or avoided, by the decisions you make. You have the power to decide,” it read. 

Speaking of bombs - Thunberg has taken to dropping F-bombs during her speeches. I'm sure that will help!

World leaders and delegates from some 200 nations are gathering in Glasgow on Monday to pledge their commitments to cut carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, signed in December 2015.