prisonplanet--2019-04-05--Schoolboy in custody on Christchurch terror video charge

A Christchurch schoolboy arrested for allegedly distributing objectionable material from the mosque terror attacks has been kept in custody for another month.  The teenager, who cannot be named because of legal reasons, first appeared in the Youth Court in Christchurch last Thursday.  He was refused bail and was remanded in custody.  The Herald understands police were alerted after concerns about his behaviour.  The boy’s school cannot be named and his principal declined to comment, referring inquiries to police.  Today, the boy’s lawyer, Moana Cole, applied for the teen to be released on electronically monitored (EM) bail.  Discussions in court today were also suppressed by the judge, along with his reasons for declining bail.  The boy was remanded in custody to come back to court on May 7.  He waved to family members who were in court today before he was taken back into custody.  There have been other unrelated cases before the courts since the Christchurch terror attacks.  Christchurch businessman Philip Neville Arps, 44, appeared in court last week on charges of distributing footage of one of the mosque shootings.  Arps, who runs an insulation business, faces two charges of distributing the livestream “of the multiple murder victims at the Deans Ave Mosque”.  The alleged offending occurred on March 16, the day after the shootings at two Christchurch mosques, in which 50 people died and dozens were injured.  The Chief Censor’s office has classified the shooter’s live stream and so-called manifesto as objectionable under the Films, Video and Publications Classifications Act. The charges have a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.  Arps was declined bail and remanded in custody until his next appearance on April 15.  An 18-year-old Christchurch student, who has interim name suppression, has also been charged with distributing a livestream and of showing a photograph of the Deans Ave mosque where 42 Muslims were shot dead with the message “target acquired” and further online messaging allegedly inciting extreme violence.  This article was posted: Friday, April 5, 2019 at 6:29 am


prisonplanet--2019-05-24--Bombshell Report Reveals British Govt Stages Muslim Responses to Terrorist Attacks

Bombshell Report Reveals British Govt Stages ‘Muslim’ Responses to Terrorist Attacks

The British government staged the “Muslim” response to the 2017 Islamic London Bridge terrorist attack all the way down to the hashtags pushed on social media so that the public would focus on a “sense of unity with strangers” rather than “reacting with violence or anger,” according to a bombshell new report from the London-based Middle East Eye.  After the 2017 attack at the London Bridge, video went viral showing police guiding a group of Muslims before the media’s TV cameras as they presented slick signs saying “#TurnToLove,” “#LoveWillWin,” “#ISISWillLose,” and so on.  Most people thought it was evidence CNN staged the incident. In fact, it turns out it was staged by the UK government itself — and it wasn’t the first time.  Watch Ian Cobain of the Middle East Eye explain how the scam works:  From the Middle East Eye, Ian Cobain, 22 May 2019, “‘Mind control’: The secret UK government blueprints shaping post-terror planning”:  The British government has prepared for terrorist incidents by pre-planning social media campaigns that are designed to appear to be a spontaneous public response to attacks, Middle East Eye has learned. Hashtags are carefully tested before attacks happen, Instagram images selected, and “impromptu” street posters are printed. In operations that contingency planners term “controlled spontaneity”, politicians’ statements, vigils and inter-faith events are also negotiated and planned in readiness for any terrorist attack. The campaigns have been deployed during every terrorist incident in recent years including the 2017 London Bridge attack and the Finsbury Park mosque attack. Within hours of an attack, other campaigns are swiftly organised, with I “heart” posters being designed and distributed, according to the location of the attack, and plans drawn up for people to hand out flowers at the scene of the crime, in apparently unprompted gestures of love and support.  The purpose of the operations, according to a number of people involved in their creation, is to shape public responses, encouraging individuals to focus on empathy for the victims and a sense of unity with strangers, rather than reacting with violence or anger. […]Examples of “controlled spontaneity” within the UK that MEE has identified include: – a media campaign that was swiftly deployed after a number of British and American aid workers were beheaded by Islamic State militants in 2014. – the use of hashtags, posters and vigils after the London Bridge attacks of June 2017 in which eight people were murdered and almost 50 injured. – a Twitter, Facebook and mainstream media campaign that was employed later that month, shortly after a man drove his van into a group of people outside a mosque in north London, killing one person and injuring 10 others.  While covert messaging developed as part of the Prevent programme is aimed at Muslims, particularly young men, attempts to plan for “controlled spontaneity” in the wake of a terrorist attack are aimed at the general population. The day after the London Bridge attacks, a team of men arrived at the scene of the murders in an unmarked van. They could be seen being admitted behind the police cordon, where they plastered walls with a number of posters bearing images of London, and number of hashtags that were already circulating on Twitter: #TurnToLove, #For London and #LoveWillWin. This practice, known in the UK as fly-posting, is a minor criminal offence, but police admitted the members of the fly-posting team behind their cordon and took no action. The men doing this work declined to tell journalists who they were, or where they were from. When the cordon was eventually lifted and members of the public were able to return to the scene of the attacks, they found themselves surrounded by apparently impromptu signs of the public’s defiance and unity. The day after that, a government official telephoned Southwark Council, the local authority for the area where the murders happened. “He said: ‘We’re sending you a hundred imams,’” a council official recalls. Two days after that, about 100 imams and Muslim community leaders from across the UK duly appeared on the bridge, and one read a statement condemning the attack. The following weekend, a group of Muslims arrived at the bridge and handed out thousands of red roses. One of the organisers described it as “a symbolic gesture of love” for people affected by the attack. What the event’s organiser did not say is that she worked at the Home Office, in law enforcement. She told MEE that it was entirely a “grassroots” initiative with no government assistance: “I was acting as a member of the community and sought assistance from my personal networks.”  The British government also worked covertly with The Sun and a company called “Breakthrough Media” (now “Zinc Network”) to release this cover story with a Muslim woman wearing a “Union Jack hijab” after British aid worker Alan Henning was murdered by ISIS in October 2014:  The British government working with Breakthrough Media also appears to have stage-managed the response to an anti-Muslim attack carried out by lone attacker Darren Osborne who carried out a truck attack against Muslims near a mosque in Finsbury Park in June 2017.  A week later, in the early hours of Monday morning, an Islamophobic lone attacker, Darren Osborne, drove his van into a group of men near a mosque at Finsbury Park, north London. A number of young men restrained Osborne, and protected him from attack by others. A little while later they were joined by Mohammed Mahmoud, the mosque’s imam. By the following morning, the hashtag #WeStandTogether was running across Twitter, after initially being promoted by police and police commanders. As journalists gathered at the police cordon, a number were approached by a woman who called herself Gabbie, and explained that she worked for a company called Horizon PR. What “Gabbie” did not say is that “Horizon PR” had been created by Breakthrough Media and another communications company, M&C Saatchi PR UK, and that Breakthrough has used it to promote the messaging it creates – and disseminates through co-operating civil society groups – under the terms of its contract with RICU. A number of journalists have told MEE that “Gabbie” offered to introduce them to a man standing nearby. This man explained that his name was Shaukat Warraich and that he was from an organisation called Faith Associates. Warraich stressed to the journalists the role that the mosque’s imam had played in protecting Osborne until he could be handed over to police. This came to dominate news reports in the days after the attack. Warraich did not say anything about his organisation’s relationships with both Breakthrough and with the British government’s propaganda unit, RICU. Faith Associates, a limited company, has for several years been funded in part by government contracts, and internal Breakthrough and RICU documents seen by MEE show that it works to disseminate government messages. MEE understands that subsequent media reports have caused some ill-feeling in the area: the young men who restrained and protected the killer before the imam arrived at the scene believe their role had been overlooked. “They were proud that they had done the right thing, but believe that they were then portrayed as a lynch mob,” said one person who prays regularly at the mosque. The young men are now rarely seen at the mosque, he added.  Read Ian Cobain’s full report at the Middle East Eye. The man deserves a Pulitzer.  This should be the biggest story in the West, instead it’s being completely ignored. A search of Google News shows not even one “Google News approved” media outlet picked the story up.  Though the controlled media are too cowardly to report on it (or their owners won’t let them), we know they’re reading it because the assistant editor of the Financial Times said as much:  In order to get the general public to submit to lunacy of open-borders-prog-globalism, the masses must be fed a steady diet of fake news and propaganda.  If you let them see the truth of how they’re being robbed of their future and their country — in the words of the British government — they may “react with violence or anger.”  Share this report with everyone you know. If the media is refusing to cover it that’s how you know it’s their kryptonite.  This article was posted: Friday, May 24, 2019 at 5:47 am


prisonplanet--2019-06-24--UN Demands Western Countries Take Back Imprisoned ISIS Terrorists

The United Nations has demanded that western countries take back captured ISIS terrorists who are currently imprisoned in Syria and Iraq.  According to U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, the ISIS fighters and their family members, which number around 55,000, “should face fair prosecution or be freed.”  States “must assume responsibility for their nationals” even if they have committed unspeakable atrocities while engaging in jihad, according to Bachelet.  A debate about whether to allow so-called ‘ISIS bride’ Shamima Begum to re-enter the UK raged earlier this year.  While the media largely helped Begum spin the narrative that she made a harmless mistake and was a victim herself, her true activities and beliefs were appalling.  It was revealed that Begum literally stitched bombs into suicide vests to ensure they exploded when taken off during her time alongside ISIS jihadists in Syria.  Begum was also a member of the “hisba” enforcement group, which handed out brutal punishments to those found flouting ISIS laws on how to dress and behave. She also pointed an automatic weapon at women in Syria for “wearing brightly colored shoes”.  Begum also said during interviews that seeing decapitated heads in trash cans didn’t faze her because the victims were “enemies of Islam”.  Should such individuals really be allowed to return to the west? Yes, according to the UN.  There is a war on free speech. Without your support, my voice will be silenced.  Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here.  Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.  This article was posted: Monday, June 24, 2019 at 12:08 pm


prisonplanet--2019-11-29--Some Upset That London Bridge Terrorist Who Had Just Stabbed Numerous People Was Killed by Police

Some Upset That London Bridge Terrorist Who Had Just Stabbed Numerous People Was Killed by Police  Complain he should have been arrested.  Some people are upset that the London Bridge terrorist who was wearing fake explosives and had stabbed multiple victims was shot dead by police, arguing that he should have been arrested.  The attacker was apprehended by brave citizens who disarmed him of his weapon before police moved in to gun down the assailant.  This disturbed numerous leftists on Twitter who were upset that the terrorist was killed.  “How can they shoot one man publicly. They could have arrested or use rubber bullets,” said Hassan Nawaz, labeling the shooting “madness.”  “Was there any need for the police to kill the man?” asked Laura Whitehawk, adding, “They could have easily arrested him but murdered him instead. State murder doesn’t sit well with me.”  “Everyone already knows. The shooting was clearly reckless and unnecessary. He could easily have been arrested,” said another, suggesting the incident was suspicious because it helped Conservative party leader Boris Johnson.  “The police could’ve easily arrested him.. NOT SHOOT HIM IN THE NUTS,” commented another respondent.  It’s unsurprising that some reacted this way given that they all appeared to be supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.  Corbyn, who faces off against Boris Johnson in a national election next month, faced criticism after saying that detaining and not killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would have been the “right thing to do.”  My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me.  Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here.  Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.  This article was posted: Friday, November 29, 2019 at 12:45 pm


prisonplanet--2019-11-30--Murderer on day release was among heroes who rushed to help during London Bridge terror attack

Murderer on day release was among heroes who rushed to help during London Bridge terror attack  One of the heroes of yesterday’s London Bridge attack is a convicted murderer out on day release, it has emerged.  It is believed James Ford rushed to the scene and tried to save the life of a woman victim of the terrorist. Now 42, Ford was jailed for life – with a minimum of 15 years – in April 2004 for the murder of a 21-year-old with learning difficulties.  Amanda Champion – who had the mental age of a 15-year-old – was found strangled and with her throat cut on waste ground near her home in Ashford, Kent, the previous July.  Police had no leads in the case until a Samaritans worker broke the organisation’s strict confidentiality policy and revealed that Ford, a factory worker and amateur wrestler, had called and confessed: ‘I’ve killed a girl.’  ‘The police liaison officer called me saying he was on the TV. I am so angry. They let him out without even telling us. Any of my family could have been in London and just bumped into him.  ‘It was a hell of a shock. It is a horrible thing. She said, ‘Have you heard about the incident in London today?’ and I hadn’t. She said, ‘Put in on now and you will see James Ford on the telly.’  ‘She said, ‘Don’t worry, it is not him that’s done anything, he’s there and he is being classed as a hero.’ For him to be called a hero – he is not, he is a cold-blooded murderer. For no reason whatsoever, he just went out and murdered a disabled person. I don’t care what he’s done today, he’s a murderer. He is scum. Amanda was my niece and she was vulnerable and he took her life. He knew what he was doing. People don’t change.’  This article was posted: Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 8:48 am


prisonplanet--2019-12-12--New Jersey Black Supremacist Shooting Being Treated as Act of Terrorism

New Jersey Black Supremacist Shooting Being Treated as Act of Terrorism  Authorities say the shooting in New Jersey which targeted a kosher grocery store and left six people dead and was carried out by a member of a black supremacist group is being treated as a domestic terror attack.  In addition to the two shooters, three civilians and one police officer were killed during the tragedy on Tuesday, with the civilian victims later being named as members of the local Chassidic community.  One of the shooters, David Anderson, who had made anti-Semitic and anti-police comments online, was later confirmed to be a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.  Authorities have now confirmed that the shooting is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism, with Attorney General Gurbir Grewal saying, “The evidence points towards acts of hate.”  A “manifesto-style note” was found in the stolen U-Haul that Anderson and his companion, Francine Graham, used as transportation.  Authorities are examining social media posts by Anderson and Graham to piece together a more detailed picture of their motivation.  As we highlighted earlier, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib received a backlash after she erroneously blamed “white supremacy” for the attack.  My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me.  Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here.  Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.  This article was posted: Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 1:30 pm


renegadetribune--2019-05-08--Israels Terrorists The White Helmets Receive an Award

Israel’s Terrorists: The White Helmets Receive an Award

Increasingly, groups and even foreign governments have pandered to Israel and its supporters in the United States because they have come to understand that success in dealing with Washington can be dependent on Jewish support. Last week, Raed Saleh, the leader of the so-called White Helmets, also referred to as the Syrian Civil Defense, a terrorist-affiliated group, was in the United States to “…receive the Elie Wiesel Award from the Holocaust Memorial Museum for his organization’s work in Syria.” He was also dropping by to pick up a check for $5 million courtesy of the U.S. government “…to help us with acquiring ambulances and help us with search and rescue operations.  During his visit, Saleh was treated to a nauseatingly obsequious interview courtesy of National Public Radio, which, inter alia, described how the Helmets “were the subjects of an Oscar-winning documentary two years ago, which captured images of them carrying broken and bloody Syrians from dust and rubble.”  Saleh claimed that the alleged victory of the Syrian regime in the yet to be completed war is an illusion as President Bashar al-Assad presides over a broken country, yet reports from inside Syria indicate that the return of the government to areas formerly controlled by terrorists has been welcomed and refugees from the fighting are now eager to return home. Saleh also claimed, falsely, that his organization has been “providing services to all Syrians and to providing support to all Syrians. Now after six years of war, we have saved more than 116,000 people from under the rubble. We have not asked any of these 116,000 people who did they belong to? Is he a Kurd? Is he a Christian? Is he a Muslim? Is he with Assad? Is he against Assad? Is he with the Kurds? Is he against the Kurds? We have never asked anyone these questions.”  Saleh, whose group has only operated in terrorist-controlled areas, could not, however, maintain his approved narrative. He fairly quickly abandoned his non-partisan quasi-humanitarian rhetoric when asked about how he sees the Syrian conflict developing, saying “We do not call this a civil war, but we rather call it a revolution against a dictatorship…the revolution still goes on. We have not lost.”  Those who are unfamiliar with the White Helmets should understand that the group has been praised by those who hate the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and want to see it removed, which includes the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. The White Helmets have played a leading role in the propaganda campaign that seeks to instigate violence or use fabricated information to depict the Damascus government as guilty of slaughtering its own citizens. The propaganda is intended to terrorize the civilian population, which is part of the definition of terrorism.  Favorable media coverage of the group has largely derived from the documentary The White Helmets, which was produced by the group itself and tells a very convincing tale promoted as “the story of real-life heroes and impossible hope.” It is a very impressive piece of propaganda, so much so that it has won numerous awards including the Oscar for Best Documentary Short two years ago and the White Helmets themselves were even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More to the point, however, is the undeniable fact that the documentary has helped shape the public understanding of what is going on in Syria, describing the government in Damascus in purely negative terms.  Nine months ago, with the Syrian Army closing in on the last White Helmet affiliates still operating in the country, the Israeli government, assisted by the United States, staged an emergency “humanitarian” evacuation of the group’s members and their families to Israel and then on to Jordan. It was described in a BBC article that included “The IDF said they had ‘completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families’, saying there was an ‘immediate threat to their lives.’ The transfer of the displaced Syrians through Israel was an exceptional humanitarian gesture. Although Israel is not directly involved in the Syria conflict, the two countries have been in a state of war for decades. Despite the intervention, the IDF said that ‘Israel continues to maintain a non-intervention policy regarding the Syrian conflict.’”  All of the Israeli assertions are nonsense, including its claimed “humanitarianism” and “non-intervention” in the Syrian war, where it has been bombing almost daily. The carefully edited scenes of heroism under fire that have been filmed and released worldwide conceal the White Helmets’ relationship with the al-Qaeda affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra and its participation in the torture and execution of “rebel” opponents. Indeed, the White Helmets only operate in terrorist-held territory, which enables them to shape the narrative both regarding who they are and what is occurring on the ground.  The White Helmets were accustomed to traveling to bombing sites with their film crews trailing behind them. Once at the sites, with no independent observers, they are able to arrange or even stage what is filmed to conform to their selected narrative. Exploiting their access to the western media, the White Helmets thereby de facto became a major source of “eyewitness” news regarding what was going on in those many parts of Syria where European and American journalists were quite rightly afraid to go, all part of a broader largely successful “rebel” effort to manufacture fake news that depicts the Damascus government as engaging in war crimes directed against civilians, an effort that has led to several attacks on government forces and facilities by the U.S. military. This is precisely the propaganda that has been supported both by Tel Aviv and Washington.  Perhaps the most serious charge against the White Helmets consists of the evidence that they actively participated in the atrocities, to include torture and murder, carried out by their al-Nusra hosts. There have been numerous photos of the White Helmets operating directly with armed terrorists and also celebrating over the bodies of execution victims and murdered Iraqi soldiers. The group’s jihadi associates regard the White Helmets as fellow “mujahideen” and “soldiers of the revolution.”  For those interested in further details, White Helmet activities have been thoroughly exposed by Maxim Grigoriev of the Russian NGO Foundation for the Study of Democracy. Grigoriev presented his findings at a special meeting of the United Nations just before Christmas 2018. A videoprepared based on the U.N. meeting includes interviews with actual witnesses of White Helmet atrocities and participants in the staged chemical attacks that were blamed on the government.  So Raed Saleh was in Washington to pick up his award and his multi-million dollar check on top of the tens of millions that his organization has already received from Congress and the White House. He also met with a number of Congressmen who support his initiatives and was praised by New Jersey’s own seriously corrupt Israel-firster Senator Robert Menendez of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who observed “that Saleh’s group of about 3,000 volunteers has ‘saved almost 100,000 lives’ doing ‘courageous work on the ground in Syria, while being targeted by Russia.’” Yes, Russiagate is alive and well.  There is considerable irony in the fact that the National Holocaust Museum, which is taxpayer funded, has given an apparently prestigious award to a terrorist group, something which could have been discerned with even a little fact checking. And the museum also might have been sensitive to how the White Helmets have been used in support of Israeli propaganda vis-à-vis Syria. Perhaps, while they are at it, the museum’s board just might also want to check out Elie Wiesel, for whom the award is named. Wiesel, who was a chronicler of Jewish victimhood while persistently refusing to acknowledge what Israel was doing to the Palestinians, notoriously mixed fact and fiction in his best-selling Holocaust memoir Night. Ironically, the award and recipient are well matched in this case as mixing fact and fiction is what both Elie Wiesel and the White Helmets are all about.


rt--2019-12-28--US military contractors sued for funding terrorism in Afghanistan with ‘protection’ payments to Tali

US military contractors sued for funding terrorism in Afghanistan with ‘protection’ payments to Taliban

Bribes paid by international military contractors in Afghanistan were used by the Taliban to fund attacks on companies that didn’t make the payments, according to a lawsuit filed by families of those injured or killed as a result.  “Large corporations that had lucrative businesses in Afghanistan” paid off the Taliban through a series of subcontractors, bribing the Afghan militants in order to save money on security, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court by the families of 143 US soldiers and contractors injured and killed during the longest war in American history. The 288-page civil suit alleges the Taliban then used the money to finance acts of terrorism against companies that didn’t bribe them, detailing the grisly circumstances that led to the deaths and injuries of the victims.  An employee of the US Embassy in Kabul referred to the payments as “organized crime,” according to the suit, which seeks unspecified relief for their families under the Anti-Terrorism Act.  Anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of the funding for major projects like the Kajaki Dam and a portion of the Ring Road went into the pockets of Afghan militants between 2009 and 2017, the lawsuit alleges. Contractors used Pentagon cash to hire sub-contractors, who hired their own sub-contractors and so on, until some of the money – amounting to millions of dollars, if not more – ended up in the hands of the Taliban.  Some government estimates show the Taliban strength in 2019 greater than at any time over the past 18 years of war that claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Afghan civilians, 2,400 US soldiers, and over $2 trillion in taxpayer funds.  Two defendants, DAI Global and Louis Berger Group, received approximately half the total contracts in Afghanistan distributed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2007 to 2009 – about $1 billion. DAI stands accused of paying off the Taliban from 2006 to 2012 while executing contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the areas they controlled.  “Standard practice in such circumstances was to pay protection money in order to discourage the Taliban from attacking their projects,” the suit claims. Louis Berger allegedly categorized the Taliban recipients of its payments as “moderate,” because they weren’t actively destroying the corporation’s work.  Other American contractors being sued are Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Centerra Group LLC, and Janus Global Operations LLC. British contractor G4S PLC and South African MTN Group are also on the list of defendants. None of the companies responded to requests for comment from the Wall Street Journal, the first outlet to report the lawsuit, except a Black & Veatch spokesman who claimed the contractor had followed US government instructions and was “proud” of its work in Afghanistan.  Multiple congressional investigations have confirmed that US companies were flooding local warlords and insurgents with millions of dollars in protection money at the height of the war. Even then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged in 2009 that such bribes were a major funding source for the Taliban. The following year, a congressional report called ‘Warlord, Inc.’ confirmed that Pentagon cash flowing through contractors was supporting a “protection racket,” buying safe passage of goods by bribing local officials (and likely Taliban members).  None of the corporations who paid the Taliban have been prosecuted, nor were any of the Pentagon officials who paid the contractors. A decade later, US troops remain in Afghanistan – even as documents published earlier this month (and dating from 2014) revealed that US officials knew that the war was doomed from the outset.  Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!


russiainsider--2019-01-22--Salvini Demands Extradition of Leftist Terrorists From France

Matteo Salivini, Italy's interior minister, said he would meet with French President Emmanuel Macron to demand the extradition of left-wing activists in order to "bring those murderers back to Italy".  Italy’s Deputy Premier clearly wants to go all the way. After dispatching a team to fetch the extreme left-wing Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti in Brazil – with the help of the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro – Salvini has now set his sights on leftist activists in France, according to French daily Le Figaro.  On Saturday, January 19, Salvini said he was ready to meet Emmanuel Macron, to negotiate their extradition. These terrorists include individuals from two decades ago who launched extremist attacks that caused a thousand deaths in Italy between 1970 and 1990.  “I’m ready to go to Paris to meet Macron, if it helps to bring those murderers back to Italy”, tweeted Salvini, as quoted by an article in Italian daily Il Giornale.  According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, “thirty fugitive terrorists, 27 leftwing and three rightwing” have been in hiding abroad. Among them, 14 are refugees in France. The minister had already said on Sunday, January 13, that he was “ready for official steps to seek cooperation with countries hosting terrorists, starting with Paris”.  In the 1980s, then French President Francois Miterrand had promised that he would not extradite any extreme leftist activist who had renounced the armed struggle. A hundred Italian militants who had been involved in the horrors of the “years of lead” had then chosen France to start a new life.  Meanwhile, the Italian government’s bill on legitimate-self-defence will be approved by the end of February, Salvini said on Friday.  The bill would introduce rules similar to the US stand-your-ground laws where virtually all forms of self-defence on one’s property against intruders are deemed legitimate.  “Many people are asking me when parliament will approve the legitimate-defence law after years of chatter,” said League leader Salvini. “(The answer is) by the end of February. The aim is to (protect) the sacrosanct right to legitimate defence of good citizens, shopkeepers, entrepreneurs and farmers.  “This will be recognised by the Italian law by the end of February. “The job of being a robber will be a little more difficult and a little more risky”. Francesco Minisci, the president of the Italian magistrates union ANM, recently warned that the bill risked “legitimizing serious illegal conduct, including murder”.  He also said there was the danger that the bill could be “unconstitutional”.  Also on Friday, Salvini urged the father of one of the Rigopiano hotel avalanche victims not the pay a fine for crossing a police cordon to lay flowers at the site of his son’s death.  Alessio Feniello, father of Stefano, was fined 4 550 euros for breaching the judicial cordon marking the area where the collapsed hotel had stood.  “I told Feniello Sr not to pay a euro,” said Salvini. “That’s all we need, being fined for taking flowers to your son. If there’s a wrong law we’ll change the law”.  Both Deputy premiers – Luigi Di Maio together with Salvini – took part on in commemoration marking the second anniversary of the Rigopiano avalanche disaster in Abruzzo that claimed 29 lives. Di Maio and Salvini spoke to relatives at the victims at the ceremony, held at area of the disaster.  The avalanche hit the resort as 40 people, including guests and staff, were inside, as the hotel was engulfed by snow during extreme weather conditions at the time.  Some of the 29 victims were instantly crushed to death while others who remained trapped died of hypothermia and asphyxiation. Rescuers reached the site several hours after the incident and had to travel on foot because roads had been blocked by heavy snow.


skynewsus--2019-12-29--Stabbings at New York rabbi's home 'an act of domestic terror'

New York stabbings: Hanukkah attack on rabbi's home 'an act of domestic terror'  New York stabbings: Hanukkah attack on rabbi's home 'an act of domestic terror'  A suspect in the stabbings was detained by police in Harlem  An attack on a New York rabbi's home in which five people were stabbed was an act of domestic terrorism, the state's governor has said.  The victims were stabbed in the basement of Hasidic Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's home in Monsey at around 10pm on Saturday, the seventh night of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.  A suspect, identified by police as Grafton E Thomas, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.  "Let's call it what it is. These people are domestic terrorists and the law should reflect that and they should be punished as if it was an act of terrorism," governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.  Speaking at the scene, about 35 miles (56km) north of New York City, he said: "It is intolerant, it is ignorant but it is also illegal. At the end of the day, it is not just about words but actions. It is violence spurred by hate. It is mass violence and I consider this an act of domestic terrorism."  One person was in a critical condition after being very seriously wounded, the governor said, adding that the rabbi's son was among five people who were taken to hospital.  His condition and that of the other victims has not been made clear.  A motive for the attack has not been confirmed by authorities, but Mr Cuomo called it "an intolerant time in our country".  "We see anger, we see hatred exploding. It is an American cancer on the body politic," he said.  "We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism," he wrote on Twitter.  Video showing Thomas, 37, from nearby Greenwood Lake, being arrested by police in the city borough of Harlem, was posted online.  Aron Kohn, one of dozens of people at a party in the house, said the attacker was carrying a large weapon.  "I saw him walking in by the door. I ask who was coming in the middle of the night with an umbrella. While I was saying that, he pulled it out from the thing and he started to run into the big room, which was on the left side."  Mr Kohn said one injured man was bleeding "all over", including on his neck and hands.  "I ran into the other room because I tried to save my life, I saw him running down this way, so I ran out," he added.  Chabad.org, which says it is the "website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement," published details of the attack based on witnesses and other sources.  It said: "An individual with a scarf covering his face entered just before 10pm, brandishing a knife and began stabbing some of the Chassidic Jews gathered for the celebration.  "The attacker then attempted to enter the adjacent synagogue, but was locked out by the people there, who barricaded themselves inside."  According to public records, Rabbi Rottenberg leads the synagogue next door.  Photos and videos posted on social media show a large emergency response, with paramedics running and pushing stretchers.  New York City's police department said it was stepping up patrols in heavily populated Jewish neighbourhoods, such as Monsey, in Rockland County, following a spate of anti-Semitic attacks over the past year, including one that left a rabbi dead.  Earlier this month, six people, including a police officer, died in a shooting at a kosher market in northern New Jersey.  Around New York City, police have received at least six reports this week - and eight since 13 December - of attacks possibly prompted by anti-Jewish sentiment.  The NYPD counter-terrorism bureau said it was "closely monitoring the reports".  Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet his country "strongly condemns the recent displays of antisemitism including the vicious attack at the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York, during Chanukah."  New York State Attorney General Leticia James said: "There is zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific situation. I stand with the Jewish community tonight and every night."  Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, "Hate doesn't have a home in our city," and described the latest incident as an attack on all New Yorkers.


sottnet--2019-01-11--Dutch prosecutor states foiled terror attack couldve left dozens of victims

Dutch prosecutor states foiled terror attack could've left dozens of victims

The Netherlands escaped a terrorist attack that could've resulted in "dozens of victims" with the arrest of seven suspects in Arnhem and Weert in September last year, the Public Prosecutor said in court on Thursday - the first proforma hearing in this case. Only three of the six suspects still in detention were present at the hearing, AD reports."The suspects said goodbye to friends. These suspects were on the way to commit an attack, with dozens of victims. The Netherlands escaped a major attack", the Prosecutor said."They also talked about tactics: how should they do it? And what to do if one of them is tagged by the police?" They decided not to walk too close to each other, and detonate their bomb vest if they police grab them, the Prosecutor said."But how different it could have been. If the string had broken with the infiltrators, we might have had dozens of victims."The police infiltration started on May 18th last year, after intelligence service AIVD informed the police that main suspect Hardi N. was planning an attack. The police infiltrators made first contact with the group on June 5th in Arnhem. The suspects were eventually arrested in Arnhem and Weert on September 27th.When the four left the park in a van, they were arrested. Three others were arrested in the Arnhem region. One of the seven suspects has since been released and did not have to appear in court on Thursday.The suspects who did have to appear are 34-year-old Hardi N., 21-year-old Wail el A., 21-year-old Nabil B., 21-year-old Morat M., 30-year-old Shevan A. and 26-year-old Nadeem S. All of the suspects originally came from the Arnhem region, but some of them moved to Rotterdam and Vlaardingen recently. Their homes were searched after their arrests.An unnamed man from Arnhem, 18, was released from pre-trial custody in late November. At the time of the release, the prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to continue holding the man. He was still considered a suspect in the case and remained under investigation, as of Nov. 26.the lawyers said, according to the newspaper.


sottnet--2019-01-15--Islamic terror group launches attack on Nairobi hotel and office complex

Police and anti-terrorist forces have regained control of a Nairobi hotel and office complex, hours after it was attacked by Islamist extremist gunmen.The assault on the dusitD2 compound in the Kenyan capital, which includes a luxury hotel, restaurants, a spa and several office buildings housing international companies, was the most outrageous by terrorists in the country for many years.Sustained automatic gunfire and grenade explosions were heard as the gunmen rushed in and scores of people fled the scene.On Tuesday evening, interior minister Fred Matiang'i said that security forces had secured all the buildings affected."The security teams have evacuated scores of Kenyans and [people of] other nationalities from the buildings," he said in a brief televised statement. "We are now in the final stages of mopping up the area and securing evidence and documenting the consequences of this unfortunate event."The alarm was raised at about 3pm on Tuesday when gunfire and explosions were heard at the hotel, in the upscale Westlands neighbourhood of the city. Dozens of ambulances, police vehicles and fire engines arrived at the scene as fleeing office workers filled the surrounding streets.Survivors reported hearing a shattering blast and saw people mowed down by gunmen as they sat at a cafe. Victims were left lying on tables, bleeding."We were changing our shifts, and that is when I heard a loud blast and people were screaming," said Enoch Kibet, who works as a cleaner at the cafe and managed to crawl out a basement gate. "I couldn't believe I was alive. The blast was so loud and shook the whole complex."Tuesday's attack came exactly three years after a deadly al-Shabaab attack on a Kenyan military base in El-Adde in Somalia, where about 140 Kenya soldiers were killed."Al-Shabaab mujahideen snipers are in operation in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Our reports confirm that mujahideen fighters stormed the target building," the al-Shabaab statement said.Witnesses reported that the attackers were wearing military fatigues and wrapped in ammunition when they ran into the hotel.In the hours after the attack, the gunmen and security forces were engaged in a fierce firefight. Plumes of smoke rose into the air from several burning cars. "There was a bomb, there is a lot of gunfire," said one man working at the complex, asking not to be named.Others described office workers in the complex hiding under the desks or sheltering behind makeshift barricades. Hundreds were evacuated from nearby buildings.Rashid Abdi, an expert in Islamic militancy in east Africa with the International Crisis Group in Nairobi, said al-Shabab was a versatile and patient organisation."It was always a matter of when not if. There has been some successes against al-Shabab in northern Kenya but if we have learned anything it is that al-Shabaab lulls security services into complacency. Months and years can go between attacks and then they strike."Though the Kenyan deployment in Somalia is one motive for al-Shabab's attacks in Nairobi and elsewhere, the organisation is also committed to the broader causes of global jihadi ideology and sees the Kenyan capital as a key target.Medics removed four bodies from buildings near the hotel , witnesses said. A medic said two more body bags were removed from another location nearby. One person died earlier at a hospital.Kenya faced a spate of attacks after it sent its army into Somalia in October 2011 to fight al-Shabaab, which is affiliated to al-Qaida.On 2 April 2015, al-Shabaab killed 148 people at a university in Garissa, eastern Kenya. Islamic State has a small presence in the Horn of Africa.Nairobi is the economic hub of the east Africa region with a big presence of western companies, diplomats and tourists. Kenya has long been a significant security partner of the US and other western countries.Authorities said they had been vigilant over the Christmas and New Year holiday season."Hotels and other public buildings remain under close watch. Reports from throughout the country indicate that everything remains calm and normal," Boinnet told reporters.


sottnet--2019-03-15--SOTT FOCUS Clash of Civilizations Arrives in New Zealand 49 Massacred by Multiple Gunmen During

SOTT FOCUS: 'Clash of Civilizations' Arrives in New Zealand: 49 Massacred by Multiple Gunmen During Multi-Site Terror Attack in Christchurch

A sophisticated multi-site terror attack beginning at 1:40pm local time in New Zealand earlier today saw several locations in the city of Christchurchprompting a major security operation and placing much of the country's largest city on lockdown. So far, 49 people have been confirmed killed, while an additional 48 have been injured.Media accounts have begun narrowing the focus to one individual, a 28-year-old Australian man named Brenton Tarrant, who wore a GoPro camera to livestream his part in the attack, but local police report that they have so far. The sadistic psychopath attacked the Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue, east of the city center, 10 minutes after noon prayers began, so it was full of worshipers as he unloaded multiple magazines from one of several weapons he brought with him. Bodies have also been found in adjacent streets so some of the victims appear to have been shot dead outside the mosque. One was that of a child, slain in the middle of Deans Avenue., however. An eyewitness told the Christchurch Star that she was in her car near the Al Noor Mosque as the attack began. Moments after hearing gunfire, she saysTerrified they would spot her, she put her seat down so she could hide in place. Police had not yet arrived on the scene.A second shooting incident began, within 5 minutes of the beginning of the Al Noor attack, at another mosque, the Linwood Masjid on Linwood Avenue. This site isSo far 7 people have been reported killed there - again, some inside the building, some outside. Eyewitnesses at this location say they saw a man leave the mosque "wearing camouflage gear and a motorcycle helmet," and that some locals gave chase as the gunman fled.Police also reported defusing "several improvised explosive devices" found attached to vehicles at diverse locations, one as far away as Strickland Street,Meanwhile an eyewitness told the New Zealand Herald that he saw a body in a carpark at Papanui High School,on Deans Avenue. The school went into lockdown as a police helicopter circled low overhead and dozens of armed police searched the site. Students and staff sheltered in place until a man, described as "wearing military clothing", was arrested outside the school.At 3:40pm local time, two hours after the attacks commenced, Christchurch police confirmed that this was Footage has emerged of police ramming a vehicle and arresting someone, though it's unknown which of the gunmen that is:Tarrant, the Australian gunman who filmed himself driving up to the Al Noor Mosque and taking firearms out of the trunk of his car, had scrawled inscriptions on them referencing famous European battles against the Ottoman Empire, among other 'neo-Nazi' slogans, such as "Here's Your Migration Compact!" Here is a screenshot of photos he uploaded to his Twitter account in recent weeks, which he apparently opened just last month:He also apparently penned a 73-page 'manifesto' titled 'The Great Replacement', in which he vowed 'revenge' against 'Muslim invaders', said he was "influenced above all by Candace Owens" , railed against declining European (white) birth rates, and hailed the psycho involved in the Utoya Island massacre and Oslo bombing in Norway in 2011. (Anders Breivik, incidentally, published a similar manifesto about Muslims, even though his victims were, by and large, left-leaning sons and daughters of Norway's elite. He too could not have carried out that multi-site terror attack alone ).Here's the 'white power' manifesto attributed to Tarrant. Note the emphasis on his identity, lack of education, and third-person Q&A style:Most bizarre, however, were Tarrant's final words before he began his part in the shooting spree:referring to the nickname of the most popular channels on YouTube, run by Swedish gamer and entertainer Felix Kjellberg.Australia has had strict gun control laws since the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre , when a multi-site terror attack in Tasmania was pinned on a low-IQ man (in trial-by-media, mind you - that case never came before a court of law). The arsenal of weapons and explosives used in this terror attack will undoubtedly pressure New Zealand authorities to implement tighter gun control. Others will tie in the proliferation of first-person shooter video games.But the main emphasis is apparently being focused on. The backstory on Tarrant thus far is that he is a member of the 8Chan forum, which has for years been mercilessly trolling the politically correct doctrines of multiculturalism and Leftist dogma in general. While his 'manifesto' is riddled with clichéd 'dog-whistles' to white supremacists, for anyone who knows how silly and humorous most of PewDiePie's content is,Almost every 'political wish' in this 'manifesto' echoes important topics being discussed in independent media and by populist movements and candidates. While there is some likeness between its content and what critics of mass migration into Europe are pointing out, it is largely a pat repetition of the ugly caricatures mainstream media talking-heads claim that grounded, sensible conservative-minded people actually advocate.While New Zealand has, until now, not been directly terrorized, as one of the 'Five Eyes' in the anglosphere it has inevitably absorbed much of the postmodernist leftist-liberal doctrine. Jordan Peterson recently toured 'down under' , and, despite being warned by their media that the University of Toronto professor "threatens the basic values of our society," he was, of course, a big hit with many Kiwis.As if confirming this motive for tarnishing the conservative counter-culture by association, the British Home Secretary has declared that social media platforms 'must do something to stop this from happening':Coincidence theorists will doubtless see no timing issue with the fact that the Israelis - three weeks out from elections that could depose Netanyahu's dictatorship - launched airstrikes at about 100 locations up and down the Gaza Strip , within two hours of the multi-site attack in Christchurch. Their justification for doing so was that two rockets were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time since 2014, and yet, as if in expectation of firm and credible denials of responsibility by Hamas, Israeli media this morning reports that 'it appears' those two rockets were 'fired accidentally during maintenance'.New Zealand/Australia have now had their 'major white ethno-nationalist' terror attack. It may take a year or two, but we could reasonably foresee a possible 'Islamic terror' follow-up in which Muslims are implicated in a 'corresponding' massacre of whites. "ISIS" (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Israel and the USA) has, supposedly, called for revenge. The point of it all is apparently to- not just between Muslims (who make up barely 1% of New Zealand's population of 4 million) and non-Muslims, but to more broadlyAs the fallout from this atrocity continues, keep in mind, as the media blames these attacks on one man and his 'neo-Nazi ideas', and as you observe independent media, thinkers or anyone holding dissenting views on social media effectively be accused of murdering the Christchurch victims, that. There are, indeed, "threats to the basic values of our society" out there, and they're not about to surrender their thrones without shedding blood.


sottnet--2019-05-21--Suspect in Christchurch mosque shootings charged with terrorism

Police in New Zealand filed a terrorism charge against a man accused of opening fire on two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people in an attack that led to changes to the country's gun laws.New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in a statement Tuesday that Brenton Tarrant has been charged with engaging in a terrorist act in the March 15 attack on the two mosques.An additional murder charge and two additional attempted murder charges have also been filed against Tarrant, bringing the total murder counts to 51 and the attempted murder counts to 40, Bush said.Police said they met with victims' families and survivors of the attack to inform them of the new charges. Police said around 200 people attended the meeting in Christchurch.


sputnik--2019-03-15--UN Security Council Condemns in Strongest Terms Terror Attack in New Zealand

UN Security Council Condemns in 'Strongest Terms' Terror Attack in New Zealand

“The members of the Security Council condemn in the strongest possible terms the hideous attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier today,” French Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Anne Gueguen said. "The members of the council express their deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed, and they offer their empathy to the people and the government of New Zealand.”  Gueguen asked all members who were present at the meeting to rise for a moment of silence for the victims of the massacre.  READ MORE: What is Known So Far About the Shooter Who Attacked Two New Zealand Mosques  Earlier on Friday, a gunman opened fire at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, injuring more than 40 people. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the shooting a terrorist act, saying it was the country's "darkest day."  A 28-year old man has been charged with murder and three others were being questioned, reports said. Ardern said earlier that none of the suspects had been on terrorist watch lists.


sputnik--2019-03-23--Christchurch Terrorist Attack The Socio-Political Consequences

Christchurch Terrorist Attack: The Socio-Political Consequences

Brenton Tarrant's explicitly fascist manifesto leaves no question about the killer's motives but raises serious concerns about how he was radicalized and whether there are more "sleeper cells" like him waiting to strike soft targets that they associate with Muslim migrants. The terrorist apparently hadn't been shy about his beliefs online either, so it's a surprise that he wasn't officially on any government watch lists when considering that his native Australia is part of the "Five Eyes" global surveillance superstructure.  New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed to reform her country's gun laws in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, and it can also be assumed that the state's security services and Australia's will investigate why this terrorist didn't appear on their radar until after he began his attack. Speaking of which, Tarrant notoriously livestreamed the first 17 minutes of his shooting spree on Facebook until the local police made the company aware of it and got the footage taken down, so it's possible that an attempt might be made to regulate social media after what just happened. Relatedly, the West's traditional laissez-faire notions of free speech might also be in the process of changing after two controversial incidents.  Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was banned from entering Australia for his upcoming tour after tweeting inflammatory comments about Islam and later blaming the victims for going to what he described as a "terrorist factory". A few days later, an unnamed individual was arrested in New Zealand for allegedly violating its "Films Videos and Publications Classification Act" by sharing footage of Tarrant's massacre on social media despite the authorities warning people not to. Both cases divided people over the issue of whether the state overstepped its bounds by infringing on free speech or if it was completely in the right for responsibly tackling hate speech before it incited another terrorist attack. While these are the socio-political consequences thus far, many more might soon unfold too.  To discuss this topic in more detail, Andrew Korybko is joined by Christopher Coman, New Zealand political commentator.  Want to sound off and share what you think about this? Send us an email at radio@sputniknews.com or find us on Facebook!


sputnik--2019-05-07--Inquest Into 8 People Killed in London Bridge Terror Attack Commences in London

One Spanish national, one Briton, two Australians, one Canadian and three French citizens died in the attack and nearly 50 people were injured. An inquest into the deaths of the victims began on Tuesday at the Old Bailey court in London.  The court is to examine why there were no barriers to protect pedestrians on the bridge at the time and how the ringleader Khuram Butt was able to plan and carry out the attack while under investigation by MI5.  Butt was released by the police 8 months before the attack, despite being actively investigated by MI5 prior to June 2017, following reports of aspirations to conduct an attack — a report by the Intelligence and Security Committee revealed in November 2018.  Similarly, MI5 came under fire for letting the perpetrator of the Manchester Arena bombing, Salman Abedi, slip through the cracks, even after he was flagged for review.  Butt, who was was reported to be part of the government's counter-terror strategy — the Prevent programme, and two other attackers, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba, were shot dead by police eight minutes after they were summoned.  The London Bridge attack inquest heard detailed stories about all the victims, including their location and how they came to face their attackers.  One of the victims, Xavier Thomas, 45, was hit by the attackers' van as he was walking on London Bridge.  His father called the attackers "barbarians, who can in no way be described as humans."  "With such an emotional shock we have been totally devastated in the way he has been taken from us. We all feel lost and are experiencing a great void without Xavier," Thomas's father said during the inquest.  "I hope this inquest will provide answers to the obvious and understandable questions that the families of those that died have", Judge Mark Lucraft said on Tuesday.  The inquest is said to establish the failure of security checks during the hire of rental vehicles, given that lorries and cars had been previously used in several terror attacks in Europe.


activistpost--2019-08-08--Wars and Domestic Massacres

Wars and Domestic Massacres

This past weekend, 22 people were killed in El Paso, Texas and 9 in Dayton, Ohio. There have been a number of other mass shootings in the past two decades or so; the largest was in Las Vegas in 2017, with 58 killed. This is sad, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the real perpetrators of death in America—-the US military.  It is been well-said that “it’s time for America to reckon with the staggering death toll of the post 9-11 wars.”  “Brown University’s Costs of War Project this month released a new estimate of the total death toll from the U.S. wars in three countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The numbers, while conservatively estimated, are staggering. Brown’s researchers estimate that at least 480,000 people have been directly killed by violence over the course of these conflicts, more than 244,000 of them civilians. In addition to those killed by direct acts violence, the number of indirect deaths — those resulting from disease, displacement, and the loss of critical infrastructure — is believed to be several times higher, running into the millions.  The report, which uses data spanning from October 2001 to October 2018, compiles previous analysis from nongovernmental organizations, U.S. and foreign government data, and media reports. In a statement, the report authors said the figures still just ‘scratches the surface of the human consequences of 17 years of war.’ Due to challenges human consequences of 17 years of war.” Due to challenges in data collection, their total estimate is an undercount, they added.”  If we want to end mass killing, this is what we should be trying to stop. Instead, the military is glorified. Deaths in war are downplayed, but when a mass shooting happens in an American city, the media saturates us with propaganda calling for gun control.  This is ironic not only because of the enormous disparity between the numbers killed by the military and those killed in mass shootings. It is also ironic because many of the mass shooters are people the military has trained to become mass killers. In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in the United States, the internet and broadcast news alike are inundated with commentary about why this keeps happening in America.  But one commonality among numerous mass killings in the United States remains absent from these conversations. It is always reported when details of the shooter are published, but the widespread connection is rarely acknowledged: A mounting number of mass shooters have ties to the military. The United States has indulged in a culture of ‘patriotic’ militarism for decades, glorifying this institutionalized violence as a sign of strength and morality.  Indeed, this glorification of violence bleeds over into the United States’ unique problem of individuals committing acts of mass violence. Here is a brief sampling of perpetrators of some of the most high-profile mass shootings in recent years. Many were either members of the military at some point, were rejected by the military (but clearly wanted to join), or came from a military family:  Other shooters, like Paul Ciancia, Adam Lanza, and James Holmes showed up to their shootings donning battle gear, and while this does not implicate a direct tie to the military, their decision to show up to a massacre of innocent people in tactical outfits (most commonly associated with the military and police) arguably demonstrates their mentality: one of battle, which is constantly glorified in American culture.  Ii is hardly surprising that Connor Betts, the shooter in Dayton, Ohio, showed up in body armor.  Instead of ending foreign wars, the greatest single contribution we could make to ending killing and violence, the power elite plays up mass shootings as part of its dual campaign to take away our guns and impose cultural Marxist mind control on us, in the guise of opposing “racism”.  As part of this agenda, the FBI and CIA spy on us and plan to ship dissenters to concentration camps.


activistpost--2019-12-29--The Wounded Knee Massacre: The Forgotten History of the Native American Gun Confiscation

The Battle at Wounded Knee is a significant battle in American history, as it put an end to the Indian Wars and is marked as the last official defeat of the Native Americans. But what’s not taught in history lessons is that Wounded Knee was one of the first federally backed gun confiscations in the history of the United States, and it ended in the massacre of nearly 300 unarmed people.  During the late 19th century, American Indians were allowed to purchase and carry firearms, just as white men were. The colonial gun laws did not bar Native Americans from possessing firearms, yet that natural right was violated by government forces at Wounded Knee. And once the guns were confiscated, the battle ensued.  When we look at the issues surrounding gun confiscation, Wounded Knee gives us an example of the devastation that an unarmed people can experience at the hands of their own government. This battle serves as a reminder to fight against gun confiscation and the gun control legislation that can lead to it.  At the beginning of the 19th century, it’s estimated that 600,000 American Indians lived on the land that is now the United States. By the end of the century, the people diminished to less than 150,000.  Throughout the 1800s, these nomadic tribes were pushed from the open plains and forests into “Indian Territories,” places determined by the U.S. government. It started during the Creek Indian War (1813-1815), when American soldiers, led by Andrew Jackson, won nearly 20 million acres of land from the defeated Creek Indians.  Unlike George Washington, who believed in “civilizing” the Native Americans, Jackson favored an “Indian Removal,” and when president in 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which was the first of many U.S. legislations that did not grant the Native Americans the same rights as colonial European-Americans. Davy Crockett was the only delegate from Tennessee to vote against the act.  The Plains Indians, who lived in the plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, weren’t as impacted by the U.S. government until later in the century, as U.S. expansion pushed into the “Wild West.” As people moved passed the Mississippi and into the Frontier, conflicts again arose between the Indians and Americans.  In an attempt at peace in 1851, the first Fort Laramie Treaty was signed, which granted the Plain Indians about 150 million acres of land for their own use as the Great Sioux Reservation. Then, 13 years later, the size was greatly reduced to about 60 million acres in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which recreated the Great Sioux Reservation boundaries and proclaimed all of South Dakota west of the Missouri river, including the Black Hills, solely for the Sioux Nation.  As part of the treaty, no unauthorized non-Indian was to come into the reservation and the Sioux were allowed to hunt in unceded Indian territory beyond the reservation that stretched into North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. If any non-Indian wanted to settle on this unceded land, they could only do it with the permission of the Sioux.  That was until 1874, when gold was discovered in South Dakota’s Black Hills. The treaties that were signed between the Native Americans and the U.S. government were ignored as gold rushers invaded Indian Territory and issues arose, such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  As time went on, the American Indians continued to be pushed into smaller territories and their lives began to diminish. In 1889, the U.S. government issued the Dawes Act, which took the Black Hills from the Indians, broke up the Great Sioux Reservation into five separate reservations, and took nine million acres and opened it up for public purchase by non-Indians for homesteading and settlements.  The Native Americans were squeezed into these smaller territories and didn’t have enough game to support them. The bison that had been a staple to their way of life were gone. Their ancestral lands that sustained them were no longer theirs. The resistance was over. They were no longer free people, living amongst themselves, but “Redskins” confined by the “white man” in reservations they had been forced to, many against their will.  With all of the Sioux Nation inhabiting less than nine million acres, divided up throughout South Dakota, the Indians were encouraged by the U.S. government to develop small farms. But they were faced with poor, arid soil and a bad growing season, which led to a severely limited food supply in the year following the Dawes Act. A miscalculation in the census complicated matters even more when the population on the reservation was undercounted, leading to less supplies sent from the U.S. government.  The situation was beyond bleak and the Sioux people were starving. That winter, an influenza epidemic broke out and caused a disproportionate number of Sioux children to die. And then in the summer of 1890, a drought hit, destroying yet another season of crops and the people of Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were in dire condition.  Perhaps it was these desolate circumstances that led to the spread of what is known as the Ghost Dance. Based on a vision experienced by a Sioux religious leader, the Ghost Dance was a spiritual ritual that was supposed to call the coming messiah, who would be an American Indian. This messiah would force the white man off of Indian lands, return the bison to the plains, and resurrect both their deceased and the life the Native Americans had once enjoyed.  Although this was not a war dance, it was feared by those who believed the Indians were savages. One such man was Daniel Royer, who arrived as the new agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation in October of 1890. He believed it to be a war dance and requested troops from President Benjamin Harrison on November 15th of that same year. His telegram read: “Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy. We need protection and we need it now.”  Harrison granted the request and part of the 7th Cavalry arrived on November 20th, with orders to arrest several Sioux leaders. Commander James Forsyth led the troops.  On December 15th, the 7th Cavalry attempted to arrest Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief who annihilated Commander George Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (he also toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and was a dear friend to Annie Oakley), because he didn’t attempt to stop the Ghost Dance amongst his people. During the incident, Sitting Bull was shot and killed.  The Lakota at Pine Ridge began to get nervous and the tribe’s leader, Big Foot, practiced the Ghost Dance and had caught the attention of the federal agents. After hearing of Sitting Bull’s death, he and his tribe fled to the Badlands.  They were pursued by the 7th Cavalry for five days. But Big Foot had come down with pneumonia and they were peacefully intercepted at Wounded Knee Creek on December 28th.  The next morning, Col. Forsyth demanded that the tribe surrender their firearms. Rifles were being turned over without issue until some of the Sioux men started a Ghost Dance and began throwing dirt into the air, as was customary to the dance.  A few moments later, a Sioux man named Black Coyote refused to give up his rifle. It’s been reported that the Indian was deaf, had recently purchased the rifle, and was most likely unaware of why the soldier was demanding it. Regardless, the two began to skuffle and the gun discharged.  The 7th Cavalry, who was the reconstructed regiment of Custer, opened fire on the Lakota. Along with their own weapons, they used four Hotchkiss guns, a revolving barrel machine gun that could fire 68 rounds per minute, devastating the entire tribe, which had just peacefully handed over their weapons.  The Sioux men, women, and children scattered, and the Cavalry pursued them. Dead bodies were later found three miles from camp.  Once the firing ended, some two hours later, an estimated 300 Native Americans lay dead in the snow, at least half of them women and children. Those that didn’t die immediately froze to death during the oncoming blizzard.  Nearly a week later, on January 3, 1891, the Cavalry escorted a burial party to the banks of the Wounded Knee River and they buried 146 Lakota Indians in a single mass grave. Other bodies were found in the surrounding areas, and the estimated body count is between 250 and 300 Sioux.  The Massacre at Wounded Knee brought an end to the Indian Wars. There was no more resistance. The Ghost Dancing stopped.  The Native Americans had been beaten. But the Cavalry’s attack was recognized as butchery, with Forsyth’s commanding officer, General Nelson Miles, calling it a “criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.”  However, President Harrison had an election around the corner and wasn’t in a position to look bad. Miles’ report was dismissed. Instead, the Cavalry men were made out as heroes against the Indian “savages.” And in the Spring of 1891, the president awarded the first of 20 Medals of Honor to the soldiers who disarmed then slaughtered the Sioux at Wounded Knee.  It’s been speculated that the 7th Cavalry, which again was regrouped after it was destroyed by Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn, was looking for a fight and deliberately sought revenge on the Native Americans.  Black Elk, one of the few Lakota survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre, recalled in 1931: “I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there.”  This article was sourced from Ammo.com  Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit.  Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.


cnsnews--2019-03-20--Turkeys Erdogan Uses New Zealand Mosque Massacre As Campaign Prop

Turkey’s Erdogan Uses New Zealand Mosque Massacre As Campaign Prop

(CNSNews.com) – Turkey’s Islamist president is using last week’s mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand as an election campaign prop, airing excerpts of the graphic video filmed by the shooter and making dark references to Australian and New Zealanders’ role in a military campaign in Turkey a century ago.  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s provocative tactics have drawn sharp from criticism from the two governments.  Campaigning ahead of local government elections on March 31, Erdogan this week invoked both national and religious sentiment, telling cheering supporters that anyone traveling to Turkey with ill intent would meet the fate handed out to their “grandfathers.”  “You came to Gallipoli from 16,500 kilometers away” the Hurriyet daily quoted him as telling one rally, on Tuesday. “What were you doing here? You showed up from Australia. After all these years, they still have hatred against us. The only reason is we’re Muslims, they are Christians.”  At another rally a day earlier, at Canakkale near Gallipoli, Erdogan was quoted as saying that “the enemies of Muslims have shown that they continue to hate us.”  “They are testing us by sending a message from New Zealand, from 16,500 kilometers away,” he said in reference to last Friday’s attacks at two mosques in Christchurch.  The accused gunman, 28-year-old Australian, Brenton Tarrant, has been charged in connection with the attack, which cost the lives of 50 people.  “Your grandfathers came here and saw that we were here, and then some returned … in coffins,” Erdogan continued, clearly referencing the Gallipoli campaign.  “If you come here with the same intentions, then we are waiting for you. Have no doubt, we will send you back like we did your grandfathers.”  More than 8,000 Australians and 2,700 New Zealanders died when Allied forces launched an assault on the Turkish peninsula in April 2015, in a drive aimed at disabling a key German ally and shortening the war.  Erdogan’s comments come just weeks before large numbers of Australians and New Zealanders are expected to visit Gallipoli for annual “Anzac Day” commemorations.  The Australian government is reviewing travel advice for Turkey, and New Zealand has issued a general caution to citizens abroad, saying that international reactions to the attack “are difficult to predict and may change at short notice.”  Responding to Erdogan’s remarks, New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, said it was “totally unfair” to blame New Zealand for the actions of a non-New Zealand citizen, and expressed concern about the potential risks to New Zealanders traveling abroad.  He also condemned the screening, at rallies on Monday and Tuesday, of excerpts of the video filmed by the shooter during the attack and livestreamed on social media. Excerpts of a manifesto posted online by Tarrant were also featured at Erdogan rallies.  Peters, who met with a visiting Turkish delegation earlier, is due to travel to Turkey in the coming days – in his words, “to put the record straight.” While there he is expected to attend a special meeting in Istanbul on Friday of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), called at the request of Turkey, Iran and several others, to respond to the Christchurch attack.  In Canberra, meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called in the Turkish ambassador on Wednesday morning to protest Erdogan’s comments, which he told Australian television before the meeting were “very offensive,” unhelpful and inaccurate.  “I find the responsibility in these situations – of all leaders – is to take the temperature down,” he said, adding that in his own response he was not seeking to escalate the situation.  After meeting with Ambassador Korhan Karakoc, however, Morrison seemed dissatisfied, telling reporters that he did “not accept the excuses that have been offered for those comments.”  Erdogan has made much of the fact Tarrant visited Turkey in recent years. (He claimed in his manifesto to have traveled to many countries.)  The lengthy manifesto also included remarks threatening Erdogan (as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and London Mayor Sadiq Khan) and saying that Turks should stay on the Asian side of their country, which straddles Europe and Asia.  The manifesto speaks of “liberating” the Hagia Sophia, the famous historical building in Istanbul which served variously as an Orthodox and Catholic cathedral until the 15th century, when the Ottomans began using it as a mosque. It was declared a museum in the 1930s.  Hurriyet reports that Erdogan also told supporters that if New Zealand doesn’t make Tarrant “pay” for his crimes, “one way or another we will make you pay.”  “You have nefariously, perfidiously and vulgarly killed 50 of our praying brothers,” he said. “You will pay for this. If New Zealand fails to do so, one way or another, we will make you pay for it.”  Erdogan’s comments also drew flak from Armenian communities in Australia and New Zealand.  “What Erdogan is doing is responding to a hate crime by spreading more hate,” said Haig Kayserian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia.  Hoory Yeldizian, who chairs the equivalent body in New Zealand, contrasted Erdogan’s remarks with what he called the “exemplary empathy and strong leadership” taken by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern since the massacre.  Some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 and the following years in Turkey during World War I. Armenians around the world mark April 24, 1915 – one day before Allied troops landed at Gallipoli – as the date the atrocities began.  Erdogan has a record of inflammatory nationalist and religious rhetoric during political campaigns.  Ahead of a 2017 referendum on constitutional changes giving him sweeping new powers, he accused some European governments of acting like Nazis, portrayed Europe as anti-Islam, and encouraged Turks living in Europe to have lots of children, describing them as continent’s “future.”  In an op-ed in the Washington Post on Tuesday, Erdogan urged Western societies and governments to “reject the normalization of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, which has been on the rise in recent years.”


globalresearch--2019-02-14--War Crimes The Ameriyah Shelter in West Baghdad The 1991 St Valentines Day Massacre

War Crimes: The Ameriyah Shelter in West Baghdad: The 1991 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

This article was originally published on February 13, 2007, in commemoration of the Ameriya Shelter bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.  It is sixteen years since the Ameriyah Shelter in west Baghdad was bombed, incinerating all but eight, inside. Figures for the souls lost, still vary from four hundred and five to over twelve hundred, the registration book was incinerated along with those who had sought refuge, women,children, students and on occasion, the very old. The men stayed out to make room for those whom they wished protection – and to rescue others from the ongoing carpet bombing. The Shelter was only used over night.  The shelter had been built to withstand a possible nuclear attack, during the eight year, western driven, Iran-Iraq war. Walls three metres thick with the roof reinforced by the near indestructable steel ‘mesh’ used to support four or six lane road bridges. The only vulnerable point was the ventilation shaft. Iraq had chosen a Finnish company to build shelters throughout Baghdad, selecting the company because of perceived Finnish neutrality and commercial integrity. The company, reportedly passed the plans to the US prior to the 1991 onslaught.  I visited the Shelter just months after the bombing. We were a group from various countries and arrived in the early, sparkling sunlight. So unscathed was the building from the outside, that we had not realised where we were, talking and laughing under a sky still painted with dawn’s translucent trails and myriad shades of orange and ochre.  Iraqi reads holds a 1000 cranes peace offering at the Al-Amiriyah bomb shelter in Baghdad where 408 people died after two bombs destroyed it in 1991. Three days after the bombing the U.S. government apologized for bombing the shelter which protected families. (Photo by Paul Kitagaki Jr./Seattle Post-Intelligencer For News story by Larry Johnson)  Entering, there was a stunned silence. The smell of burning flesh still overwhelmed. I found myself tiptoeing through the blackened interior, under the melted piping, tiptoeing through the screams. There were sooted plastic flowers laid in dark corners, pathetic scraps of bloodied gauze. The only light was from the near perfect spherical entry point of the missiles, illuminating below, the great crater where they fell, the jagged remains of the centimetres thick steel mesh, hanging, a ‘surgical strike’ indeed, as a knife through butter – against women and children.  The Shelter, as during the Iran-Iraq war and in 1991, had been a safe haven in abnormal times. With electricity bombed, the huge generators allowed the children brief childhood normality: watching television, playing video games, reading, playing, homework – and the bombs could not be heard. The rows of bunk beds were a treat, with a rush to get the top bunk, a joyous eyrie of escape and escapism.  There were two vast floors, the top for sleeping, studying, socialising, sharing meals, the lower had showers, kitchens, a medical centre. When the bombs fell, the heat incinerated those on the top floor – and the vast water tank on the lower floor heated to bursting – boiling those showering, or chatting whilst cooking the evening meal, or those whose ailments were being treated and the medical staff.  The breast high ‘scum’ on the walls, was the flesh of those who perished. On the upper floor is the seared ‘shadow’ of a mother, holding her baby. Hiroshima revisited. I could bear the screams no longer and fled out and in to the sunlight. Noticing a small, blackened, brass plaque on the wall, I asked a Jordanian friend what it read. He struggled with the translation for a moment, the: ‘It is like when there is a crisis and civilian people try to help ..’ ‘Civil Defence?’ I asked : ‘Yes, yes, it says Civil Defence Shelter No:24.’  America had, of course, claimed it was a Command Centre for Saddam Hussein’s government. A lie, as ever, of enormity. Further, the U.S. had satellites watching everything (which continued through the embargo years, as now, clearly visible, blinking away like vast stars, floating, rotating.) A consistent comment over numerous interviews in the area and Baghdad, about the Shelter horror, that first visit and over subsequent years, was that for three days before, a satellite had been rotating over the district.Thus it would have recorded women and children entering it at dusk and leaving at dawn. That night there would have been a particular procession and it was the eve of the festival of Eid and with no means of cooking at home for the fast breaking, women took their food to prepare in the kitchens and their festive gifts, to wrap under the lights.  When the fire engines arrived, the rescuers could hear the screams, until they began to fade away – but the great metre thick steel door, with airline type handles to seal it from the inside for safety, was glowing like a furnace, then as it melted, re-sealed itself. Dante, revisited. To have poured water from gaping missile hole in the roof, would have subjected those inside to boiling steam. The fire chief, the toughest of men, who had seen the unimaginable and directed rescues over many years, faltered as he said, of the remains they finally brought out: ‘We thought we were bringing out only children and wondered why they were there alone – then we realised the (adult) bodies had (contracted) to child size with the intensity of the heat.’  Anwar, then eighteen and a student ran to help, with a friend with whom he was staying, nearby. When talking of that night, he too faltered and stilled, then gestured with his hands, saying: ‘The peoples, the bodies, they had gone so small – like this ..’ There is a haunting tale told by Umm Rheda (mother of Rheda) who left the shelter temporarily to take some preparations home. Whilst she was away, the bombs fell her children were incinerated, with Rheda, her eldest daughter. When all the emergency services experts, the army which was drafted in, had failed to open the door, she begged and screamed to try. It opened: ‘Rheda opened it for me’, she says. The fire chief confirmed that Umm Rheda opened the door.  The Shelter, over time, became a shrine, the bereaved, visitors brought momentos, pictures of the dead, the babies, the mischevious, the young mothers, the earnest students, stared from the walls. The floor was cleaned and polished, but the skin, the shadows, the seared walls and the screams remained. Until 2003, this was a unique U.S. wickedness. Another was an early act of their invading troops : to storm it (with their boots on of course) and search this sacred, sobbing site, for weapons. And now courtesy again, of the U.S.A., all Iraq is Al Ameriyah.  Three days before the Shelter bombing, Dick Cheney, now Vice President and General Colin Powell (designated a ‘dove’ by the George W. Bush Administration) visited the US Air base at Khamis Mushat, Saudia Arabia (slogan: ‘bombs are us’ and ‘we live so others may die.’) After a pep talk to troops, they both signed two thousand pound bombs: ‘To Saddam with fond regards’, wrote Cheney (‘A General’s War’, General Bernard Traynor and Michael Gordon, Little Brown, p.324.)  When the Shelter was bombed, frantic calls followed incase the bombs might have been involved in this massacre. Cheney’s bomb apparently fell on northern Iraq, dropped by a Major Wes Wyrich. What souls Powell’s decimated, is seemingly unknown.  The Ameriyah Shelter was bombed on the night of 13th/14th February: the celebration of Eid, St. Valentine’s Day and the anniversary of the fire bombing of Dresden. When I put this to a U.S. General and remarked on the ‘coincidence’, he looked me in the eye and said: ‘Kinda neat, eh?’  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.


theguardian--2019-11-28--Warren introduces bill to strip Medals of Honor for Wounded Knee massacre

The Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley have announced legislation that would strip Medals of Honor from US soldiers who carried out the Wounded Knee massacre, killing hundreds of mostly unarmed Native Americans.  A House bill on the subject was introduced in June by representatives including Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat who is one of the first female Native American US lawmakers.  “The horrifying acts of violence against hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee should be condemned, not celebrated with Medals of Honor,” said Warren, from Massachusetts, who is campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.  “The Remove the Stain Act acknowledges a profoundly shameful event in US history, and that’s why I’m joining my House colleagues in this effort to advance justice and take a step toward righting wrongs against Native peoples.”  In a statement, Haaland said the act was “about more than just rescinding Medals of Honor from soldiers who served in the US 7th Cavalry and massacred unarmed Lakota women and children [in 1890] – it’s also about making people aware of this country’s history of genocide of American Indians.”  Donald Trump has referenced Wounded Knee in mocking Warren’s claim to Native American heritage.  The senators’ announcement came on Wednesday, a day before Thanksgiving, the federal holiday commemorating a 1621 harvest meal shared by Native Americans and Pilgrims. Thanksgiving has increasingly drawn criticism for glossing over the disastrous impact of white settlement on Native Americans.  Since 1970, the United American Indians of New England organisation has held a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving day, to remember “the genocide of millions of native people, the theft of native lands and the relentless assault on native culture”, according to the Associated Press.  The National Day of Mourning takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, an early place of European settlement.  Wounded Knee, described by the Washington Post as “one of most shameful and bloody acts of violence against indigenous people in American history”, occurred on 29 December 1890.  Chief Big Foot, who led the Minneconjou Lakota, was guiding his people to refuge in South Dakota when US soldiers stopped them. The group surrendered and was taken to Wounded Knee Creek, “surrounded by 470 soldiers and their formidable artillery”, the Post wrote.  While exact details of the massacre have proved difficult to determine, it is believed there was a dispute while soldiers were trying to disarm the chief’s men. It is also thought a gunshot prompted American forces to attack. Between 150 and 400 Native Americans were killed. Historians agree most of the victims were women and children.  Twenty members of the 7th cavalry involved in Wounded Knee received the Medal of Honor, which is described by the Army as “the nation’s highest medal for valor in combat that can be awarded to members of the armed forces”.  A large number of the medals were awarded for “gallantry” and “bravery” even though there are few details of purported acts of heroism, the Post noted.  Maj Gen Nelson A Miles, an army commander, wrote of the incident: “I have never heard of a more brutal, cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee.”  According to a letter cited by the Post, Miles described the victims as “women with little children on their backs, and small children powder-burned by the men who killed them being so near as to burn the flesh and clothing with the powder of their guns, and nursing babies with five bullet holes through them”.  While the Medal of Honor was granted more loosely in the 19th century, scholars have noted that the number of Wounded Knee recipients is high. Antietam, an 1862 civil war battle considered the “bloodiest day in US history”, also led to 20 awards.  Native Americans have long pushed for the revocation of medals awarded to Wounded Knee soldiers. Since 1997, the National Congress of American Indians has greenlighted resolutions requesting the removal of medals.  Congress formally apologized in 1990, stating “deep regret on behalf of the United States to the descendants of the victims and survivors and their respective tribal communities”. But, the Associated Press reported, lawmakers did not offer any type of reparations.


thehuffingtonpost--2019-08-22--Elizabeth Warren To Introduce Bill Revoking Medals Of Honor For Wounded Knee Massacre

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) plans to introduce legislation this fall to rescind 20 Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. soldiers who slaughtered hundreds of Lakota Indians ― mostly women and children ― in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.  The bill, the Remove the Stain Act, was introduced in the House in June by Democratic Reps. Denny Heck (Wash.), Paul Cook (Calif.) and Deb Haaland (N.M.), one of two Native American women in Congress. Warren told Indianz.com on Tuesday that she’ll introduce a Senate version in the coming months.  “At the Wounded Knee massacre, hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered by soldiers who received Medals of Honor. These acts of violence were not heroic; they were tragic and profoundly shameful,” Warren said in a statement provided to HuffPost. “This bill respects and honors those who lost their lives, advances justice, and takes a step toward righting wrongs against Native peoples.”  Warren was one of several Democratic presidential candidates who participated in this week’s Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. The topic of the Remove the Stain Act came up frequently at the two-day event, due largely to one woman in the audience, 99-year-old World War II veteran Marcella LeBeau of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, asking candidates if they would sign it into law as president.  “Back home on the Cheyenne River Reservation, I believe that there is a pervasive sadness that exists because of unresolved grief,” LeBeau said each time she raised the issue. “Back in 1890, at the massacre at Wounded Knee, there were innocent women and children who were killed there by the 7th Calvary. Even Bigfoot, who was the leader, he laid there with pneumonia, unarmed, under the white flag of truce. He was killed.”  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will introduce a bill in the coming months to strip the Medal of Honor from 20 U.S. soldiers who slaughtered hundreds of Native American women and children in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.  Every Democratic candidate at the event said they would sign the bill into law, though former Maryland Rep. John Delaney hedged. He said he first wanted to research each medal awarded at “the battle” to decide whether to rescind some or all of them. (Wounded Knee was not a battle ― it was a massacre, which several attendees were quick to point out after Delaney used the word.)  The Remove the Stain Act isn’t quite moving yet in the House. Heck is currently focused on getting cosponsors and endorsements from veterans and Native American groups, per Heck spokesman Bobby Mattina.  “The level of support we’re able to build will likely help determine the best course of action to get the bill passed,” Mattina said.


thenewyorktimes--2019-09-05--Three Ex-Blackwater Guards Are Resentenced in Iraq War Massacre

WASHINGTON — Three former Blackwater security contractors were sentenced on Thursday to roughly half of their original 30-year prison terms for the deadly 2007 shooting of unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, widely seen as one of the darkest moments of the Iraq war.  The three former contractors — Dustin L. Heard, Evan S. Liberty and Paul A. Slough — had been convicted in 2014 of multiple counts of manslaughter for their roles in the massacre. But in 2017, a federal appeals court vacated their sentences, saying the trial judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, erred in invoking a law that requires 30-year sentences for such offenses that involve machine guns.  That law did not apply to the use of government-issued machine guns in a war zone, the court ruled. Prosecutors on Thursday nevertheless asked Judge Lamberth to resentence Mr. Slough to 30 years, and the other two men to slightly less. Defense lawyers asked him to instead sentence their clients to the roughly five years they had already served. The three defendants, dressed in orange prison garb, asked to be sent home to their families.  But after a hearing that lasted most of the day and played out before a courtroom packed with dozens of family members, friends and other supporters of the men, the judge rejected those ideas. He instead sentenced Mr. Heard to 12 years and seven months; Mr. Liberty to 14 years; and Mr. Slough to 15 years.


thesun--2019-03-20--Former Bosnian Serb warlord Radovan Karadzic jailed for life for Srebrenica massacre that killed 80

Former Bosnian Serb warlord Radovan Karadzic jailed for life for Srebrenica massacre that killed 8,000 Muslims

BOSNIAN Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic has been sentenced to life in prison for the worst genocide in Europe since World War Two.  UN appeals judges upheld Karadzic's conviction for genocide over the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 during the Bosnian War.  The ruling will likely bring to a close one of the highest profile trials stemming from the series of wars in the 1990s that saw the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia and death of at least 100,000 Bosnians.  Karadzic, 73, was convicted in 2016 for the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces.  He was also found guilty of leading a campaign of ethnic cleansing that drove Croats and Muslims out of Serb-claimed areas of Bosnia.  On appeal, prosecutors are seeking a life sentence and a second genocide conviction for his alleged role in that policy of targeting non-Serbs across several Bosnian towns in the early years of the war. Karadzic meanwhile is appealing against his conviction and wants a retrial. The ruling, which is final and cannot be challenged on appeal, will have huge resonance in the former Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia, where ethnic communities remain divided and Karadzic is still seen as a hero by many Bosnian Serbs. The judgment will be read out at 2pm local time (1pm GMT) in The Hague at a UN court handling cases left over when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia closed its doors in 2017. A delegation of the association of Mothers of Srebrenica will be in the Netherlands for the judgment. In hiding for nearly a decade, Karadzic was arrested and handed over to the court in July 2008. Families of victims who travelled to the Hague welcomed the verdict. Mothers of victims, some elderly and walking with canes, wept with apparent relief after watching the ruling read on a screen in Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic was also awaiting an appeal judgment of his genocide and war crimes conviction, which earned him a life sentence. Both men were convicted of genocide for their roles in the slaughter by Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnia's eastern Srebrenica region in July 1995.