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Showing posts from December 27, 2015

Southern insurgency: Islamic schools next in firing line?

Bangkok ruling over renowned ponok in Pattani could be a bleak precedent for the peace process Two weeks ago a Bangkok court ruled that the 14-rai grounds of Jihad Withya School at Tha Dan village be confiscated as state property – an order that dismayed local Muslims in Pattani. The school is a renowned ponok (or pondok in standard Malay), a traditional boarding school where just about every local Muslim boy is sent to learn about Islam and what it means to be Malay. Each ponok is run by a headmaster, known as a tok guru, who is held in high esteem by his community. Historians say this longstanding institution helped forge Patani as the cradle of Islamic civilisation in Southeast Asia. Even today, the mystique of the ponoks and the Islamic education they provide continues to attract students from across of Southeast Asia. Jihad Withya was one of several hundred traditional boarding schools that dot this historically contested region. Citing the Anti-Money Laundering Act,

Why Western Civilization Has Lost Its Self-Confidence

When did we give up? And can we reenergize Western society? As we approach 2016, the West is experiencing a civilizational loss of self-confidence, arising from a narcissistic fatalism and cataclysmic failure of institutional leadership. At every turn, it seems, the weak and uncertain leadership of the West is submitting to the strength and evil certainty of radical Islam, of which Winston Churchill  warned more than a century ago “no stronger retrograde force exists in the world.” We began giving up our self-confidence a century ago when the Western governments who fought on both sides of World War I abandoned classical liberalism and its associated political philosophy of constitutional liberty and replaced it with autocratic top-down, state controlled central planning. Modern liberalism, as practiced by the Democratic Party in the United States in 2015 and 2016 and its state-centric counterparts in Europe, bears little resemblance to classical liberalism. “The ideolog

5 terrorists, 3 jawans killed in gunbattle at Air Force base in Punjab

  Fresh firing reported in Pathankot during combing operation, more terrorists suspected to be hiding, says Defence sources.  In a pre-dawn attack, a group of heavily-armed terrorists, suspected to belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit, struck at the Air Force base, leading to a fierce gunbattle in which three security personnel were killed along with five attackers.  Here are the live updates:  8.30 p.m.:  Operation completed, five terrorists killed 7:45 p.m.:  Home Minister Rajnath Singh confirms that all five terrorists have been killed in Pathankot.  7:43 p.m.:  Enemies of humanity who can’t see India progress attacked Pathankot, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  6:43 p.m.: Fifth terrorist neutralised, combing operation continues.  6:30 p.m.: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar meets NSA, service chiefs  Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar chairs a high-level meeting and he was briefed in detail by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the attack. The meeting was attended by all the th

FARC-Sinaloa Cartel Partnership Worth $50B, Says Former ColombianPresident

It’s no secret that Mexico’s largest drug cartel has a strong partnership with Colombia’s largest narcoterrorist group. However, recent statements made by a former Colombian president are shedding light on the multibillion dollar value of that relationship. During a recent interview in Caracas, Venezuela, Former Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arangotold the Venezuelan daily  El Universal  the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colomvvbia (FARC) and its alliance with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel helped create a massive drug trafficking operation, generating up to $50 billion with the more than 450 tons of cocaine produced illegally in Colombia each year,  according to UPI . The coca plant, from which cocaine is derived, does not grow naturally in Mexico but thrives in parts of South America. As such, Mexican cartels are dependent on Colombian producers for cocaine trafficking profits. The FARC has been operating as a terrorist group in Colombia for decades, and has entered into nego

Paris attacked to stir up tensions between Islam and West: Scholar

False flag attacks were carried out in Paris – the capital of world secularism – last year in order to stir up tensions with a strategy of pitting Islam against the West, and because the French youth are turning against Zionism and supporting the Palestinians, an American scholar and researcher says. Dr. Kevin Barrett, a founding member of the  Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11 , made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday when he was asked to name the biggest false flag operations of 2015. “2015 saw an outrageous number of false flag events, and the two biggest ones were the attacks in Paris, France; the second attack in Paris on November 13 was followed up quickly by a sequel attack in San Bernardino, California,” Dr. Barrett said. “It seems that the people behind the so-called war on terror, and that would be neoconservative Zionists, have decided to use Paris as their center of operations, or at least this past year they did,” he added.     “I

Ukraine to probe suspected Russian cyberattack on grid

Ukraine will investigate a suspected cyberattack on its power grid, the energy ministry said, an incident the country's secret service has blamed on Russia.  A power company in western Ukraine, Prykarpattyaoblenergo, said on December 23 that a swath of the area it serves had been left without energy, including the regional capital Ivano-Frankivsk, due to "interference" in the work of the system.  Ukraine's SBU state security service blamed Russia, which has not so far commented on the allegation. The energy ministry in Kiev said on Thursday that it had set up a special commission to investigate what happened.  While cyber attacks are commonplace, few successful assaults on industrial targets have been documented. If the SBU's accusations are validated by the probe, it would be the first time a specific power outage has been credibly linked to a cyber attack, said Robert Lee, a former US Air Force cyber warfare operations officer.  Lee said it was too early to

Watch: Terror group Al-Shabaab features Donald Trump in new recruitment video

The group, which is Al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia released the propaganda video after Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton stated Trumps controversial remarks about banning Muslims in the United States would be used to recruit jihadis. US Presidential candidate Donald Trump has been featured in a new recruitment video by terror group, Al-Shabaab. The group, which is Al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia released the propaganda video after Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton stated during a ABC hosted debate that Trumps controversial remarks about banning Muslims in the United States would be used to recruit jihadis. “He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists," Clinton said during the Democratic debate on December 19. "Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our