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Showing posts from April 15, 2018

Terrorism-accused UN expert: Duterte wages new war, with ‘new targets’

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MANILA, Philippines — As he leads a bloody war on drugs that has left scores dead, President Rodrigo Duterte has started a new battle, with “new targets,” a Filipina United Nations expert whom the government accused of terrorism said. In a petition filed in a Manila court last month, the Department of Justice said it wants 600 people tagged as terrorists for their alleged links to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army. The petition included UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, who had condemned alleged rights abuses in the restive southern island of Mindanao where troops are fighting an Islamic insurgency and Maoist rebels. The state’s move was strongly criticized by human rights watchdogs, with some describing the court petition as a “virtual hit list.” In an opinion piece published on the Financial Times, dated March 29, Corpuz said those accused by the government of terrorism have bec

How masculinity, not ideology, drives violent extremism

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Dina Temple-Raston is the executive producer and host of the podcast “What Were You Thinking?,” which looks at the adolescent decision-making process and the impulses and brain science that inform their choices. It is available at  audible.com/adolescentbrain  and will be on Apple Podcasts at the end of March. She has been NPR’s counterterrorism correspondent for the past decade. I sat down with a young Minnesota teenager last year who had sold what little he owned — his sneakers, his iPhone and prized pieces of clothing — to buy an airplane ticket to Turkey. He wasn’t going for tourism. He’d decided to slip into Syria to join the Islamic State. The reason he was drawn to the group had almost nothing to do with its ideology, he told me. “In the summer of 2014 all ISIS was talking about was fighting the Assad regime,” he said. “I thought I was fighting on the side of an oppressed people.” For him, going to Syria to fight was about something much more fundamental: It was about

Right-winger? Not me, says alt-right darling Jordan Peterson

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To his growing legion of mostly male fans, Jordan Peterson is a cultural messiah, but to his critics he’s a professor of piffle. When the Canadian psychologist recently brought his brand of intellectual machismo to Australia, crowds flocked – and controversy followed. An awful roar rose up as the hundreds of angry protesters pounded on the locked panelled doors and stained-glass windows of the historic sandstone hall, yelling out a volley of obscenities designed to drown out the guest speaker about to step up to the podium. To Jordan Peterson, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and fiery anti-PC warrior, the shadowy figures prowling up and down outside the soaring arched windows at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, looked like zombies. But if the steely professor was rattled, he didn't show a sliver of it in front of his 900 fresh-faced fans. As Peterson was about to commence his lecture – entitled  The Rising Tide of Compelled Speech in Canada  –

Syrian Forces Bombard Islamic State-Held Areas in South Damascus

Syrian regime forces and their allies shelled what they said were Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra positions on the southern outskirts of Damascus on April 20. The offensive was launched after the initial failure of negotiations to evacuate Islamic State from areas including al-Hajar al-Aswad, and the Yarmouk camp, which houses a Palestinian population. There were at least 1,500 Syrian and Palestinians families besieged there, according to a  Yarmouk Camp community group . As the bombardment was ongoing, reports emerged of an agreement to withdraw by insurgents in the area. Reuters said “the army’s bombardment continued pending a full surrender deal.” This video was shared by pro-regime media and is described as showing heavy bombardment hitting al-Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk Camp in south Damascus. Credit: War Media via Storyful Source:  https://in.news.yahoo.com/syrian-forces-bombard-islamic-state-152431157.html

Over 400 right-wing extremism cases investigated in German armed forces

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Picturen taken on March 25, 2014, shows a German soldier standing to attention in front of a German Patriot missile launcher at the Gazi barracks in Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey. (AFP Photo) Germany is investigating more than 400 cases of possible right-wing extremism within the armed forces, local media reported Thursday. The Military Counter-Intelligence Service was looking at 431 cases, of which 23 were new this year. The official figures, as reported by the Funke media group, came from the Defense Ministry in response to a parliamentary question from left-wing lawmakers. The ministry said in October last year that the army had discharged 18 service personnel because of right-wing extremism. In some cases, Nazi memorabilia had been discovered at army barracks. One officer who was arrested on suspicion of planning a xenophobic attack was released in November due to lack of evidence. "Instead of turning a blind eye, the government must finally take steps to

Philippines Seeks 'Terrorist' Tag for 600 Alleged Communist Guerrillas

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The justice ministry last month said it wanted a Manila court to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), "terrorist" bodies, but made no mention of individuals it would also target. Since taking office in July 2016, Duterte freed some communist leaders and put leftists in his cabinet, to show his commitment to finding a permanent solution to a five-decade conflict. But he abandoned the process in November, after what he called repeated attacks by the NPA during talks. The petition said the rebels were "using acts of terror" to sow fear and panic to overthrow the government. Duterte has been regularly venting his fury at the Maoists and considers them as much of a security threat as the domestic Islamist militant groups that have pledged allegiance to Islamic State. By declaring groups and individuals terrorists, the government would be able to monitor them more closely, track finances

The Fall of the Norwegian Trump

The last time Norway caught the attention of the international media, it was because Donald Trump remarked that more immigrants should come to the US from countries like Norway and less from “shithole” places. That prompted a string of jokes and jibes about  Norway being the whitest country in the world , a perfect fantasy for a racist president. How white Norway actually is depends on how you define it, but race, immigration, and “cultural preservation” have indeed stirred things up in this small country. Last month it culminated in the dismissal of Minister of Justice  Sylvi Listhaug , who both supporters and detractors have compared to  Trump . But what actually happened? And how big of a blow was it to right-wing populism? The Norwegian Right Listhaug belongs to the Progress Party (FrP), a right-wing formation with a history of dog-whistling and blatant racism that has been in government since 2013 with the conservative-right party Høyre. For a long time the Norwegian e

Six dead in clashes near Iran-Pakistan border

Three of the attackers were killed along with a police officer and two members of the Revolutionary Guards during clashes at night along India-Pakistan border. Three “terrorists” and three members of the Iranian security forces were killed during night-time clashes along Iran’s border with Pakistan, state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday. “At 0130 this morning (2100 GMT Monday], a terrorist group from Pakistan attacked” a police post in the border area of Mirjaveh, around 75 km southeast of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, IRNA said. Three of the attackers were killed along with a police officer and two members of the Revolutionary Guards, it added. Iran has criticised Pakistan in the past for supporting the Jaish al-Adl jihadist group, which it accuses of ties to al-Qaeda and carrying out numerous attacks in Sistan-Baluchistan. The restive province is poor and home to a population that is predominantly Sunni and ethnic Baluchi, in a country where

German neo-Nazis mass for festival on Hitler's birthday

OSTRITZ: Hundreds of neo-Nazis were massing on Friday (Apr 20) on Adolf Hitler's birthday for a two-day festival in a remote eastern German town where citizens and anti-fascist groups staged spirited counter-protests. Many of the mostly male right-wing extremists wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Keepers of the Race", "White is my favourite colour" and "Adolf was the best" while the event was guarded by a group called "Aryan Brotherhood". Hundreds of armoured police ringed the site of the "Schild und Schwert" (Shield and Sword, or SS) festival near the Polish and Czech borders that was expected to also attract eastern European extremists. Police were backed by water cannon and armoured vehicles, mounted patrols and boats patrolling the Neisse border river, on the western banks of which the shaven-headed and often heavily tattooed attendees were pitching their tents or parking camper-vans. Organisers argue that the &quo

Farc commander’s nephew strikes plea-bargain deal with DEA

Colombian peace process suffers jolt after Marlon Marín held on trafficking charges The decision by the nephew of a former senior Colombian guerrilla leader to co-operate with the US  Drug Enforcement Agency  (DEA) has sparked the latest crisis in the South American nation’s troubled peace process. Marlon Marín, whose uncle is former Revolutionary Armed Forces of  Colombia (Farc) leader Iván Márquez, was arrested by Colombian authorities along with three other men, including former Farc negotiator Jesús Santrich. They were picked up on charges of plotting with Mexico’s powerful  Sinaloa  cartel to import 10 tonnes of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $320 million (€260 million), into the US. Following his arrest, Mr Marín unexpectedly indicated his willingness to co-operate with the DEA in exchange for a plea-bargain deal. According to reports in Colombia, he spent seven hours last Friday providing details about drug trafficking to DEA agents in the Colombian c