‘We had so many plans together, a home, children,’ weeps wife of murdered cop
Hundreds of mourners joined family and fellow officers at the funeral of a 29-year-old cop killed in Sunday’s deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem.Danon to UN: Why don't you ask PA to condemn terror attack?
First Sergeant Yosef Kirma was laid to rest at around 6 p.m. Sunday at the capital’s Mount Herzl cemetery.
Kirma’s father Uzi eulogized his son. “Yossi, you were my friend. Now you are no longer with us any more. How is it possible to continue? What will I do now?” he said. “How can I move on from here? I love you so much.”
Kirma married in April. His wife Noy lamented their short time together. “We had so many plans together, a home, children, and you always supported my career. You loved me always, unconditionally, even more than I loved myself,” she said. “My Yossi, look how many people came just for you. You are my light and my heart.”
Chief Superintendent Meir Namir, Kirma’s commander in the elite tactical response unit Yasam in the Jerusalem Police, said Sunday’s attack “will be seared in the hearts of the policemen of the unit. Yossi was made of the stuff of the heroes of Israel. Now we salute you for the final time.”
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, penned a letter to the UN Security Council, calling upon that body to demand the Palestinian Authority condemn the murder of Yosef Kirma and Levana Malichi in Jerusalem on Sunday.
In his letter, Danon noted the numerous expressions of joy and celebrations by Arabs in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria following the terror attack. He also included photographs documenting the celebrations. In some cases, Arab residents were seen handing out candy and waving pictures of the terrorist.
Danon argued that the Security Council must “demand that the Palestinian Authority immediately halt the incitement [against Israel] and strongly condemn the murders in Jerusalem.”
“The time has come,” he added, “for the international community to explicitly and unconditionally declare that support for terror or aid to terrorists is unacceptable, and that it will demand from Palestinian Authority leaders to accept this. The Palestinian Authority’s silence following these chilling murders and the subsequent disgusting celebrations is deafening.”
“In the streets of Gaza they are celebrating a murderous terror attack against innocents, and are praising the lowly murderer. These celebrations and the support for terror are the real impediment to peace, and the primary cause of the terror attacks and the murder of Levana Malichi and Yossi Kirma. In Gaza a generation of children is being raised on hate and violence.”
PMW: Fatah celebrates "blood" of two Israelis murdered yesterday
A hand waves a machine gun from the top of the Dome of the Rock in a cartoon posted by Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement this morning. In the corner is a pool of blood and two helmets with Stars of David, symbolizing the two murdered Israelis.PMW: Fatah quick to honor as “Martyr” today’s terrorist murderer
The text #Jerusalem accompanies the cartoon, which appeared today, after a Palestinian terrorist yesterday shot and murdered one Israeli civilian and one policeman, and injured six others during a shooting spree through Jerusalem. As Palestinian Media Watch has documented, the PA and Fatah portraying terrorists and murderers as great defenders of Islam and the Islamic holy places. The cartoon's message is that yesterday's murder of two Israelis is a victory.
Yesterday, the Fatah Movement was quick to praise the murderer as a "Martyr" and its Jerusalem branch announced a day of mourning.
In two separate posts on its official Facebook page, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement honored the terrorist murderer who went on a shooting spree in Jerusalem today, targeting people who were waiting at train stations from his car. Terrorist Musbah Abu Sbeih murdered a 60-year-old woman and a policeman, and injured 6.You can easily find the Jerusalem terrorist's name. But we can’t publish it. Why?
Fatah referred to the murderer as a "Shahid," an Islamic Martyr - someone who died for Allah - a status the Palestinian Authority presents as the highest achievement a Muslim can reach in life.
Defining a dead murderer as a Shahid indicates that according to Fatah, the murder of Israelis is sanctioned and even desired in the name of Islam.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that it is PA and Fatah policy to glorify terrorist murderers and turn them into role models for Palestinian society.
Fatah and the Palestinian Authority for quite some time have been defining the conflict with Israel as a religious war, defining all attackers and the murderers of Israelis as heroic defenders of Islam and its symbols. Fatah's Jerusalem branch announced "mourning and a general strike for Palestine's Martyrs" and specifically mentioned today's killer - "this morning's Martyr" and vowed to "defend the honor of the Arab and Islamic nations with our bare chests." These and other terms in Fatah's posts, see text below, reiterate Fatah's Islamization of the conflict with Israel.
The bullet casings from a deadly shooting spree were still being examined on Jerusalem’s Haim Bar-Lev Street late Sunday morning when police sent out a message to journalists: “All details of the investigation, the names of the injured, the names of the dead and the name of the terrorist” are under gag order.Celebrants arrested, terrorist’s house readied for razing after shooting
Trouble was, the cat had already been let out of the bag. The name of the terrorist, and many other details about the shooting attack that left two dead and five injured, had been widely published — in Israeli media and international outlets.
As more information came out, some Israeli media sites published new details about the incident and investigation, including the names of the victims and other bits and pieces of the slowly emerging story — some of it sent out by official bodies — while at the same time removing other information, all of it ostensibly under the court-approved gag order. Confusion ruled about what was permitted for publication and what was not. Some of the authorities themselves plainly didn’t know. Lots of the media emphatically didn’t.
The byzantine path trudged by journalists and officials in the aftermath of attacks like this is well worn, and illustrates the often complicated and at times seemingly arbitrary process of withholding information from publication — or trying to — as security officials scramble to figure out what they want to keep back, and journalists struggle to reconcile security needs with the public’s right to know.
An Israeli soldier was lightly injured early Monday morning when Palestinians threw a pipe bomb at his unit during an operation in a Palestinian town north of Jerusalem, a day after a shooting attack by a Palestinian man left two dead and five wounded in the capital.Terrorists attack soldiers preparing to demolish murderer's home
The incident came as Israeli troops rounded up dozens of Palestinians in the aftermath of the shooting spree, including 31 Palestinians seeking to participate in celebrations in memory of the assailant as well as relatives of the attacker in East Jerusalem, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio.
The troops were measuring the al-Ram home of the terrorist behind Sunday morning’s attack — one of the first steps necessary before it can be demolished — when local residents tossed the improvised explosive device at them, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
One of the soldiers was lightly wounded by shrapnel from the pipe bomb and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, the army said.
IDF engineers mapped out the home of the terrorist responsible for Sunday’s murderous terror attack, preparing for its demolition.Judge who delayed Jerusalem terrorist's entry to prison faces calls for dismissal
During the operation in the Silwan (Shiloah) neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem early Monday morning, terrorists hurled pipe bombs at the soldiers. One soldier was wounded by the shrapnel and was evacuated to a Jerusalem hospital.
Late Sunday night, IDF forces raided a house in Samaria, confiscating computers and cellular devices.
As part of the larger operation following Sunday’s shooting, a joint force of IDF, Shin Bet, and police officers conducted searches for weapon caches in the village of Kfar Azoun in Samaria.
A number of weapons were found and confiscated, and a makeshift arms factory was discovered.
Jerusalem police arrested 15 residents of eastern Jerusalem suspected of firebomb attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces. The suspects were arrested in the neighborhoods of Issawiya, Wadi El-Joz, and A-Tur.
With Yom Kippur approaching, Jewish people around the world are saying sorry for their sins, but MK Yehudah Glick (Likud) announced Monday that there is one person he will not forgive: Judge Chagit Mack-Kalmanovich, who postponed the prison sentence of the terrorist who killed two Israelis in Jerusalem on Sunday.Judge under fire for delaying prison term of Jerusalem terrorist
On May 30, the terrorist’s attorney reached a plea deal by which the terrorist would admit to assaulting a police officer and receive a reduced sentence of four months in prison. The lawyer asked that the sentence be postponed until October, and Mack-Kalmanovich agreed. On Sunday, having not served a day of his sentence, the terrorist went on a shooting spree in Jerusalem.
“You listened to the pleading of the terrorist who was arrested so many times for violence. You were cruel to the merciful and had mercy on the cruel,” Glick wrote on Facebook. “As a result of your postponing the terrorist’s sentence for four months, he murdered two innocent Jews yesterday and wounded many others.
“On the eve of Yom Kippur, before your Lord, will you be able to say your hands are clean?” he asked.
The son of an American-Israeli man killed in an October 2015 terror attack called Monday for the removal of a judge who delayed the imprisonment of the gunman behind a deadly shooting in Jerusalem on Sunday.Terrorist's teenage daughter praises him in viral video
Micah Lakin Avni, whose father Richard Lakin was murdered last year by two Palestinians on a bus in the capital, wrote to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked that Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge Hagit Mack-Kalmanovitz should be removed after she postponed the terrorist’s prison term out of “considerations for [his] comfort.”
In 2013, the gunman — whose identity is still under gag order — was indicted for assaulting a police officer in Jerusalem’s Old City. The case was dropped that year, but it was reopened in 2015. After reaching a plea deal in May, he was sentenced to four months in prison but Mack-Kalmanovitz agreed to a request to postpone the sentence until October 9. He was due to report to prison on Sunday.
In his letter to Shaked, Lakin Avni says that Mack-Kalmanovitz was not fit to serve as a judge, given the toll her decision had taken on human lives, as well as the damage it caused to the security of the state and the confidence of the public in the justice system.
Israeli security forces arrested the teenage daughter of the eastern Jerusalem man that murdered two Jews in a shooting attack Sunday morning.US condemns Jerusalem shooting, Palestinian celebrations of attack
Eiman, 14, daughter of Misbah Abu Sbeih, 39, of Silwan, was held and questioned with her mother for more than an hour on Monday morning, before the teen was detained, the Maan news agency reported.
The arrest comes after a video of the teen praising her father went viral on Facebook.
“We deem my father as martyr,” she said in the video, according to Maan. “We hope he will plead for us before God on judgment day… I am proud of what my father did.”
“We’re very happy and proud of our father,” she also said. “My father is a great man. Our relationship, as father and daughter, was excellent.”
Arab terrorist murdered Levana Malichi, 60, and Yosef Kirma, a 29-year old police officer, near an Ammunition Hill light rail station in northern Jerusalem, and then continued his shooting spree as police pursued him on Sunday morning. Officers ultimately shot and killed the terrorist.
The United States on Sunday slammed as “reprehensible and cowardly” an attack in Jerusalem in which a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis and injured six others, and condemned statements by Palestinian factions celebrating the shooting.Trump, Clinton condemn Jerusalem terror attack
Earlier, Fatah, the party led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, posted a messaged on its official Facebook page praising the shooting and declaring the terrorist a “shahid,” or martyr.
A 60-year-old Israeli woman and 29-year-old man were killed and six others injured after the terrorist, whose name is protected under a gag order for Israeli media, sprayed bullets at passersby from a moving car. The shooter, a resident of Silwan in East Jerusalem, was shot dead by police. Hamas claimed the man as one of their members.
After apparently taking credit for the attack, the Gaza-based terror group also praised the shooting as “heroic” and “brave.”
Hours before going head to head in a highly contentious debate, both US presidential candidates condemned Sunday’s terror attack in Jerusalem in which a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis and injured five others.Hamas's Mashaal praises Jerusalem terrorist
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton slammed the deadly shooting in a tweet signed with an “H,” a sign that the Democratic presidential nominee composed the message personally.
“I strongly condemn today’s attack in Jerusalem and my prayers go to the victims’ families. The terrorists must be brought to justice,” she posted on Sunday night.
Republican nominee Donald Trump on Sunday also took to social media to denounce the shooting that he said was a reminder of “the grievous perils facing Israeli citizens.”
“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent attendance at the funeral of Shimon Peres, the late Israeli president and prime minister, should have marked a new chapter in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Instead, the streets of Jerusalem tragically flow once more with the blood of innocents,” he said in a statement released by his campaign late Sunday. “We must work to defeat terror once and for all.”
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Sunday night phoned the family of the terrorist who murdered two Israelis at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem and praised their son’s actions.PreOccupiedTerritory: White House Opens Tent Of Mourning For Jerusalem Shooter (satire)
According to Channel 10 News, Mashaal told the family, “I congratulate you. With the attack he defended the Palestinian people.”
Mashaal added, “The Palestinian people are proud of his heroism, he serves as an example to his contemporaries. Hamas will continue the jihad until the liberation of Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the defilement of the occupation.”
The White House moved today to show solidarity with the family of a Palestinian man shot to death by Israeli police yesterday, and set up a mourning venue on the South Lawn to receive condolences on their behalf. The man was shot to death after shooting seven people at a Jerusalem light rail station, killing two.Europe exported ISIS jihadism as it once did Nazism
President Barack Obama ordered the tent be set up after consultations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who declared Monday a day of mourning over the death of the shooter. Visitors will be welcome at the South Lawn today through Wednesday, to allow dignitaries who might otherwise not have an opportunity to travel to Jerusalem personally to convey their condolences and support the family and Palestinian nation during this challenging time.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that no such venue would be set up for the two Israelis killed in the attack, since as Jews they were asking for it, being Jewish in a place the president doesn’t recognize as part of Israel. “Being Jewish in certain locations is just asking for trouble,” explained Earnest. “It’s a perfectly natural thing to react to one’s problems by trying to hurt and kill Jews, so really they should have seen this coming. It’s sad, but not the same tragedy as being killed while trying to kill the people you want dead for being Jewish.” He noted the Hamas statement following the incident yesterday morning to the effect that the 29-year-old’s shooting spree was a “natural response to occupation.”
While EU officials wag fingers at human rights violations in places like the Philippines, they refuse to address the problem at home. The continent has not only become a breeding ground for a new Nazism, which is Islamist jihadism, but has become an exporter of genocide and mass murder, much as it was from 1939-1945.Hanan Ashrawi – Another “Misleader” of the Middle East
After the Holocaust the Allies attempted to mete out justice through war crimes trials. Today’s Western powers won’t put ISIS members on trial for crimes against humanity, because for the most part Western countries are also responsible for educating and enabling ISIS members to commit genocide. An ISIS member is safer walking the streets of Europe than walking the streets of Baghdad. Anjem Choudary, the imprisoned British preacher, was said by The Telegraph to have “links to 500 British Jihadists fighting with ISIS.” There is ample evidence that after 2015 Turkey stopped and deported numerous European-raised terrorists seeking to join ISIS, such as Adel Kermiche, the beheader of the Normandy priest, and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, the Brussels bomber. European states let them wander free until they killed innocents.
ISIS members used European and Western internet servers and chat rooms and social media to arrange volunteers and even to attempt to sell women. Men advertised women for sale on Whattsapp for $3,700, and on Telegram, where a “12-year-old virgin” was posted for sale. A German ISIS member named Abu Assad Almani posted a photo of women for sale for $8,000 in May of 2016. And no one in Europe has charged these men for crimes against humanity. They bragged of their crimes in the open and recruiters sent people back and forth.
European states must reassert their morals and begin war crimes trials for ISIS members. They must end the excuses of “we can’t stop individuals from leaving or our citizens from returning.” In many cases intelligence services tracked the movements of ISIS members.
If European states want to end the mass denial of their role in genocide in Iraq and Syria, and prevent terrorism that is increasingly returning to Europe and bubbling up from home-grown networks, they must institute harsh sentences and zero tolerance for extremism and Islamist intolerance.
The recent New York Times Op-Ed piece, “Shimon Peres: The Peacemaker Who Wasn’t” - was filled with the paper's usual distortions, generalizations, and misleading statements. I write the word “usual” as the Times has consistently done its best to trash talk Israel. Once I saw who the author was, Hanan Ashrawi, it all made sense – in a very nonsensical way, of course. She’s long been a leading apologist for the Palestinians, and in her eyes, they can do no wrong no matter the atrocity committed.Analysis: Walking a tightrope with the International Criminal Court
While she placed the blame for the failure of the peace process solely on the Israeli government, Ashrawi barely makes mention of the Palestinian’s terrorist behaviors, that have ranged from kidnappings to stabbings of civilians – including seniors and pregnant women, to shooting rockets at Israeli communities. Let’s not forget all that international aid poring into Gaza not for hospitals or schools or water treatment facilities or other important infrastructure, but for crucial items like terror tunnels!
And then, of course, there’s that slight issue that may come into play here. I’m referring to the notion that the Palestinian Authority official policy is still not recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Just to keep things interesting, the Muslim so-called religious leaders fan the flames of racism by referring to Israelis and Jews as descendants from pigs & monkeys. Their brainwashed youth have been fed a steady diet of hatred that even young children express the desire to become suicide bombers and “martyrs.” Ashrawi has one sentence in her ranting that states simply that the “Palestinians certainly made mistakes.”
The truth is that Israel has reached out its’ hand in efforts to make peace but time after time, it has been the Palestinian Arabs who have rejected these attempts. From one deal after another, to Oslo to the giving away of the entire Gaza strip, rather than increasing the peace, these efforts have led to yet further acts of violence from the Palestinians. Once Gaza was “Judenrein” – no Jews allowed, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas quickly destroyed the Jewish synagogues and buildings and, in fact, used this entire area as a closer launching pad for their rockets into Israel.
Furthermore, Ashrawi has about 20 references in her piece referring to the Israeli “occupation” of Palestinian Arab lands. Pretty much every honest historian will acknowledge that Jews have been living in this small piece of real estate for a long, long time. In fact, there’s been a serious Jewish presence there long before Islam came onto the scene. So the very notion of “illegal occupation” is at best up for discussion and at worst a total fraud!
On one hand, it seems that the ICC Prosecution team has threaded the needle of somehow pleasing both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. Visiting Ramallah gave additional recognition to “Palestine” as a state, even as the news-killing emphasis on the visit being routine and only related to outreach pleased Israel, which does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction to get involved.PA disappointed by ICC visit
On the other hand, in this three-dimensional conflict, the team incurred the wrath of Hamas for visiting Israel and the West Bank, but not Gaza (Israel is not exactly upset about this).
However, Hamas’s criticism, even if one is neutral, could be said to be overstated since it has refused contact with the ICC and provided no information about alleged war crimes it was involved in – say shooting thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians.
The grand game is: Which side will the ICC Prosecution take? Despite the prosecution’s teams mostly successful best efforts to give zero hints on this front, there are some tea leaves to read some of their leanings.
The two indications have to do with approaches to international law which could favor Israel or the PA.
Officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) are disappointed in a visit by a delegation from the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it did not include a stop in Gaza.East Jerusalem man gets 2 years for driving terrorists to attack
Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the PA parliament who heads the Palestine National Initiative, on Sunday accused the ICC of procrastination, telling Hamas’s Palestine newspaper that the delegation’s visit to Israel and the PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria was “throwing dust in our eyes”.
He cited three main reasons for his anger at the ICC: The fact that the delegation did not visit Gaza, that they did not come to collect evidence from Gazans, and that they operated under the “dictates” of the Israeli government.
“We’re tired of waiting. The decision of the Supreme National Committee must be implemented and we must appeal to the Court rather than continue to wait for the so-called initial examination,” said Barghouti, who called for a formal lawsuit against Israel to the ICC.
The PA officially joined the ICC on April 1, 2015, and immediately filed a series of legal complaints with the court. In addition to claiming that Israel committed war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war, it also claimed that Israeli “settlements” are “an ongoing war crime”.
An East Jerusalem resident was given two years in prison Monday for transporting three Palestinian terrorists to the capital where they murdered a border policewoman earlier this year.Palestinian professor given 7 months in incitement case
Hamis Salima, a 57-year-old from the Wadi al-Joz area in East Jerusalem, was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court of causing death by negligence in the killing of Border Police cadet Hadar Cohen.
He was found to have regularly driven West Bank residents into Israel even when they did not hold permits to cross the Green Line into Israel. Among those he brought in were the three terrorists who killed the policewoman.
Ahmed Abou al-Roub, Mohammed Kameel and Ahmad Najah Ismail Nazar, all from Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, attacked police guarding the Old City’s Damascus Gate with rifles, knives and two pipe bombs on February 3, after being driven by Salima, police said.
Cohen, 19, was fatally wounded in the attack after being shot in the head and stabbed in the neck by the attackers, all in their 20s.
A Palestinian astrophysics professor accused of inciting violence was sentenced to seven months in prison on Sunday by an Israeli military court, a Palestinian NGO said.US Navy ship targeted in failed missile attack from Yemen
Imad Barghouthi, 52, was arrested in April and imprisoned without trial for an initial three months, under a controversial Israeli procedure known as administrative detention, which allows for a suspect to be held in custody without being charged.
Israeli authorities assert that Barghouthi has ties to the Hamas terror group and he has been accused of inciting violence against Israel
His lawyer said he was arrested for comments posted on his Facebook page. He appealed after his arrest to an Israeli military court, which in May ruled that he should be freed.
However, military prosecutors opted to put him on trial, leading to his sentence on Sunday.
A US Navy guided missile destroyer was targeted on Sunday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, a US military spokesman told Reuters, saying neither of the two missiles hit the ship.JCPA: Why Russia and Iran Are Abetting the Syrian Government
The attempted strike on the USS Mason, which was first reported by Reuters, came just a week after a United Arab Emirates vessel came under attack from Houthis and suggests growing risks to the US military from Yemen's conflict.
The US government, which has become increasingly vocal about civilian casualties in the war, this weekend announced a review of its support to a Saudi Arabia-led coalition battling the Houthis after a strike on mourners in the capital Sanaa that killed up to 140 people.
The failed missile attack on the USS Mason began around 7 p.m. local time, when the ship detected two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period in the Red Sea off Yemen's coast, the US military said.
"Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. "There were no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship."
Assuming things remain as they are, Syria will not have many Arab Sunni Muslims living there in the future.Securing a Future for Middle East Minorities After ISIS
As long as the present Shiite fundamentalist government remains in power in Iran, what is happening in Syria is an existential threat to the Arab Sunni regimes, Israel, and others. But if there is a change in regime in Iran, all bets are off. Under the Shah, Iran was a respected member of the international community and concerned first and foremost about internal Iranian affairs. If a new leadership with similar concerns like those of pre-Islamic revolutionary Iran took over, the Shiite-Sunni eternal battle would most likely become less of an issue in inter-Muslim and international affairs.
Even so, we would still expect Russia to remain allied with a non-Islamic Republican Iran, Syria with its new demographic reality, and others such as China and India who also fear Sunni fundamentalism.
But as things stand now in Syria, without a convincing show of American force or even the force of will in Syria or elsewhere in the region, it is reasonable to assume that Russia and Iran will continue to carry out their campaign in Syria, culminating with a nearly complete population exchange, from Sunni to Shiite. In such a scenario, a future government in Syria can be expected to deepen its alliance with Russia and Iran, and act increasingly to oppose the United States and its Western democratic allies.
Whatever the case, if the war in Syria continues – and there are no signs to suggest the contrary – we can expect that in the future, Syria will most likely look demographically completely different from what it did before the Arab Spring.
You have to wonder if the barbarians fighting under the flag of the Islamic State still believe that 72 virgins will be waiting for them in paradise once they become “martyrs.”Top U.S. Diplomat on Iran Nuke Deal Confronted About Forged Documents
I say this not because the leaders and foot soldiers of ISIS have suddenly woken up to the possibility that this belief is based, according to several scholars, on a mistranslation of the relevant verse of the Qu’ran; that would be expecting too much of them. I say this because they have already had a taste of that paradise here on earth, as a result of their campaign of genocide against the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria. One aspect of this horrific slaughter has been the kidnapping of thousands of Yazidi women and girls to serve as sexual slaves to these savages.
A recent report from the U.N. Human Rights Council – a body that spends most of its time condemning Israel for alleged human rights violations – sheds some light on both the scale and the nature of the genocide, which was ignored by the international community for far too long. The campaign against the Yazidis was launched by ISIS over two years ago, in Aug. 2014, when its forces began an assault upon the Yazidi villages in Sinjar, a district in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. At least 5,000 Yazidis have been killed during the genocide, while 3,200 women and children remain in ISIS captivity. About 70,000, estimated to make up 15 percent of the overall Yazidi population, are reported to have fled Iraq.
The stories related by the U.N. report will be depressingly familiar to anyone who has studied genocide over the last century. Men and boys are either executed or forcibly converted, while women and girls exist solely for the use and pleasure of ISIS terrorists. The manner of the persecution is gruesome. “After we were captured, ISIS forced us to watch them beheading some of our Yazidi men,” said one 16-year-old girl. “They made the men kneel in a line in the street, with their hands tied behind their backs. The ISIS fighters took knives and cut their throats.”
The President’s Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State (ISIS) Brett McGurk was confronted Friday over documents from the Iran ransom scandal where the documents’ date was changed by a day to avoid reflecting the fact that the U.S. and Iran came to agreement on releasing U.S. prisoners as well as lifting certain sanctions.Fmr. Treasury Official: Banks Wary of Dealing With Iran Due to Its Terror Support
McGurk was a lead American diplomat in the negotiations that led to the Iran nuke deal.
“It is alleged or said that the date on the original was January 16 and that was scratched out and the 17 was written instead,” reporter Matt Lee said. “Can you explain, is that true and secondly can you explain why?”
“We had a number of strands of diplomacy come together at the exact same time on the same day and we had a very difficult 24 hours with the Iranians to finalize the prisoner trade,” McGurk said. “So, a number of things were going on.”
“We wanted to get a lot of business done the same day,” McGurk added. “There were a number of documents signed on that final day and so, that’s really what happened that final day.”
Iran’s continued illicit behavior is making European banks and companies wary of doing business with it, even after the end of nuclear-related sanctions, President Barack Obama’s former Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence told The Weekly Standard on Thursday.PreOccupiedTerritory: Obama To Just Install ATM To US Treasury In Tehran (satire)
Stuart Levey, now the chief legal officer of London-based HSBC Holdings, one of the world’s largest banking institutions, said that international firms are reluctant to transact with Iran because it is routinely financing terrorism and laundering money. “What you’ve seen more broadly … is the sanctions get lifted, [but] the major international financial institutions will still resist doing business until the underlying facts change,” he said.
Levey made his remarks amid concerns that Iran is attempting to extract more economic concessions from the West, specifically the United States, by claiming that is not keeping the terms of the nuclear deal and improperly maintaining sanctions.
Amir Touraj and Benham Ben Taleblu, analysts for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in U.S. News and World Report last month that Iran is falsely complaining about American non-compliance and threatening to scuttle the deal because it “feels it can get even more merely by hinting it might walk away.”
Following months of awkwardness over the propriety and necessity of shipping pallets of cash to Iran as a hostage ransom, the Obama administration intends to forestall further such unpleasantness by commissioning the installation of an automated teller machine in the Iranian capital so that the mullahs can make withdrawals from the US Treasury at will.Egyptian Historian: The Egyptians, Not Columbus, Discovered America
White House officials held a strategy meeting this week to address the handful of skeptical reporters who have yet to fall in with those parroting the administration’s line on Iran, and there discussed methods of keeping future concessions and gifts to the Islamic Republic from the prying eyes of non-echo-chamber journalists. In the group’s assessment, the most efficient proposal involves a direct ATM line from the Treasury to Tehran, with an option of including several Republican Guard senior command posts as additional withdrawal locations.
“The trick is that internal Treasury transactions aren’t connected to the worldwide bank transfer system,” explained White House adviser Ben Rhodes. “The whole point of sending pallets of ransom cash to Tehran was to enable the ayatollahs and the IRGC to use it in an untraceable fashion, for military purposes and the support of such terrorist groups as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But that cash transfer involved too many people, so confidentiality was iffy, and the media eventually found out. We made all sorts of patently false excuses about not having banking connections with Iran, but it wasn’t convincing. Fortunately, that item fell out of the news cycle. But we don’t want a recurrence, so we’re just going to set up a direct line that allows Khamenei and company to just take cash as they feel they need it. It’s cheaper in the end.”
In an Egyptian TV interview, historian and film director Dr. Ahmad Sarhan claimed that "the genes of the native Americans are a 95% match with the people of the south of Upper Egypt," who had inhabited the continent before the expeditions by the "Irish" Christopher Columbus. The indigenous people had been exterminated "in order for this history to be wiped out," according to Dr. Sarhan. The interview aired on Assema TV on June 10, 2015.