Friday, February 24, 2017

As per AFP/Yahoo News: Afghanistan is set to criminalise the practice of "bacha bazi" -- the sexual exploitation of boys -- with a slew of stringent punishments laid out for the first time in a revised penal code.
 
Danish Jihadists Still Receive Disability Benefits - David Frankenhuis (Gatestone Europe)
 
Strike on ISIS Drone Unit Highlights Novel Intelligence Methods - Oriana Pawlyk (Military.com) see also: Jihadi Drones - Steven Stalinsky and J. Sosnow (MEMRI)
ISIS in Sinai: The Libyan Connection - Zvi Mazel (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas-Islamic State Conflict Intensifies in Gaza - Yaakov Lappin (JNS.org)
PA Wipes Israel Off the Map- Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)
Apple Buys Israel's Facial Recognition Firm RealFace - Shoshanna Solomon (Times of Israel)
 
Hizbullah May Have Game-Changing Anti-Ship Missiles - Alexander Fulbright (Times of Israel)
Hizbullah Losing Its Luster under Iranian General Soleimani - Hanin Ghaddar (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
 
Les médias turcs aujourd'hui : que reste-t-il ?The Turkish Media Today: What’s Left? - Aurélien Denizeau (French Institute of International Relations)
 
"Moderate" Muslim Brotherhood Mourns Terrorist's Death - John Rossomando (IPT News)
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers at AP- Ricki Hollander (CAMERA) All of Mr. Friedman's statements fact-checked by the AP were completely accurate.  Not so for the AP's fact-checker, Josh Lederman.
 
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Friday, February 17, 2017

In this space I've covered some forms of slavery being practiced including ISIS treatment of Yazidi women and girls; somehow, I missed the story of the bacha bazi in Afghanistan.  As per Wikipedia, it's a practice that's been going on in Central Asia since antiquity. Basically, bacha bazi is the widespread sexual exploitation and slavery of boys by men in Afghanistan. On BBC, this past weekend's Storyville Global was "Dancing Boys of Afghanistan." Seems this has been reported on since at least 2009. Like me, you may have missed this horrific story. Unfortunately, it seems the problem has only spread.


This week in USA Today: German Villagers Now Call Muslim Refugees 'Family' by Yardena Schwartz. In Gatestone: Germany's Migrant Crisis by Soren Kern. 

    Iran Grabs the Reins in Gaza - Pinhas Inbari (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Iran has retaken the reins in Gaza after a long hiatus during which Egypt, on one hand, and Turkey and Qatar, on the other, tried to fill the vacuum. It is doubtful if any "elections" were held in Gaza to choose Sinwar. The result is due to pressure by Hamas' military wing on the political wing, and the announcement's timing is Iran's way of conveying a message before the Trump-Netanyahu talks.
    Iran Establishes Network to Train Foreign Terrorists - Rowan Scarborough (Washington Times) "Every month, hundreds of forces from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon...receive military training and are subsequently dispatched to wage terrorism and war." Some Quds graduates have shown up on the U.S. doorstep in Latin America.

    UN Warns Lebanese President Not to Arm Hezbollah - Anna Ahronheim (Jersualem Post)

    Pakistan Coercion, UN Complicity: The Mass Forced Return of Afghan Refugees, (Human Rights Watch) Report documents Pakistan’s abuses and the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in promoting the exodus. 

    The Headlines Hamas Doesn't Let You See - Francine Wolfisz (Jewish News-UK)
    A View from the Frontlines - Hunter Stuart (The Jerusalem Report) A year working as a journalist in Israel and the Palestinian Territories made Hunter Stuart rethink his positions on the conflict. Before he moved to Jerusalem, he was very pro-Palestinian. 

    Turkey, Saudi Arabia to Cooperate on Rebuilding Syria (Republic of Turkey. Office of Prime Minister)

    Scandanavia: The West's Citadel of Antisemitism - Giulio Meotti (Gatestone Institue) Hate for Israel has become a real obsession in Scandinavia...

    Trojan Horses in Women's Movement - Khadija Khan (Gatestone Institute)

    UN to Israel: Give Land to ISIS (Honest Reporting- Video)
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    Friday, February 10, 2017

    The Threat America Is Neglecting in Afghanistan - Michael Kugelman, Alex Stark (Wilson Center/National Interest) It’s as if a fifteen-year-old war that still involves more than eight thousand American troops and claims American lives has simply been forgotten. 
    On C-Span - Gen. Nicholson said a few thousand more troops are needed to adequately train, advise and assist the Afghan military. Gen. Nicholson also voiced concerns about the increase of external actors interfering in Afghanistan, specifically Russia and its efforts to publicly legitimize the Taliban.


    With all his tough talk, will President Trump work to free Robert Levinson. Robert Levinson, 67, an American citizen, is a retired DEA and FBI agent. In 2007, while researching a cigarette smuggling case as a private investigator, he was abducted in Iran and has since been held hostage.

    How to Handle Hizbullah in Latin America - Emanuele Ottolenghi (Christian Science Monitor) For nearly four decades, Hizbullah has relied on local Lebanese expatriate communities to establish networks across Latin America. These networks have bought political influence among local elites, built alliances with organized crime, and offered financial services to both. As a result, today Latin America is a key center for Hizbullah's sophisticated global financial network.

    From Honest Reporting: Certain West Bank “settlements” (which are typically called “outposts” by Israelis) are actually illegal under Israeli law, if they are not properly approved and permitted by the Israeli government. One example is the recently evacuated Amona outpost. This new law would legalize such outposts provided they were built with a good-faith belief that the land does not already belong to a private Palestinian owner. Yet even more significantly, the law is widely expected to be struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court, raising the possibility that this is more of a political maneuver than a serious change to Israeli law and policy.
    From Palestinian Media Watch: The importance of propaganda and vocabulary as demonstrated by the list of words the PA calls "Israeli and American poisoned terms."


    UNRWA Teachers Incite Terrorism and Anti-Semitism - Hillel Neuer (UN Watch) UN Watch presented a new report to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee showing 40 new cases of UNRWA schoolteachers in Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria whose Facebook pages incite to jihadist terrorism and anti-Semitism, including by posting Holocaust-denying videos and pictures celebrating Hitler. The UNRWA teachers and staffers celebrated the terrorist kidnapping of Israeli teenagers, cheered rockets being fired at Israeli civilian centers, endorsed various forms of violence, and praised erasing Israel from the map.

    From PMW: The No Bonuses for Terrorist Act of 2017 (H.R. 789), if passed, will require the US Secretary of State to certify that the PA and PLO have terminated all financial rewards to terrorists and their families. In describing the new bill, Representative Ted Budd showed his familiarity with PMW's findings in The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud, which exposed last year that the PA has funneled its salary payments to terrorists through the PLO in order to deceive donors.
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    Friday, February 3, 2017



    The Independent, Ben White and Alternative Facts - Daniel Pomerantz (Honest Reporting)
    British Prime Minister Notes Ban Against Israeli Citizens by 16 Muslim States - Ben Kentish (Independent-UK) At the British Parliament on Wednesday, former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers asked Prime Minister Theresa May whether she thought opponents of the new U.S. President's immigration policy were wrong to overlook similar measures in other countries. "In the light of the fact that most of the countries covered by the Trump ban have a total exclusion on the admission of Israeli citizens, shouldn't the protestors also be calling for that ban to be lifted?"

    Iran-Backed Houthi Rebels Attack Saudi Ship in Red Sea (AFP) Three Houthi rebel boats attacked a Saudi frigate on patrol in the Red Sea west of Hodeida in Yemen. One of the boats collided with the back of the ship and exploded. Two Saudi crewmen were killed and three were wounded. Riyadh accuses Iran of arming the Houthis. 


    Pakistani Taliban faction showcases training camp, suicide attacks - Bill Rogio and Caleb Weiss (Long War Journal) Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a powerful faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP), has released a video detailing a training camp somewhere in Pakistan’s northwest tribal frontier. The video also highlighted the training of suicide bombers and an assault on a Pakistani military base that took place last November.

    Palestinians' Fort of Torture - Khaled Abu Tomar (Gatestone Institute) Because it is not Israelis who are perpetrating the abuse, the reports are ho-hum to most journalists. Ironically, it is the Hamas and Palestinian Authority media outlets that publish reports of torture that take place in PA and Hamas controlled prisons and detention centers.


    CAIR: Cruz's Muslim Brotherhood Bill Not About Terrorism - John Rossomando (IPT) Hard evidence, however, links CAIR and other American Islamist groups to the Brotherhood



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