MISUNDERSTANDERS OF ISLAM: Violence and Riots Break out in Molenbeek After Paris Terror Suspect’s Arrest

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The most wanted terrorist in Europe, considered the mastermind in November’s multi-targeted attack in Paris that left 130 people dead, was arrested Friday by Belgian authorities.

But residents in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, where Saleh Abdeslam was captured, didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. Within hours, the district, which has a majority Muslim population, erupted into riots. Dozens of Abdeslam’s fans attacked police with bottles, stones, and other objects, local press reported, angered by the arrest of their “hero.”

The situation is developing.

Worse yet, Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that “the whole neighborhood” knew where Abdeslam was ever since the Paris attacks. Nobody tipped off authorities.

The violence and code of silence over Abeslam’s hideout is not as surprising as it might seem. As we’ve noted previously, the Paris attacks were hatched in Molenbeek, in addition to the 2015 attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s offices. (Read more from “MISUNDERSTANDERS OF ISLAM: Violence and Riots Break out in Molenbeek After Paris Terror Suspect’s Arrest” HERE)

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Flydubai Plane Crashes in Russia; 62 Aboard Reported Dead

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A passenger jet circled a southern Russian airport in high winds and poor visibility before making a second, fatal attempt at landing Saturday, killing all 62 people aboard.

The flydubai Boeing 737 jet crashed at the Rostov-on-Don airport after traveling from Dubai, Russia’s Southern Regional Emergency Center said Saturday.

All those on board Flight FZ981 died, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing an official at the emergency center. (Read more from “Flydubai Plane Crashes in Russia; 62 Aboard Reported Dead” HERE)

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China Acquiring U.S.A. One Company at a Time

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What’s the best way for a country like China to exert its influence over the U.S. economy? Acquire American-owned companies like Chinese-owned Haier just did when they purchased General Electric’s (GE) appliance business for $5.4 billion . . .

America can no longer claim to be an independent nation when our manufacturing base is under foreign ownership or foreign control. After all, ownership equals control, and control equals sovereignty. We lose our sovereignty as a nation when foreign companies buy our land, factories, and companies.

How so? Because the more Chinese and other foreign companies establish ownership of American assets, plants and factories, the more they have the right to demand how our U.S economy is run, because how it is run affects them, too.

So since GE’s appliance business (not the entire company) is now under foreign ownership and therefore foreign control, what options are left for patriotic American consumers who want to keep profits, jobs, and tax revenue within the borders of the United States?

Whirlpool just happens to be the only remaining major American-owned appliance company in the United States, and we need to support them with our consumer dollars when we shop for appliances. Whirlpool owns such popular brands as Maytag, Amana, KitchenAid, and Jenn-Air. (Read more from “China Acquiring U.S.A. One Company at a Time” HERE)

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U.S. Student Sentenced to 15-Years Hard Labor in North Korea

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An American tourist cried hysterically in a North Korean courtroom Wednesday after a judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison with hard labor on a subversion charge, as US officials demanded his release and the White House announced tough new sanctions on the insular Southeast Asian state.

Otto Warmbier admitted to attempting to steal a propaganda banner from a restricted area of his hotel at the request of an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church.

Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial at the North’s Supreme Court.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the sentence was ‘unduly harsh’ and urged North Korea to pardon Warmbier and release him on humanitarian grounds.

‘Despite official claims that U.S. citizens arrested in the DPRK are not used for political purposes, it’s increasingly clear from its very public treatment of these cases that the DPRK does exactly that,’ Toner told reporters, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Read more from “U.S. Student Sentenced to 15-Years Hard Labor in North Korea” HERE)

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China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites

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China and Russia are preparing to attack and disrupt critical U.S. military and intelligence satellites in a future conflict with crippling space missile, maneuvering satellite, and laser attacks, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the Air Force Space Command, said the threat to U.S. space systems has reached a new tipping point, and after years of post-Cold War stagnation foreign states are focused on curbing U.S. space systems.

“Adversaries are developing kinetic, directed-energy, and cyber tools to deny, degrade, and destroy our space capabilities,” Hyten said in a prepared statement for a hearing of the House Armed Service strategic forces subcommittee.

“They understand our reliance on space, and they understand the competitive advantage we derive from space. The need for vigilance has never been greater,” the four-star general said.

Hyten said U.S. Global Positioning System satellites remain vulnerable to attack or jamming. The satellites’ extremely accurate time-keeping feature is even more critical to U.S. guided weapons than their ability to provide navigation guidance, he said. (Read more from “China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites” HERE)

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The U.S. Is Heading Toward a Dangerous Showdown With China

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The Obama administration is moving toward what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea.

The confrontation has been building for the past three years, as China has constructed artificial islands off its southern coast and installed missiles and radar in disputed waters, despite U.S. warnings. It could come to a head this spring, when an arbitration panel in The Hague is expected to rule that China is making “excessive” claims about its maritime sovereignty.

What makes this dispute so explosive is that it pits an American president who needs to affirm his credibility as a strong leader against a risk-taking Chinese president who has shown disregard for U.S. military power and who faces potent political enemies at home.

“This isn’t Pearl Harbor, but if people on all sides aren’t careful, it could be ‘The Guns of August,’” says Kurt Campbell, former assistant secretary of state for Asia, referring to the chain of miscalculations that led to World War I. The administration, he says, is facing “another red line moment where it has to figure out how to carry through on past warnings.” (Read more from “The U.S. Is Heading Toward a Dangerous Showdown With China” HERE)

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UN Unveils Enormous, Orwellian Global Data-Gathering Initiative

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Six months after giving birth to a cluster of nebulous Sustainable Development Goals that aim to dramatically change the economic, social and environmental course of the planet, the United Nations is working on a drastic renovation of global data gathering to measure progress against its sweeping international agenda.

The result that emerged late last week from the U.N. Statistical Commission — an obscure body of national experts that calls itself the “apex entity of the international statistics system” — is a document as sprawling, undefined and ambitious as the sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, themselves — which lay out 17 goals and 169 sometimes overlapping targets to transform global society.

In attempting to cover at least some of that ground, the so-called “draft global indicators framework” likely will add huge new volumes of information that governments collect as they measure progress toward what amounts to a global socialist or progressive agenda.

To the extent that the indicators are adopted or incorporated by national governments, such as that of the U.S., they will also provide a powerful reorientation of public debate as they filter into academic and policy discussions.

In all, the draft framework outlines 230 statistical indicators to measure progress toward the SDGs, including such familiar ones as per-capital Gross Domestic Product and the proportion of populations living below national and international poverty lines. (Read more from “UN Unveils Enormous, Orwellian Global Data-Gathering Initiative” HERE)

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North Korea Claims It Could ‘Burn Down’ Manhattan With a Hydrogen Bomb

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Another day, another veiled threat from North Korea. Unlike most, this one was very specific.

State-run television in the People’s Republic reported on Sunday that Pyongyang’s arsenal of deadly weapons now includes a hydrogen bomb that could wipe out New York City and kill everybody who lives there.

“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today reported, citing nuclear scientist Cho Hyong Il.

“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes.”

The remarks, first reported by the Washington Post, follow a staged show of the country’s military power last week where leader Kim Jong-un was filmed inspecting a silver sphere. The object is believed to be a miniature nuclear warhead or a hydrogen bomb. (Read more from “North Korea Claims It Could ‘Burn Down’ Manhattan With a Hydrogen Bomb” HERE)

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Putin Orders Surprise Syria Withdrawal

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By BBC. In a surprise move, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to start withdrawing the “main part” of its forces in Syria from Tuesday.

He said the Russian intervention had largely achieved its objectives.

The comments come amid fresh peace talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the five-year Syrian conflict.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose office said in a statement he had agreed to the move.

The pullout was “in accordance with the situation on the ground”, the statement said. (Read more from “Putin Orders Surprise Syria Withdrawal” HERE)

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Putin’s Shock Plan to Pull Troops From Syria Puts Pressure on Assad

By Jake Rudnitsky, Ilya Arkhipov and Henry Meyer. Russia said it will start withdrawing forces from Syria in a surprise move that puts pressure on its ally President Bashar Al-Assad, as well as opposition groups, to reach a deal at the peace talks that got under way hours earlier in Geneva.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military intervention last year in support of Assad turned the tide in Syria’s five-year civil war, said the partial pullout should begin on Tuesday. A Russian air base and a naval facility will continue to function, he said in Moscow. Assad didn’t request the withdrawal, said Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Russia has urged the Syrian leader to be “constructive” in the latest peace talks, aimed at ending a conflict that’s killed a quarter-million people, sparked a refugee exodus to Europe and allowed Islamic State a foothold. For Putin, who’s worked with the U.S. to promote diplomacy in Syria even though the two powers backed opposite sides in the war, it’s an opportunity to display peacemaking credentials while preserving the gains Assad’s army made under Russian air cover.

“Putin is a wily guy. He is showing he’s a statesman,” said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Russia is also sending a message to Assad who has been sounding too confident.” (Read more from “Putin’s Shock Plan to Pull Troops From Syria Puts Pressure on Assad” HERE)

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Missiles From Iran-Allied Territory Intercepted on Way to US

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This is an interesting, but still very much developing story.

Serbia’s authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for the U.S. containing two missiles with explosive warheads was found on a passenger flight from Lebanon to Serbia.

N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at Belgrade airport.

Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland, Oregon.

The Lebanon origin is what makes this story somewhat different because the country is currently dominated by Iran and its Shiite terrorist allies. So if this was a terrorist plot, which we don’t know that it was, it appears likelier to have originated from Iran than from ISIS. Portland however was the site of a more conventional Sunni Islamic terror plot. But Shiites also have a presence there.

Another twist was the recently “misplaced” Hellfire that ended up in Cuba.

But where would Iran have gotten hellfire missiles? Like most of the US equipment in the hands of Shiite terrorists, Iraq. The US has sold plenty of hellfires to Iraq. And Iraq’s government and military these days is controlled by Iran’s Shiite puppets. (For more from the author of “Missiles From Iran-Allied Territory Intercepted on Way to US” please click HERE)

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