Australian Patriot Act Begins: New Anti-Terrorist Law to Allow Australia to Monitor Internet

10/2/2014

SYDNEY – The Australian Parliament Wednesday granted more powers to its secret service agencies to monitor the web by approving the first of three sections of new anti-terrorism laws.

The controversial National Security Legislation Amendment Bill was approved in the House of Representatives after being given the go-ahead by the Senate last Thursday.

“The government’s number one priority is to keep Australia safe,” Justice Minister Michael Keenan said in defense of the laws which were criticized during the debate by members of the Australian Greens, two independent legislators and one from the Labor Party.

The most important update of security laws since the 1970s will allow intelligence agencies to secure the powers and capacities needed to carry out their work in a “new era of danger,” according to the government of conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Under the new law, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) will be able to search, monitor, copy, erase or modify data in computers or access a computer that is part of a network through a third party, all with a single warrant.

“ASIO will have access to the entire web and will be able to monitor the activity of all Australians at any moment, whether through their Twitter and Facebook accounts, the webpages they visit, their communications with other people, everything,” Australian Lawyer’s Association president Greg Barns recently told Efe.

The amendments approved Wednesday also include up to 10-year sentences for informants and journalists who disclose information pertaining to special intelligence operations, and limited immunity for secret agents participating in such operations.

This month, a parliamentary committee on intelligence and security will analyze the second batch of laws concerning Australian citizens fighting in the ranks of jihadist groups abroad, while another law related to the collection of metadata will be addressed at the end of the year.

Last month, Australia raised the terrorist alert level to “high” amid an international offensive against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq for which the country is providing humanitarian aid and weapons.

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Latin American Leftists Warn of Threats to Progressive Change

10/2/2014

QUITO – Hundreds of delegates from leftist political parties from 20 Latin American nations warned of threats to the process of change taking place in the region on the final day of the first Latin American Progressive Encounter (ELAP).

The two-day event held in the Ecuadorean capital ended late Tuesday at the Plaza de San Francisco, where a final statement of the meeting was read.

The “Quito Declaration” expressed support for the progressive governments in the region and rejected intervention by “neo-colonialist powers” in the processes of change occurring there.

Left-wing representatives from Germany, Spain and Greece attended the event to learn from the Latin American experience, said Pablo Iglesias of the Spanish Podemos (We Can) party.

In the final declaration, the ELAP, organized by Ecuador’s leftist PAIS Alliance, urged all the progressive Latin American governments to strengthen integration and support efforts such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Union of South American Nations and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, among others.

The ELAP also proposed “radicalizing democracy” in these countries and deepening the participation of groups of young people and women in political debates.

On the other hand, the ELAP issued a warning about the “imminent danger” of a “counter-offensive” by the conservative right in an attempt to regain power in these nations through media campaigns against the progressive governments.

“We strongly protest the permanent interference by the right in Venezuela,” read the declaration, in open support of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

It also rejected what it called “imperialist aggression” in “any part of the world” through economic and political pressure.

In a show of support for Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, the ELAP proposed denouncing the practice of a group of U.S. debt creditors of that country, known as “vulture funds,” calling them “predators.”

The ELAP also supported Argentina’s claim on the Falkland Islands, which belong to Britain, and criticized U.S. commercial and economic sanctions against Cuba, which it described as “unjust and criminal.”

The ELAP called for a consolidation of the regional multilateral financial agencies to deal with speculative capital and the pressure from powerful countries and corporations.

It also endorsed the ratification of the “Kyoto Protocol” to battle climate change and backed Ecuador in its campaign against the American oil company Chevron for alleged environmental damage in the Amazon region of the country.

Representatives of leftist movements and parties of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela participated in the ELAP.

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Name That Party: Connecticut state representative Christina Ayala arrested on 19 voting fraud charges in local and state elections

10/2/2014

Christina Ayala was charged with fraud in local and state elections 

The Connecticut state representative is accused of fabricating her address

Fraudulent voting is a felony punishable by not less than one year in jail

Bridgeport Democratic state representative Christina ‘Tita’ Ayala has been arrested and charged with voting in local and state elections in districts where she did not live.

Ayala, 31, from Bridgeport, was charged with eight counts of fraudulent voting, 10 counts of primary or enrollment violations, and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the State Elections Enforcement Commission in the Office of Governmental Accountability referred the matter to the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney in October 2013.

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Bridgeport state Representative Christina ‘Tita’ Ayala has been arrested and charged with voting in local and state elections in districts where she did not live

Ayala was charged with eight counts of fraudulent voting, 10 counts of primary or enrollment violations, and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence

The warrant alleges Ayala voted in various Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee elections, a municipal primary election and a state primary election between 2009 and 2012, in districts inconsistent with location of her residence. 

In addition, the warrant alleges that she voted in the Bridgeport state general election in 2012 in a district where she did not reside.

The warrant further alleges that Ayala presented fabricated evidence to Elections Enforcement Commission investigators that she lived at an address in a district where she voted while actually residing at an address outside that district.

Fraudulent Voting is a felony punishable by not less than one year or more than two years imprisonment and a fine of $300 to $500 on each count.

Primary or enrollment violations and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence are class D felonies carrying a maximum prison sentence of up to 5 years on each count.

Ayala, who lost the Democratic primary in the 128th House District in August, was released on a promise to appear for arraignment at Bridgeport Superior Court, on October 7, 2014.

If found guilty of election fraud it wouldn’t be the first time that she’s been in trouble with the law.

She was fined $350 for a hit-and-run car accident shortly after winning the 2012 Democratic primary for the House seat. 

She later got into a fight with her boyfriend and faced domestic violence charges, which were dropped after she completed counseling.

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OBAMA WH Lectures Israel on Civilian Casualties – Then Lifts Its Own Airstrike Standards on Syrian Civilians

10/2/2014

In June the Obama White House criticized Israel for firing on terrorists operating near a United Nations School in Gaza. Ten people were killed when Israel targeted terrorists on a motorcycle near the school.

Jen Psaki at the State Department released this statement at the time:

The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which at least ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed. The coordinates of the school, like all UN facilities in Gaza, have been repeatedly communicated to the Israeli Defense Forces. We once again stress that Israel must do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties. UN facilities, especially those sheltering civilians, must be protected, and must not be used as bases from which to launch attacks. The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians. We call for a full and prompt investigation of this incident as well as the recent shelling of other UNRWA schools.

We continue to underscore that all parties must take all feasible precautions to prevent civilian casualties and protect the civilian population and comply with international humanitarian law.

Prime Minister Netanyahu shows photograph at the UN in September of a Hamas rocket launcher next to Gaza children.

But that was Israel…
This week the Obama White House exempted tight airstrike standards on civilian deaths in Syria.
Yahoo reported:

The White House has acknowledged for the first time that strict standards President Obama imposed last year to prevent civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes will not apply to U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq.

A White House statement to Yahoo News confirming the looser policy came in response to questions about reports that as many as a dozen civilians, including women and young children, were killed when a Tomahawk missile struck the village of Kafr Daryan in Syria’s Idlib province on the morning of Sept. 23.

The village has been described by Syrian rebel commanders as a reported stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front where U.S officials believed members of the so-called Khorasan group were plotting attacks against international aircraft.

But at a briefing for members and staffers of the House Foreign Affairs Committee late last week, Syrian rebel commanders described women and children being hauled from the rubble after an errant cruise missile destroyed a home for displaced civilians. Images of badly injured children also appeared on YouTube, helping to fuel anti-U.S. protests in a number of Syrian villages last week.

“They were carrying bodies out of the rubble. … I saw seven or eight ambulances coming out of there,” said Abu Abdo Salabman, a political member of one of the Free Syria Army factions, who attended the briefing for Foreign Affairs Committee members and staff. “We believe this was a big mistake.”

Syrians check a damaged house, reportedly hit by US-led coalition air strikes, in the village of Kfar Derian in the western Aleppo province on September 23, 2014.(AFP / Sami Ali)

(This post was updated.)

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Please Help Conservative Blogger-Journalist Mandy Nagy at GoFundMe

10/2/2014

On September 6, conservative investigative journalist Mandy Nagy suffered a serious stroke and has been in the hospital ever since.

The details and her progress were in a prior post at Legal Insurrection.

It is hoped that Mandy will move to a rehab facility soon.

The most recent update to his original post is from Mandy’s mom: “Mandy was doing well this morning. But she wants to come home. I told her that’s not possible yet.”

Legal Insurrection posted an update today. Mandy faces several difficult months ahead of her.

Mandy’s family has established a “supplemental needs” trust, with her mother as Trustee.
All funds raised will go into that Trust.
You can donate here.

You can also send a check to the family- address is here.
Thank you, and please keep Mandy in your thoughts and prayers.

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COMMUNISM IN MOTION: FCC CONSIDERS GWU PROFESSOR’S PETITION TO FORBID NFL ‘REDSKINS’ TEAM NAME ON-AIR

10/2/2014

A legal activist professor’s quest to convince the Federal Communications Commission to ban the NFL team name Washington “Redskins” on air by having it dubbed profanity gained steam Tuesday.

The chairman of the FCC said he will seriously consider thepetition by George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf, which asks the agency to deny the renewal of a Washington Redskins-owned radio station license under the auspices that the repeated use of the word “Redskins” amounts to obscenity akin to “profanity” and a “hate crime.”

Banzhaf, a professor of public interest law, told The College Fix in an interview that the chairman’s comments represent “a very positive development” because it means a hearing will most likely be scheduled to address the petition.

Banzhaf has successfully lobbied the FCC in the past to force diversity regulations upon broadcasters, and he submitted his Redskins petition to the FCC earlier this month.

“The agency would never countenance stations broadcasting words like ‘N*gga,’ ‘Sp*cks,’ ‘W*tB*cks,’ ‘F*gs,’ … even as the name of a team or a musical group,” the petition states. “If the N-word (like all the others) is impermissible because it offends many blacks, the repeated and unnecessary use of the R-word should also be because it similarly offends many Indians.”

Nevertheless, an ESPN poll taken in early September found that 71 percent of Americans think the name should not be changed, down from 89 percent in 1992.

At Tuesday’s news conference, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said his agency will review Banzhaf’s petition and deal with the issue “on its merits” and will “respond accordingly.”

“There are a lot of names and descriptions that were used over time that are inappropriate today,” Wheeler said. “And I think the name that is attributed to the Washington football club is one of those.”

But shortly after the petition had been filed, Wheeler had said that Redskins owner Dan Snyder should “see which way things are going” and make the decision himself. Wheeler’s new statements seem to represent an about-face to his previous comments.

Banzhaf said Wheeler now seems ready to confront the issue head-on, instead of waiting for Snyder to cave to public pressure alone.

“I am increasingly optimistic that the team name will have to be changed,” he said in an interview with The College Fix. “It’s very unusual for a majority of any agency to comment in your favor on a matter which is already before them.”

He said he does not expect them to take immediate action, however.

“In terms of timing, the agency tends to move slowly and deliberately on controversial issues,” he said.

The “threat” of the FCC to delay renewal of the radio station’s license will “move the industry towards seriously addressing the issue,” he said.

Banzhaf said any type of delay will have an “adverse and perhaps coercive effect” on the radio station and the team – “hanging like a Sword of Damocles over the station,” he said.

“It’s hard to see how a team can operate if its name isn’t going to be used on the air,” he said.

A ruling against the Washington Redskins could further tarnish the team after recent developments in which The Washington Post and the New York Daily News announced they would cease the use of the team’s name in its editorials.

In addition, the University of Minnesota has been caught in its own set of controversies involving the team, because the campus is set to host an NFL game in November between the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins. The university has askedthe Redskins to not display its logo or sell any of its merchandise when they visit the campus stadium next month.

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"Workplace Violence" Debunked: Oklahoma Jihadist Who Beheaded Colleen Hufford Was Not Fired, the Islamic Ritual Slaughter was “Premeditated”

10/2/2014

Jah’Keem Yisrael, Islamic State jihadist, was not fired. He was suspended. He was screaming Islamic verses as he beheaded Colleen Hufford.

It was premeditated Islamic ritual slaughter — Jah’Keem went home, grabbed “a large bladed knife” and “returned to get revenge” — sharia-style. In the plant’s administrative office, police say, Nolen attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford from behind and severed her head from her body.

The criminal complaint released today states that Nolen drove to his home “for the sole reason to retrieve a large bladed knife.” He then went back to work “with the large knife in his shoe, in order to assault an employee of the business with the knife.”

He walked into the plant’s administrative office and came across 54-year-old Colleen Hufford, whom he attacked from behind, severing her head. He then turned his attention to Tracy Johnson, 43, whom he cut across the left side of the face and also tried to behead. She survived.

“What we know about Alton Nolen, who has been charged with murder in the Oklahoma beheading case”, Washington Post, September 30, 2014

 
Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn announces that first-degree murder and assault charges have been filed against Alton Nolen during a Sept. 30 news conference in Norman, Okla. (Steve Sisney/The Oklahoman via Associated Press)

Alton Nolen was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and assault in the decapitation of a former co-worker at a processing plant in Oklahoma. He could face the death penalty, a county prosecutor said.

The gruesome nature of the attack coupled with the religious adherence of the suspect has attracted significant attention to the case, from well beyond the borders of Moore, a community previously known for a devastating EF5 tornado that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed 1,000 homes.

The beheading has also sparked endless speculation — not to mention considerable debate over what to call it.

Here’s what we know about Nolen so far.

Nolen was suspended just before the attack

Police originally said that Nolen, 30, entered a Vaughan Foods processing plant on Thursday afternoon shortly after being “terminated.” But in an affidavit released Tuesday, police said Nolen had actually been suspended just before the incident.

He then went home, the affidavit said, and grabbed “a large bladed knife.” At that point, according to Cleveland County Prosecutor Greg Mashburn, Nolen “returned to get revenge.” In the plant’s administrative office, police say, Nolen attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford from behind and severed her head from her body.

Nolen then attacked 43-year-old Traci Johnson, another employee, before he was stopped by the company’s chief operating officer, Mark Vaughan. Vaughan, a reserve deputy with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department, shot Nolen with a rifle, stopping the attack. Both Nolen and Johnson were hospitalized.

Johnson was released from the hospital Saturday, after receiving treatment for multiple stab wounds. Nolen remains in stable condition.

The police affidavit said Nolen was suspended after Johnson initiated a complaint. According to Mashburn, the prosecutor, Johnson complained following an argument “about [Nolen] not liking white people.”

Islamic State finger salute

The Islamic State finger

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Father Of ISIS Social Media Guru Still President Of Islamic Elementary School In US

10/2/2014

Ahmed’s father, Abdulbadi Abousamra, has served as a president or board member of several mosques, Islamic schools, and Muslim political organizations in Massachusetts from the mid-1990s, and is still the president of an Islamic elementary school.

The revelation that Boston-area fugitive Ahmad Abousamra is running the Islamic State’s (ISIS) sophisticated social media propaganda campaign casts light on the leadership of a complex of radical mosques in and around the Greater Boston area. According to information obtained during litigation discovery and provided by Boston Muslims who asked not to be identified out of fear for their physical safety, Ahmad Abousamra is deeply connected to the top Muslim community leaders in Boston.

Ahmad’s father, Abdulbadi Abousamra (Abousamra Sr.), has served as a president or board member of several mosques, Islamic schools, and Muslim political organizations in Massachusetts from the mid-1990s. In fact, he is still the president of an Islamic elementary school in Sharon, MA. Abousamra Sr. had used his leadership position in multiple Boston Islamic institutions to import extremist and terrorist-affiliated imams into Boston. One of these imams, Hafiz Masood, appears to be the one who radicalized his son, Ahmad Abousamra (Abousamra Jr.).

Until 2007, when Abousamra Jr. was first questioned by the FBI over a plot to provide assistance to Al Qaeda in Iraq and to massacre shoppers at the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleboro, MA, his father, Abousamra Sr., was vice-president of the Boston branch of the Muslim American Society (MAS Boston). According to federal authorities, the Muslim American Society was created to be "the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." MAS Boston operates the largest Islamic center in the Northeast, the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC). The Boston Marathon bombers attended the ISBCC’s sister mosque in Cambridge. Both mosques have a long history of Islamic extremism and terrorism.

In 1994, Abousamra Sr. joined the Islamic Center of New England (ICNE), another Muslim organization that runs two mosques in the Boston suburbs of Quincy and Sharon. By 1998, he became its president.  Abousamra Sr.’s passion lay with influencing the religious education of the Center’s youth. He personally founded two schools at the ICNE: the Islamic Academy of New Englandelementary school in 1999 and the Al Noor Academy secondary school in 2001 – the latter with $100,000 in seed money he received from the Islamic Society of Boston. Even though Abousamra Sr. left the country shortly after the FBI put a bounty on his son, he is still the president of the Islamic Academy of New England.

In 1998, Abousamra Sr. hired Mohammed Hafiz Masood to be the new Imam at the Islamic Center of New England and a teacher at the Islamic Academy of New England. At that time, Masood was in the United States illegally.

Masood quickly began to clash with the moderate members of the community over the extremist ideology he was teaching their children. Masood told one child, whose father was Egyptian but whose mother was Jewish that he won’t get into heaven unless he disowns his mother. The couple pulled their son out of the school. According to another mosque member, Masood told his eight-year-old nephew that Americans are “Shataan [Satan] and will not go to paradise because they don't do prayers.” This mosque member insists that:

“In my view, this type of talks to young generations is creating hate towards the U.S. and its people, which include us too. He is brainwashing young kids with material that has nothing to do with Islamic teaching.”

Yet another mosque member claimed that Masood and Abousamra Sr. “were making eight-year-old, seven-year-old girls wear hijab [head scarf], and they were making young boys go and talk to these girls [if they weren’t wearing a head scarf], so there was indoctrination.”

Moderate Muslims in Boston who spoke out against Abousamra Sr. and his fellow extremists were often intimidated or directly assaulted. According to one of the victimized Muslim community members, Abousamra Sr. had a former convict who converted to Islam in prison hang around the mosque and threaten those who objected to Abousamra Sr.’s ideology.

“They’ll beat you up,” he said.

Mohammed Hafiz Masood has since been deported for immigration violations. After his deportation, it turned out Masood was not an ordinary radical.

Masood is the brother of Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who founded and runsLashkar-e-Taibah (LeT), one of the largest and most violent terrorist groups in Pakistan, and who has a $10 million FBI bounty on his head. Saeed’s terror group is responsible for the 2008 Mumbai massacre, which targeted India over the conflict in Kashmir and left 166 people dead. A Boston Muslim community member claims that while living in Massachusetts, Masood “has stated many times in closed gatherings that, ‘I used to go to Kashmir and kill people and come back,’ and that was why he was a hero to many people.”

After the Mumbai massacres, The Times of India reported that Masood was using his status as Imam at the Islamic Center of New England to raise funds and recruit local Massachusetts Muslims for Lashkar-e-Taibah. Now living in Pakistan, Masood has become the spokesman of his brother’s terror group.

Hafiz Masood’s son, Hassan Masood, allegedly conspired in terrorist plots with Abousamra Jr. He turned informant and testified against Abousamra Jr. and his captured co-conspirator, Tarek Mehanna. According to Muslim community members, Tarek Mehanna and Abousamra Jr. were “thick with Masood” and had been radicalized by his preaching.

The Tarek Mehanna / Abousamra Jr. partnership and Mehanna’s subsequent arrest has spawned a popular radical movement that lobbies, among other things, to free Tarek Mehanna from prison. It is called the Tarek Mehanna Support Committee – and it has a large presence in Boston. Many of its members are former students of Hafiz Masood.

The Tarek Mehanna Support Committee encourages Muslims here to view American law enforcement with hostility and suspicion. On October 10, 2012, the group denounced the bounty the FBI put on Abousamra Jr., saying:

“The Tarek Mehanna Support Committee opposes all attempts by the US government to capture and prosecute Tarek Mehanna’s co-defendant, Ahmad Abousamra. … The bounty offered to capture Abousamra is part and parcel of the US government’s attempts to destroy the Muslim community through fostering informants and mistrust. … Our prayers go out to Ahmad Abousamra and his young daughter, wherever they are. … We call upon members of our community to take a principled stance of non-cooperation with any and all FBI and US Attorney’s office attempts to gather information and testimony in this case. We further call upon community members to take a stance of complete non-cooperation with federal agents and future grand juries or trials.”

Many of the current top leaders of mosques formerly led by Abousamra Sr. are also leaders in the Free Tarek Support Committee. Moderate Boston Muslims insist that the indoctrination that led to Abousamra Jr.’s joining ISIS is still ongoing at several Massachusetts mosques, and it’s only getting worse. One such Boston Muslim asked to pass along this warning:

“They have now made it a goal to go after the elementary schools, high schools, and college students. Parents are losing their children.”

Ilya Feoktistov is the Director of Research for Americans for Peace and Tolerance.Charles Jacobs is the President of APT.

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US Man Goes To Fight With The Yazidis

10/2/2014


The Yazidis have endured horrible human rights abuses at the hands of the Islamic State. Women and children have been raped, tortured, and sold into slavery. But despite the horrors they have endured, they are fighting back.
And now, they are getting some help from Americans.

A US citizen, Jordan Matson, has joined the YPG ranks in order to fight against ISIS gangs, receiving the code-name "Serdar".

 

Matson was slightly injured when a mortar shell landed near him in a clash in which 8 ISIS gang members were killed. Matson says he is very content with the attention he receives in the YPG. US citizen from Wisconsin has joined the YPG ranks, which already includes many people from different ethnic groups in Syria and the Middle East in general.

'I involved in the struggle with my unit for a week'
Matson says he had informed himself about the struggle of the YPG against the ISIS gangs through the internet in recent times, although he already had information about the Kurdish people. Matson says he decided to join the YPG as he preferred to do something rather than nothing.

Matson says the YPG is a bigger organisation than he previously thought it to be and adds that he is happy that he has gained acceptance so quickly in the YPG. Matson says he has been involved in the struggle with his unit for a week, adding that he has started to learn Kurdish.

We hear every day about western Muslims traveling to join terrorists, so it's nice to see this brave young man going to fight against those Islamic Savages.

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