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Israeli police thwart ISIS terror attack in Jerusalem

Anna Ahronheim
Jerusalem Post
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 20:16 UTC
police thwart ISIS
© Police Spokesperson's Unit
Israel Police arrest two ISIS members in east Jerusalem.
Ahmed Jabbis, 21, and Basel Abidat, 19, were arrested based on concrete intelligence about their planned attacks.

Israel Police released footage on Wednesday of the arrests of two residents of the southeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jebl Mukaber who were indicted on terrorism charges in a Jerusalem court on Sunday after they allegedly planned terrorist attacks on military and civilian targets on behalf of Islamic State in Jerusalem on Independence Day.

"On the night of October 28, 2019, dozens of Border Police officers raided two houses simultaneously in the village of Jebl Mukaber," said an undercover Border Police officer who oversaw the operation. "This was a planned operation. We had information about the location of the accused, and as soon as conditions allowed, we detained them.

"According to the indictment, Jabbis and Abidat were active on ISIS-affiliated websites beginning in 2016, which spread the group's religious and political messages as well as provide instructions on how to assemble bombs to carry out attacks.

Comment: Considering the large amount of material and logistical support that groups like ISIS have received in Syria and Iraq from Israel, and considering that ISIS tends to apologize to Israel when their bombs mistakenly hit known Israeli positions inside of Syria, one wonders whether or not this whole story has been concocted, FBI-style, to further "legitimize" Israel's incarceration of its Arab/Palestinian population in the name of self defense.

See also:

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Brick Wall

'Shadow banning' written into Twitter's new terms of service, may 'limit visibility' of some users


RT
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 23:54 UTC
twitter logo
© Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Twitter's new terms of service will allow the platform to "shadow ban" users - secretly suppressing their content. While critics have long suspected the company of doing it, the new rules appear to make the practice official.

Taking effect in January 2020, Twitter's new terms initially don't look like much to write home about, but some tweaks to the language could have larger repercussions for users, limiting their reach behind the scenes without their knowledge.

"We may also remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services, limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service, suspend or terminate users, and reclaim usernames without liability to you," the new terms state (emphasis added).

Comment: See also:

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Shopping Bag

Is race-based pricing a Canadian value?

Peter Shawn Taylor
The Record
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 13:00 UTC
VIA rail Canada
© The Canadian Press
Via Rail Canada offers discounts on train tickets to Indigenous people.
Via Rail's Indigenous ticketing policy is unprecedented, socially divisive and plainly unfair

Everyone loves a bargain. Senior discounts. Children discounts. Family rates. Special promotions of this sort are so common we barely notice them.

But what if instead of age or family situation, a company started offering discounts based on race? Would that seem fair or proper? It's not a hypothetical question.
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Cloud Lightning

Why climate alarmism hurts us all

Michael Shellenberger
Forbes
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 01:08 UTC
climate alarmist celebrities
© Getty Images
Climate alarmism may be contributing to rising anxiety and depression among teenagers. (From left to right: Girl from Extinction Rebellion ad, Benedict Cumberbatch, Lauren Jeffrey, Emma Thompson, Ellie Goulding).
In July of this year, one of Lauren Jeffrey's science teachers made an off-hand comment about how climate change could be apocalyptic. Jeffrey is 17 years old and attends high school in Milton Keynes, a city of 230,000 people about 50 miles northwest of London.

"I did research on it and spent two months feeling quite anxious," she told me. "I would hear young people around me talk about it and they were convinced that the world was going to end and they were going to die."

In September, British psychologists warned of the impact on children of apocalyptic discussions of climate change. "There is no doubt in my mind that they are being emotionally impacted," one expert said.

Comment: You know the climate alarmists have gone too far when the IPCC is the voice of reason. Despite the fact that the entire anthropogenic global warming narrative is a complete scam, it's good to see that at least some within the movement, like the above author, are calling for cooler heads (pun intended).

See also:

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Bomb

2 injured after blast rocks downtown Jakarta near presidential palace


RT
Tue, 03 Dec 2019 03:26 UTC
Jakarta
© REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
Indonesian police officers stand guard following a blast at National Monument (Monas) complex in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 3, 2019.
An investigation has been launched into the incident. The explosion hit the area opposite the Ministry of Interior inside Indonesia's National Monument Park at around 7:20am local time on Tuesday morning.

A video has emerged on social media showing a man, his face and clothes covered in blood, lying motionless on the ground before slowly sitting up.

Two people were injured in the blast, local media reported. Both of them were taken to the hospital for treatment.

The site of the explosion, Indonesia's National Park - commonly referred to as Monas park - is located in front of the presidential palace, where military servicemen were reportedly performing an exercise at the time of the blast.

Comment: See also: Indonesian society splinters under conservative draft laws

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Arrow Down

California cop caught fondling corpse

Mark Puente, Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:03 UTC
Police Body Camera
© Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
A Los Angeles Police Department officer's body-worn camera caught the incident even though he turned it off, according to the LA Times.
A veteran Los Angeles police officer is under investigation after his body-worn camera captured him allegedly fondling a dead woman's breasts.

The officer, who is assigned to downtown's Central Division, was placed on leave once supervisors reviewed the footage during a random inspection, LAPD officials said.

The incident occurred when the officer and his partner responded to a call about a possible dead woman in a residential unit, sources said. Once the two officers determined the woman was dead, one officer returned to the patrol car to retrieve something. During that time, the accused officer turned off his body-worn camera and allegedly fondled the woman's breasts, LAPD officials said.

Although the officer deactivated the camera, a two-minute buffer on the device captured the incident. The department is also investigating the officer's work history.

"We immediately launched an administrative investigation once we learned about the incident," chief spokesman Josh Rubenstein said, "and we assigned the officer to home." He declined to comment further.

Assistant Chief Robert Arcos called the recording "very disturbing."

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file cops, called the allegations troubling.
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Camcorder

Smile America! DHS to expand airport face recognition scans to include US citizens

Zack Whittaker
TechCrunch
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 03:26 UTC
DHS facial recognition
© Getty Images
Homeland Security wants to expand facial recognition checks for travelers arriving to and departing from the U.S. to also include citizens, which had previously been exempt from the mandatory checks.

In a filing, the department has proposed that all travelers, and not just foreign nationals or visitors, will have to complete a facial recognition check before they are allowed to enter the U.S., but also to leave the country.

Facial recognition for departing flights has increased in recent years as part of Homeland Security's efforts to catch visitors and travelers who overstay their visas. The department, whose responsibility is to protect the border and control immigration, has a deadline of 2021 to roll out facial recognition scanners to the largest 20 airports in the United States, despite facing a rash of technical challenges.

But although there may not always be a clear way to opt-out of facial recognition at the airport, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — have been exempt from these checks, the existing rules say. Now, the proposed rule change to include citizens has drawn ire from one of the largest civil liberties groups in the country.

Comment: Are we sure they aren't doing this already? Don't we find out stuff after the fact? Will our collective 'opportunity to comment' prior to implementation make one pixel of difference?

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Chart Bar

Google co-founders Brin, Page step down, Pichai takes over

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:17 UTC
google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Stanford students who founded Google 21 years ago as a research project before transforming it into one of the world's most valuable companies, are stepping back from their day-to-day roles at tech holding company Alphabet, ending what is arguably the most successful management double-act in history. Sundar Pichai, who in 2015 became the CEO of Google, will also become the CEO of Alphabet.

In a public letter announcing the change, Mr Page and Mr Brin did not give specific reasons for stepping away from the company, instead painting it as a natural progression for Alphabet as it becomes a more mature company.
"Today, in 2019, if the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost. While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it's time to assume the role of proud parents — offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!"

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Baltimore Mayor warns of body "snatching" white van targeting young girls to sell their organs

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 10:15 UTC
white van
Seriously WTF!

We tend to report on how Baltimore City's socio-economic crisis is sending the region into a collapse. Now there's a new report that appears to be literally from a third world country!

Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young warned in an interview this week with WBAL News' Vanessa Herring that a white van has been running around the city targeting young girls for their organs, reported The Baltimore Sun.
"We're getting reports of somebody in a white van trying to snatch up young girls for human trafficking and for selling body parts, I'm told. So we have to be careful because there's so much evil going on, not just in the city of Baltimore, but around the country," Young said. "It's all over Facebook."

Comment: So, either this is a bit of sensationalist rumor-spreading by Baltimore's new mayor - or there are in fact some horrific cases of human trafficking occurring that local and federal law enforcement do not want to advertise for various reasons.

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No Entry

Powder Keg: FDA bowed to industry for decades as alarms were sounded over talc

Lisa Girion, Chad Terhune
Reuters
Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:01 UTC
FDA headquarters
© REUTERS/Jason Reed
The headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland November 4, 2009.
At an invitation-only gathering late last year, U.S. regulators and their guests huddled at a hotel near Washington, D.C., to discuss the best way to detect cancer-causing asbestos in talc powders and cosmetics.

The "Asbestos in Talc Symposium," sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, was dominated by industry hands: Most of the 21 non-government participants had done work for talc companies, such as testing and serving as expert witnesses and consultants, symposium documents and other records show.

Key sessions were led by witnesses for Johnson & Johnson in lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn customers that its Baby Powder was tainted with cancer-causing asbestos, the records show. Others who sought invitations were turned away, including a physician who had testified against J&J in trials that resulted in billions of dollars in damage awards against the company.

Comment: See also:

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