Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

HRW report: ISIS child suspects arbitrarily arrested, tortured in Iraq


Human Rights Watch
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 22:00 UTC
Iraqi children
© Associated Press file/Bram JanssenThe report by Human Rights Watch estimates that 1,500 children are being held in detention for alleged Islamic State affiliation, often after dubious accusations and confessions obtained through torture.
Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government authorities have charged hundreds of children with terrorism for alleged Islamic State (also known as ISIS) affiliation, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The prosecutions are often based on dubious accusations and forced confessions obtained through torture.

The 53-page report, "'Everyone Must Confess': Abuses against Children Suspected of ISIS Affiliation in Iraq," shows that Iraqi and KRG authorities often arrest and prosecute children with any perceived connection to ISIS, use torture to coerce confessions, and sentence them to prison in hasty and unfair trials. International law recognizes children recruited by armed groups primarily as victims who should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

"Children accused of affiliation with ISIS are being detained, and often tortured and prosecuted, regardless of their actual level of involvement with the group," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "This sweeping, punitive approach is not justice, and will create lifelong negative consequences for many of these children."
Read More...
Fire

65 torched cars & firebombs: French city hit with 4th night of anti-police violence


RT
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 07:05 UTC
grenoble riots
© AFP/ Jean-Pierre Clatot
Rioters torched cars and hurled Molotov cocktails from the rooftops as the French city of Grenoble saw the fourth consecutive night of unrest, sparked by the death of two teenagers in a police chase.

Footage filmed by Ruptly shows vehicles engulfed in flames after they were overturned and torched by rioters in Grenoble, southeastern France, with firefighters and police deployed at the scene.

Wednesday marked the fourth consecutive night of the unrest rocking the city. The new round of riots erupted at around 9pm. Local media reported that people were seen throwing stones and Molotov cocktails from the rooftops at the police officers.

Comment: What did they expect the police to do? Not chase after them? It's likely that many of those rioting are hijacking the situation as an excuse to cause mayhem. Europe has seen a rise in this kind of violence which erupts for often no justifiable reason, in particular areas and countries, and it differs greatly to legitimate protests like that of the Gilet Jaunes, who don't just wait for nightfall to attack police:

Read More...
Pocket Knife

Williamson announces military ready to help in knife crime, prompts derision on social media


RT
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 14:42 UTC
gavin williamson
© AFP/Justin TallisDefence Secretary Gavin Williamson AFP / Tolga Akmen (R) A British police forensics officer.
UK armed forces stand "ready to respond" to the current knife crime epidemic blighting the country, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has declared, leading to much mockery on social media.

Williamson made the remarks during a question-and-answer session on Tuesday night in which he insisted the Ministry of Defense is always available to assist Home Secretary Sajid Javid to "tackle this problem [knife crime]."

The intervention has prompted much derision on Twitter, with many questioning how military personnel could ever provide necessary support to a highly complex issue.

Comments ranged from: "What's he going to do - sail a Trident submarine up the Thames and nuke the bastards?" to "Don't stop there, Gav. Any squaddies [soldiers] available for nursing duties?"


Comment: See also:

Read More...
Hardhat

Italy: Bulldozers demolish camp housing 1,500 illegal African economic migrants, scene of multiple fatal fires

Lorenzo Tondo
The Guardian
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:23 UTC
migrant camp italy
More than 1,500 people are being ousted from the refugee camp at San Ferdinando, in southern Italy, in the largest eviction since Italy's rightwing populist government's immigration measures kicked in.

On Wednesday morning, almost 1,000 paramilitary police officers surrounded the 400 shacks where the migrants have lived since the camp was established in 2010, near Gioia Tauro, in Calabria. As people were ushered out clutching their few possessions, bulldozers demolished the shanty town of cardboard and wood huts in a matter of hours.

"As promised ... we went from words to actions," said the interior minister, Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League party. The majority of the camp's inhabitants are from sub-Saharan Africa and worked in nearby farmers' fields as illegal agricultural workers for paltry, exploitative wages.

In February, the mayor of San Ferdinando, Andrea Tripodi, said the camp was a danger to health and a fire risk. Four people have died in fires there over the past year.

Read More...
Red Flag

Arizona Sen. Martha McSally: Prevalence of sexual abuse in military is a national security threat


CBS News
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:08 UTC
Martha McSally
© CHRIS ALBERT / CBS NEWSSen. Martha McSally speaks to "CBS This Morning"
A hearing on sexual assault in the military Wednesday was personal for Sen. Martha McSally. The freshman Arizona Republican revealed before the Senate Armed Services Committee she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force.

In her first interview since coming forward with the revelation, McSally told "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell she spoke out to "give the perspective of why I am advocating so strongly for women in the military." A portion of the interview will air Thursday on "CBS This Morning," with more of McSally's comments airing on Friday.

"If anybody last night or 50 years ago has also been through a sexual assault, I just want to give them some hope. I want to shine a flashlight for them, that today can be a new day. That they can find some healing in their own lives," McSally said. "They can find their own purpose and not be held back and not be stopped from fulfilling all of their potential in life because of the awful things that they were victimized from. Don't let your assaulter rob you of your future. Don't do it."
Read More...
Dominoes

Tim 'Apple' Cook tells students to #LearnToCode... Twitter users demand he be banned for hate speech


RT
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 19:11 UTC
tim cook
© AFP / SAUL LOEB
The tech giant's CEO, Cook, whom President Trump called his 'good friend Tim Apple', said all American kids should 'learn to code' - prompting sarcastic demands he be deplatformed, like others who have tweeted the dreaded hashtag.

"It should be a requirement in the US for every kid to have coding before they graduate from K12 and become somewhat proficient at it," Cook said, pointing out that Apple was founded by a college dropout and that the company needs skilled coders much more than it needs college degrees.

But a Twitter spokesperson announced it was company policy to suspend users tweeting #LearnToCode back in January. While they subsequently backed away from the statement, several conservative-leaning Twitter users - including the editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller - were suspended for tweeting #LearnToCode at laid-off journalists last month.
Read More...
Binoculars

On the Idlib front in Syria - Andrew Vltchek reports

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:23 UTC
syria artillery
For a while, all the guns have fallen silent.

I am near Idlib, the last stronghold of the terrorists in Syria. The area where the deadliest anti-government fighters, most of them injected into Syria from Turkey, with Saudi, Qatari and Western 'help', are literally holed up, ready for the final showdown.

Just yesterday, mortars were falling on villages near the invisible frontline, separating government troops and the terrorist forces of Al Nusra Front. The day before yesterday, two explosions rocked the earth, only a couple of meters from where we are now standing.

They call it a ceasefire. But it's not. It is one-sided. To be more precise: the Syrian army is waiting, patiently. Its cannons are pointing towards the positions of the enemy, but the orders from Damascus are clear: do not fire.

The enemy has no scruples. It provokes, endlessly. It fires and bombs, indiscriminately. It kills. Along the frontline, thousands of houses are already ruined. Nothing gets spared: residential districts, sport gymnasiums, even bakeries. There is an established routine: assaults by the terrorists, rescue operations organized by Syrian armed forces (SAA - Syrian Arab Army) and Syrian National Defense Forces, then immediate rebuilding of the damage.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian people have lost their lives in this war. Millions had to leave their homeland. Millions have been internally displaced. For many, the conflict became a routine. Rescue operations became routine. Rebuilding tasks became routine, too.

Now, it is clear that the final victory is near. Syria survived the worse. It is still bleeding, but most of its territories are beginning to heal. People are slowly returning home, from Lebanon and Turkey, from Germany and elsewhere. They go through rubble - their former homes. They sit down and cry. Then, they get up and start rebuilding. That's in other parts of the country: Duma, Homs, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zur.
Read More...
Better Earth

Sweden's blind altruism is actually harming migrants

Mustafa Panshiri
Quillette
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:59 UTC
Mustafa Panshiri
The 15-year-old boy was standing outside the police station, late one night during the immigration wave of 2015. I was meeting youths like him almost every day, as they came to the station to apply for asylum. Sweden was the country in Europe that took in most immigrants per capita during the crisis, with numbers up to over 160,000 by the end of the year. 35,000 of them, mostly Afghans, claimed refugee status as unaccompanied minors. Linköping is a small town and I was the only police officer there who spoke their language, Dari.

As we sat down to go through routine questioning, I started thinking about my own memories of coming to Sweden from Afghanistan with my parents and siblings. I was a few years younger than the boy sitting across the table from me.

I wanted to tell him that he had come to an amazing country. I wanted to tell him that he had all the opportunity in the world to build a better future for himself. That he no longer had to be afraid. But I didn't have time to say any of those things before the boy broke down before me. He couldn't stop crying.

He told me that he had lost his mother and big brother among hundreds of other migrants in the Turkish mountains. Suddenly on his own, he had managed to travel through Germany and Denmark before finally reaching Sweden. He had just gotten off the train.

He asked me through his tears if he would ever see his mother again.

I realized that this kid wasn't thinking about his education, or his future. He just wanted his Mom.
Read More...
Attention

Radicalized inmate shouts, 'Allahu Akbar' and stabs two guards in French prison - UPDATE


RT
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 19:59 UTC
French police
© Reuters/Benoit Tessier
A "radicalized" inmate has stabbed two guards in a prison in the northwest of France, causing a tense standoff with the law enforcement. The suspect was injured and apprehended during a full-scale assault on the facility.

The prisoner had been with his wife in a visiting room at the high-security facility on Tuesday when the 27-year-old stabbed two guards with a ceramic knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar," prison staff told AFP. The prisoner then retreated into another room and locked himself in with his wife, beginning a standoff with police lasting several hours.

"It was truly a murder attempt. There was blood everywhere. The family-visiting unit was a battle scene," a member of the prison staff said. Despite the apparent severity of the attack, the victims' injuries turned out to be non-life threatening, and no hostages have been taken.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said that there was "no doubt about the terrorist nature of the attack," and that the inmate was known as an adherent of radical Islam. Police sources suggest he was radicalized in prison in 2010.

Comment: UPDATE

The situation has escalated as prison guards block access to 18 prisons in France:

About 60 guards have blocked the Condé-sur-Sarthe prison in north-western France, the scene of Tuesday's horrifying attack, setting fire to tires and palettes outside the secure facility. The two guards were seriously injured in the stabbing, and the suspect was shot and wounded by police.

A local union leader at the Fleury-Merogis prison outside Paris told the AFP that "colleagues want to go to work but we do not abandon them, we do not send them to die." Footage from the prison shows that riot police have arrived on the scene and are calling on the guards to remove their blockades.


Additionally, the 'radicalized' inmate's wife has reportedly died from injuries sustained during the assault operation:
The man's wife, who died during the 10-hour siege following the stabbing, is thought to have smuggled a knife in to him during her visit.


Read More...
Books

Amazon 'burns' book on Quran co-authored by Tommy Robinson


The Independent
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:44 UTC
Tommy Robinson
© Gareth Fuller/Press AssociationTommy Robinson is a co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL)
Amazon has banned the selling of Tommy Robinson's book about the Quran on its website.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is the co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL), and has also recently had his profiles removed from a number of social media websites.

His book, which he co-wrote with Peter McLoughlin, Mohammed's Koran: Why Muslims kill for Islam, has now been pulled from the online retailer after being classed as "inappropriate content."

Robinson has repeatedly accused media outlets and major companies of censorship and his co-author, Mr McLoughlin, compared Amazon's decision to those taken in Nazi Germany.

"This is the twenty-first century equivalent of the Nazis taking out the books from university libraries and burning them," he said, according to the Mail Online.

Comment: There seems to be a movement afoot to shut down discussion of Islam that mirrors the movement to shut down discussion of Zionism, all in the name of 'inclusivity'. From the Daily Mail:
According to Mr McLoughlin the £14 book was removed from the Amazon database, last month, meaning even second hand versions cannot be sold.

The book is marketed as an examination of the Koran and the motivations of extremism. However, critics called it 'infantile'.

Despite scathing reviews the author said it was 'the No.1 best-selling exegesis of the Koran'.

Mr McLoughlin added: 'I can't get my head round it. Every few weeks for the past 18 months they had emailed me asking to put it into special sales programmes, as it was selling so well.

'For 18 months they sought to profit even more from the sales. This is a book where verified Amazon customers left over 1000 five star reviews of the book over the last 18 months.'

Tommy Robinson has become so divisive a Kent councillor was suspended from the Conservative party this week, for re-tweeting a message about him which said he had been unfairly treated by social media companies.

Cllr Andrew Bowles, a Swale Borough Councillor for 16 years, shared the message which said Robinson was the victim of 'disgraceful injustice'.


Read More...