Society's ChildS


Hearts

Dramatic footage emerges of Syrian soldier seeing his mother for first time in seven years after retaking East Ghouta from jihadists

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
mother and son Syria
Dramatic footage of a Syrian soldier meeting his mother for the first time in over seven years as emerged on social media.

The soldier was part of the operation to liberate the East Ghouta enclave, to the east of Damascus city center, from terrorist forces occupying the region.

In this particular video, his mother was living under terrorist rule since they captured the region in 2011 from Syrian Army forces. Unfortunately it has taken until 2018 before the Syrian Army were in prime position to retake the region from jihadists.

The video shows the embrace and love between the soldier who fought to free his own mother from terrorist rule.


The entirety of East Ghouta bar the town of Duma has been liberated from terrorist forces in just a little more then a months worth of operations. It was expected the jihadists would provide stronger resistance, but they totally capitulated within the first few days of the operation.

Comment: Another emotional reunion between mother and son may be seen here. But these few short videos cannot begin to explain the anguish and hardship endured by the Syrians who have had to survive the induced tribulations of western empire for going on seven years now.

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Bullseye

US audience stunned as International Solidarity Movement tour brings reality of Palestinian trauma to awareness

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Rana Nazzal of ISM
Rana Nazzal of ISM
The other night in Brooklyn, I caught two activists from the International Solidarity Movement, Rana Nazzal and Joe Catron, describing their work in Palestine to 70 people crowded into the Commons Cafe. The tour continues tonight in Syracuse and on to many other venues in Canada and the States (and at times includes our own artist Katie Miranda). I would urge anyone who wishes to understand the depth of the conflict to catch one of these appearances.

The tour is noteworthy because it conveys to Americans, in the most unrhetorical manner, some small portion of the immense trauma that Palestinians are experiencing. Two activists come to the stage and speak plainly about their experience. Both began these talks with videos, and both videos - as the activists warned us - contained film of a Palestinian being shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.

Joe Catron showed us the famous killing of Salim Shamaly in Gaza in 2014. In Nazzal's case it was Rushdie Tamimi in Nabi Saleh in 2012. (Rushdie Tamimi was the maternal uncle of Ahed Tamimi, the 17-year-old just sentenced to 8 months in an Israeli jail.)

That is of course a very shocking way for a presentation to begin. The room was stunned. But the videos broke a seal, too: they reminded us of our own safety and informed us that we have no idea what life is really like under occupation, what it is really like to be in such an unbalanced and violent place.
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Eye 1

Cambridge Apocalyptica: Does social media control your every thought... probably


RT
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 15:08 UTC
#ICYMI
There's a good chance that a week ago you'd never heard of Cambridge Analytica. This week you'd be forgiven for thinking that, with the help of Facebook, it's been controlling your every thought for years.

In the constant search to explain exactly why the results of democratic votes are no longer always going the way the establishment wants, Russia got a week off. And this week's target was Cambridge Analytica (CA).

CA harvested data from millions of Facebook profiles, and sold it on to figures who were, for example, trying to get Donald Trump elected or those who were pushing Brexit. (Between you and I, Barack Obama also used harvested data during his election campaigning, but that has been largely brushed over during this scandal).


Comment: See:

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Map

Syrian army completes East Ghouta-Afrin exchange after negotiations with occupying terrorists


Moon of Alabama
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 20:05 UTC
ghouta map
After the Syrian army had taken all rural parts of east-Ghouta three pockets of densely upbuild areas were left in terrorist hands. Negotiations had started about transfer of the armed men to Idleb governorate in the north. Some 100,000 people moved from the besieged areas to the Syrian government side. Surrounded by widely superior forces, devoid of human shields and without any chance of relief the terrorist groups are now giving up one by one.

First to surrender were Ahrar al-Sham fighters who held the Harasta suburb. 1,500 of them and their families, in total 4,500 people were transferred to Idleb by government buses. They had to give up all heavy weapons and were only allowed to carry one hand-weapons and no ammunition.

Next to give up were Faylaq al-Rahman who held the southern pocket. While the leadership of the group was negotiating with the government side some of the group fired barrages of missiles into Damascus city and killed dozens of people. Shortly thereafter two dozen of foreigners who had been fighting with Faylaq al-Rahman turned up dead. Having eliminated those irreconcilable elements Faylaq al-Rahman burned its headquarter and agreed to be transferred. The men and their families are now being evacuated to Afrin, a formerly Kurdish area in the north-west which Turkish supported gangs recently captured. The total of this transfer were some 7,000 people.

Comment: Within the liberated areas of East Ghouta, the Syrian army discovered a Jaish al-Islam concentration camp in which dozens of minority families were held for years. You won't hear about this in the Western media, because it's a little too much truth for them to handle. To report on such details would force the MSM to admit they have been supporting terrorists and demonizing the army fighting to liberate Syrian civilians from totalitarian Islam. That's bad for their image, naturally.



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Arrow Down

Insanity: Baltimore starts defense fund for illegal aliens facing deportation - while murder rate is highest per capita


Judicial Watch
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 19:44 UTC
baltimore police
© Mandel Ngan / AFP
Less than a year after Baltimore prosecutors ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported, Maryland's largest city will hire immigration attorneys to help those facing removal. It's important to note that Baltimore has the nation's highest per capita homicide rate and has been coined the deadliest big city in the United States by a mainstream newspaper. Nevertheless, a city panel approved spending $200,000 this month to pay for lawyers to represent illegal aliens with deportation orders. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says in a local news report that the goal is for everyone to get due process. "We're not making a decision as to their status, we're making the decision to be supportive of individuals who live in our city," according to the mayor.

Unlike the criminal justice system, in immigration court the government doesn't offer free lawyers to those who can't afford them. This means that illegal aliens who don't have the money to pay for one must represent themselves in legal proceedings or rely on volunteer attorneys or paralegals provided by immigrant rights groups. This leaves many illegal aliens in removal proceedings without adequate legal representation. The trend of using taxpayer dollars to assist illegal aliens in deportation proceedings started under the Obama administration. In 2015, the former president allocated $2 million to hire attorneys to represent the influx of illegal alien minors in federal immigration proceedings. The money flowed through a special program, Justice AmeriCorps, launched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).

Comment: In most civilized countries, people found to be there illegally are simply deported - not paid.

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Arrow Down

Trump's base turns after he tweets veto bluff

Mike Allen
Axios
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 13:02 UTC
Trump jet plane
© Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A former White House official tells me that online conservative ire (Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, etc.). about the spending bill President Trump signed yesterday - after a puzzling tweeted veto feint - "is the hardest I've ever seen the base turn on Trump over anything."

Why it matters: "A big reason why people voted for him was because of his apparent willingness to stand up to the entrenched political class in both parties. Voters wanted a fighter who wouldn't back down to 'the swamp' like a 'typical politician," the official told me.

Comment: See Also:

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Camcorder

Austin serial bomber's confession: "Wish I were sorry but I am not" - claims he has been a psychopath since childhood

Ariel Zilber, Emily Crane, Hannah Parry, Martin Gould
Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 18:45 UTC
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley
© CBS AustinAustin Police Chief Brian Manley
The Austin serial bomber admitted in a recording he left just before he killed himself this week that 'I wish I were sorry but I am not.'

Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, terrorized the Texas state capital for over two weeks by sending package bombs to a number of people around town, killing two and wounding several others.

Austin police said on Wednesday that Conditt left a 28-minute audio 'confession' which he recorded on a cell phone on Tuesday, hours before he died after detonating one of his own devices in his car.

The details are among those to emerge about Conditt after he blew himself up as police tried to arrest him on Wednesday over a string of deadly package bombs that have terrorized Austin for weeks.

So far, authorities are not saying what specific contents were on the recording, but law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation leaked bits and pieces of the statement, according to the American-Statesman.

Conditt is heard describing himself on the recording as a 'psychopath' who has been mentally ill since childhood.

Comment: See also:

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Jet5

Reading Maimonides in Gaza: Working with UNRWA during Israel's assaults on Gaza

Marilyn Garson
Mondoweiss
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 18:22 UTC
maimonides in gaza
Mondoweiss recently published Marilyn Garson's new memoir Reading Maimonides in Gaza, which recounts her time working in Gaza with aid agencies during two Israeli wars on the strip. Below, Garson reflects on the recent news that the Trump administration is cutting aid to UNRWA as the World Bank and UN Special Rapporteur warn of an imminent collapse of Gaza society.

Reading Maimonides in Gaza is a memoir of four years and two wars in Gaza. I went there to work with employers and job-seekers, and I met Gazans through their abilities. They overturned what I thought I knew about conflict, and aid, and the content of my Judaism. From 2013 - 2015, I worked for UNRWA. Although I am no fan of elderly bureaucracies, I joined the system that relieves - without resolving - some of the suffering caused by the Gaza blockade. Why? Because having the imperfect buffer of UNRWA was so much better than having no buffer at all.

This is partly a story of the 2014 war, and UNRWA within it. I stayed in Gaza through the war, as part of the team that managed 90 UNRWA emergency shelters. The shelters eventually housed 293,000 of the Gazans who were displaced, but still trapped behind the blockade walls. During those days of bombing and invasion, in those full-to-bursting schools, I understood UNRWA. It has nothing to do with being perfect. It's all about being present.
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Jet4

Israeli jets pound Gaza after 'border fence breach and arson attempt'


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:45 UTC
Gaza Strip
© ABCGaza Strip under Israeli fire
The Israel Defense Forces have struck a 'Hamas target' in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for a border breach and an infiltration attempt by four Palestinians into Israel, the IDF has said.

According to an IDF statement, the Israeli Air Force targeted a military compound in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, after Palestinians armed with Molotov cocktails illegally crossed the separation wall and entered Israel.

"The IDF will continue to thwart all attempts to harm the State of Israel and will respond severely against those who wish to harm Israeli civilians," the IDF tweeted, adding that "Hamas is held responsible for all aggression coming from the Gaza Strip."

Earlier the IDF said that the security fence near Kibbutz Kissufim was "damaged" and four Palestinians carrying bottles "filled with flammable material" illegally crossed the border, trying to set fire to an engineering vehicle at around 5 pm local time on Saturday.
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Footprints

Cambridge Analytica HQ raided, ongoing Facebook data breach scandal

Jimmy Nsubuga
Metro
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 09:01 UTC
CambridgeAnalytica officeraid
© PAICO officers raid Cambridge Analytica in London.
Cambridge Analytica's offices in London have been raided by authorities. Enforcement officers for the Information Commissioner (ICO) spent nearly seven hours at the premises in New Oxford Street overnight.

The data analytics firm is currently under fire after it was claimed it may have illegally acquired personal Facebook data that could have been used to help Donald Trump get elected and Brexit pass. ICO's investigation includes the acquisition and use of Facebook data by CA, its parent company SCL and academic Dr Aleksandr Kogan, who developed the app used to gather data.

ICO officers had arrived at its building at around 8pm after Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, was granted a warrant an hour earlier after requesting access to records and data on Monday. Speaking to Channel 4 News, who broke the story after an undercover sting, Ms Denham said: 'We need to get in there. 'We need to take a look at the databases, we need to look at the servers and understand how data was processed or deleted by Cambridge Analytica.'

Comment: See also:

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