Society's Child

Damning report finds immigration loophole led to thousands of approved child bride requests

Colleen Long
Associated Press
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 19:08 UTC

Thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides to live in the United States were approved over the past decade, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press. In one case, a 49-year-old man applied for admission for a 15-year-old girl.

The approvals are legal: The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements. And in weighing petitions for spouses or fiancees, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives.

But the data raises questions about whether the immigration system may be enabling forced marriage and about how U.S. laws may be compounding the problem despite efforts to limit child and forced marriage. Marriage between adults and minors is not uncommon in the United States, and most states allow children to marry with some restrictions.

There were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiances, according to the data requested by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2017 and compiled into a report.

Just an empty gesture: Five IDF troops arrested for beating Palestinian detainees

Sputnik
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 19:05 UTC

Military police detained an Israel Defense Force platoon commander and four troops serving in his unit for reportedly beating two captured Palestinians, according to Israeli media.

The soldiers are members of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, a unit designed for Orthodox Jews to be able to serve in the defense force and stay true to their religious convictions. The Jerusalem Post notes the battalion receives a range of recruits, from ultra-Orthodox Israelis to immigrants and would-be settlers.

The military court hearing did not uncover when the alleged beating took place, though the military said the Palestinians were detained in the Ramallah area, a Palestinian city in the West Bank just north of Jerusalem. It's not clear what charges the five are being tried for.

The court lengthened the detention of the officer until Sunday. The four soldiers will stay locked up until next Tuesday.

Notorious anti-Kremlin shock 'artist' arrested for torching French bank will walk free due to 'suspended sentence'

RT
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 10:53 UTC

A shock artist from Russia, praised in the West as a vivid Kremlin critic, has been sentenced to three years in prison for arson in France, but will walk free. The controversial 'activist' also received a hefty fine for his stunt.

Pyotr Pavlensky garnered international attention and support for being a vocal government critic. His shock stunts, including nailing his scrotum to the Red Square pavement and several acts of creative vandalism, made him famous in the West.

Pavlensky's notoriety received a boost when he was fined 481,500 rubles (€6,500) by a Russian court for setting fire to the entrance of the Russian security service FSB. No prison sentence was issued though.

Apparently, that was the last straw for the notorious stuntman as he fled the 'oppressive' Russian regime and settled down in France. But French life became too idyllic (or miserable?) for Pavlensky, as he and his partner Oksana Shalygina repeated his arson stunt at the door of the Bank of France in October 2017.

French judges weren't impressed by his creative genius. On Thursday, Pavlensky and Shalygina stood trial in Paris and faced up to ten years in prison for "dangerous destruction of property."

Comment: No doubt the court's leniency is due to the 'service' provided by Pavlensky in giving some credence to the narrative of Russia as an 'intolerant and oppressive regime'. And noting the French government's hypocrisy, such generosity will not likely be shown to the hapless Gilet Jaunes who have been arrested during (or ahead of) recent protests.

See:

Teen missing for 3 months found alive after escaping captor who murdered parents and kidnapped her; suspect arrested [Update]

Alexander Svokos
ABC News
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 18:34 UTC

© Barron County, Wis., Sheriff's Department
Jayme Closs in an undated photo provided by Barron County, Wis., Sheriff's Department

Jayme Closs, the 13-year-old Wisconsin girl who police say was kidnapped after the murder of her parents in October, was found late Thursday afternoon by a woman outside of Gordon -- 70 miles away from the girl's Barron home.

Kristin Kasinskas was just getting home from work when her dog started barking because someone was walking up her driveway, she told ABC News. It was her neighbor -- along with a girl with matted hair and shoes too big for her.

"She came to the door, she knocked, then she actually just opened the door and said, 'Call 911, this is Jayme Closs.' We recognized Jayme immediately, because obviously, we've seen her picture everywhere, everywhere," Kasinskas said.

Closs had come up to the neighbor, who has not been publicly identified, while the neighbor was walking a dog, Kasinskas said. Closs did not explain how she escaped from apparent captivity, Kasinskas added.

Comment: Authorities have also explained that the motive all along was to kidnap the teen and that he had taken steps to plan the entire act, which seems to include murdering her parents.

"Jayme was taken against her will and taken to a residence where she was held," Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald told reporters Friday. "The subject planned his actions and took many proactive steps to hide his identity."

"We also do not believe at this time that the suspect had any contact with the family. We do believe Jayme was the only target," Fitzgerald said.

UPDATE: From the AP, a Wisconsin man has been arrested:

Authorities say they have jailed a 21-year-old man on kidnapping and homicide charges in the October killing of a Wisconsin couple and abduction of their teen daughter, who was found alive.

Douglas County Sheriff Thomas Dalbec said at a news conference Friday that Jake Thomas Patterson was arrested Thursday after Jayme Closs was found near the Town of Gordon, where Patterson lives.

Dutch prosecutor states foiled terror attack could've left dozens of victims

Janene Pieters
NL Times
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 18:20 UTC

The Netherlands escaped a terrorist attack that could've resulted in "dozens of victims" with the arrest of seven suspects in Arnhem and Weert in September last year, the Public Prosecutor said in court on Thursday - the first proforma hearing in this case. Only three of the six suspects still in detention were present at the hearing, AD reports.

"The suspects said goodbye to friends. These suspects were on the way to commit an attack, with dozens of victims. The Netherlands escaped a major attack", the Prosecutor said.

According to the Prosecutor, the attack was to happen at a festival. The suspects discussed how they would get ready outside the festival, and then go in and commit an attack. "They also talked about tactics: how should they do it? And what to do if one of them is tagged by the police?" They decided not to walk too close to each other, and detonate their bomb vest if they police grab them, the Prosecutor said.

The Prosecutor stressed that there was never a real danger, because the police infiltrated this group and foiled their plans. "But how different it could have been. If the string had broken with the infiltrators, we might have had dozens of victims."

Comment: Patsies or not?

Several German courthouses evacuated over bomb threats

DW
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 18:14 UTC

German police have evacuated several courthouses in cities across the country following a series of bomb threats. Authorities are securing the premises. Similar recent threats turned out to be false alarms.

Regional courts in Potsdam, Magdeburg, Erfurt, Wiesbaden, Hamburg and Kiel received bomb threats on Friday, police said.

The threats were made by email and vowed attacks across Germany.

Germany is on high alert following a series of terror attacks in the country and across Europe.

What we know so far:

Authorities are combing the premises of the courthouses with dogs.
Police said the anonymous assailant or assailants had threatened to detonate explosive devices at the various regional courts.
In Wiesbaden, a suspicious package was discovered at the courthouse. Police have blocked roads in the surrounding area.
Police are trying to determine the source of the threatening emails.

Afghan serial offender deported from Germany & flown back... to Germany - media

RT
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 17:19 UTC

An Afghan man, who has 23 offenses in his criminal record in Germany, reportedly spent only a few hours on board a deportation flight to Kabul, but was sent back to Germany right after landing in Afghanistan.

The male in question, identified as Mortaza D., was subject to deportation from Germany after being convicted for 23 offenses, including robbery and physical assault, according to Bild. The serial offender, along with other deportees, boarded a chartered German plane packed with 100 officers, two interpreters, and a human rights activist. However, taking him back to Afghanistan turned into mission impossible.

San Diego TV station claims CNN declined its 'local view' on border wall because of reports that it's effective

Joe Concha
The Hill
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 16:05 UTC

A San Diego television station on Thursday said that CNN had asked for a "local view" and then "declined to hear from us" after past reports from the station showed that a border wall was effective.

A CNN spokesperson pushed back on KUSI's claim on Friday, calling it a "non story" since the network ultimately didn't book any reporters from stations in the San Diego area.

"We called several local stations to book someone for a show. We didn't end up booking any of them," says a CNN spokesperson in a statement to The Hill. "That happens many times every single day. We did, however, book a reporter from KUSI for a story on immigration and the border wall on CNN in November. This is a non story."

Immigration, the partial government shutdown and President Trump's proposed border wall have all been topics dominating the cable news landscape since the shutdown began three weeks ago.

Comment: Considering CNN's propensity to decry all things 'Trump', claims that they deliberately killed any stories favorable toward his policies are highly credible. And speaking of the effectiveness of border walls, El Paso, Texas is another city that has benefited by their border wall where violent crime and drug trafficking plummeted immediately after the wall was built.

Living on the edge: Flat earthers planning cruise voyage in 'best adventure yet'

RT
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 15:26 UTC

A group of flat earthers are planning their "biggest, boldest, best adventure yet," a cruise that they believe will take them to the edge of the Earth - or just see them cruising around in circles.

The outing is being arranged by the Flat Earth International Conference, with a plan to set sail in 2020.

Gun ownership on upswing in Europe as fears of terrorism and crime increase

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC

Europeans are increasingly turning to guns to protect themselves against terrorism and crime. Women and men alike are becoming gun owners as a way to boost their method of self-defense against violent attackers.

Nine days after the attack in the Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg last December in which an Islamic terrorist killed five and wounded 11, a Washington think tank reported that similar attacks were likely to continue. The terrorist, Cherif Chekatt (who was killed in a subsequent shootout with police), had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, declared that European citizens would face a continuing "significant threat" of similar attacks: "The threat of attacks from groups like the Islamic State and al Qaeda to ... the United Kingdom and France is at one of the highest levels [since the 9/11 attacks]," adding that the number of such attacks - foiled, failed and successful - surged more than 700 percent between 2007 and 2017.-New American

Comment: See: Strasbourg Shooting: Everybody Knows Where Terror Comes From

Has everyone seen the documentary Century of the Self? It's about Bernays, PR BS, etc. and is REALLY well done. (I found it at an AA article.)...

Rowan Cocoan

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Buffalo_Ken

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Buffalo_Ken

Biden the child-killer. Think of the children, vaxxers, think of the children.

hobnyeba

Thanks, all, for great comments and links. Lots to think about.

ReRan

Society's Child

Damning report finds immigration loophole led to thousands of approved child bride requests

Just an empty gesture: Five IDF troops arrested for beating Palestinian detainees

Notorious anti-Kremlin shock 'artist' arrested for torching French bank will walk free due to 'suspended sentence'

Teen missing for 3 months found alive after escaping captor who murdered parents and kidnapped her; suspect arrested [Update]

Dutch prosecutor states foiled terror attack could've left dozens of victims

Several German courthouses evacuated over bomb threats

Afghan serial offender deported from Germany & flown back... to Germany - media

San Diego TV station claims CNN declined its 'local view' on border wall because of reports that it's effective

Living on the edge: Flat earthers planning cruise voyage in 'best adventure yet'

Gun ownership on upswing in Europe as fears of terrorism and crime increase

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