Category: Politics

Germans want a burqa ban says survey

Germany, August 26 — In a recently conducted poll in Germany more than three quarters of Germans do not want to see burqas in public, reports DW. Burqas are a full face, full head-to-toe covering in which not even eyes can be seen.

The poll was conducted by Infratest dimap polling institute and surveyed 1008 adult Germans. Results showed that 81 percent of respondents favored ban of burqas in public areas. Some 51 percent favored entire ban on burqas in Germany.

This has been an extremely heated issue of recent where a Palestinian intern was fired for not removing her head cover (not a burqa) and France was considering a ban on Islamic swimsuits.

Read full article at DW.

Turkey declares “total war” on terror

Istanbul, August 26 — During a press conference in Istanbul, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared total war on terrorism and continued to say Turkey will “bear their pain and continue to fight against terror” referring to most recent terrorist attack in city of Cizre by Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).

No terrorist group could hold Turkey captive

“No terrorist group could hold Turkey captive” continued PM Yildirim.

Read full article at HurriyetDailyNews.

Palestinian intern fired by German town mayor

Luckenwalde, Germany, August 25 — Luckenwalde mayor Elisabeth Herzog-vod der Heide has fired her Palestinian intern after just one day on the job.

The reason for termination from internship notes mayor is refusal by the intern to remove her headscarf at work in presence of men which is a violation of “neutrality policy” according to  Herzog-von der Heide.

Read the full article at DW.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff impeachment begins

Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 25 — The first female president of Brazil to enter final phase of her impeachment. The entire Brazil Senate body is expected to hear testimony from defense and prosecution.

The suspended president is expected to answer to the Senate on August 29th. “She has been accused of borrowing money from state-owned banks to pay for social programs but not including these ‘loans’ in the federal accounting results.” reports RioTimesOnline.

Read the full article at RioTimesOnline.

Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan abused in prison

Istanbul, August 25 — Highly accomplished Turkish writer who was detained and jailed earlier this month during police raid on Ozgur Gundem newspaper for which she was a columnist reports being abused while in prison.

They are treating me in a way that will leave permanent damage on my body,

she told daily Cumhuriyet through her lawyer, Nesrullah Oğuz, — reports Hurriyetdailynews.

Several days ago on August 22nd Istanbul court issued arrest warrants for the Editor-in-Chief and managing editor of Ozgur Gundem newspaper on “charges of being members of a terrorist group”, reports Hurriyetdailynews (another article).

Istanbul classifies the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization and is banned. Looking over at Wikipedia description of PKK their history is very interesting and worth becoming familiar with.

NATO classifies PKK as a terrorist organization.
US State Department classifies PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), click on the link to see the complete list.

Read full article about condition of Asli Erdogan at Hurriyetdailynews,
Read full article about further arrests of Ozgur Gundem newspaper members at Hurriyetdailynews,
Read about Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) on Wikipedia.

Clinton email pot keeps churning

United States, August 22 — As much as additional 15,000 emails are under scrutiny by the US State Department which were undisclosed by Ms. Hillary Clinton.

Some of the new emails are shedding light as to precisely how the donors to the Clinton Foundation were able to gain access to then Secretary of State and other staff.

“A sports executive who was a major donor to the Clinton Foundation and whose firm paid Bill Clinton millions of dollars in consulting fees wanted help getting a visa for a British soccer player with a criminal past.” – writes WashingtonPost.

This is potentially alarming conflict of interest in terms of security of the State. Under the Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information Section 2(a) subsections 8 and 9, “the potential for pressure, coercion, exploitation, or duress; and (9) the likelihood of continuation or recurrence” sections come to mind.

Read the full article at WashingtonPost.com
Read the “Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information” at US Department of State.

German court orders no niqabs in German school

A student who wanted to wear her niqab (a veil that covers entire face but the eyes) to school in northern German city of Osnabruck was denied by the local court reports DW.

This is related to our previous article on Germany considering outright ban on burqas in public places.

The struggle between cultural freedoms, acceptance and respecting of hosting nations by assimilation continues.

Read the full article at DW.com

Upcoming tests for Russian A-100 AWACS

Russia, August 22 — Russia’s newest Beriev A-100 AWACS (airborne early warning and control) aircraft is scheduled for test flight next March with “maiden flight by 2018”.

The new Russian Air Force A-100 is said to be able to detect enemy targets at ranges exceeding 600km (372.8 miles).

Conjectures & Speculations

This is fairly significant because these system are likely to be able to tie in with the current S-400 (NATO SA-21 Growler) anti-air systems. The 40N6 missiles on SA-21 Growler have operational range of 400km (248.5 miles).

These AWACS could also tie in with the newest Russian hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles (3M22 Zircon) with reported range of 400km (248.5 miles) with speeds at 5-6x the speed of sound. These newest generation of anti-ship missiles are scheduled for serial production sometime in 2018 according to TASS state agency.

Read the full article about Briev A-100 at RT.com
Read the full article about 3M22 Zircon anti-ship cruise missile at TASS.ru

John McCain’s NGO group banned in Russia

Russia, August 18 — Prosecutors in Russia have labeled the International Republican Institute NGO lead by US Senator John McCain as “undesirable organization” reports RT, continuing further to ban group’s operations in Russia including any communications between the group and Russian citizens. The article cites “threat to the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order and state security” as main reasons without elaborating further.

Read the full article at RT.com.

German ministers release “Berlin Declaration”

Germany, August 19 — German legislators have released their “Berlin Declaration” which includes provisions for a partial ban on burqas – full-faced veils in public. This could make Germany fourth European country to explicitly ban the controversial face cover after Belgium, France and Netherlands. The United States’ First Amendment allows such controversial clothing as a constitutional right which is nice for right of everyone including those who wish to wear burqas, Richard Nixon masks and those who wish to wear great helms.

Update: Some of you may remember the tragic murder of Ibolya Ryan an American teacher in United Arab Emirates by Alaa Badr Abdullah al-Hashemi. The suspect was later located and charged. (The convicted murderer was later executed by UEA for the brutal crime). Take a look at the link below to see for yourself how burqas can be a disguising murder element for that particular case.

Read full article at dw.com for German story, read American murdered in Abu Dabi.