Israel targets Gaza’s children, say witnesses

“He was everyone’s friend,” said a classmate of Nasir Musbah, whose life was cut short by an Israeli bullet.Abed Zagout

Sarah Algherbawi-24 October 2018

Every Friday for the past few months, Nasir Musbah insisted that he accompany his two older sisters to the Great March of Return. Both women are medics; Nasir used to carry their first aid bags.

Nasir’s mother, Samah, allowed him to go on the condition that he would stay at a tent east of Khan Younis city from where the medics worked. It was around 500 meters from Gaza’s boundary with Israel.

On 28 September, Nasir was at that tent when Islam, one of his sisters, called over to him, asking for the first aid bag. Nasir did as requested, then ran back towards the tent. On his return, he suddenly fell to the ground.

Nasir had been hit in the head with a bullet fired by an Israeli sniper. He was only 11.

“I saw a laser beam passing us and directed at the child’s head while he was running,” said Yasser Abu Khater, a protester who witnessed the killing. “I’m sure that it wasn’t random. Nasir was targeted directly.”

Islam and her sister Duaa were busy tending to the injured at the time Nasir was killed. When his sisters went to the medical tent, they were concerned that they could not find Nasir anywhere.

His body had already been brought to the European Gaza Hospital. Two hours later, they had to identify his body in the morgue.

“My little man”

“Nasir didn’t miss a day since the Great March of Return demonstrations were launched,” said Samah, his mother.

“He was a child with a big brain, he memorized the Quran, did kung fu and played football, loved to talk to adults, and helped us with the housework. He was my little man.”

“I have no idea why Israel killed him,” she added. “He wasn’t holding a weapon. All he did was to help people who had been injured.”

Samah has a back complaint. “Nasir wanted to be a doctor so that he could help me get better,” she said. “He was a very kind child.”

Wisam, 12, used to sit beside Nasir at school. “I miss everything about Nasir,” Wisam said. “He was like the scientist of the class. He used to explain the lessons to us and help everyone. He was everyone’s friend.”

Another child, 14-year-old Muhammad al-Hawm, was among the seven people shot dead during the Great March of Return on 28 September. In total, six children were killed in the boundary area between Gaza and Israel last month. A seventh died of injuries sustained in August.

Carte blanche to kill

At least 34 children have been killed by Israeli forces while participating in Great March of Return protests since they began on 30 March.

Amnesty International has criticized Israel’s newly announced “zero tolerance” approach to Palestinian protests in the boundary area.

Saleh Higazi, an Amnesty representative, expressed alarm that the policy would give Israeli forces “carte blanche authorization to carry out large-scale, unlawful killings escalating the bloodshed.”

Higazi noted that Israel has already “repeatedly used lethal force unnecessarily and excessively against unarmed protesters in shameless violation of international law.”

Higazi added: “It is now time the international community shows ‘zero tolerance’ towards Israel’s flagrant contempt for Palestinian lives and disregard for its obligations under international law.”

The September killings took place shortly before the anniversary of another child victim: Muhammad al-Dura. Aged 12, Muhammad was shot dead in Gaza on 30 September 2000. Filmed by the television channel France 2, his killing became synonymous with the second intifada.

More than 2,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli armed forces or settlers in the past 18 years. Approximately 1,600 of those killings occurred in Gaza.

“I’ll shoot you”

The bloodshed is continuing.

On 3 October, Israel killed 15-year-old Ahmad Abu Habil by firing a tear gas canister into his head.
Ahmad, a resident of the Jabaliya refugee camp, was the youngest child in his family. “Our mother spoiled him,” said his sister Kifah. “He was funny. He loved to tell jokes.”

Two days later, Faris al-Sarsawi became yet another victim of Israeli state violence. He was 13.
Faris hailed from the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. His grandmother Mutia has watched ambulances pass her home since the Great March of Return protests began in late March.

The family of Faris al-Sarsawi, killed by an Israeli sniper during a protest earlier this month.
 Abed Zagout

She had seen a number of ambulances on 5 October and, as usual, said prayers for the people inside them. “I never expected that one of those ambulances would carry the body of my lovely grandson,” the 74-year-old said.

Faris had been named after his uncle who died during an Israeli offensive against Gaza in 2004. “My son Faris was killed in 2004,” said Mutia. “And now they have killed my other Faris.”

Maher Zaqoul, a neighbor, was standing near Faris at the 5 October protests. They were about 200 meters from the fence separating Gaza and Israel.

“An Israeli soldier deliberately killed Faris,” Zaqoul said. “The Israeli soldier said on a loudspeaker ‘you, with the white T-shirt, I’ll shoot you’ – pointing at Faris.”

Within minutes of that threat, Faris was shot in the chest. He died immediately.

“My son was innocent,” said his father Hafiz. “He had a lot to do in his life but Israel ended it very early.”

Sarah Algherbawi is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza.

 Man in Florida arrested, charged in connection with mail bombs sent to public figures

Authorities continue to investigate more suspicious packages containing explosives that seem to target prominent liberal figures and Democratic politicians. (Joyce Koh , Blair Guild/The Washington Post)

By Devlin Barrett ,Mark Berman andMatt ZapotoskyOctober 26 at 9:52 PM

A lone fingerprint and a set of misspellings helped point FBI agents to a Florida man with a long criminal record now charged with mailing homemade bombs to prominent critics of President Trump — a politically charged case that has roiled the run-up to next month’s congressional elections.

Cesar Sayoc, 56, a former pizza deliveryman, strip-club worker and virulently partisan supporter of the president, was arrested Friday and charged with a string of crimes in connection with the homemade pipe bombs sent this week to former president Barack Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and others.

He was formally charged with sending 13 such devices, and a law enforcement official said he is likely to be charged with sending a 14th device to Tom Steyer, a major Democratic donor. That package was intercepted in California, officials said.

The manhunt began Monday afternoon, when a pipe bomb was found inside a package delivered to billionaire activist George Soros, and ended less than 96 hours later with Sayoc’s arrest outside an auto supply store in Plantation, Fla. Sayoc, who lives in nearby Aventura, was arrested near his vehicle: a white van festooned with political declarations echoing Trump rhetoric.

Agents tried to question him immediately, according to one law enforcement official, under what’s called the “public safety exception,” which says police can interview a subject without first reading them their rights if authorities are seeking information about ongoing security threats. Sayoc did not want to talk and quickly demanded a lawyer, the official said.

[Read the criminal complaint against Cesar Sayoc]

Trump told reporters later that he did not think he bears blame for the alleged crimes.

“No, not at all,” Trump said as he left the White House for a political rally in North Carolina. 

“There’s no blame, there’s no anything,” Trump said, adding that the gunman who shot and badly wounded Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) last year “was a supporter of a different party.” That attack occurred in Alexandria, Va., as Republican lawmakers practiced for an annual Congressional Baseball Game.

The nation’s top law enforcement officials gathered at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Friday afternoon to announce that the case that had put government officials and their agencies on high alert was solved.

“We will not tolerate such lawlessness, especially not political violence,’’ Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “Let this be a lesson to anyone, regardless of their political beliefs, that we will bring the full force of law against anyone who attempts to use threats, intimidation and outright violence to further an agenda.”

In this undated photo released by the Broward County Sheriff's office, Cesar Sayoc is seen in a booking photo, in Miami. Federal authorities took Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Fla., into custody Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 in Florida in connection with the mail-bomb scare that earlier widened to 12 suspicious packages, the FBI and Justice Department said. (Broward County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Even as Sayoc was taken into custody, investigators across the country continued to chase potential bombs. Three such devices were discovered Friday — in Florida, New York and California — and officials warned there may be other, undiscovered packages in the mail system or a mailbox somewhere in the United States.

“We need all hands on deck, we need to stay vigilant,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. He characterized the 13 explosive devices recovered so far as “IEDs,” an abbreviation for improvised explosive devices.

Wray said that investigators were able to pinpoint Sayoc after finding a fingerprint on an envelope containing a bomb sent to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and that DNA found on two of the devices was a possible match to a sample previously taken from Sayoc during an earlier arrest in Florida.

[What we know about suspected mail bomber Cesar Sayoc]

One law enforcement official said the fingerprint discovery was a major breakthrough. With that, authorities began zeroing in on Sayoc on Thursday, gathering cellphone records to track his past movements and conducting real-time surveillance of his location and activities, the official said.

Wray declined to say whether the pipe-bomb devices could have detonated, noting that investigators are “still trying to determine whether or not they were functional.” But he said they did contain potentially explosive material, adding: “These are not hoax devices.”

Sayoc, whose long criminal history includes a past arrest for making a bomb threat, was charged with five crimes that could send him to prison for decades: transporting explosives across state lines, illegally mailing explosives, threatening former presidents and others, threatening interstate communications and assaulting federal officials.

Sayoc’s lawyer Sarah Jane Baumgartel declined to comment on the case.

This May 2017 photo provided by Natalie B. Kline and obtained by The Washington Post shows a van parked near a shopping mall in Aventura, Florida. On Friday Oct. 26, 2018, Federal agents and police officers examined this van in Plantation, Florida in connection with package bombs that were sent to high-profile individuals who have been critical of President Donald Trump. (Natalie B. Kline)

Inside each of the packages sent to four of the targets — Obama, former CIA director John Brennan, Soros and Waters — was a picture of the individual with a red “X” mark, according to the 11-page complaint signed by FBI Special Agent David Brown.

The complaint also included details suggesting Sayoc’s antipathy toward the people and organizations targeted, including the news network CNN, where two of the packages were addressed.

“The windows of Sayoc’s van were covered with images including images critical of CNN,” the complaint said. The complaint also identifies a Twitter account that law enforcement officials believe Sayoc used.

Some of those postings included the same misspellings contained on some of the addresses on the pipe-bomb packages, including the last name of one of the recipients, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a prominent Florida Democrat and former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. On both the packages and the social media posts, her name was spelled “Shultz,” according to the complaint.

The complaint also said one Twitter post made Wednesday criticized Soros, who has contributed to liberal causes and two days earlier had received an explosive device.

[Social media account tied to mail-bomb suspect singled out Democrats]

Wray declined to say whether Sayoc is cooperating with investigators. When asked why Sayoc allegedly targeted Democrats, Sessions said he “appears to be a partisan, but that would be determined by the facts as the case goes forward.”

Sayoc’s previous run-ins with law enforcement date back at least to an arrest for larceny when Sayoc was 29 years old, according to state records. Other charges of larceny, grand theft and fraud followed across the southern part of the state. In 2002, he was arrested for a bomb threat called in to Florida Power & Light, a power company. Sayoc pleaded guilty without trial and was sentenced to probation, the records show.

Speaking Friday at the White House, Trump praised law enforcement’s quick work and pledged to prosecute the individual “to the fullest extent of the law.”

Asked about pro-Trump stickers or signs on the van allegedly driven by the suspect, Trump said, “I did not see my face on the van. I don’t know, I heard he was a person who preferred me over others.”

Photos of the van published Friday by The Washington Post and other news outlets show multiple images of Trump on the vehicle.

[Analysis: The mail-bomb suspect’s van, annotated]

Trump also said that coverage of the mail bombs had interfered with Republican “momentum” ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

One of the bomber’s potential targets, Wasserman Schultz, said the case had been “gut-wrenching” for her, and served as a warning to the entire nation against the kind of heated rhetoric used by the president.

“We’re all responsible for making sure that we act and speak civilly,” she said. “When you raise the temperature, when you whip people into a frenzy, when you carelessly do not think about the impact of your words — particularly at the highest level of office in the country — then you are acting grossly irresponsible, and each of us has to make sure that we hold ourselves accountable.”

News of the arrest came as investigators continued to respond Friday to discoveries of explosive devices sent to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.). Booker and Harris are potential 2020 presidential candidates.

The FBI said a package, “similar in appearance to the others” found this week, was addressed to Booker and located in Florida. A spokesman for Booker declined to comment and referred questions to law enforcement.

A package recovered Friday at a Manhattan postal facility was addressed to Clapper, a CNN contributor. Just two days earlier, CNN’s offices in New York were evacuated when the package for Brennan, addressed to him at the network, was found in the mailroom.

Clapper appeared on CNN shortly after news broke a package was addressed to him, saying he felt relief no one was harmed by that device.

“This is definitely domestic terrorism, no doubt about it in my mind,” Clapper said on CNN, adding: “This is not going to silence the administration’s critics.”

A package addressed to Harris found Friday at a Sacramento mail facility was the 13th such device officials said they had linked to Sayoc.

Separately on Friday, Steyer, an outspoken Trump critic, said that a suspicious package mailed to him was intercepted in California, but this was not among the 13 listed in the federal complaint. Law enforcement officials, however, said they believed it was sent by Sayoc and it would likely be added to the charges against him.

[What we know about the 14 pipe bombs sent to prominent Democrats and Trump critics]

The only common thread between the people who were sent devices is that they are prominent figures — many current or former Democratic elected officials — who have publicly clashed with Trump.

The list of possible targets began with Soros, then grew to include Obama, Clinton and former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. Then came the packages sent to Brennan and CNN, Waters, former vice president Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro.

According to the complaint, one of the Biden packages was addressed to an assisted-living facility, for reasons that were not immediately clear.

The package addressed to Holder was recovered at a South Florida office of Wasserman Schultz because her name was listed as the return address on all of them.

Julie Tate, Alice Crites, John Wagner, Seung Min Kim and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. contributed to this report, which has been updated.

Barack Obama takes aim at Donald Trump for 'making stuff up'

Ex-president joins campaign trail and says ‘the character of our country is on the ballot’

Barack Obama: Trump and other Republicans 'just making stuff up' – video

Associated Press-Sat 27 Oct 2018

Barack Obama criticised Donald Trump’s tenure in office on Friday in a series of speeches in Milwaukee and Detroit that took aim at the president and other Republicans for “making stuff up”.

The speeches were among Obama’s sharpest and most direct critiques of his successor, but he was careful to not mention Trump by name. He said the “character of our country is on the ballot” in the first midterm election since Trump took office.

Obama cited a recent Trump comment that he would pass a tax cut before the November election. “Congress isn’t even in session before the election. He just makes it up,” he said.

“Here’s the thing. Everything I say you can look up.”

Nor did Obama spare the Republicans more broadly. They were were lying when they said they wanted to protect people with pre-existing conditions while trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, he said, a reference to Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker.

“What we have not seen before in our public life is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly, lying. Just making stuff up,” Obama said. “Calling up down. Calling black white. That’s what your governor is doing with these ads, just making stuff up,” he said.

In Michigan, Obama credited the Democratic candidate Gretchen Whitmer for helping to expand Medicaid and said “few people fought against it harder” than her Republican opponent, the state attorney general Bill Schuette.

He said voters could trust Senator Debbie Stabenow to protect people with pre-existing conditions because she was there to help pass his health law. She is facing a challenge from Republican John James, whom Obama criticised for saying he backs Trump’s agenda “2,000%”.

Obama also used the subject of Hillary Clinton’s private email server to accuse Republicans of trying to “scare the heck out of people before every election” and also to mock Trump about the Chinese spying on his cellphone.

“In the last election, it was Hillary’s emails. ‘This is terrible’ ... ‘This is a national security crisis’. They didn’t care about emails and you know how you know? Because if they did, they’d be up in arms right now that the Chinese are listening to the president’s iPhone that he leaves in his golf cart.”
Obama spoke about the migrant caravan from Central America bound for the United States as another example of a Republican scare tactic.

“Now the latest, they’re trying to convince everybody to be afraid of a bunch of impoverished, malnourished refugees a thousand miles away,” he said. “That’s the thing that is the most important thing in this election,” he said. “Not healthcare, not whether or not folks are able to retire, doing something about higher wages, rebuilding our roads and bridges and putting people back to work.”
“Suddenly,” he continued, changing his voice to a high-pitch to strike a mocking tone: “It’s these group of folks. We don’t even know where they are. They’re right down there.”

Referring to Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp”, Obama said “they have gone to Washington and just plundered away”. “In Washington they have racked up enough indictments to field a football team,” he said. “Nobody in my administration got indicted.”

Obama’s visit to Milwaukee was the first time he was in the city for a political event since March 2016, when he came to celebrate enrolment numbers in the Affordable Care Act. He did not campaign for Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, a state she narrowly lost and which proved crucial to Trump becoming president.

The Democrats also lostMichiganin 2016, despite Obama’s visit the day before the election.

Decline of secularism in South Asia

Not in my name: Secular Indians demonstrating against the killing of Muslims by Hindutva hoodlums for eating beef or trading in cows – AFP

 Saturday, 27 October 2018


South Asia’s multi-religious countries, namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, started off with a noble wish to be ‘secular’ and keep religion out of the business of the State.

Hindu-majority India, under the leadership of the avowedly secular Jawaharlal Nehru, explicitly stated that it would be secular.

Pakistan was set up to be a “homeland” for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. But its founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had told the last session of the All India Muslim League in December 1947, that in his view, Pakistan should be a secular state.

Jinnah said that three articles of the Pakistan constitution needed to be expunged – Article 2 (a) comprising the Objectives Resolution; Article 227, which said that no law could be repugnant to the Quran or Sunnah; and Article 203 that gave the Federal Shariat Court power to strike down any law passed by parliament that was repugnant to the Quran or the Sunnah.

Jinnah quoted Thomas Jefferson who had warned that if the church was not separated from the State, half the people would be hypocrites and the other half stupid.

“In the course of time, Muslims will cease being Muslims; Hindus will cease being Hindus, not religiously, but politically,” Jinnah said of Pakistan of his dream. (Reference: https://tribune.com.pk/story/420973/secular-pakistan-pakistanis-should-know-quaids-aug-11-speech-by-heart/)

Bangladesh had broken away from Pakistan in December 1971 on the ethnic Bengali and the Bengali language issue, and not Islam. It began as a secular State though 80% of its people were Muslims.

So did Sri Lanka, despite the fact that more than 70% of its people were Buddhists.


Regression

But it did not take long for all the three South Asian States to regress from secularism and begin to be overly influenced by the majority religious community.

Hinduism came to the political forefront in India in the early 1990s due to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Ram temple building movement. With the rise of the BJP, especially under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi (thanks to the growing irrelevance of the jaded secular parties like the communist and Congress parties) Hindutva is now the most potent political ideology in India.

For the first time in the history of India, its population is divided on religious lines with the majority Hindus marginalising the Muslims by not co-opting them politically and by preventing them from marrying Hindus or eating beef.  Many Muslims were killed by Hindu “cow worshipers” for trading in cattle or eating beef. Secular persons are dubbed “sickular” and media persons who stand for secularism are dubbed “presstitutes”.

A fear that haunts all Indian secularists is that a heightening Hindutva ideology could foster the growth of Islamic Jihadism with its global reach and influence. So far, Jihadism has not raised its head in India, but reckless Hindutva could make sections of Indian Muslims Jehadists. And a frontal clash between the two could tear India apart with cataclysmic consequences.

Under these conditions, it is going to be a long and hard struggle for Indian secularists to put the derailed secularist ideology back on the rails.


Pakistan

Pakistan became an Islamic State officially in 1956. But it was during the military dictatorship of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq between 1977 and 1988, that the Shariah became the basis of the State. Zia established separate Shariah courts. Adultery, fornication and some types of blasphemy were added to the list of crimes. New punishments like of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death were added to Pakistani law.

Interest payments for bank accounts were replaced by “profit and loss” payments. The Islamic zakat charitable donations became a 2.5% annual tax. School textbooks and libraries were overhauled to remove un-Islamic material.

Though the enforcement of Shariah law was less after the death of Gen. Zia, Islamic parties grew with the aid of the military which had begun to use Islam as its base to secure support and loyalty.

The army-led national intelligence began to use Islamic militants to infiltrate and stir up an anti-India movement in disputed Kashmir, and to carry out terrorist attacks in other parts of India.

But secularist ideals were resurrected when civilian governments replaced the military. Under the Premiership of businessman-turned politician Nawaz Sharif, laws were passed to enhance the power of religions minorities. Human rights legislation gained currency. Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated Salman Taseer, Punjab’s progressive Governor, was executed.

The government officially recognised Easter, Holi and Diwali, to enable the country›s beleaguered Hindu and Christian minorities to take time off from work and school to celebrate these festivals.

But the Islamist parties got activated when there was a hint that the draconian Blasphemy Law, which sanctioned death sentence for the slightest of offenses, will be amended. Even army troops could not quell demonstrations by the Islamists.

Although Islamic parties have only 10% share of the popular vote, they manage to influence government policy on key issues.

Meanwhile, Islamic terror groups like the Pakistan Taliban have been attacking army convoys and posts, posing the worst internal threat after the separatist movement in East Pakistan which resulted in the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971.

Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected to push secularism forward but he too succumbed to pressure to sack his economic advisor Dr. Atif Mian because he belongs to the Ahmadiyya community considered to be heretical by orthodox Muslims. Imran is expected to retain the draconian blasphemy law.


Bangladesh 

Because the Bangladesh liberation movement was an ethnic and language-based movement, the Bangladesh was initially secular.

But when its founder-leader, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman, faltered on governance issues, he began to lose public support. The vacuum was filled by Islamic forces.

Ad to placate the rising Islamic forces, Mujib began to encourage Islamic Madrassas. He also lifted court cases against Islamic activists who were being tried for collaborating with the Pakistani army during the liberation movement.

After Mujib, military dictator Gen. Zia-ur-Rahman removed the term “secular” from the preamble of the constitution. The next military dictator, Gen. H.M. Ershad, made Islam the State Religion.

The incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina restored secularism in the preamble but retained Islam as the State Religion in deference to the country’s Muslim majority.

Although in practice Bangladesh gives equal rights to the minorities and celebrates the largely Hinduistic Bengali culture, Islamic fundamentalists attack Hindus and their properties off and on with the law and order machinery looking on. School text books have obliterated Bengali Hindu writers.

Islamic fundamentalist sentiment is pandered to by all parties during election time, as 80% of the population is Muslim.


Sri Lanka  

Sri Lanka was a perfectly secular State when it came into being in 1948. But by 1956, rising nationalism and political expediency had combined to trigger a radical Buddhist rival as part of the revival of Sinhalese nationalism.

Sinhalese Buddhists began to fight against dominance by the minority Tamils, both Hindu and Christian. Over time, Sinhalese nationalism, backed by the State, began to get aggressive .This led to the Tamils taking to an armed struggle which was put down ruthlessly after a 30-year war.

The 1972 republican constitution made Buddhism the “foremost religion” of Sri Lanka. Buddhism is not the State religion as such, but Buddhism is promoted by the State to the exclusion of other religions.

As a result of the special status given to Buddhism, Buddhist extremist groups and Buddhist monks are a decisive factor in Sri Lankan politics.

After subduing the Hindu Tamils by crushing the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in 2009, Buddhist militants have turned their attention to the Muslim minority. There have been a number of attacks on mosques. There have been destructive anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama on the West coast and Digana in the Central Province, dealing a fresh blow to the concept of secularism.

Savage chopping to death alive of Jamal Khasoggi

Christian west demands justice while Muslims worldwide, display their hypocrisy, with their silence and indifference.

(Lanka e News - 25.Oct.2018, 4.50AM) While the entire Christian West-governments, civil societies and the media-continue to highlight the gruesome chopping to death of highly connected Saudi dissident-in-exile Jamal Khashoggi, Muslims worldwide remain silent and indifferent displaying their hypocrisy.

As we   know  on 2 October 2018   a 15 member killer squad dispatched to kill Khasoggi  dragged him from the Saudi Consul General’s office in Istanbul  where  they  threw  him onto a desk ,  cut his fingers and tortured  before chopping and dismembering   alive during a seven-minute execution in the presence of Saudi Consul Mohammad al-Otaibi.

The audio recording this savage killing said to have captured the missing journalist's dying screams, before he was 'injected with an unknown drug' and fell silent. There was no attempt to interrogate, but to kill him.

This unprecedented barbarity was committed on the instruction of Saudi Prince of death Mohamed Bin Salman who, has graduated from the family tradition of chopping hands and heads in public plazas to dismembering bodies in overseas consulates.

This is sheer barbarity and has nothing to do with the peaceful message of Islam. However the irony is that killer Salman is the de facto Custodian of the Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madina. Yet there was no condemnation in general from Muslims worldwide including Sri Lankan Muslims.

On the other hand  it is not possible for people in  most Muslim countries to speak out, leave alone coming  out on street protests to condemn this heinous crime,  as they remain brutally oppressed by regimes , installed by Europe and US, who deny  even basic  freedom to people.

However, due to electronic media, , despite suspected US and Turkey  moves to cover up the  killing, it  has become  difficult  to hide Salman’s barbarity as the  unfolding events disclose  details of the pre meditated and pre medieval  style barbarity which brought unprecedented shame to Islam, Muslims and humanity as a whole.

While Muslims remain silent, calls started to emerge in the Christian west to free the holy cities of Makkah and Medina from Saudi tyrants to be administered by a Vatican style administration.

In fact this was the call made by Ottoman Governor in Makkah Sheriff Hussein almost a century ago in the aftermath of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the World War 1 in the early 1920s. He   suggested the establishment of Caliphate in Makkah to manage Makkah and Madina by a council of representatives of Muslims from all over the world including Sri Lanka. 

Britain and France, busy partitioning the Middle East to suit their evil agenda against slam and Muslims, were alarmed. They were joined by Zionist Jews .They screened and picked up Saudi tribal Bedouins in Riyadh, gave them five million sterling pounds and supplied with weapons to attack Sheriff Hussein and bring Makkah and Madina under Al Saud control to suit European masters’ agenda.

Since then Saud family, hand in glove with their   European masters, implemented all their evil designs against Islam and Muslims. They spent billions in all US-European wars against Muslims.  Genocide in Yemen being the latest.

They promoted subversive version of Islam, sect of Wahhabism, which became the founding cult of the Saudi regime. This treachery continued until Salman discreetly supported President Trump’s illegal move to shift US Embassy to Jerusalem to please Trump and his Zionist Jewish son in law Jared Kushner. They gave the country’s highest award to Trump, sworn enemy of   Muslims. They signed   315 billion dollar weapons contract to US- perhaps to kill Muslims. Trump who refuse to condemn the Khashoggi killing said Saudis are purchasing 110-billion-dollar worth of weapons providing jobs to 500,000 Americans.  As days pass by he is getting exposed of his greedy for money.

Over years today Israel and Saudis have become two sides of same US-European coin implementing their agendas against the Muslim Middle East. Salman, as de facto ruler, as unleashed   waves of terror against Islamic scholars and started arresting, torturing and killing them in the cruelest manner.

Unable to put up with these atrocities and for killing Khasoggi which "goes against Islam, human ethics and standards".  a group of Saudi scholars have called for the removal of bin Salman from power. Going a step further Saudi dissident Saad al-Faqih of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia said in an Al Jazeera program that not only Salman but the entire Saudi family should be removed from power and the country need to be freed from US-European backed tyranny.

Under such circumstance isn’t it the responsibility of Muslims worldwide, including Sri Lankan Muslims, to condemn this barbarity and call for liberating Makkah and Medina from the shameful grip of this family.

What is happening in Makkah and Medina should be the concern of Sri Lankan Muslims too. Muslims in the island do not have an effective media .Under such circumstance isn’t it the responsibility of All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulema, ACJU, Tableeg Movement and  others  who control  mosques   to use  Friday sermons to  speak about what is going on in the land of Islam  and educate   Muslims .The community’s  failure to do so and silence  display  its overall  political, religious and moral bankruptcy    of even the civil society .
On the other hand, removing this regime is not an easy task as it is backed by US and Europe.

In spite of Saudi Arabia’s long history of human rights abuses, its support of Wahhabi terrorism, and its ongoing genocidal war in Yemen, the kingdom has always gotten a free pass (and lots of weapons) from Washington and its allies including  France, Germany, Russia and other European countries. Even when a U.S. supplied bomb was used to strike a school bus in Yemen killing 40 children this past August, no one batted an eye. Up to this point the relationship with the Saudis was considered too important to risk. Now for some reason the Khashoggi murder is being treated as a line crossed?

This summer, Saudi Arabia promised the Trump administration $100 million and that money landed in American accounts on the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in  Riyadh, for discussions with the kingdom’s leaders about the fate of a missing Saudi dissident.

Under such circumstance nothing much is going to happen as US., France, Russia and Israel will never allow a regime change as Saudi money is more important than so called values such as democracy, human rights, freedom and the like. It is still worse Muslim world remain in chaos due to US European manipulations.

by Latheef Farook

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by     (2018-10-24 23:36:29)

Asia: An NGO boss allegedly harmed woman staff fled the territory

If not why haven’t you produce the proof

by A Special Correspondent-Oct 26, 2018

Oct 26, 2018

(October 26, 2018, Beijing, Sri Lanka Guardian) An NGO claimed to be working towards radical re-thinking and fundamental re-designing of the criminal justice in Asia, recently issued a statement that their Executive Director was still with them, but on unpaid leaves by attacking an independent publication for issuing what they deemed to be a ‘false’ news report.

Indeed, on one occasion a relative of one of the staff members of this NGO who was just completing her degree in law began informing various persons that she was about to file criminal cases against, not only the publication but also various other persons who she believes might have disclosed the information. Most of the messages she has posted and shared are preserved and some of them are available in the public domain.

Sri Lanka Guardian contacted her for an interview and posted a few questions through email based on the importance of public information. We are expecting her answers.

Meanwhile, we would like to reiterate the fact that the former Executive Director of this NGO has resigned and fled the territory after receiving what a few of his superiors referred to as a “Golden Shake Hand” to cover-up his shameless activities and abuse of power. This was not only confirmed by sources in the native place of this man but also by NGOs based in the territory as well as in Geneva, Switzerland.

‘He then quickly opened a small law office near the High Court in his home state,’ reliable sources reaffirmed.

However, “‘let the situation calm down, then you may try to come back and join us again’, his guru who he was blindfolded on his abuses of power has advised,” reliable sources added.

Apparently, it was almost impossible to take any action against this NGO boss when he remained in his seat as he haphazardly destroyed all norms and ethics of the profession. He, with his “spiritual” guru, another director of the same NGO, maintained a dictatorial managing method. They not only attempted to crush those who maintained their own calibre and ethics but because they dared to question their malpractices.

We, as an organization responsible for public rights, cannot be silenced and it is our moral responsibility to report on the wrongdoings of any publically funded NGO. The onus is now vested upon the new administration (if there is any) to confess the wrongdoings and start off on a new journey based on accountability and transparency.

It should be noted that confidential sources within the NGO itself confirmed that the executive director in question left the territory more than five months ago.

FP’s Guide to the Brazilian Election

Ten things to read or listen to before the vote.

Street protests have erupted in Brazil in opposition to far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, right, who is leading in polls over his opponent, Fernando Haddad, left. (Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images/Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images/Fernando Souza/AFP/Getty Images/Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images/Foreign Policy illustration)

BY FP EDITORS-

OCTOBER 26, 2018, 11:29 AM
This Sunday, millions of Brazilians will head to the polls to take part in the second round of their country’s general elections. Their choice is between Fernando Haddad—the candidate from the left-wing Workers’ Party and stand-in for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president who was imprisoned and disqualified from running earlier this year—and Jair Bolsonaro, the controversial right-wing legislator whose political incorrectness has earned him frequent comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Wondering what to make of it all? We’ve collected our top reads on how Brazil got here and what is at stake.

For Bolsonaro, the best comparison might not be Trump but rather Goebbels, writes Federico Finchelstein, the author of From Fascism to Populism in History. Bolsonaro’s “vocabulary recalls the rhetoric behind Nazi policies of persecution and victimization,” Finchelstein writes, pointing to the way the candidate has argued that it is Brazil’s left that has actually become increasingly fascistic and has hinted about the possibility of a coup if he loses at the polls. The author concludes with a warning: “The more anti-system and violent Nazi extremism became, the more public support Hitler generated. In a country where support for authoritarianism is on the rise and 53 percent of Brazilians, according to a recent poll, see police as ‘warriors of God whose task is to impose order,’ such views catch on.”

Despite his many prejudiced outbursts—he’s called refugees the “scum of humanity,” hinted that his political foes should be executed, and said that he wouldn’t rape a female congressman because she’s “not worthy” of it—Bolsonaro currently seems headed for an easy victory, with polls giving him as high as 57 percent of the vote. Part of the reason, according to the Brazilian academic Eduardo Mello, is Bolsonaro’s stabbing earlier this year; Mello argues that the violence against the far-right figure reinforced for his supporters the message that Brasília needs to be ruthless in addressing the country’s law-and-order problems.

But it isn’t just Brazilians on the far-right opting for Bolsonaro. “Millions of voters who would have normally cast their ballots in favor of centrist candidates are planning to vote for him this time around,” writes Matias Spektor, an associate professor at the Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo. They’re drawn in because of his conservative values (evangelicals make up an increasing percentage of the Brazilian electorate), his hard line on crime and corruption, and the rampant fake news that has dominated this election cycle.

The same goes for many women voters, as the journalist Ciara Long points out. In fact, despite his sexist comments, “women are as likely to support him as their male counterparts.” Some of them may believe that his rhetoric is mostly bluster. Others may think that he will make good on his words but that such an outcome would still be better than the alternative: continued rule by the ineffectual and corrupt Workers’ Party. To be sure, there are still many women on the other side of the equation who have vowed never to support Bolsonaro, but it doesn’t look like they will be able to prevent his rise to Brazil’s top job.

Two other groups that have lined up behind the candidate are the business community and the military. For folks in the business world, his economic program, which includes privatization, pension reform, and lowering taxes, is appealing, writes Foreign Policy’s Keith Johnson. But their support is “also connected with what Bolsonaro stands against: the years of perceived economic mismanagement by the Workers’ Party that led to spiraling debt, sluggish growth, and high unemployment.”

For the military, Bolsonaro, a former army man, represents a chance for the institution to reassert itself into civilian politics. As Michael Albertus of the University of Chicago points out, the candidate has promised to staff his cabinet with military figures, and he “has made law enforcement, backed by military might and carte blanche policing, the main plank of his political platform.”


The rise of Brazil’s far-right begs the question of what happened to the country’s center and left. Columbia University’s Christopher Sabatini argues that the breakdown of traditional—and more centrist—parties owes itself to years of corruption scandals and poor governance, and it has opened the floodgates to small radical movements.

That’s a sentiment echoed by Antônio Sampaio, a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who traces the downfall of Brazil’s Workers’ Party under the tenure of Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff. Her economic mismanagement and association with the Operation Car Wash scandal—topped by her eventual impeachment—he explains, destroyed the reputation of the party, which was once seen as the “best hope for the country’s salvation.”

In the end, writes José R. Cárdenas, who formerly served in the U.S. Agency for International Development, “millions of voters who placed their faith in the system only to see their needs and interests unaddressed while politicians feathered their nests are embracing populism of various varieties.” And no one should fault them “for their expectations—or their desperate search for solutions.”

It is unlikely, of course, that most of Bolsonaro’s solutions will work, explains Brian Winter, the editor in chief of Americas Quarterly, on this week’s edition of First Person, the Foreign Policy podcast. But if he wins the presidency this weekend with a large mandate, “he will have tremendous power to mold the country in his image.” And that will mean a strong alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump, pension reform, harsher policing, and more violence to come.

Street crime and murders soaring in Brazil

Andy Davies-25 Oct 2018Home Affairs Correspondent

On Sunday, Brazilians will go to the polls to chose their next President. The far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro looks set for victory, after a divisive campaign that’s combined inflammatory rhetoric and nostalgia for an authoritarian past.

But it’s Bolsonaro’s promises to crack down on drug gangs and clean up the streets that have won him some of his most enthusiastic backing in a country experiencing rampant street crime and a record murder rate.

Our Correspondent Andy Davies is in Rio.

Malaysian ex-spy chief in the docks for stolen $12m election money

Hasanah had courted controversy after a letter she wrote, calling for the US Central Intelligence Agency to endorse Najib's re-election bid, was reported in the media. Source: AFP

By A. Azim Idris | 25th October 2018

AFTER months of coming under scrutiny from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the former head of the covert Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation (MEIO) has been charged with criminal breach of trust involving US$12 million (RM50.4 million).

Hasanah Abdul Hamid, the former Director-General of the MEIO, was charged at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur over the funds meant to be used for the historic general elections in May, which saw the downfall of the long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

The former civil servant was an ally of embattled former Prime Minister Najib Razak who was booted from office over corruption allegations. She is accused of stealing the funds in her capacity as the DG of the MEIO while she was entrusted with the money.

SEE ALSO: Ex-Malaysian PM Najib rearrested over $681mil Saudi ‘donation’

The funds which she allegedly pocketed, reportedly belonged to Umno, the lynchpin party of the coalition led by Najib that saw a shock defeat in the May 9 elections.

The prosecution alleged the offence took place while she was in the office of the department in Putrajaya, the federal administrative capital, between Apr 30 and May 9.

The offence, under Section 409 of the Penal Code, carries a maximum 20 years jail, whipping and fine, according to the New Straits Times.

Hasanah Abdul Hamid (2nd-L), the former head of a shadowy spy agency which worked directly under former Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak, is escorted by police after a court appearance in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 25, 2018. Source: AFP

Hasanah lawyer, Shaharudin Ali, said his client has strongly denied the allegations and recorded a not guilty plea in court. She was released on RM500,000 (US$125,000) bail.

Hasanah’s arrest and subsequent charge in court came following the recent arrests of seven other officers from her agency, which worked directly under the prime minister’s department.

A previous report in MalaysiaKini said security personnel at the department allegedly made off RM3.5 million (US$875,000) in cash on the night of May 9, after learning of BN’s defeat in the election.

SEE ALSO: Malaysian former PM Najib faces decades in prison 

In recent months, Hasanah had courted controversy after a letter she wrote, calling for the US Central Intelligence Agency to endorse Najib’s re-election bid, was reported in the media.

Hasanah is among a string of top civil servants, including the country’s attorney-general, who was removed from office in a purge of Najib’s backers after the elections.

The letter she wrote called on the US government to support Najib, describing him as a “friend” of America, while painting his rival Dr Mahathir Mohamad as anti-west.

Najib faced a fresh round of charges in the Kuala Lumpur court on Thursday with the country’s former treasury secretary-general with misusing RM6.6 billion ringgit (US$1.6 billion) of public money.

According to the AFP, Najib has now been hit with 38 charges since losing power, most related to allegations that he and his cronies plundered vast sums from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereign wealth fund.

Google reveals 48 employees fired for sexual harassment

The surprise disclosure on Thursday came in an email to Google employees from CEO Sundar Pichai

( October 26, 2018, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Google announced that it has fired 48 employees for sexual harassment during the past two years and sent them away without severance packages, hours after a news report that it had protected some male executives facing sexual misconduct allegations and offered them large sums to leave the company.

The surprise disclosure on Thursday came in an email to Google employees from CEO Sundar Pichai. It was a direct response to a New York Times report that the company had dismissed the executive in charge of its Android software for sexual misconduct in 2014 and paid him handsomely to leave.

A spokesperson for Andy Rubin, the former Android executive, said he left on his own accord and has never been informed of any accusations of sexual misconduct. Rubin acknowledges having consensual sexual relationships with Google employees that didn’t report to him, adhering to the boundaries drawn by Google policy at that time, according to the spokesperson, Sam Singer.

The Times story was based on unidentified people and court documents, including some filed in an ongoing divorce between Rubin and his wife. The Times reported that Google also protected two other executives accused of sexual misconduct, ousting one with a severance package while retaining another.

In his email, Pichai said Google adopted tougher policies in 2015. Those rules require all of Google’s vice presidents and senior vice presidents to disclose any relationship with an employee, even if they don’t work in the same department or have any other potential conflict.

Although Pichai didn’t directly address the allegations against Rubin and other executives, he conceded the Times story “was difficult to read” and did not dispute it.

In an apparent attempt to assure employees that things had changed since Rubin’s departure, Pichai said 13 of the 48 workers that Google had fired for violating the company’s sexual harassment policies were either senior managers or executives. None of those 13 received severance packages, Pichai wrote.

“We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace,” Pichai wrote.

Despite Pichai’s reassurances, the revelations about sexual harassment are a setback for a 20-year-old company that adopted “Don’t Be Evil” as its motto early in its existence and now embraces “do the right thing ” as its creed under the umbrella of its holding company, Alphabet Inc.

The bombshells are also another troubling example of a Silicon Valley culture that for decades has relied heavily on male engineers.

The phenomenon led to this year’s release of “Brotopia — Breaking Up The Boys Club of Silicon Valley ,” a book by Emily Chang that delves into the stories of women who say they have been sexually harassed at tech companies and venture capital firms.

Allegations of sexual misconduct also have resulted in the resignations of venture capitalists and executives and triggered an ongoing overhaul at ride-hailing company, Uber.

Prodded by the public complaints of a former female engineer, Uber last year conducted an internal investigation that it had fostered an environment that allowed rampant sexual harassment .

The problems unfolded under Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, who wound up being forced to resign by investors as CEO amid a raft of other problems. At one point, Uber hired former Google engineer Amit Singhal and then asked him to resign last year after discovering he hadn’t disclosed he had been accused of sexual misconduct at Google.