RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17931/eu-iran-human-rights-violations

To execute political prisoners, Iran’s judiciary accuses defendants of vaguely defined charges labeled as “national security crimes.” These “crimes” include moharebeh (“enmity against God”), ifsad fil arz (“sowing corruption on Earth”), and baghi (“armed rebellion”).

It is not only the number of executions that is appalling, but also the nature of some of them. Executions have involved minor children, women and individuals from ethnic and religious minority groups. Although Iran has ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has made no effort to alter the country’s Islamic Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed.

In addition, children, women and men are routinely tortured during interrogations and behind bars. They are forced to confess. They are denied access to lawyers and due process. They are denied family visits and medical care.

The ruling mullahs of Iran refuse to halt their executions and human rights violations, or to reform their repressive system, because they feel no pressure from the usually moralizing European Union. So they act with full impunity. The informed silence of the EU therefore makes it a willing accessory to their crimes.

It is beyond repulsive that the EU — the same EU that incessantly lectures the world about human rights — not only ignores the Iranian regime’s unspeakable human violations, but that it also happily continues to do “business as usual” with the leaders of Iran’s cruel and inhuman regime.

The European Union, which endlessly and hypocritically lectures the international community on human rights, is turning a blind eye on the Iranian regime’s expanding human rights violations.

EU special envoy Enrique Mora, despite the Iranian regime’s horrendous and brutal human rights abuses, traveled to Iran in October and discussed “mutual interests” with Iran’s leaders. Meanwhile, Iran’s regime has been executing people “at an alarming rate”, and, according to a recent report by Amnesty International, was “the top executioner in the Middle East” last year.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17889/turkey-erdogan-sharia-alliance

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamist ambitions seem to be seeking an international role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban, Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia. The trouble is, Turkey, among the new sharia alliance in the making, is the only country with institutional ties to the Western world.

Biden has weakened himself and his country so badly that the superpower was reduced to the point of being blackmailed by NATO’s only Islamist member. Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has made it clear: “If the U.S. is to be in the Middle East, it must cooperate with Turkey.”

Afghanistan is not Erdoğan’s only pro-sharia ambition after the U.S. withdrawal… Turkey ramped up its drone attacks on Yazidis in Iraq’s Sinjar district….. “The Turkish drone strikes increasingly threaten to undercut refugee repatriation inside Iraq and create space for the Islamic State to regroup, as the most effective Kurdish groups fighting ISIS are Sinjar’s grassroots Kurdish and Yazidi militias,” warned Michael Rubin in the Washington Examiner.

Erdoğan’s Islamist, neo-Ottoman ambitions are now taking a pro-sharia turn. That is bad news for the region to Turkey’s south and east. Worse, it is a slow-fuse time bomb for the West.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s lamentable decision to unilaterally withdraw from Afghanistan is paving the way for the emergence of a new sharia-based alliance, including NATO member Turkey — theoretically a Western ally. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamist ambitions appear to be seeking an international role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban, Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia. The trouble is, Turkey, among the new sharia alliance in the making, is the only country with institutional ties to the West.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/frances-trump-bruce-bawer/

France’s next presidential election will take place in April, and the international media are already alarmed that the winner just might be a man named Éric Zemmour. He’s “shaking up France’s presidential race before it’s even begun,” warns the BBC. Among Zemmour’s unsettling views: he says “that France is being ‘submerged’ by migrants” and that the French media are “a propaganda machine that hates France.” In other words, he does that most unforgivable of things, in the eyes of the corporate media: he dares to tell the truth about certain uncomfortable subjects.

To the Financial Times, Zemmour is an “anti-immigration polemicist” whom “critics see” (yes, that cheap rhetorical dodge) “as a dangerous, Donald Trump-style provocateur” (because, after all, four years of Trump proved him to be a “dangerous…provocateur”) — “a TV talk-show star who rails against Muslims, immigration, feminism, crime and the supposed decline of France.” Like Trump, Zemmour “has focused on topics that attract intense interest from voters — especially immigration and crime — and packaged them in ways that favour the viral spread of his message.” Thus do the corporate media frame truth-telling as cynical vote-mongering.

In the Guardian you can read that Zemmour “claims foreigners have taken over whole neighbourhoods in France.” As if the banlieues that are no-go zones for non-Muslims weren’t an established fact! The other day France’s Chief Rabbi, Haim Korsia, who is known for his “commitment to interfaith dialogue,” called Zemmour – a Jew who goes to shul with his Jewish wife – an anti-Semite. Thus do the members of the establishment conspire to draw a cordon sanitaire around those who refuse to parrot the elite orthodoxy. Then there’s Hans-Georg Betz, a professor at the University of Zurich who studies “right-wing populism.” He accuses Zemmour of being “obsessed with Islam.” Yes, just like German Jews in the 1930s were obsessed with Nazism. For Betz, Zemmour

regurgitates ad nauseam all the familiar anti-Islamic tropes that have made the political fortunes of radical right-wing entrepreneurs in recent memory….These tropes posit that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political ideology, and as such totalitarian; that the basic principles of Western culture and civilization, such as democracy, freedom of religion and opinion, the equality of men and women, or the separation of church and state, are fundamentally at odds with Islam; and that Islam is all about submission and therefore incompatible with liberal democracy.

Funny how even now, as the writing on the wall (scrawled in Arabic with the blood of infidels) becomes easier and easier to read, academics like Betz still smile on Islam and depict people like Zemmour as “regurgitat[ing]…tropes” to make their “political fortunes.” Yes, the same tropes that made the political fortunes of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh. Everything Betz says in his mocking representation of Zemmour’s opinions is objectively true: Islam is totalitarian; it is irreconcilable with Western principles; it is about submission. Most Frenchmen agree: as Robert Spencer reported here the other day, two-thirds of them believe that their nation will “definitely” or “probably” experience the process of total Islamization that Zemmour and others call “the Great Replacement” – a concept that academic elites dismiss as an extremist fantasy.  

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17890/turkey-russia-orbit

Sanctions are mandated by law for “any entity that does significant business with the Russian military or intelligence sectors” — Office of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Chair Robert Menendez, Daily Sabah, September 28, 2021.

“Any new purchases by Turkey must mean new sanctions.” — U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, referring to a December 2020 U.S. decision to impose CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) on Turkey for its acquisition of the S-400 missile system, Twitter, September 28, 2021.

In addition, Ankara and Moscow would discuss Russian know-how and construction of two more nuclear energy plants for Turkey, in addition to a $10 billion nuclear reactor already being built on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

All that strategic planning will further increase NATO ally Turkey’s dependence on Russia, also Turkey’s biggest supplier of natural gas.

“Putin and his administration are well aware of Turkey’s weaknesses: a) economy goes from bad to worse; b) the Pandemic is not under control; c) gas prices on increase but Russia is ready to offer a friendly discount to Turkey; d) military acquisitions facing a hostile U.S. Senate.” — Eugene Kogan, a defense and security analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia; to Gatestone.

“The Turkish president will continue to play a spoiler role within NATO and provide Putin further opportunities to undermine the transatlantic alliance and its values.” — Aykan Erdemir, former member of Turkey’s parliament and now based in Washington D.C., email to Gatestone.

[Erdoğan] will not step back from…. the Russia card in his hand, unless he sees that his love affair with Russia will come with a punishing cost.

Turkey has been a NATO ally since 1952. On October 6, NATO’s childishly naïve secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, praised Turkey as “an important ally [that] played an important role in defeating Daesh.” Both of his suggestions are grossly incorrect: Turkey is becoming an important Russian ally, not a NATO ally, whose irregular militia allies in Syria are the jihadist remnants of Daesh (Islamic State).

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/580503-irans-not-feeling-the-pressure-to-change?rl=1

All the focus on whether the United States and Iran will resume talks over resurrecting the 2015 global nuclear deal obscures an issue of equal importance: escalating skirmishes between Washington and Jerusalem on the one hand and Tehran on the other that raise the risk of miscalculation and, in turn, war.

In recent days, the United States flew a B-1B bomber over such key regional waterways as the Strait of Hormuz — a vital waterway for global oil shipping — the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal in a show of force that, at points along the way, was joined by aircraft from Israel as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

That came after Iran reportedly directed a drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Syria, causing much damage (but no casualties) and marking what the Washington Post called “the first major attack on U.S. troops in Syria by Iran.” Iranian-backed militias have repeatedly used drones to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.

Washington now considers Iran’s expanding arsenal of drones a bigger short-term threat to regional peace and stability than its nuclear and ballistic missile program. Within days of the drone strike in Syria, U.S. officials imposed sanctions on companies and individuals that it said had ties to Iran’s drone program.

Israel, meanwhile, continues to conduct airstrikes in Syria to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent presence there and from sending sophisticated weapons to its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. Now, Iran plans to send advanced anti-aircraft missile batteries to the region, which will complicate Israeli airstrikes.

While all of those developments raise the risk of miscalculation and war, so too does Iran’s continuing progress on its nuclear program.

Specifically, Iran is enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintaining stockpiles that far exceed what the 2015 deal allowed, restricting the access of international inspectors to its facilities, and seeking sanctions relief and other concessions before returning to the negotiating table.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told NBC News that its monitoring program in Iran is no longer “intact” because Iran has not repaired a camera at a key facility outside Tehran. Inspectors are relying on such cameras at key sites because, earlier this year, Iran stopped letting international inspectors conduct the snap inspections that the 2015 deal allowed for.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17916/new-fears-in-tehran

Major-General Hossein Salami, chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and keynote speaker in this year’s ceremonies, even claims that the US has already lost its global leadership position while a trio made of China, Russia and Iran is emerging as the new arbiter of human destiny.

Not responding [to an attack by Israel] would be a sign of strategic weakness and could encourage a fresh wave of domestic rebellion. Responding, on the other hand, could lead to a full-scale war for which the Islamic Republic is far from prepared.

What Biden does next could prove decisive.

If he surrenders too easily, he will re-energize Tehran’s old demons. If, on the other hand, he opts for empty huffing and puffing, he may miss a chance to help those who strive for regime change in Tehran.

What do you do when you want to do something and yet you feel embarrassed about doing it?

This is the question that the “Supreme Guide” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, faced this week as he wondered how to deal with one of his annual rituals celebrating the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran and the holding of American diplomats as hostages on November 4, 1979.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17873/china-space-weaponization

Space satellites have become strategic assets and therefore valuable military targets.

“Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership.” — 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

China’s 2015 defense white paper had already formally designated space as a new domain of warfare. Also in 2015, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) established the Strategic Support Force (SSF), which brought together outer space, electromagnetic space and cyberspace under one command, indicating “the PLA’s prioritization of these critical areas of warfare.”

“The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of…technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counterspace actions.” — U.S. Department of Defense, Annual Report to Congress, 2020.

Communist China, according to China Daily, has vowed to become the world’s leading space power by 2045.

“[T]he space battlefield is ‘not science fiction’…anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts.” — Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, Space News, September 17, 2021.

“China has moved aggressively to weaponize space…” These were the words of U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall at the 36th Space Symposium on August 24.

“Both conventional deterrence and conventional operations depend on access to communications, intelligence, and other services provided by space-based systems. As a result, our strategic competitors have pursued and fielded a number of weapons systems in space designed to defeat or destroy America’s space-based military weapons systems and our ability to project power.”

Space has become crucial: so much of what happens there now affects life on earth. There are more than 3,000 active satellites orbiting earth today and their services have become indispensable. Among these are US military-operated GPS satellites for positioning, navigation and timing, serving both military and civilian needs — think Uber, Lyft, Waze, grocery delivery services — and earth monitoring, including weather and communications, to name just a few. Space satellites have become strategic assets and therefore valuable military targets. “It is impossible to overstate the importance of space-based systems to national security,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said.

According to the 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, released in April:

“Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership… Counterspace operations will be integral to potential military campaigns by the PLA [People’s Liberation Army], and China has counterspace weapons capabilities intended to target US and allied satellites. Beijing continues to train its military space elements and field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/anni-cyrus-video-inside-world-sharia-frontpagemagcom/

This new Glazov Gang episode features Anni Cyrus, an artist, founder of Live Up To Freedom and producer of The Glazov Gang,

Anni discusses Inside the World of Sharia, revealing how Sharia is a supremacist law system and a tool of war.

Don’t miss it!

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17894/pakistan-anti-american

In an interview aired in the US in June 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan will deny US use of its territory for “over-the-horizon” surveillance of possible terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Now, there are negotiations for the US to use Pakistan’s airspace for military operations in Afghanistan, but is this really an ally on which the United States can count?

Pakistan helped bankroll and arm the largely Pashtun Taliban terrorist movement, and Pakistani anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines were prevalent in Afghanistan. Often, Taliban fighters were extended refuge in sites established by the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents. Islamabad’s pro-Taliban stance could also be seen in ISI’s construction of logistical re-supply depots and training camps for Taliban fighters. Moreover, on occasion. Pakistani military officers, provided direct military support to the Taliban.

At times, it seemed as if Musharraf was Pakistan’s face for the Americans, while other generals continued supporting

In the months before 9/11, it became clear that US counterterrorist policy was focused on the eventual takedown of the Taliban’s and Al Qaeda’s ever-widening support for jihadi terrorists. It was then that the ISI cold-shouldered Washington by sponsoring huge pro-Taliban rallies in Pakistan’s main cities of Peshawar and Lahore. Even then, it proved difficult for CIA field officers and Station Chiefs to fully shut down their ties to their old ISI counterparts. Reportedly, the CIA Station Chief in Islamabad caustically objected to the US decision to assist anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, because, the officer stated, it would infuriate the ISI.

Pakistan ultimately may pay dearly for enabling Afghanistan’s Taliban. The group consists of diverse movements, such as the so-called Pakistani Taliban (Tehrek-e-Taliban) , a coalition of at least ten terrorist organizations dedicated to overthrowing Pakistan’s regime. Its recruits include former Taliban members from Afghanistan who had assessed that their former organization was too indulgent of infidels.

Pakistan has not really been an ally of the West for decades. It was Islamabad that gave Osama bin Laden asylum until he was brought to justice by US Special Operations forces in 2011. Now, the Pakistan’s government seems to have positioned the country into China’s sphere of influence.

Pakistan, once presumed an ally of the US, has been willfully responsible for the slaughter of many US and NATO troops by having massively assisted enemy jihadists in Afghanistan. Throughout the 20-year presence of US forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence operations have included the recruiting, training and arming of the largely ethnic Pashtun Taliban.