RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16004/turkish-justice-mobsters-dissidents

When drafting the bill, Erdoğan and his MPs were surgically precise not to let one single political prisoner walk free.

About 50,000 inmates who were excluded from the bill, as terror convicts and suspects would not be eligible for amnesty.

You forgive the mafia… You don’t forgive journalists that write the truth. You don’t forgive those that want peace.” — Turan Aydoğan, opposition lawmaker.

Under Erdoğan’s 18 years in power, the free-fall of this professed NATO ally back toward the authoritarian East looks sadly irrevocable.

Aleaddin Çakıcı is a well-known Turkish mafia figure. But his militant far-right past makes him a shadier figure in Turkey’s domestic and international political scenes, not just in the criminal underworld. In the 1970s he was a leading fighter in Turkey’s near civil war between ultra-left and -right fractions. His first arrest came shortly after the military coup d’état in 1980: He was tried on charges of murdering 41 leftists.

According to leaked reports, Çakıcı was used as a hitman in the 1980s and 1990s by Turkish intelligence. His targets were leftists and pro-Kurdish groups. Turkish intelligence also tasked him with carrying out operations in foreign countries, including Greece and Lebanon, targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA).

In 2018 Devlet Bahçeli, a far-right politician and a staunch supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, described Çakıcı as “brave and fearless” and as someone “who was in love with [his] homeland and ideals.” Bahçeli had said that Çakıcı was in prison on multiple sentences for murder, armed attack, money laundering, and leading an illegal armed group. Among other such escapades, he had contracted out the murder of his ex-wife, who in 1995 was shot dead in front of their son.

Çakıcı’s is certainly not the résumé of an ideal, law-abiding, peaceful citizen. But last month, at age 67, he walked free from the prison in which he had been kept. How could this ruthless crime machine walk out of prison, jump into a chauffeur-driven car and be escorted to a holiday resort accompanied by a big convoy and hundreds of “devotees” who gave him a hero’s welcome? How, especially in a country where a simple joke on social media can earn an otherwise honest citizen several months in jail?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/iran-begins-retreating-syria-ari-lieberman/

Things are looking bleak for the Islamic republic these days. Iran is currently facing its worst economic crisis since the 1979 revolution. Money wasted on endless proxy wars and crippling sanctions instituted by the Trump administration have taken a heavy toll on Iran’s economy. The value of Iran’s currency, the rial, continues to plummet. On the black market, one dollar fetches 156,000 rials rendering the currency virtually worthless. Iran’s attempt to rename its currency and slash some zeros off that lopsided exchange rate will do nothing to stem the problem of hyperinflation and unemployment in the Islamic Republic.

The Chinese coronavirus has also taken its toll. Government health officials reported 109,000 confirmed cases with 6,685 deaths. That official number is almost certainly a lie and the figure for those infected and succumbing to the disease is far greater. In addition, at least 700 Iranians have died from drinking toxic methanol alcohol in the convoluted belief that this would prevent them from getting infected.

Iran’s crumbling economy and the devastating effects of the coronavirus have adversely impacted Iranian overseas terrorist funding and operations. Nowhere is this positive trend more evident than in Syria, where Iranian Quds Force operatives and allied militiamen have been taking a beating at the hands of Israel.

The combination of repeated Israeli airstrikes and domestic shortcomings has convinced the Iranian regime to begin evacuating its bases in Syria and withdraw from the war-torn country. In the last two weeks alone, the Israeli Air Force has launched seven strikes in Syria targeting Iranian emplacements.

On May 5, Israel launched two strikes, one targeting an Iranian base in the Deir Ezzor region near the town of Mayadin and the other on an Iran-linked arms and munitions depot east of Aleppo, adjacent to Syrian defense research centers. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 15 Iranians and Iran-linked militants were killed in the strike near Mayadin. There were no reports of casualties in the arms depot strike but according to reports, the warehouse stored munitions destined for Hezbollah, the terrorist entity that controls Lebanon.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/coronavirus-media-huawei-to-host-cnn-van-jones-for-panel-on-covid-misinformation/
“Van Jones was Obama’s ” Green Tzar” for a very brief period. He resigned after Republicans revealed his sordid  history: In 1994, Mr. Jones was one of the founders of STORM, a Marxist-Leninist group whose hero was Chinese Communist dictator Mao Tse Tung. In 2004 he  signed a petition demanding an investigation of whether the Bush administration had been behind the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. ” rsk
Chinese telecom giant Huawei, currently facing charges of fraud, intellectual property theft, and racketeering, is featuring CNN host Van Jones on a panel to discuss the rise of coronavirus “misinformation” days before its temporary license to do business in the U.S. expires.

Huawei’s webinar, set to be hosted along with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on May 13, “will explore how journalists and leaders across industries can come together to fight against a unified enemy: COVID-19,” according to its registration page. Jones will be joined by musician will.i.am, consultant Dr. Ebony Hilton, and journalist Roland Martin. The CCP has claimed in recent weeks that it is a “victim” of disinformation surrounding the origins of the pandemic, despite a detailed timeline showing its failures to address the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

Huawei, which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, has come under increasing scrutiny for its stealing of trade secrets from American competitors. The Department of Justice said in February that the firm has conducted a “decades-long” operation to “misappropriate intellectual property” from U.S. technology firms, while Trump administration claimed that Huawei has secretly accessed American cell phone data for over a decade.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/world-health-organization-says-it-cannot-invite-taiwan-to-annual-summit-after-china-says-participation-would-s

The World Health Organization said it could not invite Taiwan to an upcoming international health summit, despite pleas from the U.S. and its allies, due to “divergent views,” after China said it “deplores and opposes” efforts to include Taipei in the gathering.

WHO principal legal officer Steven Solomon explained to reporters on Monday that the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom could not invite Taiwan — which is not a member of the WHO — to participate in the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA) if members of the international body disagreed.

“To put it crisply, director-generals only extend invitations when it’s clear that member states support doing so, that director-generals have a mandate, a basis to do so,” Solomon explained. “Today however, the situation is not the same. Instead of clear support, there are divergent views among member states and no basis there for — no mandate — for the DG to extend an invitation.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Tedros should include Taiwan in the upcoming WHA meeting, saying “he has the power to do, and as his predecessors have done on multiple occasions.” The proposal was supported by New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Germany, but China disparaged the claim, saying that those supporting it “severely violate the one-China principle.”