Abbas Living in Luxury, the PLO pays well?

Living Large

Abu Mazen’s (Mahmood Abbas) new palace

Life is so, so hard in the ‘occupied territories.’

From here (comments are mostly in Hebrew). According to the person who posted it, it’s Abu Mazen’s ‘guest palace.’

By the way, there are many luxurious homes in Judea and Samaria. Back in the old days, before the existence of the ‘Palestinian Authority’ necessitated bypass roads in order to prevent Jews from being murdered, we used to play a game when we road through the ‘Palestinian’

*** How did he get here?

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas resigned on Saturday as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee in a bid to force new elections for the top body, says Wassel Abu Yousef. Yousef also goes on to report that more than half of the 18-member committee have also stepped down, according to Israel National News. However, the 80-year-old Abbas still retains his post as Palestinian president.  “The resignation of the president of the executive committee Mahmoud Abbas and more than half of its members have created a legal vacuum, and therefore the Palestine National Council (PNC) has been asked to meet in one month to elect a new executive committee,” Yousef said in a statement.

Yousef, a senior PLO committee member, added that the resignations will not take effect until the PNC meets. The PNC is the 740-member Palestinian Parliament. Members live in the Palestinian territories and have not met in 20-years.

Abbas took up the position of the Ramallah-based government in 2005, a year after he became the PLO’s chief. On several occasions, he has threatened to resign or dissolve the Palestinian Authority.

The PLO’s chief negotiator and well-known political figure Saeb Erekat will probably replace Abbas, according to Al Arabiya News, reporting on previous rumors of the Abbas resignation. Saeb Erekat is a close aide to Abbas and had replaced Abed Rabbo as secretary after Rabbo was ousted by Abbas for becoming an increasingly vocal critic of the leader.  Abbas has faced questions about his legitimacy to rule within the Palestinian territories, where he was elected to what was originally meant to be a four-year term in 2005, according to The New York Times. New presidential and legislative elections for the Palestinian Authority have been prevented by an internal rift between Abbas’s Fatah party and the rival Islamic group, Hamas, which won the last legislative elections in 2006 and seized control of Gaza the next year. Read more here.

Other facts on Abbas:

  • During the 1948 Palestinian war, his family fled to Syria
  • Abbas studied at the University of Damascus and later went to Moscow and studied at Patrice Lumumba University (KGB)
  • He has a son named after Yasser Arafat
  •  He was a member of the Fatah, which funded the attack of the 1972 Munich Massacre
  • The U.S. Congress knew about his corruption and skimming off big money

Like Father, Like Son

the other home

Son of Mahmoud Abbas caught up in corruption scandal

The son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been tied to a corruption scandal involving leaked documents that appear to show attempts by Palestinian officials to misuse public funds.

An invoice published by a protest group on the Internet apparently shows that Yasser Mahmoud Reda Abbas made a payment of $50,000 as part of his acquisition of apartments in a luxury complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government.

Earlier revelations from paperwork leaked online have triggered outrage, highlighting the corruption and mismanagement critics say remain rampant in the Palestinian government.
A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t allowed to discuss the leak, confirmed the documents’ authenticity to The Associated Press. They have offered a rare glimpse into the wheeling and dealing of the Palestinian government, long bogged down by rivalries.
One document signed by Majdi al-Khaldi, a diplomatic adviser to Abbas who accompanies him on his trips to world capitals, asked Bahrain’s foreign minister for $4 million to fund the private neighborhood complex for Palestinian officials in Ramallah. He insisted the complex was “meant to resist the Israeli settlements,” even though there are no settlements where the complex was built.
The other document by Nazmi Muhanna, general director of the Palestinian Crossing and Borders Authority, requested the government pay for his daughter’s schooling as well as medical treatment for his family in Jordan for a total of $15,000, a hefty sum for many Palestinians. Muhanna defended his demand, saying it was permitted by the Palestinian government. The government later said it did not cover those expenses.
Outrage over the documents quickly spread on social media, where Palestinians challenged everything from their leadership’s finances to its political legitimacy in the face of repeatedly delayed elections, last held in 2005.
The furor over the documents comes as the Palestinian economy is stagnating and Palestinians grow increasingly displeased with government services. Palestinian Authority officials have defended their record on stamping out corruption, saying they’ve recovered millions of dollars in misspent funds.

 

America, Take Notice of Germany’s Refugee Protests

German Politicians Condemn Violence Against Refugees

Right-wing anti-immigrant militants attack police guarding an emergency shelter for second night

WSJ:

BERLIN—Germany condemned fresh violence against migrants after right-wing militants attacked police guarding an emergency shelter for migrants two nights in a row.

The weekend attacks, in which 31 officers were injured, took place in Heidenau, a small town near Dresden in the eastern state of Saxony. They were the latest in a series of violent right-wing protests amid the largest wave of migrants to arrive in Europe since World War II.

Germany, the largest and wealthiest member of the European Union, is carrying a large share of the burden of caring for the influx of people, and public opinion has been divided. A majority of Germans back an open-door policy for refugees fleeing war and terrorism, but a small group of neo-Nazi activists has been inciting violence.

“This is indecent and unworthy of our country,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said in an interview that appeared in the weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag, reacting to the violence in Heidenau.

The attacks began late Friday in Heidenau after a tense but largely peaceful demonstration of about 1,000 people that was organized by the neo-Nazi NPD party. As buses carrying a group of migrants neared the town, local police broke up a group of about 30 demonstrators trying to stop their arrival by erecting barricades on a street leading to the shelter.

In response, some 600 demonstrators marched on the emergency shelter and were blocked from approaching the building by about 136 police in riot gear, according to local police. In what the police described as an organized attack, a small group of militants mixed within the larger crowd pummeled the police with stones, bottles and powerful firecrackers.

The police fought back, repelling the crowd with tear gas. They ultimately dispersed the militants and cleared the way for the buses to bring 120 migrants to the shelter, a former do-it-yourself building-materials store that has been turned into temporary refugee housing.

Clashes flared up again on Saturday evening, police said, as about 120 right-wing protesters attacked police and tried to stop buses of migrants from reaching the shelter in Heidenau. About 250 migrants were expected to arrive over the weekend and local politicians warned citizens to refrain from violence or face the full force of the law.

“Anyone who throws stones, bottles and fireworks at police is not a ‘concerned citizen’, but rather a right-wing criminal,” said Henning Homann, a Social Democrat deputy in Saxony’s state parliament.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a Twitter post on Saturday that Germany can never “tolerate attacks and threats against people in our country,” promising that Germany will respond to such attacks “with the strong arm of the law.”

German leaders have repeatedly condemned the right-wing violence and called on the public to show empathy for about 800,000 people expected to arrive in Germany this year, many of whom have been forced to flee war-torn regions such as Iraq and Syria. In a television interview earlier this month, Chancellor Angela Merkel called anti-immigrant violence “unworthy of our country.” More details here.

Then, it appears that German business are possibly exploiting the immigrants and refugees to the benefits on both sides?

DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) – Ashamed by the rise of anti-Islam group PEGIDA in Dresden at the end of last year, local businesswoman Viola Klein was determined to send a signal that not everyone in the eastern German city was hostile to immigrants.

“We spoke with our staff and said we have to do something to counter the view that foreigners have no business here,” said Klein, manager of software developer Saxonia Systems, which has funneled between 80,000 and 100,000 euros ($92-115,000) into refugee projects.

Klein is just one of many entrepreneurs who are using their capital and business skills to help a record-breaking number of refugees integrate into Europe’s biggest economy.

Their efforts come as local authorities brace for the number of asylum seekers to quadruple this year to 800,000 — more than the population of Germany’s fifth biggest city Frankfurt am Main.

PEGIDA’s weekly anti-Islam, anti-immigrant rallies that attracted large crowds late last year have fizzled out, but the high number of migrants arriving this year is again causing unrest, particularly in eastern Germany, where attacks against asylum shelters are on the rise.

Over the weekend, right-wing protesters pelted police with bottles, stones and fireworks as they were escorting refugees to a shelter in the town of Heidenau, south of Dresden.

After initially putting on language courses for asylum-seekers, Klein noticed around 80 percent owned a smartphone. Drawing on her firm’s expertise, she worked together with local developer Heinrich & Reuter Solutions to develop a free app to help new arrivals negotiate German bureaucracy.

Available in five languages, the ‘Welcome to Dresden’ app gives users assistance on how to apply for asylum, use public transport or find a doctor.

Mohamad Abou Assaf, a 29-year-old Syrian who arrived in Dresden five months ago after traveling overland through eastern Europe, said the app would be helpful for those coming with little grasp of the language.

Can the UK or the Foreign Minister be Anymore Stupid?

 Philip Hammond@PHammondMP 7h7 hours ago

Leading business delegation with to discuss future opportunities in for British business.

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Graffiti in Persian reads "Death to England" is seen above a picture of Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran   

Courtesy of the Telegraph.

The graffiti above a portrait of the Queen provided a scrawled reminder of just how venomous Anglo-Iranian relations once were.

”Death to England” read the message in orange marker pen, daubed inside the elegant ambassador’s residence of the British embassy in Tehran. The motif was still visible on Sunday when Philip Hammond officially reopened the mission, four years after a mob vandalised its spacious premises.

On November 29 2011, this building along with every other in the embassy’s five-acre compound was ransacked by about 200 people, including members of the regime’s Basij militia.

The Foreign Secretary says Iran and Britain will not always agree but there should be no limit to what the countries can achieve together ….. He said WHAT?

Iran’s ayatollahs will never be friends of the UK

We are heading for disaster if we abandon our historic Middle East allies in favour of friendship with Tehran

In part from the Guardian: Here we go again: another British foreign secretary in Iran with the hopeful expectation of forging closer ties with the ayatollahs. Ever since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979, the holy grail of British foreign policy has been to reach out to the moderates in Tehran, thereby isolating the hardliners.

Back in the Eighties when, thanks to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, British hostages such as Terry Waite and John McCarthy spent five or so years chained to radiators in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Sir Geoffrey Howe, our then foreign secretary, frequently told me that the hostage crisis could be resolved if only we could establish a working relationship with the moderates in Tehran. But for all our entreaties, the hardliners won the day, and the hostages were eventually released when the ayatollahs deemed them to be surplus to their agenda.

More recently, in 2003, New Labour’s Jack Straw believed he had identified a similar moderate tendency in Iran’s political establishment, during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami. This, of course, was in the aftermath of the Iraq War, when the ayatollahs feared – not unduly – that they might be next on President George W Bush’s hit list.

Lord Lamont, the former Tory Chancellor, is one of the more vocal members among an influential group of establishment figures in London who advocate embracing the ayatollahs, a view that is also being enthusiastically taken up by those in the business community who hope to benefit from the estimated £100 billion Iran will soon receive when its overseas assets are released.

But in this unseemly scramble, the Government now appears content to turn a blind eye to some of Iran’s more egregious activities. For example, after an Iranian mob stormed and then trashed the embassy compound in 2011, the Government insisted there would be no restoration of relations until the Iranians paid full compensation for the damage caused. But as this newspaper reports today, Britain has paid the full cost of the repairs.

Similarly, Whitehall would like to draw a discreet veil over similarly vexing issues, such as whether the Home Office will be able to act against Iranian nationals who overstay their welcome in the UK. Without the proper safeguards, we could end up with Hizbollah and Revolutionary Guard terrorists setting up operations in the UK, just like al-Qaeda and Isil have sought to do.

The Rest of the Story of the Train Attack Foiled by Americans

When will Europe get serious? It is not for lack of attacks, evidence, intelligence or testimony. The leadership in Europe is just plain stupid and that is not only dangerous, but bloody and deadly.

It is in Belgium but for sure all over Europe.

Unarmed, 3 Americans stopped what could have been a very deadly train ride.

Their interview is here.
To see the real video of the attack:

The gunman is 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayob El Khazzani, boarded the Amsterdam-Paris express in Brussels on Friday with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter, investigators say. Spanish police actually alerted the French intelligence wing and French police in March of 2014 and al Khazzani was in the French database. Truth be told, this jihadi was in at least 26 European databases and with good reason. He and his family lived in Spain and he was arrested several times for drug trafficking and still had outstanding warrants.

In 2014, he moved from Spain to France and traveled to Syria and Belgium intelligence services upgraded the information in their own database. France has at least 5000 jihad inspired and or trained names in their database but it is unknown what Belgium has. However, none of this should come to any surprise in Europe and there is a reason for that, so read on.

‘Sharia4Belgium’ Leader and Dozens of Other Militants Are Sentenced to Jail Time

ViceNews: A Belgian court ruled on Wednesday that Sharia4Belgium, an Islamist group accused of running a jihadist recruitment cell in the country, was “a terrorist organization” and found 45 members guilty of terror charges.

The correctional tribunal in the port city of Antwerp sentenced Fouad Belkacem, the group’s 32-year-old leader who goes by the alias “Abu Imran,” to 12 years in prison. The other 44 members on trial were sentenced to between three and 15 years in jail, with some of the sentences being suspended.

This is the biggest-ever trial of its kind in Belgium. Only seven defendants were present in court, with the remainder believed to be either dead or still fighting in Syria. The photograph above shows Michael ‘Younes’ Delefortrie outside the main entrance of the courthouse.

Sharia4Belgium — a group once credited with being a major source of Belgian jihadists to Syria — disbanded in 2012 when Belkacem was arrested and sentenced to two years for inciting hatred and violence towards non-Muslims. But, according to the court, the organization continued to operate as a recruitment cell into 2013.

Belkacem, who has been described by public prosecutor Ann Fransen as “the group’s undisputed ringleader,” is no stranger to the courts and he has been arrested several times in the past for theft.

“Belkacem is responsible for the radicalization of young men to prepare them for Salafist combat, which has at its core no place for democratic values,” Judge Luc Potargent said on Wednesday.

The trial took place amid a wider debate on escalating radicalization in Europe. It opened in September 2014, four months after a French national with links to militant groups opened fire in the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, killing four people. Wednesday’s verdict also comes in the wake of the Paris terror attacks that left 17 dead in early January.

There have been several high-profile police raids against suspected jihadist networks since then, including a shootout in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers, when counter-terrorist units reportedly foiled a jihadist plot to stage a major terror attack.

It has been estimated that 450 Belgian nationals could be fighting in Iraq or Syria. On those figures, Belgium has one of Europe’s highest per capita ratio of jihadists fighters overseas.

“Sharia4Belgium recruited young men for armed combat and organized their departure for Syria,” the judge at the correctional tribunal said.

According to reports, Sharia4Belgium was responsible for 10 percent of these departures. Romain Caillet, a researcher and specialist in Islamic movements based in Beirut, told VICE News that most of the group’s recruits are believed to be fighting alongside the al Nusra Front — al Qaeda’s branch in Syria.

Sharia4Belgium was a Salafist group that followed in the footsteps of Islam4UK, a UK-based organization formed in 2008 by radical preachers Omar Bakri and Anjem Choudary. Offshoots of the group were subsequently opened in Holland, Denmark, and even in the US. The Belgian version surfaced around the 2010 parliamentary elections and established itself in the northern city of Antwerp.

Belgian sociologist and religions expert Felice Dassetto told VICE News that the group was born of a shared vision with its UK counterpart: “Sharia4Belgium is a classic radical movement which promotes a pro-sharia ideology. According to the movement, a true Muslim must display the religion in the public space, [it is] a political vision of religion.”

As its name implies, the group’s ambition was to impose sharia law throughout Belgium. In the past, the group has declared Belgian elections illegal and threatened to destroy the Atomium tourist attraction in Brussels. The group also criticized France’s full-veil ban, saying it would support any woman who chose to wear a full-body veil in public.

In June 2011, a few months after protesters in Paris staged a demonstration against the French ban on face covering, VICE interviewed Belkacem. At the time, he described himself as “a spokesman” for both Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4Holland. “We’re tired of people constantly attacking our Ummah,” he said, referring to the worldwide Islamic community. “It’s not fair. No one is listening to us.”

At the time, Belkacem denied being at the head of a terror cell. “We want to fulfill Allah’s wish — that’s our mission,” he explained. “The true religion must dominate the world. Of course, I mean Islam. We want out message to be clear. Islam does not compromise. We don’t beat about the bush. We openly affirm the supremacy of Islam in the world.”

“We don’t believe in the separation of church and State. Look at what this democracy has brought us: nothing but economic crisis. Our country has had no government in a year. How can we still be boasting the values of democracy?”

There are several theories about why Belgium produces so many militants. For Montasser AlDe’emeh, a researcher who has been studying the Belgian jihadist movement, tensions between the Flemish and the Walloon communities in the country and the ensuing lack of national unity are a factor of radicalization.

“We live in a divided country,” AlDe’emeh told Germany’s Der Spiegel. “The obvious structure of an Islamic theocracy seems more and more alluring.”

 

 

Why Should the Civil War in Syria Concern You?

Latakia, Syria is one of the locations of Bashir al Assad’s homes. It has been yet one of many sites of deadly hostilities since the civil war began.

Syrian airstrikes just killed 50 rebels that have been taking the fight against the Assad regime.

Latakia is 4th largest city in Syria, made up of mostly Alawites, a culture from the 9th century and the Assad family dynasty is Alawite, which is to say, an Alawite is known to be from Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son in law of the prophet Mohammad. During the Ottoman Empire, the Alawites were suppressed and an attempt was make to convert them to Sunni.

Anyway, Latakia is no more the destination of choice for the elites of the Middle East. The video above demonstrates how ordinary citizens have become crafty fighters, trained on their own and resourceful when it comes to using powerful military gear, weapons, procurement and to what end?

Consider, there has been a generation that has now passed where children are now adults and their only known education is a battlefield, shelling, fighting, use of weapons and no peace. No one can determine how long this war will continue, yet with the Iranian war machine in full support of Bashir al Assad, it will continue. For generations to come, new breeds will be battlefield tested and experienced and where will our own in the United States be?

Let that sink in.