The French have adopted what is clearly a no-nonsense attitude toward radical Islamist terrorism since the Paris attacks and they’re not taking their foot off the gas. As the United States continues to debate over “tone” and how to balance religious liberty and tolerance against domestic security, Francois Hollande’s forces have “cut a few corners” on those subjects and just begun shutting down mosques. At least three of the Muslim houses of worship have been closed already and law enforcement has found a trove of disturbing items among the haul. (Speisa)
Police investigating the Paris terror attacks have shut down three mosques in a series of raids to close the net on Islamic extremists, the Expressreports.
Police in France also arrested the owner of a revolver found during Wednesday’s raid, France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
Security officials found jihadist documents at the mosque where yesterday’s raids took place.
They have placed nine people under house arrest. Another 22 have been banned from leaving the country Mr Cazeneuve
In additon to the mosques, the French have kicked in the doors on 2,235 homes and taken 232 people into custody or placed them on house arrest. More than three hundred weapons were discovered at the mosques. Tom Porter at the International Business Times reports that the trove included 7.62mm ammunition, Kalashnikov rifles and terrorist propaganda videos. And they’re only just getting started. (See edit below)
Hassan El Alaoui, one of France’s chief imams, told Al Jazeera that French authorities were likely to close down more than 100 mosques in the wake of the Paris attacks.
“According to official figures and our discussions with the interior ministry, between 100 and 160 more mosques will be closed because they are run illegally without proper licences, they preach hatred, or use takfiri speech,” he said.
Takfiris are those who accuse fellow Muslims who do not share their hard-line interpretation of the faith of apostasy, and is often used as a pejorative term.
Reports like this likely present a rather awkward challenge for observers in America who are used to a large number of rights which the government isn’t supposed to violate. It’s easy to cheer for the French rooting out that many terrorists and their supporters and removing their ability to launch attacks, but the methods being employed will probably give many Americans pause. First of all, simply having a weapon of any sort is tantamount to a conviction there, so the idea of badgering “law abiding gun owners” is sort of an unknown concept in Paris. And with our First Amendment rights, the idea of armed, uniformed men kicking in the doors of churches of any type and hauling the congregants out to a wagon makes us recoil.
But now even some of their own Imams are estimating that more than 150 more mosques may be closed. France really isn’t all that big… how many mosques do they have? To be fair to the French, though, what else are they supposed to do? They’re physically much closer to the home turf of several terrorists groups and thanks to the EU’s open border policies it’s far easier for the bad guys to move around. They’re dealing with an infestation and it needs to be stamped out. The methods probably appear harsh, but they’re doing what they need to do in order to survive.
Exit question: how will all of Europe’s leaders who screamed about Donald Trump suggesting a temporary ban on Muslim immigration react to this news?
Putin outmaneuvered the West in Ukraine and most recently in Syria. Most importantly, he has outflanked Western sanctions through increased financial and economic cooperation with China and other Eurasian powers.
No matter what happens in the West, Russia’s recent power plays are creating tectonic shifts in geopolitics. This could be the largest shift in global power since World War II.
Ultimately, this could threaten the U.S. dollar’s role as the world’s premier reserve currency. That would have huge negative implications for your personal freedom and financial prosperity.
Actually, it’s not just Russia we have to watch. China, Iran, and other Eurasian powers are working with Russia on an ambitious goal. They’re trying to end U.S. dominance in global trade, finance, and military power.
These countries want to create what Russian officials call a “multipolar world.” It would replace the unipolar world that’s existed since the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed. The U.S. has been the world’s sole superpower ever since.
In short, Russia and its partners want to completely redraw the lines of global power. Here’s how they’re doing it…
First, there’s China’s New Silk Road. It’s the biggest and most comprehensive infrastructure project in all of human history. The plan is to link Asia to Europe via modern land transit corridors.
The project includes high-speed rail lines, modern highways, fiber optic cables, energy pipelines, seaports, and airports. Much of this new infrastructure will flow through Russia.
If everything goes as planned, the New Silk Road will be a reality by 2025.
This will free Russia, China, Iran, and others from dependence on ocean transport. At that point, control of the high seas, which the U.S. has had for many decades, won’t be nearly as important.
In addition to the New Silk Road, a set of interlocking international organizations is emerging. These new organizations are supporting Russia’s plans for a multipolar world.
Trade – The Eurasian Economic Union
The EEU allows for free movement of goods, services, money, and people through Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia. It’s gradually expanding as countries along the New Silk Road remove trade barriers.
Security – The Shanghai Cooperation Organization
In the military and security realm, there’s the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). It could become a NATO of the East.
Current members include Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan will join by 2016. Iran is also likely to join in the future.
The BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – all support Russia’s goal of creating a multipolar world. Like the AIIB, the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) is an international financial institution based in China. It’s another alternative to the IMF and World Bank.
It’s important to note that the NDB will use members’ national currencies, not the U.S. dollar. It won’t depend on U.S.-controlled institutions for anything. This reduces the NDB’s exposure to U.S. pressure.
The BRICS countries are also looking to build an alternative to SWIFT, the major international payments system.
SWIFT is truly essential to the current international financial system. Without it, it’s nearly impossible to move money from a bank in country A to a bank in country B.
Today, most international trade is done in U.S. dollars. When one country wants to trade with another, it almost always has to buy U.S. dollars on the foreign exchange market first. This creates demand for U.S. dollars – much more than there would be otherwise. That boosts the value of the dollar.
Imagine how much this arrangement props up the U.S. dollar. It’s incredible.
This arrangement has allowed the U.S. government (and U.S. citizens) to live way beyond its means for decades. It also gives the U.S. unchecked geopolitical leverage. The U.S. could exclude virtually any country from the U.S. dollar-based financial system…and by extension the vast majority of international trade.
The U.S. takes this unique position for granted. But it will disappear once the dollar loses its premier status.
This will likely be the tipping point…
Afterward, the U.S. government will be desperate enough to implement capital controls, people controls, nationalization of retirement savings, and other forms of wealth confiscation.
As time goes on the Iraqi’s are rapidly losing faith in America and her allies. Among their complaints with our government, is the fact that they’ve utterly failed to stop ISIS (much of the Iraqi population believes we’re helping them), in addition to recent incursions by Turkey, an American ally. These soldiers appear to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Baghdad, after they parked themselves in Northern Iraq last week and refused to leave.
Now Baghdad appears to be preparing to oust American military influence in their country. The Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee recently called to reassess their nation’s security agreement with the United States, and again asked Turkish forces to leave their sovereign borders. According to one of the Committee members “The [Iraqi] government and the parliament need to review its security agreement with the US, because Washington is not serious about its implementation. We will demand its cancelation.”
Prime Minister Abadi has also criticized Defense Secretary Ashton Carter for trying to send more troops to Iraq. “Iraq does not need foreign ground forces and the Iraqi government is committed not to allow the presence of any ground force on Iraqi land.”
So if Baghdad doesn’t want America’s help anymore, whose help do they want? Russia’s of course. According to the Security and Defense Committee, “Soon, a meeting with Prime Minister Haider Abadi will be held, at which we will propose cooperating with Russia in carrying out airstrikes against IS and in the fight against terrorism in Iraq.”
After decades of military domination, it appears that the US government is about to lose its grip over Iraq, and the Russians will take their place.
Also see:
3 comments:
I bet the mosques that they found the weapons in were just exceptions. I'm sure all the other mosques are completely weapon free.
Exactly -haha:)
Of course, all innocents, victim of a smear campaign concerning the peaceful religion! ;) I love you guys!!!!!!
Post a Comment