A man named Thanh Cong Phan was arrested in Seattle on suspicion of sending about a dozen packages to military bases and government installations in the Washington D.C. area. The packages contained black powder, and included rambling, incoherent notes. All were neutralized without exploding or causing injury. The FBI says the incident appears to have nothing to do with terrorism.
In other news, 41 “Swedes” fighting for the Islamic State have been arrested by Kurdish forces in Syria.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, Diana West, Insubria, KS, Reader from Chicago, SS, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Al Sharpton’s Half Brother Charged With Murder
Rev. Al Sharpton’s half-brother was charged with murder in a Sunday shooting death in Alabama after participating in Saturday’s anti-gun “March For Our Lives,” according to a report.
Kenneth Glasgow, 52, was arrested along with another man after Breunia Jennings, 23,was shot in the head in Dothan, Ala. Authorities said Glasgow, an ex-convict, was the driver of the car linked to Jennings death. The passenger of the car Jamie Townes, 26, was also arrested and is reportedly the alleged shooter, the Dothan Eagle reported.
Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish said that Glasgow and Townes were reportedly searching for Jennings because they thought she had stolen Townes’ car. When they spotted her, Townes allegedly fired several shots into the vehicle Jennings drove, leaving her dead.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Everett Man Accused of Sending Suspicious Packages to Washington, D.C.-Area Military Bases
Authorities arrested a 43-year-old Everett man in connection with suspicious packages containing “potential destructive devices” that were mailed to multiple U.S. military installations in the Washington, D.C., area, the FBI announced early Tuesday.
FBI agents and Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies took Thahn Cong Phan into custody at his Everett home Monday night, the FBI said in a news release. He’s expected to make a first appearance in federal court in Seattle at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
According to the FBI, suspicious packages were sent through the U.S. mail to Fort Belvoir, Va.; Joint Base Anacostia—Bolling, Washington, D.C.; Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.; Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, Va.; and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Va. The packages were collected and will be analyzed at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., the FBI said.
“The FBI investigation determined that the packages contained potential destructive devices and appeared to be sent by the same individual from the Seattle, Washington, area,” the FBI’s statement said. “… It is possible that further packages were mailed to additional mail processing facilities in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area.”
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
John Bolton: ‘A Reagan Realist’ And a Brilliant Choice
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
John Bolton is a superb choice for national security advisor, though you wouldn’t know that from the lamentations and doomsday prophecies issuing from the media since President Trump tweeted the news that on April 9 Ambassador Bolton will take over this pivotal White House post from Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster. As the New York-Washington headline consensus would have it, Bolton is a rogue war-monger, an ultra-hardline uber-hawk, a one-man MIRVed missile raring to blow up the planet. He inspires terror at the New York Times, where the editorial board assures us, “Yes, John Bolton Really Is That Dangerous.”
This is the stuff of caricature, a reflection not on Bolton, but on the uber-bias of his critics. Actually, as David French writes at National Review, “John Bolton Isn’t Dangerous. The World Is.” Though if Bolton inspires even half as much alarm in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang as he does among much of the U.S. commentariat, that alone could save the U.S. military a lot of time, resources and risk in reestablishing the credibility of American deterrence — so thoroughly squandered over most of the past decade by President Obama, with his vanishing red lines. That great squandering left a weakened America facing a far more dangerous world of emboldened and increasingly dangerous actors, across a spectrum that includes everything from terrorist attacks to nuclear threats, conventional to cyber warfare. Reversing, or even simply stopping this trajectory is vital to the security of America and the rest of the Free World. It is a daunting and complex challenge, especially in the face of an American media and foreign policy establishment that prefers to applaud Neville Chamberlain-style pieces of paper over the clear-eyed warnings of the spiritual heirs of Winston Churchill.
Bolton does not fit the standard Washington mold for the basic reason that he cuts through the usual clutter that prevails at Washington foreign policy pow-wows. He focuses on the realities that in Washington are so routinely glossed over by self-serving special interests, political hocus-pocus and diplomatic wishful thinking. Bolton has worked for decades — in and out of government — on matters of national security. His method is to size up the world as it really is, tell the truth and look for genuine solutions. That does not make him popular in some of the more rarefied New York-Washington policy circles, but it does bode well for serving the president, the country and the real needs of national security.
For a sample of just how delusional the criticism of Bolton can get, take one of the charges leveled against him in the New York Times editorial mentioned above. The editorial denounces Bolton as having “largely disdained diplomacy and arms control in favor of military solutions,” and adds that:…
| — Hat tip: KS | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Authorities Arrest Man After Suspicious Packages Sent to Military Sites
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. law enforcement official says Seattle authorities have arrested a man suspected of sending suspicious packages to multiple military installations in the Washington, D.C., region.
The official says the packages contained black powder along with rambling, nonsensical notes similar to those the man has been known to send in the past. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly before an official announcement.
Authorities did not name the man, but said he was known to law enforcement.
Roughly a dozen sites received packages Monday, including Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in the district and at Fort Belvoir, in Virginia. No injuries were reported, and the FBI said each package was collected for further analysis.
The man’s motive was not immediately clear.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect Arrested in Connection With Suspicious Packages Found at D.C.-Area Military Bases
On the night of March 26, authorities in Washington State arrested a man in connection with a series of suspicious packages that were found earlier in the day at military bases in the Washington, D.C. area.
Thanh Cong Phan was arrested at his home in Everett, Washington, NPR said, citing a statement from the FBI. The suspect was taken into custody by FBI agents from the Seattle field office and Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies around 12 hours after the first package was discovered.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters Disrupt Lecture by uOttawa ‘Anti-Feminist’ At Ottawa Public Library
A free speech advocacy group says it will reschedule a lecture by a self-described “contrarian, anti-feminist, defender of free speech and the right to dissent” whose talk at the Ottawa Public Library was disrupted by protesters on Saturday.
A group of about 20 demonstrators showed up for the planned lecture by University of Ottawa English professor Janice Fiamengo, whose speech was titled: “Is the university about the pursuit of truth or the protection of approved ideologies?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Brexit Will be Such a Success That Rest of EU Will Follow US’ Cornish Fisherman Tells BBC
Tony Howes has never wavered in his support for Brexit and said he was confident the UK would vote to leave.
He said: “My feeling’s still the same. We’re already selling fish to the continent, they’re still going to want to buy it, we’re still going to want to sell it — it’s going to happen.
“When other countries realise how successful we’ve been doing what we’re doing then they’re going to follow suit.
“You wait and see, it’s going to happen.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Carles Puigdemont Supporters Block Roads, Plan Protests in Catalonia
Protesters all over Catalonia have demonstrated against the detention of Carles Puigdemont in Germany. The rallies are the latest in a string of protests that began after Spain jailed 13 Catalan politicians.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Two Arrests Following Murder of Holocaust Survivor in Paris
Jewish organisations have expressed “deep concern” for the community in France following the murder of a Holocaust survivor in her Paris apartment.
A court investigation is underway after the body of 85-year old Mireille Knoll was discovered over the weekend.
Police found she had been stabbed at least eleven times before being set alight.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The ISIS gunman who killed four people in France last week had been summoned to meet anti-terror police shortly before his shooting rampage, it has emerged.
Radouane Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, had been on a list of suspected extremists since 2014 and was being monitored, sparking criticism of the country’s security services.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Anti-Terror Police Arrest Man Accused of Links to ISIS
A man suspected of links to terrorist group Isis was arrested in southern Italy on Tuesday, accused of using an Islamic cultural centre to spread jihadist propaganda.
Anti-terrorism police arrested the man, identified in the media as 58-year-old Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian with Italian citizenship, in the city of Foggia in Puglia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Era for Drugs: Generics as Good as Branded
From insulin to growth hormones
(ANSA) — Rome, March 27 — A new era is opening for drugs with generics as good as branded products, the Italian Pharmaceuticals Ageny (AIFA) said Tuesday. From insulin to growth hormones, AIFA said, the two types of drugs are “interchangeable”.
Generics maintain “a guarantee of efficacy, safety and quality for patients,” the agency said.
“They are in practice interchangeable with their respective branded and patented versions,” AIFA said.
The AIFA statement paves the way for possible savings by the national health system and many patients using drugs like insulin and growth hormones.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Need Not Fear Consequences Following Expulsion of Russian Diplomat: MP
Norway need not expect a deterioration in the country’s relationship with Russia following a decision to expel one of its northern neighbour’s diplomats on Monday, says an MP from the governing Conservative party.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Police in German City Declare Centre ‘Dangerous Area’, Start Random Stop and Search Programme
Police have declared Flensburg city centre as “dangerous” and have introduced new control checks only weeks after Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted the existence of no-go zones in Germany.
The police introduced the new measures in order to combat the rising tide of young gang violence that has been a major problem in the centre of Flensburg since the start of the year, German broadcaster NDR reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Reuters: Eurozone Falls in March, Casting Doubt on Growth Outlook
Weakening morale in Germany, declining optimism among manufacturers, and spooked markets have put predictions of strong growth made by the Central European Bank in doubt, wire news service Reuters reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Reports Highest Number of Murders in Fifteen Years
The number of murders and rapes in Sweden is surging according to a report of crimes committed in 2017. The report was published today by Crime Organisation Brå.
According to the Brå report, approximately 1.51 million crimes were reported in 2017. That’s an increase of 4,710 compared to 2016.
Several crime categories showed a large increase: There were 7,370 rapes in 2017 an increase of 10 percent over 2016. The number of murders was the highest since 2002 when Brå started measuring crime statistics.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish ISIS Fundraiser Statuses Were on Facebook for Two Years Before Deletion
A 35-year-old man in Sweden appealed for donations to the Islamic State (Isis) terror group using statuses posted to his open Facebook account.
The messages remained online for over two years before the social media site reacted, reports newspaper Expressen.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Govt: University Free Speech Under Threat From ‘Red Tape’, Masked Protestors, ‘Safe Spaces’
MPs and Peers have said that universities cannot be “safe spaces” from the free exchange of ideas, warning that university “red tape” and students’ attempts to shut down debate they oppose was leaving a “chilling effect” on free speech.
Calling freedom of speech at universities “vital”, chairman of the cross-party Joint Committee on Human Rights Harriet Harman MP said that evidence “showed that there is a problem of inhibition of free speech in universities” and called for the defence of “freedom of expression”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A teacher who tried to raise an army of ‘junior jihadis’ ready to attack London was dragged from court ranting about the end of ‘Western domination’ as he was jailed for at least 25 years.
Umar Haque, 25, of Forest Gate, East London, made children aged between 11 and 14 act out battles between police and the ISIS fighters he idolised.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled a £1.4m fund to tackle knife crime, boasting of a £6,400 award to a London Islamic Centre while maintaining that his budget doesn’t allow him to hire more police.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yorkshire Faces New Terror Wave
Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, the counter-terror chief for Yorkshire police, has said in an interview with the Yorkshire Post that the county is facing an unprecedented threat of deadly terror attacks.
He said that recently, his work load has been about a third higher than normal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican on High Security Alert, Rome is Targeted by ‘Jihadist Propaganda’
Vatican security is on high alert as large crowds arrive for Holy Week and Easter, with Italy’s security chief confirming the existence of “looming threats” that warrant extra caution.
Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italian police, assured Pope Francis on Monday that the men and women of the police force “will continue to guarantee the security of this holy see and of your person, and of this great and extraordinary city of Rome, the seat of Christianity, which is targeted by terrorist and jihadist propaganda as a symbol to strike.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
41 Swedish Citizen Islamic State Fighters Arrested in Syria
Kurdish forces have arrested 41 Swedish citizens in Syria who left Sweden to fight for the Islamic State with five being described as high-level members of the terror organisation.
Kurdish authorities fighting in Northern Syria revealed that they had captured Swedish citizens or permanent residents, telling Swedish media over the weekend: “Five of them have had key positions within IS. One of them has been responsible for propaganda,” Expressen reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Daily Portrays Merkel as Hitler, Decries ‘Nazi Mentality’
Istanbul (AFP) — A Turkish daily strongly supportive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on its front cover as Adolf Hitler, accusing her of having a “Nazi mentality”.
The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia.
“We are very worried by this mentality,” it said.
Its front page came as European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker were to meet Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in a bid to mend ties with Turkey and the EU.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Influence & The Experts, V: Deception is No Myth
by Diana West
[…]
That there exist “spies” — better known as agents of influence, for example — who seek to “change,” or, more realistically, influence policy-making and other activities of rival nations is a fact. It is an especially salient fact in the case of the fronts, networks and sophisticated campaigns of deception directed by the KGB, and overseen, at least in the post-Stalin era, as renowned Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky reminds us, by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moscow. Lest there be any confusion, this has been going on for one hundred years — not only in “the 1940s.” My own book aside, I am afraid that when Mark Kramer, as director of Cold War Studies at Harvard, dismisses all of this and more as “myth,” it is akin to the Army Corps of Engineers dismissing as “myth” the presence of water in the Mississippi River.
The late Soviet expert Joseph D. Douglass, Jr. put it this way: “The Soviets live and breathe deception. You cannot understand what they are doing without understanding this. Indeed, you can’t even begin to understand communism without understanding deception, which is very rarely mentioned in textbooks on communism.”
I am guessing deception is very rarely mentioned in textbooks on espionage that Professor Kramer assigns in his “Cold War Studies” courses. What follows, then, is a chance for him to bone up…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Ms Hanson received a tirade of abuse from some locals as she walked through Lakemba, in Sydney’s west — a suburb she claims isn’t Australian due to its majority Muslim population.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Teenager, 15, Jailed for Violently Raping an Elderly Woman, 83, After Breaking Into Her House
The teenager, 15, broke into the 83-year-old’s Perth home then penetrated her three times, choked and karate chopped her and finally forced hot water down her throat to wash away any trace of DNA.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Pauline Hanson described the Muslim-majority suburb of Lakemba as ‘very foreign’, said people there were not living in an Australian way, and said we should question why women wear the burqa.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A 16-year-old youth has been charged with the rape of a four-year-old boy in a remote Northern Territory desert community. The boy has been flown to hospital for treatment.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Independent senator Fraser Anning urged Australia to give refugee status to white South African farmers as he addressed a rally supporting them after dozens of murders.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
California Sheriff Revolts Against Sanctuary State Law, Makes Inmates’ Release Dates Public
The sheriff’s department in a major Los Angeles metro area county announced Monday that it will begin publishing a list of inmate release dates, spurning a provision of California’s sanctuary state law that limits communication between local officials and immigration authorities.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Deported Asylum Seeker Illegally Returned to UK and Raped Teenager
A failed asylum seeker who was deported to Afghanistan in 2010 and returned to the UK last year via Italy has been jailed for raping an 18-year-old, treating her as “a disposable sexual commodity”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ISIS Beheading Videos “Spreading Like Wildfire” Amongst Migrants in Schools
The President of Germany’s Teachers Association warns that ISIS beheading videos are “spreading like wildfire” amongst Muslim migrant children in German schools.
In an article entitled Our schools are out of control, Heinz-Peter Meidinger told BILD that the situation in some schools was becoming chronic, with increasing numbers of violent attacks on teachers creating the need for security guards at schools with migrant populations of 70 per cent and over.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Prime Minister: Migration is the Number One Election Issue
The number one issue at stake in the April general election is whether Hungary will become an “immigrant country” and whether security and European culture and way of life can be preserved, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Sydney man who said he bit and shook his baby daughter for cultural reasons has been refused bail on a charge of murdering the two-month-old girl.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Migrants Stab Greek Truck Driver After He Finds Them Hiding in His Trailer
Igoumenitsa is a port of Epirus, from where many ships connect Italy and Greece. Due to this, trucks that travel by ship from Greece to Italy, become targets for immigrants and refugees, that are trapped in Greece. Their goal is to sneak into a truck until the boat sails to Italy.
A few days ago, immigrants from Pakistan tried to hide in the truck of a 37-year-old Greek, in order to get to Italy. Unfortunately for them, the driver found out what they were planning and tried to stop them.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish MP Plans on Emigrating to Hungary to Escape Immigration
A Swedish MP who was elected to the Riksdag as part of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats and was recently removed from their list for the 2018 general election has revealed that he wants to become an immigrant in Hungary in order to escape immigration.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“The teenager, 15, broke into the 83-year-old’s Perth home then penetrated her three times, choked and karate chopped her and finally forced hot water down her throat to wash away any trace of DNA.”
Germany and Australia are pretty much on a par then: similar sentences for perhaps similarly gruesome and evil crimes – just a year’s difference in the age of the victims, those who are “collateral damage” in the Great New World scheme that is underway. Every excuse in the book is made, in Australia, at least, on behalf of the offender. Then “six years” but out after three.
What are the MSN in Oz so scared of? In the photo they’ve blanked out everything but the hair; it still appears, though, that this delightful young lovely belongs to the negroid race – or if “race doesn’t exist”, to that part of humankind which happens to have black skin. No space in Africa for such people? When I was last there, admittedly a long time ago, it was a very big continent.
I’m curious, what will they do with the Wahhabis?
1) Re-educate. 2) Will be sent to prison. 3) Provoke a guerrilla war, and then they will be killed by all.
The Interreligious Council of Russia (MCP) appealed to the federal authorities to recognize as extremist all the Wahhabi organizations operating in the country, and condemn the ideology itself as terrorist, the documents circulated on Wednesday after the meeting of the council said.
RIA Novosti https://ria.ru/religion/20180328/1517450189.хтмл
I like how things develop.