Bernard-Henri, Levy Who Killed Daniel Pearl?

At Amazon, Bernard-Henri, Levy Who Killed Daniel Pearl?

Twitter Now Enforcing Pakistani Law

Following-up from the other day, "Twitter is Losing Me."

Christina Laila was warned as well. She writes for Gateway Pundit. See, "Twitter Legal Warns TGP's Cristina Laila - Her 'Burka Tweet' Violates "Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws" - Which Are Punishable by Prison or Death."

Twitter Legal Warns TGP's Cristina Laila - Her 'Burka Tweet' Violates "Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws" - Which Are Punishable by Prison or Death @CristinaLaila1 @PamelaGeller https://t.co/hTBXPj2o4c via @gatewaypundit

— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) December 22, 2018

And see Robert Spencer, at FrontPage Magazine, "TWITTER NOW ENFORCING PAKISTANI LAW: The social media giants are all Sharia-compliant now":

Remember when Barack Obama took control of the Internet away from the United States and gave it to an international organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)? Conservatives warned then that giving control of the primary means of communication to an international body could threaten the freedom of speech, and they were derided as hysterical. But now they’ve been proven correct: the social media giants are all Sharia-compliant.

FrontPage editor Jamie Glazov got the notice Saturday morning:

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Twitter Legal
Date: Sat, Dec 22, 2018 at 7:27 AM
Subject: Twitter Receipt of Correspondence
To: @JamieGlazov

Hello,

We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received official correspondence regarding your Twitter account, @JamieGlazov.

The correspondence claims that the following content is in violation of Pakistan law:Section 37 of PECA-2016, Section 295 B and Section 295 C of the Pakistan penal code

https://twitter.com/JamieGlazov/status/1035666429486321664
@JamieGlazov

Twitter has not taken any action on the reported content at this time. We are only writing to inform you that content posted to your account has been mentioned in a complaint.

This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter. If you believe we have contacted you in error, please let us know by replying to this email.

For more general information on legal requests, please refer to the following Help Center article: https://t.co/lrfaq.

Sincerely,
Twitter

Click on the Twitter link, and you’ll see that the tweet in question is an advertisement for Jamie’s new book, Jihadist Psychopath. In Pakistan, jihadists aren’t psychopaths, they’re heroes.

Note also that Pakistan is accusing Glazov of being in violation of sections 295B and 295C of its penal code. Section 295B criminalizes “defiling the Holy Quran,” and carries a penalty of life imprisonment. 295C mandates that those who “by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation innuendo, or insinuation, directly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable for fine.” Yes, death and a fine.

Glazov is not alone in this. Pamela Geller received a notice from Twitter that she was in violation of Pakistani law for a tweet that noted correctly that Al Arabiya had criticized Linda Sarsour as a Muslim Brotherhood operative. Ensaf Haidar, the wife of Raif Badawi, who has been languishing for years in a Saudi prison for “insulting Islam,” got the notice for a tweet criticizing the niqab. Twitter has also notified Canadian columnist Anthony Furey and reformist imam Mohammed Tawhidi that they have violated Pakistani law.

 I haven’t. It makes me wonder what I have to do to offend the Pakistani government.

Meanwhile, “a new Android app,” according to Laura Loomer at Big League Politics, “has launched with the focus of allowing Muslims to report individuals who commit blasphemy, or insult Islam.” Now, if you’re a pious Muslim, if you see something, you can say something, and make sure that those who dare to criticize the Left’s favored religion will henceforth be able to say nothing.

Big League Politics explains that “the app, ‘Smart Pakem’, which launched in Indonesia last month at the request of the Indonesian government, will allow users and government officials to uphold Sharia law and target and report people who hold ‘misguided’ beliefs in violation of Islamic law, which forbids insults of Islam, insults against the Prophet Mohammed, or the recognition of any other religion besides Islam.”

Google has been leading the way on social media Sharia-compliance for quite some time. Anwar Awlaki’s al-Qaeda recruitment lectures were offered in Google Play store app. And in 2017, Texas imam Omar Suleiman made a successful effort to compel Google to drop search results about Islam-related terms and topics that reflected negatively upon Islam. The jihad against the freedom of speech is advancing rapidly, and most people don’t even know it’s happening. Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported that “Google’s first page results for searches of terms such as ‘jihad’, ‘shariah’ and ‘taqiyya’ now return mostly reputable explanations of the Islamic concepts. Taqiyya, which describes the circumstances under which a Muslim can conceal their belief in the face of persecution, is the sole term to feature a questionable website on the first page of results.”

“Reputable” according to whom? “Questionable” according to whom? Why, Omar Suleiman, of course. Google execs swallowed uncritically everything he said, and dutifully buried all search results remotely critical of Islam, including ones that were demonstrably accurate in what they said.

Facebook is on the Sharia train, too. Facebook’s Vice President Joel Kaplan traveled to Pakistan in July 2017 to assure the Pakistani government that it would remove “anti-Islam” material. And Facebook has done so assiduously, banning numerous foes of jihad terror and twice now blocking the Jihad Watch Facebook page on spurious technical grounds.

And now Twitter is actually informing free Americans that they face life imprisonment or death for violating Islamic blasphemy laws. This is the legacy of Barack Hussein Obama.

Steve Coll, Directorate S

Andrew Bacevich had an excellent review in yesterday's New York Times.

And at Amazon, Steve Coll, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Pakistani Hackers Working for the Democratic National Committee

From Roger Kimball, at American Greatness, "The Pakistani Hackers Working for the DNC":

At last, I am in a position to help the New York Times. It’s a good feeling. As anyone who has stumbled upon their website knows, our former paper of record, underscoring its insatiable appetite to provide the public with all the news that fits its agenda, prominently features a solicitation for hot tips: Got a confidential news tip? it asks. Click and amaze the world.

I have a tip, an important one, though I cannot in truth call it “confidential.” Over the last few days, in fact, it has been blazoned across the samizdat press, outlets that your typical Times reader may never have heard of, or, if he has, that he reflexively discounts.

What’s it all about, Alfie? Computer hacking. A senior political figure threatening law enforcement officials. Destruction of evidence. Collusion with foreign powers. Financial corruption. Incompetence. Maladministration. Hot stuff.

Russia? Trump, Sr., Jr., or both? Nope.

It’s U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), former head of the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton groupie, and, right now, the Barbie Doll in the center of (at last!) a real scandal involving a Pakistani computer guru called Imran Awan, his wife Hina Alvi, various other family members, and the computer servers of various Democratic congressmen, including Schultz.

Last week, Awan was nabbed by the FBI at Dulles Airport trying to flee to Pakistan. His wife had already flown the coop for Lahore in March, taking $12,400 with her. (The poor thing forgot to read the fine print you see in all those travel advisories that it is a felony to transport more than $10,000 in currency without reporting it.)

Sunday is a big day of the week for The New York Times. Were you or (per impossible) I the editor of the Gray Lady, this story would have occupied a prominent place on the front page of Sunday’s edition. And sure enough, there it was, above the fold . . . Oh, wait, I was mistaken. It was not DWS after all. Silly mistake. It was actually an African herder surrounded by a bunch of goats. Also above the fold was a rare Times story lambasting Donald Trump. About Wasserman Schultz and the Iwan scandal there was precisely . . . nothing...

More.

Also at National Review, "Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Pakistani IT Scammers."

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Toppled

At LAT, "Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns after Supreme Court orders his dismissal in corruption case":

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned Friday after the country's Supreme Court disqualified him from office due to corruption charges he and his family have been battling.

"Following the verdict, Nawaz Sharif has resigned from his responsibilities as prime minister," a spokesman for Sharif's office said in a statement.

The unanimous, five-judge ruling — delivered to a packed courtroom in the nation’s capital — came after an investigation into the family’s finances following the Panama Papers leak in 2015. Documents uncovered during the international media investigation linked Sharif’s children to offshore companies that had not been revealed in financial disclosures.

After the ensuing investigations, Judge Ejaz Afzal Khan said Sharif was no longer "eligible to be an honest member of the parliament.” The court had already recommended anti-corruption cases against Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, her husband Safdar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and others...

Also at NYT, "Pakistan, Ousting Leader, Dashes Hopes for Fuller Democracy."

Getting an Edge in the Long Afghan Struggle

From David Petraeus and Michael O'Hanlon, at WSJ, "Trump’s early approach holds promise if backed with a sustained, and sustainable, commitment":

Trump's strategy should seek long-term sustainability in Afghanistan, write David Patraeus & Michael O’Hanlon https://t.co/hWUJMhT9NA

— WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) June 23, 2017

Can the U.S. succeed in Afghanistan? Not without a sustained, and sustainable, commitment. President Trump’s decision to give Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to add several thousand more U.S. troops to the 8,400 currently deployed is encouraging—but only if it is a first step in a comprehensive approach.

Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, should also receive greater leeway in the use of U.S. and NATO air power. And officials should remain open to the possibility of reconciliation with some insurgents, probably just those that break off from the central Taliban.

An intensified military effort could arrest the gradual loss of territory held by the government in recent years—now estimated by U.S. Central Command at only 60% of the country—and to regain battlefield momentum. Congress should enable all this by appropriating the $5 billion or so a year above current levels that such a strategy will require.

America’s leaders should not lose sight of why the U.S. went to, and has stayed in, Afghanistan: It is in our national interest to ensure that country is not once again a sanctuary for transnational extremists, as it was when the 9/11 attacks were planned there. We have been accomplishing that mission since the intervention began in October 2001. Although al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is diminished, it could rebound if given the opportunity. Islamic State could expand its newfound Afghan foothold as well.

The augmented troop levels Mr. Trump has authorized would be only 12% to 15% of the peak U.S. force levels, in 2010-11. The country can sustain that level of commitment. While all casualties are tragic, our losses in Afghanistan would likely remain far fewer than the losses from another major terrorist attack in the U.S.

Today the U.S. and its coalition partners lack the capacity to train and assist Afghan forces adequately in the field. As recently as 2015, the allied forces did not even have a full-time advisory presence for the main Afghan army corps in Helmand province. Largely as a result, the Taliban gained control of much of the province. Nor did the coalition have adequate advisers to help the smaller Afghan formations near Kunduz before that city fell to the Taliban in 2015. It was later liberated only at high cost, especially to Afghan forces and civilians. Restrictions on coalition air power reduced America’s ability to help Afghan partners.

Adding some 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. and allied troops could provide the capacity for several dozen deployable mentoring teams. That is far from enough to assist each Afghan brigade or battalion. But it could support the units that are engaged in the toughest fights and are most intensively involved in rebuilding their capabilities. Supporting those teams logistically and with air power, and providing quick-reaction forces in several parts of the country to help them if they get in trouble, would drive additional requirements for coalition troops into the low thousands.

On the civilian side, President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah need to continue their efforts against corruption, which have shown gradual, modest results to date. With U.S. help, they need to reform the electoral commissions that will oversee parliamentary and presidential elections over the next two years.

Then there is Pakistan, where the U.S. needs a tougher approach...

More.

PHOTO: Above, "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a helicopter over Kabul, April 24."

The Ethnic Cleansing of Christians Around the World is One of the Great Crimes of Our Age

Wow, what a headline.

From Jonathan Sacks, at Telegraph UK, "We are facing an unprecedented age of terror: The ethnic cleansing of Christians around the world is one of the great crimes of our age."

Via Instapundit, who snarks (darkly), "Obama doesn’t seem that upset, though."

Catholic Priest Thomas Uzhunnalil Crucified by Islamic State on Good Friday

It's almost unbelievable to me, but then it's all too predictable at the same time.

At London's Daily Mail, "ISIS 'crucifies Catholic priest on Good Friday' after kidnapping him from old people's home where four nuns were shot dead."

And at Pamela's, "Easter in the Islamic State: ISIS crucify Catholic priest." (Via Memeorandum.)

Terror in Pakistan: At Least 70 Killed as Taliban Jihadists Target Christians on Easter (VIDEO)

The number of fatalities keeps getting bigger.

At LAT, "Taliban says it targeted Christians in a park on Easter Sunday, killing 70."

Also, at Telegraph UK, "Pakistan terror attack: 72 dead after suicide bomber strikes children's play area in Lahore."

At Least 30 Slaughtered in Attack at Bacha Khan University in Pakistan (VIDEO)

The number killed keeps going higher depending on the news source.

At the Guardian UK, for example, "Pakistan university attack: at least 30 dead as gunmen storm Bacha Khan campus."

And the death toll's likely to rise.

Plus, watch, at Euronews, "Taliban claim attack on university in NW Pakistan, 21 dead."

Muslim Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 10 In Northwest Pakistan (VIDEO)

Another day, another jihad suicide bomber.

At Blazing Cat Fur.

Dozens Murdered as Pakistani Taliban Attack Mosque at Badaber Air Base, Outside Peshawar (VIDEO)

Pakistan, that bastion of peaceful bliss. Let's all sing John Lennon's "Imagine"!

At the New York Times, "Taliban Attack Kills 30 at Pakistan Air Force Base."

Pakistan Heatwave Leaves Hundreds Dead as Government Cuts Electrical Power

This is an astonishing loss of life.

At the BBC, "Pakistan heatwave: Death toll crosses 700 people in Sindh":

There is anger among local residents at the authorities because power cuts have restricted the use of air-conditioning units and fans, correspondents say.

Matters have been made worse by the widespread abstention from water during daylight hours during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Wouldn't want to get Allah pissed off or anything, and no doubt the government's cutting power to appease the gods of global warming.

Sad.

More at Euronews, "Anger at Karachi power cuts as hundreds die in Pakistan heatwave."

Pakistan Protesters Pay Tribute to #CharlieHebdo Jihadists, Hail Kouachi Brothers as 'Martyrs'

Video at AFP, "Pakistani protesters celebrate Charlie Hebdo attackers":

Dozens of people in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar pay tribute to the brothers who carried out the Charlie Hebdo murders.

Scores of Children Among 130 Dead in Taliban Attack on Pakistan School

The Taliban are warming up for retaking Afghanistan as President Obama declares an end to combat operations in that country.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Massacred in their classroom: More than 100 children killed as Taliban gunmen storm Pakistani school."

And at LAT, "Gunmen wearing uniforms of security forces, some strapped with suicide vests, go from classroom to classroom, firing at children as some students cower under their desks."

Robin Raphel, Longtime Pakistan Expert, Has Security Clearances Withdrawn

Known as "Lady Taliban," she's a big-time Democrat.

At WaPo, "U.S. diplomat and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation."

Pakistan Taliban Attacks Karachi International Airport

Because we've got those terrorists on the run alright!

At WSJ, "Gunmen Attack Karachi Airport: Masked Men Attack With Guns, Grenades; At Least 23 People Killed."

KARACHI, Pakistan—Militants stormed Karachi's Jinnah International Airport late Sunday, exchanging fire with security forces and leaving at least 23 people dead, officials said.

Separately, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked pilgrims from the minority Shiite sect of Islam in the west of the country, killing at least 23 pilgrims.

The Pakistani Taliban, a group closely linked to al Qaeda and its militant allies, claimed responsibility for the airport attack. No responsibility was immediately claimed or assigned for the attack on the pilgrims, but the Pakistani Taliban frequently targets Shiites, who make up about 20% of Pakistan's population.

More.

Also at Pamela, "Jihadists disguised as police guards and wearing suicide vests kill 18 during five-hour siege at Pakistan’s largest international airport."

Pakistan Censors Entire International New York Times Cover Story

Here's the original report at the New York Times, "What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden."

Folks weren't happy in Islamabad.

See Blazing Cat Fur, "NYT report on Al Qaeda is censored in Pakistan."

What Pakistan doesn't want you to read is what Pakistan knew about bin Laden. No Puns. NYT vs INYT (Pak). Via @nycjim pic.twitter.com/YlgN2DEXiq

— Subel (@svbel) March 22, 2014

Obama's Face Is All Over Fake Viagra in Pakistan

Pfft.

He's fake alright. And in Pakistan no less.

No doubt lots of village elders are pounding underage virgins with the help of the President of the United States.

Obama's face is all over fake Viagra in Pakistan pic.twitter.com/X7AKWP6R1x http://t.co/D8Vut3QLhn
— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) February 19, 2014

U.K.'s Lost Girls: Sex-Selective Abortion Industry Leaves Thousands of Missing Girls

I can hardly stand reading about this, but it's so vital. This gendercide must stop.

At the Independent UK, "The lost girls: Illegal abortion widely used by some UK ethnic groups to avoid daughters 'has reduced female population by between 1,500 and 4,700'":

The illegal abortion of female foetuses solely to ensure that families have sons is widely practised within some ethnic communities in Britain and has resulted in significant shortfalls in the proportion of girls, according to an investigation by The Independent.

The practice of sex-selective abortion is now so commonplace that it has affected the natural 50:50 balance of boys to girls within some immigrant groups and has led to the “disappearance” of between 1,400 and 4,700 females from the national census records of England and Wales, we can reveal.

A government investigation last year found no evidence that women living in the UK, but born abroad, were preferentially aborting girls. However, our deeper statistical analysis of data from the 2011 National Census has shown widespread discrepancies in the sex ratio of children in some immigrant families, which can only be easily explained by women choosing to abort female foetuses in the hope of becoming quickly pregnant again with a boy. The findings will reignite the debate over whether pregnant women should be legally allowed to know the sex of their babies following ultrasound scans at 13 weeks.

Some experts have argued that the baby’s sex should be withheld automatically until much later in pregnancy, when abortions are more difficult to obtain – as some NHS hospitals have already started to do.

About 10 per cent of the 190,000 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2011 took place after 13 weeks of pregnancy, when the sex organs of the foetus are clearly visible from ultrasound scans – which are available privately – and doctors can predict gender with an accuracy of more than 99 per cent.

Abortions based solely on gender are illegal in Britain and in many other countries, even those where the practice is widespread. In parts of India and China there are now as many as 120 or 140 boys for every 100 girls despite a ban on sex-selective abortion.

Amartya Sen, the Indian-born economist and Nobel laureate who warned 25 years ago about the tens of millions of “missing women” in the world, said gender-based abortions are a new form of sex discrimination. “Selective abortion of female foetuses – what can be called ‘natality discrimination’ – is a kind of high-tech manifestation of preference for boys,” Professor Sen said.

More at the link.

Plus, "The lost girls: Thousands of 'missing' girls revealed by analysis of UK's 2011 census results."

The families with the highest ratios favoring boys are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangledesh. The widespread availability of abortion and gender testing means that immigrant populations can easily sex-select their children, wreaking horrific gendercide on a generation of the unborn.

More, "The lost girls: It seems that the global war on girls has arrived in Britain." The piece estimates that in India alone probably 10 million baby girls have been aborted in the last two decades.