View allAll Photos Tagged jihadi
For more information about Eye On Malaysia,
feel free to visit www.eyeonmalaysia.com.my =)
About The Shot:
This photo was captured during my outing with Buyie in Melaka recently for Persidangan Pengetua-pengetua Maahad Tahfiz Peringkat Kebangsaan
You can see what Buyie had captured here =)
Model Release:
Mr. Jihadi again =)
Location, Date & Time:
Melaka, Malaysia | 28 October 2009 | 7:25pm (+8GMT)
Canon EOS 500D + Kitlens + 580EX ii with diffuser:
ISO100, f/20, 30 sec at 18mm.
Flash fired manually at 1/1 from 5 different angle.
Photoshop CS3:
- Unsharpen Mask at amount 55% with 2.5px radius,
- "S" Curves adjustment,
- Noiseware filter to reduce noise using Night Scene setting,
- Frame and watermark editing.
You:
I really appreciate your kind visit and support =)
All comments, criticism and tips for improvements are welcome.
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© & ® 2009 annamir@putera.com | www.facebook.com/annamir
~ IM EDGY AND I LIKE MY MUSIC LOUD \m/
♡♰♡
" Slayer, bass up-
Boy, we gotta get you geekin'
Mixer, elixir -
Gotta get this bitch freakin' .."
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
©2011 Muktasyaf Ibrahim AnNamir™
Not to be used or reproduced without written permission.
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About The Shot | HDR #63 - Warna Alam:
This was captured this afternoon during my lunch time.
Saya sangat teruja dengan langit dan awanan yang ada waktu tu, temankan Jihadi untuk sama2 mengambil gambar ni. I hope you don't mind if I again upload a photo of this beautiful place ;)
Location, Date & Time:
DQ, Kuala Kubu Bharu | 04 May 2011 | 1:35pm ( 8GMT)
Canon EOS 500D Kit Lens CPL Filter Handhled:
Photomatix:
- Tone mapping using details enhancer from 3 exposures.
Photoshop CS5:
- To merged all 7 TIF photos (shot in vertical mode),
- "White Neutralizer" filter (at 13, 13, 13, 5) by Color Efex Pro,
- "Tonal Contrast" filter (at Default Setting) by Color Efex Pro,
- "S Curves" adjustment,
- Unsharp Mask at 0.3px,
- New Adjustment Layer - Saturation (Blues) moved to -25,
- Clone stamp to remove dust,
- Watermark editing.
Me:
Thanks for your kind visit and support =)
All comments, criticism and tips for improvements are welcome.
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• Feel free to view my BEST INTERESTING SHOTS according to Flickr: Search here:
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© & ® 2011 annamir[at]putera.com | www.facebook.com/annamir
Ghent's opulent Groot Huis Royal Dutch Theatre & NTGent (KNS)
The Classic City Theatre of the Future - NTGent in the city of Ghent and Orestes in Mosul tragedy.
The Royal Dutch Theater (KNS) and home of the NTGent is an appealing,historical building located on Sint-Baafsplein Square.
It was built in 1897-1899 by the Belgian architect Edmond De Vigne in Eclectic architectural style.It plainly displays a blend of diverse styles,such as Neo-Renaissance,Baroque,Byzantine and 19th century Flemish design.
- Click on the image to enlarge and see all the described details -
"Apollo and the Muses of Fine Arts" & Harmonia"
On its elaborate facade and above the entrance,there is an enormous mosaic,(9 metres wide & 4 metres high),made up of thousands of 15 millimetre coloured ceramic stones.The Art piece was designed by the Belgian painter Constant Montald,and it shows a scene titled : "Apollo & the Muses of Fine Arts".Apollo,God of the Sun,Music and Arts,is shown in his charriot playing the Lyre while he brings the nine Muses to the mountain of the Arts,Parnassus.
In the forefront,we see the Muse of Theatre,Thalia,holding a mask.
Right on the very top of the building,Harmonia is also playing the Lyre.It's a magnidficent Alois Buyens bronze sculpture.Harmonia, Ares' & Aprodite's daughter,is the Immortal Goddess of harmony and concord - Ἁρμονία -.
The harmonious interplay of architecture,mosaic,painting and sculpture in 1897, was a significant event in the history of Flemish culture.
Let's see what's happening inside where Milo Rau is presenting his own Oresteia.
Orestes in Mosul - 17 April ,2019 - 26 January ,2020
NTGent - Adaptation of Classics -
"The Oresteia is not only the one single trilogy that has come down to us from classical antiquity and one of mankind’s greatest tragedies,but it also represents the myth of the foundation of civilisation,whereby the principle of the blood feud,the never-ending cycle of revenge,an eye for an eye,was replaced by the principles of justice,integration and reconciliation." Milo Rau
He staged this tragedy with a mixed ensemble of European and Iraqi actors.The process includes research and activities in Mosul,where the Jihadi caliphate of ISIS was declared in 2014.
Milo Rau had the idea of staging a present-day version of Aeschylus’ Oresteia while he was conducting research for his play EMPIRE (2016) ,in northern Iraq on the frontline facing ISIS.
- Music by the Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou -
- in Greek with English subtitles -
"It is as if you were in a television scene and in a classical epic at the same time," as Rau puts it.How is it possible to stop the never-ending chain of violence in which the parties of the Syrian-Iraqi civil war and their Western allies find themselves?
Milo Rau retains the ancient grandeur of the tragedy,but links it to present-day issues, with an international ensemble.
He is probably the most advanced,controversial and influential European playwright,author and director.He was recently awarded the first honourary doctorate of the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts at Lund University in Malmö,and Sweden,and assumed a post as lecturer at the University of Münster.
Although Greek tragedies go back 2,500 years,theatre directors continue to find them extraordinarily resonant today, sometimes staging them in contemporary settings or finding other ways to emphasise how pride and passion,ancient or modern,can bleed out and leave a society in ruins.
Insightful Reflection in the Future ...
In 2015 NTGent turned 50 years old.Since 1965,it has organized and staged more than four hundred plays.
NTGent is more than a theater in a Brechtian sense.It is a school for life and art that combines practice and theory,and sees it as an
investment in emerging artists,but also as an investment in Theater and Art.The NTGent programme includes theater projects,political discussions,lectures and activism,they think about the state of the world and call for action ...
"Don't expect the theatre to satisfy the habits of its audience, but to change them." Bertolt Brecht
- in Greek with English subtitles -
HDR #43 - Masjid Selat, Melaka, Malaysia.
About The Shot:
Sunrise SUNSET at Masjid Selat, Melaka.
This was captured during my recent outing with Buyie to Melaka.
You can view his photos here...
Canon EOS 500D + Kitlens:
ISO100, f/22 at 18mm.
Photomatix:
- Tone mapped HDR using details enhancer from 3 exposures.
Photoshop CS3:
- Photomerged from 4 HDR photos.
- Level adjustment.
- High pass sharpening.
- Dodge in some areas.
- Duplicate the Masjid and do some brightness.
- Curves adjustment to the flatten layer.
- Framing and watermark editing as usual :)
You:
I really appreciate your kind visit and support =)
All comments, criticism and tips for improvements are welcome.
_________________________________________________________________
© & ® 2009 annamir@putera.com | www.facebook.com/annamir
And then all of the sudden you live in the 'Jihadi capital of the world'. So strange to be at work and know that a bit further the police are doing raids and guns are being fired.
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Al-Hadith:
Daripada Abu Hurairah R.A, baginda Rasulullah S.A.W bersabda:
"Apabila syaitan mendengar azan, dia akan lari bertempiaran sehingga tidak mendengarnya lagi. Setelah azan selesai, dia kembali lagi untuk menghasut. Begitu juga apabila mendengar iqamat, dia akan lari sehingga tidak mendengarnya lagi dan sebaik sahaja iqamat selesai, dia kembali sekali lagi untuk menghasut."
About The Shot | Masjid Darul Quran:
Pagi tadi cuaca nampak redup sekali selepas hujan renyai2 yang turun tak henti dari awal subuh lagi. Suasana kat tepi Tasik DQ ni pun nampak menarik aja untuk difotografikan. Saya turun bersama Jihadi dengan gajet barunya. Jadi dapatlah peluang mengeshot beberapa keping foto untuk simpanan dan pembelajaran.
Location, Date & Time:
- Darul Quran, Kuala Kubu Bharu | 22 Mac 2011 | 09.15am (+8GMT)
Nikon D7000 + Kitlens 18-105mm:
- View edited image of this photo HERE :)
Me:
Thanks for your kind visit and support =)
All comments, criticism and tips for improvements are welcome.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Feel free to view my BEST INTERESTING SHOTS according to Flickr: Search here:
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- Search for ISLAM
- Search for MALAYSIA
- Search for 350D
- Search for 500D
- Search for KITLENS
- Search for MASJID
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- Search for HDR
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_________________________________________________________________
© & ® 2011 annamir[at]putera.com | www.facebook.com/annamir
Carved relief from the ancient Assyrian royal palace of Nineveh (Mosul in modern Iraq) detail of one of the many relief panels that once lined the walls now in the British Museum.
Many of these scenes depict the hunting of animals and are as cruel as they are beautifully rendered; this often makes me question my enjoyment of these stunning artworks when beautiful animals like lions and horses are seen to be suffering in them.
The site of Nineveh has been attacked by Daesh barbarians over the last two years of jihadi occupation, demolishing most of the few remaining structures and destroying 3000 years of history. It is located in the centre of Mosul which is currently a battleground as Iraqi forces attempt to reclaim their city. Whether any of the last vestiges of ancient Nineveh survive the liberation of the city remains to be seen, fortunately most of its more important sculpture is safe in museums like this.
'Please stop this war': A Kurdish child's message to the world ....stop kurdish genocide 💛 K U R D I S T A N Northern Syria
I'll boycott Turkish facist and jihadi state products
Any thing made in Turkey or assembled there. From food, clothes to everything else.
I'll boycott Turkish facist and jihadi state products
Any thing made in Turkey or assembled there. From food, clothes to everything else.
دەست خۆشی بۆ ئەوانەی بایکۆتی کەل و پەلی تورکی دەکەن
Carved relief from the ancient Assyrian royal palace of Nineveh (Mosul in modern Iraq) detail of one of the many relief panels that once lined the walls now in the British Museum.
Many of these scenes depict the hunting of animals and are as cruel as they are beautifully rendered; this often makes me question my enjoyment of these stunning artworks when beautiful animals like lions and horses are seen to be suffering in them.
The site of Nineveh has been attacked by Daesh barbarians over the last two years of jihadi occupation, demolishing most of the few remaining structures and destroying 3000 years of history. It is located in the centre of Mosul which is currently a battleground as Iraqi forces attempt to reclaim their city. Whether any of the last vestiges of ancient Nineveh survive the liberation of the city remains to be seen, fortunately most of its more important sculpture is safe in museums like this.
A couple of months ago I came across an awesome photo on Flickr. I think it was in Iraq. 1 U.S soldier in full combat gear was appearing to stand guard with his M16 'or whatever it was', while another 'behind him' was busting a throw up on a wall in paint. War-zone-getting-up was born & I wanted in. . Alas I'm neither a soldier, a mercenary, a journalist or a jihadi so I had to comprimise . . . My pal is currently serving in Afghanistan so I wrote to him & convinced him that going around putting up Drax WD tags would be an honourable pursuit likely to bring him good luck. This isnt the only one he's done, I may in fact have created a monster. The de-facto getting up in war zones action may not be over yet. Watch this space!
An excerpt: 'The answer which is coming from terrorists – that God is more important to them than their family – proves the fact that this mindset is not carved by the teachings of the Quran and Bible. This is a manmade doctrine and these are manmade teachings.'
www.theawaitedone.com/articles/2015/11/24/is-god-more-imp...
The boy killed for an off-hand remark about Muhammad - Sharia spreads in Syria
See this link: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23139784
"The four looked like jihadis but stopped to buy a packet of sunflower seeds. People explained that the truly pious would not eat sunflower seeds because they take so long to shell - and the Prophet said not to waste time."
This is Upper Tilel Valley where Dard people live beside Kishan Ganga river . Dards are known as the early Aryan settlers who came to India from Central Asia.
Valley created by swift flowing Kishan Ganga is not much fertile, at places the valley is less than 250 ft wide. Dards live on both bank in their wooden houses; architecture of which has remained nearly unchanged for thousands of years. This place remains snow bound and inaccessible for at least 4 months every year ; ice could pile up to 24 ft height. Water of Kishan Ganga reflects the azure blue sky above the mighty Himalaya , some eyes reflect the same color ! I will tell about those eyes and her Maya !
See photograph in large format , you will find continuous wall of spiked fencing ; this is little inside Line of Control anti infiltration wall ; there is continuous effort to push in Mujahedin / terrorists from across the border ; other nations have 3 wings - Army , Navy, Air force ; our neighbor got a 4th one namely Jihadi Mujahedin ; there is no difference between army and terrorist group.
The Swat Valley is known as the Switzerland of the East. I first visited it in August 1998 and have been back many times since. Swat was a tranquil area, serene but ruined by militancy in the last 3 years. It was a popular tourist destination for the summer. Its beauty attracted people from the other side of Pakistan. Swat had always been one of the most peaceful areas within the North-West of Pakistan but the Afghan war changed that.
Swat rises from over 900 metres above sea level to its highest peak of over 6000 metres. It is a green and fertile district which is heavily forested in some regions, specially Upper Swat and the side valleys. Sadly lower Swat has lost so much of it's tree cover making it look like the drier regions further to the south. Swat is green because of good rainfall and the river. Black Bear, Leopard, Wolves, Goral, Markhor, Ibex, Musk Deer, Pheasants, partridges, Redstarts, Wagtails, Flying Squirrel are some of the species found here. Sadly the 6 larger species mentionned are very rare thanks to over-hunting and habitat loss.
Lets pray for peace and normalcy to come back to Swat. So far the military operation has been very successful but the militants are never to be under-estimated!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swat,_Pakistan
Swat (Pakhto: سوات) is a valley and an administrative district in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan located 160 km/100 miles from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. It is the upper valley of the Swat River, which rises in the Hindu Kush range. The capital of Swat is Saidu Sharif, but the main town in the Swat valley is Mingora.[1] It was a princely state (see Swat (princely state)) in the NWFP until it was dissolved in 1969. With high mountains, green meadows, and clear lakes, it is a place of great natural beauty that used to be popular with tourists as "the Switzerland of Pakistan".[2].
In December 2008 most of the area was captured by the Taliban insurgency and it is now considered dangerous for tourism. The Islamist militant leader Maulana Fazlullah and his group Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi have banned education for girls and have bombed or torched "more than 170 schools ... along with other government-owned buildings."[3] The Pakistani government in late May 2009 began a military offensive to regain control of the region.
History
See also History of Swat (princely state)
The Swat River is mentioned in the Rig Veda 8.19.37 as the Suvastu river.[4] The first historical mention of the valley goes back to a hymn of the Rigveda(Stein, 1929:viii).[5] Swat has been inhabited for over two thousand years and was known in ancient times as the Udyana. The independent monarchs of this region came under Achaemenid influence, before reverting back to local control in the 4th century BC.[citation needed] In 327 BC, Alexander the Great fought his way to Udegram and Barikot. In Greek accounts these towns have been identified as Ora and Bazira. By 305 BC, the region became a part of the Mauryan Empire.[citation needed]
Buddhist heritage of Swat
Padmasambhava (flourished eighth century AD), also called Guru Rimpoche, Tibetan Slob-dpon (teacher), or Padma ‘byung-gnas (lotus born) legendary Indian Buddhistic Mystic who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet and is credited with establishing the first buddhist monastery there.
According to tradition, Padmasambhava was native to Udyana (now Swat in Pakistan).[6] Padmasambhava was the son of Indrabhuti, king of Swat in the early eighth century AD. One of the original Siddhas, Indrabhuti flourished in the early eighth century AD and was the king of Uddiyana in north western India (identified with the Kabul valley). His son Padmasambhava is revered as the second Buddha in Tibet. Indrabhuti's sister, Lakshminkaradevi, was also an accomplished siddha of the 9th century AD.[7]
Ancient Gandhara, the valley of Pekhawar, with the adjacent hilly regions of Swat and Buner, Dir and Bajaur was one of the earliest centers of Buddhist religion and culture following the reign of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, in the third century BC. The name Gandhara first occurs in the Rigveda which is usually identified with the region [8]
The secular Swat museum has acquired footprints of the Buddha, which were originally placed for devotion in the sacred Swat valley. When the Buddha ascended, relics (personal items, body parts, ashes etc.) were distributed to seven kings, who built stupas over them for veneration.
The Harmarajika stupa (Taxila) and Butkarha (Swat) stupa at Jamal Garha were among the earliest Gandhara stupas. These were erected on the orders of King Ashoka and contained the genuine relics of the historic Buddha.[citation needed]
The Gandhara school is credited with the first representations of the Buddha in human form, rather symbolically as the wheel of the law, the tree, etc.[citation needed]
As Buddhist art developed and spread outside India, Indian styles were imitated. In China the Gandhara style was imitated in bronze images, with gradual changes in the features of these images over the passage of time. Swat, the land of romance and beauty, is celebrated throughout the Buddhist world as the holy land of Buddhist learning and piety. Swat was a popular destination for Buddhist pilgrims. Buddhist tradition holds that Buddha himself came to Swat during his incarnation as Gautama Buddha and preached to the people here.
It is said[by whom?] that the Swat valley was filled with fourteen hundred imposing and beautiful stupas and monasteries, which housed as many as 6,000 gold images of the Buddhist pantheon for worship and education. Archaeologists now know of more than 400 Buddhist sites covering an area of 160 km in Swat valley alone. Among the important excavations of Buddhist sites in Swat an important one is Butkarha-I, containing original relics of the Buddha. A stone statue of Buddha, is still there in the village Ghalegay.[citation needed] There is also a big stupa in Mohallah Singardar Ghalegay.[citation needed]
Hindu Shahi Rulers and Sanskrit
Swat was ruled by the Hindu Shahi dynasty who have built an extensive array of temples and other architectural buildings now in ruins. Sanskrit was the language of the Swatis.[9]
Hindu Shahi rulers built fortresses to guard and tax the commerce through this area. Their ruins can be seen in the hills of Swat: at Malakand pass at Swat’s southern entrance.[10]
Advent of Islam by Mahmud of Ghazni
Scenery from a restaurant near Mingora, Swat ValleyAt the end of the Mauryan period (324-185 BC) Buddhism spread in the whole Swat valley, which became a very famous center of Buddhist religion .[11]
After a Buddhist phase the Hindu religion reasserted itself, so that at the time of the Muslim invasions (AD1000) the population was solidly Hindu (ibid,ix)[12]
In 1023 Mahmood of Ghazni attacked Swat and crushed the last Buddhist King, Raja Gira in battle. The invasion of Mahmood of Ghazni is of special importance because of the introduction of Islam as well as changing the Chronology.[13]
These invasions caused no break in local traditions: the place–names given in the early Greek sources may be recognized in the names of major villages of modern Swat.(ibid,47,60), Conversion to Islam was thus something imposed by a small group of warrior lords, with the bulk of the population maintaining its secular Indian traditions. The main body of the modern agricultural tenants in Swat are probably descended from this formerly Hindu population.
The first Muslim masters of Swat were non–Pakhtun Dilzak tribes from south-east Afghanistan. These were later ousted by Swati Pakhtuns, who were succeeded in the sixteenth century by Yisufzai Pakhtuns. Both groups of Pakhtuns came from the Kabul valley [14]
Later, when the King of Kabul Mirza Ulagh Beg attempted to assassinate the dominant chiefs of the Yousafzais they took refuge under the umbrella of the Swati Kings of Swat and Bajour. The whole area was dominated by the Swati/Jahangiri Sultans of Swat for centuries. According to H. G. Raverty, the Jahangiri Kings of Swat had ruled from Jalalabad to Jhelum. After more than two decades of guerrilla warfare, they were dispossessed by the Yousafzais.
Demographics
The population at the 1981 Census was 715,938, which had risen to 1,257,602 at the next Census in 1998. The main language of the area is Pakhto. The people of Swat are mainly Pakhtuns, Yousafzai's, Kohistanis and Gujars. Some have very distinctive features[neutrality disputed]. Most probably they are originated from the same tribe who are roamed around the great trans-Himalayan mountain ranges thousands of years before, and now remained in some isolated but extremely beautiful pockets of Himalayan mountain ranges.
The Dardic people of the Kalam region in northern Swat are known as Kohistanis and speak the Torwali and Kalami languages. There are also some Khowar speakers in the Kalam region. This is because before Kalam came under the rule of Swat it was a region tributary to Chitral the Kalamis paid a tribute of mountain ponies to the Mehtar of Chitral every year.
Tourist attractions
PTDC Motel at Malam Jabba Ski Resort.There is a popular ski resort in Swat at Malam Jabba, 40 km north east of Saidu Sharif, closed in 2007 due to the decreasing ability of the Pakistani government to maintain security in the region. In June 2008, the ski resort was burned down by militants.[15]
Administration
The region has gone through considerable changes over the last few years since the dissolution of the Swat (princely state) in 1969. Members of the former Royal family have been elected to represent the area in the Provincial Assemby and National Assembly on occasion since then.
The district is represented in the provincial assembly by seven elected MPAs who represent the following constituencies:[16]
Taliban insurgency
Main article: Battle of Swat
By January 2003, there was a notable increase in violence as militant groups in the Swat valley, led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, began attacking and killing civilians as well as police checkposts in Swat.[18] In 59 villages, the militants set up a "parallel government" with Islamic courts imposing sharia law. By 2009 the region was largely under effective militant control, despite the presence of 20,000 Pakistani troops.[19] Local opponents of the militants have been harshly critical of Pakistani civil society for its lack of concern for their plight as well as critical of the military and provincial government for their ineffective measures for controlling the tide of militancy.[20]
Late 2007
After a four-month truce ended in late September 2007, fighting resumed.[21] The paramilitary Frontier Constabulary was deployed to the area, but initially were reported to be ineffective. On November 16, 2007 Militants were reported to have captured Alpuri district headquarters in neighbouring Shangla. The local police fled without resisting the advancing militant force which, in addition to local militants, also included Uzbek, Tajik and Chechen volunteers.[22]
In late November 2007, Pakistani regular forces threw out Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi militants from its stronghold in the Kabal District of north-western Swat. About 250 militants died in two weeks of fighting according to Pakistani authorities and the militants retreated into the mountains.[1] By December 2007, the militants were on the run, with the valley "largely cleared".[23] Pakistani officials stated at that time that it would take four months to re-establish functioning institutions in the area, in the wake of Islamist ruin.[23]
Developments in 2009
A January 21, 2009 issue of the Pakistan daily newspaper The News, reports Taliban enforcement of a complete ban on female education in the Swat district. Some 400 private schools enrolling 40,000 girls have been shut down. At least 10 girls' schools that tried to open after the January 15, 2009 deadline by the Taliban were blown up by the militants in the town of Mingora, the headquarters of the Swat district.[27] "More than 170 schools have been bombed or torched, along with other government-owned buildings."[3]
In a stated attempt at bringing peace to this region, the Pakistani Government on 16 February 2009, signed a peace accord with the Taliban and agreed to the imposition of Sharia law in Swat and suspension of military offensives against the Taliban. This agreement invoked mixed reactions from the locals: some are relieved on the prospect of relative peace, while others are more skeptical about the Talibanisation of this scenic paradise and the push that this accord would give to the spread of Taliban's movement in Pakistan.[28] International concern primarily stems from the rigidity with which the Taliban is seen to be imposing Sharia. Others point to the impact such an accord will have in empowering radical Islamists and the jihadi movement in Pakistan and elsewhere.[29]
February 2009 ceasefire
Main article: Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009
The Pakistani government announced on February 16, 2009 that it would allow Sharia law in the Malakand region. In return, Fazlullah's followers agreed to observe a ceasefire negotiated by Sufi Muhammad.[30][31][32]
Reactions to Ceasefire
NATO feared that the agreement would only serve to allow militants to regroup and to create a safe haven for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.[33]
Amnesty International expressed concern that the agreement would legitimize human rights abuses in the region.[30]
The people of Swat have welcomed this peace-agreement as welcome respite from the fighting that had brought their lives to a standstill.[who?] However, reports from the area suggest that this agreement has been accepted by them out of fear of continuous fighting that has destroyed the once scenic tourist haven.[citation needed] With the imposition of Nizam-e-Adl, some colleges and schools, including those for women, have reopened.[citation needed] However, women have to conceal themselves from head to toe as per the Islamic law or Shariah.[citation needed] Furthermore, Pakistanis are now scared that this deal may only serve to embolden militants to spread their influence into more settled parts of Pakistan.[citation needed]
Despite the reported ceasefire, the Taliban have refused to lay down their arms[34]. Various international political and security analysts are opining that this deal and refusal to lay down arms may have devastating effects on the stability of Pakistan.[35][36][37]
April-May 2009 Pakistani offensive
Through a media broadcast, the Pakistani government announced in late April that it would fight the Taliban in the Swat Valley, this war is called swat operation. This led to a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees announced that between 150,000 to 200,000 civilians had fled the war zone.[citation needed] The Pakistani military took back multiple Taliban strongholds, such as Rama Kandhao ridge in Matta and a Taliban headquarters in Loenamal. On the 8th of May, the Pakistani military announced that around 80 Taliban fighters had been killed and two Pakistani soldiers had been injured. Air strikes, artillery bombardment and rocket attacks by helicopter gunships are being undertaken extensively. As of 11 May, the military spokesperson of the ISPR report that as many as 200 militants had been killed in the fighting with Pakistan Army troops, also that Pakistan helibourne commandos had been inserted in the area which is the main stronghold of these militants.[38] By early June 2009, most of Swat was freed from Taliban and Mingora, the main town of Swat, was in complete government control and then pakistan government started focusing army on South Waziristan.[citation needed]
I'll boycott Turkish facist and jihadi state products
Any thing made in Turkey or assembled there. From food, clothes to everything else.
- EXPLORED on 13 May 2009 - Thanks all for your kind visit! Have a nice day!
Just playing around with my friend's D90.
Bad focusing as it was taken handheld.
Manually rotate the camera to having this kind of effect.
Nikon D90 + Kit Lens:
ISO200, f/3.5, 1/2", focal length 18mm, handheld.
Photoshop CS3:
- Level & Curves adjustment,
- Watermark and framing editing.
You:
All comments, criticism and tips for improvements are welcome.
_________________________________________________________________
© & ® 2009 annamir@putera.com
Afrin wakes up at the call of Azan, rows her Kashti (Boat) through Jhilam to reach her college in time. She is studying to become a doctor. She fasts during Ramzan (Ramadan), she loves to share Roganjosh with friends at Mughal Darbar. While rowing her boat she loves to sing Asha Bhosle’s chartbuster “Do Lafzon Ki Hai…”
Lt Cornel Nachiketa Sharma took a Jihadi bullet while protecting Afrin’s freedom to study, freedom to sing, freedom to Live.
This is one of the greatest achievements of Independent India.
War Goat Specifications:
Length: 15 studs
Width: 6/7 studs
Crew: 3
Armament: 2 HMGs, or Anything that can be strapped to the goat.
Top Speed: Depends on the goat.
Tow Rating: Again, depends on the goat.
Unit Cost: (see below)
For a country that has the technological capabilities and economic might of Somalia, Azmiri defense contractors had their work cut out for them. Earlier in the year, this weapons platform was unveiled to the public as the "Fast Assault Goat". However, the designers swiftly changed the name to "War Goat" when fears surfaced that the original name's acronym could lower Jihadi morale. Lastly, though there was a requirement for mine resistance in the original contract, the Defense Ministry softened it's tone once it was learned that the replacement cost for a goat, two truck tires and a wooden crate was only fourteen Azmiri women.
The boy killed for an off-hand remark about Muhammad - Sharia spreads in Syria
See this link: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23139784
"The four looked like jihadis but stopped to buy a packet of sunflower seeds. People explained that the truly pious would not eat sunflower seeds because they take so long to shell - and the Prophet said not to waste time."
Recent events (killing of two jihadi terrorists in Verviers, BE) are responsible for growing fears in the neighbourhood, with a large Jewish population. This is the same neighbourhood where a palestinian terrorist used a grenade against a Jewish school. Some want the military to patrol the streets ... this will be nice for streetphotographers ;)
Fujifilm X10
ISO 500 F.0 T: 1/320/
Carved relief from the ancient Assyrian royal palace of Nineveh (Mosul in modern Iraq) detail of one of the many relief panels that once lined the walls now in the British Museum.
Many of these scenes depict the hunting of animals and are as cruel as they are beautifully rendered; this often makes me question my enjoyment of these stunning artworks when beautiful animals like lions and horses are seen to be suffering in them.
The site of Nineveh has been attacked by Daesh barbarians over the last two years of jihadi occupation, demolishing most of the few remaining structures and destroying 3000 years of history. It is located in the centre of Mosul which is currently a battleground as Iraqi forces attempt to reclaim their city. Whether any of the last vestiges of ancient Nineveh survive the liberation of the city remains to be seen, fortunately most of its more important sculpture is safe in museums like this.
Plagues happen only to people. Animals can suffer from mass infections, of course, but they experience them as one more bad blow from an unpredictable and predatory natural environment. Only people put mental brackets around a phenomenon like the coronavirus pandemic and attempt to give it a name and some historical perspective, some sense of precedence and possibility. The coronavirus, indifferent to individuals, has no creed or moral purpose, but it becomes human when it hits us—neither microscopic nor historic, just the size we are as we experience its effects. As Albert Camus wrote in “The Plague,” the 1947 novel that’s becoming to this disruption what W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939” was to the aftermath of 9/11, the microbe has no meaning; we seek to create one in the chaos it brings. The coronavirus has ravaged all of New York City, closing schools, emptying streets and turning stadiums into makeshift hospitals. And data made public by city health officials on Wednesday suggests it is hitting low-income neighborhoods the hardest. The spike glycoproteins give the coronavirus its name. The molecules protrude from the viral envelope like the spikes of a crown. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt are now analysing the structure of this protein. They hope to identify potential targets for antibodies and inhibitors – an important prerequisite for developing new vaccines and drugs against the SARS CoV-2 virus.The coronavirus needs the spike protein to infect a cell. The protein binds primarily to a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of human cells. The virus can then fuse with the cell membrane and release its genetic material into the cell. The spike protein is not only the sharpest weapon of the virus but also its Achilles’ heel; its exposed position makes it the preferred point of attack for the immune system. Antibodies can recognize the virus by its spike protein, bind to it, and thus mark it as a target for immune cells. However, the virus has another trick up its sleeve. A sugar coat hides the conserved parts of its spike proteins from the immune cells.The Max Planck researchers are therefore analysing the protective sugar shield and the membrane envelope of the virus in addition to the spike protein. They want to go beyond the existing static structures to calculate how the spike proteins move on the surface of the virus and how they change their shape – with a precision down to the size of an atom. During the first month of the outbreak in the city — the epicenter of America’s coronavirus crisis — many of the neighborhoods with the most confirmed virus cases were in areas with the lowest median incomes, the data shows. The biggest hot spots included communities in the South Bronx and western Queens. The data, collected by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, offers the first snapshot of an outbreak that infected more than 40,000 and killed more than 1,000 in the city in its first month. The increases in flu-related emergency room visits varied widely by neighborhood, with many of the surges occurring among residents of neighborhoods where the typical household income is less than the city median of about $60,000, the data shows.
In Corona, Queens, for example, the median household income is about $48,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That neighborhood is near the Elmhurst Hospital Center, which Mayor Bill de Blasio has cited as the hardest-hit hospital in the city. Doctors in the overwhelmed emergency room there have described the conditions as “apocalyptic.” The coronavirus has spread into virtually every corner of the city, and some wealthier neighborhoods have been overrun with cases, including some parts of Manhattan and Staten Island. But that may be because of the availability of testing in those areas. Nineteen of the 20 neighborhoods with the lowest percentage of positive tests have been in wealthy ZIP codes. The patterns are even more striking when analyzing the data on people who visited the city’s 53 emergency rooms with the “flulike symptoms” that are a hallmark of the coronavirus. Over all, nearly three times as many people with “flulike symptoms” like fever, cough or sore throat visited city emergency rooms this March when compared with the same month in previous years. In the last four years, there were on average 9,250 flu-related visits to emergency rooms in March; this March, the number tripled to about 30,000. These calculations will reveal the tiniest details of the protein structure. But they are extremely complex. “We need the massive computing power of the supercomputers of the Max Planck Society”, explains Gerhard Hummer, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics. With their dynamic model of the spike protein, the researchers hope to identify binding domains to which antibodies can reliably bind. Hummer and his team also hope to discover binding sites for inhibitors. They plan to compare these with the binding properties of existing drugs with the help of computers and thus identify active ingredients that can block the spike protein. “Of course, repurposing drugs that are already on the market is much faster than finding new active ingredients and testing them in lengthy clinical trials”, says Hummer.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/01/nyregion/nyc-coron...
The final weekend of semi-ordinary life in New York arrived on Friday the 13th. In the week that followed, New York became a ghost town in a ghost nation on a ghost planet. The gravity and scale of what is happening can overwhelm the details of daily life, in which human beings seek a plateau of normalcy in abnormal times, just as they always have in blitzes and battles. Nobody has any confidence at all about whether we are seeing the first phases of a new normal, the brief calm before a worse storm, or a wise reaction that may allow, not so horribly long from now, for a renewal of common life. Here are some notes on things seen by one walker in the city, and some voices heard among New Yorkers bearing witness, on and off the streets.
It happened slowly and then suddenly. On Monday, March 9th, the spectre of a pandemic in New York was still off on the puzzling horizon. By Friday, it was the dominant fact of life. New Yorkers began to adopt a grim new dance of “social distancing.” On a sparsely peopled 5 train, heading down to Grand Central Terminal on Saturday morning, passengers warily tried to achieve an even, strategic spacing, like chess pieces during an endgame: the rook all the way down here, but threatening the king from the back row. Then, when the doors opened, they got off the train one by one, in single, hesitant file, unlearning in a minute New York habits ingrained over lifetimes, the elbowed rush for the door.In the relatively empty subway cars, one can focus on the human details of the riders. A. J. Liebling, in a piece published in these pages some sixty years ago, recounted the tale of a once famous New York murder, in which the headless torso of a man was found wrapped in oilcloth, floating in the East River. The hero of the tale, as Liebling chose to tell it, was a young reporter for the great New York World, who identified the body by type before anyone else did: he saw that the corpse’s fingertips were wrinkled in a way that characterized “rubbers”—masseurs—in Turkish baths. Only someone whose hands were wet that often would have those fingertips. On the subway, in the street, nearly everyone has rubbers’ hands now, with skin shrivelled from excessive washing.
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At the other end of the day, in Central Park late at night, the only people out were the ones walking their dogs. Dogs are still allowed to have proximity, if only to other dogs. They can’t be kept from it. The negotiations of proximity—the dogs demanding it, the owners trying to resist it without being actively rude—are newly arrived in the city. Walking home down the almost empty avenues, you could see the same silhouette, repeated: dogs straining toward dogs on long-stretched leashes, held by watchful owners keeping their distance, a nightly choreography of animal need and human caution.
At J.F.K., in Queens, during that strange weekend, people huddled and waited anxiously for the homecoming of family members who had been stranded abroad, with the understanding that homecoming now comes at a cost: arriving passengers have been asked to self-quarantine for two weeks. J.F.K. had been spared some of the nightmarish lines and confusion seen at Dulles, in Washington, and O’Hare, in Chicago, following Donald Trump’s abrupt decision the previous Wednesday (relayed in a garbled announcement) to suspend most travel from Europe. But no one is spared the emotional ambivalence of the moment: every feeling pulled out hard, like an attenuated nerve. Parents are keenly aware that, in bringing their children home to what is meant to be safety, they are bringing them to an increasingly unsafe place.“Barren” was the word that Lisa Cleveland, who lives in New Jersey, used for the normally bustling airport. She spent part of Saturday morning waiting for her teen-age children Zoë and Xander, who had been staying in the Netherlands. Their father is a Dutch citizen. “I’m still trying to understand the risks, but he’s been tracking this for more than two months,” Cleveland said. “He’s that guy.” Getting the kids back to the U.S. before further barriers went up wasn’t easy. “Xander and Zoë—she likes the double dot over her name, otherwise it becomes a Dutch word that rhymes with ‘cow’—were in Amsterdam. We struggled and struggled to find them tickets home. Someone told us that one of the airlines was going to go bankrupt.”
When she saw Zoë and Xander at last, Cleveland said, “it was just such an enormous relief. And more emotion than you can easily imagine. This is the first day I’ve been able to smile in weeks. But now they have to do a mandatory self-quarantine for two weeks.”
Zoë said, “Not that I’m not glad to be home, but I’ll miss school. The mood on the plane was weird—half the plane was wearing masks.” Because safety masks were sold out in Amsterdam, she and her brother decided to wear masks that their parents had bought them out of an abundance of caution. They were 3M respirators, the kind an industrial worker might wear in the presence of toxic aerosols. “I felt people were judging us,” Zoë said. “It’s a crazy mask. No one else on the plane had on such a serious mask.”
Crises take an X-ray of a city’s class structure. After 9/11, it was the Middle Eastern and South Asian taxi-drivers who suddenly became visible, lining their cabs with American flags for fear of being taken for jihadis. Now particular visibility falls on bicycle deliverymen, Mexicans and Indians, the emissaries of Seamless, who modestly shoulder the burden of feeding the middle class. On the East Side, outside a Thai restaurant at 7 p.m. on Saturday, a single deliveryman balanced five bags of food hanging from his handlebars. His livelihood hinges on his getting meals to people who are self-isolating, a luxury he doesn’t have. Although he was grateful for the work, he said, he was a little frightened about his own exposure. Asked how many more sacks he ferries during his shift these days, he shrugged and said at least ten times the usual load.Just as the medical system depends on the lowest paid of the health workers—the orderlies and custodians—the food system, now that restaurants have been limited to takeout and delivery, depends on a whole cadre of men pedalling bicycles. They are literally overburdened, and, that night, this one got off to an unsteady start, like a plane in wartime trying to take off with too large a load of refugees. He glanced up at a high-rise condominium being built on Madison Avenue and Eighty-ninth Street. Construction work continues right through the closures—no letup in the noise and activity, even on the weekend. The workmen, in their puffy vests and hard hats, were side by side, though they didn’t seem particularly worried, or constrained. The exigencies of Manhattan real estate and development are evidently undeterred by the crisis.What’s strange about this energetic construction of more luxury housing is that, in the existing apartment buildings nearby, on the impossibly wealthy blocks of Fifth Avenue, scarcely a light can be seen. Nobody’s home. Most of the truly wealthy have gone, by helicopter or private jet, to the Hamptons or to an island somewhere. There can be something vexing about the thought that those whose wealth relies on the intense, close-ordered entanglement of the city abandon it in its hour of need, or dread, but they do. Still, who would not decamp to a remote island if she had one? “Boccaccio-ing,” someone calls this business of fleeing the city, in honor of the Italian author, who wrote of fleeing Florence during the Black Death, and telling stories with his companions for ten days up in the hillside villas of Fiesole.
In West Harlem, Sam Rivera certainly can’t leave. At a residential facility run by the Fortune Society and known as the Castle, his job is to oversee the rooms and the souls of about eighty-five men and women, almost all released from prison not long ago, some as recently as this month. They come in and out of his office all day, seeking help and solace. “It’s crazy, but the system is still churning,” Rivera said. He is a huge man, with a beaming, steady smile. “They’re still discharging people from Rikers and elsewhere, even as we go through all this. So we have a steady inflow of people coming home, even while we’re trying to lock down the people we already have.”This is Rivera’s second plague. Incarcerated himself when H.I.V./aids hit New York’s state prisons, in the nineteen-eighties, he still remembers the shock of working in the isolated wards where those who fell ill with the disease were sequestered: “Everyone was so frightened that they pretty much put on a hazmat suit to go into those places. Except me.” His experience led him, once he was out of prison, to join the aids-care movement, where he met and worked with Anthony Fauci, the current director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Now that Rivera is responsible for the residents of the Castle, he thinks hard about what to do. His memories of the aids epidemic are strong, and they give an oddly positive cast to his take on today’s crisis.
“We’ve stockpiled three weeks’ worth of food, and we’re sending staff to screen visitors at Rikers,” he said. (City jails have since suspended in-person visits.) “But it’s not a deadly virus for most people—it’s not as deadly as aids. I think we’ll get to the point where the next announcement will have to be, What are we doing for people who have to manage the elders and those with compromised immune systems? I’m coping two ways. I’m not overthinking it. I expect to get it one day. I’ll feel sick, and I’ll manage it, I’ll come through it, and my body will build immunities to it. And that will be a blessing.”
Despite his brio in the face of the virus, Rivera worries about the vulnerable residents in his charge. “We have a number of people in the Castle who are living with H.I.V., and we’re really monitoring where and how they are,” he said. “The problem is that they don’t like following up. Most of them have had bad experiences with the medical system, or sometimes no experience with it. But, if anyone has flu-like symptoms, then we are able to get a test, right now, at Columbia Presbyterian, which is great. All we can do is watch and move forward, day by day.”
Panic-buying has been in evidence all over town, if unevenly executed. Many chain supermarkets and food stores are stripped bare of groceries, in a way that calls to mind the days just after 9/11. Back then, people gathered “Armageddon baskets,” filled with expensive things—steak and Perrier. Now they assemble survival kits. Toilet paper and canned beans are treasured. (There is no chance, the grocers assure the city, of running out of either.) Still, there’s a pattern to the emptying of the supermarkets. Every potato, every carrot, every onion in a West Side Citarella is gone, as is every package of pasta and every jar of tomatoes in an uptown Whole Foods. Yet many of the less tony supermarkets, the nearby Key Foods and Gristedes, have remained well stocked and serene throughout the rush.
“You realize what this means?” a college student who grew up in New York said, about the depredations of upscale shoppers. “It means they believe that it’s every man for himself. They don’t really believe in community or that people will or can share. Their instinct, despite living in one of the more affluent spots in the world, is that they’re on their own.” The plague, as Camus insisted, exposes existing fractures in societies, in class structure and individual character; under stress, we see who we really are. The secession of the very rich, the isolation of the well-off, the degradation of social capital by inequality: these truths become sharply self-evident now.
The current crisis is, in some respects, the mirror image of the post-9/11 moment. That turned out to be a time of retrospective anxiety about a tragedy unforeseen. The anticipatory jitters weren’t entirely unfounded—anthrax killed a hospital worker in Manhattan—but they arose from something that had already happened and wouldn’t be repeated. By contrast, the covid-19 crisis involves worries about something we’ve been warned is on the way. The social remedy is the opposite of the sort of coming together that made the days and weeks after 9/11 endurable for so many, as they shared dinners and embraced friends. That basic human huddling is now forbidden, with the recommendations for “distancing” bearing down ever tighter: no more than five hundred people together, then two hundred and fifty, then fifty, then ten.
At the same time, the emphasis on social distancing and even isolation is part of an epidemiological study in statistical probability. If we delay the communication of the virus from patient to patient, the curve of new cases may flatten, so that fewer people at any time will need hospitalization, reducing the stress on the system and keeping health services available for all the other countless ailments that strike a city of eight million. In a way, the self-seclusions are exhibits not of personal panic but of public-minded prudence: we are trying to save the lives, above all, of the most vulnerable. But, of course, the plague-in-progress may progress despite it all.“Love in the Time of Cholera” is Gabriel García Márquez’s great novel of another plague time—with cholera, we’re told, referring to both the name of the terrible disease and the condition of being colérico, angry and impassioned. Love in the time of coronavirus was bound to happen—in crisis and despair is born desire—and it already has. Kids forced to leave college and return home to the city talked about long-sought last-minute assignations on the night before the general expulsion.
Sometimes desire in anxiety can be more delicate. In Grand Central Terminal, what some call “the tile telephone”—the whispering gallery in front of the Oyster Bar, under the beautiful basket weave of arches—has never been so clear. The noise of the station is usually so intense that the tiled ceiling turns mute. Now, for the first time in forever, the abatement in the roar and press of people allows couples’ murmured endearments, spoken into one corner, to race up through the solid Guastavino tile and carry all the way over to the diagonally facing corner.A pair of young friends encountered there that Friday weren’t out-of-towners; this was Kyle and Leah, and they’re New Yorkers through and through, who decided that this was the moment, finally, to really see Grand Central. The appetite for the joys of structured sightseeing is indomitable. Another young woman, Amaya—visiting from Durham, North Carolina, and crushed to find the city so inhospitable—stood in the corner, smiling and singing to a friend on the other side.But it was on Saturday, when the sky was blue and the temperature hovered in the fifties, that the irresistible urge to find pleasure brought out flocks of young people to various outdoor spaces. “I’ve noticed that a lot of people my age are headed to Prospect Park and are taking advantage of a beautiful day, a large space where they can mingle,” a thirty-one-year-old woman said, early on Saturday afternoon. “They sort of keep social distance, but also connect.” Many photographs, shared widely on social media, seemed to show the millennials lounging thoughtlessly close, prompting a Twitter uproar.
The uproar did seem to reflect a determination on the part of young people in New York to go on living like young people in New York. “Last night I went out to a restaurant,” the same woman said. “And the wait was half an hour. So we went to a different restaurant, and at that one, when the waitress was bringing out drinks, she got confused about where to go, since they had just changed their seating—I think to have more space between tables. ”Like life-hardened Sam Rivera, these younger New Yorkers have touching if perhaps worrying faith in their own invulnerability. “I don’t think people in my cohort are that terrified,” the woman went on. “Most people seem to believe that they will get the virus and they will survive having it. The vibe is pretty much one of acceptance, even a little bit of excitement. I hate to say this, but it’s become a distraction from the election. Also, a lot of my friends are cooking. Like ambitious stockpot recipes—soups and stews—and a lot of baking, too. Pies and cookies. I myself am currently deep-cleaning my apartment, knowing that I’ll be stuck in it.” Meanwhile, she said, “my family is from New York, and my father has been fearlessly going to the gym. I think there’s a bit of yolo fear to it—he wants to make the most of his life. But I have pleaded with him to stop.”
That same Saturday, Maggie McGlinchy, a bartender, worked all evening at Bernie’s Restaurant, on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. “It was full,” she said on Sunday. “But it doesn’t take much to fill the restaurant. The actual volume was low, and it seemed as though no one wanted to be seen to be fully enjoying themselves. I sold a lot of Martinis that night—mostly Martinis, or Old-Fashioneds or Manhattans. No wine or artisanal ale. Everyone was trending the spirits.
“At Bernie’s, I’m on a first-name basis with possibly a third of the customers—it’s definitely a home base. In the past two nights, a lot of my customers are people who wanted to come in and support us. Most of my tips were over twenty per cent. That’s the other thing about social distancing—so much of what it means to be comforted is to be . . . not distant. Stay positive, I’d say—we’re feeling well right now and let’s hope it stays positive and do you want another drink?” But by Sunday night all the bars and restaurants in the city had been ordered to stop table service in the next few days, an unimaginable act a week earlier, as strange as if the island of Manhattan had floated out to sea.
McGlinchy said that she is looking for a new job, but there are no new jobs for bartenders, because there are no bars.“What do I have going forward? I have a month’s rent and a warm e-mail from my former employer,” she said dryly on Tuesday morning. “I’ve had some regulars send me twenty bucks over Venmo. Last tips.”
The full weight of the shutdown will fall most heavily on the Maggies of the world, who have little or no financial cushion. (Later, Bernie’s set up a GoFundMe campaign for the staff.) Hundreds of thousands of people in the service and entertainment industries—from bartenders to the “swing” theatre actors who pride themselves on leaping into whatever role has been left open by an unwell lead—are out of work, for a time that has no known limit.There are, as well, the small, crushing disappointments that, though reasonably lost in the larger life-and-death clamor, are very real to the people they have happened to. The actress Ilana Levine had just opened in a new play, “The Perplexed,” by Richard Greenberg—a comeback of sorts for her—when all theatres, concert venues, and night clubs were closed. “You know, I had been on Broadway a lot when I was younger,” she said. “But then came L.A. and children. . . . And out of the blue I got this call to do this play of Richard’s, with the idea that, after all this time, I’d be back on the stage in New York, which I missed desperately. So all of these things I’d been dreaming of happened, and with it came so much fear and anxiety: ‘Can I make it work?’ ” She laughed at the idea of what fear and anxiety meant a few days earlier—having too much to memorize.
“The play is about family and struggle and old hurts and people having to be, in this sort of Sartre way, perpetually closed off in the space of one room with each other,” she continued. “So now the play and the reality are one, in ways I could never have imagined. Except I don’t get to do it in this world, with an audience.” The evocative set, designed by Santo Loquasto, of a New York town house, has not yet been struck from the Manhattan Theatre Club stage, she said. “So all of us keep thinking of that set, and how we want to get to it, be on it—the company, even without an audience, just to work together on it. Actors are not people who know how to isolate. We are suddenly physically frozen at this moment.”
The young musical-theatre actress Abena Mensah-Bonsu, cast in a significant role in a new show, “Nollywood Dreams,” had been commuting in from New Jersey, feeling all the ancient excitement of a big break. Now she sits at home and is eager to get back to the theatre. “Acting is the opposite of social distancing,” she said, echoing Levine. “Even if you’re introverted, as I am. So, when we sit in place, we long to be engaged with someone.” On Broadway, the theatres are empty, but the lights have still been on, as though the theatres were willing the shows to continue.
One irony of this pandemic is that, while it exposes the gaps in our social and medical safety nets, it also punishes people for behaving well. Communities with the healthiest intergenerational relationships seem to be at greater risk than those that sequester older people in nursing homes. Italy, one study shows, has been so hard hit by the coronavirus because there the young and the old have the beautiful habit of mingling together. Grandparents are accustomed to being with their grandchildren.In the days before the shutdown, the Lubavitcher community in Crown Heights became a virus hot spot, perhaps because the Hasidic sects, too, have kept at bay the alienation of generations that is so much part of American life. “Do you want to know how things appear, or how they are?” Mica Soffer, the editor of a Jewish news Web site, said that Sunday. “It’s been extremely hectic. As far as the community itself, I guess we weren’t so much prepared. It’s in China, it’s in Europe—we didn’t realize how quickly it would get here. Our community is so connected. We live in an urban area—you’re always around people. It’s Brooklyn, after all! Late last week, I had a shiva call, a wedding, and an engagement party. Everyone has a million things they need to go to—families are large.”She went on, “Most families here have elderly parents and grandparents—it’s a big part of life. Purim was last weekend—you’re talking about people being exposed. We didn’t realize at first. We didn’t know. There was a lot of contact. Very much part of our day-to-day life—especially with the men going to shul three times a day, and Torah classes every single day. One of the things that’s so amazing is that everybody kicked into high gear to put up yeshivas online within two days.
“In Crown Heights, davening still goes on, it always has to be there, within the realm of whatever number the health department says. No more than ten people in Israel. A rabbi told me, ‘Faith is not the absence of reason.’ We don’t give up on the interventions. God blessed us with doctors, not as something apart from us but as something there to help us. My father told me this: God is in charge, and God watches over us. Every time I get really panicky, there’s that sense that God is taking care of us. I’m an anxious person and it’s not easy. But I have to access that. Rabbi Nachum said, ‘Gam zu l’tovah’—‘This, too, shall be for the good.’ ” On Tuesday, rabbis closed the Crown Heights synagogues. “Now,” Soffer said, “many people are praying outdoors, six feet away from each other.”
The self-exile of the very wealthy from the city that made them rich is hardly uniform. A feeling of social responsibility, of solidarity, is embodied by Elizabeth Smith, who is the head of the Central Park Conservancy. She and her husband, Rick Cotton, the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, became among the first public officials in New York known to have covid-19. Now all she wants is to get back to the Park.
“I’ve never been in the tabloids before,” Smith, who is in her late sixties, said from her Manhattan apartment, where she was convalescing, and in her second week of seclusion. “In my family, you’re in the paper when you’re born and again when you marry. And the fact of the matter is that the virus gets . . . very virulent. I wasn’t feeling well on Saturday—all the typical flu symptoms, like a fever, but a relatively mild case of the flu for me. I stayed in bed, had my moments of panic, but I was fortunate to be paired with Rick, who was positive but asymptomatic. And I was well enough to stay in touch with the Conservancy and find out how everyone was faring—the morale and the health of the staff—and the Park itself, too. It has the tremendous power of offering peace and respite to people. The amazing people are the city workers. They keep showing up. They show up at work and they do the right thing. There are lots of selfless people, lots of people who take public service seriously.”
Even if she hadn’t fallen ill, Smith said, she would have wanted to stay in the city. “We have a big responsibility to the public,” she said. “You know, when Frederick Law Olmsted made the Park, it was just with that in mind: most people don’t even have a chance of leaving New York. It’s for all those people who couldn’t leave the city, to get to the Adirondacks.” Smith is the chair of the Library of America, which published a collection of Olmsted’s essays, letters, and other reflections in 2015. “Believe it or not, I never quite got through Olmsted’s writings,” she admitted. “He was a genius and a beautiful writer.” She is now immersed in the volume: “I’m not in the Park but I can stay in the Park.”
Emptiness and absence contradict the very concept of the city. The point of a city is social proximity; to see people deliberately spaced out, like the walking but never intersecting figures in a Giacometti, is to see what cities aren’t. In a historical sense, cities are always organisms of a kind, like coral reefs, where a lot of people come together to barter spices and exchange ideas and find mates, and endure the recurrent damage of infectious disease.The question is whether the current upheavals could somehow alter New York forever. Some beloved places may stay closed. Some new practices may be perpetuated. The digital trends toward disaggregation of experience may get a boost, at a cost to everything we love about the city. There’s an eerie gap between the raucous and argumentative world of the Internet and the silence of the streets. Outside, new patterns of wider spacing and greater caution assert themselves: Is that masked man contagious and to be avoided by crossing the street? Did we forget to sanitize after touching the gate to the park? And, with them, the terrible self-monitoring of plague times: Do I feel normal? Is my temperature high? Feel my forehead.Until last week, no one ever thought that Camus’s “The Plague” was about the plague. It was the text through which generations of high schoolers were taught how not to read literally. It was always taken as a fable or an allegory, specifically of the German occupation of France. The people in Camus’s plague town of Oran did not in any way deserve to suffer from the disease, but the crisis revealed all the various human responses of cowardice, denial, and courage. The point was not that actual plagues tell us much, but that the pressure of extreme and unexpected events forces the flaws in our common character to the surface.
This plague has proved an equal-opportunity evil, striking theocratic states like Iran and authoritarian ones like China, and more open ones like our own and those in Europe. Some hard balance of authority and openness is obviously essential to going on at all, but this is not news. We have always known that having the confidence to act, and the clarity to see if the way we act is good, is vital to our continued existence. Our continued existence! It used to be a kind of metaphor, really meaning “the easy perpetuation of our familiar way of life.” No more.
By midweek, even the dance of wariness was muted: New Yorkers, largely sheltering in place, still allowed themselves to walk their dogs, but walked them alone on each street, with the next dog and owner at least a stoplight away. The dogs, puzzled not to have the greetings of others of their animal kind, sniffed doggedly in the dark, though now only at the scent of their solitary owners.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/the-coronavirus-cri...
Shot for Sun Sentinel
Munther Atallah holds a sign that likens those of the Jewish faith to Nazis during a heated protest at Bayfront Park on Biscayne Blvd in Miami. On opposite sides of the street, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine supporters exchanged words against each other's views.
frankgaffney: update: Virginia "Allahu Akbar" jihadi stabber tied to this mosque. t.co/29Qpw6tOgo (via Twitter twitter.com/Luandrew169/status/768259144189181956)
Carved relief from the ancient Assyrian royal palace of Nineveh (Mosul in modern Iraq) detail of one of the many relief panels that once lined the walls now in the British Museum.
Many of these scenes depict the hunting of animals and are as cruel as they are beautifully rendered; this often makes me question my enjoyment of these stunning artworks when beautiful animals like lions and horses are seen to be suffering in them.
The site of Nineveh has been attacked by Daesh barbarians over the last two years of jihadi occupation, demolishing most of the few remaining structures and destroying 3000 years of history. It is located in the centre of Mosul which is currently a battleground as Iraqi forces attempt to reclaim their city. Whether any of the last vestiges of ancient Nineveh survive the liberation of the city remains to be seen, fortunately most of its more important sculpture is safe in museums like this.
Bill C-51 was introduced at the end of January, and sets out to extend Canada’s anti-terror laws beyond legislation the then-Liberal government implemented just after 9/11.
The bill comes at a time when tension over threats of terrorism on home soil are high. Attacks on two Canadian soldiers in October, as well as the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, are often cited by members of the government as justification for tougher laws.
Bill C-51, according to Public Safety Minister Steve Blaney, is in line with the government’s “firm commitment” to protect Canadians from jihadist terrorists who seek to destroy the values Canadians hold dear.
“The international jihadist movement has declared war on Canada and our allies,” Blaney told the House of Commons on Feb. 18. “As we have seen, terrorists are targeting Canadians simply because they despise our society and the values it represents.”
The bill, though, is not just about terrorism. It’s about granting greater powers to police authorities to target activities that could “undermine the security of Canada” as well as activities that are detrimental to Canada’s interests.
(It should be noted, too, that this has been tabled in an election year. The Conservative party has been using images of jihadi terrorists in emails and on social media to drum up support for the bill and the party in general. For some, national security will be as much of an election issue as the economy.)
If and when implemented, Bill C-51 would mean broad and significant changes to national security measures.
Its main provisions would facilitate information sharing among 17 (and some say more than 17) federal institutions, give police powers that would allow them to preventatively detain or restrict terror suspects, ban the “promotion of terrorism,” allow the public safety minister to add people to Canada’s “no-fly list,” and enhance the powers of Canada’s spy agency CSIS.
And the provisions have received widespread criticism.
~From Yahoo news~
52 in 2016 Challenge - #3 Urban Fragment - no people
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Every nook and cranny of the older part of Bangalore where mixed populations of Moslems and Tamil families lived in the cantonment part of the town of Bangalore are to be found quaint and small Hindu temples done in the South Indian style of temple architecture.
At one of these streets callled Veerapilai Street off Kamraj Road is a small temple of Durga and Shiva amidst the rather not so busy throughfare.
Lord Shiva is doing a Tandava on the body of some hapless demon. The acrobatic angle of the right foot is something you normally do not see and the creative license of the sculptor has to be admired. He may well be a proponent of martial art. I really can not say.
Very close to this place a route march was taken out by the RSS on 16th October 2016. A day later one of the main functionaries of the route march was executed the Jihadi way in broad daylight a mere 100 yards from here.
A sad situation indeed as the right wing Hindu organisation tries to stake claim to the staunch Muslim area.
_DSC5290 NEF BNW
For some time I've been thinking that if I was given a WWII battledress, Captain's cap and stick I could do a passable impression of Captain Mainwaring (on the left) with a little practice. Certainly, if I was invited to a fancy dress do I think I might give it a go. I can still watch the shows over and over and still find them funny.
You might notice that in recent times I've commented on the state of the world and the growing confusion I have for what is right and wrong, good and bad....... So when I saw a piece in The Daily Mail this morning I was easily able to slip into character and follow the dialogue below.
Now if you are not British, and not at least 40 you might not get this, so see if you can get in the swing of things by watching this clip before launching into the text below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAAbw7udjMI
We're all going to be beheaded! DON'T PANIC! (A short play by Richard Littlejohn)
The Government wants to recruit a Dad’s Army squad of ex-military men to supplement overstretched police firearms and anti-terror officers. Why not just bring the Walmington-on-Sea platoon out of retirement? Enter Captain Mainwaring . . .
I say, Wilson, what are those peculiar flags doing hanging outside the church hall?
Flags, sir?
Yes, Wilson, flags. One is a hideous rainbow-coloured affair and the other is black and white and appears to be covered in badly-drawn Nazi warplanes.
They’re not warplanes, Mr Mainwaring. They’re sex aids.
Sex aids? One of them looks just like a V-1 flying bomb.
It’s not a doodlebug, sir, it’s called a Steely Dan.
Sounds lethal, Wilson. Hang on, how do you know what it’s called?
I accidentally found one in Mrs Pike’s sewing basket.
Sometimes I worry about you, Wilson. That still doesn’t explain why these flags are flying outside the church hall?
It was the vicar’s idea.
Has he been at the communion wine again?
No more than usual, sir. The rainbow flag is the official emblem of the Walmington-on-Sea LGBT committee.
What on earth is that?
It stands for Lesbians, Gays and, oh, I forget. Bi-something or other. And I think the ‘T’ is for Transvestites. Men who like dressing up in women’s clothing.
Like Old Mother Riley, you mean?
Not exactly, sir, no.
And what’s all this got to do with the vicar?
He’s chairman of the LGBT organising committee. They’re having a march through Walmington on Saturday, for Gay Pride week. They’re also protesting about British military aggression in the Middle East.
Not in my name, they’re not. We’ll soon see about that. Where is the vicar?
Conducting a marriage ceremony next door. Two women from the bowls club.
Who are they getting married to?
Each other, sir.
Good grief. And the vicar is performing the ceremony, you say? In the church, of all places? Is nothing sacred? I’ve always had my doubts about that man, Wilson. Bit of a nancy boy, if you ask me.
Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s rather sweet. Two women, or two men, getting married. To each other.
You would think that, Wilson. It’s exactly what I’d expect from you decadent, namby-pamby public-school types, just like that Old Etonian Prime Minister chum of yours.
Anyway, they’re having the reception in the church hall. So we’d better hurry up with the parade.
They can jolly well wait, Wilson. Don’t they know there’s a war on? Fall the men in, at the double.
Come along you chaps. Would you be so awfully kind as to get in line?
Now pay attention, men. As some of you may have heard on the Home Service, the barbarians are at the gate and the future of our scepterd isle is imperilled once more. The enemy hordes are massing on the other side of the Channel and it falls to us to form the first line of defence. Wilson, I want you to get down to the ferry terminal and arrest any suspicious character trying to sneak into Britain.
Do you think that’s wise, sir?
What do you mean?
Under the Human Rights Act we have to give asylum to anyone who turns up in Walmington-on-Sea claiming to be fleeing persecution.
You don’t believe any of that guff, do you? Trained assassins from Isil are pretending to be refugees in order to murder us all in our beds.
(Corporal Jones): Permission to interject, Mr Mainwaring.
Go ahead, Jones.
What’s Isil?
(Pike): It’s that shiny toilet paper, silly, ever so hard, like what you get at school and in public conveniences. My mum doesn’t like me using it, says it’s unhygienic and it don’t half chafe . . .
Shut up, Pike, you stupid boy. Anyway, that’s not Isil, that’s Izal. Isil, or Isis, or Islamic State, is a terrorist organisation dedicated to the overthrow of Western society. And it’s our job to stop them.
Excuse me, Mr Mainwaring.
What is it now, Wilson?
Apparently, we can’t call them Islamic State any more. The mayor has had a complaint from the local mosque saying that what’s going on in Syria hasn’t got anything to do with Islam.
So what are we supposed to call them?
Dish-dash, dish-cloth. Something like that.
I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life. Now get along to the ferry terminal and take Godfrey with you.
(Godfrey): My sister Dolly’s at the ferry terminal, Mr Mainwaring, handing out upside-down cakes to the migrants. She says they must be starving after travelling all the way from Afghanistan.
For heaven’s sake, man. We shouldn’t be rolling out the red carpet for these people. How do we know they’re not Fifth Columnists planning to attack sunbathers on Walmington beach?
(Jones): Permission to speak, sir. I’d like to volunteer to stop them, Mr Mainwaring. I served in Libya and the Sudan during the last lot. Fierce fighting people, they are, very keen on beheading. But they don’t like it up ’em, Mr Mainwaring. Those fuzzy-wuzzies do not like it up ’em.
(Wilson): Er, I don’t think we can say fuzzy-wuzzies any more, either. Not on the BBC. Terribly racist, these days.
I thought we’d already been banned from the BBC, Wilson.
Not yet, sir. That’s It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum.
So it is. Now then, men. I have received a letter from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who is anxious to recruit experienced snipers to supplement his firearms officers.
(Pike): I’d like to volunteer to be a sniper, Mr Mainwaring.
You haven’t got any experience, Pike.
I’ve seen that new film American Sniper at the Roxy, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, who was in The Hangover and is now the Elephant Man, he’s this crack marksman who is sent to Iraq to kill terrorists and there’s this scene where he’s on a roof and he’s about to shoot the world’s most wanted man from about a mile away, but just as he’s taking aim his wife calls him on the mobile to moan about the fridge being broken or something, then he gets sent home suffering from PMT. It would have been better if it had starred Clint Eastwood as the sniper, even though he’s over 80, he was brilliant in Dirty Harry — ‘Go ahead, punk, make my day’ — and the special effects are great especially when people’s heads explode. I could do that, please Captain Mainwaring.
Stupid boy.
(Enter Private Walker): Evenin’, Mr Mainwaring, sorry I’m late.
Where have you been?
Well, I popped over to Calais on a booze cruise. You can save a small fortune if you know the right people, get my drift. Practically giving it away, they are. You won’t catch me voting to leave the EU in the referendum. I’ve got some very nice Beaujolais Nouveau, if you’re interested, fiver a bottle to you, Mr M . . .
Get on with it, Walker.
Anyway, when I got to the port to catch the ferry home, the lorries was all backed up for miles because of a strike and there was thousands of young foreign blokes trying to break into containers and hide in the luggage compartments of coaches. They was coming from all over the place, wave after wave, like in Zulu.
(Pike): That’s one of my favourites, Joe, with Michael Caine and Stanley Baker and Dave, the barman from Minder. Not a lot of people know that.
I won’t tell you again, Pike. Is there a point to this story, Walker?
Sorry, Captain. Anyway, this is three days ago. It was like we’d all been taken hostage. Finally, I gets back to the lock-up and as soon as I pull in, half a dozen geezers in black tracksuits and balaclavas jump out of the back of the van, waving Kalashnikovs, and starts running in the direction of the dual carriageway, shouting ‘Allo Acton’ or something. So I phones the Old Bill and Warden Hodges but they sez there’s nuffink they can do ’cos of yuman rites and elf’n’safety an’ that, and then they only goes an’ threatens to fine me two grand a head for bringing them in, bloody cheek. So I bungs ’em both a case of Chateau Collapso and Bob’s yer mother’s wossname. Them foreign geezers, though, whoever they are, probably half way to Toddington Services by now.
(Jones): We’re all going to be beheaded! Don’t panic! Don’t panic!
(Private Fraser): We’re doomed. We’re all doomed!
Nihilism begins with the intelligent recognition that you have been conned by eternalism. Nihilism is the defiant determination not to get fooled again. Having been swindled over and over by false promises of meaning, the nihilist stance refuses to acknowledge even the most obvious manifestations of meaningfulness—lest they, too, turn out to be illusory.Eternalism makes seductive promises: that you are always loved, that the universe is in good order, that right and wrong can be known for certain, that your suffering has meaning, that you have a special role in creation, that there will be cosmic justice after death.When you have been disappointed often enough, you start to realize these sweet lies are poison. Such grand promises cannot be kept. Discovering that you have been betrayed by eternalism, and have lost out on the promises it made, is a horrendous emotional blow.One’s first reaction to recognizing the nebulosity of meaningness is to deny it. On some level, you realize that not everything has a definite meaning; that eternalism is false. But since that seems too awful to contemplate, you refuse to admit it. You redouble your insistence that everything is peachy keen—and prepare to do violence to anyone and anything that contradicts you.This is wavering eternalism. You try to maintain the eternalist stance using ploys such as kitsch, arming, and mystification. These are not nihilistic strategies; but they can easily flip into nihilism, when nebulosity becomes so obvious that pretending becomes impossible.
Along with images of brutality, ISIL presents itself as "an emotionally attractive place where people 'belong', where everyone is a 'brother' or 'sister'. A kind of slang, melding adaptations or shortenings of Islamic terms with street language, is evolving among the English-language fraternity on social media platforms in an attempt to create a 'jihadi cool'."[236] The "most potent psychological pitch" of ISIL media is the promise of heavenly reward to dead jihadist fighters. Frequently posted in their media are dead jihadists smiling faces, their ISIS 'salute' of a 'right-hand index finger pointing heavenward', and testimonies of their happy widowsResponse against civilization of death.Solidarity facing barbarism. fight a terror potential.fight back.Preserve the friendship with others.Nihilism is a simple inversion of eternalism. It denies that there anything is meaningful at all. At times when meaning is particularly evanescent, when you are particularly bitterly disappointed in it, you may commit to nihilism. “I’ll never get fooled again!”But this commitment is difficult—probably impossible. Meaningfulness is, at other times, obvious. As a result, in practice all nihilism is wavering nihilism.Whereas wavering eternalism consists of eternalism plus secret doubt, wavering nihilism consists of nihilism plus secret passion. Passion is the recognition of meaningfulness. To maintain wavering nihilism, you must blind yourselves to meaningfulness, which is even more difficult than blinding yourselves to the nebulosity of meaning.Rage is one way wavering nihilism reacts to evidence of meaningfulness. This is a defiant negativity: “I don’t care! No matter what you say, I will not admit life is meaningful!” Nihilistic rage wants to destroy whatever has meaning, and whoever points to meaning. (This is the mirror-image strategy to armed eternalism.)Nihilistic rage can be transformed into clear-minded rejection of fixation; nihilistic intellectualization into non-conceptual appreciation of nebulosity; nihilistic depression into enjoyment of meaninglessness with equanimity.
meaningness.com/emotional-dynamics-of-nihilism
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, /ˈaɪsɨs/), the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, or simply Islamic State (IS),is a Wahhabi/Salafi jihadist extremist militant group, self-proclaimed to be a caliphate and Islamic state. Conspiracy theorists in the Arab world have advanced rumours that the U.S. is secretly behind the existence and emboldening of ISIL, as part of an attempt to further destabilize the Middle East. After such rumors became widespread, the U.S. embassy in Lebanon issued an official statement denying the allegations, calling them a complete fabrication. The rumours claim that ISIL leader al-Baghdadi is an Israeli Mossad agent and actor called Simon Elliot and that NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal this connection. Snowden's lawyer has called the story "a hoax."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levan...
According to The New York Times, many in the Middle East believe that an alliance of the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia is directly responsible for the creation of ISIL. Egyptian, Tunisian, Palestinian, Jordanian and Lebanese news organisations have reported on the conspiracy theory
ISIS, where the Civilization of Death has taken the place of the life-affirming .Thoughts for the Times on War and Death.The individual who is not himself a combatant - and so is a cog in the gigantic machine of war - feels bewildered in his orientation, and inhibited in his powers and activities. I believe that he will welcome any indication, however slight, which will make it easier for him to find his bearings within himself at least. I propose to pick out two among the factors which are responsible for the mental distress felt by non-combatants, against which it is such a heavy task to struggle, and to treat of them: the disillusionment which this war has evoked, and the altered attitude towards death which this - like every other war - forces upon us.The enjoyment of this common civilization was disturbed from time to time by warning voices, which declared that old traditional differences made wars inevitable, even among the members of a community such as this. We refused to believe it; but if such a war were to happen, how did we picture it? We saw it as an opportunity for demonstrating the progress of comity among human beings since the era when the Greek Amphictyonic Council proclaimed that no city of the league might be destroyed, nor its olive-groves cut down, nor its water-supply stopped; we pictured it as a chivalrous passage of arms, which would limit itself to establishing the superiority of one side in the struggle, while as far as possible avoiding acute suffering that could contribute nothing to the decision, and granting complete immunity for the wounded who had to withdraw from the contest, as well as for the doctors and nurses who devoted themselves to their recovery. There would, of course be the utmost consideration for the non-combatant classes of the population - for women who take no part in war-work, and the children who, when they are grown up, should become on both sides one another's friends and helpers. And again, all the international undertakings and institutions in which the common civilization of peace-time had been embodied would be maintained.
On December 4 to 6, the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings will host its 12th annual Saban Forum, titled “Israel and the United States: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” The 2015 Saban Forum will feature remarks by Israel’s Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon, Secretary of State John Kerry, and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The forum’s webcast sessions will focus on the future for Israelis and Palestinians, Iran’s role in the Middle East, spillover from the war in Syria, and the global threat posed by the Islamic State and other violent jihadi groups.
Over the past twelve years, the Saban Forum has become the premier platform for frank dialogue between American and Israeli leaders from government, civil society, business, and the media. As a result, the Saban Forum is a seminal event, generating new ideas and helping shape the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The Saban Forum has hosted many distinguished leaders in previous years, including President Barack Obama, President William J. Clinton, President George W. Bush, Vice President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Economy Naftali Bennet, HM King Abdullah of Jordan, President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and Secretaries of State John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and Henry Kissinger.
Photo by Ralph Alswang
Another high honor as an American patriot avgeek I've had is finally getting to watch EA-18Gs take off into the sunset... in afterburner. Sure a lot better sight than say... a Peckkkerwood in black beating up my mother or a jihadi killing my father in battle or a Tupelov bomber ( flic.kr/p/HCULWj ) where that Growler was or 11 September reenacted over Seattle instead of America's Blues (aka paradise).
More photos from that special 31 March day as I ration their posting: flic.kr/s/aHsku6JHF4
PHOTO CREDIT: Joe A. Kunzler Photo, AvgeekJoe Productions, growlernoise-AT-gmail-DOT-com
Disclaimer : Picture from the Mail Online
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755210/British-jihadist...
Testament of evil ! How can anyone believe and follow and never question this religion that is devoid of LOVE . Only for the difference of beliefs , death is their judegment to an innocent being. WHO ARE THESE AGENTS OF SATAN ? May judgement from above be upon each of their heads and have to pay for each trickle of the innocent blood .
How many Jihadist roaming the UK streets, and how many potential " Lee Rigby" heads be rolling across the road butchered in cold blood / broad day light by these evil . How many vulnerable people's heads like the 82 yr old lady butchered in London not long ago by a Jihadi convert , yeah right ? For that religion they are inspired by faith to butcher people, pretty demonic !!! It's time to get tough , no more softies for these cold blooded criminals !
This female jihadi is flaunting her blood sacrifice, whether she'd done it herself or not, but touching a severed head is unclean and all condoning murder and in alliance with demon possessed ISIS.
Isaiah 5:20
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! "
In John 16: 1-4
"16 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you...."
Had not Jesus warned us of these things to come ? Look at these people, they're killing in the name of faith and according to their lusts to kill and shed blood . Who's their god but the devil, otherwise they would have human compassion , mercy , love and forgiveness with peace at heart.
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Carved relief from the ancient Assyrian royal palace of Nineveh (Mosul in modern Iraq) detail of one of the many relief panels that once lined the walls now in the British Museum.
Many of these scenes depict the hunting of animals and are as cruel as they are beautifully rendered; this often makes me question my enjoyment of these stunning artworks when beautiful animals like lions and horses are seen to be suffering in them.
The site of Nineveh has been attacked by Daesh barbarians over the last two years of jihadi occupation, demolishing most of the few remaining structures and destroying 3000 years of history. It is located in the centre of Mosul which is currently a battleground as Iraqi forces attempt to reclaim their city. Whether any of the last vestiges of ancient Nineveh survive the liberation of the city remains to be seen, fortunately most of its more important sculpture is safe in museums like this.
"ABDULLAH, MOHAMMAD COME QUICK! THEY HAVE DONE IT! OUR BROTHERS HAVE BLOWN UP THE INFIDELS' FUN RIDE!
Now let those filthy American pig-dogs try to find a thrill in this town!"
The Postcard
A postally unused Auto-Photo Series postcard bearing an early image of London Bridge.
The Sale and Removal of London Bridge
By 1896 the bridge was the busiest point in London, and one of its most congested, with 8,000 pedestrians and 900 vehicles crossing every hour. To designs by engineer Edward Cruttwell, it was widened in 1904 by 13 feet (4.0 m), using granite corbels.
However subsequent surveys showed that the bridge was sinking an inch (about 2.5 cm) every eight years, and by 1924 the east side had sunk some three to four inches (about 9 cm) lower than the west side. It was concluded that the bridge would have to be removed and replaced.
Council member Ivan Luckin put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled:
"They all thought I was completely
crazy when I suggested we should
sell London Bridge when it needed
replacing."
Subsequently, in 1968, Council placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. On the 18th. April 1968, Rennie's bridge was purchased by the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for $2,460,000.
The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Ivan Luckin in a newspaper interview.
Before the bridge was taken apart, each granite facing block was marked for later reassembly. The blocks were taken to Merrivale Quarry at Princetown in Devon, where 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 in) were sliced off the inner faces of many, in order to facilitate their fixing.
Stones left behind were sold in an online auction when the quarry was abandoned and flooded in 2003. 10,000 tons of granite blocks were shipped via the Panama Canal to California, then trucked from Long Beach to Arizona.
They were used to face a new, purpose-built hollow core steel-reinforced concrete structure, ensuring that the bridge would support the weight of modern traffic. The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and was re-dedicated on the 10th. October 1971 in a ceremony attended by London's Lord Mayor and celebrities.
The bridge carries the McCulloch Boulevard and spans the Bridgewater Channel, an artificial, navigable waterway that leads from the Uptown area of Lake Havasu City.
Terror Attacks on London Bridge and Nearby
There have been four terror attacks on or near London Bridge dating back to 1884. They are as follows:
(1) The 1884 London Bridge Terror Attack
On Saturday 13th. December 1884, two American-Irish Republicans carried out a dynamite attack on London Bridge as part of the Fenian dynamite campaign.
The bomb went off prematurely while the men were in a boat attaching it to a bridge pier at 5.45 pm during the evening rush hour. There was little damage to the bridge, and no casualties other than the bombers.
However, there was considerable collateral damage, and hundreds of windows were shattered on both banks of the Thames. The men's boat was so completely destroyed that the police initially thought the bombers had fled.
On the 25th. December 1884 the mutilated remains of one of the bombers were found. The body of the other man was never recovered, but the police were later able to identify the dead men as two Americans, William Mackey Lomasney, and John Fleming.
The men were identified after a landlord reported to police that dynamite had been found in the rented premises of two American gentlemen who had disappeared after the 13th. December, enabling police to piece together who was responsible for the attack.
The men had already been under surveillance by the police in both America and Great Britain.
(2) The 1992 London Bridge Bombing
On Friday the 28th. February 1992, the Provisional IRA exploded a bomb inside London Bridge station during the morning rush hour, causing extensive damage and wounding 29 people. It was one of many bombings carried out by one of the IRA's London active service units. It occurred just over a year after a bomb at Victoria station.
-- The 1992 Bombing
At around 8:20 am, someone rang Ulster Television's London office warning that a bomb was going to explode in a London station, without saying which one.
About ten minutes later, the bomb detonated, which made debris fly almost 50 feet (15 m) away from the blast area. Twenty nine people were hurt in the explosion, most of them from flying glass and other bits of debris; four were seriously hurt, but nobody was killed.
The victims were treated at Guy's Hospital.
-- Aftermath of the 1992 Explosion
The head of Scotland Yard's anti terrorist squad, George Churchill-Coleman, said that the 2 lb (910 g) bomb of high explosives was "clearly designed to kill."
Investigations suggested that the bomb had been placed in the men's restrooms. Churchill-Coleman added that the IRA's warning was "deliberately vague," and was given too late to act upon.
Prime Minister John Major said that the bombing would not change British policy in Northern Ireland:
"It was pointless. It was cowardly. It was
directed against innocent people and it
will make absolutely no difference to
our policy -- no difference at all."
Fearing additional IRA attacks on public transport, the security services warned commuters "more than ever" to stay on guard at all times. The next day, another bomb went off in London, by the Crown Prosecution Service office, injuring two more people and bringing the total injured to 31 in the space of just over 24 hours.
This was one of dozens of bombs that detonated in London that year, the biggest of which was the Baltic Exchange bombing, killing three people and causing almost £1 billion worth of damage.
The IRA maintained this pressure, bombing mainland Britain and especially the City of London as much as possible until the ceasefire of 1994.
(3) The 2017 London Bridge Attack
On the 3rd. June 2017, a terrorist vehicle-ramming and stabbing took place in London when a van was deliberately driven into pedestrians on London Bridge, and then crashed on Borough High Street, just south of the River Thames.
The van's three occupants then ran to the nearby Borough Market area and began stabbing people in and around restaurants and pubs. They were shot dead by Metropolitan and City of London Police authorised firearms officers, and were found to be wearing fake explosive vests.
Eight people were killed and 48 were injured, including members of the public and four unarmed police officers who attempted to stop the assailants. British authorities described the perpetrators as radical Islamic terrorists.
The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.
-- Background to the 2017 Attack
In March 2017, five people had been killed in a combined vehicle and knife attack at Westminster. In late May, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.
After the Manchester bombing, the UK's terror threat level was raised to "critical", its highest level, until the 27th. May 2017, when it was lowered to severe.
-- The 2017 Attack
The attack was carried out using a white Renault Master hired earlier on the same evening in Harold Hill, by Khuram Butt. He had intended to hire a 7.5 tonne lorry, but was refused due to his failure to provide payment details.
The attackers were armed with 12-inch (30 cm) kitchen knives with ceramic blades, which they tied to their wrists with leather straps. They also prepared fake explosive belts by wrapping water bottles in grey tape.
At 21:58 on the 3rd. June 2017, the van travelled south across London Bridge, and returned six minutes later, crossing over the bridge northbound, making a U-turn at the northern end and then driving southbound across the bridge.
It mounted the pavement three times and hit multiple pedestrians, killing two. Witnesses said the van was travelling at high speed. 999 emergency calls were first recorded at 22:07. The van was later found to contain 13 wine bottles containing flammable liquid with rags stuffed in them, along with blow torches.
The van crashed on Borough High Street after crossing the central reservation. The van's tyres were destroyed by the central reservation, and the three attackers, armed with knives, abandoned the vehicle.
Then they ran down the steps to Green Dragon Court, where they killed five people outside and near the Boro Bistro pub. The attackers then went back up the steps to Borough High Street and attacked three bystanders.
Police tried to fight the attackers, but were stabbed, and Ignacio Echeverría helped them by striking the terrorist Redouane and possibly Zaghba with his skateboard. Echeverría was later killed outside Lobos Meat and Tapas.
Members of the public threw bottles and chairs at the attackers. Witnesses reported that the attackers were shouting:
"This is for Allah".
People in and around a number of other restaurants and bars along Stoney Street were also attacked. During the attack, an unknown man was spared by Rachid Redouane, but despite many efforts the man was never found.
A Romanian baker hit one of the attackers over the head with a crate before giving shelter to 20 people inside a bakery inside Borough Market.
One man fought the three attackers with his fists in the Black and Blue steakhouse, shouting:
"F*** you, I'm Millwall."
His actions gave members of the public who were in the restaurant the opportunity to run away. He was stabbed eight times in the hands, chest and head. He underwent surgery at St Thomas' Hospital, and was taken off the critical list on the 4th. June.
A British Transport Police officer armed with a baton also took on the attackers, receiving multiple stab wounds and temporarily losing sight in his right eye as a consequence.
Off-duty Metropolitan police constables Liam Jones and Stewart Henderson rendered first aid to seriously injured members of the public before protecting over 150 people inside the Thameside Inn and evacuating them by Metropolitan marine support unit and RNLI boats to the north shore of the Thames.
The three attackers were then shot dead by armed officers from the City of London and Metropolitan police Specialist Firearms Command eight minutes after the initial emergency call was made.
CCTV footage showed the three attackers in Borough Market running at the armed officers; the attackers were shot dead 20 seconds later. A total of 46 rounds were fired by three City of London and five Metropolitan Police officers.
-- Aftermath of the 2017 Attack
The Metropolitan Police issued 'Run, Hide, Tell' notices via social media during the attack, and asked the public to remain calm and vigilant.
All buildings within the vicinity of London Bridge were evacuated, and London Bridge, Borough and Bank Underground stations were closed at the request of the police.
The mainline railway stations at London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross and Cannon Street were also closed. The Home Secretary approved the deployment of a military counter terrorist unit from the Special Air Service (SAS).
The helicopters carrying the SAS landed on London Bridge to support the Metropolitan Police because of concerns that there might be more attackers at large.
The Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit dispatched boats on the River Thames, with assistance from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), to contribute to the evacuation of the area and look for any casualties who might have fallen from the bridge.
A stabbing incident took place in Vauxhall at 23:45, causing Vauxhall station to be briefly closed; this was later confirmed to be unrelated to the attack.
At 01:45 on the 4th. June, controlled explosions took place of the attackers' bomb vests, which were found to be fake.
An emergency COBR meeting was held on the morning of the 4th. June. London Bridge mainline railway and underground stations remained closed throughout the 4th. June. A cordon was established around the scene of the attack. London Bridge station reopened at 05:00 on Monday the 5th. June.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said that there was a surge of hate crimes and islamophobic incidents following the attack.
New security measures were implemented on eight central London bridges following the attack, to reduce the likelihood of further vehicle attacks, with concrete barriers being installed. The barriers have been criticised for causing severe congestion in cycle lanes during peak hours.
Borough Market reopened on the 14th. June.
-- Casualties of the 2017 Attack
Eight civilians died in the attack: one Spaniard, one Briton, two Australians, one Canadian and three French citizens were killed by the attackers, and the three attackers themselves were killed by armed police.
Two of the civilian fatalities were caused in the initial vehicle-ramming attack, while the remaining six were stabbed to death. One body was recovered from the Thames near Limehouse several days after the attack.
48 people were injured in the attack, including one New Zealander, two Australians, two Germans and four French citizens.
Of the 48 people admitted to hospital, 21 were initially reported to be in a critical condition.
Four police officers were among those injured in the attack. A British Transport Police officer was stabbed, and suffered serious injuries to his head, face and neck. An off-duty Metropolitan Police officer was seriously injured when he was stabbed.
Two other Metropolitan Police officers received head and arm injuries. As a result of police gunfire, a bystander received an accidental gunshot wound, which was not critical.
-- The 2017 Attackers
On the 4th. June the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, said that:
"We are confident about the fact that
they were radical Islamic terrorists, the
way they were inspired, and we need
to find out more about where this
radicalisation came from."
Amaq News Agency, an online outlet associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), said the attackers were ISIS fighters.
On the 5th. June, two of the attackers were identified as Khuram Shazad Butt and Rachid Redouane. The third of the three attackers, Youssef Zaghba, was identified the following day.
(a) Khuram Shazad Butt
Butt (born 20th. April 1990) was a Pakistan-born British citizen whose family came from Jhelum. He grew up in Great Britain, living in Plaistow.
He had a wife and two children. Neighbours told the BBC that Butt had been reported to police for attempting to radicalise children; he had also expressed disgust at the way women dressed.
He was known to police as a "heavyweight" member of the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun. A BBC interviewee said he had a verbal confrontation with Butt in 2013 on the day after another Al-Muhajiroun follower had murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby.
Butt was part of an al-Muhajiroun campaign in 2015 to intimidate Muslims who planned to vote in the UK general elections of that year, on the basis that it was forbidden in Islam.
He was known for holding extreme views, having been barred from two local mosques. He appeared on a 2016 Channel 4 Television documentary, The Jihadis Next Door, which showed him arguing with police over the unfurling of an ISIL black flag in Regent's Park.
According to a friend, he had been radicalised by the YouTube videos of the American Muslim hate preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril. Butt was known to have taken drugs before he became radicalised.
After radicalisation, Butt started to stop his neighbours on the street and ask them whether they had been to the mosque.
Butt had worked for a man accused of training Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the July 2005 London bombing. The police and MI5 knew of Butt, and he was investigated in 2015. The investigation was later "moved into the lower echelons", and his file was classed as low priority.
Butt sometimes manned the desk of the Ummah Fitness Centre gym, where he prayed regularly. CCTV footage was released of Butt, Redouane and Zaghba meeting outside the gym days before the attack. A senior figure at a local mosque had reported the gym to police.
The New York Times said that Butt and his brother were part of the UK government's Prevent programme, which aims to stop people from becoming terrorists, and which reports suspected radicals to police programmes.
At the time of the attack he was on police bail following an allegation of fraud, though the police had intended to take no further action due to a lack of evidence. He had previously been cautioned by police for fraud in 2008 and common assault in 2010.
(b) Rachid Redouane
Redouane (born 31 July 1986) was a failed asylum seeker in the UK, whose application was denied in 2009, and not previously known to police. He had claimed to be either Moroccan or Libyan.
Redouane worked as a pastry chef, and in 2012 he married an Irish woman in a ceremony in Ireland. He beat and bullied his wife.
He used to drink alcohol. He lived variously in Rathmines, a suburb of Dublin, also in Morocco and the UK. According to his wife, Redouane was most likely radicalised in Morocco. Later the couple stayed in the UK on an EU residency card where they had a daughter in 2015.
The couple separated in 2016 and she divorced him after he tried to force his extremist beliefs on her.
At the time of the attack, he was living in Dagenham, East London.
(c) Youssef Zaghba
Zaghba (born 1995 in Fez, Morocco) was at the time of the attack living in east London where he worked in a fast-food outlet. He also worked for an Islamic television channel in London.
Zaghba was born to a Moroccan Muslim father and an Italian Catholic Christian mother who had converted to Islam when she married. Zaghba had dual Moroccan and Italian nationality.
When his parents divorced, he went to Italy with his mother. In 2016, Zaghba was stopped at Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport by Italian officers who found ISIS-related materials on his mobile phone; he was stopped from continuing his journey to Istanbul.
Italian authorities said Zaghba was monitored continuously while in Italy and that the UK was informed about him. Giuseppe Amato, an Italian prosecutor, said:
"We did our best. We could just monitor
and surveil Zaghba and send a note to
the British authorities, that's all we could
do and we did it.
Since he moved to London, he came back
to Italy once in a while for a total of 10 days.
And during those 10 days we never let him
out of our sight."
According to The New York Times, the Italian branch of Al-Muhajiroun had introduced Butt to Zaghba.
-- Investigation of the 2017 Attack
On the morning of the 4th. June, police made 12 arrests following raids in flats in the Barking area of east London, where one of the attackers lived; controlled explosions were carried out during the raids.
Those held included five males aged between 27 and 55, arrested at one address in Barking, and six females aged between 19 and 60, arrested at a separate Barking address. One of the arrested males was subsequently released without charge.
Four properties in all were searched, including two in Newham in addition to the two in Barking. Further raids and arrests were made at properties in Newham and Barking early on the morning of the 5th. June.
On the 6th. June, a man was arrested in Barking, and another in Ilford the following day. By the 16th. June, all those arrested had been released without charge.
-- The Inquest Into the 2017 Attack
On the 7th. May 2019, an inquest into the deaths of the victims opened at the Old Bailey in London. Judge Mark Lucraft QC, Chief Coroner of England and Wales, presided, and people related to the dead gave accounts of what happened and who they had lost.
The inquest concluded on the 16th. July 2019 that all three attackers had been lawfully killed.
(4) The 2019 London Bridge Stabbing
On the 29th. November 2019, five people were stabbed, two fatally, in Central London. The attacker, Briton Usman Khan, had been released from prison in 2018 on licence after serving a sentence for terrorist offences.
Khan was attending an offender rehabilitation conference in Fishmongers' Hall when he threatened to detonate what turned out to be a fake suicide vest.
He started to attack people with two knives taped to his wrists, killing two of the conference participants by stabbing them in the chest.
Several people fought back, some attacking Khan with a fire extinguisher, a pike and a narwhal tusk as he fled the building and emerged on to London Bridge, where he was partially disarmed by a plain-clothes police officer.
He was restrained by members of the public until additional police officers arrived, pulled away those restraining him, and shot him.
-- Background to the 2019 Attack
A conference on offender rehabilitation was held on the 29th. November 2019 in Fishmongers' Hall, at the northern end of London Bridge, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Learning Together. This is a programme run by the Cambridge Institute of Criminology to help offenders reintegrate into society following their release from prison.
Learning Together was set up in 2014 by University of Cambridge academics Ruth Armstrong and Amy Ludlow from the Faculty of Law and Institute of Criminology:
"To bring together people in criminal justice
and higher education institutions to study
alongside each other in inclusive and
transformative learning communities."
The programme served to enable students and prisoners to work together.
Former prisoner Usman Khan had been invited to the conference as a previous participant in the programme, and although banned from entering London under the terms of his release, he was granted a one-day exemption to attend.
-- The 2019 Attack
At 13:58 on the 29th. November, the police were called to Fishmongers' Hall after Khan, wearing a fake suicide vest, threatened to blow up the hall. The police reported that there had been no prior intelligence of the attack.
Holding two kitchen knives taped to his wrists, Khan began stabbing people inside the building. Several fought back, including a South African-born Londoner, Darryn Frost, who grabbed a 1.5-metre-long (4.9 ft) narwhal tusk from the wall to use as a weapon, former prisoner John Crilly, and Steven Gallant, a convicted murderer attending the conference on day release from prison.
Khan fled and began stabbing pedestrians outside on the north side of the bridge.
Several people were injured before members of the public, including a tour guide and a plain-clothes British Transport Police officer, later seen walking away with a knife, restrained and disarmed Khan on the bridge.
One of the people who stepped in to fight the attacker drove him back by spraying a fire extinguisher.
Armed officers of the City of London Police arrived at 14:03 and surrounded the attacker, who at the time was being restrained by a Ministry of Justice communications worker attending the rehabilitation meeting.
The officers pulled this person away to provide a clear shot, before one fired twice. Around 10 minutes after this, Khan started to get up; he was then shot 9 further times by 6 firearms officers. Khan had not been secured after the initial shooting due to the suicide vest. Khan died at the scene.
A Transport for London bus which had stopped adjacent to the site of the shooting was found to have damage to both its front and rear windows, possibly caused, according to the Metropolitan Police, by a ricocheting bullet.
-- The Victims of the 2019 Attack
Three of the victims were associated with Cambridge University's Learning Together prison-rehabilitation programme; two died and one was injured.
The two who died from their stab wounds were Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones.
Merritt was a 25-year-old law and criminology graduate from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire who had studied at the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge. He worked as a University of Cambridge administration officer, and was a course coordinator for Learning Together.
Jones was a 23 year old former Anglia Ruskin University and University of Cambridge student from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Funeral services for Merritt and Jones were conducted on the 20th. December 2019.
Two other women were seriously injured, while a chef who was working at the event was stabbed but had less serious injuries.
-- The Terrorist Usman Khan
Usman Khan was a 28-year-old British national from Stoke-on-Trent, of Pakistani descent. Khan appears to have left school with no qualifications after spending part of his late teens in Pakistan.
He was known to police, and had links to Islamist extremist groups. In December 2018 he had been automatically released from prison on licence, where he was serving a 16-year sentence for terrorism offences, and was wearing an electronic tag.
Khan had been part of a plot, inspired by Al-Qaeda, to establish a terrorist camp on his family's land in Kashmir and bomb the London Stock Exchange. The plot was disrupted by MI5 and the police, as part of MI5's Operation Guava (police Operation Norbury), and Khan was given an indeterminate sentence.
Of the nine men involved, Khan was the youngest at 19 and according to Mr Justice Wilkie, Khan and two others were “more serious jihadis” than the others.
In 2013, Khan's sentence was revised after an appeal, and he was ordered to serve at least 8 years of his new 16-year sentence, with a 5-year extended licence allowing recall to prison.
According to the anti-extremism group Hope not Hate, Khan was a supporter of Al-Muhajiroun, an extremist group with which scores of terrorists were involved. He was a student and personal friend of Anjem Choudary, an Islamist and terrorism supporter.
Post-mortem examination showed evidence of occasional use of cocaine by Khan.
-- Aftermath of the 2019 Attack
The news of the attack was broken live as it happened on the BBC by one of its reporters, John McManus, who witnessed members of the public fighting Khan as he crossed the bridge, and heard two shots being fired by police officers.
McManus said that he was certain that more than two shots were fired during the incident.
The police, ambulance, and fire services attended the scene, and a major incident was declared. A large police cordon was set up in the area and residents were told to stay away. Police closed both Monument Underground station and London Bridge station after the attack.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, returned to Downing Street following the incident, after campaigning in his constituency for the forthcoming general election. Johnson commended the "immense bravery" of the emergency services and members of the public, and claimed that anyone involved in the attack would be hunted down.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, thanked the emergency services and members of the public who helped to restrain the attacker, saying they had shown "breathtaking heroism".
The Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats temporarily suspended campaigning in London for the general election. A parliamentary election hustings event scheduled to be held at Great St. Mary's Church in Cambridge on the 30th. November was cancelled and replaced by a memorial vigil for the victims of the attack.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick made a statement following the attack. She said that there would be an increased police presence on the streets, and that cordons in the London Bridge area would remain in place. An appeal was made for the public to submit any film or picture evidence or information that could assist the investigation.
In Pakistan, publication of Khan's Pakistani origins by the leading newspaper Dawn were deemed unpatriotic and defamatory, and led to demonstrations demanding that the publisher and the editor be hanged.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. Its news agency, Amaq, claimed Usman Khan was one of its fighters. A janaza prayer for Khan was held at a mosque in Birmingham, and he was buried in his family's ancestral village in Pakistan, following objections to his burial in the UK by local Muslims in his native Stoke.
In 2021, following an inquest, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Jonathan Hall QC called for those involved in the planning or preparation of terrorist attacks to be given automatic life sentences. Hall stated:
"It is hard to underestimate how serious
Usman Khan’s original offence was."
-- Investigations Into the 2019 Attack
London Bridge was closed until the early hours of the following Monday for forensic investigation of the scene. A property in Stafford and one in Stoke-on-Trent were searched by police.
An inquest into the deaths of Merritt and Jones was opened on the 4th. December 2019 at the Central Criminal Court in London, and was subsequently adjourned.
A pre-inquest review hearing took place at the Old Bailey on the 16th. October 2020, before the Chief Coroner of England and Wales, Mark Lucraft QC.
The inquest re-opened on the 12th. April 2021, presided over by Lucraft. On the 28th. May 2021 the jury concluded that the victims had been unlawfully killed.
They further concluded that insufficient monitoring of Khan, unreasonable belief in his rehabilitation, a lack of information sharing between agencies, and inadequate security planning at the event were all contributing factors in their deaths.
Khan's inquest, also overseen by Lucraft, found in June 2021 that Khan was lawfully killed by the police.
-- Royal Prerogative of Mercy for Steven Gallant
Steven Gallant was granted the Royal prerogative of mercy by the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Queen in October 2020, in order to bring his parole hearing forward by ten months to June 2021.
The Ministry of Justice stated that:
"This is in recognition of his exceptionally
brave actions at Fishmongers’ Hall, which
helped save people's lives despite the
tremendous risk to his own".
Though the parole board still has to decide on whether to release him, it was reported that it would be unlikely for his case to be denied after the Queen's intervention. The families of both Merritt and of Gallant's 2005 murder victim approved the action due to his heroic deeds and efforts to turn his life around since the murder.
Carved relief from the ancient Assyrian royal palace of Nineveh (Mosul in modern Iraq) detail of one of the many relief panels that once lined the walls now in the British Museum.
Many of these scenes depict the hunting of animals and are as cruel as they are beautifully rendered; this often makes me question my enjoyment of these stunning artworks when beautiful animals like lions and horses are seen to be suffering in them.
The site of Nineveh has been attacked by Daesh barbarians over the last two years of jihadi occupation, demolishing most of the few remaining structures and destroying 3000 years of history. It is located in the centre of Mosul which is currently a battleground as Iraqi forces attempt to reclaim their city. Whether any of the last vestiges of ancient Nineveh survive the liberation of the city remains to be seen, fortunately most of its more important sculpture is safe in museums like this.