Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Wikipedia: "Our Standards of Neutrality"

"Art workers across so-called-Canada demanding cultural institutions divest from settler colonialism and genocide."
"[Stop Art Washing] is hosting a Wikipedia 101 session [with] hands-on editing [on October 22 at an undisclosed location]."
"[The purpose of the event is] to populate Wikipedia entries honouring martyred Palestinian artists and exposing the Canadian, Zionist backers of genocide."
 "Against attempts to erase Palestinian martyrs and conceal the Imperialist perpetrators of Israel’s genocide, this Wiki Edit-a-Thon remedies the narrative, towards Palestinian liberation."
Stop Art Washing 
https://img.royanews.tv/imagechanger/Size728Q70/storage/english/news/20261018/6ad49b5052c7b1792318288.jpg
Canadian group hosts Wikipedia “Edit-a-Thon” to honor Palestinian artists                     Roya News
 
Yet another anti-Zionist group in Canada to be heard from. Palestinians and their groupies just cannot think up schemes fast enough to satisfy their rapacious appetite for celebrating Palestinians' penchant for terrorism and their insalubrious joy at any opportunity to take credit for originating everything that the world ever depended upon to advance toward prosperity and comfort as authentic Palestinian initiatives. The one Palestinian initiative that few care to imitate or take possession of is their pathological drive to prove how courageous their death-cult is.
 
That even as they everlastingly boast of their victimhood to  elicit empathy from those who are quick to have their inner core of Jew-hate elevated to a 'just cause', they take pride in their devotion to the goal of killing Jews in Israel while in the West where they migrate to infiltrate socially, academically, as noble victims of Israeli colonialist-grabbing land claimed by Palestine as their own with no historical or ancestral attestation other than that which identifies it as the traditional heritage of Judea, they claim indigeneity is theirs, not that of Jews. 
 
What a novel idea, to use Wikipedia as a platform to celebrate the courage and honour inherent in suicide bombing by lone martyrs, or swarms of Palestinian terrorists streaming in their thousands into Israel from Gaza in an organized bedlam of savage bestiality to maim and to rape, burn entire families alive in their homes, raze farming villages, looting and shooting as they race toward the next unaware civilian enclave to destroy the lives of children, their mothers and grandparents. What courage that takes!
 
Instagram
 
 Now the advertising of a training session to prepare avid Jew-haters for the practical work of using and abusing Wikipedia's popular influence on the unwary and the trusting to present the nobility of mass murderers as victims of Islamophobic Jews whose mission in life is solely to destroy the presence of Palestinians in a fell swoop of genocide is underway. The plan to flood Wikipedia with these special entries to persuade the undecided that they too can aspire to raving lunacy on the platform is set to go.
 
Needless to say Wikipedia, considering itself a reliable purveyor of facts and statistics for the purpose of educating and informing, has policies in place for the platform not to be defiled as "a soapbox, a battleground, or a vehicle for propaganda". All content, it insists, must be composed and presented from a strictly neutral point of view; say for example, how the BBC and the CBC present news coverage of the Middle East; 'just the facts, Ma'am'... 
 
Coverage on Wikipedia of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 "has surged significantly". Leading to "criticism from advocates on both sides for perceived bias". Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, was asked about an entry on the "Gaza genocide" described as an "ongoing, intentional and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel". 
 
His response was that "It needs to change. I think it's just terrible. It doesn't live up to our standards of neutrality, and I think it's very problematic." Earning the ire of the very 'unbiased' composers of the page in question. No fewer than 27 unbiased writers contributed to a Wikipedia page on the genocide case against Israel lodged by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Researchers in their turn identified "patterns of anti-Israel bias among power-user editors". 
"Alarming patterns of bias [revealed] that can cascade through the digital information ecosystem, infecting everything from search engine results to academic citations to social media posts and even AI training data."
Research analysis  
https://cdn.sanity.io/images/8b2x09zs/production/1c51741482fdbedeb5f779798657f4a4b482d808-1672x941.png?w=1600&h=900&q=80&auto=format
Toronto Scoop
 

 

Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, October 19, 2026

Navi Pillay, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

https://i.cbc.ca/ais/1e26d830-7891-4e78-9cfb-ad3e0969f00c,1791540817301/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C120%2C4500%2C2531%29%3BResize%3D860
Navi Pillay speaks during a news conference in Geneva on Sept. 16, 2025, during her time as chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (Fabrince Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
 
"As I was sitting in Courtroom 600, I see that we are continuing the work that started here in Nuremberg, in such a way that we are delivering anew on the 'never again promise'."
"You interpret the law, you look at all the facts, so that it's impartial decision-making." 
Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay
 
"Navi Pillay's commitment to justice and human dignity is a source of hope and inspiration to all who seek to bring about a more peaceful world."
"The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack. We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice."
"Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence." 
Nobel Committee
 
"In her first two years Pillay] turned a blind eye to most of the world's worst abusers, being completely silent on abuses in Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Belarus, Syria, and 27 other countries rated 'Not Free' by Freedom House."
UN Watch
In Courtroom 600, at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, the post-WWII world powers of Britain, France, Russia and the United States oversaw the trials and prosecution that the Nuremberg Trials became famous for, holding to account the senior Nazi officials responsible for crimes against humanity, including the extermination of six million of Europe's Jewish population during the Holocaust years. Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Jew-baiter Julius Streicher, Austrian quisling and tyrant of the occupied Netherlands Seyss-Inquart, Kaltenbrunner, Frank, Jodl, Frick, Keitel, Sauckel, and Rosenberg were sent to the gallows.
 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Color_photograph_of_judges%27_bench_at_IMT.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original
"The judges at their bench (left) in Room 600 at the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg, during proceedings against leading Nazi figures for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal (IMT), Germany, 1945. Left to right: Alexander F. Volchkov and Iona T. Nikitchenko of the USSR, Sir Norman Birkett and Sir Geoffrey Lawrence of Great Britain, Francis Biddle and John J. Parker of the USA, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres and Robert Falco of France." —Description from Getty Images
 
Seven of Hitler's trusted senior Nazis officials convicted of grave crimes against humanity were sentenced individually from life imprisonment to ten years in Germany's Spandau Prison, overseen by Britain, France, Russia and the United States. Between them, only Russia would have been satisfied to see them all hang; the other three opted for humane, albeit prison-secure conditions to be meted out to Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach, Walthur Funk, Karl Donitz, Constantin von Neurath, and Erich Raeder. 
 
Despite that these were all Protestants by religion, their wives worked tirelessly, appealing to any authorities who would listen to them, for their husbands' sentences to be adjusted in favour of their earlier release by asking for private audiences with the-then-Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as with West Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Pope Pius XII, sympathetic to their plight, agreed to meet them at Castel Gandolfo. So much for the international tribunal for inhumane crimes.
 
Navi Pillay's recognition as the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate in this context bespeaks a world of sanctimonious respect for human rights, yet one that fails spectacularly to distinguish the rights of victims as opposed to that of their victimizers. As a young lawyer Navi Pillay distinguished herself contesting apartheid. While on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, rape and sexual violence was recognized with her assistance as constituting a form of genocide.
 
In 2008 as UN Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Watch accused Navay Pillay of double standards for completely ignoring many of the world's excessive human rights abusers while at the same time holding Israel to account for putative human rights crimes. She saw nothing amiss in issuing 21 statements identifying countries in the Middle East and North Africa, nine of which specifically targeted Israel. A letter was sent by 100 members of the U.S. Congress in 2014 addressed to Pillay that the Human Rights Council "cannot be taken seriously as a human rights organization" when it constantly criticizes Israel, at the same time ignoring Hamas terrorism.
 
Eleven years later, leading the Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territories, a report was issued denouncing Israel for committing 'genocide' in Gaza. "On 7 October 2023 Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, which included airstrikes and ground operations." In point of fact it was not  until 27 October that Israel launched its ground invasion in search of Hamas terrorists who had led a broad invasion of southern Israel launching a systematic, planned assault of farming communities when mass rape, dismemberment, wholesale slaughter of 1,200 and kidnapping of over 200 took place on October 7.
 
No inconvenient mention of the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists in their thousands who poured across from Gaza into Israel on October 7 that predated Israel's incursion into Gaza to track down the terrorists sheltering behind Palestinian civilians whom Israel had warned to leave the areas it meant to bomb, having identified those areas as Hamas weapons depots, headquarters, communications centers and military operations bases, some located in schools and hospitals. 
B'nai Brith International responded to the Pillay report with incredulity at its stark bias: "B'nai Brith International is appalled and dismayed by the selection of Navi Pillay for the Nobel Peace Prize. This choice is not only unwarranted but offensive and damaging."
"It cheapens the world's leading prize for peacemaking and further reinforces a sense of isolation by Jews facing a surge in global antisemitism."  
This woman's history is replete with shameful alliances. When some 20 nations took to boycotting the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2011 in recognition of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo whom China had repeatedly jailed as a political and human right activist for campaigning for democracy, Navi Pillay saw fit to align herself with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. 
 
Prosecutor Robert Jackson over 80 years ago at Nuremberg identified the men on trial for "crimes against the peace of the world" who represented "sinister influences" as "living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence". A truly apt description in 2026 of Palestinian terrorists such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah, and the terrorist state of the Islamic Republic of Iran for whom the above are all proxies. 
 
This would be the very same Iran that has been elevated time and again at the United Nations to sit on its varying committees; the very exemplar of racial hatred, of terrorism and violence, the world's most terror-supporting state is treated with deference in the hallowed corridors of the United Nations, which Navi Pillay was a perfect fit for. Iran has sat on the UN's Economic and Social Council, as a member of the Committee for Programme and Coordination linked to programs related to human rights, women's rights, disarmament and terrorism prevention.
 
Both the United Nations and the Nobel Committee have surrendered their souls to the devil. 
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1500w,q_auto:best/mpx/2704722219/2024_09/unga_stream_photo-847k3g.jpg
UN Global Compact: UN General Assembly
  
"Navi Pillay oversaw the communication of names of over 50 dissidents to China."
"[She was] complicit [in handing over the names of Uhyghr dissidents to China]." 
"They testified, under oath, to their family members being intimidated, arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and even killed in concentration camps."
"This is an absolutely travesty of 'peace'." 
Emma Reilly, human rights lawyer 


Labels: , , ,

Sunday, October 18, 2026

President Donald J. Trump's Wildly Popular Canada Tariffs

"A lot of the private conversation is trying to push to stop this war with Canada."
"A lot of them privately are putting pressure on this ... and are going to the Commerce Department, Treasury, White House and saying, 'Look you're really hurting Americans here. Knock it off'." 
"It does not seem like Trump seems to care ... whether tariffs are popular or not or whether people are being harmed or not." 
"You don't get very far in American politics by telling people, 'I've got your vote in the bag, and I don't care about you."
"What I would like voters ... to pull out of all this at the end of the day is to understand that tariffs are taxes."
"They're not taxes on foreigners; they're taxes on  your own people, your own industries, your own businesses, and that this is not the solution." 
Richard Stern, vice-president, Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise, Advancing American Freedom
 
"Canada buys about ... 82 percent of everything North Dakota sells abroad."
"[And] 88 percent of everything Montana buys from abroad comes from Canada."
Kat Miller, policy analyst, Advancing American Freedom 
 
"Canada is not China. It is our neighbour, our friend, our closest ally, and our biggest trading partner."
"I have been strongly voting against the tariffs with Canada, but I've also been working behind the scenes."
Senator Susan Collins, Maine
President Trump
“They’ll end up being the 51st state, because that’s the only way it works,” Trump told the crowd. “We don’t need them, but they need us.”  NTV
 
Along the Canada-U.S. border the states neighbouring Canada are deeply unhappy about their president's tariff war with Canada, according to a new analysis by Advancing American Freedom. Canada, it points out, plays a vital economic role even in deeply red Republican states like Montana and North Dakota, and not only in Maine with its lumber trade, and Michigan's heavily integrated automotive manufacturing.
 
According to the AAF analytics, 62 and 55 percent of Maine and Vermont's international goods trade is accounted for by Canada. As for North Dakota and Montana, states that President Trump carried by 36 and 20 percentage points respectively in 2024, trade with Canada accounted for 77 percent in both of those Republican states. Mineral fuels account for 80 percent of North Dakota's exports to Canada, exempt from Canadian countertariffs. 
 
The disruption in trade between signal American states and Canada has had a deleterious impact not only in Canada, but in the United States as well, and a rising tide of anger over their imposition is impinging on the prospects of the upcoming midterm elections. In deep-red states the impact of the tariffs has made for some pressure points for the White House to consider; whether party loyalty will carry through to election day or whether those Republicans speaking out against the tariffs will express their frustration at the ballot box. 
 
A man in a suit gestures with his hands as he speaks.
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in a recent podcast appearance that American officials are 'closely watching' for election interference by Canadians. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
 
The Trump administration's representative in Canada, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, as far from a diplomat as anyone can imagine, has issued a stark warning to Canada that the U.S. is 'watching closely' and Canada had better keep its 'nose out of' American politics. "We're monitoring it, we're evaluating it and if some of it becomes election interference then America will respond to it", warned Hoekstra darkly, accusing Canada of making trouble for the Trump administration.
 
Analysts have pointed out that this president works to bypass Congress; the tariffs have been imposed by presidential policy without Congressional involvement, leaving trade watchers skeptical that the disruptive disagreements between Republican senators and representatives uncomfortable with the tariff war and how it has impacted their states as well as voting patterns, will result in any notice by President Trump whose mercurial impulsiveness that fails to understand repercussions, no one can control. 
 
"In terms of trade policy, it's very executive-driven these days", points out trade policy analyst Alfred Carillo at the Cato Institute. "Even if Congress did [push back], it probably wouldn't have made a difference."  John Hopkins' Sands expressed his dismay with the apparent indifference to the electoral costs by President Trump who is immovable on his tariff file, indifferent to how his personal animosity to Canada may eventually play out.
 
The pure fact of the matter is that after several years of back-and-forth tariff threats that have proven to impact industry and consumers on both sides of the border, a majority of Americans are known, in a current atmosphere of a crisis of affordability to oppose the tariffs. At the same time it is believed by those who have a stake in this game of one-upshmanship, that Mr. Trump plans to continue his tariff agenda, whether or not it costs the GOP.
 
Voting outcomes on November 3 will demonstrate whether that opposition will ultimately transcribe to votes. 
https://www.ctvnews.ca/resizer/v2/QTQQL622MNDQFF33GXOEMN2SHM.JPG?smart=true&auth=43bf9d2def8205d44103777bc136a5e666bce089eba5e60375cd1add03f16edc&width=1600&height=899
Canadian steelmakers offset some U.S. tariff pain with domestic demand
Stelco's Hamilton operations steel production facility is pictured from across the Hamilton Harbour in Burlington, Ont., on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn
 
"In a normal presidency, yes, because it means there's somebody who the president knows who can pick up the phone and have a conversation ... and say 'We really need to do this for my voters who are  your voters too."
"This president hasn't worked Capitol Hill that much ... [Trump] seems to write off the whole institution as irrelevant."
"His indifference to the fate of his party in Congress is ... pretty unusual."
Christopher Sands, director, Center for Canadian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington 
 
"I think it does matter. In fact, this has always been part of Canada's playbook, which is to lobby with state and local governments that are Republican that are trade dependent with Canada."
"Whether it's sufficient to ... nudge the president is another matter altogether."
"[It] doesn't necessarily mean that the president is gonna change his tune." 
Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director/senior fellow, Americas Program, CSIS, Washington 

Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, October 17, 2026

They Should Be Ashamed: Mass Global Suicidal Empathy

"Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025."
"This intention is predicated on the Palestinian Authority's commitment to much-needed reforms, including the commitments by Palestinian Authority President Abbas to fundamentally reform its governance, to hold general elections in 2025 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
 
"I recognize the legitimate concerns regarding Israeli co-operation access to polling stations, and the integrity of the electoral process, particularly in Gaza."
These are serious challenges, but they must be addressed rather than used to justify another indefinite postponement of Palestinian democracy."
"I am therefore appealing to you to intervene personally and urgently with President Abbas, together with Canada's international partners, to ensure that the Palestinian Authority honours its commitment to hold elections."
Sameer Sinijlaw, head, New Path (Masar Jadid) political movement 
https://i.cbc.ca/ais/2b604169-97a9-4189-8179-de4ce5bb37c7,1791913712098/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28443%2C902%2C6824%2C3838%29%3BResize%3D860
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is seen last month in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian elections set for next month have been delayed by a year. (Mahmoud Illean/The Associated Press)
 
"[We] deeply regret Abbas' decision to postpone elections scheduled for November 28]."
"Credible elections are an important element of the commitment that President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority made to reform, including democratic renewal and accountable governance, and are in line with the July 2025 New York Declaration."
"Strengthening Palestinian governance is essential to continue building the institutional foundation of a viable two-state solution, which is the only path to lasting peace and security for both Israel and Palestine.
"[The undersigned will] continue to support efforts to deliver on these elections."
Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, France, U.K. 
 
"While the Canadian government pursues punitive measures and sanctions against Israel, it must demonstrate that the Palestinians will also be held accountable for failing to honour their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace."
"Yet the Canadian government offers no indication of what consequences the PA will face, while suggesting that Israel is somehow to blame." 
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs  
https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/726521
Israeli medics and volunteers treat the injured at the site of a Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem, Israel. (credit: GETTY IMAGES)
 
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a week earlier that the scheduled November 28 Palestinian elections, about two decades overdue, would be postponed to September 2027 as a result of "obstacles posed by Israeli measures" that would interfere with the "free, fair and inclusive elections", he was simply acting true to form. The last election, held in 2006, demonstrated the popularity of Hamas among Palestinians, enabling it to take majority rule of Gaza. Since then, Hamas has grown even more popular among Palestinians, and the Palestine Authority president more unpopular.
 
Western countries supporting Palestinian statehood urge a democratic election take place, one that does not include the terrorist Hamas group. But in trusting Palestinians to elect their politicians to reflect the values of a civilized society those same Western democratic countries reveal their ignorance of the Palestinian voting psyche. Immediately following the gruesome mass rapes, mutilations, slaughter and hostage-taking of 7 October 2023, the majority of Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank approved of the mass carnage that took place in southern Israel. Given the chance they would vote overwhelmingly for Hamas.
 
Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah-led administration's school curricula teach young Palestinians that the Jews living next door are their implacable enemies, prepared to liquidate them, not merely oppress them -- urge their children to dedicate their futures to the extermination of Israel, that in engaging in missions to murder Jews they guarantee themselves a place in Paradise. Those that do commit crimes against humanity in Israel are guaranteed a place of honour and a lavish salary from the PA's Martyr's Fund, popularly called its "pay for slay" fund. These are the neighbours that France, the U.K., Canada, Spain and Ireland feel Israel should accommodate itself with.
 
"Israeli measures" that so irritate the  Palestinian Authority include the pressing, ever-present need to remain militarily vigilant in the prevention of suicide attacks against Israelis. Before the separating wall between Israel and the territories and the several Intifadas, the murders perpetrated by Palestinian terrorism on Jewish Israelis kept mounting. That vigilance against further and future such attacks against Israeli civilians is interpreted by Mahmud Abbas as 'occupation'. By a nation unable to trust its neighbour, knowing that once its guard is relaxed, it becomes an invitation for mass slaughter.
 
When Samer Sinijlaw wrote to Canada's Mark Carney to appeal to him to 'do something' about the postponed election, he was writing to a leader of a country which has never been in the unenviable position of having its intelligence services, military and police on constant duty to ensure that any dire plots of mass murder are nipped before they become reality, and living with the knowledge that they cannot possibly stop all such plans and there will be those that succeed. From afar, leaders like PM Carney posit their simple solutions.
 
https://static-cdn.toi-media.com/www/uploads/2026/05/AP26136482747600-640x400.jpg
Protesters march during a pro-Palestine demonstration in London, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
 
To the perennially threatened these are not solutions, but risible black humour unworthy of world leaders whose neutrality in recognizing an established civil nation with values and laws like their own in a democratic union with its people that include not only Jews, but a significant number of Arabs, Druze, Bedouin, Christians, Kurds, B'hai and others with full citizenship rights. In choosing to abandon the human rights of this civilization by viewing those who continually threaten its existence by mass violence with equal consideration, these world leaders betray their own commitment to human rights, the rule of law and international civil and social mores to an underlying suspicion, if not enmity toward Jews and the Jewish state.
 
Continuing to support a Muslim fundamentalist aspiring state that rejects the presence of a different ethnic and social, cultural and religious group legitimately existing on its ancestral land hoping for peace with all its neighbours, and succeeding with a growing number, the Western leaders who decry Israel's reaction to mass slaughter of its citizens as 'disproportionate' and make use of language totally out of context with the reality of a forced invasion, betray both a lack of conscience and a subliminal distrust and dislike of the very qualities that the Palestinians reject and plot murder against. 
 
Their attitudes, statements and  deliberate isolation of Israel, their voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly, and their tolerance for the demeaning of a nation and its people is shocking yet predictable, as a reflection of the world's most ancient pathology. That very attitude is transmitted to their own general publics which sense the censure and adapt it as their own. That the West has been suffused in the past several decades with waves of immigrants, refugees and migrants from the Middle East and North Africa leading to a surge of Muslims living in the West, bringing with them their own traditions of Jew-hate, compounds the issue of growing global antisemitism. 
 
https://thecjn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-15-145026.png
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Oct. 10, 2026, that elections will be postponed, again. (Screenshot State of Palestinian website)
 
"Postponing these elections would undermine precisely those Palestinians who are working to build a credible, peaceful political alternative."
"For the sake of our children, I ask Canada to stand firm. They deserve accountable leadership, a voice in their future, and a reason to believe that peaceful political change is possible."
Samer Sinijlaw, Palestinian New Path 

 

Labels: , , ,

Friday, October 16, 2026

Forewarned Is Forearmed -- Or Is It?

"[Threats to such facilities mark a] major shift [in] Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets like military sites."
"[The suspected plot against the Royal Air Force Fairford base, on September 27 was] not unique. [There have] been other examples [of similar threats to installations] not just in the U.K. but around the world -- most particularly in Iran's own region." 
"[Iran has been forced to rely on] hiring criminals to do their bidding [in Britain and Europe]." 
"Given what we've seen in practise, [Iran has not demonstrated] anywhere near the level of capability [to launch a sophisticated attack on British military bases or other installations]."
"Since I started in this role in 2020, there has been another generational shift. We have again entered a new era of national security – requiring a new response."  
MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum 
 
"[We will] keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we've avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations." 
"[People should] stay away from Zionist and American interests." 
Iran proxy group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia — or The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous (IMCR)
Director General of MI5 Ken McCallum speaks at Thames House, the headquarters of the U.K.'s Security Service in London, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP, Pool)
 
In its yearly update to dangers facing the United Kingdom and its allies, MI-5's director-general laid out his agency's most pressing concerns among which was the plot uncovered a month earlier as an example, against a British airbase, as forming a scheme plotted by the Islamic Republic of Iran to mount unattributed attacks by in situ groups infiltrating the U.K. and acting as agents for Iran. The attacks have struck high-security targets such as military sites and intelligence facilities. 
 
"The intensity and scale and shape" of the threat emanating from Iran is "shifting at the moment". The linkage reflects fallout from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran seven months earlier, motivating Iran and its Republican Islamic Guard Corps to focus on threatening and attacking American allies. The annual address on security threats included Mr. McCallum's security assessment that Russia "remains aggressor No. 1" against Britain and its allies which links to European support for Ukraine during Russia's now-five-year 'special military operation'. 
 
In recognition of the prevalence of the threats and the nature of the attacks, MI-5 saw the necessity of forming a dedicated new intelligence group linked to the agency meant to focus on potential threats that may in time become a more dire threat not only to the region, but beyond. Advances in artificial intelligence that take into account the possibility of chemical or biological weapons manufacturing guided by AI, and their potential use as instruments of warfare. 
 
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1000w,f_avif,q_auto:best/rockcms/2026-10/261005-fairford-mb-1146-3f44c8.jpg
Police patrol the perimeter of RAF Fairford as a U.S. Air Force Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber lands Sept. 28.  Ben Birchall / Press Association via Getty
 
"[Iran has demonstrated that it is] keen on subcontracting its U.K. violence … using criminal proxies to try to intimidate oppositionists, Iranian media organizations, and Israeli sites."
"Sadly, much of this aggression has been aimed at British Jewish communities, with whom I want to express solidarity." 
The interrupted plot against the Fairford airbase is still under investigation by British counterterrorism police. Its occurrence saw the United States evacuate the dozen B-1 bombers it had stationed at the airbase. Recent weeks saw some seven suspects arrested, including five British citizens who were detained soon after midnight on September 27 and subsequently released on bail. The five were in three vans travelling toward the base perimeter, used by U.S. bombers in their strikes on Iran. A nearby farmer was alerted to their suspicious presence and informed police.
 
This was an apprehended incident marking a departure from more recent years' pattern where Iran has been linked to lower-level proxy attacks recruited online to engage in sabotage, arson or stabbings, many of which targeted Jewish communities. Over 50 arrests have been made in the past year in "Iran-linked operations", stated Mr. McCallum. These activities are known to have taken place as well in Canada where Iranian-linked criminals were hired to disrupt life and target Jewish institutions.   
"Many terrorists would dearly love to have some kind of capability with bio, chem or radiological weaponry."
"[If guardrails meant to safeguard the spread of AI fail to gain complete control, a risk presents that] AI could generate novel pathogens not previously seen."
"[A new MI-5] threat centre [was created this year with an aim to focus on such dangers]."
MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum  
It seems clear enough that what cannot be predicted and what has become a publicly-aired dilemma over increasingly alarming news being released from among the Artificial Intelligence community that bots are striking out on their own -- deliberately taking steps to shield their activities from the notice of their human trainers to plot among themselves and act in swarms disrupting communications while managing to escape the guardrails meant to confine them -- is becoming an entirely new threat on its own. 
 
According to Mr. McCallum, the technology is "supercharging the cybersecurity contest between attackers and defenders". His concern and that of his agency is that AI could enable terrorist networks or state adversaries in the acquisition of  unconventional and extremely toxic and potent weapons that the world must now contemplate contending with. Much, much simpler to deal with challenges posed by state actors in their supercharged yet hard-to-pin-down efforts at world domination.
 
The world is faced with the trifecta of China's and Russia's ambitions on the world stage to prove themselves contenders for the position of superpowers, and the theist-motivated fundamentalism of Islamist conquest exemplified by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxy terrorist groups to fundamentally alter the world's religious, cultural, social, judicial, academic and human rights normalcy from the contemporary struggling against the worldwide threat of infiltration and Muslim population density power of institutional alteration of Western democracy.  
"[Russian military and intelligence services] are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare, [while being careful not to trigger NATO’s Article 5 threshold, in which other countries would be expected to defend their allies]."
"We see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding. The whole aim of hybrid tactics is to try to intimidate us."
"[Within the U.K.’s] multifaceted relationship with China [— Beijing is a major trading partner to London — MI5 has been focused on efforts by the Chinese government] to conduct espionage, coercion or democratic interference."
MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum  
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:best/rockcms/2026-10/261013-germany-rs-c88f12.jpg
Police officers at Leipzig Airport in Saxony, Germany, search for a drone Aug. 7. Sebastian Willnow / dpa via AP
 

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Canada's Idea of Protected 'Free Speech' ... the U.K. and U.S. Reality of Terrorist Entities

"Palestine Action Canada targeted GeoSpectrum Technologies in Peterborough."
"[GeoSpectrum's site is] not just a design and testing facility for 'maritime surveillance and exploration' systems; it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons manufacturer."
"There is no company that profits more off of the genocide of Palestinians." 
Palestine Action Canada Instagram post 
https://kawarthanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/geospectrum-vandalism-01-696x392.jpg
A video provided by a group claiming to be Palestine Action Canada showing red paint being splattered on the entrance to GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc. on Whittington Drive in Peterborough in the early morning hours of October 12, 2026. (kawarthaNOW screenshot)

An Ontario business in Peterborough, Ontario has been vandalized, leading the Peterborough Police Service to investigate the event as a hate crime. Not too big a stretch of the imagination, since an anti-Israel group that has been outlawed in the United Kingdom under their terrorism laws, has quite publicly claimed credit for splashing red paint on  the building exterior of GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc. The company specializes on producing underwater acoustic systems, is headquartered in Nova Scotia, with a facility in Ontario.

Contacting the police, a concerned Peterborough resident informed them that there was "red paint and writing" on the building. On arrival at the site, police found damage on the building exterior, and further inspection revealed damage to a communication box on the GeoSpectrum property. The Peterborough Police Service brilliantly deduced that GeoSpectrum might have become a target as a result of its being a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence technology company. 

A video posted on Instagram by Palestine Action Canada was proud to take responsibility for the damage inflicted on the property they connect to Israel's military-production establishment. In the video a masked individual is shown cutting wires in a dark room, a flashlight illuminating the scene of the crime. Additional footage is that of a masked man standing beside the entrance of a building splashing red paint on its front. 

https://kawarthanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/geospectrum-vandalism-02-696x392.jpg
A video provided by a group claiming to be Palestine Action Canada showing a masked individual interfering with unidentified equipment in the early morning hours of October 12, 2026. Peterborough police said an outdoor communications box was damaged at GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc. on Whittington Drive in Peterborough. (kawarthaNOW screenshot)

Blame is cast by the anti-Israel group on Canada for its purported role in support of the parent company of GeoSpectrum. "And our own settler-colonial state, so-called Canada, trades, buys and invests in Elbit. We will not stop until Palestine is free!" concludes the post. Or until they are brought to account, as a terrorist entity operating illegally in Canada. 

This is not the first and only time that Palestine Action Canada acted against a Canadian company it claims has connection to the Israeli defence industry. The group claimed responsibility for targeting a manufacturer in Concord, north of Toronto, when Dishon Limited was also vandalized. The activities of this  group have prompted calls on the federal government to recognize Palestine Action Canada as a terrorist entity and designate it as such under the Criminal Code.

The federal government was called on to designate the group for what it is, through a House of Commons e-petition that closed in September. The July event that involved Dishon Limited was presented in the petition as evidence of the campaign of direct action -- violent action -- against businesses in Canada, Palestine Action Canada operating as a terrorist group in Canada. 

"The appropriate authorities have been notified, and we are working with them as we assess the extent of the damage", a spokesperson for GeoSpectrum confirmed, in validating the occurrence of the vandalism, courtesy of the Palestine Action Canada group. Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada urged the federal government in May to take action against the group following its release of a map of locations to "target", citing ties to Israel, within Canada.

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!j1XS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc6b7f85-922e-486c-8dc2-bc004a9ec2eb_1320x845.jpeg
Source: Facebook

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Palestine Action "has supported numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020". Sanctions were issued against the group in the United States. Canadian authorities are in no great hurry to sanction the group that has clearly committed violent criminal activities, threatening even greater such unlawful actions crying out for arrests, and judicial proceedings including both prison sentences and deportation when appropriate. 

 

Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Saudi Arabia's Untold Oil Wealth / Yemeni Houthis' Beggarly Strategic Threats

"Energy security can't be taken for granted."
"The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious."
"For Saudi Arabia, these circumstances have tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience."
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi energy minister 
 
"[They -- Houthis -- will] face consequences [for their repeated attacks on the kingdom]."
"The Kingdom will not allow any threat to its security or to freedom of maritime navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait."
Saudi Arabian Cabinet 
 
"[The warning and the attack show] the Saudis’ aims of upping the ante and striking deep in the heart of Houthi-controlled territory while attempting to control the narrative by presenting themselves as more careful and humanitarian actors than the Houthis."
"It may be a warning -- or it may be a sign of things to come."
Adam Baron, fellow, Washington-based New America institute
https://www.reuters.com/resizer/v2/WTZBTX3HHNOVBDSIHXGXNS3LDU.jpg?auth=6ca8a808731b4578c1e275936b3159eb717f2bb17ce5cc1d72a437a34878b409&width=640&quality=80
Oil tanks seen at the Saudi Aramco headquarters during a media tour at Damam city. REUTERS/ Ali Jarekji/File Photo
 
Not entirely insensitive to the Israel Defense Forces' routine pre-warning of civilians in enclaves in the Gaza Strip where the Israeli military's strategy to respond to the 7 October 2023 by destroying Palestinian terrorists' military emplacements, their weapons depots, their broadcasting systems, their labyrinthine tunnels, their leaders and their operatives, starting with the Hamas governing group which infamously has always used the civilian population as shields, the Saudi military leading a coalition of forces Tuesday on Sanaa, pre-warned the population to flee for safety.

Following the Houthi weekend strikes on Riyadh's international airport on Saturday and follow-up strikes days later, which killed 18 people and wounded hundreds more, Saudi Arabia warned the Houthis of their intention to strike back. Before they did, civilians were urged to leave the site of the Yemeni Oil Company and its nearby storage areas. That they have finally struck, it is impossible to ignore that the Middle East crisis is expanding with this series of fresh escalations behind which can be discerned the malign influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/10/13/multimedia/13int-saudi-yemensub-photo-plbk/13int-saudi-yemensub-photo-plbk-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=avif
A man looking over the skyline of Sanaa, Yemen, on Tuesday.  Credit...Mohammed Huwais/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

That the airport strikes in Saudi Arabia have added to the energy export crisis now looming over the global community with the world's top oil exporter having been targeted, the coalition's counter-targeting of Yemen's Houthi-controlled oil sites is certain to jolt the world to attention. The Yemen civil war has brought the poorest country in the environs of the Middle East starkly divided between the legitimate government, forced to surrender their capital Sanaa to the Houthi rebellion, into a crisis situation. The government supported by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis by Iran spell the ultimate in tribal-sectarian hostilities.
 
In Saudi Arabia, operations remain suspended at the King Khalid International Airport on the outskirts of Riyadh. On Saturday, Muslim pilgrims wearing their typical religious attire were awaiting their flights in departure lounges when a sudden flash tore through the building and flaming debris rained down killing 13 outright. The Houthi drone and missile attacks had city residents sheltering for safety even as the Houthis threatened to continue targeting Saudi transit hubs as "a theatre of operations for our forces". This is the reality of a new, unequal form of conflict, where guerrilla forces of a poor nation can access killing drones to wage its war against a richer nation's conventional military's reaction.
 
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a0e9bef078e7fc1f0f1d0a49f0349b500081ee4b/505_0_3581_2864/master/3581.jpg?width=1900&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none

Smoke over Sana’a during a reported Saudi-led coalition airstrike on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital on 9 October 2026. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Sunday evening also saw eastern Saudi Arabia's Dammam airport hit. A day later, the Saudi-led coalition revealed that it had "intercepted and destroyed" a Houthi ballistic missile headed for a major military base in the southern city of Khamis Mushalt. The Houthi foreign ministry, referring to Saudi Arabia as the "Kingdom of the Horn of Satan -- must realize that security, stability and sovereignty must belong to everyone; otherwise, no one will enjoy them." 
 

Labels: , , , , ,

Follow @rheytah Tweet