Anonymous ID: 548941 May 5, 2021, 4:43 a.m. No.13587487   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7591 >>7746 >>7817 >>7836

Germany bans Muslim group over alleged terror donations

 

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Wednesday banned a Muslim organization that it accused of supporting "terrorism globally with its donations."

 

Police raided buildings associated with Ansaar International in 10 German states, the German Interior Ministry said in a statement. The ministry alleged the money the organization collected ostensibly went into welfare projects as a ruse to help finance groups such as the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate known as the Nusra Front, the Palestinian group Hamas and al-Shabab in Somalia.

 

“The organization Ansaar International and its suborganizations were banned. The network finances terrorism globally with its donations,” an Interior Ministry spokesperson tweeted.

 

More than 1,000 police officers raided buildings and office spaces across Germany and confiscated about 150,000 euros ($180,000).

 

“When wanting to fight terrorism, one needs to dry out its money sources,” German Interior Ministry Horst Seehofer said. He alleged that Ansaar International “spreads a Salafist view of the world and isfinancing terror around the globe under the disguise of humanitarian help.”

 

A man who answered a phone call to the organization's headquarters in the western German city of Duesseldorf immediately hung up when The Associated Press called seeking comment.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-bans-muslim-group-over-074741767.html

Anonymous ID: 548941 May 5, 2021, 4:49 a.m. No.13587508   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7591 >>7746 >>7817 >>7836

Feds seek forfeiture of ancient Roman statue that was headed to Kim Kardashian

 

Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of an ancient Roman sculpture that was on its way to Kim Kardashian when it was seized at Los Angeles' port five years ago.

 

Italian officials think the sculpture, described as "Fragment of Myron's Samian Athena, Limestone, Roman, 1st – 2nd century A.D.," was originally looted from Italy, and they want it returned, according to a civil complaint for forfeiture filed in federal court in Los Angeles last week.

 

The case dates to 2016, when the antique statue arrived at the Port of Los Angeles and immediately caught the attention of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.

 

The broker provided a form to the CBP that listed the consignee, or buyer, and importer as "Kim Kardashian dba Noel Roberts Trust." The shipment, described as containing antiques, furniture and decorations, had 40 pieces in all valued at $745,882, the filing says.

 

Documents in the case do not allege any wrongdoing by Kardashian, and there are no claims that she was aware of any possible issues with the statue. Representatives for Kardashian did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

 

The U.S. and Italy have an agreement designed to end the trafficking of pillaged cultural property that requires documentation for imports.

 

When the shipment arrived, customs officials were concerned that it was "possibly protected cultural property from Italy," according to the filing.

 

As authorities investigated, they found contradictions between documents that indicated that the statue originated from Italy and an unsworn affidavit stating that the statue did not originate there, the court filing says.

 

A month later, they seized the statue after the broker did not prove sufficient documentation to American authorities, according to the court filing.

 

Italy's Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage told Homeland Security Investigations in 2016, and it wants the statue returned, the document says.

 

The U.S. government said in the filing that an Italian archaeologist in 2018 concluded that the piece showed signs of having been in Italy during the Roman Empire, and there are no records of its being legally exported as required under a 1909 law.

 

"Based on the information and scientific aspects the archaeologist provided, the archaeologist opined that the defendant statue was looted, smuggled and illegally exported from Italy," it says.

 

The Italian archaeologist determined that the statue is of "classical Peplophoros style," which represents a copy of an original Greek sculpture, the filing says

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/feds-seek-forfeiture-ancient-roman-042053572.html

Anonymous ID: 548941 May 5, 2021, 4:55 a.m. No.13587536   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7591 >>7746 >>7817 >>7836

Avenatti Nike Sentencing Now June 30 Trial on Stormy Daniels 10 Jan 2022 As Info Still Sealed

 

SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 2 – When after three days of jury selection the trial of Michael Avenatti for allegedly extorting Nike began on January 29, Assistant US Attorney Robert Sobelman told the selected jurors that Avenatti was supposed to look out for the interests of his client, but he did not - he had a weapon, social media. More on 1st day on Patreon here.

 

On August 7 in the Stormy Daniels case, Avenatti had motions heard by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman. Inner City Press live tweeted it, here.

 

On January 8, Avenatti's trial in the Stormy Daniels case was pushed back to… 2022: "MEMO ENDORSEMENT as to Michael Avenatti on [102] Letter re Trial Date: Much as the Court would like to keep the trial date as is, it concludes that, given the continuing public health crisis, going to trial on that date - particularly in a case of this nature - is not likely to be realistic or prudent. Accordingly, and in view of the Defendant's California trial dates, trial is hereby ADJOURNED to January 10, 2022. Within three weeks, defense counsel shall file a letter confirming that Defendant (1) is aware of the trial date and (2) understands that it is a firm date and that any application (e.g., relating to discovery, counsel, etc.) that could affect the ability to begin trial as scheduled may be denied on that basis alone and therefore must be filed as early as possible. The Clerk of Court is directed to terminate ECF No. 102. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Jesse M. Furman on 1/8/2021)."

 

On January 7 in the Nike case, Avenatti asked to again push back his sentencing to May 2021, full letter on Patreon here.

 

Now docketed on April 2, another delay: "ORDER as to Michael Avenatti. The sentencing of Defendant Michael Avenatti, currently scheduled for May 7, 2021, will now take place on June 30, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. Any submissions on behalf of Defendant are due on June 9, 2021, and any submission by the Government is due on June 16, 2021."

 

more

 

http://www.innercitypress.com/sdnylive109avenattinikeicp040221.html

Anonymous ID: 548941 May 5, 2021, 5:27 a.m. No.13587671   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>13587650

Interesting read.

 

Just a few days before Christmas 1988, terrorists blew up Pan American Flight 103 as it passed over Lockerbie, not long after leaving Heathrow. One of the 259 murdered onboard was Matthew Gannon. The eighth child of devout Catholic parents, Gannon had joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1977, becoming a skilled operations officer and linguist.

 

Nearly a year later, in October 1989, many victims’ belongings still lay unclaimed in trailers in Lockerbie. When Gannon’s brother arrived there, he identified his family member’s personal items by spotting a missal in a bag with one of Matthew’s favourite shirts.

 

Conspiracy theorists have probably already exploited Gannon’s death. It’s difficult to investigate anything about the CIA or the Vatican and not encounter narratives that resemble thriller novels.

 

But we shouldn’t ignore the topic. The CIA is the best known of the 17 agencies that comprise the American intelligence community. It has earned itself nicknames like “Catholic Intelligence Agency” and “Catholics In Action”. It’s worth exploring why.

 

No official statistics exist on Catholics in the CIA or any other American intelligence agency. But one interesting clue is the relatively high number of Catholics who have served as director of the agency.

 

The United States is a country in which – with the recent exception of the Supreme Court – Catholics have never dominated the highest offices. Only one out of 44 US Presidents has been Catholic. The first and only Catholic Vice President is the current one, Joe Biden. Before John Kerry, the last Catholic Secretary of State was Alexander Haig, who left the post in 1982. Catholics are a rarity in other top positions such as Secretary of Defence.

 

By contrast, three out of the last five CIA directors have been Catholic: Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, and the current director, John Brennan. Looking back, a number of Catholics led the agency in critical periods during the Cold War. (There were no Catholic directors in the 1990s.)

 

Some of the most influential directors in CIA history have been Catholic – men such as Walter Bedell Smith, John McCone, William Colby and William Casey. They were not just casual Catholics. They were devout Mass-goers – in many cases, members of groups like the Knights of Malta. The conspiracy theorists usually start there, with nefarious plots about the Vatican steering world affairs. Of course, they never ask why an all-powerful Vatican can’t engineer more Catholic presidents.

 

To make sense of Catholics in the CIA, you have to go back to the 1940s, before the agency even existed. Until that decade, the United States did not have a unified intelligence system. Separate branches of the military collected and analysed their own intelligence.

 

That changed with the Office of Strategic Services. This was the CIA’s predecessor, responsible for espionage and sabotage operations during World War II. The OSS was founded and led by General William J Donovan, whom history knows as “Wild Bill”.

 

Donovan was born into a poor Irish Catholic family in upstate New York. He experimented with other denominations while a student at Columbia University, though he remained devoted to Catholicism, even after marrying into a rich Protestant family. After heroic combat in World War I he made a fortune as a Wall Street lawyer.

 

Wild Bill did not exclusively recruit Catholics; he sought anyone with ability. The OSS attracted many kinds of people, including Wasps who sought a more adventurous role in the war.

 

But many Catholics ended up in the OSS. It’s impossible to know for certain why this happened. Was it simply that Wild Bill recruited from his own social circle, which probably included more Catholics than if he had been a Presbyterian?

 

One telling fact is that the OSS used its Foreign Nationalities branch, based in New York, to recruit from American ethnic groups. At this time in American history, Catholics were well represented among immigrants – Italians, Irish, Poles, Bavarian Germans and many Slavs.

 

Another historical fact is even more significant: Catholic anti-communism in the 1940s and 1950s was at its zenith. Major Catholic organisations such as the Knights of Columbus supported Senator Joseph McCarthy (himself a Catholic) in his quest to purge the US of communist influence. Were young Catholics inspired to take a more activist role in fighting the godless Soviets?

 

https://catholicherald.co.uk/why-catholics-thrive-in-the-cia/