Random Politics & Religion #07

News is saying 20ish hostages, not dead

2 dead police officers

W/e my agendanews says

Why are we pretending that is not a sock?

Armed terrorists are holding as many as 20 hostages at a cafe in a diplomatic zone of Bangladesh's capital. A gunbattle with police left at least two senior police officers dead and 40 people were injured.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack, according to Amaq News Agency, an ISIS media branch.
As police exchanged fire with the gunmen, the attackers threw explosives at officers, a source at the scene said.
Here's the latest:
• Gunmen are holding the hostages at Holey Artisan Bakery, a cafe popular with expats, cafe owner Sumon Reza told CNN. Reza said he managed to escape as six to eight gunmen entered. About 20 people, some of them foreigners, were in the restaurant, he said.
• A police officer in charge of a nearby station was shot dead, Maruf Hasan of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said. A second officer died from gunshot wounds, Detective Police Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam told CNN.

• Alam said 40 people were wounded, some by gunshots and others by shrapnel from explosive devices.
• "We are trying to resolve this issue peacefully," police official Gen. Benzir Ahmed told reporters.
• Assailants were throwing explosives at police, a source at the scene said.
• The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied any ISIS presence in the country. Other attacks have been claimed by local Islamist groups.
• Though there was the reported ISIS claim of responsibility, the U.S. State Department said that cannot yet be confirmed. Spokesman John Kirby said the State Department is assessing information.

• Witness Sharma Hussain told CNN that her cousin has four friends who are in the restaurant. Hussain said the hostages' relatives have come to the scene but have received no word from their family members. Hussain said she heard the gunshots from her apartment, about a five-minute walk from the restaurant.
• Police are trying to find out the demands of the gunmen holding customers, an officer said. The gunmen have not made any demands.
• Lori Ann Walsh Imdad, an American teacher living in Dhaka, said she lives one block from the restaurant and she heard gunshots. At first there was a burst of gunfire; after that it was sporadic. There has not been any gunfire since, she said.
• Farzana Azim says she heard explosions outside her home. "We heard the first bomb blast at 8:30 in the evening," Azim said. At first she thought it was the sound of a plane, but a few minutes later another blast echoed through the neighborhood of Gulshan. Within a half hour, the gunshots started, she said.
"I never thought something like this could happen. It is next to a small hospital. This is family-friendly restaurant. Everyone loves to go there," the 49-year-old told CNN.
She said her husband and son had gone outside for the call to prayer and the attack happened shortly after that.
• Hussain said the restaurant is popular among young people, who would have packed the restaurant about the time of attack as they broke their fast for the day.

Not really a good idea to joke like that.

...
Also, without signals, because signals are considered a sign of weakness. Can't have that, everyone is supposed to read your mind, damn it!

Hey. There are worse things to think about when you think of moustaches than the greatest frontman to ever live.

Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN)All the attackers in the deadly assault on a cafe in Dhaka were Bangladeshi citizens, and five of them were militants that police had tried to arrest previously, Police Inspector General Shahidul Hoque told CNN Saturday.
Authorities also released the nationalities of the 20 hostages who were found dead inside the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe after Bangladeshi troops stormed the cafe early Saturday morning, ending a nearly 11-hour siege.
Nine of the victims were Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi and one was a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, according to the country's Joint Force Command. Eleven of the victims were male and nine were female.

For high-rolling special interests looking to make an impression at the presidential conventions next month, one option is to pay a lot of money to a media outlet. Lobbyists for the oil industry, for instance, are picking up the tab for leading Beltway publications to host energy policy discussions at the convention, including The Atlantic and Politico.

And for the right price, some political media outlets are even offering special interviews with editorial staffers and promotional coverage at the convention.

Want face time with major news outlets at the conventions? You can flat buy it.

Major Political News Outlets Offer Interviews for Sale at DNC and RNC Conventions
The Intercept (I know nothing about this site.)

Openers:


Screen grab of the price list from The Hill’s brochure.

I used to respect that source....

(CNN)Iraq's capital was once again the scene of bloody carnage this weekend, with two separate car bombs killing at least 126 people.
The first detonation occurred Saturday on a busy shopping street in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada, killing 125 people -- including 25 children -- and wounding 147 others, police said.
Firefighting crews pulled injured and trapped people from adjacent buildings damaged in the massive blast, including a coffee shop, stores and a gym.
The second bomb exploded at an outdoor market in the Shaab neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five others, police said.

The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Karrada attack in a statement posted on Twitter. The group claimed it was targeting Shiite neighborhoods. Karrada and Shaab are predominately Shiite.

Presidential election of Austria Annulled



Van Der Bellen directly knew what was going on too, even with this re-election its only a matter of time until he gets directly indicted next. I have a specific hatred for people who cheat on votes, and they should be dealt with extreme prejudice.

It was so blatant, I don't know how they thought they'd get away with it. I knew there'd be a re-election. Austrian people I knew were going ape when live results were cut off in the final hour, now we've learned just how deep the rabbit hole went.

Presidential election of Austria Annulled



Van Der Bellen directly knew what was going on too, even with this re-election its only a matter of time until he gets directly indicted next. I have a specific hatred for people who cheat on votes, and they should be dealt with extreme prejudice.

It was so blatant, I don't know how they thought they'd get away with it. I knew there'd be a re-election. Austrian people I knew were going ape when live results were cut off in the final hour, now we've learned just how deep the rabbit hole went.

Texas
Muslim doctor shot and stabbed outside Texas mosque

Ohio
Emirati tourist mistaken for Daesh member, hospitalised in US

Yeah Blazed, I read about those, and there is more unfortunate news from here this morning.

Surveillance Video Shows Two Youths Viciously Beaten Outside A Brooklyn Mosque

Nonsense Fone. Trump only wants to ban Muslims from entering the country. And surveillance of and inside mosques. And making them wear yellow crescent moons on their sleeves.

He said nothing about attacking them.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Bombings rocked three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, including near the Prophet’s Mosque in the holy city of Medina, raising the specter of increasingly coordinated attacks by militants seeking to destabilize the monarchy.

A suicide bomber struck near the United States Consulate in the coastal city of Jidda in the morning, wounding two security officers. Then, near dusk, when Muslims were ending their daily Ramadan fasts, other blasts struck near a Shiite mosque in the country’s east and at a security post in Medina, killing four security guards, according to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television network.

The blasts in Saudi Arabia followed a bloody week in which terrorist attacks caused mass casualties in the largest cities of three predominantly Muslim countries: Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and in Baghdad, and it is suspected of carrying out the one in Istanbul.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the Saudi bombings, although Islamic State extremists have attacked the kingdom repeatedly in recent years, mostly targeting members of the Shiite minority and state security personnel.

The attacks occurred amid fears that extremists had planned further violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and for the holiday that celebrates its conclusion this week, Eid al-Fitr.

The Medina attack struck the security office of the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is said to be buried, an important stop for millions of pilgrims who visit the holy cities each year. Four security officers died in the attack, Al Arabiya said, in addition to a suicide bomber.

Call me crazy, but I don't think they're Muslim.

Call me crazy, but I don't think they're Muslim.