Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Superdry founder named interim CEO as majority of board steps down

FILE PHOTO: A window display is seen at a Superdry store in London
FILE PHOTO: A window display is seen at a Superdry store in London, Britain, March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

April 2, 2019

(Reuters) – Superdry named its co-founder and former boss Julian Dunkerton as interim chief executive officer on Tuesday after a majority of the British fashion group’s board stepped down.

The company said Chairman Peter Bamford, CEO Euan Sutherland and Chief Financial Officer Ed Barker have resigned and will stand down immediately.

Superdry named Peter Williams, an industry veteran who is the current chairman of online fashion retailer Boohoo, as chairman.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

0 0

LendingClub fourth quarter loss narrows

Lending Club banner hangs on the facade of the the New York Stock Exchange
FILE PHOTO: A Lending Club banner hangs on the facade of the the New York Stock Exchange in New York, New York, United States December 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

February 19, 2019

(Reuters) – Online lender LendingClub Corp reported a smaller quarterly loss on Tuesday, on the back of higher loan originations.

The San Francisco-based company posted an adjusted loss of $4.1 million, or 1 cent per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to a loss of $7.3 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier. (https://reut.rs/2EiMdjC)

(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

0 0

Scotland to step up efforts to keep EU citizens after Brexit, Sturgeon says

FILE PHOTO: Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon listens to Plaid Cymru's leader Adam Price speak at the Scottish National Party's party's conference in Glasgow, Scotland
FILE PHOTO: Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon listens to Plaid Cymru's leader Adam Price speak at the Scottish National Party's party's conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain October 8, 2018. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Elisabeth O’Leary

EDINBURGH (Reuters) – Scotland will step up efforts to persuade EU citizens to stay after Brexit, its First Minister will tell French lawmakers on Tuesday, amid concerns about potential workforce shortages in the largest of the United Kingdom’s three smaller nations.

Nicola Sturgeon, who supports Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, will tell French lawmakers that Britain’s proposals for its exit from the European Union and limitations on freedom of movement will damage Scotland’s economy more than Britain as a whole.

Small business and tourism associations have warned of labor shortages already occurring for remote, low-paid work such as food processing and hospitality which are key to Scottish economic success and depend heavily on EU workers.

Political tension has increased between Sturgeon’s devolved government, which opposes Brexit, and Britain’s divided Conservative government struggling to deliver Brexit by March 29.

Unhappiness over Brexit within Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party is also pressurizing her to reignite a push for independence as the impending break with the EU pushes British politics to its limits.

“Without freedom of movement there is a danger that our population will start to decline. We could face workforce shortages in rural areas, in our universities, in our care and health services,” Sturgeon will tell the French National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee, which she has been invited to address.

“The UK government is proclaiming the end of free movement as a victory – instead, it is a self-defeating measure,” she will say.

Differences over Brexit have strained relations between the United Kingdom’s four nations. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU in a 2016 referendum, while Wales and England vote to leave.

The desire to limit the number of EU citizens coming to Britain was a major reason Britons voted for Brexit in 2016. Immigration is one of the most heated political issues in the Brexit debate even though there are some parts of Britain with labor shortages.

Net migration of EU citizens to Britain fell to its lowest level in nearly six years during the year to June, extending a decline seen since the 2016 Brexit vote.

Scotland’s population is aging more quickly than the United Kingdom as a whole and its economy has been shored up by EU migrants in recent years, studies show.

A Scottish government official declined to detail what the intensified effort to keep EU citizens would entail. London has argued that Scotland does not need a differentiated migration system.

Scotland last year announced measures to support EU citizens, such as waiving a registration fee for a post-Brexit immigration system, funding a citizens’ rights service to provide information and raise awareness of the issue and paying tuition fees for EU students at Scottish universities.

(Reporting by Elisabeth O’Leary, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

0 0

Washington Post: Mueller Report to Be Lightly Redacted

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, set to be released Thursday morning, will be lightly redacted but still offer a thorough look at objection charges mulled over by Mueller's team against President Donald Trump, according to The Washington Post.

The report will list a "detailed blow-by-blow of the president's alleged conduct — analyzing tweets, private threats, and other episodes at the center of Mueller's inquiry," according to the Post, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Mueller, who turned in his report to Attorney General William Barr on March 23, neither charged nor exonerated Trump on obstruction of justice charges and also said neither Trump nor his campaign conspired with Russia to win the 2016 campaign.

Barr has been accused by Democratic lawmakers of trying to spin Mueller's findings, a notion fueled by his decision to hold a press conference ahead of the report's release to present his overview of it and discuss his review process.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Barr had "thrown out his credibility & the DOJ's independence with his single-minded effort to protect" Trump.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "The process is poisoned before the report is even released."

"Barr shouldn't be spinning the report at all, but it's doubly outrageous he's doing it before America is given a chance to read it," Schumer said.

Source: NewsMax Politics

0 0

Joe Biden’s Primary Victory Odds Slump After #MeToo Controversy

Having previously been the clear frontrunner, Joe Biden’s primary victory odds have slumped following controversy over his inappropriate behavior around women.

Biden has been hit with two new accusations of being overly touchy-feely around women. For years, the former vice president has been known as ‘Creepy Uncle Joe’ because of numerous such incidents that were caught on camera.

The scandal has already impacted Biden’s odds of winning the Democratic primary, with a PredictIt chart showing the VP has now sunk below both Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris.

null

In addition, UK outlet Oddschecker now has Biden below Sanders and Harris with Beto O’Rourke now level pegging with Biden at 6/1 to win the Democratic candidacy.

We now await polls of Democratic voters, which should also show a significant drop off in support for Biden following this past weekend’s revelations.

Despite the Democrats slamming Trump for his “they let you grab ’em by the pussy” comments, many leftists have rushed to defend Biden.

Whoopi Goldberg said yesterday on The View, “I don’t want Joe to stop” smelling women’s hair and kissing them.

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski also accused Biden’s accuser of being a stooge for Bernie Sanders, asserting that Biden is “extremely affectionate extremely flirtatious in a completely safe way.”

Biden’s spokesman Bill Russo blamed “right wing trolls” from “the dark recesses of the internet” for creating the controversy.

Watch the video below and judge for yourself whether this behavior should disqualify a presidential candidate.

SUBSCRIBE on YouTube:

Follow on Twitter:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71

Source: InfoWars

0 0

Boeing shares dip again as 737 MAX groundings spread

FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Boeing is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Boeing is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 12, 2019

(Reuters) – Boeing Co’s shares fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday as more countries grounded the planemaker’s 737 MAX 8 aircraft amid heightened anxiety among travelers about the safety of the plane.

Malaysia, Singapore and Australia became the latest nations to ground Boeing’s best-selling line of jets, one of which also crashed in Indonesia in October.

DZ Bank became the first brokerage in nearly two years to place a “sell” rating on the stock, while setting a price target of $333 – the lowest on Wall Street.

The stock was trading at $385 before the opening bell. If Tuesday’s losses, following a 5 percent fall on Monday, stick through regular trading hours, the company would have lost more than $21 billion in market value in two days.

“News that could really harm Boeing could affect markets,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.

“On whether Boeing is responsible in some way or if there is a problem in its aircraft is something investors are still trying to digest.”

The United States will mandate that Boeing implement design changes by April, but said the plane was airworthy and did not need to be grounded.

Safety experts say it is too early to speculate on what caused Sunday’s crash and black box recorders were yet to yield the cause.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Amy Caren Daniel; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

0 0

On heels of scandals, USC announces new president

The University of Southern California on Wednesday announced a new school president to usher "a new era" following a series of high-profile scandals that culminated last week with a massive college admissions bribery case.

Carol Folt, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will become USC's 12th president and the first permanent female president in school history — an announcement that came a week after news of the bribery scandal broke.

Folt said the scandal didn't give her pause about taking on the job.

"I want to be a part of fixing this," Folt said. "If you're trying to run an institution, you have to enjoy the fixing as well as the advancing."

Folt said she was horrified to learn of the scheme, which involved wealthy parents paying bribes to have a college counselor rig standardized tests or get their children admitted as recruits of sports they didn't play.

"Most of us (at universities) spend our lives caring about students and admissions and trying to do things fairly ... so when you see something like that, you're just aghast," she said. "But most of us immediately started thinking, 'OK, boy, we know how to get to the bottom of this, we're going to figure this out and that is not something I want to ever see happen again.' "

Rick Caruso, chairman of the USC board of trustees, said problems will occur, but the measure of great leadership is how one reacts to them.

"We have worked hard to try to turn a corner, to make a change," Caruso said. "Today firmly cements the fact that there is a dramatic cultural change in this university."

A lengthy search for a new president led a 23-member committee to unanimously recommend Folt, Caruso said.

"If nothing else, this last nine months has shown us that this university can handle whatever's thrown at us," he said. "We are ready to move forward."

Folt will take over USC from interim President Wanda Austin, who stepped in after former President C.L. Max Nikias resigned last summer amid two major controversies: reports that the school ignored complaints of widespread sexual misconduct by a longtime campus gynecologist and an investigation into a medical school dean accused of smoking methamphetamine with a woman who overdosed.

Combined with the bribery scandal, Folt will have her work cut out for her, said Roger Sloboda, a Dartmouth biology professor who worked with Folt at the New Hampshire school, where she started her academic career and spent three decades.

"Considering the recent stuff at USC, I feel sorry for Carol jumping into that mess. But I think she'll clean it up," he said. "She is a scientist and she'll look at the data, figure out what happened and how to fix it."

From a crisis standpoint at her previous job at UNC-Chapel Hill, Folt did just OK, said Jay Schalin, policy analysis director at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, a right-leaning think tank.

At UNC, Folt inherited a department that offered irregular courses with significant athlete enrollments dating back years before her arrival. The courses were misidentified as lecture classes that didn't meet, required a research paper or two for typically high grades with little to no faculty oversight.

Folt also was forced out early from the job in January amid a controversy over a Confederate statue known as "Silent Sam" that was torn down on campus.

Schalin said Folt angered conservatives in North Carolina with "mixed signals" on Silent Sam that they felt emboldened protesters.

As far the academic scandal involving UNC athletes, he said the USC scandal seems smaller in scope. "Folt should have little trouble managing it, unless the media goes after USC in a major way," he said.

The president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, where Folt served as chair of a committee on science and technology policy, said he has always "admired her insights and wisdom on ways universities can better serve students and the public at large."

"Carol Folt is a very accomplished and highly respected higher education leader," association President Peter McPherson said in a statement.

Four USC students showed up to Folt's introduction at USC holding protesting her actions during the Confederate statue controversy, saying she took credit for taking it down when it really was a student-led movement.

One of the students, Rebecca Hu, said she wanted to make her concerns known and felt students should have been more heavily involved in the selection of a new president.

"I think the student community is really hurt by everyone in USC administration, and we just want to make sure they actually hear us for once and take us seriously," said Hu, a senior majoring in philosophy.

Jason Chang, a 20-year-old accounting major, said he and his fellow students "just want transparency" about the unfolding scandal.

"It's sad to say that it's tainting the school's reputation," he said.

Graduate student Myla Bastien also called for transparency and honesty. "I think that if USC just owns it, and then comes up with a plan to prevent it from happening in the future, that would be helpful," she said.

Folt said she's committed to addressing student concerns and that the university is off to "an amazing start."

"I think people have been very honest and forthright about it," she said. "I'm certainly not being encouraged to be anything but direct and open and honest and to try to do this the right way. That's really critical."

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles, Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
FILE PHOTO: Golf – Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – April 14, 2019 – Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 26, 2019

Tiger Woods is sending a message that he thinks he still has enough left, emotionally and physically, to win three more major championships to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 titles.

Speaking to GolfTV in his first sit-down interview since the Masters, Woods said he has taken some time off since his victory at Augusta National, which still doesn’t feel real.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe,” Woods said. “I was texting one of my good friends last night … that I couldn’t believe that I won the tournament. That it really hasn’t sunk in. I haven’t started doing anything. I’ve just been laying there. And every now and again, I’ll look over there on the couch and there’s the jacket.”

That’s the fifth green jacket for the 43-year-old Woods, who hadn’t won a major tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open. Along the way, four back surgeries, a divorce and other personal issues derailed him.

He said he has been spending time with his children – daughter Sam, 11, and son Charlie, 10 – who weren’t born when their father was the most dominant golfer on the planet.

“They never knew golf to be a good thing in my life and only the only thing they remember is that it brought this incredible amount of pain to their dad and they don’t want to ever want to see their dad in pain,” Woods said. “And so to now have them see this side of it, the side that I’ve experienced for so many years of my life, but I had a battle to get back to this point, it feels good.”

He said he hopes – maybe expects — they’ll see this side again.

And no one will take Woods for granted at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, N.Y., which starts May 16.

Woods said he’ll be ready for a course he already conquered once in a major: the 2002 U.S. Open.

“I’m doing all the visual stuff, but I haven’t put in the physical work yet. But it’s probably coming this weekend,” he said.

Before Woods encountered health and personal problems, it was expected that topping Nicklaus’ major mark was “when” and not “if.” Then the certainty went away, but Woods thought he still had a chance.

“I always thought it was possible, if I had everything go my way. It took him an entire career to get to 18, so now that I’ve had another extension to my career – one that I didn’t think I had a couple of years ago – if I do things correctly and everything falls my way, yeah, it’s a possibility. I’m never going to say it’s not.

“Now I just need to have a lot of things go my way, and who’s to say that it will or will not happen? That’s what the future holds, I don’t know. The only thing I can promise you is this: that I will be prepared.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

An official Sri Lankan police Twitter account was deleted after it misidentified an American human rights activist as a suspect in the country’s Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, police posted the names and photos of six people that they said were at-large suspects in the bombings that killed more than 250 people.

However, one of the names on the list was Muslim U.S. activist Amara Majeed, who quickly tweeted that she had been falsely identified.

“I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS terrorists that committed the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. What a thing to wake up to!” she wrote.

SRI LANKA AUTHORITIES SAY EASTER ATTACK LEADER KILLED IN ONE OF NINE HOTEL BOMBINGS

She wrote in a follow-up tweet that the claim was “obviously completely false” and asked social media users to “please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks.”

“And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community,” she continued.

Later, she wrote an update saying police apologized for wrongly mistaking her as a suspect.

Police said in a statement: “However, although one of the released images was identified as one Abdul Cader Fathima Khadhiya in the information provided by the CID, the CID has now informed that a) the individual whose image was labeled as Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya is not in fact Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya b) the individual pictured is not wanted for questioning c) Abdul Cader Fathima is the correct name of the suspect wanted by the CID.”

On Friday, the account, @SriLankaPolice2 was deleted with no explanation. Police did not release more information regarding the mistake.

Majeed, who founded “The Hijab Project” when she was 16 years old, told the Baltimore Sun that it was hurtful to be linked to the attacks.

“Sri Lanka is my motherland,” the Brown University student said. “It’s very painful to be associated with [the bombings].”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Mohamed Zahran, the suspected leader of the attacks which targeted six hotels and churches, killed himself in a suicide bombing at the Shangri-La hotel. Police also said they had arrested the second-in-command of the group, called National Towheed Jamaat. Catholic churches in Sri Lanka canceled all Sunday Masses until further notice over concerns that they remain a top target of Islamic State-linked extremists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

DNA Force Plus

Limited Advanced Release

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

Source: InfoWars

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist