Time to start a new gig. For fourteen years I have looked with envy at CDR Salamander's Fullbore Friday, and over the past couple of years I began to think of doing something similar on this here humble blog... but with an emphasis on Belgian Army personalities. I will readily admit that the decision to limit myself to what is in effect a small 'demographic' is that, as a keen reader of history, I have always felt that same history has not been especially nice to our military. As a result, public perception, not in the know about a topic that most find generally boring, even when 'martial' countries are involved, has easily accepted the paradigm that Belgian military prowess is nonexistant at worst, and deserving of being the butt of many jokes at best. This new series is meant to provide another view, a view that is, in my opinion, long overdue.
Mark Felton's got a very well made and instructive video on the first person in what I hope will be a long-lived feature here on DowneastBlog. Ladies and Gentlemen, here is Baron Jean Michel P.M.G. de Selys Longchamps, DFC, who during a daring raid in JAN 1943 raided the Gestapo HQ in Brussels with his Hawker Typhoon:
Only eight months after the attack, in the night of AUG 15/16 1943, Captain-demoted-PO for the unauthorized raid Jean de Selys Longchamps flew a mission over Ostend. Hit heavily by flak, he flew back over the Channel only to find out that his landing gear malfunctioned. Upon touching down on Manston airfield's runway his Typhoon crashed and broke in two. The Baron was killed instantly. He was buried with full military honors in Minster-in-Thanet.
"In Berlin’s Neukölln borough, police conducted raids in Shisha bars and apartments last night. Prosecutors were on site as well. This latest activity was part of the efforts to fight organized crime in Berlin.
A big part of organized crime in Neukölln and other Berlin boroughs is being attributed to Arab family clans. In the past months, the authorities have vowed to fight these clans more. On a regular basis, they raid businesses owned by those families and apartments.
Prosecutors on Site
In this case, 150 police officers were involved in the raids in Neukölln on Thursday. Late last night, Kreuzberg, a neighboring Berlin district, was supposed to be included as well. Prosecutors on site were collecting evidence. The same applied to tax investigators and the regulatory agency.
The police operation was being conducted in several phases. First, officers concentrated on Hermannplatz, a square between Neukölln and Kreuzberg which is a known hot sport for drug dealing and other kinds of crime.
In the evening, police started stopping cars on Sonnenallee and Hermannstraße. Here they mainly targeted drivers of expensive vehicles who keep on showing them off by racing up and down the street. Some of those checked might be part of the criminal clans Berlin is increasingly fighting. The operation lead to traffic jams.
Upping the Ante
The third phase started later in the evening, when police raided Shisha bars and other businesses owned by the Arab clans or their associates. It was not the first time establishments of this kind were targeted by police. Upping the ante is what Berlin intends to do.
For years, the Arab clans have posed a big problem. Their members do not recognize the authority of the German police or the state. They reportedly have their hands in all kinds of crime, including drugs and money laundering.
The clans wage war against each other too. Last a year, a member of one of the largest family clans was murdered in Tempelhof. Only a week ago, dozens of police officers raced towards Fuldastraße in Neukölln, where a big argument between clan members had erupted. One man was brutally attacked. An criminal stuck a knife into his back and injured him badly.
Out of Control
Berlin is intensifying the fight against the dangerous Arab clans. In addition to Neukölln and Kreuzberg, the authorities intend to get busy in several other boroughs as well, where the situation with the clans seems to have gotten out of control too.
The clans are being fought on several levels. For instance the tax authorities are looking for irregularities which might be a symptom of tax evasion or money laundering. In the meantime, the police secure evidence during their raids. Stopping expensive cars might lead to chance hits at times.
Berlin wants to add a new division to its regulatory agency in order to be able to check more businesses for illegal activity. The municipality believes this step will put the clans under more pressure.
In April, police had launched one of the largest anti-clan raids to date, involving hundreds of police officers. Back then, Berlin’s Interior Senator Andreas Geisel had vowed to continue fighting, for years to come."
Via GEFIRA again, but caveat, this is a 2016 animation. It exposes the gigantic scam that is the 'rescue mission' by a plethora of NGO's often in collaboration with European governments.
Of course, this was before Italy's (former) Foreign Minister forbade the NGO's to drop their human cargo in Italian ports.
Italy's Salvini played a somewhat dangerous game this week by blowing up the government in an attempt to get rid of Conte. I suspect we may see new elections in the foreseeable future and we must hope that Salvini did not overplay his hand and that his apparent bid to become the next PM will be successful.
"For two months, using marinetraffic.com, we have been monitoring the movements of ships owned by a couple of NGOs. Using data from data.unhcr.org., we have kept track of the daily arrivals of African immigrants in Italy. It turned out we were witness to a big scam and an illegal human traffic operation.
NGOs, smugglers, the mafia in cahoots with the European Union have shipped thousands of illegals into Europe under the pretext of rescuing people, assisted by the Italian coast guard which coordinated their activities.
NGOs, smugglers, the mafia in cahoots with the European Union have shipped thousands of illegals into Europe under the pretext of rescuing people, assisted by the Italian coast guard which coordinated their activities.
Human traffickers contact the Italian coast guard in advance to receive support and to pick up their dubious cargo. NGO ships are directed to the “rescue spot” even as those to be rescued are still in Libya. The 15 ships that we observed are owned or leased by NGOs have regularly been seen to leave their Italian ports, head south, stop short of reaching the Libyan coast, pick up their human cargo, and take course back 260 miles to Italy even though the port of Zarzis in Tunis is just 60 miles away from the rescue spot...."
In deze montage zie je hoe 8 reddingsschepen in 2 maanden tijd ~40.000 man van Libië naar Italië transporteren. Het is een systematisch proces: de schepen varen naar de kust van Libië, pikken de gesmokkelde migranten vlak voor de kust op en schipperen die naar de overkant toe. pic.twitter.com/R51U0V6dVK
"The Dutch, Maltese and German based NGOs are part of the human smuggling network and one wonders, are these NGOs themselves criminal organisations.
Whatever the motives of these NGOs, their behaviour is illegal, and in countries governed by a constitution, i.e. European states, crime should be prosecuted regardless of the intention of its perpetrators.
We followed the movements of the Golfo Azzurro on 12 October (2016). We used AIS Marine Traffic signals, twitter and the live reports of a Dutch journalist on board of the Golfo Azzurro.
On the evening of 12 October at 21:15, 113 people were picked up 8.5 nautical miles off the Libyan Mellitah Complex, by four NGO ships; the Phoenix, the Astral, the Iuventa and the Golfo Azzurro. At that moment these four ships were within the territorial waters of Libya.
During this transport, 17 persons were reported missing, including a three-year-old child.
Wednesday 12 October eight o’clock in the morning, the Italian coast guard informed the Golfo Azzurro about the coming “rescue” operation, 10 to 12 hours in advance; they directed the Golfo Azzurro to a location within the Libyan territorial waters. Eveline Rethmeier, a Dutch journalist, was on board of the Golfo Azzurro. At 20:23 (UTC time 18:23) she posted a video were ‘Chief of the Mission’ Mateo told the crew something was coming. In her blog she wrote: “At eight o’clock in the morning we got the messages that there is a ship with problems 30 nautical miles away from us. The Italian coast guard asked assistance in the area. We were briefed by ‘Chief of the Mission’ Mateo. He told us that we should be prepared for guests."...
Take a look at the timeline. And idiots keep telling us there's no such thing as Umvolkung.
In other news, German Lunatic-in-Chief Angela Merkel expressed the desire to implement yet another "Sophia Plan". Originally, the first "Sophia Plan" was meant to combat human trafficking. In the end, it resulted in EU Ships under the aegis of Frontex ferrying over 50,000 illegals across the Med:
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday called for the resumption of European naval missions to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.
Since 2015, tens of thousands of migrants were rescued by European naval ships as part of the bloc's anti-smuggling "Operation Sophia," which suspended activity earlier this year.
"It would certainly be good if today we had Operation Sophia and national navies that would carry out rescues," Merkel said in Berlin. She added that it would help with rescuing migrants as well as combating trafficking.
On Tuesday, Merkel also spoke out in support of sea rescues during a panel discussion in northern Germany, calling them "a humanitarian imperative," according to the newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland."
The words of Das Gespenst will not fall on deaf ears, as millions of welfare seekers stand poised to jump to Europe. The combo human traffickers/Frontex is eagerly waiting for the green light to bring about Europe's downfall.
"A 'barbaric' street brawl between 'two feuding families' erupted after a week of bad blood sparked by a 'wedding argument'.
Savage punches were thrown and an elderly man put a youngster in a headlock in shocking footage from the daytime incident in Aston, Birmingham.
But fresh footage now shows young thugs were also armed with hammers, huge metal poles and baseball bats as they joined the 30-man melee on Prestbury Road at 5.30pm on Thursday.
The shocking scene sees one youngster - wearing a white puffer jacket - wielding a claw hammer as he walks towards the fight.
Another carries a metre-long metal pole and is seen wildly swinging at those in the brawl.
But the youths appear to lose their nerve and towards the end of the clip and retreat behind a parked Honda Civic.
Yet as they move away, older thugs brandishing baseball bats and batons clamber over other fighters to try to get a better shot at their foes.
A later clip shows a female police officer desperately try to keep the two groups apart as sirens whir in the background.
She is joined by two other officers and a paramedic on the scene.
Police were reportedly called back to Prestbury Road at 9pm following reports of a stabbing. But no victim was found.
When the footage first emerged on Friday the reason for the fallout was unclear.
But now it has been claimed the fight came after a bitter argument between two women at a wedding last week.
A source told MailOnline the row, outside houses worth around £140,000, hit boiling point on Thursday, which led to young members of the warring families fighting before being joined by men.
The source added that 'every one in the video are related and it was a family feud'.
He described the scene as 'barbaric', adding: 'even a little kid was carrying a metal bar'.
Footage shows screaming women crowd around and try to put themselves between the men as they land heavy punches...."
