Irish Republican Terrorists, Scum, Cowards, Thugs & Murderous Criminals –

North Ireland’s militant groups to revive IRA

Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister, former IRA commander Martin McGuinness (L), and Queen Elizabeth shakes hands, in what many saw as a symbol of peace.

Three of the four main militant nationalist groups in Northern Ireland said they are merging and reclaiming the banner of the IRA in a threat to intensify a campaign of violence against the continued British presence in the province.

The Real IRA has been joined by Republican Action against Drugs - a Londonderry vigilante group - and what a statement described as “non conformist republicans” - smaller independent groups operating in Belfast and rural areas of Northern Ireland.

It is the first time since the signing of a 1998 peace deals which copper-fastened the Provisional IRA’s ceasefire that most of the disparate republican groups still intent on violence has come together under a single leadership. But the Continuity IRA, the other main dissident nationalist group opposed to the peace deal, which largely ended three decades of violence in which over 3,600 people died, is not part of the new organization. The Continuity IRA said in a separate statement on July 26 that it had a new leadership and was intent on pursuing its own campaign for a united Ireland.

International monitors confirmed in 2005 that the Irish Republican Army had given up all its weapons. But sporadic violence has increased in recent years with the Real IRA, which was behind the murder of two British soldiers in 2009, leading the way. The new group said on July 26 it had formed a “unified structure, under a single leadership” and that it would be “subservient to the constitution of the Irish Republican Army” - the banner under which opposition to British involvement in Ireland has operated for more than a century.

New group includes armed dissidents

It includes independent dissidents who have been responsible for the murder of one policeman, injury of others and a series of attacks on officers in recent years.

Nationalist sources said the new group includes several hundred armed dissidents, including some former members of the Provisional IRA disenchanted with the peace process and their political wing - Sinn Fein.

Islam - The peaceful religion ! - Mali Islamists destroy tombs at ancient Timbuktu mosque

The Islamists controlling northern Mali destroyed two tombs at the ancient Djingareyber mud mosque today in Timbuktu, an endangered World Heritage site.

"Currently the Islamists are busy destroying two tombs of Timbuktu's great Djingareyber mosque. They are shooting in the air to chase away the crowd, to scare them," one witness said.

"The two mausolea are adjacent to the western wall of the great mosque and the Islamists have hoes, chisels, they are hitting the mausolea which are made out of packed earth," said a source close to the mosque's imam.

"They say they will destroy everything." Another witness reported that the Islamists had cried "Allahu Akbar" (God Is Great) as they hammered away at the mosque, one of the most important in Timbuktu.

He added that the Islamists had blocked off two main roads leading to the mosque, which was one of the fabled city's main tourist attractions before the region became a no-go area for Westerners.

The same witness reported that the Islamists had asked a television crew from the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera to film their actions.

The fighters from the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) began their destruction of the city's cultural treasures on July 1, shortly after UNESCO placed them on a list of endangered World Heritage sites.

Declaring the ancient Muslim shrines "haram", or forbidden in Islam, Ansar Dine set about destroying seven of Timbuktu's 16 mausolea of ancient Muslim saints.

They also destroyed the sacred door of the 15th-century Sidi Yahya mosque.

Along with Sidi Yahya, Djingareyber and the Sankore mosque bear witness to Timbuktu's golden age as an intellectual and spiritual capital which was crucial in the spread of Islam throughout Africa.

According to the UNESCO website, the Djingareyber mosque -- the oldest of the three -- was built by the sultan Kankan Moussa after his return in 1325 from a pilgrimage to Mecca. All have been restored several times.

Ansar Dine had paused their campaign of destruction for about a week, but said they would continue destroying all the shrines "without exception" amid an outpouring of grief and outrage both at home and abroad.

On Tuesday a source in Ansar Dine told AFP that "from now on, as soon as foreigners speak of Timbuktu" they would attack anything referred to as a World Heritage site.

"There is no world heritage, it doesn't exist. The infidels must not get involved in our business," said a Tunisian jihadist who gave his name only as Ahmed and said he was part of Ansar Dine's "media committee." "We will destroy everything, even if the mausolea are inside the mosques, and afterwards we will destroy the mausolea in the region of Timbuktu," he said.

More ancient tombs are situated in the towns of Araouane and Gassra-Cheick in the greater Timbuktu region.

A March 22 coup in Mali eased the way for Tuareg separatist rebels to seize a vast area in the north that they consider their homeland.

However, the previously unknown Ansar Dine group seized the upper hand while fighting on their flanks. Openly allied with the north African group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, they have since pushed the Tuareg rebels from all positions of power.

The international community fears the desert region, which is larger than France, will become a new haven for terrorist activity, and the Islamists have threatened any country that joins a possible military intervention force in Mali.

West African mediators have ordered Mali's embattled interim government to form a unity government by July 31 that will be better able to deal with the northern occupation.

EU passports for sale in Latvia

Selling your passport may not make you rich, but for poor Latvian citizens, and especially “aliens”, it proves a reliable source of additional income. Claimed lost or stolen, the documents eventually end up with illegal immigrants.

­Latvia is a small Baltic country and was a republic of the former Soviet Union. Its living standards, however, would hardly make it Europe’s primary destination for immigration.

Yet Latvia is a member of the European Union, whose citizens enjoy the privilege of visa-free travel within the EU and many other countries. Even the so-called “aliens” can travel to Europe with their “alien passports”.

Hundreds of thousands of Latvia’s residents who carry “alien passports” are people who moved to live in the then-Soviet Republic of Latvia after 1945, or their descendants. Most are Russian nationals and they are officially considered aliens, lacking many basic human rights, such as the right to vote or work in many state organizations.

This is why Latvian passports are in such demand on the black market.

Every year, 12-15,000 Latvian passports are lost or stolen – an impressive figure for a tiny nation of about 2.2 million people. Some of them, indeed, disappear by pure accident. Other Latvians are known to have held national records with over a dozen passports “lost or stolen,” Telegraf.Lv reports.

The country’s police say that intentional “loss” is the majority of all such cases. A passport can be sold for 150-200 lati (US$250-350), while getting a replacement document would cost you only 50 lati. The final “customer” will pay from 600 to 2,000 lati for the remade ID.

Most of those who sell their passports to black-market dealers are well aware of the buyers’ intentions and do not claim the “loss” until their ID finds its way abroad.

“We have also found out that those members of [certain] ethnic groups, who have acquired permits to stay in Latvia or the EU, then themselves arrange ‘channels’ for illegal immigration,” a senior member of police, Guntis Pujats, explained.

“We once exposed an Egyptian who was thinking of bringing many other Egyptians to Latvia through Russia, and finally to make their way to France with fake travel documents,” he said.

Passports which once belonged to Latvian citizens and non-citizens have now spread all over the world. They have been tracked in Germany, Lithuania, France, Sweden, the UK, Iceland, as well as the US and Canada.