Random Politics & Religion #22

FRIDAY 7th OF APRIL

At 2:53 pm, Friday afternoon, police was alerted to Drottninggatan, a main shopping street in downtown Stockholm.

An hour later Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven stated that Sweden has become the scene for an apparent terrorist attack.
”Points to an act of terror”

”Sweden has been attacked, everything points to an act of terror” says the Swedish PM in a brief statement.

A lorry was, in what seems to be a deliberate attack, driven several blocks along the pedestrian street hitting and running over several people.

The lorry then drove straight into the storefront of the Åhléns department store, a main spot for Friday shoppers in the Swedish capital. Shortly thereafter the lorry caught fire.

At least four people have been killed in the attack and there is ”a large number of wounded”.

”I saw hundreds of people running. They ran for their lives” says eyewitness Anna to Aftonbladet. ”I turned and ran as well!”

Panic as the lorry ran over people

Another eywitness, Durde, tells Aftonbladet of how he saw the lorry hit innocent bystanders: ”The lorry just drove, full speed ahead, down Drottninggatan street, hitting people” he says. ”We had to throw ourselves into an H&M store, and then the lorry hit Åhléns”.

Doing some Friday shopping on the street of Drottninggatan Jan Granroth heard people scream: ”We were inside a shoe store and heard noise. I looked out from the store to see this huge truck slam into the wall on the opposite side of the street” he says.

”I ran as fast as I could”

Granroth had to escape through an emergency exit out onto a neighboring street.

Dimitris, another eyewitness describes the panic when the truck came out of nowhere.

”I was walking on the main street when a big truck came out of nowhere” he tells Aftonbladet. ”I could not see if anyone was driving it, but it seemed out of control. I saw at least two people being run over. I ran as fast as I could away from there”.

During the afternoon central Stockholm was held in a complete lockdown. Car traffic as well as trains and underground trains were all shut down.

Just before 8 pm Friday evening the Stockholm underground were up and running again, however no trains were allowed to stop at T-centralen and Hötorget stations, the ones closest to the attack.

Government offices evacuated

The Swedish government offices, situated a block from Drottninggatan, approximately 700 meters from where the attack took place, were evacuated and all ministers put to safety.

The Stockholm central station, in close proximity to both Drottninggatan shopping street and Åhléns department store, was also evacuated shortly after the attack.

Police urged people to stay away from downtown Stockholm and to avoid large crowds.

Police release security footage

According to the Swedish Security Service during a press conference at 5.50 pm Friday afternoon, the lorry, belonging to a well known Swedish brewery, was stolen in central Stockholm shortly before the attack.

The driver was hit by the lorry as he tried to stop a suspect from stealing the vehicle. According to sources the suspect covered his head with a black hoodie.

During the press conference the Swedish Security Service also presented a picture from security footage, taken in close proximity to the Åhléns department store, of a man wanted for questioning. According to the Security Service the man was at that time not considered to be a suspect but rather a person of interest, with information of importance for the ongoing investigation.

One man arrested

Around 8.30 pm a man was arrested in the town of Märsta outside Stockholm. A source tells Aftonbladet that the man claims to be responsible for the attack.

Police confirm that one man has been arrested in connection with the attack in Stockholm, and that he resembles the person on the pictures, previously acknowledged as a ”person of interest”.

Aftonbladet’s sources have identified the arrested man as a 39 year old man of Uzbek citizenship. In his social media accounts the man has expressed positive views of the terror organisation IS, and also ”liked” a picture on Facebook of bloody victims taken seconds after the explosion at the Boston Marathon in april 2013.

”He never speaks of politics”

One of the man’s acquaintances spoke to Aftonbladet from her home in Stockholm: ”He has four children and works in construction”.

”He never speaks about politics or religion, the only thing he talks abut is getting more work so that he can send more money to his family” says she and also states that the man does not live at his registered address but in one of Stockholm’s southern suburbs.
SATURDAY 8th OF APRIL

Early Saturday morning the man was held ”on suspicion of terror acts by murder”.

Explosives found in the lorry

The head of the Swedish National Police Board, Dan Eliasson, spoke at a press conference held in Stockholm Saturday and confirmed what Aftonbladet could reveal early this morning, that the man is of Uzbek citizenship: ”We have no indications that this would be the wrong person, on the contrary” says he.

Swedish police are still not ruling out the possibility of more than one perpetrator.

Also early Saturday morning the lorry was towed away from the crash site. According to sources police found undetonated explosives in the passenger seat.

”We encountered a device that does not belong in the front seat of a truck. A forensic examination is being conducted to reveal whether it is a bomb or some other device” says the Swedish police chief Dan Eliasson.

Known to the Security Service

According to the head of the Swedish Security Service, Anders Thornberg, the detained man is previously known by the authorities, and was flagged as recently as last year when someone alerted the Security Service that he could be a potential security risk. ”He has been noticed in our intelligence flow” says he. ”We investigated the data, but couldn’t confirm anything.”

The Uzbek man has not previously been linked to extremist settings in Sweden and hasn’t been under any other type of investigations by the Swedish Security Service, according to their chief.

The King of Sweden: ”shaken”

In a speech Saturday afternoon, His Royal Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden expressed his feelings: ”First of all, I want to let you know that my, and the thoughts of the royal family, go out to the victims of this heinious deed, our fellows who have been injured and killed” says His Majesty.

”Our thoughts also go out to their families and friends. We stand by them in their grief and concern. We are all shaken by what has happened. But it also brings hope to see how people care for each other, proof of the strength in our society. We, who want to help, are so many, many more than those who want to hurt us. To know that gives me comfort and confidence. Police, medical staff and rescue services have done a fantastic work, minimizing the damage.”

”We have unfortunately experienced violent acts in the past which we managed to endure and we will do so now. Sweden is, has long been, and will continue to be a safe and peaceful country” says His Majesty the King of Sweden.

Five persons detained

Saturday evening the police stopped a car on the island of Kungsholmen, a central part of Stockholm, and detained three persons in connection to the attack.

Police had to smash the window on the driver’s side of the car and at least two of the persons in the car were wrestled to the ground by police wearing plainclothes.

According to Aftonbladet’s sources the car owner has been linked to the 39 year old suspect.

The car was stopped only a couple of hundred meters from where the 39 year old is being held, in Kronobergshäktet, the Stockholm remand prison.

In a separate raid, also Saturday evening, in the suburb of Vårberg, police entered a flat where the 39 year old man is said to have been just hours before he steered the lorry into pedestrians. At least two more persons were detained in the raid, and Aftonbladet’s reporter spotted one young man being escorted out of the building by police.

SUNDAY 9th OF APRIL

At a press conference Sunday at noon Swedish police concludes that the four victims of the attack have been identified and their families notified. Two of the victims are Swedes, one is from the United Kingdom and one is Belgian. ”We will not confirm the identities, nor ages or gender of the deceased out of respect to their families” says National Strategic Commander Jonas Hysing.
One more suspect held

Regional Strategic Commander Jan Evensson revealed more details about the 39 year old suspect: ”In 2014 he applied for permanent residency in Sweden. In June 2016 that was rejected and the Swedish Migration Agency made the decision that he would be deported” says he.

Due to this the suspect has been wanted by police since February of 2017.

Evensson also reveals that ”a maximum of five persons” are still being detained.

One more person has been held ”on suspicion of crimes against national security” according to official documents filed at the Stockholm District Court.

The decision was made at 8.45am, Saturday morning, and the suspect is being held in Kronobergshäktet, the Stockholm remand prison, the same place where the 39 year old is being held.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority says in a statement that the second suspect is held ”on suspicion of crimes of terror by murder”.

41-year-old Chris one of the victims

41-year-old Chris Bevington is one of the victims.

At 3pm on Sunday the UK Foreign office released a statement on behalf of his father John Bevington: “We are all devastated by the untimely and tragic death of our talented, compassionate and caring son Chris” reads the statement. ”A wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many. The family requests absolute privacy at this incredibly difficult time to mourn his passing in peace.”

At 6pm Sunday Aftonbladet namnes the man believed to be the driver of the lorry, arrested Friday night, as 39-year-old Uzbek Rakhmat Akilov.

Hours after the attack, the 39-year-old Uzbek Rakhmat Akilov stepped into the Circle K gas station in Märsta and, according to witnesses, acted "strangely". Rakhmat Akilov is reported to have had several visible injuries on his body and said that "it was I who did it".

The injuries occurred during the fire in the truck cabin immediately after the vehicle crashed into Åhlens. Police have confirmed that he had an object in the cabin that was either a bomb or some kind of combustible object, things that "could be assembled into a dangerous item'.

Gas bottles, a chemical, nails and bolts that together would constitute a bomb, according to Aftonbladet.

39-year-old was arrested and taken to Kronoberg continued to claim credit for the deed. According to Aftonbladet's sources, the man said that he "bombed Sweden because we bomb his country".

Rakhmat Akilov said in interviews that he is a Muslim and belongs to the terrorist sect ISIS. According to the 39-year-old the "order" for the attack on Drottninggatan came directly from the terror group in Syria:

"The bombings in Syria must stop," said the 39-year-old according to Aftonbladet information.

- I'm bound by confidentiality and can not say anything, says the mans defense attorney Johan Eriksson.

- I ran over the infidels, he said according to Aftonbladet's sources.

MADRID — An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the U.S. presidential election.

Pyotr Levashov was arrested Friday in Barcelona on a U.S. computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spain’s National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules.

Such arrests aren’t unusual — American authorities typically try to nab Russian cybercrime suspects abroad because of the difficulty involved in extraditing them from Russia — but Levashov’s arrest drew immediate attention after his wife told Russia’s RT broadcaster that he was linked to America’s 2016 election hacking.

RT quoted Maria Levashova as saying that armed police stormed into their apartment in Barcelona overnight, keeping her and her friend locked in a room for two hours while they quizzed her husband. She said that when she spoke to her husband on the phone from the police station, he told her he was told that he had created a computer virus that was “linked to Trump’s election win.” ...

Even as a Trump supporter I feel that this whole chemical weapon attack is a false flag by the rebels to force the US into supporting them. I mean it's way too convenient.

1.) Trump announced he's not interested in Assad.
2.) This meant the rebels were going to lose support and lose.
3.) Assad was winning the war, like not just inches. Russia was helping him kick their ***, and this move literally serves no purpose. I don't think Assad did this, he has no motive to just gas an area with Sarin (Which it's obvious this wasn't Sarin, Sarin gas is extremely dangerous, and yet emergency responders weren't even wearing gloves or face masks. Merely coming into contact with someone contaminated with Sarin and touching them can cause you to start convulsing, there's a reason Hitler feared that ***.
4.) He was on the verge of victory both in his country and with the international community. He was urging the refugees to come home, and that the government would stabilize. While he is an autocracy, there are elections in Syria and he could have simply been voted out.

None of this makes sense, Sarin gas would render a lot more than that immediate area contaminated. Sarin gas can be fatal even in really small doses, and seeing responders not wearing protection makes me think something else was used, such as Chlorine gas or something that can actually cause burns like in some of the photographs...

ISTANBUL—Not long after U.S. cruise missiles tore into the Syrian air base that apparently served as the launch point for a chemical-weapons attack, the Syrian army’s chief of staff arrived to inspect the damage and commend the pilots.

They were the same pilots who flew their warplanes to the town of Khan Sheikhoun, where more than 100 civilians died.

Embracing the base pilots, presumably including those responsible for the chemical attack, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayyoub praised the “high morale and fighting spirit” of the officers and soldiers at the Sharyat base. They in turn pledged to continue “rooting out terrorism wherever it exists in the homeland,” the official SANA news agency reported in a video.

In actual fact, Syrian forces probably carried out the gas attack out of desperation, according to U.S. military officials and Syrian rebel officials. And morale among regime forces may have hit a new low.

Since the attack, the Syrian air force has moved warplanes from several bases to the Russian-controlled Hmeimim base near Latakia, and Russia has taking over most air operations in central and northern Syria, according to rebel plane-spotters who monitor regime and Russian air movements.

These sorties included at least seven assaults against civilian targets on Friday alone, and as many again on Saturday. In a Russian air attack Saturday on Urom al-Joz, a small town in Idlib province, 20 civilians were killed. Khan Sheikhoun was targeted as well both days.

Regime forces have been plagued by desertions at every level since 2012, but ever since Russia’s air intervention began in September 2015, the government has managed to recapture rebel-held territory. It achieved its biggest victory in December, when forces led by Assad’s Iranian and Hezbollah allies expelled rebel troops and much of the population from east Aleppo.

But morale plummeted again a few weeks ago when U.S.-backed rebel forces, supported by Islamists the U.S. view as terrorists, scored rapid advances in Hama province. U.S. officials and rebel spokesmen say the dramatic advances are probably what prompted the Syrian military’s turn to chemical weapons.

“The Syrian regime has been under intense pressure,” a senior U.S. military official told reporters in Washington on Friday. He said rebels in an advance last month threatened to capture the Hama airfield, a key base for helicopters and a suspected barrel bomb manufacturing facility.

Barrel bombs, consisting of shrapnel and metal scraps packed into a barrel with explosives, are dropped routinely from helicopters over residential areas in rebel-controlled zones throughout Syria.

Losing the Hama base was a “significant risk” to the regime and U.S. analysts judged that the use of chemical weapons was “linked to a battlefield desperation decision to stop the opposition from seizing those key regime elements.” The official could not be named under the rules of the briefing.

A Syrian rebel spokesman spoke of enormous government losses on the ground since the offensive began March 21. Hours after the battle began, the U.S.-supported force captured more than 20 towns and villages, as well as 50 military outposts in the Hama countryside, said Lt. Mahmoud Mahmoud, spokesman for the Izza Army, a moderate rebel group, in a WhatsApp conversation. Regime forces “withdrew without showing any resistance,” he said, and rebels advanced to within a few miles of the military airport, which is about 50 miles northwest of Shayrat.

You know Hillary was really bad when I would even consider voting for Bill instead of her...

I voted for Bernie Freaking Sanders (in the primaries) and he's a full on crackpot communist jew!

and then I voted for trump since he was the only one likely to stop hillary... despite the appeal of writing in joe exotic.

Where is Vic with his outrage I could use a good laugh today.

When terror suspect Rakhmat Akilov applied for a residence permit in Sweden in 2014, he did so under a completely different name: Rahmatjon Kurbonov.

The 39-year-old from Uzbekistan took refuge in Sweden but gave conflicting information again and again.

The Migration Agency rejected the application and decided that the man should be deported. Akilov appealed to the Migration Court, where a hearing was held in September, 2016.

The reasons he gave to receive protection was that he was arrested after a demonstration and then detained and that Uzbek authorities accused him of being a terrorist.

Furthermore Akilov said that a family member managed to get him out of jail by paying bribes to a value of 10,000 dollars.

He then fled to Sweden in a truck. The only time he left the truck was in Denmark, he stated.

But the court did not change the Migration Agency's decision - because they did not believe the man's story.

"For he has made contradictory statements and his story is at times improbable and has escalated during the investigation," the Migration Court wrote.

When in contact with the Immigration Agency Akilov gave a different name and birth information.

He stated that he was in prison for both 14 and 20 days before he finally said that it was nine days.

For the claim that at the hearing he emphasized that he had been accused of being a terrorist the Migration Court wrote in its judgment: "This was brought up by him in the past only as a parenthesis."

He gave various details of the family's personal circumstances. At one point, he claimed that the family was middle class, another time that his family was rich.

He gave conflicting information about the demonstration which should supposedly led to the arrest and how the arrest happened.

The court was also skeptical about the story of the escape to Sweden.

"His story was not perceived as having been self-lived and that is why he was judged to not have need for protection," according to the Migration Court.

After the verdict Akilov had four weeks to leave the country voluntarily. He hid himself away, however, and was wanted by the police.

On Friday arrested police the 39-year-old - then suspected of the terrorist attack in Stockholm.


On Monday, prosecutor Hans Ihrman charged the 39-year-old on probable cause of terrorist crimes. According to Aftonbladet's sources Akilov has in interrogations continued to take on the terrorist attack and said he "ran over the infidels."

Akilov said that the attack was ordered by ISIS in Syria, according to Aftonbladet sources.

On Monday the 39-year-olds defense attorney Johan Eriksson requested dismissal from the case.

- I've done so because it was my client's wishes, says Johan Eriksson to Aftonbladet.

But the court rejected the request and believes that there is no reason for the terror suspect to change attorneys. In Johan Erikssons request to terminate the assignment he gives explanation as to why the 39-year-old wanted to change his representative:

"" The basis of my request is that my client expressly wishes to be defended by an attorney who is a Sunni Muslim. According to my client only an attorney with this background is capable of best representing him."

... The Koch lobbying operation has conceded that Brady's tax-writing committee is "pretty much dug in at this point," said Americans for Prosperity lobbying chief Chrissy Harbin. But the network is zeroing in on the Senate as particularly fertile ground -- partly due to the number of Republicans who represent large domestic retailers -- and has not conceded the House Republican conference despite the substantial pressure from Ryan and Brady....

Mark my words, if republicans keep this up, they're going to go the way of Democrats in 2018. It's like an endless game of back and forth, one side *** up, the other side *** up even harder.

john "nobody ever heard of me and I sound like an angry pittsburgher" kasich