Nairobi, Kenya — The International Crisis Group says Islamic State in Somalia has become an important financial influence for terrorism, and a report suggests the leader of the branch might become the new overall head of the militant group. IS-Somalia is not as active on the battlefield as its local counterpart, the al-Qaida-linked terror group al-Shabab, which controls large parts of southern and central Somalia, but it is building relations with other IS branches, the International Crisis Group said in a report released Thursday. In addition, the report says, IS-Somalia is able to finance terror operations in other African countries. Omar Mahmood, a senior researcher with the International Crisis Group, or ICG, said IS-Somalia plays a bigger role outside Somalia than al-Shabab does. "Al-Shabab is by far and away a bigger threat,” Mahmood said. “But at the same time, Islamic State Somalia has, one, persisted despite some significant odds against it. And two, it's carved out a role for itself within the wider Islamic State network, particularly when it comes to serving as a financial hub between some of the affiliates and other parts of the Islamic State." The ICG said the Islamic State restructured its African operations in 2020, placing affiliates from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique under the watch of IS headquarters in Somalia’s Puntland region. IS-Somalia is reported to have between 100 and 400 fighters stationed in the northern part of the country. According to ICG, about half of the fighters are believed to be foreigners. Early this year, Puntland authorities arrested six Islamic State members who were Moroccans; they were later deported. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, since May of this year, the group has been increasingly active and has waged several attacks against security forces and business centers. IS-Somalia has also increased its activities in the port city of Bosaso and its surroundings, carrying out an extortion racket that it uses to support its fighters and activities. Richard Tuta, a Kenyan counterterrorism expert, said Somalia’s weak central government has enabled Somalia to be the financial hub of the IS group. "Somalia ... does not have strong institutions, so it's easy for such institutions to be compromised,” Tuta said. “It's easy to undertake both illegal and legal ways of fundraising towards terrorism activity. And because of the country's strategic location, it has a porous border, surrounded by an ocean, which is very hard to keep [under] surveillance." In May, the U.S. carried out airstrikes in Somalia targeting IS leader Abdulqadir Mumin. Mumin survived. Mahmood said that if Mumin becomes the overall head of Islamic State, his rise would signal the group's growing influence in Africa. "Now whether he's actually the head of the movement is something that's disputed,” Mahmood said. “There's a couple other figures that are thrown out there as well. And so that's a bit uncertain. It would be quite a big jump ... for the Islamic State to designate someone on the African continent, but it would also symbolize the growing role of Islamic State within ... the African continent." Puntland authorities have arrested dozens of IS members in the Bari region. Some have been handed jail terms. Others were executed for their involvement in terror activities and the deaths of civilians or government security forces. The ICG called for cooperation between the Somali government in Mogadishu and Puntland regional authorities to tackle IS-Somalia and urged outside actors to pay closer attention to the group’s activities.

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on new charges by a Manhattan grand jury just before his highly anticipated second sex crimes trial in the city, according to prosecutors on Thursday. 

US Attorney General Merrick Garland is now pretending people are attacking individual agents in a “dangerous and outrageous” way. We need to see proof before we believe a thing this guy says. He isn’t just talking about threats. Garland claims criticism of the DOJ and FBI, which are corrupt agencies, is unacceptable. He claims there […] The post Garland’s “Dangerous & Outrageous” Comments on Free Speech appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

During the debate, Kamala Harris said Goldman Sachs reported “Donald Trump’s plan would make the economy worse,” and hers “would strengthen the economy.” Globalist Goldman Sachs took a hit on social media – watch the first clip. Kamala Harris: Goldman Sachs Said her Economic Plan Was Good [Presidential Debate] #PresidentialDebate #PresidentialDebate2024 #abc #ABCDebate #trump #donaldtrump […] The post CEO Blasts Harris. She Even Lied About a Goldman Sachs Report appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Women who survived abortions are voicing their “horror” at Vice President Kamala Harris’s discussion of late-term abortions and abortion survivors at Tuesday night’s debate. “As a second-trimester dilation and evacuation abortion survivor, I am the face of one of the babies who is stuck in the middle of the lies, debates, and political rhetoric swirling around the issue of abortion,” 42-year-old Lauren Eden, a member of the Abortion Survivors Network, told The Daily Wire. “This issue is not political; it is about real people,” she added. “Who is more defenseless in our society than a preborn baby in the womb?” Eden and others are reacting to Tuesday night’s tension-packed debate, where former President Donald Trump accused Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of embracing radical abortion extremism and promoting abortion all the way up to birth  — and even after. Throughout their exchange, Harris laughed, pursed her lips, shook her head, and frowned at Trump. Donald Trump puts Kamala on the spot, demands to know if she would support late-term abortions of babies at seven, eight, or nine months. She won’t address it. “Come on,” she says, shaking her head. pic.twitter.com/4N47wXVJ1c — Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 11, 2024 “That’s not true,” she argued, as Trump said Harris supports abortion in the third trimester. Harris has voted against legislation protecting babies born alive in botched abortions. She also co-sponsored the “Women’s Health Protection Act of 2019” as a senator and promoted the legislation — which would allow unrestricted abortions — as vice president. ABC moderator Linsey Davis also admonished Trump during the debate: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born.” Her remarks sparked a firestorm of backlash, as critics pointed to the stories of babies who are born alive in botched abortions — and then allowed to die, such as in Walz’s home state of Minnesota. “Not only does abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy happen in states with no restrictions on abortion, but born-alive infants happen,” said 47-year-old Melissa Ohden, the president and CEO of The Abortion Survivors Network. “Babies survive first, second, and third-trimester abortions throughout the pregnancy.” A number of Abortion Survivors Network members shared similar perspectives with The Daily Wire. Some of these women, like Ohden, say they survived saline infusion abortions, wherein the abortionist infuses a toxic saline solution into the womb that is intended to end the baby’s life. Ohden, who told The Daily Signal that an unborn baby should technically die from this poisoning after about 24 hours, says she somehow survived after soaking in the solution for five days. Rosemarie Fenchel, 62, told The Daily Wire that she was a victim of a chemical abortion — her mother reportedly attempted to abort her by taking 54 abortion pills and undergoing three saline injections. “As a chemical abortion survivor, I was appalled by how Kamala Harris quietly stated ‘that’s not true’ when Donald Trump spoke about how she, and the Democratic Party, promote abortion up until birth,” Fenchel said. US Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and former US President Donald Trump during the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Photographer: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images She added: “She misrepresented her position on how she will fight for ‘reproductive rights’ up until the ninth month by stating ‘Oh, come on!’ Not only did she not answer, but once again she hid the truth about her abortion agenda through the ninth month.” Other women survived dilation and curettage abortions, or dilation and evacuation abortions, in which abortionists use a curette to scrape or suck a baby’s body out of the womb. Seventy-five-year-old Priscilla Hurley says she survived one such “D&C” abortion. “Who understands the value of the unborn more than one who survived their mother’s failed D&C abortion as I did?” she asked. Sarah Zagorski, 34, similarly shared that she survived an induction abortion at 26.5 weeks old in New Orleans. She recalled with horror how Harris laughed during Tuesday night’s debate. “Abortion survivors like me felt horror permeate our bones as the lies left her lips that women do not obtain abortions in the final three months of pregnancy,” she said. She survived her mother’s attempted abortion not because of her abortionist, Zagorski said, but because her birth mother, “like a hero,” demanded that she receive “life-sustaining medical intervention” when she was born alive. Michele Smith, a 61-year-old saline abortion survivor, said that she is “painfully reminded that reproductive rights and the ‘choice’ of a woman take priority over” the lives of babies. “My mom suffered 60 years of pain, guilt, and shame as a victim of an abortion attempt on me. When does this pain end for countless women and babies in our nation?” she asked. “I have given birth to five beautiful children, and I am alive to celebrate each of their lives and I think about how I miraculously survived that abortion attempt on my life.” All these women stressed fears that Harris would promote radical abortion extremism in the United States. “A political platform for abortion until birth as a right hates the unborn and their mothers,” said Hurley. “The first will die and the latter will be traumatized perhaps for years to come. Harris is the most radical proponent of abortion in U.S. election history. The cold, uncaring condition of her heart was exposed during the debate, and it is chilling and very grievous.” Ohden urged the public to educate themselves on the topic in order to better support abortion survivors. “People need to read the research, have hard conversations with people, wrestle with their own cognitive dissonance on this, and challenge what is being reported by politicians like Harris and the media like ABC,” she said. Fenchel stressed the importance of Americans turning out for the upcoming election in defense of life. “This election is paramount on the issue of protecting both the preborn and women,” she argued. “If elected, [Harris] will make abortion the law of the land.” “Wake up, America, and stand up for the preborn and stop the atrocities against women!”

MSNBC contributor Elie Mystal smeared supporters of former President Donald Trump during a segment on the far-Left network this week, claiming that they were as “despicable” as Trump himself. Mystal made the remarks Tuesday night during a segment on the show of host Joy Reid after Reid claimed that “everything [Trump] does is despicable” yet he never loses support. “The reason why it doesn’t end his career is because his supporters are just as despicable, all right?” Mystal said. “Like Trump’s whole thing, he’s a narcissist, right? And so his whole thing is to have a complete lack of compassion and empathy for everybody else. It’s all about him.” “It’s all about him, him, him, me, me, me. He’s probably the least compassionate president we’ve had in 200 years since Andrew Jackson,” he claimed. “And it works for him because his supporters are just as ungenerous, and have just as little compassion and empathy for others.” Am I Racist? ONLY In Theaters Tomorrow—Get Your Tickets Now! “So when he is seen out there, essentially, as you guys have put it, desecrating our national symbols, when he is seen out there, putting himself above all else, his supporters also want that to be the case,” he concluded. “They want to do that in their own lives. That’s how they think of themselves, and that’s why it never hurts Trump when he takes these crass and classless actions, it’s because his supporters think that being crass and classless is actually kind of cool.” WATCH: ?Wow. Crazy MSNBC guest Elie Mystal and host Joy Reid smeared 74 million Americans: “Trump supporters are just as despicable as he is.” “It works for him because Trump supporters are just as ungenerous and have just as little compassion and empathy for others.” pic.twitter.com/nHWhx6hNUz — Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) September 12, 2024

Leading Democrats in the House are urging the U.S. Army to implement a “strong official response” over a dispute at Arlington National Cemetery last month involving staff members working for former President Donald Trump. Trump, who is running another presidential campaign, participated in a ceremony in late August to mark the third anniversary of the Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. News outlets reported that members of Trump’s staff allegedly had a verbal and physical altercation with an official at the cemetery over whether they could themselves film or take photos in Section 60, a zone for recent U.S. casualties. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and two of his colleagues issued a statement this week, demanding an investigation that could result in penalties and the release of information. Trump and his campaign staff “clearly violated the rules and regulations prohibiting political activities at Arlington National Cemetery by using one of our country’s most hallowed sites for partisan campaign purposes,” they said. A U.S. Army spokesperson said a female official at Arlington National Cemetery, located in Virginia near Washington, D.C., had been “abruptly pushed aside” but ultimately decided not to press any charges, and the matter was closed. Trump has denied there being “conflict or ‘fighting.'” NPR reported that his spokesman, Steven Cheung, “strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation” and said his team was prepared to release footage to fight defamatory claims. Am I Racist? ONLY In Theaters Tomorrow—Get Your Tickets Now! Gold Star families have appeared in videos that Trump posted to social media, saying they invited the former president to attend and film the event and criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris for her political attacks over the dispute. In their statement this week, the congressional Democrats pressed the Army to “immediately provide information regarding how the event was coordinated” and insisted that the alleged assault “requires a strong official response.” “As with any alleged assault, this incident should be investigated by the appropriate law enforcement authorities and should be subject to an independent charging decision,” the Democrats said, adding the Army should cooperate fully. Failure to “properly investigate” the dispute and hold people accountable, they said, “undermines the integrity and honor of” Arlington “and erodes the longstanding rules, tradition, and norms requiring nonpartisanship in the U.S. military.” Smith was joined by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the Oversight Committee who has also requested an incident report on the Arlington dispute, and Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA).