Two bystanders who were seriously injured in a knife attack at Amsterdam's Central Station are US citizens, the US ambassador said Saturday.
"We are aware that both victims were US citizens and have been in touch with them and their families," Pete Hoekstra said in a statement.
Police shot and wounded a 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit. He stabbed the two people at the Dutch capital's busy station in the city centre on Friday.
"We are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive," Amsterdam police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek told AFP.
Earlier witnesses described scenes of panic as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday on Friday.
"A man in the west side tunnel of Amsterdam Central Station stabbed two other people and directly after that he was shot by the police," another police spokesman Rob van der Veen said, adding terrorism was not being ruled out by investigators.
"The two people are very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital," he said.
"We are looking at all scenarios, also the worst scenario, which is terrorism."
One witness said he saw a young man "stumble" into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand.
"Shortly afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong," Richard Snelders told the ANP news agency. A while later he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said.
"The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it's a terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic," Snelders said.
Police quickly arrived at the scene with video images showing police ordering the suspect in English to "stay down" after he had been shot.
Images posted on social media showed security guards ushering passengers towards exits and paramedics arriving at the scene with stretchers.
Police spokesman Zuiderhoek said the knifeman's condition was not life-threatening, but that he had been shot in the lower body.
"At this moment he is under police custody in hospital. He is being questioned about his motive," Zuiderhoek added.
Dutch police were also in close contact with their German counterparts in regards to the suspect's background, he added.
Two platforms at the station - located in the Dutch capital's historic canal-ringed city centre - had been evacuated and closed off to passengers, police said, and were reopened for rail traffic two hours later.
A special police department opened a routine probe into why police shot the man.
The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years.
But amid a number of scares and reports that people linked to some of those attacks may have crossed briefly into the country, top Dutch security and intelligence officials have stressed that the threat level is substantial.
Police declined to speculate on the reasons for Friday's incident, but the Afghan Taliban in a statement Thursday called for attacks on Dutch troops following plans by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders to stage a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition in the Dutch parliament.
Wilders, who received several death threats has since cancelled the competition which has angered Muslims and sparked protests, saying he wanted to "avoid the risk of making people victims of Islamist violence".
Around 250,000 people travel through Central Station every day, according to statistics provided by the Amsterdam.info travel guide.
Before the fall: Demonstrators rally for the removal of a Confederate statue, coined Silent Sam, on the campus of the University of Chapel Hill on August 22, 2017 in Chapel Hill North Carolina. (Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)
A sophisticated political agenda orchestrated by non-student radicals led to the takedown of the Silent Sam confederate statue at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus, a Board of Governors member said in a video on his YouTube channel.
During the protest, Chapel Hill police and campus police were ordered to stand down as protesters toppled the historic monument, WRAL-TV reported.
What happened?
“The destruction of Silent Sam was not as you are led to believe, a student-led, spontaneous uprising,” Thom Goolsby, a Board of Governors member, said in a video he posted Thursday to his YouTube account.
“The media told you that and it continues to be out there…and it is not true. As more and more facts come out every day – on the police stand-down, the arrests of the people who committed this crime and riot on our UNC Chapel Hill campus – you see that the police stood down and they watched the work of outside, non-student radicals carrying out what is shown to be a pre-planned and sophisticated political agenda,” he explained.
Announcements for the protest were “put out all over Orange County and Durham County,” Goolsby said.
Protesters organized at Peace and Justice Plaza and then moved onto the campus, Goolsby said. Some of them carried red flags, announcing their support of the communist agenda.
Organizers wore bandannas printed with the words “Silent Sam must fall,” videos of the protest show. The protesters covered their faces with the bandannas and then arrived on the camps to “commit mayhem and property destruction,” Goolsby said.
What about the police stand-down?
WRAL obtained approximately 400 pages of emails and texts from Police Chief Chris Blue indicating he told officers to stand aside as protesters ripped down the statue. The communications happened “before, during and after” the protest, the TV station reported.
Text messages show that Blue was closely monitoring what was unfolding at McCorkle Place on the campus.
WRAL reported:
When someone lets him know officers on bicycles are already doing that, he replies, “Ok. Monitor the masked folks. Keep our folks off McCorkle place for now.”
“Need to make sure our plainclothes guys are really looking out for counter protesters to arrive,” Blue texts at 7:35 p.m. “This thing is all over tv and internet. The longer they take with the statue the more time Folks have to arrive.” At 9 p.m., Blue texts, “Let’s give them lots of space.” That was followed by, “Yes but do not engage w Crowd at statue. Stay way out.”
When he tells his officers that UNC officers also are backing away from “Silent Sam,” someone texts him, “Copy our folks did as well.”
Mayor Pam Hemminger told the Charlotte Observer the first priority of the police is to protect people and she is thankful no one was hurt.
“I don’t know; that’s not my purview,” Hemminger said. “I do know that the No. 1 goal is to protect people. That’s the truth of it.”
The university, not the town, calls the shots on campus, she added.
“There is a dividing line between the jurisdictions,” she said. “They are in charge. They give the orders and ask for help. We play a supportive role. If it’s on our jurisdiction we call the shots.”
Goolsby called all of it “absurd.”
“It is absolutely absurd, my friends,” he said. “It will not be stood for. We are a state, a nation, of laws, not lawlessness, not mob rule. Silent Sam will be going up within 90 days from the time it was pulled down on Aug. 20 as required by state law. You can count on it.”
Will the statue be back?
Multiple news reports have also indicated the statue will be re-erected in another, more secure location at the campus.
Those against Confederate statutes claim the monuments are painful and racist reminders of the legacy of slavery. Others maintain that the statues represent our nation’s history and should be preserved. More than 30 cities across the nation have removed or relocated the statues after they were deemed to be offensive.
Dramatic video released by D.C. police shows a woman smashing the windows of a Greyhound bus with a car jack, and then ramming and attempting to run down the bus driver in an apparent act of road rage in Northeast D.C. on Thursday.
Dramatic video released by D.C. police shows a woman smashing the windows of a Greyhound bus with a car jack and attempting to run down the bus driver in Northeast D.C. Thursday. (Courtesy D.C. police) Editor’s note: The video below contains graphic language.
Dramatic video released by D.C. police shows a a car jack and attempting to run down the bus driver.
WASHINGTON — Dramatic video released by D.C. police shows a woman smashing the windows of a Greyhound bus with a car jack, and then ramming and attempting to run down the bus driver in an apparent act of road rage in Northeast D.C. on Thursday. Police arrested 20-year-old Mariana Silver, of Northeast D.C., on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon. Police said Silver tried to run down the buss driver with her Audi A8 with D.C. tags FV 9179.
wom iver i
a n
DC Police Department @DCPoliceDept The suspect wanted on several charges for the offenses that occurred in the 1800 blk of Bladensburg Rd, NE, on Aug 30th, has been identified as 20-year-old Mariana Silver, of NE DC. Her vehicle- Audi A8 with DC Tags FV 9179. Seen her or the vehicle? Call 202-727-9099/text 50411 3:24 PM - Aug 31, 2018 576 909 people are talking about this The violent outburst came after the woman attempted to illegally pass the Greyhound bus traveling in the 1800 block of Bladensburg Road in Northeast, according to a police report. As she was attempting to pass the bus, she sideswiped another car, police said. When the driver of that car tried to make contact with her at a red light, the woman “grew irate” and broke out into a verbal argument, according to the police report.
DC Police Department @DCPoliceDept We have identified the suspect involved in this incident that occurred in the 1800 block of Bladensburg Road, NE on 8/30. The incident was captured on a cell phone video and can be seen below. This case remains under investigation. #DCPolice #HereToHelp9:04 AM - Aug 31, 2018 6,022 6,321 people are talking about this
A purported member of the MS-13 gang broke into the bedroom of a sleeping 11-year-old Brooklyn girl and raped her in her bed, cops said Saturday as the suspect was taken into custody.
The horrific crime happened at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, officials said.
The suspect — identified by police sources as El Salvadoran immigrant Julio Cesar Ayala, 18, who lives nearby — had allegedly climbed onto the roof of the girl’s apartment building.
He then somehow shoved aside the girl’s window air conditioner on the second floor and crawled inside through the opening, police sources said.
The fiend raped the girl in her bed, officials said.
But he dashed back out the window as she screamed to alert her mother, who rushed to her aid, sources said.
The mother called 911 but did not catch sight of the attacker, the sources said.
By luck, though, police were able to grab video-surveillance images of the suspect.
On Saturday at 2:35 p.m., some 30 officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit and the 70th Precinct converged on Ayala at his hideaway in an under-construction three-story building at 930 Flatbush Ave.
They pulled out the scrawny, hunched man, who was seen handcuffed and dressed in filthy black jeans and a red T-shirt.
Ayala — who police sources said carried a federal Permanent Resident Card, also known as a “Green Card,” as his only identification — was led struggling into a police SUV.
A high-level police source told The Post that investigators believe Ayala is a member of the violent MS-13 gang.
Cheers and taunts rose from a crowd of dozens of spectators as Ayala was hauled out. Some applauded and took cellphone pictures.
“They got him!” one man yelled.
“He raped somebody, an 11-year-old girl,” another onlooker said.
Ayala was charged Saturday night with sexually motivated burglary and first-degree rape.
He has no previous criminal record, sources said.
The crime shocked residents in the girl’s tidy neighborhood of two- and three-story homes.
“That makes me feel unsafe in my own home,” said Elizabeth Bardourilla, 42, a mental-health counselor.
“That child can’t help herself. For a grown man to do that. Sick. Very sick. This is sad. Just sad.”
“That’s horrible,” added David Cadogan, 40, a paramedic.
“I got a son and nieces. I don’t play with stuff like that. There’s past a point where you tolerate certain behaviors.
“I know people want to wait on the law. But if anything happens to him between now and then, I honestly don’t care. He gets what he deserves.”
After watching legendary singer Aretha Franklin’s funeral on Friday, Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum had just one question: Why was Louis Farrakhan, an avowed anti-Semite, featured so prominently at the funeral?
Farrakhan — the leader of the Nation of Islam whom many see as a racist, sexist, and black nationalist with controversial views on racial reconciliation — sat just three seats down from former President Bill Clinton during the funeral services.
What happened?
While discussing the funeral service with a panel, MacCallum expressed her confusion over Farrakhan’s presence.
“There were some beautiful performances today at Aretha Franklin’s funeral in Detroit. The guests ranging from world leaders to musical legends and one especially controversial figure seated in the front row. Many people kind of wondering what the unapologetic anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan was doing up there,” MacCallum said.
Despite tremendous performances by Jennifer Hudson and Gladys Knight, MacCallum said she was “distracted by Louis Farrakhan who was in every single shot.”
“I’m thinking, ‘What was he doing there?’” MacCallum said.
Not only was Farrakhan front and center, but so were Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, both of whom are controversial figures.
“Why was [Farrakhan] so front and center?” MacCallum asked. “It’s something that’s supposed to be about Aretha Franklin became, I thought, in many ways about some of these gentlemen who were right behind.”
Kelly Jane Torrance, an editor at The Weekly Standard, noted that mainstream media outlets cropped Farrakhan from pictures on their websites. She called the move “very telling.” Meanwhile, Kylie Patterson of the New Leaders Council said she believed Franklin wanted Farrahkan, Sharpton, and Jackson at her funeral.
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has blasted French President Emmanuel Macron, calling him a “hypocrite” for turning away migrants while lecturing other nations about open borders.
“We do not take lessons from a hypocrite,” Salvini said Thursday in response a statement by Macron decrying nationalists who “preach hate.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Salvini met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Milan after which the two leaders vowed to demolish the current European Union (EU) globalist structure and replace it with a model that respects the national sovereignty of EU countries.
“In Europe, Macron is at the head of the parties that support immigration, on the other side are we ourselves, but we want to stop illegal immigration,” Mr. Orbán declared.
In a Facebook post Thursday, Mr. Salvini said it is time for Mr. Macron to put his money where his mouth is.
“From the beginning of 2017 to the present day, France of the ‘good Macron’ has rejected more than 48,000 immigrants at the borders with Italy, including women and children,” he said. “Would this be the ‘welcoming and supportive’ Europe that Macron and the good people talk about?” he asked.
“Instead of giving lessons to others, I would invite the hypocritical French president to reopen the borders and welcome the thousands of migrants he had promised to take. Italy is no longer the refugee camp of Europe; the haven for traffickers and naifs is finished!”
According to data from the Italian government, France rejected 30,911 migrants at Italian borders in 2017, of which 10,407 were foreigners with a valid residence permit in Italy (including 1,465 Pakistanis, 1,108 Malaysians, 840 Nigerians, 832 Albanians). Another 20,504 were “irregular” (mostly Sudanese).
From January 1 to August 28 of this year, the figure stands at 17,476, with France having rejected 6,561 with an Italian residence permit (including 933 Pakistanis, 651 Malaysians, 613 Albanians), and 10,915 irregular. In total, between 2017 and 2018, France has turned away 48,387 migrants at Italian borders.
Mr. Salvini is currently the most trusted politician in Italy, having made good on his promise to rein in illegal immigration.
More than two dozen MS-13 gang members and affiliates are facing charges following a murder and drug trafficking investigation in Mendota
US attorney McGregor Scott revealed the charges in a press conference Friday
The street gang allegedly took advantage of an understaffed police department
Scott said the arrests have been linked to killings an assaults across the US
The small farming town of about 11,000 people sits 35 miles outside of Fresno
More than two dozen MS-13 gang members are facing charges following a murder and drug trafficking investigation in a rural California farm city, according to the US attorney in Sacramento.
The notorious street gang is said to have taken advantage of an understaffed police department in Mendota and terrorized the city of about 11,000 people.
McGregor Scott revealed the charges in a press conference Friday in Fresno, about 35 miles to the east of Mendota.
He said those arrested in the small farm community have also been linked to killings and assaults across the US in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Houston.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.