The International Committee of the Red Cross is cutting back its services in Afghanistan due to an attack on its offices in Jalalabad at the end of May. A security guard was killed and the building was badly damaged in the assault.
In other news, a number of major European banks will be taking a hit from the bankruptcy of Detroit, since they hold substantial quantities of unsecured Motor City debt.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, JD, McR, Papa Whiskey, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
‘Detroit Goes Bust: Europe Foots the Bill’
Les Echos, Il Sole-24 Ore
“Detroit goes bust, but Europe foots the bill,” sums up the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore now that several big European banks have been left holding big chunks of bad debt after the US city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy on July 18.
The French financial daily Les Echos explains that several European banks, including Swiss bank UBS, the nationalised Franco-Belgian lender Dexia and the nationalised German bank Hypo Real Estate, hold unguaranteed debt from Detroit, even though Motor City in Michigan has long been deemed a municipality at risk.
[They] apparently underwrote the equivalent of $1bn (€758m) in ‘certificates of participation’, which are now liable to lose all their value. That underwriting promised to be lucrative […] since Detroit would have had to pay $627.2m in [total] interest over 20 years to the group of European banks led by UBS.
But how did the Old World banks get entangled in this meltdown? The fault lies in the “disease” of “shadow finance”, believes Il Sole. For the Italian business daily —
The dismantlement of shadow finance was supposed […] to be a strategy coordinated between at least two major traditional economic zones — the US and Europe — to keep systemic effects from being unpredictable and ambiguous. The exact opposite of what is now coming to pass, since these zones, as well as the individual [member] countries, tend to go it alone in matters of regulatory reform.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Army Conducts Nighttime Exercises in Downtown Chicago
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell Ky., conduct an exercise with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. Photo: U.S. Department of Defense.
Following up on recent and unannounced training exercises in Florida and Washington state, the U.S. military is conducting a drill in Chicago.
The Windy City’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) told the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday it is providing support for “routine military training exercises,” including flying helicopters in the downtown area of the city at night.
“The training sites have been carefully selected to minimize the impact on the daily routine of residents,” the OEMC said in a statement released to the public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caretaker Drank $102,000 in Historic Whiskey
Patricia Hill owned 104 bottles of valuable whiskey that came with the mansion she bought and converted to a historic inn in PIttsburgh.
The Old Farm Pure Rye Whiskey was distilled in 1912, and was hidden under a staircase. The property had been sold several times before Hill found it during a remodeling project.
Hill did not immediately return calls for comment. [Police chief] Pritts said that Hill put the whiskey bottles in the basement while the main floors were being renovated. John Saunders, 62, was a caretaker who lived in the basement and was expected to safeguard the booze.
“You know, to watch over them and keep them secure. I guess that was a mistake,” Pritts said.
Hill discovered that 52 of the bottles had been emptied in March 2012, and reported it to police. All four cases of whiskey had been emptied within about a year, Pitts said.
Saunders denied that he consumed the vintage alcohol, but police tested the empty bottles to see if they matched Saunders’ DNA. After seven months of testing, police confirmed that Saunders’ DNA was found on the bottles, and charged him with felony theft and receiving stolen property, Pritts said.
The whiskey was valued at $102,400, but it is doubtful that restitution will be made. Saunders’ attorney told the court that Saunders is waiting for a liver transplant.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
House Fight Brews Over NSA Stasi State
Rep. Justin Amash has a plan to rollback unconstitutional snooping by the super-secret agency
Edward Snowden’s revelations of Stasi state surveillance by the NSA have led to belated action in Congress to clip the agency’s wings.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on an amendment proposed for next year’s defense appropriations bill that “bars authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act” by the super-secret agency.
“None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to collect tangible things (including telephone numbers dialed, telephone numbers of incoming calls, and the duration of calls) pursuant to an order under section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1861) if such things do not pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation described in such section,” the amendment reads.
The amendment was introduced by Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash, who is described as a libertarian, and liberal Michigan Democrat Rep. John Conyers.
The threat posed to the government’s unhindered power of surveillance is being taken seriously by the NSA, the Obama White House, and leaders from the House and Senate Intelligence committees, who strenuously condemn the amendment.
Amash responded to criticism with a tweet:
Do Members of Congress want to go on record supporting unconstitutional, blanket collection of all Americans’ phone records? We’ll find out.
— Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) July 24, 2013
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Larry Grathwohl: Eyewitness to Communist Terrorism
Larry traveled around the country, confronting Bill Ayers and his comrades, including Mark Rudd
Larry Grathwohl may be best known as the FBI informant in the Weather Underground who disclosed that Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and their Weather Underground criminal gang, had plans to eliminate as many as 25 million Americans if they came to power.
Unexpectedly, Larry, a good friend for many years, passed away last week. The Weather Underground had put out a “wanted” poster on Larry decades ago, after his cover was blown and he surfaced. They called him an “enemy of the people.”
Larry traveled around the country, confronting Ayers and his comrades, including Mark Rudd. He didn’t fear for his life, but he was always on guard. He had been speaking out concerning Robert Redford’s movie glorifying the Weather Underground, “The Company You Keep,” and had noted Redford’s sympathy for Fidel Castro. Redford sold out to George Soros several years ago.
Although Larry had some health problems, his death at this particular time is, frankly, a mystery to me. I have questions that need answers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leftists Caught Running Zimmerman Frame-Up
At least one member of a leftist group has been caught red-handed attempting to paint supporters of George Zimmerman as “proud racists,” yet another instance of the authoritarian left pulling dirty stunts to discredit conservative protesters with legitimate concerns over the evisceration of Americans’ rights.
Screen capture via DailyMail.co.uk.
On Sunday, a woman at a Houston pro-Zimmerman rally was photographed holding a handmade sign that read, “We’re racist & proud.”
The development was seized upon by media outlets such as the Daily Mail and the New York Daily News as indicative of the caliber of protesters attending pro-Zimmerman events.
The Gateway Pundit probed the woman holding the racist sign and exposed her to be a member of a far left environmental group known as the Texas Campaign for the Environment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liberty Slipping: 10 Things You Could Do in 1975 That You Can’t Do Now
In 1975:
| 1. | You could buy an airline ticket and fly without ever showing an ID. | |
| 2. | You could buy cough syrup without showing an ID. | |
| 3. | You could buy and sell gold coins without showing an ID | |
| 4. | You could buy a gun without showing an ID | |
| 5. | You could pull as much cash out of your bank account without the bank filing a report with the government… |
There are thousands of other examples.The monitoring is in place all that is required from here is the clampdown.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Assaults ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws With Phony Facts, Say Experts
“The Obama administration attack on stand your ground laws suggests the White House cannot tolerate the individual right to self defense and the right to use force of arms in self-defense,” said John Snyder, a gun rights expert and a board member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.
“Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder,” noted Snyder, “said the other day with regard to stand your ground laws that, ‘it’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense.’ The attorney general does not value stand your ground laws to protect the right to self-defense, to protect life itself from prospective criminal attack.”
Snyder, who’s a former editor with the National Rifle Association (NRA), claims the Obama government does not recognize the natural right to life itself, let alone the right to keep and bear arms to defend life.
“It opposes the right to life, and now is trying to use its power to force people to act against their religious conscience and pay for insurance for abortion,” he said.
“Basically,” said Snyder, “the Obama administration refuses to accept the concept of natural right. Whatever rights this government recognizes come from the state, and not from nature or nature’s God.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Forces American Workers Into ‘Part-Time Society’ As Full-Time Jobs Are Slashed Everywhere
(NaturalNews) What was sold to the American people as the greatest reform of the U.S. healthcare system in our history is turning out to be the biggest contributing factor destroying the greatest economy in the history of the planet.
At a time when unemployment remains unacceptably high (7.6 percent in June, up from lows of 4-5 percent in 2004-2006), Obamacare is putting even more downward pressure on hiring, leaving American workers stuck in cycles of unemployment or underemployment.
The “reform” law contains what is known as an “employer mandate” — it requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees to provide them with expensive health insurance coverage (and wasn’t the law supposed to reduce the cost of health insurance?). As a way to avoid having to incur this huge new expense, many employers are simply firing employees or reducing their work hours to part-time status. Mind you, most companies that are trying to avoid the mandate are doing so to stay in business, not to be lousy to employees. They figure that offering someone part-time employment is better than having no job at all. But the bottom line is, of course, their bottom line — without the additional revenue to cover the new mandate, adjustments have to be made if they are to remain in business.
Per The Wall Street Journal:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Requires Magician to Submit a 32 Page “Disaster Plan” For His Rabbit
Central planning in this country is getting completely and totally out of control. These days, you can hardly do anything without running into a suffocating web of red tape. For example, a small-time magician from Missouri that does magic shows for kids was absolutely horrified when he learned that the Obama administration is requiring him to submit a 32 page “disaster plan” for the rabbit that he uses in his shows.
Yes, this is actually true. His name is Marty Hahne, and he thought that it was bad enough when the U.S. Department of Agriculture busted him for not having a “license” for his rabbit. He went out and acquired the proper “license” for his rabbit, but he never dreamed that eventually he would also have to submit a 32 page “disaster plan” for the same rabbit.
This is a guy that does not make a lot of money. He mostly does shows for kids at schools and at libraries…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police: Drunk Woman Caps Violent Night by Defecating on Cop Car
SEATTLE — A highly intoxicated woman, possibly a lawyer deserving of your respect, attacked an employee and customer at a North Seattle bar before defecating on a cop car last Wednesday night, according to the Seattle Police Department.
[…]
Officers arrived to find the suspect inside the business, swaying and leaning against the bar for support while reportedly yelling at the staff.
According to the report, the suspect was either unable or unwilling to answer an officer’s questions. The officer reports she would only repeat the phrase, “I am a lawyer; show me respect.”
After officers had handcuffed the suspect, it was discovered she had somehow managed to defecate on the bumper of a patrol car, as well as twice in the street, according to the report.
[Now there’s a REAL “scheisster”! — PW]
| [Return to headlines] |
RINOs, Pretty Wimps and Gutless Wonders
Ladies and gentlemen, where are the men in America that have the courage to lead beyond political expediency? Where are the men who will make the tough decisions in the interest of the American people and freedom? Where are the men who reject political correctness and will lay it all on the line in the name of truth, letting the chips fall where they may? Where are the men who cannot be bought by special interests or party hacks? Where are the men who care less about being re-elected than doing the right thing for America? Where are the men who will fire entire departments when they get too big for their britches? Where are the men that will look the enemy in the eye and demand respect and show no fear, so that any enemy, either foreign or domestic, has no doubt where he and America stands? Where are the men who know their duty under the constitution and will honor that duty and their oath to preserve, protect and defend the only document ever written by man that stands as the bulwark between freedom and tyranny?
We submit that no such man exists today in the known field of those men who have the stated ambition to lead this nation in the spirit of its founders. We have a plethora of RINO’s (Republican in Name Only) like U. S. Senators John McCain (AZ) and Lindsey Graham (SC) who have considerable difficulty with their oath to preserve, protect and defend the U. S. Constitution. They are always anxious to join the other side in the spirit of compromise, when compromise means forsaking their sacred oath. They seem to be perplexingly on the wrong side of the issues as they relate to conservative values. Unfortunately, there are a lot of McCains and Grahams in the U. S. Senate and in the U. S. House and even in state legislatures all around the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Role Reversal: How the US Became the USSR
I spent the summer of 1961 behind the Iron Curtain. I was part of the US-USSR student exchange program. It was the second year of the program that operated under auspices of the US Department of State. Our return to the West via train through East Germany was interrupted by the construction of the Berlin Wall. We were sent back to Poland. The East German rail tracks were occupied with Soviet troop and tank trains as the Red Army concentrated in East Germany to face down any Western interference.
Fortunately, in those days there were no neoconservatives. Washington had not grown the hubris it so well displays in the 21st century. The wall was built and war was avoided. The wall backfired on the Soviets. Both JFK and Ronald Reagan used it to good propaganda effect.
In those days America stood for freedom, and the Soviet Union for oppression. Much of this impression was created by Western propaganda, but there was some semblance to the truth in the image. The communists had a Julian Assange and an Edward Snowden of their own. His name was Cardinal Jozef Mindszenty, the leader of the Hungarian Catholic Church.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seal Team 6 Families Force Congress to Investigate Mysterious Chopper Crash
Pentagon cremated soldiers bodies; claims black box washed away in flash flood
Led by firebrand Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Congress is to launch an official investigation into the mysterious helicopter crash that killed several members of the Navy SEAL team 6 in Afghanistan in 2011.
Back in May, the families of the SEALs went public with concerns that the Obama administration was at least partially responsible for the deaths of their sons.
In recent months some of the family members have spoken out in the media regarding what they believe is a cover up over the helicopter crash.
The family members say that they still have not received satisfactory answers to their questions, and that there are still many inconsistencies and contradictions in the explanations they have been provided…
Klayman’s questions stem from the fact that Afghani forces accompanying the Navy SEAL servicemen on the helicopter were most likely not properly vetted, meaning that they may have disclosed classified information to the Taliban about the mission, resulting in the shoot down of the helicopter.
Pentagon documents have confirmed that immediately prior to the take off of the helicopter, seven Afghan commandos who were listed on the passenger itinerary were mysteriously replaced by other Afghan military officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Andrew C. McCarthy
… revulsion over Huma Abedin’s calculated “stand by your man” routine is surely right. Still, it is amazing, as we speculate about Ms. Abedin’s political future, that the elephant in the room goes unnoticed, or at least studiously unmentioned.
[…]
In the late mid to late Nineties, while she was an intern at the Clinton White House and an assistant editor at JMMA, Ms. Abedin was a member of the executive board of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at George Washington University, heading its “Social Committee.” The MSA, which has a vast network of chapters at universities across North America, is the foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s infrastructure in the United States.
[…]
Ms. Abedin served as one of Secretary of State Clinton’s top staffers and advisers at the State Department. As I’ve previously detailed, during that time, the State Department strongly supported abandoning the federal government’s prior policy against official dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood. State, furthermore, embraced a number of Muslim Brotherhood positions that undermine both American constitutional rights and our alliance with Israel.
[…]
The State Department collaborated with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of governments heavily influenced by the Brotherhood, in seeking to restrict American free-speech rights in deference to sharia proscriptions against negative criticism of Islam.
[…]
The marriage to Huma Abedin, a Clinton insider, enables Anthony Weiner to resurrect a debased career and deflect attention from his psychotic antics even as he continues them. The marriage to Anthony Weiner, a prominent Jewish progressive, enables Huma Abedin to deflect attention from her associations with various Islamic supremacists even as, during her tenure as a top State Department official, American policy embraces Islamic supremacists.
But let’s not discuss that.
[The Muslima Abedin’s marriage to the Jewish Weiner seems odd, but recall Qur’an 3:28: “Let not believers take disbelievers as allies rather than believers. And whoever [of you] does that has nothing with Allah, EXCEPT WHEN TAKING PRECAUTION AGAINST THEM in prudence.” (Emphasis mine.) — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Trayvon Protests Organized by Communist Who Praised Stalin & Mao
Revolutionary Communist Party has “coordinated Trayvon Martin protests throughout the country”
Many of the Trayvon Martin protests that are still taking place in major cities across the United States were organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party which is chaired by a Marxist who praised mass killers Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao.
In a lengthy exposé by the politically independent SF Weekly, columnist Rachel Swan documents how, “Members of the Berkeley-based Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) had, indeed, set the time and date for two consecutive Trayvon Martin rallies in Oakland, as well as the ones in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.”
Explaining how many of the demonstrations were adorned with Communist red flags, Swan notes how the RCP sent out email blasts urging people to attend the rallies, made protest signs and also used “viral marketing” to give the message a “veneer of spontaneity”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Health Authorities Ask ABC to Reconsider Jenny McCarthy
Toronto Public Health believes The View’s new host will spread inaccurate information
As actress, model and devoted mother Jenny McCarthy prepares to join the cast of ABC’s morning daily show The View, she’s finding herself weathering criticism from, of all people, Canadian health authorities.
Toronto Public Health (TPH) is not concerned that her salacious past may set the wrong example for children — McCarthy is a former Playboy model — but rather, that given her staunch disapproval of vaccines, providing her with a national platform could possibly influence mothers to follow her lead, a move which would undoubtedly burn a sizable hole in Big Pharma’s pockets…
The absurdity of a foreign health authority wasting taxpayer money by launching an aggressive campaign against an American television show was not lost on Toronto city councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
“They clearly have too much time on their hands,” and said Toronto Public Health should be concerned with “health issues in the city of Toronto that need serious action and consideration rather than starting campaigns against American television programs,” Minnan-Wong stated according to the Toronto Star…
McCarthy’s own journey down the vaccine rabbit hole started when she had her son Evan who began displaying symptoms typically associated with autism.
She began following the works of former British surgeon and researcher Andrew Wakefield who in 1998 published a study linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism and bowel disease. McCarthy also heads up the autism awareness non-profit Generation Rescue.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Furious Vince Cable has accused the Bank of England of behaving like the ‘Taliban’ in imposing strict lending rules which have held back the economy.
The Business Secretary said tough restrictions imposed on banks to build up stock piles of money was choking off lending to small firms.
In a further escalation of the row between the government and the Bank of England, a Treasury source slammed the ‘jihadist’ tendency in Threadneedle Street towards the banks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes in Bulgaria as Protesters Trap Lawmakers Inside Parliament
Police have broken up a barricade and have safely escorted over 100 people from Bulgaria’s parliament building to safety. Protesters trapped officials inside hours before during an anti-government demonstration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Feuding Banks Behind Rome Police Raid
Eight Italian banks among fraud victims. Question mark over ambassador’s relations with Italian foreign ministry. Who advised him to contact interior ministry?
ROME — Interests of many kinds, most of them financial, lurk behind the Kazakh affair. And this could turn out to be the key to identifying whoever ordered the “rendition†of Ms Alma Shalabayeva and her daughter Alua to the authorities in Astana. It would also help to clear up the events that led to the 28 May visit of the Kazakh ambassador, Andrian Yelemessov, to police headquarters in Rome, the first official move in an operation that concluded on 31 May when the two women boarded a private Austrian-registered jet belonging to the Avcon company. But the chain could have started several days earlier. It looks increasingly likely that the women were expelled to flush out Ms Shalabayeva’s husband Mukhtar Ablyazov, twisting Italian arms in the aftermath of his escape. For it emerges that Mukhtar Ablyazov fled the United Kingdom even though this automatically deprived him of refugee status. Mr Ablyazov was on the run from charges of organising a fraud worth about $10 billion while he chaired Kazakhstan’s leading bank, BTA. The bank initiated legal proceedings against him in the UK, which subsequently granted him political asylum. We now discover that the list of creditors includes eight Italian banks among the victims of Ablyazov’s fraud.
SCENE SHIFTS TO ITALY ON 16 MAY — Mario Trotta, a former Carabiniere and currently owner of the SIRA private investigation agency, which was keeping tabs on Mr Ablyazov, claims to have received the assignment on 16 May from an agency in Tel Aviv. Who obtained the information that Mukhtar Ablyazov was in Rome and could be captured? Who did it come from?…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Internet Access for Germany’s Prisoners
The use of the Internet in German prisons is highly controversial. But new technology is making it possible to better control access to the Web. Still, the Internet can be abused in prisons.
In prison, contact with the outside world is strictly regulated and monitored. So it’s fair to say that people who are locked up don’t have a social life.
Since 1998, television sets have been allowed in German prison cells. And rules on the use of telephones have been relaxed. But the Internet is only allowed in a few of Germany’s 16 states.
Inmates at the correctional facility in Gera, in the eastern German state of Thuringia, are somewhat in a better position. They are allowed to browse selected online content.
“Pages that aren’t blocked, like employment agencies and probation assistance, help with their rehabilitation,” says Thuringia’s ministry of justice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: ‘Israel Furious Over ‘Absurd’ Boycott’
Trouw, 24 July 2013
Israel’s foreign affairs minister has condemned the boycott of Israeli products originating in the Palestinian territories recently implemented by two chains of Dutch grocery stores, reports Dutch daily Trouw.
The anger is all the greater, explains the paper, because the European Union is becoming more and more critical of Israeli colonies in the West Bank. Trouw notes that the Dutch government is opposed to an official boycott, but wants to make products from the occupied territories easily recognisable.
This idea is also promoted by Catherine Ashton, the high representative of the EU for external affairs, who would like to put in place a specific label by the end of the year. The current “made in Israel” label on all imported products could give the impression that the EU implicitly supports the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Protests in Sofia: Police Break Siege of Bulgarian Parliament
Forty days of anti-government protests culminated Tuesday night in an eight-hour blockade of Bulgaria’s parliament in Sofia. Police ended the siege on Wednesday morning, escorting more than 100 officials out of the building amid ongoing unrest.
Police ended an eight-hour siege of Bulgaria’s parliament in Sofia on Wednesday morning, escorting out more than 100 ministers, lawmakers and journalists who had been trapped inside overnight by anti-corruption protesters seeking to oust the left-leaning government.
The blockade was the culmination of weeks-long protests and clashes with the police, triggered by a government decision to name media tycoon Delyan Peevski as head of the National Security Agency. The move was seen as evidence of private interests controlling public institutions. The government’s subsequent withdrawal of the appointment was seen as too little, too late in the European Union’s poorest country, and crowds took their outrage to the streets, demanding the cabinet’s resignation.
An angry mob estimated by French news agency AFP to include 2,000 people surrounded the parliament building on Tuesday evening chanting slogans like “Mafia!” and “Resign!” as lawmakers took part in a late-night sitting to discuss a controversial budget adjustment that would raise the deficit and state borrowing limit.
At around 10 p.m., riot police attempted to remove several government officials from the building by bus, but, according to several wire reports, protesters hurled bottles and stones, preventing the bus from leaving. They used trashcans, park benches, street signs and stones to reinforce their blockade into the early morning. At 3 a.m. police managed to escort several deputies and ministers out of the building. By 5 a.m., the situation had been diffused and the makeshift blockades were being disassembled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Racism in Norway Survived the 22/7 Attack’
Share on redditMore Sharing ServicesA Norway-based Swedish survivor of the Utøya terror attack on Monday said Norway had learned little from the massacre of 77 people, claiming that the “undergrowth of hateful rhetoric” had recovered from the right-wing extremist attacks that shocked Norway and the world.
While Norway has put the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik behind bars, think tank researcher Ali Esbati noted in an op-ed in the Swedish leftleaning tabloid Aftonbladet that one of Breivik’s main inspirations, the Norwegian blogger Peder Nøstvold Jensen, who uses the online soubriquet Fjordman, recently received a 75,000 kroner ($12,600) scholarship to write a book.
While the ensuing debate about Jensen soon becoming an author had centred on freedom of speech, Esbait argued that several commentators seemed not to understand the ramifications of legitimizing his far-right views.
“They hold positions from which public debate can be treated like a racy board game, rather than an arena where real life conditions are at stake,” Esbati wrote. “An arena where there is a constant tug of war about where the demarcation lines of what is acceptable should be defined, not legally but socially.”
“Two years after the terror attacks, it is clear that Norwegian society has not been able to process the events. Instead, the attacks’ very atrociousness has made it more difficult to counteract islamophobia and ultra-reactionary advances,” argued Esbati, who survived the shooting spree on the island of Utoya two years ago, when Breivik killed 69 people after killing eight others with a bomb in Oslo’s government quarters. Esbati attended the memorial service at Oslo Cathedral on Monday, at one point hiding his face in his hands as though overcome by emotion.
“People reason that everyday racism is miles apart from Breivik’s mass murder,” he continued in his op-ed, in which he asked that Norwegians make more of an effort to put the terror attacks in their political context.
Esbati claimed that debate about a “mass invasion of beggars”, in which rumours swept Oslo after migrants from European countries travelled to Norway to beg for money last summer, showed that everyday racism still abounded.
“Oslo municipality issued rules against people sleeping in parks and by the roadside, which in practice was a ban aimed directly at the Roma,” Esbati argued. “These signals from above gain strength, as always, from comments fields and social media, where you can read about vermin and the need to clean up and discharge people.”
“The debate is influenced by the fact that the rightwing populist Fremskrittspartiet (FRP) is big and well established today, which gives its views an immediate stamp of being popular and normal,” Esbati wrote, noting that the party’s approval rating had reached 20 percent in recent opinion polls and that the party has struck a deal with conservative opposition party Høyre to form a government after September’s general elections if the Labour Party loses.
“One of FRP’s most prominent MPs is Christian Tybring-Gjedde. The summer before the Utøya terror he wrote a long accusation letter against the Labour Party, asking why it had decided to replace Norwegian culture with multiculturalism, a miniature UN. He wrote about stabbing Norway’s own culture in the back, and how he’d never be part of it,” Esbati elaborated.
While Norwegian commentators at the time of the attacks noted that there where parallels in Tybring-Gjedde’s and Breivik’s rhetoric, the former is back in “full swing”, Esbati continued.
“When he’s not giving insinuating tips to Muslim parents about how to raise their children or broadcasting warnings that Oslo will soon have a non-Western majority population, he writes articles about how journalists ignoring the price tag of high immigration, which will be paid by their children instead,” Esbati said.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Snowden Receives “Whistleblower Prize” In Germany
The man who leaked documents revealing the extent of US surveillance of electronic media, Edward Snowden, has been awarded the German “Whistleblower Prize” in absentia. He remains on the run in Moscow.
The award goes to people who “reveal grave abuses and dangerous developments for people and society, democracy, peace and the environment in the public interest,” watchdog Transparency International said on its website.
Worth 3,000 euros ($3,942), the prize is co-sponsored by the Federation of German Scientists (VDW) and the German section of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). For the first time, Transparency International Germany was also involved in awarding the prize.
Explaining why Snowden received the award, Hartmut Grassl from the Federation of German Scientists said, “An open society needs civil courage and brave people like Edward Snowden, so that abuses are revealed and prevented.”
Snowden, a former US National Security Agency systems analyst leaked documents last month that revealed that the NSA had collected phone records, while a second NSA program forced major Internet companies to turn over contents of communications to the government.
Snowden, who is being sought by US authorities, has been staying at the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for almost a month. He applied for asylum in Russia last week and is still awaiting word of whether the application has been accepted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Grinning brazenly as he lifts up his shirt to reveal an inflammatory image of a mosque being blown up, this man was pictured openly with his offending tattoo at a far-right rally.
The man, who is believed to be a supporter of the English Defence League, is understood to have been pictured at the group’s rally, in Birmingham, at the weekend.
The man lifted his football shirt to reveal the image of the Muslim place of worship with the word ‘Boom!’ written across it.
The image has sparked outrage after it was posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.
It was taken at a demonstration in Birmingham, according to The Sun, where police made 20 arrests after officers came under attack on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Premier El Beblawy Joins Social Democratic Party
(AGI) Rome, July 23 — Egypt’s new interim prime minister, Hazem El Beblawy has officially joined the Social Democratic Party as has the deputy prime minister and Finance Minister Ziad Bahaa Eldin. The party has issued a statement addressed to the party’s “friends and comrades” officially announcing the event.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Brotherhood Spreading Rumors and Lies in Egypt as Their Last Weapon!
Days after the June 30 Revolution, during which millions of Egyptians filled the streets demanding the ouster of the Mohamed Morsi-led Muslim Brotherhood regime and after the Egyptian Army came to the rescue, the Muslim Brotherhood is still organizing demonstrations which often end in violence.
The Brotherhood conveniently forgets that Morsi’s presidency was rejected by a majority of the Egyptian people. It is worthy of note that the Brotherhood is targeting specific groups — particularly the reluctant and fearful or those who haven’t yet decided whose side to be on.
One of the most dangerous influential weapons used by the Muslim Brotherhood is spreading rumors and lies, playing with minds of ordinary people and their followers. They are using a very strong media front financed with millions of dollars, and social media “technical militias” to reach their goal.
It is well known that the media as a weapon is used by intelligence agencies, whether public or military, to influence the enemies and other countries, as they are used in some professions, such as artists or athletes and as well as in the economic field between competing companies to fabricate a crisis in certain markets or beat competitors, or force a drop in the stock market in order to buy shares. All of these things have nothing to do with religion. Yet, the Muslim Brotherhood claims they are defending Islam and delivering the word of God to the masses.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Plea for Justice in Egypt: Egyptian Military Must Go All the Way
With the help of foreign countries, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood together with Hamas is working to destabilize Egypt upon the successful overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President, Mohammad Morsi.
Muslim Brotherhood leaders hold to President Morsi’s promise of bloodshed and a fight in order to reinstate their power. More than 20 days ago, Morsi was asked to step down at the request of 30 million Egyptian freedom lovers, and still, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters refuse to accept the will of the people, regularly spreading violence among innocent citizens and killing Egyptian military personnel.
Muslim Brotherhood leader, Al Beltaghi, admitted Brotherhood use of intimidation and terror in Sinai (and likewise in the streets), announcing from the Al Adawyia ghetto of Cairo a few days ago that, “all these terrorist actions in Sinai will stop immediately once the army allows Morsi to return and the coup is concluded.” For Al Beltaghi, distorting Egypt’s revolutionary action, referring to it as a “military coup,” legitimizes their violence to regain control.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Photos: Obama-Backed Syrian Rebels Ransack Christian Village
Residents slaughtered, churches desecrated
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Images obtained exclusively by Infowars show the aftermath of an alleged massacre of a Christian village in Syria during which men, women and children were slaughtered and churches desecrated by Obama-backed FSA rebels.
The photos, which were provided by a source inside the village of al-Duvair in Syria’s Western province of Homs, show ruined homes, ransacked churches as well as the burned remains of what looks like an infant.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) on May 29, “The armed rebels affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) raided the Christian-populated al-Duvair village in Reef (outskirts of) Homs near the border with Lebanon…and massacred all its civilian residents, including women and children.”
However, our source tells us that the Syrian Army were able to intervene before the rebels were able to slaughter the entire village.
These are some of the very same rebels that the Obama administration is set to arm following the House and Senate Intelligence Committee’s green light for the White House to send heavy weaponry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul: Obama’s Goal in Syria is to “Fight to a Stalemate”
“I’m not sending my kids or your kids or any American soldiers to fight for stalemate”
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul slammed the Obama administration’s “world policeman” outlook on foreign policy and accused the president of intentionally planning to “fight to a stalemate” in Syria in a speech Monday.
Appearing at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Kentucky, Paul condemned the administration’s policy of endless war, and appealed for a more humble approach to oversees affairs.
“For our country’s sake, certainly for our soldiers’ sake — for the sake of every veteran who ever donned a uniform and fought for this country — America’s mission should always be to keep the peace, not police the world,” Paul urged.
“There is no greater priority for the federal government than the defense of the Constitution and the nation,” Paul added. “Yet, sometimes I think our defense is weakened by our overeagerness to be involved in every civil war on the planet.”
The Senator asserted that US military involvement in Egypt, Syria and Libya was not based on “common sense” rationale, and that the nation’s military and civilian leaders now “often don’t think” before they act.
“Last week I was told by the administration, you know what their goal is in Syria? To fight to a stalemate,“ Paul told the audience.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Where will the weapons dispensed like candy to the Syrian rebels end up?
Rarely has there been a policy as universally supported in Washington and as universally rejected by Americans of all ages, races, genders, incomes and religions as the proposal to send weapons to the Syrian terrorists.
The average American who has never heard of the Al-Nusra Front, is utterly in the dark about the differences between the various brigades of the Free Syrian Army and hasn’t the faintest idea that the entire thing has been a Muslim Brotherhood operation of varying degrees of subtlety from Day 1, still thinks that sending weapons to them is a terrible idea.
Even a public that is weary of war and not at all enthusiastic about jumping into another one would rather invade Syria than arm the Syrian rebels.
At least those are the results of a recent Quinnipiac poll which found that sizable majorities of Republicans, Democrats, men, women, Whites, Blacks and Hispanics (and possibly even the mysteriously reclusive White Hispanics) all opposed the proposal to send arms to the rebels; even without being told that rebel is a polite term for Islamic Jihadist and Islamic Jihadist is a polite term for the guy wearing explosive underwear next to them on their vacation flight.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Sanghar: Catholic Nurse Living in Fear Because She Does Not Want to Marry Muslim Man
Ghulam Muhammad, an influential and feared Muslim businessman in Sanghar District, has threatened to abduct Nazia Masih and disfigure her with acid because she has refused to marry him. The man is known to police because of several complaints against him of kidnappings and rapes. Yet he lives with impunity. Now Nazia’s whole family is in danger. “We are Christians and poor,” she said. “In Pakistan, our honour and property are not safe.” For a Catholic priest in Karachi, “This is shameful”. The authorities “need to do something to protect them.”
Karachi (AsiaNews) — Pakistan’s small Catholic community has been shaken again by another case of violence. An influential Muslim businessman in the district of Sanghar has repeatedly threatened a Catholic nurse who has refused to marry him, filing a case against her when she became engaged to another man. Despite the threats, the situation seems under control for now. Police, which so far aided and abetted the Muslim man, has been forced to provide protection to the Catholic woman thanks to pressure from Christian groups and moderate Muslims.
It all began when Ghulam Muhammad decided he wanted to marry Nazia Masih (pictured), a Catholic nurse from Padri-Jo-Goth, Sanghar District, who works at Cheniot Hospital.
Muhammad approached her with a proposal to marry him and convert to Islam. After she turned him down, he threatened to abduct her and disfigure her with acid.
Regrettably, Muhammad has a certain reputation in the district as someone who has already abducted, raped and forcibly converted local Hindu women to Islam. Those who dared sue him for rape were in fact unable to obtain justice.
On her way home on 10 May, Nazia Masih was approached by four armed men who warned her to accept Muhammad’s proposal or else. After harassing her, they drove away. Frightened, she sought help at work but hospital authorities refused.
The girl’s parents decided then to anticipate her engagement to Ejaz Joseph, a local Christian, on 26 May. However, Ghulam Muhammad interrupted the ceremony accompanied by several police officers who, without evidence of any crime, tried to arrest the couple.
Luckily, after the involvement of village elders, police took her father and brother away, but released them a few hours later. Eventually, Nazia’s persecutor decided to change tactic and tried to pressure Joseph with dire consequences if he do not leave the nurse.
The girl’s family decided again to ask the authorities for help and filed a complaint at the police station in Sanghar. Once more, Muhammad’s influence thwarted an investigation into the matter.
In fact, police told Nazia that her tormentor now claimed that she was his wife, and that a family court would have to sort things out. This in turn caused an uproar in the Christian community and among moderate Muslims. The court eventually decided not to intervene in the case of false marriage.
Still, Ghulam Muhammad did not give up and began threatening not only Nazia’s relatives but also Sister Maria Khurshid, the head nun at Saint Teresa Hospital in Mir Purkhas and a close friend of Nazia. The nun called on the authorities to provide the nurse with protection, but failed even to get them to issue a warning against the Muslim man. The situation is now at an impasse.
On Saturday, Muhammad filed another complaint to get police to force Nazia to marry him.
“I feel unsafe and face many problems and threats,” Nazia Masih told AsiaNews. “I am also angry because my family is in danger as a result of that person’s behavior. We are Christians and poor. That is why these things always happen to us. In Pakistan, our honour and property are not safe.”
“This is shameful,” said Fr John James, from the diocese of Karachi. “Such incidents should be strongly condemned by society. Countless Hindu girls are abducted every month from the interior of Sindh, and the authorities are silent about it. They need to do something to protect them. We call on the authorities to provide protection to Nazia Masih and her family.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pulling Back: ICRC Cuts Activities in Afghanistan
After the attack on its Jalalabad office in May, the Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reduced the scope of its activities in Afghanistan.
“The deadly attack that took place on the ICRC’s office in Jalalabad in May reflects a deteriorating situation,” said Jacques de Maio, the ICRC’s head of operations for South Asia, in Geneva on Tuesday.
“We now have an environment in which armed men could breach one of the most ancient rules of war, according to which those helping non-combatants must be spared and protected, and by doing so deliberately deprive millions of Afghans of much-needed help. The ICRC has a unique role to play for millions of Afghans, and we cannot abandon them,” de Maio said.
There will be reductions in emergency assistance in the areas of food, water and sanitation — reductions that the ICRC plans to compensate for through partnerships with local groups like the Afghan Red Crescent.
“We have to adapt our working model and procedures to reduce the overall exposure to risk,” de Maio said. “Regrettably, this will have an adverse effect on the quality and the quantity of some of our services.”
The ICRC will continue its activities in areas such as prison visits, hospital support and physical rehabilitation services for amputees and other war victims.
On May 29, armed men attacked and badly damaged the ICRC office in Jalalabad. An Afghan security guard was killed and an ICRC staff member was injured, prompting the closure of the office and a reduction of staff in Afghanistan. It was the first time that the ICRC was attacked there.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima: Radioactive Cesium Levels Jump 9,000 Percent in Just Three Days, Nobody Knows Why
(NaturalNews) Some of the highest levels of ionizing radiation yet detected since the disaster first occurred were recently recorded at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan, according to shocking new reports. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which runs the crippled nuclear plant, says levels of radioactive cesium in a water well were 9,000 percent higher on July 8, 2013, than they were three days earlier, and nobody knows why this is the case.
The Asahi Shimbun reports that TEPCO observed the spike after testing water in a well on the seaward side of Fukushima’s No. 2 reactor. According to readings taken, radioactive cesium levels registered at an astounding 27,000 becquerels per liter (Bq/l), which is the highest ever since March 11, 2011, when the tsunami and earthquake first struck the plant. At this point, the cause of the spike is still unknown.
“It is unclear whether the radioactive water is leaking into the sea,” said a TEPCO official, following the discovery. “After gathering needed data, we will conduct analyses.”
“We do not know why only cesium levels have risen,” added the TEPCO official.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Biggest Oil Discovery in 50 Years?
In a virtually uninhabitable section of South Australia, a discovery has been made which could rock the world. Some are calling it the biggest discovery of oil in 50 years. Earlier this year, a company called Linc Energy announced that tests had revealed that there was a minimum of 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent sitting under more than 65,000 square kilometres of land that it owns in the Arckaringa Basin. But that is the minimum number. It has been projected that there could ultimately be up to 233 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the area. If that turns out to be accurate, the oil sitting under that land is worth approximately 20 trillion dollars, and it would be roughly equivalent to the total amount of oil sitting under the sands of Saudi Arabia. In essence, it would be a massive game changer.
If the 233 billion barrel figure is accurate (and some have even suggested that the true number could actually be 400 billion barrels), that would make it nearly 10 times larger than the Bakken formation, 17 times larger than the Marcellus discovery and 80 times larger than the Eagle Ford deposit down in Texas.
It would also mean that Australia now has more “black gold” than the nations of Iran, Iraq, Canada and Venezuela.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration is a ‘constant drain’ on public services in Britain, David Cameron conceded yesterday.
The Prime Minister said Britain had suffered a ‘frightening’ decade of ‘completely lax’ border policies, which had placed huge strain on communities.
And he hinted at further measures to cut the number of people arriving in the UK.
His comments come after the Office for Budget Responsibility warned Britain would need millions more immigrants in the coming decades to offset the effects of an ageing population.
But Mr Cameron made clear yesterday that he wants to accelerate progress towards meeting his pledge to slash annual net migration — the number by which the population grows after both immigration and emigration have been counted — to the ‘tens of thousands’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Same-Sex Marriages in Bangladesh: Two Girls Arrested, Threatened With Life Imprisonment
Homosexuality and any kind of union between persons of the same sex is illegal in the country. The young people — aged 16 and 21 year — are runaways. Only once found by the police did they confess to being lesbian, and were arrested.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Two girls were arrested in Bangladesh yesterday for marrying each other. Shibronty Roy Puja, a Hindu of 16, and Sanjida Akter, Muslim 21, had run away from the district of Pirojpur — where they both lived — on 14 July to reach Dhaka, the capital. In the country, homosexuality is illegal and punishable with imprisonment for life, as are marriages, civil partnerships and cohabitation between people of the same sex.
Sanjida gave private lessons to Shibronty. After their flight, the father of the younger girl reported his daughter missing. The police found and arrested them in Mahammadpur (Dhaka), where they had rented a house. It is at that point that the two girls confessed the truth to the agents: they were in love and were married, exchanging garlands of flowers, as required by the Hindu tradition.
In Bangladesh, people belonging to the LGBT community (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) range between 1.6 and 4.8 million. They are not recognized and receive no form of social, religious or legal support and are often victims of persecution.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. City Looks to Penalize Bible Believers
Critics charge ‘anti-bias’ requirement punishes people with moral convictions
Think it’s hot in Texas these days? Just wait a few weeks, until the San Antonio City Council ends its summer hiatus and resumes work on a proposed change to its nondiscrimination ordinances that apparently will discriminate against all who take the Bible at its word and follow it.
That’s because the change creates a penalty for those who ever exhibit a “bias,” which clearly could include adopting the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality, with a permanent ban on participation in city government, business or employment.
Opponents of the plan, which would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the nondiscrimination ordinances, charge it is a violation of constitutional Article VI, paragraph 3, which states, “[N]o religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
The opponents explain that the ordinance would bar anyone from office who has “demonstrated a bias” against someone based on categories that include “sexual orientation.”
The proposal, however, does not define “bias,” which, according to local church leaders, could mean someone who declares homosexual behavior is sinful.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I don’t know if this is the right place to leave this link or the comments,, but here goes. this link concerns what I presume to be a state owned company discriminating against veterans and then ‘going after’ anyone who spills ‘the beans’.
So, the thought has occurred to me, if you’re white, if you’re conservative, Christian, patriotic, conscientious, loyal, hard working, law abiding, ambitious, any three or four of the above then you are GUILTY.
Guilty what of ? Well, being successful, and being white ISN’T the main factor, or even any factor really, it just makes you easy to identify. They hate successful black hispanic, asian people too, unless of course they happen to be sports, music, tv, film stars, then you’re worth every penny.
They KNOW what makes you successful, that playing by the rules, being polite, decent, fair with each other, respecting each others property, person, dignity, working hard for a fair reward, as I say whiteness doesn’t really enter into it, apart from culturally.
But they can never be like that, don’t want to be, but they hate you for being that way – NOT because you are any better off financially – quite often ‘poor’ folks on welfare are often better off income wise than a lot of ‘conservative’ folks.
No they don’t really hate you for being white, they hate you for being happy, safe, contented, AND for showing their shortcomings in such sharp relief.
They just want to rip you down to their level. Thats what socialism is all about.
I’m sorry Baron, this was meant to be an H/T, but it’s turned into a bit of an essay. Please wipe it if need be
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/24/darrell-issa-reveals-yet-another-potential-obama-administration-scandal-thats-against-the-law/
Anyway theres the link, and the comment I was going to make was
If you ARE, white, Christian, conservative, conscientious, hard working, law abiding (white not being a pre cursor for all the rest), at what stage do you start asking ‘What’s in it for me?’
‘He went out and acquired the proper “license” for his rabbit, but he never dreamed that eventually he would also have to submit a 32 page “disaster plan” for the same rabbit. This is a guy that does not make a lot of money. He mostly does shows for kids at schools and at libraries…’
The whole concept is bizarre, but the fact that he “does not make a lot of money [and] mostly does shoes for kids at schools and at libraries” is irrelevant. There is no logical reason for either a license or a disaster plan and the state bureaucracy is way out of line.
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