Despite the votes against the Syrian war in the UN Security Council and the British Parliament, French President François Hollande says that he will stand staunchly with President Obama in his determination to unseat President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry presented the administration’s evidence for the Syrian government’s complicity in the recent chemical attack, and promised that Syria would not be another Iraq.
In other news, the latest statistics indicate that 57% of babies born in London have mothers who were born abroad.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, KGS, Kitman, 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.
The Global Financial Death Spiral?, Part 2
Part II — China, Currency Wars and the U.S. Dollar
“For the first time in human history, the entire global economy relies on a paper currency — the U.S. dollar — which is not linked or backed up by any reserve commodity (such as gold). Around the world, roughly 60% of all bank reserves are U.S. dollars… Its standing as the world’s reserve currency permits America’s leaders to do what no other country in the world can do: legally print money to repay debts. If confidence in the dollar were to fail, what on Earth could be used to stop the panic? There are no reserves.” — -Porter Stansberry S&A Digest, June 1, 2013
The world is increasingly unstable economically. Europe is technically bankrupt and can never repay the huge debts it is accumulating except by currency devaluation (i.e. inflation or hyperinflation), which in turn, can have a domino effect on the United States (U.S.). However, no nation threatens the U.S. as greatly as China. Even while China reels from its own debt problems, it is systematically attacking the U.S. through a currency war and undermining the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Very few people understand that if China is successful, it will instantaneously make the U.S. dollar worthles.
[…]
Without even putting up a fight in 2012, Washington, D.C. gave China access to some of the most sensitive financial intelligence our country possesses. The White House and Congress also didn’t raise a finger in protest when the Fed permitted three of China’s largest banks to open branches in the U.S. Warns Rickards: “That gives them access to the Federal Reserve’s money transfer system — Fed Wire. It’s critical to running America’s finances. China is in our network, in the plumbing. And it’s much easier to attack an adversary from the inside than the outside. Especially, when your Russian ally is buying up U.S. tech companies with their Sovereign Wealth Fund. Remember, China is already suspected of attacking our financial infrastructure earlier this year.”
[Comment: A MUST READ series of articles.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Child Taken Because Dad Read Gun Magazine
Government-run gun confiscation kickback program exposed
Reading a hunting magazine in New York may lead your doctor to consider you a threat.
In a series of events, which amplify the fallacy of the “see something, say something” snitch campaign, Ulster County resident Damir Juric’s visit to the hospital destroyed his life.
In a YouTube interview, Juric said he was given a hunting magazine to read while at the hospital.
Juric said, “The magazine had a property of Benedictine Hospital sticker on it.” According to Juric, when a physician saw this, he immediately considered him a threat, which subsequently led him to lose his daughter, reputation, employment and safety.
Since Juric’s nightmare began, the New York Supreme Court has ruled that the physician in his case had no evidence and breached confidentiality. Although the State of New York’s Children and Family Services has cleared Juric as of 2012, the Ulster Family Court has thus far refused to reverse the order which would clear Juric’s name and allow him to see his daughter. They instead issued a warrant for his arrest for unpaid child support.
An embattled Juric recently told Infowars, “They have drained me of everything, I didn’t think this could happen in America.”…
The doctors reportedly get a bonus of $3,000 per veteran that gives up their guns voluntarily or involuntarily.
If a veteran lives in an “all-white” area, he is automatically considered a “white separatist.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Desperation Sinks in as Man Robs Bank for $1 in Bid to Receive Health Care in Prison
(NaturalNews) No matter how much “assistance” taxpayers provide, there is always going to be a segment of the population that is beyond help. A case in point recently occurred in Oregon.
According to Oregon Live, a 50-year-old homeless man recently walked into a bank, held it up for a single dollar, then sat down and waited for police to show up.
The suspect, Timothy Deal Alsip, was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies without incident. The report said he was “booked into the Clackamas County Jail on suspicion of second-degree robbery with bail set at $250,000.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
George Zimmerman’s Wife Says She’s Going to Have to “Think About” Whether She Stays Married to Him.
Shelli Zimmerman made the comments to ABC on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge for lying during a bail hearing following her husband’s arrest for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012.
She says the couple lived in hiding while awaiting his trial.
“We have pretty much lived like gypsies for the past year and a half. We’ve lived in a 20-foot trailer in the woods, scared every night that someone would go and find us and that it would be horrific,” she said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Many More Nidal Hasans in Our Ranks?
By Michelle Malkin
A military jury sentenced unrepentant Fort Hood jihadist Nidal Hasan to death on Wednesday. But if another murderous Muslim soldier’s case is any indication, Hasan may be sitting in the catbird seat for years to come. And our men and women in uniform will remain endangered by Islamic vigilantes in their own ranks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IRS Continues to Hound Tea Party Patriots
The initial firestorm surrounding the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups may have subsided, but tea party leaders say the situation has only become worse and may lead to more lawsuits against the embattled agency.
New documents show the depth of information the IRS is seeking from Tea Party Patriots, a leading conservative group that first applied for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status in late 2010 and one of many organizations singled out for extra scrutiny by the Obama administration.
An IRS letter sent to the group last week and obtained by The Washington Times contains a laundry list of requests related to virtually all the group’s activities, including its involvement in the 2012 election cycle and its get-out-the-vote efforts, fundraising activities, all radio and TV advertising, and other information.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Attacks on the U.S. Constitution are coming from all sides. The New York Times opened its op-ed page to several liberal professors of government: one calls our Constitution “imbecilic,” another claims it contains “archaic” and “evil provisions,” and a third urges us to “rewrite the Second Amendment.”
Out of exasperation with the flouting of the Constitution by Barack Obama and his acolytes, and the way Congress is letting them get by with these violations, several conservative authors and pundits are promoting the calling of a national convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. They believe a series of amendments can put our country on a wiser path.
The authority for such a procedure is Article V of our Constitution, so they are calling their plan of action an Article V convention. However, they are fooling themselves when they suggest that Article V creates a path to bypass Congress with a “convention of states.”
The only power the states have under Article V is the opportunity to submit an “application” (petition) humbly beseeching Congress to call a convention.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery Priest in Missouri Rescue Comes Forward
The mysterious Missouri priest who gave anointing to a woman in her wrecked car near Center, Mo. has been identified as Father Patrick Dowling, of the Diocese of Jefferson City.
“I thank God and the amazingly competent rescue workers,” Fr. Dowling stated today in a comment on CNA’s original article on the Aug. 4 incident.
“I thank them for making me welcome in such a highly charged situation and allowing me to minister as a priest.”
Katie Lentz was trapped in her older-model Mercedes, which had been struck by another vehicle which passed into her lane. That car’s driver has been charged with DWI.
Rescue workers spent an hour trying to get Lentz out of her car, but the solid materials of its construction were dulling the fire department’s emergency equipment.
Though the highway was blocked off, “I did not leave with the other cars,” Fr. Dowling commented. He parked as close as he could, “and walked the remaining 150 yards. I asked the Sheriff if a priest might be needed … on checking, he permitted me to approach.”
“When the young lady asked that I pray her leg stop hurting, I did so. She asked me to pray aloud and I did briefly … the rescue workers needed space, and would not have appreciated distraction. I stepped to one side and said my rosary silently until the lady was taken from the car.”
[…]
Once Lentz was removed from her vehicle, he explained, “I then shook hands with the Sheriff, and thanked him, as I left. I have to admire the calmness of everybody involved.”
He affirmed that it was in the normal duties of a priest, “except that there was something extraordinary it sounds like, in the sequence of events that coincided in time with the Anointing.”
“You must remember, there were many people praying there, many, many people … and they were all praying obviously for healing and for her safety.”
“I was probably part of the answer to their prayers, I came by and Anointed and absolved, (but) I didn’t say another word … I did not say anything like the machinery would begin to work or they would succeed in getting her out of the car.”
“That did not come from my lips, though two people heard it.”
Fr. Dowling was driving by Center while on his way from having said Mass in Ewing. A native of Ireland, Fr. Dowling was ordained a priest for the Jefferson City diocese in 1982. He has served at several parishes in the diocese, as well as its two mission parishes in Peru.
Fr. Dowling currently serves in prison ministry and serves the Spanish-speaking population of the Diocese of Jefferson City.
| [Return to headlines] |
NSA Paying U.S. Companies for Access to Communications Networks
The National Security Agency is paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year to U.S. companies for clandestine access to their communications networks, filtering vast traffic flows for foreign targets in a process that also sweeps in large volumes of American telephone calls, e-mails and instant messages.
The bulk of the spending, detailed in a multi-volume intelligence budget obtained by The Washington Post, goes to participants in a Corporate Partner Access Project for major U.S. telecommunications providers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Records Show Vet Denied Right to Buy Gun Over 1971 Pot Charge Was Never Convicted
Ron Kelly didn’t do it, even if he thought he did.
Kelly, who lives in Tomball, was outraged a few months ago when he failed a computerized background check required to buy a gun over a minor pot charge from 1971.
At the time of the rejection, he insisted that he’d been convicted of a misdemeanor, not a felony, and there was no justification for denying a right that he defended with a 20-year career in the Army.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Funds Next Generation of Liberal Journalism
Special Report: Columbia University
Columbia University helps define the news business. Its School of Journalism is perhaps the foremost institution of its kind in the United States, and its alumni fill the ranks of news organizations. It is also home to the Pulitzer Prize — the top award in the industry. Each May, it graduates a new class and sends a fresh crop of young editors, writers and producers into the field.
Unfortunately, Columbia’s journalism program is not committed to honest journalism. Instead it delivers a one-sided education that celebrates left-wing policies and is overwhelmingly run by liberal journalists, most of whom work for liberal news outlets in addition to their jobs at the school. Sixty-eight percent of the full-time faculty at Columbia University School of Journalism write for explicitly left-wing news outlets. Many of the adjunct faculty and guest lecturers also work for these operations…
Ties to Terror-Friendly Al Jazeera: Al Jazeera English was awarded more than just the Columbia Award, the highest honor that Columbia could give. It was also granted a fellowship, and allowed to host its show, “Empire,” with a guest panel of full-time Columbia University School of Journalism professors. Al Jazeera employees work as adjunct faculty and guest lecturers, and the journalism school also listed Al Jazeera English and Current TV (which has been bought by Al Jazeera) as potential vendors at its upcoming jobs fair for 2013. Both were in attendance for the 2012 jobs fair. This is the same “news” organization that, in 2008, threw a birthday party for a Lebanese terrorist who had previously killed a police officer, a civilian and a 4-year-old girl.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The FBI and the Muslim Brotherhood
Recall that in 2012, the FBI eliminated 876 pages and 392 presentations from its counterterrorism training manuals. At the time,FBI spokesman Christopher Allen said that the Bureau found some of the material to be inaccurate, too broad or, in some cases, offensive, because it allegedly characterized Muslims as prone to violence and/or terrorism. Four criteria were used in the purge, including the politically incorrect metrics of “poor taste” and “stereotyping.” Former Congressman Allen West (R-FL) made a stir at the time for characterizing the purge as “cultural suicide” that was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood and its associated groups.
Unfortunately, West was exactly right. On February 16, 2012 the Washington Post revealed that the FBI met with a coalition of Muslim groups eight days earlier to consider a proposal that “a coalition of Muslim and interfaith groups … establish a committee of experts to review materials used in FBI anti-terrorism training.” Those meeting with Mueller included the Muslim Brotherhood front groups the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), despite its listing by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-funding trial, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Young Swedish Muslim Inspired by Wallenberg
Siavosh Derakhti, a young Muslim from Malmö who has emerged as a leading figure in the fight against anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Sweden, picked up the first-ever Raoul Wallenberg Prize on Tuesday, making him our choice for Swede of the Week.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
German Children Kidnapped for Crime of Parent’s Homeschooling Them
German Homeschooling ban upheld since Hitler’s rule
A German family who homeschools their children were beginning their daily lesson on Thursday when police armed with a battering ram came into their home, kidnapping all four children, reported WND.
According to a report by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the family had been disputing the “World War II-era requirement that all children submit to the indoctrination programs in the nation’s public schools.”
Reports say no claims of mistreatment were made, however observers say the incident was “brutal and vicious.”
A group of German police, social workers and special agents forcibly removed the children from the home and refused to tell the parents where they were being taken. “Officials ominously promised the parents that they would not be seeing their children anytime soon,” reported the HSLDA.
The father, Dirk Wunderlich, said when he peered through a side window of the home, he saw “…many people, police and special agents, all armed. They told me they wanted to come in to speak with me. I tried to ask questions, but within seconds, three police officers brought a battering ram and were about to break the door in, so I opened it.”…
In 2008 the US government failed to help the German Romeike family who fled to the US in an attempt to escape persecution for homeschooling their five children. A verdict reached by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals supported the Obama administration’s opinion that “parents have no right to determine how and what their children are taught.”…
According to WND, “HSLDA has warned that the behavior of German authorities is a foreshadowing of what American parents should expect if the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child ever is ratified in the U.S. Its concerns are detailed at the website Parental Rights.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Judges Call Berlusconi ‘Creator’ Of Tax-Dodging System
Justification of Mediaset conviction released
(ANSA) — Rome, August 29 — Italian supreme Cassation Court judges called media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi the “creator” of a system for manipulating media rights in their justification, released Thursday, for upholding the ex-premier’s conviction for tax fraud in early August.
The definitive conviction has deeply divided Italy’s unprecedented right-left government this month, threatening to scupper the cabinet after just four months in office if the media magnate is stripped of his Senate seat. Berlusconi was the “creator of the mechanism for twisting (film) rights, that over a distance of years continued to produce (illegal) effects, reducing taxes for the companies that he headed in many ways,” the judges wrote.
Berlusconi was convicted of manipulating the purchase of film rights for the television broadcaster Mediaset, which is part of a multi-billion-euro media empire controlled by the centre-right leader’s family.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax Police Arrest Man Living in Luxury, Claimed Poverty
Expensive holidays, fancy cars catch up with evader
(ANSA) — Savona, August 26 — A man who claimed for years to be broke, yet actually owned luxury cars and took expensive vacations, has been nabbed by Italian tax authorities.
The 58-year-old man, who lived for 40 years in Italy, tried his best to appear destitute, putting his penthouse apartment in his ex-wife’s name, another in his son’s name, and registered his BMW as belonging to a friend — all to try to avoid attention from tax authorities, they said Monday.
He also worked as an engineering consultant to large firms, earning a high salary that he tried to conceal, they added.
He stands accused of false billing as well as tax evasion.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Financial Times Slams ‘Berlusconi’s Victory on Property Tax’
IMU reform ‘buys time’ for govt, but a ‘bad deal’ overall
(ANSA) — Rome, August 30 — British daily The Financial Times on Friday slammed a government agreement in Italy this week to cancel a controversial property tax known as IMU, calling the “bad deal” an effort to buy time for the fragile left-right coalition of Premier Enrico Letta by agreeing to demands from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi. “It marks the triumph of short-term politics over Italy’s longer-term interests,” said the editorial. The deal forged Wednesday, after months of partisan bickering, put an end to threats from Berlusconi to pull the support of his center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party from the government and force snap elections. Now the government faces an estimated three-billion-euro revenue gap as a result, and a pledge to cut the budget deficit to less than 3% is at risk, as the European Union’s announcement it was studying the deal indicated Thursday. “While (Berlusconi) may claim victory against rivals, Italy is once again the loser,” said the Financial Times.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope ‘Set to Sack Bertone’ To Mark New Era
Vatican Governorate also set to change
(By Kate Carlisle) (ANSA) — Vatican City, August 30 — Rumbles of changes in the Vatican were heard on Friday when Italian daily Corriere della Sera said that Pope Francis is set to replace the Holy See’s powerful Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone. Bertone will be replaced by archbishop Pietro Parolin who is currently the Holy See’s representative in Venezuela. The South American pope’s official announcement will come on Saturday, the paper said.
Bertone will remain president of the Commission of Cardinals until December when a progress report by the Council of Europe’s MONEYVAL Committee on anti-money-laundering procedures will be issued for the Vatican Bank, formally called the Institute of Religious Works (IOR).
Bertone, who was appointed secretary of state during Benedict XVI’s papacy, is said to have been a divisive figure within the Vatican and was widely seen as the target of the so-called ‘Vatileaks’ campaign involving confidential Church documents leaked to the press by the pope’s butler last year.
Other changes were confirmed when the pope named a new head of the Vatican Governorate, the body that exercises the pontiff’s executive authority over the city state.
Father Fernando Vergez Alzaga of the Legionaries of Christ congregation takes over from Msgr Giuseppe Sciacca, recently named adjunct secretary of the Holy See’s top court.
Father Vergez Alzaga will keep his existing post as head of Vatican City telecommunications.
Meanwhile, the pope remembered two deceased cardinals on Friday.
In a telegram to Archbishop Telesphore George Mpundu of Lusaka, the pope said that he was “saddened” after the death of Cardinal Medardo Joseph Mazombwe, archbishop emeritus of Lusaka and Zambia’s first cardinal. Francis praised Mazombwe’s “unfailing commitment to the spread of the Gospel in Africa and his tireless efforts on behalf of the poor”.
Mazombwe died overnight Thursday following a long battle with cancer.
Francis applauded the establishment of a foundation honoring Jesuit cardinal Carlo Maria Martini is an “act of justice”. “Martini was a father for all of the Church. Even for us at the ‘end of the world’ who studied his texts,” the Argentine pope said.
Martini was archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002.
The foundation, created by the Italian Province of the Society of Jesus, in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Milan, was established “to honour the memory of this eminent cardinal and scholar and to promote the study both of his life and of his works,” a release from the foundation said.
“It also intends to keep alive the spirit that animated his activities and which favoured the experience and knowledge of the word of God within the context of contemporary culture”.
Francis remembered Martini, who died in 2012, as a “prophet and man of judgement and peace”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rings Producer Plans Norway Viking Epic
The producer behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy wants to shoot a $100m Viking blockbuster in Norway, saying he is drawn by the “authentic landscape” and the expert knowledge local historians have about the Viking era.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seamus Heaney: Nobel Prize-Winning Irish Poet, Dies at 74
Seamus Heaney, a widely celebrated Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, died at a hospital in Dublin on Friday after a short illness, according to a statement issued on behalf of his family. He was 74.
Mr. Heaney, who was born in Northern Ireland but moved to Dublin in his later years, is recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century.
He is survived by his wife, Marie, and his children, Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann.
| [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Healthcare Assistants Jailed for Cruelty
Two healthcare assistants have been jailed for cruelty after slapping elderly patients and torturing one pensioner by holding a sheet over her and telling her she was dead
One victim said she was left suicidal after being subjected to abuse by the workers employed by Whipps Cross Hospital, in north east London, which was recently issued with formal warnings over uncaring staff and filthy surroundings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arms: Morocco and Algeria Among Top 12 Buyers Worldwide
Rabat’s mega deal with Raytheon; Algiers shops in Moscow, Berlin
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, AUGUST 27 — The US and Morocco recently signed a 12-billion-dollar arms contract, Moroccan Arab-language daily Al Massae reported Tuesday.
The deal was inked under bilateral military cooperation accords on “maritime security and fighting illegal maritime trafficking”. US defense contractor Raytheon has agreed to deliver last-generation systems, train personnel, and organize joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean.
In spite of its economic difficulties Morocco has been steadily building up its military capability and is now the 12th arms importer worldwide, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) annual report. Between 2008 and 2012, Morocco bought 24 F16 C fighter jets from the US, 27 Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter jets from France, three Sigma class corvettes from Holland, and 57 90-2 tanks from China. This means Morocco’s arms buying has multiplied by 1,460 times in that period, according to SIPRI.
Neighboring Algeria’s weapons acquisitions jumped by 277 times in comparison, moving from 22nd world arms importer in 2011 to 6th this year, SIPRI data showed. On its shopping list: Russian Sukhoi fighter jets, plus two submarines and two warships from Germany.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Pro-Democracy Activists ‘Caught Between Two Lions’
April 6 movement reorganizing on democracy, reform agenda
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Stuck between an army-nominated interim government and the dethroned Muslim Brotherhood, the April 6 movement that led the charge to oust both Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi is reorganizing ahead of the next developments on the Egyptian political scene.
“Democracy is still our priority. The economic crisis is creating hardship and we are between two lions, the regime on one side and the Muslim Brotherhood on the other,” an April 6 organizer who wishes to remain anonymous told ANSAmed. “What can we do? Take to the streets and get shot from both sides?” April 6 at the last minute canceled a rally last Friday to protest Mubarak’s release from prison into house arrest.
“We didn’t want to become the excuse for another bloodbath,” the organizer said, adding no rallies are in the planning for now.
“Mubarak’s release has no impact: no one wants him and his people back in power. The Egyptian people would not accept that,” said the April 6 spokesperson in charge of foreign media, Amal Sharaf, a long-time member of the movement that took its name from an April 6, 2008, general strike. What began as a labor strike in the Nile Delta industrial city of El-Mahalla El-Kubra,turned into an uprising against Mubarak’s re-election. Thanks to activists organizing via Facebook, the April 6 movement became a “turning point” in Egyptian politics. The movement was repressed in May 2008, with many of its leaders, such as founding member Ahmed Maher, repeatedly ending up behind bars. Four days ago, just as Mubarak was spending his first day under house arrest in a military hospital in central Cairo, the country’s attorney general opened an investigation into two April 6 leaders: Israa Abdel Fatah, a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and Asmaa Mahfouz, who was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the EU Parliament. The charges are espionage and accepting tens of millions of euros from “foreign countries”.
“They are innocent, nothing will come of it. I believe these charges were brought by former regime components, I don’t think the army has anything to do with it,” Amal Sharaf said.
Right now the movement is of two minds over strategy. On the one hand, some hold with a “third way”, which Maher outlined on August 18, which both condemns the bloody repression of Morsi supporters in Rabaa and Nahda squares and blames the Muslim Brotherhood for creating the conditions for bloodshed, which “could have been avoided through dialogue,” Maher explained.
“This position does not betray the country.” On the other, hardliners accuse Morsi supporters of infiltrating the movement and destroying the gains of the January 25, 2011, uprising against Mubarak, when April 6 and the Muslim Brotherhood joined forces in Tahrir Square to oust the pharaoh.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: How Obama Hugged the Brotherhood to Death
Obama is the real lever for bringing down the Muslim Brotherhood. Linking the Brotherhood to him along a chain that includes Qatar upstream and Hamas downstream, that plugs in the hated CIA and Israel, can destroy the Brotherhood not just organizationally, but politically as a credible alternative.
Reducing the Muslim Brotherhood to a CIA puppet in the eyes of the Muslim world will destroy it so thoroughly that it will become forever irrelevant.
The military and the opposition understood immediately that the only way the overthrow of Morsi could be made palatable to most Egyptians was by portraying it as a fight not merely against the Brotherhood, but against a conspiracy between Washington and the Brotherhood. The Egyptian people might be divided on Morsi, but they could be united against Obama.
Their plan was to hang Obama around the Muslim Brotherhood’s neck.
The Muslim Brotherhood belatedly scrambled to portray the coup as an American-Zionist conspiracy, but it was late to the party. Tahrir Square had already been choked with banners demonizing Kerry, Obama and Anne Patterson for their support of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood had trouble making the case that its downfall was a plot by Obama, when Obama kept insisting that the Brotherhood’s leaders needed to be released and returned to power.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is the US Embassy in Cairo Approving Visas for Muslim Brotherhood Over Coptic Christians?
An Interview with Coptic Christian, Fady Gergis whose story is one of Egyptian Nationalism and Coptic Pride
Over the past several weeks on Sunday afternoons I have dialed into Lisa Benson’s National Security Speaker program broadcast on KKNT AM960 in Phoenix. Periodically, we have heard from several Egyptian voices, moderate Muslims and Copts. One of the latter who stood out from Egyptian callers is Fady Gergis, a dentist who speaks in a perfect American idiom. Last week we posted a picture he had sent of a Muslim Brotherhood mob gathered outside his home in Cairo screaming about Gen. Al Sisi’s military coup and demanding the return of ousted President Morsi to office. Not likely in the wake of violent repression and jailing of protesters and leading Muslim Brotherhood figures.
We had alerted Fady that we would like to interview him following the Washington protests last Friday organized by American Copts. We were able to finally catch up with this courageous young Copt who is also a talented musician who composes and plays Christian music with a band in Egyptian Churches. As he pointed out during our interview, playing Christian music in government facilities is not permitted in Egypt.
Fady at one point in our conversation today discussed something very concerning. How the US Embassy in Cairo treats Muslim Brotherhood visa applicants differently from Christian ones. He illustrated this with two vignettes. A daughter of a friend of his mother’s went to the US Embassy to apply for a visa to attend a program in the US. Next in line to her was a man dressed in Shariah compliant attire, who clearly was Muslim Brotherhood. His English was not very good, while hers was excellent. He leaned over at one point and asked her how he should respond to a question about the space in the application requesting his purpose for applying for his visa. She asked him why are you going to the US? He replied, “to spread Islam, to preach Islam”. She told him then if that is your intended purpose you should write it in the space. He did. His visa application was accepted while hers was rejected…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Announces Closure of Southern Border Regions Over Terrorism Fears
Tunisia’s presidency has announced the closure of its southern regions bordering Algeria and Libya to protect against the threat of terrorism. Presidential spokesman Adnan Mancer said the closure would last a year and could be shortened depending on the situation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Premier Blames Hardline Group for Secular Politician Murders
Tunisi, 27 August (AKI) — (Aki) — The Salafite group Ansar al-Sharia was behind the killings of two prominent secular opposition politicians and several soldiers, Tunisian prime minister Ali Larayedh told reporters on Tuesday.
Tunisia has designated the group a terrorist organisation, he stated.
“We have discovered proof that the Ansar group is responsible for the assassinations of Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi and the attacks at Mount Chaambi,” Larayedh said.
The killings of Belaid in February and Brahmi in July plunged Tunisia into turmoil which political leaders are struggling to resolve.
Police said the two politicians were killed with the same gun.
Ansar al-Sharia is a suspected of committing the violent attacks in the Mount Chaambi area near the Algerian border, including the killing of eight soldiers last month.
The group is considered one of the most radical to have emerged since the ousting of secular autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 in the first popular uprising of the Arab Spring.
Ansar al-Sharia’s leader is Saifallah Benahssine a former Al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan, whose battle name is Abu Iyadh.
He is currently in hiding after an arrest warrant was issued for allegedly inciting an attack on the United States embassy in Tunis in September 2012, which killed four people.
The moderate ruling Islamist Ennahda party — elected after Ben Ali’s overthrow — stands accused by its opponents of failing to rein in radical Islamists in the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Post Still Defending the Muslim Brotherhood
Just two days after hundreds of Egyptian-Americans besieged the Washington, D.C. headquarters of The Washington Post, a Post editorial defended the absurd claim that the Muslim Brotherhood was not involved in the destruction of Christian Churches and attacks on Christians in Egypt.
We posted videos of the demonstration against the Post here and here. The demonstrators started their protest outside the White House and marched to the offices of the paper, chanting that the Post was lying about the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in anti-Christian terrorism.
The Post’s Saturday editorial, “Egypt’s beleaguered Christians,” repeated the false claim, saying, “…as The Post’s Abigail Hauslohner reported this week, there is no evidence that Muslim Brotherhood leaders, most of whom are imprisoned, had any role in organizing last week’s [anti-Christian] attacks.”
But this is not exactly what Hauslohner reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Vote on Syria a Warning, Says Minister Mauro
(AGI) Avellino, Aug 30 — Speaking in Avellino on Friday, Italy’s Defence Minister Mario Mauro said the British parliament’s vote is a warning to everyone to remember how much prudence and attention must be paid at a time when an “explosion” of the Syrian war can set off not only the Middle East, but the whole world. The British parliament’s vote strengthens the reasons of those who understand and are trying to find a political solution, said Mauro.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Obama’s Bread and Circuses
Over the past week, President Barack Obama and his senior advisers have told us that the US is poised to go to war against Syria. In the next few days, the US intends to use its air power and guided missiles to attack Syria in response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons in the outskirts of Damascus last week.
The questions that ought to have been answered before any statements were made by the likes of Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have barely been raised in the public arena. The most important of those questions are: What US interests are at stake in Syria? How should the US go about advancing them? What does Syria’s use of chemical weapons means for the US’s position in the region? How would the planned US military action in Syria impact US deterrent strength, national interests and credibility regionally and worldwide?
Syria is not an easy case. Thirty months into the war there, it is clear that the good guys, such as they are, are not in a position to win. Syria is controlled by Iran and its war is being directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and by Hezbollah. And arrayed against them are rebel forces dominated by al-Qaida…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Behind Syrian Chemical Weapons Claims Are Aiding Terrorists
The “evidence” upon which the West is propping up its narrative of the Syrian government using chemical weapons against large numbers of civilians hinges so far entirely on claims made by “Doctors Without Borders.”
In an interview with NPR, Doctors Without Borders’ Stephen Cornish revealed the nature of his organization’s involvement in the Syrian conflict,
“And these structures, we’ve tried to outfit them as best as we can with enough modern technology and with full medical teams. They originally were dealing mainly with COMBATTANT injuries and people who were — civilians who were directly affected by the conflict”.
In other words, the Wall Street-funded organization is providing support for militants armed and funded by the West and its regional allies, most of whom are revealed to be foreign fighters, affiliated with or directly belonging to Al Qaeda and its defacto political wing, the Muslim Brotherhood. This so-called “international aid” organization is in actuality yet another cog in the covert military machine being turned against Syria and serves the role as a medical battalion.
A similar routine was used in Libya where Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International spent their legitimacy attempting to create a pretext for Western military intervention there.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
France Says British Vote Does Not Change Its Will to Act Over Syria
PARIS (Reuters) — French President Francois Hollande said a British parliamentary vote against taking military action in Syria would not affect France’s will to act to punish Bashar al-Assad’s government for a chemical weapons attack on civilians.
Hollande told the daily Le Monde in an interview that he still supported taking firm punitive action over an attack he said had caused irreparable harm to the Syrian people, and said he would work closely with France’s allies.
Diplomatic sources said that while Britain’s absence from any intervention was a setback and could add to reservations among the French public about strikes, Hollande may now feel he has an even stronger duty to carry through on a promise to punish the perpetrators of the poison gas attack.
“The chemical massacre in Damascus cannot and must not go unpunished. Otherwise we’d run the risk of an escalation that would trivialize the use of these arms and put other countries at risk,” Hollande told Le Monde.
Asked if France could take action without Britain, he replied: “Yes. Each country is sovereign to participate or not in an operation. That is valid for Britain as it is for France.”
The British parliamentary defeat of a government motion on Syria has called into question Britain’s traditional role as Washington’s most reliable military ally and complicated U.S.-led efforts to punish Damascus for the attack.
Hollande is not constrained by the need for parliamentary approval of any move to intervene and could act, if he chose, before a French parliamentary debate on Syria set for Wednesday.
Hollande — who has not spoken to British Prime Minister David Cameron since Thursday’s vote but will talk on Friday to U.S. President Barack Obama — told Le Monde he would not take a decision to act unless the conditions justified it.
“All the options are on the table. France wants action that is in proportion and firm against the Damascus regime,” he said.
“There are few countries that have the capacity to inflict a sanction by the appropriate means. France is one of them. We are ready. We will decide our position in close liaison with our allies.”…
| [Return to headlines] |
Germany Says No to Military Action Against Syria
(AGI) Berlin, Aug 31 — Germany will not take part in any military strike against Syria, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung. He said that the country had not been asked to take part and had not discussed the issue.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Lays Out Evidence of Chemical Attack by Syria
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday there is “clear” and “compelling” evidence that the government of President Bashar al-Assad used poison gas against its citizens, as the Obama administration released an unclassified intelligence report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“Read for yourselves the evidence from thousands of sources,” Mr. Kerry said. “This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people.”
Mr. Kerry said that more than 1,400 people were killed in the chemical attack, including more than 400 children.
| [Return to headlines] |
More Danish Aid Heading to Syria
Denmark has contributed 424 million kroner since 2012, and the development minister vows that more is on the way to assist refugees
Syrian refugees can look forward to more Danish aid as the Development Ministry prepares for a considerable increase in humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Will Not Take Part in Syria Attack, Says Rasmussen
(AGI) Copenhagen — NATO head Rasmussen said Assad demands an international response, which NATO will not be part of ..
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Laments UN Security Council ‘Incapacity to Act’
(AGI) Washington — President Obama on Friday criticised Security Council partners for not espousing U.S. calls to act on Syria .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Persistent Rumours Suggest Hagia Sophia Will be Turned Into a Mosque
Two other churches in Nicaea and Trebizond that served as museums have already been converted into mosques. With Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as the symbol of Ottoman conquest, Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman plans need such a symbol to cover up Turkey’s economic and social crises. For Bartholomew I, Hagia Sophia could only reopen to worship as a Christian church.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) — Increasingly, rumours are circulating about the future transformation of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia into a mosque. This is worrisome because two other temples, also dedicated to Saint Sophia, were recently transformed from museums into mosques. The two churches in question are Hagia Sophia in Nicaea (Iznik), where the first ecumenical council was held, and Hagia Sophia in Trebizond (Trabzon).
For the record, with the fall of Constantinople (1453), all of the city’s churches were converted into mosques, but with the advent of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the most important monuments were turned into museums.
Skylife, the free magazine handed out on the planes of Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s national carrier, gives further credence to the rumours about the Hagia Sophia mosque.
As an important platform to showcase the AKP government’s success to the world, the magazine recently published a long article in English and Turkish to get people accustomed to an already in its planning phase.
On the cover, the aim of this idea is clearly spelled out, with an image of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia described as the ‘Mosque of the Sultans’.
The article emphasises the transformation of the cathedral into a mosque (in 1453) and its subsequent history. The long history of the church before the fall of Constantinople is largely ignored.
By carefully reading the article, one gets the idea that the main cathedral of Orthodox Christianity is the highest symbol of Constantinople’s conquest by the Ottomans and a kind of reference point for the sultans. The article seeks to show that Sophia reached its peak, glory and splendour only after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
In the same article, Prof Semavi Eyice notes that Hagia Sophia’s survival was due to Sinan, a 16th century Christian architect who converted to Islam under the Ottomans’ janissary policy.
For his part, Prof Ahmet Akgunduz points out that Sophia is the living memory of Mehmet the Conqueror, and therefore must be restored as soon as possible to “its” spirituality, that of a mosque.
From a certain point of view, these rumours and views are not surprising, given how things have evolved in Turkey under the AKP party and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It is generally agreed that an attempt is being made to polarise Turkish society, extolling the Ottoman past and traditions, to cover up the crisis that is beginning to be felt in this part of the world, characterised by the Turkish lira’s fall vis-à-vis the euro and the dollar, the Syria crisis, and Erdogan’s interventionist policy after the Gezi Park standoff ahead of next year’s election.
Speaking to Turkish newspaper Milliyet on the possible transformation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said that if Saint Sophia could reopen as a place of worship, it should be as a Christian church; otherwise it should remain a museum.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rebels Admit Responsibility for Chemical Weapons Attack
Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted to Associated Press correspondent Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Sculptor in Italy, Disastrous Impact of Intervention
Alnassar, more terrorism and suffering for population,Christians
(By Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 30 — Military intervention in Syria would have ‘a disastrous impact, with an increase in terrorism and armed groups who fight amid people between vendettas and vandalism’, Syrian sculptor and painter Usama Alnassar, who has made Italy his home for years now, told ANSAmed. Intervention, said the artist based in Carrara, Tuscany, ‘would bring suffering to an already war-town population and accelerate the slaughter of Christians and their disappearance from Syria forever. Even at a time when Western strikes against President Bashar al Assad’s forces appear increasingly close, ‘there is no other option than a political accord’.
In his atelier near the marble caves used by Michelangelo, Alnassar organizes exhibits, concerts and international sculpture courses. He often travels abroad for shows.
In the past, as a foreigner living in Italy, he often evoked in his sculptures the identity crisis, the issue of a ‘figure falling apart’ as it relates with a community and is unable to blend in. Now, after two years of civil war in his homeland, other emotions dominate his sculptures. There aren’t only Apollonian and mutilated beauties, or the harmony of bodies joined in love, but also the bodies of women and children forced into rigid tunics resembling straitjackets, or mysterious intertwined Arab and Latin characters like a texture of information and messages ‘incomprehensible, with no sense, like these wars that have none’, said the artist.
The civil war devastating Syria changed his art, as can be seen on his website alnassar.it and the exhibit ‘Corpi silenziosi’ — silent bodies — closing on december 8 in the town of Montemarcello di Ameglia near La Spezia.
Particularly striking is the chubby face of a child, his fixed regard, his body covered in something looking like a straitjacket, a rigid cape with signs and closed with buttons. A halo surrounds his head, recalling eastern sacred icons.
The sculptor’s creations highlight another aspect of his country’s drama — a conflict which divides into two different sides, forcing individuals into a fixed, rigid identity.
‘Western democracy is incompatible with a multi-confessional society like Syria’s’, he said, because the majority’s power would end up imposing on minorities. Although, he acknowledged, the anti-Assad Sunni front is far from monolithic. Now, he warned, the civil war has become for some ‘a conflict between the West and Islam’ and there are signs of a real ‘hunt for Christians’ with many members of the community abducted for extortion or killed for no reason.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Al-Qaeda Vows ‘Volcano of Revenge’ For Chemical Attacks
Beirut, 28 August (AKI) — An Al-Qaeda affiliate on Wednesday threatened to unleash a ‘volcano’ against Syria’ government and military to avenge the suspected poison gas attacks in Damascus last week that killed hundreds of civilians.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant said it would target “the main joints of the regime in imprisoned Damascus,” after meetings with eight Syrian factions.
“Targets include security branches, support and supply points, training centres, and infrastructure,” the message said, cited by the US-based terrorist-tracking website SITE Intelligence.
The United States and its allies are planning a military strike against Syria following the 21 August attack on several Damascus suburbs, in which over 300 people died and thousands were injured.
British prime minister David Cameron announced via Twitter on Wednesday that the UK will put a resolution to the United Nation Security Council later in the day “authorising necessary measures to protect civilians” in Syria.
The Syrian government has strongly denied that it used chemical weapons and claims it has proof that implicates rebel fighters for the attack.
A team of UN weapons inspectors is probing the 21 August attack which may be the worst chemical weapons attack since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988.
Russia, China and Iran have separately warned that a military intervention in Syria would be “disastrous” for the region.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Will Not be a Second Iraq, John Kerry Says
(AGI) Washington, Aug 30 — Syria will not be a repeat of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday. Earlier in the day, Kerry attended UN Security Council meetings with President Barack Obama.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrians in Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack
Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.
Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that it would similarly attack civilians in the Assad regime’s heartland of Latakia on Syria’s western coast, in purported retaliation.
“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”
“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.
A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,” he said.
“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” ‘J’ said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Military Officer on Syria Intervention: “I Can’t Believe the President is Even Considering It”
The Obama administration’s plan to launch a military strike against Syria is being received with serious reservations by many in the U.S. military, which is coping with the scars of two lengthy wars and a rapidly contracting budget, according to current and former officers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Warships Deliver Message: Morsi to be New Syria President [NB: Satire Alert!]
Dear Comrades,
In a special telegram delivered by USSA Navy warships in the Eastern Mediterranean, Comrade Party Chairman Barack Barackovich Obama has issued an ultimatum to President Bashar al-Assad: resign so that the Syrian people can elect Mohammed Morsi as President of the Syrian Arab Republic.
Comrade Obama realized that Mohammed Morsi was the ‘right president for the wrong country’ after the recent protests in Egypt caused the White Fortress to reconsider the situation. In consultation with Saudi Arabia, Comrade Obama decided that President Morsi needs a ‘fresh start’ to begin anew his political career.
Because President Assad is mismanaging the war and allowing chemical agents to be used in his nation, the Party has determined that he has terminated his legitimacy as leader of Syria. Meanwhile, he has also offended the sensibilities of Moslems throughout the “Bedouin’s Paradise” of the Middle East and established himself as a counter-revolutionary force against not only the ‘Arab Spring’ but the ‘American Summer.’
President Morsi is the perfect candidate for Syria, commingling his Islamic Fundamentalism with a firm determination to rule his nation according to the Democratic Socialist principle of ‘One Man, One Vote, One Time.’
Support Morsi as the new President of Syria! Obama will bring a new era of peace in the Middle East through reassigning Arab leaders!
Faithfully submitted to the Collective of the People’s Cube,
Comrade Nomenklatura-climber
Dialectical Progressivism Translator
[See URL, above, for choice of posters to steal from the People’s Cube]
| [Return to headlines] |
War in Syria: Where Are All the Intellectuals?
NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam
Tom Janssen
In the past, writers, philosophers and other western thinkers mobilised to demand their governments act — or not — during international crises. Why are they so silent about Syria, as the conflict escalates and the prospect of military intervention looms? Excerpts.
Hubert Smeets
There was a time that intellectuals around the world formed a united front whenever a global situation required it. The standard procedure was as follows. Two or more thinkers would draft an appeal to the United Nations or some other authority, circulate the text among their fellow intellectuals and then print the final version in the French newspaper Le Monde. This appears to be a thing of the past as far as Syria is concerned.
Two years ago, in June 2011, seven writers and thinkers still took the trouble to urge the Security Council to adopt a resolution which would facilitate intervention in Syria. “It would be tragic and morally unacceptable if this resolution is not discussed or is simply binned under the threat of a veto or blank vote.” Signatories: Umberto Eco, David Grossman, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Amos Oz, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie and Wole Soyinka. All writers and one Nobel prize winner.
Nine months later, almost 50 global personalities tried again, this time in connection with Syria. The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, ex-president Richard von Weizsäcker, the novelists Eco and Grossman, once again, and 40 others wrote that the discord in the international community had given the Assad regime the false idea that “violent reppression is an acceptable way to get things done”.
Since then the silence has been deafening. However, the French are keeping up the pressure. In their country the issue has become subject of an important public debate. The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy is voicing his objections, just as in 2011 when the focus was on Libya, along with his compatriots, André Glucksmann and Bernard Kouchner (a former minister of foreign affairs).
In October last year this trio argued in Le Monde that France and America should take military action to avoid the Syrian rebels adopting an even more anti-western stance. “Enough excuses. Enough cowardice. The democratic future of Syria requires us to respond decisively,” wrote Lévy, Glucksmann, Kouchner and a fourth intellectual in Le Monde.
‘Obscene line of reasoning’
Lévy referred to the Russian and Chinese vetoes as “shameless”
Lévy and Kouchner spoke out again last week. Lévy referred to the Russian and Chinese vetoes as “shameless” on television on the 22th of August. When asked about the assessment that Assad would be succeeded by Islamists, he stated, “Against the backdrop of gassed children, that is an obscene line of reasoning”. On the radio Kouchner said, “We have wasted a lot of time. Although it is now more difficult, we have to do something. Some kind of face-saving gesture”.
Diametrically opposed opinions are also being voiced. For example in France where Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is honorary chairman of the National Front, yesterday sneered at his compatriots who wanted to go to war “from the comfort of their Parisian bistros.”
This approach is derived from the hyper-Realpolitik approach of the American conservative commentator Daniel Pipes (son of the famous historian and Russia expert Richard Pipes). Pipes argues in favour of support for Assad and compares this choice with the allied coalition in the Second World War. As he wrote five months ago, “Stalin was much more of a tyrant than Assad,” but, after 1941, it was “essential to keep German troops involved in the Eastern front” and therefore to support the Soviet Union.
In an article in the right-wing newspaper The Washington Times he dreams of a situation in which “Tehran and the rebels and Ankara fight each other to the point of mutual exhaustion.” Pipes recalls the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), claiming that [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein started the Gulf war and was more brutal. However, [former Iranian Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Khomeini was “ideologically more dangerous and aggressive,” Pipes claims and then proceeds to quote an apocryphal wisecrack by Henry Kissinger. “It is a shame both cannot lose”.
However, this attitude which Lévy regards as “obscene” does not explain why the French philosopher is failing to mobilise so few supporters. The Canadian historian and former politician Michael Ignatieff made an attempt two weeks ago in the Boston Review.
Western Realism
Ignatieff is himself an advocate of intervention. “It is a mess. We need to proceed with care. However, the international community has a huge responsibility to prevent the worst from happening after Assad’s fall”, he said to the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper in March.
However, Ignatieff is able to analyse why risk-avoiding behaviour in the West is now being referred to as “Realism” with a capital “R”. In the Boston Review he compares the Syrian crisis with the crisis in Bosnia two decades ago. According to him, there are two crucial differences.
Intervention requires more than just compassion for the victims
In the 1990s, Russia was on its knees and China’s growth was only just beginning. “Neither of them stood in the way of intervention. The Syrian crisis is now exposing the contours of an entirely different world.” The second difference that is preventing action being taken is equally important. Intervention requires more than just compassion for the victims. It requires “being able to identify with an issue that the democratic electorate in the West can really take to heart”, Ignatieff asserts.
“The Bosnians understood that. They came across as supporters of European values, for example via Mo Sacirbey, their minister of foreign affairs, who had an excellent command of English. Although the bombardment of Sarajevo and the fall of Srebrenica were the reasons for intervention, the ideological foundation had already been laid.”
Translated from the Dutch by Kelly Boom
On the web
Homepage of NRC Handelsblad nl
Rony Brauman in Le Monde fr
Le Monde article fr
Debate
To intervene or not to intervene? The West’s dilemma
“Lively debate over a Syrian intervention,” headlines French daily Le Monde in its edition dated August 30, over an article posing the question of whether “a military intervention against Damascus is justified”. According to Rony Brauman, former head of Doctors Without Borders, “with the use of chemical weapons a level has been reached which requires a reaction”. Brauman, who favours a humanitarian intervention, explains that his stance based on the fact that chemical weapons,
are designed only to create terror while conventional weapons aim, for the most part, to gain strategic positions. The physical suffering is both huge and undetectable. Although it does not change the magnitude of the killing, it represents a qualitative leap in the conduct of the war.
Le Monde notes that “public opinion does not favour intervention” by the military and looks at the doubts expressed in Paris, London and at the United Nations regarding diplomatic strategies. It also says that London has “given up on immediate action,” while French President
François Hollande took advantage of the visit of the President of the Syrian National Coalition, Ahmad Jarba, to [Paris] on August 29 to stress options other than armed intervention in Syria.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Leaker “Outed” as Russian Agent
The media have been given important new information in the case of NSA leaker Edward Snowden and don’t seem to know what to do with it. Snowden has been “outed” by the Russians as their agent.
The Washington Post reports that “Before American fugitive Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow in June — an arrival that Russian officials have said caught them by surprise — he spent several days living at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong, a Moscow newspaper reported Monday.”
In other words, the Russians were in on the deception all along. It was an example of what the old Soviet KGB called “disinformation.” The Russians wanted people to believe that Snowden was a whistleblower desperately searching for a place to go.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Medics Help 300 People Lining Up to See Islamic Relics
MOSCOW, August 30 (RIA Novosti) — About 300 people needed medical attention after standing in a huge line to see Muslim holy relics exhibited in the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, an official said Friday.
An exhibition featuring a hair and a footprint of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, his clothes and a vessel he drank from — along with more items that belonged to his offspring and early followers — opened in Makhachkala on Tuesday.
“People sought medical help because of the heat and a long wait” Thursday, a representative of Dagestan’s Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti. Only one person was hospitalized, and others received help on the spot, the representative said.
The exhibition’s organizers said they expect some 3 million visitors within the first week of the exhibition.
Dagestan is Russia’s most multi-ethnic republic with a predominantly Muslim population of almost 3 million. It is home to some of the oldest Islamic monuments on Russia’s territory, including Russia’s oldest mosque in the southern city of Derbent that dates back to 733.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Most Wanted: Indian Mujahideen Leader Captured
The arrest of Yasin Bhatkal comes less than two weeks after Indian police announced the capture of another highly sought terror suspect.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Kim Jong-Un’s Ex-Girlfriend Reportedly Executed by Firing Squad
The ex-girlfriend of North Korean leader Kim-Jong-un was one of a dozen people reportedly executed by a firing squad last week. The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reports that singer Hyon Song-wol and 11 others had been arrested on August 17 for violating North Korea’s laws against pornography and was executed three days later.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea’s ‘Bright Future’ In Tourism
North Korea is making “big efforts” to develop its tourism sector, with plans to open new flights to the capital Pyongyang and allow tourists to visit “all year round”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gold Miners Set to Go on Strike in South Africa, Escalating Labor Unrest Across Many Sectors
A spokesman for a mineworkers’ union in South Africa says gold miners will go on strike next week after talks with South Africa’s Chamber of Mines collapsed Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Tells Britain to Make it Easier for Jobless Migrants to Find Work
Brussels has demanded that Britain makes it easier for the unemployed from other European Union countries to find jobs here.
The EU Commission said that while some states suffer ‘much higher’ levels of unemployment, the rest of the EU should open their doors and help.
It wants new rules to force the Government to better advise migrants about their rights. They would also make it easier for unions and migrant groups to launch legal action if they think foreign workers are suffering discrimination.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Reform 2013: House Gang Preps Comprehensive Bill for October Push
After years of waiting and several missed deadlines, the House’s bipartisan “Gang of Seven” is ready to push its 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill sometime in October, a Democratic staffer close to the issue has told the International Business Times.
Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez has said earlier this week, while speaking in Republican territory in Virginia, that he’s already signed off on the measure and eager to introduce it. Now we know that all the Democrats within the bipartisan gang remain unified on the agreement and are waiting on their Republican counterparts to sign off on it.
When the Republicans give the go signal, the group will wait for what it believes is the “right bipartisan moment” to introduce the bill, which members believe is in October. By that time they hope Congress will be over the budget fight, with an appropriations bill passed to avert the threat of a government shutdown.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Confirms Plan to Deport African Migrants to Uganda
Interior minister says Israel will set a deadline by which ‘infiltrators’ will have to leave ‘of their own free will’
Israel plans to soon begin deporting migrants from Eritrea and Sudan, who number more than 50,000, back to Africa via Uganda, officials said. Israel regards most of the Africans as illegal visitors in search of jobs, and largely rejects the position of human rights groups that many fled their countries in search of political asylum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Net Migration to UK Increases — Office for National Statistics
Latest figures show “net migration” rose to 176,000 — up from 153,000 people in the year to September 2012…
The increase was driven by a drop in the number of migrants leaving Britain, which fell from 351,000 to 321,000 in the year to December 2012, the ONS found.
Over the same period, the number of immigrants arriving in the country dropped from 566,000 to 497,000, figures showed.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Immigration Nuclear Option: Stopping Deportations Unilaterally
The biggest obstacle facing immigration reform may be not opposition but inertia. Leaders of the House of Representatives have said they plan to act, but with the coming months likely to be consumed by budget drama, immigration could fall by the wayside.
If that happens, advocates of immigration reform have another idea: They’ll push Obama to press the button on the immigration-reform nuclear option.
The option commonly referred to by immigration reformers as “Plan B” would see the president take executive action to prevent undocumented immigrants from being deported — along the lines of the deferred-action program the administration created for “Dreamers” last year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 57 Per Cent of New Babies in London Have Mothers Born Abroad
Almost 60 per cent of all children born in London last year were to mothers from outside the UK, official figures showed today.
More than 77,000 babies — 57.4 per cent of the total — had mothers who were born overseas, a slight increase on 2011 when there were 75,380 babies (56.7 per cent).
This compares to the UK average for 2012 of a quarter of all births — reflecting higher immigration to the capital and higher birth rates among some immigrant communities.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Fun With Infanticide! Video Game Has Players Search for Abortion in TX
If Wendy Davis’ 11-hour filibuster to protect late-term abortion in the Lone Star State wasn’t proof enough of the Texas pro-abortion movement’s desperation, a new video game does the trick. Not Amused
In “Choice: Texas,” designed by Carly Kocurek and Allyson Whipple and currently in development, players hunt for abortion access in Texas via the “choose-your-own-adventure” technique — and confront obstacles such as geography and healthcare.
Gamers live vicariously through characters such as 35-year-old Latrice who, despite a long-time boyfriend, “has never planned to have children, and between her career and family obligations, she feels she has her hands full enough.” Another, 19-year-old Leah bartends as she “save[s] up money and think [s] about what she would like to do.”
Wow! So it’s of like Frodo bearing the Ring to Mordor to save Middle Earth. But the Ring you want to lob into the lava is a baby, and Middle Earth is your personal convenience. How inspiring.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Sex Ed for Kindergartners ‘Is the Right Thing to Do’
The Chicago Public Schools this year are mandating that the district’s kindergarten classes include sex education, fulfilling a proposal President Barack Obama supported in 2003 when he served in the Illinois state senate and later defended when he ran for president in the 2008 election cycle.
At a Planned Parenthood convention at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on July 17, 2007, a teenage girl who said she worked as a sex-education “peer educator” in the D.C. public schools asked then-U.S. Sen. Obama what he would do to encourage the teaching of “medically accurate, age-appropriate, and responsible sex education.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon Bar Ordered to Pay $400,000 to Cross-Dressers
A Portland, Ore., bar owner was ordered to pay $400,000 to a group of cross-dressers who were banned from his club last year, the state labor board said.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries imposed the penalty Thursday against Chris Penner, owner of the Twilight Room Annex, formerly known as the P Club.
Penner told members of a cross-dressing group of transgender men, called the Rose City T-Girls, who met weekly at the P Club, to stop frequenting the bar, the (Portland) Oregonian reported Friday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Transgender Politics vs. The Facts of Life
“The Liberal World Does Not Know for Sure What a Man or Woman Is”
California has just passed a new law saying school districts may not bar transgender students from same-sex settings, like men’s basketball teams or women’s locker rooms (Assembly Bill 1266). Opponents promptly submitted a referendum to overturn the law. But it will take more than the usual political activism to stop the momentum on what some are calling the next major drive for “equality.”
It will take a serious, sustained program of education in both scientific facts and real respect.
Every law has an implicit worldview, a set of assumptions that justifies it. The worldview implicit in the transgender movement is that our physical bodies have no particular value — that our biology is irrelevant to who we are as persons.
Consider the language used. Several states and school districts have passed laws on “transgender discrimination,” and most read something like this (from a 2011 California law): “Gender . . . includes a person’s gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.”
What’s the key word here? Assigned. As though a person’s “sex at birth” were purely arbitrary instead of a scientific, biological fact.
What such language implies is that biological facts do not matter. The law is being used to impose a worldview that denigrates the physical body as inconsequential to personal identity. It is a worldview that drives a wedge between one’s body and one’s sense of self, which exerts a self-alienating, fragmenting effect on the human personality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Revd Dr Alan Clifford’s ‘Homophobic’ Comments Referred to the CPS
You’re at home, enjoying a summery Saturday afternoon with the bees and nasturtiums on the patio, when the doorbell intrudes. You’re greeted by an impeccably courteous, fresh-faced police officer from the Norfolk Constabulary — ‘Dedicated to this neighbourhood’, according to their website — and he’s come to speak to you because there’s been a complaint.
Not, you understand, about the troubling number of burglaries, rising car thefts, incidences of property vandalism or madhouse music accompanying balmy barbeques. No, someone has reported you for sending them two gospel tracts by email, one entitled ‘Christ Can Cure — Good News for Gays’; and the other ‘Jesus Christ — the Saviour we all need’. Some people might have simply deleted them both and directed all further correspondence from you to ‘spam’, but these people got offended. Very offended. The allegation against you is that of ‘homophobic hate’.
The officer politely offers you a choice: you can either admit your guilt there and then, accepting an on-the-spot fine of £90. Or you can contest the allegation, provide a signed statement in your defence, after which it will be for a senior police officer to decide whether or not to refer your case to the Crown Prosecution Service.
It is not clear at this stage upon what basis the police have judged the tracts to be ‘homophobic’. But it is made crystal clear that you may have committed a homophobic crime, having communicated by electronic means something likely to annoy or cause offence. You are the subject of a criminal investigation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australia’s “Q Society” posted an excellent 35 minute long PSA revealing the inner workings of shariah compliance via TRILLION DOLLAR halal certification TAX EXTORTION. It is wrong to assume the halal certification extortion begins and ends at the slaughter house.
As revealed in this excellent PSA many non-meat products like dairy and cosmetics now hold halal certification.
But that’s not all. To transport these halal certified goods, the transport company must pay annual halal certification jizyah tax or risk losing business to one that will pay. Warehouses, distribution centers etc. as well are pursued for halal certification. Quoting the Q Society description:
Nearly all our food is naturally permissible to Muslims and observant Muslims can make food of unknown origin halal by proclaiming ‘bismillah’ over the food before eating.*
What is of concern are the recently invented certification schemes, designed to permeate the supply chain from feeding trough to super market shelves and restaurant kitchens; including many non-food goods and services
According to meat industry groups and research, two thirds of chicken and lamb meat and over half the beef sold in Australia now comes from Halal-certified suppliers. Most dairy products as well as other food and many non-food items are certified to sharia standards, but not always labelled.
Islamic organizations have estimated the value of the global halal certification market at USD $2.3 TRILLION in 2013, growing by 20% per year. No other religious group has imposed a similar tax-like scheme on the general public.
Q Society of Australia will hand out free shopping bags this Saturday 31st August (TODAY)
image of bags
Bag logo:
To find out more, visit:
http://www.qsociety.org.au
http://www.halalchoices.com.au
We all should follow suit with the Q Society to undermine this Trillion dollar shariah extortion tax.
BareNakedIslam provided images of several halal certification symbols to look for :
example 1, 28 halal certification symbols
example 2, 21 more halal certification symbols
18 separate national halal certification symbols
One more halal certification label for French
Also, ZABIHAH is an excellent guide to stores and restaurants that sell halal products.
Turn the tables and utilize this service to defeat shariah creep by exposing any shariah-compliance within your neighborhood market shelves and let these merchants know why their items will not sell to you or anyone you share information about this often hidden ‘halal certification’ jizya tax which everyone should refuse to pay.
Every additional penney of that halal certification tax accelerates further shariah encroachment. We can and must stop it.