Thirty-two Filipino UN peacekeepers on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights escaped from being surrounded by al-Nusra mujahideen by crossing the border into Israel, after Israeli troops opened the border for them. They had been trapped by the terrorists for several days. Forty more Filipinos in a different group remain surrounded by the al-Nusra Front, and a group of Fijian blue helmets has been taken hostage by the mujahideen.
In other news, according to the latest reports, the Islamic State is selling captured Yezidi women in Syria for about $1,000 each.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JP, Mark H, 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.
Greece Looks to Debt Relief in EU-IMF Talks
(ATHENS) — A delegation of senior Greek ministers heads into meetings in Paris with EU-IMF creditors on Tuesday hoping to win a direly-needed new round of debt relief to propel economic recovery.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government expects creditors — the so-called troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — to reward Greece’s recent reform achievements with a concrete pledge to reduce payments on its massive debt.
Despite a major reduction in 2012, Europe’s statistics agency Eurostat estimates the country’s debt in 2013 exceeded 318 billion euros ($420 billion), or 175.1 percent of economic output, up from 304 billion, or 157.2 percent, a year earlier.
Much of the debt is held by European institutions, and Greece says alleviation could come through lower interest rates or longer maturities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A new study confirms what we have suspected for a long time: You have zero influence on U.S. policy –
A startling new political science study concludes that corporate interests and mega wealthy individuals control U.S. policy to such a degree that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
The startling study, titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of Perspectives on Politics and was authored by Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Professor Benjamin Page. An early draft can be found here.
Noted American University Historian Allan J. Lichtman, who highlighted the piece in a Tuesday article published in The Hill, calls Gilens and Page’s research “shattering” and says their scholarship “should be a loud wake-up call to the vast majority of Americans who are bypassed by their government.”
The statistical research looked at public attitudes on nearly 1,800 policy issues and determined that government almost always ignores the opinions of average citizens and adopts the policy preferences of monied business interests when shaping the contours of U.S. laws.
The study’s findings align with recent trends, where corporate elites have aggressively pursued pro-amnesty policies despite the fact that, according to the most recent Reuters poll, 70% of Americans believe illegal immigrants “threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs,” and 63% believe “immigrants place a burden on the economy.”
[…]
[See links at the URL]
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Barack Obama Blames American Terror Fears on Social Media and Nightly News
He came to power as a master of silk-tongued oratory — but now the rhetorical question is, why can’t Barack Obama stop putting his foot in it?
On Thursday he freely admitted to the world’s press that “we don’t have a strategy” to combat the extremist threat in Iraq.
Now the American president has once again triggered raised eyebrows with comments to a Democratic fundraising event in New York in which he appeared to downplay concerns about Iraq and Ukraine.
Drawing comparisons with the global crises of the past, he suggested that “the world has always been messy” and that Americans were only unduly worried now because of Twitter, YouTube and the nightly news.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did CIA Brief US Military on Imminent ISIS Terrorist Bombing Plot on Southern Border?
According to a confidential and highly reliable source, Major General Stephen M. Twitty, Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss Military Reservation in El Paso,Texas, was briefed on Friday, August 29, 2014 by the CIA on a credible threat by ISIS against the US. Based on intelligence from chatter and intercepted radio transmissions, General Twitty was told that a truck bomb or other Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) attack along the US southern border may be imminent.
Further information revealed by Judicial Watch indicates that the attack may emanate from the border city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, across the border from El Paso, where terrorist groups, including ISIS, have been very active. This report flies in the face of Friday’s statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest that “There is no evidence or indication right now that ISIL (ISIS) is actively plotting to attack the United States homeland.”
Washington cross-talk notwithstanding, we have been alerting our readers over the last few months that ISIS has targeted the US and already has agents her. They are escorted by ‘coyotes’ as ‘special customers’ for as much as $50,000 per head. The probability that once here they will attempt to attack American targets is very high.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Florida’s Port Canaveral Has a 35-Year Container Deal With the UAE
A U..S. House Republican has asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to review whether the granting of a 35-year container terminal concession at Florida’s Port Canaveral to United Arab Emirates-based port operator Gulftainer will impact national security.
The deal — in which Gulftainer will spend about $100 million on a new terminal at the Florida port — is the first cargo terminal concession granted to a Middle Eastern company. The deal has hardly received the same level of attention that DP World, based in Dubai, got when it tried to take stakes in six major U.S. ports in early 2006. Despite President George W. Bush’s defense of the proposed deal, the state-owned company scrapped its plans under fierce congressional criticism.
“It is critical that — before this agreement proceed — [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] determines whether a terminal operation agreement with Gulftainer presents any risk or impact to U.S. national security,” Rep. Duncan Hunter wrote to Lew, who heads the committee, in a July 29 letter.
Hunter isn’t asking the federal government to terminate Gulftainer’s contract to spend about $100 million to operate a terminal at the Florida port, said a representative from the California congressman’s Washington, D.C., office. But the congressman, who heads the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, thinks a 30-day review of the deal is needed to determine whether an investigation is justified, Hunter’s office told JOC.com. Port Canaveral spokesman Rosalind Harvey said Gulftainer had already volunteered for a review of the concession and she believes the company has already begun submitting pertinent information to federal authorities.. Gulftainer was not immediately available for comment.
If CFIUS determines that a review is warranted and determines that there is a cause for investigation, then it will undertake a 45-day investigation of the concession. Ultimately, President Obama would decide whether to strike the concession following the results of the committee’s investigation.
Gulftainer’s Port Canaveral project is part of its plan to operate 35 terminals globally by 2020 and increase its annual container handling from 6 million 20-foot-equivalent units to 20 million in slightly more than five years. Terminals operated by Gulftainer are ranked first in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the JOC Group’s 2013Port Productivity Data. The company is controlled by the emirate of Sharjah, one of the emirates within the UAE.
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House Ponies Up $350,000.00 for Lawsuit Against Obama
The House of Representatives has hired Baker & Hostetler, one of America’s largest law firms, to the tune of $500 an hour, but a total not to exceed $350,000, to represent the lower chamber in its lawsuit against President Obama.
In one of its final moves before the August recess, the House voted along partisan lines July 30 to approve a resolution to initiate litigation against the president, accusing him of overreaching his executive authority in regard to unilaterally delaying the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act.
The House Committee on Administration Monday released a contract it approved that disclosed the details of the agreement. David B. Rivkin, partner, is named as the principal attorney for the lawsuit.
“No president is above nor should operate beyond the limits of the Constitution,” Rep. Candice Miller, the committee’s chairman, stated.
“The House of Representatives, using regular order and the powers that the Constitution has provided, calls upon our government’s system of checks and balances and asks the judicial branch to examine the president’s failure to faithfully execute the law. The president must be held accountable, and the House will continue to act in an open and transparent manner to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
The House Committee on Administration Monday released a contract it approved that disclosed the details of the agreement. David B. Rivkin, partner, is named as the principal attorney for the lawsuit.
“No president is above nor should operate beyond the limits of the Constitution,” Rep. Candice Miller, the committee’s chairman, stated. “The House of Representatives, using regular order and the powers that the Constitution has provided, calls upon our government’s system of checks and balances and asks the judicial branch to examine the president’s failure to faithfully execute the law. The president must be held accountable, and the House will continue to act in an open and transparent manner to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
As expected, Democrats are livid, complaining Republicans are wasting U.S. taxpayer money on a lawsuit they believe has questionable legal merit and puts the GOP on a course to impeach Obama.
“House Republicans continue to waste time and taxpayer-dollars on a lawsuit against the President of the United States,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a statement today. “Americans are tired of election-year stunts. They deserve leaders in Washington who will work to build an economy that works for everyone, not line the pockets of wealthy Washington lawyers and other special interests.”
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner declined to comment, although Boehner has been adamant in the past that he does not intend to impeach the president.
“We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans,” Boehner said July 29. “Listen, it’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.
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Slice of Cake From Princess Diana’s Wedding Sells for $1,375
A 33-year-old slice of cake from Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding has sold at auction for $1,375.
The cake, still in its original white and silver presentation box, was sold online Thursday by Nate D. Sanders Auctions of Los Angeles.
With the box was a card stating, “With best wishes from Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince & Princess of Wales.”
Auction house spokesman Sam Heller says the buyer is a private collector.
Although the cake came wrapped in its original wax paper, Heller says it wouldn’t be a good idea to try to eat it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Air Force’s Secretive X-37B Space Plane Passes 600 Days in Orbit
The U.S. Air Force’s mysterious unmanned space plane has winged beyond 600 days in orbit on a classified military mission that seems to have no end.
The X-37B space plane is carrying out the Orbital Test Vehicle-3 (OTV-3) mission, a long-duration cruise that marks the third flight for the unpiloted Air Force spaceflight program.
The Air Force launched the miniature space shuttle into orbit on Dec. 11, 2012 using an expendable Atlas 5 rocket. By the end of Friday (Aug. 29), the space plane had spent 627 days in orbit. That’s one year, eight months, 19 days and counting, to be exact.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Zijad Delic, a Bosnian Canadian imam, likes to tell the story of speaking with a young man who was disillusioned with Canada, vowing he would never take the passport of this godless country.
“Gimme a break,” answered Mr. Delic, who was once controversially banned by the Conservative government but has since built a reputation as a progressive leader. “Canada is more Islamic than any so-called Muslim state.”
“When I look into the so-called Muslim world, nothing is there,” he told the boy. Countries that claim to serve Allah as a rule lack honesty, decency, integrity, good management. But in Canada a Muslim is free to live his faith fully, not as some crooked sheikh believes his distant ancestors did, but as the modern Muslim knows he should.
Islam is Canadian, and Canada is Muslim, he said. “One only complements the other. There is no contradiction.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Facing ‘Greatest Terrorist Threat’ In History
David Cameron warns that Isil have made ‘specific’ threats against Britain as the terror threat level is raised
Britain faces the “greatest and deepest” terror threat in the country’s history, David Cameron warned as he pledged emergency measures to tackle extremists. The UK threat level was raised to “severe” — its second highest — meaning that a terrorist attack is “highly likely” in light of the growing danger from British jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria.
The Prime Minister said that the risk posed by Isil (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) will last for “decades” and raised the prospect of an expanding terrorist nation “on the shores of the Mediterranean”.
He disclosed that Isil had made “specific” threats against the UK and did not rule out military action to tackle the growing problem…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
by Roger Scruton
A story of rampant child abuse—ignored and abetted by the police—is emerging out of the British town of Rotherham. Until now, its scale and scope would be inconceivable in a civilized country. Its details will make your hair stand on end.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Leaders Pick Tusk and Mogherini for Top Posts
EU leaders in Brussels on Saturday picked Polish PM Donald Tusk to be the next EU Council head and Italian FM Federica Mogherini to be the bloc’s next foreign relations chief. Tusk will take up his post on 1 December, while Mogherini will start along with the new European Commission.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Teenagers Planned Suicide Bombing at Lyon Synagogue
Two teenage French girls, arrested last week in a crackdown on citizens who consider traveling to other countries to join “jihad,” were planning to attack a synagogue in Lyon with a suicide bomb, French media revealed Friday.
The two, 15 and 17 years old, were detained and interrogated last week in Venissieux, a suburb of Lyon in southeastern France, and Tarbes, a town in the south, after French authorities uncovered a plan to bomb the Great Synagogue of Lyon. They were charged for conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Two had never met but communicated via social media, the investigation revealed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Tavecchio FIGC Election Shows Lack of Courage’ Says Kyenge
‘Victory will come the day the culture truly rejects racism’
(see previous)(ANSA) — Rimini, August 28 — The election of Carlo Tavecchio to head the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) shows lack of resolve in taking a stand against racism, MEP Cecile Kyenge said Thursday.
Tavecchio’s election was controversial because he commented there are ‘banana-eating’ players in Serie A during his campaign to replace Giancarlo Abete as FIGC chief.
There were calls for him to be disqualified because of it, and former integration minister Kyenge condemned the alleged remark.
“His election shows lack of courage on the part of FIGC and of our country in taking a step forward,” the former minister said.
“The real victory will come when, as a culture, from left to right, we will make no exceptions in condemning such lack of awareness of one’s role,” she added. The FIGC on Monday shelved a probe into Tavecchio’s remark, for which he has apologized, saying “no disciplinary issues” had emerged.
UEFA is investigating Tavecchio’s remark.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sting Offers Visitors Chance to Harvest at His Tuscan Villa
Coldiretti farmer’s group says research shows it reduces stress
(ANSA) — Rome, August 27 — Getting out into nature and working the land is an excellent cure for stress, Coldiretti farmers’ group said in response to singer Sting’s decision to offer guests at his Tuscan villa the chance to pay to harvest grapes and olives there, according to the Telegraph online.
For the price of 262 euros a day, visitors to Il Palagio will be given a short lesson on harvesting and an empty basket which they can fill by picking olives and participating in the annual grape harvest, ending the day by tasting Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” Sangiovese wine at 15.70 euros a glass.
Coldiretti cited several studies that show the positive health benefits of these types of “agri-cures,” including one by the Sage Colleges in New York demonstrating that a bacteria found in agricultural soil produces serotonin, the so-called “good mood” hormone, when injected into lab rats.
The farmers’ group also said that more and more Italian agritourism businesses, which now number beyond 20,000, are beginning to offer new forms of therapy for natural relaxation, from tree-hugging to walking blindfolded with bare feet over grass, a practice known as “earthing”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Indian Heiress to Wed Lavishly in Puglia
Three-day extravaganza, with elephants and 800 guests
(ANSA) — Brindisi, August 25 — Indian iron magnate Pramod Agarwal is throwing his third daughter a lavish three-day wedding in the southern Italian town of Fasano, sources said Monday.
The Bollywood-style extravaganza to take place September 3-6 will feature at least two elephants and 800 guests “representing 20% of Indian GDP between them,” Fasano Mayor Lello Di Bari explained.
Two enormous structures are being built, and local English-speaking girls have been hired to shower the bridal party with flower petals, the mayor explained. Local authorities are beefing up security ahead of possible protests on behalf of Italian marines Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, who are being held in India on possible murder charges and who are both from the Puglia region.
Agarwal is no stranger to Italian weddings. His daughter Vineeta in 2011 tied the knot at the Venice San Clemente Palace Hotel during a 72-hour celebration that took six months of planning and a staff of 500 and featured 50 flower-entwined Murano glass chandeliers, two golden elephant statues, and a blimp.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Poses With Lemon Cream Gelato, Mocking the Economist
Newspaper showed premier with ice cream as economy sinks
(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, August 29 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi posed for the cameras Friday with a cold gelato in hand in a humorous poke at Britian’s The Economist newspaper after it portrayed him aboard a sinking ship holding an ice cream.
“We decided to be ironic and joke about the cover of The Economist,” Renzi said following a crucial cabinet meeting that approved significant judicial and infrastructure reforms.
“The artiganal gelato is really good,” added the premier.
The Economist article focused on the serious problems within the eurozone economy, and depicted European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi bailing out the boat while Renzi stood with France’s Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poland’s Tusk, Italy’s Mogherini Get EU Top Jobs
(BRUSSELS) — European leaders on Saturday named Polish premier Donald Tusk as the next EU president and Italy’s Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini to head the diplomatic service as the bloc faces challenges including the crisis in Ukraine.
The Polish premier, who speaks only a halting English and no French, is the first eastern European to hold such a senior role in the EU and is known as a critic of the Kremlin.
“The suspense is up, the new EU leadership team is complete,” said current EU President Herman Van Rompuy moments after the announcement was made.
He said the new team faced three major challenges: the stagnating European economy, the crisis in Ukraine which was “the gravest threat to continental security since the Cold War,” and Britain’s place in the EU.
Mogherini, Italy’s 41-year-old foreign minister, has been a long favourite to replace Catherine Ashton as head of the EU’s foreign service, hailed by her supporters as a new, younger face for Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Cleric Uses UK as Base to Preach in Support of Violent Islamists
Questions are being asked over the presence of a radical Libyan cleric in Britain preaching in support of Islamists battling the country’s government
A radical foreign cleric was last night accused of using a British based Internet TV channel to encourage Islamist fighters trying to overthrow the government in Libya.
Grand mufti Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ghariani, Libya’s highest spiritual leader, is alleged to be using the UK as a base from which to help orchestrate the takeover of his home country by extremist militias with ideological links to the brutal Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Babies of the Rotherham Child Abuse Girls
Several of Rotherham’s 1,400 child abuse victims had babies after being made pregnant by the men who raped them, The Star can reveal.
But some of the girls who wanted to keep their children had them taken away under care orders — and were never allowed to see them again.
One of those who had a baby was Laura Wilson, aged 17, murdered in 2010 for ‘bringing shame’ on the families of two Pakistani men who’d had sex with her.
She was stabbed and thrown into a canal by Ashtiaq Ashgar, then also 17, when her little girl was just weeks old — after she told Ashgar’s family, and the family of her baby’s father, Ishaq Hussein, 22, about her relationships with them.
Social workers had known for years Laura was at risk from predatory Asian gangs. It is suspected she was targeted by men from the age of 11…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour MPs: Left Ignored Sex Abuse
Young girls who were being sexually abused by Asian men were ignored by officials because of Left-wing political correctness, Labour figures say
A culture of Left-wing political correctness led politicians and officials to ignore the plight of young girls who were being sexually abused by Asian men, Labour figures have warned.
Ann Cryer, an MP from 1997 until 2010, told The Sunday Telegraph how she had feared being called “racist” when, in 2002, she exposed a sex-abuse scandal involving Pakistani men in her constituency of Keighley, West Yorkshire. A “politically correct Left just saw it as racism”, she said.
At the same time, Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, revealed that even now some of his colleagues disapproved of his efforts to uncover child abuse, because some were “obsessing about multiculturalism”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham: The Real Scandal is Much Wider
by Christopher Booker
There will be more tragedies unless politicians face the truth
Barely credible though we have all found the avalanche of revelations about what had been going on in Rotherham for 16 years, they reflect only one part of what has become the most horrifying scandal in modern Britain. As was documented in Easy Meat, a report earlier this year from the Law and Freedom Foundation, similar tragedies have long been unfolding in towns and cities across the land, where, with the full connivance of social workers and the police, the criminal abuse of underage girls, many in state “care”, has been organised by largely Pakistani gangs of men on an industrial scale. It has then been systematically covered up by the very people who have allowed and even encouraged this to happen: council officials, police and politicians.
If this report is right in criticising how blame has too often in the past been ascribed just to “Asians”, it is itself too casual in blaming Islam or even Pakistanis in general. Part of the problem is that many of the culprits are of Pashtun tribal stock from Kashmir, regarded as “trouble” even by many Muslims and Pakistanis…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mother who found 125 names of alleged sex abusers on her young daughter’s mobile phone claims police told her an investigation would breach the girl’s human rights
A mother who found 125 names of potential sex abusers on her daughter’s mobile phone has claimed she was told by police in Rotherham it would be a breach of the girl’s human rights if they investigated.
South Yorkshire Police failed to act despite the girl’s phone containing descriptions of the sexual abuse she had suffered, it is alleged. In another case, a CID officer suggested a 12-year-old girl who had sex with five men was not a victim of abuse because the sex had been “consensual”.
The new details were disclosed by Professor Alexis Jay, the author of this week’s report into the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, in an interview in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph.
Despite the mounting evidence of “blatant” failings by the police and council bosses, nine senior managers at Rotherham council during the 16 years when 1,400 children were abused have gone on to other responsible jobs elsewhere, the Telegraph can disclose. A further seven remain in their posts at the council.
Ged Fitzgerald, the former chief executive of Rotherham Council and now chief executive of Liverpool City Council, faces questioning by his current boss who is “concerned” about Prof Jay’s criticism of unnamed managers at Rotherham…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham Sex Abuse: ‘The Utter Brutality is What Shocked Me Most’
Professor Alexis Jay, the author of the Rotherham sex abuse report, is determined that the young victims should be heard
To begin with, the task in hand was straightforward, businesslike, almost formulaic. Professor Alexis Jay had investigated complex cases of child sexual exploitation before. She knew the form. When Rotherham council called her in to conduct an inquiry into its own troubling record, she had a clear idea of how to “come at” it. Minutes, notes, background reading… the necessary apparatus of research was set in motion.
It was when she started to read the case files and talk to people that her professional detachment was shaken. Something unimaginably evil was unfolding and on a scale that defied belief. Pages and pages of terrible stories from young girls who had been trafficked and raped by gangs of mainly Asian men over many years; of parents at their wits’ end while police and social services looked the other way…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham Sex Abuser Boasts About ‘Living the High Life’ After Release From Jail
Umar Razaq’s victim says she feels like he is “taunting” her since he was released from prison after serving just nine months behind bars for grooming and sexually assaulting a child
One the men jailed as part of the Rotherham sex abuse scandal has boasted on Facebook about “living the high life” after he was released from jail early.
Umar Razaq was sentenced to four years in 2010 for grooming and sexually assaulting a child. However he was released after just nine months after he appealed the length of his sentence and the time he had spent on remand was taken in to account.
Last week he was boasting on Facebook about how he was looking forward to a holiday of lifetime in Pakistan. On the profile, which has since been deleted, he poses in sunglasses. His victim, who was only 12 when she was groomed by Razaq, said she had been left distraught by the posts…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham Police Officers Could Face Action Over Grooming Scandal
THE CHIEF Constable of South Yorkshire Police has revealed officers could face disciplinary action over the Rotherham child exploitation scandal as attempts are intensified to prevent more youngsters falling victim to sexual predators in the town.
Chief Constable David Crompton has raised the prospect of taking action against officers who failed to intervene as teenage girls were abused, though most of those involved are thought to have left the force…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham and the Toxic Legacy of Multiculturalism
by Michael Henderson
At the end of a shameful week it may not be a bad idea for one of those liberal Lefties to offer a mea culpa
The sickening sound we heard from Rotherham this week was that of chickens coming home to roost. The doctrine of multiculturalism has been enforced with such zealotry in Britain, and in the northern town, over the past three decades that we must cast the net far wider than the police and social workers to find all those culpable of fomenting this mass deception. Perhaps we can make a start by looking at what Denis MacShane, the former Labour MP for Rotherham, admitted upon the publication of Professor Jay’s report…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Zara Slammed for Kid’s Top Resembling Nazi Death Camp Garb
Clothing chain apologies, says sweater inspired by Old West
(ANSA) — Aosta, August 27 — Controversy has erupted around a striped sweater for children decorated with a yellow star and sold in the Zara fashion chain, with critics saying it too closely resembles the uniform worn by Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
Debate has swelled in Switzerland, according to media reports, where Jewish groups say that the sweaters are “simply intolerable” because, with what looks like the Star of David, the tops call to mind the striped pajama-type uniforms of the Holocaust.
Zara has apologized and said that the stars were inspired by cowboy movies and the badges of sheriffs in the Old West.
The Spanish clothing chain said it was pulling the sweaters off its shelves, although media reports Wednesday said it was still available for purchase online.
Some media in Israel reported that the sweaters, with navy and white stripes, had for a time been available in outlets there.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Israeli Tribal Dance to Perform in Kalemegdan on September 7
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, 27 AUGUST — Israeli music ensemble Tribal Dance will perform before the Belgrade audience in the Music Pavilion at the Kalemegdan Fortress on September 7.
In their performances, the ensemble combines ancient tribal instruments with modern sounds. Before their concert in Belgrade, the Tribal Dance ensemble will also perform in Novi Sad at the Street Musicians Festival on September 5, the Israeli Embassy in Serbia as the concert organiser announced.
According to the release, the mastermind behind the unique music project Tribal Dance is Israeli composer, producer and percussionist Amir Ya’akobi. Ya’akobi got the inspiration for the music ensemble during his visit to Africa.
The energy of the traditional instruments such as didgeridoo and tom-tom drums, a brilliant female vocal and modern electronic rhythms will make you dance and take you on an unforgettable music journey, the release states.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Big Lie: ‘We Have No Strategy’
By Michael Ledeen
They DO have a strategy, but they prefer to appear indecisive. That’s because the strategy would likely provoke even greater criticism than the false confession of endless dithering.
The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah’s rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign.
Ever since, President Obama’s quest for an alliance with Iran has been conducted through at least four channels: Iraq, Switzerland (the official U.S. representative to Tehran), Oman and a variety of American intermediaries, the most notable of whom is probably Valerie Jarrett, his closest adviser. In recent months, Middle Eastern leaders reported personal visits from Ms. Jarrett, who briefed them on her efforts to manage the Iranian relationship. This was confirmed to me by a former high-ranking American official who says he was so informed by several Middle Eastern leaders.
The central theme in Obama’s outreach to Iran is his conviction that the United States has historically played a wicked role in the Middle East, and that the best things he can do for that part of the world is to limit and withdraw American military might, and empower our self-declared enemies, whose hostility to traditional American policies he largely shares.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Philippine Peacekeepers Rescued From Militants on Golan: U.N.
(Reuters) — Thirty-two Philippine U.N. peacekeepers were rescued on Saturday from Islamists who fired at their post on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and trapped them for two days, U.N. officials said, while militants reinforced their siege of another group of 40.
“The situation at Position 68 is calm but tense, as more than 200 militants have assembled around it in the last few hours,” a U.N. official said, referring to the place where the 40 Philippine peacekeepers were trapped.
A U.N. diplomatic source said earlier: “As we speak more rebels in more than 20 vehicles are approaching and reinforcing the siege around Position 68.”
The rebels began to arrive at 11 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET), added the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The peacekeeping troops are part of UNDOF, a U.N. force that has monitored the disengagement zone between Israel and Syria since 1974, following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war…
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Report: ISIS Selling Yazidi Women in Syria
(CNN) — Hundreds of Yazidi women abducted by ISIS have either been sold or handed out to members of the Sunni extremist group, according to an organization that monitors the crisis.
In the past few weeks, ISIS has “distributed” to its rank and file about 300 female members of the persecuted religious minority, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group aligned with the opposition in Syria. Those women were initially kidnapped in Iraq before being taken to Syria.
In ISIS’ eyes, the girls and women are “captives of the spoils of war with the infidels,” the Syria monitors said, claiming that some had converted to Islam so ISIS fighters can marry them.
SOHR says it could confirm at least 27 cases in which women were “sold and married” for about $1,000 each to ISIS militants in Aleppo and Raqqa suburbs and Al-Hassakah.
[Verse 4:24 of the ignoble Qur’an calls these luckless women milk al-yamin, “that which your right hands possess.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Islamists Attack Philippine Contingent in Golan Heights: Among Them a Priest
The group of 75 peacekeepers have been blocked in the hills for few days by the al-Nusra Brigade. The rebels launched a direct attack this morning. The Military Ordinary of Manila says: “There is also a priest among the peacekeepers, sent to take care of the spiritual needs of the troops. Let us pray for all of them”.
Damascus (AsiaNews) — The Syrian al-Nusra Brigade rebels have launched a direct attack against the contingent of 75 Philippine peacekeepers, blocked by the Islamic group on the Golan Heights under the control of Damascus. The Filippino Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, announced the offensive but gave no account of possible victims. The contingent includes a Catholic priest, the military chaplain.
The attack began a few hours ago. In addition to the Philippine military — who are in the area on UN mandate, and therefore not allowed to open fire unless under direct threat — the Syrian rebels took hostage a group of 44 soldiers from Fiji, also UN “blue helmets”.
According to the Military Ordinary in the Philippines Msgr. Leopoldo S. Tumulak, there is also a priest among the troops under attack, sent to take care of the spiritual needs of the peacekeepers. The bishop did not want to reveal the priest’s name, probably to avoid any immediate retaliation against a Catholic priest if he falls into the hands of Islamist insurgents.
In a message sent to the site of the Philippine Bishops Conference, Msgr. Tumulak urged all Filipinos to “pray for the salvation of our brothers, who are peacemakers.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Readies New Russia Sanctions as Ukraine Conflict Spirals
(BRUSSELS) — The European Union geared up a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia on Saturday with warnings that the escalating conflict in Ukraine was putting all of Europe at risk of war.
Fears of a wider confrontation spiralled after allegations that Russia has sent troops and weapons across the border to help a bloody new counter-offensive by pro-Kremlin rebels.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited Brussels to plead his case for a firm response, before the EU’s 28 leaders were to hold talks on the worsening situation.
The latest rebel push in a conflict that has claimed nearly 2,600 lives has wrested several key towns in southeastern Ukraine from Kiev’s control in recent days.
EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso warned that the crisis was near a “point of no return” and said Brussels had drawn up tougher sanctions against the Kremlin.
Poroshenko said Ukraine was the victim of “foreign military aggression and terror” and alleged that thousands of Russian troops and hundreds of tanks were on Ukrainian soil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Bars Finmeccanica From Tenders
But will honour existing contracts
(ANSA) — Rome, August 26 — India on Tuesday barred Finmeccanica from competing in tenders by New Delhi in the wake of a helicopter bribes scandal involving its AgustaWestland unit, Bloomberg reported.
India will continue to honour existing contracts with the Italian defence giant, it said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic leaders criticise government for its weak and uncommitted attitude. “The time to use religion in the name of religious hegemony is long past;” now it is time for “dialogue in the name of peace,” said Card Quevedo, who also slammed “the Iraq situation as created by this fundamentalist radical group”.
Manila (AsiaNews) — “The time to use religion in the name of religious hegemony is long past;” now it is time for “dialogue in the name of peace,” said Mgr Orlando Quevedo, archbishop of Cotabato and Southern Philippines’ first cardinal.
“I join the worldwide condemnation of the events in Iraq that have caused the persecution of Christians and minorities there. [. . .] “I think I would neglect my duty as a religious leader not to condemn the Iraq situation as created by this [Islamic State] fundamentalist radical group,” he added.
Known for his relentless advocacy for peace in Mindanao, scene of clashes between the Muslim community and the central government, the cardinal said that the use of force and violence to gain religious dominance is unjustifiable before both God and humankind. Hence, “I join the worldwide condemnation of the events in Iraq that have caused the persecution of Christians and minorities,” he said.
Two weeks ago, dioceses across the country (like hundreds around the world) held a day of prayer in response to Pope Francis’ call for Catholics to raise a voice of ceaseless prayer for peace in the Middle East. However, for the auxiliary bishop of Manila, the Filipino government “is not doing enough.”
“We need [these] world leaders, including our own, airing their side on this very important concern. It disappoints me how our government can still afford to keep mum when it comes to religion,” said Mgr Broderick S Pabillo.
“Manila needs to do more and take action to improve the situation. I expect that it will not limit itself only to words. Filipinos, led by their politicians, must distinguish themselves in providing humanitarian aid to people who are suffering.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Peace-Keeping Sappers Join EU Forces in Bangui, CAR
Engineering troops will clear mines, build infrastructure
(ANSA) Rome, August 28 — Italy’s contingent within the EU peacekeeping mission to the Central African Republic (EUFOR RCA) has been deployed, spearheaded by 50 airborne sappers from the crack Folgore paratroop regiment, defence ministry sources said Thursday.
The 50 have joined the EU contingent’s Ucatex base at Bangui, the CAR capital, where as many as 750 troops are taking part in the peace-keeping operation.
The enginering troops’ aim is to protect the civilian population and assist reconstruction following the violent clashes that erupted at the end of last year, killing thousands and leading 1.3 million people to flee their homes.
The sappers’ tasks include ensuring the mobility of the EU forces, defusing bombs, mines and other unexploded ordnance remaining from the internecine conflict and carrying out basic infrastructure projects of use to the civilian population and local government.
The Italian soldiers will use armoured Lince vehicles equipped with Italian-designed hi-tech Hitrole turret systems, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dominican Republic Investigate Ex-Nuncio for Pedophilia
Wesolowski appealing defrocking by the Vatican
(ANSA) — Vatican City August 27 — Judicial authorities in the Dominican Republic have opened a criminal probe into allegations of child sexual abuse against the Vatican’s former nuncio to the Caribbean country, according to local media reports.
The investigation comes after Poland’s ex-Msgr. Jozef Wesolowski was defrocked by the Vatican and thus, lost his diplomatic immunity from local police investigations.
Wesolowski, 66, was convicted by an internal Vatican authority after an investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Inquisition, which handles sex-abuse cases.
The Vatican worked with Dominican authorities on the internal case.
Wesolowski’s appeal of his defrocking will be heard in October and if it is upheld, he faces a separate internal criminal trial inside the Vatican.
He is the most senior Vatican official to be investigated for sex abuse.
In a statement, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi confirmed that because Wesolowski no longer enjoyed diplomatic immunity he might “be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him”.
Investigators in Dominican Republic have scheduled a meeting for September 2 when the alleged victims of the former ambassador will be heard as part of an process by authorities to gather evidence in the case before they decide whether to proceed.
Wesolowski is not required to appear before judicial authorities in Dominican Republic at this stage in the process, local media reported.
Wesolowski was called back to the Vatican one year ago when the archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez, informed Pope Francis of the allegations against the former ambassador.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Online Posts Show ISIS Eyeing Mexican Border, Says Law Enforcement Bulletin
Social media chatter shows Islamic State militants are keenly aware of the porous U.S.-Mexico border, and are “expressing an increased interest” in crossing over to carry out a terrorist attack, according to a Texas law enforcement bulletin sent out this week.
“A review of ISIS social media messaging during the week ending August 26 shows that militants are expressing an increased interest in the notion that they could clandestinely infiltrate the southwest border of US, for terror attack,” warns the Texas Department of Public Safety “situational awareness” bulletin, obtained by FoxNews.com.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Aliens Storm the Beach in San Diego, Second Attempt Thwarted
Illegal aliens successfully landed on a San Diego beach in a panga boat on Monday and ran to shore — but, when another group tried the same thing on Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border (CBP) agents were waiting for them.
Around 7am Monday morning, a horde of illegal aliens stormed a San Diego beach after coming ashore in a panga boat. They sprinted across the beach and climbed over a wall, entering the city.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Town Halls, U.S. Lawmakers Hear Voter Anger Over Illegal Migrants
(Reuters) — When Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling sat down with colleagues and constituents at a recent Chamber of Commerce lunch in Dallas, the first question he faced was whether Congress planned to address immigration policy and a burgeoning border crisis.
“I’m supposed to do this in 30 seconds?” he joked, noting the issue’s complexity. While he was optimistic about long-term prospects for dealing with border security and immigration, he said, “between now and the end of this Congress, I’m a little less sanguine about it.”
It has been a question heard repeatedly by lawmakers this month in “town hall” district meetings punctuated — and sometimes dominated — by concerns and angry outbursts over immigration policy and the crisis caused by a flood of child migrants at the southwestern border in recent months.
Those summer town halls have provided lawmakers a first-hand glimpse of growing discontent among Americans over U.S. immigration policy. Seventy percent of Americans — including 86 percent of Republicans — believe undocumented immigrants threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-July.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Interior Minister Hails Human Trafficker Arrests
Over 500 ‘merchants of death’ arrested so far tweets Alfano
(ANSA) — Rome, August 29 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Friday hailed the arrest of seven alleged human traffickers who ferried migrants across the Mediterranean to Italy, bringing total arrests to over 500.
“Tough battle against the merchants of death! Seven more traffickers arrested near Ragusa: we are now above the 500 mark! #ItalyWon’tWait”, the minister tweeted.
Alfano will meet with his German and Spanish counterparts next week to discuss the migrant emergency in the Mediterranean after he secured a commitment from the European Union to replace Italy’s Mare Nostrum migrant search-and-rescue mission with an expanded version of the EU’s Frontex border control agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 500 Immigrants Are Landed in Naples and Sicily
(AGI) Naples, Aug 30 — The Italian Navy landed 323 immigrants at the port of Naples on Saturday, and another 227 were flown to Catania in Sicily. The group of immigrants included a dozen minors and three pregnant women. A man was taken to the Cotugno Hospital of Infectious Disease with suspected malaria, and several dozen migrants were diagnosed with scabies. The families with children were put in the care of the Italian Red Cross.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Anne Marie Waters
UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO which monitors the activities of the United Nations, reported at the end of 2013 what it felt were the ten worst decisions of the UN throughout that year. All ten are worth a look, but what stands out like a sore thumb is the aggressive promotion of Islamist states (and the resulting sanitisation and legitimisation of sharia), along with the not un-related harassment of Israel.
Of particular interest are the activities of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). UN Watch mentions Mr Richard Falk, a UNHRC investigator, who it said had blamed the Boston Marathon bombing on “the American global domination project” and “Tel Aviv”, and was later praised for doing so by council members.
Also in 2013, the UN’s human rights body elected Mauritania as its vice-president. In a statement from UN Watch in September, Karoline Ronning stated that “nowhere is slavery so systematically practiced as in Mauritania, a country that is an elected member of this Human Rights Council.” She added “According to Abidine Merzough, a man born in Mauritania as a slave, and who is now the European coordinator of an anti-slavery NGO, sharia is used to justify this system.”
Other countries elected to the UNHRC in 2013 include China and Russia, but perhaps the most controversial election winner of the year was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is well known that Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most oppressive states, particularly for women, and is a nation where apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, and homosexuality all carry the death penalty. You can read Amnesty International’s most recent report on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record here…
| — Hat tip: Mark H | [Return to headlines] |
No, the UN is not fit for purpose. Over a third of its membership is made up of countries which are also members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and with its massive financial resources, this group has bought up enough smaller countries to secure itself a permanent majority on the UN which it is currently using to spread sharia law worldwide.
The west should stop funding this sectarian and corrupt institution.
The UN
Thirty years ago it was high time for the democratic countries of the West to pull the financial plug on the United Nations and let the silly, corrupt organisation wither away. Thatcher and Reagan took a step in the right direction but didn’t follow through.
The UN was founded by dreamy eyed Western idealists such as Australia’s mentally unstable Herbert Evatt (and Soviet spies such as Harry Dexter White) on grossly flawed premises of hoped for international co-operation between the Soviet Union and the West. Within a few years, with the advent of the Korean War, was proven to be utterly ineffective in achieving its lofty goals.
The UN’s principal purpose is to provide lucrative sinecures for otherwise unemployable bureaucrats from First World and Third World countries. It is a ghastly and expensive joke: as the 2013 stats on anti-Israel resolutions make clear.
And the UN would most certainly wither away within months if the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and Japan just stopped writing their annual cheques.
One immediate and happy consequence would be the economic and political collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza and that of Fatah in the West Bank as UNRWA is starved of funds. Unless the Arab states step up and pay for it – fat chance. Or poor deluded Sweden and Norway decide to provide 90% of its funding.
A new institution could be created by those relinquishing : the Council of Co-operating Democratic States. The critical threshold for membership would be: is the society governed by the rule of law? In addition to the nations mentioned above: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Taiwan would be eligible candidates. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay may qualify. Perhaps some Central American countries, the three Caucasian republics and Cambodia, Nepal and Laos after a few reforms.
What would be left? China (which will always go its own way being immune to international opinion), Russia (ditto) and scores of malodorous dictatorships and economic basket cases.
As to any complaint that most of these countries are European, it should be ignored. As to any complaint that no Muslim country is included, the answer is: there are no Muslim democracies where the rule of law applies. As to any complaint that there is no African country included, the answer would be the same.
The CCDS could, on a case by case basis, target potentially promising countries such as Bulgaria, Burma, Rumania, Serbia, Slovakia and Thailand, encouraging them to lift their game with generous aid packages and soft loans (funded by a fraction of the money saved from the cessation of funding the UN) aimed at improving tax collection regimes and fiscal discipline, reforming police forces to engage in policing rather than engaging “entrepreneurial activity” and an impartial judicial system.
I’m sure John Bolton could competently flesh out this idea.
Trevor Loudon’s: What the United Nations Doesn’t Want You to Know, posted 9/1/2014
Sweden – most stupid country in the EU – where the police dogs wear a muzzle.
Watch protesters and police violently clash in Stockholm yesterday.
http://youtu.be/Ulp-7gAot4w
@UK: Rotherham and the Toxic Legacy of Multiculturalism
The toxic legacy was internecine class war, multiculturalism (jihad) was seconded by the British state as the social regulator and enforcer the uncivilised civilising a cynical working class.
Another gas??? leak??? Article has many pictures. Paris suburbs:
“France – An eight-year-old child and an octogenarian were killed and dozens injured in an explosion on Sunday that reduced half of a four-story residential block in a Paris suburb to rubble, emergency services said. Rescue workers are combing the site for an estimated nine people, including two children, who are still unaccounted for, a spokesman for the French capital’s firefighter service said.
. . .A gas leak was likely to have been the cause of the blast, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and police said.
. . .The force of the blast shook buildings as far as 100 metres from the site.”
See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/world/2-killed-paris-suburb-building-collapses-explosion#sthash.QnQBygsD.dpuf
Re: Rotherham
Has anyone else noticed how the cultural marxists are trying to spin this tragedy?
Without any irony, they are insisting that the Rotherham findings are just “sex-trafficking hysteria” driven by racial prejudice.
To add further insult, many of them are suggesting that the victims, “knew exactly what they were doing,” and, “wanted to be there.”
Utterly sickening.
It also shows what sort of inhuman mentality we are dealing with. There is no right or wrong, there is no law or even personal rights with them. The only thing that matters to the Left is their ideology above all else and they are even willing to sacrifice children rather than admit they are wrong.
You can’t reason with them, you can;t appeal to their humanity or conscience because they have none. You’re dealing with monsters.
If you ever wondered where Stalin or Mao got their willing executioners just look at the people who are making excuses for Rotherham, those are the faces of executioners.