Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/23/2014

The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels have reached a power-sharing agreement that is expected to end the series of violent clashes that have left dozens of people dead. The Houthi, despite being a Shiite minority in Yemen, have been successful in their campaign, occupying key government buildings and the state broadcaster in the capital, Sanaa.

In other news, Irish UN peacekeeping forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights have been authorized to continue their mission there, despite the recent siege and abduction of Filipino and Fijian peacekeepers in the same area by al-Nusra jihad fighters.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Phyllis Chesler, 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.

Financial Crisis
» ECB Ready to Use More “Unconventional Tools” To Spur Economy
» Merkel Says Growth Possible Without Additional Money
» Merkel Says Stability Pact Rules Must be Respected
 
USA
» Attack of the Non Governmental Organizations — NGOs
» Blathering Eco-Intellectuals
» Crackdown Targets Inversions Designed to Limit U.S. Taxes
» NYC Officials Denounce Anti-Islam Transit Ads
» Obama Administration Has Been Supplying Military Equipment to Colleges Across the U.S.
» Opposing Terrorism and Jew Hatred at the Risk of Rejecting High Art
» Panic in “Sustainable City”
» Some Useful Facts About Global Warming and Climate Change
» The Flattening Forces of Globalization Continue to Advance
» What in the World Are They Spraying?
 
Canada
» Liberal MP Sees ‘Beauty and Light’ In ISIS Head Choppers
 
Europe and the EU
» Erasmus Student Exchanges ‘Spawn One Million Babies’
» Irish Peacekeeping Troops Given Go-Ahead to Continue UN Mission in Strife-Torn Golan Heights
» ISIS: Cazeneuve Says “France is Not Scared”
» Italy: Soccer: Balotelli Gets Racist Barrage After Tweet
» Netherlands: Van Gogh Killer Not Alone; Case Should be Reopened: Official
» UK: Liberal Culture Keeps Girls in Bondage to Muslim Sex Slave Ring
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: A Prayer for 5775
» Muhammad Most Popular Name for Newborns in 2014
» Two Hamas Murderers of Three Israeli Yeshiva Students Killed in Shootout Near Hebron
 
Middle East
» Air-Sharia: “Moderate” UAE, U.S. “Anti-IS Ally”, and its Worldview
» German Police Raid Flats, Mosque Over Suspected ISIS Ties
» If They’re Not Islamic Fanatics, What Are They, Martians?
» Iran-Backed Houthi Rebels on Verge of Routing Regime in Yemen
» ISIS Militants Parade Captured Iraqi Soldiers
» Qatar Adamant it Will Host 2022 World Cup Despite Doubts
» Report: German Family Kidnapped in Yemen Are Dead
» Syria: 800 Christians Gather in Aleppo Peace Demonstration
» The ISIS Crisis and the Coming Tyranny
» The West and Radical Islam — 100 or 1,000 Years War?
» Turkey: Government Allows Headscarf in High Schools
» UAE: Drug Smuggler Used Quran to Dupe Customs
» Yemen: Sanaa: Government and Shia Rebels Reach Peace Deal
 
South Asia
» India: Vegetarian Campaign Near Mosque Sparks Clashes
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australian ‘Terror Suspect’ Killed in Melbourne
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» C.D.C.’s Worst-Case Ebola Scenario: 1.4 Million Cases in 4 Months
» Eight Reported Dead in Attack on Ebola Workers in Guinea
» WHO Study: Without Action, Ebola Will Spread Further
 
Latin America
» Reasons Why Venezuela Should be Denied a Temporary Seat on the United Nations Security Council
 
Immigration
» Italy: Rome Immigrants Attack 2 Buses Driven by Women in 2 Days
» Italy ‘Not Doing Enough to Combat Human Trafficking’
» Italy: Local League Official Accused of Hate Speech on FB
» Lax Naturalization Process Contributes to Homebred Terrorism
» Obama Insures Democrat Party Wins by Importing More Than 200,000 Syrian Illegal Aliens
 
Culture Wars
» Common Core, Choice, And Charter Schools
» French Court Allows Married Lesbians to Adopt Children
» US Air Force: ‘So Help Me God’ In Oath Now Optional
 

ECB Ready to Use More “Unconventional Tools” To Spur Economy

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi has said he is prepared to use more unconventional measures to spur growth in the eurozone.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Says Growth Possible Without Additional Money

Cutting bureaucracy, digital agenda key for growth

(ANSA) — Berlin, September 22 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said there are many ways to foster growth in the euro zone “without additional money”.

Speaking at a joint press conference with French Premier Manuel Valls in Berlin, the chancellor cited cutting bureaucracy and the digital agenda among key investment strategies to boost recovery.

Last month, Merkel delivered a sharp rebuke to France — as well as Italy — for allegedly hindering the euro zone’s recovery by breaking longstanding fiscal rules.

She said a stagnant economy was the result of the single currency zone’s inability to keep in check countries that ran high deficits against limits set by Brussels.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Says Stability Pact Rules Must be Respected

In joint press conference with Valls in Berlin

(ANSA) — Berlin, September 22 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday told a joint press conference with French Premier Manuel Valls that “what has been agreed upon must be respected”, citing the European Union’s stability pact “which contains some flexibility”.

“I see great efforts made by France and they will be evaluated by the European Commission”, she added.

Merkel is hosting Valls in Berlin on Monday as France resists demands to narrow its budget deficit in a stagnant economy.

The pact requires member States to maintain their budget deficits within 3% of their total gross domestic product (GDP).

The euro zone’s two largest economies are at odds on strategies to spur growth.

Leaders including Italian Premier Matteo Renzi have been urging greater openness within the pact to such measures as increased investment spending to stimulate economic recovery.

Merkel has said she is “open” to greater flexibility within the European Union’s stability pact, so long as the basic rules are obeyed Valls has stated he will “not beg” during his trip to Germany, which will also include a speech to Germani entrepreneurs.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Attack of the Non Governmental Organizations — NGOs

One rarely hears of it. Few elected officials raise an eyebrow. The media makes no mention of it. But power is slowly slipping away from our elected representatives. In much the same way Mao Tse tung had his Red Guards, so the UN has its NGOs. They may well be your masters of tomorrow, and you don’t even know who or what they are.

There are, in fact, two parallel, complimentary forces at work in the world, working together to advance the global Sustainable Development agenda, ultimately leading toward UN global governance. Those two forces are the UN itself and non-governmental organizations (NGOs.)

Beginning with the United Nations, the infrastructure pushing the Sustainable Development agenda is a vast, international matrix. At the top of the heap is the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)…

NGOs now regularly sue the government and private citizens to force policy. They have their legal fees and even damage awards paid to them out of the government treasury. Through a coordinated process, hundreds of NGOs are at work in Congress, in every state government and in every local community, advancing some component of the global environmental agenda.

[Comment: Highly recommended.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Blathering Eco-Intellectuals

I confess I have always been wary of intellectuals. They love arcane theories that often have little to do with real life and this is particularly true of eco-intellectuals who have embraced a panoply of lies and claims about the “environment”, “fossil fuels”, “sustainability”, and other notions that permit them to bloviate without once addressing reality.

This has been a week of eco-propaganda on a global scale. On Sunday there were “Climate Marches.” On Tuesday there will be a UN “Climate Summit”, and there will likely be an avalanche of nonsense in the media intended to make us believe we have control, influence, or impact on the climate when it is obvious to the rest of us that we — the human race — have none.

In the past nearly two decades we have all be experiencing not a warning, but a cooling of planet Earth. It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the Sun that has been in a low cycle of radiation — less heat!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Crackdown Targets Inversions Designed to Limit U.S. Taxes

The Treasury Department announced steps that will make it harder for U.S. companies to move their addresses outside the country to reduce taxes, clamping down on the practice known as inversions.

The rules, which apply to deals that close starting today, include a prohibition on “hopscotch” loans that let companies access foreign cash without paying U.S. taxes, and impose new curbs on actions that companies can use to make such transactions qualify for favorable tax treatment.

The changes will have the biggest effect on eight U.S. companies with pending inversions, including Medtronic Inc. and AbbVie Inc., which plan the two largest such deals in U.S. history. In its purchase of Covidien Plc, Medtronic is loaning some of its untaxed profits outside the U.S. to its new Irish parent company, and that transaction could be penalized by the new anti-hopscotch rule.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYC Officials Denounce Anti-Islam Transit Ads

Elected officials and religious leaders from several faiths on Tuesday denounced anti-Islamic ads that are appearing soon on New York City transit buses and subway stations.

Six different ads will appear this week on some Manhattan subway entrances and next week on 100 buses. Some of the ads depict American journalist James Foley with his masked executioner in the moments before he is beheaded. Another is an image of a Muslim leader next to Adolf Hitler.

“We can reject hatred,” city Comptroller Scott Stringer said at a news conference held in front of City Hall. “This is the kind of hatred that we must have zero tolerance for.”

The ads, which will cost $100,000, are being bankrolled by a group led by blogger Pamela Gellar. A 2012 federal court decision ruled that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the region’s mass transit system, must run so-called viewpoint ads.

“Our hands are tied,” said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg. “A series of court rulings have made clear the MTA cannot refuse advertisements that meet our revised advertising standards.”

The ads will run with a disclaimer saying that they do not represent the views of the MTA. One ad, which makes reference to “killing Jews,” was rejected by the MTA on the grounds that it could incite violence.

Gellar, who is suing to reverse that decision, said in an interview Tuesday that she is running the ads because “politicians and the media won’t tell these stories.”

“It’s important to run these ads to increase awareness of increasing magnitude of the jihad threat and to an end to willful ignorance of that threat,” she said. She denied that she was anti-Islam, but said she feels that she doesn’t “need to pat on the back every Muslim who doesn’t want to kill me.”

The officials who rallied at City Hall suggested that even if there were legal grounds to run the ads, there were outweighed by moral concerns.

“These ads have no place in New York City,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who was joined by several other councilmembers, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Public Advocate Letitia James and Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Administration Has Been Supplying Military Equipment to Colleges Across the U.S.

The U.S. government has not just been equipping police with military weaponry; they’ve been supplying such weapons to colleges as well. According to The Chronicles of Higher Education:

“Should the campus police at the University of Central Florida ever need a modified grenade launcher, one sits waiting in the department’s armory. Retooled to fire tear-gas canisters, the weapon was used several years ago for training purposes, according to Richard Beary, the university’s chief of police. It hasn’t left storage since.

At Central Florida, which has an enrollment of nearly 60,000 and a Division I football team, the device was acquired, a police spokeswoman said, for “security and crowd control.” But the university’s police force isn’t the only one to have come upon a grenade launcher. Hinds Community College — located in western Mississippi, with a student population of 11,000 — had one too. (Campus police officers at Hinds declined to comment. A woman who worked for the department but declined to identify herself said that the launcher had been repurposed to shoot flares but that the college no longer possessed it.)

Both institutions received their launchers from the same source: the Department of Defense. At least 117 colleges have acquired equipment from the department through a federal program, known as the 1033 program, that transfers military surplus to law-enforcement agencies across the country, according to records The Chronicle received after filing Freedom of Information requests with state governments (see table of equipment).

Campus police departments have used the program to obtain military equipment as mundane as men’s trousers (Yale University) and as serious as a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle (Ohio State University). Along with the grenade launcher, Central Florida acquired 23 M-16 assault rifles from the Department of Defense.”

The article goes on to provide a list of weapons supplied by Uncle Sam.

[Comment: Is there a catch such that in a “State of Emergency” these militarized police fall under Federal control?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Opposing Terrorism and Jew Hatred at the Risk of Rejecting High Art

by Phyllis Chesler

I am an avid opera-goer and opera-lover and it pains me beyond measure to have to approach the Metropolitan Opera, not with tickets in hand, but to participate in a protest against the choice of a particular opera, namely, “The Death of Klinghoffer.”

Why-oh-why did Peter Gelb choose to produce this opera when the libretto is sub-standard, quite below par? This is quite apart from our collective concern about the content of this libretto and the lethal narrative of the opera itself. Yes, the work presents the Israelis as colonizers and exploiters, the Jews as greedy exploiters, and the Palestinian terrorists as heroes. And yes, I understand that Gelb believes that John Adams, the composer, is the leading American composer of the 21st century. The music is very good.

I am not sure where to focus my outrage and my sorrow.

On the opera itself, especially the libretto; on Gelb’s decision to have it performed; by the ADL’s Abe Foxman’s deal with Gelb, namely, that Foxman would claim that the opera is not anti-Semitic and in return, Gelb would agree not to release the film version of the opera, world-wide; by the craven silence of the large American Jewish organizations—those who earn huge salaries, pensions, millionaire-level perks, and who are wedded to the Way Things Are, not the Way They Should Be…

           — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler [Return to headlines]
 

Panic in “Sustainable City”

The attacks came fast and furious, from March through June. A coordinated attack to vilify, ostracize and neutralize efforts by local citizen activists who are standing in opposition to Agenda 21 and its policy called Sustainable Development. The terms “conspiracy theory,” “extremists,” “fear mongers,” and “far right,” are all over these obvious attempts to smear any opposition to the agenda of the Sustainablist planners that now swarm over nearly every community in America.

It started with the American Planning Association (APA) delivering yet another report in a continuing effort to understand the fierce opposition to its “innocent,” “locally-driven” programs. Apparently it is a mystery to the APA why there would be opposition to its plans to reorganize entire communities which sometimes result in turning peoples’ lives upside down. The APA has done a series of studies over the past few years in an attempt to find a way to silence or counter our opposition to planning. The latest report, issued in March, 2014, entitled “The Actions of Discontent,” was perhaps the most honest of the reports the APA has issued, when it said the opposition to planning is “marked by deep philosophical differences between activists and planning proponents…”. That’s certainly better than saying we’re just nuts, unlike most of the usual attacks against us.

Case in point, the next attack came in April from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), yet again. This makes at least four SPLC reports I’m aware of, to specifically focus on me as the ring leader of the opposition…

Meanwhile the tyranny of sustainable policy builds in town and after town, neighborhood after neighborhood.

In the Western states, the EPA is on a tear to control water, making it impossible to run the ranches. The Interior Department is forcing reintroductions of wolves and Grizzlies at the peril of livestock, family pets, children and natural herds of elk and deer.

In Orem, Utah, Betty Perry was arrested, handcuffed, and put in a holding tank because the grass in her front yard was dying. Violation, said the zoning enforcement officer. More recently, as the drought rages in California, a couple has been threatened with fines of $500 because their grass in their yard was dead. The reason it was dead is because they were obeying a California state government mandate that told them to preserve water or face a $500 fine. Tyrants always want it both ways.

Julie Bass, in Oak Park, Michigan, wanted to plant an organic garden in her yard. She even asked the mayor and city council if it was OK to plant and they both answered yes. But as she went to work on it, she too was arrested by the local zoning enforcement officer and faced 90 days in jail.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Some Useful Facts About Global Warming and Climate Change

Thanks to Sunday’s Climate March in New York and Tuesday’s Climate Summit at the United Nations, Americans and others will have been deluged with the lies that have been told to sustain this greatest of all hoaxes.

Here are the known facts. Use them to protect yourself against the Green assault the truth:

  • Both the Earth and the Sun pass through natural cycles. The Sun is currently in a cycle of lower radiation as signaled by fewer sunspots representing magnetic storms.
  • There is currently no global warming. The Earth has been in a cooling cycle for 19 years. No child who has passed through K-12 classes in school has experienced a single day of “global warming.”
  • Not one computer model that predicted increased warming has been accurate.
  • Carbon dioxide, (CO2) blamed for global warming, is not a “pollutant” despite a Supreme Court decision stating this. Our exhaled breath contains about 4% of CO2.
  • How can carbon dioxide be called a “pollutant” when it is directly responsible for the growth of all vegetation on the planet? Without CO2 there would not be a single blade of grass or a redwood tree. Or the animal life that depends on vegetation; wheat and rice, for example, as food.
  • There is zero evidence that carbon dioxide generated by human activities is causing catastrophic climate change. Climate is measured in centuries or shorter periods of many decades in order to determine its cycles. The weather is what is occurring where you reside and it changes every day.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Flattening Forces of Globalization Continue to Advance

The TTIP alone will cover over fifty percent of the World’s Gross Domestic Product and over 600 million of the richest consumers. It is concerned with two major topics: tariffs and regulations. And of the regulations, these principally concern health, safety, the environment, and financial security.

I have previously written about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is a misnamed “free trade” agreement described by many as nothing more than “NAFTA on steroids.” (See WFM, October 2012?) Well, consider the TTIP as the TPP’s Atlantic twin brother. Coupled with the global TISA, the TPP and the TTIP will define and fix international trade in goods and services, creating a common, tariff-free market for them, for a very long time and for more than a billion people. These three trade agreements alone will reshape our World in ways that we may not see for a decade or more.

The brainchild of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, the TTIP was first conceived of in the 1990s. But it wasn’t until the Transatlantic Economic Council was established in 2007 that the push for TTIP really took solid shape…

The widespread fear that TTIP will suppress national legislation protecting consumers is bolstered by equal concern over the TTIP’s “Investor State Dispute Settlement” mechanism. Because any investor company would have TTIP status equivalent to any member country, even if they do not have a direct contractual stake in a dispute, the company can take a member country to court. In other words, a public policy can be held to ransom by private business interests.

If, as anticipated, these panels operate as they have under NAFTA, then they will be manned by three persons, some of whom would be “former” corporate lobbyists or attorneys and the panels would adjudicate trade disputes with the power to strike down any public-interest legislation that offends TTIP.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What in the World Are They Spraying?

Produced by G Edward Griffin

By now everyone has seen crisscrossing streaks of white clouds trailing behind jet aircraft, stretching from horizon to horizon, eventually turning the sky into a murky haze. Our innate intelligence tells us these are not mere vapor trails from jet engines, but no one yet has probed the questions: WHO is doing this and WHY. With the release of this video, all of that has changed.

Here is the story of a rapidly developing industry called Geo-engineering, driven by scientists, corporations, and governments intent on changing global climate, controlling the weather, and altering the chemical composition of soil and water — all supposedly for the betterment of mankind. Although officials insist that these programs are only in the discussion phase, evidence is abundant that they have been underway since about 1990 — and the effect has been devastating to crops, wildlife, and human health. We are being sprayed with toxic substances without our consent and, to add insult to injury, they are lying to us about it.

(Do not watch this documentary if you have high blood pressure.)

[Comment: This is not black helicopter paranoia. Heavy metal particulates — such as Aluminum — are being sprayed in the skies. Free preview. By the way, G. Edward Griffin’s interview with a KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov is a classic. (realityzone.com/bezmenov.html) “Yuri Alexandrovitch Bezmenov is a former KGB propagandist who was assigned to New Dehli, India, defected to the West in 1970, and was interviewed by Edward Griffin in 1985. Bezmenov explains his background, some of his training, and exactly how Soviet propaganda is spread in other countries in order to subvert their teachers, politicians, and other policy makers to a mindset receptive to the Soviet ideology. He also explains in detail the goal of Soviet propaganda as total subversion of another country and the 4 step formula for achieving this goal. He recalls the details of how he escaped India, defected to the West, and settled in Montreal as an announcer for the CBC. Born 1939, died 1997?.”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Liberal MP Sees ‘Beauty and Light’ In ISIS Head Choppers

A Liberal government would offer no protection to the country from those who are seeking to destroy us. It’s scary.

Parliament resumed sitting on Sept. 15 after the summer recess. During the Members’ Statement portion of Monday’s session, CPC member, Tom Lukiwski, (Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre) made a brief statement about the reasons his party was excited to be back in the House of Commons.

One of the reasons stated was his government was “choosing to keep Canada strong and principled in a dark and dangerous world.”

The reason why Lukiwski referred to the world as “dark and dangerous” needed no explanation. He was obviously referring to what is occurring in the Middle East where the Islamic State is beheading and killing thousands of Christians, Yazidis, and Muslims who do not agree with their interpretation of the religion of peace, with the odd journalist and aid worker thrown in.

Well that was just too much for rookie Liberal MP Ted Hsu. He later tweeted, “Conservative MP calls world ‘dark and dangerous’ in member’s statement’s today. Libs see a light and beauty in the potential of every person.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Erasmus Student Exchanges ‘Spawn One Million Babies’

It gives new meaning to the phrase “European Union”.

The Erasmus student exchange scheme has brought so many couples together from across the continent that it has led to the birth of one million babies, the EU said Monday.

A study of the programme’s impact since its launch in 1987 showed that 27 percent of people who took part had met their current life partner during their stay abroad.

Thirty-three percent of Erasmus students hooked up with people of a different nationality than their own, nearly three times (13 percent) the rate of students who had not travelled.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Irish Peacekeeping Troops Given Go-Ahead to Continue UN Mission in Strife-Torn Golan Heights

Irish peacekeeping troops have been given the go-ahead to continue their role in the United Nations mission on the strife-torn Golan Heights.

A new contingent of 130 troops will be deployed on the ground there next month.

In the meantime, a further review of the mission, focusing on the safety of the troops and their capacity to fulfil their 40-year-old mandate, is being carried out at UN headquarters in New York.

Defence Minister Simon Coveney advised the Government at today’s Cabinet meeting he was satisfied that Ireland could continue to contribute to the Undof (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) mission…

[Return to headlines]
 

ISIS: Cazeneuve Says “France is Not Scared”

New Islamic State audio-message, kill ‘all dirty French’

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 22 — “France is not scared”, said French Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, on Monday, reacting to the threating message by jihadists of the Islamic State (Isis), in which fighters are invited to kill all “non-believers” and “especially the evil and dirty French”. “The government applies and will continue to apply all measures geared at ensuring the security of the French people” stated Cazeneuve, a few hours after the release of the death-message by Isis terrorists. “If you can kill a non-believer, American or European, especially the evil and dirty French ones, or an Australian or a Canadian (…) or any citizen belonging to one of the countries that have joined the coalition against the Islamic State, then trust in Allah and kill them in any way” said Isis spokesman Abu Muhammed Al Adnani in the terrifying 42-minute audio-message released Sunday night on twitter and published by the international media. The Us and France are the only two countries that have carried out air-strikes against Isis positions in Iraq.

Paris is strenghtening its anti-terrorism measures.

Cazeneuve asked prefects to “heighten the level of vigilance of security forces in particulare around significant buildings” like places of worship, diplomatic representations, symbolic or crowded places in a telegram sent on Friday, before the new Isis death-message which threatens the “evil and dirty French” .

The minister requested a strenghtening of security measures “in the occasion of meetings that may constitute possible targets”, in particular “religious cerimonies”, “shows” or “sporting events”. “Current tensions in Iraq have repercussions on European soil” stated Cazeneuve, adding that “just like its partners, France is concerned” about the jihadists’ recruiting policy in Europe. Commenting on the death-message conveyed by Isis’ spokesman, French ministerial sources say “this is not the first time France is the target of a fatwa”. A similar message was addressed to France the day after it intervened in Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic. At the moment, there are no “precise and imminent” threats, underscore French authorities.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Soccer: Balotelli Gets Racist Barrage After Tweet

Striker called ‘monkey’, ‘n**ger’ for mocking Manchester United

(ANSA) — Rome, September 22 — British police are investigating the barrage of racist abuse Liverpool’s Italian forward Mario Balotelli was subjected to after mocking rivals Manchester United on Twitter.

The abuse started after the 24-year-old striker posted “Man utd … LOL” on his account, @FinallyMario, after United surrendered a 3-1 lead in a 5-3 defeat at Leicester City on Sunday.

Several people responded by calling the black player a “monkey”.

One of the worst attacks was posted by a profile of a person calling himself Craig Sainsbury.

It called Balotelli, who has Ghanaian roots, a “n**ger” and told him to “eat some bananas and get Ebola”.

Balotelli, a talented player who has a poor disciplinary record and image for being a rebel, has been subject to racist abuse many times in the past. Earlier this year a teenager shouted “sh*tty black” at him at Italy’s pre-World Cup training camp near Florence.

Last year T-shirts saying ‘if you bleach Balotelli he’ll still stink’ went on sale in a shop in central Naples.

Porto were fined 20,000 euros because their fans racially abused him during a Europa League tie in February 2012 when he was a Manchester City player.

Juventus had to play a game behind doors in 2009 after their supporters directed chants of “there’s no such thing as a black Italian” at him when he was an Inter Milan player.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Van Gogh Killer Not Alone; Case Should be Reopened: Official

The murderer of television presenter and film maker Theo van Gogh did not work alone, the investigating officer on the case told tv programme EenVandaag on Monday evening.

Frits van Straelen said that the investigation 10 years ago provided ‘frustratingly little’ in the way of evidence and he is convinced Mohammed Bouyeri did not work alone.

Van Gogh was murdered by Bouyeri on November 2, 2004 in the Linneausstraat in Amsterdam. Bouyeri is serving a life sentence for the killing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Liberal Culture Keeps Girls in Bondage to Muslim Sex Slave Ring

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

Young girls (some as young as 11) kept in bondage to a sexual-slave ring run out of Rotherham, UK

“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” — Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th POTUS

They were the ones turning a blind eye to the rape. And why were they turning a blind eye? Because of the ethnicity of the rapists. …The girls were abandoned only partly because so many made a cowardly choice to let a crime go unreported when they could not think of a “non-racist” way to describe it. They were also abandoned because of the way that these agencies tried to do good.

The process of “caring for children” was already bad; the distortions and systematic mendacity encouraged by the ideology of multiculturalism and racial and gender theorizing made it worse. …From 1997 to 2013 it was imprudent to say anything like this, or even to mention the ethnicity and religion of the perpetrators: A Home Office researcher who tried to tell police and superiors what was going on was sent on a diversity training course instead….Every agency contributed to silencing the whistleblowers and abandoning the girls. Parents who acted to protect their daughters were ignored, harassed, even fined and arrested. — Sam Schulman “Rotherham’s Collaborators”…

Were young girls (some as young as 11) kept in bondage to a sexual-slave ring run out of Rotherham, UK? Yes — 1,400 at last count. Were those running the ring Muslims? Yes. Did the liberal “sacred cows” of multiculturalism, intolerant “tolerance,” and Political Correctness; contribute to the girls plight being overlooked time and time again? Yes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: A Prayer for 5775

Despite the dangers mounting all around us, as we approach Rosh Hashana 5775, for Jews in Israel, in many ways things have never been better.

On Sunday night, President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at the 10th-anniversary celebration marking the founding of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.

In his remarks, Rivlin described the impact of what he referred to as the “revolution” Menachem Begin led in Israeli society.

Through his victory in the 1977 Knesset elections, which marked the end of the Labor Party’s monopoly on power, Rivlin explained, Begin began the process of expanding the definition of what it means to be an Israeli.

Until Begin rose to the premiership, entire sectors of society, Mizrahim from Arab countries, new olim, religious Zionists and haredim had been shunned by the establishment.

Begin changed that…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Muhammad Most Popular Name for Newborns in 2014

Not Yosef; Arab MPs lash out at office’s ‘misinformation’

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Muhammad was the most popular name given to infants born in Israel over the past 12 months, reported the Walla website on Monday.

The Israeli Population and Immigration Authority had released a list on Sunday that instead included only Jewish names: Yosef, Daniel, Uri, Yitai and Omer.

Walla noted that the registry office had simply omitted clearly Arab names. Mohammad was actually the top name and Ahmed in tenth, ahead of the typically Jewish name David. The spokesperson for the office said that it had been a misunderstanding. Its list, she said, referred exclusively to Jewish names and did not intend to skew the facts. A number of Israeli Arab MPs doubt that it was the result of a simple mistake.

“This is a disgrace,” said Jamal Zehalke from the secular, nationalist party Balad. The communist Afu Ighbarye decried rampant ‘racism’ in Israel, calling on those supporting democracy in Israel to rebel.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Two Hamas Murderers of Three Israeli Yeshiva Students Killed in Shootout Near Hebron

Marwan Kawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha, the two alleged perpetrators of the June 2014 kidnap/murders of three Israeli Yeshiva Students, were killed early Tuesday morning in a shootout at an armed compound near Hebron by a special operations unit of Israeli Border Police aided by Shin Bet. Hamas, which tookresponsibility for the murders, praised the two slain perpetrators as so-called ‘martyrs’ during a funeral today. See our NER interview with Dan Diker, “Exposing Hamas’ Kidnapping Strategy. According to a report in Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, “Murderers of the Three Teens Eliminated”, the kidnapping and murder of the three Yeshiva students was preplanned. A relative of the family obtained a car with Israeli license tags and the perpetrators were dressed as orthodox Jews to mislead and entrap the three hitchhiking victims, Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha’ar, and Naftali Frenkel. Hamas used the manhunt that ensnared hundreds of its members on the West Bank as a pretext for the launch of 50 day rocket and terror tunnel campaign and IDF Operation Protective Edge in July and August 2014. 67 IDF soldiers and 6 Israel civilians were killed, while 2,100 Palestinians were killed, nearly half of whom may have been Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Air-Sharia: “Moderate” UAE, U.S. “Anti-IS Ally”, and its Worldview

by Andrew Bostom

Last night, with great fanfare, it was announced that U.S. airstrikes on the Islamic State, focusing on the city of Raqqah, Syria were “joined” by five regional “moderate Sunni Arab allies,” namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrein, and Qatar. The UAE was singled out, perhaps because of its recently reported air strikes on jihadist militias in Libya.

London Telegraph analyst David Blair, however, provided this note of caution about the potential extent of UAE involvement:…

           — Hat tip: Andy Bostom [Return to headlines]
 

German Police Raid Flats, Mosque Over Suspected ISIS Ties

German authorities raided a mosque, an Islamic community center and radical Islamists’ flats in cities across Germany on Tuesday on suspicion of having connections to militants in Syria.

The suspects, belonging to the ultra-conservative Salafist movement, are aged between 23 and 36 and police believe they were planning a violent attack although they made no arrests.

“We will not stand by and watch as the terrorist Islamic State [of Iraq and Syria] death squads in Syria and Iraq get support from Germany,” Joachim Herrmann, interior minister for the southern state of Bavaria, told reporters after detailing the raids.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

If They’re Not Islamic Fanatics, What Are They, Martians?

The keynote speaker at the ACT for America conference on September 11, 2014 was Judge Jeanine Pirro. ACT for America is a non-profit organization led by Brigitte Gabriel, a leading terrorism expert.

Judge Pirro’s speech centered on the threat of ISIS, mirroring the non-profit organization’s goal of fighting Shariah Islamic Law in the United States and maintaining our freedoms and our Judeo-Christian foundation as intended by our Founding Fathers.

Echoed by many speakers during the three-day conference, Judge Pirro challenged the deliberate misrepresentation that ISIS, the Islamic terrorist army alleged to number 30,000 in Iraq and Syria, is not about Islamic fanaticism. “If they’re not Islamic fanatics, what are they, Martians?” asked Pirro.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iran-Backed Houthi Rebels on Verge of Routing Regime in Yemen

While the world and the West’s attention are riveted on air strikes against the Islamic State in Raqqa Syria, Iranian- backed Houthi rebels threaten to vanquish the US backed Sunni government in the Capital of Sanaa, Yemen. This despite a UN brokered agreement Sunday, September 21, 2014 reached by the Yemeni government, Houthi rebels, Sunni Islamist groups, and Southern Yemeni separatists. Latest reports indicate that the well equipped Houthi rebel forces may be on the verge of taking control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

This is troubling to the Saudis, who embarked in 2003 building an 1,100 mile fence along the frontier with Yemen between the Red and Arabian Seas. A suicide bombing attack in July 2014 at a Saudi-Yemeni border crossing killed six people, including two security personnel. Currently, Saudi Arabia is also constructing a multi-layer 560 mile fence along its Northern border with Iraq to prevent infiltration by ISIS forces.

The possible overthrow of the Yemeni government in a Houthi rebel-led coup is indicative of the calculating strategic program of the Islamic regime in Tehran. Their goal to spread its influence beyond the Shia Crescent that includes Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Add to that the Houthi rebels, members of the Shia Zaidi sect in Yemen. The Zaidi Shia sect, unlike the Iranian Twelvers, believe in only four Imams, with the “fifth” being, Zayd ibn Ali.

The US counter terrorism drone campaign against the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula may be threatened by these rapidly evolving developments. The Iran — backed Houthi insurgency has succeeded in forging a rare Shia-Sunni alliance of convenience resulting in a coup toppling the Yemeni government in Sanaa. This would increase pressure on the Gulf Coordinating Council in the important energy producing Persian Gulf and possibly roil international energy markets. It is a threat to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates complicating their participation in the current coalition air assaults in both Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State. Moreover, Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, is ruled by autocratic Sunni Sheikhs and has a restive Shia majority. Saudi Arabia’s oil producing Eastern province has an oppressed Shia population, as well. The US counter terrorism drone campaign against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula may be jeopardized by the Houthi-led revolt in Yemen.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Militants Parade Captured Iraqi Soldiers

Residents in a city west of Baghdad say the Islamic State group has paraded Iraqi troops captured in battle earlier this week in a show of strength in the militant stronghold.

Fallujah residents say about 30 men in Iraqi military uniform were driven in the back of seized military vehicles through the city on Tuesday. Fallujah is about 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Residents say militants driving the convoy blasted songs glorifying the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as they paraded their captives. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Qatar Adamant it Will Host 2022 World Cup Despite Doubts

Qatar remained adamant it would host the 2022 soccer World Cup despite a FIFA Executive Committee member suggesting on Monday that the tournament would have to move because of scorching temperatures.

“The only question now is when, not if,” Qatar 2022 communications director Nasser Al Khater said in a statement.

“Summer or winter, we will be ready.”

Theo Zwanziger, the former German soccer association (DFB) chief who now sits on the executive committee of world soccer’s governing body, had said earlier that he felt the tournament would have to be held elsewhere.

“I personally think that in the end the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar,” he told Sport Bild. “Medics say that they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup taking place under these conditions.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: German Family Kidnapped in Yemen Are Dead

Family spokesman Reinhard Poetschke told the dpa news agency on Tuesday that the German Foreign Ministry said in a letter that Johannes, Sabine and Simon Hentschel were dead. He says it appears the parents were killed while the boy, an infant at the time of kidnapping, died of an infection.

The Hentschels, who were working for a small Christian aid organization, were kidnapped with their three children in northern Yemen in 2009. Their two daughters, Lydia, 10 and Anna, 8, were freed in 2010 with Saudi Arabia’s help and today live with relatives in Germany.

It wasn’t clear who kidnapped the family. The Foreign Ministry refused comment.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: 800 Christians Gather in Aleppo Peace Demonstration

Christians continue to flee, villages fear ISIS

(ANSAmed) — ROME — Roughly 800 Syrian Christian youth gathered this week in an Aleppo religious community centre to demonstrate resistance to ongoing fighting between regime and rebel forces, a Syrian Catholic priest said. Despite bombing by anti-Assad militants in the Christian neighborhoods of Aleppo, a two-day meeting, called You Are My Witnesses, took place in the city’s Salesian centre. “It represented a moment of joy, faith and prayer for peace,” the priest, who did not want his identity known, told ANSAmed. Conflict has placed Syrian Christians in dramatic circumstances. More than 200,000 Christians have fled Syria, while hundreds of thousands more have evacuated cities and other at-risk areas to seek refuge in the so-called Valley of the Christians, near the Mediterranean. Mharda, a town in central Syria where about 20,000 Christians live, for weeks has been threatened with attack and possible conquest by groups linked to the Islamic State.

“Now the situation has improved, but the fear remains,” said the priest.

Tension in many Christian villages is high. One false alarm after another often prompt people to flee, only to return and find their homes looted by criminal gangs. “No one knows how this war will end,” said the priest.

Among Christians and moderate Muslims “resentment is strong toward the West, which allowed terrorist groups to proliferate and take root in parts of Syria, a nation that was once a symbol of coexistence among faiths,” the priest added. “The United States has moved openly to protect only their oil interests, starting from Iraqi Kurdistan,” the priest went on.

Among the few certainties in the four-year war, “where in some areas it is difficult even to figure out who is fighting who,” remains “the fact that the Syrian (regime) army still represents the unity of the country and seeks to maintain security in areas under its control, while the central government continues to pay salaries and pensions to its own citizens, even in Ar-Raqqah, the stronghold of ISIS Islamists,” the priest said. “Schools are reopening in these days in spite of everything”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The ISIS Crisis and the Coming Tyranny

A significant number of conservatives are not only alarmed by the emergence of the Islamic State but also insist that President Obama take immediate military action to destroy them. But are the conservatives who urge the President to take unilateral action against ISIS throwing out bedrock conservative principles as they do so? The atrocities of the Islamic State are well-known: the mass-murder of Christians and Shiites, and the beheadings of two American journalists, to name a few.

Whether or not the U.S. military needs to do something about these atrocities is an excellent question, for the sake of national defense or the protection of the innocent in other countries. But if the answer to that question is yes, the U.S. Constitution requires that the U.S. Congress make a declaration of war. An executive decision on the part of the president to take action in either Syria or Iraq without such a declaration would represent a final transformation of our nation from a constitutional republic to an arbitrary government, acting on the whims of a single man.

The present crisis provides a good opportunity to review what the Constitution and the Founders had to say about who has the power to get the U.S. into war. The Constitution itself is straightforward, and would seem to require little elaboration: “The Congress shall have Power…To declare War.” The Founders of the U.S. left us with no doubt that Congress alone has the war power, and left us with plenty of reasons why this power was assigned to Congress not the President.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The West and Radical Islam — 100 or 1,000 Years War?

President Obama’s grand speech of determination to wipe out ISIS is so hollow as to render it empty rhetoric and meaningless. His words can only be interpreted as words of willful ignorance, or a criminal lack of resolve. It could also be construed as aiding and abetting the enemy because of his abnormal, almost quirky desire not to offend Islam. What Obama is proposing will neither destroy ISIS, or slow them down. And arming the Syrian rebels is strategically ludicrous!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Government Allows Headscarf in High Schools

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 23 — Turkish deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc announced a historic decision to remove the ban on headscarf for high school students, as World Bulletin website reported. During his briefing to the press on Monday, Arinc — also the spokesman for the Justice and Development (AK) Party government — said a rule in the dress code saying students had to be bareheaded while attending high school — registered at the Turkish National Education Ministry — had now been abolished. The Turkish minister stressed that students now can continue their education with their headscarves, adding that the related regulation will be issued within the next two days. The AK Party government also previously removed a similar ban on headscarves in universities in early 2011, and in state institutions and the parliament in late 2013. The ban dates back almost 90 years, as part of the secular Turkish republic created by its founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UAE: Drug Smuggler Used Quran to Dupe Customs

A total of 24kg of heroin was hidden in secret pockets made in five bags that contained the Holy Quran rosaries, and praying carpets besides food, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

A customs inspector assigned to check luggage in Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3 noticed abnormal thickness in the bottom of two bags belonging to a passenger. His colleague also noticed similar abnormal thickness in three bags which belonged to the same passenger.

“The five bags contained Holy Quran books, rosaries, praying carpets belonging to one passenger. The bags were released and put on the belt and put under observation,” testified customs inspector Humaid Maher.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Yemen: Sanaa: Government and Shia Rebels Reach Peace Deal

A new government is expected shortly, to include Houthi and other separatist groups. The deal ends weeks of violent clashes that left scores dead. Government buildings and state broadcasters are still occupied. Sunni Islamist Islah movement is the loser (for now). UN plays key mediation role.

Sanaa (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Yemeni government and Shia Houthi rebels have signed an agreement aimed at ending the political crisis that has gripped the country for weeks.

The official announcement came yesterday after rebels seized government headquarters, key ministries and state broadcasters.

Under the deal, a new government will be formed and Houthis and southern separatists will nominate a new prime minister within three days.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Mohamed Basindawa quit amid clashes between rebels and pro-government forces in the capital that left scores of people dead and hundreds fleeing. He resigned to clear the way for the agreement between the rebels and President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

According to local sources, most of the buildings were seized without a fight, because the army pulled back. Witnesses report that some soldiers took off their uniforms to avoid being taken.

Rebels should leave government and military bases, but it is unclear whether they will respect this part of the Agreement or not.

No one knows how far rebel ambitions stretch. What is certain is that Yemen’s president comes out weakened by the imposed agreement.

Similarly, the Sunni Islamist movement Islah is also a loser for now; however, it is unlikely accept the new order quietly.

Based in Yemen’s mountainous north, the Houthis have been advancing on the capital for weeks, clashing with rivals and organising mass protests for greater rights.

Houthi rebels, who belong to the minority Zaidi Shia community, have staged periodic uprisings since 2004 to win greater autonomy for Saada province, their northern heartland.

They consolidated control over Saada during the 2011 uprising and since July have inflicted defeats on tribal and militia groups backed by Islah, in neighbouring Amran province.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

India: Vegetarian Campaign Near Mosque Sparks Clashes

Clashes broke out near the Taj-ul-Masjid in the Old Bhopal area after activists of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals on Monday sought to persuade local Muslims to celebrate Bakrid with vegetarian fare. A policeman suffered minor injuries.

Police personnel swung into action after a crowd threw stones and footwear outside the mosque. An activist had to be rescued after the crowd surrounded her.Speaking to reporters later, Shahid Ali, Corporator of Shahajenabad and a prominent leader of the area, slammed the activists for trying to hold a campaign against a religious belief. “I am myself a vegetarian. Let them campaign for vegetarianism and protection of animals. But, they can’t target a religious belief and tradition and that too outside a shrine held dear by the local community. How can one tolerate such a thing?”

Later, in a statement, PETA said the programme was to be a “peaceful, friendly” awareness programme. “Just in time for Bakrid, a Muslim People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India, staff member planned a peaceful, friendly awareness program wearing a burqa adorned with vegetables and a green head scarf while holding a sign reading: “Make Eid Happy for All: Try Vegan.”…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Australian ‘Terror Suspect’ Killed in Melbourne

An 18-year-old man who had made threats against Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been shot dead in Melbourne, reports say.

The man had been under surveillance as a “person of interest”, and was being investigated over claims of terrorism, the ABC broadcaster said.

Two police officers were reportedly stabbed by the man before he was shot.

They have both been taken to hospital and one is reported to be in a critical but stable condition.

The incident happened when the man arrived at a police station in the Endeavour Hills suburb of Melbourne on Tuesday evening.

He had been asked to attend an interview there, ABC reports.

According to Sky News Australia, the man was brandishing a flag of the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

A police statement said that an Australian Federal Police officer and a Victoria state police officer — part of a joint counter-terrorism team — met the teenager outside the station. It was then that the violence erupted.

The Melbourne Age quoted onlookers as saying that the man had been shouting insults at Mr Abbott and the Australian government in general in the moments before he was shot.

[Return to headlines]
 

C.D.C.’s Worst-Case Ebola Scenario: 1.4 Million Cases in 4 Months

Yet another set of ominous projections about the Ebola epidemic in West Africa was released Tuesday, in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that gave worst- and best-case estimates for Liberia and Sierra Leone based on computer modeling.

In the worst-case scenario, Liberia and Sierra Leone could have 21,000 cases of Ebola by Sept. 30 and 1.4 million cases by Jan. 20 if the disease keeps following its current trajectory, without effective methods to contain it. These figures take into account the fact that many cases go undetected, and estimate that there are actually 2.5 times as many as reported.

The report does not include figures for Guinea because case counts there have gone up and down in ways that cannot be reliably modeled.

In the best-case model — which assumes that the dead are buried safely and that 70 percent of patients are treated in settings that reduce the risk of transmission — the epidemic in both countries would be “almost ended” by Jan. 20, the report said. It showed the proportion of patients now in such settings as about 18 percent in Liberia and 40 percent in Sierra Leone.

[Return to headlines]
 

Eight Reported Dead in Attack on Ebola Workers in Guinea

The Guinean government said Thursday that eight delegation members had been killed, including several journalists, news agencies reported. There also were reports that 21 people had been injured.

“It’s very sad and hard to believe, but they were killed in cold blood by the villagers,” government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said, according to Agence France-Presse.

A local police officer, Richard Haba, said the villagers believed that Ebola “is nothing more than an invention of white people to kill black people.”

The incident underscores the challenges for local and international health teams fighting the Ebola virus in West Africa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

WHO Study: Without Action, Ebola Will Spread Further

Ebola infections will grow without an intensified response, the World Health Organization warns. A report by the UN health agency predicts tens of thousands of cases by the end of the year.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization warned that the Ebola epidemic, which has so far killed more than 2,800 of the 5,700 people diagnosed, could drag on for years. A WHO study, carried out with Imperial College London, forecasts that by November 2, the cumulative number of confirmed and probable cases could reach about 6,000 in Guinea, 10,000 in Liberia and 5,000 in Sierra Leone unless significant action is taken.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Reasons Why Venezuela Should be Denied a Temporary Seat on the United Nations Security Council

by Nancy Menges & Luis Fleischman

On September 18th, the United States announced that it will not oppose Venezuela’s bid to seek a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council for a two year term that would commence in 2015. The U.S. decision came after countries in the region unanimously endorsed Venezuela’s bid.

For those who have monitored the assault on human rights in Venezuela as well as the country’s nefarious connections to the FARC, Hezbollah, ETA, and Iran, Venezuela’s appearance as a voting member of the Security Council would make a mockery of the UN Human Rights Charter.

Unfortunately, most of Latin America is now dominated by a left —wing cadre of countries that have warmly greeted the Bolivarian regime as well as the fifty year plus Cuban dictatorship and the ALBA countries.

The United States has no other reason to support its action (or inaction) than seeking to avoid confrontation with the countries of the region or claiming that it has “bigger fish to fry” as it seeks to build a coalition in the Middle East against the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL)…

[Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome Immigrants Attack 2 Buses Driven by Women in 2 Days

Two immigrants beaten up in ‘reprisal’

(ANSA) — Rome, September 22 — Immigrants in Rome have attacked two buses driven by two women in outlying areas in two days.

Two immigrants were beaten up by angry residents in a reprisal after the second episode on the eastern outskirts of the city Sunday night. One of the drivers went on national TV to appeal for greater security after her bus’s windows were smashed with stones and bottles.

It is not clear why the immigrants attacked the buses.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy ‘Not Doing Enough to Combat Human Trafficking’

Council of Europe complains of ‘shortcomings, lack of awareness’

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, September 22 — A Council of Europe report said Monday that Italy is not doing enough to combat human trafficking. The report by the Council of Europe’s expert group on human trafficking, GRETA, said that in Italy “there are shortcomings in the identification of victims of trafficking and data collection, lack of awareness about the problem of THB (trafficking in human beings) among the general public and certain public officials, and insufficient attention to trafficking for purposes other than sexual exploitation”. It said that reports suggested that human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation of undocumented migrants had assumed “worrying proportions in Italy, but is not addressed adequately”.

It added that the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation, forced begging and forced crime is reportedly on the rise The report also said it was “concerned that the conviction rates are very low”. It noted that only 14 human traffickers were convicted in Italy in 2010 and nine in 2011.

The Council of Europe conceded that Italy is particularly vulnerable to migrant smuggling and trafficking, due to its geographical position and long coastline.

The report called on Rome to strengthen efforts to ensure that “crimes related to THB for all types of exploitation are proactively investigated and prosecuted promptly and effectively, leading to proportionate and dissuasive sanctions”.

Italy is struggling to cope with a big increase in the number of migrants coming from North Africa this year. Italy has received over 118,000 arrivals this year, most of them rescued at sea by Italy under its naval operation, Mare Nostrum.

Rome set up Mare Nostrum after 400 people perished in two migrant boat disasters off the coast of Sicily last October.

The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said last week that more than 2,500 people have drowned or gone missing attempting the Mediterranean crossing this year alone, including over 2,200 since the start of June.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Local League Official Accused of Hate Speech on FB

‘What do you throw a drowning gypsy? His wife and kids’

(ANSA) — Treviso, September 22 — An investigation is underway after a local official from the anti-immigrant, federalist Northern League party posted allegedly racist language and images on his public Facebook profile on Monday, then deleted them a few hours later due to a public outcry.

“What do you throw a drowning gypsy? His wife and kids”, wrote Andrea Della Puppa, a League secretary in the village of Maserada in the north-eastern Veneto region.

As well, Della Puppa two days ago posted a quote by former integration minister Cecile Kyenge on the need to extend immigrants a warm welcome, along with a photo of Hitler with a flamethrower and a caption reading “Let them have it, by God!” Della Puppa could be cited under the 2013 Mancino Law, which prosecutes racism, hate crimes, discrimination, and instigation to commit acts inspired by Nazi ideology. Also on Monday, Veneto Governor Luca Zaia condemned Della Puppa’s posts.

“This uncivilized attitude has nothing to do with the League,” said Zaia, calling for Della Puppa to issue a public apology and for the party to discipline him.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lax Naturalization Process Contributes to Homebred Terrorism

Reports of the arrest of another home-based terror suspect was received with diminishing surprise among American newswatchers as the FBI handcuffed another naturalized citizen, Mufid Elfgeeh for plotting against his adopted country. A native of Yemen, where the USS Cole was attacked and President Obama claimed a successful example of American terror policy in his national address September 12, Elfgeeh is another posterboy for lax enforcement of immigration rules by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

USCIS states that the FBI does a background check on people applying for naturalization, but one has to wonder how effectively they are conducted. Consider that many U.S. terror perpetrators and suspects have been onshore by virtue of a green card, some of whom have gone the distance to attain citizenship: Times Square Bomber, Faizal Shahzad, naturalized 2009; Boston Marathon Bombers Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of whom was naturalized September 11, 2012, the same day Benghazi went up in flames and four Americans died; Sami Osmakac, naturalized from Kosovo with a list of targets in the Tampa area; Sohir Omar Kabir, ringleader of a four-man terror cell on trial just last month in Los Angeles for plotting attacks on overseas U.S. military bases; and the list goes on, including the infamous contingent mostly from Saudi Arabia who, green cards in their back pockets, brought down four airliners on September 11, 2001.

And this is just cherry-picking the few from among thousands of potential terror agents that receive temporary and permanent residence permits or are naturalized each year. Nor have we touched on the children of immigrants from around the world who, for some reason or other, have turned on their homeland and rejected their American citizenship. Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter who is the son of Palestinian immigrants, comes to mind.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Insures Democrat Party Wins by Importing More Than 200,000 Syrian Illegal Aliens

More ultra BAD news out of the fortress in Washington, DC, once known as the ‘seat of power’ for America but lately called “Ohhhhhh Migawd Central Command for Socialized Communists” AKA the Oval Office.

This hurtful message comes from our would-be Dictator and Doomsayer, Barack Obama by way of Leo Hohmann at Patriots For America in an online editorial titled, “U. N. To Dump Flood Of Muslim Refugees On U.S.” Of course you will note the headline for Hohmann’s article includes the nefarious and utterly corrupt United Nations as being one of the lead actors in this diabolical scheme.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Common Core, Choice, And Charter Schools

While everyone is out there debating Common Core, there is a system of standardization being put in place. And, if you are unaware of this system, what you don’t know about Common Core, Choice, and Charter Schools CAN hurt you.

This story tells a different Common Core tale with a much different ending than those who support choice might want. What most people are NOT thinking about is why education is one of the most important functions of our Republic. The answer to this question is important for all of us. Not only are we educating our future citizens, but through the local elections of our school board members they have the ultimate authority over our taxing system through property taxes. How do these “education reforms” impact our representative government?

When you consider that there is a movement to destroy our representative government, “common core, choice and charter school initiatives” become the perfect impetus to change our American system by (1) moving away from teaching content to a “conditioning” process, and (2) changing how elected local school board members will no longer be minding our local treasury, property taxes. This overview tells a different story about where we are in this process than what you will find in most other debates about Common Core and Choice. Lets focus on the facts and think about how Charter Schools will impact the future of America.

Think about this. If we no longer have public schools with locally elected school board members, what will happen to your taxes? What happens to your vote and your voice in government? If our public school system is changed to a privatized “choice” system that uses our hard earned taxes with no elected boards, who controls what is taught? The parents? The citizen voters? Charter Schools are the ultimate goal for the takeover of public education. Charter schools are privately owned, usually for profit, with no elected local school board members, and they use public tax money. Plus, parents have no say in how they are run or what is taught…

Now consider this! How can Republicans and Democrats, with the help of President Obama and Secretary Duncan, be sure that ALL children in the United States — ALL CHILDREN, even in every private and religious school — come under the federal thumb of Common Core? They are going to GIVE those Title I funds to EVERY child in private and religious schools with FEDERAL CHOICE. With federal choice ALL schools become government schools and all schools must teach Common Core. This is what federal choice is all about — getting control of all Catholic, Christian, and private schools.

[…]

The Goal: Collapse the taxing structure in your neighborhood.

The Answer: When public schools collapse because of charter school expansion and federal “choice,” this will eliminate taxes based on property. This will seem to equalize rich and poor school districts by funding all children the same. Obama doesn’t think it is “fair” that there are rich school districts and poor school districts. Regionalizing where your tax money goes, and pulling the taxing authority away from the local level toward regional industry clusters, is the plan. Obama’s Equity in Education Plan or “fiscal smoothing” and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act align the skill needs of industries in each state economy or regional economy and places decision-making authority in the hands of unelected workforce development boards.

[Comment: The end result will be equal to the old Soviet education structure. In other words this is communism. America is being “sovietized” in a method akin to the frog in the boiling water.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

French Court Allows Married Lesbians to Adopt Children

France’s highest court has ruled that married lesbians are allowed to adopt their partner’s child born through in vitro fertilization or other medically assisted reproduction.

The Cour de Cassation’s ruling is a consequence of the legalization of gay marriage in France last year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Air Force: ‘So Help Me God’ In Oath Now Optional

U.S. airmen taking their enlistment or officer appointment oaths can omit the words ‘‘so help me God’’ if they choose, Air Force officials announced Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/23/2014

  1. Re: What in the World are they Spraying?

    I’m an aircraft buff, mainly WW2 these days, but in my teens I used to go to London Heathrow and elsewhere, collecting registration numbers. I’d be surprised if I don’t have current counterparts in that hobby, with much more sophisticated resources than were available then. Living just south of central London, I can easily identify which ‘planes are going into Heathrow (if I’m sleeping badly, I hear the first flight in, the 04.35 from Hong Kong), and which into London City Airport. The contrails of high-altitude flights are obviously passenger or military flights overflying the UK, or at least this end of it.

    So I challenge the originator of this article to collaborate with hobbyists to check whether any high-altitude flights cannot be accounted for.

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