Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/25/2014

The mayor of Berkeley, Missouri says that Tuesday’s killing of a black teenager by a white police officer is nothing like last summer’s incident in nearby Ferguson, since in this case the dead youth drew a gun on the cop, who shot him in self-defense. Berkeley is also different from Ferguson in other ways, since the mayor and most police officers in the town are black.

In other news, Swedish police have arrested a 15-year-old boy who they believe is behind at least one of the recent bombings in Malmö.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.

USA
» Berkeley Mayor: Surveillance Video Strong Evidence Officer Fired in Self-Defense
» Rudderless at the Pentagon
» Sony’s ‘Interview’ Draws U.S. Moviegoers Who Trumpet Free Speech
 
Europe and the EU
» France Embroiled in Free Speech Row After Islamophobic TV Presenter is Sacked for Saying Muslims ‘Should be Deported to Prevent Civil War’
» She’s a Long Way From Home… Princess Mary of Denmark and Her Handsome Prince Offer a Glimpse Inside Their Stunning Palace Worlds Away From Her Far More Humble Roots
» Sweden: Breaking: Mosque Arson Empties Apartment Block
» Sweden: Boy Arrested for Malmö Office Bombing
» Sweden: Teenager Arrested Over Malmö Bomb
» Swedish Mosque Hit by Arson in Eskilstuna, Injuring Five
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» ‘Israel the Only Place in Middle East Where Christians Are Safe’
 
Middle East
» Iran Denies Late Leader Khomeini Ordered Pope Shooting, Dismissing Claims by Turkish Gunman
» Saudi Women Drivers Referred to Terrorism Court
» Turkish Teen Arrested for Insulting President, Could Face Up to 4 Years in Prison if Convicted
» US Military Equipment Being Detoured for Possible Battle vs. ISIS
 
Russia
» From Russia With No Love: Party-Pooping Putin Cancels Holiday Vacation
 
Far East
» China City Bans Christmas in Schools, Warns Over ‘Western’ Culture
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigeria: Father Gives 13-Year-Old Daughter to Boko Haram
 
Immigration
» Europe’s Brutal African Borders ‘A Tragedy’
» Third of Italians Back Anti-Immigrant Party
 
General
» Christians and Churches Attacked in the West
 

Berkeley Mayor: Surveillance Video Strong Evidence Officer Fired in Self-Defense

BERKELEY, Mo. (KMOX) — Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins is hoping to avert the kind of street violence that he saw in neighboring Ferguson just a few months ago.

This comes after another black teen was killed by a white police officer — the difference is that the suspect reportedly aimed a gun at the officer first.

Hoskins says from what he’s seen on the surveillance tape, this is not a repeat of Ferguson, and the officer was justified.

He says the surveillance video from the Mobil on the Run gas station is strong preliminary evidence that the Berkeley officer fired in self-defense after a gun was pointed at him.

“In a city that’s 85 percent black, we have a majority police department. So, our police officers are more sensitive,” Hoskins said.

There are 17 to 18 black police officers on the force out of 31 total officers, he later said…

[Return to headlines]
 

Rudderless at the Pentagon

by Srdja Trifkovic

Chuck Hagel’s abrupt departure from the Pentagon on November 24 became inevitable after weeks of disagreement with the White House over strategy against the Islamic State (IS). The split had become public a month earlier, when Hagel’s blunt two-page memorandum on Middle East policy was leaked to the press. Addressed to national security advisor Susan Rice, the memo warned that the campaign against the Islamic State would unravel unless there was greater clarity regarding Washington’s intentions in Syria.

Hagel was ambivalent. On the one hand, he was uncomfortable with the insistence of humanitarian bombers on Obama’s team—notably Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power—that targeting the regime of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad should be an integral part of anti-IS strategy. On the other, he was aware that the nascent anti-IS coalition could unravel if its stridently anti-Assad members, such as Saudi Arabia, decided that the effort was no longer worth their while. All along he was unable to spell out what would constitute victory against the Islamic State and how the current strategy is going to achieve it.

To make things worse for Hagel, his relations with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had become strained because of the latter’s doubts about Obama’s “no boots on the ground” approach to the Islamic State. On several occasions last fall Dempsey indicated that eventually American ground troops may be needed in anti-IS operations in Iraq—”we’re certainly considering it,” he told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony on November 13—but the White House remained adamant that this would not happen. In addition, Dempsey is believed to favor rapprochement with Bashar’s regime as the only viable anti-IS force on the ground, but Hagel was unwilling to support such a radical policy shift. In the end Hagel looked almost irrelevant: When Dempsey testified in the House in mid-November, some congressmen behaved as if Hagel was not in the room; and he acted as if he did not have much to say.

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]
 

Sony’s ‘Interview’ Draws U.S. Moviegoers Who Trumpet Free Speech

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES Dec 25 (Reuters) — “The Interview,” the Sony Pictures film about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, opened in more than 300 movie theaters across the United States on Christmas Day, drawing many sell-out audiences and statements by patrons that they were championing freedom of expression.

Co-directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, who also co-stars in the low-brow comedy with James Franco, surprised moviegoers by appearing at the sold-out 12:30 a.m. PT (0830 GMT) screening of the movie at a theater in Los Angeles, where they briefly thanked fans for their support.

Sony Pictures this week backtracked from its original decision to cancel the release of the $44 million film after major U.S. theater chains pulled out because of threats of violence by Guardians of Peace, a computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for a destructive cyberattack on Sony last month.

The United States blamed the attacks on North Korea.

[Return to headlines]
 

France Embroiled in Free Speech Row After Islamophobic TV Presenter is Sacked for Saying Muslims ‘Should be Deported to Prevent Civil War’

France is engulfed in a free speech row after a TV commentator was sacked for appearing to suggest all 5million of the country’s Muslims should be deported to prevent civil war.

The comments by Éric Zemmour, who has previously been convicted of inciting racial hatred, prompted outrage and led to him being dropped from an 11-year stint on a chat show.

But many sprang to the best-selling author’s defence including the far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who declared the move ‘loathsome censorship’.

Mr Zemmour’s interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera went largely unnoticed on the other side of the Alps for more than a month after it appeared in October.

It sparked a public debate, however, after the comments were picked up by former French education minister Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Although the original interview has been deleted from Corriere della Sera’s website, it was copied and translated several times by people on both sides of France’s political divide.

In the interview Mr Zemmour said Muslims ‘live among themselves’ in suburbs which French people have been forced to leave, according to one of his supporters.

The interviewer then asked: ‘Then what are you suggesting? To deport 5million French Muslims?’

Mr Zemmour is said to have replied: ‘I know it’s unrealistic, but history is often surprising.

‘Who would have thought in 1940 that a million pieds-noirs [Europeans living in North Africa], twenty years later, would have left Algeria to return to France?

‘Or that after the war five or six million Germans would leave Central-Eastern Europe where they had lived for centuries?’…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

She’s a Long Way From Home… Princess Mary of Denmark and Her Handsome Prince Offer a Glimpse Inside Their Stunning Palace Worlds Away From Her Far More Humble Roots

It’s a long way from Tasmania, where Princess Mary of Denmark grew up in a small brick house on a quiet residential street.

Danish officials have shared pictures of the stunning Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, where Princess Mary, Crown Prince Frederik and their four children call home.

Dating back to the 1700s, the rococo style interiors are on full display including richly decorated walls, beautiful murals and intricate crystal chandeliers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Breaking: Mosque Arson Empties Apartment Block

A room used as a mosque in Eskilstuna was set alight and five people have been hurt by the blaze.

Swedish television SVT says a witness told them a man with a bottle of petrol was seen near the room’s entrance just before the fire broke out.

Police say to news agency TT the fire started when an object was thrown through the window.

It is the Somali association that uses the room, and they were having prayers today.

Around 20 people were inside, including children. Police say to news agency TT that no one is seriously injured.

The fire started after 1 pm on Christmas Day in a tower block’s meeting room that is used as a mosque.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Boy Arrested for Malmö Office Bombing

A boy has been arrested, suspected of causing an explosion on Christmas Eve.

There have been four explosions near a property owning company’s offices and police are looking for more suspects.

The 15-year-old boy is held on suspicion of at least one of the detonations in Malmö’s Rosengård area.

And police are also investigating a possible case of arson at Rosengård fire station.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Teenager Arrested Over Malmö Bomb

A 15-year-old has been arrested after a series of new explosions rocked the Malmö suburb of Rosengpård on Christmas Eve.

The attacks were again directed against the premises of a property company.

Police were called to the scene at 6.12pm on Wednesday. No one is reported to have been injured in the attack.

“A window has been completely destroyed. The frame is just hanging off. Parts of it are ten to fifteen metres away,” said freelance photographer Karsten Petersen.

Police technicians have investigated the premises.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Mosque Hit by Arson in Eskilstuna, Injuring Five

An arsonist set fire to a mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna on Thursday, injuring five people, police said.

About 15 to 20 people were attending midday prayers in the mosque, located in the ground floor of a residential building, when the fire broke out on Christmas Day.

Local media footage showed smoke and flames billowing from the windows before firefighters put the blaze out.

The incident comes amid a fierce debate in Sweden over immigration policies.

The far right wants to cut the number of asylum seekers allowed into Sweden by 90%, while mainstream parties are intent on preserving the country’s liberal policy.

“A witness saw somebody throw an object through the window of the building, which serves as a mosque, after which a violent fire began,” police spokesman Lars Franzell told reporters.

He said five people were taken to hospital for treatment of injuries ranging from smoke inhalation to lacerations.

Police are treating the incident as arson but no arrests have been made so far, Mr Franzell added…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

‘Israel the Only Place in Middle East Where Christians Are Safe’

Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Nadaf, a leader of the Aramaean Christian minority in Israel, spoke before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday in a strong show of support for the Jewish state.

“Across the Middle East, in the last ten years, 100,000 Christians have been murdered each year. That means that every five minutes a Christian is killed because of his faith,” reported Nadaf. “Those who can escape persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists have fled. …Those who remain, exist as second if not third class citizens to their Muslim rulers.”

Nadaf continued “in the Middle East today, there is one country where Christianity is not only not persecuted, but affectionately granted freedom of expression, freedom of worship and security. …It is Israel, the Jewish State. Israel is the only place where Christians in the Middle East are safe.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Denies Late Leader Khomeini Ordered Pope Shooting, Dismissing Claims by Turkish Gunman

Iran has rejected claims by Mehmet Ali Agca that late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered him to assassinate Pope John Paul II.

The Turkish gunman earlier this week reiterated in a Serbian TV interview the claims he made in his book “They Promised Me Paradise.” Agca says he told John Paul of the Iranian connection when he visited him in prison.

The Iranian Embassy in Belgrade on Thursday strongly denied the claims, saying “Imam Khomeini during his rich spiritual life maintained very good relations with different religions, including the pope.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Women Drivers Referred to Terrorism Court

Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred on Thursday to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said.

Activists said it marks the first time that women drivers have been referred to the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, and that their detention is the longest of female drivers in Saudi history.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Teen Arrested for Insulting President, Could Face Up to 4 Years in Prison if Convicted

Turkish media reports say a teenager was taken away from his school and detained by police for allegedly insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Hurriyet newspaper says the 16-year-old high-school student, identified only by his initials M.E.A., was arrested Wednesday in the central city of Konya for making a speech at a student protest a day earlier. The boy reportedly said Erdogan was regarded as the “thieving owner of the illegal palace” in reference to a government corruption scandal as well as a controversial 1,150-room new palace Erdogan inaugurated in October.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defended the arrest Thursday saying: “the presidential office needs to be shown respect.”

The boy could face up to four years in prison if convicted of insulting the president.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Military Equipment Being Detoured for Possible Battle vs. ISIS

The U.S. military has been stockpiling huge quantities of gear in Kuwait in preparation for shipping it across the border into Iraq for possible use in a coordinated offensive against the terrorist group Islamic State, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The gear is being housed near a busy commercial port, which is now the place where roughly 3,100 vehicles — mostly ambush-protected vehicles known as MRAPs — are parked, in addition to electronic equipment and other supplies, the magazine reported, citing defense officials.

The gear, which is primarily from the U.S. Army, will be repaired and assessed for use as planners decide what the United States and its allies will need to defeat Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

From Russia With No Love: Party-Pooping Putin Cancels Holiday Vacation

Vladimir Putin delivered a lump of coal in the Kremlin’s stocking this year when he announced Thursday that he has canceled holiday vacations for members of the government.

Russia’s President delivered the bad news at a December 25 meeting he convened of his government, but for those thinking that his timing was merely the diabolical twist of a maniacal scrooge, Christmas is celebrated in Russia on January 7, the traditional date in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

“The Government and its various structures cannot afford such extensive holidays, at least not this year,” Putin told government ministers in a speech broadcast on state television. “You know what I am talking about.”

He was talking about Russia’s battered economy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China City Bans Christmas in Schools, Warns Over ‘Western’ Culture

BEIJING (AFP) — A Chinese city has banned schools from holding Christmas events, state media reported on Thursday, highlighting official suspicions about the increasingly popular festival because of its foreign origins.

China’s Christian population, currently estimated at around 60 million, is rapidly growing and Christmas is increasingly marked in the country ruled by the officially atheist Communist Party.

But the government education bureau in Wenzhou, an eastern Chinese coastal city sometimes called “China’s Jerusalem” because of its large Christian population, banned schools from holding “Christmas-related” events, the Global Times reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Father Gives 13-Year-Old Daughter to Boko Haram

A 13-year-old says her father gave her to Boko Haram extremists and that she was arrested after refusing to explode a suicide bomb in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city in the north.

Nigeria has suffered numerous suicide bombings in recent months carried out by girls and young women. That has raised fears that the insurgents are using kidnapped girls.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe’s Brutal African Borders ‘A Tragedy’

Just across the sea from the sunny tourist beaches of southern Spain where many Europeans spend their Christmas holidays, a violent crisis is intensifying on Europe’s borders with Africa.

Every week, hundreds of Africans try to scramble over the high fences that encircle Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish-ruled enclaves on the northern tip of Morocco.

Countless migrants and security officers are injured as the Moroccan military, on one side, and a few hundred Spanish police on the other, chase Africans seeking to cross.

Spain has ruled the two tiny territories — barely 30 square kilometres of land between them — for hundreds of years, defying Morocco’s claims to them.

Spain insists it has the right to defend the territories and the 170,000 Spaniards living in them — notably against the threat of Islamic extremists crossing the border from Morocco.

But it is feeling the strain of doing so.

Nearly 4,700 undocumented migrants have infiltrated Melilla thus far this year, the interior ministry said — up from 3,000 in 2013.

“It is a situation of maximum pressure,” said the Spanish government’s delegate in Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani.

“Melilla’s immigration problem affects not only Spain and Morocco. It is a problem for the whole European Union.”

Ceuta sits in a strategic spot 22 kilometres from Gibraltar across the mouth of the Mediterranean, with Melilla 210 kilometres to the east. To guard their fences, 600 Civil Guards are stationed in each of the territories.

The Spanish government says nearly 20,000 migrants have tried to storm the six-metre, triple layer fence at Melilla this year alone…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Third of Italians Back Anti-Immigrant Party

More than one third of Italians — including many in the once-hostile south — are ready to vote for the anti-EU, anti-immigration Northern League, a poll showed on Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Christians and Churches Attacked in the West

by Raymond Ibrahim

“You have a cross on… Do you know what we do to people like you?” — Muslim in Denmark.

Muslim Fulani gunmen forced their way into the church, cut (the pastor), his wife and a daughter with a machete, and then tied the hands and feet of the three of them before setting the building on fire… We only found the charred remains of the three of them in the morning. I heard them shouting at the top of their voices, saying they must obliterate any traces of Christianity in the town.” — Eyewitness account, Nigeria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/25/2014

  1. Anders Breivik’s defence lawyer Geir Lippestad
    speaks to VG+ (payable) about the nazi relative

    Quisling Minister Johan Andreas Lippestad
    is his close family

    Until recently, Geir Lippestad did not want to search for this very close nazi family history, according to VG.

    The Quisling minister’s father is Geir Lippestad’s great grandfather, according to wiki

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