A Saudi Man has been sentenced to death for renouncing the Islamic faith. In addition to his apostasy, he committed the heinous crimes of tearing up a Koran and hitting it with his shoe, recording it all on video.
In other news, kinetic activists of the Islamic State abducted at least 90 Christians from villages in Syria. The incident had nothing to do with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, DRK, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, RL, 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.
14 Signs That Most Americans Are Flat Broke and Totally Unprepared for the Coming Economic Crisis
When the coming economic crisis strikes, more than half the country is going to be financially wiped out within weeks. At this point, more than 60 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and a whopping 24 percent of the country has more credit card debt than emergency savings. One of the primary principles that any of these “financial experts” that you see on television will teach you is to have a cushion to fall back on. At the very least, you never know when unexpected expenses like major car repairs or medical bills will come along. And in the event of a major economic collapse, if you do not have any financial cushion at all you will be a sitting duck. Yes, I know that there are millions upon millions of families out there that are just trying to scrape by from month to month at this point. I hear from people that are deeply struggling in this economy all the time. So I don’t blame them for not being able to save lots of money. But if you are in a position to build up an emergency fund, you need to do so. We have been experiencing an extended period of relative economic stability, but it will not last. In fact, the time for getting prepared for the next great economic downturn is rapidly running out, and most Americans are not ready for it at all. The following are 14 signs that most Americans are flat broke and totally unprepared for the coming economic crisis:
#1 According to a survey that was just released, 24 percent of all Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings.
#2 That same survey discovered that an additional 13 percent of all Americans do not have any credit card debt, but they do not have a single penny of emergency savings either.
#3 At this point, approximately 62 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ECB Says Greece’s Reform List a ‘Valid Starting Point’
The European Central Bank said Tuesday the reforms drawn up by Greece in return for a bailout extension were a “valid starting point” for talks, but that they differed in a number of areas from the existing programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Agrees on Greek Bailout Extension
Spiegel reported on Tuesday that Eurozone finance ministers had agreed the details of a financial aid programme for Greece in a conference call.
The ministers have been discussing a proposal from Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis since 1pm.
Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said earlier on Tuesday that he was “cautiously optimistic that on Friday and today we have moved, step by step, towards a solution to the conflict,” Gabriel said.
Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem had said that the call would only go ahead if the EU, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) judged the reforms went far enough.
“I think they are very serious” about the reforms, Dijsselbloem said, before adding that “it is not going to be easy. This is just a first step.”
And In Berlin, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble asked the Bundestag (German parliament) to schedule time for a vote on the hoped-for deal.
Germany’s ruling coalition between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD), led by Gabriel, are due to have a high-level meeting to discuss the proposal on Tuesday evening.
Eurozone finance ministers hope that the deal will allow Greece to avoid bankruptcy and reassure its creditors, who have already bailed the country out to the tune of €240 billion plus a debt writedown of €100 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Strong Economy Makes for €18-Billion Surplus
Germany’s public finances were back in the black in 2014, as growth in Europe’s biggest economy shifted up a gear at the end of the year, official data showed Tuesday.
A group of people from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Syria sustained injuries after a van they were driving in overturned and crashed into a field on Tuesday morning, close to a small southern city of Leskovac. Of the 40 people injured in the accident, 20 were seriously hurt and five remained in a critical condition.
In recent months, tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians have also attempted to illegally enter Hungary by going through Serbia, and apply for asylum in western Europe .
Serbia borders three EU countries and is a well-known route for smuggling immigrants, drugs and weapons into western Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Debt Crisis: Eurozone Backs Reform Plans
Eurozone finance ministers have approved reform proposals submitted by Greece as a condition for extending its bailout by four months, officials say.
The Eurogroup said it had agreed to begin national procedures — parliamentary votes in several states to give the deal final approval.
The measures offered by Greece include combating tax evasion and reforming the public sector.
But the head of the IMF said they lacked “clear assurances” in key areas.
Greece’s debt stands at more than €320bn (£237bn), and its current €240bn bailout expires on Saturday. Fresh funding will not be released until Greece’s proposals are approved in detail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I Strongly Oppose ‘Audit the Fed, ‘ Yellen Says
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen testified before Congress on Tuesday after presenting her semiannual monetary policy report.
[Comment: An employee of the Fed opposes auditing of the Fed. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Agrees With Aid, ‘Greece Has Returned to Reality’
Say parliamentary sources
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, FEBRUARY 24 — German chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that she backed a four-month extension to an international aid program to Greece. The Athens government under Alexis Tsipras has slowly come back to reality, Merkel reportedly said during a meeting with CDU/CSU MPs, parliamentary sources told the APA news agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Grexit Dilemma: What Would Happen if Greece Leaves the Euro Zone?
Banks across Europe, including the European Central Bank, are preparing for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone. With Athens and Brussels still at odds, such an eventuality seems more realistic than ever. But how disruptive would a Grexit really be?
In the final analysis, leaving the euro zone would be an almost incalculable economic risk for Greece, but one which could pay political dividends. The reverse is true for the euro zone. As such, it is hardly surprising that cracks have become apparent in the Greek facade in recent weeks. Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis, for example, has made several concessions to his European counterparts only to see his prime minister withdraw them again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Invisible Chains of Debt Slavery: “Americans Are More Dependent Than Ever Before”
Editor’s Note: Are we slaves today? Or are we free men? The question might sound insulting on many fronts: of course we’re not slaves — we make our own choices on the free market as to what to eat, what to wear, where to go, what to do for fun and the like. Moreover, comparing our current condition, even if not ideal, to the slavery of days past when people were put in chains and treated as subhuman seems insulting to those who endured it.
But for those brave enough to face the question, perhaps you have realized that this era is one of economic bondage, of slavery primarily through financial means. Just as many serfs and indentured servants were, we are free to move about, but yet we are not free. With mountains of debt saddled on the vast majority of us, and a long chain of taxes and conditions blocking anyone from true ownership and true prosperity, we dare not call ourselves free in our true heart of hearts. There is something better, and we know it. Those who read this blog know that we are being controlled and manipulated through our financial system, our fiat currency and the invisible chains of debt. Until we address these factors, only a few can truly call themselves free:
Most Americans Are Slaves And They Don’t Even Know It
Most Americans spend their lives working for others, paying off debts to others and performing tasks that others tell them that they “must” do. These days, we don’t like to think of ourselves as “servants” or “slaves”, but that is what the vast majority of us are. It is just that the mechanisms of our enslavement have become much more sophisticated over time. It has been said that the borrower is the servant of the lender, and most of us start going into debt very early into our adult years. In fact, those that go to college to “get an education” are likely to enter the “real world” with a staggering amount of debt. And of course that is just the beginning of the debt accumulation. Today, when you add up all mortgage debt, all credit card debt and all student loan debt, the average American household is carrying a grand total of 203,163 dollars of debt.
[Comment: Not just Americans — every country that has a private central bank. The country goes into debt and pays the private groups that own this bank interest payments. But the debt never gets cleared — it always grows. Result: hidden slavery. Take a look at Libya — when Libya was in total chaos what was one of the first things done? The creation of a central bank owned by private groups.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Throw Your Grandma Under the Bus
Merkel and Schäuble decided to save Wall Street mogul and derivatives behemoth Deutsche Bank at the cost of the Greek people. Not for economic reasons, but because Deutsche has much more political power inside the European Union than the entire Greek nation. Now you know what’s so inherently wrong in that union. Same story for France, where BNP, SocGen and Crédit Agricole had humongous amounts of debt outstanding in Athens. Where’s all that debt now, where’s it gone? Well, check your wallet.
When the decision came to throw either their own biggest banks, or the grandmas of a co-member nation of the currency union under the bus, I don’t think they even hesitated; they probably only went looking for the most efficient way to do it. And they have control over the perfect vehicle for such tasks: the ECB. A allegedly neutral institution that in reality peddles political influence in a way that guarantees the poorer countries will always wind up footing the bill.
And now that the systemic risk that Greece still might have been is effectively gone, and the debt has been transferred to the union’s bottom dwellers, Merkel and Schäuble can talk tough to Greece. Even if it wasn’t the Greeks that created this mess, it was Merkel and the Frankfurt bank CEO’s she confers with on a daily basis.
Banks are more important than people, certainly grandmas. That’s true on Wall Street, and it’s true all over Europe. But it’s still just a political decision. And one that could be reversed as easily as it was taken. Which it what the paymasters find so scary about Syriza.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This is the rising sentiment among farmers of the US as a confluence of factors urges them to become pro-organic. From falling GMO grain prices to a rising tide of public distrust of genetically modified ingredients, failing GMO traits, higher GMO seed prices, and the premium prices that people willingly pay for quality food over toxic junk, the conventional farmer is changing his tune when it comes to Big Ag practices.
Even if profit is the cornerstone on which this change is based, it is still telling. After all, experts project over $35 billion in sales for organic, non-GMO foods in 2015, and as GMO corn, soy and other GM grain prices rise, along with the costs to grow them (associated with more pesticide and herbicide use to control super weeds, for example) farmers are looking past the GMO propaganda which promised higher yields and more cash for farmers who grew their poison crops.
This phenomenon is explained clearly in “The Genetic Engineering of Food and the Failure of Science” (full text available for download here) published in The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food…
Other farmers are considering the switch because they are tired of super-weeds. One corn breeder who preferred to remain anonymous for a recent interview stated:
“The insect and herbicide traits are losing effectiveness with increased resistant rootworm and weed species. Growers are tired of paying for input costs that are reduced in efficacy and funding additional forms of crop protection.”
Iowa State University weed specialist Bob Hartzler seconds that sentiment in an interview with Iowa Farmer Today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
75% of Air and Rain Samples Contain Monsanto’s Round Up
A new study proves just how invasive Monsanto’s best selling chemicals are, revealing how herbicide toxins are appearing in 75% of rain and air samples.
Take a deep breath. Thanks to the massive use of herbicides across the planet, you likely just inhaled a dose of Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide, Round Up; at least according to the latest US Geological Survey published in the journal Enviromental Toxicology and Chemistry.
The chemical ingredient used in Round Up, known as glyphosate, as well as other ‘inert’ toxic chemicals, were found in over 75% of the air and rain samples tested from Mississippi in 2007, a large river that cuts through the middle of the US, and is the basin in which hundreds of farms’ runoff drains. An evaluation of numerous pesticides currently used were measured through water and air samples collected from 1995 to 2007 during growing season along the Mississippi Delta agricultural region. If 75% of samples containing Round Up isn’t shocking enough, there’s more:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amid Controversy, Oil Trains Quietly Rerouted Through Virginia Towns
(Reuters) — Hundreds of communities across the United States have become accustomed to the sight of mile-long oil trains rumbling by in recent years. Pembroke, Virginia, was not one of them, until now.
CSX Corp is temporarily rerouting up to five oil trains through this small riverside town to bypass the site of an explosive oil train derailment that occurred 90 miles north in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Monday. The trains will likely travel instead on a track that hugs the New River and at one point sweeps into the Pembroke town limits.
In line with a federal protocol established last year following a string of fiery derailments across North America, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management on Tuesday informed 16 counties and cities that oil trains could be coming through their towns, local officials and fire departments said, one day after the Mount Carbon derailment. Those counties passed the information on to local emergency responders.
“They sent us information and gave us an emergency response guide sheet,” said Chris Neice, Pembroke’s fire chief.
CSX has notified the state that as many as five trains, each carrying between about 24,000 and 70,000 barrels of oil, will be rerouted, according to Jeff Stern, state coordinator at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. The trains will run along a Norfolk Southern line that normally transports coal and freight, not oil, until the main route is restored.
That this is happening with little fanfare in Pembroke and potentially hundreds of other cities and towns along this track stretching as far as Ohio, highlights how ubiquitous oil trains have become in the United States, where crude-by-rail is an essential, yet sometimes explosive, fix for an overwhelmed pipeline network.
| — Hat tip: DRK | [Return to headlines] |
At New York Private Schools, Challenging White Privilege From the Inside
On a recent morning, 20 or so high school students, most of them white, milled about the meetinghouse at Friends Seminary, a private school in Manhattan. They were trying to unload on their classmates slips of paper on which they had jotted down words related to the topic “Things I don’t want to be called.”
Several girls tried get to rid of “ditsy.” A sophomore in jeans and a gray hoodie who identifies as Asian-American was seeking to unload “minority.” And several white students, including a long-limbed girl in a checkered lumberjack shirt, wanted to get rid of “privileged.” Under the rules of the exercise, no other student was obligated to accept it.
“It’s just a very strong word to use,” the last girl said. “I don’t want to be identified with that just because my parents can afford things. I think it has a negative connotation.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Big Barbie is Watching You: Meet the Wifi-Connected Doll That Talks to Your Kids & Records Them
Earlier this month, I highlighted the fact that the latest Samsung Smart TV can and will listen to your conversations, and will share the details with a third party in the post: A Very Slippery Slope — Yes, Your Samsung Smart TV Can Listen to Your Private Conversations.
Well a couple of weeks later, and we learn that Mattel’s latest high-tech Barbie doll will bring the “internet of things” right into your child’s playpen. From the The Register:
Toymaker Mattel has unveiled a high-tech Barbie that will listen to your child, record its words, send them over the internet for processing, and talk back to your kid. It will email you, as a parent, highlights of your youngster’s conversations with the toy.
[Comment: Conditioning the next generation to telescreens in all its varieties. A conversation with a Barbie — the child would be better off playing with friends her own age. Another gadget to disconnect humans from each other.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Planning Major Expansion of Cyber-Espionage Capabilities
The CIA, usually known for its human-based intelligence gathering work, has announced plans to expand its cyber-espionage operations.
The changes will come as part of a restructuring effort after the agency decided that in the age of digital media, it’s traditional, human-centered approach to intelligence gathering is behind the times, US officials told the Washington Post.
“[CIA Director John] Brennan is trying to update the agency to make sure it is prepared to tackle the challenges in front of it,” said a U.S. official familiar with the plan told the Post, adding that “I just don’t think you can separate the digital world people operate in” from the CIA’s traditional methods.
Though it’s not confirmed, the agency may go so far as to create a new cyber directorate as part of a shift to break down barriers between its analysis and operations branches. However, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said that “final decisions have not yet been made with respect to agency reorganization efforts.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Columbus Man Helped Terrorists, Indictment Says
A West Side man is accused of supporting Middle Eastern terrorists through money laundering and by providing resources in what prosecutors say is the first indictment of its kind in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Abdirahman S. Mohamud, 23, was arrested on Saturday at his home at 3762 Dunlane Court, and is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday. In a motion filed today, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien is seeking a $2.5 million bond, writing that Mohamud “is a public safety risk as well as has every reason to flee the country.”
[This creature is a Somali, from the look of him. So … which Middle Eastern terrorists, may we ask? Perhaps al-Shabaab, the Somali group that just encouraged its sympathizers to strike the Mall of America in Minnesota? Plenty of big malls in Ohio, too. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Columbia Leads List of America’s Top 10 Colleges ‘With Worst Antisemitic Activity’
New York’s Columbia University is home to the worst antisemitic activity in the United States, according to a list compiled by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a conservative think-tank based in California.
The Center unveiled its first list of the 10 US campuses with the worst antisemitic activity in 2014 as part of a new campaign entitled “Jew Hatred on Campus,” aimed at bringing awareness to antisemitism at colleges and universities throughout the nation. The group also says it seeks to encourage university administrators to withdraw privileges from the groups that spread hate on the campuses.
According to the Center, Columbia University is listed first because it is home to the “most well-known antisemitic professors in the nation such as Rashid Khalidi and Joseph Massad, who has been accused of harassing Jewish students on multiple occasions. In addition, it is home to a highly active SJP chapter that has recently brought BDS founder Omar Barghouti and disgraced antisemitic professor Steven Salaita to campus.”
The Center also cited a number of offending events held at Columbia University in 2014, such as Israeli Apartheid Week and a protest with signs that read “Call to Action: Stand with Gaza.”…
| — Hat tip: RL | [Return to headlines] |
Comcast, Al Sharpton Hit With $20 Billion Racial Discrimination Lawsuit
Even though the FCC hasn’t yet ruled on the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, one group has already filed a lawsuit claiming at least $20 billion in damages from the way the two giants allegedly discriminate against black-owned media.
The complaint, filed in California on Friday, comes from the National Association of African-American Owned Media, which also filed a similar suit against AT&T and DirecTV in December.
This time, the plaintiff is not only targeting both Comcast and TWC — on the eve of the two companies merging to become what would be the largest pay television distributor in the United States — but also various African-American advocacy groups and MSNBC host Al Sharpton for allegedly facilitating discrimination.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
DOJ Announces it Will Not File Charges Against Zimmerman in Martin Shooting
The Justice Department announced Tuesday it will not file federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, the Florida man who was acquitted last year of second-degree murder for shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
“Though a comprehensive investigation found that the high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution cannot be met under the circumstances here, this young man’s premature death necessitates that we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in written statement. “We, as a nation, must take concrete steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.”
[An MMA-style brawler like Trayvon Martin is never unarmed. He had knocked Zimmerman on his back without provocation and was threatening his life with blunt-force trauma to the head. And what “concrete steps” is Eric Holder talking about? They should be directed at black thug culture instead of white gun culture — but guess which one Eric Holder and his boss would rather suppress. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-FCC Chief “Shocked” By Feds’ Attempt to Regulate Internet
Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell told CNBC today that he was shocked by the federal agency’s rush to regulate the Internet as a vote looms on a 332 page plan that remains secret.
“The order goes far beyond protecting net neutrality which was the original purpose and in fact introduces a new regulatory regime for the Internet,” said Powell, adding “I think it’s fair to say we are shocked.”
Powell downplayed concerns made by net neutrality advocates about ISPs blocking or throttling content, asserting, “They’ve never done any of the things that net neutrality purports to be protecting.”
“For three decades we’ve been retreating from this regulatory model in virtually every space of communication and we’re gonna now apply that regime to the most dynamic, innovative, free willing network in world history,” added Powell, explaining his shock at President Obama appearing in a YouTube video to direct the FCC to implement the new regulatory measures.
[Comment: Banksters and their puppets don’t like the free dissemination of truth. Control the population by controlling the information. Hence their desire to control the internet.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI, Cops Raid Republic of Texas Meeting, Fingerprint Members, Seize Cellphones, Computers
County Sheriff’s Office, the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI raided a congressional meeting for the Republic of Texas held in Bryan, Texas.
More than 20 police and agents prevented the members from leaving, seized their cellphones, recording equipment, computers and fingerprinted them.
The raid was in response to to legal summons sent by Republic of Texas members to a Kerr County judge and bank employee. The organization demanded the judge and bank employee appear before Republic of Texas court held at the Veterans and Foreign Wars building in Bryan on the day the police raided the meeting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FedEx Refuses to Ship Revolutionary Gun Making Tool
International shipping company FedEx stands accused of refusing to ship a small business owner’s gun-related product, in what the entrepreneur claims is an underhanded attack on gun rights, individual liberty and the Second Amendment.
Dark Wallet innovator and 3D printed gun inventor Cody Wilson says FedEx’s refusal to ship his company’s latest product, the Ghost Gunner, has left him with no way to fulfill paying customers’ orders, effectively putting him out of business.
FedEx’s refusal is bizarre because the Ghost Gunner isn’t a gun. It’s a machine.
“It’s like a computer controlled mill, but it’s small, it’s affordable, it sits on your desktop,” described Wilson to Infowars. “And, notably, it can capably manufacture an AR-15 lower receiver from 80 percent manufacture.”
Wilson says FedEx’s move is purely political, and accuses the global courier of colluding with the federal government to take him out of business and ostensibly prevent the spread of firearms.
“My assertion here is that FedEx is trying to hide behind color of law,” Wilson argues. “Really they’re more interested in the political implications of my device than its legality. They don’t like the idea; they’re uncomfortable with the idea that people could have such easy access to guns, and will perform by extension what Eric Holder and the administration cannot do.”
After weeks of stalling, Wilson’s company, Defense Distributed, was ultimately denied service.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds: Fear Patriots, Not Murdering Terrorists — Video
Alex Jones discusses how the government has said that the real group to fear is not radical Muslims, but liberty-loving patriots.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Silicon Valley, Can Clinton Harness Excitement Like Obama 8 Years Ago?
By Philip Rucker and Matea Gold
SAN FRANCISCO — Early in the 2008 presidential race, the Bay Area swooned over Barack Obama. In his first official trip here, the relatively unknown candidate was greeted by shouts of “Mr. President!” Technology executives feted him at their mansions. Local papers described the buzz as “deafening.” Obama would go on to raise more than $38 million in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
Fast-forward eight years: As Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares to enter the 2016 presidential campaign as an overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination, she is viewed here more as respected establishment than exciting start-up. She is not seen as the kind of transformational candidate that Obama was, particularly within the technology community.
“I don’t hear a lot of, ‘Oh, boy, Hillary is going to fix all these problems we have as a country,’?” said Jim Greer, founder of Kongregate, a Web and mobile gaming platform. “I don’t think there’s a Silicon Valley candidate in this race yet.”
Even so, Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have been busy cultivating personal relationships with many of tech’s boldface names.
[…]
In the years since, Silicon Valley has experienced explosive growth in wealth, minting scores of new millionaires and billionaires who could be tapped for large donations to Clinton’s campaign and an alliance of independent groups poised to back her bid.
[…]
To win them over, however, Clinton will have to navigate a thorny issue that has soured the relationship between Obama and many longtime Silicon Valley allies: his administration’s national security surveillance practices. Tech leaders who have taken new measures to make it more difficult for the government to track their customers will be watching closely to see how Clinton addresses the topic.
[…]
Asked to describe Clinton’s base, (Democratic fund-raiser Wade) Randlett said: “Out here, middle-aged women are the equivalent of the 22-year-olds in 2007. They are as crazy for Hillary as the kids were for Barack.”
[The prospect of this gorgon, who has worked with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to criminalize the so-called “defamation of religions” (read: telling the grim truth about Islam), in the Oval Office is truly ominous. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Indictment of New York Officer Divides Chinese-Americans
In Chinatown in Manhattan, it is the ultimate feel-good holiday: a time for joy, for festive red bunting and for stocking up on dumplings and rice-flour cake. Discord and heavy thoughts, according to custom, can wait until after the Lunar New Year.
But even as Phil Gim, a businessman in Whitestone, Queens, sent holiday greetings to friends and relatives in China through WeChat, a popular social media app, he found himself preoccupied with grimmer news. Churning through WeChat was a torrent of messages denouncing the indictment this month on manslaughter charges of Peter Liang, the Chinese-American police officer whose ricocheting bullet killed an unarmed black man, Akai Gurley, in a housing project stairwell in November.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Obvious Obama Doesn’t Love America or Americans
As a red-blooded American who loves my country, I second Giuliani’s assessment of Barack Hussein Obama. We do not know Obama. We question his origins, his fraudulent Social Security number, his forged-backdated Selective Service number, his hidden college records, his foreign beneficiaries as to money for Columbia and Harvard, his mediocre grades that led to those top colleges accepting him, and his whereabouts during his formative years. He spent millions of dollars to seal his high school records, his college records, his passport and more. No one steps forth to talk about any high school or college classrooms he shared with them. He’s a ghost on the American landscape, but he’s in charge of leading our country.
We know that he wrote a book, Audacity of Hope, where on page 261, he said, ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’
That single statement illustrates his deepest Islamic religious cognitive choices that violate every single aspect of the American Way of Life and our Constitution. His Koran’s ultimate prime directive seeks to destroy free thought, freethinking, free choice of religion, free choice of governance and women’s rights. In other words, according to his quoted words, he loves the holy call of the music of Islam over the Stars and Stripes, our Pledge of Allegiance and our national anthem…
Nobody knows the reality of Obama’s childhood because every single legal record remains locked up in sealed records. At some point, history will uncover the mystery of Barack Obama. It won’t be pretty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jury Finds Eddie Ray Routh Guilty in ‘American Sniper’ Case
Stephenville, Texas (CNN)[ Breaking news update, posted at 10:23 p.m. ET]
A jury has found Eddie Ray Routh guilty of capital murder in the deaths of two men, including Chris Kyle, the author of the bestselling book “American Sniper.” He was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
[Chris Kyle, one of the greatest warriors in American history, survived four tours in Iraq and destroyed enough enemy fighters to fill the ranks of a battalion — only to be dry-gulched by this creature, whom he was trying to help. Moral of the story: watch your six, no matter how benign your surroundings appear. Requiescat in pace. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Montana House Judiciary Committee Pushes Back Against “Agenda 21”
For years, critics of “Agenda 21” have seen it as an evil, ranging from bad policy to an erosion of national sovereignty to a harbinger of one-world totalitarian government, grounded in radical principles of environmentalism and socialism.
On Monday, Montana’s House Judiciary Committee entered the debate, endorsing a bill resisting Agenda 21 — disregarding testimony describing the issue as a conspiracy theory tied to Montana’s anti-government militia movement.
House Bill 583, sponsored by MT Rep. Randall Pinocci (R-Sun River) passed the committee on an 11-10 vote.
MT Rep. Stephanie Hess (R-Havre) joined the panel’s nine Democrats to oppose the bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NRA, Others: Obama Not Done With Unilateral Moves on Gun Control
Unloading his latest round of gun-control legislation, President Barack Obama’s executive fiat is poised to stop Americans from buying and selling a traditional form of ammunition that has been one of the country’s favorites for generations — the .223-caliber ‘‘green-tipped’’ bullet. It’s commonly used in an array of rifles sold at local sporting goods store.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA: Snowden Leaks Hurt Ability to Track Terrorists
Washington (CNN) The head of the National Security Agency expressed deep concerns about terrorists’ ability to avoid NSA surveillance, explaining that Edward Snowden’s revelations of surveillance techniques and capabilities have had a “material impact” on NSA ability to prevent and detect terror plots.
“I would say that it has had a material impact in our ability to generate insights as to what counterterrorism, what terrorist groups around the world are doing,” Adm. Michael Rogers told a group gathered in Washington for a cybersecurity summit hosted by the New America think tank.
“Do you have new blind spots that you didn’t have prior to the revelation,” moderator and CNN National Security correspondent Jim Sciutto asked.
“Have I lost capability that we had prior to the revelations? Yes,” Rogers responded. “Anyone who thinks this has not had an impact I would say doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
Snowden himself remains free in Russia. A film about him won an Academy Award on Sunday evening.
[“Free in Russia” may be an oxymoron for that country’s citizens, but doubtless its grateful intelligence organs are seeing to wee Eddie’s every need. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Religious Acceptance Key to Combating Extremism
President Barack Obama told world leaders on Thursday that promoting democracy and acceptance of people of all faiths are essential to stopping the spread of violent extremism.
“Groups like al Qaeda and (ISIS) peddle the lie that some of our countries are hostile to Muslims. Meanwhile we’ve also seen, most recently in Europe, arise inexcusable acts of anti-Semitism, or in some cases anti-Muslim sentiment, or anti-immigrant sentiment,” Obama said at the closing session of a White House summit on combating extremism. “When people spew hatred towards others — because of their faith or because they’re immigrants — it feeds into terrorist narratives.”
The president’s remarks come as anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise in Europe following terror attacks in Paris and Copenhagen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Islam ‘Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Founding’
In his bloviating speech on Thursday at his summit on countering violent extremism, President Obama bent over backwards to make nice with Islam. Not only were terrorists not Muslim, President Obama stated, but Islam played a crucial role in America’s founding.
“Here in America,” Obama stated, “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”
Obama seems significantly more comfortable with this characterization of the historic role of Islam than he is with the non-fictional actual historic role of Christianity and Judaism in the American founding.
After all, this is the same man who stated in 2006, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation — at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Vetoes Keystone Pipeline Bill
The White House has notified the Senate that President Obama has vetoed legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.
President Obama, who for six years signed almost every bill that landed on his desk, is preparing to open a new phase of his presidency — the veto — as Congress on Tuesday sent him legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Senate sent the bill to Obama on Tuesday morning.
To date, Obama has issued just two vetoes, fewer than any U.S. president since the 19th century. By contrast, in just one term, President George H.W. Bush issued 44.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Extremism Summit Promoted Big Government Extremism
With the Obama administration’s controversial “extremism” summit now over, critics from across the political spectrum are outraged. Muslims and Islamic organizations are crying foul because, they say, the gathering focused too much on jihad and Islamic extremism. Anti-jihad groups are outraged because the summit supposedly did not focus enough on Islamic extremism — even to the point of avoiding the term entirely — and because a Muslim Brotherhood-linked figure was selected as Obama’s new “extremism” propaganda czar. Christians were outraged, too, partly because of the half-baked comments by embattled State Department spokesperson Marie “jobs-for-jihadists” Harf. After being mercilessly ridiculed for suggesting ISIS members needed jobs, Harf claimed that imaginary “Christian” extremists were also a serious threat.
In the end, though, few media reports or analysts focused on the fact that Obama’s extremism summit ended up promoting all sorts of anti-Constitution and Big Government extremism — much of it to be imposed at the international level, all of it under the guise of fighting nebulous notions of non-Islamic extremism. Officially dubbed the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, last week’s gathering was an extravaganza for pushing radically increased government power, centralization of power at the federal and global levels, government propaganda, and numerous other extremist schemes. Some analysts even described Obama’s summit as a bizarre convergence of the extreme Left and extremist Islam to push common goals: Big Government, less liberty, more wealth redistribution, blurring the lines between church and state by having government “train” and fund “religious leaders,” and open attacks on traditional American ideals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Groups Ordered to Pay $218.5 Million to Victims of Attacks
A US jury ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday to pay $218.5 million for supporting deadly terrorist attacks in the Jerusalem area more than a decade ago.
Victims and their families had requested more than $350 million for a series of shootings and bombings from 2002 to 2004 that killed 33 people and injured more than 450 others.
“Now the PLO and the PA know there is a price for supporting terrorism,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an interview after the verdict.
Both Palestinian groups said they will appeal the ruling, and it is unclear whether victims would ever be able to collect.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Secret TSA Program Quizzes Travelers Returning to U.S.
Activist Jonathan Corbett has lifted the lid on a chilling and hitherto secret TSA program which mandates that airlines operating outside of the U.S. conduct invasive security interviews of travelers before allowing them to return to America.
Corbett uncovered the program after he was asked a number of personal questions before being allowed to board an American Airlines flight from London Heathrow to New York in December, including why he was traveling and how long he had been away. Corbett initially refused to answer before a second agent made it clear that he would be stranded if he didn’t comply. After Corbett answered the questions, a security sticker was placed on his passport indicating he had completed the interview.
The procedure is very similar to the TSA’s domestic SPOT program, which was slammed as a $900 million dollar waste of money by a Government Accountability Office investigation in 2013 after it failed to identify a single terrorist.
Corbett wrote to American Airlines, who told him that the program was under the control of the DHS/TSA and that details were unavailable due to being under a “Sensitive Security Information” (SSI) designation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sim Card Producer Denies Any Real Risk From NSA Hacking Its Encryption Keys
Apparently, execs at Gemalto went to the same crisis management training program as the top execs at Lenovo. As you probably recall, last week The Intercept revealed that the NSA and GCHQ had hacked into the systems at Gemalto, the world’s largest maker of SIM cards for mobile phones, in order to get access to their encryption keys. This is a pretty massive security breach, allowing these intelligence agencies to decrypt calls that people thought were encrypted. But Gemalto insists its SIM cards are perfectly secure:
Initial conclusions already indicate that Gemalto SIM products (as well as banking cards, passports and other products and platforms) are secure and the Company doesn’t expect to endure a significant financial prejudice.
This sounds an awful lot like Lenovo’s initial reaction to the reports about the Superfish/Komodia vulnerability it shoved onto many of its customers computers, saying (totally incorrectly):
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Solving the Bad Cop Problem (And Creating Jobs)
There are too many bad, violent or mentally jacked-up cops roaming around. Worse, expecting the people who hire them to supervise them properly has apparently become too much to ask. So what to do? I have a bold idea.
States should pass laws requiring the termination of any law enforcement employee who through their actions generates civil liability upon the state. Correspondingly, cops should pay for malpractice insurance like lawyers and doctors.
Essentially, a law would need to be passed along the lines of:
Any law enforcement official within the State of Broke who through their actions as a law enforcement official causes a state, county, or municipal agency to be liable upon a judgement in an amount in excess of $15,000.00 (or $X) shall be have their employment as a law enforcement official within the state terminated not in good standing (NO PENSION). Judgments or liabilities paid by insurance shall not apply to this statute.
Boom….Problem fixed! Zany? Impossible? Allow me to explain how it would work and how it could be done even without your state’s defunct legislature taking action. Fear not, I am not insulting your state: I live in Florida. Your legislature like mine is probably useless. However, almost every state has a mechanism which allows citizens to place laws on the ballot via petition drives…if all those marijuana proposals can get there, so can this.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Mysterious “Frank” Returns
Giuliani’s public identification of Davis and discussion of his role in grooming a young Barack Obama marks the first time, in my memory, that a top Republican has ever mentioned the Davis-Obama relationship. It was done in the context of Fox News’Megyn Kelly of questioning how Giuliani could dare ask whether Obama loves America.
If the Republicans had brought this up during the 2008 campaign, Obama might have been defeated and the country could have been spared the last six years of ‘progressive’ hope and change. The Davis-Obama relationship is something so damaging and corrupt that its public airing would have raised questions about the Democratic Party’s vetting of Obama and the direction of the Democratic Party itself.
However, Republican operative Karl Rove was warning Republicans not to accuse Obama of being a socialist. He said such a charge would generate a negative backlash. The result in 2012 was another Obama victory.
Now that it has become apparent to more and more people that Obama is not a traditional liberal Democrat and is, in fact, a Marxist with Muslim sympathies, a figure such as Giuliani feels compelled to speak out. So let’s take a look at what Giuliani said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Plan to Find Alien Life in Europa’s Icy Seas
How do you solve a problem like Europa? The icy moon of Jupiter is thought to host a vast ocean beneath its frozen crust, making it an ideal target to look for life beyond Earth. But the tiny world also has a perfect storm of problems — a poorly mapped surface, a space environment full of powerful radiation, geysers that may or may not exist — that make designing such a mission tricky.
Last week, more than 200 scientists and engineers met at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, to chart a course for detecting life in Europa’s seas. This isn’t mere wishful thinking: NASA’s 2016 budget gave a dedicated mission to the icy moon the green light, with a launch date for the probe by the mid-2020s.
“We’re going to do a Europa mission,” NASA science administrator John Grunsfeld told the meeting. “If there’s something trapped in that water, and we potentially have the opportunity to see it, it could be transformative.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trayvon Martin: DOJ Set to Announce No Charges Against George Zimmerman
While the public waits for a Justice Department announcement over two separate investigations spurred by the summer shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the department is going to first announce its findings in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
ABC News has learned Martin’s family will soon be notified that the Justice Department will not be filing charges against George Zimmerman, who shot the 17-year-old after a confrontation in 2012. Thursday marks three years to the day since Martin was killed.
Federal prosecutors concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., intentionally violated Martin’s civil rights, sources told ABC News.
The case sparked intense discussions over race in America because Martin was walking to his home with only Skittles and an iced tea in his hands.
[The hands of an MMA-inspired brawler who used them to “ground and pound” Zimmerman and apply blunt force trauma to his head by smashing it on a concrete sidewalk. And check out the file photo ABC uses with this story — the one that shows Trayvon Martin as a 12-year-old cherub instead of the 17-year-old thug he had become. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Two U.S. Terror Convicts Sentenced to 25 Years
Plotted to ‘kill American servicemen overseas’
(ANSA) — Washington, February 24 — Two California men have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to support terrorism, sources said Tuesday.
Sohiel Omar Kabir, 37, and Ralph Deleon, 26, were convicted last year of planning to train with the Taliban and to join al-Qaeda, and also of conspiring to murder American military personnel abroad.
Kabir is an Afghani naturalized US citizen and Deleon is a Filipino with permanent residency status.
Kabir was found to have recruited Deleon and two others, converting them to radical Islam. The other two have pled guilty to conspiracy and cooperated with prosecutors. They are scheduled for sentencing on March 16.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
It never ceases to amaze me how lies and manipulation keep the pro vaccine circus going! The mainstream media falsely reports that the whooping cough outbreaks and measles are due to the increasing exemption use for public school attendance. Not only is this claim false and designed to inflate anger between those who vaccinate and those who selectively do not, is it causing discrimination against the unvaccinated population. Further discrimination, pediatricians are instructed to refuse care to those who refuse to vaccinate or selectively vaccinate and now employers are forcing yearly vaccines for their employees or they are threatened with termination. The false reporting is causing confusion and fear among people and wrongly directing our public servants to enforce mandated vaccines.
There is alarming evidence that the use of vaccines does not equate immunity and that vaccines fail to protect. Outbreaks have been documented in highly vaccinated populations for measles, mumps, influenza and pertussis across the country the last twenty years but the medical establishment and our news media fail to mention this. Today, I will defend the unvaccinated position concerning the whooping cough, (pertussis) outbreaks and the measles vaccine failure.
In my opinion, this controversy is a perfect example propaganda and indoctrination. Indoctrination is the representation of one point of view — the process is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Victory: Hershey to Remove GMO Ingredients From Milk Chocolate
Joining the lineup of companies that are kneeling to public pressure, candy-maker Hershey has recently announced that it will soon remove genetically modified ingredients from its milk chocolate and Kisses by the end of 2015. What’s more, the company is pledging to shift to ‘simple ingredients,’ which will exemplified by the removal of emulsifier polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and artificial vanillin.
Coming straight from Hershey’s website:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: “Barbaric” Sheriff’s Deputy Drags Woman Through Courthouse by Shackled Feet
A shocking video has emerged of a Florida deputy dragging a mentally disturbed defendant around a public Courthouse, pulling forcefully on the chain of the cuffs he had placed around her ankles.
An investigation is underway after the incident was captured on video by Attorney Bill Gelin. The video shows Broward County Deputy Christopher Johnson pulling a shackled 28-year-old Dasyl Jeanette Rios along a hallway as she screams in pain.
WSVN News reports that Rios had just been declared mentally incompetent by the court in a felony trespassing case. The situation flared up when Rios was refused to be allowed to say goodbye to her mother after the ruling. She refused to cooperate with officer Johnson, who then began dragging her through the courthouse by the shackles on her feet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wanted: An Internet to Call Our Own
In short, Obama is cutting off access to the Net for little people, but leaving it wide open for his government, opportunistic governments like his own and Islamic terrorists who use it for recruiting, and sending out grisly YouTubes celebrating the deaths of their hostages.
All things pass, but the Selfies of the rich and powerful are forever.
Start bracing yourself now for Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 and you can mark it on your calendar as ‘The Day Online Communication Died’.
Once the dastardly deed passes into ‘law’, Obama will have plunged the world of communication into inky darkness. He will have turned the lights out on what he perceives as the dissident world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Women Are Leaving the Tech Industry in Droves
By Tracey Lien
Ana Redmond launched into a technology career for an exciting challenge and a chance to change the world. She was well-equipped to succeed too: An ambitious math and science wiz, she could code faster, with fewer errors, than anyone she knew.
In 2011, after 15 years, she left before achieving a management position.
Garann Means became a programmer for similar reasons. After 13 years, she quit too, citing a hostile and unwelcoming environment for women.
Neither expects to ever go back.
“There are a lot of things that piled up over the years,” Means said. “I didn’t know how to move forward. There was a lot I had to put up with in the culture of tech. It just didn’t seem worth it.”
It’s a really frustrating thing. The pipeline may not improve much unless women can look ahead and see it’s a valuable investment.
– Laura Sherbin, director of research at the Center for Talent Innovation
That’s a huge problem for the tech economy. According to the industry group Code.org, computing jobs will more than double by 2020, to 1.4 million. If women continue to leave the field, an already dire shortage of qualified tech workers will grow worse. Last summer, Google, Facebook, Apple and other big tech companies released figures showing that men outnumbered women 4 to 1 or more in their technical sectors.
It’s why the industry is so eager to hire women and minorities. For decades tech companies have relied on a workforce of whites and Asians, most of them men.
Plenty of programs now encourage girls and minorities to embrace technology at a young age. But amid all the publicity for those efforts, one truth is little discussed: Qualified women are leaving the tech industry in droves.
Women in tech say filling the pipeline of talent won’t do much good if women keep quitting — it’s like trying to fill a leaking bucket.
[Could pose a problem for haughty Hillary’s fund-raising in Silicon Valley. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
How Your Phone and Fitness Band Could End Up Giving Evidence Against You
A criminal suspect can’t be forced to divulge their phone passcode, a US circuit court judge ruled in October 2014. Yet law enforcement officials can compel a suspect to provide a fingerprint — which they can then use to unlock the phone and obtain data which may prove the case against them.
In an ongoing Canadian civil case, activity data from a Fitbit fitness band is being used to determine the truthfulness of an accident victim’s claim that she is less active now than before the accident.
And in another civil case, where a plaintiff argued that his injuries meant he was no longer able to operate a computer for lengthy periods of time, a court ruled that the defendants had a right to access metadata from his hard drive that showed how often the claimant had used his PC.Keeping in mind David Cameron’s suggestion in January that there should be no such thing as private messaging, how much of this is reasonable? How do we strike a balance between the privacy of the individual and the state’s interest in justice being served?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Lost’ Interview With Cambridge Spy Guy Burgess Filmed in Moscow Unearthed in Canada
Incredible lost footage of an interview with one of the Cambridge Five spy ring filmed after his defection to the Soviet Union has emerged in Canada.
In the film made in 1959, Guy Burgess claims he is not a traitor, but admits to being ‘a socialist, a Marxist and a Bolshevik’.
Burgess caused one of the biggest scandals of the Cold War when he — along with fellow double agent Donald Maclean — fled to the other side of the Iron Curtain.
But an archivist in Canada has now uncovered an interview which the country’s CBC carried out with Burgess in Moscow in 1959, in which he defends his decision to leave Britain for the USSR.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
371 Attacks on French Soldiers
Since January 15 the French army’s “Opération Sentinelle” has protected 722 Jewish schools and synagogues, some 24/7 even when the establishments were empty.
The operation came to be regarded as too dangerous for the soldiers who were regularly targets of attacks. Over time the men were worn out.
The army has reported 371 incidents perpetrated against the soldiers standing guard in front of the protected sites. The Defense Ministry has announced that the men will become more mobile, rendering them less vulnerable.
The army noted that “reconnoitering, the taking of snapshots and films” by jihadists preparing future attacks had been going on. “Fourteen serious attacks, with a knife, laser, even blows with heavy sticks,” were reported. One jihadist tried to grab the rifle of a soldier on patrol at Trocadéro (Paris) before being caught (and probably released).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
8 Dead, Plus Gunman, In Czech Restaurant Shooting Rampage
A gunman opened fire in a restaurant in the Czech town of Uhersky Brod Tuesday, killing eight people and wounding one before fatally shooting himself.
It was the worst shooting attack in the country’s history.
The gunman was a local man, said Patrik Kuncar, mayor of the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod.
“It was not a terrorist attack,” said Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, who arrived at the scene and later said the shooter had a license for a gun.
Kuncar said the suspect was acting alone and is believed to have been mentally unstable, Sky News reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Community Response: A Danish Answer to Radical Jihad
The murders in Copenhagen have refocused attention on a thorny question for Europe: How can radical jihadists returning from Syria be reintegrated? The Danish city of Aarhus may have found an answer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Witnesses Slam Security at Copenhagen Shooting
Police sat with their backs to the entrance drinking coffee and a cafe employee was the first to notice the gunman, witnesses to the first of two fatal shootings in Copenhagen have stepped forward to say.
Two employees of the Krudttønden cultural centre where an armed assailant fired nearly 30 shots and killed a 55-year-old man have stepped forward to criticise the “enormously unserious” security at the event.
Speaking anonymously to Politiken, the two witnesses claim that two Danish police officers were having coffee with their backs turned towards the door at the building entrance when the gunman started shooting.
“Everything was very random and there was nothing to indicate that they viewed the event as high-risk,” one witness told Politiken.
Neither police nor Danish security service PET wished to comment on the claims, reports Politiken.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Mourners Say Goodbye to Copenhagen Victim
55-year-old Finn Nørgaard, the first victim of the worst terror attack in recent Danish history, was laid to rest under tight security and lingering questions on Tuesday.
Several hundred mourners turned out Tuesday for the funeral of the first victim of the Copenhagen shootings amid reports the filmmaker had died trying to stop his killer from spraying a cultural centre with bullets.
At least 40 heavily armed police officers guarded the church in the northwest of the city as Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt joined the mourners to bid farewell to 55-year-old Finn Nørgaard.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Hundreds Attend Funeral of Copenhagen Gunman
Around 700 to 1,000 mourners attended the funeral of the gunman who shot dead two and injured five others in the Danish capital earlier this month, prompting concern and anger among Danes and Danish Jews.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: ‘I Am Charlie’ Exhibit Forced to Close in Helsinki
The exhibit includes work by 10 leading Finnish cartoonists, paying tribute to their colleagues killed in the French terror attack.
The Finnish Comics Society is having a hard time finding a venue for its exhibition honouring the cartoonists killed in the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, reports the daily Helsingin Sanomat.
The show entitled “I am Charlie”, was on Monday closed for a third time amid security concerns. The display had only been open for about 15 minutes at Library 10 in the Helsinki’s main post office building.
Originally the exhibition had been on display at another library in the Arabianranta neighbourhood, but was moved last week to the Rosebud bookshop in the city centre.
In all three cases, the building owners had asked to have the show closed because of safety worries — particularly following last week’s attacks in Copenhagen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Yle to Read the Koran Cover to Cover on Radio Series
The holy book of Islam, The Koran, will be read in its entirety on Yle’s Radio 1 channel in Finnish starting on March 7. The unprecedented project is intended to increase people’s knowledge of The Koran and Muslim culture in Finland.
Each instalment will begin with a discussion between Imam Anas Hajjar, a leader of the Finnish Muslim community, and the translator of the text into Finnish, Professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila. In these introductory discussions, the two men will explore the religious and historical context of the text to be read.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Seizes Passports of Would-be Jihadists
Several French citizens have had their passports confiscated after allegedly planning to travel to Syria to fight jihad. It’s the first time the measure has been used and the government says dozens more French nationals will soon have their documents seized.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Jewish and Muslim Leaders Fall Out
Tuesday’s annual dinner hosted by France’s leading Jewish community group CRIF, attended by President François Hollande, was overshadowed after Muslim leaders from the CFCM (Conseil Francais du Culte Musulman) decided to boycott the event.
The dinner was marked by the absence of the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, outraged over comments by Jewish leader, Roger Cukierman, blaming young Muslims for anti-Semitic violence.
In an interview with French radio station Europe 1 earlier on Monday, Cukierman said: “All violence, and we must say this, all violent acts today are committed by young Muslims. Of course, that’s a small minority of the Muslim community and the Muslims are the first victims,” he added.
To further anger Muslim leaders he supported the use of the term “Islamo-fascism”, which was first uttered by Prime Minister Manuel Valls earlier this month.
Cukierman also said that Marine Le Pen was “blameless” when it came to stoking anti-Semitism although he added that the National Front party “should be avoided”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Prepares for War Against Online Hate Speech
France’s government is looking to adopt a tough new stance on online racism, anti-Semitism and other hate speech that would allow authorities to shut down offending websites amid a recent rise in hate crimes in the country.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has said she will push for legal reforms that would help French authorities crack down on racism and anti-Semitism online in much the same way they do with paedophilia. The proposals include empowering French authorities to shut down websites hosting content that is deemed illicit without prior court approval.
The declaration of war against online hate speech has raised questions about possible violations of civil liberties and the curtailing of due process as France struggles to find a way forward after a wave of deadly violence and anti-Semitic hate crimes in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Terrorists Threaten to Hit Paris Shopping Centres
Security has been heightened at two of the largest shopping centres in Paris after they were singled out as terror targets in a new video released by the same terrorist group that killed 60 people in a Kenyan mall in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The first Charlie Hebdo since the “survivors’ issue”, published after jihadist gunmen killed 12 at the satirical monthly’s offices in January, went on sale on Wednesday morning.
Newspaper sellers are expecting a scrum as readers across France hope to get their hands on one of the 2.5 million copies to be released over the next few days. The magazine’s new editor, Gérard Biard, said he hoped the brand would shed the symbolic status of its previous issue and that its bolstered readership was “heavy to carry”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Muslim Leaders Boycott Jewish Event in Paris Over Controversial Remarks
Islamist threats and anti-Semitism were a hot topic at the annual dinner of France’s main Jewish organisation yesterday. The head of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France has come under fire for comments he made earlier associating young Muslims with violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gerbils and Silk Road to Blame for Plague
Most would choose the cuddly gerbil over the much-maligned rat. But the latter’s bad reputation may not be fully deserved. Central Asian rodents, not rats, prospering under warm variations in climate, could have been to blame for the arrival of the Black Death in Europe in 1347 and for repeated outbreaks of plague over the next four centuries that killed millions of people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IS-Terrorist Was Swedish Television’s Expert on Islamophobia
The Swedish convert Michael Skråmo, 29, in 2009, were SVT’s expert on Islamophobia.
The Muslim the convert Michael Skråmo, in 2009 were invited to SVT, where he told Swedish viewers how Muslim phobia (Islamophobia) and hatred was spread around Europe. Now he has traveled to Syria with his wife and children to wage war for the brutal terrorist organization Islamic state.
The 29-year-old Swede, who today calls himself “Abdul Samad al Swedi”, grew up in Gothenburg. He converted to Islam during a field trip to Egypt about ten years ago and has since been engaged in a series of tax-funded Muslim organizations.
Last fall, he decided to go a step further with his faith. Skråmo took his wife and four small children and traveled to Syria to fight for the terror group IS, engaged in genocide, mass rape and commit other types of bestial abuse of non-Muslim minorities in the region.
In pictures published on Facebook the 29-year-old is posing with AK-47s, and in a propaganda video he sits outside the Syrian city Kobane and calls upon all Muslims in Sweden to follow his example and join him in armed jihad.
– We need you to come down here and give support to the religion of Allah, Skråmo says in the video.
Previously, the Swede have been heavily involved to counter what he described as a misleading picture of Muslims as violent fanatics. In an episode of SVT debate, which can be seen on Youtube, he attacked the malicious picture of Muslims spread in Europe.
This fear is based on ignorance of Islam, Michael Skråmo said, only to prove all the critics right a few years later.
[The English in this post is a bit shaky, but it’s a good story. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: NCD Leader Alfano Defends Government Alliance With Renzi
Interior minister tells party ‘we are changing the country’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 23 — Angelino Alfano, head of the New Democratic Centre (NCD) party, defended Monday his decision to remain in Premier Matteo Renzi’s coalition government, saying “we are changing the country”.
In a keynote speech to the leadership of his centre-right party, Alfano, the interior minister, said his role in the government gives the NCD actual authority.
“What is the use of having 12% in the opinion polls if then you can’t use it to govern and change the country, if your keep it in the freezer like the Northern League?,” said Alfano, referring to the regionalist party that has been gaining in polls.
“We are the only ones who are working to rebuild a big moderate and popular force, the only possible alternative to a serious confrontation with the Democratic Party (PD),” Alfano said.
NCD national coordinator Gaetano Quagliarello underlined that in forthcoming regional elections “one certainly can’t imagine lists of candidates in which the liberals and popular candidates stand with the social democrats, or worse still with those who want to take us out of Europe”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors Request Four Indictments in Liguria Graft Case
Liguria ‘crazy spending’ sees centrist politicians in hotseat
(ANSA) — Genoa, February 23 — Genoa prosecutors on Monday requested indictments against three former regional officials and a local party treasurer on charges of embezzlement.
Ex-regional council vice president Nicolò Scialfa, former council member Marylin Fusco, former MP Giovanni Paladini, and ex treasurer Giorgio De Lucchi, all from the small centrist Italy of Values (IdV) party, have opted for a fast-track trial set to begin March 23.
Also on Monday, the prosecution requested sentences of two years two months in prison for ex-IdV regional council members Maruska Piredda and Stefano Quaini, who are accused of embezzlement in the same case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fini ‘Ready to Work for New Anti-Le Pen Right’
Says conservative leadership open
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Former conservative parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini said Tuesday he is willing to work against his erstwhile allies inspired by French rightist Marine Le Pen.
“At the moment in Italy there are two political forces that call themselves right-wing,” Fini told La Repubblica newspaper.
“There is the (Northern) League … that I would define as a minority right by vocation nourished by two spectres, two fears — immigration and the European Union,” he said.
“And then there is Forza Italia,” the party founded by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, he added. Fini denounced the FI as “the great Forza Silvio club, bowed to the interests and daily moods of Berlusconi”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Finmeccanica to Sell Ansaldobreda, Ansaldo STC to Hitachi
Shares jump 4% at the opening
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica said Tuesday it has agreed to sell its controlling stakes in Ansaldo STS and AnsaldoBreda to Japanese multinational Hitachi.
The operation expected to conclude by year’s end should bring net debt down by 600 million euros, Finmeccanica said in a statement.
AnsaldoBreda is a rail transport engineering company and Ansaldo STS designs and manufactures railway signaling systems. Hitachi plans to purchase Finmeccanica’s 40% stake of Ansaldo STS at 9.65 euros a share or 773 million euros, the company statement said.
Shares in Finmeccanica rose 4% to trade at 11.4 euros a share at Tuesday’s opening while Ansaldo STS jumped 7% to 9.45 euros a share on the news.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Sweden’s Female Refugee Skiers
A group of young women from countries like Syria, Eritrea and Sierra Leone have formed a cross-country skiing team with the aim of taking part in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, central Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris is on alert for a new terror attack after ‘at least’ five drones were spotted illegally flying around city landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Bastille Square and the U.S. embassy building.
Unmanned aircraft were also spotted flying overnight near the French capital’s Place de la Concorde and the Invalides military museum, where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried.
French security sources where unable to catch the operators of the drones, which are typically fitted with video recording equipment and can be used for surveillance of a terror target to assess security levels and any spikes in pedestrian football ahead of a planned attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Starts First Trial Under Anti-Jihadist Law
The first prosecution in Norway of returned jihadists accused of fighting for the banned terror group Isis began on Tuesday at Oslo City Court, with the first defendant claiming he had only travelled to Syria to provide humanitarian aid.
Three Norwegians are being tried under Penal Code section 147 d, a new law making it illegal to “form, participate in, recruit members, or provide financial or other material support to a terrorist organization,” on penalty of up to six years in prison.
Two of the accused are the brothers of the Norwegian Albanian Islamist Egzon Avdyli, who was killed last year fighting in Syria. The third is a 30-year-old Norwegian Somali man. All three are connected to the extremist Islamic Profetens Ummah group in eastern Norway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Lobbies Britain to Stay in European Union
Norway this week warned the UK not to leave the European Union, arguing that after Russia’s recent aggression a British exit would dangerously undermine regional security.
“We now face the most serious security situation in Europe since the Second World War: Russia has annexed another country’s territory and is using military force to destabilise its neighbour,” Vidar Helgesen wrote in an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph newspaper ahead of meeting British ministers in London.
“Without the UK in the EU, Europe’s foreign, security and defence policy will be far less effective,”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Four Jihadist Recruiters Arrested in Catalonia and Melilla
The Spanish Civil Guard arrested several people on charges of recruiting and training for “the jihadist terrorist organization Daesh” during early morning raids in Melilla and Catalonia on Tuesday. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
Two people were detained in the Spanish North African exclave while at least two others were arrested in Barcelona and Girona. The warrants were issued by the High Court, which is carrying out an ongoing operation into jihadist recruiters operating in Spain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Breaks Up ISIS Recruiting Network
4 arrested in Melilla and Catalonia
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 24 — A network to recruit foreign fighters and young women from Spain for the Islamic State (ISIS) was broken up on Tuesday.
Two people were arrested in the Melilla and two others in the Catalonian cities Barcelona and Girona. A large amount of informational materials were seized during searches of the detainees’ homes and is currently being examined by the anti-terrorism squad. The two arrested in the Spanish enclave in Morocco, say interior ministry sources, administered a virtual community in which they published propaganda material for ISIS translated into Spanish, including a webpage with about a thousand followers and significant impact in the Iberian regions, where Islamic fundamentalism is stronger. The investigation brought to light that those arrested in Catalonia operated independently but interacted on Facebook through the internet platform administered from Melilla. They had contact with jihadist sympathizers also in Latin America and countries ranging from Belgium and France to Pakistan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the US, Turkey and Tunisia. They also used the webpage to propagate an apologia of terrorist tactics and praised martyrdom and immolation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: New Police Units to “Protect Democratic Freedoms”
The Swedish police are to create three new units to protect freedom of speech and fight internet abuse, National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson says.
In an op-ed article in today’s Dagens Nyheter, Eliasson says the background of the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen and Paris as well as recent threats against synagogues and mosques in Sweden means that the Swedish police need to raise their ambitions.
“The threats to our open society and or basic human rights seem more serious than for a long time”, he writes.
One of the most important tasks for the new units will be to protect people’s rights to carry out their religion, based on risk assessments made by the Swedish Intelligence Service, Säpo, he adds.
The units will be based in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Norwegians Charged With Helping Islamic State in First Nordic Case
(Reuters) — Three men were accused in a Norwegian court on Tuesday of joining or aiding Islamic State in Syria, in the first case of its kind in the Nordics.
Djibril Bashir and Valon Avdyli pleaded not guilty to participating in a terrorist organisation, and Visar Avdyli denied providing aid to such a group — both offences under a new Norwegian law designed to crack down on returning militants.
Authorities in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland estimate that 300 to 400 people may have left for places like Iraq and Syria to receive militant training. Western powers fear radicalised fighters may come back to launch attacks at home.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A man was stabbed and attacked by a mob when he was wrongly accused of rape, and claims his partner suffered a miscarriage after a gang hounded the couple over the false allegations.
Terry Brown, 33, was forced to flee his home town of Basildon in Essex after Lisa-Jayne Samuels falsely claimed he had drugged and raped her, and even picked him out of an ID parade.
Samuels — who had made up the lies to get attention from her mother — was jailed for 20 months after she admitted perverting the course of justice but Mr Brown claims he was made a prisoner in his own home while he spent a year on bail for the false allegations.
It emerged that the 29-year-old had falsely cried rape twice before.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fluoride in Drinking Water May Trigger Depression and Weight Gain, Warn Scientists
Fluoride could be causing depression and weight gain and councils should stop adding it to drinking water to prevent tooth decay, scientists have warned.
A study of 98 per cent of GP practices in England found that high rates of underactive thyroid were 30 per cent more likely in areas of the greatest fluoridation.
It could mean that up to 15,000 people are suffering needlessly from thyroid problems which can cause depression, weight gain, fatigue and aching muscles.
Last year Public Health England released a report saying fluoride was a ‘safe and effective’ way of improving dental health.
But new research from the University of Kent suggests that there is a spike in the number of cases of underactive thyroid in high fluoride areas such as the West Midlands and the North East of England.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vikings Were ‘Global Investors, ‘ Not Just Pillagers
The connections between technology, urban trading, and international economics which have come to define modern living are nothing new. Back in the first millennium AD, the Vikings were expert at exploring these very issues.
While the Vikings are gone their legacy is remembered, such as at the annual Jorvik Viking Festival in York. The Norsemen’s military prowess and exploration are more often the focus of study, but of course the vikings were more than just bloodthirsty pirates: they were also settlers, landholders, farmers, politicians, and merchants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Virtual Biometric Frontier Awaits Travellers to EU
The EU commission says setting up a virtual frontier for all visiting non-EU nationals will help create a more “welcoming” Europe.
Fingerprints and or full facial captures may await future visitors to the EU when the Brussels-executive proposes a revised version early next year of its controversial 2013 ‘smart borders’ package.
EU migration affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Monday (23 February) said the digital dragnet would help make Europe a more attractive destination by cutting down border crossing times and cracking down on others who “do not respect the conditions of their rights to stay”.
Disembarking travellers from long-haul trans-Atlantic flights, for example, would be required upon arrival to give border guards biometric data sets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Coptic Christians and the Way to Victory
“Daesh’ s [ISIS’ s] message is clear: No one is safe anywhere, including in non-Muslim lands, until the whole world is brought under “proper Islamic rule.”—Amir Tehar, New York Post
In the latest Islamic State (Daesh) horror, the world was shown yet another example of brutal mass murder. Sometime after the grisly burning alive of the Jordanian Pilot and retaliation by Jordan, a Daesh affiliate in Libya planned and executed the beheading of 21 Coptic (Egyptian) Christian hostages. These Coptic Christian fishermen had traveled to Libya to find some means of providing for their families.
The Daesh spokesman at their execution made clear these men were murdered for their Christian religion, and warned that Daesh would conquer “Rome” as the victims’ blood flowed into the Mediterranean Sea.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Phyllis Chesler
Jews are commanded to pursue justice—true justice.
“The wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceeding fine”—so said Euripides as did Sun Tzu (“The wheels of justice grind slow but grind fine”) and Longfellow (“The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small”).
When it comes to justice for Jews, we have often received precious little or been forced to wait for thousands of years for it.
Now, a stunning moment is upon us. After a decade of litigation, and after a seven week civil trial in a Manhattan federal court, a jury has found that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) are liable for the deaths and injuries of ten American families plus the estates of four victims. These attacks took place on an Israeli street, at a crowded Israeli bus stop, inside an Israeli bus, and in a cafeteria at Hebrew University.
This decision, which of course can be appealed, nevertheless makes it crystal clear that the PLO and the PA are not “moderate,” “peaceful” groups but are, in fact, terrorist entities, just like Hamas and Hezbollah.
President Obama, the United Nations and the European Union believe that these two Palestinian groups are worthy of a state and are trustworthy as allies but a jury in federal court saw right through this and decided otherwise.
They awarded the victims and their families $218.5 million dollars, a sum that might be tripled under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
2022 World Cup: Qatar Event Set for November and December
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar should take place in November and December, a Fifa taskforce has recommended.
Key football officials met in Doha to discuss a number of options following fears a summer event would endanger the health of players and fans.
Summer temperatures in Qatar can exceed 40C while those in November and December drop to around 25C.
Tuesday’s recommendation is expected to be ratified by Fifa’s executive committee in Zurich on 19 and 20 March.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Activists Report Dozens of Assyrian Christians Kidnapped by ISIS
Islamic State militants have abducted as many as 90 Assyrian Christians, including women and children, after overrunning several small villages in northeast Syria, an activist group and relatives said Tuesday.
Around dawn Monday, the extremist fighters swept through the Assyrian villages nestled along the banks of the Khabur River near the town of Tal Tamr in Hassakeh province. Sky News reported that control of the region is split between ISIS and opposing Kurdish fighters.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, reported that 90 people have been abducted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bombs in Iraq, Including Twin Blasts in Busy Street, Kill 40
A series of bombings in Iraq, including twin blasts in a busy street in a Baghdad suburb, killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said.
The deadliest of the day’s attacks came shortly before sunset, when a bomb exploded in Baghdad’s southeastern suburb of Jisr Diyala. Minutes later, a car bomb went off near the site of the first blast as people started gathering to help the victims of the initial explosion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christians From 35 Syrian Villages Taken Hostage
17-yr-old killed by ISIS, says archimandrite
(by Manuela Tulli) (ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 24 — Christians from 35 villages in northeastern Syria were taken hostage by the Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday and Tuesday in the Hasaka region.
It is thought that they may have been taken for the purpose of ransom or to be used in a prisoner exchange. The Syrian Church has denounced an “abandonment” of the community by those who could have intervened but did not. A 17-year-old named Milad was killed and several churches set on fire during the attack. The villages include Tal Hermez, Tal Shamiram, Tal Riman, Tal Nasra, Al-Agibash, Toma Yalda and Al-Haooz in the area of the Khabour river. Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana has told the Catholic association ‘Aid to the Church in Need’ that the jihadists had chosen to focus on the area after being defeated in Kobane by the Democratic Union Kurdish Party (PYD).
The battle began on Monday and the fighters were able to penetrate into the first two villages, taking dozens hostage. “Fortunately, about 600 families managed to escape towards Qamishli,” said Youkhana, “but we are concerned about those taken hostage. We know ISIS’s barbaric methods well. What is most important, now, is that these people be freed as soon as possible.” Monsignor Jacques Behnan Hindo, Catholic archbishop of Hasaka-Nisibi, said that US fighter planes had flown over the area in recent days but that they had not intervened, and that some 100 Assyrian families have sought refuge in Hasaka without receiving aid from either the Red Crescent or Syrian government aid agencies.
Hindo added that the UNHCR was also not providing aid to the people. The Khabour river area includes 35 Christian villages. The inhabitants are Assyrians whose families had fled the 1933 Simele massacre in Iraq committed by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Iraq. Some 3,000 people are thought to have been killed within a few days in August of that year, and the others fled into Syria. Many of the families still hope to one day return to Iraq, as they consider it their homeland.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Drone Sales in Gulf Expected to Surge After US Eases Export Policy
US manufacturers were equally upbeat and joint ventures were in their sights with Gulf partners aiming to develop domestic capabilities.
US drone makers are expecting a surge in sales of military and civilian drones to Gulf states after the State Department eased export rules last week, industry executives said on Tuesday.
General Atomics won a $200 million contract in 2013 from the UAE for supply of an unspecified number of predator drones, the first such sale in the region. Deliveries can now begin around April 2016, Frank Pace, the company’s president, aircraft systems, said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Woman Kidnapped in Yemen, Foreign Ministry Confirms
France’s foreign ministry on Tuesday confirmed reports that a French woman working for an international organisation had been kidnapped in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is under the control of Shiite Houthi rebels.
“We unfortunately confirm the kidnapping this morning in Sanaa of a French national working for an international organisation,” the ministry said in a statement. “We are fully mobilised to try and locate her and ensure a speedy liberation.”
French President François Hollande called for the woman to be released “as soon as possible”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights Watch Says it Identified Nearly 1,500 Sites of Syrian Government Air Attacks
Human Rights Watch says it has identified nearly 1,500 sites where the Syrian government has carried out indiscriminate air attacks over the past year using barrel bombs and other improvised weapons.
The human rights group said in a report released Tuesday that the attacks have had “a devastating impact on civilians,” killing or injuring thousands of people in rebel-held territory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Into the Witless Protection Program
The most egregious international blunder of this administration is the “negotiations” they have carried out with Iran. The end result will be that Iran will have nuclear weapons and will fill the vacuum left by America’s lack of engagement. Most frightening of all is the prospect that another 6 million Jews will die as a result of this negligence. But then, negotiation has never been Obama’s strong suit.
Vladimir Putin is famously quoted as saying, “negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon; the pigeon knocks over all the pieces, sxxxs on the board and then struts around like it won the game.” It’s a small wonder that Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is now universally considered leader of the Free World!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Pursuing Nukes in Underground Complex Despite Talks With West, Dissident Group Claims
Despite Iran’s denials that it is on the path to a nuclear bomb, new evidence charges that the Islamic republic has an “underground top-secret site” that is enriching uranium intended for nuclear weapons that has been hidden from the West for years.
According to the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the complex, called Lavizan-3, is right outside Tehran, “buried deep underground in tunnels and underground facilities” with “radiation-proof doors” to prevent any leaks that could be detected by the United Nations International Energy Agency inspectors.
The revelations were unveiled during a Washington, D.C., news conference by the NCRI, which first exposed elements of Iran’s covert nuclear program in 2002.
“This site must be inspected,” declared Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the NCRI’s Washington, D.C., office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Kidnap at Least 90 People From Christian Villages in Syria, Human Rights Watchdog Reveals
Islamic State militants have kidnapped at least 90 people after sweeping through Christian villages in Syria, it has been revealed.
The abductions are said to have taken place after ISIS seized two Assyrian communities from Kurdish forces in the northeast province of Hassakeh.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Preparing to Declare Islamic Emirate in Lebanon: Sources
ISIS is preparing military plans to declare an Islamic emirate in Lebanon very soon to serve as a geographical extension of the so-called “Islamic State” announced by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Iraq last year, security sources said.
ISIS fighters have demanded support from the militant group in northern Syria to achieve this goal, the sources said.
They added that the ISIS command has begun preparations to set up a military organizational committee tasked with running Lebanese affairs and considering Lebanon as part of its state.
However, ISIS is facing difficulties in choosing a Lebanese commander for this mission.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Attack on Syrian Village, Hundreds Held
Area with large Chaldean community, prisoner swap asked
(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON — ISIS has stormed a village in the north-eastern hills of Syria, taking its residents hostage, Newsweek reports. The attack on the village near Tell Tamer, not far from Al-Hasakah, an area with a large community of Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs, was attacked on Monday morning, according to a local source who contacted a relative in Canada who then got in touch with A Demand For Action (ADFA), a group that protects the three minorities, the US magazine said.
The whole area is reportedly under siege: ISIS militants first separated the men from women and children and took many in the mountains of Abd al-Aziz. Women and children remained in the village, which is guarded by ISIS militants, according to the source quoted by Newsweek.
It is still unclear how many men have been taken hostage, though this initial report appears to indicate that over 100 are being detained and ISIS means to use them in a prisoner exchange with ISIS fighters currently held by Kurdish militia. They have reportedly threatened to kill the villagers if the exchange fails.
The founder of ADFA, Nuri Kino, told Newsweek that he has spoken with several relatives of those held hostage by ISIS.
“Many of them have relatives in Sweden and Germany”, he told the magazine, adding that he tried to contact villagers by phone only to have ISIS members pick up.
It is still difficult to ascertain the situation on the ground as it is unclear how many militants were involved in the raid, which was described as “huge” and in a climate of total “panic” by the source quoted by Newsweek.
Meanwhile Syrian news agency Sana reported that jihadists have stormed several villages in Syria, including Tal Hermez, Tal Shamiram, Tal Riman, Tal Nasra, al-Agibash, Toma Yalda and al-Haooz, in the eastern part of the country, killing dozens.
The attacks were carried out aboard heavy vehicles and militants burned one of the most ancient churches in Syria, in Tal Hermez, according to the news agency, which quoted local sources.
The objective of ISIS, according to the news agency, is to reach the border with Turkey in order to make the crossing of weapons and fighters easier. During the attacks, according to the Syrian news agency, coalition forces flew over the area targeted by jihadists without intervening.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Islamic State’ Abducts Christians in Attack on Villages in Syria
The “Islamic State” has kidnapped 90 Christians in northeastern Syria, according to a monitor. Earlier, at least four members of an Assyrian-Christian militia were killed during an IS attack on their village.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State in Syria Abducts at Least 90 Christians
Islamic State militants have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group tracking violence in Syria said on Tuesday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Christians ‘Abandoned to Terrorists’ In Syria, Archbishop
‘Dozens of hostages taken’, 100 families without aid
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 24 — Christians in Syria feel they have been “abandoned” to terrorists, the Vatican Catholic new agency FIDES quoted Monsignor Jacques Behnan Hindo, Catholic archbishop of Hasaka-Nisibi, as saying on Tuesday. He noted that US fighter planes had flown over the area in recent days but that they had not intervened despite the fact that some 100 Assyrian families have sought refuge in Hasaka without receiving aid from either the Red Crescent or Syrian government aid agencies.
Monsignor Hindo added that the UNHCR was also not providing aid to the people and that many Christians had been taken hostage by jihadists and that some village churches had been burnt. He noted that the Tel Tamar village had been attacked first, followed by Tel Shamiran and other small villages all the way to Tel Hermuz, which was burnt to the ground. He claimed that dozens of hostages had been taken in both Tel Hormuz and Tel Shamiran, with the possible intention of using them for ransom or a prisoner exchange.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Furious Over Pentagon Leak on Secret Anti-Terror Training Camp
By Maggie Ybarra
The Pentagon let slip that one of its training camps to help fight Islamic State terrorists is in Jordan — information the pro-U.S. kingdom had specifically requested be kept private, and the latest gaffe in a series of sensitive leaks coming out of the Department of Defense.
In order to hide its flub, which was first announced to reporters during a briefing last week, the Pentagon has scrubbed its public transcripts of any mention of the training camp.
Pentagon officials acknowledged Monday that one of its officers, who was briefing reporters on condition of anonymity last week, likely made the mistake. The Pentagon’s policy is to discuss only the contributions its partner nations are making to its operations against extremists in Iraq and Syria only after those partner nations have publicly spoken about those contributions.
In Jordan’s case, that did not happen, a senior Pentagon official said.
Security analysts are befuddled by the high-level operational “screw-up.”
“Either the official made a mistake or is deliberately leaking information to put the administration’s plans for Syria in a better light in an attempt to defuse criticism that the administration has bungled efforts to aid Syrian rebels,” said James Phillips, a national security analyst at The Heritage Foundation.
***Unclosed Item!***{Or the Pentagon is so “diverse” that a believer somewhere did a bit of monkey-wrenching. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Missing Teenagers Have Crossed Into Syria, Met Police Say
Three missing teenagers believed to be heading to join Islamic State militants are thought to have crossed into Syria, UK police say.
The London schoolgirls were smuggled into Syria from Turkey four or five days ago, the BBC understands.
Sources suggest the girls entered Syria near the Kilis border crossing.
Bethnal Green Academy pupils Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, travelled to Istanbul on 17 February.
They flew from Gatwick to Turkey after telling their parents they were going out for the day.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poroshenko Gets His Guns in UAE
During his visit to Abu Dhabi, UAE on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that he had signed a weapons deal with the Persian Gulf nation, without providing any more details.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the signing of a deal on military and technical cooperation with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, during his visit to the IDEX-2015 Arms Expo in Abu Dhabi.
[Comment: Is UAE a big manufacturer? Or are they a reseller? if so, Who makes the stuff are they selling to Poroshenko?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Can Do More to Stop Financing of Terror Groups, White House Says
Minutes after President Obama met with the leader of Qatar, the White House said there is more the country can do to stop the financing of terrorist organizations.
In their meeting, Mr. Obama and the amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, said their two nations remain key partners in the fight against the Islamic State and in efforts to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. The president didn’t mention the issue of terror financing in his brief remarks to reporters, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration believes Qatar can and should do more to stop the flow of money to terrorist organizations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Sentenced to Death for Abusing Islam
A Saudi court sentenced a local man to death after he was found guilty of insulting Islam and its Prophet (PBUH), a newspaper reported on Monday.
The unidentified man, in his 20s, was also charged with ripping a copy of the Holy Koran, filming the act and publishing it on social networks, ‘Sharq’ said.
“The court sentenced the man to beheaded after finding him guilty in those charges,” the paper said in a report from the northeastern town of Hafr Albatin.
It said a three-judge panel issued the death verdict against the defendant but it did not make clear if he can appeal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Court Gives Death Penalty to Man Who Renounced His Muslim Faith
An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for renouncing his Muslim faith, the English-language daily Saudi Gazette reported on Tuesday.
The man, in his 20s, posted an online video ripping up a copy of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, and hitting it with a shoe, the newspaper reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Plight of Syria’s Vulnerable Christian Minority
By Ishaan Tharoor
Before a brutal civil war engulfed Syria, the country was testament to the religious and ethnic diversity of the Middle East. Arabs of different faiths, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrian Christians and others lived side by side, embracing a rather durable Syrian nationalism.
But the increasingly sectarian character of the Syrian conflict and the rise of the Islamic State threaten to unravel the rich tapestry of Syrian society. In neighboring Iraq, the ravages of militants have forced tens of thousands of religious minorities, including Christians, to flee. Last year, the top Christian priest in Baghdad likened the present moment to the horrifying onslaught of the Mongol hordes in the 13th Century, which devastated the region and redrew its political map.
On Tuesday morning, Islamic State fighters reportedly carried out the mass abduction of dozens of Christians — some reports suggest at least 90 — living in villages near the city of Hasakah, in northeastern Syria. In a conflict shaped by endless reports of atrocities, the incident is alarming for its overtly communal nature. Those kidnapped belong to a shrinking population of Assyrian Christians, who have called Hasakah province and Nineveh, across the border in Iraq, home for centuries. Assyrian Christians speak a version of Aramaic, the language thought to have been spoken by Jesus.
[Still more extras for the snuff vids. Daesh delenda est. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Gas Supplies to Europe ‘At Risk’ Says Gazprom CEO
Ukraine must pay up or else says Alexey Miller
(ANSA) — Moscow, February 24 — Russian gas supplies to Europe at at “serious risk”, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller told Russian news agency Interfax on Tuesday.
This is because cash-strapped Ukraine has not paid for March supplies, and right now only has reserves of 219 million cubic meters, according to Miller.
Gazprom may shut off the flow of gas as a result, Miller warned.
Russia in October last year agreed to resume supplying Ukraine with gas in a European Union-brokered deal that also secured supplies to the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia to Use Its Segment of the International Space Station After it Completes Operations
Russia’s space agency expects the International Space Station to stay in orbit through 2024, and plans to create its own space outpost with its segment of the station after that.
Roscosmos’ scientific council concluded Tuesday that several Russian modules could eventually be undocked to “perform the task of ensuring Russia’s guaranteed presence in space.”
The ISS, run by the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency and other international partners, is set to remain operational at least through 2024. Russia’s own Mir space station was deorbited in 2001 after 15 years as Moscow sought to concentrate its resources on the ISS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Army to be Trained by UK Troops — Cameron
British military personnel are to be sent to Ukraine in the next few weeks to provide advice and training, says Prime Minister David Cameron.
As he spoke, pro-Russian rebels said they were pulling back heavy weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine as part of a ceasefire.
However, the government in Kiev has disputed the rebel claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Feminist Muslims Fight Genital Mutilation’s Growing Popularity
by Phyllis Chesler
As Islam conquered what was formerly a Christian Middle East, what was formerly a Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, and Christian Central Asia (India, Persia, Afghanistan, parts of Russia), what was formerly a pagan, animist and Christian Africa, Islam also conquered what was formerly a Hindu and Buddhist Indonesia and Malaysia.
As an Arab-and African-style Islam spread via the sword, customs that may or may not have been religiously mandated also spread.
According to a recent report, female genital mutilation (FGM), long associated with Muslims and Africans, is becoming more popular in Malaysia. Some Malaysians believe this is religiously required by the Quran; others believe it is an important Muslim custom, one that will “protect girls from premarital sex as it is supposed to lower their sex drive.”
A spokeswoman for a local women’s rights group, Sisters in Islam, insists that sunat (Malaysian for circumcision) is not mentioned in the Quran.”Previously, it was a cultural practice,” she says, “but now, because of Islamization, people just relate everything to Islam. And when you link something to religion, people here follow it blindly.”
FGM has absolutely no medical benefit and poses the gravest harm ranging from infection, pain when urinating, agony during sex and child birth, fistulas, life-long suffering, and even death.
Increasingly, Malaysian Muslim physicians, often female, are performing FGM procedures (which range from very mild to most severe). According to a 2012 study conducted by Dr. Maznah Dahlui, “93 percent of Muslim women surveyed had been circumcised.” Some gynecologists admit that they perform “a more drastic version with needles and scissors;” other Malaysian physicians claim “less invasive procedures.”
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
UN Officer Involved in India Sexual Harassment Scandal
(AGI) New Delhi, Feb 23 — The shadow of a sex scandal might jeopardise efforts to reach an agreement on climate change, in the run-up to the Paris world summit in December. The 74-year-old president of the United Nations Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, did not attend a meeting in Kenya after being accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old researcher on the New Delhi think tank run by the scientist. Mr Pachauri, who is director general of the Energy and Research institute, allegedly sent unwanted emails, text and Whattsap messages to the young woman. At the moment, judges have not decided to arrest the president of the IPCC, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, thus ensuring immunity at least until the next hearing, scheduled for Thursday. Pachauri rejected the allegations by saying that he had been hacked in an attempt to discredit him. Mr Pachauri was appointed president of the UN committee in 2002 and was subsequently confirmed in the post in 2008 for a second mandate that ends in October this year. He is now at risk of having his image severely damaged and might lose his appointment. The Indian organisers of a conference to be held in Harvard have already cancelled the invitation they had sent him. The IPCC provides guidelines on the protection against climate change to its 194 members. In a recent report, it warned of a ‘severe, widespread and irreversible impact’ on man and nature unless carbon dioxide emissions are drastically reduced.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Expansion Push in Southeast Asia Renews Concerns
China’s neighbors, in particular, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam, are increasingly concerned there will be no end to their expansion. This comes as the Wall Street Journal reported Beijing is constructing artificial islands in the disputed Spratly Islands.
“Since 10 percent of China’s economy depends on these maritime areas, this is really an economic matter. They claim they are not involved in territorial conquest and these are not military bases in the sense America has military bases, so I think they are going to get away with it — there won’t be any action to punish them,” said Pillsbury.
Looking ahead, China doesn’t see any major factors that can disrupt its position in Southeast Asia. Increased U.S. pressure, though, could be a problem for Beijing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Western Manners: The Latest Chinese Status Symbol
Clients who attend etiquette courses in China include government officials, children enrolled in overseas schools, wives looking to entertain important guests and those who enjoy travelling abroad.
“There is a huge demand all along the spectrum,” said Hebbert, whose clients were first primarily drivers of Rolls Royces wanting to dress the part, then evolved to middle-class customers in search of a British-lifestyle experience. “In just a few years, I have seen a real shift in clientele. More and more Chinese are travelling. They see the advantage of having an international edge.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American Missionary Kidnapped by Gunmen in Nigeria
A Seattle missionary has been kidnapped in Nigeria and the U.S. government is getting involved to help secure her release, the church she works for said Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Six Challenges to Stamping Out Ebola
Despite a recent sharp drop in the overall number of Ebola cases, the situation remains precarious in West Africa.
More than a year since the start of one of the worst public health crises in recent history, Ebola cases have been tumbling in West Africa. But the epidemic is far from over: the risk of flare ups and further geographical spread will remain until there are no new cases.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Pamela Geller
A new video from Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram extremists shows gunmen mowing down civilians lying face down in a dormitory, and a leader saying they are being killed because they are “infidels” or non-believers.
The Islamic State released the “Healing the Chest of Those who Believe” Kurds in cages before their execution video, in addition to three new training videos, including “cubs” in the “blood of jihad” parts one and two. Muslim children being trained to murder…
Not to be outdone, the “Group of the People of Sunnah [example] for Preaching and Jihad,” aka Boko Haram, released their own slick Jihad video yesterday, warning of an alliance with ISIS and a wider conflict.
The African caliphate aligns with the Islamic State. In this video, the leader of Boko Haram quotes Muhammad and Quran chapter and verse for the slaughter in the cause of Islam. He says exactly what I (and my colleagues) have warned of for years, and still the political elites deny reality.
[Post includes a Boko Haram vid showing a terr standing in front of a roomful of corpses and ranting. Yeats: “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Will Racism Keep ISIS From Teaming Up With Boko Haram?
Long before ISIS militants beheaded Christians on a Libyan beach last week, Nigeria’s Boko Haram was carrying out similar atrocities 1,500 miles to the south. Now that ISIS is operating in northern Africa, will the Syria-based organization join forces with the continent’s largest Islamist terror group?
Maybe not, say U.S. intelligence officials, and they suggest one obstacle is racism.
“The Arab world is incredibly racist,” explained a U.S. intelligence official. “They don’t see black Africans as equivalent to them.”
ISIS may show “affinity” with Boko Haram, said the official, “but they stop short of allegiance.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers from the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Colorado Boulder have revealed the results of a study designed to understand whether ancient settlements and modern cities functioned in similar or different ways. By examining pre-contact archaeological data from sites in the Basin of Mexico to estimate populations, densities, size and construction rates of monuments and buildings, and the intensity of site use, the researchers learned that, in fact, ancient settlements and modern cities functioned in much the same way. “It was shocking and unbelievable,” says anthropologist and study author Scott Ortman.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Emmanuel Lubezki and Martín Hernández — three old friends from Mexico City who had their date with the stars on Sunday night.
Director Iñárritu and cinematographer Lubezki both took home Oscars for their work on the night’s big winner, Birdman, which also won Best Picture. Their colleague Hernández, meanwhile, lost out to American Sniper in the sound editing category.
But together the trio demonstrated the extraordinary vitality of Mexican cinema, which is now giving lessons to the world. Iñárritu’s victory is the confirmation of a dizzying career that has put him, along with his other friends Alfonso Cuarón — last year’s Best Director winner for Gravity — and Guillermo del Toro at the head of a historic generation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens of Illegal Immigrants Hurt in Serbia Van Crash
A van overloaded with immigrants swerved off a road in southern Serbia, injuring 40 people and leaving several in critical condition. The incident has highlighted the desperate conditions faced by immigrants to Europe .
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Aliens Unhappy With Shortage of Bilingual Doctors
The LA Times reported that illegal aliens are unhappy that not enough doctors speak Spanish. The article never used the words “illegal” or “undocumented” or “dreamer” or “super virtuous” or however we are to call illegal aliens nowadays; only referring to “Hispanics” who can’t understand English. But since all citizens understand English, or should, I presume that the article is only talking about illegal aliens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IRS to Give Illegal Aliens Bigger Tax Refunds Than Citizens
The Obama administration will make this year’s tax season more painful for some American citizens but it will be a bonanza for illegal aliens who not only broke laws sneaking into the country but also worked illegally, at least until President Barack Obama gave them special exemptions from immigration law by executive fiat. According to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) top administrator on Tuesday, illegal aliens will receive refunds that are up to twice the amount citizens will get, a literal monetary bonanza.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who some Americans believe has a casual relationship with the truth confirmed that illegal aliens granted de facto amnesty by President Obama’s unilateral decrees will be eligible to receive extra refunds from the IRS for money they earned while working illegally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Prosecutor Warns of Danger Migrant Smuggling Business Could Fill Terrorists’ Coffers
Italy’s top organized-crime fighter has warned of a danger that international terrorism could help finance itself through migrant trafficking.
National Anti-mafia Prosecutor Franco Roberti, presenting an annual report on organized crime, told lawmakers in Rome Tuesday that “clandestine immigration and trafficking can feed international terrorism.”
Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, many from Syria, have reached Italy in recent months on cargo ships, fishing boats and other vessels used by smugglers. Many boats sail from Libya.
Last month, Roberti said in an interview that terrorists could finance themselves through human trafficking as well as arms and drug smuggling.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Should Obama Ignore the Federal Courts?
President Obama’s immigration plan and his national health care law both face legal challenges this year that could bring them to a halt. But one-in-four voters think the president should be able to ignore the courts if he wants to, and Democrats believe that even more strongly.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 26% of Likely U.S. Voters think the president should have the right to ignore federal court rulings if they are standing in the way of actions he feels are important for the country. Sixty percent (60%) disagree and say the president should not have the right to ignore the courts. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s House of Lords Approves Conception of Three-Person Babies
Britain has become the first country in the world to permit the use of “three-person IVF” to prevent incurable genetic diseases.
The House of Lords voted on Tuesday evening to approve changes to the law allowing fertility clinics to carry out mitochondrial donation. Babies conceived through this IVF technique would have biological material from three different people — a mother, father and a female donor.
MPs voted in favour of the new rules earlier this month and clinics can apply for licences to use the technique from the autumn.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Clears Way for Gender Equal Ploughs
Gender equal snow ploughs are catching on in Sweden. More and more municipalities have been following suit after The Local reported in January that Stockholm was set to introduce the policy.
The Local reported in January that Stockholm is set to adopt the gender equal snow ploughs next winter, as part of plans to make the city just as safe for men — who are more likely to be drivers — and women, who are less likely to get behind the wheel.
The idea is that both genders will get equal protection from slipping on ice in the city. Women are currently more likely to have accidents during the winter months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Actual Race on Moon Could Decide Lunar XPrize Winner
We may be on for an actual space race. Two competitors for the Google Lunar XPrize say they will buddy up to get their rovers to the moon by the end of next year.
The challenge offers a $20 million grand prize to any team that successfully lands on the moon, travels 500 metres, and sends images back to Earth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Douglas A. Ollivant
(CNN) Everything you think you know about the “future of war” is wrong.
An elite consensus on the “New Way of War” has been emerging for some time now. Among defense policy experts, think tanks, echoed at Aspen and Davos, the way forward seems clear. The future belongs to cyberwarfare and includes a terrorism problem that will be dealt with by drones and SEALs, and the need to be prepared for the possibility, however remote, of a large-scale naval and aviation campaign in the Far East against a rising China.
This new American way of war—clean, precise, and (unless things go very bad with China) low-casualty — seems to capture the persistent technologist mood of America.
Unfortunately, reality seems uninterested in conforming to this strongly held belief. … how should the United States respond to this new reality?
First, (new wars) are in general low-tech and manpower intensive
Low-tech does not mean “no-tech,” and even a 40-year old Soviet tank can be a significant weapon if one is not prepared for it. Further, there will be “islands” of technology that are equivalent or even superior to that used by Western militaries. But this is not a universally high technology force. This manpower is also highly trained, or at least has a critical core that is highly trained, whether ISIS cadres or the “little green men” (Russian intelligence officers) of the Ukraine. We should expect to encounter professionals.
Second, they intermingle with the population
This is “war amongst the people,” with all the messiness, ambiguity, byzantine relationships and background noise associated with a population center.
[…]
Finally, they occur outside the bounds of normal nation-state conflict
Gaza isn’t really a state and both Ukrainian separatists and ISIS, respectively, have stripped Kiev and Baghdad of effective control of the territory they operate within. This is not to say that state boundaries are unimportant, because they are (that Iraq has invited airstrikes against ISIS, while Syria has not, is a key differentiator), but that they are of lesser importance. But many to most future conflicts will occur in these spaces that belong to no state, or only tenuously to a state.
[…]
We should continue to expect crises to emerge. Some will occur in areas where key U.S. interests are at stake. Others will happen on the periphery of U.S. national interest. But they will continue to tend to involve well-trained cadres, in contact with the population, and in areas without strong state control.
[…]
First, we need to rethink the way we go about buying our military hardware. … The way that the United States does contracting — more concerned about being “fair” than getting the best product for the defense dollar — may have worked for producing lower-technology items, but falls far short for more complex weapons systems.
Second, we need to promote our forces who work best with allied forces in these spaces where the state is weak or nonexistent: the Army’s Special Forces (popularly known as “Green Berets”). These forces have undergone significant neglect in the past decade, as the anti-terrorism capabilities of Joint Special Operations Command (SEAL Team Six and Delta Force) were seen as the most pressing need.
[…]
Third, we need to continue to focus on prepared and ready land power — our own rifle squads, companies and battalions who can do the dirty business themselves, if need be. Some of these situations may lend themselves to the use of indigenous land power (someone else’s soldiers) supported by U.S. airpower (n.b. The USAF should be tasked to retain the capability to provide exactly this support). This will continue to be the preferred technique. But for in extremis situations, the United States must continue to have a reliable, well-trained, well-led and well-equipped ground force.
[…]
Fourth, the Pentagon should focus on systems that push power and information to the “edge” of the system. We have lived in an age of extreme centralization of information. This has worked out only because the force of choice for the last decade, the SEALs and Deltas of Joint Special Operations Command, are considered a “national asset” and therefore have had access to this centralized information.
The forces of choice for the future, rifle companies and Special Forces detachments, will not be privileged with this access. We should think about systems that push information to their level.
Fifth, many observers have pointed out that the military’s traditional personnel management system has defects, both in recruiting and development. … Long-standing suggestions to increase language training, allow for late entry and/or sabbaticals, increase technical skills, get input from subordinates on their leaders, and recruit outside traditional pools — for instance, in Silicon Valley — should all be seriously considered.
[…]
Finally, we need to regard with extreme skepticism those who believe that warfare has fundamentally changed in any real way. War will continue to be fought over issues of fear, honor and interest. Despite increasing automation, it will be fought primarily by young men (despite the increasing presence of older men and young women). The next war will likely be very recognizable to someone who fought in one millennia ago.
[The erudite and well-credentialed Mr.Ollivant overlooks one other potential trait of the wars of the future: the likelihood that, given mass Muslim immigration, increasing racial strife, and a pullulating hard left bent on establishing an American autocracy, they will be fought here rather than overseas. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar should take place in November and December, a Fifa taskforce has recommended.
Considering the level of disruption to European football league fixtures this would involve, one must conclude that the size of the brown envelope tendered by Qatar to corrupt Fifa officials must have been considerable.
The great hope of toppling the rotten stinking and corrupt carcase that the European Union is via the simple act of Greece defaulting because it is bedrock broke is now just a dim memory.
The Left will never stand for what is obvious reality and that even a simpleton with a modicum of common sense knows what needs to be done.