Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/24/2015

Two “Swedes” have been arrested for allegedly committing murder while engaged in kinetic activism in Syria for the alleged Islamic State. Another alleged “Swedish” suspect is allegedly still at large.

In other Swedish news, the third grenade attack this week occurred last night in Malmö. A politician in Malmö is calling for stricter gun-control laws to help stem the grenade attacks and other violence in the city.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, RRN, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» China: Stock Market Crash: Communist Party Shielding the Country’s “Red Aristocracy”, Not Its People
» China: Beijing: Industrial Output in July is the Worst in 15 Months
» Copper, China and World Trade Are All Screaming That the Next Economic Crisis is Here
» Media: USD 10 Bln From Russia to Athens’ Return to Drachma
» Shock Report: China Dumps Half a Trillion Dollars: “Something is Very, Very Wrong”
» Tax Authorities Say Italian Real Estate Values Rising
 
USA
» Anti-Islam Activist Jon Ritzheimer Reported to FBI
» Clinton Facing New Calls to Turn Over Server After IGs Request Probe
» Convicted Spy to be Released by Obama Administration: Report
» Donald Trump is Right About John McCain
» Federal Court Rules That Air Fresheners and Pro-Cop Stickers Are a Reason to Pull You Over
» Florida Congresswoman Proposes Fascist Mandatory Vaccination Law to Remove Parents’ Rights Across Whole Country
» Marked: “Schools Assess Students’ Threat Level” From Kindergarten up in Precrime Society
» New Horizons: Pluto May Have ‘Nitrogen Glaciers’
» Newest Remote Car Hacking Raises More Questions About Reporter’s Death
» Obama to Label Senior Citizens as Mentally Challenged in Order to Disarm Them
» Obama Expresses Frustration Over Gun Control Debate in Interview
» Obama Admits US Gun Laws Are His ‘Biggest Frustration’
» Post American Culture: Congress’ War on American Citizens
» Report: Barack Obama to Release Israeli Spy
» Republican Operatives Plot to Sabotage Trump — But That Could Turn Him Into Their Worst Nightmare
» SB 277: Mandatory Vaccinations & How They Will Affect You: Home Schooling?
» Sociopathic Oncologist to be Sentenced for Destroying People’s Health by Administering Chemo Drugs to Cancer-Free Victims
» Stop Sharia Law Before it’s Too Late
» Stunning Nightside Image Reveals Pluto’s Hazy Skies
» These Superhumans Are Real and Their DNA Could be Worth Billions
» Why Impeach, Why Now and How
» WWE Terminates Contract With Hulk Hogan Amid Reports of Audio Tape of Him Launching Racist Tirade
 
Canada
» Ezra Levant: ‘Crazy’ Prosecutions
 
Europe and the EU
» Britain Must Stay in EU ‘To Make World More Prosperous’, Says Obama
» Italy: ‘Sabotage’ Suspected in TGV Train Stoppage
» Italy Fireworks Factory Blast Kills Seven — Reports
» Slovenia: OECD: Koper-Divaca’s Cost Unsustainable
» Sweden: Malmö Politician Call for Stricter Gun Laws
» Swedes in Court Over Alleged Terror Crimes
» Sweden: Third Grenade Attack in a Week Rocks Malmö
» The UK Police Officers Still Pounding the Beat Who Are Convicted Criminals
» Two Swedes Remanded for Syria Terrorist Crimes
» UK: I Won’t Name Child Abuse MP: Fury as Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet Chief Defends Failure to Act Over Senior Tory
» UK: NHS Worker Hit by O2 Phone Bill for £21,819 After Returning Home From Turkey
» UK: Top Secret Files on VIP Child Sex Ring Could Shed New Light on Kincora Horror
 
North Africa
» Italy ‘Won’t Send Thousands of Soldiers’ to Libya
» Moroccan Authorities Arrest 2 Women Involved With Recently Dismantled Militant Cell
 
Middle East
» British Troops Head to Saudi Arabia to Train Syrian Rebels
» IS Should be Attacked in Syria Too, Says Dutch Army Chief
» ISIS Netted Up to $1b in Cash After Taking Over Mosul, US Official Says
» Turkey Vows to Continue Campaign Against Islamic State Militants
» Turkish Jets Bomb Islamic State Militants, Marking Pivotal Shift and End of Tacit Truce
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» As Islamic Extremism Comes to Maroua, Pime Missionary Bears Witness
» ‘Big Ugly Mess’: South Sudan, Nation Created With Help of US Aid, Spirals Into Violence
» Obama Arrives on First Presidential Visit to Kenya
» Obama Kicks Off Africa Visit With Reunion With Kenya Relatives
» President Obama Starts Two-Day Kenya Visit
» South Africa: Chaos as Pupils March Over Tablets
 
Latin America
» Judge Rules 3 Prison Workers to Face Charges in Escape of Mexican Drug Lord
 
Immigration
» New Publication: How Immigration and Refugee Resettlement Are Used as a Weapon Against America
» Obama’s Illegal Aliens: Importing Deadly Third World Diseases
» Obama’s Oath of Allegiance for Incoming U.S. Citizens
» The ‘Donald Trump Act’ Just Passed the House by a Landslide, And Obama Doesn’t Like it One Bit
 
Culture Wars
» Netherlands: Sharp Rise in Euthanasia for Psychiatric Patients
» Planned Parenthood’s Erroneous Corporate Sponsor List
 

China: Stock Market Crash: Communist Party Shielding the Country’s “Red Aristocracy”, Not Its People

China’s recent stock market crisis has exposed the flaws in President Xi Jinping’s economic policies. Party-controlled media have praised government leaders, but analysts and experts view large-scale government interventions as a “step backward”. The crisis needs urgent political reform, which the party has rejected so far. What follows is an analysis by a great China expert, courtesy of the Jamestown Foundation.

Beijing (AsiaNews) — The recent Chinese stock market crisis has exposed the fallacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) contention that it is possible to seek economic development and reform without commensurate political changes. That the authorities have to use a barrage of executive fiats-including deploying the police to investigate what Beijing calls “malicious” brokers and fund managers-to save the day has underscored the limited tools available to China’s top leadership.

Beijing’s abandonment of market-oriented mechanisms has cast a shadow over the future of financial and related reforms. Moreover, China’s 90 million stocks buyers have expressed their lack of confidence in the regime by disobeying Beijing’s orders to prop up the faltering market.

For three weeks beginning in mid-June, some $13.5 trillion yuan was wiped out of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges as panicking investors stampeded to sell their shares. While the turmoil was estimated to have cost the country’s wealthy elite some $200 billion, the real burden fell on ordinary gumin (“investors”)-including low-income workers, hawkers, farmers, and housewives.

These smaller investors are estimated to have each lost an estimated 420,000 yuan each, a tremendous amount as measured against their total wealth (Guangzhou Daily [Guangzhou], July 4). Social backlash has already begun. Cases of suicides and violence, such as a man in the central city of Nanchang who killed his wife because the latter had run up stocks-related debts of 1.8 million yuan-could translate into a groundswell of discontent toward CCP-style governance (Ming Pao [Hong Kong], July 10; Henan.China.com, July 3).

While a modicum of market confidence was restored by July 9, it is possible that the China stock market could witness more roller-coaster rides in the foreseeable future. While it is true that the Shanghai Index rose by 5.2 points in the week ending July 10, the smaller Shenzhen Market recorded a drop of 1.7 percent in the same period, with its high-tech second board (also known as the “Chinese Nasdaq”) having nosedived by 9.6 percent (Ming Pao, July 10).

Hostile Economic Forces?

The CCP leadership has blamed short-sellers-including foreign and Hong Kong institutional investors-for the crisis. On July 9, the State Council asked Deputy Minister of State Security Meng Qingfeng, a colleague of President Xi’s when the latter was Party Secretary of Zhejiang, to head a task force charged with investigating “malicious short-selling” by an undisclosed number of brokers and fund managers (Ta Kung Pao [Hong Kong] July 12; Xinhua, July 9).

Yet it seems clear that fault for the overheated markets is largely due to the party-state apparatus itself. Earlier this year, senior cadres and party mouthpieces began giving super-optimistic projections of stock prices. An April 21 commentary in the People’s Daily, for example, declared that the “bull market has just started.” Other commentaries have waxed eloquent on the fact that “the stock market is the anchor of ‘the Chinese Dream’,”-President Xi’s favorite mantra. Many investors, quite logically, believed that the markets could only go up. After all, Chinese stock exchanges have always been “policy-driven markets” (政筗推动市场) due to frequent interference by the party-state apparatus (China Economy Net, July 13; People’s Daily, April 21; Phoenix TV, March 28).

Behind the editorials and predictions was policy: President Xi and Premier Li, the latter-a reform-oriented official whose motto is “let the market do what it does best”-apparently wanted to pump liquidity into the economy. They proposed to do this by persuading Chinese to dig into their 130 trillion yuan worth of savings and invest in the market. The reason is simple. Despite the fact that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had repeatedly lowered interest rates as well as banks’ reserves requirement ratios (RRR), the economy remains tepid, thus jeopardizing Beijing’s goal of a 7% GDP growth rate this year.

Moreover, state-owned enterprises, many of which are heavily in debt, have benefited from a spike in their share prices. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, major shareholders of corporations (including senior executives) sold 360 billion yuan of stocks in the first five months of 2015, compared to 190 billion yuan in all of 2014. Peking University economics professor and former banker Fan Di noted that “SOEs are the biggest beneficiary of the stock market.” “Other parties which have taken profits include the government, brokerages, and finance professionals,” he added. Fan estimated that 90 percent of gumin had never earned money from the markets (Reuters, July 10; Eastmoney.com [Shanghai], February 25). The casino-like atmosphere of the stock market was exacerbated by the fact that the PBOC and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) allowed margin borrowing by investors to facilitate their shares-buying spree earlier this year (Caixin [Beijing], June 29; China Daily, May 7).

Measures to generate bullish sentiments, however, pale beside the slew of extraordinary government edicts geared toward reining in the stampede in late June and early July. On June 28, in a rare move, the PBOC simultaneously lowered the interest rate and reduced bank RRR (PBOC, June 28). Soon afterwards, Beijing indefinitely postponed a rash of new IPOs and ordered government-controlled pension funds to buy heaps of stocks and shares. On July 4, the State Council summoned the CEOs of the nation’s largest brokerages to an emergency meeting in Beijing, during which the latter was told “to buy and never to sell” (Xinhua, July 4; Sohu.com) Beijing also set up a $42 million contingency fund to help brokers resuscitate the market.

This was followed by the CSRC’s instructions on July 7 that institutions and individuals who owned five percent or more of a company should refrain from selling for six months. Two days later, half of the 2,800 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges suspended trading, resulting in a virtual shutdown of the stock market (Reuters, July 10; Ming Pao, July 5; China Economy News, June 30).

After the sell-off was temporarily halted, the party mouthpiece Global Times praised the “national team”-a reference to the Xi-Li leadership-for taking resolute and effective measures to tackle the financial mayhem. However, foreign and Chinese officials fear that the return of massive state fiats and other types of interventions in the market could signal a sustained roll-back of reforms. Referring to Beijing’s repeated interference in the market, United States Treasury Secretary Jack Lew noted: “I hope that this is not something that slows down the pace of reform…If the reaction is to put the brakes on reforms, that will slow that process” (Reuters, July 8; VOA, July 8). Hu Xindou, a professor at the Beijing University of Technology and a vocal government critic, urged the government to minimize state fiats and to speed up reforms in the financial and securities sector:

“The government can only solve the problems relating to the stock market through reform. Reforms include stricter restrictions on IPOs, more transparency in disclosure of information, stricter punishments of rogue companies, and the improvement of corporate governance” (Hu Xindou Blog, July 9).

Stock Market Reforms With Chinese Characteristics

Since coming to power in late 2012, Xi has reiterated the imperative of upholding “the ideology, institutions and road of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The conservative party chief has also banned classroom discussion of topics including international norms, Western democratic ideas, freedom of expression and independence of the judiciary (Apple Daily [Hong Kong] May 9, 2014; People’s Daily, May 31, 2013). Yet as former Premier Wen Jiabao repeatedly warned, economic reform cannot succeed in the absence of political liberalization (China.com.cn, March 14, 2012; Jinghua Times [Nanjing], October 12, 2010). The financial turmoil has illustrated how President Xi’s art of governance-concentrating all decision-making powers at the apex of the party and implementing policies via traditional diktat-is going into a cul-de-sac.

The stock bubble also reflects the fall-out of the CCP’s 26-year freeze on political liberalization. In the absence of the kind of checks and balances that can only be brought about by political reform, Xi’s vaunted top-level design (顶层è(r)3/4ç1/2(r)) of the economy could result in disaster. While in many Asian countries, the media acts as a counter-balance to state power by pinpointing inadequacy of policy, the CCP has imposed a tight censorship on both print and electronic platforms. Despite Xi’s rhetorical commitment to legal reforms, the draconian way in which the central government has used banks and brokerages to defuse a crisis apparently of its own making has demonstrated its utter disdain for due process.

The lack of oversight or regulatory legislation means that neither China’s rubberstamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, nor the judiciary are in a position to rein in the excesses of the party-state apparatus (Inmediahk.com [Hong Kong], July 10). Throughout the stock market crash, not a single member of the NPC or the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference-China’s highest advisory body-so much as made a comment on how to defuse the crisis. This is despite Xi’s reiterations that his administration will strictly abide by the rule of law (Xinhua, March 29, 2014). Moreover, contrary to its “serve the people” credo, the CCP leadership has attached top priority ti enriching the “red aristocracy”, the major beneficiary of the markets’ bull-run. As overseas-based Chinese politics expert He Qinglian has argued, the Chinese stock market is a “tiger machine that gobbles up the assets of the lower classes.” Not a single party or government unit has in the wake of the turmoil made any promise about overhauling operations in the two bourses (Radio Free Asia, July 6).

The Xi leadership seems to have ruled out parliamentary democracy or any shift from a single-party authoritarian state forever. The lack of a strong rebound in prices despite strong efforts by the government to shore up positive sentiments indicates that ordinary stock investors have lost confidence in the “policy-driven markets.” The stock market has thus become an indirect platform for gumin to demonstrate their disapproval of the efficacy of the party-state apparatus. There seems little evidence that investors who have lost big are planning anti-government protests or other destabilizing actions. Yet senior officials including CSRC Chairman Xiao Gang have been pilloried in social media daily for their failure to reform the stock markets. Gumin have also shown their disapproval with the Xi leadership by refusing to heed state orders to produce a rebound in the market (Apple Daily, July 8; Hong Kong Economic Times, July 7).

Taxing the Poor

Moreover, the Xi administration’s handling of the stock market has highlighted one of the most serious problems in China: the increasingly serious gap between haves and have-nots. A couple of mainland media have suggested that gumin on average lost as much as 410,000 yuan-the equivalent of eight years of salaries for a worker-in the 20 days prior to July 3 (Eastmoney.com, July 5; Qianjiang Daily [Hangzhou], July 4). Influential economist Mao Yushi wrote in his blog last week that the overly speculative stock market has become a casino, where the powerful-including those who have inside information about government policies as well as a sturdy credit line from banks-prey on the weak. “A casino does not create wealth,” he concludes, “It only concentrates more wealth in the hands of the minority.” (Qq.com, July 10).

If the CCP administration is seen as cynically manipulating the stock market for purposes including meeting GDP growth targets and further benefiting SOEs and well-connected business people, the long-term impact of this crisis could be devastating. A big dent has already been made in ordinary folks’ faith in “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Failure by the Xi-Li leadership to come up with thorough-going measures to restore fairness and integrity to the stock market could provoke a ferocious demand for political reform that the CCP has consistently denied its constituents.

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

China: Beijing: Industrial Output in July is the Worst in 15 Months

Despite June’s limited rebound, the manufacturing index has dropped again this month. For the fifth consecutive month, the figure is below the threshold of contraction. Beijing had set growth for April-June at 7 per cent but analysts estimate that it will be around 5 per cent.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China’s factory sector contracted by the most in 15 months in July as shrinking orders depressed output, a worse-than-expected result.

The flash Caixin/Markit China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 48.2, the lowest reading since April last year and a fifth straight month below 50, the level that separates contraction from expansion.

Economists had forecast a reading of 49.7, slightly stronger than June’s final reading of 49.4.

Output in July was 47.3, its lowest since March 2014. New orders and new export orders, which expanded in June, fell this month, according to the survey.

The survey contradicts recent data that suggested the world’s second-largest economy was stabilising after the government said annual growth in April-June would hold at 7 per cent, slightly better than market expectations.

However, financial giant Citibank told its customers “not to believe” the government figures, and said that the “real growth” in China’s economy would be “around 5 per cent”.

Continuing contraction in factory growth is likely to fuel speculation that China will further loosen monetary policy to try to stoke activity.

Economists polled this month said they expect China to reduce interest rates by 25 basis points before the year-end.

The amount of cash that Chinese banks must hold as reserves was also expected to be reduced to keep the Chinese economy growing at 7 per cent this year, the slowest pace in a quarter of a century.

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

Copper, China and World Trade Are All Screaming That the Next Economic Crisis is Here

If you are looking for a “ canary in a coal mine” type of warning for the entire global economy, you have a whole bunch to pick from right now. “ Dr. Copper” just hit a six year low, Morgan Stanley is warning that this could be the worst oil price crash in 45 years, the Chinese economy is suddenly stalling out, and world trade is falling at the fastest pace that we have seen since the last financial crisis. In order not to see all of the signs that are pointing toward a global economic slowdown, you would have to be willingly blind. In recent months, I have been writing article after article detailing how the exact same patterns that happened just before the stock market crash of 2008 are playing out once again. We are watching a slow-motion train wreck unfold right before our eyes, and things are only going to get worse from here.

Copper is referred to as “ Dr. Copper” because it does such an excellent job of indicating where economic conditions are heading next. We saw this in 2008, when the price of copper started crashing big time in the months leading up to the stock market implosion.

Well, now copper is crashing again. Just check out this chart. The price of copper plunged again on Wednesday, and it is now the lowest that it has been since the last financial crisis. Unfortunately, the forecast for the months ahead is not good. The following is what Goldman Sachs is saying about copper…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Media: USD 10 Bln From Russia to Athens’ Return to Drachma

According to daily To Vima

(ANSA) — ATHENS — Greek premier Alexis Tsipras had requested Moscow to lend Greece 10 billion US dollars to start printing a new currency, GRReporter writes quoting a story published by the Greek daily To Vima. As stated in the newspaper that refers to the words of the Greek Prime Minister in his latest interview with the state television ERT, he was “aware that the introduction of the national currency would not be possible without the availability of a considerable amount of currency in Greece,” continuing, “Therefore, he had requested Moscow to lend 10 billion US dollars to use them to support the drachma.” According to To Vima, “Moscow had not rejected the request but vaguely started to consider a loan of USD 5 billion as a “down payment” for the South Stream pipeline. Simultaneously, there had been loan requests to Iran and China but none of the two countries had succumbed to temptation because they had no benefit from being involved in a blow against the euro zone.” The report signed by Pavlos Papadopoulos and entitled “Leonid, Alexis and Panagiotis” and subtitled “The former KGB agent, the flirt with Syriza, the trips to Moscow and the loan that had never been granted” describes in detail unknown scenes from recent months and the rapprochement of the Greek government with Moscow.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Shock Report: China Dumps Half a Trillion Dollars: “Something is Very, Very Wrong”

We’ve recently reported that China is preparing for something very big in currency markets this October. We then learned that economic models from two very well known financial forecasters are predicting that governments around the world will run into serious problems starting around October 2nd of this year. Those forecasts come on the heels of a warning issued by economic analyst Michael Snyder who says that a financial collapse is imminent within the next six months.

A wide body of evidence suggests that something is in the works as economic numbers around the world are revealed to be nothing short of pure conjecture. Yet, despite the clearly disastrous direction in which the world is trending, politicians and media pundits maintain that whatever contagion existed has now been contained.

But a shocking report from Zero Hedge suggests otherwise. According to one of the world’s leading financial web sites, major banking institutions like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have been left speechless after the release of new data coming out of China. The news isn’t necessarily that China just reported a massive increase in its gold holdings of some 600 tons, but rather, that they have actively dumped hundreds of billions of dollars worth of U.S. Treasuries over the last 15 months, with some $224 billion having been offloaded in just the last 90 days.

This has led many to speculate that the end for the world’s reserve currency is nigh.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tax Authorities Say Italian Real Estate Values Rising

(ANSA) — Rome, July 23 — In 2014, the value of Italian real estate assets rose by 1.5% over the previous year to reach about 37.5 billion euros, tax authorities said Thursday. As of year-end 2014, values were 536 million euros higher than 2013 levels.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Islam Activist Jon Ritzheimer Reported to FBI

The prominent Muslim civil liberties organization, the Council on American and Islamic Relations, has been keeping tabs on Islamophobia throughout the country for decades. But in the last few months, leaders tell New Times, it’s maintained an extra-close eye on Jon Ritzheimer, the local ex-Marine and face of the anti-Islam crusade in Arizona.

“We’ve been monitoring him since the biker rally,” says Liban Yousuf, CAIR Arizona Civil Rights Director — referring the May 29 demonstration outside of the Phoenix Islamic Cultural Center that brought hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters to the streets to defame or defend Islam — “but in the recent videos [he’s posted on social media], he’s really ramped up the violent rhetoric.”

It’s made many Muslims in Arizona feel unsafe and threatened, Yousuf adds. “All that screaming, yelling — eriodically send updates to the Phoenix Police Department and the FBI to let them know about [the things he says or does].”

The PPD declined to comment on the subject, deferring instead to the FBI. Special Agent Anthony Farinacci from the Phoenix FBI office tells New Times that on principle, “the F.B.I. does not comment on on-going investigations,” and therefore cannot “confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.”

Ritzheimer has posted at least seven inflammatory videos of himself ranting about the “evils of Islam” and the “hateful teachings of the Quran,” since the May rally. Earlier this week, we wrote about what we thought was Ritzheimer’s latest video — in it, he films himself driving and ranting about how Islam was to blame for the most recent shooting incident that left five people dead in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (The video currently has 856,271 views, 30,947 shares on Facebook, and dozens of comments from readers showing their support for Ritzheimre’s statements.)

But after we published the story, we learned that Ritzheimer had in fact posted another video the previous day called “the real reason for the Chattanooga shootings!” It’s unclear why, but within hours of putting it up, Ritzheimer deleted it from Facebook. He did not, however, remove it from YouTube, where it has 352 views.

In this video, Ritzheimer strays from his usual filming-while-driving video, and instead takes the camera out to the desert so he can film himself shooting a Quran with an automatic weapon and then later a handgun.

“I’ve been watching the news and they’re saying FBI is still investigating — they’re trying to find a motive for the gunman out in Chattanooga. They’re still digging and investigating and still really trying to find the motive. So I’m out here, just searching around out here in the desert, hoping maybe I can find the motive,” Ritzheimer says, putting his hand above his eyes to block the sun and surveying the land around him.

“Maybe, you know, we can do this like Blue’s Clues, and we’ll look for the motive and stuff. Oh I don’t know,” he pauses, slowing lifting a Quran into view.

“Oh, Oh! Hi! People, I think I found the motive,” he says, pointing to the Quran. “I think I found the motive for what killed my five brothers out in Chattanooga.”

He then proceeds to place the Quran against a shrub and fire at it with an automatic weapon and then a handgun…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Clinton Facing New Calls to Turn Over Server After IGs Request Probe

Hillary Clinton faced new calls Friday to turn over her personal server after key inspectors general asked the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether classified material was improperly shared on the former secretary of state’s account.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Convicted Spy to be Released by Obama Administration: Report

A convicted Israeli spy will soon be released by the Obama administration in a move that some hope will improve relations with Israel following the Iran nuclear deal, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper reported Friday that some U.S. officials are pushing for Jonathan Pollard’s release in a “matter of weeks,” but it may have to wait until his parole consideration date in November.

The Journal reported that while some U.S. officials believe the move will improve relations with Israel, others denied any link between the release and the Iran deal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Donald Trump is Right About John McCain

In refusing to apologize for his remarks about Senator McCain, Trump righty said, “The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty. He would rather protect the Iraqi border than Arizona’s.”

See the report here.

While most everyone has criticized the second part of Trump’s statement (“I like people who weren’t captured”), hardly anyone has dared to broach the first part of the statement: “[John McCain] is a hero because he was captured.” That statement is an absolute fact.

John McCain rose to become one of America’s most powerful senators and became the Republican Party’s nominee for President in 2008 mostly on his Prisoner of War (POW) status. Absent his POW history, McCain would no doubt have lived his entire life in relative obscurity. It usually takes more than simply being a veteran or being the son of a Navy admiral or even being a POW to make one obtain famous hero status. How many other POWs do you know that have achieved McCain’s political power and influence?

Alabama’s Jeremiah Denton was a POW who truly endured intense torture at the hands of the enemy and who became one of our finest U.S. senators. And there was never the first hint of dishonorable conduct or scandal or accusations that Denton used his war record for personal profit. I had the privilege of meeting Senator Denton a couple of times, and the thing that struck me most about the man was his deep and genuine humility. The same cannot be said of John McCain.

John McCain’s POW record has been shrouded in controversy from the very beginning. Many independent journalists and military veterans have accused McCain of being America’s version of “Tokyo Rose.” They offer convincing evidence (or at least credible postulations) that McCain was NEVER tortured, that he received special treatment by his captors, and that he actually willingly participated in anti-America propaganda, in much the same way that Tokyo Rose did in the Pacific during World War II…

One Vietnam veteran who was publicly critical of John McCain was my friend Jack McLamb. McLamb served nine years in secret operations in Cambodia and other nations before going on to become one of the most highly decorated police officers in Phoenix, Arizona history, winning Police Officer of the Year twice before taking a role as a hostage negotiator for the FBI.

McLamb said of McCain, “I know a lot of Vietnam veterans and a few POW’s and all the POW’s that I’ve talked to over the years say that John McCain is a lying skunk.

“He never was tortured — they were there in the camp with him and then when he came in…he immediately started spilling his guts about everything because he didn’t want to get tortured,” said McLamb, contradicting the official story that McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.

“The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird, that’s his code name, Songbird McCain, because he just came into the camp singing and telling them everything they wanted to know.”

McLamb also said, “The POW’s said that McCain made 32 propaganda videos for the communist North Vietnamese in which he denounced America for what they were doing in Vietnam.

“They have these sealed now, our government has these sealed, we can’t get to it, they have it classified. In truth the POW’s hate John McCain.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Federal Court Rules That Air Fresheners and Pro-Cop Stickers Are a Reason to Pull You Over

Air fresheners, rosaries, and pro-police car stickers give cops a justifiable reason to pull over a car, ruled the Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals. The ruling was based on a 2011 Texas case in which a police officer pulled over a car that had those items on display. The officer suspected the occupants were transporting drugs. The officer search the car and didn’t find drugs, but he found cash, which he confiscated. The driver was sent to jail.

From the court’s decision:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Congresswoman Proposes Fascist Mandatory Vaccination Law to Remove Parents’ Rights Across Whole Country

Another day, Another attempt by the progressive Left to impose its will on the entire country.

A U.S. congresswoman from Florida, Frederica S. Wilson, from the state’s 24th district, has just introduced legislation, House Resolution 2232, that, if passed and signed into law, would mandate that all states require all students enrolled in public schools to be vaccinated with all vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy, a federal entity comprised chiefly of vaccine industry representatives (Big Pharma). The bill calls for children to be vaccinated specifically against HPV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Paul Offit’s rotavirus vaccine, annual flu shots and dozens of others.

As reported by the Autism Action Network, any state that doesn’t comply would be held financially hostage to federal funding: No grants for “preventative health services” under the Public Health Services Act (which, in its original form, does not contain provisions requiring that kids be vaccinated or federal funding would be withheld).

[Comment: This is why States should not take any funding from Federal government. Strings are always attached.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Marked: “Schools Assess Students’ Threat Level” From Kindergarten up in Precrime Society

Minority Report, eat your heart out. The real system is worse than anyone could have imagined.

By now, everybody knows that the NSA and a host of other alphabet agencies are spying on Americans, collecting virtually every piece of communications data they exchange, regardless of whether or not they are “doing anything wrong.”

But what are they doing with it?

Apart from its value in consumer and marketing fields, the data is used to create “threat assessments” and put a black mark on the record of anyone who the authorities deem troublesome that will follow them throughout their career, and make it harder for individuals to get a job, qualify for a loan, travel, or enjoy the rights of a (now once) free society.

MassPrivateI reports:

Our government want us to believe that EVERY student is a potential threat and we need threat to stop them…

Every student is given a “THREAT ASSESSMENT” by police and school administrators!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Horizons: Pluto May Have ‘Nitrogen Glaciers’

Pluto would appear to have glaciers of nitrogen ice, the latest pictures from the New Horizons probe suggest.

Scientists believe they see evidence of surface material having flowed around mountains and even ponding in craters.

The activity is certainly recent, they say, and may even be current.

But the mission team cautions that it has received only 4-5% of the data gathered during 14 July’s historic flyby of the dwarf planet, and any interpretations must carry caveats.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Newest Remote Car Hacking Raises More Questions About Reporter’s Death

As readers of WhoWhatWhy know, our site has been one of the very few continuing to explore the fiery death two years ago of investigative journalist Michael Hastings, whose car left a straight segment of a Los Angeles street at a high speed, jumped the meridian, hit a tree, and blew up.

Our original report described anomalies of the crash and surrounding events that suggest cutting-edge foul play-that an external hacker could have taken control of Hastings’s car in order to kill him. If this sounds too futuristic, a series of recent technical revelations has proven that “car hacking” is entirely possible. The latest just appeared this week.

Hackers, seeking to demonstrate the vulnerability of automobiles to remote attacks, were able to largely take over the Jeep Cherokee driven by a writer for the tech magazine Wired:

Their code is an automaker’s nightmare: software that lets hackers send commands through the Jeep’s entertainment system to its dashboard functions, steering, brakes, and transmission, all from a laptop that may be across the country.

They were able to make his car decelerate suddenly, causing the writer to “narrowly avert death” at the hands of a semi-trailer coming up behind him…

Back when Michael Hastings died, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke-by all accounts a sober, no-nonsense man-said that the Hastings’s crash was “consistent with a car cyber attack” and that it was likely that intelligence agencies knew “how to remotely seize control of a car.”

It is worth noting, too, that the day before his death, Hastings had “urgently” requested to borrow his neighbor’s car-he wanted to get out of town, but he feared his own car was being tampered with.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama to Label Senior Citizens as Mentally Challenged in Order to Disarm Them

In the aftermath of yet another mass-shooting incident, this time in Chattanooga, Tennessee, President Barack Obama and his administration insist on blaming guns for the killing of five Marines instead of radical Islam. As part of their anti-gun agenda, they want to stop elderly Americans who are collecting Social Security (SS) benefits from purchasing and owning firearms if they do not manage their own financial affairs such as banking and using credit cards, according to news reports this week.

According to a number of gun policy experts, such an executive order is likely to have an effect on millions of people receiving their retirement benefits or SS disability payments that are handled by other family members of caregivers. This latest anti-gun push by Obama and his fellow-travelers — who refuse to stop trying to limit Second Amendment rights — would add innocent retired or physically-challenged Americans to a list that includes felons, drug addicts, illegal aliens, domestic abusers and others.

The current federal gun law prohibits firearms ownership to people who are unable to function due to low intelligence, diagnosed mental illness such as incompetency. Such an act could impact on the rights of a large group within Social Security system.

If Social Security records, which are considered strictly confidential and were never used for background checks, uses the standard that those who are receiving monthly payments that are managed by an authorized representative will be treated like felons and illegal aliens, more that four million retirees or disabled persons would be deprived of their constitutional right to keep and bear arms, according to former police detective and senior citizen activist George David Bellonson.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Expresses Frustration Over Gun Control Debate in Interview

President Obama said he had been “most frustrated and most stymied” by the failure to pass gun control legislation during his administration in an interview broadcast Thursday.

The BBC interview aired hours before a gunman killed two people and injured seven others in a Lafayette, La. movie theater before turning the gun on himself.

Obama said the inability to move what he called “commonsense gun safety laws” through Congress, “even in the face of repeated mass killings” was “distressing.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Admits US Gun Laws Are His ‘Biggest Frustration’

President Barack Obama has admitted that his failure to pass “common sense gun safety laws” in the US is the greatest frustration of his presidency.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Obama said it was “distressing” not to have made progress on the issue “even in the face of repeated mass killings”.

He vowed to keep trying, but the BBC’s North America editor Jon Sopel said the president did not sound very confident.

However, Mr Obama said race relations had improved during his presidency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Post American Culture: Congress’ War on American Citizens

Part 2: Washington’s elite radically changing America’s racial and religious fabric, destroying American culture in the name of multiculturalism, violent change agents, USA becoming a third world hellhole.

President Teddy Roosevelt stated the most important fact for America’s future: “The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, or preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”

U.S. Senator Teddy Kennedy authored the downfall of the United States of America with his “Immigration Reform Act of 1965.” As a college kid, I remember Howard Metzenbaum stating, “Let the flood gates open.” And they opened wide! The current president opened those floodgates to further Muslim immigration, which already resulted in 9/11, Fort Dix Six, Fort Hood, Boston Marathon bombings, Chattanooga Naval Base and more to come. Muslim immigrants constitute violent change-agents among us, and growing.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Barack Obama to Release Israeli Spy

President Barack Obama is set to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Pollard was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison for leaking classified information, obtained through his role as a Naval intelligence analyst, and delivering it to an Israeli agent in the United States.

His wife was also charged in the ordeal and she served three years in federal prison before moving to Israel.

The news comes as tensions flare between the two countries over the Iranian nuclear deal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Republican Operatives Plot to Sabotage Trump — But That Could Turn Him Into Their Worst Nightmare

Could Donald Trump become the next Ross Perot? Right now, there is a push by Republican insiders to try to find a way to sabotage the Trump campaign and even potentially exclude him from future debates. These Republican operatives claim that he is “damaging the party”, but what they really mean by that is that he is playing havoc with their plans of getting Jeb Bush into the White House. You see, the truth is that most of the other Republican candidates are just there for window dressing. All of the big money is already lining up behind Jeb Bush, and his campaign recently announced that it has already raised 114 million dollars. Perhaps Scott Walker or Marco Rubio have an outside chance of contending with the Bush machine, but everyone else is just supposed to be cannon fodder and most of them know it. If everything goes to plan, Bush will clinch the nomination very early, and that is precisely the way that the Republican establishment wants it.

But now Trump has rolled in like a wrecking ball and is messing everything up for the Republican establishment. He is getting the vast majority of the media attention, he is talking about how terrible Bush is, and many of the things that Trump is saying are driving Republican insiders up a wall. The following is an excerpt from a recent article on a liberal website…

[Comment: Just like Ross Perot? Drain enough conservative votes to ensure Democrat/Communist Party win.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

SB 277: Mandatory Vaccinations & How They Will Affect You: Home Schooling?

SB 277, a California bill that removes all exemptions to vaccine requirements for school entry, was recently signed into law. This means that all children in California must receive all of the vaccinations recommended by U.S. public health authorities if they wish to attend public school. The bill will no doubt be a major contributing factor in the expected rise in homeschooling for educational purposes in the coming months.

The video below tells a story about a girl named Olivia. She lives in California and loves her school, but what will happen to her now that SB 277 is signed into law?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sociopathic Oncologist to be Sentenced for Destroying People’s Health by Administering Chemo Drugs to Cancer-Free Victims

Dr. (a title he’s certainly not worth keeping) Farid Fata told healthy patients they had cancer when they did not and also sold false hope to those who really were ill, administering more treatment knowing full well it wouldn’t help. As if these behaviors aren’t horrific enough, he proceeded to nnecessarily administer chemotherapy treatments to over 550 patients who didn’t need it.

Sadly, that breaks down to 9,000 injections or infusions, which cost patients and insurance companies millions of dollars. Additionally, it forever shattered lives.

[Comment: Wonder if any of his victims were muslim? Or did he just target infidels?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Stop Sharia Law Before it’s Too Late

The brutality of shari’ah law embraces quite a number of laws and punishments that are contrary to long-held western ideas of justice and dignity of the human person. Nonetheless, the foundation for shari’ah in the west is already being laid and solidified. The shari’ah concept is totally incompatible with the basic concept of the United States citizenship and national loyalty and is fundamentally inconsistent with United States laws and the constitutional guarantees inherent in them.

This can easily be seen in comparing the fundamental rights guaranteed to United States sovereign citizens with very limited human rights recognized by shari’ah states. The United States and the west, at large, define human rights broadly and extend them to all human beings regardless of sex, religion, or creed. In stark brutal contrast, shai’ah defines human rights narrowly and limits them to muslims and qualifies them to be in complete conformity with shari’ah.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Stunning Nightside Image Reveals Pluto’s Hazy Skies

Speeding away from Pluto just seven hours after its July 14 closest approach, the New Horizons spacecraft looked back and captured this spectacular image of Pluto’s atmosphere, backlit by the sun. The image reveals layers of haze that are several times higher than scientists predicted.

Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface. A preliminary analysis of the image shows two distinct layers of haze —one about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface and the other at an altitude of about 30 miles (50 kilometers).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

These Superhumans Are Real and Their DNA Could be Worth Billions

Drug companies are exploiting rare mutations that make one person nearly immune to pain, another to broken bones

Steven Pete can put his hand on a hot stove or step on a piece of glass and not feel a thing, all because of a quirk in his genes. Only a few dozen people in the world share Pete’s congenital insensitivity to pain. Drug companies see riches in his rare mutation. They also have their eye on people like Timothy Dreyer, 25, who has bones so dense he could walk away from accidents that would leave others with broken limbs. About 100 people have sclerosteosis, Dreyer’s condition.

Both men’s apparent superpowers come from exceedingly uncommon deviations in their DNA. They are genetic outliers, coveted by drug companies Amgen, Genentech, and others in search of drugs for some of the industry’s biggest, most lucrative markets.

Their genes also have caused the two men enormous suffering. Pete’s parents first realized something was wrong when, as a teething baby, their son almost chewed off his tongue. “That was a giant red flag,” says Pete, now 34 and living in Kelso, Wash.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why Impeach, Why Now and How

America is on the final brink of collapse as freedom and liberty teeter on the brink of extinction, all for one simple reason, your silence is your consent… and the people have been far too silent for far too long. Until someone is held accountable, no one is accountable to the people for anything…

Up until now, “the people” have not been part of any viable solutions, despite pouring millions of dollars and hours of energy into things they thought might work. Too many Americans have been led to believe that elections are the only solution available to “the people” when in fact, pro-American conservatives have not won an election in 35 years, since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980.

Many thought they were on the right track when they elected Republicans to control the U.S. purse strings in the House in 2010, only to watch Republicans continue to fund every evil agenda item forced down the people’s throats by the most impeachable administration in U.S. history.

Others were told “nullification” at the state level will solve the problem, despite the fact that both Jefferson and Madison failed in their nullification attempts over 200 years ago and state level nullification of federal overreaches has never worked even once in U.S. history since.

Still others are being sold a bill of goods regarding a false interpretation of the Article V Convention, now often referred to as “a convention of the states” and an “assembly of the states.” Truth be told, any meeting of the states with the intended purpose of “amending the federal constitution” is by definition, a “constitutional convention.”

Any such convention must be convened and run by the U.S. Congress, and the states will have no control at all over the outcome, other than their ability to refuse ratification of the can of worms they opened by requesting the convention. It makes no difference how many “constitutional scholars” tell you different. They are the same people destroying our legal system and taking all of your rights away with their “expertise.”

Then you have the new militia folks, who never studied the Civil War or the Bonus Army of 1932, or bothered to notice that “the people” have allowed the federal government to enjoy such technological advancements that will allow the Obama administration to end any uprising before you can get out of your front yard, without them even needing a pilot in the cockpit of the drone.

Meanwhile, the constitutional solution was under the people’s nose the entire time…. IMPEACH, remove from office and charge with high crimes in criminal court after removal.

The U.S. Constitution tells us all exactly what to do when we find our nation being torn to shreds by an evil occupant of the Oval Office and his cabal of evildoers….

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

WWE Terminates Contract With Hulk Hogan Amid Reports of Audio Tape of Him Launching Racist Tirade

The WWE has terminated its contract with Hulk Hogan and erased him from its website amid rumors of an audio tape featuring the wrestler making a racist rant.

Web pages which recently featured videos, biography and imagery of the 61-year-old star had been pulled from the organization’s site Friday, as the wrestling body distanced itself from Hogan and reiterated its commitment to ‘celebrating individuals from all backgrounds’.

The company did not explain why the information was removed, but it follows reports that an old audio tape was submitted as evidence in court, and transcripts obtained by Radar Online.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ezra Levant: ‘Crazy’ Prosecutions

Here we go again.

This October I will be prosecuted for one charge of being “publicly discourteous or disrespectful to a Commissioner or Tribunal Chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission” and two charges that my “public comments regarding the Alberta Human Rights Commission were inappropriate and unbecoming and that such conduct is deserving of sanction.”

Because last year I wrote a newspaper editorial calling Alberta’s human rights commission “crazy.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Britain Must Stay in EU ‘To Make World More Prosperous’, Says Obama

But the Eurosceptic Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan posted a message on Twitter saying: “I accept that there may be some arguments for Britain staying in the EU. Humouring Barack Obama is not one of them.”

And the Ukip MEP Patrick O’Flynn said Obama was unwise to pressure Britain to stay in the EU for the US’s convenience. “We need to look to our own national interest first,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘Sabotage’ Suspected in TGV Train Stoppage

Passengers stuck for hours without water, air conditioning

(ANSA) — Turin, July 21 — Turin prosecutors said Tuesday they were investigating the possibility of sabotage in the stoppage of a French TGV high-speed train from Paris to Milan that came to a halt in the Val di Susa valley north of Turin Monday.

The area has long seen protests against a new French-Italian high-speed rail (TAV) line.

Police said some 300 passengers sat without water, electricity, or air conditioning in hot rail cars for about four hours Monday.

Railway officials said a damaged electrical line was to blame.

Buses finally took the passengers to their destination.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Fireworks Factory Blast Kills Seven — Reports

At least seven people have been killed in a huge explosion at a fireworks factory near Italy’s southern city of Bari, local media say. Reports say several people were injured — some seriously — at the Bruscella factory in the town of Modugno.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Slovenia: OECD: Koper-Divaca’s Cost Unsustainable

Survey on cost, estimated at 1.4 billion for a 30 km railway

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Slovenia’s daily Dnevnik published the conclusions of a survey conducted by the OECD, concerning the construction of the second section of the railway between Koper and Divaca, which should facilitate the transportation of goods from Istria’s harbour.

The construction of about 30 km is worth 1.4 billion euro, according to estimates. As reported by the daily Dnevnik, the OECD survey underlines that this cost would be unsustainable, even if it were revised down. Its unsustainability is due to the current state of public finances in Slovenia and to the fact that the government does not intend to sell its shares in the port of Koper and in the state railways.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Malmö Politician Call for Stricter Gun Laws

Despite several grenade explosions in the Southern Swedish city of Malmö, the municipal leadership isn’t taking specific steps to deal with the situation, but the chairman of the municipal board, Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh (S), wants to see gun law reform, reports Swedish Radio News.

“The police are quite clear on the fact that we are now in a phase which is solely a police matter. But then it’s also about establishing long-term preventive measures to stifle violent crimes and other criminality in coordination between the police and the municipality. But right now the police must act and make sure these heavy criminals are prosecuted,” says Stjernfeldt Jammeh.

Eight grenades have been detonated or found in June and July alone in Malmö.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedes in Court Over Alleged Terror Crimes

A Gothenburg court has remanded two Swedish men in custody on suspicion of committing murder in war-torn Syria. They both deny the allegations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Third Grenade Attack in a Week Rocks Malmö

Malmö in southern Sweden was shaken by a hand grenade attack overnight — less than 12 hours after another explosion rocked residents in a series of blasts in Sweden’s third largest city this summer.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The UK Police Officers Still Pounding the Beat Who Are Convicted Criminals

Figures show 309 police officers and police community support officers have been given criminal records since the start of 2012 — equivalent to around two a week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Two Swedes Remanded for Syria Terrorist Crimes

Two men suspected of terrorist offenses and murder in Syria have been remanded into custody Friday afternoon. A third suspect is still at-large and has a warrant out for his arrest.

The investigation into the trio remained shrouded in secrecy. Officers from Säpo, Swedish secret service, helped arrest the pair on Thursday but the agency declined to give more information on their allege crime or the evidence against them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: I Won’t Name Child Abuse MP: Fury as Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet Chief Defends Failure to Act Over Senior Tory

The most senior civil servant in the Thatcher government was accused of a ‘shocking’ and ‘cavalier’ attitude last night after he defended an apparent child abuse cover-up.

Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Armstrong was warned by the security services in 1986 that an MP had ‘a penchant for small boys’.

But no action was taken and yesterday Lord Armstrong, who refused to name the MP involved, insisted the allegations were just ‘shadows of a rumour’. He said he believed the decision not to investigate the paedophile claims was ‘correct at the time’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: NHS Worker Hit by O2 Phone Bill for £21,819 After Returning Home From Turkey

Shannon Mills (pictured, with sister Chloe in Turkey) was given the massive shock after coming home to find her phone bill — typically £25-a-month — sitting at the mammoth five figure sum.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Top Secret Files on VIP Child Sex Ring Could Shed New Light on Kincora Horror

Sky News reported that after months of requests, the Government had finally revealed that papers exist naming senior figures in the 1970s and 1980s.

They include Margaret Thatcher’s former parliamentary secretary the late Sir Peter Morrison, former diplomat the late Sir Peter Hayman, former minister the late Sir William van Straubenzee and Brittan.

One of the files relating to Hayman was held by the Cabinet Office but “overlooked” during a previous trawl for information.

In January the Government was forced to release details about a file prepared for Mrs Thatcher’s office on the “unnatural” sexual behaviour of Sir Peter, named in the Commons as a paedophile by Geoffrey Dickens MP in 1981.

The latest documents reveal there was further official discussion about the senior MI6 operative.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy ‘Won’t Send Thousands of Soldiers’ to Libya

Gentiloni says Italy will contribute training, surveillance

(ANSA) — Rome, July 21 — Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Tuesday said that “making the path to stabilisation safe in Libya doesn’t mean sending shipments of thousands of soldiers,” but that once a power-sharing agreement is reached, Italy will contribute with “a sophisticated operation of training, monitoring and surveillance that will be done in response to the Libyans’ requests”. UN Libyan envoy Bernardino Leon said “there won’t be a strong military mission but training work for the Libyan forces”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Moroccan Authorities Arrest 2 Women Involved With Recently Dismantled Militant Cell

Moroccan authorities have arrested two women in connection with a recently dismantled militant cell planning attacks in the country.

The cell’s plan was to bring in fighters that had trained with the Islamic State as well as weapons and establish a brigade in the south of the country to carry out attacks on various targets, the ministry said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

British Troops Head to Saudi Arabia to Train Syrian Rebels

British troops are being sent to Saudi Arabia to begin training Syrian rebels, as the UK widens its efforts to combat Islamic State extremists.

Troops will soon be deployed to a desert base in the north of the country to teach rebel volunteers basic infantry skills as part of a US-led training programme.

[Comment: Syrian rebels = ISIS. They are the same. What a twisted article.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

IS Should be Attacked in Syria Too, Says Dutch Army Chief

There is ‘little chance’ of a solution to the fight against Islamic militant group IS unless the organisation is also tackled in Syria, Dutch army chief Tom Middendorp says in an interview with the NRC. Therefore it would be logical for Dutch F-16 fighter jets to attack targets in Syria as well as Iraq, Middendorp told the paper on Friday. ‘From a military technical point of view, there are arguments to remove the limits on the mission,’ he said. ‘But we have to look at what the impact would be elsewhere. That homework has not yet been completed.’ The Netherlands has always insisted there be an international mandate for direct intervention in Syria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Netted Up to $1b in Cash After Taking Over Mosul, US Official Says

ISIS netted between $500 million and $1 billion in cash when it took over Iraq’s second largest city in 2014, a top Obama administration official said Thursday.

Daniel Glaser, the U.S. Treasury’s assistant secretary for terror financing, told participants at the Aspen Security Forum that when ISIS swept through the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, it took the reserves of over 90 banks, estimated to be between $500 million and $1 billion.

The northern Iraqi city has been occupied by ISIS since June 2014 and is considered to be its main stronghold in the region.

Glaser also said that the May raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, a key ISIS leader in charge of the group’s oil and gas operations in eastern Syria, was a “treasure trove” of information on ISIS financing, giving new insight into the enormous financial operation propelling the terror group.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Vows to Continue Campaign Against Islamic State Militants

Turkey has vowed to keep up a crackdown on Islamic State (IS) militants, after launching its first air strikes against their positions in Syria.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the strikes were part of a broad “process”.

Turkey arrested IS suspects on Friday. It has also said it would let the US use a key airbase to attack IS targets.

A suspected IS bombing killed 32 people in the Turkish town of Suruc this week. IS fighters have since clashed with Turkish troops at the Syrian border.

One Turkish soldier was killed in the exchange of fire at a border post near the Turkish town of Kilis on Thursday.

On Friday, Turkish F-16 jets, based in Diyarbakir, bombed three IS targets in Syria, officials said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Jets Bomb Islamic State Militants, Marking Pivotal Shift and End of Tacit Truce

Last month, the first edition of the Islamic State group’s Turkish-language magazine contained not a word of criticism of the Turkish government. This week, the second edition calls Istanbul occupied territory and blasts President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a tyrant.

The difference? Turkey has started to crack down on the group under Western pressure and Islamic State now sees Turkey as the enemy, raising the stakes in the struggle against the extremist network. And Turkey’s decisive response on Friday — airstrikes on Islamic State targets and 290 arrests nationwide — show how seriously the nation is now taking a threat it had long downplayed.

The abrupt shift in Islamic State’s Turkish propaganda magazine shows just how quickly a tacit truce has come apart.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

As Islamic Extremism Comes to Maroua, Pime Missionary Bears Witness

Fr Giuseppe Parietti saw yesterday’s twin market attacks in person. He spoke about the minutes after the blasts and how things are now. Religious fanaticism and poverty makes young people vulnerable to radicalism. However, countries that sell arms also play a role. In Cameroon, Muslims are in favour of peace.

Yaoundé (AsiaNews) — Fr Giuseppe Parietti, regional superior for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Cameroon, was at Maroua’s central market — near the Hausa neighbourhood -when two 15-year-old girls blew themselves up, yesterday.

“I was just a few hundred metres from the blast, in Maroua’s central market,” he told AsiaNews. “We heard a bang, and then a minute later, another. People ran everywhere. Later we heard that the bombers were two girls. Sadly, violence has come here too. And it might be just be the beginning. This is scary.”

So far, the death toll from the two explosions stood at 13 with 32 wounded, some in serious condition. However, no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Some people are concerned that the girls might belong to Boko Haram, which has been spreading terror in neighbouring Nigeria for the past five years with attacks on churches and mosques as well as by abducting female students to sell as slaves or marry off to militants.

Since 2009, the rebels have killed at least 15,000 and with more 1.5 million refugees.

Yesterday’s attacks was the incident of its kind in ten days in northern Cameroon. On 12 July, two fully veiled women blew themselves up at Fotokol, on the border with Nigeria, in the Lake Chad region.

“This morning the situation was back to normal. Markets have reopened. Now we have to go back to everyday life, certainly with less peace of mind than before,” the missionary said.

Boko Haram has been on the offensive in northern Cameroon for over two years. In some places, the authorities have imposed a nighttime ban on motorcycles because they are the terrorists’ preferred means of transportation to move across the border with Nigeria.

“The problem with bombers is that that they have become fanatics, indoctrinated,” Fr Parietti said. “They all say that they are giving their life for God, that they’ll become martyrs. They are ready, psychologically too. They are trained.”

“There are social problems at the bottom of this, things like poverty, joblessness, which make people more responsive to radical ideas. There is also some madness. Some Muslims use God to justify their mad actions.”

“Sadly, some powerful political and economic groups back extremists with weapons. The latter are directly or indirectly helped from Libya and other countries.”

“Most Muslims are in favour of peace,” said the missionary, who lived for a year with a Muslim family. “They want dialogue among religions. They want to live in peace. They are light-years from these madmen.”

“As PIME missionaries, we are working with them,” he explained. “We have a meeting house where various projects are developed, including jobs for young people. The goal is to work together for the country’s development, with the help of the authorities. There is no other way.”

For Fr Parietti, civilian and military authorities play a crucial role in building peaceful coexistence, helping “people get used to living in peace despite their differences.”

“For our part, as missionaries, we have to be with people, even if the situation is not quiet. This is our work, “he said.

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

‘Big Ugly Mess’: South Sudan, Nation Created With Help of US Aid, Spirals Into Violence

American money and diplomats helped forge the world’s newest nation, South Sudan, in 2011 — giving more than $2 billion to the fledging country. Now, just four years later, the country whose creation was supposed to end the tragic cycle of Sudanese slaughter is falling apart as locals say a new wave of violence is only just beginning.

According to international security agents on the ground, the threat of all-out civil war has grown significantly in the last month, and the U.S. and United Nations may not be prepared to deal with the violence — and the refugees it creates.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Arrives on First Presidential Visit to Kenya

Barack Obama has landed in Kenya on his first visit to the east African country since becoming US president. The president hopes to boost trade and security ties during the trip to his father’s homeland and Ethiopia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Kicks Off Africa Visit With Reunion With Kenya Relatives

Barack Obama met briefly with some of his relatives after arriving in Kenya, a gesture aimed at conveying respect for family members after the White House ruled out a separate stop in his grandmother’s remote village of Kogelo.

The meeting, which wasn’t on the president’s official schedule, took place in Nairobi shortly after he landed there for his first visit as president to his late father’s homeland of Kenya.

Air Force One landed in Nairobi at just after 8 p.m. local time. After a formal greeting from Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other officials, and Obama’s half-sister, Auma Obama, the U.S. president headed to his hotel. There, he was joined for dinner by about three-dozen relatives, according to the White House.

His step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, 94, and half-sister were among those seated at two long tables inside the restaurant at the Villa Rosa Kempinski.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

President Obama Starts Two-Day Kenya Visit

Barack Obama has arrived in Kenya on the first visit to his ancestral home as serving US president.

During his two-day visit Mr Obama will hold talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other top officials.

Trade will feature strongly, but Mr Obama also said he would deliver a “blunt message” to African leaders about gay rights and discrimination.

The trip to Kenya and then Ethiopia is also designed to show US commitment to fighting terror in East Africa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa: Chaos as Pupils March Over Tablets

Pretoria — Chaos broke out at a Cosas-led [Congress of South African Students] march in the Pretoria CBD on Thursday as pupils from across the province stormed into shops and trashed hawkers’ wares on the pavements.

A clash between the pupils and vendors ensued in the afternoon as the traders fought to protect their goods.

Police spokesman Sergeant Asnath Melatsi said 50 pupils from Springs township were arrested on Thursday afternoon after vandalising three shops in Sunnyside.

The arrests came after pupils had marched to the Department of Basic Education in Struben Street to submit a memorandum of grievances.

On Thursday night, police were contacting parents of pupils to fetch their children from the Sunnyside police station. Melatsi said police wanted to release the pupils into the custody of their parents.

“If some parents fail to make it to the station, the police would transport the children to the nearest police station in Springs.”

Earlier, the unruly pupils clashed with vendors on their way to the department’s offices.

One of the vendors in the CBD hurled a plastic chair at pupils who wanted to help themselves to fruit and snacks from his stall.

Pupils then picked up stones, rocks and vegetables from nearby stalls and pelted the vendor with them.

Police were able to corner the pupils running helter-skelter in the streets. The situation was soon normalised as pupils went back to their meeting point outside Bosman station. They later left the station moving all the way to the department’s offices where they flooded Struben Street.

Motorists expressed anger as they were forced to wait for hours in traffic jams as the marching pupils disrupted traffic.

Office workers stood on balconies and watched the rampaging pupils in disbelief…

           — Hat tip: RRN [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Rules 3 Prison Workers to Face Charges in Escape of Mexican Drug Lord

A federal judge in Mexico has opened a court proceeding against three prison employees on charges they aided in the escape of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

In a statement Friday, Federal Judiciary Council said the legal process would advance in the cases of three of the seven originally arrested in relation to Guzman’s July 11 escape from a maximum-security prison.

It said prosecutors showed there was sufficient evidence that the employees favored Guzman’s escape through a one-mile long tunnel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New Publication: How Immigration and Refugee Resettlement Are Used as a Weapon Against America

Below is a five-minute video worth your attention, titled the Red-Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase America. It is from the Center for Security Policy and is a preview of a 65-page monograph of the same name.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Illegal Aliens: Importing Deadly Third World Diseases

Even as exotic new diseases and nearly eradicated old ones keep popping up across the nation, the Obama administration is unconcerned, or some would say, recklessly indifferent, to the public health threat that Third World illegal aliens pose to the American public.

This isn’t an observation from would-be GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump or some wild-eyed rube—it’s a devastating criticism that comes from two public health experts at the government’s own Centers for Disease Control (CDC). It comes as deadly diseases surface or make a comeback in the U.S. Among those ailments are tuberculosis, pneumonia, paralysis-causing acute flaccid myelitis, dengue fever, swine flu, and enterovirus D68.

The two patriotic U.S. government employees, CDC Logistics Management Specialist George Roark and CDC Public Health Advisor William Adams were revealed to have complained in a series of emails June 9 last year about Obama rolling out a very long red carpet for people who have no right to be here and no desire to obey America’s laws. This was around the time the Obama administration was trying to cover up the concentration camp-like facilities in which it was detaining Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs).

Their comments were contained in an email exchange obtained by good-government group Judicial Watch in which the two officials rightly trashed President Obama for allowing a flood of sick young illegals into the United States…

It is fair to say that federal immigration policy is now driven by a desire to import new Democratic voters, an unsavory scheme in which, strangely enough, the GOP’s suicidal congressional leadership is complicit. Lackluster border security, risible efforts at immigration law enforcement, mass amnesties, promises of generous taxpayer-financed welfare benefits, and other goodies, are used by President Obama to expand and remake the American electorate. It is gratifying to see that these two federal employees get it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Oath of Allegiance for Incoming U.S. Citizens

arack Obama’s latest immigration battering ram against unsuspecting Americans is the radical change he seeks in the current naturalization process to arrange for new immigrants to be able to skip the pledge to take up arms and defend the United States in the 65-year-old American Oath of Allegiance.

On Obama’s watch new immigrants, offered all the privileges, opportunities and benefits of being a naturalized American, including the right to vote, do not have to defend the country they choose as the one in which they want to raise their families.

Citizens swearing the oath will know they are gaining entry to a country whose president leaves no provision for its defense—a slap in the face to a country that has included the pledge to take up arms in the defense of the United States for more than half a century.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday said it will no longer require incoming U.S. citizens to pledge that they will “bear arms on behalf of the United States” or “perform noncombatant service” in the Armed Forces as part of the naturalization process.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The ‘Donald Trump Act’ Just Passed the House by a Landslide, And Obama Doesn’t Like it One Bit

H.R. 3009 passed easily in the lower chamber 241 to 179.

The House passed a bill Thursday which would punish cities that refuse to enforce federal immigration law.

H.R. 3009 passed easily in the lower chamber 241 to 179, The Hill reported. The bill would force local law enforcement agencies to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they have an illegal immigrant in custody; otherwise, certain federal law enforcement grants would be withheld.

“I think we can all agree that any state or locality must comply with the law—and they are required to coordinate and cooperate with the federal government,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who sponsored the legislation. “If an arrest is made, the federal government should be notified. The fact that San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities disagree with the politics of federal enforcement doesn’t mean they should receive a pass to subvert the law.”

“And if they do, there needs to be consequences—and the way we impose those consequences is by hitting them where it hurts. In the pocketbook,” Hunter added.

The bill was passed after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was murdered earlier this month, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who was deported from the U.S. multiple times and convicted of several felonies.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Sharp Rise in Euthanasia for Psychiatric Patients

In the first six months of this year, 18 people with severe psychiatric problems have been helped to die at a special euthanasia clinic, the NRC said on Thursday. This is more than double the total figure of 17 in 2014 as a whole, the clinic’s first half figures show.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Planned Parenthood’s Erroneous Corporate Sponsor List

By Judi McLeod

If they sincerely cherish their names and reputations, the principals of Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox should launch a joint lawsuit against Planned Parenthood.

Until the scandalous video showed their doctors talking about the sale of aborted baby parts as ‘taking care of business’, the names of the three multi-nationals, among others, were being openly advertised as corporate sponsors on the Planned Parenthood website. The purveyors of selling aborted baby parts have linked their names to infamy, and in fact disgraced all corporations boldly named on the Planned Parenthood website.

Members of the public at large have taken to the Internet calling for a boycott on the products of these companies thought to be in league with the baby killers.

“Representatives from Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co. and Xerox say they’ve asked Planned Parenthood to remove their names as corporate donors to the embattled organization. (Daily Signal, July 23, 2015)

“The move follows a Daily Signal report revealing the names of 41 companies that Planned Parenthood listed as donors. That list, which was featured on Planned Parenthood’s website, has since been removed.”

Removing the list means the corporate donors who continue to support Planned Parenthood are now anonymous and will be able to carry on their support under the cover of covert secrecy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

10 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/24/2015

  1. I believe the stand out ‘News’ item in this ‘News Feed’ is ex-marine, Jon Ritzheimer, who has taken to give CAIR and it’s local Muslim representative, Liban Yousuf, a little heartburn over his antics in publicizing the message that all American Patriots would easily cotton onto. IMO, Ritzheimer is a patriot and American Hero that future seekers of historical fact will marvel at. Well done that man!

  2. I see the Dutch have found the perfect therapy: Death. Why didn’t we think of it earlier? One beauty of this treatment, if it fails there’s no patient around to complain. What till the afterlife though, then they’ll be there with all the aborted babies and will they be pissed!

  3. In other Swedish news, the third grenade attack this week occurred last night in Malmö. A politician in Malmö is calling for stricter gun-control laws to help stem the grenade attacks and other violence in the city.

    What kind of gun control does Sweden have now? How would that stop one from lobbing grenades? Are they going to have a special immigrant gun law?

    • I wondered about that too, I guess it’s Swedish logic!

      We can only envy them! (chuckle!!)

    • I can only speculate that what they really mean is more invasive law enforcement tactics. Of course, this will probably mean random searches of non-Muslim non-immigrant homes, or pretty much anywhere except for the most likely and most politically incorrect location where grenades would be hidden.

  4. Chikungunya (http://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/), another viral disease transmitted via mosquito bites, has also now begun to appear in the U.S. Normally it’s limited to tropical areas and the margins of subtropical areas (e.g., Costa Rica), but not anymore! What fun we’re having; right?

    • I tend to be rather mean when it comes to zerObama and in this case , it will be no different. It is ONLY right that share in the potential misery they want to inflict on the rest of US and PERHAPS they will .

      Also, I am pushing for GUN FREE ZONES at and around the Whitehouse, the homes of the V.Pres, Representatives: Hoyer and Pelosi, the Clinton’s homes in NY, the homes of Senators Feinstein, M. Martinez, C.Schumer and A.Franken and especially around the homes of the MAYORS of New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and San Francisco.

      I think that until such time as there are ARMED guards( MPs) at recruiting stations, well the GUN FREE ZONES should be expanded daily to homes of all General and Admirals .

  5. Swedish logic is that IF you control the guns, then the special immigrant people tossing grenades will NOT have to worry that some potential victim will be armed.

    The TOSSER will be free of that nagging worry that comes some potential victim might have a GUN and will shoot him in the [posterior dorsal area] as he runs away from the scene!

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