Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/8/2015

Spencer Stone, one of the American heroes who foiled a jihad attack on a French train in August, was attacked by several assailants outside a liquor store after leaving a gay bar in Sacramento. He was stabbed four times and sustained serious injuries, but is expected to survive. Mr. Spencer was reportedly protecting a female companion when he was stabbed.

In other news, four cruise missiles launched by Russia and aimed at targets in the Islamic State reportedly went off course and landed in Iran instead.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, LP, Nick, RRN, 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
» America to Collapse as Dollar Dies: “You Cannot Stop What is Coming… 25 to 50 Million Dead in 90 Days”
» Despite Surging Job Cuts, Initial Jobless Claims Tumble Back Near 42 Year Lows
» Fall in Loans Slowed to 0.5% in August Says Bank of Italy
» German Industrial Production Falls in August
» Italy: Parliament Approves Postponing Balanced Budget Till 2018
» Italy: One in Four Shops Vacant After Crisis, Says Study
» Non-Performing Loans Grow 14.2% in August — Bank of Italy
» Peter Schiff: Federal Reserve Won’t Hike Interest Rates to Ensure Democrats Win White House
 
USA
» Former Chicago Public Schools Leader Charged With Corruption
» French Train Attack Hero Spencer Stone is Repeatedly Stabbed While Defending a Female Friend as Police Search for Two Adult Asian Male Suspects
» Model Sues Bill Cosby Over Alleged 2008 Sexual Assault
» Molon Labe, Mr. Obama
» Murdoch Apologises for ‘Real Black President’ Tweet
» New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto
» Ohio Woman Attacked by Her Husband, Runs Over Him in Car
» One of French Train Attack Heroes Stabbed in California
» Paxil is Unsafe and Ineffective for Teens
» Six Dam Workers Wounded in Explosion in Grant County
» Supreme Court Says Mandatory Vaccinations Don’t Violate Children’s Constitutional Rights
» The Missiles of October, 2015 Edition
» The TPP: A Monster Too Big to Fail?
» The US Senate Passed the 2016 NDAA With Enough Votes to Override a Presidential Veto.
» Tiny, Tattoo-Like Wearables Could Monitor Your Health
» Was the Oregon Mass Shooting an Islamist Attempt to Assassinate Alek Skarlatos?
 
Canada
» Canadian PM Harper Turns Niqab Into Major Campaign Issue
 
Europe and the EU
» French MP Race Dispute Highlights Tricky Balance for Right-Wing
» French Far Right’s Marine Le Pen Clashes With Hollande
» Italy: PD, SEL Give Rome Mayor Marino Quit Ultimatum
» Italy: Hoteliers Report 4% Rise in Business This Summer
» Italy: FCA Reaches Agreement With American Union UAW
» Italy: Convicted Ex-CIA Agent Arrested, Released
» UK: David Cameron Says Our Fear of Causing Offence Means Islamic Extremism Flourishes
» UK: Ex-Army Officer ‘Beaten up by Muslim Prisoners for Killing Taliban’
» UK: Handcuffed and Grinning, 18-Year-Old Accused of Murdering PC David Phillips While He Was on Duty Arrives in Court in Police Van
» UK: Student Diversity Officer Charged Over ‘Killallwhitemen’ Tweet
 
Balkans
» Protesting MPs Set Off Tear Gas in Kosovar Parliament
 
North Africa
» Egypt is Changing: Burqa Ban, Qur’anic Exegesis, Equal Rights for Muslims and Christians
» Tunisian Lawmaker Escapes Assassination Attempt
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» 25-Year Old Stabbed in Terror Attack in Jerusalem Thursday Afternoon
» America Yawns as Jews Die
» Hamdallah Says Palestine Supports Citizens’ Self-Defense
» Netanyahu: We Will Take Aggressive Steps Against the Islamic Movement in Israel and Other Inciters
» Two Wounded in Jerusalem Stabbing Attack as Wave of Terror Mounts
 
Middle East
» Ambiguity Over Russian ‘Volunteers’ With Syria Regime Forces
» Erdogan Threatens Russia, ‘We Won’t Buy Gas Anymore’
» Iranian Terrorist Attack Against U.S. Revealed
» ISIS Soldiers Told to Rape Women ‘To Make Them Muslim’
» ISIS in New Video to Christians in Qaryatayn, Syria: Pay Jizya — Or You Will be Executed and Your Wives Enslaved
» ISIS Militants Gather and Shoot Dead 70 Members of Pro-Government Sunni Tribe
» Italy Will Weigh Arming Iraq Tornadoes — Pinotti
» Meet Twitter’s Second Biggest Shareholder, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal
» Russia Will Pay Price for Syrian Airstrikes, Says US Defence Secretary
» Russian Cruise Missiles Intended for Targets in Syria Hit Iran Instead
» Syria: Arm Forces Chief, Liberation Offensive Underway
» Syria: ISIS Releases Execution Video of Christian Hostages
» Syrian Crisis: What Will Happen Next?
» This is What Russia REALLY Fears in Syria
» Threat of Islamic State Surpasses Al-Qaeda
» Turkey: Former Army Chief: Bush Helped Erdogan Weaken Us
» Turkey: Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Put on Probation for ‘Insulting President’
» UAE: Dubai to Hold ‘First Camel Marathon’
» Vatican: Synod: The West Must “Not Forget the Christians in the Middle East, “ Says Patriarch Younan
» Yemen Air Strike Hits Wedding Party: At Least 15 Dead and 25 Wounded
 
Russia
» Svetlana Alexievich: ‘Reality Has Always Attracted Me Like a Magnet’
» Ukraine Passes Measure Allowing Foreigners to Serve in Army
 
South Asia
» India: Hindutiva’s Discourse of Hate, The Life of “Sacred Cows” Is “More Precious Than That of a Human Being”
» While Foreigners Pack Thailand’s Sunny Beaches, Locals Flock to Booming ‘Snow Parks’ To Dodge the Sweltering Heat
 
Far East
» Hong Kong: Academic Barred for Being “A Friend of Occupy Central”
» Navy Will Challenge Chinese Territorial Claims in South China Sea
» Nobel Prize for Tu Youyou Gives Traditional Chinese Medicine a Shot in the Arm
» Philippines: Kidnapped Italian ‘Survived Attempt on His Life’
» Philippines: Rolando Del Torchio, A Former Pime Missionary, Abducted in Dipolog City
» Southern Philippine Hostage Crisis
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Al-Shabaab Warn British Soldiers Will be Beheaded and Paraded Online
» First Ancient African Genome Reveals Vast Eurasian Migration
» How Criminals Are Wrecking South Africa’s Telecoms Networks
 
Immigration
» Bavaria’s Premier Wants to Send Refugees Back to Austria
» Violence Erupts at Belgian Refugee Centre
 
Culture Wars
» Clinton, Biden Speak at ‘Gay Gala,’ Push for Federal Law to Protect Homosexuality
» Italian Priest Don Gino Flaim Defends Paedophiles and Blames ‘Love-Seeking Children’
» Most American’s Can’t Discern Lies From the Truth
 

America to Collapse as Dollar Dies: “You Cannot Stop What is Coming… 25 to 50 Million Dead in 90 Days”

A collapse is coming… but not as quickly as many are expecting.

There are many people high up in the power structure who not only see an end to the dollar coming soon, but an economic collapse that could trigger the death of tens of millions of Americans — rendered vulnerable by the lack of services and the stopping of checks, and harmed by the resulting looting, starvation and violence that is likely to occur.

According to an anonymous source who claims to have high level insider sources, everything from the power grid to the grocery store, to the government assistance checks that huge portions of the country depend upon will simply not be there. The result is pure chaos, tragedy and destruction.

That source is “V, the Guerrilla Economist,” who spoke to USA Watchdog’s Greg Hunter after the dire prospect of collapse:

[Comment: Remember the EBT card blackout/downtime? It was a test run to make sure it could be turned off at the flick of a switch.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Despite Surging Job Cuts, Initial Jobless Claims Tumble Back Near 42 Year Lows

Job cuts have already surpassed last year’s total, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas with the highest annual total since 2009, when nearly 1.3 million layoffs were announced at the tail-end of the recession… so how does the government explain the fact that initial jobless claims have once again re-tumbled back to close to 42-year lows…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fall in Loans Slowed to 0.5% in August Says Bank of Italy

Down from -0.6% in July

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — The fall in the number of Italian bank loans slowed to -0.5% in August with respect to the same time last year, down from to a year-on-year fall of 0.6% in July, the Bank of Italy said on Thursday. The central bank said that the number of loans to households was 0.3% higher than August last year, while loans to businesses were down by 0.8%.

That is still better than the 1.1% fall in the number of loans to businesses registered in July.

The Non-performing loans of Italian banks rose by 14.2% in August over the same month in 2014, the Bank of Italy reported.

This compares to a year-on-year rise of 14.5% in non-performing loans in July. Non-performing loans were worth 198.4 billion euros in August, Italy’s central bank added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

German Industrial Production Falls in August

1.2 percent lower than the previous month

(ANSA) — BERLIN (AP) — Official data show that German industrial production fell in August following an increase the previous month, a report that comes on top of disappointing figures for factory orders.

The Economy Ministry said Wednesday that production was 1.2 percent lower in August than the previous month. That followed a rise by the same amount in July, which was revised upward from an initial reading of 0.7 percent.

The decline was led by a 2.1 percent drop in production of investment goods such as machinery. The Economy Ministry said that an “unfavorable configuration” of vacation time contributed significantly to the fall.

On Tuesday, Germany reported a 1.8 percent drop in factory orders in August, the second consecutive decline.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Parliament Approves Postponing Balanced Budget Till 2018

Senate and House both give thumbs up

(ANSA) — Rome, October 18 — The Senate on Thursday approved the government’s decision to postpone balancing the national budget until 2018, as outlined in an update statement to the executive’s economic blueprint, the economic and financial document (DEF). The resolution, which needed an absolute majority of 161 Senators, passed with 170 votes in favour. Earlier on Thursday the Lower House also approved the resolution by Premier Matteo Renzi’s executive with 342 votes in favour, well above the absolute majority of 316 MPs.

The DEF statement also stated that Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio should be 2.4%, rather than the previously planned 2.2%, in view of the possibility that the EU will grant extra budget flexibility (some 0.2%) for States faced with extra spending due to the refugee crisis.

Parliament also voted to commit the government to extend certain breaks in social-security contributions for firms who hire young people on permanent contracts and to find ways to make the pension system more flexible to enable people close to retirement age to take early retirement if they wish to.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: One in Four Shops Vacant After Crisis, Says Study

Confesercenti says rate approaches 40% in some areas

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Over 627,000 shops are vacant in Italy after the closure of companies that rented them, almost one in four, a study by the Confesercenti association for small-and-medium-sized businesses in the retail, tourism and services sectors revealed on Thursday. The report, based on findings from real-estate companies, said that the percentage of vacant shops approaches 40% in some suburban areas. “Consumer spending is slowly rising, but the retail crisis is not over,” Confesercenti said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Non-Performing Loans Grow 14.2% in August — Bank of Italy

Growth down slightly from 14.5% in July

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Non-performing loans issued by Italian banks rose by 14.2% in August over the same month in 2014, the Bank of Italy reported Thursday.

This compares to a year-on-year rise of 14.5% in non-performing loans in July. Non-performing loans were worth 198.4 billion euros in August, Italy’s central bank added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Peter Schiff: Federal Reserve Won’t Hike Interest Rates to Ensure Democrats Win White House

One of the reasons why the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates over the course of the next year is because the central bank fears hiking rates will cause a recession, and thus give the keys to the White House to the Republicans in 2016, says Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital.

Writing an op-ed in RealClearMarkets, Schiff opines that the lackluster labor market and the deterioration of factory activity will prompt Fed Chair Janet Yellen to refrain from increasing borrowing costs for both businesses and consumers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Former Chicago Public Schools Leader Charged With Corruption

The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools was indicted on corruption charges Thursday in an alleged scheme to steer $20 million worth of no-bid contracts to education companies in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.

The indictment against Barbara Byrd-Bennett comes about four months after she resigned as leader of the nation’s third-largest school district. Appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2012, she stepped down amid a federal investigation into a contract between the district and SUPES Academy, a training academy where she once worked as a consultant.

Byrd-Bennett, 66, is charged with several counts of mail and wire fraud that each carry maximum 20-year prison sentences.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Train Attack Hero Spencer Stone is Repeatedly Stabbed While Defending a Female Friend as Police Search for Two Adult Asian Male Suspects

French train attack hero Spencer Stone was stabbed ‘four times in the chest’ while trying to protect a female friend in Sacramento.

The attack was so violent that police began treating the case as a homicide when they arrived on the scene shortly after 12:45am on Thursday.

Police are now looking for two adult Asian males who fled the scene in a dark Toyota Camry.

The 23-year-old U.S. airman 1st class was one of the three Americans who managed to take down a gunman as he opened fire on a Paris-bound train this past August.

CBS News reports he suffered a wound to the heart and the lung and was with a female companion when the stabbing occurred.

He was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center where he is being treated for the serious injuries he received during the assault.

The stabbing happened at 12:45am at the intersection of 21st and K in the city and the crime was so violent that two blocks of the street were shut down.

The owner of a liquor store told CBS Scaremento he has video of the incident and it appears to show a group of men attacking someone in an intersection…

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]
 

Model Sues Bill Cosby Over Alleged 2008 Sexual Assault

A model who has accused Bill Cosby of drugging her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008 sued the comedian on Tuesday for sexual assault.

Chloe Goins’ lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeks punitive damages for a variety of problems she says she has endured since the incident, including mental anguish, loss of self-esteem and dignity.

Goins’ lawyer, Spencer Kuvin, would not specify how much money the model is seeking.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Molon Labe, Mr. Obama

So, will this “Gun-Grabber-In-Chief” attempt to confiscate the arms of the American people via Executive Order? If he did, I doubt that the American people would get much assistance from the pantywaist Republican Congress. But I know I am speaking for tens of millions of us when I say that we red-blooded Americans will NEVER surrender our arms. NEVER! This is NOT Australia or Great Britain.

If Obama wants to fire another “shot heard ‘round the world,” he will follow the example of the British Crown, who, on April 19, 1775, issued an order to seize the arms of the colonists. Our patriot forebears stood on Lexington Green and at Concord Bridge on that eventful morning and, in essence, said the same thing that Spartan King Leonidas said to Persian King Xerxes at the Battle of Thermopylae. When told to surrender their arms, they said: MOLON LABE, meaning, “Come and take them.”

A pantywaist, yellow-bellied, chicken-livered Republican Congress notwithstanding, the blood of our Colonial Patriots still flows hot in the veins of millions of us, and should this president (or any president) attempt to confiscate our arms, the answer is still the same: MOLON LABE, Mr. Obama.

Think of the hypocrisy of this administration. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the U.S. government is the biggest exporter of arms and munitions in the entire world. (Look it up for yourself.) This government supplies some of the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry to just about any two-bit dictator or thug regime on the planet. It even supplies arms and munitions to the Islamic terrorist groups Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Al Nusra.

See this report.[url]

And this one.[url]

Yet Obama seems intent on eviscerating the means of self-defense from the citizens of the United States. He wants us to be disarmed. Of course, Obama is the most protected man in the world. He has more guns protecting him than any other single individual on the planet. And he will have armed Secret Service protection for the rest of his life. So, it’s okay for guns to protect HIM, but not US.

I say again: MOLON LABE, Mr. Obama.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Murdoch Apologises for ‘Real Black President’ Tweet

Says finds Obama, Carson ‘both charming’

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — The founder of the global News Corp. media empire, Rupert Murdoch, issued an apology Thursday after he faced social media backlash following his suggestion that President Barack Obama isn’t a “real black President.” Murdoch was praising Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and his wife on Twitter on Wednesday when he wrote: “Ben and Candy Carson terrific. What about a real black President who can properly address the racial divide?” He also recommended a New York magazine article asking whether Obama has done enough for the African-American community.

Murdoch, who founded Fox News Channel, apologized Thursday and tweeted that he “personally find(s) both men charming.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto

The first color images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue.

“Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper Belt? It’s gorgeous,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado.

The haze particles themselves are likely gray or red, but the way they scatter blue light has gotten the attention of the New Horizons science team. “That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles,” said science team researcher Carly Howett, also of SwRI. “A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins.”

Scientists believe the tholin particles form high in the atmosphere, where ultraviolet sunlight breaks apart and ionizes nitrogen and methane molecules and allows them to react with one another to form more and more complex negatively and positively charged ions. When they recombine, they form very complex macromolecules, a process first found to occur in the upper atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan. The more complex molecules continue to combine and grow until they become small particles; volatile gases condense and coat their surfaces with ice frost before they have time to fall through the atmosphere to the surface, where they add to Pluto’s red coloring.

In a second significant finding, New Horizons has detected numerous small, exposed regions of water ice on Pluto.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ohio Woman Attacked by Her Husband, Runs Over Him in Car

An Ohio woman who was attacked by her husband in front of their kids wound up running over him in a car with the girls inside, according to reports.

Prosecutors have dropped homicide charges against second-grade teacher Angela Luke, 40, in the fight with her husband Daniel Luke, 42, at their Bloom Township home, the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette reported Wednesday night.

The husband of 18 years and father of the couple’s two daughters died in a hospital the day after the domestic dispute Sunday night in Fairfield County, southeast of Columbus, according to WBNS-TV. New details emerged about the case Tuesday when the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office released the Lukes’ 12-year-old daughter’s 911 call.

“They’ve been fighting for a long time, but he’s never took it this far,” the girl told the dispatcher, according to WBNS. “My dad hit my mom and he pushed her into a flower pot.”

The girl later cried out, “Oh my God, he’s hurting me now, he’s hurting me!”

She and her sister got into a car with her mom, but her dad latched on to the car, she told the dispatcher. “Go fast, Mommy, go fast,” the girl said. She said her father was holding on to one of the car’s windows but fell off and got knocked unconscious as they tried to drive down the driveway.

“My father’s dead!” the girl said. “My father’s dead! My father’s dead! Please come help, hurry!”

The dispatcher asked if her mom had hit her dad with the car. “Not on purpose,” the girl answered, according to the TV station.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

One of French Train Attack Heroes Stabbed in California

One of the three men lauded for preventing a terrorist attack on a French train has been stabbed in California. An Air Force official has said Spencer Stone is in stable condition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Paxil is Unsafe and Ineffective for Teens

Reanalysis Confirms Long Held Suspicion

Antidepressants are among the most prescribed types of drugs in the US,1 despite the fact that many of them have also been linked to violence against self and others.

In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised2 the labeling requirements for antidepressant medications (SSRIs and others), warning that:

“Antidepressants increased the risk compared to placebo of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders.

Anyone considering the use of [Insert established name] or any other antidepressant in a child, adolescent, or young adult must balance this risk with the clinical need.”

These labeling revisions were in large part driven by lawsuits in which pharmaceutical companies were forced to reveal previously undisclosed drug data.

The following year, the FDA issued yet another advisory; this time warning women that taking Paxil during pregnancy could result in a number of debilitating birth defects,3 including congenital heart defects.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Six Dam Workers Wounded in Explosion in Grant County

The victims’ injuries range in severity. The dam on the Columbia River is stable, and the accident may have been caused by an electrical malfunction, a spokesman said.

Six public utility workers have been taken to nearby hospitals after an explosion at the Priest Rapids Dam Thursday afternoon. Their conditions are unknown, said Tom Stredwick, a spokesman for the Grant County Public Utility District.

The hydroelectrical dam is stable and was not damaged enought to cause a water burst, according to Kyle Foreman of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. The accident may have been caused by an electrical malfunction, he said.

At 4:30 p.m. authorities received reports of the explosion, Foreman said. Stredwick said the size of the explosion and its damage is unknown.

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Supreme Court Says Mandatory Vaccinations Don’t Violate Children’s Constitutional Rights

The SCOTUS’s failure to hear the case effectively states that mandatory vaccination of all public school children, doesn’t violate their constitutional rights.

A lower court had ruled that the school vaccination requirement, which three parents had legally challenged after their unvaccinated children were prohibited from attending school, did not violate the constitutional rights of the children.

The appeals court also upheld a decision that children exempted from vaccinations due to religious reasons could be prohibited from school attendance in the event of a disease outbreak that is vaccine preventable.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Missiles of October, 2015 Edition

When the farmer in Iowa plowing his field suddenly and unexpectedly hears a noise and feels the ground shake from missiles being fired from a hidden underground silo in retaliation against Russia, perhaps then Americans will wake up to the litany of lies we’ve been fed by our leaders and a complicit media. Even then, I suspect that most Americans will continue to believe the lies of the U.S. leaders and succumb to revisionist history that has little-to-nothing to do with the truth.

We are at the precipice of World War III, yet the average American has no idea. The average American is oblivious to the fact that America has been captured from within, its leadership is traitorous, and the media complicit in all aspects of seditious criminality. Many of those who might have a level of understanding however, don’t know the real story about how we arrived at this point in time. For both, we have our elected officials in Washington to thank…or to blame… or perhaps congratulate, depending upon which agenda you’re pushing.

In the event you missed the news, twenty-six cruise missiles were fired into Syria by Russian warships yesterday as Syrian ground troops launch an offensive against ISIS and U.S., NATO and Saudi-backed anti-Assad terrorists. Who didn’t see this coming?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The TPP: A Monster Too Big to Fail?

I have written extensively about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty and its destructive effects. (Full archive here.)

Now that all 12 nations have agreed to the text, the US Congress must vote on it. Since the Congress has already granted Obama fast-track authority, no committees will discuss it; no filibustering is permitted; no changes can be made to the text.

Again I stress: Obama was put in the White House to make TPP and similar treaties come to fruition. Failure is not an option.

Obama’s mentor on foreign policy, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is David Rockefeller’s right-hand man. And David is Globalism personified.

The TPP elevates mega-corporations beyond even their present status: In a nutshell, any threats against international corporate piracy would be adjudicated in private corporate tribunals— so the outcome is completely predictable.

And as with all other Globalist trade treaties (NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, etc.), more jobs in industrialized nations will move to countries where slave labor is standard operating procedure.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The US Senate Passed the 2016 NDAA With Enough Votes to Override a Presidential Veto.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Senate passed the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday with enough votes to override a threatened presidential veto.

The bill passed with a final vote of 70 to 27, guaranteeing enough support in the Senate to override a veto, threatened by President Barack Obama.

The NDAA authorizes $612 billion in military spending, allocating $38 billion in overseas contingency funding.

The NDAA will authorize new funds for US deployments in Eastern Europe to reassure NATO allies, and a provision authorizing the transfer of lethal weapons to Ukraine.

[Comment: More arms for the national socialists in Ukraine.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tiny, Tattoo-Like Wearables Could Monitor Your Health

University of Texas engineers devise a relatively inexpensive way to make disposable patches that track patients’ vital signs

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Was the Oregon Mass Shooting an Islamist Attempt to Assassinate Alek Skarlatos?

Was last week’s massacre at Umpqua Community College in Oregon a failed attempt to assassinate a Christian American hero for thwarting a Muslim terrorist train attack this summer in France?

There may simply be a series of unlikely coincidences at play, or there may be circumstantial evidence suggesting that anti-jihadist hero Alek Skarlatos was an intended target of Chris Harper-Mercer, who put several Christians to death in an Umpqua classroom on Thursday, Oct. 1 for being Christian.

Read on and decide for yourself if Harper-Mercer may have wanted to make an example of Skarlatos for the world to see.

And although no evidence revealed thus far directly indicates Harper-Mercer was influenced by Islamic State, plenty of evidence suggests the shooter was acting in furtherance of the Islamic goal of global jihad. Maybe the massacre was intended as a kind of jihadist payback hit.

Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) apparently claimed responsibility on Twitter for the killings Harper-Mercer carried out at Umpqua. The tweet states, “Again #Oregon #USA #WashingtonDC #IslamicState #ISIS #USA[,]” and displays a graphic with the words “Slay Americans” in front of an image of a man in the process of being beheaded.

In August the very high-profile Skarlatos, a devout Christian, helped to disarm Ayoub El-Khazzani, a Moroccan with ties to radical Islam, on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The Islamist was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a Luger pistol, and a box cutter. Skarlatos and his two American friends traveling with him received France’s highest honor, the Legion d’ Honneur, from French President François Hollande. Last month they were feted at the White House and the Pentagon. Skarlatos received the U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Medal.

Skarlatos has publicly acknowledged that he is currently a student at Umpqua, near Roseburg, Ore., and that he was supposed to be attending classes there on Thursday when Harper-Mercer went on a bloody rampage.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian PM Harper Turns Niqab Into Major Campaign Issue

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he would look into banning public servants from wearing the niqab if he wins re-election, turning the Muslim veil into a major campaign issue less than two weeks before voters head to the polls.

Harper, who is seeking a fourth term in the October 19 elections, said this week that conservatives would consider federal legislation based on Quebec’s Bill 62, which bars civil servants from wearing niqabs on the job.

“That’s a matter we are going to examine,” Harper told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a televised interview on Tuesday. “Quebec, as you know, has legislation on this and we are looking at that legislation.”…

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

French MP Race Dispute Highlights Tricky Balance for Right-Wing

As France’s right-wing Republicans punish a leading figure over her comments about race, the party is facing a tricky balancing act in trying to pinch far-right votes without losing moderate supporters.

Nadine Morano, once a close ally of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, was struck off a list of candidates for upcoming regional elections by party bosses on Wednesday over her comments that France was a “Judeo-Christian country… of white race”.

The uproar over her statements has highlighted the difficult balance Sarkozy must strike as head of The Republicans, trying to sound tough on immigration, Islam and security without losing the all-important middle ground…

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

French Far Right’s Marine Le Pen Clashes With Hollande

In a rare public exchange with French President François Hollande, far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused him of selling out to a Europe controlled by Berlin over the migrant crisis.

Le Pen, whose party is staunchly anti-Europe and anti-immigration, was responding to a joint call Wednesday at the European parliament from Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made an impassioned plea for European leaders to pull together to cope with the influx of migrants that is raising tensions and dangerously straining the union.

Le Pen accused Hollande of acting like Berlin’s “vice chancellor” who merely administrates the “province of France” for Germany…

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

Italy: PD, SEL Give Rome Mayor Marino Quit Ultimatum

Marino to pay back 20,000 euros, renounce credit card

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Sources said Thursday that Democratic Party (PD) commissioner in Rome Matteo Orfini and Left, Ecology and Freedom (SEL) Secretary Paolo Cento have agreed that if embattled Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino doesn’t step down by 4pm today, they will call for a no-confidence motion against him in the city council.

Deputy Rome Mayor Marco Causi and transport executive councillor Stefano Esposito on Thursday resigne”, sources said.

Marino is under pressure to quit over an expense future, the latest scandal to engulf the PD’s mayor of the capital.

On Tuesday Rome prosecutors opened a probe into the mayor’s expenses after the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FDI) party and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) filed petitions.

Marino subsequently announced that he would refund expenses — allegedly in the region of 20,000 euros — from his own pocket and also relinquish his City of Rome credit card, but this did little to assuage opponents including within his own party. Meanwhile a meeting of the Rome city executive was postponed from 11 am to midday on Thursday due to “problems”, the councillor responsible for legality Alfonso Sabella said. The meeting was called to discuss preparations for the upcoming special Holy Jubilee on mercy amid concerns that the city will not be ready in time.

Esposito said Thursday that Marino’s council was moribund. “The situation will inevitably lead us to the end of this administration,” Esposito, who is also a Senator, told Sky TV.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Hoteliers Report 4% Rise in Business This Summer

Increase in guests of 3.2% in first 9 months of 2015

(ANSA) — Rimini, October 8 — Italian hoteliers’ association Federalberghi said in a report Thursday that the number of people staying with its members increased 4% in the summer compared to the June-September period in 2014. The association added that this contributed to a 3.2% rise in guests in the first nine months of 2015 compared to the same period last year. Federalberghi President Bernabò Bocca said this rise should not be used as an excuse by Italian local councils to raise the tourist taxes that many apply on hotel stays.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: FCA Reaches Agreement With American Union UAW

‘Deal addresses main fears about jobs, future,’ union chief says

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has reached a preliminary agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union on a new labour contract, the Italian-American company has announced. The deal averts the danger of a strike by the carmaker’s workers in North America.

UAW leaders will meet in Detroit on Friday to discuss the details of the deal, which must now be ratified by union members. “(The agreement) addresses our members’ main fears concerning their jobs and future,” UAW President Dennis Williams said.

“Important gains” have been made, he added. A first tentative deal on a new labour contract announced in September was subsequently rejected by FCA workers.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Convicted Ex-CIA Agent Arrested, Released

Sabrina De Sousa faces six years for Muslim cleric snatch

(ANSA) — Turin, October 8 — An ex-CIA agent who was convicted of abducting Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr from Milan in 2003 was arrested Monday at Lisbon’s airport and released two days later, Turin Chief Prosecutor Armando Spataro told ANSA on Thursday. Sabrina De Sousa, who has American and Portuguese nationality, was among 22 CIA agents convicted in Italy in the case of the rendition of the Egyptian cleric, an Islamist suspected of recruiting jihadi fighters.

Nasr, whose case led to the world’s first judicial examination of the controversial practice of rendition in the so-called war on terror, got a prison term of six years for international terrorism in December 2013.

De Sousa, who faces six years in prison if extradited to Italy, has said in interviews the operation had been “approved by Washington” and that she had been “abandoned” by her superiors.

Portuguese authorities seized her passport, pending a decision on her extradition.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK: David Cameron Says Our Fear of Causing Offence Means Islamic Extremism Flourishes

David Cameron launched a blistering attack on the ‘passive tolerance’ of Islamist extremism and a failure to integrate that has put Britain ‘in danger’ as he spoke at the Tory conference in Manchester.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ex-Army Officer ‘Beaten up by Muslim Prisoners for Killing Taliban’

A former army officer, who was jailed for murder, was beaten up by five Muslim prisoners in a revenge attack ‘for killing’ Taliban, a court heard.

Shamed Jeremy Green, who served in Afghanistan, was left with a fractured cheekbone and broken nose and also sustained cuts and bruises.

Shah Rahman, Jewel Uddin, Manfu Asiedu, Barrington Denny and Adam Mac are accused of carrying out the attack at HMP Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Handcuffed and Grinning, 18-Year-Old Accused of Murdering PC David Phillips While He Was on Duty Arrives in Court in Police Van

Smirking in handcuffs as he arrives in court today, this is the teenager accused of killing PC David Phillips in a hit and run who appeared in court charged with his murder.

Clayton Ronald Williams, 18, of Wallasey, is also charged with attempted section 18 wounding against the murdered policeman’s colleague PC Birkett as well as burglary and aggravated unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle.

Williams, who spoke only to confirm his name and confirm he understood the charges before being remanded in custody, is accused of running down and killing the married father of two with a stolen Mitsubishi pick-up truck on Merseyside on Monday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Student Diversity Officer Charged Over ‘Killallwhitemen’ Tweet

Goldsmith University student diversity officer Bahar Mustafa has been charged for allegedly posting a racist tweet using the hashtag #killallwhitemen.

Mustafa, 28, from northeast London, first sparked outrage when she banned white men from attending a students’ union meeting intended for women from ethnic minority backgrounds.

She then reportedly posted a “threatening” message on social media which said “kill all white men.”

Mustafa, who claimed she received death threats after sharing her views, is due to appear at Bromley Magistrates court on November 5.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Protesting MPs Set Off Tear Gas in Kosovar Parliament

Opposition lawmakers in Kosovo set off tear gas in parliament to protest a deal with Serbia giving rights to Serbian communities. A former Serbian province, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia seven years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt is Changing: Burqa Ban, Qur’anic Exegesis, Equal Rights for Muslims and Christians

For Fr Greiche, spokesman for the Catholic Church, the government has taken significant steps that are starting to spread to the population. They include a ban on the burqa in universities, and exegetical attempts to reread Islam’s holy book. Building will soon begin on the ‘Martyrs Church’ dedicated to the Copts beheaded by the Islamic State group in Libya.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Fr Rafic Greiche, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, told AsiaNews that there is some evidence of a changing mind-set in Egypt’s government and authorities, a trend that is spreading to the population at large. They include a timid attempt at Qur’anic exegesis, a ban on female faculty from wearing the burqa, and the fight against fundamentalism and extremist preachers in mosques.

One example Fr Greiche welcomes is the decision by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi to authorise the construction of a Coptic church in Minya Governatorate dedicated to the Coptic martyrs beheaded in February by the Islamic State group in Libya. Construction for the Martyrs Church in the victims’ native village of Al-Awar (Samalout District) is set to start in a few days.

“It is important and encouraging that president himself attacked Daesh*camps at the time of the massacres,” the clergyman said. “Later he visited the area and ordered the construction of the cathedral.”

Half of the funds needed for the construction have already been allocated; the rest will be raised during construction.

The President did something “good in front of Christians and Muslims”. This represents “a change in people’s mind-set,” as well as “a change in the history of relations between Church and State in terms of church construction.”

Until recently, there was a lot of red tape, Fr Greiche noted. The changes show that “the government cares about Christians and wants to break the cycle of discrimination.”

Scheduled general elections are coming in late October and early November. Constitutional change is on the agenda, and, if everything goes as expected, Copts should regain a greater presence and visibility in society and national politics.

“Christians are freer now than under Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood,” said the spokesman for the Catholic Church, “because now there is a government that cares about Christians and defends them.”

Although “Education and time are needed to change the mind-set of the people”, Fr Greiche explained, “Muslims do accept us far more now than in the past because the government is the first to set the example”.

In fact, the president called on Christians to become more involved in politics, to vote and to stand for office in order to ensure their presence in Parliament.

At present, “there is no more organised state violence, even though sectarian tensions do flare up occasionally.”

The spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church noted some trends as evidence of the country’s changing atmosphere. The first one comes from Cairo University, which has banned faculty from wearing the burqa, a veil worn by some Muslim women that covers the face, in classrooms. The latter can wear it, if they so choose, at home or in the street “but not during teaching hours.”

This is “very brave” gesture, the priest said. Equally significant is the fact that now people can voice criticism of religion on television.

For Fr Greiche, the presence of Islam “in society has been progressively waning. Add to that the fight against fundamentalism, sectarianism and extremism in mosques” and we get “more secularism without the rejection of religion”.

There is an attempt to go towards young people “without presenting God as something fearsome”.

Egypt “is trying to build a society that cares about religion,” he said, “but one not based on differences between Christians and Muslims. It is clear that the president is trying to start an exegesis of the Qur’an and other religious texts, even if the process is just at its beginning. “ (DS)

*Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fÄ” ‘l-Ê¿Irāq wa-sh-Shām, i.e. the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS).

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

Tunisian Lawmaker Escapes Assassination Attempt

A lawmaker from Tunisia’s ruling secular party escaped an assassination attempt on Thursday when a gunman riddled his car with automatic rifle fire from a passing vehicle.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting but Tunisia is caught up in a growing battle against Islamist militants who have carried out two major attacks this year and in 2013 assassinated two opposition leaders.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

25-Year Old Stabbed in Terror Attack in Jerusalem Thursday Afternoon

A 25-year old Yeshiva (Jewish religious school) student was stabbed in a terror attack in north Jerusalem near the French Hill neighborhood Thursday afternoon.

The terror attack was carried out by a 19-year old Palestinian from East Jerusalem who attempted to steal a weapon from a nearby security guard after stabbing the victim in the neck. The terrorist was stopped by Israeli Police and taken into custody for questioning.

The victim of the attack is currently being hospitalized, reportedly in moderate condition.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

America Yawns as Jews Die

With each passing day, it becomes a clear that Israel is experiencing a wave of terror unseen since the dark days of the second intifada over a decade ago. There have been stabbing incidents on the streets of Jerusalem and even now in other parts of the country. Snipers, gasoline bombs, and gangs armed with lethal rocks are assaulting Jews driving on the roads in the West Bank. But as the toll of casualties rises, the reaction from the U.S. government and the international media is cool, detached indifference. The best the State Department can do in reaction to the attacks is to issue a lukewarm denial that it will abandon Israel at the United Nations. Meanwhile, the New York Times publishes a feature on the possibility of a third intifada treating the number of casualties on both sides as equal even though one total is of the victims of terror and the other includes slain terrorists.

But as the Palestinians seem to be succumbing to a form of mass madness in which much of the population seems to be joining in a mass game of “kill the Jew,” onlookers would do well to ponder to what extent their lack of a response is responsible for the escalation of the violence.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Hamdallah Says Palestine Supports Citizens’ Self-Defense

Also non-violent resistance, appeals to UN for protection

(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, OCTOBER 8 — Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Thursday said his government supports non-violent resistance and the right of Palestinians to defend themselves “against Israeli aggression”.

“We invite the international community to protect the Palestinian people, East Jerusalem, and holy sites, and we ask the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to apply the international law on human rights,” Hamdallah said in a press conference in Ramallah.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Netanyahu: We Will Take Aggressive Steps Against the Islamic Movement in Israel and Other Inciters

Prime Minister Netanyahu held a press conference with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Esienkot, Police Chief Bentzi Sau and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan Thursday night addressing the recent wave of terror across Israel and Israel’s response and measures to ensure the safety of Israel’s citizens.

Netanyahu stressed that the wave of terror and violence are a result of Islamic extremism, incitement by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, but assured that Israel’s government, military and police are taking all measures necessary to combat it. He stated that “We will take aggressive steps against the Islamic Movement in Israel and other inciter” and that the State of Israel “will prove that the terror won’t win and we will defeat it.”

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Two Wounded in Jerusalem Stabbing Attack as Wave of Terror Mounts

Two men were wounded Thursday in the fourth stabbing attack in just over 24 hours.

The first victim was wounded when a Palestinian man stabbed him in his upper body near a light-rail train station in the capital. A second man was wounded while wrestling with the suspect after the stabbing.

Magen David Adom medics treated the first victim, a 25-year-old yeshiva student, at the site and then evacuated him in serious condition to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. They also treated the second victim, who suffered light wounds.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Ambiguity Over Russian ‘Volunteers’ With Syria Regime Forces

Possible use of GRU and special forces, as in Ukraine

(ANSAmed) — MOSCOW, OCTOBER 7 — A great deal of mystery surrounds the issue of Russian volunteers in Syria, as well as the intelligence services Moscow has deployed to the country.

Speculation is circulating on a possible repeat of the type of intervention the Kremlin used in Ukraine, employing ambiguity and dissimulation. Moscow continues to deny plans for ground operations and any intention to encourage alleged “volunteers” to leave for Syria. Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov, however, underscored that “volunteer organizations exist around the world and act in an independent manner.” Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov seems especially anxious to send his men to fight in Syria, but only with Putin’s permission. Hundreds of Chechen soldiers backed pro-Russian rebels in Donbass and on that occasion, the Kremlin — which the West accused of sending weapons and its own soldiers to fight in Ukraine — was indulgent.

Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, head of the Russian lower house’s defense committee, said that it was “likely” that Russian volunteers would be going to help Syrian regime troops, and that some of them would be the same as those that fought in eastern Ukraine. He noted that they were mercenaries that were attracted in part by the about 50 dollars-a-day wages. If the Kremlin has decided to adopt the same methods used in Ukraine for the operation in Syria, then the ambiguity will remain, especially given the difficulty to independently verify what is happening on the ground. US broadcasters CNN and NBC have reported the movement of troops and Russian artillery from the Syrian coast inland, and especially towards Hama. NATO and the Pentagon also seem to believe that there is a substantial Russian military presence in Syria. US defense sources say that there are at least 800 Russian ground troops in the country as part of a 1,400-men contingent for the use of 28 Sukhoi jets. The ‘Black Sea Marines’, analyst Jeffrey White has said, belong to the 810th Sevastopol Naval Infantry Brigade and the 363rd Naval Infantry Brigade. At the moment they are being used to protect Russian bases on the Alawite-majority coast — in Latakia and Humayin — but could be rapidly transformed into an advance unit of the ground offensive that Damascus has just launched. Well-informed sources also say that a Russian military intelligence (GRU) unit have arrived in Damascus and are working with their Syrian counterparts, and that there are also the Zaslon (‘barrier’ in Russian) special forces under the SVR Russian secret services for operations abroad. At the end of September, a report published by Jane’s Intelligence Review said that Russian military intelligence work inside the Syrian defense ministry in Damascus in Omayyad Square, and that Zaslon men are based less than five kilometers away inside the Russian embassy. Syrian opposition forces in the capital’s suburbs have in the past targeted both locations with mortar shelling.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan Threatens Russia, ‘We Won’t Buy Gas Anymore’

Over airspace violations, would also halt nuclear power plant

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday told Russia that if Moscow continues to violate Turkish airspace, Turkey will no longer buy Russian gas nor cooperate further in the building of the first nuclear power plant in Ankara, said Turkish daily Sabah.

“We can’t accept this situation. Russia’s explanations on airspace violations aren’t convincing,” Erdogan said during an official visit in Japan.

Russia violated Turkish airspace twice at the weekend, while in recent days Turkish jets have been targeted more than once by Syrian missiles and unidentified fighter planes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of President Erdogan’s declarations, said Kremlin spokesman Dmirtri Peskov, hoping for further development of bilateral collaboration.

Moscow and Ankara are also discussing the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Iranian Terrorist Attack Against U.S. Revealed

How Bill Clinton concealed it from the public and U.S. intelligence

A bombshell report by the Washington Times reveals that fecklessness in the face of terror isn’t a condition exclusive to the Obama administration. “Bill Clinton’s administration gathered enough evidence to send a top-secret communique accusing Iran of facilitating the deadly 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist bombing,” the Times states, “but suppressed that information from the American public and some elements of U.S. intelligence for fear it would lead to an outcry for reprisal, according to documents and interviews.”

Nineteen American servicemen were killed in that attack and another 372 people were wounded when a tanker laden with plastic explosives was driven into the parking lot and detonated next to the eight-story dormitory used for U.S. Air Force personnel assigned to the Gulf. A U.S. indictment was issued in 2001 charging 13 Saudis and a Lebanese man with the crime for which then-Attorney General John Ashcroft blamed Iran, stating they “inspired, supported and supervised members of Saudi Hezbollah.” Yet no Iranian officials were named or charged, nor was the Iranian government accused of any legal responsibility for the atrocity.

According to memos obtain by the Times, the intelligence demonstrating Iranian involvement in the attack was characterized as extensive and credible. It included interviews by the FBI of a half-dozen Saudi co-conspirators who told the agency their passports were provided by the Iranian embassy in Damascus. They further revealed they reported to a top Iranian general, and received training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), according to FBI officials.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Soldiers Told to Rape Women ‘To Make Them Muslim’

ISIS claims its brutal treatment of Yazidis — including murder, enslavement and rape — is justified by Islam.

One former slave says she was raped by 12 men who claimed that by abusing her in such a way, she would “become Muslim”.

Lalish, Iraq (CNN) Sitting on a shabby green sofa somewhere in the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, Iraq, the militants laugh and joke as one of them films their excited chatter.

“Today is the female sex slave market day, which has been ordained,” explains a skinny, black-clad Jihadi, gesturing at the camera.

“With Allah’s permission, each will get a share,” promises another of the fighters.

“Where is my Yazidi girl?” asks the first, a wide grin splitting his straggly-bearded face.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS in New Video to Christians in Qaryatayn, Syria: Pay Jizya — Or You Will be Executed and Your Wives Enslaved

On October 3, 2015, the information office of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Damascus Province posted a five-minute video titled “[Fight Those Who Do Not Believe In Allah] Until They Give The Jizya Willingly While They Are Humbled” (from Koran 9:29). The video, posted on Archive.org and disseminated via social media, including on Twitter under the Damascus Province hashtag, deals with ISIS’s imposition of a dhimma contract and the jizya poll tax on the Christian residents of the city of Qaryatayn, Syria, which it recently conquered. The video is accompanied by footage of ISIS removing crosses from churches and destroying them, as well as video of the signing of the contract.

The video opens by showing ISIS fighters entering Qaryatayn and marching through its streets. A narrator stresses that after it was “liberated” by ISIS fighters from the “the tyrant’s soldiers [i.e. the army of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad],” shari’a law had returned to the city and its Muslim residents are smiling again. The narrator says that some of the city’s Christians had chosen to convert to Islam, while others preferred signing the dhimma contract, paying the jizya tax, and living in peace and security in the Islamic Caliphate state. Images are shown of ISIS fighters throwing a cross off the roof of a church and of a church hall destroyed by ISIS.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Militants Gather and Shoot Dead 70 Members of Pro-Government Sunni Tribe

The victims — who had relatives serving in Iraq’s security forces — were reportedly gathered in the Tharthar area, north of Ramadi, the capital of the country’s western Anbar province, on Sunday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Will Weigh Arming Iraq Tornadoes — Pinotti

‘When we have a full picture on the ground’

(ANSA) — Brussels, October 8 — Italy has been asked for a “stronger” contribution to efforts against Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and will weigh arming its four Tornado bombers “when we have the picture of everything that’s happening on the ground”, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said Thursday.

Pinotti has stressed parliament must decide whether Italy will join the anti-ISIS bombing campaign.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Meet Twitter’s Second Biggest Shareholder, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal

A Saudi billionaire prince, famous for employing a team of dwarves, is now Twitter’s second largest shareholder.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment firm now owns just over 5%, which is more than Twitter’s new chief executive Jack Dorsey.

His cash injection comes at a critical time for Twitter, which is struggling to attract new followers.

Saudi Arabia is said to be home to 40% of all active Twitter users in the Middle East.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Will Pay Price for Syrian Airstrikes, Says US Defence Secretary

Moscow will soon start paying the price for its escalating military intervention in Syria in the form of reprisal attacks and casualties, the US defence secretary has warned, amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are preparing to counter the Russian move.

Ashton Carter was talking at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday during which the ministers agreed to increase a Nato response force intended to move quickly to flashpoints.

There were no plans to deploy the force to Turkey, though the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, suggested its existence alone should discourage future Russian or Syrian incursions into Turkish territory.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Cruise Missiles Intended for Targets in Syria Hit Iran Instead

Four cruise missiles launched from a Russian warship aimed at targets in Syria missed their target and crashed in Iran Thursday, a senior defense official told Fox News.

The “Kalibr” cruise missiles were fired for the first time in combat from warships in the Caspian Sea, the official said.

There was no immediate word of any damage or casualties in Iran.

Russia began launching missiles into Syria from warships on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Arm Forces Chief, Liberation Offensive Underway

‘Objective elimination of terrorism’

BEIRUT — The Syrian chief of the army, general Ali Abdullah Ayub, announced the beginning of a “vast offensive” whose target is “the elimination of terrorist centres” and the “liberation of tegions and cities suffering terrorism and its crimes”, reported the Sana agency. Eleven centres held by “terrorists” were hit by calibre 26 missiles launched over Syria by the Russian fleet in the Caspian Sea. The targets hit were in the provinces of Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib, while the Damascus army “severely hits terrorist-held positions”.

The Syrian forces, added Sana “are destroying heavy armaments and equipment (of the terrorists), whie Russia strengthens its military campaign against Isis positions in the Country”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: ISIS Releases Execution Video of Christian Hostages

According to missionary news agency FIDES

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 8 — Three Assyrian Christians who were being held hostage by ISIS in Syria were killed by their captors and a video of their execution released on Thursday, said Fides missionary news agency.

The three captives appeared in the video on their knees and dressed in orange jumpsuits in a desert area, and were shown being killed with gunshots to the neck by three hooded executioners, Fides said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Crisis: What Will Happen Next?

Currently, U.S. “relations” with Russia are at lows not seen since the Cold War. In the meantime, the globalists have created a perfect storm of conflicting interests that could very well lead to outright world war. That said, there are different brands of warfare. And, as I pointed out five years ago, the elites do not necessarily need the threat of nuclear war to open the door to collapse.

Economic warfare would be just as devastating to many parts of the globe and the U.S. in particular, causing massive population reduction through starvation in the span of a few months while leaving large areas of infrastructure intact. Economic warfare is also a perfect distraction of the public eye away from the crimes of international financiers. Our fiscal structure is already in the middle of an implosion set in motion by deliberately destructive central banking policies. But in the midst of economic warfare, such monetary atrocities can simply be blamed on “the treachery of the East.” The Syrian debacle makes an economic battle scenario between East and West “believable” for many people around the world.

Still, wider regional warfare of the shooting variety is certainly guaranteed in the near future.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This is What Russia REALLY Fears in Syria

“Putin has been extremely concerned about the expansion of radical Salafism and Wahhabism into Russian heartland, potentially affecting the ideology of the growing number of Russian Muslims.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Putin has been moved by two factors, which analysts and observers of the Syrian crisis have either underestimated or ignored. Putin has positioned himself as the protector of the minorities in the greater Middle East. The Islamic State has deepened sectarian divides and impulses to levels not seen before in the history of the modern Middle East. A significant number of Christians, Yezidis, Ismailis, Druzes, Shi’ites and Alawis have virtually lost their faith in Western determination to protect them. They have been left behind to the merciless claws of totalitarianism and radical Islam. Fears of past and historical life under Sunni serfdom and occasional persecution have been put on display by the Islamic State’s unprecedented use of violence in the name of orthodox Islam. Gone are the days of French, British and American resolve to protect vulnerable minorities. I have been scornfully reminded of this fact by many members of these minorities, whose feelings of betrayal by and distrust towards the West have become viscerally deep. Not only did Putin fathom, unlike many in the Western world, the deep crisis into which the Sunni world finds itself; but also realize the reliability of minorities as both a foil to Sunni radicalism and a bridge to Russian influence.

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

Threat of Islamic State Surpasses Al-Qaeda

The Islamic State has reportedly overtaken al-Qaeda as the leading global extremist movement. US counterterrorism chief Nick Rasmussen also warned of ongoing threats posed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, US counterterrorism chief Nick Rasmussen said IS had overtaken al Qaeda as leader among global violent extremist movements and that the organization had access to a large pool of potential recruits in Western countries. The organization has been known to take to social media to attract further recruits.

He added counterterrorism experts still regarded the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) also as a big threat due to its interest in attacking the United States and airplanes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Former Army Chief: Bush Helped Erdogan Weaken Us

Accusation waged in trial for Ergenek on attempted coup

ISTANBUL — During his time in office, George W. Bush helped Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies weaken the Turkish army.

The accusation brings back the clock ten years at the heart of the confrontation between the premier and chief of the Ankara armed forces, the defeated Ilker Basbug, currently defending himself in court in a trial for the Ergenekon military coup against Erdogan.

In his defense, Basbug is calling into question the actions of the American ally whom he accuses of siding against him during the confrontation. “The administration of George W. Bush supported the game against the Turkish armed forces”, said Basbug before the judges. The support was directed towards the person whom he accuses of being the mind behind the great conspiracy against the military that ended up being accused for the coup. Basbug was referring to Hizmet Fraternity, led by imam and tycoon Fethullah Gulen, who fled to Pennsylvania in 1999 evading trial for an attack against secularity in a Turkey which, at the time, was heavily under the influence of the military.

At the beginning of the 2000, is Basbug’s accusation, Gulen’s followers infiltrated the army and the judiciary and accompanied Erdogan’s and Akp’s ascent to power, eroding the army’s long ‘tutelage’ over Turkish politics, an army which carried out four coups in forty years to ensure secular government in Turkey.

According to Basbug, at the time, Bush’s America was heavily leaning on one side of the Turkish confrontation and did so openly.

In the meantime, in the great conundrum that is Turkish politics, Gulen became Erdogan’s first and foremost enemy, the man Erdogan believes wants to bring him down.

There are two arrest warrants pending on the imam in self-imposed exile and scores of his followers are already in jail.

By going back to that politically fraught battle, Basbug is opening an old wound and pushing allies in the West to reconsider the choices they made in the past.

Sentenced to life in prison by the court of first instance and released pending appeal, Basbug is the voice of a vanished army. Reappointed by Erdogan and his men, the new chiefs of the army have been obliged to follow a more loyal line with regard to Ankara’s civil institutions as they witnessed their historic influence over Turkish public life wane and disappear.

A few weeks from November 1 snap elections, old ghosts can make noise too.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Put on Probation for ‘Insulting President’

The prosecutor’s office sent Kenes to court for arrest while he was in the office to testify.

“Press prosecutor Umut Tepe has sent me to court for arrest for defaming the president … in my Twitter posts,” Kenes tweeted before the court ruling.

“I will continue to fight for democracy and freedom until the last moment. You will not be able to silence a free soul even if you put it in prison,” he wrote.

Today’s Zaman, which is the English version of the Turkish language daily Zaman, is allegedly close to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen…

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

UAE: Dubai to Hold ‘First Camel Marathon’

Dubai is preparing to host what’s being billed as its first camel marathon later this year, it’s reported.

More than 1,000 camels and their owners are expected to compete in the 50-km (31-mile) race on 3 December to mark the United Arab Emirates’ National Day, according to the 7Days website. The first 50 riders to finish will win prizes from a 2m-dirham (£350,000, $540,000) pot, and the top three will get luxury cars. While camel racing is a longstanding part of UAE’s sporting calendar, this is said to be the first one to be held over such a long distance, and could be taxing for both camel and rider. Riders must be over 18 years old, ruling out the younger jockeys often favoured in camel racing for their light weight.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican: Synod: The West Must “Not Forget the Christians in the Middle East, “ Says Patriarch Younan

Responding to a question about a “hermeneutic of conspiracy” attributed to the pope, Vatican spokesman Fr Lombardi said, “Clearly, the concept is that we should not believe in conspiracies. We should see the Synod as a process of exchange, and communication, taking place in peace and sincerity, not as something driven by special interests or attempts to manipulate”.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) — Three prelates spoke about issues from Africa and the Middle East in today’s daily press briefing on the Synod of the Family

Addressing the West, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Younan issued an appeal “not to forget the Christians in the Middle East”.

“We are very concerned and alarmed about the situation of Christian communities in the Middle East,” he said, “especially because of the catastrophic trials families are going through, splitting up as they try to escape the living hell of Syria and Iraq”.

“We have hundreds of people held hostage by Islamic terrorists,” he explained. “Such a catastrophe has lasting effects.” Indeed, “We deplore the fact that we cannot convince the younger generation to stay where Christianity was born”.

For his part, Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, dealt with a question about the “hermeneutics of conspiracy”, attributed to the Pope two days ago, but never reported by the Vatican.

“I have not reported this expression. It came from another source. I do not have to deny it,” Fr Lombardi said. “Clearly, the concept is that we should not believe in conspiracies. We should see the Synod as a process of exchange, and communication, taking place in peace and sincerity, not as something driven by special interests or attempts to manipulate or lead it away from what it ought to be, namely a joint process of research in the spirit of what Church community must do.”

This spirit “is one of a Church community on a quest and a journey”. The Synod’s vision, “inside and outside,” should be that of “a process, an exchange of communication that takes place in peace, not driven by special interests or attempts to lead the process of joint research away from the spirit of what a Church community must do.”

Card Edoardo Menichelli and Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle took part in the briefing on behalf of the work groups.

“We are not here to stop anyone, but to offer what we feel about the family and the good of the Church,” said Mgr Palmer-Buckle, archbishop of Accra (Ghana).

“In Africa, there is the concept of the extended family,” he noted, “and we want to see how to keep alive the values and the joys of the extended family,” because “The future of the family is the mission of the Church”.

From his part, Card Menichelli called the assembly “a synod of the people, the result of the contribution of the dioceses.” The topics discussed included female deaconate.

Discussions in the work groups “are open. No one is trying to impose his views. In fact, everyone wants to learn [from others] to offer new directions, and show love towards families as well as the concern that the Church often expresses towards phenomena that would not, quote, fully dignify the family.”

Fr Lombardi informed the media that the last members of the Synod’s Information Commission, headed by Mgr Claudio Maria Celli, had been named. They are Mgr Jose Serofia Palma, archbishop of Cebu in the Philippines, Mgr Octavio Nieves of San Juan of Puerto Rico, and Mgr Ignace Dogbo of the Ivory Coast.

A website for the synod activities has also been set up to provide video and audio material, including interviews with the Synod Fathers, in different languages, including Chinese.

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

Yemen Air Strike Hits Wedding Party: At Least 15 Dead and 25 Wounded

The raid took place in the late afternoon yesterday. Private home hit in Sanban, about 100 km south-east of Sana’a, under the control of the Houthi rebels. No comment from Riyadh, but Saudi-led coalition behind the attack. Humanitarian emergency: 80% of the population is at risk of hunger, at least 2,300 civilian casualties.

Sana’a (AsiaNews / Agencies) — An air strike launched — most likely — by the Saudi Arabian coalition in Yemen hit a group of people attending a wedding party, killing at least 15 people and wounding 25. The attack occurred late last night and hit a private home in the region of Sanban, province of Dhamar (about 100 km south-east of the capital), under the control of the Shiite Houthi rebels, goal since last March of a military campaign led by Riyadh.

On September 28, another air strike had hit another wedding party in the coastal town of Mocha, on the Red Sea, killing about 130 people on that occasion. The coalition had denied any responsibility in the attack in the incident, which is the most serious since the war began. However, the attack appears to be the work of Riyadh.

So far the Saudi government and its Arab partners have declined to comment, while civilian casualties of the war multiply. The UN — which speaks of a real human “cost” of the war — estimates almost 5 thousand people, of which more than 2,300 civilians have so far died in the conflict.

Supported by air strikes, the pro-government forces have retaken several areas in the south of Yemen, driving out Shi’ite militias from the port city of Aden, the second largest in the country. The raids, supported by the United States, began in March, two months after the ouster of the government by the Houthi rebels.

Yesterday the leaders of the Shiite movement — linked to Iran by military-political alliance — announced that they have accepted in writing the seven-point peace plan drawn up by the UN. The agreement includes a cease-fire, the withdrawal of armed militias from the towns and the return of the government from Aden to the capital Sana’a. Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi claims, however, that the Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, withdraw from the occupied areas before signing the agreement.

Activists and human rights organizations have accused Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Arab coalition for war crimes and appealed to the international community, because it stopped selling weapons to these countries. An effective and independent investigation into violations is urgently needed, say the experts, and blocking the arms trade.

A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the country and almost 21 million people (80% of the population) are on the brink of “famine” and “desperate” for food and medicine. There are about 1.5 million internally displaced persons.

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

Svetlana Alexievich: ‘Reality Has Always Attracted Me Like a Magnet’

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Svetlana Alexievich. The Belarusian writer and investigative journalist is lauded for her unique, and often harrowing, insights into life behind the Iron Curtain.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Passes Measure Allowing Foreigners to Serve in Army

Move likely to reinforce Moscow’s concerns

(ANSA-AP) — MOSCOW — Ukraine’s parliament has passed a measure that would allow foreigners to serve in its armed forces. The legislation, which cleared a final reading on Tuesday, comes as tensions persist with Russia over the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine and Western governments allege Russia is sending troops and equipment to back the separatists and Ukraine has adopted a national security doctrine declaring Russia as its foe. Russia in turn claims Ukraine’s Western leanings and interest in joining NATO threaten Russia’s security.

Allowing foreigners into the Ukrainian military is likely to reinforce Moscow’s concerns. The measure still needs the president’s signature in order to become law.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

India: Hindutiva’s Discourse of Hate, The Life of “Sacred Cows” Is “More Precious Than That of a Human Being”

Cows are sacred. Crimes against them are used to stir up political hatred for electoral purposes, even though India is a large beef exporter. Gandhi once said that there should be “fullest recognition of freedom to the Muslims to slaughter”. Ram Puniyani, president of the Center for Study of Society and Secularism in Mumbai, looks at the lynching of Muslims suspected of consuming beef.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) — Currently while one is trying to identify the guilty of the Beef lynching in Dadri1 or the lapses of the ruling government, what is being missed is the ‘hate ideology’, which is at the root of the incident. Interestingly, Narendra Modi has been keeping silent on the issue. One just has to recall his speech in the wake of 2014 elections and one may become clear about the reason for his silence. Mr. Modi stated, “Rana Pratap2 dedicated his life to gau raksha (cow protection). He fought wars and sacrificed young men to protect the cow…” He derogatorily referred to export of beef as Pink revolution and criticized it.

In the present hysterical atmosphere which is gradually intensifying around Mother Cow, one has to remember an incident just over a decade ago (2002) in Dulina village of Jhajjar, in Haryana. A mob of over a thousand people lynched five Dalits who were skinning a dead cow to sell the hide. In the context of Dulina lynching of five Dalits, Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Acharya Giriraj Kishore in a press conference stated that “the life of a cow is more precious than that of a human being.” The recent incidents are just the tip hiding the intense atmosphere of hate being created around this issue.

A few months ago in Malegaon, Maharashtra, police arrested three Muslims on the charge of storing beef. On the back of the Dadri incident comes the news of the burning of a truck in Aurangabad, allegedly carrying beef.

‘Cow as mother’ has now become the major tool in the hands of communal forces. As such ‘Cow as mother’ was the ploy used by Hindu communalism all through from late nineteenth century. At that time, there was a matching slogan of ‘pig as an object of hate’ from Muslim communalism on the battleground. As the classic novel Tamas by Bhism Sanhi showed, pigs were thrown in mosques to instigate riots; the same happen to beef in the temple. In turn, such incidents led to communal violence and boosted communal politics.

After independence, the ‘pig in the mosque’ was heard less often. Occasionally, one did hear of beef in temples by Bajrang Dal elements. But not too many casualties have been heard in this case. At a subconscious level, the issue of beef has been kept very much alive and now it has become more important as far as communal polarization keeps in mind electoral arithmetic. This has been added to the worsening scenario as far as communal harmony is concerned.

From an economic standpoint, the cow has been an important part of the agricultural economy. The use of old bullocks and cows for food has been the norm for large sections of society. Apart from the Adivasis, large numbers of Dalits, Muslims, Christians and even upper caste Hindus consumed beef, as a cheap and rich source of protein. Being a large country with a lot of cattle, India is also the major exporter of beef.

Historically, it is interesting to note that beef was part of the food habits in Vedic times (1500 BC-500 AD). It was only later that the cow was turned into a mother figure for identity politics. Bhimrao Ambedkar in his celebrated essay ‘Did Hindus never eat beef?’ demonstrates this very well. At a popular level, Swami Vivekananda confirms the findings of historians like Prof D.N. Jha, who traces the history of beef consumption to Vedic times. Swamiji points out, “You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.”3

This is corroborated by other research works sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission established by Swami Vivekananda himself. One of these reads, “The Vedic Aryans, including the Brahmans, ate fish, meat and even beef. A distinguished guest was honoured with beef served at a meal. Although the Vedic Aryans ate beef, milch cows were not killed. One of the words that designated cow was aghnya (what shall not be killed). But a guest was a goghna (one for whom a cow is killed). It is only bulls, barren cows and calves that were killed.”4

It is not that society cannot resolve the issue of contrasting food habits and faith in an amicable way. Gandhi shows the way and one wishes that we would heed what he has to say on the issue of beef eating, “… beef is not their (Muslims, added) ordinary food. Their ordinary food is the same as that of the millions. What is true is that there are very few Muslims who are vegetarians for religious reasons.”

“Therefore, they will take meat, including beef, when they can get it. But during the greater part of the year, millions of Muslims, owing to poverty, go without meat of any kind. These are facts. But the theoretical question demands a clear answer. As a Hindu, a confirmed vegetarian, and a worshiper of the cow whom I regard with the same veneration as I regard my mother (alas, no more on this earth!), I maintain that Muslims should have full freedom to slaughter cows, if they wish, subject of course to hygienic restrictions and in a manner not to wound the susceptibilities of their Hindu neighbours. The fullest recongition of greedom to the Muslims to slaughter cows is indispensable for communal harmony, and is the only way of saving the cow.”

By now the Muslim as the ‘Cow killer’ has been propagated so much by communal forces that yeoman efforts are need by those who want peace, tolerance and pluralism to overcome the hate built around this propaganda. The propaganda is highly inflammable and those indulging in divisive politics can easily bring to their agenda at community level, with dangerous consequences. The incident of beef lynching reflects the prevalent hatred which is there in the society and which can be and is being used for electoral purpose.

Also the worsening of communal scenario after the new government has come to power is a warning bell for the Indian Constitution’s values of Fraternity in particular. One notes the immense rise in incidents of communal violence and intimidation of religious minorities as the communal organizations have become more bold and aggressive, and feel that they have immunity in the new dispensation. We need to restore the feeling of security, trust and tolerance in our society.

1 Dadri is located in the State of Uttar Pradesh, not far from the Union Capital of New Delhi.

2 Rana Pratap Singh, (1540-1597) was the ruler of Mewar, a region in north-western India in the present day state of Rajasthan.

3 Vivekananda speaking at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (2 February 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536.

4 C. Kunhan Raja, ‘Vedic Culture’, cited in the series, Suniti Kumar Chatterji and others (eds.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol 1 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1993), 217.

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

While Foreigners Pack Thailand’s Sunny Beaches, Locals Flock to Booming ‘Snow Parks’ To Dodge the Sweltering Heat

Across the notoriously sweltering metropolis, locals are flocking to a growing number of attractions offering Thais the chance to experience something few ever witness at home — snow and ice.

While foreigners head in droves to the now military-run nation to soak up the sun on palm-fringed beaches, many of those visiting the Harbin Ice Wonderland on the outskirts of Bangkok are looking for the exact opposite.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hong Kong: Academic Barred for Being “A Friend of Occupy Central”

Johannes Chan Man-mun has been barred from the post of pro-vice-chancellor. Fr Gianni Criveller, PIME missionary in Hong Kong, gives his opinion on the matter. Yesterday, 2,000 students and teaching staff marched in silence through the HKU campus for their autonomy from China. “This is one of many episodes,” Criveller said. “From now until the 2017 elections, Beijing will make its presence felt more and more.” A second rally is scheduled on 9 October.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — The situation in Hong Kong “is serious,” said Fr Gianni Criveller, PIME missionary in Hong Kong. There are “many episodes in which China tries to take more and more control” in political, economic and financial matters. The decision to bar Prof Johannes Chan Man-mun from the post of University of Hong Kong (HKU) pro-vice-chancellor is one of them.

At least 2,000 students, support and teaching staff staged a silent protest on campus against Beijing’s interference in the university’s administration. For Fr Criveller, the prominent law professor was “barred for political reasons because he is a friend of Benny Tai, one of the founders of the Occupy Central movement.”

Dressed in black, protesters marched through the campus, joined by some pro-democracy activists, including Benny Tai. All the faculties were represented. A second rally is scheduled for Friday, 9 October.

“I don’t think the university is yet in a terror culture,” former Arts Dean Douglas Kerr said. “But it begins with people being uncertain about what level of academic and intellectual independence they can exercise.”

“There has been a slow and steady campaign going on in the council,” said rally organiser Prof Timothy O’Leary. “HKU is in a crisis of governance. The chairman must address the [appointment] issue immediately.”

“This is one of many episodes in which China tries to take more and more control. It is certainly not the only one,” Fr Criveller said.

“For example, a few days ago, the territory’s former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, a Catholic, was charged with conflict of interest during his term of office. Many see this as Beijing’s punishment and a warning to Hong Kong politicians to follow the party line; otherwise they’ll pay a heavy price.”

“It is an [act of] intimidation ahead of the vote in 2017,” the missionary explained. “Tsang was not very bold; but he is a practicing Catholic, close to democratic ideas and his friend, Cardinal Zen.”

“Hong Kong’s Chinese critics want the Territory to become ‘decolonised’, i.e. cut all ties from Britain,” Fr Criveller noted. “They believe in rule by law (which can be changed), not in British-style rule of law, to which Donald Tsang adhered.”

“Over the next two years, the pro-Beijing tendency can only grow,” said the clergyman. “The economic situation is already favourable only to super-rich tourists from China. Government policies protect the few wealthy families who control the financial sector.”

What is more, “Rents have skyrocketed and shops sell only super-luxury items. Those who sell ordinary things are not making any money because rents are too high. The people of Hong Kong are hurting.”

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

Navy Will Challenge Chinese Territorial Claims in South China Sea

The Navy is preparing to send a surface ship inside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit China claims for its man-made island chain, an action that could take place within days but awaits final approval from the Obama administration, according to military officials who spoke to Navy Times.

Plans to send a warship through the contested space have been rumored since May, but three Pentagon officials who spoke to Navy Times on background to discuss future operations say Navy officials believe approval of the mission is imminent.

If approved, it would be the first time since 2012 that the U.S. Navy has directly challenged China’s claims to the islands’ territorial limits.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nobel Prize for Tu Youyou Gives Traditional Chinese Medicine a Shot in the Arm

Experts in traditional Chinese medicine are calling for legislation and government support to boost the development of the sector, which has been thrust into the limelight by the awarding of a Nobel Prize for medicine to Tu Youyou .

Hype surrounding traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has grown since Tu told state media this week that her breakthrough was “a successful example of collective exploration in Chinese medicine”, which she described — quoting late leader Mao Zedong — as “a great treasure”.

Tu was awarded the prize for her work on the anti-malaria drug artemisinin, which is based on ancient Chinese herbal medicine. Whether the award should be credited to TCM has sparked heated debate, but this has done little to stop the hype.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Philippines: Kidnapped Italian ‘Survived Attempt on His Life’

Rolando Del Torchio’s cousin tells ANSA about his relative

(see related)(ANSA) — Varese, October 7 — The cousin of an Italian ex-missionary who was kidnapped in the Philippines told ANSA on Wednesday that Rolando Del Torchio survived an attempt on his life 15 years ago.

“Some people shot at him and a local bishop,” said Andrea Del Torchio, owner of a delicatessen in his cousin’s native town of Angera in Varese province. “They survived by hiding under some beds, and Rolando was traumatised,” Andrea continued.

As well, one of his fellow missionaries who had founded a sustainable development NGO was assassinated.

Rolando Del Torchio has a long history of working to improve social conditions in the Philippines, and was volunteering in prisons while running his café, his cousin said.

He spent the best years of his life in the Philippines in spite of the hardships there, his cousin said.

“My cousin loves simplicity, and found European structures a little too narrow,” Andrea said.

“We hope he will be freed soon and that nothing bad will happen to him,” he concluded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Philippines: Rolando Del Torchio, A Former Pime Missionary, Abducted in Dipolog City

Gunmen appear to have seized him in the bistro he owns in the city. Before he left PIME in 2001, he had worked on behalf of tribal and farmers’ rights. In the past decades, two missionaries have been abducted and three killed in Mindanao.

Manila (AsiaNews) — Unknown gunmen seized Rolando del Torchio, a former PIME missionary, in Dipolog City (Zamboanga del Norte, Mindanao), where he owned the ‘Ur Choice Bistro Café’, an eatery near the Andres Bonifacio College.

Initial police reports indicate that six or seven gunmen, posing as customers, entered the eatery and forced Mr del Torchio to go with them. After they pushed into a big car, they took off. According to the police, the group then switched to a speedboat and disappeared.

Rolando Del Torchio, 57, comes from Angera (Varese, Italy). Ordained a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in 1984, he worked in Naples for a few years and was then sent to the Philippines, to Sebuco on Mindanao, not far from where he was kidnapped.

As a missionary, he worked hard to defend the rights of farmers and tribals against landowners, often putting his own life at risk. In 2001, he asked to live outside the Institute, remaining in Zamboanga del Norte. Subsequently, he left the priesthood for personal reasons.

Nothing is known about the kidnappers. Several Muslim guerrilla groups operate on the island of Mindanao. Some are engaged in talks with the Filipino government. Others abduct foreigners or locals for financial gain or to pursue their struggle against the authorities.

PIME has been present in Mindanao since the 1970s. One of Rolando Del Torchio’s colleagues, Fr Fausto Tentorio, was killed in 2011. Two other missionaries have been killed on the island. Private armed guards murdered Fr Tullio Favali in Tulunan, in the Diocese of Kidapawan, in 1985. Fr Salvatore Carzedda, who was involved in talks with Muslims, was assassinated in Zamboanga in 1992.

Two more missionaries have been abducted. Fr Luciano Benedetti was kidnapped in 1998 by a Muslim group but was released after about two months. A splinter group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) seized Fr Giancarlo Bossi in 2007 and released him after two months in captivity.

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

Southern Philippine Hostage Crisis

A Philippine police commander has noted that Abu Sayyaf’s signature speedboats were not used in the abduction. However armed bandits have previously kidnapped foreigners to sell them to ASG, which makes millions of dollars in hostage takings. In 2014, the group received $5.6 million upon release of two German hostages. ASG is currently holding other captives for ransom, and have recently threatened to behead two Malaysian hostages if no payment is made.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Shabaab Warn British Soldiers Will be Beheaded and Paraded Online

Somalia-based extremist group Al-Shabaab has vowed to behead British soldiers and parade their corpses on the Internet when they arrive in the war-torn country to assist with peacekeeping efforts.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

First Ancient African Genome Reveals Vast Eurasian Migration

DNA from Ethiopian man predates the movement of Eurasian farmers ‘back to Africa’.

A 4,500-year-old skeleton from a cave in Ethiopia has produced Africa’s first ancient human genome. The man’s DNA suggests that Middle Eastern farmers migrated into Africa several thousand years ago, leaving traces of their Eurasian ancestry in the genomes of many modern-day Africans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Criminals Are Wrecking South Africa’s Telecoms Networks

Criminals are causing massive damage to South African telecoms networks, resulting in downtime for consumers and costing operators millions. Here are a few examples of the damage

South Africa is battling high crime rates, and the country’s telecommunications networks are not immune to the mess criminals are creating.

Criminals in South Africa are causing millions of rands of damage to telecommunications networks through copper theft, stealing batteries from cellular towers, and even stealing fibre to make certain products.

The cost of these criminal acts extends far beyond the network damage. Operators are faced with repair costs, loss of revenue, security costs, an increase in customer complaints, and network quality concerns.

Consumers are also hit hard. The network damage results in service unavailability, an impact on emergency services, and a significant impact on businesses using the affected networks.

Copper theft impact

Copper theft and vandalism

Copper theft and vandalism are some of the biggest problems which Telkom and the mobile operators face in South Africa.

Telkom said the cost of cable theft to the company surged from R164 million in 2010 to R247.6 million last year.

Sidney Arnold, MTN GM of network operations, said criminals often break into secure environments like containers, and cut the maximum amount of copper cables — including earth and power cables.

The mobile site’s feeder cables (typically short pieces) and power cables which feed the site are often stolen.

Arnold highlighted that fibre cables are often erroneously cut by criminals who are actually looking for copper. The damage, however, is already done.

The following photos show the damage caused by criminals at important telecommunications facilities…

           — Hat tip: RRN [Return to headlines]
 

Bavaria’s Premier Wants to Send Refugees Back to Austria

The German state of Bavaria has announced that it might take measures to send refugees back to Austria. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she didn’t support the idea of limiting the number of asylum seekers in any way.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Violence Erupts at Belgian Refugee Centre

8/10/15 — It came to blows between a group of Iraqis and two Afghan minors at the refugee centre in Florennes on Wednesday. A whole group of refugees has forfeited their right to support as a result.

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

Clinton, Biden Speak at ‘Gay Gala,’ Push for Federal Law to Protect Homosexuality

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden served a speakers at a “gay gala” on Saturday sponsored by the nation’s largest homosexual activist group, co-founded by a man who has spent the past year fighting child rape charges.

“It’s great to be back with the other HRC,” Clinton quipped as she addressed the hundreds gathered for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) event in Washington. “There’s no one I’d rather share my initials with than all of you.”

“I see the injustices and the dangers that you and your families still face,” she said. “I’m running for president to stand up for the fundamental rights of LGBT Americans.”

In 2004, while serving as a U.S. Senator, Clinton told Congress that she opposed same-sex nuptials.

“[T]he fundamental bedrock principle that [marriage] exists between a man and a woman, going back into the midst of history as one of the founding, foundational institutions of history and humanity and civilization, and that its primary, principal role during those millennia has been the raising and socializing of children for the society into which they are to become adults.”

She also supported her husband in signing the Defense of Marriage Act in the 1990’s. It was not until 2013 that she began to speak publicly in favor of “gay marriage.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Priest Don Gino Flaim Defends Paedophiles and Blames ‘Love-Seeking Children’

An Italian priest has been suspended from his parish after defending paedophilia on live television and attempting to blame victims for “seeking affection”. Don Gino Flaim, of the San Giuseppe and Pio X parish in the northern Italian town of Trento, claimed on air that he “understands paedophilia” whereas “I’m not sure about homosexuality”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Most American’s Can’t Discern Lies From the Truth

They Hiss When They Speak

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” (John 8:44,45)

I am not saying that there is something special about me or that I have a unique gift that others do not have. All that I’m saying is that I cannot believe how easy it is to spot liars, and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why so many are so easily fooled.

In all of my nearly 63 years of life, I don’t think lying has ever been easier to spot. It is as if all liars hiss when they speak…

What was it George Orwell said? “In a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” I can’t believe the average American can’t see through the deceit.

Nearly everything the Left claims to believe is a lie. I have yet to figure out if they actually believe their lies or if they are simply passing on what their father tells them. Remember, the Devil doesn’t just tell lies…his very nature is to lie. Satan is the originator; the father of lies. He is incapable of speaking the Truth.

And that is what his children do. They lie. They act just like their daddy.

I watched the Jezebel-like leader of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, testify before Congress last week. She is a master deceiver. Lies usually aren’t bold and open, but are typically couched in the corners of an argument—hidden in the dark shadows of relativism. It is the way the Devil operates.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

19 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/8/2015

    • Well, we voted in a party in 2013 that would stop the boats. We do not want them here! Interesting news today at the Liberal Party NSW function where the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull (aka Turncoat) was jeered while the person he deposed, Tony Abbott, received a standing ovation.

  1. CBS/Sacramento: Cab Driver: Suspect Punched Woman In Fight That Led To Spencer Stone Stabbing

    It’s been a sleepless night for Kennedy Hailemariam. He says he can’t shake the image of Spencer Stone covered in blood out of his head.

    When he offered to take the man who once helped thwart a suspected terrorist attack on a France-bound train to the hospital, he says he was blown away by how calm and collected he was after such a violent attack.
    “I tried to ask him ‘Yo, yo!’ And the only thing he say, he say is ‘Call 911.’ That’s what he said,” he said.

    Hailemariam watched Stone take on three men in the middle of one of Midtown’s busiest intersections.
    “He knocked out one guy, and they tried to stop him, but he was down already,” he said. “The blood is coming like from everywhere.”

    Surveillance video shows the men surrounding the 23-year-old Carmichael man who police say was out with four friends—a man and three women—when an argument turned physical and spilled onto 21st and K streets.

    Hailemariam’s cab can be seen pulling into the shot where it was clear the airman was outnumbered

    REPORTER: When you see them fighting, you see blood, did you think someone was going to die?

    HAILEMARIAM: You can tell that they’ve got a knife, you know what I mean. You can see that. Because, like, you know, once they, you know they do like this (moves his arm like stabbing) and blood comes out.

    He describes the suspects as three short and stocky Asian men in their 30s, one of whom even attacked one of the women with Stone.

    “She tried to protect him too but she got hit too. Like you know, big punch, like boom,” he said, gesturing to his mouth.

    As first responders moved in, Hailemariam says Stone appeared to be losing consciousness as he laid down on the sidewalk.

    Hailemariam is now looking into installing a dashcam in his taxi. He’s anxious knowing a Hometown Hero survived an attack overseas only to come home to another one.

    “This is his home city and he got this thing,” he said. “He comes out to like, to enjoy or something, but this happened to him in his hometown, you know what I mean?”

    Police believe alcohol was a factor in the case, but Kennedy was quick to point out that Stone and his friends did not act or sound as though they had too much to drink.

    Hailemariam says he’s planning on spending the next few days at home with his 8-month-old daughter
    *****
    Sacramento Police released new video of suspect vehicle .

    The description says two suspects seen fleeing – yet it’s clear the female is with the two suspects AND THE DRIVER. Why are the police making light of the driver and female involved?

    • No large town or city in the West today can be considered as ‘safe’ for anyone out on the town for a bit of relaxation and entertainment.

  2. >> Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he would look into banning public servants from wearing the niqab if he wins re-election, turning the Muslim veil into a major campaign issue <<

    The specialty of all Western leaders — half measures and the unwillingness to grasp the nettle of reality. The niqab is not the problem, it is the disastrous decision taken by Canadian traitors to all any Muslims into Canada.

    It should be a matter of indifference that this man is re-elected. The default mode of all Western nations, excepting the Eastern European states and Russia, is suicide. This man stands only for slow suicide.

    Be still my beating heart.

    • Ok. On the one hand you are of course correct. The real solution is not a ban of the face cloth but a ban on the ideology and people who support it.

      Having established that let me say that Harper has said out loud and in public that certain elements of islam are “…from a barbaric culture” making it clear that he felt or rather knew, that Islam is barbaric. No other elected leader has said anything close to that. And as a Canadian living in Canada I can tell you that he went a great deal past what any leader or politician who knows what he knows and what we know, would say because of the intense climate of cultural Marxism which permeates every damn aspect of Canadian life from media to coffee shop chit chat. The soviets had wet dreams about compliance like the Marxists have in Canada and double that for Ottawa.

      • I have no personal issue with the face covering. I feel however that it must be removed in certain circumstances such as banks, public transport and courts. Police and security should also have the right to demand to see a person’s face.
        The bigger problem is those who kowtow to moslems by banning our culture such as bacon sandwiches, crosses in public places – they are the ones that give these colonists the power.

        • Yes. I have never experienced living under occupation. It’s frightening to see formerly ‘patriotic’ ‘freedom loving’ ‘Christians’ ‘Jews’ ‘Never Againers’ grovel snd cater to a savage enemy ‘spear chucking’ horde ‘white hot’ with hatred and Hell bent on mercilessly crushing them. Even peace loving Buddhists monks caught on ages ago.

    • In nearly all occupations there is an aspect of accountability of the worker who does wrong. Only politicians and bureaucrats are exempt from accountability for the nasty things that they get to do to us from time to time.

      If politicians were held accountable then maybe the Islamic nightmare we are now facing would not have come about.

      • The way to hold them accountable is to never, ever vote for them again. But people just can’t seem to manage that. They vote for whomever the vidscreens tell them to vote for.

        • Subsequently, those whose actions may be considered as treasonous never learn from the consequences of their actions and the party that holds the dirtiest bag of tricks gets elected.

    • I’ll echo Vlad here as a fellow Canadian. You’re right: the niqab is merely a symptom of the true sickness. And, while I enjoy seeing the Left in hysterics that most Canadians want it banned during the citizenship ceremony, at the end of the day Canada still cheerfully accepts huge numbers of Muslim immigrants, and shows no signs of stopping the flow.

      Yet, Harper has more of a spine than any other governing Western leader. He’s no Le Pen or Wilders; unfortunately my countrymen haven’t been abused enough by Islam to even think of allowing a politician like that to rise to prominence. But, he’s an ardent and unapologetic supporter of Israel. He calls a spade a spade when it comes to honour killings, FGM, and all other barbaric Muslim activities. Unlike David Cameron who seems to live at the local mosque these days, Harper rarely, if ever, grovels to the various Muslim councils. He’s passed a law allowing us to strip citizenship of ISIS fighters. He’s the best Canada has, and while I dearly wish he would go further, Canada would truly start down the path of suicide if Mulcair or, God forbid, Trudeau won.

      In fact, I daresay one of the main reasons Canada isn’t farther down the rabbit hole is because of nearly a decade of Harper.

  3. >> Sarkozy must strike as head of The Republicans, trying to sound tough on immigration, Islam and security without losing the all-important middle ground… <<

    So "Mr. Métissage" Sarkozy must lie about what he intends to do on immigration, Islam, and security to the patriot element ("sound tough") while he avoids scaring off the middle ground morons who tremble at the mention of the words "immigration, Islam, and security."

    This is modern Western rightist "leadership" — committed to inaction on vital issues and completely manipulative and deceptive to gain short-term electoral advantage. The pretense of doing something while speaking a lie so as not to scare fools.

  4. An honest headline would be “French Far Right’s Marine Le Pen Clashes With Far Left Hollande and Deranged German Chancellor” but it is forbidden to speak so. If one objects to (1) the destruction of one’s country with thousands of years of history and an admirable culture and (2) and France’s president being Merkel’s butt boy, well, one is on the fringe, in the outer reaches of The Federation where Klingon war cruisers lurk and no cucumber sandwiches are served.

  5. Re. those missiles falling short in Iran, at least the Russians haven’t blown up any hospitals. Nor have the Russians provided the Islamic State with the kind of hardware that the US has via its network of “moderate” moslems and the highly-trained Iraqi army.
    The meme of the French army rifle up for sale, never used, dropped once needs updating methinks.

  6. Are Jade Helm exercises a readying for the implementation of martial law and a third term for Obama when the dollar dies?

    It’s looking increasingly so.

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