Hungary has issued a government decree permitting NATO and EU troops to assist its own soldiers in guarding the border. The foreign troops will act in a support capacity rather than actually patrol the border.
Meanwhile, the Swedish prime minister says that Sweden may see 150,000 new migrants in 2015 before the year is over.
In other migration news, the United Nations has warned of a winter tragedy if the European Union fails to act in a timely fashion to take care of all the “refugees” now within its borders.
In other news, the Obama administration has decided to abandon its half-billion-dollar program of arming and training Syrian “rebel” groups.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Nick, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
House Votes to Lift 40-Year-Old Ban on US Crude Oil Exports
The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Friday that would lift the 40-year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude oil, a restriction that critics say hurts job creation and U.S. national security.
The House approved the bill on a bipartisan 261-159 vote. However, the White House has threatened to veto the bill should it make its way to the president’s desk, calling it unnecessary and arguing that the decision rests with the commerce secretary.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moon Memories: See Thousands of Apollo Photos on Flickr
A huge new online gallery gives people around the world an up-close look at NASA’s iconic Apollo moon missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
More than 8,400 unprocessed scans have now been uploaded into the online Project Apollo Archive. The entire gallery — with each picture organized by the magazine or film on which it was shot — is available on the photo-sharing service Flickr.
As a whole, the set represents every picture ever taken on the moon, and many that were shot during other parts of the missions, founder Kipp Teague told The Planetary Society. Teague requested the shots years ago from NASA as part of a project related to Eric Jones’ Apollo Lunar Surface Journal website, which details what the astronauts did on the moon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars
A new study from the team behind NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity has confirmed that Mars was once, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended period of time.
Using data from the Curiosity rover, the team has determined that, long ago, water helped deposit sediment into Gale Crater, where the rover landed more than three years ago. The sediment deposited as layers that formed the foundation for Mount Sharp, the mountain found in the middle of the crater today.
“Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and co-author of the new Science article to be published Friday, Oct. 9.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Cybersecurity Sprint Slows to a Stroll Following Huge Data Breach
Nearly three months after a fevered Obama administration attempt to bolster security against cyber-hackers who tapped into the private information of some 25 million federal employees, cybersecurity experts say there is still no comprehensive plan to protect the sprawl of 10,000 government and contractor computer systems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim-Bashing is an Effective Campaign Tactic
SINCE Canada enacted a rule in 2011 requiring veiled women to reveal their faces during public citizenship ceremonies, the country has sworn in 680,000 citizens. Just two have refused to comply. This seemingly marginal issue has come to the fore in campaigning for the national election to be held on October 19th. It could well affect the outcome.
Canada’s 1m Muslims are dismayed. Although hate crimes in general are declining, those targeting Muslims are not. In the past week, a pregnant woman wearing a headscarf in Montreal was knocked down by two teenagers. Another wearing a niqab in Toronto said she was assaulted. Politicising the niqab is “unbelievably dangerous”, said Calgary’s mayor, Naheed Nenshi, who is a Muslim.
It also puts Mr Harper’s rivals, the Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair, leader of the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP), in an awkward spot. Both sympathise with people who find the niqab off-putting but think the unveiling rule infringes freedom of religion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bringing the Curtain Down on the Synod
Intriguing that Pope Francis would warn bishops and cardinals attending the synod to beware of getting caught up in conspiracy theories, as conservatives and liberals reportedly engage in Machiavellian attempts to manipulate the synod.
“Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi on Thursday confirmed reports that the pontiff had warned Catholic bishops and cardinals behind closed doors on Tuesday not to get caught up in “the hermeneutic of conspiracy”. (Yahoo, Oct. 8, 2015)
[…]
Marxists are masters of Machiavellian manipulation and are known to bully their way in seeing that the end always justifies their means.
So who does the UN’s latest global warming alarmist Pope Francis really think he’s kidding?
Not the masses of the laity who can see the Catholic Church going further away from the teachings of Christ and throwing in with the politics within the swelling ranks of the politically correct.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Hundreds of Muslims Pray in Parliament Square, London
LONDON, United Kingdom — Hundreds of Muslims flocked to Parliament Square today under the guise of acting against climate change. The demonstration saw a speech by an Imam, about how Muslims have a duty to try to “make Britain a better place”.
Breitbart London was on the scene to witness Friday afternoon prayers in what was a clearly male-female segregated meeting in a public space.
One woman told Breitbart London how she was told by one of the male attendees that despite being a Christian that she was in fact a Muslim, but “hadn’t realised it yet”. He said “we are all born Muslims” and repeatedly referred to her as “sister”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Rail Passengers Go on Two-Day Strike Over ‘Third World’ Train Service
Travellers will be striking on Thursday and Friday this week to show their dissatisfaction with what they call a ‘pricey sub-standard service’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s FBI Raid Volkswagen’s HQ and Seize Computers and Data Files
Officials swarming into the vast Wolfsburg plant is being interpreted as a sign that Volkswagen has been less than cooperative with authorities over the cheating emissions scandal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Expats Up 7.6% to 4.6 Mn in 2014
Germany preferred destination, then UK
(ANSA) — Rome, October 6 — The number of Italian expats rose 7.6% to 4.6 million in 2014, the Migrantes Foundation said Tuesday.
The preferred destination was Germany, followed by the United Kingdom, it said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Automobile Production Up 48.8% in August ISTAT Says
Latest in a series of car output increases this year
(ANSA) -Rome, October 9 — Automobile production in Italy increased by 48.8% in August compared to the same month in 2014, the Istat statistics institute said Friday.
The figures were the latest in a series of increases in car production on the peninsula since the end of last year.
In all car production was up by 44.5% in the first eight months of this year, Istat said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Mayor’s Own Party Gives Him Quit Ultimatum
PD, SEL renew call after latest scandal
(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Democratic Party (PD) commissioner in Rome Matteo Orfini and Left, Ecology and Freedom (SEL) Secretary Paolo Cento have agreed that if embattled PD 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.
The PD mayor reportedly said he would “resist” in the wake of the latest scandal to engulf the PD’s representative in the capital. On Tuesday, Rome prosecutors opened a probe into the mayor’s expenses after the small rightwing Brothers of Italy (FDI) party and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) — the second-largest party in Italy — filed petitions. Marino subsequently announced he would refund expenses 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. Earlier this week, the mayor’s office said it would sue anyone who kept up an “offensive campaign” against Marino regarding his travel expenses, which are posted online in the interests of transparency, The opposition has vociferously criticized Marino’s frequent missions abroad, from which he has returned with 13 million euros in donations from foreign patrons to restore Rome’s crumbling monuments.
Also on Thursday, Stefano Esposito, the city of Rome’s executive transport councillor, said that Marino’s council was moribund. “The situation will inevitably lead us to the end of this administration,” Esposito said before quitting along with Deputy Mayor Marco Causi.
The mayor who took office in June 2013 faced an uphill battle from day one of his administration, as he inherited a city with depleted coffers and a mafia scandal that would soon explode during his watch, nearly engulfing him.
Marino has been under pressure to quit following a probe into allegations a mafia organization muscled in on city contracts, even though he is not personally implicated.
“I found a financial black hole of some 900 million euros in city coffers,” Marino told RAI’s UnoMattina program earlier this week.
The mayor added his predecessor Gianni Alemanno left city transportation company ATAC with a deficit of 874 million euros.
“I put (ATAC) right,” he told the public broadcaster.
“The company will break even in 2016. We’re back on track now, but our starting point was a city that had been left in ruins,” he said.
In September, Marino was again the object of controversy over a trip to Philadelphia to join Pope Francis on the United States leg of his Americas tour.
A fracas erupted when the pope said he had not invited the mayor, and the mayor replied he never said he had been invited.
“The mayor never said he had been invited by Pope Francis to the closing events of the 8th World Meeting of Families,” a city statement said.
Marino’s trip to the United States, a month after he had a vacation in the Caribbean and the US, stirred controversy in the capital.
In July, Marino’s center-left coalition lost its junior allies from the Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party as SEL Deputy Mayor Luigi Nieri quit and the party declined to sit on Marino’s reshuffled city council. “We continue serving Rome,” SEL coordinator Paolo Cento said at the time. “We leave the council seats to the PD’s one-party government”.
Marino’s council has lost several members in the wake of the sweeping corruption probe into a local mafia of politicians, businessmen and gangsters that muscled in on lucrative city contracts for garbage collection, parks maintenance, and refugee reception centers.
Marino has been under pressure to resign ever since the scandal broke last winter, even though he not been named in that investigation but his predecessor, Gianni Alemanno has been included in the probe.
Marino carried on, ruffling more feathers as he said he would replace the board of ATAC public transport company and fire managers under whose watch the city’s transport system has degenerated into chaos. The mayor added the city would seek private partners for ailing ATAC, sparking transportation strikes that added to the already incandescent climate in Rome in which work-to-rule subway strikes caused thousands of irate commuters to get trapped in underground tube stations during a ferocious heat wave that lasted most of the summer.
But even as Marino announced plans to fix Rome’s chronically dysfunctional public transport system, including firing managers, Italian newspapers were filled with headlines of the capital city’s decline coming from such publications as The New York Times.
Valeria Fedeli, Senate deputy speaker, said the clock is ticking for Marino to take serious measures to clean up Rome.
“It is unclear” why the Italian capital “cannot be as clean as other European capitals,” Fedeli, a member of Marino’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said.
“Marino has 24 hours to present a team and decide the program quickly to solve Rome’s problems”.
The mayor defended his performance, saying he didn’t expect to find opposition from his PD or infiltration by criminals in city management.
“Two years ago I certainly didn’t think I had arrived to govern Stockholm, but nor did I expect to find a rotten PD against me or criminal infiltration of top city management,” Marino said in an interview with newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The mayor has been repeating himself since last year, when he told a news conference for foreign reporters that upon taking office he immediately called finance police in to inspect city hall accounts in a bid to end corruption.
“I immediately began to take decisions that no one had ever taken in Rome before,” he said in December 2014.
“I asked (then-economy) minister Saccomanmi to send finance police inspectors. I wanted a third-party evaluation”.
The result, he recalled, was a 200-page report that disclosed “many illegitimate procedures” used in city government before he took office, as well as “a budget deficit of 800 million euros run up over the previous three years.” He recalled that he had obtained the closure of the city’s huge Malagrotta waste dump, and the businessman who ran it was arrested.
He also took steps to end abuse at the city’s own insurance company, Assicurazione di Roma, whose board members were issuing loans to themselves.
Marino insisted that “I am not an investigator,” but said he had been to the office of the Rome chief prosecutor six times to denounce illegal practices in local government he had become aware of.
“I knew there would be difficulties,” he said. “But I had no idea they would be of this size”.
Earlier that month, Rome prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone said that several associates of the capital’s former mayor Alemanno, who is among 100 people probed for alleged links to a mafia organisation, were full-blown mobsters.
“Some men close to former mayor Alemanno are full-blown members of the mafia organisation and the lead players of episodes of corruption,” Pignatone said.
Pignatone said that things have changed to some degree since Marino replaced Alemanno last year, but not completely.
“The relationship has changed with the new administration, but (organization leaders Massimo) Carminati and (Salvatore) Buzzi were relaxed, not matter who won the (2013 city) elections,” Pignatone said.
In November 2014, as the Rome mafia scandal rocked the capital, the mayor came under fire for unpaid traffic fines, which he later paid off to quell the controversy.
Eight 80-euro fines were slapped on Marino’s car after he allegedly forgot to renew a permit, but the mayor says someone deleted from the system his authorization to drive his red Fiat Panda to work while his permit was being renewed.
The incident came to light after opposition New Centre Right (NCD) Senator Andrea Augelio accused authorities of “freezing” the fines as a favor to the center-left mayor, who has incensed many by extending pedestrian zones in Rome’s historic center and removing free parking spots.
Marino has also incurred the wrath of the right by taking strong stands in favor of gay marriage and immigrant integration.
In October last year, Marino disobeyed the city prefect’s order to scrub the recent transcription of foreign gay marriages.
“We do not accept the prefect’s order to cancel the transcriptions that have already been logged,” he said of his purely symbolic move.
Marino in his defiance of the interior minister joined a number of mayors across Italy, including those of Milan, Bologna, Udine and Grosseto.
He walked into contested, administrative no-man’s land when he transcribed 16 same-sex marriages legally performed abroad at the Rome prefecture.
In Italy, civil unions between same-sex partners are not yet nationally recognized, much less marriage, which is defined as a union between a man and a woman. However the recognition of same-sex marriages performed abroad, especially in countries with which Italy is bound by treaties, the question is subject to debate.
Marino has received support from gay activists and lawyers of couples whose marriages were transcribed, but the Catholic political movement Italia Cristiana has registered a formal complaint against Marino for contravening State law. The movement also called for the centre-left politician to be removed from his post.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Paid Ransom for Release of Pelizzari, Guardian Says
Citing South African document, says ransom was 525,000 USD
(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — Italy paid a ransom of 525,000 dollars for the release of Bruno Pelizzari, who was kidnapped by Somalian pirates in 2010 together with South African Debbie Calitz and freed in 2012, said The Guardian on Thursday, citing a leaked spy agency document.
The Guardian said the document was written by a South African intelligence officer and marked “secret”, and said the Italian intelligence agency AISE paid the ransom.
The document said AISE, Somalian secret service agency SNSA, and the hostages “agreed to inform the media and public that the release of the hostages was the result of a successful rescue operation by the Somali security forces”, The Guardian said.
The document is part of a series of correspondences between international secret service agencies obtained by Arab news media Al Jazeera, which agreed to share them with the British daily.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Priest With Girlfriend, Son, Wants Out of Church
Met 22-year-old partner at World Youth Day planning meet
(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — A Polish priest asked to leave the Church because he has a girlfriend and they have a son together, Salesian sources said Friday.
Father Tomasz Kijowski, a Salesian priest who served as spokesman for the 2016 World Youth Day to be held in Krakow, has asked to leave, said Father Andrzej Golebiewski of the Salesian Inspectorate of Krakow on Friday.
During World Youth Day planning meetings, Kijowski met a 22-year-old woman who became his girlfriend and with whom he now has a son.
Polish websites are highlighting the story in the wake of Polish Monsignor Krysztof Charamsa’s coming out as gay on Saturday, on the eve of the Catholic Church’s 20-day Synod on the Family in Vatican City.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poste Italiane Dividend ‘At Least 80% Operating Profits’
Consob approves stock excahnge flotation
(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — The board of of Poste Italiane, the Italian post office company, said Friday it plans to distribute at least 80% of its operating 2015-2016 profits as dividends.
The announcement was made ahead of the imminent listing on the Italian stock exchange of the Poste after Consob stock exchange watchdog approved the move.
The share issue will begin Monday when Poste will place 34.7% of its share capital on the stock market.
The value of the company is set at a non-binding minimum of 7.837 billion euros and a maximum of 9.796 billion euros, equal to an expected share price range of 6-7.5 euros.
The Poste flotation is “fundamental for the government’s privatisation programme, which aims to strengthen the company, make its services to the public more efficient, boost the capital market and garner financial resources to reduce debt,” the treasury ministry said.
In all 30% of the share issue will be retailed to the general public while 70% will be earmarked for institutional investors. Of those for the public 14.9 million shares are reserved for Poste employees, with all staff guaranteed at least 10 shares.
In all the Treasury will issue shares worth a minimum of 2.7 billion euros and a maximum of 3.7 billion euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Roman Jews Remember Tachè, ‘Anti-Semitic Hatred Reappears’
‘Widespread in Israel with stabbings’
(by Elisa Pinna) — ROME — Stefano Tachè was two years old when, on October 9, 1982, he was killed by Palestinian terrorists who attacked Rome’s synagogue with assault rifles. On Friday morning, the Roman Jewish community gathered beside the Temple to commemorate the attack in which 40 other Jews were wounded and, most of all, denounce how the same “ferocious hatred” and anti-Semitism are behind the stabbings against Jews in Israel.
“Thirty three years ago, Jews were hit as they were leaving synagogue. There was an anti-Zionist atmosphere, behind which anti-Jewish hatred was hiding, the same that is spreading across Israel these days”, Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni told ANSA at the end of the ceremony.
In 1982, an Israeli operation was ongoing in Lebanon and a wave of attacks against Jewish cemeteries, schools and places of worship were reported across Europe, including the most serious in Rome.
“Today too, we must watch out against the danger of a resurgence of anti-Semitism and ask out governments and States to be aware of this”, Di Segni said. “Most of all, we ask the media for an objectivity we often do not find, which risks to poison the climate”.
“I believe the attack 33 years ago showed how the forces of evil have a great ability to penetrate not just in Israel but also against Jewish communities worldwide”, observed Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish communitites (Ucei) during the ceremony in front of a memorial stone for Stefano.
“Stefano isn’t here anymore but his death reminds us that danger is always behind the corner”, stressed Ruth Duraghello, president of the Roman Jewish community. “Today we find ourselves in a situation that is very similar with the third Intifada in Israel”, she said.
Stefano’s commemoration included a service in the synagogue attended by the Roman Jewish community and a ceremony at the Campidoglio with the municipal band and children from Roman elementary schools who presented their work and thoughts on the little victim.
Ruth Duraghello told students to look at the future without forgetting mistakes from the past. “Jews are Italian children just like you and diversity means rishness. You must teach your parents not to discriminate another because they belong to a different religion”.
Stefano’s older brother Gadi Tachè, who was four in 1982 and still has fragments of grenades and bullets from the attack in his body, is speaking in schools for the first time, overcoming his reserve and pain. “It was an incredible emotion. I understood the importance of talking to children and getting them to know things. I hope that the initiative to host students at the Campidoglio and award them in Stefano’s memory, which has already reached its 12th edition, can continue also with a new mayor”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Podemos Wants to Take Church’s Aragon Holdings Away
Cathedral and 30 churches ‘should be public property’
– MADRID — The ‘post-Indignados’ party Podemos has filed a request with the Aragon government to annul the Catholic Church’s registration of the Jaca cathedral as its private property.
The cathedral was built between 1077 and 1139. The bishopric of the city officially registered the cathedral in June on the basis of a 1998 law by the Spanish government of the center-right prime minister at that time, José Maria Aznar. Podemos, which played a part in the appointment of Aragon’s new socialist government, has asked that the property deed be annulled and that the Roman-era cathedral be recognized as public property. “They took an entire cathedral and all the property inside away from us,” the head of Podemos’s Aragon branch, Pablo Ecenique, was quoted by Publico Online as saying. The party has called for the regional government to “begin the necessary procedures to annul the registration of the cathedral by the Jaca bishopric, and demands that it be declared public property for Aragon citizens. “ Podemos also asked that another 30 cemeteries and churches registered between 1989 and 2015 in Aragon be “given back”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spencer Stone ‘Awake, Able to Get Out of Bed’ Day After Life-Threatening Stabbing
Spencer Stone, the U.S. airman who gained world fame for helping thwart an attack on a French train and recaptured it again as the victim of a Sacramento street brawl, is now “awake, able to get out of bed and in good spirits.”
The press staff of the UC Davis Medical Center on Friday upgraded Stone’s medical condition from serious to “fair,” meaning his vital signs were stable and normal. No additional medical information was provided.
Sacramento police continue to seek at least two suspects involved in Stone’s stabbing early Thursday morning on a street in a popular nightclub district. Security camera footage from a nearby liquor store shows Stone and a group of a half-dozen individuals fighting. Some of those involved appeared to be fighting alongside Stone.
A second video released by police shows three individuals apparently fleeing through an alley, to jump into a waiting car.
Stone, 23, was treated at the hospital for three stab wounds to the chest and was in serious condition in the intensive care unit after surgery Thursday.
The U.S. airman was the first American to tackle a gunman aboard a Paris-bound train over the summer. He and two friends were lauded as heroes and hailed by President Obama and French President Francois Hollande…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Party Votes to Quit Budget Deal
The Christian Democrats, one of the parties of Sweden’s centre-right Alliance opposition, has voted to pull out of the controversial December Agreement.
But the move could still cause trouble for the mainstream parties, with Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson welcoming the decision and announcing on Twitter that he would push for a vote of no confidence next week in an attempt to oust Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Cyber Activists Who Want to Shut Down ISIS
Somewhere in Europe, a man who goes by the name “Mikro” spends his days and nights targeting Islamic State supporters on Twitter. In August 2014, a Twitter account affiliated with Anonymous, the hacker-crusader collective, declared “full-scale cyber war” against ISIS: “Welcome to Operation Ice #ISIS, where #Anonymous will do it’s [sic] part in combating #ISIS’s influence in social media and shut them down.”
In July, I traveled to a gloomy European capital city to meet one of the “cyber warriors” behind this operation. Online, he goes by the pseudonym Mikro. He is vigilant, bordering on paranoid, about hiding his actual identity, on account of all the death threats he has received. But a few months after I initiated a relationship with him on Twitter, Mikro allowed me to visit him in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend and two Rottweilers. He works alone from his chaotic living room, using an old, battered computer—not the state-of-the-art setup I had envisaged. On an average day, he told me, he spends up to 16 hours fixed to his sofa. He starts around noon, just after he wakes up, and works late into the night and early morning.
Mikro’s side-business selling marijuana to friends helps support his non-paying work. He’s the “operations officer” for GhostSec, a group with the self-declared mission of targeting “Islamic extremist content” from “websites, blogs, videos, and social media accounts,” using both “official channels” and “digital weapons.” The group claims to have disrupted or taken down more than 130 ISIS-linked websites by overwhelming their servers with fake traffic from multiple sources. (This is called a Distributed Denial of Service, or DDOS, attack.)
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Becky Watts’s Step-Brother Nathan Was ‘Controlling’ of Girlfriend Jury Told
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Becky’s step-brother Nathan Matthews and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare are charged with her murder. The jury has been told they chopped up the teenager’s body over three days.
The 16-year-old was allegedly killed in her bedroom at her home in Bristol by her step-brother Nathan Matthews, 28, and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, in February this year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: I, Too, Was Spat on at a Tory Conference Says Tom Utley
Armoured in self-righteousness, oblivious of the lessons of history, the militants of the Left appear to think it self-evident that they are on the side of the angels, writes TOM UTLEY.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother of Boy Sexually Assaulted by Jade Hatt Hits Out at Lenient Sentence
The disgusted mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, blasted her ex for ‘helping’ their son’s 21-year-old abuser Jade Hatt (pictured), from Swindon, avoid prison.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Member Who Branded Islam ‘Evil Cult’ Is Banned From Standing for Party in Elections
A UKIP member who caused outrage after he branded Islam an “evil cult” has been BANNED from standing for the party in future elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Female Traffic Cops a Revolution Against Stereotypes
Experimental project participant says ‘this isn’t just men’s wor
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 8 — An experimental project launched in recent weeks in Egypt seeks not only to assist local traffic police, but also to combat stereotypes.
The project — called ‘Traffic Friends’ and sponsored through a collaboration between the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of the Interior, together with the Giza Governorate — currently employs about 15 young women between the ages of 18 and 25 as traffic cops to control and direct traffic in neighborhoods in Giza, just south of Cairo.
Egypt has suffered for decades from its traffic, a disproportionately high number of cars on the road, lack of respect for regulations, and extremely numerous accidents, many of which are fatal.
The World Health Organization in 2012 said that around 8,000 people die every year in traffic accidents in Egypt.
“Our job isn’t just to regulate traffic but also to help children and the elderly cross the streets,” said 18-year-old Nora Ahmed in an interview with online daily Al Youm7.
But traffic jams aren’t the only problem. Another big inconvenience is finding one’s way among the complicated maze of streets.
One young woman named Desalma, who has put her heart and soul into the project, has come up with an original solution.
“I’ve studied the geography of the streets and that way I can help anyone who asks me for information to not get lost. Now even we women can contribute to helping others,” she said.
However, according to the web site ‘Al Monitor’, the work of the female traffic cops isn’t as easy as it may seem.
Many of them have to deal with insults or observations from pedestrians and drivers that have nothing to do with their role.
Asma Ramadan, a 20-year-old participant in the project, said that many people annoy and harass her.
“Unfortunately it’s not only men who do it. One time a woman that I had helped to cross the street asked me why I was doing this job, because in her opinion it’s not befitting at all of a woman,” Ramadan said. However, she didn’t lose hope, she simply grit her teeth and moved on.
She works from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., stationed in uniform at a traffic light, breathing in the toxic fumes unleashed from exhaust pipes.
Hers is a job that requires “a lot of responsibility, skill, and concentration”.
And even though she receives a low wage, at the end of the work day she says she feels satisfied, because in her small way she is contributing to fight the traditional stereotypes that would see a woman’s role as only in the home.
Authorities said the project is divided into two phases: the first, which began in September, will continue through the end of October; and the second will start in the summer of 2016 and last five months.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Tripoli: Appeal on Twitter, Demonstration Against Leon
‘After prayer, the new government will never enter here’
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 9 — The new “government of national unity will never enter in Tripoli”, according to an appeal on Twitter posted by several citizens of the capital who announced a large demonstration today after prayers in the large Martyrs’ square against special UN envoy for Libya, Bernardino Leon.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nobel Peace Prize for Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet for helping the country’s transition to democracy.
Tunisia’s uprising was the first and most successful of the Arab Spring.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 6 Dead, Hundreds Injured as Violence Spikes in Israel, West Bank
Six Palestinians were killed and many Israelis were wounded—including an Israeli teen stabbed with a vegetable peeler — as several weeks of violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank continued Friday, injuring hundreds and putting police on both sides of the border on high alert.
Palestinian doctors told Fox News Friday that three Palestinians were killed today in clashes with Israeli military on the border between Gaza and Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Abbas Must be Stopped
All the Palestinian terrorist attacks that have been carried out in recent weeks share one common feature. All the terrorists believe that by attacking Jews they are protecting the Temple Mount from destruction.
And why shouldn’t they believe this obscenity? Everywhere they go, every time they turn on their televisions, read the paper, go to school or the mosque they are told that the Jews are destroying al-Aksa Mosque. Al-Aksa, they are told, is in danger. They must take up arms to defend it from the Jews, whatever the cost.
One man stands at the center of this blood libel. The man who propagates this murderous lie and orchestrates the death and mayhem that is its bloody harvest is none other than the West’s favorite Palestinian moderate: PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Calls for ‘Intifada for Jerusalem’, More Stabbings
Israelis injured; 4 Palestinians reportedly killed
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 9 — Violence that has been dubbed the ‘intifada of knives’ continues to rage in Israel, publicly supported Friday by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza and condemned as a “wave of terrorism” by Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu. On Friday morning, a 14-year-old Israeli was stabbed in a Jewish area of Jerusalem and an Israeli border guard was stabbed in the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron in the West Bank. The Israeli army also opened fire on Palestinians protesting along the defensive barrier north of Gaza. Local sources say that four protestors were killed. Four Arabs were also stabbed on Friday in Dimona in the Negev by an inhabitant of the town, reportedly for “nationalist” reasons and in retaliation for Palestinian attacks in recent days. A trash collector and three building workers were injured.
Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that “the prime minister strongly condemns the attack on innocent people.
Israel is a state of law. Those that resort to violence will be prosecuted, whoever they may be.” Meanwhile, the life of the boy stabbed in Jerusalem does not seem to be in danger and his attacker was said to have been “neutralized”. The condition of the border guard is unknown; his attacker died after the police shot him in reaction to the attack. Radio Jerusalem reported that groups of settlers later began marching towards Hebron but were blocked by the Israeli army. Today’s list of attacks has since grown. Another attempted stabbing occurred at the central bus station of Afula, northern Israel, where an Israeli guard was attacked. The police say that his attacker was a woman who police shot and injured in a non-life-threatening manner. Tension remains high in the city after a similar attack on Thursday. Haniyeh has called “a strengthening of the intifada, the only road that can lead to liberation.” “Gaza will join the Intifada for Jerusalem,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to ‘Substantially Increase’ 2016 UNRWA Contributions
Cardi says agency’s work essential for Palestinian refugees
NEW YORK — Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, Italy’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said on Thursday that Italy is planning a ‘substantial increase’ in its 2016 contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), particularly for the principal activities of the agency.
“The commendable work of UNRWA is essential for the life of the nearly five million Palestinian refugees, and therefore of vital importance for the region,” Cardi said during the annual UNRWA Pledging Conference.
“We’re concerned about the budget difficulties that UNRWA is facing, and that’s why we’ve increased our 2015 contributions up to a total of 7.53 million euros,” Cardi said.
Regarding the 2016 increase, Cardi said an exact figure would be determined only after Parliament’s adoption of the finance law.
“Our immediate goal is that of reaching, as quickly as possible, a total of 10 million euros in voluntary contributions,” Cardi said.
Italy will also continue its collaboration with UNRWA in emergency interventions in the context of the Syrian crisis as in Palestine, and in particular in the Gaza Strip. “In this regard, we’ve just approved a contribution of 2.2 million euros to guarantee food aid to Palestinian refugees in the social security program of the UN agency in Gaza”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil in Israel Means the Jewish State Could Soon Produce ‘Black Gold’
Afek Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of the U.S. company Genie Energy, revealed yesterday that vast reserves had been found in Golan Heights, close to the border with Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ya’alon Urges Licensed Civilians to Carry Firearms; Riots Reported in Arab Towns
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Friday urged all civilians with license to carry firearms to arm themselves so as to prevent attacks by Palestinians.
In an interview with Channel 2, Ya’alon said: “We are in the midst of a wave of terrorism in which civilians have become the front, and there is supreme importance for the public to be ready and aware.”
“When an incident takes place, the terrorists are shot dead, and our people aren’t,” Ya’alon said. “That’s what’s important.”
The defense minister said that the government has no wish to see an escalation, though he added that if the situation does deteriorate, Israel would not hesitate to use more force.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fresh Garbage Protests in Lebanon as Disease Fears Grow
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Thursday night in downtown Beirut in fresh protests against Lebanon’s ruling elite and a months-long garbage crisis that activists warn has become a menace to public health.
The crisis began in July when the closure of a landfill caused rubbish to pile up on Beirut’s roadsides, in parking lots and river beds.
There are fears the uncollected waste, coupled with the looming rainy season, could spread diseases such as cholera among the population…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
How the Rivalry Between Russians and Turks Shaped the World
It’s a tense moment for relations between Russia and Turkey. Moscow’s intervention into the conflict in Syria, almost explicitly on behalf of the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has infuriated Ankara, which for years has led international calls for Assad’s departure.
But there is a long, profound history of unease between Russian and Turkish rulers. During the Cold War, Turkey was a heavily armed NATO bulwark in the shadow of the Soviet empire. And well before the advent of the U.S.S.R. and the modern Turkish republic, the jockeying between Russians and Turks had a huge impact on the political fate of a vast sweep of Europe and the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Genocide of Assyrian Chaldean Christians
This week graphic evidence emerged of ISIS’ genocide and subjugation of Christian communities in the great swath of territory in Syria and Iraq conquered by the self-declared Salafist Sunni Islamic State. The Middle East has been thrown into turmoil by the recent entry of Russian military forces attacking opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the bloody four year civil war that has killed over 250,000 civilians. That conflict gave rise to the Islamic State, a throw back to the barbaric jihad perpetrated by the founder of Islam, Mohammed and his five companions.
MEMRI released today an ISIS video containing a threat to Christians in Qaryatayn, Syria to “Pay Jizya-Or You will be executed and your Wives Enslaved.” Nina Shea, director of the Washington, DC-based Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom published today on the National Review On-line another graphic bloody ISIS spectacle. This was directed at the ethnic cleansing of the ancient Chaldean Christian community with the execution of three men, “ISIS and Religious Genocide in the Mideast”.
Note these excerpts from Shea’s compelling piece:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Overhauls Syria Rebel Train-Equip Program
The Obama administration is overhauling its struggling program to train and equip Syrian rebel fighters, effectively replacing it with a much smaller effort to supply “a select group of vetted leaders.”
A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the military is ending the current training program.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Air Force ‘Hits 60 Terror Targets’ In New Syria Strikes
Russia’s air force hit more than 60 “terrorist targets” in Syria over the past 24 hours, Moscow’s military said Friday, significantly ramping up its bombing campaign in the war-torn country.
“Sixty-seven sorties have been carried out from the Hmeimim air base” in Syria, the deputy head of the Russian General Staff, Lieutenant General Igor Makushev, told reporters.
“Su-34M and Su-24SM warplanes hit 60 terrorist targets,” he added…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Srdja Trifkovic
The Russian military intervention in Syria, and the creation of a new regional alliance which includes Iran and Iraq, removes one undesirable outcome from the complex equation. The collapse of the government in Damascus, and its replacement by some form of jihadist-dominated Sharia regime which would spell the end of the non-Sunni minorities (including Christians), is no longer on the cards.
It does not herald the advent of a new era of moderation and realism among the key players, however, which would lead to a political settlement in the near future. Even if Moscow and Washington could agree on the broad outline of a new political framework—from which the old upfront demand for Bashar al-Assad’s immediate ouster would be removed—it is doubtful that they could impose on their regional allies a blueprint which is at odds with their strategic ambitions. Those ambitions remain fundamentally incompatible.
In the “American” camp, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Oman would be loath to accept the end of their plan to turn Syria into a permanent Sunni Muslim wedge dividing what they see as a putative Shiite-dominated crescent extending from Iran across Iraq and Syria into northern Lebanon. For all of them the issue is eminently geopolitical, and it is not at all compatible with the stated primary U.S. objective of defeating ISIS (the rhetoric of removing “Assad’s murderous regime” notwithstanding). They do not care who does the stopping.
In Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s case, it contains an added complication. His parallel objective is to contain the Kurdish combat groups in northern Syria and northwestern Iraq which are vigorously fighting ISIS but are allied to the PKK (the Kurdish People’s Party)—which the Turkish Islamist president sees as an existential threat to Turkey’s stability and territorial integrity, and which have suffered far more damage from his air attacks in recent weeks than the Islamic State itself.
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Bishop: Ambiguous US Policy Favors Islamic State. Fears for Kidnapped Christians
Msgr. Hindo reports that Russian raids in recent days have proved effective against Daesh, in retreat in some areas. The US operations are “just window dressing, and really leave jihadists free to act”, as confirmed by the kidnapping of Christians. Fears for the fate of the hostages after the execution of three Assyrians. Money is the real engine of the war in Syria.
Damascus (AsiaNews) — US air strikes in Syria are window-dressing, and have little real effect on the militias of the Islamic state (IS), who are left free to act on the ground. Instead the Russian attacks in recent days have been effective, forcing jihadists to fall back towards the Iraqi desert. This is according to Msgr. Jacques Behnan Hindo, referring to testimonies of people living in areas of conflict theater.
“Moscow’s intervention has been positive — said the prelate who leads the archieparchy Syrian Catholic Hassaké-Nisibis, — because they are really targeting Daesh [Arabic acronym for the IS, ed] and the militia are beginning to flee. They fled from the area in about 20 cars in a hurry in the direction of Iraq, leaving another 20 cars on site. A sign of a real retreat. “
The bishop of Hassaké-Nisibi lives under constant threat from IS: “I am less than three kilometers from the town — he says — a month ago their offensive was repelled and they folded around the city. In the past two weeks, thanks to the attacks of the Russians, they began to retreat. “
In contrast, Msgr. Hindo reserves rather harsh words for the United States, who are not bombing the positions of jihadi militias but the Syrian government.
“It’s not about being for or against the government — he says — but people never believed in America’s attacks. Only the Kurds have really fought on the ground, but to hold their ground “and it is not plausible that they can, alone, solve the emergency. Besides the United States, France, Britain only speak of “attacking the Daesh, but do not speak of the Nusra Front and other Islamist militias linked to Al Qaeda. Indeed, there are extremist groups that have changed names to rebuild credibility, and these are not even mentioned. This is also a big problem. “
The prelate denounces Washington’s “ambiguity” seen in the American’s attitude during the seizure of hundreds of Christians originating in the villages of the valley of the river Khabur. “On the night of Feb. 23, when Daesh attacked, the American planes — he says — flew over the area for a long time without intervening. Then for three days we saw no more jets, leaving the field open to the militants. This makes us think that in some way have been helped by the Americans and their ambiguous attitude”.
The Islamic State have released a video (click here to see excerpts released by the Lebanese OTV television and relayed by Aina) showing the execution of three of the more than 200 Assyrian Christians still in the hands of the jihadist militants.
“They have executed three — said Msgr. Hindo — and they are preparing another three for an upcoming execution. At first they demanded a huge sum for the liberation, almost 120 thousand dollars for each of 203 people. They have rejected the proposal of a million for the release of all, has now been made a new proposal and we are waiting for an answer. “
The prelate said that is difficult to deal with the kidnappers, the contacts “are very short” and “do not leave much room for maneuver.” “I answer yes or no — he says — and then act accordingly. Now the Assyrian bishop, who was in Erbil [for the election of the new patriarch] has returned, to continue negotiations and follow the episode in first person.
“In recent days have released an elderly man of 89 was released to break the news of the execution and hand over the video that was shot around 23 September, the Islamic feast of the sacrifice. “By analyzing the video — said Msgr. Hindo — we see that the sun was still strong, while in the last 10 days it has dropped in intensity. This suggests plausible date of 23 as the time of execution even if there are no references to the celebrations. “
The story of Christians is also associated with the tragedy experienced by the people of Deir ez-Zor, the town of 250 thousand inhabitants in eastern Syria, long besieged by the militias of the Islamic state. “People are dying of hunger — says the bishop — they lack food and medicine. Just think that today 50 kg of sugar costs as much as a car or a house. People sell the car to buy it. The IS has imposed a real blockade, men, women, elderly and children are starving”. For this reason the prelate appeals to the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar asking them to “really do something” to deal with the emergency and rescue a civilian population that is weary and tired.
Msgr. Hindo concludes with a charge against Western governments, who he says “are working for Israel’s security and to divide Syria and Iraq, so as to put their hands on the riches of these countries. It’s not just oil, because off our coasts a major natural gas field has recently been discovered. And yet — he adds — the pipelines that Saudi Arabia and Qatar expect to arrive in the West are at stake. Damascus did not accept the passage on its territory, and this is the result “.
It is a “very complex” issue, says Msgr. Hindo, behind which “there is the economic problem; but for the West t all boils down to religion, the Sunnis and Shiites, Christians and Muslims but in this war, the Daesh and other groups hide only economic interests and aim to divide the country “against the will of a people who for the most part are “ united and want to remain united “. (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US to Abandon Training New Syria Rebel Groups
The US is to end its efforts to train new Syrian rebel forces and says it will shift to providing equipment and weapons to existing forces.
Its $500m (£326m) programme was heavily criticised after it emerged that US-trained rebels had handed vehicles and ammunition over to extremists.
It emerged last month that only four or five of the fighters were in Syria.
The programme had aimed to train and equip 5,400 fighters this year and a further 15,000 in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 70% of Russians Support Moscow’s Bombing Campaign in Syria: Poll
More than 70 percent of Russians support Moscow’s bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria but the danger of getting sucked into a protracted war is not lost on the public, a new poll showed Thursday.
The study conducted just days after President Vladimir Putin secured permission from parliament to launch air strikes in Syria found that most Russians approve of his latest decision to use force abroad.
The launch of strikes in Syria is Russia’s first major military involvement outside former Soviet Union territory since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Seventy two percent of respondents said they approved of the bombing campaign and 46 percent said they agreed with the decision of the rubber stamp parliament’s upper house to allow Putin to use force abroad, said the independent Levada Centre…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking Out of Japan’s Male-Dominated Workplace
When it comes to gender equality, Japan ranks 104th out of 142 nations, according to the World Economic Forum, significantly behind other advanced economies. The BBC’s Mariko Oi set out to discover what working life is like for five women in Tokyo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In a First, Chinese Hackers Are Arrested at the Behest of the U.S. Government
The Chinese government has quietly arrested a handful of hackers at the urging of the U.S. government—an unprecedented step to defuse tensions with Washington at a time when the Obama administration has threatened economic sanctions.
The action came a week or two before President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington late last month. The hackers had been identified by U.S. officials as having stolen commercial secrets from U.S. firms to be sold or passed along to Chinese state-run companies.
The arrests come amid signs of a potential change in the power balance between the U.S. and Chinese governments on commercial cyberespionage, one of the most fraught issues between the two countries. For years, U.S. firms and officials have said Beijing hasn’t done enough to crack down on digital larceny. Experts estimate that Chinese industrial hacking costs U.S. firms tens of billions of dollars annually.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Alarm in Austria Over Seehofer’s Bavaria Border Plan
Alarm is growing in Austria over the Bavarian state premier’s plans to reduce the number of migrants crossing the border. Austria had grown accustomed to its role as a transit country, Alison Langley writes from Vienna.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eritrean Refugees Protest in Lampedusa
Want their freedom
(ANSA) — Palermo, October 9 — A group of about 50 migrants from Eritrea staged protests in the streets of Lampedusa on Friday, the third consecutive day of demonstrations by the group asking to leave the island.
The group chanted slogans including “freedom”, “no finger prints”, and “Al Jazeera contact us”.
On Thursday, divers rescued two men from the group who jumped into the water in protest.
The group has been in a migrant reception centre on the island for about two weeks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Massive Increase in Attacks on Refugee Shelters
Authorities in Germany have recorded more than 490 attacks on asylum seeker shelters this year. The attacks ranged from racist graffiti to arson and, worryingly, the alleged perpetrators were not the usual suspects.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary OKs NATO, EU Troops to Help Guard Border
Already 4,700 soldiers on the border with Croatia and Serbia
(ANSA-AP) — BUDAPEST — Troops from the European Union or NATO will be allowed to help defend Hungary’s borders due to the migrant crisis, the Hungarian government said Thursday.
A government decree said up to 1,000 troops from Hungary’s allies can take part until March 15 in the “Common Will” border defense operation. Their tasks may include participating in joint exercises as well as supporting Hungarian troops on the border, but they will not be directly policing the border.
Some 4,700 Hungarian soldiers are now at the country’s southern borders with Serbia and Croatia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jason Chaffetz Supports Amnesty and Increased Foreign Labor Visas
For National Release
Contact: ALIPAC | (866) 703-0864 | WilliamG@alipac.us
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is warning GOP lawmakers not to elect Representatives Jason Chaffetz or Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House to replace John Boehner because both lawmakers support amnesty for illegal immigrants and increases in legal immigration levels!
ALIPAC originally supported Jason Chaffetz when he successfully ran for office against Rep. Chris Cannon by criticizing Cannon’s support for amnesty for illegals. Two years ago ALIPAC dropped Jason Chaffetz from the organization’s endorsements list when Chaffetz changed positions from favoring deportation under our current laws and switched to supporting citizenship and voting rights for millions of illegal aliens!
“A majority of Republican voters, GOP lawmakers, and American citizens oppose the immigration reform amnesty and legal immigration increases that both Chaffetz and McCarthy support!” said William Gheen President of ALIPAC. “GOP lawmakers would be wise to elect a Speaker that is not just like Boehner and Obama on immigration issues. We hope the GOP lawmakers that oppose amnesty for illegals will mount a third candidate for Speaker.”
ALIPAC has added both Jason Chaffetz and Kevin McCarthy to The Cantor List which is a new and unprecedented tool targeting GOP lawmakers for primary challenges in 2016 similar to the historic overthrow of Majority Leader Eric Cantor who was deposed because of the immigration positions he shares with Chaffetz, McCarthy, Boehner, and Obama!
ALIPAC’s collection of scientific polling data illustrates that the vast majority of America’s legal citizens oppose immigration reform amnesty or legal immigration increases (click to view) despite propaganda polls circulated by pro amnesty Fox News, Reuters, and the Associated Press that make the false claim most support amnesty.
Members of the media, endorsed lawmakers, and activists are encouraged to rapidly circulate the Cantor List profiles of Kevin McCarthy and Jason Chaffetz before Republican lawmakers vote for a new Speaker this coming Thursday via secret ballot.
Jason Chaffetz’s Cantor List Profile (View) Kevin McCarthy Cantor List Profile (View)
For more information about Chaffetz, McCarthy, or illegal immigration and to schedule interviews please visit www.ALIPAC.us
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Wave is ‘New Normal’ For Italy, Europe, Says Sicilian Mayor
The mass migration of refugees from the Middle East into Europe is the new normal, according to the mayor of the Sicilian city of Catania, where camps are set up to house the never-ending wave of people fleeing their war torn homelands.
Enzo Bianco, who also is a former interior minister of Italy, told Fox News the movement of people will likely continue for decades due to ongoing conflict and demographic pressures, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bianco objected to the demonization of refugees that has been common in parts of Europe.
“They are not criminals,” he said. “Criminals don’t travel in inflatable boats and shops. Terrorist organizations don’t risk sending their people on little boats. They have other ways to get to us.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Relocated Refugees Land in Northern Sweden
A group of 19 Eritreans landed at Luleå airport in northern Sweden on Friday as part of the first phase of a programme to relocate tens of thousands of refugees within the EU.
The asylum seekers were transferred to Sweden after it agreed on July 20th to take refugees from Italy and Greece in a bid to ease the humanitarian and financial burden on the two frontline states over two years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected ‘Honor Killing’ Stokes German Fears About Customs, Crimes of Middle Eastern Refugees
The alleged “honor killing” last month of a young pregnant woman who fled Syria after being gang raped is the latest case to leave Germans horrified by the crimes and customs of some of the refugees pouring in from the war-torn Middle East.
The woman, identified only as Rokstan M., fled Syria in 2011 after being gang-raped by Syrian soldiers and found work as an interpreter. After authorities in the small, eastern city of Dessau discovered her body, stabbed and buried behind a housing complex for Syrian refugees Friday, suspicion has focused on her father and brothers, who prosecutors believe may have killed her because the gang rape left her “unclean.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Poised for 150,000 Asylum Seekers This Year
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Friday up to 150,000 people could seek asylum this year in the Scandinavian country, which is struggling to find housing for the new arrivals.
“In the past seven days, 8,899 people arrived here. If things continue at this rate, more than 150,000 people will have come” by the end of the year, Lofven told reporters.
Sweden, which is home to 9.8 million people, is one of the European Union countries that has taken in the largest number of refugees as a proportion of its population size.
The Migration Board, which handles asylum requests, is expected to publish its official forecast on the number of asylum seekers for 2015 before the end of October…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Taking on Sanctuary City Lawlessness
The American left’s contemptuous disregard for laws it doesn’t like is metastasizing. Despite the public outrage that attended the murder of Kate Steinle by Juan Francsico Lopez-Sanchez, a seven-time convicted felon who had been deported five times, the number of illegal alien protection centers known as sanctuary cities has increased. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reports the number of these law-obstructing entities has grown to 340, compared to only 276 identified as recently as last July. CIS’s analysis is based on new information released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that covers the months of January through September of 2014.
It gets worse. As CIS reveals, a whopping 9,295 alien offenders that ICE was seeking to deport were released on the streets of America, including more than 600 people released at least twice. Moreover, 5,947 or 62 percent of these criminal aliens “had significant prior criminal histories or other public safety concerns even before the arrest that led to a detainer,” CIS states. Those histories included 58 percent with prior felony charges or conviction, 37 percent with serious prior misdemeanor charges, and 5 percent with multiple prior misdemeanors. Adding insult to injury, 2,320 of those released were arrested for new crimes committed during the same time frame.
Unsurprisingly, ICE was not able to re-apprehend the overwhelming majority of offenders released by the sanctuary cities with 6,460, or 69 percent, remaining at large.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tents to Provide Shelter for Refugees in Sweden
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has given Sweden’s migration agency permission to set up tent camps to provide temporary shelter for refugees as the country’s asylum centres reach saturation point.
“We’re facing the worst international migrant crisis since the Second World War. In the past seven days, 8,899 people have registered here. If it continues at the same pace, more than 150,000 people will have made their way here,” Löfven said.
Migration Minister Morgan Johansson said that local authorities across Sweden were being asked to make an inventory of all available venues that could potentially be used to house refugees, including camp sites, industrial buildings, apartments and sport halls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A crisis relief charity chief is set to pull the plug on aid to the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp after discovering most people there are economic migrants ‘without any reason’ to leave their home country.
The Bradford-based Human Relief Foundation has been running a project to help the ‘refugees’ at the makeshift camp and previously claimed they were all ‘fleeing war and significant atrocities.’
But a visit by a team led by Kassim Tokan, the HRF deputy chief executive, discovered a totally different picture on the ground, with unwanted clothing and food being ‘dumped and burnt’ by the migrants.
Instead of vulnerable families fighting for survival he found the camp — dubbed the Jungle — was ‘95 to 97 per cent’ adult men.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Warns of Winter ‘Tragedy’ If EU Fails to Speed Up Refugee Response
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned the European Union (EU) to speed up its response to the refugee crisis. Antonio Guterres said the bloc faces a ‘tragedy’ if people travel during winter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The anti-Pope is coming under pressure for his so very obvious Marxist leanings and actions since taking that office. I hope he is gone soon.
It has been alleged that the present ‘pope’ is part of a ‘Coup de-tat’ within the church. A few blogs have made some accusations.