Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/17/2016

A major real estate development known as the “Belgrade Waterfront” is being undertaken in the Serbian capital with funding from the United Arab Emirates. The new complex will feature a 145-story skyscraper, the tallest in the Balkans.

In other news, a British Airways passenger jet was struck by a drone as it approached Heathrow Airport for a landing.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Insubria, JD, LP, Mark H., Nick, 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
» Obama Drives Down Coal Company Stocks, And Soros Buys Them on the Cheap
» Shock! Deutsche Bank Admits in Court “Precious Metals Market Has Been Rigged All Along”
 
USA
» 1984 or 2016?
» Cruz Wins Another Voterless Contest in Wyoming
» Living in a Homestead Could Get You “SWAT Raided for Code Violations”
» Mousejack: ‘Billions’ of Wireless Keyboards, Mice Vulnerable to $15 Hijack Attack
» New World Disorder: China’s US Investment Boom ‘Detrimental’ To Everyone
» Protestor to Hillary Clinton: You Are Evil and Guilty
» Ron Paul: Elections Rigged, Voting Used to Pacify Public
 
Europe and the EU
» British Airways Airbus Carrying 137 People is Struck by a Drone as Pilot Prepares to Land at Heathrow
» Foreigners in Italian Prisons Higher Than EU Average
» France Finalising UK Hinkley Point Nuclear Plant Deal: Minister
» Italy: Renzi Hails 28-Bn Investment in Tunnels to Europe
» Masood Azhar: The Man Who Brought Jihad to Britain
» UK: Two 14-Year-Olds Are Charged With Murders of Dinner Lady and Her Daughter, 13, Who Were Found ‘Stabbed to Death’ In Their Own Home
 
Balkans
» UAE Funds Highest Balkan Skyscraper in Belgrade
 
North Africa
» Europeans Ready to Fight is Group in Libya But With Which Government?
 
Middle East
» Formidable Force? UK Commits Only Four Airstrikes in Syria in Five Weeks
» Hire ‘Harmless’ ISIS Defectors to Berate Terrorists, EU Counter-Terrorism Official Suggests
» India, Iran on Verge of Agreeing $150 Mln Deal to Develop Chabahar Port
» Lilly-Dipping in Syria
 
Russia
» Gazprom and ENI to Step Up Cooperation
 
Far East
» Top Chinese Finance Official Says Trump is ‘Irrational’
 
Immigration
» Aid Worker Warns Britain Many Migrants Have ‘No Intention of Living Under Christian Law’
» Germany Introduces Forced Integration
» Invader Ghettoes in Germany
» Invaders and the Hepatitis B Threat
» Police Unleash Teargas After Massive Migrant Brawl Erupts at Paris Train Station
» Swedish Vigilantes Patrol the Coast in Search of Illegal Migrants
 
Culture Wars
» Sotomayor’s Proposed Multiculturalism
 

Obama Drives Down Coal Company Stocks, And Soros Buys Them on the Cheap

I have always believed that global warming is a gigantic scam, driven by greed and lust for power. Now comes the shocking news, via Steve Milloy writing on Breitbart, that following President Obama’s use of CO2 emissions as a weapon to drive major coal companies near bankruptcy, the ultimate politically connected speculator George Soros is buying up stock in major coal producers on the cheap.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Shock! Deutsche Bank Admits in Court “Precious Metals Market Has Been Rigged All Along”

Editor’s Comment: So, everyone paying any attention already knew that the commodities markets — and especially gold and silver — have been heavily manipulated. If their true value was reflected in the spot price, all the phony and puffed up stuff on the stock market would be seen for the worthless garbage it is.

But for a major bank to officially admit it is a major revelation. Perhaps it could set a precedent and lead to a new investigations, scandals and perhaps vindication for advocates of sound money and a sound economy.

Deutsche Bank Admits It Rigged Gold Prices, Agrees To Expose Other Manipulators by Tyler Durden

Well, that didn’t take long.

Earlier today when we reported the stunning news that DB has decided to “turn” against the precious metals manipulation cartel by first settling a long-running silver price fixing lawsuit which in addition to “valuable monetary consideration” said it would expose the other banks’ rigging having also “agreed to provide cooperation to plaintiffs, including the production of instant messages, and other electronic communications, as part of the settlement” we said “since this is just one of many lawsuits filed over the past two years in Manhattan federal court in which investors accused banks of conspiring to rig rates or prices in financial and commodities markets, we expect that now that DB has “turned” that much more curious information about precious metals rigging will emerge, and will confirm what the “bugs” had said all along: that the precious metals market has been rigged all along.”

This was confirmed moments ago when Reuters reported that Deutsche Bank has also reached a settlement in US litigation alleging the bank conspired to fix gold prices. In other words, hours after admitting it was rigging the silver market, it did the same for gold.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

1984 or 2016?

If you have ever read George Orwell’s novel “1984” you know it paints a very dark but all too prescient picture of a totalitarian government. A civil government which rules its citizens with an iron fist. The deceptive use of language was the critical element for the government system of bondage by which it enslaved the people. It worked tirelessly to lie to the people.

“In Orwell’s thriller, electronic surveillance conducted by the omnipresent “Big Brother” was a major factor, as was the development and implementation of a language, Newspeak, that was devised to control thought over time by eliminating words from the vernacular. When words were eliminated, thoughts and concepts those words represented would be eliminated.

Furthermore, terms to describe government agencies were often the opposite of what their respective missions were… The omnipresent Party understood that “who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

The world in which the residents of 1984 resided was a world of deception and lies where “up” was “down” and “right” was “wrong.” In 1984 the use of conflicting terms were designed to be disorienting and intimidating to better gain total control over the masses.”[1]

Don’t we see that fulfilled in our land today? 2016 is 1984. A Federal government spending billions to spy on us and everything we do, supposedly for our security. That statement is a clear example of the Newspeak Orwell spoke of. They claim they have to break the Law, specifically the 4th Amendment, for our own good.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cruz Wins Another Voterless Contest in Wyoming

Cruz victory arranged in March

Ted Cruz “won” a staged convention vote in Wyoming on Saturday and picked up 14 delegates.

The Wyoming convention mirrored the previous effort in Colorado where GOP bosses made the decision, not the voters.

Republican Wyoming Congresswoman Rep. Cynthia Lummis admitted the process in Wyoming is similar to the one in Colorado where establishment insiders pick the candidate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Living in a Homestead Could Get You “SWAT Raided for Code Violations”

Editor’s Comment: It isn’t just that most people aren’t prepared to live off the land, it is that the system wants to force you to live on the grid, and keep most from providing from themselves.

Taking steps to become more free, build a homestead, grow a garden, collect rainwater and other measures can create plenty of friction with the so-called “authorities” within the system, and it is no surprise that this place found a police state response to, well, any pretext they could come up with. I guess misery loves company, and they don’t want anybody becoming to self-sufficient and unkept.

Adam Kokesh has found a lot of inspiration for homesteading along the way and this interview with Quinn Eaker of The Garden of Eden was a critical part of it. Among other things, Quinn describes how to peacefully handle being SWAT raided for code violations while living on a homestead.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mousejack: ‘Billions’ of Wireless Keyboards, Mice Vulnerable to $15 Hijack Attack

With $15 of equipment and 15 lines of code, hackers could remotely hijack wireless mice and keyboards from a distance up to 328 feet away. Dubbed MouseJack, researchers warn there is no way to detect the attack which could ultimately lead to full PC and network compromise.

What is MouseJack?

IoT firm Bastille researchers call it a “massive vulnerability in wireless mice and keyboards that leaves billions of PCs and millions of networks vulnerable to remote exploitation via radio frequencies.” It is “essentially a door to the host computer,” the MouseJack FAQ explained. The PR release warned that it could “potentially lead to devastating breaches.”

The problem is in the protocols, or how the devices and USB wireless dongles talk to each other; it’s unencrypted. The vulnerabilities, Bastille explained, tend to fall into one of three categories: keystroke injection to spoof a mouse, to spoof a keyboard and forced pairing.

A hacker equipped with a $15 dongle and 15 lines of Python code could pair with and take over the dongle as it if were the user’s wireless mouse, which could then act like it were the wireless keyboard to allow an attacker to take full control of the machine and the system where the user is logged in. Even if vulnerable keyboards encrypted their communication, they don’t properly authenticate devices which can talk them. Rouland told Wired, “It’s like having an expensive deadbolt and leaving it unlocked.”

If you are thinking, it’s a dongle, leading to a wireless mouse and keyboard…how bad can it possibly be? Do you ever look away or leave your computer unattended for 10 seconds? “A MouseJack compromise can take place in seconds,” warned Bastille. “Don’t think of an attacker needing to use your keyboard/mouse for minutes looking through your interesting emails. In around ten seconds, your computer can be altered to allow an attacker to remotely download documents, all your emails, and add or delete programs.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New World Disorder: China’s US Investment Boom ‘Detrimental’ To Everyone

Experts are predicting a boom in Chinese investment in the US during 2016, a trend which raises questions about the US’s geopolitical strategy and the global economy, Michael Ingram, market strategist from BGC partners group, told Radio Sputnik.

According to reports Chinese firms are expected to invest twenty to thirty billion dollars in the US in 2016, a flow of capital which officials in the US and China will be wary of, Michael Ingram, a Market Strategist from the BGC partners group, told Radio Sputnik.

“Bearing in mind that the authorities in China are also seeking to stabilize their currency and limit capital outflows, conserve their foreign exchange reserves I suspect the Chinese authorities aren’t terribly happy with this flow of capital exiting China,” Ingram said.

Investing funds abroad has become more attractive to Chinese companies seeking to hedge currency exposure because of the yuan’s recent volatility.

“If you look at the accounts of many companies during the course of 2015, many of them were booking currency losses to the tune of billions of dollars, so there is a macroeconomic overlay to this.”

The expert said that domestic politics in the US put US authorities under pressure to resist investment from China, as the presidential campaign demonstrates anti-globalization and isolationist moods.

Investment from China also runs counter to some of Washington’s geopolitical strategies like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which is designed to isolate and encircle China in global trade.

“It’s an awkward moment in the US political cycle, and the US relationship with countries such as China has come under intense scrutiny from the Republican side of the ticket,” Ingram said.

Donald Trump in particular is advocating isolationist policies, while Democrat politicians are engaging in the rhetoric of anti-Wall Street and anti-capitalism.

“There seems to be this general anti-globalization vibe to the presidential campaign.”

“If you look at geopolitics within the US, in Europe and elsewhere there is widespread disaffection with the way that society is developing, this growing gap between rich and poor, and the forces of globalization are largely in the frame in this respect and being blamed for this increasing disparity so it’s understandable why candidates from all sides of the political spectrum are going to pander to that kind of sentiment.”

Ingram said that greater economic cooperation between China and the US should in theory be beneficial to the Chinese and US markets, but raised concerns that China’s economy is a special case, as exemplified by the UK’s recent debate about China’s ability to dump steel there at low prices.

“One could easily argue that promotion of global trade of this nature is actually detrimental, ultimately detrimental even to China, but certainly detrimental in terms of the global impact. Unless and until China decides to move towards a market-driven economy and starts to liquidate some of its mal-investment and overinvestment, particularly in heavy industry, we will not have a level playing field.”

“It’s a geopolitical question, it’s an economic question, it’s a social question, and these issues are going to take years to play out,” Ingram said.

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

Protestor to Hillary Clinton: You Are Evil and Guilty

Two protestors interrupted a Hillary Clinton campaign event on Saturday, with one being escorted out after shouting that the Democratic presidential frontrunner is “evil” and “guilty.”

Clinton was speaking to a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles when two individuals separately protested the rally and her candidacy. One man could be heard shouting, “She is guilty, she is guilty, she is evil,” as security removed him from the event.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ron Paul: Elections Rigged, Voting Used to Pacify Public

(MintPress) Dr. Ron Paul says the American electoral system is rigged to keep “independent thinkers” from succeeding.

“I see elections as so much of a charade,” the former Texas congressman said during an April 11 appearance on RT America’s “The Fishtank.” “So much deceit goes on.”

Paul is no stranger to the twisted rules of the American presidential horse race. He ran for the highest office as a Libertarian in 1988, and in 2008 and 2012 as a Republican.

He arguably came closest to the nomination in 2012, when the GOP amended its party regulations to prevent the former Texas representative from stealing Mitt Romney’s thunder.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

British Airways Airbus Carrying 137 People is Struck by a Drone as Pilot Prepares to Land at Heathrow

A passenger jet was hit by a drone above London yesterday, sparking major concerns over air safety.

The front of a British Airways jet, carrying 132 passengers and five crew, was struck in what is believed to be the first time a drone has hit a commercial plane in British airspace.

The Airbus A320 from Geneva was minutes away from landing at Heathrow when it was hit. The aircraft landed safely.

Metropolitan Police detectives are investigating the strike, which follows a string of near misses in recent months.

Pilots warn that drones — which are too small to appear on air traffic control radar screens — could destroy an airliner’s engine or smash a cockpit windscreen…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Foreigners in Italian Prisons Higher Than EU Average

Highest percentages of Italian prisoners come from south

(ANSA) — Rome, April 15 — One in three prisoners in Italy’s penitentiary system is non-Italian, a percentage that is higher than the European average of 21%, according to a report by the Antigone Association released on Friday.

The percentage of foreign prisoners has dropped to 33.4% from a peak in 2009 when it stood at 37.1%, the report said.

It said 70% of foreign prisoners have less than three years left to serve on their sentences.

The five nationalities most represented in the Italian prison system are: Moroccan (16.9% of foreign prisoners), Romanian (15.9%), Albanian (13.8%), Tunisian (11%), and Nigerian (3.9%), according to the report.

Of Italian prisoners, the report said the highest percentage come from regions in the country’s south: Campania (18.5%), Sicily (12%), and Puglia (7.1%).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

France Finalising UK Hinkley Point Nuclear Plant Deal: Minister

French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron repeated his government’s commitment Sunday to plans by state-owned company EDF to build a controversial next-generation nuclear plant in Britain, saying the deal was being finalised.

Questions have been raised about the financial viability of the £18-billion (23.2-billion-euro, $25.5 billion) Hinkley Point project, which will use largely untested technology.

EDF, which is 84-percent owned by the French government, is already struggling with a debt pile of more than 37 billion euros and trade unions have called for the project to be delayed…

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

Italy: Renzi Hails 28-Bn Investment in Tunnels to Europe

Says new public-tender code linked to unblocking projects

(ANSA) — Rome, April 15 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on Friday said the approval of the government’s new public-tender code is tied to efforts to unblock public works projects that have run aground, and praised in particular the 28-billion-euro investment to build three tunnels connecting Italy to Europe.

Renzi said the new code “is linked to an extraordinary, painstaking job of unblocking public works at a standstill”.

“We’re the only country in the world that’s making three tunnels, three amazing works for connection with Europe: the Gotthard, to be inaugurated June first with Switzerland; the Brenner which we unblocked; and the Turin-Lyon with France,” Renzi said.

“We’re investing 28 billion euros, obviously co-financed, to connect us with Europe”.

Renzi listed a number of projects across Italy to highlight what he called the government’s “great determination” in work on infrastructure.

“I could put you to sleep with the list of projects that we’re trying to unblock,” Renzi said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Masood Azhar: The Man Who Brought Jihad to Britain

When one of the world’s most important jihadist leaders landed at Heathrow airport on 6 August 1993, a group of Islamic scholars from Britain’s largest mosque network was there to welcome him.

Within a few hours of his arrival he was giving the Friday sermon at Madina Mosque in Clapton, east London. His speech on the duty of jihad apparently moved some of the congregation to tears. Next stop — according to a report of the jihadist leader’s own magazine — was a reception with a group of Islamic scholars where there was a long discussion on “jihad, its need, training and other related issues”.

A BBC investigation has uncovered the details of his tour in an archive of militant group magazines published in Urdu. The contents provide an astounding insight into the way in which hardcore jihadist ideology was promoted in some mainstream UK mosques in the early 1990s — and involved some of Britain’s most senior Islamic scholars. Azhar’s tour lasted a month and consisted of over 40 speeches…

           — Hat tip: Mark H. [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Two 14-Year-Olds Are Charged With Murders of Dinner Lady and Her Daughter, 13, Who Were Found ‘Stabbed to Death’ In Their Own Home

The two people arrested after the alleged murder of a dinner lady and her 13-year-old daughter are only 14 years old.

The victims, named by police as 49-year-old Elizabeth Edwards and her 13-year-old daughter Katie, were found at the property in Dawson Avenue, Spalding, on Friday afternoon.

Police have yet to confirm the gender of the two youths, who will appear at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The pair were found at their home in Spalding at 12.15pm on Friday and it is believed they were stabbed but police will not confirm the cause of death until a post mortem has taken place.

Floral tributes were today laid outside the house, where police stood next to the smashed ground floor window yesterday.

Sources claim that the mother, known as Liz, lived in the house with daughter Katie and another teenage daughter, Kim. She is believed to have worked at St Paul’s County Primary School, just down the road from their home.

Miss Edwards’ partner, Graham Green, posted a heartwarming picture of them together with a message paying tribute to her on his Facebook page…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

UAE Funds Highest Balkan Skyscraper in Belgrade

Futuristic project on Sava River, symbol of ‘new Serbia’

(ANSAmed) — BELGRAD, APRIL 15 — The project known as Belgrade Waterfront (‘Beograd na Vodi’) in the Serbian capital is taking shape. The grandiose urban project was funded with UAE capital and foresees the building of a futuristic residential complex on one of the banks of the Sava River, with hotels, shopping centers, headquarters of financial companies, modern residential buildings and large green areas for relaxation. In the presence of Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali and the head of the Eagle Hills financial firm Muhammed Al-Abar, construction work started Friday for the Belgrade Tower, which will be a symbol of the new residential complex. Mayor Mali said that the skyscraper — 168 meters and 45 storeys tall — would be the highest in the Balkans and would represent both Belgrade and a new Serbia moving in the direction of development and modernization. “In one year, after much of the work has been completed, this part of the city will have a completely different look,” Mali said, underscoring that a great deal of effort had been put forth by the town council and the central government to attract investment to Belgrade.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Europeans Ready to Fight is Group in Libya But With Which Government?

European governments are ready to throw their support behind the UN-backed “unity” government in Libya. That’s the message ambassadors from France, Britain, and Spain wanted to convey when they held a joint press conference in Tripoli on Thursday.

The group of diplomats pledged to reopen embassies closed in 2014, when the Libyan capital descended into chaos.

Since the downfall of late Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi, who was killed in a popular uprising, the country has descended into near-anarchy, ruled by rival militias vying for power while the Islamic State group has gained influence.

“We are all ready to deliver the necessary support to the unity government based on its request,” said the French envoy, Antoine Sivan, from the Tripoli naval base where the new UN-brokered Libyan government, known as the GNA (Government of National Accord), is trying to establish itself…

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

Formidable Force? UK Commits Only Four Airstrikes in Syria in Five Weeks

According to official UK Government statistics, only four airstrikes have been conducted by the Royal Air Force during March and the first week of April, despite the prime minister’s claims of a ‘vital’ role of the country in Syria.

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense posts monthly official statistics of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since October 2014. According to its latest publication, only three or four air strikes took place during last five weeks. This is less than 14 strikes that took place in January or seven in February.

This barely corresponds to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s claims that UK forces would play a “vital, battle-winning” role in the conflict.

In his 2015 speech to MPs justifying British action in Syria, Cameron said: “We have the assets to do that, and we can significantly extend the capabilities of the international Coalition forces.”

During that speech, Cameron specifically named the Brimstone missile system as a key strategic reason for the UK to extend its campaign into Syria. However, literally no strike has been conducted using this weapon.

The official position of United Kingdom is that it sees Syria and Iraq as one single theater of war.

According to a Ministry of Defense spokesperson, “[MoD] makes no apology that our focus has been helping recapture key Iraqi cities such as Ramadi and Hit. Iraq and Syria are one battlefield in this fight and our planes will operate wherever they can be best used.”

The need to extend airstrikes in Syria is heavily debated in British Parliament and the opposition Labour Party whom Cameron allegedly called “bunch of terrorist sympathizers” who will most likely use the drop-off in airstrikes to their advantage.

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

Hire ‘Harmless’ ISIS Defectors to Berate Terrorists, EU Counter-Terrorism Official Suggests

Blanket prosecution of foreign fighters coming back from Iraq and Syria to Europe would be counterproductive, a senior EU security official has said. In his view some of them should be rehabilitated and even used to counter Islamic State propaganda.

EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove criticized his home country Belgium for having no options to deal with its citizens, who joined radical groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and went to fight in the Middle East, but then returned to Europe.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

India, Iran on Verge of Agreeing $150 Mln Deal to Develop Chabahar Port

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, agreed that the commercial contract on Chabahar as well as the modalities for extending $ 150 million credit for Chabahar Port should be signed in the very near future.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, have agreed to sign the deal on the Indian $150-million loan for developing Iran’s Chabahar Port in the nearest future, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said on Sunday.

Swaraj arrived to Tehran on Saturday, kicking off her four-day diplomatic tour of Iran and Russia. The minister met with Zarif on Sunday, discussing a wide range of bilateral and international issues.

“In the context of the economic partnership between India and Iran, both sides discussed the progress on the Chabahar project. Both sides agreed that the commercial contract on Chabahar as well as the modalities for extending $ 150 million credit for Chabahar Port should be signed in the very near future,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement.

The Indian government had previously decided to provide the Chabahar Port loan alongside a $400 million loan for financing the supply of steel rails from India to Iran, the spokesman added.

In February, India’s External Affairs Ministry stated that the Indian-Iranian contract for the first phase of the Port of Chabahar project was in the final stages of negotiations. The Indian government authorized the country’s finance, external affairs and shipping ministers to approve the final contract with Iran in late February.

In 2003, Iran and India agreed to develop the Port of Chabahar, located in the Gulf of Oman on the border with Pakistan. The project was suspended following the introduction of international sanctions against Iran.

In May, India and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop the port once the international sanctions against Iran were lifted, stipulating that India would lease two docks for a period of 10 years.

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

Lilly-Dipping in Syria

The whole business smells to high heaven

The great, long-awaited counterattack against ISIS has finally begun. The offensive that spans Syria and western Iraq is targeting the ISIS-held cities of Raqqa and Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.

For a variety of reasons, the much ballyhooed “final offensive” against ISIS is moving with all the speed of a medieval army of drunken foot soldiers and all the audacity of a lady’s garden party.

As a former soldier and war correspondent, I find the spectacle both pathetic and weird. Back in my army days, our tough sergeants used to call such behavior “lilly-dipping.” There’s no risk that this pathetic campaign will go down in the annals of military history.

In fact, the whole business smells to high heaven.

In the west, the Syrian government and Kurdish troops, stiffened by US, British and French special forces, and backed by US close air support, are inching towards ISIS-controlled Raqqa, a dreary, one-camel town that sits on some strategic roads. Syrian troops just retook Palmyra, once the desert capital of the fabled Queen Zenobia. The battle was hardly a second Stalingrad: ISIS fighters piled into their pickups and skedaddled.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gazprom and ENI to Step Up Cooperation

‘Counting on Italy for Poseidon’, Russian minister tells ANSA

(ANSAmed) — MOSCOW, APRIL 15 — Following the success of the Blue Stream project, “cooperation between Gazprom and ENI will be increased further”, Russian energy minister Aleksander Novak told ANSA in an exclusive interview.

“A series of documents are expected to be signed on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg,” he added. “Cooperation between Italy and Russia continues to develop despite clear political and economic limitations. This is very important for us and we are grateful to our Italian colleagues for the constructive approach, Novak said, on a visit to Italy alongside Deputy Prime Minister Arkadi Dvorkovich.

On the issue of the Poseidon project, “we are counting on active promotion by our Italian partners for the creation of projects for all infrastructure needed to bring gas from the Russian coast of the Black Sea to Italy, both at the level of the EU authorities and that of relations with third countries, through the territories of which the gas pipeline will pass,” Novak said. The Poseidon project is a new gas pipeline that will connect Greece to Italy and be part of a gas corridor between Turkey, Greece and Italy (ITGI) that will make it possible to import natural gas from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East to Europe. Novak called it a “promising project”, noting that “the gas pipeline will have two sections, one land one and one at sea, which will pass through the bottom of the Ionian Sea. The ground pipeline is expected to have a capacity of 9-16 billion cubic meters per year, while the maritime one will have a 10-12 billion-cubic-meter capacity per year.” The energy minister noted the “significant potential” in the nuclear section for cooperation between Italy and Russia. “Italy,” he added, “takes an active part in the dismantling of Russian obsolete nuclear submarines and nuclear-fired ships. Over the past ten years, six out-of-service Russian navy nuclear submarines have been dismantled. A contract is implemented — signed in the autumn of 2015 and worth 3.2 million euros — to treat the nuclear reactor fuel of the Soviet-era nuclear missile cruiser Admiral Ushakov.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Top Chinese Finance Official Says Trump is ‘Irrational’

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei called Donald Trump an “irrational type” in an interview published Sunday, slamming the Republican presidential frontrunner’s calls for a trade war with the Asian giant.

Lou told The Wall Street Journal that the United States “wouldn’t be entitled to world leadership” if Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs as high as 45 percent on Chinese imports was realized.

China is a frequent target of the brash New York real estate developer in his campaign for the White House. Trump has accused the world’s second largest economy of manipulating its currency and said he would impose high tariffs and renegotiate trade deals to compel Beijing to “behave.”…

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

Aid Worker Warns Britain Many Migrants Have ‘No Intention of Living Under Christian Law’

REFUGEES in Europe’s biggest migrant camps are routinely dishing out anti-Christian slurs to the kind-hearted volunteers who are supporting them, aid workers have told Express.co.uk. Migrants take food and support from charity workers before insulting them in the next breath, he said.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Introduces Forced Integration

The German government is to give nonwhite invaders preference in the job market and will legally force residential mixing in terms of a new “integration law.”

The law will artificially create 100,000 jobs which will exclusively be allocated to “refugees”-even though there are currently 1.81 million Germans who are unemployed.

To enable this preferential treatment, a currently-existing law which requires employers to give preference to German job applicants will be suspended for three years-in other words, unemployed Germans will be pushed to the back of the seeking-work queue in favor of the nonwhite invaders.

The seasonally adjusted harmonized jobless rate in Germany was, according to Trading Economics, recorded at 4.3 percent in February of 2016, unchanged from the January rate. This means that 1.81 million Germans are out of work…

Under the conservative-socialist coalition government’s measures, the “asylum seekers” will face cuts to their welfare payments if they refuse to attend language classes or “lessons in German laws or cultural basics.”

It has not been said what these “cultural basics” will entail, but, given their behavior in Germany up to this time, they will probably include exhortations not to rape, rob, commit crime, how to use toilets, etc.

The new law will also “punish” the nonwhites if they move away from the white German towns where they have been placed-because the law says the forming of “ghettos” must be prevented.

In reality this means the government seeks to forcibly keep the nonwhites dispersed among the German population so as to “encourage integration” as much as possible.

The law also shows that Merkel was lying when she earlier claimed that it was her intention to “send most of them back once there was peace” in Syria.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Invader Ghettoes in Germany

Nonwhite immigration to Germany has already created at least ten major ghettoes where crime, drugs, unemployment, smashed buildings, and social welfare dependency are the norm. The existence of these ghettoes-the likes of which are most usually associated with the Third World-has been revealed in a study by the Bild newspaper.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Invaders and the Hepatitis B Threat

Medical experts have warned native Europeans that they face a “serious” threat of being infected with mass outbreaks of Hepatitis B should they have sexual contact with the current wave of nonwhite invaders. A paper presented at the annual European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) conference said that there were “serious challenges” ahead.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Police Unleash Teargas After Massive Migrant Brawl Erupts at Paris Train Station

Riot police were called in to break up a violent clash between hundreds of migrants and a ‘vigilante group’ near a Paris metro station.

It appears Europe’s refugee ‘problem’ is un-fixed again.

Riot police were called in to break up a violent clash between hundreds of migrants and a ‘vigilante group’ near a Paris metro station. As The Daily Mail reports, footage from Stalingrad metro, where more than a thousand migrants have been living rough, showed hundreds of men brawling with metal poles and planks of wood.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Vigilantes Patrol the Coast in Search of Illegal Migrants

Members of a Swedish nationalist group are patrolling the strait of Oresund which forms the boundary between Sweden and Denmark, claiming the coast guard is not doing enough to prevent illegal migration.

Vigilantes from Sweden’s Nationell Framtid (National Future) group are patrolling the five kilometer strait of Oresund after complaining that the local coastguard is not doing enough to prevent illegal migration.

Sweden first imposed temporary border controls within the Schengen zone in November to stem the flow of migration into the country, which received 163,000 asylum applications during 2015.

The border checks are still in force, and require visitors who arrive across the Oresund bridge from Denmark to present identity documents.

However, Nationell Framtid claim that the authorities are still not doing enough, and illegal migration across the sea is a particular problem.

“We’re not seeing the coast guards today, we’re not seeing them so much out there. I don’t know how much they are out there, but most of the time we don’t see them,” the group’s leader Dennis Ljung told Ruptly news crew on Saturday.

The group wear a uniform with insignia, and approach boats they suspect to be carrying illegal migrants with a loudspeaker, telling them to return to Danish waters and warning that the police are on their way.

Ljung denied that his group is affiliated with extreme right-wing ideology, but nevertheless admitted the campaign is motivated by anti-Islamic sentiment, claiming that Muslims cannot integrate into Swedish society.

“Swedish people and the Norwegians can’t live together with Islamic people, it’s not going to work,” he told Ruptly.

“We have looked at many cases now in Sweden where Muslims behave violently. It is not working, we cannot have them here. We should help them but not in Sweden,” he said.

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

Sotomayor’s Proposed Multiculturalism

The current “politically correct” viewpoint argues that pluralism — the acceptance and celebration of differing religions, philosophies and ideologies — contributes to the strength of America. Though diversity of culture and backgrounds is the beauty of America, antagonism towards our Christian foundation is not.

You can see this “modern pluralism” at work in the widespread attempt to sanitize schools, courts and courthouses, and public buildings and places, of any reference to God, Christ and the Bible.

This agenda is based on the notion that we are a more stable, prosperous society because we embrace diversity, toleration and acceptance of anything and everything.

But is this true? Those who founded and fought for our American culture and our American form of government didn’t think so. In fact they had a very different view.

You are probably familiar with the name of Samuel F. B. Morse. He was the inventor who developed the Morse Code.

But his father, Jedidiah Morse was a pretty famous person as well. A Yale graduate, he was an educator who is still known as the “Father of American Geography”.

Here’s what he said about the importance of Christianity to the culture and the administration of government:

“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism.”

Was Jedidiah Morse right about this?

Asked another way, how is this multiculturalism working out for our culture?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

8 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/17/2016

  1. One thing is obvious about the Muslims. They are too ill to be on the loose. Especial
    where there are Christians, Jews or any of God’s creatures.

    • “. . . Muslims. They are too ill to be on the loose.”

      Muslims were confined to Saudi Arabia for millennia. They were prevented from destroying the Earth by Oceans on the south and the desert in the north.

      But things don’t stay the same especially evil ones: they spread.

      The Pirate came (the Devil’s friend) and created a devilish army and smashed the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, and devastated the Old World from Morocco to Spain to the borders of China.

      Now the Traitors, being godless, stupid, faithless, immoral, subject-haters, beasts, let the Jinni out of the bottle again, to destroy all the continents. Scorpions are born to sting, snakes to pull Eve’s leg, and the followers of Pirate to destroy all others.

      But they can/ could not do that until the west became godless, valueless, confused, and no one with normal feelings, except Gays, lesbians and feminists.

      The Bible says that we should not eat unkosher animals: i.e. that eat meat.

      Do you remember Mad Cow Disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) that were fed ( crushed bones, intestines. . . )the result was Bovine spongiform encephalopathy disease.

      You can’t mix things: you must have restrictions (The Ten Commandments), you can’t mix races from 128 countries and expect to live peacefully.

      All this life, from eternity, has been built on conflicts/ wars.

      • Didn’t know you were a muslim, Murad. Only they are supposed to believe that Islam predates their Prophet (likely due to his narcissism, common among dictators).

  2. “In other news, a British Airways passenger jet was struck by a drone as it approached Heathrow Airport for a landing.”

    What in tarnation…!!!??? The laconic locution of this report almost has more impact. Then we learn from the story that —

    “Metropolitan Police detectives are investigating the strike, which follows a string of near misses in recent months.”

    These should be treated as Islamic terror attacks (being dry runs or unintentional mishaps wouldn’t disqualify them from being Islamic terror attacks), until evidence shows they aren’t.

    • I predicted the use of gunmen to randomly attack soft targets 12 years ago. Next I predict the use of 4 high power drones, lifting capacity of about 15 kg, programed to fly a set distance apart, this distance being the centre to centre distance between engines on a 747, each drone carries a metal rod….

      Command drone is piloted into a aircraft taking off from a major airport in a major city…. taking out all 4 engines simultaneously. Aircraft is not high enough to return to airport inside of glide time. Aircraft also loses power for hydraulics…

      Aircraft crashes into populated area, carrying large fuel load, much chaos, destruction and death ensues…..

      Cost under $20k, one man operation. Very hard to stop. Very hard to catch post op.

      Only limiting factor is technical expertise. But just one educated, cashed up, and insanic man could do it.

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