It’s now become clear why those batteries of Patriot missiles were sent to Turkey — since they’re no good for their ostensible purpose, which was to defend against mortar attacks by the Assad regime. Turkey has now requested that NATO use the Patriots to shoot down any Syrian government warplanes that attack the Western-backed mujahideen rebels in Syria.
In other news, a severe cold snap has hit northeastern Italy, with heavy snow and ice causing a winter emergency in Trieste and the surrounding region.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JLH, JP, Lurker from Tulsa, MC, Paul Green, Seneca III, 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.
An Offer Cypriots Can’t Refuse
In what has become a depressingly familiar EU template, yet another “eleventh hour” deal was reached between the European Central Bank (ECB) the European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — known as the “troika” — and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to avoid national bankruptcy. “It’s been yet another hard day’s night,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters in Brussels, where the deal was put together. “There were no optimal solutions available, only hard choices.”
Hard choices indeed. In return for a $13 billion ($10 billion Euro) bailout, the tiny Mediterranean nation has agreed to wind down Laiki Bank, Cyprus’s second largest, wiping out thousands of jobs in the process. Depositors holding more than $130,000 will take potentially huge losses, the percentage of which has yet to be determined. But because the bank is expected to yield approximately $5.4 billion to satisfy the latest agreement, it is estimated that those losses will be as much as 40 percent, more than four times the 9.9 percent that was part of the deal rejected by the Cypriot parliament in a unanimous 36-0 vote last week.
No parliamentary vote will be required this time around. In the previous deal, the bailout money confiscated from bank accounts was going to be raised by imposing a nationwide tax on bank accounts that were both insured and uninsured. Imposing a tax required a vote by the Cypriot parliament. Because this new grab only targets uninsured accounts at Laiki Bank and the Bank of Cyprus, nine laws passed last Friday by parliament allowing bank “restructures” to go forward means no further vote is required…
Perhaps the most amazing — and utterly naive — aspect of this deal is the idea that what has happened in Cyprus will stay in Cyprus. UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage called on British expats in Spain to pull their money out of Spanish banks, contending the EU leaders had “crossed a line” in Cyprus. “There is going to be a big flight of money and that flight of money won’t just be from Cyprus, it will be from the other eurozone countries, too,” he warned. “There are 750,000 British people who own properties, or who live, many of them in retirement, down in Spain. Now that we see the EU are prepared to resort to anything to keep alive their failing euro project, our advice to expats living down in the Mediterranean must be, ‘Get your money out of there while you’ve still got a chance.’“
[Comment: “An Offer Cypriots Can’t Refuse” (watch the movie The Godfather where the mafia don makes “an offer he can’t refuse”)]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bank of Italy Warns 65 Per Cent of Families Have Insufficient Income
Biggest difficulties faced by households headed by unskilled workers or the unemployed
As many as 65% of Italian households reckon that their income does not cover their needs. The warning comes in two separate studies from the Bank of Italy, which also point out that the proportion of households with insufficient income to meet consumption is on the rise. Two issues of the bank’s Quaderni di Economia e Finanza paint a stark portrait of the situation faced by Italian households in the wake of the credit crunch. The studies highlight “clear signals of the difficulties faced by households in saving their desired quantity of resources”. The proportion of income households think they can actually save fell to historically low levels of around 30% in the mid 2000s, as against 50% in the early 1990s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
BRICS Nations Plan New Bank to Bypass World Bank, IMF
The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are set to approve the establishment of a new development bank during an annual summit that starts today in the eastern South African city of Durban, officials from all five nations say. They will also discuss pooling foreign-currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises.
“The deepest rationale for the BRICS is almost certainly the creation of new Bretton Woods-type institutions that are inclined toward the developing world,” Martyn Davies, chief executive officer of Johannesburg-based Frontier Advisory, which provides research on emerging markets, said in a phone interview. “There’s a shift in power from the traditional to the emerging world. There is a lot of geo-political concern about this shift in the western world.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Students Take to Streets Against EU Plan
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, MARCH 26 — Hundreds of Cypriot high school students have skipped lessons and taken to the streets of Nicosia Tuesday in protest at drastic economic measures imposed on Cyprus by the EU aimed at saving the island from financial ruin. Following a call to action on Facebook students gathered in various parts of the city before grouping outside Parliament with banners reading “get the Troika out of Cyprus”, and “get your hands off our future”. They also shouted slogans in English to the same effect.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Orthodox Church Says it Will Lose 100 Mln Euros
Chrysostomos II, the hungry will multiply
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, MARCH 26 — The rich and influent Cyprus’ Greek-Orthodox Church stands to lose more than 100 million euros in the bailout deal reached with international creditors early Monday, its leader Archbishop Chrysostomos said. “The capital owned by the Church, which was over 100 million euros, has been lost,” the archbishop told journalists as Cyprus Mail reports.
“There will be many difficulties, some will lose their jobs, the hungry will be multiplied and the Church has to take care of people,” he added. The Church has substantial shareholdings on the island, including in the banks at the centre of the drastic financial sector cuts imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund as a condition for releasing 10 billion euros in emergency loans. The Church’s interests range from hotels to brewers, and it is also the island’s biggest landowner. Last September, as the financial crisis bit, the Church cut salaries of bishops and most priests by 15 to 25% but spared those who received 1,500 euros or less in monthly salaries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Have the Russians Already Quietly Withdrawn All Their Cash From Cyprus?
Yesterday, we first reported on something very disturbing (at least to Cyprus’ citizens): despite the closed banks (which will mostly reopen tomorrow, while the two biggest soon to be liquidatedbanks Laiki and BoC will be shuttered until Thursday) and the capital controls, the local financial system has been leaking cash. Lots and lots of cash.
Alas, we did not have much granularity or details on who or where these illegal transfers were conducted with. Today, courtesy of a follow up by Reuters, we do.
The result, at least for Europe, is quite scary because let’s recall that the primary political purpose of destroying the Cyprus financial system was simply to punish and humiliate Russian billionaire oligarchs who held tens of billions in “unsecured” deposits with the island nation’s two biggest banks.
As it turns out, these same oligrachs may have used the one week hiatus period of total chaos in the banking system to transfer the bulk of the cash they had deposited with one of the two main Cypriot banks, in the process making the whole punitive point of collapsing the Cyprus financial system entirely moot.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Hardest Hit by Euro Crisis in 2012
EC study says number of Italians suffering up 15%
(ANSA) — Brussels, March 26 — Italy suffered the consequences of the eurozone debt crisis in 2012 more than any other country, a European Commission report said Tuesday. “Economic stress had repercussions in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and especially Italy, where the number of those in economic difficulty rose by 15%,” said the EC in its report on employment in Europe. The study also stressed that Italy lagged behind the rest of Europe in productivity, “down 2.8% in the last quarter of 2012, following an even bigger 3% drop in the previous quarter”.
“Italy is also the country, among the largest in Europe, where unemployment in the last quarter of 2012 underwent the fastest climb at 0.5%, followed by Poland at 0.3%, Spain and France both at 0.1%,” the study said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: IMF Stress Tests Suggest Italian Banking System Resilient
Milan’s major financial exchange continues losses Tuesday
(ANSA) — Milan, March 26 — Investors’ concerns over the Italian political and economic outlook continued to weigh on Italy’s major financial exchange Tuesday, even as other European markets showed small gains.
On the Milan Stock Exchange, the FTSE Mib fell by 0.95% to close Tuesday’s trading at 15,495 points.
The spread between Italian and German debt, an indicator of investor confidence in Italian government paper, narrowed slightly to 321.6 basis points at close of trading Tuesday, down from 328 basis points the day earlier.
The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds also fell to 4.55% Tuesday from 4.66 the day earlier.
Still, Italian investors continued to fret over the country’s political leadership, as Pier Liugi Bersani of the Democratic Party (PD) raced to find a way to form a new government by a Thursday deadline.
With no clear leadership in sight, it’s hard to read what future economic and fiscal policies will govern Italy.
The uncertainty hit some bank and utility stocks — sensitive to interest rate changes — especially hard.
Telecom Italia shed 5.46% of its value during Tuesday’s trading while Italian banks also slipped over concerns about the possible precedent set with the recent bailout of banks in troubled Cyprus. Unicredit shares fell by 2.02% and Intesa SanPaolo by 2.01%.
The weekend deal between Cyprus, the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund will see the country close its second-largest bank in exchange for a bailout of 10 billion euro.
However, that will mean heavy losses for investors in the closed bank and could set a precedent for future banking system bailouts in Europe. Still, markets may open Wednesday on a more positive note after an IMF report, released in the United States near the end of the European trading day, said that preliminary stress test showed the Italian banking system as a whole was sufficiently resilient to withstand shocks. Meanwhile, Frankfurt’s DAX rose by a slight 0.11% to reach 7,879.67 points, while Spain’s IBEX 35 took a dramatic hit on the day, losing 1.84% to close at 7,990.50 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.55% to close at 3,748.64 points, and London’s FTSE 100 ended the trading day 0.33% higher, closing at 6,399.37.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vice President Joe Biden stuck taxpayers with a hotel bill of more than $1 million from London and Paris on a diplomatic trip through Europe last month, documents made public yesterday revealed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
OECD Says Average Salaries in Italy Among Lowest in Europe
Behind Spain, above Portugal, Greece
(ANSA) — Paris, March 26 — Italy has fallen behind Spain, Ireland and most of the largest European countries when it comes to average salaries, according to the latest ranking released Tuesday by the OECD.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says the average salary in 2012 for a single Italian with no dependents was about $25,303US — the 23rd on its preliminary list contained in the report Taxing Wages.
The full version of the report will be published May 10.
That was lower than the OECD average of $28,090US, although higher than the Greek average of $21,529US and the average in Portugal of $19,838US.
However, the Italian average was lower than that in Spain, at $27,526US; Ireland, $32,019US; France, $30,459US; Germany, $33,683US; and the UK $39,572 US.
The average gross salary in Italy last year was $36,563US, slightly below the OECD average $38,131US.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Revealing What States Are Hiding
How much are we spending on education? Actually, far more than we know — because as it turns out, states are hiding some of the teachers’ benefits.
In a new paper, Heritage expert Jason Richwine reveals that “Proper accounting would reveal tens of billions of dollars in extra teacher pension costs, equivalent to somewhere around $1,000 in unreported spending per student.”
That’s right — the real cost of education is far higher than we’ve been told, but it’s not because of extra classroom resources or newer facilities. It’s because of teachers’ pensions.
Richwine explains:
“This undercounting occurs because the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) allows states to define teacher pension costs as whatever school districts happen to contribute to their pension funds each year, rather than the amount needed to pay for future pension benefits.”
This is not just an accounting problem — it’s a matter of transparency about the real cost of teacher pensions. Governments routinely contribute less than is needed to cover future pension benefits, but those benefits are guaranteed. That means taxpayers must cover the full costs, sooner or later.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Slovak Central Bank Slashes 2013, 2014 Growth Outlook
AFP — Slovakia’s central bank on Tuesday slashed its 2013 growth forecast to 0.7 percent from a previous 1.3 percent and said the eurozone member would also do worse than expected next year, amid the debt crisis in the 17-member currency bloc.
“We now expect the economy to grow by 0.7 percent this year and by 2.8 percent next year against the previously expected 3.3 percent,” central bank chief and ECB governing council member Jozef Makuch told reporters in Bratislava.
“The recession in the eurozone also has an impact on Slovakia,” he said, noting that “domestic demand has continued to fall while net exports were the only driving force of the economy.”
Domestic demand has been weak as the government cuts spending and raises taxes to squeeze the public deficit from an estimated 4.6 percent of GDP last year to under the EU’s 3.0 percent ceiling this year.
Slovakia’s exports are dominated by cars and electronics for the European market.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The US Has Already Been Cyprused
By Jonathon M. Trugman
[…]
The Fed has orchestrated a massive transfer of wealth in America from the middle class and the poor to the wealthy. You could call it “Operation Reverse Robin Hood.”
Naysavers will object, “That’s outrageous!” I say, “Do the math.”
Here it is (in dollars to simplify): If a Cypriot put $1,000 in an island bank four years ago and left it there, today the saver would have a balance of $1,250. Take 10 percent off, and the saver is still up $125.
If a US middle-class family put $1,000 in JPMorgan or Citibank four years ago, the balance today would be $1,010 — less bank fees, which means it’s probably closer to a $950 balance. That’s $9.3 trillion in US deposits getting nothing in return except the warm, fuzzy feeling of bolstering the banks’ balance sheets.
This does not excuse the ECB action, but it puts into context what Ben Bernanke’s Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) has done for Americans. The Fed chief or the Obama administration would never be as blunt as their EU counterparts and call it a tax, but if Uncle Sam — through his policies — is reaching into the pockets of Americans . . . it’s a tax.
And what is this ZIRP tax for? A bank bailout just like Cyprus’.
The Federal Reserve has been engaged in its $3 trillion covert op, whether it admits it or not. The Fed has been robbing America’s poor and middle class and essentially underwriting the wealthy, the big banks and big business. The twisted maneuvers of grand larceny-like proportions have underwritten the greatest transfer of wealth this generation has ever seen.
Millions of responsible Americans — the type who try to put a little away from each paycheck — can’t earn a decent yield from their savings accounts.
Take Jamie Dimon’s whale of a bank, JPMorgan Chase, where accounts below $100,000 yield between .05 percent and .25 percent. Or Citibank, where accounts yield the same demoralizing rate. This is a direct byproduct of the Fed’s policy of ZIRP.
Another fundamental flaw in the Fed’s policy: It doesn’t address the lack of credit for regular, responsible, everyday Americans. The fact is, average Americans can’t earn a buck on their balance in the bank, and they can’t borrow a buck from the bank at these super-low rates.
[…]
So the average American makes almost nothing in the bank, has no access to mortgage or small-business credit and is actually falling behind in real earnings.
Suddenly, Cyprus doesn’t look quite so pathetic.
| [Return to headlines] |
A Carbon Tax Would Destroy America
Australia is reeling from the cost to its economy and the higher energy costs its people are paying
If you want to know what a carbon tax on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would do to America you need only look at the destruction of industry and business in Australia, along with the soaring costs for energy use it imposes on anyone there.
“The carbon tax is contributing to a record number of firms going to the wall with thousands of employees being laid off and companies forced to close factories that have stood for generations”, Steve Lewis and Phil Jacob reported in a March 18 issue of The Daily Telegraph, a leading Australian newspaper.
“Soaring energy bills caused by the government’s climate change scheme have been called ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ by company executives and corporate rescue doctors who are trying to save ailing firms.”
The passage of a carbon tax in America would have the exact same results and it remains a top priority for the White House and Democrats in Congress who see it as a bonanza in new funding for the government…
In a Fox News article, “Here comes Team Obama’s carbon tax”. Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment and author of “Democracy Denied” reported that “The Treasury Department’s Office of Environment and Energy has finally begun to turn over documents about its preparations for a carbon tax in response to transparency warrior Chris Horner’s Freedom of Information Act request. The documents provide solid evidence that the Obama administration and its allies in Congress have every intention of implementing a carbon tax if we fail to stop them.”
President Obama’s nominee to be the next Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, is on record wanting to double or triple the cost of energy, much as his predecessor wanted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Albany Cops Threaten to Arrest Citizens During Training Exercise
Cops and military conduct “scenarios” without informing public.
Police in Albany, New York, conducted a SWAT drill without informing residents last week. Live tear gas and fake ammo was used in the raid on an abandoned apartment building. People were locked down in their apartments and threatened with arrest during the “hostage training scenario,” the Times Union reported on Tuesday.
One resident told the newspaper police threatened to arrest him for trespassing as he tried to get to his own home.
Military and police around the country are now conducting urban combat drills and other paramilitary exercises without informing the public. Police and military officials often apologize in response to public outrage but continue to conduct the “scenarios” without informing the public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Capitol Sink for Mops, Not Muslims
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sometimes a mop sink is just a mop sink. Building managers and legislative staffers have sought to reassure some concerned Tennessee lawmakers that recent renovations at the state Capitol did not install special facilities for Muslims to wash their feet before praying…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Citizen Sentenced in Military Data-Theft Case
NEWARK, N.J. — Measured in millimeters, the tiny device was designed to allow drones, missiles and rockets to hit targets without satellite guidance. An advanced version was being developed secretly for the U.S. military by a small company and L-3 Communications, a major defense contractor.
On Monday, Sixing Liu, a Chinese citizen who worked at L-3’s space and navigation division, was sentenced in federal court here to five years and 10 months for taking thousands of files about the device, called a disk resonator gyroscope, and other defense systems to China in violation of a U.S. arms embargo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Constitutional Convention Call Redux, Part 4
“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.” -Thomas Jefferson
Rexford G. Tugwell’s, “The Emerging Constitution,” was also published in 1974 by “The Fund for the Republic, Inc.,” which still is in existence today. Their staff includes none other than Harvard Professor, and Con-Con proponent, Lawrence Lessig, who we discussed in Part 2 of this article.
Rexford Tugwell stated in his book that the nation has a constitutional crisis. He says, “The obsolescence of the federal government established by the Constitution, and unchanged since 1787 — the twenty-six amendments (the twenty-seventh in 1992) adopted during that time made no important changes in structure — obviously called for reform, but none affecting the legislative branch could be made because that branch controlled the amending process.
He goes on to say, “Because many of the Constitution’s clauses were ambiguous and decisions had to be made about their meaning, the Supreme Court began to define their implications, and has continued this practice. This was manifestly undemocratic, but it was the only way of adapting an obsolete basic law to changing circumstances.
There is absolutely nothing obsolete or ambiguous about our Constitution or the rights granted by God, those rights that precede the very document that recorded them for every American citizen. The New World Order elites have been selling this same propaganda for decades.
[…]
This proposed “Newstates Constitution,” or one very like it, is waiting in the wings to be unfurled for the American citizens once they’ve fallen prey to a Constitutional Convention.
The Newstates of America Constitution has a Preamble like our 1787 Constitution. Instead of “justice and domestic tranquility”, the new constitution seeks only “good order” without defining what that means. The very first words are “So that we may join in common endeavors,” and the body of the new constitution makes it clear that this means an end to individual endeavors.
Their new constitution expressly states it is good only for a prescribed period of 25 years. No reference is made in the Preamble to our defense or general welfare. Worst of all, the matter of liberty, which is so central to our present Constitution, is totally ignored in the Preamble of the new one, which seeks only, “an adequate and self-repairing government.”
The emphasis throughout the new constitution is on the government — not on the people.
[Comment: A MUST READ series for all Americans. Reading this series of articles on the push for a Constitutional Convention is essential in understanding the desires of those elites pushing for a Con-Con — a horrifying “Newstates Consitution” has ALREADY been written.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DHS to Buy 360,000 More Rounds of Hollow Point Ammunition
Arms build-up continues as Congress demands answers
While the Department of Homeland Security continues to ignore members of Congress demanding to know why the federal agency is engaged in an apparent arms build-up, the DHS has just announced it plans to purchase another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition to add to the roughly 2 billion bullets already bought over the past year.
The DHS has now purchased over 2 billion rounds of ammo.
A solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities website details the DHS’ plan to purchase 360,000 rounds of “Commercial leaded training ammo (CLTA) Pistol .40 caliber 165 grain, jacketed hollow point.” The bullets are to be delivered to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico, the same destination for 240,000 hollow point rounds which were purchased only last month.
Although the DHS has attempted to explain its mammoth purchase of ammunition by claiming the bullets are being acquired in bulk to save money and that they are for training purposes only, this has been disputed by reputable voices such as former Marine Richard Mason, who told reporters with WHPTV News in Pennsylvania earlier this month, “We never trained with hollow points, we didn’t even see hollow points my entire four and a half years in the Marine Corps.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Study Finds Security Risks at US Bio Labs Still High
Three years after a federal agency warned that the country was at risk due to sloppy standards at its labs that handle bioterror germs, such as anthrax, little has been done to fix the problem.
A 56-page report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office says federal officials have failed to develop adequate standards for lab design, operation and construction.
The report also says that the facilities, called high-containment labs, are being built to local standards because there are no national safety guidelines for them. The study released Monday is a follow-up to a similar study done five years ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Health Insurance Rates to Double as Obamacare Fully Kicks in
“Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation’s biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans,” The Wall Street Journal reported March 22.
Insurers made those projections in sessions with agents and brokers; they provide some of the most damning evidence so far of just how much Obamacare will force companies to raise rates when major provisions of the law kick in next year — just as scores of industry experts and economists warned would happen.
Such predictions don’t jibe with the rosy — and misleading — rhetoric from Sebelius and her boss, President Obama, the latter of whom said in 2010:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A horrifying video has emerged showing an American bulldog belonging to Gabby Giffords’ stepdaughter viciously attacking a baby sea lion on a California beach, eventually killing it.
The Arizona Democrat’s husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, is seen running to the bloody scene and shaking the fatally-injured animal from the dog’s jaws in the amateur video.
The attack happened on Saturday afternoon near the exclusive Goff Cove Beach in Laguna Beach where former Rep. Giffords, her husband and his daughter are staying, Laguna Beach police said.
Authorities told the Los Angeles Times that Kelly and his 18-year-old daughter, the dog’s owner, were walking along the beach when the animal spotted the sea lion and broke free from its leash.
A passerby, Nathan Straw, saw the attack unfold, recorded it on his mobile phone and later provided the video to the Times and KABC-TV.
It shows two other women helping the teenager as she sobs and tries to open the dog’s jaws. One woman holds the sea lion by the tail and pulls, in an attempt to free it.
Despite their commands, the dog’s jaw stays locked on the animal’s head.
Kelly then grabs the dog, identified by police as an American bulldog mix, by the head and shakes him strongly until it lets go of the seal, who falls limply into the water.
As Kelly drags the dog back to the beach with his sobbing daughter trailing behind him, the video shows the injured sea lion slipping beneath the water.
‘Mark Kelly came over and picked the dog up by the collar, shook it, called the dog out by name, and that’s when the dog released. Mark Kelly was able to walk the dog back to the parking lot,’ Straw told KPNX in Phoenix, where Giffords and Kelly live.
Laguna Beach police received a call at 2 p.m. on Saturday and arrived at the shoreline to find the sea lion, Capt. Jason Kravetz said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
Police confirmed that the animal died and they removed its body from the beach. It had beached itself before the attack, which could be a sign that it was sick, the Times reported.
A spokeswoman for Kelly’s political committee said that the family crated the dog and talked to officers. No citations were issued because they did not do anything illegal.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Jim Carrey Celebrates Charlton Heston’s Death!
Jim Carrey and the anti human freedom lobby will never stop until only criminals and their bodyguards have guns. Hollywood is the helper of criminals everywhere.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Race Toward an Age of Reason, Part 2
No Paine; No Gain
A hero to Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, Anglo-American intellectual Thomas Paine was a radical pamphleteer, political theorist/ propagandist, and activist. Paine, the young Lincoln, and Obama — all three — are sons of the Enlightenment. On behalf of a group of men who wished to convey a message to humanity, a peculiar monument known as the Georgia Guidestones, or America’s Stonehenge, was commissioned in 1979 to recognize Thomas Paine and to etch in stone his enlightened viewpoint.
10 Commandments; 29 Programs
Engraved in eight different languages on four giant stones that support a common capstone is a specific message to humanity summarized in Ten Commandments that, when aligned with the President’s recent State of the Union address, outlines an agenda for establishing the coveted age of reason. Its four themes follow: (1) global governance, (2) population control, (3) man’s relationship to nature, and (4) new spirituality.
* Global Governance
The group that commissioned the Georgia Guidestones is likely one of many similar groups working together to establish a new, geo-political world order under elitist rule. One Guidestones’ commandment is to “avoid petty laws and useless officials.” In Obama’s words, “the greatest nation on earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. … The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause another.” This regrettable dilemma signals need for “soft law” at the global level. Hence, if a useless Congress won’t act, Obama will (via executive order).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Retired Army Captain Warns DHS Acquisitions Are ‘Bold Threat of War’ Against the American People
On Saturday, retired United States Army Captain Terry M. Hestilow publicly voiced grave concerns over the Department of Homeland Security’s absurd acquisitions, posting a letter he sent to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Facebook labeling the Obama administration’s recent appropriation of weapons a “bold threat of war” against citizens of the United States of America.
“It is with gravest concern that I write to you today concerning the recent appropriation of weapons by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that can only be understood as a bold threat of war by that agency, and the Obama administration, against the citizens of the United States of America,” the decorated retired Army Captain’s letter begins.
Referring to the DHS’ solicitations for nearly two billion rounds of ammunition and recent purchase of almost 3,000 mine-resistant ambush protected armored personnel carriers as “a tyrannical threat against the Constitution” and a deliberate attempt to defund the Department of Defense, the retired Army Captain asked Sen. Cornyn to honor his oath to the American people and the U.S. Constitution and “to demand in clear terms that the Administration cannot ignore, that the Department of Homeland Security immediately surrender their newly appropriated weapons of war to the Department of Defense (DoD).”
“Significant is the fact,” Captain Hestilow writes, “that at the same time the Obama administration is arming his DHS for war within the limits of the United States against the People of the United States in accordance with his 2008 campaign speech claiming,
‘We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve gotta (sic) have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the United States military]’ — Candidate Barack Obama, 2008.”
“Further, since the DHS has assumed a position in the Administration to enforce the tyrannical acts of this president against the People of the United States against the limits of the United States Constitution, it remains for the United States Congress to exercise its limiting power in the balancing of powers established by our founding fathers, to disestablish and dissolve the DHS as soon as possible,” the retired Captain’s letter continues.
Calling the DHS purchases a “glaring threat of war against our nation’s citizens,” Hestilow says the actions “can only be understood as a tyrannical threat against the Constitution of the United States of America.”
“If left unresolved,” Hestilow states, “the peace loving citizens who have sworn to defend the United States Constitution ‘against all enemies, both foreign and domestic’ are left no option except to prepare to defend themselves, and the U.S. Constitution, against this Administration’s ‘coup’ against the People and the foundations of liberty fought for and defended for the past 238 years. We have no choice if we honor our oaths.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, Hitler Really Did Take the Guns Before Throwing Jews Into Concentration Camps (Or Gas Chambers)
Prior to 1938, when Hitler’s new restrictions were put in place, the earlier Weimar Republic government had already enacted gun registration. “The laws adopted by the Weimar Republic intended to disarm Nazis and Communists were sufficiently discretionary that the Nazis managed to use them against their enemies once they were in power,” says Clayton Cramer, author of the book Firing Back, as told to the website The Straight Dope. So what Hitler essentially did was strengthen existing German law (which was aimed primarily at preventing Jews from being armed).
And that is the all-important difference. Bernard E. Harcourt, writing for the University of Chicago Law School and Political Science Department, notes:
If you read the 1938 Nazi gun laws closely and compare them to earlier 1928 Weimar gun legislation — as a straightforward exercise of statutory interpretation — several conclusions become clear. First, with regard to possession and carrying of firearms, the Nazi regime relaxed the gun laws that were in place in Germany at the time the Nazis seized power. Second, the Nazi gun laws of 1938 specifically banned Jewish persons from obtaining a license to manufacture firearms or ammunition. Third, approximately eight months after enacting the 1938 Nazi gun laws, Hitler imposed regulations prohibiting Jewish persons from possessing any dangerous weapons, including firearms.
The point was, Hitler had it in for the Jews, so he first disarmed them before carrying out his murderous campaign against them. And, unable to resist, millions died…
Here are some key aspects of the 1938 law:
- Police permission was required to own a handgun;
- All firearms had to be registered;
- Any Germans who enjoyed shooting bolt-action rifles were told to join the army “if they wished to shoot ‘military’ rifles,” writes LaPierre, in his book;
- The Nazi regime “also enacted the “Regulations against Jews’ possession of weapons” within the days of Kristallnacht — the ‘night of broken glass’ — when stormtroopers attacked synagogues and Jews throughout Germany,” he wrote;
- Firearms registration lists were used to identify (and persecute) gun owners (bear in mind that a New York newspaper just published the names and addresses of legal handgun permit holders after obtaining them via a Freedom of Information Act request, because permit holders by the very nature of obtaining the permit had to be registered [www.naturalnews.com/038479_gun_owners_New_York_newspaper.html]).
Let’s compare these Nazi-era gun control requirements to what Feinstein is proposing. As posted on her Senate website, her legislation would:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Naples, Rome most vulnerable to carjacking
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Over 316 cars in Italy are stolen every day, more than 13 every hour, and one every 15 minutes as auto theft is on the rise across the country, according to a report Monday.
Rome and Naples led the way in 2012, according to a study by LoJack Italia, which makes vehicle-tracking devices, based on data from the interior ministry.
The report points out that 2012 saw a 1.8% increase in carjackings after a 10-year steady drop.
The rate of retrieving stolen cars also went down from 45% in 2011 to 43% in 2012.
Italy is second in Europe in terms of car thefts, the study said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: EU Report Backs Zagreb, Ready for Accession
EU sources say no special treatment needed
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS6 — Zagreb is ‘ready to make its entrance into the European Union on July 1, 2013, according to a final EU Commission report delivered to the Croatian government by European Enlargement chief, Stefan Fule. After 10 years of negotiations, Croatia’s crackdown on organised crime and its efforts in bolstering its justice system have paid off, with EU sources describing the steps as “providing sufficient guarantees” to grant Croatia membership in the 27 nation strong club. “We believe”, a senior EU official said — “that the whole process of accession has been solid, credible and irreversible. Once the negotiations close there’s no need for post-accession checks, like with Romania and Bulgaria.
Commitments undertaken by the government in Zagreb are continuing to move in the right direction”. But, he continued: “this doesn’t mean everything’s perfect.
Cutting the load on court cases pending, for example, will take years.” “The point is that as the twenty-eighth Member State Croatia won’t need any special treatment.” With regards to Croatia’s border, which from July 1, 2013 will be classed as outside of the EU, “we don’t expect many problems”, added the source. Croatia, which is continuing its fight to enter the Schengen, must demonstrate that it has a sufficient management system and visa policy in line with European requirements on freedom of movement to prevent abuses. “There will be a report on the Schengen area before Croatian accession,” the source said. Before July 1 Zagreb is waiting on the last five member states — Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Slovenia, to complete the ratification process. After an agreement with Slovenia on the Ljubljanska bank, “the ratification process should proceed quickly,” confirmed the source.
The final report on Croatia will be presented at the EU Council Tuesday which will kickstart discussions, the findings of which will be delivered at the next EU Foreign Council meeting on April 23.
Also in April, at the plenary session, the final report of Zagreb will be submitted to the European Parliament.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Halal: Market Needs Checking
Calls for more stringent controls after discovery of traces of pork in shawarma beef.
The Danish Halal Federation is calling for more stringent controls of meat following the Food Standards Agency’s discovery of traces of pork in a consignment of shawarma meat.
The federation of 52 Muslim association’s reaction comes following the discovery in a random sample of meat from Denmark’s largest shawarma producer and distributor Anadolu Kød. The consignment concerned had not left the Anadolu stores.
The discovery of pork traces in popular shawarma meat is likely to cause consternation within Muslim communities, for whom the consumption of any type of pork is forbidden.
“We must get this market under control… We are not surprised that pork has been found in shawarma meat. We know that questionable meat is stamped as halal,” says Kamran Iqbal, the Danish Halal treasurer and board member.
The Food Standards Agency found pork traces in the meat during an extraordinary inspection campaign called for by the European Union in the wake of the recent horsemeat scandal.
Danish Halal says that it sees marketing meat as halal, when it is not, is a misleading food declaration.
As a result, Danish Halal is looking to set up an independent, non-profit inspection regime to make sure that animals are slaughtered following religious rules, and find out whether pork is mixed into halal meat.
Kamran Iqbal says that halal has become ‘big business’. “It’s not like in the good old days with a butcher that everyone knew. We have entered into a dialogue with abattoirs that produce halal. Britain and France have certification — which is something we also should have in Denmark,” Kamran Iqbal says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Brothers Guilty of Al-Shabaab Training
A court has found two brothers guilty under an anti-terrorism paragraph.
Two brothers from Aarhus have been found guilty of sending one of their number for terrorism training in Somalia and have both been sentenced to three years and six months in prison.
Both men have immediately appealed the sentence.
The 19 and 24 year-old brothers were found guilty of arranging training for the older brother at an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia. The 19-year-old purchased the airline ticket for his brother and gave him his passport.
The court found that the 24-year-old had been at a training camp for several months until March 2012 where he learnt to carry out terrorist activities. His 19-year-old brother was sentenced for having helped his brother take part in training.
It is the first time in Denmark that a section under Denmark’s anti-terrorism laws on training for terrorism have been used.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: No ‘Hugo Chavez Street’ In Paris Anytime Soon
After Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s death earlier this month, there was a bid by far-left politicians in the French capital to name a street after the late leader. The idea, however, was vetoed on Monday at a meeting of the Paris city council.
Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez may have died three weeks ago, but the city of Paris is just getting around to sorting out how it wants to react to the news. While some politicians have preferred to remain silent on the issue, others have been clamouring for a street named in Chavez’s honour.
At a meeting of the Paris city council, Danielle Simonnet, a member of a coalition comprised of the communist party and the far-left Parti de Gauche, championed the cause, arguing that Chavez deserved to be memorialised in France’s capital.
“On March 5, 2013, Venezuela’s democratically elected and re-elected president Hugo Chavez died while in office and his death evoked great emotion across the whole world… We regret that at the time of his death, the city of Paris did not make any official comment,” Simmonet said.
But other members on the Paris city council apparently disagreed with Simmonet, and ultimately axed the idea of naming a part of the French capital after the late Venezuelan leader.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Young Easterners as Anti-Foreigner as Old in West
Young eastern Germans are as xenophobic as pre-war west Germans, according to a new study, which suggests that both groups had similar historical experiences — the collapse of an authoritarian regime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iceland: Man Arrested for Stealing Dried Fish
A man was arrested in Selfoss on Thursday for having stolen a packet of dried fish (harðfiskur) at the N1 gas station. The same man had earlier stolen dried fish from another shop in town.
The man admitted to the crime and will be tried for theft, mbl.is reports. In a separate incident, 500 liters of fuel were stolen from concrete mixers in Selfoss on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Doctors Suspended for Pressuring Patients to Pay for Surgery
Show films surgeons recommending expensive procedure for child
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Two doctors at Rome’s Bambin Gesu’ children’s hospital have been suspended from service after they were filmed pressuring patients to pay for surgery that is covered under the state health care system.
Reporters from the satirical television show Le Iene caught the doctors telling the parents of a child needing an expensive and urgent surgical procedure that to avoid a four-to-five-month wait, they could opt for private surgery costing 38,000 euros.
They also failed to tell the parents that other Italian hospitals could perform the surgery and suggested they go overseas.
After having the surgery performed at Rome’s Gemelli hospital with only a week’s wait and for free, the parents contacted the program’s producers, who then filmed the doctors repeating what the couple had been told.
The directors of Bambin Gesu’ hospital issued a statement saying that the doctors have been indefinitely suspended while investigations are being carried out.
The hospital’s statement said that they were completely unaware of the doctors’ conduct and “we wish to express our deepest apologies to the family”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Animal Rights Groups Up in Arms Over Fox Hunt
Authorities open ‘hunting’ from April to July in Siena province
(ANSA) — Siena, March 26 — Animal rights groups in Tuscany sent out an urgent appeal on Tuesday, a week before a law allowing hunters to kill foxes in their lairs goes into effect.
Authorities in the province of Siena have authorized hunters from April 1 to July 31 to eliminate foxes directly in their dens, where many are nursing cubs, maintaining that the animals are lowering the numbers of rabbits, hares and pheasant in the area.
Animal rights groups are calling the activity an ‘extermination’, not a hunt. “There is no justifiable reason for using hunting dogs to slaughter fox cubs in their lairs…it is a cruel method,” Anna Maria Betti from the Italian Federation for Animal and Environmental Rights said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kercher Sister Sheds Tears of Happiness Over Court Ruling
Sibling wants ‘to understand’
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, March 26 — The sister of murdered British Erasmus student Meredith Kercher wept tears of joy on Tuesday after Italy’s supreme Court of Cassation overturned the acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito and ordered a new appeal trial. “I am happy and I want to understand,” Stephanie Kercher told the lawyer representing the family, Francesco Maresca.
Italy’s supreme court on Tuesday scrapped the 2011 decision of Perugia’s appeals court to quash the conviction of Knox and Sollecito for the 2007 murder in Perugia.
At the original trial in 2009 the former couple were handed sentences of 26 and 25 years respectively.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Knox Three-Year Calumny Sentence Becomes Definitive
America served sentence for falsely accusing pub owner
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, March 26 — Amanda Knox’s appeal against a three-year prison sentence for calumny was rejected by Italy’s supreme Court of Cassation on Tuesday, which means the conviction has become definitive.
Knox has already served the sentence for having falsely accused a Perugia pub owner, Congo native Patrick Lumumba, of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher in the early stages of the investigation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Representatives to Meet With U.S. Ambassador Thorne
Embassy traditionally sees new parliament forces after elections
(ANSA) — Rome, March 26 — Representatives of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) were due to meet with the United States Ambassador David Thorne on Tuesday, in keeping with the embassy’s tradition of meeting with new parliamentary forces in Italy.
The meeting had been scheduled to take place last week but was postponed due to imminent government-formation talks. Thorne sparked criticism from centre-left MPs earlier this month after appearing to hold up the movement of rabble-rousing comedian Beppe Grillo as an example to follow during a speech to Roman high school students. The populist M5S potentially holds the balance of power in parliament after February general elections left no political party or coalition with a clear majority in both houses.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lollobrigida Sells Her Beloved Bulgari Jewellery Collection
(AGI) — Geneva, Mar 26 — Gina Lollobrigida will say goodbye to 22 fabulous pieces from her collection, to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Geneva on May 15. The jewellery, all made by Bulgari, will be exhibited in London, New York and Rome before the auction, the proceeds of which will go in part to fund stem cell research.
I want to leave a memory of my life,” said the 85-year-old icon of cinema, “helping a cause that is very important to me.” The items include pearl earrings with diamonds from 1964, estimated to be worth between 465,000 and 775,000 euros; a beautiful 3.19 carat diamond ring from 1962; and a bracelet and diamond necklace from 1954. The love at first sight between “Lollo” and Bulgari took place at the beginning of the actress’s career, and since then, the diva has assiduously collected the firm’s collections. Having long since given up acting, Lollobrigida — who recently denounced a former boyfriend, accusing him of marrying her under false pretences to inherit her fortune — has been devoted to sculpture. This is why she has decided to get rid of her precious jewellery. She explained, a sculptor “does not need jewellery.” The items on sale will also include emerald and diamond pendants, which she wore in a famous photo taken in 1965 with Salvador Dali”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Northeast Italy Crippled by Snow and Ice
A4 highway reopens but delays persist
(ANSA) — Trieste, March 26 — Schools in the northeastern city of Trieste and surrounding area remained closed and the local authorities invited residents to stay at home on Tuesday as the latest cold snap continued to bite.
Conditions showed signs of improvement compared to Monday but snow and ice remained a problem for vehicles and pedestrians particularly in the upper part of the city where streets are steep and narrow. On Tuesday morning road police reopened the A4 motorway link road to light vehicles only and railway commuters experienced difficulties due to service disruptions.
The fire department received over 80 calls for help and motorists suffering breakdowns during the night had to wait up to four hours for assistance.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Breivik Denied Permission to Attend Mum’s Funeral
AFP — Norwegian prison authorities have rejected a request by mass killer Anders Behring Breivik to attend the funeral of his mother, who died last week after a long illness, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Breivik, a 34-year-old right-wing extremist who is serving a 21-year jail sentence for killing 77 people in twin attacks in July 2011, is being held under strict prison conditions.
Officials at the high-security Ila prison near Oslo decided to extend his strict security regimen when it came up for review Tuesday, and denied his request to attend the funeral, lawyer Tord Jordet told AFP in an email.
Wenche Behring Breivik, who died age 66, had shunned the spotlight after her son’s attacks. She appeared to be the person closest to him, and he had described her as his “Achilles heel”.
A single parent, she struggled to raise her son and his half-sister alone, and social services very early on hinted that Breivik might not have been receiving proper care at home. But he was never removed from her care.
As an adult, he returned to live with her and began plotting his attacks in an apartment the two shared.
She did not attend his trial, citing health reasons, but had visited him in prison, according to media reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sicilian Authority Approves Abolition of Provinces
(AGI) Palermo — Sicily’s State Representative, which looks into constitutionality, has approved the abolition of provinces .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Cops Nab Gold Teeth Tomb Raiders
Two cemetery workers in Navarre have been arrested for allegedly plucking gold teeth from dead bodies.
The workers at the cemetery in Eibar took the teeth from corpses in the community famous for its weapons industry, reported the Diario de Navarra on Tuesday.
Navarre authorities said the men had been nabbed for handling stolen goods.
They were arrested after a routine police inspection of the records a gold trading shop, said officials involved in the case.
Eibar police station told The Local a press release will appear shortly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Special Report: Tony Blair Urged to Attend Bohemian Grove Ritual
Hacked emails reveal that Tony Blair was urged by other elitists to attend the Bohemian Grove mock sacrifice ritual.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Affirms Swine Flu Vaccine Narcolepsy Link
The swine flu vaccine Pandemrix has a direct link to causing narcolepsy, especially among the younger people who were vaccinated, a new Swedish study revealed on Tuesday.
The Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) ordered the massive study to determine if the vaccine had any connection to narcolepsy after dozens of reported cases of young people coming down with the affliction after receiving a swine flu jab.
The study, which took place between October 2009 and the December 2011, compared 3.3 million vaccinated Swedes with 2.5 million who were not vaccinated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terzi Resigns ‘Out of Disagreement With Italian Govt’
‘Marines’ return to India not my decision’ says foreign minister
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, March 26 — Giulio Terzi said Tuesday he is resigning as Italian foreign minister “out of disagreement with the (government’s) decision to send the marines back to India”. “My reservations had no impact and the decision was not mine,” said Terzi before parliament in a statement of resignation. “My voice went unheard”. His resignation comes amid heavy criticism of the government’s handling of the case of two Italian marines facing homicide charges in India. The men were sent back to India on Friday. Rome had said they would not return after being allowed to come home to vote, angering India.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Accused Dad Tells Old Bailey: “I Have Never Hurt Anyone” [Bullfinch Trial]
A DAD-OF-THREE accused of sexually exploiting girls in Oxford told the Old Bailey this afternoon he had never hurt anyone. Kamar Jamil is the first of the nine defendants to take the witness stand in the trial of an alleged child sex gang that targeted vulnerable girls. The married 27-year-old denies raping the alleged victim known as Girl 1 when she was aged between 13 and 15. He also denies trafficking and selling her for sex. He denies raping Girl 2 in 2006 when she was 14. He said: “I haven’t done nothing wrong at all. This is not me.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Biological Attacks ‘Getting Easier for Terrorists’
Terrorists will find it increasingly easy to launch attacks using biological weapons, a senior security official has warned.
Charles Farr, the Director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, said that extremists have ever greater access to the information and technology required to create and spread germ agents or other biological weapons. He spoke as an official assessment suggested that countering the threat to the UK from international terrorism is becoming harder and more expensive.
The Home Office has published an annual report on its Contest counter-terrorism strategy, which warned that Islamic terrorist threats are now spread more widely across the world, requiring “very significant resources” to combat. The report showed that security officials and intelligence agencies believe that a priority for Britain is improving its ability to detect biological attacks, treat victims and decontaminate attack sites. “Biological will get easier from a terrorist point of view,” Mr Farr said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: British Muslims Fighting in Syria Could Commit Terrorist Attacks in UK
British Muslims fighting in Syria’s civil war could return home to carry out terrorist attacks, intelligence chiefs have warned.
There are “hundreds” of Europeans now fighting in Syria, some of whom are with groups linked to al Qaeda, the Home Office has told MPs. In an annual report on its Contest counter-terrorism strategy, the Home Office warned of the risk to Britain and other European nations posed by foreign fighters now gaining military experience in Syria…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Budget Cuts in Counter-Terrorism Are Substantial Folly
by Robert Fox
The government’s annual audit of its counter-terrorism strategy makes sobering reading — and not quite in the way its authors intended. It states the threat from al Qaeda- related groups to this country remains “substantial”. Al Qaeda groups were responsible for 600 attacks in Syria last year at a rough count. Syria is full of hundreds of foreign fighters, some from the UK and Europe, and could return to haunt, and even attack us.
Kidnapping for ransom is now a main revenue stream. Groups like Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines and Taliban groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan have raised nearly £50 million from kidnaps since 2008. The number of terrorist kidnaps doubled between 2010 and 2012. But it is the new shape of terrorist activity, variations of old tactics and groups, that are particularly troubling…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bullfinch Defendant Takes the Stand at Old Bailey
by Esmerelda Weatherwax
THE first defendant to take the witness stand in the Oxford sex exploitation trial has denied raping and selling girls for sex at the Old Bailey this morning. The defence case opened today after 10 weeks of prosecution evidence. And wearing a black shirt and tie, Kamar Jamil, 27, swore on the Qu’ran before beginning his evidence. He is one of nine men accused of running a child sex ring in the city.
The married father-of-three denies raping the alleged victim known as Girl 1 when she was aged between 12 and 15. He also denies trafficking and selling her for sex. He denies raping Girl 2 in 2006 when she was 14. His barrister Sally O’Neill said: “You are charged, on trial, for some very serious sexual abuse of these two young women. Did you ever do anything to either of them of a sexual nature?” He said: “Never.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Counter Terror Expo 2013’s Global Terrorism Conference to Address Ongoing Terrorist Challenges
Mere weeks before intelligence and counter terrorism officials gather in London again for the annual Counter Terror Expo conference and exhibition, several countries have elevated their alert status in the face of a potential backlash from the ongoing crisis in Syria and recent military activity in Mali and Somalia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dorset: Mystery ‘Monkey-Like’ Creature Photographed in a Park
This is the moment an escaped monkey was apparently photographed on the loose in a public park.
The hairy black creature was spotted by stunned Terri Leigh Cox as she looked out of her bedroom window that overlooks the play park in Dorchester, Dorset.
She witnessed the animal hunched over and bounding around on all fours before she grabbed her mobile phone and took a single frame of it.
Miss Cox, 17, said the creature then scampered up a tree and out of sight.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[Note: see the bottom of the article for comments from Seneca III]
Four rampaging dogs were shot dead by armed police after a schoolgirl was ‘mauled to death in a house over run by household pets’.
Jade Anderson, 14, was staying at a friend’s property when dogs suddenly went berserk and attacked her after she began eating a meat pie, it is believed.
She was staying at a friend’s house for the Easter holidays and was in the house alone at the time of the incident.
It is thought she tried to fight off the dogs but they overpowered her as they went to grab the pie and left her bleeding on the floor.
Police were called at 2pm to the modern £80,000 terraced house in Chaucer Grove, Atherton, Greater Manchester after neighbours reported seeing a teenage girl unconscious and dogs ‘out of control.’
Officers attended and were confronted by a number of dogs in the back yard which were aggressive and barking ferociously.
The house bears a sign saying ‘Beware of the Dog’ and neighbours say the five animals were a danger.
Armed police were called out to ‘humanely’ kill four of the dogs to get inside the property.
A fifth dog was inside the house and was securely contained throughout.
Tonight a post mortem test was underway to establish exactly how Jade died.
The carcasses of the dogs which are believed to be two Staffordshire Bull Terriers and two Bull Mastiffs will also be examined.
Police said officers were offering support to Jade’s family.
[COMMENT: This is not a matter that requires legislation to control or prohibit particular breeds of dogs. It is a matter that requires a collective effort to impose seriously draconian measures to first neutralise the predilections of an underclass of predators and parasites created by ‘Socialists’ in order to destroy the natural order of things for the benefit of their ‘New World Order’ and themselves.
Thus, for any rational society to survive and prevail under these circumstances, both cause and effect and must be dealt with. In that order and soon, the creators first, for as we now weep for Jade and her terrible way of death, so shall we will have to weep for yet more poor children like her unless we deal with it as it must be dealt with. — S III]
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hundreds of Young People Have Received Anti-Radicalisation Support
More than 500 young people thought to be at risk of becoming involved with extremists have received support since 2007
More than 500 young people thought to be at risk of becoming involved with violent extremists or terrorists have been given support over the past five years under a government counter-terrorism programme. They are part of a wider group of 2,500 individuals who have been referred by the police and others to the £3m-a-year anti-radicalisation programme known as Channel, which was set up in April 2007 as part of the government’s wider “Prevent” strategy. The flagship intervention programme is targeted mainly at 15- to 24-year-olds at risk of being drawn into Islamist extremism but about 10% of cases have involved far-right extremists…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A mystery meat, which has defied the best efforts of scientists to identify it, has been found in a lamb curry as part of an investigation into food fraud.
The discovery raises new questions about just what is going into the nation’s takeaways and processed foods.
A BBC documentary to be aired on BBC3 tonight sent samples of curries and kebabs bought from six outlets in London for laboratory tests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A telesales worker who dreamt of becoming a glamour model has had a breast enlargement — paid for by taxpayers’ money.
Josie Cunningham, 22, got the £4,800 operation free on the NHS after telling her GP that being flat-chested was ruining her life.
A surgeon at St James’ Hospital in Leeds gave her implants that took her from a 32A bra size to a 36DD, and now Miss Cunningham says she wants to become a topless model just like her heroine Katie Price.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Operation Ribbon: Men Deny Being Part of Child Sex Gang
A GROUP of men have all denied being part of a child sex gang which abused and raped a young girl for more than four years. The ten men — mostly from High Wycombe — appeared before Oxford Crown Court facing a total of 37 charges between them. The charges, which range from rape and trafficking to conspiracy to rape and encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, stretch back to 2007 when the alleged victim, who cannot be named, was 12.
The ten men — who have all been released on bail — are:
Iblal Fiaz, 21, of St George’s Close; four counts of rape of a child under 13, seven counts of rape, and three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two counts of conspiracy to commit rape and trafficking.
Khasim Fiaz, 22, of St George’s Close; two counts of conspiracy to commit rape, two charges of rape of a child, aged under 13 years, one charge of rape and trafficking.
Jubrion Khan, 21, of Rutland Avenue; two counts of conspiracy to commit rape.
Khasim Dadd, 23, of Gibbs Close; one count of conspiracy to commit rape and one charge of rape.
Rameez Ali, 20, of West End Street; two charges of rape.
Mohammed Adnan, 21, of Upper Green Street: two charges of rape.
Asif Hussain, 21, of Plumber Road; two charges of rape.
Mudassar Hussain, 28, of Abbey Barn Road; two charges of rape.
Janaid Sharif, 26, of Cambridge Crescent; one charge of rape.
Ammar Rafiq, 18 from Kent Road in west London; one charge of rape and one count of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence.
They were arrested and charged as part of Thames Valley Police’s Operation Ribbon.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pity Our Poor PM — the Tories Are Now in a Post-Dave State of Mind
by Benedict Brogan
“Why can’t you just say the words? You want to be Prime Minister. Say it.” Boris Johnson looked about him like a cornered animal. Eddie Mair smiled. The interview reached its culmination, one of those exquisite moments when a bloodthirsty audience wills the inquisitor to make the victim squeal just a little bit more. The Circus Maximus was never this much fun. The Mayor of London was being slowly, methodically eviscerated on live television, and we all lapped it up, because he was being asked a question to which we know the answer…
It was the Boris moment on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning that revealed just how far advanced we are down the road to replacing Mr Cameron. The reason why becomes plainer by the day. He has been Conservative leader for seven and a half years; Prime Minister for nearly three. Yet an aura of end days hangs over him. His party operates as if he is already a lame duck. A verdict on the Cameron years is setting like concrete around his feet. His premiership is marked by disappointments, changes of direction, a falling out with his MPs and his party, and an overarching sense of promise unfulfilled…
[JP note: “Setting like concrete around his feet” — a phrase to savour for all those with no particular remit for the poor chap.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Government’s Counter-Terror Strategy: Quite a Bit Done, A Lot More to Do
by Paul Goodman
Almost eight years ago, 52 innocents were murdered and hundreds injured by Islamist terrorists on 7/7. Two years ago, David Cameron made a speech about the causes of that terror in Berlin — his so-called “Munich Speech”. In the years between the two events, debate raged both about policy responses to Al Qaeda terror — dividing politicians, civil servants, the security services, the police and academics into two main camps…
[Reader comment by parisclaims on 26 March 2013 at about 11 am.]
You can’t even boot out a known terrorist who arrived here on a forged passport who is costing the taxpayers a fortune.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
With its wooden interior, walls built out of straw bales and a roof made of grass, it looks like an idyllic home worthy of a film adaptation of a Tolkien novel.
However, this cosy house is at the centre of a planning battle that could see it being knocked down.
Sculptor Charlie Hague and Megan Williams built their own eco-home on land owned by his father in Glandwr, Pembrokeshire, with the intention of living there with their newborn son. The couple were living in a caravan for four years before the house was completed…
The problem is that they built the house without planning permission and are now having to fight their local authority which wants to demolish the building.
[Comment: Cool looking building built for 15,000 quid on private property.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Protestors Disavow Al-Qaeda
Algiers — Algeria’s National Committee for Protection of the Rights of the Unemployed (CNDDC) on Sunday (March 24th) disavowed attempts by terrorist and other political entities to exploit their movement. CNDDC spokesman Tahar Belabes issued the statement after al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) announced their support for the demands of southern Algerians who recently staged protests to demand employment…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Top Prosecutor Orders Arrest of Activists
Cairo — Egypt’s top prosecutor issued arrest warrants on Monday for five rights activists on suspicion of inciting violence against members of the president’s Muslim Brotherhood.
The wanted are blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Ahmed Doma, Karim El-Shaer, Hazem Abdel-Azim and Constitution Party member Ahmed El-Ghoneimi, all of whom have been banned from leaving the country by the prosecution…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Mosque Turned Into House of Torture for Christians After Muslim Brotherhood Protest
Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse. […] Demonstrators, some of whom were Muslim, say they were taken from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in suburban Cairo to a nearby mosque on Friday and tortured for hours by hard-line militia members.
[Story has graphic picture of scarred victim.]
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Job Protests Engulf South Algeria
Algiers — Thousands of demonstrators on Saturday (March 23rd) swarmed the Place de la Résistance in Laghouat in southern Algeria to press for jobs and recruitment transparency.
After the “Dignity March” held in Ouargla ten days ago, protests are spreading all over Algeria’s southern provinces. More rallies are slated for El Oued and Tamanrasset next week.
“We are moving into all provinces so that the authorities will agree to talk to us and find solutions to our problems,” National Committee for Protection of the Rights of the Unemployed spokesman (CNDDC) Tahar Belabes said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
North Africa: AQIM Names New Field Leader
Nouakchott — Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) named a 34-year-old Algerian to replace slain commander Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, Ennahar TV reported on Sunday (March 25th). Yahia Abou El Hammam (real name Djamel Okacha) is a close associate of AQIM leader Abdelmalek Droukdel. His appointment still needs to be confirmed by the terror group’s leadership.
His predecessor Abou Zeid (Mohamed Ghadir), the Tariq ibn Ziyad brigade chief, was killed late last month in Mali’s Ifoghhas mountains, French officials confirmed Saturday. Abou Zeid was considered a prominent element of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) that emanated from the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria (GIA). The group waged a fierce war against the Algerian regime in what was known as the bloody decade…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rise in Sexual Assaults in Egypt Sets Off Clash Over Blame
CAIRO — The sheer number of women sexually abused and gang raped in a single public square had become too big to ignore. Conservative Islamists in Egypt’s new political elite were outraged — at the women.
“Sometimes,” said Adel Abdel Maqsoud Afifi, a police general, lawmaker and ultraconservative Islamist, “a girl contributes 100 percent to her own raping when she puts herself in these conditions.”
The increase in sexual assaults over the last two years has set off a new battle over who is to blame, and the debate has become a stark and painful illustration of the convulsions racking Egypt as it tries to reinvent itself.
Under President Hosni Mubarak, the omnipresent police kept sexual assault out of the public squares and the public eye. But since Mr. Mubarak’s exit in 2011, the withdrawal of the security forces has allowed sexual assault to explode into the open, terrorizing Egyptian women.
Women, though, have also taken advantage of another aspect of the breakdown in authority — by speaking out through the newly aggressive news media, defying social taboos to demand attention for a problem the old government often denied. At the same time, some Islamist elected officials have used their new positions to vent some of the most patriarchal impulses in Egypt’s traditional culture and a deep hostility to women’s participation in politics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Salafists Announce Al-Qaeda Support
Tunis — Tunisian salafist jihadists announced their allegiance to al-Qaeda this week, accepting the group’s invitation to wage a holy war. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s call on Sunday (March 17th) to fight the French, westerners, secularists and other so-called “enemies” was welcomed by Tunisian salafist jihadists, the movement’s leader, Mohamed Anis Chaieb, told Assabah…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Nude Photo Draws Islamist Ire
Najjar — An Islamist activist on Thursday (March 21st) hacked the Facebook page of feminist group Femen’s Tunisian branch and posted religious messages after images of two members of the group posing topless were published on the internet, AFP reported. “Thanks to God we have hacked this immoral page and the best is yet to come,” read one message signed by “Al-Angour”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gazans Fire Rocket But Fail to Hit Israel; No Injuries
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket Sunday evening, causing no damages or injuries.
The IDF would confirm only that the rocket did not make landfall in Israel.
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Turkey: First Steps Towards Compensation
Following Netanyahu’s apology for raid on Mavi Marmara ship
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — Following Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s apology to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan Friday for a raid on the Mavi Marmara ship in 2010, the two countries are in talks about compensation, which Israel is committed to paying to the families of the victims, Turkey VP Bulent Arinc made known. According to Hurriyet online, Turkish diplomacy chief Ahmet Davutoglu and Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni agreed Monday to begin high level government negotiations on the matter with Foreign Affairs Minister Feridun Sinirloglu supervising on the Turkish side. Netanyahu’s apology, which was brokered by US President Barack Obama and came during a telephone conversation with Erdogan, marked the end of a 3 year freeze in relations between the two countries following the raid by Israeli special forces on the Mavi Marmara, a Gaza flotilla ship.
Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed during the attack.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rebels Get Syria Seat at the Arab League, But Cracks Appear
After resigning, the National Coalition president says he wants to give a speech “on behalf of the Syrian people.” Whilst Qatar is accused of trying to dominate the opposition, its emir calls for action to protect the “Arabness of Jerusalem.”
Doha (AsiaNews) — The Arab League kicked off its summit in Doha (Qatar) today with Syria’s opposition at the top of its concerns. Following its November 2011decision to suspend Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the League gave Syria’s seat to his opponents.
As expected, the Assad regime reacted angrily, slamming the decision to give its seat “to bandits and thugs”, but even within the League the decision was anything but quiet.
National Coalition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib announced his resignation on Sunday, allegedly due to tensions within the body caused by charges against Qatar that it wants to dominate the opposition. Still, inside the group, his resignation is likely to be rejected.
However, despite his decision to quit, Khatib said he would address the summit “in the name of the Syrian people.” Yet, the rebel coalition’s own prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, a member of the delegation to Doha, is also in a position to speak to the meeting.
The uncertainty is a sign of internal divisions within the opposition but also of broader cracks within the Arab League itself. The decision to hand the seat to the opposition has in fact had its detractors, with reservations expressed by Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon.
The absence, ostensibly for health reasons of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the two-year-old Syrian rebellion, and of Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani, who is more ambivalent on the seat issue, is an another indication of divisions within the organisation.
Notwithstanding its importance, Syria is not the only item on the League’s agenda. Arab leaders are also set to discuss the peace process between Israel and Palestine, currently at a standstill, especially in light of the silence on the 2002 Arab initiative that offered recognition to the Jewish state in exchange for a return to the 1967 borders.
On this issue, Qatar Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in his welcome speech that, in addition to support for a “political solution” to the Syrian crisis, he wanted to see the League do something to protect the “Arabness of Jerusalem.”
In this regard though, he acknowledged that past promises to aid the Palestinians have gone unfulfilled.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Rebels Ask US to Shoot Down Assad’s Warplanes With Patriot Missiles
[…]
Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib — who appeared Tuesday as the representative of Syria at an Arab League summit meeting following the Assad regime’s suspension — said that he had asked Secretary of State John Kerry “to extend the umbrella of the Patriot missiles to cover the Syrian north and he promised to study the subject,” Reuters reported.
The insurgents have few weapons to counter Assad’s helicopter gunships and warplanes. Al-Khatib added that the United States should play a bigger role in helping end the two-year-old conflict in Syria, blaming Assad’s government for what he called its refusal to solve the crisis.
[…]
The West and Arab nations’ perceived inaction in the face of the slaughter and destruction infuriates many Syrian opposition members, who say they cannot topple Assad without military hardware like anti-tank mines and anti-aircraft missiles.
That hesitancy is especially galling for many in the opposition given that other countries are already involved in the war to an extent: Russia, Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah support the regime more-or-less openly, while the United States, Europe and much of the Sunni Arab world are arrayed behind the rebels.
There are fears in the West that heavy weapons given to the rebels could fall into the hands of extremist groups fighting alongside them, such as Jabhat al-Nusra.
Despite of attempts to contain the crisis, the conflict is bleeding across its borders.
The civil war has already displaced an estimated 3 million Syrians, and sent more than a million fleeing into neighboring countries.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
West Drops Syria WMD Narrative as Evidence Points to Western-Armed Terrorists
For the US, UK, France, and its regional partners including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, nothing would have suited their interests more than if the recent chemical attack reported in Aleppo Syria turned out to be (or could have been portrayed as being) the work of the Syrian government, or even “loose” weapons that had fallen into the hands of Al Qaeda terrorists the West both arms and condemns simultaneously.
However, a strange silence has fallen across the Western media regarding the chemical attack which Israel had even claimed to have “confirmed.” Now, a recent report published in the London Telegraph by Channel 4 journalist Alex Thomson has produced convincing evidence that implicates the West’s terrorist proxies as the perpetrators, and goes far in explaining the otherwise inexplicable silence exhibited by Wall Street and London’s propaganda machine. Titled, “Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists,” Thomson reported that:
“The military’s version of events is that the home-made rocket was fired at a military checkpoint situated at the entrance to the town. The immediate effects were to induce vomiting, fainting , suffocation and seizures among those in the immediate area.
“A second source — a medic at the local civilian hospital — said that he personally witnessed Syrian army helping those wounded and dealing with fatalities at the scene. That Syrian soldiers were among the reported 26 deaths has not been disputed by either side.
“The military source who spoke to Channel 4 News confirmed that artillery reports from the Syrian Army suggest a small rocket was fired from the vicinity of Al-Bab, a district close to Aleppo that is controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra — a jihadist group said to be linked with al-Qaeda and deemed a “terrorist organisation” by the US.”
Thomson describes his contact in Syria as “a trusted and hitherto reliable source.” Thomson’s report, coupled with the silence across the West’s governments and media houses, implies that indeed this version of the story falls closest yet to the truth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Threat to Relations: Germany Irate Over Russian NGO Raids
Russian authorities have targeted German non-profit organizations as part of a crackdown on “foreign agents.” Officials are not happy, with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s office saying that interfering in their work could create “a sustained effect on bilateral relations.”
Russia’s recent large-scale crackdown against organizations designated as “foreign agents” has now been extended to German political foundations. Russian state prosecutors have launched investigations of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), a political think tank aligned with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union party, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), the think tank of the center-left Social Democratic Party, according to German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
At the Moscow headquarters of the FES, officials from the public prosecutor’s office and tax authority reportedly demanded various documents for several hours. The KAS St. Petersburg office received a questionaire with more than 20 inquiries about its staff and events. Lars Peter Schmidt, the head of the KAS, confirmed on Tuesday to SPIEGEL ONLINE that Russian investigators also seized a computer without a court order or explanation. Representatives of both foundations were reportedly asked to appear before the public prosecutor.
Reinhard Krumm, the FES’s head of operations for Central and Eastern Europe, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the company viewed the investigation as “a routine check.” “It’s an investigation without an accusation,” Krumm continued. “We are assuming that we can proceed with our work.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Searches German NGO Offices
Russian state prosecutors on Tuesday searched offices of German non-government organisations (NGOs), as part of a controversial crackdown on foreign groups.
Officials knocked on the doors of both both the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES) for a surprise inspection. However, both politically oriented think tanks stressed to the Süddeutsche Zeitung they had not been raided by the Russian authorities.
The inspections came after Russia changed its laws on how foreign organisations operate inside its borders — namely how NGOs financed by other countries are registered.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Marine Facing Trial in India Appeals for Political Unity
Latorre asks for united forces to resolve ‘tragedy’
(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — One of two Italian marines who face homicide charges in India for allegedly killing two fishermen has called on Italian politicians to show a united front on their behalf in an email to a journalist made public on Monday.
“Right now, it doesn’t help us to know who to blame, because it doesn’t lead us anywhere, and political parties bouncing responsibility off each other is even less useful,” Massimiliano Latorre wrote to Mediaset reporter Toni Capuozzo.
“What we ask for now is not division, but that they link arms, join forces and resolve this tragedy”.
The two marines, Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were sent back to India on Friday after a two-week diplomatic tug-of-war between countries that has exacerbated political tension within Italy and between Rome and New Delhi. Italy had announced the servicemen would not return to India after they came home to vote in last month’s general election.
This prompted India to order the Italian ambassador to New Delhi not to leave the country which, in turn, led to Rome to make a U-turn and send the servicemen back.
The handling of the affair prompted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to blast outgoing premier Mario Monti for doing “everything wrong” and call for him to be stripped of his status as Life Senator on Monday. Mediaset said Latorre’s email would be read out in its entirety on Monday night’s edition of its Terra! show.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar Imposes Curfew on 3 Townships in Bago Region
YANGON, March 26 (Xinhua) — Myanmar local authorities on Tuesday night imposed dusk-to-dawn curfew (6 p.m. to 6 a.m.) on three townships in central Bago region — Gyopingauk, Minhla and Okpho following violence in the areas on Monday, state TV reported. The three townships are the latest series hit by communal violence in a week after Meikhtila, Yemethin and Tatkon in northern Mandalay region. The curfew bans gathering of more than five people, making speech, procession and demonstration…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea has warned that it is close to attacking U.S. military bases — including on mainland America — as the rogue state accused their ‘enemy’ of intimidation and threats.
The communist country’s state media has said its strategic rocket and long-range artillery units have been ordered to enter the highest level of combat mode and are trained on three targets.
Kim Jong-Un’s dictatorship said on television it would be looking to hit Guam, Hawaii and mainland America after U.S. bombers flew more sorties threatening the North.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Protestors Arrested as Drama Grips Sydney University
SYDNEY, March 26 (Xinhua) — Several people have been arrested following a “near riot” at Australia’s Sydney University after protests of the university stuff became heated in Sydney on Tuesday. A NSW police spokesman said five people had been arrested during the prolonged protests at the university’s main Camperdown campus Tuesday. A breakaway group of students apparently with no affiliation or official ties to organizers, allegedly charged into a science lecture and were followed by the NSW police, leading to an affray…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ruling Allows Group to Take Mosque Fight to Court
The controversial opponents to the Gungahlin mosque have won the chance to build their case against it but have lost a bid to include a Christian fundamentalist activist in the proceedings. And the Concerned Citizens of Canberra group — which had just six members and $2159 in assets in October last year — has been told it must stump up $25,000 as security before the case can go ahead, after fears were raised about its ability to pay court costs if ordered to do so…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ethiopia: The National Intelligence and Security Service Foil an Al-Shabaab Plot
Ethiopia’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), today March 26th confirmed it had recently foiled a kidnap plot in Dolo Ado by a group with links to Al-Shabaab. The group was “caught red-handed with arms as they plotted to carry out the kidnappings” the NISS said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram — 12 Ganye Prison Inmate Escapee Re-Arrested
About 12 out of 124 prison inmates that were set loose on the recent Ganye Prison attack in Adamawa State by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram Islamic Sect has been recaptured by security forces. This was confirmed Monday by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Minister of Interior, Mr. George Udo when THISDAY enquired about government’s response to the upsurge in Prison’s attack and jail break across the country…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Border Patrol Uniforms Manufactured in Mexico
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has granted uniformcontracts to VF Imagewear, Inc., an apparel company that relies onmanufacturing sites in Mexico for a “significant percentage” of itsoccupational garments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Despite the Fanfare, David Cameron Still Isn’t Doing Anything on Immigration
by Douglas Murray
Well, it was right not to expect much. The full text of David Cameron’s speech on immigration is here but it can be summarised in one sentence: ‘mass migration has brought some good things, but it has also brought problems so here is some tinkering we propose.’ There are so many problems when our politicians speak on this subject. Not least is that they expect to be congratulated for saying the utterly obvious. For instance, most British people worked out a long time ago that those of us who already live here ought to have priority in housing over people who have just arrived. We also worked out some time back that an NHS which provides for the whole world is unsustainable and that if people haven’t paid into the system then the system shouldn’t pay out…
[Reader comment by Austin Barry on 26 March 2013 at about 11:30 pm.]
Cameron won’t talk about cultural change. It’s just numbers. Our political elites just don’t get it.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants Fail in Spain-by-Boat Bid
Spanish authorities on Monday intercepted three inflatable boats packed with a total of 27 illegal immigrants, including two women, which were trying to make landfall on Spain’s southern shore, the country’s maritime rescue services said.
The inflatable boats were stopped as they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and the would-be migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were given blankets and taken to the Spanish port of Tarifa, the maritime services said in a statement.
The Strait of Gibraltar separates Spain and Morocco by around just 15 kilometres (nine miles) — a ferry ride between the two continents takes roughly 35 minutes — making it one of the key smuggling routes for illegal immigrants crossing into Europe.
Thousands of illegal migrants from Africa regularly attempt to cross from Morocco into Spain on makeshift boats each year.
Authorities fear many of those who attempt the crossing by sea die of thirst, hunger or exposure.
In October at least 16 African migrants died while trying to reach Spain from Morocco by boat.
Two African migrants were found dead on October 26 on a boat carrying about 50 other would-be migrants, a day after 14 others were pulled dead from the water after their attempt to reach Spain on another raft failed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Coast Guard Intercepts 23 in Straits
Sub-Saharans trying to reach Spain aboard inflatables
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 26 — The Moroccan coast guard on Tuesday intercepted 23 migrants who were trying to cross the Straits of Gibraltar aboard four inflatables, sources at Cadiz (Andalusia) prefecture said. The first inflatable with five people aboard was intercepted six kilometers southeast of the Spanish town of Tarifa. The second, with seven people aboard, was intercepted 11 kilometers southeast of Tarifa, and the other two boats were intercepted eight kilometers off the Spanish coast.
The migrants were all young and in good health. Another 27 migrants were intercepted in the Straits between Sunday and Monday. All 50 migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, and have been taken to temporary detention centers in Cadiz, where they will be ID’d and repatriated.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nationalism and Internationalism
Iraq and immigration have one thing in common. Both are founded on the assumption that national political philosophies can be universally applied to any population with the same results.
The same leftists and radical libertarians who mocked the idea that Iraqis could be successfully transformed through democracy insist millions of illegal aliens from countries every bit as violent and unstable as Iraq can be successfully transformed by giving them legal status and the vote.
Both assumptions were and are wrong. They are both symptoms of an internationalism that assumes a favorite political philosophy that works in the United States can be applied internationally without regard for culture. And internationalism invariably undermines the nation by prioritizing an ideology over the rights and interests of the citizenry.
Internationalism is always unsustainable. Even the USSR was not able to sustain the call for a World Revolution for very long. Early efforts on the part of American radicals to champion anti-monarchial revolutions across Europe ended miserably with the French Revolution which threw its champion, Thomas Paine into a cell and marked him for execution…
If trying to bring democracy to Iraq doesn’t work, neither does trying to bring Iraq to democracy. Neither Mohammed nor the mountain are meant to meet and it’s a bad idea if they do, on either terms. Importing large numbers of immigrants from countries where democracy does not work will insure that our democracy does not work either. The last election should serve as ample demonstration of that.
Internationalism works both ways and it applies to the mistaken idea that national values are so broad that they can be applied universally to transform large foreign populations — whether through our invasion of foreign countries or their invasion of our country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Sudden Death of the UK Border Agency: A Whitehall Whodunnit
by James Kirkup
At Westminster, nothing can be taken at face value. When you’re a Cabinet minister rumoured to covet the PM’s job, suspicion is all the more intense. So Theresa May’s decision to drag the UK Border Agency back into the Home Office is inevitably the centre of speculation this afternoon. As Napoleon’s foreign minister, Tallyrand, once almost remarked on hearing of the death of a rival: “Whatever does she mean by that?”…
[JP note: Beam me up Scotty?]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Theresa May Splits Border Agency to End ‘Secretive and Defensive’ Culture
Britain’s beleaguered immigration service is to be split in two and brought directly under ministers’ control for the first time in five years, the Home Secretary announced today.
Theresa May said the UK Border Agency’s performance was “still not good enough” and it would be split to end its “closed, secretive and defensive culture”. The unexpected move means immigration will be supervised by Home Office ministers rather than operating at arm’s length under the control of a chief executive. It comes seven years after John Reid, the then Labour home secretary, described the Home Office as “not fit for purpose” after an immigration scandal that led to the sacking of his predecessor…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Theresa May Splits Up the UK Border Agency
By Peter Hoskin
Forget what your calendars say, this has been the month of May. It began with Theresa May’s department boasting that net migration has fallen by a third. It continued with her speech to ConservativeHome’s Victory 2015 conference. And now, today, it sees her make an important announcement in the Commons. The dysfunctional UK Border Agency is effectively going to be abolished, and two new organisations will take its place. One will deal with immigration and visas. The other will deal with law enforcement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Immigration and the Limits of the Possible
David Cameron will not be able to reach voters worried about immigration as long as he treats it as primarily an economic issue
Immigration is one of those areas where the Coalition has a surprisingly good story to tell. Britain is no longer as soft a touch as it was: tougher restrictions have been introduced, including controls on bogus student visas, and net migration is down by a quarter (although that is admittedly partly due to increased emigration). The backlash that followed the introduction of further controls yesterday has more to do with the fact that politics was allowed to trump policy, as David Cameron rushed to the podium with a ragbag of tough-sounding measures, hoping to shore up his credentials after the Eastleigh by-election debacle, only for them to prove less impressive on closer inspection (with Jeremy Hunt’s figures for the cost of health tourism, to take one example, seemingly plucked from the air)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Corrupt Media Cheer for Homosexual Rights
On the eve of Tuesday’s “March for Marriage” in Washington, to coincide with Supreme Court consideration of court cases on homosexual rights, more explosive evidence of the media bias driving the campaign to change America’s culture and Judeo-Christian foundations has emerged.
Speaking at a “gay journalists” event in New York City last Thursday night, Natalie Morales of the NBC Today Show declared, “Many of us here in this room — the media — we are responsible for opening the world’s eyes to these issues and the stories that have brought about such change. When you think 18 years ago when this organization was founded — think of where the country was back then. And now, 50 percent — according to the Pew poll that we talked about on the news today — support gay marriage, and…some other polls put that number even higher. [This] reflects a change in attitudes in this country.”
This was not just an event where journalists “came out of the closet” for homosexual rights; it was a fundraiser for the cause. Our media paid big money to participate as sponsors and hosts.
My associate Peter LaBarbera and I covered the homosexual rights fundraiser, held in New York City under the auspices of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), and saw first-hand that it was a “who’s who” of media stars from every major news organization in the U.S. They also included Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie of NBC, Gayle King of CBS News, Christine Romans of CNN, Amy Robach of ABC News, and Amanda Drury of CNBC.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Marriage Opponents March in Paris Before Vote
(Reuters) — Hundreds of thousands of people poured onto the streets of central Paris on Sunday to protest against President Francois Hollande’s plan to legalise gay marriage and adoption by June.
Television footage showed some scuffles breaking out, with security forces firing tear gas on pink-clad marchers waving flags and chanting slogans against Hollande. In France, anti-gay protesters often wear pink.
Official police estimates put the turnout at around 300,000.
It was the second such protest this year after a similar march in January highlighted eroding public support for the bill that had forced deputies to put off a plan to allow lesbian couples access to artificial insemination.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Marriage Debate Through a Child’s Eyes
Earlier this month, 11-year-old Grace Evans appeared before a panel of Minnesota lawmakers considering a redefinition of marriage in that state. She testified to the significance of her mother and father and the different contributions each makes to her life.
Then she ended with a simple question: “Which parent do I not need, my mom, or my dad?”
It’s a question proponents of same-sex marriage cannot answer.
This week, attorneys will echo Grace when they appear before the Supreme Court to defend two marriage laws defining the institution as the union of one man and one woman. The Court hears arguments Tuesday on California’s Proposition 8 and Wednesday on the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content]
Notwithstanding Dr. Gosnell’sjest, and the fact that newborns delivered alive are generally regarded as”babies,” the New York Times’ only story on the case is punctilious enough torefer to Gosnell’s victims as “viable fetuses,” and its early paragraphs emphasize the defense’s wearily predictable line that this is a “racistprosecution.” Instead of my Arizona comparison, what about Sandy Hook? Onesolitary act of mass infanticide by a mentally-ill loner calls into questionthe constitutional right to guns, but a sustained conveyor belt of infanticideby an entire cadre of cold-blooded killers apparently has no implications forthe constitutional right to abortion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Transforming the World by Subverting the Church
“Rockefeller promoted universal ecumenism by stating in December 1917… ‘I see all denominational emphasis set aside…I see the church molding the thought of the world… I see it literally establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.” Dr. James W. Wardner, Unholy Alliances: The Secret Plan and the Secret People who are Working to Destroy America.
The Social Gospel of the early 20th century shifted the focus of many church leaders from God’s unchanging Word to the world’s pliable illusions. Socialist seminary professors, pragmatic pastors, and deluded idealists validated their visions with hand-picked Bible verses that “fit” their social message. “Offensive” words like sin and redemption were redefined, contextualized or ignored. No need for the cross, since all people were considered essentially good.
Naturally, as socialist ideals tore away at the old Biblical barriers to spiritual pluralism, the change process accelerated. Even “conservative” pastors — like their purpose-driven guides — began to view Christianity primarily as good “deeds, not creeds.”
In Part 2, we documented these early strategies, patterned after the Kremlin’s plan for the Soviet “church.”
1. Infiltrate church institutions. 2. Adapt the Communist social campaign to America’s unique beliefs, wants, and values. 3. Concentrate on seminaries where each new convert learns to influence thousands. 4. Divert the heart and purposes of the Church from the spiritual to the material. 5. Demonstrate tolerance toward beliefs and values that clash with God’s Words.
“It’s not just tolerance, it’s to go beyond tolerance, to principle pluralism, which… means no religion has a privileged place,” said Richard Cizik, who represented the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) at the prestigious 2006 Clinton Global Initiative conference. “I would say one step even further, which is to say partnership… The fundamentalists have a pessimistic view of the future and they have this perception, unlike evangelicals and liberal Christians, that there’s an unbridgeable divide between the believer and the unbeliever… We don’t believe that.”
[…]
To “control the remaining 90 per cent” who act and think on an individual basis, former Communist leaders assigned all their subjects — workers, managers, prisoners and students — to local “soviets” (groups or councils) where they were trained in Georg Hegel’s dialectic process. They had to
1. “Share” thoughts and notions. [Now cheered as “authenticity”] 2. “Confess” contrary attitudes. [Brainwashing and “Education Reform”] 3. Write “self-criticisms” for group evaluation. [When Iron Gates Yield] 4. “Celebrate” Communist ideals and heroes 5. “Commit” themselves to follow the group consensus. 6. Practice what the group (led by the facilitator) decides. [PRAXIS]
This dialectic process is now the centerpiece of the world’s management systems. Designed to conform all minds to a common vision and mission (purpose), it calls for ground rules that ban divisive truths but demand tolerance for the world’s corrupt values.
[…]
When assigned to a group, members are encouraged to eat together, play together, serve the community together, and do short-terms mission trips together. There’s nothing wrong with Christian togetherness. But in this context — created by trained facilitator/leaders — every event becomes a practice session (praxis) in group dialogue and “Repressive Tolerance.” The latter refers to “intolerance against movements from the right, and toleration of movements from the left.” [See “Cultural Marxism” and “Three kinds of group relationships.”]
[Comment: TQM, ISO 9001, etc management systems promoted in private companies all use this dialectic process. Individuals who escaped from communist countries easily see these dialectic process for what it is.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As the Supreme Court hears arguments for and against gay marriage we might stand back from the whole judicial fracas and ask ourselves a larger and hopefully more startling question: “What is the government doing deciding what marriage is?”
This is really two questions in one. First, how did it come to be that we, as a culture, are in a position where something seemingly so natural, something that existed long before any governments were around, is now up for debate? Second, why is it that we would look to a branch of the government to settle that debate?
The answer to the first question is rather complex. For centuries (not just decades) liberalism has been picking away at the Christian foundations of Western culture. Liberalism is, in essence, a secular and secularizing movement; it is historically defined by its opposition to Christianity. Wherever secular liberalism spreads, Christianity recedes. Look at Europe.
Christianity defined marriage by what we might call radical monogamy: a life-long, entirely exclusive union of one man and one woman. No sex before marriage. No concubines. No polygamy. No divorce (except for infidelity). No homosexuality. No fiddling with little boys.
The pagan Roman culture into which Christianity was born smiled on sex wherever, whenever, and with whomever it occurred. Marriage was an important social institution in Rome, but it was not defined by radical monogamy. Concubines? No problem. Sex with your male and female slaves? No big deal. Divorce? Happens all the time. Got a favorite boy? Don’t we all. Like pornography? We’ll paint the walls of your villa next week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baron, I thought that I’d read that Ankara is ducking the issue, referring it to NATO.
It’s the rebels on-again, off-again, leader that requested Patriot interdiction across the frontier.
JF Kerry shot that proposal down. Obviously, even that level of intervention would have aligned NATO explicitly to the rebel cause. Yet, NATO is in no mood to get involved, period.
Britain and France are taking steps outside of the NATO alliance. So, too is the CIA, apparently.
It looks like it’s going to be an all-axis scrum. Lebanon figures to get sucked in, almost certainly.
Iraq is, de facto, a player already.
Jordan looks towards errecting a ‘firewall’ against the Syrian conflict.
At some juncture, it’s reasonable to expect that ManPADS will shut down the Iranian air convoy into Damascus.