There’s a lot of rich, meaty goodness in tonight’s news feed, which contains an extra day’s worth of material.
Chiheb Esseghaier, one of the “Canadians” charged with plotting a terror attack on the Toronto-to-New York rail link, refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Canadian judicial system. He says that he cannot submit to a system of laws that is not derived from holy scripture.
In other news, the terrorists freedom fighters of Al Nusra, the American-backed Syrian “rebel” force, have warned Lebanon to evict Hezbollah from Beirut, or the Syrian insurgent group will burn the city.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Lurker from Tulsa, Mary Abdelmassih, McR, Paul Green, 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.
Bank of Italy Says Country’s Tax Burden is ‘Growth Obstacle’
At 44% tax take is higher than in other EU countries
(ANSA) — Rome, April 23 — A top official from Italy’s central bank on Tuesday said the country’s tax burden was too high.
In testimony before the Senate, Daniele Franco, head of the Bank of Italy’s economic research division, said that the country’s overall tax burden at 44% of GDP is “very high”, both historically and when compared to other countries.
The tax burden in Italy is some three points higher than in other EU countries, Franco said, “and the high level of tax evasion means the burden on honest citizens is even heavier” and acts as an “obstacle to growth”.
Franco also said that further measures will be needed to keep the country’s budget balanced in the coming years.
“To keep the budget in balance also from 2015 on it will be necessary to introduce new measures, even if of a more limited nature than in the past,” Franco said in his testimony.
If governments were to keep a structural balance by refinancing all budgeted expenditures, the size of needed corrective measures would be equivalent to 0.2% of GDP per year over the three year period 2015-2017, or roughly 16-17 billion euros, Franco said.
However the Bank of Italy official warned that if the country wants its budget “also recognized at the European level” then it must come clean about what it intends to do regarding the share of taxes collected through current real-estate taxes.
While it was not mentioned by name, the reference was to the much-hated IMU tax put in place by the previous, technocrat government of Mario Monti, which raised the taxes Italians pay on their primary residence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Child Hunger is Exploding in Greece — And 14 Signs That it is Starting to Happen in America Too
The world is heading into a horrific economic nightmare, and an inordinate amount of the suffering is going to fall on innocent children. If you want to get an idea of what America is going to look like in the not too distant future, just check out what is happening in Greece. At this point, Greece is experiencing a full-blown economic depression. As I have written about previously, the unemployment rate in Greece has now risen to 27 percent, which is much higher than the peak unemployment rate that the U.S. economy experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s. And as you will read about below, child hunger is absolutely exploding in Greece right now. Some families are literally trying to survive on pasta and ketchup. But don’t think for a moment that it can’t happen here.
Sadly, the truth is that child hunger is already rising very rapidly in our poverty-stricken cities. Never before have we had so many Americans unable to take care of themselves. Food stamp enrollment and child homelessness have soared to brand new all-time records, and there are actually thousands of Americans that are so poor that they live in tunnels underneath our cities. But for millions of other Americans, the suffering is not quite so dramatic. Instead, they just watch their hopes and their dreams slowly slip away as they struggle to find a way to make it from month to month. There are millions of parents that lead lives that are filled with constant stress and anxiety as they try to figure out how to provide the basics for their children. How do you tell a child that you can’t give them any dinner even though you have been trying as hard as you can? What many families go through on a regular basis is absolutely heartbreaking. Unfortunately, more poor families slip through the cracks with each passing day, and these are supposedly times in which we are experiencing an “economic recovery”. So what are things going to look like when the next major economic downturn strikes?
A recent New York Times article detailed the horrifying child hunger that we are witnessing in Greece right now. At some schools there are reports of children actually begging for food from their classmates…
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Very few Americans understand how the Constitution defines “dollars” or the monetary powers and prohibitions delegated to Congress and the States. As a result, Americans take many unlawful monetary policies for granted, because they have known nothing different and have not questioned the national government’s authority to do the things it has done.
Every American should question if the government has the authority to emit a legal-tender paper currency irredeemable in silver or gold coin. If they have the authority to seize the people’s gold like the FDR administration did in 1933. If they are authorized to make the notes of private banks obligations of the United States and legal tender or allow private banks, through an administrative agency exercising unlimited discretion, to draw money from the Treasury without specific appropriations made by law.[1]
The answers to these questions are laid out in seven constitutional clauses that define “Money” and the powers both delegated to and prohibited from the national and State governments in regards to monetary policy. These seven clauses are the standard by which every act of Congress and State law, dealing with monetary policy, must be but has seldom been measured.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Hollande Calls for Unity, Focus on Recovery
Plunging ratings post-gay marriage bill, corruption scandals
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, APRIL 24 — On the eve of the end of his first year in office on May 5, French President Francois Hollande faces dismal approval ratings of just 27%, a country divided over the newly minted gay marriage law, galloping unemployment and the taint of scandal.
On the day following passage of France’s gay marriage and adoption rights law, Hollande called on the country to pacify and unite behind the essential objectives of employment and economic growth. The French might find this hard to swallow in a country rife with layoffs, restructurings and closing factories.
The resignation of Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac following the discovery of his illicit offshore bank account has cast doubt on the integrity of the entire government, including Hollande himself. The president responded by launching a new campaign to restore ethics to the political sphere, which he has called “a turning point for institutions”.
However his postponement of a new employment stimulus packet until May, and his refusal to grant amnesty for damages caused during trade union demonstrations have incensed the Socialist president’s traditional power base: once his allies, they have promised to take to the streets on May 5 to demand “the advent of the Sixth Republic”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Primary Surplus in Q1, But VAT Revenues Keep Sliding
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, APRIL 24 — The Greek State collected 506 million euros less than targeted in indirect taxes in the first quarter of the year, cutting short the enjoyment of the primary surplus attained in the January-March period against a forecast for a primary deficit, as Kathimerini online reports citing data released on Tuesday by the State General Accounting Office.
Adding to Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras’s worries is the fact that social security funds have absorbed 30% of their annual credit from the budget. The government achieved a primary surplus of 520 million euros in the year to end-March against a target for a primary deficit of 2.3 billion. Once again the shortfall in budget revenues is from indirect taxation, proving that the impact of the six-year-long recession has not yet been assessed properly. There has been a huge decline in consumption and this has had an immediate effect on indirect levies such as value-added tax and special consumption taxes. The data released yesterday attribute more than 40% of the shortfall to the fact that VAT revenues were 217 million euros off target in the year’s first three months. The biggest problem concerns VAT from fuel, which missed its quarterly target by 126 million euros.
Revenues from the special consumption taxes on tobacco and other commodities (not including fuel) came in 144 million euros below target, while those from energy commodities registered a shortfall of 55 million. However, the Finance Ministry says that special consumption tax revenues from tobacco products seem to have rebounded in March as the 33.3% shortfall in the year’s first couple of months was contained at 19.8% in Q1.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Retail Sales Down Down 4.8% in February
8th straight drop, sharpest since April 2012,
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Italian retail sales fell 4.8% annually in February with food sales down 4.0%, Istat said Wednesday.
It was the eighth straight drop and the sharpest since April 2012, the statistics agency said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Youth Unemployment Highest Since 1977
More than a third of 15-24-year-olds out of work
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Unemployment among Italians between 15 and 24 reached 35.3% in 2012, its highest since 1977, Istat said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Planetary Scientists Protest ‘Disastrous’ NASA Budget Cuts Proposed for 2014
Supporters of planetary science are rallying against NASA’s proposed 2014 budget, which they say unfairly guts funding for solar system research and exploration.
The Obama administration unveiled the budget plan April 10, requesting $17.7 billion for NASA — $50 million less than the agency got in 2012. The budget must be approved by Congress before it becomes official. Under the budget proposal, planetary science would receive $1.217 billion in 2014. Discounting the $50 million earmarked for producing plutonium-238, which fuels deep space vehicles (this used to be paid for by the Department of Energy), and $20 million for asteroid detection in service of a future manned asteroid mission, this represents a $268 million cut from planetary science funding levels approved by Congress for 2013, advocates said.
“The Planetary Society has deep concerns about the continued effort to defund planetary science in NASA’s 2014 budget proposal,” wrote officials from the society, which was founded by astronomer Carl Sagan to promote solar-system exploration, in testimony submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology April 24. “Without immediate investment in technology and mission development — not possible under the FY14 proposal — the United States will go ‘radio dark’ in almost all regions of the solar system by the end of the decade.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rate on 20-Month Italian Bonds Reaches Record Low
CTZ go for average of 1.167%
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — The rate on 20-month Italian CTZ bonds reached a record low at auction on Wednesday, going for an average interest rate of 1.167% in another sign pressure is easing on Italy’s borrowing costs amid hopes a new government will be formed soon.
The Treasury sold 2.5 billion euros’ worth of the CTZs, which mature in December 2014, at a rate that was 0.580% lower than at the last equivalent sale.
The Treasury also sold 750 million euros’ worth of index-linked BTP bonds set to mature in September 2023 at an average interest rate of 2.65%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Southern Italy’s Unemployment Doubles in 35 Years
Istat says jobless rate 8% in 1977, 17.2 in 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Unemployment in Italy’s less wealthy southern regions has more than doubled over the last 35 years, Istat said on Wednesday.
The national statistics agency said the jobless rate in the south was 8% in 1977, compared to 17.2% last year.
The unemployment rate for recession-hit Italy as a whole was 10.7% in 2012, compared to 6.4% in 1977.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Economy Grew at 2.5% Rate in First Quarter
The American economy sped up in the first quarter of this year, with output expanding at an annualized pace of 2.5 percent, according to a Commerce Department report released Friday.
Much of the acceleration in gross domestic product, though, was likely due to payback from an unusually slow growth at the end of 2012, when the economy grew at an annualized pace of just 0.4 percent. Growth in the fourth quarter had been dragged down by smaller restocking of businesses’ inventories, for example, and in the first quarter businesses made up for this by adding much more to their backroom shelves.
Consumer spending was up too, despite fears that the lapse of the temporary payroll tax holiday at the start of the year would hold back how much consumers were willing to spend. It’s unclear whether consumers will continue to spend as freely in the months ahead, once they start to feel the pinch of this effective tax hike, particularly if wages continue to stagnate.
| [Return to headlines] |
I first met Howard some thirty years ago in the Bahamas. I attended a national meeting of conservative leaders and Howard was one of the principal speakers. I suppose the first thing that struck me about Howard was his remarkable intellect and deep conviction. It is no hyperbole to say that Howard Phillips was one of the most brilliant men I have ever met. A graduate of Harvard, Howard’s grasp of government, history, and law was unequalled. Howard Phillips forgot more about those subjects than the vast majority of us will ever learn. He was literally a walking history encyclopedia. He might have been the keenest, sharpest mind that I have ever been exposed to. Howard Phillips was an intellectual giant.
But as awesome as his mind was, Howard’s commitment to the principles of liberty was equally awesome. Liberty has never had a more ardent defender than Howard Phillips. And communism never had a more formidable adversary.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The death of Howard Phillips, 1941-2013, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, is a major blow to the conservative movement. He always stood for principle. He was a conservative first and last. He started a third political party when the Republican Party began drifting away from conservatism. A real family man, he is survived by his wife Peggy, six children, and 18 grandchildren.
Since there seems to be some confusion about the meaning of the term these days, it is important to define “conservative.” A true conservative, like Howard Phillips, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement, believed and affirmed traditional moral and religious values, a strong national defense and economic freedom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CIA director Michael Hayden has helpfully explained, “This tragedy is the new normal.”
Are you surprised that a whole city was ordered to “shelter in place” as one “knockoff jihadi,” in Vice President Biden’s term, roamed the streets? Don’t be. It’s the new normal. Are you shocked by the Obama administration’s dissembling in response to terror attacks in Benghazi? Don’t be naïve. It’s the new normal. Are you worried that the president proclaims “red lines” to deter dictators from, e.g., using chemical weapons, then does nothing to enforce them? Don’t be unsophisticated. As Rep. Adam Smith, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, explained, “The president said it was a red line. What the president never said was what that meant exactly.” It’s the new normal. Are you startled that the commander in chief accepts defense cuts that the president’s own defense secretary said would be “devastating” and “a disaster” and “would inflict severe damage to our national defense”? Don’t be foolish. It’s the new normal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘America Took My Kids Away’: Mother of Boston Suspects Insists Sons Not Responsible
MAKHACHKALA, Russia — The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects insisted Thursday that her sons are not responsible for the attack and said she did not see any aggression in the older brother, even when the FBI questioned him two years ago. Speaking to reporters in Russia, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva also said the elder son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, came to Russia for six months last year to attend a family wedding, visit relatives and later renew his Kyrgyzstan passport. “America took my kids away from me,” she said. “I’m sure my kids were not involved in anything.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
American Gestapo: Boston Bombing Reveals Washington’s True Colors
The Gestapo-like tactics that were implemented in Boston last week by the military-style police forces are just a small sign of things to come in America… including a large spike in military-style drones flying over — and spying on — American cities as well as a new influx of high definition security cameras in major U.S. cities.
As we expected, the power hungry elites in Washington are using the Boston bombings to force a false choice on the American “sheeple”.
And they are using the corporate-controlled media to spread their delusional attempts at a massive power grab.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Semitic Hate Crime Against Massachusetts Pro-Israel Church
“It’s Saturday, so massacre the Jews; on Sunday, massacre the Christians.” is the Arab canard cited by Andy Bostom in a recent blog post. It aptly describes the anti-Semitic hate crime perpetrated on Friday night, April 19th against the pro-Israel Victory Assembly of God Church in Sharon, Massachusetts. Victory, with an active congregation of 250 families was founded in 1991 and is led by Senior Pastor Dick Ingram and Outreach Director Pastor Joe Green. Green is a commercial pilot and heads the Church’s ‘Wings’ ministry. When the church pastors came Friday night following a call from the local Sharon Police they found broken windows, several doors of the church were spray painted with a Nazi swastika and a banner promoting an interfaith celebration of Yom Yerushalayim Jerusalem Day was torn to shreds. Jerusalem Day commemorates the re-unification of Jerusalem following the June 1967 Six days of War. Saturday morning they were joined in the cleanup by a local friend and colleague, Rabbi Jonathan Hausman, who told them” welcome to my world.” Pastor Green expressed the view that Victory was attacked because of the Yom Yerushalayim benefit. …One hopes that the Victory Yom Yerushalayim benefit will attract a large audience and that a significant love offering delivers proceeds for the ALYN Hospital in Jerusalem. A debt of gratitude to Pastors Ingram and Green. They are the epitome of Moses’ instructions to Joshua bin Nun about to enter the Holy Land, Hazak v Amatz, “Be strong and resolute”. Given their creation of Rabbis and Ministers for Israel, what Jews recite at the conclusion of reading each book in the Torah might apply: “Chazak, Chazak, v’nitchazek” — “Be strong, be strong, and may we strengthen one another.”
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Terror Task Force Was Warned of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Long Trip to Russia
Nine months before the Boston Marathon bombing, a U.S. counterterrorism task force received a warning that a suspected militant had returned from a lengthy trip to Russia, U.S. officials said.
The warning was delivered to a single U.S. Customs and Border Protection official assigned to Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a cell of specialists from federal and local law enforcement agencies. The task force was part of a network of multi-agency organizations set up across the country after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to make sure that clues and tips were shared.
But officials said there is no indication that the unidentified customs officer provided the information to any other members of the task force, including FBI agents who had previously interviewed the militant.
[Comment: Note Washington Post’s use of the term ‘militant’.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Brother Has a New Face, And It’s Your Boss
Recently, the CVS Caremark Corporation began requiring employees to disclose personal health information (including weight, blood pressure, and body fat levels) or else pay an annual $600 fine. Workers must make this information available to the company’s employee “Wellness Program” and sign a form stating that they’re doing so voluntarily.
CVS argues this will help workers “take more responsibility for improving their health.” At one level, this makes a certain sense. Because the company is paying for their employees’ health insurance, they naturally prefer healthier workers. But at a deeper level, CVS’ action demonstrates a growing problem with our current system of employer-provided health insurance. If our bosses must pay for our health care, they will inevitably seek greater control over our lifestyles.
Although most Americans take it for granted that they receive health insurance through the workplace, this is an artifact of federal tax rules from World War II. When the U.S. government imposed wartime wage controls, employers could no longer compete for workers by offering higher salaries. Instead, they competed by offering more generous fringe benefits such as health insurance. In 1943, the IRS ruled that employees did not have to pay tax on health benefits provided by employers; in 1954, the IRS made this permanent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Marathon Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Planned to Bomb Times Square, Says New York Mayor
The Boston marathon bombers planned to travel to New York and mount a second attack with six more bombs, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving bomber, is said to have disclosed that he and his brother Tamerlan intended to attack Times Square, one of the city’s busiest areas, before being halted by police last Friday. “Last night we were informed by the FBI that the surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets,” Mr Bloomberg said at a press conference at City Hall today…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Marathon Suspects ‘Radicalised on the Web’
The two suspects responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing appear to have been radicalised by online material rather than direct contact with terror groups, a US senator said Tuesday, as more details emerged from investigators and family members.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Californians Sign Petition for Nazi Takeover (Video)
Just as we got Austinites to sign a petition to ban water. Infowars and Mark Dice teamed up to ask Californians to sign up for a Nazi Takeover, Door to Door Gun Confiscation, Add More Police Powers etc. Watch and be amazed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chambliss: Law Enforcement Agency May Have Known About Boston Bombing in Advance
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Channel 2 Action News late Tuesday afternoon that a law enforcement agency may have had information in advance of the Boston bombings that wasn’t properly shared.
“There now appears that may have been some evidence that was obtained by one of the law enforcement agencies that did not get shared in a way that it could have been. If that turns out to be the case, then we have to determine whether or not that would have made a difference,” Chambliss said.
Though Chambliss would not get into specifics on the information or whether or not the bombing could have been prevented, he told Channel 2 Action News that they will find out if someone dropped the ball.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Confirmed: Both FBI & CIA Watched Boston Bombing Suspects for Years
FBI & CIA now admit to putting Boston bombing suspect on 2 “watch lists,” directly contradicting previous public statements. CIA most likely sponsored suspect’s trips to meet US-backed terrorists in Chechnya, Russia.
It is now confirmed that Russian investigators contacted the FBI at least as early as 2011 in regards to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and again just 6 months before the Boston attacks. Additionally, it is now revealed that both the FBI and CIA had Tsarnaev on at least 2 terrorist watch lists, contradicting previous FBI statements that the case was “closed” after not finding “any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign.”
The suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and brother Dzhokar Tsarnaev, would be revealed to the public by the FBI a day after a bizarre press conference cancellation and a security scare at the federal courthouse where a suspect was allegedly being brought.
The FBI would feign ignorance over the suspects’ identity, appealing to the witless public for help identifying and apprehending them. It would be claimed by the suspects’ family members that the FBI had long been in contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and that the bombing was a set-up.
The FBI’s bizarre behavior grew more suspicious when CBS reported that initially the FBI denied it had any prior contact with the Tsarnaev’s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Details of Boston Bombing Suspects Continue to Emerge, Pointing to Militant Islam
by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) — Details continue to trickle out about the background of the Boston Marathon bombers, with evidence mounting that the two suspects may have subscribed to militant Islamic beliefs…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
DHSS: Complicity and Collusion
While the politburo that rules over us attempts to push through universal gun registration then gun confiscation by calling for universal background checks, America’s Department of Homeland Schutzstaffel is buying over 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, over 7,000 full-auto assault rifles (the same assault rifles they don’t want us to have even as semi-auto) and more than 2,700 mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) armored vehicles.
We’re told by our government and Pravda Americana — the two greatest liars of all time — that DHSS is buying the ammo in bulk to save us money, even though most of this cost-saving ammo is more expensive hollow point bullets — which are made to kill people, not silhouettes. They tell us they plan to use this ammo at a rate of 15 million rounds a year to train law enforcement. That’s a 100-year supply of bullets. What laws do you suppose their officers will be enforcing? Not the Constitution.
All those who don’t accept their propaganda but believe the government is prepping for war against gun owners, veterans and those who attend church more than once a week — the folks DHSS, through information supplied by their Gestapo, the Southern Poverty Law Center, call terrorists — are tagged as “white, right-winged” conspiracy nuts who hide in caves, waiting for the apocalypse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Walk Out of National Obamacare Implementation Meeting
(NaturalNews) According to live tweets and images sent from ophthalmologist Dr. Kris Held, nearly all doctors had walked out in protest and disgust of Obamacare implementation talks at a prominent national health care meeting. Typically, The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Government Relations session is a well attended, formal business conference where brilliant minds in medicine convene. This year was a different story. With talks of Obamacare implementation and compliance underway, doctors left and right had left the auditorium.
Dr. Kris Held tweeted during the meeting, “Doctors are literally walking out of this talk on implementing, complying with Obamacare. We are men and women of the mind not mindless drones.”
“In the past our government relations session was well attended. Government minion is droning on, as virtually all doctors have walked out.”
“I’m staying to the bitter end to make comment and ask how government plans to do all this with no doctors?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The demands on the U.S. Air Force are not shrinking, although its money is.
By Michael Auslin
Seoul, South Korea — Last month, in a show of force, President Obama sent America’s most advanced aircraft here to the Korean peninsula. The same week, U.S. Air Force officials began grounding one-third of America’s combat fleet, thanks to budget cuts imposed by the president and Congress. Air Combat Command, which controls the Air Force’s fighters and bombers, announced that it will stand down 17 combat squadrons, to absorb a loss of 44,000 hours of flying time and a reduction of funding for operations and maintenance. While some thought that cost-cutting and sequestration threats would have little effect on the U.S. military, with its $500 billion budget, the reality has turned out to be quite different. This is the new normal for the U.S. military: Keep fighting and working, but do it on the cheap.
Air Force officials say the grounding is necessary to allow other, “mission critical” squadrons to maintain their flying hours and full operational status. Those no longer flying include reconnaissance units and squadrons of F-22s, F-16s, F-15s, B-1s, and B-52s. Other units are being kept at what is known as “basic mission capable,” meaning they can do basic flying and maintenance but cannot perform combat missions. The commander of Air Combat Command, General Mike Hostage, said bluntly in announcing the groundings, “We’re accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur.”
What does this mean regionally? A partial answer was given last week, during the confirmation hearing for U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove to become Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander, U.S. European Command (EUCOM). Several times during his testimony, either General Breedlove or the senators questioning him mentioned that four of America’s six combat squadrons in Europe are grounded through September. That would make a mission like the one in Libya in 2012 impossible to carry out today. Given that EUCOM has Israel in its purview, is central for providing support for operations in Afghanistan, and would support any intervention in Syria or Iran, the options that the U.S. Air Force can provide to the president and secretary of defense have declined dramatically these past few months.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Falsely Identified ‘Boston Bomber’ Found Dead in River
Sunil Tripathi originally fingered as culprit by 4chan users.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Conducting Gun Sweeps in Oakland
Less than a week after SWAT police went house to house ripping families out of their homes during broad daylight in the manhunt that ensued following the Boston bombings, other police departments have seemingly taken a police state cue and followed suit.
Yesterday it was reported that FBI agents and local police SWAT along with the California Highway Patrol conducted a “massive sweep” of Oakland where they barricaded several streets and closed down certain parts of the town for more than an hour.
“It appeared to be an extensive operation with many officers involved,” KTVU reported, adding, “There were agents carrying out actions in numerous parts of the city Wednesday night.”
Armored vehicles and helicopters circling overhead assisted the patrols as law enforcement allegedly served warrants for drugs and weapons charges.
It’s reasonable to assume that the raids partially occurred as a result of SB 140’s recent passage, an unconstitutional California bill touted as one that would expedite the confiscation of “illegal” firearms from people with “serious mental illness” and criminal convictions.
Reportedly, the tax-payer funded Oakland police did not feel it necessary to divulge details to news crews the night of the raid, saying “they were not at liberty to discuss what the action concerned.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former FBI Employee: Bombers Could Have Been Recruited by FBI
Former FBI employee Sibel Edmonds believes the pursuit of truth will eventually lead to a far more secret agenda by the US, which she reveals to RT.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News “The Five” Panelist Beckel Says: Stop Visas for Muslim Students
Bob Beckel, the liberal panelist on Fox News, “the Five” stunned his fellow panelists with his comments regarding a moratorium on US visas for Muslim Students. He noted the more than 75,000 Muslims with student visas approved to be educated in this country, a minority of who never show up for classes creating a potential security risk. “There are 75,000 Muslim students on visas in this country,” he said. “A student visa is easiest thing to get. One of people in 9/11 was on a student visa, and there have been others on student visas. “How many of those have been looked at very carefully? That is one of problems. We can say only a few have gotten in on student visas but we have a lot of students here who may themselves harbor some feelings [of] resentment toward the United States. They come from countries where they are frankly brainwashed about the United States from the beginning. Their leaders don’t like the United States.”
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders: No Surprise the Boston Bombers Were Fans of the Sheikh
Geert Wilders writing in The Australian
NO, I was not surprised when the Tsarnaev brothers, the terrorists involved in last week’s Boston bombing, turned out to be Islamic radicals. And neither am I surprised that they are fans of Australian Islamic cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed
Nor will I be surprised if a similar attack happens in Australia — or Europe, or anyplace where the authorities remain blind to the true nature of Islam. We learned on Tuesday of a planned attack in Canada.
Read the Koran and you will find the explanation. “Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it,” the Koran tells the faithful (2:216). In case anyone doubts what is meant by fighting: “I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, maim them in every limb!” (8:12)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
George Jones: Country Singer, Dies at 81
George Jones, the definitive country singer of the last half-century, died Friday at a hospital in Nashville. He was 81.
He was hospitalized on April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, the Web site of Webster & Associates, his publicists, said in announcing the death.
Mr. Jones, who was nicknamed Possum for his close-set eyes and pointed nose, and later No-Show Jones for the concerts he missed during drink and drug binges, was a legendary figure in country music. His singing, which was universally respected and just as widely imitated, found vulnerability and doubt behind the cheerful drive of honky-tonk. With a baritone voice that was as elastic as a steel-guitar string, he brought suspense to every syllable, merging bluesy slides with the tight, quivering ornaments of Appalachian singing.
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Governor Refuses Release of Welfare Records; Cites Bombers’ Right to Privacy
The Patrick administration clamped down the lid yesterday on Herald requests for details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s government benefits, citing the dead terror mastermind’s right to privacy.
Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old man and his brother and accused accomplice Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Paranoia: Teacher Suspended After Showing Students Garden Tools
(NaturalNews) The intemperate, extreme nature of today’s education establishment just keeps getting more and more absurd, as evidenced by details of a recently filed lawsuit surrounding claims that a teacher was suspended after bringing garden-variety tools to class.
Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute, a civil rights-oriented public interest legal organization, filed the suit on behalf of Doug Bartlett, a 17-year veteran teacher, after he was suspended by officials at the Washington Irving Elementary School in Chicago for bringing wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers to class as part of a “tool discussion,” CNSNews.com reports.
Those tools, according to school officials, are weapons, you see, and as such, are not permitted on campus grounds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
(NaturalNews) In a sick experiment on humans that eerily resembles the horrors of the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, which involved deliberately infecting hundreds of black men with sexually-transmitted diseases between 1932 and 1972, a cohort of researchers from at least 23 prestigious American universities is the center of a new controversy involving medical experimentation on premature babies. According to The New York Times (NYT), parents who allowed their children to participate in a recent oxygen study were not properly informed about the serious risks involved.
These risks included blindness and death, both of which are common particularly among premature babies when the oxygen levels they breathe are either too low or too high. But the orchestrators of taxpayer-funded research involving both the deprivation and over-administration of oxygen to premature babies failed to disclose the severity of these risks to the babies’ parents, which ended up coming as a surprise in the form of eye disease and early mortality. And a prominent government agency whose purpose it is to protect research participants from harm agrees…
Stanford, Duke, Yale and many others appear to have violated federal informed consent laws.
The study in question took place between 2004 and 2009, and involved 1,300 infant participants, all of whom were born early at a time between 24 and 27 weeks of gestation. These high-risk participants were assigned to either high- or low-oxygen treatment groups, and were subjected to said treatments for observation purposes. The results of the study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2010.
But after hundreds of babies died or developed eye disease, parents and others decided to take a closer look at the consent forms issued in conjunction with the study. It was determined, upon investigation, that the consent forms failed to mention either blindness or death as a possible outcome for infant participants, and instead only mentioned very minor risks such as abrasion to infants’ skin that may occur as a result of being hooked up to an oxygen monitoring device. Worse, the same consent forms actually alleged that infant participants could derive health benefits from the treatments, including a lowered risk of needing eye surgery in the future.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Carrying Man Ends Stabbing Spree at Salt Lake Grocery Store
A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith’s store.
Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith’s employee Dorothy Espinoza says, “He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people.”
Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. “There is blood all over. One got stabbed in the stomach and got stabbed in the head and held his hands and got stabbed all over the arms.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hubble Telescope Looks to the Future After 23 Years in Space
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope celebrates a whopping 23 years in orbit today, but astronomers are hopeful that the iconic instrument can keep studying the heavens for years to come.
The Hubble team is aiming to keep the telescope — which launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990 — operating through 2020. That would ensure at least one year of overlap with its $8.8 billion successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is slated to launch in late 2018.
“At this point in time, that appears to be feasible,” said Hubble Mission Office head Ken Sembach of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., which manages Hubble’s science operations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Media Magic: Not One Angry Person in Boston
Shocked? Horrified? Grief-stricken? Determined? Yes, Boston residents who voiced those feelings passed through the media filters and were interviewed on camera.
But angry? Deeply angry at what happened at the Marathon and ready to give vent to it? The screeners took a pass.
I wrote about this subject after the Sandy Hook murders, and it applies to the Aurora massacre as well.
The sober sepulchral tones of media anchors, and their extreme deference to FBI, police, and politicians, form a hypnotic induction for viewers…and these leaders don’t want to break the spell, which is exactly what anger does.
Therefore, it’s a no-go.
Anger is a spark that fires up and spreads. So dampen it. Ignore it. Don’t show it on television news. Instead, say this: “Step back, everybody, huddle in your homes, let the pros do their job, they’ll catch the killers, look at the photos they want you to look at, remain calm, depend on designated officials.“
This is the new American dream.
If you don’t show anger on the television news, it doesn’t exist. Out of sight, out of mind.
Then, once in a while, media can point to an angry group they want to defame: “See, look at those people. They’re angry. They’re the only people who are. So there must be something wrong with them. They’re dangerous. What they stand for must be a threat to all the rest of us…because they’re angry.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Once again, officialdom has changed its story about what happened last week when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was allegedly captured in a boat in a neighborhood back yard in Watertown, Massachusetts.
– — – — – From the AP this evening:
Authorities originally said they had exchanged gunfire with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for more than one hour Friday evening before they were able to subdue him.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation, say investigators recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tsarnaev’s brother, Tamerlan, from the site of a gun battle Thursday night, which injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer. Dzhokhar was believed to have been shot before he escaped.
The officials tell The Associated Press that no gun was found in the boat. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oklahoma Lawmaker Apologizes for Jewish Slur
NEW YORK — A local Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma received national attention after using the term “Jew me down” while speaking about small business owners to his colleagues.
The phrase, objectively characterized as anti-Semitic, refers to age-old stereotypes of Jews as cheap moneymen, haggling for lower prices.
Related: •UK parliamentarian apologizes for anti-Jewish slurRepresentative Dennis Johnson, co-majority leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, was arguing during a floor debate last week that the quality of service was key to the success of small businesses, before noting that some customers “try to Jew me down” on pricing, in his own experience, according to The Tulsa World.
Johnson earned chuckles from his fellow lawmakers as he issued a curt apology just seconds later, when an aide handed him a note pointing out the indiscretion.
“I apologize to the Jews,” he said. “They’re good small businessmen as well.”
After the story gained national traction, Johnson expanded on his apology in the Oklahoman newspaper, saying that the slur came from the “wrinkles of [his] brain” and that he would never say it again.
Johnson collected $29,361 in donations in 2010 when he was up for reelection. One of his largest benefactors was former vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s political action committee, Prosperity PAC.
The state lawmaker earned the votes of just under 10,000 people— a near two-thirds majority in the election.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Police State Show of Force Not Working
In two separate polls conducted following the Boston bombings, most Americans have said that they do not support expanded government surveillance or an infringement on civil liberties.
A Fox News poll asked respondents “Would you be willing to give up some of your personal freedom in order to reduce the threat of terrorism?”
In response, 45 percent said they would not be willing to sacrifice some of their liberties, compared to 43 percent of (shee)people who said they would.
That number is down from 54 percent on figures from 2006, and down from a high of 71 percent the month after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
It also represents the first time since 1996 that more people are unwilling to give up freedoms than those who are willing, indicating that Americans are increasingly rejecting government invasion into their privacy in the name of fighting terrorism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Service Tried to Block Press From Bombing Questions? (Video)
Bidondi has told Infowars on record he was threatened before and after the press conference
Before the FBI’s rescheduled Thursday press conference, where they for the first time publicly presented blurry photos and surveillance footage of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev, Infowars.com reporter Dan Bidondi had earned a reputation for being the guy who asked about prior knowledge and “false flags.”
At the first Boston bombing press conference, which took place Monday, April 15 almost immediately following the bombings, Dan questioned Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis as to whether police had prior knowledge of the bombings, to which the Commissioner replied they had “no specific intelligence” regarding such a threat.
Bidondi also had the guts to ask Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick at a second press conference whether the Boston bombing was a false flag attack geared to take away our civil liberties and justify the TSA sticking their hands down our pants. While Gov. Patrick answered Bidondi with a terse, “No,” the ensuing police state takeover of Watertown, Mass., in which police forcibly (and without warrants) evacuated people from their homes, only proved Bidondi’s and Infowars’ prescient knowledge of such events.
As the press conferences were broadcast globally, Bidondi’s voice was heard by millions of people around the world, and as a result (and as we documented) subsequently caused a massive spike in the amount of people curious over the search term “false flag.”
It’s become evident the media did not anticipate Bidondi’s questions. It also appears that he turned the heads of higher ups, chiefly from the Obama administration.
At the FBI’s Thursday press conference, Bidondi was barred from asking any questions whatsoever. It also seems he caused them to prematurely shut down their presentation after only taking about two questions from the media.
As the FBI left the conference, two big, bald men approached Bidondi and blocked his repeated attempts to get a question in.
An Infowars reader has identified one of the men who approached Bidondi as a Secret Service member and specifically one entrusted with protecting Obama himself.
[Comment: Check out the photo; the bald man man appears quite irate.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Chuck Schumer on Border Security: ‘We Certainly Need More Drones’
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a Senate Judiciary hearing on the Immigration Modernization Act, a bill he helped author, that visiting the U.S. southern border was a “revelation” and more drones were needed to secure it.
“Look, I went to the border,” Schumer said on Tuesday. “It was a revelation to me.” Schumer’s trip to Arizona was with Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain, both of Arizona, and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) — all part of the so-called “Gang of Eight” that unveiled the legislation last week.
Describing the surveillance technology “amazing,” Schumer called for increasing the number of drones along the U.S. border with Mexico.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Special Report: Obama Moves on Guns Without Congress (Video)
When Obama said, “We can’t wait for Congress to do its job. So where they won’t act, I will… We’re going to look every single day to figure out what we can do without Congress,” he wasn’t kidding. This is Tyranny!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected Saudi Terrorist Al-Harbi Visited White House Numerous Times
Visited by First Lady Michelle Obama while in hospital
Saudi national Abdul Rahman Ali al-Harbi, who was briefly held as a “person of interest” in the Boston bombings and then downgraded in less than 24 hours to a witness, visited the White House on numerous occasions since 2009, The Rightscoop reports today.
The startling allegation follows an earlier report indicating that al-Harbi was visited in the hospital by First Lady Michelle Obama after he allegedly sustained injuries from one of the explosives placed at the Boston Marathon.
Blogosphere sleuths subsequently put their hands on a photo definitively placing Obama at the hospital.[link]
Saudi On Terror Watch List
The Department of Homeland Security confessed today that al-Harbi was on a terror watch list, although DHS boss Napolitano attempted to minimize this revelation by stating that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two officials with knowledge of the FBI briefing on Capitol Hill said the FBI was against stopping the investigators’ questioning and was stunned that the judge, Justice Department prosecutors and public defenders showed up, feeling valuable intelligence may have been sacrificed as a result.
The FBI had been questioning Tsarnaev for 16 hours before the judge called a start to the court proceeding, officials familiar with the Capitol Hill briefing told Fox News. Moreover, the FBI informed lawmakers that the suspect had been providing valuable intelligence, but stopped talking once the magistrate judge read him his rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Means, opportunity and motive are the three crucial elements of investigating a crime and establishing the guilt of its perpetrator. Means and opportunity tell us how the crime could have been committed while motive tells us why it was committed.
Many crimes cannot be narrowed down by motive until a suspect is on the scene; but acts of terrorism can be. Almost anyone might be responsible for a random killing; but political killings are carried out by those who subscribe to common beliefs.
Eliminate motive from terrorism and it becomes no different than investigating a random killing. If investigators are not allowed to profile potential terrorists based on shared beliefs rooted in violence, that makes it harder to catch terrorists after an act of terror and incredibly difficult before the act of terror takes place.
[…]
Defeating ourselves in order to defeat Islamic terrorism is a dead end because we are not the source of that terrorism; we are its target. When we handicap ourselves out of a misguided notion that the best way to fight terrorism is with one hand tied behind our backs and an eyepatch on one eye, then Americans die.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Disconcerting Details: How Facebook Teams Up With Data Brokers to Show You Targeted Ads
Recently, we published a blog post that described how to opt out of seeing ads on Facebook targeted to you based on your offline activities. This post explained where these companies get their data, what information they share with Facebook, or what this means for your privacy.
So get ready for the nitty-gritty details: who has your information, how they get it, and what they do with it. It’s a lot of information, so we’ve organized it into an FAQ for convenience.
What are data brokers and how did they get my information?
Is there a government surveillance aspect to this?
What information is flowing between data brokers and Facebook?
What does opting out mean?
Does Facebook have standards for companies that want to work with them?
Will Facebook show me targeted ads off of Facebook?
What should Facebook be doing differently?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Human-Hating Roots of the Green Movement
Earth Day remains a celebration of anti-capitalism, anti-humanism, population control and ill-disguised totalitarianism
Monday was the 43rd celebration of Earth Day, an event hailed as an effort to promote responsible stewardship of the environment. Fittingly, it is also the birthdate of Communist Party creator Vladimir Lenin, a reality that the radical environmentalists responsible for the creation of Earth Day dismiss as a mere coincidence. Yet there is little question that under the guise of “saving the planet,” the earth-firster crowd would be more than willing to impose the same kind of totalitarian control over the masses envisioned by Lenin.
Like communism, the radical environmentalism that forms the heart of Earth Day celebrations is all about collectivism. In a 2007 column for the Cato Institute, former Czech Republic president Vaclav Klaus called environmentalism one of the main dangers to freedom in the 21st century. “Environmentalism only pretends to deal with environmental protection,” writes Klaus. “Behind their people- and nature-friendly terminology, the adherents of environmentalism make ambitious attempts to radically reorganize and change the world, human society, our behavior, and our values.”
The Earth Day concept was developed by then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-WI), Congress’s foremost environmentalist. Nelson also helped to develop college “sit-ins,” where professors surreptitiously abandoned their curriculums to lecture students on the evils of imperialist America and the virtues of communism, a misunderstood system of governance that merely need better implementation to succeed.
[…]
Havel foresaw exactly such a development. “There is no doubt that it is our duty to rationally protect nature for future generations,” he writes. “The followers of the environmentalist ideology, however, keep presenting us with various catastrophic scenarios with the intention of persuading us to implement their ideas. That is not only unfair but also extremely dangerous.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Lies They Tell About Islam
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush administration and the media found a scapegoat in Arabs and Muslims. In this article, which first appeared in the October 19, 2001, issue of Socialist Worker, Lee Sustar exposes the media’s fanatical and racist hysteria about Islam and Islamists.
WELL-PAID academic experts and media pundits are lining up to give Washington an intellectual justification for war. Basically, the justification is that “they hate us.” In a Newsweek magazine cover story, Fareed Zakaria wrote, “The problem is not that Osama bin Laden believes that this is a religious war against America. It’s that millions of people across the Islamic world seem to agree.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) In a police state, citizens have no rights and can be ordered around at the whims of a militarized police force whose goons run around in black uniforms, terrorizing the populace. Welcome to Boston, 2013. The police state is running wild in this city, and it has reached the point where innocent families are being ordered out of their own homes by screaming, aggressive, ‘roid-head SWAT teams armed with overwhelming firepower.
This is what has emerged from a secret YouTube video that had to be covertly filmed while ducking behind a window.
Click here to watch the shocking video.
But this was only the beginning of the police state action. In a desperate manhunt for the suspects involved in the Boston marathon bombing, Boston police rolled down neighborhood streets in armored assault vehicles, aiming guns directly at citizens and completely abandoning every applicable provision of the Bill of Rights
As this one photo shows, one member of the local police aims his M4 rifle directly at the homeowner taking the photo from a second-story window:
This was all done under the justification of “exigent circumstances,” which means, according to the police, that the government can ignore ALL laws and ALL due process and simply do whatever it wants…
During all this, the city of Boston was in an undeclared state of martial law. The government tried to put a nice-sounding spin on it by calling it a “lockdown” that urged residents to “shelter in place.” What they didn’t explain, however, is that anyone who refused to comply could be arrested, detained and interrogated.
Remarkably, the local residents complied! Hiding in their homes, shivering with raw fear, 00,000+ Bostonites were scared out of their minds by one armed teenager! So they let the police take away all their rights and turn their city into a Constitution-free zone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
With Tsarnaev alive there are easy to predict things we can expect in the days ahead. For one, liberals will condemn the celebrations, flag waving and police congratulating that followed his capture as insensitive to Muslims. Also, President Obama will not utter the word “Muslim” or “Islam” except to remind us that it is a religion of peace. And no matter how much evidence mounts that this is a Muslim act of terror with possible ties to a domestic Islamic cell, he will admonish us again and again to “not jump to conclusions.” Right. The terrorist brothers might have been sent forth from a Daughters of the American Revolution training camp.
The president will also admonish “those who would seek revenge” (meaning Christians, Republicans, conservatives, Tea Party members) against any hostile acts. Should any of the above ilk so much as give a rude look to a Muslim on any street in America it will be headline news resulting in liberal weeping and wailing and candlelight vigils.
Another prediction: Before too long some student somewhere in the country will parade around school all day in a Dzhokhar Tsarnaev T-shirt while a student wearing a T-shirt bearing the American flag will be sent home.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Had More Tips on Boston Suspect; Congress Asks Questions
U.S. intelligence knew more about the movements of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects than previously reported, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, raising more questions about the government’s handling of the case and the sharing of information among agencies.
U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the FBI was alerted when Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Russia last year. They also said Russia, which had tipped off the FBI about its concerns over Tsarnaev in early 2011, made a second, identical request to the CIA in late September 2011.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Lawmakers Secretly Negotiating to Exempt Themselves From Obamacare
(NaturalNews) Top lawmakers on Capitol Hill are negotiating a secret deal to exempt themselves from Obamacare. The Obamacare mandate is a total nightmare, of course, and it doubles health insurance rates while providing nothing resembling actual “health” care. It’s such a nightmare that the very people who passed it now want to exempt themselves from it.
That would leave it in a state where only the constituents are subjected to its onerous costs and mandates, not the lawmakers who passed it into law. How’s that for hypocrisy in America?
According to a report from Politico, “Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.”
Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has the best reply to all this: “Let’s exempt the entire country from Obamacare,” he said according to a Breitbart.com report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Official Says America to Blame for Boston Marathon Bombings
by Jake Wallis Simons
The UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur, Richard Falk, has provoked outrage by claiming in an essay in Foreign Policy Journal that American foreign policy was to blame for the Boston marathon bombings. He cites a couplet by WH Auden, “Those to whom evil is done / do evil in return”, and asks “should we not all be meditating on WH Auden’s haunting line?” The extract is from a poem called September 1, 1939, and refers to the German justification for rearming and launching World War Two following the Treaty of Versailles…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Uncle Ruslan and the Official Boston Bombing Narrative
Following Zubeidat Tsarnaev’s claim that her son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was set-up by the FBI, her brother-in-law, Ruslan Tsarni, was rolled out to engage in damage control and save the official narrative on the Boston bombings.
Tsarni called his nephews “losers” and insisted that because the brothers had failed to integrate themselves in the United States they were consumed with hatred.
The establishment media immediately spotlighted “Uncle Ruslan,” as they affectionately called him, and attempted to bury or at least minimize the impact of Zubeidat Tsarnaev’s claim that her sons are patsies.
“Tsarni’s own emotions have taken a roller-coaster of guilt and anger, he said in an interview, fueled by the family’s failure to recognize that Tamerlan’s interest in Islam over the past six years may have crossed into violent radicalism,” Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
Uncle Ruslan, however, isn’t merely a concerned relative. It is said he not only worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, but also did time with Big Sky Energy Corp., a gas and oil corporation with ties to Cheney’s Halliburton, a Pentagon contractor in bed with the CIA.
As we noted on Wednesday, USAID is an agency used by the U.S. government to operate “humanitarian” NGOs instrumental in running color revolutions in former Soviet states. It collaborates with the Freedom House, the CIA front the National Endowment for Democracy, Soros Foundations, and the CIA’s Ford Foundation to undermine governments in the former Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unprecedented Shortages of Ammo, Physical Gold and Physical Silver
All over the United States we are witnessing unprecedented shortages of ammunition, physical gold and physical silver. Recent events have helped fuel a “buying frenzy” that threatens to spiral out of control. Gun shops all over the nation are reporting that they have never seen it this bad, and in many cases any ammo that they are able to get is being sold even before it hits the shelves. The ammo shortage has already become so severe that police departments all over America are saying that they are being told that it is going to take six months to a year to get their orders. In fact, many police departments have begun to trade and barter with one another to get the ammo that they need.
Meanwhile, the takedown of paper gold and paper silver has unleashed an avalanche of “panic buying” of physical gold and physical silver all over the planet. In the United States, some dealers are charging premiums of more than 25 percent over the spot price for gold and silver and they are getting it. People are paying these prices even though they are being told that delivery will not happen for a month or two in many cases. Some dealers are feverishly taking as many orders as they can, and they are just hoping that they will be able to get the physical gold and silver to eventually fill those orders. Personally, I have never seen anything like this. If things are this tight now, what is going to happen when the next major financial crisis strikes and people really begin to panic?
The shortages and rationing of ammunition at gun shops all over America just seem to keep getting worse. The following is from an article by a gun owner down in Texas named Brad Meyer…
[…]
So what is going on?
Well, some people believe that the federal government is responsible. It has been reported that they have signed contracts to purchase “up to” 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. According to Forbes, this amount of ammunition would be enough to fight a “hot war” in America for 20 years…
The Denver Post, on February 15th, ran an Associated Press article entitled Homeland Security aims to buy 1.6b rounds of ammo, so far to little notice. It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month. Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years. In America.
Could this be a way that the Obama administration is trying to restrict the amount of ammo that gets into the hands of private citizens?
That is what some people are suggesting.
According to talk radio show host Michael Savage, the ammo contracts that the federal government has signed give them priority over all other purchasers…
What Homeland Security is doing here is they’re issuing a contract to buy up to that amount of ammo if they want it…
It’s a way to control the amount of market that’s available on the commercial market at any time.
If they go to the ammo manufacturers and say give me 50 million rounds, give me another 30 million rounds… if they periodically do this in increments, they’re going to control how much ammo is available on the commercial market.
As part of their contract it stipulates in there that when the government calls and says give us another quantity, that everything they make has to go to the government priority one before any of it goes to the commercial market.
So, if they get nervous, all they have to do is use that contract that they have in place… and they just say ‘give us some more.’
So whenever the government wants to tighten the supply of ammunition, all they have to do is invoke their contracts and order more for themselves.
Meanwhile, Obama appears to be doing other things to restrict the amount of ammo that gets into the hands of private gun owners.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Sues Lance Armstrong for Fraud
The US Department of Justice has filed a suit against Lance Armstrong for lying about a doping scheme which helped him win seven Tour de France titles. The fallen cyclist could owe over $150 million (115 million euros).
The US government filed its formal complaint against Armstrong on Tuesday, alleging that the cycling star and his teammates from Talewind Sports had defrauded their sponsor, the United States Postal Service (USPS) between 1998 and 2004. An elaborate doping program allowed Armstrong and his team to lead world cycling without detection from anti-doping agencies for years, the suit claimed.
“Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly or indirectly,” the suit said.
The Postal Service paid the team about $40 million over the six year period. Armstrong collected an annual salary of nearly $18 million. If found guilty, Armstrong could reportedly owe up to three times that amount.
“Because the defendants’ misconduct undermined the value of the sponsorship to the USPS, the United States suffered damages in that it did not receive the value of the services for which it bargained,” the complaint said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: SWAT Police Gunpoint Raids in Boston Were Conducted “House After House”
Further footage has emerged from last week in Watertown where armies of SWAT police went door to door ripping families out of their homes in the manhunt that ensued following the Boston bombings.
On Monday we posted an article featuring footage of one raid on a house in Watertown, Massachusetts, where police can be seen screaming at a family to get out of their home and run down the street with their hands above their heads, all the time with automatic weapons trained on them.
We received hundreds of eyewitness photographs and accounts of this taking place, with militarized police pointing guns and treating citizens like terrorist criminals. While armies of police in armored vehicles roamed around the suburban streets, public transportation was shut down, businesses were forced to close, and a no-fly zone was enacted over the entire city of Boston in an unprecedented show of force.
We said that this was the epitome of martial law.
Detractors simply could not accept that this could happen in America, and immediately claimed that we were overstating and exaggerating the situation and that what was witnessed in the video footage was an isolated incident.
This latest footage puts those erroneous claims to rest as it reveals that police instigated this course of action as a matter of routine for every home they searched in the twenty block zone around Watertown.
As the local 7News reporter states, and eyewitnesses testify, the pattern was repeated “house after house”, as SWAT police entered the homes of hundreds of residences, sometimes forcibly, without warrants or regard for the Fourth Amendment.
Note how the reporter states that the SWAT teams were “rescuing” residents who had been ordered to stay in their homes in a complete lockdown.
The new term for warrantless armed SWAT police raids on your property is “rescuing”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who Says Romance is Dead? Man Pulls a Gun and Carjacks Woman at the End of Their First Date
A first date took a dramatic turn for the worse for a Florida women when her potential suitor ended the evening by pulling a gun on her and stealing her car.
Nimeha Milien says she had never met Donald McGee, 19, before Friday evening when he started to send her text messages about meeting for a date.
[ . . . ]
McGee initially told Milien that he wanted to go back to her place. She refused and instead she drove them to Palm Beach County, where they took a romantic walk on the beach at Ocean Inlet Park.
[ . . . ]
Milien agreed to drop McGee at a Wendy’s parking lot on Boynton Beach Boulevard, where she thought his brother was going to collect him.
Instead McGee pulled out out a .380-caliber Kel Tec handgun and told her to get out of the car.
According to Milien, McGee then drove away and she ran across the street to a gas station where she asked a customer for help.
[Sounds like that boy was gonna get him a ride one way or another!]
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Train Plot: Canada Muslims Reflect After Arrests
After the chaos and drama surrounding the Boston bombings, an altogether more low-key story is unfolding here in Toronto.
Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, a Tunisian from Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, a Palestinian from Toronto, are charged with conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group. They are accused of plotting to derail a passenger train…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Terror Plot Suspect Denounces Criminal Code
A man accused of plotting to derail a Canadian passenger train with the backing of al-Qaeda members in Iran said Wednesday that he didn’t recognise Canada’s justice system because its criminal code “was not a holy book”.
A man accused of plotting with al-Qaida members in Iran to derail a train in Canada gave a rambling statement in a Toronto court Wednesday and appeared to be saying he does not recognizing its jurisdiction.
Law enforcement officials in the U.S. said the target was a train that runs between New York City and Canada. Canadian investigators say Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, received guidance from members of al-Qaida in Iran. Iranian government officials have said the government had nothing to do with the plot.
“My comment is the following because all of those conclusions were taken out based on criminal code and all of us know that this criminal code is not a holy book,” Esseghaier said at the hearing Wednesday. “We cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments.”
The judge told him to “save that for another court,” and take the advice of his lawyers. He was given a May 23 court.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Just-Like-Obama Justin Trudeau
Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s “donate $5 or more” fundraising tactics are eerily just like President Barack Obama’s.
Words and software the same.
And just like the Obama Regime does, Trudeau saturates email accounts, including CFP’s:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Hold Key to Fighting Terror
The Muslim community has a duty to the mainstream to address the perception, real or imagined, about the extremists within. To its credit, the community has risen to the challenge.
A tipoff from a prominent Toronto imam through our law office (Kutty, Syed and Mohamed) more than a year ago appears to be at the heart of the arrests this week in the alleged VIA Rail terror plot. In fact, counterterrorism police began their press briefing by thanking Muslim leaders…
[JP note: Garbage.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Cell Broken Up in Canada
The news out of Canada is that authorities have broken up a terrorist cell that had more than 50 electronic circuit boards that could be used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The details of the plot are still a bit cloudy, but Canadian authorities were quick to point out that the plotters had ties to other actors in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Dubai. One of the cell members taken into custody had reportedly received terrorist training in Afghanistan/Pakistan. And this raises a basic point. The Canadian plotters are being referred to as a “homegrown” cell, which is true from a certain point of view. They all lived in the West, and it is likely that some if not all of them were radicalized while living in Canada. But when analysts and commentators say “homegrown” they often act as if this is something new — as if we now have to worry about terrorists being indoctrinated in the West, whereas previously we did not. In that sense, the terminology is misleading.
Al Qaeda operatives and like-minded terrorists have long been recruiting in the West…
There is another aspect to the “homegrown” moniker that is misleading. At least one of the alleged terrorists arrested in Canada traveled to Afghanistan/Pakistan for training. Much of the time this is the case: Even terrorists who are indoctrinated in the West end up traveling abroad to receive training.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Special Dread of Terrorism for Muslims in the West
by Murtaza Hussain
For Muslims in the US and Canada, terror’s enduring damage is the erosion of trust and an unjust stain of guilt by association
I was born in Pakistan but have been fortunate enough to have had a happy life growing up in Toronto, Canada — a place where I have always felt at home and for which I have more attachment than any other in the world. In my mind, the mere idea of a terrorist attack ever occurring here provokes feelings of anger and sadness: it is painful to imagine something bad happening to a place you care about. I imagine Americans feel exactly the same way about their country…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Toronto Terror Plot: Canada Tried to Deport Jaser in 2004 But Had Nowhere to Send Him
Canadian immigration officials tried to deport terrorism suspect Raed Jaser in 2004
Nearly 10 years before he was arrested and accused in the first known Al Qaeda-directed terrorist plot in Canada , Raed Jaser was in the Toronto West Detention Centre, facing deportation. Then 26, Jaser had been snatched by Canadian officials on an outstanding immigration warrant in August 2004. Criminal activity had first cost him Canadian citizenship. Now, it was threatening to deport him. But Jaser was to remain in Canada — and allegedly go on to plot a terrorist attack on a VIA Rail train alongside Chiheb Esseghaier, a Tunisian doctoral student arrested in Montreal — simply because there was no where else to go. Jaser was a stateless Palestinian…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
American Free Press: UK Bilderberg 2013 Meeting Confirmed
American Free Press received e-mail from Grove Hotel staffer, apparently confirming that Bilderberg 2013 will be going down near Watford in the United Kingdom from June 6-9.
RELATED: Bilderberg Uncovered: Confab Set to Take Place In Watford UK; June 6-9
AFP’s Mark Anderson reports that he received an e-mail from a Grove Hotel employee, apparently confirming a UK-based Bilderberg meeting this coming June. Anderson writes:
“An email reply to AFP from a Grove staffer and a check of the hotel website’s calendar confirmed the hotel is booked solid June 5-9. The Bilderberg meeting itself, by all the latest indications, is to take place June 6-9. This updates a recent AFP report that stated England was likely the general meeting location but that the meeting would be held June 9-11. At the time, the hotel where the meeting was to be held was not yet known.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Anti-White’ Racism Trial Begins in France
In a case being backed by a leading anti-racism group, a trial began in France on Friday in which the defendant stands accused of a racially-motivated attack on a white man in a Paris metro station.
The trial of a 29-year-old accused of a racially motivated attack on a white man in a Paris metro station began at a court house in the French capital on Friday, in a legal case being backed by a leading anti-racism group.
According to the prosecution, the accused man assaulted the victim after first using a string of racial slurs — including “sale Français” (dirty Frenchman) and “sale blanc” (dirty white).
It is also alleged that he used a broken bottle as a weapon during the attack, which took place in 2010.
While this is not the first accusation of incidents of so-called ‘anti-white’ racism in France, this latest case is the first to have been backed by leading anti-racism group, The international league against racism and anti-Semitism (Licra), which is supporting the prosecution.
In an interview with French radio station RFI, Licra vice-president Philippe Schmidt said he believes there was clearly a racial dimension to the attack. “He was insulted because he was white,” said Schmidt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CFR Applauds European Union’s “Real Subversion of Sovereignty”
Recently, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) held a panel discussion at Princeton University entitled “The G20: Prospects and Challenges for Global Governance.” (See video below.) There are many interesting and revealing comments made by the panel participants, but an admission by Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer is especially noteworthy, in that it publicly confirms what critics of the European Union have been saying for decades, but which CFR globalists like Bremmer have usually denied. Bremmer admits that “there’s real subversion of sovereignty by the EU.”
Professor Slaughter served as the presider of the CFR panel discussion. The context of the Bremmer quote was a venting of frustration by the panelists over the “ineffectiveness” of the G20 process. Professor Slaughter and Mr. Berggruen particularly argued that the G20 needed to be given actual powers that would enable it to do more to effect global governance. Unfortunately, from the panelists’ viewpoints, national sovereignty and national interests get in the way of this objective. This is where Mr. Bremmer commented (see the video at 18:30 minutes): “The EU is much more significant. There’s real subversion of sovereignty by the EU that works.”
It would appear that the panelists all favored this type of EU-style of sovereignty-subverting “governance.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dublin Bedsit Blitz Finds Over 90% of Flats (Apartments) Do Not Meet Basic Standards
Deficiencies include unsafe electrics, no private bathrooms, rooms without windows, damp, mould and inadequate heating
More than 90 per cent of flats inspected in a Dublin City Council crackdown on substandard private housing have been deemed unfit for habitation.
The targeted investigation of just under 1,500 flats found that almost 1,400 did not meet the minimum legal standards for private rented accommodation, with deficiencies including unsafe electrics, no private bathrooms, rooms without windows, damp, mould and inadequate heating.
The flats were selected as part of a €1 million three-year Intensified Inspection Programme funded by the Department of the Environment to identify and highlight slum conditions in the city’s private rented sector.
Figures for the first six months of the programme show that environmental health officers carried out 2,230 inspections on 1,499 properties. Of these properties, 1,384 did not meet the most basic standards.
Landlords have been served with 1,544 notices to improve their flats. Failure to do so will result in a ban on re-letting the flats and legal action if the problems are not resolved.
Prior to the programme, council inspections of private rented housing were based on complaints from neighbours, local politicians and sometimes the tenants themselves.
New system of inspection
The new inspection programme works on a more proactive basis, whereby an area is chosen and every rented flat or house is inspected.
The figures above relate to just three roads with particularly high proportions of flats and bedsits: Cabra Park in Dublin 7, Grove Park in Rathmines and the North Circular Road from the Phoenix Park to Aughrim Street, but the council will be extending inspections to a further 7,000 properties throughout the city.
Almost all of the flats are in “pre-63” properties — houses that were split into flats before 1963, when legislation made it illegal to convert a house without planning permission. As a result, relatively modestly sized Victorian terraced housing has been divided into seven or eight flats, which would not be allowed under modern planning regulations.
“These are areas with a high concentration of bedsits and small flats. Almost all of the units would have shared bathroom facilities,” the council’s principal environmental health officer, Colm Smyth, said.
Under the inspection programme, the property cannot be re-let until it is brought up to standard, but existing tenants can remain in situ.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
First Man Charged Under Greece’s 1997 Race Crime Law
A 33-year-old man became the first person in Greece to be charged with a law dating back to 1997 punishing racially motivated violence on Friday.
The 33-year-old was arrested on Thursday in the southern Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni by police investigating claims that he and another two accomplices had attacked a Bangladeshi street peddler at least eight times.
The 44-year-old migrant, who sells knickknacks at a traffic light in the neighborhood, said that he has been repeatedly assaulted by the suspect and two other men and severely beaten, also suffering racist remarks in the process.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Teen Kills Three With Kalashnikov
French teen kills three with Kalashnikov A young man of 19 years old shot three people dead in a town in southern France on Thursday with a Kalashnikov assault rifle believed to have been bought over the Internet. After his arrest, the suspect gave the police the name of another person in Paris he suggested may be planning a similar attack.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Tax Man Softens Seizures
Equitalia to repossess only when pension, salary high enough
(ANSA) — Rome, April 23 — Italy’s tax-collecting agency on Monday said it would not seize bank or postal account funds where salaries or pensions are deposited up to a certain point.
Equitalia, which is 51% owned by the Italian tax revenue agency and 41% owned by the nation’s social security institute, decided that repossession of funds would only take place in cases where the pension or salary perceived is over 5,000 euros per month. The policy is effective immediately.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Politician Mocks Likely Premier
Terzoni suggests on Facebook that Letta working for Monti
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — A Parliamentary member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) mocked Italy’s likely new premier Wednesday, implying he took orders from his predecessor, Mario Monti.
Patrizia Terzoni, elected to Parliament in February among a wave of M5S politicians, made fun of a photo of a note purportedly sent by Enrico Letta to Monti after the latter formed government in November 2011.
Posting it to her Facebook page, she added the caption: “Is it real, or photoshopped?”.
The photo, of a note apparently sent to Monti by Letta, implies the new premier was accepting a “pizzino” from Monti — referring to marching orders given to Mafia members by their bosses.
Earlier in the day, Letta — deputy head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) — was appointed premier by President Giorgio Napolitano.
Beppe Grillo, M5S leader, earlier blasted the decision to give Letta the mandate to form a new government.
Grillo suggested he was concerned that the mainstream political parties would be making backroom deals to distribute top government positions between each other.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Likely Premier Seen as Moderate With Cross-Party Ties
Enrico Letta staunchly pro-European, politically adaptable
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — In selecting Enrico Letta to be Italy’s probable next premier, President Giorgio Napolitano has opted for generational change combined with experience, moderation and a certain political flexibility.
Letta, 46, will be the third-youngest premier in Italy’s history and despite the fact he has been deputy head of centre-left Democratic Party (PD) for the past four years, he is seen as a moderate.
The former Christian Democrat also boasts ties with the centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party — his uncle, Gianni Letta, has been ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s longtime chief of staff.
All this suggests Letta possesses a kind of political adaptability that may be just what the Italian government needs after two months of logjam.
He addressed that Wednesday after accepting a government-formation mandate from Napolitano “with reservations” — political jargon to indicate his cautious optimism.
Italians “are fed up with political games,” Letta said.
“I will put all I have…with great determination,” to help restore faith in politics, he vowed.
He also brings experience — Letta became a cabinet minister at age of 32, the youngest ever to hold such a post in the country’s history. Once described as a “rising star” in the industry portfolio, Letta first served as minister for European Union affairs, and — holding an advanced degree in European legal studies — is said to be staunchly pro-Europe. That could hold promise for the administration at a time when many Italians are questioning the value of remaining in the common currency as well remaining involved in pan-European political structures.
He has also been a member of the European Parliament and reportedly speaks fluent English, like Napolitano, an invaluable asset in handling international affairs.
Letta went to school in Strasbourg before getting a degree in international law from Pisa University.
Letta, who was born in the Tuscan city of Pisa, was first elected to the Lower House in the 2006 general election for the Olive Tree coalition, led by economist and former European Commissioner Romano Prodi.
He has lectured occasionally at the Libera Universita’ Cattaneo near Milan, Pisa University and the Haute Ecole de Commerce in Paris. He has been deputy president of the ASPEN Institute Italia since 2004.
Letta is a fan of the cult Dylan Dog horror comics series featuring a paranormal investigator.
He supports Serie A giant and seven-time European champions AC Milan, which is owned by Berlusconi.
One of Letta’s favourite pastimes is playing five-a-side football.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bossi Son Yacht in Northern League Embezzlement Probe
2.5-mn-euro boat allegedly bought with party funds
(ANSA) — Milan, April 24 — A 2.5-million-euro yacht was allegedly bought by the son of Northern League founder and ex-leader Umberto Bossi, Riccardo, from money allegedly embezzled in a case that led to the arrest Wednesday of former party treasurer Francesco Belsito, judicial sources said.
Investigators said the yacht was bought with money allegedly misappropriated from the party funding of the regionalist and populist party.
Umberto Bossi stepped down last year as one of several embezzlement scandals moved close to his family.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Former Northern League Treasurer Arrested
Belsito accused of influencing business including Fincantieri
(ANSA) — Milan, April 24 — The former treasurer of the regionalist Northern League party, Francesco Belsito, was arrested Wednesday on charges of alleged criminal association and aggravated fraud.
He had been under investigation since a probe into alleged misuse of public funding to the party broke last year in a scandal that led party founder and leader Umberto Bossi to quit.
A 2.5-million-euro yacht was bought by one of Bossi’s sons as part of widespread embezzlement, police said.
The Northern League said it was an injured party in the case.
Milan prosecutors allege that Belsito was part of a ‘business committee’ that used its own influence to wield illegal influence on Italian businesses.
Two others were also arrested on Wednesday as part of the probe — Veneto businessman Stefano Bonet and deal maker Romolo Girardelli, nicknamed “The admiral”.
The request for the arrests dates back to the end of October, and regards an investigation into Belsito’s relationship with state-controlled shipbuilder Fincantieri and Northern League party funds invested in Cyprus and Tanzania. Belsito’s arrest warrant, signed by Milan prosecutor Gianfranco Criscione, reads that Belsito was “able to influence the decisions of institutions and large public and private companies, including for example SIRAM SpA, Fincantieri SpA and GNV SpA, by virtue of the political power deriving from the offices held”.
Siram is an energy services and technology company. GNV is a passenger ship operator.
Belsito is ex’-vice chairman of Fincantieri and held an important regulatory role as ex-undersecretary for the Normative Simplification Ministry.
Prosecutors in Reggio Calabria also believe Belsito may have been involved in recycling money for the ‘Ndrangheta mafia’s powerful De Stefano gang, which based in the the southern Italian city.
Prosecutors believe Belsito sought to set up a trust company located in Lugano, Switzerland, for the preparation of business structures that would justify the transfer of Italian money abroad.
Investigators are also hunting down a Swiss bank account that may have been made available to Milanese emissaries of the De Stefano ‘Ndrangheta mafia gang to launder money from illegal activities.
Belsito’s lawyer said his client was arrested at about 6am at his home in Genoa and taken to Milan.
The lawyer also confirmed that the arrest was “connected to (Belsito’s) past role as treasurer” and said he “was mystified at the arrest in this moment, a year after his interrogation, also because Belsito no longer holds any office”.
The documentation that launched the Milan probe was forwarded from Naples prosecutors Henry John Woodcock and Vencenzo Piscitelli.
Last year, Belsito was accused of buying gold bullion and diamonds valued at hundreds of thousands of euros that were allegedly bought illegally with public election funds. Prosecutors said bank records for the jewels and gold surfaced as part of as part of an investigation into Belsito for allegedly channeling public funds to the family of the Northern League’s ex-leader Umberto Bossi.
Belsito was accused of buying the items along with former Senate Deputy Speaker Rosy Mauro, who was expelled from the party, and League Senator Piergiorgio Stiffoni.
In April 2012, Belsito turned over gold and diamonds to authorities as well as an Audi A6 sedan which at one point belonged to Bossi’s son Renzo, who stepped down as councillor in the Lombardy regional assembly.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Letta Hailed at Home and Abroad, But Some Disagree
High hopes for PD Deputy Secretary to stitch cross-party unity
(By Kate Carlisle)(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — President Giorgio Napolitano said he had “full confidence” that Democratic Party (PD) Deputy Secretary Enrico Letta would form a government because he had “excellent characteristics for such a delicate task”. After giving Letta a mandate to form a new government on Wednesday, Napolitano called on Italy’s political parties to cooperate “to create a climate of maximum detente rather the old tensions”.
Outgoing Premier Mario Monti also said that he was pleased with the appointment of Letta as his replacement.
Incumbent technocrat Monti said that despite Letta’s relative youth, his experience had prepared him for the job.
Letta would be “very successful in the formation of the new government,” added Monti, shortly after Napolitano appointed Letta to the post.
“Letta will effectively guide Italy in the challenging path of (making) the necessary institutional and economic reforms,” while helping to confirm the credibility of Italy internationally, said Monti.
It is feared by some that internal rifts within the PD will mean the broad coalition government Letta will try to form will be weak and short-lived if it ever comes to life. Pier Luigi Bersani quit as PD leader at the weekend after two candidates he proposed to be Italy’s president, former Senate Speaker Franco Marini and former premier Romano Prodi, were scuppered by internal party revolts. “The mandate given to Enrico Letta hands the PD a great responsibility,” the centre-left party’s House whip Roberto Speranza said. “It is necessary to give the country a government capable of resolving the great national emergencies”. The PD’s Senate whip echoed those sentiments. “Letta has the personality, political, balance, competence and experience to govern Italy for the best,” said Luigi Zanda. “He has a personality that unites and it creates cohesion within the PD too,” Zanda said.
Instead, Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M%S), on Wednesday predictably blasted Napolitano’s decision to give the mandate to Letta. “In Rome they are sharing out the bones and offices of the Second Republic,” Grillo said, referring to the name given to Italy’s party system after the collapse of the old establishment in the early 1990s following corruption probes. His comment suggested he thinks the other parties were about to undertake backroom deals to distribute top government positions between each other. “In the meantime the economy isn’t waiting. Every minute a company closes. This autumn we may reach the point of no return,” Grillo added in his blog, which started the Internet-based M5S in 2009. Grillo said his movement would present a series of urgent measures for business in parliament, including the payment of 120 billion euros due to firms from the public sector and the scrapping of the IRAP business tax. Letta may be able to garner confidence from business watchdogs and media though.
On Wednesday, Financial Times Rome Correspondent Guy Dinmore’s wrote that Letta is “a centre-left Democratic Party (PD) loyalist and seasoned mediator,” in profile published online. The FT’s description of the 46-year-old politician chosen to form a new Italian government paints him as “a party loyalist working behind the scenes among its bitterly divided factions, while acting as the long-time bridge to Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right”.
Letta served as cabinet secretary under the centre-left government led by Romano Prodi from 2006 to 2008, and is nephew of Gianni Letta, who held the same position under the Silvio Berlusconi-led centre-right government that followed.
The article points to Letta’s strong working relationship with Angelino Alfano, Berlusconi loyalist and former centre-right justice minister, as a reason Letta is now viewed as promising broker for a grand coalition between centre-right and centre-left. But Letta must also contend with vehement resistance within centre-left ranks.
“His diplomatic skills will be tested by the leftwing of his own party, which is strongly opposed to forming a coalition,” Dinmore wrote.
The article also said that although Letta was “a convinced pro-European who speaks excellent English and French — rare in Italian politics,” he was “seldom seen as destined for high office” until two months of parliamentary deadlock and bickering cast him as a possible “anodyne”.
The Wall Street Journal’s online edition said that it seems likely Letta will win parliamentary approval after two months of political impasse.
However, the financial daily cautioned, “It is nonetheless unclear how long it can last”. “Italy’s political scene is as fractured as ever, and the country isn’t used to grand right-left coalition governments like elsewhere in Europe,” the paper noted.
European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz called Letta’s tap “good news”.
“I hope that his nomination will end the political stall in Italy with the formation of a strong and stable government ready to take on the imperative challenges facing the country,” Schulz said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Property-Tax Rebate Not a Deal-Breaker Says Berlusconi
IMU not a hurdle to PD-PdL coalition, ex-premier says
(ANSA) — Rome, April 25 — Silvio Berlusconi’s vow to refund an unpopular property tax called IMU will not be a deal-breaker in government-formation talks between his centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) Party and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), the three-time premier said Thursday. A PD-PdL compromise platform on the economy “will not depend on any individual measure”, he said, calling for a ‘Save-Italy’ decree for businesses and workers mired in the worst recession for 20 years.
The “overall balance” of the measures will be key to the deal being brokered by PD deputy head Enrico Letta.
The PD made an election pledge to lift IMU from primary residences and ease it for other property owned by the worst-off.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) A class of insecticide chemicals commonly applied to rapeseed, also known as canola here in the U.S., as well as sugar beets, corn, and various other crops is killing off bee populations across the globe, and a prominent environmental watchdog group is now demanding that these insecticides be immediately pulled from the market. As reported by the U.K.’s Daily Mail, a report issued by the U.K.’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) confirms that neonicotinoid insecticides are to blame for mass bee die-offs.
The declaration by this prominent government advisory group comes following the release of data out of the E.U. showing that neonicotinoids contain compounds that interfere with bees’ central nervous systems, and thus cause them to become confused while pollinating. Eventually, bees affected by these chemicals lose their ability to navigate back to the hive, forgetting where they are and how to get home, which results in them starving and dying en masse.
Back in January, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) determined that neonicotinoids, which have been in use since the early 1990s, are directly responsible for triggering an epidemic of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) all around the world. The agency went on to express opposition to the further use of neonicotinoid insecticides, particularly with regards to plants that are attractive to bees. But the European Commission was ultimately unable to garner enough votes to successfully implement a two-year ban on the chemicals, which has prompted EAC to issue its own call for a ban.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Becomes the 8th EU Nation to Ban Monsanto Maize
Poland has become the eighth EU member state to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops. Seven other EU member states have already imposed bans on the cultivation of GM crops approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as safe: Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece and Bulgaria.
The Polish Agriculture Ministry expressed concerns that GM crops may cross-pollinate with non-GM crops and Monsanto’s MON810 maize pollen may find its way into honey. The ministry also pointed to that there exists no scientific assessments confirming that GM crops are safe for the environment and people.
In a statement, Greenpeace Poland’s ‘Stop GMO’ campaign coordinator Joanna Mis said, “The government has delivered on its promise,” and, “We are happy that Poland has joined the club of countries that ban the cultivation of GM crops. However, this is not the end of our campaign. We have to make sure that the European Commission does not manage to lift the ban […]. We also have to make sure that crops will be effectively controlled and the ban on cultivation observed.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Abu Qatada Farce is Scripted by Our Judges
Other states that also subscribe to the European Convention on Human Rights manage to deport many more suspected extremists
Theresa May’s statement to the House of Commons yesterday about the ongoing saga of Britain’s attempts to deport the extremist cleric Abu Qatada had the feel of Groundhog Day about it. Not only has she made similar points to MPs before, but so have her five most recent predecessors…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Women Should Come Forward if Coerced by Sharia Councils’
Women should come forward if they feel “coerced” by Sharia councils, a Government minister said yesterday — as she vowed they would never be recognised in law. Helen Grant told MPs there was nothing to stop people using religious councils to reach agreements on a “voluntary basis”, following controversy over talks in Bradford. But she said: “These decisions are subject to national law and are not legally enforceable in themselves. Any member of any community should know they have the right to refer to an English court at any point — especially if they feel pressured, or coerced, to resolve any issue in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamophobia is a Government Priority. What About Islamism?
by Douglas Murray
According to one of his family members Tamerlan Tsarnaev was, among other things, ‘angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.’ His efforts to refute this charge included planting bombs in the middle of a family sports event in Boston, killing — among others — an eight year old boy.
The case brings to mind that of Muzzammil Hassan from western New York. Hassan was the founder of Bridges TV in the US — a station set up to help ‘non-Muslims overcome the negative images they may have of both Muslims and Islam.’ Mr Hassan was subsequently convicted and sent to prison for beheading his wife.
Certainly this is not a good week for the ‘nothing to see here’ crowd. To select only a few cases, two Muslim Canadians are on trial for trying to blow up a Canadian passenger train to New York. Three Muslim men — including a convert — are on trial at the Old Bailey for plotting to blow up a number of UK targets including the town of Wooton Basset. And at Woolwich Crown Court a cell of radical Muslims from Birmingham are being sentenced for attempting to detonate a set of rucksack bombs and carry out ‘Mumbai-style’ attacks in the UK at targets including synagogues.
Fortunately we in Britain have many politicians willing to address the issues surrounding this. For example, there is Baroness Warsi who was on the television only the other day presenting a short film on ‘Islamophobia’ and declaring that ‘the good news is that government is finally dealing with the issue [of ‘Islamophobia’] and it is now a priority.’
[Reader comment by Austin Barry on 26 February 2013.]
Look, we know, we all know, that Islam is the enemy within and the enemy without, the enemy that wants us dead. Our ruling elites will do anything to deny this, quite why, I don’t know. But we sit and we wait; we wait for the next terrorist atrocity that will, inevitably, come with its torn flesh and blood on our streets, and our elites will say, in unison, it’s a small few, a radical minority. And the Religion of Peace will say,,,,,,,,,nothing.
[Reader comment by Craig on 26 April 2013.]
Western populations are being continuously presented with strong evidence that what pious muslims believe to be a legitimate government/culture is radically different from the expectations of a secularised westerner. As an example, the terrorist suspect recently apprehended in Canada has defended himself by refusing to accept the judgements drawn from fallible, man-made law as opposed to infallible ‘divine’ law. This tension on the part of devout muslims will persist as long as the UK refuses to govern itself according to the precepts of sharia. It cannot be ‘addressed’ any other way. It’s ridiculous that the government believes that its overriding priority is to convince us that acknowledging such tension is tantamount to a criminal act.
[Reader comment by Austin Barry on 26 April 2013.]
I would like to nominate ‘Allah Akbar’ as the most frightening, the most depressing, the most life-denying phrase in the English language after ‘death’.
[JP note: Aloha Akbar.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
So farewell, then, Abu
Qatada.
Farewell. Farewell … Oh
B******. It was a
Dream. You’re still
Here, Abu
Qatada. And I’d rada
You were not
Must try hada
(c) E. J. Throbb, aged 173/4
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jo Johnson to Head No 10 Policy Unit: This is a Big Gamble for David Cameron
by Benedict Brogan
Westminster awoke this morning to the news of a Johnson in Downing Street, at last. There are plenty of gags around, and quite a bit of excitement, on the back of Dave’s internal re-engineering of the No 10 policy machine. The appointment of Jo Johnson to run the policy unit, and alongside him a policy board of interesting MPs (including Jesse Norman, George Eustice and Peter Lilley), tells us that the parliamentary party is winning its long-running campaign to get Dave to pay more attention to what his backbenchers want…
[JP note: See here for a quick, crowd-pleasing desert http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/eton_mess ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jo Johnson Moves to Number 10: Why Don’t We Just Relocate the British Government to Eton?
by Tim Stanley
Ukip is rising fast on the right, the Tory backbenchers are getting restless, and Dave’s image as a vacillating centrist born with a silver foot in his mouth is tearing apart his electoral coalition. It’s time for a personnel change. So who does our brilliant Prime Minister pick to run the Number 10 Policy Unit? Jo Johnson. A blond Etonian who looks like he was born to govern India in the 1890s — with bags of charm and a polo club.
It’s possible that Mr Johnson is a policy genius, but that hardly matters. The Government’s problems are largely ones of image, and it’s painfully obvious that Cameron doesn’t grasp that Britain is sick and tired of seeing a tiny gene pool of upper middle-class Oxbridge graduates running everything. Indeed, not knowing anything about Jo Johnson at all, this observer can only make two guesses as to why he got the job:
| 1. | He’s called Johnson and Dave hopes that the hard of hearing will think Boris Johnson is now in Number 10 and so will start voting Tory again. | |
| 2. | He went to Eton… |
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Convert Richard Dart Jailed for Six Years Over Royal Wootton Bassett Bomb Plot
A Muslim convert who plotted to target British civilians in a terror attack was today jailed for six years. Richard Dart, 30, a former BBC security guard, discussed plans with co-defendant Imran Mahmood to blow up soldiers and grieving families in the town of Royal Wootton Bassett, where the bodies of many soldiers killed in Afghanistan have been repatriated.
As he was being sentenced at the Old Bailey, Dart, from Ealing, refused to stand up in the dock. When judge Mr Justice Simon ordered him to, he replied: “I don’t wish to stand. I believe ruling and judging is only for Allah.”
Mahmood, 22, of Northolt, was jailed for nine years and nine months. A third extremist, Jahangir Alom, 26, of Stratford, a former TA soldier and ex-police community support officer, was sentenced to four years and six months behind bars.
The British-born trio, arrested last July, all admitted preparing for acts of terrorism. The judge said they had shown themselves to be “committed fundamentalists” ready to kill. Dart and Mahmood had discussed how to make explosives, with Wootton Bassett as a potential bombing target. Alom was said to have volunteered for service in Afghanistan while in the Territorial Army.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mixed Keighley Reaction to Sharia Law Debate
Fears about the role of Muslim Sharia councils — raised by Keighley’s MP in Parliament this week — have received a mixed response from Muslim spokesmen in Keighley. Kris Hopkins spoke out during Tuesday’s debate, asking for a government assurance Sharia councils would not secure legal jurisdiction in the UK.
Mujeeb Rahman, of the Keighley Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, said his community was completely in favour of having one system of secular law treating all equally. But Abid Hussain, senior vice-president of the Keighley Muslim Association, said he agreed with the Bradford Council of Mosques’ view Sharia councils should be formalised. He added British Muslims deserved the same legal protection as all other UK faiths…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Powers to Strip Passports From British Terror Suspects
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has introduced new rules making it easier to strip British citizens of their passports if they are suspected of plotting terrorism.
Changes to the law allow Mrs May to confiscate Britons’ passports if they plan to travel abroad to take part in terror training camps, or carry out other terror-related activities. Mrs May said the powers could be used against people whose “actual or suspected” activities had given the security services concern.
It represents a significant strengthening of the Home Secretary’s powers because previous rules said a British citizen’s passport could only be removed in such circumstances in “very rare cases”. It is understood the existing powers have only been used 17 times since 1947. The last time was in 2005. Mrs May said: “Passport facilities may be refused to or withdrawn from British nationals who may seek to harm the UK or its allies by travelling on a British passport to, for example, engage in terrorism-related activity or other serious or organised criminal activity.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
This is the shocking arsenal of kitchen knives used by a teenage gang to hack a teenager to death at Victoria Station.
The horrific haul, revealed in images released by police, includes a Samurai sword, and shows one knife so long it can barely be concealed in a newspaper.
Another spans the width of the schoolbag it was hidden in after the deadly attack on 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden
It comes as new CCTV footage has been released showing the moment the 20-strong gang swooped on their victim, a promising young footballer.
Police issued the video reels of the moments before the stabbing of Sofyen as a leading detective in the case pointed part of the blame for the attack on violent computer games.
Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane yesterday blamed the ‘blitz attack’ on Facebook and Blackberry’s messenger service which allowed his killers to organise themselves.
He said the teenagers had lost touch with reality because of violent computer games.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Theresa May vs Mark Reckless: How Abu Qatada Led to a Conservative Sense of Humour Failure
Have you heard the one about the radical Muslim cleric, the Conservative grande dame and the angry lawyer? No, well let me tell you. It’s hilarious, really. Earlier in the House of Commons, MPs heard the sensational news that the Government is going to to send Abu Qatada back to Jordan — but not yet. The continued failure to deport Qatada has left a fair few Tories, ministers included, jolly unhappy…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Whig Aesthetic That Helped to Create the Virtues of the Anglosphere
Daniel Hannan is an MEP for the South East and blogs for the Daily Telegraph
Is there such a thing as a Whig aesthetic? Do we find buildings or works of art that radiate the liberal, patriotic, small-government values that in time came to define the Anglosphere? One answer is to imagine how the British Isles might have looked had the civil war ended differently, and had the Anglophone peoples not bucked the seventeenth-century European trend towards royal absolutism. These islands would, I suspect, have looked a lot more like the Continent. Our public edifices would have been grander, our paintings louder…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: William Hague Warns of Threat to Britain From Syria Fighters
Islamist extremists who have flocked to Syria to fight with groups linked to al-Qaeda pose a direct threat to Britain because they will return to plot attacks at home, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary has said.
Mr Hague said there was now “uncontested space” in Syria where Islamist groups were free to establish training camps that would equip and train foreign fighters, including British extremists. In a letter to MPs, Mr Hague said his officials had concluded some of those trained would threaten British national security on their return. “This is particularly concerning as we assess some of the individuals being trained will seek to carry out attacks against Western interests in the region or in Western states now or in the future,” he wrote in response to a question on how the Syria conflict posed a threat to British security…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Has Thrown British Politics Into the Most Marvellous Chaos
by Peter Oborne
The UK Independence Party and Nigel Farage are a problem for David Cameron — but he should avoid a lurch to the Right
Every so often, Britain is shaken by a new political force that articulates a sense of frustration at the old structures, or a yearning for something new. Sometimes these movements — like the Labour Party at the start of the 20th century — turn into a momentous presence that permanently transforms the national landscape. More usually they wither and fade…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Church Art Theft Impoverishing Albanian Culture
Since the end of communism in Albania, an increasing number of priceless works of art have been stolen from Orthodox churches. Now, a theft that left historic frescoes destroyed has finally caused an uproar.
With knives and axes, art thieves destroyed historic frescoes in a small church in Elbasan in central Albania in January. In trying to remove the wall painting, they ended up shredding it. In February, robbers similarly descended on a church in southern Himara. The churches in both cases were Orthodox, the richly decorated interiors of which are particularly attractive to art thieves.
Many of the destroyed works were by Onufri, a famous icon painter of the 16th century anhd the best-known medieval artist in Albania. The thefts sparked broad outrage in the media, especially among archaeologists.
But the problem is not new: “For 20 years, icons and other items of historical value have continuously been stolen from Orthodox church interiors in southern Albania. In 1990 there were over 12,000 inventoried icons in the country. Today no one knows how many are left,” lamented Albanian archeology professor and restorer Gjergj Frasheri. In his opinion, the state does too little for the protection of cultural heritage — not one of the art thieves has been caught and brought to justice.
Paradoxically, works of religious art were safer during the communist dictatorship in Albania than today — even though the exercise of religion was forbidden in the world’s first atheist state, and churches were even destroyed.
Stratoberdha criticized the indifference of large parts of society toward art, and the many cases of art theft. The destruction of Orthodox Christian cultural heritage is a big loss not only for members of this religion — but for all citizens in multi-confessional Albania, Stratoberdha asserted.
“We are losing our identity. Maybe some citizens are indifferent because they feel very far from the Orthodox cultural heritage because of their own denomination or religion,” he said.
But people shouldn’t just see something from the perspective of their own religion, he said, rather “as a national cultural heritage of the Albanian people.” If this were to cease to exist, the testament to a 1,500-year history would disappear along with it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Prishtina Central Mosque Entry by APTUM
Swiss/American practice APTUM has shared with us MI’RAJ, its design entry to the Central Mosque of Prishtina architecture competition whose jury recently failed to agree on a clear first prize winner (previously on Bustler).
APTUM partner and Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, Julie Larsen, suggests: “Since the competition couldn’t pick a winner, maybe there should be a second vote online with the better designs because the jury clearly got it wrong from what we are seeing.” — bustler.net
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Serbian President in Historic Srebrenica Massacre Apology
Serbia’s president has issued a historic apology for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, asking the people of the city for forgiveness in a television interview.
President Tomislav Nikolic personally apologised for the first time on behalf of Serbia for the attacks on the city, but stopped short of meeting some demands to describe the atrocity as genocide. “I am down on my knees because of it. Here, I am down on my knees. And I am asking for a pardon for Serbia for the crime that was committed in Srebrenica. I apologise for the crimes committed by any individual on behalf of our state and our people,” he said.
Asked by the interviewer to agree that all the evidence showed that the city had suffered a genocide, he said that charge remained to be proven. The interview will be broadcast on May 7. Mr Nikolic added that much of the events in the wars during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia had characteristics of genocide…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Attacks on Egypt’s Opposition on the Rise
Rights groups say attacks on opposition activists and critical media in Egypt are on the rise. In parliamet, the Islamist regime is quickly trying to pass legislation that will further limit citizens’ freedom of speech.
It is dangerous to speak out openly against the Egyptian leadership. A wrong word against President Morsi or the Islamists backing him can be enough to end up on trial with charges of insulting the President or Islam.
Since Morsi took office, there have been some 600 complaints filed against people working in the media, according to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). The Muslim Brotherhood and the president frequently accuse media figures of instigating unrest in the population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi Report: Trinkets of Treason
We are witnessing one of the biggest government cover-ups since Watergate. A cover-up that involves murder, arms trafficking, and lies by high ranking officials under oath.
It involves the murderous attacks in Benghazi, and congressional investigators just released a 46-page interim progress report that at least exposes Hillary Rodham Clinton and the White House lying under oath. Where’s the accountability? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the media?
A 46-page interim progress report of an ongoing investigation across five House Committees by the U.S. House of Representatives was released on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The executive summary states that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed off on a reduction of diplomatic security forces suggesting that this reduction of security was, in large part, to blame for the attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. The report emphasizes that this is “inconsistent” with her sworn testimony of January 23, 2013. Simply stated, Hillary Rodham Clinton lied under oath to congressional investigators.
Additionally, the interim report states that official press talking points issued by the U.S. intelligence community were altered by the White House and Senior State Department officials on Saturday, September 15, 2012 for the sole purpose of protecting the State Department. It was emphasized that these alterations were not for protecting any classified information whatsoever.
[…]
As I have written in past investigative reports, there was never an embassy or consulate in Benghazi. Now innocuously referenced in this report as the “Benghazi mission,” the facilities in Benghazi served as a logistics center for arms and weapons transfers from Libya ultimately destined for the anti-Assad terrorists in Syria. It was used by the “State Department’s CIA,” which is quite different than the actual CIA known by Americans. It is here that I am providing a little known fact, albeit one that creates angst among those seventh floor occupants of the official CIA headquarters and in the uppermost echelons of the U.S. State Department.
[…]
Testimony from the witnesses might disclose the existence of five warehouses located in Benghazi, Misratah and Derna having direct connections to… Saudi Arabia.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christians in Egyptian Town Threatened With Violence Over Missing Muslim Girl
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — A deadline given by a Muslim family, with support of most Muslims in the area, to all of the Christian Coptic inhabitants of the town of El-Wasta, 90 kilometers south of Cairo, expired today. The Muslim family had given an ultimatum regarding a Muslim girl who disappeared at the end of February, and threatened violent reprisal if the girl was not returned by today.
Fliers were distributed yesterday throughout the town by Muslims, who vowed violence. Muslims visited Coptic businesses and warned them not to open today otherwise they would be torched. Today Copts disregarded this ultimatum and opened their businesses as usual.
Rana Shazli, a 21-year-old Faculty of Arts student, disappeared from home at the end of February. Her father accused the church of converting her to Christianity, marrying her to Ebram Zaki Andrawes and facilitating their travel abroad. The church has denied any involvement in the affair (AINAÂ 3-22-2013).
Copts are currently living in terror, saying they take the ultimatum very seriously and expect the worst tomorrow after Friday prayers. The church and Coptic homes stoned by Muslims demonstrators on March 21 and the priest’s car was torched. The demonstrators vowed to torch all churches. Copts were forced to close their shops until a meeting took place on March 25 between Muslims and Christians, which extended the deadline for returning Rana to April 25.
Muslims insist that Ebram and his cousin Peter went to the ATM machine of Rana’s bank and withdrew 17,000 Egyptian pounds, saying he is shown by the bank’s security cameras.
Failing to find Ebram, a judge in Beba town court decided two weeks ago to imprison his father Zaki Tawfiq Andrawes, his mother Soraya and his cousin Peter, pending an investigation on charges of incitement to kidnap the Muslim girl, the seizure of funds, assistance to convert her to Christianity, contempt of the Islamic religion, to facilitate their travel to Turkey and hide information on their son Abram..
The Facebook page of ‘El-Wasta Online’ (
Rana recently sent a new letter to her family in which she denies that she eloped with a young Copt. She affirmed that she is still a Muslim and is married to a Muslim man.
Kamal Suleiman, member of the Egyptian Shura Council, presented two days ago an Urgent Request and Discussion signed by more than twenty members about a new outbreak of sectarian strife in Beni Suef. The statement warned of bloody events in city of El-Wasta between Christians and Muslims, due to the disappearance of a Muslim girl and rumors about a Copt being responsible for her disappearance. The statement went on to say that the people of El-Wasta forced Coptic families to close their shops for more than a week and then allowed them to resume their activity while giving them a one-month deadline for the missing girl to return, else violence and killings would occur. The Copts, he said, have nothing to do with this case.
The statement criticized the inaction of the Security Directorate despite knowing about the gravity of the situation.
Hatem el Shazly, Rana’s father, accused Father Mattias Fanous of St. Georges Church of being responsible for evangelizing, marriage and disappearance of his daughter and smuggling the couple to Istanbul, pointing out that this information is certain because he found it in his daughter’s papers, including the priest’s telephone number, Christian prayer and some hymns, as well as mantra and talismans, which mullahs and sheikhs “confirmed were black magic to control the will of the girl.” He also told Al Fagr newspaper today that Rana told her sister that she drank a glass of water at church and the priest sprayed water on her face and that she had changed ever since, and is not aware of her actions.
Surprisingly the father also said that he received a phone call from his daughter warning him of targeting the church. She said “the Christians have nothing to do with it and beware of touching any Christian,” reported al-Fagr He added that his daughter told him she is married to a Muslim named Ahmed, is living in Cairo and she has not left Egypt and will return home after getting her marriage certificate.
This evening there were reports of increased security in El-Wasta, around the church and in the streets. “It is no good if they are present and being passive and just stand there watching as they always do,” said Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub. “All of Egypt will watch their performance tomorrow after Friday prayers.”
http://www.aina.org/news/20130425195513.htm
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Police Accused of Siding With Cathedral Attackers
Cairo — A media representative for Egypt’s Catholic bishops echoed concerns that police sided with Islamic extremists who attacked a funeral service en masse at St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo. The police must have been aware of the situation. So why were the police not in front of the cathedral?” asked Father Rafik Greiche of the Egyptian Catholic bishops’ conference. He told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that the police “only arrived two hours later, and then they protected the attackers.” Muslim extremists had previously threatened to disrupt the service, the priest said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Iftaa House Condemns Genocide, Intimidation Against Muslims in Myanmar
The Iftaa House condemned the continuing acts of genocide and intimidation against Muslims in Myanmar, describing them as “shame on humanity.” Egypt’s Mufti Shawki Allam called in a statement on the governments of the Arab and Islamic worlds, international organizations, NGOs, the United Nations and human rights organizations in the world to act to lift the injustice against oppressed Muslims in Myanmar. The Mufti stressed that these acts violate laws, international norms and human rights and require a strong international stance to deter and stop them.
[JP note: Pot calling kettle black.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France Seeks Answers After Libya Embassy Attack
Islamist groups retaliating to France’s intervention in Mali and Libyan militias loyal to the former regime are among those who could be responsible for Tuesday’s bombing of the French embassy in Tripoli, say analysts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton Lied, And Four in Benghazi Died
Scandal: A congressional report shows security cuts before the Benghazi attack were approved by the secretary of state and that White House talking points describing the events were edited to protect the State Department.
The “progress” report by House Republicans will no doubt be dismissed as a partisan political document. But it effectively records administration efforts to ignore the threat of terrorism before the attack on our diplomatic mission in Benghazi, to cover up administration culpability afterward and to sweep aside responsibility for the deaths of four Americans to make the administration look caring and competent.
Despite then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s denials that pleadings from Ambassador Chris Stevens, killed in the terrorist attack, never reached her desk, the interim Benghazi report concludes that:
“Reductions of security levels prior to the attacks in Benghazi were approved at the highest levels of the State Department, up to and including Secretary Clinton. This fact contradicts her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on January 23, 2013.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Husband Forces Niqab on Wife, She Kills Daughter
Woman stabs 2-month old to death, confesses to police
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, APRIL 24 — A Tunisian woman stabbed her two-month old daughter to death to punish her husband for forcing her to wear the niqab, or full-face Islamic veil, Arabic newspaper Al Jomhouria reported Wednesday.
The family lives in M’hamdia, in the Ben Arous governorate.
The woman confessed the murder to police, explaining why she did it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Djerba Synagogue Under Heavy Police Guard
Amidst fears of Salafist attack during pilgrimage
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — A Jewish pilgrimage this weekend to the most ancient synagogue in Africa will take place under huge police presence amidst fears of a Salafist attack. A little under 1000 Jews are arriving at the so called “island of dreams” on Djerba ahead of the pilgrimage on 26 — 28th April to the El Ghriba synagogue, Tunisia’s most ancient Jewish site, and the scene of a 2002 suicide attack by Al Qaeda in which 21 people were killed when a bus full of explosives detonated against its walls. The synagogue, which is located in the Jewish village of Hara Seghira, or ‘Er-Riadh’, dates back to 586 BC and is revered for the chanting of the Torah which resonates from its walls. This peaceful and meditative place is a symbol to Tunisia’s Jewish community, who, until yesterday, had been fully tolerated and fully integrated into Tunisian society. But today’s pilgrims will make the visit under a shadow of fear as the threat of attack from certain Salafist elements threatens to cancel out what until now has been a peaceful co-existence.
Hundreds of armed officers are lining the entrance to the island as well as in the traditional sites where pilgrims gather for prayers. Most of the 2000 strong Jewish community — the biggest in the country, lives in Arryadh, where the synagogue is located, and the Tunisian government is determined not to be caught off guard by any potential Salafist trouble.
At a demonstration on January 14 last year to mark Ben Ali’s escape, Salafist groups shouted at their Jewish neighbours, and threatened to attack them in their homes. Tunisian Salafists make no distinction between Jews and Zionists and Jewish community leaders are hard pressed to drive home the idea that they are first and foremost Tunisians — by many generations, and only second Israelites. In a bid to cut risk security forces have carried out a “clean sweep”, arresting nearly 500 people in the last few weeks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Time to Confront Obama
The time has come for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to confront US President Barack Obama.
A short summary of events from the past three days: On Tuesday morning, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Analysis Division Brig. Gen.
Itay Brun revealed that the Syrian government has already used “lethal chemical weapons,” against Syrian civilians and opposition forces. Brun described footage of people visibly suffering the impact of chemical agents, apparently sarin gas.
Hours later, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Netanyahu had told him on the telephone that “he was not in a position to confirm” Brun’s statement.
It is hard to imagine the US was taken by surprise by Brun’s statement. Just the day before, Brun briefed visiting US Defense secretary Chuck Hagel on Syria. It is not possible he failed to mention the same information.
And of course it isn’t just the IDF saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad is using chemical weapons. The British and the French are also saying this.
But as a European source told Ma’ariv, the Americans don’t want to know the facts. The facts will make them do something about Syria’s chemical weapons. And they don’t want to do anything about Syria’s chemical weapons.
So they force Netanyahu to disown his own intelligence.
Thursday afternoon, in a speech in Abu Dhabi, Hagel confirmed, “with some degree of varying confidence,” that Syria used chemical weapons, at least on a “small scale.”
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Army Downs Hezbollah Drone
(AGI) — Jerusalem, Apr 25 — The Israeli army has intercepted and shot down a drone off the coast of Haifa. The announcement came in a Tsahal communique’. The Israeli media reported that the drone, which entered Israeli airspace from the north and was directed south, was shot down by F-16 fighter jets and was probably launched by Hezbollah. Israeli naval vessels were immediately deployed to find the wreck at sea.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Armenians in Rome Call on Media to Scrap ‘Young Turks’ Term
On 98th anniversary of 1915 Turkish genocide of 1.5mln Armenians
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 24 — Today is the 98th anniversary of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman government, and the local Armenian community has called on Italian media to scrap the term “young Turks” when describing a Democratic Party faction.
“For us those words recall the horror of the Great Crime (the Medz Yeghern, in Armenian) and of the regime of terror that led to genocide”, Armenian community leaders said in a note Wednesday. The starting date of the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians is conventionally held to be the night of April 24, 1915, when police instigated by the so-called Young Turks in the Ottoman government arrested hundreds of Armenian journalists, writers, lawyers, priests and other members of the intelligentsia. Unlike Germany following World War II, Turkey has yet to acknowledge its government once followed a policy of extermination of its Armenian minority.
In its 2013 slogan, the Armenian community in Rome exhorted everyone to “stop and think about what happened in 1915. About this past that won’t pass, and that needs to be remembered. Stop and think. Don’t become an accomplice of negationism”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hagel Claims Syrian Regime May Have Used Sarin, Ignores Fsa Chemical Weapon Use
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel dubiously stated Thursday that the U.S. has found “evidence” of Syria’s use of chemical weapons, prompting war-monger politicians to inquire as to whether the “red line” established by Obama for military intervention had yet been crossed; however, numerous reports have indicated the Free Syrian Army, or the US-funded rebel insurgency attempting to topple secular President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, are just as apt, if not more likely, to resort to chemical weapons use.
For instance, in December we reported the release of a ghastly video shot by Syrian rebels which showed them testing chemical weapons on lab rabbits before making threats to use them against Syria’s pro-Assad Alawite population.
But in a letter to senators Carl Levin and John McCain, special assistant to the President Miguel E. Rodriguez would have us believe “with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin.”
For over a year now, reports have been attempting to portray Assad as a brutal leader who would use chemical weapons on his own people, creating the illusion of a dire need for an invasion of Syria.
However, the Syrian government has repeatedly denied the allegations, and in December wrote to the UN warning that it believed the US may be attempting to frame it by alleging it had used such weapons on so-called “rebels,” as well as innocent civilians.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Authorities Expel Men Because ‘Too Handsome’
Three men from Dubai forced to leave country, protest on Facebook
(by Giuseppe Maria Laudani) (ANSAmed) — ROME — Beauty can be a problem in Saudi Arabia where three men from the United Arab Emirates were allegedly expelled by religious police as considered ‘too fascinating’ to the point of ‘making women fall into temptation’. A report on the incident was first published a few weeks ago by Arab daily Elaph, sparking worldwide speculation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: EU Gives 30 Mln Extra to Lebanon for Refugee Crisis
Assistance will focus on institutions and access to education
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 24 — The European Commission adopted a decision to provide a 30 million euros additional financial support to Lebanon to mitigate the impact of the Syrian crisis in the country. Out of the 30 million euros, 5 million euros would be designated for Palestine refugees from Syria.
“Lebanon receives the highest number of people fleeing from Syria — Syrians as well as Palestine refugees from Syria — and we know that it puts this country under enormous strain” Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, said. The European assistance will focus on capacity building in Lebanese institutions to deal with the crisis, improving access to educational and early childhood development services for both Syrian refugees and those Lebanese communities hosting refugees often in their own homes, empowering local communities socially and economically, strengthening existing structures for the care of children and other vulnerable groups and providing support to Palestine refugees from Syria.
While being the smallest of Syria’s neighbouring countries, Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees. By the last week of March it had received more than 400,000 Syrian refugees, as well as an estimated 40,000 Palestine refugees from Syria. The additional 30 million brings the total amount of financial assistance offered by the European Union to Lebanon in relation to the Syrian crisis to more than 90 million in humanitarian and non-humanitarian aid.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Aleppo Minaret From 1090 Ad Razed to the Ground
SANA news agency confirms activist online videos
(ANSAMED) — BEIRUT, APRIL 24 — The ancient minaret of the Grand Mosque of Aleppo has been razed to the ground, as documented in amateur videos published online by activists in the northern Syrian city on Wednesday. SANA news agency confirmed the activists’ reports. The minaret dated from 1090 AD. Official news agency SANA reported Wednesday that terrorists from the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat an Nusra group detonated explosives at the base of the minaret, which then collapsed. The entire perimeter of the Great Mosque including the minaret had been in the hands of rebels from the Tawhid brigade, which is part of the Free Syrian Army. Syrian rebels accuse Assad loyalists, who tried to seize the mosque today after withdrawing a few months ago, of destroying the minaret. According to anti-Assad activists who posted videos online, loyalist militias destroyed the minaret because it dominated the Aleppo citadel, which is controlled by Assad’s forces.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Al Nusra to Hezbollah, Get Out or Beirut Will Burn
Iran warns Israel to keep out of Syria or there will be war
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 24 — The al-Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front on Wednesday warned Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to withdraw Hezbollah forces from Syria or Beirut will be attacked.
“He must take immediate measures to prevent Hezbollah interference in the internal affairs of Syria, or Beirut will be set on fire within the next 24 hours”, the extremist group said in a communique published on jihadist websites. An ally of Iran and of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite political party and militant group. While Lebanese Shiite leader Hasan Nasrallah has admitted to its presence in Syria, Hezbollah has stated that its militias are stationed in the Homs region “to protect Lebanese citizens in the border area”.
Hezbollah in recent weeks has stepped up its presence in Qusayr, south-west of Homs, where it has been clashing with anti-Assad rebels.
Also on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Policy and National Security Committee Chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi warned Israel not to repeat its January intervention in Syria, when it bombed a suspected shipment of Russian-made antiaircraft missiles destined for Hezbollah.
“We are certain the Zionist regime will not act in the region again, but should it do so, the war will not be limited to Syria alone”, FARS semi-official news agency quoted Boroujerdi as saying. Israel yesterday for the first time accused Assad of using chemical weapons, including the lethal nerve gas Sarin, against insurgents. This came as US Secretary of State John Kerry told NATO contingency plans should be put in place against the threat of a chemical strike. “We must carefully and collectively consider how NATO is prepared to respond to protect its members from a Syrian threat, including any potential chemical weapons threat”, Kerry told NATO foreign ministers yesterday in Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Accuses ‘Chechen Terrorists’ of Seizing Bishops
(AGI) Damascus — The Syrian regime accused an armed group “led by Chechen terrorists” of seizing the two kidnapped bishops .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Arms Deal Ratchets Up Middle East Tension
The United States’ promised $10-billion arms deal with Israel and two Arab allies sends out a clear signal and further increases the pressure on Iran, but where is all this tension leading?
As “clear signals” go, this one could hardly be clearer. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced over the weekend that the US was preparing a $10-billion (7.7-billion-euro) arms deal with Israel and two key Arab allies — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The deal will supply Israel with missiles for its fighter aircraft, plus KC-135 refueling planes that could be used in a long-range strike, as well as five or six V-22 Osprey transport planes, which would also be very useful in any potential military action against another country — say, for example, Iran.
“This is one of the most complex and carefully orchestrated arms sale packages in American history,” one anonymous US defense official is quoted as saying. “That’s not just because of the kinds of equipment that we’re providing to Israel and Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. It’s also a reflection of intensive defense shuttle diplomacy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Unveils Iraq WMD “Curveball-Style” Lies vs. Syria
The last two weeks have seen a series of victories for the Syrian Army across Syria. It appears that 2 full companies of so-called “Free Syrian Army” fighters have been annihilated near Damascus, while government forces have restored order in parts of Homs and along the previously porous Lebanese-Syrian border.
Time has run out for the West, and it appears that they are desperately seeking any excuse to rescue their failing proxy war. When urgent, but otherwise unjustified military intervention is needed, a “humanitarian” pretext is usually invented — as it was in Libya. Failing that, as the West has already clearly done in Syria, an even more tenuous narrative has been resurrected from its well-earned grave. CNN has reported in their article, “Hagel: Evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria,” that:
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Thursday that the United States has evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria…
Of course, since 2011, it is now confirmed that the so-called “Libyan rebels” were actually Al Qaeda terrorists operating under the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which has been confirmed to have subsequently traveled to Syria to join Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra franchise in NATO’s proxy war there…
Considering that the Syrian government knows the use of chemical weapons would basically hand the moral, strategic, and geopolitical initiative over to the West, and in light of its recent gains made using conventional weapons and tactics, it makes it all the more likely any real sarin to be found and used in Syria was the work of NATO proxies attempting to produce a plausible casus belli. Terrorists operating in Syria have already been caught using other chemical weapons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House: U.S. Intelligence Has ‘Varying Degrees of Confidence’ That Assad Used Chemical Weapons
WASHINGTON — The White House said on Thursday that American intelligence agencies now assess, with “varying degrees of confidence,” that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, but it said it needed conclusive proof before President Obama would take action.
The disclosure, in letters to Congressional leaders, takes the administration a step closer to acknowledging that President Bashar al-Assad has crossed a red line established by Mr. Obama last summer, when he said the United States would take unspecific action against Syria if there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used.
The White House emphasized that, “given the stakes involved,” the United States still needed “credible and corroborated facts” before deciding on a course of action. The letter, signed by the president’s director of legislative affairs, Miguel E. Rodriguez, said the United States was pressing for a “comprehensive United Nations investigation that can credibly evaluate the evidence and establish what happened.”
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Let us look at Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt to see what this thing that the terrorists would like to impose on us is
The murderer is the new celebrity. He emerges out of nowhere with a rags-to-mass-murder story, and is swiftly accorded all the trappings of fame. Reporters track down anyone who knew him to learn about his childhood and his main influences. Relatives and friends both contribute fuzzy anecdotes, mostly indistinguishable from the ones they would present if he were competing on American Idol or running for president.
The disaffected form fan clubs around him. The experts discuss what his rise to fame means. Books are written about him and then perhaps a movie. And then it ends and begins all over again.
The Tsernaev brothers, the living one and the dead one, are already receiving that treatment. Like most murderers they have already become more famous than their victims. More famous than the rescuers. The original Tamerlane is better known than any of his countless victims. The new one is already eclipsing his victims. Before long one of those Chechen bards whose videos he tagged into his playlist on YouTube will write a ballad about the Boston massacre and the circle will be complete.
[…]
Radical and extremist are convenient terms for dismissing people and subjects without discussing them. Mental shortcuts like that can be convenient. No one really wants to spend every waking moment debating the people who think that the moon landing was faked or that we are ruled over by miniature T-Rex’s who somehow look just like people. But when the body count gets high enough, dismissing it as extremism or radicalism doesn’t hold up. The question must be discussed.
The experts point to foreign policy, but Muslim violence began a thousand years before the United States existed as an independent political entity.
[…]
When it comes to the Weather Underground, the media is eager to discuss their ends, but not their means. And when it comes to the Tsarnaevs, the media will discuss their means, but not their ends.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Hugh Fitzgerald
The playwright was Griboyedov. He wrote only one play, but that play was “Woe From Wit,” the most famous play in the Russian language. Griboyedov was killed in 1829 in Teheran, where he had been stationed as a Russian diplomat to the court of the Shah. The Legation (Embassy, if you prefer) was attacked by rebels. Some accounts maintian that they were after Christian women who had been given refuge by the Russian diplomats. That mob attacked the Russian buildiing — Persians then as now ignored rules about diplomats and their buildings — and managed to kill him and 37 others. Only one Russian survived. .Griboyedov’s body was subject to both dismemberment and mutilation; he could be identified only by one hand, a hand that had been damaged in a duel. He’s buried on the sacred mountain of Mtatsminda, in Tbilisi, Georgia — probably because his wife, Nina Chavchavadze, was a member of a celebrated Georgian noble family.
In his famous play, Woe From Wit (Gore Ot Uma), Griboyedov has this line: Vri, da znaj zhe meru. Winged words in Russian ever since. It means: By all means, go ahead, lie, but for god’s sake know when to stop…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Attended CIA-Sponsored Workshop
Tamerlan Tsarnaev attended a workshop sponsored by the CIA-linked Jamestown Foundation, Izvestia reports today (see English translation here). The Russian newspaper cites documents produced by the Counterintelligence Department Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia confirming that the NGO “Fund of Caucasus” held workshops in the summer of 2012 and Tsarnaev attended.
In 2012, Tsarnaev spent six months in Dagestan, a region neighboring Chechnya. The FBI interviewed him the previous year but said it found no evidence that he was a threat. On Tuesday, Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano said her agency was aware of the trip and, on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry stated Tsarnaev returned from Russian trip “with a willingness to kill people.”
The Caucasus Fund was established in November, 2008, following the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. The main purpose of the organization, according to Izvestia, is “to recruit young people and intellectuals of the North Caucasus to enhance instability and extremism in the southern regions of Russia.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Blamed for Bus Crash That Killed 30 Afghans
At least 30 people were killed and others badly injured and burned when their bus crashed into a stationary lorry on Afghanistan’s main highway.
One local official blamed Taliban insurgents for the deaths, saying the bus had ploughed into the burning wreckage of lorry they had ambushed. Omar Zawak, the governor’s spokesman in Helmand province, said the truck was set on fire by attackers and left burning in the middle of a road. The bus was unable to avoid smashing into it, he told the AP news agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Two Killed by Explosion Near Taj Mahal in North India
MUMBAI, Apr. 25 (Xinhua) — Two people were killed on Thursday in an explosion near world famous historical site Taj Mahal in Agra of north India, according to local news channel NDTV.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
12 Dead in Philippines Election Ambush
Twelve people were killed in an ambush on a Philippines mayor, officials said Friday, in the deadliest of a string of violent incidents that have marred the campaign for May elections.
Gunmen opened fire on a truck carrying Mayor Abdulmalik Manamparan and his supporters on southern Mindanao island late Thursday, local military commander Colonel Ricardo Jalad said, adding that several victims were relatives of the mayor…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fatal Clash in China’s Xinjiang Region
Sketchy reports from China’s western region of Xinjiang say 21 people were killed when police searched the homes of the region’s Uyghur ethnic minority.
Chinese authorities say 21 people were killed as Chinese police raided a suspected terrorist hideout in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang.
A regional government-run website Tianshan Net said gun fights broke out on Tuesday afternoon while police were searching for weapons in Bachu district.
Those killed included six Uyghur suspects, the website said. It described the others killed as police officers and government “social workers.”
Mainly Muslim Uyghurs make up about 40 percent of the 21 million people in the vast, ethnically divided region of Xinjiang.
Exiles and human rights groups have long accused China’s government of favoring Chinese Han migrants and using tensions to stage crackdowns on Uyghurs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The tsunami-caused nuclear accident at the Fukushima power station in Japan is the disaster that never ends, as new reports indicate that a wealth of new radioactive materials have been spewed into the atmosphere.
According to Singapore-based news outlet AsiaOne, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the multi-nuclear reactor power station at Fukushima, announced April 6 that some 120 tons of water that had been contaminated with radioactive substances had leaked from an underground storage facility at the No. 1 atomic power plant site.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Wasn’t Found by Accident, Study Suggests
Australia’s colonization may have been an organized affair rather than an accident, a new analysis suggests.
Some 50,000 years ago, aboriginal human settlers arrived on the continent, but how many people it took to found Australia’s population is unknown. The new study, published Tuesday (April 23) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that about 1,000 to 3,000 individuals originally landed on Australia’s shores.
“This is largely speculative, but I think this suggests something more than accidental colonization by a small group on a raft of vegetation or other unplanned voyage,” study researcher Alan Williams, a doctoral candidate at The Australian National University, wrote in an email. “For me, this suggests a deliberate attempt at exploration (if not migration) more akin to those we see in the recent past from Hawaii and other Pacific islands.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
25 Killed in Crossfire Between Nigeria Military, Gunmen in Northeastern Yobe — Police
A total of 25 people, including police and assailants, were killed on Thursday in a crossfire between military operatives and gunmen in Gashua Town of Bade local government area of northeast Nigeria’s Yobe State, according to local police authorities. State police commissioner Sanusi Rufai confirmed the casualties figure to reporters, saying five policemen and 20 gunmen lost their lives during the gun duel which lasted for several hours…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ghana: Muslims Pray for Akufo-Addo to Win Court Case
Many Muslims in Koforidua, the Eastern regional capital, on Tuesday prayed fervently for God’s favour and protection for Akufo-Addo, 2012 flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and other party members who are challenging the results of the presidential election at the Supreme Court…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: As Jonathan Names Amnesty Panel…boko Haram to Get 60 Days to Disarm
Abuja/Kaduna — Members of the Boko Haram sect will be given a 60-day window within which to disarm under a Federal Government dialogue and amnesty programme announced yesterday. President Goodluck Jonathan named a 26-member committee, headed by Special Duties Minister Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, which will engage in talks with the sect and come up with a disarmament and amnesty framework…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Hajj 2013 — Planning for Women
Mni — Hajj is Islam’s fifth pillar and a journey for completion of a Muslim’s faith. Those who have the resources and can travel in safety to Makkah are enjoined to perform hajj at least once in their lifetime. For such an important religious activity, Muslims worldwide invest money and time in ensuring that pilgrims are taught the rites of hajj and perform it hitch free. The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) is the organisation charged with policy issues and administration of Hajj nationwide. It works closely with State Pilgrims Welfare Boards/ Agencies to develop policies for Hajj operation and administration. It also organises review meetings of previous hajj operations and capacity building workshops for hajj officials and stakeholders…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: After the Baga Massacre…
In what appears to be its hugest casualty hunt, the Boko Haram insurgents, directly and indirectly, caused the death of over 200 people, mainly women and children, at the fishing port of Baga in Kukawa local government area of Borno State, last weekend. The onslaught was a devastating ash in the mouths of the protagonists of the proposed amnesty for members of the terrorist sect…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rape Fury in Liberia — Families of Underage Girls Abused by Lebanese Speaking Out
Monrovia — Ma Mary sits at the back of her Battery Factory residence, head slightly leaning on one side resting on her hands. The mother of two of the girls currently in police custody, is cannot come to terms with the news that her little girls had just been screened in a pornographic video by a 43-year-old Lebanese man. She narrates the story of how she received the dreadful news from officers of the Liberia National Police when they came knocking on her doors to take the girls to the police station. “Saturday the police people came here. When they came, my own of children them they take them. That’s how I followed them and went to central. After the thing happened, day before yesterday, which was on Friday the people that came from the police station, say they witnessed the video and they saw my children inside it.”
Ma Mary’s children ages fourteen and eight, are among many other children who Jaafar Bashir, a Lebanese national had allegedly been sexually abusing while at the same time videotaping his action. Bashir has been involved in the raping the young Liberian children within the age range of 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 15 according to the police…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Humans May Have Reached the Americas 22,000 Years Ago
Humans lived in South America at the height of the last ice age, thousands of years earlier than we thought, according to a controversial study. A team claims to have found 22,000-year-old stone tools at a site in Brazil, though other archaeologists are disputing the claim.
Christelle Lahaye of Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 University in France and colleagues excavated a rock shelter in north-east Brazil and found 113 stone tools.
The team dated the sediments in which the tools were buried using a technique that determines when the sediments were last exposed to light. Some tools were buried 22,000 years ago — thousands of years earlier than any known human colonisation of the Americas.
For decades, archaeologists thought that the Clovis people were the first to enter the Americas, 13,000 years ago. But since the 1980s evidence has accumulated for an earlier colonisation, at least 15,000 years ago.
Could humans have been in Brazil 22,000 years ago? “The (dating) tests they present suggest they’ve got a good signal,” says Ann Wintle at the University of Cambridge.
For others, it is the tools that are raising eyebrows. “Rock shelters are difficult to interpret,” points out John McNabb of the University of Southampton, UK. Stones falling from above can break, making them look like human-made tools. As a result, McNabb calls the evidence “suggestive but unproven”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Criticism of EU Asylum Policy Grows
Civil wars, such as the one in Syria, force millions to seek refuge abroad. Some of them land in the EU and end up being deported across the continent. A human rights group is calling for major asylum policy changes.
Even experienced politicians such as Ruprecht Polenz, head of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, are sometimes staggered by the type of obstacles war refugees have to overcome on their way to a better life. During a human rights conference, the politician said he had been asked by Syrians whether their families could seek refuge in Germany. Polenz said that, at first, he thought this shouldn’t be a problem, only to later find out that this was “practically impossible.”
Ever since, Polenz, a member of Angela Merkel’s German Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has campaigned to allow the more than 40,000 Syrians living in Germany to reunite with family members escaping the war zone.
However, German authorities have denied entry to these refugees on the grounds that they might lack the willingness to return to their countries of origin at a later date, according to Günter Burkhardt, co-founder of Pro Asyl, a human rights organization known for its criticism of the treatment given to war victims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gang of Eight Makes it Easier for Asylum Seekers, Like Boston Marathon Suspects, To Come to U.S.
Immigration system: Washington created this crisis, lawmakers like the Gang of Eight failed at their primary duty to protect America’s citizens.
The Gang of Eight’s 844-page immigration reform legislation makes it easier for asylum seekers to come to America. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the Boston Marathon bomber suspect, who was apprehended last Friday, after he was found wounded in a boat in Watertown, Boston, after the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured nearly 200 others, came to America legally by claiming asylum with his father.
On Monday Tsarnaev was “charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death.”
According to the New York Times, “Anzor Tsarnaev and his younger son [Dzhokhar] first came to the United States legally in April 2002 on 90-day tourist visas… Once in this country, the father applied for political asylum, claiming he feared deadly persecution based on his ties to Chechnya. Dzhokhar, who was 8, applied for asylum under his father’s petition.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Bill to Bring in at Least 33 Million People, Says Group
The pending Senate immigration bill would bring a minimum of 33 million people into the country during its first decade of operation, according to an analysis by NumbersUSA, a group that wants to slow the current immigration rate.
By 2024, the inflow would include an estimated 9.2 million illegal immigrants, plus 2.5 million illegals who arrived as children — dubbed ‘Dreamers’ — plus roughly 3.4 million company-sponsored employees with university degrees, said the unreleased analysis.
The majority of the inflow, or roughly 17 million people, would consist of family members of illegals, recent immigrants and of company-sponsored workers, according to the NumbersUSA analysis provided to The Daily Caller.
The estimate is likely the first of several that will be produced by advocates as the Senate grapples with the immigration bill developed by the “Gang of Eight” senators.
The 844-page bill was released last week, and was scheduled for debate and amendment in the Senate’e judiciary committee starting April 25.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Near-Suicidal Immigration Policies
What does it take to get deported? More than you would think.
Why were the Tsarnaevs granted asylum in the United States — and why were some of them not later deported? Officially, they came here as refugees. As ethnic Chechens and former residents of Kyrgyzstan, they sought “asylum” here from anti-Muslim persecution — given that Russia had waged a brutal war in Chechnya against Islamic militants.
Yes, the environment of Islamic Russia was and still can be deadly. But if the Tsarnaevs were supposedly in danger there, why did the father, Anzor, after a few years choose to return to Dagestan, Russia, where he now apparently lives in relative safety? Why did one of the alleged Boston bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, return to Russia for six months last year — given that escape from such an unsafe place was the very reason that the United States granted his family asylum in the first place?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Problem Isn’t Just Illegal Immigration, It’s Legal Immigration, Too
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
The people of Boston are no longer being terrorized by the Marathon bombers, but amnesty supporters sure are.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” last weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s response to the Boston Marathon bombers being worthless immigrants who hate America — one of whom the FBI cleared even after being tipped off by Russia — was to announce: “The fact that we could not track him has to be fixed.”
Track him? How about not admitting him as an immigrant?
As if it’s a defense, we’re told Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (of the Back Bay Tsarnaevs) were disaffected “losers” — the word used by their own uncle — who couldn’t make it in America. Their father had already returned to Russia. Tamerlan had dropped out of college, been arrested for domestic violence and said he had no American friends. Dzhokhar was failing most of his college courses. All of them were on welfare.
(Dzhokhar was given everything America had to offer, and now he only has one thing in his future to look forward to … a tenured professorship.)
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Erupt in Paris After Gay Marriage Legalised
Clashes broke out between protesters and riot police near France’s lower house of parliament late on Tuesday just hours after the country legalised gay marriage, with opponents of the law hurling projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Diversity and Multiculturalism, Failed Liberal Values
This country was not built on diversity and multiculturalism, the failed liberal ideology. We are certainly diverse enough and Americans come from many cultures. For generations every immigrant to this country learned English, American history, celebrated American traditions, and became a part of the fabric of our exceptional society while honoring traditions from the ethnic backgrounds and former countries they left behind.
Left wing ideology with the help of Marxist college professors, Hollywood, and the mainstream media is determined to change that. We are suddenly an “evil empire” with a heavy burden of past transgressions and Americans should be ashamed of their history, their Christian religion, wealth earned through hard work and entrepreneurial ethic, and of the myriad of accomplishments that have saved and improved the lives of billions on this planet.
The Constitution has become a “living, breathing document” that old men from a long time ago wrote and is no longer applicable to our changing life where “social justice” and redistribution of wealth, stealing from producers and giving to takers, decisions made by Saul Alinsky type street organizers, are pressing goals at every level of society. Our laws are now just mere suggestions for minions to follow, the elite in power decides what is good for our bodies and our lives even though it violates our Constitutional rights.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Video: Domestic Terrorist Says He Targeted Conservative Group for Being ‘Anti-Gay’
Family Research Council (FRC) officials released video of federal investigators questioning convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins II, who explained that he attacked the group’s headquarters because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a “hate group” due to their traditional marriage views…
The Southern Poverty Law Center still lists FRC as an “anti-gay” hate group on the “hate map” Corkins used. “The SPLC’s reckless labeling has led to devastating consequences,” said FRC President Tony Perkins. “Because of its ‘hate group’ lists, a deadly terrorist had a guidemap to FRC and other organizations. Our staff is still reeling from the attack, and the chilling effect this could have on organizations that are simply fighting for their values is outrageous.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How ‘Sexual Liberty’ Devours Real Liberty
Whenever there is a conflict between “sexual liberty” and religious freedom, “I’m having a hard time coming up with any cases in which religious liberty should win.”
So spoke Chai Feldblum, Georgetown law professor and now a member of the Obama administration, a commissioner of the EEOC. We understand her to mean that “sexual liberty,” or the freedom to fornicate, must always trump the free exercise of religion.
Case in point, and only one of many: the attorney general of the state of Washington has vowed to fine a florist $2,000 a day because she committed the crime of refusing to decorate a homosexual mock marriage event. She, with her little one-shop business, is an enemy of the people. She must be crushed. And just to make sure she gets the message, the ACLU is suing her, too. To stop her from being a bully, I guess.
Mind you, this is happening before the Supreme Court discovers a “right to gay marriage” cleverly concealed within the Constitution. Already the explicitly-stated First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion has been made to bow to a “sexual liberty” mentioned nowhere in the document. Maybe James Madison hid it under the coffee table.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Newspaper Says French President Ignored Opposition
Legalization of gay marriage ideological, says paper
(ANSA) — Vatican City, April 24 — The French government ignored many of its citizens and made an ideological choice in legalizing gay marriage, the Osservatore Romano said Wednesday.
One day earlier, the government of French President Francois Hollande legalized same-sex marriage after a fierce national debate.
The newspaper of Vatican City complained the decision is divisive for French society and threatens relationships.
“The government of President Hollande, who has strongly supported the bill, did not pay attention to the many voices in recent months from many sectors of French society. And not only by Catholics,” the newspaper said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tiny Pluto Moons Should be Named Vulcan and Cerberus, Discoverers Say
The discoverers of two newfound Pluto moons will officially propose the people’s-choice names Vulcan and Cerberus for the tiny objects, according to media reports.
Those monikers were the top two vote-getters in the unofficial “Pluto Rocks” naming contest, which sought out more memorable names for the minuscule Pluto moons P4 (discovered in 2011) and P5 (found last year). Vulcan ran away with the overall title after being endorsed by famed “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.
“We did not feel rigidly bound by the vote totals, but in the end we decided that Vulcan and Cerberus/Kerberos were pretty good names,” P4/P5 discovery team leader and “Pluto Rocks” organizer Mark Showalter, of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, Calif., told NBC News’ Alan Boyle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I’m kind of gladdened by Chibeb’s statements re: Canadian justice system. This is the event that will expose the most Canadians as possible to the insanity of the muslim mind!
Quote:
Basically, the justification is that “they hate us.”
end
The refusal to do historical research and follow out the implications of that statement, the refusal of jouralists to answer the question: why do they hate us? amounts to monumental incompetence.