Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/31/2013

The EU’s border agency Frontext is concerned about the rate of arrival of boat people into Italy. In the past week 1,300 migrants from North Africa arrived on Italian territory, or were rescued at sea. Italy reported that non-EU immigration into the country increased by 127,000 people in a year.

In other Italian news, the youth unemployment rate — for potential workers between 15 and 24 years old — has risen to 39.1%.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, McR, Steen, 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.

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No-Go Marseille

The socialist leader of the French city of Marseille has requested that the central government in effect declare his entire city a no-go zone, due to its endemic and escalating culturally enriched violence. Today, however, the interior minister refused the request.

Via Vlad Tepes, an article with the latest from Le Figaro. Many thanks to C. B. Sashenka for the translation:

For the Interior Minister Valls, to comply with the request of the socialist president of the urban community of Marseilles, Eugene Caselli, to place the entire Phoenician City (Marseille) in a Priority Security Zone (ZSP in French — Zone de Sécurité Prioritaire), would not make any sense.

A proposition that “would not be effective and would not make any sense” for Manuel Valls.

Wednesday, the Minister of Interior rejected the proposal advanced by Eugene Caselli, the socialist president of the urban community, and others before him, to classify the entire Phoenician City as a Priority Security Zone (ZSP in French).

In a letter addressed to Manuel Valls, the socialist elected official complains about the situation and denounces “intolerable exactions”. “I’m worried and angered. The situation has become so widespread that it warrants a maximum response”, writes the elected official Eugene Caselli, also candidate for the socialist primary elections for the local elections of Marseilles in 2014.

On France-Info, Manuel Valls rejected this radical measure: “We will not put all of Marseilles in a priority zone of safety. The ZSP’s are targeted devices”. In Marseilles, “there is only the city centre which is not in a zone of priority safety. The south and north districts are already in priority zones of safety; and in the city centre, we have created dedicated units (…) that actively patrol “, he recalled.

Eugene Caselli had advanced this proposal after a wave of new violence at night on Monday to Tuesday. A little before midnight, a body had been found partly burned in a town bordering Marseilles, in Pennes-Mirabeau. The 22-year old young man was killed by a bullet to the head. Two men in their thirties were wounded by bullets in an industrial zone of the Saint-Pierre district. Finally, a driver of a garbage truck was a victim of several paintball shootings, when he drove au niveau de la traverse de la Jarre, not far from an area in a ZSP.

But the classification of the whole of Marseilles as a priority security zone is an old claim. In August 2012, UMP senator and mayor of Marseilles, Jean-Claude Gaudin, had also made this request in Le Figaro.

Read the rest at Vlad’s place.

That description of Monday night’s violence in Marseille actually sounds like a slow night in Chicago or Detroit. Maybe those places should be designated ZPS…?

Below is a report from ANSAmed on the same topic:

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Vandalism in South Bay?

The following video was compiled by Vlad Tepes to consider a series of incidents in the South Bay area of California that may or may not be connected with each other. They’re being described as “vandalism”, but is that what they really are? Or are they something more deliberately sinister?

In light of this video, take another look at what James Woolsey had to say in our previous post.

When the Lights Go Out and the Music Stops

If an enemy of the United States — either a hostile state or a non-state actor — were ever to detonate a nuclear device in low orbit over the continental United States, the resulting electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could be devastating. The power grid, various electronic devices, and other high-tech infrastructure within the blast radius would be rendered useless, so that a large chunk of the country would lose most of its post-1850 technology — but without reacquiring the earlier systems of agricultural and industrial production that sustained the population in the days before electrification.

EMPs also appear at extended intervals by natural means, i.e. through solar flares. Before the modern grid was in place, such a flare would have little or no effect on human civilization, but everything has changed since then. 21st-century technology is uniquely vulnerable to the threat of an EMP, no matter its origin.

Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy have been raising public awareness for years about the potential dangers to the United States posed by an EMP. The following press release concerns a panel discussion on the topic hosted by CSP this past Monday, and features former CIA Director James Woolsey.

A video of the event is included in the press release. Mr. Woolsey is a superb speaker, and his introduction to the topic is the most concise and lucid exposition about EMPs that I have ever seen. I highly recommend watching the video.

For more information, see CSP’s “Infrastructure and EMP” website.

Former CIA Director Woolsey Warns of Existential Threat to America

Washington, D.C.: On July 29th, President Bill Clinton’s former Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey, led a panel discussion on the growing — and perhaps imminent — threat of a natural or nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to the U.S. electric grid and other critical infrastructures that sustain modern civilization and the lives of millions of Americans. The event was sponsored by the newly established EMP Coalition, of which Mr. Woolsey is the Honorary Co-Chair along with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

Other participants were Ambassador Henry Cooper and Dr. Peter Vincent Pry. Ambassador Cooper led strategic arms control negotiations with the USSR under President Reagan and served as the Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization under President George H.W. Bush. His is currently the Chairman of High Frontier, an organization dedicated to protecting the United States from nuclear attack. Dr. Pry served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission, as a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee and as an analyst in the CIA. He is now the Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a congressional advisory board dedicated to national resiliency in the face of EMP and other threats.

Highlights of the program included the following:

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Living the Outcome of Obama’s Policies

Raymond Ibrahim is a well-known American scholar of Coptic background who specializes in Islam in the Middle East. In the following clip from CBN, he talks about recent events in Egypt, and the Obama administrations catastrophic decision to throw in its lot with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Atheists and secular people who have a less than positive opinion about Christian media should note the quality of the information conveyed in this conversation on CBN. The Christian outlets do a far better job of presenting news about Islam than the regular MSM. They are generally thorough, accurate, and straightforward in their reporting:

Hat tip: Kitman.

Warning to Norwegian Civil Servants: Don’t Criticize Eskil Pedersen

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article about the latest casualty of the Norwegian state’s fierce intolerance for dissident points of view. The translator includes this note:

Here’s another example of the consensus tyranny that exists in Norway. If the person in question had made a less than flattering comment about, say, Fjordman on his Facebook page — in which he compared Fjordman to a high ranking German military officer from WW2 or described him as the ideological mentor of Anders Behring Breivik — there would have been no retribution from the political elites in Norway. Nor would there have been any retribution if the person in question had harassed the FrP (the Progress Party) for their ‘racism’ and right-wing policies, which has become somewhat of a sport in Norway among the über-PC crowd.

However, unfortunately for person in question, he chose Eskil Pedersen, the so-called Coward of Utøya, as his target, one of the ‘rising stars’ and the darling of the political leadership of the Labour Party. Hence an example had to be made.

Eskil Pedersen’s ‘retreat’ from Utøya is a big no-no in Norwegian public discourse. A lid has been clamped securely on top of this delicate subject, and it is not to be removed under any circumstances.

Here are links to an article about Eskil Pedersen’s less than honourable ‘retreat’ from the Island on that fateful day, plus two other articles about Norwegians who have lost their jobs because of critical remarks made about Utøya and the Labour Party:

The translated article from VG.no:

Government employee fired for harassing Eskil Pedersen

One of the stenographers employed by the Norwegian Parliament described AUF leader Eskil Pedersen’s escape from Utøya Island as “child sacrifice” on his Facebook page. The man in question has now been fired from his temporary job as a parliamentary stenographer.

The HR manager and Acting Director of the Norwegian Parliament, Bård Knutzen, has told Dagbladet that the behavior of the employee is in breach of the code of conduct, and that the employee will not be given any more assignments.

The man was working as a substitute stenographer for the Parliament’s Secretary Department, whose duties include taking minutes at meetings and debates in the Parliament.

Will not be given any new assignments

“The Code of Conduct, which has been thoroughly explained to all our employees, stipulates that they are bound by these guidelines even after working hours and as private individuals,” says Bård Knutzen to Dagbladet.

He can reveal that the parliamentary administration will send a letter to the individual informing him that he will not be given any new assignments as a stenographer in the future.

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The Iranian Infiltration of Latin America, Part 2

Below is the second of several parts of a summary of prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s much longer report on the 1994 bombing of the AMIA center in Buenos Aires, which was released at the end of May. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies issued the 31-page summary (pdf) when the larger report was published. (Previously: Part 1)

A word to readers who have emailed me about the quality of the prose in the FDD report: yes, the text is less than ideal in its syntax and phrasing. However, since the document has already been published as a pdf, I’m loath to edit it more than is absolutely necessary to repair errors that interfere with the conveyance of the intended meaning. Normally I would do a more intensive edit, as is my natural inclination.

My guess is that the summary was originally composed in Spanish, and then hastily translated the same day the full-length Nisman report was released.

This report is important for the light it sheds into the Iranian network in Latin America, including the penetration of Trinidad and Tobago. We’ve covered parts of the Trinidad connection here in the past, beginning with Sheikh Yasin Abu Bakr back in 2006, and then his associate Abdul Kadir last year.

In addition to Argentina and Trinidad, other countries targeted by Iran include Guyana, Venezuela, Dominica, Barbados, Antigua, Barbuda, Suriname, Grenada, and Brazil.

The section below is the “Summary” portion of the FDD report. Further topical sections will be covered in later parts of this series.

Summary

Delving deeper into the investigation and the measures aimed towards the capture of the AMIA Case’s fugitives, it was detected, in July 2010, the existence of a criminal case before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), in which several defendants were being prosecuted for conspiring to commit a terrorist attack against the John F. Kennedy airport. The information pointed out that one of them, Abdul Kadir, had repeated contacts with Mohsen Rabbani, principal architect of the local connection in the AMIA bombing with an international arrest warrant and red notice by Interpol.

This circumstance immediately motivated the Prosecution Investigation Unit of the AMIA case to contact the US judicial authorities in order to start an information exchange to obtain evidence linked to the person and activities of Mohsen Rabbani. Mainly, the deepening of this investigative line had the purpose to establish the knowledge Abdul Kadir and his acquaintances could have had about the terrorist bombing to the AMIA Center and Rabbani’s involvement in it, especially considering that, from the beginning of this new inquiry, it was known that the contacts between Rabbani and Kadir were contemporary to the July 18th blast.

Although initially it was examined the possibility of any kind of involvement of Abdul Kadir himself and his acquaintances in the AMIA bombing, that hypothesis had not been supported by any evidence collected until now, which therefore entitled this office to produce certain investigative measures, given the proven relations between Kadir and Rabbani.

Along this line, besides the testimonies taken by the Prosecutor’s Office under the Argentina-United States Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, this Unit also received copies of substantial documents seized by the Guyanese Law Enforcement Agencies in the searches conducted in Kadir’s residence as well as those obtained by the Trinidadian authorities when he was arrested. In those searches, as it was corroborated while taking testimony to the FBI agent Robert Addonizio, there were seized, among other important documents, letters addressed to Mohsen Rabbani, newspapers articles that mention At Tauhid mosque — formerly run by Mohsen Rabbani — and a Kadir’s personal phone book with Rabbani’s contact information handwritten in it.

From the beginning it is worth mention that the study of circumstances and the context in which this conspiracy took place, revealed common patterns between the activities performed by Kadir in Guyana and those developed by Rabbani in Argentina. It became evident that in the Caribbean nation had been settled by the same Iranian intelligence infiltration system as was in Argentina, consisting of many stages, interactive and complex links, for example: the arrival of Iranian Mullahs with a radicalized vision, propaganda and ideological infiltration according to that vision, recruiting and training of local Muslims and new converts, funding, dual use of mosques, cultural centers and Iranian diplomacy, etc. The characteristics identified in Guyana are similar to those that have already been detected in our country and were widely detailed and explained in the October 25th 2006 indictment. Despite the fact that Guyana and Argentina are two far distant and extremely different countries, the building and development of both Iranian intelligence stations showed remarkable resemblance, resulting in the need to deepen even more the investigation to further the study of the context in which AMIA bombing occurred.

This new evidence, jointly analyzed with the probing elements that were already part of this investigation, showed that this intelligence structures had a single and unique leadership, which allows to conclude that they had been preconceived; that means they were not the result of the free will of the local leaders — Rabbani and Kadir — who were the means that executed a previously shaped idea. The origins and unique features that characterized these structures allowed associating them inescapably with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

So, it is possible to state that the Iranian Intelligence structures discovered in Argentina as well as in Guyana — which were suitable to provide essential support for the deadly terrorist attack of 1994 and the dangerous conspiracy of 2007 — were not only very similar in their components, ways of implementation and purpose, but they were also conceived within the framework of the policy for exporting the revolution.

The Prosecution Unit was able to demonstrate that the seminar held in Teheran in 1982 on the subject of the ideal Islamic government, which was attended by approximately 380 religious men from 70 countries, was a turning point in the regime’s policy for exporting the revolution which included, since then, the use of violence and terrorism when necessary. In other words, that seminar meant for the Iranian leadership the birth of a justification for the use of violence as an admitted and even promoted way for removing the obstacles that could be found in spreading their radical vision. That was stated, among others, by the First Commander of Revolutionary Guard Corps, Javad Mansouri, who declared: “Our Revolution can only be exported by grenades and explosives”, and subsequently summoned each Iranian Embassy to turn into an intelligence center and a base to export the Revolution.

The prosecutor explained the background that made the seminar possible, noting that in October 1980 it was created the Organization of Islamic Liberation Movements (OILM) which started to operate as the real machinery for exporting the revolution. Its leader, Mehdi Hashemi, was appointed Commander of a special unit within the Revolutionary Guard Corps (Pasdaran) and from that position he started organizing a structure which contained warfare guerrilla units, initially including Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi dissidents who, at that time, were refuges in Iran. In a short period, the OILM reached a spectacular development becoming the leader in exporting the Islamic Revolution. Since the beginning of OILM’s activities, a department called “Studies and Investigations Unit” was exclusively devoted to analyzing foreign situations so as to export the Revolution.

After the 1982 seminar it became clear that, in order to achieve its expansionist objectives, the Iranian regime considered the possibility of using violence and terrorism if necessary. Those guidelines were put into practice by establishing intelligence and espionage structures in third countries with the sufficient capability to provide support for terrorist operations.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/30/2013

UK Police are investigating an election that was held in Woking, Surrey back in May 2012, when the Liberal Democrat Mohammed Bashir defeated the Labour candidate, Mohammad Ali (Note: an English election with a Mohammed Coefficient of 100%). A judge has ruled that Mr. Bashir committed electoral fraud in order to win by 16 votes.

In other news, Anders Behring Breivik has applied to the University of Oslo to study political science, but some staff members at the university are reportedly refusing to teach him.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, McR, Papa Whiskey, Steen, The Observer, Vlad Tepes, 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.

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A “French” Assassin in Tunisia

The assassination Chokri Belaid back in February caused a lot of unrest in Tunisia. Now there’s word that the assassin — who also took out Mohamed Brahmi more recently — is a culturally enriched “Frenchman”.

See ANSAmed for more on the Brahmi and Belaid assassinations.

From Novopress via Vlad Tepes. Many thanks to Oz-Rita for the translation:

A French-Born Islamist Sought by Tunisia for Several Assassinations

Boubakeur E1 Hakim (photo) is strongly suspected of being responsible for the recent assassinations of Tunisian opposition members Mohamed Brahmi and Chokri Belaid. The suspected killer was born in France and has been condemned for having organised jihadist groups towards Iraq.

Discovered by French intelligence in 2003 during demonstrations against the war in Iraq, Boubakeur was identified as one of the people responsible for the jihadist gang “filiere des Buttes-Chaumont” in Paris. This group facilitated the trip for foreigners who wanted to fight American forces in Iraq. The suspect, already sought for arms smuggling into Libya, is also thought to be implicated in the assassination of another Tunisian opposition member in February 2013.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/29/2013

At least a hundred Taliban fighters, including seven suicide bombers, attacked a major prison in Pakistan today using bombs, grenades, and automatic weapons. The outer wall of the prison was breached, an undetermined number of people were killed, and dozens of Taliban prisoners have reportedly escaped.

In other news, according to Syrian TV, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have retaken a key district of the rebel-held city of Homs.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, LS, MC, McR, Steen, 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.

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The Pogo Project, Part 2

I had to visit Torquemada the retinal specialist this afternoon to undergo the fourth treatment for macular degeneration in my left eye. The treatment consists primarily of having incredibly bright lights flashed into the eye as part of a scan, followed by an injection through the sclera into the vitreous humor. The process has been very effective so far — the eye will never be what it used to be, but I can function normally and comfortably in most circumstances, only covering the left eye while reading or working at the computer screen.

The experience has left me somewhat washed out, however. At the moment I’m not up to finding any cultural enrichment stories or editing new translations. But writing about Pogo is another matter entirely. It’s quite relaxing, even invigorating.

The second selected daily strip in our series is from 1952, also from I Go Pogo. The context of these panels includes two intertwined threads: (1) the 1952 presidential campaign, in which Pogo was an unwilling candidate under the slogan “I Go Pogo”, and (2) the Boy Bird Watchers, an ostensibly ornithological club run by Deacon Mushrat.

The featured characters in the story are the three bats, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred. Their antics include some of the funniest material in Pogo, what with their free-associative conversation, their endless card game, and their identity crisis — the bats are able to identify themselves and each other only by which pants they are wearing. If they lose their pants, they don’t know who they are, and if they happen to switch pants, they are forced into a temporary exchange of identities.

The birds in this sequence have walk-on parts, and are not part of the permanent cast of Okefenokee Swamp:

The jokes in the above panels demand some explanation for our European readers — and for any Americans who received a public school education after about 1975.

Part of the humorous impact comes from the breadth of the political campaign references, which span more than a century:

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The Laser Jihad Comes to Switzerland

Every video of the nighttime riots in Cairo shows the flashes and green spears of hand-held lasers being used by the demonstrators in an attempt to blind police and soldiers. Now the same tactic has been imported to France, and is being used to blind train drivers.

Yes, I know that there is no indication so far that the lowlifes who mounted the attack were culture-enrichers. However, assuming the suspects are ever caught, does anyone want to take any bets on the Mohammed Coefficient of the perps who did this?

Many thanks to SimonXML for translating this article from 20 Minutes:

Train driver blinded by a laser

The driver of an Intercity train from Geneva to St. Gallen was the victim of a laser attack on Sunday evening. The train had to stop in Wil (SG) to change drivers.

The train driver was hit in the eyes and blinded by a laser while the train was travelling near Aadorf (TG), said Lea Meyer on Monday, SBB spokesman, who confirmed information broadcast by Radio FM1. The train continued to Wil where it was stopped.

Laser attacks have increased over the past two years, Lea Meyer said in a Radio FM1 programme. People who do this are ‘dangerous and cowardly,’ she added. SBB reports every incident to the police.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/28/2013

The Israeli cabinet voted 13-7 to release 104 imprisoned Palestinians, clearing the way for the renewal of “peace” talks, as demanded by Secretary of State John Kerry and the United States. Among those released will be murderers responsible for terror attacks that killed innocent Israeli civilians.

In other news, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church warned against gay marriage, saying that the movement to legalize gay unions risks bringing on the apocalypse.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, TV, 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.

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