Syrian Kurds have consolidated their hold on a region of northeastern Syria close to the Turkish border. They demonstrated their military capabilities by capturing the leader of Al Qaeda in Syria. Turkey has warned the Kurds not to set up an autonomous Kurdish state in Syria, or else they may face “serious risks”.
In other news, a Swedish law professor has proposed that the government enact legislation prohibiting parents from drinking alcohol in the presence of their children.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, 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.
If the U.S. should face total financial collapse, there will be no real freedom left anywhere in the world
In the former Soviet Union, the joke was “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” It took over four decades of the Cold War to finally put an end to the lie that Communism as an economic system works. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Soviet Union came to an end on December 25, 1991. By then Communism worldwide had killed hundreds of millions of people.
Now, it is true that America is not a Communist nation, but by doggedly pursuing the theories put forth by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, as well as the historically failed theories of Keynes, a British economist who believed that the government must pump money into the economy to keep it afloat, Obama has been trying to turn our Capitalist economy into a Communist one,
Calling our economy “Communist” may seem unduly harsh, but under Obama and his predecessors, the government is in charge of the banking sector, the health and insurance industries, General Motors was nationalized, the government is deeply involved in mortgage lending and now controls student loans. Now stand back and ask if the government — the State — is not now more Communist than Capitalist?
Wedded to failed economic theories, Obama has utterly failed to turn around the economy after the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brain Imaging Study Confirms Addictive Nature of Processed Carbs
A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and one in four are either diabetic or pre-diabetic.
Carb-rich processed foods are a primary driver of these statistics, and while many blame Americans’ overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self-control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods.
Most recently, researchers at the Boston Children’s Hospital concluded that highly processed carbohydrates stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, promoting excess hunger.1 As reported by Science Daily:2
“These findings suggest that limiting these ‘high-glycemic index’ foods could help obese individuals avoid overeating.”
While I don’t agree with the concept of high glycemic foods, it is important that they are at least thinking in the right direction. Also, the timing is ironic, considering the fact that the American Medical Association (AMA) recently declared obesity a disease, treatable with a variety of conventional methods, from drugs to novel anti-obesity vaccines…
The featured research is on the mark, and shows just how foolhardy the AMA’s financially-driven decision really is. Drugs and vaccines are clearly not going to do anything to address the underlying problem of addictive junk food.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Documentary: The Drugging of Our Children
Millions of US children are taking powerful mind-altering drugs, often before they’re even old enough to attend school.
Oftentimes the side effects are far worse than the conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for which they’re prescribed, and rival illegal street drugs in terms of their dangerous risks to health.
In children, the long-term effects are often largely unknown, while in the short term, we’ve seen shocking increases in violent and aggressive acts committed by teens taking one or more psychotropic drugs.
With the problem getting increasingly worse instead of better, now is a perfect time to view Gary Null’s excellent documentary, The Drugging of Our Children.
The number of prescriptions for psychotropic drugs for children more than doubled between 1995 and 2000; the documentary details the devastating consequences of this excessive medicating of our children, with a focus on children who have been diagnosed with ADHD…
Remember, what makes this all the more appalling is that the diagnosis of mental illness in children is far from an exact science. Modern psychiatry has expanded its reach to the point that even the most normal of emotions and mental states now fall under one labeled “disorder” or another. They have been able to cleverly redefine mental illness with the use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This book is created by members of the American Psychiatric Association.
You would think that diseases are put in this book after evaluating carefully executed scientific trials, but nothing could be further from the truth. Additions and changes to this manual are determined by votes by its members. This categorization is NOT based on science at all!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
If You Ignore the Upcoming Primaries, We’re Toast
I can just hear people groan when they read that title. This nation is weary of dirty politics, the incompetence of the Outlaw Congress to fix the mess both parties have shoved down our throats, endless scandals and 24 MILLION Americans out of work because of the incumbents in Congress. Vigilant Americans in all fifty states of the Union are equally fed up with the incompetence of our state legislatures for their failure to implement constitutional solutions to crush the totalitarian agenda coming out of the District of Criminals, as well as protect their citizens from the coming monetary collapse.
A couple of very important facts:
1. Members of our state legislatures and the Outlaw Congress are the ones who make the laws killing private industry, killing our sovereignty, gun restrictions, killing millions of jobs by “free” trade treaties, federal and state income taxes and the list goes on.
2. Judges at the state and federal level have been out of control for many decades. Activist black robes who care nothing for the U.S. Constitution or state constitutions.
Federal judges are left on the bench by a cowardly Congress for political reasons. State judges elected by the people continue to get reelected when they should be thrown off the bench because the electorate pays no attention to what’s going on in the courts. Higher judges like state supreme court justices are political appointees who reign over us like kings and queens while our legislatures ignore their outrageous decisions…
I don’t want to hear it’s all over. It isn’t. People should read Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution by Mark Puls. Read the history of what patriots suffered to birth this republic. They did it with far fewer tools than we have today. The Revolutionary War spilled millions of gallons of blood. We cannot, we must not let up for one minute in this fight. They didn’t and we won’t.
Despite the massive rage across this country in 2010 and 2012, the American people voted back almost all the same incumbents to Washington, DC, and then expected something different to happen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Spokesman Accidentally Admits That the Government is Spying on Virtually All Americans
We have long noted that the government is spying on just about everything we do.[url]
The NSA has pretended that it only spies on a small number of potential terrorists. But NSA Deputy Director John C. Inglis inadvertently admitted that the NSA could spy on just about all Americans.
Inglis told Congress last week that the agency conducts “three-hop” analysis.
Three-hop (also known as “three degree”) analysis means:
The government can look at the phone data of a suspected terrorist, plus the data of all of the contacts, then all of those people’s contacts, and all of those people’s contacts.
This means that a lot of people could be caught up in the dragnet:
If the average person calls 40 unique people, three-hop analysis could allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating onesuspected terrorist.
Given that there are now approximately 875,000 people in the government’s database of suspected terrorists — including many thousands of Americans — every single American living on U.S. soil could easily be caught up in the dragnet…
Legendary NSA cryptographer and mathematician William Binney — who worked at the agency for 32 years, and who was the head of the NSA’s global digital data efforts — created a much better “two hop” system before 9/11.
Called “ThinThread”, the system created by Binney (with the help of Thomas Drake, Kirk Wiebe and Ed Loomis) automatically encrypted all Americans’ communications to protect our Constitutional rights. Information was gathered on people within two hops of suspected terrorists, and information could only be decrypted by a court order. In other words, Binney’s system created a structure in which innocent Americans couldn’t be spied on unless there was a court order showing probable cause.
Binney’s system was actually cheaper and more efficient than the NSA’s current Constitution-violating system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Larry served our country above and beyond the call of duty by infiltrating Weather Underground subversives and reporting on their seditious plots to the FBI, on which he would later testify before Congress.
Lest people think that the Weather Underground is a forgotten movement from US history, many of its former leaders now hold prominent roles in academia and serve in key Obama administration positions. The WU still calls the shots, having exchanged bombs for briefcases, and actively promoting the destruction of America.
This year Larry republished his book Bringing Down America, which chronicles his experiences with the Weathermen, and went on a book tour. We met him when he visited Florida and became friends.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
We could have gone to the stars, but we took another road instead
Forty-four years ago, a nation that we now know was racist, didn’t care about the environment and drank too much soda, landed on the moon.
Half a billion television viewers watched it happen live. They saw men walk on the surface of another world. They saw that human beings could break free of their world and take a first step into the rest of the universe.
And that was that.
Neil Armstrong died about the time that Obama finished gutting NASA. He lived long enough to write a saddened letter about the decline of American space exploration under Obama that everyone in the media did their best not to pay attention to. The letter was also signed by Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon…
We could go to the moon again, but why bother, as NASA’s chief, whose mission, as handed down to him by Barack Obama, was not space exploration, but the enhancement of Muslim self-esteem, told critics. And he’s right. Why bother? Back then, in those ancient days when men who are now in their eighties flew, we went to the moon as part of a larger plan and statement about our place in the universe.
We were going to go the moon and then to the planets beyond. We could find new frontiers, plant our flags, build colonies, jump from world to world, star to star, and turn our civilization into something more than another archeological dig. Maybe it was all just a crazy dream, but looking at the eyes of the men who did it and who died and die seeing it undone, there is that sense that they believed that it could be done.
Going to the moon was a crazy idea of course. Going beyond it would have been even crazier. Instead we settled down to the important things, like race relations, the importance of listening to music, breaking up the family, importing huge numbers of people with little use for our way of life and all the other stupid suicidal things that dying civilizations do to pass the time.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
A chemist by training with a doctoral degree in food science, Behnke became Pillsbury’s chief technical officer in 1979 and was instrumental in creating a long line of hit products, including microwaveable popcorn. He deeply admired Pillsbury but in recent years had grown troubled by pictures of obese children suffering from diabetes and the earliest signs of hypertension and heart disease. In the months leading up to the C.E.O. meeting, he was engaged in conversation with a group of food-science experts who were painting an increasingly grim picture of the public’s ability to cope with the industry’s formulations — from the body’s fragile controls on overeating to the hidden power of some processed foods to make people feel hungrier still. It was time, he and a handful of others felt, to warn the C.E.O.’s that their companies may have gone too far in creating and marketing products that posed the greatest health concerns…
The public and the food companies have known for decades now — or at the very least since this meeting — that sugary, salty, fatty foods are not good for us in the quantities that we consume them. So why are the diabetes and obesity and hypertension numbers still spiraling out of control? It’s not just a matter of poor willpower on the part of the consumer and a give-the-people-what-they-want attitude on the part of the food manufacturers. What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the food industry’s operations. What follows is a series of small case studies of a handful of characters whose work then, and perspective now, sheds light on how the foods are created and sold to people who, while not powerless, are extremely vulnerable to the intensity of these companies’ industrial formulations and selling campaigns.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Rally Online in Support of Massachusetts Cop Who Leaked Bomber Photos
The Massachusetts State Police photographer who may lose his job after leaking photos of accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is receiving an outpouring of support on social media, with thousands on Facebook calling for him to be reinstated.
A Facebook page called “Save Sgt. Sean Murphy” has received nearly 35,000 “likes,” with many commenting Murphy made the right decision in leaking the photos of Tsarnaev bloodied while surrendering to authorities, The Boston Herald reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 14 Arrests for Absenteeism at Naples City Govt
‘Some never came to work’, police say
(ANSA) — Naples, July 19 — Italian police on Friday arrested 14 people in connection with a probe into alleged absenteeism by city-government workers.
Police said 11 of the suspects, arrested in their homes, were municipal workers while the other three are employed by a private company tasked with clocking staff in and out.
The year-long investigation involved tailing the allegedly work-shy staff, some of whom never turned up at their offices, police said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PDL Member Calls for Equal Dignity for Coalition Sides
(AGI) Rome, July 21 — Renato Brunetta, PDL leader in the Lower House, speaking on the TG1 news, said: “We propose a legislature pact to make this government complete a five-year term. A stronger government, more balanced, with equal dignity for the parties that support the grand coalition, is what we need. And that surely is not a reshuffle”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim protestors have clashed with riot police in a Paris suburb after attempts were made to fine a woman for wearing a full Islamic veil.
Community leaders in Trappes, a commuter town to the west of the French capital, joined politicians in calling for calm following two nights of disturbances.
They have seen hundreds of people surrounding the police headquarters in the area and bombarding officers with stones while also starting fires and vandalising property.
Manuel Valls, France’s Interior Minister, today ordered hundreds more police into the area, saying: ‘Given the incidents which marred the night, and during which four people were arrested and twenty vehicles burnt out or damaged in the Elancourt district, a security plan will be maintained until calm returns permanently.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Law Professor Calls for Ban on Parents Drinking
A professor in law at Stockholm University has called for legislation prohibiting parents from drinking alcohol in the company of their children.
“It is a parent’s responsibility to be sober when they are with their children,” said Professor Madeleine Leijonhufvud to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.
Leijonhufvud pointed out that every fifth child in Sweden lives with one or two parents who suffer from drinking problems and argues that a new law penalizing parents would address the problem.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
A grandfather who saw Jill Dando moments before she was shot dead claims police ignored his evidence about the murder.
Barry Lindsey said Miss Dando, 37, was confronted by her ‘Mediterranean’ killer on her doorstep in 1999 seconds before she was killed.
Mr Lindsey, now 61, told detectives to search for an olive-skinned man — but he claims they were only interested in evidence linking Barry George to the murder.
Mr George served eight years behind bars for the killing before being acquitted after a retrial in 2008.
The 53-year-old was recently denied up to £500,000 compensation for being wrongly jailed after the Court of Appeal agreed with a minister that Mr George was ‘not innocent enough’ to be eligible for a pay-off…
Barry and his sister Michelle Diskin strongly believe that police used his disabilities to reinforce the notion he was a weird, dangerously obsessive fantasist. He was born with brain damage which affects his short-term memory.
He also suffers from epilepsy and was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which makes it difficult for him to read people’s motives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A pensioner who was stabbed to death on his way home from mosque was the victim of a terrorist attack, police said today.
West Midlands Terror cops have rearrested a Ukrainian man on suspicion of the murder of Mohammed Saleem, three days after he was arrested over a series of bomb attacks on mosques in the west midlands.
Mohammed 75, was stabbed to death yards from his home in Birmingham in April as he returned from prayers at his local mosque.
The eastern European man, 25, is one of two people being held over recent bomb attacks near mosques in Walsall, Tipton and Wolverhampton.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Trident Missiles Are Useless (Unless We’re Prepared to Point Them at Brussels)
It would do us no end of good to get rid of our Trident nuclear missiles. It is time we stopped pretending we were a great power.
I should say here that I was a keen supporter of our nuclear deterrent in the days when the communist Soviet Union menaced Western Europe with its enormous army.
That is exactly why I don’t support it now. We won that war, which was a colossal game of bluff. Modern Russia poses no military threat to us, and isn’t even very interested in us. Nor is China, which has plenty to occupy her in Asia.
The real danger to this country comes from our supposed friends in the European Union and the USA, who have successfully subjugated and bullied us without a shot being fired.
The EU makes our laws, plunders our territorial seas and decides our foreign policy. The USA compelled us to surrender to a gang of armed criminals operating from the Belfast back streets and the hedgerows of South Armagh.
We are forbidden by Brussels to control our own borders, so opening them to socially and economically destabilising mass immigration.
Meanwhile, our proper Armed Forces are sacked or scrapped — HMS Ark Royal lies this week, a sheer hulk, in a Turkish scrapyard with her innards on display.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Extremists Reportedly Attacking Egypt’s Christian Community Over Morsi Ouster
The Muslim Brotherhood reportedly is attempting to blame Egypt’s Coptic Christian community for the recent ousting of President Mohammed Morsi and even resorting to violent tactics in an effort to gain back power.
Reports have surfaced out of Egypt that sectarian attacks against Copts by Islamic extremists are on the rise since Morsi was ousted July 3. Copts, who make up about 9% of Egypt’s population, have said they consistently have been targeted by Islamic radicals for campaigning against the Muslim Brotherhood-backed president.
“The Muslim Brotherhood’s regime caused a split in Egyptian unity on the basis of religious affiliations,” Nabil Abdel Fattah, political analyst and researcher for the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies said in a recent interview with Mid-East Christian news.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel has agreed to release some ‘hardcore’ Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to restart Mideast peace talks, but it will not meet other longstanding Palestinian demands before negotiations resume, according to an Israeli official.
The comments from Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s intelligence and strategic affairs minister, were the first from a senior Israeli official since Kerry announced late Friday that the Israelis and Palestinians will meet soon in Washington to work out the final details on an agreement to relaunch talks that collapsed in 2008.
Kerry’s announcement came after last-minute meetings with Palestinian officials at the end of a day in which he shuttled between the Jordanian capital and the West Bank.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
An alleged rape victim who was jailed in Dubai for having sex outside of marriage has spoken out about her ordeal.
Marte Deborah Dalelv, was sentenced to 16 months in prison for having sex outside of marriage after she was raped by a co-worker in March during a business trip to the city.
But when she reported the attack to police, she herself was arrested.
The Norwegian 24-year-old claims during an interview about the assault police asked her: ‘Are you sure you called the police because you just didn’t like it?’
They took her passport away and she was convicted and sentenced on charges of having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol.
Her alleged rapist was sentenced to three months less prison time than she got…
Eventually she was able to contact her parents on the third day and ask them to contact the Norwegian Embassy who arranged her release.
She claims she was advised to claim that the rape was in fact voluntary in order for the issue to ‘go away’.
But she was then charged with making a false statement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gezi Wedding Intervention Adds to Nationwide Tension
Nationwide events linked to Gezi Park continued to unfold throughout the weekend in Turkey, as the symbolic wedding ceremony set to take place at Taksim’s green spot was prevented by order of Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu.
The park was abruptly closed to the public in the evening hours of July 20, the date of the planned wedding of Nuray and Özgür, who had come to public attention after they announced their wedding on social media outlets, inviting all to join in. The couple met during the Gezi unrest when Nuray, a trained nurse, turned her house into an infirmary, where Özgür also entered to help treat the injured.
The wedding has been a subject of anticipation over the past few days, with the publicized couple repeating their wish to marry at the site which had become so symbolic for them, and for the country. Events took a different turn, however, on the set day of the wedding when the park was shut down on the instruction of the Istanbul Governor, according to daily Hürriyet.
The rising tension caused protesters at the site to argue with police officers, who had surrounded the park and refused them entry, and soon police forces intervened with water cannon against the crowd that had gathered for the event. Protesters were pushed back to Istiklal Avenue, where officers continued to chase them into side streets.
‘Chapulling until death do us apart’
The couple, meanwhile, moved their ceremony to the Sisli district, where they read the names of each of the victims who had died during the Gezi events, and finalized their unity. When they decided to walk back to Taksim Square, police forces interrupted the group, causing a small scuffle to erupt.
The couple were also stopped at the entrance of the park when they tried to enter, causing further arguments and fighting. One of the high-ranking officials however soon intervened, and instructed police forces to allow the couple to enter the park.
The park was reopened to public use in the later hours of the day.
Nationwide protests
Izmir and Ankara also witnessed protests in support of the ongoing Gezi movement, with police forces detaining at least five protesters in the capital city.
A group attempted to march towards Dikmen Street and refused to disperse when officials issued a warning. Police then intervened with tear gas and water cannons against the crowd. Five protesters were detained for allegedly setting garbage containers on fire during the demonstration.
Groups in Izmir also gathered to commemorate Abdullah Cömert, Mehmet Ayvalitas, Ethem Sarisülük and Ali Ismail Korkmaz, who lost their lives during the protests. Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Gökçe Piskin also accompanied the protesters, as well as relatives of Sarisülük.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Khamenei Says US Cannot be Trusted
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Sunday that Washington was “not trustworthy”, after former US officials and lawmakers urged diplomacy with the Islamic republic’s incoming president Hassan Rowhani.
“I said at the beginning of the (Iranian) year that I am not optimistic about negotiations with the US, though in the past years I did not forbid negotiating (with them) about certain issues like Iraq,” he told top officials at an “iftar” evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Khamenei said in March he was “not optimistic” over the prospects of direct talks with Tehran’s archfoe on the sidelines of its nuclear negotiations with major powers.
“The Americans are … not trustworthy and they are not honest in their encounters… The stance of American officials over past months once again confirms that one should not be optimistic,” he said at the iftar, attended by centrist cleric Rowhani and outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordanian Court Denies Bail for Abu Qatada
(AGI) Amman- A Jordanian military court has denied bail to Abu Qatada, the “ambassador for Al Qaeda” in the EU ..
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kurds Cement Power in War on Turkish Border
Turkish concerns rise as Kurdish forces cement power in northern Syria, with the nationalist MHP calling for intervention to prevent Kurdish autonomy
Clashes between Islamist rebel forces and Kurdish fighters spread to a second Syrian province on July 20, activists said, as factional tensions rose in the north of the country.
People’s Defense Units (YPG), the militant wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front have been engaged in a fight for almost a week in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, near the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar.
The new round of fighting broke out in Tel Abyad, a border town near Turkey in the rebel-held Raqqa province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes began after Kurdish fighters in the area discovered fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group trying to rig one of their bases with explosives.
TSK opens fire
Meanwhile, Ceylanpinar in Sanliurfa was also on alert. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said July 21 in a written statement that they had shot back after Syria opened fire on an armored-vehicle on the Turkish side. Syria opened fire on the Turkish armored-vehicle 10 to 15 times according to the statement published on the TSK’s official website. The vehicle “retaliated by shooting back within the frame of engagement rules,” the Turkish Armed Forces said in the statement. Turkey had returned fire into Syrian territory first on June 17, after shots fired from the Syrian side killed one Turkish citizen and seriously wounded another. Second Army Commander Galip Mendi, meanwhile, headed to the southeastern provice of Hatay on July 20, where he inspected Turkey’s border with Syria in the province.
Mendi went to the area where three Turkish soldiers were injured by fire opened from the Syrian side and collected information from local authorities about the incident. He also visited the wounded soldiers, who are being treated at Antakya Hospital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Kurds Capture AQ Head of ISIS
A tip of the chapeau to Clare Lopez: When we posted yesterday on the pushback by Syrian Kurds against the Al Nusrah Front and ISIS in their northeastern heartland, we hadn’t realized that they had done something more. According to Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, Syrian Pesh Merga captured the head of Al Qaeda in Syria. That is one more step towards declaration an autonomous self-governing region in Northeastern Syria, the western half of a an ultimate free Kurdistan, the eastern half being the Kurdish Regional Government in neighboring Iraq. As my colleague in The United West, Clare Lopez, senior Fellow at the Washington, DC — based Center for Security Policy commented: ‘the Kurds are on a roll”. That must be upsetting to the league of Sunni Supremacists, Erodgan’s Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunis and Hamas in Gaza, who gathered in Istanbul bewailing the ouster of former Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mohammed Morsi as President of Egypt. The Kurdish seizure of the vacuum in their heartland in Syria during the civil war demonstrates that real democracy can break out in the region, if given the opportunity. That objective has been supported by the neighboring Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq and its Pesh Merga defense forces. This burgeoning Syrian Kurdish autonomy should be an object lesson to the alleged Friends of Syria, especially the Obama Administration, Sen. John McCain and fellow solons pushing for supply of weapons to largely Sunni Supremacist opposition forces. A weakened opposition caught in a stalemate with the embattled Assad regime that appears to be gaining the upper hand in the internal struggle. Perhaps, after more than nine decades, a federated Kurdish state may rise from the ashes of broken promises made at the Treaty of Versailles in Paris in 1919.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Warns Syrian Kurds After Seizure of Border Town
‘No autonomous Kurdish state’ following jihadists’ defeat
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 19 — Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Syrian Kurdish fighters of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Friday not to set up an autonomous Kurdish state on the northern border of Syria, as this would lead to “serious risks”. The PYD, linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), had seized control of the border town Ras Al-Ayn from Al-Nusra Front jihadists on Thursday.
Zaman Online reports that Turkey has boosted troop numbers in the area of Ceylanpinar, across the border from Ras Al-Ayn, where the customs office and border control point are now in the hands of Kurdish militants. Turkish military planes took off from the Diyarbakir base to fly over the zone on Friday morning but did not enter Syrian airspace, reports Turkish media. Two young Turkish citizens have been killed over the past few days by stray bullets from the clashes in Ras Al-Ayn, a predominantly Kurdish town. The Turkish armed forces have said that they returned fire across the border.
Turkish military report that the Ras Al-Ayn clashes occurred between a “separatist terrorist organisation” (the PYD) and not-better-identified “opponents” of the Syrian regime. Syrian Kurds and the Turkish opposition have repeatedly accused the Turkish government of showing favor towards jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda that are fighting along the border and seek to gain control of Kurdish zones, from which the Syrian regime has withdrawn.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
India: Tamil Nadu: A Pentecostal Pastor in Prison for Baptizing a Woman
Hindu extremist Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS) lay false charges of forced conversions and denounce the Reverend to the police. Christian leader: “persecution of Christians has become a lawful practice in this state.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — A Pentecostal pastor of Tamil Nadu is in jail for two days for having converted — with her consent — a woman of 30 years. Members of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS) accused the man of practicing forced conversions and complained to the local police.
The arrested man is Rev. R. Reuben, pastor of the End Time Church of Gundur (suburb of Trichy). This Pentecostal Church was founded 30 years ago and now has about 250 members. On 18 July, the pastor administered baptism to a woman of her community, who had asked him to convert her to Christianity.
RSS activists denounced the episode to the inspector Siva Subramanyam, of Srinangam police, arguing that the river Cauvery — where she had been baptised — had been contaminated and that the pastor was converting people by force. At that point, the officers proceeded to arrest the religious leader.
According to Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), what happened is yet more evidence that “religious intolerance in Tamil Nadu, when perpetrated by Hindu extremists and nationalists, becomes lawful if directed against the Christian minority.”
In October 2002, the Government of Tamil Nadu introduced its anti-conversion law. The decree was canceled in May 2004, one month after the defeat in the state elections of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), the Hindu nationalist party that supports extremist groups like the RSS. (NC)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan are bribing starving children as young as eight years old to plant deadly roadside booby traps, be decoys in ambushes and even act as suicide bombers.
Despite the Islamic fundamentalists’ claim they have no children in their ranks, extremists have been actively recruiting orphaned and homeless young boys and training them to use guns, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide vests.
In return, they ply the desperate youngsters with sweets and chocolate, an investigation for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme has learned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tibet Buddhist Monk Sentenced to Ten Years for Demanding Freedom
Tsultrim Kalsang, 25, was convicted of “intentional murder” in the case of two young men who self-immolated. In reality, he is paying for his decision to demonstrate peacefully against the government in Beijing and for demanding the return of the Dalai Lama.
Lhasa (AsiaNews) — The Intermediate People’s Court in Siling City sentenced a 25-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, Tsultrim Kalsang, to ten years in prison for “intentional homicide”. According to the judges, who are appointed by the local Beijing-controlled government, the monk pushed two young men to self-immolate on 30 June 2012 in protest against persecution by the Chinese government.
The monk comes from Nyatso Zilkar Monastery, in the eastern part of Tibet. Released after his first arrest with four other monks on 1 September 2012, he was later detained on two more occasions.
Reports about his conviction came from the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), an organisation that monitors the human rights situation in Tibet.
For the TCHRD, the court’s decision against the monk is due to his participation in a big non-violent demonstration held in Tibet on 8 February 2012.
On that occasion, hundreds of Tibetans protested against the restrictions imposed by the government in Beijing and called for the return of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who lives in exile in India.
Immediately after the demonstration, the Tibetan government carried out dozens of arrests. Tsultrim Kalsang, who was among those taken into custody, refused to provide the authorities with the names of the organisers of the region-wide protest.
After being held for about ten months, the monk was released and returned to his monastery. There, according to the prosecution, he “conducted a campaign of incitement” against Ngawang Norphel and Tenzin Khedup, two youths who later set themselves on fire.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Gay Romance’ With Swiss Guard Shocks Vatican
The Vatican’s “gay lobby” was back in the headlines on Friday after the alleged exposure of a homosexual prelate appointed by Pope Francis to a key position at the Vatican bank.
The Italian weekly L’Espresso said prelate Battista Ricca had gay relationships during his time at the Vatican embassy of Montevideo in Uruguay as well as an affair with a Swiss army officer which ultimately saw him sent back to Rome in disgrace.
Vatican expert for L’Espresso Sandro Magister said Ricca provided lodgings and a pay check for captain Patrick Haari in 1999 and was once left badly beaten after trawling notorious gay hangouts before his behaviour saw him transferred out of Montevideo in 2000.
He also allegedly got stuck in an elevator with a young gigolo he had invited to the embassy for the night, and had to be rescued.
An internal bid to protect him and cover up the scandal meant Francis apparently had no idea about Ricca’s past before he appointed him as his personal representative at the scandal-hit bank this year.
Ricca went on from Montevideo to hold several prestigious positions in Rome, including the director of the Santa Martha residence where the pope lives.
“This allowed him to weave an intricate network of relationships with the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy all over the world,” relationships which would help bury past allegations against him, Magister said.
He said the wiping of Ricca’s records was an example of a “gay lobby” at work in the Vatican.
Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi brushed off the story as “not credible” but the magazine insisted the allegations were confirmed by primary sources. It said “numerous bishops, priests, religious and laity” in Uruguay had testified against Ricca.
Religious watchers said the leaks about Ricca’s past may be an internal attempt to block the prelate from carrying out reforms.
In June, Francis admitted the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican’s secretive administration, the Roman Curia.
“In the Curia, there are truly some saints, but there is also a current of corruption… There is talk of a ‘gay lobby’ and it’s true, it exists,” he was quoted as having said during an audience with CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women).
The admission followed Italian media reports in February which claimed that a secret report by cardinals investigating leaks from within the Vatican included allegations of corruption and blackmail attempts against gay clergymen, and on the other hand, favouritism based on gay relationships.
If the allegations are proven to be true, it would be a blow to Francis’s attempts to clean up the scandal-hit Vatican.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
How Education, Literacy and the University Came From Christianity and Are Dying Without It
As incredible as it may now seem, the entire history of Western education is steeped in the Christian faith. In fact, it is quite likely that without the foundational work of the Church, the modern world would not exist.
Without exemplary Christians like Charlemagne, Christian missionaries, and their worldview, there would be no modern university. Further, schools for the poor, or literacy programs would probably not have been launched without belief that each person needed to be able to read to access God’s Word.
Ironically, after helping establish the modern world, the formerly Christian-created university systems have been co-opted to be used as a relentless battering ram against faith, church and God. Yet, at the same time intellectual standards have utterly fallen, the West appears on the brink of lapsing into a new Dark Age. If America is to last into the new millennium, we must repent of this move towards darkness, reject our spiritual coma and once again embrace the light of intellectual rigor and the search for truth…
The entire theory of advanced education comes out of the Christian worldview. The concept and creation of the university (which have ironically morphed into the most humanistic and anti-Christian of undertakings) was created by Pope Alexander III, in 1179, according to Hunt Janin in The University in Medieval Life, 1179 — 1499.
Before the Pope directed that the European university system be built, Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, dictated schools be established for the teaching of the Franks. Charlemagne, along with Alfred the Great, is considered the preeminent European king. He was well-noted as a Christian warrior king who relentlessly battled pagan tribes, causing them to bend the knee to Christ, or suffer death. And yet, in his zeal for the good of his people, he also demanded schools be built for the largely illiterate masses.
In 789 King Charles, who would be named Emperor Charlemagne the next year, revealed an ambitious program to reform and improve education. All monasteries and cathedrals were to have schools offering, free of charge, the basic elements of education for any young man who had the ability and self-discipline needed to prepare academically for the priesthood. Charlemagne’s command on schools reads:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PDL Member Says Homophobia Bill is Unconstitutional
(AGI) Rome, July 21 — PDL member and Senate deputy speaker Maurizio Gasparri said: “I’m telling the demagogues that if the bill on homophobia, currently being discussed in the Lower House, is not changed, it will be unconstitutional and against the principles of natural law. Discrimination must be punished, but that’s got nothing to do with unacceptable distortions. We need to find reasonable solutions, not unconstitutional solutions”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Food Prices Forecast to Treble as World Population Soars
Food prices were last night tipped to treble over the next 20 years as an explosion in the world’s population triggers a global fight for good.
A government advisor said everyday products such as cocoa and meat could become relative luxuries by the 2040s.
Professor Tim Benton, head of Global Food Security working group, added there could be shortages in the UK in the future as the emerging middle class in south-east Asia sparks a revolution in “food flows” such as the trade in grain and soya around the world.
Professor Benton, from the University of Leeds, told the Daily Telegraph: “Food is going to be competed for on a global scale. There’s been a lot written about where food prices are going to go but they are certaintly going to double, with some trebling. It’s not just fruit and vegetables, but everything.”
The shock forecast came as the chief executive of Tesco, Philip Clarke, warned the era of cheap food was over because of the forecast surge in demand.
In an interview over the weekend, the supermarket chief said: “Over the long run I think food prices and the proportion of income spent on food may well be going up.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |