The street fighting in Cairo has intensified, and is now verging on civil war. Clashes between supporters of ousted president Morsi and their opponents have killed more than 75 people. A new group, Ansar al-Shariah in Egypt, has been formed with the mission of imposing shariah law in Egypt. In related news, Qatar has banished Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, in response to events in Egypt.
In other news, after nearly a decade of legal wrangling over his “human rights”, the hate preacher Abu Qatada has finally been deported from Britain to Jordan, where he faces terrorism charges.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LS, 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.
Eurozone Crisis: The Religion of Bribes
Linkiesta Milan
Corruption is a key factor in failure of the Eurozone countries facing economic difficulties. They are for the most part, Catholic countries, a religion that has always shown a higher tolerance for corruption than for other sins.
Gabriele Catania
“In today’s Europe, corruption is the greatest threat that individuals can pose to democracy. The number of people losing faith in the rule of law is growing,” said the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Norway’s Thorbjørn Jagland in January 2013. It is difficult to prove him wrong, especially if you consider that the most corrupt countries in Europe are those that are in crisis — or those that are not democracies (as is the case with Vladimir Putin’s Russia where corruption, according to some estimates, corresponds to 20 per cent of GDP).
Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. These form the acronym PIGS or, if you include Ireland as was once the case, PIIGS, which was much used by a certain press — mostly English-speaking — to crudely designate the weakened economies of southern Europe.
In short, those countries responsible for the Eurozone crisis. This, of course, is an oversimplification. An industrial region like Lombardy seems to have little in common with the touristic region of the Algarve; a world-class city such as Barcelona appears light years away from the chaos of Athens. Yet there is some truth in the PIGS acronym: the corruption of the ruling class. Is the Milan of the scandals that different from Lisbon? Does nepotistic Catalonia really have nothing in common with Greece? With the press in southern Europe each day reporting the name of another political leader accused of corruption, is the rise of anti-establishment, populist forces so mysterious?
There exists a two-fold risk: of corruption being considered a cultural trait in all of southern Europe, and of falling into the stereotypes of northern tabloids, which describe the Italian, Greek, and Spanish people as layabouts living in debauchery and corruption. Considering that the PIGS are all Catholic countries (except for Greece which is Greek Orthodox), while the least corrupt nations in the world are all Protestant (except for Singapore), the threat of cultural determinism is as strong as ever.
Religion and politics
“Cronyism and the neo-patrimonialism of political culture are characteristics of the countries of Mediterranean Europe. In Catholic countries, religion is an important factor for explaining voting behaviour and how the dominant political culture operates,” says Luís de Sousa, a research fellow at the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Social Sciences and the President of the Portuguese Branch of Transparency International….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Tax Revenues Steady Despite Recession
Taxman rakes in 149.1 billion euros in first 5 months
(ANSA) — Rome, July 5 — Italian tax revenues remained steady in the first five months of 2013 even though the country is still grapping with its longest recession since World War II.
The economy ministry said Friday that tax revenues for the January-May period amounted to 149.1 billion euros, only slightly lower, 373 million euros, or 0.2%, on the same period in 2012. “Even though the economic climate is negative, the revenues remained stable,” the Treasury said in a statement. It added that 2.826 billion euros of that revenue derived from checks by the authorities fighting tax evasion.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PdL Irked by IMF Call to Keep House Tax
Scrapping IMU flagship pledge by Berlusconi party
(ANSA) — Rome, July 5 — Reaction was swift and angry from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s party Friday to reports by international financial bodies urging Italy to keep in place a hated housing tax whose scrapping was the key pledge in the centre-right leaders’s surprising comeback in February’s general election. “We have already made a commitment,” to cut the tax, said the head of the Lower House finance committee Daniele Capezzone of the People of Freedom (PDL) party. “Reform is expected by the citizens,” added Capezzone.
IMU reform or elimination is a divisive issue and threatens the survival of Italy’s unprecedented right-left government.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday that Italy cannot afford the billions of lost revenues that are now generated by IMU.
The IMF also said IMU is among the fairest and most efficient form of taxation, but noted that there should be improvements, calling for an “accelerated” revision of the country’s land-surveying policies, “in order to ensure equity”.
Three-time premier Berlusconi, founder of the PDL, has threatened to topple the left-right coalition government if it fails to roll back the tax.
Premier Enrico Letta of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which narrowly beat the PdL in the general election but failed to secure a majority, put off June’s instalment to the autumn and has indicated IMU will be changed to exempt most primary residences, except for those with big property holdings.
But the PD has never said it will scrap IMU entirely and repay last year’s take, as promised by Berlusconi.
The IMF report came the same day that sources said Letta’s government intends to hammer out a solution to IMU before the summer recess that starts August 15.
The property tax has repeatedly troubled Letta’s shaky coalition which came into existence as an emergency administration when President Giorgio Napolitano knocked heads and forced the traditional bitter enemies to team up after a two-month post-election impasse.
Echoing the IMF, the chief economist and Deputy Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Pier Carlo Padoan, said Friday the government should keep IMU.
He suggested that property taxes are the least likely to dampen economic growth compared with payroll and other labour taxes that should be cut to boost Italy’s recession-plagued economy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Turkish Economy at High Risk, But Not Due to Gezi Protests, ‘ MIT Economist Says
The Turkish economy is at risk not because of the countrywide protests, but rather the latest FED decisions, according to MIT economist Daron Acemoglu
The latest decision of the American Federal Reserve (FED) to end its asset purchases in 2014 has affected all developing markets, and particularly the Turkish economy, according to renowned MIT economist Daron Acemoglu.
“The Turkish economy is at greater risk right now, but this is not about the countrywide protests,” Acemoglu, a Turkish-American economist of Armenian descent, told a small group journalists on June 22, before giving a speech at Istanbul’s Bilgi University.
“The FED’s latest decision to end the liquidity party had been expected for a long time, and is not surprising. The expected move has affected many emerging and developing economies negatively for more than three weeks. The Turkish economy, however, has been affected most due to its structural weaknesses, particularly its high current account deficit,” he said.
Acemoglu added that the Turkish economy could see a “sudden stop” of hot money inflow in the worst scenario, as happened in 2001, but these risks were not about the countrywide protests and could be prevented by the Turkish government through a series of sensible political and economic moves.
“If the Turkish government chooses to adopt a moderate voice against the protests, the negative outlook could be recovered both locally and internationally,” he said, adding that Turkey should end its dependence on hot money flow as soon as possible.
“Turkey needs to make comprehensive reforms in its judicial system, public procurement contracts law and to reduce red tape to attract more foreign direct investment. There is also another very crucial point here: The close relations between the state and the economic actors need to be reduced,” Acemoglu stressed…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Eliot Spitzer Seeks to Enter New York City Comptroller Race
Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York five years ago amid a prostitution scandal, is re-entering political life, with a run for the citywide office of comptroller and a hope that voters have forgiven his prior misconduct, he said in an interview.
The son of a wealthy real estate developer, Mr. Spitzer said he intends to pay for his campaign out of his own fortune.
To make the primary ballot in September, Mr. Spitzer must collect a minimum of 3,750 signatures from registered voters by Thursday.
His re-entry comes in an era when politicians, including South Carolina Representative Mark Sanford and New York mayoral contender Anthony Weiner, have shown that public disapproval, especially over sexual misconduct, can be fleeting, and voters seem open to those who seek forgiveness and redemption.
| [Return to headlines] |
How Much Do You Like Your Electricity?
If you like your electricity, refrigeration, and air conditioning, you should pay careful attention. Most readers are by now familiar with Smart Meters that read electricity, gas, and water consumption from a remote location.
They are mandated and forced upon us by the United Nations Agenda 21 through its octopus arms of the EPA, the federal government, NGOs, and local and state governments in the name of saving the planet. The Utility Mother Ship can turn off your power during peak consumption, very hot or cold days, and adjust your thermostats and appliances from far away.
Most readers are also familiar with this administration’s war on coal and their intent to bankrupt the coal industry and replace our electricity derived from coal (49%) with its under-performing and expensive cousin, electricity derived from green and renewable energy. Most know that this energy cannot deliver all the electricity that our large economy needs, hence rationing of electricity will have to take place. How will that be accomplished? The power companies will have the power and authority, with or without your expressed consent, but the blessing of our government, to cut off your power whenever they deem necessary.
Is this happening because our government really cares about the planet and alleged global warming? No. Is it happening because they want to transfer your wealth to poorer countries in the name of social justice, reduce your consumption deliberately, and control your health, travel, where you live, and what you do in your everyday life? Yes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Secret FBI files exclusively seen by the Sunday People reveal Michael Jackson spent £23million buying the silence of at least two dozen young boys he abused over 15 years. The documents — case numbers CADCE MJ-02463 and CR 01046 — were not passed on to prosecutors in the King of Pop’s 2005 trial, when he was cleared of molesting a child. But they throw a disturbing new light on the megastar’s insistence he never laid a finger on any of the scores of kids he invited to his home for unsupervised sleep-overs. Agents have thousands of pages of evidence dating back to 1989 indicating Jacko groomed and molested children — sometimes right under the noses of their starstruck parents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
In a major turning point in its nearly 3-year-old bankruptcy, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday is scheduled to make public thousands of pages of documents detailing the sexual abuse of minors by priests going back decades, and what church leaders did — and did not do — in response.
The records will contain parts of 42 priests’ personnel files as well as depositions of former Archbishop Timothy Dolan, now cardinal of New York; retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland; retired Bishop Richard Sklba; and now-defrocked priest Daniel Budzynski.
Most of the information, which is being released as part of an agreement in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy proceedings, has never been seen publicly.
“Needless to say, there are some terrible things described in many of the documents,” Archbishop Jerome Listecki said in his weekly letter to local Catholics in advance of the release. To those deciding to read the files, Listecki advised, “prepare to be shocked.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The two victims who perished as an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed and burst into flames as it came to land at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday morning have been identified as Chinese schoolgirls who were on a class trip.
The bodies of Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16, were found on the runway after the tail of the plane, which was flying from Seoul in South Korea with 307 people on board, was ripped off as the aircraft hit the approach area of the runway as it came in for landing shortly before 11.30am PDT.
The girls, who were identified by Chinese state media on Sunday, were part of a group of 29 students and five teachers who had set off from Jiangshan Middle School — a highly competitive school in Zhejiang in eastern China. They were all seated near the back of the plane.
Remarkably, the remaining 305 people on board survived but more than 180 people suffered injuries after the plane turned into a fireball.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Dangerous Truth About Cholesterol Reducing Statin Drugs
Twenty-five percent of Americans over forty-five years old now use prescription statin drugs (Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, etc) to reduce their cholesterol. Cholesterol is a natural fat that’s essential for human life. It’s a building block for cell membranes and many essential hormones. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver and available in our diet. Typically, if we eat more cholesterol, our liver produces less to maintain balance. In the last several decades, cholesterol has been blamed for causing heart attacks.
If you believe their manufacturers’ statments, side effects from statins are rare. But a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine tells a different story. In the real world, 17 percent of patients taking these pills reported side effects, including muscle pain, nausea, liver problems and nervous system issues, including peripheral neuropathy. The list and severity of acknowledged side effects keeps growing. Increased risk of diabetes has just been added.
Two statins, Cerivastatin and Baycol, were banned because they caused severe muscle break down, kidney damage and even death. It’s interesting to note those side effects didn’t show up in drug company pre-lanch testing. Also interesting is that in the U.S. this one class of drug creates over 20 billion dollars of revenue for Big-Pharma annually.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Expert Links UK Royal Baby to Muhammad
The baby’s relations will stretch from a simple Parisian actress via the Dracula princes in Romania, to even an Islamic sultan from Seville in Spain, who descended from the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, experts say.
Even before the birth of the new British royal baby to Prince William and his wife Kate, genealogists are looking into its family tree, and are coming up with many surprises.
The family tree of the baby’s father Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, is strongly tied to the European Gotha line.
There one finds, alongside all Britain’s kings, the sovereigns of Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Austria, Spain and a good number of German sovereigns.
The British family was called Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until 1917, date on which, mired in a war with Germany, it opted for the name Windsor.
Through Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, who ruled from 1910 to 1936, the line stretches back, according to Beaucarnot, right to the princes of Transylvania and Walachia in Romania.
That leads back in the fifteenth century to the Princes Dracula. Among them figures the Voivode Vlad III, also known by his patronymic name Dracula, who was was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler. He inspired, by his cruelty, the Irish writer Bram Stoker’s famous vampire.
But the most astonishing discovery is a little-known ascendancy of one of its distant ascendants, the queen of France, Marie de’ Medici, descendant of Alphonse VI of Castillia, who died in 1109.
His fourth wife Zaida, who was an Islamic princess converted to Roman Catholicism, had as an ancestor, according to Beaucarnot, “a king of Seville considered a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Top Court Finds Man Guilty of ‘Contempt for Nation’
Rome, 5 July (AKI) — In a landmark ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court of Cassation convicted a pensioner of ‘contempt for the nation’ and fined him 1,000 euros after he called Italy a “s**t country”.
The ruling came after Italy’s paramilitary Carabinieri police force took the 71-year-old man to court for saying “What a s**t country Italy is..why are you wasting time with such crap,” to officers who fined him for driving on a single headlamp.
The Supreme Court rejected the man’s claim that his words were a rightful expression of free thought.
“Freedom of expression cannot translate into coarse and brutal insults that do not correspond to objective criticism,” it said in its sentence.
Interpreting the crime, which is defined under Italy’s penal code, the court said: “To vilify the nation, it is not necessary to commit hostile or violent acts or to display hatred.
“Insulting the prestige or honour of the Italian people is sufficient.”
The pensioner had already lost an appeal in his home city of Campobasso in southern Italy after a lower court found him guilty of ‘contempt for the Carabinieri’ over the incident.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PdL Overtakes PD in Poll
Berlusconi party 28.3%, Letta’s 26%
(ANSA) — Rome, June 28 — The centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) Party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi overtook its unprecedented government partner the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in a weekly opinion poll of likely voters Friday. The PdL rose 1.5% to 28.3% while Premier Enrico Letta’s PD fell 1.6% to 26% after a resurgence of bickering in polling agency SWG’s survey.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) slipped 0.8% to 17.3% amid a trickle of defections.
The PD’s coalition came first in February’s inconclusive general election and the PdL’s alliance a close second, both on around 31% of the vote while M5S alone got 25%.
Comedian Beppe Grillo’s M5S refused to team up with the PD, which after a fiasco in presidential voting was eventually forced by re-elected President Giorgio Napolitano into an unnatural alliance with its long-time foe the PdL.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Tax Burden Up to 4th in Eurozone
44% of GDP in 2012, up from 42.6% in 2011
(ANSA) — Rome, July 5 — Italy’s tax burden has overtaken Finland’s to become the fourth highest in the eurozone, the Bank of Italy said Friday. At 44% of GDP in 2012, up from 42.6% the previous year, the burden on Italian taxpayers is the sixth highest in the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Rotterdam District Council Resigns on Turkish Coup
ROTTERDAM, 03/07/13 — The entire management board of the Rotterdam district council Feijenoord has resigned following a scathing report on a political coup by Turkish Labour (PvdA) members.
The Bureau for the Integrity of Netherlands Municipalities (BING), part of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG), concludes that the Feijenoord administrators had not taken action for years against all kinds of forms of nepotism for Turkish residents and organisations. For example, Turkish politicians awarded each other jobs, and an illegal boarding school where 50 Turkish girls lived was never fined or closed down. Dutch cafes also received no licence for a terrace, even though Turkish businesses were able to get one within a day.
The chairman of the Feijenoord executive was Labour (PvdA) member Seyit Yeyden. He and two unnamed council members are guilty of conflict of interest and the exercise of political pressure within the administrative organisation, according to BING.
The board announced its resignation in a letter to the district council. On Sunday, council member Serdar Çiçek (PvdA) had already resigned. The board will answer to its responsibilities Thursday at a meeting of the district council.
According to former Rotterdam Mayor Bram Peper, the problems began years ago when a large group of Turks carried out a coup at the PvdA, traditionally the biggest party in the major cities. They became all at the same day members of the PvdA and were immediately given jobs the next day, he said Monday evening on Radio 1.
Both Rotterdam and Amsterdam have district councils, with their own coalition and executive board. The abolition of district councils has been discussed for years due to fraud, but nothing has yet come of it.
The Feijenoord district council has been administered by a coalition of PvdA, Christian democrats (CDA) and leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) since 2010.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Cleans House at the Vatican Bank
Vatican City — Two top managers of the Vatican Bank resigned Monday, five days after Pope Francis appointed an independent commission to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the scandal-plagued bank.
The surprise departures of the bank’s director general, Paolo Cipriani, and of his deputy, Massimo Tulli, follow the arrest of a senior Vatican official with close ties to the bank who was charged Friday with attempting to smuggle 20 million euros into Italy from Switzerland.
Cipriani, 58, served as the bank’s director general since 2007 and will be replaced on an interim basis by the bank’s president, German financier Ernst von Freyberg, who was appointed last February in one of Pope Benedict XVI’s last official acts.
With its checkered history marked by allegations of shady deals and its tradition of utter secrecy, the Vatican Bank has become a focal point in criticism over mismanagement and corruption within the Curia, the church’s central bureaucracy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope’s Reform Path: Francis Shakes up Church Establishment
It appears Pope Francis truly wants to change the Catholic Church. He’s reforming the Vatican Bank first, but he’s also circumventing the old guard wherever he can. The establishment is up in arms.
A cardinal in Rome earns about ?3,000 ($3,888) a month, even less than a pastor in Germany. But a cardinal’s life in Rome is a lot more expensive — with visits to restaurants and shopping at boutiques for the upscale clothing men of the church are expected to wear, not to mention their jewelry and the antiques they display in their apartments. So it’s good to have friends who can treat you or otherwise provide support now and then.
Friends are also happy to give a cardinal a hand — and not just out of religious considerations. A cardinal can be helpful in both political and business terms. So it’s not surprising that a symbiotic relationship between parts of the Curia and the upper class around the world has formed — one that brings together the establishment, luxury and power. It’s a nice little tradition that new Pope Francis would like to put an end to. For the Catholic establishment, though, it is nothing less than a catastrophe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Neo-Nazi Trio Threaten Ex-Party Leader Mona Sahlin
Three men from the neo-Nazi Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas Parti) followed and threatened former Social Democrat leader Mona Sahlin in Visby on Friday night, calling her a “traitor”, according to a report in the Expressen daily.
“They seemed to hate me very strongly,” Sahlin said, explaining that she recognised the men after having participated in a demonstration earlier in the day.
The incident was witnessed by veteran Expressen reporter K-G Bergström.
“Then came three people who walked past us, but one of them stopped a few metres feet away, staring at Mona. She calmly turned around and asked if he wanted anything. And then came the “traitor,” Bergström told the TT news agency.
There is a well-documented file of threats directed towards Mona Sahlin, who became something of a hate object in right-wing circles for her stance against racist and tolerance for immigrant communities in Sweden.
Since resigning as party leader in April 2011 and subsequently leaving the Riksdag Sahlin has however been without Security Service protection and she was alone in Visby at the time.
Bergström said that Mona Sahlin had told him that this type of situation was a fact of life for her since leaving formal Swedish politics.
“She is incredibly vulnerable because of her courageous fight for tolerance towards immigrants. What would Säpo say if something happened to her?” K-G Bergström said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorist Threat Level in Netherlands Remains “Substantial”
THE HAGUE, 02/07/13 — The level of threat in the Netherlands continues to be “substantial”. This means that there is a real chance of an attack against the Netherlands, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTB) announced on Monday.
The main international threat with potential consequences for the Netherlands at the present time is based on the situation in Syria. “What is relevant to the potential threat for the Netherlands is the magnetic attraction of radicalised young men and the involvement of jihadist networks in Syria.” The other hotbeds which hold potential consequences for the Netherlands “include Mali, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and Afghanistan.”
In addition to this, the NCTB says leftwing extremists in the Netherlands pose a threat. “There appears to be a visible hardening of attitude amongst the extremist section of the right to asylum movement.”
The threat based on jihadists travelling to Syria and their possible return to the Netherlands remains one of the most important elements of the current view of potential threat. “Although not all returning jihadists pose this threat, care and attention must be given to the fact that such people may return not only as radicalists, but also in a traumatised state and with a strong potential for committing violent attacks.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Holy See Reports 2.2mln Euro Profit in 2012 Amid Drop in Donations
Vatican City, 4 July (AKI) — The Vatican posted a budget surplus of 2.2 million euros for the 2012 fiscal year, although its charitable offerings fell, the Holy See said on Thursday.
A panel of cardinals who approved the balance sheet said the 2,185,622-euro profit was largely due to good financial management.
But the Vatican noted a 12 percent drop in donations from ordinary faithful and more than a 5 percent drop in contributions from religious orders.
It said its main items of expenditure were its 2,823 employees, its radio station and the five million euros it paid for the first time to the Italian state in property taxes.
Over the past week, the Vatican’s financial institutions have been convulsed by a 20 million euro smuggling plot that led to the arrest of a senior cleric and the resignations on Monday of the Vatican bank’s two top managers apparently over a lack of financial transparency.
Pope Francis has set up a commission to probe the Vatican Bank, which has long been beset by money-laundering allegations, and personally attended the approval of the Vatican’s annual financial statement on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The term “metadata” has been tossed around lately, especially after the leak about the NSA’s classified programs last month. It’s a collection of allegedly harmless — and nothing too specific — data from phone and Internet companies. But what if that’s not quite true?
Prior to leak about the NSA, TheBlaze detailed just what this information could show about an individual when the government investigating phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors was a hot button issue. But now a German politician has taken it a step further, using six months of his own metadata to give a visual of what this information really depicts.
Malte Spitz, a member of Germany’s Green party, sued the telecommunication company Deutsche Telekom to give up 35,830 records of his data from 2009 into 2010. Zeit Online then compiled these six months of Spitz’s life on a map showing how many incoming and outgoing calls and text messages were had and how long he used the Internet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Militants Blow Up Gas Pipeline in Sinai
(AGI) Cairo, July 7 — Egyptian militants blew up a gas pipeline connecting Egypt to Jordan in El-Arish, in the Sinai peninsula, which has been the backdrop of several terrorist attacks during the past few weeks. The news was reported by eye-witnesses who explained that the explosion occurred in the middle of the night and involved the part of the gas pipeline that lies near the city of El-Arish.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Graphic content.]
A newly formed Islamist group is threatening to use violence to impose Sharia law on Egypt after branding the army’s ousting of the Muslim president a declaration of war on its faith.
Ansar al-Shariah in Egypt said it would gather arms and start training its members, in a statement posted on an online forum for militants in the country’s Sinai region yesterday and recorded by the SITE Monitoring organisation. The army’s move, which was backed by mass rallies across Egypt, has raised fears Islamists could desert officially-recognised groups like Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and move to more militant movements.
The group’s sinister declaration came as fierce clashes between supporters and opponents of the ousted president overnight left 36 dead and a further 1,079 injured, and a Coptic Christian priest was shot dead by gunmen in a suspected sectarian attack blamed on Islamist insurgents. The latest fatalities brings the overall death toll to at least 75 in a chaotic week for Egypt.
[…]
Ansar al-Shariah said in its statement the military overthrow, the closing of television channels and the death of Islamist protesters all amounted to ‘a war declared against Islam in Egypt’, SITE reported.
[…]
In a dramatic appearance — his first since Morsi’s ousting — the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood defiantly vowed the president would return.
Mohammed Badie said: ‘God make Morsi victorious and bring him back to the palace.
[Commeters: The people of Egypt have shown very clearly that they do not want a state which is controlled by and for the Moslem Brotherhood. They want freedom of expression and religion and what is wrong with that. — Old Grumpy29 , Sudbury_UK, To call Morsi democratically elected is irony at it’s best. The muslim brotherhood were illegally financed from abroad and used these funds to buy votes and manipulate the electoral process. The vote last year was very close with apprximately 3 -4% difference betwwen candidates with many people only voting for Morsi tomprevent his adversay being elected and to in their words “give him a chance” these people have been seriously let down and are now amongst the crowds in Tahrir and elsewhere who called for his removal. Rather than manage the country the MB set about consolidating their power and taking over all state institutions including the police and military. If they had been left in power any longer they would have destroyed the country beyond repair and changed the electoral system in their favour so that they could never be removed by democratic means. — Mike P , London, 05/7/2013 ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Angry and Upset About Muslim Brotherhood Getting Tossed Out in Egypt
Obama ordered, aided and abetted the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s former President
Throughout the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power and time in power Obama did everything he possibly could to support and maintain it; even though it was vicious and dictatorial, even though it abused, tortured and killed religious minorities; even though it destroyed the Egyptian economy; even though it was rapidly turning Egypt into a country governed by Sharia, Islamic Law; even though it was rabidly and fanatically anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel; even though the honesty and results of the elections which brought it into power in the first place were questionable; even though it was plain that the Egyptian people rejected the Brotherhood and what it was doing to their lives and their country and even though it was obvious from the beginning that a Muslim Brotherhood government was not and never would be in the best interests of the United States in the Middle East or anywhere else…was in fact harmful to the best interests of the United States in the Middle East and everywhere else.
Obama’s angry and upset alright, so angry and upset that he has threatened to curtail funding of the Egyptian military in retaliation for deposing the Muslim Brotherhood government in spite of being warned not to do so; so angry and upset that he has failed to congratulate the Egyptian people for rising up and getting rid of a brutal dictator, Mohamed Morsi, and a government which was rapidly bringing the country to rack and ruin; so angry and upset that he isn’t detached and looking at or acting in the best interests of the United States but is allowing his bias for the Brotherhood to govern his reaction; so angry and upset that he is taking its ouster as a personal repudiation, which of course it is and which fits in perfectly with his personality and mentality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Call for Muslim Brotherhood Role Overtaken in Egypt
The Obama administration’s call for an “inclusive” political process in Egypt with a role for the Muslim Brotherhood has been overshadowed by conflict between security forces and supporters of the Islamist group.
Violent protests in Cairo and elsewhere over the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Mursi raised doubts about prospects for an eventual accommodation that would allow the Brotherhood that supports him to compete in new elections.
President Barack Obama “condemned the ongoing violence across Egypt and expressed concern over the continued political polarization,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the White House. “He reiterated that the United States is not aligned with, and does not support, any particular Egyptian political party or group.”
Secretary of State John Kerry said in a separate statement yesterday that “we firmly reject the unfounded and false claims by some in Egypt that the United States supports the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood or any specific Egyptian political party or movement.”
Still, the administration has urged the Egyptian military to stop using heavy-handed tactics against the Brotherhood, according to two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified commenting on private communications. They said the administration is concerned that some in the military may want to provoke the Islamists to violence and provide a rationale for crushing the movement once and for all.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shocking Video: Islamists Throw Morsi Opponents Off High Wall, Killing One (Graphic)
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Egyptian activists posted video on YouTube Saturday purporting to show Egyptian youths being thrown off a high wall situated on the roof of a building then being beaten in the head with sticks. According to Al Arabiya, the incident took place during clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
The Middle East news agency writes that the perpetrators are Islamist supporters of Morsi.
In the video, four young men are shown on the roof of a building, appearing to seek safety atop a high wall on the roof. Other activists can be seen congregating on the roof below them, one of whom is fully bearded and holding a large black Al-Qaeda flag in his back pocket.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Krasner: New Likud Leaders Face “Realities”
JanSuzanne Kranser is an American Olim in Israel and member of American Friends for a Safe Israel. She writes of the important changes in Likud leadership contesting the chimera of the two-state soluition espoused by the Obama Administration with Secretary of State Kerry as the spear point of its misguided policy. In this commentary, she notes the rise of younger Likud leaders, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and Zeev Elin, Deputy Foreign Minister in the Likud Central Committee elections who oppose this view. Both Danon and Elkin are reflective of Israeli pushback against the misguided view of the US and the EU demanding capitulation by Israel to Palestinian and Arab demands that deny recognition of existence of the Jewish nation. The Western media persists in calling both Danon and Elkin as “hawkish and hardliners”. Rather, as Krasner notes they are realists in the only democracy surrounded by Sunni Shia sectarianism and Jihadists seeking Israel’s destru! ction.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
A Country Divided: Where is Turkey Headed?
The uprising against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly shows the deep divide between modernity and tradition in Turkey. Economic growth had long disguised the cleft. But now, the country must decide what its future will hold.
The first thing a visitor sees after passing through passport control in Istanbul is a monument to cosmopolitanism, consumption and the pleasures of drinking: a giant display shelf, 25 meters (80 feet) long, containing gin, vodka and whiskey, as well as wines from France, Italy and the US. Sales at the duty-free mall in Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport are among the highest in Europe.
This would have pleased the man for whom the airport was named. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, known as Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, liked to drink Raki, the Turkish anise-flavored brandy, even on Muslim holidays.
Turkey’s current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, believes drinking alcohol is a sin. Even as mayor of Istanbul, he bullied bar owners and banned the serving of alcohol on government-owned property. Four weeks ago, he pushed through a new alcohol law that prohibits both the selling of alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m. and advertising for beer and wine. “The old alcohol law,” he told the parliament, “was passed by two drunkards. Shouldn’t we prefer the law of God instead?” One of the drunkards he was referring to was Atatürk, and the other was apparently Atatürk’s successor, Ismet Inönü.
The Turks don’t have a particular problem with alcoholism. But the seemingly minor change to the country’s alcohol laws touches on a fundamental issue nonetheless. The country’s very identity is at stake — just as it is when it comes to social norms on clothing, beard styles and family planning.
The protests that began four weeks ago over a controversial construction project at Istanbul’s Gezi Park revealed to the astonished leadership in Ankara and a surprised global public how open the identity of modern Turkey remains. It is a country that has always had its sights set firmly on the West, ever since its founding 90 years ago, its accession to NATO more than 60 years ago and its application for admission to the European Union 25 years ago. This country, which has experienced a remarkable economic boom for the last decade, is now confronted with the same question it faced 90 years ago: Who do we want to be? Where does Turkey want to go?…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Extradites Islamic Radical Abu Qatada to Jordan
(AGI) London, July 7 — After years of battling for his extradition, Islamist radical Abu Qatada boarded a plane bound for Jordan from Northolt military airport, west of London, announced British Interior Minister Theresa May. The 53-year-old Palestinian preacher, considered by a Spanish judge to be “Bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe”, will be tried in his native country for terrorism. The fight to deport Qatada began in 2001.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A British holiday maker has been hit over the head with a bottle in an attack at the same popular Turkish resort where a 17-year-old was stabbed 19 times and left for dead.
The man, named locally as Arron Saunders, was pictured without his top on and bleeding after he was attacked in the coastal town of Marmaris.
It comes just a week after Dwayne Ward, 17, was attacked with a pen-knife and slashed with a razor after a night out in the popular tourist resort.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Blow to Brotherhood: Sheikh Qaradawi Evicted From Qatar, Brotherhood Offices Closed
by Raymond Ibrahim
The spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for long one of the most authoritative voices in Sunni Islam — and certainly a “radical,” who, among other things, insists Muslims must always “obey the prophet, even if he tells you to kill” — has just had his Qatari citizenship revoked and told to leave Qatar by its emir, Tamim bin Hamd bin al-Khalifa, in light of events in Egypt, specifically the overthrow of the Brotherhood and Morsi. Qaradawi has lived in Qatar for years, as he was exiled from Egypt under Mubarak for inciting terrorism. The emir has also ordered the closure of all Muslim Brotherhood offices in Qatar, adding “We are all Muslims [here], but we are not Muslim Brothers [i.e., of the Brotherhood].” Here, then, is yet another blow to the Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Opposition in Syria Continues to Fracture
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The deadly clashes that raged between rival rebel factions in Syria over the weekend accentuated the divisions hampering opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as they try to halt his forces’ recent gains on the battlefield and persuade the West to supply the insurgency with weapons.
The fighting flared between members of a mainstream rebel group and a radical faction affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to local residents and an antigovernment watchdog group. The presence of the radicals and the failure to bring rebel forces under a unified military leadership have made the United States and its allies reluctant to arm the opposition.
As foreign fighters continued to spill into Syria across the country’s porous borders — committing atrocities against both supporters and opponents of the government and clashing with more moderate rebel groups — the prospects for unity among the rebels have seemed to grow more remote.
Islamist fighters said recently that they had driven a rival rebel brigade out of Raqqa, a rebel-held provincial capital in northeastern Syria, because they had found some of its fighters drinking wine and consorting with women, and because they considered brigade reluctant to fight.
And in the most recent confrontation, in Dana, a rebel-held town in Idlib Province near the Turkish border, members of an extremist Islamist group were accused of beheading two rival fighters and leaving their severed heads beside a garbage can in a town square.
That grim discovery on Sunday followed a protest and clashes in the town, highlighting the antagonism that some Syrian fighters and civilians are beginning to feel toward some of the radical factions…
| — Hat tip: LS | [Return to headlines] |
Abu Qatada was met by his family as he finally faced terror charges in Jordan after a near-decade long battle to deport the radical cleric came to a tense close.
The 53-year-old hate preacher left Belmarsh prison shortly after midnight on Sunday morning in a police convoy. He was taken to RAF Northholt, from where he was flown in a private jet to Jordan.
He landed in the Middle Eastern country at around 8am today.
Qatada was taken in a green SUV, escorted by a 12-car convoy containing masked anti-terrorism police, to the nearby military State Security Court in a sealed-off street on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital Amman, the Associated Press reported.
[Commenter: Meanwhile our useless government will be congratulating themselves for a ‘job well done.’ In truth, it was a very expensive farce. The real question which has to be asked is why was he allowed to stay in Britain in the first place and not put on the first flight back when he arrived with false papers? This is OUR country and WE should control who comes here, for how long and under what conditions — not some panel of unqualified, left wing Judges in the ECHR who clearly do not work in the interest of the British people. The answer is to vote UKIP.- Saxon , Cowes, 07/7/2013 ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Attack on Restaurant Kills Five in Pakistan
(AGI) Islamabad, July 7 — At least five people were killed, including a six-year-old child, and fifty wounded in an explosion in a Lahore restaurant. Lahore is the capital of the province of Punjab in eastern Pakistan. The local press reported that eight of those injured are in critical condition.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Bombing at Mahabodhi Temple Complex Leaves Two Injured
Blasts at one of Buddhism’s holiest sites have left at least two injured, drawing stark condemnation from the Indian premier. The Mahabodhi Temple complex is the place where Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.
A series of bombs exploded in Bodh Gaya, a Buddhist site which attracts millions of pilgrims from around the globe each year.
Authorities reported four blasts on the grounds of the Mahabodhi Temple complex early Sunday, followed by four more at a nearby temple. The final bomb detonated at the base of an 80-foot-tall (25-meter) statue of Buddha.
The blasts were low intensity, according to senior police official S.K. Bharadwaj, who added that two live bombs were later defused.
One Tibetan and one Myanmar national sustained injuries and had been taken to the hospital.
With the exception of a gate at one of the temples, none of the structures were heavily damaged in the attack.
The UNESCO-protected site lies roughly 110 kilometers (68 miles) south of the Bihar state capital, Patna. Buddhists believe Buddha attained enlightenment while seated under the Bodhi Tree in 531 BC. The temples built on the site date from between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, including one of the oldest Buddhist temples ever constructed.
No individual or terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Indian government classified the bombing as an act of terror. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denounced the violence, vowing that “such attacks on religious places will never be tolerated.”
Intelligence officials reportedly warned the local administration last month of a terrorist threat on the pilgrimage site.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Terror Strikes Bodh Gaya, Serial Blasts Rock Mahabodhi Temple
GAYA: Terror struck the temple town of Bodh Gaya in Bihar, as nine serial explosions rocked the Mahabodhi Temple complex on Sunday morning.
Two tourists, including a monk from Myanmar, have been injured in the blasts. The injured are being treated at the Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College hospital.
Union home secretary Anil Goswami confirmed that the Bodh Gaya blasts were a terror attack.
Bihar Police suspect the involvement of Indian Mujahideen in the temple blasts.
According to Gaya Police, the blasts took place in quick succession between 5.30am and 6am in the temple complex and near the Mahabodhi tree. One blast was reported from a bus stand.
One of the blasts took place just under the enlightenment tree causing partial damage to the Buddha footprints in the shrine premises.
Four blasts took place inside the shrine premises, while another three blasts took place in the Tregar monastery premises. The Tregar monastery belongs to the Karmapa, the second most important spiritual leader.
One blast each took place at the great Buddha statue and a bus parked on the Sujata bypass.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Marines Envoy to Return to India Next Week
Double-homicide case moving slowly
(ANSA) — New Delhi, July 5 — The Italian government’s special envoy to India, Staffan de Mistura, will fly back to the Asian country next week to continue talks about two Italian marines charged with murdering two Indian fishermen after allegedly mistaking them for pirates 18 months ago.
The decision to send back de Mistura in a bid to hasten the drawn-out case was taken at an hour-long cabinet meeting Friday.
De Mistura last met India’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid in New Delhi on June 10.
After the talks, an Indian government spokesman said the “unprecedented” nature of the case has made it slow to resolve, “We are working together as friendly countries to seek…a solution acceptable to both,” Spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are on trial for shooting and killing fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki while guarding a merchant ship off the coast of the southern Italian region of Kerala in February 2012.
The pair are currently waiting for a new investigation to be completed by India’s NIA anti-terrorism police.
The two countries suffered a diplomatic row and relations have been tense since the shooting.
Italy has contested India’s claim that it has jurisdiction over the case, arguing that the deaths occurred in international waters.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two Pakistani Terrorist Group Chiefs Killed by U. S. Drone
(AGI) Islamabad — Two Haqqani and Al Qaeda terrorist group chiefs were killed by a U.S. drone in North Waziristan, in Pakistan .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: Children and Families Are the First Victims of the Powdered Milk Industry
For more than ten years, children have died from baby formula lacking in protein, as well as powdered milk tainted with carcinogenic additives or melamine. As underground imports from Hong Kong and Europe continue, foreign companies are accused of inflating prices. Wet nursing is making a comeback, even among adults, a practice that could be deemed sexual in nature.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — The impact of China’s tainted milk scandals continues. More than half of local powdered milk and baby formula manufactures have gone out of business. At the same time, foreign brands like Nestle, Abbott, and Danone have come under investigation for possible anti-competitive practices, with prices pushed up by 30 per cent.
China’s unbridled economic development of the past few years could not have been possible without women workers. This has created a market for baby formula and powder milk since many mothers have to stay away from their infant children for extended periods of time. In the first decade of this century, powdered milk sales reached record highs.
Eventually, even China’s weak product safety and quality control bureaucracy unearthed widespread corruption in government ministries and uncovered food scandals with scores of victims.
The first case that broke out was in Anhui ten years ago, when it was discovered that the nutritional elements in baby formula were far below the national standard, with the protein content just 0.16 per cent compared to the required level of 18 per cent.
This literally meant that dozens of children who died succumbed to malnutrition with many others left with abnormal mental development.
Another scandal became prime time news in 2008, when melamine was found in baby formula as a fake protein booster. In all, six children died from drinking melamine-tainted formula and an additional 300,000 became sick, developing kidney stones and mental disorders.
Last year, infant formula made by a company based in Hunan was found to contain a carcinogen.
All this shattered public confidence in powdered milk products, and led to a rush for products from Europe and Hong Kong.
The government of the former British colony was forced to impose export limits on how much baby formula people could take out of territory, but in some cases, traders have been able to earn up to 100 million yuan (US$ 16 million) a year from this business.
In mainland China, Premier Li Keqiang last month chaired a State Council meeting to discuss ways to improve the quality of mainland-produced formula, and boost consumer confidence in domestic production.
Perhaps the investigation by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) into Nestle, Abbott Laboratories, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Danone and Wyeth Nutrition for possible price-fixing behaviour and anti-competitive practices might be part of this campaign to help Chinese manufacturers.
Yet, despite a 30 per cent rise in prices for foreign baby formulas over the past five years, many Chinese believe that they are cheaper than those made in China.
In view of the situation, an increasing numbers of families, especially the rich, have been hiring wet nurses to provide their children with breast milk for its nutritional value. On average, in-house wet nurses can cost 15,000-20,000 yuan a month.
However, this might be generating new problems. In some cases, wet nurses might be providing milk to adults as well, a practice that may be seen as a form of sexual service.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Manila is Growing Faster Than Beijing. Pime Missionary: “Confidence in the Future”
A turnover of 250 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 7.8% in the first quarter of 2013. Better than the Chinese data. Growth in investments of foreign and multinational companies. Fr. Giulio Mariani, “Aquino has raised the confidence abroad, thanks to the fight against corruption. But we need more infrastructure and to battle unemployment.”
Manila (AsiaNews) — An economy of 250 billion dollars, which recorded a growth of 7.8% in the first quarter of 2013, surpassing China and other emerging countries of Asia. The economic indices are further boosted by an increasingly widespread prosperity which today, unlike in the past, is no longer in the hands of a small circle of families and corrupt financial elites, but also extends to an ever more visible middle class. The Philippines confirms a positive trend as an increasingly emerging reality in Asia and the world, thanks to the policies promoted by President Benigno Aquino III, capable of clamping down on incompetence and theft of the older generation of leaders.
Confirming the growing development — especially in the major centers including Manila — the entry of major international retail chains including the Spanish Zara, Gap, Forever 21, Starbucks, and even the car giant Rolls Royce. Large luxury apartments are springing up in every corner of the capital, surrounded by shops and shopping centers, offices and call centers of financial centers which should ensure gains amounting to 25 billion by 2016.
The root cause of the economic growth in recent years is the policies promoted by President Aquino, who was elected in 2010 with a campaign devoted to the fight against corruption and widespread poverty. It has taken hold in a context in itself full of potential compared to other countries in South-East Asia, for the common use of the English language, the relative freedom of the press and established democratic tradition despite pockets of violence and internal resistance
Fr. Giulio Mariani is a priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in the Philippines who has a deep knowledge of the country. He confirms the economic boom of recent years, including “the visible results, thanks to the strong line enacted by the president.” He has made “many trips abroad,” said the priest, and has earned the “trust of other nations, because there is no longer that endemic corruption and investment is growing.”
Contacted by AsiaNews, the missionary adds that “according to some THE growth is fictitious” but these are judgments dictated by “envy”. “The process of internalization is obvious — continues Fr. Mariani — and the English language is essential for development. We can not say that it is of benefit to everyone, but the government’s program also tries to run in support of the poorer sections of the population. It is still early days to be sure, but things are heading in the right direction and is there is palpable widespread trust in the future”. For this, he concludes, there is a need to “strengthen the infrastructure” so that more and more people have an incentive to “visit the Philippines and to admire its natural beauty.”
However there was some unresolved issues, which may encourage even more development if you think that Indonesia attracts foreign investment to the tune of 20 billion dollars, compared with a Manila’s paltry 2.8, Myanmar just over 2.2, until recently isolated to the outside world. And even in terms of tourism there is scope for strong growth given that Thailand in 2012 attracted 22 million people, compared to 4.3 in the Philippines which also can boast uncommon wonders in landscaping. Finally, the problem of poverty remains to be resolved — 28% of the population live below the minimum threshold of survival — the strengthening of infrastructure (airports, roads, hotels) and fight against unemployment, which registered an increase in April (from 6.9% to 7.5%) compared with the same period in the past year. (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
In the administrations over the last 50-60 years we have seen a drastic falling away for the high moral standards set by our Founders. I understand that there have been people of questionable character all through America’s history but there has been an exponential growth of those lacking in good character since the 1950’s. In my opinion Eisenhower was the last President we had that was willing to admit that there was an outside source that was working its way into America’s system to take it to a One World Order. Reagan was willing to stand up to any opposition to our way of life but we have not seen one since that will stop the destruction of America. The current so-called president is on a fast track to bring America down to the level of muslim countries which as of yet has yet to progress pass the 7th century in mentality or civility.
We are being invaded because our government will not secure our borders. We have eight members of Congress that have written an immigration reform bill that only benefits the illegal immigrants that have broken our laws, stolen Social Security numbers and stolen jobs from Americans. This bill allows them to stay and continue to hold jobs that belong to Americans. It’s like allowing a bank robber to keep the money he stole from the bank as long as he pays taxes on it. In my American Intelligence Briefing Report I covered a couple of articles that describe the results of our government’s refusal to enforce the immigration laws we have and spread the lie that we need reform. Hitler’s regime once stated the more you tell a lie the more the people would believe it. Most people think we have a ‘broken immigration system’ when what we really have is one Party in particular, Democrats, that refuses to enforce our laws and wants to create a massive voting base. Here is a sample of this so called immigration reform bill:
Five Reasons to Oppose Latest Senate Immigration Bill
| 1. | Every version of the bill has been secretly negotiated and hastily considered | |
| 2. | Liberal activist groups will get access to a $100 million, taxpayer-funded slush fund | |
| 3. | There never was a serious attempt to secure the border | |
| 4. | Legalization First, Federal Entitlements Next | |
| 5. | No version of the bill has ever lost a Democratic senator’s support [Source: www.freerepublic.com] |
As it can be seen this bill does nothing to ‘reform’ immigration. It is loaded with unneeded pork that doesn’t secure the border which is what is needed! As a result of this governments refusal to secure our border there are two ranches in Texas that have been taken over by the Los Zetas drug cartel out of Mexico. Media has been silent about this. One of the few things that the Constitution requires our government to do is to protect its citizens and at least since Bush 41 we have refused to secure the border to facilitate that protection.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Mexican constitution strictly defines the rights of citizens, and the denial of many rights to non-citizens. The General Law on Population, spelling out the country’s immigration policy, should cause Americans to ask: Why is our southern neighbor pushing us to water down our immigration laws and policies when its own immigration restrictions are the toughest on the continent? If a felony is a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, Mexican law makes it a felony to be an illegal alien in Mexico. Yet if the United States adopted such a law, Mexico would no doubt denounce it as a manifestation of American bigotry.
Mexico’s main immigration law welcomes only foreigners deemed useful to Mexican society:
- Foreigners are admitted into Mexico “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress.“ (Article 32)
- Immigration officials must “ensure (that) immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and that of their dependents. (Article 34)
- Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence has upset “the equilibrium of the national demographics,“ if they are deemed detrimental to “economic or national interests,” if they are not good citizens in their own country, if they have broken Mexican laws, or if “they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy.” (Article 37)
- The secretary of governance may “suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest.” (Article 38)
Mexican authorities keep track of every person in the country:
- Federal, local and municipal police must cooperate with federal immigration authorities upon request: i.e., help in the arrest of illegal immigrants. (Article 73)
- A National Population Registry tracks every “individual who comprises (sic) the population of the country,” verifying each individual’s identity. (Articles 85 and 86)
- A national Catalogue of Foreigners tracks foreign tourists and immigrants (Article 87), assigning each a tracking number. (Article 91)
Foreigners with fake papers or who enter the country under false pretenses may be imprisoned:
- Foreigners with fake immigration papers may be fined or imprisoned. (Article 116)
- Foreigners who sign government documents “with a signature that is false or different from that which he normally uses” are subject to fine and imprisonment. (Article 116)
Foreigners who fail to obey the rules will be fined, deported, and/or imprisoned as felons:
- Foreigners who fail to obey a deportation order are to be punished. (Article 117)
- Deported foreigners who try to re-enter Mexico without authorization can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. (Article 118)
- Foreigners who violate terms of their visa may be sentenced for up to six years in prison. (Articles 119, 120, and 121) Foreigners who misrepresent the terms of their visa (as by working without a permit) can also be imprisoned.
Under Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony. The General Law on Population says:
- “A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of 300 to 5,000 pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.” (Article 123)
- Foreigners with immigration problems may be deported, rather than imprisoned. (Article 125)
- Foreigners who “(make attempts) against national sovereignty or security” will be deported. (Article 126)
Mexicans who help illegal aliens enter the country are considered criminals:
- A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127)
- Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into Mexico will be fined. (Article 132)
All of the above runs counter to what Mexican leaders are demanding of the United States. The stark contrast between Mexico’s immigration practices and its American-immigration preachings reveals the Mexican government’s agenda: to have a one-way immigration relationship with the United States.
[Source]
Foreign-born, naturalized Mexican citizens may not become federal lawmakers (Article 55), cabinet secretaries (Article 91) or supreme court justices (Article 95). The president of Mexico, like the president of the United States, constitutionally must be a citizen by birth, but Article 82 of the Mexican constitution mandates that the president’s parents also be Mexican-born citizens, thus according secondary status to Mexican-born citizens born of immigrants. The Mexican constitution forbids immigrants and naturalized citizens to become members of the clergy. Article 130 says, “To practice the ministry of any denomination in the United Mexican States it is necessary to be a Mexican by birth.” The Mexican constitution singles out “undesirable aliens.” Article 11 guarantees federal protection against “undesirable aliens resident in the country.” The Mexican constitution provides the right of private individuals to make citizen’s arrests. Article 16 states, “in cases of flagrante delicto, any person may arrest the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities.” Therefore, the Mexican constitution appears to grant Mexican citizens the right to arrest illegal aliens and hand them over to police for prosecution. The Mexican constitution states that foreigners may be expelled for any reason and without due process.
According to Article 33, “the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Of all the social/moral questions facing us, euthanasia is one of the toughest to draw a conclusion on. On the one hand, nobody likes to think of a patient being left to suffer. As individuals we have a right to control our own way of living and, by that logic, our own way of dying. On the other hand, there’s a worry that legalising euthanasia encourages a culture of death. Sadly, the news coming out of Belgium and the Netherlands confirms the critics’ worst fears.
Belgium adopted euthanasia in 2002, one year after the Netherlands, and its laws were designed to help adults riddled with “unbearable physical or mental suffering”. Today, roughly one per cent of all deaths in Belgium are due to euthanasia — and the grounds on which it is carried out are becoming looser and looser. As the Telegraph recently reported, two deaf brothers opted to die after they started to go blind. They were young and their condition wasn’t terminal. They couldn’t bear the thought of living alone and in darkness, which is entirely understandable — but the case bends the spirit of the original law.
Now Belgium is weighing up some changes. One would allow patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other diseases leading to dementia to sign an agreement permitting a doctor to allow them to die when the condition enters an advanced stage — even if they appear perfectly happy and physically stable. Another reform is to allow Belgians under 18 to choose euthanasia, too. This means that children who can’t drive, marry, vote or drink alcohol will be regarded as competent enough to decide whether or not they can die.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Identical Twin Studies Prove Homosexuality is Not Genetic
Eight major studies of identical twins in Australia, the U.S., and Scandinavia during the last two decades all arrive at the same conclusion: gays were not born that way.
“At best genetics is a minor factor,” says Dr. Neil Whitehead, PhD. Whitehead worked for the New Zealand government as a scientific researcher for 24 years, then spent four years working for the United Nations and International Atomic Energy Agency. Most recently, he serves as a consultant to Japanese universities about the effects of radiation exposure. His PhD is in biochemistry and statistics.
Identical twins have the same genes or DNA. They are nurtured in equal prenatal conditions. If homosexuality is caused by genetics or prenatal conditions and one twin is gay, the co-twin should also be gay.
“Because they have identical DNA, it ought to be 100%,” Dr. Whitehead notes. But the studies reveal something else. “If an identical twin has same-sex attraction the chances the co-twin has it are only about 11% for men and 14% for women.”
Because identical twins are always genetically identical, homosexuality cannot be genetically dictated. “No-one is born gay,” he notes. “The predominant things that create homosexuality in one identical twin and not in the other have to be post-birth factors.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Isn’t That Sweet? Lucky Charms Goes Gay
Lucky Charms won’t just be at the end of the rainbow anymore. It’ll be right up in front, toeing the line for gay activists and their agenda. According to The Huffington Post, General Mills just announced that Lucky Charms — with little rainbow marshmallows — will be the face for a new gay pride campaign, called #LuckyToBe. “General Mills has come out in support of the gay community for Pride,” wrote HuffPo’s Christopher Rudolph, “and what better way to show their love than with the Lucky Charms marshmallow rainbow?” In fact, General Mills sent a press release to GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), which made it pretty clear that GM is jumping on the gay bandwagon wholeheartedly.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
James Dobson: Marriage Equality Will Destroy ‘Entire Superstructure’ of Society (Audio)
Evangelical radio host James Dobson on Monday warned his listeners that last week’s Supreme Court rulings in favor of same sex marriage could cause the “entire superstructure” of society to “come down.”
“That’s the foundation of the relationship, a man and a woman,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and conservative attorney Bill Becker. “And if you undermine it, if you do anything to cause it to crack like has occurred now with the rulings last week, you necessarily threaten the entire superstructure. I believe it can come down.”
“Because you can’t have stability without a functioning marital relationship that leads to strong children who know who they are as a boy or a girl or a man or a woman,” Dobson added. “This has been devastating. Even if eventually legally we somehow walk it back a bit, I don’t see our [society] ever completely recovering from what has happened here.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A 2012 speech by Masha Gessen, an author and outspoken activist for the LGBT community, is just now going viral and it includes a theory that many supporters of traditional marriage have speculated about for years: The push for gay marriage has less to do with the right to marry — it is about diminishing and eventually destroying the institution of marriage and redefining the “traditional family.”
The subject of gay marriage stirs powerful reactions on both sides of the argument. There are those who argue that legalizing it would diminish traditional marriage. And those advocating for gay marriage have long stated that the issue will not harm traditional marriage. Ms. Gessen’s comments on the subject seem to contradict the pro-gay-marriage party lines.
Gessen shared her views on the subject and very specifically stated;
- “Gay marriage is a lie.”
- “Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there.”
- “It’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist.” (This statement is met with very loud applause.)
As mentioned above, Gessen also talked about redefining the traditional family.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Not So Fast: Prop 8 is Still California Law
News reports that California’s Prop 8 has been struck down as unconstitutional are completely false.
Proposition 8 is the amendment to the California Constitution that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A federal trial judge — Vaughn Walker — held that Prop 8 violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court held that only the losing defendants in that case — the governor and attorney general of California — had standing to appeal that decision. When they refused to do so, Prop 8’s official sponsors filed the appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and pursued it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Since the official sponsors lacked standing to defend Prop 8, the Supreme Court refused to rule on the merits, and also vacated (i.e., threw out) the the Ninth Circuit’s decision.
But that means Prop 8 is still the law in California. Section 3.5 of the California Constitution specifically commands:
An administrative agency … has no power:
(a) To declare a statute unenforceable, or refuse to enforce a statute, on the basis of it being unconstitutional unless an appellate court has made a determination that such statute is unconstitutional;
(b) To declare a statute unconstitutional;
(c) To declare a statute unenforceable, or to refuse to enforce a statute on the basis that federal law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement of such statute unless an appellate court has made a determination that the enforcement of such statute is prohibited by federal law or federal regulations.
As of today, there is no appellate opinion (meaning an opinion issued by a court of appeals) against Prop 8. The Supreme Court refused to issue one, and threw out the only other one (the Ninth Circuit’s). There is only a trial court opinion. So every agency in California is legally bound to regard Prop 8 as binding law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Planned Parenthood Sues Over Law Requiring That Moms be Told They’re Killing a ‘Human Being’
TOPEKA — Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (CHPPKM) has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Kansas law that requires—among other regulations—that abortionists tell mothers that they are killing a “whole, separate, unique, living human being.”
As previously reported, Kansas legislators passed the sweeping abortion bill in March of this year, which was then signed into law by Governor Sam Brownback.
[…]
However, pro-life organizations in the state say that the laws being challenged merely require abortionists to tell women the whole truth about their irreversible decision.
“I don’t understand how it is a violation of the First Amendment when you are informing people — [when] you are actually telling people what is going on,” said Troy Newman of Operation Rescue.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Wave of Anger is Sweeping the Cities of the World
A familar face appeared in many of the protests taking place in scores of cities on three continents this week: a Guy Fawkes mask with a roguish smile and a pencil-thin moustache.
The mask belongs to “V”, a character in a graphic novel from the 1980s who became the symbol for a group of computer hackers called Anonymous. His contempt for government resonates with people all over the world.
The protests have many different origins. In Brazil people rose up against bus fares, in Turkey against a building project. Indonesians have rejected higher fuel prices, Bulgarians the government’s cronyism.
In the euro zone they march against austerity, and the Arab spring has become a perma-protest against pretty much everything. Each angry demonstration is angry in its own way.
Yet just as in 1848, 1968 and 1989, when people also found a collective voice, the demonstrators have much in common. Over the past few weeks, in one country after another, protesters have risen up with bewildering speed.
They have been more active in democracies than dictatorships. They tend to be ordinary, middle-class people, not lobbies with lists of demands. Their mix of revelry and rage condemns the corruption, inefficiency and arrogance of the folk in charge.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
And it will be the Middle-Class again that will do it again as it did in every other civilisation where tyranny threatens. We will win this….
Your piece says that Abu Qatada was met my his family when he arrived in Jordan. But aren’t his family still here in Britain living in an enormous house and off benefits all at the British taxpayers’ expense. His children are deemed to be British and so we probably cannot deport them and their darling mama will have to stay to look after them and we will be paying. Without doubt his children will be radicalised by the treatment the British have meted out to their father and will be growing up as another generation of anti-British terrorists. Get the whole lot out pronto and let them rush into the outstretched arms of their loving extended family in Jordan as Daddy has. Here in Britain we have food banks which are growing by the day for those who cannot afford to feed themselves. No cans have arrived from Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and the other multi-millionaires as yet. We do not need to waste money on Mr Qatada’s scummish clan.
Regarding the article, The Line in the Sand, who is that outside source that the writer refers to? Can anybody dare to name them? Plus, something seems to have happened in the 1970s at their behest. Was it not then that Teddy Kennedy – who considered the Clintons not left-wing enough so backed Obama – opposed a bill designed to preserve the European nature of the United States and gave carte blance to mass hispanic and subsequently muslim immigration? And yet his brother Jack was assassinated shortly after referring to the elites ruling America. Who was Teddy Kennedy working for or was he just another international socialist useful idiot? Here in Britain mass immigration was always spearheaded by the Labour Party but an attempt to stop and reverse it by Enoch Powell was thwarted by Ted Heath, a Conservative, whom we all suspect was in the pay of that outside source; as well as luring us into today’s Marxist multicultural totalitarian and UN backed EU, which he knew was going to be the outcome of his taking us into the then European Common Market.
As the final stages of the New World Order’s One World plan begin to approach us the world is in chaos. Europe and European North America are beginning to fade away to be replaced by the third world. I am not alone in describing England’s capital as Afro-asian and increasingly muslim-dominated. After all the cockney accent of 700 plus years will be history in 20 years’ time to be replaced by an afro-asian patois. Today London, tomorrow the whole of England. Will the writer please name and shame. We want to know who we are dealing with.
Mass resignations at Al Jazeera over “biased” Egypt coverage
Reports suggest that 22 member of staff have resigned from the Egyptian arm of Al Jazeera after complaining of pro-Muslim Brotherhood bias within the organisation
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3932/mass_resignations_at_al_jazeera_over_biased_egypt_coverage
It has been suggested to me that, having lost two brothers to those elites through staged assassinations pinned on others, Ted Kennedy just chose to obey orders and that his overturning of the bill designed to preserve the European nature of America was not necessarily what he wanted but what he had to do to avoid the assassin’s bullet himself.