Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/2/2013

During an air exercise over the ocean off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, two Air National Guard jet fighters clipped wings in a close pass. One pilot landed his plane safely; the other was forced to eject. The rescued pilot is unharmed, but his plane was lost.

In other news, according to a recent study by American scientists, there is a correlation between the global increase in violence and rising temperatures caused by climate change.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, JD, Jerry Gordon, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Bad News for Blacks; Country’s Financial Picture Spells Their Doom
» Detroit’s Failure, A Product of Liberalism and Greed
» Fearing Obama
» Theft by Deficit
» U.S. Added 162,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Falls to 7.4%
 
USA
» Conservatives Urge Probe of New Allegations of IRS Corruption
» E. Michael Maloof: Army Bans Soldiers From Reading About NSA
» FBI Can Remotely Activate Microphones in Android Smartphones, Source Says
» Gun Company Displays Largest-Caliber Rifle Ever Created With Bullets That Cost $40 Apiece
» How the NSA Manipulates Language to Mislead the Public
» IRS Harassment of Pro-Life Groups Continues Despite Claims to Contrary
» Mainstream Media Finally Admits Televisions Can Spy on You
» Mark Steyn: Lords of the Transition Team
» News Editor Fired for Headline Critical of Obama
» Pilot Ejects From Jet Off Va., Rescued at Sea
» Sarasota: Florida’s Biased Textbook on Islam Problem
» Small Town Police Are Tooling Up With Elite Military Hardware
 
Europe and the EU
» UK: ‘Teenagers From Hell’ With Criminal Records Stretching Back Years Broke Into Widow’s Home and Stole Husband’s Ashes During 24-Hour Crimewave
» UK: £1 Billion Wind Farm That’s Snubbed British Workers
» UK: Family Who Got Dinner Lady Fired After She Accidentally Served Their Child Gammon Are Emigrating to Muslim Country
» UK: Gang of 10 Men Charged With Rape, Sexual Assault and Trafficking Five Girls
» UK: Hardcore of Shoplifters With More Than 10 Previous Convictions Responsible for Two-Thirds of All Thefts From Shops
 
North Africa
» CIA ‘Running Arms Smuggling Team in Benghazi When Consulate Was Attacked’
» Exclusive: Dozens of CIA Operatives on the Ground During Benghazi Attack
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Bibi and the True Believers
 
Middle East
» UN Probes Allegations of Syria Rebel Crimes
» US to Temporarily Shut Down Embassies Around the World Sunday Amid Security Concerns
 
Australia — Pacific
» Is Australia Staring Down the Barrel of a Gun Crisis?
 
Immigration
» Former German Chancellor Kohl Sought to Repatriate Hundreds of Thousands of Turks 30 Years Ago: Report
» RINO McCain Confirms: Border Security Just More “Bait and Switch” Tomfoolery!
» U.S. May Take in Tens of Thousands of Syrian Refugees
 
Culture Wars
» Christian Church Evicted From NYC Restaurant for Preaching Against Same-Sex Relations
» Massachusetts “Weeding Out” Foster & Adoptive Parents Who Won’t Support Children’s LGBT Identities
» Networks Silent About Manning’s ‘Gay Soldier’ Defense
» Ravenous Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
» UK: Gay Couple to Sue Church Over Gay Marriage Opt-Out
 
General
» Holy Grail of Water Splitting Technology Now Achieved With Sunlight, Mirrors and Seawater
» Rise in Violence ‘Linked to Climate Change’
 

Bad News for Blacks; Country’s Financial Picture Spells Their Doom

Harsh and hard truths about Obama’s betrayal

In the online blog JoeforAmerica.com on July 28, 2013, Rodney Lee posted “Bad News for Blacks” in the Economic, Politics, Taxes forum crediting Richard Rahn of the Washington Times what Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have done for Black Americans. To say the least, Reagan and Obama had very different economic philosophies with Obama denouncing “supply-side” economics and scoffing at the notion that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. And, Obama is also imbued with the notion that cutting taxes only favors the rich.

According to Rodney Lee, Richard Rahn sums it up this way: Reagan reduced taxes on job creators by 60%; Obama increased them by 17%. Reagan cut non-defense federal spending by a third; Obama has increased it… Reagan cut regulations while Obama has greatly increased them.

Under Reagan, adult black unemployment fell by 20%, but under Obama, it has increased by 42%. Black teenage unemployment fell by 16% under Reagan, but has risen by 56% under Mr. Obama. Please note that last sentence of a 56% rise in black teenage unemployment. But as I said above, this is what Obama wants — total subservience from ALL blacks. Why can’t they see what is so obvious?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Detroit’s Failure, A Product of Liberalism and Greed

“The last thing Detroit needs is a bailout. What it needs is to sweep away a city charter that protects only bureaucrats, civil-service rules that straightjacket municipal departments, and obsolete union contracts. A bailout would just keep the dysfunction in place. Time to start over.” — Bill Nojay, Former COO of Detroit’s Department of Transportation

Detroit, the former “Paris of the West” is now oozing blight, rust, decay, garbage, and union corruption. It is now a pathetic example of its former greatness, the city of the auto industry, envied around the world, the city of a thriving middle class.

At the height of its glory, Detroit was America’s fourth largest city with almost 2 million people. After decades of population flight, there are 700,000 people left. Police response to an emergency call is 58 minutes, street lights are cut in half, and the median home price is $9,000, with some homes worth as little as $500. It seems like a bargain if the city will ever be rebuilt. Its location is certainly strategic, with access to the Great Lakes. There are interests in the heavy rail industry and there are plans for a $25 million light rail.

The statistics are sad. Thirty percent of Detroit’s 140 square miles are vacant or deserted; 33,500 homes are unoccupied and 90,000 lots are vacant. Many homes have been bulldozed. If a lone home is occupied on an otherwise abandoned street, the residents are forced to move and the house is demolished. Sixty percent of children live in poverty. Homicide rose 79% in 2011. There is no chain supermarket left in the city.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fearing Obama

Americans have real cause to fear the President and the prospect of living in a surveillance state

I have been sensing something about the mood of many Americans that I think is unprecedented in the history of the nation. It is a fear of the President. A fear that one observer, Daniel Henninger of The Wall Street Journal, calls “the president’s creeping authoritarianism.”

Obama has had four and a half years to pursue his goal of “transforming” America and, along the way, he has continually expressed his disdain for the constraints of the Constitution, his contempt for Congress and the Supreme Court, and, if his recent speeches are any indication, his belief that enough Americans are so dumb they will believe anything he says.

Overall, there is a growing sense of foreboding as four in five Americans are facing some degree of poverty and a small chance of finding work. One can feel the nation slowing down, its momentum sapped, its national sense of optimism being drained.

The bankruptcy of a major American city, Detroit, tells one everything they need to know about the result of decades of liberal governance and its acceleration under Obama. What other cities face a similar fate? Is the nation on the path to becoming a third-world economy?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Theft by Deficit

In 1966, before Alan Greenspan became the Federal Reserve Chairman, he wrote an essay, which I highly recommend, called Gold and Economic Freedom. Herein lays the crux of what he presented, emphasis are mine: “The welfare state [the self-destructive system we operate under today] is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society [the working middle class] to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. A substantial part of the confiscation is effected by taxation. Thus, the earnings saved by the productive members of the society lose value in terms of goods.

“The welfare statists [government officials] were quick to recognize that if they wished to retain political power, the amount of taxation had to be limited and they had to resort to programs of massive deficit spending, i.e., they had to borrow money, by issuing government bonds, to finance welfare expenditures on a large scale. When the economy’s books are finally balanced, one finds that this loss in value represents the goods purchased by the government for welfare or other purposes [pork barrel, waste and fraud] with the money proceeds of the government bonds financed by bank credit expansion.

“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process.

As Greenspan explains, the gold standard limited government spending to the amount of gold held in reserve. The gold standard was unprofitable to the international bankers and moreover, interfered with their plans for a New World Order. So the central bankers, in collusion with devious government officials, embarked on a stringent campaign to repeal the gold standard. Stopping at nothing, they attacked and crucified anyone who opposed them. Eventually, the gold standard was repealed.

Knowing that government officials will always spend more than they have, the bankers had now provided a means for them to do so. Repealing of the gold standard provided an open door for deficit spending.

[Comment: Informative article — recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Added 162,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Falls to 7.4%

America’s employers added 162,000 jobs in July, fewer than expected, as the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.4 percent.

The job gains reported by the Labor Department on Friday, were concentrated in retail, food services, financial activities and wholesale trade. The manufacturing sector gained 6,000 jobs; government employment stayed basically flat.

While July represented the 34th straight month of job creation, the relatively strong employment gains were still not on track to absorb the backlog of unemployed workers anytime soon. At the recent pace of job growth, it would take about seven years to close the so-called jobs gap left by the recession, according to the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.

[Return to headlines]
 

Conservatives Urge Probe of New Allegations of IRS Corruption

Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Monday began forcefully urging the Inspector General’s Office at the Treasury Department to investigate additional misconduct allegations leveled at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

GOP leaders and members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are seeking an investigation of new allegations of politically-motivated targeting by the Internal Revenue Service. The latest allegations are related to existing Tea Party and conservative groups that had received tax-exempt status but were singled out for additional scrutiny not exercised by IRS agents for liberal-left or Obama-supporting non-profit organizations, according to Republican lawmakers.

“The totality of your ‘targeting’ investigation along with evidence obtained by the Committee points to the fact that the IRS may have selected certain conservative organizations for additional scrutiny after the IRS already approved their tax-exempt status,”…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

E. Michael Maloof: Army Bans Soldiers From Reading About NSA

(WND) The U.S. Army has ordered its personnel not to go to the latest postings on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian to read revelations of information given to its reporter because it contains a “TOP SECRET slide show.”

The email, which WND received from a Department of Defense source, was addressed to a couple hundred military personnel and civilians working for DOD. The source who provided the email asked for anonymity.

“Do not go to ‘The Guardian’ news website as they have TOP SECRET slide show on the main page and you will be flagged,” according to the writer from the 304th MIBN, or military intelligence battalion.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Can Remotely Activate Microphones in Android Smartphones, Source Says

Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. are expanding the use of tools routinely used by computer hackers to gather information on suspects, bringing the criminal wiretap into the cyber age.

Federal agencies have largely kept quiet about these capabilities, but court documents and interviews with people involved in the programs provide new details about the hacking tools, including spyware delivered to computers and phones through email or Web links — techniques more commonly associated with attacks by criminals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Company Displays Largest-Caliber Rifle Ever Created With Bullets That Cost $40 Apiece

If you want to squeeze off a few rounds from a .905-caliber rifle, you’ll need two things: muscles and cash.

An Ohio-based gun company has developed the world’s first .905-caliber rifle that — at .905 — is the highest-caliber rifle in the world.

And with bullets that cost more than $40 a piece, you’ll probably think twice before pulling the trigger.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How the NSA Manipulates Language to Mislead the Public

We as a species use language to communicate and engage with one another, we have a certain understanding that certain words mean certain things. That is the entire purpose of language, effective communication between human beings that can be easily understood. As a result, we should be able to assume that when government bureaucrats utilize words that are commonplace within society, that these words represent specific commonly understood meanings. That would be a huge mistake.

Jameel Jaffer and Brett Max Kaufman of the ACLU have compiled an excellent list of some commonplace words used by the NSA to mislead us into thinking they aren’t doing the bad things that they are actually doing. Words such as “surveillance,” “collect,” and “relevant.” From Slate:

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has been harshly criticized for having misled Congress earlier this year about the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities. The criticism is entirely justified. An equally insidious threat to the integrity of our national debate, however, comes not from officials’ outright lies but from the language they use to tell the truth. When it comes to discussing government surveillance, U.S. intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirection — a language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another.

[Comment: aka “new-speak” (reference to the book ‘1984’).]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

IRS Harassment of Pro-Life Groups Continues Despite Claims to Contrary

CHICAGO, — Today, the Thomas More Society has submitted an updated second memorandum to Congressman Aaron Schock (IL-18) of the House Committee on Ways and Means, detailing additional evidence of continued IRS targeting of pro-life organizations. Despite claims by the Obama Administration that the harassment has ceased, the Society produced over 250 pages of documentation showing that the federal government is still interrogating pro-life groups beyond the scope of its legal authority, infringing upon these organizations’ First Amendment rights of assembly, free speech, and religious liberty.

“Despite claims to the contrary, the IRS continues to target and harass pro-life and conservative charities, illegally questioning their religious activities and withholding their tax exemptions,” said Peter Breen vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society. “We have now produced irrefutable evidence of six clients whose First Amendment rights were trampled upon by the IRS because of their position upholding the sanctity of life. Even after public disclosure of this wrongdoing, the Obama Administration’s IRS has refused to cease its illegal activity. We will continue to aid Congress in its investigation until those responsible are brought to justice and the IRS is made to respect every American’s constitutional rights.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mainstream Media Finally Admits Televisions Can Spy on You

Home tech capable of surveillance has been in use for years.

In the wake of alternative media, mainstream outlets are now finally admitting that ‘smart’ televisions available to the public are capable of spying on its viewers.

A CNN article published yesterday entitled Your TV might be watching you says:

The flaws in Samsung Smart TVs, which have now been patched, enabled hackers to remotely turn on the TVs’ built-in cameras without leaving any trace of it on the screen. While you’re watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world could have been watching you. Hackers also could have easily rerouted an unsuspecting user to a malicious website to steal bank account information.

We reported on this television’s spy capabilities back in 2012 and it isn’t an isolated incident.

Earlier in 2011, we reported that Microsoft developed a camera that can track how many people are in a room.

[Comment: the ‘tele-screen’ has arrived (ref the book ‘1984’)]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mark Steyn: Lords of the Transition Team

Our leadership class’s real accomplishment is résumé padding.

Let us put aside, as he so rarely does, Anthony Weiner’s spambot penis, and consider his wife and putative first lady. By universal consent, Huma Abedin is “smart, accomplished” (the Guardian), “whip-smart” (The Week), “accomplished” (Time), “smart and accomplished” (the Daily News) — oh, and did I mention “accomplished” (Forbes)?

So, if she’s so smart, what has she accomplished? Let us put aside her Muslim Brotherhood family background — let us put it aside in the same corner as Anthony Weiner’s infidel penis, the Muslim Brotherhood being one of the few things on the planet rising even more spectacularly than Anthony. Instead, consider merely the official résumé. Huma Abedin’s present employment is as “head of Hillary Clinton’s transition team.” Mrs Clinton, you may recall, was once secretary of state. This was way back in January. Since then, she has been “transitioning away from government to become more involved in her family’s charitable foundation.” You can’t make a “transition” without a “transition team.” Well, not in America. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands recently abdicated and managed to transition away from being queen back to the non-queen sector without benefit of a “transition team.” But it would be entirely unreasonable to expect U.S. cabinet officials to attempt the same tricky maneuver.

In 2001, Bill Clinton was struggling with his own “transition back to private life.” He was reported by his ever reliable New York Times stenographer Adam Nagourney to be having difficulty “trying to place his own telephone calls.” The telephone is a technology many older people can have problems with, particularly if they had a full-time staff to place their calls throughout the Nineties. The 1890s, that is. So, alone in retirement at Chappaqua, a bewildered Bill would pick up the speaking tube and bark, “Hello, Central, get me Gennifer Flowers.” Fortunately, he was able to make a full recovery, and has since earned (according to CNN) $89 million in “speaking fees.” But few others could manage their “transition” quite that adroitly. So for the last six months the smart, accomplished Huma Abedin has been the executive supremo of Mrs. Clinton’s “transition team.”

Is this a grueling, time-consuming burden? Is this why Anthony Weiner’s shorts find themselves alone in the small hours burning the midnight oil? No. Politico’s Maggie Haberman recently broke the exclusive news that Ms. Abedin is taking “extended vacation time from her job.” This is not because the Clintons are naturally revolted at having their good name sullied by association with a sick pervert and his creepy enabling wife, but because, as you eventually discover if you plough deep into Miss Haberman’s story, “Hillary Clinton has close to no schedule next month.” She is now transitioning from her transition to her summer in the Hamptons, and presumably that requires an entirely different kind of transition team, to bring the beach towels and mix the margaritas.

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]
 

News Editor Fired for Headline Critical of Obama

“I just became the first person in the history of newspapers to be fired for writing a paper’s most-read article,” he tweeted.

Drew Johnson, a page editor for The Chattanooga Times Free Press has been fired after he published an article titled, “Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough.”

According to World Net Daily (WND), the firing came after the story went viral drawing national attention following a visit from the President earlier in the week.

Thursday, the Tennessee newspaper released a statement saying that they fired the editor for “placing a headline on an editorial outside of normal editing procedures.”

However, Johnson says the policy he supposedly broke does not exist.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pilot Ejects From Jet Off Va., Rescued at Sea

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Two Air National Guard fighter jets clipped each other’s wings midair, forcing one of the pilots to eject into the ocean and be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter a few hours later off the Virginia coast, officials said Friday.

The other pilot involved in the collision was able to fly back to Joint Base Andrews, Md. Both jets were from the 113th Wing D.C. Air National Guard and were on a routine training mission Thursday night when the collision happened about 35 miles southeast of Chincoteague on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

Capt. Michael Odle, chief of public affairs for the air wing, said the single seat F-16C Fighting Falcons collided when their wings clipped each other. Odle didn’t specify the exact maneuvers the pilots were going through, but he noted that the air wing’s pilots are frequently called upon to intercept aircraft that enter restricted airspace or lose communications in the Washington area. Those intercepts typically require aircraft to fly in close proximity.

The Air National Guard has not released the names of the pilots involved, but Odle said both are experienced pilots. One is a captain, and the other is a lieutenant colonel.

The Coast Guard said the pilot of the jet who was rescued early Friday is in good condition. Odle said the other pilot has already been evaluated by medical staff and released.

“We are extremely fortunate to have lost only metal, and not the life of one of our Airmen,” Brig. Gen. Marc Sasseville, 113th Wing commander, said in a statement.

The Coast Guard said it was alerted to the pilot’s ditching by a distress signal from his ejection seat at about 10:30 p.m. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter that was based at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C. arrived around midnight, according to the Coast Guard. It was faster to send the helicopter instead of a small boat from Chincoteague, said Petty Officer David Weydert, a spokesman for the Coast Guard’s 5th District in Portsmouth, Va. At the time of the rescue, seas in the area were about 4 feet high.

[Return to headlines]
 

Sarasota: Florida’s Biased Textbook on Islam Problem

Aya: I am a warrior not a victim

by Jerry Gordon

Fox News radio commentator Todd Starnes was interviewed on Fox TV by Sean Hannity about the latest controversy on portrayal of Islam in public school textbooks that surfaced in Brevard County, Florida, “Public School Textbook Filled with Muslim Bias?”

During the Hannity’s America discussion Starnes made a veiled reference to “other parents” who made similar attempts to rid public school texts of Saudi influenced depictions of Islam that avoid the violence and subjugation of Christians and Jews in conquered lands during the great sweep of Jihad 13 centuries ago. A Jihad fomented by Mohammed and his warriors that depopulated Arabia of both Christians and Jews…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Small Town Police Are Tooling Up With Elite Military Hardware

Line between police and troops is now a blur

An Associated Press investigation has found that small town police departments are essetnailly grabbing whatever elite military equipment they can lays their hands on, in a move that is blurring the line between law enforcement and military service in the US.

The little known scheme, dubbed the “1033 Program” when passed by congress in 1997, was slated to bolster police departments in order to allow them to more effectively fight the “war on drugs” and to combat “terrorism”.

The program has seen police become equipped with surplus supplies of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and even grenade launchers, all to be used against US citizens.

In 2011 alone, police departments across the nation received more than $500 million of military grade equipment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Teenagers From Hell’ With Criminal Records Stretching Back Years Broke Into Widow’s Home and Stole Husband’s Ashes During 24-Hour Crimewave

A ‘teenager from hell’ has been jailed for three years after stealing the ashes of a magistrate from his heartbroken widow’s home.

Charlie Green, now 18, and an 17-year-old accomplice, who can’t be named for legal reasons, targeted the widow’s home during a burglary spree which saw them break-in to three homes in one night.

His victim Kathryn Gibson, 52, returned home to find an urn containing the remains of her late husband Robert had been snatched during a burglary at their home.

When police caught up with the 17-year old culprits both blamed their drink and drug crazed behaviour on being from broken homes with one claiming he had a ‘communication disorder’.

It emerged the pair invaded three homes in just one night as people slept, driving off in two cars and crashing one.

Police recovered Mr Gibson’s ashes after the urn was found dumped on waste land 24 hours after the burglary spree.

The gang’s ringleader Green — otherwise known as Charlie Chipps — had already been dubbed a ‘teenager from hell’ near his home in Burnley, Lancashire, and had started smoking cannabis when he was 11.

He had already been given two anti-social behaviour orders after threatening residents — yet had ignored all the prohibitions. He has a string of convictions including violence, drugs, burglary and racially aggravated assault.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: £1 Billion Wind Farm That’s Snubbed British Workers

A ‘British jobs for British workers’ row erupted yesterday as it emerged that a new £1billion wind farm off the Lincolnshire coast is being maintained by teams of workers flown in from Scandinavia.

As he officially opened the offshore scheme yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg claimed 30,000 British jobs would be created by the end of the decade by investing in renewable energy.

But local MPs and businessmen said this appeared a hollow promise.

Because turbines for the Centrica scheme off Skegness are made in Denmark, Danish and Swedish workers are being drafted in daily to work on them.

Scandinavian Airlines will even begin a six-days-a-week service between Copenhagen and Humberside Airport in October to keep up with demand.

The whole construction of the wind farm was largely foreign, with a French company making the cabling in Germany and Norway and the foundations being manufactured in Holland.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Family Who Got Dinner Lady Fired After She Accidentally Served Their Child Gammon Are Emigrating to Muslim Country

The parents involved in the sacking of a school dinner lady who mistakenly served gammon to their daughter are to emigrate to a Muslim country.

Alison Waldock, 51, was accused of gross misconduct and says she lost her job after Zahid and Rumana Darr asked that she be dismissed..

Today it can be revealed that Mr and Mrs Darr and their three children are emigrating to the United Arab Emirates later this month. The family have chosen to move from their home in Cambridge to Sharjah, where alcohol is banned and there are the strictest decency laws in the emirates.

Mrs Darr, 33, wrote on her Facebook page: ‘So we’re leaving the country end of August for good … We’re moving to Sharjah. We want to go relax in a nice hot Muslim country where the kids know their identities as Muslims.’

The move comes after Mr Darr’s recruitment firm was closed down in June when he was found to be working as a company director illegally.

Following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, he was banned from holding company directorships after he was caught pocketing over £500,000 owed in tax in 2008.

His firm Interecruit (UK) went into liquidation after Mr Darr, 36, ‘diverted’ money owed to the taxman in VAT, income tax and national insurance to another of his companies.

The nine-year ban was imposed in February 2011 but in May this year he was found to be operating a similar company named Interecruit (GB), which supplied agricultural workers.

As well as working as a director when disqualified, Mr Darr was not paying staff the minimum wage and failing to provide holiday pay. He had his gangmaster’s licence revoked by the licensing authority.

Yesterday Miss Waldock said she does not want to return to the canteen at Queen Edith Primary School in Cambridge, where she had worked for 11 years, even if she is reinstated by Lunchtime UK, which runs the service.

She told the Mail: ‘I’m just hoping to clear my name. I wouldn’t want my job back — look at the way I have been treated. I could not work for that company again and could not be in the school environment. It would be uncomfortable.’

Miss Waldock served the gammon meal after the seven-year-old pupil pointed to it. The school’s headteacher spotted the mistake and stepped in before the girl ate any of the meat, which is banned under her religion.

The dinner lady said she had previously warned the school that it was impossible to keep track of the various dietary requirements of the 200 children eating in the canteen.

She suggested that children at the school, where the proportion of pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds is ‘well above average’, wore wristbands to show what they could eat, but this was rejected.

She said: ‘I had gone to the school and said, “Look, we need to have bands or something physical that we can see, rather than just a list of names”.

But they said no, because they said that would brand children and show that they are different.

‘They said that would lead to segregation, but if all the children were wearing bands it would not be a problem.’

She accused the school and the company of not providing enough training.

‘When the halal meat came into the kitchen, they did not say Muslims cannot eat pork of any type,’ she said. ‘We could have had training on this, but they did not do anything. I have not been educated on different religions, I am cooking the food in the kitchen.’

Yesterday no one was available for comment at Mr and Mrs Darr’s £635,000 detached six-bedroom house…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gang of 10 Men Charged With Rape, Sexual Assault and Trafficking Five Girls

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A group of men accused of sexually exploiting teenage girls have been charged with a range of offences including rape, sexual assault and trafficking.

West Midlands Police said 10 suspects aged between 19 and 30 were charged yesterday following an inquiry into the alleged abuse of five girls aged between 16 and 18 at various locations across Coventry.

Three brothers and their two homeless cousins are among those charged with the offences, which were committed between May and September last year

Brother Gulfraz, Izthkhab and Ifaraz Banaris, aged 20, 24 and 25 respectively, were charged with conspiracy to traffic girls across Coventry for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Charges: All the alleged offences took place in Coventry

The two youngest brothers, who are from Wood End and Coventry, were also accused of rape.

Their cousins, Ismail and Isa Iqbal, who are 20 and 21 respectively, and who have no fixed address, also face trafficking charges…

Mechanic Saleem Hussain, 30, from Coventry, and Khezer Hussain, 25,from Stechford, have been charged with sexual assault and rape.

While Ricardo Hickson, 23, from Radford, Amir Mahmood, 27, from Foleshill, and milkman Tasveer Hussain, 30, also from Foleshill, were charged with conspiracy to traffic within the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Hardcore of Shoplifters With More Than 10 Previous Convictions Responsible for Two-Thirds of All Thefts From Shops

Two thirds of all shoplifting offences are carried out by people with more than 10 previous convictions, new figures reveal.

While the overall number of thefts from shops has risen by just two per cent in the last five years, the number caught for at least the 11th time has soared by 10 per cent.

The government is planning to introduce tougher sentences in an attempt to get a grip on the mini crime wave sweeping stores and shopping centres.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CIA ‘Running Arms Smuggling Team in Benghazi When Consulate Was Attacked’

The CIA has been subjecting operatives to monthly polygraph tests in an attempt to suppress details of a US arms smuggling operation in Benghazi that was ongoing when its ambassador was killed by a mob in the city last year, according to reports.

Up to 35 CIA operatives were working in the city during the attack last September on the US consulate that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, according to CNN.

The circumstances of the attack are a subject of deep division in the US with some Congressional leaders pressing for a wide-ranging investigation into suspicions that the government has withheld details of its activities in the Libyan city.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive: Dozens of CIA Operatives on the Ground During Benghazi Attack

CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.

Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Bibi and the True Believers

Standing next to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday morning, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni gushed that through his indefatigable efforts to bring Israeli and Palestinian officials to Washington, Kerry proved that “nothing can stop true believers.”

As usual, the cognitively challenged Livni told us something she hadn’t intended to say. The term “true believer” was coined by Eric Hoffer in his classic work The True Believer from 1951, which Livni has obviously not read. Hoffer’s epic study of the psychological roots of fanaticism described a true believer as a person so fanatically committed to a cause that no amount of reality can make him abandon it.

And that just about sums up Kerry, and the man he works for, US President Barack Obama…

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           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

UN Probes Allegations of Syria Rebel Crimes

United Nations experts are investigating allegations that rebels killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in a village near Aleppo after they captured it from government troops, an incident that could amount to a war crime, the world body’s human rights chief said.

Navi Pillay on Friday said in a statement that a UN team in the region is looking into reports about killings that followed the battle in Khan al-Assal in July.

Pillay said the team has examined activists’ videos and collected accounts from people in Aleppo on an incident that she called “deeply shocking”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US to Temporarily Shut Down Embassies Around the World Sunday Amid Security Concerns

The United States will temporarily shut down its embassies and consulates around the world Sunday — including those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt — as a precautionary measure over terror-related concerns, State Department officials said.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf did not say how long the international installations would stay closed — only that the decision was taken “out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting.” Officials would not describe the nature of the threat.

Sunday is a normal workday in many Arab and Middle Eastern countries, meaning that is where the closures will have an impact. Embassies in Europe and Latin America would be shuttered that day anyway.

“We have instructed all U.S. embassies and consulates that would have normally been open on Sunday to suspend operations, specifically on August 4,” a senior State Department official said Thursday night. “It is possible we may have additional days of closing as well.”

Other U.S. officials said the threat was specifically in the Muslim world.

The issue of security abroad has been prominent since the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and a string of demonstrations on other U.S. embassies in the Middle East and North Africa…

[Return to headlines]
 

Is Australia Staring Down the Barrel of a Gun Crisis?

In the seven years from 2005 to 2012, gun murders across Australia almost doubled. The incidence of guns used in kidnappings trebled. The total number of crimes in which a firearm was used rose from 823 in 2005, to 1217 in 2012, an increase of 47 per cent. Source: News Limited

THERE is a gun battle going on in Australia. As bikie gang members and drug dealers gun each other down on a regular basis, sending fear through the community, authorities seem to be fighting a losing battle to keep firearms out of their hands.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Former German Chancellor Kohl Sought to Repatriate Hundreds of Thousands of Turks 30 Years Ago: Report

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl discussed a secret plan with Margaret Thatcher in 1982 to reduce the number of Turks living in West Germany by 50 percent, according to recently released British documents cited by Spiegel Online in Germany.

The German news magazine’s online edition reported that the newly elected West German chancellor told Prime Minister Thatcher about the proposal at a meeting in Bonn on October 28, 1982, according to a protocol of the meeting notes marked “PREM 19/1036” that Spiegel Online said was kept secret for 30 years.

“Chancellor Kohl said…that it would be necessary over the next four years to reduce the number of Turks by 50 percent — but he could not say that publicly,” the notes from the meeting read, according to the Spiegel Online report.

Spiegel Online said Kohl had told Thatcher that West Germany wanted repatriate hundreds of thousands of Turks.

“Germany doesn’t have any problem with Portuguese, Italians and even southeast Asians because these communities are integrating well,” according to the British notes of the meeting with Kohl.

“But the Turks were from a very different kind of culture…(West) Germany had integrated 11 million Germans from East European countries. But they were Europeans and didn’t represent any problem.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

RINO McCain Confirms: Border Security Just More “Bait and Switch” Tomfoolery!

When the Gang of Eight modified the Senate Amnesty bill to include beefed-up security at the US-Mexico border, truly naïve folks, including some otherwise intelligent US Senators, decided to support the measure and, thus, it passed the US Senate.

The vote tally was Mexico 68, USA 32.

More cynical folks thought the added security measures were no more than bait and switch politics played by Democrats looking to grow the Democrat base, and enabled by foolish Republicans too blind to see the obvious.

After all, the last time a major immigration amnesty bill was approved, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986, IRCA was supposed to end the devastating invasion of America from third-world Mexico and other impoverished Latin states. Americans were promised that the border would be secure and that employer sanctions and deportation policy would ensure that illegal aliens were kept out and or removed as soon as possible.

Twenty-seven years later, perhaps as many as 20 million additional invaders have come to America and taken up illegal residence. Enforcement of IRCA has been non-existent in both Republican and Democrat administrations…

As it turns out, weasels like John McCain are counting on tough border measures to be removed during the process of reconciliation between the Senate travesty and the yet- to- be- hatched nonsense from the US House.

McCain’s evil scheme was reported thusly at the reference:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. May Take in Tens of Thousands of Syrian Refugees

State Dept. says the U.S accepts more refugees than all other countries combined and is prepared to respond if asked by the UN.

The Obama administration is considering taking in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing from their country’s civil war and settling them in various American cities and towns.

According to the Los Angeles Times and later confirmed by State Department, the U.S. is “ready to consider the idea” if the administration is formally requested for such help by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, which is the usual procedure.

The United States normally absorbs approximately half the refugees that the UN agency requests for resettlement.

According to Jen Psaki, spokewoman for the State Dept., the U.S. is “in close contact with the UN on the need for resettlement of refugees.”

When asked for details about the resettlement plans, Psaki said, “The United States accepts more UN-referred refugees than all other countries combined, and we are aware, and we would — and the UN is aware that the US would consider any individuals referred to us to have been determined to be in need of resettlement. So we are prepared to respond if asked, and will encourage other resettlement countries to do the same.”

Psaki also said that “There’s a cap by Congress of about 70,000 refugees in total,” while adding that the “the preferred solution for the vast majority is to return to their country once it’s safe.”…

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]
 

Christian Church Evicted From NYC Restaurant for Preaching Against Same-Sex Relations

The Gallery Church in New York City claims it was booted from its $25,000-per-year rental space in a local restaurant for preaching Christian messages that included sermons against same-sex relations and marriage.

The church pastor, Freddy Wyatt, said in a story reported by The Blaze that “this particular sermon series struck a nerve in the neighborhood. There was an enormous amount of backlash. … The restaurant said that if it had only been a couple of phone calls [it received] it would have been one thing — but it was more than that.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Massachusetts “Weeding Out” Foster & Adoptive Parents Who Won’t Support Children’s LGBT Identities

It’s now official policy in Massachusetts: Adults holding traditional values will no longer be allowed to adopt or be foster parents.

On May 15, 2013, the Boston Bar Association held a forum with the Mass. Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Mass. Commission on LGBT Youth. The DCF speakers confirmed that they are “weeding out” adoptive and foster parents who are not willing to wholly accept and support LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender) self-identification by a child in their care.

The general topic of the evening was the growing number of LGBT youth needing foster care. The hour-long event can be seen on YouTube…

The youth panelist said there’s a need for foster parents who don’t question the rightness of being gay. Just “passive acceptance” is not enough.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Networks Silent About Manning’s ‘Gay Soldier’ Defense

Bradley Manning must be terribly lonely. After all, how many gay men have made news the last few years without being celebrated in the media for their gayness? And a gay man who also “struggles with issues of gender identity” can pretty much write his own contract with MSNBC.

But the media, and the broadcast networks especially, are oddly reticent about the sexual orientation and confusion of Manning, the army private convicted of the most extensive military intelligence security breach in U.S. history.

Of the 125 mentions Manning has received on ABC, CBS and NBC news programs between his arrest in 2010 and July 30, 2013, just eight included references to his homosexuality. This is even stranger since his sexual preference was central to his defense — what some called the “Gay Soldier Defense.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “Lawyers for Pfc. Bradley Manning began laying out a defense to show that his struggles as a gay soldier in an environment hostile to homosexuality contributed to mental and emotional problems that should have barred him from having access to sensitive material.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ravenous Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

15 “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but within are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15 translated from the NA28 Greek text)

With the ever increasing move away from Orthodox Christianity into various forms of experiential religion that we are witnesses of here and now, it seems that the bottom is falling out of Christianity, at least in the USA. It’s bad enough that we have all of these “wolves in sheep’s clothing” drawing the unaware into false religions while pretending to be Christian, but there are seemingly endless numbers of our “Christian” leaders falling all over themselves embracing these heretics. For example, it was not that long ago that someone like Robert Schuller was known for the heretic he is. When John MacArthur spoke about Mr. Schuller’s heresies none of our “Christian” leaders objected. Now, we see some of them shaking hands and buddying up with Mr. Schuller as if they have been best friends forever. No one seems to mind either. It’s not that we have heretics among us, we always have them, but there are now many of our leaders either falling in bed with these people or revealing their fleshly side in some of the grossest sins imaginable. What is going on?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gay Couple to Sue Church Over Gay Marriage Opt-Out

Wealthy gay dad, Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, says he and his civil partner Tony will go to court to force churches to host gay weddings.

He told the Essex Chronicle that he will take legal action because “I am still not getting what I want”.

A Government Bill legalising gay marriage passed Parliament recently but it included measures to protect churches from being forced to perform same-sex weddings.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Holy Grail of Water Splitting Technology Now Achieved With Sunlight, Mirrors and Seawater

The system works by exploiting a large array of ground mirrors to focus sunlight onto a tall reaction tower. There, the intense heat (2,500 degrees Fahrenheit) powers a reaction chamber containing metal oxides. The heat drives oxygen atoms off the metal oxides, causing them to “soak up” the oxygen from steam vapor introduced into the chamber. Steam vapor is, of course, made of water (H2O), so stealing the oxygen atoms from water leaves hydrogen gas that can then be collected.

In effect, the tower uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The hydrogen gas is then collected, purified and pumped into high-pressure hydrogen containers which, pound for pound, are extremely dense “batteries” of energy that far out-perform chemical batteries.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rise in Violence ‘Linked to Climate Change’

Shifts in climate are strongly linked to increases in violence around the world, a study suggests.

US scientists found that even small changes in temperature or rainfall correlated with a rise in assaults, rapes and murders, as well as group conflicts and war.

The team says with the current projected levels of climate change, the world is likely to become a more violent place…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

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