Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/26/2013

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Bashar al-Assad that his regime’s use of chemical weapons was undeniable, and that Syria will be held accountable. According to The Daily Telegraph, Britain and the United States will launch an air war against Syria within days.

In other news, the European Commission has delivered an ultimatum to Croatia — which joined the EU only recently — demanding that it eliminate its restrictions on the use of the European Arrest Warrant within its borders. If it fails to comply, it will face sanctions.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, McR, Steen, Van Grungy, 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
» 72.9% of Spanish Under-30s Live With Their Parents
» Cyprus: Island Invaded by Stray Cats
» Pentagon Prepping for ‘Large Scale Economic Breakdown’
 
USA
» A Bit of Islamist Subterfuge
» Big Pharma Invents Yet Another Disease to Sell Deadly Drugs
» Conservatives Must Remove Traitor RINOs in Primaries or by Recall
» DARPA is Developing an Intelligent Machine That Can Think on its Feet
» JPL’s RoboSimian Flexes Its Muscles, Your Nightmares
» Marine Corps to Open Infantry Training to Enlisted Women
» Obama’s Puerile Molestation of the Constitution is Gruesome & Exceptionally Dangerous
» The Era of Ubiquitous Listening Dawns
» Thousands Gather to Honor WWII Veteran Delbert ‘Shorty’ Belton
» Top Dem: We Will Ignore Congress on Syria Attack
» U. S. Also Spied on UN, Der Spiegel Reports
 
Canada
» First Nations Women Are Being Sold Into the Sex Trade on Ships Along Lake Superior
 
Europe and the EU
» Amanda Knox Will Not Return to Italy for Murder Trial
» Austria: ‘ÖVP Aims to Curb EU Powers’
» European Arrest Warrant: EU Issues Law Reform Ultimatum to Croatia
» Forty Six Dead as Gang War Esculates in Sweden
» France: Marseille Locals ‘Call on Batman’ To Fight Crime
» German Anti-Euro Party Leader Assaulted
» Italian Regions Not in Top 100 of EU Competitiveness Index
» Italy: Govt Approves Bill on Sharing Crime Data With United States
» Italy Sees ‘Swift and Fair’ Solution for India Marines
» Police: 3 Men Arrested for Attacking Greek Monastery in Search of Treasure
» Pope Electors Told of ‘Smoke of Satan’ In Vatican
» Pope Says ‘God Told Me’ To Quit
» Scotland: Amateur Photographer Snaps ‘Large Black Object’ Moving Beneath the Waters of Loch Ness
» Sweden: Government Quiet on Jobs Agency Scandal
» Swiss and Italians Butt Heads Over Border Bears
» UK: Man Charged With Possessing Imitation Firearm After Confronting Police With a Windscreen Sponge
 
North Africa
» Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood Fall Uncovers American-European Schemes
» Egypt: Preacher for Martyrdom Caught Hiding Under Woman’s Niqab
» Now Egypt Looks to ‘Expose’ Obama
 
Middle East
» “Doctors” Behind Syrian Chemical Weapons Claims Are Aiding Terrorists
» 15 Signs That Obama Has Already Made the Decision to Go to War With Syria
» Air Strikes on Syria “Within Days”
» Americans Strongly Oppose U.S. Intervention in Syria’s Civil War
» Arab Opinion Divided Over Egypt
» Bedoon Weddings Start With a Bang — Literally
» Kerry Warns Assad, Saying Chemical Weapons Use in Syria is ‘Undeniable’
» Mystery Sponsor of Weapons and Money to Syrian Mercenary “Rebels” Revealed
» Putin Responds: May “Reinforce Naval Grouping in Mediterranean” Following US Buildup
» Syria: Car Bomb in Christian Neighbourhood in Damascus Kills Five
» Syria: Cameron and Obama Agree to Military Strike Over Chemical Weapons
» Syria, World War III & the Hidden Objective
» Syrian Rebels Behind Sniper Attack on UN Inspectors?
» US Set to Launch ‘Iraq, The Sequel’, in Syria
 
South Asia
» The Taliban Terror Tot: Grinning Al-Qaeda Fighter Trains Toddler to Fire Handgun in Sickening Video Shot in War-Torn Afghanistan
 
Far East
» Fukushima: What You Need to Know
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Parents Charged With Murder of Baby That Was Actually Killed by Vaccines
 
Latin America
» All GMO Approvals in Brazil Are Illegal, Says Whistleblowing Regulator
 
Immigration
» Italy Rescues 200 More Boat Migrants
» Middle East Crisis Hits Italian Coast
» New Obama Policy Warns Agents Not to Detain Illegal Immigrant Parents
» Spain Rescues More Than 100 Migrants From Sea
» Sweden: Axemen Aid Escape From Detention Centre in Gävle
 
Culture Wars
» ‘Gay’ Lawmaker to Christians: ‘We’Ll Take Your Children’
» White House to Hold First-Ever Bisexual Issues Roundtable
 
General
» Commander Data and the Extropians
» Did Bush-Obama Policies Begin the End of Christianity in Arab Lands?
 

72.9% of Spanish Under-30s Live With Their Parents

55% youth unemployment, low wages make starter homes a mirage

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 22 — Prolonged recession and record unemployment rates are forcing 72.9% of Spaniards aged under 30 to live with their parents, according to a new study by the Youth Council of Spain (CJE).

With 55% youth unemployment (against an overall jobless rate of 26%), eight out of ten people aged under 30 are financially unable to fly the nest, according to the study released by the CJE’s Observatory on Emancipation.

Those who do have jobs are often paid so little, they can’t afford to buy or rent starter homes, the study showed. “Based on the premise that you should be able to cover your monthly rent or mortgage payment with 30% of your salary, entry-level jobs should pay 80% more than they currently do,” said sociologist Joffre Lopez and CJE Socioeconomic Commission head Sheyla Suarez, who co-authored the study. Based on current average salaries and real estate prices, a 30-40 year old in Spain can only realistically afford an average rental in the provinces of Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha.

This, in spite of an estimated 800,000 empty residential units left behind by a speculative real estate bubble.

What this adds up to, say Lopez and Suarez, is that “young people are being almost systematically expelled from the real estate market.” To make matters worse, more than half of under-30 employees are overqualified for their jobs. This figure is 53.9% among graduates aged 16-29, and 56.1% for graduates aged 30-34. Another 3% of the under-30 set has given up studying and looking for work altogether, the study showed.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Cyprus: Island Invaded by Stray Cats

After drastic cuts on sterilization programmes

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, AUGUST 22 — The population of stray cats in Cyprus is out of control after the grave economic crisis hit this Mediterranean island which has drastically cut funding over the past two years for the sterilization of stray animals.

The situation is getting worse, according to a report in the Cyprus Mail, due to the well-known fertility of cats: a female cat can give birth to up to eight kittens three times a year and with the end of sterilization programmes the capital Nicosia and cities along the coast including Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos, Aya Napa and Potaras risk being invaded by cats.

Apart from problems related to hygiene and nighttime cries and fights, local animal rights activists are concerned by a rising number of poisonings and acts of cruelty against cats.

‘Sterilization and castration are the only way to prevent the problem from getting worse’, the president of the Cypros association for the prevention of cruelty against animals (Cspca) Toula Poyadji told the paper. ‘If cats continue to reproduce at this rate, citizens will have to deal with the kittens in whatever way they consider fit’.

Until 2011 the agriculture ministry allocated funding to vet services to fund a programme to serilize and castrate the animals. A ministry employee who asked not to be identified said the government allocated 17,000 euros from 2006 until 2007. The sum grew to 34,000 euros for 2008 and 2009 and further increased to 50,000 euros for 2010 and 2011. ‘Unfortunately, due to the crisis, these funds were cut. The ministry still gets suggestions on possible solutions but disregards them’, the employee was quoted as saying. With the funding, authorities were able to castrate some 1,700 cats and the feline population was growing anyway.

Some 300 per city were castrated though about another 300 could be found in every district of a city, said Maria Anastasi, president of local animals’ rights group ‘A vpoice for animals’ and a teacher at the police academy on issues concerning the protection of animals.

Other rights’ groups have started their own sterilization programmes and have asked government agencies and vets for help, so far unsuccessfully.

‘We asked them to castrate the cats at half price between August and December, when cats mate, but our idea was not welcomed’, said Toula Poyadji, recalling that Cspca in the past 10 years helped a lot of people sterilize their cats paying part of the price for the operation.

Meanwhile the growing number of cats is also putting shelters on the island under pressure, such as one near the monastery of Ayios Neophytos close to Paphos in which about 200 cats are cared for, though their number is growing by the day.

In the past four months alone, 100 kittens were abandoned there, said Dawn Foote who has volunteered at the shelter with husband Mark for the past two years.

‘The problem is peopledon’t have money anymore to make it to the end of the month’, so they can’t provide for their cats or much less sterilize them, she said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Pentagon Prepping for ‘Large Scale Economic Breakdown’

High level government documents reveal that the Pentagon is preparing in full force for ‘large scale economic meltdown’ and massive revolt via the US public — exactly what we are criticized for doing.

You see the Pentagon and agencies like the Department of Defense (DoD) are in full scale emergency readiness in their own words for ‘cataclysmic’ events that are believed to ultimately ignite riots in the face of chaos and economic collapse, and it’s all out in the open. And it’s one of the reasons that we’re seeing such a massive amount of spying on activists of all kinds, alternative news writers and personalities, and basically anyone preparing for themselves.

The US government is dedicated to logging such information into a major database in order to ‘prepare’ for the coming collapse that they are predicting in their own documents for all to see. Collapse predictions that have turned into ‘war games’ by the Pentagon, which in 2010 were orchestrated to prepare for what the Pentagon dubbed ‘large scale economic breakdown’ and the disappearance of essential services like food.

In this same ‘war games’ exercise dedicated to domestic response, exercises were ran in order to prepare for ‘domestic order amid civil unrest’.

A thread that is seen throughout these tests is the concept that civil unrest will unfold and prompt military action against the public. One of the largest examples of this is the US Army’s Strategic Studies Institute paper that talks about about the ‘threat of domestic crises’ that are expected to lead to massive unrest throughout the nation. Spurring more paranoia into the notion that every citizen is a terrorist, the report starts talking about everything from economic collapse to a loss of functional political order brought upon by a ‘hostile group within the United States’ that could access weapons…

To go along with this, and the idea of the military coming in to stop domestic resistance in the midst of an economic collapse, the Pentagon has gone and created a force consisting of 20,000 troops whose sole purpose is to be available for civil unrest and catastrophes — all based on the 2005 Homeland Security program to prepare for ‘multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents’. Yet again we see this link.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Bit of Islamist Subterfuge

The “2 Million Bikers to DC” rally, which is the brainchild of Biker Billy Williamson of Virginia, appears to be no less popular than the Overpasses for the Impeachment of Obama groups which have spread like wildfire throughout the US. But the confusion surrounding the Islamic event’s true aims, along with an unsettling bout of subterfuge parlayed against the Biker to DC group by the Muslim March leaders, has left many participants and even event organizers scratching their heads in confusion.

According to event organizer Bee, many Biker members were stunned to learn that their organization had supposedly accepted an invitation from the Million Muslim March to join with their group, thereby stealthily co-opting the original intent of the Biker’s rally as being in opposition to the Islamist event in the first place. Bee states, in effect, that the original title of the rally was “2 Million Bikers to DC Against Million Muslim March,” but thought better of it when considering the overall negative implications of the two groups possibly clashing in DC. Rumor has it that the Bikers riding “guard” or “shotgun” for the event aren’t exactly the “lightweights” of America, either.

On the website Veterans Today, an ideologically Left-leaning site, which often shares writers with other pro-Islamic, anti-semitic sites, Islamist ideologue writer Kevin Barrett, who is also a spokesperson for the sponsoring American-Muslim Political Action Committee, confirms the Biker event organizers’ claims that Million Muslim March leaders were playing fast and loose with the truth regarding the 2 Million Bikers’ having joined in the Million Muslim March.

According to the VT Today article, a caption appearing directly beneath the article’s header photo indicates:

“Captain Billy” Williamson, leader of Bikers for 9/11 Truth, heads for DC to support the Million American March.”

However, there are two problems with this quote in the VT story. The first problem is that the photo-shopped picture supports the Iranian “Truther” version of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as having been perpetrated by the US government alone. The second problem is the picture is not of Billy Williamson, but rather it is a photo of actor Dennis Hopper from the movie “Easy Rider” filmed in 1969.

The article delves deeper still into stealthy Islamic taqqiya when it states the following:…

           — Hat tip: Van Grungy [Return to headlines]
 

Big Pharma Invents Yet Another Disease to Sell Deadly Drugs

Ever heard of “shift work disorder?” It’s a new disease being played up by the pharmaceutical industry to sell drugs so dangerous that even the home page of the drug website admits the drug may kill you.

One such drug is called “Nuvigil,” sold by Cephalon, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The warning text on the Nuvigil website says:

NUVIGIL (armodafinil) Tablets [C-IV] may cause serious side effects including a serious rash or a serious allergic reaction that may affect parts of your body such as your liver or blood cells, and may result in hospitalization and be life-threatening. If you develop a skin rash, hives, sores in your mouth, blisters, swelling, peeling, or yellowing of the skin or eyes, trouble swallowing or breathing, dark urine, or fever, stop taking NUVIGIL and call your doctor right away or get emergency help.

Wow, mouth sores? Yellowing eyes? Trouble breathing? Dark urine? Hospitalization? Where do I sign up!

[…]

SWD, of course, is a made-up “disease” now being propagandized for the sole purpose of selling drugs like Nuvigil. The pushing of fictitious disorders is generally known as “disease mongering” across the industry. The premise of so-called Shift Work Disorder is that the tiredness you feel when you stay up all night working a night shift is actually some sort of disease requiring chemical intervention.

You’re not simply tired because you’re out of sync with the sun, the fictional narrative says: you’re tired because you have a disorder!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Conservatives Must Remove Traitor RINOs in Primaries or by Recall

The most nauseating of all political actions is the betrayal of the trust the voters place in their elected candidates after they get elected. It tears down any promised platforms for the future of the country as stated in the Party’s mission during the election campaign and tells the voters of that Party that it’s OK to go back on the promises they made; in other words, become a lying traitor to the Party’s pledges of action on the issues. Why is it that the overwhelming number of such ‘Benedict Arnolds’ are RINOs and have residence in the Republican Party?

If you want to find out who these double dealing and confused individuals are, follow closely the votes taken in both houses of Congress. Of course you’ll find RINOs only in the Republican Party in keeping with the translation of the cited capital letters R. I. N. O., “Republicans In Name Only”. There is no nationally known nickname for Democrats who practice this form of treachery that I have ever heard, such as D. I. N. O., “Democrats In Name Only”.

Plainly speaking, it is the practice of going against what their Party has promised during the campaign intra-actions for the sake of their own pleasures, causing the public to view the offenders as traitors who easily break their campaign promises proving themselves as being untrustworthy. Democrats absolutely LOVE RINO’s.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DARPA is Developing an Intelligent Machine That Can Think on its Feet

Will a computer ever really mimic the human brain? Recently, we learned it takes 82,000 super-powerful processors to simulate just one percent of the brain for a single second — the brain is so large and complex, simulating the whole shebang is near impossible. The futurists over at DARPA, who have long been chasing artificial intelligence, are after something slightly different. Rather than focusing on the mind’s capacity and scale, they’re interested in mimicking the cognitive thought process itself. They’re working to develop a machine that can esstentially reason and problem-solve on the fly, without human intervention — “intelligent real-time computing,” as they call it. In other words, a computer that can not just think, but think on its feet.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

JPL’s RoboSimian Flexes Its Muscles, Your Nightmares

Not content on landing several rovers on the surface of Mars, NASA’s JPL team’s been working on more earthly projects. RoboSimian is an ape-like robot designed for search-and-rescue missions that’s expected to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. It features four multi-jointed limbs with unique hands and no defined front or back — allowing it to always face the right way. Thanks to its primate-like movement and posture, the robot will be able to navigate over difficult terrain, climb ladders and even drive vehicles (one of the DRC’s requirements). While the project itself isn’t new, JPL recently published an interesting video that shows RoboSimian gripping tools, lifting its own weight and balancing delicate objects. This means, of course, that robot monkeys will soon join spiders, cats and dogs in your dystopian nightmares.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Marine Corps to Open Infantry Training to Enlisted Women

The Marine Corps will allow enlisted women to participate in basic infantry training beginning this fall as part of ongoing research to determine what additional ground combat jobs may open to female personnel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Puerile Molestation of the Constitution is Gruesome & Exceptionally Dangerous

It has become painfully clear that Barack holds an al a carte theory of American law — to be taken piece by piece, but not by whole. For example, he clearly does not consider the Constitution binding, unless its’ mandates already fit into his plans.

For this reason it is inevitable that when Obama taught “constitutional law” as an unpublished, non-professor instructor, he would have used the theory of evolving “living law.” (see Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart) Therefore, when we observe Barack as making legal decisions off the cuff, he uses the style of lex animata, or the living law. In effect, an elected office holder becomes the very embodiment of what the Founders fought against — much to their grave-turning horror.

Without Rule of Law, Every Nation Must Degenerate into Default Personality Worship

It is clearly a danger to the republic for any politician to flout the law, but especially for the commander in chief. This makes his actions wholly unpredictable. But what should be done? Many private discussions are now being held on whether Barack could be impeached for his unconstitutional lawlessness. This brief article examines the doctrine which built America and which apparently Barack does not accept — the Rule of Law. History teaches us that the leader who becomes lex animata, a law unto themselves, morphs into a tyrant who then subjugates his citizens into slavery.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Era of Ubiquitous Listening Dawns

Moto X strengthens the hand of apps and technologies that emphasize listening to everything, all the time.

The Moto X, the new smartphone from Google’s Motorola Mobility, might be remembered best someday for helping to usher in the era of ubiquitous listening.

Unlike earlier phones, the Moto X includes two low-power chips whose only function is to process data from a microphone and other sensors — without tapping the main processor and draining the battery. This is a big endorsement of the idea that phones could serve you better if they did more to figure out what is going on (see “Motorola Reveals First Google-Era Phone”)…

This brings us closer to having phones that continually monitor their auditory environment to detect the phone owner’s voice, discern what room or other setting the phone is in, or pick up other clues from background noise. Such capacities make it possible for software to detect your moods, know when you are talking and not to disturb you, and perhaps someday keep a running record of everything you hear.

[Comment: article puts a positive spin on such features — mention of the downside occurs only in the very last sentence of the article: “People skittish about surveillance might have second thoughts.”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands Gather to Honor WWII Veteran Delbert ‘Shorty’ Belton

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

With the second suspect believed to have been involved in his death is still on the loose, thousands gathered in Spokane, WA on August 23 to honor WWII Army veteran Delbert “Shorty” Belton.

88-year old Belton was attacked and beaten with flashlights by two black teens outside of Eagles Lodge on August 21.

CBS Seattle reported Belton’s daughter-in-law said the attackers “used those big flashlights” and “doctors said he was bleeding from all parts of his face.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top Dem: We Will Ignore Congress on Syria Attack

Rep. Eliot Engel calls for cruise missile assault

Calling on President Obama to launch a cruise missile attack on Syria, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News that Congress would not be consulted on the move and that lawmakers would have to “assent” to it at a later date.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Engel disagreed with his counterpart Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who said Obama should seek Congressional authorization before any military action.

“I do agree with Senator Corker that I think Congress needs to be involved, but perhaps not initially,” said Engel, adding, “Perhaps the president could start and then Congress needs to resolve it an — and assent to it.”

In other words, Engel wants Obama to launch the attack on Syria with complete disregard for the War Powers Resolution, which states that military action must be preceded by Congressional approval, and then only use Congress later as a rubber stamp.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U. S. Also Spied on UN, Der Spiegel Reports

(AGI) Berlin, Aug 25 — The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spy programme did not just include EU communications, but also those of the UN headquarters in New York, reports German magazine Der Spiegel. Secret NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden and seen by the magazine show that in the summer of 2012, the American secret service managed to enter the UN internal videoconferencing system and break the encrypted code.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

First Nations Women Are Being Sold Into the Sex Trade on Ships Along Lake Superior

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

Native women, children, and unfortunately even babies are being trafficked in the sex trade on freighters crossing the Canadian and U.S. border on Lake Superior between Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Duluth Minnesota.

Next month, Christine Stark — a student with the University of Minnesota, Duluth, who is completing her Master’s degree in social work — will complete an examination of the sex trade in Minnesota, in which she compiles anecdotal, first hand accounts of Aboriginal women, particularly from northern reservations, being trafficked across state, provincial, and international lines to be forced into servitude in the sex industry on both sides of the border.

Stark’s paper stems from a report she co-wrote, published by the Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Centre in Duluth in 2011, entitled, “The Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.” Through the process of researching and penning this report, Stark kept hearing stories of trafficking in the harbours and on the freighters of Duluth and Thunder Bay. The numerous stories and the gradual realization that this was an issue decades, perhaps centuries, in the making, compelled Stark to delve further into what exactly is taking place.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Amanda Knox Will Not Return to Italy for Murder Trial

(AGI) Perugia, August 24 — Amanda Knox will not return to Italy for the second appeals trial in which she and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, stand accused of murdering Meredith Kercher. The announcement was made by her lawyer Luciano Ghirga, who recently met with the girl in Seattle. He said that Knox had placed her trust in her legal team since she lacked understanding of the Italian justice system, and that her choice should not be seen as an act of defiance. “Amanda is free and innocent. She has a great deal of respect for the Italian justice system and has reiterated her utmost confidence in her lawyers.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: ‘ÖVP Aims to Curb EU Powers’

Die Presse, 21 August 2013

The Secretary of State for European and International Affairs, Reinhold Lopatka of the conservative (ÖVP), has demanded that “Brussels handover certain powers to national authorities,” reports Die Presse.

In an interview with the daily, the minister explains that “in certain fields like social and employment policy, European collaboration simply makes no sense […] when you take into account the various levels of income.”

Lopatka “has joined a chorus of European leaders, who, in recent weeks, have touted the idea of repatriating certain EU powers,” notes the newspaper, which points out that his intervention will add to calls from conservatives such as British Prime Minister David Cameron, “German Chancellor Angela Merkel [and] Dutch Premier Mark Rutte.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

European Arrest Warrant: EU Issues Law Reform Ultimatum to Croatia

EUobserver.com

“EU tells Croatia to change law or face sanctions,” headlines the EUobserver after the European Commission issued the ultimatum to Zagreb to overturn a series of amendments to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).

The controversial legal changes, which were rushed into law three days before Croatia joined the EU on July 1, effectively block extradition of people from one member state to another. Croatia now has until midnight on August 23 to submit a deadline for when it will abandon the changes.

The amendments, which forbid extraditions related to crimes committed before 2002, have infuriated Germany, which believes they are designed simply to stop the extradition of Josip Perkovic, a former director of the Yugoslav secret police who is wanted by Germany over the assassination of Croat defector Stjepan Đurekovic in Wolfratshausen, Bavaria in 1983.

The federal prosecutor in Germany issued an EAW to extradite Perkovic but has yet to receive any response from Croatian authorities. If Zagreb fails to comply, the EU could suspend funding to its newest member.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Forty Six Dead as Gang War Esculates in Sweden

During the past 12 months, 46 people have lost their lives in a total of 214 shootings across Sweden, reports tabloid Aftonbladet.

“Overall, we have a situation when it comes to murder that we have never seen before,” says Sven Alhbin, chief of police in Västra Götaland, told Aftonbladet.

According to the police, a large number of cases involve showdowns between criminals, while at the same time the easy availabilty of illegal weapons has exacerbated the problem.

“The market for illegal weapons is rather large. It is not especially difficult in those circles,” says Lars Öjelind at national police headquarters to the tabloid.

Hardened criminals are said to be more trigger happy than ever before.

In Gothenburg alone this year, there have been 24 shootings, five of which have proved fatal.

The tabloid writes how in the early 1990s, weapons poured into Sweden from the former Soviet Union and the Balkans and shortly afterwards a big biker war broke out between the Hells Angels and Bandidos. Between the years 1991-97, a record number of gun crimes were reported in Sweden. Since then, it has been at a relatively low lowel, until now.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

France: Marseille Locals ‘Call on Batman’ To Fight Crime

Desperate Marseille residents say they might be forced to call on Batman to save them as police and politicians struggle to curb the city’s rampant street crime. The call came after a week of violence in which a pensioner was shot dead in the street.

A collective of concerned residents in Marseille has launched a mock appeal to fictional crime-busting hero, Batman, as the city’s street crime rates continue to spiral.

The locals launched a petition called “Un Batman pour Marseille” (a Batman for Marseille) following an emergency meeting held by six government members on Tuesday which they deemed inconclusive.

“It’s always the same — when it suits them, politicians are suddenly concerned. Then half of them go back to Paris, the other half forget,” Jean-Baptiste Jaussaud, spokesperson of the collective, told French daily Libération on Wednesday. “They promise us more police, even suggest sending in the army… Next they’ll be talking about calling in Batman!”

The collective denounced the “lack of insight” of the government and local elected officials concerning the problem.

Marseille has been plagued in recent years by a wave of shootings, often with Kalashnikov assault rifles, connected with the drug trade.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Anti-Euro Party Leader Assaulted

(AGI) Bremen, Aug 25 — Bernd Lucke, the leader of the German anti-euro party was assaulted and knocked to the ground by far left activists during a rally in Bremen, reported his Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The police reported having arrested three of the 25 hooded youngsters who carried out the assault after having stabbed a campaign worker and attacked 16 supporters of the anti-euro party with pepper spray. “It is an intolerable assault on the democratic process that violent activists disturb peaceful AfD election events, which has echoes of the Weimar Republic,” the AfD leader wrote in a statement.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Regions Not in Top 100 of EU Competitiveness Index

(AGI) Rome — Italy failed to make it into the top 100 of the EU Commission’s 2013 regional competitiveness index. Even Lombardy, which was one of the top 100 European regions until three years ago, has slipped in the rankings to 128th place.

The top five are: Utrech in the Netherlands; the London area in Britain; the area comprising Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in Britain; Stockholm in Sweden; and Surrey in Britain. Italy’s southern regions fared the worst. Sicily is in 235th place out of 262, Calabria is in 233rd place, immediately after Puglia and not far above Basilicata in 277th.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Govt Approves Bill on Sharing Crime Data With United States

Fingerprint data, DNA profiles part of cross-border checks

(ANSA) — Rome, August 23 — The Italian government approved a bill Friday to ratify an anti-crime accord with the United States, enabling the countries to share more data on suspects and convicted criminals. “The conclusion of the accord was necessary to strengthen police cooperation through information sharing and implementation of automated technologies that promote more effective forms of control, especially at the borders,” said a cabinet statement. The forms of data addressed in the accord include fingerprint data and DNA profiles.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Sees ‘Swift and Fair’ Solution for India Marines

Govt working group expects end of probe soon

(By Denis Greenan). (ANSA) — Rome, August 23 — The Italian government on Friday vowed to continue to work towards a “swift and fair” solution to the case of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen while on anti-piracy duty last year.

The third meeting of the government’s working group on the case, with Premier Enrico Letta, foreign, justice and defence ministers, and envoy Staffan de Mistura, said it was awaiting the completion of an Indian probe ahead of trial, which it expected to come soon.

One final legal opinion on witness interviews is the sole roadblock to wrapping up the probe, India said this week.

Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said Thursday the government’s lawyers had found a solution to the testifying issue, although he said he preferred to wait for the lawyers to announce it.

The four witnesses — fellow marines who are thought to have seen what happened the night two of their comrades allegedly killed the two Indian fishermen — are at the heart of a dispute over whether they should be in India for interviews by investigators.

Italy maintains their presence is not necessary to the investigation of Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, accused of murder in the shooting deaths of two fishermen in February 2012.

The pair allegedly mistook the fishermen for pirates.

The four witnesses could be interviewed long-distance, Italian authorities have said.

Italian Defence Minister Mario Mauro said the witnesses could be interviewed by video conference or by Indian investigators on Italian soil.

Italy began a fresh push on the case last week by sending de Mistura back to New Delhi.

De Mistura held talks with Khurshid and lawyers from both sides.

The government envoy told ANSA that the four marines who were on board the E. Lexie merchant ship with Latorre and Girone would not be sent to New Delhi to testify on the incident in which the two fishermen died.

Latorre and Girone are accused by Indian authorities of the double homicides of Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki in Feburary 2012 after allegedly mistaking them for pirates while guarding the merchant ship off the coast of the southern Kerala region.

The four marines, de Mistura told ANSA, would not be sent to India in “a decision taken in Italy on all levels, including mine”.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Emma Bonino earlier this month repeated the government’s intention to bring home the two marines.

The government’s objective, she said, is to “bring them home”.

“With radical obstinacy and sound realism,” she added, “we can do it”.

Last month Bonino said Latorre and Girone would most likely return home by Christmas, but Defence Minister Mario Mauro said earlier this week that that forecast might be optimistic.

“I think early 2014 is more likely,” he said.

Kurshid has said India is working “as quickly as possible” to resolve the case.

“We are trying to solve obstacles in the context of our laws,” and how they relate to Italian laws, he said.

He added that he hoped for “a better understanding” between the two countries: “I hope all these our efforts will lead to a quick decision”.

However, Khurshid refused to set a time frame for finalizing the investigation and trial of the marines.

India has said that it hopes to conclude the inquiry by the end of August.

Khurshid recently assured Italy that the marines would not face the death penalty.

“They are not facing that possibility,” he said.

He added that Indian law recognizes a mitigating factor that offers hope that the pair may not be held criminally accountable.

Kurshid spoke of “a crucial mitigating factor, that of good faith”.

“If someone acts in good faith, there is no criminal culpability,” he said.

There have been conflicting reports on the penalties faced by the men since they were returned to India after coming back home to vote amid an escalating diplomatic row over Italy’s initial refusal to hand them back after the February 22 general election.

On April 22 India’s supreme court handed the issue of their coming trial to the government.

New Delhi decided to continue letting India’s anti-terrorism police lead a fresh probe.

Latorre and Girone are being investigated by the anti-terrorism National Investigation Agency (NIA), and not the criminal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

This was initially taken as suggesting the marines might face a possible death sentence if convicted.

On April 16 Italy presented an affidavit challenging a lower-court decision to assign the case to the NIA, which placed the investigation under a severe 2002 law designed to fight terrorism in international waters.

The 2002 anti-terrorism law calls for capital punishment in the case of conviction for homicide.

After a drawn-out diplomatic row, Italy agreed to hand the men back to Indian authorities in March despite contesting India’s right to jurisdiction, given the incident took place in international waters.

India briefly stopped the Italian ambassador leaving the country as the row escalated before Italy embarrassingly climbed down on a refusal to honour a pledge to send the men back after a trip home to vote in the general election.

They had previously returned, and Italy won praise for keeping its promise, after a Christmas break.

Bonino, who replaced Giulio Terzi who resigned in a government flap over the case, said she was certain an agreement would be found because of India’s great legal tradition and respect for human rights.

“India is a great country, and one of rights. Our countries need to listen to each other,” she said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Police: 3 Men Arrested for Attacking Greek Monastery in Search of Treasure

ATHENS, Greece — Police have arrested three armed men who allegedly broke into a Greek monastery, tied up monks and planned to search for treasure with a mechanical digger.

They were caught Sunday when a friar who avoided capture phoned police before the digging could start at the Orthodox Monastery of St. George near Aliartos, northwest of Athens. It was rebuilt in modern times on medieval ruins.

The four monks who were captured along with the mother of one of them were not hurt.

Police said four other suspects in the attack are being sought, and quoted the captured suspects as saying they had planned to search for buried coins, not religious artifacts.

Illegal treasure hunting has become increasingly popular during Greece’s economic crisis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Electors Told of ‘Smoke of Satan’ In Vatican

Message to conclave echoes earlier warnings of evil ‘superforce’ descending on Church

It’s a matter so dark and serious it has only been whispered about behind closed doors in Vatican circles by courageous priests such as the late John F. O’Connor, Alfred Kunz and the late Malachi Martin.

But now, thanks to the release by the Holy See of an official bulletin titled “Acta Apostolicae Sedis,” it has been confirmed that the papal conclave that elected Pope Francis March 13 heard a message, immediately before the voting, from a senior cardinal dealing directly with the threat of “The Smoke of Satan” descending on the Vatican itself.

The meditation about “that which Christ wants from his Church” was delivered by Maltese Prosper Grech, an 87-year-old Augustinian who could not participate in the vote. After his meditation, reports the Catholic online newsletter Chiesa, he left the Sistine Chapel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Says ‘God Told Me’ To Quit

Benedict goes public on ‘direct rapport with the Lord’

It was the resignation that shocked the world, but apparently it did not stun the powers of heaven.

Former Pope Benedict XVI is now going public with more information about why he left the most powerful position in the Catholic Church, claiming he had a “mystical experience,” with God personally instructing him to step down.

“God told me to do it,” the 86-year-old ex-pontiff told a friend, as he broke his silence for the first time since becoming the first pope to leave office in 600 years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Scotland: Amateur Photographer Snaps ‘Large Black Object’ Moving Beneath the Waters of Loch Ness

An amateur photographer has captured an eerie photo from the shore of Loch Ness which could encourage those who believe in tales of a monster living beneath the surface of the lake.

The image was taken by David Elder at Fort Augustus, at the south-west end of the 23-mile-long body of water in northern Scotland.

It shows a long bow wave apparently caused by some sort of disturbance on the surface of the loch.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Government Quiet on Jobs Agency Scandal

Sweden’s government has declined to comment on the growing scandal involving the head of the country’s jobs agency who faces the sack following reports she racked up more than 300,000 kronor ($46,000) in mobile phone charges.

“They’re busy with the budget negotiations. If there is any change then we will let you know,” said Niklas Gillström, Press Secretary to the Minister for Employment Hillevi Engström.

The board of Sweden’s public employment agency (Arbetsförmedlingen) stated on Friday that it no longer has any confidence in Angeles Bermudez-Svankvist, who has led Sweden’s jobs agency for the past five years.

However the 50-year-old on Friday remained defiant, commenting on the vote of no confidence from the board that it “was business as usual”.

“It is a question for the government and not for the board whether I should remain in the post. Until I hear anything from the government I will stay, for sure.”

According to documents reviewed by the Aftonbladet newspaper, Bermudez-Svankvist managed to rack up more than 15,000 kronor per month in mobile phone data use charges on her work phone.

Between March 2012 and August 2013, a period which included more than a dozen trips abroad, Bermudez-Svankvist’s total mobile phone bill came to 311,000 kronor.

According to Swedish media reports on Saturday, further questions have emerged about excessive travel allowances claimed for work trips.

According to a report in the Dagens Nyheter daily, Bermudez-Svankvist’s family accompanied her abroad on at least four occasions, with two of these trips accounting for the massive phone bills.

The phone bills are thought to have arisen from data roaming fees.

The chair of the agency’s board, Christina Johansson, told the Expressen newspaper on Friday that the government had been informed of their concerns about Bermudez-Svankvist, saying the report about the sky-high phone bills was “one of several pieces of the puzzle”.

Last spring, ST, the Union of Civil Servants conducted a survey that found a great deal of discontent among the employment agency’s staff as well as frustration with leadership.

A dentist by trade, Bermudez-Svankvist has led the agency for the past five years, being named the public authority boss of the year in 2009 by Veckans Affärer magazine.

According to a review conducted by the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper, she is among the highest paid agency heads appointed by the government, commanding a salary of 142,000 kronor per month.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Swiss and Italians Butt Heads Over Border Bears

Swiss and Italian officials are butting heads over how to tackle bears roaming between the two countries, in a dispute centred on balancing human and animal welfare.

“Bears don’t look at borders,” Caterina Rosa Marino, an official with the Italian League for the Abolition of Hunting, told AFP.

“They don’t need passports.”

The northern Italian region of Trentino, which has reintroduced bears into the wild since 1999, today counts around 40 of the animals and aims to bring the number up to 60 after the population was for years wiped out by hunters.

But in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, officials have voiced concern about “problem bears” wandering across the Alpine border and posing a danger to locals.

The canton issued a statement earlier this month proposing a cull.

“The culling of problem bears should happen at an early stage in their own territory,” the canton said.

“These bears are obstructing the local population’s acceptance of this large predator.”

Georg Brosi of the cantonal Office for Hunting and Fishing told AFP it would be “a shame to wait for a bear to become a danger before acting.”

No wild bears are currently known to be in Graubünden, or anywhere else in Switzerland, and only eight are known to have ventured into the country since 2005.

Graubünden ordered the last of them shot last February.

The slain bear, a two-year-old known as M13, wandered across from Trentino and had repeatedly ventured into inhabited areas in search of food, first landing it on a problematic behaviour watch-list and then with a cull order, according to local authorities and media reports.

“M13 was executed in Switzerland for stealing potatoes,” Marino said.

“What a dangerous criminal!” she said.

“I think the Swiss are pretty sensitive about potato theft,” Marino said.

“Some people want to pick up a gun as soon as they see a bear.”

Trentino, which locks up dangerous bears but does not shoot them, said this week it was seeking “constructive dialogue” with its Swiss neighbours, but questioned whether M13 was risky or even problematic.

“During the several months the animal spent in Trentino after being separated from its mother it did not cause any problems,” the regional authorities said in a statement.

Joanna Schoenenberger, who heads WWF Switzerland’s bear division, agreed, said the animal had been on a natural search for food after waking early out of hibernation in February, but had not made it a habit to wander around inhabited areas.

“We all agree that if a bear is dangerous towards humans, it should be shot,” she told AFP, but maintained that M13 posed an “absolutely minimal risk,” and would certainly have withdrawn into the mountains as soon as more food became available there.

She accused Graubünden authorities of “creating more fear” by scapegoating all bears as dangerous to humans, speculating that the different attitudes towards the animals might be linked to cultural differences.

“In Italy, there seems to be a higher tolerance for things that are not completely controllable,” she said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Man Charged With Possessing Imitation Firearm After Confronting Police With a Windscreen Sponge

A man has been charged with possessing an imitation firearm — after threatening police with a windscreen sponge.

Marc Carpenter, 33, is said to have brandished the ‘weapon’ in a busy children’s play area in Exeter and allegedly told armed officers that he had a gun in his holdall.

It was later found that the fake gun was in fact a squeezy sponge for car maintenance, Exeter Crown Court heard.

The unusual charge led to the judge questioning if the alleged crime had been properly labelled.

The incident took place on July 10, just hours after Prince Edward had opened an nearby activity centre at Haven Banks, Exeter.

A member of the public reporting that a man was brandishing a gun next to a children’s playground on the quayside, and half-a-dozen armed policemen swooped in on the scene.

Bare-chested Carpenter invited police to shoot him, but allowed officers to handcuff him after an hour-long standoff.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC said the fake gun was ‘a windscreen sponge, squeezy’ and that in his opinion, Carpenter should be charged with threatening behaviour or wasting police time.

Carpenter, from Exeter, was remanded in custody and will return to court in a week after the charge is reviewed by prosecutors.

The stand-off took place next during one of the hottest days of the year and dozens of members of the public witnessed the incident.

‘There were lots of armed police and people looking on,’ a witness told Exeter Express and Echo at the time.

‘Someone was on the ground and the police were pointing weapons.

‘The armed police appeared no more than 15 yards away from a busy children’s play area.’

           — Hat tip: McR [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood Fall Uncovers American-European Schemes

In spite of the U.S suffering from terrorist operations both at home and abroad, despite CIA knowledge that the Muslim Brotherhood is supporting terrorist groups ranging from al-Qaeda to Hamas by funding and providing arms and people, American politicians blindly keep marching behind the carrot that the Brotherhood dangles before them. Proof of Obama’s ambiguous relationship with the Brotherhood could be found when he came to Cairo to make his first speech to the Islamic world. Obama insisted to have Brotherhood leaders seated in the front row, even knowing the group was listed by many countries as a terrorist organization. This angered former President Mubarak who did not attend the speech as an objection to the new American president.

But now, after the overthrow of the Brotherhood in Egypt by the Egyptian Army, Egyptians are suspicious of the Obama administration and the British, who offer protection and support to terrorists. They are also aware of the duplicity of France and Germany claiming their positions originate from democratic values, which even their own journalists and political analysts no longer believe having seen the streets of Egypt filled with millions of people demanding the overthrow of the Brotherhood and Morsi.

The U.S. administration must know of its weak position and the dangerous situation that Obama put himself in, especially with the increasing criticism, and resentment of Americans of Obama for spending taxpayers’ money on a terrorist group. In recent days the administration also learned that they do not have a lot of influence with General Al Sisi and the new government in Egypt, making their threat to cut off U.S. aid to Egypt became like words lost in the wind. In other words, not worth the ink they’re written on. The outcome of the real game is now in the hands of Egyptian people and army, and the final decision for the future of Egypt rests with them and no others.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Preacher for Martyrdom Caught Hiding Under Woman’s Niqab

The coziness of the West with MB terrorists is Egypt’s nightmare

Sacrifices have been great in Egypt’s unrest, but Egypt’s military has made certain it is not in vain. So far the military, guided by the pro-democracy coalition, has had significant successes to chalk up to freedom efforts. In its aim to dismantle the Muslim Brotherhood, the army has arrested and jailed a number of individuals representing its core leadership.

With the recent and surprising arrest of Safwat Hegazy (renowned and dedicated Muslim Brotherhood preacher on Egypt’s “wanted” list) near the border of Libya, many key influential Brotherhood religious guides have now been taken into custody. This includes members of the Morshed office (MB spiritual guides) who are behind bars — the persons responsible for ousted President Morsi’s line to toe — Khairat el Shater, Mohammed Badea, Hazem Salah Abu Ismail and others.

On August 21, at a military and police check point a few miles from Egypt’s border with Libya, border patrols searched a private car and the people in it. Their stop-and-frisk included the removal of a woman’s niqab — Islamic face veil, headdress and robe — which covered a suspicious form. Hiding beneath it was Bedouin-garbed Safwat Hegazy, wearing a dark brown goatee disguise in place of his traditional full-cheeked, grey beard. The high-ranking longtime preacher of the Muslim Brotherhood was captured trying to slink across Egypt’s border.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Now Egypt Looks to ‘Expose’ Obama

Strategy may include embarrassing White House

The evidence is mounting that the military government currently ruling Egypt has decided to embarrass the Obama administration as part of a strategy to suppress Muslim Brotherhood activity in Egypt.

Last week, WND reported that Tehani al-Gebali, the vice president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, gave a speech and participated in an interview broadcast on Egyptian television that identified Malik Obama, the Kenyan half-brother of President Obama, as “a major architect” managing investments for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

In the speech, Gebali said she would like “open files” to expose nations like the United States that are resisting the current military-controlled government of Egypt by continuing to support “terrorist” groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Egyptian people are astounded,” wrote Coptic Egyptian author Michael Armanious in an article titled “Egyptians Bewildered Over Support for the Muslim Brotherhood,” published by the Gatestone Institute International Policy Council. “They simply do not understand the Obama Administration’s efforts to bring the Muslim Brotherhood back to power.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“Doctors” Behind Syrian Chemical Weapons Claims Are Aiding Terrorists

The “evidence” upon which the West is propping up its narrative of the Syrian government using chemical weapons against large numbers of civilians hinges so far entirely on claims made by “Doctors Without Borders.” In the New York Times article, “Signs of Chemical Attack Detailed by Aid Group,” it is reported:

“An international aid group said Saturday that medical centers it supported near the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack near Damascus received more than 3,000 patients showing symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic nerve agents on the morning of the reported attack. Of those, 355 died, said the group, Doctors Without Borders.”

The statement is the first issued by an international organization working in Syria about the attack on Wednesday in the suburbs northeast of Damascus, the capital.

While it is often described by the Western media as “independent,” nothing could be further from the truth.

To begin with, Doctors Without Borders is fully funded by the very same corporate financier interests behind Wall Street and London’s collective foreign policy, including regime change in Syria and neighboring Iran. Doctors Without Borders’ own annual report (2010 report can be accessed here), includes as financial donors, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Google, Microsoft, Bloomberg, Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, and a myriad of other corporate-financier interests. Doctors Without Borders also features bankers upon its Board of Advisers including Elizabeth Beshel Robinson of Goldman Sachs.

Complicating further Doctors Without Borders so-called “independ” and “aid” claims is the fact that their medical facilities are set up in terrorist held regions of Syria, especially along Syria’s northern border with NATO-member Turkey.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

15 Signs That Obama Has Already Made the Decision to Go to War With Syria

The Obama administration seems absolutely determined to help radical Islamic jihadists that have beheaded Christians, that have massacred entire Christian villages, and that have pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda topple the Assad regime and take over Syria. Yes, the Assad regime is horrible, but if these jihadist lunatics take control it will destabilize the entire region, make the prospect of a major regional war much more probable, and plunge the entire nation of Syria into a complete and utter nightmare. It has been estimated that somewhere around 100,000 people have already been killed in the civil war in Syria, and now it looks like the U.S. military and the rest of NATO plan to become directly involved in the conflict. The Obama administration is actually considering an attack on Syria even though the American people are overwhelmingly against it, Obama does not have Congressional approval to start a war, and he will never get approval for military action from the UN because it will be blocked by Russia. This is setting up to become a colossal foreign policy disaster for the United States.

A potential war with Syria has been brought to the forefront because of a chemical weapons attack near Damascus last week that killed as many as 1,400 people. The Obama administration and several other western nations are blaming this attack on the Assad regime.

But others are pointing out that it would make absolutely no sense for the Assad regime to do such a thing. They appear to be winning the civil war, and Assad knows that Obama has previously said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a “red line” for the United States.

So why would the Assad regime launch a brutal chemical weapons attack against women and children just miles from where UN inspectors were staying?

Why would Assad risk war with the United States and the rest of NATO?

Assad would have to be extremely stupid or extremely suicidal to do such a thing.

The ones that benefit from this chemical weapons attack are the jihadist rebels. The odds of foreign intervention in the conflict just went way, way up.

We will probably never learn the real truth about who was actually behind that attack. And even if it had not happened, the U.S. and the rest of NATO would have probably come up with another justification to go to war anyway. They appear absolutely obsessed with getting rid of Assad, but they have not really thought through the consequences.

The following are 15 signs that Obama has already made the decision to go to war with Syria…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Air Strikes on Syria “Within Days”

Royal Navy vessels are being readied to take part in a possible series of cruise missile strikes, alongside the United States, as military commanders finalise a list of potential targets.

Government sources said talks between the Prime Minister and international leaders, including Barack Obama, would continue, but that any military action that was agreed could begin within the next week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Americans Strongly Oppose U.S. Intervention in Syria’s Civil War

The polls suggest that so far, the growing crisis in Syria, and the emotionally wrenching pictures from an alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb this week, may actually be hardening many Americans’ resolve not to get involved in another conflict in the Middle East.

The results — and Reuters/Ipsos polling on the use-of-chemicals question since early June — suggest that if Obama decides to undertake military action against Assad’s regime, he will do so in the face of steady opposition from an American public wary after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Arab Opinion Divided Over Egypt

The whole Middle East region is in despair, wherever you look, you will find something deeply unpleasant happening-the obvious is the bloodshed, which appears uncontrollable in Syria and lately in Egypt. The focus in the last few weeks shifted from Syria to Egypt, as most commentators believe that whatever happens in Egypt has more of an impact on the whole region, than events elsewhere.

The Egyptian crisis has divided the Arab public opinion. Some wholeheartedly support the deposed president, Mohammad Morsi, while others are supportive of his opponents. Both sides of the argument have strong supporters, even outside Egypt. Here in the Gulf countries, there is heated debate on the issue, even within the same family, and the social media (Twitter and Facebook) are the most active in debating the Egyptian crisis in inflammatory words.

Those supporting Morsi argue that he was the legitimate elected president, and as such he should not have been removed but only thrown out at the ballot box, whenever the election was held. The opponents says that the people of Egypt, or the majority of them had demonstrated, by the millions on June 30 that either an early election or a mass referendum should decide if Morsi was to go or stay.

But their demand was rejected by the government at the time. The reluctance of Morsi’s administration to take into consideration that demand led the military to interfere, and was removed, with a very clear objective that there will be a new election, a new parliament, and a new precedent, or what the new administration terms, The Road Map. This was severely opposed by Morsi’s supporters, mainly Muslim Brotherhood and their allies from the fundamental Islamist groups, who took to barricading themselves in Rabia Al-Adwia and Al-Nahda square in Cairo. They brought women, children and supporters from the farming community from outside the capital, and stayed there during the whole month of Ramadan.

That was not acceptable for the new administration, backed by the military, resulting in the government’s decision to clear the barricade in an operation that witnessed the loss of hundreds of Egyptian lives during the standoff. The Muslim Brotherhood administration in Egypt , which lasted for almost one year, from June 30, 2012 to June 30, 2013, differed from all other Islamist governments in the region. While Iran and Turkey both have Islamist governments, Turkey has only one head of state, an elected government, and difference active political parties.

Iran on the other hand, has a spiritual leader (Murshed) but he has some official status in the framework of government. In the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, on the contrary, Murshed has all the authority within the council of the movement, and the head of state (in this case) has to obey the instructions coming from Murshed. In fact Morsi is ranked sixth or seventh in the hierarchy of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. This kind of duality gave rise to confusion and tension during the one-year stint of the Brotherhood government.

There was almost anarchy, as the government was not able to convince the liberal segment of Egyptian society to agree to their policies. As a result they turned to more radical groups, like the Gehadi, and Fundamental Salafists to support them. This was not without paying a political price, as instead of bringing those groups to the platform of Muslim Brotherhood, who are basically moderate, the Brotherhood become Salafists and adopted far more radical policies, just to keep the radicals onboard. So the only avenue open to them was to hastily take quick steps to go on what become known in Egypt (Brother-ing the Egyptian State) which means putting their members and supporters in every layer of the state hierarchy-ministers, governors, ambassadors, and the like. This hasty move alerted other segments of society that took to the street demanding a correction, by either early elections or referendum.

The rest of the story is now well known. Assembling large number of people in the squares and streets of Egypt is not a big deal. Some of those are members of political groups and a good number of them are spongers and out of work youngsters or simply people brought from outlying areas who know nothing of what is going on, and they probably were killed in the clashes between the police and the sit-in groups. The stand of American and European governments toward what is happing in Egypt is amazing, and it shows either a lack of information or understanding. Those governments have announced that they will cut off financial aid and other help to Egypt unless the violence is stopped. It may look good on the surface but what they do not understand is that they have played in to the hands of the fundamentalists. As the radicals started the disturbance, the government reacted to maintain peace and violence automatically accrued.

It could become a vicious circle. The more the Western governments insist on the authorities to concede to their conditions to stop violence, the more Muslim political groups will strengthen their resolve to sit-in and demonstrate, with the intention to provoke a violent reaction by the authorities, even to the extent of innocent people getting killed. The core of the issue is that Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, like their affiliates in Tunisia, live in past times, not related to modernity.

Since both came to power (in Egypt and Tunisia) commentators have been saying that they lack the tools to adapt themselves to modernity. They are very good in knowing what they don’t like, but have no idea where they want to lead societies to. The golden age for them is the glory of Muslim civilisation a few centuries back, but they do not have the capability to understand that the glory of that period was built on tolerance, hard work and acceptance of differences and not by defiance or marginalising other citizens.

Hopefully the new constitution in Egypt will draw a clear line between politics and religion. This will mark the new era of what I term the post Iranian syndrome which intruded into the region some 30 odd years ago, with its dangerous mixture of politics and religion, and which proved a complete failure.

[Return to headlines]
 

Bedoon Weddings Start With a Bang — Literally

KUWAIT: Different countries have different traditions, especially when something as life-altering as a marriage ceremony is concerned. Some rituals are weird and some are funny. But some, like in the case of Kuwait, can be downright dangerous. In many Kuwaiti weddings, particularly the bedoons, men use guns and air rifles to shoot in the air.

Despite this tradition causing grievous injuries and even death, people don’t refrain from practicing it. After an increasing number of accidents were reported, the Ministry of Interior decided to monitor this ritual more closely. The Ministry formed security groups to limit this dangerous and illegal act and keep a close check on it. “The tradition of shooting in weddings was banned few years ago but we noticed it has increased lately. Police groups will monitor the weddings in all the governorates, especially the weddings held in tents in certain areas,” Colonel Adel Al-Hashash, PR and Moral Guidance Director of the Ministry of Interior told the Kuwait Times yesterday. “It’s illegal to possess unlicensed weapons, and of course, use it in any way.

It’s also illegal to show, use or shoot — even if it is licensed — in residential areas or places that are crowded with people. It’s not allowed to be used in a place other than the one specified for this purpose,” he added. Sheikh Mohammed Al-Khalid, Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister, issued strict orders to highlight this trend to avoid more accidents. In a statement published yesterday in the local press, Al-Khalid assured serious action against anybody who violates this law, especially now at a time when many young men have been showing off their weapons at weddings as a style statement.

Al-Hashash said that the weapons will be confiscated by the police forces even if it is licensed. “Police will be present at all the weddings held in different areas and will not wait for a complaint to take action. People should know that this dangerous tradition should stop in our society,” he explained.

A few weeks ago, photos of a young groom killed by mistake by his friend spread across social media sites and the wedding soon turned into a funeral. Many other tragic incidents have been recorded in the past, leading either to serious injuries or a quick death. Two months, a bullet smashed the rear window of a car parked at a wedding and was later found in the backseat. There have also been many cases of injuries or death caused by unlicensed weapons during other occasions.

The government decided to confiscate weapons from people — especially Kuwaitis — since many had arms which they found during the Liberation in 1991 after the Iraqi soldiers left Kuwait. It has been noticed that many people have still not handed over the guns to the government and their children have been misusing them.

[Return to headlines]
 

Kerry Warns Assad, Saying Chemical Weapons Use in Syria is ‘Undeniable’

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons in attacks on civilians in Syria last week was undeniable and that the Obama administration would hold the Syrian government accountable for what he called a “moral obscenity” that had shocked the world’s conscience.

In some of the most strident language used yet by the administration, Mr. Kerry accused the Syrian government of cynically seeking to cover up the use of the weapons and he rejected its denial of responsibility for what he called a “cowardly crime.”

Mr. Kerry’s remarks, in a prepared statement he read at the State Department, reinforced the administration’s toughening stance on the Syria conflict, which is now well into its third year, and he suggested it was moving closer to a military response in consultation with America’s allies.

[Return to headlines]
 

Mystery Sponsor of Weapons and Money to Syrian Mercenary “Rebels” Revealed

The tiny gas-rich state of Qatar has spent as much as $3bn over the past two years supporting the rebellion in Syria, far exceeding any other government, but is now being nudged aside by Saudi Arabia as the prime source of arms to rebels.

The cost of Qatar’s intervention, its latest push to back an Arab revolt, amounts to a fraction of its international investment portfolio. But its financial support for the revolution that has turned into a vicious civil war dramatically overshadows western backing for the opposition.

In dozens of interviews with the FT conducted in recent weeks, rebel leaders both abroad and within Syria as well as regional and western officials detailed Qatar’s role in the Syrian conflict, a source of mounting controversy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Responds: May “Reinforce Naval Grouping in Mediterranean” Following US Buildup

Yesterday, when describing the latest US developments in the Syrian “liberation” and “WMD elimination” we pointed out that the “use of war as a culmination point to end a depression is nothing new. Just look at the first Great Depression. And just like then, the only cost to perpetuate the myth of the Keynesian and monetarist religion and the pillaged wealth of the 0.01% status quo elite, will be a few hundred thousand innocent men, women and children. Or, as they are known in the Beltway, collateral damage. That is, unless, Putin decides to retaliate.”

Moments ago Interfax reported that Russia is starting to pre-emptively, for now, retaliate.

Russia may reinforce naval grouping in Mediterranean in response to U.S. buildup — expert t.co/gtOai0LqqU #Russia #interfax #news

— Interfax News (IFAX) (@IFAXnews) August 24, 2013

More from Interfax:

Russia can increase its military presence in the Mediterranean in the case of the possible enlargement of the U.S. naval grouping in the region in the event of the aggravation of the situation in Syria, President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Leonid Ivashov believes.

“Russia can increase its naval grouping in the Mediterranean as a reply measure. I think that nothing else remains to prevent the development of the factor of aggression,” he said to Interfax-AVN on Saturday commenting on media reports of the possible increase in U.S. naval presence in the Mediterranean.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Car Bomb in Christian Neighbourhood in Damascus Kills Five

(AGI) Cairo, Aug 24 — A car bomb detonated in the Christian neighbourhood of Burj al Ruus in Damascus killed at least five people and injured around a dozen, Syrian security forces said.

The Christian community, a minority in Syria, denied it has been targeted by extremist factions in the Sunni opposition since the revolt began in March of 2011, and mourns the days under Assad’s Alawi regime when Christians were offered greater protection.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Cameron and Obama Agree to Military Strike Over Chemical Weapons

David Cameron and Barack Obama last night agreed to take military action against Syria, the Sunday People has reported.

The US president sealed the deal in a 40-minute phone call to the Prime Minister at his holiday retreat in Cornwall.

The two leaders agreed that Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad was responsible for using chemical weapons against children.

Mr Obama and Mr Cameron will discuss the military options in the next few days.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Syria, World War III & the Hidden Objective

World War III will begin in Syria, and no one on the planet (and Americans in particular) will be left untouched by what is about to take place. This has been planned for some time, and we are now seeing it happen right in front of us.” Those are the words of a trusted source with deep ties to the intelligence community, before providing more insight into what we might expect as this ‘crisis’ escalates and “Syria explodes.”…

Syria is a proxy state for Russia, as is Iran. China has interests in Iran as well. If you look at all of the major powers, they all have interests in the Middle East. So who will we, the U.S. ultimately be fighting when Syria explodes? Russia. And what will be the blowback? That’s important to understand, for it is also the objective.”

“None of what you are seeing is about fighting terrorism, or about helping the people of Syria. It’s about oil, energy and the global economic system. Conflict exists for the globalists to achieve their objective, and their objective is the implementation of a new economic system that will be a basket of currencies, or SDR (Special Drawing Rights). If you don’t know about SDRs, just equate it to the euro, but on a global scale.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Rebels Behind Sniper Attack on UN Inspectors?

Opposition militants previously kidnapped multiple UN peacekeepers

Given their treatment of UN peacekeepers in the past, today’s sniper attack in Syria which targeted UN chemical weapons inspectors was likely carried out by opposition militants — yet another reminder that the US and Britain are about to launch military attacks that will aid terrorists.

The attack delayed the inspectors and meant they were only able to visit the affected sites for half an hour rather than the planned four hours.

Given the fact that rebel militants have displayed hostility when encountering UN workers in the past, the culprits behind the attack are almost certainly fighting on the side of the FSA.

Back in March, rebels kidnapped 21 UN peacekeepers and commandeered their vehicles on the Golan Heights and demanded Bashar Al-Assad remove forces form a nearby town before they were returned safely. The kidnapping was swiftly condemned by the UN Security Council and cited by the Toronto Star as an incident that “raised serious questions about the country’s future if Bashar Assad is ousted.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Set to Launch ‘Iraq, The Sequel’, in Syria

If you liked the run up to the US attack on Iraq, with the lurid fictional tales of mobile chemical weapons labs and Saddam’s nukes, you will love “Iraq, The Sequel”, currently unfolding in Syria. It is everything the interventionists have been hoping for: a heady brew of Kosovo, Iraq, and Libya all rolled into one. The possibility for an infinitely more toxic conflagration is exponentially higher, to boot, adding for the interventionists much excitement to the mix.

Here is the latest:

A fourth US warship capable of launching the type of cruise missiles that turned Libya to rubble and paved the way for al-Qaeda affiliates to take control of that country is now rushing to the waters off of Syria, ready to unleash destruction. Chuck Hagel, who some antiwar commentators foolishly believed would put an end to Washington’s military adventurism, is feverishly preparing plans for President Obama to attack. The media worldwide, interventionist to the core, is pushing willing leaders in the US, France, and the UK to finally treat Syria to another devastating “liberation.”…

Somehow we are supposed to believe that within 72 hours after the arrival of a UN chemical weapons inspection team to assess — with the Syrian government’s cooperation — the sites of previous claimed chemical weapons attacks, that same Syrian government would launch a chemical weapon attack on civilians just miles from where the UN inspectors are staying. The UN inspectors were there on invitation from the Syrian government and that same government would launch chemicals right into their neighborhood.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Taliban Terror Tot: Grinning Al-Qaeda Fighter Trains Toddler to Fire Handgun in Sickening Video Shot in War-Torn Afghanistan

A little boy laughs as a smiling adult helps him aim a semi-automatic pistol at a target, his first steps to becoming a terrorist hell-bent on war with the West.

This horrific scene is played out in a propaganda video posted online by Al-Qaeda terrorists in strife-hit Afghanistan.

The chilling footage, posted on Youtube, also shows a woman wearing a burkha aiming a rocket-propelled grenade and an exploding car.

Al-Qaeda trains children to become the next generation of terrorists from the age of just five — and sometimes even younger, it now appears.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fukushima: What You Need to Know

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster came as a result of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. A truly horrible disaster almost beyond words. Naturally, it dominated news media, electronic and print, for many weeks. The death and destruction was simply heart wrenching.

After a while, the media moved on to the next “when it bleeds, it leads” story and Fukushima became a forgotten incident. Not for the Japanese people — – not after that day and for decades and generations to come. I have prayed for all the lost souls and the citizens over there who will continue to suffer from radiation poisoning — especially children. But, should we be concerned? Has or will the effects of Fukushima hit the U.S.?

[…]

Samples of milk taken across the United States have shown radiation at levels 2000 percent higher than EPA maximums. The reason that milk is so significant is that it is representative of the entire food supply. According to an article published on Natural News, “Cows consume grass and are exposed to the same elements as food crops and water supplies. In other words, when cows’ milk starts testing positive for high levels of radioactive elements, this is indicative of radioactive contamination of the entire food supply.”

“The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Deception Protection Agency, instead of refusing to prohibit the sale of tainted foods and mandatory testing of foods produced and harvested from the Pacific Coast, have simply raised the “acceptable levels” of radioactive material in foods.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Parents Charged With Murder of Baby That Was Actually Killed by Vaccines

(NaturalNews) Parents in South Africa could face life in prison if convicted of murdering their baby girl, who died just days after being given what reports say were routine vaccinations.

According to a report at VacTruth.com, the child, known as “Baby A,” had been given all of her vaccinations on time. On Sept. 25, 2012, when she was five months old, her parents — who were not named in the report — took her to a local clinic, where she was given a total of eight vaccines. She was then sent home:

Baby A’s mother told VacTruth that the vaccinations were administered extremely harshly, with the nurse appearing to stab their daughter viciously with a variety of needles. Baby A received eight vaccines in total, the five-in-one vaccine Pentaxim said to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) and polio; the hepatitis B vaccine; the rotavirus vaccine; and a vaccine said to protect babies against pneumocococcal and non-typeable haemophilus influenzae disease, Prenevar/Prenvar.

Repeated symptoms following vaccinations should have been a clue.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

All GMO Approvals in Brazil Are Illegal, Says Whistleblowing Regulator

(NaturalNews) It may not come as much of a surprise to our regular readers, but the biotechnology industry as we currently know it is intrinsically corrupt. And a government official-turned-whistleblower from Brazil recently admitted in a government report that every single industry-prompted approval for genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in his country has taken place outside the realm of sound science and without proper legal precedent, which means all current plantings of GM crops in Brazil are illegal.

These are sweeping claims, but they are backed by a lengthy report recently published by Brazil’s National Council for Food and Nutrition Security. In this report, a man by the name of Leonardo Melgarejo divulges key information about how GMOs have never lived up to the promises made about them by their creators, nor have any of the studies used to back their approval proven to be legitimate. To the contrary, most of the currently accepted safety data on GMOs is utter rubbish, he claims, because it relies on flawed methodologies and dishonest protocols.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Rescues 200 More Boat Migrants

The Italian coast guard said Saturday it had rescued more than 200 migrants off Sicily, swelling the ranks of the thousands of boat people who have made the crossing thanks to calm summer waters.

A group of 116, most of them Somalis, were drifting in the Canal of Sicily on a small rubber dinghy when they were spotted by a navy vessel and taken to the island of Lampedusa by the coastguard.

Another 100 were picked up by a vessel of the European Union border control agency Frontex and handed over to the coastguard, which took them to Portopalo, a Sicilian port south of Syracuse.

Around 1,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa had already landed in Italy this week alone.

Most of the thousands of economic migrants and refugees who have landed in Italy in recent months had arrived in Libya — only 300 kilometres (185 miles) south of Lampedusa — from other parts of Africa.

Calmer weather conditions and growing unrest in north Africa have led to a surge in migrant arrivals in recent weeks.

Italy’s interior ministry said 24,277 migrants landed in Italy in the 12-month period between August 1st, 2012, and August 10th, 2013.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Middle East Crisis Hits Italian Coast

A boat carrying 140 asylum seekers who told police they were from Syria and Egypt landed in Italy on Friday, television images showed and officials said.

The group included 29 women and 31 minors and their rickety wooden boat was intercepted by a border guard vessel off the coast of Syracuse in Sicily.

Border guards said the pilot of the boat, which measures around 15 metres in length, was Egyptian and had tried to avoid detection.

“They were spotted just a few miles from the coast,” said local border guard official Antonino Spampinato, as the refugees were helped off the boat in port.

He said the region around Syracuse had seen only very few migrant arrivals until May of this year but that 5,000 have arrived over June, July and August.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New Obama Policy Warns Agents Not to Detain Illegal Immigrant Parents

The Obama administration issued a new policy Friday that says immigration agents should try not to arrest and deport illegal immigrant parents of minor children. The move adds to the categories of people the administration is trying not to deport.

In a nine-page memo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said agents should use “prosecutorial discretion” to try to avoid detaining parents and, if parents are detained, agents should make sure they have the ability to visit with their children or participate in family court proceedings.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Rescues More Than 100 Migrants From Sea

Spanish rescue services said they had picked up more than 100 African migrants from boats in the Atlantic and Mediterranean sea on Saturday, incidents that have become increasingly rare.

Off the Canary island of Tenerife 26 migrants were rescued, some of them apparently after two weeks at sea, the Red Cross told AFP.

“Various circumstances, like the situation in the Sahel region and Arab countries as well as the fight against (clandestine) immigration to Spain across the Atlantic, have changed the flow of refugees these past months and years,” the police chief of Spain’s North African enclave Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani, said earlier this year.

On Saturday, 47 migrants travelling on three boats were also rescued from the Mediterranean and taken to the town of Almeria in southern Spain.

Thirty-nine others were transferred to Ceuta, also on the north African coast.

In a week Spanish rescuers have assisted several hundred migrants, after 3,804 would-be immigrants reached the Spanish coast last year, according to interior ministry figures.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Axemen Aid Escape From Detention Centre in Gävle

Several offenders used an axe to break into a migration board detention centre in Gävle last night and helped three rejected asylum seekers ecsape from the building.

“It was a very dramatic event and a serious incident,” says Tommy Harnesk, head of the migration board’s detention centre in Gävle to Swedish Radio News.

“There are three to four offenders with axes that have entered through a window and freed three people,” says Tomas Sandin, duty officer at Gävle police.

He says they have “no idea” where they are now.

An eye witness who saw the escape and alerted police was chased by the offenders, reports tabloid Aftonbladet. No one was hurt in the incident.

Police have recovered an axe and carried out a search of the rooms of the three people who escaped. They say that an expulsion order had been issued to the three men staying at the centre and they are now classified as fugitives.

In November 2011, a Russian was freed from the centre when armed accomplices fired at guards.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Gay’ Lawmaker to Christians: ‘We’Ll Take Your Children’

Exclusive: Matt Barber asks, ‘Is this George Washington’s America, or Joseph Stalin’s Russia?’

Few people doubt that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hopes to become president in 2016. Unfortunately for him, he may have just signed away any chance of that.

On Monday, Christie signed A3371, a draconian piece of legislation that bars licensed therapists from helping children overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, behavior or identity. This law bans help for minors even when — as is so often the case — those same-sex attractions arise from childhood sexual abuse by the likes of a Jerry Sandusky.

This law will prohibit minors and their parents from receiving counseling they desire and will force counselors to violate ethical codes because they will not be able to help clients reach their own counseling goals. This law would enslave children — whether abused or not — to a subjectively determined sexual identity that they reject.

The connection between homosexual abuse and “gay identity” is undeniable. Consider this: Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that homosexual men are “at least three times more likely to report CSA (childhood sexual abuse)” than heterosexual men.

Moreover, the Archives of Sexual Behavior — no bastion of conservatism — determined in a 2001 study that nearly half of all gay-identified men were molested by a homosexual pedophile: “46 percent of homosexual men and 22 percent of homosexual women reported having been molested by a person of the same gender. This contrasts to only 7 percent of heterosexual men and 1 percent of heterosexual women reporting having been molested by a person of the same gender” noted the study.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

White House to Hold First-Ever Bisexual Issues Roundtable

The White House is set to hold a roundtable event next month exclusively dedicated to issues facing the bisexual community, the first of its kind for the Obama administration, the Washington Blade first reported. White House LGBT liaison Gautam Raghavan told the Blade that the closed-door meeting will take place Sept. 23 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House. “Participants and administration officials will discuss a range of topics including health, HIV/AIDS, domestic and intimate partner violence, mental health, and bullying,” Mr. Raghavan said. The invitation was reportedly sent to LGBT supporters of the president and specifies the meeting will be closed to the press. A White House official confirmed the event would take place, but didn’t comment further, the Blade reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Commander Data and the Extropians

In the epic series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew are aboard the starship, U.S.S. Enterprise. Their expressed purpose is to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before”…

In the show, there is a species of creatures known as the “Borg”. The Borg are a diabolical group who are part biological, and part technological. They attempt to take over planets and populations by assimilating biological beings — humans and other species — into their collective conscious.

Once successfully assimilated, the individual is then integrated with technology and becomes a part of the Borg collective. The Borg are required to remain attached to a “grid” of collectivism, with each individual’s mind being connected to that of the group. They are, therefore, incapable of individual thought or deed. If one member has an idea, it becomes the idea of the whole. The mind, will, and actions of the individual are made subordinate to that of the group, and its controllers. Thus, thoughts are hence controlled and dissention is impossible.

It seems that the science fictions of yesterday are quickly becoming the realities of today. And the technology that was portrayed in Star Trek and shows like it, is emerging before our eyes.

There is indeed a movement which is gaining momentum across the developed world — the merging of human beings with technology. One group that is at the forefront of the push is called the Extropy Institute.

This group of elite, rich “transhumanists” believe that mankind evolved, and must continue in that state of evolution. They think that it is up to mankind to evolve itself to the next level — a level they refer to as “posthuman”. In order to accomplish this, they contend, man must integrate technology with the human body, therefore enabling him to surpass the limitations of the brain and other physical, biological organs.

The Extropy Institute describes what the term “transhuman” means to them. They say:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Did Bush-Obama Policies Begin the End of Christianity in Arab Lands?

When the despotic King Herod plotted to kill Jesus by sending his agents to slaughter every boy under the age of 2 in and around Bethlehem, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and escape to Egypt.”

That, says the Gospel of Matthew, fulfilled what God said through the prophet Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Now, two millennia later, we may live in a time when Christians must flee for their lives out of Egypt — not into it. They do not fear being slaughtered by King Herod, but by the Muslim Brotherhood.

In our time, Christianity could be driven from some of the lands where it first took root.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/26/2013

  1. @Syria: Cameron and Obama Agree to Military Strike Over Chemical Weapons

    Neoliberal wars of deception, should military intervention take place in Syria all the mainstream political parties in the uK will be holding a poisoned chalice of false flag humanitarian interventions.

    The post intervention political weight of that neoliberal warmongering could bring about a total collapse of any confidence that is left in the present political system. The British people psychologically crashing into a state of socio-political inertia and despondency – a nation moribund in a neoliberal pseudo democracy where the people have become the enemy of the State.

  2. we are witnessing the most incredible parade of clowns ever assembled..
    it is astonishing..

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