Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/27/2013

U.S. President Obama, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, and French President Hollande are all pushing for military action against Syria. However, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino says that Italy will not join any military operation without a mandate from the UN Security Council. Informed sources say that the war is scheduled to start on Thursday. American aircraft have been arriving in Cyprus, and reports from Greece say that the U.S. has asked Greek permission for the use of its coastal waters, airspace, and military bases.

In other news, the mayor of the French town of Bollène is under investigation, and may face prosecution and imprisonment, for refusing to marry a lesbian couple.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Henrik Ræder Clausen, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, KP, McR, RR, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» French Tax Hikes Would ‘Destroy’ Growth, EU Says
» Italy’s Spread Nudges Up to 253 Basis Points
» Netherlands: ‘Tinkering With the Housing Market is a Waste of Time’
» The Global Financial Death Spiral?
 
USA
» Amazon ‘Wish List’ Is Gateway to Epic Social Engineering Hack
» American Paranoia Sets In — Big Time!
» Americans Would Rather Get a Root Canal or a Colonoscopy Than Launch War Against Syria
» Black Mob on Rampage Fractures Cop’s Skull
» CAIR to Join March on Washington to Mark Anniversary of MLK ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech, Link ‘Islamophobia’ To Civil Rights Movement
» Chicagoland: Navy Vet Finishing College Murdered During Mid-Afternoon Robbery in Obama’s Neighborhood
» Defeating the Nemesis Within
» Gaudeamus Janitor
» Harvard University to Teach Breton Language
» Juan Williams Slams Sharpton, Jackson for ‘Corruption’ of Civil Rights Movement
» Kentucky School Children to Michelle Obama: “Your Food Tastes Like Vomit.”
» New York Times Website Down After Suspected Hacking
» Obama Has Perfected the Art of Speaking Reproachfully and Carrying Little or No Stick
» Pentagon Labels Founding Fathers, Conservatives as Extremists
» Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La): Cyber-War Could be Pretty Good Business for Lousiana
» Stakelbeck Exclusive: Muslim Brotherhood-Tied Group Advising White House
» Students: Obamafood Tastes Like Vomit.
» The Giant Stumbles: Government Looks Bigger, But Not So Sturdy, In Obama’s Second Term
» The Muslim Brotherhood Threat to America
 
Europe and the EU
» France: Teenage Victim of Veil Attack Attempts Suicide
» Hedegaard: “A Man Who is Living Under Death Threats Does Not Fear Islam’s Servile Helper.”
» Italian Troops Show Best of Italy, Says PM Enrico Letta
» Italian Economy Minister Says No New Taxes in IMU Repeal
» Italy: Senate PDL Head Warns of Crisis if Berlusconi Loses Seat
» Sovereign and Pension Funds Exempt From Italy’s Tobin Tax
» Sweden: ‘Malmö Needs a Mayor Like New York’s Giuliani’
» Sweden: Gang Leader Shot Dead Outside Health Clinic
» UK: Muslim Soldiers to Visit Schools to Try to Counter Islamophobia
» UK: Time for the BBC to Ban the ‘D’ Word?
 
North Africa
» Egypt: TV Host: Hardline Activist’s Detention Extended
» Egypt’s Journalists, Still Under Siege
 
Middle East
» Air Strikes on Syria as Early as Thursday, Sources Tell NBC
» Bomb Kills Six Soldiers on Yemeni Air Force Bus
» Can Kosovo Serve as a Model for Syria Intervention?
» Credibility Over ‘Red Lines’ No Reason for War
» Evidence: Syria Gas Attack Work of U.S. Allies
» Expert Sheds Light on Halal Items
» Families Accuse Qatar of ‘Kidnapping’ French Nationals
» France Will Not Shirk Responsibility in Syria
» Hollande Says France ‘Ready to Punish’ Syria Over Gas Attack
» Inspectors in Syria Forbidden From Finding Out Who Used Chemical Weapons, Only if They Were Used
» Iran Steps Up Threats to Sufis
» Iraq: Patriarch Sako Calls on Christians Not to Flee Iraq
» Israel’s Unit 8200 Provides Target Intelligence for a Possible US Syria Strike
» Italy: No Military Action in Syria Without UN Mandate, Says Bonino
» Lavrov Compares Intimidation of Syria to Iraq Campaign
» Lebanon: Patriarch Rai Claims Plan to ‘Destroy Mideast’
» More Than 15 Thousand Syrian Kurds Flee to Iraq. Archbishop of Erbil: “Help Us”
» Moscow Patriarchate: Acting as “International Executioners, “ the US is Sacrificing Muslims and Christians in Syria
» Muslims Promise to Kill Prominent Danes and the Politicians Talk
» New York Times: Two Outages in Two Weeks: Syrian Electronic Army: “Media is Going Down”
» Outsiders Have No Tools to Fix Syria
» Russia Pushes to Stop Intervention in Syria, But Its Only Weapon is Diplomacy
» Syria: Intervention Unthinkable Without UN, Says Bonino
» Syria: Obama Weighs Limited ‘Surgical’ Strikes
» Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Nerve Gas, Not Assad’s Regime: U.N. Official
» UK: Supporters of Intervention in Syria Have Not Yet Made a Convincing Case
» US Attempts to Sabotage UN Chemical Weapons Investigation
» US Laying Groundwork for Military Strike on Syria
» US Sees Greek Role in Possible Syria Strike
» Western Warplanes Begin Arriving in Cyprus
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan Will Not be Alone After 2014, Says Italian PM
» Buddhists Burn Muslim Homes and Shops in Burma
» India: Protest in Kerala Over Forced Marriage of Minor Girl
» India: The Story You Never Wanted to Hear
» Indonesia: Jakarta: Islamic Extremists Rise Against Miss World and Anti-Terrorist Squad
 
Far East
» China: Xinjiang: More Violence: 15 Uyghurs Killed by Police for “Terrorism”
» Chinese Internet Server Jammed in Largest Ever Mainland Attack
» Chinese Netizens Discuss a List Concerning Brainwashing in China
» Fukushima in Freefall: Radioactive Water Filters Taken Offline, TEPCO in Desperation as Leaks Just Won’t Stop
» North Korea Angry at Swiss Ban on Ski Lift Sale
» The New Luxury for Rich Chinese is to Suckle From a Wet Nurse.
 
Australia — Pacific
» Family Sues Pharmaceutical Company Over Child Brain Damaged by Flu Vaccine
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» All 25,000 Students Who Took University of Liberia Admission Test Fail
» ‘Boko Haram Fighters’ Kill Vigilantes in Borno, Nigeria (BBC, Aug 27, 2013)
 
Immigration
» Amnesty Bill Includes Massive Counterproductive Pork
» Hundreds of Migrants Rescued Off Sicily
» Italy: ‘Pot-Shots’ Taken at Two African Immigrants in Naples
» Italy: Naples Multicultural, Not Racist: Says Mayor
» Libya: Tripoli Zoo Used as Immigrant Detention Centre
» Moroccans Rescue 67 Sub-Saharan Migrants in Strait
» The U.K.’s Honest Immigration Debate: Do We Even Want Any More Legal Immigrants?
 
Culture Wars
» France: Gay-Marriage Refusenik Mayor May Face Prison
» French Mayor Investigated for Not Celebrating Gay Marriage
» Obama Presides Over Security Meltdown
» Qatar: Outcry Against Gay Foreign Employee
» The Revolution of the Family: The Marxist Roots of ‘Homosexualism’
 
General
» Police Now Can Switch Off iPhone Camera and Wi-Fi
» The Pervasive Evil of Communism … And the Moral Bankruptcy of Communist Apologists (Video)
 

French Tax Hikes Would ‘Destroy’ Growth, EU Says

BRUSSELS — New measures to reduce France’s budget deficit must come from public spending cuts, the EU’s economic affairs commissioner said Sunday (25 August), warning that any new taxes would “destroy growth and handicap the creation of jobs.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s Spread Nudges Up to 253 Basis Points

Yield on 10-year bonds hovers at 4.4%

(ANSA) — Milan, August 27 — The spread between Italy’s 10-year bond and its German counterpart perked up slightly at Tuesday’s market opening to 253 basis points compared to Monday’s closing at 249 basis points.

The yield on the 10-year paper opened at 4.4%, a fraction above Monday’s close at 4.38%.

The spread between lending rates in the two countries is seen as an indication of investor faith in the Italian economy and its ability to cope with a lingering recession.

Milan’s top stock exchange plunged dramatically Monday amid investors’ fears that Italy’s fragile coalition government could collapse over a controversy involving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: ‘Tinkering With the Housing Market is a Waste of Time’

The government should stop its efforts to try to reanimate the housing sector and let the market recover under its own steam, a number of experts say in Friday’s Financieele Dagblad. The cabinet is working on several ideas which will be presented to the public in September, along side the 2014 budget. These include allowing home owners to use life insurance policies to pay off part of their mortgages. But such ideas are pretty much a waste of time, Rabobank economist Paul de Vries said. ‘Young people who bought a house five years ago and are now in negative equity are the real problem,’ he told the FD. Surplus valueOlder people, with a lot of surplus value in their properties are most likely to have considerable capital in pension schemes, he pointed out. Amsterdam University professor Roel Beetsma said house prices are already falling less quickly than they were. ‘There comes a point when first time buyers can afford a home,’ he said. Groningen University professor Flip de Kam said the housing market is very sensitive to confidence issues. The government’s decision to cut the transaction tax from 6% to 2% had not boost sales significantly, he pointed out. The recovery may still take several years because ‘sellers still think they can get a high price for their house,’ he told the paper.The average house sale price in the Netherlands has fallen some 20% since the beginning of the economic crisis. Tens of thousands of home owners are now in negative equity, meaning they paid more for their home than it is worth.

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

The Global Financial Death Spiral?

Most American’s have been so focused on trying to make ends meet as the purchasing power of their paycheck rapidly declines that they have only been peripherally aware of what is happening in the world at large. They occasionally hear about the upheavals in Europe and that China is undertaking currency manipulations, but nothing that would really alarm them. They never hear that Japan is in meltdown. Nor do they know that the American taxpayer is paying trillions to keep Europe afloat, even though there are in-your-face examples of what to do to get out of the financial death spiral they are in. The American people are being kept ignorant to keep them from understanding that global events are increasingly threatening everything we take for granted — in a potentially devastating way.

Japan has taken the spending practices of the West and kicked it up to a whole new level. As of this year, they owe 250% of GDP in debt. Just like the U.S., they are trying to print their way out of trouble by firing up the currency printing presses. Over the past year, the value of the Yen has fallen almost 20%. All of this has caused the largest credit bubble in Japan’s history. All of this uncertainty and instability in Japan is causing a crisis in other countries of the region. Japan’s bond market is literally in meltdown threatening their solvency, while China is using smoke and mirrors to convince the world it is wildly prospering.

Fed up with what it sees as Washington’s debauching of the dollar, China is busily promoting the use of its own yuan as the reserve currency with nine other nations. GoldSilver.com writes: “Displacing the dollar, Beijing says, will reduce volatility in oil and commodity prices and belatedly erode the ‘exorbitant privilege’ the United States enjoys as the issuer of the reserve currency at the heart of a post-war international financial architecture it now sees as hopelessly outmoded.” No mention is made that if China is successful, it will make the U.S. dollar worthless.No mention is made that China has major debt problems of its own, as will be discussed in Part II of this Financial Death Spiral series.

Some of QE1 and almost all of QE2 (black line) went to foreign banks (mostly European) in the U.S. (gold) which was then used by the banks to re capitalize and save them from defaulting. The U.S. taxpayer has literally kept the EU afloat, without the taxpayer knowing they were paying for it. It’s happening again with QE3.

Europe is still in deep trouble and continues to get worse, in spite of the $630 billion U.S. dollar bail out by the Federal Reserve (Fed) in QE2 (Quantitative Easing, round 2). This was secretly doled out to European banks, in an enormous bailout of the various failing economies of the Eurozone. Indeed, many major economies around the world are still floundering. Besides the nations of the European Union, Japan, China, Brazil and many other nations are in trouble or are on the verge of collapse.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Amazon ‘Wish List’ Is Gateway to Epic Social Engineering Hack

A security expert was able to use Amazon’s “wish list” feature, along with some personal information he found online, to gain access to a user’s email and credit cards.

Excerpt: A manipulation tactic called social engineering can give anyone smart enough to connect the dots a gateway into your digital domain. It doesn’t require a single line of programming code. “Pretty much anyone can do this,” Geise told CBSNews.com.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

American Paranoia Sets In — Big Time!

Peggy Noonan, in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, said our loss of privacy will likely change Americans. She said: “The end of the expectation that citizens’ communications are and will remain private will probably change us as a people, and a country.”

In her article, Ms. Noonan relates how 88-year-old Nat Hentoff, a renown journalist and civil libertarian, spoke to a group of students at Harvard. She said: “About a year ago he went up to Harvard to speak to a class. He asked, he recalled: “How many of you realize the connection between what’s happening with the Fourth Amendment with the First Amendment?” He told the students that if citizens don’t have basic privacies — firm protections against the search and seizure of your private communications, for instance — they will be left feeling “threatened.” This will make citizens increasingly concerned “about what they say, and they do, and they think.” It will have the effect of constricting freedom of expression. Americans will become careful about what they say that can be misunderstood or misinterpreted, and then too careful about what they say that can be understood. The inevitable end of surveillance is self-censorship.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Americans Would Rather Get a Root Canal or a Colonoscopy Than Launch War Against Syria

We noted last month than Congress is less popular than North Korea, cockroaches, lice, root canals, colonoscopies, traffic jams, used car salesmen, Genghis Khan, Communism, BP during the Gulf oil spill, Nixon during Watergate or King George during the American Revolution.

The Washington Post notes today that a Syria intervention is less popular than Congress. So that means that the American people would much rather get a root canal or a colonoscopy than bomb Syria.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Black Mob on Rampage Fractures Cop’s Skull

Public ‘has no idea’ of racial hatred directed toward white officers

A Chicago police officer is hospitalized in serious condition with a fractured skull, a victim of black mob violence.

The as-of-yet unidentified officer was responding to a call early Saturday morning when he found dozens of people in the street, creating mayhem. He immediately called for backup, but instead of waiting for reinforcements, went to the assistance of a woman under attack.

The mob turned on him: He was struck on the head with the bat.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CAIR to Join March on Washington to Mark Anniversary of MLK ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech, Link ‘Islamophobia’ To Civil Rights Movement

Excerpt: CAIR, America’s largest Muslim advocacy group, will be joined by the D.C. Muslim Caucus, Islamic Relief USA and the Muslim American Citizens Coalition and Public Affairs Council, a press release obtained by The Washington Times said

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Chicagoland: Navy Vet Finishing College Murdered During Mid-Afternoon Robbery in Obama’s Neighborhood

By Jammie

Excerpt: Considering this was black-on-black crime are we allowed to talk about it? Our moral superiors in the media have been tut-tutting the right about discussing the rash of violent black-on-white crimes across the country of late, so we’re curious to know if talking about the out-of-control crimes rate in Chicago is also off limits? Here we have a young man who did things the right way only to fall victim in yet another senseless murder.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Defeating the Nemesis Within

Four Marxist goals: Take out your military, Take your guns, Destroy your borders, Destroy your economy

“The Elephant does not have a spine right now.” — Trevor Loudon

Trevor Loudon, on a U.S. tour to promote his new book, “The Enemies Within,” began his speech to a packed crowd in Fairfax, Virginia, with the relevant question, “Why does a New Zealander from Christchurch care about America?”

The bestselling author encapsulated his answer into two reasons. First, it was simple gratitude to Americans, our fathers, brothers, and uncles, who sacrificed to save his country during WW II. Secondly, it was a selfish reason. “If America goes down so does the West.” Loudon echoed other patriotic editors like Judi McLeod, and her online publication, Canada Free Press, “… Because without America there is no Free World.”

Loudon, a conservative, knows that a socialist, left leaning country like New Zealand would be an easy target if America pulled out from the Pacific region. China would fill the vacuum and New Zealand would become a Chinese protectorate. He realizes that, if the evil Marxist forces at play succeed, Russia would dominate Europe, China would dominate the Far East, the Near East, and the Pacific regions, and Iran would dominate the Middle East.

America has been strong militarily in the last sixty years but that will change in the not so distant future considering all the cutbacks on military expenditures, equipment, personnel, nuclear arsenal, training, and readiness.

The average Americans don’t believe that communism exists. To them, communism is a fashionable Che Guevara t-shirt, with no real comprehension of the horrors it wrought to millions around the globe who had to live under the crushing boot of tyrannical dictatorships.

Communism is like a Phoenix bird rising from its hammer and sickle ashes, drenched in the blood of millions of innocents. In order to succeed this time, after having gone underground since 1989, “Marxists must get rid of America.”

[Comment: Highly recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gaudeamus Janitor

By Mark Steyn

Excerpt: Nevertheless, Professor Vedder has some sobering statistics in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal: “Thirty-percent of the adult population has college degrees,” he notes. “The Department of Labor tells us that only 20% or so of jobs require college degrees. We have 115,520 janitors in the United States with bachelor’s degrees or more.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Harvard University to Teach Breton Language

The fight to keep alive the French regional language of Breton has been given a boost by America’s oldest university after an historic agreement was struck between a French university and Harvard.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Juan Williams Slams Sharpton, Jackson for ‘Corruption’ of Civil Rights Movement

By Jeff Poor

Excerpt: That’s the tradition of Dr. King — stand up and act against bad schools that are condemning these kids to useless lives because they never have an opportunity to climb that ladder of upward mobility. And the civil rights challenge of this generation is education, and Dr. King would never allow anybody to buy his silence, to buy him off, to sell out the kids and that’s what’s happening right now.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Kentucky School Children to Michelle Obama: “Your Food Tastes Like Vomit.”

By Eric Owens

Excerpt: Their primary concern at the board meeting was a bevy of complaints that local children are starving at lunch — and for the remainder of the school day — because the food on offer in the cafeteria is crappy and there isn’t nearly enough of it. “Kids can’t learn when they’re hungry!” parents shouted to the board, according to the Enterprise.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

New York Times Website Down After Suspected Hacking

Excerpt: “The NYTimes.com domain is pointing at SyrianElectronicArmy.com which maps to an IP address in Russia, so it’s clearly a malicious attack,” Ken Westin, a security researcher for Tripwire, an online security company, told the BBC.

The Syrian Electronic Army is seen as a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Has Perfected the Art of Speaking Reproachfully and Carrying Little or No Stick

By Rich Lowry

Excerpt: Here was the leader of the free world pleading for more time to get along with his Russian friends on the basis of an utterly risible assumption of good will. Here was a believer in the policy of “reset” who still didn’t get that the reset was going nowhere. Here was weakness compounded by delusion.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Pentagon Labels Founding Fathers, Conservatives as Extremists

George Washington would not be welcome in the modern U.S. military. Neither would Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, according to Department of Defense training documents that depict the Founding Fathers as extremists and conservative organizations as “hate groups.”

“This document deserves a careful examination by military leadership,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told Fox News. “Congress needs to conduct better oversight and figure out what the heck is going on in our military.”

Included in the 133-pages of lesson plans is a student guide entitled “Extremism.”

The DOD warns students to be aware “that many extremists will talk of individual liberties, states’ rights and how to make the world a better place.”

The document relied heavily on information obtained from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftwing organization that has a history of labeling conservative Christian organizations like the Family Research Council as “hate groups.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La): Cyber-War Could be Pretty Good Business for Lousiana

By Jazz Shaw

Excerpt: But you always want to find the silver lining where you can, and that’s what Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) seems to be doing on this subject because, hey… that could mean a lot of jobs for her home state. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu told the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce that “cyber war is the war of the future” and banks, government agencies, electric grids, emergency response services and the military all are vulnerable to attack by hackers and tech-savvy terrorists. That could mean new jobs for Louisiana.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Stakelbeck Exclusive: Muslim Brotherhood-Tied Group Advising White House

Obama administration officials have described the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA as , the White House’s “preferred outreach partners” in the American Muslim community.

ISNA officials advise the Obama White House on a range of issues, from the Middle East to counterterrorism to immigration policy.

Yet ISNA is anything but moderate.

In fact, the group has strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and has even been named in federal terrorism financing cases.

For more on ISNA’s troubling relationship with the Obama White House, watch my new report by clicking the link above.

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]
 

Students: Obamafood Tastes Like Vomit.

Excerpt: Kentucky students supply an honest review of the allegedly healthy meals moonbat meddler Michelle Obama sees fit to inflict on them:…

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

The Giant Stumbles: Government Looks Bigger, But Not So Sturdy, In Obama’s Second Term

By W. James Antle III

Excerpt: One of the biggest reasons the state tends to grow no matter who is in power is that the country has two big-government parties. Some Republicans are starting to change that, however. Serious fiscal conservatives now have large enough numbers in the House that they, not the Republican leadership, often drive the legislative agenda.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

The Muslim Brotherhood Threat to America

…This, in turn, brings us to recent events linking the man currently occupying our White House illegally (as he is not natural born), Barack Hussein Obama, and the Muslin Brotherhood, a radical extremist Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization!

It is very important, given the information above, that people go to the website, Walid Shoebat, and they read every report found there, especially those found here and here. As with any “watchman on the wall,” Walid Shoebat — who openly admits to having been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who openly names relatives still active in that organization — is being called a “tin foil hat.” How many of us, who have exposed the inner workings of systems philosophy have been called the same thing? Yet we weren’t wrong, as time proved.

The reports on Shoebat’s website outline the connections between Barack Obama and the radical Islamic terrorist organization, The Muslim Brotherhood. Remember when Michelle Bachmann wrote the 16-page letter to Rep. Keith Ellison about the infiltration of the U.S. Government by members of the Muslim Brotherhood; remember the attack on her by various talking heads who claimed it wasn’t true, including Obama lap-dog, John McCain? While McCain and the rest never produced one iota of evidence to disprove Bachmann’s allegations, anyone who claimed she was wrong was given access to a microphone.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

France: Teenage Victim of Veil Attack Attempts Suicide

A 16-year-old girl who was attacked for wearing the Muslim veil in a Paris suburb earlier this month is in a “critical” condition after attempting to take her own life by throwing herself from a fourth story window, according to reports on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hedegaard: “A Man Who is Living Under Death Threats Does Not Fear Islam’s Servile Helper.”

Lars Hedegaard, executive editor of Dispatch International in Copenhagen, published an editorial today expressing outrage about the lack of police responses to death threats he and others have received for exercising their precious rights of free speech criticizing a religion. The editorial was prompted by death threats from Danish and foreign Muslims against Hedegaard and five colleagues. These threats arose from the press conference arranged by The Danish Free Press Society (DFPS) with ex-radical Danish Imam, Ahmed Akkari, last week in Copenhagen. Akkari revealed that virtually all Danish Mosques are led by extremists. Akkari went through a personal transformation through self-introspection prompted by reading a veritable bibliography of Western Enlightenment during long arctic winter nights in Greenland…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Troops Show Best of Italy, Says PM Enrico Letta

(AGI) Herat — “During years in which Italy has not always given a good ‘self-image’ to the world, you have represented the best image of our country to the world,” Prime Minister Enrico Letta told Italian troops in Herat.

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

Italian Economy Minister Says No New Taxes in IMU Repeal

(ANSA) — Rome, August 27 — Italian Economy Minister Flavio Zanonato declared on Tuesday that no new taxes would be raised in order to roll back the controversial IMU property tax.

At the end of a Democratic Party (PD) meeting between the PD secretary Guglielmo Epifani and PD cabinet ministers — the PD is the majority partner in Italy’s divided left-right government — Zanonato said, “There is no hypothesis” of increasing other taxes to cancel the controversial IMU property tax.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Senate PDL Head Warns of Crisis if Berlusconi Loses Seat

(AGI) Rome, August 25 — If the centre-left PD votes to remove Silvio Berlusconi’s seat in the Senate there will be a government crisis, said Renato Brunetta on Sunday. The centre-right PDL party leader in the Senate told Sky that “the council is charged with deciding whether or not to remove Berlusconi’s seat. It is not an automatic decision, it’s a political-parliamentary ruling. If the PD decides to vote come what may for the PDL leader to be banned from the parliament, it’s clear that the PD will be the one to create a government crisis.”

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

Sovereign and Pension Funds Exempt From Italy’s Tobin Tax

FTT to go into effect October 16

(ANSA) — Rome, August 26 — Financial transactions involving sovereign funds, such as treasury bonds, won’t be subject to the new Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) — the so-called Tobin tax — which goes into effect on October 16, the Italian economy ministry announced on Monday.

“Entities and organizations invested in by pension funds” will also be exempt from tariffs on equity and derivatives transactions, but ethical or socially responsible funds will not, the ministry clarified.

Companies that buy shares in their controlled entities, or buy back their own stock to eliminate shares, also won’t pay the new tax destined to hit both counterparties in most equities transactions.

The FTT is nicknamed after Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin who in 1972 proposed a tax on all spot conversions on currencies to prevent attacks inflicted by short-term speculation, but has come to refer to taxes imposed also on other financial transactions, like equities or securities, intended to dampen speculative forays or raise more money for governments from the financial sector.

In September 2011, the European Commission issued a set of guidelines to help member states harmonize their FTT measures, saying EU countries increasingly sought FTTs so that the financial sector “makes a fair and substantial contribution to public finances” and “pay(s) back at least part of what the European tax payers have pre-financed in the context of the bank rescue operations” caused by the financial crisis since 2008.

Several European countries have already instituted FTTs, including Belgium, France, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Greece.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: ‘Malmö Needs a Mayor Like New York’s Giuliani’

Despite a wealth of resources, Malmö has yet to reach its full potential, says liberal commentator Nima Sanandaji, who argues the city needs a crime-fighting mayor in the mold of New York’s former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Gang Leader Shot Dead Outside Health Clinic

A high-ranking member of the Black Cobras criminal gang was shot dead outside a health clinic in Eskilstuna, central Sweden, on Monday in what police believe was a settling of scores in the Swedish underworld.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Muslim Soldiers to Visit Schools to Try to Counter Islamophobia

Ministers hope measures will help to tackle prejudice in the wake of Lee Rigby’s death

Ministers are to send serving Muslim soldiers into schools around the country to counter Islamaphobia in the wake of the killing of Lee Rigby, The Independent has learnt.

Muslim servicemen and women will be asked to address school assemblies alongside their Christian colleagues in parts of the country that have seen a significant rise in religious hate crimes. They are likely to include past and present Muslim soldiers who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as some who were injured.

The plans, which are at an advanced stage, will be discussed next week at the second meeting of the Government’s taskforce on tackling extremism and radicalisation. Reports of anti-Muslim attacks and abuse increased eight-fold in the wake of the death of Fusilier Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London. A month later they were still running at 36 per week.

Earlier this month David Cameron visited a mosque in Manchester where a young white Muslim convert described how attitudes to her had changed as a soon as she covered her head with a veil.

She told him of the hostility she felt from people in the street and in shops, which she had never encountered when she was uncovered. Another woman said she and her friends sometimes “avoided” going into town for fear of abuse over the way they dressed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Time for the BBC to Ban the ‘D’ Word?

By James Delingpole

Excerpt: “A “denier” tests alarming predictions against actual observations. In short, a “denier” exhibits the symptoms of a genuine seeker after scientific truth.

I wish the same could be said of “consensus” writers — or that they showed the same restraint and courtesy towards different opinions shown by sceptics such as Watts Up With That.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: TV Host: Hardline Activist’s Detention Extended

Cairo, 26 August (AKI) — Prosecutors in Cairo on Monday ordered Muslim TV presenter Abdullah Badr and Salafite activist Gamal Saber to be detained for a further 15 days while they are probed on charges of inciting murder at the presidential palace last year, Al-Ahram daily reported on its website.

The two men, who are already in jail on other charges, are accusing of inciting the killing of protesters at the Ittihadeya presidential palace and attempted murder, Al-Ahram said

The pair are also accused of belonging to a “militant terrorist” group, illegally possessing arms and ammunition, and spreading chaos in society, according to al-Ahram.

A number of Islamists are currently facing probes into charges of involvement in clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi outside the presidential palace last December, in which at least ten people were killed and more than 600 wounded.

The Morsi opponents were protesting his 22 November 2012 constitutional declaration that boosted his powers and shielded them from judicial oversight.

Egyptian security forces earlier on Monday arrested former Muslim Brotherhood minister of youth and leading member of the movement Osama Yassin, who faces multiple charges of murder and inciting violence.

Mohamed Hafez, secretary to the Brotherhood’s former deputy supreme guide Khairat El-Shater was also arrested.

The two men were reportedly captured in a villa in Cairo’s eastern outskirts.

Hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood including Morsi have been detained since the army deposed the former president on 3 July following mass protests and launched a deadly crackdown against Morsi supporters earlier this month.

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

Egypt’s Journalists, Still Under Siege

By Ibrahim Essa

Excerpt: I LOOKED on, astonished, as a man a few yards away told protesters that he would slaughter me. He spoke resolutely and enthusiastically, and seemed utterly willing to carry out his promise. The man, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, stood among thousands of stick-waving supporters, their beards long and their faces angry, as they chanted “God is great” and “Down with infidels.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Air Strikes on Syria as Early as Thursday, Sources Tell NBC

Limited objectives, to ‘warn’ regime

(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK — A series of limited attacks on Syria in retaliation for using chemical weapons could be launched “as early as Thursday”, senior US officials told NBC.

The “three days” of strikes would be limited in scope, and aimed at sending a message to Syria’s President Bashar Assad rather than degrading his military capabilities, the sources told NBC news.

News on the possible timetable for military action followed another round of telephone diplomacy between US President Barack Obama, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and French President Francois Hollande.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Kills Six Soldiers on Yemeni Air Force Bus

(AGI) Sanaa, Aug 25 — A bomb exploded on a Yemeni Air Force bus, killing at least six soldiers and injuring 26. The bomb exploded on a bus which was to carry the soldiers from an Air Force base to the near-by international airport of Yemen’s capital Sanaa. Suspicions on who organised the bombing are focused on ‘Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’, the Yemeni branch of the international terrorist organisation.

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

Can Kosovo Serve as a Model for Syria Intervention?

Experts and American media say the Obama administration is looking into the NATO campaign in Kosovo to prepare for potential military action in Syria without UN approval, an avenue blocked by Russia’s veto.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Credibility Over ‘Red Lines’ No Reason for War

By Benjamin H. Friedman

Excerpt: Historical studies show that foreigners do not assess U.S. willingness to intervene based on whether they carried out past threats. They focus, instead, on the local balance of military power and U.S. interests in their case. And leaders clinging to power are especially unlikely to care what we threaten to convince them to surrender it.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Evidence: Syria Gas Attack Work of U.S. Allies

With the assistance of former PLO member and native Arabic-speaker Walid Shoebat, WND has assembled evidence from various Middle Eastern sources that cast doubt on Obama administration claims the Assad government is responsible for last week’s attack.

A video posted on YouTube, embedded below, shows Free Syrian Army, or FSA, rebel forces launching a Sarin gas attack on a Syrian village.

Another video posted on YouTube shows what appears to be Syrian rebel forces loading a canister of nerve gas on a rocket to fire presumably at civilians and possibly government forces.

As seen below, a screen capture from the video shows rebel civilian forces placing a suspicious blue canister on top of a rocket-launching device.

A report from the Russian Arabic-language channel RT Arabic shows captured rebel arsenals apparently with chemical agents manufactured in Saudi Arabia and gas masks, supporting Russian claims that the rebels are the culprits in the alleged chemical attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Expert Sheds Light on Halal Items

KUWAIT: Halal is not only about meat or food. Muslims should also care about whether the products they use on a daily basis is halal or not. Some people care to buy halal products but others can’t find it easily. Dr Hani Al- Mazidi who is interested in this issue is preparing to launch a halal shop in Kuwait. He also published a book on this and sued an international popular franchise for selling non-halal meat. Dr Hani Al-Mazidi works at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and has traveled all over the world for 33 years and visited many European countries. “I visited many slaughter-houses and I know exactly what’s going on there.

I am the eye of Kuwait government around the world, I tell Kuwait exactly what’s going on. I report to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and also to the Saudi government as I’m a member of the Islamic International Halal Authority. I also work with the Muslim World League. I was awarded the Halal Trophy at the Halal Forum held in Malaysia in 2009 for personal achievement,” he told the Kuwait Times. “It’s simple; if you are in doubt, leave it. One of them is meat, so if you are in doubt if the meat was slaughtered according to Islamic way, then throw it away. When it comes to meat, it is easy to recognize the source but in the case of gelatin, we eat pork gelatin here in Kuwait, and it’s called porcine. When Allah the Almighty prohibited drinking or eating blood, it refers to it in all forms.

Nowadays, plasma is taken from blood and used in food, sometimes in medicines,” said Al-Mazidi. Some religious sheikhs invented a concept called ‘Istihala’. Here the original status of the product has been changed to another product, which means it’s okay to eat or use them. “Here, the source is not halal, and this is wrong. If we’re not allowed to eat it, we’re not allowed to use it. We’re not allowed to eat pig or non-halal animals, so we shouldn’t use the soap which is made using its fat also as it’s impure ‘Najis’“, Al- Mazidi explained. Even fish has to be halal nowadays. “Cultured fish in Europe now are fed with pork and gelatin derived from pork, as the law allowed farmers to feed cultured fish pork since pork by-products are cheaper than fish feed. I’m requesting the Kuwait government to get halal certificates on all fish imported. We are also worried that the fish in Vietnam are grown in sewage areas. In some countries, they need halal certificates for all products, like Dubai, for instance.

There is a lot of corruption when it comes to halal,” stressed Al-Mazidi. “In order for a soap to be halal, it has to mention that it has used pure vegetable derivative or no animal by-products. We should seek products without animal fat in any context. Some companies lie about their slaughtering and advertize that the meat was hand-slaughtered, while it was stunned,” said Al-Mazidi. Al-Mazidi went to the Ministry of Health where he presented them a book which mentioned clearly the medicines that used porcine derivatives but they didn’t care.

The gelatin used in the capsules can be substituted with complex carbohydrates which even Hindus can consume, but nobody cares. This is why I open the capsule and eat the medicine directly without the cover,” he added. Al-Mazidi is also working on establishing a halal research and development section at KISR in co-operation with the Putra University in Malaysia. “We will take products from the market to examine it or to guide the Ministry of Awqaf to elaborate why stunning is not good and the meat derived from this method is unhealthy, for instance. Or the Ministry of Health will demand proof that a soap is not made from pig or animal fat. The consumer has the right to know what he is paying for,” he explained.

The major problem when it comes to halal meat is the technique that is used before or after slaughtering. “I’m referring to stunning. It is almost a law in Europe that the animal must be stunned before slaughtering and sometimes even after slaughtering to maintain the quality of the chicken or beef. They believe it is humane for the animal to be stunned so it will not feel the cut, but animals anyway can’t feel the cut, the same as humans who feel the pain of a shaving cut only on seeing it and not before. The problem with stunning is that sometimes the animal dies, and we are not allowed to slaughter dead animals,” he pointed out. “I work together with the Jewish community and we published papers on halal and kosher as we were victims of the secular society who do not take into consideration the religious requirements.

We read the old testament including Bible and Quran and they all say the same thing about religious food. For instance, we are not allowed to drink blood, but now when we look at the Christian society we find that they use blood in cooking, although the Bible forbids it as well, apart from eating pigs in some verses.

This is in all old testaments, as they came from the same source,” he added. He published a book previously including different products as a safety guide. “Now I have a new book called ‘My Food Book’ which will tell you what is good and what is not, even health-wise. It’s self educational. I’m also preparing to launch a halal shop. I’m against stunning, mechanical slaughtering, Istihala and alcohol. This book will inform customers of complete halal products,” said Al-Mazidi.

[“I am the eye of Kuwait government in 33 countries” says the “halal expert”. Unfortunately, this eye of Kuwait government isn’t looking for ways to development and civilisation; it is focused on whether capsules for medicines contain “haram” gelatin… — RR]

           — Hat tip: RR [Return to headlines]
 

Families Accuse Qatar of ‘Kidnapping’ French Nationals

The wives of four Frenchmen held in Qatar appealed to the French government to help their husbands, who, they claim, are being denied exit visas for fraudulent reasons. Their lawyer claims that the men have been kidnapped.

“They thought that we would become demoralised,” declared Johanna Belounis at a press conference in Lille, northern France, on Monday.

Her husband, Franco-Algerian footballer Zahir Belounis, went to play for a Qatari club in 2007 but claims not to have been paid for nearly two years.

When he sued his club for 21 months pay, he was told that he must drop the case in order to obtain an exit visa.

Another man, Jean-Pierre Marongiu, claims that his Qatari business partners demanded that he give them his share of the company they had set up jointly without payment.

He fled to neighbouring Bahrein in a kayak but, according to the men’s lawyer, Franck Berton, the French embassy there handed him over to the Bahreini authorities, who, in turn, handed him over to the Qatari coastguard.

The French foreign affairs ministry denies the accusation but says that the embassy tried to dissuade him to “illegally go to Manama”, pointing out that an embassy “cannot aid nationals to flee justice”.

Berton is also representing another entrepreneur, Nasser Al-Awartany, and football trainer Stéphane Morello and is due to go to to Doha to meet the four men at the beginning of September.

French footballer Abdeslam Ouaddou gave his support to the families.

He had found himself “stuck” in Qatar in similar conditions and has appealed to world football authority, Fifa, to intervene in the case, he said.

Berton, who sasy the men are effectively hostages, intends to open a case in Qatar, pointing out that the men’s official sponsors, include members of the gulf state’s royal family.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France Will Not Shirk Responsibility in Syria

(AGI) Paris, Aug 27 — According to a diplomatic source, France will not shirk its responsibility in reacting to the alleged chemical attack wielded by the Syrian regime on the eastern suburbs of Damascus. The source added that “the use of chemical weapons, which continued for many months and now for the first time has taken place on a massive scale, is unacceptable,” also stating that France is certain that loyalist forces were responsible for the attack.

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

Hollande Says France ‘Ready to Punish’ Syria Over Gas Attack

French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that his country is prepared to take action against those responsible for gassing people in Syria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Inspectors in Syria Forbidden From Finding Out Who Used Chemical Weapons, Only if They Were Used

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“The [weapons inspection] team must be able to conduct a full, thorough and unimpeded investigation,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday night. However, the team is only mandated to determine if chemical weapons were used, not who used them, Mr. Ban’s spokesman said.

In other words, even if it was the rebels who carried out the attack, it will still be used as an excuse to attack the government.

The fix is in … the U.S. will get the war it planned 20 years ago.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Steps Up Threats to Sufis

By Stephen Schwartz

Excerpt: The title of Ferghe News, an Iran-based website, means “Cult News.” It is dedicated mainly to defaming Sufi Muslims. But Ferghe News, following the ideological posture of the Iranian clerical dictatorship, also condemns the Saudi-based Wahhabi sect (historically the most violent enemies of the Sufis), the Baha’is, never favored by Khomeinist Tehran, and “New Age” movements.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: Patriarch Sako Calls on Christians Not to Flee Iraq

During a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Zakho and Emmadea (Kurdistan), the Chaldean patriarch urged all the churches to help families in difficulty. For the prelate, the Christian presence is crucial for the future of the country. Calling on Christians not to leave the country, he mentioned the story of Romtha (Mosul), a village reborn thanks to the efforts of 35 Christian families.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — “Help Christian villages in the north of Iraq,” pleaded Mar Rapheal Luis Sako I, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, during his pastoral visit to the Joint Diocese of Zakho and Emmadea on 15-23 August.

Some 40 local villages and towns face a major crisis because of Shia-Sunni confrontation in Iraq and Syria. Already hampered by the lack of water and electricity, residents have almost no access to medical care in hospitals or clinics.

“These villages are in dire need, and we call on our benefactors, from all the dioceses and Chaldean churches, to help the Christian population, because their presence is very important,” the patriarch said.

In recent months, the diocese of Mosul, Kirkuk, Zackho, Emmadea and Erbil have experienced first-hand the Shia-Sunni conflict in Syria, the confrontation between Iraq’s central and provincial governments over oil resources and the attacks by Muslim extremists against civilians, including Christians.

In recent years, hundreds of families have fled the country finding refuge in the West or in other countries of the Middle East. At the same time, many thousands of Syrian Muslim Kurds fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.

In a pastoral letter to the Christians of northern Iraq, the Chaldean patriarch stressed the importance of the Christian presence, them to resist and not to flee.

“Christians in Kurdistan are indigenous citizens,” he explained. “They have deep roots that cannot be eradicated for they go back two thousand years. Several of them have sacrificed their lives along with their Muslim brothers for freedom, dignity, and coexistence.”

For Patriarch Sako, Christians are a key factor in preserving the cultural and religious pluralism that for centuries characterised Iraq, the cradle of the first civilisation and home of the first diocese.

“I invite you to participate actively in all aspects of life: cultural, political, and social,” the prelate said.

However, it is with sorrow that he also spoke about the great exodus of the Christian population, reduced in almost a decade from one million to less than 400,000.

“Do not sell your homes and your land. They are your fathers’ legacy. You must keep your land forever instead of becoming migrants and foreigners in the diaspora.”

As an example, the patriarch mentioned the story of the village of Akra.

“In my visit to Mosul,” he said, “I met 35 families from Akra, who moved to Duhok where they bought a village called ‘Romtha’. Here they built their homes, a church, a community hall and a school and started to farm the fields. “

“Do not be afraid of difficulties,” the patriarch said, “because they renew and elevate your presence.”

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

Israel’s Unit 8200 Provides Target Intelligence for a Possible US Syria Strike

The financial markets and the news media are jittery about what the Obama West Wing and the Pentagon are planning to do with those 90 cruise missiles aboard US Navy vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Syria. From news reports from Israel and Germany, It appears that Israel is providing the target intelligence for a possible military strike in Syria. The latest word is it is likely to be a strong but limited strike against command and control centers involved with Chemical and perhaps biological weapons.

A report from the Times of Israel (ToI)on planning for a possible strike revealed how closely the IDF monitors

Syrian CW command and control, “Israeli intelligence seen as central to US case against Syria”.

IDF fabled Elite Electronic intelligence Unit 8200 assisted in developing the evidence of the Syria CW attack. Unit 8200 identified the Syrian military unit and Assad’s brother who likely ordered those CW nerve gas rounds to be fired at opposition centers in the suburbs of Damascus like Jobar. Jobar was once a revered site for Syrian Jews, who left for Israel and their diaspora in the West…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: No Military Action in Syria Without UN Mandate, Says Bonino

UK working on military reponse. Russia, catastrophic effects

(ANSAmed) — ROME/ NEW YORK/MOSCOW — ‘Italy will not take part in a military solution without a UN Security Council mandate,” Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told the joint parliamentary foreign affairs commissions on Tuesday.

Instead, the UK armed forces are preparing an emergency plan in case of armed response to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, Downing Street made known Tuesday. “The international community must respond” to such an attack, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister David Cameron said. The “crime against humanity” committed in Syria cannot go unanswered, the Turkish foreign minister stated.

Attempts to bypass the UN Security Council on a possible Syria intervention “create for the umpteenth time unfounded, artificial pretexts for a military intervention in the region, which will wreak more suffering on Syria and have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East and North Africa,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Tuesday. US Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement yesterday alleging the US possesses “undeniable” evidence that the Damascus regime used chemical weapons “has nevertheless not yet been presented”, Lukashevich added. “There is still no proof that the August 21 attack was carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces”, Russian President Vladimir Putin told UK Prime Minister David Cameron in a phone call yesterday.

The US response belittling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s opening to UN inspectors and Washington’s conclusion that he is responsible for a still unproven chemical weapons attack is just “rhetoric”, the New China news agency said in a long editorial. Beijing does not countenance “the drums calling for a possible armed intervention” by the US and “its allies”, the editorial continued. “It is imperative that the US and countries that think alike abstain from any rash armed intervention. They must let the United Nations play their decision-making part and act accordingly”.

US President Barack Obama is weighing a limited strike on military targets in Syria in response to an alleged August 21 chemical weapons raid, The Washington Post newspaper reported.

The intervention would last “not more than two days” and would be carried out with missiles from US Navy warships in the Mediterranean, administration sources reportedly said. It would both punish the use of chemical weapons and act as a deterrent, and would target military objectives not strictly linked to Syria’s chemical arsenal.

While the US president has yet to make a decision, his administration is consulting with allies and has abandoned hopes of obtaining a UN mandate for such an intervention, which Russia would certainly veto.

The US State Department on Monday announced it had postponed a meeting scheduled for Wednesday in The Hague between senior diplomats from the US and Russia due to “ongoing consultations to find an appropriate response” over the alleged chemical weapons attack.

Three issues are pending before the US could intervene, according to The Washington Post. These are completion of intelligence reports confirming the Assad regime carried out the attack, consultations with allies and the US Congress, and coming up with a justification for intervention based on international law. Administration lawyers are examining international norms banning chemical warfare. Another option would be a request for assistance from one of Syria’s neighbors, such as Turkey.

Intelligence agencies are due to present their findings, including tapped radio and telephone communications between Syrian army commanders proving the Syrian government is responsible for the fatal attack, with a few days.

“Military action could still be avoided should the Assad government and its Russian ally back down. But expectations on this are low”, US media reported citing US administration sources.

An intervention in Syria would have “grave consequences throughout the Middle East,” a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned. Tehran hopes “European leaders” will “exercise wisdom in their decision-making” and try to find a “political solution” instead of attacking Syria, the spokesman said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lavrov Compares Intimidation of Syria to Iraq Campaign

(AGI) Moscow — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has compared the current intimidation of Syria to the campaign against Iraq .

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

Lebanon: Patriarch Rai Claims Plan to ‘Destroy Mideast’

The West ‘foments conflict between Muslims’

(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, AUGUST 23 — There is a plan to destroy the Arab world for political and economic interests, Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rai told Radio Vaticano on Friday, just after deadly attacks in Lebanon. The Maronite Patriarch of Antioch said that “there is a plan to intensify inter-confessional conflict in the Muslim world, between Sunnis and Shiites”. “Unfortunately this is a policy that comes from abroad,” he added. “There are countries, especially Western ones but also Eastern ones, that are fomenting these conflicts.” The explosions during Friday prayers shook the northern Lebanese city Tripoli on Friday, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, in a city which has seen brutal clashes between Sunni supporters of the Syrian opposition and Alawites connected with the Syrian regime under President Bashar Al-Assad. The current scenario, however, affects the entire area from Syria to Egypt. “Everything that happens in the Middle East — whether in Egypt, Syria, or Iraq — is a two-dimensional war. In Iraq and Syria, the war is between Sunnis and Shiites, while in Egypt the war is between fundamentalists including the Muslim Brotherhood and moderates,” said the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, saying that the West also plays a part in fomenting these “wars without end”. Cardinal Rai said that the result is that Christians are the ones to pay the highest price. “As always,” he said, “when there is chaos or war, Muslims in general attack Christians, they use them as scapegoats. I am sorry, but in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood were the ones to attack Coptic churches and Copts as well. Unfortunately this is the mentality of certain Muslims: every time there is a situation of chaos, Christians are attacked without even knowing why.” In Lebanon, there is a tradition of coexistence that is now is severe danger due to growing conflict between Muslims. “We Christians,” said the Catholic Maronite cardinal,” have been living alongside Muslims for 1,400 years, and we have spread the human and moral values of multi-confessionality, plurality, and modernity in these lands. Thanks to the presence of Christians, in our daily life in all of these Arab countries we have created a certain moderation in the Muslim world.” We are now “watching the total destruction of everything that Christians have built over the past 1,400 years. At the same time, Christians are paying the price for these wars between Sunnis and Shiites, and between moderates and fundamentalists in Egypt.” Cardinal Rai used the example of Egypt to say that “the West contributed by giving billions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood, so that they could get into power.” And, “once in power, they began to apply the Sharia, Islamic law. They took the country backwards.” Cardinal Rai said that he had already written to Pope Francis twice to “explain to him what is happening” and to tell him “the whole truth”. “Unfortunately, the aim is to destroy the Arab world, and Christians are the ones paying the price,” he concluded. “In Iraq, out of a million and a half Christians we have lost one million, without hearing a word from the international community.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

More Than 15 Thousand Syrian Kurds Flee to Iraq. Archbishop of Erbil: “Help Us”

The exodus is the largest in the recent history of the Kurdish population. The risk is the disappearance of ethnicity in the regions of Syria. Archishop Warda of Erbil, speaks of the work of the local church among the refugees. They are mostly women, elderly and children.

Erbil (AsiaNews) — More than 15 thousand refugees of Kurdish ethnicity have crossed the border with Iraq to seek refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan in recent days. The exodus is the largest in the recent history of the Kurdish people. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, a city that is hosting the largest number of refugees, tells AsiaNews: “These people have left their homes and their belongings in Syria. They need everything: food, water, medicines and a shelter to sleep under. “ The prelate says that the majority are women, elderly and children. Men and older children have remained in Syria to fight against the Islamist militias who in recent months have tried to conquer the region.

“Since the beginning of the exodus — continues Msgr. Warda — the diocese of Erbil kicked off a campaign of support, collecting basic necessities and creating places to welcome refugees”. To handle the situation, the diocese has created a special committee, the Mercy Charitable Committee, with headquarters in Ankawa (Erbil) that sends food and goods daily to the camps set up by the government. Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict Iraq, and particularly the region of Kurdistan, has hosted more than 300 thousand refugees.

Archbishop Warda launches an appeal for support for the refugee population: “We need your help. We would greatly appreciate any help from people who want to help to feed and care for these families in need.” The prelate stresses that the Chaldean Church, through its committee, makes regular visits to the camps, to verify the distribution of food. “We would be grateful to all those who want to support us.”

This mass migration deeply concerns the regional government of Kudistan, unable for the moment to absorb the number of people arriving in the area. According to a source inside the Kurdish Democratic Party (Pyd) in recent months, the regional government has attempted to control the pass, giving the green light only to trade. However, no one expected an exodus of the population of this size. For Kurdish authorities if it continues at this level, then Syrian Kurdistan will be deserted. (S.C.)

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

Moscow Patriarchate: Acting as “International Executioners, “ the US is Sacrificing Muslims and Christians in Syria

Speaking to AsiaNews, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, condemns threats of NATO intervention without a UN mandate. More victims will be “sacrificed on the altar of an imaginary democracy”.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — As a Western military intervention against the regime of Bashar al-Assad appears increasingly likely, the Russian Orthodox Church expresses “strong concern” about possible developments of the crisis, this following US charges that the regime used chemical weapons against civilians.

“Once again, as was the case in Iraq, the United States is acting as an international executioner”, said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Speaking to AsiaNews, the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church strongly criticised the US position, which is “completely one-sided.”

“Without the endorsement of the United Nations, they want to decide the fate of a whole country of millions of inhabitants.”

“Once again,” Hilarion warned, “thousands of lives will be sacrificed on the altar of an imaginary democracy;” among them, according to the Metropolitan, there are, first of all, “Christians, about whose fate no one cares.”

They are at “risk of becoming hostages to the situation and the main victims of radical extremist forces, who, with the help of the United States, will come to power.”

“The international community,” he concluded, “must do everything to avoid that events develop in this direction.” (M.A.)

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

Muslims Promise to Kill Prominent Danes and the Politicians Talk

By Ingrid Carlqvist

Legal affairs spokesman for the Social Democratic Party, Ole Hækkerup, wants to “look into all possibilities” of denying entry to Denmark for people who have participated in holy war in Syria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New York Times: Two Outages in Two Weeks: Syrian Electronic Army: “Media is Going Down”

By Mandy Nagy

Excerpt: And that may not be the only target, as it appears the Syrian Electronic Army may have compromised the registration records for the NY Times, Huffington Post UK and Twitter. Eileen Murphy, VP of corporate communications at The New York Times, tweeted earlier that the outlet’s outage today was “most likely result of malicious external attack.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Outsiders Have No Tools to Fix Syria

By Christopher A. Preble

Excerpt: The deeply dysfunctional Syrian state is not something outsiders have the tools to repair. Cruise missiles launched from ships and submarines won’t persuade the divided Syrian opposition to unite around a common goal, nor are they likely to cause President Bashar Assad’s supporters to capitulate and throw in their lot with the rebels. But such strikes will result in additional death and destruction on the ground.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Pushes to Stop Intervention in Syria, But Its Only Weapon is Diplomacy

Russian steps up pressure on Western governments. Moscow warns that an attack without UN mandate would be a “violation of international law” and would only worsen the situation. Experts: the Kremlin will react only with non-military measures.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — All Russia can do is wait. That is the headline one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country, Kommersant, summarizing the latest developments of the Kremlin’s diplomatic pressure on Europe and the United States, to avoid the increasingly realistic step of military intervention against the Syrian regime. U.S., Britain and France are convinced that government forces used the chemical weapons in Ghouta (outskirts of Damascus), on 21 August, and in response want a NATO attack, even without the mandate of the Security Council. Moscow has condemned the initiative as “a violation of international law,” he warned against “dire consequences” for the whole region, but can only invite its Western partners to caution, pending the results of the UN experts inquiry into the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

President Vladimir Putin reiterated to the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, that “there is no evidence” of Bashar al-Assad’s forces being responsible for the chemical attack. The Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, at an urgently convened conference August 26, complained that “the West has already decided.” At the same time he warned against having any illusions: “Bombing the military infrastructure, leaving the field of battle open to victory for the opposition to the regime, will not solve the situation.” Even if there is a victory, the civil war will continue”, declared the head of Russian diplomacy, recalling the examples of Iraq and Libya.

Lavrov also criticized the U.S., referring how the Secretary of State, John Kerry, has failed to provide or explain Washington’s strategy on Syria. At the same time, he ensured the White House remains determined to bring the Syrian opposition to the table of an international peace conference. Which at this point would be “impossible” to hold in September, as first thought, admitted the Russian minister, convinced that ‘“hysteria” around chemical weapons is being whipped up by those who want to derail any political solution to the crisis. Signs arriving from the U.S. are far from encouraging after the meeting scheduled for August 28, in The Hague, with the Russian delegates to revive Geneva 2 was postponed at the last minute.

Beyond the bright tones, the Kremlin — which alongside China has blocked all resolutions against Assad at the UN — can do little to deter the coalition military option. The increasingly tense relations with the White House, note analysts, deprive Moscow of any weapon of effective pressure. And the Federation has no interest in being drawn into an international conflict. As Lavrov himself said, Russia “will not go to war with anyone.”

“It ‘s hard to imagine that Russia will interfere directly in case of intervention” — political scientist Sergei Karaganov, head of a working group of the Presidential Council for Human Rights told Interfax. “I highly doubt that it is useful or can provide the necessary hardware, in such a situation, and enough weapons have already been accumulated there. “

Alexei Makarkin, vice president of the Center for political technologies, is convinced that in case of outside intervention, Moscow will react towards the U.S., but only with non-military measures. Speaking to The Moscow Times, the analyst pointed out that because of poor bilateral relations between the Kremlin and the White House, Putin has no way to influence Barack Obama’s decision. Evgheny Satanovsky, head of the think tank Institute for the Middle East is of the same opinion: “There are no strong economic ties between the two countries, the U.S. does not depend in any way on Russia and vice versa.” Obama’s visit of to the G20 meeting in St. Petersburg (5-6 September) will be completely ruined if there is any military intervention beforehand- the expert warned — but the most Moscow can actually do is cancel the face to face meeting with the U.S. President or cu back on its ties with the United States. “ Moreover, already at historic lows.

Even the White House’s attempts to bring Russia to abandon Assad are in vain. American analysts recall thestrategic interests at stake, represent by the Russian naval base in Tartus, which counterbalances the American naval fleet in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The journalist Robert Fisk points out that you only have to look at a map to understand Putin’s concerns: Syria is close to Chechnya, the Caucasus republic, which has already experienced an Islamic anti-Russian revolt. The chaos in Syria could lead to new instability in that region never completely pacified and from where many are believed to have left to enroll with the Syrian opposition.

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

Syria: Intervention Unthinkable Without UN, Says Bonino

Exile or incriminate Assad; war could have grave repercussions

(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 26 — “Military intervention in Syria without UN Security Council approval is not feasible,” Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told Radio Radicale on Monday.

“We should try to avoid making an international drama into a global one,” she added, urging listeners to consider the possible reactions of Russia and Iran. “Even a limited intervention runs the risk of becoming unlimited. We must think it over a thousand times,” because “the repercussions could be dramatic”. With a “unanimous” Security Council vote “we could take other roads, not necessarily military ones” in Syria, such as “deferring” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “to the International Criminal Court” or campaigning for his exile.

This would “avoid military intervention” and further bloodshed, said Bonino.

A long-time member of the Italian Radical Party, Emma Bonino in the past campaigned for sending late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein into exile as an alternative to war.

The minister hoped allies “will share their information” on Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons, which “has such far-reaching implications that we hope not to return to dubious positions taken in the past”.

The July 21 use of chemical weapons is “largely established”, Bonino said.

However UN inspectors may only be able to collect “indirect proof, because nothing is more volatile than gas” and because a subsequent government air raid that “caused 700 deaths” might have tainted the evidence. Whatever country “says it has certain proof” of Assad’s use of such weapons should share that information in “the proper setting for sharing and analysis, such as the UN Security Council”, Bonino said in reference to “peremptory declarations” made by “Great Britain, France, some in the US, and Israel”.

It is no secret, the minister remarked, that the Pentagon is the most reluctant to intervene within the US administration.

This is for ideological reasons but because of “the complexity on the ground and in the region that they would be facing”, Bonino said. Bonino will discuss Syria with Premier Enrico Letta and Defense Minister Mario Mauro after a cabinet meeting tonight, she said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Obama Weighs Limited ‘Surgical’ Strikes

Two days at the most; military objectives to be targeted

(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, AUGUST 27 — A series of ‘surgical strikes’ on strategic objectives and those holding symbolic significance seems to be the course of action US president Barack Obama is weighing after Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad crossed the ‘red line’ of using chemical weapons on rebels and civilians. The intervention, however, would not be one able to change the course of the war tearing the country apart for the past two years, one in which over 100,000 people have lost their lives. Information continues to leak out on the intervention that President Obama and his closest allies are preparing in response to the mass killings in Syria. US officials have told NBC that strikes may begin on Thursday and last for three days, attacks which would be limited in scope and aim to send a clear message to the Syrian regime. A punitive intervention limited in scope and duration that would serve as a deterrent for President Assad, writes the Washington Post, which quotes high-ranking administration officials as saying that the strikes would last two days. Press leaks and speculation on possible objectives are making the rounds as well. In addition to intelligence information gathered by the secret services of several nations, a detailed list is said to have been provided by the Syrian opposition to Western nations. The plan being weighed does not take ground troops or the imposition of a no-fly zone into consideration, much less striking directly at President Al-Assad, an administration source told Bloomberg. High-value regime objectives of air, naval and ground defenses, as well as logistics support and the Armed Forces Command centres would be the aim: targets not directly connected with the regime’s chemical arsenals. The Pentagon is undoubtedly ready: for months it has been drawing up a series of options for President and Commander in Chief Obama to intervene in Syria, while at the same time staying out of the conflict as much as possible. This is why air strikes are under consideration, which would be conducted with fighter jets outside of Syrian air space and especially with the warships in the Mediterranean, where the US has bolstered its destroyers able to launch Cruise missiles. On August 18, the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier had moved away from the area through the Suez Canal, but may still be in the range of action. British units are also part of the operations, including an attack submarine, as are French ones, including the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. The Washington Post reports that the timetable is likely to depend on three factors: the completion of an intelligence report determining that Assad’s regime is to blame for the recent chemical weapons attack, consultation with allies and Congress and justification for intervention on the basis of international law. In any case, the countdown seems to have started.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Nerve Gas, Not Assad’s Regime: U.N. Official

Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.

Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed.

Damascus has recently facing growing Western accusations that its forces used such weapons, which President Obama has described as crossing a red line. But Ms. del Ponte’s remarks may serve to shift the focus of international concern.

Ms. del Ponte, who in 1999 was appointed to head the U.N. was crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, has sometimes been a controversial figure. She was removed from her Rwanda post by the U.N. Security Council in 2003, but she continued as the chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav tribunal until 2008.

Ms. del Ponte, a former Swiss prosecutor and attorney general, told Swiss TV: “Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals. According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated.”

She gave no further details, the BBC said.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria was established in August 2011 to examine alleged violations of human rights in the Syrian conflict which started in March that year.

It is due to issue its next report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June.

Rebel Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Almokdad denied that rebels had use chemical weapons.

“In any case, we don’t have the mechanism to launch these kinds of weapons, which would need missiles that can carry chemical warheads, and we in the FSA do not possess these kind of capabilities,” Mr. Almokdad told CNN.

“More importantly, we do not aspire to have (chemical weapons) because we view our battle with the regime as a battle for the establishment of a free democratic state. … We want to build a free democratic state that recognizes and abides by all international accords and agreements — and chemical and biological warfare is something forbidden legally and internationally.”

           — Hat tip: Henrik Ræder Clausen [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Supporters of Intervention in Syria Have Not Yet Made a Convincing Case

By Daniel Hannan

Excerpt: The trouble is that, while I’m on balance against a British intervention, I can see decent arguments on the other side. Let me summarise, as I understand it, the case for deploying force. First, it’s important to be clear about what the interventionists want.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

US Attempts to Sabotage UN Chemical Weapons Investigation

Desperate to maintain a narrative that will justify a cruise missile attack on Syria, the Obama administration is seemingly trying everything within its power to sabotage the UN chemical weapons investigation in Syria.

The reason is obvious — the last time the United Nations investigated claims of chemical weapons use in Syria, its inspectors concluded that it was the rebels and not Assad’s forces who were likely behind the sarin gas attack.

Eager to avoid a repeat that would completely derail the march to war, the White House in concert with Britain has repeatedly attempted to scupper the UN investigation or render it meaningless.

In the latest example, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration told UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon that “there wasn’t adequate security for the U.N. inspectors to visit the affected areas to conduct their mission,” a clear warning (or a blatant threat) that inspectors should pull out entirely.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Laying Groundwork for Military Strike on Syria

The Obama administration on Tuesday was set to build the public case for a military strike on Syria by releasing documents on last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack — with one senior Defense official telling Fox News that a U.S. strike is “not a matter of if, but when.” One day after Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the evidence of a chemical weapons attack last week in Syria in “undeniable,” the White House was expected to release intelligence backing up that claim.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Sees Greek Role in Possible Syria Strike

Permission to use military bases asked for, press

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, AUGUST 27 — Amid speculation that U.S. President Barack Obama is considering military options to help end the Syria crisis, daily Kathimerini reports that Washington has asked Athens, a NATO ally, to provide permission for US military ships and aircraft to pass through Greek territory as well as use of the Souda Bay and Kalamata military bases.

The allied presence in the southeastern Mediterranean region is reportedly larger than usual, which some analysts suggest indicates a decision for military intervention has already been made following the August 21 mass gassing of civilians by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

France and Germany, which refused to support the 2003 Iraq invasion, suggested Monday that they may take part. Russia claims any such intervention would violate international law. Greece contributed to NATO’s 2011 operation in Libya, using its air and naval assets and providing its main bases. Meanwhile, Ankara’s political involvement in the Syria crisis has made the allies skeptical about using Turkish military bases and passage routes.

However, Greek officials have ruled out the possibility of active military involvement. They say the armed forces would only be mobilized in a bid to remove Greek nationals from the area in the event of all-out war.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Western Warplanes Begin Arriving in Cyprus

Remember what the 2012 leaked Stratfor memo said about the focal point of western airborne power? Here it is again: “Syrian air defenses are a lot more robust and are much denser, esp around Damascus and on the borders with Israel, Turkey. THey are most worried about mobile air defenses, particularly the SA-17s that they’ve been getting recently. It’s still a doable mission, it’s just not an easy one. The main base they would use is Cyprus, hands down. Brits and FRench would fly out of there. They kept stressing how much is stored at Cyprus and how much recce comes out of there. The group was split on whether Turkey would be involved, but said Turkey would be pretty critical to the mission to base stuff out of there. EVen if Turkey had a poltiical problem with Cyprus, they said there is no way the Brits and the FRench wouldn’t use Cyprus as their main air force base.” (sic) Well, it has begun. Guardian reports that “Warplanes and military transporters have begun arriving at Britain’s Akrotiri airbase on Cyprus, less than 100 miles from the Syrian coast, in a sign of increasing preparations for a military strike against the Assad regime in Syria.”…

Now: about those Russian warships — are they still parked in Cyprus?

Recall: Russian Pacific Fleet Warships Enter Mediterranean For First Time In Decades, To Park In Cyprus

in a historic event, the Russian Pacific fleet, for the first time in decades, crossed the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean, direction Cyprus’ port of Limasol (hi Cyprus — Russia will be arriving shortly) in what is now the loudest implied warning to the US and Israel amassing military units across Syria’s border that Russia will not stand idly by as Syria is used by the Israeli “Defense” Forces for target practice. “The task force has successfully passed through the Suez Channel and entered the Mediterranean. It is the first time in decades that Pacific Fleet warships enter this region,” Capt. First Rank Roman Martov said. This is what is also known as dropping hints, loud and clear.

The group, including the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, the amphibious warfare ships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoi, the tanker Pechenga and the salvage/rescue tug Fotiy Krylov left the port of Vladivostok on March 19 to join Russia’s Mediterranean task force.

The task force currently includes the large anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, the frigate Yaroslav Mudry, the salvage/rescue tugs Altai and SB-921 and the tanker Lena from the Northern and Baltic Fleets, as well as the Ropucha-II Class landing ship Azov from the Black Sea Fleet. The task force may be enlarged to include nuclear submarines, Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov said last Sunday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Afghanistan Will Not be Alone After 2014, Says Italian PM

(AGI) Herat, Aug 25 — On a vist to the Italian contingent PM Enrico Letta assured that even after 2014, Italy won’t abandon Afghanistan. “The ISAF mission will end in 2014, but we are here to tell the Kabul government that even after that date we will not abandon this nation,” Enrico Letta said. He arrived in Afghanistan at seven a.m. local time (4.30 p.m. in Rome). After a visit to the Italian base Letta will meet with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

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

Buddhists Burn Muslim Homes and Shops in Burma

Members of a 1,000-strong Buddhist mob torched dozens of homes and shops in northwestern Burma following rumours that a Muslim man tried to sexually assault a young woman, officials and witnesses said, as the country was once again gripped by sectarian violence.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

India: Protest in Kerala Over Forced Marriage of Minor Girl

The reported forced marriage of a minor Kerala girl, who was staying in an orphanage, to a visiting Arab has led to protests in the state, with the Democratic Youth Federation of India staging a siege of the social welfare office in Kozhikode.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

India: The Story You Never Wanted to Hear

When people ask me about my experience studying abroad in India, I always face the same dilemma. How does one convey the contradiction that over the past few months has torn my life apart, and convey it in a single succinct sentence? “India was wonderful,” I go with, “but extremely dangerous for women.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indonesia: Jakarta: Islamic Extremists Rise Against Miss World and Anti-Terrorist Squad

The notorious Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) demands the suppression of beauty contest, claiming it is foreign to the “national culture” and foments “carnal desire”. Densus-88, the special anti terrorist units guilty of killing innocent civilians during a raid, also targeted by fundamentalists.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), an organization close to the fanatic fringe of the Muslim world, has launched a new and violent attack against the upcoming Miss World contest, whose 2013 edition is scheduled in late September in Bali and Bogor (West Java), Indonesia. Their anathema was launched a few days ago, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 15th anniversary of the birth of the movement.

Together with the cancellation of the event, now in its 63rd edition, they are demanding the dissolution of the special anti-terrorist squad. The beauty contest had already sparked controversy and conflict in June leading to the cancellation of the swimsuit segment, in order not to offend the sensibilities of Muslims. The competition — adds Rizieq Shihab, leader of FPI in Jakarta, quoting former President Suharto — “is irreconcilable with our costumes, it incites sexual desire among men, and is alien to the national culture.”

The attack is not only about Miss World, Shihab also invokes the “dissolution” of the popular anti-terrorism squad Densus-88, the protagonist of raids and attacks on Muslim extremist cells. The FPI claims the elite counter-terrorism squad should be disbanded because of the (presumed) series of mistakes that led to the accidental death of innocent people during the last raid. “They have made serious human rights violations — said the extremist leader — and must be held accountable to the ICC.”

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world. Although individual rights are protected under the constitution, including religious freedom, the country has seen a rise in violent attacks against minorities and laws that discriminate based on gender. In Aceh, local authorities have implemented Islamic law, the only province in the archipelago to do so; however, more and more regions are coming under the influence of radical extremist views of Islam. Increasingly, bans are imposed in personal matters and the lives of citizens.

Leading this campaign of “Islamization” are the members of the Islamic Defender Front who call the shots in different areas by imposing rules and regulations inspired by sharia, such as the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and other regulations in the field of sexual morality. The group — opposed by a large part of the civilian population — is also accused of using violence to achieve their objectives, and in the past has launched a series of attacks since 2000, affecting among others the Embassy of the United States and bars, nightclubs, and private clubs, especially during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and prayer.

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

China: Xinjiang: More Violence: 15 Uyghurs Killed by Police for “Terrorism”

A group of natives of the northern province had gathered in a desert area near Yilkiqi: according to the authorities they were engaged in training activities, other sources say a prayer meeting. Area increasingly troublesome, risk of further clashes.

Urumqi (AsiaNews) — Police in the northern province of Xinjiang opened fire on a group of Uyghurs gathered in an isolated area of ​​the region killing “at least 15”, in what authorities describe as “an anti-terrorism” operation. The bodies were buried at the scene, even evidence of this has yet to be presented as reported by Radio Free Asia, citing local sources.

According to these sources, on August 20, a group of anti-terrorism squad police from prefecture of Kashgar surrounded “at least 28 Uyghurs” who were in a desert area near the town of Yilkiqi. According to authorities, these were engaged in “illegal religious activities and terrorist exercises”. After surrounding them they opened fire: one Han policeman died in the shootout.

Some witnesses, anonymous for security reasons, dispute the official story: “We were meeting in a desert area, but only to pray without having to account to the officials. Religious practice is increasingly controlled, and many of us do not want to have to report to the government even what we are saying to God. “

The raid was confirmed by the head of the municipal police, Osman Batur: “We have successfully conducted an anti-terror operation, destroying violent terrorist cells.” However, the officer would not confirm the number of victims, “Many came from outside and had no identity documents.”

The province is one of the most turbulent in all of China: It is home to the ethnic Uyghur, Turkic speaking peoples of the Islamic religion, who have always sought to gain independence from Beijing. The central government has sent hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese to the region to try to make them the dominant ethnic group. It also imposes serious restrictions on freedom of religion, Muslim practices, the teaching of the language and the local culture.

Since 2009 a special system of Chinese police and army control is in place, imposed by Beijing after the riots in which nearly 200 people lost their lives. As a result of the violence hundreds of custodial sentences and dozens of death sentences were meted out. The Chinese authorities believe that the perpetrators of violence are Muslim extremists, but exiles claim that Beijing is “exaggerating” the threat of Islamic terrorism to justify the repression against the Uyghur population. Even the latest violence (in chronological order) was reported in different ways by the authorities and diaspora.

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

Chinese Internet Server Jammed in Largest Ever Mainland Attack

By Stephen Chen

Excerpt: The attack started very early on Sunday and was continuing yesterday afternoon, it said. More than eight million websites are registered with China’s top-level country domain, .cn Li Xiaodong, executive director of the China Internet Network Information Centre, (CNNIC), which maintains the servers, said such an attack was unprecedented. To jam the Chinese servers, the attackers summoned traffic flow “far greater” than anything seen before, he said, without providing a figure on the volume.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Netizens Discuss a List Concerning Brainwashing in China

Comments from netizens: Laifeng Ding: “I was brainwashed for 6 years in elementary school, 3 years in junior high school, 3 years in senior high school, and 4 more years in university. I had been brainwashed for 16 years in total, but was cured after I spent a week on the Internet. I do not know if the Internet could change China…

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Fukushima in Freefall: Radioactive Water Filters Taken Offline, TEPCO in Desperation as Leaks Just Won’t Stop

(NaturalNews) After a 29-month cover-up, the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) is now calling for international help and has all but admitted Fukushima’s radiation leaks are spiraling out of control. In addition to the leaking water storage units that are unleashing hundreds of tons of radioactive water each day, Tepco now says 50% of its contaminated water filtration capability has been taken offline due to corrosion.

The result is that radiation leaks are escalating out of control and attempted remediation efforts are faltering. This is in addition to the fact the Japanese government’s attempted brainwashing propaganda campaign has also been exposed. It attempted to convince people that if they drank beer or smiled, they would be immune to radiation poisoning. (Yes, this is how desperate they’ve become…)

– From day one, the Fukushima fiasco has been all about denial: Deny the leaks, shut off the radiation sensors, black out the news and fudge the science. Yet more than two years later, the denials are colliding with the laws of physics, and Tepco’s cover stories are increasingly being blown wide open.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Angry at Swiss Ban on Ski Lift Sale

North Korea has reacted angrily to a decision by Switzerland to block a deal to sell ski lifts to the secretive communist country.

North Korea’s Skiers’ Association said such equipment should not be banned. “Cableway equipment for the ski resort do not produce any rocket or nuclear weapon,” it added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The New Luxury for Rich Chinese is to Suckle From a Wet Nurse.

Excerpt: Some people have pointed out that while business tycoons in the United States, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are busy giving charitable donations; the Chinese tycoons are busy being concerned with choosing beautiful women and girls, and drinking human milk. Wealthy Chinese men’s behavior, in particular, indicates the level of human depravity and moral decline. These rich people don’t just stop at drinking human milk—there is now a common fetish of wanting to lie in the arms of a wet nurse to suck directly.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Family Sues Pharmaceutical Company Over Child Brain Damaged by Flu Vaccine

(NaturalNews) An Australian family is seeking compensation from a large pharmaceutical company after their daughter became severely disabled following the administration of the flu vaccine, Fluvax, in 2010.

According to reports, shortly after receiving the vaccine in April 2010, little Saba Button began suffering from convulsions and was rushed to a local hospital in Perth. Now four, Saba is a quadriplegic and nearly blind. Also, some three years later, she continues to suffer from regular seizures and requires constant medical care. She is also fed through a nasogastric tube…

Even more tragic is the fact that the vaccine was recalled on Apr. 22, 2010 — just three days after Saba received hers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

All 25,000 Students Who Took University of Liberia Admission Test Fail

Not a single new student will be admitted into the University of Liberia this year after nearly 25,000 candidates failed the school’s admission exam. A university official said students who took the $25 exam did not have a basic understanding of English, the BBC reports, and it was the first time that all entrants failed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Boko Haram Fighters’ Kill Vigilantes in Borno, Nigeria (BBC, Aug 27, 2013)

Suspected Boko Haram fighters have killed at least 20 members of vigilante groups trying to fight back against the group in north-east Borno state.

The deaths occurred in two separate attacks on Sunday and Monday, said residents and a military official.

Boko Haram has waged a deadly insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.

In May, President Goodluck Jonathan declared an emergency in three north-eastern states, saying the group threatened Nigeria’s existence…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Amnesty Bill Includes Massive Counterproductive Pork

Excerpt: Why pay youth to do unproductive make-work when they could be working real jobs? Because unemployment is stratospheric due to the federal government having sucked all the money out of the economy to pay for bills like this one. What few entry-level jobs that are left are taken by the illegal aliens this bill will make legal, even while inviting in millions more to drive up unemployment higher still.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Hundreds of Migrants Rescued Off Sicily

210 evacuated from troubled boats in one operation alone

(ANSA) — Palermo, August 26 — The Italian Coast Guard evacuated 210 immigrants stranded on two troubled motorboats late Sunday in the Channel of Sicily, as serene waters and good weather encouraged a wave of illegal embarcations from North Africa to ferry immigrants to Europe.

The Coast Guard received the call for help at 22:30 local time Sunday regarding the first boat, which was making progress with difficulty about 70 miles from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

During the rescue operation, the patrol was alerted to another boat roughly 35 miles away with a failed motor and 110 passengers aboard.

The Coast Guard ship was headed for the immigrant detention centre on Lampedusa, and followed hundreds of other immigrants rescued or intercepted over the weekend. On Saturday, a distressed boat taking in water with 99 immigrants, thought to be of Eritrean origin, was intercepted in the channel and the passengers were taken to Syracuse by a merchant ship.

Also on Saturday, 22 Tunisian migrants were discovered on the island of Conigli near Lampedusa along with the tiny five-metre craft they arrived in.

Another 98 refugees, this time from Syria, were intercepted by a patrol of Frontex, the European agency for cooperation and management of EU borders, about 40 miles from the Sicilian coastal town of Porto Palo.

Among them were 25 children and eight women.

Another boat off the coast of Lampedusa on Saturday brought an additional 116 migrants — believed to be Somalians — to Lampedusa.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘Pot-Shots’ Taken at Two African Immigrants in Naples

Naples, 26 August (AKI) — Suspected gangs of Italian youths shot a Nigerian and a Senegalese immigrant in central Naples in what was described as a “target practice”, Italian daily La Repubblica reported on Monday.

Henry Kwasu, a Nigerian, was shot in the legs with a pistol late on 19 August in the Forcella district.

In a second attack, a bullet grazed the shoulder of the unnamed 30-year-old Senagalese immigrant on the night of 20 August close to the cathedral, La Repubblica said.

“It was like target practice. It’s a miracle that I am unharmed. They aimed at my back with a pistol, for no reason,” the immigrant was quoted as saying, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Italy’s ‘February 3’ immigrant rights group condemned the attacks, saying there was an “invisible emergency” in which other incidents had gone unreported because the victims were afraid.

“Naples can’t pretend this isn’t happening. The security forces do what they can, but there’s a cultural problem that needs to be addressed across the country,” February 3 spokesman Gianluca Petruzzo was cited as saying.

The August incidents are not the first in which local youths have attacked immigrants, sometimes with fatal consequences.

On 19 August, 2005, 19-year-old Gennaro Caldore killed Senegalese immmigrant Ibrahim Diop witha punch outside a call-centre in central Naples because Diop “refused to be intimidated”.

More recently, in September 2008, Naples mafia hoods gunned down six Ghanaian immigrants in a drive-by shooting in the seaside town of Castel Volturno.

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

Italy: Naples Multicultural, Not Racist: Says Mayor

De Magistris says attacks on immigrants must be probed quickly

(ANSA) — Naples, August 26 — Reports of two shootings of immigrants in Naples must be investigated quickly, the mayor said Monday.

Luigi de Magistris said the attacks, reported by immigration support network “febbraio 3” also serve as a reminder that racism and intolerance exist, although they are not acceptable.

“It never hurts to raise awareness and attention to what may…if not firmly denounced, if not stigmatized in a clear and strong (message)”…gather strength, said de Magistris.

The febbraio 3 group said that in separate and apparently random incidents in Naples, two immigrant men were shot at, with one sustaining a leg wound.

The mayor also defended his city, saying that historically Naples has welcomed new arrivals from sea ports around the world.

But it’s easy to stir up anger and violence when many are suffering, he added.

“Even in these difficult times, with the extreme poverty of our city, we must avoid absolutely the war between the poor and reach out to those in need,” said de Magistris.

“We must always think about who is in trouble,” particularly new immigrants who have fled their homelands for Italy, he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Libya: Tripoli Zoo Used as Immigrant Detention Centre

Foreigners’ paperwork checked, blood tests run

(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, AUGUST 27 — The Libyan capital’s zoo is being used as an immigrant detention centre-prison. Though currently closed to the public, it still contains animals as well. According to a recent reportage by Libya Herald, next to the animal cages is a cement building with doors and windows bearing steel bars across them. The foreigners are held up to 72 hours in the facilities, said the commander of a militia tasked with checking the immigrants’ paperwork. If they have a valid passport, visa and health certificate, the immigrants are released, while otherwise they are transferred to detention centers and held indefinitely or expelled. The unit tasked with checking immigrants detains dozens of people every day, with over 5,000 arrested in the past four months — most of whom from Sub-Saharan Africa, Tunisia and Morocco. Once in the zoo, the detainees undergo blood tests, said Al-Gerjame, the head of the zoo’s irregular immigration unit, to make sure that they do not suffer from any illness. Al Gerjame said that some 20% of the immigrants test positive for either HIV or hepatitis. “If they are ill, they will be transferred outside Libya,” he said, “ if there is no illness, and they have visas, they can stay here and work and pay taxes.” Amnesty International recently called conditions in the country’s detention centres, where irregular immigrants including children are held indefinitely “deplorable”, calling on the Libya government to put an immediate end to the practice of indefinite detention for immigration control. The UNHCR recently described the situation in these centres as precarious, underscoring that most of the time the hygienic conditions are very poor and there is a high risk of infection and disease contagion.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Moroccans Rescue 67 Sub-Saharan Migrants in Strait

Including 14 women and 4 newborns, on their way to Spain

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 26 — Moroccan gendarmes early on Monday rescued 67 Sub-Saharan migrants, including 14 women and four newborns, who were heading to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar aboard two unseaworthy boats. Rescue teams intervened when one of the migrants used a cell phone to send an SOS call at dawn, sources at the Cadiz (Andalusia) prefecture said.

Both boats were intercepted at 8:00am local time. One carrying 57 passengers was located 2.5 miles north-east of Morocco’s Cape Malabata, and the other with 10 people aboard was found north of the Cape. All the migrants have been taken to the Moroccan port city of Tangiers.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The U.K.’s Honest Immigration Debate: Do We Even Want Any More Legal Immigrants?

By Andrew Stiles

Excerpt: In the United Kingdom, for instance, pollsters have long been asking questions that have been largely absent from the immigration debate in the U.S., such as whether or not members of the public “think that it is wrong for the U.K. to recruit from overseas while a million young people are struggling to find jobs” — three in four said yes. As far as I can tell, only NumbersUSA, a group that favors “lower immigration levels” and is often described as “nativist” by liberal groups, has sought to gauge public support for a dramatic influx of low-skilled workers, as proposed by the Gang of Eight, and whether or not this would help the economy. As it turns out, most voters opposed the idea and thought it would be harmful.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

France: Gay-Marriage Refusenik Mayor May Face Prison

French prosecutors have opened a case against a mayor of a town in the south-east of the country who has refused to marry a lesbian couple. Bollène mayor Marie-Claude Bompard stuck to her guns on Monday when she met a regional official who was charged with instructing her that she must carry out the wedding or delegate the task.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Mayor Investigated for Not Celebrating Gay Marriage

(AGI) Paris — The extreme right-wing French mayor of Bollene is under investigated for not celebrating a gay marriage .

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

Obama Presides Over Security Meltdown

In our August 1, 2010, article, “Military Homosexual Scandal Tied to WikiLeaks Treason,” we noted reports that Manning, the U.S. Army Intelligence analyst who leaked the classified information to WikiLeaks, was not only a homosexual but was considering a sex change.

Adding insult to injury, this traitor is now making this official, hoping the taxpayers pick up the bill.

We asked at the time, “Who in the Obama Administration — and the Department of Defense — was aware of his conduct and looked the other way? Was Manning given a pass because his ‘lifestyle’ was considered to be in favor and acceptable under the Obama Administration?”

Manning claimed connections into the Pentagon and the White House. Our media never followed up.

We noted that “The revelations of Manning’s openly pro-homosexual conduct suggest that a more liberal Department of Defense policy, in deference to the wishes of the Commander-in-Chief, had already been in effect and has now backfired in a big way.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Qatar: Outcry Against Gay Foreign Employee

Museums Authority grants benefits for gay man and his partner

(ANSAmed) — DOHA, AUGUST 26 — News that the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) has hired a foreign openly gay man sparked a media outcry in the oil monarchy, which criminalizes homosexuality. “A gang of foreigners is using the QMA as though it were their own personal feud”, Al Arab newspaper seethed in an editorial against QMA, which is also reportedly reimbursing the employee and his partner’s housing expenses.

This is the latest episode in an ongoing clash between Qataris, who number almost 300,000, and foreigners, which makes up 90% of the population. “This is what happens when you pay too much attention to foreigners and the freedoms they are granted”, one commentator wrote.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Revolution of the Family: The Marxist Roots of ‘Homosexualism’

A few days ago in The Guardian, Peter Tatchell wrote a pretty good description not only of that ideology’s goals but its origins. This political ideology, often called “queer theory” by its proponents in academia, is what is being pushed, quite openly these days, by the “gay rights” movement. Despite what we are told all day by their collaborators in the mainstream media, from the six o’clock news to your favourite sit-com, this movement is not about “equal rights”. It is about re-writing the foundational concepts of our entire society. I predict that it will not be much longer before the pretense of “equality” is dropped, having done its work.

Many people are scratching their heads and asking how we have suddenly found ourselves at the point where two men can be “married,” a woman can be called a “husband” and a man, a “wife,” and children are reduced to political bargaining chips in the adoption wars, when it seems just yesterday we were only talking about equal rights. Since when do “equal rights” mean deconstructing, dismantling, these foundational social concepts?

If we read them closely, however, the activists themselves have begun to explain it in quite straightforward terms. For them, it has never been about “equal rights” but about the re-writing of our entire social order. The “gay rights” movement has always been, in Peter Tatchell’s own words, “revolutionary, not reformist.”

Others have pointed out the Marxist origins of the Sexual Revolution as a whole, and it is clear that the sudden explosion of homosexualism is merely the next logical step in a systematic programme. A close cousin to radical feminism and grandchild of Marxism, homosexualism was developed out of the politico-academic pseudo-field of “gender studies” and has, for 30 or 40 years, been pushed on a mostly unwilling public, through “anti-discrimination” and “equalities” legislation by a coalition of lobbyists, NGOs and politicians on the extreme left, and in increasingly powerful international circles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Police Now Can Switch Off iPhone Camera and Wi-Fi

Police forces around the world have had the problem that when their officers get a bit carried away and start pepper spraying tied captives there is someone on hand filming the event on their mobile phones.

While six police lay into prone grannies on the floor with long batons, the pictures can be on the net in seconds, meaning supervisors have to answer embarrassing questions.

But they may not need to fear scrutiny much longer — Apple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, whenever they like.

All the coppers have to do is decide that a public gathering or venue is deemed “sensitive”, and needs to be “protected from externalities” and Apple will switch off all its gear.

The police can then get on with the very difficult task of kettling protesters without having to worry about a few beating anyone to death.

Apple insists that the affected sites are mostly cinemas, theatres, concert grounds and similar locations, but it does admit that it could be used in “covert police or government operations which may require complete ‘blackout’ conditions”.

According to RT it could also be used to prevent whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden from taking pictures and broadcasting them on the internet.

Apple said that the wireless transmission of sensitive information to a remote source is one example of a threat to security.

But it said that this sensitive information could be anything from classified government information to questions or answers to an examination administered in an academic setting.

Apple patented the means to transmit an encoded signal to all wireless devices, commanding them to disable recording functions.

The policies would be activated by GPS, and wi-fi or mobile base-stations, which would ring-fence (“geofence”) around a building or a “sensitive area” to prevent phone cameras from taking pictures or recording video.

Odd that the company made famous by its 1984 Big Brother video can’t really see what it is doing. Perhaps its own secretive culture and an overzealous security treatment of its staff have fostered sympathy for Big Brother after all.

           — Hat tip: McR [Return to headlines]
 

The Pervasive Evil of Communism … And the Moral Bankruptcy of Communist Apologists (Video)

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

I spoke earlier today at the 2013 Liberty Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. But I don’t think anybody is going to remember my speech about the collapse of the welfare state, even though I presented lots of powerful data from the BIS, OECD, and IMF, and also shared a very funny cartoon (danieljmitchell.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/piglets.jpg) showing what happens when there’s nothing left for interest groups to steal.

At a normal conference, my remarks may have resonated, but I freely admit that I was completely overshadowed by the presentation of Shin Dong-Hyuk, who is the only person to have successfully escaped from the North Korean gulag.

In the future, if I ever get discouraged and think the fight for freedom is too difficult, I will watch this video and realize that nothing in my life will ever compare to the horror of living under communism. It’s not nearly as powerful as today’s first-person presentation, but the video will give you some sense of the utter barbarity of the North Korean government.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

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