Austria is currently experiencing its biggest wave of immigration in fourteen years. Since April of this year, nearly 8,000 people — mostly Russians, Syrians, and Afghans — have applied for asylum in Austria.
In other news, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the UN Chemical Weapons Unit, which has been charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, RR, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
$2 Billion NSA Spy Center is Going Up in Flames
Technical glitches have sparked fiery explosions within the NSA’s newest and largest data storage facility in Utah, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and delaying the facility’s opening by one year.
And no one seems to know how to fix it.
Within the last 13 months, at least 10 electric surges have each cost about $100,000 in damages, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Experts agree that the system, which requires about 64 megawatts of electricity — that’s about a $1 million a month energy bill — isn’t able to run all of its computers and servers while keeping them cool, which is likely triggering the meltdowns.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
12 Facts About the Epic ObamaCare Launch Train Wreck That Every American Should Know
Even though it is nearly impossible to get signed up for health insurance through the Obamacare websites, if you don’t currently have health insurance you better get signed up by January 1st or you will get slapped with a fine. Is this fair? Of course not. But this is the way that the U.S. government works in the 21st century. They put unreasonable demands on people, and then the government punishes them heavily when they are not able to comply.
The launch of the online “health insurance exchanges” which were supposed to make signing up for Obamacare a breeze has been an abysmal failure. There have been a great many examples of government incompetence over the years, but this one might take the cake. The Obama administration spent more than 93 million dollars to set up these websites, and they are so hideously dysfunctional that hardly anyone has actually been able to get signed up for Obamacare over the first ten days. But instead of delaying the individual mandate, the Obama administration is using the threat of a fine to force millions of Americans to use a system that is a complete and total nightmare.
The following is how USA Today (hardly an opponent of Obama) described the launch of Obamacare…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Allen West on Obama: He’s a ‘Spoiled Brat Child’
Former Rep. Allen West took to the media Thursday to give an assessment on the progression of the government shutdown, and President Obama’s leadership skills: He’s throwing a tantrum, acting like a “spoiled brat,” he said.
“I can put it in very basic Southern terms: a spoiled brat child,” Mr. West said, during an interview with Newsmax. “We have been giving Barack Obama everything that he has wanted. We gave him a state senator position in Chicago, we gave him a U.S. Senate position out of the state of Illinois, unproven, untested, no resume, we gave him the presidency twice.”
But Mr. Obama isn’t satisfied, Mr. West said. And the result is predictable: It’s what happens when an overindulged child is denied, he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Rangers Sent to Shutdown Businesses — Feds Order Arrests & 24/7 Patrols in National Parks
The federal government, who shut the national parks after claiming they didn’t have the money to keep them open, is now sending in Park Rangers to patrol the parks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sadly, the Rangers are not being sent in so visitors can enjoy these parks, there being sent in to arrest anyone who tries to enter them.
Earlier this week we reported on the Vietnam Vets who were arrested for visiting a war memorial in New York City; now we’ve learned that 21 tourists were just arrested for hiking in the Grand Canyon National Park.
Over 7 Million Visitors Shut Out of the Parks & $750 Million in Visitor Spending Lost
According to the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR), during the last 10 days of the government shutdown over 7 million people have been shut out of the parks, causing $750 million in visitor spending to be lost.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Battle of the Barricades: Vets Prepared to “Go to Jail”
Veterans from across the country are prepared to go to jail as they plan to storm barricaded memorials and monuments this weekend in a forceful rebuke to the government shutdown, setting up a potential confrontation with National Park Service employees who have been ordered to “make life as difficult for people” as possible.
One of the defining moments of the backlash against the shutdown was when veterans stormed past barricades at the World War II Memorial in DC last Monday. The federal government subsequently ordered that the barricades be reinforced and wired shut.
Similar scenes are set to be repeated over the next few days as vets from numerous states descend on memorials built in their honor and prepare to remove anything or anyone that gets in their way.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Communists Defend Democrat NYC Mayoral Candidate
Bill de Blasio, the Obama-backed Democrat “progressive” poised to become New York City’s mayor, is under attack by “Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid empire,” his supporters are charging. It’s a reference to the New York Post examining the candidate’s ties to the Nicaraguan Solidarity Network, a Communist-front organization that still supports the Marxist regime in Nicaragua headed by Communist Sandinista Daniel Ortega.
In fact, however, it was The New York Times that originally disclosed de Blasio’s fondness for the “foreign revolution” in Nicaragua, in a major piece that shocked even some liberals. The Times article revealed de Blasio’s pro-communist activities and his prediction back in 1991 that Islam would become a major political force.
Combined with de Blasio’s anti-police views, including his announced desire to can the tough New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the revelations are worrying New Yorkers concerned about terrorism coming back to the city in a major way. The September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks in the city killed nearly 3,000 people. Years before that, the Cuban-backed Puerto Rican terrorist group, the FALN, carried out numerous terrorist bombings in the city, including an attack on Fraunces Tavern in 1975, which killed four people…
He was an aide to former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, who was closely associated with the Democratic Socialists of America.
Curiously, it also turns out that de Blasio has had three different names, but he refuses to talk about that in any depth, either.
Now that de Blasio is positioned to crush Lhota, in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by six to one, some media attention is being paid to his far-left views, and it appears that de Blasio’s Marxist supporters are starting to get worried. Hence, their attacks on the “Murdoch Empire” and the New York Post, the paper following up on de Blasio’s extreme views.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Local Woman’s Yellowstone Story Sparks National Furor
SALISBURY — In the course of a few hours, Pat Vaillancourt’s trip to Yellowstone National Park went from being a story in her local paper to a national lightning rod that had radio and television stations, newspapers and ordinary Americans from coast to coast talking about her and seeking her out.
Vaillancourt’s story, reported in Tuesday’s Daily News of Newburyport, touched a raw nerve that has been on many Americans’ minds these days — the shutdown of the federal government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malkin: 1-800-T-O-T-A-L-F-A-I-L — One Man’s Obamawreck Nightmare
Hollywood bubble. This week, actress Olivia Wilde starred in an Obamacare propaganda video targeting young people. “You can sign up for health care online in 10 minutes,” her co-propagandist chirped as she cheered. Cue the laugh track. Back on planet Earth, Americans nationwide are still struggling with the $634 million online health care exchange nightmare.
One reader asked me to share his story. Like me and 22 million other citizens in the private individual market for health insurance, he recently received his You Can’t Keep It cancellation notice. Here’s what happened when he went online to find alternatives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Sign-Up Crash: What’s Really Behind It?
At a much high level of op, Obamacare was always invented chaos.
It was intended to be.
The target was America itself. As in destabilization.
This is a strategy as old as the hills.
In this case, the people in charge, behind the scenes, are Globalists (think Rockefeller, for starters). For over a hundred years, their objective has been the takedown of the United States, one of the strongest holdouts against a planetary management system, in which, ultimately, national borders are erased and individual countries cease to exist.
In 1971, David Rockefeller’s intellectual consigliere, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote: “…[the] nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.”
Achieving such a goal, however, is not simply a matter of standing back and watching evolution take it course. It involves torpedoing major institutions, regardless of how well or poorly they are serving the public interest.
In other words: promote chaos at every possible opportunity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Latin is used by programmers as filler / placeholder text for unfinished applications. The fact that this Latin is found in the code is yet more proof that the entire system never even entered Alpha testing, much less Beta testing or an official release. This is pre-alpha code requiring possible YEARS of development for final release…
It’s almost as if the entire system has been designed to fail. There is no rational justification for writing code like this. It’s like someone held a contest to find out “who can write the most inefficient, wasteful computer code” and Healthcare.gov won the top prize!
And yet, at the same time, this project perfectly reflects the foundational philosophy of the Obama administration: sell the dream to get elected, then screw everybody when it comes to implementation.
It also forces you to ask the question: To what lengths will Obama go to try to cover-up this disastrous mess by causing some other crisis as a distraction?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rick Warren: “Legendary Cat Stevens Came by to See Me Today as I Worked at Home on a Sermon”
Who knew that Rick Warren and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) were this close? Did they sing a few choruses of Cat’s nasheed that contains the lines, “I’m praying to Allah to give us victory over the kuffar”?
It is no surprise. Rick Warren previously has addressed the convention of the Hamas- and Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He apologized to Muslims, but wasn’t sure what for. And now he is palling around with Mr. Peace Train (which he even references in the above tweet). What could possibly go wrong?
Nothing. It’s “dialogue.” It’s “interfaith outreach.” One thing you can be certain they didn’t “dialogue” about: Yusuf Islam’s enthusiastic 1989 endorsement of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa against Salman Rushdie for insulting Islam: “Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie,” by Craig R. Whitney in the New York Times, May 23, 1989:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Have professional consultants descended on your town and “facilitated” meetings to “envision” more “vibrancy” in your downtown?
Take your own city. Have professional consultants descended on your town and “facilitated” meetings to “envision” more “vibrancy” in your downtown? Was the outcome a new Specific Plan or “Gateway Project” with new zoning laws permitting substantially higher density because the “consensus” reached during the “visioning” favored the “vibrancy” of multistory, mixed-use, high-density housing projects adjacent to rail or bus lines? What a coincidence! That happened in my town, too.
And perhaps, once the precedent of urbanized, higher density development had been set in your heretofore tranquil suburb, it became time to “update” the town’s General Plan for “consistency” with your new “Specific Plan.” Get the idea?
In fact, much of the wrenching transformation we are now facing is being presented to us under the seemingly innocuous guise of the “update.” For this is not only being applied to General Plans, but to Housing Elements, and Zoning Ordinances as well. We might say the cancer of the wrenching transformation that began in our Specific Plans soon metastasized to cover our whole city.
But it did not stop there.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Planned Destruction of America
America, the Republic on life support
To fully understand the agenda, we must completely unravel the lies. We must identify the conspirators and the coconspirators, trace the power and follow the money. We must also fully understand the objective, which involves the destruction of the U.S. as a Constitutional Republic, for it is the sovereignty and power of the United States that is the biggest impediment in their way of fully achieving their goals. By accomplishing their objectives, they will cause the greatest transfer of wealth and power ever seen in the modern world. They will take us from being prisoners to slaves within their New World Order, at least those who survive.
We must first be willing to accept that a conspiracy on a global scale does exist, and be strong enough to withstand the attempts to marginalize us by being characterized as everything from “the fringe” to their golden hole-card, “racists.” We must be willing to accept that nearly everyone holding or having held a position of political leadership is or was part of this conspiracy, and the media, in all forms, has enabled them to operate like thieves in the night.
The end-game objective, is, of course, is the creation of a one world system of government and a one world currency. It is, of course, the implementation of a New World Order as spoken by many leaders, both foreign and domestic, including the most memorable speech by George Herbert Walker Bush on September 11, 1990. It is the consolidation of power and wealth by a select group of people we know as globalists, which has been their objective for generations. Membership into this select group of families is by blood or marriage, incestuous as necessary, but always arranged. It is about world domination and subjugation of the masses by any and all means necessary.
[…]
If you think that this is too far out to believe, simply look to a Swiss study titled The Network of Global Corporate Control, published in 2011 by Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder and Stefano Battiston. It was an extensive investigation into who controls the power and wealth in the world. According to the results of that study, a mere 147 corporations control 40 percent of the global wealth:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Doctors Fired by United Healthcare
In the midst of major changes in health care, United HealthCare has sent thousands of pink slips to Connecticut doctors.
Termination letters went to physicians caring for Medicare patients.
Those letters were sent out to doctors caring for ‘Medicare Advantage’ patients.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Threatened With Sex Offender Registry for Streaking at Football Game, Teenage Boy Commits Suicide
A popular 15-year-old student has committed suicide after he reportedly faced expulsion and could have been placed on the sex offenders’ register simply for streaking at a high school football game.
Christian Adamek, from Huntsville, Alabama, hanged himself on October 2, a week after he was arrested for running naked across the Sparkman High football field during a game.
The teenager died two days later from his injuries and on Wednesday, friends and family gathered at a memorial service as they struggled to comprehend the beloved student’s death.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top Nuke Commanders Terminated Following Missing Nuclear Warheads Report
Two of the top nuclear commanders within the United States have now been terminated following the exclusive high level military leak report by Alex Jones and myself regarding the secret and unsigned nuclear weapons transfer from Dyess Air Force base to South Carolina. Disturbingly, the high level suspensions from top generals within the military establishment are not the only red flags to follow the leaked report.
Even before it was announced that the second highest nuke commander in the United States was suspended on the same day of the secret nuke transfer just weeks later, it was Senator Lindsey Graham who went on record hours after our report in saying that a ‘nuclear attack’ could come to South Carolina in the event that we did not move militarily against Syria and Iran — pushing even harder to action against both Iran and Syria. This alone generated hundreds of thousands to view our video reports and millions to examine our reports, which had immediately gone from concerning high level military intelligence to an international topic.
But now, even after we had Lindsey Graham warn against a nuclear strike in the exact region we told you the nuclear warheads were being transfered without a paper trail, we have the absolute highest level military nuke commanders being removed. But what’s more, the terminations were not meant to be leaked — especially not the fact that the suspension of the #2 in command was issued on the exact day of the nuke transfer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Feds Hire Armed Private Goons to Guard Independence Hall
While claiming there is no money as a result of the government shutdown to keep national parks open, the federal government is simultaneously paying for private armed goons to keep Americans out of historic sites located in national parks like Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
The video above shows armed private goons who refuse to identify themselves or respond to the public guarding Independence Hall, which is situated in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted.
In the clip, a citizen asks National Park Service employees to identify themselves. The NPS officers refuse to do so and one of them walks away. By this point, some of the private goons had already fled.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
WH Pressed: When Did Obama Know Military Death Benefits Halted?
CNSNews.com) — President Obama was “very disturbed” to learn that the Defense Department would not pay death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers, a White House spokesman said Wednesday. But if the Defense Department knew this several weeks ago, why didn’t the president? When did President Obama learn about the problem?
White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked that question at least six times on Wednesday, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t say.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who Really Runs Things in America?
The infamous Trilateral Commission still exists.
Roundtable-ChartMany people think the TC, created in 1973 by David Rockefeller, is a relic of an older time.
Think again.
Patrick Wood, author of Trilaterals Over Washington, points out there are only 87 members of the Trilateral Commission who live in America. Obama appointed eleven of them to posts in his administration.
Keep in mind that the original stated goal of the TC was to create “a new international economic order.” Knowing that you have to break eggs to make an omelette, consider how the following TC members, in key Obama posts, can help engender further national chaos; erase our sovereign national borders; and install binding international agreements that will envelop our economy and money in a deeper global collective: a new world order:
Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary; James Jones, National Security Advisor; Paul Volker, Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee; Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence.
All Trilateralists.
In the run-up to his inauguration after the 2008 presidential election, Obama was tutored by the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski.
In Europe, the financially embattled nations of Greece and Italy brought in Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti as prime ministers. Both men are Trilateral members, and Monti is the former European chairman of the Trilateral Commission…
The TC has no interest in building up the American economy. They want to torpedo it, as part of the end-game of creating a new international currency, ushering in a de facto Globalist management system for the whole planet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the Federal Government Wants to Redefine the Word ‘Cancer’
The federal government wants to reduce the number of Americans diagnosed each year with cancer. But not by better preventive care or healthier living. Instead, the government wants to redefinethe term “cancer” so that fewer conditions qualify as a true cancer. What does this mean for ordinary Americans — and should we be concerned?
On July 29, 2013, a working group for the National Cancer Institute (the main government agency for cancer research) published a paper proposing that the term “cancer” be reserved for lesions with a reasonable likelihood of killing the patient if left untreated. Slower growing tumors would be called a different name such as “indolent lesions of epithelial origin” (IDLE). Their justification was that modern medical technology now allows doctors to detect small, slow-growing tumors that likely wouldn’t be fatal. Yet once patients are told they have a cancer, many become frightened and seek unnecessary further tests, chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery. By redefining the term “cancer,” the National Cancer Institute hopes to reduce patient anxiety and reduce the risks and expenses associated with supposedly unnecessary medical procedures. In technical terms, the government hopes to reduce “overdiagnosis” and “overtreatment” of cancer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: ‘Biggest Wave of Immigration Since 1999’
Die Presse
Since April, 7,764 people — most of them Russians, Afghans and Syrians — have applied for asylum in Austria. In recent months, the flow of migration has reached its highest level since the war in Kosovo in 1999, points out Die Presse.
For the daily, the current situation has been prompted by the war in Syria. Since July, 1,336 people, mainly Syrians, have illegally crossed the Brenner Pass, between Austria and Italy, the principal route taken by migrants on their way to Austria. Having arrived in the country, many travel on to German or Sweden, which are thought to offer better prospects and to be more welcoming.
At the end of August, points out the newspaper, Vienna granted asylum to 500 Syrian refugees.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France: Far-Right’s Surge Could Paralyse Europe, Warns Hollande as NF Passes Socialists
The French president, François Hollande, has warned that Europe risks “regression and paralysis” if Eurosceptics and nationalists gain the upper hand in next year’s European parliament elections, as an opinion poll for the first time put the anti-immigrant National Front (NF) well ahead of his country’s mainstream parties.
The Ifop poll in the newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur gave Marine Le Pen’s National Front 24% in the European contest
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
German War Criminal Priebke Dies in Rome, Aged 100
His lawyer says he left human, political testament interview
(ANSA) — Rome, October 11 — Former SS officer and war criminal Erich Priebke died at his Rome home aged 100 Friday.
Priebke was serving a life sentence for his part in a 1944 reprisal at a quarry known as the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome that killed 335 men and boys including 75 Jews.
The atrocity, ordered by Hitler a day after 33 SS policemen from the northern Italian German-speaking city of Bolzano were killed by a partisan bomb in Rome, was one of the worst war crimes in Italy in the Second World War. Priebke, found by an ABC journalist enjoying retirement after openly working as a teacher in Argentina in 1994 and extradited to Italy the following year, was sentenced to jail in 1998 but released to house arrest because of health reasons in 2003. “The victims of the Ardeatine Caves are angels and they will take care of him for eternity,” said Riccardo Pacifici, the head of Rome’s Jewish community. “Priebke will brought to account by them in the other world”. Rome’s Jewish community protested when Priebke got a day job as a translator in 2007 and when he had his 100th birthday party in July.
The legal process that led to his house arrest was a long and complicated one, which culminated with Rome’s Military Appeals Court in March 1998 handing down a life sentence to Priebke together with another former SS Officer, Karl Hass, for the March 24 1944 massacre.
The sentence came after years of trials, which started after Italian authorities requested the man’s extradition from Argentina in 1995, the same year he was brought to Italy and sent to the Forte Boccea jail in Rome.
While an initial military court in 1996 had deemed the accusations of him having partaken in violence and homicide against Italian citizens unpursuable due to the statute of limitations having expired, which led to the man’s release, Priebke was re-arrested only hours after leaving the jail as a result of a German extradition request. That same year, the Italian Court of Cassation annulled the decision made by the military tribunal and called for a new trial, which across various levels of jurisprudence and civil and military courts led to his being handed a life sentence in 1998.
Priebke’s lawyer Paolo Giachini said on Friday the deceased had also left him a video and written interview which is his “human and political testament.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Islam Critic Fined 1200 Euros for Comparing Islam to a Cancerous Ulcer
In March, the German Islam critic Michael Stürzenberger published an article in which he made the following statement:
Islam is like a cancerous ulcer that has a corrosive effect on the (still) free peoples of this planet and gradually infects them with the poison of this inflammatory, intolerant, woman-hating, violent and power-hungry ideology.
Source: PI
Someone with a Muslim-sounding name then filed a criminal complaint about him. The result: a 1200 euro fine for “insulting faiths”.
However, he has appealed the decision and is attempting to invoke the defence of truth. As he makes the case in written form:
If the court is actually interested in finding out the truth, it would have to come to the conclusion that Islam operates exactly like a cancer: just as healthy cells are gradually and systematically replaced by mutated cells, so healthy people, communities, cities, countries and continents are gradually decomposed into converts, mosques, Islamic parallel societies, Koran schools, religious monitors, sharia courts and jihadist terror groups, until the entire body is cancer-ridden and dies, until the whole of humanity is islamised and vegetates into a religious-fascist state.
That was the agenda of Mohammed, and that is the agenda of the Mohammedans.
Source: PI
He has submitted a 150 page brief to the court, attempting to prove that Islam is indeed like a cancerous ulcer. It remains to be seen whether the court will permit this defence.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Post Office May Put 75 Mn Euros in Alitalia Capital Increase
Poste Italiane holding would be as much as 15% of carrier
(see previous).
(ANSA) — Rome, October 10 — Troubled Italian airline Alitalia may be salvaged by state-owned post company Poste Italiane, according to sources close to the people involved in negotiations taking place to source a financial solution to the problems facing the company, including that of ending its fuel supply on Saturday.
Poste Italiane could inject some 75 million euros into the airline through the planned 300 million euro capital increase, which would yield it a holding of between 10% and 15%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Turnaround Guru Enrico Bondi Indicted for Perjury
Case refers to testimony regarding 2001 bug found in car
(ANSA) — Milan, October 10 — A high profile, Italian corporate turnaround guru, Enrico Bondi, was indicted by a Milan judge on Thursday for perjury.
The charge concerns his 2010 testimony regarding a fake bug found in his rental car when he was chief executive of Telecom Italia in 2001, and its possible role in the dismissal of a company executive at the time.
Bondi has served as the government-appointed administrator of major Italian companies in crisis, including the dairy giant Parmalat when it plunged into scandal and default in the mid-2000’s, and more recently at ILVA, the huge steel company at the centre of probes following a court-ordered partial shutdown last year due to environmental contamination.
Telecom Italia’s ex-head of human resources, Roberto Maglione, was also indicted with Bondi. The case dates back to an illegal spying dossier at Telecom Italia that sparked scandal in 2006 with the arrest of the phone company’s then chief of security Giuliano Tavaroli.
At the time, the ex-State monopoly was controlled by the tire company Pirelli. The investigation into Bondi and Maglione concerns a fake bug found on August 20, 2001 in a car Bondi had rented from the Fiumicino airport in Rome, and the subsequent removal of another Telecom Italia executive, Vittorio Nola, who later filed a complaint. Bondi was chief executive of Telecom Italia at the time, having been chosen by Pirelli chief Marco Tronchetti Provera.
Bondi’s indictment reads that when he was brought in for questioning on November 12, 2010, Bondi “failed to communicate what he knew regarding Nola’s removal from Telecom, excluding that the latter occurrence was connected with the ‘famous’ bug event”. The indictment further claims that Maglione “affirmed the false and denied the truth, when he declared he (as head of human resources) had not attended any meeting between Bondi and Nola” in which the “sudden and unmotivated removal” of Nola occurred “in reality, in (Maglione’s) presence”.
Nola was secretary general of the company at the time.
The prosecutors maintain that Bondi Debate in the trial will begin November 11. In April 2011, the prosecutor’s office archived investigations into Tronchetti Provera, Tavaroli and private investigator Emanuele Cipriani’s possible roles in the bug.
A related probe into Telecom Italia’s role in a major spy ring involving some of its employees ended with a plea bargain in 2010 in as company executives agreed in late January of that year to a settlement.
Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on February 1, 2010, that lawyers for Telecom Italia and its former parent company Pirelli would pay around 7.5 million euros in fines and damages to keep the case from going to trial.
The deal reportedly kept either company from having to admit responsibility for an illegal surveillance network, which amassed huge amounts of private information on several high-profile figures between 1997 and 2004.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cancellieri Says No Amnesty for Berlusconi
No amnesty for financial crimes, says justice minister
(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Suggestions of an amnesty for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, convicted of tax fraud, is a “false” idea, Italy’s justice minister said Tuesday.
Annamaria Cancellieri denied suggestions from the 5-Star Movement (M5S) that an amnesty was being considered for Berlusconi, who appears likely to lose his seat in the Senate following his definitive conviction in August.
Berlusconi and supporters in his People of Freedom (PdL) party have been fighting hard to save his Senate position.
But Cancellieri said that while Parliament can decide when amnesty might be allowed, it would not be permitted in cases of financial crimes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Angry Parents Spark Halal School Lunch Spat
Parents in Svedala in southern Sweden have reported a school to the Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen) for serving halal chicken arguing that the practice breaches the non-denominational praxis of the Swedish education system.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s ‘Pompeii’ Massacre Baffles Experts
Archaeologists who unearthed five ancient and brutally-murdered bodies last week on a Swedish island say they’ve discovered an inexplicable massacre, with one expert expecting to find hundreds more bodies in a scene she compared to Italy’s Pompeii.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A decorator almost lost his leg and will have to learn to walk again after he suffered a horrific bite from Britain’s most poisonous spider.
Ricki Whitmore, 39, was injured when he disturbed a nest of flesh-eating false widows while working at a school and will be off his feet for six months.
Surgeons were forced to slice open his leg and flush out the venom after his thigh swelled to twice its normal size.
Experts said today that 10million of the spiders — a cousin of the deadly black widow — could be swarming around Britain and heading into homes to escape the cold.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron today accused Ed Miliband of ‘wanting to live in a Marxist universe’ as the two leaders clashed over how to tackle crippling energy bills.
The Prime Minister accused the Labour leader of wanting to impose state control on markets while increasing costs for families with extra green levies.
But Mr Miliband hit back, claiming the Tories could not decide if his policy to freeze bills for two years was ‘a good idea or a communist plot’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
With her ear glued to her mobile phone, my 11-year-old daughter, Millie, was deep in conversation, her brow furrowed as she discussed some arrangement with a friend.
I listened in, as I made jam in the kitchen. ‘Lol, that’s well sick!’ Millie said. ‘DW, yolo!’
This indecipherable code-speak (‘sick’ means awesome, ‘DW’ is don’t worry and ‘yolo’ means you only live once) was delivered in an accent I could only place as somewhere between South London, downtown Los Angeles and Kingston, Jamaica.
It certainly isn’t indigenous to our home village of Ashtead, in the rolling Surrey hills.
When Millie ended the call, she turned to me, smiled and asked: ‘What’s for supper please, Dad?’ in perfect Received Pronunciation.
It seems that after less than a month at secondary school, my daughter is now bi-lingual — but it is not French or German in which she is suddenly fluent.
Her new language, comprising alien words and abbreviations delivered with faux West Coast American inflections, will not stand her in good stead when she embarks on a school trip to visit museums in Berlin.
Millie now speaks a version of what academics call ‘Multicultural Youth English’, or MYE, which she has picked up from her friends — middle-class girls from the Home Counties…
Experts agree that MYE has spread quickly because of mobility between cities, and also technology. Worryingly, it is projected to usurp some traditional regional dialects, such as Cockney in London, within the next 20 years.
In cities, the problem is so acute it even affects the school choices parents make for their children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Caroline Glick
During his visit to Israel in March, US President Barack Obama compelled Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to apologize to his Turkish counterpart for the actions of IDF Naval Commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara terror ship in May 2010.
The Mavi Marmara was sent by the IHH, a Turkish- government supported, al-Qaida-aligned group, to try to break Israel’s lawful maritime blockade of the Gaza coast. When the lightly armed naval commandos boarded the ship they were attacked by terrorists wielding knives and iron pipes. They were stabbed and bludgeoned. In the violence, nine Turkish terrorists were killed.
By forcing Israel to apologize to Turkey, Obama took the side of the aggressor against the victim.
Netanyahu apologized to Turkey’s pro-Hamas Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in a phone call that Obama participated in. Obama promised that Turkey would accept Israel’s apology and restore full diplomatic relations.
But nothing of the sort occurred. Last week, Turkish President Abdullah Gul told Yediot Aharonot that the apology came too late. And this week, Erdogan hosted Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal for the third time in the past year. Commentators have raised the prospect that Hamas may be hoping to transfer its headquarters from Qatar to Turkey…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Has Committed ‘Crime Against Humanity’ In Syria
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A researcher from the organisation interviewed survivors of an offensive against villages occupied by members of the Alawite sect to which the Assad family belongs in Latakia province, confirming widespread reports of atrocities.
The attack followed regime massacres of hundreds of civilians in two Sunni towns in the same province in May, and was described by the militants’ own propaganda outlets in highly vengeful, sectarian terms.
Alawite villagers told how they returned to their homes to find relatives — often those too old or infirm to flee — butchered.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Foreigners Train Syrian Rebels in Afghanistan to Use Chem Weapons — Lavrov
There are reports that some third countries are training Syrian rebels to use chemical weapons in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The intention is to put the skill to use in new false flag actions in Syria, he explained.
The suspected training happened in Afghan territories not under control of the government in Kabul, Lavrov said.
“Some reports indicate that [Al-Qaeda-linked radical] Al-Nusra Front is planning to smuggle toxic compounds and relevant specialists into Iraqi territory to stage terrorist attacks there this time,” Lavrov said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hijab and High Heels: Islamic Fashion Magazine “Ala” From Turkey
Turkish public opinion is divided over the Islamic fashion magazine “Ala”. Most of the objections emanate from the Islamist camp, which makes it all the more surprising to learn that most of the women who read the magazine are members of the new Turkish middle class, which is politically aligned with the Islamist-leaning AKP. By Marcel Malachowski
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque and School Spark New Feud Between Turkey and Greece
Greece and Turkey, which share a history marred by bitter territorial disputes and Christian-Muslim feuds, are at loggerheads once again over religion. The latest row erupted after Greece flatly rejected the idea of reviving two Muslim mosques in Athens in return for the reopening of an Orthodox clergy school in Turkey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Farheen S Sayed
During an interview at a Kuwaiti government school, Asmath Choudhary, a middle-aged lady from Bangladesh who was trying for the position of a cleaner was very nervous. “It’s my first time that I was going to attend any kind of interview. I have never been to school. I can’t speak English or Arabic and don’t understand both the languages. But, I wanted this job badly. I have three young school-going children”. Arabic knowledge was crucial, especially since the post was in an Arabic school but the authorities were willing to overlook it on one condition; that she wears a hijab at work.
“I am a Muslim, but I never thought of covering my head until that day. But I don’t mind wearing the hijab”. Asmath has been working for a year-and-a-half, and wears the hijab as a part of her work uniform. No matter which part of the world you are from, if you have lived in Kuwait or the Middle East, you will be familiar with the hijab. Many have turned the hijab into a personal style statement and opt for designer ones which make them all the more chic.
Over the last few years, the hijab has been accepted all over the world though once upon a time, it was looked down upon and targeted in racial attacks. Many stories have been published in the past about women being denied jobs in some Western and European countries, only because they were ‘hijabis’ (a slang for a woman who wears a hijab). The latest story to make it to news was of American fashion brand, Abercombie & Fitch firing a Muslim clerk for wearing a hijab.
The employee later went on to win the case against the company in the federal court. If such stories are common in the West, what about the scenario in the Middle East? Is the hijab required to get a job in a Middle Eastern country? While many say no, there have been a few women who have been unfortunate victims of the ‘No Hijab, No Vacancy’ slogan, like Asmath.
While Asmath wears the hijab only at work, many believe that wearing a hijab would deny them a job in India. Mehwish Agha, a 22-year-old student at Bombay University wears the hijab when she is out with family but refrains from wearing it to college. “I have very few Muslim friends, so my friends circle or even my professors don’t really understand the true meaning of hijab.
They consider it to be some strained Islamic belief. Though India is a friendly place and accepts all religions, India is still a Hindu-dominated country. I have had friends who were denied front desk jobs because they used to wear the hijab. They were instead offered back office jobs in the administrative departments that did not require communication with the clients.” Mehwish also added that in India, only wearing a hijab is not acceptable. “In India, you either wear the entire abaya or you don’t. Only wearing a hijab with other flashy clothes is considered to be degrading to Islam”.
Every place has a different hijab story to tell. The hijab has also received a lot of media attention from Western and Eastern media over the last two decades. Today’s media promotes women journalists, film-makers, celebrities and others to showcase their identity in front of the world. But what about the hijab? Should a woman appear on TV with her head covered? Would people like to see a modest Muslim woman in a profession which is constantly under the spotlight and at the helm of present affairs?
Sara Mussaffar, a Kuwait University media student, who wears the hijab, feels that it is high time that Kuwait, its Gulf neighbors and all other countries see the hijab and Muslim women in the media in a different light. “A teacher is good, a doctor is excellent but a news reporter? No way! God knows how many people will be staring at her — this is the common perception,” she said. Undoubtedly, media is a large part of everyday life that can influence perceptions of women and their roles in society. “Media has portrayed Muslim women as overly clad, a victim or just ladies in long black veils who all look the same. To clear this stereotype, many TV news channels, in the middle east are encouraging hijabi women to explore the field of media. I guess it is time that hijabis make their presence felt in the world and show everyone that they are stronger than how they have been portrayed in the media all along”.
Sara also believes that wearing a hijab doesn’t define who you are or how devout a Muslim you are. “Being sacked from work because of the hijab is a loss for the company but being forcefully asked to wear one to get a job goes against your modesty and independence. Wearing a hijab should not hold you back in your job and hijabi women should stop keeping a low profile. It’s high time that women start flaunting the hijab, take an individual stand and be portrayed differently.”
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sex Workers’ Made KD 20,000 During 4-Day Stay in Kuwait
KUWAIT: Kuwaiti police arrested two ‘sex workers’ who said that they have made more than KD 20,000 in only four days since they came to the country on “business trips”. The arrests were made on Tuesday at a Salmiya hotel where the two European nationals planned to stay during the Eid Al-Adha holidays to “offer their services” to clients who hired their services online. According to a security source, probe started after investigators from the Morals Investigation Department in the Interior Ministry followed up on two women promoting their sex activity in Kuwait.
The information received also indicated that the two women are ranked 7th and 13th on a pornographic website where people can subscribe and pay money to spend time with any of the women listed. According to the source, the detectives subscribed to the websites and obtained the address where the two women were staying. They headed to the hotel with arrest warrants and arrested them.
The price rate offered at the website ranged between KD 300 per hour spent with a woman, KD 600 for two hours and KD 2,500 for an entire day. Investigations indicated that the woman who was ranked 7th received 16 customers while the other had 13 customers since they arrived to the country four days before their arrest.
They further provided full lists which had names of customers from several Gulf states who they were supposed to meet during the upcoming holiday. The two, who investigations revealed had arrived to Kuwait on commercial visas, remain in custody pending deportation while investigations are ongoing to arrest their clients.
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Syrian Rebels Replace Christian Crosses With Al-Qaeda Flags
A Syrian rebel group affiliated with Al Qaeda desecrated two Christian churches in Northern Syria late last month, replacing their crosses with the symbolic black flag of jihad.
The rebels also destroyed relics, painting and statues allegedly in response to the city’s anti-sectarian protests against the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“We in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights strongly condemn such sectarian actions that contradict the Syrian people’s demands in justice, freedom, democracy and equality,” the group said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Biggest Prison in Europe for Journalists, Union Chief
180 arrests in 8 years, says Ipekci. Many on terrorism charges
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 11 — Turkish journalist and winner of the International Reporter of the Year Award given annually by the National Union of Italian Reporters (UNCI), Erkan Ipekci, spoke to ANSAmed about challenges to press freedom in his country. Ipekci, president of the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) was given the award by UNCI for his organizations’s relentless efforts to defend journalists who have been arrested, fired from their jobs or sentenced to time in prison. “The issue is whether human rights in Turkey should be considered according to European standards or Middle Eastern ones,” he said. “Turkey is the biggest jail for journalists in Europe. Since 2009 some 183 journalist have ended up in prison, 63 of whom are still in jail. Since then we have begun to feel ever more the effects of amendments to anti-terrorism laws and those to the Criminal Code introduced in 2005 with European support.” The country’s new Criminal Code was brought in by the government to meet the EU’s demands during membership talks which have since slowed, with steeper punishments for police torture and abuse and greater protection for women and children.
However, it was criticised by the secular environment and journalists out of concern that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for bringing in some regulations at the same time that favoured Islamist circles and others acting as pressure on journalists. The possibility of jail sentences for journalists is envisaged, along with many other regulations, Ipekci said, that restrict freedom of expression. Many journalists have been jailed on terrorism charges, the head of the country’s journalists association said, after the interception of phone calls they made as part of their jobs and the publication of articles, photos and interviews held up as proof of illegal activities. Most reporters are in jail for alleged membership in illegal organisations, such as the Kurdish PKK and KCK, or for alleged coup attempts connected with the Ergenekon case, in which not only high-ranking military officers were charged but also journalists — twenty of whom sentenced to many years in jail — and which ended with about 15 life sentences being handed down. “Prior to the Gezi Park protests,” Ipekci said, “the government had gradually created a climate of fear throughout society, which felt it was under pressure and did not have any channels to express itself — in part due to the self-censorship by the media itself, which was conditioned by the same climate,” he said. Requests by journalists organisations, he added, had been rejected. And this is why the protests of the past few months in Istanbul’s Gezi Park and Taksim Square answered the people’s need to “find new forms of expression”. Journalists also suffered the effects of the crackdown on the protest, with “over 100 injured in two months”, he said.
Moreover, according to the International Committee for the Protection of Journalists, six weeks after the anti-government protest 72 journalists had already been fired. “We are asking the European public opinion,” Ipekci said, “to put pressure on the Turkish government to change its laws.
Even the latest series of ‘reforms’ for ‘democratisation’ (which also eliminated the ban on Islamic headscarves in public offices, Ed.) does not mention freedom of the press but only of religion.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Investigators May Travel to Italy on Marines Case
Police want to hear other 4 witnesses, Economic Times says
(ANSA) New Delhi, October 10; The Indian government is considering sending a team of police investigators to Rome to gather additional testimony in an investigation involving two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen while on anti-piracy duty last year, according to local media reports.
The probe has stalled over the need to hear four witnesses — fellow marines who are thought to have seen what happened the night two of their comrades allegedly killed the two Indian fishermen; and Indian authorities are evaluating a team from the local Nia investigative police to hear what they have to say, according to the Economic Times. Italy in the past has maintained the presence of the four marines was not necessary in India to determine what happened in February 2012, saying they could be interviewed long-distance by video-call or by visiting Indian authorities in Italy. Marines Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre are currently in India, accused of murder in the shooting deaths of two fishermen in February 2012. The pair allegedly mistook the fishermen for pirates.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A Canadian paper talked to experts and used government data to estimate the risk to human health from Fukushima contaminated fish. The results were rather disturbing. Using EPA cancer calculations and Japan’s existing fish testing data they found a clear cancer risk to not just people in Japan but anywhere those fish are exported to. They then looked at the potential due to distribution of radiation around the pacific and found an exponential risk to the public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Vote Set for Bid ‘Against Mass Immigration’
Swiss voters will decide early next year on a proposal by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to reintroduce quotas for the number of foreigners allowed to work in Switzerland.
Authorities in Bern on Wednesday set a date of February 9th for a vote on the initiative “against mass immigration” for which the SVP gathered the necessary signatures.
The proposal, opposed by the government and the upper and lower houses of parliament, is contrary to the free movement of workers agreement that Switzerland has signed with the European Union.
But the SVP argues it will be possible to renegotiate the accord, although other parties say this is an illusion and that such a move would put at risk all bilateral agreements with the EU.
In fact, the federal government has invoked a clause that allows it to impose quotas on workers from the EU-8 countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary).
There are also severe restrictions preventing citizens from Bulgaria and Romania from working in Switzerland that remain in force until the end of May 2016.
The SVP agrees that Switzerland needs immigrant workers but it argues that its should be up to the Swiss to decide “who, and for how long, can come into our country”.
The initiative is the first of a series dealing with immigration.
Other votes will be held on a proposal to limit foreigners based on the environmental capacity of the country to accommodate more people, and on the expansion of the freedom of workers accord with the EU to include Croatia.
Also set for February 9th are votes on assuring financing for the maintenance of railway infrastructure and on a proposal, backed by anti-abortion groups, to remove abortions from universal medical insurance coverage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dean of Washington’s National Cathedral: It’s a Sin to Oppose Homosexuality — Heather Clark
The dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. claimed during his weekly address this past Sunday that it is a sin to oppose homosexuality. The message was part of a weekend tribute to the homosexual youth at the National Cathedral, and a commemoration of the death of Matthew Shepherd, whose slaying sparked the passage of the federal “hate crimes” bill signed into law by Barack Obama in 2009. During his speech, Gary Hall blamed churches across the country for influencing American beliefs about homosexuality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News’ Growing Pro-Homosexual Bias and the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association
Unfair, Unbalanced and Afraid
It is difficult to overstate the impact of wide-scale liberal media bias in the advancement of the pro-homosexual and pro-”transgender” revolution in American society. In the last two decades, media imbalance (and de facto censorship) on the issue has morphed into frequent media celebration of homosexuality — thus leaving citizens starved for impartial and accurate information on this critical topic. “Journalism” has become pro-homosexual propaganda, with many media stories appearing as if they were written by LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) activists. By effectively joining the “gay” activists’ crusade, major media outlets — and even “conservative” Fox News — have contributed greatly to the growing pro-homosexual political correctness in U.S. culture. This in turn has fueled even more aggressive militancy among pro-LGBT groups and bloggers who are lobbying the media to block social conservatives from TV appearances, etc., on the grounds that such anti-homosexual-agenda voices are “hate groups.” The result is the further degradation of journalism that has contributed to Republican and conservative ambivalence on issues like same-sex “marriage” and allowing open homosexuals in the military. So bad is the media groupthink on homosexuality that even self-described “conservatives” like Glen Beck and Tucker Carlson have either endorsed or made positive soundings on “gay marriage,” or gone silent on LGBT issues.1
The degree to which the “mainstream” media have become promoters of the homosexual- and transgender activist movements is astonishing…
A recent appearance by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” exposed how ill-informed the major media are when it comes to the threat that government-backed “gay marriage” (and pro-homosexual “sexual orientation”) laws pose to religious liberty. Perkins writes that with the Supreme Court’s de facto invalidation of California’s Proposition 8 amendment defining marriage as one-man, one-woman [emphasis added]:…
Perkins writes that “the media isn’t covering the stories of these victims — not because they don’t exist — but because liberals recognize their potential to swing the debate.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
High School Assignment: Students Decide Who Lives, Dies Under Limited Healthcare
A high school assignment asking students to choose life or death for terminally-ill patients in a real-world limited healthcare scenario has sparked outrage.
Freshmen and sophomore students taking a social science class at the St. Joseph-Ogden High School in St. Joseph, Illinois, were provided a list of 10 fictional persons and asked to choose six people who they felt deserved to live. The other 4 would die…
It listed the ten fictional terminal patients’ races, genders and ages, and asked pupils to score them each with numerical values from 1 to 10, 1 being the person they would most like to survive.
The macabre nature of the assignment of course echoes what many believe Obamacare will inevitably lead to, death panels which would have to be implemented in order to keep healthcare premiums low.
Champion News writer Lennie Jarratt contacted the school and was told the lesson was not at all about conditioning children to be indifferent to death panels, but was instead to teach students about “social bias.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.N. Chemical Weapons Unit Wins Nobel Peace Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2013 Peace Prize on Friday to the United Nations body charged with destroying Syria’s stocks of chemical weapons under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.
Inspectors from the 189-member Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons began arriving in Syria this month after a chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus on Aug. 21 killed hundreds of people.
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