Armed attackers in Baghdad opened fire today on shops selling alcohol, killing at least nine people. It is thought that the gunmen may have been upset with the shopkeepers for violating Islamic law concerning alcohol.
In other news, the British ambassador to the UN reported that Al Qaeda kidnappers in North Africa and the Middle East collected £50 million (about $80 million) in ransoms over a period of just three years.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Brutally Honest, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, Steen, TV, 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.
Do the Obamacrats Really Believe the Economic Garbage They Espouse?
Obama and his toadies recognize that their attempt to graft the leftist playbook onto the classic American societal structure is doomed to failure
The Obama presidency is in tatters. From ObamaCare to numerous scandals (e.g., Benghazi, IRS, Fast & Furious) to economic stagnation to palpable American decline, the shards of disaster over which the big O presides — and much of which he has caused — are bleeding the Republic and torturing its people.
How does Obama respond? Why, of course, by doubling down on the very policies that have brought the US to its current sorry place:
- We shall continue to cripple the industries that develop classic carbon-based energy resources — to which we have dramatically improved domestic accessibility that could afford us energy independence — and foolishly pursue and subsidize cost-ineffective and inadequate “green energy.”…
- We shall open the doors of citizenship to 10-20 million illegal aliens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gold Bearish Outlook Extended as Price Nears $1,200: Commodities
Gold analysts are bearish for a third week, the longest stretch since February 2010, as prices approach $1,200 an ounce and a stronger U.S. economy improves the chance that the Federal Reserve will reduce fiscal stimulus.
Sixteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News expect gold to fall next week, 11 are bullish and two neutral. Prices tumbled 26 percent this year, heading for the first annual drop in 13 years and the biggest in more than three decades. Bullion last traded below $1,200 on June 28.
Some people get seriously angry if you make even moderate criticism of Saint Mandela. They accuse you of supporting apartheid.
The apartheid system should never have been implemented in the first place. But nobody in the Western elites tell us anything about what white South Africans should do now. Should they just let themselves be slaughtered?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The government is crowing, the greenback will be produced on U.S.-made presses for the first time in more than a century. Only it won’t be green.
The Stevens Graphics Corporation is producing an ominously named Alexander Hamilton press for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (Hamilton was — appropriately enough — a proponent of fiat-paper money, big deficits, and big government)…
The new press can embed plastic or other strips in the bills, do the microprinting the Treasury has talked about, and — oh, yes — print in three colors.
The feds say not to worry. The greenback will remain green. But then why pay for this extra capacity? It can only be to print the New Money.
In an effort to find out more about where the New Money will be printed, I went on an investigative visit to Fort Worth, Texas, to survey a new BEP currency plant. This is no normal federal building. It is one of several places in the country where the New Money is in preparation.
The new BEP building is a monstrosity that perfectly symbolizes unconstitutional abuse of power. A giant windowless blockhouse [circular], it sits on an enormous piece of land, surrounded by a prison-style cyclone fence topped with barbed wire.
The Council on Foreign Relations is undoubtedly tied in to all this monetary control through the Federal Reserve and the World Bank, as well as through government influence and other sources of control. In this timeline, we learn a bit about the history of the CFR as it relates to the promotion of the New World Order…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Army Officer: We Will Pry Your Guns From Your Cold, Dead Fingers (Video)
UPDATE: It is now revealed that Lt. Col. Bateman works closely with the Department of Homeland Security.
Lt. Col. Robert Bateman wants you disarmed.
Here’s a snippet out of the Esquire article entitled It’s Time to Talk About Guns and the Supreme Court:
[…]
As displayed time and time again during the Revolutionary War, a well-regulated militia was very effective at defending a community without being authorized or controlled by the state.
Bateman however attempted to downplay this effectiveness by stating that militias routinely refused to “go out of their own state” and incorrectly implied that militias were meant to be a standing army.
The Founders worded the Second Amendment the way they did because they were relying on an armed citizenry for national defense to a great degree.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beware the “New Lincoln” — The Future Under Obama
Throughout his political career, Barack Obama has intentionally modeled himself after President Abraham Lincoln. He uses a similar style of rhetoric, and has gone so far as to adopt some of Lincoln’s travel patterns in order to create a symbolic link to him. Obama and his handlers want the public to connect him with America’s “greatest” President.
We are now well into Obama’s second term. If he believes he is indeed the “second coming” of Lincoln, the American people should understand the truth of what the Lincoln Presidency meant to this nation. Because thus far, Obama’s presidency is paralleling that of Lincoln’s in ways the unsuspecting, Lincoln adoring, public does not comprehend…
Like the mid 1850s, today we live in an era of immense division between the people of this nation. This time it is not defined as much by geography, as it is ideology. Yet, the foundational issues are the same. Moral and economic issues dominate the debate, with little common ground to be found.
Overseeing this division is a President who believes in a central government so strong and dominating, that it should control nearly every aspect of our lives. During his first term, Obama aggressively built upon the foundation his idol laid for him. Like his predecessor, he has demonstrated that he will not hesitate to use the tools at his disposal to silence political opposition. Today, that includes the mainstream media, the IRS, and the NSA.
The military chain of command is being systematically purged of those who do not align with this administration’s vision of a fascist/socalist utopia. Big business and big banks are given legal protections that act as quasi-tariffs, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Issues of morality, such as abortion and traditional marriage, are doggedly guarded as sacred, and any dissenting opinion is labeled “hate speech.” And last, but not least, just as in the 1850s, the issue of race is being used to consolidate political power.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bitcoin Meets Tesla With Lamborghini Dealership’s Model S Sale
Bitcoin, the virtual money former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called “a bubble,” was accepted as payment in the purchase of a Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Model S electric car at a California Lamborghini dealership.
Lamborghini Newport Beach sold the car for about $103,000, or 91.4 Bitcoins, in a transaction handled by payment processor BitPay, said Cedric Davy, marketing director for the Costa Mesa, California-based dealership. The sale cleared yesterday and the Model S will be delivered to its Florida-based buyer, who asked not to be identified, Davy said by telephone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boeing Will Build a Factory in Your Town if You Pay for the Factory
It’s no secret that big companies with lots of jobs to throw around try to strike good deals with state and local governments in exchange for deigning to locate there. But Boeing’s wish list for building a 777X factory is extremely ambitious. For example, they would like to build the factory in a city that will pay for the entire building of the factory, with the following three points listed as desirable:
1. “Site at no cost, or very low cost, to project.” 2. “Facilities at no cost, or significantly reduced cost.” 3. “Infrastructure improvements provided by the location.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Colonel Who Vowed to Disarm Americans Works With Homeland Security
Oath-violating Bateman also made veiled death threats against blogger
Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, the second amendment-hating Army Officer who caused controversy after vowing to “pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers,” works closely with the Department of Homeland Security.
Earlier this week, Bateman, an active military commander, penned a piece for Esquire magazine in which he promised to push for a total ban on all firearms besides muskets, shotguns and rifles, and shut down all gun manufacturers except for those who produced weapons for the federal government and the armed forces (you will be disarmed, the state will have a monopoly on firepower)…
That’s ironic given that while Bateman is lecturing the American people about their gun rights, the DHS is simultaneously buying assault rifles and acquiring billions of rounds of ammunition.
Critics contend that Bateman’s revulsion for the second amendment (which he woefully misinterprets) “proves he knows nothing about the Constitution he swore an oath to defend.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dem Rep: People Losing Their Insurance Under ObamaCare ‘A Good Thing’ (Video)
Rep. Matt Cartwright (D., Penn.) called the possibility of more Americans losing their insurance policies under Obamacare “a good thing” in an interview on MSNBC Live Friday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ed Schultz Speaks for God: ObamaCare is Divinely Approved
Most people don’t know this, but beyond being a professional gasbag, MSNBC host Ed Schultz is also a prophet in direct communication with God. He let the world know this on his program last night when he pronounced that President Obama’s very unpopular health care law is something that all Christians should support because, in actual truth, God approves of Obamacare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Spy Satellite Rockets Into Space on Atlas 5
A classified U.S. spy payload rocketed into orbit from California on an Atlas 5 launcher Thursday, joining the nation’s eyes and ears in the sky to supply intelligence to the government’s national security agencies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Do You Charge an Unarmed Man With Shooting People? Get the NYPD Involved.
In September, New York Police officers responded to an emotionally disturbed man causing a ruckus at a Times Square bus terminal by opening fire on him while they were surrounded by crowds and traffic. They missed him and hit two innocent bystanders (one of whom was in a walker). Police said at the time they thought the man, Glenn Broadnax, was reaching for a gun, but he turned out to be unarmed.
Even though Broadnax was not armed, an indictment unsealed Wednesday is charging him with assault for the injuries caused by police gunfire. From the New York Times:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IRS Using Google Maps to Spy on Taxpayers
Agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are using Google Maps as part of their tool kit to audit taxpayers and organizations, The Daily Caller has learned.
A redacted IRS letter dated Sept. 8, 2011 reveals that at least in one case the IRS’s examiners used photos of a property, obtained through Google Maps, as evidence to revoke the 501(c)(4) status of a homeowner’s association.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked Doodles Show What Clinton Was Really Thinking About During Serbia Meeting
The legendary hacker that goes by the name of Guccifer has hacked into the email accounts and private information of a number of high profile politicians and celebrities, including George W. Bush and Colin Powell. He just added one more to the list: former President Bill Clinton.
After hacking into the Clinton’s Library’s files, Guccifer found five pages of Bill Clinton’s doodles on official documents, including a series of doodles that appear to have occurred during a meeting in the Situation Room on Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic, published at Gawker.
Check out what Clinton was really thinking about during the meeting:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moon Express Unveils Private Lunar Lander
A commercial space company has revealed the design of the lunar lander that it aims to send to the moon in 2015. California-based Moon Express unveiled the blueprint and first images of its MX-1 lunar lander today (Dec. 5) in Las Vegas.
“We really have tried to create a multifaceted, flexible and scalable spacecraft that can be utilized by other people for a number of different business applications,” Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards told SPACE.com.
Moon Express designed the MX-1 from the ground up, Richards said. When fully fueled and ready for launch, it will weigh just 1,320 pounds (600 kilograms), with rocket fuel constituting more than 75 percent of the mass.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Airports Set to Install TSA ‘Detention Pods’
Devices that critics liken to cattle grids have biometric capabilities
A new Transportation Security Administration directive that mandates airports provide security for terminal exits is likely to lead to the installation of more ‘detention pods’ which have the capability of subjecting travelers to biometric scans…
As we previously highlighted, although the devices currently in use do not (at least publicly) utilize any kind of scanning technology, the pods do have biometric and object-detecting capabilities, meaning in the future Americans could face yet another stifling level of security simply to leave the airport.
A video demonstration of the devices shows a user biometrically scanning his fingerprint before he is allowed to leave the containment area.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Mexico Police Officer Suspended After Shooting at Minivan Full of Kids
A New Mexico State Police officer who fired at a minivan full of children during a traffic stop last month has been suspended.
Officer Elias Montoya has been suspended with pay pending a disciplinary investigation into a traffic incident that took place near the town of Taos, New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas told The Associated Press Thursday.
The incident was captured by a dashboard camera on the police vehicle. As driver Oriana Farrell drives away from a traffic stop in which another officer bashed her van’s window with his stick, Montoya can be seen shooting at the vehicle full of kids as young as six.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New York City Confiscating Rifles and Shotguns
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is sending out letters telling gun owners to turn over their rifles and shotguns — or else face the consequences.
New York City’s ban on rifles and shotguns that hold more than five rounds is now being enforced, according to a letter the NYPD is sending out to targeted city gun owners.
“It appears you are in possession of a rifle and/or Shotgun (listed below) that has an ammunition feeding device capable of holding more than five (5) rounds of ammunition. Rifles and shotguns capable of holding more than five (5) rounds of ammunition are unlawful to possess in New York City, as per NYC Administrative Code 10-306 (b).”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Claims Collecting Cellphone Location Data is Legal Under Executive Order — From 1981
“The NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones ‘incidentally,’“ according to the Washington Post, which broke the story concerning program based on documents provided by Edward Snowden.
Given that fact, the legal defense that the NSA outlined today for the program could be viewed as underweight. The agency cites Executive Order 12333, issued by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The NSA stated that “the Agency’s EO 12333 collection is outward-facing. We are not intentionally acquiring domestic information through this capability.” The agency also has in place “minimization procedures,” according to its spokesperson.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: The 2.0 Dictator (Video)
James David Manning, chief pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York City, breaks down how Obama is a modern dictator who stands on the shoulders of the world’s historical tyrants, using economics and social policies rather than the military to cement his rule.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pearl Harbor: A Survivor Remembers a Day of Infamy
December 7, 2013, Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941, without a declaration of war. It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded. Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.
President Franklyn D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan. Only the sneak attack on America by Muslim jihadist terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths.
But for many Americans of this generation, the significance of Pearl Harbor is not fully known, or appreciated. One for whom it does “live in infamy,” is Pearl Harbor survivor S. J. Hemker, now 94, of Banning, California. A retired U.S. Navy veteran, and an American Legionnaire, Hemker remembers Pearl Harbor up close and personal:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
S.C. Sheriff Refuses to Lower Flag for Mandela
In South Carolina, the American flag that flies over the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office will be raised high over the weekend despite an order by President Obama that flags be lowered to half-staff to honor the death of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Sheriff Rick Clark told GreenvilleOnline.com that he is ordering the flag be raised on Sunday because the honor of lowering flags to half-staff should be reserved for Americans. “The flag at half-staff is for Americans’ ultimate sacrifice for our country,” Clark said. “We should never stray away from that.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spying Spooks Throw it in Americans’ Faces With New Octopus-Engulfing-World Logo
Following this year’s further revelations on the NSA actively spying on Americans’ communications, along with the president’s promise to “reign in” the powers of US spooks, one would have expected that the government would be engaged in a damage control campaign going forward.
However, this is the criminally insane military industrial complex usurped government we’re referring to, so Instead they’re putting world-eating Octopus logos on the side of spy satellites and tweeting about it.
Here’s a photograph of the launch of NROL-39, the latest government spy satellite being overseen by The National Reconnaissance Office, which provides signals intelligence to the NSA, among other agencies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Volcanoes of Population and Weakened Economies Are Rumbling Louder These Days
The United States is a volcano whose many social programs, all devoted to the redistribution of wealth by the government, are reaching a point of such an eruption; insolvency. Their need for reform is widely known, but there is no political will to make such reforms.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration keeps expanding them in the form of disability payments, food stamps, and, of course, Obamacare, the takeover of one sixth of the nation’s economy. It is such a huge disaster that no one can ignore it. The only solution is to repeal the law, but that is not going to happen for at least three more years while an incompetent narcissist and pathological liar remains in office. The progressive agenda is being pressed by the Democratic Party which is now just another name for the Communist Party.
As if problems at home were not so serious, the efforts of the President to downsize America’s role in the world is causing other nations to sense weakness and, of course, seek to take advantage of it. China, whose landmass is 3,705,407 square miles, has recently announced that it wants to expand its territorial outreach to include some islands that Japan has long maintained as part of its territory. The response has largely been tepid at this point, but if China’s claims are granted, it will expand on them. Treaties in effect would require the U.S. to go to war to defend Japan’s interests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I believe it is time for the American people to really focus on the 2014 ballot boxes and make the commitment to replace any elected official who has been involved in bringing this country to her knees in the name of Money, Power, Control and the 21st Century! And that will be almost all of them, both parties, no matter how long they have been elected.
The talk about a “Constitutional Convention or Convention of the States” (Con-Con) quite frankly frightens me to death. The part that bothers me the most is the total lack of control on our part — the taxpaying “non-delegates”.
There is a strong surge in this movement and I can only hope it is because “they” believe they are doing what is best for America but they haven’t done their research. The actions they are planning on taking if they garner enough support is like “pouring gasoline on a full-fledged fire”.
[…]
Samuel Adams stated in 1776 the founders had done everything possible to make the idea of socialism and communism unconstitutional. “The Utopian schemes of leveling (re-distribution) & community of goods (central ownership of the means of production and distribution) are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown. These ideas are arbitrary, despotic and in OUR government UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”
Think about it! This is one of the best reasons I now of “not to mess around with OUR Constitution! It is a form of protection of which the Communists have been slowly trying to abolish since its inception.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Toxic Pesticides From GM Food Found in Unborn Babies
While the researchers did not make definite conclusions about the health consequences of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and pesticide residue on the women and their babies, GMOs and pesticides have been linked to a plethora of often severe side effects, including birth defects, miscarriages, endocrine system disruptions, allergies, tumors, and cancer. A study involving the effects of GMO food on rats produced rats with tumors large enough to deform their bodies, visible here, in addition to severe organ damage and premature death.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tylenol Can Kill You; New Warning Admits Popular Painkiller Causes Liver Damage, Death
(NaturalNews) It has been a common household name in over-the-counter pain relief for more than 50 years. But the popular painkiller drug Tylenol is getting a major labeling makeover following a string of personal injury lawsuits. According to the Associated Press (AP), so many Tylenol users these days are suffering major liver damage or dying that the drug’s manufacturer, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, has decided to put a large, red warning label on the cap that informs users about the drug’s risks.
Even when taken at recommended doses, acetaminophen, the primary active ingredient in Tylenol, can cause major damage to the liver, potentially leading to liver failure and even death. In fact, acetaminophen is currently the leading cause of sudden liver failure in the U.S., as its toxic metabolites have been shown to kill liver cells. The drug is so toxic that as many as 80,000 people are rushed to the emergency room annually due to acetaminophen poisoning, and another 500-or-so end up dead from liver failure.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Homeland Security Searches Vehicles at Ferry Crossing Checkpoint
A video shows the Department of Homeland Security conducting warrantless searches of vehicles at a ferry crossing in Galveston, Texas, in yet another example of how the agency is setting up checkpoints across the country.
The clip shows drivers being forced to exit their vehicle to allow the DHS officials to inspect both their trunk and hood before being permitted to pass the checkpoint.
“I’ve never seen this kind of deal,” remarks the driver in the clip, who takes the ferry regularly, “We were just randomly pulled over here.”
“What’s going on here man, this is America! I don’t want them searching my truck,” he adds as the driver in front is made to exit his car.
When asked what they were doing, the DHS official responds, “It’s a screening process, Homeland Security,” before asking the man to pop the hood.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Wanted in Connection to Rape of 12-Year-Old Girl
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) — Police said the rape of a 12-year-old girl now includes six people. Police said the victim was raped several times, dating back to this summer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
You’re Too Old for MRI Under Obama Care
It is foreseeable that by 2015, most private plans will be gone, replaced by a single-payer IRS/HHS government-run insurance
It is not easy to find a doctor who takes Medicare in our area. When we found one that did, mom accepted him, no questions asked, based on his sweet, smiling demeanor. I was not so easily convinced. Call me from the Show Me State if you’d like.
We arrived for our dual appointments — there was nobody in the waiting room so we waited just a few minutes before we were taken to the same examining room. The nurse came, very polite, took our information on her laptop and left, and we waited and waited. Finally, mom’s favorite smiling doctor showed up with his laptop in tow.
He told us his office was one hundred percent compliant with the ObamaCare electronic patient portals. We could not have cared less about his electronic compliance. Without touching her, he made mom walk back and forth to see what her right-leaning gait looked like. He determined that she needed a rolling walker because she probably had a mini stroke at some point when the gait commenced. He was not going to order an MRI because she is too old and ObamaCare will not approve payment.
He did not touch her on the previous visit either when she fell but had not broken anything; she was in severe pain and covered in ugly, deep bruises. He did not order any x-rays then because she did not seem to be in terrible pain, he said. Mom is stoic and put up a good front in the doctor’s office; she lingered in bed for three months, healing from the awful fall she took outside in the grass.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mandela Still a Terrorist, Claims Canada MP
Conservative Member of Parliament Rob Anders has apparently not backed down in his belief that anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday, was a terrorist.
On Friday, Anders offered no comment to Global News on the death of the former South African leader, although he has called Mandela a terrorist and a communist in the past. Those were words he used back in 2001, when he was the sole voice opposing a motion to declare Mandela an honourary Canadian citizen, which was passed by his colleagues and the opposition.
However, in an email to reporter Laura Stone, the Calgary West MP recommended that she read an obituary posted on the David Horowitz Freedom Centre website. “Mandela began as a terrorist and never turned his back on monsters like Arafat and Castro, whom he considered brothers in arms,” said the release.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Company Makes CO2 Into Liquid Fuel, With Help From a Volcano
An Icelandic company figures out how to make methanol from waste carbon dioxide, but the economics may not work without a nearby volcano.
When a geothermal power plant started spewing hot water into the barren, volcanic landscape of Iceland’s Southern Peninsula in 1976, the locals turned the steaming lake into a health spa that’s now frequented by half a million people a year. Now a small Icelandic company is hoping to turn a profit from waste carbon dioxide from the same plant.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Called the ‘politeness manual for the modern traveller’- it lists 12 ‘commandments’ for Parisians to abide by and even comes complete with quaint sketches.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim Woman Sues Over Burqa Ban
by Soeren Kern
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has opened a landmark hearing to consider the legality of France’s ban on wearing Islamic veils in public spaces. The Strasbourg-based ECHR enforces the European Convention on Human Rights and its jurisdiction is compulsory and binding for all 47 member states of the Council of Europe.
The court’s ruling—expected to be issued sometime during the middle of 2014—will determine the fate of the debate over so-called burqa bans that have been raging across Europe for many years. This is the first time the supra-national ECHR has agreed to consider the legality of the face-covering niqab or the body-covering burqa in public spaces in a European country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: State Bills Crash Victim for €25,000 Road Damage
A French motorist got a nasty shock recently, after receiving a €25,000 bill from the state for road damage caused by a serious car crash in April 2012, in which he was rear-ended by a speeding, hit-and-run driver…
Depestel’s only crime, he says, was being contactable by local authorities seeking damages for destruction of motorway infrastructure.
On April 22nd, 2012, while travelling on the A25 between Lille and Dunkirk in northern France, Depestel — whose three children were in the car at the time — was rear-ended by a speeding and reckless motorist, who fled after the collision.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Rhodes Synagogue a Place of Worship and Warning
Oldest in nation, holds memory of community killed in Holocaust
(by Patrizio Nissirio) (ANSAmed) — RHODES (GREECE), DECEMBER 4 — The oldest synagogue in the entire country has been there since 1577. Built when the Sephardic Jews expelled by Spain ended up in the Dodecanese, Kahal Shalom served the community for 500 years until Nazi-Fascist persecution eliminated the Jewish population’s presence along with that of the nearby island Kos in the horrors of the Holocaust. Of the 1,673 Italian citizens of the Jewish religion over 16 years of age (the island had been under Italian occupation since 1912) deported to the concentration camps, only 151 survived and almost all of them left. Today the synagogue is almost always closed and opens for Friday evening prayers only when former residents or family members visit the island, or for Jewish holidays or special occasions. A visit to it proves a rare, intense experience. The Jews of Rhodes were successful traders, artists and musicians who spoke Ladino and who — from their neighborhood in the Old City — entertained relations with the entire Eastern Mediterranean and the large Jewish communities of Salonika, Istanbul and Smyrna. Until the racial laws brought in under Fascism in 1938, Italian citizens of the Jewish religion on the island lived a calm, active life.
As noted by the Mosaico-cem.it website, the Italian governor Mario Lago (1922-1936) was one of the staunchest promoters and supporters of the Rhodes Rabbinical College that — from its inauguration in 1928 — hosted some of the most important names of Italian Jewry of the time: from Riccardo Pacifici (head of the college from 1932 until its closure in 1938) to David Prato, who strongly supported the idea of Italian (and Jewish) importance in the Mediterranean.
When King Vittorio Emanuele III visited Rhodes in 1929, he spoke about the rabbinical college, saying that “I am pleased to see this important center of Jewish culture on Italian soil”. This all changed in 1938, followed by the Holocaust making its appearance on the island when the Germans took control of the island in 1943-44. Kahal Shalom (there were once five Jewish houses of worship in the area) was built in Sephardic style, with the Tevah (altar with prayer reading stand) facing southeast towards Jerusalem.
There was once a well-stocked library as well that was destroyed by the Nazis. Rhodes’ small Jewish community is made up almost entirely of Jews from the rest of Greece — the head, Ms Cohen, is originally from Volos — and aims to keep the memory of the Rhodesli (as Rhodes Jews were called) alive. They are aided in this by a small museum containing documents, clothes and photos illustrating the long and tragically torn history of the community. A sign in French in the courtyard commemorates the names of the families that died in the concentration camps.
The Italian Sami Modiano also works hard to keep the memory alive. Born in Rhodes in 1930, the Holocaust survivor often visits the island to take part in programs for schools. For the first-time visitor it is an extraordinary trip into the past, and only a few steps away is Jewish Martyrs’ Square, where a monument commemorates what once was.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In the future, computer hackers could steal sensitive data from people’s computers using nothing but soundwaves, experts have warned.
German computer scientists have proved the idea is possible by developing a new type of malware that can travel between machines using sound waves that are inaudible to unsuspecting humans.
Using built-in microphones and speakers in laptops, the researchers managed to transmit passwords and small amounts of data between machines 65ft away from each other.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Accuses Letta of Inaction
‘Enough delays’ says Florence mayor ahead of primaries
(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, expected to take over the center-left Democratic Party (PD) in upcoming elections, called out Premier Enrico Letta for alleged inaction on Friday.
“The Letta government has appeared strong on the international level, which has struck me. But I’m disappointed that it’s delaying things. Some things need to be taken care of immediately,” said Renzi. As PD primaries on Sunday approach, the charismatic 38-year-old has upped criticism of Letta, also in the PD, for not moving more quickly to improve employment opportunities and to reform the country’s contentious election law, which produced the current left-right coalition after a two-month parliamentary logjam. Two polls on Friday said Renzi is highly favored to take the helm of the Democratic Party (PD), Italy’s biggest party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League Councillor Blasts Mandela as ‘Terrorist’
Bigwigs stress comments not position of party
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Verona, December 6 — A minor member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party on Friday blasted South African leader Nelson Mandela on the social network Facebook. Often called “Tata” or Father in South Africa, the man who won the Nobel peace prize for waging a campaign to reconcile and reunite his country after apartheid died Thursday at the age of 95.
“Finally the terrorist Mandela, the beast who thirsted for white blood and was transformed into a hero by global propaganda, will find himself before all the people that he had killed with bombs in churches or with tires on fire around the neck,” wrote Francesco Vartolo, who is a borough councillor in Verona, on his Facebook page.
Luca Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region that includes Verona and a League bigwig, condemned Vartolo’s comments and stressed that they did not represent the party’s position. Several senior League members praised Mandela.
“Honour to the memory of one of humanity’s greats,” wrote League leader and Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni via Twitter. Northern League politicians have become notorious for racially charged attacks, including a rain of slurs on Italy’s first black cabinet member, Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge.
Northern League Senator Roberto Calderoli’s comments at a party rally likening Kyenge to an orangutan triggered a criminal probe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Tells M5S Militants to Report ‘Enemy’ Journalists
Slams reporter with Unita’ newspaper
(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo on Friday called on militants to report press articles criticizing the party.
He also slammed journalist Maria Novella Oppo who works for newspaper l’Unita’, of which the center-left Democratic Party (PD) is a shareholder, for “publicly defaming the M5S whenever she can”. Grillo has repeatedly slammed journalists for alleged bias against his movement and said his party plans to abolish public financing to the press.
Maria Novella Oppo, Grillo wrote Friday on his blog, the movement’s mouthpiece, “is proud of the fact she has been working for Unita’ since the end of 1972. Since then, she has had no other employment and has been supported by tax payers for the past 40 years thanks to public financing to the press which the movement wants to abolish immediately”.
“Oppo will have to look for a new job,” he also wrote.
Grillo then concluded his post telling militants to look for articles written by “journalists like Oppo” for a new column on the blog — “The journalist of the day”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Rendition’ Imam Jailed for International Terrorism
Milan, 6 Dec. (AKI) — An Italian court on Friday convicted of international terrorism a radical Egyptian imam at the centre of a CIA kidnapping case and sentenced him to six years in prison.
Rejecting the sentence handed to him in absentia by judge in the northern city of Milan, the cleric, Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, also known as ‘Abu Omar’, said he was innocent.
“I have never belonged to an international terrorism organisation and have only professed my faith and my political views,” Nasr commented from the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a statement issued by his Italian lawyer.
Carmelo Scambia said he and his client had expected Friday’s verdict and would decide whether to appeal the sentence after the judge issued the reasoning behind it due within the next 40 days.
Prosecutors had requested a jail term of six years and eight months for Nasr, who was accused of together with 13 other foreign residents in Italy of belonging to a terrorist association between 2000 and 2003.
The association “sought to commit acts of terrorist violence in Italy and abroad,” according to the charge-sheet.
The former head of Italy’s military secret services, Nicolo Pollari was jailed in February 2012 for 10 years for his role in the CIA’s 2003 abduction of Nasr from a Milan street, following a re-trial.
A court in the northern Italian city gave Pollari’s former deputy, Marco Mancini, a nine-year prison sentence for his involvement in the kidnapping in which Nasr alleges he was flown to a Nato military base in Germany and on to Egypt, where he was tortured in prison.
A total of 23 Americans were in 2009 convicted in absentia over the case and Italy’s top criminal court in September 2011 ordered five former Italian military intelligence officers to be retried.
In that ruling, the Court of Cassation ordered that Nasr must be paid one million euros in damages and his wife 500,000 euros in for his ordeal
Although two former Italian secret agents were also jailed in the original three-year landmark trial, five intelligence officials, including Pollari had been acquitted under state secrecy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Brunetta: House Panel Members vs Berlusconi Illegitimate
(AGI) Rome, Dec 7 — After the Italian Constitutional Court declared parts of the country’s electoral law unconstitutional “148 leftist deputies are illegitimate, that means that only 192 the 340 present in Parliament would remain,” House whip of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI), Renato Brunetta, said on Saturday. Alluding to former PM Silvio Belsuconi’s ousting from Italy’s Senate, Mr Brunetta added that as many as 10 out of 30 members of the House committee on elections became deputies thanks to a measure in the electoral law that awarded extra seats to the frontrunning coalition or party and may risk losing their parliamentary seat.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Daniela Santanche Ready to Vote for Napolitano Impeachment
(AGI) Rome, Dec 6 — During a Radio 24 interview, Daniela Santanche said she was ready to vote for impeachment should the Five Star Movement (M5S) propose it, and that President Napolitano should resign. She said: “There has been a coup in Italy and democracy has been cut in half. I would be delighted if Napolitano were no longer president, since he has failed in his peace-making mission. The broad coalition has failed and I am ready to vote for his impeachment should the M5S request it.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salvini Defeats Bossi in Lega Nord Primary Election
(AGI) Milan, Dec 7 — Lega Nord undersecretary Matteo Salvini won the primary election for the right-wing party, garnering 82 percent of the votes against the 18 percent for Lega Nord’s founder, Umberto Bossi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League’s Salvini Says He Will Not Imitate Renzi
(AGI) Milan, Dec 7 — Matteo Salvini, the current Secretary of the Northern League party, says he will not be a party leader like Matteo Renzi of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD). “I will make sure that everyone will be able to voice an opinion.
I won’t be a party leader like Matteo Renzi,” said Matteo Salvini when asked if Umberto Bossi will be confirmed as federal president of the party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals May Have Practiced the Ancient Art of Interior Design
The stereotype of Neanderthals as big-boned brutes is evaporating rapidly. Recent research has detailed their penchant for highly-refined tools, self-expression through art, and a love of the grill. And now a new study, led by Julien Riel-Salvatore, has found that Neanderthals didn’t just decorate their cave all willy-nilly. Rather, they laid out their homes with care, with different parts of the cave being used for different purposes in a repeated, reliable way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
News Report Claims US Spied on Italian Leadership
Repubblica-Espresso investigation says US embassy eavesdropping
(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — The United States spied on Italian leadership communications via a special undercover unit that enjoyed diplomatic immunity, according to an exclusive report published Friday by newspaper La Repubblica and Espresso magazine.
La Repubblica said in its front page article that its information was based on documents provided by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden, and published pictures of a cubical structure on the roof of the US embassy in Rome that it asked British intelligence journalist Duncan Campbell to assess. Campbell has specialized in security and intelligence issues since the 1970s, and in 1988 revealed the ECHELON surveillance programme of broad monitoring of satellite communications for partner countries Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. According to La Repubblica, Campbell concluded that the structure on top of the US embassy in Rome was a secret listening post “to hide the collection of electronic intelligence with many hidden antenna with the capacity to listen to GSM, GPRS, 3G and CDMA network phones, as well as government and police communications channels, and to support special activities of the CIA, like targeted wire-tapping”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sixth Romanian Suspect Implicated in Rotterdam Art Heist Arrested in Manchester
The last of the six suspects in the Kunsthal raid in Rotterdam has been arrested in the UK.
Adrian Procop, 21, is one of two Romanian men accused of breaking into the gallery last October and made off with six paintings by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Monet.
The other main suspect, 29-year-old Radu Dogaru, was sentenced last month to nearly seven years in jail. Four other people have also been convicted for their role in transporting the works to Romania, where they were destroyed in a stove.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Health System ‘Worst in the Nordics’
Long queues to see a doctor and get treatment in Sweden have dragged the country far down a European ranking of healthcare providers, with Sweden now the worst among its Nordic neighbours despite efforts to cut waiting times.
On Tuesday, a Brussels-based Swedish researcher revealed that Sweden had the worst health system of any of the five Nordic countries. Sweden slipped from sixth to eleventh place among 35 European countries, with Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland all racing past it.
The report in particular had harsh words for waiting times in the Swedish healthcare system. It gave as an example that teenagers suffering anorexia at times have to wait six months for an appointment with a specialist. It also highlighted its concern that cancer patients were left to wait.
“Why can Albania operate its healthcare services with practically zero waiting times, and Sweden cannot?” the report authors from the Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP) organization in Brussels asked, albeit acknowledging modest improvements. “The Swedish queue-shortening project, on which the state has spent approximately 5 billion euro, has achieved some shortening of waiting times.”
Sweden aims to make sure people can see their general practitioner within one week max, which the organization said was a modest goal in and of itself.
“The target for maximum wait in Sweden to see your primary care doctor (no more than seven days) is underachieved only by Portugal, where the corresponding figure is 15 days,” the report stated.
Such were the waiting times, that they pulled Sweden down the European ranking despite having technically advanced healthcare at its disposal.
“The Swedish score for technically excellent healthcare services is, as ever, dragged down by the seemingly never-ending story of access/waiting time problems,” the reported noted, underlining that the national efforts to guarantee patient care had not helped in cutting the delays significantly.
“If healthcare officials and politicians took to looking across borders, and to “stealing” improvement ideas from their European colleagues, there would be a good chance for a national system to come much closer to the theoretical top score of 1,000,” the report concluded.
“As a prominent example; if Sweden could achieve a Belgian waiting list situation, that alone would suffice to lift Sweden to compete with the Netherlands at ~880 points!”
Despite the poor performance in the ranking, Swedish men still manage to live five years longer on average than their Danish neighbours, the Euro Health Consumer Index found this year.
“The classic Danish reply when confronted with the fact that male life expectancy is five years less in Denmark than across the water in Sweden: “We have more fun while it lasts!” the report authors noted.
Head researcher Arne Björnberg also explained that Sweden’s tumble in 2013’s Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI) was in large part due to other countries getting their act together. Yet the organization stressed that Sweden must focus its efforts on cutting queues.
“Only Serbia has equally long waiting times as Sweden today,” HCP founder Johan Hjertqvist said in a statement. “Despite the government pumping billions into the queue system, very little is happening.”
The Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper also revealed on Wednesday that one in three Swedish doctors feels they spend too much time on filling in paperwork, rather than treating their patients. OECD statistics show that Sweden has one of the highest doctor-to-patient ratios but still has one of the lowest rates of doctors visits per citizen annually. Swedish patients also report feeling that they don’t get enough time with their healthcare provider. A summary of the situation will be handed to the Social Affairs Minister Göran Hägglund on Wednesday by the Swedish Agency for Health and Care Services Analysis (Myndigheten för vårdanalys).
“Why it looks this way is a mystery,” agency head Fredrik Lennartsson told SvD. “We haven’t been able to precisely quantify how much time the doctors spend with their patients(…) but there is clearly a lot of potential for using their time and competence more efficiently than we do today.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Coastal towns across Britain have been left swamped after the worst tidal surge for more than 60 years forced thousands of families to evacuate their homes.
Although flood waters were reported to be receding, 40 severe flood warnings, 134 flood warnings and 63 flood alerts were still in place at 8am after the North Sea surge hit the north Norfolk coast early yesterday evening and headed south throughout the night.
The fierce Atlantic storm — which has already claimed two lives — caused widespread disruption yesterday, but some agencies this morning said that the expected flooding overnight was less severe than expected.
The Environment Agency, meanwhile, has said beefed-up defences and flood warnings helped prevent greater loss of life and property despite the ‘record-breaking’ sea levels along the east coast of Britain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Million Facebook, Gmail and Twitter Passwords Are Stolen in Massive Hack
If you’re a regular Facebook, Twitter or Google user it might be a good idea to change your password.
Security experts investigating cybercriminals in Netherlands have discovered two million account details on a server that were stolen from popular sites and email providers.
It is thought the server was used to control a network of compromised computers, known as ‘zombies’, that were attached to the malicious Pony botnet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A policewoman was jailed yesterday after lying to bosses and an alleged rape victim that prosecutors were not going to press charges.
In fact, PC Hannah Notley had not even passed the case file to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Notley, who had taken on detective duties as a sexual offences-trained officer at Essex Police CID, was assigned to the case in July 2011.
The alleged rapist was arrested and interviewed, and his mobile phone and computer examined.
But when Notley was later asked for a progress report, she told a superior the CPS had dropped it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three members of a so-called ‘Muslim Patrol’ were today jailed at the Old Bailey for repeatedly trying to enforce Sharia law in East London.
Jordan Horner and another Islamic extremist told one couple they could not hold hands while walking down the street, because it was in a ‘Muslim area’.
The radicals also attacked a group of men drinking in the road, and told a woman she would face ‘hell fire’ because of the way she was dressed.
Horner, 19, Ricardo MacFarlane, 36, and a 23-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons were sentenced to 68 weeks, 12 months and 24 weeks in prison respectively.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
At the end of December 2011, having been trying for a second child, Kelly was delighted to learn that she was pregnant.
‘I was so happy,’ Kelly says, ‘It was obviously the best thing that had happened to us since our son had died so you can’t imagine the feeling that you can make a future again and to start living for the future and not the past anymore.’
However her joy at greeting her new arrival was curtailed when, in August 2011, social workers enter her hospital room while she was in the middle of giving birth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brick Lane Off-Licences Punished by Council’s New Saturation Zone
Two off-licences in Brick Lane have fallen foul of council licencing rules with one losing its ability to sell alcohol for three weeks and another being refused a new licence. Sweetpoint in Old Montague Street had it’s licence suspended after it was caught selling alcohol and tobacco to children and vulnerable adults. The off-licence was also stripped of the ability to sell high strength lager due to a string of other breaches of licencing rules, including selling illicit non-duty paid alcohol and tobacco. Robi’s in Brick Lane was refused a new licence after the police, council and residents objected to the application on the grounds that it would increase crime, disorder and public nuisance.
The decisions were the first uses of the council’s new Saturation Zone policy, introduced in November to reduce anti-social behaviour, and were taken by the its licencing sub-committee on November 26 and 27. Cllr Ohid Ahmed, deputy mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “Brick Lane has a vibrant night time economy, and the Saturation Zone allows us to balance the benefits of the economy with the needs of local residents.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Casualty of War: Royal Marine Who Murdered Taliban Fighter Jailed for Life
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A Royal Marine who murdered an insurgent in Afghanistan said last night he was devastated over the decision to jail him for life.
Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 39, was told he would serve at least ten years for murdering the Afghan national in Helmand province in 2011. He has also been dismissed from the Marines in disgrace…
In a withering sentencing statement, Judge Blackett said: ‘You have provided ammunition to the terrorists whose propaganda portrays the British presence in Afghanistan as part of a war on Islam in which civilians are arbitrarily killed.
‘Committing this sort of act could well provoke the enemy to act more brutally towards British troops in retribution or reprisal.’
[…]
He lost his cool near the end of a ‘tour from hell’, during which 23 servicemen from 3 Commando Brigade lost their lives and insurgents hung the limbs of maimed British troops in trees as ‘trophies’.
His badly injured victim had been found with an AK47 assault rifle and grenade after an Apache helicopter blitzed him with cannon fire following an attack on a British base.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fadel Soliman and the East London Mosque
This is the latest spin from the East London Mosque:
“Having introduced an extremely tight booking procedure, hosted workshops and training for our trustees, and devoted considerable resources to vetting speakers, we would like to reassure our community and our partners that we take our responsibilities in this arena extremely seriously.”
Let’s measure that claim against the record of Fadel Soliman, an Egyptian Islamic activist who will speak at the mosque this evening…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Grooming Trial: Details of Child Sex Exploitation Revealed
The underage victim of Shakil Munir believed she was getting into his taxi to go and get some cigarettes
It was the stuff of any parent’s nightmares. A young daughter leaving her home alone in pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers, and getting into the taxi of a predatory older man. The underage girl believed cabbie Shakil Munir was taking her to buy cigarettes. But he took the 14-year-old to a lay-by on the A19 and had sex with her in January this year…
[JP note: See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-25240792 ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hate Crime Victims Can Report to Halesowen Mosque
VICTIMS of hate crime, who are scared to go to the police, can now report offences to the Halesowen-based Ahmadiyya Muslim Association. Its Baitul Ghafoor Mosque, Long Lane, is one of a growing number of third party reporting centres across Dudley borough. These independent centres provide the public with opportunities to report hate crimes motivated by gender, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation, anonymously if required, which is passed on to local officers. Staff and volunteers at the centres have received training from police officers as part of the accreditation process…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mosque Leader Appeals for Calm After Attack in Hull
Imam Hafiz Salih may lose sight in one eye after being punched by man who stopped his car
The leader of the Hull city mosque has appealed for his congregation not to take the law into their own hands after he was attacked by a man who stopped his car on the way home from the mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Seventh Man Jailed on Honour Killing of Iraqi Woman in London
A man who was involved in the “honour” killing of a young Iraqi woman has become the seventh person to receive a jail sentence in connection with her murder. Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled in January 2006 and her body stored in a suitcase before being driven out of London towards Birmingham, where she was intended to be hidden in a shallow grave.Dana Amin, 33, of Armfield Crescent, Mitcham, south London, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court yesterday of perverting the course of justice and preventing the victim’s lawful and decent burial, and was sentenced today to eight years in prison…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Actress Calls Qaradawi a ‘Terrorist’
Famous Egyptian actress Ghada Abdel Razek has attacked renowned Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, calling him a “terrorist” after he decided to resign from the governing body of al-Azhar University, which he accused of supporting the military-backed authorities.
Abdel Razik posted a picture of Qaradawi on her Instagram account with a comment that said: “The terrorist incites the killing of Egyptian people and he does not hold the Egyptian citizenship. He holds the Qatari citizenship …someone needs to tell him you are a #traitor #traitor #traitor.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Militants, Criminals Extort Christians
CAIRO (BP) — Islamic extremists and criminals are extorting Christians in Egyptian towns, while trouble brews over the country’s new protest law and constitution. According to Morning Star News, a news service reporting on the persecuted church, Islamist radicals in several Egyptian towns have begun a campaign of terrorism and extortion against Christians.
Muslim extremists in a number of towns are demanding Christians pay the jizya, a Quran-based fine on non-Muslims known as the “humiliation” or “submission” tax. Human rights activists told Morning Star News that radicals and ordinary criminals have started a cottage industry from extorting Christians. They threaten kidnapping, torture and murder to seize money and property from Christians mainly in southern Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Elite Mossad Agents and Moms Decorated
‘For frontline action against terrorism, non-conventional arms’
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 6 — In a top-secret ceremony at the home of President Shimon Peres, Israel’s Mossad secret service yesterday honored four of its elite agents, who also happen to be mothers, for their contributions to national security.
Accompanied by their children, the four women were decorated along with eight male fellow spies for their courage in action, the details of which are classified.
“You participated in front-line actions to avert the threat of non-conventional arms, terrorism, and other threats that still weigh on the State if Israel”, the spies were reportedly told in the presence of both Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I don’t know how you manage to be mothers and Mossad combatants at the same time”, an admiring Peres reportedly exclaimed.
“You do in real life what (Israeli actress-model) Gal (Gadot) will do in the film”, added Netanyahu, in a reference to news that the Israeli actress has been cast to play the lead in an upcoming film on Wonderwoman.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Palestine’s First Online Sex Shop’
Venture launched by 30-year-old Palestinian-American entrepreneur receives nod from Ramallah elders
30-year-old Ramallah-based Palestinian-American entrepreneur has launched a pornography-free online sex shop aimed at encouraging marital intimacy. The venture hopes to attract customers across the Arab world, the Guardian reported Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Entrepreneur Hopes Sex Shop Will Help Married Couples Connect
Ashraf Alkiswani, 30, says he has approval from Ramallah mosque elders for pornography-free online venture Karaz
In a Ramallah mosque, Ashraf Alkiswani sat before three sheikhs, elders with authority on matters of Islam, to ask for approval for his latest business project.
It is unusual for Palestinian entrepreneurs to seek religious authorisation for new ventures. But Alkiswani was not planning a plush restaurant in downtown Ramallah, or a coffee shop elsewhere in the West Bank; he was launching Palestine’s first online sex shop.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
PNA: EU: 11 Mln to Pay Salaries and Pensions of 71,000
John Gatt-Rutter, the support will continue in 2014
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 06 — The European Union has contributed approximately 11 million euros to the payment of the November salaries and pensions of around 71,000 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution, made through the PEGASE mechanism, is funded by the European Union (10 million euros) and the Government of the Netherlands (about 1 million euros).
“For many years the EU has been the biggest donor and most reliable partner to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Today’s contribution to salaries and pensions is further evidence of our unimpeded support for the Palestinian people, which will continue in 2014” said the EU Representative, John Gatt-Rutter.
As well as helping to meet a substantial proportion of its running costs, European funds support major reform and development programmes in key ministries, to help prepare the PA for statehood.
Since February 2008, around 1.57 billion euros have been disbursed through the PEGASE Direct Financial Support programmes. In addition, the EU has provided assistance to the Palestinian people through UNRWA and a wide range of cooperation projects.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Son of Pro-Israel Priest Attacked in Nazareth
The 17 year-old son of Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox Priest who supports the State of Israel as well as IDF recruitment of non-Jewish Israelis, was violently attacked in Nazareth Friday night.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a growing Christian population, as ancient Christian communities throughout the region face violence and intimidation by Islamist groups, particularly in the wake of the string of uprisings throughout the Arab world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
2 Killed in Clashes in Southeast Turkey
ANKARA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) — At least two demonstrators were killed in clashes with police in Turkey’s southeastern province of Hakkari on Friday, local Dogan News Agency reported. A group affiliated to the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) held a demonstration against the demolition of some PKK members’ graves in the Yuksekova district of Hakkari, the report said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Family Jihad: Father Takes Five Sons to Join Syrian Rebels
A Moroccan father has taken all five of his children — the youngest of them aged 13 — to fight for an Islamist faction in Syria, according to reports.
Ahmed al-Sha’ara took his sons across Europe and through Turkey before joining up with forces challenging President Bashar al-Assad, the Egyptian al-Aram website has reported. Among them was Osama, 13, who had earlier accompanied his father on demonstrations in Tangiers, northern Morocco, against the jailing of Salafists — radical Sunni Muslims. If confirmed, the family’s journey would support claims that large family groups from across the Muslim world are travelling to Syria in greater numbers…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Nine People Killed at Alcohol Shops in Baghdad
(AGI) Baghdad, Dec 7 — Armed men opened fire on Saturday evening on Baghdad shops selling alcohol. At least nine people were killed. The use of alcohol is banned by the Quran, although some Muslim countries tolerate it.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Is Rumored Saudi-Israeli Collaboration on a Super Stuxnet Iranian Disinformation?
There is lots of chatter in the media and on the internet speculating on a possible Israeli Saudi entente to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program with a Super Stuxnet malworm. That speculation was triggered by an Iranian FARS agency report on November 30, 2013 concerning a supposed alliance of convenience between the Jewish nation and the Wahhabist Saudi Kingdom, “Riyadh, Tel Aviv Cooperating to Sabotage Iran’s N. Program.”. The report focused on possible of development a coordinated sabotage effort aimed at delaying and ultimately destroying Shiite Iran’s achievement of nuclear breakout. Some seasoned observers considered this part of an elaborate Iranian disinformation campaign in the wake of the November 24th P5+1 deal struck with Iran in Geneva.
[…]
The quixotic nature of the rumored Saudi — Israeli Entente endeavoring to disable if not stop ran’s quest for nuclear hegemony is problematic. Walter Russell Mead in a Wall Street Journal op ed, “A Riyadh-Jerusalem Entente”, elaborates on the dynamics of this suggested entente. He notes in conclusion:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
New York Times Finally Sees Jihadist Threat in Syria as Crisis Rolls on
The New York Times has finally come to the realization that jihadist groups fighting in Syria against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are likely to be more dangerous than the “secular” Assad himself. In a front page article on December 4, 2013, with the sub-heading “Officials Say Militants in Syria Could Threaten U.S. and Europe,” the “paper of record” at long last went on record to state the obvious.
The Times quoted Ryan C. Crocker, an experienced diplomat with service in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who said flat-out that “We need to start talking to the Assad regime again” about counterterrorism. He added that “bad as Assad is, he is not as bad as the jihadists who would take over in his absence.”
Syria is not just a localized problem. It is fast becoming an incubator for jihadist violence spreading throughout the Middle East, parts of Africa and beyond.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Non Arabic Speaking American Singer Forerunner in Arabs Got Talent
Jennifer Grout, an American from Massachusetts, is making headlines as the front runner in Arabs Got Talent, a reality television talent show, which is heading to its final rounds. The non-Arabic speaking demure blonde stunned audiences in her first audition by playing the oud, a traditional Arabic instrument, and singing a timeless Arab song by Umm Kalthoum, widely recognized as the greatest female singer in Arab history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Grand Mufti Labels Gender Mixing a ‘Crime’
Gender mixing is a “heinous crime” which endangers women and society, warned Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti on Friday, according to local media reports. In a sermon during Friday prayers, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh said women who call for gender mixing “want to corrupt their morals,” according to the Saudi newspaper al-Eqtisadiah.
He considered the act a criminal Western project that brings horrors, calamities and peril to the Muslim Ummah (Islamic nation), the newspaper added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Conflict: Foreign Jihadists ‘Use Turkey Safe Houses’
Foreign jihadist fighters are using safe houses in southern Turkey to cross into Syria to fight against government forces, the BBC has learnt. A man running one such house near the border town of Reyhanli said more than 150 people — including up to 20 Britons — had used it in the past three months.
The route through Turkey used by al-Qaeda-linked foreign jihadists is now becoming increasingly organised. Opposition activists say jihadists are destroying the Syrian revolution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Royal Marine filmed executing injured Taliban insurgent in cold blood is given ten year minimum jail sentence, as judge tells him: “You have betrayed all British service personnel” A Royal Marine who murdered a badly wounded Taliban insurgent must serve at least 10 years in prison for a cold blooded killing which tarnished the reputation of the Armed Forces, a judge has said. Sgt Alexander Blackman was dismissed in disgrace and told his crime had betrayed the Marines and increased the risk of revenge attacks on British troops…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Jailed Bin Laden Doctor Shakil Afridi Refuses to Stay Silent
The Pakistani doctor who is accused of helping the American Central Intelligence Agency track down former al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, says he is being denied his right to a fair trial.
“I am the first individual in Pakistan to have been denied permission to meet my lawyers, which is my basic legal right,” he says in a hand-written letter he was able to smuggle out to his lawyers from his prison cell this week. “What kind of a court, what kind of justice is this?”
This is his first contact with his lawyers in 15 months. It is also his first communication with the outside world since September 2012, when he spoke to Fox News from his prison cell by a smuggled phone. His lawyers say they are living in a communication vacuum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
WTO Agrees Global Trade Deal Worth $1tn
A deal to boost global trade was approved on Saturday by the World Trade Organization’s 159 member economies for the first time in nearly two decades. The deal, struck on the Indonesian island of Bali, could add $1 trillion to the world economy.
| [Return to headlines] |
Horrific Secrets of North Korea’s Gulags Revealed
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A former security guard at the largest political prison camp in North Korea has spoken out for the first time about the rape and murder of female inmates at the facility.
Mr Lee, a former security official at Camp 16 in the 1980s and 1990s, revealed the horror of daily life for prisoners at the site near Hwaseong in North Hamgyong province, which is approximately 215 square miles.
He broke his silence to tell Amnesty International, which is banned in the Communist country, about the methods used to execute prisoners incarcerated in the Soviet-style, hidden ‘gulags’.
According to Mr Lee, women were killed after being brutally raped. ‘After a night of “servicing” the officials, the women had to die because the secret could not get out. This happens at most of the political prison camps,’ he said.
He also told how detainees were forced to dig their own graves and were then killed with hammer blows to their necks.
Mr Lee witnessed prison officers strangling detainees and then beating them to death with wooden sticks at the camp.
Today North Korea’s vast infrastructure of repression was exposed in new satellite images showing the development of two of the country’s largest political prison camps.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Has Fallen Back Into Fascism After 68 Years
Despite large protests outside of the Japanese Senate.
Xinua reports:
Meanwhile, protests comprising more than 7,000 demonstrators continued around the Diet building, mobilized by civic groups, unions and concerned individuals, following similar scenes Wednesday that saw more than 6,000 anti-secrecy law opponents march around the Diet building hand-in-hand.
And the impassioned pleas of Japanese Senators (via Xinhua):
So outraged was opposition lawmaker Hirokazu Shiba in the committee meeting Thursday, that he rose from his seat and shouted “This is the way the reign of terror begins!” His fervor led to his fellow lawmakers having to physically restrain Shiba, as tensions in the meeting reached fever pitch.
The secrecy bill is headed for passage Friday. Indeed, the bill has likely already passed by the time you read this.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Frees US War Veteran After Seven Weeks
Pyongyang on Saturday said it had deported an elderly US man after the Korean War veteran apologised for alleged crimes committed during the 1950-1953 conflict. Merrill Newman, 85, was detained in October following a tourist visit to North Korea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
3 Things You Didn’t (Want to) Know About Nelson Mandela
The image of Nelson Mandela as a selfless, humble, freedom fighter turned cheerful, kindly old man, is well established in the West. If there is any international leader on whom we can universally heap praise it is surely he. But get past the halo we’ve placed on him without his permission, and Nelson Mandela had more than a few flaws which deserve attention.
He signed off on the deaths of innocent people, lots of them
Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilising terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists. Here are some highlights:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Africa-France Summit Ends With Vow to Form African Force
A two-day Africa-France summit ended in Paris on Saturday with French President François Hollande vowing to provide logistical and material support to build a pan-African military force capable of intervening in regional conflicts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Joseph Farah says man ‘wasn’t the saintly character portrayed by Morgan Freeman’
He was a committed member of the South African Communist Party. He was a leader of the revolutionary African National Congress, which he helped to radicalize into an organization sworn to armed, violent attacks.
Maybe you say: “But Farah, he was fighting against the evil of Apartheid!”
Yes, that is true. Apartheid was inarguably an evil and unjustifiable system. But so is the system Mandela’s revolution brought about — one in which anti-white racism is so strong today that a prominent genocide watchdog group has labeled the current situation a “precursor” to the deliberate, systematic elimination of the race.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Police Arrest 18 Over Mosque Takeover
Police in Mombasa have arrested 18 radical Muslim youths following a wave of unrest targeting mosques. They were detained after chaos broke out at the troubled Sakina Mosque on Wednesday evening. The youth seized the mosque last Friday and threw out its imam, Sheikh Mohamed Idris and his ally Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa. The culprits were brought to court last evening but were not charged after police sought for time to complete investigation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mandela’s Radicalism Often Ignored by Western Admirers
The South African leader was a politically complex figure shaped by national liberation struggles and Cold War tensions
by Simon Hooper
Eight men, among them Nelson Mandela, raise their fists in defiance through the barred windows of a prison car in 1964 after receiving a life sentence for conspiracy, sabotage and treason.OFF/AFP/Getty
Nelson Mandela will be celebrated primarily for the dignity with which he emerged onto the world stage after decades in prison and for the forgiveness that he displayed toward his former enemies in forging a democratic, multiracial South Africa from the poisoned legacy of apartheid.
As a global statesman of grace and humility, he was long courted by Western leaders drawn by his irresistible story of triumph over tyranny. Yet Mandela, who died on Dec. 5 at 95, was also a more radical and politically complex figure than has been commonly acknowledged by his admirers in the West.
As a young man, he had close ties to the South African Communist Party and plotted an armed uprising inspired by Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution in Cuba.
For many who followed his life closely, that commitment to socialist values and instinctive solidarity with those he saw as fellow strugglers against oppression, colonialism and imperialism continued to burn strongly even in the years after his release from prison and the end of apartheid.
“He came out of prison a senior statesman-in-waiting. He went into prison as a militant revolutionary leader,” said Peter Hain, a veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and friend of Mandela’s.
“He was seen as a burly freedom fighter, learning how to shoot in Ethiopia and traveling to revolutionary Algeria and other countries while he was underground. We must never forget he was a freedom fighter.”
Young radical
Stephen Ellis, a professor of African history at Free University and the African Studies Center in the Netherlands, believes that many people with only a vague awareness of Mandela’s struggle against apartheid are simply not aware of his youthful radicalism and commitment to violent means….
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Mandela’s Sharp Statements Rarely Cited in Mainstream Media
As the world remembers Nelson Mandela’s legacy as South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon, he was also deeply skeptical of American power, the Iraq invasion, and was a key supporter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Here are seven quotes from the leader that are less likely to be published as his life is honored and his death commemorated in the mainstream media:
“From its earliest days, the Cuban Revolution has also been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist-orchestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gain made in the Cuban Revolution…Long live the Cuban Revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mandela Love Fest Ignores Dark Side of Legacy
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Mandela’s Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, targeted civilians
Expect Obama to use your hard-earned confiscated tax dollars to pay for an expensive trip to South Africa where he will attend Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
The chief teleprompter reader for the banks and corporations that control the government has already ordered flags be flown at half mast. This 17th century ritual is usually reserved for members of U.S. government officialdom, but Mandela is a special case.
Nelson Mandela stands atop a hallowed pedestal in the pantheon of political correctness. His struggle against the scourge of apartheid — government sanctified racism — was fashioned into a human rights struggle by the establishment and its propaganda media. The distorted image of Saint Mandela has been dutifully scrubbed of its dark side. There is no room for truth or historical fact as the tribute to Saint Mandela unfolds and will continue to do so well into next week and beyond.
Here’s what you won’t hear. Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. His Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, targeted civilians.
On May 20, 1983, Umkhonto we Sizwe (aka “Spear of the Nation”) set off a car bomb near the Nedbank Square building on Church Street in the South African capital of Pretoria. The bomb was timed to go off at the height of rush hour. The attack killed 19 people and wounded 217.
– — From the BBC, May 20, 1983:
“A huge pall of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air as debris and bodies were strewn around the scene of the explosion.
“It is understood the bomb had been placed in a blue Alfa Romeo car outside the multistory building, which houses the South African air force headquarters.
“It exploded at the height of the city’s rush-hour as hundreds of people were leaving work for the weekend.
“Glass and metal were catapulted into the air as shop-fronts and windows were blown out.
“Many passers-by had limbs amputated by the flying debris. Others bled to death.”
MSNBC and CNN and even Fox will not mention this today as they celebrate Mandela’s “extraordinary example of moral courage, kindness, and humility,” as the White House put it.
Of course, it is hardly surprising the government and its media would praise a terrorist and make him out to be saint. It does this all the time.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Brett Stevens
The six giant corporations that produce most of your media seem to be in agreement that Nelson Mandela is a pacifist hero of freedom and equality. You are taught that there is no higher goal than freedom, equality and pacifism in school and through books, movies, music and art.
This cultural consensus presents itself as universal, meaning shared by all people. If that is so, however, why does the media have to constantly pump this message toward you to the point of excluding others? This includes historical facts that are inconvenient.
Nelson Mandela was a Communist guerrilla. This fact should not require explaining away. It should also not be hidden. One way to hide it is to selectively fail to mention it while enthusiastically repeating other ideas. This act of omission combined with what is basically an advertising campaign amounts to concealment and in practical terms, the same thing as lying.
If you find your media is lying to you, it then makes sense to ask why. The answer appears to be that media is a product and inherently untrustworthy, and it is selling to an audience that it perceives is liberal. It may do this because most of the people who work in media, as people who like to draw attention to themselves, are solipsists.
In other words, the megaphone that you trust for truth may most commonly broadcast the products of a mental health problem (solipsism) and mislead you. This means the news is manipulated not for a better world, but for the personal pretense and conceits necessary to justify the insanity of individuals.
But we can clear this up. Was Nelson Mandela a Communist? Let’s look at Mr. Nelson Mandela’s record here:
The former South African president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, has always denied being a member of the South African branch of the movement, which mounted an armed campaign of guerrilla resistance along with the ANC.
But research by a British historian, Professor Stephen Ellis, has unearthed fresh evidence that during his early years as an activist, Mr Mandela did hold senior rank in the South African Communist Party, or SACP. He says Mr Mandela joined the SACP to enlist the help of the Communist superpowers for the ANC’s campaign of armed resistance to white rule.
His book also provides fresh detail on how the ANC’s military wing had bomb-making lessons from the IRA, and intelligence training from the East German Stasi, which it used to carry out brutal interrogations of suspected “spies” at secret prison camps. — “Nelson Mandela ‘proven’ to be a member of the Communist Party after decades of denial,” by Colin Freeman and Jane Flanagan, The Guardian, December 8, 2012.
The following reveals the origins of the people who became the ANC through “pressure from above.” Political groups tend to form where they can find support, funding and weapons:
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Despite decades of Nelson Mandela denying that he was an official member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) during his Soviet-backed war on the Apartheid government, evidence uncovered recently by British historian Stephen Ellis shows otherwise. The new research confirmed that not only was the African National Congress (ANC) leader a member of the SACP, he may have actually been a senior official working with the party’s Central Committee.
Still, for 50 years, while admitting that he was influenced by Marx and other communist luminaries, Mandela has denied — in public, at least — that he was an actual member of the Communist Party. But now, documents discovered at the University of Cape Town by Stephen Ellis, a professor based at the Free University of Amsterdam, completely contradict Mandela’s bogus claims.
Among other evidence, Ellis found minutes from a secret SACP meeting of top leaders in 1982. The papers document a high-level Communist Party functionary’s discussion about Mandela having joined the SACP around 20 years earlier. That would mean he joined in the beginning of the 1960s, probably 1961 or 1962, well before he was prosecuted for, among numerous other crimes, membership in the outlaw party backed by some of the most ruthless tyrants on the face of the Earth…
The latest information exposed in Ellis’ book also confirms once again that the ANC was receiving broad support and training from assorted communist dictatorships, including the terror regime ruling East Germany, as it waged a bloody guerrilla war against the anti-communist government and its suspected black supporters. According to evidence he uncovered, East German operatives trained ANC goons to torture and murder the group’s own members as suspected spies if they questioned the terror organization’s dogma.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Bomb Blast Kills Federal MP in Mogadishu
Federal Member of parliament and the chairman of parliamentary sub-committee on social affairs Mohamed Warsame Faysal was killed in a bomb blast in Mogadishu on Friday, Garowe Online reports. Witnesses said the lawmaker died of serious injuries to his upper body shortly after a bomb suspected to have been attached beneath his car’s seat went off inside a parking lot near Villa Somalia Presidential Palace…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Boys’ Fishing Outing Nets Grisly Find
Friends Dylan Atwell (11) and Duncan Nell (14) were net fishing along the river next to the Catholic Church in Veldenvlei when they saw a big white refuse bag float by.
According to Atwell’s mother Sharon, the boys grabbed the bag and opened it up, finding decomposing flesh and bones inside. The bag also contained neatly packed plastic bags and tubular shaped containers filled with what appeared to be internal organs.
Sharon told the Zululand Observer that upon arrival at 10.30 am the police combed the scene and confirmed that the bag’s contents did in fact look like human remains which could possibly be linked to a muti murder.
At the scene the police searched a white tent pitched next to the river and according to the boys, they found handmade weapons and some dagga.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Man Caught With Genitals in Container
Polokwane — Police caught him in possession of a penis and scrotum. It later emerged that the genitals which 26-year-old Joel Ranoto carried in a container had been cut off a corpse at the B3 Funerals’ mortuary in Polokwane.
Ranoto was arrested in Joubert Street in Polokwane on Friday after a traditional healer to whom he had offered to sell the body parts alerted the police.
“We have charged him for violation of a corpse and possession of human body parts,” Polokwane police spokesman Captain Ntobeng Phala said.
The chopping off of the genitals and Ranoto’s subsequent arrest left a grieving family at Ga-Semenya village outside Polokwane shocked and stranded.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Few Human Beings Can be Compared to Jesus Christ. Nelson Mandela Was One
by Peter Oborne
Nelson Mandela once mused how different his life might have been. He told a friend that his family intended him to be a tribal chieftain but he ran away to escape from a forced marriage. “That changed my whole career,” he reflected. “But if I had stayed at home I would have been a respected chief today, you know? And I would have had a big stomach, you know, and a whole load of cattle and sheep.”…
[JP note: See also http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/south-africa-in-the-shadows/ ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Special Report: Discover the Real Nelson Mandela (Video)
Nelson Mandela, working with the Soviet Union, wanted to replace Apartheid tyranny with a Marxist dictatorship. He and his followers hijacked the Anti-Apartheid Movement in an attempt to bring communism to South Africa.
He was a member of the South African Communist Party and a co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress which targeted civilians.
Mandela fought against racism, which was a good thing, but he did it with another evil: communism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Seek Refuge at Central African Airport
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Thousands of Christian civilians sought refuge at an airport [in the Central African Republic] guarded by French soldiers Friday, fleeing from the mostly Muslim ex-rebels with machetes and guns who rule the country a day after the worst violence to hit the chaotic capital in nine months.
When several French helicopters landed at the airport, people sang with joy as they banged on plastic buckets and waved rags into the air in celebration.
Outside the barbed wire fences of the airport, bodies lay decomposing along the roads in a capital too dangerous for many to collect the corpses. Thursday’s clashes left at least 280 dead, according to national radio, and have raised fears that waves of retaliatory attacks could soon follow.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I originally posted this on AfricanCrisis years ago. It comes from a compilation someone here in South Africa did called: “The Songs they sing”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Former Justice Minister Calls for Grouping of Immigrants
Whilst Denmark isn’t exactly at the top of the list for would-be migrants, it seems to have similar problems about attracting the right type of expat as many other first world countries.
The former Danish justice minister, Brian Mikkelsen, has put forward a suggestion that prospective immigrants should be divided into two groups, the bad and the good. Those meriting the label ‘good’ should be allowed to enter and stay and the bad should be sent back to their home countries.
Speaking to reporters from the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, he admitted speaking publicly about his views was politically incorrect, but reiterated that some immigrants are good for the county and some are not. He added that now was the time to take off the rose-coloured spectacles and begin a debate about immigration as a two-tiered system.
Bad immigrants, he continued arrive from certain specific countries and often end up committing crimes and being sent to prison. He believes that these should be deported and that only those who earn money, pay taxes and contribute in other ways to Denmark should be welcomed.
Mikklesen’s views are the result of the country’s stringent immigration laws, which have been proven to be counter-productive on many occasions. Whilst his party was in power, he helped to construct the present system, now considered restrictive, although he insists the laws were necessary to control the open-door policy introduced by the previous government.
He’s impressed by the Canadian immigration system, saying that it encourages immigrants who have high marks in language, job experience and education and disallows those who are unable to pass the points test. Denmark, he insist, has need of highly-educated immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrant Boat Carrying 150 Rescued Off Sicilian Coast
(AGI) Rome, Dec 7 — Some 150 immigrants, including 10 children, were rescued by two Coast Guard boats about 170 miles south of Capo Passero in Sicily. The immigrants aboard the boat, which was adrift, are assumed to be Syrian. The rescue operation took several hours due to severe sea conditions, and needed all the naval units from both Syracuse and Pozzallo.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Multicultural Independence Day Celebrated in Helsinki
Immigrants of over 30 nationalities celebrated Multicultural Independence Day in Helsinki. Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto also attended the event, which was staged for the seventh time.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The migrants have been booked in at the Amblehurst Hotel (pictured), Sale, Manchester, while their claims to stay in the UK are dealt with.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Somali asylum-seeker who has evaded deportation despite twice being convicted of ID fraud, has walked free from court again after pleading guilty to a £91,000 benefit scam.
A judge ruled that Ayan Ismail, 39, could not be immediately removed from the country because she has a seven-year-old daughter who was born here, even though she was in the UK illegally when she became pregnant.
Adding insult to the decision, crown court Judge David Tomlinson ruled that she would not repay any of the money she has fraudulently claimed, saying: ‘Awarding compensation is undesirable in a case like this.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A Somali rapist who held a knife to a pregnant woman’s throat as he raped her has been allowed to stay in Britain to protect his human rights.
Mustafa Abdullahi, 31, was jailed for ten years after he threatened to kill his victim and repeatedly assaulted her.
He was set to be deported on release, but immigration judges have ruled he cannot be kicked out because his mother and other family members live in the UK.
They said he had been here so long, it would breach his right to a private and family life to force him to return to Somalia…
Despite the evidence against him he refused to accept his guilt, forcing his victim to go through the ordeal of a trial. Even while in jail he refused to admit what he had done.
When the Home Office began efforts to deport him, he immediately claimed asylum.
This application was rejected last year, by which time he was out of prison after serving half his sentence. But Abdullahi’s lawyers appealed against his deportation on human rights grounds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A new mother has spoken of her horror at discovering that her loving boyfriend tried to abort their baby by slipping a pill into her food.
Helen Dean thought that partner Karim Habibi was pleased to hear that she was pregnant — he even ‘twirled her around’ in celebration when she told him the news.
But he secretly visited a GP’s surgery and asked a nurse to give him an abortion pill — only for her to call the police when he admitted what it was for.
The 26-year-old cafe owner has now been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and their baby son Amin for the next five years.
‘I thought it was a loving relationship and that he wanted children,’ said Ms Dean, 32, who was five weeks pregnant at the time of Habibi’s arrest in June 2012. ‘I was so outraged that he tried to kill our baby.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nonhuman Rights Project Seeks “Legal Personhood” For Chimps
Don’t look now PETA, but someone is stealing your shtick. Yesterday, the non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project filed what it claimed is the first lawsuit seeking to establish the “legal personhood” of chimpanzees.
Specifically, the NRP is petitioning a New York state court to declare Tommy, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, “a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned.” The lawsuit seeks a declaration that Tommy’s “detention” is unlawful and demands his immediate release to a primate sanctuary.
Chimpanzees “possess complex cognitive abilities that are so strictly protected when they’re found in human beings,” said Steven Wise, the president of Nonhuman Rights Project, told Reuters. “There’s no reason why they should not be protected when they’re found in chimpanzees.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Operative Masquerades as Catholic Expert
Christopher Hale, of a group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, has emerged on CNN and Fox News as a defender of Pope Francis against Rush Limbaugh’s charges that the pontiff spews Marxism.
The stories on CNN and Fox News cited Hale as a critic of Limbaugh and defender of the pope without noting his group’s connections to George Soros, the billionaire atheist, and that Hale worked on the “National Faith Vote Team” for the “Obama for America” 2012 presidential campaign organization.
Hale was also an intern in the Obama White House and worked for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Frank Walker of the conservative Pewsitter website labels the group a religious and political Trojan Horse designed to mislead Catholics and produce votes for the Democratic Party. Soros, the major financial backer of the Democratic Party’s “progressive” base, also supports such causes as drug legalization, the rights of “sex workers” and felons, euthanasia, radical feminism, abortion rights and homosexual rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
So my criticism of Rush Limbaugh (here and here) is generating some heat, in the comments and particularly in my email. Interestingly enough, this from people I would normally consider (and would like to continue to consider) allies in the fight for truth, for decency, for what is right and moral and good for society.
The blog has suffered as to its popularity (measured solely by the number of unique visitors) since I’ve decided to focus more on faith matters and less on political matters. It’s bothered me in the one sense but I’m committed to doing what I think I’m being called to do and that I believe to be, in my quite small sphere of influence, a light, albeit likely dim, illuming He who gives life meaning.
And so I carry on.
This morning I found something I think to be quite relevant, quite cogent, to the struggle, written by Chris Stefanick over at Real Life Catholic:…
| — Hat tip: Brutally Honest | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Treat Anti-Gay Posters as ‘Hate Crime’ As Two More Found in Bow
Police are treating anti-gay posters targeting a former councillor as a “hate crime” as two more posters appeared near his home this morning. Last week the posters, which accused former Lib Dem councillor Nigel McCollum of paedophilia, were condemned by councillors as homophobic “smears” after they were discovered in Bow, but police said they were “open-minded” about the motive. Tower Hamlets police confirmed today that they are now treating the poster campaign as a hate crime after further enquiries…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorist cell al-Qaeda has made £50million in ransom payments from kidnaps in the last three years, according to the British UN ambassador.
Mark Lyall Grant, the UK Government’s representative in New York, revealed the shocking statistic as he attempts to persuade members of the United Nations security council to sign up to a blanket ban on the deals.
His claims were backed up by a top UN diplomat who said that ransom payments were now the biggest source of income for Northern Africa’s al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Most Corrupt Countries in the World Found in Asia and Middle East
Findings are based on the Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Syria are among the top 10 “worst” nations. Political instability and civil war favour corruption. The only Asian countries to be among the most transparent nations are Singapore and Hong Kong.
Pyongyang (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Six Asian nations are among the 10 most corrupt countries in the world, this according to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International, a non-governmental organisation that monitors corporate and political corruption in international development.
The report ranks countries according to a point index score, from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 highly transparent), based on perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by country analysts and business people. North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Syria all have a score lower than 20.
Somalia is the most corrupt country in absolute terms, with a score of 8 on a par with North Korea and Afghanistan, closely followed by Sudan (11), South Sudan (14), Libya (15), Iraq (16) and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Syria, all with 17 points.
According to the organisation, instability due to civil wars or regimes not “functioning effectively” boost corruption in these countries.
“Corruption is very much linked to countries that fall apart, as you see in Libya, Syria,” said Finn Heinrich, research director at Transparency International. “These are not countries where the government is functioning effectively, and people have to take all means in order to get by, to get services, to get food, to survive.”
Meanwhile, Scandinavian countries are among the top 10 ranked nations, including Denmark, which is in first place at 91, tied with New Zealand, followed by Finland and Sweden (89) and Norway (86).
Singapore is the only Asian nation in the top 10, in sixth place with 86 points. Hong Kong is further down, in 15th place with 75 points.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
To all who think that the breading Land of terrorists & al-Qaeda, let them read th is:
All the attacker on the Yamani defence ministry are from Saudi!!
Twelve of them are dressed with military dress who attached the Ministry of Defence in Sanaa/ Yemen Last Thursday which caused 56 dead and 215 injured some of them foreigners.
The Yamani official news agency report this .
So is Iraq invasion make you saver and better or those F* Wahhabi regime who should gunned in their F* head?
Arabic Text (from
منفّذو الهجوم على وزارة الدفاع اليمنية غالبيتهم من السعودية
تاريخ النشر :٨ ديسمبر ٢٠١٣
صنعاء – (أ ف ب): أعلن المحققون أن منفذي الهجوم الكبير على موقع وزارة الدفاع اليمنية في صنعاء الذي خلف 56 قتيلا وتبناه تنظيم القاعدة كانوا بغالبيتهم من السعودية. وفي تقرير أولي نشرته أمس السبت وسائل الإعلام الرسمية اليمنية أوضحت لجنة التحقيق «أن الإرهابيين.. غالبيتهم يحملون الجنسية السعودية وهم باللباس العسكري المموّه».
وقدرت اللجنة عدد الإرهابيين باثني عشر، نفذوا هجوم يوم الخميس الذي أسفر عن سقوط 56 قتيلا و215 جريحا من المدنيين والعسكريين بينهم رعايا أجانب. وأعلنت اللجنة الأمنية العليا الخميس مقتل 52 شخصا وإصابة 167 آخرين بجروح بينهم تسعة إصاباتهم خطرة. وقتل في الهجوم أيضا خمسة أطباء هم ألمانيان وفيتناميان ويمنية وكذلك ثلاث ممرضات، فيليبينيتان وهندية، بحسب اللجنة الأمنية العليا.
وتبنى تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب الذي تعتبره الولايات المتحدة الذراع الأخطر في الشبكة المتطرفة الجمعة الهجوم على مجمع وزارة الدفاع اليمنية في صنعاء، موضحة في بيان ان هدف الهجوم كان قاعة تحكم بالطائرات بدون طيار التي تشن غارات منتظمة على المقاتلين في هذا البلد.
وغارات الطائرات بلا طيار التي قتلت هذه السنة عشرات المقاتلين المتطرفين، عادة ما تنسب إلى الولايات المتحدة، الوحيدة التي تمتلك هذه الطائرات في المنطقة والتي تساعد اليمن على التصدي للقاعدة.
من جهته، قال وزير الخارجية اليمني ابوبكر القربي لوكالة فرانس برس على هامش مؤتمر للأمن الإقليمي في المنامة ان «هجمات القاعدة لا تهدد العملية الانتقالية في اليمن وآمل أن الانفجار سيدفع بالمتحاورين إلى الإصرار على إنجاح الحوار». واعتبر القربي ان «القاعدة تستفيد دائما من اي فراغ سياسي.. وهي تمثل خطرا على امن اليمن والجزيرة العربية».
واعتبر أن «المطلوب بشكل عام ان تكون العملية منبهة لليمنيين». وردا على سؤال حول ما اذا كان المنفذون مخترقون من اي جهة، قال القربي ان احتمال الاختراق «وارد ولكن لا دليل، علينا ان ننتظر نتائج التحقيق النهائي».
وشدد على ان «المهم هو ان ننجز المهمة المحددة وهي الاتفاق على دستور واستفتاء وانتخابات، وليس المهم الاستعجال» في اشارة إلى عدم انتهاء مؤتمر الحوار الوطني في موعده وإمكانية تأخر الاستحقاقات المزمنة للمرحلة الانتقالية.
وقد ركز المهاجمون يوم الخميس هجومهم على المستشفى العسكري للمجمع الكبير الذي يضم الوزارة عند مدخل مدينة صنعاء القديمة. وتنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب المنبثق عن اندماج فروع يمنية وسعودية في الشبكة المتطرفة، استغل ضعف السلطة المركزية في اليمن في عام 2011 مع الحراك الاحتجاجي الشعبي ضد الرئيس السابق علي عبدالله صالح لتعزيز قوته في البلاد وخصوصا في شرقها وجنوبها.
http://www.akhbar-alkhaleej.com/13043/article/60603.html
[machine translation: Perpetrators of the attack on the Yemeni Ministry of Defense , mostly from Saudi Arabia
Date Published: December 8, 2013
Sanaa – ( AFP ) : Investigators announced that the perpetrators of the attack on a large site and the Defense Ministry in Sanaa, Yemen , which left 56 people dead and al-Qaeda were adopted Bgalbithm from Saudi Arabia. In a preliminary report published on Saturday, official media showed Yemeni inquiry « that the terrorists .. Most of them hold Saudi citizenship and are dressed in camouflage uniforms, » .
The Commission estimated the number of terrorists twelve , carried out the attack on Thursday that killed at least 56 people dead and 215 wounded civilians and military personnel , including foreign nationals. The Supreme Security Committee announced Thursday killing 52 people and injuring 167 others were injured , including nine injuries dangerous. The attack also killed in five doctors are Germans and Vinamaan and Yemen , as well as three nurses , and Valippinitan Indian, according to the Supreme Security Committee .
And the adoption of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula , which the United States considers the most dangerous arm of the extremist network in the Friday attack on the Defense Ministry compound in Sanaa, Yemen , explaining in a statement that the target of the attack was a Hall of control drone launched regular raids on the fighters in this country .
The drone strikes that have killed dozens of fighters this year, extremists , usually attributed to the United States , the sole possessor of such aircraft in the region and that will help Yemen to tackle the base .
For his part, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told AFP on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Manama that « al-Qaeda attacks do not threaten the transition process in Yemen, and I hope that the explosion would pay Baltaorén to insist on the success of the dialogue » . He said that Qirbi « Qaeda always benefit from any political vacuum .. They represent a threat to the security of Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula » .
He added that « the desired overall process to be telltale Yemenis » . In response to a question about whether implementing Mokhtrkon of any party , Qirbi said that the possibility of penetration « out of the question but there is no evidence , we have to wait for the final results of the investigation » .
He stressed that « the important thing is to accomplish a specific task to agree on a constitution and a referendum and elections , and the urgency is not important » , referring to the end of the non- conference schedule in the national dialogue and the possibility of delayed chronic benefits of the transition .
The attackers focused their attack on Thursday at the military hospital of the complex , which includes the large ministry at the entrance to the old city of Sanaa . And al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula offshoot of the merger of Yemeni and Saudi branches of the extremist network , took advantage of the weakness of the central authority in Yemen in 2011 with the popular protest movement against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to reinforce its strength in the country , especially in the east and south .]