Teh Intertubes were disabled for us sometime overnight. It was a widespread outage, and the Powers That Be phone company resolved the issue fairly quickly, all things considered (their estimate was tomorrow).
Many thanks to Vlad for posting the outage notice, and to Henrik for moderating the comments.
Normal service will resume shortly — as soon as I go through all the $#!!&?*$*! accumulated email.
The Good Baron has temporarily lost access to the Internet, thus posting is suspended for a while, probably around 24 hours.
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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has weighed in on the Crimean crisis, saying that Russia’s annexation rectifies a historical error created by the USSR, and should be celebrated. Meanwhile, in an acknowledgement of the Russian fait accompli, Ukraine says it plans to pull its remaining military forces out of the Crimea.
In other news, in just two days, the Italian Navy and Coast Guard have plucked more than two thousand illegal immigrants from the sea and brought them to safety on Italian territory.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, MC, Nick, RR, 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.
The following news story from South Dakota — which has a Mohammed Coefficient of 100% — will be depressingly familiar to regular Gates of Vienna readers and anyone else who’s been following the “grooming and pimping trials” in Rochdale, Bradford, Oxford, and elsewhere in the UK.
The pattern is almost identical: vulnerable young girls — in this case, as young as 14 — are lured with drugs and gifts into a life of sexual slavery. This particular form of vile criminal behavior is very, very rare except among Muslim males who live in non-Muslim cultures. Yet there the mainstream media have lowered a cone of silence over the JIM aspects of these sex-slavery gangs.
The good news is that this despicable creature will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Below are excerpts from the report in The Argus Leader. Some of the more lurid and disturbing details have been redacted:
Iraqi refugee called monster gets life for sex trafficking
An Iraqi refugee who sold several women and girls for sex at his Sioux Falls apartment will spend the rest of his life in prison after U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreier agreed with victims who called him a “monster.”
A jury convicted Mohammed Alaboudi in December on four counts of sex trafficking. His lawyer asked for the same 30-year sentence given last April to a co-conspirator, Emannuel Nyoun. But the judge noted that Nyoun had victimized just one young woman, while Alaboudi had hurt many, many more.
“I don’t think the two of you are comparable,” Schreier said. “You have been described by the victims as someone who is a monster. I do not think that is an unjustified characterization, based on how you treated the young women who came through your home.”
Four victims, identified only by their initials, recounted during Monday’s hearing the physical and sexual abuse against them at the hands of the 45-year-old Alaboudi. Earlier at trial, many of them had testified how he had given them drugs and shelter to lure them into dependency and prostitution, using his one-bedroom apartment in central Sioux Falls as headquarters for what U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson has called “a house of horrors.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Koliner noted Alaboudi’s status as a refugee who was welcomed into the country and community, only to take advantage of that hospitality.
Alaboudi preyed on the vulnerability of his victims, many of them homeless with drug addictions and, in some case, mental health issues, Koliner said. The women, two of them underage, were kept high on drugs and alcohol while forced to engage in sex acts with strangers.
[…]
“The defendant, who purposely drugged the girls and raped them repeatedly, then allowed his cohorts to come in” and do the exact same thing, Koliner said.
The latest word is that Tommy Robinson refused to leave prison this morning to attend his court appearance, because it would have meant being returned to a different, more dangerous prison — and in solitary.
The following message just came in from a source in the EDL:
Tommy refused to leave the prison today.
If he left Winchester and appeared in court in London he would have been returned to HMP Wandsworth, and he didn’t want to go there, as it would have meant solitary confinement.
I’ve just spoken to him and he said the case was due to be heard in his absence this afternoon, with afternoon sessions starting at 2pm. He won’t know the outcome until later when he speaks to his solicitor. CPS presented evidence late yesterday, so he doesn’t think it would have been adjourned.
When more news about the case comes in, I’ll post it here.
Previous posts about Tommy Robinson, Kevin Carroll, and the Quilliam Foundation:
Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League, will appear in court later today on charges unrelated to those that led to his current imprisonment.
We just received this message from a source in the EDL:
Regarding Tommy: Today (the 19th of March) he is facing court over charges of a public disorder offence. Specifically, he is accused of “inciting illegal public assembly” at an EDL rally in Tower Hamlets on 7 September 2013.
Why was Tommy arrested? His “crime” was to make a speech that was slightly longer than three minutes.
There is a new risk that may result from his court appearance: during the hearing he will be moved to another prison, and it is highly likely that this will be a much more dangerous place than HMP Winchester, where he is at present (Tommy “likes” his current prison; the place is quite friendly for him, with a lot of soldiers) .
Keep your fingers crossed for him today! And, for those so inclined, please say a prayer for him.
Any additional word on today’s events in court will be posted here as soon as it comes in.
Previous posts about Tommy Robinson, Kevin Carroll, and the Quilliam Foundation:
A culturally enriched “Dutch” rapper made a rap video entitled “Geertje” in which a man in a blond wig representing Geert Wilders is kidnapped and threatened with death by two gunman. Mr. Wilders has demanded that legal action be taken against the rapper, and the Dutch government has condemned the video.
In other news, the Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov has died (some reports say he was “killed”). The Russian government has yet to confirm his death officially.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JLH, JP, KP, MC, 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.
Two articles about two European nations — one inside the EU and one outside it — illustrate in their different ways the growing awareness within Europe that national identity actually means something, something too precious to toss onto the dung heap of borderless Multiculturalism.
JLH, who translated both articles, has this to say about them:
Here are two short articles that caught my interest because they reflect so ironically on aspects of what goes on here in the USA, as well as in Europe.
The first (about the citizens of the former German Democratic Republic being unashamed of being German) and the second (about the Swiss People’s Party going after the anti-racism law) made me think about how different and how similar they are.
The so-called Ossis of East Germany spent forty years under a Germanized version of Communism, and learned to preserve their identities as Germans until they were able to express them openly again. The citizens of Switzerland — who may seem the diametric opposite, since they began by defying the great imperial power of the time and wrested themselves from the grasp of the house of Habsburg — are in reality brothers under the skin, because the end result was the same kind of self-recognition. The kind we tend to find here in “flyover country.”
How far so many of us here and in the Old Country (whichever one that may be) have come from the simple recognition of who we are and why we are who we are!
The first translated article is from Zuerst!:
AfD Head, Lucke: “In the East, Being German is Nothing to be Ashamed Of”
Berlin. Bernd Lucke, chair of the Euro-critical party Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), which enjoyed especially good election results in the so-called “new federal states,” is in agreement with the less inhibited relationship of Germans in the east of the Federal Republic on the question of national identity.
“People there are not ashamed of being German,” Lucke declared in an interview with the Thüringische Landeszeitung. Standing for the national interest was met with more sympathy in Thuringia and Saxony than in the west of the country, he said. That was a result of the socializing of so many people in the west. They had learned never to say that something was in German interests. Everything should be in the interest of Europe.
The second article is from Junge Freiheit:
The SVP Wants to Abolish the Anti-Racism Law
Bern. The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has called for the repeal of the Anti-Racism Law, with no substitution. Since its introduction 20 years ago, this law has not stood the test of time, leading instead to a state ruled by judges and denunciations (instead of the rule of law*), complained acting SVP chief, Gregor Rutz.
The venerable Pat Robertson performs a deft interview with Caroline Glick in the video below.
As you can see, it’s obvious he has read her book and can speak knowledgeably about some of the players who have strolled through this evil farce during his own time on the public stage. At one point he talks about Yasser Arafat, whom he met on several occasions, as a “stone cold killer” who knew how to be “kissy” to your face.
Ah the things the world will do for oil.
Here’s the book:
The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East
During the course of this interview Pat Robertson runs footage of the various presidents who have played their relentlessly unvarying roles in “The Two State Game”; he then asks Caroline Glick why American administrations persist in performing this ritual. She says (this is a paraphrase) there is a “prolonged desire to wish away” the reality of Israel. Indeed. Even now you can catch glimpses of our current Secretary of State perfervidly salivating over the idea that it might be he, John Kerry himself who will finally catch the golden ring on this merry-go-‘round. Malvolio’s excitement comes to mind.
Like Pat Robertson, I had no idea that the United States military actually uses our tax dollars to train Palestinians! Train them to do what, precisely? To umm…make peace?…build hospitals?…maybe reconstruct those greenhouses the world bought for them and presented to the Palestinians as a gift in order that they might increase their productivity and provide a source of income. Cynics that they are, PoorPalis™ are always ready to assume the characteristic pose of professionally aggrieved victims the world over: snarl on face, hand outstretched waiting for someone else’s goods and money to magically appear. The fact that our government fosters this behavior means our peace talk is only that: talk. We don’t walk the walk and we don’t really want peace.
As for the PoorPalis™ delusional demands? With their unceasing internecine warfare and their leaders’ inclinations toward corruption and kleptocracy, they have proved repeatedly their congenital disinclination to do the heavy lifting required for self rule. The American government ought to be ashamed of itself for persisting in this squalid farce. At the very least it’s insulting.
Fjordman’s latest essay has been published at FrontPage Mag. Some excerpts are below:
Finnmark is the northernmost county in Norway, as well as the northernmost part of continental Europe. Apart from a few Arctic islands such as the Norwegian-controlled archipelago of Svalbard, the next stop is the North Pole. Even in the near-Arctic region of Lapland in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, you can now encounter significant numbers of Muslim immigrants from as far away as Somalia or Pakistan.
In 2013, it was announced that a specialist abattoir in northern Norway had slaughtered the country’s first ever halal reindeer meat, with a view to selling it to top-end restaurants as far afield as Dubai. Mehtab Afsar, the General Secretary of the Islamic Council of Norway and one of those who oversaw the slaughter, was pleased with this.
The problem is, halal meat is not the only thing available once Islam enters a given territory.
In February 2014, Lieutenant-General Kjell Grandhagen from the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) warned that the terror threat against Norway is rising due to the return of battle-hardened militant Muslims who return after participating in Jihadist activities during the civil war in Syria. Benedicte Bjørnland, the head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), in early March 2014 warned that Norway had “failed” as a society due to the dozens of young people becoming radicalized and going abroad to fight in conflict areas such as Syria.
Yvelines is a western suburb of Paris, part of a ring of culturally enriched “New Towns” that surround the French capital. Yesterday some boisterous “French” “youths” in Yvelines got a little rambunctious and — undeterred by teargas — engaged in some traditional high-spirited rioting and burning and window-breaking after suffering unbearable humiliation at the hands of the police.
Many thanks to Oz-Rita for translating this TV news report, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling it:
Transcript:
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Thoughts in Tel Aviv
by Fjordman
The city of Tel Aviv is a twentieth-century creation. In a country famous for its numerous historical monuments, it’s somewhat ironic that one of Israel’s two largest cities is almost entirely devoid of major historical sights. In this way, Tel Aviv is very different from Jerusalem, which is brimming with sights of religious and historical significance. Tel Aviv does have its advantages, however.
Throughout history, humans have often preferred to live near large bodies of moving water. This was obviously for practical reasons such as food and transport, but it has other advantages, too. A city such as Düsseldorf, Germany would be very different (and more boring) without the Rhine river flowing through it.
When I lived in Cairo, Egypt as a student I enjoyed the special atmosphere the Nile river bestows upon the city. Nevertheless, if you go to Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, you can smell the fresh air and the salty sea breeze. That does make a difference. Perhaps humans are biologically programmed to search for the sea?
Jerusalem is situated inland on a hilltop. Traveling to Tel Aviv is a short trip by car or bus, but the natural setting is sharply different. While I was in Israel in February 2013, I spent most of my days in Jerusalem. However, I went for a short visit to Tel Aviv. I had not been there for ten years and wanted to see what had changed since the last time I was there.
Although I didn’t plan to, it turned out that I ended up in the middle of the Purim celebrations. Purim is one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar, sort of a Jewish version of Halloween. This involves the drinking of wine, but also dressing up in various costumes. These days, Jews don’t merely dress up as Biblical characters; they might just as easily be Superman or Harry Potter.
The tradition of wearing masks and costumes for Purim may have been something that Jews picked in late medieval Europe, perhaps inspired by the carnival celebrations of the local Christians in Italy and elsewhere.
Amidst costumes of many different types, I did notice a disproportionate number of young girls dressed up as princesses, though. I’ve seen the same pattern in Scandinavia in northern Europe, and even in China in East Asia. Apparently, girls from all over the world love to dress up as princesses. If I didn’t known better, I’d say this is genetic. Of course, in our day, when gender is supposed to be socially constructed, merely suggesting this comes off as sexist blasphemy. Which means that it could well be true.
I visited some of the places I had not seen since I worked in the region in 2003. Carmel Market in the center of Tel Aviv seemed to be more or less unchanged. It’s charming in an authentic and dynamic sort of way. And it caters to the locals, not to tourists.
Amidst the fresh food and clothing, Carmel Market also features stands where you can buy a wide selection of obviously pirated movies as DVDs. This would not happen in Europe, at least not in Scandinavia. Maybe in some village in Romania or Bulgaria. I have younger relatives in Norway who download movies from the Internet extensively. Technically speaking, this is illegal. However, in practice, the police rarely do anything about it as long as the movies are for private consumption only.
If you illegally download movies and sell many pirated movies openly in the streets, that is a very different matter. The police will close down your store if you do so. Apart from Israel, other places where I have seen pirated movies being sold openly in this manner were in East and Southeast Asia, in places such as China, Thailand and Malaysia. In this respect, Israel seems to be a part of Asia.
In the wake of yesterday’s referendum in the Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree making the peninsula a republic within the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, the United States applied sanctions to Russia as the latter moved in to control the financial, energy, and governmental infrastructure within the Crimea.
In other news, the latest theory about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370 is that the jetliner was diverted to Pakistan for later use in a terror attack.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Jussi Halla-aho is a Finnish writer and an MP for the True Finns party who has been publicly demonized, tried, and convicted of “hate speech” for his opposition to mass immigration into Finland.
Bilal Philips is a Jamaican-Canadian convert to Islam who has earned an international reputation as a radical preacher, and been banned from several Western countries. Mr. Philips was recently invited to visit Finland by a group of “Finnish” Muslims in Helsinki, and the True Finns demanded that he be refused entry.
Last Friday Jussi Halla-aho appeared on Finnish state TV to debate a Muslim guest on the issue of Bilal Philips’ visit to Finland. In the clip below, you’ll notice the mild responses given by Mr. Halla-aho to provocative and leading questions. He obviously feels himself constrained, and is presumably loath to endure another trial and pay another fine. Watch his calm refusal to be baited.
Many thanks to KGS for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Transcript:
