Eleven public employees in the Sicilian town of Palermo were arrested after they conspired to secretly raise their own salaries. They were charged with embezzlement and various other counts related to their financial shenanigans.
In other news, Muslims in Cardiff are in shock after a fellow “Welshman” — who was allegedly radicalized online — traveled to Syria and then made a jihad recruitment video that was posted on the Internet.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Charlie Marteau, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, 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.
Bankster Says Only Gun to Head Will Oblige TARP Repayment
Banks that received billions during the Federal Reserve created implosion of the subprime real estate market say they are not obliged to make good on repaying the money…
Maryland Financial’s CEO, Robert Chafey, said only physical violence will force him to make good.
“We don’t have a gun to our head to pay this dividend, so why would we pay?” Mr. Chafey said in a February interview, according to the Journal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Change Beauty Habits in Light of Crisis
Cosmetics purchased at discount stores or on line
(ANSA) — Rome, June 17 — Italians have changed their spending habits with respect to beauty products and services in light of the ongoing economic crisis but they have not renounced pampering themselves altogether, according to a study released on Tuesday.
Instead they make cosmetics purchases at discount stores, supermarkets, monobrand stores or by correspondence or on the internet, the fifth edition of Beauty report prepared on behalf of the national association of cosmetics businesses Cosmetica Italia said. Some 43.5% of respondents out of a total of 2,150 said they had limited spending on principle as a result of the crisis.
However 35.4% added that they were beginning to feeel the need to ‘react’ by buying quality products even if these were pricey.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The process of expanding the money supply independently of real economic growth is inherently inflationary. It cannot have any other result. This, of course, is why my grandfather could buy two hamburgers for 25 cents each and a Coke for a nickel. The dollar has lost over 97% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve was created.
Much of this loss has taken place since 1971, the year President Richard Nixon “closed the gold window,” i.e., severed the ties between the dollar and gold that had been in place since the Bretton Woods system established the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Federal spending had exploded in the 1960s; the public was showing irritability over taxes; the money had to come from somewhere.
Since 1971, the money creation spigot has run full blast. That was the beginning of the shift from an economy based on production to one based on financialization. Corporations were just beginning to offshore production for cheap labor, causing the much-vaunted shift in the U.S. economy from manufacturing to low-paying services which would become noticeable in the future. The national debt was around $400 billion when Nixon entered office. It crossed the $1 trillion threshold during the early Reagan years, true to his mainstream Republicanism, held down taxes but not spending. It was $6 trillion during the Clinton years. It grew to over $11 trillion under George W. Bush and has ballooned to over $17 trillion under Barack Obama. Does it make sense to say that in the “desert of the real” this is unsustainable? That this process cannot continue indefinitely?
We noted above that when the Federal Reserve creates Federal Reserve Notes and loans them out, the federal government acquires debt. We didn’t note that the debt begins to accrue interest. When a bank loans out money to an ordinary borrower, it obviously also charges interest. When the debt is paid, the bank doesn’t consider its loan paid in full unless the accrued interest is also paid (and interest compounds with time).
The following point is extremely important! If all money is created out of nothing, and interest is charged on it, then the total amount owed — the total principal (that which is borrowed) by all borrowers plus the total interest owed by all borrowers — will always exceed the money supply! Only the principal was created. There is not money to pay the interest. It does not exist! It was never created and loaned out!
So where does the money to pay interest come from? Some will do well enough to repay both loan and interest. Others will not. They will lose out, and remain perpetually in debt. This is not their fault, because the system is structured so that some lose. Those who lose return to the bank and “refinance their loan,” i.e., borrow more, which means: accruing more debt and more interest. As it is self-defeating to borrow money in order to pay interest on money previously borrowed, it should be clear: this process leads to debt slavery. This is essentially the position of the entire U.S. federal government. It is mathematically bankrupt. It can charge its refinancings to taxpayers, however. Outside the “real matrix,” U.S. taxpayers are de facto debt slaves.
In sum: first, this system enriches a banking class — a superelite consisting of bankers and those at the top of the corporations that grow up around them. They grow rich through money manipulation, not production. Second, it guarantees losers. The latter become semipermanent debt slaves. This system cannot do otherwise! Third, it has been important to hide this predation from the public, in order to avoid a massive taxpayers’ and borrowers’ revolt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What would you say if I told you that Americans are nearly 60 TRILLION dollars in debt? When you total up all forms of debt including government debt, business debt, mortgage debt and consumer debt, we are 59.4 trillion dollars in debt. That is an amount of money so large that it is difficult to describe it with words. For example, if you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you had spent 80 million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent 59.4 trillion dollars by now. And most of this debt has been accumulated in recent decades. If you go back 40 years ago, total debt in America was sitting at about 2.2 trillion dollars. Somehow over the past four decades we have allowed the total amount of debt in the United States to get approximately 27 times larger. This is utter insanity, and anyone that thinks this is sustainable is completely deluded. We are living in the greatest debt bubble of all time, and there is no way that this is going to end well. Just check out the chart…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Expanding Police State
With so much happening internationally and the number of scandals, crises and general screw-ups of the Obama administration here at home, it’s worth noting a disturbing development here on the domestic front: a rapidly expanding police state.
On my radio program last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Cheryl Chumley, a reporter for The Washington Times, about her new book, “Police State USA: How George Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality.” The title says it all, and aptly describes the shocking transformation of what had been our free society.
We all know about the scope of National Security Agency (NSA) spying. It’s fair to say at this point in our lives that the notion of privacy is all but dead and gone. However, it didn’t start there. In her book, Mrs. Chumley takes us on a ride through history, reminding us of the original intentions of the Founding Fathers versus the assault on the original design by “21st century realities.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Enemies on the Left; False Friends on the Right
To get a sense of how revolutionary the political fight for power in the U.S. was then, and still is today, we need to look at a few quotes from what has been dubbed, “Paul Weyrich’s Teaching Manual,” the Free Congress Foundation’s strategic plan on how to gain control of the government of the U.S. Written by Eric Heubeck, and titled, “The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement.” The document is no longer available at the Free Congress Foundation’s website for obvious reasons. The excerpts explain why the Dominionists are winning; the tactics they endorse are sheer Machiavellian:
Paraphrased here are the four immoral principles of the Dominionist movement as the following:
1) Falsehoods are not only acceptable, they are a necessity. The corollary is: The masses will accept any lie if it is spoken with vigor, energy and dedication. (Doesn’t this sound like the Third Reich’s Goebbels who said, “If you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it.”)
2) It is necessary to be cast under the cloak of “goodness” whereas all opponents and their ideas must be cast as “evil.”
3) Complete destruction of every opponent must be accomplished through unrelenting personal attacks. (This is an Alinsky tactic, as are others.)
4) The creation of the appearance of overwhelming power and brutality is necessary in order to destroy the will of opponents to launch opposition of any kind.
Huebeck goes on to say, “There will be three main stages in the unfolding of this movement. The first stage will be devoted to the development of a highly motivated elite able to coordinate future activities. The second stage will be devoted to the development of institutions designed to make an impact on the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the masses. The third stage will involve changing the overall character of American popular culture.
And just what are they changing it into?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) More and more people are wondering today why systems of American government and corporate enterprise don’t seem to be working. The education system fails to educate, the health care system fails to create good health, and the border patrol isn’t even allowed to protect the border. Why are these systems failing the American people over and over again?
The answer — which may surprise you — is that many systems are designed to fail from the very start…
The following list reveals some of the top systems in America which are designed to fail so that they can continue to remain well-funded and profitable…
#6) The Tax System is designed to fail
The fool believes that the federal income tax is needed to raise money to fund government. This is a proven myth, as the government can simply create trillions of dollars instantly, any time it wants to bail out wealthy banks. The entire income tax could be eliminated overnight and replaced with a once-a-year money creation effort that funds the entire government.
The real purpose of the federal tax code is to control and suppress the population, making sure that middle class people never have the ability to rise up and challenge the ultra-wealthy. That’s why income tax exceptions are always granted to the ultra-wealthy and the companies they own. You did know that Apple, Google, Microsoft and other corporate giants pay virtually zero taxes, didn’t you?
Taxes are designed to make sure the middle class gets punished with paying 20% — 50% taxes while the ultra-wealthy — by using legal offshore tax loopholes and complex maneuvers — often pay just 3% or so.
It’s much easier to maintain your position at the top of the money pyramid if you can enforce a punitive tax policy against the not-so-wealthy. Always remember that taxes are structured by design to punish the working poor and the middle class while protecting the money positions of the ultra-wealthy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama Administration may be the most secretive, least transparent in modern time. Its public promises to the contrary have fallen flat and appear Orwellian. The recent revelation by the IRS that it somehow lost a huge quantity of Lois Lerner emails with the White House, Justice Department, Treasury Department, Federal Election Commission, and Democratic members of Congress pre-dating 2011 fails to pass the smell test because it comes from an Administration with a long history of withholding documents, making false statements, and obfuscating in response to investigations of every one of the half dozen prominent Administration scandals.
On June 13, the IRS informed Congress that it could not find emails from Lois Lerner, the former Director of the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations Division, that pre-date 2011 because Lerner’s computer allegedly crashed in the summer of that year. In particular, Lerner’s emails to key Administration officials and from them have vanished. Those emails are critical to congressional efforts to determine the extent to which other high ranking officials of this Administration were aware of, condoned, or encouraged the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
Aside from whether a forensic computer analyst can still retrieve the emails from IRS computers (and whether computers at the White House, Justice Department, Treasury Department, Federal Election Commission and Democratic members of Congress may be investigated to find the “lost” Lerner emails), the latest announcement of this “loss” is highly suspicious, coming as it does over a year after Congress asked the IRS for the very information.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) America is being doused every minute of every day with the toxic heavy metal lead as it is burned in “avgas” — aviation gas, the fuel that powers most piston-driven aircraft (i.e. anything with a propeller). A grand total of 571 tons of lead are dumped each year into the air over our heads from aircraft alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (1)
According to a scientific paper titled, “Lead and Halogen Contamination from Aviation Fuel Additives at Brackett Airfield,” (2) X-Ray Fluorescence instrumentation was used to analyze lead, chlorine and bromine content in avgas liquids. The tests showed avgas contains the following:
Lead: 48 ppm Bromine: 42.6 ppm Chlorine: 605.2 ppm
Lead is a highly toxic heavy metals that causes bone diseases, brain damage and cancer. Chlorine is a highly-reactive chemical with powerful oxidative properties. The fact that both are being sprayed daily into the air above America is inexcusable…
As the following EPA chart shows, avgas is the No. 1 source of lead emissions, followed by “industry” in the No. 2 spot, then coal-fired power plants third (“electric generation”).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Persian DJs Keep the Beat Going at [Jewish] Parties in Los Angeles
By Sama Hamedy
Excerpt: The night began as Jewish celebrations often do — with the traditional dancing of the Hora. “Let’s get a circle going!” Edwin Tabrikian, known as DJ Taraneh, said to the crowd. The 34-year-old Iranian DJ clutched his microphone and jumped up and down on the stage. He adjusted his black suit jacket and sprinted down a small flight of stairs to the dance floor. Guests swarmed the temple-turned-banquet-hall and helped lift Benjamin, the bar mitzvah boy, into the air almost high enough for him to reach the chandeliers that drape from the ceiling. Then people began to gher, which in Persian means to twirl one’s hips, to the popular Iranian pop song “Soosan Khanoom” (Lady Soosan) by Barobax. Almost everyone knew the words.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
The Bundy Standoff — A Century of Federal Abuse. Part 2
Obviously, most of the nearly 650 million acres now allegedly”owned” by the federal government west of the Rockies do not qualify constitutionally. True, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the land to the U.S. government in 1948. However, most of that land was already given by Mexican grants to settlers, mining companies or timber companies as working land. These settlers were protected with strong property rights language in Section VIII of the treaty.
According to the Equal Footing Doctrine those rights should have been kept by the landowners when the territories became states. The U.S. government did recognize these property rights — except when it didn’t. The U.S. government ignored the treaty when it served the purpose of the unscrupulous politicians, bureaucrats and industrial tycoons. The convoluted history of what happened from 1848 through the early 1900s is a book in itself.
The foundational basis in deciding the legal ownership rests on two concrete facts:1) the U.S. cannot “own” this land constitutionally, even though it claims it does. Upon entering the United States the new western state should have been given land not claimed by the settlers. They were not. 2) The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which is a constitutional instrument should have protected the settlers’ vested property rights. It did not.
On the other side of the issue, many property rights activists claim that since the federal government has no deed to the land, the government therefore has no rights. That’s true to a point. However, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the “deed.” The treaty gave the U.S. certain surface and sometimes mineral rights, often on the same land owned by the settlers. The Act of 1866 (see Part I) attempted to sort out the split estate concept with important but somewhat mixed results.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Bundy Standoff — A Century of Federal Abuse, Part 4
In 1906-07 the Forest Service and the northern core ran into a brick wall. Following the Forest Reserve Act’s passage in 1891, Colorado began using more and more of the water from these reserves, just as was intended by the conspirators. This threatened Kansas and Kansas sued. It went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kansas v. Colorado Supreme Court’s decision May 13, 1907 stated:
The government of the United States is one of enumerated powers; that it has no inherent powers of sovereignty; that the enumeration of the powers granted is to be found in the Constitution of the United States, and in that alone; that the manifest purpose of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution is to put beyond dispute the proposition that all powers not granted are reserved to the people, and that if, in the changes of the years, further powers ought to be possessed by Congress, they must be obtained by a new grant from the people. (Italics and underline added)
In other words, the federal government has no sovereign right to the water in the West. It was declared unconstitutional. Also, the land belonging to the national government within the states is subject to the law of those states. Additionally, the only control of the waters of an interstate stream by congress is in respect to the question of navigation, not how it was used by the state or the users. Those rights, as clearly stated in the 10th Amendment belonged to the people or the state. Finally, the state has full jurisdiction over all lands and non-navigable streams within its borders and that it (the state) may determine which law shall govern with respect to such lands and waters…
“The attempted usurpation of federal power by congress and the executive departments growing out of the federal possession of public lands is properly rebuked and nullified,” according to the Pueblo Chieftain.[1] The northern core financiers/industrialists, USDA (Agriculture), USFS (Forest Service) and American Forestry Association all conspired to pull off one of the greatest land thefts ever, but failed. The case did not touch on grazing rights, so that remained, and still does, in a legal quandary. The Court’s decision on water rights, however, was a severe blow to the conspirators’ plot to take over the West as a feudal fiefdom…
The entire history of these court cases is spelled out by Hage, but is too complex and messy to be repeated here. At the risk of oversimplification the U.S. Forest Service changed the law by sucking the ranchers into contracts and then gradually changing the legal discussion from “preemption” to “prescriptive” to “prescription.” Once “prescription” language was embedded the Forest Service used a series of District Court cases; starting with the three pre-Colorado v. Kansas Supreme Court decisions mentioned above, then using each one to establish precedent for the next. This is called case law, not Constitutional law, and has done unbelievable harm to constitutional intent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U. S. Inventor of Kevlar Dies Age 90
(AGI) Washington, June 21 — Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of Kevlar, died in hospital at age 90 in Telleyville, Delaware.
Kwolek worked for the American chemical company DuPont in the 1960s when she invented the super fibre, which is used in bulletproof vests. Pound-for-pound, Kevlar is five times as resistant as steel, and since its appearance in 1965, the fibre has been used not only by security forces throughout the world, but also for sports equipment, on vessels, and puncture-resistant tires.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
What the Ontario Progressive Conservatives Don’t Understand About Conservatism
Ontarians went to the polls on June 12 and for the second time in three years, PC leader Tim Hudak snatched defeat from jaws of victory.
There is little doubt the Liberal government, in power since 2003 under the leadership of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, is corrupt. It seems their highest priorities are to provide money and jobs to their Liberal friends and to retain power. The Liberals’ green energy policy that resulted in windmills dotting the rural landscape have resulted in soaring hydro rates that has been devastating to low and fixed income residents as well as manufacturing businesses. Some businesses packed up and moved to other jurisdictions resulting in job losses. But their friends were paid handsomely for their green efforts.
In addition to taxing and spending in true liberal fashion, the Libs have been embroiled in a series of scandals that seem to never end; eHealth, Ornge and most notably the gas plant scandals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dispelling Myths About British Muslims
by Peter Oborne
Two excellent and timely books, The Muslims are Coming! and Inside British Islam, correct ugly attitudes to Islam in the West
Many people have come to regard Muslims as a backward group of religious extremists estranged from wider society and incapable of coming to terms with what it means to be British. This impression has been heightened by misleading press reporting and inflammatory statements from senior politicians. The so-called “Trojan horse” controversy concerning an alleged Muslim takeover of Birmingham schools — based on what looks like a fabricated document — has brought fresh ugliness to an already putrid public debate…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Eleven Arrested in Sicily for Raising Their Own Salaries
(AGI) Palermo, June 19 — The employees of Coime, a public-private partnership of the Municipality of Palermo, raised their own salaries through a complex illicit system to give themselves more money by modifying their pay slips. The unlawful behaviour was discovered in an investigation by Carabinieri, who arrested 11 employees on Thursday following an order issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The suspects were arrested on different counts of criminal association for the purpose of embezzlement, misrepresentation and hacking the information system.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Farmers See Better Animal Health With Non-GMO Feed, But Scared to Say So
Farmers across the nation have reported ill effects in their animals when fed GMO corn and soy feed, but with a simple change, often costing less, non-GMO feed is causing better animal health and less disease.
You can conduct scientific studies on GMO all day long, but when you witness your animals getting sick right before your eyes, there is nothing more telling than that first-hand experience. Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen was one farmer who saw immediate devastation to his pig herd after feeding them genetically modified soy. He’s no inexperienced farmer, either. He supplies one of the biggest companies in his country, Danish Crown, with pork — more than 13,000 pigs a year.
He noticed pig deformities, spontaneous abortions, and intestinal health issues before switching to a non-GMO variety of feed. Just a short time later, he experienced, “less abortions, more piglets born in each litter, and breeding animals living longer.” In short, his pig farm became healthy and prosperous, and he wasn’t spending as much on medicine to treat unhealthy pigs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Show Focuses on Anti-Nazi Volunteer Jewish Brigade
Combatants from Palestine helped liberate Italy from the Nazis
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Seventy years ago, in June 1944, the doors of Rome’s synagogue reopened, marking the end of the persecution of the Eternal City’s Jewish community in the years leading up to and during World War II.
Part of the merit goes to the volunteer Jewish Brigade, a military formation of combatants from Palestine formed in September 1944 to fight the Nazis as part the British Army on the Italian front.
After the war, many of these combatants searched for Holocaust survivors, provided them with aid, helped them escape to Palestine, and helped Italian Jewish survivors rebuild their lives after the trauma of the war.
Opening on Wednesday, a show titled “The Jewish Brigade in Italy 1943-1945” at Rome’s House of Memory and History, which is dedicated to preserving the memory of anti-fascism, the Resistance, and the Italian war of liberation against Nazi occupation, tells the story of these combatants. More than 30,000 Jews signed up to fight the Nazis as part of different British battalions, and some 5,000 volunteered for the Jewish Brigade, which was the only military unit allowed to serve in World War II as an independent, national Jewish military formation flying its own flag: a star of David on a white stripe flanked by two blue stripes.
The show curated by Bice Migliau includes the Brigade flag, enlistment posters with a cigar-chewing Winston Churchill and the Hebrew slogan “Victory is ours!”, a copy of his letter agreeing to the formation of the Brigade, in which he wrote “I accept your proposal…please avoid flying the Jewish flag in Egypt”, Italian manuals, and prayer books.
Yesterday’s opening was attended by Rome Jewish Community President Riccardo Pacifici, Carla di Veroli, who is in charge of memory preservation policies in the capital, and Ernesto Nassi, president of the Rome and Lazio section of the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Showcases Early 20th-Century Jewish Women Artists
Unprecedented GNAM show through October 5
(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — A show of early 20th-century Italian Jewish women artists highlights their condition as a minority, in the year in which the 15th European Day of Jewish Heritage takes as its theme ‘Women in Judaism’. From the Modigliani sisters to Adriana Pincherle and Antonietta Raphael, this beautiful exhibit of 150 works by 15 artists runs through October 5 in Rome’s Modern Art Gallery (GNAM).
Titled ‘Novecento Women Artists Between Jewish Vision and Identity’, the show not only displays the undoubted talent and individual personalities of these artists, but also traces the social and cultural milieu in which they grew and flourished, allowing viewers to reconstruct the artistic environment of the first decades of the 20th century between the academy and the avant-garde.
And while women were penalized as a gender and Jewish women doubly so, they also benefited from the strength of their families and their tradition, which places a high value on education for both sexes.
“There was no illiteracy in Jewish families, as both boys and girls had to study in order to be able to read the Torah”, explained one of the curators.
Such was the case of Annie Nathan (1878-1946), whose father Ernesto was the mayor of Rome for six years, and who grew up in a cosmopolitan environment imbued with the republican and democratic ideals of Giuseppe Mazzini, one of modern Italy’s founding fathers.
Nathan studied with Giacomo Balla, in whose school she learned to “paint reality from reality”, entrusting her vision to pure and vivid colors. She died in Switzerland, where she fled Italy’s anti-Semitic racial laws.
Corinna Modigliani (1891-1959), a second-degree cousin to the better-known painter and sculptor Amedeo, studied in the atelier of Pietro Vanni and was also influenced by Balla, her landscapes and portraits of children swimming against backgrounds of chromatically interacting patches recalling the master’s Divisionist period.
Like Corinna, her younger sister Olga (1873-1968) embarked on what was at the time considered an unconventional lifestyle, eschewing marriage in favor of travel and art. An undisputed master of ceramic decoration, her work was exhibited at the 1914 Venice Biennale and featured in both private and public collections.
Turin-born Paola Levi Montalcini (1909-2000) is represented with early work from the 1920s, when like most of her city’s avant-garde she was influenced by Felice Casorati. There are also paintings from her Abstract Expressionist period, and canvases from the 1970s, when she explored the limits between art and mathematics. The last two exhibition halls are dedicated to the two most prominent Jewish women artists. Pincherle (1909-1996), the elder sister of renowned Italian novelist Alberto Moravia, studied the Impressionists in Paris and was heavily influenced by Henri Matisse, whose flat perspectives and vibrant palette infuse her lovely portraits and still lives.
Raphael (Lithuania 1895-Rome 1975), whose paintings and sculptures are a testament to her undisputed talent, was ignored by critics until the 1950s, when she finally gained recognition for her artistic output between the two world wars. Curated by Marina Bakos, Rome Jewish Museum Director Olga Melasecchi, and Federica Pirani, the show is promoted by the Rome department of culture, the Capitoline superintendency, the non-profit Foundation for Jewish Cultural Assets in Italy, and the Rome Jewish Museum.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Population Deficit Worst Ever, ISTAT Report Finds
Births fell by 3.7% as deaths slipped by 2%
(ANSA) Rome, June 16 — Italy’s negative population deficit reached its worst ever level in 2013 with births falling by 3.7% as the number of deaths declined by 2%, the official Istat statistics office said Monday.
In all 514,308 new births were registered on the peninsula last year (some 20,000 less than in 2012) while there were 600,744 deaths (12,000 less than in 2012), yielding a negative “natural balance” of 86,436, the worst such demographic mismatch recorded in Italy, Istat said in a report.
As many as 9.2 million, or some 15% of the population, live in 12 cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants, the report found.
Rome and Milan together have some 4.2 million residents (2,863,322 in the capital and 1,324,169 in Milan).
Italy’s foreign population now amounts to 1,052,000 foreign citizens resident in the country with their percentage in cities ranging from 3.1% in Bari to 17.4% in Milan.
The “natural balance” is negative or close to zero in all the 12 biggest cities, according to Istat, amounting to minus 12 people in Palermo, for example.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Calabrian Mob the One With the Most Reach in Emilia-Romagna
‘Ndrangheta infiltration in post-quake reconstruction contracts
(ANSA) — Bologna, June 18 — A law-enforcement meeting in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region on Wednesday found that the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta mafia is the most infiltrated in this wealthy northern region, where it has caused a rise in financial wrongdoing and in the overall crime rate.
The meeting of prefects, police commissioners, Carabinieri military police, and tax police commanders found that 55 companies involved in reconstruction in the wake of two major earthquakes that killed 26 people and caused widespread damage in May 2012 have been black-listed after investigators found they had mafia links.
Of these, more than half had links with the ‘Ndrangheta, and the rest were connected to the Sicilian Mafia and the Naples-based Camorra mafia.
The ‘Ndrangheta is believed to be the most powerful of Italy’s mafias for its virtual stranglehold on the European cocaine trade.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two More Sel MPs Quit, Four Total
Divisions over Renzi’s income-tax law may risk party split
(see previous) (ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — Two more MPs of the Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party of Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola resigned from the party on Thursday amid divisions over the government’s income-tax law. Titti Di Salvo and Ileana Piazzoni were the latest to announce they were stepping down after Gennaro Migliore, SEL House whip, and Claudio Fava, deputy chairman of the House anti-mafia commission, did the same. Migliore said he quit because he wanted to vote in favor of Premier Matteo Renzi’s income-tax decree giving low-income earners an 80-euro bonus, but the party line was to abstain.
Vendola said he has no plans to step down as party leader and denied risks of a split in the party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 14 Medics Probed for Leaving Forceps in Woman’s Stomach
Items stayed in tummy for 15 months
(ANSA) — Vercelli, June 19 — Fourteen medics were placed under investigation in this northwestern city Thursday for leaving two surgical strips and a forceps in a woman’s stomach after a uterus operation.
The items were removed 15 months later.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than Half of Italians Fear Being Harmed by Doctors
‘More must be done for patient safety’ says European Commission
(ANSA) — Brussels, June 19 — More than half, or 57%, of Italians fear medical malpractice, placing them above the European Union average of 53%, a Eurobarometer survey on patient safety and quality of care showed Thursday.
Italians also take a far dimmer view of their national health care system than their continental fellows do of theirs, with 56% approving against an EU average of 71%.
However, fewer Italians (13%) actually experience malpractice at the hands of the medical profession, against an EU average of 27%. As well, 10% of these cases occurred outside Italy.
Of those who were harmed while receiving health care, just 38% (against an EU average of 46%) sought redress or reported the incident. Much still remains to be done in terms of patients’ rights, safety, and empowerment to report medical malpractice within the Union, according to the European Commission.
“The good news is that most member States have enacted patient safety programs. The bad news is that adverse events still occur within our health care systems”, said EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg.
“Health policy makers must continue their commitment to guaranteeing the safety of citizens seeking health care”.
Ways to do this include involving health care staff and patients’ organizations, enacting binding national legislation, and EU-wide cooperation on the issue of patient safety, according to the Commission.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Buy Your Own Viking Warship for Just €160,000
Fancy owning your own Viking ship capable of carrying an 80-strong landing party to ravage the destination of your choice? The craftsmen at The Viking Ship Museum are now selling replicas of Norway’s Gokstad ship for a mere €160,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Two Men Charged Over Oslo Imam Attack
Two men have been charged in connection with the brutal knife attack on the imam of Oslo’s largest mosque, Norway police announced on Thursday evening.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Admits Corruption Affects Prelates
Francis asks forgiveness for clergy graft
(ANSA) — Vatican City, June 17 — Pope Francis has apologised for corruption by Catholic clergymen, admitting that the problem affected prelates in some cases. “When we read in the newspapers that this person is corrupt, that this other person is corrupt, that someone has done this act of corruption and that bribes go here and there and many things by some prelates, as Christians it is our duty to ask forgiveness for them and ask the Lord to give them the grace to repent, so they don’t die with a corrupt heart,” he said on Tuesday.
The Vatican administration and its bank have been hit by several scandals in recent years. Among the cases to hit the headlines was the 2013 arrest of prelate Monsignor Nunzio Scarano.
Scarano, the former head of analytic accounts at the Holy See’s asset-management agency APSA, is suspected of involvement in the laundering money of through accounts at the Vatican Bank and of trying to illegally smuggle 20 million euros into Italy for friends. The pope was speaking Tuesday in his morning Mass at the Santa Marta guest house where he lives in the Vatican, having spurned the space and comfort of the papal apartments.
He said that the corrupt kill and steal while “wearing white gloves, from far away, without getting their hands dirty”.
Tuesday’s was just the latest statement on one of the leit motifs of Francis’s papacy since he was elected to replace Benedict XVI in March 2013.
Just over two weeks ago, on June 11, he issued one of his most thunderous condemnations yet of political corruption, saying dirty pols and their dodgy business associates would face an ultimate reckoning with God.
The denunciation was seen as extremely topical for Italy as the country stumbles from one graft scandal to another, whether involving next year’s Expo flagship world’s fair in Milan or surrounding the huge MOSE dams in Venice.
It also came after repeated criticism of the dark side of global capitalism, critiques that have spurred media outlets ranging from Time to Rolling Stone to hail him as a Jesus-like revolutionary.
The corrupt should “never forget” that they will have to reckon with God, Francis said at Wednesday’s regular weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square.
“They will not take with them their money or their power or pride,” Francis told some 10,000 people at the audience in a baking-hot St Peter’s.
Francis warned corrupt persons in positions of power that they would “do well to fear God’s justice and repent” during a portion of his address dedicated to the seventh and final of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: fear of the Lord.
“Departing repeatedly from his prepared text in Italian for emphasis,” Vatican Radio said, “the Holy Father spoke of the fear of the Lord, not as a servile or supine disposition before the Lord, but as the grateful response of people who have first been loved by the infinite love of God the Father”.
Francis added that arms manufacturers and people traffickers are likewise “unhappy” and will face a similar divine reckoning. @PONTIFEX OVER 14-MILLION MARK.
Also on Tuesday, Pope Francis’s Twitter following crossed the 14-million mark, Vatican news website Il Sismografo reported.
The most popular of the nine @Pontifex accounts in different languages is the one in the Argentine pontiff’s native tongue, Spanish, with 5.94 million followers. That is followed by the English version with 4.15 million, while the Italian one is third with 1.75 million.
There are also versions in Latin, German, Portuguese, Polish, French and Arabic.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Arrest Over ‘Car Boot Full’ of Voting Forms
A ‘substantial number’ of completed postal ballot forms were in a car by police in Tower Hamlets
Police in Tower Hamlets found a “car boot full of postal vote applications” after stopping the vehicle in a routine search. A “substantial number” of completed postal ballot forms were found in the incident, near Westferry Circus on the Isle of Dogs, on June 3, a Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed.
The driver, a man aged 24, was arrested on suspicion of postal vote fraud…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BNP Holds Rally at Site of Proposed New Mosque in Astley Bridge
PROTESTORS demonstrated against a planned new mosque in Astley Bridge at the proposed site in Blackburn Road.
About 50 protestors, including members of the British National Party (BNP) and local residents, congregated in Blackburn Road, next to the proposed site of Taiyabah Mosque’s planned new building today…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A retired murder squad detective who attended the scene of ‘body in the bag spy’ Gareth Williams said he believed the MI6 man could have been poisoned.
Former Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton was the most senior officer on the scene when he arrived at Mr Williams’ flat in Pimlico on August 23, 2010.
An inquest at Westminster Coroner Court found Mr Williams was most likely ‘unlawfully killed’, but police officially believe the spy died after padlocking himself inside the bag.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Plans for New ‘Super’ Mosque in Astley Bridge
A HUGE new mosque is planned for Bolton. Developers have submitted plans to Bolton Council for the building in Blackburn Road, Astley Bridge.
A plot of land just off Canning Street has been earmarked for a mosque, complete with a dome, minaret tower and 19 classrooms. Those behind the proposals say the new building will bridge the gap between “negative perceptions” of Islam and the faith’s true meaning…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lower Democracy ‘Cause Dysfunctional Governments
Freedom House gave Central Eastern Europe some report cards
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Hungary has recorded for the sixth consecutive year a decline in its rating on democratic standards and is about to be thrown out of “democracies”. The corruption level has grown in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia. Political and economic pressures against the independent media have increased in Latvia, Lithuania and in the Czech Republic.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the central government remains “paralyzed” by inter-ethnic and political conflicts.
Macedonia, after ten years, has been downgraded to “transitional” or “hybrid” democracy, due to the deterioration of working conditions in the mass media and to corruption. The situation is better in Romania, where the general “conditions” have evolved after the political upheavals in 2012 and some signs of optimism can be found in Serbia and Kosovo, thanks to ongoing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and in Albania, with the “normal” transfer of powers as a result of the general election.
These are the key points of the “Nations in Transit 2014” report (www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/nations-transit), compiled by the independent watchdog ‘Freedom House’ and dedicated to central and eastern Europe, Balkans, Russia and the countries of the former Soviet bloc. The organization, based in Washington, gave all these countries different marks (on a scale from 1, the highest grade, to 7), in relation to democratic progress.
As for the Balkans, the common denominator emphasized by Freedom House is that “dysfunctional governments” have caused a constant lowering of democracy scores. In the region, Kosovo is the worst (democracy score, 5.14), since it is considered as a “ consolidated semi-authoritarian regime”, even though the country ha recorded some improvements compared to 2012, with respect to electoral process, civil society, democratic ruling institutions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
184 Morsi Supporters in Egypt Get Death Sentences: Mena
CAIRO, June 21 (Xinhua) — An Egyptian court upheld on Saturday death sentences for 184 supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi, including Mohamed Badie, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, the official news agency MENA reported.
They were charged with deadly riots in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Court Sentences 14 Al-Azhar Students to 7 Years in Prison
Al-Azhar University has been the scene of recurrent student-led demonstrations since August 2013, largely in favour of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Two Killed in Clashes Between Police, Pro-Morsi Protesters in Cairo
CAIRO, June 20 (Xinhua) — Two Egyptians were killed in clashes instigated between security forces and supporters of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo’s eastern al-Marg district, state- run Ahram newspaper said on its website.
It said at least four others were wounded in the clashes, but did not give further details…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Egyptian Women Kidnapped and Forced to Convert to Islam
Fifteen-year-old Amira Hafez Wahim slipped out of the Christian church in Luxor, Egypt, where she had attended services with her mother in February, promising to dash to a nearby store and return quickly.
Five months later, she has not been seen since, although her parents immediately suspected a 28-year-old Muslim man named Yasser Mahmoud, who had tried to kidnap her before, had succeeded this time. When her father went to the Civil Status Authority for a copy of her birth certificate, his fears were confirmed: Her name had been changed and she was now listed as Muslim.
Amira is one of approximately 550 Coptic Christian girls and women who have disappeared in Egypt over the last three years, according to a report from the Egyptian Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearances.
Ebnar Louis, the Cairo activist who founded the association in 2010, said police are typically indifferent to reports of missing girls.
“We file an official police report, but it is often ignored,” Louis told the humanitarian think tank Atlantic Council…
| — Hat tip: Charlie Marteau | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Allies Are Funding ISIS
Editor’s note: It is significant this report was posted by The Daily Beast, Newsweek’s web presence. Newsweek, the now defunct print magazine, is about as establishment as it gets. It was financed in part by the Mellon family. It served as a key asset of the CIA through Operation Mockingbird.
Conspicuously absent in the report is the role played by the United States and the CIA. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait get all the blame.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now threatening Baghdad, was funded for years by wealthy donors in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three U.S. allies that have dual agendas in the war on terror.
The extremist group that is threatening the existence of the Iraqi state was built and grown for years with the help of elite donors from American supposed allies in the Persian Gulf region. There, the threat of Iran, Assad, and the Sunni-Shiite sectarian war trumps the U.S. goal of stability and moderation in the region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As we raced through the desert in a cloud of dust, I knew I was on my way into the lion’s den, about to put my head in its jaws. I was in the lawless, fly-blown state of Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and, Kalashnikov in hand, being driven to meet one of Al Qaeda’s top figures, a man tipped as the successor of Bin Laden.
To the fighters I was with, I was Murad al-Danmarki, a brother jihadist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
From a Cardiff Bedroom to Syrian Battlefield: Trail of Jihadist Brothers
Father of Nasser and Aseel Muthana says his two young sons were ‘brainwashed’ by extremists into going to fight a war in Syria
Behind the thick curtains of their first-floor bedroom, the two teenage brothers plotted a holy war. Their plans for jihad were to take them on a 2,500-mile journey from their terrace house in Cardiff to the battlefields of Syria…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fundamentalists Have Taken Over Yemeni Revolution, Activist
‘Against national dialogue but dream lives on’, Arwa Abdo Othman
Ms Arwa Abdo Othman (first lady on the left) with the other partecipants to the seminar on Yemeni women’s rights in Rome. Nobel Price Tawakul Karman wears a yellow scarf (centre)
(ANSAmed) — ROME — The Yemeni human rights activist Arwa Abdo Othman spoke to ANSAmed in an interview on Friday about the situation in her country, three years after an uprising against President Ali Abdallah Saleh.
“The demands of the revolution have unfortunately become those of others: terrorism, tribes, sheikhs, and all the armed groups and militias that took to the streets in the name of the revolution,” she said. Othman participated in a seminar this week on cooperation between Italy and Yemen on women’s rights in the country’s new Constitution. “I took part in the protests even prior to 2011,” she said, “when the youth took to the streets to demand and claim their rights to life, change, a civil state and citizenship without any discrimination, human right: a dream that is still alive.” Nevertheless, she continued, “in the streets prior to March 1,2011, fundamentalist groups entered the scene and — right in front of me — Abdul Majeed al-Zindani (considered a terrorist by the US, Ed.) from the Reform fundamentalist party came in with his armed militias.” “He spoke in front of thousands of protestors,” she said, “saying that there isn’t a state, that there is an Islamic caliphate, and that every change must come from the Sharia. This basically meant Islamicizing the revolution and change. This man — who is on the list of the most wanted terrorists in the world — is now in Yemen and is holding a conference against the national dialogue.” For almost a year until January 2014, the dialogue involved all Yemen’s political parties and civil society interested in a joint process working towards a new Constitution, which a draft is now being worked on that is expected to come out in September and subsequently be put to a referendum. “But the national dialogue has the will to change,” underscored Arwa Abdo Othman, who called the armed militias and fundamentalists “bandits, thieves and assassins that speak about the revolution as if it were a sacred right from God.” The last three years have been a very difficult period in Yemen. After the ousting of former president Ali Abdallah Saleh in 2011, months of protests and clashes occurred between the various factions of armed forces and tribal militias. A lengthy crisis led to the weakening of central power and a strengthening of not only the militias linked to Al-Qaeda but also the separatists in the south and Shia Zaidi rebels in the north.
Among the Yemenis attending the seminar — sponsored by the Minerva association and Law International with support from the Italian foreign ministry — Arwa Abdo Othman stood out for the fact that she was not wearing a headscarf and was dressed in Western attire. She said that the reason was that she is “from Tais, a civilized area of Yemen. I do not wear a veil because I am very well educated. I studied philosophy and I love the arts, and so I made my choice. But you don’t run the sort of risk that you might think. At the most you are criticized. My three daughters don’t wear headscarves either, and they have the same problem, since the Islamicization of society forces woman to wear only black and to behave in a single way. You find it even in education in schools, in which women’s faces and hands are a source of shame.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gulf Inhabitants Spend 2,400 USD Per Month on Luxury Goods
Retail leader Chalhoub; 3 bln EUR on Italian products in 2013
(ANSAmed) — MILAN — In the Gulf region an average of 2,400 per month is spent by inhabitants on luxury goods. The second ‘white paper’ issued by the leading luxury retailer in the Middle East, the Chalhoub Group, notes that the some 42% of inhabitants purchase new attire twice a month and that the area’s search for personal satisfaction leads to high spending on luxury products. On Italian high-end products, “Gulf consumers spent about three billion euros, mostly in the region but also in Italy and Europe”, said Altagamma deputy chief Armando Branchini on the sidelines of a press conference in which it was underscored that the area “is expected to continue growing over the next few years”. According to the report, the Gulf region is a strategic market for large Italian luxury brand names as well as all those operating in the sector. The IMF expects the region’s GDP next year to rise by 4.4%, while it already has a per capita GDP among the highest in the world. The wealthiest inhabitants of the region not only spent a high amount every month on luxury goods (2,400 dollars), some 42% of them also frequently indulge on clothes once or twice a month, while 41% focus on footwear and 37% on bags (two to three times per month).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Crisis: Baghdad’s Shia Militia in Defiant 50,000-Strong Rally as ISIS Make Further Gains
Tensions mount in Iraq as Mahdi Army put on show of force in Baghdad featuring missiles, bazookas and assault rifles while Isis seize key Syria border crossing
Baghdad’s biggest Shia Muslim faction staged a show of force in face of the Isis threat to the Iraqi capital on Saturday, in a parade that stretched for several miles, featuring missiles, bazookas, hi-tech assault rifles and artillery…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Rebranded Insurgents Gain Whip Hand on Streets of Baghdad
The Mahdi army, now renamed the Peace Brigades, parades its power in the Iraqi capital as it prepares to do battle with Sunni rebels in the north
For the past week the young and old of the Mahdi army had been preparing. New recruits, only children the last time the Shia militia all but ran Iraq, had been learning how to march and to clean weapons. Veterans of the insurgency against US forces and civil war that followed had been signing up cadres and receiving bodies from battlefields…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Military Out of Hellfires in Battle Against ISIS
The Iraqi military ran out of Hellfire missiles six days ago, and though the U.S. is rushing more missiles into the country, Iraq has only two modified Cessna aircraft to launch them in their battle against the radical Islamic militia ISIS…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
More Dutch Jihadists Traveling to Iraq: Minister
THE HAGUE, June 20 (Xinhua) — The number of Dutch jihadists traveling to Iraq is rising, the Dutch Minister of Interior Ronald Plasterk said on Friday after a cabinet meeting.
Pasterk did not give numbers, but during a press conference he called the figures “worrying” and a “substantial threat”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Shiite Cleric Issues Threat to US Military Advisers as Iraq Militants Take Border Post
A high-level Shiite cleric in Iraq issued a warning to American military advisers bound for Iraq Friday, hours before Sunni militants captured a crossing on Iraq’s border with Syria and Shiite militia members paraded in Baghdad and other cities.
Sky News reports that Nassir al-Saedi, a cleric loyal to the firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr, referred to America as “the occupier” in a sermon during Friday prayers and added “We will be ready for you if you are back.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shiite Rebels Attack Police Patrols in Yemeni Capital
SANAA, June 21 (Xinhua) — Shiite Houthi rebels attacked police patrols in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Saturday, wounding 17 policemen before the rebels held them hostages, the Interior Ministry said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sunni Militants Take Control of Iraq-Syria Border Point
Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of an Iraq-Syria border crossing after Syrian rebels withdrew overnight, security officers and witnesses said.
The sources said insurgents took control of the Al-Qaim border crossing, one of three official border points between Iraq and Syria, after gunmen linked to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front left…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Brilliant Brothers Who Left British Suburb for Jihad in Syria
Police hunt jihadist masterminds who arranged for British students to travel to Syria to fight — including 17 year-old Aseel Muthana, believed to be the youngest Briton so far to join Islamist terror networks
Counter-terrorism officers are hunting the jihadist masterminds who arranged for British students, including a teenage schoolboy, to travel to Syria to fight.
Aseel Muthana, pictured here for the first time, is, at the age of 17, believed to be the youngest Briton so far to join Islamist terror networks operating in Syria and Iraq…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Stage is Being Set for World War III
America, the West and the world is bearing witness to one of the most significant geopolitical events of the last century taking place in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. But few fully understand the enormity of what they are seeing. Even fewer understand the big picture or thinking big enough, as all is not what it appears. We are witnessing the second act of the play about which I’ve previously written, which is the setting of the stage for World War III. Our world as we know it will soon change, and no one will be left untouched by the events that have been orchestrated by the globalist screenwriters and directors…
It’s unlikely that the corporate media will expose that the development of ISIS was years in the making, first developing in 2004 as “The Organization of Monotheism and Jihad” (JTJ) and then as al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2006, they changed their name to the Islamic State of Iraq and more recently to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as it is known today.
It’s even more unlikely that you will hear about the financing of ISIS, for it is perhaps the most heavily funded terror organization in the world. Even before ISIS overran Mosul last week and pillaged Iraqi banks of hundreds of millions of dollars,ISIS financial documents that were seized during operations in Iraq disclosed that their net worth before they entered Mosul to be at least $900 million. Where did such robust funding come from?…
Based on the funding and military assets alone, it should be obvious to anyone paying the least bit of attention that ISIS is a creation of Western backed intelligence agencies, spearheaded by the U.S., and funded in part through the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has its own headquarters based inside our own White House, State Department and CIA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Welsh Muslim in a Terror-Recruiting Video Was Radicalised Online, Says Cardiff Mosque Leader
Muslims in Cardiff were in shock yesterday as former medical student Nasser Muthana, 20, from Cardiff, was shown in a terror-recruiting video
The young Welsh muslim in a terror-recruiting video that has stunned his family was radicalised over the internet, a senior figure at his mosque has said.
Muslims in Cardiff were in shock yesterday as former medical student Nasser Muthana, 20, from Cardiff, was revealed to be one of the men in a video posted posted from Syria by accounts with links to Islamist militant group Isis…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India: As Anti-Christian Violence Continues, Fear and Insecurity Increase Among Minorities
Hindu fundamentalists carry out attacks in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. “These radical groups claim to be defenders of Hinduism just because they practice the majority religion,” Global Council of Indian Christians tells AsiaNews.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — “Anti-Christian attacks continue in India and fear and insecurity are growing in minority communities,” said Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), who spoke to AsiaNews after Hindu fundamentalists carried out fresh attacks against Christians in the last two days in the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
On Monday, a group of ultra-nationalists attacked about 150 members of a Pentecostal community in Sirisguda (Chhattisgarh), beating them with sticks. Only police intervention allowed the nine people wounded to go to hospital.
The violence was sparked the Christians’ failure to “pay” a donation to the local Hindu temple. For this reason, they also lost government rations a month ago.
Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, a group of 16 people yesterday stopped two Pentecostal clergymen from the Katni Brethren Assembly, who were going home with others after attending a wedding.
The attackers searched the Christians; when they found Bibles in their bags, they tore the sacred books and attacked them.
“Hindu fundamentalist groups,” Sajan George told AsiaNews, “claim to be defenders of Hinduism just because they practice the majority religion.” This, he noted, “is an insult and an attack on religious freedom as guaranteed by our Constitution.”
Not surprisingly, said the GCIC president, “anti-conversion laws that are in place in both Madhya Pradesh and in Chhattisgarh have been recently modified to make them even tougher.”
Theoretically, these measures should prohibit conversions obtained by force or money. However, they have been used to persecute Christians and other minorities, on false accusations of forced conversions.
Hindu fundamentalist groups responsible for such attacks are part of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella term for India’s nationalist groups, politically embodied by the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party, BJP), a nationalist party that won this year’s parliamentary election.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Militants Attack Airport in Eastern Afghanistan
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, June 21 (Xinhua) — Casualties were feared Saturday night as militants attacked an airport in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, sources said.
The attack began at around 9 p.m. local time when three to four militants launched a coordinated attack on the backside gate of the facility, a security source told Xinhua, adding that a NATO base is also located there…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
One Policeman Among 4 Killed in Afghan Blast
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, June 21 (Xinhua) — Four people were killed and three others wounded Saturday in a bomb attack in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, police said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Ignores Hanoi (And Manila), Builds Three New Drilling Rigs in South China Sea
As high-level talks between Chinese and Vietnamese officials in Hanoi end without any concrete results, China builds three drilling rigs worth US$ 1 billion. One is almost operational; the other two should be ready by October 2015.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) — Within the next two years, Beijing plans to build three more oil rigs off the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea, an area at the centre of a fierce territorial dispute with Hanoi and Manila.
The three rigs will join one built on 1 May in an area claimed by Vietnam. That had set off protests by Vietnamese nationalists that turned violent, and left two people dead and 140 injured.
By its action, China seems bent on pursuing its claims in the Pacific despite a rising tide of protest by other countries of the area.
Meanwhile, talks between top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Vietnamese officials in Hanoi have been inconclusive.
Beijing’s envoy met with top Vietnamese government and Communist Party officials, reiterating China’s position that it intends to pursue its imperialist policies in the region.
In the Vietnamese capital, nationalists held anti-Beijing protests during the diplomat’s visit, quelled by Vietnamese police who dispersed demonstrators and made at least seven arrests.
Whilst Hanoi and Beijing were engaged in official talks, China announced that the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) would build three drilling rigs (HD 982, HD 943 and HD 944, worth US$ 1 billion) in the South China Sea in the waters off the Spratly and Paracel Islands, within Vietnam’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
Drilling rig HD-982, which is 600 metres in length, was deployed recently and is already operational.
China’s government also announced that “Chinese businessmen” (including military forces and their families) will be able to buy and own land on the Paracels and Spratlys in 2018, further confirming China’s aim in the area.
Vietnam and the Philippines have been increasingly worried about Beijing’s imperialism in the South China and East China seas.
The Chinese government claims most of the sea (almost 85 per cent), including sovereignty over the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands, in opposition to Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.
For the United States, which backs the claims of Southeast Asia nations, Beijing’s so-called ‘cow tongue’ line is both “illegal” and “irrational”.
Anyone with a hegemonic sway over the region would have a strategic advantage, in terms of seabed (oil and gas) development, but also in trade since two thirds of the world’s maritime traffic goes through it.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Korea: 5 Killed, 7 Injured in S.Korean Shooting Accident at Inter-Korean Border
SEOUL, June 21 (Xinhua) — Five South Korean soldiers were killed and seven others wounded at a shooting spree accident that occurred in a frontline Army unit at the inter-Korean land border, local media reported Sunday.
A South Korean Army sergeant, who was serving sentry at the Demilitarized Zone, fired around 10 random shots with his K-2 rifle against fellow South Korean soldiers at about 8:15 p.m. Saturday, according to military officials…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hammond — ‘Al-Shabab Seeks to Prey on Cleavages in Kenyan Society’
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya is playing a dangerous game by rejecting claims by al-Shabab of responsibility for two attacks in the country’s coastal region. Kenyatta says internal factors were to blame.
On Wednesday (18.06.2014) Somalia’s al-Shabab reiterated their claim that they were behind two consecutive killing sprees in Kenya’s coastal region which claimed the lives of at least 60 people. Kenya has had troops in Somalia since 2011 as part of the African Union intervention force which is in the country to support the beleaguered central government in Mogadishu.
DW asked Laura Hammond, senior lecturer in development studies at SOAS in London, how successful the Kenyan troops have been in fighting al-Shabab militants in Somalia so far.
They have been key in terms of having been able to drive al-Shabab out of some of the main urban areas in the southern part of the country, in particular the port city of Kismayo…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil: Bosnia-Herzegovina Stars Pay Visit to Cuiaba Mosque
Three Bosnia-Herzegovina World Cup stars paid a visit to Cuiaba’s mosque on Friday ahead of their World Cup Group G match against Nigeria in the Mato Grosso capital on Saturday.
Star striker Vedad Ibisevic, Muhamed Besic and Edin Visca went to the mosque for Friday prayers and mingled with the local Muslim community. Also present was former national team midfielder Elvir Rahimic who is with the squad in Brazil…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Scores Big in Brazil With Pork Products
New range of cold cuts from Italian north to be accepted
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — Italy was celebrating a major goal in Brazil on Thursday — not at soccer’s World Cup, but in the world export market.
Italian cold cuts from several northern regions won a new certificate of export health from Brazilian authorities for products derived from pork, the industrial association of meat and sausages Assica said.
Meat products cured for at least 30 days including pancetta, salami, and coppa have been accepted for export into Brazil if they are sent from regions including Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto, Marche and autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano.
The head of Assica welcomed the news but said that too many regions of Italy are still not permitted to export cold-cut products into Brazil.
“This is good news — but it is not enough,” said Lisa Ferrarini, president of Assica.
“We are no longer willing to tolerate this situation so damaging to the export business”. Brazil has a strong and growing market and Italian exports to the South American country have doubled in the past five years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
By Thomas Sowell
There is no requirement for either amnesty or for citizenship that President Obama cannot ignore or dilute unilaterally, as he has ignored or diluted existing immigration laws, as well as other laws. Barack Obama is the biggest reason to pass no immigration “reform” laws until after he is gone.
It doesn’t matter what immigration policies you believe in if you don’t control your borders — and the vast numbers of minors flooding across our borders today show that the Obama administration has no intention of controlling the borders. They are more concerned with controlling the border guards and ordering them not to take pictures that show the public what is happening.
If you are serious about controlling the borders, then you pass laws to control the borders first. Some years later, after you can see whether the border has been controlled or not — you can start discussing what our national immigration laws should be.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Burgeoning Humanitarian Disaster — A Manufactured Crisis
Instead of being turned away at the border, UACs — under Obama’s immigration policy — are required to be placed in temporary shelters. From there, federal agencies begin deportation processing while at the same time looking for relatives or sponsors to house them in the U.S.
But the bottom line, as noted by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, whose state is currently inundated — as usual — by illegal migrants, is that this humanitarian crisis was fomented by, and is being enabled by, the president himself.
“Our country is in the midst of a crisis manufactured by President Obama and his administration’s refusal to enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” Brewer said in a tweet to members of Congress. “It has become clear that the administration has encouraged this massive influx and intends to continue ignoring the states’ calls to end this policy. Furthermore, it is indisputably evident that our border is not secure and is hardly ‘more secure than ever,’“ a jab at former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, herself an ex-Arizona governor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Urgent Action Needed: Stop Illegals Invasion Tsunami Underway
Stopping the invasion by liars, cheats and thieves, illegal aliens, unleashed by Ronald Reagan in 1986 has never been a priority by most members in the Outlaw Congress or occupants of the White House. What we’re seeing right now is being blamed on the impostor, Barry Soetoro aka Obama, but a healthy amount of blame can be laid right at George Bush, Jr., and Republicans.
Without any doubt, members of the Democratic/Communist Party USA want those illegals as voters. They care nothing about national security, the rape of the American people paying hundreds of BILLIONS of borrowed dollars (debt) to feed, clothe, educate and incarcerate illegals over the decades or the massive amount of crimes committed by illegal aliens. And, neither do most Republicans in the U.S. Congress since 1995 when they took full control of the U.S. Congress. While serial adulterer, rapist and advocate for world government, Billy Clinton was tragically president, Republicans held the majority in both houses and could have over ridden a veto for a strong piece of legislation to begin serious measures to get illegals out of this country and lock down our borders. They did nothing…
Right now Arizona and Texas are being invaded and I mean invaded with massive numbers of illegals every day:
More than 35,000 illegals entering TX each month…
Look at this shocking picture. As a dear friend of mine remarked the other day, it’s like looking at trains in India and they are coming here from South American countries. The train called is called The Beast which comes up from Latin America filled with illegals who make their way to U.S. soil.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Do We Protect Our Children or Sexual Deviates? Part 1
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
People can classify themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, asexual, metrosexual. There are endless sexual orientations under the sun, and now, pedophilia can be added to the list.
Now we are told we are going to address pedophilia as a mental disorder and it is going to be “sorted” by whom you are attracted to, if you act on it or if you don’t. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), (this is the neat book your doctor has to use to code your illness) the American Psychological Association (APA) drew a very distinct line between pedophilia and pedophilic disorder.
Pedophilia refers to a sexual orientation or profession of sexual preference devoid of consummation, whereas pedophilic disorder is defined as a compulsion and is used in reference to individuals who act on their sexuality.
APA’s decision has given rise to numerous pedophilia-advocacy groups, the chief of them being B4U-ACT, a non-profit grassroots organization based in Maryland. Created in 2003 primarily as a means for “minor-attracted persons” to be open about their sexual preferences in a supportive atmosphere, B4U-ACT is now widening the scope of their organization.
Their web site states:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donor-Sperm Fertility Treatment Legal Again in Italy
‘Thousands of requests already’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — Italians could once again use extramarital donor sperm and eggs for artificial insemination as of Thursday, the day a court ruling that lifted a ban went into effect. “As of today we’re administering the practice in both our private and public centers,” said Filomena Gallo of the Associazione Luca Coscioni, a leading association that promotes the freedom of scientific research. In April the Constitutional Court ruled that a couple’s right to have a child was inviolable even in the case of sterility, overruling a 2004 ban on donor sperm and eggs that did not come from a spouse.
The hot-button case of assisted-fertility treatment had pitted Catholics against members of the scientific community who had called for a wider review of the law which among other things banned screening of embryos for abnormalities or genetic disorders even for couples with a family history of genetic disease.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2012 had already rejected the law, saying it went against two provisions in its convention for the protection of human rights.
Under the law, which was originally passed by a cross-party alliance of Catholics, single parents, same-sex couples and women beyond child-bearing age could not use assisted-fertility techniques.
According to Gallo, thousands of Italians have since submitted requests for the procedure.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hey: Church of England, If You Want to Become a Christian, You Have to Renounce the Devil.
By Tim Stanley
Excerpt: Truly the Devil’s greatest trick was to convince us that he doesn’t exist — or, at least, that it’s impolite to mention him in public. The Church of England has been forced to reinstate the word “sin” into baptism services after parishioners complained that its new liturgy was (to use one of the nicer adjectives) too “bland”. The old order of service went something like this:
[KP’s COMMENT to Tim Stanley: There is a person here in the USA called, I think, Mirabai Starr. She does translations of great Christian spiritual classics, such as those written in the 16th century by Spanish Carmelite Saint Teresa of Avila. Apparently, a great mystical genuis and Doctor of the Church like St.. T/A has needed Ms. Starr’s editing for the last 400-plus years, because Ms. Starr does not use the word “sin” where Teresa used it. Ms.. Starr uses the term, “miss the mark” instead.]
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
The controversial science of neurotheology aims to find the answer to an age-old question: why do we believe?
When neuroscientist Andrew Newberg scanned the brain of “Kevin”, a staunch atheist, while he was meditating, he made a fascinating discovery. “Compared with the Buddhist monks and Franciscan nuns, whose brains I’d also scanned, Kevin’s brain operated in a significantly different way,” he says…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why Should Taxpayers Fund Leftist Agenda?
Real Women of Canada
www.realwomenofcanada.ca
Volume XXXIII Issue No. 6 June 2014
It is unacceptable that the CBC still receives over $1 billion a year from the Department of Canadian Heritage and continues to promote radical feminism, while refusing to cover conservative points of view.
Much ink has been spilled and many tears shed when CBC President, Hubert Lacroix, announced in April, 2014 that the CBC would be downsizing staff by 647 to plug a $130 million revenue shortfall this year.This shortfall was caused by the loss of the most important source of CBC’s advertising revenue, that is, hockey broadcasting. The latter was picked up instead by the cable company, Rogers Communications, for $5.2 billion for 12 years.This loss was in addition to continued cuts by both the Liberal and Conservative governments over the years.
The CBC only has an 8% share of TV viewers in English speaking Canada. Without hockey broadcasting, even this minimal viewership is to be reduced by half.
Obviously, the CBC isn’t providing programming that the viewers want. Mindless of this fact, the CBC, rather than trying to increase its audience, continues to relentlessly pursue programing slanted to a liberal or left-wing audience. It does so even though this is contrary to the 1991 Broadcasting Act, which provides, in section 3 (l) (i), that, “programing is to be varied and comprehensive providing a balance of information…” and, section 3 (l) (iv), that,”it provide a reasonable opportunity for the public to be exposed to the expression of differing views on matters of public concern…”.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That exactly describes CBC programing.
A perfect example of the CBC idiocy in this regard is its sponsoring and providing laudatory coverage to “The Feminist Games”, the annual Femmy Awards on March 8, 2014 (International Women’s Day), which was held at the Library of Archives Canada. Other sponsors for this event included left- wing organizations, such as CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) and the feminist organization, Match International.
The organizing committee for the awards included Amnesty International, which promotes abortion and homosexuality abroad, Oxfam Canada, which recently announced that women’s issues were its priority, Inter Pares (an international left-wing feminist organization), Planned Parenthood Ottawa, the Canadian Federation of University Women, and the legal arm of the feminist movement, LEAF (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund). In short, this was a celebration to affirm the dying whimpers of the declining feminist ideology.
CBC anchor, Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, hosted the occasion celebrating those who contributed to “women’s equality.” When asked to cover the views of 16 pro-life picketers assembled outside the building, who wanted to bring public attention to the fact that abortions, based on gender, contravened women’s equality, the CBC reporter covering the event, was not interested.
Past recipients of the Femmy were individuals from CUPE, Planned Parenthood Ottawa, Inter Pares, the federally funded feminist group CRIAW (Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women), and CUPW (Canadian Union of Postal Workers.) The Femmy Award website describes the 2014 recipients of the award as:
- A queer social worker, chair of EGALE Canada’s transgender issues, who developed the gender identity inclusive policy for the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, was on the Board of Directors of the homosexual Pink Triangle Services, and worked with NDP MP Bill Siksay and Liberal Ontario MPP Yasir Naqvi on human rights and hate protection for transgender people.
- A queer-gender-non-conforming, anti-violence advocate who sat on the National Youth Advisory Board for Sexual Health and HIV, partnered with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, who is currently project coordinator for “Preventing Gender-Based Violence on Campuses”, is also a board member of the Queer Mafia, and is finishing up a social work degree at Carleton University.
- An organization called Holloback which opposes street harassment and is run by local activists, including Julie Lalonde, who was recently awarded a Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Person’s Case. She was the project manager for FAFIA (Feminist Alliance for International Action), which has received $1.8 million from Status of Women Canada.
Ms. Lalonde also represents Radical Handmaids, a pro- abortion group, which refers to its pro-life opponents as “haters.” The group received generous CBC radio time on “OntarioToday” to target a group of medical doctors in Ottawa who, for medical and religious reasons, choose not to prescribe contraceptives, the morning after pill or refer patients for abortions.
Radical Handmaids questions the right of these physicians to continue to practice medicine.The Canadian Medical Association, however, doesn’t agree with these feminist extremists, stating: “We don’t expect them [physicians] to check their morals at the door, we recognize that they will continue to hold personal views.”
It is unacceptable that the CBC still receives over $1 billion a year from the Department of Canadian Heritage and continues to promote radical feminism, while refusing to cover conservative points of view. Even on those rare occasions, when the CBC acknowledges the existence of a conservative perspective, it never fails to misrepresent it!
Oxfam Canada received $8.8 million in federal subsidies from Foreign Affairs (CIDA) for 2012-2013. Oxfam Canada, together with Oxfam Quebec, received a total of $29.7 million for 2012-2013, and $34.1 million for 2011-2012.
Taxpayers should not be forced to fund these extremist leftist advocates, who use taxpayers money to fund their own radical causes.
| [Return to headlines] |
Gravitational-Wave Team Admits Findings Could Amount to Dust
Astronomers who announced in March that they had evidence of waves originating from the Big Bang have now adopted a more cautious stance as they published their results in a peer-reviewed journal — just as new independent data cast additional doubt on the original findings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
>> The fool believes that the federal income tax is needed to raise money to fund government. This is a proven myth, as the government can simply create trillions of dollars instantly, any time it wants to bail out wealthy banks. The entire income tax could be eliminated overnight and replaced with a once-a-year money creation effort that funds the entire government.
Whoever has written this, it is plain [redacted] manure.
If the government prints massive money and puts it into the market, this leads to inflation. And inflation is a tax: a X% rate means in practice you have X% less money at the end of the year.
But this tax wouldn’t be applied to everybody the same way. Inflation taxes people who saves money. So, instead of taxing people who earn more money, the idea is taxing people who save more money? Great idea, sir.
He is not a Welshman, that’s for sure!