A U.S. official told the media that American special forces were sent to Syria earlier this summer in an attempt to rescue hostages held by ISIS, including James Foley, but the effort failed. Meanwhile, ISIS has captured four new Western hostages, including a Dane.
In other news, Anders Behring Breivik’s father Jens announced that he plans to publish a book about his role as the father of the Butcher of Utøya.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, Rachel Lipsky, 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.
Missouri Governor Orders National Guard to Begin Withdrawing From Ferguson
As tensions on the streets here seemed to ease on Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the Missouri National Guard to begin withdrawing from the city.
“I greatly appreciate the men and women of the Missouri National Guard for successfully carrying out the specific, limited mission of protecting the Unified Command Center so that law enforcement officers could focus on the important work of increasing communication within the community, restoring trust, and protecting the people and property of Ferguson,” Mr. Nixon said in a statement.
He said that order had been largely restored and that the presence of the National Guard was no longer needed.
The governor had dispatched the National Guard on Monday, after days of chaotic and often violent clashes between the police and protesters following the shooting of an unarmed black teenager on Aug. 9.
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Missouri Cop Was Badly Beaten Before Shooting Michael Brown, Says Source
Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer whose fatal shooting of Michael Brown touched off more than a week of demonstrations, suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department’s top brass told FoxNews.com.
“The Assistant (Police) Chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” said the insider. “He was beaten very severely.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Islamic State “Speaks for No Religion”
The imam Obama has spoken: “ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.” Yet Islamic law mandates death for heretics and apostates, and that is what the Islamic State jihadis consider their Muslim victims to be. Also, the Qur’an teaches: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks” (47:4). James Foley was certainly an unbeliever, and one from a state with which the Islamic State considers itself to be at war — thus they did not consider him innocent.
Obama excuses and apologizes for Islam every time a jihadist atrocity affects the U.S. in some way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Temple Univ. Jewish Student Punched in Face and Called ‘Kike’ In Anti-Semitic Attack
“Before this I just thought Students for Justice in Palestine was crazy but I didn’t know it would lead to violence.”
a Jewish student on the campus of Temple University was assaulted on Wednesday afternoon and called “kike” and “baby killer” by alleged members of the anti-Semitic student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Daniel Vessal, a Camera on Campus fellow and a member of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, was punched in the face by a violent alleged member of the anti-Israel organization SJP at “Templefest” which is organized for students on campus to gain new information about campus clubs a week before the start of classes. Vessal is a managing information systems major at the Fox School of Business at the university.
“I’m walking down Polett Walk, one of the main walkways through Temple University and I see the SJP table,” Vessal told TruthRevolt from a local area hospital. “I go up to them and I really just wanted to see what angle they were coming from. I went up to the table and started talking to them. I said, ‘listen, you shouldn’t be protesting Israel- if anything protest the terrorists.’“
“At that point I walked away and after a little back and forth,” Vessal explained. “I came back to the table after a little while and explained that the Palestinians have a right to a state just like anyone else but that SJP should come at the right people. I said, ‘when Hamas stops sending the rockets, that’s when there can be peace. That’s when we can start.’“
“This one girl sitting at the end of the table was just laughing and laughing at me,” he explained “As she was laughing at me, people at the table were calling me a ‘baby killer,’ I said when she stops then maybe we could have a genuinely peaceful conversation.”
“And then this kid just rocks me in the face as hard as he can. My glasses flew off. After a two-second blur I had no clue what had happened. I couldn’t believe the kid actually hit me,” said Vessal who added that he needs to obtain a new pair of glasses due to the extensive damage.
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Anders Behring Breivik’s Father to Write Book
Jens Breivik, father of jailed mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, is set to publish a book detailing his role as the father of Norway’s most infamous terrorist.
At a press conference in Oslo on Wednesday, Jens told the media his book “Min skyld?” (“My fault?”) reflects on his responsibility for the worst terror attack in Norway’s history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Probe Survives Daring Dive Through Venus Atmosphere
A European spacecraft that’s been orbiting Venus for the past eight years has finished a month-long maneuver that sent it rocketing through the outer reaches of the hellishly hot planet’s atmosphere.
The European Space Agency’s Venus Express probe wrapped up this “aerobraking” move and entered a new, higher orbit in late July, ESA officials said. It will continue to study Venus for several more months, probably until December, and then, as its fuel runs out, dip back into the planet’s thick atmosphere for good.
During the aerobraking maneuver, Venus Express studied regions of Venus’ atmosphere that had never been studied before, often getting as close as 81 to 84 miles (131 to 135 kilometers) above the planet’s surface.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland’s Love of Milk Dates Back to the Stone Age
Evidence has been found to prove that animal domestication occurred in one of the earth’s harshest environments much earlier than previously thought. A combined team from the Universities of Bristol (England) and Helsinki (Finland) have been examining examples of Corded Ware pottery found in the northern parts of Finland.
The pieces examined were cooking pots dated at 3,900 to 3,300 BCE and also approx. 2,500 BCE. Astonishingly the pots from 2,500 BCE contained traces of milk fats. This proved that the inhabitants at that time, despite a climate where it can snow for up to four months of the year, had domesticated animals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Ex-PM Juppé Sets Up Presidential Clash With Sarkozy
With his announcement Wednesday that he will launch a bid to become France’s next president in 2017, former prime minister Alain Juppé is set for a titanic showdown with another of the right’s political heavyweights, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney, Jr.: Beheading is Jihad
The videotaped beheading of an American journalist by the so-called Islamic State is not an isolated act of extremism, or a case of a self-styled Caliphate “hijacking Islam.”
In fact, jihadists have been slitting their enemies’ throats for over 1,000 years in accordance with the dictates of shariah. Such terrifying violence helps advance the objective of imposing this supremacist Islamic program on everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
The fact that the voice of the perpetrator of James Foley’s murder suggests he is British is a further warning — if any is still needed — that those who embrace shariah are not confined to distant Middle Eastern nations.
It behooves us to root out from our midst such jihadists and those who enable them— as well as to defeat their counterparts elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Party Leader Demands Lenin’s Head
Gregor Gysi, the leader of the federal socialist Left party, has demanded that the 3.5-tonne head of Lenin be dug out of its wooded resting place for an exhibition on Berlin’s memorial landmarks.
Gysi told the daily Tagesspiegel that through the Soviet victory of the Second World War started by Germany, the legacies are shared.
“Therefore one cannot simply bury Lenin (in history). He must be shown and grappled with,” he told the paper. He planned on discussing the matter with Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Humans and Neanderthals ‘Shared Europe’
Humans and Neanderthals may have coexisted in Europe for up to five millennia, according to new research. Refined carbon dating methods indicate that the modern man did not simply replace his hominid cousin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Militants Seize Four More Foreign Hostages in Syria
Flush with looted weapons, buoyed by sweeping gains in Syria and eager to shock, Islamic State militants have seized four more foreign hostages near Aleppo in recent days, taking to more than 20 the number of foreigners they now hold.
The latest captives, two Italian women, a Dane and a Japanese national, were seized in or near Syria’s largest city. All held are either reporters, photographers or aid workers taken near Aleppo or Idlib. They have been subsequently moved to Raqqa, the Isis stronghold in north Syria.
The abductions have controversially proved good business for Islamic radicals. In the past six months at least 10 hostages, including a Dane, three French nationals and two Spaniards, were freed after lengthy negotiations with captors, who demanded ransoms. Some organisations have insisted on information blackouts about nationals still being held.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Media: Islamic State Organising in Denmark
According to the tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet, the jihadist organisation Islamic State (IS) has established a faction in Denmark dedicated to recruiting volunteers to fight for their cause in Iraq and Syria.
While Ekstra Bladet’s sources revealed that IS sympathisers met at a conference in Vejle, Jutland during the summer to discuss its strategies, the Danish intelligence agency PET wouldn’t comment on the issue,
“We can’t comment on information pertaining to IS or any other radical Islamic group organising in Denmark,” a PET press worker told TV2.
The supposed IS group in Denmark allegedly consists of former volunteer fighters in Syria and prominent members of the radical Islamic environment in Denmark.
U.S. Mounted Failed Hostage Rescue Mission in Syria
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Demos Banned Throughout the Hague Residential Areas
The Hague’s mayor Josiaz van Aartsen has extended a ban on demonstrations in the Schilderswijk district to cover all the city’s residential areas after it emerged seven rallies were due to take place on September 20.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Amsterdammer Planning to Go to Syria to Stay in Jail for Three Months
A 23-year-old man from Amsterdam who was picked up by police for planning to travel to Syria to fight with Muslim rebels has been remanded in custody for three months.
The man is suspected of plotting terrorist attacks and sedition and is being held in solitary confinement. He was arrested following a tip-off on July 31. Two knives and an axe were found at his home.
The public prosecution is now looking into whether the man was planning to travel alone or as part of a group.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Muslims Mobilize Against Extremists
A wide range of Muslims living in Norway are gathering for the first time to mount a major demonstration against Islamic extremists both in Norway and abroad. “We’re tired of seeing (extremist groups such as) IS and Profetens Ummah dominate the debate,” said one of the organizers of the demonstration, 28-year-old student Thee Yezen Obaide.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Helen Ball says Muslim women are key to stopping young hot-heads joining the jihad
At Scotland Yard, a woman who made her name fighting gangs and talking down hostage-takers is the person in charge of preventing Britain’s young Islamists from becoming the next “Black Beatle” — the name given today to the home-grown jihadist who beheaded American journalist James Foley, the gruesome video of which has been circulating since Tuesday night…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Shoah ‘Stones’ Pop Up Across Europe
When Cologne artist Gunter Demnig installed his first “stumbling block” Holocaust memorial in Berlin 17 years ago, he could not have imagined that his idea — to place plaques on the pavements in front of buildings that once housed Shoah victims — would spread throughout Germany and other European cities.
Mr Demnig said there were now around 48,000 stumbling block memorials (Stolpersteine) across Europe…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Stop Drilling Plans or We’ll Cut Ties With Spain’
The President of the Canary Islands is threatening to break off diplomatic ties with Spain’s central government while asking islanders to take part in an “illegal” referendum over the islands’ controversial oil and gas drilling plans, green-lighted by Prime Minister Rajoy.
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UK: Never Again: Sainsbury’s Pledge Over Removing Kosher Food
Sainsbury’s has said it will never again remove kosher products from its shelves.
The statement came after Jewish customers had responded furiously to food being hidden by the manager of a central London branch in expectation of a threat from anti-Israel activists.
The company had initially said it would not introduce a national policy instructing managers how to deal with protesters.
But, after being approached by the JC, Sainsbury’s shifted its position and said it wanted to reassure Jewish customers.
“This will not happen again,” corporate affairs director Trevor Datsun said. “Managers will be told not to move kosher food because of some perceived threat. It should not have happened and, explicitly, it cannot happen again.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Must Confront the Enemy in Our Midst
By Telegraph View
[…]
Mr Cameron is right to call for urgent action to defeat the “warped and barbaric” extremists. But we have heard that before; and yet the enemy in our midst has grown stronger.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Mary Maersk Hits World Record
The record was set on Monday morning of July 21st, 2014 when Mary Maersk left Algeciras, Spain and headed to Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia. Mary Maersk has a nominal capacity of 18,270 TEU, but so far that capacity has not been fully utilised.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
We Must Destroy the Islamic State to Prevent Violence on British Streets
By Con Coughlin
[…]
[Reader comment by itneedstobesaid on 21 August 2014.]
Lee Rigby … the BBC, MSM, politicians, have deliberately forgotten him.
[Reader comment by Liberanos on 21 August 2014.]
Mr Cameron said last night that the beheading of Mr Foley had nothing to do with islam. Stretching fairness to the borders of absurdity, I suppose one could say that he was attempting to protect muslims in Britain from the ghastly realisation of the nature of their faith. After all, there were huge numbers of nazi suicides after the second world war, when the true horrors of the regime were exposed to its supporters. But the fact remains, an execution carried out in meticulous accord with the exquisitely precise instructions in the Koran for the despatch of Jews and unbelievers is remarkably difficult to separate from the religion upon which it is based.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Near Libyan Airports, Authorities Close Airspace
‘Lost’ planes,10-nation joint exercises against 9/11-type attack
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — The Libyan authorities have closed the country’s airspace due to fighting around its airports, report Cairo airport authorities. Two flights to Tripoli and Misrata have been cancelled, and flights to the Sirte airport have also been suspended, reports state news agency LANA. The ongoing conflict in the country has experienced an escalation in recent days. On Monday two military fighter jets bombed pro-Islamist positions in Tripoli and Benghazi, while rocket launching and mortar shelling continue in the capital and have for several days targeted the city’s residential areas as well. Clashes have also occurred in the south.
Meanwhile concerns arose after several commercial planes ‘disappeared’ from the Tripoli airport that “could be used by terrorists”. For this reason ten nations will be taking part in joint military exercises with US naval forces to simulate terrorist attacks similar to those of 9/11, reported Maltese and North African media on Thursday in confirming previous press leaks. The countries will be Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Malta. In recent weeks, authoritative sources contacted in Italy said that the planes had been damaged by bombardment and thus were not in condition to be flown. The 8-10 civilian aircraft have fallen into the hands of Islamic militias in Libya, who — according to North African media — could use them for attacks similar to the 9/11 ones.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Eastern Libya Oil Exports Resume After Year-Long Halt
Tanker Maria Bottiglieri leaves Sidra for Trieste
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, AUGUST 21 — Oil exports from eastern Libya resumed on Thursday after a year’s suspension due to instability in the country. The Italian oil tanker has left the Sidra port, reports the MENA news agency. The ship, which operates on behalf of an Austrian company, is headed for the Trieste port. Another tanker will be transporting oil for the Tamoil company via Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt to Establish 3 New Provinces
CAIRO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — Egypt is to establish three new provinces and demarcate others including Cairo, Giza and Suez, Local Development Minister Adel Labib revealed in a press conference on Wednesday.
The new three provinces will be Middle Sinai, Alamin and Wahat, Labib pointed out, noting that the intended Middle Sinai province will be deducted from North Sinai and South Sinai provinces eastern Egypt, Alamin province will be established between Alexandria and Matrouh provinces in the north and Wahat province will be established at the Western Desert.
The establishment of the new provinces will increase Egypt’s provinces from 27 to 30, in accordance with the plan proposed by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in his presidential campaign…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: 10-Nation Joint Military 9/11-Type Simulation
US, France, Italy to take part; concern over ‘lost’ planes
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, AUGUST 21 — Ten nations will be taking part in joint military exercises with US naval forces to simulate terrorist attacks similar to those of 9/11, reported Maltese and North African media on Thursday in confirming previous press leaks. The countries will be Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Malta.
Concerns arose after several commercial planes ‘disappeared’ from the Tripoli airport that “could be used by terrorists”, noted the outlets. In recent weeks, authoritative sources contacted in Italy said that the planes had been damaged by bombardment and thus were not in condition to be flown. The 8-10 civilian aircraft have fallen into the hands of Islamic militias in Libya, who — according to North African media — could use them for attacks similar to the 9/11 ones.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Amazing Buddies — The West and Hamas
by Zvi Mazel
The West seems intent on venting its frustrations on Israel while a jihadi Islamic caliphate is strengthening its hold in the Middle East. The only two countries that can stop radical Islam are Israel and Egypt.
Arab countries are foundering, as a jihadi Islamic caliphate is strengthening its hold in the heart of the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Militants: Weapons Transit Gaza Tunnels Despite Egyptian Crackdown
(Reuters) — A third of the houses on the main street of this Bedouin town near Egypt’s border with Gaza look derelict, but inside they buzz with the activity of tunnel smugglers scrambling to survive a security crackdown by the Egyptian army.
Smugglers and tunnel owners, who once publicly advertised their services, have taken over the nearly two dozen single-storey concrete structures and boarded up their doors and windows to avoid the attention of the authorities.
While tunnels used by Gaza’s dominant Hamas militants to infiltrate Israel were a priority target of an Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave this summer, many smuggling conduits into Egypt have skirted detection.
That has allowed transports of weapons, building materials, medicine and food to continue to and from the small, coastal territory that is subject to blockade by both Israel and Egypt, tunnel operators say and Egyptian security sources acknowledge.
“During the Gaza war, business has flourished,” said a Bedouin guide who gave Reuters access to one of the tunnels and a rare look at how the illicit, lucrative industry has evolved since Egypt began trying to root out the passages in 2012…
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Hamas Threatens to Strike Tel Aviv Airport as Military Leader Declared Alive Following Israel Strike
Mohammed Deif, the leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, not killed in Israeli strike on his house which killed his wife and child, according to Hamas
Hamas has denied that the head of its military wing was killed in an Israeli air strike, as it warned international airliners against flying into Tel Aviv amid a re-escalation of the Gaza conflict.
Israel launched a targeted attack on a house in Gaza where Mohammed Deif, the leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, was thought to have been staying with his family on Tuesday evening…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Says Israel Killed Three Top Gaza Commanders
(Reuters) — An Israeli air strike killed three senior Hamas military commanders in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Islamist group said, the clearest sign yet Israel is focusing its assault on those leading attacks from the Palestinian enclave…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
IDF Scores Hits on Hamas Military Leaders in Gaza
The Hamas breach of the 12th cease fire unleashed a new phase by the IDF in Operation Protective Edge to take down Hamas military leaders. By going after Hamas military commanders via air assaults based on intelligence gathered by Shin Bet, it has scored some important hits, including operatives involved in the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Schalit was held in captivity for five years by Hamas until his release in October 2011 in exchange for 1037 Palestinian prisoners. The IDF announced the killing of Muhammad Abu Smalla, 39 and Ra’ad Atar, 39 and a third operative in an IAF air assault on a Rafah location in southern Gaza. The significance of the killing of both Smalla and Atar was their involvement in several operations, notably the 2004 tunnel attack in the Philadelphi corridor that sparked IDF tunnel detection developments and the recent cross border tunnel attacks in Operation Protective Edge. See our recent Iconoclast post, “How Israel’s Military Bureaucracy Bungled the Terror Tunnel Threat”.
Further, there are conflicting reports that the IAF may have taken down the head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Deif. However, Hamas only acknowledges that Deif’s wife and infant child were killed in the attack on their home in Gaza. We await confirmation of the alleged killing of Deif. Coupled with the confirmed deaths of both Muhammad Abu Smalla and Ra’ad Atar might mark a significant turn in the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge. The emerging strategy to deter Hamas from continued operations appears to be decapitating “the head of the snake,” the leadership of the Qassam Brigade military wing in Gaza. If that is effective it could disrupt operations and force closure on permanent solutions to the conflict in Gaza, including disarmament. We await further developments in this new and productive turn in Operation Protective Edge now in its 45th day…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Approves Call Up of 10,000 Reservists in Gaza
JERUSALEM/GAZA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — Israel approved on Thursday the call up of 10,000 reserve soldiers, amidst expected escalation in the fighting in Gaza following the assassination overnight of top Hamas leaders by Israeli forces.
The large call-up was approved by telephone vote among cabinet ministers, hours after Israel inflicted yet the worst blow on Hamas since the beginning of the Gaza war in July 8, killing overnight three senior commanders of the organization — Mohammed Abu Shamlah, Raed Attar and Mohammed Barhoum…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Retooled Hamas Bloodies Israel With Help From Hezbollah
Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) — Hoisting themselves from a tunnel underneath the Gaza border, the Hamas gunmen sprinted through desert brush to attack an Israeli military post and kill five soldiers, retreating with a bounty of captured machine-guns.
The strike at Israel’s border with Gaza at Nahal Oz, recorded by a militant and broadcast on the group’s television station, demonstrates how Hamas’s one-time ragtag Al-Qassam Brigades militia has transformed itself into a disciplined force and inflicted greater damage on Israel’s vastly larger army than ever before. Sixty-four soldiers died, the most in a military conflict since the second Lebanon war in 2006, and more than six times the number of troops killed in Israel’s last ground war in Gaza in 2009.
Weapons that Israel says were smuggled from Iran and a playbook inspired by Lebanon’s Hezbollah forces were key ingredients that enabled Hamas to hold out against Israel’s monthlong offensive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Senior Hamas Commanders Killed in Pre-Dawn Strike
Israeli air strike kills senior operatives belonging to Hamas military wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
The armed wing of Hamas announced Thursday that three of its senior commanders were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in a statement identified the leaders as Mohammed Abu Shamala, Raed al-Atar and Mohammed Barhum. Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said eight people were killed in the strike…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
20 Militants Killed in Attacks in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — A total of 20 insurgent militants were killed on Thursday in separate attacks which aimed at seizing a city and a town in western and central Iraq respectively, security sources said.
Late on Wednesday, gunmen affiliated to the Islamic State militant group, an al-Qaida offshoot, carried out an attack to seize the town of Duluiyah in Salahudin province, some 90 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, but were repelled by local police and Sunni tribal fighters, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The battle, which continued till the dawn on Thursday, left at least eight Islamic militants killed and destroyed several of their vehicles, while two of the tribal fighters were wounded, the source said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Violating Children’s Rights, Human Rights Center
Minors arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, BCHR
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 19 — Bahraini authorities continue to violate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child including by sentencing minors to life in imprison, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). The BCHR is led by activist Nabeel Rajab and Maryam Al-Khawaja, daughter of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a Bahraini activist serving a life sentence and who staged a much-publicized hunger strike during the 2012 Formula One races in the small Gulf-region island.
A statement released by the center reports that a criminal court sentenced 14 youth to life imprisonment on August 13 under a counter-terrorism law for the murder of a policeman in Sitra, including two under age 18: one is 16 years old and the other was 17 at the time of the arrest. The BCHR noted that last week three minors were arrested, including one that had been hit by a police vehicle. The youngest of those arrested is 13 years old. The center said that about 30 people had been subjected to arbitrary arrest over the past week, and that about 3,000 people were in arbitrary detention in the country. Security forces in Bahrain — whose Shia-majority population is ruled by a Sunni monarchy — continue to make excessive use of force, tear gas and firearms, according to the organization.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Understanding the Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi Alliance
Hamas’s war with Israel is not a stand-alone event. It is happening in the context of the vast changes that are casting asunder old patterns of behavior and strategic understandings as actors in the region begin to reassess the threats they face.
Hamas was once funded by Saudi Arabia and enabled by Egypt. Now the regimes of these countries view it as part of a larger axis of Sunni jihad that threatens not only Israel, but them.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and its state sponsors Qatar and Turkey, are the key members of this alliance structure. Without their support Hamas would have gone down with the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt last summer. As it stands, all view Hamas’s war with Israel as a means of reinstating the Brotherhood to power in that country.
To achieve a Hamas victory, Turkey, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood are using Western support for Hamas against Israel. If the US and the EU are able to coerce Egypt and Israel to open their borders with Gaza, then the Western powers will hand the jihadist axis a strategic victory.
The implications of such a victory would be dire…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Foley First Kidnapped by Obama-Funded “Moderate” Free Syrian Army Group
By Robert Spencer.
Then he was turned over to the Islamic State as a token of this Free Syrian Army group’s allegiance to the new caliphate. The Free Syrian Army are the “moderates” to whom the Obama Administration has given weapons in Syria. Thus the incoherence of the Obama foreign policy is laid bare: he is funding what he considers to be heroic freedom fighters in Syria who, when they cross over into Iraq, become bloodthirsty terrorists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: James Foley Murder Was Islamic State Masterclass in the Power of the Jihadi PR Machine
by Dr James Alvarez, hostage negotiator 5:10PM BST 20 Aug 2014
The militants who executed James Foley knew exactly what they were doing, choosing a UK extremist to carry out the killing and create maximum impact.
It was no accident that Islamic State apparently chose a British jihadi to behead James Foley. Over the past six months, the group’s leaders have been busily perfecting their own brand of murderous and macabre PR campaigning.
The shocking video of James Foley’s last moments was expertly staged; a terrified American, trussed up in an orange overalls, kneeling on a hilltop against a rolling desert backdrop.
All the while, a knife-wielding jihadi, masked like a ninja assassin and dressed entirely in black, stands by his side in the centre of the camera shot…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘IS’ Is ‘The Greatest Threat to Journalists’
Syria is the most dangerous country for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Middle East program coordinator Sherif Mansour estimates about 20 foreign reporters are being held hostage.
By the end of 2012, ISIS became the greatest threat to journalists — they’ve killed journalists, they’ve kidnapped more journalists than anyone else. And they were very brutal about it. They’ve also targeted foreign journalists to serve as leverage in negotiations with other parties, including foreign governments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Takes Dane Hostage in Syria: British Media
The Guardian reports that a Dane is among four new captives being held by the same militant who beheaded American journalist James Foley.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Marauding IS Shuts Down Maersk’s Iraq Operations
The Danish shipping and oil giant Maersk has temporarily halted its oil activities in Iraq due to the offensive of the Islamic State (IS) in the region.
Maersk Oil’s interest in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, one of its most important growth areas, became even more pronounced back in January when it increased its investments in the region. But now, operations have been stopped.
“At the moment, our drilling program and the like are suspended because of the situation,” Nils Smedegaard Andersen, the chief executive of Maersk, told Børsen newspaper.
“We still believe that the activities in Kurdistan will function again. It won’t scare us away, but we don’t have any activity at the moment.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NGO Warns Germany Against Cuts to Syria Aid
The German aid organisation World Vision fears that newly-escalating conflicts threaten to overshadow growing need in Syria, following German government plans to spend less on humanitarian aid in the region. EurActiv Germany reports.
Germany’s intention to balance its budget in the coming year could worsen the desperate situation of refugees in Syria and surrounding countries. The draft 2015 budget, recently tabled by the Foreign Office, shows plans to cut funding for humanitarian aid from €398.2 million to €280 million…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Official: U.S. Attempt to Rescue James Foley, Others in Syria Failed
U.S. special operations units were sent into Syria this summer to rescue American journalist James Foley and other hostages held by Islamic militants, a U.S. official told CNN.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Steven Sotloff, Journalist Held Captive by the Islamic State, Went Missing in Syria
Steven J. Sotloff, the second American journalist depicted in an Islamic State video of James Foley’s execution, had traveled in and out of Syria several times and had near-death experiences there before he was captured in 2013, a source familiar with his case told The Washington Post.
Ann Marlowe, a writer and businesswoman, said on Twitter that Sotloff lived in Yemen for many years, spoke Arabic and loved the Islamic world. “For this,” she said, “he is threatened with beheading.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Terrorists’ Help U.S. In Battle Against Islamic State in Iraq
(Reuters) — Washington has acquired an unlikely ally in its battle against Islamic State militants in Iraq — a group of fighters it formally classifies as terrorists.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), condemned for its three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, says it played a decisive role in blunting the militants’ sweep through Iraq, which triggered U.S. air strikes to halt their advance.
“This war will continue until we finish off the Islamic State,” said Rojhat, a PKK fighter speaking from a hospital bed in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in Iraq.
The involvement of the PKK has consequences not only for rival Kurdish factions who failed to stop the Islamic State’s advance, but also for Turkey and the international community, which is being lobbied by the PKK to drop the terrorist tag.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Mordechai Ben-Menachem
WikiLeaks documents prove that the United States has known for quite some time (years) that the fictitious pseudo-state of Qatar bankrolls Hamas as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ikhwan. While Iran is the world’s major facilitator of terror, Qatar is their bank. The US Administration knows this well.
Qatar is a feudal mini-state whose population is rife with slaves and eunuchs (camel jockeys, for racing, are best when they are made eunuchs — castrated — as young boys). Most of them are bought in the slave markets of East Africa.
This abomination of a country has been ruled by the Al Thani family for almost 200 years (according to the CIA Worldbook). Among other things, the family owns and controls the Al Jazeera Media Network. In size it is the world’s 166th country. It has a nominal population of slightly over two million, of which 75% are between 25 to 54 years of age. In other words, it is an aging population with fertility significantly below replacement.
This is the banker to the world of terror — Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Boko Haram and more. They tend to pay more attention to Sunni organisations than to Shia. I say “more attention” but they have no problem funding Hezbollah and Syria, as well, just more quietly…
| — Hat tip: Rachel Lipsky | [Return to headlines] |
The Islamic State’s Treatment of Christians
Since its seizure of large areas in Iraq and its proclamation of a caliphate, the Islamic State (IS) has stepped up its efforts to enforce the Islamic shari’a in the areas under its control. In Mosul in the Ninawa (Ninveh) Governorate, Iraq’s oldest and second-largest city, Christians fled their homes after the IS gave them three days to leave the caliphate’s territory. According to the IS, it issued this order after the heads of the Christian community in the city refused a summons to discuss their status and respond to the organization’s demand that they either convert to Islam, pay the jizya (poll tax), or “face the sword.”
The Christians’ exodus from the city, which has 13 churches and monasteries, is said to be the first case in Iraq’s history where an entire Christian community has fled en masse. Reports also claim that the IS has burned down an ancient church in Mosul, and that its men have seized Christians’ property, sometimes with the cooperation of their Muslim neighbors. Other sources report that churches in the city have been converted to mosques.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The secret mission was authorized by President Barack Obama after the administration’s national security team concluded that the hostages “were in danger with each passing day,” said Lisa Monaco, the White House assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, in a statement yesterday.
The rescue attempt followed an original demand to Foley’s employer and family from his captors for $133 million dollars (100 million euros) or the release of unnamed Muslim prisoners, Philip Balboni, president and chief executive of GlobalPost, a news website that hired Foley, said in an e-mail today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Transition at Stake as Rebels Threaten Gov’t
SANAA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — Yemeni armed forces are on high alert after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Wednesday warned that the stability, security, and the political transition process are under threat by rebels.
Hadi recently called for a new comprehensive national congress to address Houthi rebel threats to overthrow Yemen’s fragile power- sharing government by force…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
10 Killed as Ukrainian Government Steps up Offensive Against Rebels
KIEV, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — At least 10 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours as government troops stepped up their offensive against independence-seeking insurgents, authorities said Thursday.
According to Andrei Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, five Ukrainian servicemen were killed overnight in confrontation with rebels.
Following the fierce battles, government forces took control over a “significant part” of Lugansk city and continue encircling another large rebel stronghold — the city of Donetsk, Lysenko said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Takes Over Another Nigeria Town
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) — Boko Haram has seized control of a town in northeastern Nigeria, the latest to fall into Islamist hands in the crisis-hit region and an indication of the group’s increasing territorial ambitions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pygmies in ‘Mortal Danger’ In Southern DR Congo
Pygmy people have been targeted in repeated attacks by armed Mai Mai groups made up by members of the Baluba tribe in Katanga province, in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our Observer met some Pygmies who fled their traditional forest homes to escape the ongoing violence. He says that they are facing “extermination.”
Pygmies live traditionally by hunting and gathering, and they have a serious problem with access to resources when displaced from their land. They were completely disorientated. Some of them had never held money before and have no notion of financial exchanges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Landing on a Hopeful Shore, Italy’s 100,000th Migrant
A former cook for the Free Syrian Army, Iftikar al Daye is the 100,000th migrant who has arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, and a symbol of hope for fleeing refugees.
BRINDISI — Dressed in black with a white veil, Iftikar al Daye is sitting on a bench, waiting. She’s in a Red Cross tent in what used to be a shed for the Montecatini chemical company on Italy’s Sant’Apollinare jetty. A handwritten card is pinned on her chest with the number 580…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tears in Tangier for Parents of Baby Who Reached Spain Without Them
Corpa Diop is 33, Senegalese, and for the last week she has been crying nonstop. Sitting with her inside a 15-square-meter unfurnished room on the second floor of a building in Tangier, her husband John Mendi, 36, holds a photograph that explains the situation: it is a picture of Fátima, the 11-month-old baby that he left behind on a raft in his rush to get away from the Moroccan police on a Tangier beach.
Diop and Mendi are the parents of Fátima, who arrived alone at the Spanish coastal town of Tarifa last week as part of the biggest influx of migrant boats ever remembered on the coast of Cádiz.
Mendi shows his black eye as proof that he fought with Moroccan law enforcement officers and did not leave his baby behind in a premeditated manner. Speaking slowly in English, he explains that he was attempting to reach Spain with his family on board one of the many small inflatable dinghies that have been crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in recent days.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: This Border Control Fiasco Could be Hiding a More Sinister Truth
by Alasdair Palmer
No one knows the real figure for migration into Britain — and some will want to keep it that way
[…]
I am told by senior officials in Border Force that there is an explanation for the pattern of failure on the e-borders scheme. It isn’t that the computer systems don’t work. It is that ministers do not actually want to have the information that e-borders, if successfully implemented, would provide — because if they had it, they would have to reveal it, and that would almost certainly show that there were at least 200,000 additional illegal immigrants coming into Britain every year.
A successful passenger information programme would not merely demonstrate that the Government was miles away from its goal of reducing immigration into Britain to “tens of thousands” a year. It would also expose the fact that the real figure for net migration into this country is running at more than double the officially recognised rate.
If those officials are right, then perhaps the “fiasco” of the failure to deliver e-borders is not such a disaster for the Home Office, or the Government, after all.
Alasdair Palmer was Theresa May’s speech writer at the Home Office
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Richard Dawkins: ‘Immoral’ Not to Abort if Foetus Has Down’s Syndrome
The scientist Richard Dawkins has become embroiled in another Twitter row, claiming it would be “immoral” to carry on with a pregnancy if the mother knew the foetus had Down’s syndrome.
The British author made the comment in response to another user who said she would be faced with “a real ethical dilemma” if she became pregnant and learned that the baby would be born with the disorder.
Dawkins tweeted: “Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Microbes Found Beneath Antarctic Ice: What it Means for Alien Life Hunt
The discovery of a complex microbial ecosystem far beneath the Antarctic ice may be exciting, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that life teems on frigid worlds throughout the solar system, researchers caution.
Scientists announced today (Aug. 20) in the journal Nature that many different types of microbes live in subglacial Lake Whillans, a body of fresh water entombed beneath 2,600 feet (800 meters) of Antarctic ice. Many of the micro-organisms in these dark depths apparently get their energy from rocks, the researchers report.
Isolated, ice-covered oceans exist on some moons of the outer solar system, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and the Saturn satellite Enceladus — perhaps the two best bets to host life beyond Earth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |