According to an Armenian news agency, up to 10% of ISIS troops fighting in Iraq and Syria are thought to be Turkish. The Turks, who originally supported some of the groups that merged to form ISIS, are now facing a possible attack from the same militants.
In other news, a city in the province of Xinjiang in western China has banned Islamic dress, headgear, and beards on public transportation.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, Jolie Rouge, JP, LS, Nick, Phyllis Chesler, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Italian Economy Shrank by 0.2% in Q2, Worst in 14 Years
Gross domestic product slid by 0.2% in the period compared with the first quarter. Italy’s main stock exchange shed 2.2% on the economic report. The second-quarter loss in the Italian economy was the worst in the April-to-June period in 14 years. This followed a 0.5% loss in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first three months of the year, national statistical agency Istat said Wednesday. Compared with the second quarter in 2013, GDP decreased by 0.3% between April and June, the agency said. This means Italy is in a technical recession, said Istat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1,000-Member Secretive Progressive Journalist Group Uncovered
A prominent CNN commentator, the top two political reporters for The Huffington Post, a Reuters reporter, the editor of The Nation magazine, a producer for Al Jazeera America television, a U.S. News & World Report columnist, and approximately two dozen Huffington Post contributors are among the more than 1,000 members of Gamechanger Salon.
Founded by leftwing activist Billy Wimsatt, the group is a secretive digital gathering of writers, opinion leaders, activists and political hands who share information, ideas and strategy via a closed Google group.
The group’s existence was discovered by Media Trackers through an open records request filed with a University of Wisconsin professor who happened to be a member of the network.
Sally Kohn, formerly a Fox News contributor, now works for CNN reliably echoing pro-Obama Administration talking points and championing leftwing ideas as a network commentator. Kohn is also a member of Gamechanger Salon, and e-mails show that she occasionally approached the group’s membership and asked them to promote her television appearances.
“I’m guest co-hosting CNN’s Crossfire tonight at 6:30pm EST, with fellow co-host Newt Gingrich. I would be grateful for folks (a) helping spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, etc to encourage people to tune in; and (b) tuning in and live tweeting during the show,” Kohn wrote to the group on January 14 of this year.
[…]
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John Bolton: World is Descending Into Chaos Under Obama
Fox Business Wednesday, former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton declared that under the president’s ineffective leadership, “the world’s descending into chaos” and if America continues to pull back internationally, “you’re going to have anarchy increasing.”
Speaking with host Stuart Varney, Bolton first discussed Vladimir Putin’s hostile strategy in Ukraine and Europe, including increasing the number of Russian troops at the border and conducting cyber-warfare against several European countries—”aggressive” tactics to which Bolton saw no end in sight.
Varney then transitioned to the recent WSJ/NBC poll that presents damning numbers about the American people’s opinion of President Obama’s leadership—particularly in foreign policy, with a dismal 36% approval.
Bolton: Yeah, I’d like to know who those 36% are because the world’s descending into chaos. And I think this poll and the drop in approval numbers overall, gives the lie to the conventional political wisdom that Americans don’t care about foreign policy, that it’s too remote from their lives.
I think the American people are much more sensible and practical than their political leaders, and they see that because our economy here at home depends on a global economy that instability in Europe can have a profound effect…
Varney argued that the American public has become used to the 24-hour news cycle, and expects stories like Ukraine to be resolved, but they are “just not going away.”
Bolton responded, “It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” pointing out that Putin broadcasted his intentions eight years ago, but was being met by “no effective American or European resistance”:
Bolton: It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Look, Putin gave us strategic warning eight years ago when he said the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. That was a statement right then that he intended to get Russian hegemony in the space of the former Soviet Union.
That’s what he is doing and he is meeting no effective American or European resistance.
Varney then asked Bolton if he agreed that the problem was that the president had “withdrawn from the game”:
Bolton: I think that’s a large measure of it. Look, what minimal international order and stability there’s been since World War II has been because of American strength, the projection of our power, our system of alliances around the world. International trade, finance, travel, you name it, didn’t get there by accident. And if the United States pulls back, you’re going to have anarchy increasing. You can see that in the Middle East today, but signs of it exist everywhere.
[NOTE: Video at URL]
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Man Fined $400 for Burning Qurans Near Michigan Mosque
DETROIT — A Dearborn, Mich., judge fined a 51-year-old Detroit man $400 Tuesday for two misdemeanor offenses stemming from the burning of Qurans in Dearborn.
Chief Judge Sam Salamey of 19th District Court in Dearborn fined Ali Hassan Al-Asadi $200 each for open burning and littering in the June 25 incident outside a Dearborn mosque, Karbalaa Islamic Education Center. Al-Asadi paid the $200 fine for the open burning charge and owes $200 for the littering charge, which must be paid within 60 days…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Leaders were invited to the White House for the first ever US Africa summit
Included were dictators and despots with shocking human rights records
Obama’s speech barely acknowledged the oppression rife across Africa
resident Barack Obama drew the diplomatic line somewhere at the first ever U.S-Africa summit at the White House this week by not inviting Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe.
But the guest list still included several other African leaders with only slightly better human rights records.
The White House promoted the summit as the largest-ever gathering of African leaders in the United States, with more than 50 countries represented.
The red carpet was rolled out for Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’ of any homosexuals in the country and for Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has the dubious honor of ranking 19th on author David Wallechinsky’s 2006 list of the world’s 20 worst living dictators.
Many of the leaders were later photographed in the White House, posing for individual portraits with Obama and the First Lady.
The President’s opening speech avoided the prickly issues of homophobia and torture and instead sought out similarities between the two continents.
He opened with: ‘I stand before you as the president of the United States, a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of a man from Africa’.
Before going on to say: ‘Our faith traditions remind us of the inherent dignity of every human being and that our work as nations must be rooted in empathy and compassion for each other, as brothers and as sisters.’
Here we run the rule over nine of the most controversial leaders who enjoyed the lavish affair.
[…]
[N.B. As usual, the pictures are worth your while]
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Only CBS Acknowledges Gov’t Missing $619 Billion From Agency Budgets
On Wednesday, August 6, USA Today reported that the federal website USASpending.gov which is tasked with tracking government money, can’t find $619 billion from different agency budgets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sexual Predators on Prowl in U.S. Classrooms
- Pennsylvania substitute teacher charged with having sex with two students
- One Boston suburb struggling with two allegations of teacher sex crimes
- SHOCK: North Carolina teacher on trial for more than 100 counts of molesting students
- Austin, Texas teacher arrested for sexual assault of six-year-old student
- Music, art teachers arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with students
- Michigan teacher accused of having sexual affair with 13-year-old
- California, Minnesota teachers latest to be charged with sex crimes against students
- Pedophiles are only evil if they are priests…
[…]
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Stars Face Hollywood Backlash in War of Words Over Israel
When the latest battle in Gaza finally is over, as someday it will be, hard feelings could linger in the corner offices of Hollywood toward the stars who have voiced anti-Israel sentiments. But will the artists who criticize Israel military strikes — particularly married Spaniards Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, who accused the country of “genocide” in a widely circulated July 25 letter — suffer career backlash in a town whose power brokers tend to be strong supporters of Israel?
So far, Relativity Media CEO Ryan Kavanaugh is the only studio head willing to go public with his disgust. “As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, I know that anyone calling what’s going on in Israel ‘genocide’ vs. self-defense is either ignorant and shouldn’t be commenting or is truly anti-Semitic,” Kavanaugh told THR on Aug. 2, saying the Spanish letter, signed by 100 film luminaries including Pedro Almodovar, “makes my blood boil.”
Kavanaugh says he received more than 500 calls, emails and texts of support in the 24 hours after his comments were published, including from high-ranking industry executives, suggesting the sentiment is widespread.
Indeed, though they decline to go on record, many top execs contacted by THR privately express similar feelings — one says he’s “furious at Javier and Penelope” — and questioned whether they would want to work with the couple again. The stars’ letter laid the blame for the conflict on Israel, which it said “keeps advancing on Palestinian territories instead of withdrawing to the 1967 borders.” The actors’ follow-up attempts to clarify their open letter and express support for the Jewish people were met with “a collective eye roll,” according to one top exec. Some, like Kavanaugh, are taking the Israel statements personally. With the reports of Hamas’ sophisticated tunnel network and its 3,000 missile attacks against Israeli citizens in 2014, many are convinced that the current crisis underscores a threat to the Jewish state itself…
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Tour Bus Driver Arrested in Double-Decker Times Square Crash Was on Drugs: NYPD
William Dalambert, of Irvington, N.J., was charged with driving while his ability was impaired. The New York Police Department says he sped a Gray Line sightseeing bus into another double-decker bus at 47th St. and 7th Ave. on Tuesday.
The driver of a double-decker tour bus was arrested in connection with a bloody crash in Times Square that left 18 injured Tuesday.
William Dalambert, of Irvington, N.J., was charged with driving while his ability was impaired. He was allegedly high on drugs at the time but the kind was not immediately clear.
The NYPD says he crashed a red Gray Line sightseeing bus into a double-decker City Sights bus at 47th St. and 7th Ave., near the TKTS discount ticket booth for Broadway shows.
Witnesses said the Gray Line bus hurtled into the busy area that’s popular with theater-goers and tourists about 3:30 p.m.
A traffic light toppled over onto the sidewalk teeming with foot traffic.
None of the injuries are life-threatening, officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Dalambert has a lawyer.
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Two Illegal Aliens Murder Texas Border Patrol Agent in Front of His Family
Two degenerate illegal aliens have been caught after murdering an off-duty border agent who was fishing with his parents, his wife and his children.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wikipedia Refuses to Delete Photo as ‘Monkey Owns It’
Wikimedia, the non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia, has refused a photographer’s repeated requests to stop distributing his most famous shot for free — because a monkey pressed the shutter button and should own the copyright
Wikimedia, the US-based organisation behind Wikipedia, has refused a photographer’s repeated requests to remove one of his images which is used online without his permission, claiming that because a monkey pressed the shutter button it should own the copyright…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brit Muslims ‘Duped Into Terrorism’ By Warlords
MUSLIMS have been urged to donate cash to help victims of the Syrian crisis rather than join the fight.
Young people are being “duped” by politically ambitious warlords into travelling to the country to join terror group Isis. That was the message to more than 50,000 revellers who descended on Lincoln last weekend for the “Muslim Glastonbury”.
At least 500 British Muslims have flown to Syria. But the warlords’ bloody campaign goes against the peaceful doctrine of Islam, according to religious chiefs…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Outbreak: Spain to Accept Europe’s First Confirmed Case of the Virus
Miguel Pajares, 75, a Spanish missionary priest working at a hospital in the West African country, will be taken to Spain by a military jet
Spain has been preparing to accept Europe’s first confirmed case of the Ebola virus. A medically-equipped military jet has been sent to Liberia to repatriate Miguel Pajares, 75, a Spanish missionary priest working at a hospital in the West African country…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Rosetta Probe Goes Into Orbit Around Comet 67p
Europe’s Rosetta probe has arrived at a comet after a 10-year chase. In a first for space history, the spacecraft was manoeuvred alongside a speeding body to begin mapping its surface in detail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Privacy Challenge Attracts 25,000 Users
A data privacy campaigner has signed up 25,000 people to a “class action lawsuit” being taken against Facebook.
Max Schrems alleges that the way the social network monitors its members’ activity on and off the site puts it in breach of EU laws.
As part of the claim, he also alleges that the company co-operated with Prism, a US surveillance scheme.
Facebook has previously denied knowing about Prism before it was mentioned in leaked US government documents.
The company has, however, acknowledged complying with national security requests from US government agencies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland to Seek Compensation if Russia Sanctions Hit Economy
Finland will seek compensation from the EU if last week’s sanctions on Russia lead to an economic crisis in the country, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finnish-Somali Politician: That’s My Son in Jihadist Video
Faisal Ali Warabe, a former presidential candidate in his native Somalia, confirms to Yle that he is the father of a Finnish jihadist appearing in a propaganda video by the militant fundamentalist group Islamic State. Warabe says he contacted Finnish police in the past to report fears that his son was becoming radicalised.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
First Comet Close-Ups From Rosetta Spacecraft Reveal a ‘Scientific Disneyland’
It’s only been a few hours since Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at a comet in deep space, but the robotic probe is already beaming incredible close-up photos of its target.
“We’ve arrived. Ten years we’ve been in the car waiting to get to scientific Disneyland, and we haven’t even gotten out of the car yet and look at what’s outside the window,” Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser with the ESA’s Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration, said during a webcast of the Rosetta’s comet arrival today (Aug. 6). “It’s just astonishing.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim Smashes Up Historic Church, Media Dismisses it as Person With “Mental Problems”
On Tuesday 5 August at Thonon-les-Bains, shortly before 8 am, a man of about 30, in only a few minutes, committed major acts of vandalisme in the church of Saint-Hippolyte and in the adjacent basilica of Saint-François-de-Sales: with exceptional force, the person overturned and broke two altars, the candelabras and lecterns, destroyed statues, tore down a tabernacle, twisted a massive bronze cross, smashed in a sacristy door and even broke some stained-glass windows.
According to the priest Le Tué, it was a “young Muslim”, but the hypothesis of a religious motivation still has to be confirmed.
Source: lemessager.fr Via: EuroJihad
* These are wafers that Catholics eat during the Mass ceremony; they signify the body of Christ.
I looked at quite a few news reports of this incident. This is the only one I could find that includes the quote about the perpetrator being a Muslim. One other mentions that he was “of Tunisian origin” and says “he was talking about heaven and hell”. All the other reports, and the police themselves, simply describe him as a “mentally unbalanced individual”.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Interior Minister Expels Imam for Anti-Semitic Gaza Sermon
Italy’s Interior minister, Angelino Alfano, has ordered the immediate expulsion of the imam of the San Dona di Piave mosque, near Venice, the Moroccan Raoudi Albdelbar, due to ‘‘serious disturbance of public order, danger to national security, and religion discrimination’’. The imam, according to the Italian daily Libero, had incited hatred of Jews during a Friday sermon in late July. ‘‘Oh Allah,’’ he reportedly said in the sermon, a video of which the Israel-linked Middle East Media Research Institute published on its website, Memri.org. ‘‘Do to them what will make us happy. Oh Allah, count them one by one and kill all of them to the very last. Do not spare a single one of them.’’
‘‘It is unacceptable,’’ Alfano said, ‘‘that a clearly anti-Semitic sermon is held, with explicit incitement to violence and religious hatred. Let my decision stand as a warning to all those that think hatred can be preached in Italy.’’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rosetta Arrives at Comet Destination After a 10-Year Journey
After a decade-long journey chasing its target, ESA’s Rosetta has today become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration.
“After ten years, five months and four days travelling towards our destination, looping around the Sun five times and clocking up 6.4 billion kilometres, we are delighted to announce finally ‘we are here’,” says Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General. “Europe’s Rosetta is now the first spacecraft in history to rendezvous with a comet, a major highlight in exploring our origins. Discoveries can start.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rosetta Craft Makes Historic Comet Rendez-Vous
No one can deny that it was an epic trip. The European Space Agency’s comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft has arrived at its quarry, after launching more than a decade ago and travelling 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System.
That makes it the first spacecraft to rendez-vous with a comet, and takes the mission a step closer to its next, more ambitious goal of performing the first ever soft landing on a comet.
Rosetta is now within 100 kilometres of its target, 67P/Churyumov—Gerasimenko, which was recently discovered to be shaped like a rubber duck.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Offshore energy fueled Scotland’s dream of independence. The eclipse of North Sea oil and gas is killing it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Call for UK Government Arms Embargo to Israel
Minister for External Affairs says more action needed.
Minister for External Affairs Humza Yousaf has called on the UK Government to introduce an immediate suspension of the sale of arms to Israel.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Yousaf pointed to comments from the United Nations (UN) stating that it is possible that international law has been breached. He said it was imperative that an investigation is conducted into whether UK arms have been used in any violations of international law during the conflict, and that sales must be suspended and an immediate investigation conducted into UK arms sales to Israel.
The Minister also re-iterated the Scottish Government’s condemnation of the violence in Gaza and called for an immediate end to hostilities. He also highlighted the contribution of half a million pounds to help people in Gaza and the commitment of the Scottish Government to treat casualties requiring specialist care as a result of the conflict in Scottish hospitals…
| — Hat tip: Jolie Rouge | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Teacher Fired for Racist Facebook Posts
A newly-hired teacher in southern Sweden had her contract terminated after the school discovered anti-Muslim posts that she had written on the internet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Councillors Weren’t Properly Informed About North West Infidels’ Anti-Mosque Protest’
A SENIOR Labour councillor has accused Bolton Council of failing to inform her properly about an anti-mosque protest in her ward.
Crompton councillor and cabinet member Sufrana Bashir-Ismail claims council officers told members of the community and the Taiyabah Islamic Centre of the location of the demonstration and closure of Canning Street before telling her…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Douglas Murray’s Brave Stand
by Brian of London
It’s quite easy to sum up what’s going on in the UK: there is no presentation at all of context to the debate on Israel. There is no presentation and an active suppression of any of the activities of Hamas that might call on Israel to defend itself. In this context there is no hope for the UK.
However, many conversations with ordinary British people are giving the impression that many understand that Hamas is Islam and the same Islam that is trying to take over large parts of UK cities.
So it really is a desperate fight by the BBC and the other elites of the media and political worlds to keep the people of the UK from siding with Israel.
Here’s Douglas Murray, one of Israel’s greatest friends in the UK on the BBC’s flagship Newsnight program. He is barely allowed to speak of course as that fits completely with the BBC’s clear agenda. Watch if you can stomach it…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: North West Infidels’ Anti-Mosque Protest ‘Was Huge Challenge’, Say Police
THE North West Infidels’ anti-mosque protest was a “huge challenge”, say police, which forced them to close Blackburn Road for the public’s safety.
Police and tactical units from across the north west were drafted in to Bolton on Saturday, as protesters demonstrated against the extension of the Taiyabah Islamic Centre…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tory Campaign Chief Tells Cameron to ‘Ignore Muslims’
David Cameron should ignore Muslim voters at the next general election, the Conservative’s election chief has reportedly told him.
Lynton Crosby believes the prime minister has nothing to gain from taking a harder line against Israel, because the Muslim vote will not be “decisive” in 2015. “Lynton says there are hardly any of our marginal seats where the Muslim vote will be a decisive factor” a senior Tory told the Times.
A Conservative spokesperson today denied that any such conversation with Crosby had ever taken place…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Violence, Threats and Blackmail Ought to Have No Place in Politics
By Douglas Murray
I have never issued a call for violence before, and I’m certainly not going to start now. But I wonder if people might consider the following, purely hypothetical situation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Wales: Newport Mosque ‘Melee’ After Lee Rigby Murder Outburst
A MUSLIM worshipper triggered a mêlée inside a mosque after remonstrating with an imam for condemning the murder of Lee Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks, a court heard.
Salal Said, 50, was appearing before Judge Peter Haywood to appeal his conviction against a common assault and a racially aggravated public order offence at Jamia Mosque in Newport.
Said, of Dunn Square, Newport, stood up during the Friday service shouting that what the murderers had done to the British soldier was right and it happened all over the world, a court heard on Thursday yesterday [July 30]…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘We Are Here!’ Spacecraft Rosetta Meets 67p Comet 10 Years After Leaving Earth
It has taken more than a decade, but today the European Agency’s craft Rosetta finally rendezvoused with the comet it has been chasing since it left Earth in 2004.
Comets are the primitive building blocks of the Solar System, left over from a planet-building time when our Sun was just a disc of spinning dust and gas. Made of ice, dust and small rocky particles, it is likely they delivered the first water to Earth and may have even seeded the planet with the building blocks for life.
Rosetta has already been travelling for more than a decade after the craft was launched on March 2 2004, from Kourou, French Guiana, but its journey has been less than straightforward.
The comet is moving far faster than speeds which could ever be achieved by a spacecraft leaving Earth. So the craft has spent the time since, using the gravitational pull of the Earth and Mars to act as a sling shot and allow it to pick up acceleration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
4 Militants Killed in Clashes in Egypt
CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) — An Egyptian police officer, four soldiers and four militants were killed Tuesday during clashes on Alexandria-Matrouh coastal road in Alamin, northern part of Egypt, official news agency MENA reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Plans to Build Channel Parallel to Suez Canal
Egypt plans to build a new channel parallel to the Suez Canal in a 60 billion Egyptian-pound ($8.4 billion) venture to boost capacity at the vital global waterway, marking a new era of regeneration after the 2011 revolution.
Construction of the new passage is scheduled to take three years, though President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ordered it to be completed in a year, Mohab Mamish, head of the Suez Development Authority, said in a televised speech today. The project will reduce maximum waiting hours for ships to three hours from 11 hours, he said.
“As global trade grows and the Egyptian economy needs to develop its sources of hard currency, we had to think about the project of digging a new Suez Canal,” Mamish said. Work will be done by 37 Egyptian companies and the Egyptian army.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Radical Islamic Militias Conquer More Army Bases, Tightening Grip on Benghazi
An umbrella group for eastern Libya’s extremist militias says it overran three more army bases in the eastern city of Benghazi and seized large amounts of heavy weapons, including armored vehicles, as they tighten their grip on the country’s second city.
The Benghazi Revolutionary Shura Council, composed of extremist militias like Ansar al-Shariah, posted pictures Wednesday of its leaders posing in front of tanks, multiple rocket launchers, and artillery they claimed to have seized from the bases they overran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Angry Palestinians Attack Hamas Official Over Gaza Destruction
Hamas spokesman beaten by Gaza residents, who blame Hamas for the killing and destruction they suffered.
Palestinian Arab sources said Tuesday that Gaza residents attacked Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri Saturday evening, near the Shifa Hospital.
Abu Zuhri had arrived at the hospital for an interview with a news outlet.
The residents blamed Hamas for the death of family members and for destruction of their homes. Armed Hamas terrorists from the Izzedine al-Kassam Brigades extricated Abu Zuri and arrested the angry residents.
Arabic website vetogate.com said that reporters in Gaza are well aware of the incident but are afraid to report it, because Hamas’s security agency could go after them if they do.
A week ago, Palestinian sources reported that over 30 Palestinians were executed by Hamas, most of them in the Shejaiya neighborhood. Hamas claimed that they were collaborators with Israel.
Channel 10 said that Hamas executed 20 residents of Shejaiya who had dared demonstrate against Hamas.
Rockets were fired at Israel from next to Shifa Hospital during the fighting in Gaza, and Hamas’s leadership hid under it.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
The latest IDF Operation Protective Edge that began on July 8th with barrages from Gaza from both homemade and Iranian supplied long range rockets covered fourth fifths of Israel. It was triggered by a botched kidnapping by Hamas operatives and that resulted in the murder of three Jewish yeshiva students, whose remains were discovered on June 30th. The Palestinian Authority in late April had announced a unity government with Hamas that scuppered any chances of a possible final stage agreement sought by US Secretary of State Kerry. Hamas is a foreign terrorist group so designated by the US, Canada and the EU. Its 1988 Charter, had sought not only the destruction of Israel but the killing of Jews globally. Israeli PM Netanyahu and his coalition cabinet had no choice but to call up what ultimately would be a massed IDF force of 80,000 elite brigades and reservists to conduct the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge. That culminated in the launch of ground operations in Gaza that ended with the seventh truce on August 5th that is holding for the moment. That truce occurred ironically on the Jewish Fast Day of Tish B’Av commemorating historic catastrophes that have befallen the Jewish people over the millennia.Jonathan Spyer, of the GLORIA Centre in Herzliya, published an assessment of Israel’s Long War in a PJ Media article, “Netanyahu’s Long War Doctrine.” In it he paid tribute to Netanyahu’s cautious, but resolute position, overwhelmingly supported by Israelis, to bring to a conclusion the Hamas genocidal threat to the Jewish nation. A threat backed and financed by Qatar, a wealthy gas-rich emirate, a supporter of Muslim Brotherhood and extremist Salafist al Qaeda spinoffs. Spyer concludes his assessment of Netanyahu: Netanyahu’s vision is a chilly one, though it is not ultimately pessimistic. It aims to provide firm, durable walls for the house that the Jews of Israel have constructed. Within those walls the energies of Israeli Jews will ensure success — provided that the walls can be kept secure, thus believes the Israeli prime minister. It is from the point of view of this broader strategic picture that the current actions of Israel need to be understood. Operation Protective Edge — like Cast Lead and Orchard and Lebanon 2006 and the others — is intended as a single action in a long and unfinished war.The Tish B’Av truce concluding Operation Protective Edge saw IDF forces leave Gaza, remaining ready if the truce is broken to return, if recalled. The current truce may still hold, but, will not last, unless and until Gaza is demilitarized and its leadership dispatched…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Says Gaza Death Toll 1:1 Combatant-Civilian Kill Ratio, Same as in Previous Hamas Wars
As a 72-hour ceasefire took hold on Tuesday along the border between Gaza and Israel, where Israel Defense Forces troops have pulled back after destroying three dozen tunnels, Israeli media and blogs focusing on the conflict have returned to the question of how many died in the fighting.
A senior military source told Times of Israel that the Army counted 900 Hamas militants of the 1,800 Gazans believed to have been killed, meaning a 1:1 kill ratio of civilians to combatants, which would be in-line with Israel’s previous two wars against Hamas in Gaza.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Medical Journal Resisted Publishing Pro-Israeli Rebuttal Letters to Gaza Piece
by Phyllis Chesler
The Lancet finally caved and did the right thing. Well—almost, but not quite. They have now published some letters of rebuttal to the Big Lie anti-Israel piece they published, but they have also published letters of support for the article by Manduca et al. Just yesterday, the editorial staff of The Lancet published an editorial which, in essence, justifies its publication.
I now have confirmation that The Lancet resisted publishing rebuttal letters. Only after a tedious and protracted back-and-forth did they publish a letter online, written by two Americans, Jeremy M. Levin and Ron Cohen, which critiqued the pseudo-scientific piece which attacked Israel and amounted to a series of Blood Libels against the Jewish state.
The Lancet also published a much shortened version of another Israeli physician’s article here. This physician, Dr. Tamir Wolf, has launched a petition for the dismissal of the Editor, Richard Horton, at The Lancet. Dr. Wolf notes that The Lancet should never have published propaganda as science. She notes that:…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
10 Percent of ISIS Fighters Reportedly Turkish — Now a Threat to Turkey
ANKARA-The extremist Islamist group Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS), a splinter group of al-Qaeda which Turkey has supported against the Bashar al-Assad regime during the Syrian civil war, has ironically turned into a threat for Turkey, and now commands a significant percentage of fighters who are Turks, according to the German daily Die Welt, as reported in the Turkish press.
| — Hat tip: LS | [Return to headlines] |
40,000 Iraqis Stranded on Sinjar Mountain After Islamic State Death Threats
Tens of thousands of members of Iraqi religious minority groups are dying of heat and thirst on Mount Sinjar, human rights groups say, after death threats from Islamic State — formerly Isis
Tens of thousands of members of Iraqi religious minority groups driven from their homes for fear of the jihadist group Islamic State are dying of thirst and heat on a desert mountainside in the north of the country, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.
Some 40 children have already died from the heat and dehydration, the UN children’s organisation Unicef says, while upwards of 40,000 more are sheltering in the bare mountains, without food or water or access to supplies. It says 25,000 children may be stranded…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
50 Killed in Clashes Between Iraqi Forces and Islamic State Militants
(Reuters) — Fifty people were killed in fighting between Iraqi government forces and Islamic State insurgents in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Witnesses said the dead had been held in a makeshift prison created by the Sunni Islamist militants that was bombed by government aircraft. That could not be immediately confirmed…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
All Eyes on Gaza Amid Desert Hell in Nineveh
An ancient landscape that was once the envy, perhaps the centre, of the civilised world.
Now a desert hell for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Nineveh faces a religious pogrom while the eyes of the outside world are fixed on Gaza.
In the past week the self-styled Islamic State, which captured Nineveh a few weeks ago from Iraq’s army, has attacked the heartland of the Yezidis.
This religious movement has roots that predate Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Its community is a living tie to the global past of monotheism with a theological tradition that incorporates Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and paganism.
Now some 300,000 — the core population — are reported to be under pressure from the IS to leave their villages near Mosul or face death.
They have joined tens of thousands of Christians from Nineveh’s capital and surroundings who were given the choice to convert to Islam or die…
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Islamic State’s New Icon is a Hipster Jihadi
Sword-wielding supporter of the Caliphate is a university graduate from a well-off Cairo family, say friends
Islamic State jihadists ruling over much of Syria and Iraq have a new icon, whose fashionably styled curly hair and black-rimmed glasses contrast strikingly with the pose in which he has been photographed: astride a horse, and waving a shining scimitar above his head…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Since Sinjar Takeover IS Militant Kills 300 Yazidi Kurds
The death rate of Yazidi Kurds in the city of Sinjar climbs to over 300, the path being carved by Islamic State militants a brutal and difficult road leaving the minority group will few options for survival.
These mass killings have taken place not only in Sinjar city itself, but also surrounding villages and communities such as Siba Sheikh Khdr, Grzarg and Gr Ozair…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: World Ignores Christian Exodus From Islamic World
by Raymond Ibrahim
While the world fixates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas—and while most mainstream media demonize Israel for trying to survive amid a sea of Arab-Islamic hostility—similar or worse tragedies continue to go virtually ignored.
One of the most ancient Christian communities in the world, that of Iraq—which already had been decimated over the last decade, by Islamic forces unleashed after the ousting of Saddam Hussein—has now been wiped out entirely by the new “caliphate,” the so-called Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym “ISIS.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanese Army Surrounds Border Town, Evacuates Refugees
(Reuters) — Lebanon’s army surrounded a border town occupied by Islamist militants on Wednesday as mediators reported progress in negotiations to end to the most serious spillover of Syria’s civil war yet onto Lebanese soil.
Soldiers arrested men and evacuated refugees from the hill town of Arsal on the border with Syria. One Syrian refugee said she had seen fighters’ bodies lying in the streets…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Gives Lebanon $1bn in Fight Against Jihadists
Saudi Arabia has given Lebanon’s military $1 billion to help its fight against jihadists on the Syrian border, as the Lebanese army’s chief urged France to speed up promised weapons supplies.
Tensions also rose in northern Lebanon, where clashes killed a child and wounded 11 other people, including seven soldiers.
Saudi Arabia has gone further and handed Lebanon’s army $1 billion to strengthen security, former Lebanese premier Saad Hariri told reporters in Jeddah on Wednesday.
Speaking from King Abdullah’s palace in the Saudi Red Sea city, Harriri — the Lebanese Sunni community’s most prominent political representative — added that “we have received this aid”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Site Visit: Noor Al Deen Al Salmi Mosque, Oman
ALEMCO gives a tour of some of the small to medium-size projects it has taken on in Oman before launching a full-scale assault on the Sultanate’s contracting market
In Muscat’s Al Khuwair district, the construction of what will undoubtedly be a pretty but fairly unimposing mosque is fast approaching completion…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: One-Man State: Presidential Election Set to Seal Erdogan’s Supremacy
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan began his political career as a democratic reformer. But those days are long gone. His battles against the country’s old elite and the demonstrators of Gezi Park revealed his despotic tendencies. Now, he wants to become president.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Fears Ukraine Invasion as Russia Masses Troops
(Reuters) — Russia has massed around 20,000 combat-ready troops on Ukraine’s border and could use the pretext of a humanitarian mission to invade, NATO said on Wednesday, its starkest warning yet that Moscow could soon mount a ground assault against its neighbour…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Steps up Peacekeeping Exercise
MOSCOW, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — Amid ongoing drills in Russia’s several major military districts, a specialized peacekeeping brigade intensified training on Wednesday in Volga River’s Samara region, Russian media reported.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the training in the central military district, and was informed that the ammunition expenditure of the motorized brigade had grown fivefold at gunfire drills this year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Trifkovic on RT: U.S. Dictating Terms of E.U. Foreign Policy
RT: The National Guard is heavily involved in the current crackdown on anti-government forces in the East. So how do you think their training and arming by the U.S. will affect the course of the conflict?
ST: It is very important to point out that the National Guard is, in fact, the armed section of the Right Sector and the Svoboda Party. So that was really an elegant way for the putchist authorities in Kiev to bypass the ban on paramilitary organizations. They simply put them in Ukrainian National Guard uniforms and made them “legal..” They are also highly motivated. Unlike the regular Ukrainian army, they are actually the ones doing most of the fighting. In particular most of them seem to come from Galicia and Podolia, and these regions are traditionally known for being the hotbed of extreme nationalism.
I don’t think that the publically quoted figures, such as $17-19 million, amount to a great deal; but I believe the arming has been going on for quite some time. Let us not forget that a month ago Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin warned that this was going on. He said that the Western countries were throwing kerosene on fire. In addition, even at the time when the Maidan turned seriously ugly, in January, it was common knowledge in Kiev that the Lithuanian and Polish secret services were involved in providing training and equipment to the Maidan so-called protesters.
RT: The West has been putting pressure on Russia, accusing it of supporting self-defense activists with arms. And now both the U.S. and the E.U. are doing just that to the other side — so what message does that send?
ST: The fundamental message is that the European Union has seized to be an autonomous or even semi-autonomous foreign-policy actor in its own right. We have been hearing not only for years but for decades about the need for the E.U. to develop its own common foreign policy. Now what we are seeing is that the arm-twisting from Washington has succeeded, and that the United States is effectively dictating the terms of the E.U. foreign policy, and is in fact present on the European continent as the key architect of the security situation, to a greater extent than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
RT: Why do you think the E.U. has lifted the arms ban on the quiet? How does the E.U. decision sit with its stated policy of not to supply arms to conflict-torn countries?
ST: Of course it is a blatant hypocrisy. Not only, as the Russian Foreign Ministry said, because they wanted to ban such supplies to Yanukovich yet are now giving it to this lot, but because they actually refused to treat this as a conflict in the first place. It is simply a “rebellion,” and the so-called “legitimate Ukrainian authorities” are involved in the security operation to “re-establish law and order.” What this implies is that any level of legitimacy is denied to the self-defense forces in the Lugansk and Donetsk Oblasts.
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: Putin Orders Retaliatory Sanctions
Russian President Vladimir Putin has banned or curbed agricultural imports from countries imposing sanctions on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. In a decree (Russian text), he ordered the measures, which also apply to food imports, to be introduced for one year.
Russia has imposed import bans on other states in the past, but normally on grounds of public health.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Soldier Who Killed US General Hid in Bathroom Before Attack, Official Says
The Afghan soldier who killed a U.S. two-star general and wounded other top officers hid in a bathroom before his assault and used a NATO assault rifle in his attack, an Afghan military official said Wednesday.
The investigation into the killing of Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, the highest-ranked U.S. officer to be slain in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War, focused on the Afghan soldier, who went by the single name Rafiqullah, the official said. The shooting wounded about 15 people, including a German general and two Afghan generals, before Rafiqullah was killed, the official told The Associated Press.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Medical Students Stabbed to Death on Borneo
Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, from Newcastle University, were reportedly attacked by a group of drunken men as they walked home from a night out
Two British medical students have been murdered in Borneo after reportedly being attacked by a gang of drunken men.
Local reports said the men, both 22, were stabbed as they walked home from a night out on the island, where they were studying on an elective, or placement. A statement released by the university has named the dead men as Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China: Xinjiang City Bans Islamic Dress on Public Transport
A city in China’s restive Xinjiang region has banned those in Islamic headscarves and with beards from public transport, a state paper says.
Officials in Karamay said the ban, which prohibits headscarves, partial face veils and burkas, would last until 20 August due to a local sports event.
Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority, has seen an upsurge in violence in recent months.
Authorities have blamed Uighur separatists for the violence.
In a report by the Karamay Daily which was carried by national media outlets, officials listed the “five types of people” who would be banned from public transport…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Capital to Ban Coal Use to Curb Pollution — Xinhua
Beijing will ban coal use in its six main districts by the end of 2020, state media cited the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau as saying, as the Chinese capital steps up efforts to combat air pollution.
Beijing and the surrounding area in China’s northeast is often wreathed in noxious smog, which has been cited as a factor in high rates of lung cancer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese City Bans Islamic Beards, Headwear and Clothing on Buses
Uighur people in Karamay appear to be the target of restrictions as unrest simmers in mainly Muslim Xinjiang region
A city in China’s mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from travelling on public buses, state media said, prompting outrage from an overseas rights group.
Authorities in Karamay banned people wearing hijabs, niqabs, burqas or clothing with the Islamic star and crescent symbol from taking local buses, the Karamay Daily reported.
The ban also covered “large beards”, the paper said, adding: “Those who do not co-operate with inspection teams will be handled by police.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Abbott Defends New Anti-Terrorism Laws as Islamic Groups Warn of ‘Witchhunt’
Tony Abbott says new laws are needed to stop Australian-born jihadists who ‘exultantly hold up severed heads’ of enemies
Tony Abbott has defended the need to force people returning from declared conflict zones to prove they were there for legitimate purposes, saying Australian-born fighters were “exultantly holding up the severed heads of surrendering members of the Iraqi security forces”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Commuters Tip Train Car to Help Trapped Man
Dozens of people helped rescue a fellow commuter in Australia by pushing against a train car to free the man whose leg slipped between the platform and the train.
Closed-circuit footage released by the Western Australia State Public Transport Authority showed the man lost his footing while boarding the train at a station in the city of Perth on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Fears Grow as Nigeria Confirms Five New Cases
Nigeria has confirmed five more cases of Ebola which has spread from three other west African nations. Saudi Arabia is awaiting tests on a Saudi traveler. The WHO says west Africa’s death toll has risen to 932.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola is a frightening, highly lethal virus — in the current outbreak in West Africa, about 60 percent of people infected with the pathogen have died. Although in the minority, some people do recover from infection.
Doctors don’t know for certain who will survive Ebola, and there is no specific treatment or cure for the disease. But studies suggest there are some biological markers linked with a higher chance of surviving Ebola, experts say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
West African Healthcare Systems Reel as Ebola Toll Hits 932
(Reuters) — Health workers in West Africa appealed on Wednesday for urgent help in controlling the world’s worst Ebola outbreak as the death toll climbed to 932 and Liberia shut a hospital where several staff were infected, including a Spanish priest.
The outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever has overwhelmed rudimentary healthcare systems and prompted the deployment of troops to quarantine the worst-hit areas in the remote border region of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Border Patrol Agent Assaulted by Hondurans
Two Honduran men are in federal custody. They’re accused of violently assaulting a Border Patrol agent. The FBI is handling the investigation.
A criminal complaint filed in the case states the agent encountered the two suspected illegal immigrants Monday afternoon in Starr County. According to investigators, Nelson Chavarria-Ramos repeatedly punched the agent in the face, while Marco Avelar-Gomez, held down the agent’s legs. The agent managed to arrest the two.
They’ll appear in court Friday morning for a detention hearing.
| [Return to headlines] |
France: Calais: ‘People Will be Killed if Nothing is Done’
With migrants fighting running street battles in the port of Calais, The Local speaks to Jean-François Corty from the humanitarian group Medecins du Monde, who says the crisis is worsening and it’s only a matter of time before people are killed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Non-EU Nationals Rising in Italy, 3.9 Mln in Early 2014
(ANSAmed) — ROME — A decade after ‘large-scale regularization’, 8 out of every 10 immigrants to Italy that received stay permits are still in the country, and non-EU nationals are acquiring Italian citizenship in ever greater numbers, according to Italian national statistics agency ISTAT.
According to interior ministry figures, as of January 1, 2014, some 3,874,726 non-EU citizens were legally residing in Italy. Between 2013 and 2014, the number rose by about 110,000 (3%). The nationalities with the highest presence were Moroccan (524,775), Albanian (502,546), Chinese (320,794), Ukrainian (233,726), and Philippine (165,783), and account for 45.1% of all non-EU citizens in Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Jizya: ‘Protection’ From Whom?
By Raymond Ibrahim
Is jizya—the money non-Muslims historically paid their Muslim conquerors—meant to buy them “protection,” including from outside enemies, as modern Western academics maintain? Or was it simply extortion money meant to buy non-Muslims their lives, as Islam’s scriptures mandate?
In short, jizya is an ugly fact of Islam—one that, distort as they may, the academics can’t whitewash away, even as the world stands idly by watching its resumption in the twenty-first century.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The linked article from France “Muslim Smashes Up Historic Church, Media Dismisses it as Person With “Mental Problems” appears on a blog called Diversity Macht Frei. The blog is filled with despicable posts of raving antisemitism (e.g. “it is perfectly rational for anyone who cares about freedom to be antisemitic”, etc.) Be wary.
This is exactly how the media described the muslims who smashed statues in a local Culver City church near Los Angeles, California. Same when the iconic statue of Santa Monica on the Palisades was desecrated with red paint. The muslim perpetrators were described as having “mental problems”. Of course since Regan closed the mental hospitals and released the inmates into society. “mental problems” has become the new “normal”. Perfect cover for millions and millions of Christian and Jew hating muslims.
All the other reports, and the police themselves, simply describe him as a “mentally unbalanced individual”. Of course he was mentally unbalanced. He was a muslim. Centuries of inbreeding have resulted in high levels of mental illness amongst muslims.
@UK: Violence, Threats and Blackmail Ought to Have No Place in Politics
Menzies (Ming) Campbell is reiterating a threat, that threat of “radicalisation” is the soft word for the threat of acts of terrorism being perpetrated against the British peoples (his own People).
Lets us be clear Ming we are not talking of the radicalisation of the loud mouth moaning his tits off down the pub, we are talking the radicalisation that demands a subservient British foreign policy by the implicit threat of acts of terrorism being perpetrated against the British peoples.
Maybe it is time to retire and let a safer pair of hands guide the British peoples, Douglas Murray maybe!
Ed. thanks for the column about jizya.
The trope that jizya is no big deal for non-Muslims and that it somehow buys them fluffy and cuddly protection from their overlords is deeply entrenched in the dhimmified ghettoes of the Internet.
I would love it if some of these progressive folks came to North Africa and spoke to people from the Berber minority about how amazing life is as a minority under an Arab Muslim majority.
Their ears would catch flame in about 30 seconds!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzgQwDeP7eM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q1JQFA4PQ0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qXksDwJMQI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GaIXakTXZzw