UKIP gained its first member of parliament in today’s by-elections in the UK. Doug Carswell, who recently left the Conservative Party for UKIP, regained his old seat, trouncing the other three parties. UKIP also came within about 600 votes of winning another seat in a northern constituency.
In other news, a woman hospitalized in Paris is now considered a “probable” Ebola victim.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, EF, EM, Fjordman, HRT, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Eurozone in Danger of Repeating Japanese Stagnation, IMF Chief Warns
International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde has warned that the eurozone risks following Japan and falling into a prolonged cycle of recession and stagnation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Florida State, Football Eclipses Justice: Records Show Police Often Go Easy on Players
Interviews with witnesses and an examination of court records found that the flawed handling of a rape accusation against the quarterback Jameis Winston symbolizes how the police have dealt with allegations of wrongdoing by Seminoles football players.
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Forty Tongues Spoken at Ebola Apartments in Dallas: Cities
Before the Centers for Disease Control could find those who came in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to fall ill with Ebola in the U.S., it had to find people who could talk to them.
The Vickery Meadow neighborhood in Dallas, where Duncan arrived from Liberia last month, is home to residents from 80 countries who speak 40 different languages and dialects.
“Vickery Meadow is a third-world city,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Three teens threw uncooked pork ribs at the Eltingville home of a Muslim woman Saturday night, sparking a hate crime investigation by the NYPD, the Advance has learned.
The incident happened at about 11:35 p.m., Saturday, according to an NYPD spokesman. The victim, a practicing Muslim who lives on Mosley Avenue near the Eltingville train platform, got a knock on the door, and when she went outside to answer, she found raw pork on her doorstep, the spokesman said.
A law enforcement source provided additional details on the incident — three white teens, ages 16 through 19, threw uncooked pork ribs at the house, then fled in a four-door sedan.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident, the NYPD spokesman said.
No one answered the door at the woman’s house Tuesday afternoon.
Muslims are prohibited from eating pork products, and bigots often use pork as a means to taunt or offend, according to Islamic-American leaders…
| — Hat tip: EF | [Return to headlines] |
The Controversy Over Whether ISIS is on Our Borders
Tuesday night on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News program, On The Record, Rep. Duncan Hunter California Congressman (R-52nd CD) in San Diego County said that “At Least Ten ISIS Fighters Have Been Caught Coming Across The Border In Texas”. Duncan is a former Marine Major and member of the House Armed Services Committee. Susteren, while stunned by the Congressman assertion, went on and asked him how he knew that. Hunter’s comments brought denials from DHS and Secretary Jeh Johnson in a Wolf Blitzer CNN Situation Room interview Wednesday night.Hunter got support from Judicial Watch (JW), a group that has been investigating the lack of security on our Southern Border, whether it the Fast and Furious fiasco of gun running to Mexican drug cartels and the murder of Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry. JW issued a statement today effectively rebutting DHS chief Johnson denial of Congressman Hunter’s allegations, JW Confirms: 4 ISIS Terrorists Arrested in Texas in Last 36 Hours.We asked “Beowulf” publisher of The Grendel Report for his views on this ISIS border controversy. He said:
Johnson, of course will stick to the Administrations talking points of denying any threat from anywhere.
I see no reason for either Hunter or Judicial Watch to lie. That has not been their history. I imagine their sources are from the Border Patrol, which has no use for either DHS or Obama.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Alfano: New EU Multinational Team to Face Foreign Fighters
Minister says new efforts underway for border security
(ANSAmed) — LUXEMBOURG, OCT 9 — “The Italian presidency will carry out a new initiative, already discussed during the recent meeting of the police’s chief executives, building a multinational Europol team with expertise in anti-terrrorism, foreign fighters and web-monitoring” Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano said Thursday. “We are doing all we can to form an effective control-mechanism both with regard to our borders and movement within the Eu” .
“The challenge represented by foreign fighters is one of the most menacing ones our times have witnessed” said Alfano at the end of an Eu briefing. This is the reason why — he added — we decided “to strenghten external border controls” and to break through the debate over the Passenger code record (Pnr) to come to a decision by December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Ministers to Discuss African Airport Health Checks
October 16 will mull new ways to trace passengers
(see previous) (ANSA) Rome, October 10 — Health checks on passengers leaving West African airports will be among measures on the agenda of a summit of European health ministers on Ebola-linked airport security being held in Brussels next week, Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said Friday.
Introducing a system whereby passengers travelling to Europe from West Africa by indirect flights can be traced also is on the agenda of the October 16 summit, she told ANSA.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europe at Risk of ‘Huge Number’ of Returning Jihadist Fighters
The EU is planning to step up border checks and passport controls to counter the threat of returning jihadist fighters.
“We may be faced soon with returns, huge returns from Syria and Iraq,” the EU’s counter-terrorism co-ordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, told reporters in Luxembourg on Thursday (9 October).
He said the US-led airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) in Syria could prompt European nationals fighting alongside the jihadists to go back home.
“Airstrikes give incentive for more returns and therefore we have to be ready now to detect returns and be prepared”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Woman ‘Probable’ Ebola Victim
Global experts ‘didn’t expect scale’ of outbreak says WHO
(ANSA) — Rome, October 10 — The status of a woman hospitalised in Paris has been changed from “possible” to “probable” victim of the Ebola virus, officials said Friday.
The condition of a nurse in Madrid was still “serious”.
The World Health Organisation said Friday that global health experts did not anticipate the scale of the Ebola outbreak.
The WHO said the international response was helping but needed to continue. Ebola is entrenched in the capitals of the worst-affected countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the WHO said. The outbreak has killed more than 3,860 people, mainly in West Africa.
More than 200 health workers are among the victims.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Seducing Danish Women to Seek Paradise
At least 15 Danish women have traveled to Syria to support or join Isis, according to a renowned terror expert who told The Local that what the women expect and what they get are two wildly different things.
Of the more than 100 Danes who have travelled to Syria to fight in that country’s civil war, at least 15 have been women.
Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defence College, told The Local that many European women are going to Syria to marry jihadists, having been seduced by slick social media messages and the belief that they will be rewarded both on earth and in the afterlife if their husband becomes a martyr.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Orsi Cleared of Corruption Over Indian Helicopters
Former Finmeccanica CEO found guilty of false invoicing
(ANSA) — Milan, October 9 — Judges on Thursday cleared Giuseppe Orsi, the former CEO and president of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica, of charges of international corruption in relation to alleged bribes paid to land a contract to sell 12 helicopters to the Indian government in 2010.
Orsi was at the helm of Finmeccanica’s helicopter division AgustaWestland in 2010 when it won the 566 million euros contract to supply the AW-101 choppers outfitted for VIP use.
Bruno Spagnolini, who took over from Orsi as AgustaWestland CEO, also saw himself acquitted of the same charges.
However both men were handed a two-year suspended sentence for false invoicing in the same year and ordered to pay 1.5 million euros in compensation to the Italian tax authorities, a plaintiff in the case.
Orsi, who stood down as Finmeccanica chief following his arrest in February 2013, said his corruption acquittal was ‘expected’.
“I didn’t expect anything different as I didn’t commit the offence,” said Orsi.
Orsi and Spagnolini stood accused of paying a 51 million euro bribe to Indian officials to secure the chopper deal.
Of this sum prosecutors said 14 million euros ended up in the hands of the powerful family of former Indian airforce chief of staff Sashi Tiagy. Orsi consistently denied any wrongdoing and said in a letter to a preliminary investigations judge his actions “had always been motivated by the exclusive interest of Finmeccanica and all its subsidiaries”.
Orsi told the judge he had no knowledge of illegal manoeuvres concerning the deal or knew the Indian Tiagi family.
India froze payments on the helicopters in the wake of the allegations after only three had been delivered, before scrapping the contract altogether. The scandal did little to ease existing strained relations with India over the case of two Italian marines held in the country without formal charges on suspicion of killing two Indian fishermen during an international anti-piracy mission off the Kerala coast in February 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Jobs Act ‘Strips Rights, Paves Way for Abuse’, CGIL
To launch ‘long campaign to affirm labour prerogatives’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — The passage of the government’s Jobs Act by confidence vote is a “clear” curb on parliamentary debate that lays the groundwork for more precarious youth jobs, “removes rights rather than extending them, and paves the way for arbitrary decisions and abuses,” Italy’s biggest and most leftwing trade union, CGIL, said Thursday. The CGIL, which is set to hold a major rally on October 25, said it was prepared for a “long campaign to affirm labour prerogatives”.
The union, which has historic ties to Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD), has been trying to fight the controversial Jobs Act reforms along with PD dissenters for the last month.
Earlier Thursday Renzi used Twitter to express his satisfaction at his government’s victory in a crunch confidence vote on its Jobs Act labour reform in the Senate, adding that the executive is now focusing on tax reform. “Very good yesterday on the Jobs Act,” Renzi posted on the @matteorenzi account. “Now decisive and determined on fiscal simplification.
Step by step, Italy is starting over”. Renzi’s executive called the confidence vote on a key Jobs Act amendment to pressure the PD opponents to vote in favour.
The PD minority opposed to changes for new hires to Article 18 of the Workers’ Stature — which protects people from unfair dismissal — backed down and toed the party line, while vowing to fight on to the measure during the rest of its path through parliament.
The Renzi administration, which would have collapsed if it had lost the vote, prevailed with 165 votes in favour, 111 against and two abstentions. Renzi argues Article 18 discourages firms from hiring staff, as it is hard to get rid of someone once they are on the books, and has contributed to high levels of unemployment and the overuse of temporary and freelance contracts, especially for young people.
“Yesterday the Senators made a huge step forward,” Renzi said early on Thursday.
“The margin (of victory) was very strong. I’m very happy with the result in numerical terms”. But the win came at a price though. PD Senator Walter Tocci voted in favour but said he intended to quit parliament.
Another leading PD dissenter, Stefano Fassina, said that there was “great concern and suffering” within the parliamentary party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Used Confidence Vote to Take Scalp to EU — CGIL
Trading Article 18 for flexibility ‘fallacious’ bid says union
(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s decision to ram his controversial Jobs Act through parliament with a confidence vote showed how eager he was to “take the scalp of Article 18 of the Workers’ Statute to Europe,” the CGIL trade union said Thursday. But that bid has “proved to be weak and fallacious” because of the lack of an EU nod to wiggle room for expansionary spending at Wednesday’s jobs summit in Milan, it said. The Jobs Act scales back protections steady workers enjoy under the landmark Article 18 of the 1970 Workers’ Statute.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Students March Against Renzi Reforms
‘We are the great beauty of this country’, they say
(ANSA) — Rome, October 10 — Thousands of students marched across Italy Friday against Premier Matteo Renzi’s planned school reforms.
The protest, called by university and high-school students’ organisations, was aimed at achieving a “different school, university and country,” than the one envisaged in business-friendly educational reforms, the manifesto of the event said. “We are the great beauty of this country and we can no longer afford to live in precarious conditions where we’re stripped of our rights,” it said.
In Rome, students staged a flash mob at the Colosseum, unfurling a huge banner saying Hands Off Our Schools.
“There are 20,000 of us and we all say No to Renzi,” they shouted. “Cuts are not good for a good education,” another giant banner read.
We Are The Good School, another one said.
The students were joined in the Italian capital by throngs of temp teachers carrying giant papier-mache’ pencils to symbolise the importance of education, “which cannot be destroyed by politicians”.
Maria, a teacher who has been on short-term substitute contracts for 16 years, told ANSA: “they want to turn students into useful little robots for their economic schemes…we won’t stand for it”.
In Milan, protesting students left a bag of manure outside the Catholic University and spray-painted buildings with slogans against the reforms, which aim to forge a stronger vocational link between schools and universities on the one hand and the business world on the other.
In Naples, rowdy protesters let off firecrackers and shouted: “You’ll never have us the way you want us”.
As well as targeting education more towards working-world goals, Renzi has vowed to hire 150,000 teachers who have been on temp contracts for years.
But the teachers taking part in Friday’s protest said “we don’t believe him.
“What’s he going to do, sack all the existing (permanent) staff, and where’s he going to get the money from,” they demanded to know.
According to the university and high-school organisations, “more than 80,000 students have turned out across Italy”.
As well as Rome, Milan and Naples, other towns that saw large turn-outs were Turin, Florence, Palermo, Bologna and Perugia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Holding Ordered of Offload 20% of Mediolanum
Bank of Italy demands intervention
(ANSA) — Milan, October 10 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s family holding company, Fininvest, announced Friday that it has been ordered by the Bank of Italy to offload a stake of over 20% in Mediolanum. The holding has three months to set up a trust fund and transfer the portion of the banking and insurance company that it possesses in excess of 9.9%. Fininvest currently has a stake of around 31.1% in Mediolanum. Fininvest will have 30 months more once the fund is set up to sell the Mediolanum shares in it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Angry Residents of Flooded Genoa Neighbourhood Attack Police
Frustrated by second crisis since 2011
(ANSA) — Genoa, October 10 — Angry residents in a flood-stricken Genoa neighbourhood near the Fereggiano river attacked municipal police Friday, shouting insults as the officers arrived to check water levels. Their neighbourhood in the port city had also been hit hard by severe flooding in 2011 that killed at least six people including two children.
Officials warned that the situation around Genoa remains critical as heavy rains continued to fall. Mayor Marco Doria said some 262 mm of rainfall had been recorded over 12 hours.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Impresario Linked to ‘Bunga Bunga’ Drops Appeal
Mora admits ‘borderline’ management of women for Berlusconi
(ANSA) Milan, October 10 — Lele Mora, an impresario who recruited fun-loving girls for Silvio Berlusconi’s ‘bunga bunga’ parties, dropped part of his appeal against a conviction for pimping Friday as part of a complex plea-bargaining deal.
Mora, a cinema talent scout and neo-Fascist sympathiser, was convicted in July 2013 of inducing women to work as hookers at the parties at the former prime minister’s villa at Arcore near Milan and of aiding and abetting prostitution including by minors, and was sentenced to a prison term of 7 years.
Berlusconi has subsequently been cleared on appeal of using alleged prostitutes including an underage one called Ruby the Heartstealer.
Under a plea bargain offer made by his lawyers Friday Mora acknowledged his guilt but asked that he receive a reduced prison sentence on the ground that he was forced to carry out what his lawyers termed ‘borderline’ management of women so as to obtain a loan from Berlusconi to try and prevent his company going bankrupt.
Mora already had approached judicial authorities with the proposed plea bargain earlier this year before Berlusconi in July was acquitted on appeal of paying for sex with Ruby, a Moroccan dancer who was under age when she frequented the media magnate’s parties.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Remains of Alexander the Great’s Father Confirmed Found
A team of Greek researchers has confirmed that bones found in a two-chambered royal tomb at Vergina, a town some 100 miles away from Amphipolis’s mysterious burial mound, indeed belong to the Macedonian King Philip II, Alexander the Great’s father.
The anthropological investigation examined 350 bones and fragments found in two larnakes, or caskets, of the tomb. It uncovered pathologies, activity markers and trauma that strongly contributed to the identification of the tomb’s occupants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ritual Child Abuse Linked to Witchcraft on the Rise in the UK
Drownings and rape part of ‘hidden crimes to drive out the devil’
Detectives are reporting a massive rise in the number of reported child abuse linked to witchcraft, they said today.
Scotland Yard has received 27 allegations of ritual child abuse this year alone — a dramatic increase on a decade ago, when just two such cases were reported to police in the whole of 2004.
Examples of the faith-based abuse include a child being dunked in a bath to ‘wash away evil spirits’, children being raped, and a pastor swinging a child around banging its head to ‘drive out the devil’.
Now teachers, social workers and doctors are to be taught to spot the signs of the abuse in a drive to tackle the growing problem across Britain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: You Can’t Ignore Migration Now!
After historic Ukip surge, MPs tell Cameron and Miliband to wake up to public anger
David Cameron and Ed Miliband are being told to ‘wake up’ to public anger over uncontrolled migration following Ukip’s stunning by-election advances.
Nigel Farage’s party caused a political earthquake by seizing one Tory safe seat and coming within a few hundred votes of taking another from Labour.
Conservative MPs warned the Prime Minister that he must now harden his stance on free movement within the European Union.
Some also called for pacts with Ukip at next year’s general election and an early break-up of the coalition with the Liberal Democrats…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Wins First Parliamentary Seat
‘Something big is happening’ says Farage
(ANSA) — Rome, October 10 — The anti-EU and anti-immigrant United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) on Thursday won its first seat in the British parliament.
Douglas Carswell, a defector from the Conservative Party, took the seat of Clacton by 12,404 votes.
Carswell knocked his old party — which enjoyed a 12,068 majority at the 2010 election — into second place.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he had “shaken up British politics”.
Farage said UKIP could hold the balance of power after next year’s general election.
He said UKIP’s second place in the northern seat of Heywood and Middleton was “even more significant” than its win in Clacton, saying the party was now the main opposition to Labour in northern cities.
“Something big is happening here. People want change, they have had enough of career politicians in three parties,” Farage said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Britain, Sweden — And a State of Palestine?
by Denis MacEoin
The British parliament, on October 13th, may be debating whether or not to recognize a Palestinian state.
Recognizing what in all likelihood would quickly become yet another Islamic terrorist state can only set a precedent that could have a disastrous impact on future negotiations and international law, and lead to the establishment yet more launching pads for people dedicated to violent jihad, not just in Israel, but, as they now openly admit, worldwide, including Britain and Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Srdja Trifkovic
There has never been a war in American history so strategically ill-conceived as the one currently developing against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria.
The Mexican war of 1846-47 was essentially an aggressive operation to take Alta California and New Mexico, and to cement the status of Texas. It was limited in its objectives, and it was conducted in a strategically sound manner. The goals — their legality apart — were achieved, and the balance between costs and benefits was never in doubt. Vae victis!
The Civil War (under whatever name) was a “rational” bid by Abraham Lincoln and his team — legal, moral, and humanitarian considerations notwithstanding — to create a centralized state.. He won the war, and hugely expanded federal governmental power. This was a disaster for America, but it was a resounding success from the standpoint of its instigators.
The 1898 war against Spain was but another exercise in Realpolitik. It finally moved America from a republic to an empire, the “manifest destiny” now manifested in Admiral Mahan’s and Theodore Roosevelt’s geopolitical designs.
Woodrow Wilson’s 1917-1918 intervention against the Central Powers was the first overtly “ideological” war — to make the world safe for democracy etc. Its slogans were silly, but in the end it could be argued that the geopolitical purpose was well served: to prevent the dominance of the continent of Europe by a single hegemon…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Bringing Happiness to Iran
It is still unclear what happened on Sunday night at Iran’s illicit nuclear installation at Parchin. According to Iranian sources, there was a large explosion that rocked the area within a 15-km. radius of the facility. Two people were reportedly injured.
According to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency and Israel, the Parchin facility is a key component of Iran’s suspected military nuclear program. It is at Parchin that Iran is allegedly building a nuclear explosive device — that is, a nuclear warhead.
The timing of the blast is notable. On Monday night, a delegation from the IAEA landed in Tehran for a new round of talks scheduled for that Tuesday. The UN’s demand to inspect Parchin was set to be one of the top agenda items at the talks.
Given the timing, it is certainly possible that the Iranians carried out the explosion themselves as a means of preventing the IAEA from demanding access.
But let us assume that the widely held automatic assumption — that Israel was behind the blast at Parchin — is accurate. The fact is that in order to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program, or seriously setback its completion, dozens, if not hundreds of additional targets need to be hit and destroyed…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Chaos in Yemen: New Premier Resigns, Sucide Bomber Kills 43
Al Qaida likely responsible for attack
(ANSAMED) — ROME, OCT 10 — Yemen is inching closer to civil war despite efforts by Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the UN after the resignation of Premier Ahmed Awad ben Mubarak and a suicide attack in the capital Sanaa Thursday which killed 43 people and wounded some 70 others, plunged the country deeper into chaos. A suicide-bomber detonated his explosive laden belt close to Tahrir square where a demonstration by rebels belonging to Ansar Allah, the Shia movement which holds the capital had been convened. No group claimed the attack but Sunni groups linked to Al Qaida that have often threatened full on war against the Shias, accused of being Iran’s pawns, are thought to be responsible for the attack .
Many children were among the casualties of the bombing which worsened the desperate mood in panic-stricken Sanaa. Terrified people fled the scene in all directions while hospitals made appeals for blood-donation. Un Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack. “These brutal crimes have no justification” he said, whichever the motive. The massacre took place shortly after the announcement of Prime Minister Mubarak’s resignation. Mubarak had taken on the role Tuesday but he explained his stepping down as an attempt “to protect the country” from those seeking to divide it. The head of the rebels, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, threatened massive protests against his nomination and the premier finally yielded to his demands and President Hadi accepted his backing down to avoid repercussions from the Shia gathering. However, the concession has weakened the president and confirmed doubts over the Sunni-Shia agreement reached throught the good offices of UN emissary Jamal Benomar, who managed to halt combat between rebels and govermment forces in the capital.
According to the agreement, following the selection of a new neutral prime minister, Shia rebels would leave the capital and disarm and a transition-process would ensue. However Shias criticized Mubarak’s nomination and argued he was inadequate to express the will of the people. Rebels also claimed Washington and Riad manoeuvred behind the scenes to select the 46 year-old president’s chief of staff.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Double Suicide Attack in Yemen, At Least 67 Dead and Dozens Injured
A suicide bomber blew himself up during a protest organized by the Shiite Houthi rebels, killing 47 people (including four children). Also hit a military outpost in the eastern province of Hadramuwt, at least 20 soldiers killed. The newly-appointed prime minister steps down. Growing fears of sectarian violence.
Sanaa (AsiaNews / Agencies) — At least 67 people were killed and dozens injured in two attacks occurred in Yemen, after weeks of riots and political instability with Shiite rebels which led to the resignation of the previous government. One of the two explosions targeted a Shiite Houthi protest in Sanaa, who have taken control of large parts of the capital. The explosion enveloped dozens of people, leaving mutilated corpses and human body parts in the streets; there are also four children among the victims.
The attacks aim to foment sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, with the real risk of a civil war in the country. An eyewitness reported that a man wearing an explosive belt, approached a checkpoint set up by the Shiite group, “and blew himself up among civilians and security guards “ in the area.
In a second attack, which occurred at an army checkpoint in the eastern province of Hadramuwt, at least 20 soldiers lost their lives and 15 were injured, even if the toll is still provisional. The attack took place in Mukalla port town on the Arabian Sea.
So far there have been no official claims for the attacks, even if suspicions point to the extremist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a local cell affiliated with the terror network founded by Osama bin Laden. For years the terrorists have been carrying out attacks and violence targeting security forces and government structures, but have recently also targeted the Shiite Houthi rebel group.
Analysts and international policy experts warn that Yemen is also at risk of a bloody war provoked by Islamic extremist movements, as is happening in Syria and Iraq.
Yesterday’s attacks came in conjunction with a crucial moment in the political and institutional life of the country: the ongoing tug of war between the leaders of the Shiite Houthi movement and Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour has forced the newly-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak to step down. The Houthi criticized the choice of Mubarak as a future prime minister of a national coalition government, claiming that he is Washington’s pawn.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS may already be thinking of using Ebola as a low-tech weapon of bio-terror, says a national security expert, who notes that the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” and terror groups like it wouldn’t even have to weaponize the virus to attempt to wreak strategic global infection.
Such groups could simply use human carriers to intentionally infect themselves in West Africa, then disseminate the deadly virus via the world’s air transportation system. Or so says Capt. Al Shimkus, Ret., a Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.
“The individual exposed to the Ebola Virus would be the carrier,” Shimkus told Forbes. “In the context of terrorist activity, it doesn’t take much sophistication to go to that next step to use a human being as a carrier.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS is a Monster Created by US, Eastern Christians
Father Hadad says strikes are useless with funding to “rebels”
(ANSAmed) — ROMA — You can not expect to fight Isis by continuing to send arms and aid to so-called Syrian “rebels”, this folly neutralises the international coalition’s strikes, which so far have been rather useless, father Mtanious Hadad, representative of the Melchite Church in Rome, told ANSAmed.
A Syrian Christian, Hadad spoke as an eastern Christian, a spokesperson for a community besieged from Syria to Iraq by the same hangman. “Isis is a monster created by the United States, Israel and some Arab countries with the aim of harming first the Baghdad government and then president Assad” said the religious figure. The mission of jihadists “who have nothing to share with real Islam” is “to break up states as well as the separation between church and state and the peaceful co-existence among different faiths”. “In Syria — says Hadad — there’s no civil war. The war is between Syrians and terrorists. There are no good or democratic rebels: all of them hold arms and use them against the separation between church and state, a state with a president elected by his own people” According to Hadad, “the United States, Israel, Gulf countries — among which Qatar and Saudi Arabia feature as the most generous sponsors of arms and funds — have contributed to train the anti-Assad fighters who form Isis”. He adds the fighters are blood- thirsty mercenaries belonging to 80 different countries. The Christians — he argues — are the ones who paid the most for a terrorist onslaught nurtured abroad.
Hadad who is also Rector of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin Basilica in Rome adds that “in Iraq, Christians were one million and 300 thousand. In Syria, the richest Christians have already emigrated to the United States and Australia. Before the war, the Syrian Christian community represented 10% of the population, now , according to estimates it reaches only 8%.
Many Syrian Christians have fled to neighbouring countries and hope to return. Others have stayed in Syria because they have sons and relatives in the national army. “However — he comments — if the current state of affairs carries on for long, there is a concrete risk that Christians will be forced to leave their country forever, the country in which they have been living for two thousand years. How is it possible for Obama to say the fight against Isis will go on for at least three years — wonders Father Hadad — three years for an international coalition to battle a group of 30 thousand people, is it a joke?” Hadad argues that to defeat terrorism in the Middle East an assumption of responsibility and the recognition that mistakes were made is necessary. “ The conditions to put an end to a dirty war which has been waging for three years aren’t hard to identify: stop the flow of arms and money to jihadists, stop the passage of terrorists through Turkey, avoid buying the oil sold by Isis on the black market once again through Turkey”.
“Syria without foreign terrorism would be at peace in a month’s time — says Hadad — and Christians in the region could hope to remain in their country”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Bearing Down on Baghdad Even as World Watches Kobani Siege
Waves of U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State fighters appear to have done little to stem the terrorist army’s advance in Syria, and now the militants are close to overrunning key positions on the outskirts of Baghdad.
With the world’s eyes on the terrorist army’s siege of the Syrian border city of Kobani, where U.S.-led airstrikes are backing Kurdish fighters, some 500 miles southeast, Islamic State fighters are within eight miles of the Iraqi metropolis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Fighting Carries on in Kobane, Fierce Battles in Town
Parish priest and 4 women freed in Syria, seized with 20 others
People watch from a hill as airstrikes by an alleged alliance war plane target the Islamic State in the west of Kobane,
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — The Islamic State (ISIS) has taken over more than a third of Kobani/Ayn Al-Arab, a Syrian Kurdish city on the border with Turkey that has been besieged by the jihadists for weeks. The news was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which added that fighting continued Thursday morning both inside and outside of the city. Eleven Islamic State jihadists were killed and four captured by Kurdish militiamen in Kobane /Ayn Arab, the Syrian Kurdish-majority town on the border with Turkey which has been battling Isis’ onslaught for weeks, the same source said. THe SOHR added that fierce battles are underway in the central and eastern areas of Kobane and in particular around the coranic school on Avenue ‘48.
Four air-raids were carried out Thursday morning against Isis outposts in the vicinity of the Kurdish town by the international USA-led coalition according to the pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera. The attacks targeted the western area of Kobane where the fiercest combat between Kurdish Ypg militias defending the neighbourhood and Isis Jihadists is taking place.
Meanwhile, the Turkish republican party (Chp), the main political opposition force, presented a motion in parliament pleading for military intervention to “liberate Kobane from Isis”, Arab media reported. The party asked for the motion to be discussed “immediately”.
The Turkish government maintained that “boots on the ground” are necessary. Ankara however, laid out its conditions for intervention to Washington and clarified that it would never be drawn into battle alone.
Father Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan parish priest taken hostage in recent days with about twenty of his fellow parishioners in Knayeh, northern Syria, was released on Thursday morning and taken back to the village. The Custody of the Holy Land said that after the liberation of a group of women belonging to the parish of Knayeh (a Christian village in the Orontes Valley) seized by Al Nusra jihadi militants the night between October 5 and October 6, parish-priest Hanna Jallouf also returned home. The friar confirmed by phone that he was able to go back to Saint Joseph’s convent were he was put “under house arrest”. The priest may move around the village but has been forbidden exit out of Knayeh.
The four women who had been kidnapped among a group of some 20 hostages together with father Hanna Jallouf were freed Wednesday. According to Bishop Georges Abou Khazen who spoke to Vatican press agency Fides: “The kidnappers didn’t say a word to the women who were freed, they weren’t even interrogated”. Local sources confirm that the jihadi fighters were armed. The captives’ families and friends have not received any requests or demands from the kidnappers so far, and the latter have refrained from qualifying themselves. The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land attributed the kidnapping to a Jabhat al Nusra brigade, the jihadi factions who controls the area.
The location where the hostages are held captive is a few kilometers away from the village of Knayeh.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: NGO: Kurdish Headquarters in Kobane Conquered
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 10 — Jihadists from the Islamic State (ISIS) have conquered the headquarters of Kurdish YPG militia in Kobane, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoted by AFP news agency on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Kurdish Headquarters in Kobane Conquered
30 people die in pro-Kurdish protests around Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 10 — Jihadists from the Islamic State (ISIS) have conquered the headquarters of Kurdish YPG militia in Kobane, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoted by AFP news agency on Friday.
The NGO added that ISIS militants are now in control of the Kurdish forces’ command.
Meanwhile the death toll in Turkey has risen to 30 from the protest violence that started on Wednesday as Anadolu Agency reports. Four people, including a woman, have died in random violence during the demonstrations in Turkey’s southeastern Gaziantep province. The protests stemmed from the support of the Kurdistan Workers Party combat against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant forces besieging the border town of Kobani. Terrorist violence also killed six people in the eastern city of Bingol Thursday, including two police officers. The policemen in Bingol were doing damage assessment from the protests when they were shot dead with long barreled weapons.
The four terrorists who killed the police were shot while being pursued by police, Bingol Governorate said in a statement.
Bingol province Police Chief Atalay Urker, Deputy Police Chief Atif Sahin, Chief Inspector Huseyin Hatipoglu and police officer Ugur Adli were the victims of the attack. Deputy Police Chief Sahin died on the scene, while Chief Inspector Hatipoglu died in Bingol State Hospital. Police Chief Urker is taken to Turkish capital with an air ambulance while police officer Ugur Adli is being treated at Bingol State Hospital. Turkish officials have said the country was against supporting PYD (an offshoot of PKK in Syria) fighters in Kobani with military and financial aid, even if they are fighting against ISIL. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as by the U.S. and the European Union. The nationwide protests broke out after ISIL militants penetrated the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab, on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Reports Suggest That the Parchin Nuclear Test Site Blast in Iran May Have Been Sabotage
Yesterday, we posted on the confirmation of the blast at Iran’s Parchin nuclear trigger test site by the Washington, DC -based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). The ISIS analysis of satellite imagery of Parchin confirmed that an explosion had taken place last Sunday night with six buildings destroyed and evidence of debris clearance. The ISIS analysis hinted that a possible attack might have taken place. One source we consulted following our initial post this past Monday thought it likely that it was a case of sabotage. A report in Israel Hayom (IH) today deepens our source’s suggestion that the blast may have been intentional sabotage by a “foreign power “rather than a possible failed test. Further, there are unconfirmed reports that Iran might have ordered Hezbollah to make an attack on an Israeli outpost in the disputed Shebaa Farms area near the Golan possibly in retaliation, Report: Blast at Iran military site — intentional sabotage.
The IH reported information from the Paris -based Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK). An Iranian official cited in a Kuwaiti Newspaper, Al Rai article suggesting that ‘“Only a foreign state with advanced intelligence capabilities could penetrate the facility and carry out an explosion like this.” That foreign power might have been Israel in view of an alleged Iranian order to proxy Hezbollah to attack an Israeli outpost in the disputed Shebaa Farms area adjacent to the Golan plateau. In our posts on the Parchin blast, we noted that Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz had issued a statement about nuclear developments at Parchin from “reliable sources” just before a speech by Iranian President Rouhani in September at the UN General Assembly.
As we have suggested in our earlier posts, these MEK and Kuwaiti newspaper reports of possible sabotage at Parchin could result in Congressional Select Intelligence Committee hearings on the activities of the Iranian nuclear program. Reports of proposals for a final P5+1 agreement, with a target date of November 24, 2014, indicate they may not result in dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. The possible Parchin test site sabotage and Intelligence hearings may also lead to reconsideration of tougher Congressional sanctions legislation. Those tougher sanctions were halted at the request of both the Administration and Senate leadership last year to facilitate P5+1 discussion with Iran. The final agreement covering Iran’s nuclear program had a purported objective of a quid pro quo lifting both US and international sanctions. Moreover, they excluded consideration of Iranian ballistic missile delivery systems for nuclear warheads.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Should Turkey be Asked to Leave NATO?
Jonathan Schanzer of the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has written compellingly in a Polltico Magazine article suggesting that NATO should consider expelling Turkey, “Time to kick Turkey Out of NATO?” Schanzer’s question was spurred on by Turkey’s inaction in the face of the ISIS siege and likely conquest of the Kurdish enclave of Kobani just across the border in Syria. allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, doesn’t want to move against the ISIS jihadists rampaging in Syria and Iraq. Until recently he tacitly supported their cause fighting to eject the Assad government in Syria and replacing it with a self-proclaimed Caliphate. This would fill his oil pipelines with smuggled product from captured Syrian and Iraqi oil fields to sell at a good profit. He facilitated the so-called “jihadist highway” filtering foreign Salafist jihadist recruits for ISIS and the Al Qaeda al Nusrah Front opposition to Assad. But Erdogan has to play it cool, as he has a lively trade exchanging gold for much needed gas from neighboring Iran, a Shiite ally of the Assad regime to foster Turkey’s economic growth. We learned this week that he exchanged 180 jihadists, sequestered in Turkey, on September 20th for release of 49 Turkish diplomats and their families held captive for 101 days following the fall of Mosul in June 2014.We note Schanzer’s conclusion in his Politico article:
The crisis in Kobani once again brings the challenge of Turkey into sharp relief. Despite the best efforts of Washington and other coalition members to bring Turkey along, it now appears clear: Turkey under the AKP is a lost cause. It is simply not a partner for NATO. Nor is it a partner in the fight against the Islamic State.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Father Hanna to be Tried by Islamic Court
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 10 — Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, custodian of the Holy Land, on Friday said Father Hanna Jallouf has only been “partially released” and is being held “in a sort of house arrest”. The Syrian parish priest was abducted byIslamic militants together with about 20 of his parishioners in the Christian village of Knayeh in the night between Sunday, October 5 and Monday, October 6. “He will now have to be tried”, Father Pizzaballa told TG2000. “The court wants to verify allegations of collaborationism with the Assad regime”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Northern League Moscow Mission Slams Western Sanctions
Delegation expected to visit Red Square, Crimea
(ANSA) Moscow, October 10 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini arrived in Russia Friday at the head of a delegation underlining the rightwing maverick regionalist party’s opposition to Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.
“Today we meet the president of the foreign affairs committee of the Duma, Aleksei Pushkov, and the Russian minister form the Crimea, Oleg Saveliev,” Salvini’s spokesman told ANSA.
On Saturday the delegates are due to meet the Italian business community in Russia belonging to the Russian branch of Confindustria. Also scheduled is a visit to the Italian Embassy though the head of mission is not in Moscow at the present time.
Also on Saturday Salvini is expected to go to Red Square for a photo opportunity for the Italian press before the delegation goes to the Crimea.
On Sunday they will give a press conference at Simferopoli while on Monday “we will meet president Serghei Aksionon and some ministers of the Crimea Republic,” said the spokesman.
Salvini told ANSA that “we are here to understand the current situation linked to the Ukrainian crisis and repeat our opposition to the absurd sanctions that damage Europe, especially Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Poroshenko Dismisses Donetsk Regional Governor
Millionaire Taruta to be replaced by Kikhtenko
(ANSA) — Kiev, October 10 — Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko dismissed millionaire Serghii Taruta as governor of the war-torn Donetsk region, media reports said Friday.
Taruta has been running the predominantly Russian-speaking southeast region where government troops are battling pro-Moscow separatists.
He will be replaced by Aleksandr Kikhtenko.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
$500m Worth of US-Bought Planes Destroyed by Afghans, Sold as Scrap for 6 Cents a Pound
Sixteen military transport planes bought by the United States government for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) at a cost of nearly $500 million were recently destroyed by the Afghan military and sold for scrap parts at around six cents per pound, prompting a government inquiry to determine why millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the ill-fated program.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the 2014 peace prize to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India for their work in helping to promote universal schooling and protecting children worldwide from abuse and exploitation.
The announcement was made in Oslo by Thorbjorn Jagland, the committee’s chairman, after a year in which war has spread into Europe with fighting in eastern Ukraine, and across frontiers in the Middle East after the Sunni militant Islamic State pushed from Syria into Iraq in June.
The committee cited Ms. Yousafzai’s “heroic struggle” for girls’ rights to education. Mr. Satyarthi was praised for “showing great personal courage” in leading peaceful demonstrations focusing on grave exploitation of children for financial gain.
For the previous two years, the prize had been awarded to international bodies: the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013 and the European Union in 2012.
| [Return to headlines] |
China — Hong Kong: More Than 40 Detained in Mainland for Backing Occupy Central
After a first wave of repression, mainland police continues to persecute those who express support for pro-democracy demonstrations in the Special Autonomous Region. In Beijing, arrests, searches, violence and detentions continue. The persecution also affects Chongqing, Guangzhou and Anhui province.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — Into the second week of peaceful demonstrations in Hong Kong demanding universal suffrage, police across China have taken into custody dozens of activists, petitioners, artists, and other citizens who had posted messages online or gathered to show support for the protestors. The majority of the detentions took place in Beijing.
After reporting on a dozen cases last week, Chinese Human Rights Defender (CHRD) has now documented more than 40 cases in total, including 11 criminal detentions and 2 administrative detentions, along with 31 individuals who remain in police custody and at least three known to have gone into hiding. Police have harassed and intimidated countless others by visiting their homes and issuing warnings or taking them to police stations for questioning.
CHRD urges the Chinese government to immediately release the detained individuals and respect their constitutional rights and right to freedom of expression.
The most recent updates are below, organized by location:
Beijing Municipality
A group of 20 housing rights and human rights activists met at a restaurant on September 29, when they took photos holding up a sign that reads “Beijing Families of Forced Eviction Support Hong Kong,” which were then posted online. Ten of them have been criminally detained on suspicion of “creating a disturbance.” Held at the Fengtai District Detention Center, the detainees include: Chen Lianhe, Ms. Cui Baoti, Ms. Han Ying, Ms. Han Shuqing, Ms. Guo Zhiying, Mr. Jiang Liuying, Ms. Li Dongmei, Ms. Liu Huizhen, Ms. Wu Xiaoping, and Mr. Zhang Zonggang. Eight were taken into custody on September 30, while Han Ying and Liu Huizhen were seized on October 1.
Police have detained 10 artists from the Songzhuang art colony and a journalist over the past week for supporting the Hong Kong protests. All but one are being held at Beijing No. 1 Detention Center, and all but the three detained on October 8th known to be held on suspicion of “creating a disturbance.” Police took the artist and poet Wang Zang into custody on October 1. Wang, originally from Yunnan Province, had his home in Songzhuang searched after he was seized. On October 2, police took into custody Ms. Zhang Miao, a journalist with the German magazine Die Zeit who had reportedly discussed the Hong Kong protests with Wang Zang. In addition, artists Mr. Cui Guangxia, Mr. Zhu Yanguang, Mr. Fei Xiaosheng, and Mr. Ren Zhongyuan were taken into custody on October 2, with Ren now being held at Tongzhou District Detention Center. In the early morning of October 6, police took away Mr. Ding, aka Ding Weibing from his home and searched his residence. They confiscated a computer, a hard drive from a notebook computer, and a camera memory card. Ms. Wang Lin was taken into custody on October 7, reportedly for attending a poetry event on October 2 held in support of the Hong Kong movement. Three other artists-Mr. La Shang, Mr. Zhui Hun, and Mr. Li Lei -were taken into police custody on October 8 and are being held on unknown charges.
Police took three activists into custody on September 30 after they attended a dinner to celebrate the release from prison of Yuan Dong, a New Citizens’ Movement participant. Guo Hongwei and Mr. Wu Jixin are being held at Fengtai District Detention Center on a charge of “creating a disturbance,” and the third detainee, Ms. Li Yufeng, is being held at Daxing District Detention Center. At least 60 people gathered at a restaurant in Daxing, with some holding signs supporting the protests in Hong Kong. Guo’s 77-year mother, Xiao Yunling, was seized at the same time as Guo and held for over 12 hours before she was released. On October 3, police took away another dinner attendee, Wang Su’e, after she had left a home church service. She is being held at the Daxing District Detention Center.
Ran Chongbi, a petitioner from Dongguang City in Guangdong, was taken to the Zhujiafen Police Station in Fengtai District on October 2 with Wang Fang, a petitioner from Hubei Province. The two women were taken into custody after holding up signs in support of the Hong Kong protests outside Beijing South Railway Station. As of October 4, Ran is being held at the Fengtai District Detention Center, while Wang’s status is unclear.
Another petitioner, Jiang Jiawen from Liaoning Province, is being held at Daxing District Detention Center. He took part in a demonstration on October 1 a village in Fengtai District and was detained the same day.
Additionally, on October 1 Mr. Pei Fugui, who attended the September 29 dinner, was detained and is now being held in Fengtai District Detention Center. Mr. Xu Chongyang and Mr. Wang Chongxi, who were seized the next day, are being held at the same facility. Ms. Ling Lisha, another dinner attendee, is reportedly in police custody, but there is no other information available.
CHRD has also learned that several individuals have gone into hiding, including Yan Bojun, and two others who attended the September 29 dinner: Mr. Li Xuehui, and Ms. Yu Yanhua.
Guangdong Province
On October 3, plainclothes police officers took three men-Wang Mo, Sun Liyong, and Xie Wenfei — into custody from a residence in Xintang County in Guangzhou. They are being held at Yuexiu District Detention Center, and were detained for holding up a banner in a Guangzhou park that called for freedom and support for the Hong Kong protesters.
Plainclothes police seized Zhang Shengyu on October 3 while he was walking down a street in Guangzhou. He had recently posted a photo of himself holding a sign backing Hong Kong and Beijing activist Han Ying, who had been detained days earlier.
Foshan City police seized “Southern Street Movement” member Jia Pin on October 9 and took him into custody at an unknown location.
Chongqing Municipality
Two Chongqing activists, Xie Dan and Ms. Luo Yaling, were given 10-day administrative detentions for uploading photos of themselves showing support for the Hong Kong protests. Last week, CHRD reported national security officers had questioned Xie over the protests and also taken Luo into custody.
Anhui Province
Activists Shen Liangqing and Mr. Yi Chun were both criminally summoned by police on October 5 for questioning on suspicion of “creating a disturbance” for supporting the Hong Kong protestors. Both were held at the Baohe Public Security Sub-Bureau in Anhui Province before being released early the next day, after about six hours of interrogation. Both of their homes were searched, and Shen’s desktop computer and camera memory card were seized, while Yi’s desktop computer and tablet were confiscated.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Koreas Trade Fire Over Activists’ Balloons
No one hurt
(ANSA) — Tokyo, October 10 — The two Koreas on Friday traded gunfire at the border because of balloons launched by southern activists that threw down leaflets about human rights.
Some of the North Korean shots aimed at bringing down the balloons ended up on the South Korea side of the border, prompting the soldiers there to return fire. No one was hurt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Return to Hong Kong Streets for Pro-Democracy Protest After Talks Collapse
Thousands of people are pouring into a main road in Hong Kong to show support for a pro-democracy protest after the government called off talks with student leaders. After a week that saw flagging support for the civil disobedience movement, crowds were surging again Friday evening.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Federal Greens want to set up a new national organisation to prevent beheadings and other brutal terrorist attacks happening in Australia.
The Centre For Social Cohesion would bring together police, spies, academics, community leaders and former extremists.
Its job would be to reach out to young people and stop them becoming radicalised or influenced by international terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS).
Greens leader Christine Milne told AM potential terrorists only turn to violence because they “feel alienated” from Australian society.
“Before we say potential terrorists, what we’re talking about is young people in Australia … who might be feeling really isolated, angry and vulnerable,” Senator Milne said.
“They feel alienated and then they are attracted to a group, whether it is an extremist group, in terms of a gang, or whether it is a jihadist group.”
The centre would be independent, would work closely with the Islamic community and other groups, would advise governments and identify gaps in counter-terrorism research.
New anti-terrorism laws explained
Find out more about the Government’s suite of proposed anti-terrorism laws targeting so-called foreign fighters and Australian terror threats.
The Greens plan to introduce a bill to the Senate to try to set it up…
| — Hat tip: HRT | [Return to headlines] |
EU Considering Sending Troops to Ebola-Hit Countries
EU soldiers to help re-establish order in worst-affected states
(ANSA) Brussels, October 10 — European Union institutions are considering deploying troops in Africa to help deal with the Ebola epidemic, European Commission sources said Friday.
European soldiers would be used to coordinate evacuation of European patients from Africa and to help re-establish security in the worst-hit Ebola countries, according to the proposal outlined in a “non-official” EU diplomatic service note to member country ambassadors.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Alfano Says Triton Replacing Mare Nostrum Rescue Plan
New European operation managed by Frontex border agency
(ANSA) — Luxembourg, October 9 — The European Union’s Operation Triton will “put an end to Mare Nostrum,” Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Thursday.
“We will not have two lines of defense of our borders,” Alfano after a meeting of European interior ministers.
For the past year Italy alone has operated the Mare Nostrum sea search-and-rescue program for migrants after two boat disasters in October 2013 killed about 400 people.
Alfano said Triton will be “fully coordinated” with Italy’s emergency measures “with a view to their rapid elimination”. The Triton mission will be managed by Frontex, Europe’s border control agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UN Criticises Denmark’s Refugee Restrictions
New barriers to family reunification may violate international law and Denmark should drop the “unrealistic” idea that it can isolate itself from a global problem, the UNHCR said.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has criticised Denmark’s newly-announced restrictions on family reunification for refugees.
The Danish government announced last month that refugees fleeing the civil wars like the one in Syria will be eligible for a new, one-year temporary residence permit. On Tuesday, the government followed that up by saying that only if a refugee has their permit extended beyond that first year can they bring their family members to Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Microsoft Chief in Women Pay Gaffe
Nadella says sorry amid outrage
(ANSA) — Rome, October 10 — Microsoft chief Satya Nadella has had to apologise after sparking outrage by advising women not to ask for a pay rise but to have “faith in the system”. At a conference to celebrate women in technology, he suggested that women not asking for a rise was “good karma”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam or Islamism: A Distinction Without a Difference?
Defenders of moderate Islam tie themselves into logical knots
by David Solway
Thirteen years after 9/11, after some 24,000 terror attacks perpetrated by Muslims since that fateful date, after the atrocities carried out and still being carried out by Caliphate-aspiring terrorist militias, after civil wars, incursions, the mass extermination and eviction of Christian populations in Muslim lands and territories, hostage-takings, kidnappings, beheadings, bombings, missile barrages — after all this, many Westerners still appear to endorse a strict distinction between Islam and Islamism. The former, we believe or have been led to believe, is a “religion of peace” whose doctrines have been twisted and misinterpreted by a cadre of extremists. Islam, according to this perspective, cannot be held accountable for a band of criminals willfully violating the tenets and premises of a venerable Abrahamic faith.
The claim is unsustainable. Where it is not advanced disingenuously — for profit, power or position — it is plainly a function of culpable or lazy ignorance or, at best, of a desire to be (or to seem) tolerant and supremely civil. I suspect that the majority of such Western apologists have not cracked a single page of the Koran or perused even a scattering of the ahadith and sirah, where the chasm on which they insist between Islam and Islamism is nowhere to be found. The Koran, in particular, brims with exhortations to violence against unbelievers, which the 1400-year imperial history of Islam has honored to the letter. The religious mandate as well as the empirical practice are undeniably Islamic, not “Islamist” — a concept that has no meaning in the theological literature.
Far too many of us cannot bring ourselves to understand that the enemy we are facing is not some fringe minority of “radicals” who are abusing not only their victims but the principles of the faith they proclaim. For one thing, the jihadists and their enablers may be a “minority,” but they number in the millions — the lowball figure of 1% of the ummah yields 15-16 million; a not unreasonable estimate of 10% gives 150-160 million. Any way you look at it, that’s a lot of people determined to kill you. When one considers that this number amounts to half the population of the United States out for one’s blood, it puts the issue into perspective. For another thing, the shahids and mujahidin know perfectly well how to read their sacred texts, far better than their victims, dupes, extenuators and fellow-travelers who neglect to study either the scriptures or the history of Islam in order to gain a more acute and comprehensive knowledge of the enemy who plots their destruction. Others, of course, have been bought, suborned by donations or bribes and subsidized by petrodollars, or they are trimmers who have capitalized on business interests and opportunities.
Even those who have grasped the pitiless and bellicose quality of Islamic law and normative doctrine, and, moreover, have suffered terrible losses at the hands of “the believers” will, often from the noblest of motives, insist on distinguishing between the unoffending and the barbarous members of the faith…
| — Hat tip: EM | [Return to headlines] |
GLOBAL IDIOCY
DAVID CAMERON in UN Speech Says ANYONE QUESTIONING the 9/11 Official Story Is a TERROR EXTREMIST
http://youtu.be/BP_HJfd_gvE
Da Capo, I watched the first couple of minutes of Cameron’s speech (quite enough!) and found nothing that would be regarded as controversial on GoV.
@UKIP Wins First Parliamentary Seat
Vote for the Conservative Party and get Douglas Carswell, vote for UKIP and get Douglas Carswell.
Will that solve the progressive malaise in the British Isles doubt it, the political undercurrents of disaffection are far deeper than a game of party political musical chairs.
Very brief, very quick set of links and incoming data on Kobane situation. Longer and general small analytical essay hopefully tonight:
– Jenan Moussa @jenanmoussa 5h5 hours ago: Source in #Kobane tells me: General commander of all kurdish forces defending city against ISIS is female. Her name: Nalin Afrin. @akhbar
– Maajid Nawaz @MaajidNawaz 1h1 hour ago: Hero.Remember her name:Nalin Afrin.General commander of Kurdish forces defending city of #Kobane against ISIL scourge
– Jenan Moussa @jenanmoussa · 4h 4 hours ago: Acc to source, female General commander of kurds in #Kobane is v. committed. She believes there is still chance to push ISIS out of town. Comment: Great image. Hope some of the feminists who still appear to be “fence-sitting” actually do take notice.
– Rudaw English @RudawEnglish 47m47 minutes ago: Protests in solidarity with #Kobane in #France, Lyon currently ongoing. http://fb.me/6HHfdy0J4
– Giran @GiranOzcan 1m1 minute ago: Hundreds of thousands march in Dusseldorf/Germany in support of #Kobane resistance! #TwitterKurds. Comment: Hopefully this should make it clear that the Kobane issue really is a symbolic one and cannot be confined to some sort of ideological ghetto of a purely Kurdish “ethnic” issue
Also note, however, as Ruwayda points out, interestingly enough: Ruwayda Mustafah @RuwaydaMustafah 2h2 hours ago: Egypt, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar — where are the pro-human rights activists? Must they always remain silent when Kurds are massacred? #Kobane
Slightly older data:
– neuwal @neuwalcom · Fotostrecke von der heutigen Großdemo für #Kobane in #Wien http://neuwal.com/index.php/2014/10/10/kurdische-demo-fuer-kobane-in-wien-isis-is/ … #isis #is (dw)
– Botin Kurdistani @kurdistannews24 · @Hevallo video:ISIS in KOBANe Using oto ozturk Turkish Truck and weapon & killing Kurds http://youtu.be/bOGJuhxuEFg Explicit photograph, truck in desert camo serving as support platform for multiple-rocket launcher assembly bears “Ozturk Oto Galeri” on rear mudguard
youtu.be/bOGJuhxuEFg
– Poignant: Rang @RangAbdullah · Kurdish refugee [note: an eight-year-old child, or so, by the looks of it] from #Kobane struggling to bear his little brother, as the rest of his family were taken by ISIS.
– Reso Bîstûyek @r3sho · Oct 8: A beautiful song newly released about the #Kobane resistance. “I am Kobane!” http://youtu.be/S6gGeMRFoYI #ArinMirkan #YPG #ISIS
Current situation in Kobane:
– Stefanie Dekker @StefanieDekker 1h1 hour ago: Non-stop firing heard from #kobane we’re told from ypg source that happening on south west of town
– Harald Doornbos @HaraldDoornbos 2h2 hours ago: Sky above #kobane today very hazy, seems like sandstorm. Bad weather for airstrikes, ISIS must see this as devine intervention: (Confirmed: bad quasi-sandstorm and sand-haze conditions, bad for target spotting)
– Dr Widad Akrawi @DrWidadAkrawi 2h2 hours ago: CIVILIANS TRAPPED IN #KOBANE & TURKEY URGED 2LET DEFENDERS CROSS BORDER 2 CITY ☛ http://ow.ly/CBu4M
– Harald Doornbos @HaraldDoornbos · 3h 3 hours ago: We r now with Kurdish refugees who recently escaped #kobane, Living in fields, Turkish ngo setting up tents for them:
– Harald Doornbos @HaraldDoornbos · 4h 4 hours ago: Kurdish civilians still escaping #kobane hell. These families got out yday, now in Suruc, Turkey, waiting for tents:
– Harald Doornbos @HaraldDoornbos · 6h 6 hours ago: Realistic analysis. Read this. RT @AkyolinEnglish Turkey torn between ISIL and the PKK. My new piece in @HDNER –> http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-torn-between-isil-and-the-pkk.aspx?pageID=517&nID=72818&NewsCatID=411
Thanks are due, I honestly think, to Harald Doornbos, one of the committed “people on the spot” who continues reporting regularly, almost like clockwork.
Finally, older (yesterday), not key on-the-spot data, but probably bound to bring out a wry smile on some faces:
– curdistani @curdistani · Al Baghdadi sent a senior rep to Abu Omar Chechani blaming him 4 failing 2 capture Kobani on first day of Eid.100s of gangs killed @RNB1212
– Lisa @LisaRaeG · @issa_zzzz @curdistani @RNB1212 I’m sure Baghdadi sent that complaint from a 5 star hotel in Qatar.
General apologies to all, no essay yet, but a short string of relevant and possibly morale-building twitter that might deserve posting, I think:
– Dr Widad Akrawi @DrWidadAkrawi 53m53 minutes ago #KOBANE DEFENDERS R HUNGRY BUT THEIR RESISTANCE AMAZING! TURKEY PREVENTS ALL HUMANITARIAN & MILITARY AID REACH THEM!
– Dr Widad Akrawi @DrWidadAkrawi 1h1 hour ago (regarding Kurdish female fighters): FYI ISIS WANTED TO CELEBRATE THEIR EID INSIDE #KOBANE ON OCTOBER 4TH! THOSE WOMEN CHANGED THEIR PLANS!
– Max Abrahms @MaxAbrahms 2h2 hours ago: Churchill today: Never in the field of human conflict has a coalition of so many done so little. #Kobane
But people, very plain and ordinary people like you and me, are doing their share:
– Sale Docks @SaleDocks 1h1 hour ago: Milan Thousands march on Turkish Consulate in solidarity with #Kobane @DefenseUnits @DefenseUnitsYPJ @mutludc #Rojava
– Skint London @SkintLondon 1h1 hour ago: And In Parliament Sq this Kurdish rally against #isis has drawn a large crowd. #Kobane ‘@Beebagr_Baluch
– Giran @GiranOzcan 15m15 minutes ago: Students from La Plata University in Argentina show support for YPG/YPJ in #Kobane! #TwitterKurds
– ShiaⒺAli (ر) @kassamally 48m48 minutes ago: You don’t need to be a #Kurd to stand up for #Kobane You just need to be human.
– 15MBcn_int @15MBcn_int 3h3 hours ago: Barcelona in solidarity with #Kobane RT @occupygezi_bcn: #kobane
– 15MBcn_int @15MBcn_int · 3h 3 hours ago: Gathering at Catalunya sq in solidarity with #Kobane #Barcelona p/v @occupygezi_bcn #direnkobane #TwitterKurds
– 15MBcn_int @15MBcn_int · 4h 4 hours ago: Gathering in Solidarity with #Kobanê today at 5pm in #Barcelona
My apologies, must still slip this in. On a serious note:
– Baghdad Invest @baghdadinvest · 8h 8 hours ago #Iraqi journalist killed by Daesh yesterday was Raad al-Azzawi, show him the same respect we give to western journos
On a lighter note, still able to smile through the fog of words and war:
– ifriqiyah @ifriqiyah · 20m 20 minutes ago: @ajdarcy78 @EU_Commission I was thinking maybe an arts project myself @DanKaszeta < goes to galleries? The tweet-attached picture is a giant sand-colored Dalek statue (from 'Dr. Who'), and it looks just like a woman in a burqa (برقع; chadri; paranja).