Australia has become the first Western nation to close its borders to travelers from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa. Meanwhile, the governor of Italy’s Veneto region says that American soldiers returning from the Ebola zone should be quarantined at home in the USA rather than at the Vicenza airbase in northern Italy.
In other news, under pressure from the EU and animal rights groups, the Norwegian government has cut subsidies for seal hunting.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Phyllis Chesler, Valerie Price, 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.
Crisis Sparks Rise in Child Poverty in Rich Countries
At least 2.6 million children have fallen below the poverty line in the world’s richest nations since the economic crisis struck in 2008, Unicef said in a hard-hitting report on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Corruption Undermining Recovery
As Greek public finances inch further and further away from ‘junk status’, with most analysts expecting it to emerge from recession this year before expanding by 2.9 percent in 2015, mass street protests are now a thing of the past.
But as a comfortable lull in public vigilance sets in, corruption in Greece is thriving unhindered.
According to Transparency International’s reports, Greece is trailing the corruption heap in Europe, with the EU commission saying the phenomenon has reached “breathtaking proportions”.
Apart from a few high profile exceptions, such as a case involving German arms firms that paid bribes to Greek officials, the government seems unwilling or unable to change course. Moreover, on more than one occasion, such inaction has actually fostered a culture of corruption.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Government to Adjust Budget in Bid to Appease EC
Willing to cut structural deficit by 0.3% of GDP not 0.1%
(ANSA) — Rome, October 27 — Italy will take measures to reduce its structural budget deficit by 0.3% of GDP in 2015, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan wrote Monday in a response to a letter from EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Jyrki Katainen asking for clarification on next year’s budget plan, ANSA sources said.
Premier Matteo Renzi’s government had initially said it would reduce the structural deficit by just 0.1% next year after presenting a budget featuring 18 billion euros in tax cuts as part of an effort to revive the recession-battered Italian economy. But a letter Katainen sent Rome last week said the original budget plan would lead to a “deviation” from Italy’s medium-term adjustment targets in breach of the EU Growth and Stability Pact.
Renzi reached an agreement to up the deficit reduction at last week’s European Union summit in Brussels — a compromise solution with the European Commission, which reportedly wanted a cut of around 0.5%.
Padoan said the measures to reduce the structural deficit by 0.3% of GDP in 2015 will amount to 4.5 billion euros. Of those, 3.3 billion euros would be taken from funding previously allocated for tax cuts, 0.5 billion would come from EU co-financing funds and 0.73 billion would come from an extension of the reverse charge VAT on imported goods and services.
However, the government said Italy must be prevented from enduring a “fourth year of recession”. “Italy’s GDP has fallen over 9% on its 2008 level,” read the letter by Padoan. “The economy is in its third year of recession and there is a serious risk of stagnation and deflation. A fourth year of recession must be avoided at all costs”.
The EC said in response that it “welcomed Italy’s constructive cooperation”. A spokesperson for Katainen stressed that “consultations are still taking place”, adding that “only the assessment of countries with serious deviations” from EU budget rules will be made public Wednesday.
The Renzi government’s 2015 budget will total 36.2 billion euros, the economy ministry said late Friday. Of that, 25.8 billion euros are covered by revenue and 10.4 billion euros are covered by deficit spending. The budget has 18 billion euros in tax cuts and 15 billion euros in spending cuts. This includes abolishing the labour-tax component of regional business tax IRAP, and scrapping social contributions for new workers hired on open-ended contracts for their first three years with a company up to a limit of some 8,000 euros a year. As well, the budget would give families with children born or adopted between 2015 and 2018 an 80-euro monthly bonus. It will be available to families with income of up to 90,000 euros a year, but all families with five or more kids will be able to apply for it no matter what their income.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Eight Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Analysts Indicted
On charges of ‘aggravated market manipulation’
(refiling with corrected lede — five S&P managers indicted not six)(ANSA) — Trani, October 28 — Prosecutors in the Puglia city of Trani indicted five managers and analysts from Standard & Poor’s and two analysts from Fitch ratings agencies Tuesday on charges of deliberately misleading financial markets with reports on Italy.
The two agencies have also been indicted in the lawsuit stemming from 2011-2012 reports questioning Italy’s creditworthiness and lowering its rating, sources said. The reports in question were issued between May 2011 and January 2012, at the height of the eurozone debt crisis when Italy looked to be in danger of a Greek-style financial meltdown.
They included a report issued on January 13, 2012, in which the United States-based S&P downgraded Italy’s sovereign debt rating by two notches from A to BBB+. That same day, S&P also lowered its rating on several Italian banks in findings that another employee at the ratings agency disagreed with in an email, seized by authorities and given to Trani prosecutor Michele Ruggiero. The defendants are charged with aggravated market manipulation to the detriment of a sovereign State and causing massive economic damage. Fitch denied the charges, echoed by S&P who called them “completely unfounded”. Complaints against S&P were initially raised by a group of 10 consumers and the Italian consumer association Adusbef, now a civil plaintiff in the suit. Prosecutors say at least four ratings reports were involved and allege these were deliberately aimed at distorting market opinion on the risks involved in buying Italian bonds as well as the viability of Italian efforts to deal with the crisis that hit sovereign bond markets extremely hard. Ratings by the influential international agencies have a significant effect on the cost of borrowing for businesses and government, and also have an impact on the size of government deficit and debt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Juncker’s €300bn is Beginning of ‘Fiscal Union’
BRUSSELS — European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s €300 billion investment plan is laying the ground for a fiscal union although no one dares call it such yet, according to a top EU official.
Juncker’s idea to use €300 billion to kickstart the EU’s economy has generated a lot of headlines although it remains unclear where the money will come from.
“If we are honest we will say publicly that this money either has to be printed or transferred,” Andor said, as “repainting” money will not save the EU from stagnation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Army Fitness Standards for Fat ‘Cyber Warriors’ May Change as U.S. Waistlines Grow
The U.S. Army’s recruitment pool keeps getting bigger — around the waistline — a reality that is forcing its top brass to consider relaxing fitness standards for future “cyber warriors.”
Maj. Gen. Allen Batschelet, commanding general for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., recently spoke of the challenges recruiters face in a nation where 70 percent of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lawmaker Claims Plans May be in Pipeline to Bring Non-Citizens to US for Ebola Treatment
A top Republican congressman claims the Obama administration is exploring plans to bring non-U.S. citizens infected with Ebola to the United States for treatment.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News that his office has received “information from within the administration” that these plans are being developed. So far, only American Ebola patients have been brought back to the U.S. for treatment from the disease epicenter in West Africa.
Goodlatte warned that expanding that policy could put the country at more risk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pocket-Sized Surveillance Drone Unveiled by Robotics Company
Robotics company CyPhy Works has a new pocket-sized surveillance drone created for U.S.military personnel deployed throughout the world. CyPhy Works was awarded a contract with the U.S. Air Force earlier this year to help improve search and rescue operations. Video of its functional prototype was recently uploaded to YouTube.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Surprise! Methane Ice Cloud Floats High Above Saturn’s Moon Titan
In a celestial surprise, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has identified a cloud of methane ice high in the stratosphere of Saturn’s huge moon Titan.
“The idea that methane clouds could form this high on Titan is completely new,” study lead author Carrie Anderson, a Cassini participating scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. “Nobody considered that possible before.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Danger of Lone Wolf Jihadis Among Us
The final weeks of October 2014 were devastating for America. We had lone wolf jihadis in Ottawa and Montreal killing and wounding Canada Forces service personnel. In New York we had a Muslim convert and former US Navy serviceman shot dead in the midst of a deadly hatchet attack on two NYPD officers in Queens. All three appeared to be operating below the radar screen of surveillance inspired by Islamic State jihadist social media imploring Salafist brethren in the West to mount attacks on uniformed military and law enforcement officers. These were so-called ‘citizen jihadists’ wreaking havoc against any means of law enforcement stopping them from their spectacular suicidal missions. There is a coming Detroit federal court trial on November 4, 2014 against a naturalized US citizen, Rasmieh Odeh. She was a member of a Palestinian terror group, who lied on her application about a prior conviction and incarceration in Israel for a 1969 bombing in Jerusalem that killed two university students.
To answer questions about what drives lone wolf Jihadis undertaking such murderous acts, The Lisa Benson Show on Sunday, October 26, 2014 heard from three prominent experts. They noted US terrorism expert Steven Emerson, executive director of Washington, DC-based , The Investigative Project, ,Ottawa-based David B. Harris Canadian consultant on Islamic terrorism and former official at Canada’s Security and Intelligence Service, and Dr. Michael Welner, founder of the Manhattan based, The Forensic Panel, a noted US Forensic Psychiatrist frequently called as an prosecution witness in mass killing and terrorist cases. Dr.. Welner was joined by his mother, a holocaust survivor and trained gerontology nurse who presented her views noting their participation in the recent protest of the Met Opera production of The Death of Klinghoffer. This was more information for our listeners packed into 43 minutes of air time than many two hour cable TV documentaries.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
UC Berkeley Students Seek to Block Bill Maher Speech
Comedian Bill Maher is scheduled to be the speaker at UC Berkeley’s mid-year commencement, but some students, who object to what they allege to be his anti-Muslim statements, are asking administrators to rescind the invitation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Soldier Funeral Draws Thousands
Corporal Nathan Cirillo one of two killed by jihadi
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — The funeral of a soldier killed by a home-grown jihadi last week drew thousands to the Canadian city of Hamilton Tuesday.
Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, was one of two soldiers killed by recent domestic converts to Islamism in attacks on government buildings last week.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
On October 22, 2014, shortly after Corporal Nathan Cirillo was killed by a jihadist on Parliament Hill, Ottawa Police Chief Bordeleau sent a message to Muslim leaders in the city to reassure them and invite them to contact the Ottawa Police Service if they fear “backlash.”
Sikander Hashmi, the Imam of the Kanata Muslim Association, acknowledged receiving the message from the Ottawa Police Chief and reproduced it on Twitter (also Archive.Today).
JihadWatch archived Hashmi’s Twitter message and added the following comments:…
| — Hat tip: Valerie Price | [Return to headlines] |
14 Armed Teens Arrested in France After Wave of Clown Terror
14 teenagers dressed as clowns were arrested in the south of France on Saturday after arming themselves with knives, baseball bats and pistols and intimidating local residents, according to French police.
The incident is the latest in a wave of incidents featuring people in clown costume which has been sweeping France since early October. In Montpellier a man dressed as a clown was arrested after assaulting a man with an iron bar.
Many of these ‘clowns’ have been sighted outside schools and a source from the police force in northern France told AFP that the “targets are often young children or teenagers”. In Bethune last week a man was given a suspended six-month jail sentence for chasing minors down the street dressed as a clown while brandishing a stick at them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Aging Spain: Population to Fall 5 Million by 2064
Spain’s population will shrink by 5.6 million in the next 50 years with much of the population aged over 65 and living alone, new official forecasts released on Tuesday warn.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria’s Creative Bookkeeping Beats Greece on Secret Debts
Austria’s finance ministers have repeatedly scolded fellow euro-area nations for not doing their “homework.” Now the Alpine nation was embarrassingly chided itself for its habit of creative accounting.
The European Union’s chief statisticians made Austria add 29 billion euros ($36 billion) to its debt ledgers, making it the region’s biggest loser of tightened data rules, with an adjustment topping the one slapped on Greece’s wayward bookkeepers in 2010.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: ‘Jihadist’ 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested
On Tuesday evening, a 14-year-old boy was arrested in Lower Austria as a suspected jihadist.
Michaela Schnell, director of public prosecution for St. Pölten, confirmed the arrest Tuesday, reported the Austrian Press Agency (APA.)
A source reported that the boy was actively seeking to connect with other jihadists, and had plotted to blow up Vienna’s Westbahnhof railway station.
The boy was confirmed to be an Austrian citizen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Deaths Outstrip Births in Southern Italy in 2013
177,000 babies born last year, lowest since 1861
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — The number of deaths exceeded births in southern Italy in 2013, raising the spectre of a “demographic upheaval” with “unforeseeable consequences”, the Association for the Industrial Development of Southern Italy (SVIMEZ) said in a report published Tuesday.
Deaths had outstripped births in the region on only two previous occasions, after the third Italian War of Independence in 1867 and after the First World War in 1918, SVIMEZ said. In absolute terms 177,000 babies were born in southern Italy in 2013, the lowest number since the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. According to SVIMEZ estimates, southern Italy is set to lose 4.2 million inhabitants over the next 50 years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: ‘Racist’ Swedish Art Opens to Protests in CPH
The display of artwork by Swedish provocateur Dan Park has been under heavy discussion for nearly a month. On Monday, nine of Park’s banned works were shown in a basement in Østerbro despite protests.
The much-debated pictures of Malmö-based street artist Dan Park finally made their public debut on Monday.
An exhibition of Park’s nine works that were banned in Sweden and ordered to be destroyed by the Swedish state were displayed in a basement location in the Copenhagen district of Østerbro.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Demonstration Taking Place Today Against Dan Park Exhibition
The non-profit organisation African Empowerment Center (AEC) has organised a demonstration today against the controversial pictures by the Swedish artist Dan Park.
The demonstration will take place today from 16:00-18:00 at Rosendalsgade 15 in Østerbro to protest against the freedom-of-press organisation, Trykkefirhedsselskabet, which has decided to exhibit the pictures.
“Free speech is great, but not everything that is said needs to be repeated or amplified,” Solomon E Lyttle, the British owner of Black Pop Contemporary Art Gallery on Gyldenløvesgade in Copenhagen, told the Copenhagen Post.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Far-Right Clashes With Police in Cologne
Over 4000 far-right protesters and hooligans from various groups clashed with police in the German city of Cologne on Sunday, as they gathered to protest against radical Islam. Out of the 45 people injured, 44 were policemen, The Local reports. A counter-demonstration by around 500 people gathered peacefully nearby.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Marine Le Pen Pelted With Rocks While Driving
The head of France’s anti-immigrant, anti-EU National Front party was pelted with rocks as she drove in the Paris suburbs by a group of young men. Witnesses told police she was “targeted,” according to media reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gas-Spewing Icelandic Volcano Stuns Scientists
Sulphur-rich eruption defies preparations for an ashy blast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Silencing the Critics of Munich’s Mega-Mosque
by Soeren Kern
A court in Bavaria, the largest state in Germany, has reaffirmed that it is lawful for the government to spy on citizens who are opposed to the construction of a controversial mega-mosque in Munich.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Hooligans Want to March in Berlin and Hamburg
Further far-right protests, of the kind seen in Cologne on Sunday, are being planned in Berlin and Hamburg, leading to fears of violence spreading to other cities.
The “Hooligans against Salafists” group is also planning a demonstration on November 15th in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. City politicians are looking to ban the protest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Reaction to Cologne Far-Right Protests
Pundits, politicians and police chiefs have all been sticking their oar into the debate over how to deal with the unholy alliance of drunken thugs and far-right politics which came to a head in Cologne on Sunday.
If you listen to Rainer Wendt, president of the German Police Union (DPolG), then the confrontations between hooligans and police in Cologne, in which 44 officers were injured, was a success story.
“There was very good intelligence about these people and the police were in place to deal with any problems,” he told The Local.
Wendt sees intelligence as the key to maintaining order in cities as tensions mount between different groups, stoked by conflicts in the Middle East.
Recent weeks have seen huge brawls between different groups including Muslim fundamentalists, Kurds and Yazidi in cities including Hamburg, Celle and elsewhere.
“We have to gather more information, observe them better,” Wendt argues.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Moroccan Mum ‘May Have’ Murdered Kids Then Hung Herself
Hospitalized husband gives conflicting accounts
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — A Moroccan woman who was found hanging in her bathroom Monday may have killed two of her children in a premeditated act before committing suicide, investigators said.
However forensics cautioned that only the autopsies on the bodies of Khadija El Fatkhan, 42, and those of her two children, who had been stabbed to death, will ascertain the time of death for each and therefore the sequence of events.
The deaths were said to have occurred Sunday night.
Her husband, 43-year-old Idris Jeddou, was hospitalized with a stab wound to the abdomen on Sunday.
He initially told police he had been wounded in an attempted robbery, but on Tuesday changed his story and told police his wife attacked him his sleep.
A third child remains hospitalized in critical condition after surviving the attack that claimed her siblings’ lives.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Turin Archbishop Says Separate Buses for Roma No Solution
Officials in northern Italy suggest segregated transit
(ANSA) — Turin, October 28 — A proposal to set up a specific bus for Roma people to separate them from the general transit population in a town in northern Italy is “provocative” and doesn’t solve the problem of safety on public transport, the archbishop of Turin said Tuesday.
Monsignor Cesare Nosiglia was responding to suggestions made by officials last week in Borgaro, just outside Turin, that Roma people, known also as Gypsies, should be segregated on transit following reports of attacks on other passengers.
The proposal came from Mayor Claudio Gambino, of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the city councillor for transportation Luigi Spinelli of the left wing SEL.
Citizens complained about a specific bus that passes by a massive illegal camp where Roma live.
“The way forward to address the problem is to start with the people involved,” said Nosiglia.
Roma people need to teach their children about what is and isn’t legal, while non-Romas must be more willing to accept people of different backgrounds, said Nosiglia.
“We need more willingness to accept others, because when people see themselves as rejected or marginalized, that can manifest itself in wrong attitudes,” he added.
In June, Pope Francis spoke out against the “scorn” he has witnessed towards the Roma people, and urged local and national institutions to help integrate them into society, while acknowledging that Roma too must play their part.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Cuts Subsidies to Seal Hunters
The Norwegian government is set to cut 12 million kroner of economic support for seal hunters, which could see the industry in jeopardy, warned critics of the move on Sunday. The Centre Party of Norway believes the government has bowed to pressure from the EU and extreme animal rights groups. They also argue the proposed budget cut will have consequences for the seal hunting industry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway to Spend Millions on US-Style Halloween
Norwegians will this year spend around 260 million kroner ($40 million) on Halloween celebrations, according to one of Norway’s top business organizations.
The average Norwegian is set to spend 50 kroner per adult, or just under 300 kroner per child aged between 4 and 15 years old. And it is families with children who are the most eager to celebrate Halloween. The money is spent on costumes, candy and decorations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi-Funded NGO Under Scrutiny in Austria
The Austrian government has said it will be observing the activities of a Saudi-funded centre in Vienna, which is supposed to foster inter-religious dialogue, before extending its contract next year.
Chancellor Werner Faymann (SPÖ) said the issue was to find if the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) was really meeting its objectives of promoting inter-religious dialogue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Car Bomb’ Shakes Central Malmö
A suspected car bomb went off in the central streets of Malmö on Monday night. Police said no one was injured in the blast, but the car was written off, and two other nearby cars were damaged. “This was most likely some form of a detonation inside the car,” Maya Forstenius of the local police told the TT news agency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Could See Return to Military Service
A return to compulsory military service is being considered by Sweden’s new Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist, four years after the policy was scrapped.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Hit ‘Unacceptable Low’ With Rotherham Child Abuse Poster Campaign
Ukip have been accused of exploiting the trauma felt by victims of the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal to help their campaign in winning an upcoming police commissioner election.
The posters, which will be displayed across South Yorkshire until the PCC election on 30 October, accuses Labour of failing the victims of the child sex abuse scandal in the area and suggests there are “1,400 reasons why you should not trust Labour again”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Genes May be Responsible for One in 10 Serious Crimes
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden believe they have found which genes are responsible for high levels of rage and violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Zaia Says U.S. Troops From Ebola Zone Shouldn’t be in Italy
Veneto governor to tell ambassador that Vicenza wrong place
(ANSA) — Venice, October 28 — Soldiers from the United States facing quarantine for possible Ebola contamination should be held in isolation at home and not in Italy, the governor of Italy’s northern Veneto region said Tuesday.
Luca Zaia said that troops returning from the African state of Liberia to the US military base near Vicenza, 60 kilometers west of Venice, should not be quarantined there but should instead be transferred back to America.
A group of US soldiers returning home from Liberia, one of the countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak, has been placed in isolation in Italy, CNN and CBS News said Monday.
Zaia said he would raise the issue with the US ambassador to Italy and possibly other American officials.
“We confirm our friendship with the United States, to which we remain absolutely faithful, but it would be more respectful if troops that have returned from Liberia are quarantined in their home and not in Veneto, even if they are stationed in Vicenza,” said Zaia. The governor said he was concerned because it was not clear how many US troops may ultimately return to the Vicenza base from African nations.
“It is a matter of principle, for the good of the area,” he added.
According to media reports, the US soldiers returning from Liberia will have to stay in the American military base in Vicenza for 21 days, which is the Ebola virus incubation period.
They will be monitored and will have no contact with their families, CNN reported. The Pentagon said they are being isolated as a precautionary measure after assignments such as building health facilities in Liberia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EuroMed: Anna Lindh Foundation Marks 10 Years in Naples
(ANSAmed) NAPLES — To mark the Anna Lindh Foundation’s 10th Anniversary and to discuss the years to come, representatives from the 42 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean are meeting for three days in Naples.
The conference, which is taking place during the Italian six-month EU presidency, will focus on the role of civil society in dealing with social crises and violence in the region. At the Fondazione Mediterraneo (FM) headquarters, 250 delegates including political leaders, representatives of associations and local institutions will be exchanging proposals and seeking ways to coordinate efforts at the international level to ‘‘write a new chapter in Euro-Mediterranean dialogue’’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Hosts Event on European Satellite Navigation Systems
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN — Jordan hosted an ambitious Euromed regional event on satellite navigation (Global Navigation Satellite Systems — GNSS), particularly the European GNSS (E-GNSS) to promote the use of this modern technology for freight and road transport.
A “case study” in Jordan on satellite tracking and container tracing across the Mediterranean sea was discussed during the event, providing participants with a rare opportunity to examine the practical use of the technology and means to move forward, according to organizers.
“Such an event confirms and proves this and enables to give Jordan the important role of pioneer of these European technologies,” said organizers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the occasion of its 10th Anniversary, the Anna Lindh Foundation is holding from 27 to 30 October, a Conference in Napoli, under the Italian Presidency of the EU, to address the role of civil society in facing social crises and unprecedented violence in the region.
EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood, Štefan Füle, addressed participants today opening the high-level debate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Getting ‘Very Close’ To Point of No Return: U.N. Envoy
(Reuters) — Factional warfare in Libya is pushing the oil producer “very close to the point of no return”, the U.N. special envoy to the country said on Tuesday, commenting on flagging efforts to bring about a ceasefire and political dialogue.
The North African country has had two governments and parliaments since an armed militia from the western city of Misrata seized the capital Tripoli in August, setting up its own cabinet and assembly.
The internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni had to move 1,000 km (625 miles) to the east where the elected House of Representatives is also now working, effectively splitting the vast desert nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestine has been, and still is, a sui generis case of co-operation. Between 2007 and 2013 there has been no National Indicative Programme for Palestine and programming has been done on an annual basis, aligning to the priorities expressed by the Palestinian Authority in its National Development Plans (2008-2010 and 2011-2013), according to the DG EuropeAid report “European Neighbourhood Instrument 2007-2013 — Overview of Activities and Results”, recently released.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Kerry, Qatar and the Poisonous Tree
It would be interesting to know which Arab leaders are telling US Secretary of State John Kerry that the absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians is “a cause of recruitment” to Islamic State.
Is that something he is hearing from Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani? The Qatari leader, whose kingdom has been cited by the US Treasury Department as a major funder of Islamic State (IS), is certainly one of Kerry’s favorite regional leaders.
If Thani did blame Israel for the rise of IS, then his statement would constitute yet another instance of the double game Qatar has been playing with the Americans. On the one hand, the regime is financing jihad, and other the other hand, it pretends to side with the West against the jihad that it is funding.
This is certainly the case in Jerusalem.
According to an investigative report published Friday in Yisrael Hayom , Qatar is financing the violence in the capital. Veteran Jerusalem affairs reporter Nadav Shragai wrote that the Islamic rioters who daily attack Jewish visitors and police forces on the Temple Mount are paid by Qatar through the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
“Call it Jihad: ‘Terrorism’ Just Doesn’t Define This Threat”
by Clare M. Lopez
It’s time to call this what it is: Jihad.
Jihad is a unique descriptor: it is motivated solely by one ideology—an Islamic one. It encompasses any and all tactics of war, be they the kinetic violence of terrorism, the stealthy influence operations of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian intelligence agencies, or funding, speaking, teaching, and writing. Importantly, the term ‘jihad’ is the one used by its own practitioners—the clerics, scholars, and warriors of Islam. Arguably the most valid qualification of all is that Islamic Law (shariah) defines jihad as “warfare to spread the religion (Islam).” Warfare encompasses many things, though, and not all of them are violent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Court Bans Main Opposition Movement Just Before Elections
A court in Manama has ordered the country’s main Shiite opposition group to suspend its actitivies for three months. Elections are due to take place in a few weeks in the Arab kingdom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Connections Between Turkey’s AKP and ISIS?
by Michael Rubin
When the Turkish parliament voted to authorize the use of force in Syria and Iraq, American and, indeed, most foreign media misconstrued the content of the resolution to suggest that Turkey would target the Islamic State (ISIS). In reality, if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could rank his desired targets, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime would be at the top of the list, followed by the Syrian Kurds such as those who live in Kobane, and ISIS would be a distant third. Indeed, there is much reason to doubt Turkish commitment to counter ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jihad Girls Gunpoint Retraction of Desire to Go Home
Austrian anti-terrorism police believe that an interview given to a French magazine allegedly with one of the two teenage girls who fled to Syria to join in the jihad was probably carried out at gunpoint.
Samra Kesinovic, 17, and her friend Sabina Selimovic, 15, left the Austrian capital Vienna in April this year, leaving a note for their parents explaining that they had gone to fight in Syria, a decision believed to be influenced by their recent radicalisation through a local mosque.
But the later claim that they wanted to leave and come back to Austria had reportedly infuriated ISIS leaders waging a constant propaganda war to win new talent. According to anti-terrorism police in the girls’ homeland it is almost certain that they would have been ordered to retract anything they had said to keep the flow of recruits coming.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordanian Al Qaeda ‘Spiritual Guide’ Detained on Suspicion of Incitement
AMMAN — Security forces arrested Al Qaeda spiritual guide Abu Mohammad Al Maqdisi on Monday on suspicion of inciting terrorism on the Internet, security sources said.
They said Maqdisi was ordered detained for 15 days after he was called in for questioning by the State Security Court prosecutor, and was initially charged with “using the Internet to promote and incite views of jihadist terrorist organisations”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait Emir Says Falling Oil Price Hurting Economy
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — Kuwait’s ruler warned Tuesday that declines in the oil price were damaging the economy of the energy-rich Gulf state, urging lawmakers to “stop squandering resources” and to diversify revenues.
“We are witnessing a new cycle of low oil prices as a result of economic and political factors that have hit the global economy and started to negatively impact our national economy,” Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said in a speech to open the new parliamentary term.
The emir called on the government and parliament to “safeguard our oil and fiscal wealth”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Gunmen Attack Hospital ‘Over Body Hair’
A hospital patient in Lebanon called for members of his clan to open fire on the building, because a doctor wanted to shave his body hair, it’s been reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Emir to Face Questions on Militant Funding on UK State Visit
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is expected to reject allegations that his country is funding Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants during a three-day state visit to Britain which began on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Expert Highlights “Surge” In Executions in Iran
A UN human rights investigator has lamented a recent rise in executions in Iran. His report comes in the wake of a woman being hanged for the murder of a man who allegedly tried to rape her.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Says Will Recognise East Ukraine ‘Election’
‘To legitimise authorities there’ says Lavrov
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — Russia said Tuesday it will recognise the results of controversial separatist elections in eastern Ukraine on November 2.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions “will be important to legitimise the authorities there”.
Ukraine and Western governments say the elections should not go ahead. They accuse Russia of arming the rebels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Punished for Being Raped and for Accusing Rapists: Women’s Burden Under Sharia
by Phyllis Chesler
ISIS has just be-headed a woman in Baquba because she dared to resist being raped. In the process of struggling to defend herself, she actually killed her would-be rapist, an ISIS warrior. The woman was at home recovering from a medical illness.
This is precisely the crime that led to Reyhaneh Jabbari’s execution in Iran at dawn this past Saturday—except that the Iranian regime first jailed and tortured her for five years. Her life might have been spared if her victim’s family had forgiven her, but that did not happen. Her would-be rapist was a former member of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry.
And thus we learn that under Sharia law the penalty for resisting rape is torture and death for women.
What happens when a woman does not or cannot resist being raped?
In 2008, in Somalia, 13-year old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was accused of adultery (“zina”—in her case, sex outside of marriage). She had reported being gang-raped to the controlling jihadist group there, al-Shabab. The very act of accusing her rapists condemned her— but not her rapists— to a brutal death-by-stoning at the hands of fifty men. She begged for mercy, crying out up until the moment of her death.
Sharia courts in Pakistan have punished thousands of raped women who dared accuse their attacker of the crime with long term imprisonment. Bangladesh has flogged, beaten, and imprisoned raped women.
Families of rape victims in Afghanistan have honor-murdered their daughters for the shame of having been raped. Most recently, in 2014, one ten-year-old victim who was raped by a mullah in a mosque was saved, temporarily, by an Afghan and international woman’s group which has, so far, successfully persuaded her family not to kill her.
We have all heard about Aisha Bibi or Muhktar Mai, who reported her more powerful Pakistani gang-rapists and managed to get some convicted. She lives with permanent death threats—she also shelters other such rape victims and their families. A very powerful opera has been written and performed about her bravery.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Attacks on Afghan Capital Surge in New President’s First Month in Office
Suicide bombers, roadside bombs and rocket attacks on the Afghan capital have intensified in the one month since President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai took office as the Taliban are sending a message that they disapprove of his tough stance on ending the insurgency and close security ties with Washington, officials, analysts and the Taliban said.
According to an Associated Press tally, there have been at least 10 incidents in Kabul since Ghani Ahmadzai’s inauguration on Sept. 29, killing 27 people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Outbreak Will Hit China, Virus Pioneer Peter Piot Warns
One of the scientists who discovered Ebola has warned that China is under threat from the deadly virus because of the huge number of Chinese workers in Africa.
Professor Peter Piot also made the grim prediction that Ebola would claim thousands more lives in the months ahead.
“It will get worse for a while, and then hopefully it will get better when people are isolated,” said Piot, who is in Hong Kong for a two-day symposium. “What we see now is every 30 days there is a doubling of new infections.”
He estimated the epidemic would last another six to 12 months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former Teacher Jack Ma is China’s Richest Man
Entrepreneurs from the technology sector dominate this year’s list of the richest Chinese, compiled by Forbes magazine. And no one is quite as affluent as the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong Protesters Mark One Month of ‘Umbrella Movement’
Hong Kong democracy activists on Tuesday marked one month of mass protests by unfurling a sea of umbrellas as student leaders called for direct talks with Beijing officials, the first time such a request has been made.
At an evening rally at the main protest camp, thousands raised umbrellas to mark the moment a month ago when police fired tear gas at largely peaceful crowds — kickstarting the most concerted challenge to Beijing since the bloody 1989 Tiananmen protests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top China Official Admits to Taking Massive Bribes
Former senior military officer Xu Caihou has confessed he took bribes to help others get promoted, according to Chinese state media. He is the most senior official to be caught in China’s crackdown on corruption.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Outbreak: Australia Denies Visas From Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
Australia came under fire on Tuesday from health experts and rights advocates after it issued a blanket ban on visas from West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak, making it the first rich nation to shut its doors to the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Freedom Party Demands Special Asylum Session
Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) is calling for a special parliamentary session on the current chaos associated with floods of asylum seekers entering the country, as well as concerns over Islamization.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boat Migrants in EU’s Hands as Italy Weighs Future of Rescue Mission
The EU will launch a patrol mission in the Mediterranean on Saturday amid warnings the number of boat migrant deaths could rise with Italy mulling pulling the plug on its own rescue mission.
To complicate matters further, Britain said Tuesday it won’t support the planned EU search and rescue operation, arguing it will create an unintended “pull factor” for more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossings,
The combined efforts of the Italian navy and coast guard have saved over 150,000 men, women and children attempting the perilous crossing from the coasts of North Africa this year so far.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Foreigners Show More Life Satisfaction Than Italians, Study
Foreign women, young people happiest with their lot
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — Italy’s resident foreign population is happier with its lot than Italians according to a study carried out by the national statistics institute Istat on behalf of the government’s equal opportunities department and published Tuesday. Some 60.8% of foreigners gave their life satisfaction a score of eight or more out of 10, compared to 37.2% of Italians.
Foreign women and young foreigners were the most satisfied, the study showed. Some 28.7% of foreigners gave job satisfaction a score of eight points, 9.8% a score of nine and 20.1% a score of 10.
Philippine nationals and Moldovans showed the greatest satisfaction with their work in Italy while Chinese and Ukrainians showed the least.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France, UK Trade Blame Over Calais Migrant Crisis
The worsening migrant crisis at the French port town of Calais has raised tensions between the UK and France, prompting officials on both sides to accuse the other of not doing enough to tackle the influx.
The number of refugees arriving in Calais has risen sharply in recent weeks — from around 1,500 in August to around 2,300 today, according to police figures — and British leaders, worried about an avalanche of new migrants heading to the UK, are placing the blame squarely on France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Citizenship Reform to Affect 400,000 Children
More than 400,000 school children will be eligible for Italian citizenship under planned reforms, based on new government figures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Opposes Migrant Rescue Operations in Mediterranean Sea
Britain will not support an EU mission to cope with migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, according to the Foreign Office. The EU mission aims to fill a gap created as Italy scales back its national rescue operation.
Laying out London’s position, the British Foreign Office said on Tuesday that an EU rescue mission would simply encourage more migrants to attempt the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives so far this year.
“We believe that they create an unintended ‘pull factor,’ encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths,” Anelay said.
According to London, the most effective way to protect migrants is to crack down on human smugglers and combat trafficking at its source in the origin and transit countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Warns Spain Over Migrant Deportations
The United Nations on Tuesday warned Spain over planned changes to legislation allowing the country to instantly deport migrants who clamber border fences into its north African territories, saying Madrid could fall foul of international law.
“UNHCR is concerned over a proposal by Spain to legalize automatic returns of people trying to cross border fences into its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla,” said the UN refugee agency’s spokesman William Spindler.
The two Spanish cities — which are the only land borders between the European Union and Africa — have since 2013 seen a sharp increase in numbers of illegal immigrants aiming to head into Europe itself.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Apple’s Cook Criticizes Alabama Over Lack of Gay Rights
Tim Cook criticized his home state of Alabama for its civil rights record and lack of action to protect people based on their sexual orientation.
“As a state we took too long to take steps toward equality and once we began, our progress was too slow,” Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., said in a speech yesterday during his induction ceremony into the Alabama Academy of Honor. “Under the law citizens of Alabama can still be fired based on their sexual orientation. We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it, and we can create a different future.”
When Apple released a report in August that showed 70 percent of its U.S. employees were white or Asian, Cook said he was unsatisfied with the Cupertino, California-based company’s diversity and was working to make it more representative of the nation as a whole.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian LGBT People Among Europe’s Most Discriminated
Italy performs badly on offensive language, jokes, legislation
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 28 — People belonging to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Italy are among the most discriminated in Europe, according to a study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published Tuesday.
Some 54% of LGBT people in Italy said they suffered discrimination, putting the country ahead of only Lithuania, Croatia, Poland and Cyprus. Further, just 8% are always open about their sexual orientation as a result of the hostility, FRA said. Italy also performed badly with regard to the use by politicians of offensive language, everyday jokes and the absence of legislation upholding gay rights. The study was presented on the occasion of the first-ever high-level EU conference on LGBT rights called by the current Italian presidency of the Council of the EU in Brussels. “The EU has a clear responsibility to promote equality, respect and tolerance for everyone, including LGBT people,” said Italian Reforms Undersecretary Ivan Scalfarotto.
“With this important conference the Italian Presidency wants to show its commitment to working with our EU partners to combat LGBT discrimination and build a more inclusive society for all.” “Too often, too many LGBT people face discrimination and hostility for simply being themselves,” said FRA Director Morten Kjaerum. “The tide is changing and there has been positive momentum in many Member States. We must build on this. As the new European Parliament and Commission take office, the time is now ripe to put equality and non-discrimination of LGBT people back on the EU’s agenda”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Says He’s Not Communist, Just Following Gospel
Urgent need to revitalise democracies at grass roots says pope
(ANSA) — Vatican City, October 28 — Pope Francis said Tuesday he was not a Communist as some admirers and critics have suggested but simply following Jesus’s Gospel call to love the poor.
Francis said had been called “a Communist” for speaking of “land, work and housing” but “love for the poor is at the centre of the Gospel” and the Church’s social doctrine. The pontiff also spoke out in defence of workers’ rights, calling on grass-roots movements to “keep up the fight”. “It does us all good,” Francis said. “Let’s say together with our heart: no family without a roof, no peasant farmer without land, no worker without rights, no person without dignified labour!” the pope added.
Grass-roots movements “express the urgent need to revitalise our democracies, which are often held hostage by numerous factors”, Francis said.
It is “impossible” to imagine “a future for a society without the ‘protagonistic’ participation of the great majority” of people, the pope added. Francis urged an end to “paternalistic welfarism” as a condition for peace and justice and called for the creation of “new forms of participation that include the grass-roots movements” and their “stream of moral energy”. Since his election on March 13, 2013, the Argentine-born Francis has captured the imagination of billions of people with his simple, folksy style, happy smile, and his willingness to speak out on concrete issues of poverty, social justice and human rights.
The much-photographed pontiff has been recorded washing the feet of juvenile convicts, including young men, women, Muslims and Catholics; and embracing a man with a deformed face who braved the crowds that throng St. Peter’s Square these days to see the former archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Francis was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2013 for forceful moves to re-energize the Catholic Church, reform its management, widen its appeal, focus on social rather than doctrinal issues, and renew a drive against clerical sex abuse.
“He took the name of a humble saint and then called for a church of healing,” Time said on its cover, dubbing Francis “the people’s pope” who it says has already become a “superstar”.
Rolling Stone magazine has also put the 77-year-old Francis on its cover, saying “the times they are a-changing” amid Francis’s “gentle revolution”.
The pontiff also appeared on the cover of The Advocate, an American magazine focusing on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues.
Francis, who has forcefully rejected the superstar label — as well as a string of Pope-as-Superman frescoes by street artists — has also won converts for his reform plans for the Vatican Bank and willingness to accept individuals whose lifestyles have traditionally been condemned by the Church.
“He is quoted saying of women who consider abortion because of poverty or rape, ‘who can remain unmoved before such painful situations’?” noted Time magazine.
Of gay people, he said, “If a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge”.
A recent synod on the family in the Vatican was viewed with hope by those expecting it might approve Francis’s liberal statements.
But in the end it only obtained a simple majority — not the two-thirds required to change stances — on accepting gays and giving sacraments to divorced and remarried Catholics.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
When Porn Replaces Sex Education
With sex education often ignored in schools, Spanish teens are learning about the subject from online porn.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cold Moon Enceladus Has Heart of Warm Fluff
In the cold of space, a tiny moon is keeping warm with a fluffy heart. Enceladus, the pipsqueak of a world renowned for shooting huge watery plumes into space as it orbits Saturn, has a secret — a core that contradicts everything we thought we knew about the structure of planetary bodies.
“Enceladus has been surprising us all along,” Roberts says. “You’d think something the size of the North Sea would be cold and dead, but the Cassini spacecraft has been observing activity since it arrived.”
Roberts says several other bodies in the solar system — including Saturn’s moon Mimas, and the dwarf planet Ceres — could have similarly “fluffy” cores.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Evidence Builds for Dark Matter Explosions at the Milky Way’s Core
So far, dark matter has evaded scientists’ best attempts to find it. Astronomers know the invisible stuff dominates our universe and tugs gravitationally on regular matter, but they do not know what it is made of. Since 2009, however, suspicious gamma-ray light radiating from the Milky Way’s core—where dark matter is thought to be especially dense—has intrigued researchers. Some wonder if the rays might have been emitted in explosions caused by colliding particles of dark matter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Sonia Bailley
What would possess a man to take a hatchet and attempt to kill police in broad daylight (New York City)? Or mow down civilians (Jerusalem) or soldiers in uniform (Montreal suburb of St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu)? Or behead innocents at work (Oklahoma) or on the street (London, U.K.)? Or shoot unarmed soldiers with the intent of killing the country’s Prime Minister (Ottawa)? Western politicians are stumped, resorting to words like “senseless” or “madness”. However, the answer lies in the new and improved jihad strategy that is gaining traction throughout the world.
“The Call for Global Islamic Resistance”, written by al-Qaeda’s leading jihad theorist and strategic thinker Abu Musab al-Suri, an associate of Osama bin Laden, warns new jihadists not to make the same mistakes as before. Al-Suri, an expert in chemical warfare who was implicated in the 2004 Madrid and 2006 London bombings, advocates commitment to the Islamic ideology as opposed to any Islamic group.
Al Suri urges recruits to stay under the radar and decentralize by establishing “small, completely separate non-central cells so that they will not be linked” as they were before. These recruits must perform “Individual Terrorism Jihad” from wherever they are, including from western soil, in order to “awaken the spirit of jihad and resistance in Muslims”.
For lack of a better understanding, the mainstream media and many Western politicians attribute the cause of the recent attacks from this past week (including the two September beheadings in Oklahoma and the U.K.), to the random and deranged actions of lone wolves or madmen troubled by psychological issues; the insanity defense is often employed. These barbaric attacks have nothing to do with Islam, officials insist, despite the killers referring to the same source — that being jihad and Allah — to motivate their barbaric actions.
The global jihad 9/11-type strategy of spectacular, large-scale mass killing has been superseded by al-Suri’s strategy of individual, decentralized, small-scale, Lee Rigby-style operations where recruits are advised to utilize any kind of weapon. The establishment of small-cell terrorism was in reaction to improved Western counterterrorism measures that threatened the existence of jihadi terrorist groups.
The goal of these small cells was to remain undetected while bringing the operating government “to the point of security exhaustion, political confusion, and also economic exhaustion”, until eventually the government topples. It’s no wonder al-Suri’s book is referred to as the textbook of homegrown terrorism, the online Jihadi Mein Kampf.
The tremendous influence wielded by al-Suri’s jihadi teachings becomes quite apparent in the recent rants of Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani. He orders his followers to kill unbelievers “in any manner or way, however it might be… smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him or poison him.”
Muslim terrorists across the world are doing just that: they are using anything that passes for a weapon on anyone who happens to be around. Officials are still referring to them as lone wolves, or sometimes, if they dare, will refer to them as lone wolf “terrorists”.
But these so-called lone wolves are all motivated by the same jihad ideology, and are all part of the universal Islamic community (ummah) that is obligated to obey the call to jihad, as mandated in the Koran and other highly venerated root sources of Islamic doctrine.
The attackers only appear to be acting alone in order to avoid detection, as instructed by al-Suri, but they are all linked by a common mutual goal to subjugate unbelievers and enforce sharia law in a universal caliphate.
Furthermore, the individual terrorists who waged the recent inhuman attacks are neither disturbed nor mad. Their violence is ideologically-based: they are doing whatever it takes to fulfill the religious obligation of jihad. They are simply acting in accordance with the Koran. Western politicians are baffled by this, while the rest of us can’t help observing, along with Shakespeare, that: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”
Now that the Islamic State has declared its new caliphate (an Islamic state ruled by sharia law) in Syria and Iraq, the call for jihad has become a caterwaul of warlike zeal and offensive aggression, just as it did at the time of the caliphate (632 AD) when an offensive jihad was waged to expand Islamic territory.
With the re-establishment of the caliphate, offensive jihad is once again on the menu, and is being waged not only against non-Muslim countries that were conquered and became part of the original caliphate (like Spain, Israel), but also against those countries that were not part of that caliphate (like the U.S., Canada, or the U.K.). Hence, the rise in jihad terror attacks worldwide.
There are three things to remember:
These killings are not senseless — attackers usually target uniformed guardians of the state and, even when caught, soak up huge state resources that clog up the system as a result of misguided attempts to deal with them by way of policing operations (prison, court, and legal fees).
These killers are neither lone nor mad — they follow, and are linked by, Islamic doctrine which calls for every kind of violence, particularly killing against the unbelievers until they convert, pay the jizya (Islamic taxes) and accept permanent subjugation as dhimmis, or die.
These killings are not random — the individual terror attacks are merely a change in fighting tactics, away from overt activities of terrorist groups towards covert activities of terrorist individuals linked by the common Islamic goals. The reason for this change of strategy was to escape detection, disruption and infiltration by Western counterterrorism operations that possess leading-edge technology.
This evolution of strategy has been laid down by Islamic theorists, like Abu Musab al-Suri, to confuse and disable Western intelligence and security apparatuses. The sad thing is that the West’s main chance of succeeding comes from the inaction and apathy of its leaders. It is forbidden to realize what is really going on when certain words are being expunged from Western vocabulary, like jihad and Islamic terrorism. What people can do, is refuse to have the wool pulled over their eyes by submissive politicians and Muslim apologists.
We are at war with a new generation of jihadists.
What would possess a man to take a hatchet and attempt to kill police in broad daylight (New York City)? Or mow down civilians (Jerusalem) or soldiers in uniform (Montreal suburb of St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu)? Or behead innocents at work (Oklahoma) or on the street (London, U.K.)? Or shoot unarmed soldiers with the intent of killing the country’s Prime Minister (Ottawa)? Western politicians are stumped, resorting to words like “senseless” or “madness”. However, the answer lies in the new and improved jihad strategy that is gaining traction throughout the world.
“The Call for Global Islamic Resistance”, written by al-Qaeda’s leading jihad theorist and strategic thinker Abu Musab al-Suri, an associate of Osama bin Laden, warns new jihadists not to make the same mistakes as before. Al-Suri, an expert in chemical warfare who was implicated in the 2004 Madrid and 2006 London bombings, advocates commitment to the Islamic ideology as opposed to any Islamic group.
Al Suri urges recruits to stay under the radar and decentralize by establishing “small, completely separate non-central cells so that they will not be linked” as they were before. These recruits must perform “Individual Terrorism Jihad” from wherever they are, including from western soil, in order to “awaken the spirit of jihad and resistance in Muslims”.
For lack of a better understanding, the mainstream media and many Western politicians attribute the cause of the recent attacks from this past week (including the two September beheadings in Oklahoma and the U.K.), to the random and deranged actions of lone wolves or madmen troubled by psychological issues; the insanity defense is often employed. These barbaric attacks have nothing to do with Islam, officials insist, despite the killers referring to the same source — that being jihad and Allah — to motivate their barbaric actions.
The global jihad 9/11-type strategy of spectacular, large-scale mass killing has been superseded by al-Suri’s strategy of individual, decentralized, small-scale, Lee Rigby-style operations where recruits are advised to utilize any kind of weapon. The establishment of small-cell terrorism was in reaction to improved Western counterterrorism measures that threatened the existence of jihadi terrorist groups.
The goal of these small cells was to remain undetected while bringing the operating government “to the point of security exhaustion, political confusion, and also economic exhaustion”, until eventually the government topples. It’s no wonder al-Suri’s book is referred to as the textbook of homegrown terrorism, the online Jihadi Mein Kampf.
The tremendous influence wielded by al-Suri’s jihadi teachings becomes quite apparent in the recent rants of Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani. He orders his followers to kill unbelievers “in any manner or way, however it might be… smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him or poison him.”
Muslim terrorists across the world are doing just that: they are using anything that passes for a weapon on anyone who happens to be around. Officials are still referring to them as lone wolves, or sometimes, if they dare, will refer to them as lone wolf “terrorists”…
| [Return to headlines] |
Massive Flares Erupt From Largest Sunspot in 25 Years
A massive solar eruption on 26 October was the sixth large flare since 19 October, all emanating from one gigantic sunspot called AR 12192. Measuring 129,000 kilometres across, it’s the largest sunspot since 1990. For comparison, that’s a spot 10 times the diameter of Earth. Does it pose dangers to us?
Earth’s atmosphere protects life on the surface from space weather, but the radiation from powerful flares can disrupt GPS and radio communications.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will they be hearing from the UN HUMAN RIGHTS pansies or AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL?