A Somali Muslim teenager named Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein was deliberately run over yesterday evening by the driver of an SUV outside the Somali Center of Kansas City. The victim later died of his injuries. The suspected assailant was another Somali named Ahmed Aden. Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime because Mr. Aden is said to be a Christian.
In other news, a man stabbed four people, including a conductor, on an Amtrak train in Niles, Michigan. The only description given of the suspect was that he was from Saginaw.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, ESW, Fjordman, Insubria, Phyllis Chesler, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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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.
Eurostat: GDP OK in 3rd Quarter in Romania, Poland, Slovenia
But decrease in Austria (-0.3%) and Cyprus (-0.4%)
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — According to Eurostat, Romania (+ 1.8 %) , Poland (+ 0.9%), Greece and Slovenia (both + 0.7 % , just like the UK) are the countries in the New Europe (EU members) which recorded a stronger growth in GDP during the third quarter of 2014, compared to the previous quarter of this year. According to the estimates released by the Statistical Office of the European Union, only three countries (EU members) have recorded a quarter-on-quarter decrease in GDP: Italy (-0.1%), Cyprus (-0.4%) and Austria (-0.3%). At EU level, the GDP with seasonal adjustment grew by 0.3 % in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, by 0.2% in the eurozone. In a year-on-year comparison, between third quarter of 2013 and third quarter of 2014, growth was by 1.3% in the Eurozone and by 0.8% in the whole EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: 75% of Pensioners Opt for Early Retirement
Sustainability of pension system at risk
(ANSA) — ATHENS — Three in every four pensioners in Greece have managed to secure early retirement, inflicting a major blow to the sustainability of the country’s pension system as daily Kathimerini online reports. Data presented on Wednesday by Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis showed that about 75% of public sector and IKA pensioners have taken early retirement, benefiting from various legal provisions that allow them to stop working before the age of 61 years.
“In the public sector 7.91% of pensioners retire between the ages of 26 and 50, 23.64% between 51 and 55, and 43.53% between 56 and 61,” Vroutsis told a parliamentary committee. “In the Social Security Foundation (IKA), 4.44% of pensioners retire between the ages of 26 and 50, 12.83% retire between 51 and 55, and 58.61% retire between 56 and 61. In the so-called healthy funds, 91.6% of people retire before the national age of retirement,” added Vroutsis.
Responding to pressing questions by deputies in Parliament, Vroutsis said that the special regulations mentioned above would not be abolished on his watch. “We will not force families to reverse the plans they have made,” the minister said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Half of Italians Believe Spending Cuts Hit Healthcare Access
Fear deficit controls mean new inequalities in healthcare
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Half of Italians, some 50.2% of those surveyd, believe that austerity measures and other government policies enacted in recent years have increased inequalities in healthcare, Censis said Friday.
The Italian socio-economic research firm found the fear that public healthcare spending cuts, government budget spending reviews and the containment of regional budgets are driving those who can afford it toward private sector options.
Private healthcare spending rose from 29.6 billion euros in 2007 to 31.4 billion euros in 2013, according to Censis’ 48th report on the state of Italy, released Friday.
New inequalities have joined the resurrection of old ones, thanks to the growth of for-pay healthcare services, the survey concluded.
A total of 48.1% of Italian respondents said wealth was among the most important factors determining the outcome of disease.
However, 86.7% of Italian respondents still expressed confidence that Italy’s national healthcare service, despite its flaws, is capable of guaranteeing the health and welfare of everyone.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Italy Debt Not Rising’ Says Economy Minister
‘Quantitative easing the way to go in Europe’ says Padoan
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Friday the nation’s debt is at a standstill.
“Italian debt is not rising and if it does, it’s not Italy’s fault,” he said. With inflation at 1.8%, real growth of 1% and nominal growth of 3% “public debt would take a speedy downward path,” the minister said. Padoan went on to say he supports European Central (ECB) Mario Draghi’s efforts to restart eurozone growth via quantitative easing. “I think this is the direction to take in Europe,” Padoan said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Spread at 118 pts, Lowest Since May 2010
Rate on 10-year BTP falls to 1.95%
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — The spread between Italy’s benchmark 10-year bond and its German counterpart reached its lowest point in more than four years on Friday.
The spread between Italian Btps and the German Bund narrowed to 118 basis points, a low not seen since May 2010.
It closed trading Thursday at 126 basis points.
The Italian 10-year bond was selling at an interest rate of 1.95%, below Thursday’s close of 2.03%.
The spread often provides an indication of investor confidence in the Italian economy, especially as compared with the generally more secure German market.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Police arrested 223 people in New York City on Thursday night and into Friday morning as protesters took to the street for the second night after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer in Eric Garner’s chokehold death.
Demonstrators also turned out in cities including Washington D.C., Seattle, Atlanta and Oakland a day after the decision not to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in the July incident.
Although there have been no reports of violence from protesters, police made a number of arrests as scores of demonstrators shut down traffic on the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Adam Smith, S.D. Goitein, And the “Economics” (and “Sexual Ethics”) of Islamic Jihad Slavery
Shlomo Dov [S. D.] Goitein (d. 1985) was a historian of Muslim-Jewish relations whose seminal research findings were widely published, most notably in the monumental five-volume work A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (1967—1993). The Geniza documentary record, an important collection of letters, sacred texts, etc., stored in Cairo, was first brought to scholarly and public attention by Solomon Schechter. These materials provide an especially detailed chronicle of the period from 950—1250 CE.
Goitein was Professor Emeritus of the Hebrew University, and a scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The New York Times obituary for Professor Goitein (published on February 10, 1985) noted, appositely, that his renowned (and prolific) writings on Islamic culture, and Muslim-Jewish relations, were “standard works for scholars in both fields.”
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Cosby’s Walk of Fame Star Vandalized With Word ‘Rapist’
Comedian Bill Cosby’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized on Friday with the word “rapist” written over it, after numerous women came forward in recent weeks alleging Cosby had sexually assaulted them in incidents dating back decades.
More than a dozen women have come forward saying Cosby, 77, sexually abused, groped and in some cases drugged them in incidents dating back to the 1960s. One California woman, Judy Huth, filed a lawsuit against Cosby this week accusing him of sexual battery when she was aged 15 in 1974.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Driver Charged With Murder in Somali Teen’s Death
An SUV driver accused of deliberately running down a Muslim teenager in Kansas City was charged Friday with first-degree murder in a case that’s being investigated by federal authorities as a possible hate crime.
Ahmed H. Aden, 34, of Kansas City, was charged Friday in Jackson County in the crash outside a Somali community center that killed 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein. Prosecutors are requesting a $250,000 bond. No attorney is listed for Aden in online court records.
A probable cause statement said Aden was driving the sport utility vehicle that hit the teen as the boy got into a car Thursday evening. A witness reported seeing the teen “fly through the air” before the SUV ran over him. The teen’s legs were nearly severed, and he died in a hospital of his wounds.
Court documents said Aden crashed the SUV and got out of the vehicle with a knife. Occupants of the car told officers they followed Aden, and they pointed him out to police. One witness said the suspect swung what appeared to be a baseball bat at people, and another witness reported that Aden pulled out a handgun and said to “Stay there” as he walked away.
Aden initially told authorities that he lost control of his vehicle and that there was an accident. He later said he struck the teen because he thought he looked like a man who had threatened him several days earlier, the probable cause statement said.
Federal agents are assisting in the investigation and “also have opened this matter as a federal civil rights investigation as a potential hate crimes violation,” according to FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton.
Patton said she could not release any information on why the case could be considered a hate crime, but Muslim leaders had called for such an investigation early Friday.
In the weeks before the crash, worshippers said they saw a black SUV painted with threatening messages at the center and cruising around a nearby shopping area. One of the messages was “Islam Is Worse Than Ebola,” said Mohamed Ahmed, 13, of Kansas City.
“I would have thought the police would have taken care of it, but they didn’t,” he said.
There is no mention of those incidents in court records and police didn’t immediately comment on whether they’re connected to the teen’s death…
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Fearing Violence, U.S. Jewish Groups Create Security Infrastructure
More visible European anti-Semitism, increased anger towards Israel and a rise in Islamist extremism have led to the expansion of the security infrastructure around U.S. Jewish institutions, with thousands of synagogues, student centers and other places seeking equipment and training to defend themselves against potential attacks.
Last month’s attack on a Jerusalem synagogue popular with Americans is the kind of thing that spurs U.S. institutions to look at their security.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Stabbed: Including Conductor, On Amtrak Train
Four people were stabbed, including a conductor, on an Amtrak train tonight and a suspect was taken into custody, police said.
The stabbing occurred about 7 p.m. in Niles, Mich.
Niles police said four people were stabbed in the attack. One of the victims was a train conductor, police said.
ABC News station WLS TV reported that two people were taken to Lakeland Healthcare Hospital in Niles. The hospital refused comment to ABC News.
The condition of the victims wasn’t immediately known.
The only description of the suspect was that he was a male from Saginaw, Mich.
Amtrak said the train was the Blue Water service en route from Chicago to Port Huron. Alternative transportation was being arranged for the passengers.
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Man Charged With Murder for Allegedly Charging Teen With SUV Outside Kansas City Mosque
Before suffering gruesome and fatal injuries Thursday, Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein helped lead the evening Muslim prayers at his mosque near downtown.
“He asked for mercy for humankind and asked for humans to follow the righteous path,” remembered Ali Abdi, the assistant director of the Somali Center of Kansas City and its mosque.
But Abdisamad, 15, received no mercy minutes later as he stepped off the curb at 1340 Admiral Boulevard and headed toward a car. A Chevrolet Blazer speeding eastbound sideswiped the car and struck Abdisamad, nearly severing his legs.
The Staley High School sophomore died later at a hospital.Related The driver of the SUV, Ahmed H. Aden, a 34-year-old Kansas City truck driver, told police after his arrest that he had been searching for men who’d threatened him nine days earlier. And he said he planned to kill those men if he found them, according to court records.
Aden told police that he intentionally struck Abdisamad, but he had mistaken the teen for one of the men who had threatened him.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Aden with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful use of a weapon.
Abdisamad’s uncle, Abdinajib Dirir, said the family, who had emigrated from war-torn Somalia, was devastated.
“There are no words to describe,” he said. “This is a community that fled a violent situation. Now we’re facing violence in the United States. … We are American like everyone else. And this is a tragedy for us.”Aden, whom sources described as a Somali Christian, now is the target of both a state murder investigation and a federal hate-crimes probe, authorities said.
Read more here:
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Nobel Prize Medal Fetches Record-Breaking $4.76 Million
James Watson, one of the scientists credited with discovering the structure of DNA, recently made history when he became the first-ever living Nobel laureate to put his prize medal up for auction. And now, Watson has a new claim to fame: Yesterday (Dec. 4), his little gold medal sold for a record-breaking $4.76 million.
The astonishing price tag makes Watson’s Nobel the most expensive Nobel Prize medal ever sold in a world auction, according to Christie’s New York, the auction house that conducted the sale. Watson was awarded the medal in 1962 for co-discovering the twisted-ladder structure of DNA. His colleagues, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, were also honored with Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Picks Former Pentagon Official Ashton Carter to be Defense Secretary
President Obama has picked former Pentagon official Ashton Carter to be his next Secretary of Defense, a White House official confirmed Friday.
The official told Fox News Obama would announce his intent to nominate Carter to replace Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel during a 10:00 a.m. press conference in the Roosevelt Room.
The president’s selection of Carter, 60, who was deputy defense secretary from October 2011 to December 2013, was widely rumored but not confirmed by the White House until Friday.
If confirmed by the Senate, Carter would be Obama’s fourth Pentagon chief in his roughly six-year administration. The development comes less than two weeks after Hagel abruptly resigned under White House pressure, after less than two years on the job.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Sends in ‘Naked Police’ To Stop Intimacy in Saunas
It seems things may have been getting a bit too steamy in Austria’s saunas of late, after the management of a fitness centre in the city of Linz had to call in the “naked police”.
While most people would probably find the sauna hot and sweaty enough without any extra activity, the city’s Parkbad fitness centre has received so many complaints about customers getting a touch too intimate with each other it has decided to take action, according to a report in Heute newspaper.
It has hired private security guards to go undercover in its sauna complex — only they won’t exactly be undercover as Austria, like Germany, has a strict etiquette of total nudity in its saunas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Die Linke Takes Thuringia Governorship
Breakthrough for leftwing party
(ANSA) — Berlin, December 5 — Die Linke (The Left) leader Bodo Ramelow was elected governor of Thuringia Friday, marking the first time the leftwing party has taken the leadership of a region in Germany.
Ramelow was elected in a run-off ballot in which he received the necessary 46 votes after failing to be elected outright in the first round by one vote.
Thuringia will be governed by a coalition of Die Linke, Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens.
German President Joachim Gauck had spoken out against Die Linke entering government, denouncing what he said is its continuity with the Communist Party that ruled the German Democratic Republic (GDR) before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Interior Ministers Warn of Returning ‘IS’ Fighters
EU interior ministers have warned of potential attacks by Europeans returning after fighting for extremists abroad. In Brussels, the ministers discussed international conflicts and their possible domestic repercussions.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned that the threat of an attack by Islamist militants in Europe is “real” and EU countries must all remain mobilized to counter it. According to him, the number of people involved in groups such as the “Islamic State” (IS) has jumped by 89 percent in France since the beginning of the year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Judge Hands ISIS Fighter Three-Year Sentence
A German man was been sentenced to three years and nine months in prison on Friday for being a member of the terrorist political group Islamic State (Isis), in the first court decision of its kind in Germany.
Germany’s intelligence service believes there are about 550 German nationals who have joined Isis in Syria and Iraq. Of those, 60 have died in suicide attacks or combat and a further 180 have returned to Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grasso Rejects End to Rome Govt Amid Mafia Probe
Northern League says it will propose an alternate mayor
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Senate Speaker Piero Grasso said Friday that Rome’s city government should not be dissolved amid an investigation into mafia infiltration.
“It takes more to dissolve a municipality,” the former anti-mafia prosecutor said responding to calls from some politicians to break up the current administration.
Mayor Ignazio Marino and his colleagues are “apart” from the investigation that is focussing on earlier administrations, said Grasso.
But Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said his party “is working” on finding a Rome candidate which the party will propose as an alternate mayor.
One day earlier, Rome Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro said that his office was considering a petition from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement for the Rome city council to be dissolved for mafia infiltration. Pecoraro also said that security measures for Marino were being beefed up, as the shock waves continued after prosecutors announced this week that they were conducting a huge probe into alleged links between local Roman politicians and a mafia organisation. More than 100 people are under investigation, including the man who Marino replaced as mayor in 2013, Gianni Alemanno, a right-wing politician and former agriculture minister under ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
As well, some 37 people were arrested on Tuesday. Several of those being investigated were expected to appear before an investigating magistrate on Saturday. Marino has so far emerged from the probe as being an incorruptible figure, but some members of his and Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) have been implicated in the scandal.
Meawhile, PD national President Matteo Orfini, who has been put in charge of the Rome branch to party after this week’s probe, said he did not think dissolution would be necessary. “I don’t believe there is the risk of the City of Rome being placed under a commissar,” said Orfini. “This (Marino’s) administration has been a dam against the criminal powers and what emerges shows how there was an attack on this administration”.
Still, Foreign Affairs Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the party must be sure to do a thorough “cleaning at home,” within the party. Italy’s anti-corruption czar Raffaele Cantone on Thursday denied reports that he was setting up a special team to look at corruption linked to the so-called Mafia Capitale. But Cantone said that his authority would order any contracts that are tainted by organised crime to be removed from the firms or cooperatives that have them. “We told Marino that we will run checks on the contracts and we will put those won thanks to corruption in the hands of commissioners,” Cantone said after meeting the mayor. “There won’t be a special team or any special activities”.
Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti said the regional government has suspended the awarding of all contracts while it conducts an internal investigation to find possible mafia infiltration there. Among those put behind bars Tuesday was the Roman mobsters’ alleged leader Massimo Carminati, a former member of the NAR neofascist terrorist group and of the Banda della Magliana crime gang. The organisation alleged made millions by rigging contracts in fields including waste management, park maintenance, migrant and refugee reception centers (CIEs) and Roma camps. Salvatore Buzzi, a former manslaughter convict who headed cooperatives implicated in the scandal, seemed to boast about how much profit his gang was making off scamming city settlement centres. “Do you have any idea how much I make on these immigrants?” Buzzi allegedly says in a wiretap from early 2013 contained in prosecution documents. “Drug trafficking is not as profitable. We closed this year with turnover of 40 million but…our profits all came from the gypsies (Roma people), the housing emergency and the immigrants”.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Thursday that the probe does not mean that the whole city is tainted. “My assessment is that Rome isn’t a rotten city,” Alfano told Mediaset television. “Rome isn’t a dirty city, it’s a healthy city. If someone stole, they should be punished, without criminalising a whole community and a whole city, which is healthy and strong”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Oil Pipeline Leak Threatens Environmental Disaster
In nature reserve 20 km from Eilat
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 4 — An oil spill from a pipeline in southern Israel has caused “one of the worst disasters in the history of our nation”, media quote the environment minister as saying. A civil defense chief said that a seven-kilometer river of oil that had leaked out of a tube breached during maintenance work was now heading for the desert nature reserve Evrona, 20 kilometer north of Eilat, the southernmost point of Israel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian FM in Abu Dhabi, Joint Engagement for Libya
FM meets minister Al Nahyan, also on ISIS, bilateral relations
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI — A meeting on Sunday between Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni and his UAE counterpart “has confirmed common awareness on the risks that a Libya that is divided or at war would represent, and the common interest of both countries in an increased stabilization of Tripoli through a more robust support of mediation attempts”, Gentiloni told ANSA, talking about talks in Abu Dhabi with sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The Italian foreign minister recalled that European, American and UN efforts to stem extremists and counter terror incidents run parallel with those of allied Arab countries, of which the Emirates are one of the main driving forces. The two ministers also discussed Syria and the common engagement in the fight against ISIS, as well as the need to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The meeting, dedicated to bilateral relations as well as regional policies, comes a month after the trip to Italy of Emirati crown price, Mohammad bin Zayed al Nahyan. The same issues were discussed, including the objective of a more stable North Africa, Egypt included.
Talks on Sunday confirmed the strengthening of political-strategic relations between Rome and Abu Dhabi and “give impulse to the many bilateral cooperation dossiers between the UAE and Italy”, said Gentiloni.
Among them, Italy’s diplomacy chief recalled, is the institution of an Italian international school in the UAE, which could include a conservatory; the already solid cooperation between Milan Expo 2015 and Dubai Expo 2020; an agreement on extradition. There are, between Italy and the UAE, “converging positions and common concerns on the main international crises”, Gentiloni said in a foreign ministry tweet. And he stressed how he wanted to take his first trip outside Europe to Abu Dhabi “because the Emirates are an important partner on all levels”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwaiti With Star of David Tattoo Arrested
20-year-old unemployed man arrested for ‘preaching Judaism’ after newspaper publishes his picture with Star of David on his body, clothes.
“The convert is in the hand of security forces,” was one of the headlines in the Kuwaiti Al-Rai Newspaper on Monday morning, which published a story this week about a 20-year-old unemployed local who proudly sported clothing and tattoos with Jewish symbols.
Police received complaints the man was “preaching Judaism,” and the local press demanded an investigation to be conducted. Kuwaiti authorities were able to identify the man and arrested him this week.
In Kuwait, it is illegal to convert from Islam to any other religion.
The first complaint against the man was received a few days ago by the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry. The person who filed the complaint said the man, a resident of Kuwait City, had a Star of David on his arm and also had the Jewish symbol drawn on his shirt…
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
The Encouragers: Jihadists’ Agents of Influence
by Douglas Murray
Certainly there are people from all sorts of backgrounds and with all sorts of beliefs who can carry out acts of violence. This was demonstrated by Breivik, McVeigh and countless others. But as far as I know, Breivik’s “influencers” or “inspirers” never included people who advocated placing car-bombs in public places or gunning down young political activists on an island.
This is a distinction that should matter. From the Palestinian territories, across the disintegrating Middle East, to certain mosques and madrassas in the West, just such teachings are emanating from the fringes of the Islamic world. The young men leaving Britain to go fight in Syria are not going in spite of the teachings of certain religious leaders but because of them. In the same way, terrorists in the West Bank do not target Jews for murder and abduction in spite of the urgings of the preachers of Hamas but because of them, and the culture of which they are a part.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Media Debate Burqa Ban Following Brutal Stabbing of American Teacher in Abu Dhabi
by Phyllis Chesler
For the first time in history, and in the wake of the December 1st stabbing death of an American teacher in Abu Dhabi by a woman wearing a burqa, Gulf region media are questioning whether the burqa is a security risk.
Historically, other Muslim and Arab governments, as well as feminist activists, have not only questioned the burqa—they have also abolished it.Such countries include Turkey, Egypt, the Maghreb, Iran, and Afghanistan. Educated Muslim women living in large cities in these countries went unveiled for at least 100 years. However, Saudi Arabia and environs, and rural regions in the Arab and Muslim world, have never really abandoned the Islamic Veil. It has now returned with a vengeance across the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of Africa.
Thus, it is somewhat amazing and a welcome relief that some newspapers in the UAE are wondering whether the burqa should not be worn “for security reasons.” One journalist titled his piece succinctly: “The Niqab Crime, and the Niqab is a Crime.”
For a long time, Dr. Daniel Pipes has argued that the burqa is a security risk. He has also kept a log of crimes, both terrorist and otherwise, committed by both men and women hiding beneath burqas. They are able to do so since enforcers of Islamic customs have trained everyone to treat masked burglars, killers, and human homicide bombers with the utmost respect. This includes non-Muslims too…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Family of U.S. Hostage Pleads for Abductors’ Mercy
Somers’ life at risk, US operation to free him has failed
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK — Paula, mother of US photojournalist Luke Somers, 33, who has been detained by al Qaida in Yemen for over a year, pleaded for his abductors’ mercy in a video posted to YouTube, after reports said a recent US operation to free him failed.
The journalist’s brother Jordan also appears in the video, explaining that the family was unaware of the operation to free Luke carried out by special US forces. His brother, he said, is only a photojournalist and is not responsible for actions carried out by the US government.
Though Luke Somers is detained by al Qaida and not by ISIS, he risks being executed any time, according to what the hostage himself has said in a dramatic video, full of tension and threats, recently posted by the Yemeni-Saudi branch of the terror group. An al Qaida commander in the video gave Obama “three days” to satisfy the group’s demands, “which he knows very well”, and avoid “thoughtless actions” — or authorize other operations to attempt to release him.
Yesterday, Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, admitted that the US recently tried to rescue some hostages, including Luke Somers, detained by al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Some hostages, he said, were rescued but others, including Somers, were not, adding that details on the operation remain “classified”.
A few days ago, the New York Times reported that eight hostages — six Yemeni, a Saudi and an Ethiopian national — detained by al Qaida in a cave in eastern Yemen were released in an operation carried out by a Navy Seal unit and special units of the Yemeni army.
One of the main objectives of the operation, the NYT reported, was to free the American hostage, who was however not there. Another five hostages — including a Briton and a South African — were not in the location as they had been moved by their abductors two days before the raid, according to accounts provided by the released hostages.
The outcome was similar to that of an operation conducted by Navy Seal and Delta Force units in July in Syria in an attempt to free US journalists James Foley and Stevel Sotloff, who were subsequently beheaded by jihadists from the Islamic State. In that event, no hostage was found.
Yemeni sources told the NYT that in the recent operation attempting to free Somers at least seven al Qaida militants were killed by Navy Seal officers — suggesting that Somers’ captors could be even more keen on revenge.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stuck in the Middle: Polish Intellectuals Sound the Alarm on Russia
Poland has long seen itself as stuck between the East and West, resulting in plenty of historical suffering. Russian aggression in Ukraine has many in the country fearing the worst. Leading Polish writers worry that the West isn’t doing enough.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Biggest-Ever Telescope Approved for Construction
The world’s largest telescope has gotten its official construction go-ahead, keeping the enormous instrument on track to start observing the heavens in 2024.
The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which will feature a light-collecting surface 128 feet (39 meters) wide, has been greenlit for construction atop Cerro Armazones in Chile’s Atacama Desert, officials with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced Thursday (Dec. 4).
“The decision taken by Council (ESO’s chief governing body) means that the telescope can now be built, and that major industrial construction work for the E-ELT is now funded and can proceed according to plan,” Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s director general, said in a statement. “There is already a lot of progress in Chile on the summit of Armazones, and the next few years will be very exciting.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty Activists Already Pressuring Hillary to Expand Obama’s Amnesty
As predicted here less than a week ago, amnesty activists are already pressuring Hillary Clinton not only to renew President Obama’s existing executive amnesty, but promise extend it even further.
Today on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown, Latino Decisions previewed a new poll showing that 85 percent of Latino voters would be likely to support Hillary Clinton for president, but only if she promised to renew Obama’s executive amnesty. Without that promise, support for Hillary among Latinos dropped to just 37 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 8 Migrants Found Dead on Inflatable Raft
Likely died of dehydration and hypothermia, say authorities
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Some 18 migrants who tried to sail from Libya to Italy on an inflatable raft likely died of dehydration and hypothermia, authorities said Friday.
The bodies and the craft were found about 100 miles south of the island of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost point and frequent destination of migrants fleeing Africa for Europe.
Another 76 migrants were rescued, authorities said.
One migrant who was rescued died soon after, raising the death toll from the initial count of 17.
Italian Coast Guard and Navy ships as well as private vessels answered distress calls, found the dinghy and rescued others on board.
It was one of the first rescues since an European Union-led initiative Triton took over from Italy’s Mare Nostrum migrant rescue program a month ago.
Previously, two other operations were carried out by Navy vessels — patrol vessel Cigala Fulgosi and corvette Driade — rescuing respectively 102 and 100 migrants aboard boats south of Lampedusa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 17 Migrants Found Dead on Boat, 66 Rescued
Seventeen migrants travelling on a rubber dinghy from Libya to Italy were found dead aboard by rescuers who reached them over 100 miles south of Lampedusa. The migrants probably died of hypothermia and dehydration.
After the boat sent a distress signal, Navy and Coast Guard units reached the area, along with a tugboat and merchant ship.
Once the dinghy was reached, rescue operations started.
Seventeen bodies were found on board while 66 migrants were transferred on rescue units. One of them died shortly after he was rescued. Another is in critical condition and was taken by a Navy helicopter to a hospital in Lampedusa. The bodies of the 17 migrants were moved to a cutter that will take them to Porto Empedocle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Case for Reparations (To Undocumented Workers)
A Pew survey from 2009 gives that median income for migrant workers as $36,000 dollars. With 11 million undocumented migrants, 8.3 million of them in the work force for an average duration of fourteen years, and adjusting for inflation, Naidu came up with between $22,000 (based on the lower percentage of depressed wages and inflation) and $101,000 (the higher percentage) owed to each undocumented resident.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Get lost!” (F*** O**!)
http://www.bonton.se/modules/bonton/file.asp?d=2014-12-06
Btw what are all these little negrochildren
doing in the in the High North?
Well Da Capo, I thought Santa, like Jesus, was for everybody.
MANIFESTED TOTAL DUMBNESS
“More cooperation and small blocks policy is necessary”. We are in a new and very worrying situation, writes Stefan Löfven (S) Prime Minister Therefore, the election. Sweden Democrats is a neo-fascist, single-issue party that neither respects human diversity, everyon’s equal value [the Swedish political and neo-marxistic mantra magnifica] nor Swedish democratic institutions. In the situation that the SD party has put Sweden new solutions are required. Now more cooperation and less block political thoughts are required. For over a hundred years, the Social Democrats has stood up for a cohesive society in which we are working together to solve social problems instead of pointing out scapegoats and cry out for simple solutions, writes Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
http://www.dn.se/debatt/mer-samarbete-och-mindre-blockpolitik-ar-nodvandigt/
The first story is further proof (as if any more is necessary) that hate crimes are intended solely as a club to beat down Causasians (even if they’re a minority), Christians (even those of non-Causasian ethnicity), and any others whose ethnicity, cultural practices or religion are associated with the Judeo-Christian tradition of the West.
Isn’t it funny that it’s never a hate crime if the assailant is muslim, or black, or what ever other minority group is the flavour of the day.