Al Qaeda in Yemen has announced that it planned and directed the terrorist attack that killed twelve people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Meanwhile, the director of MI5 in Britain says that Al Qaeda is planning twenty more mass-casualty attacks against the West.
In other news, Mitt Romney has told potential donors that he is considering another presidential run in 2016. However, Jeb Bush, who has already been anointed by the media as the preferred Republican candidate, has raised more money than Mr. Romney.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, 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.
Half of Italy ‘Rationing’ Health Care Due to Economic Crisis
Nearly 60% in southern Italy cutting back on medical spending
(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — More than half, or 53%, of Italians report that they are rationing their health care due to financial difficulties, with the highest numbers in southern Italy, at 59%, according to a report released on Friday by the Unisalute division of Unipol Group, Italy’s second-largest insurance company.
More than one-third, or 38%, of Italians said they only see their doctor or have medical tests performed when they “have a real need” for them, the report said.
One in four Italians has cut back on visits to private healthcare providers, and 52% of those who do use a private provider claim they only do so when they can’t wait the time it would take under the nation’s public healthcare system.
Unisalute said healthcare rationing has become an “established trend” in recent years as the ongoing economic crisis has forced Italians to find ways to reduce spending.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fireworks Truck Explodes During 150-Vehicle Michigan Pileup That Leaves One Person Dead
A trucker from Ottawa, Canada was killed, Lt. Rick Pazder of the Michigan State Police said. The trucker has yet to be identified. The crashes took place at approximately 10 a.m. on Interstate 94 between mile markers 88 and 92 outside Kalamazoo. Several of the vehicles were carrying hazardous material. At least four semi-trucks and two cars caught fire during the massive accident, cops told WJBK.
A truck containing fireworks exploded during a massive pileup involving 150 vehicles on a snowy Michigan interstate on Friday, leaving at least one person dead.
A trucker from Ottawa, Canada was killed, Lt. Rick Pazder of the Michigan State Police said. The trucker has yet to be identified.
At least 10 people were taken to hospitals in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, WJBK reported. At least eight people were taken to Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, with one in serious condition, WWMT reported.
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OPEC Tries Stamping Out Frackers
So what he and his closest Arab allies are doing instead is pumping more oil in an attempt to drive prices even lower — so low that the American frackers start losing money and shutting their wells. This could work, Shawn Tully writes in Fortune, because fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is relatively expensive. Once you’ve drilled a conventional oil well, the cost of pumping doesn’t amount to much, so you keep pumping even when oil prices plummet. With fracking, the break-even oil price is much higher — above $50 a barrel for almost every U.S. shale-oil project, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (the price on the New York Mercantile Exchange for West Texas Intermediate crude is, as I type this, $48.37 a barrel).
After OPEC succeeds in shutting down a lot of frackers (if it succeeds), the Saudis and friends would then presumably cut production and return global oil markets to a state of order and higher prices. Of course, if the prices go high enough, fracking will recommence. That would take some time, though.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Cleric Abu Hamza Jailed for Life by US Court
Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been sentenced to life in prison by a court in New York for supporting terrorism.
He was convicted in May of multiple charges, including hostage-taking and plotting to set up a terrorism training camp in the US.
His trial followed a lengthy extradition process from the UK.
During the sentencing, his lawyers asked the judge to take into account his missing hands and eye.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Romney Tells Donors He is Mulling a 2016 White House Run
Mitt Romney, the Republican U.S. presidential nominee in 2012, told a meeting of donors on Friday that he is considering another White House run in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Romney failed to win the nomination in 2008.
In 2012, he lost the general election to President Obama.
Last year, Romney repeatedly said he had no interest in running for the White House again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Phyllis Chesler
At least four, possibly five French Jewish hostages, probably women who were shopping for the Sabbath, were killed by Jihadists before the French police stormed the kosher supermarket. The male and female pair of jihadists were demanding the freedom of theCharlie Hebdo jihadists.
Simultaneously, the police also stormed the building in north Paris where the Charlie Hebdo jihadists were holding a hostage; they apparently freed that hostage and killed the terrorists.
I am launching a #Je Suis Juif hashtag, not only in honor of these latest Jewish victims, but in honor of all the Jewish victims whose deaths have met with the hashtag world’s indifference.
Yesterday, a colleague challenged me. She agreed that the murder of twelve French journalists was horrendous— barbaric— but she was bitter and was not going to be using the hashtag “#Je Suis Charlie Hebdo.”
And why not?
Because, she said, no one had created hashtags or marches on behalf of any of the many Israeli Jewish civilians, women, children, the elderly, who were targeted and murdered by Islamic terrorists. No one had agreed to “ride the buses” the year that terrorist were blowing them up in Jerusalem.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s MI5 Chief: ‘Very Serious Level of Threat’ From Islamist Terrorism
Britain’s top domestic security agency chief Andrew Parker warned that the nation faces a significant threat from Islamist-inspired terrorism that shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.
“We face a very serious level of threat that is complex to combat and unlikely to abate significantly for some time,” said Parker, the director general of MI5, in a rare public speech.
Parker’s comments, made at M15’s London headquarters Thursday night, follow the deadly terrorist attack in Paris on Wednesday that left 12 people dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Keeping Close Eye on PEGIDA
Rallies in Germany by the anti-Islamization movement PEGIDA have made the headlines in Britain. There’s also been widespread reaction in the UK to the counter-demonstrations, writes Samira Shackle from London.
“We’re keeping a close eye on events across the European continent,” says Nick Ryan, a spokesperson for Hope Not Hate, one of the UK’s largest anti-extremism organizations. “Populism is a potent elixir in times of uncertainty, but its simplistic solutions and casual intolerance brings with it many more problems, too. We can’t just ‘throw everyone out’ or turn back the clock to 1945: many of the problems our communities face are economic not religious or migrant-related. If we stopped all immigration our countries would descend into chaos.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Charlie Hebdo Attack: 2 Intense Standoffs in France
Paris (CNN) — Two intense standoffs with gunmen were underway in and around Paris early Friday afternoon — one involving the two brothers wanted in the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the other a hostage situation at a kosher grocery store.
[…]
Patrick Pelloux, a columnist for the magazine and also a trained paramedic, rushed to the offices when he heard about the shooting.
“I don’t know if I’m afraid anymore, because I’ve seen fear. I was scared for my friends, and they are dead,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I know that they didn’t want us to be quiet. They wanted us to continue to fight for these values, cultural pluralism, democracy and secularism, the respect of others. They would be assassinated twice, if we remained silent.”
[That last line must henceforth be our motto. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Muslim Cited for Cheering Paris Attack
The 23-year-old spokesman for the organization Called to Islam (Kaldet til Islam) has been cited by police for comments made on Facebook in support of Wednesday’s terror attack at French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Muhammad Cartoonist Draws Paris Response
Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist behind the most infamous of Jyllands-Posten’s Muhammad caricatures, has picked up his pen in support of the victims of Wednesday’s terror attack at the offices of French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Kurt Westergaard and his Skanderborg gallery, Galleri Draupner, have issued a special version of his 2009 work ‘Free Speech’ in reaction to the Paris attacks.
Westergaard’s work shows a man with a pen in his hand balancing on a rope above a precipice. The rope is tied to a sign that reads ‘Free Speech’.
Westergaard told TV2 News that the drawing represents “a balancing act”.
He said that the Charlie Hebdo attacks shouldn’t lead to self-censorship on sensitive issues.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Westergaard’s Charlie Hebdo Piece Selling Fast
A drawing done by Kurt Westergaard, the man behind a Jyllands-Posten cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that outraged Muslims, is bringing in orders from around the world.
The drawing Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard dedicated to France’s Charlie Hebdo on Friday has been met with overwhelming demand, causing his gallery’s computer server to crash.
“It’s completely off the charts,” said Erik Guldager, who owns the gallery that is selling Kurt Westergaard’s cartoon.
Westergaard’s caricature of the prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban was one of 12 cartoons published by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jews are fleeing terror-hit Paris because of growing anti-Semitism in France, one of Britain’s most influential Jewish journalists said today.
Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, spoke out after an Islamic terrorist took six people hostage and held them captive in a Kosher supermarket in the French capital.
This afternoon police ordered all shops in a famous Jewish neighborhood in central Paris to close.
The mayor’s office in Paris announced the closure of shops along the Rosiers street in Paris’ Marais neighborhood, in the heart of the tourist district and less than a mile away from the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo where 12 people were killed on Wednesday.
Hours before the Jewish Sabbath, the street is usually crowded with French Jews and tourists alike.
Mr Pollard said today’s terror attack in Paris, linked to the massacre at the office of Charlie Hebdo, will force more French Jews to flee the country.
Many are moving to Britain or to Israel, according to a report published in the newspaper last year…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
France at ‘War’ With Terrorism, Not Religion: Prime Minister
France is at “war” with terrorism, but not religion, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Friday as police cornered two suspected Islamist gunmen near Paris.
“We are in a war against terrorism. We are not in a war against religion, against a civilisation,” Valls said.
The country has been left reeling after the massacre Wednesday of 12 people at a satirical weekly magazine by two brothers shouting Islamist slogans.
And as a dramatic manhunt saw police corner the suspects in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele north of Paris, Valls said it would “certainly be necessary to take new measures” to response to extremist threats…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The cartoonist behind the legendary French comic strip Asterix has come out of retirement to pay tribute to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Albert Uderzo released two new drawings in solidarity with the cartoonists killed on Wednesday, which he shared on the official Asterix Twitter account.
One shows Asterix declare: ‘Moi aussi je suis un Charlie’ — which translates to ‘I too am a Charlie’.
The other sketch shows main characters Asterix and Obelix bowing their heads in grief with their hats in their hands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Michel Houellebecq Stops Promotion of New Novel After Charlie Hebdo Attack
The French novelist Michel Houellebecq, whose latest book featured on the cover of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on the day of the massacre at its offices, has stopped its promotion as the victims were being mourned.
Houellebecq, a friend of economist Bernard Maris, who was among the 12 people shot dead on Wednesday, was “deeply affected” and had decided to leave Paris for an unspecified rural retreat, his agent said on Thursday.
Houellebecq’s topical new novel Soumission (Submission), which imagines France being ruled by a radical Muslim president after France and Europe “submit” to Islam, came out on Wednesday.
His publisher’s offices were evacuated shortly after the shootings at Charlie Hebdo and placed under police protection amid fears that France’s enfant terrible may be on a terrorist hitlist. Houellebecq has in the past described Islam as the “stupidest” religion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Kill Suspects at 2 Hostage Sites
PARIS— French authorities say the two suspects in Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo attack have been killed during a police raid, and a sepatrate raid in the capital killed another gunman holding multiple hostages at a kosher supermarket.
The two men, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, had taken a hostage and were cornered at a print shop in Dammartin-en-Goele, a town about 40 kilometers northeast of Paris.
A police official said the suspected gunman at the supermarket, 32-year-old Amedy Coulabaly, is believed to be the same man who shot and killed a policewoman south of Paris on Thursday. Authorities also are seeking a woman described as his accomplice, Hayet Boumeddiene.
Police sources had linked Coulabaly to the Kouachis, suspected of killing 12 people in the Charlie Hebdo attack…
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French Far-Right ‘Barred’ From National Unity Rally
Despite the French president calling for “unity” in the light of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, an almighty row broke out on Thursday after the National Front were not invited to Sunday’s Republican rally.
Just a day after the Charlie Hebdo shooting left 12 dead and had politicians calling for the country to unite, a row between politicians broke out after the National Front were not invited to take part in Sunday’s rally for “national unity” in Paris.
For her part Marine Le Pen was furious that the party, who came out on top in the European elections last May, was “excluded” from the march.
“It is very clear,” Le Pen said. “They say that the Front National (FN) are not welcome to a meeting where every other party is invited. There is no longer national unity, it’s disappeared because of their actions.”
The party also fired out a tweet saying: ““The first party of France excluded from the demonstration! It’s a moral fault.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gunfire, Explosions Erupt at 2 French Standoff Sites
PARIS — Explosions, smoke and automatic gunfire erupted simultaneously Friday at a site north of Paris where two suspects in the terror attacks on a satirical newspaper were holed up and at a supermarket in Paris where a gunman had taken at least five people hostage.
Cherif Kouachi, 32, and his older brother Said, 34, who were cornered in a printing warehouse in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, were killed in the operation, according to multiple news sites, including CNN, Le Monde and the AFP news agency,
CNN quoted the mayor of Dammartin-en-Goele as saying the two Kouachi brothers were killed in the assault.
In the second standoff, a gunman had seized hostages at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincenees in eastern Paris.The fate of the gunman in Paris was not immediately clear.
The coordinated police assaults came after the gunman in Paris had threatened to kill as many his hostages if police stormed the industrial park in Dammartin-en-Goele where the Kouachi brothers were trapped.
The two standoffs followed an intense manhunt for the brothers, who are suspected in the mass killing at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper Wednesday. The two suspects had been surrounded in a small printing warehouse.
The latest incidents left th country reeling and prompted French President Francois Hollande to convene a crisis meeting with top government officials at the presidential palace.
The French Interior Ministry denied an initial report by AFP news agency that two people were killed at the supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes, according to France24. Reuters reported one person injured in the takeover.
[…]
“They said they want to die as martyrs,” Yves Albarello, a lawmaker who said he was inside the police command post in Dammartin-en-Goele, told French television station i-Tele.
Police established contact by phone with the suspects and convinced them to allow the evacuation of about 1,000 students in nearby schools. French TV showed a line of buses brought into town to remove the children.
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Head-on Collision at Charlie Hebdo
Nidra Poller, American ex-pat in Paris, author of Al Dura: Long Range Ballistic Myth presents her views of what caused the massacre at Charlie Hebdo and the standoff with two Parisian born Kouachi brothers of Algerian origin now holding hostages at a print shop north of Paris. Poller presents a unique view and chronology of several episodes involving the irreverent satiric weekly that put out an edition despite the grievous loss of its publisher cartoonists and writers. In one fell swoop, as someone reported in the US, nearly a third of the world’s editorial cartoonists were eliminated in the burst of automatic gunfire. That is not lost on Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergard, Swedish Artist Lars Vilks and Danish Free Press Society founder Lars Hedegaard, attacked by Jihadis intent on killing them for the exercise of their free speech. Here are the opening tropes illustrative of Poller’s unique writings on this and related topics illustrative of the menace of Islamist intent to silence Free Speech that both Americans and French take as a guarantee and article of faith in the West.
Clash of civilizations, star wars, the big bang, a certain idea of France was murdered in cold blood on January 7th. An allahu akhbar commando stormed into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, executed twelve people, wounded another twenty; four of them critically. It is painfully difficult to sort out nuggets of accurate information from the sound and fury that fills the airwaves and the streets of Paris. [12 noon, one minute of silence has been decreed by the government, outside my window I hear car horns furious at someone blocking the street, rumbling machines working on a nearby building, almost drowning out the dirge sounded by the church bell on the corner, icy rain pelts on hurried passersby…].
An infinitesimal minority of the 5 or 6 million Muslims living in France—two brothers identified as Sherif and Said Kouachi—wiped out the staff of an in your face magazine that has been offending everyone for 45 years. A mixture of pornography and scatology was served up weekly in a hallmark sloppy cartoon style with brief texts that lashed out like a not yet emancipated adolescent at chosen targets. The sweet smiling faces of yesterday’s victims—Charb, Cabu, Tignous, Wolinski, Honoré, Maris—convey the abiding innocence that was brutally assassinated. They made good-natured grotesque fun of everyone including themselves…in a heretofore protected world.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Islam is Dangerous’ Says Salvini
‘Not the time to build more mosques’ says Northern League chief
(ANSA) — Milan, January 8 — Northern League chief Matteo Salvini said Thursday that “Islam is dangerous”. “Killings are being carried out around the world in the name of Allah,” he said. “The penalties are always too soft, and I don’t see masses of moderate Muslims taking to the streets”. “Now is not the time to build more mosques,” added the leader of the anti-immigrant, euroskeptic and regionalist party. “Too many terrorists have come through Milan. I hope we won’t have cause to regret tomorrow the errors of today”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: League MP Accuses Govt of Terror Collaboration
(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — Paolo Grimoldi, an MP for the Northern League, on Friday accused the government of collaborating with terrorists. “This government collaborates with terrorists,” Grimoldi said as Interior Minister Angelino Alfano reported to parliament after this week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. “What you are doing, by scraping the (migrant) expulsion fund, goes in this direction”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Europe Counts 3,000 Foreign Fighters, Says Minister Alfano
(AGI) Rome, Jan 8 — There are 3,000 foreign fighters in Europe, of whom 53 are in Italy, said Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano. “But not all (53) are Italians or in Italy, it only means they have had to do with our country in some way,” Alfano said in an interview with the TG5 News. “We have lost track of some of them, perhaps because they left to fight wars in other countries, some may have died and some we cannot talk about for reasons of institutional confidentiality.” The Italian minister also referred to next Sunday’s anti-terrorism summit in Paris.
“It is an initiative of my French counterpart, who will host U.S. and EU ministers and security officials. The key to success continues to be coordination at European level, a united Europe is a stronger Europe because together we know more and we can protect ourselves better.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Mosque Ban in Padua After Paris Attacks
The mayor of Padua has said that no more permits will be granted for the construction of mosques in the northern Italian city in the wake of the shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, in Paris on Wednesday.
Massimo Bitonci, a Northern League member who earlier this year said crucifixes must be hung on the walls of all schools and offices across the Veneto city, said in a tweet on Friday: “No to new mosques”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Praises Ties With Muslims as Germans Voice Fears
Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a fresh call for tolerance Thursday as a poll showed a growing majority of Germans see Islam as a threat and an anti-immigrant group said the Paris massacre underscored its stance.
In a survey conducted several weeks before Wednesday’s killing of 12 people by Islamist gunmen at a French satirical paper, 61 percent of non-Muslim Germans said Islam had no place in the West.
The figure was up from 52 percent in 2012, according to the study released by the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank.
In findings that suggested deep anxiety about Muslims in Europe’s top economy, more than half — 57 percent — said they felt threatened by Islam, four points higher than in 2012…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
MI5: 20 ISIS Terror Plots Against West
Over last 14 months, according to British intelligence chief
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Syrian-based terrorists linked to al Qaida have been planning over 20 attacks against western targets over the past 14 months, Andrew Parker, director-general of Britain’s MI5, told the Financial Times on Friday. A number of these plots were carried out successfully, as the murder of four people last May at the Jewish museum in Brussels by a French citizen, while others have been foiled.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
NBC Analyst: France’s Problem is the Far-Right, Not Jihadists (Video)
Reacting to news that the nationalist French party National Front was being left out French unity rallies, NBC terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said on MSNBC that France’s far-right was as much a problem as jihadis. (VIDEO: MSNBC Guest: ‘We Have To Respect Islam’)
“Their propaganda is openly racist, it’s openly prejudice, it’s openly hateful to minorities across France,” he ranted. “The National Front has absolutely no business being in the European Parliament, no business being in the French parliament, they have no business running a presidential election, and they have no business being at this national unity rally.”
“They are as much of the problem as jihadists are,” Kohlmann said, over images of Paris police in an armed stand-off with jihadists. “And there are many more National Front supporters than jihadists in France. That’s the problem.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Magazine Attack Suspects ‘Had British Jihadi Links’
(AGI) London, Jan 9 — British intelligence services have found a link between the British and French jihadi worlds that the two brothers suspected of the attack on Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo belonged to, reported the Daily Telegraph. One of the “mentors” of Cherif Kouachi was French-Algerian Djamel Beghal, it said. He was a member of the Finsbury Park mosque in London and a lieutenant of Abu Hamza, who is on trial in New York and wanted for trial in Britain. A British intelligence informant who worked undercover at the mosque described the Paris massacre as “the legacy of Abu Hamza”, said the newspaper. Mr Beghal also boasted that he had set up a network of terrorist cells in Britain, Germany, France and Spain. He first came to know Kouachi in prison in France and the two met each other on a number of occasions after their release. They were photographed together by French security services a number of times. Al Qaeda distanced itself from Beghal for being too extreme, said the newspaper.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Charlie Hebdo Attack: Security Stepped Up for UK Jewish Community
Security around Jewish neighbourhoods and synagogues in the UK has been stepped up following the terror attacks in Paris.
Gunman Amedy Coulibaly targeted a Jewish supermarket in the French capital as the three day terror outrage came to a bloody end, leaving four hostages dead.
The atrocity sparked fears among the Jewish community in the UK that they may also be targeted and security has been increased for the Sabbath.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pollsters Says More Italians Afraid of Islam, Fear Attack
Surveys find increasing concerns about terrorism
(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — The number of Italians who said they are afraid of Islam and terrorists jumped this week after the attacks on a Paris magazine that killed 12 people, according to two opinion surveys released Friday.
Polling institute Ixé found that as many as 62% of those people surveyed on Wednesday, the same day as the Paris attack, said they were afraid that terrorist violence could occur in Italy. That survey, conducted for RAI 3 television program Agora, included 1,000 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.
It also found that 28% of those people surveyed said they were not concerned about safety in Italy and 10% said they did not know.
Meanwhile, marketing pollster SWG said that fear of Islam rose by nine percentage points in 2014 compared with 2013, with 59% of people surveyed last year saying they agreed with the statement: “The Islamic religion constitutes a danger for everyone”.
The polling firm said that in 2003, 36% of people surveyed agreed with the same statement and by 2010, the number rose to 50%.
When asked if Muslims in Italy should have the right to observe and practice their religion within schools, 36% agreed in 2014, a drop from 45% in 2013 and considerably lower than 56% in 2004.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Netherlands is Taking ‘Visible and Invisible’ Extra Security Precautions
The Netherlands is taking extra ‘visible and invisible’ security measures following the terrorist attacks in France, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Friday. The ongoing events in Paris ‘emphasise the need to remain alert,’ the prime minister told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting. People who ‘notice things’ which could point to preparations for a terrorist attack must make them known, he said. He also urged everyone who is aware of someone planning to travel to Syria to come forward. In the meantime, the Dutch should ‘continue to live as we are accustomed to, in openness and diversity’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will Je Suis Charlie Morph Into Je Suis Juifs?
Last night, I spent time preparing a set of suggested questions for two guests on Sunday’s Lisa Benson Show, Ilan Mizrahi, former Mossad Deputy Director and American-Israel Barry Shaw, who is a commentator with a blog, The View from Israel. Because of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo we posed several questions about Israeli reactions to the unfolding events in France.Last night an organization of young French Jews suggested that perhaps the posters for a monster rally on Sunday in Paris for the fallen at Charlie Hebdo should also read, “Je suis Juifs”. That was prescient given developments with two hostage standoffs , one at a print shop in an industrial park in Dammartin en-Goele north of Paris with the Kouachi brothers and a second at a Kosher market in Porte de Vincennes. That standoff at the print shop ended in a blaze of gunfire with reports of both perpetrators being downed and an unconfirmed report that a hostage survived . The Kosher super market is located in a suburban area southwest of Charles de Gaulle Airport that is an historic Jewish and mixed Muslim area. Friday is a very busy shopping day in preparation for the Shabbat for many observant Jews. As a precaution French police upon receiving word of the Kosher market hostage taking ordered all Kosher markets in Paris closed. There may be two dead at the Kosher Market hostage taking following a police raid. The perpetrator of the Kosher market hostage standoff has been reported killed in the police raid. There may be other casualties reported subsequently.
The perpetrator of the Kosher market hostage taking Amedy Coulibaly, a 32-year-old man stated his objective was in sympathy to force the release of the Kouachi Brothers from the other standoff. That clearly failed with the deaths of all three Islamist Jihadis with the raids on both the print shop in Dammartin en-Goele and Kosher super market in Porte de Vincennes. The black Muslim Coulibaly may have perpetrated the murder of a French policewoman yesterday. French police are also seeking Hayat Boumeddiene, a 26-year-old girl friend of Coulibaly.
There were apparently connections on many levels between the Kouachi brothers and Couliby. They were members of a sports team. They grew up together and had conspired in a failed jail break of convicted felons.
As recounted in an interview this morning with Nidra Poller in Paris, the Kouachi brothers and Couliby were part of a Muslim gang in the 19th Arrondissement who savagely beat a French Jew of North African ancestry , 17 year old Rudy Haddad in 2009.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Massive Search for Woman Suspected in Paris Hostage-Taking
(CNN) A new, massive manhunt was launched Friday for the only surviving suspect from the two hostage situations in France, who may have escaped, police union spokesman Pascal Disant said.
That suspect is Hayat Boumeddiene, a 26-year-old woman who allegedly was the accomplice of Amedy Coulibaly, 32, in the standoff at a kosher grocery store in eastern Paris.
[Could this be a relative of the late Algerian president Houari Boumedienne, who In a 1974 speech to the United Nations General Assembly declared, “One day millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory.” ? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Planning ‘Mass Casualty Attacks’ Against West
The head of Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 warned on Thursday that Islamist militants in Syria were planning “mass casualty attacks” in the West and that intelligence services may be powerless to stop them.
“We know… that a group of core al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West,” Andrew Parker told journalists in London a day after an Islamist attack in Paris claimed 12 lives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaida Member in Yemen Says Group Directed Paris Attack
A member of al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen says the group directed the attack against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris “as revenge for the honor” of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
The member on Friday provided to The Associated Press a statement in English saying “the leadership of AQAP directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully.”
He says the attack was in line with warnings from the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to the West about “the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslim sanctities”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Beheads a Street Magician Because His Tricks Were Creating “Illusions and Falsehood”
Loved by kids, he earned some money with his magic, but for Islamic State cutthroats, his activities were “an insult to God.”
Beirut (AsiaNews) — A Syrian street magician who entertained passers-by with his tricks has been beheaded by Islamic State militants, because his tricks were anti-Islam, an insult to God, and created “illusions and falsehood,” the Daily Mirror reported.
According to the British paper, the magician was arrested during an impromptu performance in Raqqa, the “capital” of ISIS-occupied territory, and subsequently had his head cut off in a public square.
A Raqqa resident who later fled to Turkey described the killing as “barbarism and butchery,” the paper said.
“He was just called Sorcerer by people and children loved him,” another witness said. “He was doing nothing anti-Islamic but he paid for it with his life.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Repent Over Your Tattoos, Turkey’s Top Religious Body Says
Turkey’s top religious body has issued a fatwa that urges Muslims who have tattoos to repent if they are unable to erase them.
The Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) regularly issues fatwas to address questions posed by Muslims in Turkey. In its latest fatwa, the Diyanet reasserted that tattoos were banned by the Prophet Muhammad, although they do not violate the rules of Islamic ablution.
“A person who has tattoo on his/her body should erase it, if possible. He/she should repent to God if the tattoo cannot be erased,” said the Diyanet in a response to the question. It also said temporary tattoos invalidate ablution…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Loyalists Repel Qaeda Attack on Shiite Villages: Monitor
Syrian pro-regime militia have repelled an incursion by Al-Qaeda on two Shiite Muslim villages in the north of the country, a monitoring group said.
The villages of Nubol and Zahraa in war-battered Aleppo province had been under siege by Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, and other Islamist rebels for a year and a half.
On Thursday, “Al-Nusra Front’s fighters entered the villages on seven tanks”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Ministers Knew About Ukraine Airspace Dangers Prior to MH17 Crash
Ukraine had informed the Netherlands about the dangerous situation in its airspace prior to the MH17 crash but ministers did not pass the information on to airlines, Dutch media say on Friday. The claims are based on written answers by ministers about the MH17 air disaster in July. MPs had asked the government to clarify the situation following claims ministers knew about the risks. Three days before the disaster, a Ukrainian cargo plane was shot down above the eastern part of the country where pro-Russian rebels are fighting government forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Heart Surgery for India-Held Marine Latorre
Italy ambassador back in India after two-week consultation
(ANSA) — Milan, January 2 — Massimiliano Latorre, one of two Italian marines being held in India in connection with the 2012 shooting deaths of two fishermen, successfully underwent minor heart surgery Monday as Italy’s wrangle with New Delhi continued.
He was successfully operated on to plug a small hole in his heart, a condition that is quite common and easily fixed with non-invasive heart surgery, doctors at Milan’s Policlinico di San Donato hospital said. Latorre, who was hospitalized Friday, has been in Italy for medical treatment after suffering a minor transient ischemic attack (TIA) in India last summer.
A neurologist who treated Latorre after his stroke in New Delhi told ANSA that he had recommended cardiac tests at the time.
“In my patient discharge report, I recommended cardiac testing to verify the possible causes of the cerebral stroke,” said Dr. Rajeev Ranjan, of New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram hospital.
In a separate development, Italian Ambassador to India Daniele Mancini has returned to the Indian capital at the end of two weeks of consultations in Rome over the stand-off over the fate of Latorre and his colleague, Salvatore Girone.
India has accused them of killing fishermen Valentine and Ajesh Binki after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler while guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil tanker MT Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012.
Rome has protested the many delays in the case, which has caused major diplomatic friction between the two countries. It successfully fought to ensure New Delhi took the death penalty off the table and dropped the application of a severe anti-terrorism law, which it said would have equated Italy with a terrorist state.
Rome has argued the case is not in India’s jurisdiction as the incident took place outside the country’s territorial waters. It also says the marines should be exempt from prosecution in India, because they are servicemen who were working on an anti-piracy mission, and allowed to return home.
However, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said last week that India has made statements regarding the case which may indicate a new opening for resolution.
“India, a friend and ally of Italy, has in recent hours opened a direct channel of discussion, with statements that we’ve appreciated,” Renzi told a year-end news conference at Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister’s Rome office.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China Questions Western Freedom of Press After Paris Raid
(AGI) Beijing, Jan 9 — The Chinese press continued to condemn the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, but questioned the use of the freedom of the press in reporting the incident. The Chinese edition of the Global Times wrote in an editorial on Thursday: “Many Muslims living in the West felt they did not receive respect and trust”. The newspaper, which is known for taking hard stands on foreign policy, criticised sarcasm on Islam. It said: “A few Western media outlets had made sarcastic remarks about the Islamic prophet, yet the Westerners think that this is ‘freedom of speech’“. Xinhua moderated the tone somewhat and defined the raid on the magazine as “deplorable, unexcusable and deceitful”.
Controversy over freedom of expression had already been unleashed. “Condemning terrorism doesn’t necessarily mean supporting controversial cartoons”, the Global Times wrote on Friday. It said that Charlie Hebdo’s sarcasm on Islam was not totally defendable and criticised media handling of news of this type in the West. “The West often shows a lack of firmness when responding to terrorist attacks that have happened in China,” it wrote, referring to the terrorist attacks by Muslim Uighur ethnic groups during the last year and a half. The newspaper added: “Even after China officially determines their terrorist nature, Western mainstream media puts quotation marks when describing these bloody assaults as ‘terrorist’, saying that it is a claim of the Chinese government”. It said Chinese society must choose how to behave: either take a ‘tit for tat’ attiitude or reject this ‘double standard’. The Global Times has no doubt: “We choose the latter, as we have done on each and every occasion”. The Beijing Youth Daily was more soft-spoken and described the numerous demonstrations supporting the freedom of the press, including one in New York, but warned, “we should also reflect on the boundary of such a freedom…Should there be a curb to such a freedom when the free speech has hurt the feelings and beliefs of other groups?”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Firm Takes Over Greenland Mine Project
The Chinese company General Nice Development has taken over a massive iron ore contract in western Greenland, Nuuk announced on Friday.
Greenland has transferred a large iron ore licence to a Chinese company after now-bankrupt British London Mining was unable to fulfil its 30-year commitment to the multi-billion dollar project.
The government of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, announced Thursday on its website that the Chinese company will also take over the iron ore contract.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Few of Italy’s Rescued Migrants Wish to Stay
The Italian Navy on Thursday saved hundreds of boat migrants in the Mediterranean, as new UN figures show relatively few arrivals apply for asylum in Italy.
Increased violence in Libya, coupled with conflict and instability elsewhere, has led to an unprecedented number of people taking the treacherous boat journey to Europe.
Despite a significant increase in the number of people fleeing the Syrian war by boat to Europe, just 290 applied for asylum in Italy in the first half of last year. Comparatively, 12,077 applied in Germany, 11,551 in Sweden and 1,431 in France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Theodore Dalrymple: Tyranny of the Minority
There is more to fear in one terrorist than to celebrate in 99 well-adjusted immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Children’s ‘Genital Song’ Goes Viral in Sweden
A video about penises and vaginas from a Swedish children’s programme has gone viral, causing wildly varying reactions from the Swedish public.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Planet’ Pluto Comes Into View
There are three letters you need to know this year: BTH.
They stand for “Better Than Hubble”; and in the next few months, we’re going to witness two remarkable BTH events.
The first will come on 26 January when the Dawn spacecraft starts to return our best views yet of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The second — and the one I’m most looking forward to — will occur from May onwards as the New Horizons probe bears down on Pluto, and we get its pictures back.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ffreedom of speech – even if joking about muslims?
Sure – there is only one universal exception –
NEWER DARE JOKING ABOUT the HOLOHOAX!
– – – – – – –
“And on Christmas Eve one took some decent hefty drams together with the Christmas ham and the ribs.”
http://www.bonton.se/modules/bonton/file.asp?d=2015-01-10
This is an American-based site, Da Capo, and while they, like we Brits, may be bad at learning other languages, it would be common courtesy to provide an English translation of the cartoon’s caption.
What about reading the text before you complain -also
da capo:
– – – – – – –
“And on Christmas Eve one took some decent hefty drams together with the Christmas ham and the ribs.”
Sorry, but it wasn’t apparent that the text “And on…” was a translation of the caption.
Just love them – so does the swedish former PrimrM.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e7b_1420820113
http://avpixlat.info/2015/01/10/reinfeldt-tog-avsked-genom-att-hylla-invandrarna/
Dear Papa Whisky,
Re a possible link between Hayat B and Houari B.
I read earlier today in the Telegraph in the UK ( who sourced it from Le Parisen) that Hayat B had changed her surname to make it sound more French. Reading your comment, it occurred to me that, although there may not be a familial link, it might for her have been a political link.