The United States, Britain, and France have closed their embassies in Yemen and evacuated diplomatic personnel. All three countries plus Italy have advised their citizens to stay away from Yemen, due to the ongoing political crisis. The situation in the country has been chaotic since the Sunni government was toppled a few months ago and replaced by a Shi’ite regime under the Houthi rebels.
In other news, Fouad Belkacem, a top jihad leader and the head of Sharia4Belgium, has been sentenced to twelve years in prison.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Col. Bunny, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, 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.
Audit the Fed — And Shackle it, Too
At the end of the day, American capitalism does not need recycled political hacks like Jerome H. Powell or clueless school marms like Janet Yellen to thrive. If we need a Fed at all, it is the one designed by Carter Glass 100 years ago. That is, a “bankers bank” that was intended to provide standby liquidity at a penalty spread above the free market interest rate in consideration for good collateral originating from inventory and receivables in the real economy.
Under that arrangement, there would be no monetary central planning or pointless attempts to manage the level of GDP, the number of new jobs, the rate of housing starts, the fluctuations of the CPI or the amplitudes of the business cycle. There would also be no pegging of the money market rate, no helping hand for Wall Street gamblers, no cheap debt to enable profligate politicians to kick-the-can down the road indefinitely.
In short, what the nation really needs is not an “independent” Fed, but one that is shackled to a narrow and market-driven liquidity function. The rest of its current remit is nothing more than the self-serving aggrandizement of the apparatchiks who run it; and who have now managed to turn the nation’s vital money and capital markets into dangerous, unstable casinos, and the nations savers into indentured servants of a bloated and wasteful banking system.
| — Hat tip: Col. Bunny | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis Investing: Americans Are Not Prepared for the Collapse of the Dollar: “There Will be Riots”
The majority of the American people think the economy is stable and the world is at peace. But even a precursory review of geo-political news makes it clear that there is a major power struggle and paradigm shift taking place. According to New York Times best-selling author Marin Katusa, the chief global strategist at Casey Research, it is only a matter of time before China and Russia exchange and deploy their dollar reserves, at which point the U.S. dollar will come crashing down.
Watch the following incredibly insightful interview from one of the few people in the world who really understands how current geo-political machinations will lead to economic and financial consequences that will reverberate for decades to come. Moreover, Katusa explains how to prepare yourself for nothing short of a financial apocalypse when confidence in the U.S. dollar is lost. On that fateful day Americans will be in shock because they could well see the price of their cost of living triple in a very short period of time — that means food, energy and other essential resources will become unattainable for many almost overnight.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Shock for First Time in Six Decades
(Bloomberg) — Denmark, struggling to defend its currency peg against speculators, became the latest European nation to experience deflation as consumer prices fell on an annual basis for the first time since 1954.
Prices dropped 0.1 percent in January from a year earlier, the Danish Statistics office said today. Prices declined 0.5 percent in the month, dragged down by falling transport and clothing costs.
Though the central bank’s mandate to defend the krone’s peg to the euro means it can’t target inflation, efforts to fight capital inflows may provide the stimulus needed to fan prices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Greek Showdown: The Sum of All Statist Errors
Indeed, Germany’s frustration with the rest of the European fiscal sleepwalkers is more than understandable, as is its fanatical resolve not to give an inch of ground to the Greeks. Or as Merkel’s deputy parliamentary leader, Michael Fuchs told Bloomberg,
There is no way out” for Greece from its treaty obligations…. conditions set for Greece by The Troika (EU, ECB, IMF) for bailout funds “have to be fulfilled…. That’s it, very simple.”
This isn’t just teutonic rigidity. It’s actually all about the so-called capital contribution key—-the share of the EU bailout fund that must be covered by each member country in the event of a default.
At dead center of Greece’s $350 billion of debt is $210 billion owed to the Eurozone bailout mechanism. Germany’s share of that is 27% or roughly $57 billion. Yet the prospect of tapping the German taxpayers for some substantial part of that liability in the event of a Greek default is not the main problem—-even as it would mightily catalyze Germany’s incipient anti-EU party.
The real nightmare for Merkel’s government is that the next two largest countries in the capital key are on a fast track toward their own fiscal demise. So what puts a stiff spine into its insistence that Greece fulfill the letter of its MOU obligations is that if either France or Italy is called upon to cover losses, the whole bailout scheme will go up in smoke.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Guess What Happened the Last Time the U.S. Dollar Skyrocketed in Value Like This?…
Over the past decade, there has been only one other time when the value of the U.S. dollar has increased by so much in such a short period of time. That was in mid-2008 — just before the greatest financial crash since the Great Depression. A surging U.S. dollar also greatly contributed to the Latin American debt crisis of the early 1980s and the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Today, the globe is more interconnected than ever. Most global trade is conducted in U.S. dollars, and much of the borrowing done by emerging markets all over the planet is denominated in U.S. dollars. When the U.S. dollar goes up dramatically, this can put a tremendous amount of financial stress on economies all around the world. It also has the potential to greatly threaten the stability of the 65 trillion dollars in derivatives that are directly tied to the value of the U.S. dollar. The global financial system is more vulnerable to currency movements than ever before, and history tells us that when the U.S. dollar soars the global economy tends to experience a contraction. So the fact that the U.S. dollar has been skyrocketing lately is a very, very bad sign.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Uncredit Board Approves Sale of UCCMB to Fortress
American asset manager to take over bad loans unit
(ANSA) — Milan, February 11 — The Board of Directors of UniCredit on Wednesday approved the sale of its UCCMB bad loans unit to American asset manager Fortress, said chief executive officer Federico Ghizzoni. Contracts will be signed in the next few days, he added. UniCredit put its UniCredit Credit Management Bank (UCCMB) up for sale a year ago.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
3 Students Shot to Death in Apartment Near UNC Chapel Hill
(CNN) Was it a dispute over a parking space or something more sinister that prompted the shooting death of three students in an apartment near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus?
Police said “an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking” might have been a factor in the shootings Tuesday evening but said they weren’t dismissing the possibility of a hate crime.
The victims — a newlywed couple and the bride’s younger sister — were shot in the head, sources told CNN affiliate WRAL.
Their families have said they believe the shootings were motivated by hate, and the suspect had threatened the three before, said family spokeswoman Linda Sarsour.
[“Family spokeswoman” Linda Sarsour is a professional Muslim agitator from New York City. Director of the Arab-American Association of New York and head of the city’s Muslim Democratic Club, she is a frequent visitor to the Obama White House. Sure got down there right quickly, didn’t she? Wonder who arranged that, and who’s footing the bill. — PW]
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for police to “address speculation about a possible bias motive,” and the Muslim Public Affairs Council is requesting a federal investigation “if the motives of the shooter are confirmed based on his previous social media posts.”
That’s a possibility police are considering.
“Our investigators are exploring what could have motivated Mr. Hicks to commit such a senseless and tragic act,” Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said. “We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case.”
[And guess who’s going to be looking over their shoulder as they do so?]
[ . . . ]
“The Chapel Hill Police Department has requested the assistance of the FBI to process evidence in a triple homicide investigation,” the FBI said in a statement. “It is standard practice for our state and local law enforcement partners to enlist the expertise and resources of the FBI as needed.”
[That would be the same FBI that scrubbed all references to Islam and its tenets from its terrorism training materials in 2011 at the behest of the Obama White House and Muslim activists such as Farhana Khera, president of Muslim Advocates. In which direction do you suppose its agents are going to be pushing the Chapel Hill PD as it investigates this case? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Agenda 21, Cooked Science Data, And Property Rights
The State House voted 79-36 on February 4, 2015 on HB490 introduced by Rep. Becky Currie. “The State of Mississippi and all political subdivisions thereof shall not adopt, nor implement, the creed, doctrine, principle or any tenet of the United States Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Statement of Principles of Sustainable Development known as ‘Agenda 21,’ adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and development, held from June 3-14, 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or any other international law contravening the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the State of Mississippi.” A companion Senate Bill, SB2809 has been introduced by Sen. Melanie Sojourner. Other states have proposed similar bills, Maine, Wyoming, Washington, Tennessee, and Missouri.
As I’ve demonstrated in my best-selling book, , the globalist governance uses “Agenda 21” to control every facet of our lives: global land use, education, population control, health care, reduction of economic activity, and population reduction to a “manageable size” determined by the global elites who drive U.N.’s “Agenda 21.”
These globalists who use the global warming/climate change industry and Agenda 21 as tools of control and wealth redistribution, have deemed “not sustainable” most human activities that form our modern civilization: private property, fossil fuels, consumerism, farming, irrigation, commercial agriculture, pesticides, herbicides, farmlands, grazing of livestock, paved roads, golf courses, ski lodges, logging, dams, reservoirs, fences, power lines, suburban living, and the traditional family unit…
U.N.’s Agenda 21 is so insidious that people do not connect the dots between global warmists, the climate change industry, extreme environmentalists, property rights battles with NGOs around the country, main stream media, publishers of textbooks and other publications, Common Core education standards, International Baccalaureate schools, land conservation, conservation easements, regionalism, living in tiny homes and tiny spaces, re-wilding of America, removing Americans from their cars into public transportation or bikes, taking roads out of commission, sustainable development, smart meters, destroying suburbia, smart grid, and the green agenda with wind and solar power.
Nobody batted an eye when a small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was raided in 2013 by a SWAT team who searched for ten hours. The Garden of Eden had been cited for code violations such as “grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big US Defense Blimp Stirs Privacy Jitters
On a crisp winter’s day, a tethered blimp almost as big as a football field slowly rises into the blue Maryland sky, casting its radar eye over greater Washington and well beyond.
The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Elevated Netted Sensor System, better known as JLENS, is intended to spot low-flying cruise missiles amid thousands of aircraft in this corner of the US east coast.
“This balloon is a radar that covers, oh, (a radius of) 300 miles (485 kilometers) — about the size of Texas — to allow us to see threats at a further distance out,” said Colonel Frank Rice, commander of air defense operations for the US capital region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chapel Hill Neighbors Describe Suspect as Confrontational, Obsessed With Parking
CHAPEL HILL — Neighbors say Craig Stephen Hicks was a confrontational man who regularly harangued them about parking their cars in the wrong place and noise at the condominium complex where they lived.
But the neighbors and Hicks’ wife say his angry and loud behavior did not include references of religious intolerance or racial hatred that some people say may be behind a fatal shooting in the complex Tuesday. The three victims were Muslim and of Middle Eastern descent; Hicks is white and a self-described atheist.
[…]
Neighbor Samantha Maness, a 25-year-old Durham Technical Community College student, said Hicks was difficult to everyone, regardless of race or religion.
“He was aggressive toward a lot of people in the community,” said Maness, standing outside the building where Hicks lived. “He had equal opportunity anger toward a lot of the residents here.”
[Not an “Islamophobe” but a free-floating grump. Don’t expect that to alter The Narrative, though. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Constitution: A Worthless Piece of Paper
by Andrew Napolitano
President George W. Bush was fond of saying that “9/11 changed everything.” He used that one-liner often as a purported moral basis to justify the radical restructuring of federal law and the federal assault on personal liberties over which he presided. He cast aside his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution; he rejected his oath to enforce all federal laws faithfully; and he moved the government decidedly in the direction of secret laws, secret procedures and secret courts.
During his presidency, Congress enacted the Patriot Act. This legislation permits federal agents to write their own search warrants when those warrants are served on custodians of records — like doctors, lawyers, telecoms, computer servers, banks and even the Post Office.
Such purported statutory authority directly violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy in our “persons, houses, papers and effects.” That includes just about everything held by the custodians of our records. Privacy is not only a constitutional right protected by the document; it is also a natural right. We possess the right to privacy by virtue of our humanity. Our rights come from within us — whether you believe we are the highest progression of biological forces or the intended creations of an Almighty God — they do not come from the government.
This is not an academic argument. If our rights come from within us, the government cannot take them away, whether by executive fiat, popular legislation or judicial ruling, unless we individually have waived them. If our rights come from the government, then they are not rights, but permission slips.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Family Asks Cops to Check in on Sick Veteran; Cops Break Into House, Kill Him
A family in North Carolina asked police officers to check on the welfare of an elderly relative, a Korean war veteran, who was recovering from surgery. In response to the request, the cops went to the man’s house at midnight, broke in, and then shot him dead.
Clearly the family were under the impression that police officers can still be relied upon to perform such helpful community duties, but they were tragically wrong.
WSOCTV reports that while the family asked the officers to check on 74-year-old James Howard Allen on Saturday afternoon, the police opted to visit the man’s home very late in the evening.
When there was no answer, firefighters were called out to force open the door. On entering the building, police saw Mr Allen, who had just undergone heart surgery, pointing a gun toward them, prompting one officer to unload his own weapon at Allen.
“I think that he probably thought somebody was breaking in his house or robbing him of something,” said the victim’s sister, Mary Battle.
“The thing I questioned is why make a wellness call at midnight?” said neighbor Gene Clark, who also told reporters that Mr Allen was hard of hearing, possibly another reason he did not answer the door initially. “All I know is he was a good man,” Clark added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Really Doesn’t Want Anyone to Know About “Stingray” Use by Local Police
If you’ve ever filed a public records request with your local police department to learn more about how cell-site simulators are used in your community—chances are good that the FBI knows about it. And the FBI will attempt to “prevent disclosure” of such information.
Not only can these devices, commonly known as “stingrays,” be used to determine a phone’s location, but they can also intercept calls and text messages. During the act of locating a phone, stingrays also sweep up information about nearby phones. Last fall, Ars reported on how a handful of cities across America are currently upgrading to new hardware that can target 4G LTE phones.
The newest revelation about the FBI comes from a June 2012 letter written by the law enforcement agency to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. It was first acquired and published by the Minneapolis Star Tribune in December 2014—similar language likely exists between the FBI and other local authorities that use stingrays.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did Craig Hicks murder three Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, because they were Muslim? Certainly that is what the Hamas-linked terror organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), would have us believe. The problem with Hamas-linked CAIR’s narrative, however, is that from the looks of his Facebook page, Hicks is hardly the right-wing anti-Muslim Islamophobic redneck of their hysterical fantasies; instead, he is a hardcore Leftist and fan of Hamas-linked CAIR’s allies, the Huffington Post and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
On his Facebook page, Craig Hicks had a huge and revealing list of “Likes” that shows him much more preoccupied with Christianity than with Islam. He does post a chart likening “Radical Christians” to “Radical Muslims,” but that is about the extent of his mentioning of Islam at all. He likes the atheists Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Bill Maher, all of whom have criticized Islam, but his page includes none of their statements about Islam. He likes many anti-Christian groups but no groups that are critical of Islam, and he even likes a group praising Obama for supporting the Ground Zero Mosque.
[Leave to Robert Spencer and Jihad Watch to get the straight skinny. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
McDonald’s Sales Rapidly Decline as Americans Reject Fake Food
The impossible is happening: McDonald’s is quickly diving out of its stable stock position and into a world of financial hurt as citizens of the United States and elsewhere have decided they are completely done with the company’s frankenfoods.
The decision has hit McDonald’s so hard that its own CEO has even stepped down following the news of continued decline in the company’s most recent briefing. The world’s largest restaurant chain is frantically replacing its foundation in an attempt to recover, from removing its CFO and CEO to launching a new ‘trendy’ advertising campaign that premiered at the Super Bowl.
All the new financial and marketing moves in the world, though, cannot change the fact that many people simply will never eat at McDonald’s again thanks to their GMO-laden fast food ingredients — which have been extensively documented by both health organizations and mainstream media alike. With many items containing over 19 different ingredients that are virtually impossible to pronounce and are also used in the production of silly putty and yoga mats, it’s no wonder consumers are saying ‘no thanks’ to Ronald McDonald.
Here’s just a few of the ingredients you can find in many fast food meals:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Reveals His Political Grand Strategy: The Hodgepodgization of America
by Steve Sailer
Here’s part of an interview with the President in Vox that is pretty much along the lines of one of my “Core v. Fringe” election strategy articles, just discussed from the opposite partisan point of view. Obama tells Ezra Klein that he’s not worried about a backlash against Democrats over attacks on whites such as Trayvon and Ferguson because he’s using immigration to frontlash America into more and more of a “a hodgepodge of folks,” and thus opponents will “have much less ability, I think, to express” dissenting views.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Parking Dispute, Not Bias, Triggered Triple Murder, Say NC Police
The murder of three North Carolina college students was motivated by an ongoing dispute over a parking space, despite widespread speculation the victims were targeted by an avowed atheist because of their Muslim faith, police said.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder after turning himself in to police in Chapel Hill overnight. Although a Facebook page in Hicks’ name that described him as a supporter of “Atheists for Equality” and blasted “radical Christians and radical Muslims” for causing strife in the world gave prompted rampant suspciion that the crime was motivated by hate, police said Wednesday it was about a parking space at the condominium complex where the murders took place.
[This guy was a free-floating grump, not an “Islamophobe.” But “The Narrative” will be protected and maintained at all costs. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
School Principal Calls FBI After 8th Grader Throws ‘Made in China’ Flag Out of Window
A school principal in New Mexico is attempting to contact the government and have federal charges brought against a 14-year-old student who threw a small American flag on a stick out of a window.
Robert Archuleta wants the boy expelled, and presumably arrested, following the incident during which four students were misbehaving, also throwing other items such as workbooks out of the classroom window into snow.
The principal initially called the school police officer with Rio Arriba County, but because he told them he wished to report a federal offense, the cops referred him to the FBI.
“A lot of men have died over [the flag], men and women,” Archuleta told reporters with KRQE. A veteran from a military family, Archuleta added, “We fought to keep our country safe and to keep it free.”
Critics have noted that Archuleta doesn’t seem to understand that he and others actually fought for the right to throw the flag out of a window, not for the flag itself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three Muslim Students Murdered Near University of North Carolina
The nation is reeling after three young Muslim students were found shot to death in an apartment in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, late Tuesday afternoon.
Police initially said 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks shot three college students who lived in an apartment near the University of North Carolina campus over “an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking.”
However, Facebook posts made by Hicks prior to the attack seem to espouse staunch atheistic rhetoric, leading to questions as to whether religion was a possible motive.
“Based on the brutal nature of this crime, the past anti-religion statements of the alleged perpetrator, the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to quickly address speculation of a possible bias motive in this case,” Council on American—Islamic Relations National Executive Director Nihad Awad said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Court Tosses Out Mass Surveillance Case Against NSA, AT&T
The plaintiffs, who are described in the court document as “ordinary Americans who are current or former subscribers to AT&T’s telephone and/or Internet services,” initiated their lawsuit after it was revealed by former AT&T technician Mark Klein that the communications giant had a secure room where customer data was being collected by government agents.
US District Judge Jeffrey White found that the lead plaintiff, Carolyn Jewel, was unable to show that she was the victim of surveillance. At the same time, White ruled that the claim must be tossed out “on the basis that any possible defenses would require impermissible disclosure of state secret information.”
“The Court is persuaded that its decision is correct both legally and factually and furthermore is required by the interests of national security,” said Judge White, of the Northern District of California.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Victims’ Father Says Chapel Hill Triple Homicide Was ‘Hate Crime’
CHAPEL HILL — The father of two of three students shot to death in Chapel Hill on Tuesday says the shooting was a “hate crime” based on the Muslim identity of the victims.
[…]
The deaths sparked international outrage on social media, including many tweets with the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter. The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Wednesday called on law enforcement to address speculation about a possible bias for the shootings. CAIR is a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
Thomas Walker, the chief U.S. prosecutor from the Eastern District, also is interested in the shooting. In recent years, his office has gotten to know many in the Muslim community while prosecuting high-profile terror cases from Wake and Johnston counties.
“The Muslim community has been good partners with law enforcement on a variety of fronts,” Walker said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s vitally important that their concerns not be ignored. We think it’s appropriate to closely monitor the investigation to determine any motivation in this case.”
[More federal pressure on the local police from another quarter. Nota bene, from a DOJ Website: “Thomas G. Walker was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian Court Jails Radical Islamist Leader on Terrorism Charges
A Belgian court on Wednesday sentenced the head of Islamist group Sharia4Belgium to 12 years in prison, ruling that his group was a terrorist organisation after it recruited youngsters to fight jihad in Syria.
The sentence in one of Belgium’s largest terror trials comes as the country remains on high alert after authorities uncovered a plot last month to kill police nationwide.
Prosecutors had filed terrorism charges against 46 members of the group in total but only nine were present for the five-month trial, with the rest believed to be in Syria.
While the group’s 32-year-old leader, Fouad Belkacem, did not fight in Syria, judge Luc Potargent said he was the driving force in the organisation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian Court Jails Jihadist Recruiter for 12 Years
44 others convicted in Sharia4Belgium case
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 11 — A court in Antwerp on Wednesday sentenced Fouad Belkacem, the leader of a group that sent jihadists to Syria, to 12 years in prison.
The court found a total of 45 members of the Sharia4Belgium, an organization considered by the court as a “terrorist group”, guilty of terror-related charges.
The other 44 members were given sentences, some suspended, ranging from three to 15 years.
Only eight group members were in court on Wednesday and about ten of those who were tried in absentia are believed to be dead.
Belkacem, 32, was the ideologist of the group considered as the top recruiter of Belgian jihadists who left the country to fight with militant groups including ISIS.
Sharia4Belgium is believed to have recruited, through social networks and in Antwerp, dozens of youths to fight with jihadist groups in Syria between 2010 and 2012.
The investigation kicked off in February 2012 and the trial started in September.
Roughly 350 Belgians are believed to have left the country to fight in Syria and Iraq with security officials estimating that 10% were linked to Sharia4Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Femen Members Charged With Sexual Exhibition for Strauss-Kahn Topless Protest
The three topless feminist protesters are to face trial for “sexual exhibition” after throwing themselves at former IMF chief Domininque Strauss-Kahn’s car as he arrived for his trial for “aggravated pimping” on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Will Honour Yugoslav Foibe Victims in Day of Memory
Schools will recall Italian mass exodus from Istria
(ANSA) — Rome, February 3 — Italy will hold a Day of Memory February 10 to recall the murder of thousands of Italians by Yugoslav communist partisans in the ‘foibe’ or crevasses of Istria at the end of World War Two, Education Minister Stefania Giannini said Tuesday.
Schools will learn about “the tragic events that obliged hundreds of thousands of Italians, inhabitants of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia, to leave their homes, breaking centuries of history and tradition,” Giannini said.
Thousands of Italians were murdered and thrown into crevasses or tossed in alive by Slovene and Croatian partisans in reprisal for Italian occupation of Istria during the Second World War.
That creating long-lasting tensions in relations between Italy and the republics of Croatia and Slovenia which have been accused of dragging their feet over compensation for exiles.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Laid-Off’ Pilots Probed for Fraud
‘Forgot’ to notify benefits’ agencies of new jobs abroad
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — Rome prosecutors are probing 36 Italian pilots who claimed lay-off benefits in Italy while working for foreign airlines abroad, judicial sources said Monday. Some pilots said they “forgot” to notify the relevant agencies when they found new employment and were no longer eligible for benefits, sources said. The national social benefits agency INPS first began to flag suspicious cases in March 2012. Pilots were said to be earning salaries of between 12,000 euros and 15,000 euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Senate OKs Harsher Penalties for Holocaust Denial
Bill now goes to Lower House
(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — The Senate on Wednesday approved a bill harshening penalties for Holocaust denial with 234 votes in favor, three nays and eight abstaining. The draft measure, which now goes to the Lower House, amends a 1975 law against hate crimes upping jail terms by three years if propaganda and public instigation to commit acts of racial discrimination are based — entirely or in part — on the denial of the Holocaust, of crimes against humanity or war crimes.
Members of the Italian Jewish community expressed satisfaction for the vote.
The president of Rome’s Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici, said he was “moved.
“This isn’t a great day just for Jews and survivors but for all Italians”, he noted in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pro-Greek Protesters Smash Windows Venice German Consulate
Eggs, tomatoes, smoke bombs tossed at mission
(ANSA) Venice, February 11 — Anti-globalisation demonstrators protesting Germany’s policy toward Greece smashed two windows at the German Consulate in Venice Thursday after hurling smoke bombs, eggs and tomatoes at the mission in the lagoon city, police said.
Greece’s debt “can’t be in the hands of the troika and not of the people who have democratically elected their representatives,” said local ‘No Global’ leader Tommaso Cacciari.
“We are all Greeks,” he added, “we will see you on the barricades”.
Demonstrators chanted “No to the ECB, no to austerity”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Investigation at Ubi Bank Targeting Senior Officials
Sources say board members and officers focus of probe
(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — Finance police searched offices of Ubi Bank Wednesday morning at its home base in the northern Italian city of Bergamo.
Sources said they were focused on Paolo Giovanni Bazoli as a senior member of the bank’s supervisory board, and other officers.
Last May, the bank came under investigation over allegations of obstructing banking industry supervisors.
The new probe is looking into similar allegations and also includes Franco Polotti, management board president at Ubi Bank, Andrea Moltrasio, head of the supervisory board, and CEO Victor Massiah.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Costa Concordia Captain Schettino Guilty of Manslaughter
The captain of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia has been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Captain Francesco Schettino was at the helm when the ship hit rocks and sank in 2012, killing 32 people.
He was accused of taking the liner too close to the shore and then abandoning ship with passengers and crew still on board.
Schettino denied the charges and said he was being made a scapegoat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Making Shameful Conquest of Itself — Shakespeare, The BBC, Bombs and the Lords
[ . . . ]
I’d like to qualify (slightly) my praise for the new BBC Shakespeare series, having at last found the time to watch the opening play, Richard II. This is a marvellous work, crammed and stuffed with profound thought, wonderfully expressed. And I suppose any director must be allowed to play with it a bit. But … why was John of Gaunt’s dying speech cut, to leave out … ‘that England, which was wont to conquer others, hath made a shameful conquest of itself’.
For me, this is one of the most powerful passages anywhere in Shakespeare, which in other times many people learned by heart . The BBC couldn’t have been so short of time that they couldn’t include it all. So why cut it at all, and why particularly cut those words?
[Very simple — because they so perfectly and succinctly sum up the ghastly situation of England today, at the hands of people like those that run the BBC. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Killer Breivik to Take Norway to Court
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is preparing to take Norway’s Ministry of Justice to court, arguing that his prolonged solitary confinement amounts to “torture”.
The far-right extremist’s lawyer Geir Lippestad told Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper that he intended to file the suit before Easter, after trying and failing to end his client’s isolation though appealing to prison authorities over the past two years. Lippestad believes that Breivik’s prison conditions are contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Article Three, which states that no one should be subjected to “torture, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mayor of Italy’s Poorest Town Arrested for Fraud
Loielo led council dissolved for alleged mafia infiltration
(ANSA) — Vibo Valentia, February 3 — The mayor of Italy’s poorest municipality was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of aggravated fraud. Romano Loielo, the 43-year-old mayor of Nardodipace in the southern Calabria region and a finance police corporal on leave of absence for several years, was placed under house arrest in relation to an alleged fraud amounting to 100,000 euros of European Union, State and regional funds. The 38-year-old son of a local ‘Ndrangheta mafia boss and two local businessmen were also placed under house arrest on the same charges. In addition 12 people including a local councillor and his wife and the mayor’s wife were issued with orders to present themselves to the judicial police in connection with the alleged crime. The suspects are alleged to have appropriated funds destined for training courses to create jobs. A town of 1,200 people in the Serre Vibonesi mountains, Nardodipace has the lowest per capita income in the country. Loielo was first elected mayor of the town in 2007 but his administration was dissolved for suspected mafia infiltration in 2011.
He was subsequently able to run in and won subsequent elections in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mini Space Shuttle Completes First Flight
IXV spaceplane zips around the Earth
(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — A prototype for a versatile mini-spaceplane — a smaller, robot-controlled version of the US space shuttle — on Wednesday successfully completed its first test flight, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
The IXV spaceplane could provide Europe with a new, re-useable space transportation system.
It blasted off on a Vega rocket from South America just after 13:40 GMT in a test that could inform future technology for landing payloads on Mars.
The test vehicle flew east around the globe, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at about 15:20 GMT. The wedge-shaped IXV (Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle) is designed to gather information on how space objects fall back to Earth.
Commenting on the launch, European Space Agency Director-General Jean Jacques Dordain said: “It couldn’t have gone better.
“But the mission itself is not over because now it is necessary to analyse all the data gathered during the flight”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Says Aid to Greece if Athens Asks for it
Lavrov meets Kotzias in Moscow
(ANSA) — Moscow, February 11 — Russia “will take into consideration” the possibility of extending financial aid to Greece if such a request comes from Athens, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference after meeting Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias in Moscow, TASS news agency said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Jews Threatened by Muslim Antisemitism
[…]
[Moral] blindness also faces Jews in Malmo, Sweden denied their rights of free expression ,opposing politicians in Sweden’s third largest city who tolerate virulent Islamic Antisemitism from the large émigré community. That is the subject of a Gatestone Institute article by Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard, the co-editors of Dispatch International, “Sweden Imports Jew-hatred.”
The authors wrote:
If anyone had thought that the slaughter of four Jews in a Paris supermarket — for the reason that they were Jews — would have caused the Swedish mainstream press and the government to explain who is behind Europe’s growing anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish violence, he would be sadly mistaken. With the exception of one television program, the connection between anti-Semitism, Islam and Muslim mass immigration remains a mental no-go area in Sweden.
[…]
Swedes now tend to view all immigrants as victims of totalitarianism and refuse to acknowledge that not all immigrants think like Swedes. They cannot comprehend that people would flee unless they were hated and threatened.
Swedes have a minimal knowledge of the Jew-hatred that is part and parcel of Islam, and the authorities and politicians refuse to acknowledge that Jews are now fleeing the southern city of Malmö due to its steadily growing Muslim population. Quite simply, most Swedes have never realized that one minority group may expose another minority group to violence and intimidation.
There are other reasons Malmö’s politicians turn a blind eye to Jew-hatred. Malmö is Sweden’s third-largest city and probably has the greatest proportion of Muslims. (It is hard to give exact figures because Swedish law forbids registration based on religion.) It is normally assumed that approximately one-third of Malmö’s 300,000 inhabitants have a foreign background and that their number is steadily increasing. Currently, most refugees come from Syria and Somalia, and most are Muslims. The first to go down the road of extermination are the Saturday People; then come the Sunday People.
Whether France, Sweden, the UK or elsewhere in the EU, Antisemitism is rampant as reflected in various studies and surveys. It is bolstered by the hatred of Muslim émigre’s whose children now flock to the black banner of the Islamic State intent on killing all infidels. Especially Jewish infidels as did Amedy Coulibaly at the Paris kosher market on January 9th. Hence, like the French sojourner in the US who wrote me, politicians in France and Sweden are blinded by the votes of the Muslim émigre’s in their midst denying Jews rights of free speech and safety.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Former PM Zeidan Warns of ‘Islamic State in the Med’
Islamic State will hold territory on the shores of the Mediterranean within two months “unless Britain and its allies help to restore order in Libya,” the country’s former prime minister has warned.
Ali Zeidan, the former Libyan prime minister who was kidnapped by rebel militias from the Corinthia Tripoli hotel during his tenure, said that elements of Islamic State, or Daesh, were present in most major cities in Libya.
His warning comes just weeks after an attack by suicide bombers affiliated to the Islamic State of Tripoli on the Corinthia Tripoli, which left security guards, guests and the attacking terrorists dead after a car bomb was detonated outside the hotel. The suicide bombers later detonated bombs on the top floor of the Maltese-owned property.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya; Sources, 40 Severed Heads Found in Bengazi
Forty severed heads were found in a training camp that the Libyan regular army took back from islamists militias, Libyan sources and media said Wednesday. The hospital of Bengasi received “forty human heads with no bodies”, said medical sources who did not further speculate on the finding made by Libyan special forces on patrol in the area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin and Al-Sisi Sign Agreements on Nuclear Energy, Arms and Security
Plans to build a nuclear power plant in Dabaa; arms sales amounting to 3 billion dollars; development of tourism; a Russian industrial zone in the region of the new Suez Canal. The alliance of Putin and al-Sisi in the fight against Islamic terrorism. The gift of a Kalashnikov.
Cairo (AsiaNews) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Abdelfattah al-Sisi have agreed to the construction of a nuclear facility and to strengthen economic relations in the arms trade and tourism.
During the two-day visit, which ended yesterday, Putin has sought to strengthen ties with the most populous Arab country, at a time when the US-Cairo alliance is at its’ most fragile.
After the forced resignation of the Islamist President, Putin was among the first to support the victory of al-Sisi, who was criticized instead by the US for having ousted the “democratically” elected Islamist president.
Yesterday Putin and al-Sisi announced that they had signed an agreement to build a nuclear power plant in Dabaa, in northern Egypt, the first in the country. The idea of a nuclear power plant in Dabaa has been touted since the days of Hosni Mubarak, deposed in 2011.
Another idea that has been long in the pipeline is that of arms supplies to Egypt, especially after the United States suspended military supplies, following the fall of Morsi (2013).
Since then, Russia was close to signing a deal for 3 billion dollars for the supply of missiles and warplanes, including the Mig 29 and assault helicopters. Later, Washington resumed its annual aid to Egypt: 1.5 billion dollars, of which at least 1.2 go directly into the military coffers.
Even today, the US-Egypt relations remain lukewarm. Al-Sisi is much criticized for his repression against dissidents and Islamists. But much of the population supports the former general, seeing his crackdown as the only way to ensure the safety and improve the economy, undermined by the Arab Spring and Morsi’s disastrous management.
In 2014 the commercial relations between Moscow and Cairo grew by 80%. In talks this week, Russia proposed strengthening tourism, as well as the construction of a Russian industrial zone in the region of the new Suez Canal.
Putin was greeted with great pomp and ceremony: honor guard, military salute, with roads paved with banners written in Russian and Arabic; a concert at the opera house. For Egypt the visit is important to show not that it is not totally dependent on the United States. At the same time, Moscow and Cairo expressed mutual support in their fight against Islamic extremism, in the name of security: Egypt faces the challenge of al Qaeda groups concentrated in the Sinai; Russia fears the continuous growth of Islamic terrorism in Chechnya and the Caucasus regions. Both are determined to fight terrorism with force.
In this context, Putin’s gift of a Kalashnikov to his host is quite significant.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US ‘Would Not Oppose’ Egyptian-Russian Nuclear Power Deal
The US would not oppose a nuclear deal for peaceful purposes between Russia and Egypt, state department spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, hours after the announcement of a tentative Egyptian-Russian nuclear power plant project.
Putin said that “if final decisions are reached” regarding the power plant, construction would start straight away. He said the project would include capacity building and studies.
Cairo has sought to strengthen its ties with Moscow, against the backdrop of strained ties with its long-time ally Washington since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
The US has on more than one occasion withheld parts of its $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt in objection to the toppling of Morsi, a president who was democratically elected to office in June 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Programme Focus Development Palestinian Sector
The EU-funded regional programme Med Culture held the first meeting of the Palestinian “National Focus Group” on the development of the cultural sector, on Tuesday, 6 January, hosted by the Ministry of Urban Planning and Development in Ramallah.
The National Focus Group is composed of Palestinian cultural practitioners from diverse disciplines, as well as representatives of relevant Palestinian ministries. The meeting, according to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), included two parts: a review of the activities planned for Palestine in 2015, followed by a workshop on seeking the support from the private sector to invest in cultural activities. Other Med Culture activities will include: a workshop addressing higher education and training and their relevance to the job market, particularly for the employability of younger people; a workshop on the development of strategic action plans for culture at the level of authorities, sharing experiences with countries such as Jordan and Lebanon; a workshop focusing on the promotion of culture in the suburbs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Israel Agreement to Produce Natural Gas Vehicles
Memorandum between FCA and Israel Fuel Choices Initiative
Accord between Italy and Israel to develop natural gas vehicles and technologies
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Iveco, Magneti Marelli and the Israeli government have signed a cooperation agreement to promote and develop natural gas vehicles and technologies. With the signing of a memorandum of agreement, the partners — on one side the office of the Israeli prime minister, through Israel Fuel Choices Initiative, and on the other Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Iveco (a CNH Industrial brand) and Magneti Marelli (FCA group) — have pledged to support and cooperate to develop technologies based on the use of natural gas, the website Siliconwadi reports.
Fuel Choices Initiative (IFCI) is the program of the Israeli government for alternative fuel in the transport sector and works to reduce the national and world economy’s reliance on oil, elevating Israel in the industrial know-how of the alternative fuel sector.
FCA, with its cars, together with Iveco, with its industrial vehicles, are known as leading companies in the development, production and distribution of cars fueled by compressed natural gas (GNC), with advanced multi-combustible technologies as solutions to control the Magneti Marelli engine. The objective of the Fuel Choices Initiative, a program directly managed by the premier’s office, is to become a ‘knowledge hub’ for alternative combustibles, explained Siliconwadi, and focus on the implementation of new-generation technologies. Such an ambition requires a partnership able to provide on a wider scale the implementation of technologies based on alternative combustibles in the transport sector in Israel to cover a wide percentage of vehicles by 2020.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Supporters in Yemen Pledge Allegiance to Islamic State: Group
(Reuters) — A group of Islamist fighters in Yemen renounced their loyalty to al Qaeda’s leader and pledged allegiance to the head of the Islamic State, according to a Twitter message retrieved by U.S.-based monitoring group SITE.
The monitoring group could not immediately verify the statement distributed on Twitter purportedly from supporters of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) based in central Yemen.
AQAP is considered the most powerful branch of the global militant network headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and has previously rejected the authority of Islamic State which has declared a caliphate, or Islamic theocracy, in swathes of Iraq and Syria.
State authority in Yemen has unraveled since a Shi’ite Muslim militia formally seized power last week and the Sunni AQAP has sworn to destroy it, stoking fears of sectarian civil war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Terrorist Who Tried to Help Jordan Free Pilot Says ISIS Lied
A hardcore Al Qaeda terrorist imprisoned in Jordan who agreed to negotiate with ISIS for the freedom of an air force pilot called the terror group liars for bargaining even after killing their hostage.
The terrorist group, also known as Islamic State, offered to trade Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was captured Dec. 24 in Syria, for Sajidah Al-Rishawi, a failed female suicide bomber detained in Jordan since 2005. But when talks broke down, Amman enlisted Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi — once a spiritual mentor of Al Qaeda in Iraq founder Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi — to get the deal done, according to the Jordanian news channel Ro’ya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Army Catches Turkish Citizen, 13 Foreigners Set to Join ISIL
Fourteen people, including one Turk, who were en route to joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been captured, the Turkish military said in a statement on its official website Feb. 11, as Turkey intensifies its efforts to cut the flow of recruits to the group.
The group was caught in a neighborhood in the Oguzeli district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep at noon on Feb. 9, the military statement said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Embassies Close as Yemen Slides Towards Abyss
Foreigners flee; Italy foreign ministry tells citizens to leave
(by Alberto Zanconato) (ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — The US, UK and France have all closed their embassies in Yemen, while Germany and Italy have urged citizens still in the country out of urgent necessity to leave as soon as possible.
UN envoy Jamal Ben Omar said on Wednesday that the country was “on the verge of a civil war”. Four years after protests began during the Arab Spring, leading to the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country seems sharply divided and state institutions are close to collapse.
Shia Houthi rebels made their way south towards the capital last summer and are now in de facto control of it, where since January they have held President Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi and his ministers under house arrest. In several other regions of the country, resistance from the population and Sunni clans is strong and Houthis are accused of being the ‘long hand’ of Iran. Al-Qaeda is also prospering in the country, and the US says that Yemen is where the transnational terrorist organization has its most dangerous operating cells despite repeated strikes by US drones. According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online Muslim extremism, some groups of Al-Qaeda fighters in the country have recently sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.
Making the situation even more complicated is a strong secessionist movement in the south aiming to create a separate state with the borders of one that existed until 1990. The Italian foreign ministry underscored on Wednesday that its embassy in Sanaa had suspended its services to the public and warned that there is a “particularly high risk of kidnapping of Western nationals” and that “the threat of terrorism is very widespread”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Lebanon Will Participate to European Programmes
Mogherini, ready for more aid, security and refugee challenges
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEB 9 — From now on Lebanon will be able to participate to Eu-initiated programmes, according to a protocol of the association agreement signed in Brussels Monday by Eu Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and by Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil on the occasion of the seventh Eu-Lebanon Association Council. Lebanon’s participation to Eu programmes “will take place in the same why applicable to candidate-countries — said Mogherini — to help promote reforms and modernisation as well as legal convergence between partner-countries. Cooperation with Beirut “is very strong” and Lebanon “has been one of my priorities from the outset of my tenure” said the Eu Foreign Policy Chief confirming “the European Union’s commitment to the stability, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon especially in light of the deteriorating situation in Syria and instability throughout the region”.
Mogherini stressed the “immense challanges” on the security front and the “enormous effort” Beirut is shouldering to host refugees. For these reasons “the Eu is ready to boost its aid”, said the Eu Foreign Policy Chief, within the framework of a new European Commission strategy to confront the crises in Syria and Iraq as well as the threat of the Islamic State.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fez, Niqab Now Allowed in Marriage Photos in Turkey
Turkish citizens are now allowed to pose wearing a fez or a niqab in photographs officializing their wedding, due to a new change in marriage regulations.
The most hotly debated issue in an amended article that passed into law on Feb. 10 is the new stipulation that couples would not have to acquire a “license to marry” before they can wed.
However, legal experts who spoke to daily Hürriyet on Feb. 11 pointed to another dramatic change in the regulation that has so far been overlooked.
The previous regulation had stipulated that couples must provide photos to officials before their marriage wearing “civilian clothes that are in accordance with revolutionary principles.”
The phrase “revoluationary principles” has been removed with the change in the regulation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Close Embassy in Yemen, Urges Nationals to Leave
France on Wednesday said it will close its embassy in Yemen due to mounting security concerns, urging French nationals to leave the country as soon as possible, the embassy said on Wednesday.
The closures come as Houthi rebels, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and dressed in police uniforms and civilian clothes, patrolled the main boulevards of the capital, Sanaa, some in pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Will Not Hesitate to Kill ISIS Leader
THE head of ISIS is “frightened” for his life after 7000 jihadists were slaughtered in air strikes this weekend, Jordanian officials crowed.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been on the run since the weekend, a Jordanian general boasted, as his nation ramped up bombing efforts in Syria in response to the barbaric killing of captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh.
“He is frightened by what we did in the last three days,” Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Jabour told NBC News. “(ISIS leadership) always hide and they are always on the move but we have assets always in the air for an opportunity to target al-Baghdadi and his gang.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kayla Jean Mueller ‘Married Off to ISIS Fighter’ — CBS
US intelligence community says
(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — The US intelligence community is convinced that Kayla Jean Mueller, the American hostage killed in unclear circumstances in Syria, was married off to an Islamic State (ISIS) fighter, CBS reported Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Opens Door to ‘Limited’ Ground Combat Operations Against ISIS
President Obama on Wednesday opened the door to “limited” ground combat operations against the Islamic State, as he asked Congress to formally authorize military force against the terrorist network.
The president, in a proposed resolution and a letter to Congress, underscored the “grave threat” posed by ISIS.
“If left unchecked, ISIL will pose a threat beyond the Middle East, including to the United States homeland,” Obama said.
Speaking later at the White House, Obama vowed to defeat the terror group. “This is a difficult mission, and it will remain difficult for some time,” Obama said. “But our coalition is on the offensive. ISIL is on the defensive, and ISIL is going to lose.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: More Than 20 Thousand Foreign Fighters Have Joined the Jihad
The number of volunteers who have joined the militias of the Islamic State has increased at an “unprecedented” rate. They come from more than 90 nations worldwide, at least 3,400 from the West (150 from the United States). A carefully masterminded propaganda and an “alienated” life are the main factors which lead many to join the jihadists.
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) — In the last period the number of foreign militants arriving in Syria via Turkey to join the jihad has increased at an “unprecedented” rate. Worldwide more than 20 thousand people have joined the ranks of the Islamic State or other extremist groups. According to US intelligence the volunteers of the holy war come from more than 90 nations and, of these, at least 3,400 from Western states (150 Americans).
The report released by the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), headquartered in Virginia, states that foreign fighters prefer to enlist among the militias of the Islamic State, seen today as more attractive than other extremist and terrorist movements. Experts have updated the estimates published in January, according to which about 19 thousand jihadists arrived in Syria. There is no reliable data, but according to NCTC director Nicholas Rasmussen, the “ the trend lines are clear and concerning”.
To underpin the dimensions of the phenomenon, the intelligence expert explains that “the number of direct foreign fighters in Syria is unprecedented” and “exceeds” that of those who have gone to “Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia or other areas in the last 20 years”. The type of foreign jihadist going to the Middle East, “do not fit into any stereotype” and come from a range of backgrounds.
For some time Western governments have been warning about the growing number of citizens who leave for Syria and Iraq, to fight in the ranks of the Islamist groups. A phenomenon that has grown even more in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris, which caused 17 deaths and panic in the heart of Europe.
According to the NCTC Director Islamic State militias attract such a large number of fighters thanks to the optimal use of propaganda on the internet and social media; videos and films, made in different languages and well produced, seem to appeal to thrill seeking young Westerners. Besides images of beheadings and violence, the group has figured out how to reach and indoctrinate thousands of boys and girls; they oppose a “bucolic” and fascinating image of life in the territories occupied by the “Caliphate” to a “alienated” and hopeless life. “Al Qaeda and its various branches in the Middle East and Africa — said Nicholas Rasmussen — have never displayed such an acumen with propaganda”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tehran Threatens Saudi Arabia; Khamenei: Iran Will Answer Saudi Arabia ‘A Blow With a Blow’
Following Saudi Arabia’s continued rejection of Iran’s demand in recent months to stop bringing down oil prices with its high production levels,(1) in the latter half of January 2015 Iranian spokesmen, particularly Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, stepped up their threats to respond to Saudi Arabia by means of “a blow with a blow.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: USA and Great Britain Urge Citizens to Leave Country
The United States and Great Britain urged their citizens to leave Yemen because of political instability and a terrorism high alert, the Us Department of State and the Foreign Office said Wednesday. Washington and London closed their embassies in Sana’a.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Italian Foreign Ministry Urges Its Citizens to Leave
Embassy closed like French, Us and British ones
(ANSAmed) — ROME — The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly advises its “citizens in Yemen for reasons of absolute necessity to temporarily leave the country”: the advice was published on ‘viaggiaresicuri’ (travel safe) which stresses that the Italian Embassy in Sanaa is temporarily closed and all services to the public are unavailable. The notice underlines that “there is a high of kidnapping for western citizens” .
France followed the example of the Us and Great Britain and shut its embassy in Sanaa. The French embassy in Yemen “will be temporarily closed from Friday February 13 until further notice”, announced the French diplomatic website, urging French citizens in Yemen “to temporarily leave the country as soon as possible”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen US, UK and France Close Embassies
The US and UK have already pulled out their diplomatic staff and called on their citizens to leave the country. France is set to do the same later this week. For Houthi rebel leader, Western fears are “unfounded.” The United Nations continues to mediate.
Sanaa (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The United States and the United Kingdom have closed their diplomatic missions in Yemen because of the deteriorating security situation and ongoing political crisis in the Arab nation. France will do the same shortly. The UN will however continue to mediate between the various political factions and the Shia rebels, who last week took control of the capital and dissolved Parliament.
The US and UK governments withdrew the diplomatic staff from Sanaa and urged their citizens to leave. France’s embassy in the capital announced that it would close on Friday.
This comes after President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and his cabinet resigned on 22 January when rebels, known as Houthis, overran the presidential palace and placed them under effective house arrest.
The crisis has threatened to derail an UN-backed transition to democracy launched after mass protests forced long time President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power in 2011.
Early today, the United Kingdom announced that it was temporarily suspending the operations of the British embassy in the Yemeni capital because “The security situation in Yemen has continued to deteriorate over recent days,” UK Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said. The United States had already pulled out its diplomatic staff.
Rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi rejected Western fears about the security situation in Yemen, insisting they were “unfounded”.
Mr Houthi, who said it was “in the interests of everyone, both inside and outside the country, that Yemen be stable,” rejected claims by Sunni-ruled states in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that the Houthis had carried out a “coup”.
The Houthis are a Zaidi Shia group centred in northern Yemen. Since 2004, they have sought more rights and have carried out attacks against the central government and pro-government Sunni militias.
During the 2011 uprising, they built a power base in the northern province of Sa’dah, inflicting a heavy blow against the tribal groups backed by Islah in the neighbouring province of Amran.
In a Middle East torn by violence and war, a stable Yemen is a priority for the United States and Arab countries, given its proximity to Saudi Arabia and to one of the most strategically important maritime trade route, the Gulf of Aden.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Threatens to Reveal Bombshell 9/11 Evidence?
Is Vladimir Putin about to unleash bombshell satellite imagery that reveals the U.S. government’s role in carrying out the 9/11 attacks as punishment for the White House’s role in supporting Kiev and encircling Russia?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainians Dodging Draft in Soros-Fueled Conflict
Victor, just like an unknown number of other Ukrainians of military age, is on the run.
As the Ukraine-Russia conflict rages on, a 49-year-old engineer received a mobilization invitation ten days ago to report to the Ukrainian Army. He left his home and now spends nights at a friend’s house, struggling with a difficult choice.
“It is my biggest dilemma,” he said today, almost whispering in one of many coffee shops in Kiev downtown. “On one hand, I think I need to defend my country, which is being attacked, but on the other, I am frightened I will die for this corrupt regime. For what?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Sending Around 600 Paratroopers to Ukraine to Train Troops
A battalion of around 600 American paratroopers will be heading to Ukraine next month to train national guard troops there, a Pentagon spokesman told Fox News Wednesday.
The unit heading to the war-torn country is from the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based out of Vicenza, Italy.
The training is to take place at the Yavariv training center in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, U.S. Army Europe Commander Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges said, according to The Associated Press.
Hodges said the Americans will train the Ukrainians how to better defend themselves against “Russian and rebel artillery and rockets.” Training also will include securing roads, bridges and other infrastructure and treating and evacuating casualties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Political Violence Affecting 1.4 Million Students
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — “I am shocked by the violence caused by this hartal. We could be attacked at any time. And the continuous postponement of the exams is a huge mental pressure”, Hridoy Rozario, a 16 year old Catholic tells AsiaNews. On 6 February he sat his final exams of the 10th grade (Secondary School Certificate, SSC), with more than 1.4 million children. Because of the violence linked to the nationwide strike (hartal) imposed more than a month ago by the opposition parties, the tests have been postponed several times for security reasons.
The objective of the coalition — led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP, nationalist) and the Jamaat-e-Islam (Islamic fundamentalist) — is to oust the Awami League government and go to new elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia Does Away With ‘Virginity Tests’ For High School Girls After Public Outcry
by Phyllis Chesler
Sanity has just prevailed in Muslim-majority Indonesia. An attempt to impose virginity tests on female high school students in the city of Jember has failed. A public outcry, led by human rights groups, as well as by Indonesia’s Muslim clerics, has led to the rescinding of a virginity requirement for girls-only in high school. Non-virgins would not have been entitled to their diplomas.
This victory is important and might establish a precedent for an interesting coalition of human rights activists and knowledgeable and humane Muslim clerics.
People tend to think of Indonesia as Hawaii-like: carefree, indolent, basking in perpetually pleasant weather. President Obama lived there with his mother, adoptive Muslim father, and sister, from the time he was six until he was ten. His mother returned to study and work in Indonesia on and off for two decades after her son decided to stay in Hawaii for high school. Indonesia is no longer the Big Easy, at least not for women.
For example, last year, the relatively small Indonesian province of Aceh mandated thatSharia law must be followed by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Violations include not wearing a headscarf, drinking liquor, unmarried couples having “affectionate contact,” and women wearing pants. Female genital mutilation (FGM), although banned, is widely practiced as is polygamy among Hindus in Bali…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Most US Firms in China Say Pollution Impedes Hiring: Survey
BEIJING (AFP) — Most US firms in China have problems recruiting senior executives because of the country’s chronic air pollution, a survey said Wednesday.
For the first time, a majority of respondents — 53 percent — to the American Chamber of Commerce survey said air quality issues had made it difficult for their organisation to hire senior talent to work in the Asian economic giant.
China’s cities are often hit by heavy pollution, blamed on coal-burning by power stations and industry, as well as vehicle use, and it has become a major source of discontent with the ruling Communist Party.
Retired senior officials have acknowledged that it may kill as many as half a million people a year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Sufis Kill 12 as President Mohamud President Arrives in Central Somalia
In Somalia at least 12 people have been killed and 30 wounded in the central Somali town of Guriel after militia loyal to a Sufi sect attacked forces loyal to the government. Earlier Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud landed in the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, Saudi Await Response to Demand for Mosque in Cuba, President Erdogan Says
Turkey has applied to Cuban officials to build a mosque in the Caribbean country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
“We have applied (to the Cuban officials) to build a mosque similar to the one in Ortaköy; we are waiting,” Erdogan said Feb. 9, while responding to journalists on board while en route to his South American tour.
Saudi Arabian officials have also placed a similar application, Erdogan said. “We will build it if we get the permission. There are around 4,000 Muslims in Cuba,” he said.
Erdogan is scheduled to visit Cuba on Feb. 10 and 11 after his visit to Colombia ends.
The visit comes after Erdogan’s remarks in November last year that Muslims were the first to discover the Americas and a mosque once sat on a hill on the Cuban coast.
During his speech to the 1st Latin American Muslim Leaders Summit in Istanbul, Erdogan said Muslim sailors arrived in America in 1178, more than 300 years before Christopher Columbus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Immigrants in U.S. Charged With Helping Islamic Caliphate
Bosnian immigrants living in the U.S. allegedly helped funnel money, arms, and supplies to the Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East according to an indictment from a federal court in Missouri.
The federal indictment charged Siki Ramiz Hodzic, Sedina Unkic Hodzic, Nihad Rosic, Mediha Medy Salkicevic, Armin Harcevic, and Jasminka Ramic with “conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists” and “providing material support to terrorists.” The indictment also charged Siki Hodzic and Rosic with “conspiracy to kill or maim persons in a foreign country.”
All six had immigrated to the U.S. as refugees from Bosnia and had either become citizens or legal residents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Migrants Feared Dead in Latest Mediterranean Tragedy: ‘They Were Swallowed by the Waves’
At least 300 migrants are feared dead after their boats sank while crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the UN refugee agency has said after speaking to survivors.
Nine people from two different boats were rescued by an Italian tug boat on Monday and brought to the Lampedusa island on Wednesday morning.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees initially said the survivors informed them at least a further 203 people from three rubber boats were missing.
UNHCR spokeswoman in Italy Carlotta Sami said the 203 people, including a 12-year-old boy, had been “swallowed up by the waves.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Patriots Must Decouple From GOP’s Pro-Plutocrat Policies
The Republican Party may have taken over Congress, but Barack Obama is hardly a lame duck. A recent Associated Press poll shows Obama’s approval rating improving to 47% (The AP-GfK Poll, Associated Press, January 29-February 2, 2015) While this is nothing to write home about, it’s much better than the 41% he received during the AP’s last poll in December. Approval over Obama’s handling of almost every issue has improved, with a majority giving him high marks on unemployment and terrorism.
But Obama is still vulnerable on one issue—immigration. Obama’s lowest ratings are on immigration, with voters disapproving by a 56-42% margin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Word Search Puzzles Given to Middle School Students
A Pennsylvania school district is under fire after middle school children were given “Fifty Shades of Grey” themed word search puzzles.
Based on the popular erotic romance novel and upcoming film, the puzzle includes such sexual terms as “bondage,” “handcuffs,” “leather cuffs” and “spanking.”
According to numerous news outlets, the issue became known after parents approached educators at a Tuesday evening school board meeting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Slovak Vote on Gay Rights Curbs Not Binding Due to Turnout
Turnout reached only 21.4 percent
(ANSA-AP) — BRATISLAVA — A nationwide referendum on restricting gay rights in Slovakia has failed to produce a legally binding result after the required number of eligible voters did not turn out. In Saturday’s vote, Slovaks were asked whether they agree to three points: that marriage can only be called a union between a man and a woman; that same-sex partners must be barred from adopting children; and that it’s up to parents to decide whether their children receive sex education.
The vote was forced by the Alliance for Family, a social conservative group that received a massive support from the Catholic Church. With all the votes tallied early Sunday by the country’s Statistics Office, voters in the predominantly Catholic country overwhelmingly voted “yes” — 95, 92 and 90 percent, respectively — to the three questions. But turnout reached only 21.4 percent, far less than the 50 percent needed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Uses Her Own Vagina to Whip Up First Ever Feminist Yogurt
Cecilia Westbrook, Ph.D. medical student at the University of Wisconsin and cultured jizz whiz, made a few batches of the first known vagina yogurt using secretions produced by her own ladyparts.
She explained:
“In a way, it’s so obvious. Like, of course you can make yogurt out of your natural flora. But who would think to do it? And of course the feminist in me wants to say something about how there’s a beauty in connecting your body to your food and exploring the power that your vagina has. Part of that is kind of a mystical hippie thing, but part of it is also just getting comfortable with your own body, especially in a culture that is so uncomfortable with women’s bodies.”
She tried mixing in her stuff with yogurt as a starter culture, and also plain milk. Her first trial tasted like Indian yogurt, and she enjoyed it with blueberries. Unfortunately this is not, it turns out, O.K. to eat.
Some of it could be bad for you, because the yogurt ingredients stuff depends on the woman, and the F.D.A. is against it. So you’ll have to wait on throwing that just vagina desserts V-day bash. But where there’s a will there’s a way, and this woman proves that we’re still a model society where great minds innovate. Hopefully someone comes through with that refreshing sounding period blood salad dressing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is there no limit to the depths that feminists will plumb to try and prove how superior to men they are? Disgusting!
You should see some of the loopy feminist sites. The obsession with their own bodies is just sick. Just take my word for it. What has been seen cannot be unseen.
Evidently, “feminism” has changed since I was last in the trenches. The goals then, IIRC, were to achieve legal and job-pay parity with men, and to gain access to *effective* contraception, with abortion available as a back-up if needed. We also wanted/needed help from men (mothers more so than non-mothers) in keeping house and watching children.
But this hatred of men, as evidenced by the aborting of a male fetus to avoid bringing “another monster into the world,” is beyond the pale. Women are not superior *or* inferior to men; we complement _each other_.
This obsession with the body began as an intentional demystification by the Boston Women’s Collective, which published Our Bodies, Ourselves at a time when a woman couldn’t get a straight answer out of her gynecologist re. Pap smear testing or much else, regardless of whether she was single or married. I myself was rendered unable to bear children due to a long-lived case of PID (pelvic inflammatory disease) which was misdiagnosed and then undertreated. I was also a young Dalkon Shield guinea pig–having graduated from high school at 16–which didn’t help the infertility problem.
It was in the shadow of many cases similar to mine that self-help for health–so that one could “speak the language” of doctors knowledgeably enough to get straight answers out of them–developed.
The obsession this particular woman displays for her…ah…”flora” is (let’s see…) repulsive, disgusting, unappetizing in every particular sense.
The combination of this news item and the one where the woman rejects her own evidently planned child simply because of his gender is frightening. Many Western women have excoriated the Indian practice of aborting female fetuses and/or exposing newborn females because of the cultural desire for sons. What on earth was the potential mother thinking?!
Fortunately the excesses of the spoiled (literally) middle class/upper middle class girls is limited to very small pockets of the coasts, and academic enclaves where gender studies be. Normal women don’t think that way but the #weirdowomen get the attention of the MSM. Definitely media event vs. real life.