Kinetic activists for the Islamic State in Libya are reportedly continuing their campaign to abolish antiquity by destroying ancient Sufi shrines. Meanwhile, Caliph Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi and a militant preacher in Kuwait are calling for the destruction of the Egyptian pyramids and other blasphemous relics of the jahiliyyah.
In other news, Madame Hillary Clinton, the First Lady Emeritus of the Amalgamated Socialist Republic of America, held a press conference yesterday at the UN at which she repeatedly insisted that she did not have text with that email server.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Prospero, Srdja Trifkovic, Vlad Tepes, 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.
ECB’s ‘QE’ On Track With Day One Purchases at Eur 3.2 Bn
The European Central Bank’s massive bond purchase programme, known as quantitative easing, or QE, got off to a good start with purchases at 3.2 billion euros on the first day, a top ECB official said Tuesday.
ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure said that during Monday’s kick-off day for the programme, the ECB and the central banks of the 19 eurozone nations purchased a total 3.2 billion euros in bonds.
That put the QE programme on track to attain its monthly goal of 60 billion euros worth of buyback of public and private sector debt, he said at a seminar in Frankfurt.
The ECB’s QE scheme has already been used by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to stimulate their economies.
But QE has been a long time coming on mainland Europe and is regarded as the ultimate weapon in the ECB’s vast anti-deflation armoury, the culmination of a long series of unprecedented measures to bring the eurozone’s flat-lining economic recovery back to life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Heading for Dollar Parity
The euro is set to hit parity with the US dollar in the coming weeks as a combination of quantitative easing and fears over a Greek exit from the eurozone continues to fuel a plunge in its value.
The euro has lost 10 percent against the dollar and the pound sterling since January. This has largely been attributed to the European Central Bank’s recently launched €1.1 trillion quantitative easing (QE) programme, which will pump an extra €60 billion into the eurozone economy every month until September 2016, alongside renewed fears that Greece could be forced out of the single currency bloc.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Enters Bailout Talks as Cash Crunch Looms
(BRUSSELS) — Emergency talks on extending Greece’s huge bailout were due to begin Wednesday, as the Greek government scrambled to put together enough cash to get through the rest of the month.
A Greek government source told AFP that “high-level” technical talks between Greece and its troika of creditors would begin in the afternoon in Brussels, and last about two days.
“The goal is to find a framework on how to proceed and a detailed timeline that includes specific data,” a source close to the negotiations said.
“The ‘institutions’ want detailed data, and they will get that,” the source said, using the Greek government’s chosen term for the troika group of creditors — the European commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Great Middle Class Extinction: “95% of New Homes Built for Rich or Poor”
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times all over again.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are we on the verge of an unprecedented global currency crisis? On Tuesday, the euro briefly fell below $1.07 for the first time in almost a dozen years. And the U.S. dollar continues to surge against almost every other major global currency. The U.S. dollar index has now risen an astounding 23 percent in just the last eight months. That is the fastest pace that the U.S. dollar has risen since 1981. You might be tempted to think that a stronger U.S. dollar is good news, but it isn’t. A strong U.S. dollar hurts U.S. exports, thus harming our economy. In addition, a weak U.S. dollar has fueled tremendous expansion in emerging markets around the planet over the past decade or so. When the dollar becomes a lot stronger, it becomes much more difficult for those countries to borrow more money and repay old debts. In other words, the emerging market “boom” is about to become a bust. Not only that, it is important to keep in mind that global financial institutions bet a tremendous amount of money on currency movements. According to the Bank for International Settlements, 74 trillion dollars in derivatives are tied to the value of the U.S. dollar, the value of the euro and the value of other global currencies. When currency rates start flying around all over the place, you can rest assured that someone out there is losing an enormous amount of money. If this derivatives bubble ends up imploding, there won’t be enough money in the entire world to bail everyone out.
Do you remember what happened the last time the U.S. dollar went on a great run like this?
As you can see from the chart below, it was in mid-2008, and what followed was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Mob Violence Spreads as the President Preaches Victimization in Selma
By Colin Flaherty
The President celebrated black victimization at his recent speech in Selma, but around the rest of the country, black people were making the successful transition from victim to predator.
Within a few days of the President’s Selma speech, black mob violence and black on white crime proceeded apace, much of it on video and none of it acknowledged as racial violence in local media.
Here is a smattering from around the country:
[There follows a long, depressing litany of incidents. A question: Are they going to commemorate, as the 50th anniversary of the Selma march was commemorated, the 50th anniversary of the Watts riot in L.A., which got all this rolling back in the last century? Be it noted that that squalid saturnalia broke out all of five days after Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 into law. (The signing took place on Aug. 6, 1965, the riot began on Aug. 11.) — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Reportedly Helped Justice Department Develop Technology to Access Cell Phone Data
The Central Intelligence Agency helped the Justice Department develop technology used to access data from thousands of cell phones at once, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that the program uses devices similar to a cellular tower that tricks cell phones into automatically reporting their location. The devices are located on specially equipped planes, usually small fixed-wing Cessnas, that operate out of five cities across the U.S. The existence of the program was first reported by the Journal this past November.
The Journal reports that when a device locates a phone sought by law enforcement officials, the plane circles overhead until the device can locate it within approximately 3 yards.
The technology, which was developed by the U.S. Marshals Service alongside the CIA, is used to track criminal suspects. According to the Journal, similar technology is used to track terrorism suspects and other targets of U.S. intelligence overseas.
As part of the system’s function, it briefly identifies many cell phones belonging to innocent people, and also interferes with the ability to make phone calls. Officials at the CIA and the Justice Department tell the Journal that the agency’s role in developing the technology did not break rules prohibiting involvement in domestic operations.
[A necessary technology that should not be misused. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton’s Evasive Press Conference
A short press conference held at the United Nations in an effort to tamp down a growing email scandal was vintage Hillary Clinton: long on self-righteous, self-aggrandizing assertions, and woefully short on anything resembling genuine information…
Clinton grew visibly testy when a reporter asked her about former Kenyan Ambassador Scott Gration, who was forced out his job in 2012 after an inspector general report (IG) cited managerial incompetence that included using a private email system to evade agency rules. She told the reporter he should read the IG’s report, implying he had missed some critical distinction between what she did and what Gration did.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
College in California Becomes Nation’s First Accredited Muslim University
By Jennifer Kabbany
A Muslim college in Northern California has been given accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, becoming the first accredited Muslim college in America.
The approval letter from the association to the Berkeley-based college states the school has been given “initial accreditation,” adding the institution may confer an accredited “Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Law and Theology” at this time.
The association also commended Zaytuna College for its work to obtain accreditation, saying the label “adds value” to institutions while also providing “accountability.”
Zaytuna’s founders have praised the decision.
“Five years ago, we introduced an undergraduate liberal arts program inspired by the idea of restoring the holistic education that had been offered in the great teaching centers of Islamic civilization,” President Hamza Yusuf stated on the school’s website. “Today, Zaytuna’s accreditation roots this vision in a reality recognized within American higher education. It gives our community its first accredited academic address in the United States. And we hope, God willing, that there will be more such Muslim colleges and universities to come.”
The March 8 announcement from the school noted the Western Association of Schools and Colleges is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and also accredited Zaytuna’s neighbors: Stanford University and UC Berkeley.
The college describes its mission as “grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.”
Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer of near eastern studies and ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, praised the development on The Berkeley Blog, saying that “at a time of such extreme negative news cycle focusing on Muslims, the initial accreditation vote is a most positive development for a community that has been battered for more than a decade.”
[Battered! Poor lambs! Actually, that one word is indicative of the culture of Muslim victimhood this madrassa will likely propound. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Early in 2016 Race, Clinton’s Toughest Foe Appears to be the News Media
By Patrick Healy
With no other powerful Democrats likely to run against her, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s toughest adversary for her party’s presidential nomination in 2016 has now become clear. It is an opponent that challenged her in the early 1980s over her use of her maiden name — and was hectoring her again on Tuesday over her use of personal email for State Department business.
“Did you or any of your aides delete any government-related emails from your personal account?”
“What lengths are you willing to go to prove that you didn’t?”
“The White House counsel’s office says that you never approved this arrangement through them. Why did you not do that?”
Probing, persistent questions like these from the political press corps at Tuesday’s news conference are the sort that rival candidates would be expected to ask on the campaign trail or in televised debates, as Barack Obama did against Mrs. Clinton in 2007 and 2008 over the Iraq war and other issues.
[Who gives a rat’s rectum about Haughty Hillary’s e-mails? What they ought to be hassling her about is her connivance with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the execrable “Istanbul Process,” the ultimate objective of which is to criminalize the so-called “defamation of religions” (read: any exposure, analysis, criticism, or mockery of Islam). — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: California Profs ‘Unequivocally’ Endorse American Flag Ban
By Caleb Bonham, Campus Reform
In a letter uncovered by Campus Reform Tuesday afternoon, over 60 professors have endorsed the attempt to ban the American flag from an “inclusive” space on the campus of UC Irvine (UCI).
The letter, which features over 1,200 signatures as of this writing, praises the ban on national flags, especially the American flag, passed by the Associated Students of University of California, Irvine (ASUCI) last week. After Campus Reform broke the story, the ban received intense media scrutiny and was vetoed by organization’s Executive Cabinet.
“We admire the courage of the resolution’s supporters amid this environment of political immaturity and threat, and support them unequivocally.”
“We write to support the six members who offered the resolution to remove national flags from the ASUCI lobby,” the letter reads. “The university ought to respect their political position and meet its obligation to protect and promote their safety. The resolution recognized that nationalism, including U.S. nationalism, often contributes to racism and xenophobia[…]”
“This is a more or less uncontroversial scholarly point, and in practice the resolution has drawn admiration nationally from much of the academic community,” the letter continues.
[…]
Richard Pham, a senior majoring in History, told Campus Reform he was appalled to learn that UC Irvine professors supported the actions of the student council.
“What troubles me about the flag ban is that it restricts free speech,” Pham said. “This is a public university, we are adults here, we’re here to discuss ideas civilly, and they are seeking to ban things.”
[You may be an adult, sir, but your interlocutors are intellectual toddlers in an academic playpen. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Former Navy Seal Sniper: Stop Selling Out Our National Security
By Scott Taylor
Right now in America, our nation is at its tipping point. From the horrifying rise of global terrorism through ISIS, to the looming threat of another government shutdown, Americans are looking for leadership they can count on.
That’s why, as a former Navy SEAL sniper and Iraq War veteran, I am going on the record with my new book, “Trust Betrayed: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Selling Out of America’s National Security.”
I served this country for eight years, watched brave comrades die, and I would do anything that is humanly possible to defend her defend her from threats both foreign and domestic. I only wish the leader in White House would do the same.
[…]
I refuse to be part of a generation that went abroad to defeat the evils of terrorism, only to come home and see Washington lose that fight through misguided national security and foreign policies.
I cannot remain silent as our leaders fail to speak openly and truthfully about the spreading cancer of Islamic extremism.
[…]
After my time in the Navy I went on to serve in a private capacity as a security consultant and manager for a US oil company in Yemen. I ultimately deployed there 10 times over 4 years. Nothing I could have been taught on these shores would have prepared me for the lessons I learned on those sands.
In the tribal world, it is practically suicidal to make unilateral concessions, to appear weak, or to weaken the position of one’s allies. The only way to keep or establish peace or command any respect or retain any influence is to demonstrate one’s power.
[Hear! Hear! Especially that last paragraph. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Government Admits Vaccine Causes Brain Damage
Alex and David Knight discuss how the vaccine court was recently forced to pay over $2,000,000 to the victim of a vaccine injury.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton Deleted 32,000 ‘Private’ Emails, Refuses to Turn Over Server
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton deleted nearly 32,000 emails she deemed private from her time in the Obama administration and refused Tuesday to turn over her personal email server, insisting she “fully complied” with the law and that voters will have to trust her judgment.
Answering questions for the first time about her emails, Mrs. Clinton said she’s turned over to the State Department 55,000 pages of emails she deemed work-related, but said she got rid of the rest last year. She defended her decision to keep control of her emails by using a private account, saying previous secretaries did the same thing, and saying it was more “convenient” for her this way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton Could Face Jail Time as Email Scandal Sparks Legal Challenges
The Obama administration will soon find itself in court having to explain to federal judges why it never told anyone former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used a secret email address, potentially spoiling dozens of open records requests, experts said Wednesday.
And Mrs. Clinton could face up to three years in prison per message if she is found to have broken her word and handled classified information on the secret account, one open records expert told The Washington Times.
The legal challenges have already begun, with The Associated Press filing a federal lawsuit saying the State Department has foiled five years’ worth of requests for Mrs. Clinton’s emails, but never told them or the court that she kept her own server — meaning that her emails weren’t being searched.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Liberty Lovers Are the New Second Class Citizens — Video
Alex Jones and David Knight discuss how people who love liberty and the American constitution are being demonized.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Steyn: ‘Queen Hillary’ Says ‘The Laws Do Not Apply to Me’
Mark Steyn tonight slammed “Queen Hillary” Clinton over her email controversy and called Americans “the chumps of the planet” for putting up with the ordeal.
Steyn compared the former secretary of state to Marie Antoinette.
“Instead of ‘let ‘em eat cake,’ ‘let ‘em eat spin,’ and not even good spin at that,” Steyn said.
Clinton said she released about 55,000 emails from her time at the State Department, which Steyn said equals about 38 emails per day. The average person in business receives more than 100 emails per day, he said.
“This doesn’t pass any kind of smell test,” he said.
Steyn said that this boils down to Clinton’s belief that rules are for “the little people.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NYC Bill Would Let Residents Earn Money by Recording Idling Cars
Residents of the Big Apple could start earning big bucks if an anti-idling bill to award New Yorkers for filming law breakers is approved by the City Council.
If adopted, the bill would establish a program that could let New York City residents earn cash rewards in exchange for submitting video evidence of people caught violating the city’s already strict anti-idling laws.
Curbside idling costs drivers in New York City around $28 million a year in wasted fuel, according to a 2009 environmental report, and air pollution is believed by city officials to be a leading factor in an estimated 6 percent of annual deaths. In an effort to clean up the air and put money back into the pockets of New Yorkers, two city council members are unveiling a bill this week aiming to compensate residents willing to help crack down on idling automobiles with increased penalties for law breakers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s props don’t really illustrate the achievements of the President’s policies, but the utter stupidity and contempt with which President Obama views his fellow citizens
It’s interesting how many times Obama makes speeches using human props in efforts to prove his point. I recall being nonplussed watching him the first time in front of the White House with thirty or forty people lined up behind him, all dressed in white lab coats.
Initially I thought he may have been speaking to a convention of butchers till I noticed that many had stethoscopes slung around their necks, medical style. That’s when I realized that his spiel was about his proposed new medical law and how he claimed “most” healthcare professionals were totally in support.
Two thoughts ran through my head as I scanned the neat rows of white clad props backing Obama’s pitch: the first was, “are these people really doctors?!” and the second was, “if they are really doctors, why aren’t they off healing the sick instead of propping up a snake oil salesman?” At that time, I was more inclined to believed that the white-coated men and women were paid actors, rather than real physicians.
Since then, nearly every Obama speech has involved human props of some sort as visual aids attesting to the gravity of what the Great Man is saying.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Second Amendment Activists Force ATF to Shelve Obama Ammo Ban
The ATF says it is shelving a proposed ban on ‘green tip’ ammunition after a deluge of critical feedback, highlighting that the move would be highly unpopular with Americans.
The federal agency said Tuesday that the President’s planned executive action to prohibit bullets for AR-15 hunting rifles will not go ahead. The ATF says that over 80,000 comments were received on the proposal. Most viewed the move negatively.
“The vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework, and include issues that deserve further study,” the agency said in a statement. “Accordingly, ATF will not at this time seek to issue a final framework.”
[Comment: for now…they will try again.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The ‘My House, White House, What Difference Does it Make’ Scandal
It’s not the neutering of the left ObamaNet’s going after but the neutering of all conservative voices, big and small.
‘Net Neutrality’ did not come of a sudden on February 26, 2015. Net Neutrality more honestly called ‘the Neutering of the Net’ was already in place a long time ago. Feb. 26 only made it official and is only the date the Obama regime used to demoralize what they see as the hapless masses under their imperial control.
Government business conducted in emails from private home accounts rather than from government office accounts was happening long before Hillary Clinton was caught in the headlights.
Proof of who really owns the ‘Net is transparent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Milky Way is 50% Bigger Than We Thought
Astronomers in New York have revised the size estimate for our galaxy. They now say the Milky Way (shown) is 150,000 light-years wide, not 100,000 light-years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tsarnaev’s Own Words From Inside Boat Shown in Court
As he hid in a boat stored in a Watertown backyard, a wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scrawled a message in pencil on the inside panels. On Tuesday in federal court, a jury got to read those words, which were interrupted by bullet holes and smeared with blood.
“The US government is killing our innocent civilians . . . I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished,” Tsarnaev wrote in what prosecutors in the Boston Marathon bombing case have characterized as a confession.
“Know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven. . . . “ Tsarnaev wrote. “We are promised victory and we will surely get it.”
The message, which was disclosed in its complete form for the first time, has become central to Tsarnaev’s trial in federal court in Boston as prosecutors hope to show that he was not only lucid in the hours before his capture, but that he articulated a clear motive for the Marathon bombings.
[…]
Tsarnaev referred to his deceased brother in his note: “I’m jealous of my brother who . . . received the reward of jannutul Firdaus (inshallah) before me. I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive. God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in his [sic] boat and shed some light on our actions.”
“Jannutul Firdaus” translates roughly into “the highest paradise.”
Tsarnaev added, “I ask Allah to make me a shahied [sic] . . . to allow me to return to him and be among all the righteous people in the highest levels of heaven.” “Shaheed” translates roughly into “witness, or martyr.”
In opening statements, Tsarnaev’s lawyer, Judy Clarke, admitted that her client helped set off the bombs at the Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260, even though he has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces.
[What a deal Islam offers to a teenage loser: first you get to fulfill all your murderous fantasies on Earth, then you get to fulfill all your sexual ones in the celestial Playboy Club. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Using “Safety” To Break a Nation
Lulling Americans into believing that government can provide a safety net for everything from stocking a pantry and providing healthcare, to preventing administrative offices from “shutting-down,” boosting the stock market and de-stressing the environment through regulating virtually every activity, results in an opposite effect… It destabilizes the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Government Needs to Destroy the 2nd Amendment
Alex Jones and David Knight break down why the government needs to destroy the 2nd Amendment before they can seize total control.
[Comment: Subjugation of Americans can’t proceed until Americans have been disarmed.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Sympathizer Arrested After Plotting to Bomb U.S. Consulate in Toronto: CBSA
TORONTO — A Pakistani man arrested by immigration officials this week is an ISIS supporter who had plotted to bomb financial buildings and the U.S. consulate in Toronto, the Canada Border Service Agency alleged at a hearing Wednesday.
Jahanzeb Malik, who came to Canada as a student in 2004, told an undercover police officer he had attended training camps in Libya and wanted to build an explosive device to conduct attacks in Toronto, the CBSA said.
Believing the undercover officer was a veteran of combat in Bosnia, he attempted to recruit him by showing him ISIS beheading videos and encouraging him to watch the lectures of al Qaida figure Anwar Al-Awlaki.
He was arrested on Monday following what the CBSA called a “lengthy investigation” by the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Toronto. He faces no criminal charges at this point but is being deported…
| [Return to headlines] |
Austria: More Non-Native Speakers in Schools
The number of school pupils who are not native-German speakers has risen in Austria, despite falling student numbers.
Around 21 percent (or 234,000) students speak a language other than German, according to figures for 2013/14 from Statistics Austria.
This is an increase of 7,700 on the previous year, or one percent of the total number of students. The majority of students who speak another language are in Vienna (46 percent), followed by Vorarlberg (22 percent) and Salzburg (18 percent), with the fewest in Carinthia (11 percent).
The highest percentages of students with a non-German mother tongue are in the so-called special schools, for children with special educational needs (31 percent), followed by New Middle Schools (NMS) and pre-vocational schools (PTS) each with 28 percent, and primary schools (27 percent).
In Vienna two thirds of secondary school students speak a language other than German. The proportion of pupils with a non-German native language in public schools (21.5 percent) is only slightly higher than in private schools (17 percent).
The most commonly spoken languages after German (876,000) are variants of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian (a total of 67,000 students), followed by Turkish (59,000) and Albanian (16,000).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
English Increasingly Common in Finnish Streets and Culture
Finns are routinely exposed to English-language snippets, phrases and brand names in their everyday surroundings, not to mention the dialogue of television shows and films. Sini Kiuas, a teacher of creative writing, says she is not bothered by the proliferation of English, but prefers searching for Finnish terms for Anglicised expressions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finns Go Wild for the Fatbike — Perfect for Biking in the Snow
Fatbike hysteria this winter caught Finland’s bicycle industry unprepared. Demand for bikes with over-sized tires exceeded supply, but retailers promise that next season they will have a better selection, which means prices will come down.
A new winter sport is looking to challenge the perennial favourites of cross-country and downhill skiing in Finland. This winter, Finns are snapping up fatbikes like hot cakes and supply can’t keep up with demand. Fat bikes are a great recreational option during the winter months, as they are ideal for navigating the ice and snow and communing with nature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Objects to Waterloo Euro Coin
A new design for a €2 coin featuring a map of a European battle is proving divisive in Brussels.
The design shows an image of the Lion Hill memorial at Waterloo, near Brussels. It was submitted by Belgium to commemorate the battle fought there on 18 June 1815.
But one member of the European Union thinks it is in rather poor taste.
In a letter of objection, the French government argues the design contains a “negative” symbol for some Europeans.
The letter contends that the Battle of Waterloo, in which Napoleon was defeated, is an event with particular resonance in the European collective memory and goes beyond being just an instance of military conflict.
The coins could prompt an unfavourable reaction in France, the letter warns, at just the time that eurozone governments are trying to strengthen unity and co-operation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Keep 10,000 ‘Tired’ Troops on Streets
France will maintain its deployment of 10,000 troops that have been patrolling across the country in the wake of January’s jihadist attacks, the presidency said on Wednesday. Fears have been raised that the soldiers are suffering from fatigue.
“The threat of terrorist attack against our country remains high,” the office of President Francois Hollande said in a statement after a special meeting of top ministers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Garage Owner Who Helped Smuggle a Quarter of a Ton of Heroin Into Britain is Jailed
The 230 kilos had been hidden in a series of secret compartments inside a specially-adapted X type Jaguar car that arrived at the port of Felixstowe on a container ship from Pakistan.
A garage owner who helped to smuggle £37 million worth of heroin into the country in a specially adapted X-type Jaguar has been jailed.
A quarter of a ton of the drug had been hidden in a series of secret compartments inside the battered old car — which had no ignition or electrics and couldn’t be driven — as it arrived at the port of Felixstowe on a container ship from Pakistan.
Attique Sami, 44, was the third member of a drug smuggling crime gang to be jailed over the plot when he received a sentence of 19 years yesterday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece to Seek War Reparations From Germany
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has put the painful question of German war reparations back on the table, saying his country was never paid for the infrastructural damage inflicted in World War II.
In a highly emotive speech before parliament on Tuesday (10 March), peppered with references to Nazism, the Third Reich, and the Holocaust, Tsipras said Berlin had an “unfulfilled moral, as well as material historic debt”.
He acknowledged that Germany paid 115 million deutschmarks (€59 million) to Greece in 1960, but said this went only to individual victims of Nazis and did not compensate for the “destruction” of the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Tsipras Makes Fresh War Reparations Demand
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Germany owes his country war compensation worth hundreds of billions ahead of Wednesday’s negotiations in Brussels on his country’s debts.
Tsipras’ predecessors in Athens had already commissioned a study on the question of German reparations, which was completed in March 2013.
Kept under strict secrecy until being published by an Athenian newspaper last Sunday, it details total demands in of between €269 and €332 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Threatens to Seize German Property as Compensation
The Greek government has threatened to seize German property as compensation for a Nazi atrocity in World War Two.
Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos said he was ready to approve a Supreme Court ruling from 2000 backing payment to relatives of the 218 victims.
The debt-ridden government is already calling for Germany to pay billions of euros in wartime reparations.
But Germany insists the issue of compensation was settled in 1990, before the country was reunified.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday it was Germany’s firm belief that the question had been resolved legally and politically.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How to Stop Swedish Teens From Turning to Extremism?
This week, the opposition Liberal Party held a seminar about how to meet the threat from violent extremism and the recruitment of young Swedes into organizations like ISIS.
In January the Swedish intelligence service Säpo said that at least 130 Swedes have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq and that the real number who have joined Isis may be up to 300.
Mona Sahlin is the former Social Democrat party leader and was appointed last July as the national coordinator against violent extremism. The job involves working to improve cooperation among authorities, municipalities and various organisations. In her seminar presentation, Sahlin said that no one is born an extremist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Supreme Court Upholds Berlusconi Sex-Case Acquittal
Ex-premier cleared of paying for sex with underage prostitute
(ANSA) — Rome, March 11 — Italy’s supreme court of Cassation upheld an appeals court’s decision to acquit ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi of charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his office to cover up the case late on Tuesday. A court of first instance had found Berlusconi guilty of the charges, sentencing him to seven years in prison.
=
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi: Two Decades of Courtroom Saga
Billionaire tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, whose acquittal for paying for sex with a minor was confirmed on Tuesday, has been plagued by over 20 years of legal woes since he first entered Italy’s political scene in 1993.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Union in European Defence
One of the EU’s so-called founding fathers, Jean Monnet, has taught Europeans that “Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises”.
Multiple emergencies and rapidly evolving global trends have undermined the European Union’s role as a security actor in recent years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals Made Jewellery From Eagle Talons in Europe 80,000 Years Before Homo Sapiens Arrived
Neanderthals were making jewellery from the talons of the white-tailed eagle — one of the largest birds of prey in Europe — 80,000 years before the first members of our own species Homo sapiens arrived on the continent, scientists have discovered.
A study has revealed that eight claws from at least three different eagles had been made into a necklace or bracelet worn by Neanderthal people when they were the only humans in Europe 150,000 years ago.
The scientists said that the discovery shows that Neanderthal man was not the brutish species he is frequently depicted, but someone who was capable of careful planning and an ability to recognise the symbolic beauty of body ornaments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Was Anders Breivik Driven to Kill by Frustrated Sexual Feelings for His MOTHER?
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The 36-year-old murdered 77 people and injured more than 300 — many of them teenagers — in 2011 after detonating a bomb in Oslo and carrying out a mass shooting on Utoya Island…
‘It was clear their relationship was dysfunctional,’ the author told Grazia magazine, explaining that Mrs Behring had traits of an abused child herself from her own mother.
Breivik’s mother was a paranoid schizophrenic as was her mother, while his father was a cold and distant Norwegian diplomat, offering Breivik little comfort or protection.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Recalls Ambassador After Sweden Cuts Military Ties: Sweden
Saudi Arabia has recalled its Stockholm ambassador, the Swedish foreign ministry said Wednesday as the rift between the two countries deepened in the wake of Sweden cutting military ties.
“Diplomatic relations are not broken. But Saudi Arabia’s ambassador has been recalled,” spokesman Erik Boman told AFP after Sweden scrapped military cooperation with the conservative kingdom on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Scrapping Saudi Deal Has Damaged Sweden’
A sharp debate has broken out in Sweden after the government’s decision to end a controversial military co-operation agreement with Saudi Arabia.
The leader of the Swedish Left Party Jonas Sjöstedt referred to the news to end the deal as a “victory” on Tuesday and wrote on Twitter: “Credible feminist politics demanded this.”
But former Foreign Minister Carl Bildt issued sharp criticism of the government.
“This is not least about Sweden’s credibility as a contractual partner. That credibility is important to a relatively small country like Sweden,” he wrote on his blog.
“What has happened is unfortunate. Sweden has been damaged,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Assange Appeal to be Heard by Supreme Court
Sweden’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear Julian Assange’s appeal to have the European arrest warrant against him lifted, as the Wikileaks founder continues to fight extradition to the Nordic nation following rape and sex assault allegations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Saudi Ambassador Called Home
The Swedish Foreign Ministry says the Saudi ambassador has been withdrawn, as a reaction to Swedish criticism of Saudi human rights abuses.
This follows days of turbulent relations between Sweden and the Middle Eastern authoritarian monarchy.
On Tuesday, the Swedish government announced it was no longer planning to work with the Saudi military.
The day before, Saudi Arabia stopped Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallström, from addressing the Arab League, reportedly over Sweden’s criticism of the Saudi government’s crackdown on free speech. This includes Sweden speaking out against the Saudi whipping of a blogger.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Artist on Al Qaeda’s Hit List Has No Regrets
His public appearances are cancelled, friends shy away and he is confined to a safehouse but Swedish artist Lars Vilks, twice targeted by Islamist assassins, says he has no regrets even though he feels that those who wish him dead are winning.
The 68-year-old sparked outrage among Muslims in 2007 with a drawing portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a dog. That led an al Qaeda-linked Iraqi group to place a $100,000 bounty on his head.
In February, he went into hiding after a radicalised Dane shot dead two people in Copenhagen at a free-speech event Vilks attended and at a synagogue.
Vilks said he hopes the situation will calm down in coming months but is resigned to living under threat for the rest of his life. He said people like himself, novelist Salman Rushdie and cartoonist Kurt Westergaard are forever in al Qaeda’s “hall of fame”.
“These people are not in a hurry. It is very seldom that anyone slips away and is forgotten.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC Still Determined to Cover-Up the Legacy of Monster Jimmy Savile
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Nobody from John Humphrys in the morning to Evan Davis at night dares mention a scandal at the BBC. It undermines their reporting of every abuse whistleblowers reveal. It reinforces the dirty common sense of British life that you must keep your head down if you want to keep your job.
The scandal is simply this: the BBC is forcing out or demoting the journalists who exposed Jimmy Savile as a voracious abuser of girls. As Meirion Jones put it to me: “There is a small group of powerful people at the BBC who think it would have been better if the truth about Savile had never come out. And they aim to punish the reporters who revealed it.”
Jones was one of the BBC’s best investigative producers. He had suspected that Savile was not the “national treasure” the BBC, NHS, monarchy and public adored, ever since he had seen Savile take girls away in his car from an approved school his aunt ran in the 1970s. He broke the story which showed that Savile was one of the most prolific sex abusers in British history, and handed the BBC what would have been one of its biggest scoops. If it had run it. Which, of course, it did not. The editor of Newsnight banned the report. Thus began a cover-up which tore the BBC apart.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teaching 11-Year-Olds About Rape is a Form of Child Abuse, Writes Sarah Vine
The Government is right. The early sexualisation of our children is a huge worry. But I fail to see how lecturing 11-year-olds about rape consent will improve matters, writes SARAH VINE.
It will just serve to further erode what little remains of our children’s precious innocence by introducing them to the worst brutalities of the adult world at a time when they should be playing stuck-in-the-mud.
Why this race to steal away their childhood? No one gave me sex lessons at school — let alone taught me about rape (I honestly don’t think I knew what rape was until well into secondary school).
And yet somehow I managed to marry, produce two children and avoid being sold into the slave trade — and believe me, I had far from a sheltered childhood.
But I did have the enormous advantage of being surrounded by adults who respected my right to be a child — and who protected me from things I was not yet ready to comprehend. Something we as a society seem determined to deny the next generation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman Jumped in Canal to Escape Sex Attacker Ryan Lockyer But He Will Not Serve a Day
Ryan Lockyer, 22, (pictured) of Reading, Berkshire, was jailed for six years for the ‘terrifying’ knife attack at a nature reserve, which left his 31-year-old victim afraid to go out alone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Making the Mediterranean an Employment Hub for Young People: Launch of UFM Regional Project
The official launch of the UfM-labelled HOMERe project in Marseille will provide an opportunity to discuss young graduates’ transition to an active life in the Mediterranean region and the leverage which transnational company internships can have in helping them access the labour market. The testimonials from the first participants will illustrate how HOMERe works and its added value for young graduates and for companies.
HOMERe fulfils two of the Union for the Mediterranean’s major objectives: the promotion of youth employment, in full accordance with the UfM Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs (Med4Jobs), and the private sector development in the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Angry Egypt Feels the Squeeze From Jihadis, US and Hamas
Officials in Cairo nonplussed as Washington stalls shipment of military aid for fight against Islamic State; Sissi present list of demands to Hamas for thaw
There is one thing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can take comfort in regarding his relations with the US administration — he is not the only Middle Eastern leader struggling to understand American President Barack Obama. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has also been at a loss in recent weeks amid the administration’s almost surreal conduct towards Cairo.
On Monday Sissi was asked what he and the other Arab allies thought of US leadership in the region. It is hard to put his response in words, mainly due to his prolonged silence.
“Difficult question,” he said after some moments, while his body language expressed contempt and disgust. “The suspending of US equipment and arms was an indicator for the public that the United States is not standing by the Egyptians.”
It turns out that although the American administration recently agreed to provide the Egyptian Air Force with Apache attack helicopters, it has been making it increasingly difficult for Cairo to make additional military purchases.
For example, the US is delaying the shipment of tanks, spare parts and other weapons that the army desperately needs in its war against Islamic State…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Destroys Sufi Shrines in Libya
Daily Mail publishes photos of fighters using bulldozer
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 11 — The Islamic State (ISIS) has reduced a number of Sufi shrines in Libya to rubble, reported the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
The newspaper published photos showing militants destroying a Sufi shrine using a sledgehammer and a bulldozer. The photos were reportedly taken from a site run by the Tripoli branch of ISIS, but it is unclear when the destruction occurred. Sufi sites and especially the tombs of saints have been targeted in the past by other Libyan extremist groups.
After the destruction of statues in Mosul museums and the Hatra site in Iraq in recent days, concerns have arisen that the jihadists may desecrate Libyan archaeological sites as well, targeting in particular Greco-Roman ones.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Companies Eager to Invest in Suez Canal Project
(AGI) Cairo, March 10 — Italian companies are eager to get involved in the development of the Suez Canal. A total of 62 Italian firms have already indicated their willingness to invest in the Suez Canal Corridor Area Project, which will be presented at the economic summit in Sharm el Sheikh from Friday to Sunday. The news was confirmed on CBC television by the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Mohab Mamish, who visited Milan eleven days ago along with Egyptian Investment Minister Ashraf Salman. “In the coming days we will take stock of the companies that want to participate in the project,” said Mamish. Egypt is creating a new 72-kilometre channel parallel to the existing canal, almost doubling the infrastructure’s capacity from 49 to 97 ships per day. The first ship will travel the new channel in August, said Mamish, adding that the project will increase Egypt’s revenues from the Suez Canal by 259 percent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwaiti Muslim Preacher, Islamic State Call for Demolition of Sphinx, Pyramids
An Islamist preacher from Kuwait has called to destroy Egypt’s Sphinx and pyramids, stating it is time for Muslims to erase the pharaohs’ heritage. The alleged call comes as Islamic State jihadists ramp up their attacks against historic sites.
Although the ancient monuments are not religious — but rather cultural and historic sites — they should still be “destroyed” by Muslims, putting an end to the worship of images, preacher Ibrahim Al Kandari said, according to Al-Watan daily.
“The fact that early Muslims who were among prophet Mohammed’s followers did not destroy the pharaohs’ monuments upon entering the Egyptian soil, does not mean that we shouldn’t do it now,” Al Kandari said.
Another call for the destruction of Egypt’s main symbols comes from Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who suggested the demolition of the historic monuments is a “religious duty,” Al Alam news reported on Sunday. In the extreme interpretations of Islam, no material objects should be idolized or worshiped.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ISIS Now Has a Foothold in an Oil-Rich Mediterranean Port City
The reach of the Islamic State is becoming increasingly international in scope.
The jihadist organization has accepted pledges of allegiance from organizations in Afghanistan, Algeria, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, with Nigeria’s Boko Haram being the latest organization to apply for membership in the militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL.
A Tuesday New York Times report delves into maybe the most alarming of ISIS’ outposts: Sirte, a Libyan port city west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast where ISIS has established a foothold.
A few hundred firmly entrenched and battle-hardened fighters control major choke points and have commandeered the city’s radio stations and launched attacks in the surrounding area. The group beheaded 21 Coptic Christians on a beach outside the city in February and has attacked nearby oil facilities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Disenchanted by Civilian Life, Veterans Volunteer to Fight ISIS
AUSTIN, Tex. — Last fall, Patrick Maxwell, a 29-year-old Iraq war veteran now selling real estate in this bustling city, saw something in news footage of Islamic fighters in Iraq that he never saw as an infantry Marine there: the enemy.
“We patrolled every day, got shot at, mortared, hit by I.E.D.s, one of my friends was killed,” said Mr. Maxwell, a former sergeant who deployed in 2006 to Anbar Province. “But I never saw the enemy, never fired a shot.”
With the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, hoisting its black flag above many Iraqi cities that United States troops spent years working to secure, he saw a second chance. He connected with a Kurdish military officer online, packed his body armor, some old uniforms and a faded green ball cap with a Texas flag patch on the front, and flew to Iraq.
Within days, he was on the front lines as a volunteer fighter with Kurdish security forces, known as the pesh merga, in northern Iraq, peering through a rifle scope at ISIS fighters as bullets whizzed past.
“I may not be enlisted anymore, but I’m still a warrior,” said Mr. Maxwell, who left the Marines with an honorable discharge in 2011. “I figured if I could walk away from here and kill as many of the bad guys as I could, that would be a good thing.”
Mr. Maxwell is one of a small number of Americans — many of them former members of the military — who have volunteered in recent months to take up arms against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, even as the United States government has hesitated to put combat troops on the ground. Driven by a blend of motivations — outrage over ISIS’s atrocities, boredom with civilian life back home, dismay that an enemy they tried to neutralize is stronger than ever — they have offered themselves as pro bono advisers and riflemen in local militias.
[This calls to mind the men who went to fight the terrs in Rhodesia after we lost in Vietnam. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Grim New ISIS Video Appears to Show Child Executing Alleged Mossad Spy
By Malia Zimmerman
A baby-faced executioner who looks to be no older than 12 appears to kill an Israeli Arab who confesses to being a Mossad spy in the latest stomach-turning video released by ISIS.
The 13-minute clip was released via Twitter Tuesday evening, and shows a seated man identified by his family as 19-year-old Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam calmly confessing to having been recruited by the Jewish State’s spy agency, even stating how much he was paid.
Musallam, from East Jerusalem, is believed to be the alleged Mossad spy ISIS claimed last month to be holding, and who was interviewed in the terror organization’s February edition of its online magazine, Dabiq.
[…]
One of the most frightening aspects of the video, according to Veryan Khan, editorial director of the Florida-based Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, is the threat at the end made against specific Mossad agents, which in addition to providing their names in English and Arabic on a “hit list,” also lists their home addresses and maps of their locations.
A similar threat was issued against Jordanian pilots in a video of Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, being burned alive, which was released in February.
[The proper response to the threats of these vermin is, “Two can play at that game.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Meth Heads: Tweeking in the Name of Islam
By Dawn Perlmutter
The Islamic State does not just have an army. It has an army of meth heads. For ISIS fighters burning 45 people alive is a tweekers barbecue and beheading 21 Christians is a speed freak beach party. The difference between ISIS militants and your run of the mill junkie is that ISIS fighters are tweeking in the name of Islam. They are high on two drugs, amphetamines and jihad. ISIS true believers are using homemade meth produced in captured pharmaceutical plants to earn their warrior stripes and Islamic State status. Islamic ideology rationalizes the violence and the drugs transform them into Mujahideen maniacs with enhanced stamina, superhuman strength, no empathy, no fear and who literally feel no pain.
In 2014 it was widely reported that Syria was manufacturing and trafficking large amounts of amphetamines, primarily a drug called Captagon, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. Captagon, a brand name for Fenethylline, is a synthetic stimulant that is a popular recreational drug in the Middle East. As a result of the Syrian civil war the drug began to be produced on a large scale in Syria.
[…]
Not only is ISIS trafficking drugs to help finance the war, they are giving Captagon and other drugs to their fighters to increase endurance and feelings of invincibility. Due to the production of counterfeit Captagon jihadists are ingesting pills that contain methamphetamine, ephedrine, and other drugs that are much more potent than the original Captagon name brand version.
[…]
Kurdish fighters have observed that many ISIS militants are addicted to strong drugs and report finding pills, capsules and syringes on both dead and alive ISIS militants.
Instead of simply increasing stamina and courage, the drugs have created an army of junkie zombies that are committing primal acts of savagery in the name of Islam. In Syria reports of unusual barbaric acts of violence began appearing about the same time as the large production of methamphetamine.
[This would partially explain the Grand Guignol aspect of the ISIS vids. But a bigger part is just the nature of the Islamic beast. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS ‘Has 65 Italian Foreign Fighters’
Anti-terrorism chief says number is small but return troubling
(ANSA) — Rome, March 11 — Foreign fighters who joined ISIS to fight in Syria and Iraq and who have an Italian link are 65, said the chief of the Italian anti-terrorism unit, Mario Papa, addressing the Schengen Committee on Wednesday. “We are talking about small numbers of people but the heart of the problem is the issue of their return, considering that coalition raids as well as crises within the movement could speed the process” stated Papa adding that he viewed this prospect as “troubling”. There are more than 3,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, half of which came from France, another 800 to 100 from Great Britain, 650 from Germany and 400 from Holland and Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Accuses Wallström of “Flagrant Interference”
Saudi Arabia accused Sweden’s foreign minister Wednesday of “flagrant interference” in its internal affairs after she criticised the country’s human rights record, and confirmed that it is recalling its envoy in protest, the news agency AFP reports.
In January, Sweden called Saudi Arabia’s chargé d’affaires to the Foreign Office in Stockholm to protest against the country’s public flogging of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who had been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting islam. At the time, Wallström told Swedish media that Sweden had to protest against the use of “almost medieval methods”.
On Wednesday, the Saudi foreign ministry said that Wallström’s criticism was “harmful to the kingdom,” and that it represented a “flagrant interference in internal affairs, which is not accepted in international conventions.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Did Victims in Islamic State Beheading Videos Look So Calm? They Didn’t Know it Was Real.
By Adam Taylor and Sarah Kaplan
For all their stage-managed professionalism, the videos of killings released by the Islamic State have often left viewers confused about the exact circumstances of what was being shown in the video. Their videos of beheadings, for instance, do not show the act itself, which initially led some to speculate that they may have been faked.
More unnervingly, there was also the calm with which many hostages spoke to the camera. Why would hostages comply with Islamic State propaganda, if they knew that it would result in their death? Some even suggested that perhaps the hostages had struck a deal with their captors for a more humane death.
According to a new Sky News interview with an Islamic State defector, that wasn’t the case. Instead, he explained that the hostages were calm because they had been in this situation before. They did not know they were about to die.
The former Islamic State member, referred to as “Saleh,” told the British television company that the extremist group would put the hostages through mock executions. Saleh himself told the hostages that they would not be killed, recalling that he said to them, “Don’t worry, doesn’t matter, nothing dangerous for you.” However, Sky News reports that Saleh knew the plan was always to kill the hostages eventually, despite any limited kindness shown to them by their captors.
[…]
The Islamic State militants may have decided on this tactic based on the experiences of their predecessors. Writing for The Post last year, Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, noted that in videos of killings from the Iraq war, hostages who knew they were going to be killed often acted unpredictably and gave upsetting pleas for their lives.
[Whereas good little dhimmis go gentle into that good night. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Lies, Kerry’s Lies, And Color Revolution Statistics
by Srdja Trifkovic
Even a seasoned cynic sometimes gasps in disbelief. “President Putin misinterprets much of what the U.S. is doing or trying to do,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a press conference in Geneva on March 2. “We are not involved in ‘numerous color revolutions’ as he asserts. In the case of Ukraine, such assumptions are also wrong. The United States support international law with respect to the sovereignty and integrity of other people.”
This is akin to Count Dracula asserting his strict adherence to a vegan diet and his principled respect for the integrity of blood banks worldwide.
Various quasi-NGOs funded by American taxpayers and funneled through organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House and the National Democratic Institute, not to mention George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (partly funded by U.S. and other Western governments), have been actively engaged in dozens of “regime-change” operations for a decade and a half. Their work is conducted in disregard of international law and in violation of the sovereignty and integrity of the people whose governments are thus targeted.
The overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade (October 2000) provided the blueprint, in strict accordance with Gene Sharp’s manual. Widespread popular discontent was manipulated by the U.S./Soros funded and trained Otpor! network to bring to power a government subservient to Western political and economic interests. The moderately patriotic yet hapless new president, constitutional lawyer Vojislav Kostunica, was used as a battering ram to bring Milosevic down. Once that goal was achieved, Kostunica was promptly marginalized by Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and his successors — Serbia’s two-term president Boris Tadic in particular — who turned the country into a pliant tool of foreign interests. Wholesale robbery of Serbia’s state and public assets promptly followed the 2000 coup, resulting in the Balkan country’s comprehensive de-industrialization. Official Belgrade was forced to accept Kosovo’s de facto “independence” in the name of the elusive goal of joining the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Police Wants Torture Ban Overturned
Top law enforcement officials want especially changes to the provision in the 2013 law that bans torture in a “state of war, threat of war, internal political instability or any public emergency;” or following “an order of a superior officer or a public authority”. For human rights activist, such a request is unconstitutional.
Dhaka (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Bangladeshi police wants the Home Affairs Ministry to drop some provisions in a law that bans the torture and inhuman treatment of people in custody or in prison by police.
Specifically, the country’s law enforcement community wants Section 12 of the ‘Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act’ of 2013 scrapped. The provision in question says, neither a “state of war, threat of war, internal political instability or any public emergency;” nor “an order of a superior officer or a public authority; shall be unacceptable as an excuse” for torture.
Human rights activists reacted immediately to the request, noting that the proposed amendments “are in direct contrast with the constitution,” a rights activist said.
The call for changes to the law comes after several allegations were made that law enforcement agencies engaged in indiscriminate arrests, suspicious deaths and torture of people in custody during the political violence of the past two months.
The victims are mostly militants and supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (Islamic fundamentalist party), which have been blamed for causing unrest, and organising roadblocks.
Police want the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Special Branch (SB) and the Detective Branch (DB) of police excluded from the purview of the Act by changing the definition of law enforcement agencies.
As the law is currently written, the Bangladesh Police, RAB, BGB, Customs, Immigration, CID, SB, DB, Ansar, VDP and Coast Guard fall under the category of law enforcement agencies. Thus, the act is applicable to all these agencies.
However, for the police, the law leaves the door open to false complaints against all the agencies, making it harder for them to take effective steps in saving people’s life and property from destructive activities during political instability, strikes (hartal), blockades and arsons.
The problem is Article 35 (5) of Bangladesh’s constitution, which says that “No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.”
At the same time, the Bangladeshi government signed the 1984 UN Convention against Torture in 1998, which the Bangladeshi parliament turned into law, albeit only in 2013, making torture by law enforcement or government officials a criminal offense.
Under the 2013 Act, the maximum penalty in case of death in custody is life imprisonment or a fine of BDT 100,000 (US$ 1,300). The offender also has to compensate the victim’s family up to BDT 200,000 (US$ 2,600).
According to a report from Amnesty International, at least nine people died in police custody between January and July 2014, allegedly from torture.
Methods included beating, suspension from the ceiling, electric shocks to the genitals and, in some cases, shooting detainees’ legs.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jakarta “Concerned” About More Than 200 Indonesians on Death Row in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 229 Indonesians are in Malaysian and Saudi prisons for capital crimes. Most could be decapitated for drug trafficking or murder. Minister Marsudi calls on the new president Widodo to show that Indonesia stands by its citizens in these situations.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — It is crucial for Indonesia to protect and uphold the rights of its 229 citizens currently on death row abroad, said Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi during a meeting of the Council of Ministers during a cabinet meeting attended by the country’s new president, Joko Widodo.
However, Indonesian authorities have also decided to crackdown very hard on drug trafficking in its own territory by executing foreign nationals convicted by Indonesian courts. At present, Indonesian authorities plan to kill ten drug traffickers, one of whom is Indonesian.
However, the government’s tough line on the drugs could make matters worse for 229 Indonesians on death row in foreign countries.
Most are held in prisons in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia most, the minister explained Marsudi, where they could hang or be beheaded for drug-related crimes or murder.
For justice and rights to be respected and counsel to be provided, “The presence of the government in these situations is crucial”, the foreign minister said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rape Epidemic Continuing in India
Over 290 cases this year in New Delhi
(ANSA) — New Delhi, March 11 — A rape epidemic is continuing in India, according to figures presented to parliament about the capital New Delhi Wednesday.
Over 290 cases of rape have been registered in the first two months of this year, the government said.
Replying to a question on rising crimes against women in the national capital, Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said that 291 cases of rape were registered in Delhi in January and February this year.
As many as 662 cases of assault on women with intent to “outrage their modesty” too were registered during the period, in addition to 212 cases of “insult to the modesty of women”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Dirty Truth: 41 Million Pakistanis Without Toilets
Recently, a Unicef warning announced that an alarming 41 million people in Pakistan lack access to adequate toilets; forcing them to defecate in public. Pakistan is in fact the third largest country, behind India and Indonesia, where people are forced to defecate in the open.
This troubling practice which has become the norm for 41 million Pakistanis has profound health and nutritional consequences. Open defecation has significant consequences and it is imperative that we explore this topic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Widow of Blogger Avijit Roy Defiant After Bangladesh Attack
The widow of a blogger who was hacked to death in Bangladesh says she will continue to speak out on the causes of secularism and science.
Rafida Bonya Ahmed was also badly injured when her US-Bangladeshi husband Avijit Roy was killed after leaving a book fair in Dhaka last month.
Speaking to the BBC from a safe location, she said fundamentalism had “taken deep roots” in Bangladesh.
She said she was recovering slowly and had few memories of the attack.
Mr Roy’s family said he had received threats after publishing articles promoting secular views, science and social issues on his Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona (Free Mind).
He had defended atheism in a Facebook post, calling it a “rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: the Father Searching for His Abducted Son
An illegal market in children has developed in China, in which babies are being openly sold online. Police say many of the victims are from the estimated 20,000 children abducted each year — a crime with a devastating impact on separated children and parents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Authorities Say Muslim Uighurs Have Joined ISIS
Chinese officials say that members of the country’s Muslim Uighur ethnic minority have gone overseas to fight with ISIS, which controls sections of Syria and Iraq, and returned to take part in plots at home.
Authorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, will strengthen their crackdown on terrorism and extremism, regional representatives said at a discussion on the sidelines of China’s legislature.
Xinjiang has seen repeated violence as Uighurs have bristled under what they say is repressive Chinese government rule. Attacks blamed on Uighurs have also occurred in other parts of the country, including a car which plowed into Beijing’s Tiananmen Gate in 2013, killing five people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima Residents Doubt Plans to Rebuild
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to draw up a new five-year plan to speed up the rebuilding of the area of Fukushima after the tsunami disaster four years ago.
It caused meltdowns at the region’s nuclear plant and led to the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
A devastating earthquake set off the tsunami killing nearly 20,000 people and leaving thousands homeless.
Many families have now decided never to return and have started life elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Dumps ‘Unsafe’ Norway Whale Meat
Whale meat imported into Japan from Norway has been dumped after tests found it contained up to twice the permitted level of harmful pesticide, the government said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Threatwatch: Bird Flu’s Back and it’s Brought Friends
H5N1 bird flu burst out of China in 2003 and stormed across Eurasia and into Africa three years later. It’s been there ever since and this week its victims are Egyptians. Now another strain of bird flu, H7N9, is spreading in China and the signs are that it might soon rampage across the continent just like H5N1.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Plans to Censor South Africa Internet Called Out as Unconstitutional
The South Africa Film & Publication Board last week released a draft policy which outlines its recently mooted plans to regulate online publications.
The full document — available here — claims responsibility for online publishing as the prerogative of the FPB, which typically classifies movies, due to “media convergence” which has “fundamentally transformed the way media content is distributed and consumed”. It applies to “online distributors of digital films, games, and certain publications, whether locally or internationally”.
Online publications covered by the rules will be obliged to pay a fee to the FPB, which will then vet material published: “Where it is convenient and practical to do so, the Board may dispatch classifiers to the distributors’ premises for the purposes of classifying digital content.”
That seems to apply to anyone who publishes videogame source code, a YouTube video (YouTube is specifically mentioned in the regulations) or a blog.
Publishers will also be able to self-classify their work under certain terms. User generated content will also be governed by the rules, with publishers liable for offensive or illegal material uploaded by readers/users.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa TV Presenter Vuyo Mvoko Mugged on Camera
One of South Africa’s best known TV journalists has been mugged on camera as he waited to go on air.
Footage shows two men accosting Vuyo Mvoko, from the national broadcaster SABC, who was outside a Johannesburg hospital to report on the arrival of Zambia’s president for medical tests.
Mr Mvoko later said one of the muggers threatened him with a gun when he did not want to give up his mobile phone.
The robbers appear unconcerned by the presence of the camera.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Half of Voters Want to Tighten Non-Western Immigration
A survey carried out just a week after the Copenhagen terror attacks shows an increase in the number of Danes critical of immigration from non-Western countries, the web newspaper Altinget reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian Minister Threatens Australia With ‘Human Tsunami’
Indonesia’s security minister has threatened to release “over 10,000” illegal migrants to stop Canberra’s appeals for clemency for two Australian drug traffickers. Ten convicts are on death row for drug-related crimes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Breaks Previous Record; Granted 11 People Asylum in 2014
In 2014 Japan granted 11 people asylum. 5000 people sought asylum in the country but only 0.2% of these were granted asylum. This is new record and a monumental increase from 2013 when only 6 people were granted asylum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Some 50 migrants at dawn Wednesday tried to cross the border of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, at the Farhana crossing, which was closed by security forces.
A number of migrants, all of sub-Saharan origin, were able to cross into Spanish territory, while a dozen are still on top of the six-meter-high protection barrier, where Guardia civil officers have been deployed, according to local police sources.
After the migrants tried to storm the barrier, a freelance reporter for the Efe and AFP news agencies, was taken to a local police station when she was found driving a few migrants on her car.
The border crossing is very close to a temporary holding center for migrants in Melilla, where those who succeeded in crossing the barrier were housed. The latest attempt to storm the barrier was reported on February 19, when 35 immigrants crossed into the autonomous city in Morocco.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NAACP Battles Latino Groups Over Push to Open Public Schools for Non-English Speakers
WASHINGTON — A plan that would dedicate two public high schools in suburban Washington to immigrants and second-generation students struggling with English is pitting black and Hispanic communities — usually allies — against one another.
The Prince George’s County, Md., chapter of the NAACP is strongly opposing the plan — which would take effect next school year, and cover about 800 students having English language difficulties — claiming it will pull resources from other students and unfairly redistribute them to Hispanic students. Some critics go so far as to compare the plan to segregation.
“It’s a slap in the face,” Bob Ross, president of the Prince George’s County branch of the NAACP, told FoxNews.com.
Ross believes the proposal to open two new schools violates the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ruled separate schools for black and white students violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“It risks turning Prince George’s County into a segregated school system,” Ross said, adding that he realizes the need for better education in the county but believes it should not come at the cost of existing students.
Latino advocacy group CASA de Maryland sees it differently. The group, which has pushed for the schools, argues that it’s not a violation of the Constitution because the schools are not mandatory and are being built to provide options to immigrants
“If we are saying all [English-language-learning] students must go to these schools, that’s one thing. But we are not,” Tehani Collazo, senior director of schools and community engagement at CASA, told FoxNews.com.
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Journalist Arrested for Smuggling Immigrants
A freelance photographer has been arrested for smuggling immigrants across the border from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla.
Around 70 people attempted to climb the fence that separates Melilla from Morocco on Wednesday morning, reported Spanish daily, 20 minutos, with four succeeding in reaching Spain’s North African enclave.
One man was injured in the attempt, receiving medical assistance from the Spanish Red Cross.
Some remain perched on top of the wire fence, according to police sources quoted in Spanish media.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Ditches ‘Feeling Fat’ Emoticon After Feminist Backlash
Facebook has removed its controversial “feeling fat” emoticon after feminists launched an online campaign saying it promoted negative body image.
“We’ve heard from our community that listing ‘feeling fat’ as an option for status updates could reinforce negative body image, particularly for people struggling with eating disorders,” Facebook said in a statement to the New York Daily News. “We’re going to remove ‘feeling fat’ from the list of options.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
LGBT Activists Issue Death Threats to Children of Oklahoma State Senator
Oaklahoma State Senator Joseph Silk has stirred up a hornet’s nest inside the LGBT community after introducing a bill (SB440) in his home state that would ensure business owners to retain the right to serve whomever they please. That is not sitting well for some in the homosexual community, who are now sending death threats to the state senator and his family.
In an interview with TruthRevolt, Silk said that since he was quoted in The New York TimesThursday saying homosexuals “don’t have a right to be served in every single store,” he has received hundreds of angry e-mails and phone calls from LGBT activists who believe he is sanctioning discrimination. “A couple of them have been death threats against me and my children,” Silk said.
But what the NYT failed to do was include the entirety of Silk’s statement — the part where he said he also doesn’t have a right to be served in every store. Silk clarified what he told the paper in a statement at his campaign website: “Yes I did say that homosexuals do not have the right to be served in every store, just as I do not believe that I, my family, or anyone else have the right to be served in every private business.”
The threats even targeted a private cabin rental business Silk manages for his father. Silk said that LGBT activists were alerted in order to flood the business with angry messages promising boycotts. But as Silk explained to TR, the business has served homosexual customers before and will continue to do so in the future.
“This bill is about protecting the rights of private business owners to make their own decisions for their business and to ensure their religious beliefs are protected,” Silk said. “Business owners should not be forced to serve someone if it violates their beliefs,” he added…
Silk said Stevenson expressed his problem with the bill saying that a private business owner does not have the right to refuse services because of religious convictions and the meeting ended. Silk strongly suspects that Stevenson was responsible for leaking the cabin business information shortly after they met in order to encourage activists to send harassing messages. Silk said he is “very certain” it was Stevenson because “he has family ties to that community in our same industry [and] that is the only way people could know that.”
The backlash unleashed on Silk and his family is largely based on the missing half of his statement, courtesy of the narrative designed by the NYT. But what the media is failing to report — they’re too busy mocking — is the violent threats and vitriolic language employed by LGBT activists. Silk made it clear in the interview that as a person with homosexual friends, he isn’t painting his accusations broadly, but pinpointing those radical activists who will stop at nothing short of shutting down anyone who disagrees with homosexuality.
“This incident and the way it exploded into death threats should wake people up to the fact that the LGBT activist are the single most significant threat to religious and personal rights in the United States,” Silk said. “They do not want people to have the right to live out their religious conviction if those convictions do not agree with their behavior.”
He continued:
“The LGBT activists have shown time and time again that they want to persecute, trample on people’s rights, and take people’s businesses if for any reason their behavior and choices are not agreed with. My family and I, like many others before, are testimonies to their hate, intolerance, and forceful nature of this movement. The sad thing is, no one is attacking their behavior. They have the right to be gay…but if you disagree with them, they will do everything in their power to ruin your life.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Attacks on Religion in America
In the March 9 edition of the National Review, one news item noted that “The sheer brazenness of President Obama’s dissembling on gay marriage—confirmed by David Axelrod in a new book—might gall even the most hard-bitten of cynics.”
“Obama, Axelrod writes, ‘was in favor of same-sex marriages during the first presidential campaign, even as (he) publicly said he only supported civil unions, not full marriages’, but he could not admit as much for fear of losing black churchgoers. Thus it was confirmed that the ‘change’ candidate had fallen back on a ‘sacred’ religious belief he claimed to be representing, in furtherance of a policy that he now openly describes as a ‘civil right.’ There is a word for this sort of conduct. But it is not ‘hope’.”
The word is “liar”, but after six years of Obama, anyone paying any attention knows that he lies routinely and constantly no matter what the topic may be.
He lied repeatedly to secure support for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare. Passed into law by Democratic Party votes—no Republicans voted for it—the so-called contraceptive mandate has created many problems for Christians and others who are pro-life. In a similar fashion, many people of faith oppose same-sex marriage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Starnes: San Francisco Demands Catholic Schools Stop Teaching Catholic Doctrine
The Archdiocese of San Francisco is under attack from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for insisting that Catholic schools teach Catholic doctrine.
It seems the Board of Supervisors is upset over a morality clause that includes language against homosexuality, same-sex marriage and contraceptives. They unanimously passed a resolution rebuking the Catholic Church and demanding the archbishop ignore Catholic doctrine and respect the rights of teachers and students.
Supervisor Mark Farrell, who sponsored the anti-Catholic resolution, said the archbishop’s policies conflict with the values of San Francisco.
I just have one question: Where in the United States Constitution does it give the city of San Francisco the right to tell the Catholic church what they should or should not put in their employee handbooks?
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League put it like this: “It is not the business of the state to police the internal affairs of any religious institution.”
As for all you disgruntled Catholic school teachers, if you can’t abide by Catholic doctrine, go work someplace else. Government has no right to meddle in the affairs of the church, and that’s the gospel truth.
| — Hat tip: Prospero | [Return to headlines] |
Cosmic Smashups May Have Rained Metal on Early Earth
Iron vapor from cosmic impacts during the early days of Earth could have triggered “metal rain” to fall on the newborn planet, researchers say.
This new finding could help solve mysteries concerning the formation and evolution of the Earth and moon, the investigators said.
Cosmic impacts have played a critical role in the evolution of the solar system. The moon was likely born from the wreckage of a collision 4.5 billion years ago between Earth and a Mars-size object called Theia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hot Springs on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Powered by Hydrothermal Vents
Hot springs on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus suggest that the floor of the satellite’s subsurface ocean may be home to near-boiling temperatures, researchers say.
This finding is the first evidence of active hydrothermal vents beyond the oceans of Earth. Moreover, conditions deep under the icy surface of Enceladus could be similar to those that gave rise to the first life on Earth, the researchers reported in the new study.
The sixth largest of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus has a diameter of only about 314 miles (505 kilometers). This makes it small enough to fit inside the borders of Arizona.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Undersea Jacuzzi May Give Life to Saturn’s Icy Moon
New home on the market with basement Jacuzzi and easy commute to Saturn. Tiny sand grains gathered from Saturn’s rings reveal that Enceladus, already famous for its impressive water jets, is hiding a warm ocean deep beneath its surface. The finding suggests this moon is the only known place besides Earth with ongoing hydrothermal activity, and boosts the chances of finding life snuggled below its cold exterior.
NASA’s Cassini probe had already shown that Enceladus sprays plumes of dust and ice kilometres into the air. Combined with gravity data, this points to a subsurface ocean around 40 kilometres beneath the moon’s south pole. Such an ocean could be a boon to the search for alien life, but anything living there would need a source of energy, because the sun is too far away to provide much warmth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“..did not have text with that server.” My, doesn’t that sound familiar. Was a stained blue ad-dress involved?
OK, but I just couldn’t pass that one up. 🙂
No joke…The Clintons will be a little more transparent than they ever intended…16-YEAR OLD GIRL CLAIMS FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON IS HER FATHER
Best take a whole shaker of salt with “World News Daily Report”:
“While not ‘satire,’ per se, World News Daily Report follows the old-school Tabloid-styled faux-journalism of its predecessors, such as the Weekly World News. As such, you will find disclaimers neither revealing its satirical nature nor reveling in its journalistic integrity. It’s just for entertainment purposes, so they rely on the sheer audacity of the topics covered to be its built-in disclaimer.
“If you wish to believe that Apple Annouces[sic] Release of Paranormal Communication Application or that a New Gandhi Movie Shocks India, then fill your boots.
“But kindly leave our boots well and dry, thank you very much.”
http://realorsatire.com/worldnewsdailyreport-com/
Thank you…ugh!
Starnes: San Francisco Demands Catholic Schools Stop Teaching Catholic Doctrine
Well, I always knew San Fran was a pretty crazy place (although I did enjoy the one visit I made there, many years ago). . . but the day the GOV’MINT can dictate to private schools, is the day the real revolution should start — do we see them telling the Muzzies not to teach their head-chopping practices? WHY NO — that would be racist or something.
Can’t believe this slick road to Hell our country is on, or least some parts. . .
now just which god thinks that he is in charge of this world and which God is in charge. the big G is letting the little g hang himself on his own evil deeds. read the book, first 1000 years in solitary, then release on parole which he breaks, then final sentence for eternity at the bottom of the bottomless pit. he will have plenty of company who will wonder at his being at the bottom when they thought that he was at the top.