The Iraqi army is working with Shi’ite militias to mount a large operation to retake territory in Salahuddin Province from the Islamic State. Their first goal is to wrest Tikrit from ISIS’ hands. Meanwhile, 19 of the 220 Christians abducted by the Islamic State in Syria were released after ransom was paid for them.
In other news, Norway does not have enough room in its prisons to house all its criminals who have been sentenced to jail time, so it is renting space in Dutch prisons to handle the overflow.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, Steen, 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.
As Greek Default Fears Return, Government Considers “Borrowing” Pensions to Repay IMF
Greek short-term default risk jumped over 300bps today putting the odds of a restructuring at 50-50 within the next year as the warnings we issued last week with regard Greece’s imminent default on its IMF loan loom. Seeking to reassure its lenders (and avoid yet more capital flight), Reuters reports the Greek government said it was “exploring solutions,” including delaying payments to suppliers or try to raise up to 3 billion euros by borrowing from state entities such as pension funds…
Of course, this public pension fund ‘cash’ will all be repaid when Greece returns to growth and pays down its debt…
We are sure the Greek people will be enthused when they find out what the ‘radical left’ has in store for their funds…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Billionaire Warns of Total Collapse End Game Scenario: “‘No Way Out’ Your Money Will be Worthless”
With currencies being rapidly devalued by their respective governments, the global economy in a slow-down, and tensions over resources heating up around the world, it’s time to start considering the endgame.
According to billionaire resource investor Carlo Civelli there is likely no way out for central banks which have spent the last several years printing money hand over fist. Over his decades’ long career Civelli has either managed or financed over 20 companies, many of which now have market capitalizations in the billions of dollars, so he knows a thing or two about investing during boom times, as well as busts.
In his most recent interview with Future Money Trends he warns of an endgame scenario that is nothing short of a total collapse. And here’s the scary part: Civelli says that even gold may not be a safe haven should the worst case scenario play out:
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece ‘May Need Third Rescue’ Warns Dombrovskis
Bloomberg reports EC vice-president’s concerns
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Greece “may need a third rescue when the current plan expires,” in June, said Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission, Bloomberg News reported Monday. Dombrovskis, who was interviewed in Riga, Latvia, spoke only a week after the Eurogroup extended the present bailout plan another four months in a decision that went down to the wire. Greece was required to pledge a series of structural economic reforms in order to win the extension of the bailout deal.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How Much Will You Pay to Park Cash as Central Banks Go Negative?
Central banks are stooping to new lows to conquer weak inflation.
The monetary guardians of the euro area, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark are now imposing negative interest rates on bank deposits or on funding operations that feed through to the real economy. Analysts at Commonwealth Bank of Australia reckon almost a quarter of worldwide central-bank reserves now carry a negative yield.
By confounding the onetime idea that they had to stop cutting borrowing costs at zero, monetary-policy makers are seeking to spur spending over saving. They also expect their currencies to weaken as capital inflows are discouraged.
The risk is that negative rates backfire and result in even less demand. That could happen if people begin stuffing their cash under mattresses, or if rates below zero eat into the profit margins of banks or distort financial markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Unemployment Falls for Second Straight Month in Jan
12.6%, back to same level as year before
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Italian unemployment fell another 0.1% for the second straight month in January, to 12.6%, Istat said Monday.
It is now at the same level it was at in January 2014, the statistics agency said.
Matteo Renzi’s government is hoping a series of structural reforms will boost the downward trend.
Notably, it recently passed a labour-market reform making hiring and firing easier.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy 2014 Debt-to-GDP Ratio at 3% Says ISTAT
GDP down by 0.4% last year as investments dive 3.3%
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 3% last year and 2.9% in 2013, Istat national statistics bureau reported Monday. The 2014 ratio is in line with forecasts in the government’s economic and financial blueprint (DEF). Debt from 128.5% of GDP in 2013 to 132.1% of GDP in 2014, the highest ratio since 1995, according to the bureau. The tax burden rose to 43.5% of GDP last year, up 0.1% over 2013. Also in 2014, GDP fell by 0.4% to 2000 levels, the bureau said in its final official estimate.
Fixed gross investments dropped last year by 3.3% while family consumption was flat at +0.3%, Istat reported.
Exports rose 2.7% while imports dropped 1.8%, the bureau said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Spread Drops to Record Low of 96 Basis Points
Yield on 10-year paper at 1.3%
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — The spread between Italy’s benchmark 10-year bond and its ultra-safe German counterpart reached a record low of 96 basis points in trading Monday.
The yield on Italy’s 10-year paper traded at 1.3%.
The spread between lending rates in the two countries is an important indication of investor faith in the Italian economy.
Also on Monday, the spread between Greek and German 10-year bonds was 893 basis points with the yield on Greece’s 10-year paper trading at 9.2%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 2014 Unemployment Highest Since 1977 Says ISTAT
Youth jobless rate fell slightly to 41.2%
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Italian unemployment in 2014 rose to a record yearly high of 12.7%, up from 12.1% in 2013 and the highest rate since 1977, Istat national statistics bureau said Monday. As of January 2015 the employment rate had risen by 0.3% on a yearly basis to 55.8% or 22,320,000 people employed, Istat said. Italy added 11,000 jobs in January over December, and 131,000 jobs on a yearly basis. January youth unemployment fell to 41.2% from 41.4% the previous month. The jobless rate for people aged 15-14 was 40.8% in August 2013, Istat said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Fairy Tale of Portugal’s Successful Turnaround
For all the attention given to Greece, is Portugal really that much better off?
Even a brief glance at the facts suffices. Portugal is no less bankrupt than Greece. The country’s government debt, at 124% of GDP, might be lower than in Greece. However, government debt is just one — even though important — part of the full debt picture.
On an aggregate level, Portugal’s overall debt level — at 381% of GDP when also including private households and non-financial corporations — is well above Greece’s total debt level (286% of GDP).
So while Greece’s problems mainly manifest themselves via government debt, Portugal suffers from too much debt in all three sectors of the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Attack on Arizona’s Internet Was the Beta Test for the Implementation of Martial Law
At approximately noon on February 25, 2015, the Internet went down in a wide swath ranging from just north of Phoenix stretching to Flagstaff, Arizona. Internet service was restored the following day around 1pm local time.
The very first reports I received about the outage, coming out of Wickenburg and Prescott, was that the ISP from Century Link went down because a car crashed into a transformer. Shortly after that, reports stated that a construction crew hit a power line causing Internet service to go down. From the Phoenix media, we now know that this was the work of “vandals” who discovered where cables, buried several feet underground,were located in the midst of rough terrain. These “vandals” subsequently cut through the Internet cables which were inches to a foot thick and this was the cause of this massive outage.
The event had a crippling effect on local communities from central to northern Arizona.
1. 911 service and the communications of first responders were taken down.
2. Point of sale debit/credit card transactions could not be initiated due to the outage.
3. ATM’s did not work.
4. Banks were not able to access their computers and were forced to issue paper receipts for any deposit.
5. All cell phone providers were inoperable except for Verizon Wireless.
6. Most cable companies were not able to carry programming (e.g. Phoenix TV stations) due to the takedown of live streaming. The same was also true for many radio stations.
In short, businesses, schools and personal lives were totally disrupted. Yet, the national coverage afforded to this major event was negligible as I discovered after calling friends and colleagues from across the country to gauge their reaction. As of yesterday afternoon, most people had not heard about this event. I am not surprised as similar events transpired in both Florida and Oklahoma, AT THE SAME TIME! Steve Quayle shared the following email with me last night which described a similar event in Oklahoma:…
For those of us that have covered events such as this, we can often smell a cover-up when we see the repetitive use of a key word or phrase. In this case, the key word is “vandals”. In this instance, the implied use of the word “vandal” is designed to indicate that whomever attacked these cables, presumably owned by Century Link, were amateurs who were engaged in some kind of prank. As I investigated further, it became clear that this was a well-coordinated and well planned attack by persons with expertise related to the attack. Further, whomever did this had to have had specialized equipment to cut through these cables. The simple act of just finding where these cables also required specialized knowledge.
[Comment: Read. It. All. What happened was not “vandalism”. This was a dry run in preparation of rounding up “dissidents”. Period.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Border Patrol Pushing to Hire More Women
The U.S. Border Patrol plans to hire 1600 new female agents by the end of September — partly due to a staggering 173 percent increase last year in the number of females caught trying to illegally cross America’s southern border.
“And of course we need a lot more female agents to pat search (women), for their safety and ours as well,” explained Agent Yesenia Leon, who has been with the Border Patrol for five years. “It’s not necessary for a female to pat search another female, but it is preferred.”
These days, many of the women crossing illegally into the United States come not from Mexico, but from countries further south. The longer journey makes conditions all the more dangerous, particularly for women and children.
According to an Amnesty International report, as many as 60 percent of females are sexually assaulted before making it to the U.S.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Daily Juggle: Planned Birthday Splurge at Moa Ruined by Terrorists
I promised my daughter that on her 11th birthday I’d take her clothes shopping at the Mall of America.
[…]
Just two days before our mother-daughter outing, though, last Saturday at 7:14 p.m., this headline topped my social media feed:
“Mall of America named as target in al-Shabaab video.”
I gasped.
This is the same group that claimed responsibility for the 2013 siege on the posh Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. At least 67 shoppers were killed in that attack. I remembered that I had read a Westgate survivor’s account in “Guideposts” magazine back in September: Amanda Belcher of Nairobi, Kenya, wrote about going to the mall that day with her husband; their plan was to catch a movie and get sushi for lunch. The shooting started after they had parked their car and were walking toward an entrance.
“Across the parking lot I could see the terrorists coming, methodically shooting anyone in their path, adults and children …” Belcher wrote. “ ‘Listen, people,’ one of the terrorists said. ‘We are here to kill you.’ He spoke in English, calmly, as if he were commenting on the weather.”
“What if such an attack were to occur at the Mall of America in Minnesota?” wondered the video’s narrator, a coward in a mask.
No.
No.
No.
My concerns increased the next morning.
“I would say that if anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today, they’ve got to be particularly careful,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
By Monday morning, my courage had started to return.
[…]
This time, though, fear won.
It won at 4:58 p.m., the hour of my daughter’s birth, when her dad called our house phone to wish our girl a happy birthday.
A few minutes later, during a Target run after work, my phone pinged.
“Are you going to take the kids to MOA tonight?” her dad texted. “I would really recommend against that given the threat.”
“Really?” I texted back.
“Definitely.”
“Well I just don’t think we should let the terrorists decide where we shop.”
“I’m not trying to be flip but I don’t think they really care what you think,” he replied. “I won’t go there any more. It is too much of a target.”
I sighed, looking down at all the taco fixings I had loaded into my cart. Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry.
At home, our new baby sitter, Mrs. Doubtfire, was frosting the birthday cake as my high-spirited tween bounced around her.
The bouncing stopped after I told my tween that, out of respect for her dad’s concerns about the fresh threat, we would stay away from the mall — for now, anyway. Instead, I’d take her shopping at her favorite consignment shop, My Sister’s Closet.
“Are people really going to bomb the Mall of America?” my daughter asked.
“I hope not,” I said.
And then I chased away the darkness by lighting the candles on her cake.
[This liberal mom might more effectively chase away the darkness by learning to light up any attackers with a good handgun. Don’t be a squeaky mouse, be a mama bear! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
How Black Boxes in Cars Could Prevent You From Driving (Video)
If you didn’t know about any of this, don’t worry. You’re in good company, because car companies haven’t been very forthcoming with consumers about their black box technology.
The worry is who has access to the data. Car manufacturers, insurance companies and even state governments may claim that they need it in the event of an accident. So, it helps to know if your car has an EDR, but how can you tell?
Harris Technical has compiled a list stretching back to 1994 so you can find out at a glance. It’s got just about every make and model of car you can imagine made during 1994 through 2014.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Impregnating America With Muslims — We Don’t Know What We’re in For
“Interesting” letters fly across the Internet into my computer inbox concerning this series on Muslims in America. Most Americans understand exactly what I expose as to the end result of the Islamic conquest of Western countries. Quite a few letters arrived from Detroit, Minneapolis and New York City—where Muslims wreck havoc on welfare rolls, Section 8 housing, bullying, pushing old ladies off their bicycles for kicks and schools completely overwhelmed. Several Muslims didn’t like anything I exposed as to their religion’s end game.
One of my long time friends became angry with me because she enjoys several Muslim friends whom she regards highly.
Qur’an 3.28: “Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.”
NOTE: By ‘guarding carefully’, a Muslim should deceive the infidel. Acting as a friend is fine as long as it is to benefit the Muslim and protect Islam.
That’s the rub. Muslims may be just as nice as you and me in their own countries. While they remain in small numbers, they “nice” you into their “niceness.” Incidentally, Sir Winston Churchill in 1899 said it best, “Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kellogg’s Froot Loops Contains GMOs and Glyphosate Herbicide, Lab Tests Verify
(NaturalNews) With the food industry doing everything in its power to avoid having to tell the public that its products are laced with genetically modified (GM) additives, pesticides and other poisons, grassroots efforts to raise awareness about GMOs are flourishing. Recent laboratory tests conducted by GMO Free USA, which revealed the presence of both high levels of GMOs and glyphosate herbicide in Kellogg’s Froot Loops breakfast cereal, are just the start of a much larger campaign to rid the American food supply of all these hidden toxins and restore health to the general public.
Kellogg’s, as you may recall, spent millions of dollars defeating mandatory GMO labeling initiatives in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — and this isn’t surprising, since the vast majority of the company’s food products contain GMOs. Because of its widespread popularity among children, and the way Kellogg’s directly markets it to children, Froot Loops was the cereal of choice in revealing just how polluted and toxic many popular processed foods really are.
An accredited lab using advanced Specific LC/MS/MS testing methods, which are capable of detecting glyphosate residues at levels as low as 0.02 ppm (parts per million), found that Kellogg’s Froot Loops contains 0.12 ppm, or 0.12 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) of glyphosate residue. The same testing protocol also revealed that a shocking 100 percent of the corn additives in Froot Loops are of GMO origin, coming from both Bt (insecticide-producing) and Roundup Ready GM corn varieties.
“We find it disturbing that Kellogg’s is feeding children unlabeled GMOs and toxic herbicides,” said Diana Reeves, Executive Director of GMO Free USA and mother of three children. “Statistics show that this is the first generation of children that are sicker than their parents. Is Kellogg’s endangering our children? Based on the growing body of scientific evidence, we believe so and we hold Kellogg’s accountable.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Statue Honoring Murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry Unveiled
A statue honoring murdered United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was unveiled Saturday at the now re-named Brian Terry Patrol Station in Bisbee, Arizona.
“That iconic image of Brian carrying his BordTac team member on his shoulders represents everything good about Brian, his strength, his determination, his attention to detail, his love for the Border Patrol and his love for his fellow agents,” Terry’s cousin, Robert Heyer, said.
Terry’s family established the Brian Terry Foundation to honor his memory and create a legacy in his name. The foundation provides emotional and financial assistance for U.S. Border Patrol agents and their families.
Terry was killed in a 2010 gun fight between border patrol agents and members of a gang attempting to steal marijuana from smugglers. Authorities later determined that the gang’s weapons were part of the Justice Department’s botched “gun-walking” program Operation Fast and Furious.
As part of the Fast and Furious operation, the federal government allowed criminals to buy guns in Phoenix-area shops with the intention of tracking them once they made their way into Mexico. But the agency lost track of more than 1,400 of the 2,000 guns they allowed smugglers to buy.
[And they did so advisedly, to “salt” Mexican crime scenes with American-bought firearms much as swindlers used to “salt” worthless mines with bits of gold to tempt credulous buyers. Their objective — and that of those who directed them — was to gin up international pressure for a reinstatement of the lapsed “assault weapons” ban, for which AG Eric Holder called only a month after his boss took office. A better way to honor Brian Terry would be a spate of indictments and convictions of those responsible for the treachery, right up to the highest levels of government. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Stingray Phone Tracker Knocks Out Cell Networks, FBI Reveals
StingRay is capable of disrupting cellular service for every phone within a given vicinity, according to a new court document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. The disclosure, the first that could explain the secrecy around the controversial police surveillance technology, comes as privacy advocates and the U.S. Department of Justice have continued to dispute StingRay’s legality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The 10 States Diversifying the Fastest
The United States is projected to be “majority-minority” by 2044. As evidenced in our Diversity Explosion interactive, as the U.S. population ages it is also becoming much more diverse. Specifically, the share of people of color in the U.S. is 26 percent higher in the 0-19 age group than the 65+ age group. But over the next several decades, some states will change much faster than others. Hawaii and the District of Columbia already have the highest shares of people of color (77 percent and 64 percent, respectively), and given that those shares are already so high, their changes won’t be as drastic as other places. Here are the 10 states that stand out when looking at the difference in share of the people of color aged 19 and younger compared to those aged 65 and older.
1. Arizona…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Can you imagine a world where your home, your vehicles, your appliances and every single electronic device that you own is constantly connected to the Internet? This is not some grand vision that is being planned for some day in the future. This is something that is being systematically implemented right now. In 2015, we already have “smart homes”, vehicles that talk to one another, refrigeratorsthat are connected to the Internet, and televisions that spy on us. Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and that opens up some wonderful possibilities. But there is also a downside. What if we rapidly reach a point where one must be connected to the Internet in order to function in society? Will there come a day when we can’t even do basic things such as buy, sell, get a job or open a bank account without it? And what about the potential for government abuse? Could an “Internet of Things” create a dystopian nightmare where everyone and everything will be constantly monitored and tracked by the government? That is something to think about.
Today, the Internet has become such an integral part of our lives that it is hard to remember how we ever survived without it. And with each passing year, the number of devices connected to the Internet continues to grow at an exponential rate. If you have never heard of the “Internet of Things” before, here is a little bit about it from Wikipedia…
“Things, in the IoT, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters, automobiles with built-in sensors, or field operation devices that assist fire-fighters in search and rescue. These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. Current market examples include smart thermostat systems and washer/dryers that utilize wifi for remote monitoring.”
But there is also a dark side to the Internet of Things. Security is a huge issue, and when that security is compromised the consequences can be absolutely horrifying. Just consider the following example…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video Exonerates Man Set Up by Louisiana Cops and Prosecutors [Video]
If not for cell phone video, 47-year-old disabled veteran Douglas Dendinger could be going to prison — because of an apparent coordinated effort by Washington Parish, La. cops and prosecutors who falsely accused him of battery and witness intimidation.
As New Orleans’ WWL reports, Dendinger’s two-year nightmare began on Aug. 20, 2012, when he was paid $50 to serve a court summons on behalf of his nephew against Bogalusa police officer Chad Cassard in a police brutality lawsuit.
Dendinger handed Cassard a white envelope containing the documents and says he went on his way. But 20 minutes later, police showed up to Dendinger’s house and arrested him. He was put in jail on charges of simple battery, obstruction of justice and intimidating a witness.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Obama Supporters Endorse Karl Marx as Next POTUS
Cultural commentator Mark Dice returns with another video highlighting how the combination of the cult of personality and general ignorance can lead Americans to agree with any ridiculous statement one can think of.
This time Dice, donning his Obama t-shirt once more, has passers by agreeing with him that it is a good idea for the German Communist economist Karl Marx, who died in 1883, to run for US President in 2016.
Describing Karl Marx as “an economic adviser to the Obama administration for many years” Dice doesn’t even have to try to convince the subjects in the video that Obama is now fully endorsing Marx, in his time a supporter of violent Communist revolution, as a candidate for President.
“Should we continue with that policy to lead us to the road of prosperity and utopia we all desire?” Dice asks one man, who replies “I feel a desire to. We should,” adding that if Marx “decides to lead on and pick better decisions, I feel he would.”
Another woman, who clearly has no idea who Marx, the co-author of ‘The Communist Manifesto’ is, is asked by Dice if she considers it a wise decision for Obama to endorse him as President. “Sure,” she replies, “that sound like the best plan of action right now.”
Without even allowing Dice to finish his explanation of how Obama nominated Marx, “his Treasury Secretary,” to be the next President, another man interjects “I think Obama is making a wise decision right here. He’ll do a good job in office, and hopefully he’ll get elected.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Don’t Liberals Care About Black-on-Black Killing?
By Christopher Chantrill
The good thing about a book like “Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America” is that it’s real reportage about murder in the African American ghetto; it’s not just narrative from the usual social justice warriors.
And when author Jill Leovy gets to talk about her book on NPR’s Fresh Air in “ ‘Ghettoside’ Explores Why Murder is Invisible in Los Angeles” we get to see what is really going on, despite the author’s knee-jerk liberalism.
Author Leovy’s angle is that routine murder in African American ghettos is invisible, in the sense that individual murders don’t get a write-up in the paper. So she decided to do something about it, The Homicide Report, a blog that documents each and every murder in LA.
Each murder, routine as it is, devastates a family, but the cops only arrest a suspect in about 40 percent of the murders. To add insult to injury, the cops compensate by harassing young men on the street with arrests for minor infractions.
Of course, everybody knows “who dunnit” because the perpetrators typically come around to the victim’s home and taunt the grieving family.
Why would they do that? Because the gang-bangers need to intimidate potential witnesses. Thus, everybody knows who did it, but nobody is willing to testify. Here’s the scoop, buried in the middle of the Fresh Air interview:
Leovy: I spoke to a mother, once, in South Bureau — black woman — her son had just been murdered. I think this was maybe a couple of days after the murder. I had gone to her door. And it was one of these cases where the police just had no witnesses. The case wasn’t going anywhere. The mother told me that since the murder, the killers, who she knew, who were, I think, the gang members who lived on her street, had been knocking on her door and taunting her and laughing at her — her grief.
What is the African American response to this? It is “Snitches get stitches.” And what is the liberal response to this? It is to blame the police for police brutality. You couldn’t invent a better way to keep the killing going.
[The “liberal” response is also to blame “systemic” racism rather than a brutal black street culture that should be annihilated instead of glorified. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Why Does Maryland Have the Most Millionaires Per Capita? The Answer Might Make You Angry
The fat cats in Washington D.C. are living the high life, and they are doing it at your expense. Over the past decade, there has been one area of the country which has experienced a massive economic boom. Thanks to wildly out of control government spending, the Washington D.C. region is absolutely swimming in cash. In fact, at this point the state of Maryland has the most millionaires per capita in the entire nation and it isn’t even close. If you have never lived there, it is hard to describe what the D.C. area is like. Every weekday morning, hordes of lawyers, lobbyists and government bureaucrats descend upon D.C. from the surrounding suburbs. And at the end of the day, the process goes in reverse. Everyone is just trying to get their piece of the pie, and it is a pie that just keeps on growing as government salaries, government contracts and government giveaways just get larger and larger. Of course our founders never intended for this to happen. They wanted a very small and simple federal government. Sadly, today we have the most bloated central government in the history of the planet and it gets worse with each passing year.
If you were to ask most Americans, they would tell you that the wealthiest Americans probably live in cities such as New York or San Francisco. But thanks to the Obama administration (and before that the Bush and Clinton administrations), the state of Maryland is packed with millionaires. In particular, the Maryland suburbs immediately surrounding D.C. are absolutely overflowing with government fat cats that make a living at our expense. Every weekday morning, huge numbers of them leave their mini-mansions in places such as Potomac and Rockville and drive their luxury vehicles to work in the city. As the Washington Post has detailed, at this point approximately 8 percent of all households in the entire state of Maryland contain millionaires, and the rest of the area is not doing too shabby either…
And while not too many of them are millionaires, your average federal workers that toil in D.C. are doing quite well too.
Once upon a time, it was considered to be a “sacrifice” to go into “government service”.
Not anymore.
If you can believe it, approximately 17,000 federal employees made more than $200,000 last year.
Overall, compensation for federal employees comes to a grand total of close to half a trillion dollars every 12 months.
In fact, there are tens of thousands of federal employees that make more than the governors of their own states do.
Does that seem right to you?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Memo Reveals RCMP Records on Requests for Subscriber Data “Inaccurate and Incomplete”
Last fall, Daniel Therrien, the government’s newly appointed Privacy Commissioner of Canada, released the annual report on the Privacy Act, the legislation that governs how government collects, uses, and discloses personal information. The lead story from the report was the result of an audit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police practices regarding warrantless requests for telecom subscriber information.
The audit had been expected to shed new light into RCMP information requests. Auditors were forced to terminate the investigation, however, when they realized that Canada’s national police force simply did not compile the requested information. When asked why the information was not collected, RCMP officials responded that its information management system was never designed to capture access requests.
While that raised serious concerns — the RCMP has since promised to study mechanisms for reporting requests with recommendations expected in April — my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) reports that documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal that the publicly released audit results significantly understated the severity of the problem. Indeed, after the draft final report was provided to the RCMP in advance for comment, several of the findings were toned down for the public release.
Behind the scenes, however, documents suggest that Privacy Commissioner of Canada auditors were deeply concerned with what they found. In fact, just two days before the public release of the audit, one of the lead auditors wrote a memorandum to file to ensure that there was a paper trail chronicling what actually took place.
The memorandum specifically references a 2010 RCMP document that purported to list tens of thousands of warrantless subscriber information requests. The document indicated that 94 per cent of requests involving customer name and address information was provided voluntarily without a warrant.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IQ is rising in many parts of the world. What’s behind the change and does it really mean people are cleverer than their grandparents?
It is not unusual for parents to comment that their children are brainier than they are. In doing so, they hide a boastful remark about their offspring behind a self-deprecating one about themselves. But a new study, published in the journal Intelligence, provides fresh evidence that in many cases this may actually be true.
The researchers — Peera Wongupparaj, Veena Kumari and Robin Morris at Kings College London — did not themselves ask anyone to sit an IQ test, but they analysed data from 405 previous studies. Altogether, they harvested IQ test data from more than 200,000 participants, captured over 64 years and from 48 countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danes Among the World’s Top Candy Consumers
When it comes to eating liquorice and wine gums, few people compare to the Danes, according to the latest report from the European industry organisation Sugar Confectionery Europe.
With an annual consumption of 8.18 kilos of candy per citizen, the Danes have passed the Swedes and are now second to only Finland in terms of the amount of sweets consumed in Europe. The figures do not include chocolate and chewing gum.
According to Politiken newspaper, Denmark consumes twice as much as the European average and far more than the US.
Jeppe Trolle Linnet, an anthropologist from the University of Southern Denmark, contends that the high candy consumption is largely down to the Danes associating candy with ‘hygge’ (moments of cosiness) time with their friends and family during the dark winter months, just as the Swedes do.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Teen Taken From Father Over ISIS-Joining Fears
A 15-year-old Danish boy has been taken into care after fears he would become radicalized and his Muslim father would send him to Syria. The boy had begun to attend the Grimhoej mosque, which has become infamous for not denouncing the Islamic State.
The boy, who has not been named, was taken away from his father in September according to a report that was released on Sunday. However, Danish authorities began to become concerned about the teen almost exactly two years ago.
In March 2013, police in Aarhus, were worried about the boy’s father, who received an Islamic education in Algeria and then later moved to Denmark, where he was granted citizenship.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Seeks Unity After Greece’s Tsipras Blasts Spain, Portugal for ‘Bailout Blackmail’
The EU said Monday it is trying to mediate in a simmering row between Greece and its eurozone partners Spain and Portugal after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused them of undermining debt talks with Brussels.
Madrid and Lisbon lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission over the comments by Tsipras, who likened pressure from Spain and Portugal during negotiations over a four-month bailout extension to blackmail.
Germany has also denounced the comments by Tsipras, whose anti-austerity Syria party stormed to victory in elections in January on the back of promises to end austerity and renegotiate its bailout…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Faded Seaside Towns Are Fertile Ground for UKIP
Deprived of tourists by the advent of cheap foreign holidays, many of Britain’s faded seaside towns have become pockets of deprivation — and fertile territory for the populist, anti-European UK Independence Party (UKIP).
With its fine sand, clear waters, elegant Victorian buildings and chalk cliffs that inspired the painter JMW Turner, Ramsgate in southeastern England was once a jewel in the country’s coastal crown.
But these days, the town and its neighbour Margate rank among the top ten worst coastal towns in England and Wales for unemployment, petty crime, education and health.
Only Blackpool, Clacton and Hastings were ranked as more deprived by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Genomes Document Ancient Mass Migration to Europe
DNA analysis has revealed evidence for a massive migration into the heartland of Europe 4,500 years ago.
Data from the genomes of 69 ancient individuals suggest that herders moved en masse from the continent’s eastern periphery into Central Europe.
These migrants may be responsible for the expansion of Indo-European languages, which make up the majority of spoken tongues in Europe today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland Looks Forward to Dairy Boom Once EU Quotas Go
Four weeks from the lifting of European Union milk quotas, Ireland is looking forward to a radical shake-up of its farming sector that would boost dairy output by 50 percent over the next five years.
Exporters are aiming to expand sales of Irish milk and cheese in a boom that would make Ireland the fastest-growing dairy producer in the world.
“Good riddance is what I’ll say about the quotas,” said Mike Magan, a dairy farmer in County Longford in central Ireland.
“They’ve held back the natural ability of farmers to grow for three decades, so I’m glad they’re going.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Divided Northern League Federal Council Mulls Strategy
Separatist leaders confer as Forza Italia courts alliance
(ANSA) Rome, March 2 — Leaders of the rightwing populist Northern League party met Monday to hammer out strategy for upcoming regional elections as Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia urged them to forge a new right-wing alliance.
League leader Matteo Salvini was presiding over the meeting of the Federal Council of the anti-euro, anti-immigrant party also attended by his rival Flavio Tosi, mayor of Verona, who has accused Salvini of trying to kill off the precious autonomy of the Veneto branch of the movement, the Liga Veneta, and threatened to run himself in the regional polls against an official candidate proposed by the party’s Milan headquarters.
Also on the agenda was analysis of a demonstration Salvini lef in Rome on Saturday against the government of Premier Matteo Renzi, widely seen as a flop by commentators due to a modest turnout.
Meanwhile Giovanni Toti, a Forza Italia political counsellor, urged the League to join forces with the conservative grouping again.
“I hope that despite the remarks by Salvini at the rally, which I understand, there will be the need to sit together around a table and take decions,” said Toti.
“We must as FI and as the centre-right roll up our sleeves to build a recipe for government. It would be crazy not to grasp this chance to return to govern together in the regions where we do already and to build a real government alternative”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Jihadi John’s’ Brother Belonged to ‘Muslim Mafia’ Gang
Younger sibling of Isis murderer followed radical Imam
(ANSA) London, March 2 — A younger brother of Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis assassin nicknamed ‘Jihadi John,’ was a follower of radical imam Khlaid Yasin, who was the reputed inspiration for an Islamist extremist who murdered British soldier Lee Rigby, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday.
Mohammed’s brother Omar expressed admiration for the imam in his Facebook profile but cancelled it a few hours after his elder brother was identified as Jihadi John, the newspaper said.
Omar also was a member of the ‘Muslim Mafia,’ a gang of lads who all went to the same school as Jihadi John, the Quintin Kynmaston, now under investigation, the report said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Signs Deal to Rent Dutch Prison Places
Norway will on Monday sign a deal to rent 242 prison places in The Netherlands, hoping to cut the queue of Norwegian criminals waiting to serve their sentences.
The Netherlands is in the process of closing some 19 prison facilities, while in Norway over a thousand convicted criminals are currently waiting in a queue to serve their custodial sentences.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-GMO Former EU Science Advisor Revealed as Lying Shill in Interview
(NaturalNews) In recent months, there have been several cases where supposedly “settled science” has been successfully challenged in the public forum, including so-called “climate change” science as well as research regarding vaccines and genetically modified foods.
This is good news not just for consumers but for science as well, because the field has suffered from an increasing lack of credibility as more people learn that outside political and financial forces have led to purposefully skewered data and misrepresentations of findings.
Nowhere is that more profound the supposed science surrounding GMOs, as revealed once again recently by the BBC in an interview with the former chief scientific advisor (CSA) for the European Union, Anne Glover.
As noted by GM Watch, Glover has made the rounds in various media appearances of late leveling accusations against environmental groups for “fabricating” claims in order to have her old position of CSA abolished, and ignoring scientific evidence due to ideology.
“There is clearly not a scientific consensus”
However, as GM Watch notes:
[In] an interview with BBC’s Hard Talk, Glover is skewered over her claim that there is a scientific consensus on the safety of GM foods and crops (which she takes the opportunity to repeat). The interviewer, Zeinab Badawi, comes back at Glover by citing the statement, “No consensus on GMO safety”, signed by over 300 scientists and recently published by a peer-reviewed journal. Badawi quotes Dr Belinda Martineau, one of the signatories and a developer of the GM Flavr Savr tomato, as saying, “I wholeheartedly support this thorough, thoughtful and professional statement describing the lack of scientific consensus on the safety of genetically engineered crops and organisms.” Badawi says, “There is clearly not a scientific consensus in the scientific community.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Radicalization Fear Puts Danish Boy Into Custody
Authorities have forced a 15-year-old Muslim boy into a juvenile home in an unusual move aimed at preventing him being radicalized by his father, a report said on Sunday.
Child care authorities in Aarhus feared that a 15-year-old Muslim boy’s father might persuade him to travel to Syria to fight with Islamic extremists and placed him into care in September, Jyllands-Posten reported.
The paper said the local authorities forced the boy into a juvenile home after it emerged that he had begun to attend Grimhøj Mosque, notorious for refusing to denounce the terror group Isis and long suspected of radicalizing area youth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rugby: Italy See Scotland Win as Response to Critics
Talk of Azzurri not deserving Six Nations place dispelled
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Italy captain Sergio Parisse has hailed his side’s 22-19 win over Scotland at the weekend as a response to the stinging criticism that they have come under in recent weeks.
Some voices in the British media even suggested that the Azzurri were not doing enough to show they deserve a place in the tournament after 26-3 and 47-17 defeats to Ireland and England respectively in their first two matches this season.
“No one thought we’d win, not even the team staff and our families. So hats off,” Parisse said after Italy’s second-ever away win in the Six Nations.
“This victory is really good for us because, before the match, you could hear lots of things about the team, the wooden spoon, the international ranking and so on”. Parisse added that Italy will now face France and Wales in their two final matches in Rome “with another attitude”.
But he also said the Azzurri must cut down on costly mistakes, like the poor pass by flyhalf Kelly Haimona that gave Scotland centre Mark Bennett an easy try early on in Edinburgh on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Glasgow Uni Building Diversity With New Names
Glasgow University is to rename buildings on its campus after women and people from ethnic minorities after campaigners complained they only honoured “dead white men”.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has given her support to the controversial move and could even find herself celebrated at her alma mater.
The move means buildings that are dedicated to legendary innovators such as James Watt and Adam Smith could be renamed in favour of women’s rights activists and black academics.
The changes have been championed by the University’s Student Representative Council (SRC), which claims the existing building names reinforce sexism and inequality.
However, the switch has sparked a campus backlash, with other undergraduates branding it offensive, patronising and unnecessarily politically correct.
The SNP leader has called on other seats of learning to follow Glasgow’s lead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police in Place at Troubled Malmö School
The police were in place on Monday to meet pupils who turned up for class at the Värner Rydén school in Malmö, which has been temporarily closed after threats and violence.
The police were called in on Monday by the City of Malmö after word spread that demonstrations had been planned in protest against the school’s temporary closure.
“We received signals on social media that there are planned demonstrations,” said Malmö’s Head of Education Hans Nilsson.
“We hope that it is going to be calm,” Hans Nilsson said to SVT.
Pupils who turned up to school on Monday were told that it was closed and were asked to keep an eye on the council’s website for news of further developments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Has Plan-B to by-Pass Austrian Law on Islam
The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, has once again reacted to a recent Austrian code, which caused debate with items that regulates Islam in the country, saying that the body a plan-B to by-pass the code by training a number of Turkish-origin imams in Turkey before they return to the European country as religious officials.
On Feb. 25, the Austrian Parliament passed a law the updated “Law on Islam,” which was prepared by the coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the People’s Party, aims to regulate how Islam is managed inside the country and includes provisions requiring imams to be able to speak German, standardizing the Quran in the German language, and banning Islamic organizations from receiving foreign funding.
The code also projects sending back religious service cadre back to their countries in three years.
“We have a second preparation, a plan-B on the issue,” Diyanet head Mehmet Görmez told Anadolu Agency in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Muslim Group Under Fire for Sympathizing With Jihadi John
A Salafi Islamist group which styles itself as a “human rights organization” and was in contact with the man thought to be ISIS executioner “Jihadi John” before he left Britain for Syria is facing a backlash, after accusing intelligence services of “radicalizing” him.
Cage, whose leading figures include former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg, describes its work as supporting people arrested or raided as a result of the “war on terror” following the 9/11 attacks in 2001
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: “World-Leading Economist” And Advisor to Chancellor Osborne Busted for Smoking Crack
All those times when the general population asks if panglossian, clueless economists are smoking crack… apparently there was a reason for that.
When the UK and the rest of Europe proposed and implemented a change to the way GDP is calculated last year (a change which single-handedly pushed Britain above France as the world’s 5th largest economy) one which “estimated” the contribution of prostitution and illegal drugs to national economic output, little did we know that such “estimates” would be based on personal experience (also see “How Britain Calculates Its Hooker “GDP Boost”: 60,879 Prostitutes x 25 Clients Per Week x £67.16 Per Visit”).
Enter professor Douglas McWilliams, 63, head of the well-known Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) think tank and one of the most prominent modern economists, in fact in his own words “one of the world’s leading economists…best known for his work in forecasting” as well as advisor (and cheerleader) to none other than UK Chancellor George Osborne.
First, a little background. From his CEBR background:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 300 Victims Groomed and Assaulted by Oxfordshire Gangs, Report Finds
A damning report is expected to disclose that more than 300 young people have been groomed and sexually exploited by gangs in Oxfordshire over the past 15 years.
Systemic failures by police and social services meant victims were subjected to years of sexual torture, rape and trafficking, it is understood.
The victims, mostly girls, come predominantly from Oxford, making it the latest area in Britain to be embroiled in a scandal over the handling of child sex abuse and proving the issue is not confined to inner cities.
One senior investigative source told The Guardian: “If you think you haven’t got a problem in your city or town, you are just not looking for it.”
The report comes after seven men were jailed for a string of horrendous child sex crimes against six victims, aged between 11 and 15, over a seven-year period.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fertile Ground for Militancy in Hometown of Jihadi John
LONDON — When Mohammed Emwazi went to the mosque, a short walk north from Notting Hill and its millionaire mansions, he would sometimes run into another young Muslim from the housing projects in his neighborhood in northwest London, Bilal al-Berjawi.
Both men were part of a loose network of young Muslims in the mid-2000s, some with friendships going back to childhood, others with little more in common than a shared Arab and African heritage that set them apart from other British Muslims, most of whose families had come from Pakistan. Over time, some of the young men — Mr. Emwazi and Mr. Berjawi foremost among them — would become deeply alienated from Britain and Western society.
With the news that Mr. Emwazi is one of the most notorious members of the Islamic State — better known as Jihadi John, the hooded figure featured in many of the group’s videos showing the beheadings of hostages — that loose group of young men has emerged as the latest example of a breeding ground for Islamic radicals in Europe.
The North London Boys, as the network is sometimes called, has sent dozens of young men to fight, first in Somalia and more recently in Syria.
[“Londonistan” is so notorious as a Muslim “sea” for terrorist “fish” that its nickname became the title of a book some years back. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jihadi John’s Father ‘A Bully and a Collaborator With Saddam Hussein’
A picture of Jasem Emwazi has emerged which suggests he is a conservative Muslim who shielded his children from Western culture.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Mother Beaten Up to 30 Times a Day by Her Children
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Although many people would find it incredulous that Pauline allowed the abuse to escalate over a number of years without getting any help, she explains that she was too embarrassed to do anything about the situation.
Pauline isn’t alone — the number of violent young children in the UK is rising steadily, with 118 boys and girls under the age of 14 prosecuted for domestic abuse in 2012/13.
After contacting the makers of My Violent Child, Pauline and her children started working with parenting experts provided by the television station and Pauline says she has seen a dramatic improvement in their behaviour.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 95% of Italian Credit Union Workers Go on Strike
Workers protesting unilateral contract decision by national asso
(ANSA) — Milan, March 2 — Up to 95% of credit union workers went on strike Monday to protest a contract decision taken by the Federcasse national association of credit unions, said Fabi, a bank worker’s labor union.
The workers are part of the Italian credit cooperative BCC and took part in the strike called by five labor unions in the sector to protest Federcasse’s unilateral decision to terminate the sector’s collective bargaining contract.
The highest level of strike turnout, 95%, was in the Lombardy region, where the majority of BCC workers are located.
This was the first time in 15 years that BCC workers have taken to striking against the withdrawal of the two bargaining contract levels, national and regional, the first of which is already in effect and the second of which will go into effect April 1.
The cancellations were both unilaterally decided by Federcasse, resulting in a removal of rules and workers’ rights that were previously shared between the national association and workers.
Fabi national secretary Luca Bertinotti asked Federcasse to return to the bargaining table following the high turnout for Monday’s strike.
“We ask Federcasse to abandon positions of sterile intransigence and to reopen the dialogue and a serious and respectful meeting with the labor unions, taking a step back on the cancellation of the collective bargaining contract, which takes workers’ rights away and puts the sector back fifty years,” Bertinotti said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The words offer chilling insight into the mind of a radical Islamist: “We will defend our religion with our blood.”
Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, known commonly as Mullah Krekar, was arrested on Thursday because of what he said in an interview with Norwegian TV station NRK.
“When it comes to what happened in France, naturally I am happy that it happened,” Krekar said, referring to the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
That attack, which left a dozen people dead and was the beginning of further violence, was a response to the magazine’s publishing of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad — and Krekar said it was justified.
“The cartoonist has become an infidel at war, and therefore it is permissible to kill him,” Krekar said. “As he has trampled on our dignity, our principles and beliefs, so he must die. Anyone who does not respect 30 percent of the world’s population has no right to live.”
[Norway’s prison system is so famously kindly that this creature was probably just trying to get back inside, where it’s warm and he’ll be coddled and well-fed. Still, in light of Paris and Copenhagen, his words should be taken seriously. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian Former Naples Student Wrote ISIS Italian Tract
Author studied at Naples University, newspaper reports
(ANSA) Rome March 2 — A 37-year-old man of Algerian origin who studied at Naples University’s Oriental Studies faculty is the author of Isis’ first online manual in Italian, Il Tempo reported Monday.
“It’s not clear if he is still in Italy but certainly in the past he was in Rome in some suburban mosques and also in Milan,” the Rome newspaper said, citing “internal sources in the Italian Islamic community”.
The tract entitled “the Islamic state, a reality” was published on jihadist sites and was aimed at would-be terrorists in Italy, security sources say.
The man, identified only by his initials K.H., produced the chilling manual a few months ago “using parts of Islamic state magazines and documents in Arabic and English and translating them into Italian, a language that he knows perfectly,” the sources were quoted saying.
K.H. may already have left Italy for Libya as he felt “hunted by the security services,” the sources added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Kills 2 in Downtown Cairo, Several Injured
Brotherhood-linked group takes responsibility via Twitter
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 2 — A bomb went off in downtown Cairo on Monday morning in front of the High Court building.
The television station Nile News reported that two had been killed and several others injured. A Muslim Brotherhood-linked group, called ‘Revolutionary Punishment’, took responsibility for the attack.
The bomb reportedly went off under a car parked near the building.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Appoints Anti-Islamist General as Army Chief
A once-retired general leading a sweeping offensive against Islamist forces has been named Libyan army chief, the speaker of the country’s internationally recognised parliament announced Monday.
“I’ve chosen Major General Khalifa Belgacem Haftar for the post of commander-in-chief of the army after promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general,” Aguila Salah told AFP, adding that Haftar would be sworn in before parliament.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel and the U.S.: Two (‘Unclean’) Dogs in the Same Fight With Iranian Jihadism
by Andrew G. Bostom
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to address Congress Tuesday, March 3, 2015 regarding his concerns over the so-called “P5 (i.e., the U.S., Russia, China, France, and Britain) +1 (Germany)” nuclear negotiations with Iran.
, a week before Netanyahu’s scheduled appearance— which is clearly unwelcome by the Obama Administration— Susan Rice, the Administration’s national security adviser, told PBS’s Charlie Rose, bluntly:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu’s Address to Congress Will be Most Important Speech of His Life
By William Booth
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint meeting of Congress will probably be the most important speech of his career — and one that has already jeopardized relations between Israel and the United States.
On Tuesday morning, Netanyahu will confront an American president and insist that the future of the State of Israel, and the world, is imperiled by a pending “bad deal” with Iran on its nuclear program.
Also hanging in the balance is Netanyahu’s own political future. Just two weeks after the speech, Netanyahu will either be reelected to a historic fourth term as prime minister or be out of a job.
[…]
On Tuesday morning, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry meets with his counterparts in Switzerland to try to complete a framework accord with Iran by the end of March, Netanyahu will stand at the lectern in Congress to tell Americans, essentially, that President Obama is either foolhardy or weak and about to sign a deal with the devil.
Netanyahu will warn, as he has in the past, that the Americans are gambling on a radical Iranian regime run by Muslim clerics who deny the Holocaust, sponsor terrorist groups, support a murderous regime in Syria and pledge to destroy Israel.
[…]
Netanyahu studied at MIT and served as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He has been called the “most American” of Israeli prime ministers.
[However that may be, between the USS Liberty attack and the notorious American traitor Jonathan Pollard, who spied so effectively for Israel and some of whose take ended up in the hands of the Soviet KGB, the Israelis have made it clear that when its interests diverge from America’s they will pi$$ in our porridge. In the case of Iran our interests may converge, but Netanyahu’s address should be taken with a grain of salt. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Obama Threatened to Shoot Down IAF Iran Strike
The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report Saturday, that US President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran.
Following Obama’s threat, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was reportedly forced to abort the planned Iran attack.
[…]
Former US diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, who enthusiastically campaigned for Obama in 2008, called on him to shoot down Israeli planes if they attack Iran. “They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?” said the former national security advisor to former President Jimmy Carter in an interview with the Daily Beast.
“We have to be serious about denying them that right,” he said. “If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a ‘Liberty’ in reverse.’“
Israel mistakenly attacked the American Liberty ship during the Six-Day War in 1967.
[Two points: One, the real pro-Iran power behind the throne is not Zbigniew Brzezinski but the Shiraz-born, Farsi-speaking Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s substitute mommy. Two, the notion that “Israel mistakenly attacked the American Liberty ship during the Six-Day War in 1967” is a fantastic lie. The IDF knew whose ship that was and what it was doing, and they were willing to kill every American aboard to stop it. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
100 Most Influential Arab Women Include Amal Clooney
Lawyer in second place; UAE cooperation minister first
(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 2 — Lebanese attorney Amal Clooney is listed among the world’s 100 most influential Arab women in a ranking published Monday by UAE website ‘Arabian Business’.
George Clooney’s wife made it to second place not only thanks to her huge media exposure since marrying the Hollywood star but mostly thanks to her work as an international human rights attorney.
“The truth is that the new Mrs Clooney has been one of the highest profile lawyers and activists over the past few years, with clients like Julian Assange and Yulia Timoshenko”, said a comment.
The third place was awarded for the first time to a person known worldwide, especially in the Middle East, for her work in favor of women’s rights, Saudi feminist Loujain al Hathloul. She has re-launched the debate on the right of women to drive — a right women don’t have in Saudi Arabia.
Last December, defying the ban, al Hathloul tried to cross the border between the UAE and her country by car. She was arrested when she reached Saudi Arabia. Her arrest received international publicity thanks to the young woman’s savvy use of social networks. Released this month, al Hathloul is today considered a symbol of the battle for women’s rights denied in Saudi Arabia.
First place was unsurprisingly granted, for the fifth year in a row, to Sheikha Lubna al Qasimi, minister for international cooperation and development of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Her influence not only affects the region but the whole world. Sheikha Lubna al Qasimi continues to promote the role of international donor and global player of the Emirates. Since taking over the role in 2013 of international cooperation minister, after a long stint as foreign trade minister, UAE donations and humanitarian aid have more than tripled”.
Among the activists, entrepreneurs, politicians, artists and journalists, another name from the UAE is Mariam al Mansouri, a pilot, who ranked sixth.
Al Mansouri, 35, carried out several missions in Syria, raising the curiosity and attention of the media as the first war pilot of the UAE. She is today considered a leading champion of the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria and of extremism in general.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
American Social Media Companies Wage War on ISIS
On Sunday, an image circulated showing Islamic State supporters allegedly threatening Jack Dorsey, a founder of Twitter, in retaliation for the social network engaging an escalating war against the militant group.
ISIS’s hostility toward Twitter comes as no surprise. The extremists rely heavily on American-built social media to provide a megaphone. Lately, however, the networks have fought back and made the famously tech-savvy Islamic State quieter than ever.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Customer-Feedback Technology Lasts Millennia
Ever left an angry customer complaint? This 3750-year-old cuneiform tablet suggests you’re part of a very long tradition.
The clay message was sent from someone called Nanni to an Ea-nasir in ancient Mesopotamia, protesting about the low quality of copper ingots offered during a trade with Nanni’s messenger. Nanni demands that his money be returned post-haste.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Baghdad Launches Offensive to Wrest Tikrit From Islamic State
Military operation in Salahuddin province, an Islamic fundamentalist stronghold north of Baghdad. The security forces and Shiite militiamen have launched an assault on the city, with air and artillery support. Premier Abadi appeals to Sunni fighters, urging them to abandon the jihadists. “It’s their last chance.”
Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Iraqi army and Shiite militias have launched a far-reaching — and long expected — operation against the Islamic State in Salahuddin province, an Islamic fundamentalist stronghold north of Baghdad. They aim to wrest Tikrit, the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein. News of the operation was announced yesterday by the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and broadcast this morning by Iraqi television.
According to Al-Iraqiya TV, this morning security forces began the assault on the city of Tikrit, with the support of heavy artillery and air strikes by the Iraqi airforce. The Islamist militants have already been driven out of some locations around the city, but there is no more information on the assault.
The Islamic State militias have captured large swathes of the majority Sunni Salahuddin province; besides Tikrit, they control several cities on the Tigris River, north of the town of Samarra, which is still in the hands of the government army, and which Prime Minister Abadi visited yesterday.
Tikrit, 130 km north of the capital, fell into the jihadists hands last summer, along with Mosul, the second largest city in the country and different areas with a Sunni majority. In the hours leading up to the military offensive, the Prime Minister directly appealed to the Sunni fighters, urging them to abandon the extremist group in exchange for government clemency.
“It’s their last chance” said Abadi, who added that “ “If they insist on staying on their wrong path they will receive the fair punishment they deserve because they … stood with terrorism”. The announcement of the Chief Executive follows a series of operations launched in the past by the Iraqi army to liberate Tikrit from the militia, which thus far had failed.
In February, an official of the US Central Command said that the Iraqi army is preparing an offensive to take back to Mosul from the hands of the Islamic State (IS) in April-May. For the operation 20-25 thousand Iraqi soldiers are being trained, including police forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga troops, tribal and anti-terrorism forces. Mosul, Iraq’s second city was inhabited by over a million people before it was conquered by the IS last June. It is estimated that it is controlled by two thousand Islamist militiamen.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Army Downs 2 UK Planes Delivering Weapons to ISIS
Iraq’s army has shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIS terrorists in Al-Anbar province, a senior lawmaker disclosed on Monday.
“The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIS,” Head of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to a Monday report of the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
He said the Iraqi parliament has asked London for explanations in this regard.
The senior Iraqi legislator further unveiled that the government in Baghdad is receiving daily reports from people and security forces in al-Anbar province on numerous flights by the US-led coalition planes that airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIS in terrorist-held areas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Pays Parents for Children to Attend Jihadist ‘Cub’ Camps
Parents are sending their children to be trained in Islamic State camps in exchange for money, food and clothing.
With resources expensive in the self-proclaimed Caliphate’s Syrian capital Raqqa, activists reported that the recruitment of children by the extremist was widespread, with three training camps set up near the city where children are indoctrinated and trained in fighting techniques.
The al-Khalifa Cubs Institute and the al-Farouk Cubs Institute in Raqqa, and the Sharia Camp for Cubs in the nearby city of al-Tabqa, take boys for 40 days and indoctrinate them to become jihadists, said campaign group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.
[Shades of the Hitlerjugend. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Issues Death Threat Against Twitter Co-Founder
Iraqi military launches offensive to retake Tikrit
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Islamic State (ISIS) fundamentalist militia has issued an online threat online against Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, picturing him in the crosshairs of a gunsight, ANSA sources said Monday.
The threat in Arabic posted alongside the photo encourages jihadists to target Twitter and its employees.
The online social network in recent months has shut down accounts used by Islamic extremists and their supporters, and is currently working with law enforcement to verify this threat against the company.
Also on Monday, Iraqi forces launched a military campaign to retake the Iraqi city of Tikrit — the hometown of late dictator Saddam Hussein — which is currently under ISIS control.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Video Shows Masked Gunmen Executing ‘Spy’
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The video was filmed in Aleppo and shows a man believed to be named Ahmed Muhammad being led out to a forecourt by masked executioners, who then shoot him in the head multiple times.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS ‘Fed Murdered Kidnap Victim to His Own Mother’
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Yasir Abdulla, who left his home in Yorkshire to travel to Iraq to fight against the Islamic State says an elderly Kurdish woman was tricked into eating her own son, who had been captured by the group.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Group Frees 19 Syrian Christians in Syria After a Ransom is Paid
After jihadists seized the Tal Tamr area and at least ten Christian villages, they took 220 people hostage. Judged by an “Islamic court”, 19 were released after paying US$ 1,700 per person. Assyrian and Islamic tribal leaders are negotiating the release of the other hostages.
Damascus (AsiaNews) — Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Sunday freed 19 of the 220 Assyrian Christians they took hostage in Tal Tamr (Syria) last week, after a US$ 1,700 ransom per person was paid for their release, activists said.
“Nineteen Assyrian hostages arrived on Sunday at the Church of Our Lady in Hasakah after they were released by IS,” said Osama Edward, the director of the Assyrian Network for Human Rights.
“They arrived on two buses from Shaddadeh,” the IS stronghold in the north-eastern province of Hasakah.
Edward said an IS “religious court” decided on Saturday to release the 19 Christians in exchange for a sum of money paid by each family. IS considers the ransom as “jizya”.
The “jizya” is a poll tax, based on the Qur’an, that Muslims can impose on Jews and Christians living in Islamic lands for “protection”. In return, they are not require to convert to Islam.
Negotiations for the release of the hostages began on Saturday between Assyrian officials and local Arab Muslim tribal chiefs. According to local sources, IS controls ten Christian villages.
Negotiators are trying to secure the release of 201 Assyrians still held captive. “We’re trying to contact any party that might help. We’re working through our friends the tribal sheikhs,” said Younan Talia, a senior official in the Assyrian Democratic Organisation.
“Some friends of Daesh are trying to send messages,” he added, but there have been no response yet. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
After the Angelus Marian prayer, Pope Francis called on the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray in silence for the people of Syria and Iraq, hit by Islamist violence.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “unending tragic news continue to come out of Syria and Iraq, about acts of violence, abduction and harassment against Christians and other groups. Let those involved in these situations be aware that we have not forgotten them, that we are close to them, and that we are praying insistently for an end to the intolerable brutality of which they are victims.”
“Together with the members of the Roman Curia, I offered, according to this intention, the last Mass the Spiritual Exercises, last Friday. At the same time I call on everyone, according to their possibilities, to work to alleviate the suffering of those who are tested, often only because of the faith they profess. Let us pray for these brothers and sisters, who suffer for their faith. In Syria, in Iraq. Let us pray in silence.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
By Robert Spencer
This article is one of many lately that try to show that the Islamic State is not Islamic — not to dissuade young Muslims from joining the Islamic State (there are no articles devoted to doing that), but to reassure non-Muslims that they have nothing to worry about in regard to rapidly increasing numbers of Muslims in their countries, and to keep them ignorant and complacent regarding the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat.
And while it would be just great if the Islamic State weren’t Islamic, but this article reveals itself to be useless exercise that doesn’t deliver on its title when it notes that there are “tens of thousands of Muslims eager to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group,” and that “an estimated 20,000 have streamed into the territory in Iraq and Syria.” For when “the vast majority of Muslim clerics say the group cherry picks what it wants from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, and from accounts of Muhammad’s actions and sayings, known as the Hadith” and “then misinterprets many of these, while ignoring everything in the texts that contradicts those hand-picked selections,” they are saying that tens of thousands of young Muslims are so poorly instructed in their faith that they cannot recognize the Islamic State’s interpretation of Islam as a cherry-picked, misinterpreted travesty of the real thing.
If this “vast majority of Muslim clerics” can so easily explain this to non-Muslim journalists and politicians, why have they so signally failed to explain it to these 20,000 Muslims who have already streamed into the Islamic State’s territories, and to the tens of thousands of Muslims eager to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State?
More below.
“How Islamic is Islamic State group? Not very, experts say,” by Lee Keath and Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press, March 2, 2015:
[Spencer deconstructs this article with his usual erudition and eloquence, and shows that it isn’t too hard to “cherry-pick” from the cherry pie of Islamic scripture. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State’s Increasingly Slick Cinema of Terror
The cinematography is as crisp and chilling as a horror movie. Men in orange jumpsuits kneel on a beach beneath a sky of broken clouds. Executioners hover over them, dressed in black, knives aglint. A masked militant reads the death sentence. The camera pans across praying faces. Knives are raised, and 21 men are beheaded, blood spilling into the sand and mixing with the waves.
This and other recent execution videos released by Islamic State are slickly produced narratives of multiple camera angles, eerie tension and polished editing that suggest the filmmakers are versed in Hollywood aesthetics. Brutal and perverse, the clips, some infused with music and subtitles, carry a primeval message stylized for a world wired to social media and hypnotized by an endless pulse of competing images.
The beheadings and other killings, including the burning alive of a captured Jordanian fighter pilot, represent an increasingly sophisticated cinema of terror.
[…]
“ISIS knows its audience,” said Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terrorism and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. The militant network, he added, is attempting to entice young men from as many as 80 countries “who grew up in a culture of violent movies and video games and are jazzed by it… They are targeting those who see in violence a form of catharsis and a way to strike back at the enemy.”
The videos have been referred to as “jihadi snuff films.”
[…]
The Islamic State’s production values have steadily improved since the network grew in Iraq and Syria; it now operates or has affiliates across North Africa and the Middle East. The group’s ranks have been bolstered by as many as several thousand recruits from Europe, which may be where the organization’s videographers learned their trade.
[Inasmuch as these videographers are as complicit in the murders they record as the actual cutters are, they are legitimate targets for assassination or air strikes. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
‘Jihadi John’ Relatives Under Watch in Kuwait
Kuwaiti authorities are closely monitoring several relatives of “Jihadi John” who live and work in the Gulf emirate where the Islamic State executioner was born, press reports said on Sunday.
A number of relatives of Mohammed Emwazi, named as the militant who has beheaded at least five Western hostages, are working in Kuwait and like him hold British citizenship, Al-Qabas newspaper reported.
“Security agencies have taken the necessary measures to monitor them round the clock,” the paper said, citing an “informed source.”
The daily did not say how many of Emwazi’s relatives are in Kuwait. Authorities have remained silent on the issue…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Iraqi Forces Again Claim US is Supplying ISIS With Weapon Drops (Video)
Iraqi forces have once again sensationally charged that the US military is purposefully dropping weapons to terrorist militants in the western parts of the country, according to a report.
The Iranian Fars News Agency reports “A group of Iraqi popular forces known as Al-Hashad Al-Shabi shot down a US Army helicopter that was carrying weapons for the ISIL in the western parts of Al-Baqdadi region in Al-Anbar province” last week.
The report claims that the fighters posted a picture (see above) online of the downed chopper and the weapons that were recovered.
The claims comes on the heels of reports last week that the Iraq Army shot down two British planes also delivering weapons to the Islamic State.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Obama Threatened to Shoot Down IAF Planes if Israel Struck Iran
A Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that President Obama, angered at Israeli plans to strike Iran nuclear facilities in 2014, threatened to shoot down Israeli planes before they could reach their targets.
The paper, Al Jarida, cites only anonymous sources and just a handful of other publications have followed the story. But according to israelnationalnews.com, the Arabic newspaper quoted “well-placed” sources as saying Benjamin Netanyahu and two top aides “had decided to carry out air strikes against Iran’s nuclear program after consultations with top security commanders.”
“The Netanyahu government took the decision to strike Iran some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran’s nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel’s back,” the website said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Blogger’s Wife Says He Risks Death Penalty
After 1,000 lashings, Riyadh wants retrial for apostasy
(ANSAmed) — LONDON, MARCH 2 — Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger sentenced to a 10-year prison term and 1,000 lashings for “offending Islam” now risks a death sentence, his wife, Ensaf Haidar, told British daily The Independent.
Saudi Arabia’s authorities reportedly want to retry him on apostasy charges, which carry the death penalty in the event of a conviction.
The blogger’s case, whose conviction provides for 50 lashings a week, had raised the protest of rights groups including Amnesty International.
Badawi, 31, received the first set of lashings on January 9 in a public square in Jeddah, in front of the Al Jafali mosque.
The lashings were subsequently suspended for medical reasons.
The US State department and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have repeatedly called on Saudi authorities to annul the sentence. On February 10, in his first meeting with the Saudi king, Prince Charles had raised the blogger’s case, as requested by Amnesty.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Gives Top Prize to Cleric Who Blames George Bush for 9/11
Controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik awarded the King Faisal international prize for promoting Islam through his hugely popular Peace TV channel.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Blogger Sentenced to 1,000 Lashes May Face Death Penalty
Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger whose punishment of 1,000 lashes has prompted international condemnation, may now face the death penalty.
Mr Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, told The Independent in a series of messages that judges in Saudi Arabia’s criminal court want him to undergo a re-trial for apostasy. If found guilty, he would face a death sentence.
She said the “dangerous information” had come from “official sources” inside the conservative kingdom, where Mr Badawi has already been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes — administered at a rate of 50 per week — for criticising the country’s clerics through his liberal blog.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This is How the United States Created ISIS (Video)
In the latest episode of Truth in Media, Ben Swann investigates the origins of the militant group referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Did Bin Laden Know About Al Qaeda Anyway?
By Michael Ledeen
A Manhattan trial has produced a few more documentary fragments from Osama bin Laden’s computer, and, among other things, they show he was in regular contact with the group’s terrorist commanders until shortly before we killed him. And guess what? AQ was working in cahoots with Iran all along.
So how come we didn’t hear about that when we were fighting AQ in Iraq and Afghanistan? How was Obama able to talk about “decimating core AQ” without dealing with the Iran link? Didn’t we know it?
It’s a big question, and the answer is bigger than “because Obama.” The documents presented at trial in New York go back to the Bushitlercheney era, and the cooperation between AQ and Iran goes back to the long runup to 2001. Is this yet another intelligence failure?
Remember that the 9/11 Commission famously called for deeper investigation and analysis of precisely that link between Sunni al Qaeda and Shi’ite Iran. Did the “intelligence community” do it? If so, what are the results? If not, why weren’t they all fired?…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Did the CIA Assassinate Boris Nemtsov to Blame Putin? (Video)
On the heels of the news out of Moscow that Boris Nemtsov was gunned down, today Dr. Paul Craig Roberts spoke with King World News about the CIA and the murder of Nemtsov.
This is a fascinating trip down the rabbit hole with the former U.S. Treasury official as he is warning that the CIA may be out of control.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Neoliberal Technocrat Boris Nemtsov Martyred to Kick Off Russian Vesna March, Or “Russian Spring”
In Western media, desperate to demonize Vladamir Putin and Russia in general, Boris Nemtsov is being hailed as a “charismatic opposition leader” and “reformer” of the old Soviet state. “A Hollywood movie politician”, one blathering reporter from Bloomberg called him. Of course, that guy also said Boris Yeltsin was “the consummate populist” so you can take that for what it’s worth.
In truth, Boris Nemtsov staked his career on helping the West neoliberalize various former Soviet Block countries (Ukraine after the Orange Revolution) and even helped lead the “liberalization” process in Russia during the rule of the hated Boris Yeltsin.
His life was dedicated to the service of institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, the EU (later as he helped blame Putin for the problems in Ukraine) and the National Endowment for Democracy (as they ran the attempted color revolution in Russia not that long ago). Without evidence, the man blamed the separatists in eastern Ukraine for the downing of Flight 17 saying they must all be killed for it…
For anyone paying attention, Poroshenko seems willing to do about anything to maintain his control of his fascist puppet regime in Kiev and anti-Poroshenko sentiments are running high right now, even in the Westernized parts of his country. He can’t get people to sign up for the draft even though it’s mandatory and more and more people are speaking out against the NATO-backed neoliberal government Barack Obama installed in the country not that long ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Warns NATO: Any Threat in Ukraine Will See Military Response
As Russia announces the expansion of its Navy by 50 vessels this year, including two new nuclear-powered submarines and an aircraft carrier, it appears NATO’s sabre-rattling has drawn a response/threat/warning. Following British plans to send military ‘advisers’ into Ukraine (which NATO has stated are not confirmed), TASS reports, Russia’s NATO envoy, Alexander Grushko, warns Russia will take all measures against possible NATO threat in Ukraine, adding that Russia’s response may include military measures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Masked Figure in 2013 Terror Video Could be Jihadi John, Experts Say
The footage of two bands of fanatical fighters joining forces in Syria under Chechen terrorist commander Omar al-Shishani is thought to show Mohammed Emwazi
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Thin Line of Defense Against ‘Honor Killings’
KABUL, Afghanistan — Faheema stood trembling in the courtyard of the large house, steeling herself for the meeting with her family.
She took a deep breath and ran inside, her black abaya swirling around her, and fell to the floor at her uncle’s feet, hugging his knees, her face pressed against him, her shoulders heaving.
The reproaches came immediately. “How could you do this?” her uncle said. “You were always so sweet to everyone. How could you have done this?”
What Faheema, 21, had done was to run away from her home in eastern Afghanistan with the man she loved. She left behind her large family and the man that her family had promised her to. Although her uncle’s words at first seemed kind, his tone had a dangerous edge: Faheema had to come home.
For a young woman from an Afghan village to go home after running away with a man is tantamount to crossing a busy street blindfolded: There is a strong likelihood that she will be killed for bringing shame on her family.
Faheema, who like many Afghans uses a single name, was one of the lucky ones: She had made it to an emergency women’s shelter, one of about 20 that over the last 10 years have protected several thousand women across Afghanistan from abuse or death at the hands of their relatives.
These shelters, almost entirely funded by Western donors, are one of the most successful — and provocative — legacies of the Western presence in Afghanistan, demonstrating that women need protection from their families and can make their own choices. And allowing women to decide for themselves raises the prospect that men might not control the order of things, as they have for centuries. This is a revolutionary idea in Afghanistan — every bit as alien as Western democracy and far more transgressive.
As the shelters have grown, so has the opposition of powerful conservative men who see them as Western assaults on Afghan culture. “Here, if someone tries to leave the family, she is breaking the order of the family and it’s against the Islamic laws and it’s considered a disgrace,” said Habibullah Hasham, the imam of the Nabi mosque in western Kabul and a member of a group of influential senior clerics. “What she has done is rebelling.”
[And that gets her crosswise with the ignoble Qur’an — specifically, with verse 4:34: Men are in charge of women … As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. “Scourge” is an archaic word for “whip.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Arrests Main Suspect in US Blogger Murder
Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism unit said it had arrested on Monday the main suspect in the killing of a US blogger who was hacked to death in Dhaka last week in the latest attack on critics of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation.
Forces from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman, who was previously jailed for his ties to the extremist Hizbut Tahrir Islamist group, at a bus stop in Dhaka, a RAB spokesman told reporters.
The spokesman said Farabi had confessed to threatening to kill blogger Avijit Roy. Farabi was still being interrogated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Holds Man Over Blogger Avijit Roy’s Murder
The suspect had been arrested previously for inciting attacks against writers and intellectuals. The murder victim, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was hacked to death with a machete. Islamist extremists threatened publicly to kill him last year after the publication of his book ‘Biswasher Virus,’ Bengali for ‘Virus of faith’.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Bangladeshi Security Forces arrested a man in connection with the murder of the writer and blogger Avijit Roy.
Founder of Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog, Roy was attacked on Thursday evening along with his wife as he returned home from a book fair.
Bangladeshi security officials took Farabi Shafiur Rahman into custody as he was leaving the city in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area over the murder of writer and blogger Avijit Roy.
Avijit Roy, a US citizen originally from Bangladesh, was attacked and hacked to death with a machete by Muslim assailants. His wife Rafida Ahmed reported some minor wounds.
The next day, hundreds of people — including teachers, publishers and fellow writers — met near in Dhaka to protest his murder.
“The attack on Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed is outrageous,” said Imran H. Sarker, head of a Bangladeshi bloggers’ association. “We strongly protest this attack and are deeply concerned about the safety of writers.”
For some time, extremist Islamic groups have been calling for the execution of atheist bloggers and demanding new laws to fight those who criticise Islam.
In Bangladesh, prominent Islamist extremists threatened publicly to kill Roy last year after the publication of his book ‘Biswasher Virus,’ Bengali for ‘Virus of faith’.
The blogger, who was an atheist, had glimpsed of the dangers he faced in a recent article for Free Inquiry, a magazine published by the US-based Council for Secular Humanism.
Discussing the subject of his book, Roy wrote in the magazine that the “virus of religion” had inspired the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States and the January murderous attacks against the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris.
“Faith-based terrorisms are nothing but viruses — if allowed to spread, they will wreak havoc on society in epidemic proportions,” Roy had stated.
Farabi had been previously arrested in 2013 for inciting attacks on social media after blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed because his ideas were “contrary to Islam”.
Farabi had also threatened an online bookshop, rokomari.com, to drop Roy’s books from their site, Rapid Action Battalion’s Additional Director General Col Ziaul Ahsan said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Delhi Bus Rapist Blames His Victim in Prison Interview
One of the group of Indian men convicted of the notorious Delhi gang rape of 2012 has prompted outrage by claiming that his victim was to blame for her brutal sexual assault and murder.
In an interview from jail, Mukesh Singh said that women who went out at night had only themselves to blame if they attracted the attention of gangs of male molesters. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tough Men for Hire: Ex-Special Forces in Demand for War on Terror
By Malia Zimmerman
The 21 Afghan soldiers had been kidnapped in the remote Badakhshan Province by the Taliban, which, days later, returned their bullet-riddled bodies through tribal leaders.
Within hours, Tony Schiena, a real-life Rambo who has been called “one of the most highly trained covert operatives in the world,” was on a plane from Los Angeles to Kabul at the request of U.S. officials to put on clinics in defense tactics and teach the local conscripts the techniques he has taught to NATO Special Forces from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Croatia. For several weeks following the March 2013 incident, Schiena, at the request of the U.S. officials, instructed the Afghan Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, a game, but undermanned and outgunned crew of soldiers fighting for their nation’s future.
Charged with investigating executions and murders in Taliban territory, the Afghan squad often ventured into lawless land to bring killers to justice. The abduction and slaughter of its CID team was grim testament to the need for the kind of training Schiena, 40, a former South African intelligence operative, has provided to armies around the world.
“At that time, they were being sent into mud huts to investigate Taliban murders, decapitations,” said Schiena, CEO of Multi Operational Security Agency Intelligence Company (MOSAIC). “Due to Afghan government bureaucracy, they had not yet been issued any weapons. Here they were, deep in enemy territory, and they had nothing but their own bodies’ capabilities to defend themselves.”
“We taught them how to survive,” he added.
[Warren Zevon: “Where the pay is good, and the risk is high …” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
China Monthly Box Office Tops U.S. For First Time Ever
Chinese box-office revenue edged ahead of the United States in February for the first time ever as a record Lunar New Year bonanza brought in $650 million in the second-largest movie market, according to data from research firm Entgroup.
The North American box office for February came in at $710 million, but once Canada was stripped out, the figure was $640 million, making China the biggest box-office market in the world for the month, the firm said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Schools to Get Security Guards and CCTV to ‘Prevent Terrorism’
Australian Jewish and Islamic schools are under threat from terror attacks. That’s the message from the Federal Government and the peak body representing Jews in Australia.
The Abbott Government on Monday announced 54 schools — including 17 Jewish schools and 15 Islamic schools — will share in $18 million dollars to employ security guards and CCTV cameras. Another 11 independent schools a 11 government schools will also beef up security.
The funding is part of the government’s strategy for tackling racial and religious intolerance and follows a speech by the PM last week where he declared the threat of terrorism is rising in Australia and announced a number of counterterrorism measures.
It comes seven months after a Jewish primary school in Melbourne’s east was evacuated because of a bomb scare, six months after eight men climbed aboard a Jewish school bus in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and threatened to cut the throats of 25 children and just three months after the AFP called on teachers to look out for students they feared susceptible to radicalisation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamists Demand Australian Senator ‘Introduce Sharia Law’ or be Beheaded
by Phyllis Chesler
Yesterday, terrorists threatened to “behead” Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie if she did not help “introduce sharia law in Australia.”
To her credit, Lambie had recently called for the introduction of the death penalty for terrorists and had been quoted as saying: “If you don’t like our Australian law… then pack your bags and… leave. We will never bow down to sharia law.”
The police do not yet know whether this death threat was sent by Jihadists or by opponents of a planned mosque.
Australia, Down Under? Is there no continent free of lone wolves, wolf packs, citizen-jihadists who turn on their own countrymen or who travel to join ISIS?
Sadly, the answer is no. In fact, yesterday the Australian government barred its citizens from traveling to Mosul to combat “what the government calls growing radicalizationamong young Australian Muslims, some of whom have fought overseas with militant groups.”
Australia is part of the core group coalition against ISIS, which consists of the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Turkey, Italy, Poland, and Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Beheading Video Shows Ties to ISIS, Say Experts
By Malia Zimmerman
Nigerian Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram has taken a page out of the ISIS playbook, releasing a new video Monday of two prisoner beheadings so similar to clips posted by the Middle East jihadist group that experts now believe the terror groups are working together.
The 6-minute video, titled “Harvest of Spies,” translated into English, French and Arabic, was posted Monday on Twitter by Boko Haram’s media arm and initially reported by Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC), which monitors terrorist groups online. It shows a farmer confessing under duress to spying for the police, and shows a second man, then cuts to footage of both, decapitated with their heads on their chests. The video was tweeted out by ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts.
“This latest release shows Boko Haram is not a mere copycat of ISIS; rather, it is incorporating itself into the Islamic State,” said Veryan Khan, editorial director of TRAC. “Islamic state supporters are already starting to call Boko Haram the ‘Islamic State Africa.’“
The grisly beheading video was produced in the style of ISIS videos that have shown Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, both journalists, and aid worker Peter Kassig before and after they were killed. Boko Haram previously published only one beheading, of a Nigerian fighter pilot whose plane went down in September.
[…]
“This is huge news,” said Veryan Khan, editorial director of the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, after seeing videos released by Boko Haram that use high definition cameras, special effects, and the same media platform as ISIS as polished as any of ISIS’ sophisticated cinematography productions.
“I believe Boko Haram is more than just copying the Islamic State — their image is being ‘shaped’ at very least in the ISIS media wing,” Khan said.
[If the U.S. is serious about “degrading” ISIS, that media wing and its personnel should be targeted for destruction. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Four Thai Fishermen Held Captive by Somali Pirates for Five Years Are Freed
A joint collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations. The fishermen: “It’s like coming back to life after being dead”. Thai Prime Minister: “Entrepreneurs in the sector must cooperate with the government to stop this human trafficking.”
Bangkok (AsiaNews) — Four Thai fishermen are free again after five years of captivity in the hands of Somali pirates. The group landed at Suvarnnabhum on 28 February, where they were welcomed by family and Thai authorities. “This liberation — said the fishermen — it’s like coming back to life after being dead”.
The four men are Chan-narong Nawara, Thanakorn Kaewkumkong, Kosol Duangmakerd e Ton Wiyasing, captain of the FV Sea Hunter 12, boarded by pirates in 2010. After their capture, the four fishermen were used as cooks by Somali guerrillas.
Their release is the result of seven months of intense collaboration between the Thai Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Thai embassy in Kenya and the United Nations.
Captain Ton Wiyasing thanked the Thai people and the Ministry for making their release and their return home possible. 24 fishermen were employed on the ship. “Only five of us were Thai- said Ton — but one died shortly after our capture from an illness. Later, 15 were released, and there were only four of us. For the first year we lived in a cell aboard a pirate ship. When the boat sank, we were taken to Somalia, where we had the task of cooking for the pirates”.
“Life in Somalia — said the man — it is very hard and the pirates are constantly moving for fear of being caught. We did not know our fate. We knew we could die at any moment. Every time there a pirate came to wake us up, we had to run and cook, in whatever condition we were in”.
On the day of their return to Thailand, the fishermen had a one-hour interview with the Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, before being visited by a doctor and allowed to go home. After the meeting, the Prime Minister issued a statement to the entrepreneurs who work in the fishing industry, inviting them to “reflect on the safety of fishermen and register your ships and each crew member, to help stop the problem of trafficking in people”.
“If you fail to collaborate with the government — he added — the phenomenon will not stop. How can we be happy if our fellow citizens are living hard times in other lands? The four fishermen have asked their grandchildren if they remembered them, and the response of the little ones was ‘no’. I feel their hurt at knowing that”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: A Record 2014 for Loans to Latin America
Beijing has lent $ 22 billion a year to the South American continent and is poised to break the of 2010 record, when the figure touched 37 billion. Analysts warn: “China may tacitly require that Chinese companies have a hand in some projects”. “Diplomacy of the yuan” continues to spread from Southeast Asia to Africa.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — Loans made by Chinese state-owned banks to the nations of Latin America have grown in 2014 by a 71% over the previous year, coming in at around $ 22 billion. According to data presented in a report by the China-Latin America Finance Database, this is the second largest volume of money granted in recent history by Beijing to the continent: the record dates back to 2010, when the total figure stood at 37 billion dollars.
In any case, Chinese loans exceed those provided by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank together. Brazil alone received 8.6 billion, followed by Argentina with 7 billion, Venezuela with 5.7 billion and Ecuador with 821 million.
According to the authors of the report, “China may tacitly require that Chinese companies have a hand in some projects, but has avoided meddling in domestic policy”.
Chinese finance is key for a number of infrastructure programmes in Latin America, including an upgrade of the underground in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, and road building in Ecuador. According to expert estimates, at this rate 2015 will break the 2010 record.
This policy of government loans does not just concern Latin Ameria, but ranges from Southeast Asia to Africa. In fact, between 2000 to 2011, China invested more than $ 75 billion in Africa. Of these, only 1.1 billion per year are officially declared as “contributions to a developing country” within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The amount of American investments in the same period is estimated at $ 90 billion.
Beijing has struggled to keep the exact figure of their African investments under wraps, as they have been defined by some analysts “a new form of colonialism.” The researchers, based on Western and African news sources have identified 1673 Chinese projects on the Continent over the period under consideration.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Russian Bear Moves in Next Door
Guess who’ s meeting with our new BFF, Cuba? Russia. Moscow’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu had an intimate and cozy meeting with defense and military leaders in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua week before last. As they caught up with their fellow comrades on all the latest commie happenings… Russia agreed to provide military training and increase military visits and exercises. The Russians are not just probing next door anymore, they’ ve moved in.
They signed several agreements on warship visits and military training during the visit, which ran from Feb. 11 to 14. Gee, that didn’ t seem to make the news. You know why? Because our inept leaders say there is nothing to worry about. That all countries have the right to form alliances with whomever they want. Screw the Monroe Doctrine, which Kerry has already pronounced dead. It’ s party time in Latin America!
The Russian leader is seeking bases in the region for strategic bomber flights that Shoygu recently promised would include flights over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. In November, Shoygu announced that Russian strategic nuclear bombers would conduct long-range training flights over the Gulf of Mexico. Please note, these are nuclear capable bombers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: the Next Great Migration
I lament that Paris can be a threatening space for Jews, Roma, Africans and Arabs, but the truth is, as a black American, I’ve never felt safer or less harassed anywhere. It’s difficult to exaggerate the existential boon of shedding one’s victimhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Debate May Have Increased Illegal Crossings
The debate over legalizing illegal immigrants was “a primary cause” of last summer’s surge of Central Americans jumping the U.S.-Mexico border, the Government Accountability Office reported Friday, citing surveys of U.S. officials on the ground in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration is Now on the Verge of Destroying UK, Blasts Leo McKinstry
DECEIT, denial and delusion are the hallmarks of the establishment’s approach to immigration.
By Leo McKinstry
Queuing to get in is a typical scene at most of Britain’s airports todayAs our national identity is eroded, the political class still refuses to admit the scale of the catastrophe.
When the bloodthirsty Islamist brute nicknamed “Jihadi John” was exposed as a London computer graduate and terror suspect called Mohammed Emwazi, the cry went up, “How was he allowed to slip through the net?”
But it was an absurd question.
There is no net…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Immigration Poses Serious National Security Threat
France, Belgium and now even liberal Denmark regret letting in so many immigrants from Muslim countries. Their swelling Islamic communities have become breeding grounds for terrorists. So why is the U.S. opening the floodgates to foreign Muslims?
The threat Muslim immigrants pose to homeland security was not addressed during the White House’s three-day summit on terrorism.
Instead, Vice President Joe Biden assured Muslim groups gathered during one session that the “wave” of Muslim immigration is “not going to stop.”
Wave? More like a tsunami.
Between 2010 and 2013, the Obama administration imported almost 300,000 new immigrants from Muslim nations — more immigrants than the U.S. let in from Central America and Mexico combined over that period.
This is a sea change in immigration flows, and it threatens national security.
[It threatens more than that. It threatens what John F. Kennedy called, in his first inaugural address, “the survival and the success of liberty.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Marks & Spencer Store Bans ‘Jesus’ And ‘Christ’ From Gift Messages But Jihad is Okay
Customers who attempt to use the words receive an on-screen notification reading: ‘Sorry, there’s something in your message we can’t write.’ The term ‘gay’ triggers the same message.
The words ‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ have been placed on a list of banned words by Marks & Spencer and cannot be used in gift messages.
Customers buying a bunch of flowers who try to add a free message containing them are prevented from completing their order.
An on-screen notification, which pops up if any blocked words are entered, reads: ‘Sorry, there’s something in your message we can’t write.’
‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ join other banned words including ‘f***’ and ‘gay’ — but some terms including jihad, Buddha and Allah are accepted.
‘Terrorist’ and ‘d**k’ can also be included in messages.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A List of Admitted False Flags Attacks
There are many documented false flag attacks, where a government carries out a terror attack…and then falsely blames its enemy for political purposes.
In the following 42 instances, officials in the government which carried out the attack (or seriously proposed an attack) admits to it, either orally or in writing:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Focus on Political Islamic Groups to Boost Science
For science to realize its potential in the Muslim world, attitudes need to change at a societal level, not just an individual one, says Dyna Rochmyaningsih.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Guts of Giant Virus Imaged in 3D
Reconstruction of mimivirus innards brings X-ray laser images of live cells one step closer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
So Long, Transistor: How the ‘Memristor’ Could Revolutionize Electronics
In a transistor, once the flow of electrons is interrupted by, say, cutting the power, all information is lost. But a memristor can remember the amount of charge that was flowing through it, and much like a memory stick it will retain the data even when the power is turned off.
This can pave the way for computers that will instantly turn on and off like a light bulb and never lose data: the RAM, or memory, will no longer be erased when the machine is turned off, without the need to save anything to hard drives as with current technology.
But memristors have another fundamental difference compared with transistors: they can escape the boundaries of binary code.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |