According to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the most dangerous leaders of the Islamic State are “Swedes”. Meanwhile, the UN reports that increasing numbers of food vouchers issued by the World Food Program are being diverted and sold on the black market by Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.
In other news, the European Commission has ordered Spain to allow migrants to submit asylum requests without their being required to first scale the border fences at the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Another Shill for Statism and Central Planning Demands a Cash Ban
Late last year, Grexit “expert” Willem Buiter decided that he was a greater expert on the topic of monetary metals than on geopolitics by stating that “Gold Is A 6,000 Year Old Bubble.” Now, he has decided that after gold, it is best to just do away with any physical currency altogether and the time to ban cash has arrived.
Citigroup’s Chief Economist Joins the Cash Ban Bandwagon
We have discussed the views of Citigroup’s chief economist Willem Buiter previously in these pages (see “A Dose of Buiternomics” for details), on occasion of his coming out as a supporter of assorted monetary cranks, such as Silvio Gesell, to name one. Not to put too fine a point to it, Buiter is a monetary crank too.
Buiter is always shilling for more central bank intervention, and it seems no plan can ever be too silly or too extreme for him. In fact, he seems to have made the propagation of utterly crazy ideas his trademark.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Creditors Search for Scenarios to Prevent Euro Exit
Greece’s major creditors are not ready to let the country drop out of the euro as long as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shows willingness to meet at least some key demands, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will go a long way to prevent a Greek exit from the single currency, though only so far, one of the people said. Every possibility is being considered in Berlin to pull Greece back from the brink and keep it in the 19-nation euro, the person said.
For all the foot-dragging in Athens, some creditors are willing to show Greece more flexibility in negotiations over its finances to prevent a euro exit, the second person said. The red line is that the Syriza-led government shows readiness to commit to at least some economic reform measures, said both people, who asked not to be named discussing strategy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oil Busts Triggering Economic Seizures: “A Stream of Bankruptcy Attorneys Running Around”
Bankruptcies are mounting in some of the biggest firms, even as the appearance of normalcy remains. But cash injections will likely keep the largest corporate-corpses going on and on.
How much trouble does this signal for an already troubling economy?
Wolf Street reported on how the oil bust is surfacing in the form of bankruptcies — along with a string of major bankruptcies in other sectors including casinos, securities, electronics (Radio Shack, the once huge chain) and at least one health care provider in the top 15 pending bankruptcies for the year:
[I]t’s not just in Houston or in the oil patch. It’s in retail, healthcare, mining, finance…. Bankruptcies are suddenly booming, after years of drought.
In the first quarter, 26 publicly traded corporations filed for bankruptcy, up from 11 at the same time last year, Reuters reported. Six of these companies listed assets of over $1 billion, the most since Financial-Crisis year 2009. In total, they listed $34 billion in assets, the second highest for a first quarter since before the financial crisis, behind only the record $102 billion in 2009.
The largest bankruptcy was the casino operating company, Caesars Entertainment, which has been unprofitable for five years. It’s among the zombies of Corporate America, kept moving with new money from investors that had been driven to near insanity by the Fed’s six-plus years of interest rate repression.
And that’s not all.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Teeters on Brink of Economic Collapse Due to ‘Dollar Bubble’ — Ron Paul
The United States risks sliding into the abyss of economic crisis, Ron Paul warned, pointing out that “there is a huge bubble with the dollar.”
The rising Dollar index, which reached its 12-year highs against the basket of currencies, is not a reason for optimism, warned Ron Paul, a former Republican congressman and two-time US presidential candidate.
“It’s not so much that the dollar is a great currency. It’s the fact that nothing else is any better. The fundamentals are a disaster. The economy is in bad shape when you have more than half the people hardly making ends meet,” Dr. Ron Paul underscored.
The United States is teetering on the brink of a disastrous financial crisis, the former congressman pointed out. The dollar’s “rally” is not a sign that the US economy is strengthening, but just a byproduct of a world’s surfeit of easy money.According to Dr. Paul, the Federal Reserve’s policies facilitated the unprecedented growth of the dollar against other major currencies, not real economic growth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America, Land of Hope Amongst Elitist Hypocrites
The progressives are guilty of what they have often accused others of being. Hypocrites.
So now the elitist progressives have dubbed the support of traditional marriage between a man and a woman as bigotry equal to racism. It is amazing how with a straight face at least publicly, the progressives actually equate marriage between a man and a woman with racism and bigotry. Such an argument obviously borders on insanity. But the mistake would be to laugh it off and act like it is just silly liberals with nothing better to do.
In fact, such statements are part of a massive orchestrated effort to fundamentally change every good aspect of our constitutionally limited republic. It is the progressives who are actually the bigoted and hateful ones. It is they who disdain God’s design for man and woman to come together in holy matrimony and raise children in a solid family unit. One of the surest ways to maintain a strong, vibrant and blessed society is the continuation of the traditional family. It was my own Dad who would often tell me that a nation is only as strong as it’s families.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed National Guard Troops Patrol Residential Streets in California — Video
Video footage out of Ontario, California shows armed National Guard troops patrolling residential streets and practicing traffic control.
The video, which was shot this past weekend, features Guard troops marching in formation while chanting a military cadence. Troops also take turns to practice blocking traffic.
The troops, followed by a humvee, marched close to an elementary school and single family homes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Spring Residents Report Tanks, Helicopters Arriving Before Jade Helm
Residents of Big Spring, Texas are reporting the “scary” sight of helicopters and tanks arriving in advance of Jade Helm, a military exercise that has prompted concerns amongst some that U.S. troops are preparing for civil unrest in America.
Jade Helm, a “realistic” military training exercise involving nine states, which will involve the Green Berets, Navy Seals, and the 82nd Airborne Division and is set to take place from July 15-Sepember 15, stoked controversy after Texas and Utah were labeled “hostile” territory in documents related to the exercise. Locals in Big Spring told NewsWest 9 that military activity had already been seen in the area.
“I saw a train carrying all sorts of military equipment heading into Big Spring,” said one resident, adding, “There were also about 14 helicopters flying over the [Big Spring McMahon-Wrinkle] Airport last night and a tank getting driven through that open field [near the airport]. It’s scary seeing that and not knowing what in the world is going on.”
[Comment: Banksters positioning assets.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BLM History of Abuse Revealed by Mining Insider
Miners, ranchers, loggers and others can have different property rights over the same piece of land, including public lands.
These property rights are just as valid as the property rights you have with your home or your car.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California Parents Shut Down Vote on Mandatory Vaccines
Concerned parents and conscientious objectors packed out a California Senate committee hearing in Sacramento yesterday, loudly voicing disapproval of a bill which would severely restrict a parent’s right to opt their children out of state-mandated vaccines.
Senate health committee officials on Wednesday decided to postpone a vote after hearing over three hours of testimony from both sides of the vaccine debate, including arguments from parents who showed up from across the state to oppose SB 277.
Committee members voted 6-2 in favor of the controversial bill last week, prompting an overwhelming response from parents yesterday who formed a line down the hallway leading up to the hearing room and out onto the capitol grounds.
Many parents threatened to remove their children from the public school system if the bill were to pass, saying they’d “rather keep their kids out of schools than vaccinate them,” according to Courthouse News.
“Vaccines come with a risk of injury and death, and there’s no liability for the medical doctors or the pharmaceutical companies,” a chiropractor and mother expressed in an interview outside the hearing. “In this situation it should definitely be a choice.”
Robert Moxley, a Wyoming attorney who specializes in representing vaccine-injured victims, also called the bill a violation of due process and labeled it “unconstitutional.”
“The Supreme Court will not tolerate a mechanism for medical exemptions only; it is a denial of due process and a violation of the right to free exercise of religion,” he said.
SB 277 would still allow parents to opt out of vaccines, but they would need to obtain a medical exemption from a health care provider, which are seldom handed out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: American Jewry’s Moment of Decision
This week in two meetings with prominent American Jews, President Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet. Either the Jews of America will rise to the challenge or they will allow Obama to marginalize them.
It is their choice, and now is the time for them to decide.
In the first meeting, Obama met with centrist Jewish leaders from major Jewish organizations like the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC. Major donors to these groups, like to almost every other major Jewish organization in America, are largely Democrats.
According to The Washington Post, the purpose of the meeting was “to defuse antagonism toward [Obama] and to convince [Jewish leaders] that he shares their concerns about the safety of Israel and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.”
That is, the main goal of the meeting was to silence Jewish criticism of Obama’s deal with Iran.
So far, Obama seems to have accomplished that goal…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat dowager Hillary Clinton has had a rough few days since she launched her inevitable presidential campaign Sunday with a vapid, vacuous, class warfare-oriented video on YouTube that pushed all the right politically correct buttons.
Charles Krauthammer mocked Mrs. Clinton and her ongoing tour of flyover country. She wants to get the big money out of politics, he said, but she is aiming to generate an unprecedented campaign war chest of $2.5 billion.
“She has been taking in money ever since she took the silverware from the White House when they left in 2001,” Krauthammer said. “I mean, it really is a stretch. I just find this rather amusing. This is her Marie Antoinette cake tour.”…
Complicating matters, around the time of the launch news broke that at long last the Department of State was investigating why a top Hillary Clinton aide with generational ties to Islamic terrorism was allowed to work in a sensitive government position while simultaneously working for a Clinton-connected private sector consulting firm.
Hillary and the senior aide, Huma Abedin, apparently conspired to keep the sweetheart working arrangement that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked employee had at Foggy Bottom a secret. It’s classic Hillary as she tiptoes through a minefield of ethics violations, conflicts of interest, and potential national security-related breaches. And who knows if the 30,000-plus emails Clinton destroyed on the private Internet server she used for official correspondence while at the State Department shed any light on the Abedin saga.
It is fair to say Mrs. Clinton is not a good person.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Coast Guard Labels Patriots & Militia ‘Domestic Terrorists’
A military bulletin called patriot groups and the militia “domestic extremists” who may launch terrorist attacks, a claim which follows a trend by the government to demonize libertarians and constitutionalists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
College Apologizes for Serving Mexican Food at Space Alien-Themed Party
A California college has apologized for its “insensitivity” after serving Mexican food at an official school night party whose theme, “Intergalactic,” included decorations featuring aliens from outer space.
In a letter addressed to its student body, Stevenson College — which is part of the University of California, Santa Cruz — said it received complaints from students and others within the university who were offended by the decision to serve Mexican food at the Sci-Fi party because of its perceived connection to the immigration debate.
The term “illegal aliens” is sometimes used to describe people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without documentation, but many Latinos and immigration advocates consider it pejorative.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dawn Glimpses Ceres’ North Pole
After spending more than a month in orbit on the dark side of dwarf planet Ceres, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has captured several views of the sunlit north pole of this intriguing world. These images were taken on April 10 from a distance of 21,000 miles (33,000 kilometers), and they represent the highest-resolution views of Ceres to date.
Subsequent images of Ceres will show surface features at increasingly better resolution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Documents: National Guard Ordered to Consider Americans as ‘Enemy Forces’ And ‘Adversaries’
Documents obtained by CNN reveal that the Missouri National Guard referred to Americans in Ferguson as ‘enemy forces’ and adversaries’ in briefings as they prepared to quell protests.
The internal briefing documents, secured under a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that the National Guard, called in to Ferguson under already tense circumstances, used heavily militarized language to describe protesters, many of whom were merely lawfully executing their First Amendment rights.
The documents highlight that the guard was worried “adversaries” would use phone apps and police scanners to find out about and compromise operational security. Guard higher ups also expressed concern that protesters may use “militants tactics”.
“Counterintelligence operations are directed at supporting an information campaign. Their audience does not require the information to be accurate and is easily swayed,” one document reads.
Commanders were briefed to use intelligence capabilities to “deny adversaries the ability to identify Missouri National Guard vulnerabilities upon which threat forces may exploit, causing embarrassment, or harm.”
While referring to use of social media and public information by protesters, the documents state “Adversaries are most likely to possess human intelligence (HUMINT), open source intelligence (OSINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), technical intelligence (TECHINT), and counterintelligence capabilities,”
In another document, those on the ground in Ferguson were divided into “Friendly Forces,” such as police and community leaders, with the rest being labeled”Enemy Forces.”
“General Protesters” were also described as ‘hate groups’ and lumped in with known members of the KKK, the RgB Black Rebels and the New Black Panther Party.
“Rioters likely have constructed home-made protection like goggles, gas masks, and plywood shields. Further, select individuals may have bullet proof vests and may carry firearms.” the documents warn.
The documents are seen as highly disturbing by critics, who have noted that they read like a strategy for going to war against the American people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Republicans in Washington are caving to the Democrats on every major issue, real estate magnate and potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump tells Breitbart News in an exclusive interview.
Trump says if he were president of the United States and leader of the Republican Party, he’d end this kind of horrendous negotiating by Republicans.
“The Republicans fold at every corner and nobody really understands why,” Trump said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Evidence of Pre-Columbus Trade Found in Alaska House
Bronze artifacts discovered in a 1,000-year-old house in Alaska suggest trade was occurring between East Asia and the New World centuries before the voyages of Columbus.
Archaeologists found the artifacts at the “Rising Whale” site at Cape Espenberg.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Requests Meeting With Infowars Reporter
The Federal Bureau of Investigations asked Infowars reporter Joe Biggs to meet with them at the El Paso International Airport late Friday afternoon.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Earlier this week Michael Snyder warned that the bottom of our food chain is going through a catastrophic collapse with sea creatures dying in absolutely massive numbers. The cause of the problem is a mystery to scientists who claim that they can’t pinpoint how or why it’s happening.
What’s worse, the collapse of sea life in the Pacific Ocean isn’t something that will affect us several decades into the future. The implications are being seen right now, as evidenced by an emergency closure of fisheries along the West coast this week.
On Wednesday federal regulators announced the early closure of sardine fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington. According to the most recent data, the sardine populations has been wiped out with populations seeing a decline of 91% in just the last eight years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global Government Treaty Coming in Days
The fast-tracked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be coming to the Senate within days.
While some opposition has pointed out that it will increase the devastating economic consequences that NAFTA brought, most are ignoring that it is close to the final step in consolidating power into global governance by multinational corporations.
[Comment: Corporations will be able to ride roughshod over laws decided democratically.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Head of the FBI’s Anthrax Investigation Says the Whole Thing Was a Sham
Agent In Charge of Amerithrax Investigation Blows the Whistle
The FBI head agent in charge of the anthrax investigation — Richard Lambert — has just filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit calling the entire FBI investigation bull****:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Continuing the Great Democratic Party Deception
Upon hearing Hillary’s ad announcing that she is running for president, I thought, these despicable people (Democrats) have no shame. The substance of Hillary’s ad is same old, same old; standard Democrat low rent campaign tactics; class envy and victimhoodism.
In her ad, Hillary says, “…the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.” Her message is vote for me and I’ll stop those SOBs from hogging and stealing your share of the American pie.
Hillary’s ad also mentioned that Americans have gone through challenging economic times and the importance of family. Well, the truth of the matter is the greatest enemy of business and families is the Democratic party. Democrats continuously exhibit hostility towards business, implementing anti-business policies, intrusive and job killing government regulations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IRS Says Prominent Texas Billionaire & Late Brother Owe $3B
The IRS wants $3.2 billion to cover back taxes that it says are owed by a prominent Texas businessman and his late brother who the IRS says hid income by setting up overseas trust funds.
The Internal Revenue Service detailed its claim in documents filed Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas. It seeks to recover more than $2 billion in unpaid income taxes, interest and penalties from Sam Wyly and more than $1.2 billion from the estate of his brother, Charles Wyly.
The late Charles Wyly, who died in a 2011 car wreck in Aspen, Colorado, was the billionaire who donated $20 million to build the landmark theater bearing his and his wife’s namesake in the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas.
Stewart Thomas, a lawyer for the Wylys, called the IRS claims “unfair and absurd.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Kirk: ‘We Drive Faster’ Through Black Neighborhoods
Washington (CNN) Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk says he won’t talk about race anymore after his comments last week that “we drive faster” through black communities sparked criticism from Democrats.
Kirk made the comments in an interview with the Peoria Journal-Star, when asked his thoughts on encouraging innovation in Illinois. Kirk touted his efforts to foster an “African-American entrepreneurial class,” and suggested Illinois could someday be home to a “class of African-American billionaires.”
“That would really adjust income differentials and make the diversity and outcome of the state much better so that the black community is not the one we drive faster through,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mercury Probe’s Dramatic Death Plunge Set for April 30
The first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury will crash into the solar system’s innermost planet two weeks from now. NASA’s MESSENGER probe, which has been circling Mercury since March 2011, is nearly out of fuel and will say goodbye with a dramatic death plunge on April 30, provided that one final orbit-raising maneuver scheduled for April 24 goes as planned, mission team members said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Robert Spencer
One day the feds, especially since they’re forbidden to study and understand the motivating ideology behind all this, are going to miss one of these plots, and people will be killed. Nothing is being done to prevent that from happening. The ideology that fuels this kind of thing is being taught all over this country, and it would be “Islamophobic” to oppose it.
“Ohio man who trained with Jabhat al-Nusra is indicted on terrorism charges,” by Adam Goldman, Washington Post, April 16, 2015:
An Ohio man who traveled to Syria in 2014 and trained with an al-Qaeda affiliate before returning to the United States, possibly to launch an attack on American soldiers, has been indicted on terrorism charges, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Authorities also revealed that the man’s brother was killed last year fighting in Syria on behalf of the affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, of Columbus faces three felony counts that include attempting to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization as well as lying to the FBI.
It is the first public case the Justice Department has brought this year in connection with al-Nusra, unlike a string of federal cases tied to the Islamic State, the brutal militant group that produces slick propaganda and has attracted thousands of Western recruits.
Mohamud, who was born in Somalia, was previously arrested in February and pleaded not guilty to state terrorism charges and held on a $1 million bond. He was transferred to federal custody Thursday.
According to the indictment, Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen, began planning in 2013 to join his brother, Abdifatah Aden, who had left for Syria in May of that year.
[Somalia again. Heads up, Minneapolis. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Agreement to Make Corporations Unstoppable Moves Forward
Corporate lobbyists who want to force genetically modified food on the world through secretive and unconstitutional, behind-closed-doors deals have just moved their agenda forward by cutting a deal with the President to move the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) through a fast-track approval in Congress. This agreement would lodge corporate power in place, undermining democracy.
Our democratic rights are being ignored in order to make GMO labeling in the US illegal, giving corporations like Monsanto the ability to import their globally-grown genetically modified foods, while other unsafe foods come in through the back door of our nation.
Thanks to U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) this secret trade deal is being pushed through Congress at record speed — before anyone even knows what the TPP contains! The TPP is being called a ‘free trade” agreement, but what it amounts to is a blank check with no legal accountability to Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Cargill, Syngenta, and other biotech companies for destroying our health and our planet simultaneously. An army of corporate interests have been scandalously negotiating this contract ‘in secret’ with trade representatives from 11 other nations for more than seven years, and they are ready to be given blind power to send GM crops into every nook and cranny of the planet, without ever telling you what they are growing, where, and which of their latest biotechnologies they have used to alter DNA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hey, budding adults! Welcome to college! Now, kindly shut up for the next few years.
Cal Poly Pomona’s campus policies impose a web of restrictions before students can distribute literature on campus: They must check in with the Office of Student Life, allow the school to copy their IDs, and wear badges signed by an administrator. Even then, would-be speakers are relegated to the so-called “free speech zone.” Badges can only be issued from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, although the Office of Student Life pledges to “work with” any student who wishes to engage in expressive activity on evenings or weekends. Additionally, students must register in advance for outdoor events, and the Office of Student Life must approve all flyers and posters.
That’s what the First Amendment has been reduced to at Cal Poly Pomona: asking permission, wearing “free speech” badges and a standing-room-only patch of ground. These restrictions have prompted a lawsuit from student Nicolas Tomas, who alleges campus police prevented him from handing out pro-vegan fliers on a campus sidewalk and directed him to jump through the college’s many speech-curbing hoops before exercising his First Amendment rights.
Despite being a public college — which should encourage it to keep its free speech meddling to a minimum — Cal Poly Pomona continues to issue policy-related “Presidential Orders” that strip away students’ First Amendment rights. Because some of these orders haven’t been made public, they’re open to abuse, as Tomas points out in his lawsuit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Man Who Fired the Shot Heard ‘Round the World
This Sunday, April 19, is rightly identified as “Patriots’ Day.” In truth, April 19, 1775, should be regarded as important a date to Americans as July 4, 1776. It’s a shame that we don’t celebrate Patriots’ Day as enthusiastically as we do Independence Day. It’s even more shameful that many Americans don’t remember what happened on this day back in 1775. This was the day the “shot heard ‘round the world” was fired. It was the day America’s War for Independence began.
Being warned of approaching British troops by Dr. Joseph Warren (who dispatched Paul Revere to Lexington and Concord with the news), Pastor Jonas Clark alerted his male congregants at the Church of Lexington that the British army was on its way to seize the colonists’ weapons and to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock. Both men had taken refuge in Pastor Clark’s home with about a dozen of the pastor’s men guarding the house. Other men from the congregation (around 75-80 in number) stood with their muskets on Lexington Green when over 800 British troops appeared before them at barely the break of day.
According to eyewitnesses, British soldiers opened fire on the militiamen without warning (the British command to disperse and the British opening salvo of gunfire were simultaneous), immediately killing eight of Pastor Clark’s parishioners. In self defense, the Minutemen took cover and returned fire. These were the first shots of the Revolutionary War.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Training Drills Expand as DHS Fortifies Ammo Stockpile
The Department of Homeland Security is set to purchase over 62 million rounds of ammo typically used in AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, just weeks after the ATF was forced to back down on a ban on M855 bullets. Meanwhile, military drills are popping up nationwide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The TSA — which stands for Transportation Security Agency — is supposed to only be concerned with transportation security, not theme park security. Somehow, the TSA has convinced itself that Disneyland’s rides qualify as “transportation.” (After all, in the Small World ride, you’re in a boat, right?) So it has begun teaching Disney’s security employees how to identify so-called “suspicious behaviors” which include:
- Excessive laughter
- Wearing a disguise
What this means is that, according to the TSA, Goofy is a terrorist because he exhibits both of these suspicious behaviors…
Excessive laughter and wearing a disguise are only two of a whopping 92 suspicious behaviors the TSA says might make you a terrorist. The Intercept published this widely ridiculed list which claims that all the following behaviors might also make you a terrorist:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Veteran Loses Over $60,000 to Police, Despite Lack of Criminal Charges
Mark Brewer is a decorated Air Force veteran who fought in the global war on terror. But last month, he became a casualty in the drug war. In late March, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government could take more than $60,000 of Brewer’s cash with civil forfeiture, even though he was never charged with a crime. The decision lets many Midwestern states continue to take property from people who have done nothing wrong.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“It’s hard to imagine being worse that it was under (President) Andrew Johnson,” said Allen Guelzo, director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College. “We might have avoided a lot of the icebergs in terms of Jim Crow, segregation and racial hostility.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What the Unearthed 1995 Video Tells us About Obama
By Jack Cashill
A professionally shot video of Barack Obama from 1995 has recently surfaced. Shot at the Cambridge, Mass. Public Library, the video captures a skinny, youthful Obama promoting his then newly released memoir, Dreams from My Father.
In this hour-long presentation, Obama openly talks about his relationship with his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist and pornographer. Perhaps more importantly, Obama gives us a much clearer picture of who he was in 1995, on the cusp of his political career, than we had seen before. Some observations:
The Obama of 1995 was not a very good speaker. He had a halting delivery, stuttered, was obviously nervous, and, although congenial enough, could not tell a joke. What Obama did do well was read. He read a dramatic passage from his book for a full fifteen minutes uninterrupted and used multiple voices halfway credibly.
Over the years, Obama’s handlers have exploited his ability to read and sheltered him as far as possible from impromptu speaking. Had Obama’s teleprompter malfunctioned during his breakthrough speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he would not be president today. He has always depended on the eloquence of others, and he still cannot tell a joke.
Obama found himself deeply in debt and “hopelessly blocked.” At “Michelle’s urging,” Obama “sought advice from his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why SpaceX is Attempting to Land Rockets on a Floating Barge
After successfully launching a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket with an unmanned Dragon spacecraft on board from Cape Canaveral, to the International Space Station on Tuesday, SpaceX attempted to land the rocket’s first stage on a floating barge 200 miles off the Florida coast.
For the third time this year things didn’t go as planned, and, as SpaceX founder Elon Musk later tweeted, the rocket “landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing.” Video of the failed landing, which concludes with an epic explosion, has been making the media rounds.
This is the latest hurdle in an ongoing attempt by the company to land and recover a rocket. Most rocket boosters either burn up in the atmosphere or — as NASA’s do — simply fall into the ocean. With cheaper spaceflight the ultimate goal, SpaceX is the first space organization to attempt a rocket landing on a floating base, or, as the company calls it, an “autonomous spaceport drone ship.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1,000 British Soldiers Given Psychiatric Help After Consuming ‘Zombie Drug’
The British military is accused of failing to protect its soldier’s mental health. Figures show nearly 1,000 have sought psychiatric treatment after being given the MoD’s budget price anti-malarial drug Lariam.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed the figure is much higher than previously thought, with 994 service personnel being admitted to mental health clinics or psychiatric hospitals since 2008.
The figures only go back to 2007, so the true number may be much higher, as Lariam, also known as mefloquine, has been in use for much longer.
The MoD has consistently defended the drug, which is one of several it issues to troops, amid concerns that Lariam is contributing to an Armed Forces mental health epidemic. This is despite growing pressure from senior military figures, campaigners and relatives of those affected. The drug, banned by US Special Forces two years ago, and which the UK military avoids giving to pilots or divers, is still issued to UK troops.
Its use continues despite evidence linking the anti-malarial to the 2012 Panjwai Massacre, in which a US soldier slaughtered 17 Afghan civilians after taking the drug.
Sergeant Robert Bales has since been sentenced to life imprisonment.
In an internal report, Roche, the drug’s manufacturer, described the killings as an “adverse event.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
24 Days, 26 Murderers: The Story of Ilan Halimi
by Phyllis Chesler
Algerian born French filmmaker, Alexandre Arcady, has directed a small masterpiece. 24 Days is a gripping and somber police drama. Even though we know the outcome, we are nevertheless at the edge of our seats, fearing what we might see next, knowing what is to come, wanting to reach out to the anguished family, perhaps to comfort them.
This film fictionalizes a searing, heartbreaking, Jewish and French tragedy. In 2002, the world was shocked when al-Qaeda released their pornographic death video of Daniel Pearl’s be-heading in Pakistan. This eternally haunting image was, incredibly, surpassed by the information, sans image, that in 2006, Ilan Halimi, a young French Jew of Moroccan origin had been kidnapped and tortured for three whole weeks by a mainly Muslim gang, aptly named “The Barbarians.” Youssouf Fofana (“Django,” in the film—commandingly played by Tony Harrisson) led 26 people who were “in” on this almost surreal and dastardly deed; twenty-four additional people knew about what was happening but refused to make a single anonymous call to the police. They did this, ostensibly, for money.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Assad Warns That Spain Attack Was ‘Tip of Iceberg’
In an interview with a Swedish newspaper, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that Spain’s terrorist attacks ten years ago, as well as those in London and the recent Charlie Hebdo shootings are just “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to terrorism in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Assange Agrees to be Questioned in London
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has now formally agreed to be questioned by Swedish prosecutors at Ecuador’s London embassy over rape allegations, his defence has said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brain-Damaged Victims of Swine Flu Vaccine Win $63 Million Lawsuit
lawsuit bringing the latest total to over $9.1 billion since 2003.
This time, it is due to GSK’s product Pandemrix, which was the swine flu vaccine forced upon the public during the pandemic of 2009 (which is argued by some to have been fake). As the victims are being compensated in the U.K., the same neurological mechanisms that damaged the children in the lawsuit are still potentially at work in the confirmed excitotoxicity that takes place after many vaccine injections.
According to the International Business Times U.K. Edition, each of the victims is “expected to receive £1 million each.” Peter Todd, a lawyer who represented many of the claimants, told the Sunday Times (U.K.):
“There has never been a case like this before. The victims of this vaccine have an incurable and lifelong condition and will require extensive medication.” Unfortunately for Peter Todd and the countless other victims, there has been cases like this before. Neurological damage from vaccines is not a rare occurrence. In fact, the U.S. government has paid out $3 billion and counting to families of vaccine-injured children. Most of which were due to direct neurological damage or complications arising from such damage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Central Banker Fired for Being a “Nazi Cross-Dressing, Nymphomaniac, Dominatrix” Prostitute
They say don’t let money printing get to your head, but for one now former central banker it is far too late.
The identity of the former employee of the Dutch Central Bank in question is unknown, what is known is that the money authority of the Netherlands has fired a 46-year-old female employee who for 6 of her 8 years with the central bank made money on the side as a “dominatrix prostitute who described herself as a high-class nymphomaniac and earned €10,000 a week dressing up as a Nazi and whipping men.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French PM Launches Action Plan Against ‘Unbearable’ Racism
France’s prime minister announced Friday the government would pour 100 million euros into a major anti-racism and anti-Semitism action plan devised in the aftermath of the deadly Paris jihadist attacks.
The programme, which among other measures increases penalties for crimes deemed to have been fuelled by racism and anti-Semitism, comes at a time when acts against Muslims and Jews have shot up in France.
“Racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Muslims, of foreigners, homophobia are increasing in an unbearable manner,” Manuel Valls said in the Paris suburb city of Creteil, the scene of a brutal attack on a Jewish man and his girlfriend in December.
On Thursday, the country’s Islamophobia watchdog said anti-Muslim acts had leapt six-fold in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2014, fuelled by the January 7-9 attacks when Islamic extremists went on a killing spree that left 17 people dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders PEGIDA Speech Video With English Subtitles
We received a copy this morning of a YouTube video of Geert Wilders speech at Monday’s PEGIDA Rally in Dresden with English subtitles. It projects more power in delivery than reading his text. Wilders gives voice to the West’s concerns about Islamization nurturing Jihadis in our midst attracted like bees to the beehive of sacralized barbarity, the Islamic State. His speech demonstrated solidarity with embattled Israel surrounded by the dark forces of Islam seeking its destruction. That is connected to his recurring meme: the preservation of the Judeo-Christian values at the core of Western values of rule by law, tolerance, freedom and liberty. After posting Wilders’ speech I exchanged the picture I found which had a glimpse of an Israeli flag at the Dresden PEGIDA rally with colleague “Baron Bodissey” at Gates of Vienna. He pointed out that there were Israeli flags present at all of the PEGIA rallies. My friend Fred Taub founder of Boycott Watch drew attention to this when we posted on his Facebook page this question using an exceprt from Wilders Speech:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli TV Reporter Harassed in Paris
Paris — Israeli Channel 10’s reporter in France, Miri Michaeli, used her Facebook page Thursday to publish video documentation of an anti-Semitic assault she experienced in central Paris.
The incident occurred just as she was about to report on camera about the Germanwings passenger jet disaster in the Alps three weeks ago.
“I did not mean to upload this video,” she wrote. “It is not possible to understand what exactly happened there, in that short scene, and I do not look too good there, either. But after the report yesterday, which presented worrisome statistics about anti-Semitism in Europe, I received some questions from viewers and friends who thought that the media (and I, as part of it) are painting an exaggerated picture of the situation.
“It’s true that if you walk down the streets of Paris, you may feel nothing,” Michaeli explained. “But if you don a kippah, wear a Magen David necklace or hold a microphone that says ‘News 10’ in Hebrew, it is reasonable to assume that sooner or later, you will realize that the situation is worse than what the statistics indicate. These remarks do not enter the statistics, and are not reported. This happens here, every day, and in every place, and it happened to me, too.”
The videos show only the beginning of the incident, she added.
“The man whose face cannot be seen in the video identifies Hebrew on the microphone, passes the information on to his friends and starts to harass. What happened afterward was much worse. They surrounded me, four or five men, and began to curse me. The word Jew was repeated, too.”
“My hands shake, three weeks later, when I remember the things that they said. I was standing in the street, I was not bothering anyone, and I was cursed — with aggressive hand motions — and threatened. I looked around. The street was full of people who noted what was going on, they watched from the side, and someone even taped everything with a smartphone, but no one helped me.
“When I felt threatened, I ran off (yes, that is the right word) to the train station, where there were soldiers. Only then did they leave me alone… So no, we were not exaggerating. That is the reality. Now we must fight it.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Man Goes Exploring With Metal Detector, Finds Roman-Era Grave
A man in England went exploring with a metal detector and made the discovery of a lifetime: an exquisitely preserved Roman-era grave filled with artifacts, including bronze jugs, mosaic glassware, coins and hobnails from a pair of shoes, all dating to about A.D. 200.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mushrooms Were on the Upper Palaeolithic Menu
Analysis of dental calculus on 18,000-year-old teeth found in Spain’s El Mirón Cave indicates that Magdalenian hunters ate a variety of plant foods and mushrooms, in addition to meat from red deer and ibex. Robert Power of the Max Planck Research Group detected a diverse assemblage of microremains in the dental calculus using optical and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. “These types of microremains show that the individuals at El Mirón consumed a variety of plants from different environments, as well as other foods, including possibly bolete mushrooms,” he said in a press release. “This finding at El Mirón Cave could be the earliest indication of human mushroom use or consumption, which until this point has been unidentified in the Palaeolithic,” Power concluded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Proto Quantum Computer Inspired by Victorians Gets a Speed Boost
Quantum computers should theoretically outpace ordinary ones, but attempts to build a speedy quantum machine have so far come up short. Now an approach based on a Victorian counting device seems to be getting close.
This proto-quantum computer can only solve one problem. But that problem, called boson sampling, seems to be very difficult for an ordinary computer to solve, so physicists hope that such a device will conclusively demonstrate the promise of computing based on exotic physics. “The goal is to show quantum supremacy with the simplest approach,” says Fabio Sciarrino of Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, who helped develop the new machine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Cleared Serial Killer Freed From Psychiatric Care
A Swedish court has ruled that Sture Bergwall, who was cleared of murder a year ago after over 20 years locked up as Sweden’s most prolific serial killer, is no longer obliged to undergo assisted psychiatric treatment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ex-Cop: ‘Forced to Release Five Paedophiles’
‘An ex-undercover officer has told LBC five suspected child abusers were released without charge despite admitting to being part of a paedophile ring with the former MP Cyril Smith.
In an exclusive interview, the ex Met officer known as “John” broke the Official Secrets Act to tell LBC an operation into a paedophile gang in the late 1970s was shutdown after the men said they were connected to the former Liberal MP.
The operation centred around a cafe near a school in east London. Police were alerted to potential abuse by concerned parents who said men were taking young children in and out of the cafe at break time and after school.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police ‘Watched as Teens Tried to Save Friend’ Who Drowned in Hampstead Heath
Moses Yitzchok Greenfeld, was pulled from Hampstead Ponds in Hampstead Heath, north London, almost six hours after getting into difficulty while swimming with friends.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Women Who Wear Religious Veils in Court Must be Respected, Says UK’s Most Senior Judge
Women who choose to wear religious veils in court must be shown respect, the country’s most senior judge has said.
Lord Neuberger, the president of the Supreme Court, said that in order to show fairness to those involved in trials, judges must have “an understanding of different cultural and social habits”.
In a speech to the Criminal Justice Alliance on fairness in courts, he added: “Well known examples include how some religions consider it inappropriate to take the oath, how some people consider it rude to look other people in the eye, how some women find it inappropriate to appear in public with their face uncovered, and how some people deem it inappropriate to confront others or to be confronted — for instance with an outright denial.”
His comments come after a judge last year upheld a ruling allowing Rebekah Dawson, a Muslim woman, to stand trial wearing a niqab — a veil which only leaves the eyes visible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
X-Ray Scans ‘Dig’ Beneath Layers of Rembrandt Painting
There’s more than meets the eye in artist Rembrandt van Rijn’s famous 17th-century painting, “Susanna and the Elders,” according to a new study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Fishing Boat Seized by Libyan Forces
Vessel has seven sailors aboard
(ANSAmed) — MAZARA DEL VALLO, APRIL 17 — An Italian fishing boat was seized by Libyan armed forces in the early hours of Friday some 30 miles from the Libyan coast, according to Giovanni Tumbiolo, the president of a Sicilian branch of fishing association COSVAP. The vessel had seven sailors aboard, three Italians from Sicily and four Tunisians. “The state of alarm has been at the maximum level since the Italian embassy (in Libya) was closed,” said Tumbiolo, who added that he had contacted the Libyan agriculture and fisheries minister. “We are worried but at the same time hopeful, because the Libyan people have always been close to the Sicilians”.
According to initial reports, one Libyan soldier boarded the boat, the Mazara del Vallo-based Airone, and it then headed to the port of Misrata.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lieberman Attacks EU: ‘Yellow Star’ on Settlement Products
Plan to tag settlement products is ‘hypocritical and cynical
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 17 — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman slammed intended EU action to label products from West Bank settlements as a “hypocritical and cynical” move, comparing it to putting a “yellow star” on products.
Lieberman thus compared the EU move on the Nazi identification of Jews during the Holocaust and said instead that the murder and expulsion of Palestinians from Syria by ISIS is “being peacefully permitted”.
“No European foreign minister — he told a radio station in an interview quoted by the media — has asked for an emergency meeting of EU diplomats or the UN Security Council. Nothing other than a few public statements has been done”.
The minister also stressed the presence of the Iranian nuclear threat and the crisis in Yemen, warning the EU against choosing to focus on Israel at such a time.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Civilians Flee Ramadi Under ISIS Shelling
Head for Khalidiya, Baghdad
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Tens of thousands of civilians on Friday fled Ramadi after the Iraqi city came under heavy shelling from Islamic State (ISIS).
Eye witnesses said the evacuees, in car or on foot, were heading for Khalidiya, 25 kilometres away, and Baghdad, 100 kilometres away.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Flies Over 100 People Out of Yemen to Djibouti on Chartered Jordanian Plane
The German government says it has flown more than 100 citizens of Germany and other countries out of Yemen on a plane chartered from a Jordanian airline.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the flight from the Yemeni capital, San’a, landed safely in Djibouti on Friday. It said those on board included Germans, numerous citizens of other European Union countries and their relatives.
The ministry thanked the governments of Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Jordan for their support but didn’t provide details.
A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen in an attempt to push back Shiite Houthi rebels who swept southward and caused the Western-backed president to flee.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hezbollah Blames Saudi Arabia for Spreading Extremist Ideology Throughout the Region
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has launched his harshest criticism yet of Saudi Arabia, blaming the kingdom for the spread of extremist ideology in the Muslim world and the killing of civilians in Yemen.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told hundreds of supporters Friday at a Beirut rally in support of Yemen’s Shiite rebels that Saudi-led airstrikes targeting them have not led to victory.
Since March 26, the Saudi-led coalition has been pounding the rebels known as Houthis and allied fighters loyal to Yemen’s ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Nasrallah says that the kingdom will soon realize that “the only choice left” is a ground operation in Yemen — a “ground invasion will be costly and will end with a defeat.”
Both the Houthis and Hezbollah are backed by Iran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Continues Deadly Assault on Western Iraq as Thousands Flee
Iraqi special forces maintained control of the provincial capital, Ramadi, in Iraq’s western Anbar province Friday, after Islamic State militants continued to pound the western city with bombings, causing fearful residents to flee their homes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Destroy Christian Graves and Headstones With Sledgehammers
The images were posted on social media under the title Leveling Graves And Erasing Pagan Symbols. They show militants in Mosul attacking graves with sledgehammers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Close in on Ramadi, Iraq as 2000 Families Flee ‘With Just the Clothes on Their Backs’
According to Iraqi officials, ISIS fighters are rapidly closing in on the capital of western Anbar province, despite the best efforts of the Iraqi army and arriving Shiite paramilitary reinforcements.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish political parties (with one exception) released a joint statement against the European Parliament’s ‘genocide’ vote on the mass killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I.
At the same time, Mefail Hizli, the mufti of Ankara, spoke out against Pope Francis for his use of the word ‘genocide’ in connection with the mass slaughter of Armenians, saying that the pontiff’s remarks will accelerate the rededication of Istanbul’s Saint Sophia Basilica as a mosque.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Republicans Cave to Obama on Iran Deal
There were three ways for Republicans to stop President Obama’s Iran deal from the Senate. First, Congress could have passed a veto-proof bill declaring that Obama’s agreement constituted a treaty requiring 67 votes for ratification in the Senate. That, obviously, would have shot the deal to hell, since virtually all Republicans and some Democrats oppose the deal.
Second, Congress could have passed new sanctions right now with a veto-proof majority, or passed a bill with a veto-proof majority requiring that Obama not remove the sanctions without congressional approval. That would have cut the legs out from underneath Obama in his negotiations and ended his ability to unilaterally soften the sanctions regime.
Third, Congress could have insisted on linkage between the nuclear deal and Iran stepping back from its connections to international terrorism. That language would have destroyed any Iran agreement since they continue to pursue terrorism across the Middle East, aggressively pushing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Yemen, among others.
There were three major options to stop Obama. Republicans pursued none of them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saddam Hussein’s Former Top Aide Killed in Iraq Military Operation
One of Saddam Hussein’s former top aides and his nine body guards were killed in a shootout with Iraqi military troops and Shiite militiamen near Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit Friday, Iraqi officials said.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was known as the “king of clubs” in the deck of playing cards issued to help U.S. troops identify key members of Saddam’s regime. He later allied himself with Islamic State militants and is believed to be the mastermind of the insurgency against the current Shiite-led government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi War in Yemen Masks Widening Domestic Tensions
Saudi Arabia is using the conflict in Yemen to control domestic problems, especially social inequalities and religious sectarianism. However, whilst the royal family flaunts its wealth, some 20 per cent of the population lives in poverty. Many disgruntled young Saudis end up becoming “foreign fighters” for the Islamic state (IS). Some 15 per cent of the Saudi population is Shia, under the heavy thumb of the Sunni-dominated state. Afshin Shahi, director of the Centre for the Study of Political Islam and lecturer in International Relations and Middle East Politics at University of Bradford, provides the following lucid analysis.
London (AsiaNews) — The conflict in Yemen, which is rapidly piling up a disturbing body count, is remarkable for the overt and prominent role played by Saudi Arabia which is the power behind an impressive coalition of regional states which support their campaign, largely seeing the conflict as a proxy for a campaign against Iran.
But while, understandably, Riyadh does not want to compromise on its regional sphere of influence, the Yemen conflict is also being used for internal political consumption. Saudi Arabia projects confidence, but in reality it is not a very stable nation. The threat of tribal, sectarian and class paradoxes within the kingdom is much graver than the threats imposed by so-called Shia Crescent.
The Saudi political elite either ignores the prevailing challenges or tries to compensate for internal problems with an assertive foreign policy. Using foreign policy as an effective tool to control internal dynamics has been common practice for a very long time in the region — an “external enemy” can be used to generate unifying nationalism or to legitimise a security state. It’s an especially useful tactic for authoritarian regimes.
For Saudi Arabia, the ramifications of this conflict go way beyond Riyadh’s regional ambitions. The war in Yemen has significant internal political implications for the new king and his new political entourage. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud took over his position in January 2015 and in less than three months he embarked on the most ambitious Saudi foreign policy in years. Although Salman’s early political manoeuvring suggest that foreign policy is going to be his main preoccupation, there are also various factors threatening the stability of his kingdom internally.
A nation divided
Since 1973, when the oil crisis loomed large over the world economy, Saudi Arabia has been portrayed as a powerhouse which is a centre of wealth, prosperity and stability. However, this image does not reflect the prevailing realities on the ground. Although the kingdom has one of the highest concentrations of super rich households in the world, more than 20% of its population live in poverty. The net worth of the royal family is around $1.4 trillion and thousands of princes enjoy the glitz and glamour of their membership of the richest family in the country. Yet many struggle to get by on the fringes of Saudi society.€¨€¨More than two-thirds of Saudi nationals are under the age of 30 and almost three-quarters of all unemployed Saudis are in their 20s. Many of them are graduates and expect secure government posts — but jobs are getting scarcer and people closer to the corridors of power always have a better chance of securing them.
Although the previous ruler, King Abdullah took some positive measures to address internal economic problems, poverty and anger over corruption continues to grow. Saudi Arabia has an expensive welfare programme, yet this extreme gap between the haves and the have nots is becoming a ticking time bomb which at any given time could break the surface and reveal hidden tensions in the Saudi society.
Not too surprisingly, a large segment of the foreign fighters in ISIS are young men from Saudi Arabia. There are reportedly more than 2,500 Saudi nationals who have joined trans-national jihad and many of them regard the Saudi state as religiously and politically corrupt. Having a large presence in ISIS may also indicate that there is a body of the population which is sympathetic to the Islamic Caliphate — and this could be a very serious security threat for the state. Factors including poverty, corruption and social injustice will continue to transform sympathisers into security dynamite.
Sectarian tensions
Sectarianism is equally threatening the stability of the Kingdom. About 15% of the population are Shia who have been subject to systematic discrimination from the inception of the modern kingdom in 1932. A large segment of the Shia population, lives in the oil rich Eastern Province, but their economic, social and religious lives are heavily restricted by the state which champions Wahhabism.
The Arab uprising, which unleashed a new wave of sectarianism in the region has fuelled sectarian tensions in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Shia protesters, who were initially inspired by the so-called Arab Spring now have a much more explicit sectarian tone. This is partly a reaction to the increasing sectarian policies of the Saudi state in the wider region, which have triggered an obvious backlash at home.
Since the beginning of the Saudi campaign in Yemen — which has a clear sectarian agenda, tension has increased at home. The verbal attacks against the Shia are increasing in the social media and many religious figures openly continue to insult the Shia creed. Lately, some Saudi Shia have carried out gun attacks on police in Qatif) and these scattered flashes of violence are increasingly making the country unstable.
On Wednesday 8 April, after two police officers were shot dead by unknown assailants in Riyadh, the governor of the Eastern Province, Saud bin Nayyef bin Abdel Aziz publicly stated that “evil filth” are living in the country’s Shiite community. This kind of rhetoric is only going to further antagonise the Shiite community which in its turn result in more clashes against the state.
The pressure is rapidly increasing on the Saudi state. While King Salman would like to portray himself as the policeman of Sunni Islam and the man who restored order to Yemen, there is growing evidence that House of Saud is built on sand and the foundations are liable to shift.
Saudi nationalism may indeed be stimulated by confronting Iran through yet another proxy war in Yemen, but whatever happens in Yemen can only mask the deep-seated structural problems which are starting to cripple the state.
(Courtesy of The Conversation website)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Another Indonesian Beheaded. “Shock and Grief” In Jakarta
It is the second case in less than a week. Karni binti Medi Tarsim had been sentenced to death for killing the four year old son of her employer. Indonesian authorities once again notified after the fact. Activists and human rights groups appeal to President Jokowi, for the protection of migrant workers.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — There has been another beheading in Saudi Arabia, the second in less than a week at the expense of a migrant worker of Indonesian origin; a few days after the death of Siti Zaenab, it was the turn of Karni binti Medi Tarsim who was executed yesterday morning in a Saudi prison.
Once again the Saudi authorities notified the Indonesian government after the fact. Human rights activists and organizations working with migrants are launching an appeal to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to take immediate action to protect the health and rights of Indonesian workers abroad, especially those who are on row death.
The news of the death of Karni binti Medi Tarsim, originally from Brebes, in central Java, has caused deep shock and grief across the country. Civil society is in revolt and calling for justice and rights for its citizens abroad, from government and President Jokowi. Anis Hidayah, executive director of the Center for the care of migrants, says the news is “painful” and “hurts us, because Indonesian people. The Saudi government is really brutal, for having executed two migrant workers one after another. “
Karni binti Medi Tarsim was beheaded yesterday morning; in 2013 a Saudi court had sentenced her to death, charging her with the murder of her employers four year old son.
The story of 40-year old Satinah Binti Djumadhad a different ending. She was also on death row in Saudi Arabia on charges of murdering his employer in 2007 — in response to mistreatment — and stealing about 10 thousand dollars. The intervention in this case by the then President Yudhoyono and timely payment of a sum of money — a sort of “bribe” called Blood Money — had saved the woman’s life.
In Saudi Arabia, there are at least 1.2 million Indonesians, 70% of whom are employed as servants or domestic workers. Among these, there are 36 people sentenced to death and awaiting execution. There is a strict version of Sharia law in vigor in Saudi Arabia, which punishes several crimes including rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking with death.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Sources, ISIS Still in Yarmouk, Controls 70% of Camp
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 17 — Jihadists from the Islamic State have not withdrawn from the Palestinian camp of Yarmouk in Damascus but control 70% of the devastated area, local Palestinian sources in Beirut who are in direct and daily contact with activists in the camp told ANSA.
So far, according to the sources, 15,000 civilians are trapped inside the camp where fighting is ongoing between the jihadists and their Qaedist allies and Palestinian militias and their supporters from the Syrian regime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ‘Most Dangerous’ ISIS Leaders Scandinavian
President Bashar al-Assad has thanked Sweden for taking in record numbers of refugees during the war, but warned about a growing danger from ‘Scandinavian’ Islamist extremists in his country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Khamenei Fatwa Hoax is Absurd on Its Face — Andrew McCarthy
The fatwa does not exist. Yet, with a dearth of tire-kicking that is remarkable even by the lowly standards of our Obama-friendly media, it has repeatedly been cited by top administration officials, including the president, Secretary of State Kerry and former Secretary of State Clinton, in an effort to give Americans comfort regarding the administration’s negotiations — whatever comfort you can derive from people who tell you that Khamenei’s “ Death to America” pronouncements are not to be taken seriously but the “ fatwa” can be taken to the bank; from people who see the Constitution and statutory American law as no obstacle to any of their own designs but would have you believe a fatwa is so sacrosanct the mullahs would be conclusively stymied by it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM Says Genocide Recognition is ‘European Racism’
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday angrily condemned the European Parliament for adopting a resolution urging Turkey to recognise the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, saying it was a sign of growing “racism” in Europe.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Davutoglu said such statement ignored the suffering of Muslim Turks in World War I and risked inciting hatred towards other non-Christian religious groups.
The European Parliament on Wednesday agreed a resolution urging Turkey to use the centenary of the 1915 tragedy to “recognise the Armenian genocide” and help promote reconciliation between the two peoples…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UN Agency Food Aid Vouchers in Syrian Crisis Diverted and Sold for Cash
A World Food Program initiative that handed out hundreds of millions of dollars of food vouchers has been confronted with “persistent” diversion and sale of the vouchers to middlemen for cash by the growing flood of Syrian refugees in neighboring Jordan and Lebanon, according to its internal auditors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prominent Pro-Russian Ukrainian Journalist Killed in Kiev
A leading Ukrainian journalist known for his pro-Russian views was shot dead Thursday in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev by two masked gunmen, according to the interior ministry.
Oles Buzina, 45, was known for his pro-Russian opinion pieces published in Ukraine’s Sevodnya daily newspaper, which is part of the media empire of Ukraine’s richest businessman Rinat Akhmetov. He ran in last year’s election for a parliamentary seat for the Russian Bloc party, but was not elected.
“Today at 1320 hrs(1020 GMT) … two unidentifiable men in masks shot journalist Oles Buzina,” the ministry said in an online statement. The shooting appeared to have taken place outside his home and a team of police investigators was at the scene…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Fines Soros-Funded, USAID Connected NGO
Russia is continuing its crackdown on color revolution NGOs. On Wednesday Interfax reported a media rights organization, the Voronezh-based Center for Media Rights, was fined 300,000 rubles ($6,000) for failing to register as a foreign agent engaged in political activity in the country.
“The law requires any non-governmental organization that receives funding from abroad and engages in vaguely defined political activity to register as a ‘foreign agent’ — a term that dates back to the Soviet era, when it was synonymous with the word ‘spy,’“ Reuters reported, insinuating that the move was in keeping with Russia’s totalitarian past.
The center, which has been operating since 1996, says on its website that the group’s “main goal is to assist in the development in Russia of freedom of speech and freedom of expression as a fundamental element of a democratic, lawful state.”
Omitted from the Reuters report is the fact the organization in question is funded by George Soros’ Open Society Institute and is connected to both USAID and NED. All three specialize in color revolution plots to overthrow governments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tajikistani Arrested in Moscow for Recruiting Young People to Fight for Islamic State
The accused, Husein Odinamahmadov, allegedly recruited young men for jihad in the Middle East. In Kazakhstan, three men are convicted for a similar crime. Two teenagers are jailed for spreading terrorist ideas and membership in the Islamic state group.
Dushanbe (AsiaNews) — Tajikistani authorities have confirmed the arrest in Moscow of a Tajikistani national for recruiting fellow countrymen to fight with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.
An official source at the Shahritous District administration (Khatlon province, south-western Tajikistan) said that a local man — Husein Odinamahmadov, also known as Qori Husein — was detained in Moscow last month on suspicion of recruiting young Tajikistanis for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
Odinamahmadov was extradited to Tajikistan and is currently held in a detention centre in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province.
He reportedly recruited three Tajik nationals and sent them to Turkey for travel to Syria.
A spokesperson for law enforcement authorities in Khatlon confirmed the information about his arrest but refrained from giving further details.
He just said that criminal proceedings have been launched against Odinamahmadov and that the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in Khatlon carried out a preliminary investigation.
Odinamahmadov’s arrest highlights how IS terrorists are recruiting young Muslims.
Recently, another Tajikistani national managed to escape from Turkey where he had been brought through deception to fight with terrorists in Syria. He had been recruited in Moscow.
He told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the extremists wanted to kill “infidels, Jews, and Shi’as”.
Some observers recently estimated that 2,000 to 4,000 Central Asians have travelled to Syria during the last three years to join militants. Other reports indicate that more are planning to do the same.
A court in Kazakhstan’s western city of Oral sentenced three local residents to 3 and half years on charges of attempting to join Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq.
The West Kazakhstan regional prosecutor’s office yesterday said that the three men had tried to cross the border illegally from Kazakhstan into Russia and were planning to participate in Islamic militant operations abroad. Kazakh border guards had detained the men in November 2014.
On Wednesday, a court in Atyrau (western Kazakhstan), sentenced two teenagers to five years in prison on charges of promoting terrorism and trying to join the IS group.
Kazakh authorities and most Central Asian Muslim religious leaders have expressed concern about the growing appeal of extremist ideas among young people.
To this regard, the highest Muslim authorities in the region reiterated the need for a radical reform of religious education to spread the “True Islam [which] has always opposed extremism and the killing of innocents”.
To counter radical ideas among young people, Tajikistan decided to ban pilgrimages to Mecca (hajj) for all those under 35 years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Military Instructors Deployed to Ukraine to Train Local Forces
Paratroopers of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vincenza, Italy, have arrived in western Ukraine to provide training for Ukrainian government troops.
The announcement came on US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt’s twitter account. The diplomat posted pictures of the US paratroopers marching through the airport in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India Scraps Major Arms Purchase With France, Inks Major Deal With Russia
India has essentially annulled it gigantic arms contract with France for the purchase and combined construction of 126 Rafale fighter planes; the Indian Prime Minister agreed to buy only 36 of them during his visit to Paris last week, a responsible government source stated. Instead, India will buy 127 fifth generation Russian fighter jets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Woman Shot and Wounded in Pakistan by Men Claiming to be Militants
Men claiming to be Islamic militants shot and wounded an American woman in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday, leaving leaflets in her car naming her and saying they had targeted her because she was American, police said.
Gunmen on motorbikes shot Debra Lobo in the face and the hand as she drove home from the dental college where she worked as a vice principal.
[…]
“Pamphlets claiming the attack have been found in the car, giving impression that some banned (militant) outfit carried out the attack,” deputy police superintendent Nasir Lodhi told Reuters.
The English version of the pamphlet read: “Oh crusaders, we are the lions of Dualat al Islamia, the falcons of the caliph. Today we killed this Kansas lady Lobo, we shall lie and wait and ambush you and kill you wherever you may be and confined and besiege you in America and then god willing … we will burn American.”
An Urdu version of the pamphlet was also left. None of the references pointed to any known Islamist militant group.
The leaflet said the attack was revenge for the killing of five suspected militants in Karachi the day before.
Lodhi said Lobo was in her mid-50s, had been living in Pakistan since 1998, and was married to a Pakistani.
[Guess “going native” doesn’t cut it anymore. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima Radiation Update: Workers Exposed to Moderate Levels in Japan Hot Zone Cleanup
The decontamination workers who are attempting to clean up the hot zone surrounding Japan’s 2011 nuclear power plant disaster should be okay, according to a report released Wednesday. The moderate radiation levels the workers have been exposed to were reportedly well within the appropriate bounds.
The workers cleaning up Fukushima’s No. 1 power plant — which experienced the disaster in March 2011 after an earthquake and ensuing tsunami — have been exposed to as much as 13.9 millisieverts of radiation from 2011 to 2013 while cleaning up the area, which would fall within the government-mandated bounds, reported the Japan Times. The outlined maximum exposure of 50 millisieverts a year and 100 millisieverts over five years was set by Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The average dose for a worker was about 0.5 millisieverts of exposure per year, reported the Asahi Shimbun.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan’s Magnetically Levitated Vehicle Train Sets New Speed Record
Japan’s magnetically levitated (maglev) train has set a new speed record, hitting 366.61mph on a test track.
Central Japan Railway Co., which is developing a vehicle that it sees as the long-distance, mass transportation system of the future, is aiming to break the 600km per hour (372.82mph) in more tests scheduled for next week.
The seven-car maglev surpassed the previous record, which it sent in December 2003, for a period of 19 seconds on JR Central’s test track in Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, on Thursday.
The company is pushing ahead in its development of the maglev, which uses magnetic pulses to propel the carriages, doing away with the need for wheels, axles and bearings, after being granted approval to construct a track between Tokyo and Nagoya.
The reduction in the number of parts that come into contact with the track gives the maglev dramatically less friction, providing a smoother and quieter ride at a faster speed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ANZAC Day: New Zealand Cities Enact WW1 Trench Battle
Streets in New Zealand cities are being dressed up as World War One trenches as part of events marking the centenary of one the conflict’s bloodiest engagements.
Anzac Day commemorates the deaths of New Zealand and Australian soldiers at Gallipoli, in modern-day Turkey, as well as in subsequent conflicts. The battle cost an estimated half-a-million lives overall, and was the first time Australia and New Zealand suffered mass casualties in war. The head of the Returned Services’ Association veterans’ welfare organisation, David Moger, says the re-enactments are aimed at keeping memories of the conflict alive. “A hundred years on we no longer have WW1 veterans with us to share their stories and experiences first-hand,” he told TVNZ. “We hope Kiwis will join us at the trenches as we remember all those who’ve given everything for their country, and us.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
S. African Anti-Immigrant Attacks Spread to Downtown Johannesburg
Twelve people were arrested overnight as anti-foreigner attacks in South Africa spread to parts of downtown Johannesburg, police said Friday.
“Twelve suspects were arrested for trying to break into foreign-owned shops,” said police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini.
It was the latest incident in a wave of immigrant-targeted violence that began earlier this month in the port city of Durban, leaving at least six people dead.
According to local reports, the protesters from a local hostel demanded foreign nationals leave South Africa, setting cars alight and clashing with police…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa Xenophobia: Africa Reacts
The upsurge in xenophobic violence in South Africa that started in the port city of Durban a few weeks ago has angered African countries, many of whose citizens have been targeted.
Foreign-owned shops have also been attacked and looted in Johannesburg, which experienced the worst of similar violence in 2008.
African nations feel particularly affronted by the attacks, given the support the continent gave to South Africa during its long fight against white-minority rule.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa Shops Looted Despite Zuma Call for Peace
Foreign-owned shops in South Africa have been attacked and looted in east Johannesburg, the latest in a series of xenophobic attacks.
A standoff developed in the city, with police forming a barrier between an angry crowd and foreign-owned shops.
The violence comes despite Thursday’s rally against xenophobia in the coastal city of Durban, and condemnation from President Jacob Zuma.
At least five people have died in anti-foreigner attacks in recent weeks.
Migrants, mostly from other African states and Asia, have moved to South Africa in large numbers since white-minority rule ended in 1994.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa Descending Towards New Apartheid
Immigrants wielding machetes have clashed with police as they hunt for locals that attacked foreign shop owners as violence continues to spread across South Africa.
Police fired rubber bullets and a stun grenade today to disperse a gang of immigrants who had armed themselves with machetes in a run-down district in Johannesburg.
The country has been hit by a wave of violence against immigrants in the past fortnight. The foreigners have complained about a lack of protection and some have started to arm themselves and fight back.
Addressing parliament in Cape Town on Thursday, President Zuma reiterated his condemnation of the violence, calling it a ‘violation’ of South Africa’s values.
‘No amount of frustration or anger can ever justify the attacks on foreign nationals and the looting of their shops,’ he said. ‘We condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms. The attacks violate all the values that South Africa embodies.’
He also said the government was taking steps to secure its porous borders and making progress in setting up a Border Management Agency, announced last year and scheduled to be up and running in 2016.
Despite his pleas, hundreds of South Africans jeered and insulted demonstrators who had gathered for a peace march in the city of Durban after days of violence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Argentina Launches Lawsuit Against Falkland Oil Drillers
Argentina has begun legal proceedings against three British and two US companies for drilling oil near the Falkland Islands.
Daniel Filmus, Argentina’s minister for the islands — called the Malvinas locally — announced the case in London.
The companies involved are Falkland Oil and Gas, Premier Oil, Rockhopper, Edison International and Noble Energy.
Mr Filmus told the BBC the companies were “performing illegal acts by entering Argentine territory”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Found Near Reported ISIS Base
Infowars reporter Joe Biggs crossed the U.S. border into Mexico to investigate claims that ISIS has a camp just outside of America and is being smuggled in by the cartel.
He discovered a strange mosque compound in Anapra, Mexico surrounded by high brick walls and barbed wire fence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Venezuelan Students Abandoned to Their Fate in Madrid
Six months ago, Jindy Morales left her native Venezuela to come to Madrid to study television and film production, using her hard-earned savings to pay her board and lodging. But like many other students from the South American country studying abroad, she has now been told by the banking authorities there that she cannot exchange the national currency, the bolívar. “We did everything we were told to do, but now I don’t even have enough money to eat,” says the 29-year-old.
Morales requested foreign currency before leaving Venezula. But four months ago she was told that her request was being looked into. Since then, she has been unable to withdraw any money from her account.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US State Dept Calls Report on ISIS Training Camps in Mexico ‘Unfounded’
The U.S. State Department Friday shot down a recent report that Islamic State fighters — aided by violent drug cartels — are operating training bases near the U.S. southern border to smuggle terrorists into states like Texas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Administration Gave Social Security Numbers to 541,000 Illegal Aliens
Social Security numbers (SSNs) were given to 541,000 illegal aliens, according to Carolyn Colvin, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA).
In a March 12 letter, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) had asked SSA: “How many individuals have applied for SSNs as a result of the June 15, 2012, memorandum issued by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano entitled ‘Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children’?”
(See SSA Letter.pdf)
“By the end of fiscal year (FY) 2014, we had issued approximately 541,000 original SSNs to individuals authorized to work under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy since its inception,” Colvin said in her April 10 response.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Washing Its Hands of Migrant Problem, Bishops
‘Drama will be ever more unbearable’ says Galantino
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Europe is “elegantly washing its hands” of a migrant “drama which will be ever more unbearable by Italy” by being unable to find alternative solutions to “armed intervention” or “open arms” policies, the secretary-general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Msgr Nunzio Galantino, told Vatican Radio Friday. Italy is bearing the brunt of a migrant emergency in the Mediterranean and is asking the EU to more fairly share the burden of rescuing and receiving migrants.
Italy’s year-long Mare Nostrum mission, which ended last November, scoured the Med for migrants while the EU’s replacement Triton mission patrols borders and only goes after struggling boats when alerts go out.
Some 170,000 migrants reached Italy last year while about 23,000 have come so far this year compared to about 21,000 in the same period last year, a rise of about 10%.
About half a million migrants are reportedly poised to set off from the lawless shores of Libya.
Migrant centres in Italy have overflowed and migrants and asylum seekers are being housed in hotels, sparkign resistance from regional governments and the outspoken criticism of political parties like the anti-immigrant Northern League, which is rising in the polls.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
About 400 immigration reform advocates were expected to rally in New Orleans on Friday, where judges were slated to debate whether to lift a preliminary injunction against President Barack Obama’s plans to shield some 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
The injunction, in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Texas and 25 other states, was ordered by a Texas judge a day before undocumented immigrants could have started signing up for the programs in February.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Revolt Against Migrant ‘Invasion’
Italians are in growing revolt against the number of migrants arriving on their shores, with more than 10,000 people rescued from the Mediterranean in the past week alone.
The huge influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa is putting an intolerable strain on a country that has been in recession for the past five years.
Conservative politicians called this week for boatloads of refugees to be sent back to Libya, while the system of migrant reception centres is on the verge of collapse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Migrants Arrested for Allegedly Throwing Christians Into Sea After Brawl
Italian police said Thursday that 15 African Muslim migrants have been arrested after witnesses said the refugees threw 12 Christians into the Mediterranean following a brawl.
Palermo police told the Associated Press that they had learned of the assault while interviewing tearful survivors from Nigeria and Ghana who had arrived in the city Wednesday morning after being rescued at sea by the ship Ellensborg.
The 15 were accused of multiple homicide aggravated by religious hatred, police said in a statement.
The surviving Christians, the statement said, only managed to stay on board by forming a “human chain” to resist the assault.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Consensus on Beefing Up Triton, EU Sources
Limits of Triton operation can be ‘seen’ in Brussels
(ANSA) — Brussels, April 17 — European Union sources said Friday that they could “see” the limits of the Triton sea operation in the Mediterranean, but added that there was no consensus among the 28 member states on beefing it up to help cope with the crisis caused by the massive wave of migrants arriving from North Africa. Italy has complained that Europe is not doing enough to help, with the chaos in Libya contributing to a huge increase this year in the already large number of refugees landing in its coasts. There have been a series of migrant-boat disasters and on Thursday Italian police said witnesses had told them that a group of Muslims threw 12 Christians overboard in a fight on the way to Sicily. But the EU sources said that “there is not yet the collective will for a stronger collective maritime initiative” ahead of Monday’s meeting of European foreign ministers focusing on Libya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 11,000 Migrants Land in Italy in Six Days
More than 11,000 migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean and taken to Italy in the past six days, coastguards said, with hundreds more expected Friday.
As the wave of refugees trying to get to Europe grows, the Italian navy said it managed to recapture an Italian fishing trawler that had been attacked by Libyan gunmen off the chaotic war-torn country.
More than 300 migrants were rescued Friday by the Italian navy and coastguard patrols, among them 45 women and 23 children, and were being taken to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Cameras placed along Texas’ 1,200-mile border with Mexico have captured the stream of illegal immigrants sneaking into the country on a daily basis.
The network of more than 1,000 motion detectors, similar to those used to film wildlife, have been placed strategically in areas that have not been secured — where Mexican citizens can cross and evade capture with ease.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Must Allow Asylum Requests at Border: EU
The EU urged Spain on Thursday to allow migrants trying to enter its north African enclaves to present their asylum requests without having to scale border fences.
The appeal from the European Commission, the executive of the 28-nation EU, implicitly urged the Spanish police not to immediately deport the migrants who arrive at the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
Commission spokeswoman Nathalie Bertaud told reporters EU commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, would visit Spain Monday and Tuesday “to take stock of the situation on the ground” in light of a new law authorising such deportations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Flee After South Africa Mobs Attack Immigrants
By Faith Karimi and Lynda Kinkade
Thousands sought refuge in temporary shelters in South Africa after mobs with machetes attacked immigrants in Durban, leaving at least five people dead, an aid group said Thursday.
Heavily armed police have scrambled to stop clashes this week after local residents accused immigrants from other African nations of taking their jobs.
The attacks in Durban killed two immigrants and three South Africans, including a 14-year-old boy, authorities said.
“There has been an outpouring of support from ordinary South Africans who are disgusted with the attacks not only because they are foreign, or African, but because they are fellow human beings,” said Gift of the Givers charity, which is helping those seeking refuge.
“We are preparing aid packages for those who may journey onwards to their home countries.”
The charity said about 8,500 people fled to refugee centers or police stations this week because of the violence. That doesn’t count anyone who fled their homes to other, private accommodations, the group said.
It said it hopes the violence is limited to Durban, but assured immigrants that it has a facility in Johannesburg to help those who might need shelter there.
“We have tents and all essential supplies on standby but pray that sanity prevails and this does not become necessary,” it said.
In the past, Johannesburg has been the epicenter of anti-immigrant tensions.
In 2008, scores were killed in attacks in the poorest areas of Johannesburg. Most of the victims were Zimbabweans who had fled repression and dire economic circumstances.
[But … but … Zimbabwe is liberated! The icky white Rhodesians were put to rout, and black majority rule has made everything wonderful! Why, they’ve had the same president for 35 years! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
After Putting the Aborted Baby in Formaldehyde She Said “My God, We’re Going to Hell”
[WARNING *** Disturbing Content ***]
(LiveActionNews) €” A pamphlet produced by Last Days Ministries entitled, “Abortion Clinics: An Inside Look” contained the testimonies of two former abortion facility workers. One worker who tells her story is Sam Griggs.
Griggs talks first about the job interview. Some time ago, Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson wrote about how abortion facilities often tell prospective employees that they will not be assisting in abortions.
Johnson said that since “no one grows up wanting to work in an abortion clinic” abortion facilities often promise new employees that they will not deal with the abortion procedure, or the bodies of aborted babies. Johnson describes a conversation she had with a abortion center worker who called her:
“I sat silently and listened to her cry for 5 minutes. When she was able to calm down enough to talk, she simply said, “Why would they lie to me?” She went on to explain that when she went to interview with them, they had been very clear that she would NEVER be involved in abortion.
“However, they slowly began to move her around the clinic — first a receptionist, then an educator, then working in the exam room “just setting up instruments,” then working next to the abortionist, then finally to the POC (products of conception) lab where she has been trained to piece babies back together after they had been aborted.”
Why did they lie? Because they have to. Because no one grows up wanting to work in the abortion industry. Because the truth of abortion is so vile, they have to hide it.
[Comment: Horrific Content. Ex-employees describe in detail what they experienced at their abortion mill.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Bible Man’ Assemblies Expelled From Tennessee Schools Following Atheist Complaint
Horace Turner has been presenting assemblies at Grundy County schools for approximately 40 years without issue. He sings songs, presents Bible lessons, distributes literature and erects Christian displays for the children. Attendance is voluntary.
But last month, after receiving a complaint from a parent—whose name has not been disclosed—the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent the district a letter asserting that Turner’s presentations are unconstitutional.
“It is deeply troubling that the district allows these assemblies to take place. It is well settled that public schools may not advance or promote religion,” the letter, which pertained to a presentation at Coalmont Elementary School, stated. “Allowing anyone access to public school students to proselytize, and including the events in the school’s calendar, is illegal district endorsement of the speaker’s religious message, in this case a Christian message.”
FFRF referred to Turner as a “wolf,” alluding to Christ’s words in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
“[W]hile some Christian evangelizers come as wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing, this wolf comes dressed as a wolf,” the letter stated. “‘Bible Man’s’ overtly religious and proselytizing messages are explicit.”
The organization asked that Turned be prohibited from conducting future assemblies, referencing the need for children to be protected from “predators.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Now it’s the Bible That’s Sexist
Barack Obama’s gutting of the military seems to have left mostly sexism-sniffing zombies sitting behind Pentagon desks.
Now that the Marxists running the White House have managed to drive God from both classroom and public square, it’s time for a good old fashioned medieval scourge.
The Bible, the U. S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence all count as “historical influences that allow sexism to continue,” according to a presentation prepared by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, whose mission is to give a “world-class human relations education.” (Daily Caller, April 13, 2015)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sexual Madness in Obama’s America
The headline over the story is, “LGBT Friendly: White House Unveils First Gender-Neutral Bathroom.” But it’s not a joke. It wasn’t a story from the comedy site The Onion. Instead, this was from NBC News.
It is apparent that the liberal media will treat anything “gay” coming out of this administration as somehow legitimate or even compassionate. Nothing will be described as weird or strange, out of fear of offending some new sexual minority. This time, the “transgendered” are supposed to benefit. It’s yet another effort to confuse sexual roles and undermine traditional values.
NBC reported, “For the first time in history, the White House has designated a gender-neutral restroom for visitors and staffers—the latest in a series of steps the administration has taken to protect the rights of members of the LGBT community.”…
The Florida bill is also designed to keep predators out of the facilities. The bill notes, for example, that “Single-sex public facilities are places of increased vulnerability and present the potential for crimes against individuals using those facilities, including, but not limited to, assault, battery, molestation, rape, voyeurism, and exhibitionism.”
The liberal media describe this common-sense approach as preventing the transgendered “from using the restroom of their choice.” Hence, the Republicans who want to maintain restrooms for men and women are depicted as mean-spirited Neanderthals. This is how the media try to intimidate Republicans into accepting any new “change,” no matter how ridiculous or absurd.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
SPLC Wages “Transgender” War on Civil Rights Law
On Tuesday, I read an Associated Press report about a young woman who, with the help of the radical liberals of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and another homosexual activist group, is suing a business for firing her because she refused to dress and behave as a woman. This girl pretends to be — or believes she is — a man, and the business did not want to employ a woman presenting herself as a man. She had apparently dressed and looked like a man when she was hired, but only when the company processed her paperwork and driver’s license did they realize she was a female. Management told her she would have to dress and behave like the woman she is in order to work there. She refused and was let go.
It was just a short few weeks between the time she was hired and then fired. This is yet another case of the radical homosexual-”transgender” activist movement using lawfare to crush the rights of people to run their businesses as they see fit, free from being forced to hire mentally ill cross-dressers. The SPLC in its devilish case is trying to conflate this case with “civil rights” for “transgendered” people…
I am not aware of an abundance of nationwide cases that have “repeatedly recognized” that the Civil Rights Act covers mentally deranged people who believe, against biological reality, that they are the opposite sex, but wherever these rulings may be made, they’re dead wrong. Never in the wildest imaginations of the men who crafted and passed that legislation, would they have intended it to cover people with such mental illness at the expense of the right of employers to not participate in such lunacy. Further, since when can the employer not dictate employees’ dress code, specifically that it should match their gender?
This is tyranny, and it has not come to the United States from an invading nation with tanks and rockets. It has come wrapped in a hijacked-rainbow flag, under the banner of “diversity” and “nondiscrimination.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
World Famous Photographer: Morbid Obesity is ‘Beautiful’
World famous photographer Yossi Loloi is railing against commonly accepted ideas of feminine attraction by photographing morbidly obese women as part of what he calls the “Full Beauty” project.
Loloi claims that these images are “a form of protest against discrimination set by media and by today’s society”.
Yet this “beauty” project been given positive press by Newsweek, Marie Claire, the Huffington Post and numerous other mainstream publications.
Why is the establishment press promoting the body image of morbid obesity as normal, acceptable, and even something to be encouraged?
What kind of message is this sending to young women?
Just like anorexia, morbid obesity is directly linked with numerous chronic health conditions.
You don’t see anorexia being promoted as a positive lifestyle choice, and rightly so, so why on earth is being severely overweight now portrayed as something to aspire to?
And why on the flip side do we see healthy eating now being labeled a mental disorder? Why do we see women who encourage fitness being publicly shamed and attacked in the media?
Meanwhile, feminists are whining about advertisers creating “sexist” commercials for attractive healthy beach bodies, while they simultaneously promote morbid obesity as trendy and progressive. Which is the better message about body image to send out to young women?
I don’t really care if you’re overweight, and I’m not encouraging that fat people be bullied or verbally abused. But to describe morbid obesity as “beauty” is crazy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eating More Eggs May Reduce Risk of Diabetes
Researchers followed a group of men for 20 years and found health benefits from eating eggs — a controversial food when it comes to health issues.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mind-Control Exoskeleton Gives Unprecedented Paralysis Recovery
An exoskeleton that enables movement and provides tactile feedback has helped eight paralysed people regain sensation and move previously paralysed muscles
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Processed Foods Leading to Reduced Gut Microbiome Diversity
Western diet and lifestyles consisting of fast and processed foods are leading to a lower diversity of bacteria in the gut, say researchers.
Beneficial bacteria ns the gut are known to attack pathogens, manufacture vitamins and even act as anti-cancer agents. Recent research has strengthened the scientific understanding that the microbes that live in your gut may affect what goes on in your body.
Each person harbors a unique and varied collection of bacteria that’s the result of life history as well as their interactions with the environment, diet and medication use.
The new findings, which come from research analysing the gut diversity of species in the microbiota of people from the USA and comparing them to people from rural areas of Papua New Guinea, echo previous findings that have consistently linked modern Western diets and lifestyles to a reduced gut microbiome diversity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Number of Volcanoes Erupting Right Now is Greater Than the 20th Century’s Yearly Average
Is the number of volcanic eruptions worldwide increasing? Yes. During the 20th century, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions globally. That works out to approximately 35 eruptions per year. That may sound like a lot, but according to Volcano Discovery there are 36 volcanoes erupting around the world right now. In other words, the number of volcanoes erupting as you read this article is greater than the 20th century’s yearly average. And all of this is part of a larger trend. In 2013, we witnessed the most volcanic eruptions worldwide that we had ever seen in a single year, and 2015 is already threatening to be another one for the record books. All over the planet, volcanoes that have long been dormant are beginning to wake up, and this is greatly puzzling many scientists. Fortunately, most of the eruptions in recent years have been relatively small. But scientists tell us that if we do see a VEI 7 or a VEI 8 eruption today, the amount of energy that would be released would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a million nuclear bombs going off all at once, and such an eruption would completely literally transform our civilization almost overnight.
The last VEI 7 eruption that the world witnessed was in Indonesia in 1815.
According to the Express, that massive eruption resulted in a “year without summer” and created famine all over the globe…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |