Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/13/2015

President Obama is going ahead with a summit of Persian Gulf countries, despite a boycott by several heads of state, including the king of Saudi Arabia. The missing Arab leaders are reportedly unhappy with Mr. Obama’s policy of appeasement towards Iran.

In other news, the European Union is considering using ground troops in Libya, in addition to air and naval forces, to prevent migrants from setting off across the Mediterranean towards Italy.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, 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.

Financial Crisis
» 7,231,000 Lost Jobs: Manufacturing Employment Down 37% From 1979 Peak
» Economist: Ban Cash and Force Everyone to Have a Government-Controlled Bank Account
» Greece Will Stay in Euro Even if it Defaults, Renzi Adviser Says
» Italy: MPS Exposure at Q1 to Nomura Soared to 4.69 Bn Euros
» Italy: CGIL Chief Slams Government Over Jobs Data
 
USA
» A Design Evinced
» Al-Qaeda’s Base at MIT
» America is on the Threshold of a Deepening Twilight
» Amtrak Train Was Traveling at More Than 100 mph Before Crash That Killed 7
» As the Senate Prepares to Vote on “Fast Track, “ Here’s a Quick Primer on the Dangers of the TPP
» Baltimore, Black, White and Central Power
» Barack and Michelle the Poverty Pimps
» Congress Warned ‘Catastrophic Danger’ Looming
» DHS is Using State Police to Set Up a National Domestic Drone Spying Program
» Did a Broadcast of the National Anthem in the 1960s Contain Subliminal Messages?
» Documents: TSA Sexual Abuse Rife; Travelers Have Breasts, Penises Felt While Screeners ‘Roar With Laughter’
» Elderly Couple Honk at Off Duty Cop; Cop Breaks Man’s Nose, Smashes Teeth Out With Gun
» Endless Racial Discord
» Federal Bill Would Require All Public School Students be Vaccinated
» Harriet Tubman Recruited to Appear on $20 Bill After Vote
» Jupiter Moon Europa’s Dark Lines May be Salt From Underground Sea
» Minnesota: Jihad Terror Recruit Back in Custody After Violating Release Conditions
» More Than 40% of Bee Hives Die in Past Year
» Obama Blocked by Own Party on Trans-Pacific Partnership
» Pentagon Hunts for ISIS on the Secret Internet
» Prosecutor: Tsarnaev ‘Knew What Kind of Hell Was Going to be Unleashed’
» Special Forces Train With Cops for House to House Raids
» The Frightening GMO Food Fraud
» The Faces of Baltimore You Won’t See in the News
» The Greatest Water Crisis in the History of the United States
» The Left Has Islam All Wrong: Bill Maher, Pamela Geller and the Reality Progressives Must Face
» The National Security State Has Warped Our Values
» The Secret Corporate Takeover Hidden in the TPP
» ‘Tyranny’: Govt. Has No Right to Remove Children From ‘Off-Grid’ Families
» We Should Believe What the Left-Wingers Tell Us
» ‘We the People’ Need to Circle the Wagons: The Government is on the Warpath
 
Europe and the EU
» Britain to be EU’s Most Populous Nation by 2060
» Britain’s David Cameron Reveals Plans for Controversial Counter-Terrorism Bill
» David Cameron is About to Redefine What it Means to be an ‘Extremist’ In Britain
» Denmark: Carlsberg Growth Held Back by Russian Woes
» Europe Rapidly Becoming Fertile Recruiting Field for Islamic State
» Google Pays Tribute to Danish Seismologist
» Greek Parliament Passes Amendment Allowing Construction of Mosque in Athens
» Psychiatric Drugs Kill 500k+ Western Adults Annually, Few Positive Benefits — Leading Scientist
» Report: UK Referendum Possible by Summer 2016
» Schäuble Warns UK: No Special Treatment
» Sweden: One Injured After Fresh Shooting in Gothenburg
» UK to be Most Populous EU State by 2060
 
North Africa
» Egyptian Cleric Khaled Al-Gindi: Atheists Should Not be Allowed Access to Egyptian Media
» Shocking Figures Reveal 92 Per Cent of Married Women in Egypt Have Suffered Female Genital Mutilation
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Is There a Connection Between Swedish Aid and Hamas Institutions?
» Vatican Recognizes State of Palestine in New Treaty
» Vatican Officially Recognizes State of Palestine in a New Treaty
 
Middle East
» Arab Leaders Revolt Against Iran Nuke Deal
» EU, Turkey to Update Customs Union
» Greek, Turk Ministers Agree to Start Talks on Aegean Issues
» Gulf Countries Heading Towards VAT and ‘Fiscal Revolution’
» Iranian General Warns Saudis, US to Not Block Ship Bound for Yemen
» Iraq Claims US-Led Airstrike Kills Senior Islamic State Commander
» ‘Islamic State’ Second-in-Command Al-Afari ‘Killed in Air Raid’
» Islamic State Deputy Leader ‘Killed in Iraq Air Strike’
» Kingdom Tower Rises: Work Progressing on Future World’s Tallest Building — in Pictures
» Meet the Nun Who’s Taking on ISIS
» Obama Pushes Ahead With Summit Despite Arab Absences
» Turkey and Saudi Arabia Alarm the West by Backing Islamist Extremists the Americans Had Bombed in Syria
 
South Asia
» Gunmen Attack Bus, Kill Over 40 Shiites in Pakistan’s Karachi
» Gunmen Storm Afghan Guesthouse Hosting Party for Foreigners
» India: Madhya Pradesh: Hindu Radicals Attack Three Churches
» ‘IS,’ Taliban Both Claim Pakistan Bus Attack
» Karachi: Terror Attack on a Bus Carrying Shia Ismailis, 43 Dead and 13 Wounded
» MH370 Search Discovers Uncharted Shipwreck
» Migrant Kuala Lumpur Joins Jakarta in Push Backs
 
Far East
» Asia Tops Biggest Global School Rankings
» China Imposes Smartwatch and Wearable Tech Army Ban
» North Korea Publicly Executes Defense Chief, South Korean Spy Agency Says
» North Korea Defence Chief Hyon Yong-Chol ‘Executed’
» North Korea Executes Defense Chief for Falling Asleep During Meeting, South Korea’s Spy Agency Says
» Philippines: Dozens Feared Dead in Manila Factory Fire
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Burundi Army General Announces Overthrow of President Nkurunziza
» Burundi Capital Calm, President Tweets That Coup Was Foiled
» Iran State Television Says 14 Members of Fishing Boat Crew Kidnapped by Al-Shabab in Somalia
 
Latin America
» Nicaragua Volcano: Cameras Capture Moment Telica Erupts
 
Immigration
» 1.6 Million Immigrants From Predominantly Muslim Countries Since 9/11
» EU Approves Migrant Agenda, Opens Doors to 20,000
» EU Asylum Seekers Up 50% 2013-2014
» EU Plan Against Migrant Smugglers in Libya Could Include Ground Forces
» Europe’s Migrant Policy Creates ‘Smugglers’ Market’: Study
» European Union Forges Ahead With Quota Plan for Migrants
» Germany Made One in Four EU Asylum Grants
» Greek Islands Struggle With Refugee Influx
» ISIS Terrorists ‘Coming to Italy Within Weeks’
» Mediterranean Migrants Should be Turned Back: UK Minister
» Mediterranean Migrant Crisis: HMS Bulwark Rescues Hundreds
» Spain Grants Asylum to Just 1 Percent of EU Total
» Sweden in Spotlight for Biggest Asylum Share
» The Facebook Smugglers Selling the Dream of Europe
» UK Wants Intercepted Boat Migrants Sent Home
 
Culture Wars
» New UK Law Could Criminalize ‘Politically Incorrect’ Opinions
» Supremes Contemplate Making War Against Heaven
 
General
» Canada, Australia, And Japan Issue Warning Over GMO Contamination
» Chicken Embryos With Dinosaur Snouts Created in Lab
» Freedom House: Democracy Discarded, Return to the Iron Fist
 

7,231,000 Lost Jobs: Manufacturing Employment Down 37% From 1979 Peak

The number of jobs in manufacturing has declined by 7,231,000 — or 37 percent — since employment in manufacturing peaked in the United States in 1979, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Economist: Ban Cash and Force Everyone to Have a Government-Controlled Bank Account

A former Bank of England economist has called for a total ban on cash and its replacement with credit accounts controlled directly by governments.

In a column for the London Telegraph, fund manager Jim Leaviss all but advocates economic fascism as a means of enabling authorities to respond to financial crises better by implementing a “cashless society.”

“Forcing everyone to spend only by electronic means from an account held at a government-run bank would give the authorities far better tools to deal with recessions and economic booms,” states the introduction to Leaviss’ article.

If you think that sounds authoritarian enough, it gets worse. Leaviss then suggests that your hard earned money be “monitored, or even directly controlled by the government,” with authorities then working to “encourage us to spend more when the economy slows, or spend less when it is overheating.”

Once wonders what form this ‘encouragement’ will take. A tax on bank deposits? Negative interest on savings? Limits on how much you can spend each month?

That’s precisely what Leaviss advocates when he calls for a “transaction tax” that would penalize people for spending their own money.

Under this system, commercial banks would stop taking any money from depositors, instead relying on central banks to provide all their funds. The black market would also cease to exist.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Will Stay in Euro Even if it Defaults, Renzi Adviser Says

Greece will remain in the euro even if it fails to meet a debt payment, according to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s economic adviser.

Filippo Taddei, a key aide to Renzi during his overhaul of the euro region’s third biggest economy, said that “nobody knows” whether Greece can meet its debt obligations from one day to the next. As a result, “plans are being set” at European level to mitigate the effect of a Greek default, he said in an interview in Rome on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: MPS Exposure at Q1 to Nomura Soared to 4.69 Bn Euros

MPS says ‘real risk’ closer to 3.0 bn euros

(ANSA) — Milan, May 12 — Italian bank Monte Dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) said Tuesday its exposure toward Japanese bank Nomura soared to 4.69 million euros by the end of March, up 693 million euros since the end of 2014.

The meteoric rise in liability, reported in the MPS interim report, was an effect of the derivatives deal dubbed Alexandria, and was directly due to increased risk associated with a Long Term Repo (LTR) operation worth 575 million euros and collateral paid of 146 million, the bank said.

Former executives of MPS and Nomura bank entered into a contract in July 2009 involving the restructuring of the complicated financial instrument dubbed Alexandria.

Investigations since then have focused on the role former bank executives may have played in hiding losses.

The MPS interim report said the bank was addressing the European Central Bank’s (ECB) assessment, but until the ECB had completed its review, MPS was obliged to report its liabilities according to previous ECB guidelines.

MPS was named last year by the ECB after a health check that showed a 2.1-billion-euro capital gap, which the Siena bank is now trying to fill. “If anyone needs to be concerned, it’s Normura,” MPS Chairman Alessandro Profumo said last month of worries surrounding its exposure.

“Nomura must pay the damages”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: CGIL Chief Slams Government Over Jobs Data

Camusso says govt taking credit where none is due

(ANSA) — Reggio Emilia, May 13 — CGIL union chief Susanna Camusso said Wednesday the Italian government is taking credit for job market improvements where no credit was due.

“They are passing off results that are intrinsic to the current job market as though there were general employment growth,” she said. The labour ministry reported earlier that Italy had gained about 90,000 jobs in March, with a net gain of 30,000 long-term employment positions.

The ministry credited government tax incentives for new hires, but also cautioned that the numbers reflected a flow of jobs not a trend in Italy’s overall employment rate.

“The 13% unemployment rate the OECD attributes to our country even today can only be tackled through investment and economic policies,” Camusso countered.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

A Design Evinced

We Can’t Win The War Until We Know Who The Real Enemy Is:

I submit the conspiracy of the British Crown has returned; and what used to be an indefatigable, recalcitrant, and vigilant independent republic (the United States) has become little more than a puppet of the old European monarchy. What the Crown could not accomplish through military force, it has accomplished through international banking.

The Federal Reserve wields absolute control over U.S. economic policy, and yet, no one really knows exactly who all of the members of the FRB even are. One thing is known, many (if not most) of them are NOT even U.S. citizens. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, foreign bankers have been controlling U.S. financial policy for the better part of a century.

In like fashion, the CFR virtually controls U.S. foreign policy. And the goal of the CFR is the reduction of national sovereignty and the rise of global government. Listen to Admiral Chester Ward.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Qaeda’s Base at MIT

By Ilya Feoktistov & Charles Jacobs

At the end of April, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled a permanent memorial to MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. Officer Collier was gunned down by the Boston Marathon bombers, Chechen refugees Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, three days after they blew up the Marathon.

It is painful to learn that in the late 1990s, there were students at MIT who helped recruit for the Chechen jihad and raised funds for Al Qaeda-affiliated groups operating in the Tsarnaevs’ homeland. It is even more painful that the man who led this fundraising effort was still on MIT’s staff when Officer Collier was gunned down.

Suheil Laher had been MIT’s Muslim chaplain for almost 20 years. Today he continues to preach at the Islamic Society of Boston, the extremist mosque founded by MIT students near campus, where the Tsarnaevs worshipped during their radicalization.

[…]

Suheil Laher came to MIT as a student in 1990 and by 1998, he became the MIT Muslim chaplain. By the year 2000, he also became president of a Muslim charity based in Boston called Care International, which was founded by Osama Bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam and was originally called “Al Kifah Refugee Center.” Care International was, in essence, a fundraising vehicle for mujahideen. After the leader of Al Kifah in Brooklyn, “the Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rehman, was convicted for his role in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Boston’s Care International took over as Al Qaeda’s main base in the United States. Laher, then, was quite an important figure in Al Qaeda’s leadership here. His perch at MIT meant that he had easy access to the best American Muslim minds — and their world-class technical skills.

As a religious scholar and an engineer, Laher was both the spiritual and technological leader of Care International. He pioneered the Jihadist use of the new Internet medium to fundraise and recruit for Al Qaeda causes online. Laher’s personal website prominently featured Abdullah Azzam’s notorious call to Jihad, a tract called “Join the Caravan:”

Beloved brother! Draw your sword, climb onto the back of your horse, and wipe the blemish off your ummah. If you do not take the responsibility, who then will?

That same Jihadist tract was found on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s computer.

[Just another nice Muslim moderate, devoted, no doubt, to “interfaith outreach.” — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

America is on the Threshold of a Deepening Twilight

America was also born out of two opposing forces, government oppression and the insatiable and unstoppable human desire for freedom. As the “heat” began to rise from the tightening grip of King George the III on the colonialists, the inhabitants of this new land on a new continent, reached critical mass and a unique new country was born out of revolution, a country that is the brightest star of any country that ever formed on this third planet from our mother star, the Sun. America was and is the super nova of all other countries and will remain so, if her bright light of liberty is not snuffed out by apathy, neglect, in-attention, treachery and treason from within.

The American people (millions of them) are the energy that keeps the star of America shining brightly and they radiate her message of freedom into the depths of depravity, despair, corruption and savagery that exist in so many other parts of our world. Her technology, industriousness, creativity, production and generosity reaches out and touches almost every other person on the planet. That energy is the product of living under the umbrella of liberty. That umbrella of liberty has its foundation in our natural, God-given rights, codified into law by our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution.

But serious cracks have formed in America’s foundation and serious efforts are needed to shore up those cracks. If the cracks are allowed to expand, at a certain point, no amount of effort will be able to fill them, the foundation will collapse and a free America will be no more. Fear of this deepening twilight has gripped us.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Amtrak Train Was Traveling at More Than 100 mph Before Crash That Killed 7

The Amtrak train that derailed near Philadelphia Tuesday night — killing at least seven and sending more than 200 to area hospitals — appeared to have been traveling at more than 100 mph, according to preliminary data collected by the National Transportation Safety Board.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

As the Senate Prepares to Vote on “Fast Track, “ Here’s a Quick Primer on the Dangers of the TPP

The United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries. Who will benefit from the TPP? American workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations in the world?

One strong hint is buried in the fine print of the closely guarded draft. The provision, an increasingly common feature of trade agreements, is called “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS. The name may sound mild, but don’t be fooled. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.

ISDS would allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. laws — and potentially to pick up huge payouts from taxpayers — without ever stepping foot in a U.S. court. Here’s how it would work. Imagine that the United States bans a toxic chemical that is often added to gasoline because of its health and environmental consequences. If a foreign company that makes the toxic chemical opposes the law, it would normally have to challenge it in a U.S. court. But with ISDS, the company could skip the U.S. courts and go before an international panel of arbitrators. If the company won, the ruling couldn’t be challenged in U.S. courts, and the arbitration panel could require American taxpayers to cough up millions — and even billions — of dollars in damages.

If that seems shocking, buckle your seat belt. ISDS could lead to gigantic fines, but it wouldn’t employ independent judges. Instead, highly paid corporate lawyers would go back and forth between representing corporations one day and sitting in judgment the next. Maybe that makes sense in an arbitration between two corporations, but not in cases between corporations and governments. If you’re a lawyer looking to maintain or attract high-paying corporate clients, how likely are you to rule against those corporations when it’s your turn in the judge’s seat?

— From Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Washington Post Op-Ed: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Clause Everyone Should Oppose

[Comment: Read it all. It gets worse.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Baltimore, Black, White and Central Power

Consider the following facts with regard to Baltimore: Black people riot; in the process they destroy black business; all of this occurs after a black guy dies in Police custody; at the hands of three black officers; who are part of a police department which is 43% black and led by a black Chief; under a black female Mayor; with a black female State Attorney; in a city ruled by the Presidents own Democratic Party for over 50 years.

And the result is: The first black female US Attorney General, who is appointed by the first black president, attributes…prejudice against Black Americans.

This all coming on the heels of last weeks announcement from Obama that he’s dispatching federal civil-rights officials to retrain cops in “every city and jurisdiction around the country” to be more culturally sensitive to urban blacks. Already Fort Worth, Texas; Gary, Indiana; Stockton, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have received grants to implement a new DOJ program titled the “National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice”

I live very near to Baltimore and understand the chaos firsthand. The fear, confusion, and anarchy that has taken place is nothing short of overwhelming. This led me to ponder the Constitution, the Law of this nation and the rules of Federal Government agencies like the Attorney Generals office. I sought the entire document to see what type of jurisdiction the Federal Government has in local law enforcement matters.

The answer is none!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Barack and Michelle the Poverty Pimps

“For going on seven years we have learned three things about President Obama: 1) He loves the poor so much he continues to create more of them. 2) He loves the poor so much he does everything in his power to keep them poor. 3) He doesn’t see the opposition as loyal, but as bad players — his enemy. This is especially true of Fox News, which Obama ripped as anti-poor bigots during a Wednesday afternoon summit on poverty. (Breitbart, May 12, 2015)

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Congress Warned ‘Catastrophic Danger’ Looming

A lack of will among politicians in Washington is the reason why there is no plan to secure America’s national grid system from an electromagnetic pulse that would threaten countless lives, according to testimony delivered to Congress Wednesday.

An EMP catastrophe could come through nature, such as a massive solar flare directed at Earth, but also through a nuclear explosion at high altitude.

At a joint hearing Wednesday before the subcommittees on national security and the interior, under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, expert Peter Pry pointed a finger at Washington.

“Political gridlock in Washington is preventing the federal government from implementing any of the several cost-effective plans to protect the national grid,” he said.

Pry, executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a congressional advisory board, said there is so little effort to address the danger.

Most state governments aren’t even aware they have options to strengthen their portion of the grid and protect their citizens from the “catastrophic consequences of a national blackout.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DHS is Using State Police to Set Up a National Domestic Drone Spying Program

The State Police are avoiding the word ‘drone’ because ‘it carries the perception of pre-programmed or automatic flight patterns, and random, indiscriminate collection of images and information.’

The announcement says the program ‘is not being implemented for surveillance purposes.’

Does anyone really believe it?

Need more proof DHS is running America’s police? The Illinois State Police are using DHS/Customs Border Patrol lingo from 2009:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Did a Broadcast of the National Anthem in the 1960s Contain Subliminal Messages?

A video of the US National Anthem reportedly broadcast during the 1960s was found to contain creepy subliminal messages about “obeying the government”. Is the video authentic or is it a well-crafted hoax?

Back in the good ol’ days, TV stations ended their broadcast day with a goodnight message and the national anthem, complete with a montage of patriotic images. While many of us have somewhat fond and nostalgic memories of these TV sign-offs, one Star Spangled Banner video said to be broadcast during the 1960s was apparently laced with creepy subliminal messages. Here it is :…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Documents: TSA Sexual Abuse Rife; Travelers Have Breasts, Penises Felt While Screeners ‘Roar With Laughter’

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information act have revealed that TSA sexual abuse is still rife in airports across the nation, with Americans complaining of being sexually harassed and groped while screeners laugh and sneer at them.

The documents were uncovered by Judicial Watch, the accountability group who last year filed a lawsuit for more information on alleged sexual assaults at the hands of TSA…

Here is a taster of what the documents contain:

July 29, 2013, “To/From Memo,” O’Hare Airport:

The person began to tell me how TSO [redacted] stuck his hands down his pants and grabbed the top of his penis and placed his fingers in his butt crack… The person was sure that he was violated and wanted to talk to a supervisor…. He said he is going to file a police report with Chicago Police Department and file a lawsuit against TSA and Officer [redacted] and walked away.”…

As InfoWars has exhaustively documented, the TSA has a long history of hiring perverts, sexual predators and criminals, so it hardly comes as a surprise that screeners would take advantage of the intrusive pat down procedure for their own gratification.

Last month, Two TSA screeners working at Denver International Airport were fired after it emerged that they had concocted a perverted scheme in order to purposefully grope the genitals of men they found attractive for their own sexual gratification.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Elderly Couple Honk at Off Duty Cop; Cop Breaks Man’s Nose, Smashes Teeth Out With Gun

An elderly couple in St. Louis County found out what happens when you honk your horn at a cop this past weekend, when the officer drew his gun and pistol whipped the man in the face, while wrestling with the woman as she attempted to defend her husband.

Describing the harrowing incident to local reporters, Janet and Donald Akers noted that they were unable to pay their respects to Janet’s deceased mother on Mother’s day, as they were beaten up by the cop before they could get to the graveyard.

Mrs Akers was driving the car, when she was suddenly rushed upon by a large unmarked black truck. Fearing that the truck was going to collide with their vehicle, she honked her horn.

“To let him know, hey, you’re coming over to hit us, and then he backed down, got behind us, and honked and honked and honked, all the way through the intersection,” said Janet.

Not knowing that the driver of the truck was a cop, Mrs Akers pulled over to attempt to diffuse the situation, and suddenly found herself and her husband under attack at gunpoint.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Endless Racial Discord

I have come to the view that the most racially divisive leader in America is our first African-American President. Why else has Rev. Al Sharpton become his most widely recognized “adviser” and why are administration figures are less likely to be found honoring fallen police officers than the alleged black victims? Three were sent to Freddie Gray’s funeral and none to the funeral of the slain police officers. The First Lady, too, has been stirring up racial discord.

Referring to the Baltimore riot, he said that “we as a nation have to do some soul-searching” when as William McGurn of The Wall Street Journal noted the trillions spent on liberal programs, personified by LBJ’s “War on Poverty”, have not succeeded in reducing poverty and have contributed to creating whole populations that live off of government handouts of one sort or another.

“While the Great Society’s billions were creating a culture of dependency,” said McGurn, “South Korea — with its emphasis on trade and global competition — rose from the ashes of a terrible war to become the world’s 12th largest economy.” This occurred over the same time period the liberal dependency programs and liberal governance of many U.S. cities created the problem we are addressing and discussing today.

Nor is the answer for the federal government to take over the management of the nation’s police forces. We have already seen how it has ruined the educational system and is now doing the same to our health system.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Federal Bill Would Require All Public School Students be Vaccinated

“The health and safety of children must be our top priority,” Wilson said in a press release accompanying the introduction of her bill.

“Children who are not vaccinated put themselves and others in danger of acquiring and spreading preventable diseases. That is why I introduced the Vaccinate All Children Act because requiring vaccinations for students will save lives and protect future generations.”

In fact, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out well over $2 billion to the families of victims who died or suffered other catastrophic injuries as a result of being immunized, according to the National Vaccine Information Center.

The current version of the bill does not allow vaccine exemptions for reasons of conscience or religion, only providing for medical exemptions to be certified by “duly registered and licensed physicians.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Harriet Tubman Recruited to Appear on $20 Bill After Vote

Could Americans soon be calling their $20 bills “Tubmans?”

Move over, former US president Andrew Jackson. Voters of an online poll have chosen famous abolitionist Harriet Tubman to replace him on the twenty dollar bill.

A grassroots campaign is pushing the US Department of the Treasury to put a woman on American currency.

The group is pushing it before 100th anniversary of Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

All seven bills currently in circulation in the US feature a man’s face.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Jupiter Moon Europa’s Dark Lines May be Salt From Underground Sea

The reddish-brown lines that crisscross the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be radiation-bombarded sea salt from an underground ocean, a new study suggests.

Researchers probing the nature of the mysterious Europa features put run-of-the-mill salt (sodium chloride) and salt-water mixtures in a vacuum chamber chilled to minus 270 degress Fahrenheit (minus 173 degrees Celsius), then blasted the samples with electrons.

“We call it our ‘Europa in a can,’“ study lead author Kevin Hand, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. “The lab setup mimics conditions on Europa’s surface in terms of temperature, pressure and radiation exposure. The spectra of these materials can then be compared to those collected by spacecraft and telescopes.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Minnesota: Jihad Terror Recruit Back in Custody After Violating Release Conditions

By Robert Spencer

“After Yusuf pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy charges, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis agreed to a proposal by his attorneys to enroll the 18-year-old man in Heartland Democracy’s program designed to reshape the attitudes of troubled youth, with special emphasis on Somali-American teens who feel disenfranchised.” It didn’t work. It could never have worked, because there is absolutely no doubt that this program did not deal with the jihad doctrine as taught in the Qur’an and Sunnah.

“Accused Minn. terrorist recruit back in custody after violating release conditions,” Star Tribune, May 11, 2015:

Abdullahi Yusuf, a Somali-American defendant accused of conspiring to support terrorists in the Middle East, has been taken into custody for violating conditions while living in a St. Paul halfway house, according to court documents filed Monday.

Yusef [sic], a student at Inver Grove Community College, drew national attention after a federal judge decided to place him in a halfway house and provide counseling for him rather than hold him in custody while awaiting sentencing.

Yusuf’s violations were not detailed in court records.

After Yusuf pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy charges, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis agreed to a proposal by his attorneys to enroll the 18-year-old man in Heartland Democracy’s program designed to reshape the attitudes of troubled youth, with special emphasis on Somali-American teens who feel disenfranchised. The move was hailed by counterterrorism experts as a novel idea and was viewed as a test case on whether such persons could be rehabilitated.

[The verdict: FAIL. And it’s interesting that “Yusuf’s violations were not detailed in court records.” It seems that our judicial masters don’t want anyone seeing what this dead-eyed punk was up to, any more than they wanted us seeing what was going on in the building that burned down in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood on New Year’s Day last year — and that was immediately demolished before arson investigators could get a look at it. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

More Than 40% of Bee Hives Die in Past Year

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than two out of five American honeybee colonies died in the past year, and surprisingly the worst die-off was in the summer, according to a federal survey.

Since April 2014, beekeepers lost 42.1 percent of their colonies, the second highest loss rate in nine years, according to an annual survey conducted by a bee partnership that includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“What we’re seeing with this bee problem is just a loud signal that there’s some bad things happening with our agro-ecosystems,” said study co-author Keith Delaplane at the University of Georgia. “We just happen to notice it with the honeybee because they are so easy to count.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Blocked by Own Party on Trans-Pacific Partnership

The TPP has been dealt a setback in the US Senate. Skeptical Democrats have argued it would drive down wages and make it impossible for US workers to compete with those in countries with lax labor laws.

The Senate bill would have given Obama the authority to submit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and an upcoming US-Europe trade pact (TTIP) to Congress for an up-or-down vote, and prevented lawmakers from amending any deal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pentagon Hunts for ISIS on the Secret Internet

By Barbara Starr and Jamie Crawford

After months of bombing by the U.S. and coalition forces, ISIS remains undefeated on the ground and has now entered a new phase, using the cyber-world as a weapon.

For evidence of the evolution, one need look no further than the recent ISIS inspired attack in Garland, Texas, which was carried out after gunman Elton Simpson publicly posted a tweet on the Internet, using the hashtag #TexasAttack.

It’s a trend that has captured the attention of law enforcement and now the military.

“The thing I always look for is at what point do groups, for example, decide that they need to move from viewing the Internet as a source of recruitment, as a way to spread ideology, as a way to spread their message, their propaganda, do we see it move from that into something for greater concern as viewing it as a potential weapon system,” said Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and the Pentagon’s top cyber-warrior.

It’s forcing the Pentagon to confront a secret Internet most of us never see, in a place most of us have never seen. It’s called the Deep or Dark Web. The U.S. believes ISIS — and other potential terrorists — are now using the most covert part of the online world to recruit fighters, share intelligence and potentially plan real world attacks.

[…]

DARPA has a new military technology known as MEMEX that acts as a unique search engine — seeing patterns of activity on the Dark Web and websites not available via traditional routes like Google or Bing.

“MEMEX allows you to characterize how many websites there are and what kind of content is on them, “ White said. “It was actually first developed to track down human trafficking on the web — it’s an idea that works for an illicit activity users try to keep hidden.”

It all starts, White said, by being able to track down locations where activity is happening.

The challenge: Hiding on the web has become easier with tools like TOR, a browser that bounces communications around the world — keeping anyone from knowing what sites you visit and where you are located. That basically makes a user invisible, keeping the U.S. military and intelligence community in a high-stakes chase to find ISIS before it can strike again.

[What the miltary and intelligence community really need to do is study the scripture, traditions, and contemporary doctrines of Islam — as they are now strictly forbidden from doing by Barry Hussein’s mob. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Prosecutor: Tsarnaev ‘Knew What Kind of Hell Was Going to be Unleashed’

Boston (CNN)The prosecutor in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told jurors Wednesday to remember those killed and wounded two years ago when deciding whether to sentence the Boston Marathon bomber to life in prison or death.

“His actions have earned him a sentence of death,” prosecutor Steve Mellin said in his closing argument. “The defendant knew what kind of hell was going to be unleashed.”

Mellin reminded jurors of the four people killed by Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Twenty-nine-year-old Krystle Campbell, 21-year-old Lingzi Lu and 8-year-old Martin Richard were killed two years ago on that sunny day when near-simultaneous bombs exploded on Boylston Street, causing destruction and chaos during one of the nation’s most celebrated events.

Sean Collier, a 27-year-old MIT security officer, was shot and killed by the Tsarnaev brothers during the subsequent manhunt.

“It’s hard to think of a better place to murder people than the Boston Marathon if you want to make a statement [that] you think Americans are in need of punishment,” Mellin said.

[Which means that the entreaties of Helen Prejean, a dead brain walking, should be dimissed out of hand. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Special Forces Train With Cops for House to House Raids

Special Forces out of Fort Bragg are training with SWAT officers in Richland County, South Carolina this week for house to house raids, another unnerving sign of the militarization of domestic law enforcement.

The late night and pre-dawn exercises, which will involve the 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have been running since May 8 and will conclude on Friday.

Previous exercises conducted by the 3rd Special Forces Group, seen in the video above, show troops conducting house to house raids and arresting individuals at gunpoint.

Residents in Lower Richland County have been warned that they may encounter military vehicles and “hear ordinance being set off or shots being fired.”

According to Sheriff Leon Lott, “Deputies will provide simulated scenarios for the military,” while Richmond County will provide, “an ideal location for training that cannot be replicated at Fort Bragg.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Frightening GMO Food Fraud

I would encourage everyone to read “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public” just on the basis of power of the logic and the clarity of the writing on display. Reading it, I felt privileged to be in the company of a man of such a rare combination of intellect and principle. Author Steven M. Druker, a public interest lawyer, builds his case in support of the book’s extended title systematically, chapter by chapter, until he has constructed an edifice of persuasion as solid as an Egyptian pyramid.

I-am-not-a-science-experiment1The nub of his argument is that genetically engineered (GE) food products, as brand new substances produced by a means that is radically different from traditional plant breeding, are on the market illegally because American law requires that such new products be extensively tested before they can be sold. To do the required testing over the extended time period required, however, would make the whole GE venture uneconomic, so the law has been skirted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The skirting has been done by treating GE foods (now generally called genetically modified organisms or GMOs, originally meant to be a euphemism because it sounded better than “engineered”) in the same way as we treat foods that have stood the test of time and are simply generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

Not only is it manifestly untrue that GMOs are GRAS, but through the discovery process in a lawsuit that he and a number of very knowledgeable scientists initiated, Druker learned that FDA administrators overruled their own scientific experts in declaring them GRAS. That is to say, GMOs have been treated as though they were no different from new plant varieties created by traditional methods when it is not true and the decision-makers at the FDA have known all along that it is not true. They are not recognized as safe even within the FDA, itself.

The big problem, according to Druker, is that in its early development stage in the 1980s, bioengineering was seen by the Reagan administration as the next big technological wave that the United States could catch, similar to the digital electronics revolution, that would help keep the country in the world economic forefront. With this business booster mindset, political leaders, in league with the avaricious owners of companies like Monsanto, have allowed politics and greed to trump science, and, indeed, to trump existing U.S. food safety law, in furtherance of the dangerous GE food agenda. Furthermore, blinkered members of the science community, who have apparently put their wetted fingers to the wind and have gone along enthusiastically with what can only be characterized as massive scientific fraud, have abetted them.

One can hear a good summary of Druker’s book in the excellent interview of the author by George Noory on the latter’s Coast to Coast AM program.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Faces of Baltimore You Won’t See in the News

Warning: scenes are graphic…

We suspect there will be less rioting and looting after this horrifying clip of a group of Baltimore teens kicking and brutally attacking a Maryland man after he tried to break up a fight…

Richard Fletcher was beaten by a gang after asking two girls to stop fighting on his truck in Dundalk, Maryland.

Man, 61, left with horrific injuries and facing $400,000 medical bills after near fatal attack by pack of FIFTY teens, including girls, when he tried to break up a fight.

The mugshots of the 5 arrest so far…

[Comment: All part of the Communist plan of agitating blacks against whites to destabilize the USA.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Greatest Water Crisis in the History of the United States

What are we going to do once all the water is gone?

Thanks to the worst drought in more than 1,000 years, the western third of the country is facing the greatest water crisis that the United States has ever seen. Lake Mead is now the lowest that it has ever been since the Hoover Dam was finished in the 1930s, mandatory water restrictions have already been implemented in the state of California, and there are already widespread reports of people stealing water in some of the worst hit areas. But this is just the beginning. Right now, in a desperate attempt to maintain somewhat “normal” levels of activity, water is being pumped out of the ground in the western half of the nation at an absolutely staggering pace. Once that irreplaceable groundwater is gone, that is when the real crisis will begin. If this multi-year drought stretches on and becomes the “megadrought” that a lot of scientists are now warning about, life as we know it in much of the country is going to be fundamentally transformed and millions of Americans may be forced to find somewhere else to live.

Simply put, this is not a normal drought. What the western half of the nation is experiencing right now is highly unusual. In fact, scientists tell us that California has not seen anything quite like this in at least 1,200 years… Analyzing tree rings that date back to 800 A.D. — a time when Vikings were marauding Europe and the Chinese were inventing gunpowder — there is no three-year period when California’s rainfall has been as low and its temperatures as hot as they have been from 2012 to 2014, the researchers found.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Left Has Islam All Wrong: Bill Maher, Pamela Geller and the Reality Progressives Must Face

By Jeffrey Tayler

Whatever her views on other matters are, Pamela Geller is right about one thing: last week’s Islamist assault on the “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest she hosted in Texas proves the jihad against freedom of expression has opened a front in the United States. “There is,” she said, “a war on free speech and this violent attack is a harbinger of things to come.” Apparently undaunted, Geller promises to continue with such “freedom of speech” events. ISIS is now threatening to assassinate her. She and her cohorts came close to becoming victims, yet some in the media on the right and the center-right have essentially blamed her for the gunmen’s attack, just as far too many, last January, surreptitiously pardoned the Kouachi brothers and, with consummate perfidy to human decency, inculpated the satirical cartoonists they slaughtered, saying “Charlie Hebdo asked for it.”

No.

But first, allow me a brief yet illustrative digression.

No one can deny the nobility of the sentiment that prompted Ben Affleck, on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” last autumn, to rush to the defense of what he sees as an unjustly maligned Muslim population with his outburst, as heartfelt as it was misguided, that it was “gross” and “racist” of Maher and Sam Harris to denounce Islam as “the mother lode of bad ideas.” It seemed par for the course that Affleck followed the lead of so many progressives and conflated race and religion regarding Muslims. The semantically unsound rubbish concept of “Islamophobia” disorients well-meaning people and incites them to spout illogicalities with a preacher’s righteousness.

One must, though, call out New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof for backing up Affleck on the same show, and, later, in an editorial. Kristof, after all, should know better. He trades in words and ideas, and his acceptance of the fraudulent term “Islamophobia” contributes to the generalized befuddlement on the left about the faith in question and whether negative talk about it constitutes some sort of racism, or proxy for it. It patently does not. Unlike skin color, faith is not inherited and is susceptible to change. As with any other ideology, it should be subject to unfettered discussion, which may include satire, ridicule and even derision. The First Amendment protects both our right to practice the religion of our choosing (or no religion at all) as well as our right to speak freely, even offensively, about it.

One must, however, recoil in stupefaction and disgust at the consortium of prominent writers who just signaled de facto capitulation to the Enforcers of Shariah. I’m referring, of course, to the recent decision of 204 authors to sign a letter dissociating themselves from PEN’s granting the Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award to the brave, talented surviving artists of Charlie Hebdo. (Disclosure: I have friends among Charlie Hebdo’s staff.) The authors objecting did so out of concern, according to their statement, for “the section of the French population” — its Muslims — “that is already marginalized, embattled, and victimized, a population that is shaped by the legacy of France’s various colonial enterprises.” A “large percentage” of these Muslims are “devout,” contend the writers, and should thus be spared the “humiliation and suffering” Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons allegedly caused them.

Europe’s colonial past and the United States’ current (endless) military campaigns in the Islamic world, as well as prejudice against nonwhites in Europe, have predisposed many to see, with some justification, Muslims as victims. But apart from the blundering wrongheadedness of the PEN writers’ dissent (Charlie Hebdo’s undeniable courage won them the award, not their artwork) and putting aside the question of whether France’s Muslims are necessarily “devout” (French law prohibits religion-based polling, so who could know?), or uniformly “humiliated” by Charlie Hebdo, or necessarily “embattled,” one thing transpires with arresting clarity from the authors’ declaration: Among the left, the confusion surrounding Islam and how we should relate to it imperils the free speech rights without which no secular republic can survive. We have to clear this up, and fast.

[When it comes to Islam, the intellectual goose-stepping of “progressives” won’t be cleared up, fast or otherwise. This essay is a valiant attempt, though. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

The National Security State Has Warped Our Values

After Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s secret mass surveillance scheme to the American people and the world, there have been those who consider what he did to be treasonous rather than patriotic. That adverse reaction to what Snowden did is a perfect example of how the national-security state apparatus that was grafted onto America’s governmental system after World War II has warped and perverted the values and stultified the consciences of the American people.

Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that the NSA’s super-secret phone collection program was illegal — that is, that it violated the Constitution of the United States, which is the higher law that governs the actions of the federal government.

So, let’s see if I have this clear: If an employee within the national-security branch of the federal government discloses an illegal scheme on the part of the military, the CIA, or the NSA, he is to be considered a “bad guy” — i.e., a person who hates his country — a traitor, maybe even an anti-American spy.

Yep. That’s pretty much it. Despite the appellate court’s ruling, the Justice Department has no intention of dismissing the criminal indictment against Snowden. By disclosing the scheme, he broke the law, the Justice Department prosecutors maintain, and it doesn’t matter how illegal the scheme was that he disclosed.

Do you see something wrong with that picture, at least insofar as morals and values are concerned?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Secret Corporate Takeover Hidden in the TPP

The real intent of these provisions is to impede health, environmental, safety, and, yes, even financial regulations meant to protect America’s own economy and citizens. Companies can sue governments for full compensation for any reduction in their future expected profits resulting from regulatory changes.

The manufacturer could sue governments for restraining them from killing more people.

This is not just a theoretical possibility. Philip Morris PM, +0.45% is suing Uruguay and Australia for requiring warning labels on cigarettes. Admittedly, both countries went a little further than the U.S., mandating the inclusion of graphic images showing the consequences of cigarette smoking.

The labeling is working. It is discouraging smoking. So now Philip Morris is demanding to be compensated for lost profits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Tyranny’: Govt. Has No Right to Remove Children From ‘Off-Grid’ Families

Government officials are increasingly usurping “parental authority,” removing children from their families who may happen to be living unconventional lifestyles, legal and media analyst Lionel told RT’s Ben Swann. Speaking about a recent case where 10 kids were taken from their parents because they live “off-grid,” the outspoken commentator called the government’s seizure of the children “tyranny” and the “absolute destruction of parental autonomy.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

We Should Believe What the Left-Wingers Tell Us

When it comes to their long-term goals, to their overarching agenda and plans they have for America, we on the Right really, really need to start listening to what the Left says and take them seriously.

This is why traditionalists, conservatives, and liberty lovers better take it seriously when we see supposed dingbats in academia or the media start pushing to normalized pedophilia, outlaw homeschooling, take children away from parents who take them to church, or any other number of “outlandish” goals. They’re not just saying these things to get attention or for the shock value. They’re saying them because that’s where they’re going to go. That’s what’s next on their list. Ignore it or laugh at your peril. You might just wake up one day to find the police powers of the state being used to steal your children to hand them over to the custody of the perverts.

We CANNOT under any circumstances give up our guns

This is why we CANNOT under any circumstances give up our guns. When Bill Ayers says that 25 million of the wrong kind of Americans (i.e. folks like you and me) will have to be liquidated to bring about the progressive utopia people like him envision for America, I take him seriously. I don’t necessarily think he’d be able to do it, but I definitely think he’d like to give it a try.

[Comment: There’s a book with the title: “You Can Trust A Communist…To Behave Like a Communist.” One’s trust of the Communist should only extend to the point that one can trust the Communist will do whatever it take to implement their Communist agenda.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘We the People’ Need to Circle the Wagons: The Government is on the Warpath

“The government is merely a servant — merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.” — Mark Twain

How many Americans have actually bothered to read the Constitution, let alone the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights (a quick read at 462 words)?

Take a few minutes and read those words for yourself — rather than having some court or politician translate them for you — and you will be under no illusion about where to draw the line when it comes to speaking your mind, criticizing your government, defending what is yours, doing whatever you want on your own property, and keeping the government’s nose out of your private affairs. In an age of overcriminalization, where the average citizen unknowingly commits three crimes a day, and even the most mundane activities such asfishing and gardening are regulated, government officials are constantly telling Americans what not to do. Yet it was not always this way. It used to be “we the people” telling the government what it could and could not do. Indeed, the three words used most frequently throughout the Bill of Rights in regards to the government are “no,” “not” and “nor.”

Compare the following list of “don’ts” the government is prohibited from doing with the growing list of abuses to which “we the people” are subjected on a daily basis, and you will find that we have reached a state of crisis wherein the government is routinely breaking the law and violating its contractual obligations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Britain to be EU’s Most Populous Nation by 2060

Britain will be the EU’s most populous nation by 2060, overtaking Germany where the birth rate is falling, the European Commission said Tuesday.

The population of Britain will rise to 80.1 million by then, compared to 64.1 million in 2014, said the report on Europe’s ageing population.

Its fertility rate is set to stay at a relatively high rate of around 1.93 births per woman along with a net migration rate of 210,100 thousand per year.

Germany currently has the biggest population in the 28-nation EU with 81.3 million people but that figure is set to fall by more than 10 million to 70.8 million by 2060, it said.

The predicted decrease is due to a low birth rate that is currently at 1.40 children per woman, despite the fact that it will rise to 1.63 children per woman by 2060, which remains below the replacement rate of 2.0 children per women.

France and Ireland are predicted to have the highest birth rates at 2.0 children per women, with France’s population set to rise from 65.7 million to 75.7 million.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Britain’s David Cameron Reveals Plans for Controversial Counter-Terrorism Bill

Britain’s prime minister has pledged to take a tougher stance on extremism, revealing controversial plans to confront what he called “poisonous Islamist extremist ideology.”

David Cameron says that for too long, Britain has been “passively tolerant” and that has helped foster extremism.

Cameron on Wednesday set out his intention to introduce a new counter-terrorism bill. Full details of the plans have not yet been unveiled, but they are expected to include new orders to ban extremist organizations that publicly use hate speech. Police are also expected to get powers to seize the passports of those suspected of plotting to travel abroad to fight.

The plans were immediately criticized by opposition leaders and rights groups, who say that the measures are authoritarian and an attack on free speech.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

David Cameron is About to Redefine What it Means to be an ‘Extremist’ In Britain

Prime Minister David Cameron is set to unveil a new counter-terrorism bill on Wednesday that is expected to place major restrictions on organisations and individuals who authorities believe could pose a “threat to the functioning of democracy,” according to a statement from the Conservative party. In his Queen’s speech on Wednesday, Cameron is expected to announce that the new measures will extend existing police powers to clamp down on “harmful activities” of extremists, the statement said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Carlsberg Growth Held Back by Russian Woes

Danish brewer Carlsberg on Tuesday reported quarterly results slightly above expectations as dwindling sales in Russia were partly offset by higher beer volumes in Asia and western Europe.

Carlsberg’s revenue in eastern Europe tumbled 30 percent to 1.735 billion kroner (233 million euros, $261 million), mostly as the result of the lower Russian ruble.

“Due to the difficult macro environment in the region, the Russian beer market declined by an estimated nine percent and the Ukrainian beer market by an estimated 14 percent,” the company said in a statement.

In January Carlsberg closed two of its breweries in Russia — where its Baltika brand has a 38 percent market share — cutting its production capacity in the country by 15 percent.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe Rapidly Becoming Fertile Recruiting Field for Islamic State

Islamic State now has the potential to break out of Syria and Iraq and into the heart of Europe without a shot being fired in anger by the Europeans to repel the terror group’s stated aims of re-establishing a Caliphate and with it the supremacy of Islam world-wide.

This previously dismissed possibility has become an emerging reality with the record flow of hundreds of thousands of Muslims into Europe by boat in 2014 — as their homes and lives in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan,Yemen and Lebanon have been reduced to rubble by ongoing and continuing conflict over the past four years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Google Pays Tribute to Danish Seismologist

If you’re searching for something on Google today, you’re doing it under a tribute to Danish scientist Inge Lehmann.

The newest animated Google Doodle pays tribute to Inge Lehmann, a Danish seismologist who discovered that Earth has an inner and outer core.

The doodle, dedicated to Lehmann on what would have been her 127th birthday, shows Earth split in two, revealing its shining inner core.

Born in Copenhagen in 1888 to an accomplished family, Lehmann once described herself as “the only Danish seismologist”, having pursued her field in a country that does not have earthquakes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Parliament Passes Amendment Allowing Construction of Mosque in Athens

The Greek Parliament passed an amendment on Tuesday that allows for the construction of a mosque in Athens despite the junior coalition partner Independent Greeks (ANEL)’s opposition.

The SYRIZA-backed amendment caused the first rift in the Greek coalition as the ANEL MPs voted against it and called building the mosque “unacceptable and provocative”.

However, the amendment passed parliament with the support of opposition parties, the New Democracy and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

The mosque is planned to be constructed in Votanikos area in Athens.

Athens has not had a formal mosque since the Ottomans formally accepted Greek independence in 1832 and the country has been criticized by human rights groups such as Amnesty International for being one of the few European capitals without one.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Psychiatric Drugs Kill 500k+ Western Adults Annually, Few Positive Benefits — Leading Scientist

Psychiatric drugs lead to the deaths of over 500,000 people aged 65 and over annually in the West, a Danish scientist says. He warns the benefits of these drugs are “minimal,” and have been vastly overstated.

Research director at Denmark’s Nordic Cochrane Centre, Professor Peter Gøtzsche, says the use of most antidepressants and dementia drugs could be halted without inflicting harm on patients. The Danish scientist’s views were published in the British Medical Journal on Tuesday.

His scathing analysis will likely prove controversial among traditional medics. However, concern is mounting among doctors and scientists worldwide that psychiatric medication is doing more harm than good. In particular, they say antipsychotic drugs have been overprescribed to many dementia patients in a bid to calm agitated behavior.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: UK Referendum Possible by Summer 2016

The UK could hold a referendum on EU membership as early as July 2016, The Guardian reported Monday evening (11 May).

The paper quoted a government source as saying that the “mood now is definitely to accelerate the process and give us the option of holding the referendum in 2016”.

During his election campaign, prime minister David Cameron had promised an in/out referendum by 2017 if he was re-elected.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Schäuble Warns UK: No Special Treatment

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had a prickly response to British demands for reform of the EU in the margins of a European finance ministers’ meeting on Tuesday.

Schäuble told reporters after the meeting that British wishes were “all points where we can find common solutions” — including “making things a bit less bureaucratic, and reducing the possibility for abuse of fundamental rights in the European treaties.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: One Injured After Fresh Shooting in Gothenburg

Swedish police say one person has been taken to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after an attack in the Gamlestaden area of Gothenburg on Wednesday morning, just months after several high profile shootings took place in the city in western Sweden.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK to be Most Populous EU State by 2060

The UK is set to be the most populous EU state by 2060 with 80m people, according to an EU report published Tuesday. Sweden’s population is to increase by 40% by 2060 and Lithuania’s to drop by almost 40%. The workers-to-pensioners ratio is set to almost half.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptian Cleric Khaled Al-Gindi: Atheists Should Not be Allowed Access to Egyptian Media

In a May 5 interview with Al-Hayat TV, Egyptian cleric Sheik Khaled Al-Gindi criticized Egyptian TV channels that had allowed atheists to appear in their talk shows. Sheik Al-Gindi added that people who want to make atheist comments should do it abroad and not in Egypt.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Shocking Figures Reveal 92 Per Cent of Married Women in Egypt Have Suffered Female Genital Mutilation

Up to 92 per cent of married women in Egypt have undergone female genital mutilation, it has been revealed.

The country’s Minister of Health Adel Adawy said the figure relates to women aged between 15 and 49 — and is even higher at 95 per cent in rural areas.

Most females undergo the procedure between the ages of nine and 12 and less than a third of the operations are carried out by doctors, the minister said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Is There a Connection Between Swedish Aid and Hamas Institutions?

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), which falls under the aegis of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, has for several years cooperated with the Islamic Relief (IR) organization.

According to SIDA documentation, SIDA renewed its agreement with IR last year, giving the international organization more than 59 million SEK ($6.8m.) for various aid projects.

However, IR is associated not only with aid, but also with the Muslim Brotherhood and with funding terrorist organizations, and has therefore been on the United Arab Emirates’ list of terrorist-related organizations since last year. In 2006 the Israeli authorities were notified of IR’s terrorism connections, resulting in the arrest of IR’s project manager at the time, Iyaz Ali. Ali confessed that he was in contact with the Hamas and had transferred funds to organizations linked to Hamas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Recognizes State of Palestine in New Treaty

The Vatican formally recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty, finalized on Wednesday.

The treaty, which follows a decision in 2012 by the U.N. General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state, is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state.

Pope Francis is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this weekend, when two new saints from the Holy Land will be canonized.

The treaty, not yet signed, makes clear the Holy See has switched its diplomatic relations from the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.

[Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Officially Recognizes State of Palestine in a New Treaty

The Vatican has confirmed it will officially recognize Palestine as a state. Around 70 percent of United Nations members now recognize the disputed region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arab Leaders Revolt Against Iran Nuke Deal

There appears to be a small problem with President Barack Obama’s summit of Persian Gulf states taking place at Camp David on Thursday: Arab leaders want virtually nothing to do with it. Only the emirs of Qatar and Kuwait, two out of the six leaders of countries that comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), will attend. The point man of the apparent snub is Saudi Arabian monarch King Salman, who took power in January after his brother, King Abdullah, died. Salman decided not to attend at the eleventh hour, despite Obama promising him a separate meeting, described by sources in Riyadh as a “photo op” aimed at convincing an American audience that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are on board with Obama’s determination to secure a deal with Iran. They aren’t.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

EU, Turkey to Update Customs Union

(BRUSSELS) — The EU and Turkey agreed to update a 20-year-old customs union on Tuesday, while Brussels promised to address Ankara’s concerns about a huge European trade deal with the United States.

Turkey is a long-standing candidate for EU membership, beginning so-called accession talks in 2005, but the process has been bogged down for years amid opposition from some key EU states.

The customs union was set up in 1995 as a stepping stone to EU accession. Turkey complains it is now outdated.

In the talks, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem and Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci agreed to a roadmap to expand the customs union, broadening it to include services, government contracts and most agricultural goods.

“Turkey has not given up on becoming a full member of the EU and at the end of this process it will be nearer,” said Zeybekci.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek, Turk Ministers Agree to Start Talks on Aegean Issues

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday agreed to intensify exploratory talks on the thorny issue of the continental shelf, to promote confidence-building measures and to back a new round of peace talks on Cyprus.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gulf Countries Heading Towards VAT and ‘Fiscal Revolution’

A fiscal revolution seems on the horizon for Gulf countries. The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar — seem to have decided to introduce a value-added tax (VAT). Citizens as well as local and international firms are closely watching developments. The question of whether or not it will be introduced has been weighing heavily in regional media over the past few months. The issue has long been under discussion

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iranian General Warns Saudis, US to Not Block Ship Bound for Yemen

TEHRAN, Iran — A senior Iranian military official has warned the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemeni rebels that blocking an Iranian aid ship bound for Yemen will “spark a fire,” as a five-day humanitarian cease-fire appeared to hold early Wednesday after going into effect the day before.

“I bluntly declare that the self-restraint of Islamic Republic of Iran is not limitless,” Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy chief of staff, told Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam state TV late Tuesday.

“Both Saudi Arabia and its novice rulers, as well as the Americans and others, should be mindful that if they cause trouble for the Islamic Republic with regard to sending humanitarian aid to regional countries, it will spark a fire, the putting out of which would definitely be out of their hands.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq Claims US-Led Airstrike Kills Senior Islamic State Commander

Iraq claimed Wednesday that a senior Islamic State commander has been killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in the country’s north.

While the U.S.-led coalition says it carried out a strike there in the last 24 hours, Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Wednesday that there is “nothing to independently confirm this report.”

There was also no confirmation from Islamic State media, the BBC reports.

The Defense Ministry statement said the strike killed Abu Alaa al-Afari and others in Tal Afar.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Islamic State’ Second-in-Command Al-Afari ‘Killed in Air Raid’

Iraq’s foreign ministry has claimed that the deputy leader of “Islamic State” has been killed in a US-led coalition air strike in northern Iraq. Abu Alaa al-Afari was said to have been meeting militants in a mosque.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State Deputy Leader ‘Killed in Iraq Air Strike’

The second-in-command of Islamic State (IS) has been killed in a US-led coalition air strike in northern Iraq, the Iraqi ministry of defence says.

Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed, also known as Abu Alaa al-Afari, was at a mosque near Tal Afar that was targeted, spokesman Brig-Gen Tahsin Ibrahim said.

There was no immediate confirmation from the US military or on IS media.

In recent weeks, there were unconfirmed reports that Afari had taken temporary charge of IS operations.

Iraqi sources claimed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been incapacitated as a result of an air strike in Iraq in March.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kingdom Tower Rises: Work Progressing on Future World’s Tallest Building — in Pictures

The Kingdom Tower project, which is owned and developed by Jeddah Economic Company, will be the world’s tallest building once completed in 2018 and is expected to rise to a height of more than 1km.

The Construction site of Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower. The tower is set to be taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalia which stands 828m.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Meet the Nun Who’s Taking on ISIS

As ISIS carries out a genocide against Christians in the Middle East, one brave woman is standing up and risking her life to help the persecuted Church in Iraq and Syria. Sister Hatune Dogan is showing more courage than most Western leaders as she makes regular visits to the region to provide the victims of ISIS with food, clothing, medicine and shelter. At the same time, she sounds the alarm about Islamic jihadist ideology and is calling for Western leaders to step up before its too late.

I had the chance to sit down with Sister Dogan recently when she visited the United States. Watch my report for CBN News on her courageous work by clicking on the link above.

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Pushes Ahead With Summit Despite Arab Absences

Despite the absence of key Arab leaders, President Obama forged ahead Wednesday with a summit of Persian Gulf states and said the U.S. is focused on deepening security ties in the region despite deep concerns about Mr. Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran.

Mr. Obama opened the summit by meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and other Saudi Arabian leaders who traveled to Washington in place of Saudi King Salman. The Saudi leader joined the heads of Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in skipping this week’s gathering, which will continue Thursday with a series of meetings at Camp David.

Riyadh and other Sunni Arab capitals are deeply uneasy about the Iran deal, the region’s pre-eminent Shiite power and one that has vied with Saudi Arabia in a series of proxy skirmishes. The Arab leaders have privately pressed for more binding security guarantees from Washington as a price to not undermining the Iran deal, guarantees that Mr. Obama has refused to give.

Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa is skipping the meeting in order to attend a London horse show.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey and Saudi Arabia Alarm the West by Backing Islamist Extremists the Americans Had Bombed in Syria

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are actively supporting a hardline coalition of Islamist rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s regime that includes al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, in a move that has alarmed Western governments.

The two countries are focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that includes Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist rival to Isis which shares many of its aspirations for a fundamentalist caliphate.

The decision by the two leading allies of the West to back a group in which al-Nusra plays a leading role has alarmed Western governments and is at odds with the US, which is firmly opposed to arming and funding jihadist extremists in Syria’s long-running civil war.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gunmen Attack Bus, Kill Over 40 Shiites in Pakistan’s Karachi

More than 40 Shiite Muslims have been killed in Karachi after attackers opened fire on a bus they were traveling in. This is the latest in a series of attacks on minorities in Pakistan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gunmen Storm Afghan Guesthouse Hosting Party for Foreigners

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen stormed a guesthouse in the Afghan capital as it hosted a party for foreigners Wednesday night, with an eyewitness saying several dozen people, including Americans, likely were being held captive.

Details about exactly how many people were held at Kabul’s Park Palace Hotel remained unclear into the night, as sporadic gunfire echoed around the guesthouse in a central neighborhood home to United Nations compounds and a foreign-run hospital. Two explosions later could be heard and four ambulances later arrived to the scene.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

India: Madhya Pradesh: Hindu Radicals Attack Three Churches

The incidents occurred last night in Indore. The actions were carried out against opposition leader Sonia Gandhi who was supposed to inaugurate a new orphanage run by missionaries. For the Global Council of Indian Christians, “religious freedom is on a downward spiral for Christians”.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Last night, Hindu radicals attacked three churches in Indore, Madhya Pradesh’s largest city. The extremists threw stones, destroyed crosses, vandalised various items and attempted to set fire to one of the places of worship. However, police intervened before they could carry out their plans.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), strongly condemned the attacks, which took place a few hours before Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress Party, inaugurated a missionary-run orphanage.

The Sanskritik Jagran Manch, a local right-wing Hindu organisation, has come under suspicion for what happened after it threatened “direct action” against Gandhi yesterday if she actually opened the facility.

The orphanage is located in a building previously owned by a private organisation. District authorities took it over and gave it to missionaries to turn into an orphanage.

One of the places of worship attacked is St Paul’s Anglican Church. Its priest, Rev Ramesh Chandekar said that militants damaged and destroyed a number of items, including a crucifix, holy vessels and the microphone.

The attackers also tried to set fire to a second Protestant church, throwing burning rags inside. Immediately alerted, police acted quickly and put out the flames before they could spread.

Extremists also threw stones at a third (Protestant) church, breaking glass panels and windows.

Attacks on churches in Madhya Pradesh, a state run by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reflect the situation of the state’s tiny Christian community, whose “religious freedom is on a downward spiral”.

In view of the findings presented in the chapter dedicated to India in the 2015 Report on Religious Freedom in the World, issued by the US Commission on religious freedom, the GCIC president called on “The BJP government to keep its most extremists elements under control, and act swiftly to stop them by enforcing the Indian Penal Code as a deterrent and as a warning to radical groups, who attack without provocation the Christian minority.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

‘IS,’ Taliban Both Claim Pakistan Bus Attack

A bus attack has killed scores in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Two Islamist terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for the attack on a Shiite minority group on their way to worship services.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Karachi: Terror Attack on a Bus Carrying Shia Ismailis, 43 Dead and 13 Wounded

Jundullah, a group allied with the Islamic State group, claimed responsibility, issuing threats of further attacks against Ismailis, Shias and Christians.

Karachi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — At least 43 people have been killed and 20 injured in a gun attack on a bus carrying Ismaili Shia Muslims in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

A group called Jundullah (Soldiers of God) allied with the Islamic State has said that it carried out the attack. Six gunmen fired indiscriminately into the passengers.

This attack was the second deadliest militant attack in Pakistan this year after 62 Shia Muslims were killed in a suicide bombing in late January in Sindh province.

Pakistan has seen a rising tide of sectarian violence in recent years, particularly against Shias, who make up around 20 per cent of the country’s population. Sunnis are about 70 per cent.

Ismaili Shias are known for their progressive Islamic views. Their spiritual leader Prince Karim Aga Khan is a globally renowned philanthropist and business magnate.

In the violence by Taliban and Sunni militants against Shia Muslims in Pakistan, the Ismailis — which make up a tiny proportion of Shias — have been largely spared.

Violence has increase since the Jundullah split from the Pakistani Taleban and allied themselves with the Islamic State group.

A Jundullah spokesman said it carried out the attack because it considered the victims “kafir,” pagans. He threatened more attacks in the coming days against Ismailis, Shias and Christians.

On 15 March, two suicide bombers struck two churches, one Protestant and one Catholic, in Lahore, killing 14 people and wounding at least 80.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

MH370 Search Discovers Uncharted Shipwreck

The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has discovered an uncharted shipwreck in the southern Indian Ocean.

Peter Foley, who heads the search team, said the find was “fascinating… But it’s not what we’re looking for”.

However, he said the find showed that if the flight was in the search area, it would be discovered.

MH370 vanished last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

No trace has been found and there is no explanation for its disappearance.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Kuala Lumpur Joins Jakarta in Push Backs

The Malaysian government intends to push back irregular migrants (Bangladeshis and Rohingya) caught in territorial waters to sea. For fear of arrest, the smugglers abandon thousands of desperate people to their fate. Increase in landing attempts expected in coming days.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Following in the footsteps of Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur will also adopt the push-back policy towards irregular migrants — Bangladesh workers and Rohingya refugees, a Muslim minority persecuted in Myanmar — caught in territorial waters.

The Malaysian government confirmed that it will ferry barges laden with desperate souls offshore, unless there is an “imminent” risk sinking. Tan Kok Kwee, First Admiral of the Coast Guard, said that “the policy is to escort them out of the waters of Malaysia, after providing the necessary assistance”.

Abandoned in the open sea, it would appear that there is no nation willing to accept the thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya and guarantee their rights and dignity; traffickers for fear of being arrested, abandon the boats regardless of the fate of the men, women but also children and the elderly.

Even today there are thousands of refugees sailing without a definite goal in the Straits of Malacca and in the surrounding waters; some of them have been in the open sea for over two months and are in desperate conditions. Some activists say that in the coming days and in the coming weeks there will be many other attempts at landings on the coasts of Indonesia and Malaysia. However, governments in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur have confirmed the crackdown and policy of no welcome or asylum for migrants and refugees.

The Malaysian navy has begun round the clock patrols of the waters surrounding the archipelago of Langkawi, on whose shores they found over 1,100 refugees over the past three days. Of these, 486 were Rohingya and other 682 citizens of Bangladesh. 993 were men, 104 women and 61 children.

For now, the survivors are housed in two shelters, one for men and the second for women and children. However, they will be transferred to a detention center on the mainland, while waiting to see what their fate will be. Among these there is also a Rohingya of only 15 years old, he fled Myanmar because orphaned and without hope for the future; the boy paid $ 200 for this journey of despair. Now he asks worried: “Will they send me back?”.

The migrant crisis in the Asia-Pacific waters is worrying human rights associations and activists, who demand reception policies and aid for desperate people, often fleeing persecution and violence. Yesterday, the international community appealed to the governments of South-East Asia, calling for “regional” action to retrieve and rescue these boats laden with people in despair.

In recent days at least 2 thousand “boat people” from Myanmar and Bangladesh swam to shore, were rescued or intercepted off the Indonesian and Malaysian coast. A crisis which has deepened with the crackdown imposed by Thailand — the real trafficking crossroads — on trade in human lives, after the discovery of a mass grave near the border with Malaysia in which dozens of Rohingya corpses were buried.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Asia Tops Biggest Global School Rankings

The biggest ever global school rankings have been published, with Asian countries in the top five places and African countries at the bottom.

Singapore heads the table, followed by Hong Kong, with Ghana at the bottom.

The UK is in 20th place, among higher achieving European countries, with the US in 28th.

The OECD economic think tank says the comparisons — based on test scores in 76 countries — show the link between education and economic growth.

“This is the first time we have a truly global scale of the quality of education,” said the OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Imposes Smartwatch and Wearable Tech Army Ban

China has forbidden its armed forces from wearing internet-connected wearable tech, according to reports.

The People’s Liberation Army Daily, the Chinese military’s official newspaper, said security concerns had been raised after one recruit had received a smartwatch as a birthday gift.

News site NBC said its sources had confirmed a ban was now in place.

One expert said the move was a natural extension of restrictions already placed by most armies on mobile phones.

The PLA Daily said army leaders had sought the advice of experts last month after being alerted to an incident in which a soldier had tried to use a smartwatch to take a photo of his comrades stationed at the eastern city of Nanjing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Publicly Executes Defense Chief, South Korean Spy Agency Says

(CNN) North Korea has publicly executed the country’s defense minister after the regime accused him of treason, according to reports from South Korea.

Hyon Yong Chol was killed by fire from an anti-aircraft gun at a military school in front of hundreds of people in Pyongyang, the South Korean Intelligence Agency was reported to have told parliament members in a closed door session.

Hyon was executed because he expressed discontent towards leader Kim Jong Un, and failed to follow Kim’s orders on several occasions, according to Kim Gwang-lim, chairman of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee and a lawmaker with the Saenuri Party who attended the briefing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Defence Chief Hyon Yong-Chol ‘Executed’

North Korea’s Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed for showing disloyalty to leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea’s spy agency has told parliament.

MPs were told Mr Hyon was killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds, the Yonhap news agency reports.

It said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions.

South Korea said a senior military officer was also killed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Executes Defense Chief for Falling Asleep During Meeting, South Korea’s Spy Agency Says

South Korea’s spy agency told the country’s lawmakers Wednesday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un executed his defense chief for falling asleep during a meeting and talking back to the young leader.

Lawmaker Shin Kyoung-min says that officials from the National Intelligence Service told a closed-door parliamentary committee that People’s Armed Forces Minister Hyon Yong Chol was killed by anti-aircraft gunfire with hundreds watching at a shooting range at Pyongyang’s Kang Kon Military Academy in late April. Shin was one of the lawmakers who attended the briefing.

The office of another lawmaker, Lee Cheol Woo, released similar information about the NIS briefing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Philippines: Dozens Feared Dead in Manila Factory Fire

Dozens have died after a fire broke out in a beach sandal factory close to Manila. None of the nearly 65 workers stranded in the building managed to escape.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Burundi Army General Announces Overthrow of President Nkurunziza

A top Burundian general has claimed that President Pierre Nkurunziza has been dismissed for unconstitutionally seeking a third term in office. The president was in neighboring Tanzania at the time of the announcement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Burundi Capital Calm, President Tweets That Coup Was Foiled

Burundi’s capital was quiet Wednesday night after a tumultuous day in which thousands of people celebrated an attempted coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza, who was in neighboring Tanzania for a summit meeting on his country’s troubles. But Nkurunziza’s office said the coup attempt was unsuccessful, posting a statement on the president’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran State Television Says 14 Members of Fishing Boat Crew Kidnapped by Al-Shabab in Somalia

Iranian state television is reporting 14 crew members from a fishing boat have been kidnapped by the Islamic militant group al-Shabab off the coast of Somalia.

Al-Shabab is a Somalia-based extremist group with ties to al-Qaida.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia once was a serious threat to the global shipping industry, but attacks have dropped dramatically the last several years after ships began carrying armed guards.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nicaragua Volcano: Cameras Capture Moment Telica Erupts

Camera crews have captured a dramatic eruption from Nicaragua’s Telica volcano.

The volcano has registered 30 small eruptions since it became active last week, according to the Nicaraguan Geological Institute.

The eruption sent dust and rocks high into the sky, and coated nearby towns in ash.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

1.6 Million Immigrants From Predominantly Muslim Countries Since 9/11

How many people in this country are aware of the fact that immigration from Islamic countries has doubled since 9/11? According to data Conservative Review collated from the DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the U.S. has issued 1,628,854 green cards to immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries from 2001-2013. Here is the breakdown by country:…

According to the data, a large portion of this new wave of immigration comes from volatile countries such as Iraq, Iran, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. And don’t forget about Somalia, the source of much of our recent troubles with homegrown terror, particularly in the Minneapolis area.

At that rate, the Muslim population in the U.S. is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

EU Approves Migrant Agenda, Opens Doors to 20,000

Italy has already exceeded its quota says Mogherini

(ANSA) — Brussels, May 13 — The EU College of Commissioners on Wednesday adopted the European Agenda on Migration, which includes a proposed scheme for settling in Europe 20,000 asylum seekers coming from refugee camps in third countries. Italy’s quota will be 9.94%, EU sources said. As well, the Agenda calls for a redistribution of asylum seekers already present in Europe. Italy will be assigned 11.84% of them, the sources said.

Italy however is exempted from receiving new refugees because it has already exceeded the quota, EU Foreign Affairs High Commissioner Federica Mogherini said, adding her thanks to the Commission for its work.

“EU Agenda on Migration adopted by the Commission. Thank you @JunckerEU @TimmermansEU and @Avramopoulos for excellent teamwork,” she tweeted.

The four criteria for distributing the refugees among member States are population, GDP, number of refugees already hosted, and unemployment rate.

Also part of the plan is to destroy migrant traffickers’ boats via air and sea operations in the Mediterranean and in Libyan waters.

A 19-page document on a strategic plan on immigration to be approved at an EU foreign and defense council meeting next Monday may authorize ground troops in Libya to destroy migrant traffickers’ boats under a UN mandate, The Guardian UK newspaper reported Wednesday after it got hold of a copy of the document.

Mogherini however denied the EU is mulling any such ground operations in Libya.

“We are planning a naval operation against migrant traffickers,” she told a Guardian UK reporter. “We want to assist member States in halting the humanitarian slaughter and offer sustainable long-term solutions” to a problem “that won’t disappear just because we’re talking about it,” European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said while presenting the newly adopted Agenda.

“The reason many citizens don’t trust us lies in our limited powers to send those unqualified to enter Europe back to their countries of origin,” Timmermans went on. “Sending the unqualified back is an integral part of our plan,” he added. “The greatest gift we could make extremists and anti-immigration populists is to make sure a system that doesn’t work, remains that way,” Timmermans said. Also on Wednesday, the EU Political and Security Committee (PSC) decided to boost its civilian mission in Niger in a bid to stem the flow of undocumented migrants towards Europe.

Some 90% of migrants from western Africa transit through Niger on their way to Libya. “It is only by working with the countries of origin and of transit, with the African Union and the United Nations that we will be able to deal with the root causes of the emergency,” Mogherini said. “That way we can destroy the criminal organizations and help migrants escape from their grip”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

EU Asylum Seekers Up 50% 2013-2014

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAY 12 — The EU granted asylum to 185,000 migrants in 2014, 50% more than in 2013, Eurostat said Tuesday. Around two thirds of the claims were granted by four countries: Germany (47,600, +82% on 2013); Sweden (33,000, +25%); France (20,600, +27%) and Italy (20,600, +42%).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Plan Against Migrant Smugglers in Libya Could Include Ground Forces

A EU plan to thwart migrant smugglers operating out of Libya involves action on shore.

The 19-page document, acquired by the Guardian newspaper, outlines an air and naval campaign in the Mediterranean and in Libyan territorial waters, pending the UN Security Council’s appoval.

Officials in Brussels have long stressed that a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to the crisis is unlikely. The document in question however suggests that this action may be needed and remains a possibility.

“A presence ashore might be envisaged if agreement was reached with relevant authorities,” says the paper. The document is expected to receive the endorsement of EU foreign ministers when they meet next Monday, ahead of an EU heads of government summit in June.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe’s Migrant Policy Creates ‘Smugglers’ Market’: Study

European policies aimed at stemming illegal migration across the Mediterranean over the last two decades have failed, instead creating a “smugglers’ market”, said a Dutch study released on Tuesday.

“What we have seen in the past 25 years is that European countries have harmonised their migration policies and in the same period they made them much stricter,” immigration rights specialist Thomas Spijkerboer, the report’s chief author, told AFP.

“Instead of making migration impossible, restrictive migration policies have created a market for smugglers,” said Spijkerboer who led the VU University Amsterdam study of migrants killed crossing the Mediterranean between 1990-2013.

“In the same period we see the number of border deaths steadily increasing. We think the two are related,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

European Union Forges Ahead With Quota Plan for Migrants

The European Union forged ahead Wednesday with a plan to ease pressure on nations dealing with an influx of Mediterranean migrants by requiring other countries to share the burden, despite some strong opposition.

The proposed system would set maximum refugee limits for each country in the EU based on population, employment levels and other factors. The exact details have not been hashed out, but the general idea is that once a country reaches its maximum, migrants seeking asylum there could be sent to other countries, which would have to take them in.

“It is not acceptable for people around the EU to say, ‘Yes, stop people dying in the Mediterranean,’ and at the same time remain silent when the question is raised, ‘What should happen to these people?’“ European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said.

Countries including Hungary, Slovakia and Estonia have already rejected the plan, meaning it is unlikely to pass without major caveats and concessions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Made One in Four EU Asylum Grants

As the European Commission presented a migration plan that would share responsibility for refugees across all EU countries, new data showed that Germany accepted the largest share of asylum applications of any Union member in 2014.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Islands Struggle With Refugee Influx

The Aegean Islands are a major landing point for refugees on their way to Europe. The islanders are scrambling to cope with the new arrivals in the midst of Greece’s financial crisis.

The number of migrants arriving in Greece by boat from Turkey has increased dramatically since last year. The International Organization for Migration says that nearly 22,000 migrants arrived in Greece in the first four months of 2015, compared to nearly 34,000 in the entire year of 2014. (A little over 26,000 migrants have reached Italy since the start of 2015).

The frontline for this migration is along the northern Aegean islands, which include Leros, Kos and Lesvos. Island municipalities are struggling to find temporary housing for the migrants, who must be fingerprinted and registered before they’re given temporary residency papers that allow them to stay in Greece between one and six months.

Greece, in the throes of a deep economic depression sparked by its massive debt crisis, does not have the resources to help the migrants, says Matina Katsivelli, a retired judge who leads the Leros solidarity network.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Terrorists ‘Coming to Italy Within Weeks’

The information minister for Libya’s Tobruk government has warned that terrorists from the Islamic extremist group, Isis, will be heading to Italy “in the coming weeks”.

Omar al Gawari told Ansa that the militants will hide themselves on migrant boats.

Italy, and Rome in particular, has been a target for the militants for some time.

Several threats against the capital, the centre of the Catholic Church, have been made by the group.

“In the coming weeks, Italy will experience the arrival not only of poor African immigrants but also of boats carrying Daesh (Isis),” al Gawari, who represents the country’s internationally-recognized government based in the port city of Tobruk, told the Italian news agency, adding that Malta will also be affected.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mediterranean Migrants Should be Turned Back: UK Minister

(LONDON) — Migrants who attempt to reach the European Union by crossing the Mediterranean should be turned back, the British interior minister wrote in an article on Wednesday.

The comments come amid a European Union row over how to address a crisis that has seen thousands of migrants drown fleeing conflict and poverty in North Africa and the Middle East.

Home Secretary Theresa May said a mooted proposal for European countries to accept a binding quota of refugees would only encourage more to make the dangerous sea crossing.

“The EU should work to establish safe landing sites in North Africa, underpinned by an active programme of returns,” May said in an opinion piece in The Times.

It is wrong to say that no migrants should be returned against their will, as asserted by the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, May wrote.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mediterranean Migrant Crisis: HMS Bulwark Rescues Hundreds

A British warship has rescued hundreds of migrants from the Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defence has said.

HMS Bulwark brought more than 400 people to safety after they were found 40 miles from the Libyan coast in inflatable boats.

The European Commission has proposed a scheme to offer 20,000 refugees the right to resettle in the EU.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May has suggested that some rescued migrants should be returned home.

The BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said a further 150 migrants had been transferred to HMS Bulwark from an Italian coastguard vessel and the ship would now head to Sicily.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the Royal Navy had rescued about 600 people so far this month.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Grants Asylum to Just 1 Percent of EU Total

As the European Commission called on Wednesday for all member states to share responsibility for taking in migrants, data showed that the number of people granted asylum in Spain amounted to less than 1 percent of the EU total last year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden in Spotlight for Biggest Asylum Share

Sweden’s decision to take in more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU nation remained in focus on Wednesday as the European Commission formally presented its plan for member states to share responsibility for refugees fleeing the Middle East and Africa.

Asylum figures by the EU’s statistics watchdog Eurostat this week confirmed that Sweden is continuing to take in a bigger share of asylum seekers than any other member state, when compared to existing population size.

Around 9.6 million people live in the Nordic nation and asylum was granted to more than 33,000 refugees last year.

This means that for every one million people in Sweden, the Nordic nation took in 3,424 asylum seekers in 2014.

By contrast, Germany took in 589 per one million, while for the UK the figure was just 218.

Sweden’s rate of acceptance was also the highest in the EU.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Facebook Smugglers Selling the Dream of Europe

Across the Mediterranean, people smugglers are advertising their services on Facebook, promising safe passage to migrants desperate to reach Europe. Their pages offer a glimpse into a smuggling network that spans three continents, generates hundreds of millions of dollars, and has become, in effect, an alternative asylum service for the EU.

“With the beginning of the new season we have a range of journeys on offer. Turkey Libya Italy, $3,800. Algeria Libya Italy, $2,500. Sudan Libya Italy, $2,500… The boats are all wood… If you have questions, contact me on Viber or WhatsApp.”

This is not an ad from a travel brochure. It’s a Facebook update posted by a people smuggler, Abdul Aziz, from the Libyan port of Zuwara on 21 April. Abdul Aziz is just one of hundreds of smugglers now using social media to promote their services to migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK Wants Intercepted Boat Migrants Sent Home

UK home secretary Theresa May says economic migrants with no chance for asylum plucked from the Mediterranean Sea should be pushed back, reports The Times newspaper. May told the paper she disagrees with the EU’s foreign policy chief that no migrant intercepted at sea should be sent home.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New UK Law Could Criminalize ‘Politically Incorrect’ Opinions

A chilling comment by British Prime Minister David Cameron suggests that even people who obey the law won’t be “left alone” by the state if they engage in anything the government deems to be “hate speech,” including “bigotry” and potentially criticism of homosexuality and feminism.

Preparing to introduce a new counter-terrorism bill later this month, Cameron laid the groundwork for the measures by remarking that the state not interfering with people’s lives if they “obey the law” was a “failed approach.”

“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance. This Government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach,” Cameron stated.

The London Independent branded the quote, “the creepiest thing David Cameron has ever said.”

According to BBC News, the new anti-radicalization laws could even ensnare those who voice politically incorrect opinions.

“Would those who oppose homosexuality or multiculturalism or feminism be accused of threatening values of tolerance and equality?” asks the BBC’s Mark Easton. “Could Russell Brand’s argument against voting be regarded as threatening democracy?”

The new measures are being introduced under the justification of combating Islamic extremism, a dubious claim given that Cameron’s government has repeatedly backed actual jihadist groups in the conflicts in Libya and Syria.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Supremes Contemplate Making War Against Heaven

“If the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what the Constitution says, then we have ceased to be our own rulers (under God), and the Supreme Court is our ruler.” — President Andrew Jackson

The Supreme Court declared, “We are a Christian people…according to one another the equal right of religious freedom, and acknowledging with the reverence the duty of obedience to God.” — United States v. Macintosh (1931)

While there are some American people that are ignorantly anticipating the Supreme Court’s decision on what its definition of marriage is, it is important to remember that the job of the Supreme Court justices is to discover written law and apply written law. They are not there to legislate or to activate, nor is it their business to redefine what they do not agree with when it come to the One who gave law…

Elena Kagan is the former dean of students at Harvard. Contrary to Harvard’s founding mottos, “For Christ and the Church” and “For the glory of Christ,” Kagan is known for “Queerifying Harvard.”

During her tenure, she did the following:

1. Kagan hired former ACLU lawyer William Rubenstein to teach “queer” legal theory, in which he taught courses on taking up new identities such as bisexuality, transgender f**k, involving polygamy, sadomasochism, and the sexuality of minors.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canada, Australia, And Japan Issue Warning Over GMO Contamination

We’ve been warning about GM contamination risks for a while at Natural Society, but the USDA doesn’t seem to want to contain the issue. This, while three major countries jointly issue a warning that genetically modified organisms pose too large a risk for contaminating other plants. This follows the EUs recent authorization of 17 new GMOs meant for animal feed and human consumption.

The contamination risk looms large since even unapproved GM crops have been found growing where they shouldn’t be. One strain of genetically modified wheat was discovered in Oregon several years ago. The Roundup Ready strain was nixed in 2005 when global resistance to Monsanto forced the company to stop working on it. It was never approved for use, let along growing and exporting, but there it was growing in the middle of the US.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Chicken Embryos With Dinosaur Snouts Created in Lab

Chicks with dino-snouts? With a little molecular tinkering, for the first time scientists have created chicken embryos with broad, Velociraptor-like muzzles in the place of their beaks.

The bizarrely developing chickens shed new light on how the bird beak evolved, scientists added.

The Age of Dinosaurs came to an end with a bang about 65 million years ago, due to an impact from a giant rock from space, which was probably about 6 miles (10 kilometers) across. However, not all of the dinosaurs went extinct because of this catastrophe — birds, or avian dinosaurs, are now found on every continent on Earth.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Freedom House: Democracy Discarded, Return to the Iron Fist

The latest Freedom House publication on Freedom in the World for 2015 confirms the pessimism:

For the ninth consecutive year, Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual report on the condition of global political rights and civil liberties, showed an overall decline. Indeed, acceptance of democracy as the world’s dominant form of government — and of an international system built on democratic ideals … is under greater threat than at any point in the last 25 years … developments in 2014 were exceptionally grim. The report’s findings show that nearly twice as many countries suffered declines as registered gains.

As the reports’ authors note, “just as disturbing as the statistical decline was the open disdain for democratic standards that colored the words and actions of autocratic governments during the year. Until recently, most authoritarian regimes claimed to respect international agreements and paid lip service to the norms of competitive elections and human rights. They now increasingly flout democratic values, argue for the superiority of what amounts to one-party rule, and seek to throw off the constraints of fundamental diplomatic principles.”

Only 46 percent of the world’s countries, and just 40 percent of its total population, are rated as free. The majority of the planet lives under varying degrees of tyranny — and as we see in the West, outcroppings of tyranny continue to fester and emerge in our “free” nations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

10 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/13/2015

  1. On Britain to be the most ‘populous nation’ within the EU? Really? Is populous, as in population explosion, such a good thing? And, Britain ceased being a nation (the description of nation being a country of homogenous or singular ethnicity aspiring to the same ideals) back in the 1960s when it permitted immigration from the West Indies opening the flood gates to all and sundry ever since.

    So, in fact, the story really is saying that in the not too distant future, Britain will be a country of tribal affiliations while pretending to be a stable nation.

  2. “New UK Law Could Criminalize ‘Politically Incorrect’ Opinions” This was proposed in one of those Framework decisions made by the EU for consideration by member states. I cannot in all honesty see a Conservative government enacting what is a far left proposal.
    Is Cameron really contemplating a law to encapsulate the supremacy of cultural marxism?

    • In politics there are no right or wrong, or principles. There is one goal: get elected at the cost of anything …. even if you destroy your own country. .. as it is happening to all European countries.

      There is no honor, no virtues, nothing at all ,….. except to get elected, ph-op, and that empty pompous fame …. So and so was PM of Crap in 20** .
      Wolves in sheep’s clothing.

      • To quote you; I do believe you are correct, unfortunately. (all joking aside)

  3. “Police are also expected to get powers to seize the passports of those suspected of plotting to travel abroad to fight.”

    Someone knowledgeable please explain this to me. I have long wondered why Europe and Britain do not want to allow these people to leave. Why not? Just don’t let them back in again — this seems like the realistic and sensible answer: you want to go be a jihadist? Fine,go — but don’t come back.

    I really don’t understand Europe’s, Scandinavians’, and Britain’s ostrich attitude. They KNOW but they won’t do anything about it. Multiculturalism seems to be much worse than Communism,back in the day. feel sorry for them, but they will all be Muslims sooner or later. They re being outbred and they keep letting them in.

    Kind of stupid and suicidal, no?

    • To allow the would be jihadist to travel to known areas occupied by Al Qaeda, ISIS or whatever alphabet soup of Islamic fundamentalism they would head off to, would be an admission that multiculturalism has failed to live up to its wishful assumption and that there is an inherent problem within the ‘religion of peace’ that would need to be urgently addressed.

      In short, no has the cojones to stop kicking that can down the road, yet!

  4. ” The missing Arab leaders are reportedly unhappy with Mr. Obama’s policy of appeasement towards Iran.”

    Hussein Obama is “democratically elected” and he appeases Iran, the terror exporting, meddler, even extending its hands into Argentina and murdering Jews there, for cheap oil. And Hussein decisions are wrong, deadly.

    Arab Kings are not elected. But their decisions are logical, commonsensical, has native wisdom, based on realities on the ground. Not fanciful.

    Who’s better and nobler ? An elected dishonest or wise decision maker?
    As much as I hate Saddam Hussein because he had Jewish blood on his criminal hands, he gave $25 000 to any Jews murder, he kept Iran at bay.
    April Claspie and Saddam

  5. Well those ” leaders” can now ” enjoy” the feelings of disappointment and RAGE over Obama’s dictates like MOST Americans do now. And maybe even the FEAR too.

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