The Front National in France, under the leadership of Marine Le Pen, has suspended her father Jean-Marie Le Pen from the party. He has now reportedly disowned his daughter.
In other news, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the failed jihad attack in Garland, Texas. However, the incident had nothing to do with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.
EU Sources Say Pension Ruling Could Affect Italy’s Finances
Poletti says too early to know impact of court’s decision
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 4 — A European Union source said Monday that a court ruling last week overturning pension reforms worth billions of euros could force changes to the Italian budget.
“We are waiting to see how the government will apply the judgment (but) anything that changes the fiscal targets of the financial planning document (of Italy) should be offset,” the source told ANSA.
However, it is “still too early” to assess the impact of the Constitutional Court ruling, Labour and Welfare Minister Giuliano Poletti said Monday.
At the same time, a business group said the last week’s decision, which overturned an earlier government change to pension payments, could be painfully expensive.
The court said the pensions reforms, introduced in 2011 to gradually save the cash-strapped government about five billion euros, could not stand.
Poletti said that ruling must be reviewed in the context of the impact on the government’s budget balance, adding that higher taxes to offset the possible losses were not an option. “This government wants to cut taxes, not raise them,” said Poletti.
The government of Premier Matteo Renzi has struggled to keep its books in balance, meet EU budget rules, and still take measures to stimulate an economy that for years has been mired in recession.
The pension measures suspending inflation indexing were unconstitutional, the court ruled Thursday in rejecting article 24 of the 2011 decree.
The needs of pensioners living on a fixed income cannot be “unreasonably sacrificed in the name of financial requirements not shown in detail,” ruled the court in a filing made under Judge Silvana Sciarra.
Carlo Sangalli, president of retailers association Confcommercio, urged the Renzi government to “find the resources to cover the pension hole by cutting unproductive public spending”.
He said the government must avoid tax hikes, including any increase to the value-added tax which he said would “block any prospect of economic recovery” but making it hard for consumers to spend and stimulate growth.
Susanna Camuso, leader of the CGIL trade union federation, said the government must now eliminate the pension reforms that were introduced under the former premier Mario Monti.
The aim of the 2011 pension measures was to “equalize” high pensions by suspending some inflation indexing so as to save — by some estimates — about 1.8 billion euros in 2012 and three billion euros in 2013.
The measures were to affect only pensions greater than three times the minimum pension provided by national agency INPS.
The plan came during a very low point in the Italian economy which was plagued by recession and very high interest rates.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Experts Are Warning That the 76 Trillion Dollar Global Bond Bubble is About to Explode
Warren Buffett believes “that bonds are very overvalued”, and a recent survey of fund managers found that 80 percent of them are convinced that bonds have become “badly overvalued”.
The most famous bond expert on the planet, Bill Gross, recently confessed that he has a sense that the 35 year bull market in bonds is “ending” and he admitted that he is feeling “great unrest”. Nobel Prize—winning economist Robert Shiller has added a new chapter to his bestselling book in which he argues that bond prices are “irrationally high”. The global bond bubble has ballooned to more than 76 trillion dollars, and interest rates have never been lower in modern history. In fact, 25 percent of all government bonds in Europe actually have a negative rate of return at this point. There is literally nowhere for the bond market to go except for the other direction, and when this bull market turns into a bear it will create chaos and financial devastation all over the planet.
In a recent piece entitled “A Sense Of Ending”, bond guru Bill Gross admitted that the 35 year bull market in bonds that has made him and those that have invested with him so wealthy is now coming to an end…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Must Take ‘Major Steps’ To Compromise, Says EU’s Juncker
Athens must take major steps to compromise with its international creditors but a Greek exit from the eurozone is not an option, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
Greek negotiators and representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been holding talks since last Thursday on an interim deal to address Greece’s debt problems.
Wide differences over pension and labor reforms remain as the country’s cash position becomes increasingly critical.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Health: Greek Hospitals on the Brink of Bankruptcy
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 5 — Greek state hospitals face serious financial problems making their operation extremely difficult, while debts to suppliers have reached 900 million euros. In most instances, as GreekReporter website writes today, the operation of hospitals is based on the good will of staff and suppliers, as the National Health System (ESY) has not received any state funding between the months of February and April. According to Proto Thema newspaper, state hospitals received a total of 43.4 million euros for their operational needs for the first four months of 2015. During the same period in 2014, hospitals received 229.6 million euros for operational needs in addition to 400 million for the repayment of outstanding debts. This year, Greek hospitals have not received any funds to repay debts, and have received only half of the 87.7 million euros allocated for operational costs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Most Greeks Want Euro Even With New Bailout Deal
The majority of Greeks want the country to stay in the eurozone should ongoing negotiations with foreign creditors fail, even if that means signing a new bailout deal, a new survey has found.
Asked whether they want to keep the euro or return to the drachma, 66.5 percent said they preferred the common currency over 27 percent who would prefer a return to the nation’s old currency. A smaller majority, 55.5 percent over 35 percent, were in favor of euro membership if that entailed signing up to a new memorandum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
17 Million-Dollar Donors to Clinton Foundation While Hillary Clinton Was Secretary of State
Many of the most U.S. powerful corporations and foundations contributed $1 million or more to the Clinton Foundation while also lobbying the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, according to Vox. The “symbiotic relationship between the Clintons and their donors” was described as “striking,” if not scandalous, according to Vox’s Jonathan Allen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Accused Texas Gunman Well-Known to FBI Before Attack
Since 2006, the FBI had been investigating Elton Simpson — one of the men suspected in the Texas shootings outside a contest featuring cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Agents recorded the young man from Phoenix talking about fighting nonbelievers for Allah. About plans to travel to South Africa and link up with “brothers” in Somalia. About using school as a cover story for traveling overseas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al Sharpton Reveals Federal Agenda: “We Need the Justice Department to Take Over Policing”
It isn’t really about Freddie Gray. And it isn’t really about race, either.
It’s about federal power over policing in America.
That agenda, which SHTF reported on back in December, is made plain by the latest from the Rev. Al Sharpton.
His march on Washington isn’t just an attempt to stir up sympathy points in a divided political landscape. By his own words, Sharpton is trying to use the issue to fight states’ rights and have the Justice Department intervene at the federal level with local police affairs:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Unrest as Obama Pushes Mentoring Program
Washington (CNN) America faced another jarring split-screen moment Monday afternoon as President Barack Obama delved into the plight of urban communities in a deeply personal speech at the same time tensions increased once again between police and African-American Baltimore residents.
Obama pledged during a speech in the Bronx, a borough in New York City, to spend “the rest of my life” working to improve battered urban communities through the re-launching of his My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which aids and mentors young minority men and boys, as a not-for-profit organization.
But even as Obama was announcing the initiative, cable news stations paired his remarks with images of the again-heightened unrest in Baltimore, where a single fired shot had once again led to a wall of police officers facing a growing crowd of residents.
[…]
Obama, indicating a direction his life might take out of office, said, “There’s no shortage of people telling you who and what is to blame for the plight of these communities. But I’m not interested in blame. I’m interested in responsibility, and I’m interested in results.”
[So stop with the dog-whistle politics, already. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Communist Common Core and the Reauthorization of Esea
In October, 1985 “A meeting of American and Soviet educational computer experts… produced an agreement to exchange specialists involved in the improvement of elementary and secondary education.” (The New York Times, December 10, 1985)
The meeting in Moscow was held under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and approved by the U.S. State Department and National Security advisors.
That meeting paved the way for the U.S.-Soviet education agreements signed at the Geneva Summit in November, 1985 to promote “Cooperation in development of exchanges and software-related instruction for elementary and secondary school students.” (The Washington Post, November 26, 1985)
Educate is the realization of what Alexander Solzhenitsyn warned against in 1973 when he said; “co-existence on this tightly knit earth should be viewed as an existence not only without wars —that is not enough —but also without violence, or telling us how to live, what to say, what to think, what to know and what not to know.” (SEPTEMBER 11, 1973) (Emphasis added)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Consumer Groups Initiate Private Glyphosate Testing in US
In late March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO), determined that glyphosate—the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup—is a Class 2 A “probable carcinogen.”1,2,3
This determination is nothing short of devastating to Monsanto and other chemical technology companies that rule our food supply, and recent “astroturf” attack on Dr. Oz reveals just how desperate they are to quell rising concerns.
Not only is the IARC considered the global gold standard for carcinogenicity studies, it’s also one of the research agencies from which the California agency of environmental hazards gets its data to declare carcinogens under Prop 65.
So, eventually, foods containing glyphosate will likely have to carry a Prop 65 cancer warning label to be sold in California.
And since glyphosate cannot be washed off and can remain stable in foods for over a year,4 a Prop 65 label would likely have to be applied to most non-organic processed foods. It’s no great surprise then that Monsanto wants the IARC to retract its findings.
The House of Cards Is Falling Apart…
It may be too late to rehabilitate the image of Roundup, however, as mounting scientific evidence has revealed that glyphosate causes harm through a number of different mechanisms that were previously unknown—both in isolation and in formulated combinations.
Not only has glyphosate been deemed carcinogenic, recent research6,7,8,9 also reveals that the Roundup formulation boosts antibiotic resistance by turning on a specific set of genes in the bacterium. This primes it to become more readily resistant to antibiotics.
Roundup was shown to increase the antibiotic-resistance of E. coli and salmonella specifically — bacteria responsible for many cases of foodborne illness—and this switch-on was found to occur at the typical levels of exposure associated with agricultural and residential application.
A 2013 paper10 published in Insect Conservation and Diversity also links the monarchs’ decline to the increased use of glyphosate, in conjunction with increased planting of genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybeans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump: Slams Pamela Geller for Provoking Muslim Attack on Tx Muhammad Cartoon Event
Donald Trump reacts to the Muhammad Cartoon Contest shooting and probably isn’t what you would expect from him. “What in the hell is she doing?” Trump said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday. “She’s taunting them,” he added. “What is the purpose of it? Isn’t there something else they could draw?”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t be Fooled by Pamela Geller
By Haroon Mohgul
(CNN) It’s possible you’d never heard of Pamela Geller before Sunday night’s tragic attack in Garland, Texas. You might think she’s taking a brave stand for free speech, for American values, and that by supporting her, you’re supporting America.
I’m here to disabuse you of that notion. While Geller claims to stand for American values, much of what she does undermines our values.
Sunday night, two gunmen opened fire outside an anti-Muslim event in Texas, and were quickly shot dead. Security prevented what could have been a far greater tragedy, and I am thankful for that, and for those authorities who put their lives on the line to protect our freedom of speech. But this isn’t only about free speech — which, it should go without saying — is a right for all Americans. It’s also about how some people use freedom of speech to subvert other American values.
I am Muslim, and after attacks like these, folks always ask, “Do you condemn terrorism?” Or they throw up their hands and say, “Where are the Muslims!” Well, to be blunt: Not at the event. In fact, every major mosque in the Garland, Texas, area not only shrugged off the anti-Islam event happening in their backyard, but also declined to exercise their equal right to peacefully protest it.
It appears from early reports that the suspects were not currently involved with a mosque. This is because American Muslims — our mosques and our leadership — reject radicalism out of hand.
[…]
Democracy requires free speech, but it also requires individual responsibility. That’s at the heart of what makes this country work. So what happens when they clash? What happens when a person uses free speech to stigmatize an entire people? Even though American Muslims condemn terrorism, it’s unfair to be expected to. Collective responsibility? Guilty until proven innocent? That’s what it means to ask us all to condemn actions, when we have nothing to do with those actions.
There are other American values, too, which deserve mentioning: Exercising your freedoms with responsibility. Yes, we have the right to say things, even offensive things. But should we? Should we act with no consideration of the consequences? Should Geller have hosted an event she knew would draw a violent reaction? Should she put up advertisements in New York with the beneath-contempt claim that killing Jews is obligatory for Muslims?
[Read the Qur’an, specifically verse 5:82, which declares that “Strongest in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews …” This is merely more more taqqiya — dissimulation — from a Muslim operative, of which we can expect much more in the days ahead. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Dreams From Obama’s Different Fathers
Obama’s claim to have been abandoned by his Kenyan father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., is usually combined with the story that he was raised by his white grandparents in Hawaii. However, this has been demonstrated to be a carefully concocted lie designed to hide the fact that his grandfather picked black Communist Frank Marshall Davis to be Obama’s childhood mentor in Hawaii.
According to Barack Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father, Davis, referred to as “Frank,” gave him advice on such topics as going to college and race relations, telling him that blacks “have reason to hate.” Davis’s true identity in the Obama book Dreams from My Father was obviously concealed because of his controversial background—which has been extensively documented by Accuracy in Media—as a suspected Soviet espionage agent, pornographer and pedophile.
It was communist historian Gerald Horne who initially disclosed “Frank” to be Davis at a 2007 event announcing that the archives of the Communist Party USA were being stored at New York University’s Tamiment Library. He had noted Davis’s influence over Obama and predicted in his remarks, “Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party,” that Obama would go down in history as a major and influential figure.
Despite Obama’s professed concern for the future of the dysfunctional black family, he has never been asked publicly by the media to explain his relationship with Davis, and he has avoided even mentioning the subject in public, except for one 1995 appearance that just recently surfaced on the Internet in a video. Obama said in that appearance that Davis had schooled him on the subject of white racism before he went off to college.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Pol Who Spoke at Muhammad Cartoon Contest Warns of More Attacks on US Soil
America can expect more terror attacks on U.S. soil, because radical Islamists “want to kill or subjugate us all,” warned the Dutch lawmaker who served as the keynote speaker at the Texas event that suspected terrorists tried to ambush Sunday as it showcased cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
In an interview with FoxNews.com, Geert Wilders, the firebrand leader of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands said radical Islam — as an ideology — was relentless in its quest for domination, and so he was not surprised by Sunday’s attack at “Draw the Prophet Muhammad” contest in Garland, Texas.
“I always said that what has happened in Europe will also happen in America if you don’t stop Islam,” said Wilders, who had delivered his address and left the building before the attack took place.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geller’s courageous and informative effort (view the full 3-hour event here)—nearly terminated via jihadists desirous of mass-murdering “blasphemous” innocents—has been ignorantly misrepresented not only by the likes of Alisyn Camerota on CNN, but also Martha MacCallum, and even to a lesser extent, Megyn Kelly, of Fox News. More egregiously, neither of these networks have displayed the thoughtful Muhammad cartoon drawn by artist Bosch Fawstin, a former Muslim freethinker of Albanian descent, whose depiction (above) was awarded first prize at the free speech exhibition. Indeed, Mr. Fawstin was told specifically not to show his cartoon drawing, prior to his interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Judge Rules FBI Can Put a GPS Device on Your Car if They Consider You a ‘Threat’
A federal judge threw out claims by a California man who became a media sensation after he found a government GPS tracker in his car. Yasir Afifi says he was due for an oil change in October 2010 when he discovered the GPS device. Based on feedback he received after uploading photos of the device onto the Internet, Afifi determined that it was government issued.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Here We Go: McClatchy Suggests Limits on Free Speech After Texas Jihad Shooting
By Robert Spencer
You knew this was coming. It was inevitable. We have seen it before.
When the Obama Administration blamed the Benghazi jihad attack on a video about Muhammad, there were calls in the mainstream media for restrictions on the freedom of speech. Eric Posner in Slate derided the First Amendment’s “sacred status” and declared that “Americans need to learn that the rest of the world—and not just Muslims—see no sense in the First Amendment. Even other Western nations take a more circumspect position on freedom of expression than we do, realizing that often free speech must yield to other values and the need for order.”
In the Los Angeles Times, Sarah Chayes noted that “the current standard for restricting speech — or punishing it after it has in fact caused violence — was laid out in the 1969 case Brandenburg vs. Ohio. Under the narrower guidelines, only speech that has the intent and the likelihood of inciting imminent violence or lawbreaking can be limited.” She then argued at length that the Muhammad video did indeed have the likelihood of inciting imminent violence, and should thus be banned. Her article was a sleazy and dishonest sleight of hand, as the law is that speech that calls for violence can be banned, whereas she was arguing that speech that doesn’t call for violence, but that might make people who oppose it behave violently, should be banned. That would be to enshrine the heckler’s veto into law and to enable Islamic jihadis to silence anyone they disliked simply by killing someone.
And in the Washington Post, the vile gutter thug Nathan Lean (who has repeatedly published on Twitter what he thinks is my home address and places I frequent, in a transparent attempt to endanger me and those around me, and/or to frighten me into silence) declared: “The voices of hate that hope to fracture our society along religious lines should have no place in our public discourse.” Who would decide which are the “voices of hate” that should be silenced? People like Nathan Lean, of course — that is, purveyors of the “Islamophobia” myth who are determined to silence anyone and everyone who dares raise the slightest objection to the advancing jihad.
And now, Lindsay Wise and Jonathan S. Landay of McClatchy wish that Pamela Geller and I could be prosecuted for standing for free speech against violent intimidation, and describe completely wrongly the concept of “fighting words,” which is actually about words spoken in an actual fight situation, not about an innocuous activity that others find so provocative as to commit murder.
The free world is going quietly.
“After Texas shooting: If free speech is provocative, should there be limits?,” by Lindsay Wise and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy, May 4, 2015 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
WASHINGTON — Organizers of the Muhammad Art Exhibit in Garland, Texas, knew violence was a possibility.
They shelled out $10,000 for extra security to patrol the controversial event, which featured a speech by a Dutch politician who’s on al Qaida’s “hit list” and a contest for the best cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Local law enforcement was on the alert. A SWAT team and a bomb squad patrolled.
The two gunmen who opened fire with assault weapons outside the exhibit on Sunday were killed by a police officer. They have been identified by law enforcement as Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, both of Phoenix. They appear, from social media posts, to have been motivated by a desire to become mujahedeen, or holy warriors.
The attack highlights the tensions between protecting Americans’ treasured right to freedom of expression and preserving public safety, and it raises questions about when — if ever — government should intervene.
There are two exceptions from the constitutional right to free speech — defamation and the doctrine of “fighting words” or “incitement,” said John Szmer, an associate professor of political science and a constitutional law expert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
“Fighting words is the idea that you are saying something that is so offensive that it will lead to an immediate breach of the peace,” Szmer explained. “In other words, you are saying something and you should expect a violent reaction by other people.”
The exhibit of cartoons in Texas might have crossed the line, Szmer said.
[…]
The gunmen’s violent actions will end up drawing undeserved attention to the hateful message spread by Geller’s group, said David Schanzer, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
“Any efforts to censor them or restrict their rights will just play into their agenda, which is to antagonize and spread a pretty vile message,” Schanzer said.
[John F. Kennedy was once heard to say that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” The same applies to resistance, a fact these professorial pedants and their kindred spirits had best mark well. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
By Kevin Williamson
Of course he was a convict. Elton Simpson was the first figure identified in the latest eruption from the Religion of Peace(tm) — an attempted massacre at an exhibition of anti-Islamist cartoons in suburban Garland, Texas, which ended in the shooting of Simpson and his coconspirator, because Texas is where terrorists go to get out-gunned at an art show. Simpson and his pal are as dead as a tuna casserole — in Texas, we shoot back.
We got lucky when luck wasn’t what we needed. Simpson was, like the overwhelming majority of murderers and most of those who commit serious violent crimes, already known to the authorities. He had been investigated by the FBI on the suspicion that he was attempting to travel to Somalia to engage in jihad. He was convicted of lying to the FBI in that episode, and sentenced to . . . probation. The average sentence for a tax-related crime in these United States is 31 months in a federal penitentiary, but for attempting to join up with a gang of savages who are merrily beheading, torturing, enslaving, and raping their way around the world? Probation, and damned little subsequent oversight, apparently.
[…]
We got lucky in Garland, but we needn’t — mustn’t — rely on luck. (As the IRA told Margaret Thatcher after its failed attempt to assassinate her: “We only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always.”) We have professionals for this sort of thing. Yes, it is tons of work to keep an eye on sundry peripatetic villains, and yes, in many cases that laborious effort will produce nothing that is going to earn any fed or local cop a plaque on his wall or a commendation. But we give these police agencies princely budgets and resplendently compensated managers, along with remarkable investigatory powers and other generous resources, to do that job.
So do the damned job.
Federal authorities weren’t doing their job on 9/11. They weren’t doing their job before the attack in Garland, either. No, nobody can stop every crime or detect every criminal, much less every jihadist. But this one had a great big flashing neon sign over his head reading “terrorist.” If nobody saw, nobody was looking.
[No, they weren’t — because under Barry Hussein and his mob, that’s considered “Islamophobia.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
IS Says it Was Behind US Prophet Cartoon Attack
Islamic State (IS) has said that it was behind the attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in the US state of Texas.
It said that “two soldiers of the caliphate” carried out the attack at a conference centre near Dallas.
IS’s al-Bayan Radio news bulletin said the exhibition “was portraying negative pictures of the Prophet Muhammad”.
Both suspects were shot dead after opening fire at the contest on Sunday.
Correspondents say that it is believed to be the first time that IS has claimed to have carried out an attack in the US.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Claim Responsibility for Shooting at Texas Muhammad Cartoon Contest
The Islamic State terror group (ISIS) Tuesday issued a claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack on a Texas cartoon contest featuring images of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
The claim was made in an audio message on the group’s Al Bayan radio station, based in the Syria city of Raqqa, which ISIS has proclaimed to be the capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate. It is the first time ISIS has taken credit for an attack on U.S. soil, though it was not immediately clear whether the group’s claim was an opportunistic co-opting of a so-called “lone wolf” attack as its own.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam and Free Speech: Missing the Point in Garland
By Andrew McCarthy
“Even free-speech enthusiasts are repulsed by obnoxious expression.” That acknowledgment prefaces the main argument I’ve made in Islam and Free Speech, a just-released pamphlet in the Broadside series from Encounter Books. Alas, in view of last night’s deadly events at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, the argument is more timely than I’d hoped.
In Garland, two jihadists opened fire on a free-speech event that was certain to be offensive to many Muslims. The gunmen wounded a security guard before being killed when police returned fire. The jihadists are reported to be roommates who resided in Phoenix. As this is written, only one of them has been identified: Elton Simpson. The wounded security guard, Bruce Joiner, was treated and released. Joiner works for the Garland Independent School District, which owns the Culwell Center.
Simpson was apparently what my friend, terrorism analyst Patrick Poole, describes as a “known wolf.” That’s a radical Muslim whom the Obama administration and the media are wont to dismiss as an anonymous, unconnected loner but who, in fact, has previously drawn the attention of national-security agents over suspected jihadist ties.
[…]
In Garland, activists opposed to the violence endorsed by Islamic doctrine and to the repression inherent in sharia law were invited to draw caricatures of Mohammed, with a $10,000 prize awarded to the “best” one. The contest was sure to yield images offensive to Muslims just as transgressive artist Andres Serrano had to know the public exhibition of his Piss Christ photograph would offend Christians.
Yet, as I argue in Islam and Free Speech, it will not do to blame the messenger for the violence. The shooting last night was not caused by the free-speech event any more than the Charlie Hebdo murders were caused by derogatory caricatures, or the rioting after a Danish newspaper’s publication of anti-Islam cartoons was caused by the newspaper. The violence is caused by Islamic supremacist ideology and its law that incites Muslims to kill those they judge to have disparaged Islam.
[…]
It is very unfortunate that this debate is so often triggered by forms of expression that non-jihadists will find insulting and therefore that even anti-jihadists will find uncomfortable to defend. This grossly understates the stakes involved. This is about much more than cartoons. As I outline in Islam and Free Speech, classical sharia forbids most artistic representations of animate life, not just expressions that are obviously sacrilegious. More significantly, it deems as blasphemous not just expressions that insult the prophet and Islam itself but also
critical examinations of Islam . . . especially if they reach negative conclusions or encourage unbelief[;] proselytism of religions other than Islam, particularly if it involves encouraging Muslims to abandon Islam[; and any] speech or expression [that] could sow discord among Muslims or within an Islamic community. And truth is not a defense.
It is not the purpose of Pam Geller, Geert Wilders, the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, and other activists to insult Muslims. Their mission is to awaken us to the challenge of Islamic supremacists — not just the violent jihadists but also the powerful Islamist forces behind the jihad.
[…]
It would be easy, in our preening gentility, to look down our noses at a Mohammed cartoon contest. But we’d better understand the scope of the threat the contest was meant to raise our attention to — a threat triggered by ideology, not cartoons. There is in our midst an Islamist movement that wants to suppress not only insults to Islam but all critical examination of Islam. That movement is delighted to leverage the atmosphere of intimidation created by violent jihadists, and it counts the current United States government among its allies.
[Hear! Hear! Once again, Andrew McCarthy nails it. A brilliant man who successfully prosecuted the first attackers of the World Trade Center: why isn’t he running for president? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Takes Responsibility for Texas Cartoon Exhibit Attack
PHOENIX (Reuters) — The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in which the two gunmen were killed.
The Syria- and Iraq-based Islamic State claimed responsibility on its official online radio station, saying “two soldiers of the caliphate” carried out the attack on Sunday in Garland, Texas. Experts warn that militant groups have been known to claim credit for attacks in which they were not involved.
U.S. government sources close to the case have said investigators were scouring electronic communications sent and received by the dead gunmen, roommates Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, of Phoenix, for evidence of contacts between them and militant groups overseas, most notably Islamic State.
Simpson and Soofi were killed by police when they opened fire with assault rifles at the cartoon exhibit and contest. An unarmed security guard was wounded…
| [Return to headlines] |
Islam, The West: Differences Growing Smaller Every Day
by Diana West
Following another recent jihadist effort (thankfully thwarted) to destroy a Christian church in France, the essayist Fjordman commented:
“The differences between the Middle East and Europe are growing smaller every day.”
Following another jihadist attack (thankfully, only jihadists were killed) on a Texas gathering of courageous artists and other defenders of free speech, it seems that the differences between Europe and the US are getting smaller every day.
The catalyst on both continents, Old World and New, is the same. It is Islam. To put our shared plight as succinctly as possible (borrowing from Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders), the more Islam there is in a society, the less freedom there is.
Now for the reality check.
When a group of people peacefully gathering for an afternoon to discuss or protest or otherwise exercise their lawful rights to free speech regarding Islam and its noxious prophet require $50,000 worth of security to protect their lives from jihad killers (and thank goodness, otherwise the slaughter would likely have far exceeded the death toll of the Charlie Hebdo/Jewish market attacks), freedom, in the Western sense of the word, no longer exists. The “public square” is a war zone.
That means that the liberty that is (was) the foundation of our republic is not “threatened,” but rather has already been engulfed by the advance of Islam, its law, its culture, into our society. (Airport security is another tip-off.) Here — not in the Middle East, not in the Turkish, Pakistani and other Islamic sectors of the EU — it is now accepted that silence buys safety, that submission to sharia is the norm. By this process, Dar al Harb (House of War) becomes Dar al Islam (House of Islam/Submission), and without a fight…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Not About Racism, It’s About Revolution
With the Baltimore riots in mind, a little obscure Oroville, California newsletter called HEADS UP turned up in my files with an article entitled: LOS ANGELES NEGROES PROSPER. Just before the Watts insurrection, August 9, 1965, a Broadcasting magazine, which is recognized as the business weekly of television and radio published an article resulting from an intensive survey they conducted about the social and economic status of the Negro population in Los Angeles area. The results of this study revealed a community of Negroes enjoying a relatively high standard of living, rather than one of poverty, poor housing, hunger, etc. The survey exposed the lie of “poverty” being the cause of the insurrection in Watts. The motto for HEADS UP was “Dedicated to Fight Communism.” These riots have never been about racism, they’ve been about revolution. As I am drafting this article on May 1st- May Day, Communists, socialists, anarchists are gathering in Democrat-controlled cities across the U.S., and law enforcement is standing by to see what may be coming since the six police people (three black and three white) have been arrested for the death of a black man…
Robert Dilley in his 1962 book MESSAGE FOR AMERICA said many educated people are rendering the greatest service knowingly or unknowingly to those that will place every individual in the world under the same totalitarian control that is found in Communist Nations today and when we read the 45 declared goals for the Communist Takeover of America we see their agenda nearly fulfilled. One of the most recent in the news is Goal 26- Presenting homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.” Other goals: #28, eliminate any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.” #32 Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture — education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. #41 Emphasize the need to raise children way from the negative influence of parents so mothers went to work. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents and the socialist State of Oregon was initially chosen to help implement these goals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judicial Watch Exposes ISIS Threat on Border
By Tom Fitton
Once again, Judicial Watch has highlighted the consequences of the Obama administration’s failure to secure the southern border with Mexico.
On April 14, the organization’s Corruption Chronicles published the following report on ISIS operations in Mexico and in the United States:
ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector.
The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm.
During the course of a joint operation last week, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss — the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation.
Law enforcement and intelligence sources report the area around Anapra is dominated by the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Cartel (“Juárez Cartel”), La Línea (the enforcement arm of the cartel) and the Barrio Azteca (a gang originally formed in the jails of El Paso). Cartel control of the Anapra area make it an extremely dangerous and hostile operating environment for Mexican Army and Federal Police operations.
According to these same sources, “coyotes” engaged in human smuggling — and working for Juárez Cartel — help move ISIS terrorists through the desert and across the border between Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, New Mexico. To the east of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, cartel-backed “coyotes” are also smuggling ISIS terrorists through the porous border between Acala and Fort Hancock, Texas. These specific areas were targeted for exploitation by ISIS because of their understaffed municipal and county police forces, and the relative safe-havens the areas provide for the unchecked large-scale drug smuggling that was already ongoing.
[Couldn’t have had anything to do with the ISIS-linked attack on the Muhammad cartoon event in Texas, now, could it? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Muhammad Cartoon Contest: Note to Jihadists, In America, We Shoot Back
By Todd Starnes
A pair of would-be jihadists learned a very important lesson over the weekend — in America, we shoot back.
The men, believed to be radicalized roommates from Phoenix, tried to launch an attack on a gathering of freedom-lovers in of all places — the Lone Star State. It would turn out to be a most unfortunate decision.
The cold hard reality is that we don’t know how many more radicalized Muslims might be living among us — waiting to wage jihad.
It turned out those practicing their First Amendment rights were protected by those practicing their Second Amendment rights. Within a matter of moments — the jihadists were quickly dispatched to the Hereafter thanks to a straight-shooting traffic cop.
Authorities have yet to categorize it as a terrorist attack, but one thing is clear. Police thwarted what could have been an unprecedented massacre on American soil.
[…]
Aside from a brief mention in a press gaggle, the White House has been curiously quiet about the attack. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called on the president to publicly condemn “radical Islam.”
“The truth of the matter is that even though President Obama will not admit it — Islam has a problem, and it is called radical Islam,” Jindal said in a statement. “And the proponents of radical Islam hate our First Amendment, they hate freedom of speech and they want to destroy it and us.”
Jindal also called on Muslim leaders to condemn the violence. He said it’s time for them to step up and “declare that perpetrators of such violence are the enemy, they are wrong, and they will not be rewarded in the afterlife.”
[Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do any such thing. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Syracuse Airport Worker Made Terrorist Threat, Said He’d ‘Shoot Everybody, ‘ Police Say
By Julie McMahon
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A contract employee at Syracuse Hancock International Airport was charged Saturday with making a terrorist threat after he said he would bring a gun to work and “shoot everybody,” police said.
Mohammad Salak, a 33-year-old employee of the company Envoy, hired by United Airlines to handle ground services, became the focus of an investigation after fellow employees relayed what he had said on Friday, Lt. Eric Carr of the Syracuse Police Department said. The employees told investigators with Syracuse Police, airport security, FBI and TSA that Salak made threats to get a gun and shoot everybody, Carr said.
Salak, of Gordon Parkway, had gotten into a fight with another Envoy employee on Friday, Carr said in a news release. Carr provided the following account:
After the two employee exchanged words, another employee overheard Salak, upset, saying, “They don’t know where I’m from. I’ve been in wars. I’ve killed people and killing somebody is nothing to me. I’ll leave here and go get my mask and my gun and come and kill everybody.”
Syracuse officer working an airport security detail detained Salak. He was then removed from his position with the contractor and his security credentials were revoked while police investigated.
No weapons were found in Salak’s locker. Police determined the threats were directed at fellow employees, not travelers or members of the public passing through the airport.
Salak was charged with felony making a terroristic threat and held at the Onondaga County Justice Center.
[So why is an individual with his background allowed to work at an airport in the first place? For the same reason the Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan kept getting promoted: to avoid looking “Islamophobic”! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Attack Refocuses Attention on Fine Line Between Free Speech and Hate Speech
By Jonathan Kaiman , Tina Susman and David Zucchino
Pamela Geller is a 56-year-old Jewish arch-conservative from New York, a vehement critic of radical Islam who organized a provocative $10,000 cartoon contest in this placid Dallas suburb designed to caricature the prophet Muhammad.
Elton Simpson was a 30-year-old aspiring Islamic militant from Phoenix who fantasized to an FBI informant about “doing the martyrdom operations” in Somalia and was convicted in 2010 of lying to the FBI about his plans to travel to the volatile eastern African nation.
Their lives intersected Sunday in this small town in north-central Texas, an unlikely venue for a violent collision of cultures. After a Sunday evening shootout outside the contest site between police and Simpson and another man firing assault rifles, both gunmen lay dead in the street. And Geller quickly posted a defiant blog: “This is a war on free speech. … Are we going to surrender to these monsters?”
The Texas showdown was America’s Charlie Hebdo moment, erupting just four months after gunmen shot and killed 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper that had published cartoons of the prophet considered blasphemous by many Muslims. The Garland attack refocused public attention on the fine line between free speech and hate speech in the ideological struggle between radical Islam and the West.
[…]
Holding the cartoon contest exposed Geller to attack from Muslims determined to defend Muhammad’s honor, said Daniel Akbari, an Iranian Islamic scholar who said he had defended death penalty cases in Iran.
The penalty for insulting Muhammad is death, Akbari said in an interview Monday. He said Muslims believed that anyone who is hostile to or opposes Muhammad is condemned to the “fire of hell.”
“Any act that will send one to hell in the afterlife warrants the punishment of death in this life,” Akbari said.
Akbari said the central issue in the Texas shootings was not strictly the prohibition against depicting Muhammad but the grave insult involved.
“Drawing caricatures of Muhammad is per se insulting under sharia,” or Islamic law, Akbari said.
[Trying to defend Muhammad’s honor is like trying to defend Hillary Clinton’s probity: an impossible task. One cannot defend what isn’t there. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Shooting: Outgunned Traffic Officer Stopped 2 Attackers
By Greg Botelho
It wasn’t a fair fight.
On one side, you had two men in body armor, toting assault rifles and showing every willingness to open fire now and count their victims later. On the other, you had a security officer — a traffic officer by day — with a pistol.
Somehow, the officer won.
Authorities have not released the name of the overmatched Garland, Texas, police officer who stopped a pair of gunmen Sunday night outside that city’s Curtis Culwell Center, where people had gathered at an event featuring controversial cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. But they have described what he did, actions that could be characterized as equal parts skillful, heroic and miraculous.
[…]
Until, that is, about 6:50 p.m., when a dark-colored vehicle pulled into the entrance the Garland officer and school district officer were blocking.
“When that car pulled up and stopped, those officers began to exit that vehicle and two men exited the dark-colored sedan,” Harn said. “Both of them had assault rifles, came around the back of the car and started shooting at the police car.”
Gunfire reverberated around the complex, from the two gunmen, and the armed officer.
A short time later, four members of a nearby SWAT team came in firing their high-powered rifles, according to a source familiar with the officers involved. But by the time they did, the Garland traffic officer was the only one standing.
[…]
How?
He had a .45-caliber Glock pistol, a much less powerful weapon than the rifles used by the attackers, who have since been identified by federal law enforcement officials as Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi.
“There’s no advantage for a handgun over an assault rifle,” said Dick Fairburn, a veteran law enforcement officer who is a columnist for PoliceOne.com. “An assault rifle has more distance, more accuracy, more power, more penetration.
“You cannot downplay what he did there.”
Granted, the officer likely had on some sort of protective jacket. But Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director and current CNN contributor, said that the thin Kevlar vests often worn by police would be useless against an assault rifle round that “will go through that like a hot knife through butter.”
The same can’t be said for bullets coming from the officer’s pistol: The attackers’ body armor likely would have blocked those.
Thus, aiming for the suspects’ torso — as officers are trained first to do, since it is their biggest possible target — is no longer an option. But still, somehow, the traffic officer managed to down both men in seconds.
“It speaks to his skill level,” Fairburn, who is a firearms trainer for law enforcement, said of the Garland officer.
[Does it ever. What a great story! Hollywood would be missing a bet if they don’t make a movie about it. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
The Shooting in Garland, Texas
by Steven Emerson
Sunday’s shooting attack on a Muhammad cartoon exhibit and contest in Garland, Texas appears to be a largely spontaneous reaction to an “unprecedented avalanche” of vicious social media posts sent only a few days before the event from jihadists around the world urging massive violence including the murders of the events’ organizers and all others in attendance, a law enforcement source told the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
The gunmen, identified as Phoenix, Ariz. residents Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center as a Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest was wrapping up Sunday evening. They started firing automatic weapons as soon as the left Soofi’s car, wounding an unarmed security officer.
A Garland police traffic officer who was with the injured man returned fire, killing Simpson and Soofi, police say.
[…]
According to the IPT source, social media postings about the event began appearing en masse about three days earlier. They featured vicious exhortations to kill those responsible, urged beheadings and mass killings. Simpson, who court records show had a long affinity with jihadist causes, apparently saw some of those calls to violence and headed to Texas intending to kill as many of the Garland conference attendees as possible.
It is not yet known what prompted the late-hour focus on the Garland meeting within foreign jihadi circles, but investigators are confident Simpson and Soofi were trying to respond to those specific calls for jihad.
[…]
On Friday, the FBI issued an intelligence bulletin in Texas downplaying the possibility of any violence that could erupt, the IPT learned. The FBI said in the classified bulletin that no evidence had surfaced in the United States from any sources that there was any credible threat of violence at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest.
However, another intelligence unit in Texas disagreed with the FBI assessment and issued a different intelligence warning citing a “massive amount of overseas incitement to carry out violence on social media.” The calls for violence—including exhortations to “destroy Texas” from Islamist-sympathizers in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Transhumanism: An Attempt to Use Technology to Turn Men Into Gods
Did you know that the word “transhuman” literally means “beyond human”?
All over the world, scientists and intellectuals are joining the transhumanism movement. Those that adhere to this philosophy believe that the time has come for us to use technology to take control of our own evolution. By doing so, they believe that we can give ourselves superhuman powers and radically extend our lifespans. Right now, the most popular movie in America is “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, and in recent years we have watched films about “mutants” and “superheroes” become some of Hollywood’s biggest moneymakers. But transhumanists believe that we will soon be able to literally turn ourselves into such superheroes as technology continues to increase at an exponential rate. And once we have superhuman powers and superhuman intelligence, they are convinced that we will eradicate all sickness, disease, poverty and war. Many of them actually believe that we will be able to achieve immortality and establish a utopia on Earth just a few decades from now. In other words, we won’t need a “God” because we will have become our own gods.
At the core of the transhumanist movement is an unshakable faith in the inevitable technological progress of humanity. Yes, there are some transhumanists that have doubts, but for most transhumanists the solution to all of our problems is more technology. If you are not familiar with transhumanism, the following is a really good definition that I recently came across…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Probes Possible International Terrorism Link With Texas Shootings
(Reuters) — U.S. authorities are investigating possible links between gunmen shot dead by police at an anti-Muslim event near Dallas and international terrorist groups, a U.S. government source said on Monday.
The source said the FBI and other U.S. agencies believed the incident on Sunday could have been instigated or directed by foreign-based militants such as Islamic State, which operates mainly in Syria and parts of Iraq.
[Duh. Ya think? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Victim-Blaming CNN Attacks Pam Geller: The B*tch Was Begging for it
By John Nolte
Because Jeff Zucker is hoping to salvage CNN by turning the news narrative into a left-wing reality show (it’s not working), this requires that all Big Stories have a villain, and a subsequent Hate Campaign against said villain. Naturally, the target of CNN’s almost-daily Hate Campaigns are almost always Christians or conservatives. Zucker isn’t even willing to alter that formula when anti-jihad activist Pam Geller is targeted for murder in a thwarted terror attack.
Sunday in Garland, Texas, there was the equivalent of “The Book of Mormon” mixed with “Piss Christ” in the form of a Muhammad cartoon contest. Just as Mormons and Christians would prefer not to be mocked, the same is of course true for Muslims. The only difference is that when you mock/insult Mormons and Christians, you do not need a SWAT team to protect the event.
For all kinds of obvious reasons, local authorities wisely decided that Geller’s cartoon contest did need a SWAT team for security (something the event paid for out of its own pocket), and they were right. Two gunmen with assault rifles were thankfully killed by police before they could Charlie Hebdo the event. One terrorist has been identified as a Muslim. They might even have been carrying bombs.
The reason for the provocative event was just as righteous as the left-wing Charlie Hebdo’s reasoning for its cartoons mocking Islam: To push back against fascism, to mock those who threaten us not to mock them. That cannot be allowed in a free society. To raise awareness of the horrors of militant Islam, Pam Geller has been fighting this righteous fight for more than a decade.
For her brave, outspoken activism, is Geller treated with admiration by the mainstream media?
No.
Is she treated with even a modicum of respect by CNN, a network that advertises itself as objective?
No.
Not even after a murder attempt on her life.
In fact, CNN’s attacks on Geller all day Monday can be summed up in just a few words: “The Bitch was begging for it.”
The victim-blamers at CNN are furious at Geller. First off, she’s an outspoken conservative. Secondly, this terror attack against her stepped all over CNN’s desire to re-ignite the riots in Baltimore. Now CNN has to change the topic to stories anathema to CNN’s Leftist/anarchists: Muslim as terrorists; heroic cops (in Texas, no less), and a conservative survivor/victim.
[Great axe-job on CNN here — and they’ve certainly done much to earn it. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Want a Lawless Police Force? Federalize it.
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
In the wake of the Baltimore riots, Al Sharpton is calling for the federal takeover of local police. Like most ideas from the loathsome Rev. Sharpton, this is a lousy one. But since federalizing local police is actually an Obama administration idea, it’s worth paying a bit more attention.
The idea behind federal supervision of local police forces is that it will make them more accountable. Instead of a bunch of presumptively racist, violent hicks running things on a local level, we’ll see the cool professionalism of the national government in charge.
There are (at least) two problems with this approach. The first is that federal law enforcement, especially in recent years, hasn’t exactly been a haven of cool professionalism. The second is that no law enforcement agency is very good at policing itself, meaning that a national police force is likely to be less accountable, not more. And there’s a third problem, too, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
[…]
The third problem with unifying police authority under a national umbrella is that it’s much more prone to political abuse by the party in power. As we’ve seen with the IRS — which, interestingly, shows little interest in frequent White House visitor Al Sharpton’s unpaid taxes — federal bureaucrats are all too willing to serve the interests of their political masters even when doing so violates the law. Putting most law enforcement in the hands of diverse state and local authorities helps limit the potential for abuse. Putting everything under federal control, on the other hand, magnifies it.
Instead, if we’re really serious about increasing law enforcement accountability, we should end civil service protections for federal employees, while outlawing public employee unions. We should also abolish governmental immunity for federal, state, and local employees, forcing them to face civil lawsuits for illegal behavior, just as the rest of us must do.
[A herculean task, to say the least. But it is to hope. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
White House on Garland Attack: No Act of Expression Justifies Violence, Even if it’s Offensive
By Todd J. Gillman
WASHINGTON — The White House refrained Monday from condemning the Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest that provoked an attack Sunday night in Garland that left two gunmen dead.
“There is no act of expression, even if it’s offensive, that justifies an act of violence,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president flew to New York for fund-raising and a TV appearance with David Letterman.
“The president was informed last night of the violence outside Dallas,” Earnest said, condemning “extremists” who have responded with violence after expressions they find offensive. “We have seen extremists try to use expressions that they considered to be offensive as a way to justify violence not only in this country but around the world, and in the mind of the president there is no form of expression that would justify an act of violence.”
He referred to attacks in this country and abroad, a reference to the January attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had published Muhammad cartoons, that left 12 dead.
[Pro forma, and hardly enthusiastic. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
White House Calls Garland Attack “Act of Terrorism” But Won’t Corroborate ISIS Claims
By Todd J. Gillman
WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday labeled the Garland attack Sunday an “act of terror,” but is withholding judgment on whether Islamic State claims of a link are valid.
“This is still under investigation” by the FBI and other federal agencies, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at his daily briefing when asked about the ISIS claim of responsibility for the attack that left two gunmen dead. “It’s too early to say at this point.”
He credited a “quick and brave” police response. Because of that, he said, “an intended terrorist attack was foiled.”
He acknowledged that terrorists worldwide have sought to take advantage of social media, but again called it premature to say that ISIS prompting or orders led the gunmen to attack, apparently to express displeasure with a contest calling for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, whose depiction is considered an offense by Muslims.
Earnest also, for a second day, declined to criticize the creation or publication of such cartoons.
“There is no expression, however offensive, that justifies an act of terrorism or even an act of violence. That apparently is what these two individuals in Texas were trying to do,” he said.
[Great photo with this story, of a group of Pakistanis in kuftis holding a sign: “We are here to acknowledge the dareness of our brothers Mr. Nadir Soofi and Mr. Simpson who accepted martyrdom to curb blasphemy”. Must be part of that tiny minority who are distorting their peaceful faith. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Files Criminal Complaint Linked to Alleged Surveillance of Politicians by NSA, Germany
Austria is asking for a legal investigation of allegations that the German intelligence service helped the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdrop on the country’s political leaders.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said Tuesday her ministry has filed a criminal complaint against unnamed persons or entities on suspicion of “secret intelligence activities to the detriment of Austria.” She said “we need and want total clarification.”
The complaint opens the way for prosecutors to start an investigation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Editor Slams US ‘Political Correctness’
The Danish editor who commissioned the Mohammed cartoons that triggered deadly protests a decade ago said Monday the failed attack on a Texas cartoon exhibition won’t change how “politically correct” Americans feel about the drawings.
After two gunmen opened fire on a ‘draw the prophet Mohammad’ contest in suburban Dallas on Sunday, Jyllands-Posten’s Flemming Rose said the attack will likely have little effect on American discourse.
“The lines have already been drawn in this debate in the US and I do not think events like these can change anything, because people will read their own opinions into it,” Flemming Rose told Jyllands-Posten, where he is currently the foreign editor.
“Those who think you have a right to draw Mohammed if you want, and believe it is an important part of freedom of speech will say: ‘There, you can see that freedom of speech is under threat’.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Do Fascist Links Discredit Architect Le Corbusier?
Two new books on the modernist architect Le Corbusier have accused him of fascist and anti-Semitic views.
The publications coincided with the opening of a new exhibition profiling the artist at Paris’s Pompidou Centre this week.
The timing has highlighted a long-running tension colouring the legacy of some of France’s 20th Century heroes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Le Pen Senior Suspended From National Front
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front was temporarily suspended from the party on Monday and he may yet lose his title as honorary president.
Following the decision Le Pen senior told reporters: “I’ve been disowned” and described the suspension as “a criminal act”. A furious Le Pen also attacked his daughter Marine, saying he was “ashamed” that she carried his name.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France National Front: Jean-Marie Le Pen ‘Ashamed’ His Daughter Has His Name
France’s National Front party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen says he is “ashamed” his daughter — current party leader Marine — still bears his surname.
Amid a growing feud, Mr Le Pen said he hoped she “would get married as quickly as possible so as to change her name”.
He added he would not support Marine in presidential elections in 2017.
His remarks came after the far-right party suspended Mr Le Pen, 86, after he repeated his view that the Holocaust was “a detail of history”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Datagate: Spiegel’s Front-Page Accuses Merkel, “Betrayal”
Intelligence head, hearing in Bundestag committee Thursday
(ANSA) — BERLIN — “Betrayal”, says today the German weekly “Spiegel’s” front-page headline, accusing Merkel of being jointly responsible for the “Datagate”.
“The BND and the Federal Government against the German interests”: this is another headline, beneath a photo of the Chancellor, her Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, and the Head of Germany’s Intelligence Service Gerhard Schindler. The government has been under pressure for days on charges of lying to Parliament on abuses committed by the NSA (US) in the EU and Germany.
The German parliamentary committee, just established in order to deal with “Datagate”, will hear, probably next Thursday, from the Head of Germany’s intelligence service (BND), Gerhard Schindler. After the latest news on the activities of NSA (US), charged with spying, helped by German secret services, on several politicians and businessmen in Germany and around Europe, Schindler should be questioned as a witness.
Meanwhile, there is a strong pressure on the government, accused of lying to Parliament about the co-operation with the American services. The Greens are now urging Angela Merkel to report to parliament on this issue, in order to have more clarity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Astronaut Has First Espresso in Space
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has had the pleasure of tasting the first ever espresso brewed in space, thanks to a pioneering coffee machine made to operate in such extreme conditions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Relations-Based Capitalism Must Die, Renzi
World demands more transparency and dynamism
(ANSA) — Milan, May 4 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday that the big role that cosy relations between contacts plays in Italian capitalism “must die”. “The capitalism of relations has produced some decisively negative effects in Italy,” Renzi told a meeting at the Milan stick exchange. “It’s time to end a system based more on relations than on transparency. “The world outside is demanding more dynamism and transparency. This is a problem for the managerial class, not just the political one. We’re doing our bit, now it’s your turn.
“If the system of capitalism of relations does not die, Italy will die. “Today the political system is out of this game. The business world must give us a hand in changing this system”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mysterious Galactic Signal Points LHC to Dark Matter
It is one of the most disputed observations in physics. But an explanation may be in sight for a mysterious excess of high-energy photons at the centre of the Milky Way. The latest analysis suggests that the signal could come from a dark-matter particle that has just the right mass to show up at the world’s largest particle accelerator.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), housed at the CERN particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, is due to restart colliding protons this summer after a two-year hiatus. Physicists there have told Nature that they now plan to make the search for such a particle a top target for the collider’s second run.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO & Allies Stage Thousands-Strong Drills Across Europe
Three sets of military exercises kicked off in Europe on Monday, involving thousands of servicemen from a variety of NATO nations and their allies, amid a wave of similar action across the area.
Estonia is holding its largest-ever military drills. Named Siil-2015 (Hedgehog), the maneuvers involve about 13,000 personnel. The number includes about 7,000 reservists, along with members of the volunteer Estonian Defense League.
Siil-2015, scheduled to last until May 15, also involves forces from the US, the UK, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium, Poland and the Netherlands. American troops, who are staying in Estonia as part of the massive training operation Atlantic Resolve, will bring four Abrams main battle tanks to the exercise. British, Belgian and German air defense units, as well as several NATO warplanes, will also take part.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Neolithic Fishing Spear Retains Its Bone Point
LOLLAND, DENMARK—A pronged spear with a center bone point was uncovered during the construction of a tunnel that will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. “It was found obliquely embedded in the seafloor and must have been lost during fishing at some point in the Neolithic,” Line Marie Olesen of the Museum Lolland-Falster told Discovery News. Known as a leister, this Stone Age spear is the first to have been found with the lateral prongs and the bone point still in place. “It tells us, that in some cases at least, the leisters were equipped with a bone point much like present day eel leisters, which implies that the fishing of eel in that respect has not changed much,” Olesen said. Radiocarbon dates for the leister are in the works.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Probe After French Mayor Counts Muslim Children
A French mayor backed by the far-right National Front was accused of racism on Tuesday after using the names of school children in his town to decide how many were Muslim.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Barcelona Residents in Revolt Over City’s ‘Tourism Monoculture’
Across Barcelona there is unease at the influence of so many visitors. In each neighborhood the specific complaints vary, but the cause, everyone seems to agree, is the mass-tourism model adopted by local authorities more than two decades previously.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spiders Sprayed With Graphene or Carbon Nanotubes Spin Super Silk
Spider-man would be so envious. Spiders have woven webs infused with carbon nanotubes and even graphene, raising the prospect of new materials with record-beating properties.
Graphene — sheets of carbon just one atom thick — is one of the strongest artificial materials, and spider silk is one of the strongest natural ones. So Nicola Pugno of the University of Trento, Italy, wondered what would happen if you combined them.
Pugno and his colleagues captured five spiders from the Pholcidae family and sprayed them with a mixture of water and graphene particles 200 to 300 nanometres wide. They also sprayed another 10 spiders with carbon nanotubes and water to compare the effects of the two materials.
Some spiders produced below-par silk, but others got a major boost. The best fibres came from a spider dosed with nanotubes: it was around 3.5 times as tough and strong as the best unaltered silk, spun by the giant riverine orb spider.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham Child Sex Abuse Warning to Police and Council 12 Years Ago Ignored
South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council were given a list of suspects in 2003 along with a report that linked drug-dealing and grooming in the Yorkshire town, but no action was taken.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Council of Europe, More Ties With Southern Shores
Specific programs. First to benefit Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, APRIL 10 — The Council of Europe on Friday launched the second phase of a program started on 2012 called “towards the strengthening of democratic governance in the southern Mediterranean”.
The program is almost entirely funded by the European Union which has allocated 4.8 million for the first phase — that ended last December — and another seven million for 2015-2017. The project is aimed at Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, as well as Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Libya and Palestine.
So far, most of the activities of the council of Europe, which vie to boost democracy, the rule of law and human rights, have focused on three countries — Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan.
This is due to the fact, the organization said, that the program is based on specific requests by host countries and that they — together with experts from the Council of Europe — define the scale and content of cooperation.
After a first phase that has given significant results, the second phase of the program is aimed at supporting subsequent constitutional reforms, in specific spheres, such as justice. It also vies to cooperate to create independent structures for the defense and development of human rights.
Another context of intervention will be aimed at involving interested countries in the Convention of the Council to create a common judicial area in which the same standards are respected. These objectives will be reached also through the boosted participation of experts, officials, political leaders from southern Mediterranean countries in various activities of Council of Europe bodies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Alcohol: Premier Gives in to Pressure by Salafites
Government freezes document on liberalization sales
(by Diego Minuti) — ROME — Algerian Premier Abdelmalek Sellal’s decision to freeze a document with which Trade Minister Amara Benyoune’s liberalized alcoholic beverages, highlights the uncertainties looming over the cabinet, also due to the health of President Bouteflika, hampering its authority.
The document, ever since it was issued, was strongly opposed by the Salafites who took to the streets to protest against it.
Although bureaucracy was cited as a reason (the lack of involvement of other ministers), it is the political aspect to prevail as the government has displayed weakness in this case.
Although it can still backtrack on its decision, what appears off-key is that the decision follows pressure from a religious group that is a fundamentalist minority in a State that claims to be secular. It could not be otherwise as Algeria has confronted a bloody civil war when Islamists gained power legally (through elections).
Alcohol is a very delicate matter because, for its nature, it mingles religion with the freedom of individuals. Algeria, while claiming it is secular, does not evade lobbying tactics by Islamists, who are heard by the government. Benyoune’s said he has been a victim of “horrible media lynching” by broadcasters close to Islamic movements. The minister described these attacks as unjustified as he is neither “an imam, nor a mufti but a minister of the Republic”.
It would thus be wrong to describe the incident as a dispute between those in favour and against alcohol and its consumption.
What is clear is that its use risks becoming a bone of contention between those pursuing with determination the impartiality of the State in front of religion and others who would like it to be influenced — or even serving — the needs of Islam.
Indeed minister Benyoune’s has been accused of “conducting a war against God” with that document. The controversy over the measure is raging on also because alcohol consumption in Algeria does not only concern a small part of the population. Algeria (40 million inhabitants, almost entirely Sunnis), last year imported alcoholic beverages for a value of 82 million dollars, 40% more than two years before. And most of the imports — something that Benyoune’s wanted to confront with the document — were sold on the informal market, evading taxes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Cruises on Nile in Crisis, Tourists Still Fearful
Data on tourism down from 2011; now investments for recovery
(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) — LUXOR, MAY 4 — A ghost fleet is moored along the Nile river, between Aswan and Luxor, in southern Egypt. Until a few years ago, this part of the river along some of the most beautiful archaeological parks and antiquities in the world was a very popular site visited by tourists as part of cruise itineraries. Groups of Russians, Germans, Britons and Italians left on boats that were all the same: a few dozen cabins, a piano bar for the evening and a swimming pool on the last floor against the African heat during the day.
Some 300 of these ships crossed one another as they went back and forth and tourists visited villages and cities along the way, which flourished thanks to the work they got.
All of this is in the past now: over the past four years, tourists have left Egypt. The political turbulence in the country has cooled the enthusiasm of Europeans and plunged a sector — tourism — which had the second most important impact on GDP after the Suez channel.
First there was the popular revolution against Mubarak in 2011, then the Islamist government of Mohammed Morsi and, less than a year ago, the rise to power of the military led by General al Sisi, who is today Egypt’s president. The military front opened in the Sinai against Islamic terrorists is also a factor along with the internal front against the Muslim Brothers, seriously weakened by Morsi’s ouster yet strong enough to organize targeted attacks in several parts of the country.
All this — amplified by international media — has scared tourists away. Out of the 300 boats still active there are today only about a dozen. They are moored, one next to the other, in the ports of the main cities. When getting into one, the contrast is immediately clear between the interior decoration — flashy but perfect in its kind, with mirrors and plastic flowers — and the desolation caused by inactivity. Wires hang from the ceiling, there is dust, an old matrass and cloths that belong to keepers hired to prevent the homeless or others from getting inside as the ghost fleet awaits for tourists to come back along with retailers in areas like Kom Ombo, Edfu and Esna.
Hit by the economic crisis, they flock around the few tourists who still visit. Some run along the Nile when boats sail by, throwing their goods at them — cotton scarves, souvenirs — hoping that a few Egyptian liras or euros will be thrown back. The crisis of the local economy is also apparent at the market of Edfu were many stalls are closed and a lot of garbage lies around, without anyone picking it up. A mouse can be seen nosing the spices on display while the vendor doesn’t notice. Part of the market’s floor — a beautiful granite — has been stolen and there are holes here and there. But soon it will be restored, some residents assure. Here as elsewhere local governors have received precise orders from Cairo: al Sisi vies to re-launch Egypt as a destination for international tourists and to do so it is necessary to shake off the patina of misery of the past few years. The objective is to attract 20 million tourists by 2020: an ambitious objective given that visitors last year were 10 million overall. However, Egyptians appear to believe in it, in spite of everything.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘You Are a Target’: Muslim Extremists Terrorize Egypt’s Coptic Christians
Christians in Egypt are facing a new wave of persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists, and human rights groups fear the situation could be on the brink of exploding.
While the attacks on Egypt’s Christian community are not on the scale of persecution faced by their brethren in Syria and Iraq, the Coptics — mostly descendants of the people whose Pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt before the 7th century — say they face renewed isolation in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi King Fires Chief of Protocol After He is Caught on Camera Slapping a Photographer
Saudi King Salman has fired the chief of royal protocol after he was caught on camera slapping a photographer. The official Saudi Press Agency and local media reported Tuesday that Mohammed al-Tobayshi was replaced by Khalid al-Abbad, though no reason was given for the change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Launches Quietest Submarine in the World
Russia has launched what it claims to be the “quietest submarine in the world.” This week, Admiralty Shipyards—a Russian defense company— held a ceremonial launching for its newest Varshavyanka-class diesel-electric submarines. Dubbed the Krasnodar, the vessel is the fourth of a planned six upgraded Kilo-class subs Russia is constructing under Project 636.3.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin Unveils First New Russian Tank Since 1993 With Most Powerful Gun Ever
The T-14 Armata, set to go on display at the Moscow Victory Day Parade this week, is said to surpass all Western versions because of its remotely controlled cannon and the protection it offers its crew.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 Killed, Over 8 Injured in Communal Clashes in Nadia District, West Bengal
Hindu procession of SC community attacked by Muslims in Nadia, West Bengal. Three Hindu SC killed by devout Muslims, several injured. SC Villages gutted in fire. Women molested.
HENB | Krishnanagar | May 5, 2015:: At least three people have been killed and eight sustained injuries in a communal clash between Hindus belonging to SC community and the Muslims that broke out in two villages named Naoda and Juranpur underKaliganj PS in West Bengal’s Nadia district on Monday (May 04, 2015) afternoon.
The violent Muslim mob of the locality and nearby assembled to attack the annual Dharmraj Mela procession mainly participated by the SC community Hindu people as their traditional festival. The Hindu procession was returning from Dharamraj Mela at Jamalpur in Purbasthali to their village when the incident occurred. They were attacked at around 3 pm by the Muslim mobs under a patronage of ruling TMC party when the Hindu devotees in a procession passed by a mosque in Juranpur village on their way back. The clash turned violent when both sides reportedly resorted to firing, bombing and sword attacks.
But an authentic source gave an input that the Muslims raised a hue and cry for a disturbance to Adahan and Namaj and attacked the unwarranted Hindu people in procession and vandalized the villages. The Muslim mob looted Hindu homes, put fire on Hindu houses and tried molestation of Hindu women.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
India: Madhya Pradesh: Government Bans Christian Gathering on “Law and Order” Concerns
According to the district authorities, the turnout for the event organised by the Pentecostal community was excessive. Pentecostals “are free to hold small prayer meetings in the local church,” district official said, “but no permit will be granted for large-scale services will be granted.” For the Global Council of Indian Christians, this is an excuse since radical Hindus attack Christians even “at home”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Authorities in Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh, banned on “law and order” grounds a Pentecostal meeting scheduled for today. After issuing the appropriate permits to the Church, they cancelled them. For Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), this is another blow to India’s “secular credentials”.
Rev Bharat Singh Mehda had obtained on 15 April all the permits for the meeting, which included the following conditions: the activities to take place between 8 am and 11 pm; no loudspeakers; and no “objectionable slogans”.
“They told us at the last moment that the permits had been revoked,” the Pentecostal clergyman said.
“Many participants from other parts of the country are already here. We spent a lot of money to organise everything,” he explained. “Each year, about 1,000 people participate in the event. However, this year we expected more than 5,000”.
District official K. Sharma said the permits were revoked because the organisers had kept the administration “unaware of the turnout to the event.”
“They [Christians] are free to hold small prayer meetings in the local church,” he explained, “but no permit will be granted for large-scale services.”
For the GCIC president, “the presence of many people is just an excuse to cancel. In fact, the government of Madhya Pradesh is not new at large scale religious events,” the Christian leader said.
For example, “In February 2011, almost 2 million people attended the Narmada Samajik Kumbh, a gathering organised by Hindu nationalist groups who openly engaged in hate propaganda against Christians.”
Conversely, “In October 2014, the same state government banned a Christian gathering, citing possible disturbances to the peace,” a decision influenced by Hindu organisations opposed to the marriage of a Christian man to a Hindu woman.
In fact, “We have evidence that radical elements periodically disrupt prayer services in private homes,” George told AsiaNews.
The head of the Christian rights group “also knows of Christians beaten for praying in their own homes.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal Earthquake: UK Agencies Warn of Serious Disease After Disaster
There is a risk of serious outbreaks of disease in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake, aid agencies have warned.
A lack of shelter, contaminated water and poor sanitation could lead to cholera, dysentery and other water-borne diseases, the charities said.
The UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said in some areas people were living and defecating in the open.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Government Dismisses Foreign Volunteers. Thousands of Earthquake Victims Still Without Food
The authorities thank the international community for “generous support”, but claim they “can continue rescue operations on their own”. Criticism and complaints of diplomatic missions and NGOs over aid management. A survivor: “If it were not for the support of Christians and other charitable organizations, we would have died.”
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Foreign search, rescue and recovery teams today started to leave Nepal, a day after the government asked them to leave the country because they are no longer needed. The Interior Ministry made the decision in agreement with the Central Disaster Relief Committee (CDRC).
In an official statement, the Nepalese authorities thanked the international community for “generous support” and said that “the government and its agencies are able to carry out search and recovery.” Operations. However, thousands of people still live outdoors, without even a tent as a shelter.
Hundreds of volunteers from 34 countries arrived to help local authorities in the operations following the earthquake of April 25. Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, Minister for Foreign Affairs, explained that the government’s priority now is “to speed delivery of materials first aid to people who need it most. We are doing our best. “
However, representatives of various diplomatic missions have complained to the Nepalese authorities, asking the government why foreign aircraft carrying relief materials were not allowed to land on schedule, delaying — in fact — the arrival of aid.
The Minister justified this by saying: “We would like you to understand that we are doing our best, taking into account the capacity of our airport and the need to maintain the regularity of commercial flights.”
Some representatives of NGOs and charitable organizations have raised questions about the restrictions imposed on them by the government. Pandey has clarified that “there was only asked to work in coordination with local government agencies. We appreciate all genuine efforts of individuals and organizations to find aid. However, it is the duty of the government to regulate public funds and contributions collected for the disaster, so they are not misused”.
Meanwhile, dozens of Catholic, Christian and other religious groups continue to distribute materials for first aid and emergency to the thousands of people still living in the open. Many of these people are suffering from hunger.
Chirendra Satyal, communications director of Caritas Nepal, explains: “We are doing our best to help the victims of the earthquake in the most honest and transparent manner. If the government asks us to stop, we will. But I see many people who are still waiting for aid and struggling to survive without food or water, even 10 days after the earthquake. “
Narendra Thapa, of Lakarpa (district of Gurkha), admits: “If it were not for the support of Christians and other charitable organizations, we would not survive. We were outdoors and without food for three days, then some associations we found and brought us food, water and tents. Still today, thousands of people have nothing. I try to imagine what would have happened, if we had had to wait for government aid. We saw the authorities only eight days after the earthquake, and they brought us some cookies. Meanwhile, many of us are still waiting to receive a tent. “
Yesterday the government announced it had bought 500 thousand tents from India and China that should “arrive soon”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: Internet Addict Reportedly Asks Paramedics to Turn on PC After Collapsing From 14-Day Binge
A Chinese Internet addict who reportedly collapsed to the ground after a 14-day marathon session reportedly told paramedics who came to rescue him to “turn on the computer” so he could resume his activities. The incident happened Monday outside an Internet café in Hefei, China, The Telegraph reported, citing a report in the Anhui Business Review.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Forces Muslims to Sell Alcohol to ‘Weaken Islam’
China has employed an unusual method in trying to crack down on Muslim violence and attacks by Uyghurs in the western Xinjiang region — in a new notice, it has ordered Muslim merchants to sell alcohol prominently to “weaken” Islam, which forbids the consumption of alcohol.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Chinese Oligarchs Used Fake Trade Invoices to Launder Almost $1 Trillion Globally
Our estimates show that the developing world lost US$991.2 billion in illicit financial flows in 2012, over ten times the amount of official development aid received by these countries in that year, and greater than the amount of net foreign direct investment received. From 2003 — 2012, US$6.6 trillion left developing country economies illicitly. Illicit outflows from developing countries increased at a trend rate of 9.4 percent per annum in real terms over the time period from 2003 to 2012. Though growth rates of IFFs tended to be higher before the financial crisis, their volume continues to climb. Over this time period, illicit financial flows were equivalent to 3.9 percent of developing world GDP on average.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Offensive Frees Captives From Boko Haram; Exposes Group’s Bloodlust
By Perry Chiaramonte
A major offensive by Nigerian forces has freed nearly 700 captives from Boko Haram in the last week, while also further exposing the Islamist terror group’s bottomless propensity for evil.
As many as 10 girls were stoned to death last week as rescuers closed in on the terrorist group’s stronghold in the Sambisa forest in the northern Borno state. Survivors told of their harrowing escape from the terror group, which claims to be aligned with ISIS.
“Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and that we should run away with them. But we said no,” 27-year-old Lami Musa, a former captive who recently gave birth while being hostage, told The Associated Press. “Then they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her.”
It is still unclear if any of them were among the so-called “Chibok girls,” whose mass abduction from their school a year ago sparked outrage worldwide and a campaign for their freedom under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
Musa said that she believes about 10 women may have been stoned to death, but official numbers were not immediately known.
[Nacht und Nebel. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Around 40 Migrants Die in Sinking Off Italy
Around 40 migrants died when an inflatable boat carrying more than 100 people sank off the coast of Italy, Save the Children quoted survivors as saying on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens Reported Drowned as Rubber Boat Sinks in Mediterranean
Up to 40 migrants are reported to have drowned after a rubber boat they were traveling on appeared to lose air. Almost 200 other fellow migrants who witnessed the tragedy have arrived in Italy.
Migrants who arrived on the island of Sicily on Tuesday said about forty others, who had been traveling in a rubber boat alongside them, had fallen into the sea.
According to the charity Save the Children, some 194 survivors arrived on the Italian island. They said the drownings had happened early on Sunday when one of the boats appeared to explode or burst in the heat of the sun.
Those who did arrive did so aboard the cargo ship Zeran, which also carried five bodies.
Speaking from Catania, Sicily, the charity’s Giovanna di Benedetto said the exact toll wasn’t known, but that survivors reported that many people fell into the sea and were not able to swim.
There was a dramatic increase in rescues at weekend as smugglers in Libya south to take advantage of calm seas and warm weather. Would-be refugees were sent out into the Mediterranean in overloaded rubber boats and fishing vessels, with the Italian Coast Guard reporting that it rescued some 7,000 in the three days to Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Tells Migrants ‘Forget UK and Stay Here’
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has urged the hundreds of migrants living in squalid make-shift camps in Calais to forget about going to the UK and seek asylum in France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Sends Two Ships for EU Migrant Rescue Mission
(BERLIN) — Germany deployed two ships to the Mediterranean Monday to assist a European Union migrant rescue mission beefed up last month to stop deadly disasters at sea, the defence ministry said.
The ships Berlin and Hessen arrived at the Greek island of Crete to be loaded up with cargo and personnel, a ministry spokesman said.
“We still need to coordinate a bit” between various German ministries involved in the mission and the EU, the spokesman told reporters, adding that the vessels, a task force supply ship and a frigate, would arrive at their destination off Libya between Wednesday and Friday.
At a Brussels summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered the two ships which were previously used in the anti-piracy mission known as Atalanta off the Horn of Africa.
They will be loaded with 10 life rafts, 450 life vests, 1,000 blankets and medical supplies and staffed by eight doctors, the defence ministry spokesman said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Dozens of Migrants Rescued at Sea
The Greek coast guard and port police rescued dozens of migrants in six separate incidents over the course of less than 24 hours, the Athens-Macedonian New Agency reported on Tuesday.
The fist rescue was off the coast of Samos, where 46 people were retrieved from the sea after they tore a hole in their rubber dingy. In nearby Kos, three groups of 42, 24 and 25 migrants respectively were rescued from motor-powered rubber boats, while another two groups of 50 and 37 people were rescued off the coast of Lesvos.
Lastly, 42 undocumented migrants were arrested on the island of Chios after managing to reach its coast safely.
All of the groups had set sail from Turkey and were trying to reach Greece, one of the major gateways into the European Union, especially for people fleeing strife in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘In My Country There’s Only War and Death’
Over 3,200 migrants died in the Mediterranean last year. This year even more are likely to die. This makes the glittering sea that European tourists love so much the world’s most lethal border.
“The tragedies of the Mediterranean are caused by indifference,” says Abba Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean catholic priest who the Italian media call “the refugees’ angel”.
Some 170,000 people landed on Italy’s coasts in 2014, according to government figures. Many don’t remain in Italy. Eritreans, Syrians and Somalians, in particular, dream of going to Germany, Sweden, and the UK — already home to many of their fellow nationals.
“Almost half of those who reached Italy in 2014 were Eritreans and Syrians, but only some 65,000 people applied for refugee status here,” says Christopher Hein, director of the Italian Council for Refugees.
“The others went to other European countries illegally, often relying on smugglers,” he adds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Demands EU Partners Stump up for Rescued Migrants
(ROME) — Italy reacted Monday to the arrival of thousands of new migrants at its southern ports by demanding that its European Union partners meet the cost of taking them in.
Speaking after the weekend rescue of nearly 6,000 migrants in the Mediterranean, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said promises made at last month’s EU summit after a migrant boat disaster left 750 dead had to be honoured.
“The EU summit finally confirmed the European character of the migrant issue in the Mediterranean but now we need meaningful steps,” Gentiloni told the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramapolous, in a telephone conversation, the foreign ministry said.
“In particular, as well as the reinforcement of (border agency) Frontex, Italy expects an extraordinary economic commitment from the European Union to help it meet the urgent needs linked to the reception of migrants.
“A European emergency cannot continue to have only Italian responses.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
MOAS-MSF Rescue 369 Migrants, Assist in Rescue of 104
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 4 — A privately funded humanitarian organization working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has saved nearly 10% of the over 6,000 migrants rescued at sea at the weekend, sources said Monday.
The Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) teamed up with MSF earlier this year to rescue people fleeing war and hunger in Africa and the Middle East, risking their lives on the Mediterranean in often unseaworthy boats run by unscrupulous people smugglers.
MOAS is equipped with a 40-metre (130 ft) expedition vessel named the Phoenix, two drones, two rigid-hulled inflatable boats, and a highly experienced team of rescuers and paramedics.
On Sunday the joint MOAS-MSF operation took 369 mostly Eritrean migrants, including children and pregnant women, on board the Phoenix.
“Nothing prepares you for the sight of 369 people crammed onto a fishing boat,” said MOAS cofounder Chris Catrambone, who set up the organization along with wife Regina Liotta Catrambone.
“Hours after we began the rescue, the boat still seemed full,” he said.
“That’s how packed it was,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On Board Greek Rescue Mission for Migrants in Mediterranean
The Greek government has told the BBC that at least 18,000 migrants have arrived into the country by sea this year, putting the country on track to surpass the numbers of migrants that reached their shores in 2014.
Off the tiny island of Leros, a few miles from the Turkish coast, the Greek coastguard is picking people out of the sea almost on a daily basis.
The BBC’s Murad Shishani was the first journalist from an international broadcaster to be allowed on board a Greek search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Some 150 Migrants in Isolation Over Chickenpox, Scabies
Catania doctors order move to prevent contagion
(ANSA) — Augusta, May 5 — Around 150 of a group of 675 migrants who arrived in the Sicilian port of Augusta on Monday have been put into isolation as they are suspected of having chickenpox or scabies, ANSA sources said Tuesday. Local doctors ordered the move as a preventative measure to stop contagion, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Chinese-Run People Trafficking Gang Busted
Spanish police said on Monday that they had arrested 80 suspected gang members accused of charging Chinese migrants €20,000 ($22,000) each to traffick them to Europe and North America
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Stops 155 Migrants Headed Towards Greek Islands
The Turkish Coast Guard on Sunday stopped 155 migrants trying to reach Greek islands in the Aegean Sea a few miles from the Turkish coast using makeshift vessels, reported the Anadolu new agency. Of them, 71 (38 Afghans and 33 Burmese) were stopped while on dinghies trying to reach the Lesbos island. Another 84 including 74 Syrians were stopped in three separate interventions: two groups were on dinghies and the third was on a wooden boat. After they were identified, the Syrians were released in line with government policy. On Saturday another 57 Syrians were stopped while seeking to reach the Greek island Kos onboard a 7-meter-long dinghy. There are currently over 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, who have fled the conflict over the border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Offers Solution to Global Warming
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has a solution for global warming: Eat bugs.
In an interview with The Guardian, Annan called the global livestock industry “a major threat to the climate” and suggested insects as an alternative protein source to meat.
“Eating insects is good for the environment and balanced diets,” he said.
Annan told The Guardian that the growing population and middle class are making it more difficult to meet meat demands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islam: A Communist Tool Against the West
“The KGB boss described the Muslim world as a waiting petri dish, in which we could nurture a strain of hate-America.” — Lt. Gen. Ion Pacepa
The Cold War’s “ most important defector,” Ion Mihai Pacepa, recently revealed that Liberation Theology “ was the creation of the KGB, who exported it to Latin America as a way of introducing Marxism into the continent” and is traced to the 1968 “ Conference of Latin American Bishops” as reported in a must-read article posted at Breitbart.
But Liberation Theology is only one of the many subversive creations of the KGB, who also fosters and promotes radical Islam as a “ weapon against the West,” according to political commentator and New Zealand native Trevor Loudon, who is not at all surprised at the recent revelation that Liberation Theology was an invention of the KGB.
Loudon, whose book The Enemies Within:Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the US Congress is currently being made into a feature documentary, has been sounding the alarm about activities by communists in America for years. In fact, it was Loudon who first made the connection between President Barack Obama and his communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis.
Radical Islam “ serves Moscow as a deniable weapon against the West,” Loudon said. The connections between radical Islam and communism have been documented here, here and here.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This Galaxy Far, Far Away is the Farthest One Yet Found
A galaxy far, far away — farther, in fact, than any other known galaxy — has been measured by astronomers.
The galaxy EGS-zs8-1 lies 13.1 billion light-years from Earth, the largest distance ever measured between Earth and another galaxy.
The universe is thought to be about 13.8 billion years old, so galaxy EGS-zs8-1 is also one of the earliest galaxies to form in the cosmos. Further studies could provide a glimpse at how these early galaxies helped produce the heavy elements that are essential for building the diversity of life and landscapes we see on Earth today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |