The Pentagon has confirmed that samples taken in northern Iraq provide evidence that the Islamic State is using mustard gas in its attacks on the Kurds. Chemical agents used earlier in Syria by ISIS seemed to be precursors of mustard gas, and not the final product.
In other news, Turkey’s crackdown on “ghost ships” loaded with migrants bound for Italy has caused the diversion of much of the refugee traffic to the Greek islands instead.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, JD, Jerry Gordon, Nidra Poller, Seneca III, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Dijsselbloem Welcomes Greek Parliament’s Approval of Bailout
Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem welcomed the Greek parliament’s approval of a new bailout package on Friday, but said the package still must be approved by Eurozone countries.
Speaking to reporters in The Hague, Dijsselbloem said the finance ministers of eurozone countries would discuss the 85 billion euro ($95 billion) package in Brussels later on Friday. .
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Isolated as Greeks Vote on Bailout
As more and more countries send positive signals about a possible deal with Greece for a fresh tranche of bailout cash, the resistance of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is leaving Germany more and more isolated in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Meltdown: Asian Currency Crisis 2.0 Sends Ringgit, Stocks, Bonds Crashing
When China went the “nuclear” (to quote SocGen) devaluation route earlier this week in a last ditch effort to rescue its export-driven economy from the perils of an increasingly painful dollar peg, everyone knew things were about to get a whole lot worse for an EM currency basket that was already reeling from plunging commodity prices, slumping Chinese demand, and the threat of an imminent Fed hike.
Sure enough, EM currencies from Brazil to South Korea plunged, and monetary authorities — unsure whether to play down the move or cry foul — scrambled to respond.
With some Asian currencies already falling to levels last seen 17 years ago, some analysts fear that an Asian Currency Crisis 2.0 may be just around the corner.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
46 Million Americans Go to Food Banks, And Long Lines for Dwindling Food Supplies Begin at 6:30 Am
Those that run food banks all over America say that demand for their services just continues to explode. It always amazes me that there are still people out there that insist that an “economic collapse” is not happening. From their air-conditioned homes in their cushy suburban neighborhoods they mock the idea that the U.S. economy is crumbling. But if they would just go down and visit the local food banks in their areas, they would see how much people are hurting.
According to Feeding America spokesman Ross Fraser, 46 million Americans got food from a food bank at least one time during 2014. Because the demand has become so overwhelming, some food banks are cutting back on the number of days they operate and the amount of food that is given to each family. As you will see below, many impoverished Americans are lining up at food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning just so that they can be sure to get something before the food runs out. And yet there are still many people out there that have the audacity to say that everything is just fine in America. Shame on them for ignoring the pain of millions upon millions of their fellow citizens.
Poverty in America is getting worse, not better. And no amount of spin from Barack Obama or his apologists can change that fact.
[Comment: This is the goal. The pool of potential communist recruits grows. Class warfare, black vs white — divide and conquer — standard bankster modus operandi.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Classified Pentagon Exercises Reveal U.S. Would Struggle to Win War With Russia
The Pentagon has been running a series of exercises throughout the summer based on a hypothetical ground war with Russia which reveal that the U.S. would struggle to defeat Moscow.
Two defense officials who refused to be named told the Daily Beast that Washington is not ready for a sustained conflict.
“Could we probably beat the Russians today [in a sustained battle]? Sure, but it would take everything we had,” one defense official said. “What we are saying is that we are not as ready as we want to be.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Jeb Bush Linked to Drug Cartels, Money Laundering
Jeb’s early work in Venezuela and south Florida is much more troubling than Dubya pretending to be on active duty in Texas while he was actually off in Alabama helping a GOP U.S. Senate campaign and getting sloppy drunk in redneck bars. Jeb should fully explain his relationship with Alberto Duque, a Colombian national who laundered drug money for the Medellin and Cali narco-cartels and Nicaraguan contras while serving as owner of City National Bank of Miami and president of the General Coffee Company of Colombia.
Apparently, there was more than coffee arriving in sacks of coffee coming into Miami from Colombia. Duque financed a $30 million real estate development project run by Jeb Bush.
In 1983, Duque was convicted for fraud and sent to federal prison. Duque hired a Bush family CIA crony to serve as City National Bank’s president.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive — Donald Trump Expects to Face VP Joe Biden in General Election
Hillary Clinton’s ‘Big League’ Email Scandal Will Force Her Out
NEW YORK CITY, New York — Should billionaire and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump win the Republican primary in 2016—as he certainly wants to do—he expects he will face Vice President Joe Biden in the general election since he thinks the current email scandal plaguing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will eventually knock her out of the race.
When asked in a wide-ranging interview with Breitbart News in his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower if he could envision a general election with him at the top of the Republican ticket and Vice President Biden leading the Democratic ticket, Trump said, “I think so.”
“I think Hillary has got huge problems right now,” Trump said, adding:
“Is she going to make it? I hear this thing is big league. Why did she do it? You use the server? Because they’re always looking to go over the edge, whether it’s Whitewater or anything else. They always want to go over the edge. I’m just looking at it saying what the hell was she doing? You know what she was doing. She was guarding from the president seeing what she doing.”
Trump said he thinks this email scandal will take Clinton down.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News Poll: Voters Say Clinton Lied About Emails, Put US at Risk
Voters think former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flat-out lied about not having classified information on her private email server — and that she put the United States at risk by mishandling our secrets.
A Fox News poll released Friday finds a 58 percent majority thinks Clinton “knowingly lied” when she announced in a March press conference that no emails on her private server contained classified information. A third says there is “another explanation” for internal government investigators determining secret info was in fact on Clinton’s server (33 percent).
Moreover, by a 54-37 percent margin, voters feel Clinton put our national security at risk by using a private email server.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Part of Wikipedia’s charm is that it can be both an authority on topics and yet completely inaccurate at the same time.
The world’s most popular encyclopedia moves faster than traditional collections of “objective” knowledge, but it’s involved in a constant war of small edits amongst its most passionate users vying to control how a subject will be portrayed to the world.
This is especially evident in the most heavily-edited pages. In these edits you can see what subjects are still being fought over. They are a repository of the most controversial topics of our society.
And the most contentious of these topics is former president George W. Bush. The more than 45,000 edits on his page tell a story of a former president whose legacy is divisive, and who can still inspire expletive-filled ire, even while he is in retirement working on his painting skills.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Want My Church Back!’: Irate Man Interrupts Catholic Climate Change Confab — Video
An irate man interrupted a Catholic meeting about global warming in California this past weekend to accuse the church of selling its soul — another indication of how many Catholics feel uneasy about Pope Francis parroting rhetoric about global government and climate change.
The event, organized by Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, featured a number of speakers, from relief workers to scientists, who parroted the official view that man is causing global warming and that anthropogenic climate change represents an environmental crisis…
Many Catholics and Christians in general are becoming extremely concerned about why the Pope is parroting new age talk about global government and Mother Earth, the kind of rhetoric usually spouted by pagans.
Indeed, environmental activists, many of whom advocate population reduction, are now literally creating idols out of Hindu Goddesses to whom sacrifices were made in the name of saving humanity, as seen in the clip below.
The fact that the Pope is turning what should be a scientific debate — the environment and climate change — into a spiritual crusade — perhaps underscores how weak the science really is if it requires divine intervention to give it some kind of legitimacy.
[Comment: The man is 100% correct. This is what happens when you have a communist for a pope.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Alien Arrested for ‘Extremely Violent’ Triple Homicide in Florida
The brutal deaths of a grandmother and two teens in Florida earlier this week have been pinned on an illegal alien who crossed the Texas-Mexico border.
Police in Fort Meyers arrested Bolivian national Brian Omar Hyde, 19, Tuesday driving on the wrong side of the road with no license and blood on his clothes and body.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office suspects Hyde of carrying out the “extremely violent “ slayings of his cousin and roommate Starlette Pitts, 17, her mother Dorla Pitts, 37, and Michael Kelly, Jr., 19, though they still haven’t figured out a motive. Pitts’ and Kelly’s 18-month-old daughter reportedly remained unharmed.
At a press conference today, Lt. Matt Sands described the grisly incident.
It was an “extremely violent scene, even for us,” Sands said. “All homicide scenes are normally violent, but this scene was what we considered unimaginable.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Pic-a-nika’ topped with southern fried chicken and watermelon ignites storm of protest
A New York pizzeria has been forced to change the name of one of its pizzas after being accused of racism by customers.
Pizza by Certé, in Midtown, Manhattan, had been promoting its new variety, ‘Pic-a-nika’, as August’s pizza of the month.
The toppings included southern fried chicken, watermelon and sunflower seeds — foods commonly associated with southern states.
Shocked customers said the name of the pizza sounded just like a racial slur — and that the ingredients added to the ‘insult’. One woman told PIX11: That is totally inappropriate. At first glance you think right away that should go.’
And a male passerby said of the name: ‘It’s saying “Pick a you know what”. It looks like that, even though they spelled it differently.’
Diner Brian Lewis added: ‘I read it and it sounds strange, and I say it out loud and it sounds even stranger, and I’m like, that’s a little off.’
The pizzeria, on 56th and Lexington Avenue, had featured the new pizza on its Facebook and Twitter accounts — along with the hashtag #perfectsummerpizza — and even put a big poster for ‘Pic-a-nika’ on its front door.
Despite a deluge of complaints, the restaurant’s chef and owner, Edward Sylvia, insisted on Thursday that the new snack was here to stay — and that it was one of the best-sellers.
‘My father is Italian,’ he told PIX11. ‘When he says the word picnic, he says’ “pic-a-nika. Let’s have a pic-a-nika.”‘
But New Yorkers were less than thrilled by the explanation, taking to the company’s Twitter and Facebook pages to air their complaints…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
New Jersey Case Reveals ISIS Organizing Small Armies Inside America
Homeland Insecurity: The FBI’s arrest of a group of New Jersey and New York Muslims trying to organize a “small army” for the Islamic State leaves little doubt we are facing a full-blown Islamic insurgency inside our borders.
According to a just-released federal criminal complaint, five young Muslim men tied to IS were busted conspiring to recruit a small army for the terror group in New Jersey and New York.
The busts bring to 70 the number of IS-inspired terrorists arrested in this country in homeland plots.
Meantime, the FBI reports that all 56 of its field offices have active investigations against other IS suspects.
It’s now clear we’re besieged by a Fifth Column. Yet the White House fatuously insists these are unrelated, unconnected, isolated, one-off “lone wolf” incidents.
Federal agents don’t see it that way. They see all these “lone wolves” running in the same religious pack.
On Monday, agents charged Nader Saadeh, a 20-year-old Jordanian immigrant from Rutherford, N.J., with providing material support to IS. Saadeh’s 23-year-old brother, Alaa, along with at least three other Muslims were also arrested in connection with the IS cell.
The complaint says the devout Muslims “discussed building a small army” to attack non-Muslims. In a recorded conversation, one suspect fretted about NSA surveillance and suggested they leave America, to which another suspect stated: “Why? We already infiltrated.”
“Saadeh sent electronic messages expressing his hatred for the United States and desire to form a small army that would include their friends,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “Saadeh posted on his Facebook page images of ISIL’s flag and the flag of the Islamic caliphate.”
The FBI added Saadeh posted anti-American messages online and repeatedly downloaded IS videos and praised the terror group’s atrocities, including beheadings, burnings and the murder of French cartoonists…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Salon: Mouthpiece of the Racist Left
By Matthew Vadum
The racist Left has found a home at the radical commentary website, Salon, which routinely and viciously attacks conservatives and other patriotic Americans for their beliefs while promoting racist causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.
Salon is the voice of the violent mob in the street; at times it makes the small-c communist Nation magazine seem like a bastion of common sense. Its contributors claim white people, especially conservatives, emerge from the womb hating black people. To reinforce this ugly lie, Salon tries to silence those who threaten the Left and the racial-grievance industry. Salon was so desperate to slime the highly effective conservative investigative journalist James O’Keefe in 2010 that it published a sophomoric error-strewn hit piece…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Special Ops Soldiers Use Rental Trucks to Infiltrate & Occupy California Town
U.S. Special Ops soldiers infiltrated and occupied a town in California using hay trucks and rental trucks, an admission that is sure to stoke concern amongst those wary of Jade Helm, an U.S. Army exercise that began last month amidst a whirlwind of controversy.
The revelation is contained within an article by the Desert Dispatch’s Mike Lamb about U.S. Army exercises taking place throughout the High Desert area near Barstow, CA which began last month.
U.S. Army sfc. Ryan Sabin, with the 10th Special Forces Group, related to Lamb and other journalists that the exercises would include “two or three soldiers blending in with people inside a restaurant.” However, Sabin also revealed that preparation for the exercises had already been undertaken in the form of special forces soldiers infiltrating the town of Barstow, with nobody suspecting a thing.
The journalists were shown a Ryder rental truck full of furniture and a hay truck that looked normal from the outside but had been retrofitted on the inside. According to a Green Beret stood near the trucks, it was “mission accomplished,” special forces had used a number of the vehicles to surreptitiously occupy the town.
“I couldn’t count how many hay trucks,” the soldier said. “Everybody was either moving in or moving away. Nobody can suspect that (rental moving trucks).”
“He said the special operation soldiers drove down Barstow streets. And as far as he knows, nobody suspected a thing,” writes Lamb, with the soldier adding that the infiltration was “very successful….we did everything we wanted to do.”
[Comment: look how proud he is, infiltration of the hostile territory of Barstow…mission successful…useful idiot…]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Importance of Right Thinking
For fifty years liberals, progressives, socialists, those of the left or whatever they call themselves have been chipping away at every vestige of morality, right thinking, correct actions they could target. So it is pretty darn pathetic and humorous when one of the opponents of personal responsibility suddenly decry destructive behavior.
Unless you have been in a coma, are deaf, blind or just dead, odds are you are acutely aware of the Ferguson disaster. You are also familiar with how legions of thugs went to nutsville and tried to burn Baltimore to a crisp after their fallen thug brother Michael Brown assumed atmospheric temperature because he forgot that it is not nice to try and grab a police officer’s gun, after whacking him a few times.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This is a Terrible Sign for McDonald’s
On Tuesday, McDonald’s announced it is planning to close 184 restaurants across the United States this year, 59 more than it is planning to open. The scale-back is something of a historic negative milestone, because it hasn’t happened in more than 40 years. The last time the company contracted was in 1970.
The maneuver is driven, in part, by a company-wide commitment to reducing costs. Earlier this year, McDonald’s announced that it will shutter as many as 700 locations around the world, roughly half of which are in the United States, China, and Japan. The company also said earlier this month that it will be downsizing the head count at its U.S. headquarters in Illinois.
McDonald’s has called the U.S. store crunch “minimal.” And indeed, when one considers that the fast food giant still operates more than 14,000 locations around the country, it’s hard to argue with that assessment. But the news is no less troubling for the company, given how rare a McDonald’s downsize has been.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What’s Jade Helm for? Military Train Convoys Spotted “Stretching as Far as Eye Can See”
Editor’s Comment: Jade Helm 15 went live several weeks ago. It is perhaps the largest scale military exercise ever conducted on American soil, spanning across the Southwest, and reportedly, into many other states as well. It drew massive attention on the Internet and suspicion that went as high as Texas’ governor, who vowed to have Texas State Guard troops watch out for potential abuses. And yet, there has been a complete blackout on what exactly has taken place during this exercise. Headquartered in Bastrop, Texas, a stone’s throw away from the capital in Austin, the exercise launched with a ban on press and virtually no information about what was actually taking place.
Citizen journalists and staunch defenders of the republic have done their best to keep watch, too, but with little to tell the world. What we do know, is there continues to be a massive build up of military infrastructure and training. Videos and witnesses reveal the transport of large volumes of vehicles and equipment… dreading that the war could one day be against Americans, rather than overseas enemies. Let us hope and pray otherwise. But honestly, what are they gearing up for?
Jade Helm: Woodland military train convoys seen in four states stretching as far as the eye can see
by Intellihub
Since the start of the controversial massive realistic training exercise known as Jade Helm, news on what is actually happening within the exercise has become almost non-existent.
This is in marked contrast to all the information that was being released on a daily basis by the alternative media in the lead up to the exercise when one couldn’t go half a day without a new military convoy sighting or announcement of another urban military training drill.
Now, almost a month into Jade Helm we are starting to see another pick up in the amount of woodland military equipment being shipped across the country, with military train convoys spotted in at least three states in the last week.
A massive military convoy with over 100 vehicles, including at least fifty Strykers was recently spotted moving southbound through Spartanburg, South Carolina. Note that the vehicles are in woodland camouflage which destroys the notion that they are for use in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Can’t We Just be Human Beings?
by Helle Merete Brix
Terrorism: eye-witness account of the terrorist attack on Muhammed-cartoonist Lars Vilks in Copenhagen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danes and Swedes at Odds Over ‘Racist’ Plaster
High-ranking Danish officials have lampooned the Swedes over their concerns about the colour of bandages and now some have called on the Danes to apologize.
It’s well-documented that Danes and Swedes often have a very different outlook on issues surrounding both race and free speech.
From Danes accusing Swedes of being stuck in a ‘spiral of silence’ on immigration issues, to Danish art projects and toy catalogues being declared racist on the other side of the Øresund and a Danish free speech group’s decision to highlight works of a Swedish artist convicted of racism, there are no shortage of examples in which the neighbouring countries fail to see eye to eye.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danes Devise the Draught Beer App
Danish students have come up with a smart phone beer app they call “Ghostbar”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Copenhagen Launches Anti-Radicalization Plan
The Danish capital is one of the first major cities to present a comprehensive plan to combat radicalization. The Local spoke with the plan’s architect, renowned terror expert Magnus Ranstorp, about the need to “stick your hand in the fire” to reach radical youths.
The plan comes six months after the Danish capital was rocked by twin shootings on February 14-15, in which Omar El-Hussein, a 22-year-old Danish-born man of Palestinian origin who is believed to have been radicalized in prison, shot and killed two men. In the course of those six months, the City of Copenhagen has received 49 concerned reports about potentially radicalized residents compared to 60 in all of 2014.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Tracker Chips for Welfare Recipients
Pasi Maenranta, a member of the nationalist-oriented Finns Party, has suggesting implanting tracker chips in Finland’s welfare recipients.
Maenranta said all recipients going abroad should be forced to have the implantation to prevent them from joining the Islamic State. He said some welfare recipients continue to receive payments while in Syria and Iraq.
“The law should be changed: To receive payments from Kela [the Social Insurance Institution], one has to tell exact data about your location using your personal code, read by a satellite. It is also possible to implant electronic chips to all going abroad, who for example receive medical welfare from Kela,” Maenranta wrote on his Facebook page.
He said the idea does not violate privacy because with “Google or Facebook it is… clear where we are.” Maenranta added that he does not “believe that a chip is so terrible.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Survives Flight to Sweden in Plane Hold
An asylum seeker has been discovered alive in the hold of a plane that landed at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport on Friday morning, after smuggling himself on to an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Child Protection Council ‘At a Loss’ On Child Would-be Jihadis
The Dutch child protection council told nrc.next on Friday it does not know how to treat underage children who want to travel to Syria to fight. Children who threaten to travel to Syria are sometimes locked up in a youth institution. Once there, they are offered no treatment, a spokesman told the paper, because ‘we do not know how to deal with them. It is frustrating to see that children who need treatment do not get any help,’ he said. Radicalised children are often held in isolation because of fears they may influence others in the group. But it would actually be of more help to them to mix with their contemporaries, the paper reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Skin-Colored’ Band-Aid Debate Crosses Swedish Borders
Sweden’s debate about “skin-colored” band-aids always being beige has crossed the country’s borders and prompted heated reactions in neighboring Denmark, where even the foreign minister has weighed in.
Danish media reported that a debate has been raging in Sweden where “band-aids were being accused of racism”. Even Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen of the conservative Venstre party has given his opinion on his Facebook page: “I’m happy once again that I don’t live in Sweden,” he said, linking to a story on the controversial band-aids.
Stockholm-based Danish professor Drude Dahlerup has strongly reacted to the minister’s comment.
“It is unworthy of a foreign minister to speak of a neighboring country in these terms. He should apologize to the Swedish people,” she tells Swedish Radio News.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Man Found in Airplane Cargo Hold in Arlanda
A man was found in the cargo hold of a plane coming from Ethiopia at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport on Friday morning, Swedish Radio News reports.
“When the staff were going to unload the baggage, they found the man. He was in good shape, but we made him see a nurse. The matter has been handed over to the border police now,” says Henrik Klefve, press officer at Swedavia, the state-owned company which operates Sweden’s major airports.
The plane landed around 7 a.m. and came directly from Addis Ababa. The man, born in 1991, is an Ethiopian national and intends to seek asylum in Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Government Opens Institute to Fight Extremism
A new institute against violent ideologies and movements opened on Friday at Gothenburg University with an aim to fight terror recruitment and radicalization.
“We have several forms of violent ideologies which threaten our open, democratic and tolerant society. We have people traveling to Syria as illegal fighters, we have people going to Ukraine as illegal fighters to join Nazi groups there, and above all, we have a threat in our own country,” says Christer Mattson at Segerstedtinstitutet.
The government commissioned Gothenburg University to create a center to gather knowledge, research and methods to fight terrorism. The institute is named after Torgny Segerstedt and Ingrid Segerstedt Wiberg, who famously battled Nazism.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Foreign Minister Margot Wallström and National Coordinator Against Violent Extremism Mona Sahlin attended the inauguration of the center.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Racist Rumors May Have Affected How Police Handled Ikea Stabbing Case
Sweden was shaken this Monday by a double murder in Ikea’s store in Västerås. A 55-year-old woman and her 27-year-old son got stabbed to death while shopping in the kitchen section.
The police arrested the same day two men who were living in the same asylum center in the nearby city of Arboga. The story got extensive media coverage in Sweden and abroad, politicians weighed in and some websites started publishing racist comments and rumors.
The older suspect, aged 36, confessed to the crime yesterday after being questioned over the phone from hospital, where he is recovering from serious injuries he got in connection with the attack.
The other suspect, aged 23, was released yesterday, as the court said there was not enough evidence against him. His lawyer, Maria Wilhelmsson, says her client needs protection, as he has received multiple threats.
“Yes, considering the threats and what is being written on several websites, I think he needs protection,” Wilhelmsson says.
Police in Västmanland have confirmed that they have already set up a protection protocol for him, but declined to reveal any further details.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: At Heart of Counter-Terror Policing. and by Night, Preacher of Extremism
The Government watchdog which inspects police forces’ readiness for terrorism admitted that it employed one of Britain’s most notorious Islamic extremists.
By Andrew Gilligan
For almost two years Abdullah al Andalusi, led a double life, the Telegraph can reveal.
By night, he taught that the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was “no different to Western armies,” said that “kaffirs,” non-Muslims, would be “punished in hell” and claimed that the British government wanted to destroy Islam.
By day, using a different name, he went to work for the same British government at the London offices of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), the official regulator of all 44 forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The disclosures will be intensely embarassing to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who has criticised parts of Britain’s Muslim communities for “quietly condoning” Islamist extremism.
HMIC’s staff, who number less than 150, are given privileged access to highly sensitive and classified police and intelligence information to carry out their inspections.
The inspectorate’s work includes scrutinising police forces’ counter-terrorism capabilities and top-secret plans for dealing with terror attacks.
It has also recently published reports on undercover policing and the use of informants.
HMIC admitted that Mr al Andalusi, whose real name is Mouloud Farid, had passed a security vetting check to work as a civil servant at the inspectorate.
He was subsequently promoted to executive grade, a management rank, placing him at the heart of the security establishment.
He was only sacked after bosses spotted him on television defending extremist Islamic positions on behalf of his organisation, the Muslim Debate Initiative, which is heavily dependent on Saudi money.
The inspectorate insisted that he did not handle classified material but former friends of Mr al Andalusi said he had done so…
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Butler-Sloss Testifies as Character Witness in Child Abuse Case
A retired High Court Judge has given evidence on behalf of a man who is on trial for raping a 13-year-old girl.
Baroness Butler-Sloss told Exeter Crown Court she had 34 years experience of dealing with child abuse cases.
She gave character evidence on behalf of Philip Chard, 44, on trial for rape and sexual abuse of the girl.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racist ‘Sikh Taliban’ Thugs Are Attacking Inter-Faith Marriages
A wedding between a white Christian man and an Asian Sikh woman has been called off after a gang of more than twenty “fanatical thugs” stormed the temple where it was due to take place. The attack is part of an increasing trend of Sikh groups attempting to stop what they call “insulting” and “outer faith” weddings in temples.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Union for the Mediterranean Promotes €5 Billion Urban Investment in 27 Projects
The projects will directly benefit the development of sustainable urban areas in nine countries on the southern and eastern shores.
According to the European Investment Bank, urban infrastructure in the region will require an investment of €60 billion in the next 20 years.
The Union for the Mediterranean fosters social and urban infrastructure initiatives with a regional scope to raise strategic investments amongst the stakeholders in the region (governments, multilateral organisations and promoters).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ISIS Bombs Residential Areas of Sirte, Victims
At least 30 people were killed Thursday after ISIS bombarded a suburb of Sirte in northern Libya with artillery fire. The attack came following clashes there between the jihadists and Salafi factions supported by civilians, said Arabiya television network.
The clashes erupted on Monday between militants of Salafi groups and ISIS members, following the killing by ISIS of Salafi leader Khaled Ben Rjab. Eyewitnesses said tens of armed civilians joined the armed formations to fight, intent on driving ISIS from the city.
According to the Associated Press, since Monday at least 46 have died in the clashes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Chaos: Islamic State Battles Militias in Sirte
At least 25 people have been killed in clashes between Islamic State (IS) and a rival Islamist group backed by armed civilians in the Libyan city of Sirte.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tel Aviv on the Seine Flushes Out the Slithery Creatures, Part 2
By Nidra Poller
Ah ha ha, I’m chortling. Or maybe it’s better to imagine airy bell-like laughter, something silky and lacy. Ah ha ha, I’m laughing. The Big Bad Wolf said I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll… give an interview to a journalist. That was Gaza Beach today, a silly little flop. More journalists than BDSniks in their green Boycott Israel t-shirts. More riot policemen than petulant self-satisfied protestors in keffieh. The caliphators were not out in force.
But let’s begin at the beginning. Shortly before noon a parade of police cars passed by, sirens singing. That always electrifies the atmosphere. The cars took up positions around the Hôtel de Ville [city hall]. Dozens of CRS [riot police] were already in place, manning their stations. A long line of people waited patiently on the high road to go through the checkpoint and down the ramp to Tel Aviv on the Seine. Silent hecklers waited off to the side, making a fashion statement with their keffiehs and Gaza Beach Soccer t-shirts as if their presence were the eloquent expression of “international opinion.” Euro-Palestine in person [www.europalestine.com/] had informed loyal followers that permission to demonstrate had been granted on the grounds that they not try to mingle with the Tel Aviv beachgoers. So of course that’s why a dozen of them had to stand there like “do me something.”…
| — Hat tip: Nidra Poller | [Return to headlines] |
“He Said That Raping Me is His Prayer to God”
By Robert Spencer
“He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God…He said that raping me is his prayer to God.” This is reminiscent of Hamas’ statement, “Killing Jews is worship that draws us closer to God.”
Raping girls and killing Jews are acts of devotion to their god? What kind of god is this? And what kind of moral blindness has overtaken non-Muslim leaders when they sit and drink tea and “dialogue” with Muslim clerics while being careful never to mention anything like this (and they probably aren’t even aware of it, anyway)?
The seizure of Infidel girls and their use as sex slaves is sanctioned in the Qur’an. According to Islamic law, Muslim men can take “captives of the right hand” (Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 33:50). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war” (33:50). 4:3 and 4:24 extend this privilege to Muslim men in general. The Qur’an says that a man may have sex with his wives and with these slave girls: “The believers must (eventually) win through, those who humble themselves in their prayers; who avoid vain talk; who are active in deeds of charity; who abstain from sex, except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess, for (in their case) they are free from blame.” (Qur’an 23:1-6)
The rape of captive women is also sanctioned in Islamic tradition:
Abu Sirma said to Abu Sa’id al Khadri (Allah he pleased with him): O Abu Sa’id, did you hear Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) mentioning al-’azl? He said: Yes, and added: We went out with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi’l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing ‘azl (Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah’s Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born. (Muslim 3371)
It is also in Islamic law: “When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman’s previous marriage is immediately annulled.” (Umdat al-Salik O9.13)
The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011 that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that meant Muslims would take slaves. In a subsequent interview he elaborated:
Jihad is only between Muslims and infidels. Spoils, slaves, and prisoners are only to be taken in war between Muslims and infidels. Muslims in the past conquered, invaded, and took over countries. This is agreed to by all scholars—there is no disagreement on this from any of them, from the smallest to the largest, on the issue of taking spoils and prisoners. The prisoners and spoils are distributed among the fighters, which includes men, women, children, wealth, and so on.
When a slave market is erected, which is a market in which are sold slaves and sex-slaves, which are called in the Qur’an by the name milk al-yamin, “that which your right hands possess” (Koran 4:24). This is a verse from the Qur’an which is still in force, and has not been abrogated. The milk al-yamin are the sex-slaves. You go to the market, look at the sex-slave, and buy her. She becomes like your wife, (but) she doesn’t need a (marriage) contract or a divorce like a free woman, nor does she need a wali. All scholars agree on this point—there is no disagreement from any of them. […] When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Tourists Terrified After Turkish Hotel Staff Stage Mock ISIL-Style Attack
British holidaymakers staying at the five star resort Grand Yazici Mares in Icmeler, Turkey, were left terrified after staff members staged an Isil-style attack.
Jason Phythian, 43, was relaxing poolside when a group of men stormed the pool area brandishing fake guns and ‘fuel’ cans. Mr Phythian claims a man dressed in Arab clothing poured a liquid labelled as fuel over his head and then pulled out a lighter.
“One ran up to me with a bucket with ‘fuel’ written on the side. He threw it over me and got out a cigarette lighter.”
Jaosn’s sister Dawn Sutton, 41, wrote she was “so shocked to see them dressed up. One was dressed in army pants walking around with a gun pointing it at people.”
The traumatised guests were informed the “attack” was part of a “Hollywood-themed poolside show”. They however remained suitably unimpressed claiming the prank resembled the Tunisia attacks which took place only 6 weeks earlier.
Thirty-eight individuals including 30 British tourists were killed by ISIS terrorist Seifeddine Rezgui Yacoubi who stormed a popular hotel near Sousse, Tunisia, on June 26.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Chemical Warfare Attack on Kurds in Iraq Raises Questions
The reports about prohibited mustard gas attacks by ISIS against Kurdish peshmerga near Erbil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq indicate that ISIS has acquired the capabilities either from caches of the Assad regime in Syria or in Iraq. They are similar to reports of similar chemical attacks on Syrian YPG forces during the Kobani siege in 2014 and eerily familiar to Iraqi Kurds given the thousands killed in Saddam Hussein gas attacks in March 1988 at Halabja. The Wall Street Journal reported in today’s edition on the significance of what American military believe that the efforts by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had not secured these unconventional weapons during operations in 2013, “US Believes ISIS Used Chemical Weapons on Kurds:”…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape
Claiming the Quran’s support, the Islamic State codifies sex slavery in conquered regions of Iraq and Syria and uses the practice as a recruiting tool.
QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted.
He bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her.
When it was over, he knelt to pray again, bookending the rape with acts of religious devotion.
“I kept telling him it hurts — please stop,” said the girl, whose body is so small an adult could circle her waist with two hands. “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God,” she said in an interview alongside her family in a refugee camp here, to which she escaped after 11 months of captivity.
The systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution. Interviews with 21 women and girls who recently escaped the Islamic State, as well as an examination of the group’s official communications, illuminate how the practice has been enshrined in the group’s core tenets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Sexually Abused American Hostage Kayla Mueller, Officials Say
Before her death earlier this year, American hostage Kayla Mueller was repeatedly raped by the top leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to counter-terrorism officials.
Mueller’s family confirmed to ABC News that government officials have told them that their daughter, who would have turned 27 on Friday, was the victim of repeated sexual assaults by al-Baghdadi.
“We were told Kayla was tortured, that she was the property of al-Baghdadi. We were told that in June by the government,” said Kayla’s parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, who spoke exclusively to ABC News today.
Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi who calls himself “Caliph” as ruler of the Islamic State, personally brought the enslaved 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona, to be imprisoned inside the home of Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian in charge of oil and gas revenue for the group, counter-terrorism officials have told ABC News over the past several months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Leader Reportedly Raped American Hostage
American hostage Kayla Mueller was repeatedly forced to have sex with Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, U.S. intelligence officials told her family in June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Leader Baghdadi ‘Raped’ Kayla Mueller
An American aid worker who was killed in February while held hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, was sexually abused by the group’s top leader, US officials tell ABC news. Kayla Mueller, 26, was repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, they said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Officials Believe ISIS Used Chemical Weapons Against Kurds in Iraq
Pentagon officials believe ISIS used chemical weapons against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq Wednesday, Fox News has learned.
One official who had seen the latest intelligence reports from the region told Fox News Thursday that the victims had “blisters” that matched the symptoms of other victims of mustard gas. The intelligence community was continuing to investigate the reports, which were first made public by the German defense ministry.
This is the first reported incident of ISIS using chemical weapons since the terror group came to prominence last year. Senior U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal that ISIS may have obtained the mustard gas in Syria, whose Damascus government admitted to having large stockpiles of the chemical when it agreed to give up its chemical weapons arsenal in 2013. Another U.S. official left open the possibility that ISIS had taken the mustard gas from old weapons stockpiles that belonged to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and weren’t destroyed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM Warns of New Elections
Turkish PM Davutoglu, from the ruling AKP party, has said early elections are likely after coalition talks fell apart. “There is a strong possibility of appealing to the national will”, he told press. AKP’s previous weak result put the brakes on president Erdogan’s ambitions to centralise power via constitutional reform.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Confirms ISIS Used Mustard Agent
Washington (CNN)The U.S. government has test results from an ISIS attack in Hasakah, Syria, from two weeks ago that confirm the terror group used a mustard agent as a weapon, multiple U.S. intelligence and military officials told CNN on Friday.
The U.S. is continuing to investigate an attack this week in northern Iraq that also has indications of a similar chemical agent being used.
Officials stress the amount of chemical agent is thought to be small and the concentration low. But it is yet another sign that ISIS is in possession of mustard agent and is using it in battle.
The U.S. is still investigating the amount and sophistication of how the agent was delivered.
One official said the mustard agent used in Syria is more likely precursor chemicals, rather than a complex munition, a sign this did not come from a cache of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but was probably mixed by ISIS on its own, using agents or precursor chemicals it obtained.
Precursors are chemicals involved in production stages for toxic chemicals, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The officials would not disclose what type of sample was collected.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UN Rights Experts to Iran: Immediately Release US Reporter; Verdict Could Come Next Week
U.N. human rights experts are calling on Iran to immediately release a Washington Post reporter who has been detained for more than a year on charges including espionage. A verdict on Jason Rezaian’s case could come as early as next week.
Friday’s statement says the detention and closed-door trial violate Rezaian’s rights and serve to intimidate journalists in Iran. It says his solitary confinement and full-day interrogation sessions “caused significant physical and psychological strain.”
The statement was issued by the special rapporteurs for freedom of expression and human rights in Iran and by the head of the working group on arbitrary detention.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
While Erdogan is Ensconced in His Opulent New Palace, Turkey is on the Brink of Civil War
The country is being held hostage by its ambitious president
by Robert Ellis
Turkey is on the brink of civil war and economic collapse, and the country’s future is being held hostage to the overweening ambition of its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, Secretary Kerry: Iran Does Want to Destroy Israel
It’s the first rule of war: know your enemy.
Understand the enemy’s ideology and beliefs—what drives him. Steep yourself in his history and patterns of behavior. Identify his weaknesses and vulnerabilities. And then, achieve victory.
In recent times, Ronald Reagan employed this plan to perfection in helping to bring down the Soviet Empire. In fact, Reagan studied communism and the Soviet system for decades before he became president.
The result? Once in office, he employed a strategy that enabled America to win the Cold War (although Stalin admirer Vladimir Putin now has Russia on the march once again in the face of a feckless Obama administration).
If only we had leaders in the West today who shared Reagan’s intellectual curiosity and honesty—not to mention his moral clarity.
Instead, we have John Kerry.
In an interview last week with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in which he defended the catastrophic Iran nuclear deal he helped secure, Kerry expressed doubts that the Iranian regime truly wants to destroy Israel. Goldberg writes:…
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Air Pollution Killing 4,000 in China a Day, US Study Finds
(AP) — Air pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for 1 in 6 premature deaths in the world’s most populous country, a new study finds.
Physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, calculated that about 1.6 million people in China die each year from heart, lung and stroke problems because of incredibly polluted air, especially small particles of haze. Earlier studies put the annual Chinese air pollution death toll at 1 to 2 million, but this is the first to use newly released Chinese air monitoring figures.
Study lead author Robert Rohde said that 38 percent of the Chinese population lives in an area with a long-term air quality average that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls “unhealthy.”
“It’s a very big number,” Rohde said Thursday. “It’s a little hard to wrap your mind around the numbers. Some of the worst in China is to the southwest of Beijing.”
To put Chinese air pollution in perspective, the most recent American Lung Association data shows that Madera, California, has the highest annual average for small particles in the United States. But 99.9 percent of the eastern half of China has a higher annual average for small particle haze than Madera, Rohde said.
“In other words, nearly everyone in China experiences air that is worse for particulates than the worst air in the U.S.,” Rohde said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Leader Expresses ‘Profound Grief’ In Statement Marking Anniversary of WWII Surrender
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that Japan’s past “heartfelt apologies” for World War II will remain unshakeable in the future, but stopped short of apologizing again in a statement marking the 70th anniversary of the country’s surrender.
Abe expressed “profound grief” for all who perished in the war and acknowledged that Japan inflicted “immeasurable damage and suffering” on innocent people.
“On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, I bow my head deeply before the souls of all those who perished both at home and abroad. I express my feelings of profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences,” Abe said.
While saying that the Japanese people must squarely face history, he noted that more than 80 percent of the country’s population was born after the war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fidel Castro Celebrates 89th Birthday by Calling on US to Pay Embargo Damages
Brief newspaper column says US owes Cuba ‘numerous millions of dollars’ and comes a day before John Kerry will raise flag over American embassy in Havana
Fidel Castro has marked his 89th birthday with a newspaper column repeating assertions that the US owes socialist Cuba “numerous millions of dollars” for damages caused by its decades-long embargo.
The brief essay came a day before an historic moment in US-Cuba relations: US secretary of state John Kerry is to raise the Stars and Stripes over a restored American embassy in Havana, though the economic embargo legally remains in effect.
The rapprochement after 54 years of formal diplomatic estrangement was engineered by Fidel’s brother Raúl, who took over Cuba’s presidency after the elder Castro suffered a health crisis in 2006.
Fidel Castro did not directly mention the restored relations, though he made several critical references to the US.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry to Strike Delicate Balance in Havana Trip for Embassy Flag-Raising
Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Cuba on Friday morning to attend a flag-raising ceremony at the American Embassy and to give a lift to the effort to rebuild ties after more than half a century of hostility.
But Mr. Kerry’s visit — the first by a secretary of state since Edward R. Stettinius Jr. made a short trip to Havana in 1945 — also reflects the balance that the Obama administration is trying to strike between working with an authoritarian government and supporting Cuba’s beleaguered dissidents.
The morning’s highlight will be the carefully choreographed ceremony at the embassy, which was officially opened last month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Marks Opening of US Embassy in Havana, Critics Rip ‘Diplomacy for Show’
Secretary of State John Kerry marked the historic re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana on Friday after a half-century-long freeze, amid lingering tensions between the two countries and deep concern among anti-Castro lawmakers in Washington.
“There will be hiccups along the way, but it’s a start,” Kerry acknowledged, speaking briefly to reporters before a ceremony where the U.S. flag was hoisted above the embassy for the first time in 54 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Owes Millions of Dollars to Cuba: Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro has reminded the US that it owes damages to Cuba totalling “millions of dollars”, and pledged that his country will never stop fighting for peace and the well-being of all humanity.
In a message published on Thursday, his 89th birthday, the former Cuban president said the US owes a huge debt to Cuba, including damages reaching millions of dollars due to the trade embargo, which his country has made clear with irrefutable proof and arguments during appeals to the United Nations, reported Xinhua.
His article was published on the eve of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 2,300 Deaths in Mediterranean This Year — IOM
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Friday that “at least 2,300” people have died this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to reach Europe. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Friday that “at least 2,300” people have died this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to reach Europe. It added that over 250,000 asylum seekers have landed in Europe this year, more than the number for the whole of 2014.
The organization adds that the sea route to Sicily, taken by many migrants leaving from North Africa, is “the deadliest”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dominican Republic Resumes Patrols to Find and Deport Migrants Lacking Residency Documents
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Authorities in the Dominican Republic have resumed patrols to detain and deport migrants who lack documents after a more than yearlong hiatus. The move comes weeks after the government ended a one-year period for migrants to apply for legal residency. Most of the migrants affected are Haitians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fix Refugee Care, Amnesty Tells Austria
Amnesty International says Austria is systematically failing to handle its influx of asylum-seekers despite having plentiful means. A damning report looks into overcrowding at Austria’s main arrivals center.
Most asylum-seekers, fleeing violence in hotspots such as Syria and Iraq, arrive via Serbia and Hungary, which is building a fence along its border.
Amnesty’s condemnation follows reports of miserable conditions for asylum-seekers arriving on Greek islands and even recently in Berlin’s Moabit precinct, where last week hundreds waited in stifling summer heat to lodge applications.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart has threatened to ‘open the border’ unless the British government is willing to sit down for talks to resolve the migrant crisis.
She accused David Cameron of ‘mocking’ French authorities and trying to ‘impose’ British law on Calais.
Although Miss Bouchart has no say on actual border controls, she is in charge of police in Calais and could relax the heavy security operation restricting migrants’ attempts to access the Channel Tunnel terminal and port.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migration: Athens Sends Ship to Ease Kos Refugees Chaos
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, AUGUST 14 — A cruise ship is expected to arrive in Kos from the port of Piraeus to act as a registration centre for some of the thousands of migrants arriving on the Greek island. As local authorities said, it’s an attempt to prevent a repeat of the chaotic scenes when police clashed with refugees. Meanwhile, in Athens a wider government meeting on migration issues affecting the Greek islands and ways to deal with the problem concluded at the Interior ministry earlier on Thursday as Ana-Mpa reported. The meeting was attended by EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Tasia Christodoulopoulou, Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis, State Minister for Coordinating Government Operations Alekos Flambouraris, Alternate Shipping Minister Thodoris Dritsas and Alternate Minister for Civil Protection Yannis Panousis.
Participants also discussed other urgent issues which concern migration. From his side, the Ministry of Health has announced that it will provide a building on Leros, formerly used for disabled people, to refugees on the island for temporary shelter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Fears of Retaliation After Ikea Double Stabbings
Police were called to break up an illegal demonstration outside the asylum centre where two men linked to the Västerås Ikea stabbings lived on Thursday night, as fears grew of further retaliation attacks against refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Hazy Notion of Safe Countries of Origin
In order to cut down the number of asylum applications, three Balkan states are set to be labeled as safe countries of origin. Yet Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro struggle with enormous problems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Crackdown on ‘Ghost Ships’ Sparked Migrant Drive to Greece, IOM Says
Turkish efforts to stop traffickers from sending large “ghost ships” crammed with migrants towards Italy has sparked the surge in arrivals in Greece, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
The migrants and refugees making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe are increasingly travelling the eastern route from Turkey to the Greek islands, which have seen more arrivals since the beginning of the year than long-time top destination Italy, according to UN figures.
IOM spokesman Joel Millman said the main explanation for the surge in numbers of people arriving in Greece was a Turkish crackdown on traffickers’ attempts to acquire large metal freighters to use as migrant “ghost ships” heading to Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who Are We? And Why Are We Not Who We Were?
This interview series stems from the imminent historian from Yale University, Mr. Bromwell Ault. You may contact him at here.
As an octogenarian, Ault observed this country’s rise through the 20th century and quickening decline in the 21st century. He lends a keen eye and articulate mind to what our civilization faces.
Our civilization changed radically because of the late U.S. Senator Teddy Kennedy’s “1965 Immigration Reform Act”, which dramatically shifted the demographic and ethnic configuration of America. It changed from 90 percent European-American, 7 percent African-American and 3 percent Hispanic-American — — to a polyglot society with ethnic groups from 180 different countries. European-Americans face becoming the newest minority by 2042, when Hispanic-Mexican Americans become the new majority.
America split its ethos, culture and language into fragmented parts, and the most pressing of those fragments finds itself in the rise of the most violent religion in the world: Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court Forces Christian Bakery to Serve Gay Weddings
A Colorado court has ruled against a Christian bakery who refused to decorate a gay wedding cake.
In a ruling released Thursday, the Colo. Court of Appeals said the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Jack Phillips, violated the state’s ‘public accommodations’ law by refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple in 2012.
“Phillips believes that decorating cakes is a form of art, that he can honor God through his artistic talents, and that he would displease God by creating cakes for same-sex marriages,” the justices wrote in their ruling against him.
They also claimed that forcing Philips to decorate a gay wedding cake wouldn’t place an undue burden on him. “The act of designing and selling a wedding cake to all customers free of discrimination does not convey a celebratory message about same-sex weddings,” the justices wrote.
In response, Phillips’ defense counsel, the Alliance Defending Freedom, said it would look into further legal options.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Figures. Democrats’ “Freedom of Choice” Abortion Movement Was Stolen From the Nazis
What a surprise.
The Democrats’ “freedom of choice” abortion movement was stolen from the Nazi regime.
When the Nazis entered Poland (a Roman Catholic country) in 1939 abortion for any reason was illegal. The use of contraceptives was also illegal in Poland (because the Roman Catholic Church was opposed to abortion and to contraception as well). The Nazis conquered half the country (the other half went to the Russians), and they immediately did away with the anti-abortion laws. Hitler wanted to limit and reduce all non-Aryan populations. In late 1939 a decree was issued encouraging Polish women to seek abortions. The campaign was called “Auswahlfeiheit” (“Freedom of Choice”).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Porn Induces Addiction and Makes Men Bad in Bed and Affects Your Brain
Pornography offers the chance to explore your sexual fantasies. But while X-rated films can boost your libido, it can have a sinister effect on the brain, scientists in Germany, the UK reveal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
On Trump : He has cojones and the thinking to take him all the way to the U.S. Presidency.
On I want my Church back : How many more Catholics will begin to protest the socialization of the Catholic Church under this anti – Pope?
On ISIS organizing armies within the U.S. : Where are all the white, Bible preaching, gun possessing, extremist Americans the White House is telling us all about?
On Jade Helm and continuing exercises : Is this continuing military exercise a White House attempt to ‘flush out’ those they consider to be American patriots, or is this an exercise in forcing the folks to get used to a coming martial law imposition that is not too far away considering that 46 million Americans now rely on food Banks?
On the current invasion of Europe by the Third World: At least 2300 deaths have been reported in the Mediterranean this year due to so called ‘asylum seekers’ risking their lives in leaky boats to gain a foothold in Europe, but that death figure will be miniscule when the peoples of Europe decide that they have had enough of their uninvited ‘guests’!
On porn induces addiction and affects one’s brain : The serial killer, Ted Bundy, tried to warn us about porn, but no one wanted to listen.
It’s hard to say exactly what Jade Helm is about. The U.S. military has people who come up with scenarios, including things as far fetched as a space alien invasion, and plans for how to respond. It’s relatively cheap to imagine scenarios and come up with plans for them which is why you’d get a plan for everything including an extraterrestrial invasion. It’s much more expensive to train to execute such a plan which is why everyone hasn’t been spending all their time training for a invasion by ET.
Whatever is going on, they’ve decided that some plan they have is more likely to actually be needed in reality but that plan could be anything for which these tactics are useful. Is the anticipated target the U.S. or in the U.S. (are they expecting a problem here?) or are they anticipating a need to invade some foreign country? The tactics could be useful in both scenarios depending on what sort of problem they’re anticipating.
The tactics involved above involve evading detection, but that’s something useful in a large variety of military situations.
The Jade Helm map certainly looks like it was constructed to provoke a political group. I tend to think there are multiple purposes for this, but just the attempt to do so is disturbing since it suggests a willingness to conduct social/psychological experiments on the public if nothing else. I doubt it was inadvertent. That was intentionally done for some purpose whether it was to ensure that their activities would be observed so they could then observe to what degree they were observed or smoke out “right wing violent extremists”.
Yes, it is something that is very difficult to put a tag on. I would liken the whole exercise to something wicked comes your way.
>> Mouloud Farid … was only sacked after bosses spotted him on television defending extremist Islamic positions on behalf of his organisation, the Muslim Debate Initiative, which is heavily dependent on Saudi money. <<
Why do Westerners recklessly assume that Muslims of any length of residence can be drawn into the Inner Sanctums of government and given access to the most precious intelligence, sources and methods? Why do Western nations tolerate in their countries what the Saudis in particular would not tolerate in their own nightmarish country?
Here in the US, Saudis finance 80 p.c. of new mohscks, which are, of course, salafist. Our own nightmare of a Supreme Court will, like trained seals, discover that the Constitution protects all foreign religions, some of whose adherents, even in the 17th c., we're enslaving Christians captured on the high seas and the coasts of Ireland and Italy. Lo, it is written that we are a universal nation where Christians, Muslim subversives, voodooists, cannibals, Scientologists, animal sacrificers, and haruspicers can worship under the benevolent, shining radiance of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Justice Ruth "Don't Use Ours" Ginsburg for the sellout majority
Just as the Founders and Ratifiers envisioned so many moons ago — a vaporous, inconsequential, shallow, enervated, feckless, feeble, sodomy-fixated, foreigner-worshipping, dishonest, manipulated, feminized, passive, sentimental, addled excuse for a nation, whose later mightiest of engines of destruction and devastation with the consuming power of the sun itself would be no defense against primitives, strangers to decency and thought, and worshippers of death, conquest and slavery who would arrive in their lands in rubber rafts, aboard rusted hulks, in suitcases, under trucks, on top of trains, in the wheel wells of massive flying technical marvels, and by shank's mare across undefended borders.
It is simple. At the very lowest level of an organism each cell maintains its walls through which it allows only life giving substances to pass.
But Westerner political and intellectual leaders ensure that their "nations" have no cell walls, no battlements. By the persistent, repeated, deliberate, determined excercise of their will they invite in or elect not to repel the people who and ideas that ensure the death of what is endearing, precious, lovely, orderly, decent, stalwart, noble, rational, and enlightened.
Go Colonel! Couldn’t agree more!
ISIS is Islam is Muslim is at war with itself and the rest of the world. The Musslim swarm seem to believe ‘all is fair in war……’ ?
If ISIS wasn’t orthodox Islam, Al Azar would have condemned it on the spot, and every Sunni mosque would preach the condemnation as well. But that’s not the case.
It is orthodox Islam, hence it’s draw to young Muslims.
The MSM will never have experts on who will say this though. They will only bring on the confused and lost.