Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/22/2015

Thousands of migrants have gathered on the border between Greece and Macedonia, trying to push their way through so they can transit through Serbia, Austria, and Hungary to reach their ultimate destination, Germany. Some of the migrants are from Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan, but many of those pretend to be refugees from Syria, hoping by this stratagem to expedite their passage.

In other news, a large explosion rocked a chemical plant in the city of Zibo in Shandong Province, eastern China. Nine people were injured in the blast, but no deaths have been reported.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, MC, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Italy: Alfano Pledges 7.5 Bn Tax Cuts for Folks ‘Who Make Babies’
» Operation Choke Point: The Government’s Covert War on Small Business
» Paul Krugman: “What Ails the World Right Now is That Governments Aren’t Deep Enough in Debt”
» The Federal Reserve is Not Your Friend
» This 2 Day Stock Market Crash Was Larger Than Any 1 Day Stock Market Crash in U.S. History
 
USA
» Ashley Madison Hackers in Third Leak and Have Users Explicit Photos
» Comcast Releases Username That Suggested U.S. Politician Molested Children
» GOP Honcho Claims RNC Has Secret Anti-Trump War Room
» Hillary Clinton Will Interrupt Vacation to Campaign in Midwest
» Jeb Bush Comes Out Against Encryption
» Police Raid Kiss Rocker Gene Simmons’ Home
» Pope Francis Will Use Jeep Wrangler as Popemobile on US Trip
» Report: Biden Makes Unscheduled Trip to Huddle With Warren, Adding to 2016 Speculation
» The Plot to Impose a National Sales Tax or a Value Added Tax
» Video: Cop Slams Old Man to the Concrete for Singing in Public
» What Drought? Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of California Drinking Water
 
Canada
» Extortionists Begin Targeting AshleyMadison Users, Demand Bitcoin
 
Europe and the EU
» At Least 7 Dead After Vintage Military Jet Crashes at Air Show in England
» France Train Shooting: Hollande Thanks ‘Heroes’ Who Foiled Gunman
» French Couple ‘Having Sex’ on a Castle Die After Plunging 40ft Into Moat
» German Government Charges CIA Spy With Treason
» Gunman’s Weapon ‘May Have Jammed’ In Thwarted French Train Attack
» Italy: Dad Says Teen Found Dead on Beach Was ‘Normal, Sweet’
» Italy: Trash Transformed in Eco-Asphalt, AMA Patent
» Italy: Church Voices ‘Embarrassment’ Over ‘Godfather Funeral’
» Italy: ‘I’d Do it Again’ Says Godfather-Style Funeral Priest, Totò’s Carriage Used
» Mafia Responsible for 20% Drop in GDP in Southern Italy — Study
» ‘My First Time in Europe and I Stopped a Terrorist’
» Police Say 7 Dead After Jet in UK Airshow Crashes Into Road
» The Church of England’s Bishops Are a Bunch of Lefties
» The Real Story on How Three American Heroes Foiled the Jihad Terrorist on the Thalys Train
» UK: Clubber Who Smashed Glass Over a City Worker’s Head at Babble City is Spared Jail
» UK: Mushin Ahmed Died After Being Attacked Walking to Morning Prayer in Rotherham
» UK: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Tells of Night a Rapist Spiked Her Student Daughter’s Drink
» US Marines Subdue Moroccan Jihad Terrorist on Thalys Train in France
» What Do We Know About France’s Train Gunman?
» Wild Boars Number 1 Million in Italy — Coldiretti Farmers
 
North Africa
» Tunisian Author: Democratizing Muslim Countries Means Leaving Islam
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Op-Ed: The Home Building Lie
 
Middle East
» ISIS Brutes Pictured Desecrating Mar Elian Monastery in Syria
» Khamenei Urges Islamic Unity Against Real Enemies: US and Israel
» More People Prosecuted for Insulting Erdogan Than Atatürk
» Provincial Official: Islamic State Militants Kill Up to 50 Iraqi Troops in Anbar Ambushes
» Saudi Islamic Leaders Oppose Extradition Nepalese Murderer: “He is an Islamic Missionary”
» UNESCO: Islamic State Most Brutal Destruction Since Second World War
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Murdered by the Taliban Aged 9 Because His Uncle Was a Translator for British Army
» Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, 10 People Arrested for Suspected Links With the Islamic State
» Piaggio Launches Vespa Scooter Models in Nepal
» Suicide Car Bombing Targeting NATO Convoy in Afghanistan Kills 3 American Contractors
» Thai Police Focus on Possible ‘Turkish Connection’ In Shrine Bombing Manhunt
 
Far East
» China Tests Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapon of All Time
» China Explosion: Fires at Shandong Chemical Plant
» China: Blast at Chemical Site Jangles Frayed Nerves
» North and South Korea Hold Talks Go Into a Second Day
» Slovenian Avant-Garde Rock Band Makes Pyongyang Debut
» Ten Days After Tianjin Blasts, Nine Injured in Explosion at Chemical Plant in Eastern China
» Tianjin Blast Death Toll Rises to 121, Including 67 Firefighters in Worst Disaster for China’s First Responders
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigeria’s New Army Chief Escapes Boko Haram Ambush in Drive to Frontline of the War
 
Latin America
» Cuban Doctors Fleeing Venezuela Protest Slow Response to US Visa Request
 
Immigration
» FYROM Loosens Border as Migrants Get Restless
» Italy: Rome Squatter Mum on Second Paid Wedding
» Latino Groups Warn Trump’s Immigration Rhetoric Could Inspire More Hate Crimes
» Macedonia Migrants: Thousands Break Through at Greek Border
» Migrants Crisis: Up to 3,000 People Being Rescued Near Libya Coast
» On Border Wait, Refugees Claim ‘Fake’ Syrians Try to Get Across
» Opinion: Goodbye to Europe’s Nation-States
» Salvini Calls for Italy to Accept Christian Migrants Only
» Thousands of Migrants Break Police Lines at Macedonia Border
» Trump’s Call to End Abuse of US Birthright Citizenship Divides GOP Field, Legal Experts
» UK: Alarm Over Migration is at Highest Level Ever
 
Culture Wars
» Baby-Parts ‘Harvester’ Jokes About Shipping Human Heads
» UK Police Target Schoolchildren as Young as Four With Tax Payer Funded, Transgender Propaganda
 

Italy: Alfano Pledges 7.5 Bn Tax Cuts for Folks ‘Who Make Babies’

Interior minister statement breaks summer political truce

(ANSA) — Rome, August 20 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano proposed Thursday what he said is a wide-ranging package of family tax cuts backed by special laws, saying he wants to jack up Italy’s feeble birth rate and help people “who make babies”.

“We want Italy to become the country of cradles,” Alfano said in a surprise major policy statement — to be put to Premier Matteo Renzi — heralding the end of the summer political truce, “we have worked for a full packet of special anti-crisis laws”.

Alfano, leader of the conservative New Democratic Centre party in Renzi’s coalition, disclosed the NCD’s plans to make tax cuts to help families worth 7.5 billion euros as well as striking a “blow” at IMU, the unpopular tax on purchase of first homes.

Renzi, from the former communist Democratic Party, also had pledged to slash or abolish IMU on first homes but Alfano’s comments were the most detailed government statement so far on support for families as Italy struggles to bolster economic growth and accelerate recovery from six years of stagnation and recession marked by sky high youth unemployment.

Alfano, formerly considered the chosen heir to former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right political empire until the two men squabbled, proposed “a sharp blow at taxation on the first home and a very strong fiscal support for families, reductions and deductions for the new born, for the expenses on first children and education, from nappies to books, and cash to families who make babies, but also to families who take care of old people at home”.

“We have a plan for 7.5 billion that is very precise and solid both from the point of view of costs and of cover, a ‘family act,’ an organic and organised plan of support to those who have stood up to the crisis and supported Italy”. Tens of thousands of Italians have emigrated during the crisis while capital flight has been a major problem the government has sought to tackle with special deals for people who bring money back to the nation.

The tax cuts would be funded by “a robust cut in public spending to be earmarked for families and firms,” Alfano said.

“We need special laws for a few years that will enable a shake-up in tax, in bureaucracy and stronger support for families,” Alfano continued.

His comments come following six years of stagnation and recession in Italy. The country only began to see the first signs of growth in its economy earlier this year.

“We are not facing normal situation or living in an ordinary period of history,” Alfano said. “This crisis has lasted longer than the last World War.” Alfano said the government had made “some important decisions within the work market and on Article 18”, the Italian labour law that hitherto made it difficult for companies to dismiss workers on open-ended contracts.

He said they had made changes to “the provision of justice” and had shown “tenacity” in bringing about constitutional reform. The changes were spearheaded by Renzi in his Jobs Law with support from across the spectrum.

Alfano explained that “We need special laws for a few years that will enable a shake-up in tax, in bureaucracy and stronger support for families,” Alfano said. “We are not facing a normal situation or living in an ordinary period of history,” Alfano said. “This crisis has lasted longer than the last World War,” he claimed, referring to the conflict that left Italy in ruins.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Operation Choke Point: The Government’s Covert War on Small Business

Banks are sending notices of account closure out to small businesses across the country, to clients they’ve done business with for years, even decades. The reason? They often don’t provide one.

But a growing number of business owners believe they know why they’re being cut off from the financial system. It’s Operation Choke Point, ostensibly an attempt to crack down on fraudulent businesses, but in reality a dragnet that has ensnared innocent entrepreneurs unfairly classified as “high-risk” players.

[Comment: Classic bankster tactics. Call in the markers when companies can least afford it. Bankruptcies and fire sales follow.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Paul Krugman: “What Ails the World Right Now is That Governments Aren’t Deep Enough in Debt”

This was written by a Nobel prize winning economist without a trace or sarcasm, irony or humor. It is excerpted, and presented without commentary.

From the NYT:

Debt Is Good

[…] the point simply that public debt isn’t as bad as legend has it? Or can government debt actually be a good thing?

Believe it or not, many economists argue that the economy needs a sufficient amount of public debt out there to function well. And how much is sufficient? Maybe more than we currently have. That is, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that part of what ails the world economy right now is that governments aren’t deep enough in debt.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Federal Reserve is Not Your Friend

Imagine that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was a corporation, with its shares owned by the nation’s major pharmaceutical companies. How would you feel about the regulation of medications? Whose interests would this corporation be serving? Or suppose that major oil companies appointed a small committee to periodically announce the price of a barrel of crude in the United States. How would that impact you at the gasoline pump?

Such hypotheticals would strike the majority of Americans as completely absurd, but it’s exactly how our banking system operates.

The Federal Reserve is literally owned by the nation’s commercial banks, with a rotation of the regional Reserve Bank presidents constituting 5 of the 12 voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the body that sets targets for certain interest rates. The other 7 members of the FOMC are the D.C.-based Board of Governors—which includes the Fed chairperson, currently Janet Yellen—and are nominated by the President. The Fed serves its owners and patrons—the big banks and the federal government, while the rest of Americans get left behind.

The Federal Reserve has the ability to create legal tender through mere bookkeeping operations. By the simple act of buying, for example, $10 million worth of bonds, the Federal Reserve literally creates $10 million worth of money and adds it into the system. The seller’s account goes up by $10 million once the Fed’s monies are received. Nobody’s account gets debited for $10 million. This is a tremendous amount of power for an institution to possess, and yet the Fed shrouds itself in secrecy and is accountable to no one.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This 2 Day Stock Market Crash Was Larger Than Any 1 Day Stock Market Crash in U.S. History

We witnessed something truly historic happen on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 530 points, and that followed a 358 point crash on Thursday. When you add those two days together, the total two day stock market crash that we just witnessed comes to a grand total of 888 points, which is larger than any one day stock market crash in U.S. history. It is also interesting to note that this 888 point crash comes in the 8th month of our calendar. Perhaps that is just a coincidence, and perhaps it is not. It just struck me as being noteworthy. This is the first time that the Dow has dropped by more than 300 points on two consecutive days since November 2008, and we all remember what was happening back then. Overall, this was the worst week for the Dow in four years, and there have only been five other months throughout history when the Dow has fallen by more than a thousand points (the most recent being October 2008). Of course we still have six more trading days left in August, so there is plenty of time remaining for even more carnage.

By itself, the 530 point plunge on Friday was the ninth worst stock market crash in all of U.S. history. The following list of the top eight comes from Wikipedia…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ashley Madison Hackers in Third Leak and Have Users Explicit Photos

Ashley Madison hackers have released another batch of secret information and spoken out for the first time after the bombshell leaks.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Comcast Releases Username That Suggested U.S. Politician Molested Children

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Comcast Cable Communications has given a northern Illinois politician the identity of an Internet service subscriber whose account was used to post an anonymous comment online suggesting the politician molests children.

Comcast turned over the name of the subscriber on Aug. 14, attorney Andrew Smith said Thursday, almost two months after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings that Internet service providers have no obligation to withhold the identity of a commenter if their comments could be considered defamatory.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

GOP Honcho Claims RNC Has Secret Anti-Trump War Room

A Republican operative who used to serve as a political adviser to Donald Trump, and who continues to profess political support for the billionaire, has come forward on national television to accuse the RNC of staging a war room of sorts aimed at secretly dumping Trump in the polls.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hillary Clinton Will Interrupt Vacation to Campaign in Midwest

Hillary Rodham Clinton had planned to spend the last two weeks of August on vacation, unwinding and fund-raising on the exclusive shores of Long Island. But, as it turns out, this is no time for a vacation.

Amid concerns about Mrs. Clinton’s softening poll numbers and her exclusive use of a personal email server as secretary of state, she will interrupt her Hamptons stay next week to travel to the Midwest and try to shift attention back to her campaign message by unveiling new policy positions.

She will then return to the Hamptons, where she and former President Bill Clinton are renting a beachside estate in Amagansett that costs $100,000 for a two-week stay, and will attend several $2,700-per-person fund-raisers hosted there by her wealthy friends.

With questions about Mrs. Clinton’s use of private email persisting — a federal judge said Thursday that the practice did not comply with government policies — and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. considering seeking the Democratic nomination, the late-August doldrums have proven anything but.

More than a dozen Republicans and a handful of Democrats have announced they are running for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination.

“Two weeks is a long time in politics,” said Richard Socarides, a Democratic strategist and former White House aide to Mr. Clinton. “The only way to counter it is to talk about policy and talk about substance.”

[Return to headlines]
 

Jeb Bush Comes Out Against Encryption

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Tuesday that encryption makes it harder for law enforcement to track down “evildoers” — and called for a “much better, more cooperative relationship” with Apple, Google, and other tech companies that are building uncrackable private communication apps into their new products.

“If you create encryption, it makes it harder for the American government to do its job — while protecting civil liberties — to make sure that evildoers aren’t in our midst,” Bush said in South Carolina at an event sponsored by Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security, a group with close ties to military contractors.

Bush said, “We need to find a new arrangement with Silicon Valley in this regard because I think this is a very dangerous kind of situation.”

But when the event moderator, former CNN anchor Jeanne Meserve, brought up scientists’ conclusions that giving law enforcement special access to communications also gives hackers more access, Bush didn’t explain his position any further.

“Good point, except we ought to have much more cooperation when it comes to cybersecurity,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Police Raid Kiss Rocker Gene Simmons’ Home

Police in Los Angeles sent in agents with the department’ s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to search through KISS bass guitarist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons’ home, but clarified: The raid had nothing to do with the famous rocker family…

A spokesperson for Simmons put out a statement about the incident, reported by ABC 7: “Members of the Los Angeles Police Department visited Mr. And Mrs. Simmons at their home to discuss a crime that may have occurred on their property last year while Mr. Simmons was away on tour with KISS. Neither Mr. Simmons nor any member of his family is a person of interest in the investigation and they are cooperating fully with the investigation. At this time, the police have requested that Mr. Simmons and his family not discuss the investigation publicly so as not to compromise it.”

Shannon Tweed Simmons sent out a tweet, expressing horror at the thought of her husband and family being used for “such heinous crimes,” without specifying or explaining further.

“Thanks for your support,” she tweeted. “We couldn’ t be more horrified that someone used our residence for such heinous crimes. Law enforcement is on it.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Will Use Jeep Wrangler as Popemobile on US Trip

FCA vehicle in hands of US Secret Service, Washington Post says

(refiling to correct slug). (ANSA) — New York, August 21 — Pope Francis during his pastoral visit to the United States next month will use a Jeep Wrangler as his ‘popemobile,’ a similar vehicle to the one used by the pontiff last month in Ecuador, the Washington Post newspaper reported Friday.

The automobile, produced by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), now is in the hands of the American Secret Service, the Post said citing the Vatican.

How the Jeep will be equipped exactly is not yet clear, just as details of when exactly Francis will use the vehicle during his trip to Washington, New York and Philadelphia have not yet been disclosed.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Biden Makes Unscheduled Trip to Huddle With Warren, Adding to 2016 Speculation

Speculation about a White House bid for Vice President Biden intensified Saturday when he made an unscheduled weekend trip from his Delaware home to his Washington residence, reportedly to see Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Democrats in past months have called for the Massachusetts senator to seek the party nomination, convinced that her progressive, Wall Street-reformer message was good enough to defeat front-running Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Biden ran in 1988 and 2004 but failed to get past the primaries.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Plot to Impose a National Sales Tax or a Value Added Tax

A devilish plot is afoot to impose new national taxes on the American People. It is a masterful piece of trickery because the authorization for the new national taxes is buried within Compact for America’s version of a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution. Furthermore, the balanced budget amendment does nothing to control federal spending; and transforms our Constitution from one of limited and defined powers to one of general and unlimited powers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Video: Cop Slams Old Man to the Concrete for Singing in Public

A cop in Allentown Pennsylvania was caught on video brutally body slamming a 61-year-old man to the ground — his crime? Singing a Beach Boys song.

Jim Ochse is known in the community for his quirky joyful singing, but when he decided to break into a rendition of the 1965 classic, Barbara Ann, private security guards and a police officer decided he was being a nuisance.

The security guards and the cop approached Ochse, despite not recieving any complaints. Ochse can be heard telling each of them “You get out of here,” urging that it is not illegal to sing in public.

As Ochse turned to walk away, the cop grabbed him and slammed him down to the concrete in front of bemused diners at Shula’s Steakhouse.

Ochse can be heard yelling out in pain and appealing for help, saying “I have done nothing wrong.”

A witness who posted video of the incident, said that the guards claimed Ochse had “touched the officer,” prompting the body slam.

That claim seems to have been dropped in wake of the footage going public.

The officer, Robert Busch, has told reporters with The Morning Call that he took Ochse to the ground because he “feared he may try to fight.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What Drought? Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of California Drinking Water

Nestle has found itself more and more frequently in the glare of the California drought-shame spotlight than it would arguably care to be — though not frequently enough, apparently, for the megacorporation to have spontaneously sprouted a conscience.

Drought-shaming worked sufficiently enough for Starbucks to stop bottling water in the now-arid state entirely, uprooting its operations all the way to Pennsylvania. But Nestle simply shrugged off public outrage and then upped the ante by increasing its draw from natural springs — most notoriously in the San Bernardino National Forest — with an absurdly expired permit.

Because profit, of course. Or, perhaps more befittingly, theft. But you get the idea.

Nestle has somehow managed the most sweetheart of deals for its Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water, which is ostensibly sourced from Arrowhead Springs — and which also happens to be located on public land in a national forest.

In 2013, the company drew 27 million gallons of water from 12 springs in Strawberry Canyon for the brand — apparently by employing rather impressive legerdemain — considering the permit to do so expired in 1988.

But, as Nestle will tell you, that really isn’t cause for concern since it swears it is a good steward of the land and, after all, that expired permit’s annual fee has been diligently and faithfully paid in full — all $524 of it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Extortionists Begin Targeting AshleyMadison Users, Demand Bitcoin

It was bound to happen: Brian Krebs reports that extortionists have begun emailing people whose information is included in the leaked Ashleymadison.com user database, threatening to find and contact the target’s spouse and alert them if the recipient fails to cough up 1 Bitcoin. Krebs interviews one guy who got such a demand, a user who admits to having had an affair after meeting a woman on the site and who is now worried about the fallout, which he said could endanger his happily married life with his wife and kids.

Perhaps inevitable: two Canadian law firms have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, seeking more than half a billion dollars in damages.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

At Least 7 Dead After Vintage Military Jet Crashes at Air Show in England

(CNN) At least seven people are dead after a Cold War-era military aircraft taking part in an airshow crashed Saturday on a busy road in southeastern England, police said.

The Hawker Hunter jet was flying a loop when it nose-dived about 1:20 p.m. local time (9:20 a.m. ET) onto the A27, which police described as “a busy main road” adjacent to the airport near Shoreham in Sussex.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France Train Shooting: Hollande Thanks ‘Heroes’ Who Foiled Gunman

French President Francois Hollande has thanked three American men hailed as heroes for overpowering a heavily-armed gunman on a train in northern France.

The incident happened on the high-speed Thalys service near Arras on Friday. A 26-year-old Moroccan man was arrested.

One of the Americans said they took an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun from the attacker as they saw him walk down the aisle of the train.

One of the Americans and another passenger were seriously hurt.

In a press conference on Saturday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the suspect’s identity had yet to be confirmed, but it was believed that he had radical Islamist beliefs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Couple ‘Having Sex’ on a Castle Die After Plunging 40ft Into Moat

A French couple have fallen to their death while having sex at a historic fortress, it has been reported.

The couple in their early thirties apparently fell into the moat from the walls surrounding the castle at the Vauban Fort on the island of Chausey Archipelago in the English Channel. Reports have said the drop into the moat is 40ft high.

The naked bodies of a man and woman, who were both born in 1984, were found on Thursday morning.

Their belongings were reportedly found “above” at the castle. The man was found in a dried-out part of the moat while the body of a woman was found immersed in shallow water.

Police in the area told French Le Figaro newspaper that it was possible the pair were engaging in “lovemaking that could have gone wrong”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Government Charges CIA Spy With Treason

A German intelligence officer, who is accused of spying for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, has been officially charged with treason by authorities in Berlin. The 32-year-old man, identified in court papers only as “Markus R.”, worked as a clerk at the Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND, Germany’s external intelligence agency. He was arrested in July 2014 on suspicion of having spied for the CIA for approximately two years. German prosecutors say they have evidence that shows Markus R. supplied the American spy agency with around 200 classified German government documents in exchange for around €25,000 —approximately $30,000.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gunman’s Weapon ‘May Have Jammed’ In Thwarted French Train Attack

A British man who helped overpower a gunman on a French train thinks the attacker’s firearm jammed. The assailant, suspected to be a 26-year-old Moroccan, was taken to Paris for interrogation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Dad Says Teen Found Dead on Beach Was ‘Normal, Sweet’

Ilaria Boemi was not a ‘druggy good-for-nothing’

(ANSA) — Messina, August 17 — The father of a 16-year-old girl who was found dead of a possible bad drug dose on a beach near the Sicilian city of Messina said Monday his daughter was “a normal, very sweet girl” and not an addict or a degenerate.

Ilaria Boemi’s body was found on Messina’s Lungomare Ringo beach on August 10. Prosecutors suspect that the girl may have died after taking a dose of bad ecstasy, and police are now looking for the dealer who allegedly supplied her and her friends.

The student at the Ernesto Basile Art Institute in Messina was found dead after passers-by alerted the authorities to the presence of the body, which had no identification.

Her parents later identified the body. “My daughter has been painted as a druggy good-for-nothing, but she wasn’t like that,” said Mariano Boemi, 60.

“She was a normal, very sweet girl with a slight rebellious streak,” he went on, adding he sometimes argued with the teen over her shaved head and lip, tongue and nose piercings.

“It’s not true that she had been abandoned and no one was watching out for her,” he added. “I probably should have been more attentive, and this is my great regret”.

Boemi went on to call on “journalists and those who spoke negatively of Ilaria on social media to stop and leave us alone”.

“I want to know the truth, and whether my daughter could have been saved,” he said. “I hope investigators will shed light”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Trash Transformed in Eco-Asphalt, AMA Patent

Invention ‘heralds end to waste dumps,’ in production in 2016

(ANSA) — Rome, August 19 — Transforming trash into eco-asphalt, bidding farewell for ever to waste dumps may now become a reality thanks to an Italian patent.

The procedure, for which the AMA waste disposal agency in Rome will receive its exclusive patent in October, enables the transformation of FOS, the part of waste broken down in a landfill, into Mineralized Biomass (MB) and its use for making roads or cycling paths.

The Rome municipal agency aims to produce this in 2016.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Church Voices ‘Embarrassment’ Over ‘Godfather Funeral’

But priest ‘couldn’t refuse’

(ANSA) — Rome, August 20 — Rome Catholic Church authorities on Thursday voiced “embarrassment” over a ‘Godfather-style’ funeral for Rome crime boss Vittorio Casamonica but said the parish priest “could not refuse” the celebration. The Vicariate said it was embarrassed by the “Hollywood scenes” but added: “However, the parish priest weighed (the ceremony) on the basis of the norms of canon law and could not refuse (it)”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘I’d Do it Again’ Says Godfather-Style Funeral Priest, Totò’s Carriage Used

Vittorio Casamonica’s lavish funeral spurs quit calls, pilot’s license to be revoked

(ANSA) — Rome, August 21 — The parish priest who officiated at a Rome mafia boss’s Godfather-style funeral on Thursday said Friday he would do so again if asked.

It also emerged Friday that the horse-drawn hearse used for Vittorio Casamonica was the same as that used for legendary comic Totò in 1967.

The row over Thursday’s rumbled on all day Friday with calls for politicians and officials to quit over the affair, which has grabbed headlines worldwide, further denting the image of the Italian capital after a string of scandals.

The pilot of the helicopter that dropped rose petals Casamonica’s horse-drawn hearse is set to have his license revoked.

But the parish priest of Rome’s Don Bosco church said he would repeat the ceremony — at which Nino Rota’s famed Godfather theme was played — if asked.

Italian Civil Aviation Authority ENAC said it will suspend the license of the pilot. “ENAC did not authorize the flight over the city of Rome,” the agency said.

The private pilot took off from Terzigno heliport near Naples, then asked Rome traffic control for authorization to enter local airspace. However he deviated from the authorized route and dropped to below an altitude of 1,000 feet (approximately 330 meters), both of which are forbidden, ENAC said.

Throwing things out of the craft while airborne is also banned, it said.

Meanwhile father Giancarlo Manieri told reporters he would do it again if asked because even a clan boss deserves Christian charity. “Would I redo Vittorio Casamonica’s funeral? Probably yes, I do my job,” Father Giancarlo Manieri told Sky TV. “It wasn’t up to me to block the funeral…an exponent of a clan is in any case inside the Church”, he said. Father Manieri continued to hit back at critics, saying “I am not a cop”.

“Many people have reproached me for not having prevented the funeral of a boss…but if he was such an outlaw why was he at large?” “Did they wait till he died hoping that he would be ‘arrested’ by the parish priest?” “My duty is to dispense mercy, as Pope Francis teaches me.

And that is what I do”.

“I believe I only did my duty. I am a priest, not a cop”.

Father Manieri denied the Don Bosco parish received a significant sum of money from relatives, revealing on Friday it was given just 50 euros as payment.

He said: “To respond to certain allegations about money: they (the relatives) said ‘how much do we owe?’ and they were told ‘you can offer something if you’d like’. “That offer was 50 euros; 50 not 50,000.” A representative of Rome’s Vicariate said they would have suggested a “more discreet” funeral had they known it was going to turn into such a “show”.

“I strongly contest this way of exploiting death…this type of spectacular funeral,” the bishop for eastern Rome, Msgr Giuseppe Marciante, told Vatican Radio.

“None of us knew (about it),” he went on.

“Certainly, if we had known that there was this spectacle behind this funeral we would have suggested the funeral should be held in a more discreet way,” Msgr Marciante said.

Father Manieri, for his part, pointed out that a decision to deny a funeral to right-to-die activist Piergiorgio Welby at the same church in 2006 had been taken by the Vicariate.

“In that case the Pope’s Vicar intervened, assuming responsibility and ordering the parish priest not to celebrate the funeral,” said Manieri.

“Welby, if I’m not mistaken, was no longer considered a Catholic,” he added.

As for Casamonica’s funeral, Manieri said: “Nobody told me anything. Praying for a dead person, whoever he is, is not forbidden”.

Father Manieri added: “For Welby too, besides, the Salesians prayed a lot and the church stayed open all day”. Manieri was responding to widespread criticism including from crusading anti-mafia journalist Roberto Saviano. “On December 24, 2006, Rome’s Don Bosco church refused to hold the funeral of Piergiorgio Welby, because he had decided to end his own suffering,” Saviano wrote on Facebook.

“The same church yesterday welcomed the funeral of clan boss Vittorio Casamonica, whose coffin was accompanied by a band playing The Godfather theme.” His post garnered 30,000 ‘likes’ and has been shared 12,000 times.

Welby was an Italian poet and painter who battled to establish his right to die, leading to a debate about euthanasia in Italy. The row was also fuelled by suggestions that Rome traffic cops had been dispatched to stop traffic from disturbing the funeral.

Rome traffic cops denied this, saying they only intervened after the event to reroute vehicles and ease the “chaos”.

As the controversy was fuelled all day, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano and Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino faced calls to quit over the affair, as did Rome Prefect Franco Gabrielli and the city’s police chief.

Casamonica’s nephew Luciano wrote to Alfano claiming that the clan was not a mafia organisation. “If I take a Rolls-Royce to a funeral it doesn’t mean it’s the mafia. We Casamonicas have always had big parties, since we came to Rome. Mr Alfano we aren’t mafiosi, we aren’t bad people,” he wrote.

The boss’s nephew added that the late boss was “in our parlance, our culture he (was) a king, our king of Rome,” as posters around the church had proclaimed. “They say he was a boss. My uncle was very well-known because he bought and sold cars,” said Luciano Casamonica, whose clan are popularly known as ‘the gypsies’.

But the clan asked for Pope Francis’s forgiveness for using the theme from The Godfather.

“We can ask forgiveness from the pope and the Vatican only perhaps for having put on a song that was not OK,” Vittorio Casamonica’s relatives told the online version of the Corriere della Sera newspaper. The funeral flap comes in the wake of a major probe into a new Rome mafia that has led to almost 60 indictments.

Many pundits have said it was a disgrace that a lavish mafia funeral was allowed in the Italian capital when such events have for years been banned in the mafia’s southern heartlands. But Marino tweeted, after the violent reactions: “Mafia in Rome: now (we’re) less alone in this battle”.

In all, the affair gleaned more than 30,000 indignant tweets.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Mafia Responsible for 20% Drop in GDP in Southern Italy — Study

A study has linked organized crime and regional poverty in Italy, claiming that the mafia is responsible for a 20 percent downturn of economic output in southern Italy.

The southern Italian regions of Basilicata and Puglia were the subject of research conducted by Paolo Pinotti, an economics professor in the department of policy analysis and public management at Bocconi University in Milan.

Pinotti’s research considered such organizations as the Mafia, Camorra and ‘Ndrangheta, which became particularly influential in the southeast of Italy following the mafia wars of the mid-1970s.

The research, published in the August 2015 issue of the Economic Journal, studied a number of mafia “families” and concluded that they have had a devastating effect on the economy over a period of 30 years, from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s.

These three decades in the two designated regions have been marked not only by a quadrupling in the homicide rate, but also with economic growth rates falling dramatically, from being the highest in Italy to the lowest.

Before the 1970s, the homicide rate in Basilicata and Puglia was comparable to northern and central Italy and was estimated at one homicide per 100,000 citizens. It later grew to four homicide cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The economic development of Basilicata and Puglia used to be stable and rapidly growing, but after organized crime stepped in, it exhausted the local economy significantly.

The presence of organized crime had a long-term impact on GDP per capita.

“The estimated effect remains in most cases around 16 percent, increasing to 20 per cent when matching on a longer time span,” Pinotti said in his report.

Mafia millions: Italian govt struggles to manage assets seized from wealthy mobsters

Italy’s main anti-mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Falcone, who conducted the Maxi trial against the Sicilian Mafia in 1986-87, noted that up to a fifth of mafia profits “come from public investment.”

Falcone was murdered by the Sicilian mafia in 1992.

According to Pinotti’s estimates, organized crime in the two regions he researched is not as serious as in Sicily, Campania and Calabria, the regions from where the Mafia, Camorra and ‘Ndrangheta originate, so the economic cost for those three could be even higher, the professor concludes.

Altogether, those three regions plus Basilicata and Puglia are Italy’s leaders when it comes to the presence of criminal syndicates. And they are also the poorest ones, Pinotti stressed.

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

‘My First Time in Europe and I Stopped a Terrorist’

A gunman tackled by young Americans on a train between Amsterdam and Paris pleaded with them to hand back his Kalashnikov after they overpowered him, one of the group said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Police Say 7 Dead After Jet in UK Airshow Crashes Into Road

A military jet taking part in a British airshow crashed into a busy main road, killing seven people and injuring more than a dozen others, police said Saturday.

The Hawker Hunter fighter jet, which was participating in the Shoreham Airshow near Brighton in southern England, hit several vehicles on a nearby road as it crashed Saturday afternoon. Witnesses told local TV that the jet appeared to have crashed when it failed to pull out of a loop maneuver.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Church of England’s Bishops Are a Bunch of Lefties

I turned to the Church of England’s House of Bishops pastoral letter on the General Election. I have just finished reading it and when I have woken up I will write something about it.

Actually, there isn’t much to say about the content. All 50 pages and 125 paragraphs. It’s not drivel mostly. Rather it is full of platitudes, of the ‘motherhood and apple pie’ variety, a degree of arrogance, some errors and a few yawning gaps. Mostly, however, it is just dull. The letter uses tortuous language and terminology that numbs the brain. I heard that one diocese had held a meeting to discuss it and around 14 people turned up. Gosh, that many.

There is no spiritual guidance, just politics, although, naturally, that is denied. Unsurprisingly, it is the politics of the Left, also denied! The economics is sparse. There is nothing of substance about either enterprise or freedom, about the imperative of wealth creation or the role of business, the encouragement of entrepreneurship or even of personal responsibility and the place of the family.

[Comment: New head of Church of England is Justin Welby en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Welby (see wiki page for his views on islam in the west) — Welby seems to be Church of Englands version of the current Pope. Liberation theology reigns… studypress.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-nauseous-cultural-marxism-of-justin.html — “The nauseous cultural Marxism of Justin Welby’s New Year’s Day message exposes the humanist liberal ideology that has replaced Christianity in the Church of England, as well as the Catholic Church.”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Real Story on How Three American Heroes Foiled the Jihad Terrorist on the Thalys Train

The real story finally emerged over night on who the three American friends and heroes were who subdued the Moroccan Jihadi, 26 year old Ayoub El-Khazzani, an alleged ISIS- inspired jihadi terrorist, on a train enroute to Paris. El-Kazzani had been under surveillance by several European intelligence services. He had allegedly traveled to Turkey to meet French ISIS fighters.

Three Americans, USAF airman 1st class Spencer Stone, college buddy Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos an Oregon National Guardsman sprang into action to subdue and hog tie Moroccan jihadi El -Khazzaani caught loading his AK-47 about to shoot innocent passengers on a fast Thalys train bound for Paris after he boarded in Brussels. The three friends were on a European tour together boarded in Amsterdam headed for Paris their ultimate destination. Stone who nearly lost his thumb in the melee with El-Khazzaani using a box cutter gave life saving treatment to a severely wounded passenger. Stone has been released from a hospital in Paris after receved treatment for his wounds. These guys knew what devastation a full magazine of the Kalashnikov could do in the passenger compartment.

President Obama thanked them on a call when they were taken to the US Embassy in Paris. The French had presented medals for their brave actions. We trust they will be suitably recognized for their actions by the President upon their return from Europe…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Clubber Who Smashed Glass Over a City Worker’s Head at Babble City is Spared Jail

Stephanie Bowers, 31, attacked former public schoolboy Mark Peche after he pushed her out the way to help a friend carry drinks in Babble City in the City of London, a court heard.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Mushin Ahmed Died After Being Attacked Walking to Morning Prayer in Rotherham

Mushin Ahmed, 81, who was dressed in traditional robes, was set upon in a ‘sickening’ assault just yards from his home in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Tells of Night a Rapist Spiked Her Student Daughter’s Drink

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is warning other mothers about the dangers of drinks being spiked after her own daughter’s drink was contaminated with a date-rape drug during a university night out.

A rapist spiked her drink when she was out with fellow students. At that time, she was on medication for a health condition now, thankfully, passed. The condition made her no more vulnerable to being spiked, but, as we later learned, when combined with the date-rape drug, the medication had a horrendous effect.

I cannot give you her real name or the exact details of where she was studying because she may still be in danger from this man. I will call her Alina.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Marines Subdue Moroccan Jihad Terrorist on Thalys Train in France

According to U.K. Telegraph, AP , New York Times and other media reports, a Moroccan émigré jihadist boarded the Thalys fast train in Brussels with 558 passengers Friday. He was heavily armed with an AK-47, five magazines of ammunition, a hand gun and knives. Shortly after boarding he began shooting at several passengers wounding a Briton and American. One of the three victims was severely wounded in the neck. Three off duty US Marines quickly subdued the perpetrator with the assistance of other passengers. One of the Marine took a bullet and was wounded in the ensuing melee. The Times reported:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

What Do We Know About France’s Train Gunman?

Details are emerging about the man who was stopped midway through an apparent terror attack on a Paris-bound train. Here’s what we know so far.

The man is thought to be a 26-year-old Moroccan national.

He was a resident in Spain until 2014, when he moved to France, reported the Spanish El Pais newspaper.

A Spanish anti-terror source told AFP: “He lived in (southern) Spain in Algeciras for a year, until 2014, then he decided to move to France. Once in France he went to Syria, then returned to France.”

He is thought to have lived in Belgium in 2015.

He was known to the French authorities after being flagged as a potential jihadist by Spanish intelligence services.

On Friday night, on the train heading for Paris, the man was armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, an automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter. There were 554 passengers on the train.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Wild Boars Number 1 Million in Italy — Coldiretti Farmers

Fatal accidents, damage due to doubling of boar population

(ANSA) Rome, August 19 — An escalation in damage and fatal accidents caused by wild boars in Italy is due to “uncontrolled proliferation” of the animals believed to number more than 1 million on the peninsula, the Coldiretti farmers’ trade union said Wednesday.

Accidents such as the death of a 39-year-old man who died when his Smart car slammed into a wild boar near L’Aquila are a consequence of the population of the free ranging animals doubling over the past 10 years, Coldiretti added.

“The security of rural areas and suburbs is in danger to the proliferation of wild animals like boars that invade cultivated land, inhabited areas and roads where they pose a grave danger to things and persons.” Total damage by the pesky boars to crops, farm animals and road accidents costs almost 100 million euros a year, Coldiretti estimates, even before taking into consideration fatalities.

While evidently stopping short of asking for a cull specifically, Coldiretti has demanded changes in the law and has drawn up a lengthy paper on the matter on which it had a long discussion with the environmentalist Lega Ambiente pressure group, the union said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisian Author: Democratizing Muslim Countries Means Leaving Islam

“Democratizing Muslim countries means leaving Islam,” by Salem Ben Ammar

“To hell with democracy! Long live Islam!” One hundred percent of Muslims agree with that. To say anything else is apostasy from Islam. These two competing political systems are antithetical to each other. You can’t be democratic and be a Muslim or a Muslim and be a democrat. A Jew can’t be a Nazi and a Nazi can’t be a Judeophile.

Neither Tunisia nor any other Muslim country is or will be truly democratic. Islam is the brain and the spinal fluid of all Muslims. Outside its path, there’s no salvation for them. Now, it’s rather hard to imagine Muslims abandoning Islam to embark on the democratic path. They’ll be the first to take advantage of benefits in the West, right up till the day when they become masters of the political game and with democratic legitimacy be able to impose the dictatorship of Islam and put to death individual and collective freedoms. It won’t be an Islamic republic that’ll see the light of day…that’s just an optical illusion as in the case of Iran…it’ll be a caliphate to govern the Muslim Reich, the Ummah.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Op-Ed: The Home Building Lie

Palestinian terrorists this week tried to smuggle two tons of rocket-making material into Gaza, disguised as home construction materials. You won’t hear the Obama administration or the major news media talking about it. But it speaks volumes about the dangers Israel faces and the indifference of the international community.

The material in question was a type of fiberglass that Hamas used to make rockets that it fired at Israel last year. “During Operation Protective Edge last summer, long-range fiberglass rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza and exploded in the Palmachim area between Tel Aviv and Ashdod,” the newspaper Israel HaYom noted.

The two-ton shipment was marked in such a way as to give the impression that it was to be used in home construction. But in fact “the fiberglass was earmarked for use by terrorist groups in Gaza,” according to officials of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency.

The list of items that Israel prohibits from reaching Gaza is not very long. There are a grand total of 16 types of military materials, and 18 types of dual-use items.

The military items are mostly various types of chemicals, accelerants, fertilizers and carbon products needed for the manufacture of explosives. The idea that Gaza is “suffering” because they are deprived of these things is absurd. Let’s hear the State Department explain why Gazans absolutely must have diethylenetriamine, thiethylenetramine, or E-100-ethyleneamine. […]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Brutes Pictured Desecrating Mar Elian Monastery in Syria

Shocking new images show ISIS barbarians desecrate the 1,500-year-old Mar Elian Monastery in Al-Qaryatayn, Syria, where they have also abducted over 100 people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Khamenei Urges Islamic Unity Against Real Enemies: US and Israel

Iran’s supreme leader claimed Saturday that Islamic nations were being manipulated into internal strife by the world’s “bullies” and urged Islamic unity in the face of what he identified as the Umma’s two greatest enemies: the US and Israel.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US had long sought to incite “third-party” states against Iran but “such third parties are only deceived puppets,” the Islamic republic’s Fars news agency reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

More People Prosecuted for Insulting Erdogan Than Atatürk

It has been a year since Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected president on Aug. 10, 2014, but Erdogan has sued so many people over charges of insulting the president during this short span of time that the number of people tried under this charge has already exceeded those who were tried over the past 64 years under a notorious law for criticizing the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Since Erdogan was elected president, scores of people, including journalists, intellectuals, activists as well as children, have been detained or arrested on the grounds of insulting the head of state.

Even though there is an article in the Constitution that criminalizes insulting the president, the article had not been applied until Erdogan’s presidency. The article is also considered a violation of the right to freedom of expression and information, which is defined by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), of which Turkey is a signatory.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Provincial Official: Islamic State Militants Kill Up to 50 Iraqi Troops in Anbar Ambushes

A top provincial official in Iraq’s Anbar province says up to 50 soldiers have been killed by Islamic State militants in two separate ambushes in the turbulent region west of Baghdad.

Sabah Al-Karhout, president of the Anbar Provincial Council, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the ambushes took place Friday west of the provincial capital, Ramadi.

He had no more details and there was no immediate word from authorities on the violence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Islamic Leaders Oppose Extradition Nepalese Murderer: “He is an Islamic Missionary”

Sanjaya Islami Magar killed Judge Rana Bahadur Bam in 2012 and then fled to Saudi Arabia. There he changed his name and began to teach the Koran. Islamic leaders in the kingdom oppose extradition because he has converted many Hindu Nepalese workers. Converted emigrant: “He presented himself as a Muslim. I only just discovered that he is using the faith as a mask to cover his murder”.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — A “red” international arrest warrant, Interpol’s highest level of alert, has been issued to Saudi police who arrested Sanjaya Magar Islami, accused of having murdered the Supreme Court Justice Rana Bahadur Bam Nepalese in May 2012 (in the picture). But leaders of the Islamic kingdom are opposed to the extradition, arguing that the murderer is an important preacher of Islam and has converted many Nepalese Hindus to the dictates of the Prophet.

Magar, a native of the central district of Ramechhap in Nepal and known by the nickname of Bhagwan, was part of the commando of assailants who on the morning of May 31, 2012 drew alongside the judges car at the Park One of Lalitpur and killed him. In January this year four other accomplices were arrested, including a former leader of theChure Bhawar Rastriya Party of Nepal.

Magar however, managed to escape to Saudi Arabia, he first forged documents and started working as a truck driver. Then he continued his fugitive teaching Islamic doctrine, earning the favor of the Muslim leaders of the Saudi monarchy. In January 2015, the Interpol has issued a notice of type “red” for his capture of Arabia and the police arrested him in March.

A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation of Nepal (CIB) traveled this week to the kingdom to custody of the accused and bring him back to Nepal for trial. Kiran Bajracharya, spokesman for the CIB, told AsiaNews: “Our investigations have confirmed his role as executor of the murder. We have requested the extradition from Saudi Arabia, but in the beginning we were refused on grounds he was now a religious. Then thanks to Interpol and diplomatic channels, the authorities in Riyadh have agreed to Magar’s extradition. So one of our team will bring him back in the coming days. “

A government official in Kathmandu, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “the Saudi Islamic leaders converted Magar and used him to convert migrant workers from Nepal. This goes against international law. “

Finally Rupesh Magar, a Nepalese migrant, confirms that the murderer was studying the Koran and taught it: “Even I was converted by him, along with many of my friends. He usually preached in several mosques and presented himself as a Muslim. I only just discovered that he is using the faith as a mask to cover his murder. This is why many local faithful defended him and opposed his arrest”.

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

UNESCO: Islamic State Most Brutal Destruction Since Second World War

Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN, decries the “Caliphate” is engaged in the “most brutal, systematic” destruction of historic monuments recent decades. Urgent call to stop trafficking of artifacts, among the jihadists main sources of income. A “priority” for all.

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The militias of the Islamic state in Syria and Iraq are engaged in “the most brutal and systematic” destruction of historical and cultural heritage in the region, including archaeological sites, ever recorded since the Second World War, according to Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General, the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes cooperation among States through education, science and culture.

The warning comes just hours after the last devastation at the hands of the Sunni jihadists, who destroyed the Catholic monastery of Mar Elian in Syria. The comes on the heels of the destruction of other archaeological sites (Palmira, with the decapitation of the chief archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad), Roman ruins and areas that date back to the Assyrian-Babylonian period, in an attempt to erase millennial cultures, religions and heritage.

So far, governments and international agencies have sought only to limit trafficking in antiquities and archaeological artifacts that have fallen into the hands of the Islamic State. In fact the sale of manufactured goods, along with the trade of oil, are a major source of income for the “Caliphate”.

“We have not seen anything like this since the Second World War,” said Irina Bokova, adding that we are in front “of the most serious attack, the most brutal and systematic destruction of world heritage”. If you look at the pictures and current images of the sites taken by satellites, continues the expert, you can no longer recognize any site, only “hundreds of holes”.

Stopping trafficking of artifacts, warns the head of UNESCO, should be a “priority” for everyone.

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

Afghanistan: Murdered by the Taliban Aged 9 Because His Uncle Was a Translator for British Army

The nine-year-old nephew of a former Afghan translator was executed by the Taliban in retaliation for the man’s work for British forces.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, 10 People Arrested for Suspected Links With the Islamic State

Police said the group was planning to buy weapons to carry out attacks in the country. It was recruiting fighters to go to Syria. Among those arrested a kindergarten teacher, and six members of the security forces. Dozens of Malaysians have joined the jihad in Syria.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Malaysian police have arrested ten people for alleged links to the militias of the Islamic State (IS). Police investigations reveal that the group was planning attacks in the country. Late in the evening yesterday Khalid Abu Bakar, national police chief, said that 10 individuals — all of Malaysian nationality — were “planning to buy weapons, to launch attacks on the territory and have the necessary logistics for the transfer Malaysians eager to join the IS in Syria”.

The senior officer confirmed the danger of attacks, but declined to give further details about the attacks, the possible objectives and their possible modalities. They were arrested on 19 August in various parts of Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim nation and the theater in the past of violence with a religious background.

Eight of those arrested are men, two women, all aged between 24 and 42 and include a kindergarten teacher, a former interior designer and two public officials. The other six were members of the state security forces.

As previously reported by AsiaNews, fundamentalist movements and local Muslim leaders have found inspiration in the exploits of Sunni fighters. Many support the fight for the creation of the Islamic Caliphate, which now reaches across Asia.

Extremist cells and recruiters already operate in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, as well as in neighbouring Malaysia. Many are known to be preparing attacks on pubs, discos and bars, “dreaming of the Islamic caliphate.”

According to the authorities in Kuala Lumpur dozens of fellow citizens have traveled to Syria to take part in the civil war; many have returned home with the aim of triggering attacks and promoting the ideology of fundamentalist jihadists. Last year, police arrested several suspects (at least 108 according to sources of the anti-terrorism), considered sympathizers or members of the local IS.

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

Piaggio Launches Vespa Scooter Models in Nepal

Company also expanding in India, China

(ANSA) — Milan, August 13 — Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio has launched some models of its famous Vespa brand in Nepal.

Piaggio has started selling the Vespa VX and S 125 models produced in its factory in Baramati, India in its Kathmandu showrooms owned by D-Lifestyles, which is part of Nepalese group Dev Jyoti.

It is also due to launch two new models of the 150 cc Vespa in India at the start of September, while in China, Piaggio recently opened a new dealership for the Moto Guzzi brand.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Suicide Car Bombing Targeting NATO Convoy in Afghanistan Kills 3 American Contractors

Three American contractors were among 12 people killed Saturday in a suicide car bomb attack in the heart of the Afghanistan capital near a hospital, officials said.

They were riding in a convoy of NATO armored vehicles traveling through a crowded neighborhood in Kabul when the bomb exploded. The American civilians worked for the international military force in Afghanistan.

“A lot of dead bodies and wounded victims were there after the explosion happened in the area,” said Mohammad Hussain, who was wounded in the attack. “There were a lot of casualties.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thai Police Focus on Possible ‘Turkish Connection’ In Shrine Bombing Manhunt

Police have reportedly been showing a copy of a Turkish passport as they question hotel staff and motorbike taxi drivers in the manhunt for the chief suspect in Bangkok’s worst terrorist atrocity

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Tests Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapon of All Time

This week, Bill Gertz reported that earlier this month, China conducted the fourth flight test of its DF-41 road-mobile ICBM.

“The DF-41, with a range of between 6,835 miles and 7,456 miles, is viewed by the Pentagon as Beijing’s most potent nuclear missile and one of several new long-range missiles in development or being deployed,” Gertz reports.

He goes on to note that this is the fourth time in the past three years that China has tested the DF-41, indicating that the missile is nearing deployment. Notably, according to Gertz, in the latest test China shot two independently targetable warheads from the DF-41, further confirming that the DF-41 will hold multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV).

As I’ve noted before, China’s acquisition of a MIRVed capability is one of the most dangerous nuclear weapons developments that no one is talking about.

MIRVed missiles carry payloads of several nuclear warheads each capable of being directed at a different set of targets. They are considered extremely destabilizing to the strategic balance primarily because they place a premium on striking first and create a “use em or lose em” nuclear mentality.

Along with being less vulnerable to anti-ballistic missile systems, this is true for two primary reasons. First, and most obviously, a single MIRVed missile can be used to eliminate numerous enemy nuclear sites simultaneously. Thus, theoretically at least, only a small portion of an adversary’s missile force would be necessary to completely eliminate one’s strategic deterrent. Secondly, MIRVed missiles enable countries to use cross-targeting techniques of employing two or more missiles against a single target, which increases the kill probability.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

China Explosion: Fires at Shandong Chemical Plant

An explosion has been reported at a chemical plant in China’s eastern province of Shandong.

Large flames could be seen from the site after the blast in the city of Zibo. Nine people are reported injured.

The People’s Daily said a warehouse at the Runxing chemical plant exploded. There is a residential area about 1km from the plant.

Earlier this month blasts involving chemicals in the northern city of Tianjin killed at least 121 people.

Hundreds were injured there and 54 remain missing.

The proximity of industrial and chemical plants to residential areas has become hugely controversial.

Saturday’s blast took place near the city of Zibo, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting a villager who said that he saw a huge fireball and then heard two explosions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: Blast at Chemical Site Jangles Frayed Nerves

An explosion at a chemical factory in eastern China on Saturday night has jangled nerves a little more than a week after a series of blasts killed more than 120 people at a chemical storage facility about 200 miles away, Chinese news media reported.

The explosion on Saturday, which tore through a chemical plant in Zibo, in Shandong Province, injured at least nine people, though no deaths have been reported, according to a microblog post by the Zibo Public Security Bureau. The post said the fire had been “basically controlled” and that the victims had been taken to a hospital. The explosion was caused when canisters containing a chemical used to produce nylon burst, the Shandong Fire Control Department said on its official microblog.

The blast heightened concerns about China’s growing chemical industry and what many say are lax regulations that can endanger residents. It follows two explosions at a chemical warehouse on Aug. 12 in the port city of Tianjin that killed at least 121 people, injured over 700 and left 54 still missing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North and South Korea Hold Talks Go Into a Second Day

North and South Korea are to hold a second round of top-level talks on Sunday to defuse growing tension, officials from the South say.

The announcement was made after several hours of negotiations on Saturday.

Senior aides to the two countries’ leaders met at the Panmunjom truce village on the border.

North Korea had threatened “strong military action” if the South did not stop border loudspeaker broadcasts that had provoked a “semi-state of war”.

The two sides have agreed to meet again on Sunday afternoon to “narrow down differences” as overnight talks were finally wound up after nearly 10 hours of negotiations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Slovenian Avant-Garde Rock Band Makes Pyongyang Debut

Concert not the most provocative, they played mostly covers

(ANSA-AP) — PYONGYANG — Slovenian avant-garde rock group Laibach is known for pushing the envelope — wearing military uniforms on stage, toying with socialist and Marxist themes, making visual references to authoritarian symbols.

In Pyongyang, they played songs from “The Sound of Music.” The group, known for its growling, visually charged style of music, performed Wednesday before a full house at a concert hall in Pyongyang in one of North Korea’s more unusual attempts at opening the door to what is generally seen as the decadent and vaguely threatening pop culture of the West.

The Sound of Music choice had some subversive elements of its own, as the original was set in the era of Nazi Germany.

“It is a piece of international music, that very many people know, but at the same time it says something more, it says that the sound of music is also a language of communication,” said Morten Traavik, organizer of the Laibach tour.

“There is also a message behind the music, and that is music can actually sometimes even in the most adverse of circumstances, bring people together.” The concert wasn’t, however, Laibach at its most provocative.

The band played only one of its own numbers, and instead played mostly covers, including the Beatles “Across the Universe” and the Europop hit “The Final Countdown.” They also included a traditional Korean song, “Arirang.” Some in the band wore North Korean-style short-sleeved suits, and one wore a traditional Korean costume for part of the show.

Aware of the many sensitivities of the North Korean government, before embarking on the tour the industrial rock and retro electronic band promised a “gentle” version of themselves for the North Korean audience.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Ten Days After Tianjin Blasts, Nine Injured in Explosion at Chemical Plant in Eastern China

A chemical factory in a village in eastern Shandong province exploded on Saturday night, injuring nine people, local media and police reported.

The blast shattered windows of houses less than a kilometre away.

The explosion occurred at about 8.50pm at a chemical plant owned by Ruixing Chemical in Dongfu village near Zibo city, the Qilu Evening News reported on Weibo.

Zibo city police said nine people were injured.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tianjin Blast Death Toll Rises to 121, Including 67 Firefighters in Worst Disaster for China’s First Responders

The death toll has risen to 121 in the chemical warehouse explosion in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin, while another 54 people remain unaccounted for, the city government said Saturday.

Among the dead from the Aug. 12 disaster are 67 firefighters, while another 37 firefighters missing, the government said on its official microblog.

It said that 11 policemen are also among the dead and missing, making it the worst disaster for first responders in recent Chinese history.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria’s New Army Chief Escapes Boko Haram Ambush in Drive to Frontline of the War

Nigeria’s new army chief drove to the frontline of the war on Boko Haram and narrowly missed an ambush that killed one soldier and wounded two.

The ambushed advance team nonetheless gunned down five insurgents and arrested five on Friday’s drive down the most dangerous stretch of road in Nigeria, from Maiduguri, the northeastern city where Nigeria’s Islamic uprising was born, northeast to Ngala, on the Cameroon border.

The 140-kilometer (90-mile) ride took four hours with stops, including for soldiers to check for land mines.

An AP reporter in the 20-vehicle convoy drove past burned-out vehicles littering the road until recently controlled by the Islamic extremists. Weeds have overtaken villages once thriving with farmers and cattle herders.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cuban Doctors Fleeing Venezuela Protest Slow Response to US Visa Request

About 100 Cuban doctors who deserted a medical mission in Venezuela and have been stranded for months in Colombia seeking entry into the U.S. staged a protest Saturday to draw attention to their plight.

The health care workers say they fear the delays in processing their visa requests under a 2006 program aimed at luring Cuba’s medical talent could be a sign that President Barack Obama is seeking to end the incentive as part of his campaign to normalize relations with the communist island.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

FYROM Loosens Border as Migrants Get Restless

Authorities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Friday relaxed a crackdown along the country’s border with Greece as crowds of desperate migrants and refugees seeking to enter the Balkan nation grew larger and more restless.

Earlier in the day, FYROM police had used tear gas, stun grenades and even rubber bullets to disperse the crowds, leading to 10 injuries. Four of the people injured were transferred to hospitals in the northern city of Kilkis.

The heavy-handed tactics prompted an intervention by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), which called on the government in Skopje to establish the “orderly management” of its borders.

The response came a day after FYROM declared a state of emergency and closed its borders due to a large migrant influx. Authorities reacted early on Friday morning after dozens of Syrian and Afghan youths tried to push past police in riot gear and through the wire fencing that the authorities had used to block the entry points that migrants have used to access FYROM in recent days.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome Squatter Mum on Second Paid Wedding

Unemployed bride-for-hire promised 9,000 euros

(ANSA) — Rome, August 21 — A 33-year-old unemployed Italian mother told ANSA in an interview Friday she is about to embark on her second marriage-for-hire to a foreigner.

The woman, known only as S., lives with her two-year-old daughter in a 30-square-meter room in a Rome squat, and is preparing to fly to Cairo to wed a stranger in exchange for 9,000 euros.

“I need the money,” said the bride-for-hire. “They’ve promised me lots, but to tell you the truth I would do it for much less,” she said, holding her toddler in her arms.

“I don’t work, but I’m not a criminal,” she added.

She went on to explain that her first wedding for hire was to a Brazilian transsexual in Rome so he could get his residency permit.

After that divorce, she married the African father of her child so he could also stay in the country — this time for free.

“I did it for my daughter,” said S.

She is now waiting for 1,000-euro advance and a ticket to her wedding ceremony in Cairo.

Her broker, she said, is an Italian national who wed an Eritrean woman in Iran.

“When I get back I’m going to buy a couple of things for my daughter,” she said. “A wedding is one thing, love is quite another. For me neither matters, nor does it matter to the immigrants. I just want to get by.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Latino Groups Warn Trump’s Immigration Rhetoric Could Inspire More Hate Crimes

National Latino groups say Donald Trump’s “bigoted” and “hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric” is inspiring a backlash against Hispanics, as evidenced by the recent beating of a homeless Mexican man in Boston allegedly by two men who say they were “inspired in part” by the real estate mogul.

“Donald Trump’s hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric has resulted in the senseless beating of a homeless man solely because he is Latino,” said Roger C. Rocha, Jr., president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Macedonia Migrants: Thousands Break Through at Greek Border

Thousands of migrants have broken through police lines into Macedonia at the country’s border with Greece.

Macedonian police are reported to have fired stun grenades in response.

A huge number of migrants — many of them refugees from the war in Syria — has built up in recent days, after Macedonia sealed its southern border and declared a state of emergency.

Most wish to travel through Macedonia and Serbia to reach northern Europe, via Hungary.

Macedonian security forces had been expected to let several hundred migrants in at a time on Saturday to coincide with train departures north towards Serbia and the rest of Europe.

But some migrants broke through police lines when authorities tried to let a small group with young children through, the Associated Press reported. Some people were injured as police tried to block their path, the agency said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants Crisis: Up to 3,000 People Being Rescued Near Libya Coast

Italy’s coastguard says a major operation is under way to rescue up to 3,000 migrants off the coast of Libya.

The coastguard received SOS calls from 18 vessels — four boats and 14 rubber dinghies, Italy’s state news agency Ansa said.

Seven boats are involved in the rescue, having already helped many others in trouble this weekend.

The route from Libya to Italy is one of the busiest for migrants trying to enter Europe.

Of the 264,500 migrants the United Nations says have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, close to 104,000 have landed in Italy. Another 160,000 arrived in Greece.

Norway’s Aftenposten newspaper said that the Norwegian military ship Siem Pilot is involved in the rescue.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

On Border Wait, Refugees Claim ‘Fake’ Syrians Try to Get Across

Muddy, cold, hungry and desperate, Syrian refugees camping out on no-man’s land between Greece and Macedonia have another worry: migrants pretending to be Syrian.

Among some 2,000 people stranded on the border, hundreds are believed to be from Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan.

“There are many liars here, claiming to be from Syria,” said Ahmet Mohamet, a 35-year-old Syrian.

“They try to trick the police into letting them cross,” he told AFP.

Greece is giving priority to Syrians when it comes to providing refugees with registration papers and getting them out of the country towards their destination of choice.

So far, most say they want to go to Germany, Holland and Sweden.

In contrast, other nationalities such as Afghans and Pakistanis can spend weeks on Aegean islands waiting for permission to sail to the Greek mainland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Opinion: Goodbye to Europe’s Nation-States

New myths will be needed to convince Europe’s masses of the desirability of mass migration — and to abandon their nation-states for a multicultural ideology. But restrictions may be needed, DW’s Kersten Knipp writes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Salvini Calls for Italy to Accept Christian Migrants Only

Northern League leader says country should adopt Slovakian model

(ANSA) — Milan, August 21 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said on Friday that Premier Matteo Renzi “should copy the Slovakian model” on immigration and only accept Christians.

Renzi’s government “must copy the Slovakian model: if we really have to accept immigrants, they must be Christians,” Salvini told Radio Padania.

“While we wait to see if we can halt this organised invasion”, Salvini said that “Renzi must at least accept that the core of immigrants welcomed must be culturally closer to us.” “I would like to see what Galantino says on this,” he said.

Earlier this week Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, No.2 in the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), accused the Italian government of being “absent” from the immigration crisis and said it lacked a coherent strategy for integrating migrants.

In Slovakia, the government has said it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under a EU relocation scheme.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands of Migrants Break Police Lines at Macedonia Border

Chaos ensued as thousands of people pushed through the Macedonian border as police allowed a small group to enter the country. Security forces have strengthened barricades and added a second layer of barbed wire.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trump’s Call to End Abuse of US Birthright Citizenship Divides GOP Field, Legal Experts

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants has refueled the immigration debate and spilt the GOP field and legal experts who question whether such a change is possible.

Trump’s plan goes after the 14th amendment, which grants citizenship to essentially anybody born in the United States. But he is particularly focused on stopping pregnant women from illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border for the purpose of having a child or an “anchor baby,” which reduces the likelihood of the parents being deported.

Trump announced his plan Sunday, calling the amendment the country’s “biggest magnet for illegal immigration.” And he continues to suggest that his lawyers think the amendment might not withstand a court challenge.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Alarm Over Migration is at Highest Level Ever

The figure has surged by eight percentage points in a single month amid the crisis at Calais, during which thousands of illegal immigrants have laid siege to the Channel Tunnel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Baby-Parts ‘Harvester’ Jokes About Shipping Human Heads

Shipping boxes of aborted baby heads across the country is the best way to get brain and spinal cord tissues to labs intact.

In fact, the issue is apparently so funny to StemExpress CEO Catherine Dyer that a new uncover video has her bursting into laughter over the situation.

Dyer is founder and CEO of StemExpress, a company that worked with Planned Parenthood in the resale of the body parts of unborn babies until it announced it was severing ties only last week.

Her comments were released late Friday after a judge ruled that the undercover investigators who filmed the interview in a public restaurant had a First Amendment right to release the information.

The video was not immediately available, but those who conducted a multi-year undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood’ s operations connected to the sale of body parts released a text of the interview.

An excerpt video was released, showing Dyer taking part in the conversation with undercover investigators from the Center for Medical Progress.

See the excerpt:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK Police Target Schoolchildren as Young as Four With Tax Payer Funded, Transgender Propaganda

Police and local government agencies in the United Kingdom are distributing a “pioneering” document for “empowering teachers to encourage and support” transgenderism in schools at the “earliest stages” after a four-year-old child identified as transgender.

The “School Transgender Guidance” document has been distributed to all schools in the Cornwall area, and been named as “best practice” by the UK government’s Department of Education. It says transgenderism can potentially be identified in those as young as two, and discusses powerful, irreversible and controversial treatments for prepubescent children.

The document claims: “The purpose of this guidance is to deeper ember good practice in the field of school [primary and secondary] and colleges,” and states that children as young as two years old can be identified as suffering from Gender Dysphonia.

The booklet instructs: “Awareness of Trans issues can be embedding within the [personal, social, health and economic] curriculum from the beginning,” meaning that children as young a twelve should be taught transgender ideals and gender theory. It recommends that “resources” should be available from the “earliest stage.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

11 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/22/2015

  1. The “UK” is one sick transgendered son of a Butch. Perhaps “YUK” would be better name. Jesus Christ it is almost impossible to put into words what these “police and Local Government are doing to babies. Absolutely evil incarnate.

  2. The YUK Sheople seem to have gone to sleep. Even with the reality of a full on invasion threatening, financial collapse nothing seems to enter into their “Selfie Awareness”. Worship of Self to the total exclusion of “Other” is the new YUK “faith”. Islam is actually an improvement.

  3. I am utterly shocked by the entitlement of these people. They interviewed a guy and he said “The European Union HAS to help us, where is the European Union, there should be solidarity etc…” This makes me so angry. The European Union – even though its politicians try to convince its citizens of the opposite – does not owe anything to these people. NOTHING!!! It is not Europe’s fault that people in the Middle East can’t seem to find a way to live together. It’s possible in Israel then why is it not possible in the other countries. I tell you why: because they cannot put their religious differences in perspective. And when they come to Europe, these people import their endless battles, like in Germany where they fight over a Koran in an asylum center.
    Born and bred in Europe, and loving my continent very much I never thought I would ever migrate to another continent. But I am no longer taking anything for granted. I don’t exclude that if we keep being floaded with these invaders, I will have to leave Europe and start afresh, despite being in the second half of my life. It would break my heart.

    • “It is not Europe’s fault that people in the Middle East can’t seem to find a way to live together.”–It very much IS Europe’s fault, in part. Britain and France in particular have inescapable historical responsibilities for what has happened in the ME in the 19th and 20th centuries (eg Sykes-Picot) and continued to stir things up in the 21st through the stupid and pointless interventions in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. Germany and Sweden can claim innocence, but others cannot. Frontline NATO members are all implicated. I like what is happening now as little as anybody here, but it is ridiculous to believe Europeans are blameless.

      • Anonymous, at the risk of seeming patronising, which is not my intention, I understand your viewpoint as it used to be, at least partly, my own.

        Yes, the former colonial powers, including my fellow-Brits, clomped all over the planet to their own advantage, as did their successors, the US and the Soviets.

        But, like parents with children, there comes a point when our “offspring” should be treated like adults (oddly, or maybe not, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” comes to mind: “I’m not the Messiah, you have to work it out for yourselves!”)

        You quote Sykes-Picot, when the Brits and French created the artificial state of Iraq, in order to facilitate the extraction of (and profit from) oil. So far so bad, but I wonder whether you saw a recent blog (possibly quoted here; sorry, I forget) to the effect that the obvious solution to the “problem” of Iraq is to divide it into three states: Shia, Sunni and Kurdish. The reasons why such an obvious solution is unlikely anytime soon, stem from ancient Muslim religious hatreds, and the particular ethnic identity of the Kurds.

        None of these is “our” responsibility. We former colonialists need to let our “children” go, and do what we can to protect our culture.

  4. Why the post script attack on the Catholic Church based on a Church of England story, free from any mention of the Catholic Church? In fact, Anglicans are flocking to the RCC because of the bizarre Leftist beliefs of the church founded by Henry Tudor, a serial murderer.

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