The United Nations says the French authorities must do more to cope with the migrant emergency in the area around the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais. Meanwhile, the police in Calais have called on the British authorities to send the Royal Army to the other end of the tunnel to deal with the immigration crisis.
In other news, the entire Latvian crew of a charter plane bound for Crete was arrested for alcohol intoxication at an airport in Norway.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, JD, Jerry Gordon, Nick, 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.
Athens in ‘Intense’ Talks to Avoid Another Loan Default
Greece and its creditors were involved in “intense talks” over the weekend to agree a new bailout before the debt-ridden country must repay 3.4 billion euros ($3.7 billion) to the European Central Bank on August 20.
European officials said sticking points still remain despite the progress being made, with a “generally positive reception… towards Greek readiness to vote on reforms this week.
“It is ambitious but feasible to come to an agreement in the coming days, preferably by 20 August,” an EU diplomat said Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
David Stockman: We’re Looking at a “Debt Supernova”
Former Reagan OMB director David Stockman told CBN on Thursday the stock market is teetering on the edge of a massive and unprecedented collapse.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that the top is in,” Stockman said, noting that the S&P 500 has traded at a historical low for most of 2015. “It’s just waiting for the knee-jerk bulls, robo traders and dip buyers to finally capitulate.”
The Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have created a dangerous situation by manufacturing a monetary bubble and a central bank-driven credit economy that will result in a “debt supernova,” Stockman warned. “It has to do with the the fact that the world economy, including the U.S., is heading into what is clearly going to be an epochal deflation to the likes of what we have never experienced in modern time,” he added.
“The whole global economy since 2008 has been driven forward by this massive investment and construction and borrowing spree in China. The point that I’m making is that it’s over.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Obama’s Favorite Student Debt “Relief” Program Will Cost Taxpayers $100 Billion
A few months back, we called the government’s Income Based Repayment plans, or IBR, “the student loan bubble’s dirty little secret.” As the name implies, the idea with IBR is that monthly student debt service payments are based on the borrower’s disposable income. The less money one makes, the less one has to pay. Each monthly installment under the program counts as a “qualifying payment”, and after 300 of these, the balance of the loan (assuming it’s not paid off after 25 years), is forgiven. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this scheme is that it allows for “payments” of zero. Here’s what we said back in April:…
So that’s a $39 billion taxpayer loss just on loans originated this year or later, and that could very well rise as schools begin to figure out that they can effectively charge whatever they want for tuition now that the government is set to pick up the tab for any balances borrowers can’t pay (which incidentally is precisely what we said in March).
Consider that, then consider how much of the existing $200 billion pile of IBR debt will have to be written off and add in another $10 billion or so to account for for-profit closures and it’s not at all unreasonable to suspect that taxpayers will ultimately get stuck with a bill on the order of $100 billion by the time it’s all said and done and that’s if they’re lucky — if the “cancel all student debt” crowd gets its way, the bill will run into the trillions.
[Comment: Obama is following Saul-Alinsky commie playbook. Heap up the debt until collapse comes.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Appalling Audio From Louis Farrakhan Nearly Causes Glenn Beck to Blow Out Vocal Cords (Again)
In a story that’s being ignored by the mainstream media, Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan delivered a speech last week in which he called for “10,000 fearless men” to “rise up and kill those who kill us.” “How is this guy walking around still today? Seriously, I want to know. How is he — where is the media! When you took us on day after day after day after day saying we were inciting violence. Where the hell are you? He’s calling for the execution of Americans.” Glenn said vehemently. It didn’t take Glenn long to realize he may have pushed his voice a little too hard. “I should not talk for the rest of the day. I blew out my vocal cords,” Glenn said.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Cop Draws Gun on Man for Filming: “You Some Kind of Constitutionalist Crazy Guy?”
The APB has been put out. So-called constitutionalists, sovereign citizens, patriots and anyone else lumped into the ‘dissident’ category are under watch and preemptive suspicion. Even speaking back or mouthing off shows the kind of anti-authoritarian spirit that is being targeted.
Such was the case in a tense stand off in an a neighborhood that was deceivingly quiet and tranquil.
What seemingly began with an officer driving to the end of a cul-de-sac ended up in an incident with a resident there by chance, in what the public safety officer from Rohnert Parkin, in California’ s Bay Area, said started with the man filming him with an iPhone:
‘You taking a picture of me. I am taking a picture of you.’
The officer has now been put on administration leave, pending further investigation…
Never forget — in the foggy era of ‘no hesitation’ police shooting — that Homeland Security was caught purchasing law enforcement training targets that included pregnant women, young children and senior citizens — all of whom are armed or appear armed, presumably facing off with police invading into their homes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Design Flaw in Intel Processors Opens Door to Rootkits, Researcher Says
A design flaw in the x86 processor architecture dating back almost two decades could allow attackers to install a rootkit in the low-level firmware of computers, a security researcher said Thursday. Such malware could be undetectable by security products.
The vulnerability stems from a feature first added to the x86 architecture in 1997. It was disclosed Thursday at the Black Hat security conference by Christopher Domas, a security researcher with the Battelle Memorial Institute.
By leveraging the flaw, attackers could install a rootkit in the processors System Management Mode (SMM), a protected region of code that underpins all the firmware security features in modern computers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Axed From Event Over Megyn Kelly Blood Comment
A major US conservative forum has dropped Donald Trump as a speaker, saying it was unacceptable for him to suggest that a journalist was tough on him because she was menstruating.
Mr Trump said Megyn Kelly of Fox News “had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”.
Ms Kelly had challenged him on remarks he made about women during a TV debate.
Amid the controversy it emerged that Mr Trump’s top political adviser had left his campaign.
Mr Trump said he had sacked Roger Stone. But Mr Stone later tweeted that the Republican contender “didn’t fire me — I fired Trump”, adding that he disagreed with the “diversion” created by the comments about Ms Kelly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Causes Massive Mine Waste Spill in Colorado That Turns River Orange
Workers with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spilled roughly one million gallons of mine waste into a Colorado creek on Wednesday, turning the nearby Animas River bright orange and prompting criticism from environmental groups over the government’s lackluster response to the accident.
EPA officials on Thursday confirmed that the leak was caused by its own employees, who had been using heavy machinery to investigate pollutants at the Gold King Mine, an abandoned site north of Silverton.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Families of Colorado Cinema Shooting Victims Respond to Batman Killer Verdict
Families of the victims of the Colorado cinema shooting gave a mixed response after the jury in the James Holmes trial failed to agree on a death sentence. Holmes will instead spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.
The verdict came as a surprise. The same jury earlier rejected Holmes’ insanity defence, finding him capable of understanding right from wrong when he carried out the 2012 assault that injured 70. Jurors also previously moved closer to the death penalty when they quickly determined the heinousness of Holmes’ crimes outweighed his mental illness.
The nine women and three men said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on each murder count. That automatically eliminates the death penalty for Holmes, who blamed his killings of 12 people on mental illness.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton’s $2 Billion Money Man
Dennis Cheng, the finance director of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, the man behind what has been predicted to grow to a $2 billion operation, is serious, soft-spoken, unflappable, and fiercely loyal to his boss.
He is never quoted in the press. He doesn’t participate in profiles, won’t be interviewed, and doesn’t head to cable TV to defend Hillary Clinton against the Republican onslaught. In a political-media sphere in which contact with the Clintons can be a golden ticket to every green room of your dreams, Cheng is determined to be unseen and unheard from.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Louis Farrakhan, ‘We Must Rise Up & Kill Those Who Kill Us’ [Video]
Louis Farrakhan hates America and he hates white people. He’s also a virulent antisemite. He hates the police, our laws and our Constitution. He is promoting a full blown race war and wholesale murder. Americans are the enemy to him: “Who are we fighting today? It’s the people that carry the American flag,” Farrakhan continued. “What flag do the police have? What flag flies over the non-Justice Department? What flag flies over the White House?” This is a man who demands Shariah Law. A man who would subjugate America to radical Islam and eradicate the white population. He is absolutely evil and as his final act on this earth, he may just bring full scale civil war if he gets his way.
Barack Obama has dined and hung out with Farrakhan. Here’s a relevant quote from the minister:
“The cracker don’t have no authority over me”
“I’m a guided man, and Allah has blessed me to get you this far”
“Since i’ve been on this tour, I’ve been telling the people — that God wants to give you the promised land”
“I know the messiah — I am taught by the messiah — because my work is messaianic”
“I can never forget Iran — Iran has beautiful Muslims. You don’t know how much our Muslim world is anxious to see the enemy handcuffed. … the enemy — the British and the Americans have created all of that havoc in the Islamic world. And imagine us rising up in America at a time.
Sounds like he has a lot in common with Obama, doesn’t it? Between racism, Iran and an overwhelming hatred of America, they could be brothers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
President Obama’s War on Pro-Israel AIPAC Undermining His Iran Pact Legacy
by Jerry Gordon
This Times comment from Malcolm Hoenlein of the umbrella COPMAJO sums up the widening rift with Obama over his characterization of AIPAC and other groups opposing the Iran nuclear pact: “Words have consequences, especially when it’s authority figures saying them, and it’s not their intent, perhaps, but we know from history that they become manipulated,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, repeating a concern he had raised directly with Mr. Obama during the closed-door session. “Of all political leaders,” Mr. Hoenlein added, “he certainly should be the most sensitive to this.”
That reminds us of the exchange between Alice and Humpty Dump from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass:”When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master— that’s all.”
Thus for President Obama to single out AIPAC as warmongering “lobbyists” in his American U speech was churlish and gratuitous set against the threats and violations by the Islamic regime. No wonder after extensive briefings and questions of the Obama negotiating team, NY Sen. Schumer, future Senate Democrat leader, came out and said he was opposed to the Iran deal.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Resident Calls 911 Over Man Walking ‘Very Deliberately’ With Confederate Flag
Opponents of the Confederate flag will do anything to trample on the rights of supporters of the battle banner.
A “concerned” resident called police on a man walking “very deliberately” down an Arlington, Virginia sidewalk with a hybrid Confederate flag over his shoulder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Undercover Cops Attack Innocent Woman, Shoot Good Samaritan Who Tried to Save Her
It’s hard enough to tell if a cop is going to rob, injure or kill you these days when they are in uniform, but when they’re dressed in hoodies and approaching people in the dead of night it becomes impossible. On July 30, local media reported that a man was shot by an undercover deputy in suburban Lake Worth and critically injured, nearly dying at the hospital.
The incident happened over an alleged drug deal that quickly turned to chaos before John Valderrama was shot in the leg in “self-defense,” according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s report. However, two sources inside the sheriff’s office have provided information to Jose Lambiet that suggests the three unarmed civilians were victims of poor police logic and excessive force. It seems that Valderrama was shot for trying to help someone whom he thought was being attacked.
Below is the original news report, in which it was immediately assumed that these cops were attacked for doing their jobs. However, as you will read below, that is not the case.
None of the three—John Valderrama, Richard Roll and Regina Betts—have been charged with a crime, and it is unlikely this will happen, according to the sources. The undercover deputies were identified as John Bango and Tom Kabis, who have a history of screwing up. In 2007, they arrested the wrong guy for alleged drug dealing, who wrongfully served eight months before being released.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Weekly Featured (Neo-Marxist) Profile: Brett Bursey, South Carolina
Brett Bursey is Director of the extreme left South Carolina Progressive Network.
Bursey calls himself the oldest living Confederate prisoner of war. He says he is still out on bond after he burned the Confederate flag in February 1969, during a protest at USC Columbia in February 1969.
Bursey, as a 19 year-old USC student also sold Vietcong flags on campus and was jailed for nearly two years after he attacked a local selective service office and poured paint over records. His best friend and fellow vandal turned out to be a government informant.
Bursey began his life-long career as a progressive activist in 1968 as the SC State Traveler for the Communist Party USA infiltrated Southern Student Organizing Committee. He later founded the Grass Roots Organizing Workshop in 1975, which begat the South Carolina Progressive Network in 1995.
Bursey was also very close to Modjeska Simkins, a Palmetto State civil rights icon and life-long Communist Party USA supporter.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
10 Things You Might Like to Know About Girl With a Pearl Earring
Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) has been voted ‘the most beautiful Dutch painting’ and described as ‘timeless, like the Mona Lisa’. She’s also a massive money-spinner and features on anything from bikes to baggage. Here’s 10 key facts.
1 It’s not a pearl
For starters, the pearl is not a pearl. A pearl of that size would simply not have been available to Vermeer. The painting didn’t acquire the name until 1995. Before then she was simply a ‘Tronie’, or a head or face, ‘Girl with Turban’, or ‘Head of a Girl’. Experts at the Mauritshuis think she may be wearing a Venetian bauble of varnished glass which was fashionable at the time while astronomer Vincent Icke opts for polished tin, which would also explain the shine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria Jails Former Spy Chief for Corruption
A Bulgarian court has sentenced the country’s former spy chief to 10 years in prison for misappropriating public funds. The former spy chief plans to appeal the decision, describing the trial as “politically motivated.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French ‘Anarchist Cell’ Cleared of Terror Charges Over Rail Sabotage
An alleged “anarchist cell” at the centre of one of France’s most politically-charged legal sagas is finally to be tried for sabotaging high-speed train lines.
But in a major blow to police, who conducted a seven-year investigation into the group, the four will not face terror charges, judicial sources told AFP on Saturday.
The so-called Tarnac group was rounded up in high-publicised raids in November 2008 accused of sabotaging the TGV network around Paris, a powerful symbol of French national pride and technical know-how.
Thousands of passengers and more than 160 train services were delayed after steel rods were put across overhead power cables on three high-speed lines between Paris and London, Brussels and the French regions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
About 55,000 civil servants work for the European Union, with most based in Brussels. A few EU officials appear on the media all the time.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Cops Bust Plane Crew for Suspected Intoxication
Acting on a tip, police in Norway have detained four airline employees for suspected drunkenness. The Crete-bound Star Tour charter flight was grounded with 109 passengers aboard.
Norwegian police arrested a pilot and three crew members Saturday after a breath test showed a prohibited amount of alcohol in their bloodstreams.
The captain, co-pilot and two flight attendants, all from Latvia, were tested shortly before takeoff after an early-morning anonymous tip alleged that the group had been drinking.
“Results of the breathalyzer tests confirmed that four of the five crew members … were above the legal alcohol limit of 0.2 permille (.02 percent),” police prosecutor Edith Ek Sorensen told the AFP news agency.
Passengers awaiting takeoff on the Chania-bound Star Tour charter flight operated by Lativa’s airBaltic were told that the crew had fallen ill and the plane would be delayed until replacements could be found.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rising Number of Wealthy French Fleeing Abroad
New figures published this week suggest that an increasing number of France’s top earners are leaving the country, with some observers blaming high taxes for the rising “wealth drain”.
A total of 3,744 people who earned 100,000 euros per year or more left France in 2013, a 40 percent increase compared to 2012, French financial newspaper Les Echos revealed citing figures from the national tax-collecting office.
Furthermore, 659 people who earned 300,000 euros or more annually said ‘au revoir’ in 2013, a 46 percent rise on the previous year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Kurds in Germany March Against Turkish Air Strikes
Several thousand people marched Saturday through the western German city of Cologne in protest at continued Turkish air strikes against Kurdish separatists.
Some 5,000 people demonstrators gathered in the centre of the city, police said, with organisers hoping that more of the region’s substantial Kurdish and Turkish populations more would join them later.
Another much smaller protest was held in Brussels.
The rallies were called by an alliance of pro-Kurdish groups to say “No to the war”, after the two weeks of Turkish air raids on Kurdish separatist targets, mostly in northern Iraq.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has struck back killing at least 20 members of the Turkish security forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Vanished File and Troubling Claims About Heath and Young Musicians
There’s no smoking gun. But after a week of shocking headlines, the Mail’s unearthed fresh allegations
Earlier in the week, it emerged that a man had also claimed that in 1961, when he was 12 years old, he had been raped by Ted Heath at the politician’s Mayfair flat. A further allegation that Heath was part of a VIP paedophile and child murder ring that operated in London’s Dolphin Square was subsequently aired.
In an intriguing development, the Mail learned this week that a file relating to Sir Edward and the infamous Paedophile Information Exchange group is one of those missing from official Government records.
It is among 114 missing files concerning child abuse identified by an independent review of how allegations were handled by the Home Office.
The title of the missing document, ‘Edward Heath MP [redacted] RE: PIE’, refers to the activities of the Paedophile Information Exchange.
Investigators discovered that the file disappeared more than 25 years ago after being moved to a Westminster record centre. They concluded that there was no evidence of any orchestrated attempts by officials over three decades to cover up child abuse.
But the unexpected absence of the file raises questions about the exact nature of the connection between Heath and the PIE group.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC Forced Out Team Behind Savile Child Abuse Exposé
BBC journalists will be afraid of speaking out about the next big BBC scandal after seeing how those who tried to expose Jimmy Savile were forced out, according to the former head of investigations at Newsnight.
Merion Jones said the way he and other journalists who complained about the way the BBC handled the scandal were pressured to leave.
He said: “We were told at the time that you won’t be sacked, but over a year or two years you’ll realise you are being treated as an outsider, that you will never be trusted because you blew the whistle, and you will find yourself leaving,” he said. “I didn’t believe that, but I started watching what was going around me.
“I think journalists will be afraid of speaking out. This isn’t ancient history, I left in February. It looks like no lessons have been learnt.”
Jones earlier told Press Gazette that those who tried to expose the handling of the case were seen as “traitors” while executives who tried to suppress the scandal had continued their careers unhindered.
“Everyone involved on the right side of the Savile argument has been forced out of the BBC,” he said.
“There is still sadly a small group of people at the BBC who think that the only problem with Savile was that it was exposed and if it had stayed hushed up, everything would be fine.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jimmy Savile’s nephew today claimed a 14-year-old friend was abused by Sir Edward Heath as police revealed they are investigating his links to the DJ and a paedophile ice cream mogul.
Guy Marsden, who was taken to ‘paedophile parties’ by his uncle from the age of 13, says the alleged attack happened in central London in the 1970s.
It came as North Yorkshire Police detectives started examining Sir Edward Heath’s relationship with Jimmy Savile and his paedophile friend Peter Jaconelli, who was known as ‘King Cornet’.
A new photo has emerged of Heath with Jaconelli, the 21-stone former mayor of Scarborough who made a fortune in ice cream but also used his power to lure in children, abusing them unhindered for 40 years.
‘King Cornet’ would also crawl the streets with Savile in his pink Rolls Royce looking for boys to abuse and the pair were believed to be at the head of a nine-strong paedophile ring.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi Refusing Prison Food He Calls Unsafe
Egypt’s state-run media says ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi is refusing to eat prison food because he doesn’t think it is safe.
The state-run MENA news agency reported Morsi made the comments at a court hearing Saturday. He requested permission to receive outside food and described the prison food as “a crime committed against his rights.”
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, was overthrown by the military overthrow in 2013. He has been sentenced to death and faces other trials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Escalating Violence in Turkey Leaves Five Dead
At least five people have died in violent clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in Turkey’s restive southeast, officials said. The casualties include a Turkish soldier and an Iranian national.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IS Audio Vows More Attacks Following Saudi Mosque Bombing
CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group has released an audio recording purporting to feature the suicide bomber who killed 15 people at a police compound mosque in Saudi Arabia.
The audio, along with a photo of the suicide bomber identified as Abu Sinan al-Najdi, was posted late Friday on IS-affiliated Twitter accounts.
The speaker on the recording vowed more attacks, saying Saudi rulers and troops “will not enjoy peace” for taking part in the U.S.-led coalition battling IS in Iraq and Syria. He urged other militants to carry out suicide bombings, saying explosive belts are more effective than firearms.
The attack in Abha on Thursday was one of the deadliest against Saudi Arabia’s security personnel in years. Most of the victims were members and recruits of the kingdom’s special forces.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Where THEY have been blamed for ‘provoking’ the men despite wearing burkha and face veils
Appalling YouTube footage has captured the moment two terrified women are hounded by a horde of jeering men as they walk along a promenade in Saudi Arabia.
In the minute-long video, the two young women — dressed in traditional burkhas and face veils — become visibly distressed as they are harassed and intimidated by the men in the city of Jeddah.
The clip recently went viral in the country and sparked public outrage, prompting a police investigation which reportedly led to six boys being detained and questioned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An internal Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document produced recently shows that the U.S. knew that the actions of “the West, Gulf countries and Turkey” in Syria might create a terrorist group like ISIS and an Islamic caliphate.
While the powers-that-be have tried to downplay the significance of the document, the former head of the DIA — Lieutenant General Michael Flynn — just confirmed its importance.
By any measure, Flynn was a top-level American military commander. Flynn served as: The Director of the U.S. Intelligence Agency The Director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the main military agency responsible for targeting Al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists The Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance The Chair of the Military Intelligence Board Assistant director of national intelligence
Flynn confirmed the authenticity of the document in a new interview, and said:
[Interviewer] So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
[Flynn] I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
[Interviewer] A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
[Flynn] It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
[Comment: Obama was placed in the Whitehouse by his handlers so he could bring down America and set the stage for WWIII.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Invasion of Syria: The Deep Breath Before the Plunge
When Foreign Policy magazine recently claimed, “Turkey Goes to War,” in their article of the same title, what they really meant was “the US goes to war.” That is because the lengthy plan they described in their article is not of the Turks’ creation, but a long-standing US plan committed to policy papers since at least as early as 2012.
The article claims:
Both the United States and Turkey agree that the Islamic State should be driven from its territory along the Turkish border, though U.S. officials only speak of an “ISIL-free zone” while Turkish officials describe a vision for a “de facto safe zone” where displaced Syrians could find refuge from both regime and jihadi attacks.
However, these “safe zones” are precisely what US policy think tank the Brookings Institution has conspired to create over the entire course of the Syrian conflict, under different pretexts — first predicated on feigned “humanitarian” concern similar to the ruse used to justify NATO’s war on Libya in 2011, and now using the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) as a pretext…
In reality the latest pretext, ISIS, was created and to this day perpetuated by US, Saudi, Israeli, Jordanian, and Turkish support. ISIS is incapable of sourcing the weapons, cash, and fighters within Syria and Iraq alone, and admittedly receives the vast majority of all three from abroad. In Turkey alone, hundreds of trucks a day pass by Turkish border checkpoints destined for ISIS territory in Syria and Iraq. So overt are these supply convoys that a Deutsche Welle’s camera crew spent a day filming them and interviewing locals describing the daily torrent feeding state-sponsored terrorism just across the border in northern Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Foundation May Leave Russia
The “Open Society” institute, also known as The Soros Foundation, may leave Russia in the near future because of its placement on the list of undesirable organizations.
According to the head of the committee “Civil Assistance” Svetlana Gannushkina, the Soros Foundation ceased to accept applications for grants.
“I’m afraid that the Soros Foundation is leaving Russia. They are very worried if we will be able to finish existing projects, if we will lose the opportunity to work with committed money,” — she told Interfax.
In early July it was announced that the stop-list of unwanted NGO’s included the Soros Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Freedom House and other organizations. After the MacArthur Foundation announced that it would stop its activities in Russia.
[Comment: Will US follow suit, and also declare this group undesirable?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Taliban Attacks in Kabul ‘Are Likely Sign of Infighting’
Security has been stepped up in the Afghan capital after a series of bomb attacks killed more than 50 people.
Eleven people, including a Nato soldier and eight contractors, were killed in an attack on a base in Kabul.
On Friday, at least 25 people died in a suicide bombing at a police academy and a truck bomb killed 15.
The UN said the attacks were likely to be the product of a Taliban power struggle following the death of its leader Mullah Omar.
The attacks, which happened within 24 hours of each other and injured hundreds, are the first major incidents since the Taliban confirmed last week he had died two years ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Dhaka Government Vows to Find Blogger Niloy Neel’s Murderers
Bangladesh’s leaders have promised to find the men who murdered blogger Niloy Neel in his apartment. Al Qaeda’s local branch, Ansar al-Islam, has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Saturday that Bangladesh’s intelligence agencies were busy trying to find the gang of machete-wielding attackers who hacked secular blogger Niloy Neel to death on Friday.
The 40-year-old online activist was killed in Dhaka’s Goran area on Friday by a group of four people who entered his apartment block posing as potential tenants. Niloy Neel’s wife, Asha Moni, told reporters that the men chanted “Allahu Akbar” before murdering her husband. She also filed a police complaint after the murder.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kabul Blasts Kill 35, Test Afghan President’s Peace Plan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two massive attacks in Kabul on Friday, one near a government and military complex in a residential area and the other a suicide bombing outside a police academy, killed at least 35 people, sending the strongest message yet to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — that militants are still able to strike at his heavily fortified seat of power.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, though officials indicated they blamed the Taliban.
The implications of the assaults, however, undermine claims by security services and the government that the capital is immune from devastating attacks. They also pose a major challenge to Ghani, who has made the peace process with the Taliban the hallmark of his presidency since taking office last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Singapore Marks 50 Years Since Independence
Singapore is holding nationwide events to mark 50 years since it became an independent state.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend an outdoor parade, complete with flybys by the air force and a Singapore Airlines A380 airliner.
Singaporeans are also being asked to join together in reciting the national pledge and singing the national anthem.
Singapore became independent when it was ejected from the Federation of Malaya amid social unrest.
In 50 years, the former British colony has transformed itself into one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
But its critics say the rapid development has been accompanied by a strict control on free speech and politics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Witch-Hunters Kill Five Women in India
Villagers in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand have killed five women, accusing them of being witches. Over two dozen people have been arrested in the case.
Police in India’s Jharkhand state said that a group of assailants dragged the five victims out of their huts and lynched them around midnight on Friday. Their village is close to the state capital of Ranchi.
“A group (of villagers) dragged the women out and beat them to death with sticks, accusing them of practicing witchcraft,” Arun Kumar, Ranchi’s deputy police chief, told journalists. Authorities have arrested 24 people, believed to have been involved with the women’s murder.
Local police said the mob used sharp-edged weapons and sticks to beat the women, between 45 and 50-years of age. “They blamed the women for misfortune in the village and alleged it was their fault that many people here were falling ill,” local police inspector Bandana Bakhla said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Typhoon Soudelor Lashes Southeast China After Leaving 6 Dead and 4 Missing in Taiwan
A typhoon was pounding southeast China late Saturday, leaving more than a million homes without power after lashing Taiwan, where it downed trees, traffic lights and power lines, and left six people dead and four missing.
Typhoon Soudelor hit the city of Putian in Fujian province late Saturday night and was expected to move across the region, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The storm earlier caused more than 3 million households in Taiwan to lose electricity, with streets strewn with fallen trees. All 279 domestic flights on the island were canceled Saturday, as well as at least 37 international flights. At least 101 people were injured in the storm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mali Hotel Siege Ended, Several Dead: Defense Ministry
Mali’s Defense Ministry has reported that special forces backed by French soldiers have successfully ended their siege of a hotel seized by suspected Islamist fighters. The hotel in central Mali is popular with UN staff.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
BBC Records Christian Show at Calais Migrant Camp
The weekly BBC Christian programme “Songs of Praise” is to record an episode this weekend at a migrant camp in Calais, amid a crisis which has seen nine people lose their lives while attempting to cross from France into England.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bring in the British Army to Help us, Say Calais Police
French police in Calais have backed calls to bring in the British army to help tackle the deepening migrant crisis.
Bruno Noel, head of the Alliance union for police deployed to Calais’ port and Eurotunnel site, said his force is “doing Britain’s dirty work”, but that the situation could soon become unmanageable as migrant numbers swell and police ranks are further depleted.
“We have only 15 permanent French border police at the Eurotunnel site. Can you imagine how derisory this is given the situation? So I say, why not bring in the British army, and let them work together with the French?” he said.
The call for British reinforcements was first made by Kevin Hurley, police and crime commission for Surrey police, who proposed “sending in the Gurkhas”. Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, suggested dispatching the British army over the Channel to check lorries to stop people illegally entering Britain, calling the situation around Calais, “virtually lawless”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Refugee Centres Overflowing as Housing Supply Dries Up
There is a growing shortage of accommodation in asylum seekers centres in the Netherlands and a lack of starter homes for refugees with a temporary residence permit, broadcaster Nos says on Thursday. Over the past five years, the number of refugees who are entitled to a home has risen from 5,300 to over 12,000 but they continue to occupy places at centres because there is nowhere else for them to live. Some 27,000 people currently live in refugee centres, the highest figure in 10 years. Around one-third of the refugees in the Netherlands have a family member who is already here.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Appeals to Members for More Assets for Frontex
Frontex says Greece and Hungary are buckling under an unprecedented influx of migrants. The EU’s border agency wants nations to commit more vehicles and personnel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Five Men Charged With Murder of 200 Migrants Drowned in the Med
Suspected traffickers arrested by Italian police after boat tragedy allegedly threatened those on board with knives and beat them with belts
Five men have been charged with multiple counts of murder by Italian authorities after survivors named them as the traffickers in charge of a vessel that capsized in the Mediterranean, killing an estimated 200 people.
According to witness accounts gathered by police, the suspected traffickers — two Libyans, two Algerians and a Tunisian aged 21 to 24 — threatened the migrants on board with knives and beat them with belts to control them.
About 100 African migrants now presumed dead were allegedly held in the hull of the doomed boat, survivors told police. The traffickers allegedly said those passengers, who had paid less for their crossing than others, could be kept there for three days. When the hull started filling with water, the traffickers beat them back and ordered other passengers to sit on the hatch of the hull to stop them getting out.
The suspects, who were being questioned by police on Thursday night, were named as Imad Busadia, Abdullah Assnusi, Ali Rouibah, Suud Mujassabi and Shauki Esshaush.
According to police, the suspects, thought to be part of a Libyan-based trafficking ring, used their knives to cut marks on the heads of migrants who disobeyed their orders — especially the sub-Saharan Africans — while Arabs were beaten with belts.
According to Italian newspaper La Stampa, the cost of the trip ranged between $1,200 and $1,800 (£775-£1,160), with life jackets costing extra.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Has a Refugee Problem, and the Problem is the Germans
Anti-immigrant sentiment is fueling violence and arson. What’s the matter with Deutschland?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Urges French Action on Migrant ‘Civil Emergency’ In Calais
France needs to draw up a “civil emergency” plan to give dignified accommodation to the estimated 3,000 migrants who are camping out in the northern city of Calais in the hope of crossing the Channel to Britain, the UN said Friday.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said for the past year it had been calling for an “urgent, comprehensive and sustainable response” by Europe as a whole but especially by French authorities to the worsening asylum crisis and reception conditions in Calais.
“Let’s treat that as a civil emergency,” Vincent Cochetel, head of UNHCR’s Europe division, told AFP.
He stressed though that the emergency was a small one that could easily be addressed if Paris was willing to do so.
“This is a manageable situation,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Expands Investigation Into Planned Parenthood Selling Body Parts of Aborted Babies
Just days after a 5th expose’ video was released showing the Planned Parenthood abortion business engaging in the sale of aborted babies and body parts from aborted babies, a House committee has announced it has expanded its investigation.
The video, which follows Senate Democrats defeating a bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood, makes it appear the Planned Parenthood abortion business may be selling the “fully intact” bodies of unborn babies purposefully born alive and left to die.
Planned Parenthood could be breaking the federal law known as the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that requires abortion clinics, hospitals and other places that do abortions to provide appropriate medical care for a baby born alive after a failed abortion or purposefully birthed to “let die.” That would be one of the potential ways Planned Parenthood could produce a “fully intact” baby to sell to StemExpress for research. Most “crunchy” abortion methods would do damage to the baby’s body. The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch’s track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact aborted babies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay False Flag: Lesbian Couple Destroyed Own Home With Arson for Insurance Claim, Jury Rules
A lesbian couple faked a hate crime that left their home a pile of charred rubble at their Venore, Tenn., property in 2010, local reports said.
An insurance company caught on to the ruse months after the blaze and accused Carol Ann and Laura Stutte of perpetuating a hoax and blaming the fire on their neighbor, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.
A federal jury ruled in favor of the insurance company’s belief that the couple spray-painted an anti-gay slur on their own garage to spin the fire as a hate crime based on their sexual orientation.
The homeowners intended to bank on an insurance claim of more than $276,000, American National and Casulty Company alleged in court documents obtained by the News Sentinel.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Unedited Planned Parenthood Video Confirms Aborted Babies Being Sold to Create Super-Mice
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Earlier this week InfoWars reported on the fact that a study cited in The Scientist and the Journal of Neuroscience indicates that the brains of aborted babies are being transplanted into mice in labs.
Now, the release of the full, unedited latest Planned Parenthood video from the Center For Medical Progress, made public Thursday, has confirmed the abortion organisation is indeed involved with this practice.
Life News reports that
The full video, which runs for five hours and forty-five minutes, expands on a conversation between Melissa Farrell, Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and two CMP actors posing as representatives of an organ procurement company. That conversation focused on potential compensation to Planned Parenthood in exchange for fetal remains…
In the lengthy video, Farrell is seen looking over her e-mail when she finds a message from an immune-biology laboratory that was requesting fetal tissue to create humanized mice. The full conversation can be reviewed beginning at the 4:27:45 time marker on the full video…
Farrell also reveals that the lab was requesting 120 INTACT aborted human fetuses for the project.
“It is as if researchers have taken a page out of The Island of Doctor Moreau, the classic sci-fi story by H.G. Wells, where a mad scientist crossed the bounds of ethics and morality to create human-animal hybrids,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, who also serves on the Board of the Center for Medical Progress. “The profit stream that extends from the Planned Parenthood abortion clinics, through the third party procurement companies, to the pharmaceutical and commercial laboratories is all generated at the expense of human babies. To Planned Parenthood, the only value in these human beings is in how much they can get for their broken remains. They are like butchers selling meat by the pound.”
The finer details of the full Planned Parenthood videos, such as this, are being skipped over by the mainstream media and politicians, who admit to not having watched the full videos. indeed, the talking point is to dismiss the videos as “doctored”, because the shorter versions are edited.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Consciousness Versus Computers
If you take away a person’s ability to employ logic, and if you also take away his imagination, and thus his capacity to extrapolate and predict what is coming, what you are left with is: eyeballs.
Eyeball perception of what is happening now. And even then, eyeballs are seeing immediate reality through unconscious filters.
The ability to apply reason and to predict are vital components of perception. They are voluntary components. They don’t sweep in like a wave and take over. They are born out of freedom and choice.
So…what is the difference between you moving around on the Internet, reading and researching; versus you with your brain directly connected to some grand computer stacked with trillions of pieces of data?
In the former case, you have freedom. In the latter case, it all happens automatically. You get “the best possible data on any given subject.”
Of course, “best possible” is not your decision or conclusion. It’s someone else’s. Worse, the data are instantly downloaded into your brain (whatever that actually means).
How this deterministic system amounts to a glorious breakthrough of enormous spiritual significance, triggering revelations, is beyond mysterious. In fact, the whole conception is absurd.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Millions of Android Phones at Risk From Software Installed by Handset Makers
‘Certifi-gate’ flaw could let hackers listen in on conversations and steal data
Millions of Android phones could be easily hijacked using software that was installed on them by their manufacturers, hackers have claimed.
The same ‘remote support’ apps loaded on phones and tablets made by HTC, LG, Samsung, and ZTE and many other manufacturers are vulnerable to the hack.
The apps are given special access to the phone, using digital certificates, which hackers can break into and then use.
Exploiting the privileges could let people ‘steal personal data, track device locations, turn on microphones to record conversations’, according to Check Point, the security firm that found the hack have named it it ‘Certifi-Gate’.
[Comment: Any software that provides remote access is an attack surface. The idea of a secure remote backdoor is garbage.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tasting Colours: A Garden Design Exploring Synaesthesia
Some people experience the world in a unique way — a dog’s bark might taste like chocolate or a piece of music appear colourful.
This is because they have a trait known as synaesthesia. When one of their senses is stimulated, another sense is activated at the same time.
A new garden design is helping people without the trait to imagine what this would be like.
Claudia Hammond, who has a mild version of synaesthesia, went to find out more.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Do People Think Computers Will be Alive?
How do you think a super-brain would be constructed? I’m talking about the technocrats’ dream to build a computer that would rival and surpass the human brain, in terms of “reliable data.” And don’t forget, the plan is to somehow connect brains directly to the super-computer, so data can be downloaded into humans.
And this computer would, technocrats believe, come alive.
Why?
Because a) it can store far more information than the human brain; b) it can choose how to utilize that information to solve problems; c) it can solve those problems at lightning speed; and d) it can work on millions of problems at the same time.
Basically, technocrats believe a super-computer will be alive because it can process enormous amounts of data— as if there is a threshold beyond which the sheer volume of processing triggers an event… birth. What was merely a machine is now something More.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I did not know that the French had no military of their own. Surely this is a job for the gendarmerie, the paramilitary police force? I wonder if the BBC has asked the Muslim crime bosses in Calais for permission to broadcast.
Perhaps they’ve decided they no longer need a military since everyone has promised not to draw Mohammad.
Many readers are familiar with “Discover the Networks”, a useful reference tool created by David Horowitz (FrontPageMag)…Now there is a new effort called the “Canary Mission”…
The Canary Mission database was created to expose individuals and groups that are anti-Freedom, anti-American and anti-Semitic in order to protect the public and our democratic values. Every individual and organization has been carefully researched and sourced.
This is discussed at NewEnglishReview…http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/62077/Introducing%2DCanary%2DMission
Britain has a Royal Navy, and a Royal Air Force, but no “Royal Army”, though many individual regiments are allowed to incorporate royalties (the correct usage, not “royals”) into their titles.
To be fair, even the tv series “The West Wing”, with the UK’s alcoholic-but-likeable (and savvy) ambassador to Washington portrayed by a British actor, had him refer to our queen (note lower case- I’m a Brit republican) as “Her Royal Majesty”; the correct term is “Her Britannic Majesty”, as inscribed in my passport.
I daresay said actor may have pointed this out, and been overruled, but who overruled the Baron? Are sinister forces at play? The truth must be told!
I know there is no Royal Army. I was just having fun.
I thought of calling it a “British Expeditionary Force” in honor of the Great War, but decided against it.
As I suspected Baron, but I enjoyed my moment of British condescension. Sadly our forces, “royal” or not, are much more depleted than yours.