Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/20/2015

Posting has been light today, but in a good cause: I’ve been working most of the afternoon and evening on a translated transcript of a debate from last week in the Dutch parliament between Geert Wilders and various lefties. The topic of the debate was the European “migration crisis”, and the video is more than an hour long. I’ve been working on the timing and the editing, and it’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would. It’s an important video — the debate has received widespread attention in the Netherlands — so I’m taking great care preparing it for subtitling. Please be patient.

In “migration” news, Austria took in 15,000 new “refugees” over the weekend from Croatia and Hungary. Meanwhile, dozens more would-be immigrants are feared to have drowned in the Aegean.

In other news, the Eiffel Tower was closed for several hours while police investigated a possible terrorist incident. One or more men were seen ascending the tower carrying big rucksacks, but they may have been extreme sports enthusiasts who later parachuted from the landmark under cover of darkness.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, 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
» Martin Armstrong Warns “Hell is About to Break Loose”
» Rousseff Coup Could Sink Brazil, Emerging Markets
» Spanish Banks Warn of Financial Meltdown if Catalonia Votes for Independence
 
USA
» ‘70 Percent of Americans Approve of Pope Francis’
» A Manned Mission to Mars is Closer to Reality Than Ever: NASA Chief
» Arizona Sniper Suspect: “I’m the Wrong Guy… My Gun’s Been in the Pawn Shop the Last Two Months”
» AVG Says it Can Sell Your Browsing Data in Updated Privacy Policy
» Carson Says He Does Not Agree With a Muslim Being Elected President
» FBI Ramps Up Biometrics Programs to Catalogue Information on Everyone in America
» If You Live in These States You’ll Soon Need a Passport for Domestic Flights
» Jeb Bush in a Dress: Top 9 Fun Facts About Carly Fiorina
» Kill the ‘Every Child Achieves Act’
» Man Suspected in Church Shooting Upset Over Breakup, Police Say
» New York Police Reportedly Say Woman Intentionally Went Over Niagara Falls
» North Carolina Police Chief Fired for Calling Black Lives Matter a “Terrorist Goup”
» Obama’s Muslim Identity
» Pentagon Updates Plans for War With Russia — Media
» Pope’s Visit Will Produce Largest Security Operation in U.S. History
» Public Schools a Shelter for Incompetence
» Schools Nabbed for Hiding Common Core Detail
» The Racist History of the Democratic Party
» US Republican Hopeful Ben Carson: No Muslims as President
 
Europe and the EU
» Arrested French Jihadist ‘Instructed’ To Attack Concert
» Czechia: Country Has 30 Wines Among World’s 1,000 Best Wines
» Eiffel Tower Closed as Terror Suspects Seen Climbing France’s Famous Attraction
» France: Eiffel Tower Closed Due to ‘Terror Suspect’
» France: Eiffel Tower Closed for Several Hours After Suspicious Man Spotted
» Greece Election: Alexis Tsipras Hails ‘Victory of the People’
» Italy: Anti-Mafia Chief Agrees Camorra ‘Integral Part’ of Naples
» Italy: Rome Prosecutor May Probe Contract Tenders in Capital
» Italy: Historic Rome Hotel Sold Into Qatari Hands
» Italy: Venice Gets Transport Revolution With Trams
» Italy: Democratic Party Says Journos’ Union Wrong on Wiretap Bill
» Tsipras and Syriza Declare Victory in Greece, Announce Coalition Partners
» UK Guarantees Nuclear Plant Deal as China Investment Announced
» UK: Acid Victim and Her Boyfriend Were Followed by Attackers Before They Hurled Liquid at Her
» UK: Army Top Brass Will Mutiny if Jeremy Corbyn Becomes Prime Minister
 
Mediterranean Union
» French Imams to Receive ‘Tolerance’ Training in Morocco
 
North Africa
» Egypt Police General Gunned Down in Sinai Street
» In Egypt, Family of Those ‘Accidentally’ Killed Speak Out
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Christian Schools in Israel Strike Amid Claims of Discrimination
» Expo Milan Celebrates National Day of Palestine
 
Middle East
» Atlantic Jihad: The Untold Story of White Slavery — Video
» Ceasefire Agreed for 3 Syria Battlegrounds: Monitor
» Fury After Saudi Arabia ‘Chosen to Head Key UN Human Rights Panel’
» IS Video Appeal Tells Migrants to ‘Count on Us’
» Officers Monitor Screens Monitoring 100k Security Men Preparing for Mecca Pilgrims
» Peace in Syria? It’s Putin’s Fault: Escobar
 
Russia
» Crimea Tatars Seek to Block Peninsula to Protest Russian Annexation
» The Pentagon is Preparing New War Plans for a Baltic Battle Against Russia
» US “Extremely Worried” About the Scale of Corruption in Ukraine
 
South Asia
» Cautious India Yet to Congratulate Corbyn
» Diana West: Unspeakable
» In Thailand, Motive of Shrine Attack Tied to Chinese Uighurs
» Meet the Men Running the Mobs in Pakistan
» Nepal Adopts New Secular Constitution Amid Violent Protests
 
Far East
» Hong Kong: Freest Market in the World
» Over 190 Hurt When Fire Drill Goes Wrong in China
 
Australia — Pacific
» Tiger Kills New Zealand Zookeeper While Zoo Was Open
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigerian Military Official: Extremists Detonate 3 Explosions in Borno State Capital
 
Latin America
» Castro Praises Pope’s Anti-Capitalism Stance
» Cuban Exile: Dear Pope Francis, Find a Way to Embrace Victims Before Embracing Their Torturers
» Jamaica Prime Minister Touts Administration’s Record of 9 Passed IMF Tests at Party Conference
» Pope Francis Meets With Fidel Castro in Cuba
» Vatican Flag to Fly Over New World Order
 
Immigration
» Austria Takes in 15,000 More Migrants as EU’s East-West Rift Widens Over Solution to Crisis
» Czechia: Obligatory Migration Quotas May be Unlawful
» Dozens of Refugees Feared Dead After Boat Incidents in the Aegean Sea
» EU Lockdown: Finland Imposes Migration Controls at Swedish Border
» Europe’s Refugee Crisis: A Humanitarian Crisis or a Weapon of War?
» German Minister: ‘We Can’t Take Every Refugee’
» Hungarian Proposition for Migrant Crisis
» Hungary Could Block Croatia’s Accession to Schengen Zone
» Hungary Accuses Croatia of Lying and Violating Sovereignty
» Iraqis Buy Life Jackets for Trip to Europe’s Distant Shores
» Minister: Thousands of Czech Troops Can be Sent to Refugee Camps
» Ministers Attacked for Refusing to Say How Many Syrian Refugees Will Arrive in UK
» Paunovic: 80pct of Serbian Asylum Seekers in Germany Members of Roma Minority
» Record Numbers Seek Asylum in Sweden
» Refugee Crisis: Planned Invasion of Europe
» Syrian Asylum-Seeker in Germany Filmed Boasting of Having Killed for ISIS
» The American Refugee Resettlement Scam
» The TPP, Monsanto, Rockefeller, Trilateral Commission, Brzezinski
» Vatican Parish Takes in Syrian Refugee Family
» ‘You’ve Arrived’: Relief as Refugees Make it to Austria
 
Culture Wars
» Belgrade Gay Pride March Expresses Solidarity With Migrants
» Germany: Gay Oktoberfest Brings Pride to Munich
» Italy: Pontifical Institute Offers Master’s in Marital Sexuality
» Obama Dubbed ‘Most Powerful Enemy’ of Helpless Babies
» Scottish Anti-Gay Preacher Drowned Out by a Bagpiper in St Andrews
» The Shunning of Our Christian Heritage
» Why “The View” Is Bombing
 
General
» Communist Deception Strategy
 

Martin Armstrong Warns “Hell is About to Break Loose”

Thursday’s decision to delay yet again the long-awaited liftoff from zero interest rates is illustrating that the world economy is totally scr*wed.

There is a lot of speculation about why the Fed seems so reluctant to “normalize monetary policy”. There are of course the typical domestic issues that there is low inflation, weak wage gains in the face of strong job growth, a hike will increase the Federal deficit and then there is the argument that corporations that now have $12.5 trillion in debt. All that is nice, but with corporate debt, our clients are locking in long-term at these levels, not funding anything short-term. Those clients who have listened are preparing for what is to come unlike government which has been forced to shorten the average duration of their debts blind to what happens when rates rise, which will be set in motion by the markets — not Yellen.

The Fed is really caught between a rock and a very dark place. Yes, they have the IMF and the world pleading with them not to raise rates for it will hurt other debtors who borrowed excessively using dollars to save money. The Fed is also caught between domestic policy objectives that dictate they MUST raise rates of they will bankrupt countless pension funds and international where emerging markets will go into default because commodities have collapsed and they have no way of paying off this debt that has risen to about 50% of the US national debt. By avoiding the normalization of interest rates (hikes), the Fed has encouraged government to spend far more than they realize because money is cheap. This will eventually light the fire under the economy helping to fuel the Sovereign Debt Crisis. There appears to be no hope for the Fed and they will be forced to raise rates only when they see asset inflation in equities. Then they will have no choice.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rousseff Coup Could Sink Brazil, Emerging Markets

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff’s approval rating has plummeted to 8% amid the country’s worst recession in two decades. Her job is at risk too. Earlier this week opponents filed a petition to impeach Rousseff due to allegations of corruption by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at oil giant Petrobras of nearly $2 billion:

This week opponents of Ms Rousseff, incensed by allegations that “pixulecos” mostly involving ruling coalition politicians have cost Petrobras at least R $6bn (US$1.5bn), took their campaign to congress by filing a petition for impeachment with the speaker of the lower house Eduardo Cunha … The petition from Mr [Helio] Bicudo, which was backed by the opposition in congress, marks the start of what could be a long process to try to topple the former Marxist guerrilla only nine months into her second four-year term.

Rousseff — hand-picked by Lula da Silva to succeed him — appears to be caught up in da Silva’s backdraft. Opposition parties also claim she violated Brazil’s fiscal responsibility law when she doctored government accounts to allow more public spending prior to the October election last year. Rousseff in turn described the attempt to use Brazil’s economic crisis as an opportunity to seize power a modern day coup.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spanish Banks Warn of Financial Meltdown if Catalonia Votes for Independence

In Spain’s north eastern region of Catalonia, the fear-mongering and doom-saying is reaching a deafening crescendo. If voters return a majority of pro-independence politicians in next Sunday’s regional elections, all manner of economic disaster will befall the region — according to the defenders of Spain’s established political and economic order.

The doomsayers include the Spanish government, the main opposition party, PSOE, Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Barack Obama, John Kerry, the spokesperson of the president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, and just about every business lobby representative in Spain. Some Catalan business leaders have even urged their employees to vote against independence, warning that a yes-vote on Sunday could lead to them losing their jobs — a major threat in a nation with over 20% official unemployment!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘70 Percent of Americans Approve of Pope Francis’

Seven out of ten Americans have a favourable impression of Pope Francis, though they have a less positive view of the Catholic Church as a whole, a new poll released Sunday showed.

The pope, who arrives in the United States for a six-day visit on Tuesday, has made fans of US Catholics and non-Catholics alike, with slightly more Catholics — 86 percent — approving of the pope than Americans in general.

But those similarities diverge on the Church itself. While 81 percent of Catholics have a favorable view of the Church, only fifty-five percent of Americans as a whole do, according to the new poll, conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News earlier this month.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

A Manned Mission to Mars is Closer to Reality Than Ever: NASA Chief

NASA is closer to putting boots on Mars than it’s ever been before, the space agency’s chief says.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander, said he envisioned becoming the first person to explore Mars when he checked in for astronaut training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center in 1980.

Back then, a crewed Red Planet mission was believed to be 30 years away, Bolden said. That proved to be an overly optimistic assessment, of course. But NASA’s current goal of getting astronauts to Mars in the 2030s is eminently achievable, Bolden added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arizona Sniper Suspect: “I’m the Wrong Guy… My Gun’s Been in the Pawn Shop the Last Two Months”

When Phoenix police arrested suspected freeway shooter Leslie Allen Merritt Jr. on Friday they victoriously tweeted, “we got him.”

But immediately after the arrest doubts began to surface, namely from Merritt’s father.

“He has been raised with too much respect for life and too much for firearms to have done this,” he said. “Whoever said my son is the freeway shooter is a moron.”

On Saturday a judge set Merrit’s bail at $1 million.

According to the Associated Press, Merrit asked to make a statement to the court:

All I have to say is I’m the wrong guy. I tried telling the detectives that. My gun’s been in the pawn shop the last two months. I haven’t even had access to a weapon.

Police dispute the claims, saying that the evidence speaks for itself.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

AVG Says it Can Sell Your Browsing Data in Updated Privacy Policy

AVG has updated its privacy policy’s language, and in the amended document, the security firm admits that it can “make money from [its] free offerings with non-personal data.” These “non-personal” info include your device’s brand, language and apps in use, among other things. The company is adamant that it doesn’t sell anything with identifying information, and the data that it does collect is anonymized and stored without anything that can link it back to you. According to the updated policy, AVG can collect data you yourself provide — plus, it can use cookies to track your searchers and your activities on websites, apps and other products. It can then use those details to “build anonymous data profiles” or create statistical information, which it can then sell.

A spokesperson from the company told Wired UK that AVG updated the language to be more transparent and make sure people know that it can make money off its free products using their information.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Carson Says He Does Not Agree With a Muslim Being Elected President

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson suggested Sunday that a Muslim should not be president, extending the new and unexpected religion debate on the 2016 campaign trail. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” Carson, a Christian and retired neurosurgeon, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I absolutely would not agree with that.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Ramps Up Biometrics Programs to Catalogue Information on Everyone in America

In the last few years, FBI has been dramatically expanding its biometrics programs, whether by adding face recognition to its vast Next Generation Identification (NGI) database or pushing out mobile biometrics capabilities for “time-critical situations” through its Repository for Individuals of Special Concern (RISC). But two new developments—both introduced with next to no media attention—will impact far more every-day Americans than anything the FBI has done on biometrics in the past.

FBI Combines Civil and Criminal Fingerprints into One Fully Searchable Database

Being a job seeker isn’t a crime. But the FBI has made a big change in how it deals with fingerprints that might make it seem that way. For the first time, fingerprints and biographical information sent to the FBI for a background check will be stored and searched right along with fingerprints taken for criminal purposes.

The change, which the FBI revealed quietly in a February 2015 Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), means that if you ever have your fingerprints taken for licensing or for a background check, they will most likely end up living indefinitely in the FBI’s NGI database. They’ll be searched thousands of times a day by law enforcement agencies across the country—even if your prints didn’t match any criminal records when they were first submitted to the system.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

If You Live in These States You’ll Soon Need a Passport for Domestic Flights

To comply with the 2005 Real ID Act, which the U.S. government has been slowly implementing for the past decade, citizens in a number of different U.S. states will now be forced to obtain a passport if they want to board an airplane — even for domestic flights.

The Department of Homeland Security and representatives with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have declined to comment on why certain states have been singled out, but starting in 2016, residents of New York, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and American Samoa will need a passport to fly domestically. All other states will still be able to use their state-issued driver’s licenses and IDs — for now, at least.

According to the Department of Homeland Security’s guidelines on enforcement of the Real ID Act,…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Jeb Bush in a Dress: Top 9 Fun Facts About Carly Fiorina

Well, in truth, these are not so much “fun facts” as they are troubling evidence that Carly Fiorina is yet another establishment plant-cum-loser, one of a series employed by the Republican leadership team to diffuse grassroots support of an outside-the-system candidate like Ted Cruz (or, currently, Donald Trump). With Carly’ s rise in the polls, due to two solid debate performances, it’ s worth examining her track record to determine whether: (a) could actually win a general election; and (b) she would offer good policy solutions as a commander-in-chief.

The answer on both counts is an obvious “no” . Here’ s why:

SHE SUPPORTS OPEN BORDERS AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION In June of this year, Fiorina stated she is open to legal status for adult illegal immigrants and full citizenship for their children. During her Senate run, she endorsed the California DREAM Act, which grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Furthermore, she recently stated that border walls and fences are not effective at protecting U.S. national sovereignty.

WHILE AT HP, SHE WAS IMPLICATED IN A MAJOR IRANIAN TRADE SCANDAL During her failed run at the Senate, the former HP CEO received plenty of heat about “hundreds of millions of dollars worth of HP printers that were sold to Iran — despite a U.S. ban on trade with that country” . In 2003 Fiorina had described the Middle East as a “growth region” for the company, with its main distributor there doing $100 million in sales that year alone. Fiorina claimed to be unaware of the illegal sales, which begs the question: what competent CEO would be unaware of a nine-figure revenue stream?

WHILE AT LUCENT, SHE WAS BOOKING MASSIVE FRAUDULENT SALES DEALS Fiorina ran the telecom giant Lucent as it was imploding, a fact that she was able to conceal until after she’ d jumped to HP with over $60 million in performance-based pay. A series of major financial sales wins were announced under Fiorina that turned out to be completely fraudulent. In 1999, for example, Fiorina trumpeted a huge sale of up to $2.1 billion of equipment to a company called PathNet. Problem was, however, that PathNet’s annual revenue was $1.6 million and could little afford such a purchase:…

FIORINA IS AN ADMIRER OF THE GENOCIDAL OTTOMAN EMPIRE Fiorina has issued many admiring comments regarding the Ottoman Empire, which committed the Armenian genocide.

FIORINA OPPOSES FREE SPEECH WHEN IT OFFENDS MUSLIMS After the Garland, TX terror attack, Fiorina likened Pamela Geller and her group of free speech advocates to “white supremacists demonstrating” and asserted that free speech is “provocative” when it offends Islamists.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Kill the ‘Every Child Achieves Act’

“Under the plan, adopted in the Senate last month as part of a massive “education bill” solidifying federal control over children and schools, federally funded so-called community schools will “target” families and children for “services” covering their “academic, physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs”

.”In other words, children ensnared by “community” schools can spend virtually all of their time there and receive all of their “services there — one step short of Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s recent pitch for government boarding schools that he said should have children 24 hours per day, seven days a week.”

“Essentially, these Obama-backed “community” schools will become your child’s parents, nanny, educator, doctor, dentist, food source, psychiatrist, and more. It was not immediately clear whether hugs would be included, but practically everything else is. In other words, these “schools” will expand and accelerate the ongoing usurpation of the role of families and parents in raising the next generation of Americans. And just in case, parents can receive home visits from the swarms of federally funded school bureaucrats — in addition to parenting lessons from Big Brother on how to care for Big Brother’s children. The federally funded “full-service community schools” will also be keeping watch for Big Brother, with tax funding allocated to help the parental-replacement centers create data-collection systems aimed at knowing everything about everyone.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Man Suspected in Church Shooting Upset Over Breakup, Police Say

A man suspected of shooting three people in an Alabama church was likely upset over a recent breakup and visitation issues with his son, police said. James Junior Minter, 26, is being held without bond in the shooting of his girlfriend, his infant son and a pastor who tried to intervene Sunday morning, according to Selma police Lt. Curtis Muhannad. The pastor has been identified as Earl Carswell.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New York Police Reportedly Say Woman Intentionally Went Over Niagara Falls

New York state police searching for a woman who went over Niagara Falls Saturday evening are reportedly calling the incident an “intentional entry.” WIVB-TV reports a witness turned video footage of the woman to the authorities, who are now using it in their investigation. State police said the woman appeared to be in her 40s.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Carolina Police Chief Fired for Calling Black Lives Matter a “Terrorist Goup”

Police Chief Mike Halstead in Surf City, North Carolina, was forced to retire after posting a statement to his private Facebook page calling the Black Lives Matter movement “an American born terrorist group.”

Chief Halstead made the post on September 3, and it came to the attention of Surf City Mayor Zander Guy a few days later. The mayor called an emergency meeting of the town leaders on Tuesday and the town told Halstead that if he did not retire, he would be fired. He retired and took 60 days’ severance.

In his post, Halstead said that the issue is not entirely about race — despite the claims of the BlackLivesMatter movement, and prominent black leaders such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Louis Farrakhan. He insisted instead that it is about a war on police brought about in large part by Black Lives Matter and helped along by media coverage and federal policies and statements by President Obama. He wrote:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Muslim Identity

An ordinary citizen who identified President Barack Obama as a Muslim at a Donald Trump town hall meeting in New Hampshire showed that media brainwashing on the subject has been futile. The people understand that Obama asserts he is a Christian, but they just aren’t buying it. Obama has done too many things to benefit Muslims to convince people that he is not one of them.

The latest example was extending an invitation to a Muslim student to come to the White House after he was detained for possessing what appeared to be a bomb. It turned out to be a clock that looked like a bomb.

Naturally, the Obama White House treated this as a case of so-called Islamophobia, when pictures of the device demonstrated that care should have been taken and law enforcement should have been called. Obama refuses to identify Islamic terrorism as Islamic terrorism, but is quick to jump to conclusions about the supposedly anti-Islamic character of the American people. This is the mark of someone who is either strongly sympathetic to Islam, or a Muslim himself.

Robert Spencer has written an excellent article about Ahmed Mohamed’s suspicious-looking device and uncooperative behavior.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pentagon Updates Plans for War With Russia — Media

The Pentagon is reportedly reviewing and updating its contingency plans for a war with Russia for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with a defense official telling US media that Russia’s “actions” prompted the assessment.

“Given the security environment, given the actions of Russia, it has become apparent that we need to make sure to update the plans that we have in response to any potential aggression against any NATO allies,” a senior defense official familiar with the plan told Foreign Policy.

According to Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, the move was prompted by the Ukraine situation.

“Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine made the US dust off its contingency plans,” Flournoy told FP. “They were pretty out of date.”

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

Pope’s Visit Will Produce Largest Security Operation in U.S. History

Federal authorities are mobilizing one of the largest security operations in U.S. history ahead of Pope Francis’s arrival Tuesday, an effort that is straining law enforcement resources in Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

Hundreds of thousands of onlookers are expected to gather in all three cities for a glimpse of the Catholic Church leader, whose unrivaled global popularity and proclivity to wade into public crowds has added to security concerns. Thousands of federal and local personnel will be deployed to keep the pontiff and the public safe.

The challenges are immense.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Public Schools a Shelter for Incompetence

For you see, the whole reason for the tax-funded public education was to make sure Christian schools would eventually be eradicated so in this article I’m going to zero in on a man by the name of Horace Mann, father of the American public education, and his Harvard/Unitarian/enlightened snobs who were determined to create a New Secular Religion which we now know as Humanism (the “dogoodism” works” religion) that would vindicate their view of human nature and justify their repudiation of Calvinism, which said that man was depraved and in need of a Savior (grace) so indulge me as I give you Mann’s history and his rejection of Christianity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Schools Nabbed for Hiding Common Core Detail

Common Core, the federal education-standards initiative, can’t stay out of the headlines.

Black leaders have called it racist, and it’ s been slammed by politicians such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

“You think the math standards are bad, what will happen once the federal government starts setting the standards for how American history is taught to our kids?” he demanded. “Under the Obama administration, the instruction would not be about American exceptionalism; it would be all about how the United States causes victimization.”

Parents and students have objected, and it’ s been blasted for teaching lessons such as how to sympathize with Hamas, create a Palestinian state and divide Jerusalem.

Now, a California school district is being accused of hiding the truth about the program to try to get more children involved.

The new lawsuit alleges that the Walnut Valley Unified School District is declining to tell parents about their rights to refuse involvement in the program.

The action was brought by the Pacific Justice Institute on behalf of Concerned Parents of California.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Racist History of the Democratic Party

History reveals that every piece of racist legislation that was ever passed and every racist terrorist attack that was ever inflicted on African Americans, was initiated by the members of the Democratic Party. From the formation of the Democratic Party in 1792 to the Civil Rights movement of 1960’s, Congressional records show the Democrat Party passed no specific laws to help Blacks, every law that they introduced into Congress was designed to hurt blacks in 1894 Repeal Act. The chronicles of history shows that during the past 160 years the Democratic Party legislated Jim Crows laws, Black Codes and a multitude of other laws at the state and federal level to deny African Americans their rights as citizens.

History reveals that the Republican Party was formed in 1854 to abolish slavery and challenge other racist legislative acts initiated by the Democratic Party.Some called it the Civil War, others called it the War Between the States, but to the African Americans at that time, it was the War Between the Democrats and the Republicans over slavery. The Democrats gave their lives to expand it, Republican gave their lives to ban it.

During the Senate debates on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, it was revealed that members of the Democratic Party formed many terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to murder and intimidate African Americans voters. The Ku Klux Klan Act was a bill introduced by a Republican Congress to stop Klan Activities. Senate debates revealed that the Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Republican Hopeful Ben Carson: No Muslims as President

US Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson says he does not believe a Muslim should become president.

“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” he told NBC’s Meet The Press.

The retired neurosurgeon has been running high in the polls.

It follows widespread condemnation of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s failure to correct a supporter who said President Barack Obama was a Muslim.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arrested French Jihadist ‘Instructed’ To Attack Concert

A French national suspected of planning a terrorist attack in France after returning from the Islamic State group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa was arrested last month, officials said Friday.

The man admitted to police that he had been instructed to carry out an attack on French soil — “preferably” during a concert — but has denied that he had any intention of following through with the plan, according to a judicial source.

He was not immediately identified by police, but the source told AFP that he was a 29-year-old who had spent one week in Raqqa. He was arrested on August 11 at his home and charged with “criminal association in relation with a criminal terrorist enterprise”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czechia: Country Has 30 Wines Among World’s 1,000 Best Wines

Brno, Sept 18 (CTK) — As many as 30 types of Czech wine will appear in the prestigious French publication of the best world wines 1000 Vins du Monde this year, which is four more than in 2014, the Czech Wine Fund said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Eiffel Tower Closed as Terror Suspects Seen Climbing France’s Famous Attraction

The Eiffel Tower was shut to all visitors today after three ‘terrorist suspects’ with ‘large rucksacks’ were seen ascending France’s most popular tourist attraction.

Anti-terrorist police supported by a helicopter could be seen at the iconic landmark following the alarm being raised in the early hours.

But after a search which went on all morning it was thought they had escaped via parachute — prompting a theory that they had been extreme sportsmen all along.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

France: Eiffel Tower Closed Due to ‘Terror Suspect’

French police closed the Eiffel Tower to visitors for a period today due to concerns over a terror suspect. The suspect was described as a man with a “large backpack” ascending the tower.

Police said that the man may be an extreme sport enthusiast who intended to parachute off of the tower. “It’s happened in the past,” police said. “The parachutist hides his kit the night before, and then gets into the tower and jumps off, while videoing.”

In 2005, a Norwegian parachutist died while attempting to jump off the tower.

The Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other terror groups have all threatened to attack the popular landmark.

Security fears have been heightened in Paris since deadly attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January, which saw 12 people killed.

In August, passengers subdued a gunman apparently attempting to carry out a mass shooting on a train from Amsterdam to Paris.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Eiffel Tower Closed for Several Hours After Suspicious Man Spotted

The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors Sunday morning after a man with a backpack was spotted scaling the famous French landmark, the BBC reported.

It reopened in the afternoon.

The area was evacuated as anti-terror police searched for the man, though police came up empty in their search.

Following the Charli Hebdo terror attack in January and other Islamist-linked violence throughout the year, France is on a high state of alert.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Election: Alexis Tsipras Hails ‘Victory of the People’

Alexis Tsipras has hailed a “victory of the people” after his left-wing Syriza party won Greece’s fifth election in six years.

He said Greeks faced a difficult road and that recovery from financial crisis would only come through hard work.

The conservative New Democracy party earlier conceded defeat.

With 60% of votes counted, Syriza is projected to be just short of a majority but the Independent Greeks have agreed to join a coalition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Anti-Mafia Chief Agrees Camorra ‘Integral Part’ of Naples

Reality must be faced to combat crime, says Roberti

(ANSA) — Naples, September 16 — Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor Franco Roberti said Wednesday that he agreed with veteran politician Rosy Bindi’s assertion that the Camorra is an “integral part” of Naples. The comments by Bindi, the head of Italy’s anti-mafia commission and a lawmaker for Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party, prompted an angry reaction from officials in the southern city, who argued the crime syndicate involved only a relatively small minority. “In the past I called the Camorra an integral part of Neapolitan society,” Roberti told the anti-mafia commission.

“If we don’t look this reality in the face, if we continue with denial, we cannot prepare the structural interventions needed (to combat the Camorra)”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome Prosecutor May Probe Contract Tenders in Capital

Contracts assigned without public tender ‘allowed mafia in’

(ANSA) — Rome, September 17 — Rome chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone is assessing whether to open an investigation based on a report by national anti-corruption czar Raffaele Cantone on public contract tenders in the nation’s capital, sources said Thursday. The prosecutor’s office will evaluate whether or not to include such a probe in the ongoing Rome Mafia case.

In his report on city government practices between 2011-2014, Cantone wrote “there are contracts that can be lawfully assigned without a public call for tenders, but we discovered many that were assigned without such a call even when the prerequisites weren’t there.

This system is what allowed the so-called Rome Mafia to find a footing and flourish, Cantone’s report said.

The Rome Mafia inquiry has unearthed a criminal syndicate made up of gangsters, businessmen and politicians that allegedly muscled in on lucrative city contracts having to do with parks maintenance, migrant housing and Roma people camps, and waste management.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Historic Rome Hotel Sold Into Qatari Hands

Westin Excelsior bought by Katara Hospitality

(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — The Qatar international hotel group Katara Hospitality on Wednesday announced the acquisition of the historic Rome hotel Westin Excelsior from Starwood hotels for 22 million euros. The Gulf group plans to renovate the Excelsior over the next five years, but the property will continue to be run by Starwood. The Westin Excelsior is located on the Dolce Vita-era Via Veneto and welcomes some of the most exclusive clientele coming to the Italian capital.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Venice Gets Transport Revolution With Trams

Service connects Mestre mainland to Piazzale Roma

(by Rosanna Codino) (ANSA) — Venice, September 15 — An “old-fashioned” method of transport is helping Venice take a leap into modernity on Tuesday with the inauguration of a tram line connecting Venice’s mainland twin Mestre with Piazzale Roma at the city’s entrance.

It’s been 10 years since the project broke ground, and five years since the Mestre public transport line went operational. Now that the tram project is complete, it is a revolution for the city’s transport system, destined to change the way residents and tourists alike reach the lagoon city.

Despite some delays during construction, the red trams — the same model that has been in use in Padua since 2007 — reach Piazzale Roma just minutes after crossing the Ponte della Libertà road bridge connecting Venice to the mainland in Mestre.

For a city with a geographic profile all its own, the new tram makes for a completely new way to arrive, since the choice to use public transport (up until now a public bus) to reach the centre of Venice isn’t one of economy or environmental awareness so much as it is one of simple necessity given expensive and limited parking in the city.

Up until now, whoever couldn’t afford the cost of a taxi from Mestre was forced to board a public bus, oftentimes having to take luggage along for the ride.

“The tram is something absolutely new, and as such it will require a change in passenger habits,” said Giovanni Seno, CEO of Venice mobility company AVM.

That’s because some of the established bus lines of ACTV, the city’s public transport company (whose parent company is AVM), will be retired, while others will now terminate at Mestre rather than Piazzale Roma, requiring riders to transfer at Mestre’s Piazzale Cialdini depot to the new trams or a different bus in order to reach the city centre.

Trams and line 4L buses are scheduled to leave for Venice from Mestre every five minutes.

To manage the arrivals, expected to be chaotic, the company has hired special employees to help passengers at the depots and onboard the trams, so that they can find the correct line.

In addition, more than 1,300 posters and 15,000 brochures about the changes and new tram lines have been printed.

“(It’s) a cultural revolution that will introduce a new system of access to the historic centre and will change the flow of traffic along the trans-lagoon bridge, lightening a good portion of wheel-based traffic,” Seno said.

“Also for the first time, a ‘transit point’ system will be introduced, in the same way as in other large international cities, that will allow for transfer points and commuter car parks so passengers can transfer to the tram or the bus”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Democratic Party Says Journos’ Union Wrong on Wiretap Bill

Ermini, Verini say FNSI worries are unfounded

(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — Two Democratic Party (PD) members of the justice committee in the Lower House on Wednesday said the secretary general of the Italian journalists union FNSI, Anna Del Freo, is mistaken in her interpretation of a proposed new law on wiretap publication.

“(She) wrongly interpreted the laws being discussed in the Lower House to define new rules on wiretaps,” said MP David Ermini, member of the justice committee, and MP Walter Verini, head of PD in the justice committee.

The FNSI has expressed concern that the new law would provide for journalists being sanctioned or incarcerated for publishing wiretaps, and the possible negative implications on freedom of the press that such a law might create.

“The fundamental right of journalists to publish the news must be protected,” Del Freo said. “We have to be careful to not slide even more behind in the index on freedom of the press, which already sees us in a very low position,” she said.

“We can understand the worries, but in this case they are unfounded,” said Ermini and Verini.

“In the bill’s text on the principles and directive criteria regarding wiretaps, we’re asking to prevent the problem of the publication of wiretaps that aren’t relevant to the investigations, in order to protect the right to information together with freedom of the press”.

Ermini and Verini said that penalties are provided for in cases of fraudulent recordings, but those are “outside the cases of exercising the rights of freedom of the press and of defence”.

The bill also lays down penalties for unjust detention.

Magistrates have voiced concern this may lay them open to trial by parliament.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Tsipras and Syriza Declare Victory in Greece, Announce Coalition Partners

Greece’s leftist Syriza party has claimed its second national election victory in less than a year. The independent nationalist ANEL party has announced they will be junior coalition partners in the new government.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK Guarantees Nuclear Plant Deal as China Investment Announced

China will invest in the Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Somerset, Chancellor George Osborne has announced, saying the UK will guarantee the £2bn deal.

Mr Osborne, who is on a five-day tour of China, said the deal would pave the way for a final investment decision by French energy company EDF.

He said it would also enable greater collaboration between the countries on the construction of new nuclear plants.

Hinkley Point C is expected to provide power for about 60 years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Acid Victim and Her Boyfriend Were Followed by Attackers Before They Hurled Liquid at Her

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

The attack happened outside Turtle Bay bar in Southampton around 9pm on Friday night and left the 37-year-old unnamed woman with ‘severe burns’ to her face, neck, back and arms.

An acid attack victim and her boyfriend were followed by attackers shortly before the men threw a unknown substance in her face leaving her with severe burns as part of a ‘targeted assault’.

The attack happened outside Turtle Bay bar in Southampton at around 9pm on Friday night and left the woman with ‘severe burns’ to her face, neck, back and arms.

Police have now revealed that the victim had been deliberately sought out by the men as part of a ‘targeted assault’…

The woman, who had long, brown hair, was on a night out with her partner when around 200ml of the liquid was hurled into her face in Guildhall Square.

Some of the acid also landed on a doorman’s jacket and burnt through to his skin.

Staff at Turtle Bay, a Caribbean restaurant, described how the woman, who was wearing a black top and black leggings, screamed in agony when the liquid touched her.

A male bar worker said: ‘The acid was in her whole face and eyes — she’s probably going to be blinded.

‘Her face looked like it was melting; it was quite clear there was a lot of damage. It happened just outside next to our outdoor tables and smoking area. She said it was two men.

‘She was with a partner but they weren’t guests of the bar, so we never found out their names.

‘Our doorman was splashed with the acid, it landed on his leather jacket and burnt a hole in it, reaching the skin.

‘The acid burnt right through her leggings. It was awful.’

[…]

Hampshire Police today responded to speculation in the local community by insisting that the woman was not the victim of ‘an honour attack’.

[Comment: Notice the denial by police of an “honor attack” before they even know who did it or why. Before mass migration such attacks were un heard of — now such attacks are all over Europe.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Army Top Brass Will Mutiny if Jeremy Corbyn Becomes Prime Minister

A serving army general has warned that the military would be prepared to take ‘direct action’ to stop Mr Corbyn if he sees off Labour rebels and makes it into Number 10 in 2020.

The senior serving general, speaking anonymously to the Sunday Times, said Mr Corbyn’s victory has been greeted with ‘wholesale dismay’ in the army.

He added: ‘There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny.

‘Feelings are running very high within the armed forces. You would see a major break in convention with senior generals directly and publicly challenging Corbyn over vital important policy decisions such as Trident, pulling out of Nato and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces.

‘The Army just wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that. You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security.’

The general, who served in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, said many soldiers were sickened by Mr Corbyn’s admiration for the IRA and Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

[Comment: What army of free men wants to be ordered around by a communist?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

French Imams to Receive ‘Tolerance’ Training in Morocco

French imams are set to be sent for training in Morocco where they will be instructed in the “values of openness and tolerance”, it was announced Saturday as French President François Hollande began a two-day visit to the north African country.

The training will take place at the Mohammed VI Institute in Rabat — an €18 million facility opened in March this year with the goal of educating Muslim scholars and imams from all over the world.

A joint declaration from Paris and Rabat said the training would promote “an Islam with the right balance” that conforms to “values of openness and tolerance” and “fully anchored in the values of the Republic and secularism”.

The move was welcomed by the French Muslim group The Union of Mosques in France (UMF).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Police General Gunned Down in Sinai Street

Unidentified assailants gunned down an Egyptian police general on the street in the Sinai Peninsula stronghold of the Islamic State group late on Saturday, the interior ministry said.

General Ahmed Abdel Satar was the second senior police officer in three days to be killed in the North Sinai provincial capital El-Arish.

On Wednesday evening, assailants killed General Khaled Kamal Osman as he inspected a police unit in a drive-by shooting claimed by the jihadists’ Egyptian affiliate IS Sinai Province…

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

In Egypt, Family of Those ‘Accidentally’ Killed Speak Out

Egyptian security forces last week killed several tourists they say they mistook for a group of militants in the desert. One of those killed was an Egyptian tour guide. DW spoke to his family.

The group of 22 mostly Mexican tourists and their guides and drivers had parked their all-terrain vehicles for a barbecue near the Bahariya oasis, a tourist site in the desert, when army aircraft began shelling them from above. Security forces on the ground, it later emerged, also fired on the tourists, as they tried to flee.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Christian Schools in Israel Strike Amid Claims of Discrimination

Teachers, staff and 33,000 students at Arab Christian schools in Israel have been on strike since Sept. 1, accusing the state of Israel of discrimination over funding cuts, Time reported.

Students, teachers and parents are setting up protest tents from Haifa to Jerusalem, the news site reported, as part of a nationwide strike over what many say is a “death blow” to the future of Christian schools in Israel.

According to Time, the Israeli government sees Christian schools as “recognized, but unofficial.” Over the past few years, funding for the schools has fallen to 29 percent, from the previous 75 percent once provided by Israel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Expo Milan Celebrates National Day of Palestine

(AGI) Milan, Sept. 19 — A Palestinian delegation was welcomed at Milan Expo 2015 on the event’s National Day of Palestine.

The Italian Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mario Giro, together with the mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, welcomed the delegation with the words “Ahlan, hello, welcome”.

“Participation of Palestine at the Universal Exposition is a testimony to the vitality of the relationship with Italy,” the secretary continued. “The role of Palestine is a fundamental reflection of the theme of Expo 2015: it teaches us that life can flourish even under difficult conditions, for example in an area without water.” The Palestinian Pavilion, located in the cluster of Drylands, shows the central role of the olive tree, “the main source of livelihood for the people and, at the same time, a symbol of peace and a metaphor of the long Palestinian history,” Giro pointed out. Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, head of the Palestinian delegation, thanked the Italian government for their welcome and said he was “happy to participate in Expo 2015 together with the other 148 countries and organisations. The theme of this World Expo reflects mankind’s becoming aware of the greatest problems it faces. These problems will not go away unless all the people of the world learn to really collaborate effectively. I hope that our pavilion will show our culture and our traditions to all visitors, as well as the ample investment opportunities and the will to live in peace and freedom of our country,” Ziad Abu Amr concluded. The celebrations for the National Day of Palestine continued with a performance by El-Funoun, a local folk dance group, and Le Trio Joubran, a musical trio from Nazareth.

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

Atlantic Jihad: The Untold Story of White Slavery — Video

Whilst the Arabs have been acknowledged as a prime force in the early usage of slaves from Africa, very little has been written about their usage of White slaves, whether they were part of the Russian slave trade or those kidnapped by Arab pirates. However, in recent years, the research of some authors has been bringing this issue to light.

The origins of African slavery in the New World cannot be understood without some knowledge of the millennium of warfare between Christians and Muslims that took place in the Mediterranean and Atlantic and the piracy and kidnapping that went along with it. In 1627 pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa raided distant Iceland and enslaved nearly four hundred astonished residents. In 1617 Muslim pirates, having long enslaved Christians along the coasts of Spain, France, Italy, and even Ireland, captured 1,200 men and women in Portuguese Madeira. Down to the 1640s, there were many more English slaves in Muslim North Africa than African slaves under English control in the Caribbean. Indeed, a 1624 parliamentary proclamation estimated that the Barbary states held at least 1,500 English slaves, mostly sailors captured in the Mediterranean or Atlantic. Millions European Christians were kidnapped and enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 — a far greater number than had ever been estimated before. Professor Robert Davis, in his book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800, estimated that 1 million to 1.25 million White people were enslaved by North African pirates between 1530 and 1780.

One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature — that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true, We cannot think of slavery as something that only white people did to black people. Slavery in North Africa has been ignored and minimized, in large part because it is on no one’s agenda to discuss what happened.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ceasefire Agreed for 3 Syria Battlegrounds: Monitor

Syrian pro-government forces and Islamist rebels have agreed to begin a ceasefire from midday on Sunday in three battleground districts, a monitoring group and a local official told AFP.

The truce covers the two remaining villages in Idlib province in the northwest still in government hands and the rebels’ last stronghold near the Lebanese border, the town of Zabadani.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was no immediate word on the duration of the ceasefire but the rival sides would continue negotiations for a broader truce…

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

Fury After Saudi Arabia ‘Chosen to Head Key UN Human Rights Panel’

The United Nations has been criticised for handing Saudi Arabia a key human rights role — despite the country having “arguably the worst record in the world” on freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents.

Critics, including the wife of imprisoned pro-democracy blogger Raif Badawi — sentenced to 1,000 lashes for blogging about free speech — labelled the appointment “scandalous”, saying it meant “oil trumps human rights”.

Mr Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, who is leading an international campaign to free her husband, said on Facebook that handing the role to Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador at the UN in Geneva, was effectively “a green light to start flogging (him) again”.

UN Watch, an independent campaigning NGO, revealed Mr Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador at the UN in Geneva, was elected as chair of a panel of independent experts on the UN Human Rights Council.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

IS Video Appeal Tells Migrants to ‘Count on Us’

(AGI) Rome, Sept 18 — Islamic State (IS) has issued an appeal to migrants to return home, where they will be able to ‘count on God and the Islamic State’. The video appeal, produced by Asawirtimedia, was broadcast on IS-related channels and “discovered” by WikiLao, whose site describes the well-known photograph of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi lifeless on a Turkish beach featuring in the IS periodical Dabiq, captioned ‘The danger of abandoning Darul Al Islam’. The campaign has grown, appealing to ‘all refugees from Christian coalition countries’, and featuring a collage of images: migrants being turned back from and arrested on the Balkan front; migrant rescues in the Mediterranean; the logo of the Italian Navy; a song with mournful lyrics; witness statements with a woman saying ‘they beat my husband’ and boy ‘we have been here for three days…with no food and water…they are treating us as if we were impure.’ Another laments: ‘They mistreated us in Turkey, they mistreated us in Greece and they mistreated us in Serbia, but the worst maltreatment was in Hungary. They lied to us saying that if we allowed them to take our digital fingerprints they would send us to Budapest, but we’ve been detained here and we can’t go anywhere, not even to Germany.’ After three minutes of this, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi intervenes in person, speaking in heartfelt tones to the refugees: ‘Our hearts are broken. You have left your homes and your countries and now you are refugees. Come home, you can count on God and on the Islamic State. Here you will find human warmth and security. You are our families and we will protect you and your belongings. We want you to be dignified, safe and saved from Hell…Muslims live in dignity with us, they are financially well-off and spend their family and working lives under the umbrella of Sharia, thanks be to God. You must count on God and on Islamic State.’.

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

Officers Monitor Screens Monitoring 100k Security Men Preparing for Mecca Pilgrims

Roughly 3million people from around the world are expected to converge on Tuesday at the he Kaaba, in Mina and other nearby areas for the Hajj, which lasts about five days.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Peace in Syria? It’s Putin’s Fault: Escobar

All one needs to know about the intellectual caliber of the Obama administration is that it is still pondering whether to persist in “ignoring” Russian President Vladimir Putin, or invest in a real partnership to solve the Syrian geopolitical/humanitarian drama. After all, when in doubt between diplomacy or chaos, the Beltway weapon of choice still veers towards the simplistic group think uniting neocons and neoliberalcons: regime change.

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

Crimea Tatars Seek to Block Peninsula to Protest Russian Annexation

Hundreds of pro-Kiev activists from Crimea’s Tatar community on Sunday launched a blockade of roads from Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula to protest Russia’s seizure of their home region.

Accompanied by members of the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Pravy Sektor group, protesters from the Muslim Tatar community used concrete blocks to partially seal off the three roads linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea in an attempt to halt the delivery of goods.

Tatar leaders said they were aiming to block supplies to protest the “numerous violations of their rights by Russian authorities”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Pentagon is Preparing New War Plans for a Baltic Battle Against Russia

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of Defense is reviewing and updating its contingency plans for armed conflict with Russia.

The Pentagon generates contingency plans continuously, planning for every possible scenario — anything from armed confrontation with North Korea tozombie attacks. But those plans are also ranked and worked on according to priority and probability. After 1991, military plans to deal with Russian aggression fell off the Pentagon’s radar. They sat on the shelf, gathering dust as Russia became increasingly integrated into the West and came to be seen as a potential partner on a range of issues. Now, according to several current and former officials in the State and Defense departments, the Pentagon is dusting off those plans and re-evaluating them, updating them to reflect a new, post-Crimea-annexation geopolitical reality in which Russia is no longer a potential partner, but a potential threat.

“Given the security environment, given the actions of Russia, it has become apparent that we need to make sure to update the plans that we have in response to any potential aggression against any NATO allies,” says one senior defense official familiar with the updated plans.

“Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine made the U.S. dust off its contingency plans,” says Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security. “They were pretty out of date.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US “Extremely Worried” About the Scale of Corruption in Ukraine

KIEV — US Vice President Joe Biden is “extremely worried” about the scale of corruption in Ukraine. He warned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk that if the situation doesn’t change the United States will stop bankrolling the country, Ukraine’s Novoe Vremya reported.

The White House is worried about a high level of corruption in Ukraine and worse of all by the fact that it isn’t decreasing.

The United States told the Ukrainian government to fight against corruption more actively by carrying out anti-corruption reforms.

Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the US State Department, stressed that Ukraine must get rid of corruption, as it represents Viktor Yanukovych’s “old system.”

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

Cautious India Yet to Congratulate Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn’s recent election as Britain’s Opposition leader has certainly a significance for the Left politics world over. Even before becoming the new Labour Party leader, Corbyn made it clear that he would like to abolish student university fees and to build affordable houses, indicating a sharp change in policy followed by Labour for the last few years.

He and his economic advisers have also outlined Keynesian schemes to stimulate the British economy through what is called ‘Quantitative Easing’.

It is also expected that there will be a sea change in British politics in the coming years with Corbyn leading the Labour Party, but he cannot credibly challenge the fact that the world is dominated by global capitalist structures. India, which has already become a part of the global economic system after following socialist policies for long, has adopted a ‘wait and watch’ approach to the new Labour leader.

Apart from Corbyn’s economic ideas, his stance on different issues in the past also encouraged India to take such an approach. In the past, Corbyn had not only backed ‘self-determination’ in Jammu and Kashmir, but also condemned the launch of ‘Agni’ missile by India. Corbyn further opposed the David Cameron government’s decision to stop sending aid to New Delhi in 2012, as he wanted to showcase India as a country that is still financially dependent on Britain. He even slammed the South Asian country over its alleged human rights violations. Mindful of Corbyn’s past views, the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi has decided not to issue any official statement on his election as new Labour leader.

Prime Minister Modi, who will visit London in November, enjoys a cordial relationship with his British counterpart David Cameron and he also has a plan to boost bilateral ties during his upcoming visit to the country. It is a fact that Britain, under a Labour government, had upgraded its ties with India to a ‘strategic partnership’ in 2004. But, the scenario has changed in the last 11 years and New Delhi has found it easier to work with the Cameron administration.

In such a situation, it is natural for New Delhi to check whether Corbyn is ready to change his views on different issues considered as ‘anti-India’ in the coming years before preparing a strategy to handle the veteran far-left British leader. Corbyn’s position on India as Labour chief will only become clearer during Labour’s annual conference in Brighton from September 27-30.

Indian political observers are of the opinion that that if Corbyn continued with his views, he could not win the goodwill of India.

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

Diana West: Unspeakable

Why did we do it? Why did we send and spend so many precious lives and billions dollars for a nation of pedophiles and child rapists? And why do we tolerate our own leaders, military and civilian, who have known all about it all along and done nothing but condone and cover it up?

The rampant pederasty of Afghans was already in the media back in 2008. The late Joel Brinkley reported on it five years ago; the murder of three Marines in 2012 was tied in with the practice on their own base; the Army has ruined careers of two Special Forces who beat up an abuser, an Afghan militia commander who kept a little boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. These and are other barbarous practices commonplace in Afghan culture — the “marriage” of little girls, the torture of animals, etc. — have been subject to examination in Pentagon studies of “murder inside the wire,” with our own own good people being told — ordered — essentially to grin and bear it.

The stain is forever. And now this from the New York Times…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In Thailand, Motive of Shrine Attack Tied to Chinese Uighurs

Just over a month after a deadly bombing in the heart of Bangkok, government officials think they have their man. But questions still surround the strike, from the motive to what the attack says about Thailand’s tangled ties with China and its handling of ethnic Uighur Muslims whom Beijing sees as violent separatists.

Investigators from Thailand, China, Turkey, Malaysia, Bangladesh and other countries are grimly investigating how a group of Uighurs, allegedly traveling on Turkish and Chinese passports, enabled an unidentified man to explode a pipe bomb on Aug. 17 at a Hindu shrine in Bangkok crowded with mostly ethnic Chinese visitors.

Uighurs and their supporters may have bombed the shrine as revenge for the Thai government’s mass deportation in July, and Thailand’s earlier crackdown on human smuggling routes which were helping China’s distressed Uighurs and other refugees find sanctuary abroad — although no group has claimed responsibility for the bloodiest bombing in the Thai capital since World War II.

“It was because Thai authorities destroyed the illegal businesses of a transnational human trafficking network. They were obstructed, so they were angry,” Thailand’s National Police Chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said last week. “The other issue was the Thai authorities’ decision to send 109 Uighurs back to China.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Meet the Men Running the Mobs in Pakistan

To an outsider, it can often look like mob rule in Pakistan.

There are frequent attacks on religious minorities and nobody ever seems to get arrested or sent to jail.

BBC Urdu reporter Saba Eitizaz meets the men running the mobs in the city of Gujranwala in Punjab.

They say they are providing a vital public service and anything is available at the right price.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nepal Adopts New Secular Constitution Amid Violent Protests

Nepal has adopted a new constitution amid violent protests against some of its terms. The much-delayed constitution aims at strengthening the transformation of the country from a Hindu monarchy to a secular democracy.

The new constitution is secular in nature and guarantees Nepalese citizens the right to practice any religion.

Hundreds of people celebrated the adoption of the new constitution on the streets of Kathmandu.

Security was beefed up across the country on Sunday, as a number of political and ethnic groups appose the new document, especially in Nepal’s southern regions amid concerns over how the state borders should be defined. Some 100 ethnic groups in Nepal claim the new constitution limits their representation.

In 2008, Nepal began the process of drafting a new constitution following a decade-long Maoist insurgency. The civil war cost the lives of an estimated 16,000 people, and brought down the country’s centuries-old Hindu monarchy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hong Kong: Freest Market in the World

The Autonomous Region scores 8.97 out of 10, according to the Fraser Institute. Mainland China places 111th out of 157. As long as there is democracy in Hong Kong, the market will be free, analyst says. Surprisingly, Chengdu economically outperforms Shanghai.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Hong Kong has again held on to its ranking as the most economically free market in the world, this according to the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.

The Canadian think tank has ranked the city at the top since 1970. In its latest report, which is based on 2013 data, it placed Hong Kong first out of 157 countries and territories, with a score of 8.97 out of 10. Singapore comes in second again, with a score of 8.52.

The other nations in the top ten are New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The United States comes in 16th place. Mainland China placed 111th with a score of 6.44.

Hong Kong authorities welcomed the results. “Our steadfast commitment to free market principles has once again received international acclaim,” a government spokesman said in a press release.

The Autonomous Region he added, “attaches great importance to Hong Kong’s economic freedom, and will strive to uphold our fine tradition of the rule of law and an independent judiciary, a small and efficient public sector, and a free and open business and trade environment”.

The Fraser institute’s resident fellow Fred McMahon said, “Hon Kong is still number one but because democracy is the best safeguard of freedom, if China, which ranks low in economic freedom, encroaches on Hong Kong, we can expect Hong Kong’s ranking to fall.”

Another study by the Milken Institute found that the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu has the best economy of any city in mainland China. Shanghai and Tianjin came second and third respectively.

The US-based think tank reached its conclusion after looking at such factors as job growth, foreign investment and high-value-added industries. The Sichuan capital was singled out for its “human capital, central government support, established industries in high-end aerospace and aircraft design, and a more recently developed electronics manufacturing sector”, according to the institute.

The Milken Institute study pointed to two ways cities were developing on the mainland. In the case of Tianjin and Shanghai, the institute saw urbanisation, industrial clustering and infrastructure investment bolstering larger regional economies.

However, the recent slowdown in economic growth “suggests that a new approach centring on technology, private investment, and consumption” would replace the previous strategy.

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

Over 190 Hurt When Fire Drill Goes Wrong in China

A fire drill at a school in north-west China left more than 190 people injured, nine critically, after participants inhaled smoke used to simulate accident conditions, state media said on Sunday.

More than 400 students at the middle school in Gansu province’s Tianshui city took part in the combined fire and air raid drill on Friday when the artificially generated smoke surged out of control, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tiger Kills New Zealand Zookeeper While Zoo Was Open

A veteran New Zealand zookeeper was attacked and killed by a Sumatran tiger Sunday inside the animal’s enclosure.

Police said they were called to the Hamilton Zoo at 11 a.m. after reports that 43-year-old Samantha Kudeweh had been attacked by one of the zoo’s five tigers. Police said she died at the scene.

The zoo asked all visitors to leave and said it was closing its doors until Thursday. Authorities are investigating to determine exactly what happened.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigerian Military Official: Extremists Detonate 3 Explosions in Borno State Capital

ABUJA, Nigeria — A Nigerian military official says extremists have detonated three explosive devices in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, in the country’s northeast.

Military spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said Sunday that didn’t have any details on casualties.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but the initial suspicion has fallen on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, which has resorted to hit-and-run tactics after the Nigerian military has recaptured territory once held by the militants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Castro Praises Pope’s Anti-Capitalism Stance

Pope Francis has arrived in Havana this afternoon and starts a historic 10-day visit to Cuba and the United States, according to reports.

Cuban President Raul Castro welcomed Pope Francis in a long speech at the airport. In his speech, Castro said the communist government has “founded an equitable society with social justice” in Cuba and he praised the pope’s critiques of the global economic system that has “globalized capital and turned money into its idol.”

Castro thanked the pope for facilitating negotiations that led to a detente between the United States and Cuba. Castro is also calling for the end of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, which he called “cruel, immoral and illegal,” and the return of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cuban Exile: Dear Pope Francis, Find a Way to Embrace Victims Before Embracing Their Torturers

The hope of Cubans at home and exiles is that Pope Francis finds a way to meet political prisoners and mothers and embrace their wives or relatives, who demonstrate every Sunday. The Cuban regime is “adhering” to the John Paul II’s advice to “open up to the world.” A delegation of 200 Cubans and Cuban-Americans from Archdiocese of Miami arrive today in Cuba.

Miami (AsiaNews) — Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba could be greatly enhanced by a meeting between the Pope and political prisoners, or an embrace of the “Damas de Blanco” [Ladies in White] who every Sunday after leaving Church demonstrate on behalf of their relatives in prison who are continually beaten and detained. This is the hope expressed by Flavio Labrador, a doctor from Havana, who has lived for years in exile in Miami, where he earns his living as a teacher, a few hours ahead of the Pope’s arrival on the Argentine island, for a four-day visit. Labrador appreciates the small steps that are being taken by the regime since John Paul II’s visit to “open up to the world.” But these steps are also the result of economic and political failures (perhaps along the embargo). Meanwhile, the Church and the Popes work to bring light even to the dark areas of Cubans lives, kept hidden by the regime.

For years the Cuban people has suffered and is still suffering; for years it has been deprived and is still being deprived its daily bread. Now the same people are waiting with renewed hope for Pope Francis.

The Pope knows, he knows that Cuba is suffering, that in Cuba there is no bread, that Cuba is hoping against hope, and he also knows that there is no freedom in Cuba.

This is why he is going there, and this is also why the last two Popes went there, because the evangelization of the people never ends, because there is Good News to bring. Above all he is going to be close to all, especially to those who suffer, who have no bread, no hope, no freedom: these are the blessed of the Gospel of Jesus. This choice is not an option among many, but a way of life, perhaps the only way to a real and coherent Christian life.

In the two previous papal visits to Cuba, I was able to experience the intensity of the preparation, and the intensity of every moment of the historic visit of John Paul II, the pilgrim pope (1998). The visit of Benedict XVI (2012) I experienced from my exile in the United State. I will also experience Pope Francis’ visit from my exile, along with a part of Cuba, that lives in exile with me.

The Archdiocese of Miami — and especially the city of Miami — has been preparing for this meeting. Archbishop Thomas Wenski, arrives in Cuba today with about 200 people, most of them Cubans and Cuban-Americans, as part of a pilgrimage on the occasion of the Pope’s visit, trying to learn about the reality of Cuba today, imagine a new partnership , build new bridges.

Some of these pilgrims left Cuba when they were very small and in a sense will see Cuba for the first time. Other exiles will gather in various churches of the city of Miami, such as the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, patroness of Cuba, facing the bay of Miami, to watch the live broadcast from Havana, Holguin and Santiago, offered by different TV networks like CNN and many others, including a local television station in Miami.

Many of them, like AmericaTV Hispanic, will have a special coverage that will allow us to follow the pope’s visit from his arrival in Havana today. Never before have Cuban exiles and the imprisoned Cuba been so close.

The regime in Havana had no other choice: against its will and nature, began to do what John Paul II asked of it since his descent from the plane that took him to Cuba in January 1998: that Cuba open to the world. The same regime that closed and deconsecrated churches; that expelled priests and religious; that condemned to forced labor many believers; who denied God, today has no choice, and no arguments, and while it is trying not to lose control and power, gives more freedom to the churches, allows the entry of religious personnel in Cuba, and other gestures of good will, looking to give a very different image from the reality.

Pope Francis knows this. John Paul II knew this very well. And that is why take they are taking advantage of small cracks in the wall to bring light into the hidden darkness. That’s all they can do, and that is what the Church has been doing for years.

But this time I would really like to see them doing something more. I would like Pope Francis’ agenda to include a meeting with people who were persecuted for their beliefs, imprisoned, beaten and tortured for their thinking. I wish Pope Francis would embrace women who are beaten every Sunday leaving the church [the so-called “Ladies in White”, mothers, sisters, wives who protest every Sunday for the release of their husbands or relatives]. I would love to see the Pope embraces the victims, even before going to greet their torturer.

This is what I want and what many want to be part of the Pope’s visit to Cuba. Gestures like this would give more realism and meaning to visit Pope Francis’s visit and make it even more historic.

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

Jamaica Prime Minister Touts Administration’s Record of 9 Passed IMF Tests at Party Conference

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s prime minister has told supporters that her administration passed every test of the International Monetary Fund during the island’s latest loan agreement.

At the annual conference of the People’s National Party, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller touted the record of nine passed tests while calling the terms of the IMF deal “challenging yet necessary.”

Jamaica has been trying to turn around its economy with a four-year, $930 million package with the IMF. In recent decades, Jamaica had one of the world’s slowest growing economies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Meets With Fidel Castro in Cuba

Pope Francis met with Fidel Castro on Sunday after urging thousands of Cubans to serve one another and not an ideology, a subtle jab at the communist system delivered during a Mass under the gaze of an image of Che Guevara in Havana’s iconic Revolution Plaza.

The Vatican described the 40-minute meeting at Castro’s residence as informal and familial, with an exchange of books and discussion about big issues facing humanity, including Francis’ recent encyclical on the environment and the global economic system.

Unlike the 2012 visit of Benedict XVI, when Castro peppered the German theologian with questions, the meeting with Francis was more of a conversation, papal spokesman the Rev. Frederico Lombardi said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Flag to Fly Over New World Order

Pope Francis departed for Cuba Sept. 19 on the Alitalia Airbus A330-200 christened Raffaello Sanzio at 10:35am from Fiumicino Airport.

The Jesuit legacy is strong in Cuba. Father Antonio Llorente, a friend of the late Pope Bergoglio who died in 2010, was actually Fidel Castro’s teacher and spiritual adviser at the prestigious Jesuit preparatory school Colegio de Belén in Havana, which was also frequented by his brother Raúl Castro, Cuba’s current leader.

A few years back, when Fidel retired because of health problems, Raul gradually took over as President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba, and later Commander and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

Raul was literally brought up by the Jesuits attending the Jesuit School of Colegio Dolores in Santiago, and later the Colegio Belén mentioned above, before becoming a full-time communist engaged in numerous intelligence operations with the Soviet Union.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Takes in 15,000 More Migrants as EU’s East-West Rift Widens Over Solution to Crisis

Crowded aboard buses and trains, thousands more migrants flooded into Austria on Sunday from countries unable or unwilling to cope with a desperate human tide fleeing war and poverty for a better life in western Europe.

Austrian police said more than 11,000 entered the country on Saturday, and another 4,700 arrived Sunday through the Nickelsdorf border post from Hungary.

Most of the migrants had made the gruelling journey across the Balkans into western Europe, with Croatia saying 21,000 had entered its territory in the past four days.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czechia: Obligatory Migration Quotas May be Unlawful

Prague, Sept 20 (CTK) — The Czech Interior Ministry has worked out an analysis according to which the obligatory quotas for accepting refugees are probably unlawful, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) wrote on Twitter today.

He added that he would get the EU acquainted with the analysis on Monday.

The European Commission is pushing for the mandatory quotas. It wants to make EU countries redistribute among themselves roughly 120,000 refugees now residing in Italy, Greece and Hungary.

Most of the EC members agree with the proposal, but the Czech Republic and other Central European countries do not.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dozens of Refugees Feared Dead After Boat Incidents in the Aegean Sea

Dozens of refugees were feared dead Sunday after two incidents in the Aegean Sea in which a boat collided with a Turkish ferry and another sank in choppy waters, as desperate people fleeing war and poverty braved the risky journey to seek sanctuary in Europe.

Thirteen refugees died after their boat collided with a ferry off the Turkish coast, officials there said, while the Greek coast guard fanned out in the waters of the Aegean Sea searching for another 27 people missing after their boat sank off the island of Lesbos.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Lockdown: Finland Imposes Migration Controls at Swedish Border

Amid anti-immigration protests, Finnish authorities said they have begun to impose controls at the border with Sweden as a result of the influx of people who have entered Finland this year.

Finnish police began checking people who arrived across the border with Sweden on Saturday, due to a rapid rise in the number of refugees and migrants entering the country.

“From now on, people crossing the border in Tornio will have their documents checked by the police,” stated the Finnish Interior Ministry.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Europe’s Refugee Crisis: A Humanitarian Crisis or a Weapon of War?

The evening news is filled with pictures of suffering refugees fleeing the war torn Middle East. The American public watches as Syrian children disembarking from trains in Germany are handed cookies by smiling Germans, who appear to be happy about the sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of mostly Moslem refugees. European and American leaders press the case that both Europe and the United States must absorb this steady flow of illegal immigrants as the only humanitarian response in light of the incredible suffering now being inflicted upon civilians throughout much of the region…

Throughout the region, America’s foreign policy has only destabilized the moderate regimes, bringing down pro-American allies, while opening the door for radical extremists to rise to power. In looking back at the foolishness of these actions, are we merely to believe the political leaders of the West are this stupid?

Following the events of 11 September 2001, the President of the United States formally declared war on an ideology which he called terrorism and for the first time in history, a nation declared war on an idea. Shortly thereafter the US invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq. Fourteen years later, the entire Middle East has now been destabilized, while the nations of the world are all mobilizing for war. The Arab Spring has brought only radicalization across the region. The civil war which continues to rage in Syria is now being directly supported by Russian troops on the ground. In Iran, American appeasement has given the mullahs the green light to continue their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In late 2004, an expert on American foreign policy from one of the Ivy League think tanks spoke to a large group of intelligent Americans. He spoke at great length how the US policy of creating a democratic government in Iraq was doomed to failure, concluding that the leadership that promoted such madness must either be mentally impaired or insane. The majority of the listening audience concurred and offered their opinion of how foolish and ignorant the Bush administration must be to pursue such an obviously doomed agenda.

No one in the room even stopped to consider that the true purpose of American foreign policy has been carefully hidden from the public eye, veiled within lies and deceptions, while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were actually pursuing another agenda. This agenda was designed in hell, and is built upon lies and deceit. Its sole purpose is to bring the world to brink of destruction and to open the door for the rise in power of the New World Order, a one world government.

[Comment: Never ascribe to stupidity that which is best ascribed to intent.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

German Minister: ‘We Can’t Take Every Refugee’

Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, on Saturday said the European Union in the future should take in a finite number of migrants while sending the rest back to a safe country in their home regions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hungarian Proposition for Migrant Crisis

BELGRADE — The European Union (EU) should take over funding of migrant reception centres in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and set up new ones so as to enable migrants to remain close to their homes, and these funds should be distributed to all Union members, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.

Hungary also proposed establishment of joint forces which would protect EU’s external borders in Greece and suggested that the conditions should be created for all 28 EU member countries to participate in the provision of staff and equipment, Szijjarto said addressing a joint news conference after the meeting with Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic and Minister of Interior Affairs Nebojsa Stefanovic.

Hungary also suggested that the EU should provide assistance to transit countries along the migrant route, that is Serbia and Macedonia, Szijjarto said.

Szijjarto said that he understands his colleagues when they say that they cannot understand EU’s expectations from Serbia if the migrant wave is coming from the Union. This is a problem for Hungary as well because migrants should register in the country whose territory they first entered, and this is Greece, he noted.

Szijjarto stated that he believed it was important for him to visit Belgrade on Friday in order to voice Hungary’s stand according to which the two countries have excellent ties, and added that the currently extremely difficult and serious challenges cannot cause any damage to their relations.

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

Hungary Could Block Croatia’s Accession to Schengen Zone

Get short URL BUDAPEST — Hungary could block Croatia’s accession to the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone if it fails to defend the bloc’s external borders, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned.

“If Croatia puts up its hands and says, no, I don’t want to defend the borders, then Hungary can only say that it isn’t ready to join Schengen when the moment comes to decide,” Antal Rogan, head of Orban’s political cabinet, told InfoRadio news station, according to Reuters.

Hungary has finished the construction of a 41-kilometer barbed wire fence along its border with Croatia to curb the influx of asylum seekers, defense ministry spokesman Attila Kovacs told AFP.

“The fence was finished overnight Friday,” he added.

The remaining border, 330 kilometers long, is situated along the hard-to-cross Drava River.

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

Hungary Accuses Croatia of Lying and Violating Sovereignty

(AGI) Budapest, Sept. 19 — Hungary has accused Croatia of violating its sovereignty and of lying “in the face of Hungarians, Croatians, of the EU and its citizens” when it claimed to have secured bilateral agreement to transfer thousands of waiting migrants to the Hungarian border. “Instead of honestly making provision for the immigrants, it sent them straight to Hungary. What kind of European solidarity is this?,” asked Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at a news conference. “Croatia has let down not just Hungary but the EU and has given up on all legal commitments that bind it. Once again, Hungary has been left in the lurch. We will defend the European Union, the borders of the Schengen zone, and we will defend Hungary in accordance with European rules.” On Friday, Szijjarto accused Croatia of encouraging refugees to “committing criminal act” by sending them to Hungary.

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

Iraqis Buy Life Jackets for Trip to Europe’s Distant Shores

Ali’s friends told him to bring a life jacket, so the young Iraqi man headed to a Baghdad sports shop and bought a bright orange one with a whistle attached.

He wore shorts and a T-shirt, but was not planning a vacation or a day at the beach. Ali sees no future for himself in Iraq and intends to make the perilous sea journey to Europe that has claimed thousands of lives this year.

The trip by sea in overcrowded boats begins on the Turkish coast more than 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) from Baghdad, but Ali and other Iraqis are preparing in advance, driving a major increase in life jacket sales.

Born the year Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Kuwait, Ali lived through that war, a decade of punishing sanctions, years of fighting between US-led forces and insurgents, and the conflict with the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large parts of Iraq last year…

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

Minister: Thousands of Czech Troops Can be Sent to Refugee Camps

Prague, Sept 20 (CTK) — The Czech military can send thousands of soldiers to the refugee camps around Syria if need be, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said in the Questions of Václav Moravec debate on public broadcaster Czech Television (CT) today.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ministers Attacked for Refusing to Say How Many Syrian Refugees Will Arrive in UK

The International Development Secretary Justine Greening dodged questions on how many will arrive in the first tranche of refugees, which is expected in the country within days.

[Comment: Becasue they don’t want to let the public know the sheer scale of the population replacement. Treasonous.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Paunovic: 80pct of Serbian Asylum Seekers in Germany Members of Roma Minority

BELGRADE — Rights guaranteed by the Constitution and fundamental human rights protection standards, especially as regards minorities, will be respected also in the introduction of new Serbian government measures aimed at Serbian citizens whose asylum requests in other countries have been rejected, the head of the Office for Human and Minority Rights Suzana Paunovic said on Tuesday.

False asylum seekers will not be left without accommodation or access to fundamental rights, but punishing disregard for or abuse of law cannot be called discrimination, Paunovic said, referring to a recent Amnesty International statement.

According to figures from the Office for Human and Minority Rights, Serbian asylum seekers in Germany totaled 16,862 in 2014 and 11,032 in the first seven months of 2015, with members of the Roma minority accounting for 85 percent of them.

Around 20,000 Roma receive welfare money and account for around 16 percent of the total recipients of the benefit, Paunovic said.

National legal regulations, including legally binding international agreements, are a guarantee that the relevant state authorities will provide support to all underprivileged citizens within the limits of available financial resources, in particular, to the Roma, who live in the most difficult economic conditions, Paunovic said.

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

Record Numbers Seek Asylum in Sweden

According to the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) 6,400 refugees have sought asylum in Sweden in the last week, a record number of applicants.

Mikael Ribbenvik, Deputy Director General of the Swedish Migration Board told Swedish broadcaster SVT, “The only comparable situation was the Balkans crisis in 1992, although even that saw fewer refugees than we see now. We have never experienced anything like this before,” he said.

The number of asylum seekers was up significantly on the previous week, itself a record-breaking 5,200.

The previous record before the current crisis was set in June 1992, during the Balkan war, when 5,060 asylum seekers were processed. That year 84,000 sought asylum in Sweden. So far this year the figure is in excess of 60,000.

Sweden, which over the past few years has taken in the second largest number of asylum seekers in the EU after Germany, has vowed to keep its borders open for the time being.

“We are not close to such a situation,” said Prime Minister Stefan Löfven at a joint press conference with European Parliament President Martin Schultz last Monday.

The International Organization for Migration has said that more than 430,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, with 2,748 dying en route or going missing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Refugee Crisis: Planned Invasion of Europe

Dr. Mark Christian, an Egyptian-born former Muslim who served in the Egyptian military, told World Net Daily earlier this week the refugee crisis in Europe is an orchestrated event.

“The media is making this out to be a spontaneous refugee crisis when this is actually a very organized event,” Christian said.

The flood of refugees into Europe is designed to put pressure on the West and provide a pretext for an invasion of Syria, the removal of Bashar al-Assad, and the installation of a Sunni government, Christian claims.

In May declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency documents from 2012 revealed the United States and its partners in the Gulf states and Turkey supported the Islamic State and plan to establish a Salafist principality in Syria…

“Of the 366,402 refugees who arrived by crossing the Mediterranean Sea so far in this year, 51 percent — 186,865 — have been Syrian, up 5 percent from last month,” the International Business Times reported on September 6.

“Far behind at 12 percent are Afghans, and ranking third are Eritreans at 8 percent. The remaining 29 percent included refugees from Nigeria, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Asylum-Seeker in Germany Filmed Boasting of Having Killed for ISIS

The Syrian man, who lives in a shelter in the Germany’s north-east region of Brandenburg, allegedly told other refugees he had been a member of ISIS.

[Comment: Will the Archbishop of Canterbury open his doors for this man?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The American Refugee Resettlement Scam

President Obama and his rancid leftist allies have subjected America to a blizzard of lies. Nothing that leaves his mouth even remotely parrots the truth, but typically stands truth on its head. The propaganda infrastructure spanning media, Hollywood, non-profit institutions and the halls of academia then erects a virtually impenetrable wall of disinformation to advance the lie.

They have just foisted on us a “deal” with Iran that threatens to create a holocaust, the likes of which America, and perhaps the world, has never seen. As Iran chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel,” this “deal” somehow skirted the advice and consent role reserved to the U.S. Senate. While we are afflicted with many feckless, incompetent and corrupt Republican Senators — never mind the Democrats — the “deal” could have never obtained the requisite approval of 2/3ds of senators. The lies about the “deal” are too numerous to catalog, and before the ink has even dried, Iran has suddenly “discovered” massive stockpiles of uranium it never knew it had!

Now the administration wants to use the refugee resettlement program to import a flood of Syrian immigrants into the U.S. It will virtually guarantee an opening for ISIS and other terrorists to establish bases in the U.S. legally with taxpayer dollars. Obama created his own 9-11 in Benghazi. Apparently that wasn’t enough. Now he wants one here…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her arms to these “migrants,” agreeing to take hundreds of thousands, but the German people are outraged. Why would Merkel do this to her own country? Is it that Merkel’s shady work for the East German Communist Party never stopped? Is Merkel assisting the Russians in their ambition to take over Europe? A biography written by two German journalists argues she has never abandoned the communism of her youth. This may explain her attitude toward the refugees now threatening to collapse the country.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The TPP, Monsanto, Rockefeller, Trilateral Commission, Brzezinski

“ The so-called ‘migration’ of populations into Europe and America is no accident. It’s part and parcel of a Trilateral Commission plan to introduce a high degree of chaos— which of course will require a militarized police response, to ‘restore order’ and remove huge chunks of freedom in the process. All significant US policy decisions are initiated by Trilateral members working inside and outside of government.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

There are dots to connect here. They’re real, and they’re spectacular.

Let me begin with a brief exchange from a 1978 interview, conducted by reporter Jeremiah Novak. He was speaking with two American members of the Trilateral Commission (TC), a group founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller and his intellectual flunkey, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

NOVAK: Yes, but why doesn’t President Carter come out with it and tell the American people that [US] economic and political power is being coordinated by a [Trilateral Commission] committee made up of Henry Owen and six others? After all, if [US] policy is being made on a multinational level, the people should know.

RICHARD COOPER [Trilateral Commission member]: President Carter and Secretary of State Vance have constantly alluded to this in their speeches.

KARL KAISER [Trilateral Commission member]: It just hasn’t become an issue.

Source: “Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management,” ed. by Holly Sklar, 1980. South End Press, Boston. Pages 192-3.

This through-the-looking-glass moment summed up the casual arrogance of Trilateral members: of course US government policy was in the hands of Trilateralists; what else would you expect?

US government policy most certainly covers the area of international trade— and Cooper and Kaiser were foreshadowing blockbuster trade treaties to come: e.g., NAFTA, GATT (which established the World Trade Organization), CAFTA, and now, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is being negotiated in secret among 12 nations responsible for a major amount of world trade and world GDP.

Here are two key Trilateral quotes that reflect this global outlook— by which I mean a world dominated by mega-corporations:

“The nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1969.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Parish Takes in Syrian Refugee Family

St Anna church answers Pope Francis’s call for Catholics across Europe to do something practical as well as feeling compassion for those fleeing war zone

A Vatican parish has taken in a family of four refugees from Syria following an appeal by Pope Francis for every religious community across Europe to assist in the migrant crisis.

The St Anna parish — Sant’Anna dei Palafrenieri in Italian — said on Friday that it had accepted one of two families it promised to take in: a father, mother and two children who fled their home in Damascus and arrived on 6 September. The family is Christian of the Catholic Greek Melkite rite.

Their arrival coincided with a call by Francis for the faithful of Europe to do more than simply encourage refugees or be moved by their plight. Instead, he called on Catholic parishes to offer sanctuary to refugee families.

The Vatican said that the family would be staying at an apartment near St Peter’s in the Vatican and that they had immediately followed procedures to apply for asylum in Italy. That process could take years given major backlogs in the Italian bureaucracy.

Under Italian rules, the parents will not be allowed to accept paid work during their first six months after they apply for asylum but the Vatican said the family would be assisted by the St Anna parish community.

The Vatican said it would not disclose more information about the family until their asylum application was processed and asked media outlets to avoid trying to contact or interview the family.

Greek Melkites are one of nearly two dozen eastern churches in the Catholic church and followers are concentrated in Syria and Lebanon.

The archbishop of the Greek Melkite in Aleppo, Syria, Jean-Clément Jeanbart, was in the US recently to try to raise awareness about the plight of persecuted Christians in Syria. He told the Crux news site: “We are in grave danger; we may disappear soon.”

There was no other information about whether a second family was also being accommodated.

The Vatican also announced that a mobile medical clinic, which had been donated to the pope a few years ago and only been used for his events, would be made available several times a week to refugees in reception areas, including those located outside of Rome. The mobile clinic is run by volunteer doctors, nurses and members of the Swiss Guard.

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

‘You’ve Arrived’: Relief as Refugees Make it to Austria

“It’s known that once you get to Austria, you’ve arrived.”

It’s almost the end of the journey for Saeed, a 23-year-old student from Damascus who has trekked for days through Turkey, Greece, Croatia and Hungary with his little brother and cousin in tow, his worried parents left behind.

Standing at a border post in Nickelsdorf, a small Austrian town near Hungary where 7,000 migrants and refugees arrived on Sunday, the smiley fluent English-speaker waits patiently to board a bus towards his final, cherished destination — Germany.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgrade Gay Pride March Expresses Solidarity With Migrants

Belgrade’s Gay Pride parade, only the second since a ban was lifted, took place under tight security but without major incident Sunday, with participants urging European solidarity with the wave of migrants crossing the Balkans to reach the European Union.

“Europe open your gates,” read a huge black banner with pink letters held by activists next to a giant rainbow-coloured flag waved at the front of several hundred participants.

“We, the entire LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community, stand by our friends in trouble, by migrants who come every day and, like us, only ask for their right to be happy,” prominent playwright Biljana Srbljanovic told the crowd.

Several other speakers also called for solidarity with the migrants and refugees, mostly from the Middle East, who have been passing through Belgrade for months on their wat from Turkey and Greece and on towards northern Europe.

A year ago Serbian gays and lesbians staged their first incident-free Belgrade Pride Parade in four years, in what was seen as a test of the EU hopeful’s commitment to protecting minority rights.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Gay Oktoberfest Brings Pride to Munich

A blue checkered shirt, brown lederhosen shorts with embroidered braces and wild tufts of hot pink hair — James Rozeboom is ready to party Sunday at Gay Oktoberfest, which fought for a place at the table at Germany’s giant beer festival.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Pontifical Institute Offers Master’s in Marital Sexuality

To teach ‘natural methods’ with canonical and civil recognition

(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — A specialised two-year Master’s degree in “Fertility and Marital Sexuality” has been organised by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

Organisers of the degree program said that it “responds to the invitation by the Synod to offer educational paths that nourish marital life”.

The Synod of Bishops is an advisory body for the Pope.

The degree program is the first to teach natural methods of contraception with both civil and canonical recognition.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Dubbed ‘Most Powerful Enemy’ of Helpless Babies

The House of Representatives passed two pro-life bills on Friday, one to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood pending a thorough investigation and the other to uphold the rights of babies who survive attempted abortions.

The House voted 241-187 to withhold funding for Planned Parenthood and passed the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act 248-177.

“It’ s a historic day,” said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., lead sponsor of the latter legislation.

He said both pieces of legislation were inspired by undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress, which accuses Planned Parenthood of profiting from the body parts sales of aborted children. One video included the testimony of a former fetal tissue procurement specialist describing how abortionists cut through the face of a baby whose heart was still beating and whose limbs were still moving to procure parts of the brain.

“A lot of people have seen the videos,” Franks said in an interview with WND and Radio America. “For those who haven’t, it’ s so important that they do because our collective response to these videos is very important to us as a nation. The reality there is so stark, that if we don’t have the courage to respond accordingly, I’ m afraid that all the things that all the men and women out in Arlington National Cemetery died for is at risk.”…

President Obama has vowed to veto both bills if they make it to his desk. Franks is especially appalled that Obama refuses to respect the lives of babies outside the womb.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Scottish Anti-Gay Preacher Drowned Out by a Bagpiper in St Andrews

A homophobic preacher met his match ‘in the most Scottish way possible’ when his hate-filled speech was deliberately drowned out by a young bagpiper to the delight of passing shoppers.

[Comment: Note the slant of the article. Only one commenter get it right: “thoughtful, Manchester: “There’s nothing ‘hilarious’ or worthy here, unless of course you are part of the Fascist Left which believes freedom of speech needs to be ended — freedom that is to say anything they disagree with. And the accusations are always the same — hate filled, vile, peppered with assorted meaningless ‘isms, and phobias’.”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Shunning of Our Christian Heritage

As a new era in American history emerges, one that has thrown our Christian heritage aside for a new philosophy that is old as man and as ungodly as Sodom and Gomorrah, we should look back at how the Founders felt about the comingling of church and State. We are all aware of organizations like the ACLU, People for the Separation of Church and State and others who want to revise how our nation was really founded and put meaning into the Constitution that the Founders would never have imagined. Since 1947 when the Supreme Court reversed the meaning of the First Amendment the attack on our Christian heritage has kicked into high gear.

Most of today’s so-called historians state that the Founders were not religious people and that they required that religion be kept behind closed doors are tell outright lies. I remember reading an article in the LA Times and the author stated that Christianity was not an influence on the Founders and most were atheists and deists. If they had studied any of the Founders they would not be able to say that or they simply just refuse to acknowledge the faith of the Founders. This is what I believe to be the case. Our Founders were very strict in their following of the Bible and the teaching found in it. Fifty two of the fifty-five men who produced the Constitution and worked on the Bill of Rights were committed member of orthodox or evangelical Christian churches. It is impossible to deny how these men felt about comingling their faith with their government. A separation of church and state as we know it today was unthinkable to the Founders. Patrick Henry stated: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion, but the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

John Adams stated: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” James Madison stated: ‘We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for Self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God.’ George Washington stated: “Of all dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain it would that man claim the tribute to patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars.”…

In an in-depth study done by the University of Houston’s political science department on the ideas, philosophies and principles our Founders used to form the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, their conclusion was; “Ninety-four percent of the source of the material used in the Bill of Rights came directly from the Bible.” This was not a Christian university but a secular university. Facts are facts and these are the facts that the revisionist historians simply ignore or refuse to admit exist.

What we see happening in today’s society is happening because the people lack knowledge of not just our history but our rights as well. This is why Kim Davis was thrown in jail when she refused to issue a same-sex marriage license. She broke no law. Just because the Supreme Court issued an opinion did not make that opinion law. The judicial branch cannot make law, only Congress can do that. The State of Kentucky’s Constitution states that marriage in that State can only be between one man and one woman. The Supreme Court’s decision has no bearing on that.

Secondly, the US Constitution guarantees each State a republican form of government which means they get to decide the things that the federal government is not directed to control in the Constitution. Even if it did make it law our First Amendment states that we have a right exercise our religious freedoms which means she cannot be forced to violate her faith. Remember in Obamacare muslims don’t have to participate because it violates their ‘faith’. Well, if they can’t be forced to violate their faith, why is it necessary that a Christian be forced to violate their faith? These are things that the average person doesn’t know or is not aware of primarily because our media will not report this truth.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why “The View” Is Bombing

You would think that a groundbreaking TV show for women hosted by women would do its best every day to respect and uplift women.

Instead, ABC’s “The View” — originally created by veteran journalist Barbara Walters to represent women “of different backgrounds, different generations and different opinions” — has devolved into an ear-splitting bickerfest of elite divas who scoff and sneer at those who do not enjoy their celebrity privilege or share their left-wing ideological values.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Communist Deception Strategy

Terca Livre Presents — Update Brazil, Episode 2: Communist Deception, hosted by Jeff Nyquist and Allan Dos Santos. On Friday, September 18th, author and researcher Nevin Gussack talk about fake disputes and hidden levels of coordination between communist states and organizations.

Nevin Gussack is the author of Sowing the Seeds of Our Destruction: Useful Idiots on the “Right” and Golitsyn Vindicated?, which examines some of the extraordinarily accurate predictions by KGB defector Anatoliy Golytsin (more on Golytsin here)…

Russia and China are playing an ominously large role in Brazil, and in South America in general. China is the main economic partner of Brazil. The appointed Chinese ambassador in Brazil is a Chinese general. And the commander of the Brazilian Army used to be the Brazilian embassy military attaché to China. According to Santos, in 2008, Russia and Brazil conducted a joint military exercise.

According to anti-communist activist Olavo de Carvahlo, Cuba and Russia have been helping Venezuela prop up the socialist regime. Cuban troops have been sent to Venezuela to assist Nicolás Maduro’s oppressive regime crack down on protests engulfing the nation. Russia and China are supporting Venezuela and all the surrounding South American countries involved with the communist think tank Sao Paulo Forum.

One of the more disturbing revelations made by Allan Dos Santos was the claim Brazilian universities are openly holding up North Korea as an example of “democracy.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

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