Geir Lippestad, the lawyer who headed Anders Behring Breivik’s legal team during his trial in 2012, has gained a seat on the Oslo city council. Mr. Lippestad said that he will devote his time in office to aiding the integration and inclusion of foreigners into the city’s life.
In migration news, refugees at a camp in Slovenia burned down their tents to protest delays in their registration that keep them from moving on to Austria.
In other news, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he has decided not to run for President of the United States.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Renzi Govt Warned Fiscal Policy Not in Line With EU
Dombrovskis says Commission is evaluating 2016 budget law
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 21 — European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday that some of the tax-cutting measures contained in the government’s 2016 budget bill are not in line with EU recommendations.
“Some of the actions adopted at the fiscal policy level” by Italy “are not in line with the general recommendations” of the EU. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government plans to abolish the IMU property tax and the property-based TASI tax on people’s primary residences. The EC has repeatedly said it does not like the property-tax cuts in the 2016 budget bill, reminding Renzi that its standard recommendations to member States go in quite the opposition direction — to shift the burden from labour and consumption onto property among other things. The elimination of property tax IMU and property-related service tax TASI has also come in for criticism from the domestic opposition, which argues it is unfair to slash taxes on all residences, including castles and luxury villas whose owners can well afford to pay. Renzi has retorted by saying his government, unlike previous centre-left ones, is out to ease poverty but not at the expense of targeting rich wealth creators. However, he appeared to retract this in later comments when he said that castle owners would have to pay taxes.
Dombrovskis added that the Commission was “assessing” Rome’s request for greater budget flexibility due to the cost of the refugee crisis. The draft budget the government has sent to Brussels puts current spending on the migrant emergency at three billion euros, with a total cost of 3.3 billion euros. Of these, 50% is spent on hosting the asylum seekers and 20-30% is spent on rescuing them at sea. Italy is requesting deficit flexibility based on these numbers. The budget currently amounts to 27 billion euros but this may rise to 30 billion if the EU OKs a clause on the migrant emergency, allowing Italy to raise the budget-to-deficit ratio from 2.2% to 2.4% — equivalent to just over three billion euros.
Renzi recently said that, if the EC asked for revisions to his executive’s budget, Rome would send it back to Brussels unchanged. This week European sources said the Commission will likely not send Italy’s budget bill back for revision. The climate after a first EC reading of the proposed budget is “positive” as Italy is said to be “more solid” than last year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Article: New York Officer Killed After Gunfight in East Harlem Led to a Police Chase
A New York City police officer was shot in the head and killed on Tuesday night after a gunfight between rival crews in East Harlem led to a sprawling police chase and a shootout on a footpath over the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. The first shots rang out around 8:30 p.m., echoing through the brick and concrete yards of the East Harlem housing projects …
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Announces He Will Not Run for President in 2016
Vice President Biden announced Wednesday he will not run for president, ending months of feverish speculation over his 2016 plans and likely settling the Democratic field.
Speaking in the Rose Garden alongside his wife Jill and President Obama, Biden said the window of opportunity to mount a viable campaign “has closed.” He has been weighing a decision since summer, but cautioned all along that he and his family were grieving over the loss of his son Beau Biden — and said Wednesday he knew that process could outlast the window for making a decision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton’s Response to Benghazi Attack Criticized by Nearly 50% US Citizens
A recent poll shows that some 44 percent of US citizens were unsatisfied with Hillary Clinton’s response to the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Some 44 percent of US citizens were unsatisfied with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s response to the 2012 terrorist attacks on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, according to a recent poll.
The NBC/WSJ survey also revealed Tuesday that 47 percent of the respondents considered the release of Clinton’s e-mails related to Benghazi an important factor in deciding their vote in the upcoming elections.
Clinton, who is vying for the Democratic domination for the 2016 US presidential race, is set to give testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday.
Only 27 percent of US residents were satisfied with Clinton’s response, according to the survey.
Clinton was in the last months of her service as state secretary when Islamic terrorists attacked the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US government employees.
Clinton has previously taken responsibility for mistakes made in the aftermath of the attacks, but rejected accusations that the Obama administration had tried to mislead the US public about the Benghazi terrorist attack.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Former FBI Agent Explains How and Why Obama Could Send 50 Million Americans to Concentration Camps
[Bill] Ayers, in particular, is noteworthy, because of plans he and his organization developed during their “revolutionary” period which smacked of something right out of Nazi Germany: Namely, that their goal was not just the overthrow of the constitutional republic of the United States, but the mass elimination of tens of millions of Americans who he and other members of his group believed would never go along with them.
This was discussed in some detail by former FBI undercover agent Larry Grathwohl, now deceased, in a 1982 documentary called No Place to Hide.
And it is why now, in the context of the coming Jade Helm 15 exercises, in which scores of U.S. military special operations forces will be operating among the general public in several South and Southwestern states for eight weeks beginning in mid-July, the commander-in-chief’s personal history is especially important.
In his interview, Grathwohl laid out the sinister plan of Ayers and his Weather Underground:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hollywood Actor, Democrat Both Destroy Bernie Sanders for Praising Communist China
After Bernie Sanders praised China for providing 14 weeks of taxpayer-paid maturity leave, both Hollywood actor James Woods and Democratic pundit Kirsten Powers pointed out the communist regime also kills infants for population control.
James Woods @RealJamesWoods China has notoriously killed female infants for population control, you utter moron
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As scientists & the medical establishment express amazement that Ebola would resurface in survivors months later and be re-transmissible, a caller points out that it is a virus.
Like herpes and other viruses, we now know that Ebola can be brought under control but remain contagious and may surface later.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Than Half of US Citizens Oppose Stricter Gun Control Laws — Poll
A new CNN/ORC poll reveals that fifty-two percent of Americans do not want the US government to implement stricter gun control laws despite mass shooting incidents that claim lives and injure people.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Fifty-two percent of Americans do not want the US government to implement stricter gun control laws despite mass shooting incidents that claim lives and injure people, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Only 46 percent of Americans support stricter gun control regulations, while 52 percent think they should not be implemented, the poll, released on Wednesday, revealed.
In June, the number of supporters and opponents of stricter gun legislation were equally divided at 49 percent each.
Gun violence and possible tougher gun controls are in the spotlight of the political debate in the United States.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms. At the same time, the United States has been witnessing a growing number of mass shooting incidents over the past year, which prompted calls by some for greater gun controls.
President Barack Obama has previously called on Congress to change the country’s gun laws, and urged Americans to pay more attention to presidential candidates’ positions on gun control.
Opponents of the proposed measures claim there are enough laws on the books regulating gun purchases, and those laws should be enforced rather than more restrictions passed that may violate the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Silicon Valley Giants Unite Against New CISA Bill Destroying Online Privacy
Some of the world’s biggest technology firms oppose the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) currently being considered in the US Senate, according to a new poll by internet activists.
The poll by Fight for the Future lists Apple, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia among the 22 companies opposing the legislation, while Comcast, HP, Cisco and Verizon are among the 12 who back or have remained silent on the bill, which critics say would give the government sweeping new powers to spy on Americans in the name of protecting them from hackers.
CISA has both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition within the Senate, and could come up for a preliminary vote as early as Wednesday.
The bill would allow companies to share their users’ information with the Department of Homeland Security, which would share data across “relevant government agencies,” presumably including the FBI and the NSA.
But even the DHS has spoken out against CISA, saying it “could sweep away important privacy protections.”
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, criticized the legislation on Tuesday while addressing fellow lawmakers.
“I heard for days that this bill would have prevented the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] attack,” he said. “After technologists reviewed that particular argument, that claim has essentially been withdrawn.”
Wyden also addressed his comments to President Barack Obama.
“There is a saying now in the cybersecurity field, Mr. President: If you can’t protect it, don’t collect it. If more personal consumer information flows to the government without strong protections, my view is that’s going to be a prime target for hackers.”
Some companies who now oppose the legislation — notably Facebook, Apple and Google — previously lobbied in favor of an earlier version. Few companies that support the current version of the bill have done so publicly.
On Tuesday, Apple said in a statement to the Washington Post that the tech company does not support the current form of the bill.
“The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”
In regard to those companies who now oppose CISA after once supporting it, Fight for the Future campaign director Evan Greer said:
“I think these companies recognize that this is a supremely unpopular piece of legislation among their users. Internet users have been opposing this kind of legislation for years; I think the Senate should consider that the same users that led revolts against these companies are also voters.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Team Clinton on Offense Ahead of Benghazi Committee Hearing
Hillary Clinton and her supporters are blistering the Benghazi committee ahead of her much-anticipated testimony Thursday, repeatedly questioning the GOP-led investigative panel’s “credibility” as the former secretary of state gears up for a potentially confrontational appearance.
On Wednesday, a super PAC supporting Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign, Priorities USA, will begin running TV ads aimed at bolstering her image ahead of her appearance before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
The effort marks the group’s first TV ad buy of the election cycle. But it is also just part of an all-out offensive that unexpectedly started Sept. 29 when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested the committee — created to investigate the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya — has hurt Clinton’s poll numbers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Inequality of Who Gets Hit by Cars
Minorities are more likely to die as pedestrians.
While the number of Americans dying in car crashes has decreased steadily since 2003, the number of those cases in which pedestrians were killed by cars was at a five-year high in the latest data. In 2012, 14 percent of all people killed in traffic accidents were not in cars, but were walking, running, jogging, hiking, sitting or lying down.
The traffic deaths aren’t distributed equally though. Native Americans, Hispanics and blacks are much more likely to die as pedestrians in traffic accidents than whites or Asian-Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Sees Highest Number of Homegrown Terrorist Cases Since 9/11
US House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said that the Islamic State terrorist group alone has inspired or directed 17 terror plots in the United States since early 2014.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The number of terrorist cases involving homegrown Islamists in the United States in 2015 is the highest since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, US House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul announced on Wednesday.
“Here in the United States there have been more terrorist cases this year involving homegrown jihadists than any full year since 9/11,” McCaul stated during a Commitee hearing on threats to national security.
McCaul noted that the Islamic State terrorist group alone has inspired or directed 17 terror plots in the United States since early 2014.
It has also been linked, he added, to more than 60 plots against targets in Western countries ranging from Canada to Australia.
“We are at a turning point in a new age of terror. I predict this year could exceed the last to become the most violent year on record for global terrorism. Radical Islamists are recruiting online, across borders in a broadband speed and the impact is being felt worldwide,” McCaul concluded.
Earlier in October, Assistant Attorney General John Carlin announced that the Unites States has created a new position at the Department of Justice to help US attorneys combat domestic terrorism more effectively.
The Islamic State is a militant group in control of large areas of Syria and Iraq. The group is notorious for its brutality and human rights violations, as well as for recruiting throughout the world via social networks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
October 21, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomed the October 14 release by the U.S. State Department of its International Religious Freedom Report (IRF Report) for 2014. The IRF Report is required by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the same law that established USCIRF.
“The IRF Report is a comprehensive resource documenting religious freedom violations in almost 200 countries and territories and highlighting some of the thousands of prisoners of conscience who languish unjustly in prisons around the world solely because of their religion or belief,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George. “We commend the State Department, particularly the Office of International Religious Freedom, led by Ambassador-at-Large David Saperstein, for the significant effort that went into compiling this report,” said Chairman George.
IRFA also requires the United States annually to designate as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, those governments that “engage in or tolerate” systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, and to take action to encourage improvements in each CPC country. IRFA provides a range of options for such action, from bilateral agreements to sanctions. “Now that the IRF Report has been released, the next step is for the State Department to promptly designate the worst violators as CPCs and to leverage those designations to press for much-needed reforms in those countries,” said Chairman George.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Social Media, The New Terrorism Threat
Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security:
‘Today, the global terrorist threat is more decentralised, more complex and in many respects, harder to detect. The new reality involves the potential for smaller scale attacks by those who are either home grown or home based.’
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Whistleblower Nurse Reveals Even More Toxins in Vitamin K Shot
Rob Dew talks with former Merck saleswoman and now anti-vaccine activist Michelle Vaughan about what Big Pharma isn’t telling you about vaccines in general and the vitamin K shot in particular.
This video is a must-watch for anyone expecting a child or anyone with a loved one who is expecting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks to Release Contents of CIA Chief’s Email Account
Wikileaks has announced that it will release the contents of CIA chief John Brennan’s email account.
It tweeted the claim earlier today, adding that the information would be released “shortly”
The BBC earlier reported that the hacker responsible for the leaks was a “teenager” described as a “stoner high school student angry about US foreign policy”.
The CIA responded to the earlier news of the hack, saying it was “aware of the reports that have surfaced on social media and have referred the matter to the appropriate authorities.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s New Made-in-USA Liberal Government
The 11-week Canadian election campaign, run by the same team that brought Barack Obama to the White House’, is over and it’s time to pick up the maple leaves.
Go forward by getting ready for the world’s biggest 3-ring circus of all time. Think of Obama and Trudeau selfies with whomever’s coming down the pike from Mexico thrown in for good measure.
During his tenure as a backbencher MP, Trudeau liked to hang out in terrorist-connected mosques and with Liberal Big Sis Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynn, under whose watch Ontario, this country’s largest province and former economic engine, has become the world’s most indebted sub-sovereign borrower…
First on Justin’s ‘To Do List’ is living up to his vow to send Canadian aircraft to pick up 25,000 Syrian ‘refugees’ for Canada by Christmas.
[Comment: Ontario has more debt than California, and a fraction of California’s population level.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liberal Win in Canada Dims Prospects for F-35 Buy
VICTORIA, British Columbia — Canada will see a major shift in defense policy with the election of a new Liberal Party government and its planned withdrawal from the Iraq coalition air campaign and the US-led F-35 program.
Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau promised both during the election campaign leading up to Monday’s vote. Trudeau won a surprise landslide victory, forcing the ruling Conservative Party government into the opposition ranks of the House of Commons.
Trudeau said Tuesday he talked to US President Obama about Canada’s changing role in Iraq and the battle against the Islamic State militant group.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Spencer in Frontpage: Justin Trudeau: Canada’s Obama
For years, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has served as a welcome counterpoint to Barack Obama, and the object of wistful musings about what a fine President of the United States he would have been, if only he had been born south of the border: generally realistic about the jihad threat, determined to do what was necessary to meet that threat, and a strong supporter of Israel.
But now Canada at last has its own Obama: Justin Trudeau. And that means that Canada, like the United States, faces deep trouble ahead.
The new Prime Minister of Canada, like Obama, has consistently downplayed the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat and ascribed it to other causes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Chechen on Trial for Funding Jihadist Group
The trial of a suspected Islamist has begun in Vienna — under heightened security. The 37-year-old man from Russia’s Chechnya region is accused of working with and funding the al-Qaeda linked Caucasus Emirate jihadist group in south-western Russia, to the tune of €530,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Vienna Academy Teaches Men to Walk in Heels
It seems Austria’s Eurovision winner, bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst, has started a trend — with a Vienna academy that teaches women how to walk in high heels now opening its doors to men who were eager to join the workshops.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Base Danish Law on the Koran, Say Four Out of Ten Danish Muslims
A survey carried out by a Danish newspaper found that four out of ten Danish Muslims believe that the country’s legislation should be based at least in part on the Koran.
Four out of ten Muslims living in Denmark believe that Danish law should be based on the Koran, according to the results of an opinion poll published by Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper on Sunday.
“Nearly 4 out of 10 Muslims in Denmark believe that the Koran must form the foundation of Danish legislation,” reported Jyllands-Posten.
The survey, carried out by research institute Wilke, found that “11.3 per cent of respondents believe the Koran alone must be the foundation of law, while 26.5 per cent believe that the foundation of Danish law should be a mixture of the constitution and the Koran.”
Danish Social Democratic Party immigration spokesman Dan Jorgensen commented that the proportion of those who wished to change the constitution presents a problem.
“There must be the aim that everyone in Denmark supports the constitution and says loudly and clearly that anything else is unacceptable. You can have what religion you want, but laws and regulations, are something that should be decided democratically,” said Jorgensen.
The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party used the survey to bolster their campaign to restrict Muslim immigration to the country. There are currently about 250,000 Muslims living in Denmark.
“I hope that people can see from this, that the number of Muslims in Denmark is a problem,” said party spokesman Martin Henriksen.
Imam Radwan Mansour of Denmark’s Fredens [Peace] Mosque in Aarhus told Jyllands-Posten that in his opinion, the law should be based on a combination of basic law, and the religious text.
“If this was an Islamic country, it should be the Quran. But Denmark is not an Islamic country — we don’t decide — so I think it should be both the Quran and the constitution,” said the Imam.
The figures cited by Jyllands-Posten were based on interviews with 702 Muslims in Denmark, with a maximum statistical uncertainty of 3.7 percentage points.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Mother of 12-Year-Old Hit by Train Gets £14,000 Bill for Damaging Rail Track
Belgium’s national rail operator, SNCB, has sent a £14,000 (€19,000) bill to the mother of a 12-year-old girl, who was run over by a train while taking selfies on rail tracks. The operator is claiming the amount for the “damages caused” to the rail tracks, wherein the girl was killed instantaneously.
Carla Nunez, mother of Charlotte, who was killed in the train accident in November last year, was shocked to have received the letter. She told Flemish news website, Het Laaste Nieuws, “The letter says that my daughter is a minor and that I am responsible for damage caused by the accident.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
BRUSSELS / GENEVA (16 October 2015) — Belgium needs to develop an inclusive national vision and action on the issue of foreign fighters at federal, regional and community, and local levels, the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries has said today. “The threat to the country is otherwise significant,” they warned.
“The number of Belgian foreign fighters is reportedly the highest in Europe per capita among those travelling to join conflicts abroad such as in Syria and Iraq,” said human rights expert Elzbieta Karska, who currently heads the expert group. “The need to tackle this problem through robust collective efforts which engages all sectors of Belgian society is critical in finding solutions to this phenomenon.”
Ms. Karska and fellow expert Patricia Arias were in Belgium from 12 to 16 October 2015 to gather information on the activities of foreign fighters going from the country to conflict zones abroad, as part of a comprehensive study on foreign fighters and their impact on human rights, including on possible links to mercenarism.
During their visit, the experts received information that there are some 207 Belgians in Syria, 77 casualties, 128 returnees, and 62 persons who failed to get to Iraq or have been brought back. Of these, 46 foreign fighters have been prosecuted, all associated with the group Sharia4Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
British Spy in IRA Codenamed Stakeknife Faces Belfast Probe Over Alleged Role in 24 Killings
Northern Ireland prosecutors say a British Army spy who worked inside the Irish Republican Army will be investigated for his alleged role in at least two dozen killings.
The director of public prosecutions, Barra McGrory, made the announcement Wednesday citing evidence compiled by Northern Ireland’s police complaints watchdog into the shadowy activities of the agent codenamed Stakeknife.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EC Rules Fiat, Starbucks Owe 20-30 Mn in Back Taxes
Commission rules Luxembourg and Netherlands tax regimes illegal
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 21 — The European Commission said Fiat Chrysler Automobiles owes between 20 and 30 million euros in back taxes after ruling that tax regimes granted to its Fiat Finance and Trade subsidiary in Luxembourg and the Netherlands were illegal. It said Starbucks owed a similar amount. “The Commission has ordered Luxembourg and the Netherlands to recover the unpaid tax from Fiat and Starbucks, respectively in order to remove the unfair competitive advantage they have enjoyed and to restore equal treatment with other companies in similar situations,” read an EC statement. “The amounts to recover are €20-30m for each company.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
German Gangs Rob Churches to Fund Islamic State Terrorists
Eight men appeared before the court in Cologne, Germany on Tuesday, after allegedly stealing from a number of churches and schools in order to fund the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group.
In 2013, a church in Cologne was burglarized. Robbers stole a number of religious valuables, including liturgical vessels, collection boxes, and crosses. Last November, authorities arrested ten men believed to be involved, and on Tuesday, eight of those individuals appeared before a German court.
They are believed to have stolen the property with the intent of securing funds for various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State.
The robberies occurred between 2011 and 2014. In addition to the church break-ins, the men also allegedly robbed a number of schools in the area, stealing money, laptops, and a cash card.
While it remains unclear if any of the money obtained from those robberies actually made its way to militants in Syria, the men are believed to have stolen roughly 19,000 euros worth of goods.
The properties were also heavily vandalized.
Prosecutors allege that a 26-year-old Moroccan is the group’s ringleader. That individual has also uploaded a YouTube video in the past, encouraging Muslims to join IS. Prosecutors also claim that the 26-year-old was trained by the Islamic State in Syria.
Germany enacted a law last year which bans support for IS.
“The terror organization Islamic State is a threat to public safety in Germany as well. We are absolutely confronting this threat today,” Defense Minister Thomas De Mazier said, according to International Business Times.
“Today’s ban is directed solely against terrorists who abuse religion for their criminal goals. Germany is a well-fortified democracy, there’s no place here for a terrorist organization which opposes the constitutional order as well as the notion of international understanding.”
On Wednesday, reports also surfaced about the inner workings of the terrorist group’s intelligence service. Those claims on based on the testimony of Nils D., a German member of IS who said he spent eight months working for the group’s “Stormtroopers” unit.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Mayor Offers ‘Gun Bonus’ To Citizens
A mayor in northern Italy has announced plans to set up a fund to help his town’s citizens buy guns.
Gianluca Buonanno, the Northern League mayor of Borgosesia in Piedmont, has promised to pay citizens who wish to buy a firearm €250 towards their purchase — a sum which is around 30 percent of the price of a small pistol in Italy, La Repubblica reported.
Buonanno announced his decision on Facebook, writing that the measure was aimed at allowing citizens “to defend themselves from delinquents, who the government is privileging with its jail-emptying laws instead of protecting honest Italians.”
Buonanno, who serves as an MEP, has also sent a request to the European Commission, asking it to establish a similar fund.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pensioner Who Killed Intruder ‘Was Right’ Says Salvini
‘Was he supposed to offer him coffee and biscuits?’
(see related) (ANSA) — Milan, October 21 — A pensioner who shot dead an intruder near Milan Monday night “defended his family, and was right to do so!”, Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said Wednesday.
“Some right-on leftwing folk are now saying ‘the pensioner shouldn’t have shot the robber who got into his house’. Crazy.
What was he supposed to do, offer him coffee and biscuits?”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marino ‘Thinking of Weighing Support’
May try to stick to job
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — Outgoing Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino is weighing whether he can muster enough support from the council assembly to see if he can stay on instead of confirming his resignation November 2, cultural heritage councillor and right-hand Alessandra Cattoi said Wednesday. “The mayor is reflecting whether to verify the majority in the Capitoline assembly,” she said. “When a mayor tenders his resignation he breaks a pact with the citizens and must think it over taking the 20 days laid down by law,” she added. Marino’s Democratic Party (PD), of Premier Matteo Renzi, says he must go after an expenses scandal, the latest in a series of rows that have dogged his tenure since spring 2013.
The mayor’s supporters are gearing to demonstrate in his favour.
Pundits say if he tries to stick to his post the PD will oust him.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Undersecretary Barracciu Sent to Trial
Case concerns alleged misappropriation of Sardinian funds
(ANSA) — Cagliari, October 21 — A Cagliari judge on Wednesday sent Culture Undersecretary Francesca Barracciu to trial on charges of alleged aggravated misappropriation of Sardinia regional assembly funds. The trial will start on February 2, 2016. Prosecutors have contested 81,000 euros claimed by Barracciu, a member of Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD), for fuel expenses for travel around the island in her car when she was a regional councillor.
Barracciu won the primary to be the centre-left candidate for governor in Sardinia in 2013 but withdrew after it emerged she was under investigation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Doctors: Managers Arrested in Rome Health-Fraud Bust
Allegations money claimed for treatments not performed
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — Carabinieri health police in Rome on Wednesday acted on 14 home arrest warrants for doctors, managers and health workers at the city’s Israelitico hospital.
Three others were given orders to regularly report to the police. They are suspected of fraud and deception against the national health service. The authorities also confiscated 7.5 million euros — the amount that was allegedly fraudulently claimed from the national health system for treatments that were not performed. The hospital’s former general manager, Antonio Mastrapasqua, was among those arrested on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Marine Le Pen, French National Front Leader, Speaks at Her Hate-Speech Trial
With pugnacity and self-assurance, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen defended herself in a courtroom on Tuesday against charges of inciting religious hatred against Muslims, provoking cheers of “France for the French” from supporters in the courthouse halls afterward.
Drawing on French anxiety over the migrant surge in the east, an electoral campaign in which Ms. Le Pen’s National Front is seen as having momentum, and her own charisma, she turned what was meant as an accusatory stage into a full-throated platform for her views.
The context was unusual, but the hard line taken by the populist leader was not: France’s Muslim immigrants are an alien force threatening French values.
Far from being a provocation, at Tuesday’s hearing she described a notorious speech she made five years ago comparing Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation as an “exhortation to respect the law” on behalf of “those who have been abandoned, the forgotten ones.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Launches Biggest Military Exercise in 13 Years in Sicily, Mobilizing 36,000 Personnel
NATO is launching its biggest military exercise in 13 years, mobilizing 36,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen from more than 30 countries to test the alliance’s ability to respond to new security threats.
[Comment: Prepping for boots on the ground in Syria? Banksters looking to trigger WWIII.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Oslo Moves to Ban Cars From City Centre
Oslo’s new leftist city government said Monday it wants to ban private cars from the downtown area by 2019 as part of a plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
The Labour Party and its allies the Socialist Left and the Green Party, winners of the September 14 municipal elections in the Norwegian capital, presented a platform focused on the environment and the fight against climate change.
The programme envisages a ban on private vehicles in the city centre which, according to the Verdans Gang newspaper, is home to only about 1,000 people but where some 90,000 work.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Utøya Survivor is Oslo Deputy Mayor at 27
A 27-year-old Utøya survivor is to become the new deputy mayor of Oslo, as Norway’s Labour Party and its Green and Socialist Left allies retake the city after eight years of Conservative rule. Khamshajiny Gunaratnam — who styles herself “Kamzy” — was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Norway when she was three years old.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Breivik Lawyer Becomes Oslo City Councillor
The lawyer who defended Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has entered politics, becoming one of the most senior members of Oslo’s new city government.
Geir Lippestad, who when asked about defending Breivik in 2012 told France’s Le Monde newspaper, “I feel I have lost my soul”, was on Wednesday appointed as the city’s commissioner responsible for Industry and Ownership.
He said he aimed to use his position to aid integration and inclusion of foreign-born Norwegians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: New Oslo Council May Abolish Homework
Oslo’s new left-wing city council plans to trial abolishing homework for tens of thousands of students on the grounds that the practice “reinforces social inequalities”.
In its coalition negotiations with Norway’s Labour Party and Greens over the new city council, the Socialist Left Party extracted a promise to “trial alternatives methods of assessment and other ways of organising homework”.
With the new City Council taking power on Wednesday, the party now wants to put this into effect.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Warns About Surge in Jihadist Recruitment of Young Women
Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz warned on Wednesday about a surge in the number of young women who are being recruited in Spain to join the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS).
He also noted that Spain is where the first all-female recruitment network was detected and broken up, in July of this year.
On Monday night, a 22-year-old Spanish woman was arrested at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez-Barajas Airport on suspicion that she was planning to fly to Turkey to join ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Traveller Community, Inmates Riot in Southeast France
A traveller community in southeast France torched dozens of cars in violent protests while inmates at a nearby jail rioted Tuesday after authorities refused a prisoner’s request for prison leave to attend his brother’s funeral.
The incident occurred less than two months after a similar flare-up involving travellers, and Prime Minister Manuel Valls demanded a firm response.
The term traveller community in France is used for groups of people with a nomadic or semi-sedentary lifestyle, including Roma or so-called New Age travellers…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A fighter jet pilot has died after an American FA-18 Hornet crashed near the RAF Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk. It was claimed the pilot managed to eject before the aircraft plummeted to the ground. The jet crashed five miles north west of the airbase at about at approximately 10.30am in the Fens, Cambridgeshire.
A search and rescue operation was launched in the wake of the incident but Cambridgeshire Police confirmed the pilot, the only person who was in the jet, died. The FA-18 had taken off from RAF Lakenheath but was not connected to the base. The FA-18 was one of a group of Hornet Marine Corps planes that were heading back to the Untied States from the Middle East after arriving at Lakenheath at the weekend.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Labour MP John Mann claims he has been handed a copy of a document that includes the names of alleged paedophiles with links to the establishment. The file is believed to be the so-called ‘Dickens Dossier’, which was passed on to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1984.
An inquiry was launched to investigate claims the Home Office destroyed the document naming alleged high-profile MPs after the government department admitted they had had “lost or destroyed” 114 documents between 1979 and 1999. The Home Office said they wereunable to find the Dickens Dossier naming alleged high-profile paedophiles despite looking “inside and behind every single cupboard in the department”.
However, the review led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless found no evidence that files containing evidence of high-establishment paedophiles were “deliberately or systematically removed or destroyed” in order to cover up the allegations.
Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, now claims the person who provided Dickens with the file in the 80s has now handed him a copy of the list of alleged child abusers which includes a “small number of names that would be recognised by people who follow politics”.
Writing in a short blog post of his official website, Mann said: “Two questions now arise. Firstly, why were the contents of the file not investigated? Secondly, why was the prime minister unable to find this file when he instigated the Wanless Review last year?”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Denies Report Pope Has Brain Tumour
Spokesman says story ‘unfounded’ and ‘irresponsible’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — The Vatican denied an Italian media report that Pope Francis has a small, treatable brain tumour on two separate occasions on Wednesday, stressing that the head of the Catholic Church is in “good health”. In the first statement, Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi described the report in Quotidiano Nazionale (QN) as “totally unfounded… irresponsible and unworthy of attention”. “As everyone can see, the pope is conducting his extremely intense activities without interruption in an absolutely normal way,” he continued. QN subsequently said it expected the Vatican to deny the report and stood by its story.
According to QN, Dr. Takanori Fukushima, a Japanese specialist, diagnosed Pope Francis as having a small dark spot on his brain that can be treated without surgery.
It said the pope had gone to the San Rossore di Barbaricina clinic near Pisa to see Fukushima. The Vatican Press Office denied this, saying that “there has been no Vatican helicopter flight in Tuscany, except for inspections for the pope’s trip to Prato and Florence on November 10”.
ANSA sources said that Fukushima, who sometimes works as a consultant for the San Rossore clinic, was in Italy in January and probably visited the Vatican. The sources said Fukushima was aboard a helicopter that left from the San Rossore clinic late in January.
On his own website, takanorifukushima.com, Fukushima said Wednesday that he met the Argentine pontiff on October 1, 2014 after being invited to a special event in the Vatican. The doctor added that he also visited the Vatican on January 28, 2015, when he arrived in a helicopter from the San Rossore clinic near Pisa. On that occasion Fukushima slept in a convent near the Vatican and he said that he met several archbishops and Cardinal Angelo Comastri.
This version appeared to contrast with Lombardi’s second denial on Wednesday.
“The competent departments have confirmed to me that no helicopter flights arrived in the Vatican from the outside in the month of January,” he said. “I completely confirm the denial that I have already given,” Lombardi added. “I do so after speaking to the appropriate sources, including the Holy Father… “No Japanese doctor came to the Vatican to examine the pope and there have been no examinations of the type referred to in the article. “I can confirm that the pope is in good health”.
The Vatican’s substitute for general affairs at the secretariat of state, Monsignor Angelo Becciu, also dismissed the media report.
“I met with the pope yesterday evening. He’s very well and on great form! What’s all this commotion about his health?” Msgr Becciou wrote in a post to his Twitter feed, published by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Separately, a staffer at the Carolina Neuroscience Institute directed by the Japanese neurosurgeon told Reuters Dr Fukushima has “neither treated nor visited” Pope Francis. Lori Radcliffe was quoted as saying reports Dr. Fukushima treated the pope for a brain tumour are “absolutely false”. Dr. Fukushima did meet the pontiff and shook his hand during a general visit to the Vatican this year, she added.
L’Osservatore Romano said Wednesday the report was “false”, adding that the “moment chosen” to raise this “hue and cry” showed that there was “manipulative intent” behind it. The Vatican is currently hosting a synod on the family that is seen as highly important for the Catholic Church. Pope Francis conducted his general audience in St Peter’s Square as usual on Wednesday.
During the audience, he called on the sick to follow the lead of John Paul II and “carry the cross of suffering with joy, as he taught us”.
The former pope’s saint’s day falls on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The UK continues to be a centre of excellence for tertiary education, boasting 34 of the world’s top 200 universities. Three British institutions — Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial — made the top 10 in second, fourth and eighth place respectively.
Out of 800 universities featured in this year’s Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the US leads the pack with 147 establishments, followed by the UK with 78. The University of Edinburgh is Scotland’s highest-ranked institution (24) in the top 200, followed by Glasgow (76), St Andrews (86) and Dundee (185), while Cardiff also claimed a spot (182) and Queen’s University Belfast debuted in 200th place.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
German Expert Restores King Tut Mask After Botched Glue Job
The beard of King Tut’s priceless golden mask fell off by accident. The employees of the Egyptian Museum hastily used epoxy to repair it; specialist Christian Eckmann says he now needs two months to restore it properly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Snake ‘Not Guilty of Killing Cleopatra’
The story that Cleopatra, ancient queen of Egypt, was killed by a snake bite has been rejected as “impossible” by University of Manchester academics.
Egyptologists and snake experts have combined to examine the plausibility of the tale of the queen being killed by a cobra hidden in a basket of figs.
They believe a snake big enough to kill the queen and two maids would not have been small enough to be concealed.
They also challenge the credibility of three consecutive fatal bites.
Cleopatra, who died at the age of 39 in 30BC, was a ruler of Egypt who became embroiled in power struggles within the Roman empire.
But her story and her death have become part of popular legend, portrayed in fictional form from Hollywood epics to Carry On films and television comedy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: ‘I Want to Stab a Jew’ Says Knife-Wielding Girl in Shocking Video
Online opprobrium has been sparked by footage showing a little girl brandishing a knife as she says to the camera that she wants to “stab a Jew”. The home video was posted on social media last week, amid the spate of stab attacks that have plunged Israel and the Palestinian territories into violence.
The clip was uploaded on 16 October on a Facebook account in the name of Abdulhaleem Abuesha, who according to the page is a Jordanian-Palestinian schoolteacher in the city of Madaba that is home to a large Palestinian refugee camp. It was later picked up and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), a US monitoring group, which identified the girl, named Rahf, as Abuesha’s daughter.
“I want to stab a Jew,” she says in the video, according to Memri. “Why do you want to stab the Jew?” a man asks. “Because he stole our land,” she replies. “With what do you want to stab them?” the man inquires. “With a knife,” she says. “Oh, you’re so strong! Allah willing, my dear,” the man concludes.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
PM Netanyahu Blames Hitler’s Holocaust on Palestinian Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Hitler was persuaded to exterminate Jews by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in remarks that sparked widespread criticism. Speaking before the World Zionist Congress, Netanyahu said that before meeting grand mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine, the Nazi dictator had no wish to exterminate Jews.
“He wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said, ‘Burn them,’“ Netanyahu said.
The comment drew an angry reaction from the Palestinian Authority.
[I bet it did!]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Aleppo Pastor Praises Russian Intervention in Syria
85% population with Moscow. Situation improved
The pastor of Aleppo, Fr. Ibrahim Al-Sabbagh, spoke on Wednesday in support of Russian airstrikes in Syria on inBlu Radio, a network of Italian Catholic radios. “Since the Russian intervention with airstrikes, our situation has improved a great deal. Here in Aleppo we now have electricity and water. The Russians managed to chase away Islamic State (ISIS) members by bombing sensitive jihadist areas,” he said.
“We see the Russian intervention in a positive light,” he added, since “it helped the government army to better defend the population. We have heard that ISIS members began from the very first day to evacuate many areas. We can’t know whether those fleeing are ISIS members with their families or the Syrian population”, but “over 85% of the Syrian population support the Russian intervention” in Syria. “Some jihadist groups,” he concluded, “continue in restricted areas to launch missiles at homes, but much less frequently, “ and now “water comes more frequently. There are still inconveniences but it comes more often. The population has begun to feel a bit of relief again.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Article: Germans ‘Working in Specialist Torture Squad for Islamic State’
German jihadists are reportedly working in a special unit of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) that specialises in torture. Members of the unit, which is responsible for the arrest and interrogation of deserters and dissidents, refer to it as a ‘storm troop’, according to a joint report by Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and NDR and WDR television.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s New PM to Withdraw Fighter Jets From Iraq, Syria
Canada’s Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau, who came from behind to trounce the Conservatives, told US President Barack Obama on Tuesday that Canadian fighter jets would withdraw from fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Canada will remain “a strong member of the coalition” against the Islamic State militants (IS) by maintaining humanitarian aid and training, Trudeau said, but will pull out of the bombing mission.
“About an hour ago I spoke with President Obama,” Trudeau told reporters. “He understands the commitment I’ve made around ending the combat mission.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Canada to Cease Bombing Iraq and Syria, Newly Elected Premier Tells US President
Incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he will end Canada’s bombing campaign against fighters with the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS). The announcement follows a telephone call with US President Barack Obama.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Clock Kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and His Family to Leave US, Move to Qatar
The curious case of Ahmed Mohamed, the 9th grader who was cuffed for scaring school officials with what turned out to be a repackaged digital clock, has taken yet another twist with news on Tuesday that the ‘Clock Kid’ and his family will move to Qatar. Less than 24 hours after Ahmed met President Obama at the White House, the family issued a news release saying, “After careful consideration of all the generous offers received, we would like to announce that we have accepted a kind offer from Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for Ahmed to join the prestigious QF Young Innovators Program, which reflects the organization’s on-going dedication to empowering young people and fostering a culture of innovation and creativity.”
Prior to the announcement, some in the press sensed something was amiss when the President seemed to give Ahmed the cold shoulder on Monday after personally inviting Ahmed to the White House for “Astronomy Night.” Last month, Ahmed enjoyed a decidedly warmer welcome at Google, where he was literally put front and center before the Google Science Fair winners (including Grand Prize winner Olivia Hallisey, who came up with a novel way to detect Ebola), and enjoyed a meet-and-greet with Sergey Brin.
[Comments to the post make for interesting reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Clock Kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and His Family Will Move to Qatar
Less than 24 hours after Ahmed Mohamed met President Obama, his family decided it’s time to leave America for good.
The 14-year-old Texas boy who was arrested for bringing to school a homemade clock that authorities said resembled a bomb will soon be living in Qatar.
“After careful consideration of all the generous offers received, we would like to announce that we have accepted a kind offer from Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for Ahmed to join the prestigious QF Young Innovators Program, which reflects the organization’s on-going dedication to empowering young people and fostering a culture of innovation and creativity,” the family said in a news release Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Parliament to Vote on Request for Russian Airstrikes
According to a member of the State of Law Coalition, Iraqi parliament is planning to vote on the issue of requesting the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces in fighting the Islamic State militant group by October.
Iraq’s parliament is planning to vote to request support from the Russia in fighting the Islamic State militant group by the end of the month, a member of the State of Law Coalition told Sputnik on Wednesday.
The State of Law Coalition is Iraq’s largest political party, led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and is part of the ruling coalition. The legislator also told Sputnik that the vote is expected to pass with majority support. The US has been increasingly concerned with Russian influence in Iraq, sending envoys to the country to dissuade further cooperation.
“It doesn’t matter if the request is supported by Sunni and Kurdish factions or not, it changes nothing. We have enough strength in the parliament,” legislator Mowaffak Rubaie said.
Rubaie is also a former national security adviser in Nouri al-Maliki’s government.
The United States’ top-ranked general Joseph Dunford visited Iraq on Tuesday to seek assurances that Iraq would not request Russian aid in its operation against ISIL.
“Both the minister of defense and the prime minister said: ‘Absolutely.’ There is no request right now for the Russians to support them, there’s no consideration for the Russians to support them, and the Russians haven’t asked them to come in and conduct operations,” Dunford said as quoted by Reuters.
A week prior to Dunford’s visit, the US State Department envoy for the US-led anti-ISIL coalition also visited Iraq, telling Iraqi Prime Minister that the US is “disturbed” by Russian-Iraqi cooperation, according to leaks reported in regional media.
The new vote would alter these assurances, as Iraq’s government is obligated to follow decisions made by its legislature, Rubaie told Sputnik.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Welcomes Texas Teenager ‘Ahmed the Clockmaker’ As He Relocates With His Family
The Muslim teenager arrested when a teacher mistook his homemade clock for a bomb is moving to Qatar with his family. The announcement follows a visit to Washington at the White House’s Invitation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian: Russian Troops Are Becoming Fast Friends
Photos emerging from several Syrian Facebook pages show troops from both countries posing together in group photos
Russian and Syrian troops are getting chummy with each other, and they’re showing off their budding friendships on social media in a series of Facebook posts unearthed by Vocativ.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
GENEVA (20 October 2015) — United Nations human rights experts today urged the Government of Qatar to release Qatari poet Mohammed al-Ajami, who is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for writing and reciting a poem at his home. The experts call comes on the second anniversary of his sentence.
“The arrest, detention and sentencing of Mohammed al-Ajami in October 2013 seem to be solely related to the peaceful exercise of his fundamental human rights,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye.
For the UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, “the penalty imposed on Mr. al-Ajami is disproportionate and amounts to political censorship to art and expression.”
“The 15 years prison sentence against this poet is also particularly worrying, as we have received serious indications that the criminal process did not meet all the judicial guarantees of a fair trial,” stressed the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Mónica Pinto.
In 2010, Mr. al-Ajami recited one of his poems in his house in Cairo, criticizing the Crown Prince of Qatar, praising the Tunisian revolution and denouncing corruption and oppression by Arab rulers. He was arrested, sentenced in first instance to life imprisonment in 2012, which was reduced to 15 years on appeal on 20 October 2013.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Bashar Al-Assad Showers Putin With Praise During Surprise Talks in Moscow
President Vladimir Putin and Syria’s dictator exchanged beaming handshakes and vowed to continue their joint military campaign when Bashar al-Assad made a surprise appearance in Moscow.
For the first time since the onset of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Assad felt confident enough to leave his country. He flew to Moscow on board a Russian military aircraft to meet Mr Putin on Tuesday night, returning to Damascus by the time the Kremlin announced his visit on Wednesday.
The meeting came three weeks after Mr Putin sent the Russian air force into action to support Assad’s regime in Syria. Before this operation began on Sept 30, Assad had suffered a series of military defeats to the point where Mr Putin’s intervention may have saved the dictator from being overthrown.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladeshi Islamists Threaten Media, Call for Women Staffers to be Sacked
Terrorist group sends e-mail to media outlets, telling them to stop violating Islamic law, which does not allow women to work outside the home. “Our directives will be the law for you from today;” otherwise, “your heads will roll”.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Islamist terrorist group ‘Al Kaida Ansarullah Bangla Team 13’ sent an e-mail two days ago to at least 25 media outlets, threatening exemplary punishment if they continue to employ women and publish “anti-jihad” content.
“Since the Islamic Sharia holds the working of women outside home and their movements without the ‘purdah’* as punishable offence, those employing them are equally guilty,” the message said, justifying the sacking of female employees.
“Our directives will be the law for you from today. The consequences will be severe if you do not walk the path of Islam. Towering buildings will crumble to the ground, your heads will roll at the feet of the soldiers of Islam,” the letter read.
“No one will be spared if you support atheists,” the message added. “If your freedom of expression breaks the limit we have set, every news media unit should be prepared to face [the consequences] of our freedom to vent our anger,” the mail read.
“The highest authorities have been informed,” said Muntasirul Islam, Deputy Commissioner (Media) for the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. “We are investigating to ascertain who was behind these emails and from where they were sent.”
Al Kaida Ansarullah Bangla Team 13 is the same group that recently sent two threatening letters to bloggers and intellectuals critical of Islam, accusing them of being atheists.
In 2015 alone, fundamentalists hacked to death at least four people. The recent murders of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella and Hoshi Kunio, a Japanese national, have also been linked to Islamic extremism.
These groups “do not believe in women’s emancipation,” said a Catholic journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, “because they are blinded by their religion. That is why they want us not to work in the media.”
“Police should do more to protect journalists and bloggers from Islamic militants,” she added.
* Purdah or pardah (from the Persian “curtain”) is a religious and social practice of female seclusion from male eyes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Aircraft Arrive to Extinguish Forest Fires in Indonesia — Embassy
Two amphibious Be-200ES aircraft from the Russian Emergencies Ministry arrived Wednesday at the Palembang, Indonesia, airport to help extinguish widespread forest fires on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, a spokesman of the Russian Embassy in Jakarta said.
BALI (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said the aircraft departed from the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk following a request by Indonesian authorities. Aircraft crews have been trained to work in difficult conditions and have wide experience in extinguishing fires, according to the ministry.
“The two Be-200 arrived in the capital of South Sumatra Province, Palembang. It is expected that our aircraft will be putting out fires in Indonesia for at least 30 days,” Nikolay Karapetyan told RIA Novosti.
A Be-200ES is fully amphibious and can take in up to 12.5 tons of water in a few seconds while traveling on the water’s surface.
Last week, Indonesia launched its largest-ever operation to extinguish forest fires. Thousands of people as well as over 30 aircraft are currently involved, according to local media reports.
According to President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, the fire has destroyed 1.7 million hectares of land in the Indonesian part of Borneo, Kalimantan, and Sumatra, an area of about one-third of the total area of the islands.
Fires have affected the lives of over 28 million local residents, and economic damage is currently estimated at $47.5 billion, according to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB).
Malaysian Bombardier and Australian Hercules aircraft, that had been providing Indonesia with assistance in extinguishing fires, have returned to their countries, the BNPB said earlier on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban, Warlords Keeps Afghanistan’s Vast Wealth From Hands of Kabul
Deep within the rocky landscape of Afghanistan lies an estimated $1 trillion in mineral wealth — including rubies, emeralds and rare earth minerals — that is enough to fund the nation’s budget at current levels for the next 150 years. But the return of the Taliban is blocking the war-torn nation from tapping the vast resources that could pay for its future.
Kabul planned on earning $1.5 billion from its mineral sector, but with the Taliban resurgent, that number has been scaled way back to just $30 million, Afghanistan’s Mines and Petroleum Minister Daud Shah Saba told Bloomberg News.
“Unfortunately we have failed to well manage and well control our mining sector,” Saba told the news outlet last week. “With the current fragile and messy situation, it’s really hard to say when Afghanistan should expect any profits from it.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
With Just $10 “You’re Wealthier Than 25% of Americans”
Last week Credit Suisse released its annual Global Wealth Report.
The big headline grabber was their analysis showing that the top 1% of people now own 50% of the world’s wealth.
That is true and rather astonishing.
However, the report had another finding that was even more astonishing and largely overlooked.
What they found was that, as a percentage of the world’s population, there are now more poor people in the United States and Europe than there are in China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Politician Geert Wilders Kicks-Off Anti-Islam Party in Australia
Dutch politician Geert Wilders has helped launch an anti-Islam political party in Australia. The new party is based on Wilders’s right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
S. Africa’s ANC Hosts Hamas Rally Despite Israel Protest
South Africa’s ruling party hosted a rally in Cape Town for a top Hamas leader on Wednesday, capping off a controversial visit by pledging to stand by Palestinians amid growing violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The African National Congress (ANC) invited exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and colleagues from the Islamist militant group on a three-day visit to South Africa, sparking strong criticism from Israel.
President Jacob Zuma exchanged gifts with Meshaal on Monday and signed a letter expressing support for Palestinians…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Brazilian Banker to be Extradited From Italy
Brazilian police reportedly in Rome for handover
(ANSA) — Rio de Janeiro, October 20 — Fugitive Brazilian banker Henrique Pizzolato is set to be extradited to Brazil from Italy on Friday, Brazilian media reported on Tuesday.
Brazilian federal police officials have already arrived in Rome for Pizzolato’s handover, according to local press.
Pizzolato, marketing director of Banco do Brazil, has been sentenced in Brazil to 12 years and seven months in prison in a political bribery case. He fled to Italy, where he has citizenship, and was arrested one year ago with a fake passport but released after a lower court refused extradition requests, saying his safety was not assured in a Brazilian jail. He was rearrested on the orders of Italy’s top Cassation Court in February.
Senator Carlo Giovanardi on Tuesday said that during a meeting of the parliamentary justice commission he had reaffirmed parliament’s opposition to the extradition.
He reminded Deputy Justice Minister Enrico Costa that by allowing the extradition, the government “was taking on a serious responsibility because criminal proceedings against Pizzolato are already underway in Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
It may not be a conscious decision, but a study has found we seek out partners who have a similar genetic ancestry to our own.
Researchers studying children in Mexico and Puerto Rico discovered their parents tended to share similar genes, even though they weren’t related.
In fact, the average mix was so alike in some cases, the couples were as genetically similar as third or fourth cousins. This is known as ‘assortative mating’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top Venezuelan Businessman Accused of Treason
Lawmakers from Venezuela’s ruling Socialist party filed treason charges Wednesday against a prominent billionaire businessman for allegedly seeking an IMF bailout for the recession-ravaged oil giant.
Lorenzo Mendoza, head of Venezuelan food and beverage empire Empresas Polar, could face decades in prison if convicted of the charges, which include conspiracy and “usurpation of state functions.”
The charges were filed with prosecutors by 101 lawmakers from the 167-seat National Assembly, said deputy Pedro Carreno of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), as he presented the document.
The complaint is based on a leaked phone call between Mendoza and Venezuelan economist Ricardo Hausmann that was aired a week ago on a TV program hosted by the speaker of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Police Swoop on Fake ID Workshop in Brussels
Belgian police have dismantled a gang involved in the forgery of ID cards. The forgeries were sold in Belgium, but also in Greece and Turkey, countries where there are many refugees.
Belgian prosecutors believe that the forgers collaborated with people-traffickers.
Police first hit on the operation when a shipment of forged IDs was discovered at Brussels Airport. The forgeries were professionally made and were bound for Greece and Turkey. Prosecutors believe that people-traffickers were selling the false IDs to refugees?
“One fake ID easily went for 500 euros. You had to fork out several thousand euros if you wanted to stow your wallet full of cards proving your identity” said police spokesman Peter Dewaele.
Nine suspects, all of North African extraction were stopped, but police suspect many more people were in on the game.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Migrants Land in UK’s RAF Akrotiri Military Base
Four boats carrying scores of migrants have come ashore at a British military base on Cyprus, the first time that people have landed on UK sovereign territory, according to the Ministry of Defence. A spokesman for RAF Akrotiri base in southern Cyprus, which is used to bomb the Islamic State (Isis) in northern Iraq, said vessels overcrowded with asylumseekers were spotted in the early hours of 21 October. “We have not established where they are from yet,” the spokesman said.
It is unclear how many migrants were on the boat. Initially, two boats with 140 people arrived and then another two boats came ashore. The base, one of two sovereign territories retained by Britain on Cyprus, a colony until 1960, was used from September 2014 to launch air strikes against the jihadists in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Finnish Migration Authority Tightens Rules for Iraqi Asylum Seekers
The Finnish Immigration Service updated its guidelines for Iraqi asylum claims.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Finnish Immigration Service on Tuesday updated its guidelines for Iraqi asylum claims, shifting the focus from places of origin to personal stories, after it deemed that security situation in Iraq had improved.
“A person cannot be granted asylum only because he or she comes from a particular area,” the migration authority said in a statement.
The Finnish service said security situation specifically in the Babylon Province in central Iraq and in the northern Kurd-dominated province of Kirkuk had largely improved and their residents did not face an imminent threat to their lives. Refugees from Baghdad will also be vetted on results of their asylum interviews, the migration authority said.
From now on, asylum applications from Iraqis will be examined individually based on the reasons they cite to substantiate their claims.
Finland currently ranks third among EU countries that are most popular with asylum seekers. Earlier this week, the Finnish Interior Ministry unveiled new projected data on refugees, saying that up to 35,000 asylum seekers may arrive in the country by the end of this year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany May Use Military Planes to Speed Up Asylum Deportations
BERLIN (Reuters) — Germany could use army transport planes to deport asylum seekers who have had their applications rejected to ease a mounting refugee crisis, the government said on Wednesday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is under growing pressure over her handling of the crisis, with her popular support waning and some in her conservative party wanting upper limits on migrants.
[So it’s no longer just a crisis, it’s a mounting crisis.]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Coast Guard Detains Over 140,000 Migrants in September
The Hellenic Coast Guard detained nearly 142,000 undocumented migrants and arrested about 100 people smugglers in September, according to statistics published on their website Wednesday.
ATHENS (Sputnik) — The Greek Coast Guard registered 795 cases of illegal entry into the country and detained 91 foreigners trying to illegally leave the country during the same period, according to the press release.
Seventy-nine migrant smugglers were arrested in September on charges of organizing illegal migrant entry into the country, while 18 were arrested for allegedly trying to help migrants leave Greece for other EU member states, the coast guard said.
A total of 189 waterborne vessels, 11 cars and 70 fake travel documents were seized, the press release added.
According to the Coast Guard statistics, the number of refugees arriving in Greece is growing. In May, under 18,000 migrants were detained, in June — some 31,300, in July — 55,000. About 107,000 were detained in August.
Europe is struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis. According to EU border agency Frontex, over 710,000 people have arrived in the European Union in 2015 to date.
The International Organization for Migration said earlier this week that the number of refugees who have crossed the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 to arrive in Greece was 15 times higher than last year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Camerawoman Who Tripped Refugee to Sue Victim
A Hungarian camerawoman who was filmed tripping up a refugee who was carrying a child says she now plans to sue him.
Petra Laszlo was fired by broadcaster N1TV after the footage emerged in September, and she faces a criminal trial in Hungary.
She has told a Russian newspaper that she plans to file two lawsuits when her trial is over.
The first will be to sue the refugee — Osama Abdul Mohsen — for allegedly changing his testimony to police, and Facebook for allegedly refusing to remove threatening groups on the site.
She said: “(Mr. Mohsen) changed his testimony, because he initially blamed the police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Don’t Know This Sweden’, Says PM Lofven After Latest Asylum Center Arson
The most recent of several fires to have broken out at asylum centers over the past week gutted a center in Munkedal, forcing 14 people to flee the building.
The fire, which destroyed a Swedish asylum center on Tuesday, is the latest of several arson attacks carried out on asylum facilities in recent weeks, a development which was condemned by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Tuesday.
“It is terrible that people and whole communities are affected by unrest and insecurity in the wake of the fires. People fleeing for their lives to Sweden should know that they can feel safe here.”
“This is not the Sweden I know. This is not what Sweden I am proud of,” said Lofven, who called on the public to cooperate with the police in their enquiries.
The numerous fires in asylum buildings are the special focus of ongoing investigations by the Swedish police, which indicate that the fires were caused by arson attacks, reported Dagens Nyheter.
“A civilized country like Sweden cannot accept that housing centers of asylum seekers should become prey to arsonists,” commented Sweden’s foreign minister Margot Wallstrom on Twitter.
According to the Swedish Migration Board, the series of fires at asylum centers in recent weeks have deprived the county of at least 235 places for refugees. Since the beginning of the year, more than ten asylum centers have been targeted by arsonists in Sweden.
An asylum center burned down in Sweden.
The latest fire broke out at the asylum center in the town of Munkedal, in western Sweden, at around 4 am on Tuesday. The 14 people inside the annex managed to escape the fire to the main building without injury, but the blaze caused serious damage to the building.
The fire at Munkedal on Tuesday came after two fires were set at asylum centers over the weekend.
On Friday evening, a disused school in Kanna was set alight after local authorities informed residents that it was to be used as an asylum reception center, and on Saturday a school in Onsala, 40 kilometers south of Gothenburg, also went up in flames before it could be used to house refugees.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
By Daniel Greenfield
German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that refusing to take in Muslim migrants is a “danger for Europe.” Merkel as usual had it backward. It’s her program of taking in Muslim migrants that represents the gravest threat to the freedom and future of Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Merkel may have already doomed Germany. The Bild newspaper published a leaked secret government document estimating that the number of migrants invading Europe this year might reach 1.5 million.
And that bad news gets much worse, because the document estimates that each migrant will bring in as many as eight family members once they’re settled in, bringing the year’s true total to 7.36 million.
That’s almost 10 percent of the population of Germany. In just one invasion.
And the migrants are mostly young men entering a rapidly aging country whose young male population is under 5 million. Germany’s Muslim population already approaches 5 million. The median age of Germany’s Muslim population is 34, while the median age for the overall population is 46.
Merkel has rapidly sped up the rate at which Germany’s young male population becomes Muslim.’
The document predicts up to 10,000 invaders entering every day. It foresees no end to the arrivals even when it gets cold. These words add up to the end of Germany and the end of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants ‘Torch Tents’ In Slovenia Camp
Tents have been torched at a transit camp in Slovenia, allegedly by migrants angry at how they are being treated.
They torched the tents at the camp in Brezice to protest at the slow process of registering them and moving them to the Austrian border, witnesses said.
They have also complained of a lack of food, water and blankets in the camp.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants: Merkel: In 2016 Slight Increase in Unemployment
But minimum wage will not be suspended
(ANSA) — BERLIN — “Immigration will be a great challenge for Germany’s labour market and probably it will bring a slight increase in unemployment next year: that is why we cannot lose sight of the whole situation”. This is what Angela Merkel said today, speaking at the congress of IG Metall, which enters its second day in Frankfurt. The chancellor praised the cooperation with trade unions and assured that minimum wage for migrants will not be suspended.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Arrive in Boats at British RAF Base in Cyprus
British diplomats are in talks trying to persuade Cyprus to take responsibility for more than 100 migrants who washed up on sovereign UK territory at an RAF air base on the island.
Two wooden boats carrying 114 migrants were spotted off RAF Akrotiri around dawn on Wednesday morning after apparently making a three-day voyage across the eastern Mediterranean from Turkey.
Military personnel took the passengers, including women and children, ashore at the British base, but the MoD said a decade-long agreement meant Cypriot authorities would take care of any refugees arriving at the airbase.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Meeting About Refugees Prompts Police Emergency Powers
The mayor of the Noord-Brabant town of Steenbergen has invoked emergency police powers because of fears that football hooligans are planning to disrupt a meeting about refugees. The emergency powers will last until midnight or later if that proves necessary, the town council said on its website. There is evidence football hooligans who support Rotterdam club Feyenoord are on their way to the town to cause trouble, news agency ANP reported. People have also been banned from hanging round the community centre where tonight’s meeting is due to take place. Police were forced to intervene at an earlier meeting about housing refugees in the town after fighting broke out between supporters and opponents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the Wrong Side of the Fence
Thousands of refugees are stranded at the border between Austria and Slovenia. They made it across several European countries but Vienna hesitates to open its doors. Catherine Martens reports from the scene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Security Officials Acknowledge ‘Risk’ In Admitting Syrian Refugees Into US
Top law enforcement and security officials cautioned Wednesday that bringing in 10,000 Syrian refugees as planned carries a terror risk, with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson acknowledging background checks can only do so much and “there is no risk-free process.”
“The good news is that we are better at [vetting] than we were eight years ago. The bad news is that there is no risk-free process,” Johnson said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.
The Obama administration has committed to bringing in 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal 2016, as part of a total 85,000 worldwide refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia at the Limit of Capacity to Welcome Refugees
Migrants: tensions in reception and detention centres
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Slovenia is reaching the limit of its capacity to welcome refugees, according to State secretary in the Ministry of the Interior Bostjan Sefic, who expressed — during a press conference — strong concern over the evolution of the wave of migrants pushing into the country.
Sefic also underlined that Ljubljana will identify a new transit point for refugees along the border between Slovenia and Austria.
Meanwhile, tensions run high among the refugees in reception and detention centres. Most of the 2,700 refugees who had been transported to Sentilj centre, near the Austrian border, broke through the police cordon and made their way to Austria. This morning, twenty tents were set on fire in the Brezice centre.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia Calls in Army to Help With Refugee Influx
Slovenia has called in the army to help manage the influx of refugees trying to reach western Europe, and is to ask the EU to send additional police forces to its border with Croatia.
The Ljubljana government on Wednesday (21 October) tweaked the country’s defence legislation to allow soldiers to join border police in patrolling the 670-kilometre border with Croatia.
According to the new measures, Slovenian soldiers can assist police in patrolling the border, detaining people and handing them over to police, as well as issuing orders to civilians in the area.
The Slovenian government said it was “delusional” to expect small countries to succeed where larger ones had failed.
The country of two million has not excluded erecting a fence along its Croatian border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two women who were allegedly assaulted by an Oxford University student activist have accused her of rape and of attempting to “paint herself as a victim”. Annie Teriba, a second-year history and politics student at Wadham College, stood down from her Student Union roles after admitting having “non-consensual sex” with one woman and touching another inappropriately without their consent.
Teriba, the student union’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual women’s representative, published a statement online apologising for her actions after she “failed to properly establish consent before every act” and announced she is to stand down as editor of NoHeterOx magazine, as the People of Colour and Racial Equality Officer at Wadham Student Union and from positions on the NUS’ Black Student Committee, and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts National Committee.
Her apparent victims have now accused Terbia of being a “liar” and that her apology had to be “dragged out of her”. The statement, published on Tumblr, said: “Let’s be clear: Annie Teriba is a rapist.” It continued: “We find it particularly ironic that she has been a prominent voice against the very actions she herself has committed.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Concerns Raised Over Lack of Diversity in SF School Election Results
The principal of Everett Middle School in San Francisco tells KTVU that the results of the school election have been publicly announced. The results had been withheld immediately after the election because the principal felt that the winners weren’t diverse enough. We’ve learned that the majority of the winners were white, despite the fact that the student body is 80% students of color.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IRS: ‘Husband’ And ‘Wife’ Apply to Same-Sex Couples, Too
The IRS is making it official: The tax agency says it will now recognize same-sex marriages regardless of where they were performed.
The IRS and the Treasury Department also said they will interpret the terms “husband” and “wife” to apply to same-sex spouses as well as opposite-sex spouses.
The IRS proposed the regulations Wednesday to implement the Supreme Court’s decision in June legalizing same-sex marriages in every state.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution provides a right to same-sex marriage. Before the ruling, there were 13 states that did not recognize same-sex marriages. Since the ruling, agencies across the federal government have been updating their regulations to reflect the change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Self-Encrypting Western Digital Hard Drives Easy to Crack
Security researchers have found severe flaws in the encryption methods used in certain hard drives from Western Digital. Quoting the abstract should be enough to show how dire the situation is: “We will describe the security model of these devices and show several security weaknesses like RAM leakage, weak key attacks and even backdoors on some of these devices, resulting in decrypted user data, without the knowledge of any user credentials.” The paper by Alendal, Kison and modg is available here in PDF format.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Things Are Getting Scary: Global Police, Precrime and the War on Domestic ‘Extremists’
By John W. Whitehead
Are you afraid that the government is plotting to confiscate your firearms? Do you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law? Do you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a.domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the police.
As such, you are now viewed as a greater threat to America than ISIS or al Qaeda.
Let that sink in a moment.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
I wish people would not so much put their energy into the “the integration and inclusion of foreigners” but focus on the inclusion of the native people who have difficulties: the poor, the old, the disabled, the ones who are suffering from chronic diseases, etc… I am totally fed up with the pampering of foreigners who often have a very entitled attitude and never think what they can do for the host country but only what the host country can do for them. And how much integration and inclusion do all these efforts actually produce? Hardly any. All that seems to happen is that the foreigners are reinforced into their unreasonable demands such as separate hours in public swimming pools, no cartoons making fun of their religion, taking the oath to become Canadian fully covered, etc…
I think there should no longer be any focus on foreigners. They should simply be treated as everyone else. Which is the most inclusive thing a country can actually do. When you say to your citizens and the people who live on your territory the following: we don’t care what your origin is, what your religion is, what your skin colour is, what clothes you wear in your private life. The only thing we care about is that you are a citizen or resident in our country. That is the only identity we will give you and that you will get in the public sphere. Consequently you possess certain rights but also certain obligations. So if you do not follow the rules of our country we will punish you the way we would punish anyone else. And if you do well, you will get the same rewards as everyone else would.
You do not want to be discriminated, well you won’t. We will totally ignore your religion or your skin colour or the origin you come from. You will get all the chances that a native citizen gets. If you don’t take it, too bad for you.
That is probably the most sound observence I have read in a long time.
Unfortunately, we in the west are trending in the opposite direction.
Well said.
The problem is … you’re thinking rationally, and that will never do. To be part of the multi-cultists’ world only requires faith, and a willingness to sacrifice yourself on the altar of the state.
Is the news that “refugees” in Slovenia are burning down tents even making the MSM in Europe?
Do the vast majority of Europeans even understand what they are importing?
I understand that most people don’t look on garbage and filth by these people to be something that can be controlled. I think it is all part of the European pacifist ideology that somehow these people are sub-human and should be put up with… I ask why? Can you not say to another human being “stop polluting our environment and bringing rats and other vermin to our shores?”
I lived for several years in university housing and I would monthly go out and pick up litter because I DIDN’T WANT TO LIVE IN A LITTER STREWN ENVIRONMENT! While on a policing run I was asked by a fellow tenant why I was doing that. I asked him why he wasn’t…
My point is that any semblance of decent social behaviors seems to be lost here. At the very least “migrants” could pile up their trash in order to keep their living areas free of rats and other vermin. That doesn’t seem to be taking place.
A week or so ago I saw footage of a family sitting in a grassy area with garbage all around them. Do you think I would even let my child touch the ground in such filth? It would have taken just a few minutes for the father to police up the grounds so his wife and small children could set down in a clean area. Instead, the footage showed the father on his cell phone while the woman and children squatted in filth…
Did you see the footage of a European woman handing out trash bags and plastic gloves to the “refugees” and asking them to please pick up the trash? I think it might have been on Vlad’s site. BTW, the first part of the footage showed that the dumpsters were empty…
She was a happy little warrior telling the “refugees” that we don’t live like this. You are damn straight Skippy, we don’t live like this! And we don’t want to live like this. Shall all the native Europeans police their grounds because of the “immigrants”?
I understand that this is a big bugaboo of mine. I deplore litter. But the situation in Europe has exceeded anything I could imagine. I saw footage of an “immigrant” who said he knew what trail to take because of the garbage…
You know, and it is funny. I used to read a blog by a woman, rather wealthy, living in Baghdad that was railing against the occupation and the suspension of services due to the war. She especially was annoyed by the lack of garbage collection. I responded that the neighborhood should collect up the trash and place it in a bomb crater thereby keeping it away from their homes. She banned me.
>> NATO is launching its biggest military exercise in 13 years, mobilizing 36,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen from more than 30 countries to test the alliance’s ability to respond to new security threats. <<
"New security threats" most certainly does not include sealing the borders of Europe against uninvited hordes of invaders arriving by rubber boat and Nike sneakers.
No. There is apparently another threat to Europe that is too horrible and that cannot be revealed to the populace. The 3.5+ million active and reserve military forces of Europe must be held in double secret reserve to vanquish this threat.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00U2GYR2E/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1445577350&sr=1-2
Worth a read. I went through all his books years ago, and when I read that one I thought, nah … no way.
Now I think back on it and it’s very much yes way.
Thanks. I ordered it. It’s on your head if I wasted $12.97.
🙂