Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/19/2015

A gang of “youths” beat up a team of Russian journalists who visited a suburb of Brussels in an attempt to interview family members of the late alleged mastermind of the Paris massacres, the “Belgian” Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

In migration news, the mayor of Melbourne called on Australia to do its part and take in a larger share of “Syrian” “refugees”.

In other news, two soldiers in Bosnia were shot to death by an Islamic terrorist, who later blew himself up to evade capture.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Dora, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JLH, LP, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Another Gov’t Capitulation to EU Creditors Leaves Greeks in Anger
» Greek Parliament Passes Austerity Measures for New Loan
» If the Economy is Fine, Why Are So Many Hedge Funds, Energy Companies and Large Retailers Imploding?
» Not Finding Work Among Biggest Fears of Young Italians
 
USA
» America, Is it a Foreign Enemy Attacking You?
» ‘City of Shanties’ In L.A. As Homeless Cluster in Urban Areas
» Clinton Money
» College Students Are the New Extortionists: Yale Students Demand $8 Million From University… or Else!
» Eighth-Graders Allegedly Stab Woman to Death at Car Wash, Prop Her Body Up for a Joyride
» Female Cops Win Discrimination Lawsuit After Failing Fitness Exam; Forces City to Hire Fat, Weak, Unfit Slobs as Police Officers
» Five-Year NASA Study to Look at the Immense Influence of Petite Plankton
» Gun Sales: Permit Applications Spike in US Following Paris Attacks
» How Americans Can Stop ISIS: A Gov’t “Secret Army” To Undermine Civil Liberties
» Jihadists in Europe Stir Visa Debate in US
» Key Lawmaker Aims to Delay Phaseout of Russian Rocket Engine
» Monsanto’s Coming Genetic Armageddon Documented in Shocking Investigative Report
» National Review Destroys the University Ponzi Scheme
» Obama Vows to Bring Guantanamo Population Under 100
» Obama Wants to Defeat America, Not ISIS
» Salmon is First Transgenic Animal to Win US Approval for Food
» Sanders: US Must Put Aside Differences and Work With Russia to Defeat ISIL
» Some 2,000 Workers Protest Against Low Wages at 7 Major US Airports
» US Fines Alstom Record $772 Mn Over International Bribery
» White House Commits $100 Million to Empower Low-Income Women of Color
» Yes, Your TV Really is Watching You… and Reporting Your Habits to Advertisers
 
Canada
» OPEC Targets U.S. Shale, But Hits Canada Instead
 
Europe and the EU
» After Paris Fallout, Belgium Arrests Nine Around Molenbeek
» Baltic States Get EU Funds by Passing Their Non-Citizens Off as ‘Refugees’
» Belgium: Suspected Mastermind of Paris Massacre Killed in Terror Raid
» Belgium: Abaaoud: From School Bully to Terrorist Plotter
» Big Questions Remain Over Paris Terror Attacks
» European Commission Strengthens Control of Firearms Across the EU
» FBI Warns Italy of Terror Plots Against Monuments
» France Calls for Reform of Freedom of Movement Rules After Paris Attacks
» France Set to Extend State of Emergency
» France: Owners of Le Carillon Talk of Trauma and Hope
» French Police to be Allowed to Carry Weapons When Off Duty
» Gang Beats Russian Journalists Seeking Paris Bomber’s Relatives in Brussels
» Gavin McInnes: Paris ‘Needs a Slap in the Face’
» Italian Prime Minister: Europe’s Anti-Russia Policy to Lead Nowhere
» Italian Directors Prepare Theatre Response to Paris Attacks
» Italy: Intelligence Services to be Able to Use Special Forces
» Italy: Honey Bees Could be Used in Counter-Terrorism Efforts
» Italy: Venetians Gather in St. Mark’s Square in Memory of Valeria
» Italy: Rome Prefect Demands ‘Clear Stand’ From Islamic Community
» Italy Court Confirms Arrest of 2 Syrians Stopped at Airport
» Italy: Muslim Pupils Refuse to Observe Minute of Silence for Paris Victims
» Paris Attacks: ‘Ringleader’ Abdelhamid Abaaoud Killed in Raid
» Security Doubled at Vatican Entrances
» Sweden May Toughen Anti-Terror Laws Allowing Govt Surveillance
» Sweden Terror Suspect Held After Police Raid
» Sweden Arrests Terror Suspect After Manhunt
» UK: Bomb Scare on Baker Street: Controlled Explosion After Police Evacuate London Tube Station
 
Balkans
» EBRD: 64 Mln to Finance Macedonian National Road Network
» Murder of Two Bosnian Soldiers an Act of Terrorism
» Serbia Will Open the First EU Chapters by End of Year
» Two Bosnian Military Members Shot Dead by Suicide Bomber: Police
 
North Africa
» Libyan Man Arrested for British Police Officer’s Killing
» Sharm El Sheikh Deserted by Tourists After Plane Crash
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» At Least 5 Dead, Including American Tourist, In West Bank and Tel Aviv Terrorist Attacks
» Palestinian Attacks in Israel and West Bank Kill Five
» Spy Jonathan Pollard’s Legend Grew in Israel During US Jail Term
 
Middle East
» Births in Syria Down More Than 50 Percent Since War: Media
» Hillary Clinton Urges No-Fly Zone and More Airstrikes to Defeat ISIS
» Human Rights Watch Urges US Govt End Munitions Sales to Saudi Arabia
» ISIS: Gentiloni: ‘No One Will Put Boots on the Ground in Syria’
» Italian UNIFIL Squad Attacked in Lebanon
» Italy: ‘Coordination’ With Russia in Anti-ISIS Alliance Possible — FM
» Norwegian Hostage Murdered by ISIS
» ‘Punching in the Dark’: Why Islamic State is Winning the Online War
» Regional Hegemon: Saudi Arabia ‘Playing Dirty’ In Middle East
» Russia Ready to Work With Anti-is Coalition if it Respects Syria
» Support for UK Airstrikes Against ISIL in Syria Likely to Increase
» Tu-160 Strategic Bomber: Russian ‘Formidable’ Weapon Against ISIL in Syria
» Turkey is Playing the Worst Part of Syrian Assad
» Xi Decries Islamic State Execution as Syria War Touches China
 
Russia
» Fortified Greek Settlement Found in Ukraine
» Russia, China Sign $2 Billion Contract on Delivery of Su-35 Fighters
 
South Asia
» Bangladesh: ISIS Claims Attack on Italian Priest
» For Some of Nepal’s Hindu Holy Men, Cow Urine Cures Cancer and Brings Long Life
» Hobbits Were a Separate Species, Ancient Chompers Show
» ISIS Claims Attack on Italian Missionary in Bangladesh
» Rights Group Urges Justice for Nepali Maids Allegedly Gang Raped by Saudi Diplomat
 
Far East
» Antibiotic Apocalypse: Scientists Warn That Humans Are Losing War With Bacteria
» Antibiotic Resistance: World on Cusp of ‘Post-Antibiotic Era’
» Bacteria Now Resistant Even to ‘Last Resort’ Antibiotics
» China’s Growing Air Power Could be Unsettling for Washington
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australia Blocks Sale of Huge Cattle Estate to Foreigners
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» World’s Second-Largest Diamond ‘Found in Botswana’
 
Latin America
» Argentine Police Raid Central Bank Trading Desk
» Honduras to Charge Syrians Using False Documents to Get to US
» New Survey Conducted at Chile’s Monte Verde
» Testing the Gates? Syrians Nabbed South of the Border, Arizona Arrests Stoke Terror Fears
 
Immigration
» 4 European Nations Shut Their Borders to Economic Migrants
» And Justin Trudeau Thought Stephen Harper Was Divisive
» At Least Two Paris Attackers ‘Took Migrant Route Into Europe’
» Austrian Lawmaker Backs EU Refugee Quota Challenge as ‘Absolute Must’
» Eastern Europe is Concerned About Its Own Security
» EXCLUSIVE — 6 Men From Pakistan, Afghanistan Busted Illegally Entering Arizona From Mexico
» Fantasy Island? Egyptian Billionaire Nears Deal for Greek Paradise to House Refugees
» French President Francois Hollande Welcomes Refugees Despite Paris Attack
» Geert Wilders: Let the Dutch Vote on Immigration Policy
» Germany: Merkel Reaches 10-Year Mark Under a Cloud
» Left-Wing Arguments for Taking Syrian “Refugees” Are Stupid
» Mainstream Media Blacks Out Massive Anti-Immigration Protest in Poland After Paris Attacks by Middle Easterners
» Melbourne Mayor Calls on Australia to Share Burden of Refugees
» More ISIS Terrorists Caught Trying to Enter Europe as ‘Refugees’
» NBC Executive Says She Didn’t Mean to Offend Latino Lawmakers: ‘Yo Hablo Español’
» Refugees Put Merkel to Test as She Marks 10 Years in Power
» Serbia Limits Entry of Refugees by Nationality: UNHCR
» Ten Jewish Groups Urge Congress to Allow Syrian Refugees Into U.S.
» ‘This is Chaos’
» Visa Waiver Program is More of a Threat to U.S. Than Syrian Refugees, Critics Say
» Zeman: Opponents of Migrants Should Not be Branded Racists
 
Culture Wars
» Univ. Of Vermont Holds Privilege Retreat for Students Who ‘Self-Identify as White’
 
General
» Airport Passenger Profiling Key to Thwarting Attacks: Analysts
» The World’s Biggest Volcano is a Magnetic Mix-Up
 

Another Gov’t Capitulation to EU Creditors Leaves Greeks in Anger

The Greek government has been forced to concede a key promise to protect low-income homeowners from foreclosures, in order to release US$13 billion (€12bn) from the EU.

In a controversial deal, the percentage of Greek homeowners protected from insolvency has been decreased from 70% to 60%.

Greeks reacted angrily to the news on the morning of November 12. More than 20,000 protesters poured onto the streets of Athens, and trade unions have announced a 24-hour nationwide general strike.

There were some clashes with police, who fired tear gas to disperse the protesters who were hurling petrol bombs at the Greek Central Bank.

Some of those on strike carried balloons that read “the words of Alexis”, an accusation that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ promises to abandon austerity were no more than hot air.

The opposition New Democracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis sternly attacked the government on Wednesday night.

“The government proved again how much it deceived the Greek citizen in order to steal his vote. Because, unfortunately, starting from today thousands of Greeks are facing the risk of losing their home through foreclosure.”

The Greek government’s decision is being seen as a climbdown, forced by Greece’s EU creditors who were demanding that Greece take action against bad loans in the housing market.

Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, even suggested that some Greeks are “strategic defaulters”, who have chosen to stop servicing their mortgages.

Negotiations were held up for weeks as Athens wanted to protect more primary residences from being repossessed if mortgage holders can’t meet their repayments.

However, the beleaguered nation could no longer ignore the cash-strapped Greek economy’s need for another injection of capital.

An extra tranche of US$13 billion (€12bn) in bailout cash has now been agreed.

US$2.14 billion (€2bn) will go to the government, and around US$11 billion (€10bn) will be provided to help recapitalise the country’s struggling banking system.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the euro’s finance ministers, welcomed the break through as a “substantive agreement.”

However, for those who will be faced with the distressing prospect of being forced out of their homes, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Although being seen as economically necessary by some commentators, politically, this is a significant blow for the left-wing Syriza government.

Tsipras campaigned on a platform of regaining Greek sovereignty by challenging EU control of Greece’s finances. Many Greeks resent the extent of outside influence on the political decisions affecting their day-to-day lives.

The Greek parliament is due to pass the remaining legislative measures on Thursday to enable the cash release by the end of the week.

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

Greek Parliament Passes Austerity Measures for New Loan

Greece’s parliament has approved reforms in order to receive its next round of bailout funds. During the vote, two lawmakers were expelled for opposing the bill, leaving PM Tsipras with a narrow majority in parliament.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

If the Economy is Fine, Why Are So Many Hedge Funds, Energy Companies and Large Retailers Imploding?

The manufacturing numbers say that we are in a recession, the trade numbers say that we are in a recession, and the retail numbers say that we are in a recession.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Not Finding Work Among Biggest Fears of Young Italians

Risk of violence also a growing concern-survey

(ANSA) — Rome, November 19 — Not being able to find a job or success in the future and the risk of violence are among the biggest fears of young Italians, a survey by children’s charities Telefono Azzuro and Doxa Kids revealed on Thursday.

The study was based on a survey of 600 young people between the ages of 12 and 18, and 600 parents.

When asked, “what are your biggest fears for the future”, 37% of the young people interviewed replied “not finding work”, 29% mentioned “not having success in life”, 16% said “not finishing my studies” and 10 % said “not managing to have a family”.

One in five fear “being attacked at school”, 28% worry about “ending up in a bad circle of friends” and 14% fear “getting in danger because of something that happens online”.

“Many of the certainties that we thought were assured are not there anymore,” said Telefono Azzurro President Ernesto Caffo.

“Along with the fears of the horrific attacks that involve all of society, we have to add the fears linked to day-to-day life that young people experience, often alone,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

America, Is it a Foreign Enemy Attacking You?

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” — James Madison

In this country, people are led to believe, through the lying state controlled narrative, that the only people that are under attack by some dictator only takes place in a third world nation.

So, without further ado, let me lay some questions for you to ponder and to consider.

Since September 11, 2001, who has been creating un-constitutional bureaucracies to further control and oppress the American people? Has it been a third world foreign dictator?

Was the un-constitutional Patriot Act enacted by a foreign government? The Patriot Act was not read by one representative and was pushed through at 3:45 am!

Or what of the un-constitutional Department of Homeland Security, which is premised on a pretended authority, stacking oversight and control over to those who are known Muslim Brotherhood operatives (Fox in the chicken coop)? Is this done by a foreign dictator?

Or what of the un-constitutional Department of Homeland Security, which is premised on a pretended authority, stacking oversight and control over to those who are known Muslim Brotherhood operatives (Fox in the chicken coop)? Is this done by a foreign dictator?

The Transportation Security Administration is another pretended authority and created office to violate Americans while traveling to and fro. Remember, this does not apply to illegal immigrants. They are there to harass Americans, a clear violation of the 4th amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Is it a foreign third world dictator that is labeling American Christians and patriots as the enemies of the state?

Is it a foreign third world dictator that is covering up for terrorists?

Is it a foreign third world dictator that is being sued by governors on the southern borders who were magnifying the laws of our constitutional republic against illegal immigrants?

Is it a foreign government attempting to divide and conquer the America people in hopes of domestic insurrection?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘City of Shanties’ In L.A. As Homeless Cluster in Urban Areas

Homelessness is on the rise in many of America’s biggest cities as wealth concentrates in urban centers, elevating rents and squeezing supplies of affordable housing in places like Los Angeles and New York, new federal data show.

Homelessness in and around big U.S. cities increased 3 percent this year, even as the nation’s overall rate declined 2 percent, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released Thursday. Nowhere has the problem grown more acute than in the Los Angeles region, where the homeless population rose 20 percent, to more than 41,000 people. Los Angeles has the largest unsheltered population in the U.S., according to the department.

“We’re now a city of shanties,” said City Councilman Mike Bonin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Clinton Money

Over four decades of public life, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built an unrivaled global network of donors while pioneering fundraising techniques that have transformed modern politics and paved the way for them to potentially become the first husband and wife to win the White House.

The grand total raised for all of their political campaigns and their family’s charitable foundation reaches at least $3 billion, according to a Washington Post investigation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

College Students Are the New Extortionists: Yale Students Demand $8 Million From University… or Else!

(NaturalNews) An unaffiliated army of anti-free speech fanatics is circling the drain of diseased Western civilization with a new to the scene nationwide movement of anti-white hatred that recently homed in on and terrorized the campus of the formerly prestigious Yale University.

Once again playing the tired race card in obedience to the mainstream media’s aggressive race-baiting efforts in recent months, angry students of color from a group calling itself “Next Yale” have issued a set of demands backed by threats to Yale president Peter Salovey, whom they are accusing of contributing to “intolerable racism” on the Yale Campus.

The Daily Caller reports that Next Yale stormed the front doorstep of Salovey’s home around midnight on Friday the 13th of November to deliver its demands, which include an attempted extortion of $8 million from Yale that the group wants to be handed over to its favorite on-campus extremist groups.

If Salovey doesn’t comply with Next Yale’s demands by November 18, the terrorist group has threatened to retaliate. Next Yale is also demanding that Yale increase the budget for four on-campus “cultural centers,” which include those for Asians, blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans. Next Yale has made no such demands for on-campus cultural centers for Caucasian or European groups, which don’t actually exist.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Eighth-Graders Allegedly Stab Woman to Death at Car Wash, Prop Her Body Up for a Joyride

Two Missouri teenagers fatally stabbed a woman while she was vacuuming her car and then went on a gruesome joyride with her dead body propped up in the front seat, according to reports.

The two boys, 13 and 14, allegedly stabbed 43-year-old Tanya Chamberlain in the face, neck, chest and hands on Nov. 1 as she visited a local car wash and vacuumed her vehicle, according to documents obtained by KCTV5.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Female Cops Win Discrimination Lawsuit After Failing Fitness Exam; Forces City to Hire Fat, Weak, Unfit Slobs as Police Officers

(NaturalNews) It has become the new American method of getting out of something that you don’t want to do: Go to court and have a judge side with you, even if it’s a lousy thing to do to your community and, ultimately, to yourself.

That’s what a group of female Colorado Springs police officers who wanted to opt out of their department’s mandatory physical fitness testing did, and it worked — no more testing, meaning they are free to be as fat and unfit as they want, even to the detriment of their community and even if doing so will put them at risk of being physically injured or even killed by a stronger, more fit criminal.

“I think it’s a mistake,” Mary Jo Piccin told CBS4’s Tom Mustin. “I think the police need to be able to chase down them criminals.”

“I think it’s wrong,” she added.

The Daily Caller further reported that the dozen female officers sued their department, claiming that the required physical testing was somehow discriminatory. Of course, that was after they failed their annual tests. And now, following a ruling by a U.S. District Court, the women, all of whom are at least 40 years old, must be reinstated pending the final outcome of their case.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Five-Year NASA Study to Look at the Immense Influence of Petite Plankton

Plankton: They’re the tiniest of sea creatures, the bottom of the ocean’s food chain.

But when those pee-wees of the sea multiply in what’s known as a bloom, they can, collectively, have an enormous and far-reaching impact on the planet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Sales: Permit Applications Spike in US Following Paris Attacks

Following the attacks in Paris, gun sales are booming across the United States, not only from those who were already armed, but first time gun owners as well.

Concealed carry classes at Texas Guns “have doubled in the last week,” and the Limestone, Alabama, Sheriff’s Office reports witnessing its “biggest spike in permits” after the attacks on Friday, Breitbart reported on Wednesday.

The gun shop in San Antonio has also seen a 30% increase in sales.

“A normal firearm is about 7 to 10 rounds and what has been selling this last week is 30, 40, 50,” Jerry McCall, owner of Texas Guns told the local Fox affiliate. “I am 67 and I have people coming in their 70s and 80s who say they have never owned a firearm before but I think I need one in the house now.”

In Alabama, gun dealers have seen a similar response.

“We were busy right out of the box,” Russell Durling, owner of Last Resort Guns in Madison County, Alabama, told local station WAFF. “The truth of it is, when America is scared, America buys guns.”

The boom in sales and permits after times of tragedy is interesting, and you cannot help but wonder who benefits from terror more — ISIL extremists or the NRA.

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

How Americans Can Stop ISIS: A Gov’t “Secret Army” To Undermine Civil Liberties

ISIS Is Being Aimed At The West By Globalists — Here’s What We Can Do About It

by Brandon Smith

Over the past year and a half, I have been writing on the engineered nature of ISIS, delving deeply into its history and its backing by Western intelligence agencies in articles such as “Is Martial Law Justified If ISIS Attacks?” as well as “What Will You Do When Tyranny And Terrorism Work Hand In Hand?” and “The Time Is Ripe For A False Flag Attack On American Soil.”

Specifically, I compared the ISIS phenomenon to another establishment-backed terrorist program that began at the onset of the Cold War in Europe and was publicly exposed in the 1990s. That program was called Operation Gladio…

The facts are this:

ISIS was created by covert intelligence and continues to be trained and supplied by Western governments.

— The tactics ISIS uses, including monstrous acts of genocide, were clearly taught to them by covert intelligence interests (look into the School of the Americas for similar programs), considering ISIS insurgents continue to receive aid from Western intelligence despite their behavior.

Western governments are well aware that ISIS agents have been inserted into refugee camps and are being imported into Europe and the U.S.

— ISIS smugglers have openly admitted to this infiltration plan, yet the U.S. and EU governments continued the immigration surge.

— Lower echelon ISIS fighters that have actually been captured and interviewed apparently have wide-ranging views on Islam and are not the staunchly unified theocratic zealots the Western public has been led to believe. This is a considerable departure from groups like al-Qaida (also Western funded and trained), which required complete theological conformity.

In truth, the only unifying drive of many captured ISIS fighters has been a concerted hatred of the West and the U.S. in particular due to our government’s complete destabilization of the Middle East. Meaning, the establishment (globalists) brought chaos to the Middle East, then conjured the rise of ISIS out of that despair, then used ISIS to recruit young men with a hatred for the West, and has now led those fighters right to our doorstep.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Jihadists in Europe Stir Visa Debate in US

US lawmakers, on edge after the Paris attacks launched by French and Belgian jihadists, are calling into question a program that allows Europeans to travel to America without a visa.

Members of Congress, including in President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party, have vowed to close loopholes, introducing legislation Thursday aimed at preventing Islamic State extremists from slipping into the United States.

Following deadly attacks against satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo last January in Paris, US lawmakers grew increasingly concerned about the travel freedoms afforded to nationals of 38 countries, including 23 in the European Union, plus Australia, Chile, Japan, Norway, Singapore and others.

The agreements, which date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, allow them to travel visa-free to the United States for up to 90 days…

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

Key Lawmaker Aims to Delay Phaseout of Russian Rocket Engine

WASHINGTON — A key lawmaker wants to slow the Pentagon’s phaseout of Russian-made rocket engines used to launch military satellites into space.

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican and a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, plans to add language to a massive federal spending bill that would allow United Launch Alliance (ULA) to keep buying RD-180 engines from Moscow until a domestic alternative is available, Shelby’s office confirmed Thursday.

Shelby wants to make sure the Air Force can buy more RD-180s “to guarantee America’s access to space, eliminate a possible national security risk, and secure approximately 800 jobs in Alabama,” Shelby’s spokeswoman, Torrie Matous, said in a statement.

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

Monsanto’s Coming Genetic Armageddon Documented in Shocking Investigative Report

(NaturalNews) What you’re about to read will probably shock you to your core. We’re all familiar with genetically modified organisms in food, and we’ve even heard talks about genetically modified animals coming down the pipeline. But are you aware of the fact that the U.S. government is right now using your tax dollars to fund research into genetically modified humans?

A special investigative report by SkyWatchTV uncovers a heinous conspiracy by those entrusted with protecting our freedom and liberty to literally reengineer the human race using many of the same methods commonly used to reengineer food and plant life in the lab. And it’s all happening under the radar with little to no fanfare in the mainstream media.

A short preview of this report on YouTube exposes what the show’s hosts refer to as the coming “genetic Armageddon” — the complete undoing of creation as we know it for the purpose of enriching powerful and greedy corporations. And in the process, humanity will be reconstructed as well, presumably to be more compliant and less resistant to tyranny.

“I’m not sure that the world is ready to receive this,” says investigative reporter Tom Horn. “We’re talking about everything from the food that we eat, to animals, to ultimately humans — literally what we have been doing with genetically modified crops, what we have and are doing with transgenically made animals, we fully intend to do with the human race.”

You can watch a preview for the show here:…

The goal all along, the report suggests, has not been to enhance humanity through biotechnology, but to replace it. And U.S. Representative Bill Foster (D-Ill.), the last scientist in Congress, warned in a testimony before Congress and in a piece for The Hill that the U.S. government has already instructed top-level researchers to begin laying the groundwork for what will eventually become a genetically engineered human race to replace the one we currently have.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

National Review Destroys the University Ponzi Scheme

The National Review published an article Tuesday entitled “The University Gone Feral.”

It looks at the dangerous metamorphosis of the university/college system that were once beacons of idea exchanges and intellectual dialog. Now post-secondary institutions across North America are filled with cry babies, special snowflakes and those who want to quash free speech. With trigger warnings, safe spaces and political correctness, why would anyone want to waste $100,000 on a piece of paper at any of these indoctrination centers?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Vows to Bring Guantanamo Population Under 100

US President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed to press ahead with vexed efforts to close the controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay, saying the number of inmates may soon be lower than 100.

“I expect that by early next year we may even have fewer than a hundred people at Guantanamo,” Obama said during a visit to Manila.

Obama has repeatedly tried to close the facility — which currently houses 107 inmates — but has been thwarted by opposition in Congress…

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

Obama Wants to Defeat America, Not ISIS

The left is not interested in making war on ISIS. It is too busy making war on America

Obama does not have a strategy for defeating ISIS. He has a strategy for defeating America.

Whatever rhetoric he tosses out, his actual strategy is to respond to public pressure by doing the least he can possibly do. He will carry out drone strikes, not because they’re effective, but because they inflict the fewest casualties on the enemy.

He may try to contain the enemy, not because he cares about ISIS, but because he wants to prevent Americans from “overreacting” and demanding harsher measures against the Islamic State. Instead of fighting to win wars, he seeks to deescalate them. If public pressure forces him to go beyond drones, he will authorize the fewest air strikes possible. If he is forced to send in ground troops, he will see to it that they have the least protection and the greatest vulnerability to ISIS attacks.

Just like in Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Salmon is First Transgenic Animal to Win US Approval for Food

Long-awaited decision authorizes a genetically engineered animal to grace US dinner tables for the first time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sanders: US Must Put Aside Differences and Work With Russia to Defeat ISIL

In a speech advertised as one in which he would clarify his democratic socialist ideology, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday talked at great length about US foreign policy and the fight against terrorism.

Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, the Senator from Vermont cited President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, connecting American domestic strength with the country’s ability to defend itself at home and around the world.

“I’m not running to pursue reckless adventures abroad,” Sanders said, “but to rebuild America’s strength at home. I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will never send our sons and daughters to war under false pretense or pretenses or into dubious battles with no end in sight.”

Sanders extended his condolences to the victims of the recent terror attacks perpetrated by the Islamic State in Paris and Lebanon, as well as those who died when an alleged IS bomb exploded on a Russian airliner.

“To my mind, it is clear that the United States must pursue policies to destroy the brutal and barbaric ISIS regime, and to create conditions that prevent fanatical extremist ideologies from flourishing. But we cannot — and should not — do it alone.”

Sanders called for the creation of an international organization, similar to NATO, which is dedicated to addressing the global security threats of the 21st century.

“While individual nations indeed have historic disputes — the US and Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia — the time is now to put aside those differences to work towards a common purpose of destroying ISIS,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing for a grand military coalition — one that would include intelligence sharing — aimed at defeating IS. Washington has been leery of joining such a coalition.

Calling the fight against IS “a struggle for the soul of Islam,” Sanders said that countering violent extremism and destroying the terror group must be done primarily by Muslim nations — backed by the militaries and political systems of other nations.

“The bottom line is that ISIS must be destroyed, but it cannot be defeated by the United States alone. A new and effective coalition must be formed with the Muslim nations leading the effort on the ground, while the United States and other major forces provide the support they need.”

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

Some 2,000 Workers Protest Against Low Wages at 7 Major US Airports

Baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, as well as cabin and terminal cleaners took to the streets outside airports in cities including New York, Chicago, Boston and others to dispute low wages.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Around 2,000 contract workers went on strike in seven of the busiest airports in the United States late Wednesday, its organizers said.

“Intimidation, harassment and antiworker tactics don’t belong in airports,” NBC News quoted the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as saying.

The baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, as well as cabin and terminal cleaners took to the streets outside airports in cities including New York, Chicago, Boston and others to dispute low wages, SEIU said on its website.

Some of its members earn as little as $6.75 per hour, according to union leaders, despite a nationwide push among pro-labor policymakers to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The demonstrators also took to the streets to uphold union rights without retaliation from employers or private contractors.

The strikes come a week ahead of Thanksgiving Day, the busiest travel period of the year in the United States.

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

US Fines Alstom Record $772 Mn Over International Bribery

The United States fined French energy and transport giant Alstom SA $772 million for bribing government officials in Indonesia, Egypt and several other countries to win business, the US Justice Department said Friday.

Alstom pleaded guilty nearly a year ago to two criminal counts related to bribery and corruption under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

A Connecticut district court judge on Friday formally sentenced the company to pay the fine, a record under the act, after it was agreed in December 2014 in plea negotiations.

The Justice Department said Alstom, through various units including some with a US presence, “paid bribes to government officials and falsified books and records in connection with power, grid and transportation projects for state-owned entities around the world, including in Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Bahamas and Taiwan.”…

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

White House Commits $100 Million to Empower Low-Income Women of Color

Thirty leaders from foundations across the U.S. gathered at The White House Friday for a daylong forum on “Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color.” The forum focused on issues that plague women and girls of color and highlighted the launch of “Prosperity Together,” a $100 million, 5-year funding initiative aimed at improving economic conditions for low-income women, specifically women and girls of color.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Yes, Your TV Really is Watching You… and Reporting Your Habits to Advertisers

Vizio is one of the most popular makers of “smart TVs,” but buying one may not be a very smart thing to do. That’s because Vizio Smart TVs are designed to track your viewing habits so that the company can sell the information to advertisers — along with your IP address — who in turn can use that information to gain access to your home network. And what’s even worse is the fact that these tracking features are vulnerable to hackers.

If it all sounds rather Orwellian, you’re not alone in thinking so.

From ProPublica.org:

Vizio’s actions appear to go beyond what others are doing in the emerging interactive television industry. Vizio rivals Samsung and LG Electronics only track users’ viewing habits if customers choose to turn the feature on. And unlike Vizio, they don’t appear to provide the information in a form that allows advertisers to reach users on other devices.

Vizio’s technology works by analyzing snippets of the shows you’re watching, whether on traditional television or streaming Internet services such as Netflix. Vizio determines the date, time, channel of programs — as well as whether you watched them live or recorded. The viewing patterns are then connected your IP address — the Internet address that can be used to identify every device in a home, from your TV to a phone.

By working with data brokers such as Experian, Vizio can “connect your IP address with your gender, age, income, and interests” — even your name, it seems. This “enhanced data” can then be sold to advertisers who can then track every device connected to your home’s IP address.

Vizio’s “Smart Interactivity” tracking feature is already turned on by default when you purchase the TV — most people don’t even know that the tracking feature exists, much less how to turn it off.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

OPEC Targets U.S. Shale, But Hits Canada Instead

OPEC took a swing at U.S. shale and knocked down Canada.

Threatened by surging production from North America, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has been pumping above its quota for 17 months as it seeks to take market share from higher-cost regions. The resulting 60 percent price crash is hitting Alberta harder than Texas.

Canadian producers are struggling to cut the cost of extracting bitumen from the oil sands, and their other wells are failing to match the efficiency gains of U.S. rivals, a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis shows.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

After Paris Fallout, Belgium Arrests Nine Around Molenbeek

Belgium has arrested nine people in raids connected to last week’s attacks in Paris. The prime minister has requested constitutional changes, including extending “preventive detention” to 72 hours from 24 hours.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Baltic States Get EU Funds by Passing Their Non-Citizens Off as ‘Refugees’

The Baltic States are about to face a large-scale scandal after media revealed they scammed the EU’s refugee re-settlement system by labelling their Russian-speaking populations as “refugees,” RIA Novosti’s Vladimir Barsegian said.

The EU allocates extra money to countries that accept refugees. Although Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania let very few Middle Eastern and African refugees into their countries, they managed to get millions of euros from the EU budget for refugee resettlement programs.

How did that happen? Well, German experts also asked the same question and began an investigation to find out what had really happened. Turns out the Baltic States passed off their Russian-speaking populations, who still have a non-citizen status, as “refugees,” Barsegian said.

Between 2007 and 2013, Latvia, which has around 260,000 non-citizens, received €33 million from the EU budget; Estonia got a bit less since it “only” has 88,000 non-citizens.

These lies probably would have never surfaced and the Baltic States would have kept getting the easy money, if it were not for the current refugee crisis in Europe. As EU leaders began allocating refugee quotas across the union, they noticed that the Baltic States had one of the highest “refugee” numbers in the entire EU.

The truth was revealed and some EU leaders began to speak about the issue, accusing the Baltic States of stealing EU funds.

Furthermore, following the real refugee crisis EU leaders opened their eyes to the ugly side of their own members — the Baltic States discriminated against their own residents simply based on their ethnicity. What a true reflection of European values!

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

Belgium: Suspected Mastermind of Paris Massacre Killed in Terror Raid

The man widely known as the suspected mastermind of last Friday’s Paris attacks that killed 129 people, who bragged that he could always stay one step ahead of Western intelligence, was killed in the police raid north of Paris Wednesday.

Officials also confirmed that his cousin was killed, when she apparently blew herself up.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, had been linked to as many as four thwarted attacks since this spring, including the plot to kill passengers on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August, a plot that three young Americans helped foil. He was identified from skin samples after the Saint-Denis apartment raid, the French prosecutor’s office reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: Abaaoud: From School Bully to Terrorist Plotter

Even Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s own family prayed for his death, and on Thursday they got their wish when the Belgian jihadist behind the Paris attacks was confirmed killed in a French police raid.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Big Questions Remain Over Paris Terror Attacks

Almost one week after the Paris terror attacks, several large questions remain unanswered about the terrorists, their plans, and the whereabouts of those still on the run.

In less than a week after the Paris attacks, French police have managed to track and kill one of the most-wanted Isis jihadists and a “ringleader” of the carnage, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

However, as investigators weave together a vast and complex web of clues pointing to a sophisticated logistical operation that took place under the nose of European intelligence officers, several burning questions remain.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

European Commission Strengthens Control of Firearms Across the EU

The European Commission today adopted a package of measures to make it more difficult to acquire firearms in the European Union, better track legally held firearms, strengthen cooperation between Member States, and ensure that deactivated firearms are rendered inoperable.

The proposals presented today were foreseen in the European Security Agenda adopted in April 2015, but have been significantly accelerated in light of recent events. The Commission is hereby supporting Member States in their efforts to protect Europe’s citizens and prevent criminals and terrorists from accessing weapons.

President Juncker said: “The recent terrorist attacks on Europe’s people and values were coordinated across borders, showing that we must work together to resist these threats. Today’s proposal, prepared jointly by Commissioners Elzbieta Bienkowska and Dimitris Avramopoulos, will help us tackle the threat of weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. We are proposing stricter controls on sale and registration of firearms, and stronger rules to irrevocably deactivate weapons. We will also come forward with an Action Plan in the near future to tackle illicit arms trafficking. Organised criminals accessing and trading military grade firearms in Europe cannot and will not be tolerated.”

Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska and Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner DimitrisAvramopoulos added: “The adoption of the firearms package today is proof of the Commission’s determination to address the new reality we are confronted with. We need to remove regulatory divergences across the EU by imposing stricter, harmonised EU standards for firearms and ensuring efficient exchange of information between Member States.”

The package of measures on firearms adopted by the College of Commissioners today includes the following elements:…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Warns Italy of Terror Plots Against Monuments

Italy has increased security at its historic monuments in the Vatican, Rome and Milan after a warning from the FBI of possible jihadist attacks, media reports said on Wednesday.

Saint Peter’s Square, Milan’s Duomo cathedral and its famous Scala opera house were among possible targets flagged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which also passed on information on five potentially dangerous individuals in Italy, according to the reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France Calls for Reform of Freedom of Movement Rules After Paris Attacks

The French government is calling on Brussels to tighten border controls and revise freedom of movement rules following the terror attacks in Paris on Friday 13 November.

Ahead of an emergency meeting of European Union ministers, Paris has put in a request for the EU to systematically check passports of citizens entering or leaving the Schengen zone. The proposal, seen by Reuters, will be presented in Brussels to the EU Ministers of Interior.

Freedom of movement was one of the founding principles of the European Union and was established in 1995.

The zone consists of 26 European countries that have removed passport and control checkpoints at common borders.

Twenty-two of the 28 EU countries signed up to the Schengen zone — Ireland and the UK opted out.

To change the EU border policy, would mean a major change in the European treaty but this isn’t the first time during the summer months when record numbers of asylum seekers and refugees were arriving in Europe that the open border policy has been questioned.

France called for a revision of the rules in January following the Charlie Hebdo terror attack. In August, Thanos Dokos, director general of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy told Carnegie Europe: “The euro and the Schengen zone have been two of the EU’s most tangible and widely recognizable achievements. Now, both are faced with considerable, even existential, challenges.

“The concept of a border-free Europe is being tested by the evolving migration and refugee crisis.”

German minister Thomas de Maiziere told N24 that check-free borders within the EU were not fit for purpose without a clear asylum policy in place.

“Control-free borders cannot exist in the long term without a real European asylum policy,” Mr de Maiziere said.

Yet it appears concerns have fallen on deaf ears. During the UK’s charm offensive in Europe to reform its membership with the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said freedom of movement of people was “non-negotiable.”

Mrs Merkel told the German parliament:

“It also goes without saying that there are things that are non-negotiable. That there are achievements of European integration that cannot be haggled over, for example the principle of free movement and the principle of non-discrimination.”

The documents seen by Reuters say:

“It’s is especially necessary to meet the security challenges that the attacks in Paris have highlighted once again, to develop high-performance, safe and fast tools to better control our external borders.”

German chancellor Angela Merkel has demonstrated a stanch resistance to a change in Schengen zone rules throughout the refugee crisis — but the recent terror attacks in France could force reform on one of the EU’s founding principles, claimed to be “non-negotiable.”

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

France Set to Extend State of Emergency

French lawmkers voted on Thursday to extend a state of emergency in the country for three months after the devastating jihadist attacks in Paris.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Owners of Le Carillon Talk of Trauma and Hope

Days after the gunman slaughtered several of their regular clients, members of the family who have owned Le Carillon bar for 40 years tell The Local of the trauma of witnessing what happened and how regulars are urging them to reopen when the time is right.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Police to be Allowed to Carry Weapons When Off Duty

French police officers will be able to carry weapons when they are off duty, according to a directive from police commanders issued Thursday following the Paris attacks.

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

Gang Beats Russian Journalists Seeking Paris Bomber’s Relatives in Brussels

A Russian news crew looking for the relatives and friends of a suicide bomber, who detonated explosives during Friday night’s international soccer game between France and Germany at the Stade de France outside Paris, have been assaulted and beaten up in the Belgian capital of Brussels, the journalists said Thursday.

The NTV television crew was attacked during an interview with some 10 young residents of the unspecified northern Brussels suburb where the suicide bomber was reported to have lived.

“A few minutes later, one of them attacked the cameraman and tried to snatch the camera. He punched and kicked, and then the whole crowd pounced on us,” one of the reporters, Konstantin Panyushkin, was quoted as saying on the NTV website.

Panyushkin said the assailants stole a backpack with documents, money and a laptop.

Some of the culprits have since been arrested following the attack, the broadcaster noted.

The NTV crew was seeking to interview relatives or acquaintances of one of eight suspected assailants of the November 13 suicide bombings and mass shootings that killed 129 people and injured over 350.

An overnight raid conducted in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis saw a gunman killed, a female suicide bomber self-detonate and seven suspects arrested. Authorities are investigating whether Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged attack planner, is among those killed.

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

Gavin McInnes: Paris ‘Needs a Slap in the Face’

The Rebel Media, commentator Gavin McInnes reports from the scene of last Friday’s concert massacre in Paris at the hands of Islamic terrorists. It’s not a hopeful scene, reports McInnes:

“My visit to Paris has been profoundly depressing. There is no fight left in this city.”

The people he spoke with “are too encumbered with capitulation. They blame terrorism on America and the Jews, to the point where ISIS is getting annoyed that Islam isn’t getting credit!”

He continues:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Prime Minister: Europe’s Anti-Russia Policy to Lead Nowhere

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi claims that Europe’s anti-Russia policy will lead the region nowhere.

ROME (Sputnik) — Europe’s anti-Russia policy will lead the region nowhere, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Wednesday.

“Only the ones who did not experience the Cold War can like it. The anti-Russia approach in Europe will lead nowhere,” Renzi told the Italian Sky TG24 TV channel in an interview.

Italy has been long asking Russia to return to cooperation with the Western countries, the prime minister added.

Renzi has been repeatedly voicing support for Russia and maintaining dialogue with Moscow, even amid deteriorating Russia’s relations with the EU members states and the United States.

On Tuesday, Renzi said the Italian people could trust Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the issues of international stability.

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

Italian Directors Prepare Theatre Response to Paris Attacks

Theatre producers annoyed by reaction in Italy

(ANSA) — Milan, November 17 — Italian directors Gianni Forte and Stefano Ricci are preparing a theatre performance as a response to the terror attacks in Paris after they witnessed events unfold from a friend’s house.

The performance “Wunderkammer soap #7 Massacre à Paris” is set to be performed in the Parisian suburb of Vanves on March 10.

“On the evening of the massacre, we witnessed what was happening at the Bataclan concert hall live, we looked out of the window of our friends and we were shocked because we could hear it all,” Forte told ANSA.

However once they returned to Italy, Forte said they also had a sense of annoyance at the lack of concern in Italy, and the way it seemed that the shocking event had been brushed off by most people.

“How can we pretend this does not affect us all? Italians’ solidarity is just a show… posting words of outrage on Facebook is enough and then you can go shopping, without any responsibility…on the contrary, now we need the individual responsibility to have a different awareness of things,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Intelligence Services to be Able to Use Special Forces

Renzi govt responds to Paris attacks

(ANSA) — Rome, November 18 — Italy’s intelligence services will be able to make use of the country’s crack special forces for their missions, according to an amendment to a decree on Italian military missions that is being examined in the Lower House. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government is working to reinforce security and intelligence to face the threat of Islamist terrorism in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks. The amendment says that the premier’s office will be able to order “intelligence measures to combat crisis situations or emergencies abroad that involve aspects of national security or the protection of Italian citizens abroad, with the cooperation of defence structures”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Honey Bees Could be Used in Counter-Terrorism Efforts

Mellifera bees can be trained to detect explosives

(ANSA) — Rome, November 18 — The humble honey bee with its powerful sense of smell could be enlisted by Italian security forces to help face down the threat of terrorism, researchers said on Wednesday.

Research in the United States and Britain has already shown that a swarm of bees can be successfully trained to ‘sniff out’ explosives.

Now it seems Italy is gearing up to train its own ‘army’ of bees to assist in counter-terrorism efforts here.

“Mellifera bees are the kind used as they are excellent at detecting explosives and can be used in reconnaissance missions at airports, ports, minefields and possible terrorism targets,” Marino Quaranta of the Florence energy and environmental research centre (CREA) said. The ministry of agriculture has already funded ‘Apiboom’, a project carried out by researchers in Bologna some years ago.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Venetians Gather in St. Mark’s Square in Memory of Valeria

Sorbonne doctoral student murdered in Paris terror attacks

(ANSA) — Venice, November 18 — Thousands of people holding lit candles filled St. Mark’s Square on Wednesday evening in memory of Venice-born Valeria Solesin, who was murdered in one of Friday’s Islamic terror attacks in Paris.

City government also adhered to the silent commemoration, which Valeria’s friends organized on social media. The 28-year-old Sorbonne sociology doctoral student was at a concert at the popular Bataclan club when gunmen wielding AK-47s opened fire on the crowd of some 1,500 people, killing 89 in an attack that lasted 20 minutes.

Also on Wednesday, Premier Matteo Renzi said Italy will commemorate its fallen countrywoman with a scholarship in her name and by dedicating “something having to do with university research” to her.

“Valeria Solesin will remain in our hearts,” Renzi said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome Prefect Demands ‘Clear Stand’ From Islamic Community

Gabrielli calls for ‘collaboration’ in countering terrorism

(ANSA) — Rome, November 19 — Rome Prefect Franco Gabrielli said Thursday he expected the Islamic community to take a clear stand against terrorism following last Friday’s attacks in Paris in which at least 129 people were killed. “There is an attack by criminals and the first victims are Muslims themselves,” Gabrielli said.

“We demand that the Islamic communities have a collaborative attitude,” he continued. “If it is beastly to say that all Muslims are terrorists it is also an inappropriate mystification not to admit that all the terrorists came from a certain context,” the prefect said.

“Who better than those who live in and frequent that context to be of help, both in their public position and in assisting the institutions in counter-terrorism activities?” Gabrielli concluded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Court Confirms Arrest of 2 Syrians Stopped at Airport

Men were carrying fake passports, photos of ISIS miliants

(ANSA) — Bergamo, November 19 — An Italian court on Thursday confirmed the arrest of two Syrians who were stopped at Milan Bergamo airport on Wednesday and found to be carrying false passports and photos of war and of the ISIS militant group.

The two Syrian men appeared before the Bergamo court on Thursday. One explained that the photos on his mobile phone were memories of his dead brother. The other said a man holding a gun in a photo is his cousin. After their arrests were confirmed, they were sent back to prison. A judgement is expected on November 26. Meanwhile investigators are looking over all the material.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Muslim Pupils Refuse to Observe Minute of Silence for Paris Victims

Six girls decided not to commemorate the victims of the Paris massacres. Six pupils at a technical institute in Varese, all Muslim, the children of North-African immigrants, rose from their seats on Sunday afternoon and left the classroom during the minute of silence the school held in homage to those who died in Bataclan, the Stade de France, the Paris bars and all the places frequented by their contemporaries.

They want to understand why we commemorate Paris but not the Russian aeroplane or Beirut,” a teacher told ANSA [news agency].

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

Paris Attacks: ‘Ringleader’ Abdelhamid Abaaoud Killed in Raid

The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was among those killed in a French police raid on Wednesday, prosecutors say.

They confirmed the Islamic State (IS) militant had died in a flat in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis.

His body was found riddled with bullets and shrapnel in the apartment.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he had received intelligence that Abaaoud had passed through Greece on his return from Syria.

It is unclear whether the Belgian had concealed himself among the thousands of migrants arriving in Greece before heading for other EU nations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Security Doubled at Vatican Entrances

Italian police, Vatican gendarmerie check visitors

(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 18 — Security has been doubled at entrances to the Vatican city state after Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.

Italian police started checking all visitors Wednesday before checks by the Vatican gendarmerie at the Perugino Entrance.

The entrance is the closest to the St Martha’ House, the hostel where Pope Francis lives.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden May Toughen Anti-Terror Laws Allowing Govt Surveillance

Stefan Lofven said that the Swedish government intends to toughen its anti-terrorism legislation, proposing to allow the law enforcement agencies to collect information about its citizens among other measures.

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) — The Swedish government intends to toughen its anti-terrorism legislation, proposing to allow the law enforcement agencies to collect information about its citizens among other measures, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Thursday.

“Efforts would be made to ensure that the authorities are given a new tool for collecting information, conducting biometric passport control and accessing CCTV data near vulnerable places,” Lofven told journalists.

Under the draft bill, new powers will be granted to law enforcement agencies such as wiretapping of encrypted Internet resources, like Skype and Viber software programs, and implementing compulsory biometric controls at the EU external borders, the prime minister said.

The proposed measures will be debated by the parliamentary parties of the country and, if approved, will be added to the existing national strategy on combating terrorism.

Sweden intends to propose the issue of biometric control for discussion at the meeting of the EU interior ministers, scheduled for Friday, according to Lofven.

The proposals were made following the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, when several extremists carrying automatic weapons and wearing explosive belts executed a series of coordinated attacks at venues across Paris, killing 129 people and injuring over 350, at restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and in the vicinity of the Stade de France stadium.

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

Sweden Terror Suspect Held After Police Raid

Mutar Muthanna Majid, a 25-year-old Iraqi man, has been arrested on suspicion of planning terror crimes in Sweden.

Sweden’s security service, Säpo, said in a press statement just before 10pm that it had arrested the man on Thursday afternoon, with the help of local police.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Arrests Terror Suspect After Manhunt

Swedish police late Thursday said they had arrested a man they believe has links to Islamic State and whom they have been hunting since Wednesday on suspicion of planning an attack.

A spokeswoman for the security service, known as SAPO, said the suspect was in custody and the arrest had been carried out “in an orderly fashion.” She declined to give the location of the arrest beyond saying it was “somewhere in Sweden.”

The subject of the manhunt was Mutar Muthanna Majid, a 25-year-old of Iraqi origin, a person familiar with the investigation told The Wall Street Journal earlier Thursday while the hunt was under way.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Bomb Scare on Baker Street: Controlled Explosion After Police Evacuate London Tube Station

A blast in the vicinity of London’s Baker Street underground station that scared commuters and residents on Thursday has been confirmed to have been a controlled police explosion. The station was evacuated during rush hour due to an abandoned vehicle.

The evacuation on Thursday evening was prompted by a suspicious vehicle left near the station. Police asked commuters to evacuate and cordoned off the area.

The station has since reopened. The Metropolitan Police Service has confirmed the explosion was controlled, but did not elaborate on the object destroyed…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

EBRD: 64 Mln to Finance Macedonian National Road Network

Funding to improve 39 km section to connect the city of Stip

(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is financing the modernisation of the Macedonian national road network with a loan of up to 64 million euros.

The loan is being extended to the Macedonian Public Enterprise for State Roads (PESR), a company responsible for the operation and maintenance of the national and regional road network. As part of the investment the Bank will support the opening of the road maintenance market to the private sector and strengthening PESR’s procurement practices and asset management.

The funding will be used to improve a 39 kilometre single carriageway section on the national road that connects the city of Stip, one of the fastest growing economic centres, with Radovish, the second largest city in the south-east of the country. As part of the A4 road, the improved road section will also connect with the new Miladinovci-Stip highway which leads to a cross section of the Corridor VIII and Corridor X in south-eastern Europe.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Murder of Two Bosnian Soldiers an Act of Terrorism

Bosnian prosecutors and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) confirmed Thursday that the murder of two soldiers was an act of terrorism. Security has been raised, reports Zdravko Ljubas from Sarajevo.

Late Wednesday, for no apparent reason, Enes Omeragic, a suspected member of radical groups in Bosnia, killed Armin Salkic, a Bosniak, and Nedeljko Radic, a Bosnian Serb, near the Rajlovac military base outside the country’s capital, Sarajevo. Both victims were soldiers in the Bosnia-Herzegovina army.

Another three people were injured when Omeragic opened fire on a local bus following the murder of the soldiers. The suspect then blew himself up in his house, a mere 200 meters from the crime scene.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Serbia Will Open the First EU Chapters by End of Year

Another two in early 2016. Vucic, ‘good news’

(ANSA) — BELGRADE — Serbia will open the first two chapters of EU accession negotiations by end of year, and another two at the beginning of 2016, according to German ambassador to Serbia, Axel Dittmann, who confirmed some rumors which had circulated in the Balkan country in recent weeks. The diplomat did not specify which chapters will be opened, but on several occasions he talked about chapter 35 (Kosovo) and 32 (finance) this year, and 23 and 24 (justice, security, human rights) next year. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he was very satisfied with the statement issued by the representative of Angela Merkel’s government, speaking of “good news”. He even pointed out that this step means that all the good things done by Serbia in the field of reforms and dialogue with Pristina have been recognised. Vucic and Dittmann took part today in the opening ceremony, held in Nis, of a new manufacturing plant financed with German capital.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Two Bosnian Military Members Shot Dead by Suicide Bomber: Police

Two members of Bosnia’s armed forces were killed when a man attacked them with automatic weapons near a barracks in Sarajevo before blowing himself up, police said.

Dozens of special forces police officers were dispatched to the scene after the attack in a betting shop in a suburb of the Bosnian capital on Wednesday night.

They then trapped the killer, a 34-year-old man reported to be a member of an Islamist group, inside a house, where he blew himself up at around midnight (2300 GMT).

“When the police surrounded the house, an explosion rang out. They found the corpse of a man who had killed himself inside the house,” police official Vehid Cosic told media…

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

Libyan Man Arrested for British Police Officer’s Killing

A Libyan man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to murder a British policewoman who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, the police said on Thursday.

Police said this was “the first significant arrest” of the investigation into the killing of 25-year-old Yvonne Fletcher, which led Britain to sever diplomatic relations with Libya.

The Libyan suspect, who is in his 50s, is also suspected of money laundering, along with two other Libyans who were arrested with him.

“Over the past 31 years we have never lost our resolve to solve this case, to bring to justice those who conspired to commit this act of murder,” said Richard Walton, the head of counter terrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police…

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

Sharm El Sheikh Deserted by Tourists After Plane Crash

(ANSAmed) — The sunny streets of Sharm El-Sheikh flanked by seaside resorts and desert stretching inland are empty.

The economic effects of the Russian aircraft that went down on October 31 in the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people onboard, are clear. Many taxis compete for passengers, offering reduced prices, and on minibuses shuttling hotel employees the fear of a crisis is palpable. ‘‘We are concerned about tourists fleeing,’’ one hotel employee said. ‘‘In our hotel, there were about 300 before the crisis and now there are 200 of us, but I am afraid of more of us may be laid off.’’ He expressed doubts about whether it had been a terrorist attack, but ‘‘if it was, then it would be terrible. These assassins want to hit our country’s economy. We are in trouble; there are ever fewer tourists here.’’

‘‘It’s terrible,’’ said the hotel’s general manager, Fakher Khalifa. ‘‘It’s difficult, especially since we do not have any prospects for the future, either. It’s the insecurity that frightens us.’’ Before the Russian aircraft went down, ‘‘the hotel had a 75-80% occupancy rate. We are now at 10% and we are some of the lucky ones.’’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

At Least 5 Dead, Including American Tourist, In West Bank and Tel Aviv Terrorist Attacks

An 18-year-old American man from the Boston area was among those shot and killed by a Palestinian terrorist Thursday in the West Bank, Israeli officials told FoxNews.com.

The shooting and a separate, earlier knife attack in Tel Aviv Thursday left at least five people dead, and two suspects — both identified as Palestinians — were in custody, according to Israeli media reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Palestinian Attacks in Israel and West Bank Kill Five

Five people have been killed in two attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank, officials say.

In the first attack, two Israelis were stabbed to death by a Palestinian man at the entrance of a shop that serves as a synagogue in the city of Tel Aviv.

Later, a third Israeli, a Jewish American and a Palestinian were killed in an attack near a Jewish settlement.

A wave of violence over the past two months has claimed the lives of 15 Israelis and dozens of Palestinians.

Many of the Palestinian fatalities were knife-wielding attackers of Israelis, shot by their victims or security forces. Others have been killed in clashes with troops in the West Bank or in cross-border violence in Gaza.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spy Jonathan Pollard’s Legend Grew in Israel During US Jail Term

“Someone who tries to help Israel, and suffers because of it, is a combination between a hero and a martyr,” said Daniel Luria, head of the Jewish settler organisation building the synagogue.

He was speaking of Jonathan Pollard, the former US navy intelligence officer turned spy for Israel. The 61-year-old is to be released Friday to wide approval in the Jewish state, but he was not always so lauded in the country.

The synagogue, located where five Palestinian families were evicted from their homes three weeks ago, is but one example of how perception of Pollard has evolved in Israel and how rightwing activists have sought to turn him into an icon.

Any hero’s welcome in Israel will however likely have to be put on hold since Pollard is barred from leaving the United States for five years unless granted permission by US President Barack Obama…

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

Births in Syria Down More Than 50 Percent Since War: Media

The annual birth rate in Syria has fallen by more than half since the civil war broke out in 2011, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Salah al-Sheikha, dean of Damascus University’s faculty of medicine, told the newspaper that before the war Syria recorded around 500,000 births per year.

This year, the number has plummeted to just 200,000, medical sources told Al-Watan, which is close to the government.

The sources attributed the drop to “the reluctance of young people to get married, in addition to emigration… which has had the biggest effect on the number of births dropping to this low level.”…

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

Hillary Clinton Urges No-Fly Zone and More Airstrikes to Defeat ISIS

Hillary Rodham Clinton called for accelerating the American-led operation to defeat the Islamic State on Thursday, going well beyond what President Obama has proposed by urging a no-fly zone with coalition forces to protect Syrians, expanding the deployment of Special Operations troops to assist local ground forces, and significantly stepping up airstrikes.

“We are in a contest of ideas against an ideology of hate and we have to win,” she said. But, she added: “Let’s be clear, though: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Human Rights Watch Urges US Govt End Munitions Sales to Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Watch said that the Obama administration should cancel its plans to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia until Riyadh’s alleged violations of international law in Yemen are investigated.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Obama administration should cancel its plans to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia until Riyadh’s alleged violations of international law in Yemen are investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

“The US government is well aware of the Saudi-led coalition’s indiscriminate air attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in Yemen since March,” Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Joe Stork said in the statement issued on Wednesday.

On November 17, 2015, the US Department of Defense announced that the State Department had approved a sale of $1.29 billion worth of air-to-ground munitions such as laser-guided bombs and “general purpose” bombs with guidance systems to Saudi Arabia.

“Providing the Saudis with more bombs under these circumstances is a recipe for greater civilian deaths, for which the United States will be partially responsible,” Stork said.

Human Rights Watch noted that the US Congress has played a role in opposing sales of American weapons used in violation of the laws of war and should do so in this case.

More than 2,500 civilians have been killed in Yemen, most of them in air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition against the country’s opposition Houthi forces, according to the UN.

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

ISIS: Gentiloni: ‘No One Will Put Boots on the Ground in Syria’

Neither Hollande, nor Obama, nor Italy

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 19 — “Nobody will put boots on the ground in Syria: neither Hollande, nor Obama, nor us” said Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni during the Agorà programme on Raitre. “We are prepared to help out French brothers, but neither us, not them, nor the Americans will carry out a Syrian expedition” he stressed.

“I don’t believe France will dispatch a military task force to Syria. We are all aware, France included as it is part of the group working on this, that the solution of the Syrian crisis is a political solution. We don’t need to repeat mistakes already made in Irak or Libya”, explained Gentiloni.

“We can find a path to remove Assad without leaving a void that nowadays would be occupied by Daesh or al-Nusra, two terrorist organisations — he added — This is our job in Syria and it must be undertaken with steady resolve, without particularly bombastic proclamations”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italian UNIFIL Squad Attacked in Lebanon

No Italians injured

(ANSA) — Beirut, November 19 — A patrol squad of Italian ‘blue helmet troops taking part in the United Nations UNIFIL mission in Lebanon came under attack from armed assailants on Tuesday, ANSA sources said Thursday. None of the Italians were injured in the attack, the sources said. There is no evidence linking the attack to extremist Islamist group ISIS, the sources added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘Coordination’ With Russia in Anti-ISIS Alliance Possible — FM

Such a prospect ‘science fiction’ 2-3 months ago, Gentiloni says

(ANSA) — Rome, November 19 — Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Thursday raised the possibility of “coordination” with Russia in a possible future alliance against Islamic State.

“We consider the prospect to be a useful development,” Gentiloni said. Such a possibility might have seemed “science fiction” only two or three months ago, he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegian Hostage Murdered by ISIS

The Islamic State jihadist group said it had killed a Norwegian hostage Ole-Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, two months after it had demanded a ransom for his release.

He was murdered alongside Chinese Chinese hostage Fan Jinghui.

The terror group’s English-language Dabiq magazine featured graphic photos of what appeared to be the bloodied bodies of both men.

The bodies were pictured adjacent to photos of the blindfolded captives apparently taken just before their execution-style killings.

A stamp-like caption overlaid on the full-page photo read, “Executed after being abandoned by the kafir (disbeliever) nations and organisations.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Punching in the Dark’: Why Islamic State is Winning the Online War

In the wake of the Paris attacks, authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about Islamic State’s skillful use of the Internet. So far, however, European countermeasures have been frustratingly ineffective.

There are roughly 1,000 IS videos circulating on the Internet. Some depict slow-motion beheadings, mass executions by firing squad and slaughter on the battlefield, but others show laughing children in schools, artfully back-lit grain harvesters and police officers directing traffic. The message is clear: Look at how powerful and magnificent the “Caliphate” is.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Regional Hegemon: Saudi Arabia ‘Playing Dirty’ In Middle East

Backed by the US, Saudi Arabia is consistently pursuing its goal of becoming a regional hegemon; however, Saudi Arabia is slowly cutting its own throat by funding radical extremists in the Middle East and undermining the sovereignty of Syria and Yemen, Ron Paul notes.

The Paris tragedy has prompted a strong reaction from the international community: Western leaders are calling for terrorists to be eliminated in Syria.

Former American congressman, author and politician Ron Paul poses the question whether more killing, more bombing and more spying could be considered as a way out of the ongoing crisis.

“No one in that region [Middle East] has attacked the United States of America, our national security has never been challenged, we don’t have a need to have a real declaration of war that would permit events of bombing,” Dr. Paul remarked in his recent conversation with Daniel McAdams for Liberty Report.

The politician, however, drew the attention to another aspect of the war against terrorism. Referring to statistics provided by the US influential Brookings Institute, Dr. Paul pointed out that the largest number of Twitter users supporting the infamous Islamic State originate from Saudi Arabia.

What does that mean and is Saudi Arabia America’s friend or foe?

Americans have got used to the notion of Saudi Arabia being a friend and a longstanding ally of the US in the Middle East.

Back in the 1980s Saudi Arabia helped the US to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan, the US politician noted.

“There were lots of weapons and things, and radicalization and madrassa schools in Saudi Arabia which we justify and say: ‘Oh, that’s good, that is not exactly our way, but this will help us to defeat the Soviets’,” Paul remarked.

Alas, the consequences of this collaboration were dire: the emergence of the Taliban upset Washington’s applecart in Central Asia and resulted in a decade-long war.

Today Saudi Arabia is seeking to become the regional leader in the Middle East. It is waging war against Yemen and supporting anti-Assad forces in Syria. It should be noted though, that not everything is rosy in the garden of the Saudi economy due to a significant slump in oil prices.

“The perpetual wealth machine is running out and that’s why people in Saudi Arabia are disturbed. They have poverty in Saudi Arabia, believe it or not, even with all that oil 25 percent live in total poverty,” the former US congressman stressed.

According to the experts, “the head-chopping Saudis” are facing a “slow-motion suicide.” While the Saudis’ wealth fades, Bashar al-Assad is still standing at the helm of the government, despite the Gulf-sponsored war against Syria.

“Still the US continues to coddle the Saudi tyrants, this week announcing that it would sell them $1.3 billion worth of bombs to drop on the suffering Yemenis,” the experts pointed out.

“Our [American] policies are not friendly to the American people and are not friendly to our financial situation or our national defense,” Ron Paul remarked.

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

Russia Ready to Work With Anti-is Coalition if it Respects Syria

Russia is ready to cooperate with the Western coalition fighting the Islamic State group if its members respect Syria’s sovereignty, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

“We are ready for practical cooperation with those countries who are part of the coalition and are ready to develop with them such forms of coordination that of course would respect Syria’s sovereignty and the prerogatives of the Syrian leadership,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

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

Support for UK Airstrikes Against ISIL in Syria Likely to Increase

Although British citizens are now evenly split over the potential extension of UK military action against ISIL radicals, support for the airstrikes is likely to grow, a BMG Research poll revealed.

LONDON (Sputnik) — The poll was conducted for Evening Standard on November 11-17, among over 1,500 UK residents. Its results, released on Wednesday, show that exactly 50 percent of those surveyed are in favour of the United Kingdom extending the airstrikes to Syria, while the other 50 percent are against.

BMG Research said in a Wednesday release that support for the airstrikes was likely to increase.

“Some 59% of those who tend to trust government are in support of Syrian strikes, a figure which has risen to 80% since the attacks. On the other hand, support amongst those who tend to distrust government is lower, at just 46%, and has fallen slightly to 43% since Friday,” Dr Michael Turner, Research Director at BMG Research, said as quoted in the release.

According to the BMG Research poll, about 56 percent of the women surveyed in the United Kingdom are in favour of extending the airstrikes. Young people tend to support anti-ISIL military action more — 64 percent of the polled people aged 18-24 said they were in favour of extending UK airstrikes to Syria.

Britain has been carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State (ISIL) jihadists in Iraq since August 2014, but the UK Parliament rejected extending the campaign to Syria in a 2013 vote.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond suggested two weeks ago that a Parliament vote to send British jets to Syria would take place as soon as enough Labour Party members supported British airstrikes.

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

Tu-160 Strategic Bomber: Russian ‘Formidable’ Weapon Against ISIL in Syria

The Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic strategic bomber made its combat debut on Tuesday as the Russian Aerospace Forces attacked Islamic State (ISIL) positions in Syria.

The Tu-160 was the last strategic bomber developed in the USSR. It became a formidable answer to the stealthy Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit — the last US-made Cold War-era strategic bomber, military analyst Dave Majumdar wrote in his article for The National Interest.

In the Russian Air Force the aircraft was nicknamed the White Swan due to its anti-flash white paint scheme.

According to the Tupolev Design Bureau, the development of the Tu-160 started in the early 1970s, shortly before the US started to develop the B-2. The first prototype flew on December 18, 1981.

The first operational aircraft were delivered to the Soviet Air Force in April 1987. A total of 35 Tu-160’s have been built.

Earlier this year, Russia announced it plans to restart production of the Blackjack at the Kazan Aircraft Production Association in 2033. Russia intends to produce over 50 new bombers.

The new Tu-160 variant would be called the Tu-160M2. The airframe would remain the same, but the aircraft would be equipped with totally new avionics, mission systems and, potentially, engines.

“While the B-2 is relies on stealth — the Tu-160 relies on a combination of blistering speed and long-range standoff cruise missiles to deliver its payload,” the analyst pointed out.

The Tu-160 can reach speeds of Mach 2.05 with its four Kuznetsov K-32 afterburning turbofans, which provide 245 kN of thrust each at maximum power.

“The basic concept behind the Tu-160 is to use its speed to move into launch position quick and disgorge its cruise missiles before the enemy can react. Indeed, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy pilots told me that intercepting a high flying and fast flying target at Mach 2.0 or more is extremely difficult even for a high performance fighter like the F-15C Eagle,” Majumdar wrote.

The Tu-160 primary armament is twin six-shot rotary cruise launchers. The most common weapon for its strategic deterrent role is the Kh-55 Raduga nuclear missile, with an operational range of 1,600 nautical miles. There is also a conventional version of the missile, the Kh-555. But those weapons are being replaced with new stealthy cruise missiles which until recently were nor thought to be operational, the article read.

“However, recent video footage released by the Russian defense ministry indicates that Russian Tu-160 crews recently launched the stealthy new Kh-101 cruise missiles against targets in Syria. That likely means the Kh-102 nuclear-tipped variant is also operational with the Russian air force. The addition of those new weapons means the Tu-160 remains an extremely formidable enemy,” the author wrote.

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

Turkey is Playing the Worst Part of Syrian Assad

Syrian President Bashar Assad believes that by being passively supporting the al-Nusra Front and Islamic State terrorist groups, Turkey is playing a most destructive role in the Syrian crisis.

“Turkey is playing a most negative role in our crisis. That’s related directly to [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan himself and [Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoglu, because they both reflect the real ideology that they carry in their hearts, which is the Muslim Brotherhood ideology,” Assad said in an interview with the French newsmagazine Valeurs Actuelles on Thursday.

The Syrian leader emphasized that, compared to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Ankara was playing the most dangerous role in general, by giving all possible assistance to the terrorists.

“Some countries support al-Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda, some other countries support ISIL, while Turkey supports both and other groups at the same time. They support them with, human resources. They support them with money, logistics, armaments, surveillance, information, and even the maneuvers of their military through their borders during the fights in Syria.”

“Even the money that’s being collected from the rest of the world passes through Turkey, and the oil that ISIL sells is through Turkey, so Turkey is playing the worst part of our crisis,” Assad was quoted as saying by the Syrian news agency SANA.

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

Xi Decries Islamic State Execution as Syria War Touches China

President Xi Jinping condemned the Islamic State’s execution of a Chinese national, an act that raises pressure on China to take a greater role in resolving Syria’s civil war.

Xi issued a statement on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila on Thursday, after Islamic State claimed credit for killing Fan Jinghui, 50, and another Norwegian captive. The group published pictures of the two dead men in its English-language Dabiq magazine on Wednesday under the banner “Executed.” It was the first time the Islamic State had killed a Chinese captive.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fortified Greek Settlement Found in Ukraine

Archaeologists from the University of Warsaw and the National Ukrainian Academy of Sciences confirmed the location of a 2,000-year-old fortified Greek settlement along the Dnieper River, located near the Greek colony of Olbia, with aerial photographs taken with a kite and geophysical surveys. “Over a dozen similar settlements have been identified so far in the lower Dnieper. If we manage to raise adequate funds, we are planning to conduct research on a wider scale. In the first place we would like to do documentary work and geophysical surveys of each of the settlements because they are subject to systematic robbery excavations. Besides, they have never been comprehensively surveyed,” Marcin Matera of the University of Warsaw told Science & Scholarship in Poland. The settlement is thought to have been a trade center that linked the Dnieper steppes to the rest of the ancient world.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia, China Sign $2 Billion Contract on Delivery of Su-35 Fighters

Russia’s state technologies corporation Rostec head Sergey Chemezov announced that Russia and China have signed a contract, estimated to be worth $2 billion, on the delivery of 24 Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia and China have signed a contract, estimated to be worth $2 billion, on the delivery of 24 Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, Russia’s state technologies corporation Rostec head Sergey Chemezov announced.

“The long negotiations on the delivery of Su-35 to China are over, we have signed a contract,” Chemezov said as quoted by the Russian Kommersant daily on Thursday.

The Su-35 fighter jet (NATO reporting name Flanker-E) is an upgraded version of the Su-27 multirole fighter. It was first introduced to a foreign audience at the 2013 Paris Air Show.

Indonesia, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates have also expressed interest in purchasing Su-35 jets, according to Rostec.

On Wednesday, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Djauhari Oratmangun said that a Russian-Indonesian joint commission on military-technical cooperation will discuss the purchase of the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighters in late November in Jakarta.

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

Bangladesh: ISIS Claims Attack on Italian Priest

The Isis group on Thursday claimed responsibility for shooting and wounding an Italian priest in Bangladesh this week, the latest in a spate of recent attacks on foreigners claimed by the jihadist network.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

For Some of Nepal’s Hindu Holy Men, Cow Urine Cures Cancer and Brings Long Life

The price of purified urine is six times that of milk. Hindus, especially older ones, believe it can cure diseases and bring well-being. “It is hard to believe but it is true,” says a cattle owner. “Not only sick people but healthy people too” drink urine.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — The price of purified cow urine is six times that of milk thanks to a campaign by Hindu holy men.

The venerable gurus have been able to convince customers of urine’s curative properties. In their view, it “guarantees long life, and cures many diseases, like cancer and diabetes.”

Rosan Gaudel keeps cows to sell their milk. Now he is getting into the urine business. “It is hard to believe it but it is true,” he explained. “Not only sick people but healthy people too believe that it [urine] can protect them from future illnesses.”

“We purify the urine by removing all forms of waste, so that we can sell it in the market,” said Yogi Naraharinath, a Hindu religious leader. ““Demand is strong because it is an effective remedy. My followers are happy to drink it, both out of respect for sacred cows and for its healing powers.”

Nanimaya Poudel, 80, is a regular customer. “I drink a glass of urine every day,” she said. “In our religion, the cow is a symbol of the goddess Laxmi, who brings well-being and wealth. The gurus say this way I can cure any illness in my stomach. It is also a way to protect Nepal’s cows.”

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

Hobbits Were a Separate Species, Ancient Chompers Show

An ancient, 3-foot-tall (0.9 meters) human whose diminutive stature has earned it the nickname “hobbit” has puzzled evolutionary scientists since its little bones were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. Some have suggested the individual was a Homo sapien with some miniaturizing disorder.

Now, teeth from the hobbit suggest it belonged to a unique species rather than a modern human with a growth disorder. The new research also suggests hobbits may share a direct ancestor with modern humans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Claims Attack on Italian Missionary in Bangladesh

Piero Parolari survived shooting

(ANSA) — Rome, November 19 — ISIS has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s shooting of Piero Parolari, an Italian missionary in Bangladesh, the SITE intelligence group reported on Thursday. The missionary, who is also a doctor, was injured in the attack but survived. The 50-year-old works in the city of Dinajpur, in the north of the country. ISIS also claimed responsibility for the September murder of Cesare Tavella, an Italian aid worker shot while jogging in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka.

The Bangladeshi government dismissed the claim, saying opposition forces that wanted to cause instability were behind it and the murder of the Japanese citizen five days later.

Last month Bangladeshi police arrested four people suspected of involvement in Tavella’s murder.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Rights Group Urges Justice for Nepali Maids Allegedly Gang Raped by Saudi Diplomat

India and Saudi Arabia should bring justice to two Nepali maids allegedly gang raped and tortured by a Saudi diplomat, Amnesty International has said. The case is one of many reported abuses of domestic workers.

The two Nepali women, aged 30 and 50, were allegedly raped, assaulted, tortured and confined in the Saudi diplomat’s luxury residence outside New Delhi.

The two women were domestic workers, who after working in Saudi Arabia came with him to the diplomatic post in New Delhi. They claim at times up to eight men raped them in the apartment.

The women were freed on September 9 after a third maid tipped off Indian police to what was happening, but the Saudi diplomat left the country under diplomatic immunity on September 16th.

At the time, India summoned the Saudi ambassador but authorities said they could not arrest or prosecute the Saudi diplomat due to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Antibiotic Apocalypse: Scientists Warn That Humans Are Losing War With Bacteria

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

The term they are using to describe this state is an “antibiotic apocalypse.”

As medicine has advanced, enabling physicians to combat harmful bacterial strains through the use of antibiotics, the bacteria themselves have evolved as well, finding their way around the obstacles put in their path. But the new study conducted by an international team of twenty researchers on a colistin resistance mechanism in animals and human beings in China shows a much faster rate of adaptation via horizontal gene transfer that may signal the emergence of pan-drug-resistant bacteria.

An article announcing the results of the study appeared November 18 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a UK-based monthly journal of medical research and review relating to clinical infectious diseases worldwide.

The team of scientists — from the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, the China Agricultural University in Beijing, and other institutions — have discovered a new mutation, which they are calling the MCR-1 gene, which prevents colistin from killing bacteria. Their study found the resistant bacteria in pigs, raw pork samples and 16 human patients in China.

The bacteria are immune to colistin, a 50-year-old antibiotic considered a drug of last resort against an especially dangerous group of pathogens that have become increasingly resistant to antimicrobial drugs.

The scientists described the emergence of mcr-1 as “the breach of the last group of antibiotics” by plasmid-mediated resistance.

Though for the moment the resistant bacteria seem confined to China, and perhaps Laos and Malaysia, the researchers said it was just a matter of time before it goes global…

           — Hat tip: JLH [Return to headlines]
 

Antibiotic Resistance: World on Cusp of ‘Post-Antibiotic Era’

The world is on the cusp of a “post-antibiotic era”, scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed.

They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort — colistin — in patients and livestock in China.

They said that resistance would spread around the world and raised the spectre of untreatable infections.

It is likely resistance emerged after colistin was overused in farm animals.

Bacteria becoming completely resistant to treatment — also known as the antibiotic apocalypse — could plunge medicine back into the dark ages.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bacteria Now Resistant Even to ‘Last Resort’ Antibiotics

Well that’s ironic. As if to mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week, antibiotic resistance just got a whole lot scarier. Resistance genes identified in China suggests we could soon see bacteria that are resistant to every known type of antibiotic, and these genes have already been found in bacteria infecting people.

Until now, a type of bacteria known as Gram negative have remained susceptible to one particular class of antibiotics, called polymyxins. These have become known as “last resort” antibiotics, increasingly used to treat infections that resist every other kind.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China’s Growing Air Power Could be Unsettling for Washington

Despite its military capabilities, the US is increasingly unable to challenge Beijing’s air power in areas close to mainland China, a new study shows.

“Over the past two decades, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has transformed itself from a large but antiquated force into a capable, modern military,” a team of researchers led by Eric Heginbotham noted.

To be more specific, the study examined American and Chinese air combat capabilities between 1996 and 2017 in two scenarios — securing continuous air dominance over Taiwan and the Spratly archipelago, as well as destroying 50 percent of the Chinese air fleet involved in both theaters of operation.

Researchers emphasized that they are not anticipating a war between the two powers, but rather analyzing their air superiority capabilities by modelling two theoretical conflicts.

The analysis shows that by 2017 the US will be unable to maintain a continuous presence over Taiwan’s airspace. Washington will need approximately 2,000 warplanes to achieve this goal. This is “more aircraft than America could have the faintest hope of realistically deploying to defend” the island, defense and historical writer Michael Peck noted.

“The study does support what everyone knows already, which is that the US cannot achieve air superiority over Taiwan in the way that it could have without breaking a sweat in the 1950s or 1980s,” he added.

The Spratly Islands are located farther away from mainland China than Taiwan, meaning that maintaining 24/7 air superiority over them would be somewhat easier for Washington.

“As in the Taiwan case, it would have been virtually impossible for the United States to maintain a decisive 24/7 presence from the outset of a conflict after 2010. However, the results also suggest that the United States would be able to achieve attrition-based air superiority in a relevant time frame even in the 2017 case,” researchers observed.

The Spratlys recently made headlines when the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi (Zhubi) Reef apparently challenging China’s sovereignty claims over this area of the hotly contested South China Sea. The operation was not authorized by Beijing.

The key finding of the study could be unnerving for Washington:

“The United States continues to maintain unparalleled air-to-air capabilities. … However, continuous improvements to Chinese air capabilities make it increasingly difficult for the United States to achieve air superiority within a politically and operationally effective time frame, especially in a scenario close to the Chinese mainland.”

The research, conducted on the basis of publicly available information, was undertaken by RAND Corp., a nonprofit that provides analysis for the US military.

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

Australia Blocks Sale of Huge Cattle Estate to Foreigners

Australia on Thursday blocked the sale of one of the world’s largest cattle estates to foreign entities, ruling it was not in the national interest with part of the holdings in a weapons testing area.

S. Kidman and Co Ltd, Australia’s biggest private land owner, is on the market with Chinese companies Genius Link Group and Shanghai Pengxin reportedly in a bidding war to secure the sprawling pastoral empire for up to Aus$350 million (US$249 million).

But following concerns about valuable agricultural and mineral assets passing into foreign hands, Treasurer Scott Morrison said he would not authorise any sale to overseas investors…

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

World’s Second-Largest Diamond ‘Found in Botswana’

The world’s second-largest gem quality diamond has been discovered in Botswana, the Lucara Diamond firm says.

The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from its Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of the capital, Gaborone.

It is the biggest diamond to be discovered in Botswana and the largest find in more than a century.

The 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond was found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Argentine Police Raid Central Bank Trading Desk

Now if only the police can raid the Federal Reserve…

This week, the Argentine police raided the trading desk of the nation’s central bank, according to Reuters. This comes as a prosecutor alleged that Alejandro Vanoli, the central bank president, ordered the monetary regulator to sell United States dollar reserves at a rate far below that on the international futures market.

The prosecutor was able to present his case by a complaint from two opposition legislators who said the suppressed price by the bank that sold the dollar futures had led to an immense loss for the government.

For those who haven’t followed Argentine economic news, the central bank regularly sells dollar futures to improve the peso and reduce fears of devaluation.

The central bank released a statement saying that it had not conducted anything unscrupulous and blamed the events on a political witch hunt against Vanoli prior to the upcoming presidential run-off election.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Honduras to Charge Syrians Using False Documents to Get to US

Honduras moved Thursday to charge five Syrian men for using falsified Greek passports to try to get to the United States, while Costa Rica arrested a Syrian woman also using a suspect Greek passport.

Their arrests in the Central American countries reflected a sense of alarm over undocumented Syrians attempting to enter the United States in the wake of last week’s massacres in Paris by Syria-linked jihadists.

However, Honduran and Costa Rican authorities said there was no sign the five men or the woman had any ties to the Islamic State group or other extremist organizations. Instead they are being treated as illegal immigrants…

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

New Survey Conducted at Chile’s Monte Verde

Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University has worked at Monte Verde in southern Chile since 1977. It had been thought that the Clovis people were the first to arrive in the Americas some 13,000 years ago, but Dillehay’s work at Monte Verde helped scientists to push back that date.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Testing the Gates? Syrians Nabbed South of the Border, Arizona Arrests Stoke Terror Fears

Two separate reports of groups of America-bound Syrians detained below the U.S. southern border and the arrests of six other Middle Eastern men nabbed with smugglers in Arizona in recent days are raising concerns that Islamic State militants could be probing security — and stoking fears some may already be here.

On Monday, five Pakistani nationals and one Afghan were nabbed in Arizona along with two suspected smugglers, a Department of Homeland Security official confirmed. Then, on Tuesday, Honduran authorities arrested five Syrians they said were headed for the U.S. with stolen or doctored Greek passports, but later said the men were college students fleeing war at home. On the same day and 1,800 miles north, two Syrian families were taken into custody at a border checkpoint in Texas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

4 European Nations Shut Their Borders to Economic Migrants

Restrictions in Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia

(ANSA) — BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Four nations along Europe’s Balkan refugee corridor shut their borders Thursday to those not coming from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq, leaving thousands of others seeking a better life in Europe stranded at border crossings.

The overnight decision was exactly the domino effect that both asylum-seekers and European nations had feared would happen given the record number of people fleeing to Europe this year and new fears after the deadly Paris attacks of possible militants coming in with refugees.

Macedonia was not allowing in from Greece people from Morocco, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Liberia, Congo or Pakistan, the UNHCR spokeswoman in Serbia, Melita Sunjic, said Thursday. Slovenia also said it has closed its border for the so-called economic migrants. On the Serbian border with Macedonia, the Serbs were only letting in migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. And on the Croatia-Serbia border, Croats were only accepting people from those three countries plus Palestine, she said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

And Justin Trudeau Thought Stephen Harper Was Divisive

Trudeau insisted and still insists not only should Canada bring 25,000 refugees into the country but this has to be done before the end of the year, a mere six weeks from now. It is just as important for Trudeau to stick to his artificial deadline as it is for him to provide a new home to 25,000 people. Staying with his deadline is limiting security checks to those that can be done by the end of the year.

It is not as though these refugees are under any immediate threat. They will be taken from refugee camps in relatively safe countries such as Jordan and not from the caliphate that, according to Barack Obama, is “contained”. Living in these camps is no hell but either is living on Canadian military bases and hospitals that have been closed.

Many groups that deal in refugees as well as those in the intelligence field say that proper vetting cannot be possible in that time frame. It takes months and sometimes up to two years to complete proper security checks. But Trudeau does not care; the safety and security comes a distant second to his wanting to fulfill his unrealistic promise.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

At Least Two Paris Attackers ‘Took Migrant Route Into Europe’

At least two of the Paris attackers took the migrant route into Europe, according to French reports, intensifying fears that terrorists are passing themselves off as would-be refugees.

Britain, among other EU states, has contacted France to try and understand how this happened to avoid any repeats “on their name”, according to Le Monde.

French interior minister sources told EU counterparts directly after the attacks that left 129 dead that there was a “strong probability” that “certain terrorists have returned (to Europe) from Syria by passing themselves off as migrants”, the paper reports.

The fears came after a Syrian passport — thought to be in the name of a dead Syrian soldier loyal to president Bashar al-Assad — was found next to the body of a suicide bomb at the Stade de France last Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Lawmaker Backs EU Refugee Quota Challenge as ‘Absolute Must’

The EU quota plan to resettle refugees across the bloc should be confronted as a violation of European principles, an Austrian lawmaker and Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) member told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Hungarian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to challenge the European resettlement scheme, paving the way to a European Court of Justice lawsuit planned for early December.

“It is an absolute must to challenge it,” Johannes Hubner said. “This plan violates fundamental European rights.”

Hubner said that despite Austria’s previous favorable vote for the redistribution scheme two months ago, “every reasonable government should tell the European Union that we will not implement this quota plan.”

Slovak, Czech and Romanian interior ministers joined Hungary at the September 22 session in voting against a quota system that would resettle some 160,000 refugees throughout the EU over the next two years.

The Austrian lawmaker cited newly-elected Polish leadership’s announcement of plans to stop accepting refugees after the deadly November 13 Paris attacks. Poland previously voted in favor of the EU refugee quota, breaking ranks with the Central and Eastern European EU members.

Hubner stated that forcing EU member states to take in new citizens “is a total misuse of the EU institutions” and blamed the Austrian government for contributing to what is seen as the largest migrant crisis in Europe since World War II.

FPO more than doubled its showing at the September municipal and mayoral elections, gaining over 30 percent of votes behind aggressive anti-migrant sentiment in Europe.

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

Eastern Europe is Concerned About Its Own Security

More and more Europeans are linking the latest surge of Islamist terrorist attacks to the mass refugee influx in Europe. Security concerns are growing.

The tense security situation in the wake of last Friday’s attacks in Paris has incited a strong response in central and eastern European countries against the current refugee crisis in the European Union: the police presence in city centers has been boosted, border checks and the surveillance of refugee camps have been reinforced. Also, anti-Muslim rhetoric directed at the refugees has grown sharper.

In Poland, the new conservative government has made it clear that a commitment to accepting refugees was no longer tenable after the attacks in Paris. Warsaw had “no political possibilities” of implementing the EU plans, said European Affairs Minister Konrad Szymanski. Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told Syrian refugees to return to their country and fight there.

Slovakia’s Social Democrat Prime Minister Robert Fico caused an outcry with his response to the terrorist attacks. In a television talk show, he emphasized that his government has been warning against the consequences and risks of migration for months now.

As an additional security measure to prevent terrorist acts, he announced Slovakia would put all Muslims in the country under surveillance. Right-wing extremist circles in Bratislava blame German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s asylum policy for the terrorist attacks in Paris.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EXCLUSIVE — 6 Men From Pakistan, Afghanistan Busted Illegally Entering Arizona From Mexico

A highly trusted federal agent working under the umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has confirmed to Breitbart Texas that a group composed of 5 Pakistani men and 1 man from Afghanistan was captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents after having illegally crossed the porous U.S.-Mexico border in the Tucson Sector of Arizona.

The six men were traveling in a group and were captured roughly 16 miles into the state of Arizona, specifically, near the small picturesque town of Patagonia, Arizona.

The apprehension of the group occurred late on Monday night, November 16, 2015.

Border Patrol agents were unable to do extensive interviews with the six Middle Eastern men because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the matter. The aliens were immediately transferred to Tucson where the FBI took custody.

On Wednesday evening, Breitbart Texas disclosed a report by other federal agents claiming that 8 Syrian illegal aliens were captured while attempting to enter the United States in the Laredo Sector. The Department of Homeland Security has now confirmed our exclusive report.

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, Breitbart Texas reported that 5 Syrians were arrested in Honduras cutting their travel plans to the U.S. short. Those 5 Syrians entered Honduras by air and were headed towards the Guatemalan border. All five of the Syrians were said to be young males and were all carrying stolen Greek passports…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Fantasy Island? Egyptian Billionaire Nears Deal for Greek Paradise to House Refugees

An Egyptian billionaire is getting closer in his quest to take hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees from the land of barrel bombs to an island paradise where fish and dolphins skim the shoreline and olive trees dominate the terrain.

Telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris floated the idea of buying a Greek or Italian island to house up to 200,000 Syrian refugees in September, but a spokesman told Forbes on Wednesday that the Coptic Christian is showing “optimism” that he could land one of 17 Greek isles currently under consideration.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French President Francois Hollande Welcomes Refugees Despite Paris Attack

French President Francois Hollande today promised that “France will remain a country of freedom,” defending his decision to honor a commitment to accept migrants and refugees despite Friday’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

“Life should resume fully,” Hollande told a gathering of the country’s mayors, who gave him a standing ovation. “What would France be without its museums, without its terraces, its concerts, its sports competitions?

“France should remain as it is. Our duty is to carry on our lives.”

In the same spirit, he added, “30,000 refugees will be welcomed over the next two years. Our country has the duty to respect this commitment,” explaining that they will undergo vigorous security checks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Geert Wilders: Let the Dutch Vote on Immigration Policy

by Geert Wilders

The Hague — The first thing France did after last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris was to temporarily close its borders. It was a wise move. The attacks showed just how unsafe Europe has become as a result of the European Union’s open border policies and decades of foolish decisions by governments across the Continent to open their doors to mass immigration from Islamic countries.

Mass immigration changes countries beyond recognition. Ordinary people are well aware of that. In 2008, before the current crisis, a poll in the Netherlands already showed that a majority of Dutch citizens considered the importation of huge numbers of immigrants to be the biggest mistake in their country’s postwar history.

Unfortunately, there is a tendency among political elites to distrust the opinions of ordinary people. They are perceived to base their views on dark instincts and unjustified fears, rather than on rational choices. European voters, however, are highly educated, and it is ridiculous to suppose they can be easily fooled or manipulated.

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.

We should respond to the current migration crisis by relying on the wisdom of the people and putting crucial national policies to a vote in binding referendums. This is an existential crisis that is leading to the dilution of national identity and the loss of security at a moment when the European Union has also robbed member nations of their sovereignty and the right to conduct their own asylum policies.

Europe’s political elite has lost touch with the people. Citizens no longer feel represented by their national governments and parliaments…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Merkel Reaches 10-Year Mark Under a Cloud

Chancellor Angela Merkel celebrates ten years in power on Sunday, facing the fight of her political life over her liberal stance on refugees, which provoked a party revolt, and fresh fears sparked by the Paris carnage.

A Protestant pastor’s daughter who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, Angela Merkel has made an unprecedented journey to become chancellor of Germany and the world’s most powerful woman.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Left-Wing Arguments for Taking Syrian “Refugees” Are Stupid

Look to Europe’s mistakes. They threw the doors open to these “refugees,” and what did they get? They got a rape jihad, with hundreds of German and Scandinavian women being raped, abused, and even murdered by “refugees” so far. They’ve gotten riots. They’ve gotten vandalism and crime. They’ve gotten open declarations that the “refugees” are going to take over Europe and Islamize it. They’ve gotten religious triumphalism. And now, as Paris made clear, and as other incidents are continuing to do, they’ve gotten outright terrorism.

And that’s what the left-wingers want to bring here. It has already been established beyond a doubt that at least two of the Paris attackers entered Europe after being processed through Greece as “refugees.” Here in America, we’ve already seen al-Qaeda terrorists who have been caught here after they entered via the refugee program. We’ve arrested several ISIS members who were plotting attacks and who entered as refugees. Most recently, one refugee who had just been resettled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, disappeared earlier this week, only to be found in Washington DC today. Even outside the official channels of the refugee resettlement program, we just saw five Syrian “refugees” with fake passports and refugee papers from Europe arrested by Honduras as they tried to travel to the US. Another eight Syrians were caught trying to illegally cross our border into Texas at Laredo.

Clearly, even the “refugees” who aren’t actively bombing or shooting anyone yet are still bad news—and there’s no historical precedent for America to be foolish enough to take them in.

The next argument is a classic one for the Left—how can we be so heartless as to turn away poor, helpless women and children? Think of all the poor widows and the three-year old orphans that Obama was jibber-jabbering about today!

Problem is, it’s all a racket. Have you ever wondered why in those pictures of the “refugees” your see from Europe, nearly all of them are military aged males? It’s because nearly all of them are military aged males. Indeed, the demographics are so lopsided that the Syrian women are wondering why all their “men” are leaving them behind to face the dangers of war and genocide and going to a cushy life in Europe.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mainstream Media Blacks Out Massive Anti-Immigration Protest in Poland After Paris Attacks by Middle Easterners

(NaturalNews) As President Obama politicizes the issue of admitting Syrian refugees into the U.S. who have not been properly vetted — by mocking Republicans who are opposed to the plan as cowards — there has been an upsurge of anti-immigrant sentiment building not just within the U.S. but all over the Western world.

If you’ve not heard about or read about any of that, that’s understandable, considering that the mainstream American media — and many of its Left-leaning counterparts overseas — haven’t done their duty and reported it.

But some have, fortunately, and their reporting provides insight and context to an increasingly complex issue made even more so by the recent attacks in Paris. One of them is Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster.

The media company reported that, following the Paris attacks, massive anti-immigrant protests were launched in nearby Poland. Local media in that country have also reported the story of a Polish national living in Norway who was arrested on terrorism charges in his native land after fighting for several months in Syria on behalf of ISIS, the group that claimed responsibility for killing 129 people in Paris recently.

The suspect, a 26-year-old, was apprehended by Polish authorities in the city of Lodz; a spokesman for the local public prosecutor’s office there told reporters that the man could spend as many as six years in prison.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Melbourne Mayor Calls on Australia to Share Burden of Refugees

Lord Mayor of Melbourne Robert Doyle claims that Australia should shoulder the burden with the rest of the world and Europe in particular and accept more migrants from the Middle East.

MANILA (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — Australia should shoulder the burden with the rest of the world and Europe in particular and accept more migrants from the Middle East, Lord Mayor of Melbourne Robert Doyle told Sputnik.

Australia has pledged to take in 12,000 Syrian refugees before Christmas, lending a helping hand to Europe, struggling with migrant crisis.

“This is quite a large number for us… It is quite a costly exercise, but I think that we should react and bring people in. I would be very disappointed if Australia didn’t do its share in shouldering this burden,” the official said.

Then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the resettlement of the extra Syrian refugees in September. His government has been repeatedly criticized by the international community over the treatment of asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores in search of refuge.

Refugees, including young children, who come to Australia seeking asylum are settled in offshore detention camps at the nearby island of Manus in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, which had been criticized by rights groups for inhumane living conditions.

“This would bring a very large Syrian population. So it will be upon us as the city to work hard… to make sure that they feel very much at home, that they are connected to the services they need in Australia, and that they feel that they are part of our community,” Doyle said.

He added that it would be up to a network from civil community to work with refugees, engaging them in social activities and thus helping their integration.

Then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the resettlement of the extra Syrian refugees in September. His government has been repeatedly criticized by the international community over the treatment of asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores in search of refuge.

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

More ISIS Terrorists Caught Trying to Enter Europe as ‘Refugees’

Authorities detained eight suspected ISIS operatives in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport after they flew in from the Moroccan city of Casablanca on Tuesday, according to Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.

They were posing as refugees and in possession of hand-drawn maps plotting the course from Turkey to Germany.

The news adds further fuel to the fire of controversy of President Obama’s plans to bring 10,000 more Syrian refugees to the United States for permanent resettlement. This has been a subject of hot debate in Congress since the attack on Paris that was launched by eight ISIS fighters, at least two of whom are believed to have entered Europe as “refugees.”

The subject of accepting Obama’s Syrian refugees has also been a sore spot among Republican governors, 27 of whom have announced they don’t want to accept the refugees because of concerns by the FBI about difficulties in vetting them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NBC Executive Says She Didn’t Mean to Offend Latino Lawmakers: ‘Yo Hablo Español’

If Latino lawmakers thought they were going to walk out of a meeting with NBC executives feeling assured that the media company was turning a new leaf following protests over Donald Trump’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” they were sorely mistaken.

Things turned tense almost immediately when NBC News President Deborah Turness began talking about undocumented immigrants and referred to them as “illegals” — a term that is not only considered offensive to many Latinos but one that has also fallen out of favor in many parts of the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Refugees Put Merkel to Test as She Marks 10 Years in Power

German Chancellor Angela Merkel marks a decade in power Sunday facing the fight of her political life over her liberal stance on refugees, which provoked a party revolt, and fresh fears sparked by the Paris carnage.

In what just a few months ago would have been an unreserved celebration of the German leader at the height of her powers, the 10-year anniversary comes as the migrant crisis looks set to become the defining issue of Merkel’s tenure.

Despite a growing backlash, she has remained defiant and dismissed claims that the hundreds of thousands fleeing war and persecution represent a security threat…

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

Serbia Limits Entry of Refugees by Nationality: UNHCR

Serbia has begun allowing only Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees through the country on the main migrant route to northern Europe, a UN refugee agency spokeswoman said Thursday.

“Since yesterday afternoon Serbian authorities allow into the country only refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq,” when they have documents to prove it, said spokeswoman Melita Sunjic.

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

Ten Jewish Groups Urge Congress to Allow Syrian Refugees Into U.S.

While Congress members consider not admitting Syrian refugees after the Paris attacks, Jewish groups argue that ‘turning our back on refugees would be to betray our nation’s core values.’

Ten Jewish groups have sent a letter to Congress members on Tuesday urging them not to roll back plans to accept Syrian refugees into the United States.

“To turn our back on refugees would be to betray our nation’s core values,” said the letter, as Congress began considering measures that would put a stop to the Obama administration’s plans to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year.

“It would send a demoralizing and dangerous message to the world that the United States makes judgments about people based on the country they come from and their religion.”

Among the Jewish groups signing are the Union for Reform Judaism, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee…

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

‘This is Chaos’

Inside the lawless ‘hotspots’ that are supposed to be solving Europe’s refugee crisis.

“Lesvos has been receiving migrants for many years now,” Lesvos Mayor Spyros Galinos says. “My predecessor also had this problem.” Two years ago, he says, “we had only 200 arrivals per day, then it went up to 1,000, then 3,000, then 5,000.”

In early September, there were 35,000 refugees in Mytilene, Lesvos’ capital and only city. With just 27,000 residents in Mytilene, the mayor says, “It was really a city under occupation.”

“They tear their passport up as the boat comes close to shore,” the Hellenic police officer says, “And as soon as they arrive in Lesvos, everyone becomes Syrian.” Many Syrians have a dry sense of humor about it, making deadpan jokes about the Pakistani or Iranian areas of Syria they only just learned existed.

The unlivable conditions—”people’s basic needs aren’t being met,” Zahos say—and uncertain, protracted wait times at Moria mean frustrations regularly hit boiling point and tempers erupt in violence. People don’t just fight over blankets. Fights and small-scale riots are commonplace.

“This is chaos, it’s a total mess,” the Hellenic police commander says about the thousands of people waiting to be registered in Moria. “We cannot manage it.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Visa Waiver Program is More of a Threat to U.S. Than Syrian Refugees, Critics Say

In the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks, some members of Congress from both major parties are pushing for the suspension — or tightening — of a program that allows people from nearly 40 countries, including many in Europe, to skip many steps that citizens from other nations must take before being given a visa to come to the United States.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who represents Hawaii, is calling for the U.S. government to suspend the Visa Waiver Program, which allows visitors from countries that have visa-free agreements with the United States to travel here without going through a myriad of steps. Those steps include applying for a visa, providing certain documentation and going through an-person interview with a U.S. official.

Critics of the Visa Waiver Program say that even friendly countries are seeing a growing number of “home-grown terrorists.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Zeman: Opponents of Migrants Should Not be Branded Racists

Prague, Nov 17 (CTK) — Czech President Milos Zeman said today the holders of opposite opinions of the migrant crisis should not be “branded” Islamophobes, racists or fascists, at an event staged by the Bloc Against Islam that takes a negative stance on migrants and is opposed to their acceptance.

On another occasion, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD), on the contrary, called on the public not to turn the anger provoked by terrorists against the migrants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Univ. Of Vermont Holds Privilege Retreat for Students Who ‘Self-Identify as White’

The University of Vermont held a three-day retreat so students could confront their “white privilege.”

The University of Vermont held a three-day retreat so students who “self-identify as white” could confront their own “white privilege.”

“Examining White Privilege: A Retreat for Undergraduate Students Who Self-Identify as White” took place last weekend, November 13-15, and was “specifically for white students.”

According to the university, the self-identifying white students who attend the retreat will come to “recognize and understand white privilege from an individual experience” and have the opportunity to “conceptualize and articulate whiteness from a personal and systematic lense as well as the impact of white privilege on the UVM community and beyond.”

The self-identifying white students also tackled tough questions such as “What does it mean to be white?” and “How does whiteness impact you?”

The university website features testimonials from past attendees of the retreat, who praised the way the event was a “safe space.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Airport Passenger Profiling Key to Thwarting Attacks: Analysts

Contested in some quarters, air passenger profiling is gaining ground among watchdogs as a defence against terror attacks following two bloody assaults in less than a month.

The technique entails closely scrutinising passengers for identity or behavioural clues, backing classic methods such as baggage and body scans.

At Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, widely considered to be the world’s most secure, all passengers waiting to check in are questioned by security agents who ask questions about their trip, looking for nerves or inconsistent statements.

If replies raise suspicions, the passenger is singled out for additional screening which can involve hours of questioning and an exhaustive search of their luggage…

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

The World’s Biggest Volcano is a Magnetic Mix-Up

Five weeks of mapping at sea suggests two possible origins for the underwater Tamu Massif.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/19/2015

  1. Rachida Dati : Rachida Dati is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament, representing Île-de-France. Before her election, she held the cabinet post of Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice. Wikipedia

    She said French deadly, corpsy crises cannot be ascribed to islam and muslims.

    By devil Rachia. This time your are right. The root of the problems in Europe and the west stems from the rulers’ utter stupidity, naivete, foolishness, fecklessness, cowardice, betrayal of their own, directionless confusion, zilch values.

    They take values from muslims invaders and are ashamed of any vales of their own if they are aware of any.

    Go back to sleep the west. You are superior: Your utmost goal is to save invaders so as to carry on their invasion here.

  2. You have outdone yourself, Baron. This has been such wide-spread news gathered here that I feel no need to look elsewhere on the internet.

    Thank you!

Comments are closed.