A labor court in Brussels has ordered the Belgian state to pay a fine of €125 per day for every day that a teen-aged Afghan asylum seeker goes without state-provided housing. Belgian law mandates that the government provide housing for all asylum seekers, even before their applications have been registered.
In other migration news, seven Syrian citizens were arrested in Argentina when they attempted to use fake Greek passports to travel to El Norte.
In other news, a fire that badly damaged a Somali restaurant in Grand Forks, North Dakota has been determined to have been deliberately set. The arson attack comes just a few days after a hate crime against the restaurant, when a vandal painted a Nazi “SS” symbol on the outside wall, along with the words “Go home”.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Henrietta, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.
Canada Just Warned That Negative Interest Rates Are Coming
Currently, both the Bank of Canada and Bay Street economists predict the Canadian economy to recover in 2016, and then to accelerate in 2017.
The ONLY way for this to occur is if the global economy sheds it’s government debt problem. IceCap places a 0% probability of this occurring.
Instead, everyone should expect:
- Canadian economy to be in recession in 2016
- Bank of Canada will be at 0% interest rates in 2016
- Bank of Canada will be at NEGATIVE interest rates in later 2016
- Bank of Canada will be PRINTING MONEY in later 2016
And for the Canadian Dollar? It’s headed lower, a lot lower. If you are not Canadian, just know that you are in a similar boat. And when it comes to boating, there is one simple rule — going against the flow is difficult, it’s exhausting, and it can be humbling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Guess What Happened the Last Time Junk Bonds Started Crashing Like This? Hint: Think 2008
“We are looking at real carnage in the junk bond market.”
The extreme carnage that we are witnessing in the junk bond market right now is one of the clearest signals yet that a major U.S. stock market crash is imminent.
For those that are not familiar with “junk bonds”, please don’t get put off by the name. They aren’t really “junk”. They simply have a higher risk and thus a higher return than other bonds of the same type. And yesterday, I explained why I watch them so closely. If stocks are going to crash, you would expect to see a junk bond crash first. This happened in 2008, and it is happening again right now. On Monday, a high yield bond ETF known as JNK crashed through the psychologically important 35.00 barrier for the very first time since the last financial crisis. On Tuesday, high yield bonds had their worst day in three months, and JNK plummeted all the way down to 34.44. When I saw this I was absolutely stunned. This is precisely the kind of junk bond crash that I have been anticipating that we would soon witness…
If just two or three leading indicators were flashing red, we could have a really good debate about what they might mean.
But the fact that virtually all of the numbers are screaming a warning at us should mean that the debate is over. Anyone with an open mind should be able to very clearly see what is coming next.
Very quickly, let me give you just 10 signs that indicate that we are right on the precipice of a major recession and a very substantial financial downturn…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bloomberg Politics Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds of Likely GOP Primary Voters Back Trump’s Muslim Ban
Almost two-thirds of likely 2016 Republican primary voters favor Donald Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S., while more than a third say it makes them more likely to vote for him.
Those are some of the findings from a Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies PulsePoll, an online survey conducted Tuesday, that shows support at 37 percent among all likely general-election voters for the controversial proposal put forward by the Republican front-runner.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could Syed Farook’s Mother Raffia Become a Suspect in the San Bernardino Jihad Terrorism Plot?
Evidence is mounting the mother of Syed Razwin Farook, who with wife Tafsheen Malik killed 14 injuring 21 in the San Bernardino Jihad Massacre, may become a suspect in the Islamic Terrorism plot. Packaging, gun range practice targets and tools were found in the car registered in the name of Rafia Farook. Moreover, Fox News intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge disclosed that Syed Farook’s Union bank records showed a $28,500 deposit from the alleged proceeds of a loan from the Utah-based web bank.com two weeks before the December 2nd attack at the Christmas Party gathering of the County Health Department. The records further revealed three transfers of $5,000 each, totaling $15,000, were made to Syed’s mother. Further, there was evidence in the Redlands , California rented home that Rafia had been a member of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a Pakistani fundamentalist Muslim group, whose adherents in the US had been involved in terrorism plots both in the US and in Pakistan. Rafia had lived with her son Syed and his late wife Ms. Malik allegedly caring for their six month old daughter. Lawyers for Rafia had denied she had any knowledge of her son Syed and his wife Tashfeen amassing weapons, ammunition and manufacturing pipe bombs and IEDs in the garage of the rented Redlands, California town house…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Investigating Potential 2012 Terror Plot by San Bernardino Attacker
The FBI is investigating whether Syed Rizwan Farook and a neighbor intended to commit an act of terror in about 2012 and then got spooked, a senior law enforcement official said Wednesday. The two men may have been disrupted when the FBI arrested several men in late 2012 in a separate plot to kill Americans in Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fire at Grand Forks Somali Restaurant Intentional, Marshals Say
Though investigators have “no idea” what motivated the deliberate torching of a Somali restaurant in Grand Forks, community members believe the fire was a hate crime, with the fire ignited days after a Nazi-like symbol was spray-painted on the restaurant.
The Grand Forks Fire Department was called to Juba Coffee House, 2017 S. Washington St., at about 2 a.m. Tuesday for a report of a fire, which left the building badly damaged.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control within 20 minutes, but not before it caused an estimated $90,000 worth of damages, Battalion Chief Rob Corbett said.
No one was injured in the fire.
Fire marshals determined the fire was ignited intentionally, and with that, the Grand Forks Police Department has taken the lead in investigating the fire, according to a news release.
The fire was the second incident reported at the business in the past several days.
The Grand Forks Police Department also is investigating apparent vandalism that occurred overnight Thursday when someone painted graffiti on the exterior wall of the building. The graffiti included what appears to be an “SS” in the style of a symbol from Nazi Germany above the painted words “go home.”
Authorities have not determined whether the incidents are related.
“We have no idea (what motivated Tuesday’s fire) and we won’t know until the investigation is concluded,” Grand Forks Police spokesman Lt. Derik Zimmel said. “We’re certainly not going to put blinders on our investigation, and I would encourage the public to do the same.”
While he expressed his sympathies to those affected by the fire in a statement Tuesday, Mayor Mike Brown also cautioned against speculating about what happened.
But community leaders were quick to respond to beliefs that the fire was racially or religiously motivated and reassured Muslims, immigrants and others they are welcome here.
“This is your home,” said Robin David, president of the board of Global Friends Coalition, at a candlelight vigil held Tuesday evening outside Juba.
There is little question for some that the fire was racially or religiously motivated.
“It was vandalized last week,” said Said Mohamed, who was at the vigil. “It’s not coincidence.”
At the least, out of the fire surfaced fears.
“As a Muslim and an African-American, this is the first time I feel scared,” said Zakariye Ahmed, a UND student also at the vigil.
| — Hat tip: Henrietta | [Return to headlines] |
Judge in Shocking Misconduct Case Suddenly Goes Silent
Jurist claimed ‘jury tampering,’ but no jury was present
The judge who orchestrated a Michigan man’s arrest on a claim of “jury tampering” even though there was no jury present, along with a couple of prosecutors, is trying to avoid explaining what happened and why he ordered the arrest, according to a defense attorney.
WND reported a week ago that Keith Wood, 39, a former pastor, was arrested on the orders of Mecosta County District Judge Peter Jaklevic for handing out brochures to the public about the concept of jury rights.
Wood’s bond was set at $150,000 in what defense attorney Dave Kallman described as a foiled attempt by the judiciary to keep Wood from his family over Thanksgiving. Wood responded by putting $15,000 on a credit card to leave jail.
The judge had ordered court officials to bring Wood into his courthouse, then ordered Wood’s arrest.
Kallman said on Tuesday that more details were being uncovered about what happened.
In a statement released to the media, he said Wood was arrested “for simply handing out brochures about jury rights on a public sidewalk in front of a courthouse. The court set a $150,000 bond to try to force Mr. Wood to be in jail over Thanksgiving away from his family and refused to appoint him a court-appointed attorney.”
Kallman continued, “According to just released police reports, Deputy Jeff Roberts threatened Mr. Wood to either come inside the courthouse to meet with the judge or else be arrested. Under the threat of arrest, Mr. Wood was escorted to a hallway in the courthouse where Prosecutor Brian Thiede, Assistant Prosecutor Nathan Hull, and Judge Peter Jaklevic were waiting. Prosecutor Theide then questioned Mr. Wood. Mr. Wood was not given his Miranda rights prior to being questioned. Judge Jaklevic then ordered Deputy Roberts to arrest Mr. Wood for jury tampering. This entire meeting was not in the courtroom, not on the record, and without an attorney present for Mr. Wood.”
Kallman confirmed that Jaklevic, Lyons. Theide and Hull all were subpoenaed to appear and testify at a preliminary examination before Judge Kimberly Booher on Thursday, and were told to bring “emails, texts, notes and other information.”
However, the members of the court are wanting not to talk about the case, apparently, as Kallman said Thiede “has filed a motion to quash all four subpoenas requesting this documentation.”
Kallman continued, “He has also filed a motion to quash the subpoena compelling himself and Mr. Hull to appear and testify at the court hearing.”
Prosecutors had refused to dismiss the counts at the initial court hearing in the case a week earlier, and had wanted Wood to plead guilty to a charge, an idea Kallman said was dismissed out of hand.
He said the prosecution not only will have to prove at Thursday’s hearing that there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed, but that Wood committed it.
This based on the facts of the case, Kallman said, which include that Wood was handing out a brochure regarding juror rights and responsibilities to members of the public in the area of the courthouse.
The jury tampering seems a stretch, he said, since there was no jury present…
A commenter in the local Michigan media had no patience for the judge’s perspective.
Dustin Potter wrote, “The judge should be put in prison for this. ‘Deprivation of rights under color of authority’ is a 10-year felony.” He cited the U.S. Justice Department.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lynch Defends Muslim Outreach Efforts as Trump Urges Entry Ban
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the U.S. must expand outreach to the Islamic community to detect extremists before they act, highlighting the administration’s ideological split with Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, who’s calling for a ban on the entry of Muslims.
Lynch’s comments, made on Monday hours before Donald Trump urged an entry ban, point up the stark contrast between the administration’s policy of engaging with Muslims and the billionaire mogul’s controversial stance. While law enforcement has been increasing its interactions with Muslims in recent years to detect violent extremists and to prevent discriminatory backlash, Lynch said those contacts must be broadened.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Match Made in Hell: SoCal Terrorists Likely Forged Bond in Online Jihadist Forums
The online romance between Southern California terrorists Farook Rizwan Syed and Tashfeen Malik was more a meeting of like minds than lonely hearts, with two radical jihadists forming a bond of hate and bloodlust in the dark recesses of the Internet.
Family members have said Syed, 28, and Malik, 29, met online and embarked on a whirlwind digital relationship capped by their 2014 marriage. But if they did, it was not on any dating site resembling those that bring people together every day in the civilized world. Their meeting brought together two already-radicalized soulmates who would go on to kill 14 people and wound 21 more in last week’s massacre at a San Bernardino social services facility
“They were actually radicalized before they started [dating online],” FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Wednesday. “As early as the end of 2013 they were talking about jihad and martyrdom, before they became engaged.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Meet the Peer 2 Peer Lending Website That Funded the San Bernardino Shooters
If you aren’t familiar with P2P, you might be asking yourself: “what kind of loans does Prosper make?” Well, according to their website, they arrange debt consolidation loans, home improvement loans, special occasion loans, and personal loans for business.
We’re not sure which of those categories “jihadist massacre” falls under (we assume “special occasion”), but as Reuters reports, San Bernardino mass shooters Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, obtained a $28,500 loan through Prosper not long before killing 14 and injuring nearly two dozen in a bloody rampage last Wednesday. From Reuters:
Online lender Prosper recently made a $28,500 loan to Syed Rizwan Farook who, along with his wife, killed 14 people at a holiday party last week in San Bernardino, California, according to a source familiar with the matter.
One of the Reuters government sources said Farook and Malik apparently pursued a scenario previously followed by U.S.-based militants by draining their bank accounts and maxing out credit lines before embarking on what they believe to be a suicide mission, knowing that they would not have to pay off the debts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mysterious Bright Spots on Ceres Are Probably Salt
Ice also transforms to water vapour in the dwarf planet’s craters, creating an enigmatic haze.
The verdict is in — mostly. The bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are probably made of salt, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has found.
Mixed with the salt are bits of rock and frozen water. When sunlight hits the blend, the ice sublimates into a misty haze above two of Ceres’s craters, researchers report in the 10 December issue of Nature.
But mission scientists are not sure how the salt, ice and haze are interlinked. “The whole picture we do not have yet,” says Andreas Nathues, a planetary scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Goettingen, Germany, and the paper’s lead author.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Clues to Ceres’ Bright Spots and Origins
Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. They include highly anticipated insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet’s surface.
In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt. The second study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays, raising questions about how Ceres formed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
San Bernardino Shooters Practiced Attack for at Gun Range
(NBCNEWS) — NBC News has learned that San Bernardino shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik spent at least a year preparing for their terror attack, practicing at a local gun range and making financial plans for their family after their deaths.
Two sources said Farook and Malik had practiced their shooting skills at a Riverside, California-area gun range for a year or more before last Wednesday’s attack on a holiday office party. They killed 14 people and wounded 21 more with firearms at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
San Bernardino Shooter Received Deposit of $28,500 Weeks Before Attack 2:24
Counterterrorism officials also told NBC News that Farook and Malik were making preparations for some time to “take care of both grandma and the baby.” The couple lived in a Redlands, California residence with their 6-month-old daughter and Farook’s 62-year-old mother, Rafia Farook. They left their daughter with Rafia Farook on the morning of the attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Holds Hearing on Farcical US ISIS “Strategy” — Live Feed
The US hasn’t been very effective when it comes to “fighting” ISIS. Baghdadi’s army hasn’t been “degraded” much less “destroyed” as the Obama administration promised some 15 months ago, Mosul and Raqqa are still firmly under Islamic State’s control, and, perhaps most importantly, the illicit oil business is booming (thanks Erdogan).
Over the past three months or so, US lawmakers began to ask questions about why the overall strategy has failed and more specifically, about, i) why The Pentagon’s $500 million “train and equip” program turned out to be “a joke,” and ii) why Centcom’s reports to the President and to Congress always seemed to indicate that things were going fine when in fact, nothing was actually getting done.
On Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing on America’s ISIS “strategy.” You can watch this bit of Capitol Hill comedy gold live below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The American People Are Scared, But Not of Trump. They Are Scared of Terrorists.
A No-Go-Zone for Muslims in America?
Covering a topic with no end in sight, as they usually do, CNN has been highlighting negative comments about Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims coming to America until the nature of the Muslim terrorist threat can be analyzed and addressed. The terms include “unhinged,” “offensive,” “unconstitutional,” and “reprehensible.”
The term “unhinged” more appropriately applies to Trump’s critics.
The usual talking heads are brought on to express alarm. Larry Sabato on CNN called it a “turning point” for Trump and the possible end of his campaign. Over on Fox News, supposedly a rival network, Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard called Trump a bigot. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski said the Trump proposal scared her.
The American people are scared, but not of Trump. They are scared of terrorists. Trump seems to be the only political figure with anything approaching a solid proposal to keep potential killers out of the United States.
America has just witnessed two Muslim killers in San Bernardino carrying out a massacre, and all that the media can do is unite in anger against a candidate who proposes a ban on Muslim immigration until the two major political parties running Washington, D.C. can figure out what to do.
If anything, Trump’s proposal is cautious. He is giving Democrats and Republicans a chance to solve the problem before more massacres take place. This is supposed to be alarming?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Fear of Being Muslim in North America
After terror attacks in Paris and California, Muslims in North America are facing a sometimes violent backlash.
Omar Suleiman, a resident scholar at the Valley Ranch Islamic Center in Irving, Texas, was out of the country when he got word from his wife that their home address had just been published along with dozens of others by an anti-Islamic organisation.
The group, which had just held an armed protest outside the Islamic Center of Irving, got Suleiman’s address because he registered to speak at a city council meeting back in March. He was asking the city council not to support a state bill that many in the Muslim community viewed as anti-Islamic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump’s Muslim Ban Call ‘Endangers US Security’
Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric undermines US national security by boosting the Islamic State (IS) group, the Pentagon has warned.
The leading Republican presidential candidate has said Muslims should be banned from entering the US, in the wake of the deadly California attacks.
But Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said such talk “bolsters Isil’s narrative”, referring to IS.
There has been a global outcry since Mr Trump made his remarks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry joined the onslaught of condemnation on Tuesday afternoon when he said they were “not constructive” in the fight against IS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US House Targets European Jihadists in Visa Waiver Crackdown
The House of Representatives has voted to ban visa waivers for people who have traveled to Iraq and Syria. There’s widespread concern that “Islamic State” operatives could enter the US on European passports.
On most days, Congress can hardly agree on anything. Tuesday was different. More than 90 percent of the House of Representatives voted to exclude from the visa waiver program people who have traveled to Iraq and Syria since March of 2011. Only 19 opposed the measure.
Thirty-eight countries participate in the waiver program, which grants 90 days of travel in the United States without a tourist visa. Thirty of the 38 participating countries are European. Some 20 million tourists receive visa waivers every year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Clamp Down on Saudi Influence on Belgian Mosques”
Calls for the influence Saudi Arabia exerts on mosques in Belgium to be curtailed are getting louder and louder. The Grand Mosque in the Jubel Park in Brussels is one of the main bones of contention.
It was good King Boudewijn, who granted the Saudis a long-term lease on the property at the end of the 1960’s. Today there are allegations that the Islamic cultural centre that forms part of the mosque is a hotbed for Islamic extremism.
Federal government ministers are examining the matter. The mosque is also coming under attack from unexpected quarters. Rudi Vervoort, the Francophone socialist Brussels PM recently criticised the mosque in the press saying you could not ban the brand of Islam being promoted there, but you could say ‘here it’s finished’.
Mr Vervoort insisted the Saudis could be told to stop importing their form of Islam: “Here there are hardly any Saudis, but they provide the Korans, the religious literature, the TV stations, the mosques and the imams.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Angela Merkel Named Time’s Person of the Year
Time Magazine named German chancellor Angela Merkel its Person of the Year for 2015 on Wednesday, revealing her image on the cover of its upcoming issue next to the title “Chancellor of the Free World.”
Merkel, 61, is the first woman to receive the honor by herself in two decades. The magazine cited her leadership in the refugee crisis, and for helping keep the Euro afloat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Champagne Kings to Make British Bubbly
Famous French brand Taittinger on Wednesday announced plans to become the first Champagne house to produce premium English sparkling wine with the purchase of farmland in Kent.
The Reims-based firm, established in 1734, said it had teamed up with British wine company Hatch Mansfield and private investors to purchase 69 hectares (170 acres) of farmland at Stone Stile Farm in Kent, south east England.
Forty hectares of this will be planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vines to produce sparkling wine, said the company.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christmas Consent Form Irks Norway Parents
Some Norwegian parents are asking just how far schools should go in accommodating minorities after a school in suburban Oslo asked parents for permission to let kids dance around the Christmas tree.
Oslo area mum Karianne Haug told Aftenposten that she could scarcely believe her own eyes when her child came home from Lesterud School in the western suburban municipality of Bærum with a slip asking permission to let her child sing and dance around the Christmas tree.
“It’s fine to ask [for one’s child] to be exempt from the religious service, that has worked fine for years, but to have to check off permission to dance around the Christmas tree? What will be next? Where is the limit for how many considerations we should take? Who makes these considerations, and for whom?” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Consumer Trends Show 15 Mn Italians Buy Online, Censis Says
Study says 4% use car sharing
(ANSA) — Rome, December 4 — Italians have adopted the consumer trends of online shopping and car sharing, with 15 million Italians making a purchase online last year and 4% (about two million) using a car sharing program, said the Censis research institute on Friday.
In the last year, 2.7 million Italians bought food products online, and 46% use online banking, the Censis study said. Participation in the so-called sharing economy is more prevalent among the young in Italy, with 8.4% of young people using a car sharing program, the study said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Copenhagen Terror Victim Named Dane of the Year
The annual prize voted for by readers of the Berlingske newspaper has been awarded to Dan Uzan, a victim of February’s terror shootings in Copenhagen.
Dan Uzan was named ‘Dane of the Year’ (Årets Dansker) on Tuesday for protecting others during the February 14-15 Copenhagen terror attack that cost him his life.
Uzan, 37, was shot outside Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue on Krystalgade in the city centre while working as a volunteer security guard during a bar mitzvah.
His death was one of two at the hands of Omar el-Hussein, a Danish Palestinian, in an attack that occurred less than a month after the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.
The 22-year-old El-Hussein, who became radicalized during a stint behind bars, also attacked the Krudttønden café in Østerbro, killing 55-year-old film director Finn Nørgaard, before being shot and killed by police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Declassified CIA Manual Shows How US Uses Bureaucracy to Destabilize Governments
When most people think of CIA sabotage, they think of coups, assassinations, proxy wars, armed rebel groups, and even false flags — not strategic stupidity and purposeful bureaucratic ineptitude. However, according to a declassified document from 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which later became the CIA, used and trained a curious breed of “citizen-saboteurs” in occupied nations like Norway and France.
The World War II-era document, called Simple Sabotage Field Manual, outlines ways in which operatives can disrupt and demoralize enemy administrators and police forces. The first section of the document, which can be read in its entirety here, addresses “Organizations and Conferences” — and how to turn them into a “dysfunctional mess”:
— Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions. — Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. — When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committee as large as possible — never less than five. — Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. — Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions. — Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision. — Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
On its official webpage, the CIA boasts about finding innovative ways to bring about sabotage, calling their tactics for destabilization “surprisingly relevant.” While they admit that some of the ideas may seem a bit outdated, they claim that “Together they are a reminder of how easily productivity and order can be undermined.”
In a second section targeted at manager-saboteurs, the guide lists the following tactical moves:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Kicked Off the Scottish Green
Trump loves Scotland. Scotland no longer loves him.
“My mother was born in the Hebrides, in Stornoway, so that’s serious Scotland,” Donald Trump told an interviewer in 2010.
The U.S. presidential candidate has long made much of his Scottish roots. He likes Scotland so much that he chose Aberdeenshire as the location for a controversial £1 billion golfing complex.
But the plutocrat’s relationship with his adopted home has been a rocky one. The Scots appear to be turning on him in the wake of this week’s call for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The Herald, one of Scotland’s largest newspapers, carried a front page advert Tuesday for another of Trump’s Scottish golfing interests, at Turnberry. By Wednesday, almost all of Scotland’s political establishment, and even its universities, had made clear their disapproval of Trump’s latest outburst.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, announced she was withdrawing the U.S. mogul’s membership of GlobalScot, an international business network, with “immediate effect.”
Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen stripped Trump of an honorary degree awarded in 2010, describing his comments as “wholly incompatible” with its values.
The Scottish government’s International Development Minister Humza Yousaf, himself a Muslim, called Trump’s comments “hate speech” and warned that his proposed policy, if implemented, would transform the U.S. into an “apartheid state.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Father of Bataclan Killer: ‘I Would Have Killed Him’
The shamed father of the third attacker who killed 90 concert-goers at the Bataclan said if he had known what his son was going to do, he would have killed him earlier.
Speaking to Le Parisien newspaper the father of the 23-year-old Foued Mohamed Aggad said that he would have rather his son had died in Syria or Iraq than return to France and commit the atrocity at the Bataclan.
Foued was originally from Strasbourg, but became radicalised and then travelled to Syria with his brother and some others from the area in late 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four in 10 Italians Say Healthcare is Worsening — Censis
In Italy’s south, 8 in 10 unhappy with regional healthcare
(ANSA) — Rome, December 4 — More than four in 10 Italians think healthcare is worsening, a figure that increases to six in 10 in Italy’s south, according to a study released Friday by Censis.
More than half of those surveyed said healthcare is inadequate, with a full 83% of those in the south unhappy with regional healthcare.
Survey respondents said problems include rising costs and long wait times that often drive patients to pay out-of-pocket at private healthcare providers who offer competitive rates with shorter waits.
The survey said a private-provider MRI scan costs 142 euros with a five-day wait time, while the cost for the same scan in the public healthcare system is just 63 euros but carries a 74-day wait.
The average public healthcare wait time is 55 days for a specialist visit and 46 days for tests, and nearly two in 10 patients (22,6% and 19,4%, respectively) were forced to wait for these services due to lack of private care alternatives.
Meanwhile, half of the families who care for a person in the household who isn’t self-sufficient (5.5% of the Italian population, more than 3.1 million), have such limited resources that they have been forced to use up their savings or sell their homes to cover healthcare costs, the survey said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“But of course, I am supporting of the substance of it,” he went on. “It doesn’t makes [sic] sense. It was a theater, a theater hall. Imagine a theater hall and suddenly people enter with machine guns and are really killing people … It is only in the movies someone is using his gun to defend himself.”
Guns in the hands of good people are a great thing That’s absurd, and most Americans would beg to differ. In fact, just a cursory search online reveals that statement is factually incorrect (here, here, here and even children, here).
In fact, in the U.S., guns are used very frequently to fend off violence.
That said, Europeans don’t seem to be as concerned about personal protection, and are a lot more willing to trust their respective central governments to protect them, even with terrorists in their midst.
That’s their prerogative. It’s their continent. Culturally, they and we are far apart on this issue and are likely to remain so. But as for asserting that we should not have our guns in our hands to protect ourselves? That’s just incorrect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany is Second-Oldest Country Worldwide
The average age in Germany reached a new high of 44.1 years in 2013, a study showed on Tuesday — an increase of more than four years since 1995. Figures from the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) showed that Germany now has the second-oldest population in the world, after Japan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Icelanders Flock to Religion Revering Sumerian Gods and Tax Rebates
Ancient Zuist movement enjoys revival as thousands join as part of protest against requirement that citizens pay taxes to state church
Icelanders opposed to the state funding of religion have flocked to register as Zuists, a movement that worships ancient Sumerian gods and — perhaps more importantly — promises its followers a tax rebate.
More than 3,100 people — almost 1% of Iceland’s population — have joined the Zuist movement in the past two weeks in protest at paying part of their taxes to the state church and other religious bodies. Followers of Zuism will be refunded the tax element earmarked for religion.
Icelanders are required to register their religion with the state, with almost three-quarters of the population affiliated to the established Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Paris, Scientists Debunk UN ‘Climate’ Hysteria
Amid United Nations efforts to shackle humanity to a UN “climate regime” at the COP21 global-warming summit, an international team of scientists and experts from various fields debunked the hysteria at a separate conference in Paris for realists.
Essentially, the prestigious scientists said, there is no man-made global-warming crisis. The UN’s “climate” efforts, meanwhile, have a much more sinister agenda: Destroying industrial civilization, propping up kleptocrats with Western tax funds, and seizing control of the global economy under the guise of regulating the immensely beneficial “gas of life,” also known as carbon dioxide.
The top U.S. senator on the Environment Committee also offered a message of hope to climate realists, saying the “climate charade” by the UN and the Obama administration was dead on arrival.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Expects to Triple Exports to Iran
(AGI) Rome, Dec. 5 — Italy expects to triple its exports to Iran once the current sanctions on the country are lifted as a result of negotiations in the nuclear issue. “Iran will be the good news of 2016 for Italy,” said Carlo Calenda, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, in an interview with AGI in which he discussed the results of a large business mission to the country. Calenda led a delegation of entrepreneurs to Tehran ahead of the likely lifting of sanctions. The results are “very positive”, the deputy minister concluded, also announcing a series of meetings in the coming months between the Italian and Iranian government “at all levels”. With Iran, Calenda explained, “we can quickly arrive at three billion in exports, tripling their current size. And trade worth seven billion is feasible by the end of 2017. The mission to Iran was a success for several reasons. First of all the size of the mission: 371 entrepreneurs were in Tehran and more than a thousand business-to-business meetings were held. But the quality of the work was also excellent: our entrepreneurs are very happy, a satisfaction rate of 90 percent being measured after the mission. And, unlike other missions, satisfaction with the business meetings was even higher than 90 percent, also thanks to a highly developed and interesting Iranian entrepreneurial class.” The waiting is now for ‘implementation day’, which will mark the reopening of full-scale trade with the country. “Our hands are tied until implementation day,” Calenda continued, explaining that his meetings with the governor of the Central Bank of Iran showed the need to “prepare everything “ to be “ready for the day after”. Italian export credit agency SACE pledged to lend five billion euros for investments. “But that is not the end of it,” the deputy minister went on. “A number of Iranian banks could open in Italy to restart the flow of trade and investment.” Iran will also have to go through an ‘upgrading’ of the country that could involve Italian industry. “There is a good cooperation with Italy on this; I think of the tanning and marble industries for example,” continued Calenda. “We operate like this: we bring a technology centre for a given industry, we transfer our equipment to this centre, and there we train local operators. This stimulates others to buy our machines and to work closely with Italians. But there are also companies that have stayed in Iran, such as Techint, who are interested in returning.” The prospects look promising in the oil and gas sector as well: “We met with the Deputy Minister of Oil and with him we outlined the situation with a dozen Italian companies.”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Ready to Face Difficult Year for Foreign Trade
(AGI) Rome, Dec. 5 — The year 2016 will be difficult for foreign trade, but Italy is determined to balance the accounts and identify new areas of development, with a coordinated strategy. In an interview with AGI, Italian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda explained the government’s objectives and guidelines. “There has never been so much consistency of views in this field as there is today,” said Calenda. “Our strategy is developed by the Presidency of the Council and then all ministers take a decision on it together.
The system is beginning to work in a systematic way.” The keywords in the process are coordination and continuity: “We keep working on the relationship with the selected countries and the sectors we focus on must be quite clear,” the deputy minister explained. The strategy also takes complex geopolitical situations into account, and the government even believes that business can promote peace. “But the contrary is also true,” continued Calenda. “For Italian companies it is very important to start thinking in geopolitical terms. In 2016 we will have an extremely unstable situation, not only from the point of view of safety, but also in terms of financial security. Hence the strategy of consolidating primarily secure markets, like the United States and Canada, before moving on to new markets, with rational strategies. In the U.S. we focus on large-scale retail trade. We are pushing agro-food and textile products, half of which are new brands. We will work initially with four chains. Later we will present ourselves with a single brand, set out by Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina, at the main American food fairs, combining ‘Tutto Food’, Cibus and Vinitaly.” As for emerging markets such as Latin America, the government is moving “from the Mercosur countries to the Pacific and Mexico. In Asia, we focus on the ASEAN area (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), where we are closing many deals. And then there is Africa, where we try to bring real technology centres to all sectors.” In Turkey, Italy has opened an investment desk in cooperation with a local merchant bank. So the strategy is diversified: “We export products to the U.S., while we export products, equipment and infrastructure to Asia and the Pacific area. We can also try to penetrate more difficult markets, but we should go there with the right prospects and with ventures right for those countries,” Calenda added..
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: International Law Applies to VatiLeaks Case, Says Alfano
Interior minister confronted with questions on Vatican trial
(ANSA) — Rome, December 2 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has said that the rules of international law will apply in the case of three Vatican officials put on trial for allegedly leaking confidential papal documents to two journalists who are also being tried in the Vatican.
“We have the Italian penal code and the Vatican has its own judicial system,” Alfano said in response to questions from journalists on the Vatileaks trial. “In these circumstances the rules of international law will apply.” “If found guilty, we will give more thought to the matter,” he added. “But we’re not in that phase yet.” Five people are currently on trial in the Vatican for allegedly leaking confidential documents. The trial of Immacolata Chaouqui, a public relations expert, investigative journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and his former assistant Nicola Maio opened last Monday.
Chaouqui, Balda and Maio are charged with leaking the confidential material and Nuzzi and Fittipaldi with using it in two recently published books — one titled Avarice, the other Merchants in the Temple — documenting Vatican waste and mismanagement and lavish spending by clergymen.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Man Arrested for Dual Stabbing Deaths in Oslo
A man in his 50s was arrested for two fatal stabbings in Olso on Wednesday morning and police said he had a connection to both victims.
VG newspaper reported that the suspect is also a Norwegian citizen of another ethnic background.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Men Jailed After ‘Terror Train’ Threat in France
Three young men were sentenced to prison on Wednesday after they threatened to kill train passengers in a failed robbery.
They somehow gained access to the loudspeaker on an RER train in the Pyrenees-Orientales southern France, where they made a call to prayer in Arabic.
They then threatened to kill passengers if they didn’t hand over their mobile phones.
Passengers also reported that the men yelled Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), according to Midi Libre newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Named Time ‘Person of the Year’
Time magazine Wednesday named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its “Person of the Year 2015,” hailing her leadership during Europe’s debt, refugee and migrant crises, as well as Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: De-Radicalisation Courses a Waste of Time for Jihadis, Says Minister
There is no point in forcing radicalised Muslims and people who have spent time fighting with militants in Syria to go through a programme aimed at changing their minds, justice minister Ard van de Steur has told MPs. Research shows that such programmes are only effective if the individuals involved are open to change, Van de Steur said. The minister was answering questions from Socialist and GroenLinks MPs who wanted to know if courses could be made compulsory. Van de Steur also said he is not in favour of locking up potential jihadis. This would require putting people who may pose a danger to society in jail before they had done anything, and this goes against the Dutch constitution, he said. However, the minister said he is prepared to look at using electronic tagging to keep tabs on potential terrorists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Police to Stay Armed Until February
Norwegian police will bear weapons for at least an additional eight weeks, the Police Directorate announced on Wednesday. The Police Directorate said that officers would carry weapons through February 3rd as the national security situation remains “unclear and unresolved” in the aftermath of last month’s terror attacks in Paris, which left 130 people dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Diana West
Time magazine has chosen its “person of the year” — Angela Merkel. For her role in triggering this late (last?) phase of the destruction of Europe, its peoples and the nation-state, she is not unworthy of the distinction; however, note the designation by which Time has recognized her: “Chancellor of the Free World.”
Even Orwell would be staggered.
There is nothing “free” in Merkel’s domain so much admired by Time and other media organs. In this domain she has ruled as thuggishly as a dictator, overturning treaties and customs, draining treasuries and rendering the citizens of Germany, and, as much as possible, wider Europe, into pawns, drones, to fit into an earth-sized blueprint of social engineering. What arises from Merkel’s brave new plans to “redistribute” mainly male, mainly Islamic population blocs by the tens, no, the hundreds of thousands throughout the EU is a permanent European Union Reich of “Multiculturalism.”
Backed by Europe’s socialist leaders and unelected EU “high commissioners,” Time’s “Person of the Year” is thus eradicating already vestigial, indigenous European culture and society in the process. She is also incorporating the pathologies of Islam — its law, its violence, its strife — into these lands and cultures of Christendom (long undermined and borne into from within by Marx), further creating the permanent necessity of an ever-more-powerful, ever-more-invasive superstate to regulate all life and commerce.
And that’s looking on the “bright side.” Endless jihad inside the superstate is also a terrible likelihood…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Councils: Fears Over Parallel Legal System Against Women in UK
There have been calls in the UK for legislation to be introduced to make it illegal for sharia councils to act as legal courts, amid fears from some parliamentarians that the UK risks having an alternative legal system that discriminates against women.
Crossbench peer Baroness Cox, who has worked on the issue of Islamic mediation in Britain, raised concerns about the nature of sharia councils, saying there was a fear they could subvert British laws.
“I think there is a real problem in the way that they are currently operating, in that it is a kind of parallel legal system,” Baroness Cox told UK newspaper the Independent.
Baroness Cox proposed introducing a private member’s bill, which would prevent any legal power from being granted to sharia councils in Britain, saying that in many cases they discriminate against women.
“There are aspects of sharia law and the way the sharia courts operate which are fundamentally incompatible with the laws, values, principles and policies of this country and which represent a threat to the fundamental principle of one law for all.”
The comments were in response to a report, seen by the newspaper, that found some women in Britain were being locked into “marital captivity” while sharia councils were doing nothing to report domestic violence and other abuses.
The research, to be presented to the UK Houses of Parliament next month, was carried out by legal scholar Machteld Zee from Leiden University in the Netherlands, who gained unprecedented access to a number of sharia councils in London and Birmingham.
Ms Zee interviewed a number of sharia experts before concluding that:
“There are, in fact, two separate legal orders functioning [in the UK], of which one currently operates in the ‘shadow of the law’.”
The findings have once again triggered debate in Britain over the matter of sharia councils and whether they are scrutinized sufficiently.
It is estimated that there are about 80 sharia councils operating in the UK. They can only operate on religious matters and have no legal status, effectively being councils or tribunals.
However, given the evidence of researchers, there are fears that in many cases, sharia councils are rejecting UK laws in favor of sharia rulings, which has prompted Baroness Cox to call for legislation to be introduced to make it illegal for sharia councils to overrule British law.
As a result, the UK Home Office has launched an independent investigation into sharia courts in Britain.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss People’s Party Wins Second Cabinet Seat
Guy Parmelin, a member of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) from the French-speaking canton of Vaud, was elected to the Swiss federal government while six incumbent ministers were re-elected on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top UK Labour Lawmaker Warns of Party Split Amid Acrimony and Accusations
Former Labour Party cabinet minister Caroline Flint has said that the start-up group throwing its weight behind party leader Jeremy Corbyn is set to destroy Labour by acting as a party within a party.
There has been open warfare within Labour ever since Corbyn was elected party leader by a majority of grassroots supporters and the unions, in a shock victory in September. The left-wing, anti-war firebrand defeated three center-ground rivals in the election, which was triggered by the resignation of Ed Miliband following Labour’s defeat at May’s general election.
Corbyn says he has a mandate of the whole of the party membership, but many of his own lawmakers in parliament say they were elected on a different mandate in May and are openly against his views — particularly on military action in Syria and the Trident nuclear deterrent, which party policy favors, but which Corbyn does not.
Corbyn’s campaign team has formed a group calling itself Momentum, which says it will “ represent its supporters amongst the Labour Party membership as well as the wider social movement.”
However, many lawmakers believe it will split the party.
“They seem to be focused on interfering in the organization of the Labour party. That is exactly what far-left groups like Militant did in the 1980s. They act as a separate party operating within the Labour party but with no real loyalty to the party,” Flint told reporters.
‘Division and Disunity’
The party was plunged into crisis last week during a parliamentary vote of military actions in Syria against Daesh, also known as ISIL.
Corbyn is anti-war and wanted his party to back him against intervention in Syria, but failed to carry many of his lawmakers with him and was forced to offer them a free vote, rather than attempt to impose a three-line whip, which would have led to shadow cabinet resignations.
In the run-up to the vote on December 2, there were allegations of intimidation and bullying by pro-Corbyn anti-war campaigners. “It is a systematic and substantial effort to bully moderate Labour MPs into voting against military action. This is being aided and abetted by Corbyn’s office. They are circulating the contact details of MPs who are undecided,” one Labour MP who was subjected to sustained abuse told the Guardian.
“The threats and intimidation that people have received through social media and emails to their offices and letters to their offices has no place in political debates. I have never received this sort of personal abuse and intolerance to any other point of view to the one that I have been expressing, and it’s unprecedented,” Flint said.
“There are a number of things coming from people not in the Labour Party, but clearly some of them are in the Labour Party. We have had a rush of new membership and Jeremy Corbyn hoped this would ignite the grass roots campaign, but there’s been more campaigning against Labour MPs and that will only serve division and disunity,” she said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Accuses Merkel of “Ruining Germany” In Response to Time “Person of the Year” Snub
It took Trump just about an hour to form the appropriate media response to being “snubbed” by Time editors for Person of the Year 2015 in favor of Angela Merkel (and also the leader of the Islamic State, al-Baghdadi). He framed it, as he usually does, in Twitter format:
I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite They picked person who is ruining Germany
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2015
And yes, it’s easy to accuse Trump of being a sore loser (even though he continues to win: remember for the media mogul, it is all about media presence, and unwittingly Time contributed to his cause), but the reality as Reuters reports, is that once again, Trump may be — in his traditionally very politically incorrect and hyperbolic way — spot on.
Read the following and decide if Trump may be, in fact, right:
[Comment: she is the ‘person of the year’ for the globalists, not the people.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump UK Ban Petition Passes 329,000 Signatures
A petition calling for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be barred from entering the UK has gathered more than 329,000 names, so MPs will have to consider debating it.
The petition went on Parliament’s e-petition website on Tuesday.
It was posted in response to Mr Trump’s call for a temporary halt on Muslims entering the United States.
Chancellor George Osborne criticised Mr Trump’s comments but rejected calls for him to be banned from the UK.
Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures is automatically considered for debate in Parliament.
Mr Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for next year’s US presidential election.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An alleged Jihadi tourist who was caught with a stash of gun training videos after returning from Syria has told a court he was a paid MI5 informant.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Donald Trump is Right About London Being Radicalised, Serving Officers Claim
Serving Met officers have said ‘Islamification’ of the capital is happening and revealed they do need to be ‘extra vigilant’ and even abandon their uniforms on some estates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Devout Christian Sent Letter to Islamic School Claiming ‘All Muslims Worship Satan’
Police were called in after the headteacher at the Manchester Islamic High School for Girls picked up the letter from Rose White (pictured) when pupils and staff returned returned after a half term break.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Essex Music Teacher Who Showed Bondage Kit to Ex-Pupil is Banned From Teaching
Daniel Green, 42, who worked for Thurrock Music Services, in Essex, pictured, bombarded the teenager, with sexually explicit messages, telling him, ‘everyone is gay in some form’.
A music teacher who showed his bondage kit to a 17-year-old former pupil has been banned from the classroom for life.
Daniel Green, 42, also bombarded the teenager, named only as ‘Student A’, with sexually explicit messages and urged him to dump his girlfriend, telling him, ‘everyone is gay in some form’.
Green, who worked for Thurrock Music Services, in Essex, also groped another 17-year-old boy, known as ‘Young Person B’, a National College for Teaching and Leadership tribunal heard.
Green was handed a restraining order on 15 July last year after he was convicted of harassing ‘Student A’ at South Essex Magistrates’ Court.
He has now been banned from the classroom after a tribunal found him guilty of ‘sexually motivated misconduct with a pupil’.
The tribunal heard ‘Student A’ had been home tutored by Green since he was 12 and when his lessons stopped they continued to meet because they shared a ‘common interest in music’.
But when ‘Student A’ turned 17 Green started to send ‘sexually explicit and inappropriate’ messages.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Muslim on Trial Over Serb ‘Massacre’
A Bosnian-born Muslim man went on trial in Austria on Wednesday over his alleged role in a 1992 attack on a Serb village that killed 16 civilians, including two children.
The 48-year-old digger driver — who has been living in Austria for two decades and now holds Austrian citizenship — is accused of attacking Serdari village with a large group of Bosnian Muslims in September 1992, months after the outbreak of the Bosnian War.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State (ISIS) militants on Wednesday posted a video apparently showing the beheading of two men accused of witchcraft in a public square including children in the Libyan city of Sirte.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Seeks ‘Solution’ Over Egypt Gas Row
Israel announced Tuesday that it was sending an envoy to Cairo to find a solution after Egyptian firms were ordered to pay $1.76 billion to compensate for a gas supply cut.
Egypt’s petroleum ministry has said it will appeal the judgement reached through international arbitration after Cairo annulled its contract with Israel in 2012 following a spate of bomb attacks targeting the pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had agreed with the Egyptian government “to send a special envoy to Cairo for discussions on a solution to the challenge that has emerged”.
“I think we will find a solution because it is in both countries’ strategic interests,” Netanyahu, who is also economy minister, said in remarks at a meeting of a parliamentary commission aired on public radio…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu Responds to Trump, Says Israel ‘Respects All Religions’
Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s recent statements about Muslims, saying Israel “respects all religions” as he faced calls to call off an upcoming visit by the Republican front-runner.
Benjamin Netanyahu issued his statement late Wednesday, hours after it was announced that Trump will be visiting Israel at the end of the month.
“The state of Israel respects all religions and strictly guarantees the rights of all its citizens,” the statement said. “At the same time, Israel is fighting against militant Islam that targets Muslims, Christians and Jews alike and threatens the entire world.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Daesh Godfathers? Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar Spotted Funding Terrorists
We should not underestimate Saudi Arabia’s role in creating and funding Daesh, F. William Engdahl notes, referring to the fact that King Salman, then Governor of Riyadh, was involved in funding al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia back in the late 1970s.
Citing Germany BND intelligence sources, American-German researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl notes that Saudi Arabia is about to become a serious destabilizing force in the Middle East, adding that it is likely that Riyadh’s current cautious foreign policy could soon be replaced by an interventionist approach.
The researcher underscores that he has to reconsider his previous stance regarding the possible Russo-Saudi alliance: Russia’s involvement in Syria is now viewed as a serious obstacle to the Saudi royal family’s plans.
“Prince Salman is Defense Minister and led the Kingdom, beginning last March, into a mad war, code-named by Salman as ‘Operation Decisive Storm,’ in neighboring Yemen. Saudis headed a coalition of Arab states that includes Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. The Prince is also head of the Saudi Economic Council which he created. The new King, Salman, is not the benign sweet guy his PR staff try to paint him,” Engdahl notes in his recent piece for New Eastern Outlook.
Endgahl writes that in the early 1950s CIA Cairo Station Chief Miles Copeland organized the transfer of the Muslim Brotherhood, banned in Egypt, to Saudi Arabia. Citing former US Justice Department official John Loftus, the researcher explains how the Muslim Brotherhood nationalist ideas were thus combined with the Saudi Wahhabism.
“The CIA planned to use the Saudi Muslim Brothers to wield a weapon across the entire Muslim world against feared Soviet incursions. A fanatical young terrorist named Osama Bin Laden was later to arise out of this marriage in Hell between the Brotherhood and Wahhabi Saudi Islam,” Engdahl emphasizes.
According to the researcher, King Salman had certain ties with al-Qaeda. His involvement originates from the late 1970s when he was a Governor of Riyadh. It was he who headed major Saudi charities which were later discovered financing al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
“Salman worked intimately as the financial funding conduit for what became al-Qaeda together with Bin Laden’s Saudi intelligence ‘handler,’ then-head of Saudi Intelligence, Prince Turki Al-Faisal and the Saudi-financed Muslim World League,” Engdahl continues.
The expert calls attention to the fact that during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003-2004, al-Qaeda penetrated into the country. A Moroccan-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi formed an al-Qaeda affiliate known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Later, this entity dubbed itself as the Islamic State (IS) also known as ISIL, or Daesh.
Engdahl stresses that a declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) document indicated in 2012 that since the very beginning the major driving forces of US-backed Syrian insurgency were the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI.
“If we look at the emergence of al-Qaeda in Iraq and its transformation into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria/ISIS [Daesh], it all traces back to the Saudi operations going back to the late 1970’s involving now-King Salman, Saudi Osama bin Laden, together with Saudi intelligence head, Prince Turki Al-Faisal,” Engdahl points out.
Quoting an unnamed Turkish source, Engdahl remarks that Turkish President Erdogan’s first presidential campaign in 2014 was supported by a “gift” of ten billion US dollars from the Saudis. He also adds that Turkey’s training centers for Syrian Islamists have been funded by Erdogan’s close friend Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi banker close to the Saudi royalties, member of the Muslim Brotherhood and financier of Osama bin Laden since the 1980s.
“What we have, then, is not an isolated Russian war against ISIS [Daesh] in Syria. What lies behind ISIS is not just Erdogan’s criminal regime, but far more significant, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and her Wahhabi allies Kuwait, UAE, Qatar,” Engdahl suggests.
Interestingly enough, independent researcher and writer Timothy Alexander Guzman noted in his November article that there is an influential “triangle” of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the Middle East. Guzman insisted that Turkey is the main coordinator of this clandestine alliance.
Remarkably, while the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) comprises about 640,000 military, civilian and paramilitary personnel, Saudi Arabia boasts just a 175,000-strong army, and Qatar has a very modest military force of around 11,800 servicemen. Furthermore, the TSK is the second largest standing military force in NATO.
Whoever the “mastermind” of the Turkish-Saudi-Qatari alliance is, it would have been unable to conduct its covert activity in the Middle East, including funding of terrorists or oil smuggling from Syria and Iraq without some tacit agreement with major Western powers. Remarkably, Washington and its European NATO allies are still turning a blind eye to illicit activities of their partners and allies in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Downed Su-24’s Black Box to Reveal Truth About Turkey’s Treacherous Strike — Putin
The flight recorder of the Russian Su-24 recently downed by Turkey in Syria has been recovered and presented to President Putin, who said it must be opened in the presence of international experts to reveal truth about the treacherous “stab in the back.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Emirates: Gulf States Agree on Key Issues for Implementing VAT
(AGI) — Abu Dhabi, 7 dic. — The Gulf states of the GCC have apparently agreed on a swathe of key issues for implementing VAT, value-added tax, in the region, according to an official from the UAE Finance Ministry, finally moving the six nations closer to introducing direct taxation for the very first time.
Younis Haji Al Khouri, under-secretary at the ministry, told reporters on the sidelines of a media event that the agreement was reached at a meeting of representatives from Gulf ministries a few days ago.
The idea of introducing VAT across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman has been bandied around for years, but there have been stumbling blocks for such major economic reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council states, which until now have had minimal tax systems and no tax on income, although some levy other taxes as fees, such as toll roads.
The dramatic fall in oil prices since last year has decimated government incomes, making it urgent for them to find new ways of raising revenue. It is thought that the UAE is expected to post a budget deficit this year, the first since 2009.
Al Khouri said the target for introducing the tax was now three years, but that it would take a further 18 to 24 months to implement once a final agreement has been reached.
One of the stumbling blocks has been the difference of opinions in how to apply the tax across the board, and at what rate.
“We agreed on key issues to apply zero tax on healthcare, education, social services sectors, and have exempted 94 food items,” Khouri said. In other areas, including financial services, agreement was still lacking, he said.
In order to curtail smuggling and damage to competitiveness, analysts say that the Gulf countries should introduce VAT regionally rather than individually, at different times. The six states have been discussing the tax for many years, but political and economic issues have delayed the project.
“VAT cannot be implemented unilaterally but has to be part of a Gulf-wide decision,” Al Khouri told, adding that if all GCC states agree on a final deadline, then some would be in a position to implement the tax system ahead of the others.
Officials have yet to give an indication of the rate (or rates) at which VAT will be levied, but the International Monetary Fund has suggested that the UAE consider imposing VAT at a rate of 5 percent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Intends to Buy Russia’s T-90 Tanks
Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the commander of Iran’s Army Ground Force, said that Iran has plans to buy Russia-developed T-90 tanks and Iranian military experts would be sent to Russia to sign the contracts with Moscow.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Iran has plans to purchase Russia-developed T-90 tanks, the commander of Iran’s Army Ground Force said Tuesday.
“Our ties with Russia in the field of equipment supply are established, and we have on our agenda the purchase of T-90 tanks,” Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said, as quoted by the Iranian Tasnim News Agency.
Pourdastan added that Iranian military experts would be sent to Russia to sign the contracts with Moscow.
Russia and Iran work together in different spheres, including trade, energy, military and technical cooperation. On November 25, Russian presidential aide on military-technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said that Iran was interested in the entire range of Russian arms.
Military cooperation with Tehran became possible again after Iran reached an agreement on its nuclear program with the P5+1 group of international mediators on July 14. Iran agreed to ensure the peaceful nature of its nuclear program in exchange for easing of the sanctions imposed against the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nuncio Galantino Revisits Iraqi Kurdistan on Aid Mission
(AGI) Vatican City, Dec 7 — Nuncio Galantino, Secretary-General of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) is revisiting Iraqi Kurdistan. He will attend the opening of a university in Erbil, which was built with Italian funds, and will allow refugees from Nineveh and Mosul to complete their training. On Monday, he arrived in Enishke, a small Christian village in the mountains between Zakho and Dohuk, in the far north of Iraqi Kurdistan. He was accompanied by the director of Caritas Italiana, Francesco Soddy, and parish priest Samir Yousif. A family of Yazidi refugees told the story of Khalifa Ali, who was shot and killed on Dec. 2 while fighting to liberate his home in the mountains of Sinjar. He was 22-year-old and had been married for a year and a half. The head of the family told Monsignor Galantino: “You Christians have always been close to us. The Church has done much for us.” A few metres away, in an abandoned holiday home, Ali’s wife mourns with her friends. In the next room, which was renovated with money donated by CEI, was Mahaia, who is about 20-years-old. She was held prisoner by an Islamic State Emir until May 18. “As long as you need us, we will be at your side,” said Msgr. Galatino. At the request of Father Samir, a simple ceremony was performed: a small door was opened in the presence of the Italian delegation and the heads of the Yazidi community. The gesture, mirroring the opening of Holy Doors for the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy, showed that Kurdistan needs mercy more than ever.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Urges Congress to Release $116mln for Syrian Train-Equip Program
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that US military is still waiting on Congress to release $116 million it requested for the train-and-equip program of Syrian opposition forces.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US military is still waiting on Congress to release $116 million it requested for the train-and-equip program of Syrian opposition forces, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
“Over a month ago, I submitted a request to the four congressional defense committees, including this one, to release ‘holds’ on the final tranche of funds in the Syria equipping program — that is, some $116 million dollars,” Carter said. “The committees have failed to act on that request.”
Carter asked the Armed Services Committee to “urgently” release the funds because they are needed to provide Syrian opposition forces much needed ammunition, weapons and other equipment to fight the Islamic State.
US Senator John McCain told Carter the Committee would not let the program make the same failures as during the last training of opposition forces, which yielded a total of about 60 fighters.
McCain said the Committee would first need to see a plan in place before releasing any funds.
“We have an obligation to taxpayers,” McCain added.
In September, US Central Command Commander General Lloyd Austin admitted to the Armed Services Committee that of the 60 Syrian opposition fighters, only four or five were active on the battlefield.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria to Export 700,000 Tons of Citrus to Russia
Syria will export more than 700,000 tons of citrus fruits to Russia to “fill the gap” left by Moscow’s ban on Turkish agricultural products, officials said Tuesday.
“We are preparing some 700,000 tons of citrus, mostly oranges, to send to Russian markets,” Fares Chehabi, head of Syria’s Chambers of Industry, told AFP.
Russia, a major ally of Syria’s embattled regime, banned imports of Turkish agricultural products last month after Ankara shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian-Turkish border…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey PM Accuses Russia of Wanting ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ In Syria
Turkey’s prime minister has accused Russia of attempting “ethnic cleansing” with its air strikes in northern Syria.
Ahmet Davutoglu said Russia’s campaign had targeted Turkmen and Sunni communities around the Latakia region.
Relations between Ankara and Moscow have plummeted since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM Accuses Russia of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ In Northern Syria
Turkey’s prime minister accused Russia on Wednesday of attempted “ethnic cleansing” in northern Syria, saying Moscow was trying to drive out the local Turkmen and Sunni Muslim populations to protect its military interests in the region.
Ahmet Davutoglu’s comments could further harm strained relations between Moscow and Ankara, already at their worst in recent memory after Turkish forces downed a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border late last month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen’s Aden Living in Fear as Jihadists Grow
Yemen’s temporary capital Aden is gripped by fear as the government struggles to stem growing threats by jihadists carrying out deadly attacks on officials and intimidating civilians.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), long active in Yemen, and the emerging Islamic State group appear to be vying for influence in the main port city, to which President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi returned from exile in November.
ADVERTISINGFighting between Iran-allied rebels and Saudi-backed loyalist forces has plunged the impoverished nation into chaos, which both jihadist groups have exploited to make sweeping gains, particularly in southern regions…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Activists or Kremlin Agents — Who Protects Russian-Speakers in Baltics?
Moscow has been financing Russian-language NGOs in the Baltic states for years. Security authorities there are suspicious of the organizations, but the NGOs deny there is any cause for concern.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who is Putin? Italian TV Reveals the Other Side of Russia’s President
Russian President Vladimir Putin plays a “historic role” in the world, one that “was given to him by Providence”, according to Italian journalist Alessandro Banfi.
In an interview with Sputnik, Italian journalist Alessandro Banfi specifically underscored Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “historic role” in modern times, one that Banfi said was given to him by Providence.
Alongside producer Carlo Gorla, Banfi prepared the release in Italy of a documentary film, Il Presidente (the President), which tells the story of Russia over the past 15 years under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.
The film, which originally aired in Russia in April 2015, was broadcast on Italian television early Tuesday morning.
In the interview, Banfi attributed Putin’s historic role to the current geopolitical situation.
“This historic role was given to him by fate. During the world’s transformation from a unipolar system to a multipolar one, a strong leader is needed to carry out this transition,” Banfi said.
He praised Putin as a person who “gave hope to the world, especially to those countries which are yet to obtain more international clout.”
“It is a necessity for everyone, in the name of freedom and democracy,” Banfi said.
He was earlier echoed by Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Mediaset group, which prepared the Italian version of the film.
According to Confalonieri, “Putin is the world’s most influential leader, the bravest and the most decisive in the fight against terrorism.”
The President is based on an interview the Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov conducted with Putin, and focuses on the landmark events in Russia’s modern history which happened in the past 15 years. The Italian version of the film was aired on the channel Rete 4.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Taliban Kill Dozens at Kandahar Airport
Dozens of people have been killed in a Taliban attack on a heavily fortified civilian and military airfield in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
At least 37 people, including many children, were killed in the clashes, along with at least nine militants, the defence ministry said.
A number of hostages were seized in the 26-hour attack but the Afghan army says it has now regained control.
This is the latest in a series of ambitious raids by Taliban fighters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 10 Injured in Bomb Blasts at Hindu Temple Programme in Bangladesh
Suspected Islamists blast Rash Mela programme at Kantaji temple. 10 persons injured in Hindu Religious gathering.
HENB | Dhaka | Dec 5, 2015:: Ten people were injured as three crude bombs went off under the canopy of a jatra show on the premises of Kantaji Temple, 415 km (260 miles) north of the capital Dhaka, in Kaharole upazila early Saturday.
Police and witnesses said a series of blasts happened at about 1:15am when the hundreds of viewers were watching a jatra show arranged on the temple premises on the occasion of Rash Mela, leaving 10 people injured.
Of the injured, six, including Mokaddes,23, son of Abul Hossain of Damudarpur in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur; Sadhon,35, son of Nanigopal of Sadar upazila in Nilphamari; Jabbar,28, son of Sirajul Islam, and Saidur,27, son of Karim of Dashmael in Kaharole upazila; and Romakanto,22, and Mithu,30, of Birganj upazila of Dinajpur, were admitted to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital.
Syed Nader Hossain, a physician of surgery department at Dinajpur Medical College Hospital, said the bombs might have been planted on the ground as most of the injured persons suffered splinter injuries in the lower part of their bodies. All of them are now out of danger, added Hossian. Abdul Mazid, officer-in-charge of Kaharole Police Station, confirmed that three explosions took place on the premises of Kantaji Rash Mela in the midnight. Additional members of police and Rapid Action Battalion were deployed on the site immediately after the fair was closed after the explosions.
Dinajpur Superintendent of Police Ruhul Amin said police are conducting further drive to arrest the culprits really connected with the blast. The police have already arrested six suspects and were interrogating them, he added. A case was filed in connection.
The incident occurred while an open-air theatrical performance was being staged outside the Kantajir temple during the annual Rash Mela fair in Dinajpur district, said Ruhul Amin, the local police chief.
The attack came after recent threats to the temple’s priest, urging him not to organise any religious gatherings, Mazid. the officer-in-charge of Kaharole Police Station said.
As a matter of fact, many Muslims used to attend the attractive Hindu Rashmela theatrical prorgramme for which was noticed by the fanatic Muslim groups and they wanted to put a brawl in it.
Though attacks on Hindu Temples and properties are common things in Bangladesh, bomb attacks on Hindu religious gatherings are not so familiar in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh since 1977.
The country has suffered a rising tide of Islamist violence over the past year. Four online critics of religious militancy have been hacked to death, among them a U.S. citizen of Bangladesh origin.
So far, no organisation took any responsibility for the blasts at Kantaji Temple.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
India: Jihadi Mob Under Camouflaging Political Banners Attack Sabarimala Pilgrimages in Kerala
Jihadi Mob Attack on Sabarimala Ayyappa devotees in Kasargod.
Upananda Brahmachari | HENB |Kasargod | Dec 4, 2015:: Four Hindu Ayyappa Devotees were injured today in an attack carried out by Muslim fanatics in Chattanchal of Kasargod District in Kerala. While the Hindu devotees of Lord Ayyappa were performing their daily rituals at Kavumpalla Sree DharmaSastha Temple, a group of 30 people surrounded the temple and started beating up devotees.
Nishanth, Gireesh, Sunil, and Pradeep were among the ones who got injured and admitted to Kasargod Taluk District Hospital.Kasargod is the second largest Muslim populated district of Kerala.
Jehadi attacks under political banners on Ayyappa Devotees in the Sabarimala pilgrimage time are increasing in Kerala during these recent years…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Finance Minister, Needs Financing US$43B in 2016
(AGI) — Jakarta, 7 dic. — Indonesia’s minister of Finance Bambang P.S. Brodjonegoro has calculated the budget needs amounting to Rp 605 trillion or about US 43 billion for patching the deficit and fund ing the government development programs next year. Moreover, Bambang said, the financing is also needed to cover the budget deficit, state debt payments maturing (refinancing) and the State Capital financing which is budgeted for a number of state-owned companies next year. “Counts gross of financing needs for 2016 reaches around Rp 605 trillion,” he said in Jakarta. With uncertain global economic conditions, he added, many countries are vying issuing government securities to the global market. As a result, the gap to seek sources of financing in foreign currencies becomes more narrow. “Likewise, the regular auction will not be sharper than ever before,” he said. Therefore, he said, the government of Indonesia will boost the role of domestic investors to finance the state budget, because, so far the foreign ownership in Indonesian government securities portfolio still dominates, reaching at 37 percent of total sovereign bonds issued.
According to him, the high holdings of foreign bonds by the country would be vulnerable if at any time they were abuzz attractive capital of Indonesia. “Thirty-seven percent is relatively high compared to some countries. The 37 percent is sources which are considered vulnerable if it happens disreversal due to considerable foreign ownership,” he said.
Therefore, Bambang said, the foreign domination in the state bond market will be pursued to be minimized. However, it is not by the force but stay through market mechanisms. “We hope that in the next future the role of domestic investors will increase, so that we no longer worry about the additional debt,” he said.
In order to close the financing at the beginning of next year, the government of Indonesia has speeded up the withdrawal of financing (prefunding) by issuing two variants of bonds denominated in US dollars or global medium term notes (GMTN), with a total withdrawal of US$3.5 billion. “Yesterday we issued a global bond of US$3.5 billion. The condition of this market is still very good. This means it will add inflow (capital) to us,” he said. According to the minister, Indonesia has so far attracted the attention of foreign investors. Even compared to many countries in the ASEAN region, only market in Indonesia and the Philippines were deemed to be experienced in a rising trend.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Angkor Wat Yields Astounding Buried Towers & Spiral Structure
Eight buried towers and the remains of a massive spiral structure created from sand have been discovered at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
The massive structure — almost a mile long — contains a spiral design, with several rectangular spirals that form a giant structure, archaeologists say. “This structure, which has dimensions of more than 1,500 m × 600 m (about 1 mile by 1,970 feet) is the most striking discovery associated with Angkor Wat to date. Its function remains unknown and, as yet, it has no known equivalent in the Angkorian world,” Roland Fletcher, a University of Sydney professor, said in a statement put out by the university.
Today, the spiral structure is hard to make out on the ground, having been obscured by modern features and vegetation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China ‘Could Reach Pollution Peak by 2023’
China, like India, faces the daunting task of establishing clear environmental objectives, while pursuing economic development targets that will raise the standard of living of millions of its citizens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How China’s Rise is Affecting Europe’s View of Japan
Despite solid bilateral ties, many Europeans see international cooperation between Japan and Europe as not making significant progress, a new ECFR survey found — a paradox partly linked to China’s ascent, say experts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Terrorism: Why There is None in Japan
With all this Muslim terrorism plaguing the world, perhaps it is time to take a look at a country not suffering the same fate and analyze exactly why that is…
Seems there is not a single country where Muslims would not show their true colors… But no! There is such a country. It’s one of the most developed countries on Earth, and its democratic nature is recognized worldwide, a true ally of the USA and a member of NATO. However, with all this, there was not a single terrorist attack perpetrated by Muslims in this country. Moreover, there was not a single, even minor, riot, disturbance or protest, no matter how many citizens of this country support cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in some Danish newspaper or in a French magazine.
The name of this lucky country is Japan.
Of course, Japan achieved this by some super effective integration policy, through using the most advanced technologies and assigning billions of yen on the building of thousands of mosques and Islamic schools all over Japan, banning pork in all public places, introducing separate hours for boys and girls in swimming pools in all public schools, and Japanese male doctors do not dare touch their female patients, Muslim women get immense social aid each time they have a child, Shari´a courts were introduced in the judicial system of Japan, and the Koran is considered a Holy Book in Japan…
No, nothing of the kind. What Japan did to avoid problems related to Muslims was much simpler and cheaper; Japan is practically closed to Muslims.
Officially, immigration to Japan is not closed to Muslims. But the number of the immigration permits given to the applicants from Islamic countries is very low. Obtaining a working visa is not easy for adepts of Islam, even if they are physicians, engineers and managers sent by foreign companies that are active in the region. As a result, Japan is “a country without Muslims”…
And Japanese society expects Muslims to pray at home: no collective “prostrating” in the streets or squares; in Japan, for such “shows” the actors can get pretty high fines, and in those cases Japanese Police consider “serious”, the participants can be deported.
[Comment: Japan shows the way. Read it all.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Production: Daesh Begins Recruiting Fighters in China
The Daesh terrorist group has begun recruiting fighters in China, media reported, as it published a new propaganda music video in Mandarin.
Expanding its global reach in recruiting fighters, the terrorist group Daesh has begun attracting fighters from China, CNBC reported on Wednesday.
The group’s propaganda arm al-Hayat Media Center recently published a Mandarin-language nasheed (song or chant) to attract potential fighters to join the terrorist group, SITE Media Group reported.
The song, which called on “Muslim brothers” to awaken, features a man chanting “To die fighting on the battlefield is my dream,” and “No force can stop our advance,” according to Reuters.
China reacted to the video’s publication by urging global cooperation in tackling Daesh.
“In the face of terrorism, no country can stand on its own, and the international community should stand closer together and cooperate to jointly strike against all forms of terrorism,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
The number of Daesh members in China is unknown, although it is believed that the group has a presence in the country’s Muslim Uighur minority. The new song published by Daesh is in Mandarin, China’s majority language.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Challenge China’s Aircraft Taxation at WTO
The United States accused China of tax discrimination against foreign-made aircraft on Tuesday in a complaint lodged with the World Trade Organization.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Disease Specialists Identify Post-Ebola Threats
Scientists to assemble a rogues’ gallery of viruses likely to spark the next international public-health crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Warns of Mozambique as a Human Trafficking Hub
(AGI) Maputo, Dec 7 — Mozambique could become a human trafficking hub, said an EU mission to Maputo, on site to train local police as part of the South African development programme, SADC. “Mozambique has, unfortunately, become a human trafficking corridor, especially children used for sexual purposes or in the labour force. There are also signs of organ trafficking,” said Geert Anckart, of the EU mission. The programme, launched by the Mozambican government and funded by the EU, envisages a five-day course for police staff from the 14 SADC member countries, training them to combat human trafficking..
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Foreign Minister Tight-Lipped on Whether Pirates Were Paid Ransom
Poland’s foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski has declined to reveal whether a ransom was paid for five recently freed Polish seamen who were kidnapped by pirates off the Nigerian coast.
Five Polish seamen, including the captain, were taken hostage when cargo ship Szafir (Sapphire) was attacked by pirates in late November. The remaining 11 members of the crew managed to lock themselves in the engine room, thus evading capture. The attackers then fled the scene with the hostages.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Argentina Arrests 7 Syrians Citizens With Fake Passports Heading North
Argentina has arrested seven Syrian citizens in Buenos Aires for using falsified Greek passports, continuing a trend of migrants from the troubled Middle Eastern nation using Latin America as a pathway to refugee status.
The Syrians, who were detained in Buenos Aires in two operations that targeted false passport holders, said that they were refugees fleeing their home country. Two of the seven were purportedly on their way to Uruguay.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Argentina Presidential Feud Turns Handover Ceremony Into a Farce
Argentina’s presidential inauguration ceremony on Thursday has taken a farcical turn after outgoing President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner refused to attend the handover and hang the sash on her successor.
The dispute follows President-elect Mauricio Macri’s decision to ask a federal court to rule that Fernandez’s presidency ends tonight at midnight rather than tomorrow. The request makes it impossible for her to oversee the ceremony, her Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez told reporters in Buenos Aires.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 12 Dead as Migrant Boat Sinks Off Farmakonissi
Greek authorities say at least 12 people — including six children — have died and 12 are missing after a wooden boat carrying about 50 migrants sank near the islet of Farmakonissi, in the eastern Aegean Sea, early Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Ordered to Pay Penalty for Failing to House Asylum Seeker
The Brussels labour court has ordered the Belgian state to pay a 125 euro penalty for every day that a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker is not given accommodation in Belgium.
The youngster went to the immigration department in Brussels on 30 November, but as there were 250 others in front of him in the queue he was handed a letter and told to return on 17 December. This gives him the right to temporary accommodation at the WTC Tower, but this is full. The youngster thus ended up on the streets.
A lawyer took the matter to court on his behalf arguing accommodation should be offered from the minute an asylum seeker indicates he is seeking asylum, but asylum secretary Francken disputes this arguing accommodation is only a right once you are registered as an asylum seeker.
The labour court ruled that the Belgian state must provide accommodation to all asylum seekers even if they have not yet been registered.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark to Erect More Tents for Asylum Seekers
The Integration Ministry has announced that three new tent camps will house refugees in the new year and a new ‘departure centre’ will hold rejected asylum seekers until they can leave the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Officially Hits 1m Refugee Registrations
With three weeks to go before the end of the year, Germany has officially seen one million people arrive in the country as asylum seekers in the course of 2015.
That was the number of people registered in the “Easy” computer system and distributed across Germany, Bavarian social minister Emilia Müller of the Christian Social Union (CSU) told reporters in Munich.
In November alone, more than 200,000 people were added to the list, smashing forecasts.
But experts disagree on how exactly the Easy system reflects the actual number of asylum seekers.
Some argue that the actual numbers may be higher, as it sometimes takes several weeks for authorities to register new arrivals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German States Blame Berlin for Refugee Process Failures
A row has broken out between Germany’s states and the federal government over the speed with which refugees are being processed, with many saying the system is over-bureaucratic and slow.
The number of refugees seeking asylum in Germany is expected to reach one million in the coming months.
“Working from Monday to Friday — that’s not good enough in these times anymore,” Malu Dreyer, state premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, told Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “In the districts and the states employees are working shifts, at weekends, and doing overtime — the BAMF has to do that too.
“You can certainly work on Saturdays and Sundays too,” said Roger Lewentz, Dreyer’s interior minister, while his counterpart in North Rhine-Westphalia Ralf Jäger told the Bild newspaper: “Refugees can’t just stick to office hours of 8 am to 4 pm.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing severe criticism over her handling of the refugee crisis, which has split her coalition and tested her relationship with co-party leader and Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer.
He has expressed anger over Merkel’s refugee policy after his state became overwhelmed with the numbers arriving from Austria. He called for a cap on the total number and for border controls.
“The federal office says the length of time is all good, but that only works because they’re counting from when the application is submitted. But that isn’t happening right after arrival — that is happening months later. This means the people are sitting here for half a year before they’re even registered by the [Federal Office for Migration and Refugees] BAMF,” Stephan Dünnwald of the Bavarian Refugees Council told Deutsche Welle.
Huge Backlog Growing Daily
According to BAMF chief Frank-Jürgen Weise, his officials are making around 1,700 decisions a day (up from 1,000), but critics say a backlog of more than a thousand asylum applications is also mounting on a daily basis.
The new Federal Interior Ministry report, quoted in the Passauer Neue Presse, says that at the end of November 2015 there were still 355,914 unprocessed asylum applications out of a total of 425,035 submitted this year.
European Parliament President Martin Schultz weighed in on the debate, saying:
“Despite years of complaints from the states and the districts, Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has not managed to implement the administrative rules and get the asylum applications processed quickly.”
Dünnwald says the states themselves could speed up the process by assessing whether the refugees are Syrian, before passing the cases on to BAMF. “People are already being registered three or four times before they even get registered by the BAMF. They could do that check at the state reception centers with a translator. Instead, the BAMF now has to do it — that’s another 120,000 or 150,000 new procedures.
“The BAMF is currently the eye of the needle,” Dünnwald told DW.
“Because things aren’t moving there, the whole process is slowing down — the new arrivals can’t work, can’t do German lessons, or whatever.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Removes 2,300 From Macedonia Border
Greek police have transferred some 2,300 foreign migrants stranded for weeks at a border crossing with Macedonia to the capital, Athens.
Some will be housed in temporary camps at two former Olympic stadiums.
The migrants have been stranded since Macedonia started filtering by nationality — allowing through only those from war zones.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Police Remove Protesting Migrants at Border
Greek police have removed hundreds of protesting migrants from a border crossing to Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which is denying them entry, deeming them to be economic migrants and not refugees.
The protest had severed a key Greek freight train link with northern Europe for three weeks, and also periodically prevented refugees that FYROM will accept from crossing the border. The services are now expected to restart soon.
Fourteen buses carrying about 650 people, including many from Iran and Morocco, are heading south from the Idomeni border crossing, which police sealed off earlier to remove the migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Host Refugees at Christmas: Berlin Bishop
As Germany prepares for another traditional Christmas, the Catholic bishop of Berlin has called on his flock to invite refugees to join their celebrations this year.
“We should make lots of personal contacts. Why not invite someone to celebrate Christmas with you at home?” Bishop Heiner Koch said.
“This is a kind of modern version of the Nativity story.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Thank us for Refugee Help — Don’t Sue
Italy is being sued by the EU for not doing enough to identify migrants arriving on its shores. But now the country has hit back hard, saying Europe should show it some gratitude.
“It needs to be clarified,” he said, adding that since the beginning of January, Italy had formally identified 80 percent of asylum seekers.
“Italy has saved over 200,000 migrants from the sea over the past couple of years. We have done a lot and for this, we are very proud.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Relocation in Athens Hits Snags
As Balkan states remain closed to people from ‘non-conflict areas,’ asylum-seekers stranded at the Greek border are heading back to Athens to await their fate in camps. Diego Cupolo reports from Athens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Border Checks to Start After New Year
Plans for tougher ID checks on the Öresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark to stem the influx of refugees are set to come into force on January 4th, the justice and migration minister has said.
Sweden’s centre-left government said last week that it wanted to introduce regular ID checks on buses, trains and ferries to cope with record numbers of people travelling to the region to claim asylum.
“The coming spring cannot be like this autumn. We have to reduce the number of asylum seekers. These ID checks are one way of achieving that,” said Morgan Johansson at a press conference on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Six in Ten Foreigners Will be Jobless by 2017
Sweden’s Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen) has predicted that six out of ten foreign-born people living in Sweden will be out of work by 2017, while the jobless rate for Swedes is set to shrink.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Bodies of 11 Drowned Migrants Have Been Found Off Canary Islands
Spain’s coastguard confirmed that 11 bodies had been recovered on Tuesday afternoon, the victims from an overturned boat that was attempting to reach the Spanish archipelago.
It is the latest of several boats filled with migrants attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands, suggesting the archipelago is regaining popularity as an entry point for migrants trying to reach Europe.
The Canary Islands, which lie off the Moroccan coast, were a key route for Europe-bound migrants a decade ago but their numbers fell in subsequent years, due to increased coast guard patrols and repatriation agreements between Spain and migrant countries of origin like Mauritania and Senegal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Polls May be Underestimating Trump’s Support
The mogul’s rise follows a global uptick in working-class backing for anti-immigrant policies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Met Accused of Whitewashing Baby Jesus
A Manhattan man is suing the Met, claiming it’s committing sacrilege by depicting Jesus as a blond.
“Racist” paintings portraying Christ as an “Aryan” male should be removed from the walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Justin Renel Joseph argues in his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
The masterpieces are “offensive aesthetic whitewashing” of the reality that the Savior, as a native of the Middle Eastern region, had “black hair like wool and skin of bronze color,” says Joseph, 33, who is acting as his own lawyer.
He says he suffered “personal stress” after viewing “The Holy Family with Angels” by Sebastiano Ricci; “The Resurrection” by Perugino; “The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” by Tintoretto; and “The Crucifixion” by Francesco Granacci.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sexist Advert Showing Housewives Doing Housework Banned in Spain
A Spanish cleaning product commercial has been branded sexist because it reinforced the stereotype that only women do housework.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who’s Getting a 3D Printer for Christmas?
As prices fall to as low as 500 euros, 3D printers are predicted to be among the must-have gadgets under Christmas trees this year. Has the time finally come for a technology that’s been around since the 1980s?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |