Husein Kavazovic, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, has called on the authorities to do something about radical Islamic terrorism. Mr. Kavazovic issued the call after he was threatened with death by the Islamic State for opposing Islamic extremism.
In other news, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, acknowledged that he has a dispute with Austria over the latter’s new policy of capping the number of migrants that enter the country. Meanwhile Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Lega Nord, says that neither the European Commission nor Mr. Juncker are welcome in Italy.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, 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.
Central Banks Should Stop Paying Interest on Reserves
What is to be done to escape the curse?
In 2008, the Federal Reserve began paying interest on reserve balances held on deposit at the Fed.
It took more than seven decades from the US leaving the gold standard — in 1933 — for the fiat regime to do this and thus revoke a cardinal element of the old gold-based monetary system: the non-payment of any interest on base money.
[Comment: Paying interest to banks that held their money at the Reserve was/is a method used to throttle the economy and growth of the country.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump is Right — Here Are 100 Reasons Why We Need to Audit the Federal Reserve
When one of our major politicians gets something exactly right, we should applaud them for it.
In this case, Donald Trump’s call to audit the Federal Reserve is dead on correct.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but the Federal Reserve has far more power over the economy than anyone else does — including Barack Obama. Financial markets all over the planet gyrate wildly at the smallest comment from Fed officials, and virtually every boom and bust cycle over the past 100 years can be traced directly back to specific decisions made by the Federal Reserve. We get all excited about what various presidential candidates say that they “will do for the economy”, but in the end it is the Fed that is holding all of the cards. The funny thing is that the Federal Reserve is not even part of the federal government. It is an independent private central bank that was designed by very powerful Wall Street interests a little over 100 years ago. It is at the heart of the debt-based financial system which is eating away at America like cancer, and it has no direct accountability to the American people whatsoever.
The Fed has been around for so long that most people assume that we need it.
But the truth is that we don’t actually need the Federal Reserve. In fact, the greatest period of economic growth in United States history happened during the decades before the Federal Reserve was created.
A little over 100 years ago, very powerful forces on Wall Street successfully pushed for the creation of an immensely powerful central bank, and since that time the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by about 98 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.
The Federal Reserve does whatever it feels like doing, and Fed officials insist that the institution must remain “independent” and “above politics” because monetary policy is too important to entrust to the American people.
To me, this is absolutely ridiculous. Everything else, including our national defense, is subject to the normal political process, and yet the decisions made by the Fed are so “important” that the American people can’t have a voice?
It is high time that the American people begin to learn what the Federal Reserve is really all about, and that can start with a full, comprehensive audit of all of the Federal Reserve’s activities. Yesterday, Donald Trump came out in favor of such an audit…
[Comment: Read it all. Private central banks are the greatest SCAM ever perpetrated in the history of the world. Giant parasites sucking the lifeblood of nations and enriching the owners of these private central banks to a mind-boggling level.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Not Touching Pension Transfers Renzi Reiterates
‘Classic news that feeds on itself’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 23 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Tuesday reiterated a denial that the government was going to touch pensions that revert to surviving spouses or offspring after the death of a spouse or parent.
“It’s the classic piece of news that feeds on itself, there’s no intervention, I totally deny it,” Renzi said.
“I’ve already replied to all the citizens who have written to me with a copy-and-paste message: ‘guys, don’t worry, it’s not going to happen”,” he said on Italian radio.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa’s Economy ‘In Crisis’
The South African economy is ‘in crisis’ says the country’s finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
The comments came ahead of his Budget speech, in which he cut the country’s growth forecast for 2016 to 0.9%, down from 1.7%.
He conceded the economy is struggling with shrinking growth, 25% unemployment, and widespread poverty.
The measures announced in the budget were aimed at stopping the country falling into recession and to appease the rating agencies who have threatened to downgrade south Africa to junk status.
Mr Gordhan announced government spending cuts, a civil service job freeze and some moderate tax rises.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Constitutional Sheriff Targeted by Feds, Hillary Still Free
Sheriff departments around the country are having to fight off the feds to protect their lands
Cliven Bundy has recently been arrested and indicted for the standoff at the Bundy Ranch two years ago, falsely accused of brandishing weapons at the standoff when he was not even present. InfoWars journalists who reported live from Bunkerville during the standoff and for several days leading up to it, never witnessed Cliven Bundy carrying arms.
Yet the federal criminal complaint accuses Cliven of using “a dangerous and deadly weapon to forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere with federal law enforcement officers” while “guarding and protecting government personnel and equipment located at the Impoundment Site at or near Bunkerville, Nevada”.
As someone who was there, witnessing, broadcasting and recording, I can say with certainty that Cliven did NOT “use and carry firearms, which were brandished, during and in relation to a crime of violence”.
Fortunately, there was no violence on either side; on the contrary, it was the federal agents who threatened violence on loudspeakers and who raised and pointed guns at the protestors and journalists at the standoff. I saw no one in the crowd of protestors raise or point weapons. After the fact a single picture surfaced of a single individual on the bridge overhead aiming and pointing a rifle. If other individuals had done so, you can believe the mainstream media would have pictures and would have shown them. What I witnessed, broadcasted and reported was a crowd that was mostly unarmed. Those I saw who carried arms had them holstered or slung.
Now an emboldened federal government is casting the net even wider in their pushback against the new Sagebrush Rebellion. An Oregon sheriff, Glenn Palmer, has just been accused of being a “security leak,” and the state of Oregon has asked the Oregon Department of Justice to investigate the sheriff in order to revoke his police certification, effectively removing him from office.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Are Determined to Bury the Bundy Movement
We will set aside for the moment that what the Bundy’s did in either event was a direct violation of law and court orders. Nevertheless, what most can’t seem to grasp, except maybe rural landowners, is that the Bundy-led events in Nevada and then in Oregon, are bigger than the sum of those events. They were and are a totally predictable equal and opposite reaction to the rise of government tyranny, driven and motivated by national and international radical environmentalism, ala Agenda 21. The name “Bundy” has become synonymous with an almost totally Western mindset that epitomizes a national resistance movement against environmentally motivated tyrants.
But the FEDS are determined to silence the Bundy movement and nip any spot fires from it, in the bud. They will, through the courts, make an example out of the Bundy’s for all those who might consider taking on the big bad vicious wolf, known as the federal government. The trials for these men will be closed to the public. News of the trials and the verdicts could be buried on page 23, if they appear at all. Or, maybe the opposite will be true in the FEDS attempts to scare off any would-be Bundy wannabes, you know, like Waco and Ruby Ridge. The Bundy’s, for all intent and purposes, will be silent martyrs of an American resistance movement that the FEDS hope will fade into obscurity.
[…]
Powerful environmental groups lobby congress and sue the government to accomplish their goals and at the same time reap large profits from court settlements, paid by taxpayer dollars. Much of what is taking place is described by an article in the Land and Water USA website at this link.
The article includes a video by attorney Larry Kogan, describing how the “dirty” work has been and is being done by your government.
As more of this information sinks into the rural population, the Bundy Movement will only grow in size and force. No matter what the government does to the Bundy’s, conflicts between rural landowners and the government will increase. If the government’s hope was to silence the Bundy Movement by punitive actions and incarceration, they will be disappointed. The actions by the Bundy’s, however ill advised, have exposed a government that no longer preserves, protects and defends the unalienable rights of its citizens and instead is taking those rights away by force, under the guise of radical environmentalism, just a different type of fascism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Built Back Door in All Windows Software by 1999
In researching the stunning pervasiveness of spying by the government (it’s much more wide spread than you’ve heard even now), we ran across the fact that the FBI wants software programmers to install a backdoor in all software.
Digging a little further, we found a 1999 article by leading European computer publication Heise which noted that the NSA had already built a backdoor into all Windows software:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Island Invites Trump Haters to Move North
The rise of controversial Republican real estate billionaire Donald Trump has given an unlikely boost to a Canadian island offering to take in Americans.
Cape Breton Island, off the northeast tip of Nova Scotia province about 500 miles east of the US state of Maine, has put out a welcome mat for anyone who could not stomach having Trump as their president, should he win…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian PM Insists Islamic Theocracy Fits w/Free Society
Precocious Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, like most Canadian taxpayers, can’t believe he’s prime minister, also can’t believe there’s a contradiction between theocracy and free societies.
In the two interviews, both with CBC, Trudeau insisted that Islam is “not incompatible with the Western secular democracy.”
In the most recent interview on January 31, he said “we need to make sure that we’re working with communities like the Muslim community, for example, to demonstrate that Islam is not incompatible with free and open Western societies.”
Unlike Justin, I’m not an expert on Islam, but I have to wonder shouldn’t it be up to the Muslim community, for example, to demonstrate that it’s not incompatible with free and open Western societies, rather than free and open Western societies having to demonstrate that there is no contradiction between them and Islam?
Isn’t that latter approach the pathway to mainstreaming Islamic theocracy and sacrificing the free and open thing?
Also is “not incompatible” really the highest praise here? Would you bring a few million people to your country who hopefully are “not incompatible” with your country? Would you marry someone you are “not incompatible” with? Would you invite them into your home?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Even Modest Interest Rate Hikes Could Endanger Ontario Government’s Promise of a Balanced Budget
TORONTO-A higher than expected rise in interest rates could jeopardize provincial government promises of balanced budgets and surpluses, finds a news study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think tank.
“During this era of record low interest rates, governments in Canada have accumulated significant debt, which could pose serious risks to their budgets if interest rates begin to rise and return to normal levels, causing debt interest payments to increase,” said Jean Francois Wen, professor of economics at the University of Calgary and author of The Impact of Higher Interest Rates on the Cost of Servicing Government Debt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 in 10 Italians Relinquish Medical Care Due to Cost, Wait
Complaints over waiting lists all over country
(ANSA) — Rome, February 23 — Nearly one in ten Italians go without medical treatment for economic reasons or due to the long wait, the 2015 report from the Civic observatory on federalism in health care produced by Cittadinanza attiva and the Tribunal for patients’ rights said Tuesday.
Over 58% of Italians among the 26,000 who turned to the tribunal in 2015 had difficulty accessing medical services beacuse of long waiting lists and 31% due to the prescription charge. Most complaints concerning waiting time were registered in Calabria, Friuli, Liguria, Marche, Sicily and Veneto.
In southern regions 11.2% of Italians relinquish medical treatment or examination for economic reasons or due to the wait.
In the centre the percentage fell to 7.4 while in the north it was 4.1.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Church of England Leaders Knew Bishop Peter Ball Sexually Abused Young Men
The Church of England covered-up abuse allegations against former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball, left, who was a friend of Prince Charles, right, for more than 23 year it has emerged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cologne Attacks: Most Suspects ‘May Never be Caught’
Most of the men who sexually assaulted women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve may never be caught, the city’s police chief, Juergen Mathies, has said.
CCTV footage was not good enough to identify sex crimes, he told the BBC.
Police have identified 75 suspects in connection with the thefts and assaults that took place around Cologne station.
A 23-year-old Moroccan man given a suspended sentence for theft has become the first person convicted for his part in the spate of attacks.
The man, named only as Younis A, was handed a six-month suspended sentence and a €100-euro (£79; $100) fine for stealing a mobile phone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Driver Killed When Passenger Train Crashes Into a Crane and Derails at a Crossing in the Netherlands
A passenger train has crashed into a maintenance crane and derailed at a crossing in the Netherlands this morning, killing the vehicle’s driver.
Photographs of the accident show the train sprawled out on its side across farmland near the town of Dalfsen, 75 miles east of Amsterdam.
Rene Vegter, a spokesman for Prorail, the company that manages Dutch railways, says the crash occurred around 9am local time.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Must be Values Not Restrictions Says Renzi
‘False’ that govt is ‘playing the optimist’
(ANSA) — Milan, February 24 — The EU must represent values rather than demanding restrictions, Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday. “The future that awaits us is not one of restrictions but one of values and ideals: the EU is that, or it is no more,” he said in Milan. “The government has been accused of playing the optimist and issuing propaganda, but that is false. Italy has extraordinary resources,” he said. Renzi has long been urging the EU to loosen budgetary parameters and do more to stoke growth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gentiloni Says Brexit Win Would be ‘Harsh Blow’ For Europe
FM says he hopes Yes votes will win
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Wednesday said he hopes Yes votes will win at a referendum on June 23 in the UK on whether Britain should remain in the European Union.
Gentiloni told the Lower House that a No-vote win would be a “harsh blow for Europe and a very harsh one for London”.
“Italy and Great Britain have perhaps among the most distant positions in the European context”.
“London focuses on the single market, the Italian government pushes for greater European integration”.
However, he concluded, “we are both interested in the fact that an integrated Europe, the Europe of the euro has more expansive economic policies”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Internet by Light Promises to Leave Wi-Fi Eating Dust
Barcelona (AFP) — Connecting your smartphone to the web with just a lamp — that is the promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary wireless technology.
French start-up Oledcomm demonstrated the technology at the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest mobile fair, in Barcelona. As soon as a smartphone was placed under an office lamp, it started playing a video.
The big advantage of Li-Fi, short for “light fidelity”, is its lightning speed.
Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of over 200 Gbps — fast enough to “download the equivalent of 23 DVDs in one second”, the founder and head of Oledcomm, Suat Topsu, told AFP.
“Li-Fi allows speeds that are 100 times faster than Wi-Fi” which uses radio waves to transmit data, he added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘400,000 Worked by Gangmasters for 2.5 Euros an Hour’
600 mn euros a year in taxes dodged
(ANSA) — Rome, February 23 — Some 400,000 farm workers are exploited by gangmasters in Italian fields for an average pay of 2.5 euros an hour, according to a report out Tuesday.
The Italian State is owed 600 million euros in dodged taxes annually because of the black labour, 80% of them foreigners, said the report from The European House-Ambrosetti, based on Flai Cgil data for 2015.
The report was presented as a convention of Assosomm, the Italian association for job agencies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: I Would Vote for Clinton But Will Talk to Trump if Wins — Renzi
Premier will ‘talk with whoever wins the elections’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 23 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Tuesday confirmed his support for Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House but said he would talk with whoever is elected.
“If I was American I would vote for Clinton, she was a great secretary of state, during her husband’s presidency America changed,” Renzi told Rtl 102.5 radio.
“It would be nice to have a female president of the United States,” he added.
“I don’t know if in the end (Donald) Trump will be the Republican candidate, but as premier I will talk with whoever is elected,” Renzi said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Has One of EU’s Highest Levels of ‘Skills Mismatch’
One reason why many low-skilled workers can’t get jobs
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 23 — Italy is among European Union countries with the highest levels of mismatch between the skills that workers have and those requested by the jobs market, a European Commission report showed.
Italy tops the skills gap table along with Belgium and Ireland.
The concept is closely linked to that of “educational mismatch” or education of children that does not meet the needs of companies.
The skills mismatch remained high in Italy even while the number of highly qualified and medium-qualified workers rose slightly in the first four months of 2015, to around 20% and 40% of the active workforce respectively.
Meanwhile the number of low skilled workers declined to about 40%.
The high level of skills mismatch can be linked to the low employment rates among low skilled workers, in contrast to better employment situations in other countries such as Germany, Denmark and Britain.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Top Court Blasted as ‘Islamic’ After Mosque Law Quashed
Constitutional Court overturns Lombardy limitations
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italy’s top court was blasted as “Islamic” Wednesday after it quashed a Lombardy regional law restricting the construction of mosques.
Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni, of the rightwing populist anti-immigrant and anti-euro Northern League, said that the left were hailing “Allah” after Italy’s Constitutional Court overturned the regional regulation limiting the development of new mosques. “The Constitutional Court has rejected our law regulating the construction of new mosques,” Maroni said on his Twitter account. “The left celebrates: Allah(u) Akbar”. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government appealed to the Constitutional Court last year after Maroni’s centre-right administration for the region around Milan approved strict new planning laws for places of worship. Central government said the regulation breached the principle of equality between citizens and religions.
The Constitutional Court struck down the regulation on Tuesday and will release the explanation of its ruling in the coming weeks.
Northern League leader Matteo Salvini blasted the Constitutional Court as “Islamic, not Italian”. “It is an accomplice in illegal immigration,” he added.
In contrast Davide Piccardo, the coordinator of the CAIM umbrella group for Islamic associations in Milan, Monza and Brianza, expressed “great satisfaction” at the ruling. “Now the city of Milan no longer has excuses to not complete the allocation of areas for the construction of mosques,” Piccardo said. “The law was a legal disgrace and a case of unacceptable incivility and intolerance in Lombardy, where over 400,000 Muslims live and were considered second-class citizens. “It’s serious that the public institutions were used to deny the rights of a part of the community”. Piccardo praised central government for opposing the regional regulation and called for a national law to prevent similar situations in other parts of Italy.
Paolo Grossi, the new president of Italy’s Constitutional Court, hailed the ruling. “Our concern is to be custodians of fundamental rights: the essential nucleus of the sentence is based on avoiding discriminations, as the Court adjudged were present in the law,” he said. The formerly secessionist Northern League, which has expanded from its northern Italian power base to become the biggest rightwing party in Italy, has long been against the construction of new mosques on its home turf in northern Italy.
In 2009 the League demonstrated against plans to build a mosque in Genoa with a ‘salami protest’. In 2007 a Northern League heavyweight, former minister Roberto Calderoli, called for a ‘pig day’ battle against mosque building on Italian soil.
Calderoli, who was reform minister under the previous, Silvio Berlusconi-led government and was now deputy Senate speaker, said pigs should be brought in to thwart plans for the construction of a major mosque in Bologna.
He said he had used the same tactic with success in another northern city, Lodi.
In February 2006, Calderoli was forced to quit as reform minister after he sported a T-shirt emblazoned with the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad which at the time were causing a wave of international Muslim protests.
Calderoli’s act was followed by violent demonstrations in Libya in which the Italian consulate in Benghazi was attacked. Some 15 people were killed after local police opened fire on a crowd trying to storm the consulate.
The League has frequently caused rows with intolerant stances against Muslims and immigrants in general.
In the wake of the September 2001 terror attacks on the US, the party demanded that mosques and Islamic centres be shut down and Italy’s frontiers closed to Muslims.
More recently, a League member called for the expulsion of Muslim immigrants who could not be ‘vouched for’ by an Italian citizen. The party has also spearheaded campaigns to ban burqas and veils in public.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cantone Moves to Block Two Lombardy Health Contracts
ANAC to freeze contracts in dental services sector
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) on Wednesday moved to block two contracts won by a company involved in a Monza probe into suspected kickbacks in the Lombardy health sector. The two contracts won by Servicedent both concern dental-sector services. The requests to block the contracts were signed by ANAC chief Raffaele Cantone.
Northern League Lombardy regional councillor Fabio Rizzi and his live-in girl Lorena Lidia Pagani are among those to have been arrested in a probe into alleged corruption in the outsourcing of hospital dentistry services in the northern region. In total 21 people were arrested or otherwise cautioned in a probe into allegedly illegally won contracts worth over 400 million euros.
The scandal has led to calls for Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni to resign.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Average Cost of Raising Newborn Up 3%, Consumers’ Group
Federconsumatori says expenses have increased to 15,000 euros
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — The average cost of raising babies in their first year of life in Italy has risen 3% this year on 2015, according to a study released Wednesday by the national observatory of consumers’ group Federconsumatori.
The association said bringing up a newborn will cost on average 14,905 euros in 2016 from 6,945 euros last year.
Milk and baby food topped the list of expenses — ranging between 1,700 and 3,681 euros — followed by clothing and shoes — between 1,042 and 2,832 euros — medical expenses — 795 and 1,798 euros — and nappies, averaging between 715 and 1,095 euros, according to Federconsumatori.
The association added that several groups have been set up on the internet and social networks to exchange baby items although loans among family and friends are the most common saving strategy.
In addition, children born between January 2015 and December 31, 2017, to families with an annual income below 25,000 euros have a right to a baby bonus.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tapping Allied Govt Unacceptable Boschi Tells MPs
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi told Lower House MPs from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party Wednesday that “we would find wiretapping a U.S. ally government unacceptable”. She is being questioned by MPs about Wikileaks reports that the US National Security Agency conducted surveillance on Berlusconi while he was still premier, in 2011.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Has ‘Come Back’ Renzi Tells Milan Fashion Week
‘After years of scandals’
(ANSA) — Milan, February 24 — Italy has “come back”, Premier Matteo Renzi told the foreign press in English after inaugurating Milan Fashion Week Wednesday.
“Italy has come back, this is the message,” he said, stressing that Italy believes in its future “after years of scandals”. Fashion can point the way to Italy’s future, he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Must Take EU Report Into Account Says Dombrovskis
‘We expect proposals on macroeconomic imbalances’
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 24 — Italy like other EU member States must take into account a forthcoming European Commission report on macroeconomic imbalances when it plans its 2017 budget and reforms, European Commissioner for the Euro Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday. “We expect Italy to come up with proposals on how to deal with those imbalances,” he said.
The country-by-country reports on macroeconomic imbalances “are usually reflected in national reform and budget plans, which must be submitted to Brussels by April,” said the commissioner and EC vice president.
“Member States provide their assessment of the challenges they face, and we hope our reports can assist (them) in their preparation,” Dombrovskis said. “This is exactly the case of Italy,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy 20-Year Low for EU Infringements
Down from 91 to 83
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 24 — Italy has hit a 20-year low in the number of EU infringement proceedings pending, sources said Wednesday. The closure of eight proceedings was OK’d Wednesday, to be formally approved Thursday, lowering the total from 91 to 83, they said. Proceedings have fallen 30% in the last two years. Italy has long been one of the EU members with the highest number of infringement proceedings against it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Edison, DEPA, Gazprom in Gas Pipeline Deal
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Milan-based Edison SpA, Greek public gas company DEPA, and Russian gas giant Gazprom have signed a memorandum of understanding on “gas supplies from Russia through the Black Sea to Greece and Italy”, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. This would entail building a gas pipeline between Greece and Italy, opening up a new route for natural gas supplies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sigonella Base for US Armed Drones ‘In Line With Strategy’
Says Italy’s defense minister, ‘involve Libyans in anti-ISIS’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 24 — The authorization for the US to use Italy’s Sigonella base for armed drones is to protect personnel only, and the use will be debated and authorized on a case-by-case basis, Italian defense minister Roberta Pinoti said Wednesday. She added that it was “in line with the Italian strategy to involve the local population in the fight against terrorism”. Pinotti underscored that US airstrikes in recent days in Sabratha “did not involve Italy logistically or for the overflight”.
The minister noted “the choices that the government has made in the struggle against ISIS. From the beginning we have been part of the international coalition and we support with equal determination the national point of view, which aims to directly involve the local population in the fight against terrorism, fundamental for its success. We do this in Iraq, in agreement with the Iraqi government, and we have the same approach in Libya.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jeremy Heywood Orders Civil Servants to Tell Nation Why UK Must Remain in EU
Sir Jeremy Heywood — nicknamed Sir Cover-Up — has instructed civil servants across Whitehall to produce reams of propaganda on why the UK must remain inside the Brussels club.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Juncker Not Welcome in Italy Says Salvini
EC chief due to visit Friday
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Northern League party, said Wednesday that European Commission President Jean-Claude “Juncker and the European Commission are not welcome in Italy”. Salvini, who wants to hold a referendum on leaving the EU, was speaking during a visit to a Roma camp in Rome. Juncker and an EC delegation are scheduled to visit Rome Friday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lying Press? Germans Lose Faith in the Fourth Estate
“Mendacious swine journals” reads this sign held by a German protester at a recent PEGIDA demonstration in Dresden, listing various German media outlets.
Germans are losing faith in their media. Nowhere is this more apparent than in mistrust of refugee crisis media coverage. Where did journalists go wrong? And how much of this skepticism reflects a preference for rumors over facts? By SPIEGEL Staff
You couldn’t ask for a better reader than Isolde Beck. She has had subscriptions to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Badische Neueste Nachrichten and SPIEGEL for many years. And as a retiree, she takes the time to thoroughly read through the newspapers and magazine.
But her relationship with the media has become troubled in recent weeks. She has the feeling that the “news is being suppressed” and that journalists are no longer allowed to “articulate certain things.” Beck has stopped believing what the journalists write.
These feelings prompted her to send SPIEGEL an irate letter to the editor in early January regarding a cover story about the sexual violence in Cologne. “We can no longer assume that there is a democracy or even freedom of expression in this country anymore,” she wrote, “and the media are complicit, for the most part, perhaps out of reluctance to alienate interviewees, or perhaps because it appears to be gratifying to manipulate readers or to make fun of them, however you want to put it.” In retrospect, says Beck, she would not have expressed her thoughts quite as drastically. But, she adds, it was so soon after the Cologne sexual assaults and she was furious with the perpetrators and the press, which she believes took too long to report on the incidents. Several days did indeed pass before the mainstream media in Germany began reporting heavily on the events of New Year’s Eve.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Islamists Are Mobilizing Against Soldiers of Odin
Persons linked to Islamist groups in Oslo say that they have formed a group called “Soldiers of Allah”.
Via a central source in the Islamist environment, the Norwegian newspaper VG has received a statement, and photographs of the planned uniform.
The group has been named “Jundullaah” — which translates to “Soldiers of Allah”.
“In response to the group of unbelievers in Soldiers of Odin, who are patrolling the streets, we Muslims have chosen to create a group to patrol the streets, initially in the capital Oslo, to forbid evil and call for the good,” says the statement.
The planned “uniform”, is decorated with the black flag of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) on the back, with a small logo on the chest.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Stock Exchange: London-Frankfurt Merger Negotiations
Italian Stock Exchange is involved in the operation
(ANSA) — ROME — Talks are ongoing between London and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges regarding a potential “all-share merger” , London Stock Exchange ( LSE ) confirmed, according to Bloomberg . Even Borsa Italiana (Italian Stock Exchange) is part of LSE group.
The shareholders of London Stock Exchange are expected to own 45.6 % of the new group whereas those of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange ( Deutsche Boerse) are expected to own 54.4 %.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Taxing at EU Level Would Lead to Savings for Italians — CGIA
Each citizen would save 557 euros per year, business group says
(ANSA) — Venice, February 23 — Europe-wide taxation would lead to annual savings of about 557 euros per Italian, equivalent to overall savings of 34 billion euros, small business association CGIA said on Tuesday.
Following a proposal to create a system of taxation at the EU level and a finance minister for the bloc, CGIA said that taxing Italians at a similar rate to levels in other euro-zone countries would be advantageous for the average citizen’s pocket.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
General Sir Michael Rose was one of 13 former military commanders apparently signed up to a letter which warned a Brexit would open Britain to ‘grave security threats’ from Russia and ISIS.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teacher Sean Powell Found With Memory Sticks of Students’ Cleavages and Bottoms Keeps Job
Sean Powell, 49, from Essex, was found with pen sticks full of pictures of pupils’ cleavages and bottoms has been allowed to carry on teaching as his actions ‘were not sexually motivated’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Three Men and Two Women Are Convicted Over Sexual Exploitation of Teenage Girls in Rotherham
Brothers Arshid (pictured), 40, Basharat, 39, and Bannaras Hussain, 36, committed multiple rapes and indecent assaults on teenagers in the South Yorkshire town over a prolonged period.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia’s Mufti Urges Authorities to Act After Islamist Threat
Bosnia’s Muslim religious leader Husein Kavazovic urged authorities on Tuesday to act after he was threatened by a presumed Islamic State group member following his denunciation of Islamist extremism.
“The Islamic community of Bosnia takes seriously threats… to (Bosnia’s) Muslims and the Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic,” a statement released from his office read.
“We hope that the state’s institutions will take up this issue,” the statement said.
The appeal was issued after some local media broadcast a video of a Bosnian-speaking man in front of an Islamic State flag threatened to “cut the throat” of Kavazovic, adding that the “mujaheddin are coming to Bosnia.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian President Says Russian Plane Was Deliberately Downed
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has said for the first time that the Russian plane that crashed in Sinai last year was downed by terrorists seeking to damage Egypt’s tourism industry and relations with Moscow.
“Has terrorism ended? No it has not, but it will if we unite. Whoever downed the Russian plane, what did he mean? He meant to hit tourism, and to hit relations with Russia,” Sisi said on Wednesday in a televised speech. The comments were the first official Egyptian indication that the plane was deliberately downed.
Moscow stopped all civilian flights to Egypt, a popular destination for Russian tourists, after the plane crashed in Sinai on 31 October, killing all 224 people on board.
Russia said a bomb brought down the flight. Islamic State said it smuggled the explosive aboard concealed in a soft drink can.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Among Suspected Jihadists Held in Spain, Morocco
Spanish and Moroccan police on Tuesday detained four people suspected of recruiting jihadists for the Islamic State group, one of whom was a former Guantanamo prisoner who received military training in Afghanistan.
The four — three Spaniards and one Moroccan — were “willing to commit terrorist acts on Spanish soil,” police said, adding they had allegedly made contacts to acquire weapons and substances used to make explosives.
They were detained in Spain’s north African exclave of Ceuta and the Moroccan city of Nador, and police said the brother of one of the cell members had committed a suicide attack in Syria for the Islamic State group (IS).
“One of the leaders of the cell received military and combat training in camps in Afghanistan under the authority of terrorist jihadist organisations,” police added…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Ambassador Nixes Protectorate Idea
‘Only Libyans to decide their future’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Libyan Ambassador to Italy Ahmed Safar said Wednesday that an alleged plan to divide the country into foreign protectorates would be rejected by the population.
“It would be like dividing Germany with a wall again,” he told reporters. The reference was to press leaks claiming that work is underway in Washington, Paris, London and Rome on an alternative action plan to defeat the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) fundamentalist group if efforts to get the UN-backed unity government approved were to fall through. “Only Libyans will decide their future,” the ambassador said. “And they want a united, democratic and liberal government.” The international community is waiting for an official request from Libya’s government of national unity before engaging in anti-ISIS operations in the country. As well, the Libyan ambassador said he hoped to get good news soon on four employees of Bonatti engineering contractor, who were taken hostage in Libya in July.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Extends Jewish Extremist’s Detention Without Trial
An Israeli court on Tuesday extended the detention without trial of a Jewish extremist suspected of attacks, after a request from the Shin Bet internal security agency, his lawyer said.
Meir Ettinger, a 23-year-old accused of being a key figure in a loose band of youths suspected of a string of nationalist hate crimes targeting Palestinians, Christians and even Israeli soldiers, has already been in administrative detention for seven months.
He was placed under the controversial measure in August, just days after a lethal firebomb attack on a Palestinian home in the West Bank which resulted in the death of a couple and their toddler…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Salman Rushdie: Iranian State Media Renew Fatwa on Satanic Verses Author With $600,000 Bounty
Forty state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new $600,000 bounty for the death of British Indian author Salman Rushdie, according to the state-run Fars News Agency.
Fars News Agency, which is closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was among the largest contributors, donating one billion Rials — nearly $30,000.
The announcement coincides with the anniversary of the fatwa issued the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, the agency said.
Ayatollah Khomeini, the First Supreme Leader of Iran, issued the fatwa against Rushdie on charges of blasphemy for his novel The Satanic Verses on 15 February, 1989.
The Ayatollah called for the death of the book’s author along with anyone “involved in its publication”.
Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death outside his office at Tsukuba University, the Italian translator Ettore Capriolo survived being stabbed at his apartment in Milan, and the novel’s Norwegian publisher was shot three times in the back and left for dead outside his home in Oslo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
According to local sources, the dispute between disgruntled royal family members and the totalitarian monarch has reached its climax and as the seething volcano of social discontent is about to explode in any minute, the fearful princes have begun to flee to western countries-namely France and United Kingdom- with various pretexts, leaving a country enmeshed in a bloody foreign war, fragile security situation and an economy in complete shambles.
To make matters worse an alarming video has been aired on YouTube last week claiming Saudi Arabia has nuclear weapons ready to use against Russia, Iran and President Basher Al- Asad.
This week the build up to WW III has taken a huge step closer as the Saudis said they had troops ready to move into Syria with the Russians warning it would trigger a world war.
They have now thrown down the gauntlet to the Russians and Iran by claiming they have nuclear weapons.
Daham Al-Anzi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is acting like a responsible country by standing up for the Syrian people. Therefore the Saudi leadership represented by the Ministry of Defence have taken steps to minimise the Iranian threat in Yemen and is now focused on minimising the Iranian and Russian threat in the Levant and Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump and the Realities of WMD in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq
GOP Presidential front runner Donald Trump, following his South Carolina victory, was on Fox News Sunday, February 21, 2016 with Chris Wallace when the subject of the War in Iraq came up. Trump contended it was a disaster. He asserted that Jeb Bush finally admitted he never supported it and pointed towards the result, Iran taking over there. Something he alleges he would stop if elected President. Trump was on record in an interview with Howard Stern in September 2002 supporting the Iraq war, later questioning its cost. Wallace’s question was triggered by an exchange with Anderson Cooper of CNN during the South Carolina town hall on February 19th. His comment about WMD in Iraq caught a wave of attention. In the exchange with Cooper he said:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Amnesty: Human Rights’ Respect Sharply Deteriorated
Report, alert on conflict with PKK and freedom of expression
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 24 — In Turkey “the human rights situation has sharply deteriorated in the aftermath of June’s parliamentary elections and the explosion of violence between the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish armed forces in July”, stated Amnesty International in its 2015/16 report launching an appeal on freedom of expression in the country.
“The media have faced unprecedented pressure by the government. Freedom of expression online and offline has suffered significantly” stated the organisation.
Amnesty criticised the behaviour of Turkish special forces accusing them of obstructing the public expression of dissent, which has been subject to increasingly serious repression since the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations in Istanbul.
“The right to freedom of peaceful assembly has continued to be violated. Instances of excessive use of force by the police and mistreatment during detention have increased.
Impunity for human rights abuse persists. The independence of the judiciary has often been encroached upon”.
The document spoke of the attacks which hit Turkey in 2015 and described the difficulties felt by the country which is welcoming “2.5 million refugees and asylum seekers”, but also stressed that a number of people” have been subjected to growing arbitrary detentions and expulsions while the government was negotiating an agreement on migrants with the EU”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Talking to Joseph Stalin (Audio)
H.G. Wells, the prolific British sci-fi writer, who self-described to be a socialist left of Stalin, interviewed the infamous Soviet dictator for three hours on July 23, 1934. The interview was recorded by Constantine Oumansky, the chief of the Press Bureau of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.
The scope of the interview, after he spoke at length with President Roosevelt, was to find out what Stalin was “doing to change the world.” Wells told Stalin that he tried to look at the world through the eyes of the “common man” not the eyes of a politician or a bureaucrat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Indonesia: “Terrorism is Not Part of Islam”
Ahmad Al Thayyeb is on visit to the most populous Muslim country in the world. Indonesian President asks him to defend the moderate vision of Islam, against the radical threat. Muslim Scholars: “Al Thayyeb is a great authority, his visit is meant to strengthen cultural ties with Jakarta and prevent a Shiite-Sunni conflict occurring in Indonesia.” Catholic professor: “The Church is ready to support a moderate reform of Islam.”
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — “Terrorism is not part of Islam”. This is what Syekh Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad Al Thayyeb, the Great Imam and rector of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, said in an interview to Indonesian press in course of his visit to Indonesia.
Welcoming the highest Sunni authority in the Islamic world, the Indonesian president Joko Widodo asked Al Tayyeb to defend the moderate face of Islam. “The president — says Alwi Shihab, former foreign minister — asked the Grand Imam to spread his vision and his enlightened thought among Muslim organizations and communities in Indonesia”.
The rector of Al-Azhar arrived in the Southeast Asian nation on February 21 last year and still remain for a few days. Yesterday, he visited the Islamic State University of Jakarta (UIM) and will also travel to that of Malang (East Java) to accept an honorary degree. AsiaNews spoke to some Islamic and Catholic figures, who pointed out the deep reasons of this important visit.
Al-Azhar, explains Ali Mushanif, professor of social policies at the Syarief Hidayatullah Islamic University, “is the central icon of Islamic studies in the world. It is not the first time that the Great Imam of this prestigious university has visited Indonesia: Muhammad Tantawi was here in 2006 “. “The main reason for this trip — continues the professor — from Al-Azhar’s point of view is to improve the education cooperation with Indonesia, which already has 3,500 students studying there.” Al Tayyeb announced that the number of annual scholarships reserved for Indonesian students will increase to 50.
In addition, says Ali Mushanif, “Al Tayyeb is the main reference of other Muslim nations in internal disputes within Islam, such as the dispute between Sunnis and Shiites.” Historically, the scholar continues, “Al-Azhar has always had a moderate view of the conflict with the Shiites, and has never termed them outlaws. But I think the visit is also a way to reaffirm the dominance of the Sunnis. With more than 200 million Muslims, Indonesia has become a strategic country to maintain the unity of Islam, where you can prevent the symptoms of rivalry between Sunnis and Shiites [in Indonesia are less than 1%, ed] . The Great Imam excels in maintaining the right balance between the parties “.
M. Qasim Mathar, of the Islamic University of Makassar (South Sulawesi), says Al Tayyeb’s visit is important “not only because Indonesia is the most populous moderate Muslim nation in the world, but also because it is battling fundamentalism and Islamic radicalism, which are not in accordance with the schools of thought spread by Al-Azhar “. “As an Indonesian — concludes the professor — I hope that this visit will strengthen the bonds between Indonesian Muslims and Egyptians, who are often affected by the violent attacks of the radicals.”
Wijoyo, a Catholic scholar of Islam has expressed his hope for a reform that promotes a moderate Islam. Al Tayyeb’s visit, he explains, “does not directly concern the Catholic Church, but if there is some attempt to reform, then the Indonesian Church will support it.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
110,054 Nonwhite Invaders in 7 Weeks
A total of 110,054 nonwhite invaders have entered Europe during the first eight weeks of this year-and these are only the ones who have made any sort of effort to actually register or be seen.
According to figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), this figure includes 102,547 who have come through Greece, and 7,507 who have invaded Italy over the Mediterranean Sea.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
17 Countries Refuse to Take Back Nationals
The German government has sent letters of complaint to seventeen Third World countries which have refused to take back their nationals who have had their “asylum” applications rejected in Germany. After inviting the entire Third World into Germany, the Angela Merkel government has found that hundreds of thousands of them have not come from “war zones,” and were simply opportunistic invaders seeking to parasite off and criminalize white European society.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another Town Segregates Invaders
Yet another European town-this time Tønder in Denmark-has segregated nonwhite invaders from locals at the town’s swimming pool because of “health and security” issues. According to a report by the Danish TV Syd, the town council of Tønder has barred “asylum seekers” from mixing with locals at the Skærbæk swimming pool after continued complaints about their behavior, and will now only let them in during special hours.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Attacks German ‘Contradictions’ On Migrants
Austria lashed out Tuesday at Germany’s “contradictory” refugee policy after Berlin sharply criticised Vienna’s new daily cap on migrants allowed to pass through the Alpine country.
“Germany should decide which number is acceptable to it,” Chancellor Werner Faymann told reporters. A statement added that he wished for a “respectful treatment of Austria’s political decisions.”
Austria, which last year took in 90,000 asylum-seekers and let almost 10 times as many travel through, last week imposed a daily limit of 80 claims and said only 3,200 migrants could transit to neighbouring states…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Rifts Widen as Migrant Arrivals Top 110,000 This Year
A diplomatic spat between Greece and Austria on Tuesday highlighted the deepening rifts among European states about how to tackle the migrant crisis as new figures showed no let-up in the influx of people fleeing war and poverty.
With migrant and refugee arrivals in Europe surpassing 110,000 in the first two months of the year alone, the United Nations warned that border restrictions being imposed by some states could cause chaos.
And the European Union also voiced concerns about the risk of a “humanitarian crisis” particularly in Greece, which lies on the frontline of Europe’s greatest migration challenge since World War II.
Thousands of people have been left stranded in Greece after Macedonia abruptly closed its border to Afghans, creating a fresh bottleneck on the Balkans route to northern Europe…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gentiloni Critical of Hungary Referendum on Migrant Quotas
Foreign minister warns of ‘risky and dangerous precedents’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Wednesday said that although he believes all countries “have the right to make their own national decisions”, he is “critical” of Hungary’s decision to hold a referendum on mandatory EU migrant quotas.
“I don’t believe that Europe today can manage the migrant crisis with single countries delegating decisions to their citizens that disrupt common ones taken at a European level,” Gentiloni said, adding that it could create “precedents that could be negative or even dangerous”.
Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner agreed that “we all want a European solution, but the problem is when that might happen”.
“A European solution takes time. What’s needed now are national measures,” Mikl-Leitner said.
Austria hosted a migration conference Wednesday with Balkan nations, which Mikl-Leitner said was aimed finding ways to stop the influx of migrants.
Greece, one of the main first entry points for migrants into Europe, criticised Austria for not inviting officials from Athens to attend.
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Greece is putting measures in place to strengthen its border management after the EU commission evaluating Greek management of Schengen borders found “serious shortcomings”.
“Rather important progress has been made on hotspots, but let’s not deceive ourselves, more efforts must be made,” Dombrovskis said.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday called the migrant integration process “a historic task”.
“Now more now than ever, Europe must recognise difficulties and struggles in the face of the economic crisis, financial instability, migration and wars in the Middle East, and strong imbalances in wealth and opportunities,” Mattarella wrote in a letter sent to a European Parliament conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of politician Aldo Moro, slain by the Red Brigades in 1978.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
German Police: Keep Invader Drops Secret
German police union national chairman Oliver Malchow has said that in order to “better protect refugees on their arrival” in municipalities, in future such drops should be kept secret from the public.
Speaking to the Rheinische Post after an incident last week where an angry mob surrounded a bus in Clausewitz, Malchow said that it was better only to inform the population after the invaders had been dropped off in their town, and not before.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Accused of Raping Boy in Austrian Swimming Pool is Kept in Solitary to Protect Him
The attacker, identified only as 20-year-old Amir A, is kept under tight security in Vienna’s Josefstadt jail in order to protect him from the other prisoners.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Juncker: I Admit There is a Dispute With Austria
No concerted action against Vienna, hoping to find a solution
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 24 — “I admit that there is an ongoing dispute with Austria, which is a country I love and that has made a big effort. There is no concerted action against Vienna. I am confident that we will find a solution”, European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said, speaking at the Brussels plenary.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Changes Rule to Welcome Immigrants With STDs
Anywhere from 1,073 to 6,409 HIV-infected aliens are given legal permanent residency every year
The Obama administration will no longer ban immigrants with three sexually transmitted diseases and bacterial infections from entering the country, the Center for Immigration Studies noted.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced the rule Jan. 26, and it goes into effect on March 28.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, within HHS, decided to remove chancroid, granuloma inguinale, and lymphogranuloma venereum from the list of inadmissible diseases for an immigrant seeking to enter the country. The Obama administration estimates that the change would not cost more than $100 million.
In President Barack Obama’s first year in office, the Department of Health and Human Services decided that HIV was no longer a “communicable disease of public health significance.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Now that Guantanamo is free they can set up an STD colony there, and wait for funds from the prospective immigrants’ families to treat those diseases while the applications are processed.
This is far better welcome than they gave the Jewish refugees on the St Louis.