The governing body of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C. has voted to make all liturgical language that refers to God gender-neutral. The text of the Book of Common Prayer will be modified accordingly.
In other news, the police station in the town of Portes Les Valence in southeastern France was blown up by a Molotov cocktail.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, Insubria, JD, KS, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.
Italy: Inflation Slows to 0.8% in January — ISTAT
Lowest annual rate since December 2016
(ANSA) — Rome, February 2 — Italy’s annual inflation rate dropped to 0.8% in January, the lowest level since December 2016, according to preliminary data released by ISTAT on Friday.
the rate compares to 0.9% in December.
In month-on-month terms, the consumer price index was up 0.2% on January with respect to December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The House memo reveals disturbing facts about the misuse of FISA.
Now we know why the FBI tried so hard to block release of the House Intelligence Committee memo. And why Democrats and the media want to change the subject to Republican motivations. The four-page memo released Friday reports disturbing facts about how the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appear to have been used to influence the 2016 election and its aftermath.
The White House declassified the memo Friday, and you don’t have to be a civil libertarian to be shocked by the details. The memo confirms that the FBI and Justice Department on Oct. 21, 2016 obtained a FISA order to surveil Carter Page, an American citizen who was a relatively minor volunteer adviser to the Trump presidential campaign.
The memo says an “essential” part of the FISA application was the “dossier” assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele and the research firm Fusion GPS that was hired by a law firm attached to the Clinton campaign. The memo adds that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told the committee in December 2017 that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” without the dossier.
This is troubling enough, but the memo also discloses that the FBI failed to inform the FISA court that the Clinton campaign had funded the dossier. The memo says the FBI supported its FISA application by “extensively” citing a September 2016 article in Yahoo News that contained allegations against Mr. Page. But the FBI failed to tell the court that Mr. Steele and Fusion were the main sources for that Yahoo article. In essence the FBI was citing Mr. Steele to corroborate Mr. Steele.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Child Services Caught Taking Bribes to Look the Other Way as Mom Tortured 5-Year-Old Boy to Death
Cleveland, OH — In the same country where children can be taken from their homes if their parents are found possessing “illegal” plants, one woman who was being paid by the state to keep children safe, accepted bribes from a mother, and did nothing to interfere while she tortured her 5-year-old son to death.
Cleveland Police received a call from Pakistan in December, in which a man claimed his brother helped bury a young boy’s dead body in the backyard of a residential neighborhood. When investigators located the yard, they began digging and recovered the body of a boy who they believe died in September, according to report from Cleveland.com.
The boy’s body showed multiple signs of abuse, including broken ribs, and his mother, Larissa Rodriguez, 34, was arrested and charged with murder, felonious assault, gross abuse of a corpse and child endangerment.
While it is not clear what investigators believe happened to cause the boy’s death, his mother’s boyfriend, Christopher Rodriguez, was also charged with murder.
But there is another side to the tragic story that calls the legitimacy of social services into question. Nancy Caraballo, 45, a social worker with Catholic Charities, which is a division of the county’s Education Services department funded by Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio, was assigned to the Rodriguez family.
Investigators are now revealing that while Caraballo visited the family’s home regularly, she did not report that Jordan Rodriguez, who was developmentally-disabled, had gone missing for months because she was being bribed by Larissa Rodriguez. WKYC News reported that Caraballo “bought more than $10,000 of their food stamps, paying 50 cents on the dollar.”
In addition to purchasing the food stamps that were supposed to buy food for the 5-year-old boy who was buried in the family’s backyard, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O’Malley said Caraballo was also abusing her power by failing to report that Larissa Rodriguez’ nine children were living in a home infested with roaches, rats, and bedbugs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EFF and Lookout Uncover New Malware Espionage Campaign Infecting Thousands Around the World
San Francisco — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and mobile security company Lookout have uncovered a new malware espionage campaign infecting thousands of people in more than 20 countries. Hundreds of gigabytes of data has been stolen, primarily through mobile devices compromised by fake secure messaging clients.
The trojanized apps, including Signal and WhatsApp, function like the legitimate apps and send and receive messages normally. However, the fake apps also allow the attackers to take photos, retrieve location information, capture audio, and more.
The threat, called Dark Caracal by EFF and Lookout researchers, may be a nation-state actor and appears to employ shared infrastructure which has been linked to other nation-state actors. In a new report, EFF and Lookout trace Dark Caracal to a building belonging to the Lebanese General Security Directorate in Beirut.
“People in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Lebanon, and France have been hit by Dark Caracal. Targets include military personnel, activists, journalists, and lawyers, and the types of stolen data range from call records and audio recordings to documents and photos,” said EFF Director of Cybersecurity Eva Galperin. “This is a very large, global campaign, focused on mobile devices. Mobile is the future of spying, because phones are full of so much data about a person’s day-to-day life.”
“Dark Caracal is part of a trend we’ve seen mounting over the past year whereby traditional APT actors are moving toward using mobile as a primary target platform,” said Mike Murray, Vice President of Security Intelligence at Lookout. “The Android threat we identified, as used by Dark Caracal, is one of the first globally active mobile APTs we have spoken publicly about.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The recently released FISA memo has proven that former FBI Director James Comey lied under oath when he told Congress that there was no information within the FBI or DOJ regarding surveillance on the Donald Trump campaign.
The memo’ s release has confirmed that to be an outright lie, detailing the shocking fact that Comey’ s FBI used information obtained by Christopher Steele, from Russian sources, to secure a FISA warrant against Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Or, in other words, Trump was completely right to fire Comey who not only allowed Hillary Clinton to get off free but was actively working against the then Republican candidate during the election itself.
For his part, Comey has laughably tried to downplay the revelations contained in the FISA memo (which confirm him to be a liar) in a series of Tweets that attempts to act as if the revelations are a big nothingburger.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
She Wants To “Close Down Planned Parenthood And Deport The Dreamers
While most conservative Americans are aware of the fact that both Hollywood and the mainstream media outright hate them, NBC has taken it to a whole new level with a recent episode of their highly popular police procedural Law & Order: SVU depicting the violent rape of a conservative journalist whose attacker is eventually let go.
In what is essentially a liberal rape fantasy, the show follows conservative personality Martha Cobb who is seen delivering a speech to a crowd of Trump supporters, depicted as racists of course, that rips liberal snowflakes and their politically correct views.
Cobb’s speech is cut short when a gang of Antifa protesters shows up and begins to clash with the mob of white supremacists. As the violence amps up, Cobb disappears only to reappear in a later scene unconscious in an alley after being beaten and raped by one of the hard-left protesters.
Shockingly, the show then depicts the NYPD detectives tasked with investigating the horrific crime debating Cobb’s political views as if they somehow mattered in deciding whether or not Cobb deserved the attack and whether her attacker should be brought to justice.
The detectives “argue” whether or not Cobb’s opposition to Planned Parenthood and her position on so-called Dreamers led to the attack.
[Comment: SVU is garbage leftist indoctrination masquerading as entertainment.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Chief & Half of an Entire Dept Arrested for Violating One Man’s 4th Amendment
LLANO, TX — All too often those who continuously apologize for crimes committed by police officers are able to justify some of the most egregious instances of outright murder by claiming the officer was a bad apple. Almost as often, however, as TFTP has shown numerous times, the bad apple theory is exactly that — a theory — with no evidence to support it.
Illustrating the nature of the bad apple theory is the fact that four people in the Llano Police Department, including Police Chief Kevin Ratliff, have been arrested for being bad cops.
There are eight law enforcement officers employed by the Llano Police Department, according to the LPD’s website, meaning that half of the police force has been indicted.
Does that seem like “one bad apple,” or a potentially much greater problem?
The indictments stem from a massive civil rights violation of a single man.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ray McGovern: Nunes Memo Reports Crimes at Top of FBI & DOJ
The long-awaited House Intelligence Committee report made public today identifies current and former top officials of the FBI and the Department of Justice as guilty of the felony of misrepresenting evidence required to obtain a court warrant before surveilling American citizens. The target was candidate Donald Trump’s adviser Carter Page.
The main points of what is widely known as the “Nunes Memo,” after the House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), have been nicely summarized by blogger Publius Tacitus, who noted that the following very senior officials are now liable for contempt-of-court charges; namely, the current and former members of the FBI and the Department of Justice who signed off on fraudulent applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: James Comey, Andy McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente and Rob Rosenstein. The following is Publius Tacitus’s summary of the main points:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Parliamentary Study Recommends Anti-Islamophobia Media Crackdown
On Friday’s show, I reported the contents of the Heritage committee’s M-103report.
M-103 was the motion introduced by Pakistan-born Liberal MP Iqra Khalid that called for a ban on criticism of Islam. The motion also called on the Heritage committee to publish a report on Islamophobia.
The reports recommends that the Canadian government take an active role in condemning”Islamophobia”, and develop an “education campaign” to promote “media literacy”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 100 Attacks on Christians and Christian Institutions in Germany
New statistics from the German Federal Police show that there were 97 anti-Christian hate crimes in the span of 11 months last year.
A quarter of the cases were attacks on churches and Christian symbols and 14 incidents had to do with violent incidents against Christians themselves. For example, a refugee who converted to Christianity was murdered by another refugee.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Doctors Launch Anti-Smoking Petition
The Austrian doctors’ association initiated on Friday a petition in favour of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants that would bring the country into line with most of the rest of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Europe: Making Islam Great Again
In Germany, 47% of Muslims believe Sharia is more important than German law. In Sweden, 52% of Muslims believe that Sharia is more important than Swedish law.
The studies are supported by European intelligence reports. In Germany, intelligence agencies warned in the early fall of 2015 that, “We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples, as well as a different understanding of society and law.”
A recent Belgian study, in which 4,734 Belgians were polled, showed that two-thirds of Belgians feel that their nation is being “increasingly invaded”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Father of 11-Year-Old Victim of Stockholm Terror Attack May Sue the Swedish Government
On Tuesday, the suspect behind last years terrorist attack in Stockholm, Sweden, was formally charged with terrorist offenses. On April 7, 2017, Rakhmat Akilov, the suspect, who was born in Uzbekistan, hijacked a lorry and deliberately into crowds along Drottninggatan (Queen Street), killing five and seriously wounding 14 others. Among them, 11-year-old Ebba Åkerlund, who was on her way home after school.
Now, almost 10 months later, her father is considering suing the Swedish government over lack of security on Drottninggatan, where “concrete lions” are standing to supposedly prevent such an event.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Oxford Professor of Islamic Studies Tariq Ramadan Charged With Rape
The prominent Muslim scholar and Oxford professor of Islamic studies Tariq Ramadan has been charged with rape, following claims by two women that he assaulted them in French hotel rooms.
Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, was charged on Friday with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person in 2009 and 2012.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Station Intentionally Destroyed in Portes Les Valence
A fire started by a Molotov cocktail has destroyed a police station in the south east of France.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ‘Angela Merkel’s Fall Has Begun!’ Amid Coalition Crunch Talks
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has entered crunch talks to form a coalition and end political instability, but experts warn “her decline has begun” as she has support from just 25 percent of the country.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Women in Fear: New Anti-Rape Pants Sell Out Very Quickly
Oberhausen — A bitter experience got entrepreneur Sandra Seilz (42) the idea of a device that might protect women from sexual assault in the future.
Whilst out jogging, Sandra was attacked by three drunk men, who tried to tear her pants off. The brave intervention of a pedestrian prevented worse from happening. “After that I had the wish of developing a pair of pants with which women all over the world can feel safer”, says Seilz.
The high-tech pants, called “safe shorts”, are supposed to give three times protection. She developed the high-tech pants with three built-in mechanisms.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Teen-Murder Suspect Also Accused of Contempt for Body
Corpse of teen found dismembered in two suitcases
(ANSA) — Macerata, February 2 — A Nigerian national charged with murdering Pamela Mastropietro, an 18-year-old whose dismembered body was found Wednesday in two suitcases dumped in the countryside outside Pollenza near Macerata in Marche, is also accused of the crime of contempt for the human body, sources said Friday. Carabinieri police have found several large knives at the Macerata home of the suspect, Innocent Oseghale, 29, sources said.
Police forensic experts also found blood stains in many parts of the apartment, sources said.
A prosecutor will request that Oseghale remains in jail on Friday in relation to a case that has shocked the nation. Oseghale appeared “confused and not very clear” during questioning in which he denied the charges Thursday, judicial sources said. Oseghale tried to accuse two other people who police have cleared, the sources said.
The woman had voluntarily left a drug rehab centre at nearby Corridonia on January 29. Oseghale has a record for drugs offences, police said. He was pinned down by CCTV footage of the area where the suitcases were dumped, and by a foreign national who said he saw him carrying the suitcases there. Mastropietro is believed to have been killed on the morning of January 30, police said. The Pars drug rehab community from which she fled said Thursday the case highlighted “a tragic underestimation of the drug problem in our country”. The Corridonia centre said drug legislation in Italy was “inadequate”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Council of State Questions Foreign Museum Chiefs
‘Really tough to make reforms in Italy’ says Franceschini
(ANSA) — Rome, February 2 — The Council of State, Italy’s highest administrative court, on Friday raised fresh questions of Italy naming foreign-born museum chiefs.
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said “it’s really tough to make reforms in Italy “After 16 decisions from the Lazio TAR (regional administrative court) and six from the Council of State, the latter changes its mind and calls into question, again, the decision on foreign directors of museums”.
At the end of May Franceschini sponsored a budget amendment overcoming the Lazio regional administrative court (TAR)’s rejection of five out of 20 museum appointments made by international selection.
The amendment stated that in international selection procedures the limits envisaged for civil service appointments do not apply, “limits which preclude EU citizens from accessing posts involving direct or indirect powers safeguarding the national interest”.
The amendment would “clarify” museum appointments and “overcome” the TAR ruling, Franceschini said.
The Lazio TAR had struck down five of the 20 appointments for top Italian museums that were recently put out to international selection to attract the best possible candidates.
The TAR ruled against the five because the tender was open to non-Italians, interviews took place behind closed doors, and other technicalities.
The controversial ruling affected four Italians and one Austrian, in Mantua, Modena, Naples, Reggio Calabria and Taranto.
Franceschini said the government would appeal while both ex-premier Matteo Renzi and Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said the TARs must be reformed.
“The world has seen Italian museums change in two years and now the Lazio TAR cancels the appointment of 5 directors,” Franceschini said via Twitter.
“I’m speechless”.
“We’ll immediately appeal to (top administrative court) the Council of State,” he said.
“I’m worried about how Italy looks to the rest of the world and about the practical consequences, because as of today some museums don’t have a director.
“I find it strange that the sentence talks of foreigners, when in reality they are European directors and this contrasts with the European Court of Justice and the Council of State.
“I am an experienced lawyer and politician. I know that you should not comment on sentences but combat them in the right place”. He added that he was astounded that the TAR had described the procedure as confused.
“The international selection was conducted by an impartial committee,” he said.
Franceschini added that the museum directors affected by the Lazio TAR’s ruling “will be replaced ad interim”.
“The sentence has already been published and so the museums are effectively without directors,” he added.
“These people left everything and the reform was already bringing about great change, but it has been blocked as of today.
“It is absurd to make distinctions on the candidates’ nationality. The director of the National Gallery is Italian, while the British Museum’s is German. It’s a truly great damage to our image”.
Ex-premier and Democratic Party (PD) leader Renzi slammed the TAR ruling and said the government should have reformed the TARs.
“The fact that the Lazio TAR has annulled our decision deserves institutional respect…but confirms, yet again, that we cannot be a country founded on cavils and appeals,” he said on Facebook.
“We did not make a mistake in trying to change museums; we made a mistake because we did not try to change the TARs”.
Justice Minister Orlando, another top member of the PD, agreed that the TARs should be changed.
“The TARs should be changed, without demonising them but they certainly should be changed by better defining what is the ambit of competence of politics and what is the ambit of competence of an administrative court, which often enters into the merits of choices that should be exclusively the province of politics,” said Orlando.
Asked if the TARs too often infringed on the political sphere, Orlando replied “Yes”.
TAR sources said that “rather than changing the TARs, laws should be changed”.
One Austrian and four Italians were among the five museum chiefs scrubbed by the TAR.
Here are pen-pix of the five.
1) PETER ASSMAN (MANTUA DUCAL PALACE): 63, art historian.
Austrian, studied and worked in Florence, at the Deutsches Kunsthistorisches Institut. From 2002 to 2012 president of the Austrian museum association. Directed Obersterreichischen Landenmuseen di Linz and Angerlehner Museum in Thalheim bei Wels. Teaches at Johannes Kepler Universitat in Linz and University of Vienna. Since 2011 on scientific committee of Buonconsiglio Castle Museum in Trento.
2) MARTINA BAGNOLI (GALLERIA ESTENSE IN MODENA): 53 art historian. Born in Bolzano, graduated from Cambridge in art history and got a phD cum laude from the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore in 1999. From 2003 at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum. Also worked in other US museums including National Gallery of Art in Washington.
3) EVA DEGLI INNOCENTI (MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE IN TARANTO): 41, archaeologist. Born in Pistoia, graduated from Pisa, then got European research doctorate from Siena University. Was a director at the Coriosolis museum of the Plancot Ple’lan community in Brittany. From 1995 to 2008 led digs in Italy and Tunisia.
4) PAOLO GIULIERINI (MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE OF NAPLES): 48, archaeologist. Born in Cortona, graduated in archeaology with specialisation in Etruscanology from Florence University.
Director of the Museum of the Etruscan Academy and city of Cortona, where he has worked since 2001, and has had several other museum posts.
5) CARMELO MALACRINO (MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE OF REGGIO CALABRIA): 46, archaeologist and architect. Born in Catanzaro, graduated in architecture in Florence and specialised in Archaeology and Ancient Architecture at Athens. From 2010 researcher in history of architecture at the Universita’ Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria. In 2005 got doctorate in history of architecture in Venice.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Secessionist Gets 2 Yrs in Jail for St Mark’s Square ‘Tanko’
Man made cannon for rudimentary tank in 2014
(ANSA) — Brescia, February 2 — One out of 24 Lombard and Veneto secessionists nabbed in spring 2014 for planning to occupy Venice’s iconic St Mark’s Square with a so-called ‘tanko’ homemade armoured vehicle was found guilty of subversive activity and sentenced to two years in jail on Friday. The man, Michele Cattaneo, was ruled to be the ringleader of the gang.
Cattaneo, the only one of the group who chose a fast-track trial, was found guilty of building the cannon of the rudimentary tank. He will be tried in Rovigo for making the weapon.
All the others will also be tried in Rovigo after a Brescia court declared itself territorially incompetent.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sky News: Headteacher Warns ‘Rotheram Style Scandal’ In Thanet, Kent
An executive headteacher for five Kent schools believes a “Rotherham-style” abuse scandal could be in the offing in Thanet.
Paul Luxmoore, executive headteacher of the Coastal Academies Trust, says he will resist taking young people in care from outside Thanet’s home county, because the practice of dumping children and teenagers on what is already a deprived area is exacerbating a growing gang problem and creating the circumstances for youngsters to fall prey to groomers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman Raped at Gunpoint by Men in ‘Twisted Tag Team’ In Front of Her Dad
An 18-year-old man who repeatedly raped a young woman at gunpoint has been jailed for 20 years. Police said Aquib Ahmed and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, operated as a ‘twisted tag team’ as they subjected the woman, who is in her 20s, to ‘a disgusting, heartless attack’. The pair broke into a house in the Fir Vale area of Sheffield in March last year looking for drugs and threatening the man and his daughter inside, South Yorkshire Police said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK’s First ‘Private Police Force’ Solves Hundreds of Crimes Officers Too Busy to Look at
BRITAIN’s first ‘private police force’ is catching hundreds of criminals and boasts an astonishing 100 per cent conviction rate as they investigate cases regular officers don’t have time for.
The company offering this service is called TM Eye and is run by a former Metropolitan Police senior officer. They have a team of 60 investigators working around the country and have even captured suspects wanted for attempted murder and rape.
TM Eye was founded in 2007 is filling a void left by struggling police forces who are unable to cope with rising crime figures and budget cuts.
Co-founder Tony Nash, an ex-Metropolitan Police commander, said: “This is going back to Dixon of Dock Green to a degree. It’s what people want.
“There is no substitute for going out and knocking on doors. But with the current state of finances, police are solving cases behind their desks and that has become the culture.
[Comment: Part of the deconstruction of society is to make the police force useless by increasing crime. Policies are driven from the top down by globalist stooges to sabotage the police force from within to increase crime to destabilize societies (google “communist planks”) — such people are traitors to their fellow citizens.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Here’s How Israel is Adjusting Its Tune on Lebanon
High-ranking Israeli officials have sounded alarm bells about Iran’s growing presence in the north.
By Charles Bybelezer
Israel appears to be adjusting its tune — and strengthening its tone — when it comes to Lebanon. For years, the government’s mantra has been, “Hezbollah is Lebanon and Lebanon is Hezbollah,” a refrain that, in various iterations, similarly dominated the military establishment’s doctrine. Given the terror group is a wholly owned Iranian subsidiary, the missive, when uttered, implicitly blamed Tehran for the effective takeover by its Shiite proxy of Israel’s northern neighbor.
Of late, however, the blame is being shifted squarely onto the shoulders Hezbollah’s patron, with a series of high-ranking Israeli officials having warned this week that the Islamic Republic’s growing control over Lebanon, coupled with its attempts to establish a permanent military presence in Syria, is raising the prospect of war. Jerusalem has not only conveyed this message both to Washington and Moscow, in particular, but also has transmitted the warning directly to the Lebanese opposition and thus, as a corollary, to their political representatives…
| — Hat tip: KS | [Return to headlines] |
IDF Warns Lebanese That Iran is Turning Their Country Into a ‘Missile Factory’
Top army spokesman says Hezbollah seeking to ‘take over’ Lebanon, establish ‘terror infrastructure’ that can threaten Israel
Israel’s top military spokesman accused Iran of turning Lebanon into “one big missile factory,” in a rare Arabic op-ed published Sunday on Lebanese news outlets.
In the piece, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said Iran’s extensive support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group had turned the country into a “branch” of the Islamic Republic.
“Lebanon is becoming, by default and by the failure of the Lebanese authorities, one big missile factory,” wrote Manelis, according to a Hebrew translation from the Israel Defense Forces.
“It is no longer just the transfer of weapons, money and advice. Iran has de facto opened a new branch — ‘the Lebanon Branch.’ Iran is here,” he added.
Over the past year, Israel has warned against Iranian efforts to set up weapons production facilities in Lebanon, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman telling United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres during an August visit to Israel that Iran is “working to set up factories to manufacture accurate weapons within Lebanon itself.”…
| — Hat tip: KS | [Return to headlines] |
Mattis Threatens Military Action Over Syria Gas Attack Claims, Then Admits “No Evidence”
“I don’t have the evidence,” Mattis said. “What I am saying is that other groups on the ground — NGOs, fighters on the ground — have said that sarin has been used, so we are looking for evidence.”
This week the American public was once again bombarded by fresh headlines alleging the Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad gassed its own people. And in predictable fashion the usual threat of US military force soon followed…
In this case it once again appears to be the word of the White Helmets, which it seems just about every other week issue new and unverified claims of chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government. As is now generally well-known the White Helmets are funded by US and UK governments to the tune of many tens of millions of dollars, and have further been frequently filmed and documented cooperating closely with al-Qaeda factions on the ground in Syria.
Indeed the group only operates in areas controlled by al-Qaeda (HTS) and other anti-government insurgents, especially in the locations of recent alleged attacks — Idlib and East Ghouta.
[Comment: This again. The only ones who used it were the “rebels” — likely sponsored by the State Department and their deep state (ie globalists) CIA lackeys.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Delhi: Hindu Boy Ankit Stabbed and Throat Slit by Muslim Family in a Honor Killing
In a very ISIS style, Muslim girl’s family stabs, slits throat of a 23-year-old Hindu boy over affair in Delhi, 3 arrested.
Raunak Singh | HENB | New Delhi | Feb 2, 2018:: A 23-year-old Hindu youth was on Thursday stabbed to death by the Muslim family members of his girlfriend in the Khyala area of outer Delhi.
According to the police, the deceased, Ankit, was in a relationship with a 20-year-old girl. However, her family was against the relationship and had warned Ankit to end it. The family members of the Muslim girl could not tolerate the Hindu young man Ankit in an affair with the girl, Shahajadi.
On Thursday night, when Ankit was returning home from his workplace, had an argument with the family of the girl after which her mother, father, brother and maternal uncle stabbed and slit his throat. And, Delhi saw the first honor killing in this year so far.
Passers-by caught the maternal uncle from the spot and thrashed him. Except the minor, all others have been arrested for murder.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of thousands of the controversial toys are sold each year by manufacturer Elka, which ships them across Australia.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A taxi driver was attacked by a carjacker who made off with his cab outside Melbourne Airport around 4am on January 18.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Pharma Co Has License Suspended as Vaccine Blamed for Sterilization of 500,000 Women & Children
A state-sponsored forced sterilization on a massive scale has allegedly taken place in Africa according to opposition leaders and the public who are railing against the government. An industrial pharmaceutical laboratory has since had its license suspended by the Kenya Accreditation Service as a result of the controversy.
Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga — who swore himself in as president on Tuesday — claimed that at least 500,000 young girls and women may be infertile, following a tetanus vaccine administered by the government in 2014 and 2015.
The controversy began coming to a head in 2016 when Agriq-Quest Ltd, a Nairobi-based pharmaceutical company got in a dispute with Kenya’s Ministry of Health over their tetanus and polio vaccinations. A group of Catholic doctors originally made the accusations claiming that the vaccines may contain a hormone that is dangerous to young women and can cause potential sterilization.
As the Agence de Presse Africaine reported:
Odinga said girls and women aged between 14 and 49 from the fastest growing populations in the country will not have children, because of a state-sponsored sterilization exercise that was sold to the country as a tetanus vaccination.
The Catholic Church was ignored when it mounted a strong but lonely campaign against the mass tetanus vaccination, after it raised concerns about the safety of the vaccine that was being used, he said.
At the time, the Catholic Church in Kenya claimed that the tetanus vaccine used by the government of Kenya and UN agencies was contaminated with a hormone (hCG) that can cause miscarriages and render some women sterile.
“The Church’s position was informed by what had happened in Mexico, Nicaragua and Philippines, where the various governments together with WHO/UNICEF had conducted similar campaigns using tetanus toxoid impregnated with beta human chorionic gonadotropin (BhCG) that causes permanent infertility among girls and women,” Odinga continued.
Odinga says they confirmed through analysis of samples that the vaccines used were tainted with the hormone.
“Today, we can confirm to the country that the Catholic Church was right. Hundreds of thousands of our girls and women, aged between 14 and 49, from the fastest growing populations in the country will not have children, because of the state-sponsored sterilization that was sold to the country as tetanus vaccination,” he declared.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Multiculturalist Elites Manipulated Stats to Transform Society With Mass Migration
Elites brought about a “profound transformation” of Belgian society without any public debate by manipulating immigration figures as more than one million migrants poured in, a liberal senator has alleged.
Writing in Le Figaro, Alain Destexhe said the realities of demographic change are being concealed across Europe by “the multiculturalist lobby which dominates universities, NGOs, public institutions and the media”.
“Like France, Belgium has changed dramatically in a relatively short time, and was transformed into a mass immigration nation without any public debate,” he said, noting that its population rose from 10.2 million to 11.3 million in a relatively short period as a result of mass migration.
Between 2000 and 2010, Belgium’s net migration figures ran “nine times higher than in the Netherlands, four times higher than in France and Germany, and even greater than in the U.S.” in proportion to the nation’s size.
“Yet this statistical reality has been concealed from the population,” writes Destexhe, a doctor who spent a decade serving regions struck by war and natural disaster, and was appointed Médecins Sans Frontieres’s first secretary-general.
[Comment: Political elites work for their globalist masters and as such are traitors to their respective nations.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian refugee Soleiman Hajj Soleiman is standing trial for six counts of sexual interference and another six counts of sexual assault, against six minor victims all girls under the age of 16.
Charges stem from a series of groping and sexual assaults at Edmonton’s World Waterpark wave pool February 4th 2017.
CBC finally sent a reporter back into the courtroom for the tenth, and final day of testimony.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Calais Violence is ‘Unbearable’ As Five Migrants Shot in Huge Brawl
ARMED people smugglers have been accused of shooting five migrants in Calais as the French government slammed the “unbearable” escalation of violence in the busy port town.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
An 18-year-old Afghan asylum seeker has been arrested in the German city of Esslingen for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl, only a month after he was released from prison following a sex offence conviction.
The Stuttgart Public Prosecutor’s Office and police in Reutlingen say that the asylum seeker committed the rape on Monday, but the 13-year-old victim did not report the incident until Wednesday after seeing the man again and being threatened by him, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean Migrant Route Numbers Rapidly Increasing
Since last summer the number of migrants crossing from Libya greatly declined, but new figures show that the number is rising once again as Libya becomes increasingly unstable.
According to newly released statistics, 3,580 migrants made the voyage from Libya to Italy in the first three weeks of January, with 850 being picked up by naval authorities in one weekend alone, German broadcaster NTV reports.
The number of migrants is higher than the same time period last year fueling speculation that it could rise even further.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The ‘Goodness’ of Migrants: When Feelings Trump Facts
No one asked what in the hearts of the migrants of Calais is so very “good”, and what “goodness” is so lacking in the hearts of the British people that it needs topping-up from the camps of Calais.
It is worth reflecting on just two recent terrorist plots, by people who did not bring only “goodness” when they came from Calais.
The question fails to get asked: “What exactly did we gain from their presence in our country? And what exactly was the ‘goodness’ that you think they brought?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Welcome to America, Terrorists! Right This Way for Student Visas!
“Foreign students have one of the highest rates of overstaying visas of any category — much higher even than tourist visas. It’s one of the favorite visas for terrorists to try to obtain, because it offers a longer duration of stay.” — Jessica M. Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, there were approximately 739,000 immigrants who overstayed their visas last year alone. Roughly 80,000 of those were foreign students.
Worse, jihadists do not even need to obtain a university admission to set foot in the US. They can get a student visa by obtaining an admission from a school to learn English. Many of these Islamists can alter their area of study once they set foot in the US. An agent of the Iranian regime, for instance, may get a visa to study English in the US, but once he arrives, he can switch that major to study nuclear physics, to help his regime obtain nuclear weapons.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ACLU Wants Your Kindergarteners to Learn About Gender Issues
The ACLU is now fighting to have the comprehensive sex education standards implemented in California foisted upon schoolchildren in grades K-12 across the nation.
In an article posted on the ACLU’s website, Melissa Goodman, director of the LGBTQ, Gender and Reproductive Justice Project, ACLU of Southern California, lauds the California Healthy Youth Act, implemented in 2015 and sponsored by the ACLU of California, among others. She writes approvingly, “The law aims to minimize gender and sexual orientation bias and stereotyping as well as foster a positive and healthy attitude toward sexuality.”
Goodman rips what she feels was the antiquated sex education she learned in middle school, asserting:…
It seems that Goodman wants to make sure young children should know all about gender issues while they are still totally malleable; she writes: “Teaching this kind of comprehensive sex ed can have real impacts. A recent global study that included the United States shows that young people firmly believe and act upon gender stereotypes by at least age 10.”
And, of course, there is the typical anti-religious perspective on abstinence: “Abstinence-only education is a proven failure and frequently reinforces gender stereotypes that play out in our behavior.”
Welcome to the brave new world, children, where sex is condoned as you grow up and “gender” is the avenue for leftists to destroy whatever vestiges of traditional morality that are still extant.
[Comment: Par for the course for the American Communist Lawyers Union. Deconstruction of culture is part of the long term playbook for the implementation of communism.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DC Episcopalians Push Open Borders and a Gender Neutral God
The governing body of the Episcopalian Diocese of Washington, D.C., approved measures to adopt gender neutral pronouns for God, embrace transgenderism, and a push for open borders.
The 123rd Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church in D.C. passed a trifecta of resolutions Saturday to replace all gendered pronouns referring to God with gender neutral pronouns, oppose laws against illegal immigration, and open traditionally gender restricted congregational roles and facilities, like bathrooms, to transgender individuals. The convention, held at the Washington National Cathedral, passed the resolutions within an hour, according to The Institute On Religion & Democracy.
The resolutions, entitled “On Becoming a Sanctuary Diocese: Offering Sacred Welcome to Immigrants,” “On the Gendered Language for God,” and “On Inclusion of Transgender People,” garnered support from Rev. Kimberly Lucas, who sponsored all three, and Rev. Alex Dyer, who proposed two of the resolutions. Lucas serves as rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in D.C. and Dyer serves as rector of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Parish in D.C., both of which have suffered a massive decline in member participation within the last decade, according to parochial reports.
Dyer also garnered attention for installing banners around construction fences depicting Jesus face-palming with sarcastic quips like “The President said what?” and the tagline “a progressive church for a progressive city.”…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Episcopal Diocese Votes to Stop Using Masculine Pronouns for God
God will no longer be referred to as He or Him in the Episcopal Church Diocese of Washington, D.C., which passed a resolution last week barring all use of masculine pronouns when referring to the Almighty. They will be updating their Book of Common Prayer as a result.
[Comment: A globalist approved church well on the road to the one envisioned in “Brave New World”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The “Fake News” Crusade to “Protect” Your From Speech
Even if judgements against some of these websites might be overturned in courts, doing so is clearly an enormous financial burden, as the would-be censors doubtless know. But what a handy way not to have one’s policies questioned — especially, one assumes, during elections.
Attempts to censor “competing narratives” is probably just a tip-off that certain individuals are afraid their political ideas will be unable to withstand the questions asked or the test of time.
“If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society.” — Natan Sharansky, The Case for Democracy.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Do you have a person with knowledge of French?
One lady in LiveJournal often posts translations into Russian from this source.
Highly recommend.
https://www.dreuz.info/2018/01/31/le-processus-du-genocide-des-europeens-a-commence/
“The governing body of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C. has voted to make all liturgical language that refers to God gender-neutral. The text of the Book of Common Prayer will be modified accordingly.”
God is manifested as all things created.
Sweden Has Handed Over Its Cultural Heritage to An Uneducated Muslim Foreigner
Red Ice TV – 4 feb. 2018
https://youtu.be/ygBVTQTTt48
The sixteen-year old in Sheffield involved in rape at gunpoint got six years, while the nineteen-year-old received twenty.
But the sixteen-year-old knew what he was doing. The sentence is far too lenient. At least thirty years without parole for both of them would be more fitting.
When God puts His foot down, will it be in a manly Red Wing or a strappy sandal?
Never mind.
It really becomes a serious question in my mind whether such prayers by Episcopalians would even be acknowledged, let alone receive a response. Do we have any information on whether the revision to the BCP are nationwide or just apply to that diocese?
They’d have to win a vote at the General Convention to force a revision of the prayer book for the whole ECUSA. In fact, the General Convention could probably force them to walk back their changes, or risk being thrown out of the ECUSA. But that doesn’t seem a likely outcome to me.