A 15-year-old girl in New Zealand who was physically abused by her relatives was kept out of school by her family and forced to wear a niqab to conceal her damaged face. The Muslim community allegedly conspired to hide what was going on, and lied to the authorities about it. No charges have yet been filed, but arrests are expected.
In other news, the cold and snowy weather in the Middle East has exposed Syrian refugees living in refugee camps in Lebanon to especially grueling conditions.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Michael Laudahn, 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.
Apocalypse, New Jersey: A Dispatch From America’s Most Desperate Town
No jobs, no hope — and surveillance cameras everywhere. The strange, sad story of Camden
The first thing you notice about Camden, New Jersey, is that pretty much everyone you talk to has just gotten his or her ass kicked.
“I been shot six times,” says Raymond, a self-described gangster I meet standing on a downtown corner. He pulls up his pant leg. “The last time I got shot was three years ago, twice in the femur.” He gives an intellectual nod. “The femur, you know, that’s the largest bone in the leg.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In a landmark ruling, Reykjavik District Court sentenced four former executives of Kaupthing Bank to between 3 and 5 1/2 years in prison for financial crimes dating back to 2008.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alfano Warns Pitchfork Acts May Drift Into Rebellion
Violence by protestors won’t be tolerated, says minister
(See related story) (ANSA) — Rome, December 12 — There is a risk that the Pitchfork (Forconi) Movement will become dangerously rebellious against national and European institutions, Interior Minister Angelo Alfano told the House Thursday.
Such a “rebellious drift” by the protest movement would be seen as “antagonistic” particularly if it attracts violent groups which too often infiltrate non-violent activism, said Alfano, who is also deputy premier.
He spoke as violence was reported at some of the Pitchfork protests, with police firing teargas and scuffling with demonstrators near Italy’s border with France during the fourth day of action by the movement.
During a briefing on the state of public order in Italy, Alfano warned that although protest is acceptable in a democracy, violence won’t be tolerated but instead, met with force.
“There is a violent face (to the movement) that has violated the laws: we understand the social unease, but at the time we do not have any hesitation in saying that we intend to defend the liberty and security of citizens,” he said. Demonstrations have spread across the country since they began on Monday, with major northern cities including Milan, Turin and Genoa showing the greatest turnout.
Protesters opposed to tax hikes and austerity enforced by the European Union have been joined by others taking up different anti-government causes.
Many have occupied roads, squares and railways, snarling traffic, blocking trains and disrupting pre-Christmas commerce.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Government Tax Revenues Fall by 1.44 Bn Euros
Tax income in first 10 months reaches 307.86 bn euros
(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — Revenues from taxation in Italy fell by 1.44 billion euros in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same time last year, the Bank of Italy reported Friday.
Between January and October, total income for government coffers from taxes reached 307.86 billion euros, the central bank said.
That was significantly less than the 309.3 billion euros in tax income reported during the same period in 2012, it said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nazi Counterfeiters and the Fed
Economic law applies regardless of political circumstances.
What is the fundamental difference between the SS pumping “liquidity” into the British economy via black markets in the 1940s and the Federal Reserve pumping “liquidity” into the US economy today?
During the Second Word War, Germany devised a secret plan to undermine the British economy by flooding the country with counterfeit Bank of England notes.
Codenamed Operation Bernhard, in recognition of its mastermind, SS Major Bernhard Krüger, the plan involved a team of 142 counterfeiters, drawn primarily from the inmate populations at Sachsenhausan and Auschwitz concentration camps. Beginning in 1942, the dragooned engravers and artists worked feverishly, forging huge quantities of £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes. By the time of Germany’s surrender in May of 1945, the operation had produced 8,965,080 banknotes worth a total value of £134,610,810, an amount exceeding all the reserves in the Bank of England’s vaults.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Financial Collapse of America
“The United States is in very deep trouble. First, the concept of repaying $16.7 trillion in debt is not even a remote possibility over the next 100 years, even if the government had small surpluses.
Then, because the country is running such large deficits, the national debt is increasing and getting worse…much worse. In addition, the government is approximately $70 trillion in unfunded liabilities that have to be resolved.”
“Pray that the market for the national debt remains open so that the United States can keep borrowing to repay the money is previously borrowed and then will have to re-borrow to repay the money it just borrowed. There is no chance the market will not change its demeanor over the next 100 years.”
That’s Murray Holland’s conclusion in his book, “A Nation in the Red: The Government Debt Crisis and What We Can Do About it” ($28.00, McGraw Hill). As a longtime book reviewer, I have read a growing stack of books warning about a financial collapse, but Holland’s book is not only based in the actual debt, but is written in a manner that even a person who has no knowledge of this issue can understand…
Despite nearly fifty years of a Cold War with the former Soviet Union (1945-1991), Americans have been blissfully ignored its intention of the communist intention to destroy capitalism and have accepted a vast matrix of social programs that now represent $70 trillion in unfunded financial liabilities. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, their plan “to overwhelm America with debt, welfare, and entitlements — in other words, to bankrupt America has continued unabated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unemployed Told to Leave Ireland in Desperate Move to Slash Welfare Costs
Ireland is asking its citizens to leave the country if they can’t find a job in a desperate bid to slash welfare costs.
The Irish government has sent letters to approximately 6,000 unemployed people suggesting they should take jobs in other European countries in an effort to reduce unemployment benefits, the Financial Times has reported.
Some of the jobs were poorly paid but came with a “Mediterranean” climate.
An unemployed electrician was encouraged to move to Coventry, while another jobseeker was offered work as a bus driver in Malta.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Active Shooter Drills in Littleton, Colorado Same Day as School Shooting
In response to the shooting at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, Peter J. Kuehlen has unearthed two screenshots of ‘security consultants’ conducting active shooter response drills in the same location — and on the same day, no less — of the school shooting at in Colorado. Peter noted, “On the anniversary of Sandy Hook, they are conducting a Lone Wolf Active Shooter Drill at the exact same location that they claimed yesterday three people lost their lives. Are you kidding me??? They are even telling you black on white. In your face now! Obvious drill is obvious.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beach Bum: Obama to Holiday in Hawaii for 17 Days
President Obama and his family will leave Washington Dec. 20 for a 17-day holiday vacation in Hawaii.
The White House announced Friday that the Obamas will depart next week after what is expected to be a light work schedule for the president in Washington.
The president and his family traditionally spend their Christmas break in a rented home on Oahu with spectacular ocean views.
For his first three years in office, Mr. Obama rented a $24,500-per-week gated Plantation Estate, which offers security and privacy on the white sand beach of Kailua Bay.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Colorado Shooter “Opinionated Socialist” And “Keynesian”
Shooter hated Adam Smith and Republicans
Don’t expect Mark Potok to get on MSNBC and dissect the ideological background of the latest high school shooter.
It turns out Karl Halverson Pierson, the teenager who wounded two Colorado high schools students and then killed himself, was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal.
Not only did Pierson have “strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff,” according a student who attended a class with him, but the teenager was a “very opinionated Socialist,” News.com.au reports.
– From the Denver Post:
In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith, who through his invisible-hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as “Keynesian.”
He also attacked Republicans for their stance on Obamacare, climate change, and gun violence. In short, he was a staunch Obama liberal.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and other liberal groups invariably try to place the blame for many shootings on patriot groups and libertarian and constitutionalist political ideologies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cowardice is Ruling & Ruining American Politics, Institutions & Life Itself
There is something so bizarre, yet childishly touching about the unparalleled failure of ObamaCare, emerging at every single level of the program. This stillbirth, dead-at-conception beginning symbolizes everything one ever needs to know about epic attempts by liberals to commandeer huge swaths of the private economy, as well as every giant project ever conceived by communist despots. These catastrophes are a good reminder of why ObamaCare needs to be destroyed as soon as possible. It’s too late to wait for Barack to become an educated leader, to commit himself to America, or to create well-designed policies. He’s America’s most intractable foe.
It is a simple fact of history that Communist regimes have given birth to some of the most audacious failures ever produced by mankind. Further, it is a virtual given that socialism and communism must produce failures as a natural result, for the most pedestrian of reasons. This is because socialism attracts to the highest levels persons untested by leadership because well-versed and successful leaders instinctively know these theories cannot work in practice. Further, since Marxism is all about the enlargement of power at the cost of every other outcome, efficiency and normal success do not even rate. Therefore, staying in power becomes the only metric of success by which socialist movements are measured…
Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) murdered more of his own people than any other dictator, save Mao. His paranoia, ruthlessness and illogic were legendary. But he also killed the economy of his country while trying to apply Marx’s economic theories. Robert Conquest, in Stalin, Breaker of Nations, describes Stalin as absurdly egotistical:
“Psychologically, it is astonishing. Once again Stalin is shown as — openly — exhibiting a manic, even on the face of it, self-defeating egotism. His conviction that he could judge a situation better than the professionals was to be with him all his life — not only as to military science, but in physics, biology, and other fields, and always to the detriment of his own plans.”
Compare this to a strangely similar sentiment from Barack’s own stated, megalomaniacal self-analysis:
“I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I’ll hire to do it. It’s hard to give up control when that’s all I’ve known. I think I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denver Post Editor Explains Deletion of ‘Socialist’ From Arapahoe Shooter Profile
Ace over at Ace of Spades HQ alerts us to an interesting development from the Denver Post. As Twitchy noted, the newspaper quietly edited its profile of Arapahoe school shooter Karl Pierson, changing a student’s description of Pierson as “a very opinionated Socialist” to simply “very opinionated.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook wants to become your new best friend by knowing everything about you — and it’s going to happen whether you like it not.
– From the bottles of beer you drink, to the places you visit on vacation, the social networking site will compile everything there is to know about you (and the billion other people online) — and then make sense of it with the hope of selling better, targeted advertising in your news feed.
The social networking giant has teamed up with New York University to set up a research lab designed to learn about artificial intelligence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.
But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.
It was kept secret and remains so today.
President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Invasive: ObamaCare Exchange ‘Mistakenly Debting Bank Accounts’
For the second week in a row, the Washington Healthplanfinder website is down, and it’s causing problems for people who are dealing with billing issues. Some of them say the website is mistakenly debiting their accounts.
Shannon Bruner of Indianola logged on to her checking account Monday morning, and found she was almost 800 dollars in the negative.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘I got screwed,’“ she said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Media Works to Keep Mass Shooters’ Profiles Secret
Democratic socialist occultists make up majority Of mass shooters.
An undeniable pattern has continued to emerge in light of mass shootings, despite the media’s attempt to avoid connecting the dots.
In the wake of recent high-profile shootings, the media can almost immediately be seen attempting to link deranged shooters with the political right. As facts come in, the desire to connect shooters to their political ideologies quickly erodes, as the same anti-depressant taking, left-wing, occultist profile emerges. Satanic altar in Jared Loughner’s backyard
Satanic altar in Jared Loughner’s backyard
In 2011, Tuscon, Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, who viciously murdered six people in his unsuccessful attempt to kill U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was immedietly deemed a “right-winger.” It was soon learned that Loughner was a left-wing liberal obsessed with drugs, mind-control, dressing like the grim reaper and engaging in occult rituals.
Despite initial reports attempting to paint the same picture, information now shows that last week’s shooter in Colorado, Karl Halverson Pierson, was a devote and “opinionated socialist” who blamed gun violence on Republicans.
Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza, who murdered 20 children and six teachers, exhibited identical traits. Although the media made attempts to connect Lanza to the NRA, it was later found to be inaccurate. Instead, Lanza, who admittedly had mental health issues, was obsessed with playing video games and updating his ‘online devil worshiping page.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Bigger and More Dangerous Than ObamaCare (Video)
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as it is called, is an all-out assault on our national sovereignty. It would unconstitutionally transfer legislative powers from the U.S. Congress, our state legislatures, and our city and county governments to multi-national corporations and unaccountable international bureaucrats at the World Trade Organization, or WTO. Incredibly, it also would transfer judicial powers from our federal and state courts — which are bad enough — to globalist TPP judges at regional tribunals and the WTO. It would also confer huge advantages on foreign businesses and large multinationals, while at the same time putting companies that operate here in America — especially small and medium-sized enterprises — at a competitive disadvantage. American businesses would remain shackled by the regulations of EPA, FDA, OSHA, etc. while their foreign competitors could operate here unimpeded by those same strictures.
Like the infamous NAFTA trade agreement passed in the ‘90s, the TPP would usher in another wave of outsourcing, as the remaining manufacturing and technology bases would be given incentives to move to Pacific Rim countries, resulting in millions more American job losses.
With TPP negotiations on track to be completed by the end of 2013, President Obama will likely ask Congress to approve this trade agreement in early 2014. Contact your senators and representative and urge them to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and see the many additional articles listed below the video that we’ve published detailing the dangers of the TPP.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cameron asks Danish PM to keep Mandela memorial picture featuring Obama and auction it for charity’
When the Danish prime minister was asked if she’d reveal the controversial selfie she took at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service she said, resoundingly, no. Helle Thorning-Schmidt later told a Danish newspaper the photo was not ‘particularly good’ and sources have since revealed she wanted to delete it.
But, despite facing a barrage of criticism for posing in it, British Prime Minister David Cameron is taking a very different view. It has emerged that during a private conversation last week, Cameron apparently suggested to the Dane that auctioning it for charity could raise a substantial sum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I’m No Marxist, Pope Francis Tells Conservative Critics
Pope Francis, responding to conservative criticisms that his economic and social ideas smack of communism, said in an Italian newspaper interview on Sunday that he is not a Marxist but that even Marxists can be good people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Defends Call for Police to Stop Guarding Politicians
‘Never incited insubordination’ says M5S leader
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — Beppe Grillo, leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), on Friday defended his call to Italian police officers not to protect elected officials amid anti-government protests. “No one incited law enforcement to insubordination, unless insubordination means taking off your helmet and marching with the exasperated people,” said Grillo. In addressing parliament this week, Premier Enrico Letta condemned those who “incite law enforcement to insubordination” amid rising anti-austerity demonstrations in an indirect reference to Grillo’s remarks. Earlier in the week, police in riot gear doffed their helmets during protests in what was largely interpreted as a sign of solidarity with the so-called Pitchfork Movement, now in its fifth day of nationwide marches.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Probe Reveals 30 Million Euros Skimmed From Calabrian Towns
Collection company accused of pocketing local taxes
(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — Italian finance police on Friday said they had discovered a 30-million-euro fraud scheme in the southern Italian region of Calabria that diverted paid local taxes to e-shopping expeditions and false consulting invoices.
Investigators said local taxes that should have gone to 50 municipalities in Calabria instead went to pad the pockets of administrators of the company So.ge.fi.I Riscossione SpA (So.ge.fi.I Collections), a company that collects the IMU property tax and the Tares rubbish and city services tax on behalf of municipalities.
Of dozens that used the company’s services over the 2005-2012 period, the town worst hit by the fraud was Nicotera, population 6,500, which lost 8.5 million euros, investigators said. Other towns allegedly saw 1.5-4.5 million skimmed from their coffers.
The finance police are still investigating what role public administrators may have had in permitting the loss of public funds.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Palestine — European Union Embroiled in Financial Scandal
Phantom employees who have been having a financial feast at European taxpayers expense
The European Union (EU) has become embroiled in a financial scandal of massive proportions in relation to the financial assistance given by it to the Palestinian Authority (PA) since 1994.
This appears very clear from the comprehensive European Court of Auditors Report dated 22 October 2013 which was only made public this week. Financial scandal of massive proportions over financial assistance
The Report reveals the following:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Conditions Rejected, Madrid Bids Farewell to Eurovegas
US group gives up on plan after requests denied
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 13 — Madrid bids farewell to Eurovegas. The US group led by millionaire Sheldon Adelson told the Spanish government it will not move forward with its plan to build the European Las Vegas in Madrid after the cabinet rejected conditions outlined by the king of casinos.
According to sources quoted by El Mundo online, the group wanted a strong reduction of taxes on gambling and compensation in case of future legislation cutting down profit prospects.
The latest requests followed a long list of demands including a suspension on a smoking ban in casinos which the Las Vegas Sands group said were not negotiable. But the Spanish government and the European Commission considered them against Spain’s and Europe’s legislation.
A source close to the group quoted by Bloomberg, said Las Vegas Sands is giving up on a 35 million dollar investment in Spain. The project in Madrid provided for an initial phase during which six casinos and 12 hotels with 3,000 rooms would be built.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden ‘Open’ To Slave Trade Reparations
Sweden’s top diplomat in the Caribbean said an effort by a group of countries in the region to seek reparations from former colonial powers for the effects of the Atlantic slave trade should be “taken seriously”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Criticism Against Extremism Report
Sweden needs to get better at preventing young people from joining violent extremist groups.That is the view of a government backed investigation into extremism, which will be presented on Monday. However, the report has been criticised by three of the investigators involved, who wrote a debate article in Sunday’s edition of Dagens Nyheter, claiming that it lumped all extremists together as one group.
“Breivik was not a confused teenager when he began his journey from desk warrior to full-scale terrorist,” they wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Nazi Group Attacks Peaceful Rally, Two Stabbed
Two people were stabbed on Sunday and two police officers were injured during an anti-racism rally in southern Stockholm which came under attack from a group of far-right extremists. The two who were stabbed, along with the injured police officers, were taken to hospital but their injuries were not thought to be life threatening. Police made 28 arrests.
An estimated 200 people gathered in Kärrtorp, Sunday lunchtime, for the organised anti-racism demonstration which had been prompted by a spate of Nazi graffitti in the area in recent weeks. The protest rally was disrupted by a group of right-wing extremists throwing objects.The Nazi organization Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen) later claimed responsibility for the attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Gang Shooting Shocks Christmas Shoppers
A man was gunned down in central Örebro in eastern Sweden on Saturday in full view of shoppers out in the middle of the Christmas rush, with police reporting a gangland connection.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
PM’s Muslim peer probed by police after ‘outburst’ at imam he suspects was behind revelations he was besotted with waitress 45 years his junior
David Cameron’s key Muslim adviser is being investigated by police after an alleged House of Lords bust-up with a fellow Muslim whom he called a ‘f****** dog’ and threatened to beat up.
Lord Sheikh is said to have launched the extraordinary tirade against imam Omar Faruk, whom he suspects may have been behind revelations in The Mail on Sunday that the Tory peer was besotted with a pretty waitress 45 years his junior.
The peer vigorously denies threatening or swearing at Mr Faruk.
Mr Faruk, from East Dulwich, South London, said Lord Sheikh also called him a ‘f****** dog’. He said the alleged spat happened in front of a police officer, who did not intervene. Mr Faruk said he left One Millbank after the incident and was initially pursued by Lord Sheikh.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Critics have branded the Corporation’s decision to revamp two floors of New Broadcasting House a ‘ludicrous’ use of the licence fee.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: No 10’s Plan to Cap Benefit at Two Children
New mothers with three children would lose £700 in £5bn welfare crackdown
The proposal would mean parents with three children, who would currently be entitled to child benefit because their annual income is less than £50,000, would lose out on £696 a year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Peter O’Toole, Lawrence of Arabia Star, Dies Aged 81
Actor Peter O’Toole, who starred in Sir David Lean’s 1962 film classic Lawrence of Arabia, died on Saturday aged 81, his agent has said. He was being treated at London’s Wellington hospital after a long illness, his agent added. O’Toole’s daughter Kate said the family was overwhelmed “by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
This machete-wielding thug — shown in these pictures terrifying shoppers in a busy town centre — has been spared a prison sentence.
Also in possession of a hammer, Anthony Underwood, 27, vandalised a police station before storming through Bedford ‘completely without warning’.
He was caught on CCTV running through crowds of alarmed shoppers on the town’s high street on a busy afternoon on November 11.
Police desperately chased him through the town and warned pedestrians to flee the area in order to avoid being targeted.
Officers eventually cornered Underwood before Sergeant Phil Boyd used a ‘flying rugby tackle’ to bring him under control.
He later confessed during his police interview that he was desperate to go to prison so he could kick his £300-a-day cocaine habit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Al-Sisi ‘Told Anwar Sadat in a Dream He’d Become President Too’
Cairo, 12 Dec. (AKI) — Egyptian army chief and defence Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi reportedly claimed he told late president Anwar Sadat in a dream that he too would one day become the country’s head of state.
“When I was talking to Sadat (in the dream) he told me he had known he would become president,” al-Sisi says a leaked recording aired late Wednesday by the Ahrarr25 and al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr TV channels.
“I told him that I also knew I would be a president,” al-Sisi recalls in the purported recording, whose authenticity has not been independently verified.
Egypt’s military establishment did not issue any immediate comment on the recording.
Sadat was assassinated in an assault by Islamists on 6 October 1981 during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Egypt’s crossing of the Suez Canal.
Al-Sisi is widely perceived as the chief architect of the army’s 3 ouster of Egypt’s elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against his rule.
US magazine TIME’s readers, in a poll completed last week, selected the general as their Person of the Year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Jordan-PNA Deal on Red Sea and Dead Sea
To desalinate sea water. Four pipelines to be built
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 9 — Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian National Authority on Monday are scheduled to sign in Washington, at the World Bank headquarters, a sweeping agreement to desalinate Red Sea water and to save the Dead Sea which has been shrinking for decades.
After over a year and a half of secret negotiations, the Israeli Minister for Regional Development Silvan Shalom revealed in an interview published on Monday the details of the deal which provides for the construction in Jordan in the next few years of four pipelines bringing water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea 400 metres below sea level.
Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation Hassam al-Nasser and Shadad Attili, head of the Palestinian water authority, will attend the ceremony on Monday.
A canal had been planned in the same area in the 1990s but the project had not been implemented due to its high cost and the opposition of environmentalists.
Under the current, more modest project, 200 million cubic metres of water will be drained every year from the Red Sea.
Eighty million will be desalinated in Aqaba, Jordan, and then funneled to the North for Israeli and Jordanian farmers. The remaining water will be used to raise the Dead Sea’s level.
Palestinians will receive 30 million cubic metres of water from Israel coming from Lake Tiberias. The project, which also includes two new touristic lakes, should become effective in four to five years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: EU: 30 Mln to Education Dealing With Syrian Refugees
First payment to cover extra costs for current year
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 13 — The EU has given Jordan 30 million euros to deal with the consequences on its education system of the influx of Syrian refugees. This support will help the Ministry of Education extend education services to 70,000 Syrian students enrolled in public schools in host communities and in refugee camps.
According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), the first payment of 15 million euros will be released this week to cover the extra costs for the current school year. The rest will be released during the next school year. “The Syrian refugee crisis poses great challenges to the region and in particular to Jordan and in this time Europe stands shoulder to shoulder with the Kingdom” said the Head of the EU Delegation to Jordan, Joanna Wronecka. “Access to education is a basic and universal human right and the EU together with Jordan are ensuring that this right is provided to the Syrian children” she added.
The on-going crisis in Syria and the movement of refugees into Jordan has an impact on the Jordanian education sector. The EU support will cover the costs related to the additional 2,400 teachers that have been appointed, 80,000 additional schoolbooks that are being printed and distributed to the Syrian students, and double shifts that have been introduced in 80 public schools.
The European Union is among the key donors in support to the education sector in Jordan. The EU is contributing to the implementation of the education reform strategy (ERfKE II) with 33 million euros which is particularly aimed to construct new schools, develop pre-service teacher training, increase the enrolment rate in pre-school education in underprivileged areas and strengthen special needs education.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Secretary of State Kerry Denies US ‘Abandoned’ Levinson, Requests “Proof of Life” From Iran
Secretary of State Kerry weighed into the Levinson- CIA- Iran spy case controversy today in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s Sunday Morning program, This Week. The ABC interview with Kerry took place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. When asked by Raddatz whether the US abandoned Levinson, Kerry asserted that he personally asked the highest sources he knew in Iran about the whereabouts of Levinson. A Daily Mail report on the emerging controversy cited the White House saying last month, “Robert Levinson went missing during a business trip to Kish Island, Iran”. That was before the Washington Post/AP and New York Times exposes were published this week. See our posts, here and here.
Levinson is the controversial CIA contractor who disappeared on March 9, 2007 while on Kish Island about to meet Dawud Salahiddun African American Muslim convert and hitman for Ayatollah Khomenei. He killed Ali Akbar Tabatabai, a former spokesperson for the late Shah of Iran in 1980 in Bethesda, Maryland. Salahiddun may have been the last to see Levinson while the latter was on the Iranian resort Island in the Persian Gulf. Salahuddin is now employed by the Iranian new outlet, Press-TV.
Ask yourself another question, why is Salahuddin living openly in Iran, instead of being in the Islamic Regime’s witness protection program. Given his tainted past history, he would be an important catch for US counterterrorism investigations of the close connections with the Muslim Brotherhood, possibly Al Qaeda and Iran’s Qods Force. His suggestions about having information on the corruption of Iranian mullahs and offshore investments by former President Rafsanjani may have been simply cheese to set the trap for capturing Levinson…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Amnesty Against EU for Failing to Resettle Refugees
Italy and Britain criticized in report for offering no places
(ANSAmed) — LONDON, DECEMBER 13 — The European Union has ‘miserably failed’ to provide a safe haven to Syrian refugees, an Amnesty International report said Friday. Only 10 member countries offered to help 12,000 refugees from the war-torn country, the report found. Italy and Great Britain offered no places at all, it added.
The human right group also said the EU tried to prevent refugees from arriving although, as stressed by a BBC report, Europe granted 1.3 billion euros in humanitarian aid.
According to the UN, 2.3 million Syrians have left the country since March 2011. Most have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
Germany was among Europe’s most generous countries, offering to admit 10,000 refugees, the report said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Wave of Cold and Snow Hits Millions of Refugees
Internally and abroad. UN aid to 120,000 living in tents in Lebanon
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) distributed material for reinforcing tents, as well as blankets and heaters, to 120,000 Syrian refugees living in precarious conditions in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, caught in the grips of heavy snowfall over the last few days.
A weather system called Alexa hit the Middle East on Tuesday evening and has brought with it serious difficulties for the 2.3 million Syrian refugees spread out across Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, not to mention the nearly six million evacuees within Syria. According to sources cited by French news agency AFP, two children in Syria died yesterday from the cold.
Lebanon hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees abroad at 838,000; 120,000 of whom live in tents in makeshift refugee camps not officially recognized by authorities.
Serious hardships as a result of the cold were reported in Turkey as well. On Wednesday, UNHCR teams were unable to reach refugee camps around Kills due to snow blocking the roads.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China Lands Jade Rabbit Robot Rover on Moon
China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, the first soft landing there for 37 years.
On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module used thrusters to touch down, marking the latest step in China’s ambitious space exploration programme.
Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as “Jade Rabbit”.
The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Auckland Police Claim Injuries Were Hidden on Purpose
A teenage girl police believe was beaten at home was forced to hide her facial injuries behind a burqa, while members of the Muslim community are alleged to have hushed up the abuse.
Her injuries included a broken nose, damaged teeth and extensive bruising. Police claim the 15-year-old was subjected to sustained physical abuse from at least one family member over two or more months.
The abuse was known to some Muslims in the Auckland region, who chose not to report it, they claim.
“The case was brought to police attention when a school friend of the girl was made aware of the abuse and was able to borrow a cellphone from another child at a neighbouring school to call 111,” child protection officer Detective Sarah Boniface said. “The girl was not able to get access to a phone herself.”
She was kept home from school after sustaining the facial injuries, police say.
When officers visited her home, the girl was allegedly instructed by family members to cover up with a burqa that left only her eyes exposed — a covering the girl told police she would not usually wear. At school, she wore a head scarf.
She was absent from school long enough for a friend to become anxious about her whereabouts, police say. When the friend learned of the abuse through community networks, she called the police.
“At this stage it is clear that a number of members of the community were aware of the extent of the abuse and did not seek medical assistance for her injuries or alert authorities,” Ms Boniface said. “This included people who were in positions of trust and who should have been relied upon to provide help.”
Police believed that family members were also instructed to lie to investigators about the abuse, and did so out of fear for their own safety.
Officers learned about the abuse in early November. The girl was removed from her home by Child, Youth and Family and placed in “secure care” with another Muslim family. No one has yet been charged, although police say arrests are likely…
| — Hat tip: Michael Laudahn | [Return to headlines] |
So, Crime Does Pay: Two Men Fight Deportation to War-Torn Congo
One is a thug who assaulted a policeman. The other’s an innocent asylum seeker. Guess which of them gets to stay in the UK?
Last night it was feared the High Court ruling will lead to many more offenders born in the war-torn African state being allowed to remain in the UK after serving jail terms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Same-Sex Marriage Goes on the British Fast-Track While Being Derailed Elsewhere
In Britain this week Women’s and Equalities Minister Maria Miller announced the fast-tracking of gay-marriage meaning it would be moved up from the summer to begin on March 29th next year. But at the same time the Supreme Court of India & the Australian High Court overturned existing laws.
In making the announcement Ms. Miller said “Marriage is one of our most important institutions and, from 29 March 2014, it will be open to everyone, irrespective of whether they fall in love with someone of the same sex or opposite sex. This is just another step in the evolution of marriage and I know that many couples up and down the country will be hugely excited that they can now plan for their big day and demonstrate their love and commitment to each other by getting married.”
The Cabinet Minister is correct that marriage is an important institution but is apparently unaware of the idea that marriage isn’t supposed to evolve…
“According to the Christian Concern website, echoing a view held by many, Andrea Williams says that Maria Miller deludes herself by declaring same-sex marriage upholds “one of our most important institutions”.
Williams continued: (Miller) does not realise that the traditional institution of marriage between one man and one woman is what has underpinned stability for children, families and society itself — not a pick and mix variation of legalised relationships. The sanctity of Christian marriage is distinctly different from the politically-manufactured contract this government has imposed on a country which should have been given the opportunity to vote in a referendum — marriage is a much, much bigger issue than membership of the EU.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America isn’t a racist country. It’s a racially insecure country where the races are taught to be self-conscious and insecure
The left accuses capitalism of commercializing holidays. Meanwhile the left politicizes holidays. Even if we don’t count the ubiquitous pitches for ObamaCare that the White House and its army of political allies insist on shoving into every possible occasion, including Thanksgiving family dinner, the left obsessively politicizes every holiday that it can get its hands on.
Thanksgiving and Columbus Day are celebrations of genocide. The Fourth of July is a reminder that America was founded by rich white men who didn’t want to pay taxes. Memorial Day is perfect for anti-war statements and Mother’s Day is for denouncing the heteronormative family. Valentine’s Day is an occasion to protest rape and the patriarchy and Halloween is a time to lecture students about cultural appropriation and politically incorrect costumes that offend minorities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Tax Break Can’t Rescue Marriage: It’s Been Doomed for Four Decades
Marriage is on its deathbed. A tiny tax allowance won’t save it. Nor will benevolent old judges such as Sir Paul Coleridge urging young couples to wed before starting a family.
In fact, Sir Paul of all people should understand what the law has done to marriage. After 1969, in most of the Western world, the marriage vow was legally meaningless.
All those moving promises about ‘for richer, for poorer’, or ‘in sickness and in health’ (let alone ‘till death us do part’) were cancelled by Parliament. From then on, one party to the marriage could end it more easily than you can get out of a car lease.
And if the other spouse resisted, and wanted to stick to the vows he or she had made, he or she could, in the end, be dragged from the family home by the forces of the State backed with the threat of prison.
For the most part (but of course not always), it was men who were compulsorily dumped. The law helped this to happen. It didn’t matter how badly either party behaved. Women increasingly got custody of the children, because they were women.
The same went for the family home. The courts didn’t bother to enforce orders allowing ex-husbands to stay in touch with their children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Rothschild Family — The World’s Only Trillionaires (Video)
Video: Do the Rothschilds own the world?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The “revolutionary mentality” is the permanent or transitory state of spirit in which an individual or a group believes himself capable of remodeling the whole society — if not human nature in general — through political action. As an agent or bearer of a better future, he considers himself to be above all judgment by present or past humanity, being accountable only to the “court of History”. But the court of History is, by definition, the very future society that this individual or group claims to represent in the present. So, as future society is only able to bear witness or to judge through this same representative, it is clear that he thus becomes not only the sole sovereign judge of his own acts, but the judge of all past, present and future humanity. Able to accuse and to condemn all laws, institutions, beliefs, values, traditions, actions and works of all epochs without being subject, in his turn, to the judgment of any of them, he lies so much above historical humanity that it would not be inaccurate to call him Superman.
As the self-glorification of Superman, the revolutionary mentality is totalitarian and genocidal in itself, independently from its ideological content in different circumstances and occasions.
By refusing himself to be accountable to anything except a hypothetical future of his own invention, and firmly disposed to destroy by cunning or by force every obstacle to the remodeling of the world to his own image and likeness, the revolutionary is the worst enemy of the human species, compared to whom the worst tyrants and conquerors of Antiquity impress us by the modesty of their aims and by a notable circumspection in the use of their means.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Gates of Yieana, is The highly recommended Story of the year1
Turns out the girl wasn’t Muslim but Maori. International reporting got it wrong because of the name.
We hardly have any Muslims here. Have more trouble with hyper Christian Pacific Islander bikies and also missionaries.
Best check out our new national museum, tells the story of how Christians tried to wipe out Maori culture and convert them into slaves. But it’s all forgotten now, very peaceful country.
Would you care to prove your allegations?
Apart from that, there are also mohammedan maoris.
Yes. It was in all the NZ newspapers. I heard the mother interviewed on radio.
I’m not sure how many Muslim Maoris you’ve encountered but it remains a rarity in Auckland!
Stop trying to drag NZ into your spiteful campaign.
Well, it’s still in the NZ Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11173066.
Yes, and the family was indeed Muslim.
And, the Muslim family members and larger Muslim community was aware of and covered up the abuse.
The moment I read *we*, I knew he was a mohammedan intruder posing as a white native (alternatively a leftist traitor).
By the way, according to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_New_Zealand ,
islam presently has in fact 1.1 % followers only in NZ. The country is geographically protected, and many kiwis by nature aren’t easily fooled, although their system has the usual basic pc/mc make-up, and they’re a bit isolated and intentionally kept ignorant by the powers-that-be (and their fellow travellers in the few monopoly media), starting top down at their prime minister (who also happens to be tourism and ‘stasi’ minister – what a remarkable combination of functions).
But as we know mohammedans by now, their present low numbers is only one more reason for them to keep on pushing even harder by continuing to lie, for all it’s worth.
No, that story was corrected. I hate to have to point out but the story has ben discredited here in NZ.
(I think he means “we” being Kiwis – we are indeed a provincial lot).
Actually, the story is still the same and Muslims are STILL to blame.
Cite your sources.
Quote:
This machete-wielding thug — shown in these pictures terrifying shoppers in a busy town centre — has been spared a prison sentence.
end
So, does this mean it’s legal to do this sort of thing in the UK?
Because that’s the message I’m getting.
Good luck with tourism in the future. You’ll need it.
England will go the way of Egypt before too long.
“Lord Sheikh”???
Not an Englishman.
And a Tory?
I hope England changes such that he regrets ever calling himself one.
You’re right in that Uk is careering down the track of Egypt ie control of army, street massacres and also Islamic takeover of parliament.
What do you expect when a masonically aligned catholic is PM and also half Cabinet are Muslim, and on orders from Pope!
British Royals, secretly Muslim, pull the strings but none seems to care. BBC won’t report Muslim rapes or even beheadings in music festivals, football games etc.
Death penalty was reintroduced under secrecy provisions late 2011 but now these Al Quaeda operatives roving in suburbs undisturbed. Some have turned out to be turncoat Christians! Royals don’t care ref Jimmy Saville etc.
Quote:
The “revolutionary mentality” is the permanent or transitory state of spirit in which an individual or a group believes himself capable of remodeling the whole society — if not human nature in general — through political action. As an agent or bearer of a better future, he considers himself to be above all judgment by present or past humanity, being accountable only to the “court of History”.
end
Sounds like gnosticism to me.
Claiming to have knowledge that no human being can aspire to.
Like knowing the innocent from the guilty at a glance.
“Claiming to have knowledge that no human being can aspire to.
Like knowing the innocent from the guilty at a glance”
Sounds more like Christians to me! Especially Catholics.
The BBC was whining about Europe not taking in enough Syrian refugees from the countries beside Syria like Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, etc, even though they’re already away from the war, apperantly other people in cold conditions is enough to support a genocide against your own people.
Guess what, Europe has snow too.. Oh, but of course, the government will give them free, comfy, nice, warm, what could even be considered luxurious in some countries, housing, while the natives have to work hard to get mortgages or pay rent.
The first reaction of the leftists is to bring the Syrians and needy here to our home, instead of SENDING them heaters, warm clothing, supplies, food, materials for shelter. I just don’t understand.
Here’s a great video arguing that immigration is actually not an issue of morality, and that we are not helping more people all together than not by bringing them here(although it’s specifically about skilled worker immigration and economic migration, rather than refugees, but still, the point remains).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE
If you know a person who already concedes that immigration and foreigners do more harm than good for the natives(because I really don’t think that’s debatable anymore..), but still supports immigration for moral reasons and says helping people is worth the harm to us, show them this video.
On another note, I read an article awhile back on the German version of The Local(in English), the writer pretty much said that the wants of the German people over immigration don’t matter, and that the needs of Germany(the needs, in his opinion) matter more, pretty much admitting to fascism. If we had referendums on immigration like we should’ve, their multicult and genocide project would be dead, the only reason the socialists and left keep getting into power is because the majority of Europeans still live amongst their own, and don’t live in the major cities where all the immigrants go to, they have no idea what’s going on.
Immigration Is the problem as Christians won’t allow Muslims to convert and then they force police to do it against their will.
Why chase these immigrants into ghettos when most Muslims won’t convert but Christians won’t convert to Islam either?
Maybe split Europe in two and give half to each.
This could be an alternative – split Europe down the middle – East to Islam, West to Christians and any cross-traffic (i.e. Muslim Christians especially from Netherlands, Belgium etc) can choose which way they want.
That has already happened .. a long long time, the Hapsburgs v Ottomans.
Regarding the video, the words of the man are honey for my ears! Coming from a society that produces swarms of emigrants and – like all Europe – rapidly ages, I can fully relate to what he said. From the very beginning of the process – which started since our accession to EU – I have been highly disturbed by number of people looking for ‘better life’ outside their homeland and I am neither an old nor, all the more, an embittered man to paint a grim picture of anything without a good reason.
People – as we know – have that unpleasant inclination to act in a right way, only when there is no other way. Currently, there is other way and a quite easy one. Pack your duds and go where someone else will think for you, laddie! Why to make an effort and take responsibility for yourself, when someone else may have done it for you, huh? And it is not a mystery, we have shortages of both effort and responsibility.
Society cannot change for the better until it is not “ripe” enough to make this change on its own and to achieve it, it needs to make mistakes and process them or face problems and overcome them. But not to flee at the first arising opportunity! Emigration is just a distraction and renders learning and overall betterment only harder.
Not to mention, under present pension system and given very low fertility rate, enabling such an outflow of young labour force is simply an economic suicide.
Besides, ‘tis a paltry honour to be let to work in British factories instead of Pakistanis or Africans, as someone once advised here. Slavs have (or at least should have) more important things to do, dear ladies and gentlemen, for example working in their own factories. To be frank, such an offer sounds more like an offense …
Take a look at this article about the fallacy of economics and immigration.
http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/home/root/news-libertygb/6172-peter-sutherland-undermining-the-nation-state